ORBMASTER !

‘ peace offering ’ is exactly right. he has never felt PEACE as he has with her. though their relationship has been conducted largely in private, between the pages of books in the library & hidden alcoves & secret passages, it’s the realest declan’s ever had.

but it seems that eleanor, of all the dozens of people he’s ever been with, is the ONE he cannot have. it’s ironic that the lineage that makes eleanor little more than a pretty gift to be traded -- while her elder sister is a protected JEWEL, the heir to the throne -- is the very tradition that declan’s own father chose to REJECT. any hope declan had of changing the king & queen’s minds evaporated when niall’s will named ronan as his successor. no one in their right mind would choose declan over a king.

except gansey.

if it weren’t for the fact that he’s in a town he’s never visited before, where no one knows him, his journal would never see the light of day. as it is, however, he’s waiting for a contact who’s almost three hours late, and likely never to show at all. it’s been a waste of a morning, but at least the coffee here is decent. declan vows to give his contact five more minutes --- and then he’s leaving.

he goes up to the counter to get another coffee, to go this time, as the girl at the next table stands to do the same. he lets her go first & she rewards him with a smile. she orders & leaves; declan does the same, passing back by his table to pick up his journal.

immediately he knows it’s WRONG. he flips the book open, and sure enough, he’s staring at a page of newspaper clipping of the MEN IN BLACK. the next page is a transcription of LATIN; the next, a passage about BIGFOOT. which means that his own book --- sketches of the dogs he’s seen in this coffee shop; sentence fragments he’s enjoyed & wanted to record; a drawing of the GIRL on the next table and the way her hair fell over her shoulder ----- is in that girl’s hands.

          “ i learned a while ago;   my dumb boyfriend keeps getting HURT. ”     when he moves,   she gives the side of his head a light smack.     “ if you’d hold STILL,   it wouldn’t be taking so long. ”     her scowl says i’m angry with you,   but her fingers resting more lightly along his ribcage beg be careful.     she works carefully,   though her tone is more FLAT than gentle as she continues,     “ so the mirror shattered just right and with enough force to SLICE into your side and almost pierce a vital organ,   but nowhere else ? ”

          “ er,   you WANT your date to be cancelled ? ”     gansey’s eyebrows fly upward.     he’d always known about declan’s womanizing ways,   thanks to ronan’s overly critical tongue,   but this seemed beyond even that.     “ what happened ?     has she grown a second head,   or have you TIRED of her ? ”     it’s only a moment later that gansey realizes how impolite he sounds,   and he straightens up,   quick to replace his nosy slip-up with a more COMPOSED expression.     “ ah,   i apologize,   i didn’t mean to imply anything… ugly.     i think the elevator’s making me a bit agitated. ”

          “ well,   that’s an egregious lie,   SIR. ”     in which sir may as well be a synonym for fuck me,   as far as gansey’s tone is concerned.     he offers a WINK.     “ everything suits me,   you see. ”     oh,   but of course gansey knew this had to be about ronan;   for a pair of brothers so determined to hate each other,   they certainly can’t keep one another’s names out of their mouths.     “ i would say magnifique,   no ?     allow the POOR BOY to breathe some air outside of this quaint little town for once. ”     he lifts his chin a little higher,   starving eyes lingering upon declan’s broad shoulders,   big hands,   perfectly tailored pants.     “ you’re so HARD on him.     have you considered taking it out on me instead ? ”

“ a little bird told me it’s your birthday. ” several birds, in fact. women, actually, to be entirely unsexist about it, which is something declan tries to do for myriad reasons, not least being the fact that blue is related to several mind readers. they claim they can’t read his actual MIND, but it certainly seems as though they can from the way they act. for example: orla cornering declan on the stairs and saying ‘ blue’s birthday is in two weeks ’ before laughing in a disturbing,  sadistic & sexual way when declan asked what she thought blue would like. another example: maura’s noncommital ‘ don’t you think the greatest gift is the gift of time spent together ? ’ which: no, declan does not think that. he thinks that on blue’s birthday, he should go above & beyond. third example: calla’s simple, hard ‘ NO. ’ when she picked up both his car keys and his tentative plans.