[prp] leaving flowers at their door (saya x gale) fin

[revenant aria]

Some would term it as a waste of time, looking around for their rooms. But Saya didn't. Her fingers, slightly cold at the tips, thumb pads rubbing over her nails timidly. Deus wasn't at all cold at this time of the year, however, inwardly, Saya felt a freezing icicle, snaking around her waist. Where she had been submerged in water before. Saya nearly collapsed in the hallway, instead, resting her shoulder and head against the wall. Her hand lowered to hest chest, forcing herself to breathe again. In and out. In and out. She leaned against it, side by side, as if the inanimate wall was a lonely comfort in the all of the events. It wasn't. But she didn't want to move yet.

By her side, was two little paper-wrapped bouquets in her hand. She didn't have fancy arts and craft materials or wrapping paper to make a special one but in Deus, simplicity was best. It was notebook paper, folded in an origami style with the ends of the flowers poking through at the bottom.

Someone's coming. Prompto informed her.  

[kuropeco]

Gale really had no idea where he was.

He was walking - just walking - with no specific place in mind, no fixed point as to where he was supposed to have been or where he intended to be. His mind, as he kept forcing it, was desperately blank, mostly because he did not want to face what the memories of what was there if he actually let himself think.

If he let himself feel.

Don't think about it, he kept telling himself, over and over again.

But the memories were still there, burning at the corners of his mind like the curling edges of a scorched paper, and there was no stopping them from growing larger, filling every space in his head until there was nothing else but the black, clawing thoughts that tore at his chest.

Don't think about it.

<< Gale. >> said Jinhai. He sounded tired.

What?

<< There's someone up the hall a ways. >>

He hadn't even noticed, but now Gale raised his eyes to find a small, slender figure on her knees in front of a dormitory doorway, her head pressed against the wall.

Saya.

He almost turned and walked away, but something about her shaking, despondent figure made him hesitate, then take a few steps forward until he was just beside her.

"Saya."  

[revenant aria]

Saya was barely speaking to Prompto since the incident. Neither of them said it but his words had stung. Even if the words had needed to be said .. There was only that one curt line. It was a statement in itself, that Saya didnt jump when Gale appeared behind her. She did, however, make an effort to stand and present Gale with a wan smile. But even her smile faltered, both of them looking distracted and pale. She was suddenly aware of how she must have appeared and it was not a respectable sight. Luckily, it was Gale that found her and not some other trainee or hunter.

"Gale!"

Her hand reached out, to tug on his sleeve, a little bit. She couldn't see her own desolate frame. But she saw Gale's, a mirror of her's, except much more weighted from his past experiences. She was frantic to suggest something more cheerful, except nothing came to mind. She had to go do her that and ..

Oh! That!

".. Gale? There's something I wanted to do but it might be easier .. not doing it .. alone." She tried to bring it up, hesitantly, wondering if it was better to lead into the topic.  

[kuropeco]

Saya, for her part, did not look good.

Her face was too pale, her expression too despondent, her smile too forced, even as she was trying to put on a brave face. It flickered and died, and Gale felt some part of the emotions he was clamping forcefully down on stir in both sympathy and empathy.

He hated this.

Her fingers reached out for him, and Gale lifted his arm almost automatically, letting her grasp his sleeve.

"Don't," he said, and then, realizing it was not quite a sentence, went on to say "Don't get up. You're fine where you are," since she seemed to be struggling to get up, though it was clear from the way she was looking that she did not have a lot of strength.

His brows lifted, then drew together as he tried to make sense of her words.

"Something?" Gale echoed, his voice - quiet, stiff, and hollow - sounded strange, even to his own ears, and he flinched visibly before quickly smoothing away the emotions and pulling back the vague, closed off expression.

"...what is it," he asked her finally, glancing down at the paper and the flowers. "I'll help you."

He did not know why he said it, exactly, but maybe it would be what he needed to drag himself out of this black hole of despair he was sinking further and further into.

Random Artist

 

[revenant aria]

Saya was in a half kneeling and standing position, one knee on the ground and the other knee struggling to stand. Gale's curt order, soon elaborated on, had been a little uncharacteristic and surprising. In relief, she sunk down slightly, in a effort to recharge in the seconds that they conversed.

She pretended now to see how he flinched, how his voice took on a empty tone and his tormented expression.

...

....

"I'm sure they won't mind if I share some." She said aloud, to nobody in particular.

She held both bouquets, in the center of her palm, one finger extracting a flower she had picked from outside of Deus. If one went outside to the beach or training fields, they would see that the area was so worn down by the elements or sparring that there was hardly any flowers around. Saya had either picked these in the forest or had spent quite a bit of time wandering around the island. She took a baby breath flower, breaking off a branch to offer it to Gale.

"We're going to visit them with smiles okay. Let's drop off these flowers at their rooms!"

Obviously, there was no leaving flowers at their place of rest. None of the trainees would dare go back to that place again. Their rooms were the only place to go. The last place to go, before their belongings were cleared out.

Saya pulled her cheeks in a smile.
 

[kuropeco]

She was giving him a strange look, but Gale pretended not to notice that, instead focusing on what Saya was telling him.

