closed; complete

[pharles-at-life.livejournal.com]

When; 5 July, early morning
Rating; G
Characters; conductyourself and pharles_at_life
Summary; When the visitors leave, we have to pick up behind them, in more ways than one.
Log;

After the excitement of the weekend, Presea woke even earlier than usual Monday morning. The small bed she'd hastily put together on the floor in her room was empty. Sierra was gone, and so were the rest of the visitors. She had been told to anticipate their sudden disappearances, but it was still strange to wander out into the living room and see all of the abandoned bedrolls and blankets. Her younger self had crashed out in a corner of the room after doing her best to befriend everyone possible. She was gone as well, and Lantis, and all of the people who had been in the City before but had left. Their guests had slept, those who had bothered, in little clusters, so that they could talk into the night with friends they hadn't seen in much too long. Presea did her best to tidy the room without waking anyone else, folding the blankets to be washed and picking up lost cups, and when she finally gave up on distracting herself, she made her way back to Clef's room and knocked on the door.

Clef couldn't exactly say that he was still asleep when Presea knocked. He was more or less awake, having gotten up a few minutes ago and come back, and was blearily lying in bed. There was something empty and sad about the aftermaths of these curses, and he didn't want to pick through the remains of this one alone. The knocking surprised him, however, and, blinking the remaining sleep from his eyes he sat up and tried to be as presentable as one could possibly be before one has gotten dressed.


"Come in?" he answered, with a rising intonation at the end to indicate that he wasn't sure who it could possibly be at this hour.

"It's me," she said unnecessarily as she opened the door. "...I didn't mean to wake you." He'd probably stayed up late, she thought, like most people had; Presea had only slipped into bed as early as she had because she was emotionally exhausted. And physically; had she really been that excitable when she was little? In any case, she hesitated in the doorway. "I can come back later if you want."

"No, that's alright." He flashed a subtle smile that was meant to be encouraging. Most people had (or believed they had) permission to wake him even in the middle of the night, but Presea was different. If there were a word for something that was "more than allowed" but fell short of being "encouraged" because that would give the wrong idea, it would apply here. Nonetheless, he had the distinct impression that she wasn't here just to visit. Perhaps it was the way she was hesitating in the doorway, or something about her posture. He made room for her on the bed and motioned for her to sit.


"Is something troubling you?" he asked, his expression serious again.

She took the invitation gratefully, settling in beside him. Just being near him helped her breathe a little more easily. He was her boyfriend; he was her best friend. She didn't have to keep up the cheerful facade she'd been attempting to maintain ever since her encounter with her sort-of-twin. She shut her eyes and wrapped her arms around her knees. She wasn't quite sure where to begin.

"According to my sister, I'm supposed to be dead." Well, it rather lacked subtlety, but you could only hold in something like that in for so long.

There was certainly no faulting Presea's ability to get to the point, but what she had in directness she lacked in presentation. There was definitely a significant part of Clef that wanted to flop back onto the pillows and pull the covers up over his head. 'Nope, I was wrong! It's too early!' Instead, however, he just sort of sat there, wide-eyed and blinking at her.


"What?"

Presea nodded twice, as if that clarified.


"She said that I died. After I made their weapons. And I know I didn't!" Her voice was rising with her distress. "But it happened in her world and she was so happy to see me, and-- Clef, I don't know how to feel." She trailed off. She wasn't much of a crier, not like Sierra was, but she was beginning to feel the urge rising.

"Presea..." He didn't think he could stop her from crying, nor should he if she truly needed to, but he reached out and pulled her towards him and downwards so that she could rest her head on his chest. There he held her, running his fingers through her hair occasionally, saying nothing more at the moment for all the thoughts that were now running through his head.

It wasn't often that Clef reached for her first-- she was simply more of a physically affectionate person than he was, after all-- but she swallowed her surprise and let him embrace her, reaching around to hug him back, because she needed it. She knew, of course, that she would die someday. Knowing that she had already done so somewhere else was a bit more difficult to process. But she could feel Clef's heartbeat, and her own. That was reassuring.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

He kissed her forehead in reply and hugged a little tighter, briefly. He needed that, now, too, but didn't speak for what seemed like quite a while. It was only after some time, when he decided he should say something now or else he'd never tell her - and that telling her was preferable to not, even if it would make things worse - that he spoke again.


"... I wasn't aware that anyone named Sierra was here."

She looked up at him then, confused. "She didn't speak to you? I thought she spoke to everyone from Cephiro at least a little. I know we're easy to mistake from a distance, but not once you've spoken to us, not really."


Presea was the louder, more cheerful of the pair, open and vibrant, and while Sierra had these traits as well, it was to a far lesser degree. They could fake it for a while, and sometimes did for the sake of mischief when they were young, but the charade never lasted more than a couple of hours.

"... She was quite insistent that she was Presea." There was not uncertainty in his voice, but his body was a bit tense as he knew this would not go over well.

Okay, now that was just weird. Presea stiffened a little. "Why would she do that? We haven't played games like that since we were little. There's no reason to--"

Would there be a reason, if she wasn't there anymore? Was this some sort of coping mechanism? Was it a reaction to something else?

"Maybe she was lying about all of it, then," she said, but not in a way that suggested she believed that herself. Her sister wasn't a natural liar, just as she wasn't. And the way she'd reacted when she saw Presea-- that wasn't something false.

"Hm..." Clef was even more non-committal. He didn't know her as well as Presea did, but he definitely didn't get the impression that Sierra would lie about something like that to her own sister, even if she was deceiving him about her name. Besides, what would she have gotten out of doing something like that?

