the shots scene never fails to amaze me. the fact that the only time where we see our trio showing their silly playful side in such a relaxed and smooth way is when one of them is quite literally on the verge of death, simply says it all. whether they were trying to make his maybe last hours more light and fun than usual or just as an old habit, the whole scene just sums up their relationship so well. as if they only feel safe to openly be truly themselves in life threatening situations, because that’s how they’ve spent most of their lives with one another. the feeling of being so close to lose your close battle partner and fear for you and your loved ones’ lives has become so familiar that it is almost like a nostalgic memory now. that it feels like home.
This is one of my fave scenes in the entire show, it did so much to flesh out the grownup characters more. The vibe I get from it is totally that this is an hold habit… just old friends hanging out together with a drink. (Much like the greenhouse scene with Farah and Ben taking care of Saul feels like they fell into a practised routine and implies a lot about their history and relationship).
All right, I’ve decided to stop staring at it and post already. This one’s for @skloomdumpster, who asked for “Dilf Extraordinary Saul Silva with his kiddo Sky”, and @septemberrie who asked for “The first time that Saul took Sky home after Aster Dell”…:
Saul Silva, bringing Skye from Eraklyon to his new home
A prompt sent to me by @blue-aconite, thank you hon! This is a new one for me, I’ve never written Saul so much before, which is good practice. And thank you for waiting, between coming up on the end of the semester and trying to figure out how to write Saul in a romantic light, this took a while. But I hope you enjoy it all the same!
And don’t let me forget a huge, huge thanks to @thelonewolfes for helping and encouraging this sapphic to write a (hopefully) convincing hetero romance
Tantalizing
There had been a sudden surge of hiring at Alfea, and while you weren’t quite sure as to why (though you’d heard rumors of an extremist Headmistress and the need for protection against a growing threat), you weren’t going to question the opportunity to land what could be one of the best jobs of your career. So, you sent in your application to be the newest instructor to the Specialists, and was delighted to receive the request for an interview.
The interview went well, though you were surprised that it had been conducted by Farah Dowling (who had explained that Saul was away on urgent business, but the hiring couldn’t wait until he’d returned). Regardless, you put your best face forward, and was pleased to think that it might have been some of the rapport you’d built with Farah that had contributed to the job offer you received a week later.
By the time you’d moved into your faculty suite and settled in, Saul had returned, but still you hadn’t met him, despite knowing he’d been back for days now (thanks to your new friendship with the Professor of Runes and Ancient Languages, who claimed to know about everything that happened on campus). You hadn’t thought much of it, but when you saw him entering the training grounds just as you were leaving them, you figured it was time you officially meet the man who was supposed to be your boss.
Jogging over to intercept him, you waved when he looked your way, and you were pleased when he stopped to wait for you as you came up in front of him.
“Hi!” you said, and shot the man a smile, giving him your name. “I’m the new Specialist instructor Farah hired while you were away — I just wanted to introduce myself. You’re Saul Silva, yeah?”
The man stared at you for a moment, looking almost awed as he blinked a couple times, and then he seemed to snap out of it, almost visibly shaking himself. “Ah, yeah, I’m him — Saul, I mean, Saul Silva.” He sighed and shook his head, giving you an apologetic smile, and you had to bite your lip to keep from laughing at how much like a puppy he looked in that moment. “Sorry, that wasn’t very professional of me. You just caught me off guard a little.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you.”
“No—no you’re fine, you just—” he glanced away from you for a moment, and your eyes must have been fooling you for you thought you saw a hint of a blush underneath his stubble. “Reminded me of someone. So,” he said, very quickly changing the subject, and you blinked in surprise, “since Farah interviewed you, I don’t know much about you. She told me about your qualifications and what she thought of you, of course, but I’d like to get to know you more personally.” His eyes widened a bit, and he shook his head once. “Not personally, personally, I just mean—”
You laughed and held up your hand, gently interrupting him. “It’s okay, I know what you mean. I’m sorry, if I’d known we’d be so awkward around each other during an impromptu meeting, I’d have just scheduled something,” you said, only half joking, as this first meeting with your boss was spectacularly clumsy.
“No, you’re doing fine, I’m the one who doesn’t know how to talk to people,” he said, also only half joking as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sure I can pull it together, though — I’m free for the rest of the day if you are?”
“Oh, I uh,” you gestured back to the training grounds where you’d just been exercising, “I desperately need a shower, but I can meet you back out here in twenty minutes or so?”
He nodded, staring a moment, and then nodded a bit more vigorously like he remembered he had to say something too. “Yeah, yeah that’s great, I’ll be down here.”
And so you parted, the butterflies in your stomach that you couldn’t quite figure out what they were for distracting you from the way Saul stared after you long after you were gone.
