could you write something for rowaelin for the song "before you go" by lewis capaldi? (p.s. hurt me please)
Hope this hurts, lovely anon ;)
word count: 1212
warnings: ANGST
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“Hey.” Aelin settled down into the rather comfortable armchair, plopping her purse onto the side table. “Sorry I took so long to get here, traffic was awful.” She tapped her foot absently against the beige tile flooring, one hand reaching for Rowan’s larger, tanned one, lacing her fingers with his. “I’ve missed you, my love. My buzzard. Home isn’t the same without you around all the time. Hell, I find myself turning around a thousand times a day thinking I saw you walk in, or heard you swearing from the other room, or felt your touch against my back.” Tears clouded her eyes despite her best efforts to keep her emotions held at bay. “Why, Ro? Why now?”
But the unconscious man in the hospital bed made no response.
She gulped back a sob. “I thought I was trapped in a nightmare when I got the call, you know. There has been an accident, Miss Galathynius. Of course, the damn EMT couldn’t quite pronounce my name, so it sounded like a child trying to make sense of the syllables.” With her free hand, she flicked the rogue tears off her cheek. “I keep replaying the last thing I said before you left that night, Ro. I keep hating myself for them.” She sniffled. “I told you I hated you. I hate you. I hate you. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. God, I’m such an insensitive fucking idiot. I knew what you were going through with Maeve, I knew that you’d been broken down time and time again at that awful woman’s hands, and I...I lashed out because I was stupid and insecure and fucking stupid.”
Rhythmic, steady beeping from the machines hooked into Rowan’s body was the only answer she got. His heartbeat pulsed across one of the screens, a slow, constant electric green blip the only indication that the love of her life was there behind the ugly gown and the mottling of injuries.
“Why couldn’t I just pick up the phone?” she whispered, voice cracking as that sob broke through her barrier. “Why was I so stubborn and insistent that I’d been in the right? Why couldn’t I see how badly you were hurting, how badly I needed to pull my head out of my ass and read the words so clearly scrawled across your face?” No longer bothering to stem her tears, she reached up to his achingly handsome face, the face that no amount of bruises and scrapes and scars would ever change that she loved. “Remembering the way you looked at me right before you left--it kills me, Ro. Every time.” She choked out another rough sob, tasting the salt of her tears. “They say time heals all ills, but I’m so, so scared it won’t heal this one.
“My Rowan.” Lifting the back of his hand to her lips, she pressed a teary, tender kiss to the inked skin. “My buzzard.” Another kiss. “Please, don’t leave me.” Breaking into pieces by the last pleading words.
She watched his chest rise and fall in rhythm with the tube pumping oxygen into his lungs, helping him breathe as his ribs and bruised lung healed. Watched the blips and beeps of his pulse, his brain activity, his blood flow pulse across the screens as she clutched his hand, the familiar warmth leeched away as he slept.
“Would this have happened if I hadn’t been so closed off?” she breathed hoarsely into the silent, sterile room. “Would we be here like this if I’d just fucking talked to you for once?” Hot salt tears dripped onto his hand, her grief pouring out into the hospital bedsheets. “All I want are answers, Ro. Even if it’s just a ‘no,’ even if you tell me to fuck off. I just--” Her breath hitched. “I just want to hear your voice again, buzzard. I just want to see you smiling. I’m so sorry, baby. So fucking sorry. I did this to you--I was an idiot and I yelled at you and I made you leave and gods, I’m the reason you were in that crash.” Sobs shook her shoulders, the full force of her emotions unmasked for him. Only for him. “I love you, Rowan Whitethorn. I will never stop loving you, even if you never know it again.” Raising that hand to her lips, she pressed a soft, teary kiss to his knuckles, careful to avoid the IV.
Finally, hesitantly, she loosened her grip on his hand, letting go before she cracked into pieces all over the hospital floor. She pushed her chair back, still with her fingers touched to his, and stared at his still, sleeping body, the pale undertone of his tanned skin. Her fingers twitched.
