After thinking about it, I decided to enter Sylph Writer's writing contest. This is one of those 'What if' scenarios that I'm sure some of you would enjoy.
And by enjoy, I mean this is a LethaxYuri fic.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave the room to get away from the high pitch squeals that accompany that statement. Bye.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Vesperia and Letha Vitae belongs to Sylph Writer. I do, however, own Avery.
Father
Yuri paced agitatedly in the hallway, his eyes occasionally glancing at the room where he occasionally heard agonized screams and soothing voices trying to calm someone down. With his own hands he had taken down the Adephagos, something that the people of the ancient past had been unable to do themselves, sealing it at best. And yet, in a situation where no giant monstrosity was trying to destroy the world and consume them all, there was nothing he could do but wait and hope for the best.
The swordsman felt absolutely useless and he hated it.
"How much longer?" He said to no one in particular. It had started early morning and it was now late into the afternoon! Just how long did the process take?
His friend and constant companion Repede glanced up at the man, sensing Yuri's frustration and whined. Like his owner, he hated being unable to do anything but wait.
That, and his hearing was more sensitive. The reason why the dog was even here in the first place was to try and give Yuri some sort of moral support for the torture he had to endure for the next several hours.
Yuri looked over at Repede and sighed. "Sorry, Repede. Guess I look-" He cut himself off when he realized it was completely quiet.
The dog's ears pricked up as well at the new found silence, making the world saviour realize that he wasn't imagining things.
And then he heard it.
It was faint, but from behind the shut door he could hear it.
A baby crying.
Before Yuri could storm over to the door and demand to be let in, someone from inside opened it and peeked out. It was one of the three midwives who had come to help with the birth. When she spotted Yuri, the woman smiled at him.
"They're here." She said softly. The midwife gestured for him to come inside, which Yuri didn't hesitate to do. Repede rose from the floor and trotted in after his master.
Sitting up on the bed was an exhausted, but happy looking Letha. In her arms, she held a small bundle wrapped in a blue blanket.
Hearing his approaching footsteps, the brunette looked up and smiled at her husband as he came closer.
"Is that-?" Yuri began to ask but stopped himself. Of course it was their newly born child, who else would it be?
"Yes." Letha peered down at the sleeping baby she was holding. "It's a boy."
"Geez." Yuri closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "This little guy was the cause of so much trouble?"
"It's definitely a sign that he's your son, then." Yuri promptly chose to ignore his wife's jab as he walked up beside the bed to get a better look at the sleeping bundle who seemed to be nestling to the closest source of warmth; his mother.
A soft laugh came from one of the corners of the room and a figure stepped out from the shadows. Since Yuri's attention had been elsewhere when he had come into the room, he hadn't realized that someone had been hiding near the curtains. It was Avery, a friend Letha had made after the whole Alexei and Adephagos ordeal who had made Yuri's life a hell of a lot easier during Letha's sudden and random mood swings.
Speaking of mood swings...
...Yuri never wanted to go through them ever again.
"Don't blame your son entirely," She said, walking up to them. She was holding something wrapped in a white blanket. "After all, this little one helped him out."
"Wait, what?" Yuri said, not quite registering what Avery was saying.
The auburn haired woman who was only a year younger than her friend smiled at him as she pulled back some of the blanket to reveal the sleeping face of another baby. "This one is a girl. Congratulations Yuri, Letha gave birth to twins."
It took the swordsman another several minutes for the all of it to sink in. Letha and Avery waited patiently for Yuri's mind to catch up to the present and they were not disappointed by his reaction.
Yuri gaped openly at them. Something that was unusual for the normally level-headed swordsman.
"Twins, Yuri." Letha grinned. Avery smiled at him, looking as if butter would not melt in her mouth.
"You've got to be joking." Yuri groaned, his eyes looking up at the ceiling. One kid was going to be bad enough, but two?
Avery merely smiled before something made her look down at the child she was holding. "Oops. She's awake." She stared at the baby girl for several more seconds before breaking out into a smile. "Yuri, would you like to hold her?"
