A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you all are staying healthy and safe! This is my first drabble... or maybe it's actually a snippet since it's more than 100 words (I'm not exactly certain what the rules are because, like my wise role-model Halt, I tend to mostly ignore them XD) Anyways, I got the sudden inspiration to expand a little on a scene referenced in the Royal Ranger. I must admit I'm not entirely confident with it, being new territory for me and all, but I hope it proves to be an enjoyable diversion all the same.

Quote: "Jenny had decided that she had no wish to uproot herself and her thriving restaurant business from Redmont and follow Gilan to Castle Araluen. She loved him, they all knew. But she wanted to retain her individuality and her career.

'We'll do it one day,' Jenny had told Gilan. 'But at the moment you're either completely tied up with Ranger business or away on a mission somewhere. I've no wish to be the Commandant's wife.'

Gilan had been a little stung by her frank words. 'What If I meet someone else?" he retorted somewhat archly.

Jenny had shrugged. 'Then you're free to do as you please. But you won't meet anyone as good as me."

She had been right. So they maintained their long-distance relationship, with Gilan taking any opportunity to visit Redmont Fief and spend time with her."

~John Flanagan, The Royal Ranger

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my computer and a pressing desire to write/tell stories. I do not profit from this in any way other than my own amusement and hopefully the amusement of others. All credits to the original author.

Proposal

Jenny felt lightheaded. Her heart pounded as she unconsciously brought her hands up towards her mouth. What she had thought was meant to be quiet afternoon walk through the woods by the stream to watch the sunset with Gilan had quite suddenly turned into something very different.

"Will you marry me?" he had asked her.

For a moment she was shocked speechless. She could only look into the eyes that were staring up at her so bright, yet almost nervous, and practically sparkling with hope. In that fleeting moment, she wanted to say yes more than anything; she loved him. She wanted nothing more than to leap into his arms, feel the warm touch of his embrace and keep it close... Before slowly, painfully, her head began to take control of her heart.

She wasn't ready. And she knew it wouldn't work.

No matter how much both of their hearts wished it, she knew that their lives couldn't ever move in a way to make it work.

He was a Ranger, duty-bound to serve the king and people of Araluen wherever he was posted—and that would never be where she had built a career for herself. She had spent her whole life working to make what she had, working to build her dreams from the ground up into something tangible, something that was hers. And giving it up would be like giving up her dreams, her very individuality. She couldn't do it… Nor could he. The small stolen snatches of time that they would manage to capture together couldn't ever serve them enough to build a proper marriage. It wouldn't work—it couldn't work.

In the very moment that she thought it, all the euphoria of dreaming and wishing began to drain out of her to be replaced with the unforgiving cold of reality.

She felt her heart sink as she realized what she would have to say. She didn't want to say it—knew that if she did, it would hurt him… and she didn't want that. Especially not when he was looking up at her with those hopeful eyes, suddenly soft instead of playful—and that smile, so much more gentle than his usual fun-loving grin. Not when she loved him as much as she did.

But it was because she loved him that she needed to tell him the truth.

She felt her heart beginning to beat faster again, but this nervousness was different than the surprised and euphoric nervousness she had felt when he had first asked. It was more like dread. She felt a knot beginning to grow in her throat and eyes grow misty as she pulled her fingers free of his grasp and shook her head, stepping back. The tears she felt building threatened to spill from her eyes when she saw the expression on his face as she gave her silent answer.

"No?" he asked so softly that she almost didn't hear him.

"I can't, Gilan… We can't," she whispered.

He blinked then, all the hope and light fading from his eyes as they took on a faint wavering sheen that spoke of silent hurt, confusion—humiliation even—as he searched her face.

And she had hurt him, she knew. She hadn't wanted that—she had never wanted that. But she couldn't have given him any other answer than the one she had. There was a small moment of silence before he spoke.

"Can I ask why?" his voice was quiet, tight.

"We just can't. It would never work between us… Please try to understand," she tried to explain because she owed him at least that much. She floundered momentarily before she settled on, "It's because of who we are, because of the paths we chose to take—not because of how I feel about you."

She watched then as he considered her words, feeling a sick terror take hold to mingle with regret as she wondered what that hurt she had seen in him would turn into, anger, grief? Had she just broken everything they had, ruined what they had built together? Or worse, broken their friendship beyond repair… broken his heart, broken him?

