Story [The Magicians] Year After Year - Quentin/Eliot, Quentin/Arielle & Eliot - One-shot

Title: Year After Year
Author: mavjade
Fandom: The Magicians
Characters: Quentin/Eliot, Quentin/Arielle & Eliot
Genre: Episode tag. Exposition, Alternate timeline that is canon??

Notes: I don't know if anyone here watches The Magicians, but the most recent episode was so beautiful the muse insisted I write it. If you don't watch the show, this probably won't make any sense. But you should watch it. Go, do it now. This was just a quick little story, and I've never written this fandom before, hopefully it works.

Major Spoilers for S3E5: A Life in a Day

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It had taken a year before they first shared a kiss. It wasn’t a kiss of desperation or of convenience, but of the love that had been blossoming over the shared frustration of trying to figure out the secret to the beauty of life in mosaic form. Quentin’s feelings for Alice were still there, probably always would be, but they had been moved aside by Eliot’s continuing encouragement and snark.


They both found comfort in being together, they missed their friends and wondered how they were fairing, but sharing the worries helped them to not dwell in the past, or the future as it might have actually been. When one of them stumbled, the other was there to catch them and remind him of their reasons for going on.


So they continued the mosaic day after day.


When Arielle began to come around, Eliot could see how attracted Quentin was to her and wanted to stay out of their way. But Q insisted it wasn’t like that. Yes, he was attracted to her, and yes, he’d fallen in love with her, but he loved Eliot as well. He didn’t want to choose, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to.


So they lived all together in the small house at the mosaic; Arielle planted vegetables in the grounds, and the two men continued to try and solve the puzzle. Day after day, month after month.


Eliot and Arielle didn’t have the same relationship with each other as they did with Quentin, but there was love and comfort between them too.


When Arielle became pregnant, everyone was ecstatic, so happy in their lives they almost gave up on the quest to live out their days as a family, but Arielle reminded them of the people in the future counting on them. That all of magic was on their shoulders. And if that meant they’d have to leave Fillory, they would do so as a family.


When Arielle contracted a fever, and none of the healers could help, Eliot and Quentin were devastated, but they had a child they needed to raise and magic still to save. So day after day, month after month, year after year they continued their quest.


When their son decided to go off on his own and venture into the world, they were proud and terrified. They reminded him of their quest that the child had heard stories about his entire life. They worried that one day their son would come home and they’d be gone.


It caused a small part of them to hope they’d never find the answer that they’d spent so long seeking. But they wrapped their arms around each other and watched as their son disappeared into the woods. They shared a kiss that spoke to years of a comfortable love and then picked up the tiles and continued again.


When Quentin opened his eyes, and the life in Eliot's had gone, he knew they’d failed to save magic and their friends. Whatever the beauty of life was, he’d never know. He wanted to lay down beside his friend, his lover, his husband, and close his eyes never to open them again, but Q owed his El the burial he deserved.


Hitting something hard so close to the surface of the dirt was startling, but finding a gold tile was a strike to the heart that almost did him in. He wondered if it could be that simple. Placing the tile in the middle of the mosaic almost made him angry, that the answer had been so simple all along. But then he realized the beauty of life had been right in front of him the whole time. It was in his love for Arielle, and Eliot and in their son. It was living a life that had been that made it beautiful.


When Jane showed up and took the key, it was one of the hardest things Quintin had ever done. To give what they’d worked on for so long, give the key of their lives to someone else. But he knew the only way she’d defeat The Beast was because of the key, and the only way he’d live to see this life would be if Jane would do what she’d already done.


When the memories of a different timeline came back to Quentin, he could feel the years of life filling his head. It was life, it was love, it was frustration and heartbreak. But it was beautiful, and he was thankful that the memories returned.


He didn’t know how he and Eliot would continue now, in this time, but he knew they wouldn’t be the same. That love he had felt for years and years was still present and he didn’t want to let it go.


But for now, they had magic to save and beautiful lives to live day after day, month after month, year after year.

~end