#slain

Xaden: I can't believe it. Aetos? Fucking Aetos. I thought Sloane had better taste in men.

Garrick: I mean Violet had a crush on Dain too.

Xaden: ...

Garrick: ...

Secret (Part 1)

Part 2

Summary: You could never have guessed how much trouble you could cause by not knocking on Sloane's door before entering.....

Warnings: Angst

A/N: The fandom was seriously robbed of this wonderful plotline in the novels, because someone had to fucking die in Resson. WELL, I'M CHANGING THAT TODAY!

"Do we have to do this now? You didn't even let her know beforehand that we'd be coming at this time!" I huff, giving Liam the side eye.

Although the half smile playing on my face shows I'm anything but seriously annoyed.

Liam's fingers, loosely intertwined with mine, squeeze my hand playfully.

"Well this is the only time we're both free and I'm pretty sure Sloane would be too," he says, his eyes flicking over to me momentarily as we walk down the hallway to the first year dormitories. "After how I struggled to explain that aerodynamics concept to her the last time I helped her study, I know we definitely need you there to help. I mean, everyone knows-," he presses a quick kiss to the top of my head. "-you're 10 times better at Physics than I am," he winks.

I roll my eyes. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Mairi," I tease.

He turns his head to look at me full, his eyebrows raised questioningly. "Oh yeah? I seem to remember certain praise last night that had brought you to your knees-"

I yank my hand from Liam's and smack his shoulder as hard as I can.

He bursts into laughter at that, his steady pace barely even faltering despite my push.

"Can you not make some sexual innuendo for 5 minutes, pervert?" I ask incredulously, shaking my head, trying (and failing) to suppress the grin threatening to split my face.

He scoffs. "Y/N, love, we've been together for more than a year now," he reminds, as we turn the corner to the hallway Sloane's room is at the end of. "When have you known me not to be a shameless flirt?"

"Oh I don't know, when we're mere steps away from your sister's room?"

"I see, my words get you all hot and bothered, do they, gorgeous?" Liam's arm snakes its way round my waist. "Well, my love, there's certainly more where that came from-" he attempts to pull me to his side, his fingers dipping lower to ghost over my ass, but I gasp, pulling away from him.

"No way in hell are we doing this now, Liam Mairi!" I throw over my shoulder, skipping over the last few steps to Sloane's room, Liam close on my heels.

"Running away from your boyfriend?" He mocks, coming up behind me as my hand curls around Sloane's doorknob.

"Learn to control your urges, you hormonal-" I, twist the knob and yank the door open.

My words die on my lips. Behind me, Liam's laugh cuts off abruptly.

We're both frozen in the doorway. I think I might have inhaled sharply, but whatever sound I make is drowned out by the heavy thumps and creaks of Sloane's bed, the groans from both her, and-

Dain.

Oh fucking hell.

Sloane lies flat on her back atop the bed, clad in only a bra, her blonde hair spread in a messy halo on her pillow.

While Dain all but lies on top of her, stark fucking naked, brown hair mussed and sticking up in all directions.

Their faces contorted in pleasure, gasps from them both as he pounds into her....

For all but two seconds before they seem to register that the door to Sloane's room just burst open, and her brother and his girlfriend are standing in the doorway.

I can only watch in horror-- the shock of the situation rendering me dumb for a moment-- as Sloane's blue eyes widen into saucers, and Dain mutters a breathy curse. He flies off of her, quickly throwing her blankets over the two of them, and moving in front of her, as if to cover as much of her as possible.

"What. The. Actual. Fuck. Are you-" he starts.

Behind him, Sloane seems to have found her voice. "HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF KNOCKING?" She shrieks, already rapidly throwing on an oversized T Shirt.

"Sloane-" I begin to whisper, but before I can get another word out, a blur of blonde streaks past me.

"YOU PIECE OF-"

"NO! LIAM!" I barrel into Liam, using all the force I can muster to stop his rapidly advancing form from pouncing on Dain.

"Stop, please!" I cry out, throwing myself between him and the bed, quickly gripping him by the shoulders.

But it's as if my words fall onto deaf ears. Liam's eyes are fixed on Dain, a thunderous blue fire burning in them, a look I've rarely seen on him.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU TWO-"

"Liam, sweetheart, please-"

"What did it look like we were doing?" Sloane yell, her voice laced in barely contained fury. "We were having sex, in case you didn't gather that!"

My heart plummets into my stomach in impending dread.

An angry noise erupts from Liam's throat, and his struggle against my grip increases tenfold.

"WITH FUCKING AETOS? SLOANE MAIRI-"

"Liam!" I plead.

