this shot is actually a chapter taken out of one of my oldest wips, a rewrite of the legend of robin hood. i'm obsessed with robin hood, and the relationship i wrote between robin and marian was a love/hate, so it fits tratie perfectly.
this scene took place in the second book, when robin's sister dies on behalf of robin. he's still a lord in his manor, but he'll soon be outlawed and he knows it. he'd admitted his feelings to marian at this point, and she returned the emotions.
they'd been betrothed when they were children, but it was broken off as robin got older and left for war. when he returned, obviously, the engagement had been broken.
i think that's all the context you need, lol. sorry if this doesn't make any sense.
i figured we could use some fluff after that last shot, so here, lol.
words: 1999
. . .
Katie.
I shouldn't have had such mixed feelings about the name. It belonged to the love of my life. It was the most eloquent one of all the earth, in my opinion. It was the name of the woman who'd pulled me out of trials and hard times; it was the name of my valiant role model whom I looked up to immensely.
But it was also the name that pounded in my head at all hours, the cause of my sleepless nights. If I had the ability to keep one single thing out of my mind when darkness fell, it would be Katie. Then perhaps I would have laid my head down without the pause to think of her.
Presently, however, I was entertaining the word echoing inside me: Katie. Katie. Questions pestered my conscience: why had I sat idly whilst Katie slipped through my fingertips? Why did I push Katie away like everyone else when I knew she was the one person who could help me recover? Why did I leave England and let Katie become a maiden in her father's house, when I was the man she'd have been wed to? Why was Katie the lass I fell for rather than one who could have been mine without hesitation? Why did I feel the need to try so hard to win Katie over?
I knew the answers to all of these, yet they floated around my head listlessly. I drifted down the stairs and into the dining hall. Obviously, I wasn't going to sleep soon, so I decided to make use of my time instead of wishing of the impossible.
Taking the flowers I had picked earlier, I diverted my attention to braiding the stems to form a crown for Connor's head. My fingers numbly fiddled with the daisies and poppies as my brain wandered from one thing to another but always returning to Katie.
So, when I registered the soft rapping of a knock at the door, my first inquiry wasn't Who's come calling this late? but Is it Katie?
Yanking the door open, I beheld the literal angel of my dreams. Katie. She had evidently been to bed already, wearing a coat over her nightgown and her hair down in messy tangles. Her bright eyes were duller than usual, and the dark circles under them suggested she had a rough time getting to sleep also.
"I'm sorry to come at a time like this, but I couldn't get away from Father until now-"
Interrupting her apology without a word, I grabbed her roughly and squeezed her into a hug. I nuzzled my head into her neck, breathing in her calming scent. Her arms reacted immediately, one wrapping around my middle and the other slung over my neck. I reluctantly pulled away, scratching the back of my head. Though my mind wasn't connecting to my feet, I moved aside for her to come in.
She knew to sit down on the ground next to me even though I hadn't asked her to, and silence filled the spaces we weren't in. (Too, I tried to ignore the few strands of hair that wisped in her face, when she seemed unbothered by them. It was a brave effort not to push them away for her.)
The fire from the hearth crackled as a log fell, which caught Katie's attention. Her mind almost audibly whirred.
She gave me a prying look. "Have you been up?"
"Waiting for you." I shrugged carelessly, leaning my back against the wall. "I had nothing else to be doing, and I knew you would come eventually."
"You didn't have to stay up for me," she insisted.
"I wanted to."
She shook her head. "You should be sleeping, you need the rest."
"I couldn't."
I was thinking of you.
We returned to our comfortable peace, ultimately giving into our closeness with her head on my shoulder and my arm draped over her. I nearly dozed to sleep right then, with the sound of the snapping of the fire and Katie's light breath on my collarbone. Everything in the moment was nostalgic and right.
I wished it could've always been that way.
"Connor was too young."
I cringed. "Must we talk of that?"
"You've not been outside since last week. You shut everyone out. You've ignored your family and your people. Travis, you have to face it." Katie placed a gentle hand on my lap. "Connor is dead. I know how difficult it is to lose someone, as do you. Maybe I won't fully understand the bond you and he had, but Connor wouldn't want to see you like this."
"Yes, Connor's dead!" The violence in my voice startled me, but her expression remained calm. "Connor has died. Why did I let you in here? Shouldn't you be getting your beauty sleep? It's all people say you're good for anymore."
Harshness in my words was an understatement. Instantly, I wanted to withdraw what I'd impulsively babbled. My pride was yelling at me to pursue this newfound rage, to fight out my issues and embrace this emotion different from sadness. A part of me still wanted to argue with Katie, to have the satisfaction of out-angering the girl with the shortest temper I knew.
But seeing the vacant touch in her eyes caused me to throw away the idea. "I did not mean that, I swear."
Katie's soft voice eased my nerves instantly. "I know you didn't."
