Disclaimer: I don't own Strange Magic
Song: The Only Exception by Paramore
Cover drawn by Ka-ren on DeviantArt
The Only Exception
X -x-x-x-x- X
"Does she really expect us to accept this?" Marianne sighed as she heard the whispers down the hall.
"Maybe it's just a phase..." Her wings twitched in irritation.
"Can you imagine if they get married? He'll be our king!" She imagined them roasting on a spit.
"I feel bad for the kids they could have..." And bursting into flames.
Rage fumed inside the small fairy princess as she suffered day after day of hushed torment.
She sighed again and tried to keep walking, tried to ignore the wanton need to cut their heads off.
It had been awhile and the whispering was still unceasing. Everywhere she went, she heard it – only to have it stop when the perpetrators saw her presence. They would smile and stutter, compliment her falsely and scurry off like the cowards they truly were. She wouldn't want to say anything bad about her subjects, but it was beyond awful how they were acting.
"And you know what else? He's naked!"
A gasp. "No...he wears clothes, right? It looks like it..."
"Nope. That's all him. Like an insect thing...it's his eco...eco-skeleton...exoskeleton. Yeah, that's it."
More murmurs of disgust and she clenched her teeth. Okay yeah, technically his tough outer skeleton wasn't clothes but he wasn't naked...or he didn't look like it...or she wasn't gonna think about it...or at least right now...
She just wanted it to end. She could make it happen quite quickly with her fists crammed in their faces, though that would be hard to explain to her father.
"So, what did you do today, honey?"
"Oh, nothing. I went on a pleasant stroll and beat up about fifty people. No biggie."
Yeah, that wouldn't go over very well.
She supposed her dreams of the Fairy Kingdom embracing the Dark Forest would happen very slowly.
After they proclaimed their feelings and kissed, what happened next wasn't exactly a happily ever after. Bog's castle was still destroyed and the kingdoms were still divided. She had to go back home to talk her dad down from having a stroke and Bog had to get to work on constructing shelter for his subjects.
She felt awful about Bog losing his home, especially since it was her ex-fiance that did it. But her father had a million questions and after five hundred hours of explaining what happened and how she felt, the king finally relented and gave a halfhearted blessing. Then he started in on Dawn giving her time to collapse in bed.
All her muscles uncurled and she finally let out that huge breath of relief she didn't know she'd been holding. Just as she was starting to drift asleep, she heard it.
Thunder.
Rain.
She jumped up and ran to her window, gasping at the deluge right outside. "Oh, no..." she whimpered. Now she felt even worse. It was raining and Bog had no shelter. Because of that stupid, cheating, worthless, spineless son of a bi-
The thunder crashed interrupting her train of thought.
She sighed heavily and stood up on the windowsill. After all that happened she couldn't just leave him out there. Sure, he could take care of himself, she knew that, but the silly girl part of her couldn't stop herself from leaping out of the window.
The huge water droplets pounded from the sky relentlessly, and it took the quickest flying maneuvers to avoid them she'd ever done. If she could just get to under some trees, she would be fine. One drop almost hit her in the face and she fluttered backwards only to have her wings get soaked by another. That started a chain reaction of continuous water crashing into her until she hit the mud. She groaned and stood up, seeing the boarder of the Dark Forest just ahead. She ran through the storm, trying her best to avoid getting hit and soon reached the cover of forest foliage.
She heaved a sigh of relief and looked around. The deafening sound of water coursing through the leaves and thunder was almost too much. Visibility was practically zero, other than lightening strikes and she hid under a plant to dry her wings. She batted them back and forth in hopes of doing so.
Rain was not a friend to fairies. She wiped her brow and used a leaf to wash the mud off her arms. She must look a mess. At this point she was more worried for her own safety. What was she thinking? Surely, he was fine but now because of her stupid impulse, she wasn't. It would take longer to walk home and with the rain still pounding, she would end up water logged.
She looked up into the trees. It would be a long night.
