Title: Behind Those Eyes
Fandom: Radiata Stories
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: T
Pairings: Lucian Hewitt/Salute Larks
Warnings: AU, slash, human path, established relationship, happy ending, fuck the canon human ending anyway
Summary: Lord Larks has no intention in letting Lord Lucian get away with that pathetic goodbye.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
A/N: For the FYRS Secret Santa, I got my lovely friend robancrow. She gave me a list of possibilities, and while a part of me is now super interested in doing a short one-shot about Rika, I had a couple of ideas for Larks/Lucian which I thought worked pretty well together. (Especially after I read back over the important scenes in my game script. Which, btw, still unbelievably glad I made the bloody thing. XP) Also got Felix (though he's not named, whoops) and the Dysett region, since they were both on your list. \o/
So, yes, happy holidays, Roby! Have your OTP. ;)
(P.S. - I realised Christmas Eve I still needed to write this OTL, so I didn't get the chance to look it over for errors. Sorry.
-0-
Salute didn't like the oppressive silence that came from a castle preparing for war. He'd already sent most of their forces – knights and guards – to man the gates, concentrating on Lupus Gate because of Jack's message from Sir Gawain, but only a fool would ignore the other gates because of a warning given by a man whose allegiance was uncertain, no matter how much Lord Lucian seemed to think he was speaking the truth, so all of the gates were covered. Which meant that his people would have to run through the city streets to reach wherever the battle actually happened, but it couldn't be helped. He had to consider all angles when it came to keeping his people safe.
Sometimes, being Commander-in-Chief was more stressful than being in the middle of the fighting.
"Salute," Lucian called, reminding Salute that his on-again, off-again lover had chosen to sit the battle out with him. He glanced up to look at Lucian, separated by the desk between them, when a soldier burst into the room, the heavy wooden door thudding against the stone wall.
"A message, sir!" the soldier called, and Salute turned his attention to the interruption, aware of Lucian also turning to observe the new arrival. "Lupus Gate is under attack by a large force of nonhumans!"
So, Gawain had spoken true; Salute wasn't sure how he felt about that. Had Gawain decided to go turncoat on the nonhumans, or had he only given forth the warning out of a sense of shame for his hand in orphaning Jack? If Salute hadn't reinstated Jack as a knight, would they have been caught completely unawares? Or would Gawain have found some other way to warn them?
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts; this was hardly the time for ruminations. "Have the troops guarding the other gates join the Lupus Gate defenders," he ordered the soldier. "We have to stop the enemy where they are."
The soldier ducked his head with a suggestion of a bow, brief because of the urgency surrounding their current circumstances, and barked, "Yes, sir! Right away, sir!" as he ran from the room, not even bothering to close the door behind him.
"Lupus Gate," Salute murmured to himself before turning his gaze on the long-haired man across from him. "It's all happening exactly as you predicted," he said, and the words sounding more like an accusation than the bland statement he'd intended.
Lucian smiled faintly, apparently unbothered by the show of Salute's distrust, though his eyes did flick towards the open doorway as he began to speak, a silent reminder that anyone could overhear their conversation. "I am pleased that I can be of some service, Lord Larks," he murmured, ducking his eyes like some coy noblewoman.
Salute curled his hand into a fist under the cover of his desk, resisting the urge to say something that he'd regret anyone else overhearing; Lucian was the only person he knew who could so easily make him want to pick up his long-ignored sword and show why King Jiorus had thought him the perfect replacement for the retiring Commander-in-Chief, despite his youth. "Tell me, Lord Lucian," he managed with only a hint of a bite. "Don't you think it's time that you told me the truth?"
Lucian blinked, his only reaction to Salute's tone. "The truth, my Lord?" he returned, wearing an air of confusion.
Salute took a careful breath, struggling to regain the calm he needed to manage any changes in the state of the war on their doorstep. "Yes. Who are you really? And what is it that you really want?" The questions he should have asked years ago, before he'd first tumbled into bed with the advisor. Or after, like he'd planned, when Lucian's tongue would have been loosened from pleasure. Hundreds of opportunities wasted, all because it didn't seem to matter quite that much when the chance to enquire came around.
Lucian bowed his head, the picture of regret, but Salute knew him well enough to hear the smile in his voice when he spoke. "Ah, I see. You're suggesting that I'm some kind of spy?"
The sound of someone walking in armour out in the hallway made Salute insist, "No, of course not." As the footsteps retreated – one of the few guards left in the castle, walking the main staircase, if he had to guess – he continued, "But...how should I put it? It seems to me that you know too much. Far too much."
Lucian glanced up at him, his smile all-too-obvious, approval gleaming in his eyes. He gave a careless sort of shrug. "I am nothing more than a guide to humanity's future," he replied.
Salute blinked, thrown. 'What?' He shook his head. "A guide?"
Lucian's smile turned slightly, became almost sad, Salute thought, and he stood. "I will have to leave you soon," he commented before turning away, towards the door.
'Leaving?' Salute grabbed for the arms of his chair, not sure if he was trying to keep himself from standing, or just trying to find something solid to hold onto. "Where are you going, Lord Lucian?" he asked, clinging to the formality the same way he was clinging to his chair.