No.
His fingers twitched.
Gasping, she raised her eyes to his face, barely believing that any of this was happening.
Pine green crashed into turquoise, silent tears pooling in the depths of Rowan’s eyes.
Awake. He was awake. He could hardly move, save for twitching his fingers against hers, and he was still under heavy pain medication and sleepy from the sedatives, but he was awake. Staring at her. Alive.
Chest heaving, Aelin pressed the nurse call button, lacing her fingers with Rowan’s, her eyes not leaving his. The nurse burst into the room in less than a minute, rushing to the bedside.
“He’s awake,” Aelin croaked, beaming through her tears. “He’s awake.”
“He’s awake,” the nurse echoed, hurrying to check Rowan’s body functions on the monitors. Two more nurses rushed into the room at her words, talking to each other rapidly about Rowan’s vitals. “Breathing seems normal, heartbeat is steady, BP a little low but not dangerous...” The nurse who’d first entered turned to Aelin, smiling widely. “He’s perfectly fine, Ms. Galathynius.”
Aelin could only smile wider, gripping Rowan’s hand. “What comes next?”
What came next was a slow, steady recovery. Rowan went under sedation again the next day to have the breathing tube removed, so the next time Aelin visited him, he was propped up in bed with an oxygen tube under his nose, more coherent than he’d been when he first awoke but still unable to speak. The doctors had warned her that he’d be silent for a while as his throat recovered from having a breathing tube, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was that he was alive, awake, and recovering his motor function, despite the fractures, the bruises, the bandages and casts on his body.
He’d recovered enough function in his good arm that when she arrived and sat down at his side, heart bursting with all she wanted to say, he pulled over the whiteboard a nurse had left for him and slowly scratched out three words.
I love you.
“I love you, Ro,” she breathed.
He erased and wrote again. I heard you, you know.
“You did?”
Yes
“I’m such--”
I forgive you. Setting down the whiteboard, he closed his hand around hers, every ounce of his love for her shining in his eyes. I forgive you, I love you.
Hesitantly, she pulled herself closer, leaned gingerly over his body, and pressed her lips against his. “I love you so much.”
“To...whatever...end,” he mouthed, forming the words with some effort.
To whatever end.
~~~
TAGS: please lmk if you want to be added/removed!
@charlizeed
@cretaceous-therapod
@clea-nightingale
@autumnbabylon
@nerdperson524
@claralady
@fireheartwhitethorn4ever
@morganofthewildfire
@rowanaelinn
@wesupremeginger
@story-scribbler
@nicolivesinbooks
@stardelia
@shanias-world
@mybloodrunsblue
@swankii-art-teacher
@wordsafterhours
@cookiemonsterwholovesbooks
@violet-mermaid7
@holdthefrickup
@goddess-aelin
@rowaelinismyotp
@dealfea
@irondork
@elentiyawhitethorn
@live-the-fangirl-life
@darling-im-the-queen-of-hell
@chronicchthonic14
@whispers-in-the-darkest-heart
@sweet-but-stormy
@hanging-from-a-cliff
@jorjy-jo
@rowaelinrambling
@thegreyj
@silentquartz
@backtobl4ck
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if we make it through december
cw: mentions of holiday celebrations, family & childhood trauma, suna is a bit thick in the head but he's trying, i love u all and am giving u a very big hug this holiday season
The floors of your apartment creak beneath light footsteps when you tiptoe into the kitchen to click the heat on.
You keep forgetting that it's December now and that your heat should be switched to automatic rather than the manual setting it's still set to. Mornings like this where your nose is a bit raw from a dry sleep and you hiss at the cold floor skimming your bare feet remind you that the year has indeed passed.
In the almost year that the two of you have been together, you've learned that Rintaro sleeps both cold and like a damn log. Crawling from his dead-weight grasp early this morning was no challenge, and while your teeth are nearly chattering, you know he's more than comfortable beneath the sheets of your bed.
