Connor x Reader: Parsley.

Connor x Reader, Parsley.



You took a deep breath of the crisp morning air as you strolled out of the house, The old man and Connor were still asleep, while a vibrant blue sky enriched with the beautiful sunlight and smeared with only a few clouds, turning golden in it's rays, was now covering the sky as far as the eye could see. Giving the morning a flattering glow, some mist still hung in the shallower places on the ground, and the grass was glittering with dew. How anybody could sleep when such a brilliant morning was rising, you didn't know. The birds were already singing there hearts out in the high trees, you spotted a pair of squirrel rustling about energetically, a young rabbit was too now venturing out of his hole with enthusiasm for the moist grass.

You merrily made your way of into the forest, enjoy the peaceful bliss. You walked through the thick undergrowth of entwining ferns, patches of a few interlaced flowers, the few spots of ground that were not concealed by growth were covered with leaf litter, that keep the earth bellow well hidden. You spotted three playful butterflies mingling together in a patch of delicate milkmaid flowers. You adjusted your quiver filled with arrows and continued on. Spotting a small patch of parsley, you picked some and tucked it away in your pouch, thinking it would go nicely in one of Achilles vegetable stews. Keeping alert you found the tracks of a young deer and following them through the dense growth of vegetation you soon spotted the animal, she was frolicking between some ferns until reaching her desired spot, where she began happily nibbling the leaves of a small cranberry bush, tearing them carefully free from the stalks. You smiled watching her for a moment, before making away quietly, heading up into the more mountainous ranges of the forest, the ground here revealed more earth and rocks, with fewer shrubs and flowers. You pulled your hood down and looked up at the spring sunlight dancing through the gaps in the trees, enjoying the warm day.

It must have been some time before you had reached the rocky cliffs where some of the sweetest berries grew, you noticed a young eagle observing you, he studied your movements from his high rock, before returning to grooming his feathers. You began to fill your small bag with berries, plucking one of the juicy treats for yourself and enjoying the sweet taste for a moment, as you moved along carefully selecting the big sweet ones from each bush, your eyes fell upon a trail of blood on the ground, you scrunched your face up in some concern and followed it swiftly, soon to find the unfortunate owner, a deer. But there was a small bleating noise that came from the clearly dead body, that of a baby deer.

You walked over to see a little one stumbling about helplessly with a bloody leg, where the attacker was confused you; you didn’t have time to look at the lifeless mother deer to figure out what had caused the fatal wounds. Instead your attention was on the fawn, you bent down to the weak looking thing, it’s soft coat was splattered with sticky blood and clumped up with some of the dusty earth, you moved your hand slowly towards it, the tiny creature stumbled to retreat behind the body of it’s mother. You sighed before smiling with an idea. “Hey little one, look.” You whispered, taking out some of the berries from your small bag. The fawn sniffed curiously, but still remained hidden, maybe berries wouldn’t be enough. Then you remembered the parsley you had tucked away, pulling it out you extended your hand slowly to the little fellow, he edged forward, ever so slowly until his soft muzzle eased the parsley from your hand. A smile spread out across your face as you looked at the timid creature. “There, that’s nice isn’t it, Little…Parsley...yes, Little Parsley, that’s what I’ll name you.” You smiled, taking out another small bunch of the herb, he came right up to you this time, munching confidently from your open hand. You chuckled slightly. “Hungry are you little one?”  

The little lad suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with sudden terror as he backed away slowly. “Hey, it’s okay Parsley.” You reassured, but the young fawn was now frozen with fear, his eyes staring blankly behind you. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as a shiver raced down your spine. A deep screeching growl made you spring to your feet, only to come face to face with a mountain lion, you recognised it’s stance was ready to attack, before you had time to react it had sprung onto you, in one foul swipe of its paw, the dagger like claws collided with the vulnerably flesh on your face, you felt a searing pain in your left eye, followed by a burning down your face to your neck. You let out a cry of pain, only for the animal to take a second lash at your face, this time you instinctively realised your hidden blade, it embedded into the animals shoulder, causing the mountain lion to screech and in that moment you flung it with difficulty from you. Stumbling to your feet once again, the blood pouring over your face and drizzling down your neck and chest, staining the robes you wore. You began to panic at the absence of sight in you left eye, in those few wasted seconds the animal had pounced for you again, this time making a near miss as you spun to evade it’s fatal claws, but from behind the mountain lion lunged at your arm, it’s jaw crushing down on your forearm, it’s teach sinking deeply into the flesh, the muscles in it’s jaw tightening creating a teeth clenching snap of your bone. You felt a few tears of pain sting your wounded face. The animal was on you again, it’s jaw this time heading for your neck, in a last attempt of defence you realised your hidden blade into it’s neck, piercing the jugular vein as it’s blood spurted out over you, the animal spluttered and then fell limp at a dead weight on top of you.

