uwu

I'm in ship mode.

Starting the new year with some Angus/Deirdre What If fluff.

By What If, I mean I don't actually think this fits in with the show, but they never technically said it couldn't happen uwu

To set the stage, we know Rohan lived in the castle since he was a kid, and Angus tagged along as part of a package deal. Angus also immediately took to crawling around in the walls, finding passages that were probaby meant for... idk, cats? Maybe? I don't know why there's so much space for him in there, especially as an adult, but there ya go.

But I'm also imagining that with the shape of the stones on the outside of the castle, there are enough handholds for small fingers to find purchase. Experienced rock climbers can get a grip on what seems like a totally flat wall because they can work with such subtle grooves after years of practise. Picture Angus getting into a dozen different places through a mix of gaps between the walls and crawling around on the outside to come in through a window.

Angus and Deirdre technically met in that episode about the curse on Kells, which was just when Rohan went to live in the castle, and immediately after Deirdre referred to Rohan as some "dirty boy". We see Angus getting into Cathbad's chamber, coughing on the way in from all the dust, so no matter how dirty Rohan was, Angus would be even worse. And from the look of things, Angus didn't have a reason to go in the castle until then; the guy makes such a big show of knowing everything about a place when he's introducing someone to it (like Garrett to Tir Na Nog and that kid-prince to Cathbad's chamber too), and he acts like he's never seen this room before.

So.

uwu

Imagine Angus, brand-new to the passages in this castle. He's trying to find his way to where Rohan is, but this place is a maze. He's never truly sure which room he's about to pop out of, but he does realize - after going in a few circles - that there are more than a few ways to enter certain rooms.

Deirdre, who's passing through these halls, hears louder skittering than any rat (or cat) she's heard before. She's curious, and she's bored from all of her princess lessons, so this is the perfect spark of excitement to go see what it is. She follows it around, trying to keep up with it going up and down the floors. It goes all the way until she's in an empty guest room, creeping closer and closer towards the fireplace.

And then out pops a soot monster.

(it's angus but she doesn't know that yet)

Deirdre's surprised for half a second, and then outraged that this even dirtier boy is intruding through her castle walls. Angus can't see her because he's got soot over his eyes, so he doesn't know this is the princess yet. But he figures it out after he pats himself off and covers the whole room in soot, getting Deirdre to start coughing and angrily yell for the guards. That makes everything snap into sense, and Angus is back in the fireplace and off through the walls a second later.

Then the rest of the episode with the curse happens, Angus finds Rohan, the two of them meet Deirdre, and they (or Rohan at least) pretty much never talk to her again until they're adults - based on how they are with each other in the first episode, anyway.

Except now I'm gonna change what happened over the years to plant some better seeds for a budding princess-and-thief romance. 😌

Angus is still going to want to visit Rohan while they're growing up (obviously). He's also going to want to map out the rest of this castle. So he visits, and he explores, and he stumbles into empty rooms, and he leaves a sooty mess behind, and he disappears before anyone else can catch him. He and Rohan probably giggle about this since the servants would mention some soot-ghost causing them all this extra work, and - more importantly - annoying the princess, who says it's some boy that's running around. Rohan won't admit a thing to Cathbad, and Angus is good at staying hidden.

Then one day, he crawls out of a passage in the corner of a room, and comes face-to-knee with...

😵‍💫 Deirdre.

Angus has just found out where her room is, and she is not happy.

She isn't the type to start hysterically screaming for help right away, and now that she's met Angus at least once (during the curse episode), she's much more likely to look down at him crawling in from that corner and go, "YOU. 😠 You're the one who's been hiding in the walls."

Angus goes "whoops" and disappears again, leaving Deirdre to shove some furniture over the hole to block it up.

A few nights after that, and Deirdre - stubbornly getting through her needlework in a different room - sees some soot sprinkle down and onto her fabric. She looks up, and beside a hole in the ceiling by the chandelier, she sees Angus. She goes, "😠," he goes, "🤫" and then he disappears again. Deirdre is scolded for getting distracted and quietly returns to her stitches.

A few nights after that, Deirdre hears rustling from behind the wardrobe in her room. She gets up to go see if it's a mouse that's been trapped... and finds Angus chomping on food he's stolen from the royal pantry. Clearly he's mapped out that route, but he mesed up on finding his way back to Rohan and on finding a better spot to rest for a snack.

Deirdre goes, "😠 OUT." Angus goes "😮 oop" and takes off again.