While you wait for the radiator to squeal and signal that it's doing its job, you fall into the usual routine of filling your kettle and preparing a cup of tea. You don't expect your lover to be up for a while, so you plan to preoccupy (and warm) yourself for a bit before he finally stumbles down the hall.
Water quickly boils and ceramic clanks together in the cabinet. And before you know it, you're silently admiring a freshly brewed cup of tea and adding your usual like of milk to it.
While lost in a spoonwork of swirling colors, you abruptly feel two cold hands inching beneath your sleep shirt. Instinctually, you hiss at the unwelcoming feeling as palms flatten and rub themselves against your goosebump-covered skin.
Into the back of your head, you hear Rintaro chuckle at your dramatics. He pulls you closer and kneels a bit so his chin can comfortably rest in the dent of your shoulder. You loosen a bit as he places a gentle kiss on your temple.
He clears his raspy throat, "Sorry, baby."
Rintaro laughs again when he feels you sigh but relax into his nippy touch. Loosening his hold on you, he allows you to shimmy around and face him - puffy morning eyes and all.
Between his steady arms and the kitchen counter, you raise your mug to his chapped lips. He gently blows on the top before taking a small taste, humming his thanks and approval at the warm sweetness on his tongue.
Your morning is enjoyed through shared sips and quiet words, and it feels like it's always supposed to be like this. It's warm and inviting, like a home you never really had unless you were asleep and yearning for it.
With a chilled nose and slightly burnt tongue, you're grateful.
"I've been meaning to ask you," Rintaro takes one more sip and swallows before letting you cradle it between your hands. "What're your plans for the holidays?"
You feel something crack inside of you. It's a tough thing to explain, but your heart sinks at his innocent question.
Not yet having spent a holiday together, you weren't naive to the fact that this conversation was inevitable. You'd expected it eventually, maybe not so soon; but again, the feeling of your apartment's heat finally kicking in reminds you that it is December and soon isn't really soon at all.
Trying too hard to be casual, you shrug and take a drink of your own, "Uh, nothing really."
You watch the corners of his mouth twitch with amusement. "Nothing?" he dryly chuckles.
Biting the inside of your cheek and praying to whoever is listening for him to just drop it, you choose to shrug once more.
He crinkles his nose with faux mocking,
"Nothing like 'boring family holiday party' nothing? Or 'stupid traditions you need to play along with, just to say you did' nothing?"
Feigning casualty and doing your best to look at anything that's not his eyes, you shake your head.
"Nah, I was just gonna stay here. Maybe make those cheap sugar cookies I like but," you gesture to the painfully silent apartment around you and preoccupy your mouth against the rim of your cup before weakly finishing, "...yeah."
You can see the gears quickly turning in Rintaro's head as he scans your face for any sign of humor; when he doesn't find one, he realizes that you're serious.
"Oh—I guess I just figured you'd be flying back to see your parents."
"No, I—” you wince at your own voice as you stutter on an explanation before pathetically deciding on, "—don't do that."
Quizzically, Rintaro's head turns to the side in thought. He backs up a bit, and you internally frown at the loss of warmth when he leans against the opposite counter to take a good look at you.
"What do you mean, you don't do that?"
He asks and there's no sourness in his voice. He's just asking—just wants to know and understand you as best as he can. And it kind of makes you nauseous with a feeling you instantly want to rid of.
You rub your sock-covered feet together in anxiousness, "We don't really talk."
"I mean, I don't talk to most of my family either, but I still go home for the holidays and show my face, do that weird small talk thing with them."
At any other moment, you'd laugh at his casual bluntness, but you don't have it in you when you know you aren't really on the same page.
With a weak smile, you shake your head and attempt to wrap up the situation once more. "It's no big deal. I'm all set."
Quick both on and off the court, he doesn't falter when he presses. "Well, when was the last time you saw them?"
You awkwardly laugh and do that thing you do, where your nose crinkles in hesitancy, knowing that he won't like your answer. Because even if Rintaro doesn't know everything about you, he does know a hell of a lot; and he'll be damned if he doesn't keep on learning more.
