Prompt 112 - Redemption: "Home"
Title: Home
Author: SammyQuill
Series: Manga
Characters: Roy, Riza
Summary: They’re finally home
Warning: Character death
Word Count: 456
A/N: Song lyrics belong to “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, which I have been listening to all morning thanks to the Glee snippets for next episode. I really, really hope I did this scenario justice. I have also recently completed my 100 Royai themes (of exactly one hundred word drabbles) and the last few deal with this so I’ve been in a bit of a morbid mood. And lastly, I wish we had a longer word limit for this prompt.
I came across, an empty land.
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand,
I felt the earth, beneath my feet,
Set by the river and it made me complete
Riza! Riza, I’m home!
The echoes of the young boy still float through the empty and barren fields behind the Hawkeye estate. Borne of scorching hot days when he used to run all the way from the only school in the small village, in shoes too thin to protect his feet from the blazing asphalt and cracked earth. In shorts two sizes too big for his thin frame, in a voice as dry and cracked as the sun baked earth in the garden.
But the shoes, the shorts, the dry, scratchy laugh, none of it matters, because he is home. And she is always waiting by the little brook that provides relief. Or maybe it’s just her? He is never sure.
I came across, a fallen tree,
I felt the branches of it looking at me…
Is this the place, we used to love?
Is this the place I’ve been dreaming of?..
They say nothing lasts in the deserts of Ishval, be it man, beast or God. But they are wrong. Because if they listen carefully to the winds that pick up near sunset, as the false sun takes refuge behind poisonous clouds, they would clearly hear the worn and beaten whisper of a soldier, a soldier whose very spirit it torn and bleeding, make a confession to a memory concealed in the shadows of the tents.
Riza… I’m home…
Every day, the cycle repeats, near sunset, the memory waits, lurking in shadows to hear the soldier return and confess that he is there, he is alive, he is there. His words picked up by the desert gales, carried in every grain of sand until it becomes a storm that unleashes itself on the wary troops, just like their message would on the locals the next day.
O simple thing, why have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need someone to rely on…
So tell me when, you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
The short, sharp cracks of bullets still haunt the execution grounds. The eerie, empty air still circles the figures of the two shot in each other’s arms on orders, orders given by their request.
The request for a dual execution doesn’t surprise anyone, least of all them. Their fading shadows still walk down the narrow path with shoulders straight and head bent, for the first time, holding each other close.
We’re home, Riza
This is the end of everything
So why don’t we go?
Somewhere only we know…
Somewhere only we know
Author: SammyQuill
Series: Manga
Characters: Roy, Riza
Summary: They’re finally home
Warning: Character death
Word Count: 456
A/N: Song lyrics belong to “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, which I have been listening to all morning thanks to the Glee snippets for next episode. I really, really hope I did this scenario justice. I have also recently completed my 100 Royai themes (of exactly one hundred word drabbles) and the last few deal with this so I’ve been in a bit of a morbid mood. And lastly, I wish we had a longer word limit for this prompt.
I came across, an empty land.
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand,
I felt the earth, beneath my feet,
Set by the river and it made me complete
Riza! Riza, I’m home!
The echoes of the young boy still float through the empty and barren fields behind the Hawkeye estate. Borne of scorching hot days when he used to run all the way from the only school in the small village, in shoes too thin to protect his feet from the blazing asphalt and cracked earth. In shorts two sizes too big for his thin frame, in a voice as dry and cracked as the sun baked earth in the garden.
But the shoes, the shorts, the dry, scratchy laugh, none of it matters, because he is home. And she is always waiting by the little brook that provides relief. Or maybe it’s just her? He is never sure.
I came across, a fallen tree,
I felt the branches of it looking at me…
Is this the place, we used to love?
Is this the place I’ve been dreaming of?..
They say nothing lasts in the deserts of Ishval, be it man, beast or God. But they are wrong. Because if they listen carefully to the winds that pick up near sunset, as the false sun takes refuge behind poisonous clouds, they would clearly hear the worn and beaten whisper of a soldier, a soldier whose very spirit it torn and bleeding, make a confession to a memory concealed in the shadows of the tents.
Riza… I’m home…
Every day, the cycle repeats, near sunset, the memory waits, lurking in shadows to hear the soldier return and confess that he is there, he is alive, he is there. His words picked up by the desert gales, carried in every grain of sand until it becomes a storm that unleashes itself on the wary troops, just like their message would on the locals the next day.
O simple thing, why have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need someone to rely on…
So tell me when, you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
The short, sharp cracks of bullets still haunt the execution grounds. The eerie, empty air still circles the figures of the two shot in each other’s arms on orders, orders given by their request.
The request for a dual execution doesn’t surprise anyone, least of all them. Their fading shadows still walk down the narrow path with shoulders straight and head bent, for the first time, holding each other close.
We’re home, Riza
This is the end of everything
So why don’t we go?
Somewhere only we know…
Somewhere only we know