"Huh?" Yuri looked at Avery as if she was crazy. He had never held a baby in his life, what if something happened?
As if reading his mind, the auburn haired woman rolled her eyes. "Come on Yuri, she's one of your kids. You're going to have to hold them sometime."
And to prevent him from arguing, she shoved the blanket wrapped baby into his arms, forcing Yuri to hold his daughter. He was about to protest about it when at that moment he happened to look down. Any words of protest died in his throat.
Staring up at him innocently was a pair of light blue eyes that seemed to say 'who are you'?
Yuri inhaled sharply, hypnotized by the gaze that knew nothing of the surrounding world around her.
His granite coloured eyes softened as he stared back down at his daughter. Not once did Yuri, or anyone else for that matter, ever think he would get married much less have a kid. But having met Letha and now staring into those blue eyes... he might have to eat those words.
She was beautiful.
"So what are you going to name them?" Avery's voice snapped Yuri out of his musing.
"Leonard-"
"You are not naming my son after a turtle." Yuri said, remembering the time when the two of them had still been traveling with Estelle, Rita, and Karol. At one point during their journey, Letha decided to name all of the turtles they had come across and defeated.
"Fine." Letha pretended to pout. She was joking since she actually wasn't going to call him that; she had another name in store for their son that Yuri would definitely recognize. "Nylen. Let's name him Nylen."
Yuri's head snapped towards his wife to see her giving him one of her 'knowing smiles'.
"Right, forgot you knew about part of my past before I even met you." During their earlier travels, Letha had, like most of the group, been keeping secrets. She either lied or twisted the truth whenever he confronted her when no one else was around. When he had finally managed to get the entire truth from Letha... it had not been what he was expecting at all.
Turns out, before she had started traveling with them she had lived on another an entirely different planet called 'Earth'. According to Letha, Earth was technologically more advanced than Terca Lumireis and Aer did not exist there at all. At that time she confessed this, she had been unable tell them how she ended up in their world in the first place but eventually it was revealed that otherworldly beings called fairies had chosen her as some sort of artifact finder, identifiable by the mark on her hand that glowed whenever she came across an artifact piece.
If that hadn't been shocking enough, what she told them next had them sputtering in complete disbelief and questioning the universe.
In her world, their adventures happened to be some sort of work of fiction. Even if Letha knew better than to say that the entire group themselves excluding her were 'characters' in a story that someone else was telling, it was still pretty mind shattering to be told you were fictional in another world.
But though Letha knew what was going to happen in their journey, she didn't know specific things about their pasts or everything about them.
What Letha did know was that during Yuri's days as a knight, he had been in the Nylen corps where he was stationed in the town of Shizontonia, alongside Flynn and twin girl knights Hisca and Chastel Aiheap. About the troubles they were having with the Aer, and what had happened to his first and only captain...
"...yeah." Yuri finally said. "That's a... good name."
Repede, having walked up to the couple, barked his approval. The boy in Letha's arms stirred, blinking sleepily and revealing that he had his mother's warm brown eyes.
"Then what about her?" Avery pointed at the girl.
Before Letha opened her mouth, Yuri beat her to it. "...Julia."
The swordsman had decided to name her after the old woman who used to look after him when he was a child orphan. She was long dead, but she had been one of the few people who left a deep impression on him. Yuri had been in a dazed stupor for a while after she had died.
The girl gurgled in his arms and he couldn't help but smile at her, gently placing one of his hands on the side of her head. "You like that name, huh?"
"Julia it is then." Letha agreed, peering down at her daughter. It seemed Julia had already taken a liking to her dad.
Nylen and Julia. Julia and Nylen.
Maybe being a father wasn't going to be so bad after all.
OH. MY. GOD.
I AM FINALLY FINISHED. I have never worked so hard on a fic as I have with this, so you better appreciate it!
And remember, this isn't canon even though I'm sure many of you wish it was. Now I am going to leave you here to enjoy my work because it's nearly midnight at my place. See ya.