~*A Gap of Time*~
Love transcends all bounds, or so he was told. Or so he believed.
~*X*~
Genis stared.
The door was partly open, revealing the semi-dark interior of Presea's home in Ozette. She had recently finished touching it up, and her house was a beautiful, if small, structure of strong wood, sunbeams gleaming off of the glossy finish.
The mage did nothing for two full minutes, anxiously turning around a simple silver ring that glinted sharply on his right finger, the inlaid sapphire bright.
He had memorized every tiny incision in the gem's polished surface.
Eventually he gathered up the courage to push the door open and poke his head in, long hair tickling his ears. His figure cast an expectedly deep shadow, and this disturbance in the atmosphere of the room made her stop and turn to face the door.
Presea had grown. Even though he had been visiting her often, he still kept thinking that, despite the fact that he had watched the changes since they had begun.
They were both eighteen. It was normal. Genis himself was taller, if still a little shorter than he liked, and his silver hair had grown out into lengthy bangs and coiling strands that swayed when he moved.
She…She had changed from pretty to breathtaking, at least in his eyes. Her pink hair was drawn back in her usual ponytails, but they weren't much longer. She had always cut it, keeping it at relatively the same length it had always been since they had first met.
Genis supposed it would be polite to speak first, since he was dropping in unannounced. He cleared his throat and smiled. "Hey, P-Presea. I was in the area, so…"
She watched him with calm eyes. "It is good to see you, Genis. How is Raine?"
"She's fine." Their half-elf pilgrimage to end discrimination had started years ago. It was working—fortunately—though now a days they mostly traveled the joined worlds in search of knowledge in its many forms.
Presea nodded, satisfied, and then she went back to digging through a chest on the ground. Her axe was leaning against the wall near her, the cold gleam of its bright steel oddly familiar.
Genis said nothing, though he did inch forward to lean against the doorway with his arms crossed.
The dim interior of her home was no mystery to the young Sage, because he knew the place by heart. It was a tidy place, everything kept in perfect order, though it was mostly empty. Presea wasn't one to hoard things and keep petty knickknacks. She made good luck charms, true, but only a few of them shimmered and sparkled on her shelves. One was even on the wall, engraved with the sigil for happiness.
It, too, was familiar. The sigil of happiness was on Colette's favorite bracelet.
He thought that it seemed like an awfully lonely place to be living in. He and Raine had a new home in Iselia, filled with books and littered with things that the both of them enjoyed just looking at. Statues, scrolls, magic staffs and staves…
But Presea's house had the feel of a hotel—a place to live, but lacking a heart. At least, now it did.
This wasn't the first time had thought this, and whenever he did, he always scrambled to send Presea another letter.
Genis lifted his gaze to find Presea still had her back to him. She was reading something—an old looking piece of parchment—one finger tracing the untidy, hand-drawn lines.
"What're you reading?" He asked casually.
A second of pause. "A poem that Alicia wrote." She didn't say it, but he heard it in her tone—something she wrote long ago.
She never talked about her family. Her fractured, broken, long dead family. Not in all the years he had known her had he ever been brave enough to ask her more about her past than he already knew. What was her father like? Her sister? Her mother?
He was such a filthy coward.
Raine had asked. Once. Presea's only response had been a great sadness that opened up in her eyes, and she had been silent for the rest of the day.
No one had ever brought it up since, and Genis made certain that Emil and Marta knew not to inquire.
Well, they did hear a little about Alicia from Regal…but it was cruel to put him and Presea through the questioning just to sate their curiosity. They already knew the basics of it, didn't they? That should be enough.
Genis's own family was a mess, true, but he would still chat about it. Raine was alive and well after all, and he was grateful that he had someone to talk to. He tried to put himself in Presea's shoes and think about a world where Raine was dead.
His skin crawled, and he had a small, indistinct taste of the immense pain the girl was in.