You closed your eyes for a moment, trying to gain your strength again, and then mustering it you pushed the animal off of you. Staggered to your feet, you felt shaken by fear and pain. How had you been so unprepared, you had fought a mountain lion before, glancing at the dead animals body, it was a very large male, almost like one from a old folk tale Achilles had told you, the king of mountain lions, unnaturally large in size and strength. But this big cat had been no tale, he was real enough. It was lucky the animal had not ripped your throat out. You still couldn’t see though your left eye, everything felt slightly surreal, a strange blend of reality and a tale. From the corner of your right eye you spotted Parsley peering out from behind his mother, he was looking at you with wide eyes, in some sense, he seemed to understand, because he trotted to your side. As you watched him, a small smile managed to creped onto your shredded face, though the movement hurt, you couldn’t help it, the little guy had remained near by all this time.  “Let’s go Parsley” You muttered, struggling along down the rocky terrain, he hobbled with his wounded leg beside you. The sun was high in the clear sky, it’s unforgiving heat beating down on you, you looked up feeling dizzy, perhaps it was the heat, the blood loss, pain or the fact you had been without water for many hours now, but your vision began to blur and your head started to ache, maybe it was all those combing factors, but you wanted to be back at the house more than anything in the world right now, you wanted to see the doctor, to ease this pain, to let water fill your dry mouth. “Ah.” You whimpered slightly, collapsing to your knees, feeling your consciousness begin to unravel before you. Oh, how badly you just wanted water, closing your eyes, you felt a soft nuzzle of worry and curiosity from Parsley. “I wish Connor could see you parsley, I….ahh….” You groaned slightly in pain. “…I think…he would have been very fond of you…” That was the last thing you could say or think, as your mind went blank and your body gave up in trying to stay awake.

**********

Connor hated the bubbling concern in his stomach, why had she left with out telling anybody, he knew she wasn’t a child and had all rights as the old man had lectured, but she had been away from home for so long. Though (y/n) had a tendency to wonder, she never normally missed lunch, let alone into the late afternoon. He made his way along, trying to track her through the forest, thankfully she wasn’t too light footed. He sighed as he followed her trail, seemingly she had been heading up to the higher grounds. In truth, Connor worried for her even when they were little together, pretty much ever since the day she had been adopted into his village, he had always worried for her, always protected her and always cared for her. He remembered the day when he was 9 and she was 6 some of the boys in the village had began to pick on her for her skin colour being different, it was the first time Connor had ever been violent to his fellows, he had given two bloody noises and the third a black eyes. She had thanked him, though muttered something about how she ‘had everything under control’. He smiled at the memory of their youth together. Maybe even back then, he loved her, the others had always had a slight dislike, even other girls, all because she was different in appearance to them. Connor had always found her beautiful, her (s/c) skin, her bright (e/c) eyes. She was like a fresh spring morning, filled with the energy of the forest and all the endless beauty of the sky. It was the only soft thoughts he seemed to have these days, with so much that had changed in his life, (y/n) was the one thing that remained constant and always by his side, and he would always be thankful for that, her loyalty and friendship were unmatchable.  

