Rivals To Lovers (Dark/clear)

Ok so maybe I just like the idea of them being academic rivals. Darkstalker effortlessly acing classes she spends hours on end studying for, seemingly being both super smart and at the top of the social hierarchy, and Clearsight resenting him for looking so effortless. Meanwhile he resents her for having such a good work ethic and thinks SHE outperforms him no matter what, envies her close-knit group of friends and parents who seem remotely involved in her life.... can you tell i was a gifted kid in elementary school. ANYWAY.

Modern/human AU bc idk. I wanted to. I'm learning about arithmetic and geometric series in precalc right now so uh, that's what they're gonna argue about. if you have any idea what they are talking about i am personally patting you on the head in solidarity.

Clearsight

"So," Darkstalker said confidently, setting down the chalk and dusting off his hands. "Because r is between 1 and -1, we can plug our values into the sum formula, and conclude that the series infinitely approaches 4, without graphing a single point." He shot her a confident look, as though waiting for his standing ovation. She scowled, crumpling up a sheet of looseleaf paper in her fists.

He was right, of course--his solution as effortless and elegant as always. But he didn't have to be so smug about it.

The lazy midmorning sun streamed in through the window. By this time in the year, everyone else in their class seemed tired and ready for school to be over, but not Clearsight, and not Darkstalker. Apparently. She ran her fingers through her hair, flustered.

She smoothed out the crumpled sheet of paper as he sat back down at his desk in front of her, scribbling down a note.

It's not that hard. You're just plugging values into an equation. Just because you have a basic grasp of high-school precalculus doesn't mean you're the next Einstein, you know. You have such an overinflated ego, and it SHOWS. Also, stop looking at me all the time! You just like distracting me and you know it.

She knew it was petty, but he was the one who started it, and she couldn't just put up with this nonsense. He snorted as soon as he read it, scribbling something back while the next student was busy trying to solve the next example.

You're so pretentious, he wrote back. Teacher's pet. His handwriting was uneven and hard to read--just one more thing about him that set her on edge.

She furrowed her brow, trying to think of a good comeback to that.

"Clearsight?" Professor Allknowing called. "You seem preoccupied, why don't you show the class how to solve the next question?"

Allknowing had no idea what she was teaching, and it showed--Clearsight had no idea why Vigilance hired someone so obviously inexperienced in the first place. She didn't even seem to like kids. The only thing her and Darkstalker could agree on was their loathing of her.

She tucked the note into the pocket of her dress, standing up. "Oh, um--of course." She cleared her throat, trying not to meet his dark eyes in the front row. He grinned, raising his eyebrows as though to say: Go on.

She glanced at the formula sheet. "This is a sequence, not a series--we can see the terms aren't being added together. And the difference would be... 27-8, so, um..." she furrowed her brow. "Nineteen. We need to solve for n, so we plug our values into... this equation on the formula sheet, and..." she double-checked her values. "Since n-1 is the exponent, we want to get the two sides to the same base--see, it's the 8 at the bottom on each side, and we can obviously see that n is equal to twelve." She cleared her throat, glancing at Allknowing.

"Correct," Allknowing said reluctantly. She shot Darkstalker a grin, sitting back down.

***

Maybe it was sad, but Clearsight liked eating lunch in the library--curled up between tall, narrow shelves of books, insulated from the outside world. She was friends with the librarian, and sometimes, they'd make small talk about their families, and their favourite books.

She sighed, finishing the last bite of her sandwich. She had history and math with Darkstalker in the morning--three hours of passing notes and dirty glances, the giddy rush of proving him wrong. It was really a shame he was taking a different English course than she was; Her afternoon classes always seemed boring in comparison. She bit her lip, trying to concentrate on her book, something about the Reformation. It wasn't technically assigned reading, but they were starting a new unit next week, and she figured it would be good to have some background.

"Yes, Mom, I know you're leaving tomorrow. I'm not coming back. Fathom's parents said I can stay as long as I want to, and I'm not coming home until he apologizes." It took her a moment to recognize the voice--she'd never heard Darkstalker sound genuinely angry before.

She furrowed her brow, trying to ignore it. It was none of her business.

"I don't want to see him, okay! I don't want him to think he's won. Can't you just drive by, or something, so I can say goodbye?" she could tell he was trying to keep his voice down. "I'm not being ridiculous. You're being ridiculous!" His voice was getting thick, as though trying to hold back tears.

Don't eavesdrop, she reminded herself. Even scum of the earth like him deserves decency. She was reaching for her headphones when he seemed to hang up, kicking a shelf in frustration, then bending down to pick up the books he knocked over.

He let out a heavy breath, storming over to the nook where she was sitting. He froze, meeting her eyes, like a deer stuck in the headlights.

"I, um," she blurted. "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. I just... normally... sit here."

He shifted his jaw. "I'm guessing you heard all of that, huh?"

On instinct, she wanted to make a smart remark--try not having private phone calls in public if you don't want to be overheard!

But that felt a little mean.

She winced. "Yeah," she admitted. "Sorry."

