AU PROMPTS

[pokerap]

AU PROMPTS POST
A bunch of prompts from here, all listed below with links to each fic in a comment!

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Awakening, Pokémon Sun & Moon, RP (Trustfell r4)
Character(s): Gangrel, Lusamine
Pairing(s): Gangrel/Lusamine
Word Count: 1,381
Summary: "The timeline in which something big never happened to them."
Notes: Too bad Gangrel was doomed from the start as a mod character!!!
Link: Here!

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, RP (psl)
Character(s): Edelgard, Lorenz
Pairing(s): Edelgard/Lorenz
Word Count: 1,557
Summary: "The timeline in which they gain everything they want, except for the thing they wanted the most."
Notes: I don't know how to write Edelgard, but here we are anyway!!
Link: Here!

Comments

EDELGARD/LORENZ - 8

[pokerap]

The war is over. Fódlan is united. Emperor Edelgard’s reign will usher in a new era and with it, eliminate the problems that plagued Fódlan for so long. No longer with there be a reliance on crests. No longer will the nobility hold all the power. No one will suffer as they have in the past. Only the best and brightest future awaits Fódlan now.

Of course, there have been sacrifices. More sacrifices than Edelgard would care to remember, but can’t bring herself to forget. She can’t sleep without recalling their screams. She vividly remembers the feeling of Aymr cleaving into Dimitri, of watching him fall. She knew heading down this path that it would always be blood-soaked, and she was prepared to accept that. Though their deaths trouble her, they were necessary. A means to an end, and an end that will only benefit Fódlan.

What she didn’t anticipate was what else she’d lose along the way.

Lorenz had been the first to agree to side with her, back during their academy days when she’d told him the truth. As soulmates, it would undoubtedly hurt him more if he were to find out when she made her move on the Church of Seiros, and perhaps more importantly, she’d wanted to share her plans with him. She had given him the option to turn her down, though they both knew it wasn’t really something she could offer. If he had chosen not to side with her, Hubert wouldn’t have allowed it to stand. But Lorenz chose her, and he continued to stand with her time and time again, serving as one of her most trusted generals.

That was why she left him in charge of the Alliance’s territory as she pressed further into the Kingdom with her army. Lorenz’s skill in battle was useful, of course, but his ability to connect with the people of the Alliance and control them in the interim was more important. She needed the Alliance to remain stable until the Kingdom was hers, and only then could she fully unite Fódlan and bring peace. Lorenz had understood - of course he had, he’d grown into quite the politician and tactician in his own right - and had remained behind.

Some foolish, naive part of her thought that things would simply go back to the way they were when she returned after uniting Fódlan beneath her crimson banners.

It couldn’t, of course. There was simply no way for such a thing to happen. She’d placed Sylvain in charge of the former Kingdom’s territories while Lorenz remained in control of the former Alliance. They’re instrumental in ensuring her reforms go as planned, all while Ferdinand handles things in the former Empire that she can’t oversee personally. As the Empress, her duty is to lead the nation into a brighter future, and to ensure that such a future can come into being once she has given her throne to her successor. It isn’t going to be easy, and that’s why she remains in Enbarr and while Lorenz remains in Derdriu.

They exchange letters frequently, but those letters have involved personal feelings less and less frequently, until she’s lucky if she gets even a single line about how Lorenz misses her. There isn’t time for frivolities now, and perhaps even worse, any sort of feelings could possibly be used against them, if their letters were to be intercepted. Those Who Slither in the Dark are still around, and Edelgard has made more political enemies than she’d care to count. Continuing to pursue some sort of relationship would be folly. They both know that.

Perhaps that’s why they never bothered to say as much. Perhaps that’s why each and every letter with House Gloucester’s seal makes her heart sink a little further.

It’s been two years since the end of the war and the unification of Fódlan under the Adrestian Empire. Things haven’t been easy, but slowly her plans are beginning to fall into place. It will be worth it in the end, she tells herself daily, but it feels a bit more difficult than usual to prepare herself for today’s meeting.