~~~~~~~~~
The semester continued easily, and you quickly fell into a routine — teaching, faculty meetings, and, your personal favorite, your own personal training. Your previous jobs didn’t always leave much time for your own exercises, but seeing that your skills as a Specialist were a part of your job, it seemed right to keep them as sharp as possible.
You were working through drills on your own one day, running slowly through every movement as you focused on your balance, paying attention to every flex of your muscles, every beat of your heart, until nothing else existed but the movement of your body and the rhythm of your breath.
In your concentration, you hadn’t heard the footsteps behind you, only noticing Saul’s arrival when he spoke from the edge of the mat.
“Looking for a partner?”
You couldn’t help but smile at his choice of words. You’d become good friends, despite your first awkward meeting, and while friends is where you thought it stopped (despite your own lingering thoughts on what it might feel like to feel his arms around you or to kiss the man), the recent weeks had you starting to wonder if he felt the same way too.
Deciding to push your luck, you shot him a coquettish look. “Are you offering?”
He grinned at your response and stepped onto the mat, and you turned to face him fully, braced for any quick movements he might try to catch you off guard. But instead you watched him rock his weight onto his heels, seeming to wait for you to make the first move.
You tried an easy move, not expecting it to work, but wanting to see how he responded. He indeed blocked it easily, and moved with a casual grace that you had to admire, but still with a military efficiency that showed the strength he hid underneath. He quirked an eyebrow at you, giving you a sort of come on look in response to your easy move, making you grin and chuckle, and you decided to try to give him a run for his money.
You tried three moves in quick succession that were meant to distract and put him off balance so you could sweep his feet at the end. He blocked them all and managed to dodge your leg, but just barely, and his look of concentration told you it wasn’t as easy as he made it look.
The longer you sparred, the more you realized that you were very evenly matched, much to your glee — you always liked the challenge of a good opponent.
Sweat was running down the back of your neck, disappearing underneath your collar, and you still hadn’t gained any ground. At least he’s tired too, you thought to yourself when you stood on opposite ends of the mat to survey each other, watching beads of sweat fly off of his brow when he shook his head. You studied each other a moment longer — and then the break was over, and you nearly had to jump to avoid the punch he threw towards your right side.
You knew when you’d finally made a mistake, and Saul didn’t miss anything — he took the opening on your left side, and you could barely comprehend what had happened before you were on your back, your right shoulder pinned by his hand and your leg pinned by his. You tried to kick out at his knee and throw him off balance, but the angle was off, and the hit landed harmlessly against his calf. With frustration buzzing at the front of your mind, you realized you might be trapped for good, and out of the corner of your eye, you saw the quick flash of a cocky look cross Saul’s face, like he also knew he would win the spar any second now.
Absolutely not, you thought to yourself, and with a sudden rush of effort you hooked your leg over his, using his weight to leverage you as you rolled. Surprise evident in his eyes, he tried to throw you off, but you caught yourself and pinned him with your knee before putting your forearm across his neck, but held your weight with your other hand on the mat, not wanting to hurt him. Still, your hold was effective, and you managed to keep it as he tried again to throw you off, until finally he let out a huff and tapped your arm to release him.
Grinning, you sat up, not missing the way you straddled him as you let out a victorious little laugh before you stood, offering him a hand. He took it and you pulled him up, still grinning from your win.
“You’re good,” you told him, still panting from exertion. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to win that one for a minute.”
He nodded approvingly at you, smiling even as he fought to catch his breath and walked to his bag on the edge of the mat. “You’re good too — I thought I had that one, but I didn’t see that last move coming.” You caught the hand towel he tossed to you and wiped your temples, warming with his praise. “No one’s taken me by surprise like that in a spar since Farah did our third year here.”
“That’s a very specific memory,” you noted, raising an eyebrow at him with a teasing smile. “What makes that one special?”
He huffed out an affectionate laugh, shaking his head. “The way she gloated about it for weeks on end has burned that moment into my memory.” He wiped at the back of his neck, shaking his head again. “In my defense, I was very hungover, and she took advantage of that.”
You laughed, and the sound made him grin at you, a fondness shining bright in his eyes that wasn’t there before. He looked at you for a long moment then, and though his grin faded into a smile, that fondness was still there, along with a deeper sort of emotion you couldn’t quite identify, and the sight of it made your heart quicken against your will. “You really are incredible,” he said, a reverence in his tone that made you sigh.
He let out a long breath then and eased down to sit on the mat, motioning for you to join him. “Come on, sit down with me. I’m beat, it’s been a long time since I’ve sparred with someone my equal.”
