Half Blood, Half Water
Cliiink-clink.
Vivio dropped her fork, breaking the stunned silence with the sound of metal on ceramic. That snapped Caro out of her open-mouthed gape, and Lutecia from her shock into a rapidly growing storm of anger. But before either of them could speak or rant, Vivio shot up, shoving her chair back.
"Erio, wait!" She cried out desperately, running after him.
Erio had been sullen since they all began lunch, and after initially trying to fish for what was bothering him Caro and Lutecia gave up and began talking about something else when he refused to be drawn out. Vivio had went along, but when she tried to joke and coax Erio into talking with them, he had snapped.
Vivio winced, remembering the words he had shouted at her before storming away. Nanoha-mama was right—words hurt worse than anything else.
She finally caught up with him outside, slowing down to match his jerky stalk. It was hard, as his legs were longer than hers, but she managed. "Erio? Are you mad at me or something?"
Without giving her a glance, Erio ground out, "No, I'm not mad."
His manner belied his words. Vivio begged, "Then why are you so cold today? Aren't we friends?"
The boy paused, his jaw clenched. "…We are. But I…" He hesitated.
"But you what?" demanded Vivio, feeling a rising sense of irritation and helpless annoyance in her chest. She had a right to know why he seemed to angry at her! Losing her patience, Vivio seized his arm, yanking him to a halt.
Snarling, a shattered sound in his voice, Erio jerked free of her grasp but remained where he was. Something crumpled in his expression. "It's too much for me. I'm sorry, Vivio, I'm just a normal guy, I can't take it anymore. I don't want to be angry with you, so I just have to…stay away."
"What did I do?" But his face was closing off, withdrawing. Vivio inhaled sharply. "Erio!"
He exploded. "It's not fair!"
Vivio waved her arms wildly. "What's not fair? What did I ever do to you!"
"You're the one Fate wants!" He screamed, and spun around, but not fast enough for Vivio to avoid seeing his eyes tearing. She could only stand there helplessly, horrified yet not really surprised to hear his broken confession. The words came tumbling out of him, rough words that clearly had never been uttered to a listening ear. "She loves me like her son, but I can tell every time she looks at you, that she wishes she was your mother."
Vivio swallowed with difficulty. "E-Erio, I…but she and Nanoha-mama—"
"It's not just with Nanoha-san! Fate loves you too, and even though she's not your mother anymore, she still—"
"I still see her as my mother!" Vivio yelled, her control snapping. "Don't you dare tell me what I feel, Erio, because I do still see her as my mother." The anger drained out, and Vivio stared at her shoes. In a whisper, she finished, "I never stopped. I didn't care what happened between her and Nanoha-mama, even if it mattered to them. I never stopped."
No one had expected a ten-year old to understand the complexities of what was happening between her mothers. But Vivio had, and it took her two more years of silence before she had managed to work out what she was expected to feel about it.
But she never changed who she thought of as mother.
The red-haired teenager stood there for a moment, then he shifted his weight and mumbled, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed; it was thoughtless of me."
Shrugging, Vivio said hollowly, "I understand. It's because you love Fate-mama. I can't blame you for saying what you feel."
They were quiet, both of them not wanting to be there but not wanting to leave.
"I'm glad you still love her too," Erio said finally. He bit his lip, scuffing a shoe. Just turned sixteen, Erio was nearly a man, but right then he looked younger than Vivio had ever seen him. "It's just so hard sometimes…I see her give you that look, so proud when you were getting your promotion, or when she picks up a sweater and I can tell that she's thinking about how you would look in it, and how happy she'd feel when you smile at her for buying it for you—before she remembers, and it all falls away. And she does all of that for me too, but I keep seeing her do it for you, when I'm her son."
Vivio didn't say anything.
Erio let out a breath. Softly, he said, "You're her daughter too."
She laughed bitterly. "Not by law. That's all anyone seems to care about."
He looked at her in surprise at her tone, then his expression shifted to concern. "Vivio?"
Vivio felt tears sting her eyes, and she gritted her teeth in shame and anger. Walking over to the nearby bench, she sat down heavily and rested her forehead in a hand. "It hurt so much, whenever Fate-mama didn't come to my graduation ceremonies. When she wasn't there for me to show her my report cards, or when I wanted to tell her about how I broke the training record today, or when I wanted to ask her advice on how to put on make-up." She felt the bench creak as Erio sat down next to her. Raising her head, Vivio looked at him in the face, her cheeks wet. "It hurt, that I wasn't important enough for Fate-mama to stay.
"Oh Erio…she just left, like I wasn't really her daughter." She sniffed, and when Erio put his arms around her Vivio pressed her face into his shoulder and hugged him back tightly. Trying not to sob, she said, "But I'm sorry, I didn't think about how you felt about it too."
"I'm sorry," he whispered as well, holding her just as tight.
"I'm sorry."
But Vivio knew that sometimes words…meant nothing at all.
Author's Note: Erio and Vivio might be slightly OOC, as I wrote this before listening to the Sound Stages where Erio and Vivio's thoughts regarding each other and Fate is shown to be different than the interpretation I had here. I wrote this based off of my speculations about their relationships after only watching the 3 anime seasons =).