Shibrogane
Arkady didn’t actually bother to stop off at home and change before taking her bike out to the medical center. Once she got Finn’s call, she’d returned from Avalon immediately--and now she was waiting impatiently for the nurse to confirm that she was a wanted guest with a backpack slung over her shoulder. (Okay, she’d stopped for that, but who wanted to wait to get changed? It wasn’t like she’d been wearing these clothes for the past two and a half weeks.)

She swept imperiously into his room and kicked the door shut behind her. “Babe,” she said, flipping her braid over her shoulder and leaning down to press a kiss on his forehead. “What did you do?” Hooking her foot around one of the nearest chair legs, she pulled it over and dropped her bag in it. The bed squeaked slightly in protest as she dropped into it and took his hand in hers.

Considerately, she added, “I love you. It’s good to see you.”


Finn had not wanted to be reunited with his girlfriend under these circumstances. In his imagination, there were significantly fewer hospital beds and significantly more bubble baths involved in her latest return from Avalon. But he was on a lot of painkillers and recovering from surgery and there were stitches on his nuts. He had not seen them, but he knew they were there, and it was very unsexy.

Seeing as he was currently incapable of moving very much, he settled for squeezing Arkady’s fingers, despite that he hadn’t seen her in two and a half weeks and what he really wanted was a real, actual kiss on the mouth, maybe with tongue but he was also pretty sure he still tasted like vomit. “Um,” he said. “I was sparring with Mistral. Or. I was sparring. She took it a little too far.”

He didn’t think he’d ever forget the shocked look on Mistral’s face. She’d apologized about a thousand times. “I think she was as shocked as I was. Could you come closer? I missed you, Tate.”

It was the painkillers talking, he realized as soon as he said it. “I mean. ********. Arkady. s**t. I’ve had so much vicodin.”

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She peeked under the blanket, because she was kind of an a*****e. There was a bag of ice blocking her view, but she decided not to mess with it. Doctors knew what doctors knew, and she was not a medic.

Rather than scooting towards him, Arkady leaned away, a little hurt. “I’m not Tate,” she said. “I don’t even know who that is.” She didn’t let go of his hand. In fact, she tangled her fingers around his tighter. Once upon a time in a faraway land, so far away that only Finn remembered, her name had been Tate Konstantin and she’d wanted to be a detective. Now she wanted… she didn’t know. Was she allowed to want more than Finn? He was the only constant.

She relented after a moment, and shifted towards him, leaning in to kiss his forehead. “I thought Mistral was useless in a fight,” she said. “Did she get lucky?”


Finn raised his hands, mindful of the heartrate monitor clipped around his fingertip, and caught her cheeks as she moved in to kiss him. “I know you’re not,” he breathed, regretting the slip - even though it had been just that, a slip. “I’m sorry. Like I said. Vicodin? It makes me, uh, woozy.”

Damn, she’d been here for like two minutes and he’d already dug himself into a hole.

He leaned his forehead against her lips, which were cool to the touch and very nice and he wanted them on his mouth but he also wasn’t supposed to do anything even remotely exciting for like two weeks. “It turns out,” he said, “That she is not as useless as she has previously led everyone to believe. Look - how are you? Is everything okay on Avalon?”

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“It’s okay,” she said. “Everything’s okay.” She carefully settled herself along his side, not laying down because she didn’t want to hurt him, she’d never want to hurt him. “I’m going to make the spells stick,” she told him, twining her fingers into his. “Then I’ll come home forever. Well, I mean. Not forever. For a while. I still have to take care of Avalon, too.” But she’d been neglecting him, and part of the reason she’d been gone so long was sitting in her backpack, warm and smelling of lye, of tannin and, and sunlight.

Arkady reached out for her backpack, and said, “Okay, close your eyes.”


