#eirlight

He  wants  her  to  know  just  how  stupid  he  thinks  she  sounds.  His  teeth  are  gritted  and  he  runs  his  tongue  over  the  tops  of  them  in  the  passing  moments  of  contemplation—  he  contemplates  for  a  long  while,  too,  letting  the  woods  continue  their  inexplicable  myriad  of  haunting  sounds  in  the  interim.  

❛I  was  just  askin’.  Just  checkin’  t’see  if  you’re  as  deaf  as  y’are  fuckin’  stupid.❜  There  is  undue  malice  in  the  words  he  spits  like  second  nature—  he  knows  she’s  done  nothing  to  wrong  him,  but  venom  in  verbiage  it  is:  the  default  for  him.  He  scoffs,  too,  a  soft  sound.  ❛Nah,  I  ain’t  scared;  it’s  just  sticks  an’  leaves.  Anythin’  pops  out  at  us,  I  kill  it. ❜  

   she’s always here.   always, always, always.   he stands at the entrance, the scent of ash and soot and smoke and death lingering on the body of a feeble boy, his hands marred with bits of black, with callouses and cuts that hadn’t been there before. it’s easy to read in his expression, the way his chin tucks away, how he flinches at the slightest show of company, that the mission is far from over. explosions and screams play terrifying symphonies in his ears, like cymbals crashing again and again and again; the light is a little too bright for eyes more accustomed to the dark, to the shady, smoky depths of carnage, and he shies beneath the overhang, reaching for the wooden pillar for a bit of support. there’s nothing to remember and he doesn’t remember a thing about nameless faces and disembodied dog tags——but the dead have always clung to him, their only voice in this world that casts them aside.

   his hand, once gentle, hovers and shakes in a failed wave before he clenches it into a fist and pulls it away. lithe frame leans into the safety of the support beam, the exhaustion draining the color from him as the adrenaline leaves his form——he sighs, he huffs.

   this sort of thing is too much. it’s too hard. it hurts, Mother, it hurts.

   but she speaks. it’s not much. it’s two words. two words anybody else would hear all the time, but they’re magic to him, they’re a treasure. two words that break him from his reverie, that briefly give succor to his wearied limbs and see the sun emerge from the clouds in those sky blue hues, life itself twinkling in their depths. he pries himself away from the structural crutch, rubs his sleeve against his teary eyes ‘fore she gets the chance to notice the bubbles that had formed——she doesn’t need to worry anymore about him; she didn’t need to see him at his limits——and walks. one foot in front of the other, kicking pebbles and flattening blades of grass, all until he finally comes to a stop, dress shoes not even a foot away from her own pair.

   “I’m home.” the hesitance is still there, it taking a full second for him to actually take her hands with that gentle, careful grasp. his cheeks burned red, his smile hurt, and there were still tears threatening to spill, but he doesn’t mind it. this wasn’t pain, after all; not with the way it warmed him to the brim with giddy euphoria. no, no, no——not a pain, but a blessing. “I’m home, Lina.” and he was never one to take blessings for granted.

     personalized real-to-life letters, yerin had insisted, nearly begging the rest of the RFA for the permission to send actual thank you cards instead of electronic ones to every one of their party guests. she wanted everyone to have a sort of physical souvenir of the party, a reminder of the FUN they all had and a little nudge to remember to come to their next event as well. thick card stock, thin gold trim, thoughtful penned words – it had all sounded like the perfect idea until yerin was STUCK in the apartment having to prepare HUNDREDS on her own. 

she was only through a third of the letters when lina arrived to pick up her osechi-ryōri; yerin had prepared boxes for all the members of the RFA in celebration of the new year and she knew she couldn’t leave out her endlessly supportive friend. rushing out with her edible good wishes in tow, it was with apologies and INK STAINS that yerin answered the door at last …  but lina insisted on staying and helping.

having another pair of hands freed up yerin’s time a bit to tackle some of her assignments; she started messaging some of the new possible guests that jaehee had listed and booking reservations for their next venue. HOURS PASSED and at 2AM she hurried to put together some tea and cookies for lina … but just as yerin started setting the table, lina suddenly, silently, softly flumped against her, cheek touching her shoulder. ❝ ah – ❞

light & dark ( accepting )

   “Mm, okay.” A hum and a nod, ashen tresses falling just so out of place. Warm sun rays cascade from overhead, the stout trunk of a tree offering its utmost support to the pair sitting beneath its branches whilst birds chirp, grass waves, and the nearby sound of chocobo feet and wooden wheels plodding along in the background keeps him at a comforted, contented calm. They were tucked out of sight, on the outskirts of the village, where nary a soul would venture forth without rhyme or reason——or so he’d like to believe. It wasn’t a rarity to be assigned alongside the other classes for missions every now and then; perhaps it was one to be assigned to partner with her class, given their objectives, but the cadet takes it with a smile, pulling his knees in just a bit closer so the toes of his shoes would find the comfort of the shade. They were a pair of swallows, truly, one seemingly always resting beside the other regardless of where they went.