for Elaine but others at the Howff welcome :3 It can be assumed these two made introductions/were invited to stay before the BWP finale

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Things had gone dangerously well, if Rivers was any judge of things! Sure, it hurt something monstrous to put pressure on his left foreleg, to the point he really wasn't walking on it at all. Whole thing had swole up like he stuck it in a beehive.

But hey! Small price to pay for saving the whole bloody world! He knew a good bargain when he saw one.

Not everyone in the Howff had been so fortunate. He knew that, too, though he would not let it steal his sadness. He would make space for both grief and joy entwined. There would be mending work to do, later. Lots of it.

Well... actually. According to Elaine, there was mending work to do now, and it required him to hold still, and it did not involve kisses.

He sighed a lamentation, flopping dramatically onto to furs of his bed. Ow.

Elaine tried to be composed. She always did. She reminded herself she was a healer first. A wolf with steady paws, a calm mind, and enough discipline to keep her emotions from tangling in her work. But the moment Rivers flopped onto the furs with a dramatic groan, ears splayed and tail limp like he'd been mortally wounded instead of merely swollen, her composure wavered. Heat crept beneath her pale fur, blooming across her freckled cheeks. She cleared her throat and stepped closer, pretending her pulse wasn't fluttering wildly. Rivers looked up at her with the soulful misery of someone who believed he was being terribly wronged by being told to hold still. Elaine huffed: partly in exasperation, partly to steady herself, and lowered onto her haunches beside him. The warmth of his leg beneath her paws made her blush deepen.

"You're not dying," she murmured, though her voice came out softer than she intended. He gave her a look that insisted he absolutely was dying. Elaine focused on the swelling instead of his eyes. It was bad, yes, but not catastrophic. Painful, but manageable. He was alive. He was here. He had thrown himself into the fire for their world, and she had followed him without hesitation. Somehow, impossibly, they had both survived. Her paws moved with practiced care, but her thoughts were anything but steady. A mortal should not fall for a fae. Every story warned against it. Every instinct told her to guard her heart. But how was she supposed to protect herself from someone who laughed in the face of doom, who fought like a storm, who looked at her as though she were something precious? She swallowed hard. "Hold still," she said again, more to herself than to him. For a long moment, the only sound was their breathing. Then, quietly, she spoke.

"Rivers… there's something we should talk about."

Elaine kept her gaze fixed on his leg, because looking at his face would unravel her entirely. "I know what you are," she said softly. "And I know what mortals are supposed to avoid. But after everything we've been through… after what you did…" Her breath caught. She forced the words out. "I care for you. More than I should. More than is wise." The confession hung in the air, fragile and trembling. Finally, she lifted her eyes to his. Warm. Bright. Alive in a way that made her chest ache. "You risked everything," she whispered. "And I… I would do it again. For you." Her tail curled close, shy but resolute. "So if we're going to pretend nothing's changed… I can't. Not anymore."

She exhaled slowly, bracing for whatever came next. Then, because she was a healer and because she needed something solid to cling to..she added, with a faint, wry smile:

"But first, you're going to let me fix this leg. Without flopping around like a dying elk."

Only then did she let herself breathe again.

Nose of a wolf was a funny thing. Turned out you could smell damn near anything, assuming you could make sense of it. Certainly added an air of excitement to things, when you didn't even need to look or share a word to know they were frightened.

But Elaine wasn't frightened. Not — exactly.

Oh, he understood it. Rush of blood to cheeks and toes and southward places. Heart aflutter. Thoughts scrambled into dizzying bliss at the slightest of gestures. Spring had come, the world was saved, they'd faced a deadly adventure together to come out the other side (mostly) unharmed.

Hard not to fall in love, over something like that.

But Elaine wasn't in love, either. Or at least, not in the way a fae would describe the word. Infatuated, maybe. Caught up in the whirlwind of a fairy friend, the newness of revelation and freedom, the promise of fables made flesh.

She was right, they shouldn't be pretending.

He was ageless and terrible and strange, so perhaps it was lingering cruelty inherent in his blood to have allowed them progress this far, without a word on his own behalf.

You shouldn't think of yourself in such ways, Gancanagh, or you'll make them true, he reminded himself.

Which begged the question. What did he want, really? What had a hundred-hundred lifetimes taught him about a moment like this, or what could come after?

Deep blue eyes lingered on her figure, soft and sleek and elegant. Apricot scent, homey, fit to put you at ease. She had a heart so big he struggled to fathom how it fit in her form. Was stubborn, too — a trait he was fond of for a multitude of reasons. She'd be easy to get lost in.

He held still while she did her healers work. Lip quirking only a little over the occasional twinge of pain... something soft and nearly sad crept into his features.

...You're right. He answered, finally. Things are different. If she moved to meet his gaze, he wouldn't waver. But Snowbird, they tell those stories for a reason. And I like ye too much to go around breakin' your heart.

Callousness was a choice he discarded. For his hundred-hundred lifetimes, Elaine had only just the one to fall back on. So he swallowed, and tilted his head, and gave a quiet whine. Sincere even if chosen deliberately. I can change the shape I take, but what I am remains the same. While I'm here, I intend to ply me trade at lovemakin'.

Did she understand? His body wasn't sacred, and neither was his bed. Loyalty and exclusivity were distinct in his mind. Sometimes mortals understood. But many times they did not. The ones he'd come to help would need every inch of him, and so he couldn't bargain himself to a singular soul. No matter how beautiful and bright.

