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May seventeenth. Runaan's birthday.
Tinker stared down the sunken lotus in the pond, willing it to rise again, even if he knew it wouldn't.
He had been here every day since he saw the lotus sink, each time the sun rose he was there, and often when the sun set he would sleep with his cheek pressed into the cool stone of the fountain.
His reflection, with hollowed eyes and a constant frown on his face, stared back at him on the water, revealing just how much Tinker had changed since that first day, when he had smiled, hopelessly smitted, upon every thought of the moonshadow assassin.
He missed the days when he could smile at all.
With a heavy sigh, he rested his chin on his arms and looked past the reflection, instead again at the final, lonely lotus on the water. His eyes felt heavy, watching it sway back and forth, and with one more breath, he slid his eyes shut and allowed the sweet arms of sleep to take him from this grief for a time.
"You're sure this will be a good idea?"
Tinker smiled at his partner, looking over the bow/sword hybrid Tinker had made him. It was crafted of the best metal the Earthblood elves would give him (which was pretty good considering how much Earthblood and Sunfire elves got along) and Tinker had spent weeks watching Runaan fight and train before he even started the weapon.
"I'm confident." Tinker answered with a proud nod, then reached forward and took the weapon back, intending to show its features. "The handles are here," He grabbed at the center of the arch, where the grips were, then held the release buttons and pulled them apart, into two blades. The string snapped as easy as a spider's web and fell to the ground between both of them innocently. Just as it's supposed to. "It may take some practice to change the mode as quick as you can change weapons normally but this will mean you don't have to make a distance between you and your attacker to switch from your bow to your swords like you had to before. They're the same." He placed the handles together and let the swords click, smiling as it formed a bow once again.
"And what of the string?" Runaan asked, running a finger over the blade. Tinker smirked and waited until Runaan's hand was near the point of the tip blade, then pressed a button on the grip, releasing a wire from the tip that was attracted to the other blade with magnetized metal and wrapped itself there. He laughed when Runaan drew his hand back with a snap, holding it close, going pale in his surprise. "Tinker..." Runaan said with a voice usually saved for scolding Rayla, but Tinker continued to laugh. Runaan looked so surprised. How could he not laugh?
"It's a button." Tinker finally explained, trying to hold back more giggles and snorts trying to escape. He handed the bowblade to Runaan again and lightly tapped the flatter button directly beneath where the hand would go, camouflaged to blend with the rest of the bow. "When you break the weapon," He positioned Runaan's hands in the right way without the other giving any resistance, then had him press his thumbs to the release buttons and pull them apart. The handles disconnected again, and again the wire was cut off. "The string will immediately fall off without any prompting. and when you put them back together..." He had Runaan connect them. "Just put them together and the handles will combine," Then he pressured the back of Runaan's hand until the palm pressed the flatter button and triggered the wire mechanism. "The bow will string itself, and afterwards the button you pressed will deactivate until you change it to swords, then to the bow." He removed his hands and placed them in his lap, watching Runaan look over it a second time with poorly concealed excitement.
"What happens when I run out of string?" Runaan asked, breaking the bow again without Tinker's help this time.
"There's enough wire in there to cross not only all of Xadia, but the human kings as well." Tinker hummed. "But If you run out, somehow, you'll have to make do with just the swords until you can bring it back to me so I can put more wire in it."
Runaan seemed to accept the answer because he nodded, then placed the bow down and pulled Tinker into a hug. Tinker was caught off guard and gave a gasp but quickly hugged back because damn if he would pass up any touch out in public (or... semi-public perhaps) like this. "Thank you." He heard Runaan say into his ear, then the other elf retreated and the contact was gone.
"Of course." Tinker replied with a soft smile that was returned with an even softer smile from Runaan. Tinker felt his cheeks warm up more than they normally war in response to that smile, for him and him alone, and in a small panic of being found out for that smile immediately, Tinker cleared his throat, then got up. "How about we go out and you can try to practice with it." He offered his hand to Runaan, even though he knew full well Runaan could get up on his own, and pulled the Moonshadow up once he took Tink's hand.
"It's getting dark, though." Runaan pointed out, glancing at the setting sun. Tinker only hummed and nodded.
"Which means you'll be an even better shot."
"But it means you can't see anything." Was Runaan's sassy response. Tinker crossed his arms and Runaan mirrored him, except he held the bow so when he did it he looked just as deadly as Tinker knew he was. but Tinker didn't care.
"I'll see plenty." Tinker laughed, grabbing one of Runaan's arms and dragging the tall elf outside while the sun set above.
"Tinker..." A voice drove the sunfire out of his dream. He turned, setting his eyes upon a moonshadow elf that was not his own.
Tinker had never truly met the elves who would accompany Rayla and Runaan into Katolis to avenge the dragon king, but he saw them just before they departed. Four others. Six in all. Yet in front of him stood only one. The one with the short hair, Castillo. He was bruised and cut in every place, on his wrist was a ribbon tied so tight it made his hand purple, and he looked tired beyond compare, but Tinker only saw what in his hands:
A bow. A bow made of the strongest metals Earthblood's would give, with two blades on either end, connected at the handles. Runaan's bow.
"No..." He whispered, frozen. The lotus was one thing, but this...
No.. No please...
"The king is dead... Runaan did the deed himself..." Castillo explained, coming closer carefully and handing the bow/sword hybrid to Tinker, but Tinker never felt the cold metal. All he felt was the heartbreak.
The love of his life...
"I'm so sorry." Castillo murmured. "He did what was best, and sacrificed his life for the mission. He did what he had to." Castillo turned and said one more thing, though his words were lost to Tinker's own beating heart.
Tinker's eyes widened, looking over his fallen partner's weapon until it blurred.
Tinker didn't know when the tears started falling, but they fell long and hard, and he sobbed and clutched the bow tightly, his arms catching on the metal and slicing, yet the pain was nothing to the pure hurt in his heart.
He didn't stop crying, not even as the sun set, not even in the darkness. All that waiting by the fountain, this was the breaking point. Runaan was gone...
He opened his eyes once more to see the weapon, the last thing he had of his assassin. His eyes widened as he faintly noticed scratch marks on the green of the blade. Except they weren't scratch marks... They were words. Another tear fell as he tried to make out the words in the dark, and he whispered aloud what they said:
"My heart, my soul, my life. For Tinker."
May seventeenth. Runaan's birthday.
May seventeenth. The day Tinker stopped willing the sunken lotus to rise again.