Check out the European French version on the song, it's really pretty. Shoutout to Briminick for their wonderful suggestion – apologies for not using your idea, but I have another plan for those characters soon!
Used the lantern scene because it's my favourite Disney scene ever, hope you don't mind.
I See The Light (Tangled) – Malcolm Hawke & Leandra Amell
Leandra sighed deeply as she tucked herself tighter into Malcolm's arm. He seemed to radiate heat, and Leandra wasn't sure if that was the thick cloak he wore or the magic he kept hidden in his soul. It was exciting. Exhilarating, even, being this close to a mage and knowing, with every fibre that she had, that she was safe.
Malcolm's dark eyes were fixed out on the horizon, beyond the docks, and Leandra noticed how they occasionally strayed to the Gallows. She didn't like to think of him in there, chained to the walls and beaten by templars, powerless to use his gifts to help people. Not when she was here, watching the Saturnalia lanterns with him, nestled into the crook of his arm, his stubbled chin rough on her pale forehead.
She thought of where she ought to be right now. In the dining hall with Mother and Father and the guests, primped and preened and glittering in Orlesian fancy for the Comte's taste. Guillaume was a good man, a noble man, but he was to Father's taste. He had none of Malcolm's easy humour, none of his passion; his hands were soft as fine wool, not Malcolm's calloused, skilled fingers; the laughter he sounded in her was the tempered giggle of a well-trained bride, not the raucous hysteria she felt with Malcolm, till her sides ached and her eyes ran. She ought not to be up on a rooftop in the arms of an apostate, watching the dark horizon in anticipation. But she was. And she'd rather be nowhere else.
Guillaume de Launcet was a good man, but he was not her Malcolm. And if he couldn't be him… She didn't want him.
A light nudge on her waist, and she looked up to see Malcolm pointing at the first lanterns floating heavenward. "All those days," she thought, "watching from the windows.All those years, outside looking in… All that time never even knowing just how blind I've been." She smiled as her apostate tugged the rough woollen cloak further around her shoulder. She'd had dreams, as a girl, of running away with a noble chevalier. He would have blonde curls and a gleaming sword, just like in the tales. "Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight," she thought, chuckling. "Now I'm here, suddenly I see.Standing here, it's all so clear – I'm where I'm meant to be!" Who'd have known that her knight would be a dark-haired apostate from Starkhaven. Who would have thought that Leandra Amell could have considered rebellion.
Looking up at Malcolm, his nut-brown eyes crinkled in delight as he watched the cloud of lights, she knew there was no going back. "And at last I see the light," she sighed, leaning her head on his chest. "And it's like the fog has lifted.And at last I see the light, and it's like the sky is new… And it's warm and real and bright, and the world has somehow shifted…"
She pulled away from Malcom, looking up at him as his large, scuffed hand covered her tiny white one. He looked quizzically at her. "All at once everything looks different," she whispered, lowering her gaze. "Now that I see you."
Maker, she was beautiful. Eyes like lyrium, hair like jet, skin like alabaster on palace walls. What had Malcolm ever done to deserve her? The jewel of Kirkwall nobility, and she was here. With him. Malcolm had done his fair share of bad things – breaking out of Starkhaven hadn't been easy even with Carver's help, and staying out was even tougher, especially in somewhere like Kirkwall. Maker knew he should have left long ago, headed for Ferelden, hidden away in the mundanity of his parents' people. But one look from those eyes through the window of her estate as he fell over the wall, one small smirk on her crimson lips, and Malcolm had known he wasn't going anywhere without her. What was freedom, he wondered, if his thoughts were caged by her memory?
"All those days," he thought, smiling at her as she watched the lanterns, captivated, "chasing down a daydream.All those years, living in a blur… All that time, never truly seeing things the way they were." A deep purple light drifted over the heads, and they ducked into the cloak lest they be seen. They emerged laughing, and Malcolm thought, not for the first time, that she was as imprisoned as he was.
"Now she's here, shining in the starlight… Now she's here, suddenly I know," he thought, looking into the distance as a thought dawned on him. "If she's here, it's crystal clear – I'm where I'm meant to go!"
He clasped her hand suddenly, looking down wide-eyed at his jewel. She gazed back at him, her mouth opening slightly as she caught his meaning. It was too dangerous for him to stay in Kirkwall, and as long as she stayed there, her father would force the marriage to Launcet. They had one choice. A single nod, and both broke into astonished smiles, as if they;d never truly seen another person before. "And at last I see the light," they breathed together.
"And it's like the fog has lifted," murmured Malcolm, still slightly uncertain.
"And at last I see the light…"
"And it's like the sky is new," Leandra replied, her lyrium vein eyes massive.
"And it's warm and real and bright," they sighed in tandem, "and the world has somehow shifted…"
Malcolm leaned in, taking her chin in a crooked finger. "All at once," they mouthed softly at each other, "everything looks different… Now that I see you…"
Their foreheads touched together, and their eyes met. "Now that I see you."
They would be together. They would be safe.
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I did a fluff I was happy with! I'm tempted to write a oneshot about these two. They're so disgustingly cute, like I can imagine they knew each other for like a week before they eloped. Let It Go was going to be next because I'm really stuck on a scenario, you guys have given me so many awesome ideas I can't pick one. I hope you're happy. :L
Remember to go vote on the poll on my profile, please, it really helps!
A/N's
dominicgrim – thanks, they were really fun! Idea's been noted, thank you!
Sakura – glad you liked it, you've been waiting long enough haha! I'll note it down :)
Up Next: Their laws never bothered her anyway.
