XXX
Story: [Louise and Kyon]
Summary: Kyon reincarnates into a perfectly average life. Haruhi... doesn't.
Fandom: (Zero no Tsukaima) / (Haruhi Suzumiya)
Genre: Romance
XXX
I never expected to be reincarnated.
I suppose I wasn't a very spiritual person, despite everything that I'd been exposed to, but honestly it was more that I don't think it ever really occurred to me that Haruhi would be willing to settle for something like a 'repeat' of life, even if I'd ended up with a different name.
Not that I really expected my given name to matter much to that girl. The moment she figured out who I was, she'd probably just start calling me by that accursed nickname again.
Honestly, I couldn't really think of any reason why Haruhi would allow for reincarnation. She wasn't the type of girl to want to 'turn back time' in order to redo her life – that one particular summer notwithstanding – and she held on to her friends too desperately for me to imagine that she'd want to try out 'life without the Brigade'.
The only conclusion I could make was that Haruhi was either not in any way responsible for my reincarnation, or that she'd done something in order to be able to actually participate in all of the supernatural things happening around her, this time around. Which – if it was true – would mostly put me out of a job, seeing as how almost all of it consisted of trying to keep Haruhi from finding out about things and accidentally ending the world.
Still, there wasn't much I could do about being reincarnated except dealing with being reincarnated. It was awkward having parents doting on me, when I'd outgrown that several decades ago. Also, it was weird being an only-child, after the whirlwind that had been my little sister.
I suppose that awkwardness was the main reason I decided to study at a school as far away from my my parents' house as I could reasonably excuse myself with. After all, that way I could live on my own and not have my parents hovering over my shoulder all the time.
Things were pretty dull.
I'd tried looking for Haruhi, or even the rest of the Brigade, but I hadn't managed to find anything at all. And I was starting to worry that Haruhi truly hadn't been in any way associated with whatever reason for why I'd been reincarnated.
It was an empty feeling, to be alone. To be separated from the most frustrating person I've ever met in my life. To not be able to find the person dearest to my heart.
So-... So when I first saw that hovering sphere in front of me, I couldn't really stop myself from reaching for it. And then it swallowed me whole, and the world disappeared from underneath me.
XXX
Louise wasn't really sure about what she'd been expecting from life. To be famous? To be loved? To be powerful? To help people?
She couldn't really remember what her childhood dream had been. To marry a handsome prince? No, that had probably been Henrietta, she'd in fact been very focused on a very specific prince, if Louise's memory served. To be acclaimed for her brilliance? No, that was her eldest sister Eleanor, and she'd succeeded at it – even if she seemed to have forever sacrificed her luck with men for that success.
Louise had just... wanted something. A kind of empty feeling of something lacking, and a desperate desire to have that emptiness filled.
She'd briefly thought that perhaps that desire would be filled when Wardes had proposed to her, but even if the man had taken that childish promise of marriage seriously – which Louise doubted, even if she were to suddenly become talented with magic and actually grow some damned curves – that wasn't quite it. Maybe marrying Wardes would've been on the right track, but it wasn't really that.
She wasn't looking for a husband. Maybe it'd been a friend she'd been looking for, someone not separated by rank in the manner of Henrietta? But it wasn't like she'd ever managed to find anyone worth talking to. The only people who were willing to acknowledge her were people impressed by her family's good name, and the rest simply sneered and scoffed at her inability with magic.
Then again, Louise kind of doubted that that was true either.
Not that any of that really mattered to her. She needed to figure out her magic, she needed to make a good impression, she needed to avoid becoming a blot on her family's good name. She needed it with a desperation that made that old empty ache fade into the distance.
So she begged for a manticore, or a dragon, or even just a toad. Anything. Anything that would prove to the world that she wasn't completely useless. That she wasn't a commoner pretending to be a noble.
Instead, she got an explosion.
And a commoner boy, blinking blearily up at her from his position in the middle of the summoning circle.
He glanced around, and then put a hand to his face and sighed.
