Elliot
He is a playmate her mother found for her; a friend, after she lost a little boy with blue eyes who used to play – Rina never remembers how long for.
He is a nobleman's son, and his father has big plans for him. He has the softest eyes she has ever seen, and the first time they play he's soft too; he falls over too easily and cries a bit. She wonders if she wants to marry him.
When they are twelve she decides that she might marry him after all; when Percy Thrump threatens her honour Elliot hits him, and she gives him a handkerchief to wipe the blood away after Percy hits him back. It is sweet of him; he didn't have to, after all, but he did, and that makes her smile.
When she is sixteen, they are sitting together, and her hand brushes his. She has never known desire before that, but when he suddenly grabs that hand and gazes into her eyes, she does.
It doesn't take long for them to be in a relationship, and they start to learn about each other, the funny things that make her moan and the odd movements that cause him to shudder and twitch for her. They are together for the sheer feeling of being together, and slowly they begin to care deeply for each other.
Four years later he is dead.
Luna is twelve when she sees him at a ball, walks across the room and quietly informs him that women don't dance alone. Then they are off across the ballroom, whirling and gliding as only noble's children have learned how, a glittering couple that parts the crowd like a magician in a river. And everyone murmurs and nods their approval and remarks about what a pretty pair they make, both of them nut brown, though her eyes are blue to his hazel. Her mother smirks knowingly, her father is appraising, and Logan simply grunts and shrugs.
When they are seventeen, after years of holding themselves back, they go the way of the commoners and rut in a corner, her lower lip between her teeth and his left hand over his mouth, covered by a wardrobe and utterly lost in the sensation. He fits her like a key in a lock; tightly, perfectly, everything she's ever wanted.
She dominates in life, but he dominates in bed, and she is more than happy to let him take the lead. They were built for each other, and if Avo decrees that her place between sheets is beneath him, then damned well she'll give him that.
Three years later she is given the choice; spare the rebels, or spare her lover. Torn between love and duty, she spares him, and the shock on his face when she does so is like a slap. That is a look that says 'I thought better of you.' He is right; she should not have spared him, but she couldn't. He is hers, and she'll be damned if she lets the bullets take him from her.
She sees him afterwards in the Bowerstone Orphanage, engaged to another woman. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially should she express her anger in a frenzied kiss. Mine, she reminds him, demands that he leaves Linda, because she's not usually selfish like this, but Avo can take his ideals of virtuous Heroes and shove them up Skorm's arse for a laugh; when it comes to Elliot, she will not be virtuous. Hers.
They marry soon after. Luna has twins, and they live in Brightwall. After the rebellion, they return to the castle. They find themselves back in that corner on their first day there, the queen and her consort, returning to a place of memories.
Later on, when the Crawler is dead and he returns, she finds her time with him seems to fly by, faster and faster, until the day he catches that disease and leaves her forever. She wishes there had been more time, longer to spend, but that was not the case.
He was hers, and now he is gone.
Tallusa is never sure about him; not at all.
They are introduced as babies; walked around the garden together. They are friends – the talk of marriage is entertained but never pressed upon. One does not press a Hero queen about her daughter's marital status. It is likely to end in mess.
They are friends for a while, even considered sweethearts, but it doesn't really go anywhere. She spends more time with an immortal deviant than she does with him. He is eclipsed by the Hero of Skill, for who could ever live up to being her sweetheart while her best friend owns Reaver Industries?
When she is a little older, she leaves him, only to return after being burned by a boy who was more concerned about losing his virginity than he was about her.
She will never marry him, she doesn't ever touch him, and he never touches her. He overhears her telling Reaver that Logan doesn't like him, and at the same time she's sort of glad her brother disapproves. Elliot pretends he never heard.
She loses him, though, even though she cares little for him it still wounds her. When her brother orders her to choose between rebels and Elliot, she cannot, she simply cannot. It is the last time she is ever indecisive, but it happens.
She cannot choose, and so he dies.
To Valkyrie, Elliot is boring.
He is prissy, and far too pretty. Moreover, there is something wrong with his fringe. She thinks he's gay at first, though later he proves her wrong.
He has no interest in fighting or being dangerous. She finds him dull. The only time he is ever interesting is when she uses him.
He is a means to an end; a way of getting rid of her virginity so that she may bed others, and when he realises it he is upset, but she doesn't care. She never cared, not for him, not for any of her lovers. He should know that by the time she's twenty.
When Logan calls for his death or the death of the rebels, the words are hardly out of his mouth before she's pointing to Elliot.
"He'll be proud to die for his cause," she adds bravely.
She feigns anger later on, when Jasper soothes her and tells her that her brother's mad. Mad? No, goodness no. Logan has never been saner. He's just removed an annoying obstacle in her life.
Because after all, she never did care for him.
A/N So if you hadn't noticed, Valkyrie is kinda a bitch. Ah well.