None can have me heart if they're not willin' to share it with others in kind. So if it's a one an' only you're hopin' for, a singular ear coiled back, I'll sorely disappoint ye.

Elaine had gone still again but not with fear this time. Something gentler, something far more fragile, held her in place. His words landed with the weight of truth, and she didn't flinch from them. She listened. She always listened. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet, steady in the way only a healer's could be. " Rivers   … I know what you are." Her paws paused in their work, resting lightly against his fur. "I've heard the stories since I was a pup. Every tale about your kind, every warning."

A breath.
A swallow.
A truth she had never said aloud to anyone.

"And I've never been with anyone before." Her ears dipped, not in shame, but in honesty. "Not because I was waiting for a one‑and‑only. Not because I expected forever. Just… because nothing ever felt right. No one ever felt right." Her gaze lifted to him. Open, unguarded, impossibly sincere. "You do." She didn't shy from the rest of what he'd said. Didn't try to reshape him into something he wasn't. "If you can't give yourself to just one soul, that doesn't frighten me. I'm not asking you to be anything other than what you are. I trust you. That's enough for me."

But then..
Her breath hitched.

A warmth bloomed beneath her skin, sudden and bright. Her paws trembled where they touched him. Light: soft, luminescent teal began to thread across her pelt in delicate, curling shapes. Runes, or something like them, rising like fireflies caught in her fur. Elaine stared, wide‑eyed, first at her own body, then at him. "Rivers…?" Her voice wavered. "What is this? What's happening to me?" The glow intensified, tracing along her shoulders, her ribs, her throat. She took a step back, instinctive, frightened not of him..but of herself. "I don't want to hurt you." Her tail tucked, her breath quickened, and the teal light pulsed like a second heartbeat beneath her skin. "Please..tell me what this is."

Not a demand.
A plea.
A reaching hand from someone who trusted him enough to be afraid in front of him. To be vulnerable.

Every warning. His sad smile twinged, thoughtful. Did it inspire him, that she was brave enough to ignore centuries of warnings? Or worry him, that she could be smitten beyond her senses? Maybe a bit of both, if he was being honest.

Did she understand what she asked for?
She couldn't possibly.

Would the practice feel different from the fantasy?
Didn't it always!

She claimed to trust him. But could he trust her? With an abundance of lifetimes under his proverbial belt, Rivers didn't have to think quite so long about it as a younger fae would have (to be fair, a younger fae would have been unlikely to try thinking about it at all.)

True, leaps of faith weren't generally good starts to lengthy romantic endeavors. Flash fires, burning hot and hard and — brief, even by mortal standards. But there was nothing quite like the whirlwind of them.

And for his part? A hundred hundred lovers, and each had been unique in their own way. Treasured, uniquely. Remembered. For an hour or a day or a lifetime, if the thought of him warmed, her, the rest of him he was willing to offer in kind.

She hoped to catch a star. She'd fallen from the sky like one, so he supposed she had little reason to think it impossible! If she wanted the risk, if she liked that, he wouldn't be the one to tell her no!

In fact, he was about to tell her yes, when Elaine's body flared a bright and brilliant blue. Shapes rippled across her form, and Rivers blinked. Magic didn't frighten him — not being born of it, certainly. But this was... new. He started to sit upright, wincing at his paw, and shifted weight to ease the burden.

Easy Snowbird, you're... Head cocked, Well, you're glowin'! But not fadin' or burnin' up. It's not like to be harmful to ye.

The marks, though difficult to focus on or make sense of, remained familiar. At the tree — we were surrounded by magic. Strong magic. Left it's mark on you. Like the rune we found.

His frown tilted into a grin, It's pretty, s'what it is.

Elaine felt the flare before she understood it. Heat blooming beneath her skin, a pulse that wasn't heartbeat or breath but something older, deeper, answering a call she hadn't known she'd made. The blue rose over her like dawn breaking through fur, through bone, through the quiet places she kept hidden. She froze. Not from pain, there was none, but from the shock of being seen in a way she had never been seen before. Rivers 's voice reached her through the glow, warm and steady, and she clung to it like a tether. Her ears tipped back, breath catching. "I… I don't know what's happening," she admitted, voice soft but not trembling. "It feels like..like something waking up inside me. Something that remembers more than I do." The runes shimmered again, shifting like water over stone. She looked down at herself, then back at him, searching his face for fear and finding none. Only curiosity. Only that maddening, gentle delight he carried like a second heartbeat.

"You're certain it won't hurt you?" she asked, stepping closer despite the light pouring off her. "I don't want to burn you. Or blind you. Or..gods forbid..mark you the way the tree marked me." Her tail swept low, uncertain but not retreating. He called it pretty. That undid her more than the magic. A breath escaped her: half laugh, half disbelief. "Pretty," she echoed, shaking her head. "I fall out of the sky, nearly crush you, glow like a lightning bug, and you still find something to grin about." But the truth slipped in beneath her teasing, quiet and earnest. "I wasn't ignoring the warnings," she said, meeting his eyes fully now. "I heard them. All of them. I just… chose you anyway."

The glow brightened, as if agreeing.

"I don't know what I'm asking for. Not really. But I know what I'm offering." Her voice steadied, low and sure. "My trust. My time. My courage. Whatever this is becoming inside me." A pause that was soft, vulnerable..unguarded. "If you say yes… I won't try to change you.. I just want to be someone you can always come back to." She stepped close enough that the blue light brushed across his fur like moonlit water. "Show me how to carry this," she murmured. "Show me what it means. And I'll show you I'm not afraid of the risk."

Her gaze softened, warm as the glow.