Out the Window

by Lucathia

Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

Part 4: Ecilan

Sun was back. We managed to get Sun back. However, he was quiet, too quiet, letting too many thoughts trouble him. His was a face I knew intimately yet never saw, a cold, impassive face I'd trained myself into presenting to the world. It was always stiff, betraying nothing. Sun should be much more expressive than this, but even such an expressive person was muted once in my skin, hidden behind walls. Sun, don't fall into my patterns. Don't be so quiet. It made me afraid that he was planning to run away.

The ritual had succeeded in sealing away the Demon King's power, but it hadn't succeeded in switching us back.

Rather, it had succeeded in sealing us into each other's bodies.

"Right, it is a sealing ritual, after all," the Pope had said after the fact. Immediately after he spoke, he'd had to hide behind Earth, the one who was actually Judgment on the inside, or else he might have become a huge slab of ice courtesy of Sun.

Sun hadn't been happy with the result. He had been shaken, hands clenched, regretting his choice, and now he was quiet, too quiet.

I reached out, grabbing hold of his hand again—my cold, cold hands—afraid of his silence.

"Bla—" he began saying automatically when he noticed me, then finished with, "Ecilan."

I'd never been good with words. If I had been, would I have been able to bring Sun back before he had almost done the unforgivable? If I had stopped him before he had thrown Blaze at the dragon back when he'd lost his memories, would the trust between us be stronger? Would Sun blame himself less and be more willing to save himself?

Even though I wasn't good with words, I had to try. I couldn't just leave Sun in doubt. "Sun," I said, "even if I must be displaced for the rest of my life, it would be worth it to have you back."

Sometimes, the only way to get through to Sun was to tell him straight, leaving nothing up for interpretation.

He stared at me and then at all the others, like we were all out of our minds. Although I hadn't spoken with anyone to ask them what they thought of the situation, they were all nodding and agreeing with me, with the exception of the other Sun, the one who was actually Moon, and Moon, the one who was actually Cloud. One was too used to not being able to nod, and the other physically couldn't at the moment.

"How can you say something like that without even changing your expression?" Sun gaped. But a moment later, he muttered, "Oh, who am I kidding? You're Ecilan, the champion of ice cubes!"

I cracked a small smile at that. That's more like Sun.

"A shy smile on Blaze's face is so weird," Sun muttered, raising a hand to his hair only to discover that it was too short to play with the ends.

Seeing myself mutter like that, making those kinds of comments, was also quite strange.

To the side, Leaf, who was the true Blaze instead of me, nodded in agreement. He slapped me on the back and exclaimed, "You can smile, you know! Actually smile. Like this!"

A wide, infectious smile pulled across Leaf's face, giving him an unrestrained look.

I tried smiling more widely.

"Uh, keep working on it! You can do it!" Blaze said with not quite a vote of confidence. Instead of practicing how not to smile, I might have to practice how to smile in front of the mirror now. Whatever Blaze had seen, it was not a passing smile.

Blaze then whirled to face Sun. "He's right, you know! Totally worth it. I don't even mind becoming shorter—sorry Leaf, but you're really short—if it means the twelve of us can be back together. If we're missing any one of us, we wouldn't be the Twelve Holy Knights."

Blaze had always been the most vocal of us about our bonds. Could I too be as big-hearted as he is?

"You can let go now," Sun said, as I was still holding his hand.

"Stay, Sun," I said softly. Stay.

I searched his face—my face—looking for a sign, a hint that I could let go and still be sure that he would remain after I did so, that he wouldn't go off and try to solve everything by himself. It was almost like staring into a mirror. He left absolutely no openings. But this was my face, so logically, I should know it well. Sun was—

Blaze slapped us both on the back. "Come on, let's figure this out together."

The first cracks appeared in Sun's mask. Leave it to Blaze to be able to break through all awkwardness.

Sun offered a small nod and said, "Don't worry your head off, Wastelan. I'm not going anywhere. I mean, this is your body, after all."

