Fantasy New Oasis: Four Heavenly Kings — The B-Sides

[simj26]

Moon and Star

, Collab with The One Eyed Bandit

SCENE:

Any Way You Want It

LOCATION:

Sunset Cemetary, Amestria

PARTICIPANTS:

Passeri, Elise

Any Way You Want It

Elise nodded quietly. There was a wistful look in Passeri’s face as she looked over the gravestones that sprawled across the green. What was she thinking, as her rose eyes swept past the epithets? As much as she had gotten to know the Princess over the weeks and months, there were still some things that remained a mystery to her. Yet, even in the unknowable depths that was Passeri, the words she spoke now held some truth. She wasn’t alone, not today, and not for quite a few yesterdays. As for tomorrow, and for the many tomorrows forwards, that remained uncertain.

It was up to her to make sure that was true. Yet another oath thrown into the pile- one to protect the Princess as much as she could to ensure their tomorrows were never lonely ever again.

She drew in a deep breath, and her hand tightened around Passeri’s. She exhaled slowly. With Passeri next to her, her chest didn’t feel as tight as it was, every time she thought of returning. She started forwards, tugging lightly at her partner’s hand.

As they crossed between the cold gravestones, some overtaken by the greenery, some meticulously maintained, some in-between, she began to talk.

“Father took me in when I was just a kid. Dunno how the whole thing worked- I was, by right, a Ruthenian citizen, but somehow, he pulled the strings to take me in after…saving me in Ruthenia. He wasn’t married, and he raised me as a single father.” She had never ever talked about her past to anyone before, and while she would have liked to keep it that way, it didn’t seem fair to her that she knew so much more about Passeri’s past than she did about hers. Besides, the walk was going to be grueling if the silence kept up between them. There didn’t seem to be a better time than this to broach the subject.

“It sounds… Like you were lucky to have him.” Passeri offered her a smile, one which she supposed was meant to be reassuring. Between the two of them, Elise was typically the one more comfortable to sit in silence, and when she did speak it was rarely of herself like this. If she could have, she would have been happy to listen and listen alone, but… To let her stew alone with her words in the quiet of the graveyard air, she felt, would have been more cruel than she could stomach.

“What was he like?” She probed lightly, just enough to keep her going. To show her no matter how small nor how painful it was, she was here to hear whatever it was she wanted or needed to say.

“Rough around the edges.” That was the best she could summarise about him. No, that wasn’t it. She just couldn’t find better words for him. She tried again. “He…tried his best. Said I was his responsibility, and he wanted to live up to it. It wasn’t easy, raising someth– someone like me, but he tried. I didn’t do well at school, as much as both he and I tried, and when I joined up with the boys in green, he wasn’t happy.” A shaky breath as her pace slowed. “I think I should have listened. If it wasn’t for me…” Her eye narrowed, almost as if she was squinting. A brave effort to blink away the resurgence of her pain.

“Don’t say that.” Passeri’s voice was suddenly firm. She stepped around Elise, bringing herself before the other woman. Her eyes- cast up at the sliver of Elise’s own- glimmered gently in the cool embrace of her partner’s shadow, unflinching as she raised her hand to the other woman’s cheek.

“Please… Don’t say that. I know I wasn’t there when it happened… But it wasn’t your fault. The people who sent you out into the frontlines, the people who pulled the trigger… It was theirs.” Despite the look in her eyes, Passeri was afraid. Whenever she saw this look in her eye, that black streak of self loathing that always seemed to dwell deep within the pit of Elise’s subconscious, she was always afraid.

“Just… Um… Keep steady, okay? Tell me more about him. And… What happened, if you can.” Her heart beat nervously as she spoke. She wasn’t sure if she was pushing too hard, or too fast… But she felt she had to do something. She couldn’t bear to see her hurt like this.


The vicious pain snaked away from her eye as Passeri laid her hand on her face. Surprise showed on her expression, then softened. “I’m fine.” Not entirely the truth, but she felt that it could be. As many times as they had gotten used to each other’s touch, the warmth of Passeri’s hand on her face still, somehow, managed to wrap her in an invisible blanket. It always surprised her. Nothing much surprised her. A strange feeling, but not entirely unwelcome. Everything would be okay, everything will be okay, that was what she felt. She raised her own hand to hold onto hers, and allowed her warmth to sink deeper into her face, like a hound nuzzling into its closest friend’s hand.

Still holding on to her hand, she took it away from her face, and continued to escort the Princess down the concrete pavement. Somewhere along the way, possibly when the Princess bestowed upon her that warmth, the pain receded. “It’s not…an interesting story. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people. Anyone who's had a hand in it are all six feet under now. I made sure of it.”

And yet, even in the fires that consigned them to hell, she felt cold and alone, surrounded by the promise that she'd meet only her enemies again, and not her loved ones. But they died pleading, and that was all that mattered. She didn't need to feel better, she just needed to make sure they hurt.

But here, now, just walking down the shaded pavement, with the whisper of a breeze passing them by, just the two of them, she believed that she really was feeling better. As long as the Princess was here, she was fine.

The One Eyed Bandit