Everything © their respective owners

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KN: I figured they wouldn't show a scene like this in VCII since the tone is jarring compared the rest of the game, to say the least. That shouldn't have stopped fanfiction writers, though. This is a scene I've always wanted to read, but never saw, so I guess that means I should try my hand at it. I am going to fail so hard.

Warning: I hope you beat VCII, otherwise you might not want to read this.

KN: First Valkyria Chronicles fic, though, YEAH! And it's a VCII fic. -nods-

-.-:-.-

Mellvere was a sight for sore eyes. He couldn't remember how long it'd been since he'd last stepped foot in his hometown. Well, just for a safe visit, at least. The last time he'd been here, he had to drive rebels out of the area.

Jarde stirred inside his pocket and poked his head out. Avan smiled and gently rubbed the front of the bird's neck. Jarde chirped appreciatively while his owner set his sights on a house with a red-haired lady hammering away on the roof. A few nails stuck out of her mouth like she was smoking some novelty cigarettes.

She wiped the sweat off her brow and turned to see him. She raised her eyebrows slightly and blinked a couple of times, as if she was still trying to register the image. She spit the nails out and grinned, waving to him with the hand that held a hammer in it.

"'Bout time you came to see yer ma!"

-.-:-.-

Strong arms pulled him into a welcoming hug. It looked like she hadn't been slacking off when working in the fields or fixing up the house as usual. He supposed he was lucky he was raised by her or he would've been crushed under those muscles.

"Just look atcha!" She raised a hand to his height, which was a good few inches above her. "Ya got even taller since you were away. Gonna hafta build the doorway higher soon or yer gonna walk right into it!"

She strolled into the kitchen tying up her long hair into a higher ponytail than her preferred loose one. She pulled her apron off a hook and tied it on.

"Ah bet yer hungry after that trip, yeah?" She looked back at him over her shoulder as she got out her cooking materials.

"Starving!" Avan answered, smiling. He had actually eaten not too long ago, but it's not like he never had room for more.

His mother chattered on about important events in Mellvere and the latest news while he helped her prepare the food. ("Now where didja learn ta cut veggies like that? Coulda used you during the Feast of All Spirits…") Avan joined in on the conversation with parts of his experience at Lanseal ("I didn't know a person could like weapons like that… There really are all kinds of people out there!")

They continued to talk over dinner and while they washed the dishes about what the residents of Mellvere knew about the civil war. Not much news had reached the trade town yet, which had surprised him.

"Ta think my youngest son would lead a squad ta battle wit no one dyin'…" His mom hung his medals up and placed his badges on a shelf. "Are you sure yer really mah son?" She poured him some tea and gave him a faux suspicious once over.

"Born an' raised in this here household, Ms. Dahlia Hardins." He assured her cheerfully. Their neighbors only ever called his mother, 'Dahl,' so the only people who knew her real name was the mayor or her family. And Avan wasn't nearly old enough to be Mellvere's mayor.

"That's 'ma' ta you." She gave him a little irritated shove. She never did like her name, had told his father and later, Leon, that it was too pretty a name for a butch woman like her. Her youngest son thought it suited her just fine.

"Haven't called you 'ma' since I was fourteen, though." Avan's country accent only slipped when he was too emotional to care or he dropped it deliberately. Training himself out of it had been, in part, an effort to be more like his brother.

"Tch." His mother scoffed. She had never cared to speak in any way that made her uncomfortable. If those hoity-toity nobles thought she was ignorant for talking the way she did, that was their problem. "Been meanin' ta ask ya, Avan." Her eyes scanned the room. "Where's yer brother?"

Avan froze. He lowered the tea cup from his lips and looked down at the table. That's right. This was the biggest reason for his visit. He even insisted to professor Brixham to let him break the news to his mother if the papers didn't do the job for him first.

"Leon…" the name caught in his throat. His mother's eyes narrowed as if she had figured as much. "…Leon's dead, mom."

