Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

When Penelope looked up at him with rosy cheeks, Crow smiled, feeling a burst of affection for the knight. He found her bashfulness endearing and was glad that his words had been reassuring to her. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like she had to meet a set of expectations that he didn’t even have. All he cared about was that she would be willing to work with him on sharing responsibilities, and based on what she had said to Gavin earlier, it sounded like she was already planning to do just that. If he ended up being the one to cook for both of them, that was fine too. He didn’t mind doing it if it would take some stress off of her. After all, they had never followed traditions to begin with, so why start now? As long as they were getting by, it didn’t matter who did what chores in his opinion.

He leaned in to meet her lips as she kissed him again, enjoying the moment. It was the first time they had talked about what their lives would look like after the war, and he was glad they’d had the conversation now. Speaking with her about the future made him feel closer to her. He leaned his head against hers, his heart swelling with fondness for the knight. He couldn’t wait for the time to come when they would finally get to be together all the time, and he hoped again that the end of the war would come swiftly.

“You already make me happier than I’ve ever been,” he assured her with a grin. “Just the fact that you’re willing to give up everything is more than enough for me. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

As she went on to say that she should still learn some from Gavin, Crow shrugged. “If you really want to learn, then go ahead. I’m not going to stop you. Just don’t get it in your caring little head that you need to take over all the duties around the house.” He poked her forehead with one finger and smirked at her teasingly. “I couldn’t care less about what a ‘proper wife’ is supposed to do. Whatever you need—cooking, cleaning, even taking care of children—” he blushed slightly. “I’ll be right there to help you, okay?” He kissed her again, more passionately this time both to show her the sincerity in his promise and to distract himself from his slight awkwardness at bringing up the prospect of a family.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a whistle by door and pulled back from Penelope to see that Olivia and Gavin had finished washing the dishes and come to set up their beds for the night. The female knight was looking at them with her arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face. “I’m starting to wonder if we should have given you two your own room,” she snickered. “Just imagine what we would have walked in on if we’d come in a few minutes later.”

Crow rolled his eyes at her sultry comment, “We were just about to go to sleep anyway.” He took a step back from Penelope and let his arms fall from around her, taking her hand instead to lead her over to the bedroll he had laid out earlier. Laying down carefully—he was still feeling sore—he shifted to make room for the knight and wrapped his arm around her once she was lying beside him.

“I can’t wait until the day when we won’t be interrupted anymore,” he whispered in her ear as he settled down against her side.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

He figured out why she was acting strange pretty fast ^^;

Dang, your job didn't give you Christmas Eve off? That's pretty harsh. Do they give you Christmas at least?
I think I have free time tomorrow until like 1 and then again whenever the Christmas party we're going to is over (probably late around 9-10, I'm guessing, but maybe earlier. Who knows lol)

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow glanced at Gavin for a moment before looking away again. He wanted to stop the fighting between them, but that didn’t mean he wanted to try to befriend the knight. Whether or not Gavin appreciated his compliment meant little to the thief. He just hoped that it would be enough to lessen the tension between them and let the knight know that even though he didn’t like him, he wasn’t unwilling to work together. Of course, it was also entirely possible that the other man just assumed he was trying to manipulate him somehow, so he didn’t bother to say anything more on the subject.

A brief silence fell over them as Gavin distributed the bowls of stew. Offering a curt nod of thanks, Crow picked up his spoon and dipped it into the warm broth, stirring it slowly as it cooled. He was just about to lift a bite to his mouth, when he heard the knight ask Penelope what was wrong. Pausing in his tracks, he knitted his brow concernedly and turned to look at her to see what Gavin was talking about. For a moment, he worried that she was feeling sick from the alcohol she had drank, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She didn’t look ill; she almost seemed like she had been startled by something. He frowned, wondering what had made her look so alarmed.

“Uh... nothing.” Penelope looked uncomfortable at the question. “But, uh... when thin’s die down, maybe you could teach me a bit about cooking… and, uh, whateve’ else you learned growing up with tha’ servant.”

Crow blinked in surprise at her sudden request, and then flushed as the pieces fell into place in his mind. He averted his gaze, realizing that his earlier comment had included her too, even though that hadn’t been his intention. He hoped she didn’t think he was disappointed in her for something as simple as not knowing how to cook. She was already giving him more than he ever could have hoped for by simply agreeing to run away with him after the war. He couldn’t ask anything more of her on top of that.

