#sobbing in andromaquynh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

even-after-a-millennia · 3 years

Text

Winter Wonders

Hey all! This is my fic for the Andromaquynh Secret Santa exchange! This fic is a gift for @kayivy so I hope that you like it! Happy Holidays!

Read it below or on my ao3 account here.

When Andy and Quynh awoke, the world outside the safe house was blanketed in white. Andy stretched, then pulled Quynh closer to ward off the chill in the air. Quynh hummed, nestling her face deeper into the crook of Andy’s neck.

Andy took a moment to revel in the feel of her love tucked next to her. It had only been a few months since they had been reunited. A fraction of time, compared to their time apart. It still felt so new. Every moment of eye contact, every touch, every kiss, felt like a gift.

They’d had to work through the pain they had both gone through and come to terms with Andy’s mortality. There were still times that Andy jerked awake, reaching for Quynh and half expecting for the bed beside her to be empty. But she was always there, reaching back.

“Hey,” Andy said quietly. “It snowed.”

“Hm?” Quynh murmured, still mostly asleep.

Andy kissed her temple, hoping to entice her to wake. “It snowed last night. The whole world is white out there.”

Quynh’s eyes blinked sleepily open, her brow furrowed at the light coming in from the window. “I’m sure it’s pretty,” she muttered, putting her face back in the safety of Andy’s neck. “But it is far too bright.”

Andy laughed softly. “Take your time.”

“Food would help me wake.”

“Is that a not-so-subtle hint that you would like breakfast in bed?” Andy asked.

Quynh hummed again, seeming to fall back asleep.

Andy carefully maneuvered out of Quynh’s embrace, so as to not disturb her. She threw a sweater over her pajamas and shuffled out to the main room, where Nicky was puttering around the kitchen as Joe sipped a cup of coffee at the table, barely looking awake himself.

“Nile still in bed?” Andy asked.

Joe nodded.

“Why aren’t you still sleeping?” Andy demanded. “You are basically asleep sitting here!”

Joe shrugged and looked over to where Nicky was making him toast. Nicky smiled softly at him, then turned back to the counter.

“Sap,” Andy told him as she got two cups of coffee ready.

Nicky raised an eyebrow at her, looking between her and the two cups without comment.

“Shut up,” she said with a laugh, pushing his shoulder.

Nicky’s eyes went behind Andy, her only warning before Quynh, wrapped in the quilt from their bed, wrapped her arms around Andy’s waist from behind.

“Andromache, it’s too cold in the bed without you…” she whined, pressing her cold nose into the spot right between Andy’s shoulder blades. “Come back.”

Loosening Quynh’s hold on her with one hand, Andy spun around in her arms to face her, cup of coffee in her other hand. “Here, this will warm you.”

Quynh took the coffee and took a sip. “I still like you better.”

Andy laughed. “Good to know I make a better personal heater than coffee.”

Quynh hummed, shuffling towards the table and sitting next to Joe, still cocooned in the blanket. Joe stole a corner of it to wrap around his feet and they sat there together, sipping their coffee with their eyes mostly closed.

Nicky smiled at the scene and revealed the truly prolific amount of toast he had made. Andy began to dig in the cupboards and fridge for toppings, grabbing everyone’s favorite. Strawberry jam for Nicky, apricot jam for Joe, peanut butter with honey for Nile, butter for herself, and Nutella for Quynh. She liked the sweetness and the novelty of it.

They ate in silence, though Andy did notice that Joe and Quynh’s eyes were slowly widening more as time past.

Nile came to the table as the others were finishing and scarfed down her food.

“Any plans for today?” she asked.

Nicky shrugged as Joe shook his head. “Stay somewhere warm,” he added, pulling more of Quynh’s quilt toward himself.

Nile snorted.

“I would like to go out in the snow,” Quynh said resolutely. She looked over at Andy. “Will you come with me?”

“Of course.”

Which is how they found themselves out in the snow covered world outside not much later. Joe had nagged them until they had bundled up. Nile cackled when she saw them and said, still giggling, “I can’t put my arms down!” She waved them away as they looked at her curiously.

Ah, it must be a reference to something.

The moment they stepped outside their warm safe house, Andy was glad of Joe��s aversion to the cold. The only exposed part of her were her eyes and they watered as the cold wind hit them. She glanced at Quynh, wanting to see how she was doing, dealing with the cold. It had been cold at the bottom of the ocean. She still shuddered when the shower’s temperature was too chilly and baths were out of the question.

Quynh’s eyes were crinkled in a way that Andy knew, through thousands of years of memorizing Quynh’s facial expressions, meant that she was grinning hugely underneath her scarf.

“It’s so beautiful!” Quynh exclaimed before charging forward into the snow.

It was deep, almost up to her knees, and every step flung the snow to the side and behind her. But still, she ran on, laughter echoing behind her as she went.

Andy grinned then chased after her.

Their safehouse was in the middle of the woods, so Andy had to dodge trees and be careful of roots hidden under the snow as she ran, but she loved it. She loved the sensation of the cold wind against her cheeks, the cloud that every breath made in the cold air, the crunch of the snow under her feet.

She caught up to Quynh and grabbed her around the waist, twirling her around as she giggled and wiggled in her grasp. Andy put her down only to push her against a tree and dragged down both of their scarves so their mouths could crash together. At first, it was desperate, very fitting after the chase that had preceded it. But in time it slowed. Deepened.

Andy pulled away to breathe, then whispered against Quynh’s jaw, “Anh yêu em nhiều lắm.”

I love you so much.

Quynh brought her in for another, quicker kiss. “I love you, my Andromache.”

Andy saw the shift in Quynh’s eyes from loving to mischievous and had a bare moment to jump away before Quynh was flinging snow where she had just been standing.

“You little shit!” Andy said, laughing.

She had been laughing so much more since Quynh had come back into her life.

