#61: . . .Free Time

Game: FE9 or 10

Characters: Soren

Warnings/Notes: Also done as a drabble challenge for r_amythest and in rain.

There was always something calming about taking inventory after a battle. It wasn't a normal thing to enjoy, Soren was quite aware of that, but he took comfort in it nonetheless. Counting the number of blades they had left in good repair, running his fingers across the tops of the vulnerary bottles and murmuring the running tally as he went, it was almost enough to silence his racing thoughts. Almost.

He liked to think that the panic that came with each battle wasn't obvious to anyone but himself. He didn't need anyone asking if he was all right - certainly not Mist, who seemed to go through vulneraries the way Ilyana went through rations, or Boyd, who didn't seem to understand how expensive throwing axes were or how silly it was to just throw them at everything. His moments of distress were his alone, shared with no one.

After all, who really needed to know that his heart felt as if it might explode every time he saw his commander take a blow? Who needed to know that every time he heard a shout, his imagination went wild with visions of blood staining blue hair, of a once-strong body splayed lifeless in the grass? It wasn't as if these were things that would ever happen, not to Ike, never. No one needed to know that Soren imagined.

All anyone needed to know was that they needed six vulneraries, two swords, and one new throwing axe. For Soren, that was enough.