Lucian paused in the doorway, but didn't look back as he replied, voice heavy with regret and something else that Salute couldn't begin to define, "Lord Larks, it has been an honour to serve you. I do not think we will meet again."
Salute closed his eyes, unable to watch as Lucian stepped out into the hallway.
The door thudding shut snapped him from whatever spell seemed to have fallen over him. He jumped to his feet and, forgetting all thoughts of decorum, ran after Lucian, not sure what he'd say when he caught up, but knowing that he couldn't let his sometimes-lover leave with just that as a goodbye.
He found Lucian in the stairwell, standing on the rising between floors and staring out the windows that someone had thrown open. "Lucian!" he shouted, skidding to a stop at the top of the stairs and gasping in a breath, regretting too many years stuck behind a desk.
Lucian turned to look back at him, surprise making him look so much younger for a moment. His lips moved, silently giving shape to a word that looked suspiciously like, 'Salute', then he smiled, wide and almost cruel, and jumped backwards, through the open window.
Salute let out a horrified gasp, but before he could call out or start forward, a dragon took shape outside the window, black clouds darkening the sky with unnatural speed. One gleaming silver eye peered through the window, staring at Salute in a way that was too familiar.
"Lucian," he heard himself whisper, and the dragon turned away, flying towards Lupus Gate and beyond.
"Lord Larks!" a guard shouted as he stumbled up the stairs. "Sir! The dragon–!"
Salute gave himself a mental shake and focused on the guard. "It was headed for Lupus Gate. Let's go."
The guard jerked his head in a bow and preceded Salute down the stairs, armour thundering with each step against the stone steps.
As he ran, Salute wondered where Lucian was going, and whether he was brave enough to follow.
-0-
If he hadn't heard Jack say where Lucian was headed as they finally reached Lupus Gate, he probably would have stayed, doing his duty by seeing to his men. Receive their reports, update King Jiorus, remain the absent-minded Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief he knew everyone expected him to be.
Then again, perhaps running off after Jack and the dragon was absent-minded. Gods alone knew what the king would say when he finally returned.
He caught up to Jack at the bottom of the golden tower awaiting them at the centre of the ruined city he'd followed the boy and his squad through. Not that they'd seemed to know he was there, between the sand falls and the broken ladders and the elementals, but he'd made no attempt to announce himself, learning from their struggles when there was danger ahead.
Just because he'd grabbed a sword from a fallen knight before he left, didn't mean he was truly capable of this poorly-conceived adventure, after years stuck behind a desk.
"Lord Larks?" Jack called in surprise when he stepped through the door at the bottom of the tower and found him and his squad taking a breather around a magical healing circle.
"Jack," he returned as he stepped gingerly into the empty circle. He nodded to High Priest Kain and Vancoor Chief Elwen, both of whom he knew. The last member of Jack's squad – a young man with unusually long hair who was dressed in robes from Vareth – was unfamiliar to him.
Jack shifted. "Sir–"
"I'm looking for Lord Lucian," Salute interrupted, far too tired for pleasantries.
Jack shook his head. "Sir, Cross is the only person I've seen, other than yourself."
Salute nodded. "He's here," he insisted before starting up the stairs curving around the inside of the tower. A part of him knew he needed to rest, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to get going again if he stopped.
"Lord Larks!" Jack shouted behind him, and he and his squad scrambled to follow him, over-taking him easily and forming up around him, like some sort of protective guard.
Lucian was waiting for them on the outer staircase that ringed the upper levels of the tower. The easy smile he wore upon seeing Jack, vanished when he met Salute's eyes. He blinked, surprise stealing across his face. "Salute?" he said, and it was a nod to exactly how surprised he was, that he used Salute's first name, rather than the far more respectful title he'd taken to upon his promotion to Prime Minister.
"Lucian," he returned, slipping between Jack and Elwen where they'd stopped between himself and Lucian. "It seems we need to talk."
Lucian looked honestly worried for a moment, before he covered the emotion with that easy-going, formal mask that had fooled so many people over the years. "Lord Larks, you should be back in Radiata, seeing to–"
"You're a dragon," Salute threw out between them, like a gauntlet declaring a battle between knights. Behind him, Jack and his squad let out startled noises, and it spurred him on to give voice to the conclusions he'd reached during the long, hard trek through the countryside. "For years you've been leading us on, pulling just the right strings to have us dance to your tune. You've had us killing your own kind, and for what? Sole power!"
Lucian took two long steps forward, until he was nose-to-nose with Salute, his aqua eyes flashing with an anger that was far more ancient than Salute could even conceive of. Behind him, he heard Jack and his people readying their weapons, and he felt reassured, even as a part of him found pleasure at the sensation of Lucian's too-hot breath against his own lips.
"Sole power?" Lucian replied, voice hard. "Perhaps. But only because there is no other way I could ever save you."
"Me?" Salute breathed.
Something in Lucian's eyes changed, the same way they had before he jumped out the window. "You. Humans," he clarified. Then he stepped away, leaving Salute feeling cold at the lack of him. "Jack! Ridley is above! You must lead her away from the gold dragon, from Quasar, or all will be lost!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Jack shouted back, stepping up to Salute's side. A sword blazing with purple flames was in his hands, and Salute was surprised to recognise the famed Falvern, one of the strongest swords in the world.