Her lips parted as a range of emotions played out. Anger, shock, resignation, and enough grief to fill three other households. Not unlike Avan, she hadn't accepted that Leon had been KIA when Avan left to enroll in Lanseal. Where did her first son get off dying before his parents did, anyway? That's not how it's supposed to work. She looked away, so Avan couldn't see her face. Her silence prompted him to continue.

He told her everything. About how Headmaster Kluivert authorized Dr. Forster's artificial Valkyrur research. About how Leon had volunteered for it even when he knew he might not get to keep his humanity. He told her about how the Gassenarl family had abducted him, brainwashed him, renamed him 'Dirk,' and turned him from a gruesome experiment into one of their biggest weapons to achieve their own ends.

His eyes narrowed at the recollection. He probably shouldn't have disclosed sensitive and highly classified details like that to a townsperson before the newspaper deigned it appropriate to, but he was beyond caring at this point. Didn't a mother have the right to know what happened to her first child?

"And then he died in my arms." Avan concluded. Even though all of that talking dried his throat, he didn't have any energy left to finish his tea. It looked like talking about it didn't help make it any easier for him either.

His mother still had his back turned to him. She had stayed like that during the entire story like an immovable wall. He couldn't imagine what kinds of thoughts were going through her head because he wasn't the one who lost a spouse and a son, just a father he never knew and a brother he idolized. And for Dahlia, her family just got smaller again.

"Avan…" she finally said, though her voice was tight, and she hadn't turned to look at him. "Give yer ma some space, will ya?"

He immediately got up from the table, not bothering with his half-empty tea cup.

"Gotcha, ma." He left to his bedroom without another word.

It wasn't until she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore that she collapsed to her knees and allowed herself to weep.

"'M…'m so sorry, Schulyer…" She tried to wipe away her tears, but to no avail. "Ya shouldn't hafta…see yer son again so…so soon…!" She brought up her apron to her face and muffled the rest of her quiet sobs.

-.-:-.-

Avan rummaged through his backpack and put his Lanseal yearbook on a shelf. He had expected the room to have a thick layer of dust since his mother didn't much like cleaning, but it looked well tended to. The image of his mother keeping the place tidy with a sour look on her face made him smile.

He pulled out his brother's notebook and put that near the yearbook. A letter slipped out of the notebook and reminded him that he had two other big things he needed to tell his mother.

'I'll tell her tomorrow.' He decided. She deserved at least this night to mourn. He sat down on his bed and looked at the family photo on his nightstand.

Jarde had ruined that shot, he remembered. His bird had flown at an all time high speed in the middle of the shoot. Leon, his mom, and he had all thought a bullet passed them by. And of course, the photographer just had to take the picture while they were all shocked speechless. His mother had been really annoyed that he couldn't retake the photo. Leon had to calm her down as per usual since he had always been the calmest one in the family. His older brother wasn't even embarrassed to take the picture with him when he went to attend Lanseal.

Avan's eyes strayed to Leon's image in the photo, and he laughed a little. Looks like he wasn't quite as over his death as he thought... He buried his face in his hands and wept, his whole body started to tremble. It wasn't like the battle on the Dandarius or his rushed graduation had afforded him any proper mourning time anyway. He cried all the tears he had to hold back when Leon died in front of him, when he had to be strong for Class G, reassure Aliasse that he would never blame her for this, lead them against Baldren, and wear a smile on his face as his class graduated.

Even with all the delay, the ache hadn't weakened in the slightest. He couldn't even think straight much less entertain the idea of restraint. Well, he was never all that good at holding back anyhow. Gasps and sobs surfaced, threatening to suffocate him.

There was no room for the fire he tended to carry. There was only grief.

Jarde had fallen asleep in his pocket after dinner, but he was wide awake as he climbed out. He looked up at his owner and trilled sadly, as if he understood it too. The bird blinked away any possible tears and cuddled his head against Avan's side without making another sound.