Quynh grinned at her and grabbed more snow, creating an arsenal of snowballs in a pile as Andy ducked behind a tree to do the same.

“Ready?” she heard Quynh called. “It will be no fun unless it is a fair match.”

“One more minute!”

“Hurry, then!”

Andy shook her head, grinning, as she made snowball after snowball.

“Ready!”

“First to surrender loses! Three, two, one! GO!” Quynh shouted, immediately firing off a volley of snowballs at Andy.

Andy ducked and blocked most of them, but one did hit her in the shoulder. She threw some back and the fight was on.

The back and forth attacks lasted a good ten minutes more until Quynh rushed towards Andy and tackled her into the snow. They wrestled for a bit, trying to get the upper hand, until Quynh finally got Andy’s hands under her knees as she knelt on top of her. Andy tried to buck her off a few times, but it was no use.

She relaxed into the snow, trying to ignore the huge amount that was now inside her winter clothes and slowly melting against her skin.

“I yield,” she said, gazing up at Quynh.

Quynh grinned, then leaned down to kiss the tip of Andy’s nose.

“I like you like this,” she said, smiling down at her.

“Usually, I would agree, especially if you were seated a bit higher. But I have snow melting down my neck and that is very uncomfortable.”

“Wimp,” Quynh teased, though she did get off Andy and helped pull her to her feet. “Come on, let’s go get warm.”

They held hands as they went back to the cabin, all the way to the bathroom, where they began to strip off their frigid clothing.

“You got me good with one of those snowballs,” Andy said, looking in the mirror to see where she had been hit. She stared at it, trying to reach it.

“...Quynh?”

“What is it, Andromache?”

“It’s healing.”

“What?!” Quynh demanded, whirling around to stare at Andy’s back.

As they watched, the bruise on Andy’s back became green, then yellow, then faded to nothing but smooth, unbruised skin. They turned to stare at each other.

“Do you think-?”

“Maybe?”

“Here,” Quynh pulled out Nicky’s shaving kit. “Just a small cut, my love. I have to be sure.”

“Of course.”

Quynh drew the blade over the tip of Andy’s finger. They watched as the blood welled. Glancing at each other, Quynh reached out to wipe off the blood.

The cut was no longer there.

They stared at each other, stunned. Then, slowly, a smile grew on Quynh’s face even as her eyes welled with tears.

“My beautiful Andromache,” she said, her voice choked with tears, “I think we get to have a bit more time together.”

Andy began smiling too, then laughed. Quynh joined and threw her arms around Andy. Andy buried her face into Quynh’s hair and realized that Quynh’s laughter had turned to sobs.

There was a knock on the door.

“Guys? Everything okay?” Nile asked.

They pulled away from each other and opened the door, both not wearing shirts and not caring a bit.

“She’s healing!” Quynh sobbed, beaming.

“She’s-” Nile’s eyes widened. “Nicky, Joe, get over here!”

They clambered over each other in the haste to get to the bathroom.

“What? What is wrong?” Nicky demanded, eyes darting around, looking for a threat.

“Andy is healing,” Nile stated, still staring at Andy with wide eyes.

Joe and Nicky rounded on her. “WHAT?”

Andy nodded, grabbing the razor again. She dragged it across her fingertip again, put down the razor, and wiped the blood. She had expected for it to not be real, but when she wiped away the blood, the wound was gone.

Her immortality was really back.

She got to have more time.

#andromaquynhsecretsanta #andromaquynh #andy x quynh #fanfic #my fic

50 notes · View notes

cryhardanddanceharder · 3 years

Text

Happy holidays Abby @moonlightandromache I’m your andromaquynh secret santa and this next one shot is my gift for you. I tried mixing what i know you like, soulmate and mermaid combo. I hope you like it ♥

Also, thank you @lilolilyr for being my beta in this and helping me with my english ☺ And thank you @thirst-teenth for organizing this!

_____

An ocean between our love (it won’t keep us apart)

All mermaids, mermen and tritons are immortal and have a soulmate.

Yes, mer folks are not just a myth, they are real. Quynh knows this because she is a mermaid.

Since she was little she had been hearing stories about soulmates. How you would feel your soulmate’s injuries like they were your own and how you would dream of each other.

She started dreaming of her soulmate when she was fourteen years old.

But, the thing about her soulmate it’s that she’s different. She is a human, a mortal. Because of this, many of the other mers often made fun of her. How would it be possible for a human and a mermaid to be together?

“How does it feel to know your soulmate?” She asks her friends.

“It’s the best thing that can happen to you” Nicky tells her honestly.

“There’s no one who could understand you or love you more, you just connect” Joe says, looking at Nicky with heart eyes.

“Look at us” Nicky says proudly. “We came for families who hated each other, and still our love prevailed” He explains.

She doesn’t need the explanation though, she had heard the story too many times. They are lucky, they’ve been together since forever. Just like Nile, Dizzy and Jay.

All her friends had met their soulmate already and that kinda hurts. She knows it’s probably impossible for her to ever meet her own soulmate. She likes dreaming about her, but feeling her injuries not so much, because it worries her. Her soulmate is a warrior, so she always has something in her body that it’s hurting. And she could use a lot of words to describe her, like beautiful, brave and kind. And also loyal, smart and strong.

“You know there’s the story of this merman who had a human soulmate just like you?” Nile asks her, bringing her attention back to the present.

“Yes, I think I heard about him, but I thought it was just a legend” She answers thoughtfully.

“Well Jay knows him, I can take you to meet him so you can talk and share your feelings” Nile suggests.

“That would be great” She accepts.

No one had ever told her that Booker’s story was real. So, she’s excited that she is going to meet him. Maybe he could tell her how to find her soulmate. Her family never helped her with that topic, not since she told them that her soulmate is a human. It’s like most mers think that she must be cursed or something similar, because isn’t a mermaid like them.

Booker it’s bitter and he is drunk. But he let’s her speak and he tells her stories about Lykon, his soulmate.