Suddenly, Presea let the scroll roll back up and she placed it gently inside of the chest. She closed the lid and looked him fully in the face. "Is something wrong?"
"What? No. I'm fine." Genis grinned, hoping to get her to smile, but her face was closed to him. Concerned now, he walked entirely into the room, pushing the door open wider as he did so. Golden sunlight streamed into the house, illuminating yellow dust motes that burned like phoenix embers around his frame.
Striding to her side, the mage blinked at her with sympathy in his arctic-blue eyes. They were both about the same height, he reckoned. "Presea, what's wrong?" He tried to ignore the fluttering of his heart as he stood near the axe-wielding girl, but even after so much time, he still found the task impossible.
Presea averted her gaze, and then met his eyes. And then looked away again.
Genis frowned, rubbing the soft material of his tunic between his fingers, lowering his head so his silver locks obscured his view of her. Oh, she was better than she used to be. She smiled more and even laughed sometimes, far more often than before. She would agree to go on little adventures with everyone, even accepted Marta's invitation for an all-girl sleep over. She went out sometimes to visit their friends, learning how to do hair and nails and (presumably) about the finer workings of boys with Sheena and Colette. If she wasn't doing that, she was sparring with Zelos and Lloyd and dominating Coliseum battles. She even helped Emil take care of his monsters and conversed with Regal over matters of art and literature.
She went to ruins with Raine and had the patience to help her take down notes.
With him, she did whatever it was that they did. They had no set task, no schedule, and his time with her was some of the best in the entirety of his life. But in all the years he had known her, Presea Combatir had remained much the same in one regard.
She kept to herself, when it came down to it.
That was the difference between the two of them. Genis had no problem talking with his friends about his problems—Colette and Lloyd were definitely not unaware of his internal issues—but Presea didn't talk about what truly bothered her.
So she pulled away, even when he reached out to help her.
"Presea…" Genis watched her again, and he saw her blue gaze was still closed. No emotion, or at least it was hidden too well for him to espy. Her Exsphere flashed vividly at her throat. "What's up?"
She shook her head. "Nothing."
"Is this a bad time? I can leave." He gestured towards the door with an unsure smile on his face.
She shook her head again. "If there is something you wish us to do, then let us do it."
Genis considered that. He hadn't even had anything really in mind when he came walking up to the house.
Martel, his heart was really hurting his ribcage with all of its banging about…
He nodded but went on to say something else instead. "Presea, you seem sort of down."
Presea inclined her head. "Perhaps," she admitted. "I'm sorry that you have to see me this way."
Startled, he took a step back. "Huh? What do you mean? If you're sad, tell me what's wrong!"
She sat down on top of the chest with a world weary sigh. Genis went to crouch in front of her, as close as he could stand to be without his stuttering returning with a vengeance. He continued to spin the ring around on his finger, his eyes falling on the silver bracelet she wore that held a single, glassy amber.
His silver bracelet…
"…It is Alicia's birthday today."
Genis felt his anxious, reassuring smile slide off of his face. "I'm so sorry." He had never known…was it really…?
Of course it was. Another thing he hadn't guessed.
"Please, don't be. It is merely saddening."
Why did she do that? Act like it was nothing? Genis shook his head, disagreeing. "No, it's a big deal to you. Otherwise you'd not be so sad. Right? Let me help. Can I…make it better, P-Presea?"
Her eyes were shut, fingers knitted together before her. "Your company is sufficient."
"O-Oh…Okay…"
Genis had to remind himself that Alicia had been dead longer than he had first thought. The girl before him…she was actually a woman, wasn't she? The state of her mind…was of someone years above his own.
And even with his half-elf lifespan, it wasn't enough. He would never catch up to her.
Oh, he had never thought it a crush! Not his feelings for Presea. Never his feelings for Presea. So many other things had been brought into light, revealed to be false or temporary, but the truth was…he had always felt this way for her. And he had no idea why he would fall for someone so far out of his reach.
