[PP-Fx] Something Missing

[Aereth 1]

The Halloween party was nearing its end, which meant that Teion and Aereth were on their way home. They left the mansion and were currently heading towards the main settlement, when Aereth received a message. 

Usually messages never meant anything good for Aereth, since he had only a handful of people in his contact list. One of those people was Itzal and the rest were his information brokers. They were his eyes and ears everywhere. "Infobroker..." he mentally sighed, as he looked at the sender.

Quote

To: Aereth
Subject: LC on the move

There's a LC member waiting outside of your shop. Too obvious for an assassination attempt, too hidden for just some small talk.

Take care.

Aereth froze. Why now? He looked over to Teion and pulled back his hood. "Thank you for everything you did for me. But I need to leave now. Alone. Some ghosts from the past..." Aereth said in a serious and final tone as he handed the borrowed scythe over to her.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

As nice as it was to see Piera at least acting like her old self, Teion felt a relief when they finally departed from the Halloween party. She had managed to slip away and quickly change back to her go-to combat attire before she and Aereth left the mansion. And once again, as they walked in silence back towards Yomi, the question resurfaced itself in her mind. 'Now what?' She was starting to feel tired, and not from being out and about for so long. She didn't have to ask herself what her 'plan' was--she already knew that she didn't have one. But she couldn't expect to just follow along after the brunette, babysitting him until eventually they might one day be released from this prison.

Lost in thought, Teion didn't notice anything amiss until she felt the handle of the scythe he had been carrying placed in her hand. She blinked, as if snapping back to reality after his words filled the air. The violet-haired woman simply turned and stared at him in disbelief. "H-hey!" As he turned away from her with his hood pulled over his messy brown hair, Teion took a step forward and shot her hand forward, grabbing onto Aereth's forearm to keep him from walking away. She froze, a tightness forming in her chest. She tried to push past the strange sense of uncertainty and guilt as she continued to question the man. "Where are you going?" Her brows furrowed slightly while she wore an expression of annoyance and distrust.

[Aereth 1]

Once again Aereth felt the already familiar pull on his arm. She still didn't want to let him go. But this time was different. This time he didn't want to go, he had to go...

With one swift movement he freed himself from the woman's grip and turned around to look her in the eyes. He already knew that she wouldn't like what he was about to say, but as much as it hurt him to say it, he had to... "Teion... I know what you are doing... But let me tell you something. You don't have to. You don't have to keep watching over me. You already saved me once, but now I have to keep fighting my war. I've run away for long enough now and I can't risk pulling you into it as well." She didn't deserve this. She still was suffering from her loss and here he was, saying all these cruel things to her. 

He frowned. "Forgive yourself, and let others help you. If you're lucky you never see me again." Aereth was dying on the inside with every word. He didn't want to hurt her, actually he really enjoyed the evening and their time together, but it was necessary. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

She hadn't expected the forceful pull out of her grasp. Teion's bottom lip stiffened when he faced her, and the sound of her name from Aereth's mouth sounded strange, different from the simple nickname he had seemed to prefer. She stood in stunned silence, listening as he told her he had to fight. Her chest filled with air as she glared back at him. "What war?" She demanded in a sharp tone. "Some kind of never-ending revenge story?!" Her voice grew louder and more accusatory. "Is this what you want to do? It that what you think you've been doing? Runnning away?!" She was shouting at the man now.

When he told her to to forgive herself, to let others help her, Teion felt her shoulders stiffen. Her eyes widened slightly before her brows came together in another furious glare. She wanted to keep shouting. To tell him that she didn't want anyone's help. But the memory of their last confrontation--the 'promise' that she made to him caused the words to catch in her throat. His last words twisted together and formed a knot that weighed down in her stomach. She felt as if she was going to be sick. Teion's fingers curled and formed tight fists at her sides, her chin dropping as she fought with her infuriating emotions. She didn't care what she had said to him anymore. She wasn't going to let him see her cry. "Fine." Teion growled after a long few moments of silence. "If you're hell-bent on throwing your life away, so be it. I hope it's worth it." With that, she turned and continued walking back towards Yomi while the hot tears of her rage began to well at the corners of her eyes.

[Aereth 1]

That was it. Everything was said and Teion started to leave. Every word he said burned in Aereth's throat. While watching how she left his hand unconsciously opened his menu and suddenly a teleport crystal was in his hands. "Floor 4..." Aereth mumbled as he activated his crystal. "I'm sorry Purple..." he added as he faded away into shiny polygons.

