In a Place Like This: A Xayah x Rakan dabble

Untitled part

Xayah sighed as she lazily walked though a market in the middle of fuck all nowhere, tired from her journey. She barely remembered how she got here or why she came in the first place. She didn't need to buy anything but even so, she felt like she needed to be here. She could have made camp outside of town, laid down her weary head and called it a night. But instead she wandered aimlessly through hundreds of stalls of mortals pitching sales for anything a girl could think of. Food that smelled like heaven, fabrics that glittered in the light and freshly forged weapons of war. The setting sun glimmered over the people of the town as its frayed lights slipped past the trees in the distance.

She took a deep breath and appreciated the sight, as her eyes panned up as something flashy and....loud, caught her sight. Girls were practically falling head over heels with excitement over the sight of some loud, singing...well if you could call it that...idiot. He wore a cloak covered in feathers. She cringed thinking of what animal he had killed to make that.

She took the turn to stand in the back of the crowd surrounding him. A few coins flashed in the setting sun as they were tossed into the bucket that was sat next to his feet. He wasn't much of a singer but the girls smelled like desperation nonetheless. When she finally caught sight of him her heart flounced like a one winged bird and a breath of surprise left her lips. This is not the time nor the place she would have expected to find someone else from the Lhotlan tribe.

It felt like she had been staring like a deer in the headlights for an hour by the time the sun had set. He had begun to blow kisses as the townsfolk giggled and dispersed. She shook her head, looking at the ground. What was wrong with her, she wasn't a teenager anymore. She shouldn't be acting like this. If she found him so attractive she should just go up and talk to him! You know, like a normal person. She nods to herself, by the time she psyched herself up to do it he had already poured the gold from the bucket into a small leather pouch on his side and fanned out his feathers, shaking them back into place, before moving to leave.

Fuck. She couldn't just let him get away like that. What was she supposed to do here? She found herself running towards him and walked directly in front of him. Xayah jutted her hand out to him for an awkward sort of forced handshake.

She looked to the side, "I'm Xayah'' she said, coughing after her voice had come out more of a squeak than the confident greeting she'd intended.

He snorted with amusement and got down on one knee, taking her hand into his and placing a kiss onto her knuckles, "And, I'm Rakan." He stood up, satisfied with the blush that spread across Xayah's face as she let her hand drop to her side. He cocked himself onto one hip, gesturing with his hands as he spoke, "I didn't expect to see a girl as beautiful as yourself in a place like... this" he gestured to the town with disdain.

"I didn't think I would find someone as cocky as you here" she snorts, flattening her ears against her head, and crossing her arms, "I'm not a damsel in distress, you know" Nobody would have questioned that. She was armed to the teeth, with knives strapped to her belt and the inside of her cloak.

Rakan let a small laugh escape his lips, much to the dismay of Xayah. "Oh, is that what you think of me?" He turned round behind her, letting his golden feathers brush past her. He summoned a rose and moved to present it to her; but Xayah wasn't going to let someone just walk up behind her like that. So she pivoted on her foot, ending up tripping on her own feathers. He caught her with one arm, dipping down towards her in a sort of accidental dance.

With the flower in his free hand, he smirked, his forehead almost pressed against hers,

                                                    "Care to have dinner with me?"