#dualityaskredfield

So...

Sean and Micha are on a border patrol assignment when they get ambushed. Sean is injured. Micha is trying to get him to let go of his sword and let her dragons handle it for just a moment so she can slap a bandage on him because human beings aren't supposed to bleed this much.

In fact, she has more than half a mind to drag him over to Faran and conduct an aerial return to Castelia. They have their information. Faran is still fit enough to get a good hard climb to a safe altitude. They can make it, just as soon as she lugs this stubborn idiot to her dragon.

But Sean fends her off by spinning a lie about how she should get herself to Castelia with the information first. He'll stay behind, create a little diversion, catch his breath, maybe discard a few pieces of armor so that Claymore doesn't collapse in the middle of lugging his armored ass across the country. They'll go separately; it'll  be safer.

He'll be fine. He's got the lifeforce of a cockroach, he teases.

Except Micha thinks this is highly suspicious, because look at all this red, and Sean is notorious--at least, according to Sarine--for being reckless. For being stupid. For being recklessly stupid. She's not about to leave an idiot to his own devices here.

*Insert sappy little shipper fanservice moment here for anyone who ships Northdorks.* Sean starts to lose his patience--he's not going to just lie around and watch Micha die in a futile battle when they can cut their losses with one sacrifice. This he keeps a secret. Instead, he talks about how he'd really rather not see someone important to him be put into avoidable trouble for him. Then he does one of those dramatic last-time-I-see-you cupping-face things... complete with those sad little streaks of blood because wow blood is just everywhere everyone stop bleeding.

OK so maybe if I stuff it with some actually better words it will be better. What is sap? What is fluff? *shoves aside and continues to the sads*

He finally manages to convince her to go, and when she's gone he takes a moment to give himself a pat on the back for a job well done on saving her life. I don't know. Maybe some more sap here. Hey, maybe if I do it well we can casually forget that he's lying on the ground dying and that the prompt is conveniently called "dead" for a reason.

AHEM.

Anyway, Sean's moment is ruined when the ambushers close in, and he pulls himself up and reaches for his sword. Dramatic background music. One man against the world. Stuff like that. He puts up a valiant effort but the curtains close when he's sent flying and his head smacks into a crumbling wall.

*casually drags in Sean's Dead!Duality antics, complete with poor little Took so that more hearts can suffer*

Fast forward to Castelia. Micha delivers their information, patches up Faran, drops Meri off at Kate's so he doesn't destroy half the border in his digging war adventures, then scedaddles back. She's got to go pick up her redhead, see it's lonely for Sarine when he's not there for her to bully. He's late.

When she finally gets to the ambushed site, she finds everyone in... less than satisfactory conditions.

She finds Claymore and Pudge first.

Then she finds Sean.

At first, she's not sure what to do about it all. But then she sees Took, and all of a sudden it clicks. Then it snaps. *cue the actual body of the sads and the waterworks that I cannot describe at the moment*

But she accuses him of being a liar--"Liar. Liar. How could you. You lied to me."--while she cries. She can't even take them back to Castelia since Claymore's Apriball is smashed and carrying everyone when Faran was injured is too much to ask for. So after a very, very hard decision she spends the day under dragon fire and dragon lightning and blinding rain and buries them.

A little less than a year later, Naran is born. I want to say that Micha gives him something of Sean's but I can't think of anything small and trinkety that he owns that she could easily nick off his dead body. Naran gets a momento of his late father, though.

It takes Micha a horribly long time time to get used to seeing a tiny Sean scamper about.

THE END.

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It would be sadder if it was written better, but that is currently an impossible feat. Half the sads are probably lost because of the poor language here.

I GUESS THAT'S GOOD FOR YOU?

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I ALSO ADMIT THAT I HAD WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING WITH NARAN FOR A WHILE.