#casually dropping my sona on my blog it’s fine

[larcenywrites]

so… scogan?

Sc-scogan

[rosymiz]

Like A Rose, CH 7: Trust

Title: Like A Rose By: ArisuChanSenpai (Visit my blog for AO3 link!) Fandom: League of Legends Ship: Jhin x Sona

What started from a patient wait gradually turned to a pleasant anticipation. Jhin went to the grove every day to meet Sona and continue whatever conversation they had stopped the day before. Now, their conversations took most of their time over her songs.

He felt like he could now recover with his own power. All he needed was a push.

Sona proved to be the support he was looking for. He would almost break into laughter at the thought. The famed musician that he considered a rival became his first step to a cure. She was the very silence that he always envied. The very silence that would quiet the malevolent voices of his compulsion. Oh, how delightful it was to finally think and feel without such chains weighing him down.

To think that he thought his desire for peace was the chain and ball, when it was simply caught in-between. To think that Sona would be able to untangle it all with one flick of the hand. To think that he would be indebted to her.

These thoughts swirled in his mind as he continued to wait for Sona by the clearing. Jhin had arrived before Sona did, and he felt a slight disappointment that she wasn’t there to greet him with the usual motif that sounded like his name.

He let out a soft huff. It didn’t seem like Sona was going to come in time. Perhaps she was discussing concert matters with her mother. It was an important event for her, and he would still wait until she comes.

Ah, well. She was in for a small surprise either way, whether she was early or not.

Allegrissimo. Allegrissimo! Sona hurried to the grove as quickly as her feet could take her. She was helping the innkeeper’s daughter sort the books in the library and lost track of time. She hoped Jhin was still waiting by the clearing.

When she arrived, she strummed Jhin’s name on the strings to catch his attention.

He was sitting by the tree alone, patientl. He immediately stood up to check on her condition. “Are you alright, Sona?”

Sona nodded, trying to sign between breaths. “I lost track of time. I apologize.” She picked up a box that she dropped momentarily to catch her breath and handed it to Jhin. “I bought dumplings as an apology. I didn’t know what kind you liked, so I bought what was recommended.”

“My, you didn’t have to,” he said, chuckling. He opened the box and smelled the aroma of pork-filled dumplings. “But thank you. I do appreciate that you thought of me, that was kind of you.” He waited until Sona caught her breath and let him know that she was doing fine. “You don’t have to hurry because of me, you know. I can wait.”

“Yes, but I didn’t want to keep you waiting either.” Sona took a seat on the tree next to Jhin’s.

As of recent, Jhin and Sona had begun sitting closer to each other in the clearing, often sitting by the trees next to each other for easier conversation. It was convenient, since they can talk to each other properly without the distance hindering their communication. It was also a sign of a growing comfort between them. Sona stopped taking Jhin’s bag of weapons, despite his insistence. Jhin now only wore his mask without the bodysuit.

Wait.

Jhin was wearing only a mask.

Sona’s eyes slowly moved up Jhin’s head and stopped at the neatly combed locks of hair. Her head slightly moved back in realization that underneath Jhin’s mask was only his face and no bodysuit to cover it. She was surprised beyond words. “But, why?” she asked.

He hummed in thought. “I suppose I trust you a little more, to be frank, and I do not believe that you would force me to remove my mask.” He casually shrugged. “You have the power to. But I have faith that you wouldn’t use it.”

She plucked a few strings that sounded like a giggle. “That is a great risk you are taking there.”

“Yes, but a risk I shall take anyways.”

She droned a note as if she was humming in thought also. “You are correct that I will not force you to show me your face. However, this has piqued my curiosity.”

Jhin chuckled. “All according to plan.”

Sona rolled her eyes and huffed an amused breath. “You are a fool, Jhin.”

“Oh, I beg to differ. My plan is to leaving you hanging on a thread of curiosity, and this is only the start.”

Eyes rolled again. “You are an ass.”

“So you’ve said before.” The two laughed. Sona was about to practice a song she was going to play at the capital, when Jhin stopped her. “I may be asking for too much, but may I see your instrument?”

There was slight hesitation pooling in Sona’s fingers. Did she trust him enough to touch the instrument that’s been part of her life since she was born? Did she trust him enough to say ‘yes’ from the bottom of her heart? She did. She gestured to him to come closer to examine her etwahl.

