AN/ Hello, readers! Welcome to my first published story on this site, I hope you like it! Whether you do or don't feel free to leave a comment with any critiques you might have!
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The Last City of Humanity, Earth, Sol System
Of all the places Cassandra expected, or even hoped, to one day meet the Young Wolf, a random ramen shop in a rather defunct part of the Last City was definitely not what she had imagined. Of course, she hadn't really planned on meeting anyone when she left the hunter den earlier that morning, other than perhaps a nice steaming bowl of ramen. Though she did get the impression that she was forgetting something important about today, she brushed it off in favor of filling her grumbling stomach. So when she entered the little eatery, got her ramen as quickly as possible from the older woman behind the counter, turned around and realized the only available seat was next to none other than the Young Wolf himself, she was, needless to say, a little caught off guard.
For a moment Cassandra simply stared at him, taking absent note of his worn but clearly cared for armor, his dark cloak that the stories said had once belonged to the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6, and the fact that unlike what she understood to be normal for him, he wasn't wearing his helmet. At the moment it was sitting on the table, next to a long cold looking bowl of ramen, allowing her to see that his weary gaze was seemingly affixed on one of the back walls of the shop.
After a bit of hesitation she drew up what courage she had, glanced around the room one last time to double check that there really were no other seats, and with a sigh, began to tentatively make her way to his table. As Cassandra drew near, she glanced at her reflection in the nearby window, checking to make sure she was at least somewhat presentable. Grimacing to herself over her tired appearance, she ran her non-ramen-carrying hand through her hair in a half-hearted attempt at fixing it, but gave it up rather quickly.
Here I am meeting the several times over Savior of Humanity, and I look like someone just dragged me out of bed. Lost in her self pity over her sorry state, she didn't realize she had reached the Young Wolf's table until she heard the shifting of a chair as he finally turned his cold dark eyes away from the wall and onto her. With a gasp, once again internally berating herself for her lapse in concentration, Cassandra prepared her nerves to ask him if she could sit at his table.
"Uh… Hi! Would you-"
In the middle of her request she was cut off by the other Guardian glancing from her to her ramen, and the seat she was standing next to, before gesturing to it with a shrug and turning back to his silent vigil of trying to drill a hole in the opposite wall with his piercing gaze.
"O-oh, okay, thank you?" she stammered out in no small amount of confusion, pulling out the chair and taking her seat to his left. Staring down into her ramen, she began to eat, grunting in a very undignified manner and taking great satisfaction in slurping down the hot noodles. As she continued to try and focus on her food, she couldn't help but shoot glances over at the Young Wolf, her curiosity about what he was doing here, just staring at the wall, starting to get the better of her.
"Er, m-my name is Cassandra, what's yours?" The moment she asked the question she winced to herself and very nearly facepalmed. The hell did I ask that for? Every person in this city knows who he is! Dear Traveler, I need to get more sleep…
At the sound of her speaking again, the Young Wolf's gaze had turned back to her, and when he heard her question, his face had finally shown an expression, in the form of a raised eyebrow.
"O-oh I'm sorry, that was a pretty stupid question wasn't it?" she managed to stammer out, despite her embarrassment.
For a moment he just stared at her, but then he tilted his head and turned his gaze to his right, as if expecting to see something, before realizing nothing was there. Upon noticing this he frowned and turned back to her, straightening up a bit in his seat. And then he cleared his throat, and began to speak, grimacing slightly in pain as he did so.
"You have no reason to apologize, I was merely lost in thought." Despite his visible discomfort with speaking, his voice was elegant and commanding in its tone, if a bit raspy.
Cassandra stared at him in shock. He's… talking?! But- I thought he didn't talk to anyone!
Seeing her surprise, his lips twitched upward into a small smile, amused at her reaction. He was well aware of his own reputation for silence after all, but after everything that happened a year ago… Well he wasn't as uncomfortable with the idea of speaking anymore. At that line of thought his eyes unconsciously flicked back to staring at the wall across from him, before he wrenched his gaze away and back to the Hunter to his left.
Meanwhile Cassandra had somewhat recovered from her shock, and had noticed his glance at the wall again, but dismissed it as he returned his gaze to her.
"Sorry did you say something else?" he asked when he turned back and noticed her staring at him again.
"N-no, I didn't, why?" she asked in confusion.
At that he looked disconcerted, shaking his head like a dog as if to clear his mind of cobwebs, and once more began to speak. "I'm… sorry about that, I'm a bit worn out today, so you'll have to forgive my wandering thoughts." Frowning his eyes yet again briefly glanced over at the wall, before looking back at her.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's on your mind?"