The key to this is that Deirdre thinks Angus is a pest, enough to want him gone, but is having an easy time getting rid of Angus by herself. No guards required, or else everything would forcibly end early.

There are a other few milestones I picture happening along the way when they're still kids, like Deirdre hearing muffled breathing from somewhere in her room, just to explore and find Angus behind the wall of another corner, only just visible behind a smaller hole that - for once - he can't actually fit through.

Except he's just snoozing back there.

He scatters when she wakes him up - throwing a rock at him or something, because he's in her castle and she isn't going to touch him when he's so filthy - but weeks later, he's in there again. Same thing happens. The third time, though, is when he doesn't really wake up from her snapping at him. With the hole being just smaller than their heads, she can't quite get a good look at him, but she ducks down and puts her ear against it to listen, all to hear him shivering. She thought it was the pop of the fire in the hearth, but it's him.

It occurs to her that the reason he's in this part of the wall is because it's beside her fire. He's freezing. It was winter but she hadn't made the connection to the cold and needing shelter. She knows he has a friend in the castle, but she assumes he wasn't allowed to stay with him because of Cathbad. Their druid's complained about him occasionally to her father.

She considers doubling down and waking him up for sure, but... well, the fire drowns out the noise, he's quiet enough anyway, and it isn't like he can get in here through that small hole in the corner. She puts a basket in the way to be safe, casually adds more wood to fireplace, and returns to bed. He isn't allowed to stay there forever, but if it's so cold that he has nowhere else to be, he can stay for one night.

She never asks about his circumstances, since he's a peasant and it's obvious what they'd be, but on the nights that it's cold enough to warrant a fire, she gets into a loose habit of checking if he's there before she goes to sleep. They don't bother each other, but if he's there when she checks (he sometimes is), she'll add more firewood.

He's interesting to her. There aren't any other kids around, and certainly not any boys (she's not counting Cathbad's apprentice). She's peeked at him during the night a few times, like he was a new kitten in a barn or something. He's always either been asleep or already gone to wherever he goes. Both are interesting, even though she has to wonder how he's somehow never awake to notice.

Another milestone is a time she's lost something. A necklace, maybe, and one that was important to her. She looks in her room and all over the castle, but it's nowhere to be found. Some time later, after another night she's cried herself to sleep, she hears a soft clink in the corner by the fire. There's no fire tonight, since it's quite warm this time of year. She gets up to investigate anyway, and finds her necklace beside the basket, which was pushed to the side a bit. There's no one behind the wall. She even calls out to be sure, and there's silence.

It's never really clear if she did lose it or if 'someone' took it in the first place. All she knows is that she got it back and she's grateful. Eventually, she decides she must have lost it. Every way of getting in here is blocked off by something already, and she doesn't think he'd be reckless enough to come in through the window.

She doesn't hear him for months after that. No scurrying, no snoozing, no snacking. She's pleased that it's finally done, and proud to have endured it...

... but one night, she decides to leave an apple in the spot behind her wardrobe. It's where he'd been snacking when she caught him that time.

The apple's still there days later. There are a few bites missing, but they look like rat bites. She throws the apple away, embarrassed by the whose idea, but a month later, the urge to try again returns. It might have something to do with Cathbad's newest complaints, meaning Angus hasn't actually disappeared. She leaves better snacks by the other corner, the one small hole by her fireplace, and waits to see if it's gone the next morning.

It isn't.

She's even more embarrassed. There aren't many kids she's allowed to talk to (including Cathbad's apprentice), and if she wasn't talking to Angus...

Well. It was probably for the best. That was the thing with strays: feed them and they never leave. Since she didn't accidentally feed anything, nothing is going to stay to bother her. Especially not a boy who wasn't supposed to be here in the first place.

... She keeps trying occasionally. Just to see if he'd come back.

A couple of years pass, and she hears a commotion outside her door. It's a guard running through a hall. Nothing to be worried about, she thinks, and she's about to forget it entirely when something comes in through her window.

It's Angus. :3 Crash-landing.

Trying as hard as he can to smile his way out of her screaming at him while he's still upside-down and on his head ¯⁠\⁠_⁠༼⁠ ⁠ಥ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠ಥ⁠ ⁠༽⁠_⁠/⁠¯

She's furious at the intrusion, demanding to know who he is to barge into the princess' room. She'll have forgotten his name at this point, since it's been so long, but she has a keen awareness that she knew it once. She'd never ask for it, though, and lucky for him, Angus doesn't misinterpret her demand as that. He's scrambling to right himself and say that he's just passing through, just has to get behind the wardrobe to leave, even moving over to it to start pulling it away from the corner it's been blocking for years.

