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The last night before everything ends, the war officially over, and with Dimitri crowned as king, there were a plentitude of things to celebrate. Peace among Fódlan, future leaders all emerging at the same time, and the beginning of a new era. There was so much to be happy about for Sylvain Gautier, so it was hard to explain why he was against the wall, drinking alone as he watched into the crowd.
“Don’t you think it’s time for you to go and talk to her before the night ends?” A voice caught him off guard, but instead of reacting, he looked over in the corner of his eye, seeing one of his best friends and one of the women in his life that he trusted to be himself around. Ingrid always had his back, and this proved to be no exception. He only grinned and pushed back his bangs, before taking a sip of his drink.
“There’s no point. Look at her.”
The woman in question was in the crowd, doing something that she would have never done when she was on her own. In the crowd, there were four people that were dancing and having a grand time with each other, drinking while enjoying the music, smiling and laughing as they kept each other’s company. They looked properly happy, and the smile on her face was one that he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen. Her red hair only illuminated by the candlelight, her eyes matching the intensity. As Ingrid slowly began to piece together what he meant, she frowned at her friend, shaking her head.
“I don’t understand what happened between you both. It just doesn’t-”
“Ingrid, I did what I always do. That’s just how these relationships go. I got interested, we got serious, then we burnt out. Do I need to explain more?”
As he gave a vague explanation, his eyes went back to the redhead, unable to stop thinking about the brief relationship they shared through their time at the academy and during the war.
~
There wasn’t much to them, they were so incredibly different, almost polar opposites with the only connection between them being their shared distaste for other people getting too close to them. Sylvain only saw Hapi as another woman who wanted him for his position in power, and Hapi saw him as just another brat looking for any excuse to use people to elevate themselves. They came from such different upbringings, Hapi in a remote village before running away on her own, then being held captive, while Sylvain was raised with a silver spoon in his hand, but at the cost of multiple attempts at his life from his older brother.
They shouldn’t have met, they shouldn’t have connected the way they did, and everyone around them made it painstakingly obvious at that fact. His friends didn’t quite understand the appeal of being around Hapi, except for Dimitri, while the Goddess knows that the Ashen Wolves did not approve of Sylvain when they first started talking. And they were right to, because Sylvain only ever had the intention of playing with her, messing around with nothing serious being attached to her, or to them. Little did he know that Hapi had the same thought, she originally didn’t care about him, or his crest, or who he was as a person, just someone to have fun and mess around with.
The first time they even looked at each other with interest was a few months into their strange, casual relationship, they were both alone in one of the many fields of Fódlan after a mission to escort some merchants to safety, and both of the mounted units were perfect for the job. They were rewarded with a drink in the village they were brought to, and they spent a whole night with each other in the bar, letting their guards down for the first time in a long, long time. That was the first time that Sylvain didn’t see her as some “hidden gem locked away in a sewer” and Hapi didn’t just see him as a “spoiled, playboy brat boy”. They grew closer together, and when they returned for class the following day, they might not have shown the extent of their newfound closeness, but it was a drastic difference the first time that they held hands when they figured no one was looking.
They continued to grow closer and closer, but in their own way. They didn’t spend a lot of time together when others were around, but they always looked for opportunities to surprise the other, and let them know they were thinking of the other. Despite the blooming feelings, they both understood that they wouldn’t work out in the long run, and that things were only going to get more difficult as things tensed up around them. School life was getting more difficult as time passed, especially as things got more and more serious. Flayn’s disappearance, the threat of the Flame Emperor, the truth of Jeritza, there was so much going on that there just simply wasn’t time to be with each other, yet they still made little efforts for the other, hand written letters and snacks left at their doors were enough to keep the other happy in these stressful times.
The attack on Garreg Mach was the first real heartbreak either of them experienced in a long time. It was hard to go through, suddenly being comfortable in a life of peace, to everything falling apart in a hurry. Sylvain knew he needed to go home eventually, he needed to make sure Ingrid and Felix were coming with him, and when Dimitri was so filled with anger, Sylvain took the role of the leader for the others, making sure they were going to get out okay. Everything happened so fast, but he knew that this could very well be the last time he would ever see her. His heart hurt at the thought that just maybe, he would have finally met the girl that understood him, and now as their world was quite literally crumbling to the ground, it was time to accept that his happiness wasn’t possible. There was no time to waste any tears on this, as it was something he possibly deserved for letting himself be so selfish. Yet, as his luck would have it, as he was fighting alongside the Church against the Imperial army, he saw her not too far away, with the other three Wolves defending the school they had lived under for so long.
Until the call for surrender blared through the courtyard. They were ordered to surrender and escape with haste, if they wanted to live. Both of the Golden Deer and Blue Lions helped civilians and soldiers that were able to escape. But once they were sure they could, Sylvain rounded up Ingrid and Felix, but Dimitri was nowhere to be found, and the clock was ticking. They needed to leave, and they gathered whatever was necessary and started preparing. Rushing to the stables, they started preparing the animals, and there she was, putting the reins on her horse in a hurry, cursing at the rope that wouldn’t cooperate. “Hapi-” He tried calling out, but the sound of explosions rang through, reminding them that time was limited. But, that didn’t stop him, Sylvain forgo the warnings from the other two and ran over to her, and when she turned to him, she frowned as he hugged her, but swiftly returned the hug. They knew that he had to leave, and while there were no words spoken in this moment of vulnerability in both of them, they at least got to say goodbye before Sylvain let her go, kissed her forehead before running off, joining Ingrid and Felix in escaping so they could return home.
