Fall
and Shatter (curse my inability to title) Dedicated as a late B-day present to Lemurian-Girl!
Wandering
Cat
Janaff and Lucia will seem a bit out of character because I never got their supports and I'm using a bit of info Lemurian-Girl gave me. But I couldn't find anything else on them...sooooo...I claim artistic license, or something like that.
Disclaimer: I don't own FE, dangit.
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For whatever reason, their battles didn't usually "rage" on. They dragged themselves out and bathed in blood. That's the first thing Lucia learned; every time she marched back from battle, she stunk of it. It hurt, to see her comrades struck down (rare as that was, for her company was powerful). But a loved one?
For the longest time, Geoffrey was the only one left. He was her brother, her father when she needed him to be, her friend always. One would have a hard time finding siblings more close than Lucia and Geoffrey. Then came Bastian. Despite his personal beliefs, he too had become a brother (as opposed to suitor, an ambition first cut down my Lucia's decreasingly-subtle rejections, then Geoffrey's shaking fist). They were a family, and they cared. Add in Princess Elincia, and they were complete, for she was near and dear to them, far beyond the simple duty-driven devotion of knights to their leige.
And then, there was another.
She remembered seeing him flying the first time she saw him at all. Laguz. Later she found out more. His name, Janaff the hawk laguz, Tibarn's eyes. Even Later, he stopped being "Janaff the hawk laguz, Tibarn's eyes" and became Janaff.
They spoke for a while after the first battle they were in together. ((AN: here's where the "artistic license or something like that" comes in!)). He spoke of equality between beorc and laguz, and Lucia quickly agreed. They hit it off after that.
"Say, maybe we could discuss this later! You know, after the war. I wanna try some of that beorc food. You call eating places...res-ur-unts?"
She laughed and corrected him. Then a strange thought hit her; Is he asking me to dinner? "I'll need a chaperone. My brother, Geoffrey, would be glad to accompany us." she said.
Lucia would have sworn she saw Janaff's smile, usually infallible, twitch downward slightly.
The next time they spoke, he made a rather daring request; another dinner invitation. "This time, I hope you don't need a chaperone." The war had not ended, so the day before, they decided to go to lunch, with Geoffray in tow. Perhaps they'd had such a good time, he wanted to eat out with them again? But without a chaperone? She didn't know how to react. He kept on grinning.
Weeks passed, and they were, unsurprisingly, battling again. Another battle dragging out and bathing in blood.
There was a bit of light though. Lucia looked up just in time to catch Janaff, his keen eyes scanning the battle. He once told her that he could count her eyebrows or eyelashes from a hundred paces away. "Even though they're really dense." he added. She decided to let that comment die without struggle; he didn't specify which was referring to.
Janaff looked down just in time to catch Lucia sheath her sharp steel stick. She was looking up, too. Janaff grinned and stilled himself, raised his hand to his eyebrow, then whipped it away in an overzealous mock salute. Lucia chucked. Janaff cackled himself, for a few seconds...and suddenly, he jerked off to the side. Lucia laughed again, mistaking the movement for another joke.
Then her blood ran cold. The world seemed to slow as the laguz fell, a huge ballista arrow sticking out of his side. Lucia's eyes were not perfect; most of the time, things as far away as Janaff was then would be slightly blurry enough to distort facial features and the like. But they seemed to correct themselves for a few moments, allowing Lucia to see the look of agony masking Janaff's usually cheerful features.
She was frozen, and could do nothing but stand there and stare as he plummeted. Time had truly slowed just to torture her. If her senses were not currently fogged, she would have noticed Geoffrey ride up to her. She would have noticed his eyes flick to Janaff, who was honestly falling slowly, but only because he was trying to keep himself airborne. She would have noticed his loud, booming voice shout out for a healer.
A moment later, Janaff slammed shoulder-first into the ground and released a shrill, inhuman scream.
Lucia realized that her heart was breaking.
The shriek shattered Lucia's dreamlike state, and she bolted off toward him, running faster than she ever had and tearing the grass up like a stallion. "Janaff! Janaff, please!" she shouted. By the time she finished, Lucia had reached him. Sometime between the impacts of the bolt and Janaff and Janaff and the ground, he had removed the bolt from his side, but it still bled badly. She was spared the sight of his shoulder; it was buried in a puddle of mud. His wing, too, had been partially crushed and was twitching. At this moment, Titania rode up with Rhys behind her, and extra-grumpy Soren limped forward with his mend staff as well, Geoffrey jogging behind him (later, Lucia would recall a stubborn "I'm not treating a sub-human!" and a threatening "Get over there you swine!" accompanied by a swift 'thunk' and a yelp.)
"Lu...cia?"
Her eyes fell on his pained face. He was faking a smile as Titania propped him up so Rhys could look at his shoulder. His left one, with a fracture of the collarbone too near the heart for comfort.
"You kno', I might die." he stated, almost casually, causing Lucia to visibly tense. "However...I'll pull through...if you accept my invitation...Remember?"
Lucia's eyes flashed with memory, then teared, and she leaned over and carefully hugged him. "Yes, of course I do! I'll accept...just...keep your end of the bargain...please."
Janaff's smile was now genuine. "Deal! If you wanna do that beorc shaking custom...you're gonna have to settle for a foot...'cause...my arms and hands hurt..." He stopped moving, but he was breathing and so she wasn't as worried as she could have been.
"Ah...Lucia?" Rhys said softly. "You're..."
"In our way." Soren finished. "Get off of the su-...laguz, now."
Geoffrey wiped away her tears and took her by the shoulder. "You'll get to see him later. I promise." he said gently, taking her shoulder and leading her away.
Geoffrey kept his promise, and later, when the battle had ended and Janaff was moved to a hospital tent, Lucia ran to see him. Already visiting were Tibarn (where had he come from?) and Janaff's best friend and partner, Ulki. They were talking pleasantly, Janaff chirping out in his usual voice. When Lucia entered, his eyes snapped toward her and he broke out into a huge grin. The hawk king and his other vassal also turned to her. Lucia felt uncomfortable with the eyes on her, especially those of the hawks.
"Well, then, Ulki. I think it is time for us to leave." Tibarn stated flatly. Ulki nodded and followed. Lucia thought she saw Tibarn grin at Janaff before he left. Once they were out the door, she was lost for words. There sat Janaff, bandaged, bedridden, but alive, and she had nothing to say to him.
She remembered her heart breaking, when she saw him plow through the skies, slowly, and slam into the ground. Looking at him now, she could tell why, and she could see the same thing in Janaff's eyes.
Janaff cocked his head to the side, a cute gesture of confusion. "Hey-a, Lucy?...What? You're looking at me really weirdly, like you're trying to melt my face!" he cackled. His humor only brought a fresh round of tears to her eyes. "Awww...no crying, please...Come here, give Janny a hug!" He spread out his uninjured arm. Lucia cried more, smiling through them, and once again embraced him.
"Janaff?"
"Yes?"
"What kind of food do you want on our date?"
The End---------------------------------------------------------------
WC: Aaaaah, I just couldn't figure out how to end it right! Blah! --smacks head of keyboard-- yu7jnmhkjjnhmj niuii9.
Notes:
Can
anyone else imagine Janaff doing the doggy-head tilt? I can, it's SO
cute! Aaaaw, Janaff!
Again, happy Late-Birthday, Lemurian-Girl! I wish I knew about it before. And other people, go read "Blasphemy", the other much cooler JanaffLucia by the one and only Lemurian-Girl!