Deirdre instantly cuts in front of him. He's not touching anything in her room, and she wants him out of it.

In the very back of her mind, she notices he's grown. He's taller than her now. Before, they were almost the same height.

He swears he'll be gone just as soon as she moves, but there's a knock at the door firsn. Deirdre's maid heard her in there and is asking if she's alright. There's an instantly pleading look on Angus' face, and Deirdre glares him into silence because she can't be bothered to kick up a fuss over this. Sweetly, she calls back that everything's fine, and the maid says that's good, but it's also cleaning time so can please she come in. Angus is like o_o because he needs to move the wardrobe out of the way, and that's decently loud.

I guess Deirdre gets inspired by his panic and decides to teach him a lesson. She says the maid can of course come in, but to please start at a certain corner. Angus goes O_O as the door opens for the maid to enter, and Deirdre shrugs while she leaves him to hide. He darts behind the massive curtain beside her window, since there aren't any other options.

The maid starts cleaning around the room, suspicious that the princess is paying this so much attention. Deirdre says everything is fine, but just as the maid comes up to fix the curtain, Deirdre asks her to clean under the bed right now. Not for any particular reason. Just as an order.

As the maid slowly agrees and turns around to do so, Angus sneaks out from the curtain and Deirdre points to under the desk. When the maid finishes there, she's about to go to the desk next, but Deirdre asks if she can go tidy the wardrobe next - and points Angus to under the bed, who figured out what's happening and goes >:( on the way. Deirdre has a great time leading the maid around the room like this, especially as the maid says it's strange that the floor is so worn beside the wardrobe, like someone's been repeatedly moving it. Angus is back to going o_o as Deirdre says, "Really? :3 That's so interesting - what interesting information that is."

Finally, when the maid leaves and Angus can get up, Deirdre scowls and says, "Do not go through my room, or I'll have every guard in my castle drag you to the dungeon."

Angus gives an awkward little bow, and then goes over to the wardrobe, loudly scraping it against the floor as he pivots it to reveal that hidden passage in the corner. Deirdre doesn't even bother saying he could've gone through the door, and simply watches him crawl through and loooudlyyyy scrape the wardrobe over the floor again as he pulls it back in place behind him.

Deirdre puts a small vase at the foot of the wardrobe. Sure enough, weeks later, the vase is awkwardly sat a few feet away - like someone pulled the wardrobe back into place behind them, but couldn't sneakily reach the vase to reset it too.

Once - and only once - the guards are particularly upset. She walks past them and into her room, just to see the wardrobe pulled slightly away from the wall. She rolls her eyes and goes to move it properly, but stops when she puts a hand on it and feels that it's wet. She sees blood on her palm when she checks it.

Before she can do anything, her door flies open and a guard barges in. Deirdre whirls around, and the guard - apologizing profusely for not realizing this was her room, having simply been told to search everywhere - tries to peek around while explaining that they're after a Temran spy. Deirdre tells him to search somewhere else because this is her room, but only when the guard lingers does she fully snap and tell him to gtfo right this second. It works, and the guard jumps and scurries away.

She checks outside the door and sees more guards crowding the halls. Then she firmly shuts the door and locks it. The smear of blood on her palm catches her attention again, and she slowly decides to wipe it off the wardrobe before anyone else happens to find it. She's procrastinating, she supposes, because eventually she starts having to check around the room herself.

She's only vaguely concerned that she's locked herself in with a spy, because a spy wouldn't know about that hole behind her wardrobe. There's nothing behind the curtain, but under the bed, there's Angus - eyes shut like he's playing dead.

She doesn't yell at him this time. After she's done peeking out of that same, young curiosity, she takes a true look for blood and sees his hand's wrapped but leaking through. Wordlessly, she stands back up, finds another wrapping in her desk, grabs an apple from a bowl in her room, and puts both of them on the ground beside her bed in silence. But she's still not exactly happy at this, and doesn't want to seem like she's condoning it. Just to be safe, she kicks the apple over to him, and is satisfied by the little snort of disapproval that earns. It means he is only playing dead.

Ten minutes go by before she finally hears some muffled chewing.

Angus is gone in the morning, along with any trace he'd been there. He must have gone back out through the window, because the door is still locked and the wardrobe was still slightly ajar. The guards caught the spy eventually; it was someone else, and the king notices how unusually pleased his daughter is to hear that.