Jhin sat closer, marveling at the intricate designs on the golden instrument. It was a beautifully crafted etwahl, perhaps the only one in the world, as the instrument shopkeeper had said before. The etwahl had several mysteries to how it worked, and Jhin couldn’t help but wonder. The instrument was too grand to touch, but Jhin’s hand thought otherwise. His hand was hovering over the strings. He looked up as if to ask for permission again.

She once again gestured to him to give it a try.

He delicately placed a finger on the string, pausing. Would the etwahl reflect his very being to Sona if he plucked a note? Would it lash out against him for attempting to? Would it even make a sound? He slightly pulled back and let go of the string. But there was no sound. He tried again, wondering if he plucked it too lightly. There was still no sound.

“Are you surprised?” Sona asked.

“Indeed.” Jhin was perplexed by the lack of sound. “Is there something I did wrong?”

Sona shook her head. She sighed, her fingers brushing against the strings. “I believe that this etwahl somehow shares a connection to my magic. It’s like it contains my voice. Because when I play, people claim to hear something like an extra hum or even singing behind the notes. As if I’m singing along to my music.”

“What an interesting power…” Jhin remembered that there seemed to be a faint hum that didn’t sound like it came from the etwahl when Sona was playing. He always brushed it off as a trick of her hand, to make her song sound ethereal.

“I once used to live in an orphanage.” She looked at Jhin to see him gazing at her to continue. “The caretakers there always tried to sell my precious etwahl to collectors for some reason. At first, I didn’t understand why the etwahl would come back to the doorstep within a day.” She blinked the memories of her lonely childhood away. “One day, I overheard from a collector who visited to return it the same day and said that it wouldn’t make a sound, no matter what he did.”

“Was the etwahl always returned by every collector?”

“I am not sure. Some days, it just appeared on our doorstep without a letter.” She tapped her chin in thought. “When my mother adopted me when I was a teenager, she tried to find out ways for her to play my instrument also. But nothing worked. She seemed to know more about my etwahl than I did.”

“And your mother was the one to teach you how to use your etwahl?”

She nodded. “Yes. Eventually, we found out that the etwahl responded to my magic and me only. No one else, even a person without magic, could get my etwahl to make a sound. Mother also thinks that my etwahl holds my voice.” She placed a hand gingerly against her throat. “It’s probably why I was mute since I was born.”

Everything clicked in place. If the etwahl only responded to Sona, then it definitely wouldn’t respond to him. “That’s quite a childhood you had. You don’t even remember your parents?”

“No. I was seemingly abandoned as an infant. The caretakers found me atop the etwahl when they opened the doors.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been lonely to stay at an orphanage until your teens.”

A wistful smile pulled at the corner of her lips. “You have no idea how happy I was when I was finally adopted. I hold my mother in high regard, and she has a special place in my heart for accepting me for who I am and staying by my side.”

Jhin was quiet. He didn’t know Sona had such an empty childhood. She always seemed like she lived a fulfilling life, but perhaps that was because of her adoptive mother’s love. “Thank you for telling me. I’m sure you had to muster a lot of courage and trust to tell me about your childhood and your instrument.”

Her melancholic smile then turned into an awkward and sheepish smile. “Truthfully, I meant to tell you about my instrument, but I kept going anyways.” She breathed out, wanting to change the subject. “Would you like to hear another song I made a while back? I don’t think you’ve heard this one before.”

“Gladly.” He listened to her play a song that sounded like a mother singing to her child in the late night, crickets chirping along in the background, and the evening breeze rustling the trees and grass. Strange. His eyelids felt heavy listening to this. He let himself close his eyes and fall.

  It was a lullaby that Sona remembered her mother singing to her when she had nightmares. It was such a lovely song that she wanted to recreate it. She would always play it on sleepless nights to lull her to sleep. Now, it was a song that held nostalgia and a reminder of her mother’s love for her. It was a song she would calm down to.

When she finished, she looked up to see Jhin’s head lolling against the tree. She realized he fell asleep after listening to his steady breathing. Sona was at a loss of what to do. She didn’t want to wake him when he looked so peaceful. She leaned against her hand, wondering what to do.

Her eyes then strayed to the ivory mask that hadn’t budged since he fell asleep. She tilted her head to match the angle of his head. She was amazed that Jhin managed to fall asleep in her presence, but then again, she wouldn’t have done anything to him in the first place. Then, she laid eyes on his slightly wavy locks that slipped out of his mask. She smiled at how silly he looked.