His eyes barely flick over to me. "Let go of me, Y/N!" Liam growls, struggling against me, but I keep my feet firmly planted on the ground.

"Liam, calm down, please!" I take his face in my hands, tugging it down and forcing him to look into my eyes.

"Y/N, DID YOU FUCKING SEE-"

"I did, but Liam this is not the way to deal with this. Calm down please."

I stare deep into his eyes, into his blue depths, ones I'd spent countless hours simply staring into. Now simmering with unadulterated rage. I pour every ounce of the desperation I feel into my gaze, willing him to calm down, to understand.

This is exactly what Sloane was worried about. Exactly why she didn't want to tell Liam about her relationship with Dain, and made me promise not to tell him either when I saw them kissing in the training room a week ago.

And honestly, I understood what she meant. No matter how much it irked me to lie to Liam, I knew Sloane wasn't keeping this secret without reason. All of the Marked ones disliked Dain because of his father, his own rule following vendetta, and of course, Xaden's personal enmity with him thanks to Violet. And after what happened at Resson? Let's just say one of their own having a relationship with him would not sit well with the Marked ones, and that's putting it lightly. Liam knowing his younger sister he was terribly protective of having sex with him? A different kind of catastrophe.

So I'd agreed to keep this a secret for Sloane, but I'd warned her to not keep it from Liam for too long. Because if he found out on his own....

Precisely this would happen.

Liam's expression flickers, only for a second, the anger in his eyes shifting to reveal the confusion and betrayal beneath. Enough for me to feel comfortable enough to loosen my grip on him and take a small step back.

Liam tears his gaze from my mine, his expression hardening as he once again glares at Dain and Sloane on the bed.

"What the fuck is the meaning of this?" He spits out.

Sloane's eyes narrow.

"I said it before, I'll say it again. What did it look like? We were havin-"

"Sloane!" I quickly interject. "Don't be like that!"

"Like what, Y/N? You're supposed to knock when you enter someone else's room! And if you don't," -she shrugs- "then don't be shocked when you see things you don't like."

I groan inside, as Liam's face takes on a thunderous look.

"You and I both know I wouldn't have reacted this way if it had been anyone else. But him?" He points a furious finger in a scowling Dain's direction. "Fucking Aetos?"

"I think you're forgetting I'm a grown bloody woman, Liam. And so is Dain."

"If it's that inconsequential, then why did you refrain from telling me you're in a relationship with your Wingleader?" His lip curls. "Or is this just casual fucking to blow off steam?"

"Liam-" I exclaim.

"You absolute-" Sloane starts, but Dain interrupts.

"Hey! This is your sister we're talking about Mairi! Have some fucking respect," he throws out, a disgusted expression crossing his face.

"Don't you DARE PREACH TO ME ABOUT RESPECT, YOU SLIMY GIT," Liam once again begins advancing towards Dain, as he too rises, but I step in between.

"Oh come on, Liam, please. Don't be like this, calm down," I plead once more.

"How are you so calm about this Y/N?" Liam asks incredulously. "They've been keeping whatever the fuck this is a secret from all of us!"

But then he pauses, clearly having noticed my expression change. I bite my lip, averting my gaze from his.

"Wait, you knew about this?" Liam whispers, his voice suddenly soft. And somehow, that scares me more than the bellowing had.

Slowly, I nod.

"I walked in on them kissing." I say quietly. I lift my gaze to his once more, and my heart curls in on itself.

The anger's gone from his face. Instead, he stares at me, his lips parted.

"You-you kept this from me? Y/N?"

"It's not her fault!" Sloane interjects. "I made her promise not to say anything to you."

Liam doesn't even glance at Sloane, his eyes fixated on me, the vulnerability in them slowly hardening into bitterness. An expression I've never seen directed at me before. The sight succeeds in shattering my heart in my chest.

"Liam, it wasn't my secret to reveal," I urge, a little desperately. "I told them to not keep you in the dark for too long..."

He lets out a humourless laugh. "Too long? Oh I'm sooo grateful that the woman I love, who has my full trust felt guilty enough keeping things from me, that she didn't want me to be an oblivious fool for too long."

Before I can put a voice to the miserable expression on my face, Sloane speaks up.

"Leave her alone, Liam! This is exactly why we didn't want to let you know. You'd act in this shitty, overprotective way and refuse to listen to any rhyme or reason."

Liam finally shifts his attention back to Sloane.

"I reacted this way because of how I fucking found out," he snaps. "Excuse me if I'm ballistic for walking into my sister and a piece of shit in the middle of sexual fucking intercourse!"