"Are you telling me that your family hasn't seen you in years?" he breathes in disbelief, unable to wrap his head around not spending time with his own parents and sister.
Feeling your patience wearing a bit thin at his innocent prodding of your insecurity, you sigh.
"It's just how things are with us."
Silence overtakes the small space of kitchen between the two of you. Rintaro stares at you, not with a judgemental gaze like everyone else who eventually finds this information out about you, but with a bittersweet one, as if he's trying to sort through and rotate your fragile puzzle pieces before being confident enough to insert them into place.
His voice comes in a soft whisper after a few moments, "You're really not going?"
"I… wasn't invited," you mimic his pitch without meeting his eyes.
"You… weren't invited home?"
"It's not really a home," you mumble, eyes stuck to the ground when you reassure him, "like I said, it's just complicated. I'm good, Rin."
Another gentle staring contest ensues, one with no words being said but a whole lot of unsaid thoughts ebbing and flowing between the two of you.
Just as you begin to crumble beneath his heavy gaze, Rintaro sighs and closes the gap between the two of you again. His hands carefully find your sides like they always do, but this time with a bit more caution. He's careful when he easily lifts you onto the counter, trying to make it a bit easier for him to hold your gaze.
You feel like a child again, guilt rotting in the pit of your stomach as your eyes are glued to your feet swinging against the lower cabinets of your kitchen. You wonder if the floorboards can swallow you up, take you back to that place of stable loneliness.
"You know you can tell me these things, right?" he softly kisses into your hairline. "You don't have to, but you can."
You nod against his movements, not really wanting to explain but knowing you should. It's Rintaro, you know he'll understand, but a small part of you can't help but still errs on the side of caution.
"It's for the better, really."
Your words are muffled against his chest. You feel hum nod slowly, letting you take your time while silently encouraging you to continue if you'd like.
And you do.
"Just didn't have a great childhood. Lots of dealing with my parents' mistakes and helping out with my siblings because of it."
Tender fingers skim the soft angle of your jaw when Rintaro hums, "That was really brave of you."
You feel that wall building itself up again, but you can't stop it, don't know how to. "It was fine," you shrug off his kindness, deflecting it how you know to.
And the small, sane part of you sighs in relief because Rintaro notices. He can't help but notice.
He presses against your skin, "It wasn't. Kids aren't supposed to raise kids."
He's right, you know he is. You wish you could just say that, but all that comes out of your mouth is a detached, "Well, it's over now."
"It is," he gently agrees with your words, taking a thumb to your bottom lip and tilting your head upwards, "and I'm proud of you. You did good, baby."
You're little again, and there's suddenly no room for the praise to fit inside of you. Your body rejects it, forces it to well up in your eyes and trickle down your cheeks in a feeble attempt to rid of the uneasy feeling in your throat.
And you're crying. Wetly and awkwardly laughing, you quickly flick the tears from your cheeks as you shy away from the intimacy. "Ew, sorry. Thanks."
Rintaro sadly smiles at you--always sorry for nothing, and now he's beginning to understand why.
"C'mere," he cradles the back of your head again and lets you breathe in the scent of his hoodie.
"Sorry—"
"Stop apologizing," he firmly kisses your forehead, hoping for it to seep beneath your skin and stick itself inside of you.
He feels your smaller frame shake against him, and he's instantly relieved to know it's out of a weak laugh rather than a sob. You murmur, "I just—I'm sure you know by now that I—can't really handle nice things."
"Hey," his now warm hand rubs circles on your back, "you deserve nice things, y'know?"
No longer letting you shy away from his words, he uses his free hand to lift your jaw upwards again. Met with your teary eyes and sniffing nose, he peppers kisses against your skin with care.
"And if you'd stop being so stubborn all the time, maybe I could give you nice things more often, yeah?"
His heart flutters when you roll your eyes at his words, and he can't bite back the smile that crawls across his face at your usual attitude.
