Summary:
Takes place before RoS, somewhat skewed. Lyndon only ever found one woman worth keeping, but she slipped away. Perhaps he had found another worth keeping – one who smote him with generosity. ScoundrelxDH(fem)
Disclaimer:
I do not own Diablo 3 or any of its characters. They all belong to Blizzard. The name "Valla" came from a short story written by Diablo 3 Publishing Lead, Micky Neilson, and posted on the official Diablo 3 website.
Even a Scoundrel Can be Smitten
"I have something for you, Lyndon."
The demon hunter, Valla, held out a large cloth bag that chimed generously from its contents. Lyndon eyed the bag skeptically, then gave the demon hunter a questioning look.
"It's gold," She pushed the bag into his chest insistently, "for your family."
Lyndon's eyes widened as he took the hefty bag. He stammered, shocked at the cold woman's sudden goodwill.
"I-I don't know what to say," the Scoundrel rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.
"Oh, you'll find something to say. You always do."
The demon hunter gave a brief tug at the corner of her lips, attempting to smile, then pulled her hood over her head. As she walked off to prepare for the final battle, Lyndon fiddled with the bag of gold. A sigh of admiration escaped him while he dreamily cupped his face with one hand.
That was probably the moment he was smitten by the huntress.
After the defeat of Diablo, the entire group was bound together by the ecstasy of victory. It was like they had developed a little family. So they all decided not to part ways. Besides, demons still lurked around – far from being extinguished. Until then, it was wiser to stick together (stick to the hero who defeated the Prime Evil solo). Someone had to do the cleanup work anyway.
Valla and company were on a caravan back to Caldeum for a rest stop before they journey to New Tristram and then to Westmarch.
"We stop at each city to scout the lands for demons," Valla explained. Her glowing eyes met Lyndon's daydreaming stare, and she raised a brow. "…possibly for treasure along the way."
"Ah…I love the way you think," Lyndon sighed in admiration.
Valla stared blankly. "…Right." She lay out a map, pointing to every sector of the deserts.
When she negotiated the areas to dispatch everyone, Kormac gave a templar salute. Eirena volunteered to follow him, to which the templar blushed sheepishly. Valla insisted she go alone this time, but Lyndon begged to follow. In his attempts to appeal to the demon hunter, Valla finally surrendered just to keep him quiet. It was the only time that she surrendered – in anything.
Upon arrival to Caldeum, the group unloaded their stashes to the usual place in the Hidden Camp. In all haste, Valla stood on the Waypoint to access the Dahlgur Oasis. As soon as the teleportation light engulfed her, she felt herself launch into the oasis. When Lyndon stumbled behind her, she threatened to leave him in the dust if he were any slower. Their chemistry always worked like that - teasing. The more he thought about it, the more Lyndon's perverted smile grew.
"What are you thinking now?" Valla frowned in slight disgust as she imagined what would be going on in that scoundrel brain of his.
Lyndon purred. "What do you think I'm thinking of right now?"
"Ugh," she mumbled under her breath and began jogging with her hand crossbows unlocked.
Lyndon armed his own crossbow and followed closely behind. "A rather romantic choice to start with scouting the Oasis, you know? With all the fireflies in the lagoon-blue shades - if it weren't for the demons, this would be a love-making paradise."
"I marked several caves we passed here but had no time to investigate." She explained, ignoring his comment. "I wager they are infested with demons."
"And treasure!"
"Perhaps."
"But there are several other caves in, say the Desolate Sands, that we have yet to explore." Lyndon wondered, then smirked seductively. "Why the romantic Dahlgur Oasis first?"
"We could go out to the scorching sun first if you'd like."
"Okay, okay. Touché." Lyndon raised a hand defensively.
The scoundrel sighed inwardly. She really knew how to cut conversations short. Courting the huntress proved far more difficult than he thought. That or she really did not understand his romantic advances yet. He liked to believe the former. It was a challenge worth accepting.
"Oh look, Lyndon, a Treasure Goblin," Valla uttered in a monotone voice while pointing her crossbow at the creature in the distance. "Let us go get it."
"Oh won't you stop sounding so excited?" Lyndon rolled his eyes before hoisting up his crossbow to aim at the Treasure Goblin.