I don't want these two getting too close while they're kids, because I still want everything to line up with the first episode, where Deirdre's pretty damn unhappy to have him knock her over and doesn't seem to know Rohan that well either. But I do want there to be some established level of familiarity with each other, because she was fast at kicking him for kicking her (which is very unusual for her; she's usually more composed than that, outside of the one time she punched Pyre lol) but Angus reacted like it was normal for them. So there's like a friendly, unique, antagonistic banter built up over the years, where Deirdre's more than comfortable snapping at him, teasing him, and touching him than she is with anyone else, who she always has to be A Princess™ with.

What I love about this is the curiosity Deirdre has. It's completely unspoken and easy to deny, even to herself, but she keeps finding reasons to be drawn to him. When she's young, she sorta treats it like she has a pet? Like a wild rat or something that she pretends is her pet, because she feeds it every so often. She keeps enough distance to avoid getting too attached, but she's quietly delighted to see signs of him around. She's also furious to see any mess because ew, a rat.

Meanwhile Angus gets more and more desensitized to her. He gets kicked by her and doesn't have any problem snapping back an excuse - almost like he does when he's being yelled at by Cathbad. He's comfortable enough to overstep their formal boundaries, but is still fully aware he has overstepped and is cautiously testing the new, 'real' boundaries that exist: he can hide in her room if he's desperate, she won't immediately call the guards if he doesn't make a mess, but she has very little patience for him altogether. It's enough for him to be cheekier and tease her back when he's not in her room (doing his "i think the princess would prefer my hand" schtick), but also to avoid rocking the boat so hard that he loses the tiny privilege he has. Well, until he gets more comfortable and bolder with his teasing over the course of the show.

The pet thing matters too, because I'd like to think the arrangement of Angus being in Deirdre's walls doesn't change. Angus doesn't just stop using those passages, but they wouldn't turn every night into a sleepover. Maybe once, Deirdre would hear a sound in the wall that wakes her up, and she'd nervously call out, "Angus?" And there'd be silence for a moment before he says back, "... Yup?" And that'd be the end of it. They don't have to talk, and there's a look of understanding between them the next morning. (Especially 'cause there's a guard who's pissed about something.) (Deirdre swears she doesn't think it's funny, and Angus swears he totally didn't see her grinning.)

But that emotional distance is important because Angus still defers to Rohan - and hell, even Garrett - as the real End Game for Deirdre. He's just a funny little pet rat that scurries around the walls sometimes. A jester at best. Nothing more, even if he's openly asking her for a kiss. He's completely harmless.

The truest test would be one night in the middle of the show, when Angus is passing through and hears crying. It's Deirdre, mourning her mother, since she never got to see everything Deirdre's accomplished over the years. He's torn on whether he should ignore this like they always do - this is her room, after all, so part of arrangement means respecting her privacy - but then he hears her call out, "Angus?"

He doesn't answer. In fact, he stays silent long enough for Deirdre to bury herself back in her pillow and weep.

It doesn't feel right for him to intrude on her.

He crawls through, back on his way, when he realizes there's no chance she would have heard him. She was guessing to see if he was there. That worries him, because there's a good chance that was to scream at him after correctly assuming he was intruding. He's already back to space where he can start climbing down outside as he thinks this. He can't explain why the hell he doesn't, because he really can't afford to lose his Wall privileges, but he climbs up instead - and through her window.

Deirdre doesn't notice until Angus has his hand gently on her back. At that, she's a bit startled, but mostly just relieved to see someone there. She doesn't hesitate to sit up and pull him around her, taking all the support she can get from him quietly holding her. He stays until she's asleep, and he's gone long before she's awake.

There's no look of understanding shared the next morning, because Angus just doesn't look at her. It's not meant to be rude, just affirming that they were both going to politely pretend it didn't happen. And it doesn't last forever, obviously. Angus does deliberately - cheekily, as always - find her afterwards and maybe even spins her around as extra proof that this is no big deal, and asks if she's okay. She says she is, and he ends it there almost instantly, trying to spare them from her awkwardly thanking him out of obligation. Somehow, it's exactly what they need to reset things. It's their emotional wardrobe sliding back in place over their emotional... emotions.

But just like the real wardrobe, even if Angus thinks he's sealed everything up again, there's something still out of place from Deirdre's side. In the moment, she'd really wanted anyone to comfort her. She'd only called out for Angus since he was the sole person with a chance of being in earshot. But the more she thought about it, she didn't know who else she could've asked for. Angus holding her felt so close and right, like he alone had any chance of soothing her.

