Work Text:
“Oh, do you two know each other?”
I silently cursed to myself. It hadn’t even been five minutes. I forced a smile at the woman and tilted my head to the side to mimic thinking.
“Hm, I’ve heard his name in circles. But this is the first time we’ve formally met, I believe.”
The woman’s thin smile returned to Aaravos as she looked him over. “Oh, is that so. Lord Aaravos, it’s rare to see you at annual gatherings. What brings you here?”
Aaravos’ chuckle was far more believable than one I could ever produce as he lightly shrugged. “I had business to take care of. Did you miss me?”
She rolled her eyes and began to turn away as she huffed. “Same as ever. I’m sure you simply foresaw something interesting happening. I’m going to talk to my invitees. I will see you soon.”
“Of course.”
As soon as she was out of earshot, Aaravos took a step closer, his fragrant smell of roses and stardust immediately making me nauseous. In a good way - which was bad, considering we were pretending to not be intimate, longtime lovers.
“I have so much business to take care of tonight. How about you?”
His honey-laced words dripped over my ear and shoulder. Intoxicating.
“You’re standing too close again,” I whispered.
“Oh, apologies, madam. When will I ever learn personal space? A pity."
I shuffled away, holding my giant dress up with one hand and fanning myself with the other.
“I-I’m going to get a drink.”
“Oh stars, let me help you.”
“T-that’s okay, A-...Lord Aaravos.”
A careful blue finger tapped my wrist, trailing down before lifting up. “It would be my honor to assist you.”
Gah. I sighed. Since when could I ever refuse him? I nodded slowly and he followed behind, still far too close for strangers.
“Lord Aaravos!”
Another woman nearly leaped through the crowd until she was bowing in front of him, her suit’s long tailcoats flapping behind her in a woosh.
“Lord Aaravos, it’s so pleasant to see you again! Oh, a human?”
She frowned at me. Okay. Rude.
“Hello,” I began, trying to smile despite the awful first impression, “I’m-”
“What, you know Lord Aaravos?”
Double rude. Her suspicious tone would be rebuked immediately if it wouldn’t out Aaravos and I.
“I’ve only just met her at the party,” Aaravos said, stepping in. “It’s been a long time. How are you?”
And then she was beaming again, promptly forgetting my existence. “I’m well, now that you’re here. You never come out to see me. Why? Is it because of all those proposals?”
“Proposals?”
She didn’t look my way as she shrugged. “The Startouch elves need to be more integrated into the community. Aaravos is a perfect candidate. You’re strong, knowledgeable…”
“Well, I’m sure he would do it if he wished.”
Her head slowly turned to face me. Oops, maybe a little too aggressive. “I don’t think you’d understand.”
Or not aggressive enough. “Humans have working eyes and a brain just like elves.”
“Ah…”
She stood up straighter, a cruel smile twisting her lips. “Well, I-”
“Hm? Oh, your drink,” Aaravos sighed. “If you’ll excuse us a moment.”
Her eyes widened as Aaravos’ hand slid down my back, pushing me towards the refreshment bar.
“Ahem!”
“Yes, my star?”
“Ah-ah!”
I sped up so he was no longer touching me, my neck burning and hoping no one heard the nickname. I grabbed an available glass and pressed it to my lips, trying to calm my racing heart but failing when I noticed Aaravos staring at me.
“You really are beautiful in that dress.”
“Aaravos...you’re not being very discreet,” I hissed under my breath and into the thick, red wine.
“Oh…” His eyes lit up with the realization before he laughed, taking his own glass and beginning to sip on it.
“Well, I can’t say either of us are. You certainly seemed defensive of me. It was charming.”
“And you certainly don’t lower your voice.”
“I’ve been told my voice carries. Among other things,” he grinned. Ugh. Infuriating, even more so that I couldn’t help smiling back.
“You’re going to get us in trouble…”
His playful smile faltered. He’d already made it clear just what he thought of the taboo of humans and elves being romantic with one another, let alone anything more. Bittersweetness bloomed in my chest and flitted out in a sigh. My Aaravos wouldn’t give me up even if the whole world was against it. It makes me happy, but it’s a dangerous love.
Escaping Aaravos’ watchful eyes was a difficult task. He was far more popular than he’d ever given himself credit for, but I’d needed assistance from suspicious elves on more than one occasion. For the third time that night, he excused himself to drag me away from an elf with words as sharp as his eyes. But this time, music was playing.
“Shall we?”