-.-:-.-

"What…did you say?" Leon looked back at his younger brother. Avan's smile didn't waver as he bounced over to catch up to him.

"Ah'm gonna be just like ya when ah get older!" He repeated cheerily. Leon blinked at that before he broke out in a mischievous grin. He turned to face forward again, doing a sort-of shrug that didn't lower his shoulders after raising them.

"Ha! That'll never happen." He laughed at the thought. "Not in a million years." Avan narrowed his eyes at that and frowned, almost pouting.

"Well, why not?!" He demanded, trying to catch up to him again. His brother walked awfully fast, it felt like he could only ever see Leon's back no matter how much he tried to catch up. "Quit laughin' an' tell me!"

"That's your first problem." Leon said matter-of-factly. "You get upset so easily! It's no wonder you get teased a lot. A hothead like you will never catch up to me."

Avan blushed at that and actually did start to pout. He looked down and balled his fists, running quicker behind his brother, who had started to sprint at full speed. That certainly wasn't fair, and Leon knew it, but Avan would try to catch up to him anyway.

Leon rested against the trunk of a birch tree on top of a high hill, not even breaking a sweat. Avan reached the same point not too long after, though he had collapsed to the ground panting heavily. His brother just gave him an almost mean smile while Avan glared at him.

"Ah don't wanna be like you anymore." Avan crossed his arms. "Ah'm gonna be even better." He decided. Leon raised a brow at that.

"Not in a billion years." His older brother said as he all but rolled his eyes. Avan blushed harder at that and clenched his teeth. He balled his fists again and shouted.

"Jus you wait! Ah'll be lots better than you! Lots!" Avan looked up when he felt Leon's hand ruffling his hair.

"Dream on, squirt." He teased. Avan frowned at him, still blushing profusely.

Would Leon ever take him seriously?

-.-:-.-

"Professor Brixham and some folks at my school are going to come to Mellvere soon to hold Leon's funeral." Avan told his mother as he helped her prepare breakfast the next morning. "They were going to hold a high honor military burial for him at Lanseal, but me, professor Brixham, Lavinia, Jugin, and Pete got them to reconsider."

"Well, if they had tried ta bury my son anywheren' the town he was born n' raised, ah woulda clocked 'em wit mah fryin' pan." She growled at the very nerve.

He told her about how the ceremony would go, when she would get to speak her piece, and went over the eulogy he wrote as they ate. He could tell talking about this wasn't all that good for either of them, though. Talking about the ceremony felt like it confirmed Leon was really dead even though whether they talked about it or not wouldn't change that fact. After they finished washing the dishes, he tried to explain why Lanseal has to go about the funeral the way they do.

"That school o' yers has an awful lotta rules…" She muttered under her breath as she served more tea. Avan couldn't help but imagine Heinz criticizing her technique. The older man had driven proper technique into him pretty hard, but if the butler had tried to do the same with his mother, she would've decked the man.

"It's a pretty important military academy, so decorum and procedure's a big deal." Avan insisted. The last thing he needed was his mother glaring down all the military officers…

"Hmph." His mother pushed away a bang from her eyes. They sipped their tea in silence while Avan mulled over his word choice for the last big thing he needed to tell her.

"When the funeral's over, I want to leave Mellvere again." He finally said. She gave him a cross look.

"Ya barely been here n' ya want to leave again already?" she asked, setting her tea cup down.

"I know, ma." He set his tea cup down too. "But after what these two wars have done to Gallia, I want to help with the reconstruction effort. I can't just leave the country my brother loved so much and protected as much as he did in disrepair like this. And I owe a lot to Archduchess Cordelia for her help during the last battle with Baldren. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I didn't repay her."

She studied him with an unimpressed face. Her silence meant she was unconvinced, so he kept going.