Lucian shook his head. "You must go! There's no time."
"I'm not going anywhere–"
"Lucian," Salute called, using his Commander-in-Chief voice. Jack immediately fell silent, while Lucian offered him a smile that said, 'that's not going to work on me, and you know it'. "Explain, or we leave now."
Jack let out a quiet sound next to him, clearly having no interest in running now.
But Lucian...he tensed, looking as close to desperate as Salute had ever seen him, and wasted little time in explaining, "Once Quasar has taken over the body of his new host, once the cycle of the dragons has been restarted, humanity will cease to be. Any humans not in this tower will simply die. That is the law of Tottaus."
And then Lucian was there, nose-to-nose with Salute again, one hand wrapped tight around his arm. "You can't leave," he insisted, and there it was again, that emotion in Lucian's eyes that Salute couldn't recognise.
"What about Ridley?" Jack demanded. "Is she–"
Lucian took a half-step back, but didn't let go of Salute. "You can save her, but only if Quasar is denied. Should he win her, she will no longer be Ridley Silverlake."
Jack ran up the stairs without another word, his squad hurrying to follow him.
"Lucian–" Salute started.
"Aphelion," Lucian replied, voice almost lost to the wind as he stared after the others.
"Aphelion?" Salute repeated, confused.
Lucian turned back to him then, looking tired. "My name."
He figured it out then, what Lucian – what Aphelion – hadn't said; Lucian Hewitt had once been someone else, just like Ridley was someone now, but would no longer be the same after Quasar. He closed his eyes and looked away. "I see," he whispered.
They were silent for a long while, the sound of the wind and Jack calling Ridley's name the only sound between them. Luc–Aphelion didn't let go of his arm, and Salute couldn't find the energy to pull away.
Something in the air changed, suddenly, and Aphelion grabbed Salute in a hug just before the tower gave a great shudder around them. "The tower breaks the sky; here come the dragons to bring it down," Aphelion whispered against Salute's ear.
The last bit of the prophecy. The tower was falling apart.
"Jack!" Salute shouted, a well of energy giving volume to his voice. "Elwen! Kain! We need to go!"
As they started pounding down the stairs, Jack and Elwen's armour loud even over the sounds of the tower breaking around them.
"You need to trust me," Aphelion ordered and let go of Salute so suddenly, he almost fell.
"L–Aph–" Salute started.
Aphelion shook his head. "You need to trust me, Salute," he insisted before closing his eyes. A black cloud formed around him and he pushed away from the staircase even as he began growing, reforming as something monstrous.
This was twice now in twenty-four hours that Salute had been so close to a dragon.
Jack and his squad let out horrified noises as they came into view, Jack cradling Ridley against his chest, Elwen supporting Cross, who was still glowing slightly with one of Kain's healing spells. They froze a few steps above Salute, staring at the silver dragon hovering before them.
Aphelion reached out one claw to Salute and rested it lightly on the stairs in front of him. "I can carry you to safety." His head shifted slightly, turning to look towards the others a few steps above Salute. "All of you."
Salute swallowed, fingering the naked bridge of his nose, where his glasses should have been sitting, had he not slipped them away before setting out. Did he trust Aphelion?
"Who are you really?" he'd asked what seemed like an age ago. "What is it you really want?"
"Aphelion. My name," Aphelion had answered. He'd even explained what he wanted, in his usual roundabout way; for humanity to survive.
Salute stepped forward on to the dragon claw awaiting his decision, crouching to keep his balance as Aphelion carefully brought him to his shoulder.
Once Salute was steady on Aphelion's shoulder, the dragon offered the other humans safety. Jack took it after glancing down at Ridley, and the Vareth boy and Kain were right behind him. Elwen and Cross looked like they might consider running down the tower steps under their own power the far better option, but then the stairs beneath them began to crumble and they jumped onto the claws Aphelion was still holding out to them.
Aphelion brought them to the travelling pig statue at the edge of the Dysett region, carefully setting them all down on the ground before regaining his Lucian form.
Salute stepped forward, watching the way the familiar form straightened, a challenging smile sliding across his face like a well-worn mask. "Something to say, Lord Larks?" he asked, his smooth voice nothing like the rough sound that had come from his dragon-mouth.
"Tell me the truth, Aphelion," he requested, keeping his voice quiet, just between them. "Who were you trying to save?" Because he thought he understood why Aphelion had grabbed him on the stairs, why he'd given in so easily.
"But only because there is no other way I could ever save you."
Familiar aqua eyes looked away for a moment, then returned to Salute, determination making them glint with silver, even as his smile eased, became something less like the prelude to a war. One of his hands came up and cupped Salute's cheek, gentle in a way that touches had rarely been between them. "I have lived so long, and seen so many human kingdoms fall," he whispered as he moved in close, his words warming Salute's lips. "I have never cared, before."
And then his lips sealed over Salute's, as though to distract him from his question.
But Salute knew it was really the answer he'd been looking for all along.
..