BU-RE-SU

By Tenshi no Ai

(C) Square Enix

XII. -Divine-

-0-

Beowulf leaned forward as if he was about to impart a secret of deep importance. "It's all in the quantity of the sugar combined with the tea leaves. That's what makes good tea."

"You're only saying that because you're addicted," Reis murmured, taking a sip of her delightfully sugar-free lemon tea. A cool breeze from the sea tousled her locks like a heavy hand, scattering the dark blond locks over her shoulders. She felt the motion, but not the refreshing quality of such a boon on a late August afternoon. Beowulf did, prompting him to only smile indulgently at his lover while he leaned back in his seat.

"It's a shame. You don't know what you're missing out on, love." He took a sip of his own tea, which would've once been called 'plain' if it weren't for the spoonfuls of sugar dumped inside. "Haven't you heard the expression, 'sweets for the sweet'?"

She closed her eyes, a light smile playing at the corners of her lips. "No."

"Oh, I'm sure you have."

Long fingers drummed the side of the tea cup as Reis began to blush. "No, and it's because I don't like sweets. If I did, you would've said it a long time ago, along with all those other compliments."

He laughed, a rich sound that caused her to shiver delightfully. "And you deserved all of them. You should just accept it and some of my tea. It wouldn't kill you."

Opening her eyes, Reis shook her head in amusement. "I'm going to get such an ego out of all of your compliments. Is that what you want?"

Beowulf's eyes widened in surprise, but his tone reminded undauntedly cheerful. "I just want you to accept how wonderful you are, of course."

"Ah..." A full, rosy blush darkened her creamy skin as she reached for her cup of tea. She took a sip, composing herself with the time she spent not looking at his infuriatingly pleased expression, then lowered the cup. When she glanced at him again, only the faintest hint of pink remained. "You haven't changed a bit," she stated in a mostly bland voice.

He wasn't sure if she meant for it to sound so much like an accusation. "Is that really such a bad thing?"

"No, not at all." Reaching out with both hands, she gripped her cooling teacup as she stared across the table at him. "It's comforting to see that at least one thing remains constant in this world...at least, for me..."

Now he reached for her hands, squeezing them comfortingly as he gazed into her light eyes. "You're the same where it counts. It took me a while to fully realize that, but I do see it," he murmured, knowing that her sensitive hearing would catch his words easily. His thumbs rubbed the backs of her hands, rough calluses against deceptively soft skin. "Anyway, there are other things that are the same now as they were then."

Her lips twitched at this. "Other than the fact that there's a war going on?"

"Well, yes..." he began to say before suddenly frowning. "Well, maybe not." Reis began to laugh, taking one of her hands away from his in order to cover her mouth and perhaps hold back the laughter. It didn't work, and a moment later he joined her. When they finally lost their fit of the giggles, his hands still cupped over one of hers, twin smiles on their faces, he tried to continue with their earlier topic. "So, are you going to accept the fact that you're an incredible woman who deserves every compliment she gets?"

She used the hand that previously covered her fit of laughter to comb through her hair as she said, "Only if you accept that you're the same."

"I'm a woman now?"

"Beowulf..."

"Sorry, sorry," he said, enjoying her look of exasperation. "Yes, I'll accept it." She only smiled, prompting him into asking, "So, aren't you going to accept it?"

Her smile grew wider. "Sorry, but no."

"That's a horrible trick, love. What happened to my sweet, honest Reis? You wouldn't believe how disappointed I am in you--" His good-natured tirade was cut off by a peal of laughter erupting from her, and even his slight indignation at being tricked was completely carried away by her melodious laughter. "What's so funny?" he asked in mock annoyance.

"You are, Beowulf." Any retort he had was immediately silenced by her brilliant smile. "We need to do this more often."

"Eat out?"

"Laugh." Her smile remained, but her eyes conveyed a wistfulness that granted a delicate sorrow to her youthful features. "We've rarely had the chance to do that."

The natural response--well, we haven't seen any situations that would inspire that, you know--was tempered by the wisdom of his advanced age of thirty-three years and an uncanny insight to Reis' subtly shifting moods. Instead, he squeezed her hand again and smiled comfortingly. "After everything is over, we'll be able to, don't you think?"

Slowly, the melancholic haze cleared from her eyes and she nodded. "I can't wait," she said, delight brightening her sepia eyes. "We'll be able to go home...to our home. That's...we've been meaning to do that for so long..."

'So long' was probably not an adequate phrase to describe six years and two transformations, but he still agreed with her all the same. "You'll love it," he replied, letting go of her hand to take his now cold cup of tea and drain it down. "My sister would love to meet you, and Lesalia is a nice place year round."

"I can't wait," she replied earnestly, sipping her tea and wincing at its cool flatness. "It really feels like everything will be resolved soon. But I wonder what's in Orbonne? It's just a very big bookroom."