As he caresses your damp cheek with slender fingers, you speak into the side of his palm. "You give me enough nice things."
Rintaro smiles but shakes his head, "Really, I don't."
Another big shaky breath rocks your frame, and Rintaro melts at your bravery when you tell him, "No one's ever really cared for me the way you do, and I guess it freaks me out sometimes." You catch yourself almost apologizing for it, but bite your tongue; and as if he too notices it, he smiles with pride.
"We can work on it," he promises, hand heavy on your back, "I'm not goin' anywhere."
He holds you for as long as you'll let him, and in a tangle of limbs and soft kisses, you sway in one another's warmth. It's just the two of you, in your tiny kitchen apartment with shitty heating, when he says--
"So, what are our holiday plans?"
"Our?" You shoot him a weak warning glare. "I said I'm staying here. You should go home though, it'll be nice to see your sister."
"We will be going home, yeah. Mom's been annoying me about meeting in person you, anyways."
Your eyes find his and that unsettling feeling fills your heart once more, but this time, it seeps further than your throat. It's in the tips of your fingers and works its way down to your sock-clad toes. It's in your lungs, entering with every inhale and doubling with each exhale.
It's everywhere—and even though it's terrifying, you sit with it. Because it's yours.
He gently brushes some stray hairs behind your ear and sighs, "And if I'm gonna sit through a painful holiday dinner, think I'm gonna need you there to hold my hand."
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“Have you ever been in love?”
The question seems to take Evan by surprise. “What?”
Barty repeats the question, shifting up into a sitting position. His hands dig into the ground, still damp from last night’s rain. “Have you ever been in love?”
There’s a beat of silence. Then, looking down at his feet, Evan quietly answers, “Yes.”
Suddenly, Barty is mad at himself for asking. He can’t even say why he asked in the first place; he simply had the thought, and being the impulsive person he is, he asked without thinking. Now he wishes he hadn’t, if only to have avoided this odd burning in his chest caused by Evan’s answer. And really, he should drop the topic, based on downcast tint to Evan’s response, but he can’t seem to let it go. So instead, he presses the issue.
“When?” he asks, looking intently at Evan.
At that, Evan looks to his left, purposely avoiding eye contact with Barty. He stubs out his cigarette on the grass next to him, a thin curl of smoke rising up from it as he does so. “A long, long time ago.” His voice is dark with something Barty can’t name.
“Did it end well?”
Evan cuts him a look. “Who said it ended?”
At his words, something twists inside Barty. Suddenly there’s a lump in his throat as he works to get out his next sentence. “Well, you said a long time ago. So I thought that it was a, uh, past thing.”
“Yeah. It was a long time ago. When I… fell in love.”
Barty knows he’s the one who started this conversation, but he really hates the way Evan says love in reference to some mystery person. At least he used past tense, though, meaning it’s a thing of the past.
“So what happened?” Barty questions.
“They didn’t want me in the way I wanted them. Still don’t want me that way.” There’s something bitter in Evan’s tone, and he’s gone back to refusing to look at Barty. In contrast, Barty stares at him intently. He feels as though he’ll be able to see through Evan’s exterior and into his insides, where all his secrets are hidden, if he only looks hard enough.
“Who was it?”
“Does it matter?” Evan’s voice is biting as he sharply turns his head back towards Barty.
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Barty leans back onto his elbows, tearing his gaze from Evan. It’s almost comical how their positions have changed; now, Evan stares at Barty, and Barty looks out over the lake in an effort to avoid his gaze.
“It was no one important, okay?”
“Oh.” Something settles in Barty when he hears that, even if Evan’s tone contrasts with his dismissive words. “They were—still are—an idiot, though. Just for the record.”
Evan laughs in that disbelieving way of his, as if he’s sharing an inside joke with himself. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Barty says definitively. “I mean, you’re perfect. And whoever can’t see that is an idiot.”
“Perfect?”
“Yup.” Barty means it, too.
