#Funfact! Melisie calls Zephirin her sunset wind bc I HC he was born at sunset in late spring/early summer!

[lunarosewood23]

FFXIVWrite2022 Prompt 6: Onerous

Melisie Valhourdin can see her son suffering, and wants to do what she can to ease his burden.

Content Warnings: Talk of depression and bad mental health. I have a lot of sad HCs for Zephirin that I have been doing my best to portray them as realistically as I can.

Note: FT my personal HC of Zephirin’s mother, who I have decided is alive bc why not? This is what she looks like!! Also mentions @inkblood-mistrieu​’s lady Kaia Jiang, who we ship with Zephirin.

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“Mother, I'm fine. What is it you need?” Zephirin asked while trying to wave off his mother’s concerns. 

Melisie sighed and rubbed her temple, her son had gained many of his father’s traits, his overwhelming devotion to those he loves and his desire to do good.

He had also gained his father’s stubbornness, and his need to value his worth by his usefulness to others, even at the cost of his own health and sanity.

“You’re not alright my boy, I know you’re not. I’ve been trying to not press on it because I know Kaia’s been helping you, but it’s clear that you’ve been dealing with a great deal, and I wish not to make your burden more onerous.” Melisie replied as she pulled her son into a hug.

Zephirin sighed, sometimes he hated how easily the people closest to him could so easily read him. It had been difficult lately, there was work in the forge that he needed to do and he still had to adhere to whatever social obligations his mother needed of him, to spending time with his friends and making sure they were alright after everything.

And of course, of bloody course, all this had to come while in a series of Bad Days, or what he referred to when the weight of everything that had happened was too heavy to just throw into the back of his mind and ignore. Talking with Kaia had been helpful and he started to recognize when his depression was creeping up, but he also had been slipping back into old habits of trying to take on everything at once because he felt like he was obligated to. That if he said no he was letting people down.

And it was especially hard to say no to his mother.

“I’ve been dealing with my own issues, but it’s nothing you need to concern yourself with Mother, I promise.” He explained, trying to downplay it so she wouldn’t worry too much, but he could see she wasn’t buying it.

"Zephirin. My boy, my sweet sunset wind." Melisie soothed as she squeezed him in a tight hug. "No obligations are worth losing yourself. You deserve rest too. I wish you would tell me no to my nonsense more often. I can see that you're miserable."

"The thing is mother, is that I don't mind attending, at least not for the acceptable time allowed, especially when I'm prepared to deal with it. When I feel normal enough to function that is..." He replies with a sigh, and then clenches his fist. "When I'm most miserable I'm more often than not having to bite my tongue because the nobles continue to shamelessly slander Kaia’s good name, listen to them claim that she seduced me and paint me as though I do not know what I want in a partner and have no agency in my life."

Melisie was startled as he continued. "I don’t care for any words said against me, they can scream and shout their baseless slander all day and it wouldn't phase me. But Kaia...Kaia is my world, and on my honor as a knight I won't let anyone speak ill of the woman whose presence has given me peace, joy, and safety.”

Melisie couldn’t help but smile at how her boy spoke of the woman he loved, but schooled her face as she processed his words. “If you’re able, point them out to me at the next outing.”

“Mother, it's really not worth it.”

“It absolutely is. Nobody is going to speak so ill of my daughter. I want to ensure that they know it is far more of an onerous task to cause such trouble in my house.”