"I guess that's my fault." He combed his fingers through dark curly hair, clearing his throat. "I should probably be the one apologizing, I guess." He didn't sound very sorry.

She reluctantly moved aside her backpack, setting down her book. She looked up to meet his eyes. "If you want to sit here, you can. It's normally very peaceful. We don't have to talk about it. Or, um, I guess if you want to--"

He looked between her and the floor, their eyes briefly meeting. "Well, this has been a weird day," he muttered, throwing his bag to the floor and sitting down beside her. Up close, she noticed the freckles dotting his cheeks, and his earrings; small emerald studs. Another thing she normally couldn't stand--he looked far too put together for a high school student. She couldn't figure out where he found the time every morning to look so pretty. She sort of envied it.

"I, um--I like your dress," he muttered, avoiding her eyes. It was her favourite, green velvet with a peter pan collar. "It's nice."

"Thanks," she said, smiling out of habit. "It has pockets, look." She stuck her hands into the pockets to prove it, laughing nervously.

"Oh, um, cool?"

"I like your sneakers," she said, gesturing. Someone had painted little stars on his dark blue high tops and she'd always thought they were nice.

"My sister will paint anything in sight," he said, seeming to relax a bit. "I don't think she's ever seen a surface that she doesn't want to draw on." He smiled, just a bit. "They're my favourite."

He pushed back his hair again; a habit that, for once, didn't set her on edge.

"My dad and I fight a lot," he said quietly. "And, um--last week, I had enough, and decided it would be really smart to storm off and say I'm never coming back. So that's what... that was about. In case you're wondering." He cleared his throat.

"I'm... sorry. That sounds rough," she said, meeting his eyes.

"And my mom wants me to come home, because she's leaving for work tonight, and she's not gonna be back for another month, but if I come back. he's gonna think he's won. But I can't leave Whiteout alone with him, I have to look after her. So it's really just when I decide to come crawling back home." He clenched his fists, then tried to force himself to relax. "So, now you know."

She reached out and rested her hand on top of his. "I promise, I won't tell a soul."

***

Gotta give credit where credit is due, this has to be a LITTLE inspired by devi and ben's dynamic from never have i ever. look up compilations on youtube if you haven't seen the show, or just watch it on netflix, you'll get what i'm talking about lmao

***

Quiet (dark/clear)

Clearsight

A cold wind sweeps through the quiet, empty streets, still cast in mid-day sunlight. I smile halfheartedly at a dandelion pushing up through the cracks in the worn cobblestones, and wonder how many dragons have passed over them over the thousands of years.

Smoke rises from an abandoned shop beside us. I can't read the charred sign.

Dragons have spent the past three years taking whatever they can from the wreckage until there's nothing left. It's going to be hard to change that habit.

I close my eyes, trying not to think about that right now. Until this war is over, it's low on the list of priorities.

"How many times have they had to rebuild this district?" Darkstalker asks. This must be even stranger for him than it is for me; the destruction still unfamiliar and startling.

I laugh. "I don't even remember. I don't come here very often." A statue of Allknowing gazes down at passersby with an authoritative expression. We'll need to take that out, I suppose--it seems like a frivolous thing to even care about in wartime. I wonder what we'll replace it with--maybe Whiteout knows someone. I make a mental note to ask her.

He gestures to a shop to our right, the display window shattered, shelves picked clean. "We got our wedding rings there. Remember?"

I blink, trying to remember. It was so different back then, it may as well have been a whole different kingdom. But the display shelves are the same, the rotten wooden sign feels familiar now I look for it.

"You're right," I say softly. "I didn't even notice." I can remember that day exactly, etched into my mind. Like a part of me never left at all.

"And there, that restaurant--we went there after we got engaged." He points a few shops over. "What was it called? I can't remember. Wasn't there a meteor shower that night? I remember thinking--oh, what did you say--that all the stars must have aligned. Something like that."

I laugh, even though it's not funny. "Another life."

"Another life," he agrees. He looks so tired in the sunlight, not even angry anymore. He pulls a wing over my shoulder, and I close my eyes.

"It doesn't feel like home anymore," Darkstalker says quietly. "This isn't the place I remember. And I don't think it's ever going to be that way again."

"No. It's not." No matter what we do, the scar will always remain.

"This is a fool's errand," he mutters.

"I know." I can feel the futures unfolding in my mind, spiralling out into disaster. "But someone's gotta try."

"I can't lose you" (Eclipse and Way)

Don't ask me what Way did. he was really terrible in WOI, it could really be anything. It is SUCH a trip to write them like this, I haven't thought about their issues in WOI for a while. Also, it's so weird to write them all TOGETHER. what???

Eclipse

Mom doesn't need to send Way to his room; as soon as I get home, the door is slammed shut and barricaded with something heavy, so I can't force it open.

Mom doesn't need to send Way to his room, because as far as she's concerned, nothing is wrong. She's not even home yet. I wonder if I'll have to make dinner tonight.

She has enough problems.

And besides. Way wouldn't want me to tell her.

It's not like it'll change anything. Sometimes, I wonder if he's trying to make Mom hate him, to push her to the edge until she does something drastic. If that's all part of the thrill of self-destruction.

