#delayed post

GRUMPY VANCE X SUNSHINE READER?? COUNT ME IN

✩ “i’m going to sleep.” “no, don’t.” “why not?” “just keep talking…please?” - @celestialwrites

Just showing a certain character saying this phrase that helps figure out

SPOILERS ON WHO HE TRULY IS

Narcissa: Yes!

Draco: Piece of cake

Putting one of my older stories here, because it applies for the noun definition of jerk.

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The battle against Ranj’it had been difficult; but Thancred ultimately succeeded, though no worse for wear. 

He’d been waiting for Shuri to return with Ryne, seeing the younger girl’s hair having changed. It appeared she made her choice. 

And he had to make one too. One to make right--to make amends--with the Au Ra who was so furious with him, who now approached him to check the extent of his injuries.

“I’m fine, Shuri,” Thancred muttered with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“You received far too many blows to the head to be considered fine, idiot.” Shuri huffed and, with a flick of her wrist, she changed into her mage glamour. Urianger approached, clearly ready to heal Thancred instead, but Shuri gave the astrologian a faint smile and a nod of her head and he backed down. 

If that wasn’t a sign for Thancred to make amends now, then it would never come again. 

“A word in private, Shuri?” he asked, as the Xaela began to tend to Thancred’s wounds. Mismatched irises lifted to his face, brow quirking upward. “About what?” she countered. 

“I think you may know.”

Shuri continued to look at him silently before nodding with an exhaled breath. “All right, Thancred,” she allowed, sheathing her staff. “A word in private, then.”

Getting to his feet with a grunt, Thancred walked away from the group, Shuri following. Alphinaud and Alisaie made a motion to follow, concern clear in their eyes; they knew the history between the two. Shuri glanced back at the twin, waving a hand to them and giving them a soft smile. “It’s fine, you two,” she assured. “Just a word with Thancred.”

She had always been so kind like that. Thancred never could have seen Shuri any differently if he tried. She was always smiling, always gentle and kind. She would put everyone else first before her own wellbeing. It was one of the things Thancred loved about her.

His expression hardened at the thought that flitted through his mind. Thancred realized only too late of Shuri’s adoration for him--and it was when he lost her to another. Estinien treated Shuri far better than he ever could, not shying away from the Xaela’s love for him.

Thancred had said cruel things to Shuri in regards to her relationship with the retired Azure Dragoon. 

Once there was distance between them and the others, Thancred turned to the Xaela. She was still as delicate as when he first met her in Ul’dah, yet there were subtle changes from the numerous battles she had fought. There was a certain weariness about her that he knew that one day, she would hang up her mantle. 

“What did you want to talk about Thancred?” asked Shuri, crossing her arms over her chest, her head canted to the side as she scanned him with those winter eyes. She was pale as the moon and her eyes were the embodiment of winter itself. He could count how many times he’d lost himself in her eyes, even when saying such despicable things. 

“I’m sorry.” The words left him, lacking the usual grace in which he had once dazzled her. He, too, was hardened by battles and loss. “It was not right, for me to lash out at you. To insult you and your relationship with Estinien. I...I had no right to feel envious and to hurt you like that.” 

As he spoke, Shuri listened, her expression slowly softening as her arms lowered from her chest just slightly. “You think I was hurt by that? Angry surely, but not hurt.”

Thancred’s own eyes widened at her words and Shuri took his silence to continue. “You’ve hurt me once, and only once. When I confessed my feelings for you, you distanced yourself from me. You never gave me an answer until someone else healed my broken heart. You say you have no right to be jealous--and you would be correct. We were never anything more than friends and comrades. You made that very clear.”

So that was how the Xaela saw it. After Minfilia gave herself to be the Word of the Mother, when Shuri confessed her feelings in a flurry of grief, Thancred simply kissed her on her forehead and walked away. He did put distance between them, a gap so vast that Shuri gave up and nursed her broken heart. Thancred was in the lifestream in the duration that Shuri and Estinien became close.

And Shuri gazed at Estinien in the same way she once gazed at him.   

“However...you are one of my closest comrades. And as hardheaded as you are...” There was a slight laughter in her voice now, “...well, I am still here. As are you, yes?”

Her words brought a faint smile to Thancred’s lips. Yes, she was right; she had gain far more perception than when he first met her. “Yes. As friends,” he agreed, holding out his hand.

Chapter Two READ NOW