The following days were rough for the brunette. He found the Laughing Coffin member that was waiting for him and the man told him that he shouldn't slack off anymore and finally finish the list they handed over to him. But Aereth had enough. A ferocious fight between them started where Aereth eventually came out on top, but sparing the piece of human trash in the end for delivering a message. He was done with them and he didn't care if they hunted him. The only thing he told the player was, that if they touched anyone he knew, he would come and pick them apart one by one. He then quickly too everything he needed from his shop and left for the 16th floor...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

That night, the interior of Teion's shop was in shambles. Upon her arrival at the smithy located in the desert city, she had promptly taken her rage out on the shop's furniture, jostling displays and knocking over racks populated with weapons and armor, the pieces of equipment clattering against the stone floor. When her tantrum had finally reached its end, the violet-haired woman slammed her fist down on the counter standing in the back of the building. Cardinal rewarded her with a simple notification of the object's immortality, and Teion simply growled under her breath in response. Her cheeks were stained with the few tears that had fallen from her her eyes, and she ended up leaning her back against the solid wood frame of the dusty counter.

The sun had set, and the only sound to be heard was the winds that battered the frame of her smithy as they signaled the oncoming of a mild sandstorm that would pass through Fortaleza. The woman sat in silence, with her knees pulled to her chest and her forehead pressed into her arms that wrapped around her legs. It took a long time for sleep to claim her that night, having to wait for the waves of regret, self-doubt, and frustration to ebb and eventually subside.

[Aereth 1]

The next morning was filled with Aereth typing messages to Itzal and Domarus. He needed to warn them, to tell them to be careful and attentive....

Quote

To: @Itzal
Subject: Warning!

It's been too long since we saw each other again, but unfortunately I need to tell you to take great care. Laughing Coffin is making their moves. They found me, threatened me into working for them, but I refused. Now they might come to harm you guys. I'm incredibly sorry for that, but I couldn't do it anymore. 

Keep the guild safe and tell all the others about it, I'm going to vanish for some time. 

Until next time, hopefully...
Aereth

Quote

To: @Domarus
Subject: Warning!

Trouble with Laughing Coffin. Got ambushed at my shop and now they are after me and probably everybody I'm having regular contact with. You, Keres and Hidden need to take care and pay close attention to everything around you. Trust nobody. 

I'll be staying under the radar for the next couple of weeks. Don't even try to find me, you wont...

Until next time, hopefully...
Aereth

 

Arriving at floor 16 the brunette searched for a dungeon and hid himself inside. "They can't know about Purple. I never revealed my identity on the party, and nobody knew where I was before that." Aereth reassured himself over and over again. He found himself thinking about her more often than not in time where he stayed in his hiding spot...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

With the next days that passed, Teion found little purpose in going about daily life. Eventually, Cardinal began to remind her like clockwork that her avatar hadn't eaten in however long, the pangs of hunger steady and consistent. However, just as she felt an overwhelming apathy just one month ago, she found herself ignoring them, unwilling to leave the confines of the dark and damaged shop.

It was two days after the night of the Halloween party, and Teion stared up at the wooden rafters above her small side-room. Her back pressed into the basic mattress of the single bed, and her left knee bent as her leg hung partially off the side. She lay with a blank expression, the back of her right hand resting against her forehead and pushing the messy bangs out of her eyes while the rest of her hair spilled haphazardly over the pillow and bedsheets beneath her. Just as with the aftermath of Beatbox's farewell, she was drained.

'Why did I even get involved?' She found herself thinking. She had more questions than answers; many, many more. One question that always seemed to cycle back to her was whether or not she'd done the right thing.

[Aereth 1]

On the fourth day after his flight, Aereth had to restock his supplies since he ran out of water and food and didn't want to deal with the constant feeling of hunger and thirst. So he sneaked past the guards and quickly needed to find some food and water.

He hadn't heard from any attacks on neither the Celestials nor on Domarus. Itzal and the Celestials were pretty much a frontline guild now. All paladins much stronger than Aereth himself, and even an unique skill. They would be fine. Even though Domarus wasn't as strong as the Celestials, his followers and his popularity would make it very hard the Laughing Coffin to harm him.

Just one purple haired female managed to worry him without end. With every day he grew more and more restless if Purple was ok. His brain told him that she would be ok, but every other bit of data in his body screamed to go to her and see if she was ok...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Four days after the party. Teion sat at the drafting table with her arms crossed over the wooden surface. Her right temple pressed against her forearm and she stared at the dusty bricks that made up the forge that had sat unlit for weeks. She wore the same expression as she had several days prior while her mind wandered more slowly than it normally would have.