“So you never met him?” She asks, feeling heartbroken.

“No, he died many years ago” Booker answers sadly.

“But, you only have one soulmate in your life” She expresses her agony.

“I know” He nods.

“How do you keep living without it?” She asks, her voice breaking.

“I’m not sure I do” He says, using his cup to toast for him.

After that conversation, Quynh is left feeling entirely wrecked. How is she supposed to live her immortal life knowing her soulmate is going to die someday?

She tries to hang on to the dreams of her soulmate, to pay attention to where she is so she can look for her. But she’s always on land and there’s never a beach near her.

And then, the day she has been fearing comes. Her soulmate dies. She’s been betrayed by her own people and they killed her with spears in battle.

“Are you okay?” Joe asks her, very worried because she has been in agony, shouting and sobbing for long minutes.

“My soulmate, she died” She answers with tears in her eyes, unable to say anything else.

She starts feeling the heartbreak of reality hit her as the worst pain she ever felt in her life.

She’s devastated and suddenly breaks down crying in full force.

Joe hugs her and holds her in his arms until she falls asleep.

But, something she hasn’t been expecting happens. Her soulmate comes back to life. Her injuries are gone and there’s no more pain. At first she thinks she might be imagining it, but then she dreams about her again. And she is alright, she is alive and she is as strong as ever.

After that, Quynh dares to hope again. If her soulmate is immortal, then maybe they can finally meet someday. And now the injuries are temporary. She only feels pain for a short time. Still, feeling her die is the most painful thing she has ever felt... and her soulmate dies a lot of times.

Quynh starts traveling all the oceans, trying to find her. Joe, Nicky, Nile, Dizzy, Jay and Booker decide to go with her, to help her in her search.

But years and years keep passing by, and they still never find her soulmate.

All she learns in her search is that her soulmate's name is Andromache and she is the best human warrior that has ever existed. Even mer folks start telling stories about her at some point, because they like telling human stories. All the stories about Andromache are about her battles, about how she’s special because of her immortality, how she’s always fighting for what she thinks it’s right and trying to help people.

She wonders if her soulmate dreams of her too, if she ever thinks of her and if she ever tries looking for her.

But hundreds of years keep passing and they never meet each other. All Quynh feels is emptiness and loneliness. Yes, her soulmate is alive and is immortal, but she’s still human and they don’t have any chance of being together. And that hurts.

She starts feeling that her family is right. To have a human soulmate it’s a curse.

So, she decides to give up. She stops the search.

And then, suddenly, another unexpected thing happens that changes everything once again. Her soulmate is drowning. And not just for once, it’s constantly. Quynh is in permanent agony for her. Feeling her dying all the time is exhausting. How is it possible? And then, she dreams of her again and she finally understands. Andromache is trapped in an iron coffin at the bottom of the ocean. How the hell did that happen?

“Quynh, we heard the stories about Andromache” Nicky informs her.

“What stories?” She requests to know.

“The new ones” Nicky answers.

“How can there be new stories when she’s constantly drowning?” She asks, confused.

“Because they are about that” Joe replies. “Apparently she was in England, saving women from witch hunts. Finally the people from church trapped her and sentenced her to die, so they hanged her.” He explains calmly.

“Because she couldn’t die, they took it as proof of her being a witch” Nicky intervenes, feeling that it’s an important fact.

“Yes” Joe agrees with him. “So, they locked her in an iron coffin and threw her to the sea” He ends the tale.

“I need to find her. She’s drowning and suffering constantly, I can’t take it” She expresses her feelings, she always feels safe doing so with them.

“We should start with the North Sea, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; those are the ones that surround England” Nicky suggests.

So, that’s what they do. They travel those seas, looking for her.

It takes them almost one hundred years, but they finally do. They find the iron coffin in a part of the Norway Sea and all she can feel is relief. They prey open the coffin and, finally, Andromache is free and right in front of Quynh.

When she comes alive she looks scared and ready to fight. She starts hitting them until she drowns again.

Quynh grabs her and takes her to the superface. In the time it takes her to get her to superface, Andromache drowns three more times. But those times she doesn’t fight her. It is as she recognises Quynh, her presence helping her to relax even when she dies again.

“Hey” She greets her, once their faces are above the ocean and the other has revived.

“You’re the mermaid of my dreams” Andromache says, looking at her with an astonished expression.

“I am” She agrees. “My name is Quynh” She introduces herself.

“I thought mermaids were a myth” Andromache says, still staring at her, like she can’t believe she’s real.

“I thought immortal humans were a myth, too” She bites back and Andromache laughs. Damm, her laugh sounds so beautiful.

“Touche” Andromache accepts. “I’m Andromache the Scythian” She finally introduces herself.

“I know” Quynh nods with a knowing smile.

Andromache suddenly starts coughing and spitting salt water from her mouth, and that scares her. Quyn realises in that moment that she should have tried giving her mouth to mouth breathing like she heard in some tales about humans, instead of letting her die.

“I should have given you mouth-to-mouth breathing” She says, thinking out loud.

“What?” Andromache asks, confused.

“While I brought you to the superface, I should have given you mouth-to-mouth instead of letting you drown” She explains, in an apologizing way.

“Don’t worry about it” Andromache dismisses it, like it is not a big deal. “Don’t feel bad, it was just what? Three more deaths? You did save after all” She expresses her opinion.

It seems like her humor is a little dark and Quynh finds it endearing.

Andromache coughs again. She probably needs clean water and food after spending so many years without having anything.

“Come on, you must be exhausted, I’ll take you to shore” She proposes.

So Andromache climbs on her back and Quynh starts to swims. Quynh does it carefully, making sure to never dive deep so Andromache can keep breathing. It’s a hard and tiring task, it takes her a long time of the day, but the effort it’s worth it if it means her soulmate is safe. She takes her to the nearest desert beach. She leaves her on the shore, and then gets ready to go back to the depth of the ocean.

