Protective Paul - Tumblr Posts

Something about protective Paul just does it for me 🫠

A Tiny Miracle

Author's Note: Went to see Dune part 2 last night and my brain hasn't shut off since. 🫠 This is just a tiny little Paul x Wife!Reader blurb set during the final fight scene.

"My lord."

Paul's eyes narrow after he hears Gurney try to get his attention. Shaddam seems to squirm, albeit reluctantly, under his narrowed gaze.

He glances over his shoulder to find Gurney holding a protective arm around you.

And the tiny little bundle in your own arms.

"Paul," You breathe, the sheen of sweat from your labors having already cooled on your skin, the blood still staining the lower half of your dress. "We have a daughter."

Paul is in front of you in an instant, cupping your face and hovering his other hand under your own that cradles the baby's head.

"You should be resting," He murmurs as he touches his forehead to yours. "You're exhausted."

"I'll let you do it next time, then." You tease as you close your eyes, content as he manages to peek down at her without relinquishing his touch on you. You had missed his presence during the birth but he had been occupied with the arrangements of this gathering. Your tired eyes look over his shoulder to see his Harkonnen cousin staring at you in particular and seemingly fascinated by your exchange with Paul.

"Her name?" Your husband asks fondly without looking away, his gloved fingers caressing her head of hair.

"I—" You shake your head, embarrassed, especially with everyone's attention directed at the three of you. "I haven't decided yet."

"That's okay," He assures, lips upturning as he presses his nose in your hair. He already knows what her name will be. "We have time."

You nod and someone directs you to sit down next to Jessica to rest. You've had your differences, it's true, but she seems to put those feelings aside when she smiles softly at you and the baby before surveying the scene before her.

Feyd-Rautha steps forward to begin the duel, pointing his blade towards Paul.

"I'm glad you got to see your child, Atreides. It will be your only chance."

Paul positions himself in a fighting stance, the black-toothed sneer Feyd directs at you sending a shiver down your spine, making you clutch your daughter closer to your breast. You wonder if it was wise for the Fremen to lead you here, to put the wife Muad'Dib front and center in front of the enemy.

He rakes his dark eyes over your blood stained dress, almost approvingly.

"Maybe I'll take your bride as a war prize when I win. I do love seeing a woman covered in blood."

Something dark passes over Paul's face at the threat. He can deal with threats to his own person, but you? He feels his own blood boil as the possibilities of this duel flash through his mind. A path, one that floods certainty through his veins, becomes as clear to him as the sands of Arrakis.

"May thy knife chip and shatter."

love isn’t weakness

summary - paul helps you see that love isn’t a weakness

pairing - paul atreides x caladan!reader

word count - +1k

🌙⚔️🌅✨🌙⚔️🌅✨🌙⚔️🌅✨🌙⚔️🌅✨

You wake to the Paul sleeping soundly beside you.

For once.

So often now does Paul wake up in a cold sweat from his dreams. You can’t imagine how terrifying seeing the possible future must be, but as long as he has you beside him to hold his hand he assures you he’ll be okay.

You wipe the sleep away from your eyes and sit up to let the blanket fall from your body.

Some days you wish you had been allowed to stay on Caladan. Days like today, where you mourn the loss of your parents who died in a war long ago.

Now, you were lost to the deserts of Arakkis.

Paul was slowly becoming a God here and soon you were afraid you’d lose him to the desert too.

You watched him for a few moments, his chest rising slowly and falling again. There was something so overwhelming about watching him just exist.

Watching him grow up as your best friend had never been like this. You’d only grown in feelings for Paul when he was sent to Arakkis before you. The loss of not having him near all the time was horrible, and when reunited Paul made that clear to you by kissing you as more than a best friend.

You smiled softly, leaning down to kiss his forehead softly so not to disturb him, before getting ready to go outside to greet the waking sun.

No one else on camp was awake.

You were away from Worm territory and clear of any Harkonnen’s for now.

Trudging up the steep sand bank, you crested to the top and was greeted by the expanse lands of the dunes.

