Title: Short Stories With Tragic Endings
Author: Jun-Ko / miss-emotive
Rated: PG-13
Notes: Written for the 1sentences community on Livejournal. And ALSO my first Golden Sun fanfiction, since I've only recently become infatuated with the fandom aspect of the game rather than just the gameplay. You crazy fangirls, you. By the way, the story title and quotations are by the band From Autumn to Ashes -- I kept the song on repeat for three days, much to my boyfriend's dismay.
Warnings: Slash. Yummy, yummy slash. In this case, Felix/Alex (or Porcelainshipping, hehe). Enjoy.
Short Stories With Tragic Endings
Did you ever see that one person and the way
they do these things and it hurts so much...
1 - Candle
By the light of the candle, Felix sees him for the first time; like Puck sprung but from a blood mist, a dark shadow mottled with light and cloaked in blue.
2 - Hero
Growing up shunned by others of the Mercury clan for being the only child in the village without a father, for having a mother so weak, Alex has never had, nor ever believed in, heroes -- until the day Felix closes his eyes during that first battle and the very ground beneath them shakes with power.
3 - Mask
Though Alex is beautiful, cool, collected -- never misses a beat, never makes a mistake, never gives the impression of being anything other than what he appears to be; Felix knows this is only a mask, a shell grown harder with time to protect whatever it is he's hiding.
4 - Forgotten
Afraid to be forgotten, to fade as ill-suffered children do, Alex vowed to become powerful, glorious, unforgettable -- and wrote this in blood upon the snow.
5 - Box
In a single room, on a single bed, they'd boxed him in and kept him alive out of obligation to his mother, though only in the simplest of ways.
6 - Red
Felix is sure it's just a trick of the light but sometimes -- only sometimes but still often enough -- with mentions of Alchemy and the Golden Sun, he thinks he sees a glint of red in Alex's eyes.
7 - Temptation
It was when Felix was only a child, shivering and feverish on a warm bed in Prox, did Alex first glimpse him -- all dark eyes and careless hair -- ("it's only a boy," a beautiful boy) and decided to see how long he could last against the temptation.
8 - Ice
Felix looks at him and thinks, if ever there was a man made of ice, it's Alex.
9 - Whisper
Falling in and out of a delirious sleep that wrapped around him (the result of being taken from Vale to the northern most reaches of the world), Felix found himself haunted by the man in blue; but the vision is always fleeting, only in the corner of his eye or on the edges of a dream where, in a whisper of cloth, he would vanish from sight.
10 - Talk
There were rumors going on around Prox about the man that Saturos and Menardi had recruited, the man named Alex, saying, "he's one of the last of the Mercury clan of Imil still alive; probably his doing."
11 - Music
He remembers the early days of Prox, of training and fighting, and -- when Alex told him that he had perfect form -- standing in the doorway cool and calm, their first formal meeting, Felix wondered why the words sounded so much like music.
12 - Ring
Lost in the Lamakin Desert and weary from the heat, Felix is surprised to find himself -- having missed the telltale circular rock formation -- right in the middle of an antlion pit, and even more surprised when it is Alex who saves him.
I can give you peace of mind with a forced smile.
13 - Laugh
Felix barely talks, let alone laughs, but when he does for the first time in front of Alex, he feels the ice in his chest crack just a little bit more.
14 - Unknown
He is sure that he's just imagining things but sometimes he thinks Alex stands too close to him on purpose, or speaks calmly and sometimes too softly just so he has to lean forward to hear him; and he honestly has no idea why.
15 - Gravity
As arrogant as he is -- as selfish and conniving and narcisstic -- people are still drawn to his easy smile and cool demeanor, and Felix begins the slow motor of hating himself for not being the exception.
16 - Lock
The one thing about Felix that he has never been able to relate to his how locked down he is; always looking but never touching, never allowing himself a moment's pleasure -- unlike himself.
17 - Drink
After their encounter with Isaac's group and the reunion with Mia, everyone knows to stay out of his way; however, when Felix sits down beside him, he takes the offered drink and company.
18 - Silk
Alex catches him, gloveless, by the wrist in the heat of the moment and thinks he's found all the treasures of the world in the silk of his skin.
19 - Promise
As he finds himself watching Felix more and more, wanting more and more to push and pull at the lithe form beneath the cloth and mail, Alex makes a promise to himself to never let him know.
20 - Hurricane
After a while, Felix realizes what kind of effect it is that Alex has on him and fights hard to ignore it though he knows, like a hurricane wind against the mountains, he'll eventually be worn down.
... standing so close, knowing that it kills me to breath you in.
21 - Wings
They are in the heart of the forest and the voices of the others are fading into the distance when, quick as a bird startled into flight, Alex's lips are on his own.
22 - Overwhelmed
Alex is overwhelmed at the sight of the boy's body and feels the ice in his veins smolder.
