Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I don’t have money, but I can offer you this instead?”

Lora stares down at the Core Crystal being held to her, slightly opens her mouth, closes it, and firmly shakes her head. To emphasize, she shows her palms and gestures with a small push. A Core Crystal. One that’s ready to be awakened at that, pulsing blue. It lies dormant in the hand of the old man offering it.

“No— it’s fine, really. As long as we were able to help you—“

But then Jin steps up beside her, leaning down to quietly speak in her ear. “You earned it, Lora.”

That’s… debatable, she would argue, for the sake of her naturally altruistic inclinations. Perhaps being a mercenary isn’t quite cut out for her, then, if she’s willing to take on task after task pro bono when her clients just happen to be short of funds and unable to pay.

Jin is eyeing the old man and the Core Crystal that’s still being offered. He makes no movement to suggest he would take it for Lora, instead nudging her with his arm.

“Just take it.”

“Please do!” The old man nods. “Watching the way you work with your partner… I know you’re a Driver who’d treat this Blade well, if you choose to awaken it. Better for it to go with you than continue sitting around collecting dust. My grandmother was a Driver, you see.”

Lora rubs the back of her neck with an awkward smile, neither refuting nor agreeing with the compliment.

But she takes the Core Crystal anyway. It’s intensely warm in her grasp, like the heart of a living thing.

“Ahh, I did it again…”

“You’re too generous for your own good, sometimes. People will take advantage of that.”

“But we got paid this time, at least?”

“A Core Crystal won’t buy food for us.” Jin tilts his head in consideration. “Unless you sell it.”

Lora sighs heavily, sitting down and leaning back against a tree. The leaves rustle above her in the wake of a warm breeze that disturbs the cover of the woods. It’s quieter out here, away from the village, close to a stream that quietly babbles with a slow current. She looks up at Jin with a weak smile.

“It’ll be fine. You’re good at finding things to eat out here, and even better at cooking them up into a proper meal.” And because she knows Jin will likely argue that they can’t sustain a lifestyle of foraging in the woods like wild animals, she quickly detours away from the matter at hand, “I could sell it, yes. I could sell this Blade like it’s nothing but a trinket to be passed from hand to hand. Doesn’t that sound awfully cold?”

“Lora,” Jin frowns.

“Then, it’s settled! I’ll awaken this Blade myself.”

The Core Crystal throbs in her hand, she imagines in a moment of whimsy.

Jin is still frowning, but he kneels to look at her at eye level, perpetually serious. “If that’s what you want.”

“Perhaps I’ve grown tired of you, being my only Blade for ten years,” Lora chuckles.

“… I know I’m not the best conversationalist. Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t apologize. Never apologize. That was a rather mean thing to say, so I’m sorry.” Lora shuffles to kneel as well, holding the Core Crystal tightly close to her chest. “You’re just fine the way you are, Jin. What I mean is… don’t you think it’d be nice to have another friend? You don’t get to talk to other Blades very often.”

He doesn’t need other friends, he wants to say, despite knowing how childish that would sound. For ten years it’d just been him and Lora, and they would cross paths with other mercenaries and occasionally group up with others, but nothing ever lasts for long. Not when he’s a stolen Blade with a reputation and too much attention would arouse suspicion— so in a way, he thinks ruefully, his own presence is to blame for Lora being unable to form lasting attachments to others. To make friends.

He doesn’t need other friends. Lora probably does, though.

So he nods. “I suppose.”

Lora beams, then stands. Jin follows suit.

“What do you think this Blade would be like? Maybe he or she would be as surly as you?”

“Hah,” he dryly tones, taking a few steps back to allow space.

The thing is like a beating heart, and even Jin can feel the pulses of ether coming off of it as Lora closes her eyes and clutches the Core Crystal. Her excited smile calms as the ether resonates within her, forming the beginnings of a bond, and Jin is suddenly struck with the realization that this is how he came to be with her in a way so differently wrenching.

She’d been a frightened child back then, trembling in his arms in that musty room where her mother cried and that man bled on the floor.

Whoever this Blade is, they’ll be spared the experience of bloodshed upon awakening.

Lora softly gasps, the Core Crystal replaced with a staff. A young woman blinks curiously at her, at Jin, then back to Lora. There’d been a strong gust of wind knocking about the grass at their feet— not the wind rustling across the Titan’s back, but a different kind of wind so invigorating that even Jin can’t help but straighten his back as he takes in the sweetness of the air. Her ether is…

“Hello,” the Blade says, blinking once more before she mirrors Lora’s smile. “I’m Haze.”

“Haze,” Lora says, the name pleasantly rolling off her tongue. She reaches for one of Haze’s hands, grasping it to shake. “Haze. It’s good to meet you, Haze! My name is Lora.”