"You would have been unreasonable regardless, and you know it. We can all see the tight expression on your face whenever a boy so much as remotely flirts with me! Remember that lecture you gave me after you thought there was something going on between me and Aaric?" She pauses, still breathing heavily, but her expression softens just a smidge.

"I appreciate how much you care Liam, I really do. But this is my life. I'm a grown woman, and your concern is frankly... suffocating. Dain- he makes me happy, and I wanted to enjoy that happiness without you and- and Garrick, and Bodhi, and everyone else breathing down my neck about how stupid I'm being!"

Liam's fingers curl into fists at his sides. "And how can you be sure his intentions are pure, huh? Since when have Navarrians been sunshine and rainbows and trustworthy-"

"Your own girlfriend is Navarrian, mind you!" Sloane snaps.

Liam's nostrils flare. "Don't you dare compare her to Aetos!" He says indignantly. "She's proved time and time again she's not a traitor." The protectiveness in Liam's tone surprises me, fills me with a foolish hope that maybe he's not as angry as I initially feared. But then his protective expression twists once again. "Although I can see how much I can really trust her," he adds venomously.

"How much I can trust either of you to let me know important things." He looks from Sloane to me and back to Sloane, before shaking his head. "Do whatever the fuck you want to. I'm done. With both of you."

My throat clogs, as tears threaten to claw their way out of my eyes.

Liam turns around, already moving to the door.

I open my mouth to say something, anything, to explain myself-

"I love her," Dain blurts out.

Silence. Liam freezes in his tracks.

My mouth falls open, while Sloane's eyebrows fly to the top of her forehead.

But Dain's expression is firm.

Genuine.

"I'm in love with her, Liam. I don't know what it will take you to believe me, but know that I will never do anything to hurt her. I'd rather die than betray her."

He takes Sloane's hand in his, holding it firmly to his chest.

My head whips back to Liam, still standing with his back to us, facing the door.

He stays there, unmoving for a few more seconds, before his hand moves to the doorknob, pulls it open, and he walks out, swinging the door shut behind him.

I let loose a breath I didn't realize I had been holding, my eyes closing as my head hangs.

Dain and Sloane are utterly quiet on the bed, before I hear Dain whisper.

"I mean it Sloane, every word. I love you, and I have since the moment I saw you on the Parapet. No matter what happens, I'll always be in love with you."

I begin to move to the door, not wanting to stay here and intrude on them any longer. And anyways, I couldn't utter a single word past the overwhelming tightness of my throat.

"Y/N, wait," Dain calls out from behind me.

I don't turn back around to face them, digging my nails into my palms to divert my attention from the pressure behind my eyes.

"It's okay." I choke out. "I'll speak to him."

"We're sorry we dragged you into this Y/N, genuinely," Dain says, his tone laced with remorse.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not mad at you. I get why you did it."

I look over my shoulder at them.

Dain is staring at me intently, and although Sloane still seems a little shell shocked, she too, looks at me apologetically.

"Don't mistake Liam's anger for wrong intentions," I say. "He loves you Sloane, so much. And after your parents died, he feels responsible for you. Take it from someone who's witnessed him beside himself with worry when he thought about what this place would do to you. While his approach right now may not be the best, it's only because of how much he loves you and cares for you. His intentions come from place of a concern. Always. Never forget that."

I turn back around, and quitely leave Sloane's room, closing it softly behind me.

Once I'm out, I take a deep breath, slowly beginning to walk back to the second year dormitories.

Every steps weighs a thousand pounds, the jagged pieces of my heart piercing me with every step.

I barely register getting to my room, stepping inside, slipping off my shoes and sinking down on my bed.

Every part of me feels numb. Liam's anger, his betrayed, bitter expression directed at me playing on repeat in my mind. My gaze falls onto his flight jacket, draped over the back of my chair. I reach over, pulling it off, and bring it to my face.

The musky scent of his perfume hits me, and the pressure behind my eyes finally becomes too much.

Hot tears pool in my eyes, spilling down my cheeks and onto Liam's dark jacket.

Sloane’s clone, pointing at Sloane: Stab HER. SHE’S the clone!!

Dain knows how to cook. Nobody knows. His father insisted he learn basic survival skills including cooking (basics) and he enjoyed that part so much he kinda went overboard.

When extremely plastered (in Aretia), Sloane Mairi suddenly decided that the dragons looked lonely and needed hugs, so she naturally when to do just that. Dain was the only one who succeeded in dragging her away from a very exhasperated Thoirt, an amused Andarna and a long suffering Cath who all decided to "sacrifice" themselves so she wouldn't get roasted by a far less amused dragon. This happens at least once a week, less often when in Basgiath, but only because it's harder to get to the dragons.