The next thing she knew, she was back in her room, the sunlight peaking in through her window. She groaned and sat up, a warm cloth falling off her forehead. "Wha...?"
She looked around and gasped when her eyes fell on the form off to the side of her bed.
He was sitting in a chair, using his staff to lean on as he slept. She hadn't seen him sleep yet and she had to admit, he looked cute.
He wasn't snoring or anything gross, just softly breathing, slow and steady. The lines of his face evened out when he was asleep, though his expression didn't look peaceful. It seemed strained and...upset?
She sighed through her nose and gently tapped his arm. "Bog?" He twitched but didn't wake. "Bog? Come on..."
His eyes blinked open and for a few seconds he didn't register what was going on, until he saw she was awake. His eyes shot open then with a loud gasp. "Marianne!"
She smiled as he jumped up, his weapon crashing to the floor as he rushed to her, grabbing her hands. "A-Are you alright?" he stammered, looking her over.
She nodded. "Yeah, I think so...how...did I get here?"
He sighed heavily. "I found you this morning. You've been asleep all day." Then that was a sunset not a sunrise peaking through the window. "You were covered in mud and freezing cold," he continued, rubbing her arms and making her shiver. "Why were you in the Dark Forest?"
She bit her bottom lip in embarrassment. What could she say? I'm an idiot and I rushed outside in a rainstorm like a total clingy girlfriend? "Uhmmm...I was worried about you...in the rain with no place to live. I wanted to make sure you were okay..."
His eyes went from shocked to bewildered, then finally a warm blaze that shot straight to her core. "Ohh, Marianne..." He shook his head with a chuckle. "Why would you be worried? I was born in that forest. I know how to get around in the rain."
She groaned loudly, throwing her hands up. "I know! I know! It was totally dumb. I just felt like it was my fault 'cause it was my ex that destroyed your castle! If I'd never come there, Roland never would've followed me-"
"And then we never would have met," Bog finished. She looked up, feeling her cheeks flush. "Do you think I regret that?"
She blinked at his question. "What do you mean?"
"Do you think I regret meeting you even though it cost me my castle?" She said nothing and darted her eyes around. He clutched her hand again, causing her to look at him. "I wouldn't trade knowing you for anything, not even having my castle back."
She smiled and touched the hand that held her own. "Oh. Okay."
He smiled back. "You have no reason to feel guilty. Or worried."
"Did I say I was worried?" She laughed. "I meant...intense thoughts of concern."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's the same thing."
"No, it's not!"
"Yes, it is."
She poked him. "Noooo, it's not!"
He chuckled. "Whatever you say, Tough Girl."
It went silent between them. "So...you took care of me?"
"Well," he rubbed his neck shyly, "Dawn cleaned you up. I just watched over you. As did your father. But they needed their rest so I stayed."
She smiled warmly at her goblin. "Oh, I see. Thank you..."
"You're welcome..."
It went silent again and she swallowed at the awkward tension filling the room. "Ugh, this is stupid. I feel like a teenager, blegh!" She laughed and waved her hands around.
"Yeah," Bog laughed with her. "Then again, we haven't spent that much time together..."
She touched his rough fingers again, her other hand going for his face. "Let's change that..."
And they both leaned in.
He brought her back to her kingdom, in broad daylight, amidst discerning faces and fearful attitudes. He stayed with her, enduring all of it including her father who no doubt had a few looks of his own to give the goblin king.
It made her realize just how much he cared for her, and she would never let that be stolen away. Certainly not from spiteful tongues or judging glances.
After that, Bog came to visit her every night. He still wasn't comfortable being out in the public of her kingdom, but she knew someday he would be. And someday they would accept him. It was hard to believe that now, but she had to.
The weeks passed by quickly, yet painfully slow. Most nights they went out for strolls and flights, even getting some well needed sparring in.
She wanted to slap herself that initial fight with him. She never would've admitted it then, but now she could proudly say during that first scrap, she was a little turned on. She could tell he felt the same way, even if he never told her. Fighting was almost a second communication between them and she loved how words weren't needed with it.
