Azura/Soleil

Recommended Song:

"Wars" by Lord's Child and Montell Fish for C-A Support

"So Long" by Magnetic North for A+ Support

C Support:

Soleil: Lady Azura, there you are!

Azura: Can I help you…

Soleil: Soleil. Soleil Lowell.

Azura: Yes, can I help you, Miss Soleil?

Soleil: Indeed you can! I've heard about you. Everyone says you're a great dancer. My mother was a dancer you see...and I think I could learn a lot from you.

Azura: ...uh-huh. So you would like to be my student?

Soleil: Right again! I think this will work out best for everyone. Everyone loves a gal who can dance, and you get me as an apprentice! It makes you look pretty magnanimous, don't you think?

Azura: ...heh, indeed it does.

Soleil: And if that's the sound agreement, let's shake on it. Master and apprentice, okay? No closer, no further; no more and no less.

Azura: Fair enough. Master and apprentice, no more and no less.

B Support:

Azura: ...and one, and two, and OUCH!

Soleil: Sorry! I'm so sorry! Ah, I'm so clumsy…

Azura: It's fine. A bruised toe is normal. Let's take a quick break.

Soleil: Yes ma'am.

Azura: It's a little amusing to see you so confident on the battlefield and so cautious when you dance. Soleil, why do you want to dance?

Soleil: Ah ah ah, that breaks the rules, doesn't it?

Azura: Hardly! I can't help motivate my students if I don't know what inspires them. Besides, you're so talented in other areas, I'm sure boys and girls love you already.

Soleil: Like I said, everyone loves a gal who can dance.

Azura: *sighs* I'm pretty sure that's not the real reason, but I'll let it slide...actually, if you'll allow me one more question - have you ever visited the Mittelfrank Opera?

Soleil: Once or twice when I was in Enbarr and money was good. Why?

Azura: Little Dorothea mentioned having a paramour who had trouble dancing in nearly the exact same way-

Soleil: And that's a long enough break! Let's get back to work!

Azura: Heh. Fate works in mysterious ways.

Soleil: What was that?

Azura: Nothing. Let's take it from the top.

Soleil: Yes ma'am!

B+ Support:

Villager: Soleil, you're too reckless!

Soleil: Oh don't worry about me, it's a scratch!

Villager: Even scratches can lead to infections, and this is far more than a scratch! Please, let's go to a healer. We can go dancing another time.

Soleil: Or, we can go to the healer and dance tonight, just by ourselves~

Villager: *Blushing*

Azura: That's enough.

*Azura appears*

Villager: Lady Azura!

Azura: Thank you for your assistance. I'll take her back to the monastery and to Professor Manuela.

Villager: I understand.

*Villager leaves*

Azura: Soleil what were you thinking?

Soleil: ...I was fine.

Azura: You skip out on dance practice after a battle to flirt? Does your professor even know you're here?

Soleil: They're having a festival! I need to put to work what I practice! That's the only way to see if it works, right?

Azura: There will be other festivals! What you did was reckless!

Soleil: I'm fine!

Azura: And the next time? If your professors can't discipline you, then it's up to me; and as your mother-

Soleil: Mother? Mother? Don't toss that word around so easily. Mother...what a joke. You're not my mother. A mother doesn't kidnap one of her children and abandon the other two. A mother doesn't come back years later and act like she doesn't even recognize her own blood. I shouldn't have had to reach out first!

Azura: Soleil I was just trying to say-

Soleil: What? You were just trying to say what? That after ten years missing you finally care about me? No, it's too late for that.

Azura: …

Soleil: You know what? These lessons aren't working out. Let's just end them. Thanks for coming by Lady Azura, but I can make it to the monastery on my own.

A-Support:

Azura: Soleil! There you are!

Soleil: Lady Azura. You seem to be doing well.

Azura: As well as one can be doing during war. I've heard about your exploits all the way back in my hometown. Would you allow me the honor of tea sometime? I'd love to catch up.

Soleil: I'm...not sure that's a good idea.

Azura: Oh. I...I see.

Soleil: I'm not mad at you, not anymore at least. But I think your time would be spent getting to know Saul, or helping the Professor or your students. This is war after all.

Azura: Soleil, you're one of my students too.

Soleil: Look, now just isn't a good time, okay? I'll...I'll reach out when I'm ready.

Azura: I understand.

*Soleil starts to leave*

Azura: Soleil!

*Soleil stops*

Azura: I'm not going anywhere. Not this time.

Soleil: …

A+ Support:

Soleil: And one and two and Ah!

*falling sound effect*

Soleil: Damn it damn it damn it! Why can't I ever get that turn!? Why am I the only one…

Azura: You're hesitating.

Soleil: Gah!

Azura: Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Soleil: *Blushing* What are you doing here? Are you watching? How long have you been watching?

Azura: The entire time. You've been practicing, even during a war...? And...that was your father's dance, wasn't it?

Soleil: …

Azura: Did your father teach you after I…

Soleil: After you left and before he was brutally murdered? Yeah, he taught me. I wasn't much of a student, but it was fun.

Azura: No, I can see it. It's just…

Soleil: I'm not a good dancer, right? No use in hiding it. I know.

