#there can never bee enough rayllum
do you ever get emotional over how much like, rayla just loves callum with every fibre of her being? because like, here comes this boy that she never expected, and he messes everything up and makes herthink and there’s never a point where she wants to kill him, she tries to spare him, she apologizes, she takes her hood down and never puts it back up, and she knows he cares for his baby brother, she can’t un-know that
and then they find the egg and callum is the first one to realize what it could mean, that it could stop the war, and maybe he doesn’t trust her, but he trusts her enough to run after her and his brother and say there’s something chasing us, and from that point on, they’re in this together whether they want to be or not
and he’s kind of irritating (loud) and endearing, but he does save her life and starts filling in the gaps she can’t with magic, and even though he’s kind of dumb about it, it still worked and she’s not going to diminish him, and then they’re on the roof and he defends her and hesitates to leave her alone in this fight
and then she sees him running from the castle because he’s made a decision, but she offers him another one and he puts the world over himself and his family, because they have a chance to make real change and they need to to take it while they can, and amid it all he’s still paying attention to her, that something’s wrong, and already she realizes she’s afraid of hurting them, of hurting him
and rayla wants to know him too, because she goes over to see what he’s doing and drawing and he doesn’t know a thing about magic so she tells him, and he lets her draw, and then spills his guts to her and rayla can’t deny that, so she gives in and realizes she’s fond him already, even if he’s still a bit of an idiot with some backwards ideas about elves and he says some things and they hurt because shecares what he thinks, and the day weighs her down too much for his apology or the fact that he didn’t mean what he was saying to matter
and even though he infuriates her sometimes, he also cares so much and gets right under her skin and tries to cheer her up and then he does, he says it’s okay to be scared of things, he - a boy who’s lost two parents at one point - does nothing but try to understand when she says she wishes hers were dead, she admits her worst fears and he takes them and respects them, he pushes the boat away and says it’s okay to hate the water, he reaffirms that they’re in this together, he asks about her binding because it seems like it’s hurting her, but she can’t tell him, yet
then she’s thinking about how he might hate her if he learns the truth and snaps at him when he asks for an explanation and shoves his bag in his chest, she teases him about the food and he demands answers and she can offer up one that’s true but isn’t thetruth until they’re on the ice and he’s offering her the egg and she feels utterly undeserving of the trust she’s so desperately craved from him
and even when callum doesn’t have to watch her and pay as much attention as he does because he knows he can trust her now, and yet callum pays just as much attention anyway, planning to wait up for her alone and thinking about her binding and trying to tug her away from a narrow miss in the crowd, running after her in the caldera because he knows she’s not okay no matter what she says, yelling for her to hold on as the world falls to pieces around them
like rayla looks at this dorky, brilliant, impulsively curious, infuriating boy who makes her better, he loves her and pushes her to open up more and takes it all with grace, he forgives her and saves her and comes back for her, he trusts her and he loves her so much
and she can never say no to him, he melts her every time, seeing him in pain breaks her heart and he breaks down her walls and she knows she’s safewith him, that she can trust him to take care of her, too, she loves him so much that even him using dark magic becomes nothing, because she just wants him to be okay again, because she loves teasing him and hugging him and getting to know him, she loves him so much
and she knows that he loves her, too. i just don’t think she knows how, yet. and to be fair, i don’t think he does either
but they will, eventually. and it’s gonna be beautiful.