She reached out a hand, slowly inching closer to his head. Just then, her curiosity started to get the better of her. He was asleep. He wouldn’t know, right? She shook the curiosity away and moved her hand up to brush the stand of hair behind his mask. His hair was slightly rough to the touch, and some locks seemed to bounce as her fingers delicately stroked his hair.

Suddenly, she sucked in a sharp breath as she noticed what she was doing. She immediately retracted her hand as if it touched fire and cupped her face with both hands to hide her reddening face.

I can’t believe I did that. Why did I do that? she mentally cursed herself.

Meanwhile, Jhin was trying to settle his racing heart. Behind the mask, his cheeks were darkened with red. If he had opened his eyes while Sona was running her fingers through his hair, he wasn’t sure if he could look her in the eyes. So he kept them closed and let her do as she liked. He felt grateful that he knew how to act like he was still asleep. He just hoped that Sona didn’t hear his heartbeat.

He had to calm down. He had to calm down now if he wanted to face Sona after what just happened. She couldn’t know he woke up to her touching his hair. Thank goodness for his mask covering his face, or he would’ve given everything away.

Once his heartbeat settled down into a normal pace, he pretended to wake up with a yawn. “O-oh, I-I seemed to have fallen asleep. My apologies,” he stuttered. Nice going. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep listening to your song, that was impolite of me.”

Sona, whose cheeks were still tinted pink, shook her head vigorously. “Not a problem at all. Did you enjoy your rest?” she signed a little too quickly. Oh no, did he know?

“Yes, I haven’t slept like that in a while. I never usually fall asleep like that, so that was a first.” His eyes darted to Sona and back to this hands. This was pushing his luck, but he hoped his voice would hide it. “Did something happen while I was asleep?” he asked in a concerned tone. “You seem rather skittish.”

Not wanting to believe that he knew, Sona shook her head as calmly as possible. “I just had a thought about my… a past memory… and I was just… laughing.”

Oh, she was a bad liar. But he found it charming that she tried. He opted to ignore her nervous signing and continued with his act. He yawned again. “That song sounded much like a lullaby. Was it something you’ve heard?”

“My mother’s lullaby. She used to sing it for me when she first adopted me.” She scratched her cheek with a shy smile. “I’ve never played this song in front of anyone but myself. But I felt like you might like it.”

Jhin quietly chuckled. “Well, I did enjoy it until I fell asleep. But I’m sure it was a lovely song throughout all of it.”

For the first time in days, an awkward silence settled between them once again. They had no idea what to say to each other, still embarrassed of the event before. Sona’s mind was desperately trying to scrape together something to talk about, but the phantom feeling of his hair against her fingers betrayed her. Jhin was also trying to think of something— anything —until he came to a realization.

He trusted her. He trusted Sona enough to give her his beloved gun, to believe that Sona wouldn’t force him to reveal his identity, to even fall asleep before her with only a mask between her hand and his face. She could have taken off his mask at any time and blackmailed him, if she still held a suspicion towards him. But she didn’t.

The feeling crashed into him like the high tide of the ocean crashing into the ground and swallowing the land.

“Sona,” he called.

Sona perked up at her name, asking what was wrong.

Jhin inhaled, pausing for a moment before exhaling. “I know I’ve said this multiple times already, but I’ve enjoyed the time we had here, and I still cannot thank you enough for helping me cure my compulsion. I realized that I have come to trust you more than I expected to. You told me something very important to you, and I feel I should do the same.”

“Jhin. You don’t have to. I told you because I chose to.” Sona smiled. “You need to tell me when you’re ready. I shall not force you to do something in exchange for something I did.”

“No,” Jhin replied. “This is of my own will.” He reached for the mask that hid his face, the tips of his fingers lingering on it for a moment, and lifted it up. “I’m sure you figured it out long before now, but the name Khada Jhin is only a stage name. An alias I created to hide my true identity.” He took off the mask from his head, a lock of his neat, wavy hair spilling onto his forehead.

Sona covered her lips with her hand in surprise.

He gave her an undoubting smile. She truly trusted him, and he would believe in the faith he held in his heart that she would keep his identity safe. He trusted her.

“My real name is…”