The press of his lips to her palm was particularly warm due to the cold rain pelting down. Her heart beat fast for an entirely different reason than an enemy hurricane. Her hand tingled, reminiscent of brushing a sea anemone without thinking. Like lightning.

F-i-r-e-w-o-r-k-s … she mouthed the word. She knew what powder was, but it was all as foreign as before. Both were pointless judging by his expression. The dingy he rowed out in was either far out to sea or crushed along with any helpful harpoons. Ariel prided herself on having the sort of nature she didn’t feel the need to carry a weapon, but Ursula’s plots vexed her into wishing Atlantica’s armory were here.

“Over there?!” Ariel called after him incredulously. She had planned looking for human defenses a little less in motion. His instruction became increasingly difficult as the whirlpool pulled them in deeper so that she had to clasp both her hands to his to keep from being separated.

Kicking through the fast tide with her freshly returned tail, Ariel paralleled herself with Eric and wrapped her arms around him. Ursula’s voice boomed above them like the thunder itself. Hopefully Grimsby had evacuated everyone by now.

Everything was spinning around them: rocks, wood, sand and fish. Ariel pressed her face against his chest to narrowly avoid the heavy chain of a rusted anchor colliding with her head as it whipped by. Peeking down she could see the bare sand of the ocean floor exposed in the center of the violent circle they vaulted around. Why was he trying to reach a ship if nothing could be used?

He knew that his plan must have seemed crazy to her. But it was the only plan Eric had. They had no weapons, and even if they did, nothing big enough to do any damage to the sea witch at this range. They were as small as insects, and just as feeble before her powers. However, if he timed this right, she wouldn’t see them coming.

The current grew fiercer and he felt Ariel grab his other hand so they wouldn’t lose each other. He kicked as the tide carried them into the maelstrom, grateful for her tail. He was a fairly good swimmer, but he had never been caught up in a tide like this. As she wrapped her arms around him, he did the same. His grip tightened as the anchor chain nearly hit her in the head, and his eyes flashed with a deadly steel as he glared up at the sea witch briefly.

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the task at hand, the anger the near-disaster had summoned simmering just beneath the surface. “Hang on.” he warned, kicking swiftly as the water carried them closer to the shipwrecks. One was close, but he needed to get up there, to the helm. The current was so strong, he didn’t know if he’d be able to make it close enough to scale the side of it, not without…

I will be moving Pad back to foreversequins where Sab is!

Far better than any dream girl is one of flesh and blood. One warm, and caring, and right before your eyes.

Grimsby’s words echoed in his mind as Eric ran through the hallway of his castle, restless after what had nearly happened in the lagoon. He was falling in love with Ariel. That much was exceedingly clear. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, which was why he wasn’t asleep. At the same time, he couldn’t stop thinking about the voice either. He wished it was her—that would make this so much easier. He knew what he’d heard, and he’d felt it. He had taken her hand…and he felt dizzy but grounded at the same time, as if his whole life had culminated to that moment. Lightning had struck.

And yet it had again that night. He felt lost in Ariel’s eyes but found. It felt as if time had stopped moving, the selfsame way it had that day upon the shore. It was driving him mad. He needed to find her, he needed to know…but at the same time, he had forgotten all about the voice when he had taken her hands in that boat, as his eyes had shifted to her lips and he had slowly closed the distance between them…

He knocked on Ariel’s door, rubbing his hands together as he still felt the chill from standing outside on his balcony, and breathless from his run. At least he had the good sense to go back inside, if only to get warm. But as he’d sat in front of his fireplace, he had made the decision to come here instead, to tell her what he should have in the lagoon. Grim was right…he was chasing a dream, a fantasy, when she was right in front of him—real as the sea and better than any dream. And she was here.

He smiled as the door opened, but froze as he realized in his haste that he hadn’t thought of the words he wanted to say. He bit his lip hesitantly, and then leaned forward, impulsively pressing his lips to hers. He realized immediately the impropriety and drew back, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry. I just…I had to see you. I didn’t want to leave things the way we did. I didn't want to go to bed without...without telling you that I'm in love with you."

