theairlock postgame cmo

[serrata]

 

"It reminded me of the ending of this movie I saw once. Two people jumped into a car, drove off into the sunset together and never looked back. They'd left everything behind and decided to start a brand new journey. It was just like that."

Comments

[burninglight]

...I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have--

[Ardyn bit his lower lip, briefly gripping the edge of the counter as if to steady himself. He took a slow breath in the silence that followed, shaking his head.]

I remembered two things. The somehow less horrible one...was that there was someone else. Back before everything went horrendously wrong, there was someone I was going to marry.

Aera--her name was Aera, and she was the only person that tried to protect me when I was cast out.

[serrata]

[ Yuuri shakes her head and makes herself firm up her voice – her words are a little steadier for it, even if that's not her intention. ]

Don't apologize. It's... it's alright. I don't want any of us to feel like we have to keep things from each other.

[ This, though, doesn't sound like something to keep from them – if anything, it sounds like something to celebrate that contrary to everything they'd thought, that there'd been someone on his side.

Which is why Yuuri senses a but coming. ]

What was she like? If you don't mind talking about her.

[burninglight]

She was...amazing, really. Stubborn but compassionate, so I’m beginning to wonder if I have a type.

[A quiet, shaky laugh.]

We used to meet in secret at old ruins where no one would find us; she loved archaeology, and I just...wanted her to be happy. My life didn’t exactly lend itself to domesticity with all the traveling and hiding out, so we did what we could when she was able to sneak away from my brother’s guards and out of the capital.

[serrata]

[ Under any other circumstances, she might've laughed – as it is, she just barely manages the slightest smile. ]

I can't say that surprises me in the least. I just hope you gave him a terrible headache every time she sneaked out to come see you.

[ Somnus Lucis Caelum has been dead for like two thousand years but Yuuri hopes he can hear her in the beyond every time she talks shit about him. ]

[burninglight]

Mm...probably. I wouldn't know, I hadn't been home in...three years? I think it was three, I'm not sure.

[serrata]

... I see.

[ That's a little sad, she thinks about saying, but refrains. She's certain Ardyn doesn't need her to tell him that.

She hasn't touched her food. She has a strong suspicion breakfast is going to go cold before she can make herself stomach it. ]

It sounds like you were happy. I'm glad.

[ For now, that's all she can really trust herself to say. ]

[burninglight]

...Yeah. For a given value of the word, I think we were.

[serrata]

[ She falls into silence for a moment and she almost wants to leave things there, play dumb and pretend she thinks that's all he wanted to say. But if that really was it, Yuuri's fairly sure she wouldn't have found him in the kitchen this morning. Ardyn cooking is one thing, Ardyn stress cooking at a reasonable time in the morning is quite another. ]

... That's not all, though, is it?

[burninglight]

Is it ever?

[A quiet, tired laugh.]

You know, if I think hard enough...I can almost remember a time before things went downhill. Somnus and I used to argue often, and we'd end up settling things over a chessboard. I'm not...sure when things started to go downhill, if I were asked to pick a moment. Just that eventually...he wasn't my brother anymore. At least not the brother I'd known.

[serrata]

You really don't know what could've happened?

[ Not that she thinks Ardyn's lying, but it's so hard for her to imagine the two of them going from just a normal pair of brothers to... well. What had happened.

Of course, maybe she's not the most unbiased of sources. There's a big difference between a pair of siblings like her and Ruu to a pair of boys around the same age, stuck putting up with the responsibilities of royalty and everything else that came with being a Lucis Caelum. ]

[burninglight]

...sorry. But I really don't remember anymore. The only clear memories I have of him now are when he wasn't my brother anymore.

[serrata]

No, no, you don't have to apologize. I just want to make sure that... if you're going to tell me this, that I understand it properly.

[ It's the least she can do – or rather, it might be the only thing she can do. ]