I had no words to accept or rebuke him. His hand was in mine and his other arm cradled my waist as he guided into the deeper thralls of the dance floor.
“The eye of the storm,” he whispered, leaning in until I could feel his heated breath. “We can disappear here.”
I glanced around us. He was right, I could hardly make out faces in the frantic twirls of coupled dancing. We were no different as long as I could keep up with his practiced pace. Which I couldn’t. Aaravos was much taller than I and knew it.
“Here.”
His freckles glowed briefly as he whispered a spell onto my neck, kissing my skin quickly and sending a shiver through me. My feet began to move on their own, hovering right above the floor and perfectly spinning with Aaravos without any extra effort on my part.
I laughed as he sped up, twirling me like the precious ragdoll I was.
“Having fun?” he chuckled, voice rising above the chaos of song and instruments.
“How can I not, my lord?” I dragged out the title as obnoxiously elegant as I could, one hand dramatically falling across my brow as I spun.
“How ravishing you look, my lady. I, too, am enjoying the festivities. What a delight to meet you here tonight!”
Our battle got increasingly hectic, Aaravos’ sultry tone shaking with his exertion and laughter, and my own in a fit of giggles. He wanted me to forget my anxieties, to meet his people just once before we ran off, eloping away from society's prying and judgmental eyes. It didn't occur to us that we shouldn't have done either.
The music stopped and we slowed down, still laughing knowingly at our private jokes as I sunk down fully to the floor.
Although with a magical tug, I stumbled into his waiting arms.
“Do take care, my dear. Are those heels too high for you? I can enchant them.”
I pouted and playfully punched his beautiful chest. “You did that on purpose, you rambunctious motley!”
He only laughed at me again, squeezing me gently against him before finally ‘assisting’ me backward.
“Do you have any proof of such an affront?”
I rolled my eyes to rebuke him, but his smile disappeared as he looked beyond me.
Eyes. Eyes everywhere, wide with shock or narrowed with contempt.
The warmth I felt in his embrace now made me feel a cold sweat. Had we done something wrong? My question was answered by a tall Moonshadow elf who wore her facial scars as well as she wore her unconvincing and hardened smile.
“Madam human, you dare dance with, insult, and attack Lord Aaravos? I would like an explanation.”
Just how long had they been watching?
My contempt for the villainous stares I received all night gave way to real, true fear under her eyes - er, eye.
“I-it was just a dance...We were joking around, I would never insult or attack Aaravos.”
“Aaravos?”
“L-Lord Aaravos, madam. Apologies for my impudence.”
Even apologizing at all made me sick. What was I so afraid of? What had I done worth an apology to this crank?
“I would like you to leave immediately before you bring shame on the few sensible humans here.”
“If she is leaving, then so am I.”
Aaravos’ commanding statement finally made her turn away from me, her thin smile finally forming the natural frown on her face.
“Surely you do not support this human woman who addresses you so informally to stay?”
“I do.”
The woman scoffed, nose raising as she looked down at the two of us. “What is the meaning of this, Lord Aaravos? I've had several complaints of this woman already.”
Several?!
My eyes darted around the room to find the night's annoyances nearby and very intrigued about the confrontation that was silencing everything else in the ballroom.
My love sticking up for me was heartfelt, but unnecessary. I knew the night would end like this all along and it wasn't as if they'd see me again.
“I-it's alright sir,” I pleaded with my eyes, facing Aaravos to formally curtsey to him, “It's late anyway. Apologies for the trouble. Please do enjoy yourself.”
“Madam,” I gritted, curtseying to the woman.
“Wait…”
It was the sound of a broken heart, and it did nothing but also tear mine as I picked up my skirt and looked for the exit. If I could beeline there without any elf following me I could safely hide and wait for Aaravos.
“Please, wait,” an exasperated Aaravos called again, this time gripping my wrist.
No! No, no, he was going to ruin everything for himself at this rate.
Pleading with my eyes wasn’t going to work evidently. Instead, I pleaded with the best smile I could muster as if to say “I’m alright,” as if to say “Don’t worry.”
Because I knew that’s all he cared about. Even if it was a secret, his love was enough to give me satisfaction. This party and these imbeciles were nothing to me as long as I had Aaravos’ approval.
His grip loosened as I strode away, head held high with whatever dignity I had left. Stupid party! Why even allow humans to these exchanges at all if the elves were just going to belittle them. Outrageous.
A shout behind me made me pause. Was there a fight? Well, it was none of my business as long as-
Oh! Aaravos!
He sped towards me with an apologetic smile on his face.
