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Oh my god while I was trying to make my art post I ran out of time for the moment and saved it as a draft but when I got back to it like 30 minutes later it wasn't there anymore so I redid the post right? Well, guess what just appeared in my drafts??? Tumblr PLEASE đ
HEY GUYS WHAT THE FUCK I JUST FINISHED FUCKING COPING
âTell me a story, please?â you add, hiding a smile under the edge of the blanket. A kiss is bestowed upon on your forehead and the cave opens for the night. Leon clears his throat theatrically. âThis story is about a girl, and a boy who loved her very much.â
Leon keeps his best tales under lock and key, and you crack one out of him on a particularly sleepless night. He thinks you might like this one.
f / m, fluff sprinkled in with angst and emotional hurt, insomnia, grief + mourning, leon is a sweetheart he just loves you :(, he basically tells you a fairy tale before bed
word count: 1.6k // read on ao3
a/n: um. norman fucking rockwell, baby. if you catch the lyrics from "How to disappear", i love you. i wrote this fic like i was possessed đ nothing was planned
There arenât any waves outside your landlocked bedroom window to lull you to sleep, but there is another ocean view you can think of. You turn to the other side of your pillow, biting your lip hopefully.
âHi, sweetheart,â the view mumbles, ocean eyes groggy and losing the fight against sleep.
Youâre in luck.
âLeon,â you whisper.Â
âMm.â
âCanât sleep.â
âDonât know whyâŚyouâre not tired,â he yawns, his blond lashes almost fluttering closed before snapping open at your wide-eyed expression, âwhen youâve been running through my mind all day.â
You cram the comforter to your chin and flip to the other side of the bed with a groan.Â
Leon chuckles, giving your shoulder a sleepy shake, âIâm sorry, Iâm sorry!âÂ
Heâs not sorry. But you relent anyway.Â
âTell me a story,â you mumble as he tucks you back in.
You brush a strand of hair across his forehead to unveil those ocean eyes again. Theyâre faded and tired, yes, but theyâve also seen more of the world than you could ever dream of. The only good thing to come out of Leonâs mysterious missions to the ends of the earth is the treasure trove of stories he brings back with him, like a Cave of Wonders, filled with only the best for you to unlock. You donât know anything about the outside of that cave â he stops telling the story if you ask â and youâre not in any position to argue as the clock ticks closer to morning.
âWhatâs the magic word?â he nudges.
Is he really going all open sesame on you too?
âTell me a story, please?â you add, hiding a smile under the edge of the blanket. Â
A kiss is bestowed upon your forehead and the cave opens for the night. Leon clears his throat theatrically.Â
âThis story is about a girl, and a boy who loved her very much.â
âOne thing you have to know before I start anything though, sweetheart, is that this girl was a spitfire. Completely unreasonable. She was the type to pack a grocery cart full of ice cream she swore was on discount only to have all of it be full price and melt in the checkout line.â
(âThat was one time!â)
âNever said a thing about it being you, sweetheart, shh. Youâre supposed to be trying to sleep. But either way, this girl couldnât be you because she was a princess â a real pretty one at that. Sweet, smart and kind like little girls grow up wanting to be. She lived in a castle by the sea on an island in the middle of nowhere, and hereâs what I heard about her on my last mission. Youâll like this one.
âLife on that island was as peaceful as you can get in a fairy tale. She had plenty of mermaids for friends and animals to keep her company, but you canât help getting lonely after the years start passing by. The princess was stuck there, you see.â
(âHowâd she get there to begin with?â)
âUh-uh, youâre interrupting me.â Leon teases. âStory or no story?â
(âStory, please.â)
âMagic, alright? Say she got stolen away by some evil witch like Rapunzel did and her kidnapper drowned in the sea. I donât know. But it didnât really matter because that island became home after a while. A beautiful home, but lonely all the same. The mermaids all returned to their castle under the sea when the moon came up and the princess wished had somebody she could sleep next to when it got cold at night.Â
âShe was fond of stories too, like somebody else I know, and after all those years on that island, sheâd read every book in the castle and longed for someone who could tell her something new. All she ever wished for on her birthday was a friend. âJust for a little bitâ, sheâd beg.â
Leon sucks in a careful breath.
âSo one night, the ocean decided to send the princess a birthday present just like she asked. A magic tide deposited a little boat on the edge of her island, and when the princess woke up the next morning and looked outside her window, she saw something â or rather, somebody â slumped inside of that boat.â
(âAnd inside that boat was a prince?â)
âNo prince. The princess made sure of it too, brave thing that she was, walking right up to the boat and taking a good look at who was sleeping inside of it.Â
âThe boy inside that boat was dead to the world with cuts on his face from fighting too hard. He gave the princess a good scare âcause he was so asleep she thought he was actually dead. When he woke up and asked âWho are you?â, she nearly punched him out of fright.â
(âYou were right, I think I like her.â)
Leon laughs, bright and warm.