I could tell Shadowhunter. She would shout at our little brother, bang at the door until he came out, tell him she's gonna do something he'll regret if he ever touches me again. But he wouldn't care.

And Shadowhunter isn't home either, probably coming up with new ways to get herself killed before sundown. It's just two of us, in this tired shell of a home.

"What did I do?" I whisper, leaning against the door. I close my eyes, a tear rolling down my face. "I don't understand." He probably can't hear me. I may as well be talking to myself. "We're alone, Way, and I thought that meant we'd--we'd be closer. You could look out for me, and I could look out for you, and then it wouldn't be like Dad was gone at all. Or, it would hurt less, anyway."

At school, we learned about ecosystems last week. How removing one piece of the system can cause the rest of it to crumble. Maybe that's what our family was like, and we didn't even know it. Dad left, and now the rest of us are left to collapse and turn against each other in the aftermath.

"I miss you," I say softly, burying my face in my talons. "It gets really lonely, you know. And I know you must feel the same way."

No reply.

"I can't lose you," I say. The words come out louder, angrier than I meant them too.

I wasn't supposed to do that, was I?

I stand up, wiping the tears from my eyes. "I'm sorry. You probably just want space. I'll--I'll leave you alone."

Growing up in the Ice Kingdom (Eclipse)

I believe this person requested "Rapunzel elements", so here is my best attempt at writing a fairy tale. The same person also requested an AU where Eclipse is the animus, so I decided to roll those two things together to make this premise make sense. I imagine either Snowflake or Snowfox takes pity on her in this AU and she manages to escape with their help--but I thought where I ended it was a nice conclusion.

Up in the north, in a land covered in ice and snow, there is a princess who doesn't belong.

Her name is Eclipse. Her scales are the colour of smoke, and her bloodline has been cursed for generations. She is almost seven years old, but she will spend the rest of her life paying the consequences of her parents', her grandparents' mistakes. If she has dragonets, someday, their lives will be just as ruined.

She's been told the story of her family many, many times by Grandmother, who comes to visit her every once and a while. She tells her the story of her son, Prince Arctic--hatched an animus, like Eclipse. He had everything he could have wanted, in a room in the palace not unlike the princess's home. He was so happy, the year he turned seven--to marry a lovely young IceWing he was madly in love with, to give a magical gift to serve his tribe, time immemorial. But he was stolen by the evil Foeslayer, and taken back to the Night Kingdom against his will.

It was there they had two dragonets: Whiteout, and Darkstalker, born out of hatred and spite. His son had this power, a stolen blessing, and he used it to torment his father, a prisoner in a kingdom he loathed. He used his magic to hurt the IceWing tribe, to relegate them to irrelevance. He is Eclipse's father.

Her mother, so she's heard, was a seer named Clearsight, the only dragon in the kingdom whose power matched his. They worked together for the queen, brutally terrorizing the IceWing tribe, and soon had three dragonets--Shadowhunter and Wayfinder, powerless--and Eclipse, hatched with the same stolen animus gift her father possessed. When she was only a few months old, Queen Diamond offered Vigilance a deal: she would stop the war, which had become costly for both sides--in exchange for one special dragonet. But unless they were careful, Darkstalker would enchant her to return. So Diamond used her power to craft a beautiful necklace that would protect the princess from any spells her father might try to cast.

Vigilance agreed. By the time Eclipse's parents realized their daughter was missing, she was far beyond their reaches.

Or, that's how Diamond always told it, anyway.

But to tell the truth, her grandfather had chosen to leave his miserable life, and regretted the decision ever since. Eclipse's father wasn't evil, no more than anyone else. And her mother had only intended to use her powers for the sake of defense. They loved their dragonets fiercely, and when they found out who had stolen their daughter, they killed Queen Vigilance and took her throne. In the seven years since, they've ran their kingdom into the ground waging war against the IceWings. Not once have they given up the hope of getting their daughter back.

Eclipse doesn't know this, though. For now, she believes what she is told--that her ice-carved tower is there not to keep her in, but to keep others out.

The window is barred and the staircase can only be accessed through a locked trap door, but she doesn't want to leave. Her tower is beautiful, and she's carved scenes into the ice walls: meadows of flowers, sunsets over the sea. She is always a little cold, shivering beneath heavy fur cloaks.

She has only ever used her magic under Grandmother's instruction, and she never understands the spells she's asked to cast. She's not supposed to.

This power, she's been warned. can do great good. But it can also ruin you. Make you a monster, like your father, and your grandfather before him. Is that what you want? Grandmother asks her.

She shakes her head, wide-eyed and scared. No, Grandmother.

I only do this to protect you, Grandmother reminds her. I love you dearly, and I don't want to see you hurt.

Soon, she will be seven years old. She yearns for things she's only read about in scrolls--a proper gifting ceremony, and one spell she gets to choose. She wants to travel, to see the continent.

It's too dangerous, she reminds herself. Grandmother set these rules for a reason.

And perhaps, that's the true curse: for all this power, she'll spend the rest of her days answering someone else's orders; her life never truly her own.