The thief brought a spoonful of stew to his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. In all honesty, he hadn’t really thought about the specifics of what their lives would look like once the war was over. After all, it hadn’t been that long ago that he’d believed he would never settle down with any woman. Expecting to live alone, he hadn’t bothered to come up with any expectations for what he wanted in a wife. His childhood hadn’t been very conventional either. Since his mother had raised him by herself, he also didn’t have any preconceived ideas about what a “proper” family should look like. He supposed he could make some guesses based on what he had seen in families like Silas’s, but he had never been one to follow the lead of others to begin with. He preferred to abandon tradition to do whatever felt most natural for himself.

Sneaking a glance at Penelope, he studied her furtively from the corner of his eye. Though she seemed to be insecure about her ability to perform the tasks of a peasant housewife, he couldn’t see her taking on that role anyway. He remembered her telling him long ago that her father had believed she would make a better knight than wife of a nobleman, and the thief believed he had been right. He didn’t want her to feel like she had to settle for mundane work such as cooking and cleaning when her strengths lied in fighting and defending others. While there was no way for her to continue being a knight when she left to be with him, he was sure they would find some other way for her to use her talents for the people of the outer villages.

The rest of the supper went by quietly, only interrupted once by Zenith, who came over to tell them all that their sleeping quarters had been cleared out before she left to join her husband for bed. Crow finished off his food quickly as usual, and once Penelope was done too, he rose from the table and took her hand to lead her to the adjoining room, where he laid out his bedroll for them to sleep on. When that was done, he stood up again and peered into the other room. Gavin was washing the dishes, and it looked like he had convinced Olivia to help him too.

Turning back to Penelope, Crow stepped over to where she was standing and slipped his arms around her, pressing one hand to the small of her back and the other between her shoulder blades as he pulled her into a close embrace. He met her lips in a deep, yet tender kiss, trailing one hand from her shoulders up to the back of her neck. When he pulled away again, he met her gaze and smiled affectionately.

“I love you, Penelope,” he breathed, touching a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I don’t care if you can cook or manage a house. Honestly, you could be the worst chef in Brerra, and I would still want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He chuckled softly and ran his fingers through her long hair. “No one ever said any of those tasks would be your job anyway, so you shouldn’t worry about learning them all for my sake. I may not be as skilled as Gavin is with his fancy spices, but I do know how to prepare some simple dishes. So, until you learn how to cook—or even if you decide you don’t want to learn at all—I can take care of that for us, alright?”

He pressed one more kiss to her lips and then met her green eyes once more, “Don’t forget, we’re in this together. You don’t have to stress yourself out about the things you don’t know how to do, because I’ll be figuring it all out right alongside you. Whatever our life is going to look like, I’m sure we’ll make it work, just like we always have before.”

Beyond Expectations [AHeartlessNobody & Summer]

Thanks! Glad you like it

And no worries! I’m visiting my in-laws for Christmas so I won’t be super active until Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas! ^^

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow is finally trying to come to a mutual tolerance with Gavin

That'll be my last one for tonight. I have no idea if/when I'll be on tomorrow, because my husband was in charge of the family plans, and I'm just along for the ride xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow nodded sleepily when Penelope said they should eat before they go to bed. His empty stomach was more than enough to persuade him to agree with her. With some effort, he managed to sit upright on the blankets, glancing at the knight as she rose unsteadily to her feet beside him. As he slowly came back to himself from his nap, he became aware that he should have offered to help her get up. Even though he was tired, he was still more stable than she was while she recovered from the drinks she’d had at the tavern.

So, when she offered him a hand to help him stand as well, he shook his head to turn down the offer. “I appreciate the gesture, love, but I’m pretty sure I’ll just drag you back down with me if I take your hand now,” he said with a bemused smirk. Bracing his legs, he climbed to his feet on his own and stretched one more time to wake up. Once he felt decently alert, he reached out and slipped one arm around Penelope’s waist to help her away from the wall. While he knew she had probably sobered up enough to make it to the dining table on her own, it was an excuse for him to stay close to her for a little longer, so he was going to take advantage of it while he still could.

“Let me help you instead,” he offered her a smile and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. When he felt like he had a firm grip on her waist, he held her against his side and walked over to the table, where Olivia was already seated and Gavin was setting out plates for everyone. Crow guided Penelope to one of the empty chairs, pulling it out from the table for her to sit down before settling down in a seat next to hers. He eyed Gavin curiously as the knight stirred the contents of a pot that smelled of rich spices. Sitting up a little straighter, he peered over the edge of the dish in an attempt to see what was inside.