She's not going to think about it. She's going to move the emotional vase back in front of the emotional wardrobe, but she's keenly aware that this happened.

And she's curious to see if she can feel like that again.

It is a bit tricky nailing down Angus' feelings for all this. 🤔

Deirdre's easy. She's the princess, she's got all the power, and the only line she has to worry about is whether or not something's fair. I'd say 'proper' or 'traditional', but she pushes back on those when she doesn't like them, so 'fair' seems to be the underlying factor for her - and she lumps in a lot of stuff as being fair by virtue of being the princess. Not always in a bad way! She was willing to sacrifice herself in the second episode because she was the princess, so she embraces the responsibility involved.

It's why it's so funny that she is more open with Angus and grabbing him all the time. Like she knows nothing's going to happen because Angus is Angus. Upheaving a whole bunch of rules just to give herself permission to hook up with him? That's not a fair trade. Unless - like... idk, is Angus interested, did he say anything 👀

The line's mostly drawn from her side, is what I'm saying. She's permitted herself to relax and damn near flirt, but going any further would be a massive change that'd need a massive commitment.

But then there's Angus. He's a lot harder to pin down.

First off, lololololol pin down

Second, assume this is separate from the polycule in Angus' mind. I always thought Deirdre was the first person he's involved himself with anyway, and the thought of what he's gonna do with her gets too easy when he's already comfortably moving around four beds.

Third, I'm not looking to rehash everything I've already said (even though I do love mentally rehashing it for fun uwu). There's a bigger fish to fry: if everything could work out the way Angus wanted, what would he do?

Rohan would have to give his blessing. That's the most important thing. We all agree, right? Yay!

Garrett wouldn't have to give his blessing so much as his acknowledgement. This guy's all about battles and showing off, so recognizing Angus as the 'best' for Deirdre and stepping aside would be enough. It's still a lot, but it's easier for Angus to force Garrett to accept it if he absolutely has to. Angus can't force Rohan into anything without risking their friendship, so that's the critical difference.

Ivar and Conchobar would both be non-issues. Ivar would be supportive of whatever made his friends happy, so long as it doesn't distract them from their duties and his quest, and I don't think he'd see an issue with their gap in class. He might chalk it up to being a quaint quirk of Kells. And to be perfectly honest, if Deirdre ever decides she's gonna marry someone in particular, her dad is not gonna stop her. Not that he won't try, probably! But he's gonna lose hard. Deirdre has "Remember when I ran off to become a Mystic Knight and saved Kells" and "Remember when you sold me off to Garrett and I said no" and "Hey remember when you were gonna marry Maeve" triple-attack on her side. Forget him.

Cathbad would probably need to give somewhat of a blessing. Not exactly that. More like... approval, maybe? I don't think Angus could handle a million jokes about a lowly thief stealing his way onto the throne, especially when he barely handles the jokes that are only about the thief part. So Cathbad would have to agree that he approves of the two of them and only give his unsolicited snark when Angus fumbles (oh, and he will. And Cathbad is totally welcome to say that - once).

The guards - oh yeah, we're talking about the guards too, we're not stopping at the main cast when Angus wouldn't - would have to find a way to privately come to terms with it. There are a number of moments where someone says something in front of the king, and then when the king's out of earshot, a guard gives their real opinion; even if they swear openly that they're fine with Angus now that Deirdre's shacking up with the utter bane of their existence in this place, it's not gonna stick until he can walk around and ignore them. I'm not sure how long it'll take, since Angus'll be coming off of at least a decade of being chased and imprisoned by these guys. But ignoring him would be the best. He doesn't need to be friends with them, and I imagine he doesn't like a handful of them, but getting to walk around as unseen in a hall as he would be crawling through a passage seems like it'd fit his happy status quo.

The village - yes we're going that far - is sort of where it breaks down for him.

Angus trying to leverage his status as Deirdre's boyfriend wouldn't be the problem. That'd happen all the time, mostly harmlessly, and the second it hits a level where Deirdre wouldn't like it if she found out, it'd stop. :P And it's not some sexist hen-pecked trope. I think with how seriously Deirdre takes her role as a royal, compared to how begrudgingly Rohan takes to his as a legendary warrior, Angus wouldn't dare to do something like ask the villagers for gold. Pushing Rohan to do it? Sure, Angus'll try, and he'd definitely use his own status as a Mystic Knight. But not Deirdre's as a princess. That's disrespectful, not cute and cheeky.