In truth, you were tired too, the sweat that had soaked the back of your shirt slowly drying and your heart still beating hard from the workout, and so you did sit with him, relishing the stretch in your hamstrings as you did. “You know,” you said, leaning back on your hands after you’d stretched, “it means a lot to me to get praise from you. I’ve heard stories of Saul Silva from the war, so to hear you say I’m your equal is pretty incredible.”
“Ah,” he waved his hand dismissively, “a lot of those are exaggerated. Besides, there were a lot better fighters in my unit. I was just along for the ride.”
You frowned a little, turning to raise an eyebrow at him. “From what I hear, if you were just ‘along for the ride’, I don’t think you would’ve survived the war.”
He was still for a moment, seeming to brave a glance at you for a moment before looking ahead again to avoid your gaze, shrugging a little. “Lotta luck, I suppose. Maybe a little skill, but it was really just a lot of luck.”
Confused by his almost irritating humility, you let out a huff of laughter, and before you could stop yourself, nudged his shoulder with your own. “You really think “luck” is what landed you the job as Headmaster of the most prestigious school in the realm? I know Farah’s your friend, but she doesn’t seem like the type to let anyone keep their job for so long if they’re not good at it.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then chuckled, glancing at you with a kind of amazement in his eyes. “I guess you’re right. I suppose I forget that sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in some of the stuff that’s been said, or stuff I’ve done.”
And then his humility made sense — you hadn’t been in the war yourself, but you had friends who had, and you knew their guilt often overshadowed the good they had done in their mind. You knew there was nothing you could say that most likely hadn’t already been said, but it felt wrong to just leave it there, and so after groping for words for a moment, you finally spoke. “I don’t know what’s been said, or what’s been done, but… but from what I know of you, you’re a good man. And that counts for something.”
You were both quiet for a minute, not looking at each other, and you realized that just minutes ago you were laughing together over your victory. Feeling a bit foolish, you chuckled a bit and ran your hand over your face, shaking your head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to darken the mood.”
“No, it’s alright. Actually, that’s,” he paused for a moment, nodding to himself before turning to look at you. “That’s very nice to hear. Like I said, it’s easy to get caught up in all the bad. It’s nice to have someone remind me of the good.”
You smiled softly at him, sharing what felt like an intimate moment that made something flutter in your stomach. Then you both looked back out to the forest, sitting in what was now a comfortable, companionable silence, content just to be together and share nothing but your company.
“Would, uhm,” Saul started after a while, looking nervously at the ground before over at you. “Would you want to get dinner sometime? Together?”
You wondered just what sort of dinner this would be — colleagues or friends, something platonic or a date, and you studied him a moment, wondering if you looked long enough you could figure it out.
And then you smiled, deciding that you didn’t care what it was. “I’d like that.”
And felt your smile widen when he gave you a broad grin in response.
~~~~~~~~~
To your surprise but ultimate delight, dinner was some food taken to the top of a hill overlooking campus, sitting down in the mostly-dry grass to share it while you gazed out at the forest that surrounded the campus.
“I know it’s not the most conventional place to have dinner,” he’d said to you when you first sat down, but you’d just grinned at him, crossing your legs next to him.
“No, but I rather like it. It’s quiet up here.”
And with his own answering grin, he pulled out the food and you began to eat, quickly falling into conversation in that easy way you had with him that made your chest ache a little.
When the food had been finished and the conversation fell to a comfortable silence, you watched him pluck a blade of grass from the ground and begin to spin it between his fingers. You debated asking if he knew how to whistle with it, but the motion of it hypnotized you a little, and between that and the food in your stomach, you couldn’t convince yourself to talk.
“You know why I was away? Earlier, when you were first hired?” he asked suddenly, a hint of strain in his voice. You stayed silent when he paused, thinking it was better to let him talk at his own pace. He spun the piece of grass once more before tossing it down by his feet. “Sky’s father, and once one of my best friends, a man that I thought I killed and then who tried to kill me, escaped. And I felt I had to go and track him down.”
That information could have been a bombshell to anyone else, but to your surprise, you just felt… calm. And closer to the man beside you, like it was just another piece of the puzzle that made the whole make more sense. “Did you?” you asked simply, not knowing what else to say.
Saul shook his head. “No. He knows how to hide.”
You were quiet for another moment, then, “That’s messy.”
He barked out a laugh, nodding his head. “That’s a short way to put it. But yeah. It is.” You were both quiet again, and you watched a bird flit through the trees for a minute when Saul spoke again. “I don’t know why I told you that, it’s—”
You reached out and took his hand, squeezing it gently to stop him before he could apologize more. “I know,” you said simply. And you did — you understood the need just to tell someone, to share in your burden, not to make them hurt, but just so that you wouldn’t be alone anymore. “Thank you for telling me.”
