â dusty toybox starters // accepting! â @pinkauras said: you're jealous, aren't you?
youâre jealous, arenât you? dain knew he shouldâve just walked away before anyone saw him. he had been watching flame section sparring together ahead of the next round of challenges at bodhiâs request. a handful of cadets from first squad were struggling, and nothing seemed to be getting through to them. dain knew that, despite the mending bridges, he was far from the top of bodhiâs list of people to go to for advice on this, so he took the request seriously. sneaking into the training long after it started, when no one noticed. the plan was to sit there for five minutes, observe, then disappear before anyone noticed. that plan went to shit as soon as his eyes drifted away from the mat. brown eyes locked on sloane immediately the annoying way they have been since she crossed the parapet. it had been nearly two weeks since she was walking out of his bedroom saying that it was the only time that would happen. and here she was, leaning against the wall while a cadet from first squad was leaning so close to her that if they were alone theyâd probably be kissing, making her laugh. he was jealous. and that jealousy led him to challenge the cadet. maybe if you spent less time flirting and more time training, he had said as he took his position on the mat ahead of him, your section leader wouldnât be worried about you making it out of challenges alive. dain hadnât stayed long enough to see the fallout, just pulled the cadet â maybe his name was marshall â off the mat and walked out. it didnât take long for familiar footsteps to follow him into the courtyard. dain didnât stop even as sloane was demanding an explanation, not until they were in the staircase toward the dorms, and then suddenly there was that word. jealous. he wanted to say no. it wouldâve been so easy to say no. but he had been told his entire life that he was a shit liar. so he turned to face the first year and, like a coward, completely avoided the question. âwhat do you want me to say, sloane?â his voice, barely above a whisper, echoed against the stones around them as he pulled the blonde into a shadowy landing. âthat i regret saying all that? because i donât. fuck iâll go back and say it all again.â crossing his arms over his chest, he straightened to his full height. âand honestly, heâs not good enough for him to be hovering that close to you.â
dain has been a pain in her ass from the moment sloane arrived in basgiath â before that, really. since the moment she heard about what happened to her brother, there's been a stone of resentment planted deep in sloane's heart with dain aetos' name on it. it's something she had held onto tightly during her first few months in basgiath until she was actually forced to spend time with him. just like violet, dain had slowly chipped away at that icy shield and sloane was torn between hating him for it or hating herself, for feeling like she was doing a disservice to liam's memory.
that had only gotten worse when the tension between them had boiled over in a flurry of messy kisses and clothes strewn across his bedroom floor. this is a one time thing, she'd told him. just to get it out of their systems. and then once had turned into twice had turned into half a dozen times over the last few weeks and sloane remains firm in her stance that every time is the last time â even if she knows better, deep down.
maybe that's why she's so annoyed at dain's outright jealousy. she has been there herself, jealous of the way he softens with violet sorrengail or the way other cadet's eyes linger on his form during battle brief. it's a feeling she has no right to feel because nothing will ever happen between them â so yeah, maybe she is projecting a little as she stomps after him, irritation blazing beneath her palms.
"so you decided to be an asshole?" the words fire back at him quickly, a brow raised in challenge. "since when is that how you operate?" liam had talked about dain in his letters â said he was a stickler for the rules and could have a stick up his ass, but he was a fair leader when it came down to it. "nothing was even happening between us â nothing was going to happen. so why do you care?"


















