I may just end up turning these into a series, but they can stand alone on their own. If this had a place in the ones I already had, it would be Legacies-Etude-Solitude-Restless-Private. But again, you're free to pick and choose, don't feel obligated to have to stick with every single one. Unless you want to of course, in which I appreciate you sticking around to read about this rarepair that indeed needs some more game coverage!
This one is just a little character/relationship exploration piece.
Snapping awake-and sitting up almost abruptly-Whip nearly grabbed for her sidearm which she had kept locked in the suite desk near her bed while she was in the room. The fact that she had just suffered was one of her more frantic nightmares finally settled home, however, so she quickly stopped herself.
Looking around, she saw the darkness of her room; the suite she was staying in while her and her group were taking part in their varied investigations in Europe. It was not a NESTS lab-which she had been dreaming about, hence her reaction-nor anything else from her past.
She still shivered, though. These dreams were some of the worst...the ones where she would wake up questioning herself, who she was, and if she should even be here or not.
I don't think I'll be sleeping again tonight , she thought. Clicking the small desk lamp on, she looked around the room. She kept it neat, as was her wont-but she wasn't sure if she wanted to put on the television, the radio, pick up her laptop, or a book... anything to sort of try to get her mind off things. It wasn't easy to question one's worth, or if you even belong here...and she always hated when this happened. She was normally very strong willed-doing her work, you had to be, after all-but this was something that was her weak spot.
Whip rubbed her shoulder, shaking her head. Shivering slightly again, she looked at the phone on her desk and debated.
These dreams were not uncommon. Memories blended together to the point where she was confused on what was hers and what was not, along with time in testing areas of NESTS. Usually, she fought these on her own. She was used to them by now. Occasionally one of the guys would offer a reassuring pat, or ask how she was doing-they did care for her-but she never spoke much of anything with them and held it inside. Usually she would just tell them she was fine, and go about her business. She trusted them, but it still just felt weird to talk about.
She knew Adelheid would listen. That wasn't even a doubt on her mind; but part of her wondered if she wanted to spill it all. She felt that maybe, just maybe, it would help...but she wondered if they were close enough yet.
That's stupid , she immediately thought to herself. They had slept together twice already; besides the first time in the hotel, that night she had visited Sky Noah again and they had extra time, locked in his room most of the night; neither had done anything like that before that day. They had slept naked together, which for her felt like one of the more bonding moments they had. They trusted each other, she knew. She had seen him at his absolute lowest...when that darker spirit inside of him almost took him over, and insisted that she stand by him. They felt right together, and that included talking about some of their darker sides.
So why do I feel like it would be a burden to ask?
Unable to get the disturbing, confused thoughts out of her head, she picked up the phone. It was after two in the morning; he would likely be asleep by now. Neither of them went to bed terribly early, but were still usually out by twelve or one, especially if they had something the next day. She had just gotten back tonight after a few days away, and they had decided to meet tomorrow, but she felt like calling now.
After three rings, a sleepy voice picked up. "Seirah?" it asked. "Are you okay?" Adelheid woke up more, wondering why she would be calling this late.
"Hi," she said, pausing. "I...sort of would like someone here," she said, trying to figure out how to ask.
"Of course," he immediately replied, his voice losing the sleepy edge almost instantly. "Is anything wrong?"
"Nothing dangerous," she said, hearing the edge to his voice. "Just...bothered."
"I'll be there soon. Hang on," he said, the concern in his voice heavy.
"Thanks," she replied. Hanging up her phone, she rubbed her neck; she debated getting dressed, but it was warm enough in here to keep her usual tank top and underwear she would sleep in, and it was not like they were shy around each other anymore. She did, however, walk over to the corner of the suite and put on coffee.
Sitting in a chair as it brewed, she rubbed her head and tried to piece together the memories. It was confusing, and when it got too confusing, it could get distressing; she did not like having memories she couldn't place.
It didn't take long to hear a knock-he likely drove there himself, she figured. Getting up to open the door, a clearly hastily dressed Adelheid stood there, his keys in his hand still, though he soon stuffed them in the pocket of his half-open longcoat. He had simply thrown on his trousers and the first shirt he had grabbed-a loose, light tank top, which was not particularly ideal for these now chilly nights-and had even just thrown on his boots without bothering with socks. His hair was still disheveled from sleep. He had slipped out, only notifying one servant as to not alarm them if he wasn't back in time.
"Seirah?" he asked as he walked in, sliding his hand under her chin to lift her head gently. "What happened?"
She smiled sadly as she first placed her hands on his face to kiss him, which he returned; it lingered for a few moments as he slid his jacket off. "It's...I just couldn't sleep anymore," she said. "The thoughts...the memories...they came back. The nightmares. Again." She walked over to the bed, climbing on to sit up against the wall. He joined her, sitting closely.
"Which ones?" he asked, brushing back a bit of her hair.
"That's the thing...I...I don't know," she said.
Adelheid blinked, though knew somewhat about what she was speaking about. He knew due to her unique circumstances in NESTS that her more distant memories could sometimes become muddled, but he never quite knew to the exact extent of it, since she never spoke too much about them. "Tell me what you want to," he said, letting her decide.
She looked at him, smiling sadly. "I sometimes think I don't even know who I am," she said plainly. "My name is Seirah...K' is my younger brother. But then they told me that I was the second. K' still tells me that I'm his big sister." She shook her head, blinking. "I didn't know if Krizalid is my family or not. Is he? Was he?" She looked at Adelheid. "He let me take his life. He put himself right in my line of fire. I...can never ask. The first time when he was killed-not by me-I left him. I regret it...I told Heidern and I still remember the tears," she said, trying to blink them back yet again, and failing.