Azura: I never said that! I don't remember you dancing much when you were younger, that's all.

Soleil: Honestly, you never had to. You wanted to know why I wanted to learn to dance, right? It was because of you.

Azura: Me?

Soleil: Yup. Sure, father told me stories about how good of a dancer his mother was, but I wanted to be just like you. I watched you and father dance all the time. You were so graceful, so ethereal, so beautiful. You were my hero and my personal own Saint...and what daughter doesn't want to be like her mother?

Azura: …

Soleil: But every dance, every day felt like I was fighting for your affection. I'd try to sing or dance and you always got this...look in your eye. Like I was an annoyance.

Azura: Soleil...those days...I was in a dark place.

Soleil: I know.

Azura: You...do?

Soleil: I visited your homeland during the early parts of the war. Asked around, got some info, heard the story. So when I say I'm happy for you, please believe it. But...this? Us? That's the price paid.

Azura: I know. Deep down, I think I've always known... For what it's worth, when I say I'm glad to see you safe, please believe it as well. I'm sorry for intruding, and I hope someday you'll take me up on that offer for tea.

*Azura turns to leave*

Soleil: ...I was glad, you know.

Azura: Pardon?

Soleil: When you scolded me, all of those years ago. When you said you were my mother. A part of me - that little girl inside of me - was glad that you finally acknowledged me. But we can't turn back time. Even if we could, I'm not sure I'd want to. I like who I am now. That little girl grew up into a strong woman.

Azura: A strong, smart, beautiful woman.

Soleil: And that woman...she can't go back to being the little girl who wants nothing more than her mother's praise. She just can't. Maybe the woman she's grown into will be willing to make a new bond, but not today. Not right now...I promise I'll reach out when I'm ready.

Azura: Like I said, I'm not going anywhere.

Author's Notes:

While it wasn't the first one written, this was the first ever support that came to mind. It started out as a head-canon modified version of Soleil and Azura's existing relationship in Fates. If Soleil was a more fleshed out character, how would she feel about being the only person in her family (that she knows of) that can't sing or dance? Inigo, Oliva, Azura, Arete, and even Shigure can all sing and/or dance. How would that affect her psyche? Is her happiness a façade? Was she shy because she felt like she couldn't fit in? Would it cause friction between Soleil and the rest of her family?

In the end, my head-canon is that Soleil learned to accept her flaws as a part of herself, and bloomed into a beautiful and confident woman much like her aunt. (And her mercenary troupe mirrors her paternal grandfather's militia.)

I took remnants of that head-canon and combined them with the more mature approach to characters Three Houses took, and the story sort of wrote itself. This version of Soleil's a far darker character, but I think the darkness sharpened her to a far more interesting one as well.

Now to the supports themselves:

The amount of supports was never really planned. I knew I'd need the base C, B & A, but I wasn't sure beyond that.

The C support, like Saul and Azura's B support, is all about reestablishing contact without being TOO obvious about what either side wants. I'm not necessarily hiding it for the sake of a plot twist in this case (or in any case), but I like how both characters can't bring themselves to say what they want or even need to say just yet.

The B support was far lighter than I thought it'd be! Then again, I wasn't actually sure how it'd turn out until I wrote it. I wanted a scene of Soleil and Azura dancing, and this fit the bill. Of course, it wasn't the planned B support, but Three Houses' supports allow for more than the traditional three supports, something I'm really happy about. (It's probably something they stole from Persona!) Here are hints about Dorothea and Soleil's past relationship. The two girls broke up, and while I'm not entirely sure it was amicable just yet, I know it WAS mutual.

The B+ support was always planned to be the way it was. It's a throwback to Inigo's B support with his father (who I see as Chrom) in Awakening, and I find it really fits here. What has happened is that Azura overstepped the boundaries of the relationship. You can see glimpses of that in the previous support, such as with her asking about Soleil's motivation and history. And frankly, I don't blame Azura for pulling the "mother card" here, given how Soleil needed to be put in check by someone. It unfortunately also happened to be a trigger for the youth. That being said, I will admit it's a little rushed. The story I wanted to tell demanded Soleil's freak out, while the story I felt the characters wanted to tell was another one. Had Azura not pulled the "mother card," her and Soleil's relationship would probably have ended in a more positive place. They never would have fully healed, but it would have been better. But alas, that wasn't meant to be.

The A support was a nice short surprise, and I'm happy how it turned out. It plants the seeds of hope that potentially blossom off-screen. I will admit that it does feel a bit...basic compared to the other supports. But that isn't a bad thing. Contrast is sometimes needed to highlight the prize.

The A+ support has some of the best dialogue of the five, and (as seems to be the case with me) goes more into the character's backstory and emotional history. Soleil's complexity about dancers starts with her mother, but it bleeds over into her other relationships as well, as we will hopefully see someday. (I DO want to write a Dorothea/Soleil support, but their relationship is a mess in my head and I'm not entirely sure how to address it just yet.)

While the two wouldn't have a paired ending like other characters who reach A supports together - a reference to their mother-daughter bond never fully healing - I imagine that the two would stay and touch and visit on occasions. Soleil would never call Azura "mother," but Azura would be noted to get teary-eyed when Soleil dropped the "Lady" in "Lady Azura."