When the combat wasn't present, the gentle air between them was. She adored the balance and how easily he held it. And he could switch on a dime right with her. One minute holding her hand and the next blocking a sword.
That all being said, at least one thing wasn't happening between them. One importatnt thing. One thing she wanted to share with him and no one else.
This night would be different though. They had been together long enough and she had to admit she was getting tired of just touching. It was teasing, exciting, irritating and infuriating.
She wanted to explore so much more...and perhaps see what was under that exoskeleton. She should feel naughty for having somewhat inappropriate thoughts like that, but when she was with Roland she never had them at all. That should've told her something then, but she supposed she was blinded by...maybe it was just his hair.
She shrugged that thought away and focused on her current love. Tonight she would show him just how she felt. And she would do it the only way she knew how.
She often wondered if he thought about it too. She wasn't even sure if they could do such an action, but even if they couldn't, she could still hold him and show him she wasn't penitent.
When he appeared, right on time as usual, she immediately grabbed his hand and guided him over to her rose-bed. He began to protest, but she shushed him with a finger to his mouth. She went over to her dressing mirror and took off her "tough girl" makeup. Tonight she would hide behind nothing.
"Marianne? What are you doing?"
She breathed as she stripped off the coverings on her arms, and began to softly sing.
"When I was younger I saw my daddy cry and curse at the wind. He broke his own heart and I watched as he tried to reassemble it. And my mama swore that she would never let herself again..."
Gone were the tights on her legs, showing bare flesh. "And that was the day that I promised I'd never sing of love, if it does not exist..." And she turned to him. "But darlin' you are the only exception..." She came closer with each line. "You are the only exception..." He looked a little uncertain but the closer she was, the more he relaxed. "You are the only exception. You are the only exception..."
She sat on his lap and curled her legs around his waist, letting her hands rest on his shoulders. He sighed as he ran his clawed fingers through her hair, smiling at her affection and inhaling to join in.
"Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul that love never lasts..." She smiled sadly as he continued. "And we've got to find other ways to make it alone or keep a straight face..."
She stroked his shoulders, them twitching in response and let herself fall closer to him as their voices joined in harmony. "And I've always lived like this, keepin' a comfortable distance. Up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness..." And he pulled her forward, spinning her around, her back hitting the soft petals of the bed and him on top of her. "'Cause none of it was ever worth the risk..."
She sang alone as he kissed her neck, her fingers playing with his. "Well, you are the only exception...You are the only exception...You are the only exception...You are the only exception...!"
And his lips were on hers fervently, the tight spring uncoiling in her stomach, all the pressure that had been building releasing in one instance. She noticed that certain areas she touched, his wings would twitch and flutter much like her heart when his hands roamed her small frame. He wasn't putting the full pressure of his body on her, ever so gently settling, yet the feel of hard exterior rubbing against flesh was too much and not enough. She moaned at the sensation of it all.
Rough against smooth, light against dark. The two so different and yet the same, beating in time.
She surprised him and flipped to put herself on top. He recovered and grinned as she smirked her victory. His hands cupped her face, thumbs rubbing her cheeks as he confessed, "I've got a tight grip on reality but I can't let go of what's in front of me here..."
She smiled, grabbing his wrists and moving his hands lower. "I know you're leavin' in the morning when you wake up. Leave me with some kind of poof it's not a dream..."
"You are the only exception..." They sang over and over together as his talons cut down the middle of her outfit. She felt no fear of the creature that could kill her in one swipe. He was her beast and she his beauty.
She wasn't ashamed as the moonlight poured into the room, making everything glow. It was the perfect light for him and now there were no secrets. Her large gossamer wings wrapped around them as pieces of his armor seemed to move apart. Now they were both bare to each other in so many ways.
He moved to look into her golden eyes and lightly pecked her lips. "And I'm on my way to believing..."
She leaned in, finishing softly in his ear. "Oh, and I'm on my way to believing..."
And together, they made the exception.
~End