Finsternia wrote:Allistor Abendroth
Allistor can't help but chuckle to himself. "So that's what you're hiding from me. I was wondering what's that pink bunch behind your back." He kneeled down on one knee and took the bouquet of pink carnations from Soleil. They were freshly picked, as he can see. They still have some morning dew on those soft, fluffy and wrinkled petals. The scent was sweet and mild, refreshing in fact, that brings back some memories. "I remember my mother planting a lot of these in the gardens of Schönbrunn. We have a tradition of giving these on Mother's Day. I can't forget the time when I snuck into the gardens late at night, the night before Mother's Day, and went back covered in mud and scratches just to give her these flowers."
"Father scolded me, even nearly got me punished for such behavior, but mother cried. I was crying too, mainly because of the fear of getting disciplined once again, but the sight of mom hugging me, in her clean and pristine nightgown, made me cry so much more." Allistor looked at Soleil and smiled. "Thank you Soleil. Come here, let me hug you." He opened his arms and enclosed Soleil into a tight yet warm hug, the bouquet still in his hands. "I will come back, I promise. I might not be the best mage out there, nor the strongest nor the smartest nor the most skilled, but it is my duty to raise the banners of war. Against your family... No, they're not your family... Against the people that hurt you and have led Europe down to chaos." Allistor pulled away and smiled at the young Rise heir. "I'm your older brother now, after all. And as your brother, it is my duty to defend and protect you, no matter what."
Soleil remembered picking flowers for his own mother, as a child. He would walk through the woods and find as many wildflowers as he could find. Simple gifts, to bring simple happiness. Yet his own mother had never accepted them. As much as she may have liked to receive flowers once, her life revolved around destroying his, for the “honor” of the family. Thus the boy’s outstretched hand had always been left reaching for nothing. Yet now, Allistor graciously accepted the flowers, smiling sweetly to Soleil as he accepted them and told of how his mother cried when she received flowers from her own son. He tried to imagine it, and failed. Yet that did not matter.
Allistor pulled him into his arms and hugged him tightly, showing his gratitude for such a pleasant gift. Meanwhile, Soleil closed his eyes and happily let the warmth of his friend’s embrace cloak him. “...Yes...You are my family now...I’d...happily throw away my heritage, if it meant I could start over...as a member of another family...but I can’t...I have to create a new family...a family that...one day...my children will be proud of...and so I’m...happy...to have an older brother like you...” He tried to keep from crying. He wanted Allistor to remember him as strong, not as a crying child who was so timid and sensitive. Yet that was Soleil. Thus the tears began to flow. “...Wh-When you come home...we’ll...w-we’ll be a proper family...and...a-and...I won’t be alone anymore...” Still smiling, he let the tears flow freely now, even as his voice broke. “...S-So...you can’t die...y-you have to save Europe from my aunt...a-and then...you have to come home...o-okay?...”