Warnings: Spoilers for the main game and hints toward the future arc. Asbel and Sophie in a romantic relationship.
Characters: Asbel, Sophie, Cheria. Brief mentions of others.
A/N: Basically my take on this pairing and how well they would work together. I can't help but love them, you know? Constructive critic is welcome but flames will be delted.
Asbel Lhant was eleven years old when he first fell in love.
Beforehand, he never quite understood what the word meant. He had not yet recognized the lingering looks between his parents as expressions of love and he certainly hadn't thought his childhood friend could possibly be enamored of him.
But this heart pounding sensation when he looked at her; he just knew it was love.
This is it, he had thought when they first met. When with a single touch this strange girl had left him breathless.
But he didn't know how to put any of that into words. So one day he took her aside, looked her in the eye and said, "I'll protect you."
She had smiled and told him, "In that case, I'll protect you too Asbel."
That was when he realized she didn't understand. It crushed him, more than it should have. Because Sophie was amazing, and strong, so much so he couldn't help but feel jealous at times. But he loved her, and boys needed to protect the girls they loved; not the other way around.
It was only after seeing her stabbed through the heart (for him) that he realized something. That wasn't love. Love was something selfless; something willingly given without asking anything in return. That was what Sophie had shown him when she gave up her life for her friends. She had loved him most all along.
There was another girl who Asbel loved. He had hurt her too, in ways perhaps even worse than Sophie.
She loved him even after she was hurt. She would write him letters and never send them. She kept them locked away in a chest, just as she kept her feelings safe in her heart.
Asbel for his part stayed away from her, away from everyone. He told himself this was another way of protecting, of loving. It would take him seven long years before he could face the truth. Before he could face the women he loved (who he had loved, did love, would love).
After he had found Sophie again and she had regained her memory, after he loved a friend and not lost him, after all that he finally had the courage to face Cheria.
By that time, he could only apologize. They had been through a lot together (so much more than when they had first met Sophie). But he had renewed his vow that day in the core of their very world.
I want to protect this girl.
He knows that they cannot be together anymore. So he says, "I'm sorry for not realizing sooner, and I'm sorry for hurting you. It was my fault, Cheria."
He expects her to say Yes, and for a split second she almost wants to. But Cheria is better than that now. They are both wiser than the children they once were.
"No, we were both at fault. I should have told you, I should have tried to connect one more time."
There is not much left to say. So they stand there in a comfortable yet unfinished silence.
Cheria ends it by smiling and saying, "You'll make her happy."
Asbel is twenty when he decides to confess once and for all. Sophie has been living with his mother and him for two years. But she has begun to fade, her smiles are more thoughtful now and she seems ill at ease.
"I wonder if I can become human", she says to him one day. For the first time in her presence, Asbel is left with no comforting word to say.
When he doesn't find her in the flower garden, he goes to their tree but she is not there either. She is downhill, swinging from one of the old wooden swings in the farmer's fields.
"It looks like they're flying, Asbel." She had said on their walk one day. "All of those children flying away just like the kazehana seeds."
"You're not planning on flying away from me are you," he asks before he can stop himself.
She must hear some sort of anguish in his voice because she stops and holds out her hand. He takes it.
They stay like that for a long time. Both of them unable or unwilling to find words. Finally, Asbel bends down on one knee and envelopes Sophie in his arms.
"I know I've messed up a lot, Sophie. I'm still a kid in most ways and I only started figuring stuff out after meeting you again."
He looks up at her. She is focused entirely on him, eyes wide and waiting. He scoops her up then. She makes a tiny noise and then wraps her arms around him once more. Her head is tilted to the side and still trained on his face.
He forces himself to meet her gaze and finish his speech. "But I'm stronger now. I can carry you, and hold you up like you held me."
Asbel would describe Sophie's expression at that moment as "watery". Even if she can't cry, he can tells she wants to, so he draws her closer.
She clings to him for a moment before pulling away. Words are rising in the back of her throat and she can't seem to push them back down. "I want to stay with you too, Asbel," she says, "but if I never become an adult, if I can't become human, I'll lose you."
Asbel sets her down then. He takes her face in his hands and puts their foreheads together. He can feel her warmth radiating off his skin, and he hopes she feels the same.
"We can figure that out together, bit by bit." He lets that sink in. She looks up at him, uncertain. He smiles.
"What's important is we can be together now. I want to share everything with you."
Her expression changes then. She feels happiness enough that she will burst. She takes both of his hands in her own and says, "I want to be together with Asbel, too. The strong, kind Asbel who always protects me."
She touches his face then and stunned, he touches hers. She giggles, and it is the most beautiful sound Asbel has ever heard.
"We can protect each other, right Asbel?"
"Right, Sophie. With you and me together, everything will be fine".