You Will Live

A New Dawn

Many survivors were already at the surface when Hubert arrived with his companions. Manuela, for one, tumbled into Hanneman with a hug and no less than three kisses the second they staggered onto the scorched grass. Recent rains were so kind as to prevent a forest fire and giving them this haven for retreat.

Scanning the crowd, Hubert realized there were many romantic partnerships in their midst. Annette giggled with Dedue, tearful and relieved. Petra met with Dorothea and Bernadetta in a tight embrace, not unlike Dimitri and Felix with Byleth. Somewhat reticently on Felix's part.

Caspar scooped up Lin to pepper him in kisses as well, whereupon he shook the parchment containing Lysithea's cure at Hanneman. With a chuckle, the retired professor took it and went off with Manuela to deliver the good news to Lysithea and Cyril. Sylvain was making Mercedes laugh with horrible pick-up lines, Ashe and Ingrid rested their foreheads together while nursing small injuries, Flayn and Ignatz simply held each other, Lorenz protested weakly against Claude's whispers as Hilda trapped him in place with a hug...

No head of long, orange curls or vibrant Adrestian armor to be found.

Hubert started walking through the people gathered there, a blend of familiar faces and soldiers he did not recognize. Georgie may have followed him. He was growing steadily ignorant of everything but Ferdinand's apparent absence.

"Ferdinand," he said aloud, forgetting the pulsing ache in his arms as his pace quickened. "Ferdinand?"

He reached the end of the crowd, turning to begin anew in another area. Distantly, he felt Georgie reach for him and pulled away to keep walking. Hubert did not want the feeling that would follow if he gave up.

"Where are you going?"

Hubert stopped short and faced him. Beside his sister, who would surely never let Hubert live that moment of panic down, Ferdinand smiled. Tired but content, and more pressingly, alive. He bore the same minor injuries as most soldiers under a layer of dust from falling debris. But he was not bleeding out, not dismembered, not crushed by the wreckage.

Hubert von Vestra was a man of action. He got results with unwavering determination. Typically, the means to his ends were bloody and grim. Unspeakable in the light of day or hard-earned victories that were decades in the making.

It was not too late to change that as well as Fódlan society.

His long stride made short work of the distance between himself and Ferdinand, coming together in a kiss that swallowed up Ferdinand's noise of surprise. It clouded out the cheers from their friends, Georgie's teasing revulsion, and every last bleak possibility in Hubert's mind.

They would return. Yet Ferdinand would remain, warm and relaxing into their kiss as he was then, holding Hubert to secure his place on this path. Now and for always, he would remain.