After all, it’s the first time she’s seeing Lorenz in well over a year.

Hubert finishes placing the crown on her head and she stands, moving swiftly toward the door. They don’t need to exchange words for him to know how difficult today is going to be for her, and he ends up sticking a little closer than usual as she makes her way to the throne room.

Lorenz is on time, of course. He looks no different than he had the last time she saw him, almost as though the governing of a former country isn’t a heavy weight on his shoulders. Perhaps it isn’t. Lorenz was raised to lead the Alliance, after all. Some part of her truly does hope that the burdens she’s passed on to him are easy for him to bear. “Your Majesty,” He greets her as he sweeps into a bow.

She nods, keeping the sorrowful smile that she wants to wear off her face. “Lorenz. You have a report for me?”

He does, and he delivers it without any of the theatrics that were so common in his youth. It’s a bit strange to think that he’s grown up, but he really has grown into the role she’s given him. It hurts in some ways, to know that he never had a chance to follow his own path and was instead dragged down hers.

Once he’s finished, she dismisses the rest of her cabinet to speak with him privately. Even Hubert slips out with the others without her needing to ask him as much.

“I’m pleased to see you.” She says as she descends the stairs to join him. “It’s been quite some time since we were last able to meet.”

“Yes,” Lorenz agrees, and though he’s smiling, it’s distinctly melancholy. “If I had more time, I would be here more often.”

She knows he doesn’t mean it to hurt her, but her gaze darts anyway. “I... truly am sorry I must ask so much of you.”

Lorenz waves a hand as if to dismiss it. “I understand why you would. It is essential that we ensure peace within the Empire; I know the former Alliance territories better than anyone else and it makes sense for me to handle their affairs as we transition.”

It doesn’t help to hear it, even though those are her exact thoughts. “Still...” She trails off there, not entirely sure just what it is she wants to say.

For a long moment, there’s only silence between them. Things were never this awkward before, but it’s been so long and it almost feels as though the bond that grew so strong during their school days has weakened considerably. It’s still present, of course; they are still soulmates. But in the end, that bond can’t be the most important thing to either of them, can it?

Lorenz must be thinking the same thing, because he brings a hand up to her cheek and angles her to look back at him. “Edelgard,” Her name alone with no title sounds almost like praise.

“I’m sorry,” She blurts out instead, one of her hands coming up to take his. She’s not sure if she wants to pull his hand away or cling so tightly and never let go. “This isn’t what I wanted for you.”

“I know.” The reassurance is calm, but there’s a deep sadness beneath it and all too present in his eyes. “I had hoped we would find a different ending.”

This isn’t the end, She wants to say. There’s still hope. But she knows as well as he does that there isn’t. Neither of them ever had the luxury of indulging in the idea of soulmates, no matter how they tricked themselves into believing otherwise when they were younger.

“I love you,” She says instead, because it’s vital that he knows it. “I have loved you for so long.”

His hand slips from the side of her face and he twines his fingers with hers, just as they had so long ago. “I love you as well, Edelgard. More than words can ever possibly express.” She wonders briefly if he’d tried to express it in those poems he used to deny writing.

She wants to promise him that when all of this is over, when she’s handed the throne off to her successor that things will be different. That she’ll finally be able to be with him. But it isn’t a promise she can make, any more than the promises she made to him at the Officers Academy. She doesn’t want to leave him with yet another broken promise. “I’m sorry,” She says again, her voice thick with emotion she can’t possibly show.

“I could never blame you.” Lorenz says instead, and when he leans forward to press a kiss to her cheek, it’s with a finality she never wanted to imagine.

“Goodbye, Lorenz.” She releases his hand instead of allowing herself to think about it. Just as she has countless times before, Edelgard steels herself into the Emperor she has always been destined to become.

She can’t ignore the sharp ache in her chest as he gives her one final smile before leaving.