#cetraborn

   ❝ we can do another round if ya wanna try again. ❞  the sound of the victory bell takes a few more seconds to ring before it fades into the bustle of the boardwalk’s crowd. as if on clockwork, the worker resets the balloon popping game to its original state, waiting on either of them to make the decision to continue.

After wandering aimlessly through the Wards without much direction and very little guidance, Cloud somehow found himself in front of a church. He was drawn to it. The structure itself seemed to radiate with comfort-- a sense of familiarity he desperately needed in this moment.  

As he made his way inside, he looked around, expecting...something. What that something was, he wasn’t sure. A few elderly people sat within the pews; praying or biding their time. They paid the young swordsman no mind as he walked towards the front. 

The church itself was calm and welcoming, just like Cloud thought it would be; but it wasn’t making him feel any better. ‘What am I doing here?’ He thought to himself. Having no other options, and no motivation to go anywhere else, he sat down in one of the pews.

Cloud clasped his hands together, not to pray; but to think. He needed to gather his thoughts and focus. He was going to be fine, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around what had actually happened to him. Why couldn’t he remember coming to this place?

Nothin’ like checking out your phone in the middle of some grand party while everyone’s having fun. Makes ya stick out.

You know my last memories were of you was a pretty sadistic pick up line.

So when he saw her - not expecting it, but at the same time of whatever was happening was going to force him to confront people that he had been completely a douche to, she had to be here too. And he was happy, in a big way, that she was, but also there was the part where their last conversation had been...

Uh, listen...Now’s not the best time. I’ll call you later.

No, no. You don’t have to.

Okay, I’ll come visit.

I’ll be here.

I’ll see you, I promise.

That entire period of his life was filled with promises he couldn’t keep, wasn’t it? But it’d be way worse to ignore her, even if it meant not fully knowing what to say. And if he had known how flailing this encounter was about to go, he may have taken a few more moments to himself.

“Aerith-” Cutting himself off, he realized for a moment he was supposed to be dead, and not in a supposedly dead situation, a dead-dead one. Not quite the casual greeting kind of situation.

“Uh,”

“You’re wearing pink, that’s,” Nope. “You look good-” Nope. “I got your letters - well, I got...A letter. The last letter...” Trailing off, he ran his hands over the back of his head, “Gah, let’s just,”

within a corner of the island, surrounded by stone and blooming flowers, two figures remained separate from it all. the first was a knelt, peaceful spirit. the cuffs of her dress dragging against the dirt, she was uncaring for the disarray her clothing would see as she tended to the flora there. tranquillity came at no cost, the church a beautiful and un-tampered scene, unlike the one she had known within the slums of midgar. 

the other was a far more chaotic spirit. though they were a quiet force, shadow-like almost in the sheer absence of sound at all, he had not known peace at all. not one moment of his life had been a still, pleasant sort. no second a spared and relaxed one. especially not now, a head almost overflowing with ideas. 

as the two became closer in proximity, they felt the shift in the air. the heat suddenly melting away into an icy wind. silly really. it was summer. barely nighttime. but it was there, the chill to run the length of the girl’s spine. a chill she would recognise in a heartbeat. and for him, curiosity piquing until he could not bear to leave the scene. not yet.

sure enough, as he made his way through the open doors and glanced along the aisle, his suspicions were only confirmed. captured in the glow of the fading light as it came through coloured mosaic, the last cetra was frozen in place. “ hm. “ a chuckle as he moved ever closer. slowly, as a predator may stalk its prey. but he needn’t withdraw his blade. his footsteps echoed and his armour clinked as he moved. ever closer. closer. pause.

his attention is diverted slightly when he hears the door opening and a newly familiar sight walks out. not one to be rude, he smile and stands, wiping his slightly dirtied hands on the back of his casual garb to appear less unsightly. 

“ah, aerith-san, isn’t it?” he says, recognizing her as one of his many roommates. “heading out to the city?” he continues, “it is a rather nice day, and that’s why i... might have, as they say, bit off more than i could chew.” he tilts is head at the upturned dirt, the bag of seeds and shovel laying by the side. “i planned on gardening... then... i realize... i’m not even very familiar with how to use the shovel.” mikazuki laughs softly, then stops--

“oh my, have i been rambling?” he knows very well he has. “my apologies, please, continue what you are doing and don’t mind me.”

send a ‘👄 + character name’ and my muse will talk about that character

Such a question, a hell of a question really, since he didn’t know not one but two here….

“Well, one tutored me, and the other didn’t; but regardless I still feel a camaraderie with both of them. I…am worried, about both of them, really. I know not what Rhea did. And I know not what made for this world to give me the one I knew in this form; but it worries me. 

It pains me, seeing him this way, just a little. But only because I know what could be, and I have to wonder what sort of fate prevented it.” He thought back to that fight with Kronya; how the world split open for him. How everything changed from that moment; and how he still didn’t fully understand it all.

“I’m glad that the one who sided with Edelgard is willing to meet me on fair terms, I….It means a lot to me, even if this sort of neutrality is odd to me yet. I couldn’t bear to draw arms against them.”

He wouldn’t ever say it aloud, but the way that Byleth smiled at his sister…it filled him with a feeling he couldn’t quite peg, it was bittersweet, he knew that much.