“kissing them as a bribe to keep them in bed” for sparrow and daeran if inspiration strikes!
Thank you so much for the prompt Taylor!! Life really got in the way of getting this one done so it took a minute for me to write it but I had SO much fun once I did start it.
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Sparrow blinks awake in near-perfect darkness, the soft vague shapes around her only recognizable as her bedroom in Drezen through months of familiarity. Outside the stone walls, she can hear the faintest sounds of a city beginning to wake, shuddering against the pre-dawn chill, but it doesn't quite yet permeate the Citadel. It will be a while yet before sunrise.
It's only her rigid internal clock, trained to be up and moving before the sun, that drags her to consciousness. They had only returned from Wintersun last night and her body aches from long travel and the struggles they'd found there. She hadn't looked at a single problem that had accumulated in her time away, doing almost nothing except collapse into bed.
It's why she's so confused at the warmth at her back, cocooned with her under the thick blankets against the frigid air. From where the covers have slipped off her shoulders, a single, golden-skinned arm rests in front of her, draped over her hip and glowing faintly. She can just hear the gentle sounds of Daeran's breathing behind her, his breath ghosting against her ear.
Sparrow had half-thought it a dream, Daeran appearing in her quarters last night and laughing at her exhausted notice that she was not up for anything but sleep. "I know I have a reputation, but even I'm not in the mood tonight," he said, but then he hadn't left, either.
It was the first night he'd done that--slept with her, just sleep, ever since they first started their frequent liaisons.
Sparrow tries not to read too much into it. Daeran might have decided not to bother going back to his rooms on the north side of Drezen and stayed for convenience's sake; there didn't have to be any kind of emotional significance to him wanting to be in her company beyond sex. Certainly, if his presence last night had helped ease some of the heartache she carried from Wintersun, kept the nightmares of the villagers' screams at bay, then that was just a benefit for her. He hardly could have known about it when he'd tucked himself at her side.
It hurts a little that she wants it to be more than that. Daeran set his boundaries, made it clear what he expected of the relationship when they started--that this isn't one, not really, just some fun and something to distract and relax each other.
And it's a little relieving, to have it at that level--nothing too serious, nothing to get too attached to. Daeran will stay until he gets bored, because that's what he does, that's what he's told her he does, and one day he'll run off to the next shiny person that captures his interest and Sparrow will be an adult about it when that happens.
But. Sparrow knows she's never been good about separating what she wants from what she knows is the truth--that little seed of hope always blooms, frail and pathetic but still insistent. It grows in the roses that still decorate the war room, perpetually fresh and fragrant; it hides between the lines of the note that stays folded on her desk, Daeran's hand telling her to remember him when all else fades. It's in the ghostly apparition of the boy she'd seen at Heaven's Edge, who had everything ripped away from him and had been left utterly alone. Sparrow recognized that emotion, feels that same isolation in herself.
And ever since they started their not-relationship, that feeling of kinship has only grown stronger--she understands him better now, reads his moods more easily, understands his jokes and his thought processes from the late-night conversations they've taken to having, from the way he moves with her. She wants permanence, even if she wouldn't know what permanent would look like with them. Even though she knows that this is ephemeral, and she needs to listen to what he tells her and not just what she wants to hear.
His companionship has made the stress of leading an entire Crusade more bearable, and the feeling of actually being vulnerable with someone has been...nice. She shouldn't get upset that it isn't more, might not ever be more. She can temper her expectations.
Of course, she'd said the same thing when she let herself become friends with Woljif, who told her every moment he would leave, and then she was still devastated when he disappeared, still felt so relieved when he returned. But she can do better this time. She can still try.
And the first way she can do that is by not wallowing. The room has slowly grown brighter since she first opened her eyes, the beginnings of dawn peeking through the heavy curtains, and Sparrow can't justify staying in bed any longer. Daeran's breathing hasn't changed, still deep in sleep, but then she expects he won't rise until mid morning at the very earliest and wouldn't be surprised if she didn't see him awake before noon. Slowly, she slides across the bed, pulling up the covers to climb out without disturbing it too much--
The arm draped over her tightens, pulls her back under. Sparrow twists to look at Daeran's smooth, sleep-still face. A reflex? But then he grimaces, slitting his eyes open blearily. "Cold," Daeran mutters.