The pair fired several bolts into the goblin; almost immediately, it felt over with a yelp and disappeared into dust. Gold and other loot sprung all over the ground. Lyndon ran up to gather all the gold pieces while Valla knelt one leg on the floor to take her time sorting the weapons. A distinct shine from a ring caught her eye and she picked it up to examine.
"A legendary."
"What?" Lyndon's ears perked up. He walked over to the woman.
Valla lifted the ring up to him. "This ring is a legendary. Do you want it?"
Lyndon cupped his face with one hand and covered his heart with the other. "Oh! Is this a marriage proposal line? So inventive, love." He put out his left hand. "Yes."
Valla scowled, standing up and shoving the ring into Lyndon's chest.
"I thought you were not the marrying type?"
"Ah, but for you, love, anything." He blew her a kiss.
Valla furrowed her eyebrows and walked away, muttering something about Lyndon being awfully odd. The man chuckled in amusement, running up beside her.
"But seriously, you don't want to keep a legendary for yourself? They're bloody hard to come by."
"I have enough, and they are far better than the one I gave you. Sell it, keep it – do what you will."
"Oh…I don't know if I should feel offended or touched. But treasure is treasure." He slipped the ring onto his ring finger. "A perfect fit on this one!"
He stared at the huntress who kept her eyes forward. He was hoping to get some sort of reaction from her. But it seemed like he needed to do more work.
"So, would this make us Mr. and Mrs. Lynd-?"
"Stop it."
"Alright, alright!"
Lyndon pulled a bolt out of a demon corpse, wiping the blood off before putting it back into his quiver. They were in the last of the uninvestigated caves in the oasis. This one was two floors deep so far, and demons crawled everywhere. Lyndon was losing stamina. When he saw Valla off in the distance, he sighed and ran to catch up with her.
"Couldn't we stop to take a breather?" He called out to her in laboured breaths. "I swear, this is more tiring than our run through the Heart of Sin."
"Go back to camp if you must, but I will hide any treasure I find here from you." Valla deadpanned, to which Lyndon ran faster to stay parallel to her.
"Is that carrot-and-stick you are using? To motivate me? You do care!" He cooed.
"You're talking more often than usual, I see." Valla sighed as she turned a corner and shot a bolt at a stray demon.
Lyndon fired another bolt in the same direction, hitting another one that Valla failed to see on the dark wall corners. "It's because I'm in high spirits!" He beamed.
The demon hunter glanced at the corpse of the second demon that rolled off the wall, then turned to raise an impressed brow at the scoundrel.
"Oh?" She said as she continued jogging forwards. "How so?"
"Well, I scored a bloody legendary accessory, one." he lifted his left hand to look at the gleaming ring. "And two, I get alone time with you." He continued matter-of-factly.
"Uh huh." Valla muttered nonchalantly.
"I don't know, it feels like today will be a good da-URGH!"
The next second, an earth dragon sprung from under the ground and grabbed Lyndon with its jaws, throwing the scoundrel across the chamber.
"Lyndon!" Valla glanced at him briefly before turning and swiftly fired a few bolts into the earth dragon's vital spots.
Once the dragon collapsed to the floor in a dying bellow, Valla locked her crossbows and ran to Lyndon.
"Lyndon, speak to me!" The demon hunter knelt down to lightly tap her hand on his cheeks. The scoundrel gave no response; he lay on the ground motionless.
In a slight panic, the huntress reached into her bag pouch for a potion. She pulled the stopper, proceeding to pour the contents into Lyndon's mouth. But the potion was so thick, it took its time to pour out. Usually the drinker would just suck it out of the bottle quickly and drink it. Without delay, she sucked the potion into her mouth and bent down towards Lyndon, ready to transfer the liquid mouth-to-mouth. But then, she almost choked.
Lyndon had his eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness; his lips were somewhat puckered, expecting the supposed kiss from the demon hunter.
Valla irritably drank the potion down in one gulp and punched Lyndon in the arm. Hard.
"Oww…" the scoundrel whined, massaging his arm.
"GET UP!" Valla yelled angrily as she herself stood up.
