Oneshot Collection

Not A Fairytale Sorta Love: Marellinh

realizing I have not written any aro content is a CRIME, so I will rectify that now, in honor of pride month! 

TW: hmmmm slight internalized arophobia but I think that's it, tell me if there should be more!

Marella wasn't meant for love.

Or, at least, that's what she'd always thought.

Her type of love was superficial; flirty smiles in the halls, a teasing smile, too-loud laughter that never really sounded genuine.

(a boy grins at her from across the hall, and she smiles back, tossing a wink toward him because that's what she's supposed to want to do, right?)

Love wasn't on the table for Marella, had never really been an option. She read her storybooks and fairytales— and crinkled her nose at the idea of a prince in shining armor.

(did she need someone to rescue her? take her away from this loveless life?)

She knew everything there was to know about true love, about darting glances across a crowded hall, about doves fluttering into the shape of a heart, about white fancy dresses and first dates and roses at her doorstep.

She knew about fireworks under her skin and thrumming heat and all the languages people seemed to switch to when they spoke about The One. About this boy or that girl and the way they'd made eye contact, surely they were meant to be!

But she wanted none of it.

She wanted to want it.

(shouldn't she want someone to rescue her? to take her away from this loveless life? wasn't that what she needed?)

But Marella wasn't meant for love; at least, not the kind in storybooks.

And maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world, she thought, as she listened to Linh's laugh ring loudly in her ears.

...

Love was mystical, Linh had always thought. Something magical that floated above their heads, and sometimes it gifted certain people with its touch.

The touch, Linh imagined, felt like rose petals landing on her shoulders. It would feel like mist tracing a cool hand down her neck, or perhaps it felt like fireworks, passionate and loud and there.

(but it wasn't there, not for her)

Linh had plenty of experience with love. Every time Tam gave her one of those smiles he saved just for her, she felt a rush of it. Every time one of her friends laughed or held her hand or told her it was going to be okay, she imagined she could feel the gentle pressure of it drifting around her.

Not the kind people expected. Not the kind people waited for.

(not the kind she didn't know how to feel)

Romance was dramatic, and sweet, and... Linh had no idea what it was like, to be touched by it. To want it. To need it. To throw away everything for it the way people seemed to expect her to do.

(love was in the air, they always said, but why could she never catch it?)

Linh knew plenty about love.

The wrong kind of love, her parents told her when she asked why she had to register for the match.

The wrong kind of love, her classmates told her when she ventured to say that she didn't want to be married someday.

The right kind of love, Linh knew, when she watched Marella's hands weave multicolored flames into a flag.

(green and white and gray was a nice color, she decided)

Just another kind of love, like any other.

Not wrong. Not right. Just... her.

...

Biana looked surprised when Linh corrected her, smiling.

("no, we aren't dating," she told her, fingers tightly holding Marella's)

Keefe raised an eyebrow when Marella traced a finger down Linh's cheek teasingly, but he didn't comment.

("it isn't like that," they told him, and he dropped the issue)

Sophie smiled when she spotted Linh's fingers playing with Marella's hair.

("we're together, but not like that," Marella reminded her, and Sophie nodded slowly, like maybe she understood)

Fitz clapped his hands together in excitement when he heard.

("i was looking for something to describe it," he told them, and Marella squeezed Linh's hand. "thank you")

...

They weren't meant for the love that drifted around their heads, leaking into the storybooks they used to devour.

(Marella wasn't meant for love; not the rose petals kind of love, not the first kisses kind of love, not the fireworks or the prince in shining armor)

(Linh knew love was magical, mystical, mysterious, and it seemed she'd caught it after all. simply... not how she'd expected)

Tell me if I depicted that??? correctly??? I hope I did but I don't have... like, experience with this sorta thing.

To be clear neither of them were said to be ace in this but they might be I haven't decided... maybe aroace Marella and aroallo Linh that sounds nice

ALSO I STUCK IN ARO FITZ >:)))