#corbeauxoc

Much later on, once they've gotten close, with her departure date approaching, he feels dread hanging over him because pretty soon he'll be alone again. It's only made a little worse once she tells him who she really is, because what the hell is he as the boss of a Syndicate with an unsavory reputation supposed to do about the literal Champion of Hoenn needing to go back home, he can't just deprive a region of it's Champion solely because he'll miss her, can he?

Maybe it even makes him feel a little small (pun not intended), because now he knows where she truly stands, much much higher than where he is. But then again, right before she told him her true identity, she made him promise that it wouldn't change the way he treated or viewed her, because that's happened far too many times and she's tired of being put on a pedestal like that. As far as she's concerned, they're about equal (And they technically are...? His strengths just lie elsewhere)

There's also the initial uncertainty of if and when she'll come back to Lumiose (this was before she managed to strike a deal with Wallace and Steven). She promised she would, but couldn't give a date or even a vague timeframe. He just has to take her word for it that she'll be back in his arms eventually, that she wasn't just bluffing to soften the blow for him, that his most recent 'au revoir' to her wouldn't be the last.

When it comes to Terra, he has to let go of the need to be in control of every situation and having all the answers, because he can't. The power and authority he wields means nothing outside of Lumiose City.

Of course, he's going to feel like garbage once she leaves, but at the very least they call each other every day. Through the phone he can hear that she's trying to cover up her crying, and as much as he hates seeing(or hearing) her cry, a part of him feels relieved because it's confirmation that she'd much rather be with him, that if fate allowed for it, she'd stay in Lumiose by his side. Proof that she didn't abandon him for the luxuries that Champion life allows for.

And eventually when she does move to Lumiose, that's not the end of his troubles. She still goes back to Hoenn for 1/3 of the year, every Spring. I like to think that Corbeau's favorite season would be Spring because it signals the end of winter and I imagine that winters are tough when you're a kid on the streets of Lumiose with no home.

Spring is just as beautiful as before, but why does it feel so cold now? Even amongst the flowers, the springtime breeze, and the sunshine on his face, he feels so miserable. Now all he thinks of in Spring is how she's not there to enjoy it with him.

During the DLC, Terra stays at Hotel Z most days instead of at his house as he says he needs to focus and might not even come home sometimes to pull all-nighters. He keeps waking up more and more tired, so at first she chalked it up to lack of sleep. But there’s a look in his eyes that tells her he’s troubled but doesn't want to let tell anyone. One night she sneaks into Hyperspace and finds a little boy dressed in ragged clothes, hidden away in an alley. He’s cautious, scared, and so so frail, and doesn’t seem to know who she is. Terra tries to make herself as unthreatening as possible, crouched and keeping her distance but her voice remaining kind and gentle. As little Beau lowers his guard and approaches her, he opens up to her; Life on the streets as a kid is tough. It’s so painful to watch these happy families stroll by and ignore you. Was he undeserving of love? He wonders why he was abandoned by the parents he never got to know and thinks maybe he did something to deserve all of this. That maybe, he was born to be alone in this world.

While little Beau doesn’t mention it, Terra’s sure that Lysandre’s actions 5 years prior also took its toll on him. Why would Lysandre do him a mercy by taking him in, only to later try and destroy it all. She can only imagine how it feels to be abandoned not once, but twice.

Terra tells him of all the great things he'll come achieve, the allies he makes along the way along, the sheer number of people that respect him, and all the good things he does for the sake of the City. That being dealt a bad hand doesn’t guarantee a loss, and he's a prime example of that.

As they take a little walk around Hyperspace Lumiose, she points out all the little ways that this city has been fixed up as a result of him; A now-cleared corner of an apartment building once filled to the brim with Mega Crystals, the clean floor of a children's playground that previously was covered in filth, a tree that almost threatened to fall over into a cafe before he had asked her to intervene.

Some of these being her earliest memories of her time with him, along with all the other jobs he's sent her on that don't leave a visible trace.

As they reach the Hyperspace Portal that she has to soon return to, she gives him a hug, "Nobody in this world is born undeserving of love, especially not you, I'm so sorry that you were left all alone. We can't change what happened in the past but we can shape our future. All I can tell you is that you'll be so deeply cherished, you'll want for nothing." He asks her how she can be so sure of this, and who she is, someone so pretty and warm like sunshine shouldn’t be associating with a lowly street urchin like him.