Adelheid looked at her sadly, reaching his hand immediately up to brush them away; she closed her eyes at his touch. He didn't say anything at the moment, as he wanted her to continue...if she wanted. He was somewhat unsure on how to handle this; but right now she seemed like she just needed to unload. He did, however, keep his hand on the side of her face, taking another one. She held it, leaning into him.
"I sometimes dream about tests," she said. "I don't really remember them...they seem buried pretty far back, but they feel so real in the dreams." She was holding it together; but allowing her to discuss it still got her quite emotional, given how much it had been bottled up. "The worst is remembering when they told me I was not the real person." She shook her head, blinking back a few more tears. "I…" she trailed off, unsure how to continue.
"You're right here, aren't you?" Adelheid asked, his voice gentle. He felt like he didn't want to let that train of thought go too far with her. Biting back his anger at whoever did this-he supposed most of them were dead and that was probably for the best, lest he get the urge to go after them-he caressed the side of her face. "You're Seirah. You saved me from going mad not long ago," he said, referring to the time where the infernal music almost twisted him completely into a shadow of himself.
"I...had my gun out," she said. "I put a bullet into Zero, and yet it still feels like they won after what he told me," she said. She looked up at him, placing a hand over his while he still touched her face. "I felt no relief shooting him," she said. "It's like it changed nothing. I still feel like an imposter. Like I shouldn't be here. I don't want to die...I just want to feel like...someone." She scratched her head, finding it difficult to put her feelings into words. "They said the original was dead. That I'm a copy. I don't know if that's true or not." She blinked away more tears.
Adel's hand slid down to lift her chin up to look at her. "I...can't pretend to know what you feel," he started. "I know somewhat about bad dreams of the past," he said. He would occasionally have bad ones about that terrible night; and before that, the times he was driven into a killing frenzy against people whom he had nothing personal against would weigh on him, but nothing like this. "But...I don't know what you went through. I do know you're here, now. In front of me. You're Seirah. You have your friends who I know care about you. You have a grumpy little brother who I know you care about...and you've shown me things I don't think I would have seen otherwise."
I am so bad at this, he thought to himself after.
Whip, however, smiled at his words, even chuckling when she mentioned her 'grumpy little brother.' She felt his finger wipe one of the tears away, which were starting to slow down. "Thank you," she finally said.
"No matter what went on in there-you're Seirah. No matter what they told you."
Feeling her tears wiped away, she looked up at him, still with a tiny, sad smile. She touched his face, leaning forward to meet him in a kiss; it lingered for a long time before they separated again.
"Want me to stay?" he finally asked, still pressing his forehead to hers.
"Please," she said immediately. She wanted him here tonight.
He lay back on the bed, letting her lay directly on him, her head near his neck. He looked down at her after some time in silence, pushing back some of her hair. "I wish I could do more for you," he said.
She smiled up at him, looking a little better. "You did plenty," she said, never having told someone the things she had. His words and actions had comforted her greatly; especially how he just kept treating her like he always had. "Just stay here for awhile." She felt much lighter. Whip would shed tears, though afterward she never really felt much better, since she felt like everything would catch up to her again.
Somehow, now, it felt a little different.
"I don't need to go anywhere tomorrow. I'll cancel anything. Can stay as long as you need," he said softly. He paused for a moment to slide his shirt off; she lay back down on him as he wrapped around her tightly. He slid one of his long legs over hers, as she turned her head to the side to lay against his neck; she smiled, as he seemed to know how to make her feel secure.
"I'm not sure why I've never talked to the crew about this," she said, turning a bit so she could rest her chin on him while looking at him; he tilted his head up some.
"You trust them, I know?" he asked.
"Of course," Whip smiled. "All of them. And we talk. I mean, we were all investigating NESTS so they certainly know all of those details. But...something just...I can't say why I never talked about how I felt."
Adelheid nodded, brushing a few strands of her hair back again. "I guess there are those things. Maybe it just needed the right time."
Or the right person , Whip thought to herself. She played with some of his hair as she curled up on him, kissing him again before she let her eyes close to relax.
He kept her close, remembering that night where she had done the same for him.
This short story was partially inspired by a King of Fighters All Star card of all things; it has an option card with her on it called "Solitude", and it had the rather tragic quote "I don't know if this memory is mine. I shed tears for his death, knowing that my memories were modified. The rain washes my tears away, but it can't wash my pain away." Pretty heavy.
Whip in the story is a brave young lady who tries to do what's right; but she's gone through her share of tragedy and has certainly shed some tears over it, particularly in the games themselves in her endings. In the games it feels like she never really HAD anyone to kinda vent to; her relationship with the Ikaris definitely seems good and warm, but judging by how she wept but held back while speaking to Heidern, I wonder how much she actually spilled to them in the canon.
I imagine this might have been her chance to get some of it out.
(Mentioning Adelheid's 'going mad from the infernal music'-Rose' piano, in the comics-which are licensed for what it's worth-has the ability to 'wake his killing spirit' in the translation. It's not said how-speculation is that it's from his father's Orochi power left over in him. It can drive him into a berserk rage. While he has killed in self-defense, his berserk state rendered him pretty far gone when it would hit. The 'saving him from going completely mad' is a callback to Etude of Revolution.)