"Hahaha! I swear, I have never seen you panic this much! That worm toss did hurt a bit, but your reaction was gold!" He grabbed his sides as he laughed mockingly.
"That was NOT funny. I thought you were really dying." She stated firmly.
"Oh come off it! I can't die that easily. Besides, it was only a joke!"
"Death Is NOT a joke!" She jabbed her finger furiously into his chest at each word.
The huntress pulled her hood over her head, then vaulted away as fast as she could, leaving Lyndon in the dust.
"Wait! Wait!" He called after her, clicking his tongue and sighing. "A difficult one, this one."
The scoundrel jogged forwards towards the direction that the huntress vaulted to. Pursuing her proved, indeed, extremely difficult.
After a long trek across the cave, checking each corner and crevice, Valla was nowhere to be found. Not that he needed to worry anyway. The woman could kill armies of demons solo if she wanted to. So Lyndon decided to open a town portal which brought him back to the hidden camp.
Evening had fallen; a campfire was lit with a large pot of stew brewing over the fire. Eirena and Kormac sat cooking their skewers of meat, wearily glancing at Valla who sat on the other side of the fire. Her eyes dangerously reflected the flames with their furious glow.
"Oh! So you did get back here first! And there I was exploring the cave, trying to catch up to you." Lyndon breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Valla grumbled irritably before getting up, walking past him to the wooden overlook above Caldeum.
Lyndon eyed her briefly, "Is she still angry about that?" he wondered, then shook it off and sat himself across the two other followers.
"So what is for dinner this fine evening?"
"What did you do?" Kormac asked bluntly.
Lyndon scoffed. "What did I do?" He glanced behind him at the huntress. "Why do you assume it's me first?"
"Judging by the cold shoulder she's giving you, and the murderous aura in her eyes, it has to be something you did. Now what did you do?" The templar pointed his skewer at the scoundrel.
"What? I merely pulled a joke on her." Lyndon raised his hands defensively.
Kormac grimaced. "What kind of joke?"
"I got tossed by a bloody earth worm and then I decided to fake my death. It was supposed to be funny." Lyndon took a skewer himself, fumbling it over the fire. "And she took it seriously. Then she got all angry about it when I laughed." He started chuckling. "But you should have been there to see her face. I mean, it-"
He looked up from his cooking skewer to find both Eirena and Kormac with disapproving looks on their faces.
"What?"
"Good job, you fool." Kormac sighed. "Have you ever heard of her story of how she became a demon hunter?"
"No."
"You don't pay attention during our campfire meal conversations, do you?" When Lyndon shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, Kormac rolled his eyes. "That was a foolhardy question of mine." He then spoke in a lower voice. "Her family was murdered by hellspawn; her sister tragically died from madness that corroded her very mind. And so she became a demon hunter to protect people and seek vengeance; by and large to protect people."
"After all this, I believe we have become a sort of family," Eirena interjected.
Kormac nodded at her in acknowledgement before firmly pointing a finger at Lyndon. "Now imagine how she would feel if she were unable to protect her family again?"
Lyndon stroked his chin in thought, then shrugged his shoulders. "But I don't need protecting! Besides, it was a petty joke."
"A pet- a petty-!" Kormac clicked his tongue. "Unbelievable!" He stirred his stew irritably with his spoon. "Stick an extra pillow under your head tonight and think it over in your sleep!"
Lyndon tensed at the templar's reaction; was it really his fault after all? He still could not wrap his head around the idea of his joke being so offensive. After a few bites of his skewered meat, he peeked over his shoulder to watch Valla who was slouched over the wooden railing. Her hood covering her face more than usual.
That night, Lyndon really did try stuffing an extra pillow under his head to think it over; although he would not admit that to the templar. He was rolling around in the bed sheets, deprived of sleep and understanding.
The Iron Wolves gave them shelter for the nights they stayed. Their encampment was a small edifice with several rooms shared by multiple soldiers. While his bed lay next to the snoring templar's and a few other Iron Wolves, the girls had all the space in the world in a separate room. It would have been comfy had there been complete silence and no thoughts eating at him. But there he was.