It took Connor some time as the higher rocky ground made tracking more difficult, by the looks of things she had walked along some of the rocks at one point, which had almost caused him to lose her trail. He came upon the berry bushes that (y/n) loved, she would often pick a great load and make a delicious pie. But such thoughts disappeared at he spotted a trail of dried blood, Connor’s heart began to pound as he followed it, though soon he let out a sigh of relief seeing the deer’s corpse, it appeared that wolves had gotten to it and so little of the animal remained now, but his eyes narrowed at the mountain lion, no pack of wolves would have tangled with that beast. It was far larger than any of the mountain lions he had before seen. Connor studied the ground, it was not just the scuffle of a dear, no a human had been here, a women he would guess, the ground was soaked with blood, he looked at the big cats body, to see the easily recognisable marks of a hidden blade, clearly (y/n) had been here. Been and gone, and by the looks of the franticly placed blows, and so much blood, she didn’t leave in a good state. Fear returned to him, she had left injured, and by the looks of her clearly visible and blood drizzled tracks, she had been heading downward in a incoherent direction, worst still, she was not alone, the tracks of the wolf pack did not seem far behind.  “No.” Connor muttered, before racing of as fast as he could go, darting between rocks as he followed the tracks.

It did not take long for a problem to occur, some rocks had loosened and tumbled down the mountainside, destroying the once clear tracks of (y/n). The wolves’ tracks, however, remained. Connor wondered about, by the way their tracks had scattered here and there, he presumed the rock slid had happened just as they were passing and possibly split them up. He felt despair creep into the edge of his heart, what if he was too late? (Y/n) was skilled, but that mountain lion had been unnaturally big, and now a pack of wolves. It was then he spotted the wolf pack, they seemed to be closing in around something, (y/n) still body. Connor felt himself fill with rage at the sight of her lying there utterly helpless. He clutched his tomahawk and charged at the wolves. Bringing down the first one in one swift and sure blow, the remaining 7 snarled, and went for him, trying to use numbers to out power him, but Connor bought them down in a short time, the last three whimpered and ran off, deciding that this meal was not worth such loss. Connor let out a breath at the sight of them fleeing, he was relatively unharmed, asides a few scratches.      

He turned to the sight of (y/n), walking over to her, he tensed at the sight, her (h/l) (h/c) hair was tangled and had fallen out of it’s braid, the left side of her face had been ripped open by the mountain lions claws, and was still spilling much blood, her right arm looked twisted and Connor thought he could see the bone beneath the mutilated flesh, blood oozed heavily from the wound, her robes were also splattered with much blood, probably both hers and the animals. Connor was relived by one thing though, she was still breathing, he swiftly bandaged her wounds with some torn strips of his under shirt, though that did little good, he then picked her up, pausing in surprise as he saw a young fawn quivering just behind her, Connor hardly had time to question it, he didn’t even really notice the fawns bloody leg instead he just began making his way back to the homestead, confused to see that the young fawn was never far behind him but also always keeping a reasonable distance away.  He muttered quietly to (y/n) for practically the entire walk back, pleading with her to be okay, though the silence that her unconscious self responded with filled him with worry.

**********

You smiled upon feeling the comfort of a warm bed, your arm felt like it had been crushed beneath a bolder though, and your face was in a deep agony. You parted your eyes lids, finding vision only came to one eye, your left, however, saw nothing. You noticed that your arm was in a cast and your face and left eye were bandaged, was that why you couldn’t see, no, it wasn’t that your vision was blocked, more that it was gone. You sat up, leaning on your good arm to do so. You looked to see Achilles chuckle slightly, he was sitting on a chair near to your bed. “It’s about time you were up young’n.” He said, though his voice was filled with some relief. “Connor will sure be glade to hear about this.” He said, smiling.

You blinked; slightly confused to see you were safe, home, in your old room, by the looks of the candle lighting in the dim room it was the early hours of the night. “Where is Connor? And, how did I get back, I don’t remember walking this far?” You questioned.

“I can answer all that.” He said, slightly amused at your confusion. “Connor had to leave your room, call of nature and all that. Though other than that he wont leave your side, when he does he insists I sit here with you.” He explained in dry tone, but a smile remained on his crinkled old face. “And as for how you got back….” He leaned forward slightly while resting his hands on his walking sick, about to tell you the tale. But was interrupted by Connor entering the room.

Connors face flooded with relief to see you sitting up. “(y/n), you’re okay, I….” He began, only to be hushed by a sharp tap from Achilles stick.

“Shh, don’t smother the poor girl. Now as I was saying….” He continued.

Though you smiled to see Connor, who seemed incapable of standing still now that you were awake, he was soon sitting on another chair at the bottom of your bed. Though keeping quiet while the old man rambled out the tale.