And so you sat, hands still in each other’s, content just to sit, not expecting anything out of the other as you listened to the wind through the trees and enjoyed the scent of pine it brought along with it.
Saul chuckled a little, then pointed down to the edge of the forest. “You know, I once fell out of a tree down there when I was a student. Ben said I couldn’t climb one while drunk, and as usual he was right. ” He’d pointed with his unoccupied hand, keeping a hold of yours.
You snorted out a laugh, overly-aware of the warmth of his hand in yours. “You can’t be serious, really?”
And then talk turned to lighter things, anecdotes from his days at Alfea that you swore he was embellishing just to make you laugh harder, and tales of your own mischief you’d made with friends, though your stories were nowhere near as wild as his.
“It sounds like you were something of a menace around here, hm?” you told him after a while, and you turned to look at him with a cheeky smile, only to realize just how close you were to him. You swallowed automatically, unable to stop yourself from tracing the lines of his face that was just inches away with your gaze. You could smell some sort of aftershave or cologne on him, clean and smelling like the woods and amber, and you wanted to take a deeper breath, drawing it into your lungs and wrapping it all around your senses.
You realized you weren’t looking at his eyes, which is where your gaze should be, and with a flush you managed to meet his, only to see he was looking at you much like you just were, affection and desire and warmth filling them just so, and you felt your breath catch in your throat.
Seeing your gaze, he swallowed too, and then cupped your cheek softly, leaning in an inch, and when he stopped, seeming to wait for you, you leaned in the rest of the way and kissed him.
He was warm against you, and despite his lips being slightly chapped they were soft, and you were shifting to move even closer to him. You cupped his jaw with your hands, and his prominent stubble from the afternoon tickled you, but you couldn’t help but run your fingers gently over his cheeks, enjoying the way it rasped underneath your fingers. He made a low noise in his throat in response, and that combined with the hand he brought to your waist had you twining your arms around his neck to steady yourself, opening your mouth to the tongue he slid along your lower lip.
When the kiss broke, his hand on your waist tightened a bit as though to keep you from moving away, and you took that as an invitation to lean your forehead against his, not wanting to move away from him either.
“I promise this wasn’t my intention when I invited you to dinner,” he murmured, the ghost of his breath against your lips making you shiver, “but I’m very glad we did that.”
The endorphins running through your mind had you giggling softly at his remark, bringing your hand down to cup his jaw again. “Don’t want a reputation of making out with girls on the first date?”
“At least not before it’s known I brought you food and tantalized you with good conversation.”
And that made you laugh harder, leaning in to kiss him again, if only to prove he had indeed tantalized you enough.
A prompt sent to me from @thelonewolfes, thank you so much hon!! This one wrote itself so fast lol, I love two idiots in love featuring a meddlesome Saul.
As always, send me an ask or a message to submit a prompt. Read here on AO3 or below
Meddlesome Affairs
You’d been a teacher for years, at both magical schools and not, but never had you thought your career would lead you to the esteemed Alfea.
You’d applied to the position partly on a whim, partly out of the excitement at the possibility of working at Alfea — and then been pleasantly surprised when you’d been called into an interview, conducted by none other than the Headmistress, Farah Dowling.
And then had been elated to find an email in your inbox two days later from the very same, offering both her congratulations and job offer.
While the learning curve had been steep at first — Alfea was a tightly run ship — you settled in quickly, building a rapport with your students and making fast friends not only with your colleagues, but, to your great surprise, with Farah herself.
It started at your three month performance review, a one-on-one meeting that had started out as business, but had drifted into personal towards the end, much to your surprise as well as Farah’s. You’d thought it to be a one off occurrence, a fluke that left you a little bit closer to the Headmistress, but a few days later when she’d stopped by your office and asked you to share a quick lunch with her, you realized you might just have a new friend.
And a new friend indeed — despite a slight bump in the beginning when Farah had finally admitted to being nervous about the innate power she held over you as Headmistress (and your subsequent reassurance that she would know without a doubt should she ever do anything to upset you), the two of you became nearly inseparable. Lunches when they could be managed, dinners shared over a nice bottle of wine she always brought, even afternoons spent in her office grading your respective coursework, it seemed like you spent every minute you could together, much to your delight.
She became one of your best friends — but then the flutterings in your stomach her presence brought around were just too strong to ignore, and you had to admit you had a crush on Farah Dowling.
You couldn’t bear to lose what you had with her, and so upon your realization, you quickly decided that you would never act on your feelings, happy to keep your friendly conversations as just that. But the longer you knew her, the more you began to wonder if there might just be something there — there were looks that you shared, so casual and easy, yet there was a spark underlying them, one that at times had you wondering if she was going to lean in and kiss you. There were times a friendly touch of your arm would linger a moment longer than expected, and there were compliments that felt almost too heartfelt to just be that of a friend.
