Just something small that wouldn't leave me alone.
I don't own anyone in Tales of Vesperia, and the "I" was NOT. MEANT. TO. BE. AN. OC. Its whoever you want to think of.
"Hey, Duke, pass me the bowl up on the top shelf." I heard him move from where he'd been standing and watching to do so.
"My name is not Duke." I turned at that, but the man holding the bowl near my face was indeed Duke, long mess of silvery hair and red eyes complete.
"Excuse me?" I took the bowl, frowning a little at him, setting it on the counter. "You're Duke Pantarei, unless you decided to change it." He shook his head, slightly, only to the left once then back.
"Duke is not my name."
"That doesn't make sense. You answer to Duke well enough, so..."
"Duke is a title. A rank of nobility." Duke, or perhaps I didn't know exactly how to refer to him now, explained a little haltingly. "Commandant Scifo's first name is not Commandant."
"Because Commandant would be a ridiculous first name. Duke isn't... as much."
"I ... was, the Duke of Pantarei house." Red eyes flick away from my face to turn down the heat on the stove. "To those who were not my... friends, I was simply... Duke Pantarei." He put emphasis on the first, and it began to sound more like a title than a first name.
"So... What is your first name?" He stilled as I watched him, his face tilting down a little in thought. Then a puzzled hint came over his blank expression as he tilted his head to the side. "... Something wrong?"
"..." he looked away, his arms slightly crossing in the way that said he still wasn't comfortable with the movement. "I... have forgotten..."
"You can forget your own first name?" A lifted eyebrow back at me and I waved off the question. "Well, you can forget your name without a hard hit to the head? Amnesia?"
"I have not used my first name in some time."
"How long is 'some time'?" I ask. "It's not like you can just... forget your own name after not writing it for a week, or something."
"...The last person who used my name..." the albino mumbled, then his expression closed off and he looked to the side, closing his mouth in the way that said he wasn't going to continue.
It wasn't hard to figure it out.
"Ah. Elucifer?" A slight twitch, then a slow nod. "Ten years still feels a bit odd."
"I had not used my name for signing documents or anything of that sort for several years prior to my enrollment in the Imperial knights." At my confused look, he explained. "I inherited the Pantarei house. I became the Duke of Pantarei." His parents had died. Oh. "It is not important to me. Pass me a stirring spoon."
"What? Oh." I did so, and the albino put his hair up, taking over cooking. After watching him for a moment as he stirred the rice in the pot, putting the lid back on, I wrapped my arms about him as he reached for a frying pan. He froze, glancing back at me from the corner of his eye. "If... it was important to me, knowing your first name..." He watched me for a moment, then another, before taking the pan he wanted down and glancing away.
"... I will try to recall." It was quiet, well, as quiet as he really could get, and he wasn't looking at me, so all signs pointed to him being embarrassed.
"... thanks."
I don't really pair anyone with Duke, because he's that socially awkward in my mind, and I don't understand how his pairings come about. So I tried to make it as vague as possible.
It was a random idea - Duke was a noble. Nobles come in ranks. Duke is a rank of nobility. You greet a noble by their rank-title, and their last name. Duke could be, the Duke of house Pantarei, and have an actual first name. And that sparked a conversation - why doesn't he use it? is it a case of Duke not careing if people make false assumptions?
Is his first name something horrible? Is it un-pronouncable, like Raxicoricofallapatorius? And that doesn't work for nicknaming, because "Rax" sounds like "racks"... and is awkward.
I over think things, is the moral of the story. But it was kinda cute, and kinda patheticly sad at the same time.