Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, another Ashe/Tryndamere arranged marriage AU thing. I'm full of 'em.


Till Death

When first he met her, he had to confess that she seemed to him a spoiled, ornery princess with no recourse but to agree to the situation so as to satisfy daddy.

"It's nice to…" she sniffed, as if something unsavory lingered beneath her nose. "…finally meet you, Mr. Fell."

Her features were drenched in disdain as she looked upon him; eyes half-lidded, fingers slender as they drummed against the table, lips contorted in the most insincere semblance of courtesy he ever did see.

"Likewise."

"Well," she gave a grandstanding sigh that couldn't help but convey her utmost dissatisfaction. "I'm going to be frank. You aren't quite what I expected, not that I have any choice in the matter."

"Thanks," he very nearly managed without that contemptible bit of biting sarcasm. "I try my best."

She twitched, tongue no doubt sharp with readied reprimand, but ignored him in favor of continuing.

"When we're to be wed," she talks as if of the weather. "It's to be in name only. You're not to touch me, visit me, or talk to me unless and only if the situation calls for it. Separate rooms are a given, of course."

Her impertinence well and truly struck something within him, and he felt it: the coal-black yearnings to lash out, his intentions mired in the sluggish trappings of indignation, pooling as churning magma, flames licking at his insides, scorching his lungs with the longing to remind this coddled princess why they were enemies-

But he reigned it in, if only because he knew he must.

"Lady Uspart," he mumbled quietly. "This union is important. So vital that our fathers put everything they had on the line to ensure its success. If there's any notion at all for this war to finally cease-"

"And it'll happen, won't it?" she waved it off. "I promised Father I would, so I will. But just because we'll be married doesn't mean we're friends. Are we understood?"

He could feel the smirk lingering in the corner of her lips without looking up. Bathed in the steady gaze of blue, he was privy to the storms brewed behind her lids, a maelstrom in each eye.

And if only to release himself from her sound, her fury, he relented.

"We are."


War surfaces like the steady vacillation of waves to a shoreline, like the drone of vermin on forest wall. It's the sort of meandering dread that wraps around the throat, has the consistency of sludge that envelops slowly, that drums on the senses in a way that never comes all at once. A realization that doesn't strike until a tower of corpses are already heaped at one's back.

When they struck, it was only sheer luck that spared his life. And for that same life, he couldn't comprehend why he didn't just stick to self-preservation. Whatever possessed him to save her as well must have been demonic and foul indeed.

Houses rend apart, towers of blaze roaring high enough to obscure the distant mountain, the screams of the dying mingling like some sordid symphony.

Their feet slapped against muddied snow as they tore across pavement, his hand forcibly tugging hers along.

"F-F-Fell," her teeth chattered, whether from fear or cold he didn't spare a thought to find out. "Why is this happening? How can this have-"

Typical of her to crumble when the chips were down. He expected no less.

"I don't know which clan they're from, yours or mine. It makes no difference. Insurgents are who they are because they're dissatisfied with how things are going. In this case, it's undoubtedly our wedding, sham though it was. They don't want peace. They don't want our union. Maybe you should go running into their arms, hm?"

"Listen, you," she hissed. "Where do you get off sounding so bitter? I've made it clear from the onset that I think this marriage is bullshit. That doesn't mean I like this god-forsaken war."

A flower of blood, blooming at his right shoulder, the bullet seconds fresh.

"Save your preaching, Uspart," Fell smiled grimly at her gaze of blue, suddenly wide with panic. "You can yak all you want when we've escaped."

"Fell-"

"When we've escaped, princess."

"Why aren't you ever angry?"

He groaned. Trudging through the snow past the outskirts of town was no small miracle, but they managed it, bleeding shoulder notwithstanding.

"Is this really the time?" Fell felt his vision blur.

"Look, I've…railed against you and spat at you, and you've never done a thing but take it. You've even been – ugh – kind to me."

She almost wiped at her lips as if to clear it of slime.

"I'm no prince, despite my status, Uspart."

"Oh," she snorted. "Where would I be if I didn't know that much."

It was important she did not misunderstand. He was pleased she didn't.

Things were quiet except for the seething blizzard snapping at their heels, howling at the setting sun as it bled into the earth. Light refracted off of glistening banks of snow to the wrap the air in a dull, misty crimson, reminding Fell of death's crossing. The aftermath of battle.

"…I'm sorry, Tryndamere."

Huh. His given name. That was a first.

"For what, Ashe?" he returned the favor, and it was genuine for the first time. Mostly.

"For everything I've been until now. It's…it's never really been you or anything. Mom – before, y'know – always got it in my head that marriage is fairytales and silver bells and royal drapery fluttering in the breeze. She made it out to be once in a lifetime. Using it for...for diplomacy felt like spitting in her memory."

"I get it," he said simply. "If you want, we can try again."

His wound must have caused delirium.

"Pardon?"

"Vows."

Again, she snorted.

"Fine, if only because I want to really stick it to those traitors. You start."

He grinned, and with all manner of mocking:

"In sickness and in health…"


Author's Note: I miss writing these two. This is most likely going to be a two-shot, and the next chapter is already pretty much written so expect it sometime soon, probably within the next few days.

I promise And the Manacles Dissolve is going to get updated at some point, for those of you who still care lol, I just need to find my bearings.

Review, if you have the time? I'd love to hear your thoughts.