In the soft light of her living room one night, the stress of a busy week finally melting from the both of you, she reached out and touched the sleeve of the blouse you wore, fingering the material gently as she murmured, “That color looks gorgeous on you.”
You blushed, and tried to hide it in your wine glass, but hadn’t missed her proud look at pulling such a reaction from you. “You’re too kind,” you finally replied, smiling fondly at her, “but thank you.” Maybe it was the wine going to your head, but before you could overthink it, you turned your smile into something more like a smirk and spoke again. “You’ll make a girl feel special with compliments like that.”
“Maybe I intend to,” she replied, a little gleam in her eye that made your heart jump and fill you with the urge to lean in closer, but then she was standing to retrieve something sweet from the kitchen, and the moment was broken.
For months, moments like that continued, moments you thought might drive you crazy if they continued, and you began to doubt your strict no action policy. She had to be flirting, you thought, the connection between you deepening as her compliments and suggestions became more and more bold. You in turn had become more bold with your responses, trying to match her level of interest when you sat close together and your body all but screamed just kiss me, and you were finally admitting to yourself that you’d have to do something about whatever it was between you, and only hope that your instincts were right.
And then, one night, it all seemed to shatter.
You’d had a late night, grading and planning out your lessons, and it was well past dark by the time you finally emerged from your office, ready to fall into bed and nothing else. You slowly made your way through the halls, bleary eyed from staring at papers for so long, but alert enough to hear Farah and Saul’s voices coming from the nearby courtyard, even if they were quiet enough not to hear their exact words. The sound made you smile, and planned to stop and say a quick hello before stumbling back to your suite, but upon rounding the corner, still hidden in the shadows of the dimly lit hallway, what you saw made you stop and press deeper into the shadows.
They sat close together on the bench, so close that their thighs pressed together, and it felt like a stone had dropped in your stomach. Saul leaned back against the table, his elbows on it for support, and he looked fondly down at Farah as they talked, her posture shorter than his from where she leaned forward against the table, her back towards you as she rested her chin on her clasped hands. A bottle of something sat on the table between them, their glasses discarded now, but it was a scene so familiar that it made your heart ache, if only because you’d shared it so many times with Farah, and now you were on the outside looking in.
She chuckled at something he said, her posture relaxing with the soft little noise, and it was the same as when she laughed with you, the same noise you thought had reflected her comfort with you, her interest in you.
What you thought had been her flirting with you.
They’re together, you thought to yourself, and of course they were together, you were naive before to think that they weren’t, that they were only friends. They’d been through hell together, had practically grown up together at Alfea, and now here they were, running the very same school, colleagues and lovers, friends and paramours. It was the perfect story — far more perfect than what yours could have been.
You watched as he grinned and pushed her leg with his, making her laugh lightly and push back, and you had to turn away before your heart broke anymore, had to leave until you were far, far away, so far away that you could just forget about everything that could have been.
~~~~~~~~~
You made a conscious effort to pull away from Farah after that — not because you were avoiding her, you told yourself, but because you realized just how much time you’d been spending with her, and how that might affect her love life with Saul. No, it wasn’t out of hurt or rejection that you’d canceled your dinner with her, or hadn’t dropped by her office in several days, it was just because she deserved more time with Saul, and since it was obvious they were keeping it a secret, she couldn’t very well tell you when she needed more time to spend with him. So, you’d do it for her — that’s all it was, just a kind gesture for a lovely couple.
You told yourself that every time you subconsciously made your way towards her office, or every time you thought about texting her to invite her for dinner — but no matter how many times you told yourself, it was becoming harder and harder to deny the hole in your heart that seemed to be shaped like Farah.
This isn’t high school, you thought angrily to yourself one day when you delayed the start of your lunch hour by a few minutes because you knew this was the time Farah returned to her office from her own lunch. The world isn’t over because your crush is in a relationship — besides, you were never anything more than friends, and you’re going to lose that if you keep acting this way.
But then why did it hurt so much to even think about her?
Shaking those thoughts from your head, you stood and grabbed your wallet from your desk drawer, the meal you’d brought from home not as appetizing as it had been that morning. Turning towards the door, you looked up from fiddling with the clasp of your wallet only to jump at the sight of Farah, knuckles poised to knock on the door jam.
“Farah,” you breathed, putting a hand to your chest like it could calm your heartbeat, what, is she summoned like Betelgeuse?
“I’m sorry,” she said, though with a hint of a smile, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, it’s,” you waved your hand, taking a steadying breath. “It’s alright. Is there something you need?”