She didn't want to craft. She didn't want to fight. She didn't want to explore. Luckily she hadn't received any further contact from the bespectacled brunette she had seen at the Halloween event. If Piera saw her like this, what would she say. She would probably pity her, before trying to cheer the blacksmith up and encourage her to keep pushing through.

The uneasiness and anxiety from the absence of Aereth's presence had subsided, but the memories of him lingered in her mind more than she would have liked. She wondered if she ever would see him again. If she spent the rest of her days alone in her smithy, that wouldn't be very likely, right? 'I'm just not cut out to 'help' people.' She thought while a small breath exited through her nostrils in a small sigh. The lids over her cobalt eyes slid closed, and her vision was replaced with darkness. No sooner had she dismissed the sight of the dim room than the brunette's frame appeared, his expression pained and cheeks stained with tears as the memory replayed itself in her mind.

Her eyes flew open seconds later, and she felt her brow narrow as she glared at the dull bricks in the distance. "Why do I care." The words she mumbled out were a statement rather than a question. "I screwed up, and that's the end of it."

[Aereth 1]

One week has passed since the Haloween party and Aereth's last encounter with Laughing Coffin. He was still on floor 16, grinding in the very same dungeon he had hidden himself in from the first day. But now he needed to move. Once again his info broker messaged him that LC was upping their presence on the 16th floor. 

So somebody had seen him when he restocked. "Seems like I need to change...." he thought to himself as he opened up his inventory and scrolled through the teleport crystals. His finger hovered over the fifth floor for some moments. Oh how he wanted to see how she was doing, if she was safe. "F*ck it..." he said and materialized the floor 5 teleport crystal. 

Moments later his virtual body materialized on the fifth floor and he pulled down his hood. It took him just a few minutes of silent walking until he reached the familiar shop. 

As he was about to knock on the door it slowly dawned him... He was always thinking about her. Always worrying... "Damn..." he thought to himself as he just stood in front of her door gently putting his hand on the wooden door and resting his head against it. But now wasn't the time to back down. So he simply raised his body again and knocked....

@Teion

[Teion 0]

A full week had passed, and as the sun began to set once more over the quiet desert city, Teion's back once again leaned against the sturdy counter standing in the back-center of her shop. Her chin tilted up, staring at the wooden rafters once more while her legs lay straight out in front of her. She still didn't have answers for most of the questions that had continued to plague her. The most recent that had surfaced seemed to haunt her more strongly than any other before:

'What's the point in getting out?'

She wondered what remained for her in the real world. Her friendship with the Endilix brothers felt as though it would never return. She had missed her family, sure, and she hoped that her parents had been taking good care of Chii while she was laying comatose in a hospital bed. But she couldn't stop herself from wondering if she would be happy to wake up from this place. If she suddenly opened her eyes and was back in her real, living body, what would she feel?

Regret. Cowardice. Loneliness.

Everything that Aincrad had burdened her with, wrapped up into a nice package that she would carry with her for the rest of her life.

Suddenly jolting her from her depressing thoughts, the unmistakable sound of a knock at her door had Teion's eyes widen. She stared at the heavy wooden frame across the room, past the items that lay scattered across the floor from her week-old fury. She was frozen, almost not wanting to believe that she had heard the sound correctly. Her mind quickly worked to cycle through the people who could be on the other side of the door as she slowly lifted her knees and pushed herself up to her feet. She hurriedly dismissed the thought of Aereth, instead falling on the more likely option of the man who had parented her during her stint of greivance: Shield. Her eyes widened in slight fear at the possibility. Should the frontliner see what had become of her and her shop in the time he was away... She didn't want to know, nor deal with the exchange that would take place. Piera had been to her shop, but it seemed unlike her to appear out of the blue. Before she could grasp at another possibility, she had already reached the door. With a newfound anxiety resting in her heart, she took in a short breath and reached out to pull it open.

Standing on the other side of the door was the first person that had entered her mind, but the one she had thought least likely to see. She simply stared at Aereth, eyes slightly widened in disbelief. "What...are you doing here?" She asked in a small voice.

[Aereth 1]

Yeah. The brunette somehow had fallen for Purple... But what now? It was highly unlikely that she would also feel that way. Besides that, who would want to be together with a revenge driven murderer with suicidal phases. He sighed.

"Hey. I just wanted to make sure you are ok..." he paused. "And now that I see that you're ok, I'm going to leave again..." his brain dictated.

"Sh*t kinda hit the fan, and now I need a safe place to stay for a couple of days..." he added.