Jin allows himself to release the tension from his shoulders, and to smile as well at this new… friend.

Chapter Text

Haze is attentive in her observation, leaned forward until she’s on the verge of slipping off her seat on a fallen tree. She watches, and watches, and watches Jin brush through their Driver’s hair, the rather coarse strands resistant to the teeth of the old comb. Lora is yawning, hardly noticing the sharp tugs whenever Jin reaches a particularly stubborn knot or clump of dirt.

“Maybe I ought to cut it off,” Lora absentmindedly murmurs, her head tugged back as Jin’s comb finds another tangle to fight.

“You say that every time we go through this.”

“Well, this could be the day I mean it for real.”

“Don’t do it, Lady Lora!” Haze cries out, jumping up to her feet. “Your hair is so pretty— and surely it must have taken a long time to grow it out to be that long!”

Jin and Lora both pause to stare incredulously at Haze. The comb is lowered to rest by his leg and Jin sighs, cradling his face in his other hand. “She never actually means it, Haze.”

“Are you sure?!”

“Haze,” Lora laughs, and gestures for her to come sit beside her. But Haze stays where she is, resisting the urge to pout, fists pressed against her front. “It’s just one of the ways I tease Jin. Nothing to worry about.”

“O-oh.”

She still hasn’t quite gotten all the nuances down, of the way their bond works and the little routines of familiarity, inside jokes that she’s not privy to, moments of synchronization that Haze can’t quite click in with just yet. It hasn’t been long. It’s been long enough for her to know that she’s happy with this lifestyle and her lot as a Blade, but not long enough that Haze is absolutely certain where she fits into all of… this.

Jin lifts the comb, staring at it in thought.

They take the initiative in their own different ways, moving through the days and hours and minutes in a straight line that weaves around all sorts of directions until Haze gets dizzy. Life is a… very, very interesting thing. Consistently unpredictable. Unpredictably consistent. Just like all of this.

But she’ll be damned if she lets herself get swept away in the current without trying to sink her feet in first. She sits beside Lora, swallowing her pout.

“May I try?”

Lora raises an eyebrow. “Of course.”

Jin, still kneeling behind Lora, wordlessly hands Haze the comb. He leans in to mutter, not nearly quiet enough that Lora can’t hear; “Pull at the tangles as hard as you want.”

“Jin!”

Haze cheerfully laughs in acknowledgment and leans against Lora, gently adjusting her so that her back faces her. Hygiene is a luxury that can’t often be afforded in the wilds of Torna, but they’re always careful to camp by a clean body of water. Still, the long tail of Lora’s hair is a mess of fine dirt and bits of dry leaves when it isn’t contained in its tie, and now Haze can see why she would frequently joke about cutting it off.

The comb gets stuck on her first try.

“… I’m so sorry, Lady Lora. I’ve failed you,” Haze dramatically sighs, and anxiously waits for a reaction.

Lora laughs, wholeheartedly. Jin doesn’t, but he does turn away and she swears she saw an upturn at the corner of his mouth. Victory.

“The knots will work themselves out on their own,” Lora says, pulling the comb out. “And if it gets to be completely impossible to tame, I’ll just have Jin put it into a braid for me.”

“A braid!” Haze repeats. “I’d like one, please!”

Both Lora and Haze look to Jin expectantly. He stares back, unblinking, before finally nodding and shuffling over to kneel behind Haze, taking note of how similar in texture it is to Lora’s. Without the ornamentation of dirt and broken leaves.

“Yeah, sure.”

“And then we’ll put Jin’s hair in braids, too,” Lora winks to Haze, and Haze giggles into her hands. “Little ones, sticking from the sides of his head.”

“I don’t think so,” Jin flatly says.

But it happens in the end anyway, in an outnumbered vote of two to one.

Chapter Text

While Lora heads to the closest village to see what she can purchase with her latest payment from a job, Haze takes it upon herself to sort out their laundry.

Not that there’s even much laundry to sort through, because Lora prefers traveling light. Which means no excess clothing to carry around, only some extra socks or so, and bits of cloth for those times when something must be mended. It’s only the bare necessity for their lifestyle.

“Oh, no… these are threadbare.” Haze frowns. She holds up a shirt that’s nearly falling apart at the seams. Jin looks over from where he’s trying to start a campfire.

“You can throw that away, then.”

“Shouldn’t I ask Lady Lora, first?”

Jin pushes one corner of his mouth to the side and sets down the chunks of flint, deciding to abandon his attempt to start a fire for now. “It’s not a big deal. If she can’t wear it anymore, it’s no use keeping around.”

