the last kingdom ♡ oneshots

reunited | finan x oc

Maeve's mother often told her that she was lucky to be friends with the young princes of the kingdom of Ulaid, and that she should never forget that. She was taught never to push her luck, and to restrain herself at all times. These lessons were royally influenced. Her mother worked as a maid to the queen, and her father was a warrior in the king's army. But Maeve was a girl of seventeen at the time, and she often disregarded these lessons. Her friendship with Ulaid's princes remained a strong one, though it had come about in a rather unique way.

Three years before, Maeve had been out buying food for their supper when a boy came hurtling into her out of nowhere, spilling all the things she had bought on to the ground. She was already irritated after having to bargain with one of the sellers over the ridiculous price of some carrots, so this tipped her over the edge.

"Would you watch where you're bloody going?" Maeve snapped at the boy, who already looked apologetic and was bending down to help her pick them up.

"Sorry, Lady," he said, "my brother and I were just messing around. I didn't mean to knock your things over." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he said so, lifting his cloak a little to reveal clothes finer than she had ever seen before. Clothes befitting the nobility, in fact.

"Lady," she muttered, shaking her head. "I'm no lady, I'm hardly a woman! But you must be some ealdorman's son, so no wonder you're the way you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the boy asked, now standing up and slightly affronted. Maeve stood up immediately to face him.

"Needn't you worry, your Lordship," she said, and there was no mistaking the mocking tone in her voice. "I'll be on my way, then, if you don't mind." She made to walk away, but what the boy said next made her stop in her tracks.

"I'm no ealdorman's son," he told her, and this time there was a grin on his face. "If you must know, my name's Finan."

"As in... the king's oldest son?" Maeve said, completely caught off-guard. "The prince, Finan?" She was incredibly embarrassed at the thought of it, but more so at what her mother would say if she knew her daughter had snapped at the prince and made fun of him.

"The very same," Finan said, and the smug tone of his voice only served to infuriate Maeve even more. "My brother's over there, Conall he's called. If you've heard of him." This was a jab at Maeve - of course she had heard of the pair of them - one was the heir to the throne of Ulaid, for goodness' sake! Her face was burning at this point, and it was painfully obvious too - her cheeks had reddened and she could no longer meet his eye.

"Well, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," she muttered. "Lord," she added as an afterthought.

"Don't worry about it," Finan shrugged. "Would you like to join us for a short while? My brother gets on my nerves sometimes and I could do with some company." Maeve laughed a little as his brother called out in protest, and decided to do as she was asked. He was the prince, after all, and he seemed nice enough. She kept this last thought to herself, however, not wanting to boost his ego further.

Maeve came to discover that both Finan and Conall were very good company, and they soon became friends. By the time she was seventeen, they were thick as thieves and often got into a lot of mischief, most of which Maeve would have been punished far more harshly for had she not had the protection of royalty. She would not trade their friendship for anything, but there was only one thing that constantly bothered her about it. The brothers would argue frequently, and often refused to speak to each other for days on end. It was usually up to Maeve to talk things out between them and get the boys to reconcile, and it was no easy feat.

However, the days that they seemed to like each other were just as frequent and these were the days that Maeve loved most, though she had to admit she preferred spending more time with Finan rather than Conall. At first she chalked it up to their ages being more similar, but soon she had to come to terms with the real reason why.