“It’s another stew,” Olivia said from across the table, catching his intrigued expression. The female knight was resting her cheek in the palm of her hand in a bored posture. Knowing her fondness for mischief, Crow guessed that she didn’t find the peacefulness of Silas and Zenith’s home as enjoyable as he and the others did.

“It smells great,” the thief said.

“Gavin did most of the work,” Olivia shrugged, toying dully with her spoon. “He’s the only one here who would bother to learn something as boring as cooking.”

Crow glanced at the male knight, who seemed to be ignoring their conversation as he prepared bowls for the stew. Though he wasn’t particularly fond of Penelope’s ex suitor, and he had no intention of ever growing friendly with the man, he knew they couldn’t keep fighting with each other forever. As was evident from their horrid interrogation at the tavern, they needed to work together if they were going to get anything done. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for him to win some favor with the knight.

“It may be boring, but it’s a useful skill,” he said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms loosely over his chest. “I think he’s got the right idea. You nobles would be better off if you learned how to do more for yourselves. You can’t expect to rely on someone else to feed you forever.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow may have fallen asleep on Penelope cx

That worked out pretty well then! We just finished hanging out with my father-in-law a little while ago

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

When Penelope agreed to go with him, Crow led her over to the blankets that he had indicated. Instead of sitting down right away, he took a moment to watch the knight and make sure that she didn’t need help getting down. She had some trouble, but she seemed to be able to sit on her own, so he dropped to the ground beside her with a sigh of relief. His body ached from all the traveling they had done, and he was glad to finally have a chance to rest. He looked forward to being able to sleep under the security of a roof that night as well.

As Penelope settled against his side, he leaned into her too, smiling softly as she kissed his cheek. At her apology, he shook his head. “It’s alright,” he assured her, running his hand over her leg in a comforting gesture. “I can’t be mad at you when you’re such a cute drunk… Although, I won’t turn down the opportunity to cash in a favor if you’re offering.” He shot her a teasing smirk and pressed a gentle kiss to her temple, going on in a hushed tone, “Honestly though, you shouldn’t feel bad. You helped me throughout the worst of my illness. If anyone owes anyone a favor, it’s me.”

When Penelope asked if they’d found anything out about the rogue thieves, Crow shook his head and sighed. “It’s hard to say,” he returned her frown. “To tell you the truth, Gavin and I didn’t get much accomplished, and Olivia made it sound like things weren’t much better on your end either. From the little we heard, it doesn’t sound like they came through here, but I’m hesitant to draw any conclusions on the word of a few drunken villagers. It would be better if we could speak with some more people before we decide what to do from here.” He paused and looked her over, realizing that she might be too drunk to remember anything he was saying to her at the moment.

“You know what? Let’s not worry about that right now,” he decided, sinking into her side and resting his head against hers. Gazing out over the small house, his eyes wandered from the knights in the kitchen—it looked like Gavin had roped Olivia into helping prepare their supper after the stunt she’d pulled in the tavern—to Silas’s daughters in the parlor, and he found that his lip curved upward in a smile of its own accord. Watching them run around made him think of the future he and Penelope dreamed about. He glanced down at her and reached for her hand, intertwining their fingers together. He couldn’t wait for the day when they would be able to rest like this underneath the roof of their own home with their own family.

The thought brought a hint of color to his cheeks, but he didn’t shy away from it. It was what he wanted, and he knew she did too. So, he closed his eyes and let his mind roam as he imagined that they were alone in Farhill. The war had ended, and they were free to be together as they had always wanted, without any responsibilities or ties to anyone who would fight against their decision to abandon tradition…

“Supper is ready.”

Crow jumped slightly at the sound of Gavin’s voice. Blinking his eyes open, he looked around the room, a bit disoriented as he took a moment to remember where he was. Between his exhaustion from the long day and Penelope’s relaxing presence at his side, he realized that he must have dozed off. He stretched tiredly and shook his head, trying to clear himself of the grogginess that remained.

“Sorry,” he murmured to Penelope, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm. “Was I asleep long?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Probably wouldn't happen, but just imagine if it was Gavin who was stuck with them xD

I'm about to leave to drive down to visit my husband's family, so I probably can't reply until tonight.
6 hour road trip, whoo~ cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I feel like Crow and Penelope would be a total mess if they ever get drunk at the same time xD
It would be hard to do, since he doesn't really like getting drunk in the first place