“Yeah, well,” Evan scoffs, “it isn’t good enough for them. So it doesn’t matter.”
“Well, you’re good enough for me,” Barty says hotly. “So don’t worry about that asshole. Because and me? We’re best friends, and you’ll always be good enough for me. You know that, right?”
Evan is avoiding Barty’s gaze again. He picks at the grass next to him, focusing on that instead. “Right,” he says somewhat bitterly.
“I mean it,” Barty insists. “You are.”
Evan looks at him, smiling sadly. “Thanks, Bee. But it’s getting cold. I think I’ll head back inside if that’s all right with you.”
“I—okay. Yeah, uh, sure.”
With that, Evan gets up and begins the walk back to the castle. Barty watches him go, thinking their entire exchange over.
He’s not entirely sure where the conversation went sour enough to get Evan to leave, but clearly something must’ve caused his abrupt departure. Even if Barty had thought he had said the right things to get Evan to cheer up again. He had meant what he said, too; Evan always would be good enough for him. Barty honestly couldn’t imagine a better best friend.
So Evan shouldn’t, Barty thinks heatedly, have ever been hung up on some asshole who couldn’t even see how amazing he is.
Barty continues to sit there, close to the shore of the lake, and watches Evan’s retreating form. And as he watches Evan reach up to wipe at his eyes, trying and failing to act like it was nonchalant gesture, he resolves to find out who Evan was talking about. And he’s going to make them, whoever it may be, pay for how they hurt Barty’s best friend.
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imagine Charlie getting over the initial Oooh Wings~ and Yay We're Okay Again! only to find out HOW Vaggie got her wings
out of her love for Charlie, yes sure, very sweet, Vaggie would probably say it with so much softness and pride, how her wings are physical declaration of what Charlie means to her and-
Vaggie got those wings while they were separated. it happened when Charlie wasn't there for her
like on that fucking rooftop
it's one sided AGAIN. it's Vaggie doing her emotional battles ALONE, or at least, facing them without Charlie physically there with her
three YEARS they've known each other. Dating for... long enough to be comfortable. presumably it's close to three years of Vaggie running to hold Charlie like we see her doing over and over- in the first ep after the extermination, during the reveal in heaven, before the battle when Charlie was scared-
three years. and Vaggie's wings only come back when they aren't together
add that to Charlie's habit of apologizing whenever Vaggie finds her being sad- imagine it's because, Vaggie never let's Charlie help her when she's sad.
Vaggie doesn't hide it. but she does that thing, like on the roof. Asking Charlie to leave her here. Sad and hurt and mentally not doing good. Asking for alone time (she's charlie's armor) (what's the point of her if she can't help-)
and Charlie backed off from that. respected it. was scared of what it meant? scared to find out?
she wasn't too worried though, like this whole thing was familiar. Vaggie needs alone time and Vaggie will come back. and she does
after the reveal though, part of Charlie's anger comes from fear- that if Vaggie was lying about the angel thing, what about everything else? what about her love and faith in Charlie? does Vaggie really love her? Charlie shared EVERYTHING with her but Vaggie had this secret only it's not just ONE secret is it- it's not just ONE thing Vaggie won't share- it's just a sign of how much Vaggie HASN'T been sharing- even when it's scary and sad and, she really needs a hug
what if Charlie really really REALLY wants to be THERE for Vaggie, but the wings are a reminder now of Charlie not being there when Vaggie got back this important part of herself
(of vaggie finding herself in the alone time, without charlie)
(worse- carmilla was there. someone else was there when charlie wasn't and that person was who vaggie needed-)
irony irony irony
every time Vaggie is alone trying to figure out herself and what to do and if she can do it- Charlie's the first and most important thing her mind holds onto. Charlie, and wanting to be WITH Charlie, is always what gets her to face her problem and keep pushing through
she just... doesn't do it while Charlie's actually there. and maybe she doesn't talk about it much with Charlie either, afterwards. and...
maybe Charlie doesn't know
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