#PLUS i get to write amandine trying to be Big And Tough again which is always fun :P

[yafaemi]

vi. | revenant.

What? I’ve definitely been writing this entire time. What do you mean? I didn’t take a break for too-tired-to-even-exist reasons. I’m definitely not going to be going a bit slower with this stories, because honestly I Am Still Fairly Tired.

Anyways, this is a really like... exciting story for me!! This is another one of those kinda stories that I had the entire plan for, but just never got into actually writing. I’ve been planning for something like this to happen for months. Literal. Months.

Description: In the midst of a morning stroll, Amandine is bumped into by a rather... interesting stranger. Yet, even from the first, there is something... unsettlingly familiar about them.

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She didn’t know what to make of the man before her. 

This stranger was so hauntingly familiar. Amandine knew she had never met him before. She was good at faces, yet this one was… had she not still been staring so intently, there would have definitely been a deepening frown on her face. 

“...just remembered, I never mentioned my name.” One hand ran through almost-black hair, and he smiled. “But where are my manners? Bumping into a stranger, and not even introducing myself! Averoux D’amboise,” he said, with a half-step back into a bow. 

It took her a few moments to pull away from the overpowering feeling of familiarity. She knew that name, and she knew that face, yet from where? “Amandine,” she replied with a bow of her own. “Forgive my forwardness— we haven’t met before, have we? For some reason, I…” she trailed off, arms crossing. “...nevermind. It must be my mind playing tricks on me.” 

Averoux’s eyes furrowed for a moment. One eyebrow raised a half-second later, leaning forward towards her. There was a frown on his face as he said, “That makes two of us, then. How strange.” 

There was plenty strange about their encounter already. One that Amandine had been pretending not to notice was how similar they looked— had she seen herself and this stranger side by side, as a random bystander, she would have assumed of some familial relation. Yet that wasn’t…

Even then, from what she had been told by her aunt, before...

It didn’t bear thinking about. Amandine shrugged with a far more tense smile than she meant, “A funny coincidence if there ever was one.” Another half moment to look around, as if thinking of something other than the strangeness occurring before her, before, “I believe it’s about time that I take my leave. May the Fury watch over you.” 

“...Wait.” 

Amandine stopped at his side. She glanced over with a raised eyebrow, watching Averoux slowly turn towards her with a narrowed gaze, clearly searching for… something. She shifted her weight slightly, and stole another glance to the way she’d been going. Then with an even breath turned directly towards him. 

Averoux’s expression was far less dignified for several moments as he seemed to spot whatever it was in her face he looked for. “Were you adopted into your family?” One half of a second and he added, “Rude, yes, and I absolutely beg forgiveness— yet I can’t shake that feeling. Nophica as my witness, I am not crazy.” 

For some reason, she highly doubted that. “I advise that you explain yourself, before I lose my patience,” Amandine said with a slow reach towards her staff. Her fingertips brushed against it at first, before finally wrapping around its length. “And deliver you to the Temple Knights in pieces for your questionable act.”

Normally, she wouldn’t make such threats towards someone. In the middle of the day in Ishgard, no less. Yet something about the encounter seemed far too off. Perhaps it was the still-remaining sense of familiarity. The only time she blinked was when her eyes started to burn. 

And still, the living enigma of an Elezen before her didn’t so much as flinch. If anything, the light violet stare seemed amused. He cracked a smile— hardly an echo of the polite-yet-distant smile of one talking to a stranger they’d just met. It took every ounce of Amandine’s self-control not to wipe it off his face with a whack of her staff. 

“I’m going to say I’ve struck a chord.” The worsening state of her glare apparently confirmed it for him. Averoux’s tone quickened, racing words like an excited child, “Allow me to take a guess— you are… roughly 25, yes? And you were when you were adopted…” he took half a second to count on his hands, numbers mumbled under his breath, “...Approximately 2?” 

She didn’t reply. Just raised a brow. 

“I’ll take your suspicious glare as a yes.” He glanced at her hidden hand. “I would… also appreciate it were you not actively reaching for your weapon. I have no intention of causing you harm. Nophica— once again— as my witness.” When she didn’t move, he only sighed. “...Very well.” 

“I would appreciate it if you could get to your point. I have far better to do than listen to the ramblings of a madman.” 

“I am as sane as they come, my good lady.” 

“I would sooner believe a coeurl say it doesn’t intend to make a meal of my bones,” Amandine said through gritted teeth. Perhaps it was a show of her lacking sanity, to be entertaining the fool for so long. Or a telltale sign that she spent far too much time around people— or, more specifically one person— who always believed the best of everyone. 

