Author: Orodruin42
Flavor: Vanilla
Prompt: #26 Anniversity/Memorial
Story: The Paelenor (SPOILERS!)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 663
“… I was so surprised to find out he was dead,” the boy said somberly, staring at the small, stone grave stone.
“I mean… really dead,” he added awkwardly.
“… I know what you mean,” Janelle said softly. A fresh layer of snow coated the earth around them—everything except the flat gravestone, which had been wiped clean. “It was… horrible when he died, but I always kind of thought when we came back he’d still…”
The two teens were silent for a long moment.
Janelle shifted, pulling her jacket closer in the cold, “How… is your mother?”
“The same,” Sigmund replied with a shrug.
“… I’m sorry. I know you were hoping she’d recover.”
The younger boy sighed, “I was, but… the world’s still the same, you know? Even after everything we’ve been through.”
“You’ve changed, though,” Janelle said, “And so have I.”
Sigmund smiled, “All of us have. I found Rester, by the way.”
Janelle looked up, “He’s alright?”
“Seems to be,” Sigmund replied, “Over in America, of course. He really wanted to come when I told him about Mies, but his parents wouldn’t pay for the plane fare, of course. And he couldn’t really explain how he knew this guy all the way over here.”
Janelle laughed despite their dreary surroundings, “Yeah, my parents couldn’t understand it, either. But it didn’t cost that much to come and it was my turn to pick the family vacation this year. How did you manage it?”
The boy raised an eyebrow, “You have to ask? I told my dad I was leaving and jumped on the next boat out here.”
The girl frowned at him, “Did you even pay?”
“Of course not,” the teen snorted.
“Sigmund!” Janelle exclaimed with disapproval, “I thought you weren’t doing stuff like that anymore!”
“It was a fishing boat,” Sigmund smirked, “I made a deal with the captain and worked my way over.”
The girl relaxed, “Oh, that’s alright, then… But won’t your father be worried?”
Sigmund shrugged, “He’ll be a lot less worried with me over here than he would be if I was out with Harmond.”
They both turned back to the grave between and silence fell heavy around them.
“I still don’t understand,” Janelle said at last, “How it was Mies… of everyone who died.”
Sigmund nodded in agreement, staring at the older boy’s name, “Yeah… he was the strongest one of us—he’s the one who always kept us going. I doubt we would’ve stayed together even a day without him.”
“He didn’t deserve to die,” Janelle said somberly.
They were silent again, layered against the cold. Eventually the snow began to fall again.
“…I should probably head back to the hotel,” Janelle muttered awkwardly.
Sigmund didn’t respond, because there was the sound of snow crunching behind them. Both teens turned, half expecting it to be Rester or Takara. Instead, it was a boy with sandy-blond hair who couldn’t have been any older than Sigmund. He paused when he saw them, and then continued, walking straight towards them.
Janelle and Sigmund stared as the boy walked right up at them. He ignored them, though, staring down at the grave-marker, instead.
The two friends exchanged glances.
“Are you… Alfonse, by any chance?” Janelle asked after a moment.
The boy looked up in surprise, “How did you know that?”
“We were friends of your brother’s,” Janelle supplied, “You look a lot like him.”
The boy looked bewildered; his eyebrow crinkled and his lips tightened in a frown. “How did you know him? You’re too young to have gone to school with him…”
“It’s complicated,” Sigmund dismissed.
The boy stared at them a moment longer—Sigmund thought his eyes were too sharp, like his brothers, and felt as though he could see right through everything they said. At last, he tore his eyes away and looked back at the grave-marker.
“He was a good person,” Janelle said awkwardly.
Alfonse nodded, “He was.”
The snow fell around them.