#chaolxdorian

Dorian:

Chaol: *does literally anything*

Dorian:

↳ Week Three: Favorite Friendship

Dorian and Chaol (plus Celaena)

Chaol spent the entire trip to Endovier trying to convince Dorian to turn back and find someone else to be his Champion. He’d been there the day Celaena Sardothien was captured, seen how completely broken she was. Even as she sat before the king, no more fight left in her, she still managed to look at him like she was ready to tear the world down around her. He’d had nightmares about the look in her eyes that day, and he didn’t want her anywhere near his best friend and prince. But Dorian was Dorian, and he was determined to use her to win the competition.

Chaol couldn’t believe the same girl who’d haunted his nightmares was walking beside him again, the same yet so different. Her original beauty was smothered under dirt and dust and a year of the Salt Mines, but there was somehow more fire in her now. If he’d thought she was dangerous before, if he’d thought she wanted to destroy the world before, now he knew she did - and she could. Darkness surrounded her, flickering in her turquoise eyes as she glanced at him, trying to peer under his hood. By her words, she knew exactly who he was and wasn’t frightened in the slightest. Every time she looked anywhere, he could feel new tension in her body beside him. She could have killed him and the other guards several times over by now. The only thing holding her back was simple curiosity.

‘I snapped’, she’d said. Snapped, like she’d been exercising self-control every day to not slaughter everyone around her, like she’d accepted her sentence up until the moment she couldn’t anymore. She’d killed dozens of people that day, had bathed in their blood and enjoyed it. Maybe that’s what had changed her from the broken and defeated girl he’d seen a year ago, or maybe that was just a temporary state.

Dorian didn’t know how much danger he was in as he took each step closer to her. Chaol could see her calculating the amount of time it would take her to take Chaol and the others out if she went after the prince. The chains around her wrists rattled slightly, but their presence didn’t give him any sense of security. Maybe he could take her down before she killed everyone and escaped, but his chances of saving Dorian when he was so close to her- He finally snapped and pulled her away from his prince, into him. She was mouthing off, distracting them all from the real danger. Dorian finally backed away, but the danger wasn’t past.

Chaol spent the entire trip back to Adarlan trying to convince Dorian to send her back. Every second she was within distance of the prince was another second that frayed at Chaol’s self-control. She was the most dangerous person he’d ever met. Her only restriction wasn’t physical - no, he suspected she could dispose of them in a few short minutes - it was mental. He’d seen the way her whole world stopped when Dorian had mentioned freedom. A smile had suddenly transformed her face, so tiny that she probably wasn’t even aware of it. Now she rode just a few horses behind the prince, constantly studying the guards standing between him and her, trying to decide if escape was worth it when she’d been offered her freedom.

“You have to send her back. The only reason she hasn’t killed all of us in her desire for freedom.” “Which is why she won’t kill us all,” Dorian replied, far too nonchalant for the situation. “Dorian, you don’t understand. Once she has her freedom, who knows what she’ll do. She has plenty of incentive to tear this entire world down, to destroy you and your father. She’s not just a physical danger to you; she’ll gladly destroy everything she touches.” “She’s not that bad, Chaol. You saw as clearly as I did that she wants freedom so she can get far away from here. Four years from now, she’ll be on a ship to Wendlyn or the Southern Continent. She’s going to disappear.” “You don’t know that.” “Perhaps not, but I know that she just wants to be free.”