“Wait, please wait” Andromache calls her, when she realizes the other is starting to move away.

“What?” Quynh asks.

“Can I see you again?” Andromache requests.

“Why?” She asks, surprised about the request.

“Well, we dream about each other. I think that must mean something” Andromache tries to explain her point of view. “Don’t you want to figure it out?” She asks.

“Are you sure you want to see me again? Aren’t you scared of mermaids? l thought humans tell stories about us hypnotizing people with our singing and drowning them” She says, a little unsure about the situation.

“That’s sirens, not mermaids” Andromache corrects her. “What about you? Aren’t you scared of me? I’m the eternal warrior. There was a time I even was worshiped as god, you know?” She questions, in some kind of teasing way.

“No, I’m not scared” She denies.

“Then prove it” Andromache challenges her.

“Fine, we can try” She accepts.

So they try…

Andromache builds herself a house on the beach. They see each other on every sunrise and every sunset. The rest of the day they continue with their normal lives.

Quynh hadn’t thought it was possible to love Andromache more than she already did… But she starts realising she was very wrong. Spending time with Andromache is the best thing that has ever happened to her and she starts falling deeply in love with her, certain that she would love her even if they hadn’t been soulmates. She loves her with every fiber of her being, in every possible way.

Every moment they spend together is magical.

Like when Andromache teached her arching.

“What is this?” She asks, looking at the objects the other is holding in her hands with wonder. She knows them, she has seen humans using them before, but she doesn’t remember their names.

“Bows and arrows, I'm going to teach you archery” Andromache answers her.

“You are?” She asks, surprised.

“Well you said you didn’t find sword fighting that much fun, so i thought maybe you would like to try something new” Andromache explains her idea.

“How am I supposed to do this when I can’t stand up like you?” She requests to know, still unsure about the idea.

“You do it sitting down” Andromache says with confidence.

Andromache spends all morning teaching her, until she can hit a target. She has to admit it was really fun. And some days, after practicing a lot, she learns to love it.

Another magical but unexpected moment, it’s when Andromache asks her to cut her hair.

“Are you sure?” Quynh asks, picking up the scissors nervously.

“I am” Andromache nods.

“Why do you want to cut it?” She needs to know, because she doesn’t want to do something the other may regret later.

“I’m tired of it, it’s so heavy and impractical. I want a change” Andromache expresses the reason for her choice.

“Fine” She finally agrees. “But if you don’t like it, I won't take complains” She warns.

Quynh cuts her hair in the way the other has requests. When she finishes she’s astounded by how the hairstyle looks on the other. She’s so breathtakingly beautiful. She encourages herself and plays with it a little.

Another wonderful moment is their first kiss.

“I have a gift for you” Andromache tells her, with a smile on her face.

“What? Why?” Quynh asks, confused.

“Because you said that today it’s your birthday” Andromache reminds her.

“Ohhh…” She has forgotten humans have the habit of giving each other presents for birthdays, when for mer folks the habit was the other way around.

“Close your eyes” Andromache requests. “Do you trust me?” She asks, after they spend a long minute staring at each other.

“Yes” She nods.

“Then close your eyes” She repeats.

Quynh closes her eyes and waits for her present. Suddenly she can feel Andromache very near, invading her personal space. She takes a moment caressing her shoulders, her neck and her cheeks. And then, she is kissing her.

Kissing Andromache is incredibly magnificent. It’s as if their lips were made just to be kissed by each other. It’s like they already know their moves, their tastes and what they like. It’s like breathing air for the first time.

Another splendid moment is when she calls her “Andy” for the first time.

“What?” She asks a little annoyed, the other has been staring at her for like a whole minute and never continues the conversation they were having.

“You called me Andy” Andromache finally says.

“Ohh, it’s just a nickname, like in a affectionate way” She tries to explain. “If you don’t like it…”

“No” Andromache interrupts her very quickly. “I like it, you can call me Andy wherever you want” She assures.

So she starts calling her Andy after that.

And so time goes by. And before they know they have spent decade after decade doing this, being together and apart in this way.

But, of course one day it has to come to an end. She should have known, she should have been ready… After all, how could it be possible for a human and a mermaid to be together forever?

“Have you ever heard of a goddess called Atargatis?” Andromache asks her.

“Her name seems familiar, but I don’t think so” Quynh denies.

“Well, legends say she was the first mermaid. She’s a goddess of love and female fertility. They said that there’s an oasis in the middle of Sham desert where there is a temple for her and whoever is brave enough to sacrifice themselves in the search of it, the goddess would grant them a wish” Andromache relates her the story.

“I thought you didn’t believe in gods or goddesses” She says, surprised about the type of conversation.

“Well maybe it’s time I do, so we can be together” Andromache tells her.

“What do you mean?” She asks, confused.

“I can go there, I can sacrifice myself in the search because I’m immortal, I can wish for us to have a way to be really together” Andromache explains to her what she has been planning.

“I don’t think that’s smart, for you to go there alone” She expresses her disapproval. “What if you got hurt, or the goddess wants to remove your immortality as payment or is just not real?” She asks, not wanting to get excited about what it could mean.

“But what if it’s real? Don’t you think we are worth trying it?” Andromache questions her.

“I don’t know” She says sadly. “Don’t you think we are already good as we are?” She asks, fearing the negative possibility.

“We are good” Andromache assures her. “But we could be better, we could be together forever, every time of the day, with nothing keeping us apart” She insists.

“I…” She doesn’t know what to say. The idea of not seeing Andromache for the time it takes her to do the quest hurts too much. “Andy don’t go” She asks.

“I have to. You may not believe our love is strong enough to survive this, but i do.” Andromache argues, very stubbornly. “Once I finish the quest, I’ll come back here.” She promises her.

Andromache gives her a kiss and then she’s gone.