"Lanseal's in pretty bad shape too. When news spreads completely about Forster's human experimentation, the odds of the academy staying open are real slim. It was hard enough to recover from the attack on the Feast of All Spirits, but we had help from other townspeople. This time, Lanseal won't get that help. Everyone's terrified, wondering if other experiments are running around or if Lanseal itself is haunted with Forster's crimes." Avan's eyes narrowed at the idea. Kluivert and Forster had dug a pretty deep hole. "They'll need all the help they can get."

"Are you really mah son?" She asked. "Ya wanna go out n' fix these things up n' I can understand that, but for who? Leon an' the archduchess an' that professor o' yers? Don'tcha have any goals o' yer own?"

"I do." Avan answered. "After Gallia and Lanseal are good and stable again, I want to travel the world." He looked down at his tea cup. "There's a lot I don't know, and a lot I haven't seen. I want more information before I make my own path and follow my own dream." He gripped the handle of his tea cup hard. "Not anyone else's."

Avan's mother gave him a level stare. For a second, he almost looked just like his father. That was laughable since Leon had resembled her husband in both looks and temperament far more sans the scarlet hair color and occasional blind rage. But Schulyer had been an extensive traveler before he had fallen in love with Dahlia and settled down in Mellvere to court her properly and propose. It looked like her fool husband's wanderlust had passed down and surfaced after all.

"So…when the ceremony's over, I want your permission to leave." Avan looked up and locked eyes with her.

"Ya sound like ya thought this through." She stirred a sugar cube in her tea. "Yer practically a grown-up now too. Whaddaya need mah permission fer?"

Avan gave her a hopeful look.

"Is…are ya really okay wit this, ma?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't ah be okay wit mah son turnin' into a man n' leavin' the nest?" She sipped her tea. When did it get so sweet? She didn't add too much sugar absentmindedly, did she? "Yeah, ya can go on and git. 'M not gonna guiltcha wit the 'leavin' your ma all by her lonesome' card. Ah practically raised two sons on mah own, didn't I?" She forced herself to sip the tea again, despite hating the taste. "'M tough. Ah can handle it."

The amount of relief and happiness in Avan's expression could've filled three other households.

"Thanks, ma." He embraced her. "Ah promise I'll write every week and visit sometimes and feed Jarde and…" He continued listing all the things he would remember to do, though she tuned out his rambling a while ago.

'Schulyer… If yer lookin' at us right now, I hope yer proud of the son ya helped make. And Leon, you were a great role model. Ah couldn't be more proud of ya if ah tried.'

-.-:-.-

After the funeral, Avan stuck around for another couple of days to re-paint the house and gather traveling supplies. Dahlia refused to cry any more after the ceremony and saw him off with a defiant face after making sure he was carrying everything he'd need.

But before Avan could leave his hometown, he had one last stop to make. He trekked through the tall grass, passing Pete on the way.

"Make sure you keep Mellvere safe!" He called out to the younger boy.

"Will do, bro!" Pete promised as he ran off to the town watch's base of operations.

Avan hiked up a tall hill and smiled at the cleanly carved stone under the birch tree. He knelt down next to it - almost wistfully - and looked over the detailed calligraphy engraved in it.

"Watch over me, Leon." He said. "I swear I'll keep Gallia safe." He set down a bouquet of dahlias on the grave. It wasn't too hard to find them since Leon had liked the flowers. His brother would put them in vases back home while their mother gave him this surly look, as if asking her first son if he was trying to start a fight or something. Avan smiled at the memory. He stood up and looked at the grave one last time before he made his way down the hill.

It was time for him to leave the nest, after all.

-.-:-.-

KN: I just wanted to write a family fic where Avan breaks the news to his mother that Leon is dead and give them proper mourning time and then get his mom's permission to travel the world and become his own person rather than chasing after his brother's back and…I am in pain. I hope no one asks me for a funeral scene, though, because that would've killed me. And bury me six feet under. There would be too many tears.