“….Me and Connor realised you must have gone into the forest, on account of such a beautiful day an all. But when you missed lunch, ‘someone’ began to worry, so he went gallivanting of into the forest after you...when he came back he was followed by the doctor and then he they took you to your room, and turns out you had been ‘savaged by a beast, so large it almost seemed from a story’ and the doctor confirmed you had broken your arm and he seemed relatively sure that the sight in the damaged eye was forever gone, I’m afraid.” Achilles sighed at the ending.  

‘Forever gone’ hit you a little harder than you would have thought, this could effect your training and general skill as an assassin, a broken arm could heal, but sight, you could only be grateful that you still had one eye. But you dreaded how over protective this would make Connor….he’d probably only let you have an iron sword….for hunting butterfly’s or something.  You looked up and nodded in thanks to the old man for explaining, then shifted your gaze to Connor. “Thank you…for everything Connor.” Suddenly something came to you, a slight worry covering your face. “Oh...poor Parsley.”

Connor and Achilles exchanged looks. “Parsley is a herb…you know that?” The old man said, looking rather confused by your comment.

“He must be out there all alone.” You muttered.

“Not really, there are lots of other herbs round the forest.” Achilles reassured, then turned to Connor and muttered in a hushed tone. “She must have took a hit to the head too.” His eyes wide with knowing.

You pouted slightly. “I’m not talking about the herb parsley, I’m talking about a little fawn, who I named Parsley.”

“That makes sense.” Connor smiled suddenly, then jumped up and hurried down stairs.

You looked to Achilles, who just shrugged.

Connor returned, a squirming fawn under his arm, it was Parsley bleating loudly in protest to being deer’napped by this scary man.

“Parsley!” You exclaimed as Connor set him down, soon the little fellow was under the bed, just peeking out enough to see you.

“He has been hanging around the homestead ever since you were taken inside, actually he followed me all through the forest.” Connor explained.

You smiled. “It’s good to see your safe little one.” You whispered to parsley, who was now trying to nibble at your discarded pair of boots. “But Connor, his leg was injured.” You explained.

Connor looked under the bed at him. “We shall see to it later, do not worry.” He reassured.

The old man raised an eyebrow at having a deer inside the house, and got up leaving the room quietly.

You glanced at Connor. Parsley was now shuffling out from under the bed a little. “Where was I when you found me anyway?” You asked.

He sighed. “You had not made it far from the attack scene, by the time I had gotten to you, so had a pack of wolves.”

“And?” you leaned forward in curiosity.

“I killed around five, the other three ran off after that.” He explained.

You looked at him. “Thank you again Connor, I dread to think what may have happened if not for you being there.”

Just then the old man returned, entering the room with some parsley in hand. “I take it he likes this, thus the name, hmm?” He questioned.

You nodded. “Yes, that’s right.” You smiled as Achilles put a patch of the herb down for Parsley, who began nibbling at it contentedly. The three of you all smiled watching him, despite the distraction of great pain, you enjoyed see the small lad munching away.

**********

It had been a few days since the incident, and Parsley’s leg was healing strong, you were too making improvement, though your healing would be much slower on account of the serious injuries you had been left with.

You opened your eyes to see the room was light, sunshine spilling in through the window, sitting up you slid out of bed, where you had been confined to these past few days just to make sure you rested up and your wounds reframed from getting any infection, though you felt it was just Connor fussing to much, but today the doctor had reassured him that you would be fine to be up and around, maybe even remove your bandages to let a little air get to your facial wounds now, though you had the bandages changed daily, your arm looked badly lacerated, but you had never looked in a mirror to see your face…and that was starting to get to you a little, the doctor always had an oddly sympathetic look when it came to your face, as did the old man, Connor seemed to look at you just the same though. You sat down at the small dark wood dresser, looking into the mirror, this was something you wanted to do alone. Slowly you began to remove the bandages. You hands were shacking slightly as you got to the last layer, as they fell away you had to stiffen a sob. The left of your face was completely slashed and your blind eye was heavily scarred. You felt a few tears leak out, stinging the damaged skin. You were not as vein as many western women, your upbringing in the Mohawk tribe had probably aided in that, but still, it was no doubt that this made you look differently at yourself, it was also a mark of failure, bigger than normal mountain lion or not, you should have been more aware.