She looked a little taken aback at your words, and you could’ve put your foot in your mouth for being so formal with her, but she spoke before you could apologize. “No, there’s not, I just… wanted to stop by and see you. I think we’ve been busy the last few days, I haven’t seen much of you.”
“Yeah,” you agreed, suddenly guilty about how much you’d blown her off recently. “Yeah, definitely busy. I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to leave you hanging so much these past few days.” Convincing enough lie, you thought to yourself as you tried to pair it with a convincing smile.
“I understand, it’s a busy time of the semester. Though, I, uhm, I wanted to ask,” she paused a moment, studying you, and then she cocked her head, her brow pinched a bit in concern. “Is everything alright?”
Not convincing enough,apparently, you thought, and tried again. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”
“I just…” Farah seemed to blush a little, just a touch of pink high on her cheekbones. “We were… close. More than just colleagues, but this past week, something’s felt off. Like we’re… pulling away. I just wanted to make sure you’re alright.”
She was so caring, so worried for you, and it broke your heart just a little more.
“Yes, I’m alright,” you said, but she didn’t look convinced, so you smiled at her and reached out to touch her arm. “Really, Farah, I am. And we are still close, I just,” you paused, then decided to tell her some of the truth. “I just wanted to make sure you and Saul had enough time together. Alonetime.”
Farah furrowed her brow at you, confused. “Saul and I?”
“Yeah,” you said, shrugging in an attempt at nonchalance. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with you, and Saul too, and that’s really great and I want to keep doing that, but you and Saul deserve time together too. Time for… couplethings.”
Farah’s face suddenly cleared of confusion, and much to your confusion, she looked at you in amusement now. “Couple things?”
“Yes,” you said, almost angry at her amusement. “Look, I’m sorry if that was something of a secret, but I know you guys are together, you don’t have to hide from me, and you don’t have to sacrifice all of your alone time—”
Farah held up a hand, cutting you off, and when it was quiet for a moment, she tucked her hands in her pockets. “Saul is my best friend in the world — he and I have been through everything together, and the bond that’s created is unbreakable. But friends is where it stops — we’ve never been anything more, and never had the desire to be anything more.” She shrugged. “We’re friends, that’s all. Not a couple.”
The red hot flush of embarrassment began to creep up your cheeks and the back of your neck, and you shifted uncomfortably on your feet. “Not a couple.”
She shook her head, and you let out a disbelieving laugh, looking down at the floor in your embarrassment. “Oh, gods, you’re not a couple.” You let out another laugh and rubbed at the back of your neck. “I can’t believe I just humiliated myself in front of you.”
“No, no,” Farah reassured, and now she reached out to touch your arm. “You didn’t, it’s alright. I can understand why you might think we were together, we can be very comfortable around each other.”
You managed to tear your gaze up from the floor, and Farah gave you a smile. “It’s very kind of you, actually, to step back and try to give us some time together.”
“Even if it wasn’t needed,” you said wryly, and she let out a little laugh.
“No, not needed,” she paused, a curious look that you couldn’t read crossing her face briefly before she spoke again. “Time apart from you is most definitely not needed.”
You paused at that, mind suddenly spinning — you’d spent so much time the past week to try and push away any romantic thoughts and to convince yourself that Farah wasn’t interested in you, but with a comment like that you couldn’t help but wonder yet again if it meant anything more than the simple nicety it could be.
“Ah, no, no,” you said after a long moment, trying desperately to sound normal. “No, I like spending time with you too. It’s been hard to pull back, so no. Time apart isn’t needed.”
You could’ve kicked yourself for how awkward that sounded, but Farah grinned, radiant as the sun, then nodded approvingly. “Good. Well, then, let’s find a time. I’ve missed our routine.”
You smiled back, the week of pushing down your feelings undone with a few simple words. “I’ve missed it too. I have to catch up on grading tonight, but dinner tomorrow?”
“Sounds great,” she said, her grin turning to something fond, and laying a hand on your arm, she squeezed it gently before murmuring her goodbye and leaving you spinning with all the possibilities of ‘what ifs’.
~~~~~~~~~
The next morning was a rare, sunny day in early spring, and you decided to take advantage of it with a walk before your first class, making your way to the river before turning back. As you made your way past the training grounds, you stopped high up on a hill to watch the early morning groups work through a series of drills, their spring fever evident in the way they became distracted every few seconds, joking and laughing more than sparring. You heard Saul call for a break, tossing out a light hearted dig as he told them to focus before their break was over. Spotting you, he waved and, grin evident even from a distance, started jogging over to you.
“Interested in joining?” he asked as he reached you, and you let out a short laugh.
“Not in the least — I’ll stick to my classrooms, thank you.”
He laughed too and shrugged. “Well, if you ever change your mind I’d be happy to teach you.”