Nothing for miles. Far as your eyes could see, there was nothing but peaks and troughs of mountainous dunes.

You sat down carefully, watching some sand slide down the dune beside you.

Opening the small piece if dirtied white - now grey - cloth in your hand you found your small locket. The circular shaped pendant necklace opened to the treasure inside - a small picture of your parents on their wedding day.

You gulped back the phantom stone in the back of your throat and squeezed the pendant in your hand tightly.

“I miss you.” You whispered to the desert.

Silence returned.

“You would never guess where I am now!” You laughed to yourself, wiping your tears away quickly with the back of your hand.

It was advised to never cry in the desert, lest you want to lose all your bodies water reserves.

You blew out a big breath, trying to remind calm. “Could do with a nightmare of a family dinner right now.”

‘Nightmare’ because there would always be an argument of some sort about what you were going to have. It was never actually a nightmare, you just liked to refer to them as that.

Soft footsteps could be heard behind you, climbing the dune not so subtly. Although, you suspected they wanted you to hear them so you knew someone was coming.

Only when he sat next to you, did you realise it was Paul.

He sat tight beside you, not leaving much room.

He looked out towards the vast landscape and said nothing. He was good at knowing when or it you wanted him to speak, or when you just wanted the company.

For now, company was all you needed.

He softly slunk his calloused hand into yours, interlinking your fingers and squeezing to show you he was there for you.

He knew what this day was to you.

“I don’t want to be weak when I think about them anymore.” You whispered, hoping Paul would understand.

“It’s not weak to miss them, Y/N.”

“I feel it.” You dipped your head, opening your other hand to reveal the pendant.

“Love isn’t a weakness. That’s what you feel; love. You’re loving them even after they’ve gone.” He explained in a way a true leader could only.

“That was a very wise thing to have come from you.” You turned to look at him and he was already smiling at you, both of your glowing in the morning sun now.

“Love has made me wise.”

He looked at your lips. You looked from his eyes to his own.

“Then you would know, love isn’t wise at all.” You responded with something Lady Jessica had told him when he had declared that you were together.

Literally, declared in front of a whole camp of Fremens. It was simultaneously both the most embarrassing and happiest moment you’d felt on this planet.

Paul decided to shut you up by kissing you, not too harshly otherwise you’d both go falling off the top of the dunes - which, yes, had happened before.

He cupped your cheek softly and kissed just as much. His lips were warm with the wake of the sun and your insides started to glow just as brightly.

Love.

“You make me feel less weak.” You pulled back to tell him, whispering the words only a breaths touch away from his lips.

“That’s because you love me.” He teased, kissing you with a smile.

You pushed his shoulder ever-so-lightly, to get him back for the teasing.

“Do you not?” He questioned, pretending to be offended. He touched your cheek furthest from him and tugged it so you would face him again. “Hmm?”

“You’re so dependent on what my feelings are for you?”

“Yes.”

The light conversations between you never failed to outshine any dark moments you way be having.

“That makes you a weak man. Maybe you aren’t Lisan Al-Gaib after all.” You bit the inside of your cheek to hide your smile.

“Maybe. Love still doesn’t make me a weak man though and it doesn’t make you weak either.” He kissed the tip of your nose softly.

“Thank you.” You smiled at him.

“They’re still there, watching over you.” He nodded to the sky where the last of the stars were twinkling still. Soon they’d be gone and the sky would be lit in cerulean blue.

“I know.”

“And they’re here too.” He touched over your heart and then over his. Your parents had been as close to him as his own father, so he knows what the loss feels like even after all this time.

He now knows the kind of whole a loved one can leave on your heart. It’s learning to know not how to re-fill it, but live with it that’s the difficult part.

He was learning how to do that from you, just as you learnt from him.

You kissed him again, just because you needed to let him know that you appreciated him - more than words could ever explain.

Paul gave you a small smile when be broke away from your lips quietly.

“I love you. To forever.”

“To forever.”