Now it was the Young Wolf's turn to be surprised, as his eyes widened in momentary shock at the question before turning even more serious than before and glaring down at his forgotten ramen bowl, clearly thinking over his answer. With an exhausted sigh he locked eyes with her again before nodding to the wall he had been staring at this whole time. Following his gaze for the first time, she gasped and once again felt like facepalming as she realized all at once why he had been staring, why he looked so weary, and why he was even here at this ramen shop in the first place.
There, on the wall opposite him, was a framed picture of the late Hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6, known friend of the Guardian she was sitting with. Of course! Today is the exact one year anniversary of his death isn't it? I knew I was forgetting something, the memorial ceremony by the Vanguard is supposed to be happening right now, right?! But then- She was once again abruptly pulled from her thoughts by the Young Wolf's voice speaking to her.
"Today is the first anniversary of Cayde's death, and so I decided to come here, to his favorite ramen shop in the city." The whole time he was speaking his eyes were on the picture of his lost friend. "I thought maybe after this long I wouldn't be so dragged down by it but, well…" He shook his head again, looking at her again with a bitter smile on his face. "I apologize for laying this on you out of nowhere, when we don't even know each other." As he said this he began to reach for his helmet and cold bowl of ramen, clearly intending to get up and leave.
"Wait! It's- It's fine!" she blurted out to keep him from leaving so soon, causing him to blink at her in surprise again. Composing herself a bit, she tapped her ear with a bit of a smile, continuing "I don't mind, I'm actually a pretty good listener, I'll have you know."
Having halted his attempt at leaving for the moment, the Young Wolf stared at her for another few moments before he returned her smile, even if his was barely even there. "I… Thank you for the offer, truly, I really appreciate it but-" He was cut off from finishing by the sound of a Ghost whizzing in through the open door of the shop, and coming to a stop right in front of him.
"Guardian! We have to go! The ceremony is starting in just a few moments and you're one of the most important attendees!" The poor Ghost's shell's pieces were twitching and whirling around it in agitation as it spoke hurriedly to the Young Wolf, evidently in a great rush. At his words the man being addressed widened his eyes in shock and jumped from his seat, only barely remembering to grab his helmet before dashing to the door, his Ghost bobbing along behind him, his bowl of ramen once again left forgotten.
At this point Cassandra was starting to feel a little shell-shocked by the rapid and unexpected chain of events, so needless to say she was startled to hear her name being called from the door to the ramen shop.
"-ssandra!" It was the Young Wolf calling out to her, his helmet in his hands, and cloak lightly flapping in the light breeze coming in from outside. His gaze was firmly on her, and a ghost of a smile was on his face as he said to her, "You asked for my name right?" She nodded in surprise, not having expected him to answer or even remember the question at all.
"Terrance. My name is Terrance." And with that he was gone, and with him, any chance she had of ever forgetting this day. After all, it wasn't every day you randomly met the Savior of Humanity. The Hivesbane. Kingslayer. Hero of the Red War. Avenger of Cayde-6.
Young Wolf.
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AN2/ I got the idea for this story after reading the lore tab of the Hawkmoon, and finding myself with a desperate need for more interactions between the Young Wolf and other random characters throughout the Destiny universe. Upon realizing I couldn't find anything in game or on this site that fit exactly what I was looking for, I decided to just write it myself. Basically this story will be a series of vignettes following the story of Destiny, from the perspective of all sorts of different characters, starting with a random Hunter, but later I plan to do ones from the perspective of Ikora, Eris, Shaxx, and quite a few others. I don't have any kind of overall plan for this story, as I'm just going to be sticking to the canon storyline, and my goal for these vignettes is that they feel like they could be actual pieces of lore in Destiny. Because of this there will be limited descriptions of the Young Wolf, beyond a few minor things to make the writing a bit easier, so that you might insert your own idea of the Young Wolf into the story, in a similar way to how Bungie themselves handle it. Also, as a direct result of this, there will be no pairings in this story! I may give subtle hints at canon pairings and maybe even some non canon ones, but romance is not an integral part of Destiny's story, and as such the same will be true for this. There will certainly be close platonic relationships however, so you can still get some of that Crow and YW brand of wholesomeness.
I will also be experimenting with writing different character voices and tones throughout the story, so be aware that some chapters/perspectives may be better than others.
With all of that said, let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas for future chapters, let me know and I'll see if it fits into my vision for the story! Thanks for reading!