— 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬.
and the smell of camphor dancing in the wind.
✦ info: he didn't know he'd lose you so soon. (come back, please. even if it is just for five more minutes.)
✦ featuring: alhaitham.
✦ warnings: angst, character death (reader), heartache, 1.2k words, somewhat proof-read.
✦ notes: i cried so goddamn hard writing this. why is my first work after hiatus pain. why did i pick up the angst wip. but!! i'm writing again, so that's good. (more notes at the end.)
he didn’t know that it was your last day together.
he didn’t know that the smile you gave him that afternoon, your eyes sparkling like sunlight upon the serene waves of the ocean, would be the last he’d ever see. that the playful light in your gaze would fade so very soon, slipping through his fingers like sand.
he didn’t know that last night would be the last time he held you close while you drifted off to sleep. he didn’t know that today would be the last time he’d wake up with you.
he didn’t think he’d lose you like this.
he didn’t think he wouldn’t be able to save you from that blow.
“please, please,” he begs, both to you and to whatever force that is just barely holding you together. “just stay with me for five more minutes, please. until i can get you somewhere.”
the rain soaks him to the bone, clothes and hair sticking to his skin. your lips stay motionless, eyes shut.
“wake up, please,” he bargains. “you can have all the five minutes of extra sleep you want later, i promise. just—” his vision blurs, and something shines on the ground before it is gone, swallowed by damp earth, lost amidst drops of falling rain.
desperately, he tears off parts of his traveling cloak to staunch the bleeding. deep inside, he knows it is futile. he knows your wound is too great. he knows what lies ahead. but he cannot help but press the cloths to your wound and pray.
please, please tell me it’ll be okay.
please stay with me, beloved. i’ll read you all the books in the world. i’ll sleep in with you everyday, even if we end up whiling away our time.
please. stay. stay with me. i can’t lose you yet.
“— just wake up, beloved.”
by some miracle, your eye flutters. just a bit. just enough to set hope ablaze, just enough for the grip on his heart to loosen a tiny bit. he buries his face in your shoulder, resting his head against your neck, uncaring of the blood that stains his clothes. your blood. on his clothes. his hands. everywhere.
no. no. this can’t be happening.
he feels you strain beneath him, your unwounded arm gently, weakly brushing his back. he jolts upright, eyes trained on your face. you send a frail smile his way. he clasps your face softly as you nuzzle into his palm.
“alhaitham—”
his full name. archons, how long has it been since you called him that?
“— take good care of yourself, okay?” you tell him, chest heaving, your fingertips touching a tear on his cheeks. “i love you. so much.”
those are the last words he hears fall from your lips. he presses a kiss to your forehead, to your eyelids, and to your cheeks and to your lips, over and over and over until he feels your breath slow, hoping they’ll say what he knows he cannot manage to choke out.
i love you.
he stays there next to you for who knows how long, holding you until the rain slows and a faint rainbow smiles in the sky.
until he can’t smell camphor anymore.
—
every person has their curiosities.
they’re just the little traits that set them apart from others, the things that make them tick just a little bit differently, the things that make them, them.
for instance, someone may be obsessed with collecting tiny furniture, while another eats the crusts off their sandwich before actually consuming it. someone may have an affinity for the most niche aspects of linguistics, while another can accurately predict the next raindrop that slides down a window pane.
after all, no two people are exactly alike, are they?
alhaitham knows he’s got his fair share of these curiosities himself. his aversion to soup and all things that resemble it, to name one. and with you, he’d noticed two things.
number one: the scent of camphor that seems to linger on every inch of your person.
he’d caught whiff of it almost immediately the first time you met. you were but one of his juniors in the akademiya, filled with bright-eyed curiosity and anxiety to match. you had tripped over a stair and bumped into his table in the library, bringing the mountain of books in your arms crashing down.
and with subsequent coincidental meetings, he learnt that the subtle scent of camphor dancing in the air meant you weren’t far away.
you were, unfortunately, one of the poor souls who seemed to be cursed with constantly recurring minor illnesses, and almost always walked about with a stuffy nose. and so, you always carried a small disc of camphor in a handkerchief, as well as in your pocket.
you swore up and down, left, right and center that sniffing the vapors helped make breathing easier.
‘it’s my grandmother’s remedy, alhaitham! camphor always works wonders. well, that and eucalyptus oil.”
alhaitham may not know the validity of your claim or the legitimacy of the cure, but he knew to never, ever question a grandmother’s remedy. that, and he’d much rather refrain from starting a back-and-forth about something so small.
and number two: your neverending pleas of different variations of ‘just five more minutes!’
“five more minutes, ‘haitham. please.” you’d whine grumpily when he woke you up to start your day. “let me sleep in for five more minutes.”