With a frustrated click of his tongue, he climbed out of bed to go for a night stroll. The architecture was beautiful indeed – all that gold. He happened to pass by the bathhouse which was still lit. Curious, he went inside for a look. Lyndon's eyes widened as he saw a familiar silhouette on the other side of the frosted glass.
Valla stretched her arms into the air, breathing in the steam and enjoying the bath. She heaved a satisfied sigh as she made waves in the water with her arms.
Lyndon wore a mischievous smile and purred as he quietly pressed his eye close into the glass, hoping to get a better view of the huntress. For several minutes, he moved to different angles and tried to look for holes in the glass, but to no avail. His concentration eventually led his ears to fail to notice that the sound of water splashing had stopped.
"Enjoyed what you saw?" A familiar voice crept up behind him.
"I most likely would have if I had seen ANYTHING at all." Lyndon was still squinting at the frosted glass. Then his eyes widened in realization. He turned around slowly with a sheepish smile-
-which was slapped off his face by the huntress herself.
"Ow! I didn't see anything!" Lyndon rubbed his pulsing cheek.
"That is not the point! Peeping at girls is wrong." Valla was fully-clothed, albeit her armour pieces were placed in her stash. "You're lucky I am acquainted with you. Otherwise, I would have made your life slow and painful."
Lyndon gulped a little at that, then decided to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"Say, about earlier, you know," he stammered a bit, "I-I'm sorry."
Valla's moonlit eyes widened slightly at the apology, but she maintained her composure like always.
"See, I don't quite understand why the joke upset you. I still found it funny. But I do know you were upset by it, and well, the templar explained…" Lyndon rambled on, "and although I don't understand why you're upset, I do know you were upset by that. And, well, I'm sorry." He cleared his throat awkwardly.
Valla eyed him briefly. Although she had already somewhat forgiven him, hearing an actual apology was…quite nice. Though she supposed she could try explaining her point of view to the scoundrel.
"Lyndon," she sighed, "supposedly someone very, very dear to you suddenly collapsed and said they were dying, how would you react?"
"Someone very dear? Well, I would be very worried, I suppose," he answered.
"And then they got up and laughed at your worry, saying it was a joke, mocking your panic."
Lyndon thought about it for a moment, then it dawned on him.
"Ohhh, well I see why you were upset." His ears then perked up. "Wait, you said 'someone very, very dear.' So you mean I am very, very dear to you?"
"It was an example," Valla stated bluntly.
"No, no, you were very upset," Lyndon tried having eye contact with the huntress who kept turning away, "because you thought you had lost someone 'very, very dear' to you, am I right or am I right?"
"No." The demon hunter proceeded to leave.
But Lyndon blocked her path; Valla was very tempted to vault past him.
"Seriously," the scoundrel beckoned, "do you think we could ever become more? All this gold and adventuring and treasure…it's fun! And well, you have become 'very, very dear' to me too, you know?"
Valla looked away; letting a long sigh out of her nose as if she was meditating away a growing blush. When she was ready, she gave him a serious answer.
"No."
Lyndon's shoulders slumped dejectedly as he let out a whimper.
"Not so much as a thought, I see." He sighed.
"Did I break your heart, Lyndon?" Valla tilted her head curiously.
"Yes you did!" Lyndon pouted playfully.
The huntress walked past him with a slight tug at the corner of her lips. She flipped her hair triumphantly. "Good, then we are even."
"Oh…" He whined dejectedly before suddenly perking up again. "Wait, wait!" He chased up to the demon hunter. "By that, did you mean your heart was broken when you thought I was dead?"
"Take it however you like, Lyndon," she muttered tiredly.
"And you rejected me, just to return the favour for my joke?"
"…right."
"When in fact, you would like to give me a chance?"
"Uh huh."
"A subtle encouragement to tell me to keep pursuing and that I am almost there?"
"Goodnight, Lyndon."
"I see! Just you wait, love. I will smite you like you have smitten me!"
"Lyndon, shut up and go sleep."
Westmarch was still a while away. And the scoundrel will use every minute to conquer this subquest.
The End
Author's Note: First Diablo 3 fanfic. I just love the interaction between Lyndon and the Demon Hunter - the pair chemistry is just too fun. The demon hunter is so tsundere. Hahaha. I hope you enjoyed the story! Please do leave a review!