Reawakened In Time (DekuBaku)

42

It was days later when we finally walked out of our room only to find our old classmates lounging around. We had been spending our time crying and just holding each other. What more could we actually do? We were only wearing towels around our waist after an overdue shower because like fucking hell I was going to walk around in a fucking hospital gown and we threw out all of our old clothes the last time we were here. 

But as always Deku has an idea, so I was following him. It didn't escape my notice that they were freaking out that we were actually here but I just couldn't bring myself to care. I followed my mate, holding his hand. Will he disappear one day too? Will there come a day that I am all alone and he will somehow expect me to just keep going? I tightened my grip and he responded, pulling me closer.

We stopped and I heard him requesting some clothes from the girl with the ponytail but I couldn't really focus on much of what was actually being said unless it was Deku talking. I just don't want to. I heard him thank her and I was being pulled away again and when we were dressed again he pulled me back downstairs again. 

The extras tried talking to me but again my focus was just on Deku who was barely responding himself. 

"Sorry, we just can't be alone right now." I looked up to see Deku's sad smile but his eyes were about as lifeless as I felt. I'm pretty sure the only reason our hearts are still beating was only because Aiko would never have wanted us to die. 

I tried to snap myself out of it, she also wouldn't want us to walk around like we were dead already, either. I cuddled into Deku before saying, "Ask your questions. Keep my mind busy." I could barely recognize my own voice, it was still so scratchy and raw. 

"Was she really your daughter?" It was Kami who asked and I saw as Kiri and Sero tried to drag him away covering his mouth. 

"Yeah, I remember the day we found her. She couldn't have been older than two months but honestly I would be surprised if she was older than a few weeks. Someone-" I told them all about the day we found her. How we came to adopt her, how we raised her. I told them all about my baby girl. When I got to the part about the boy calling her a whore Deku and I couldn't help chuckling at the memory and after we recounted the story our friends had sad smiles and chuckles of their own. 

It was like a flood gate was opened, once I started talking about her, I just couldn't stop. I didn't want to either. About how she would dance so beautifully her sword looked more like a feather in her hands than a weapon. How her laughter would calm us no matter how angry we ever were. It was like a spell that only she could cast on us. We talked for so long that someone, I have no idea who brought us food and drink and no matter how much my throat hurt, I couldn't stop. 

Deku and I took turns eating and speaking, drinking and chuckling. Our old friends asked more questions, everything from her favorite color to her preference in boys. It was Mina that asked that one, and it didn't escape anyone's notice that we stopped smiling again. 

"Ralph was a good man to her, the only one willing to put in the time and effort to earn her heart." I said while pulling Deku into my lap as I watched my memories play through my mind. "I always found it odd that Aiko loved wolves so much, considering how her birth parents were taken from her. She was the one who wanted to raise and train the wolf pups that we found either abandoned or orphaned. Her familiar was the solid black one from that first litter. She didn't go anywhere without Astrid, just like us with Angel and Demon." 

Deku hummed agreeing with me before adding, "Even the boy, Ralph was his name. It was like the wolves were attracted to her and her to the wolves." 

I started talking again, "The day those heathens murdered our son-in-law nearly killed us all. Then the decades-long war that started because of it? Life was so short, our days so long, our baby so sad." When did I start crying again? My tears silently slid down my cheeks as I talked going unnoticed until Deku wiped them away for me. 

"They were only just finally talking about giving us grandkids when it happened. And then with her dying words she was asking us for siblings? Only our daughter would be so kind. Our beautiful, talented, strong Valkyrie princess." Deku's words were stabbing me in the heart but at the same time it was almost like they were healing me too. 

"Our Aiko," I whispered, snuggling my mate in my arms. We sat talking about her, Ralph and Astrid for hours. I didn't even care that our old teachers were silently listening in from behind us. I could at least tell that they were trying to respect our space but at the same time they couldn't stay away from our stories, our history, our life. 

It was Sero who asked, "So how old are you now? The last time we saw you, you were 701." The classmates that were not with us that year with the tribe choked on whatever they were drinking, eating or just breathing but they didn't say anything. 

"Kind of hard to tell, we weren't always where we could see the sun or count the days but if I had to tell you our best estimate..." Deku muttered out his math before finally settling on a number. "9,856." 

I nodded in agreement, that was about where I was at too. So our math couldn't be too far off, at hearing the number though several of our teachers couldn't keep quiet anymore and they were bombarding us with questions too. After all according to the calendar that they follow there weren't even that many years the Earth could have supported life. 

"Of course there were a few centuries that we might not have even been on Earth, other centuries that we were at the bottom of the ocean, so those could have skewed our numbers a bit. But we should be off by more than a dozen years or so." I yawned, stretching out before curling back around my lover and closing my eyes. 

I listened to their gasps and questions but at the same time not really caring anymore. I just cuddled my lover in my arms and held him close, it didn't take long for his answers to get shorter and eventually he stopped answering altogether. My head against his chest I could hear his slow heartbeat as he slept in my arms. 

Okay, maybe we needed today more than either of us thought that we did. Talking about and thinking about Aiko's life and spirit really seemed to sooth our own. On some level I believe that she is watching us from Valhalla and smiling down at us, probably Ralph and Astrid by her side. It's more than a nice thought, that was for sure.