[May 20] [The Princess Bride] I’ll Be Yours Or No One’s

[moon-destiny.livejournal.com]

Title: I’ll Be Yours Or No One’s
Day/Theme: May 20/ Because I dream of her too often
Series: The Princess Bride (1987)
Character/Pairing:  Westley/Buttercup
Rating: G
Notes: AU after the battle of wits scene but before the whole-pushing-the-Dread-Pirate-Roberts-down-the-ravine scene.

He doesn’t reveal that he’s Westley to Buttercup.

No, it actually happens that she pushes him down the ravine and he almost starts gasping out “As you wish” before he thinks better of it. There’s just one question he needs an answer to before he can reveal his secret to her.

He rolls to the bottom of the hill, feeling broken in more ways than one. Buttercup, up at the top, starts running in the opposite direction. The Dread Pirate Roberts forces himself to get up, his head protesting violently.

Prince Humperdinck is close on their heels. He knows that if Prince Humperdinck does catch up with him and Buttercup, Westley will lose Buttercup for the second time. The thought is too horrible to even contemplate and spurns him on to run after her.

He catches up with her real easily after a few minutes. She falsely assumes that a mere push down a ravine will slow down the Dread Pirate Roberts but she’s severely mistaken. He didn’t train with the best of the pirates to be stopped so easily.

“Your Highness,” he says condescendingly, “if you don’t want your pig-headed fiancée to find you and murder you himself, you won’t be pushing me down any more ravines.”

“Are you trying to tell me I would be safer with the likes of you than with a Prince?”

 “Of course, your Highness, I’m not known for my senseless killing.”

She looks at him like she doesn’t believe him. But to tell her the truth would be giving away his secret all too soon. He grabs her arm and starts leading her back to his ship. She, surprisingly, goes without much resistance.

“So you admit you do not love this fiancée of yours, but if you do not love him, then why marry him?”

Buttercup turns her head away in disgust. “I believe I do not owe you any explanation.”

“Surely you do, your Highness, I am saving your life here.”

Her eyes squint in confusion, which makes Westley tighten his fists in order to stop himself from reaching out and stroking her face. She always did look cute when she was confused about something. “It must’ve entered your mind that if you do not love him and he knows this that there must be another reason why he’s offering marriage to you.”

“Whatever could you mean?”

They stop walking, now standing close to each other and Westley’s senses fill with the memory of being close to her like this once but he’s gone five years without her, he can go a few minutes more.

“I mean your fiancée has a plan to murder you on your honeymoon to incite a war with the neighboring country of Florin. You do not think this a concern?”

He hears her suck in a sharp breath. He desperately wishes he wasn’t the one to have to tell her but better she know what kind of man Humperdinck really is.

“Why?” She looks at him with hard, accusing eyes and Westley can’t tear himself away. “Why are you telling me this?”

Ah. That’d be the question of the ages, wouldn’t it?

“I’d just thought you’d like to know.”

He starts walking again, not looking back to see if she’s following.

After a few minutes, he senses her behind him. Good, it’d save him the trouble of having to coerce her, which he has no way of doing save throwing off his mask and showing her who he really is.

“I do not understand why you wish to save me from him.”

“Do you really need to understand? Just know I’m doing you a favor and leave it at that.”

He says to himself all the things he can’t say to her, in the privacy of his mind and wishes that soon, soon he can tell her everything. Because he has dreamed about Buttercup for far too often and too long. It is time to finally make his dreams a reality.