synergetic | Prince of Fire Emblem: Calm Before the Storm

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prince of fire emblem

Prince of Fire Emblem: Calm Before the Storm

The sunset that bounced light off the fire opal of Lissa's ring has long disappeared, overtaken by the melancholy night. A cool breeze prefaces the mass of storm clouds on the horizon, steadily rolling towards the castle and swallowing the stars. Bunta exhales into a gum bubble as he gazes at the moon from his recline against the roof of the Kuwahara inn. A lot happened today.

"Hey," he prompts his companion. "Today's meeting... What did you make of it?"

It's deliberately an open question. Jackal has always complemented him so well, strong where he was weak. Picking up the ball wherever Bunta happened to drop it. That meeting had a lot to unpack in it. For all that Bunta saw and responded to in it, there would be just as many things Jackal saw and reacted to, and with only partial overlap. It would be good to get his perspective of things.

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Jackal came up initially to clean the gutters-- there were some days when he spread out that government salary by hiring someone else who needed a break, but there were others when the time wasn't there and he wasn't too good for the labor. Some things really never would change, and Bunta finding him up here was one of them.

The question made him sigh.

"I'm still trying to figure out what I make of everything he's done since he..."

And Jackal isn't sure he wants to say 'got better,' so he settles on, "Since he got back to work."

He's right. Things have been a bit weird ever since they left for St. Rudolph that day. Yukimura was showing several new abilities, particularly in magical prowess. The way he reacted to things seemed more extreme. The way he talked seemed chillier. The way he dressed was... nothing Bunta could complain about. But different, for sure.

He hummed into his bubble.

"Some of it is a stress response, probably..."

But his excuse is laced with an edge of concern for their king. Stress alone couldn't explain everything.

Something was wrong.

"How does it compare to other times he's been stressed?" Jackal asked. "I... he usually tries to take complete control of something."

Bunta already knew it was an excuse; Jackal was simply reinforcing the point.

"He acts more like he's losing control."

Two beats of silence, and Bunta pushes himself up to a sitting position without an attempt at rebuttal.

"There is that, too..."

The things that come to Bunta's mind are both at once. He sees Yukimura tightening his grip of control in places and ways that he's normally... been more relaxed about. Magically closing the door to keep him from leaving. Forcing a public romantic status on Lissa. The response to Mizuki's threats after they proved idle.

"Frankly, control sounds like the key word all around."

"Obviously, His Majesty has rights the rest of us don't, including expectations of control."

But he'd always known the line before.

"It's not something he's ever felt the need to take from us before. Or if he has, I didn't realize it, and don't know him the way I thought I did."

What they had was always given freely to Yukimura, after all.

Bunta hadn't quite thought of it in those terms, admittedly. Maybe that was ironic. All of his focus had just... been on what was being forced on Lissa. Whatever Yukimura needed him for, it was already a given he would have it. He'd never needed to demand it. But then, never demanding it was why he'd never needed to.

"...I don't think that's it."

Jackal knew Yukimura just as well as the rest of them. The need to take that he called attention to, that was the proper name for this new tension that hung in the air when Yukimura was present. That hadn't existed before St. Rudolph.

Yukimura was scared. This was the sense that Marui had, and one that out of respect for his king he wouldn't voice so directly, not even to his best friend.

"Somehow, it's like... he no longer knows us the way we thought he did. Control and trust... they're like counterparts, right?" Trust was what allowed a relaxation of control. And for some reason... that trust Yukimura had in them all had seemingly eroded.

Deeply uncomfortable with that observation, Jackal tries to think through it logically. It's hard going.

"Yukimura isn't an idiot," he said. "If we're unrecognizable to him after everything that's happened, that'd also be a trauma response... but I don't think we've changed all that much, aside from shorter tempers. Yukimura not knowing us makes no sense."

"Yeah..."

It's extremely uncomfortable. Had they done something wrong? If they'd in any way caused this change, it's escaped Bunta's notice. Which is about where that line of thought ends, because it's damn unlikely he'd have been caught that oblivious to something that socially fatal.

"There was a piece of his usual self that meeting. Remember it?" After he collapsed into the chair.

Edited 2023-10-03 05:46 (UTC)

"I do..."

It was hard for him to watch.

"It looked like it took everything he had to put that piece forward, Bunta."

Yeah, that was another detail Bunta, in his optimism and joy just to see the Yukimura he knew at all, had buried to a subconscious level of awareness, outside the perimeter of focus. He remembers, though. How Yukimura had seemed to struggle just to talk. How all of his strength seemed to abandon him.

That's right. That was why what he was doing mattered. Yukimura had gone to tremendous effort to lay it out. That was how much it mattered to him.

He knits his brow.

"I'm gonna honor that effort, Jackal."

Sighing, Jackal reached out to give Bunta a punch in the arm.

"You know it isn't just you, right?"

Bunta is quiet for two seconds, as though processing that thought in its entirety.

Jackal might catch the moment's gleam in eyes afterwards before he shuts them, laces his hands behind his head, and leans back against the roof.

"Ah, that's a relief. Okay~! Starting tomorrow, it's fiancé time! For Jackal."

Jackal catches nothing, except a fistful of air as he staggers in his place.

"Wha- why me?!"

He shakes his head quickly. Can't have the king changing his mind in public! They've gone to enough trouble!

"You have to have better ideas than that!"

