Work Text:
The sky was dark, the world serene, and Rayla was not in love with Callum.
Even though she was about to say ‘I love you’ that fateful day when she thought he was going to die.
Ugh.
She tossed and turned underneath the canyon underpass where they had camped for the night, looking through the gaping archway and admiring the stars and the arid landscape. It was a nice difference from the numerous forests she had traversed these past few weeks.
Few weeks.
Case in point: she was not in love with him because she’s known him for a few weeks. She couldn’t be.
But if they weren’t the most exciting few weeks of her life-- dragons, monsters, battles, plans, meeting new people, traveling places, and, of course, getting to know Callum and Ezran. She was part of something greater, now, she had a mission, a purpose other than killing because she had to: doing the right thing because she wanted to. She adored the rush.
Rush.
This is all moving way too fast, so how could she really know if she was in love with him?
Sometimes it didn’t feel real, sleeping a few feet away from a human boy and a baby dragon. She turned back over, now, and sure enough, there lay Callum sleeping soundly, Zym curled up into him. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight, it was too cute. The two princes, and Ezran made three, all hers.
Hers.
Callum wasn’t all hers, as much as she’d like to think it.
They were friends, and good friends at that. But ‘just good friends’ wouldn’t suffice if she was in love with him, would it? He liked Claudia, and as far as she could tell, there was no competing against her. She was human, and didn’t come with the emotional baggage of abandoned parents and was raised to kill since childhood .
Even though Claudia had turned on him.
It echoed in her brain. She was a good person in a bad situation. Would that really make Callum lose trust in her? Or stop liking her? In any case, there was no way it was possible for him to move on that fast. From what Ezran told her, Callum liked her a lot, way more than a small crush, and for a very long time.
Then, she was back to the few weeks thing.
She couldn’t be in love with him, her logic told her. It was a dumb idea in the first place. He was human. He probably didn’t even consider her as a romantic option.
So then why was she considering it in the first place?
The only answer to that question was that she was, indeed, in love with him.
Which she wasn’t.
As stated previously.
But here she was, watching him sleep. Platonically.
What was wrong with her?