Work Text:
Reflections
Winds whipped Blair’s hair in a fierce storm as the magic around her faded. The last… simulacrum falling in a great heap. She never liked killing. Some small part of her winced every time an enemy fell. She knew it had to be done, but, she never wanted it to be done. But not now.
She only had so many emotions to feel, and a previous sight had taken them all.
“I’ll, go ahead,” Zeke said to her side. She turned to see his usual bright pink hair stained with sweat and his lance in a tight grip. “It’s… I can handle everything for a minute.”
She’d privately remarked that having Zeke had been a blessing to her, taking just a little of the world’s weight from her shoulders. But this… “Thank you.” Blair just barely managed to get out.
With a curt nod he moved forward, taking stock of the army (which for whatever Opistus damned reason she could not stop thinking of as the Blair Bunch ever since Toddsworth had said it the one time, not that she’d tell anyone), seeing who needed healing, checking weapons. Everything she’d used to have to do on her own. He bore the weight of the army like she had for so many months on her own.
Well, not completely on her own.
With her responsibilities taken care of for a moment, she turned around, and walked close to the ruins corner.
Purple hair mirrored itself, one splayed on the ground in a vision almost exactly from one of Blair’s most horrid nightmares—charred with a mess of mud an… red, and the other kneeling close by and gazing off into the distance. Wounds covered her, and the flame sword she’d used still faintly glowed, ready to cast and assist her staffing at a moments notice. She was tense, not because of any kind of motion, but that she wasn’t moving. Arin always moved. Every second she was glancing at other people, or checking over he shoulder to see if someone was doing as she expected. It was a comfort when Blair always thought she missed just a little too much.
She slowed as she got closer to Arin and… the ruin’s guardian. Holding a similar flame sword, only shattered in a way that Blair wished didn’t make her heart ache. Instead, she just stopped a step behind her advisor, her friend. Her, Arin.
A moment stretched into what felt like a thousand, and neither said anything. No one approached, and only that damned wind from atop the ruins surrounded them. Roaring past the two of them and almost matching the rush in her ears that had so nothing to do with the battle.
Then, Arin turned. Her face neutral. Telling Blair a thousand emotions and what none of them were. Secrets kept in a precious, caring box that she had never doubted.
“I…” Arin started, trailing off. “I, guess you have some questions.”
Far too many to count cried out in Blair’s mind. She chose the most important one, and ignored the others. “Are you okay?”
Her breath hitched. “It was, close. We were too similar, I guess. She… it, was too fast for me to keep up with.”
“I don’t mean after the fight.” Blair said, adding, ”I don’t just, mean that. I, I saw how close it was but I just…” she trailed off, words failing her.
They stood quiet again. Only a step and the world away from each other. The wind cried around them.
Arin took a breath, then again. Her hand clenching her sword desperately and she finally managed to speak again. Tears were starting to gather in her eyes. “I know it’s, I know I have to explain this. I will. You deserve that much. I just—
Blair didn’t hear the rest as she dropped down lunged into a hug. Arin froze.
“I… Blair, I have to tell you what—”
“I don’t care.”
Hundreds of confessions and apologies ground to a halt as Arin felt Blair hug her even tighter.
"I don’t care about who you were.” Blair continued, face still hidden behind Arin’s shoulder. “I don’t care about what you might’ve done. What you know. How you… how that thing was here, or what you have to do with it. With all of this. None of that matters to me.”
“Whoever you were before that incredible day you first came to me doesn’t matter to me. Only that you’re here now. The only reason any of that could possibly matter is because you’re here, right now, with me.”
Her hug tightened again, and Arin realized her shoulder was wet after a second’s thought.
“I don’t know what your past could be,” Blair continued, “but I can tell it’s difficult for you. That you don’t want to talk about it. That’s okay. I, want to know. But only because I want to know about the most important person in my life.” She paused, her chest heaving for a moment as her arms tightened. “Maybe, hopefully you’ll tell me one day. What brought you to me. I told you that I felt like I had the weight of the world on my back.”
“Every single day of this campaign. The only reason I could do it was because of you, Arin. So don’t, I… I don’t deserve anything from you. You’ve,” she sniffled. “you’ve done too much for me to demand anything from you ever. I just…”
Finally, she trailed off, leaning into Arin and near crushing her with how tight she was holding her. And then finally, carefully, her arms slowly rose and wrapped around Blair.
There the two sat, together. The wind still roaring behind them as they held the most important person in the world to the other. Two different weights greater then anyone could bare, at least alone.
As time passed, Arin slowly spoke. “I, I’ll need to tell you at some point. Just maybe not while I’m still on the ground over—"
“That thing isn’t you.” Blair snapped, pulling back just slightly so Arin could see the fire in her eyes. “It can’t be. You’re… there’s only one incredible you, and it isn’t that.”
Arin stared at her, at Blair, her mind racing past what she’d said, what she’d seen, everything. And slowly, finally, she hugged back as tight as she could as a tear fell. “Thank you, Blair. For everything you’ve given me.”
“I’d give you more, but Aercolyn is still recovering itself.” Blair bluntly said. “Can’t spend everything on I should on you just yet without ruining the treasury.”
Arin snorted, falling into a fit of chuckles that made Blair’s heart flutter. “I guess I’ll just have to wait then.”
“You’d better. Blair said with a smirk, before it fell just a little. “I couldn’t imagine rebuilding without you.”
“And I couldn’t imagine my life without you.” Arin said back, a smile on her face as Blair turned away to blush. She stood up, reaching down her hand. “Come on then, there’s more here before we can leave.”
After just a moment staring at her, purple hair shadowed by just a hint of sunlight, all the grime and blood of the day not enough to hide her behind it. “Right. Of course.”
She took her hand, and slowly the two rose, leaving a corpse and a past behind them for the time.