"No, you need to know that's the biggest lie I've ever told." Suddenly, the urge to comfort Katie overcame my want to be consoled myself. "You're the hardest working girl in England, and with the strongest spirit, too. You look stunning, my love. The way you look is breathtaking, sleep or no, but it's far from what you amount to. You are so much more than your beauty, and I've never thought anything otherwise. It wasn't my intention to snap, I'm sorry."
She stitched her lips into a thin smile. "I understand, Travis. Just like you haven't meant to pull away from the world." Her refocusing on the sore subject all but lessened my pain. "You can mourn Connor healthily, but not in the way you are now. Going about this like you are will tear you apart, and I won't be here to watch that happen. If you must be angry, then do so privately. I'll let you be."
"No, stay." I channeled every fiber of plea and longing into my voice. "I need you."
"You don't need me."
Tears pricked at my eyes and threatened to spill, but I choked them back, determined to hold myself up. "You are the only one I have left, Katie. Now that Connor's gone too, you're my only love left in this world."
"Trust me, there are plenty of girls lining up to love you."
"But they're not you."
She scoffed. "You've got to pull yourself out of this slump." Her once-serene tone was now flat and apathetic. "I hate seeing you like this. You've dealt with family losses before, I don't get why it's so hard now. You must find yourself again. Where's the Travis who had disposable girls on either arm and answered to nobody except himself?"
At that, I chuckled. "He met you."
"Travis, I'm serious."
"So am I."
Katie sighed. "You've lost your spark, and you'll find it when you step back into reality."
"It's my fault he's gone. I spoke for his safety, and his death was my punishment."
"That's not the point. You are your own spark, Connor has nothing to do with that. Get your mind off of him." She resituated herself to face me, so close that we breathed the same air. "Remember something that you still love, something that may not fill the void but make it less empty and hold onto it tightly. If anything, archery. Hunting. The village that looks up to you. You're a good man, Travis, and nothing will ever change that. But for the sake of everyone and yourself, dig for your spark and keep moving forward."
"Marry me."
The stillness that followed was suddenly not so calm. As I myself was still processing what I'd just blurted, it wasn't a wonder that Katie was silent. Did I just propose? Of course, she would say no, so much water had gone under the bridge. I was an idiot.
I forced myself to pan my eyes up to Katie.
She sat with her nose nearly touching mine, motionless. Nailing her gaze to the floor, she daren't meet mine. Her face was frozen in shock, for she certainly hadn't imagined me saying that to her little speech. I regretted my words and my mind finally awoke from its stagnant frame in attempt to mend the situation.
"You're the reason for going on, my love. I thought you already knew that. You are what I can hold onto, should you allow it. I loved Connor and still do, but you're the one who is constantly on my heart. You are my spark.
I know we were once engaged long ago, but so much has happened since the last time that I suppose I should make sure it was still a possibility worth considering."
"What did you just ask me?"
"If you would marry me. But Katie, I swear-"
"Yes."
At first, I didn't catch her voice; my head was racing from my precipitateness and wasn't prepared for a reply so readily.
"What?"
"I said," Katie shifted nearer subtly, "yes, I will marry you."
I gawked at her willingness and confidence. She'd never been so straightforward before. I was surprised at my own gall, yet she stopped my gaping by ghosting her lips over mine before committing to a full kiss.
Realization that this was real dawned, but I was confused as ever when we parted. "Are you not going to interrogate my motives?"
She rocked back to send me a mesmerizing stare. "No. There are many things I'm unsure of, but you, Travis of Locksley, aren't one of them."
"Oh."
Exhaling, my heart rate decreased somewhat. Maybe it was because of the shock, but I was having difficulty forming articulate sounds. Piecing together the events of the night, I gathered my wits lazily. In effort to keep up my charm, though, I managed a smirk and quirked my eyebrows. "Had I known you would've said yes that easily, my love, I would've asked you years ago."
"You did ask me years ago."
Laughing for the first time in days, I stood and plucked Katie up with me, keeping her in my arms. Lifting her up and spinning her around made me feel alive, more like myself. Her shrieks of demands to put her down brought back her mature side.
Even so, when I kissed her again, she didn't tease me with a sarcastic comment or stop me from trying altogether. On a regular day, she would have told me I was getting ahead of myself, yet she didn't dash my happiness this time.
Katie.
If we had been concerned about sleep before, we were no more. Both of us were wide awake, and we spent many hours talking of nothing, only enjoying each other's company. I forgot my mourning and became a new man, a gladder man with a woman I loved beyond comprehension and the luck of a goose-feathered arrow.
She left not long before dawn, clinging to me knowlingly and leaving me with a kiss and my thoughts. When I returned to the flower crown for Connor, I didn't do so in a manner of glumness, but in hopefulness. Better things were coming. Katie managed to help me think more positively within a matter of hours when I didn't think I would've gotten over it in years.
And in that moment of realization, I knew for certain the person I wanted to spend the remainder of my life with, no matter how long of one I would lead.