"What the f*ck are you doing Aereth?" he thought as he looked at her. She looked tired, beaten and broken. "I-Is this my fault?" he thought as he slowly looked past her, activating his search skill to see more in the dim light. Her place was a mess. "I was worried about you..." Not a lie, but his mouth was talking on its own. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

The blank look of disbelief mixed itself with slight confusion when Aereth spoke up. He was...checking on her? She felt her brows narrow on their own as she mentally questioned why he would do such a thing. The quick flicker of light in his eyes caught her attention, and she saw his gaze extended past her, into the room beyond. Remembering about the shop's state of disrepair, she pushed defensively at the door handle and the gaps between her avatar and the doorframe grew smaller, as if to restrict his vision.

His comment about needing a place to stay clicked into place between the gears in her mind and she was suddenly hit with a pang of shame and embarrassment. She didn't want anyone treading on the aftermath of her temper tantrum and subsequent depression, least of all him. Her bottom lip stiffened, unable to find any words to say. What would happen if she let him in? If she sent him away? For the first time in a while, she was just too tired to argue.

Her shoulders fell an inch, and after a few seconds of silence she averted her gaze, turning away from him and walking back into the smithy. "There's a side-room with a bed in the back-left. You can use that." She said in an even tone. The woman had taken a few steps to one side of the room where she crouched down, beginning to retrieve the weapons and other various equipment that lay strewn across the floor.

[Aereth 1]

Rude Aereth needed a reminder that he shouldn't stare in other peoples houses. And he got one. As Teion tried to close the door a little bit in order to stop his staring, Aereths view moved down to the ground. "Thank you..." Aereth answered and entered the shop.

"Tell her this is a mistake, and leave." The small voice in the back of his head screamed as she reluctantly offered him the side room in the back. "She doesn't want anything from you, and it's not right to have such stupid feelings for the girlfriend of your dead friend." The voice grew louder and louder, until he almost couldn't bare it anymore, but then he finally saw the extent of Teions rampage. 

Practically her whole shop was devastated. And as if a switch was flipped inside of his head, the voice vanished. Suddenly there was nothing in his head, just he urge to help the girl. So he dismissed his cloak and wordlessly dropped to his knees helping Purple to clean up the mess.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion had gathered several pieces of equipment in her arms before lifting the rack they had originally rested on back to its feet. While she began to re-arrange the items in no particular order, the movement of Aereth lowering himself to the ground caught her attention. She felt another twist of embarrassment knotting itself in her stomach. "What are you doing?" She asked flatly, turning her attention back to the task in front of her. "I'm a big girl, I can clean up after myself." The words were just a bit more than a mumble.

As she continued to move things back into place and clear off the floor, she started asking herself even more questions. Doubt resurfaced in her mind, and she wondered if she had made a mistake agreeing to let Aereth stay at her shop. 'What else was I going to do all day?' She thought, her face expressionless as she continued to work. 'It was kind of nice having him around...' As if the thought had entered her mind without her permission, the woman froze for a split second before scolding herself. After how much she'd screamed at him since their first meeting, he must be really desperate to come to her for a place to stay. 'It's none of my business.' She concluded, grasping the underside of a display table and shifting it back into place.

[Aereth 1]

"Isn't that obvious." Aereth answered as he picked up several items. "I'm helping." he said trying to figure out where all the stuff belonged, but quickly realized how this somehow impossible. He waited for a couple of moments until Teion would hopefully tell him where to put the items.

"So from what I see you haven't listened to the advice I tried to give you, right?" Aereth asked in a sad tone. He always was very straight forward, never beating around the bush for too long. And besides that, he really cared about the purple haired ball of hidden fury. And this was something he did with or without those feelings. She saved him back then, even though he could have walked away without bating an eye. Even though she was suffering from her own loss... She still tried to patch the broken pieces of his personality together. 

"Don't be like this. Your friends want to help you. I want to help you. And I'm sorry that I left the way I did back after that party, but as I said. It had to be done..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

After the wooden table was nestled back in the corner of the room, Teion glanced over her shoulder once more to the brunette. He seemed unsure of what to do with the items he had gathered, causing the blacksmith to give a short roll of her eyes. She crossed the room, passing him by as she used the toe of her boot to kick up the edge of another weapons' rack. Catching the wooden frame in her hands, she propped the structure up against the wall before reaching out to pull a short-spear from Aereth's grasp. One by one, she took pieces he gathered and set them in place, opting not to further push the topic of him helping her clean.

