#which probably explains why all my male partners have been batshit crazy but you know whatever YOLO

[sanasanakun]

Hey yall I just read all of Firefly Wedding's current chapters and is no one gonna mention just how ominous and death-coded that whole recent chapter was?? The ocean washing away their dream floorplan? You know, the ocean, the literal barrier between Shinpei and Satoko's two very different lives? Or the whole I want you to be happy just remembering me thing? Girl is gonna die at the end bro

[annavoigmarchen]

Here There Be Heroes Chapter 2

Heyo, guys! New chapter here! Sorry bout the wait! As always, kudos to @uchuuryokou  for being my beta!

read it on AO3

Chapter 2: In which they plan at dawn and the De Rolos argue about it

The twins stood by the main door after breakfast, as agreed the night before. Percival could see from miles the annoyed look on Vax’ildan face, and how his sister was starting to get annoyed at him. Percy quickly approached, trying to avoid any further discontentment. “Good morning, Mr. Vax’ildan, Ms. Vex’ahlia.” He started, only to be cut off by the girl.

“Vax and Vex, if you will. If we’re to call you Percy, please call us by Vax and Vex.”

Percy nodded. “Very well. Shall we go to my workshop? After all…” He give a sideway look to one of the elven guards that stood nearby. “I did promise you a tour around my creations.”

Vax pushed away from the wall he was leaning, uncrossing his arms.

“Took you long enough, de Rolo.”

“I’m sorry for the wait, Vax. I had some dealings with my family to finish. You know how sisters can be…” He said, directing them to an downward stairs.

“I am deeply wounded by that remark, Lord Percival.” Said Vex’ahlia. Percy just raised a brow, smirking, but the banter had the desired effect. Vax’ildan wasn’t smiling per see, but he at least wasn’t scowling anymore.

Percy opened a door, allowing them to enter. “This is it. Welcome to my workshop.” The twins entered, and the first thing that assaulted their senses was how warm the whole room was. The second thing was the multitude of shards, pieces, tools and scrap metal scattered through the room. The third thing was the giant contraption sitting on the tinkering desk, halfway through it’s construction. “Ah, yes. I do apologise for the mess. You are free to look around, but try not to touch the back powder? It’s a bit unstable.” He said, while working through his stuff to free two chairs.

“What is all this stuff?” Asked Vax, intrigued. Vex was by his side, trying to figure out an unfinished music box.

“I like to do a bit of tinkering, as you might see. I have a lot of unfinished projects, thought. Keep trying to find the inspiration to finish the ones I stopped halfway through, but I never seem to find it.” He grunted as he lifted the chair, bringing it closer to the other two. “There. Now, if you would like to take a seat? I believe we have some plans to discuss.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Asked Vex as soon as the three of them were seated.

“First of all, I think we should leave in your last night here. It will give us more time to prepare, and it will be easier to dodge hastily organized search parties. If you had left yesterday, your chances of escaping the mountain range before being found would be slim at their best. Besides, it will give me time to put my family on the loop, and that…”

“Wow, wow, wow, wait a second there, de Rolo. Put your family on the loop? Are you crazy?” Said Vax.

“Yeah! They’ll probably rat us out to father, and then…” Added Vex.

“Please.” Countered Percival. “Do not belittle me or my family. We might be polite to all, but we do, in fact, have eyes. We’ve seen how you father treats those who are not elves. Besides, we will need their help if you want this plan to work. I’m only the third son of Whitestone, and while that can grant us some freedom, this plan has a better chance of being successful if my family knows what we’re doing. In fact, I’m pretty sure they will approve of our plan, if not to criticize our dramaticity.”

“....What?” Asked Vex, both the twins taken back, again, by what the human said.

“Listen.” Said Percy, taking off his glasses and starting to clean them with his handkerchief. “I might be a prick, but your father is an asshole.”

Vex snickered and Vax gave a half smile. “That’s something we can agree on.” Said the male twin.

“That being said…” Percy continued, putting back his glasses. “With my family on the loop, we can give orders to the Whitestone guards to look at all the wrong places, if a search party is organized. That will increase our chances of not running into any delays, since the only ones who will be actively looking for us will be the elves. Besides, that will mean Whitestone will be aiding us at the best of it’s ability. That means that yes, while we’ll have to lay low for a while and get out of the region, we will have resources. And when things calm down, we could have a headquarters, somewhere to always come back to.”

“So, summing up, we leave in four days, going away like criminals but not really, while the rest of the De Rolos cover for us?” Said Vax.

“Considering I’ll even take us through the back doors, yes, that accurately sums up the plan.” Agreed Percy.

“That’s batshit crazy, you know that, right?” Stated Vax.

“How do we even know your family will agree to all of this, Percival? It is crazy.” Said Vex, wringing her hands.

“Trust me.” He said. The twins exchanged looks, concerned. “Look, I know it’s a hard thing to do. You don’t even know me, not really. But you’ve trusted me this far. You could have left yesterday, but you didn’t. And it’s been paying off, isn’t it? It’s mid morning and you haven’t heard a thing coming from your father. While I’m here, earnestly offering my help, with arguments that you know make sense. So give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me again. I can get us out of here.” Percy ended his sentence with such intent and determination, that it didn’t take too long for the twins to relax again. “Ok...Ok.” Vex said, leaning back on the chair. Vax nodded, agreeing with his sister.

“Four days, right?” He asked.

“Four days.” Agreed Percy, with a renewed calmness. “You two are up for it, then?”

“We waited seven years to escape this bastard. We can wait a few days more.” Said Vax.

Percy smiled, relieved, and clasped his hands together. “Great!”

“So, you’re leaving, right?” Asked Vesper, when Percy could reunite all the De Rolos in one room that night. “With the twins?”