She shook her head to dispel that last thought as soon as it came. Gilan wasn't the type to shatter, he never had been. Gilan always seemed to bounce; the hardships of life had never yet managed to take his smile, his sense of fun—at least, never for long. It was one of the things she loved most about him. Gilan never withdrew, and he never gave up either. Even as she thought it, she saw the hurt fade a little from his eyes to be replaced with a sudden trace of hope—as if he had just found the answer to some complicated strategy problem. It was hope mixed with that spark of mischief that she loved as much as the smile that was begging to make its way across his face.

"So you're not saying no because of me personally?" he asked then. "Not because you don't like my hair anymore or the way I dress?" Then, more seriously, "or because you realized that you really don't love me because of who I am? Or perhaps because I snore at night?"

"Never that," she said decisively in answer to the one serious part. Then, belatedly, she added, "you don't even snore, Gilan."

He laughed at that, the hurt and disappointment fading substantially then. She felt herself smiling again, the trace of tears beginning to fade from her own eyes. She shook her head.

"You're incorrigible. No, it's because it wouldn't work for us—our lives are too different. We both have too many obligations and duties. We couldn't build a stable or healthy marriage like that."

"So then, since it's nothing to do with how we feel about each other, I suppose I'll just have to keep asking until you say yes."

"Maybe someday I might say yes," she said airily.

"Someday is a little vague."

"That's all I can promise you," she said stoutly. "We'll do it one day. But at the moment you're either completely tied up with Ranger business or away on a mission somewhere. I've no wish to be the Commandant's wife."

A trace of that earlier hurt crept back into his eyes at that frank remark before it again receded to be replaced with fond challenge.

"And what If I were to meet someone else in that time?" he retorted archly, the smile growing decidedly playful.

Jenny merely shrugged in response. "Then you're free to do as you please. But you won't find anyone as good as me."

"That's true enough," Gilan said after a moment of silence, nodding ruefully. "There's no one I've ever met who is quite like you."

"Quite as good as me," Jenny insisted. "When you say it that way, it just makes me sound like I'm strange."

"Strangely beautiful," Gilan suggested, quirking an eyebrow at her. "Strangely talented."

"Strangely nothing," Jenny laughed and jogged him with an elbow. "Besides, that's your part in this relationship."

"Paying me a high compliment, are you?" Gilan said with a chuckle.

"Take it however you please," Jenny said with fond exasperation, raising her eyes to heaven.

"I think I will."

"Forget strange, you're only incorrigible."

"Am I allowed to take that one however I please?" he asked with raised eyebrows, playful suggestion brightening his words as much as the mischief in his eyes.

"No. You most certainly are not," Jenny said, but she was laughing all the same.

She linked arms with him as they set off through the gentle quiet of the woods and back towards Wensly Village. The air was warm, almost seeming to glow with the low light of early evening. She leaned closer to him, happy to be in this moment, to laugh, to feel his steady warmth beside her—to know the relief that she truly hadn't destroyed it all with her refusal—to have the assurance that he was willing to be patient, to wait for her… to wait for them both. It wasn't a permanent or completely stable fix, she knew that. But it would just have to work for now.

Someday.

It was a promise that seemed, in that moment, to glow with the same quiet warmth as the evening they walked through.

Someday they would find a way, she was certain.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedback is always loved. I thank you in advance if you've the time or inclination to leave a review.

I might continue this later and make it an actual full short story if the mood and inspiration strikes. I really have no idea what I'm doing... Truthfully, I have next to no experience writing more romance focused things, or drabble-snippets either, so I could be way off the mark (and won't be offended if you say so) XD. Practice makes perfect, right? I ended it on a more positive amicable note, rather than angsty drama, because that was the impression that the Royal Ranger gave me: especially with that bit of banter that the book gave us, the use of adjectives like "arch", and how Gilan seems to turn it into a sort of loving long-running tease/banter to ask every time they meet after that if she would marry him (even though I'm sure he does mean it genuinely too). And that's not to mention the fact they seemed happy enough/able to keep up their long-distance relationship without any serious hitches or mentioned drama or break-ups. So I hope it, and my interpretation, are acceptable enough.

Please stay well and safe! Until next time!

~ATGTJ~