You nodded and made a noncommittal noise, and then you both stopped to watch a pair of students start up some sort of game with their hands, a few other students gathering to watch.
“I’m glad to hear you and Farah worked everything out,” Saul said when one of the students had obviously won. “I know she was worried that something was wrong.”
You smiled to yourself, secretly thrilled that Farah had been so relieved that she’d already told Saul about your conversation. “Yeah, yeah, everything’s good. It was,” you let out a little chuckle, embarrassment washing over you again at the memory, “it was stupid, I thought you two were together, so I was trying to give you guys more space to betogether.”
“Oh,” Saul said with a laugh. “Yeah, not together.”
“That’s exactly what Farah said.”
He chuckled again, then looked at you curiously. “You thought she was with someone? I mean, in general, you thought she was in a relationship?”
You sighed, not sure how to say I thought she was flirting with me without saying exactly that. “Well… not really. I mean, I didn’t think she was with anyone — it didn’t even cross my mind, actually — but then I saw the two of you alone one evening, and you were just so comfortable together that I started to wonder. But then we figured all that out, and I supposed I’m back to… assuming she’s not with anyone.”
Saul nodded. “I can confirm she’s not with anyone.” He was silent a moment, almost like he was sizing you up, and then he spoke again. “And, I think she’d like you of all people to know that she’s not with anyone.”
You snapped your head towards him, shocked to hear him say that and desperate to know if that meant what you thought it did. “Why me of all people?”
He just shrugged, giving you a smug sort of look. “That’s something you should ask her about.”
“Why should I ask her about that?”
“I think that’s a conversation best had between you and her.”
You gave him a look, crossing your arms in annoyance. “You’re just saying the same thing over and over again.”
He patted your shoulder affectionately, then, much to your irritation, started walking back towards the training grounds.
“Mysterious isn’t a good look on you,” you called after him, letting out an annoyed huff when he just walked on. “Keeping secrets isn’t your thing!”
You let out a little chuckle when he just gave you that smug smile over his shoulder again. “Just ask her about it!” he called back, leaving you to obsess over just what all of that meant.
~~~~~~~~~
You managed to make it through your day despite obsessing over Saul’s cryptic remarks, and before you knew it, it was time for dinner. You were on your way to Farah’s office to meet her when you rounded a corner only to see her emerge from a classroom, arms filled with paperwork from what you assumed was her latest meeting. She met your eyes and smiled, waiting as you quickened your pace to catch up with her.
“Ready for dinner?”
“Yes, let me just drop this in my office,” she said, gesturing to the stack of folders she carried.
You made companionable small talk as you walked, pausing only at the door to her office, which she unlocked with a wave of her hand. She motioned you in with a nod of her head, and you went over to admire the new flower one of her orchids had produced before noticing the bottle of wine that sat on her desk. “What’s that for?”
She glanced at you, frowning in confusion. “I’m not sure, it’s not mine.” She picked up the note tied to the neck of the bottle, and upon unfolding it, immediately recognized the scrawl. “It’s from Saul,” she said to you, then focused on trying to decipher what he’d written.
Crack this open and have a conversation with her — something tells me she feels the same way you do
“What does it say?”
Farah startled a little at your voice, twitching the note almost like she wanted to hide it, and you swore there was a bit of a blush on her cheeks before she bent her head again, fiddling with the note.
“Ah,” Farah started, quickly refolding the paper and shoving it in her pocket. “Nothing. Just an inside joke.”
You weren’t quite convinced, but then she smiled reassuringly at you and held out the bottle. “I believe it’s meant to be a gift — want to share over dinner?”
Dinner turned out just to be meals from the cafeteria, taken to be eaten on a bench on the edge of campus, but the food was decent and the wine even better, and your and Farah’s conversation quickly slipped into the comfortable rhythm it had always been, leaving you to wonder how you’d managed even a week without her company.
When the food was finished, Farah came around to sit on your side of the bench, and you both ended up turned towards each other, one elbow propped on the table and one knee bent to rest on the bench as you continued your murmured conversation.
When it lulled, you both watched as Farah slowly swirled the last bit of wine in her glass, mesmerized into silence by the movement. “I said this was a gift from Saul,” she said finally, staring into the dark liquid. “Though it was given to me with a purpose.”
“Oh?”
She nodded. “I’m meant to have a conversation with you. About… what I feel for you.”
Your heart thumped double time in your chest for a moment, like you were dropped suddenly on a precipice and you had to decide which way you were going to fall.
“Actually,” you started, staring into your own glass, “Saul mentioned I should have a conversation with you, too. Something about asking you why you might want me specifically to know you’re not seeing anyone. Romantically, I mean.”
You’d both been avoiding each other’s gaze, but at this Farah looked at you, a mixture of humor and annoyance in her eyes. “He said that to you, hm?”
