Chapter Text
Edna settled down on the boulder, Mikleo had chosen as his lookout some distance from the huts of the mesa village.
Mikleo didn’t lift his gaze from the firmament in front of him where some stars had already begun to twinkle despite the still blue skies.
As different as they were, their friendship had deepened over the centuries. Though none of the two would admit it in words, they had become quite attached to each other.
Edna took a sidelong glance at the water seraph.
The way he was all caring and quick to irritate reminded her of her brother and she had always loved to tease him, though she was by far the older one of them.
The grief of them both loosing the person dearest to them in a short span of time had bonded them and Edna had started to feel somewhat responsible for Mikleo — almost like an older sister.
She’d regularly check in on him, making sure he was doing alright — no one she loved would ever turn into a dragon again, not on her watch! She’d eat his sweets, which he’d always have to prepare for her — „for old time’s sake“ —, and steel some of them while Mikleo was still preparing them all the while admonishing her. She’d tease him and they would bicker — his comebacks had become a lot better over the centuries and she would almost admit, he’d become quite sassy with her. Or they would seek out remote areas and sparr with their artes for training purposes, something they had come to take joy in and although they weren't exactly that young anymore, it was a youthful activity they enjoyed sharing — going all out on each other for hours, sweating and panting and relishing the exhilaration of the combat.
The history of their friendship, as odd as it was, was full of centuries-worth of shared moments — both big and small.
There had been the one time when they had been journeying with another Shepherd to purify far-off lands, when Edna had been unsuspectedly ambushed and heavily wounded by a hellion and Mikleo had saved her with a furious attack and salvaged her, carefully holding her at that time still tiny and tattered body in his arms while healing her, and smiling at her with so much relief and gentleness as she opened her eyes that she quite forgot to snub him.
Or the one time when she had confronted him as he pretended to be fine but really was not and cornered and shouted at him that he could not, under no condition, keep up appearances and let his sorrow eat away at him and that much more than keeping up a front and trying not to worry anybody, he owed them not to loose himself and get tainted and that, if his heart was breaking — for fuck’s sake — he should cry…which he then did, in her arms, Edna padding his back and stroking his head until his tears and sobs had subsided and Edna had pulled the green ribbon from her ponytail and had tied the upper portion of his then shoulder-length hair back, telling him that now he looked like a proper prince and he had laughed.
Over the centuries, Edna’s appearance had changed, too.
Mikleo had understood that her physical form had remained in the childlike form, it had had when she had lost her brother to malevolence, and never changed after that — she hadn't been able to leave behind the past of her being Eizen’s little sister.
After they had freed Eizen from his existence as a dragon, she had been able to mourn the loss of her older brother and slowly let go.
About two centuries after Sorey had gone to sleep, her appearance had gradually begun to change. She had, however, never lost her preference for skimpy dresses and sturdy boots and was again sporting her side-ponytail, after having experimented with different hairstyles for the the better half of a century. But she was looking more like a young woman now.
Sorey had been awake for almost a year and Edna had come to see them in Elysia.
Their reunion had been lively and Mikleo was happily watching them as Edna related far exaggerated tales of their former party-members to the raptly listening Sorey. He left them after a couple of hours to go for a walk while they were engrossed in playing with the handful of seraphim children that were at the time living in the mountain village.
Sorey was still roughhousing with them when Edna had wandered off in search for the water seraph.
They were quietly sitting next to each other as deeper blues crept into the horizon.
While the bond between the two seraphim had indeed become quite familial, their way of communicating would probably always be of the rough around the edges kind, where a slight could be as sincerely affectionate as it got.
„So, Sorey’s back, hugh!“ Edna kicked off some loose pebbles.
„And he's a seraph now. Seems like everything worked out.“
He just briefly glimpsed at her before returning his attention to the sky; there wasn't really anything to comment on that.
Hope it was worth the wait! Well, she would certainly not say that. She knew she wasn't prepared for the oozy response she was sure, she'd get.
She glanced at the man next to her for a while.
„So—!“ The earth seraph inquired eventually. „Are you still his Sub?“
Mikleo turned his head to look at the blonde seraph, remembering a long forgotten morning in a Rolance inn.
His features softened with a knowing smile. And with a low voice that did her innuendo justice reposted, „I never was.“
Enda chuckled softly and jostled him against his shoulder. „Shagleo!“