AN: Ok, so it's been a couple years since I last posted anything in the Dragon Knights fandom (aside from a few drabbles on my LJ/DW somewhere) and while I haven't had as much of a presence, you can believe that I have been thinking about it every now and then. I love the series, even if I can't make heads or tails of the end of it, and I love everyone I have met through this fandom, even if I have lost touch with most of them. So this is my love letter to the fandom and to you, my readers. I hope you enjoy.

Prompt: Bby!Rath, Lykouleon and Raseleane.

Lykouleon had been honest with her from the beginning, about everything. About who and what Rath really was -as far as he knew- and what he had become. He cradled the baby to his chest as he explained, the child having been bathed, clothed and named by the officers before he – they had been allowed to to her side. He said many things as the baby – their baby slumbered in his arms, such as: 'You're still my queen,', 'He's not my son,", and 'Nothing has to change,".

Raseleane bore this as gracefully as she did everything in her life. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and swept away all the dark thoughts cluttering her mind, bolstered by the light of Lykouleon's love sparkling firmly beside her. When she opened her eyes again, she was smiling. She took her husband's free hand in her own, pressing a finger against his lips. When he fell silent, she spoke.

"Only you, my dear," she said fondly, squeezing his hand tightly as if she feared he might be ripped at her from any moment, "would manage to have a child by your male best friend." Later on she would comment how Rath had Ruwalk's nose, how the shape of his eyes was the same as Lykouleon's, tease about how he was going to grow up to have the best part of the both of them -tactfully ignoring the other that had contributed to his being-, but now was not the time. There were more important things to be addressed.

"He's not," Lykouleon started to protest again, silenced this time by Raseleane taking the child from his arms, cradling him as if he were something infinitely precious. She stared down at him, smile transitioning into something softer, something sadder.

"Of course he's not," she said, slipping a finger into the grasp of a tiny fist as he stirred, a glimmer of red peeking out between dark lashes before he slipped back into slumber. She clutched him tighter, pressing a gentle kiss to his tiny forehead. "He's mine," she said, giving voice to the wish deepest in her heart, to the ache that had sprouted in her chest as soon as she had spotted her husband holding a child that was his, but not hers.

The first thing a mother worries about is how to protect her child and even though she hadn't given birth to him (no one had), from the instant she saw him, she knew that she would give anything for him. Her life, her reputation, anything. No one was to suspect what he really was, where he really appeared from and with it being so close to her return from Kainaldia, it would be easy to draw the wool over the eyes of the populace.

"He's mine." She repeated, steel in her voice and fire in her eyes. Lykouleon would have done it, she knew as surely as she breathed, loved the child as much as he would have if it had been his own, if not more if she had returned pregnant. He would have adored him or her with every fiber of his being because they came from her and he loved her.

Surely she could do the same. Love his son with every bit she had to give, love him as if he were his own and forget his true origins. Squash down the ache and the worry and all the regrets that swirled up inside her and focus on doing what was right. The baby deserved as much of a chance as anyone at life, and she would give it to him.

"You're sure?" Lykouleon asked, the smile on his face so sweet it was almost heartbreaking. He wrapped his arms around her, hands resting warm on the small of her back. She smiled back, leaning against him as she cradled their baby between them, safe and warm, where nothing would ever hurt him.

"The only thing I have ever been surer of," she said, "is my love for you."

Even years later, I find Raseleane to be a fascinating character. She's so delightfully sneaky and manipulative without ever appearing to be, the real power behind the throne and Draqueen. Her and Lykouleon's relationship is also fascinating and adorable (though Gaiden makes it… a bit creepy).

That said, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed and will consider leaving a comment before you navigate away. Much like my previous two fics, I am taking requests, so if there's something you'd like to see kindly send it to me, this fic is written for you after all.