Crying So Much - Tumblr Posts

I can't tell you how long I've waited, I can't tell you how much I cried, But I can show you How much it means to me that you are safe, Here with me, again.

Keep Me Warm Please

I'm in a bad mood right now. Kinda feeling... well, cold is one way to describe it, so I'm just going to make two separate posts of the reader just doing something that'd make me feel warmer with one of my fave characters right now.

This one is Muriel.

...

There's a fireplace in his (well, both of yours now) hut, and before, when he felt "cold" like you do, he sits by it staring into the fire and letting it burn the water from his eyes. Nowadays, he buries his face into your shoulder, and you press your face into his chest, and it's warm. Thoroughly warm. He squeezes you on occasion, grounding himself from a bad thought, and you just squeeze in return, It bounces back and forth sometimes. He'll squeeze you, and you'll squeeze him back, then you'll squeeze him and he'll squeeze you just a little bit back.

There are some days when you just cling to each other. Arms growing tighter and tighter around the other, like you're under threat to be torn apart, but if you held on a little more you could stave it off. Those days, you're still squeezing each other, but you don't loosen your arms after the little squeeze. Some days, your arms are loosely wrapped around each other, and, really you're just working on something else while you sit close together in the same space. Usually Muriel carves and you read. Sometimes you read aloud, sometimes there's a warm silence between the two of you, broken occasionally by a soft "whuff" from Inanna.

Muriel knows what it's like when you convince yourself that you aren't welcomed somewhere. When people make wry comments that make you uncomfortable or make you feel terrible for expressing yourself or simply existing. He knows what it's like to be shunned and ignored and looked at funny— he knows very well, so well what it feels like to be looked at funny like that. Even if you had tried to push him back to communities that had once done that to him, you never pushed him back to the people specifically who had done him wrong and made him uncomfortable, in fact you'd help keep them away, and even if it makes him uncomfortable sometimes, he's willing to do the same for you.

There are bad days sometimes, when your minds run away from you. If it's the both of you, you often end up, curled up by the floor of the fireplace, leaning into the warmth of the fire. Sometimes you end up buried beneath blankets on the bed, but given a little extra warmth by a little non-painful fire magic. One that glows and flickers and sways, all while radiating warmth, but it doesn't burn. If Muriel is the one having a particularly bad day, his head will often end up in your lap, and sometimes he's curled up on his side, carving at something to keep his hands busy as you play with his hair, but very often when you stare off at something else, or you're busy doing your own thing, Muriel will just stare up at you. His projects tend to take much longer than they used to, but he loves just being able to stare up at you and admire you, lit up by the gentle glow of the fireplace. If you're the one feeling bad, Muriel initially offers to let you do what he usually does to you, offering his lap as your personal pillow, but those times, he usually ends up staring at you a lot tracing his fingers over your cheeks, sometimes tepidly over your lips, or by the line of your jaw. Of course, he knows it can sometimes be a little uncomfortable to be stared at a whole lot, even if it's just because he's so infatuated by you, but if you don't like it, he's good with hugs as well (of course, perhaps you don't like it because the position hurts your back, but remember to tell him that if that's the case! He'll be staring with that soft longing look in his eyes a lot less if you don't!)

I think Muriel is very much a stew and soup type of person. You sit before a large cauldron of something thick and savory bubbling, in the water, mostly potatoes crushed to make that thick pasty texture, and some greens as well. If you don't like thicker soups like that, Muriel knows a good number of alternatives. He's pretty accommodating in that regard. The hut smells like potatoes and warm things for hours after, and if you're lucky enough, sometimes Muriel even has the time to cook up some bread with you. The smell of freshly made bread lingering around in the hut always seems to make it warmer, and the smell clinging to Muriel's clothes a little while after as well is just another perfectly valid reason for you to curl up close to him to smell the scent of flour and other such warmness mixed with the smell of him.

Sometimes when it rains outside, you put warming charms and spells up by the windows and door, and you add a little protective barrier to keep the water out, as you leave everything open to listen to the sound and smell the fresh earth that the rain brings, all while staying within the warm comforts of your home. There was a day, once, when it rained particularly hard, when you played a little game of cards with Muriel again. It was maddening to say the least. There would be an occasional round or two played normally, but sometimes you'd try to cheat and instantly end up caught, or you'd find yourself being slipped an extra card as Muriel would cheat for you. Sometimes you'd swear that he had cheated too, only to realize that he's cheated for you again. It made you giggle when you very clearly cheated and Muriel would simply smile up at you and just fondly shake his head. Even as he cheated for you, or let you cheat, somehow, Muriel still ended up winning a good few of the games.

Most of the time though, you just like sitting nestled up with him where it's safe and warm and dry, just appreciating the rain and letting the smell of fresh earth mix with the burning smell of wood.

Muriel has a lovely voice. He doesn't sing much, but the feeling of his chest rumbling under your cheek as he hums, with you wrapped up in his arms. Sometimes when he lies in your embrace, he hums the melody into your stomach, letting you feel him more than hear him, and letting him have an excuse to burry his face into your flesh, as if he needed any excuse at all.

THE LAST KINGDOM: SEVEN KINGS MUST DIE (2023)

Dir. Edward Bazalgette