You nodded, and she chuckled, again in that mixture of humor and annoyance as she looked back to her glass. “He’s never been one to meddle in my romantic affairs. I don’t know what makes you different.”
She said romantic affairs, you thought, and that did nothing to calm your racing heart, nerves and excitement both making it feel as though it was in your throat, and you had to swallow twice before you could speak again. “So,” you said after a few long moments, “why should I in particular know you’re single?”
She was quiet again for a few seconds, and then took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s because I wouldn’t mind if you were the one to change that.”
Both of us beating around the bush, you thought to yourself, and nearly laughed at how infuriatingly vague you were both being, neither wanting to step on the other’s toes and ending up doing literary backflips to say the simplest things.
“Before either of us say anything else confusing or vague,” you started, making you both chuckle. “I’ll just say this: I like you. Romantically. And I have for a long time. That was the other part of why I pulled away when I thought you and Saul were together, because I was sad that I didn’t have the chance with you that I thought I did, and needed some time to process that. But now knowing I was wrong about that,” you cocked your head and gave her a teasing look, “I would also like it if I was the one to take Farah Dowling from single to romantically involved.”
She smiled at your choice of words, nudging the toe of her shoe against your own. “I’ve liked you for a long time, too. Admittedly, I’ve been flirting with you for a while, and thought that you were flirting back, which is why I never stopped my advances.” She paused, glancing at you briefly with an almost nervous look. “But if I may ask, why did it take us so long to have this conversation, then?”
“Partly, I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship in case I was wrong. And, well, I…” you paused, shrugging your shoulders. “I didn’t know if you…” you gestured with your hand, trying to find the most tactful way to make your point, “swung that way.”
You felt like you were in high school again, awkwardly trying to figure out who was and who wasn’t, but you forced yourself to glance at her, only to see her smiling faintly at you, her eyes shining with the fondness of it, and you couldn’t help but return it, if somewhat shakily. She reached out then, and tipping your head back with a gentle knuckle on your chin, she leaned down and laid a kiss on your lips.
She was warm against you, and soft was the only word you could think to describe everything about the moment, making you lean deeper into the embrace and let out a sigh of pure contentment. She made a quiet noise in response, barely audible, but the vibration of it tickled your lips, and you had the sudden urge to laugh out of sheer excitement, joy, disbelief, glee.
The kiss ended slowly, sweetly, leaving you glowing and pleasantly fuzzy, your mind sluggishly trying to catch up with what had happened.
“Do you know now?” she spoke softly, her voice a little rougher than normal, and you huffed out a laugh, slowly blinking open your eyes to look into hers.
“I might need more proof.”
She grinned, murmuring, “Happily,” before she kissed you again, and you blissfully let everything else fall away.
Late that night, well after the moon had risen and even the frogs had quieted their songs, you were still sitting at the same bench, but pressed close together now, and with your fingers tangled together just because you could. The rhythm of your conversation was still the same, comforting cadence as always, but now with her hand in yours and the taste of her lips still fresh in your mind, you felt as though something in your chest had shifted, just barely, but enough to open a space for promises and hopes and dreams and love.
“Thank the gods Saul meddled this time, hm?” you teased, reaching out to brush a fallen piece of hair behind her ear, glowing silver in the moonlight. “We might have never gotten here, otherwise.”
She rolled her eyes but still chuckled, leaning into your touch that ghosted her cheek. “Oh, I think we would have figured it out eventually.” At your raised eyebrow, she chuckled again and tilted her head in acquiescence. “But I suppose we do have him to thank for some extra time together.”
You hummed in agreement, and leaned in to press your lips softly to hers. “Thankful, indeed,” you murmured, and then let yourself slip back into the quiet of the night, with nothing but the sound of your breath and your hearts becoming one.
Chapter Summary: It’s been a day since Luna left for Alfea. There’s no word from Saul. Nothing. All Endra can do is wait, hope and pray. But when Luna finally returns, she brings along several people Endra never expected.
As someone who grew up with the og Saturday cartoon I will say I’m not the biggest fan of the Netflix Winx show.
Bloom is not a likeable character in fact I’d hazard at comparing her to Denethor but that’s just me. Whatever. There’s some other stuff that could be potentially problematic, but I binged all of season one so it’s safe to say I like it - as a separate piece of work.
I WILL FUCKING SAY THOUGH. The best fucking scene is watching Farah, Saul, and Ben commiserating over some agave juice and war stories and acknowledging that these fucking teens think they’re so sneaky when these beautiful old fucks were in fact the ones that broke those rules first.
The thing that makes this worth it is the profs.
Please, Netflix, if you’re gonna give us anything more - give us more of that