Quynh is scared she won’t ever see her again and doesn’t know what to do without her. But at sunrise, Andromache is there, at the beach, once again.

“I thought you had left” Quynh tells her.

“I packed my things, but I wanted to say goodbye first” Andromache explains to her.

“Do you really have to go?” She asks, sadly.

“I do, this may be our only chance” Andromache answers. “I need you to trust me” She requests.

“I do trust you” She assures her. “But, I don’t want to be apart from you” She expresses what troubles her.

“I don’t want to be apart from you either, that’s why I have to do this” Andromache insists, believing her decision is the best option they have. “I’m gonna be back as quick as I can” She promises her.

Andromache gives her a long kiss goodbye. One that tastes like salt because of their tears. Is bittersweet and leaves her wanting more, but she lets her go.

All Quynh can do is wait. She waits and goes to their beach on every sunrise and every sunset, waiting for Andromache to come back.

While she waits she realises she’s scared. She fears Andy would find a mortal who would love her in all the ways she can’t. She fears Andy would die a lot of times and would suffer alone. She fears Andy could lose her immortality.

Another thought creeping into her mind is that Andy might not really accept her the way she is and will try to take away her mermaid form... she knows that Andy might want to join her in the sea instead, and she doesn’t believe that her love would change her without asking her first, but she can’t silence the thoughts entirely.

She dreams of her and with every dream her fears turn off a little. Andy is really strong and she is trying to do this for them.

She dies five times in the desert. But like she sayed, it doesn’t totally matter. Not when she comes back to life again every time.

It takes a year… And then, finally, Andy is back, at sunset time. She jumps directly into the sea and greets her with a passionate kiss.

“Hey” Andromache says quietly, pressing soft kisses to her neck.

“Hey” Quynh says back.

“I love you Quynh” Andromache confesses, looking right to her eyes.

Andy loves her and knowing it makes her the happiest she’s ever been in her long life.

“I love you too Andy” She says, exploding with happiness and love. “I’m glad you are back” She admits, feeling relieved to be in the arms of the other woman again.

“Did you ever doubt I would?” Andromache asks, kinda teasing her.

“Maybe a little” She answers honestly. “So? How did the quest go?” She finally asks the important topic.

“Well, I found the oasis, and the goddess conceived my wish” Andromache answers her, looking her intensely in her eyes. “You know why?” She asks.

“Because you gave your life founding the oasis” She answers, remembering the tale Andy had told her before going on the quest.

“Yes” Andromache nods. “And because apparently we are soulmates” She adds, looking at her intensely as she was trying to read her.

“Ah, that...” She trails off.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Andromache asks curiously, without judging her.

“Because I didn’t want you to feel obligated to love me just because we’re soulmates” She answers genuinely, thinking it sounds a little silly now that she’s saying it out loud.

“It would be impossible for me not to love you” Andromache tells her with so much confidence, that she believes her in every part of herself.

“So… how does the wish work?” She asks, bringing the conversation to that topic because she doesn’t want to get emotional.

Andromache looks at her with a tender smile, and then removes the pendant she’s wearing around her neck and gives it to her.

“What does it mean?” She asks confused, checking the pendant.

“It’s a magic amulet, it’s made from cintamani and it grants a wish to whoever wears it” Andromache explains to her.

“What the wish would be?” She requests to know, still a little unsure.

“Well, I think it obvious, for the one of us who is wearing it at the moment to have legs on land and mermaid form on sea” Andromache tells her with confidence.

“You don’t want me to stop being a mermaid?” She asks, really surprised.

“No, of courte not, I love everything about you” Andromache assures her. “I just want the chance for us to be together” She adds, caressing her cheeks.

Quynh kisses her. She hasn't thought it would be possible for her to love this woman more, but every time she thinks that, she is quickly proven wrong. It feels like everything Andromache does, it just makes her love her more and more.

She feels so happy. She doesn’t know how to contain all those feelings in her body, so she just shows them. She kisses and caresses every part of Andromache’s body.

When she feels satisfied, she puts the pendant around her neck. Then she grabs Andromache’s hand, so they can get out of the water.

The first time she feels her legs is very strange, and she would have fallen if it wasn't for Andromache’s grip on her.

Andromache teaches her to walk, takes her to all her favorite places and shows her everything about the mortal human world. Then they travel around the world together, meeting new places and sharing their love.

In return, Quynh shows her all the magical places and fantastic treasures the ocean hides in its depths. She teaches her to swim in her mermaid form and do different pirouettes. Also she introduces her to her friends and family.

Andromache has been right. To be together this way is even more wonderful. Thanks to the amulet Quynh can have human form at land and Andromache can have mermaid form at sea. This way they can share both of their worlds and always be together.

So, yes. Maybe it is hard for someone like her, a mermaid, to have a human soulmate. But it is not impossible. They had found their way to be together and now they will be for all their eternal lives.

You can read it in ao3 too: here

#AndromaquynhSecretSanta #andromaquynh secret santa #andromaquynh #andy x quynh #immortal wives #tog one shot #the old guard #soulmate au #mermaid au #long post #my writing #tog fanfic

23 notes · View notes

lilolilyr · 3 years

Text

Tagged by @rupzydaisy to post seven sentences of my latest WIP and post seven people, thank you very much! Really liked yours too <3

Not sure these are seven exactly as it's all dialogue, but here goes, going to be part 15 of my Andromaquynh Just You And Me - Until The End series:

“You missed me very much.” It's a statement, not a question.

Andy chokes on a sob, ‘of course I did’ staying unsaid, but then it would not be the first time for her to share this truth with Quynh.

Quynh tugs on her waist to turn her around and pulls her into her arms.

“I'm here now.” She whispers into her hair, and Andromache clings to her body as tightly as possible, the zipper of the jacket digging into Quynh’s skin, but she doesn’t care, only wanting to hold Andromache close.

