19th ♫ | for I must die for what I've done— a twist of fate, a desert sun

[serrata]

Yuuri Wakasa CMO
(... Airlocked CRAU @ LifeAftr edition)

A CMO for Yuri Wakasa from School-Live!, soley for the purpose of dicking around in the LifeAftr setting with hypothetical future CRAU apping and to hopefully cONTAIN MY THIRST UNTIL SUCH TIME

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[serrata]

That depends.

[ Her voice is tight and irritable again, but she seems a little defeated. Getting in past the door seems to have been the hardest part and now there's less chance of being overheard, she's less inclined to put up as much of a fight.

She shuts the door behind him and gestures for him to take a seat, around the little fire pit. There's some flames licking away at the firewood in there, just enough to give some cozy warmth to the inside of the hut. ]

What else were you planning to say?

[bloodyashes]

[He settles into a seat with... perhaps more grace than he usually puts into such things.]

You knew - as far as I can tell, without being told - to not bother including him in your meal prep. You kept making faces at me wearing his coat as though I'd somehow moved in on your territory. You never commented on his lack of sleep. You also didn't comment on his... face.

[You know what face he means. A pause.]

And you got extremely distressed by the idea of him leaving that island, at least as distressed as Ardyn himself. You knew what that meant, and you didn't want it to happen.

[Does he need to go on? Probably not.]

One or two of those things could be explained as you having heard since you arrived here, but not all of them. He's not that forthcoming about anything except the lack of sleep or eating. So the only logical conclusion is that you already knew, which is only explicable if you knew him before arriving here.

There's other people you could have found out from in some other place - some other version of Noctis or one of his friends - but if that was how you knew, then you wouldn't be comfortable around him. Just the opposite - you'd be more nervous, like Prompto, because there's no one from Eos who would have good things to say about Ardyn.

[serrata]

[ She's got her back turned to him, because she doesn't want Asch to be able to read her face as easily as he's read everything else. She's deeply unsettled and she doesn't want him to see it. So, making a point of picking through her firewood as they talk it is. ]

...if Junpei was here, you two would be such a dangerous combination...

[ That's more to herself than anything for Asch's benefit. She can't help but wonder what it would've been like to have someone this observant and frighteningly analytical on the Fantasy Sweet with them. ]

Whatever you're thinking... it definitely isn't as simple as you're making it out to be. But either way, what does it matter to you?

[bloodyashes]

[To be fair, it isn't something he pulls off frequently. Taking time to actually consider things is a skill he's still developing, and something he wouldn't have had anywhere else. Somewhere like the Fantasy Sweet, his recklessness would have come through first, always charging, always trying to move forward.

This? This was just something he thought, and then realized that more and more pointed in that direction. A biased analysis perhaps, but one that was right on the money -

And don't think that he hasn't locked away that name, 'Junpei,' for later.]

I never said it was simple. I know that it probably isn't. But it matters because that means that somewhere out in the universe, there was an Ardyn who let people get close to him and care about him. It matters because I want to know what that Ardyn means for this one.

[For the scourge-fueled flame that still won't let anyone get near, who still refuses to see that there are those who find that warmth comforting instead of burning.]

[serrata]

[ Yuuri laughs. She doesn't mean to, but it just sort of... comes out. Still with her back to Asch, she shakes her head, hardly able to believe what she's hearing. She can't blame him for having a little bit of hope but... god, where does she even start? ]

I can't tell you it means anything, I'm afraid.

[ And it really does sound like she means it this time around. For all the deflecting she's been doing, that at least has sounded sincere. ]

The place I came from and the Ardyn I knew... you can't really make that clean of a comparison. They're not interchangeable. So I don't know how useful anything I could tell you might be.

[bloodyashes]

Maybe it won't end up being useful at all. I don't know.

[That laugh... he's unhappy with it, but it didn't sound mocking. More incredulous. Better that than the alternative, but he's not the happiest with it, either.]

But even if it's hopeless, I have to try. He deserves better than an endless age of unhappiness, waiting for death. Deserves to know that someone will stand by his side, even after everything he's done.

[Come hell or high water or mountains crumbling into the sea and so on.]

[serrata]

[ It sounds so strange to hear this coming from a boy she's never met. Stranger still that the circumstances are so familiar. They're lucky, really, that the network had been so merciful when it came to their handling of the Starscourge because it makes Yuuri feel sickly and nervous to think that the real thing is here now.

She takes in a long, slow breath and finally stands up then turns to face him. ]

That's what I'm worried about. Now the island's gone... he's back to how he was before, isn't he?

[ Not back to normal because she can't bring herself to call Ardyn in that state 'normal'. ]

I don't want anyone else getting hurt by him.

[bloodyashes]

Back to the usual, yeah.

[There's just a thoughtful determination in his expression. Unlike Yuuri, he doesn't have any hangups about referring to that as well... baseline, for Ardyn. Really, it's the only Ardyn he's ever known.

Someone tell Tenmyouji Ardyn to get over here and Be The Better One.]

I...

[And here he has to stop for a moment. He doesn't know her, not really, this is the first time they've talked about anything more serious, and they're not really talking about themselves, yet, at this point. They're talking about Ardyn.

But Asch knows that the reasons he cares about Ardyn are all just in a tangled mess with his own issues, so he can't leave that entirely aside.]

I don't think I know what it's like not being hurt. Not in this kind of situation.