Final Fantasy XII -- Ashe and Vossler -- set Epsilon
.
Authors:
mithrigil and
kellios
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Pairing: Vossler York Azelas and Ashelia Banalgan Dalmasca
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: suggestive, getting a bit close to R, but still worksafe.
THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING.
1. Motion - Even as he scattered the enemy like so many roadside pebbles, Captain Azelas gave Ashe the impression of being unwaveringly still.
2. Cool - The riverwater seeped between Vossler’s fingers and set the hairs on his bare hips prickling, and he cursed his yearning.
3. Young - She never thought of him in terms of his age; indeed, she never asked it.
4. Last - She spat, “Who are you, Vossler, to talk of trust?”
5. Wrong - They shared a tent in the waste many times; each night, he laid his sword between them; she never once chided him for it.
6. Gentle - He’d carried her off the battlefield once, and she recalled (from the impending haze as the darkness set in) that he’d not slung her over his shoulder like she’d seen him do to other fallen comrades; for her, he sheathed his greatsword and swept her up in both arms, and her shirtdress plastered against the blood-slick mail over his chest.
7. One - He would trust no one else to ensure Lady Ashe’s aims, not even her.
8. Thousand - How many of Vossler’s nights had passed in this way, sleepless as she breathed beside him, the ghost of her martyred husband in every exhale?
9. King - Vossler entertained the thought, with dark bemusement, that Lady Ashe’s father may not have disapproved.
10. Learn - She grunted and withdrew the Save the Queen from the innards of the fallen wyrm, and caught Basch as he stared at her, his gaze somehow more wistful than she’d ever seen; Ashe recalled then who had taught her to swing a two-handed sword in the first place.
11. Blur - The enveloping haze of Haste poured over her and suddenly Lady Ashe was an avenging angel, her windblown hair and the tails of her tunic spread into the long shadows of wings.
12. Wait - It became easier, every day, to wake chastely beside her and accept that her grief would never abate.
13. Change - The rains came to Giza again, and another year of care cowed Ashe’s shoulders and darkened her smoldering eyes; at least Captain Azelas had shown her how to fashion her anger into a shield.
14. Command - What fortune, Vossler thought, that the princess not only required but warranted his service.
15. Hold - She wavered, dizzy, and Vossler’s cold gauntlets clasped her bare shoulders, and even as she shivered a pang of weakness and self-loathing crept over her skin.
16. Need - Idly, perhaps for no reason at all, she rested her fingers on her inner thigh; he noticed and felt his elbows clench into his sides.
17. Vision - Heat crept up his neck and into his cheeks as he watched her unclasp her sword-belt, and he turned away before she could perceive her stance had been anything but innocent.
18. Attention - For all their claims to fighting for the restoration of their princess, their country, their dignity, the resistance followed Captain Azelas and not the woman they so lauded.
19. Soul - He had held a powerful Arcana in his hand, and felt the violent writhings of the spirit there imprisoned; Lady Ashe’s baleful glare fell on him, and he recalled that surge of tragedy.
20. Picture - He had tossed and turned through imaginings of her mouth on his skin, her legs about his hips, gasps rattling against his neck, and for weeks the thoughts perverted every sight of her.
21. Fool - Captain Azelas thought it wise to keep himself from princesses and stones, yet he was just as caught up in it as she.
22. Mad - Basch’s axe tore through Vossler’s gauntlet and the joints of Vossler’s fingers ricocheted off the ground beside his sword, and the smell of his own blood plummeted through Vossler’s sinuses, laughing, revealing at last how wrong he may have been.
23. Child - “A son of Dalmasca,” he answered, though she would not heed.
24. Now - Vossler’s words cut through the Princess; the weak plea, “Save Dalmasca,” rasped in her ears for days.
25. Shadow - They bivouaced in the shade of the Estersand’s red cliffs, and she sank against his side, weary even as they finally escaped the vicious sun.
26. Goodbye - She ran her withered fingertips over his name, rune-carved in stone, simple, stark, and unadorned.
27. Hide - He died uncertain as to his own feelings for her, let alone whether she shared them.
28. Fortune - Red moonlight seeped through the slats of their tent and fell upon her lips, parted gently as she slept; Vossler hailed and cursed the gods for the gift they had both given and denied him.
29. Safe - Vossler spared not one breath to mourn the murdered king; he raced south through the desert, panting, the welfare of the Princess filling his lungs with fear enough to keep him alive.
30. Ghost - In the Tomb of Raithwall, Lady Ashe stood rapt, shocked eyes gaping at a man’s height on the dais; even as Vossler prayed that she would not destroy his, their instrument of bargain, his heart sank as he deduced what apparition stayed her hand.
31. Book - Ever after, when the royal mummers breathed life into tales of self-sacrificing knights, her heart would race until her very blood ached.
32. Eye - Her skills with a greatsword had improved notably, he thought as he saw the sparks flying between their blades when she parried, but he could not muster the strength to look her straight in the eyes.
33. Never - Ashe had to wonder if the fount of her grief would have eventually run dry of its own accord, had she not come to rely on it so deeply.
34. Sing - It was a busker in Balfonheim outside the Whitecap, cheapening the Leviathan’s fall with bawd and rhyme, who finally spurred Ashe to consider and cry.
35. Sudden - Imperceptible, yea, but beyond doubt; one moment, she was an abstract concept, the means to a desired end; the next, he desired her.
36. Stop - As Judge Magister Ghis trained his approving sneer on Vossler, Ashe’s back teeth grit and froze, as if to hold back a scream.
37. Time - Years after his death, she might have been ready to love him.
38. Wash - Her last sight of him was the mist-fire flaring off his armor and into his eyes, the spray of his blood across the mail gleaming like a falling star.
39. Torn -- Ashe could not help but notice the rip in Vossler's armor, and continued to stare at his shoulder, walking quietly behind him.
40. History - It took fifty years for Queen Ashe to consent to append Vossler’s name to Dalmasca’s annals as a hero, rather than a traitor.
41. Power - Nothing hurt him so deeply as the indecision in her eyes when she took up the shard; he saw what she craved, and it disturbed him, and he tried, valiantly, to justify his betrayal in that light.
42. Bother - The reek of the Waterway clung to his clothing, recalcitrant, reminding him of how deeply he’d failed her.
43. God - Mateus fell, and his crystal now rested around the princess’ neck; the ensorcelled goddess was at once his shield and the source of his blackheartedness; Vossler felt an inextricable kinship, though it disgusted him.
44. Wall - They bolted from the demonic creature, and Vossler clasped his hand around Ashe’s upper arm so forcefully as to nearly break it, but even before her adrenaline allowed for her to chide him through the pain they encountered the demon’s brother; when the five-fingered bruise surfaced the following morning, she cursed it doubly.
45. Naked - Sergeant Azelas, on patrol, was nearly run over by the ten-year-old Princess as she stormed out of the baths in a wailing tantrum, and he could not help but think (shameful though it was) that she would truly be something to stare at if the next five years were kind.
46. Drive - Ashe's sword sank into him and he fell, realizing he no longer felt it.
47. Harm - Ashe slapped Basch clean across the face and Vossler heard it through the enemy armor, wincing.
48. Precious - That incorrigible sky pirate winked at her and Ashe worried at her wedding band, and Vossler knew not which gesture had made him seethe.
49. Hunger - In his dreams, she climbed atop him and her pale, cold hands pried urgently through the clasps of his mail, wound through the hairs on his chest and lower, ghosted over the scars on his hips-and he woke with a start and a choking, sandpaper dryness in his throat.
50. Believe - The Leviathan shattered, and Vossler burned, and knew regret.
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