The river water rushes over her ankles fast enough that she can't see her reflection but slow enough that it's still peaceful to watch as it goes. She wrings out the last of her now clean clothes; the water is cold on her hands and feet, but the wind is warm on her cheeks. She hears uneven footsteps over the rocky shore and knows that it's him without having to turn around to see.
"I was looking for you," Druig says, his voice just behind her shoulder.
"What for?"
"I just wanted to see you. And talk to you." He kicks off his sandals and stands in the shallows of the water beside her. They both look into the distance at where the treetops meet the horizon and at the stars which have begun to emerge from the early dusk sky. These days, all he ever does is see her and talk to her; even so, he doesn't ever seem to get enough of it.
"Look at what I found in the river today." From her pocket, she pulls a translucent stone the color of her own eyes. "Look how it shimmers — it's like it shouldn't be found here." She turns her palm over onto his and hands him the stone. His skin feels warm against hers.
"It matches your eyes," he remarks. He tries to return it to her, but she stops him.
"I want you to keep it," she says.
He turns the stone over a few times in his palm before closing it in his fist and putting it in his pocket. He thanks her with a smile.
With a different tone, he says: "You know what one of our followers asked me just now?"
"What's that?"
"They asked if we should think about forging weapons. As if we would ever need that here." Before she can respond, he continues: "So, I changed their minds." He picks up some rocks in one hand and starts skipping them down the river. Some of them make it quite far.
She wants to ask him if, when he changed their minds, he did it in the way that she would have, or if he did it in the way that only he can. But then again, why bother asking? Instead, she just comments about the skipping rocks: "You've been getting good at that."
"Well, I have all the time in the world to practice," he says, and he seems pretty happy about it.
With her mind still lingering on his previous words, she recalls their last night in Tenochtitlan and how he questioned if it was right for him to take away their human-ness — their free will — in exchange for a peaceful world. She wonders if he asks those questions anymore. She wonders, "Is he happy with this life?"
"Is everything alright?" he asks, as if he were reading her mind.
"Do you wonder if they ever think about us? Ajak and the others?"
His smile disappears for a moment, but he quickly puts on a new one to reassure her.
"Will you walk with me?" he asks.
"But the wet clothes — "
"They have an eternity to dry. Please?"
In truth, they do, so she takes his hand and they walk down the riverbank.
"Of course they think about us," he answers. "And, I'm sure they'll come find us when they think the time is right."
"Would you welcome them here if they ever do find us?"
"Of course, Isis," he says without hesitation. "We may have disagreements, but they're family."
"The Deviants are gone," he continues. "Maybe they're all just busy living that life you always dreamed about — the one where we can exists like humans do and create our own purpose."
"What is our purpose then?" she asks with an uncertainty that he doesn't understand.
"So many questions, my Isis... What if our purpose is just to be happy? To be safe?"
She seriously ponders this. With each word of his, she seems to unlearn one of her many questions about their present and their future. She looks at the forest around her and at how the branches bend with the wind, back and forth, at the same cadence that he steps along, left foot and right. Part of her begs to be like the forest.
Honestly, she used to feel disappointed by the fact that she can't get a full view of the night sky from inside this forest. But, does it matter anymore? Would it help? Maybe her lingering faith in Arishem keeps her from appreciating a new kind of purpose: to be here with Druig. Maybe she is finally ready to let go of that faith now.
"Come with me," he says as the direction of his steps begins to stray. He walks towards the deeper run of the river, stepping precariously over the tops of the rocks peeking through the current. She reluctantly follows, unknowingly tightening her grip on his hand. He notices and comments: "So, you've defeated countless Deviants, and yet you're afraid of a little dip in the river?"
She admittedly feels silly, but as if on cue, the next stone Druig steps on slips out from under him and sends him crashing into the water. He resurfaces with an exaggerated look of surprise: "What happened to you holding my hand?"
She bends down to meet him at the water's surface. "Must've slipped away somehow," she shrugs.
"Funny you say that," he says, and before she can get away, he grabs her by the waist and pulls her into the water with him.
"Druig!" she tries to chastise him, but she can't hide the smile on her face, especially not from him. She forgets why she felt so uncertain only minutes ago about what her purpose could be — the only thing she can feel right now is happy.
"You must've slipped," he shrugs back.
He can't hide his laugh from her, and he wouldn't ever want to. His wet hair is long enough to cover his eyes; still, the blue peeks through to catch a glimpse of her. He notices her shuffling on the tips of her toes to keep her head above the current, so he reaches underwater to bring her off her feet. As he carries her back to the riverbank, she reaches up to push his hair away from his forehead. The smallest drops of water fall from his eyelashes and onto her cheeks. It's getting dark, but out here they have nothing to fear.
She asks him: "You're happy, right?"
"Of course," he answers more honestly than he's ever answered anything in his existence.
"Is it enough?" she asks. "Is it enough to just be here with me?" she wonders.
"It's ours, and that's enough for me."
The current breaks around him as he wades through the water. He gently sets her down on the rocks and then walks over to pick up the basket of wet clothes which she forgot brought her to the river in the first place. He heads back to the garden and she follows without another thought.
YOU ARE READING
somewhere in time {Druig}
Fanfiction'It's beautiful, isn't it?' she says. 'It is,' he answers. She's looking at the sky, but he's thinking about her. OC x Druig (Marvel's Eternals)