Five long years passed, and if Sylvain was going to be honest, he nearly forgot about the promise that he and everyone else made to return to Garreg Mach, until Ingrid showed up at his door with Felix, reminding him and in no sooner than an hour was he packed and prepared to leave. The return to the monastery was eventful to say the least, seeing former classmates and their old professor fighting with bandits that had taken over what used to be a lively town square, and fighting them off was something that no one had expected to add to their chores for the day, yet quick work was made of them. Reunions were curt, everyone catching up before returning back to the main building together as game plans were being made now that Dimitri was found alive, after years of believing he was dead. It was so hard to believe, and yet the list of people that Sylvain thought had passed but ended up being alive grew as when they returned to the monastery, he had caught a glimpse of green moving around, but he would never have mistaken that red hair anywhere. Chasing after her in the moonlight, running across the courtyard, he managed to catch up to her near the stable, and when she turned around to face him, readying a spell, his breath was caught in his lungs, but raising his hands in defense with a crooked grin, watching her expression go from defensive to relieved. Neither of them really ran or made a grand show of their reunion, but instead they moved a bit closer to the other, and gave a huge, both happy to see the other, silently thanking the Goddess for the safety of the other.
Even after the reunion, there was no denying that the other had changed drastically from what they once knew of each other. Sylvain saw Hapi and immediately registered that she had matured from the pessimistic and lazy girl that detested being around other people to a woman who knew what she wanted and was more than capable of taking it. Her drive, her ambition, and the leadership that she exuded were stunning and intimidating. Hapi saw Sylvain and knew that he had grown too grown, no longer the intense playboy that aimed to break hearts on his day-to-day, but instead a strong, sincere knight who just so happened to have a knack for flirting with anyone in his downtime. They both had grown, but that was to be expected in five years, and did they really know each other anymore?
They had tried getting along again, and individually they wanted to make things go back to how they were five years ago, but things had changed between them. Conversations were awkward since they didn’t know what to say to the other anymore, jokes stopped landing the way they used to, now her eye rolls were met with pity smiles, and when Sylvain laughed, it felt forced.
Slowly things were picked up as the war escalated, but small efforts were still made while the other had blamed themselves for the wedge put between them. Now and then, the other would get questions from friends or gossiping knights who wanted to know about the mysterious flame, and they’d always answer that things just “didn’t work out” while desperately trying to get close with the other again, but the war made it hard to take anything but tomorrow seriously. They both said that they understood that the war was making it hard to get to know each other, but it felt like a timebomb running out as if by the time the war ends, they’d reach their expiration date.
Of course, jealousy still played into them, however. They may not be the other’s, but they still were just as protective as if they were. They both drove the other crazy without realizing it, whether it was local nobles trying to make good with Hapi, to make her chuckle and smile drove Sylvain up the wall. Hapi never was able to take Sylvain seriously when a local barmaid would hold onto Sylvain’s arm, talking in a sickly sweet voice while he ate the attention up. They both still wanted to be the one getting the attention of the other, just never knew how to get it.
~
Fast forward to the present, to the celebration of the war being over, and that jealousy still pricked Sylvain in the back of the neck when he watched Hapi dance with her closest friends, watching her twirl and laugh as she danced with the blonde girl that never really liked him very much. Maybe it was the extremely sweet-tasting alcohol that he had been sipping on all night or the judgement from Ingrid, but a strong wave of emotion washed over him, every fibre of his being telling him that it was now or never to talk to her now that the party was on the decline. Silently, he held his cup to Ingrid who nodded and took it from him, offering her friend a small smile and a pat on the back as he made his way over to her through the crowd.
Many people pat his back as he passed them by, congratulating him and asking about what was next, but he didn’t have it in him to answer, as all he could think about was what was next with Hapi. Everything was wrapping up, there was no reason that things couldn’t work now, and he wanted to prove to her that she was worth waiting those long, five years for. As he got closer, he noticed her eyes look over and met his, intense red ones met his brown ones. For only a moment, time froze as he evaluated what it was that he wanted to accomplish. What did he think was going to happen? That he was going to walk over, they were going to embrace and that everything was going to work out? He wasn’t ever such a romantic, nor was he the fool to think that would work. He didn’t have the right to ask that things worked between them, and the closer he got to her, the dumber he felt, but it was too late to turn tail and run away.
“Hey Supernova, do you need anything?” Her voice snapped him out of it, and he realized that she met him halfway through the crowd, and was looking up to him. Hearing the nickname was oddly confidence-boosting, and just the little kick he needed to give her his signature smile, and brush his hair out of his face.
“Now that this is all over, I want to try again,” his voice dared not to give out beneath him, and he was glad that she nodded as if encouraging him to continue, “I like you, a lot, and it’d be a shame to let you go again. Now that this is all over, I want to see you and make us work, what do you say?” His tone was confident and an arm wrapped around her shoulder as he looked down at her.
“Well, I think I’m done fighting, and I don’t think I have it in me to fight for anything else right now. So, let’s take it slow and we’ll see where that takes us.” Hapi’s tone was a matter of fact, but when she looked up to Sylvain, he was grinning the widest she had seen in a long time, which made her roll her eyes but smile as well. It was infectious, she supposed. Though her words were not as encouraging, the small gesture of her moving to hold his hand meant that there was at least a chance for them.
Maybe that chance was all they needed to make it work, and only time would tell, but for the first time in a long time, there was nowhere the other would rather be than with the other.