"Whattaya mean? You're the one who said it wasn't just me, right?"

There's a damn good and simple reason Bunta will never stop trolling Jackal like this: Jackal will never stop paying him dividends for it. Anyway, this was the best way to clarify. This air was getting too sad and heavy. The situation was dire, but they were gonna make it be okay. And it was a they when you zoomed out. That was never in question.

"She can't have two!"

Could she? He'd heard things... about the Valentians... and the Nohrians...

Jackal took a deep breath to try and get back on track.

"What are you going to do for the king, then?"

Getting a little too flustered, isn't he? Did he overdo it? Hm.

Sitting back up, Bunta offers him an easy smile, and returns that punch to the arm.

"That's it."

Punch him...? He'd almost like to see Bunta try... Yukimura would eat him alive, once for lunch and once for dessert.

"What do you want me to do, then?"

Air definitely feels better now. Bunta is pleased. Now they can problem-solve.

"We support each other, like always, right?"

"That much goes without saying..."

He would watch and wait for the moment Bunta needed defense. Waiting for whatever he did to rebound on him.

Bunta takes a moment to think before he speaks again. They need to recalibrate here.

"...I don't think pretending is what Yukimura-kun really wants me to do."

His full attention immediately goes to Bunta.

"What did he tell you? And what do you really think?"

A little apprehension sneaks in, but Jackal isn't fearful.

Bunta shrugs a little.

"Nothing the rest of the room didn't hear. Just..."

Just what? How do you translate a message that lacks words?

"This protects Lissa, is what he said. What if he's thinking he might not be able to himself much longer?"

"I..." comes out before he can stop it.

Jackal falters, trying to parse that.

"Yukimura's the strongest person I know, even if you discount him being the king," he said, slowly. "If he couldn't protect her, I... would he even still be himself?"

"Has he been himself?"

A long, dark silence falls, because Jackal has nothing to say to that.

"Even when he was first healthy again, he... It was good to see the way he moved, but he wasn't moving like himself. Not at all."

"Yeah. Somehow... the man that we call King both is and isn't our Yukimura-kun."

It's a thought that makes his chest feel numb and cold inside. The man they all loved more than air was like a ghost, even when he stood right in front of them.

"...The timing is too..."

Jackal can feel his stomach dropping.

"We let Mizuki off too easy."

Bunta frowns, nonplussed.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I think we were played," Jackal said, calm, but with anger starting to thread in between his words. "Mizuki and his miracle cure is... is where the change started, right? He was different while he was sick, but not the way he is now. He was angry, but he wasn't..."

He was running out of words, he thought ruefully. Or he just didn't want to put any to the guilt he was starting to feel. Because their job had been to give Yukimura the information he needed to make the decision soundly, and they'd failed.

"His anger made sense, there were reasons for it. There's no reason for him to be so... careless with us and the princess. What's... what is it that he's struggling with? What's... imprisoning him?"

What Jackal said made sense. Bunta, admittedly, had never really concerned himself with understanding the past, even for a subject as important as Yukimura. Jackal's ability to take a bunch of background observations and facts and weave them into a cohesive explanation was pretty cool.

The questions it was raising, though, those were a distraction as far as Bunta was concerned. Reaching out, he plants a companionable, steadying hand on Jackal's shoulder.

"Well, what we should focus on is what we can do about it. Let's leave the diagnosis to Yanagi. What's our strength? How can we support him? That's the question we should answer."

He smiles in spite of everything. Part of him feels guilty for it, but he feels like he can deal with this happening to Yukimura better than he could with Bunta-- if it only because it meant Bunta was on his side to do it with him.

"Those are questions I should be asking you. You're the one he's giving new responsibilities to."

Bunta smiles back.

"I already know what I'm doing, though."

"I don't think I'll know what I need to do until it's time do it," he said honestly. "Or until I see what you do first."

"No need to wait that long. I'm right here," he jokes.

The air doesn't last. Remembering the promise he made, and what it meant, is bittersweet. It's a loss of its own flavor to displace Yukimura from his status as Bunta's Most Important Person, and that change is one he's still working through. Grief isn't regret, though, and his conviction that this is the right choice, true both to Yukimura's wishes and to his own values, keeps his expression steady and his voice confident.

Subconsciously, his fingertips gently curl against the firm muscle in Jackal's shoulder anyway.

"I'm gonna do this properly, Jackal. Being a fiancé."

Edited 2023-10-05 14:05 (UTC)

Jackal looks at him over the same shoulder, almost contemplative.

"Neither the princess nor the king deserve less," he said, still a little confused. "I mean, are you going to act like you're really in love with her? Does she know that?"

As expected of Jackal, he gets it.

"No, I don't think there's going to be any confusion about that. But..."

Awkwardness stops him from finishing that sentence. His smile relaxes, and becomes a little wistful.

"Well, in all likelihood it won't change anything. Yukimura-kun already looks out for her more than anyone. I'm just the failsafe, right?"

"Yukimura has no weaknesses, and no need of failsafes," Jackal corrected. "If he gave you a task, it's because he had perfect faith in you."

Under normal circumstances, Marui would agree with that assessment of Yukimura 100%. Even now, to argue with it felt like a kind of heresy.

So he doesn't. He meets Jackal's eyes and lets his grin grow back to its usual wild confidence.

"As he should."

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Prince of Fire Emblem: Calm Before the Storm

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