#i looooveee writingggg these two ;-;

[voidedleylines]

FFXIV Write 2023 Day 21: Grave

In which the WoL is asked a question.

Enjoy!

Rating: G || no CWs apply (but discussion of death throughout) || slightest of EW spoilers

“Do you know where you’ll be buried when you die?” he asks.

He watches his sister look up at him with some alarm as she raises an eyebrow. He stares back at her and chews on his cheek and waits for her response.

It was a bit of an out of pocket question as they sit in the One Garden after another brutal training session, but it’d been on the forefront of his mind lately since visiting home again for a reprieve.

“What brought this on?” she asked as much.

He shrugs and leans forward as the nerves catch up to him, “We have a family plot, you know? In Sharlayan,” he begins. He already knows that's the wrong answer and the way her body stiffens confirms that. “I-I just. Went to visit it when I was home. It’s…odd to look at now. Wondering what other secrets they buried down there with them,” he continues.

She lets out a sarcastic laugh, “I…you know that place is not my home. I doubt there’s even a spot for me,” she says.

There isn't, he knows. On the nameplate is only one empty square. Still, as ill it is to speak of the dead, he'd gladly dig one of them up to make room if that's what she wanted. But it isn't.

Her eyes go somewhere far away and he regrets asking now. “Most I knew before all this were cremated and just scattered with the desert winds. Or left where they fell, to be taken by the earth.” she says, “When I almost-” she hesitates. “I did die once, you know.”

He chokes on his tea and sputters out a coughing fit as he looks at her with wide eyes. She smiles sheepishly and waits for him to finish. “When?”

“Ultima Thule I…after Zenos fell. I didn’t tell you before because well, would you have believed me.”

He doesn't really believe her even now so he stays silent.

She lets out a laugh, “exactly,” she pauses, “I’ve tried to not think about death since then. Though it's been hard, to say the least.

“Oh I’m sorry I-I didn't mean to-”

“No,” she cuts him off, putting a hand on his shoulder, “No it’s okay. It’s. You don't need to apologize.” She looks out onto the Enclave and her eyes grow deeper again. “I don’t think I’m built to have one final resting place, to answer your question. My heart is in too many places.”

It's his turn to now look around the Enclave, a beautiful place that she’s had so much of a hand in rebuilding. After everything, she’s still the first to shy away from its attention, but he knows what this place means to her, and he hopes to feel the same about somewhere, or somewheres, one day.

“Now. Are we going back to training or do you have any more deep questions you want to blindside me with?” She asks, her voice light and teasing.

He laughs as he stands, “We’ll see what else comes out while you’re hitting me with a fireball,” he answers.

She just shrugs and runs off back to their makeshift training ground near the schoolyard. He thinks back to the grave site where his parents lay, and wonders what they'd think of him now.