“We’re both getting kicked out, my love.”
I glanced around us, but Aaravos slid his hand on my cheek in that sensual way he did whenever he wanted me to melt. As of now, it continued its one-hundred percent success rate.
“What do you mean, what’s going on?”
The crowd was parting just behind him and he chuckled, scooping me up as elegant as a prince charming into his arms.
“Aaravos, what in the world-”
And then he kissed me. He kissed me in front of everyone without a care in the world, squeezing me against his strong arms and flooding my sights with his perfect face. Had it been anyone else, it would’ve been a mortifying nightmare. But there was nowhere safer than in his loving and powerful embrace and I finally relaxed.
“What did you do,” I laughed, not caring about lowering my voice anymore. “We’re so screwed.”
“We are very ‘screwed,’” he whispered, biting my ear as he strode forward through the crowd I didn’t care to check the faces of.
“Now hold on.”
So I did. With his wonderous freckles alight and comfortable in my fairytale lover’s arms, he whispered Sky magic against my earlobe and sent us flying through the exit and then up into the sky.
“Oh!”
Only for a moment did fear pass Aaravos’ face before he was grinning, weaving through the dragons that hovered high above the meeting ground.
“Apologies!” he called. They paid us no mind, speaking in their own tongue and probably not even noticing that only one of us was an elf.
“Aaravos, now tell me what you did,” you giggled.
“I let her know just what I thought about how rude she was and her parties.”
“And?”
“She was not pleased that I disliked both.”
“She shouted over it?”
“No, that was the drink.”
“You threw your drink at her?”
“Technically, there were several,” he hummed.
“Now how in the-”
“And technically it wasn’t me who spilled them, just the people around her suddenly felt very trippy from the wind draft.”
“Of course,” I laughed, rolling my eyes and squeezing him tighter as the chill of the night air began to seep through my dress. “Just like this one, I suppose?”
“Who can say,” he sighed.
“Aaravos…”
“Yes, my star?”
“Even if everyone saw us together, I think no one knows what you mean to me.”
“Unfortunate, since I put on such a show for them.”
I laughed softly, admiring his features and the way his golden eyes shone brightly in the night sky.
“Let’s just go. We don’t have to wait,” he continued.
“But what about that Moon magic master you wanted to see?”
“I don’t need her anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Aaravos had gone on and on about this woman who had advanced her magic so much as to invoke unmistakable physical feeling and taste in her illusions.
“I tested it out tonight. I’ve mastered Moon magic.”
“What? When? How?”
He kissed my cheek. “I went into a place where multiple masters of various magic were. And not one of them noticed my pink.”
And just like that, his perfectly tailored black and blue traditional Startouch suit seemed to shatter into the ugliest and most impossible pink I’d ever seen in my life.
“This whole time…? You kept it up this whole time in addition to all the Sky magic you’ve used?”
“Evidently.”
“Aaravos…” He was being so casual, so ambivalent about his feat.
“Aaravos, you’ve mastered all sources of magic.”
“Oh...nearly, I suppose.”
“Nearly?”
He gave me that shy smile and I immediately knew what he meant - dark magic. A whispered, dirty word and an additional secret between us as if our relationship wasn’t considered ‘tainted’ enough.
“There’s one more thing I want before we leave.”
He began a soft descent through clouds, but the ground was too far away for me to properly see where we were headed.
I huddled against his chest and didn’t ask, not so much caring as I was curious. Eventually, we fell softly in a garden, alit with both Stardaisies and Earthwillows.
“Oh, I remember this place!”
It was from our first official (and secret) date, so long ago now that the place seemed smaller. Was that bench always there?
“There’s so much magic in the air. It’s so much easier for me to feel it now because of all your guidance. Thank you, Aara...vos…”
My words trailed as he fell before me on a knee. The flowers nearby crawled, their vines stretching just a little to give the ethereal Aaravos an even more ethereal glow, the twinkling blue of the Stardaisies and the rustic brown of the Earthwillows mingling at where he touched the ground.
“You are the love of my life. And although I do not yet have an answer for how we might exist peacefully, I’d give up fifty of my years just to give you an extra second at my side.”
My world was spinning, and I found myself falling to my knees in front of him, staring in awe at his declaration that would start a war if someone heard it. Aaravos smiled and fell to his knees also, scooting until they were touching mine. He took out a necklace from his pocket and held it out to me. A single, purple jewel shone brightly with the lights that surrounded him, attached to an elegant chain I’d only seen on the most elite of elves at the party.
“Will you marry me?”