A/N: Originally written for fe contest over at LJ. Prompt: Laughter. Except apparently, I fail at writing happy things... anyway, hope you like the story. Please review!

Words: 982
Characters: Lachesis, Eltoshan
Time: Anytime
Genre: Family, Tragedy

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Nintendo, not me.

Her cheeks and her sides ached with the force of her smile and the giggles that no matter how hard she tried, she could not suppress. She dropped to the shiny marble floor, curling her knees to her chest, but that did not stop Eltoshan. His hands still managed to find every one of her most vulnerable spots, from the bottoms of her small bare feet to her stomach to the soft place between her neck and shoulders. She would have told him to stop, but she could not speak for laughing, and finally, breathless with mirth, Lachesis scrambled away from him and hid behind a gilded chair.

"Ha!" she gasped.

"You won't escape me so easily, dear sister," Eltoshan said. "It is my duty as a brother to annoy you to my best ability. The day I found out you were ticklish was quite an unfortunate one for you."

"You'll have to catch me first!"

Lachesis sprinted away, slipping a little over her skirts and the shiny floors, and she heard Eltoshan hurrying up behind her. He caught her, one-armed, round the waist as she turned a corner. Shrieking with glee, Lachesis wriggled and pushed against him, but his strong arm held her fast. But despite ample opportunity, Eltoshan didn't tickle her; he mussed her hair instead, watching her face with an amused smile.

"Wh-what's so funny?" she hiccuped.

"You, my dear. I'm not tickling you at all – and yet you still gasp so much I can hardly tell if you are laughing or crying."

Indeed, there were tears on her face. The realization made her giggle all the harder, uncontrollably, every breath coming in a quick huff before another bout of laughter. She flung her arms around Eltoshan's waist and hugged him tightly, her head resting on his head, hearing the echo of her own laughter in her ears.

"When I'm with you, I am laughing," she managed. "Always!"

Now Eltoshan laughed too, a low rumble that she felt in his chest. The vibrations tickled the soft skin of her face and made her fall prey to yet another violent bout of the giggles.

"Lachesis. Look at me a moment."

"Yes, Lord Brother?"

A callused hand touched her cheek. "You are not smiling so much as you did when we were little, sister."

Quickly, reflexively, Lachesis forced a small, sweet smile, a practiced one. "These are harder times than when we were little."

"It is my fault, isn't it? I… am not with you as much as I used to be. My duties…"

"Are very important, and you cannot relinquish them to another. You are lord of this land, soon to be off to war. I know, brother. I do not blame you."

"I am still sorry for it." He meant it, too; Lachesis could read the sincerity in his eyes, so similar to her own. His hair was long and there was a shadow of a beard across his cheek, circles below his eyes; the lordship was taking its toll on him. But then he extended a hand to her. "Dance with me, Lachesis?"

"Dance…?"

"As if we had not a care in the world," he said with a smile.

Lachesis stared at him, his tired yet earnest face. She dropped her gaze, dipped into a curtsy, and took his hand. His fingers enclosed hers warmly.

He led her in a circle with her hand resting inside his, and then they raised their arms and pressed their palms flat, stepping closer as they continued to turn. They took slow and easy steps, and when his hand found her waist, he pulled her close enough that she could rest her head on his shoulder. They swayed together to the silence of the empty hall. Eltoshan's fingers twisted around her hand, scratching the soft center of her palm.

Unwillingly Lachesis's hand twitched inside his. A true smile crept onto her face; an involuntary giggle slipped through her lips.

"So you're ticklish there, too?" Eltoshan said, pressing their palms flat once more. "It's good to hear you laugh again, Lachesis. I am going to miss that sound."

"I'm with you," she said, blinking rapidly. "So… of course I will laugh." Eltoshan looked so happy at her words. Happier than she had seen him in a long time… happier, perhaps, than she would ever see him again.

She leaned into his chest again so he wouldn't see her smile fade.

She cradled a broken, bloody form in her arms. She was so weary that she did not even have the strength to lift him from the ground, so she bowed over him instead, her tears falling thick and fast and disappearing into the blood pouring from his wounds. The ends of her hair and her pale palms, too, were stained red with his lifeblood.

"Please, brother," she said, her face contorted with sobs. "Please, y-you… you can't… you cannot leave me!"

Her whole body trembled. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, stopping only when she felt the ghost of fingers touching her cheeks. She snapped her salt-stung eyes open. He was watching her through a half-lidded gaze.

"Come now, sister," he breathed. "I… can't tell… if you are laughing or crying."

Every word cost him. Lachesis heard herself make a strangled sound, and even she did not know what it was. But when his eyelids fluttered closed once more, the true sobs renewed, the tears came afresh. Still she clutched him, pressing her face to his bloody chest, desperate to feel life there.

"I am with you," she managed. "I am with you, so I am laughing, always! When I'm with you… I am… I am…"

His warm blood lingered on her hair, her hands, her face. But she felt only cold, heard only silence, without his arms around her and his laughter vibrating through his heart.

He was not with her anymore. Lachesis wondered if she would ever laugh again.