Portals & Realms

Chapter 18 - Home

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The rest of the crew got to the house about fifteen minutes later, all of them simultaneously relieved that the other party was ok. Aiden didn't stay more than ten minutes, though he did wish to talk to the new member of the ragtag crew that had been picked up; Dimitri. He asked him very basic things, ranging from if he needed medical service or not, but was reassured by Annika that he would be taken care of. As soon as that had concluded and only another few minutes after he had left the house to go back to his place and take care of Noa, Edo and Kigu, pizza came along. That was the last time Mae came out that night when she paid the man for the food, but she didn't take anything herself. Instead, she bumped into the garage, came back seemingly empty handed, and went back into her room.
"Hey, I can't have you passing out. Tell me if the stitching hurts," Annika spoke in a quiet tone to Dimitri as he was laying on two blankets under him in the empty guest room of the small house. The door behind them was cracked open, but only slightly, since Xolo would check in every few minutes. He was called over by Perri however, since apparently she, Aph, and Ramille were all playing Mario Kart to distract them from what was happening.
    "For the fifth time, I've withstood worse in my life. Simple stitching shouldn't pain me too much," Dimitri responded and kept his hands to his sides. All of his armor had been removed along with his cape and placed against the wall to their left. "Stabbed by lances, slashed by silver swords, shot by arrows... it all has been dulled down."
    She listened to him, but still felt cautious. Her head was buzzing with questions and emotions and confusion about how she should feel now and how she should act. "I heard that a good trick to ignoring the pain of stitches comes with talking. Even if it is just senseless rambling."
    "I do not feel the need to bother you with any rambling I could muster."
    "It wouldn't bother me Dima, trust me."
    He still remained quiet as she fiddled with her medical supplies and grabbed the sterilized needle and some thread, preparing to start tying the wound up. She poked the needle through his skin and pulled it to the other side, watching his face for any change in posture. "You... used to call me Dima."
    She nearly stopped, but continued going and waited for him to say another statement. However, he remained quiet, his fists curled the same way as they had been before. Annika had rolled up the bottom of his undershirt so she could access the wound. "I remember you saying something about me being there. About me dying."
    "It's too bad that the Annika I knew was... simply a lie."
    "I want to hear about what I was like. About what the impersonation was like for you Dima. Was I rude? Mean? Manipulative?"
    "No, nothing of the sort," he wasn't speaking as loud as he was before, his teeth gritting with the pain of the stitching."You were very... kind. I remember you joining our class and doing something no one had done before. It was, needless to say, surprising."
   I did something surprising? What kind of surprising? A bad surprise? Was it stupid? "What did I do that was surprising?"
    "You offered to repair the lance I broke. It was a nice silver one, but I had snapped it when fighting some demonic beasts with the class for a battle on the weekend. You heard me walking to put it in the scrap pile and came by, saying that it could be repaired and strengthened. Two days later you told me to meet you by the garden so you could show me what you did to repair it, and I happily agreed. I exited Byleth's class, and as I met you there..." he paused as he looked away from Annika and to the armor against the wall, Areadbhar on the ground. Some sorrow was on his face, but he wiped it away. "Sorry for my moment of weakness. But to continue, you gave me the lance fully repaired. You implemented some type of black rock into the rod and it was sturdier. I even tried to break it during training the next day, and it didn't budge. Even when my crest activated, the only thing that dulled over time was the replaceable blade."
    "Do you still have the lance with you?"
    "No, it did break eventually. It was taken away from me when I was sentenced in the capital, but I got it back when escaping with Areadbhar. After that, the blade dulled and it snapped when fighting some imperial forces with a few classmates after Byleth had returned."
    She nodded and pulled the needle through again, tightening the stitching. He hissed, which made her blood run cold as she continued finishing it off. "Sorry."
    "It's alright... you look different to the one I knew."
    "Is that a bad thing?"
    "No, not at all! If I may be honest, you are as stunning as I remember."
    Her breath got caught in her throat and she tried to ignore what he had just said, but she couldn't ignore her situation. Dimitri wasn't supposed to be a real person, and now that he was, she might as well have dug her own grave. Since the day his existence was announced, she liked him. Love is more-or-less the correct word. And then when she played the game, all she wanted was to comfort him, ensure he wouldn't fall victim to what occured in the five year timeskip. Obviously, she never imagined she might actually have an impact on his life. And Annika didn't imagine that she would be doing makeshift surgery on the man.
    "I'm sorry, I was too outfront with such a compliment. Forgive me."
    "I... remember you saying that we died. Mae and I both died one day. How did we die?"
    He looked back at her and then closed his eye, for the other one was hidden by his eyepatch. "Claude and I had joined forces by then and were working together. This was... all after Rodrigue had died. We went to a battle against the imperial forces alongside a ravine, for there used to be a fort there that would have been a good point for an encampment of soldiers. Everyone was fighting, losses on both sides, and I was being escorted through one of the heavily forested areas to get to the general when you ran off suddenly. I didn't make a move to chase you, but then I saw three of the demonic beasts coming our way. I shouted at you to get out of the way, but they barreled through the forests and you were knocked away. I changed courses and saw you on the ground with Mae standing in front of you defensively.
    "She had a poisoned sword in hand and stabbed one of the monsters in the head and knocked it down, but the other two weren't going to let up. Before my eyes a dragon emerged... and it began taking the blows of the beasts. I heard Claude yell at Mae, but you were holding onto her back leg as I noticed how bloody you were. I ran to try and kill a beast, but Mae was yelling things, like she was changing voices. 'I won't let you kill me' 'Let me do my job' 'you can't hurt them too! Not them too' 'I've done everything I needed to do here'. And then she fell over the cliff into the ravine with you on her leg still. I remember looking over the cliffside and suddenly both of your bodies dissipated into dust."
    She ducked her head and finished the stitching. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
    "You couldn't have changed anything that happened. It was what the demon planned, and it was his actions that led to both of you dying."
    "I wish that you didn't have to go through that, any of that."
    "How different are you to the one I knew..? Was everything a lie?"
    Annika looked at him worriedly as she checked the stitching, ensuring that it wouldn't come out if stretched. "Dima I..."
    "Back at home when we would talk, you acted so sweet and caring to me. You listened to me and made sure I didn't go mad. You tried to fix me during Byleth's attempts and I brushed you off all the same. Then when Mae and Claude and most of the Golden Deer arrived along with Dorothea and Petra, I saw you smile for the first time in so... so long," he carried on, looking to his left at where Annika had sat down, pushing her tools away. He pulled down his shirt and continued to ramble. "I walked by and saw you smile and laugh as you nearly walked into a tree, and then I heard from Mercedes when you two had tea and when you had asked her about me. But then you were gone, and I relived those bittersweet memories in my dreams and regretted everything I hadn't done all those years."
    "Dima..."
    "And then... and then now I am to learn everything I reminisced was a linen cut lie formulated by a demon."
    Annika gently put her hand in his and watched as his face contorted in anger. His eye narrowed and he flinched, like he was ready to strike. But she watched him stop. She saw him calm down and he sat up slowly, looking at her.
    "I missed you... and now that you're here, I don't think my feelings are the same," he mumbled, his head hanging slightly. "It's been only two months and yet the wound is as fresh as the one now healed by your medical tools. