threesentenceficathon | Bound and Barred (Hellboy; Nuada/Nuala) (Reply)

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They never touch - not any longer - not even a fleeting brush in passing, and Nuala sees the ease it brings to the court to see them so separate . . . the king not least among them; it sends a sharp pang through her heart, one that she feels echo through their link and sees in Nuada's shadowed eyes.

Nuada goes to war, again and again, and lives up to the murmurs of admiration and fear all their kind - and more - weave into legends; he returns colder and fiercer every time, and Nuala may be the only one to remember the softness of his heart . . . the only one who can feel that it still beats and bleeds thus.

Nuala remains in the court, remains by their father as he calls for and leans on her, she presides over the council and shores up their king; Nuada leads the armies, guards their borders, and while the court shy from him, their people love him for his fierce protection and the way he meets them on open, even ground - and always, as it stretches to years and decades and more that they do not so much as see each other, there is their link that cannot be broken, a pale shadow of the way they long to join themselves and all that they may have of one another.