Sebastian talked himself to sleep while Ariel brushed her hair. It was vastly different dry, but a pleasant different. She could explore all kinds of new things tomorrow. Eric told her of so many places in the kingdom she hadn't seen. He sidestepped plans in order to give her a tour, but maybe they could explore together again. Something tugged at her memory with that thought, a sense of urgency, but why?

Ariel was dozing off when a knock at the door startled her upright. Assuming Carlotta forgot something, she padded across the moonlit room over to the door with bare feet and cracked it open, blinking at the golden light from the torches in the hall. Ariel's eyes adjusted, but her sleepy mind took a moment longer to register the visitor.

Oh! Her lips formed the shape of the sound. Eric! She might have felt embarrassed standing in her nightgown if she knew that was something a lady ought to aware of.

He looked determined, if not slightly wind swept and far more awake than Sebastian. Ariel opened the door fully and smiled hello, but perhaps she was still dreaming. Weren't sweet dreams where princes kissed princesses?

The completion of Ursula's contract was far less a spectacle than the flashing ingredients and smoky tendrils it took to create it.

A kiss, but not just any kiss.

Her voice returning felt like swallowed sunshine; Eric's fumbled, heartfelt words a second after. Every song and melody returned to her – she felt their anticipation at the edge of an inhale, but they weren't what she chose.

Instead she rose on tiptoe and hugged him as close as possible. The chill of his clothes and skin stole her warmth, but her hands gathered the fabric of his shirt tightly. She never wanted anything between them again, not even air.

However, the grin faltered when she spoke. “Wh—you can talk?” He drew back just enough so he could see her face, blinking in shock. Not only could she talk, but there was a cadence to her voice that sounded so familiar—impossibly familiar. “I don’t…Ariel, I don’t understand. What happened?” Had it only been temporary? If it was temporary, then that could mean… “It’s you…it’s you, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He lifted his hand to her cheek, recognition in his eyes as he remembered this face—her face—gazing down at him that day weeks ago. And he’d wondered…hoped, even as recently as an hour ago, that she and the mystery girl were the same.

Soaring echoes of transcendent love

God herself burst into my bedroom, grabbed me by the collar, and forced me to draw this

(Reference under the cut)

Wrecker watches her with quiet anticipation, patient as his brothers receive their medals all before he does. She moves to stand in front of him, inclining her head up to look at him properly. It’s only now that she realizes just how tall he truly is, towering over her with ease.  It makes her chuckle warmly, waving a hand down to him, “I’m afraid you’ll have to bend down a bit for me, big guy.”

Chapter 12 of Plague of the Republic by @eternalqueenofnaboo, for @clonebang.

"I feel the very Republic needs to reevaluate. Padme. I didn't know how to ask, but." He paused, and his brows furrowed. "I would like to join the delegation and their fight to bring democracy back. Palaptine is too powerful. The people's voices are being drowned out."

She pressed a delicate hand to her forehead with her weight resting in her arm, propped up by her elbow against the couch. “We’ve wronged so many of you already, forcing Jedi to fight for the Republic’s decisions in this war when your balance is peacekeeping. Not an army.”

Tapping her lips with the tip of her index finger, Padmé felt how chapped they were from a recent trip to a desert planet. “I suppose it could work like Naboo… Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn were granted permission to engage in the occupation against my people. The High Council can authorize you joining the delegation, but as I said, a Jedi joining alone marks a very specific political view which is why delegations don’t allow it. You are not in a position that works independently like this, Ani. Do you think they’ll agree, knowing your action appears as the opinion of the entire Order against Palpatine?”

Anakin received an ask : "I feel like I'm disappearing. Like parts of me blow away each time I breathe." -- hmm, so Master timeline? So after democracy DIES and before they wrangle in the empire and Palpatine

His eyes fell to the floor. Since he informed Master Windu of his suspicions years ago, Palpatine's power grew. He seemed to amass more power as time went on. With it, he felt powerless. "I feel like I've lost a bit of myself since this whole war started. All this fighting is senseless." Anakin secretly had joined the delegation to help their cause and was advising them with the help of Windu. Which was why he came to Padme's apartments often. "You ever think we may be fighting for the wrong reason?"