Chapter Text
It’s dusk when she and Callum get to the inn, and for the tenth night in a row…Rayla isn’t sure what they are.
She’d accepted that a long time ago, of course—about two years and ten days ago, in fact. She’d known when she’d left—and certainly when she’d been on her way back—that the warm castle she’d spent all that time longing for might turn a cold shoulder to her, that she might have wrecked the only chance at a home she has left—
That she and Callum might never be like they were before.
But…everything else had turned out fine, actually. She’s just as welcome as before—Opeli’s suspicions included—and Katolis has already started to feel like it could be home again—Opeli’s suspicions aside—and…she has Callum to thank for that.
They’re…not like they were before, but—
Even if he doesn’t love her quite the same way, he trusts her, she knows—unconditionally, even with a broken heart—and…that’d be hope enough alone, even without all his sweet dorky jokes, or the random recitations of love poems, or all that heartfelt care he just can’t seem to help but show her.
It’s not the same—their…whatever-it-is—but it still could be, she thinks, even if things are weird still, even with him always at an arm’s length, lingering in doorways, keeping to boundaries they never could as kids…
…and speaking of boundaries—
Rayla realizes it as soon as they walk in the door: the board behind the reception desk marks each room full but one…which means one of those limits he’d insisted on back at the castle is about to go right out the window.
Or at least…she hopes it is.
Callum…doesn’t seem to notice, though. Either that, or…
He doesn’t mind.
And if he doesn’t mind, then…
Maybe this indulgent little detour isn’t just her castle-pampered mage being a big softie, she thinks, letting her hopes swing a little higher than just having to share a room with him.
Maybe—
“Guests for the last room, Mom!” The girl sitting at the desk calls over her shoulder, eyes barely leaving the half-done embroidery in front of her…confirming what Rayla had guessed from the list at her back.
Callum’s still carrying on just like before though—approaching with that easy, polite smile—like he still hasn’t caught on, or like maybe…
Maybe he wants to share.
…or maybe she’s delusional.
But before she can take a breath to broach the topic of the one room that’s open, they’re there at the desk.
“Welcome to—” The girl—maybe about Ez’s age or so?—looks up once they’re in front of her, and it’s good that she’d set her needlepoint aside too, Rayla thinks, with the way she startles. “Oh. You’re—you’re the—”
“Uh…just Callum,” he shrugs, setting Bait down on the counter, used to this…royalty reaction…that Rayla’s definitely not accustomed to. It’d been weird watching people recognize him those two and far between Katolis City outings he’d taken her on…and it’s even weirder when the girl turns to her—big brown eyes wide with the same shock and awe, her hands wringing in her skirt.
“And…and she’s—”
Rayla feels Stella stiffen on her shoulder just as she does.
She doesn’t know what she is, let alone what a random little girl in the Katolis countryside thinks she is, but—
He turns to beam at her with an encouraging, subtle little nod, eyes twinkling, lips twitching into a tighter smile, nudging her elbow…
—Callum does.
Right.
She’s Rayla, and he’s Callum, and they’re—
Well…they’re whatever they are.
“Uh…hi there,” she says, hoping she doesn’t look as awkward as she feels. She pulls at her clothes with one hand, waving with the other, and she gets the feeling the girl already knows her name, but… “Rayla.”
“Mommmm!”
The stool nearly topples as the preteen calls out and scurries away from the desk, and by the time Rayla’s done exchanging a glance and a shrug with Callum about the whispers they can’t quite hear, the innkeeper has appeared in a hurry, with a littler girl in tow too.
“Your Highness,” she nods, curtsying despite a second gentle correction from Callum, then looks back at her older daughter peeking around a corner still. “You’ll have to forgive her, she’s…well, the king isn’t here too, is he? I’m afraid Mari here has got a bit of a—”
“Mom!” Mari groans from the hall, turning to sink dramatically against the doorframe…and Rayla hopes the smile she shoots her reads as sympathy.
“Anyway, welcome to Lilac Lane!” the mother goes on, already gathering keys and papers from the desk while her toddler wanders around it, spotting Bait as she rounds the corner. “Oh, Tunia, no—”
“It’s alright, little one,” Rayla says as much to Tunia as to her mom, moving Bait from the counter to the floor. Stella joins them there on the ground, chittering about a new friend to cuddle, and Rayla kneels too, petting the both of them until the wee little human copies her. “They’re friendly.”
“I’m afraid we’ve just the one room left, so close to nightfall,” the innkeeper explains. She’s apologetic but…lightly so, like she doesn’t think it’ll matter, like she thinks that she and Callum are…well…
Like they were before.
Rayla wants to scramble to her feet, needing to see Callum’s reaction to it being put so plainly that they’d need to share a room—just the one, and likely no random door down the middle—but she stands slowly instead, leaving Bait glowing pink and Stella sitting all snuggly in the little girl’s lap—
“The double will do for just the two of you?”
—and his answer is clear enough.
“Uh…is that double, like two in one?” Callum stutters, obviously super uncomfortable, she thinks. “Or double like double-size but one, uh…?”
He…doesn’t want to share.
She is delusional.
Rayla stares at the ceiling, at the floor, her hands—anywhere to look as disinterested as possible, not needing anyone else to know about any dashed hopes of hers while she waits for Callum to politely turn the down the room, preferring grass to class if it means sharing with her…obviously.
“Mari, what’s still open? Rose room?”
It’s a mistake to have looked up to hear the answer, Rayla realizes, seeing the way the older girl is eyeing her and her dashed hopes when she confirms that yes, it’s the Rose room—of all the rooms that all of her and Callum’s weirdness could maybe share—that’s open.