He had no idea why, whenever she smiled or blessed the world with a small giggle, he fell so much harder.
The young mage looked at Presea's bowed head and clenched hands. It would be so easy. So simple, to just extend his hand and let it rest over hers. So very easy…
…What if he did? Would she glance at him, surprised? Do nothing? Draw away?
Would she take his hand? Accept it?
Genis sighed and closed his own eyes. It didn't matter what she did, or what his daydreams wished him to believe. He was a half-elf, doomed to live longer than anyone but Raine.
His friends would die, one by one. Lloyd, Colette, Sheena, Zelos, Regal, Marta, and maybe even Emil, in a sense, though he was part of a Summon Spirit.
Presea.
He would look practically the same at the funerals for them…
The clink of her bracelet announced her movement, and Genis opened his eyes to see Presea scrutinizing him with a gaze too old for her body.
"You are troubled," she stated in that way she had.
He was a genius, damn it. A genius mage. Genis Sage. His name was practically a synonym for it. So why was it so hard, to tell her? It had been enough years, hadn't it? Lloyd was with Colette, and somewhere along the way Sheena had given up her crush on Lloyd and was (he thought, anyway) growing closer to Zelos than before. Emil and Marta had been officially together ever since Emil had come back from the Ginnungagap. Before that, even.
So why was he so slow about it? Half-elf or not, maybe he would be the one to be with Presea. To take her hand at last and comfort her and learn more about her than the few things he did understand. She had only informed him about so much, after all.
He didn't just think she was beautiful. He thought she was wise in her thoughts and strong, and—
"Presea," he blurted.
She waited.
He should…
"I…I'm…you're…"
"Are you all right, Genis?"
"P-P-Presea…"
"Genis…?"
How could she stare at him so levelly, with such calm eyes? How?
He stood up abruptly and felt his insides turn to fire, burning with his shame and his embarrassment. Coward, filthy coward! Yellowbelly! Scaredy-cat! "I'll—gotta go!" Genis felt like he wanted to blast himself into oblivion with lightning. He was such a coward!
He turned and tried to run off, but suddenly Presea's fingers closed with an iron grip around his arm. She planted her feet and he lost his breath, feeling his muscles jerk painfully as he came to an abrupt halt.
"Genis, where are you going?" Her tone had changed. Concern? For him? He would have been touched, if he wasn't so busy cursing his name and all it stood for.
"Let me go," Genis growled desperately, his own helplessness making him angry. It only added fuel to the fire that was devouring him alive, and he strained to break free. Frustrated tears born of his hatred for his lifespan and his own spinelessness burned hot trails down the side of his face, and he blinked furiously as his vision fogged.
"But…you seem unwell," she said uncertainly. "Please, Genis, what did I do?"
How did she know it was her fault? Wait, what was he thinking? It wasn't her fault. It never was. "Please, I need to go, okay?"
Presea released him, but then walked to stand before him and met his gaze. "Genis," she told him simply, as if his name held all of the words she wanted to say.
Genis let his arms fall slack at his sides. So, destiny wanted to screw him over, did it? Well, damn…! It was going to cut off his escape and make him face this nasty thing today, was it?
Or maybe…he had always planned on doing that ever since he had stood outside her house, turning over the ring she had made for him over and over on his finger…
He nodded reluctantly, unable to say no to her steely gaze.
Presea looped around behind him and took her place back on the treasure chest. She clasped her hands in front of her, and as Genis knelt so he could meet her eyes properly at last, he did the only thing he could do.
He reached out and put his hand over hers.
Author's Note: Intentionally left open-ended. This was inspired by a story in the Tales of Vesperia section called "You Can't" by bioldrawings. I practically just took that story's concept and applied it to Genis and Presea, so I thank the author for such a splendid concept. Review, if you wish, and I haven't played the first game (yet) so please keep that in mind.