Work Text:
When Alisaie started awake from a frightful dream she felt all out of sorts. Disoriented because she did not remember falling asleep in the first place, she blinked slowly at the wall in front of her. Her waking mind quickly began to forget the dream but some imagery remained that made her heart pound and the butterflies in her stomach flutter. Groaning, Alisaie turned her head and buried her face into her pillow. She dreamed of death—of fire falling from the sky and bodies of those she loved left in its wake. Movement at her bedside drew her attention and she felt the blankets being pulled over her. Alisaie rolled over, glancing upward with a confused stare. Alphinaud hovered over her and upon meeting her gaze he looked surprised. He withdrew his hands from the edges of the sheets.
“Oh, you're awake. I thought you moaning in your sleep.”
Alisaie shifted upright and rubbed sleep from her eyes. “I'm fine. I’m not a child that needs to be tucked in because I’m afraid of dreams.”
The look her brother gave her in response suggested she had been showing signs of distress as she slept thanks to her nightmare. She chose to ignore it.
“Don’t tell me you came into my room just because of that?” He coddled her like she was his little sister sometimes. It was infuriating. Also, he was absolutely not allowed in her room.
Alphinaud arched an eyebrow at her but there was an amused smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. “Whose room?”
She scowled. “What are you—”
The words died on her lips when she finally decided to lift her gaze. She noted the messy desk against the wall and the small bookcase packed full with tomes and documents. She realized this was actually not her room. It was his. She went red immediately, embarrassed, and Alphinaud’s laughter did not help. She glared at him.
“Are you still dreaming?” he teased.
Alisaie responded by grabbing the pillow and chucking it at him. “Haha, very funny." Her tone was notably humorless. "I forgot I came in here earlier.”
He caught the projectile before it could hit him in the face, and shook his head. He set it back down on the bed. “I see. You fell asleep rather quickly so I am not surprised.”
Now that she was more awake Alisaie remembered she had come in here to read. The room she called her own within the Rising Stones had felt eerily quiet and Alisaie was too restless to relax in the silence. Noting the light on in her brother’s room across the hall, she had shuffled in with a book and claimed his bed. He had not made any motion to indicate he had noticed her, sitting at his desk scribbling away as he was, but she knew he was aware of her presence. Comforted by not being alone she must’ve fallen asleep the moment she had gotten settled with her book. She could not recall reading a single line from it.
“Mayhap you should retire,” Alphinaud was saying when she came back from her thoughts. “It is quite late.”
Alisaie glanced toward the desk he’d been working at. The light was low but a fresh candle had been placed in the lantern. He moved away and her gaze followed him back to the chair.
“Shouldn't you?”
“I will do so anon.”
Alisaie frowned as he sat back at his desk. While many things had changed about Alphinaud since his adventures in Ishgard one of the most noticeable to her was how much trouble he had sleeping sometimes. Sometimes she went to bed late and saw his light still on. Then when she rose early the next morning she’d find he was already up. Honestly she wasn’t sure he was sleeping at all some nights and it worried her.
“You are welcome to stay if it pleases you,” he said as he was hunched over whatever he was writing.
Alisaie let out a long sigh. She climbed out of bed and crossed the short distance to his desk, peering over his shoulder. A leather bound journal lay open among the scattered papers and books. She recognized his neat handwriting on its pages. His personal journal. They both kept them although he was much more dedicated to keeping up with it than she was. With skills honed from years of sisterly torment she reached over and snatched it right from under his quill pen.
He jumped, startled, and whirled around in his chair. “Wha— Alisaie!”
He made a grab for it but her reflexes were better and she held it over her head out of his reach, taking a few hurried steps away from him. He got to his feet quickly but she already had the journal clutched against her chest, hugging it tightly with both arms to make any attempts to grab it nigh impossible.
Alphinaud gave her a flat look, crossing his arms. As she figured, he refused to squabble over it. He always had to pretend to be mature and above such things. She flipped the journal open to a random page, glancing at it but not really reading it.
“You know… you’ve never told me anything about your journey."
He looked caught off guard by her words. “What?”
Alisaie snapped the journal shut and waved it pointedly at him. “Your travels. Not a single thing about it. You traveled through most of Dravania on foot with a woman who became a primal, the Azure Dragoon and the Warrior of Light. You even traveled to the Sharlayan colony we were born in. Yet you’ve told me nothing about any of it. I’ve heard pieces of it, mostly from the Warrior of Light, but naught from you.”
Alphinaud seemed perplexed. “You've never asked.”
"As if not asking has ever kept you from telling me something."
He gave her a grumpy look for that remark but she ignored him. She held the journal out toward him, offering it back. “Perhaps I’m asking now, then. If you are not going to sleep then you are going to tell me about all that I’ve missed while we were separated.”
She would offer the same but then Alphinaud had actually asked her all about it when they had reunited and she had shared it with him. Yet she had never thought to ask about his own time spent while apart. She knew bits and pieces—plenty in order to understand what had led him to where they both now stood. Yet she realized in this moment that she’d not once heard about it in his own words. What she knew had come from the Warrior of Light, from Y’shtola, from Tataru, from Aymeric… but not from her brother.
Alphinaud stared at his journal in her outstretched hand. His expression seemed troubled. It wasn't typical for him to not want to talk ad nauseam about his experiences so his hesitation bothered her. He met her expectant gaze and finally sighed in resignation. He lifted his hand and took the proffered journal from her.
“It seems to me that you're the one who does not wish to sleep,” he replied. “But... very well.”
She motioned for him to sit with her on his bed and so he did. Backs against the wall and sitting shoulder to shoulder, she watched Alphinaud flip through his journal and listened to him recount the journey he took first to Ishgard and then through the surrounding lands. She is well known for complaining about her brother’s tendency to prattle on yet few are aware that sometimes she does not particularly mind listening.