"I know, I'm sorry," Sparrow says. Guilt over waking him wars with something softer that sparks at seeing his mussed, open expression, free of artifice and polish. "It'll warm up quickly when I'm gone, just stay under the covers. I didn't mean to wake you."
Daeran blinks, unfortunately seeming to grow more awake with her words. "Is the fortress on fire? Or has someone died? I can't think of any other justifiable reason to be awake at this unholy hour."
That does draw a short huff of laughter from Sparrow. "I'm usually up at this time," she whispers. Really, he ought to know this by now. He's slept through plenty of mornings where Sparrow rose and left her rooms before he even flirted with consciousness. "Really, it's fine. Go back to sleep. I'll be quiet."
Daeran makes a noise of deep grievance. "It was past midnight when you finally went to sleep," he says. He pulls her closer and presses his lips against her shoulder, her neck, then the arc of her jaw. The touches leave spots of sparking heat in their wake, points of warmth that spread over her body like submerging into hot water. "After the nonsense we dealt with getting that key, you deserve more than four hours of sleep. The day can wait until it's actually day, for once."
That sounds so nice Sparrow struggles to remember the weight of all the tasks waiting for her, over a week's worth of administrative duties the excursion to Wintersun made her ignore. "I really--"
The words are cut off by a full kiss, soft and slow and then deepening. It's lazy and tired; Daeran is just as exhausted as she is. "It can wait. No one will care if you achieve some proper rest for once, and if they do you can welcome them to go hiking through these blighted lands in your stead. Stay. The bed is too warm to leave right now."
Maybe he's right. Sparrow certainly feels warm, warmer than even the heavy blankets and Daeran's body can explain. Slowly, she settles back down, facing him this time, hesitantly slotting her body against his. Daeran's arm wraps back around her body, and she closes her eyes.
Sparrow never stays in bed past sunrise. And yet, it is the easiest thing in the world to fall back asleep.
Thank you Taylor!! 🥰 I’m using these to flesh out a couple of backstory details on Siavash’s Kelish side of the family to link in with the post-ascension fic.
👫 for a scene with a parent from this childhood prompt list
Father Jo had finally left and Siavash lay now with a warm herbal compress on his chest, boredom giving way to drowsy contemplation.
They said priests could heal people, and he’d seen it himself once when a kid in the grade below him broke her collarbone at recess and they’d called in a priest of Abadar from the nearby temple, but Father Jo’s mumbling and glowing did nothing at all to ease his heartache. He suspected Father Jo was a fake. Or maybe Shelyn was a fake? There were stories about people who pretended to be gods when they weren’t really.
It still hurt. He had suspicions.
And then there was the question of Mom. Usually it was Dad who cried, but this time when it started Mom had held Sia in her arms, brushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at him with a look that frightened him and made him cry even harder.
So pretending to have fallen asleep with his head in Mom’s lap, he listened carefully to his parents’ whispered conversation, even though he couldn’t make much sense of it.
“Of course not, Nils. Don’t be alarmist.”
“But what if it is? I should go to Kelesh.”
“That would be letting it win.” Dad’s mellow tone was soothing. “You wanted to leave it behind. Don’t let it drag you back and wreck what you’ve built.”
Mom sighed. “You’re right.”
“Ah. Music to my ears.”
“But Doran, I never did get to the bottom of it and I’m afraid something might happen to him. Maybe I should take him to Kyonin. That’s not unreason—”
“Nils, please. You’re jumping to conclusions.”
“Maybe, but if there’s any chance that’s what’s happening and there’s something I can do, don’t I have to?”
“It died with your brother. Look at this child. He is anything but cursed.”
Mom breathed out through her nose.
Cursed! How cool would that be? An ancient secret Kelish curse that could only be lifted by midnight ritual among the mystic groves of Kyonin! They would have to travel by elk through haunted forests, battle beasts and fey, and prove by valiant deeds that their hearts were pure before the elves would grant them entry, and—
“Sia, I can tell you’re awake.”