“I’m here,” Quynh repeats, “your personal stylist for all the leather jackets you need,” she adds, trying to lighten the mood, and Andromache laughs under tears and presses a kiss to her neck.

“Thank you.”

Uh, completely lost track of who has already done this recently, but I mean we always write new stuff right? So, if you want to do it, I tag @daniwouldnever @cryhardanddanceharder, @purlturtle @schreeching-bisexual @imagitory @salzundhonig @bookerandy

#tagged #tagging meme #lilo writes #lilo writes behind the scenes #andromaquynh #andromaquynh in your stead #the old guard #mine #feb'21 #21.02.21 #rupzydaisy #seven sentences #wip tag #cryhardanddanceharder

6 notes · View notes

thelucyverse · 4 years

Text

Andromaquynh Fanfiction: In Your Stead

~ The Old Guard Movie Fanfiction ~

Now properly posted on ao3!

Alright usually I try to make my stories at least somewhat realistic either in irl terms or canon-compliance- this will be... Not that.

The Old Guard - Andromaquynh, minor Joe/Nicky, finding Quynh, Andy is immortal without explanation bc I don't have time for that rn. Temporary character death, canon-typical violence, drowning. Possibly gonna be several parts, in which case I'll drop a link at the end.

There is water in her lungs-

A pressure on her chest, her ears, her lungs, her eyes.

There is water in her lungs, and she silently screams.

Death. Wake. Die. Come back and die again.

It's nothing new, now.

She has no idea how long she has been down here, nor does she think about it or anything else. When all you do is die, there is no time for thoughts.

As torture, it would be quite imperfect- the victim has no time to mull over their sins, to spill any secrets at all.

To drive someone insane, though...

Not that there was any particular reason for her suffering. She had just been put away.

Wake, die, wake, die, wake-

Wake?

There's air around her. She can breathe.

Her lungs aren't filled with water at all.

She isn't wet.

She can think now and realise that this is, indeed, a change.

She isn't wet. Why isn't she at the very least wet, when she had just been in the ocean?

Has she died? For real this time? She remembers dying many times and always coming back. In and- before the water.

Before the water.

When she had still been able to breathe, to think, to see, to feel-

Didn't she look different, then?

Her hands look wrong.

There is no hair in her face.

Trembling, she lifts a hand up in front of her eyes to inspect it more properly when-

Someone is talking to her. Several someones. They have been talking amongst themselves, now they are talking to her. She knows their faces, but it takes her a while to remember their names.

Yusuf and Nicolo are going over their plans again. The latest attempt with the submarine didn't work out very well, so they will either have to try something else or improve the damn machine at all.

Yusuf wants to add something about the possibility of a camera in the submarine instead of a person when Nicolo touches his arm, nodding at Andromache.

The woman has a hand in front of her eyes, trembling.

"Andrea? Andromache?" he slowly moves to put a hand on her shoulder, careful not to startle her. "Andromache, please- we will keep looking, you know we will keep looking. We will find her soon enough, you will see-"

Nicolo nods along emphatically, shifting around the blueprints of the submarine.

To their shock, the woman in front of them burst into tears.

They will keep looking.

Keep looking, underwater? They are looking for her! They want to find her, her friends want to find her, they are going to free her!

Quynh bursts into tears.

They are looking for her. It seems to be hard and how could it be easy? She remembers now that the water she had stayed in is the ocean, the largest body of water there is. How could they get to her at all?

But they are trying.

They are looking for her.

But- she is here! She isn't drowning anymore! Why are they still looking?

Except- this isn't her at all, is it? This is her. Andromache. Her love.

Who isn't here now at all.

"It should be me down there" she whispers. "This is all wrong, it should be me-"

"Andrea" Nicolo says, sounding pained. "We have been over this, you are not-"

"It should be me!" she starts to sob again. "I should not be here at all..."

Gently, the men gather her into their arms, letting her cry until she falls asleep.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

...

#wip #unposted wip #andromaquynh #andy x quynh #the old guard #tog fanfic #andy/quynh fanfiction #andy/quynh #andy/quynh fanfic #andromache/quynh #andromaquynh fanfic #immortal wives #immortal wives fanfic #the old guard fanfic #joe/nicky #andy x quynh fanfic #andromache x quynh #tog #writing

21 notes · View notes

raypakorn · 3 years

Note

i am sobbing in ur asks for the andromaquynh x sameena parallels. a lovely lovely gifset!! just ahhhh thank you so much 🥺💓

you’re so welcome! i honestly didn’t even think of how much that was a parallel until someone mentioned it in the tag but it’s literally perfect! 💛

#this was sweet of you to drop in #hope you have a wonderful day!#asks

1 note · View note

mearchy · 3 years

Note

i'm coming here to sob about your tags on that andy gifset with the doctor who quote and offer up ... 'Except that implies—in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils—that she’s just a victim. But I’ve seen a lot of this Universe. I’ve seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods. And out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing—just one thing—I believe in her.' for andromaquynh and now i'm going to go find some tissues <3

oh GOD i’ve just woken up and this... oh god.

i don’t even have time to unpack how many layers of perfect that is for them... but i assure you every single aspect of it makes me feel like this

#rupzydaisy #thank you SO MUCH #i never thought of that one but you are on a galaxy brain level right now #(PS:#this exact relationship dynamic is why i cannot believe #andy would ever see/accept quynh as the villain/bad guy.#she believes so wholeheartedly in quynh's heart and power.#as she should!)#ask #tog #andy/quynh #tog/dw #the old guard headcanon #tog hc #tog au #the old guard hc

4 notes · View notes

elderkale · 3 years

Text

like a statue, like a wave

Andromaquynh Secret Santa gift for @andy-the-scythian!

ft. sad coffin hours and excessive use of parentheses

AO3

Everything is subjective. The noise that rushes past her ears turns white and meshes with the rumble in her mind; hollow thuds like distant echoes in waterlogged ears.