Or rather, what she was saying out loud - something that made his brows draw together in slight confusion.

Who wouldn't mind?

But then she was holding the two bouquets of flowers again, the paper wrapped around the stems clearly handmade, nothing special - and yet...and yet there was something endearing about them. It was obvious that she had taken great care to make them look decent, each fold painstaking and precise. It was, perhaps, not perfect - but it didn't need to be.

His hand twitched, hesitating at the flower she offered him. But then, after a moment, he raised his arm, slowly, to take the thin little branch of buds from her fingers, staring down at the pale petals.

"Visit...them..." said Gale, still not quite comprehending. "Wh..."

But then he stopped. There was no need to ask "who" because it was as clear as day, written all over Saya's face, over his own face - who else would she be talking about, anyway?

Gale felt some of his stiff facade slip, just a little.

"I - " he said, and it came out sounding stammered. He clamped his lips shut, cheeks tinged pink, but then she was smiling and he knew that this was what she needed.

Maybe it was what he needed too.

"...all right," he said quietly, after a moment. "Do you...do you know where they are, then?"  

[revenant aria]

"Yes! I located their dorms. I wanted to get it to them before the rooms were cleared out." Saya explained, finally rising to straighten her posture and start a slow walk down the hallway. She didn't know if hunters had a different area of rooms from intermediate, often not knowing who was behind which doors. She held the two bouquets delicately, in her arms, almost cradling them as she walked.

The walk didn't have a lot of talking on Saya's part. They still needed time to mull over their thoughts, giving them enough time before they could hopefully fade and subside. People had always quoted, in a banal manner, the hackneyed reaction of people who had yet to experience it. They were close to approaching the rooms though, Saya's expression becoming withdrawn. It had regained a little of it's color but that faded a little more, with each step. Peach skintone that almost looked white, like the baby breath flowers in her arms. Wordlessly, Saya pointed to two rooms.

She handed a bouquet to Gale, as if silently suggesting he put the other one down.  

[kuropeco]

He nodded, helping Saya to her feet. It was strange - he still did not know this trainee all that well, except that she was a few years older than he was, but here he was, helping her do something that he normally wouldn't do. Maybe it was the fact that she seemed just as lost and despondent as he was.

Or maybe it was the fact he knew, in some part of his mind, that this was something he could do, even if it was just something small.

He followed her quietly down the hallways, not saying anything, and glad that she was keeping silent as well. It was as if they both knew they needed the time to just think, as much as Gale was trying desperately not to.

But things didn't go away just because he ignored them.

Saya stopped after a while, gesturing to two separate doors. She held out a bouquet, and wordlessly Gale accepted it, stepping towards the first of the doors as she went to the second.

He did not know which door this was, whether it was Barney or Sandy's, but he hesitated there, fingers trembling around the paper bouquet with its delicate baby's breath. Slowly Gale knelt down, stretching out his hand to lay the flowers in front, his fingers trailing along the bottom of the door, tracing a small crack in the wood.

"Thank you," he said quietly, so quietly that it was hardly audible, even to himself. He closed his eyes, willing the memories to disappear, to fade away, to get rid of the nightmares clogging his throat. They never would, but maybe the memories would make him work harder, make him better.

Maybe. Gale's voice dropped even lower, repeating his words and gesture at the second door, saying the same thing, the same mantra that he hoped could be enough, even though he knew it wasn't.

"And I'm sorry."

Lizbot

Zoobey

 

[revenant aria]

Saya knew what door she was at. She had approached Sandy's first, tucking a little origami flower in the middle of the real ones. So even when the real ones withered, Sandy would still have an origami one. But the idea was a almost foolishly stupid one, considering that the death hunter was never going to be around to see it.

She spoke to the closed door, not having the courage to even turn the doorknob. But to turn it and look into a room of someone she knew for less than a day? It was almost rude. Saya merely stood in front, tucking the flowers in front, a little under the doorway. It was a strange moment, to stand in a nearly empty hallway and in front of an empty room. But as peculiar as the situation was, Saya didn't know what else to do.

"U-Um .. Sandy. I had really been hoping to ask you to make cupcakes or something when we got back. When the kitchens were open again but .. well.. It looks like that didn't work out. I didn't even ask you yet and I was already hoping." Saya sighed, brushing her fingers against the petals for the last time.

Silence. She hadn't been expecting an answer.

...

........

"I wonder what you would have said. I don't want to thank you for dying for us so I'm oing to thank you for existing instead. For being with us-- sharing your fiance story with us. It was really cute." Saya could hear her voice wobbling, her choke starting to close up.

A whisper was last said to the metal doorknob and wooden plank.

She switched doors, as Gale walked over to the other. A chuckle forced it's way up to her throat, as she remembered the large bulky superior.

"Barney. You were really cool and admirable. Even though I'm probably just another white coat to you, your dramatic moves really did save me quite a bit. You really made an impression on us all.

.. Thank you, for existing, as well." She leaned her forehead against the door, for a moment.

"Thank you guys for saving trainees like us."

Saya didn't know why they hadn't saved themselves. In the greater scheme of things, they were much more valuable than the trainees. She would never know why. But she couldn't forgive herself yet. She could only thank them.

zoobey

lizbot