dark red , dune

V

IVY LOOKED AT HERSELF in the mirror , she examined closely the details of her face. she could almost steal feel the stinging on her skin , but she knew it wasn't real. she knew that her and paul's minds were stronger together then apart.

her words also circled her mind again , now she knew for sure that she didn't mean it. paul atreides wasn't a bad person , he just talked without thinking about what he was going to say. but that didn't mean that ivy wasn't upset at him.

"are you alright?" a familiar voice spoke from the entrance of the door. ivy turned around , seeing paul standing in the doorway , his face unsure if he should come in or not.

"i'm fine , are you alright?" ivy asked , she turned back to look at herself in the mirror. paul stayed put in the doorway just watching the blonde.

"for the most part." paul said , his eyes flickering to the floor before going back to ivy once again.

"what about the other part?" ivy turned and asked him , but paul stayed quiet. maybe it affected him more than she thought.

"i'll let you get ready. we leave to arrakis soon." paul said before walking out of the doorframe.

"paul wait!" ivy shouted , walking up the doorframe where paul stood. he turned back and looked at ivy with confusion.

"can you help me?" she asked , turning around showing paul the zipper on the back of her dress. at first she felt embarrassed asking him , but she was starting to think she didn't mind it.

paul nodded , placing on hand on ivy's side and the other onto the little black zipper on her dress. he unzipped the dress revealing ivy's bare back , he noticed the scars on it and almost as if ivy had eyes on the back of her head , she answered his question.

"their from when i was a swordsmaster." she said , paul chuckled a little bit as he let go of the zipper and turned ivy to face him.

"we should have a fight one day. get all out hate and anger out." paul said making ivy smile , "oh no i'd kill you." she said causing her and paul to chuckle.

the two stared at each other in silence , paul noticed the shimmer in ivy's eyes as ivy noticed the tiredness in paul's. she wondered if it was his dreams that kept him awake at night , although he would lie and say he hasn't had any.

"thank you paul." she smiled , he got goosebumps at the sight of her smile. almost as if she was a witch , casting a spell on him. it was strange , two days ago he swore he hated her and now she was all he could think about.

paul nodded and walked out of the room. adjusting his shirt , he went to go find his mother. ivy stood in the room and closed the door , thinking about what had just happened. perhaps being married to paul atreides wouldn't be so bad after all.

-

ivy boarded the ship , she watched from the window as the workers of the atreides family continued moving their stuff into the ship. she wondered how long it'd take.

she felt someone touch her shoulder and noticed leto looking at her and smiling , "ivy , you look beautiful my dear." he said.

ivy smiled , leto was always kind to her. since the first day she was chosen to be wed to paul atreides leto has done everything he could to make her comfortable.

"thank you leto ," she said "are you excited to be going to arrakis?" she asked , slightly tilting her head to the side.

leto smiled big and wide , "of course i am. it is my duty to help our neighboring planets , i will do what i must to help protect our precious world."

ivy's smile fell down , "is that why you made me become paul's fiancé? to protect the world?" she wasn't angry , nor upset , she was just confused. out of all the women ivy could remember that were being interviewed by lady jessica , why was she chosen?

leto furrowed his eyebrows , he seemed confused of ivy's question— "it was to establish a peaceful government , the harkonnen aren't anywhere near as powerful as us." leto said , "but that is not all you are to us ivy , you are family. whether my son likes you or not." leto said , putting his hand back on ivy's shoulder.

just then paul and lady jessica stepped on board , lady jessica greater ivy and went with leto to sit at the very front of the ship. ivy and paul sat in the middle , paul would look at ivy every once in a while , the way she sat , the way she talked , and her smile. it was all so captivating  , he had no idea how he hadn't noticed it before.

after a while he went to one of the sleeping rooms , they were mostly used by their military. but in this case , the royalty of the atreides were more in need of the sleeping room then the military. ivy had no idea a sleeping room in a ship even existed , after paul left she waited outside the room.

during this period of time she watched how leto and lady jessica interacted with each other. she could tell that leto loved lady jessica very much , and lady jessica the same. he looked at her with such admiration , it made ivy feel nostalgic of her own father.

her thoughts were quickly paused when she heard whimpering coming from the sleeping room. she turned to the door , not opening it but pressing the right side of her face against it to hear better.

"please no." she heard paul say , she assumed he was having one of his dreams again.

"take me instead. just please leave her alone!" paul shouted , he was being held down. he felt the coarse feeling of sand against his face , he knew he was dreaming but there wasn't anything he could do to stop it.

his vision was blurry , but he still continued speaking  like a robot , "if you touch her i swear i will kill you!" paul continued shouting.

he could see someone in front of him. she was wearing a grey stillsuit , her blonde hair falling to the sides of her face , she was being grabbed by the throat.

"ivy?" paul mumbled , he tried getting up but he was quickly pushed back down. "ivy!" he shouted once again almost being able to get up , but being beat down by a group of men.

and from there he watched as they slit ivy's throat.