I know, I'm not the most romantic gal in the world. But still, I do like a bit of romantic fluff. This chappie is all about Terris and Dante, from @rbsnicket Drakon. Both are my characters in her book so as usual she gets the copyright claims now that I have been banned from writing her chappies for her. RIP editing privileges. Hopefully, this isn't too intense because I swear to God I haven't done this before.

TERRIS POV

"So I said, hey, Lil, just calm down! And Lil's all tough and screaming and she just yells back, when someone slices open half your face, I'd like to see you not yell. And what does Yo-yo do? He whacks Lil's feet from under her and sends her tumbling to the floor, and then strings her upside down, and he says, well, you were saying?" Dante was telling me about what had happened after me and Adara returned to the capital, and as he explained, gesturing way too expressively with his hands, I had slowly lost focus on the story and instead on his face.

Most people found that dark, soulless eyes were creepy. I can see why. But what I can't understand is why they can't see that the dark eyes of night dragons looked like the skies they fly through, clear, infinite, beautiful. It wasn't a black hole. It was an empty space ready to be filled with stars.

I know how garbage I sound. But I had never met someone like him before. He didn't whine and had no humor like Alistair, and was absolutely stunning. He made me want to write poetry and make flower crowns and all these icky lovey dovey things I hope I will never do.

What did he want with me, though? Bastard daughter of the president of Volna and a dead mage. I was nothing compared to his grand status as the prince of Qamar, and yet he found an interest in me.

"Ris? Ris. You listening?" He waved a hand in front of my face, and I was startled out of my daydreams. Back to business and why we were here. Technically speaking, I shouldn't be here at all. I was technically grounded in my lab to allow me to 'take a break', but screw that. I had more important things to do. Like hunt down the son of a bitch who killed my father.

"Yes, Dante? Were you worried that I wasn't deeply transfixed by your beauty? We both know which ones the prettier one in the two of us." I retorted, giving him a wink and leaning back on my chair.

He scooted his chair so that he wasnt opposite to me and instead was beside me. "Yeah we do. Me." He leaned over, his body pressing against mine as he whispered into my ear.

"Is that so, my lord?" I whispered back, earning a chuckle, "show me."

He pressed his lips on my forehead and kissed it, his calloused hands supporting his weight against the chair, his free one brushing hair away from my face. "I know you're only being extra flirty because you're worried, so good luck." He looked at me seriously, black eyes meeting blue. "Stay safe." He ran his hand through my hair again, kissing the top of my head.  "And make that goddamn bastard pay."

"You hurt me." I replied, placing a hand on my heart and making an over exaggerated pained face. He laughed, and I pushed myself up to kiss his dimpled cheek. "To be continued, my noble prince, but I've got someone to kill. Now, Bo staff, or dagger?"

"Stab him and let him bleed out."

"And the demons will taste his fresh guilty blood and send him straight to an eternal suffer- actually, Lil won't be that gross." I continued, making a face. "She might mess with his soul, but she's not the biggest fan of cannibalism. Which is strange. She's the guardian of Death. She has to have some weird habit."

"The only cannibalism that'll happen is when I eat you out." He whispered in my ear as we got up, one hand pressed against my shoulder blade, the other pressing against my lower back. I shivered at both the intimacy and the sexuality of the comment and our position.

"You bad, dirty boy." I sighed, pushing him away, and for once, I finally took in my surroundings clearly. Soldiers' quarters were most easily accessible through the entrance to the market, so posing as lovers in a drink stall near the entrance was probably the most solid plan to sneak into the quarters and kill him. Dante pulled my hood over my head, before giving me a little kiss again.

"Don't keep me waiting, Ris." He called as I wove through the crowd.

"Don't call me Ris!" I called back, shaking my head in disbelief. That boy drove me nuts.

"Sure thing, Risa!"

"Dante I swear to the gods." I muttered under my breath, and I slipped into the soldier bunks in search of a dirtbag archer.

---

"Pass me the jar of powder, will you, Dante?" I asked, my head buried in a new project. I was in the midst of crafting a new blade for myself, and right now, I needed that jar of powder.

"What if I won't, sweetheart?" He said in a false mocking tone, plucking the jar from a cabinet that was too high for me to reach without magery. "What if I dropped it here?" The jar dangled loosely from his fingers, swinging dangerously back and forth. "This is from the market in Lukar. You bought it from some fake witch? If you're using it for a spell it might backfire, honey."

"That is powdered roc poison, my treacherous darling." I drawled in return. "If there was just a teensy bit of extra moisture in the air, the powder will dissolve, enter your blood stream and kill you painfully in a few hours. It can also be activated if already on naked skin. So, my dear, just hand it over."