Angus spending some nights in the castle would be more of a problem, but not the main one either. It's not like he's going to stop talking to his friends in the village, just because that's the crowd he's depended on to survive and old habits really die hard. He's going to want breaks from all the royal prim and properness, too. Problems wouldn't come from any jealousy from anyone there, because he's been fairly comfortable brag-talking about how he's in the castle all the time as a knight. He's already taking any jealousy in stride. Yes, it is nice being with the princess, thanks. Oh, what's it like? Sorry, royal secret, can't kiss and tell. Anm Rohan might get a little lonely from time to time, since Angus is only ever gone when he's stormed off. While I do see Angus keeping visits with Deirdre to a minimum (as far as Rohan can tell) so he doesn't leave Rohan alone for too long, and that becoming its own problem over time, it's not really a problem with the village itself.

It's Deirdre.

Angus can fit in at the castle in his obvious "haha i don't belong here what are you gonna do about it" way, but Deirdre is going to piss off so many people if she's hanging around there for too long.

How do I know?

THE SOUP.

I can genuinely extrapolate every other thing from how it would based on just that soup. You know the one - it's like episode 48? 47? One of the later ones. Deirdre and Ivar go to Rohan and Angus' village, smell something awful, go to the hut, and turn down Angus' very happy offers to share his soup.

🙃

You might be asking what the problem is.

The problem is that Angus is a peasant. And poor. And has been both of those for quite some time. And very openly encouraged these two to try something he says is really good, and is almost certainly something he's made before, and would have definitely smelled as strong to the other villagers. He doesn't think anything of it.

Now it's one thing for the princess to politely hand out scoops of seeds in a charitable visit. It's another thing entirely to go with Angus to places in the village for fun, and not-so-subtly turn down certain foods or drinks, and very-loudly-in-outrage react toooooooo... Ye Olde Blue Collar Humour. A lot of which I am sure involves some crude jokes about the Princess of Kells, and just in general involves some general ribbing ('cause Angus got along fine with his two ex-friends at the tavern roasting him over his maps). There's an assumed All In Good Fun that she's not gonna fully prepare for, and that a lot of others are going to have sucked out of the room purely so they can be polite.

And what happens after that?

🥴 Angus just goes off by himself.

You know, ditching Deirdre.

Because what's he gonna tell her? "Sorry, Deirdre, you can't come, you kill every party you're at"? Hell no! She'll take that as a challenge! But there's one episode where Pyre goes nuts because of a plant and Angus and Deirdre are off to investigate, and Angus makes a joke like "uwu And you say we have nothing in common." A lot of what Angus is has to do with being a peasant! She didn't even find common ground with Rohan in the first episode, and he was the apprentice to the court's druid!

Angus knows this.

Angus also doesn't do well with confronting royals about their shitty ideas.

Angus is also gonna be dating her and ostensibly won't be as quick to say, "okay try it, let's see how this works out for you." (Well, maybe as a last resort, but if she actually comes back upset, he's gonna feel awful.) He's supposed to be her support, and setting her up to fail isn't going to work out on any level.

At worst-best, Angus somehow organizes the village to wait until she's back at the castle to start any 'real' parties. She'd still be hurt when she finds out, like he's hiding her from them (and she'll add some arrogant outrage at that too, since who hides a princess from peasants?), but I could see him thinking it's tomorrow's problem.

The funny thing is, those are all the mandatory obstacles Angus has to leap before he's getting publicly involved with her. And honestly involved too, not just humouring her on some fake-dates. Like I said, everything stops the second Rohan so much as frowns, but if there's not a solution for everything from the guards to the villagers, Angus still isn't surviving this relationship.

I find that hilariously ironic. It should be the other way around, right? Like Aladdin trying to fit in to be with Jasmine. But this time, Aladdin's already at the royal table. It's Jasmine who's gotta figure out how to hack it in the market - and even in that movie, she went out for five seconds and almost got her arm cut off.

🥴

... Oh my God.

Deirdre's gonna have to get Rohan to teach her how peasants live 😭

😭😭😭 Oh my God 😭😭😭 What if Angus thinks they're dating and instead of freaking out like they're cheating on him, he's like, "Yeah, it was a little too good to be true. I'm happy the two of you are finally together, though! I am absolutely okay with this. 🙂 No really, what else could I have possibly been expecting?"

ANGST. GIVE ME LATE 1990'S ROMCOM MISCOMMUNICATION ANGST.