I hadn't been worried about my body, but I relaxed a bit and said, "You better keep your word, or else, no blueberry pie."

Sun's eyes widened, a hint of his true character finally showing through my icy exterior. Someone snickered at his reaction. However, instead of being appalled that his pie was being held hostage, a wide grin spread across his face, much like the one Blaze said I was allowed to have. I never knew I could look like that. Never in front of the mirror was I able to smile so truthfully like he currently was. He exclaimed, "Now, I'm definitely staying. How I've missed your blueberry pies!"

Just like how we've missed your blue eyes.

And even your terrible nicknames.

Welcome home, Sun. Welcome home, Grisia.

By the time we cleaned up and healed everyone, night crept up on us. We sat around the campfire to get our bearings and to plan. We were twelve in number once again, and the Pope and the three liches were here with us as well. The liches were somehow all in the forms of small crystal dolls, around the same size as the straw dolls that sometimes showed up around the Holy Temple, most often in the hands of the Leaf Knight Platoon.

The lich called Scarlet was perched on Sun's shoulder like an ornamental piece to my armor, while Pink had taken a similar spot on the shoulder of Stone, who was actually Hell on the inside. Pink had threaded her way between our feet to reach him, but he never bent down to pick her up. However, she didn't let that hinder her, taking it upon herself to clamber up all the way to his shoulders.

Scarlet was whispering and conversing with Sun. The latter pair was much more silent. Pink had attempted to speak with Hell, but the conversation had been completely one-sided, and then she stopped altogether, leaving an awkward silence between them. However, Hell didn't remove her.

The third lich, Stephen, had no candidate to go to, and he didn't like any of us. He opted to sit by himself, a small, black doll easily overlooked under the darkening skies. Somehow, however, he eventually ended up on the Pope's shoulder.

The Pope was to return to the Holy Temple to research how to return us to ourselves, and whether removing the current seal would disturb the balance we currently had. We'd also outlined our plan to Sun to deal with the dark element that corroded the continent by having him battle with Hell every half a year. It was therefore ideal if we could figure out how to switch back before then, or else Moon would need to do a lot of learning about controlling the dark element, but Sun definitely wouldn't let anyone suffer in his place. If he were the kind to do that, he'd have been the one to return from the Cathedral of the Shadow God instead of Hell back then.

Meanwhile, there was still the "Demon King" to take care of and both the Cathedral of the Shadow God and the Kingdom of Kissinger to negotiate with.

While we pretended to be each other.

I held my hands in front of me. These hands were a much darker shade than my own, a healthy shade that saw lots of sun. These hands were also much warmer than my own, suitable for baking bread.

The fire before us flickered, threatening to go out.

Curious, I reached a hand out, certain that the fire element would answer my call now that I was currently the Blaze Knight. It had always been impossible for me to gather the fire element, so I'd become an expert at other ways of starting fires for all my baking needs, but currently, things were different. I focused, beckoning the fire element to converge...

The campfire promptly burst into a towering flame even more massive than the dragon we'd fought in the Valley of Trizer.

Oh. That's not quite what I intended to do.

Sun yelped and immediately turned the campfire into a giant slab of ice.

We stared at it, speechless.

Blaze was the first to break into guffaws, laughing so hard that he had to stop for air and to push Leaf's headband out of his eyes. Judgment, who was the actual Leaf, couldn't stop blinking at Blaze, expression perplexed.

Er, would we be able to pretend to be each other?

"T-The look on your faces!" Blaze finally managed to squeeze out, nearly doubled over. "Man, Ice, you need some practice, or you might even burn our tents down."

"I'll practice," I said. I'll practice until I can even heat up the oven properly with just the use of the fire element.

It would be very useful for baking.

to be continued

A/N: Thanks for reading! Now, imagine "Blaze" with a bashful smile. :D Leave a comment on your way out if you can~