Perhaps you had been a little wrapped up in emotions, because you didn’t hear Connor come in or notice him watching you with concern, in fact, you only realised he was there when you felt his strong hand on your shoulder. You looked up with damp (e/c) eyes, finding them caught up in Connors dark ones. “You were supposed to wait for the doctor to do that.” He pointed out.

“I wanted to…to see….bu…but to be alone….that probably doesn’t make sense.” You stuttered slightly.

He only nodded.

“It looks awful…” You said, pulling your eyes away from the reflection.

Connor looked to you. “It is just a battle wound, nothing more. And the pain will go away in time.” He said kindly.

You remained silent for what felt like the longest time.

Connor looked to you. “Why are you crying? Is the pain getting to much?”

“No, I just…I suppose it is rather pathetic, I’m lucky to be alive, but, I just wish my face didn’t look so…vile.” You took a deep breath, after all, maybe it was pathetic, Connor had saved your life and now you where whining about your appearance to him.

His face filled with sadness and he bent down next to you. “You don’t look vile, you….” He paused, seeming slightly shy to continue. “….you look…just as beautiful as the bright spring morning outside, filled with the same light. And no amount of scars will ever change that, you always have been a beautiful person, on the outside but also your heart, your heart is a pure as spring water, so please (y/n)…..” He took your hands into his own larger ones. “….never call yourself vile, and never get hurt and worry me so much again.”

You looked at him in slight shock, you had never thought Connor would say something so…loving, especially about you, and certainly not with you looking like this, no, it almost felt unreal, he couldn’t actually feel that, not about you, not you. But more shock came when he placed a soft kiss on your right cheek. You smiled weekly and sniffed slightly. He returned the smile. “Thank you Connor.” You muttered.

His eyes softened even more and he pulled you into a gentle embrace, being mindful of your arm and face. “Your friendship means more than the earth and sky to me (y/n).”

You felt your mood lighten at his kind words, a slight blush warming your face.

Connor looked to you. “You look a little warm, would you like to step outside for a bit?”

“That sounds like a good plan.” You got up, keeping hold of Connors hand and headed down stairs.

The two of you went out the door and onto the porch, where you spotted Achilles shooing Parsley away from some plant pots. “Away with you young’n, you’ve had plenty of food and there are plenty of weeds around, perhaps you’d kindly spend your time eating them and save my poor old back the job of weeding? Hmm?”

Parsley simply trotted off away from the old man, venturing over to you and Connor. “Well hello there.” You greeted, glancing to make sure the old man wasn’t looking before pulling a small stalk of parsley from one of the herb pots and offering it to your young friend. Parsley extended his neck slightly, taking the herb in a cheeky little way. Before making a slight noise of thanks and trotting off on his way to munch on a nearby shrub.

You meanwhile sat next to Connor on the porch, still hand in hand. He looked to you. “I...I don’t know if I was clear earlier?” He stumbled out.

“Hmm?” You responded.

“When I said how much your friendship meant to me and how lovely I thought you were….I meant to say it in more of a….” He seemed to be struggling with how to finish his sentence, a slight blush was on his cheeks, which you couldn’t help but giggle at.

“What is it, Connor?” You asked kindly, placing your free hand on his knee, which only seemed to aid in darkening his blush.

“I mean…that…” He took a deep breath. “I love you…well I have for some time...a long time…” He fidgeted about slightly at your silence.

You smiled suddenly, taking in what he had just said, and pounced on him in a swift movement accompanied by a slight squeal of excitement. Using your good arm to support yourself slightly, you leaned closer to his lips.

Connor wasn’t exactly sure how one moment he had been stuttering, the next you were on top of him only a lips distant apart, but then, you always had been an energetic young women. Connor pulled your face gently down meeting his lips with your own, he draped his arms around your back, and you both relaxed into the soft kiss, your lips caressing playfully. You pulled away slowly and looked at Connor, he smiled up at you. Then he tugged slightly at your arm, letting you lie down and rest your weight on him. He ran his fingers through your hair and you felt perfectly contented to just stay like this forever. Just the two of you, enjoying the warmth of this glorious spring day.