23 - Run
With a laugh and a hand over Felix's mouth, against the wall in his rented room -- "did you really think you could get away from me?"
24 - Fever
They twist together, ravenous, delirious, churning oceans and splitting earth; and Felix knows that only the other man's watery touch can cool the fever that has taken hold of him.
25 - Lies
When they are together, twisted on the mattress, in the shadows of a cavern, Felix likes to imagine how good it would be if all the things Alex tells him are true -- but he knows better.
26 - Memory
It is in hushed tones in the aftermath of passion does Alex share with him one single memory from his past life -- of heroes and forgetfulness -- and afraid to wake them from the dream, Felix says nothing.
27 - Sacred
Whether in a town inn, the vast wilderness or even a temple, no place is too inconvenient or too sacred to deter Alex from losing his clothes, much to Felix's dismay.
28 - Dance
Always, the boy is there, behind the lids of his eyes and even in the place hidden inside his chest, dancing in and out of his vision, making him hesitate.
29 - Formal
Felix knows something is wrong the day the older man begins to address him so formally, so politely, almost like a stranger; then shortly afterwards, Alex disappears.
30 - Silence
He remembers the one time they met up with Alex; they were all in Alhafra looking for a way to cross the ocean, while he tempered his nerves and allowed Alex only a passing glance and unwavering silence.
31 - Forever
In the hush of night while all the others are asleep, Alex steals into his room but only to whisper into his sleeping ear, "this isn't about you, or us; it's about me, and forever, and how I will live to see it all."
32 - Cold
Even after three years in Prox and the trip to Imil, Felix has never truly felt the bite of cold until the day Alex's betrayal is made known to them all.
33 - Eclipse
Standing at the top of Mt Aleph, Alex is surprised at how thoughts of unlimited power and total world domination is eclipsed by a fleeting vision of dark eyes and careless hair.
34 - Fall
Felix knows he shouldn't have let himself fall so hard but still finds himself unable to speak for weeks afterward; and while everyone else chalks it up to the loss of his hometown, this allows him time to himself.
35 - Talent
Lying in a cave just days from the former site of Vale, Alex thinks about the talent he has for manipulating not only others but also himself, and nearly weeps.
With no last kiss and no regrets, you don't deserve good bye...
36 - Dream
With so many left homeless but not hopeless, they build a new town close to what was once Vale and even give Felix his own house, thinking, "he'll recover from his battle wounds, he'll find a nice girl, he'll settle down," and although he doesn't say it, Felix thinks, "you're all dreaming."
37 - Body
There was no body in the ruins of Mt Aleph, and that's all Felix needs to know.
38 - Wait
With nothing else to do in their new village, Felix sometimes spends hours by the window looking out into the horizon, or gazing up at the sky; no one knows what it is he's waiting for and after a whil they stop asking.
39 - Hope
It was Jenna who figured it out, from spending most of her time in her brother's house, cleaning and cooking meals he never touches; hoping one day he'll wake up and forget it, like a bad dream.
40 - Cover
Under the cover of rain and thunder, Felix screams the truth up at the sky.
41 - Farewells
When the other villagers realize that Felix is no longer at his cottage -- his armor and weapons all gone -- the only person who isn't surprised is Jenna.
42 - Journey
By the time a decade passes and they all have families, the cottage by the river is nothing but a place for light and dust; and Isaac, Garet and Jenna begin to wonder what it was that Felix had left to find, and if he would ever come back.
... and it breaks my heart to know the only reason you are here now
is a reminder of what I'll never have.
43 - Strength
It was his resolve and determination that kept him from thinking about Alex, to supress the images of the other man at every flash and wink of blue, but when it came to forgetting about him completely, Felix realizes that he isn't strong enough.
44 - World
Although he'd travelled far and wide, from sea to sea, accumulating vast wealth and fame, there is one place in the world he has left to look.
45 - Search
The search Felix hadn't know he was on ends in Imil, by the frozen sea, where a man with a frozen heart sits at the top of Mercury Lighthouse waiting for a person he wasn't sure would look for him.
46 - Highway
From the highest tower of the lighthouse, Alex looks down at the snow-paved highway unwinding below him to see a man he had known as a boy looking up at him with arms outstretched.
47 - View
Limping from one town to another, Alex had finally decided to return to Imil where the villagers would avoid him and where the memories had free reign and where the view from the very top of the lighthouse might have stretched just far enough to see Vale.
48 - Midnight
From the doorway, Felix -- older and tired; Alex -- fading, slowly graying -- to each other, both strange and familiar and bathed in moonlight when they look upon each other, tongues rustling uselessly in their mouths -- no words just longing.
49 - Fire
It's like fire, like crumbling into ash and being reborn from the flames when they fall into each other; in a tangle of hair and lips and limbs, blue and brown and brown and blue, they burn.
50 - Breathe
Wrapped up in the other, in all the familiar scents, and unknown to each other, Alex and Felix take their first unfretted breaths.
