tratie one shots, vol. i

[ spark ]

this shot is actually a chapter taken out of one of my oldest wips, a rewrite of the legend of robin hood. i'm obsessed with robin hood, and the relationship i wrote between robin and marian was a love/hate, so it fits tratie perfectly.

this scene took place in the second book, when robin's sister dies on behalf of robin. he's still a lord in his manor, but he'll soon be outlawed and he knows it. he'd admitted his feelings to marian at this point, and she returned the emotions. 

they'd been betrothed when they were children, but it was broken off as robin got older and left for war. when he returned, obviously, the engagement had been broken.

i think that's all the context you need, lol. sorry if this doesn't make any sense. 

i figured we could use some fluff after that last shot, so here, lol.

words: 1999

. . .

Katie.

I shouldn't have had such mixed feelings about the name. It belonged to the love of my life. It was the most eloquent one of all the earth, in my opinion. It was the name of the woman who'd pulled me out of trials and hard times; it was the name of my valiant role model whom I looked up to immensely. 

But it was also the name that pounded in my head at all hours, the cause of my sleepless nights. If I had the ability to keep one single thing out of my mind when darkness fell, it would be Katie. Then perhaps I would have laid my head down without the pause to think of her. 

Presently, however, I was entertaining the word echoing inside me: Katie. Katie. Questions pestered my conscience: why had I sat idly whilst Katie slipped through my fingertips? Why did I push Katie away like everyone else when I knew she was the one person who could help me recover? Why did I leave England and let Katie become a maiden in her father's house, when I was the man she'd have been wed to? Why was Katie the lass I fell for rather than one who could have been mine without hesitation? Why did I feel the need to try so hard to win Katie over? 

I knew the answers to all of these, yet they floated around my head listlessly. I drifted down the stairs and into the dining hall. Obviously, I wasn't going to sleep soon, so I decided to make use of my time instead of wishing of the impossible.

Taking the flowers I had picked earlier, I diverted my attention to braiding the stems to form a crown for Connor's head. My fingers numbly fiddled with the daisies and poppies as my brain wandered from one thing to another but always returning to Katie.

So, when I registered the soft rapping of a knock at the door, my first inquiry wasn't Who's come calling this late? but Is it Katie?

Yanking the door open, I beheld the literal angel of my dreams. Katie. She had evidently been to bed already, wearing a coat over her nightgown and her hair down in messy tangles. Her bright eyes were duller than usual, and the dark circles under them suggested she had a rough time getting to sleep also.

"I'm sorry to come at a time like this, but I couldn't get away from Father until now-"

Interrupting her apology without a word, I grabbed her roughly and squeezed her into a hug. I nuzzled my head into her neck, breathing in her calming scent. Her arms reacted immediately, one wrapping around my middle and the other slung over my neck. I reluctantly pulled away, scratching the back of my head. Though my mind wasn't connecting to my feet, I moved aside for her to come in. 

She knew to sit down on the ground next to me even though I hadn't asked her to, and silence filled the spaces we weren't in. (Too, I tried to ignore the few strands of hair that wisped in her face, when she seemed unbothered by them. It was a brave effort not to push them away for her.)