“One bed, of course, Prince—er, sorry—Callum. Your keys—” the girls’ mother answers, and Rayla’s just about to collect Stella and Bait and turn herself—and her flushed face—around before there’s even a cue from Callum, but then…Callum takes the keys and starts digging around in the pouch where he keeps their money. “Breakfast starts at sunrise—oh, no, we couldn’t.”
Rayla’s eyes go wide as Callum persists in pushing payment across the desk, rethinking her delusions all over again.
Maybe…
Maybe all that stuttering was wanting to share a room.
Maybe it was…wanting to share a bed.
“I insist,” he says, still with that same charming, well-mannered smile, and then plucks one of the keys out of his other hand, laying it back on the counter beside the coins, “and…you know what? Just the one key is fine too, actually.”
As if her insides hadn’t already been flip-flopping with edge-frazzled delight, as if her hopes weren’t already Spire-high, Callum turns to her then, just a slight smug slant sliding across that polite little smile of his and, whether that look is about sharing or about her key-thievery back at the castle…she’s not sure, but her stomach somersaults either way.
Callum looks away after no more than a second to listen to the innkeeper’s directions about where to find their room, what to do with their mounts, supper if they want it, things they could do in town tomorrow if they had time to spare…but Rayla can’t.
She can only just stare for what feels like forever—watching his shoulder shrug and imagining her head laid across it, noticing how his hand fidgets with the pouch on his belt and imagining her fingers there between his instead, seeing that same quiet, thoughtful smile on his lips and imagining them leaning in closer…
Stella rolls across her foot, then, chittering happily, playing with the wee human girl…and Rayla shakes off the unfinished fantasy, reminded of her and Callum’s two little travel companions and that there are definitely some things that they don’t need repeated back to Ezran, even if whatever-they-are warranted anything…like that.
The innkeeper wraps up her spiel, sliding a small stack of pamphlets across the desk—
“If there’s anything at all that the two of you need, please find Mari or me. Let me go make sure your room’s in order.”
—and Rayla’s about to chime in to thank her too after Callum does, but then—
“It’s an honor to have the royal couple stay here with us!”
—the both of them freeze as she bustles away, with all the weird laid bare.
Maybe their weird whatever-they-were…could still be that, Rayla wonders, fidgeting with her wrist, nervous to look at him—
“Uh, so…” Callum turns, hand at his neck—he’s nervous too then, she knows—as he steps away from the desk, motioning for her to follow him back towards the entrance. “Rayla? Would it be okay if…well, uh—”
—or maybe they still are a couple, if he’s about to ask her to sleep with him—side-by-side—tonight…
But then he tries to hand her the key, and that’s…not what he asks.
“—could I…borrow your bedroll for the night? An extra pillow would be nice.” Callum thumbs over his shoulder, towards the door, like he’s going back out there.
Like the room—the bed—is…just for her?
She ought to be crushed again, she realizes, sure now that he also definitely really hadn’t wanted to share either a bed or a room, but—
He’s just so…
Callum.
…and such a dummy.
She shakes her head and sighs, practically bursting with affection that she knows is too weird for their…whatever-they-are.
“Callum…don’t be a dummy,” she says, ignoring the warm tingle of her fingertips against his knuckles as she pushes the key in his hand back against his chest. “I’m not letting you go sleep out there on your own. This was your fancy-pants idea, anyway, Your Highness.”
Rayla hesitates there, willing to camp out still—even solo, so her castle-pampered mage could have his little indulgence—though, Moon and Stars, she doesn't want to, not now. The thought of sharing had just been...so nice. Callum all warm next to her, maybe his hand in hers, maybe stealing just one little kiss goodnight at long last while Bait and Stella slept…
“We can…share,” she ventures, deciding the weird is worth it for a chance at even any of that. She shrugs, tucking a strand of hair out of her face, scanning the sitting room at Callum’s back, the view out the window at her left, both of the innkeeper’s daughters now playing with Stella and Bait on the floor…waiting for what feels like forever for his answer.
“We…can?” Callum wonders, and she’s inclined to hear doubt there, considering all his going-on about boundaries that first night back at the castle, but…he doesn’t ramble about any of that now. He just…looks at her, eyebrows lifted, eyes searching hers, a little flushed…asking her, actually asking her.
“Well…I think that’d be alright,” she explains, her hands clasped in front of her as she rocks a little closer. Rayla bites her lip: she ought to actually ask him, too, of course. “If you think it’d be alright?”
Callum’s mouth opens, but before he can say anything—
“Okay, you two should be all set,” the innkeeper calls from partway down the hall, wiping her hands before dropping the spare key back on the desk and turning to the kids, fists on her hips. “Tunia, time to say buh-bye to the prince’s pets.”
The little one babbles in protest, squeezing out a less-grumpy-than-usual groan from Bait, and Mari looks up too, not at her mother, but at Rayla, and the smile she shoots her is…sympathy, she thinks.
“I’ll watch them,” she chimes in, shrugging and scritching Stella’s chin just the way she likes. Tunia hugs Bait tighter, rejoicing at her sister’s offer, while Mari looks hurriedly between them and her mother for permission. “I mean—can I?”
“I don’t think Ezran would mind if you keep an eye on Bait for us,” Callum answers, calm, cool, and collected again…and Rayla’s hopes swing even higher now despite herself, blushing too furiously to even show how grateful she is for even just the possibility. “And Stella seems pretty happy, right, Rayla?”
Maybe—
Maybe they can even be alone in their one room—their one bed—Rayla thinks.
Maybe…except that she’s still looking for his answer from before…
…which she finds in his outstretched hand:
“I think that’d be alright.”