#cor leonis

For christmas I would really really really like my favourite character coughing up blood and grinning :)

Soulmate AU combined with my Ulric clan magic AU - except in this case the Ulric magic allows them to go beyond just instincts and turn fully into coeurl however an Ulric who does this alone will get trapped in their coeurl form and gradually lose more and more of their human mind until a family member can find them to help them back - soulmates count as family member's - or more specifically the soulmate bond is able to guide an Ulric back the same way the Ulric clan bond does

So then we have a Nyx who transformed to help with the Attack On Galahd, to buy time for Libertus, Crowe and Luche to escape on one of the earlier ships (luche who was his cousin but isnt an Ulric)

Nyx was aware enough to stumble onto the final ship heading to the mainland (and everyone on said ship knew of the Ulric magic and tried help him best as they could) but by the time they got to mainland Lucis he had been transformed for much longer then he had ever been before and upon hitting the shore fled - even though those on the ship tried to stop him

He's technically in the Galahdians records as MIA but everyone very much suspects hes either dead (got killed by hunters) or has lost so much of his mind that he essentially is gone

ANyways a few years later, Cor has a wild ass fucking time when he starts fighting a coeurl on his way back to Insomnia, accidentally brushes against its fur with his bare skin and THEN feels a SOULMATE BOND??????????

Keep in mind this is years later, Nyx has lost years of his fucking life no matter what it is devastating

and because of this Nyx,, cant immediately turn back, hell Nyx dosen't even,, he isn't even aware there is something to turn back to

His instincts just accept cor as a Weird Tall Mate

and goes protective mode over him

hunts Cor food and follows him to camp and heavens

And Cor is like,, reluctantly trying to think how he can ask regis if he can bring his soulmate murder cat into the city

cor is not at all aware about the Ulrics, so he just thinks his soulmate is a coeurl???? for some reason???????? the gods would do that to him, he thinks

Cor: Clarus is going to laugh at me for this (Clarus did in fact laugh at him when he finally gave in and called them)

Regis however hit the books and was trying to figure out, where/when something like this might have happened before????

Regis gets as far as "Some Galahdians were noted to have warrior coeurls who fought alongside them(Ulrics)" right about the time Cor shows back up in Insomnia

and it takes only a day for the rumors of "The Marshal somehow ended up soulmated to a coeurl" to get to the Glaive and immediately Luche, Libertus and Crowe bust down the door to Cor's office

Cors office where Regis and Clarus are debriefing with him

none of the three care about that Crowe is just asking "Is it him is it him?????" and Libertus His best friend, his Ostium and the one who grew up with him and Luche His blood cousin who has always felt magnanimous debt and gratitude to Nyx for saving his life but also extreme guilt that he wasn't "Ulric enough" to be able to get him back, are looking him over

By this point because Nyx has been traveling with his soulmate for months his mind is a little,, more settled? hes still very cat like but a lot more intelligent, which Cor has been kinda picking up on

Either way between Luche's catalogue remembrance of all the stupid scars he got as a kid, and how those transferred to his cat form, and Libertus weak Ostium/Ulric bond they both go "Holy shit thats Nyx"

(now, ostium bonds could have potentially been a way to drag an ulric back, but that dosent work for this plot, same reasoning luche cant help out - ill probably bullshit more solid reasonings for both these cases later)

meanwhile Cor, Clarus and Regis are like ??????????????? Cor espcially "Why the fuck did you just barge into my office" Crowe "Its nyx!" (that dosent explain anything)

except, coeurl!Nyx reacts slightly to her, whether it be her calling his name or her presence and Cor realizes there's something going on here their not privay too

Anyways the three make the executive decision to not explain All Galahdians Have Magic

but instead pass the Ulric magic off as,,, an Ulric Thing

(only Luche realizes the small implication this might have with Regis, Cor and Clarus (aka the three who are used to thinking "The only one with magic granted by the gods" = King, Ulrics = Galahd royalty??)

then i think what follows is a very tiring year of helping Nyx understand hes a person, helping him transform back and then acclimatizing him afterwords

i also think for a very long time he'll keep shifting back into a coeurl because thats whats actually MORE comfortable now

like hell switch to a human for at first a few minuets, then half an hour, then an hour, half a day etc

but he basically has to ALWAYS change into a coeurl for a few hours a day now

and hes distinctly,,, strange

hes half feral on a good day

cant recognize them, or who he is on a bad one

Cor is somehow a very wonderful partner for this even if its heartbreaking to know what happened to his soulmate

i think after a few years though they'd be able to settle into a relationship closer to what id usually imagine for them

“Well,” Ulric responded, the amusement in his tone much more familiar than the weight of a dying star it had been, “That’s not what I expected to happen today, Husband.” That word he spoke, his magick settled into it, sulfur and ozone and petrichor the kind after rainfall. Cor breathed it in, letting the taste of it settle on his tongue. Closed his eyes to savour it, savour the feeling of the other’s magic settling into his skin, the deal tucking against his heart. “You may call me whatever you wish,” he gave to the other

If cor had responded to nyx with "Dont call me that" it would have been a firm rejection, a scold which would have shown Nyx where the boundary line was. It also would have been an order and would immediately tell Nyx how Cor was going to treat their deal and in further how Cor would treat Nyx as the one in the lower position in the deal "Second to mine" afterall what Nyx was hoping Cor would say would have been anything along the lines of "i would prefer you to call me Cor," or "Most call me by the name Cor"

As a test of boundaries it makes sense because it likely wouldnt have gone immediately horribly for nyx even if cor had reacted badly

anyways "i would prefer you to call me Cor" /"Most call me cor" leans back into the idea of choice, instead or ordering Nyx to just call him Cor, it would have been a gentle suggestion Nyx could technically ignore with no repercussion which would have been a good reaction

It would still be a light rejection to what Nyx was saying but it wouldnt have been an order

Then Cor did the one thing Nyx DIDNT expect him to

which was to go "Husband? yeah sure I guess we're husbands if you want to put it that way" (NOT THAT NYX IS COMPLAINING LMAO)

and he STILL is offering Nyx a choice in it! "You may call me whatever you'd like" in response to Nyx testing him with "Husband"

its good its a positive response but its also,, like very sweetly careful?

I need to do a small followup fic which is just cor lightly freaking out about the inherent power dynamic

tho he tried to give Nyx as much as he could! "only second to mine"

that's a huge offer really especially when Nyx was so badly off

Cor: Ulric dying would be a waste Cor: especially when i can just, fix it

Nyx immediately being a little shit: thanks for the save husband~

Seems like I haven’t written for them in a while so I have changed that!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/86189476/chapters/227941026