The only reason Sloane can get hammered so consistently is because all second squad first years meet once a week for a "game night" that devolves rapidly when someone suggests something a bit more fun.

Avalynn drinks the most, Aaric is a two and done cause someone's gotta be responsible. Lynx provided the alcohol and drinks a quarter of it minimum. Baylor is a lightweight and Kai is a horny drunk.

Speaking of Lynx, he has no less than 15 bottles hidden in various clever hideyholes in his room plus a few more around both Basgiath and Aretia. Dain knows where all of them are. Dain pretends not to know and occasionally swipes one of them as compensation if the first years have been particularly trying that week.

The morning after "game nights"  Aaric wakes his squadmates up with hangover tonics and breakfast in bed. If in Aretia, breakfast will include the fluffiest most delicious pancakes known to mankind, promptly commandeered by Sloane, who will actually bite anyone attempting to take a bite of her pancakes. Dain may or may not have made the pancakes himself. Sloane will never know. Aaric takes credit. He might have been bribed to do so. Allegedly.

The whole subterfuge over who actually makes the pancakes (and the rest of the Aretian post game night breakfast) gets discovered two days before Dain graduates.

When Dain graduates, he passes onto Rhiannon the knowledge of where all of Lynx's bottles are because "you'll need it".

Aaric demands to know how Dain actually gets Sloane to cooperate on getting away from hugging the dragons, because every time he's tried he's been unsuccessful and the two times he saw it in a vision, the dragons taking off drowned out what was being said. The answer? Tyrrish. You gotta talk in Tyrrish.

The first time Aaric attempts this after Dain has graduated and happens to be on a mission somewhere, Sloane promptly breaks down in heart wrenching sobs and Aaric has to physically carry her back to her room, bridal style. After a bit, still sobbing, a still very much sloshed Sloane manages to get out that he did it wrong. When Aaric tried to get a now hungover Sloane to explain how the hell did he speak Tyrrish wrong (his accent was flawles, his grammar impeccable) it took 3 hours and a lot of blushing to explain that, essentially, he wasn't Dain and therefore didn't sound like Dain. And also he used the wrong terms of endearment. Aaric didn't get the chance to get it right, as Sloane stopped going to hug the dragons.

Once a bit more comfortable with each other, Jesinia decides to teach Sawyer how to sign a full sentence without telling him what it means. She doesn't tell him until he can sign it properly. The phrase is make a professional whore blush level of inappropriate. Jesinia does this to get Sawyer to blush cause she thinks it's adorable. She does it twice more (different days) before Sawyer decides to take the erotic sentences as requests and proceeds to fullfill them to the best of his abilities. By the time they're married this has become a fun way for Jessinia to request some more salacious bedroom activities that she may or may not have read in a book somewhere. For educational purposes of course. If he's already familiar with the signs, Sawyer feigns ignorance until she explains.

At some point during the war, Jessinia does something heroic that impresses the dragons (defending hatchlings or something equally big, dragons aren't easily impressed) and recieves a gift as gratitude. Sliseag does the honours (that's his rider's mate thank you very much). She gets marked in both arms in a similar way to the apostasy kids, except hers are the same shade or Red as Sawyer's relic, and go from just before her elbows down to her wrist and in a vaguely arrow like shape on the back of her hands.

The gift allows her to speak with Sliseag in a similar way Violet could speak to Sgaeyl. After she gets used to this for a bit, Sliseag points to the little pathway that connects her to Sawyer, giving Jesinia a way to fulfill her biggest wish: to hear Sawyer's voice.

Sawyer is delighted when he discovers this side effect of the gift. They use it often so Jessinia can hear sounds she's been curious about but mostly so she can listen to music. Ridoc joked once about his own voice luring Jesinia away because it was just that sexy. Jessinia responded with something along the lines of "hell no it's not" but bitchier somehow.

Sawyer writes poetry. He has it in a little notebook he keeps on his person at all times, mostly cause he doesn't trust Ridoc not to go through his things and find it. He'd never let him live it down.

The poetry notebook falls to the floor one day as he climbs Sliseag when he has to take off fast for some mission or other and he doesn't notice. If Sliseag notices, he doesn't say. Jesinia notices and picks it up, intending to give it back later.

She really didn't mean to snoop, honest, but she's a scribe and she's curious and after taking a peak at the first one she kinda can't help herself. It's good. Really good.