“But—!” Haze clutches the shirt to her chest and looks over all the other clothes she’d laid out on the ground. Jin walks over to kneel beside her and scan them as well, though he readily plucks up the ones with too many rips and tears.

“Some of these can be mended. The others can be used for rags or kindling.”

Jin motions to the shirt that Haze is holding onto. She hesitates, then shakes her head, hesitates again, and reluctantly gives the shirt to him.

“Will Lady Lora continue to outgrow more clothes…?”

“No,” Jin simply says. “She’s twenty three years old. Humans stop growing by that age.”

Haze says nothing, but Jin can tell what she’s thinking. She’s far too easy to read at times, like an open book with letters big and magnified so that even an illiterate child can make sense of what it’s supposed to convey. It makes her an endearing companion to be around, but it also makes her seem too… naive, sometimes. Humans are always growing. Blades don’t. A couple years ago, Lora had come to the realization that she had come to reach Haze’s height, and the two began to share clothes after that.

Maybe Haze was secretly worried that Lora would continue growing and become taller than her, and. Then. They wouldn’t be able to share outfits. Yes, that’s it. Dreadful thoughts like that.

“Jin! Tell me what Lady Lora was like when she was younger, please?”

He runs a hand over his face. “… She was short.”

“That’s not a proper answer!” Haze puffs out her cheeks at him.

“Fine. She was a picky eater.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But even if she didn’t like the taste, she’d swallow it down anyway. Lora knew that we couldn’t afford to waste food.”

“Oh…”

“It’s fine. Things aren’t like that anymore.”

Haze contemplates this as she helps Jin fold up all the fabrics and clothes and sort the salvageable ones in a separate pile. After a moment of silence, she pats his arm with a sort of urgency.

“What do you think she’ll be like when she’s older, then?”

“When she’s older?” Jin repeats, mildly surprised.

“Right!” Haze nods. “In the future, years from now… decades… maybe Lady Lora’s hair will be even longer than it is now… a-ah…”

“… Are you crying?” Without even meaning it, Jin awkwardly scoots away just a bit. He’d had plentiful of experience with comforting Lora whenever she cried, but Haze is… different. Because she’s Haze. Because all her emotions are on her sleeve, so unlike Lora despite their physical similarities. He can’t even get away, anyway, because Haze grabs his sleeve with two fingers.

“She’ll get old!”

“That’s—“

“Because she’s… only human.”

Something strikes cold and deep within Jin’s chest as he stares helplessly at the distress upon Haze’s face. There are thoughts he had always succeeded in staving off before, now bubbling up again and threatening to spill over the edges.

Every Blade fears for their Driver’s mortality. It’s simple, primeval instinct that runs deep within the very ether that powers their cores. At least, that’s what Jin had come to believe, and now he’s reminded of it once more as Haze tightly grips his arm.

Memories flash through his mind, of that helpless little girl he’d fought to feed and protect and keep alive. Not for his own sake, but for hers. It was always for her.

Awkwardly, he pats Haze’s shoulder.

“So we’ll be here to make sure she gets to grow old.”

“You’ve thought about this before, too?”

“All I want is for Lora to live a long and happy life.”

To live a long and happy life and someday have a bed to rest in and a proper roof over her head, with her Blades at her sides. They never discuss the future like that. The present day is more than enough to focus on. But it’s a far-off goal to look forward to, when there’s actually time to ponder over it.

“I guess, when you put it that way…”

“You would’ve figured it out yourself sooner or later.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so gloomy.”

“It’s fine.”

It’s simple, and perhaps futile in the grand scheme of this frightening world, but it’s theirs and the most they can grasp. They don’t need grandiose wealth or widespread fame for that satisfaction. Jin manages to pry Haze’s fingers off his arm.

As long as Lora is happy, then he’s happy. Haze should be able to come to that conclusion on her own terms, too. Maybe she already did.

"If only my Winds of Time could freeze everything, even if it's just for a while..." Haze mumbles so quietly that Jin thinks he might have misheard.

They both look up at the rustle of approaching footsteps. Lora cheerfully waves. “Jin, Haze, I’m back! I got a great deal on some fresh veggies from a merchant. If we can catch some fish from the river, we can have ourselves a proper stew tonight!”

“Lady Lora!” Haze beams. “Jin and I were just doing some laundry.”

“Oh? That’s great. I’ve been meaning to do that, actually.”

Haze holds up that threadbare shirt, the one she’d been reluctant to hand over to Jin earlier. “Jin said we can use the ones that can’t be mended for rags or kindling. Is that alright?”

“Of course. We’ll just find more clothes to buy if we ever run low.”

A glance passes between them just for a moment, and Jin nods, and Lora simply smiles and loosely hugs Haze with one arm.