“Am I cursed?”
“No, go to sleep.”
“Please can we go to Kyonin?”
“Someday. Lie back down. Father Jo said you need rest.”
He could hear his parents laughing softly.
“You see?” Doran whispered as they took the candle and left him tucked into bed. “It’ll be fine.”
Send "💎💎💎" and My Muse OC will say three things that comes to their mind when Your Muse's OC/Canon Character's name is mentioned (Send gems and a name if it's a canon character or you have multiple.)
"She's wildfire." There's a smile when the tiefling says this, "When people hear the word wildfire, they think of the firestorms made by man in forests touched by man. They don't think of what a wildfire is supposed to do in nature. They burn to start life again, to renew and continue until life can rebuild. Agria has that spirit and that drive, I think. And the only one she'll ever harm with this fire of renewal, I think, would be herself. To grow from the ashes as more beautiful and stronger, and become everything she wants to be."
The Pathfinder requests, will be posting the pillars/da/ff ones some time next week!
Tena for @butchatalanta, Piper for @dragonologist-phd, Agria for @lairiend, Samael for @wurdulac, Vikkari for @queen-scribbles, and Cass for @quenthelicious!
△Kadira, if you had to pick between your mother's love and doing the right thing, which would you choose? (sorry im late!!)
△Kadira, if you had to pick between your mother's love and doing the right thing, which would you choose? (sorry im late!!)
Intrusiveness - 8/10
"Which one?"
She lifts her lips in an attempt to smile, exposing teeth, including the little canines she's so very, very careful about. Memories of Ma are faint and scattered, and she's frightened to think how little of that is due to Areelu's manipulations. It's just time. It's just a lack of connection. Ma loved her, and Ma didn't care for her, it drugged up too many memories of Ma's own when she looked at her.
Her nails - claws, really - carefully go over the wool damask. Perfectly filed nails. Something that Areelu taught her. There had been disgust over her hooves, but by then, Kadira knew how to do it on her own.
"I never forgot the violence done to me and the violence done for me. She never mentioned her, you know. Her biological daughter. I don't think Areelu," -Mother- "Wanted me to know that girl's name. So I never did. I imagine her name was all vowels, just like Areelu's. Maybe Areelu was hoping I’d remember. Or she’d remember."
Her clawed thumb brushes over the flower pattern embossed on the fabric, her eyes lowered and searched her lap, her free hand. She wouldn't find anything there, nor did she expect to find anything there.
"Nothing I could do would ever make her love me. Even if I had become a goddess, it wasn't me who earned it, it was that girl. No matter how dead she might be, no matter how entangled she is in me."
She draws her hands back, settling them in her lap, but she doesn't raise her face.
△Sparrow, if you could go back and never have been enslaved, even if it meant you would never meet Daeran or become Knight-Commander, would you?
"Yes." The word, spoken so quickly and with such authority, seems to shock even Sparrow, who blinks and looks away. "I do stand by that. To have never been enslaved means that we were never attacked, which means my brother would be alive. I would give up a lot more than my current happiness for that. As for other things--if Areelu had not picked me for her experiment, she would have picked someone else. Galfrey was desperate for a leader; someone else would have led the Fifth Crusade. The Worldwound closes regardless.
"And as for Daeran....he would have found someone. I know it. He's easy to love." She gives a shrug. "...If it was just my enslavement that changed and nothing else, I would endure those years for what I was able to do later. But if removing that part of my past also saved my brother, there is no other answer."
A long pause. "The question is hypothetical of course, and ultimately meaningless. I would ask that you do not bring this up to my husband."
Aaaah I went way too tryhard on this but i had a lot of fun. Behold, Queen Sparrow of Mendev!
I imagine the only way Sparrow is willing to take the crown is if 1) Galfrey is dead AND 2) the Crusade is ongoing for long enough that the lack of a political head on Mendev ends up badly hurting their ability to fight the demons. I imagine she styles herself as a country symbol/warrior queen similar to how Galfrey was seen, so Mendevian colors and banners incorporated into her outfit, as well as bits of armor pieces.
Know that she is absolutely MISERABLE in this AU lol