“five more minutes, habibi,” you’d ask when he put down the story you’d requested he read out to you before bedtime. “read me the part where she finds the music box?”
“five more minutes, baby,” is what you’d tell him when he asks how much longer you’d take getting ready. “you can’t rush perfection!”
those five more minutes were never five minutes long.
but he’d always, always indulged you and those pleading eyes of yours. as stoic as he appeared to be, you lived in his heart. of course he could never deny you anything under the sun.
—
alhaitham remembers that silly little song you sang over and over, the one you’d learnt from a kid in the bazaar. he’d taken you to see one of nilou’s performances, and, friendly soul that you were, you’d struck up a conversation with some of the eager audience members before the play.
“oh, how i wish i was a bird flying free,
i’d see the world, every mountain and every sea!
oh, how i wish i was a cloud in the sky,
wouldn’t you like to wave to me as i pass by?”
you’d hum that rhyme on every idle afternoon.
loss is inevitable. he knows that, with how logical and rational and straightforward he is. he’d lost his parents, but he was far too young to remember. he’d lost his grandmother, but she passed in her sleep of old age, serene and wise.
but you? he didn’t think you’d leave him this soon. a singular wish sits in his soul, making its home in his bones.
a wish that you’d come back, somehow.
he wishes you gave him five more minutes, just as he always did. but he knows that you could’ve given him five more hours, five more days, five more years and five more decades and it would still not be enough time spent with you.
a blue feathered bird comes to perch on his shoulder, interrupting his musings just as he raises his face to the sky. he sees the heart shaped cloud that floats idly above sumeru city.
he thinks of the rhyme again, and something in him tells him to wave. and so he does. a scent so familiar lingers, faintly brushing his nose in the wind that picks up.
“alhaitham, it's time to go.” kaveh calls his name softly.
alhaitham doesn't move. “five more minutes,” he says, echoing your favorite phrase. “i smell camphor in the breeze.”
✦ extra notes: my alhaitham characterization for this fic stems from how i believe that when alhaitham is attached, he's attached. so i focused more on that, and less of all that rationality and whatnot. this one loves deeply, yk?
that camphor thing is a real grandma remedy in our household (my mom would tie some in a hanky and put some under my pillow and still to this day reminds me to do it when i'm sick) which is what originally sparked the idea for this
when i'd initially started this wip, i didn't expect it go this way. usually i write with my brain, but i think i wrote this one with my fingers working faster than i can think hsjhsj so sorry if it's kinda out of place lmao but yk what? i'm happy with it still even though i feel like it doesn't have my usual quality.
thanks for reading.
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I’m back again :)
Reader finds bunny Legend in the forest, I don’t know what he’s doing there or why he’s a bunny — brain cells are for history homework tonight, but they decide to attempt to befriend the cute pink rabbit. Legend just lets them (because he has a crush and doesn’t wanna admit that he likes them petting him).
Reader notices he’s slightly injured, small cut on the paw, it is bleeding a bit though, and very gently picks him up and takes him to camp. Because obviously the little bunny needs at least some bandages, can’t have it getting infected now can we?
And Legend is dying of embarrassment and maybe gets picked on later by Sky and Twilight.
- Glitter ✨
Bun bun. Let's gooooo!!!!
Masterlist
Content under the cut!
You weren’t intending on find anything in particular when you told the group that you were going to break off for a moment.
Between wanting some space and deciding to look around the area seem like a good idea at the time. You could defend yourself well and Wolfie hadn’t come back yet but Twilight did, and he said the place was clear. You could only assume that Wolfie was just hunting for a moment and will be back when he’s had his fill once more.
You were still on guard even when you just wanted to relax. The rustling in the bushes nearly got you to hack the poor plant in half before a something jumped out from it.
You paused.
The little creature didn’t seem to notice you. He rubbed his paws and rubbed his face and it was the cutest thing you swore you ever saw. You put your weapon away and watched the little bunny. Strange though, he was pink... and clothed.
“Aww.” The sound left you before you could stop it.
The bunny froze and looked up at you. You froze as well and stared back.
His little mouth opened. You crouched down and held your hand out. You never had such luck with bunnies but he looked so soft and sweet. You wondered if you could get him to come to you.
Hesitantly, he did!
He crawled forward and sniffed your hand. You tried to remain calm and confident. You didn’t want to scare his off now. Gently and slowly, you moved your fingers out. You managed to get a gentle sweep across his forehead before he placed his little bunny face into the palm of your hand.
You grinned and got onto to your knees to meet his height. “Oh aren’t you the sweetest little thing!”
You continued to pet him now that you’re sure that you’ve gotten permission. Enjoying your time with the soft fur, you tried to get closer. With enough patience, even if you’re not sure how you managed it, you got the bunny into your arms and begin to run your hands along his body.