It would be nice to have Arkady around more often, thought Finn, but he respected her dedication to her wonder. Would Tate come to have that much care for her wonder, if not for her ancestor? But that was a waste of time to wonder about. Tate was dead and gone and even if he could bring her back, which he couldn’t, it would be at the cost of Arkady. There was a continuity of form there, spiritual object permanence. One flowed into the other with Vanya in between.

“I’d like to go with you sometime,” he said, leaning his head towards her shoulder. “You’ve been working so hard, and I want to see everything you’ve done.”

He gave her a bit of an odd look at the suggestion, but closed his eyes. “Okay,” he said. What surprise had his injury managed to coincide with?

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“Yes, of course,” she said. “In three weeks. I came home early to make sure you were alright.” She unzipped her bag, pulled apart the front and back of the Jansport. “I saw a memory of one of my ancestors. Predecessors.” White fur peeked out from between the zippered jaws of her backpack. She ran her hands over it, and fisted them in the softness of the fur. “When a warforged Knight of Avalon wanted to get married, they would, um. Make something. For their intended.”

Arkady reached over and took his hand, hoping he wouldn’t notice how clammy they were. Oh, she was so gross. “I was going to give it to you when I got back,” she said, “but I wanted to give you something so you’d know I was going to come back for good one day.” She settled his hand in the sun-warmed fur alongside hers. “You can look now.”


If Finn was hearing her correctly, and he was fairly sure that the vicodin was not causing him to have auditory hallucinations, so he was pretty sure he was, it sounded like she was proposing to him. He let her guide his fingers, and they sank into plush, plush fur. He couldn’t tell what kind of animal on touch alone - he wasn’t that skilled. When she told him he could look, he opened his eyes.

A white wolf stared back, eyes replaced with round, blue stones, its face skewed by the lack of underlying musculature - but Arkady had done a beautiful job. He turned to her. “You made this? For me?” he asked. How had she even learned how to do something like this? Wow. She was incredible.

She’d also asked a question that he hadn’t yet answered. “Are - are you asking me to marry you?” asked Finn.

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“Yes,” she said, flushing a little pink around the ears. One of them was unfortunately very visible, thanks to her out-of-control undercut. “Sort of? I mean. If you accept, we’d be married according to the traditions of my Wonder, and it would mean--you wouldn’t be able to command the magic like me, but you’d be as protected as I am when you’re on the island. And that way you’d know that, um. You’re.”

She dipped her head, looking at his hand in the white fur and smiled a little. “You’re my home. And I know we aren’t, like, anywhere near ready to be legally married, but I don’t want anyone else. Or anything else! And. I was hoping you would be okay with this.”


At her acknowledgement that they weren’t anywhere close to marching down to city hall and putting their names on a document, Finn breathed a little easier. He’d had some initial trouble with Arkady not understanding relationships and boundaries when she was new to everything, but lately she seemed to have found her own groove and gotten the hang of things.

“Oh,” said Finn, still a little surprised. He’d seen their future, and amidst all the things he wanted to change, the fact that they were happy together was something he wanted to keep and hold onto. “Yeah, I - thank you.”

Did this mean that the race was on to get her a ring and make this more formal? s**t. He was too high for this.

“The doctor says I can still have kids,” he said awkwardly, “and that I should be more careful.”

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“I don’t care if you can have babies or not,” said Arkady, twining her fingers through his. “I just want you.” She leaned in and kissed him gently on the mouth. Her instinct to smile warred with her instinct to frown over his obviously ******** state. Later, when he was on fewer drugs, she’d say something. Probably also mention putting their names on a document in city hall would mean they could definitely come visit each other in the hospital without any bullshit, but, like, that could wait.

She smoothed her hand over his hair. “I’m going to stay with your dumb butt until they kick me out,” she said. “You can come home tomorrow is what they tell me.”


Finn slouched down against his pillows. “Okay,” he said, resting his head against her side. Now that she was here, he wanted to snuggle until someone told them they couldn’t. “It’s so good to see you. You smell like the woods. I love you. You’re my favorite.”

All true.