There’s no time for thoughts when you’re drowning.

She thinks she screams. She thinks she doesn’t. She should be kicking, but maybe she can’t.

She heard, once—in a dream, perhaps—that the mind needs air to function. Maybe that’s why she feels like she’s lost hers.

She sees things, sometimes; blue skies through foggy gazes, black shores painted white with snow, steel that burns and cries and leaves her throbbing when she wakes.

She moves, or the water does, or maybe neither of them do and her rotting mind is just rocking in her skull.

She’d forgotten the word free centuries ago.

The water has been red for years. It’s an excellent spot for sharks.

The air escapes her before she can even manage to savour it and she’s drowning again.

It had not been, by any reasonable metric, the worst battle they’d ever fought in. Far from it, really. It had hardly even been a battle. She hadn’t even died.

Andromache had, though, and that was almost worse.

She’d been shot; she remembered that. Remembered tearing the arrow from her thigh with a scream she didn’t bother to stifle, and standing with a grimace. She’d grimaced as she stood, and bent her knee carefully against the itch of muscles knotting their way across their bones, felt the tingle of new, unmarred skin knitting itself together over fresh pink sinew.

She had, all of a sudden, realized just how very quiet it was.

(She’d marvelled at it, afterwards, in a way she hadn’t since the first time she’d pulled a blade from her throat, drawing her fingers again and again over unbroken skin until Andromache had taken her hand and pressed her lips to her palm, drawing her into her warmth.)

Still, too still, and cold to the touch.

She’d seen warriors, mortal, human ones, pull steel from their wounds only to collapse in seas of viscera and drown in floods of their own lives.

(Before, when it had been but an afterthought to her. Before, when there had always been the guarantee that they would come back.)

The blood beneath her fingers had been warm, still flowing sluggishly over skin that had felt like stone.

And she’d been so still—

(She’d confessed, once, in a whisper lost in the night to the desert winds, that there were times when she almost regretted their gift; times when she wished, somehow, that the healing were not quite so complete. Scars are promises—she is untethered.)

Andromache had spasmed beneath her and she’d jerked back, the arrow coming free in her hand. Andromache had surged up with a ragged gasp that had almost been a scream and she had let out a sob, collapsing into the heat of her embrace. Andromache had caught her, arms firm and strong around her, despite the glaze she had still been blinking from her eyes.

“Quỳnh,” she’d gasped, breath hot in her ear. “Quỳnh.”

Sound, she decides on good authority, doesn’t travel well underwater.

She speaks to the silence, screams for her blood, sobs for herself. What’s a little more salt in an ocean full of it?

Her words do not weave magic through the air, or deliver hell to damned doorsteps. She and Andromache were always joined in that; honesty over mystery, strength in hand with intensity. Her words are not a final blow; they are needles of rain and wayward winds, and grains of sand pressed into little cuts. They are blunt like rounded edges of broken glass and as smooth as the waves above her.

Poetry was for her to hear, not to weave, as music was for her hands, not her throat. Every strike of her knees against the cursed shell rips through the broken melody around her like a drum in a flood.

Her words don’t move anymore.

Her mouth opens, and her wail drags her back down into the darkness.

Andromache had been absolutely giddy with amusement. “Don’t pout, Kleanthe,” she’d chided, a grin tugging at the curve of her mouth.

Kleanthe. She’d been called Kleanthe, then.

“I’m not pouting,” she’d said with a scowl. Andromache had smiled blithely, rolling onto her side and propping her head up on her hand. “I’m not.”

“It’s just a model,” Andromache had said, “and the boy needs practice. It’ll be done in no time at all.”

Kleanthe had huffed and shifted her foot. Phidias had cleared his throat and tapped the end of his chin. She had rolled her eyes and craned her neck face turned towards the sun. “I never thought I’d tire of holding a bow,” she grumbled, “but it seems that today is the day. I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for throwing rocks from now, Andromache.”

Andromache had hummed. “I’m sure I’ll manage.”

Kleanthe had snorted. “How you talked me into this, I still can’t understand.”

(Andromache had been the face of more goddesses than she could count; she saw a labrys when she closed her eyes, a tablet, a spear, a queen draped in fleece. She moved like a figure carved already of gold, every rise and fall of her chest a surge of fire in a forge. She had never managed to master the same gift of stillness her love had been blessed with.)

“Have you never wondered?” Andromache had asked softly, slipping, perhaps without even noticing, into the private tongue that only they shared; words that flowed like honey down a sweat-slick wrist in the summertime, carried on a voice that bobbed and rippled like a trickle of rain down a stone in drought. “To be immortalized, some way else?”

She’d curled her fingers tighter around the polished grip of her bow. “We will outlive this statue,” she’d said. “It will be dust before we ever grow old.”

“Maybe.” There had been a distance in her voice, the kind that promised bliss and tragedy in the same breath, that offered a smile the way mourners folded themselves onto their knees before shrines.

“What is it?”

(She remembered the smile in her heart’s voice, remembered the twitch of a slender lip beneath her palm, remembered swollen lips and lines of red that vanished before her very eyes.)

“You’re beautiful,” Andromache had said.

Yusuf had believed in truth. Nicolò had believed in destiny. Andromache had believed in the world, and its endless capacity to disappoint.

She believes the universe simply likes its jokes.

She dreams of her homecoming, sometimes; imagines dragging herself across a shore of sand hot enough to sear her skin, sees herself crumple into her family’s arms. Andromache would wash the grit and salt from her hair, she knows, and run her fingers through it until it was as soft as silk, softer than when she’d found her and when she’d lost her. She’d rub her cheeks with the heels of her thumbs and kiss the ragged scabs from her knuckles and her knees.

There are no cuts, no gashes, no ragged fields of skin. There’s nothing for her to fix.

Is she healing? She doesn’t know.

The first time Andromache touched her, her skin had flaked away on her hands.

