♡My Doodles♡

She’s got her hand on the contract when the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. His voice would chill her to the bone if it didn’t send shivers elsewhere instead. 

“Now, now, little mouse. Why ever would you think you could sneak into my House of Hope without my knowing? And why ever would you think I would let you leave once you’ve snuck in?” Raphael rumbles in her ear, his breath hot on her neck. 

She resigns herself to being caught, but refuses to acknowledge defeat. “Raphael, even you have to know this is wrong,” she says, turning and waving the scroll in his handsome face. “She’s a child. Mol is a child. I cannot let you do this to her.” 

Raphael tilts his head, but he’s careful to keep his expression neutral, though she can tell he wants to smirk like the self righteous bastard he is. “I have contracts with lots of children, little mouse. What makes this one so special?” 

“I…” She takes a deep breath, more to keep from smacking him in the face than to ground herself. “I’ve worked so hard…to save her. To keep her safe. I can’t let you have her. She has her whole life ahead of her, and I won’t let her owe it to you.” 

“But she can owe it to you instead?” Raphael counters. “You mortals are all hypocrites, and yet you call my kind devils.” 

“Mol owes me nothing. I have protected her because I want to. I just want her to be safe and happy.” 

“Out of the goodness of your heart then? Continuing to play the hero when it causes you nothing but pain?” 

“I just want to help people, Raphael. It’s what good people do.” 

“And good things often never happen to good people. You should know that better than anyone. Which leads me to ask again: why?” 

“Does it matter? You’re a businessman, Raphael. Let me make you a better offer.” 

Raphael’s cool facade slips. His lips curl up in a smirk so devilish that she can’t decide if she wants to wipe it from his face with a kiss or her fist. This is what he wanted all along. She played into his hands. “Oh? Pray tell, what is this offer?” 

“A bargain to end a bargain. Free Mol, immediately, with no harm coming to her, no loopholes, nothing. And I will make a bargain in her stead.” 

His grin threatens to split his handsome face in two as he takes the contract from her, his fingers blazing hot on hers as he closes his grip on the scroll. She fights back her shiver of delight at the electric current that shoots through her when his fingers brush hers. But she can’t fight back the look of shock that overtakes her face as Raphael rips the contract in two. Without waiting to hear her bargain. “Done,” he murmurs. “Your wish is my command, little mouse. Tell me what your heart desires, and it’s yours. For a price, of course.” 

It’s her turn to smirk. She thought she’d have to fight harder. “My heart desires the one thing that all my heroics have never gotten me.” 

“And what is that? Riches? Fame? Immortality?” Raphael asks, ticking his suggestions away on his long fingers. 

She shakes her head. “None of that. My bargain, my one true desire, Raphael, is love. Real and true, given freely from the one I love. Give me that, and my soul is yours without complaint, without a fight.” 

She holds out her hand, waiting for him to take it, her gaze burning on him. She can’t help the gasp that escapes when his hand engulfs hers, bringing it to his lips to place an uncharacteristically sweet kiss on her knuckles. He snaps his fingers as he releases his grip on her, her contract appearing before her, a quill materializing in her hand. 

“It would be my pleasure to uphold this bargain,” he says, that smirk back on his lips as she signs her name, signs her soul away. “I find myself more than slightly curious as to whom is so important, so good and true, to have caught the eye of the soon-to-be-named Greatest Hero The Realms Have Ever Known? That Astarion of yours? Karlach, seeing as you’re so fond of Tieflings?” 

She shakes her head again, handing the contract and quill over to Raphael, her eyes never leaving his. “Isn’t it obvious, Raphael? It’s you.”