#i am Staring at the nose mouth eyes and they feel very ari shaped

[spottedenchants]

HOT BOI TIME

(thank you @vagabondfirelily for the link to the source of this!!)

[iamthechocobabe]

A True Nightmare

*Deep deep sigh* 

So...yes, I am aware that I may be getting hate for this. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to include Ari in this story-she feels very personal to me and I can only hope I’ll do justice by her.

As for who Ari is, or what I’m talking about...guess you’ll just have to find out. 

Hopefully, the senpais won’t hate me for bugging them: @roses-and-oceans @bespectacled-girl @cupnoodle-queen @themissimmortal @nifwrites @gladiolus-mamacitia 

A True Nightmare A Soulmate AU based on Ardyn’s History-based on this post I made awhile back.  This is NOT an Ardyn love story. 

~Chapter 1~ SFW Word Count: 1,519

"And no matter what, you cannot put mud in Aranea's hair. She'll kill me-Ari, are you listening to me?" 

Mallory Moon looked away from the roads of Tenebrae at her younger sister as she scribbled in her sketchbook-Mallory could never tell if Ari glancing up at her occasionally meant that she was listening or if she was just drawing, though judging by the sketch of Mallory driving, it was clear Ari was drawing. 

"Ari, did you hear me?" 

Making a grunting noise, Ari's eyebrows dipped down slightly as she huddled in the front seat with the sketchbook close to her chest as she continued to scribble. Normal people would have thought this was a blatant show that the sixteen year old was ignoring her, but Mallory knew that it was Ari's way of showing that she was listening. 

Most people assumed that Ari and Mallory weren't related, partially because of their fourteen year age difference, but mostly because of their difference in appearances, with Ari's short copper brown hair compared to Mallory's long, inky black hair, Ari's dark brown eyes to Mallory's emerald green eyes, olive toned skin to pale porcelain skin. They were practically opposites in every way. 

"Hnh," Ari made the same grunting noise as she always did, the tip of her tongue stuck to her mouth as she looked at Mallory expectantly, though she never made eye contact with anyone. 

"What?" Straightening the grey wool beanie on her head, Mallory tried to focus on the road even as Ari tried to grab at her arm. "What, Ari?" 

"HNNNNNH," Ari tried to tell Mallory what she wanted by slamming the palm of her right hand against her left shoulder, looking and pointing at Mallory's left side of her body. 

"Oh," It didn't take long to figure out what Ari wanted, so Mallory rolled her eyes, shifted in her seat slightly and moved the sleeve of her hot pink tank top so her star shaped soulmate mark on her left shoulder showed prominent. "How's that?" 

"Nnh," Ari smiled and set back to work-if there was one thing she loved doing, it was drawing Mallory's soulmate mark, loving how perfect her stars always were since Ari started off not doing so well with stars. Mallory didn’t like the mark as much, mostly because she thought the star was so simple and tacky. She remembered how friends had soulmate marks in the shapes of fangs, talons, suns-not something as simple as a star. 

Smiling a little at her younger sister, Mallory focused again as she zipped through the roads in her beat up old car to the trainstop that Aranea had asked to meet her at. Mallory really didn't want to accept a job when the word was getting closer and closer to shit everyday, with nights getting longer and daylight getting shorter, but rent was due and Mallory needed money. Besides, there was no one Mallory trusted more with Ari than Aranea, knowing that Aranea had the skills and capacity of taking care of her. 

Ari was adorable, but she was also a handful. 

Pulling into the train station, Mallory held Ari's arm as they exited the car and walked towards the large train that Mallory knew had seen battle. Bullet holes were in one side of the train with a few cars being almost completely gone and Mallory could only guess this had something to do with Aranea's phone call. 

It didn't take long to spot Aranea thanks to her bright silver hair pulled away from her face and Mallory headed for her with Ari in tow. "Hey," 

"There you are," Aranea smiled kindly at her friend and bent down to be eye level with Ari. "How are you, Ari?" 

Ari didn't respond, which wasn't unusual, and began to grow antsy due to the large crowd, bouncing on her feet, looking around her and biting the foreskin by her fingernails. Without needing words to communicate what Ari wanted, Mallory dropped her arm and nodded towards a patch of grass to the left. "Don't go far," 

Ari shoved her sketchbook and pencil case into Mallory's hands and began pacing back and forth in the grass, waving her hands and occasionally smiling and crying out as she made babbling noises to herself. Some people began to stare, but Mallory knew Ari couldn't understand what she was doing was considered odd by others-besides, if anyone so much as looked at Ari funny, Mallory was on them in a second. 