She doesn’t remember what she’d said, doesn’t remember if she’d said anything at all. It was as if she’d always been beside her, a silhouette formed by communion through sights and stars and sensations walking alongside her shadow. She’d known her name the way Andromache had known it herself, known intimately the lines on her palms and her distrust of shellfish. She’d known her annoyance every time her hair was tangled by the wind, and the way she lost knives the way birds shed feathers but would never fail to polish her strange, rounded axe every knight, starting at the handle and working her way up to the blades. She’d known everything and nothing, and Andromache had known the same.

She remembered the first beat of her heart when Andromache’s shadow had passed her, remembered the way she’d nearly sobbed at the relief from the merciless beating of the sun.

Andromache had crouched, placing her labrys by her head; the blade had flashed in the midday sun, nearly blinding her for the third time that day. She had hesitated, or maybe she hadn’t—she couldn’t recall, or perhaps just hadn’t seen.

She remembered the first touch of fingers to her cheek, remembered feeling muscles flexing and twitching beneath new skin as it bloomed from burning red salt. She’d spoken like a carrion bird learning to sing, cradling her head in her lap like she was something precious, something wonderful.

“What did you say?” she’d asked almost two hundred years later.

“What?”

“The first time we met,” she’d said. “When you held me. What were you saying?”

Andromache had hummed, nose pressed into the side of Quỳnh’s neck. “I asked you if you could see me,” she’d said, “the way I could see you. I thought I was just dreaming; I’d seen you for so long—”

Quỳnh had taken her hands and brought them to her lips. She’d pressed a kiss, feather-light, to the tip of one finger, then the next, and Andromache had flushed. “Me too,” she’d murmured against her skin. “I thought I was dreaming, too.”

She sees Andréa scrubbing blood from torn blue silk on the banks of a silver river, and feels her fist break her nose from a thousand miles away. Andrew tosses a star-striped flag into a flame, and twitches beneath a cloud of poison in a furrow carved through the earth. Andy shoots her in the back of the head, and bleeds on a carpet in front of a wall of triumph.

Victory is a pyrrhic thing.

Everything blurs. She is Quỳnh, and Kleanthe, and Quintina, and Anya. She is Sebastien, and Booker, and Nile, and Quỳnh. She is Andromache, and Yusuf, and Nicolò, and she is Quỳnh.

There’s so much she doesn’t remember.

She wants to remember.

She opens her mouth, and her next breath comes out as a cough.

“Have you seen this, love?”

“Hm?” Quỳnh cracked one eye open to peer up at the tablet Andy was brandishing at her. “I’m afraid not,” she said, closing her eyes again. “You’ll have to read it to me, my heart; you know how those screens make my head hurt.”

Andy scoffed. “Please. I know Nile helped you download Candy Crush.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. Why would I crush candy? And the ads are infuriating.” She nudged Andy’s hip with her cheek and idly stroked her fingers along the other side of her wife’s stomach. “What is it?”

“Someone broke into the Met,” Andy told her.

“Ah,” said Quỳnh, wrapping a hand around Andy’s wrist. “The Met. Of course. Which one is that?”

“Oh, you know,” said Andy, grinning openly as Quỳnh tugged at her to lie down. “Big one. Kind of ugly.” Quỳnh chuckled as she slid a leg over Andy’s and sat up, straddling her hips. “Joe took you last week.”

“Did he?” Quỳnh asked, pressing a kiss to Andy’s clavicle. Andy hummed, arching her neck. “I can’t recall. My memory must be going in my old age.”

“Huh.” Quỳnh smiled into Andy’s neck, nipping lightly at the skin over her pulse. “Thing is,” she said, voice faltering only slightly when Quỳnh’s lips brushed the sensitive spot beneath her ear, “the thief only took one thing.”

“Sounds sensible,” murmured Quỳnh, dragging her lips down Andy’s shoulder. “It must be difficult to carry many things through a window.”

Andy made a small, pleased noise in the back of her throat. “You don’t want to know what they took?”

“Hm.” Quỳnh leaned back on her heels, putting a finger to her chin. Andy growled, and she grinned. “A vending machine?”

“Funnily enough,” said Andy drily, lip curling as Quỳnh leaned down, hands lightly circling her wrists. “Those were emptied, too.”

“Have you ever had a Cheeto, Andromache?” asked Quỳnh, stroking the insides of Andy’s arms. Andy groaned, wriggling beneath her. “They’re remarkable.”

“We can buy snacks, Quỳnh.”

Quỳnh pouted. “Where’s the fun in that?”

(She hadn’t hidden it in the apartment—she’s not an idiot. She’d rented a storage unit.)

Andy snickered, then turned her head and bit playfully at Quỳnh’s hand. Quỳnh yelped, drawing it back on instinct, and Andy lunged, sending both of them tumbling across the bed. Quỳnh let her head hit the pillow with a laugh, and Andy collapsed on top of her, snickering uncontrollably.

“I thought you didn’t like it,” she said when she’d finally calmed down. Quỳnh hummed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

(There was a bruise on her shin from where she’d banged her leg on the door last week, and smaller, private ones littered down her chest. The cut on her cheek was still fresh enough to be tender, though it had already closed, and, beneath her fingers, Quỳnh could feel the raised edge of a scar she knew to be thin and white.)

She shrugged lightly, and Andy moved with her. “You did,” she said simply, brushing a strand of hair from Andy’s eyes. The black was beginning to recede, and she could see the tips of time-bronzed gold at her roots.

(They hadn’t stayed in Athens long enough to see the sculpture finished; it’s still just a model. The tip of the bow had broken off, as had all but the bridge of the nose. More scratches had Quỳnh found in the plaster than she had ever counted in her own skin at once, and there was a crack snaking its way down the spine like a viper through the sand.)

Andy smiled and pressed their lips together.

(And carved carefully into a weather-worn heel:

I was here.)

4 notes · View notes