“What? How did you…?”

“Percival, dearest, we’ve known since you crossed looks when they arrived.” Said Johanna, with all the tenderness of a mother. “More so after you saw fit to do this family gathering.”

“Besides.” Said Julius. “Old Percy always said you wouldn’t stay here. It was only a matter of time, really.”

“Oh.” Said Percy. “That… Didn’t go the way I expected. That’s… That’s good. It makes things easier, I gather.”

“So what are the circumstances, son?” Asked Frederick. “I know you wouldn’t be this guarded if you didn’t think it was important.”

Percy nodded, looking at his parents. “As you might have noticed, Syldor isn’t exactly a forgiving parent as you both are.”

“He’s a jackass.” Said Oliver. Whitney hit him with the back of her hand, outraged. “What? He really is a jackass!”

“Manners, brother!” His twin sister scolded. “Ludwig and Cassie are here!”

“I am fourteen, Whitney.” Said Cassandra, slightly annoyed. “It’s not like I haven’t heard that kind of language before.” Ludwig only nodded, giving his older brother time to finish explaining his plan.

“We are planning on running away.” Percy said, trying to cut the De Rolo chatter that was about to start.

“Well, you’re not doing a great job at it, are you?” Asked Vesper, with a smirk. “Telling your family and all of that…” “That...That’s not...Vesper!” Said Percy, baffled. Julius laughed.

“Stop teasing him and let the kid speak, Vesper.” Said the older brother. Percy resisted the urge of replying petulantly to being called a kid, and nodded gratefully to Julius.

“As I said, Syldor is not so forgiving. So he might react poorly to us traveling together. It might be in our best interest if he isn’t aware I’ll be with the twins when we run away, and if you could... Cover our escape, so to speak.”

Frederick rubbed his beard, thinking. “You do realize, Percival, that you’re asking us to lie to a possible trade partner, yes?”

Percy nodded. “I do, father. But I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think it was important.”

Frederick nodded in response, but didn’t say anything. The silence extended for some seconds, until Ludwig spoke, for everyone’s surprise.

“If it might help you to make your decision, Father…” Said the usually quiet boy. The older man turned to his other son, surprised. “While I know that it’s not polite to barge in others business, a few days ago I saw Syldor being less than kind with the twins. I don’t think he realized the door was partially open, or if he even saw me. And after that, I could hear Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia planning their escape.”

“Indeed.” Said Percy. “I suspect that if I haven’t caught them while trying to sneak away from the palace, they would be long gone.”

“Why not let them go, then?” Asked Whitney.

Percy adjusted his glasses on his face before answering. “A man once told me to not let opportunities pass by me, Whitney. And I’m not about to let this one pass without even trying to do something about it.”

“Let’s face it, Percival.” Said the girl, annoyed. “You’re just doing it because a version of yourself, that we don’t even know if was from another realm entirely I might add, told you so. What can the world out there offer you if not pain and misery, brother? If they want to go away, let them. But you shouldn’t do it based on some strange notion of… Of… Grandness!”

Before Percival could even respond to that, Oliver countered his twin.

“Stop being an ass, Whit. Just because you’re going to miss him doesn’t mean he can’t go. We’re all going to miss him, but we know we all will leave someday.” He stopped, scratching his head. “Well, all but Julius, of course. But the point is, Percy can be an adventurer if he wants. Hells, even you can be an adventurer if you want to, someday. If you have the guts to do so, I mean.”

Whitney crossed her arms, but the call out from her twin broke her angry facade. By now, only tears could be seen in her eyes. “... I hate you, Oliver.” She whispered, her voice broken like the voice of one who is about to cry. Ludwig, that was seated by her side, awkwardly patted her shoulder in an attempt of comforting her.

Percival sighed before kneeling in front of his younger sister. She wasn’t meeting his eyes, and he brought her attention to him with a hand on her knee.

“It’s not some strange notion of grandness per se, Whitney. It’s the notion that, out there, there’s so much more I could do than if I stayed here. For me, for Whitestone… For all of us. There’s much to see out there, and much to learn, and chances are that I won’t be getting another chance like this one. And while I know this is an unusually optimistic view coming from me, Old Percy brought some perspective to me. And… If he can do it, even without you all, I think I can do an even better job and not make the same mistakes he did. I have the means to protect people, Whit. He gave me that. And I don’t think any of us need more protection than we already have after… After.” Whitney sniffed and nodded. Percy smiled, lending his handkerchief to her, and got up.

“Those two… Do you think they need protection, Percival?” Asked Julius. “Or is it your adventuring streak flourishing?”

“I really do think they need protection.” Said Percy. “And yes, while a part of me is eager to go on an adventure, I believe they are going to need me. And I will undoubtedly need them in the future.”

“Okay.” Said Johanna, after looking at the determination on her son’s eyes. “I know my son, and know that you only address those kinds of matters to us when you are certainly sure you can do it. Therefore, I don’t think we could stop you even if we tried or wanted to.”

Frederick nodded. “I suspected that kind of behaviour coming from Syldor from the moment he tried to arrange a marriage between you and his daughter.”

“W-what?” stuttered Percy.

“Not that we went through with it, Percival. I’m not so desperate as to pawn off my son to get a trading agreement.” Said his father, with a smirk. Percy released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding, making Vesper laugh out loud. “We will help you through this endeavour, Percival. I just don’t know why you have to be so dramatic to the point of running away in the middle of the night.”

“You don’t get it, father. It’s all about aesthetics.” Said Vesper, standing and putting one arm around Percy’s shoulders. The teen made an annoyed sound and tried to get his sister off of him, but all his sibling laughed when she only pulled him closer.

Julius smiled, getting on the edge of his seat, a glint in his eyes. “All right, Percival. Tell us your plan.”