There's poetry about everything you can think about. War, loss, friendship, even one that Jessinia suspects is actually about his dragon. There's also a couple dozen at least about love, hinting at some mysterious alluring captivating woman and some seem to hint whatever feelings are being reflected in the pages are not reciprocated. Jesinia is not jealous. At All. She just doesn't think this mysterious tramp deserves him in the slightest. That's all. Really.

By the time she returns the little poem book to him, Jessinia has gone through 17 stages of grief, multiple cycles of self doubt and managed to fret herself into low self esteem. She gives none of that away. Sawyer proceeds to somehow look  simultanously embarrased, horrified and hopeful, and his face is so red it's making Sliseag look pink next to him. Jesinia doesn't stay to chat.

Sawyer spends almost two weeks trying to determine if Jesinia has in fact read the poems and what she thinks about them (embarrassment be damned, he actually meant every word) but every attempt to bring up the subject ends with either her pretending she can't see him sign or suddenly being busy or needed elsewhere.

Finally he manages to corner her and sit her down and talk about the damn notebook with the stupid love poems. Turns out it had never occured to Jesinia she might actually be said mysterious alluring captivating woman (the poems don't give enough hints of the physical appearance or anything that would outright point to her) and had been heartbroken thinking Sawyer was in love with someone else and she had misread the situation. Sawyer takes the best part of a whole afternoon showing her how much she had not misread the situation in the slightest before they actually discuss what she actually thought of the poems. He does make her promise not to tell Ridoc about them. Ridoc already knows about them but is saving the info for a rainy day.

Speaking of Ridoc, he's an excellent dancer and more flexible than you'd initially think. Those skills translate well into the bedroom.

The way the squad finds out about this is when a slightly more than tipsy Ridoc attempts to dance with the entire squad, succeeds in dragging an equally tipsy Maren into the center of the room and proceeds to wow all of them. She still refuses to go back to his room for another type of demonstration.

There used to be a rider whose signet was being able to transfer memories into paper, creating instan portraits (much like a camera works). She's the reason why an old colleague of General Sorrengail had a bunch of portraits, that she may have managed to deliver to Mira one way or another. Second squad spends a quiet free afternoon cooing over portraits of a 7 year old Dain with a mop of unruly curls on top of a 5ft pillar smirking in victory and satisfaction at having "conquered" the summit, little Dain and Tiny Violet arms around each other cheek to cheek and smiling widely, 15 year old Brennan trying and failing to look like anything other than an awkward teen, Mira and Brennan clearly arguing about something while Violet pouts next to them, and Dain (from the top) and Brennan (from the bottom) helping Violet get on top of the first pillar.

After the portraits, General Aetos has now 5-6 new plans for an untimely death made for him exclusively because "how can you look at that face and think Imma screw this kid up so bad his anxiety has anxiety?". Sloane's plan is the most violent. Aaric agrees to issue a pardon to her if she sees it through and lets him watch.

Another side effect of the portraits is that the first years (and Ridoc) are now curious about what their wingleader would look like without the beard. Dain refuses to shave it. There's multiple attempts to persuade him otherwise, including coercion and goading. Aaric also tries bribery.

Sloane is the only one weaved into Dain's wards because after a lecture one day she decided to mess with his very carefully arranged stuff and he noticed she was like 25% less aggressive the rest of the day and he decided him being inconvenienced for 10 minutes whenever she was pissed was better than having to physically stop her from fighting half the quadrant every half hour (also because he's totally in love with her and loves having her in his space but he's not admitting to that even under torture).

This and a particularly strong pain tonic after Dain gets injured on patrol, is how the first years get their wish of a beardless wingleader. Someone got into the wingleaders room while he was nearly comatose from the painkiller and managed to shave enough of said beard that the only way to fix the mess was to properly shave it all off. It took a whole week to regrow to a decent enough level and 3 to restore to pre shaving conditions.

Turns out Beardless Dain looks mostly like a very big very muscular very pissed off teenager. Sloane is unaware he knows it was her (or that she was at the very least an accomplice) because Sloane has been operating under the assumption that Dain's room isn't warded.

Cath treats all future Slain children as if they were his hatchlings and will actually let them crawl all over him while pretending to be annoyed. No one believes his protests. He's gentle enough with Liam, but positively soft with the girls. He has nicknames for all 3 children and they get used more than their actual names.

Sliseag treats Jesinia as if she was Sawyer's mate (in the dragon sense). He becomes protective of her in a would be nonchalant way. He also claims if she had chosen to become a rider and had been found worthy she would have surely bonded a red. Reds are the superior choice after all.

Aaric's future wife is gonna be a navarrian scribe or something similar from one of the other countries.