Louise – having been halfway into turning to professor Colbert to demand a chance to redo the summoning ritual – froze. She wasn't sure why, she didn't have a clue why she suddenly couldn't look away from that commoner who looked so utterly exasperated.
The boy turned back to her, a small nostalgically crooked smile on his face. "Pink hair? Really? I might've sucked at biology, but that's still bullshit. Even for you."
It wasn't the language of Halkeginia, but somehow-... somehow it resonated in her chest. That old empty ache lightening suddenly as if a weight was lifted from her chest. And even if she didn't understand the words, she knew exactly what the commoner had said.
So she bristled like an angry cat. "There's nothing wrong with my hair, you idiot! Penalty!"
His small smile turned into a grin, and her heart skipped a beat at how it changed his face. "But you still haven't changed at all, have you?" He shook his head, pretending to be woefully exasperated, as if he wasn't grinning with the desperate happiness of a starving man offered food. "For shame."
Louise glared at him, feeling her face flushing at the familiar way he was acting towards her. As if he'd always known her, as if meeting her again like this had been something he'd waited for for years upon years, as if he'd missed her something fiercely.
That old empty ache was being washed away, even as something in her heart cheered at meeting this stranger, this commoner that had ruined her summoning ritual.
But-... he was what she'd summoned, so-... he was hers, right? There was no way that he wasn't hers? But no, she needed to know-... she needed to know for sure-...
He met her eyes, and for some reason she was fully convinced that he knew something that she hadn't ever spoken. His grin turned softer. "Servant or slave, enemy or minion, lover or friend." He held out his hand to her, easily reaching her cheek now that she'd sunk to her knees next to him.
His fingers were rough, but still far too soft to belong to the commoners that she'd met. Which was strange, but somehow suited him perfectly. Too lazy to ever be a hard worker, too uninspired to ever go on adventures, too kind to ever reject another asking for help, and too annoying to ever follow another without complaint. That was what this commoner was.
And he'd sworn himself to her, in a language that she didn't know, with words she couldn't understand, but which she knew without doubt.
"But only for you." Fingertips trailed along her skin, and Louise nodded in response.
"Master, enemy, lover, or friend." Her heart was thundering in her chest as if it was trying to burst, and she could feel tears burning their way down her face. "And all at once, but only for you."
She wasn't even entirely sure what the hell she was even saying anymore. But it didn't really feel like those words belonged to her. They belonged to what was filling the aching emptiness inside of her, and they belonged to the desperate happiness in the commoner's smile. Not to either of them, but at the same time-...
They were words that belonged to a magic that wasn't the Founder's. They were a vow renewed, and she'd been waiting to hear it for so very long.
Whether it was him or herself, they pulled each other in for a kiss.
XXX
Kirche gaped at the sight in front of her.
Kirche had summoned a fire salamander, which was impressive. Not as impressive as Tabitha's dragon, admittedly, but still very much impressive. So she'd been waiting to see Valliere brought down a peg, wanted to see her summon something pathetic like a roach.
And instead she'd summoned a foreigner who looked at her as if she was a goddess made flesh.
Kirche had been surprised to see the Zero summon a commoner of all things, but she could've easily dealt with that by mockery, because it would've mostly just been utterly ridiculous. But for Valliere to summon a boy her own age, who looked at her with wonder and heartfelt fondness-...
Kirche was actually a bit jealous. She'd never managed to get a boy to look at her like that. They'd certainly worshiped her – some in far more talented manners than others – and they'd obsessed themselves with her and what they thought they knew of her. But this-... the boy was just so-...
Valliere wasn't even that pretty, so that the boy didn't even seem to have eyes for anyone else-... It grated, because Kirche was supposed to be irresistible, and yet it was Louise who was tonsil-checking the foreigner.
Actually, from the way they fidgeted and drew each other close, there was mutual tonsil-checking going on, and – from Kirche's not insignificantly experienced view – the foreign commoner was apparently quite good at it.
Hell, just checking the time would've revealed that much. They'd been going at it for a while now.
Seriously, this was not cool. Kirche was supposed to be the one doing all of the scandalous things, not the super-prudish Valliere!
XXX