He gulped nervously, and handed me the jar. I unscrewed the jar carefully, before tapping lightly, pouring some into a glass beaker. I poured in the liquid metal mixture I had made before I had first met Adara, and mixed as fast as I could, before the dissolved roc poison could burn through the beaker. I tipped the solution into core of my empty blade hilt, and zapped it with my batons for good measure.

"What's the metal thing for? And the lightning?" The night dragon prince asked, leaning casually on a table full of vials.

"The moment the liquid inside the vials meets the air, it'll evaporate into different types of gas." I called as I sealed the mixture safely in the hilt, and I waved the sword around experimentally. "And your question? Well, watch and see sweetheart."

I threw him a sword, and he caught it with ease, swinging it once. "I'm going to get hurt, right?"

"Depends. Hit my blade." I whispered a spell under my breath, and a glowing green mist appeared beside us.

"Are you recording this?" He asked in horror.

"For research purposes." I reassured him, and then featured with my head. "Now hit the blade."

He obliged, and the moment our blades clashed, blue streaks sparking, and Dante was thrown across the room, tumbling through the air and crashing into a rack of empty vials. Before the glass shards could rain down on him, he vanished into the shadows, reappearing behind me.

"I guess you could say sparks fly when I'm with you." He whispered in a low voice, his hands snaking around my waist and pulling me closer. I sighed, and leaned forward, flipping him over my head and onto the ground. Of course he had to be both athletic and a gymnast, because he gracefully landed on his hands, did a push up while still doing handstand, and then flipped backwards. He gave a mock bow, and then a wink. "That was cruel. But so, so weak! What happened to your feminine strength?"

"That should have been expected." I replied lazily, fixing the leather gloves to fit comfortable around my fingers. "You're adorable, but no flirting in my lab. Look at this."

I shook the knife one, a quick flicking motion, and the knife elongated and thinned into a long staff with blue sparking designs across the surface. "That is pretty fancy, babe."

I scowled, but it was hard to hide my smile. I had worked on this project for quite a while and was pretty glad it worked. "Don't babe me, tater-tot. But this does show you what happens when you mix magery and science together. One blow could electrocute and render unconscious a full grown male, and leave a faint trail of roc poison on their skin to weaken them. And the metallic mixture is a substance lethal to dragons and resistant to magic."

"And you say it so modestly, Ris." He cupped my cheek, before whispering in my ear. "Your little silver queen just came in."

My eyes widened. "The list is on the table with a thin tall vial of bubbling blue liquid. How close is she?"

"Very, very close." He winced, pain flickering on his face before vanishing. "She's trying to get in my head. We need a plan."

"Kiss me." I whispered.

"What? I mean, I would love to, but don't we have more pressing matters at hand?"

"Kiss me and push me into the table next to it-"

"Kinky."

"And while she's distracted, take the list with your shadows. And making the kissing as wildly dramatic as you can. She'll either be very focused on us, or leave the room uncomfortably." I ignored his comment, and he nodded.

"Okay, but don't get too distracted. My kisses are known to make girls squeal."

"Just do it, Dante."

"You're the boss, princessa." He closed the distance between us, and his lips met mine. It was like a lump in my heart that was weighing me down has just melted, and for once, I wasn't wrapped up with trying to take down Lukar's army from the inside to seek vengeance for my father. It was just a boy and a girl, locked in a passionate kiss, neither willing to breathe.

He began to lean forward towards me, and I wrapped one arm around his shoulders, the other running through his hair. He hefted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his lean torso, still emmersed in this kiss. Of course, I was a seventeen nearly eighteen girl, this wasn't my first kiss, but this was my first with a guy this hot.

He slammed me into the table and leaned forward, lowering me gently onto the table, and out of the corner of my nearly shut eyes, I saw a tendril of shadows subtly cover the small piece of paper and turning it into a shadow. I sighed in relief, and Dante finally stopped to breathe for air.

Breathing. I had totally forgotten about that. I guess my water dragon heritage meant that despite my human physique, if I ever went under, I didn't need to come up to breathe for air. Dante's eyes finally fluttered open, his dark lashes like feathers against his skin.

We turned towards Kia, who was gaping at us, her jaw slack, a heavy blush gracing her pale skin. "Don't catch any flies." I joked, winking at her. "This has been going on for quite a while. Were you looking for me?"

"It's- I'll come back later. It's okay. Congratulations." She tried a laugh, but gave up soon enough, scurrying out the door.

I looked back at Dante, his face red as well, and I could only imagine how flushed I must be as well. "Was I bad? Because, I've never really-" I was cut off as he pressed a kiss against my lips again, and I gave a little sigh when we broke apart. His careful fingers brushed a lock of curls away from my face, before tangling his fingers in my hair.

"You're perfect."