Beowulf shrugged, unconcerned. "Nothing too dangerous, I hope. All we have to do is find Vormav and rescue Ramza's sister. That shouldn't be too hard."

"I hope you're right."

"Mm. Me too."

A comfortable silence fell over the couple, their faces both displaying the pensiveness they felt but couldn't voice. Reis was more given to pessimism than Beowulf, but it wouldn't hurt to hope, would it?

They'd gone too far to give that up.

"Beowulf," Reis said, her voice soft. "After everything, I'd like to visit Lionel again."

His eyes, crimson in the bright summer day, flickered towards her. "Bariaus Hill, you mean?"

"Yes, and..." Her teeth lightly worked over her bottom lip as she glanced at him. "Lionel Castle. Just to see the place where we met and lived."

He wanted to tell her that he had no reason to go there, the place where everything had changed, where their dreams had, if not ended completely, been delayed for a ludicrous amount of time. There were still people there who could remember phantom flickers of Beowulf the Shrine Knight and Reis the cataloguer, two people who were transfigured into a heretic and a dead person respectively. There wasn't anything there except the resigned sighs of another war and the subtle oppression the capital city of a Church-owned region needed to bear.

After all, it was a place where the Church ruled and dreams ended.

"Anywhere you want to go, Reis," he answered, even employing a slight smile so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable by asking this very sensitive boon.

She smiled, opened her mouth to voice a soft 'thank you', but a shadow fell over the table. Rafa stood there, looking very small and embarrassed as she nervously clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Um, Ramza wants everyone to meet at the south entrance. We're, um, we're going to camp out at Orbonne so we won't get too tired before everything."

"Thank you, Miss Galthana," Beowulf said just as Reis nodded in appreciation. The young girl smiled just a bit before she hurried away, ostensibly to find more members of Ramza's troop to deliver the news to. The hunter shrugged and stood, offering his arm to his lady love with a quirky little smile. "Shall we be off?"

Reis stood, self-consciously smoothing her skirts of any wrinkles before linking her arm with his. "I suppose so." They began to walk away from the small cafe, their next few lines carried by the sea breeze to waft down to anyone else who might've enjoyed a seat outside.

"I really enjoyed today."

"But you didn't have anything sweet. No matter, though; after this, I'll take you to some of the best restaurants Ivalice has to offer."

"Fine, fine. After everything is done, let's travel and eat and everything else we've ever wanted to do. I mean, saving Ivalice is important, but..."

"We have our lives to live too, right?"

"Yes. We have the rest of our lives together, finally..."

-End to Divine-

If you're like me, then you believe that everyone died in Murond Death City and therefore this makes a rather depressing ending. The only thing important about this story is that the essential quality of Beowulf and Reis' relationship is one of comfort and companionship. It is not that Beowulf has trouble sleeping at night because of his past or that he can't deal with some aspects of hers, and it's not that she's a dragoner and she's confused. Because of that, this is probably the most important story of the bunch because of its simplicity.

Chronological list of stories: Blessed, Cool, Burn, Electric, Shock, Freeze, Chill, Static, Blaze, Pure and Divine, with Warmth being the odd one out.

For all intents and purposes, this is the last main BU-RE-SU story. There will be some extras, one funny, one serious and one angry, but this is more or less my ending in the FFT section. I still have The Machinist, which I will enter in the IcyBrian contest and which will get stomped by whatever offering DK has--why, why, why--and there's still the prizefic for Fallen Dynasty and 3 for canon purposes and maybe UFC because Fire Emblem doesn't seem like it'll inspire me for too long, but everything is going to be posted between work and school. So, see ya in this section or another.

To all the reviewers who have supported my FFT stories for the last two years, thank you. It was only through each and every one of your reviews--some funny, some painfully analytical, and some that were more conversation than anything else--that I craved to have something out every week for you all to enjoy. You all, especially you frequent and weekly reviewers who know who they are, were my drive to write, and my only hope is that I had entertained you in this short amount of time.

Finally, the last (very short) reviewer responses:

TobyKikami, I'm eagerly awaiting your next FFT fic. Email me or something once you get it posted up, alright? I'll bring all my critiquing skills to bear, just for you! D

TruebornChaos, TSS is the eighth FE game, with the plainly titled Fire Emblem being the seventh in the series. It's confusing, I know. Anyway, in my dragon court you'd certainly be the crown prince because you've never failed to be kind.

raitei, chin up! You're definitely good enough to say what you think about any story. We all read using our own life experiences, and it's through relating how we feel because of them that we all become better, not just at writing but at living. Now, if you ever come into another one of my stories without self-confidence in what you're saying, I'm going to be very disappointed in you:)

To everyone else, readers and reviewers both, laters.