There was that smile again. “What good news for us both, then. Last I checked, I am no coeurl.” Before she could even react, Averoux nodded. “I’m afraid it only gets more convoluted from here. Should you like to hear it, then I have a story to tell. I think you would benefit from hearing it in full.”  

Amandine let out a sigh. “Do you need a formal invitation to tell this story, then? Speak. While I’m still foolish enough to stand here and listen to this nonsense.” 

“One specifically in cursive, if you please, with a lovely floral border,” he replied with a bare nod. There was a smirk now, instead of a smile. Amandine was about to clobber him half to death already, yet that made the idea of it so much more tempting. Whether by his own realization of her ever-withering patience, or just an observation of how she shifted her grip behind her again, Averoux cleared his threat. “23 year long winters ago— or, near enough not to matter— there was a family. Disillusioned with their life in the Brume, and tired of the near constant eyes of Ishgard’s wealthy gazing down at them, they left.

“A mother, a father, and two siblings…” He trailed off there, and the look in those light violet eyes seemed far too intense. “A boy and a girl.” At that, Averoux turned away, and began pacing. Amandine’s eyes never left him as he moved. Measured, even steps. “Where their footsteps went was anyone’s guess. Only one thing remained certain: it was away from Ishgard, and that was enough for them.” 

Amandine would have crossed her arms, were one of them not already occupied with her staff. “Heretics in the making, I would guess.” 

Averoux stopped and smiled at her. He said nothing of her comment, only pausing long enough for the stop to be noticeable. And then, he continued pacing again. “This family, they were slaughtered. Likely by Dravanians, given locale. Any soul with an understanding of the creatures would assume the tale ends there. However,” he said with a dramatic turn back to her, “By the will of Halone or by some other deity, the young boy was spared this fate— just barely. 

“Awoken some time later in a new place, where the sunlight poured abundant into every window and the whisper of the elements was in every crevice to those who could hear it. And there he stayed with a lovely little couple of farmers who did all they could to make this child happy. Nophica Herself had sent them to be this child’s aid that day, and they were diligent about their work.”

“What good fortune.”

Either he didn’t notice the sarcasm in her tone, or he just didn’t care. Averoux nodded with another smirk, “Good fortune, indeed. Yet there was one thing they could never give to this child: his family back. They found, quite quickly, that he remembered it. He remembered this loss, and despite their greatest effort, they simply couldn’t replace that which he lost. Even then, they lived a happy life together, for many long years.” 

That certainly wasn’t what Amandine expected. She couldn’t help the small amount of pity that flashed across her face. “It sounds as if these people in your story met a tragic end. I would offer my condolences.” 

“Oh, hardly. They still lead a comfortable life at home. They let their little boy go when he reached his nineteenth winter to finally fulfill the one wish they couldn’t for him. He enlisted in the Archer’s guild, learned all there was to know, and then set off with a single mission. He was going to find what had happened to his family, for he was certain not all of them had perished.” 

Even since the story had begun, Amandine’s feelings about it hadn’t been the brightest. Yet as he continued explaining, she’d slowly been getting more unsettled. Whatever conclusion there was to be had from this, the sinking sense in her gut said she already had a feeling of what it could have been. 

“So he went. For years, he searched. Through the chaos of the Calamity, through the legendary end of the Dragonsong War, all of history was happening, and still he stayed firm in the past. There was nothing more important than this, in his eyes. Nothing.

“Yet, on the eve of another unsuccessful year of searching… he gave up. To spend his life searching for those who were already dead… it was time to accept it. And so he did. And was left without a purpose.” 

Averoux stopped again. His shoulders raised in a long sigh, dropping only at the exhale. With that, he turned around again, yet not in the pattern he’d taken. Instead, he went to stand in front of her again. “And that was where he remained. Drifting, wandering, taking odd jobs and leves to make ends meet until his tracks returned back to the place it had all begun: into Ishgard.

“And what else did he meet there, except a hauntingly familiar stranger, who was the striking image of his late mother. So much so, in fact, that he was so taken aback by the sight that he walked right into her without even realizing.” Were it not for the intense focus she had on not acknowledging the sudden nausea, Amandine would have already followed up on her promise of clobbering him.  

It felt like several minutes had passed before she actually felt like she could breathe again. “If I’ve been following this winding story correctly,” Amandine began with a very forced calm in her tone, “Then I am your sibling.”

He nodded once. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” 

Halone forgive me, this may be my stupidest decision yet. She took her hand off of her staff, and crossed her arms. “Then I am sure you will not refuse this most simple of requests,” she said, and let her arms fall to her sides. “And rest assured, I would be glad to help, should you be willing to accept.” 

His answer was already obvious, even before the words left his mouth. “I accept, then. This is the closest I’ve come to hope in a long, long time.”

“Very well.” Amandine smiled. “Prove it.”