Renovating the Heart (FFXV)

XXVII) Number Six

~3 years before~

Clouds hazed over the glinting stars in the sky, hiding any semblance of heavenly light. The only source they possessed was the pile of burning logs around them, illuminating the damp cave walls and heating the chilled air. Goosebumps prickled across Rue's skin as she shed her jacket and threw it over the sleeping body to her left, shuddering. Two men and a woman sat just as she did, camped around the fire in an uneven circle with their bodies pressed to their knees and their eyes reflecting the golden light of the dancing flames. Their stomachs growled angrily, their teeth ground together, and their muscles ached, demanding rest. The feelings were all too familiar those days. Starvation, anxiety, and exhaustion served as the mark of survival, a reminder that they were all still very much alive, though for how much longer none of them could guess.

"We have to move soon," the younger of the two men said, looking up at the others in their group. "There's no point in huddling here forever."

"It's not for forever," the woman replied, playing with her clothes as she thought. "Just until the king comes back."

"And when do you think that'll be?" he demanded, keeping his voice low. "We'll die here if we don't leave."

"Then where should we go?" Rue asked softly, tucking her long hair behind her ear.

"I dunno, somewhere with food?" The young man scoffed, rolling his eyes and tossing a pebble into the fire. "Did anything catch your eye when you went out there, Dex?"

"It's all dead," Dex replied, shaking his head. He glanced up at Rue, surprised that she'd spoken. "Unless we stop by Hammerhead or Lestallum. I hear those are pretty big posts."

"Yeah, but they made it clear that they want nothing to do with us," the woman grumbled.

"Doesn't help that you picked a fight with the head honcho," the young man retorted.

"Well, there's not much we can do about it now, Alec," Dex reminded him, sinking back against the cold, rugged wall. "Besides, she had every right to be upset with him."

"What, did he piss in your canteen?" Alec scoffed, scowling at the woman, whose name Rue finally recalled to be Lenna. The cold and the hunger combined were doing things to her brain, making her weak both physically and mentally. 

"Alec," Dex said sternly, frowning. "Cut it out."

"What? I want to know why, when she had one job, she had to go in there and muck it up."

"That's her busin—"

"He killed my son," Lenna gritted out, glaring into the fire. A heavy silence overtook the camp. Rue felt as though someone had just stabbed her through the heart, staring down at her lap and reaching over to rest a hand on the body beside her. "Took 'im to on another bloody daemon hunt and came back with no one else. Suppose that means he killed five people."

"..." Alec shut his mouth and his brow furrowed. Dex watched her speak with a sympathetic expression, nodding and playing with the chain around his neck—more specifically, the ring on the chain held to his chest. Alec, clearly ashamed of the way he demanded Lenna's answer, carefully glanced at Dex. "You... lost someone too, right?"

"Yeah." Dex huffed, leaning forward to drape his arms across his knees. He pulled the necklace off and turned the ring over and over between his fingers. "My wife." Alec nodded. "You?"

"My parents." He puffed a sardonic laugh, a bitter smile crossing his lips. "Guess no one came out unscathed. Rue?"

"No one." Rue was surprised when the words came from her mouth without a second thought, shocked at the cold, empty tone of her voice. Still, she thought she'd share her piece if they were truly up to talking about who they missed. "Everyone I loved was gone before I came out here." She squeezed the girl's arm, finally looking up to meet Alec's eyes. "She's all I have now."