âBut this boy was a real charmer, and the princess was kind, remember?â
(âBummer.â)Â
âShe didnât go around punching people out of nowhere. Especially not the first human sheâd ever seen. Her curiosity got the best of her and she took the boy to her castle, where he told her he was a mercenary from a faraway kingdom. Heâd been on his way to kill a rampaging sea monster when a mysterious wind blew his boat off course and right onto the princessâ island.Â
âOver breakfast, the mercenary told her stories about monsters, jungles, fire-breathing dragons, stuff sheâd only ever read about. She was entranced. The more he spoke, the more the princess wanted to see for herself even though she knew she couldnât. She had to be smart about it.â
Leon swallows. He nestles the blanket around you a little tighter, like youâd slip out of his grasp, and continues.
âThe boy was battered from the beating he took from his voyage, so the princess nursed him back to health. I told you she was stubborn, right? She wouldnât take any of the gold or jewels he tried offering her from his travels. All she asked for was a new story each day he stayed with her. He agreed.
âThe first week went by in a flash. The princess borrowed magic green herbs from her mermaid friends to heal the mercenary faster. The herbs made him strong enough to move mountains if he wanted to, so he pounded a couple to the ground outside her castle just to prove he could when she asked, and with the new space, the princess made him a place to stay. Turns out she was a great businesswoman; the boy spun tale after tale for her while she fixed a loneliness deep in his bones. Everything was perfect.â
(âAwwâŚâ)Â
âThe boy stayed longer than he thought he would. His boat collected dust as that week turned into months. Those months grew into a year. The princessâ birthday rolled around again.â
(âDid they fall in love?â)
âThey did, sweetheart.â
Leon chuckles softly.
âHe ended up loving her a lot, and the princess loved him too, donât get me wrong, but thatâs not usually how it goes in fairy tales, is it? Thereâs a catch.â
You reach for Leonâs hand in the deep of the comforter, not remembering when he let go.
âGood sailors know not to mess with the ocean. It wasnât too pleased with the princess keeping the boy to herself for more than just a little bit, not when he needed to get rid of that sea monster that had been killing millions of innocent people. So on the night of the princessâ birthday, the sea asked the boy to go back to being a mercenary. He needed to do his job and the princess wasnât part of it.â
(âTell me he stayed, Leon.â)
âPrincess, I canât-â
(âMake him stay.â)
And for the first time, Leon stutters because he never changes the story.
âA-Alright, so the boy stays. He tells the sea that he fell in love and canât bear to leave the princess behind.â
(âAnd then?â)
âAnd thenâŚand then he finds out heâs in over his head. The tide comes and goes, everything has to have a balance. He needed to go because he had to protect all those people, and he couldnât do that by staying with the princess no matter how much he loved her, right?â
Lifting the blanket aside, Leon falls onto his back. You watch the ceiling fan blades spin in the dull sea-blue of his eyes.Â
âThe princess asked him to stay and he couldnât say no to her. She meant well. She didnâtâŚshe didnât know. And they were happy together on that island until the boyâs decision caught up with him. The sea monster he was supposed to kill found their island one day, sweetheart.â
(â...Leon, no. Thatâs not supposed to happen.â)
âItâs how the story goes,â he murmurs, gently pressing his lips to yours.
You barely feel it; you taste saltwater in his kiss, feel it running down your face.
âBut you changed it!â Youâre crying, canât find his hand. Whereâd he go? Heâs supposed to be here, you changed the stupid story, you have to make him stay.Â
The ocean might not be outside your window, but you still see it behind glass as you prop yourself up on your elbows, heaving for breath only to find Leonâs framed picture sitting beside your pillow.
His eyes are so blue. Ghostly in the dark.Â
You must have dropped it when sleep took you under. Your earbuds are still hooked up to a podcast in an earlier effort to bore yourself to sleep, but you donât really want to hear about relaxing Zen gardens right now. Tugging everything out of your ears, your shaking finger opens the notes app.Â
Right now, youâre in the mood for a story. A story with a happy ending where no one goes anywhere.
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comments and reblogs are very much appreciated <3 take care and i love you!
was having a normal one about the Saiki brothers so hereâs this
yâall⌠i asked someone on here for an x gender neutral reader (very simple) and they wrote it x fem⌠do you want me to kill myself cause i will