“Oh I think I love you.” You coo. “Won’t you come home with me? You can live at my house where I’ll take good care of you and love on you every moment I can.”
You giggle and experiment with his paws. Surprisingly, he lets you grab them. Gently, of course. Until you brush over the pads on his front paw and he jerks. You freeze and apologize instantly.
But that’s a cause for concern.
“Sorry, buddy. Let me just get a look at this, ok?” You whisper, trying to keep the poor thing calm. You can feel his heart beating radically against your chest. He’s scared. Poor thing. He must think you’re going to hurt him.
You whine and pick up the paw, careful not to touch the same spot as before. You see it just he rips it back to himself. A small cut, blooming with red that nearly goes hidden against the pink fur that surrounds it.
You gasp. “Oh you’re hurt! Ohh...Oh no... Ok, buddy. Let’s see if we can fix you up.”
You carry him in your arms and stand. Trying to keep him as calm and comfortable as possible, you don’t look up to see the faces of the boys around you as you regroup with them.
“What happened?” Wind asks as you begin to rifle through the medical bag. “Where did you find him?”
“I ran into him while I was exploring.” You explain, taking out the gauze and disinfectant with one hand as you speak. “He has a cut on his paw. I’m going to take care of it the best I can. Rabbits can have a lot of things go wrong so I want to give him his best chance.”
The rabbit squirms a bit in your hold but you hold on tighter. “I know buddy, I know. You won’t like this. But I’ll be fast and then you can go on your merry way just like before.”
“Can I pet it?” Wind asks quietly.
You pause and hum. “Maybe not. I don’t want to make things too stressful for little guy. He’s surprisingly well behaved though. the rabbits back home would have never let me do this. So I want to be quick.”
“And what do we have here?” Time says to your left, having also come back from wherever he went to.
“A bunny.” You reply as you dab the little spot on his paw. As expected, the bunny squirms in your hold but doesn’t actively try to leave. Weird, you think. But maybe he knows you’re trying to help him.
Something clicks in your head then. “Time, can I keep him?”
Twilight, who was watching this entire time, starts choking on his drink. He starts to laugh but it only send the liquid flying through his nose. It looks painful and he reacts as such.
Time looks at you, ignoring his descendent. He crosses and his arms and raises an eyebrow. He looks amused. “I don’t think so.”
“Please?” You ask again. “Please? Please? I’ll look after him! look at how cute he is! How can you say no that that face!”
The rabbit for his part bends his ears back and pins them down. He tries to burrow down into the side of your arm where it would successfully hide his face from the view of others.
“Wild has Wolfie!” You try to defend before Time can respond to your earlier pleas. “How is that any different?”
“Wolfie can come and go as he pleases.” Twilight smirks, more amused than you think is necessary for this. “Can this bunny do that? I don’t think that’s what you’re asking.”
“Stay out of this Twilight. I’m not asking you.” You stick your tongue out and glare at him. You turn on your best puppy eyes and look at Time. “He’s hurt too! We can let an innocent creature go out while he’s hurt! It could get worse!”
Sky snorts and you turn to him but he’s not looking at you. Weird, you think again. That’s a strange reaction.
Before anyone else can talk, the rabbit leaps from your arms and dashes away into the woods. You cry out and jump to your feet but he’s gone before you can take a step. “Twilight, I blame you.”
“Wha- What did I do!?”
“I don’t know but it’s your fault.” You stomp your feet.
Time laughs and pats your shoulders. “It’s ok. I doubt he would have been able to stay for long regardless.”
You pout but have to agree with him on the basic fundamentals. Sky gets up as well and walks calmly into the forest in the direction of the bunny.
“I’ll be back.” He says, taking the Master Sword with him. Twilight follows and Time allows it.
You huff and puff and really are just trying to deal with your disappointment in anyway that doesn’t actually end in tears. It’s dumb and you know it but you think you fell in love with he little guy despite only being near him for ten minutes tops.
“Hey guys...” Legend comes back. He had left before you did and he’s all red in the face now. He raises his hand in greeting and you gasp.
He has a slice down his palm. Another person injured today.
“Legend!” You cry out and run to him. “What one earth happened? Does it hurt? Come here! Before it gets infected.”
You pull him over and down, not to dissimilar to how you yourself were sitting on seconds prior. Legend’s face gets a bit pinker but you blame it on the fact that he caught red handed. Literally.
You just thank the stars that you already had to tools out.
“Honestly Legend, what are we going to do with you?” You sighs and shake your head. Twilight and Sky come back to the camp with knowing smirks.
Legend elects to ignore them while you’re too focused on making sure his hand in properly bandaged. You may not have been able to help the bunny but you can certainly help your friend.
Besides you’d take Legend over the rabbit any day. He’s cuter.
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