"... I thought she was oddly formal." At first he had assumed that the other version of him was more distant, but now he wondered if Sierra was fooling him at all with her act. ... Wait, speaking of acts and alternate versions-- "Oh!"

What?" Presea blinked, unsure of the reason for his exclamation. She shifted a little in case she was making him physically uncomfortable.

"The conversation we had after Hikaru and Commander Vision arrived," he uttered by way of explanation, still considering the implications behind what he had just realized. It was difficult to wrap one's head around and, more importantly, which world was he from...? "Now we know for certain that there are alternate universes to ours."

... Assuming, of course, that they were from the same universe. There was a cold, growing worry in his chest that they weren't.

That provoked her own exclamation of, "Oh!" Presea bit her lip. There was at least one other universe than theirs. Since Sierra had spoke of the invasion, it was probably safe to assume that the Knights had succeeded in defeating Emeraude, but now they had no real proof that Eagle would fail at his task, or that the Knights would succeed. Now being from the future didn't mean much of anything, except that they knew one way it could end. "You're right," she continued. "At least one other. I wonder--"

She didn't flatter herself that her presence was necessary for the Knights to win. The weapons she had made probably were, but someone else could have retrieved them from where she was keeping them... possibly. The next Pharle, assuming he or she could figure it out or were familiar with her subspace pocket. Maybe even Clef. "I wonder how different the worlds are. If there are other differences besides... mine."

Clef had no answer to that, yet. He was still mulling over what this might mean and how it could explain Eagle's actions since he had arrived.

"... I wonder if this is why Commander Vision was unwilling to agree to a truce?" he said. He seemed to remember Umi telling Eagle at one point that there was no point to fighting here because it couldn't affect anything back home, since no one would remember it. "There must be something he believes he can still do here."

...Then again, that might be as simple as killing everyone else so that he could go back to an undefended Cephiro. Would that even be possible? Moreover, would it be something Eagle would try? These questions needed answers, but Clef didn't have them yet. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands - not in shame or sorrow but as a way of isolating himself because Presea was partially on top of him and preventing him from getting up and walking to another part of the room. Not that doing so would help him come to the answers, either -- he didn't know what he didn't know and no amount of thinking would magically make him know it.

She stretched to look at Clef when he grew silent. In another time or place, his gesture might have been cute, but all she could see was the expression of his frustration. It hadn't been easy on Clef to start with, not being from the same time as the rest of them and this only complicated things further. She sighed and sat up to give him some space to think. Her worries about Sierra and her other self could wait; they were certainly eclipsed by this newer concern. She hadn't thought of it herself, and she was a little embarrassed, since the idea progressed almost easily from the realization of other worlds. She'd been a little too focused on the effect to herself to see the effect on everyone.

"No matter what he does, it won't go home with him," she said. It was the mantra she'd been taught not long after her arrival here, something everyone seemed to take on faith. But today, the words felt a little hollow. Perhaps Eagle's determination meant something more than the words of people who could only speculate from others' comings and goings.

"That's a small consolation," he replied as he brought his hands down again and clenched the bedsheets. "He may not be the sort of person to be certain that something will work before trying it."

Clef was more afraid of the damage done by these attempts than of their possible success.

"He has a great strength of will," she answered. He'd nearly become Pillar, after all. And strength of will was very nearly stubbornness, a lot of the time. She'd tried her best to argue Eagle into a truce; so had Umi, and she was sure they weren't the only ones. He'd stood firm. Now they'd let him into their home on a temporary armistice - he knew where they lived. He could be plotting something any time. Whether it worked or not, Clef was right. He might try something anyway.

"We're going to have to be very careful from now on," she said, staring at the floor, her expression vaguely annoyed with concentration. "All of us. Even more than before."

"Nn..." The tone of Clef's utterance indicated that he agreed, but he was not as sure of himself as he could be. Without knowing exactly what Eagle's plans were or what he thought he could accomplish, it was going to be very difficult to be completely careful. Mistakes would inevitably be made.

The rest of the house was still silent, but it might not be for long, considering the anger boiling off the Pharle's shoulders. "Eagle, why must you be so inconsiderate?" she asked rhetorically, scowling. She jumped off the bed and paced the floor for enough room to gesture, frustrated. "I swear, the next time I see him, he is going to regret all of this "invading Cephiro" business. I don't care if I have to carry around the rope and the cooking pot and the firewood for the next month. I will make him sorry." She rested her hands on her hips. "I'll invent a new punishment, if necessary."

Normally an outburst like that would be enough for her to shelve her irritation and move on to a more constructive conversation, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't dare do that, and it wouldn't really solve anything if she did. She took a couple of deep breaths, in any case, and tried to file down her rage a little.

Clef blinked at her outburst, at first, and then his expression fell into a subtle but affectionate smile without him realizing it. He knew she was angry, yet he couldn't help but find it just a little bit amusing and also welcomed the change of topic.

"That'll teach him," he replied admiringly. She blinked, startled out of her mood by his praise, and returned a smile.

"Exactly," she said, sounding pleased. Then she paused a moment.

"I'm not really sure how this is all going to work out. Not sure like before. But it will." She nodded. Maybe she was still hurting a little, maybe things were now infinitely more complicated. But the Knights were still here, she and Clef were still here, and it would be okay. It might take a while, but they'd faced worse than this.

Clef slipped out of bed to join her, padding over in bare feet to take her hands in each of his. She was right, of course, because they would all make it so. "It will."