Then they'd have wished they minded their own business. 

"How is she?" Aranea asked softly, watching as Ari began to grow a small audience of spectators at her unusual behavior. 

Shaking her head, Mallory tried to rub the worry out of her temples unsuccessfully. "Anxious-she knows the world's going to shit because it got dark too quickly today. And she's been drawing a lot more than usual," 

"Did she draw that today?" Aranea pointed at the sketch of Mallory driving the car, her body turned slightly and her tank top strap slid slightly off her shoulder to show her soulmate mark. Ari always did manage to portray Mallory almost perfectly, highlighting Mallory's high cheekbones, her extremely thin body, her cropped black hair that was short on one side, but down to her shoulder on the other. 

"Well, it certainly wasn’t me," Mallory closed the sketchbook and laid it down on a table nearby. "You know I can't draw for shit-so, what are you up to? Something to do with all of this?" 

"Something like that-I guess you can say I'm helping with a relief effort ever since Lunafreya was murdered," 

"Okay, that's funny-" Mallory stopped giggling when she saw the serious face on Aranea and how everyone around was dead silent, melancholic over the loss of their beloved oracle. "You...you're serious?" 

"Uh, in case you haven't noticed, there's not going to be daylight soon?" Aranea gestured around her as she looked over some plans on a table. "What's exactly going to happen to all these people when daemon's roam Eos?" 

"HNNNNH" A familiar loud grunt interrupted Mallory's thoughts as Ari began to panic at how a little girl was invading her personal space by trying to go up to Ari. When the little girl looked at Mallory with confusion, Mallory sent the kid a withering glare, the little girl only needing half a second to get the message and leave Ari alone. 

"In case you haven't noticed," Mallory said with a nod towards Ari, who had gone back to pacing. "I have enough to worry about with Ari and rent due-the land lords don't seem to care that the world's ending," 

"Which is why these people have me," Aranea said with a small smile, patting Mallory's shoulder. "I didn't mean anything by it," 

"I know," Mallory sighed deeply and leaned against the table. "I'm just nervous about leaving her again..."

"What's the matter, you don't trust me?" 

"I trust you-it's everyone else I don't trust," The little girl from before once again tried to go up to Ari, causing Ari to begin to yell and pound her fists against her head. Before Mallory could interject, the little girl's mother came and grabbed her, pulling her away from Ari with harsh whispers. 

"They don't know any better," Aranea breathed out through her nose and focused on the papers on her desk again. "But Ari's a lot tougher then you give her credit for...are you sure about this?" 

Mallory looked over at a young boy approaching, the one hope for salvation and the world. Aranea wouldn't have asked Mallory to escort the Prince into Niflheim unless it was important, and Mallory knew...she knew this was something she had to do. If not for Eos, then for Ari. 

Mallory knew that if Eos was surrounded with darkness, Ari would never be able to survive. 

"I'm sure,"

Ardyn Izunia observed careully at the monitors of the train station in Tenebrae. It had taken much longer than normal to patch the security cameras through since they had been shut off, but Ardyn wanted to see-make sure that he was on his way. And when he saw the Prince walking towards two women, one Aranea Highwind, he knew it was only a matter of time for the Prince to arrive. And Ardyn knew he would come-dear old Noct's best friend's life was depending on it. 

Ardyn stretched his hand out to shut the monitors off, pleased that it was all going according to plan when his whole body froze. Shut down completely as the young girl with cropped shoulder length black hair turned and bent over to talk to a younger girl sitting in the grass. 

Leaning forward, Ardyn held his breath...his eyes were playing tricks on him again. Every girl with black hair he ever met, Ardyn thought was her. Wondered if maybe he could actually keep his promise after all. But deep down he knew, he knew that she would just turn out to be some random girl like the others....

Except she wasn't. 

Ardyn rarely showed surprise, but he couldn't contain his gasp when she turned forward, showing her face to the camera. Zooming in the camera, Ardyn watched as a face so familiar to him, a face that haunted his every waking moment, walked towards the train. The same emerald green eyes, the same cheekbones, the same nose and heart shaped lips-

Breathing a shaky sigh, Ardyn could almost swore he felt tears in his eyes at the grace and beauty he remembered so well and whispered only one word. 

"Aryelle,"