With his sorrowful tone, Aereth's next words caused her to falter again. Her hand froze over the edge of a metal pauldron he held before she quickly began to function again and she took the item from him just the same. She refused to look at him, whether the reason was her lingering embarrassment or something else. 'What's the point?' She wanted to speak the thought aloud, stopping herself just before the words reached her tongue.

He continued, in that same pitying tone. Still facing away from the man, Teion stopped her repetitive motions. She stopped cleaning and organizing, and simply stood with her back to Aereth, staring down at a simple-looking dagger she had placed upon a table. "Why?" The question left her in only a whisper. "What's the point?" She echoed her earlier thoughts. Her head began to argue with her, telling her to just keep quiet, but the climax of her spiraling depression simply continued to spill out of her. "Even if I get out of here someday..." Her shoulders began to stiffen as the questions without answers began to circle around in her head once more. Tears began to bead at the corners of her eyes while her fingers loosely curled against her palms. "After everything that's happened here... Really, do I have any reason to wake up anymore?"

[Aereth 1]

Thankfully Teion stopped arguing with him about letting him help her cleaning up her shop. His look lingered for just some more seconds on the purple haired woman as she took a way the spear from his hands. And now where she was finally cooperating, the shop slowly started to look like a smithy again.

But after Aereth spoke up for the second time, Teion froze. She just stood there, asking him why to continue. What reason did she still have to wake up from this nightmare anymore. It was as if their roles from a little bit longer than a week ago were reversed. Teion had lost her will to continue, and it was Aereth's turn to save her.

And then Aereth froze. Every muscle in his virtual body tensed as he was faced with something he feared even more than the Laughing Coffin. A crying woman. His body moved on its own. Within the blink of an eye the brunette closed the distance between them. Did he unconsciously activate the Charge skill, he didn't know. And he honestly didn't care. He gently turned her around and wrapped his arms around her body. Did he do this for her, to comfort her? Did he do this because of his fear? Or did he do this for a completely different reason? He couldn't find an answer for himself.

"It's alright... Everything is going to be alright..." He whispered, while gently stroking her back with his right arm. Oh how bad the brunette was with cheering up crying woman. "And don't you think you're a bit of a hypocrite scolding me just some days back for saying more or less the exact same thing as you right now?" Aereth added with a small smile.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

As she felt her jaw tighten and the tears began to slowly roll down the length of Teion's cheeks, she was startled when she felt a force upon her shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, Aereth's arms had wrapped tightly around her. Her stained cheek pressed lightly against the man's shoulder, and she felt his fingers gently stroking along the length of her back. She stood in stunned silence while his hushed voice traveled the short distance to her ear. Though his words were reassuring and his hold was comforting, Teion felt a surge of emotion running through her. The tears welling at the corners of her eyes grew thicker before spilling over again. Her hands seemed to move on her own, slowly reaching upwards until her trembling fingers found the fabric of his shirt. She grasped onto the material as she began to cling to the man, and her shoulders started to shudder with a fresh wave of tears.

"Sh-shut up..." She mumbled into his shoulder after his teasing words reached her. For a while, she just cried. Burying her face into Aereth's chest, she cried out all of the sadness that had built itself up inside of her heart over the past week. In this moment, her walls had finally cracked and crumbled, and for the first time in a long while, she had left herself vulnerable. A few minutes passed, and Teion's trembling frame slowly steadied. Her breathing became less ragged, and the wetness no longer pooled in her eyes. For a minute, as she gradually calmed, the violet-haired blacksmith simply enjoyed the comfort of Aereth's hold, keeping her eyes closed while she imagined that all of the bad things of this world were just a far-away nightmare.

And then she came to her senses. The scene around seemed to hit her like a lead rod. Why couldn't she control herself? And why did she find so much solace in the arms of a near-stranger? As she struggled to find the answers to new, more confusing questions that nestled themselves inside of her, Teion's grip on the man loosened. Her arms fell back to her sides, and her body slowly pulled away in hopes that he would loosen his own grasp on her. Her chin fell, as if to hide her face. Or perhaps to keep herself from looking up at his. As if that wasn't good enough, however, she turned herself back around to face away from the brunette. She raised a hand to impatiently wipe away at the lingering moisture on her face, and while her cheeks were tinted pink, she couldn't determine the reason herself. Was her face flushed from crying? Was she embarrassed from showing someone her weakness? Or was it because she had felt a strange warmth touching along the edges of her heart in the midst of their embrace? After considering such a thought, Teion was quick to dismiss it from her mind, but not before the blush on her cheeks deepened.

"Sorry." She managed in little more than a whisper. Although she wanted to fill the air with more words--something to distract from the awkward aura she felt building around her--she couldn't seem to find the right ones.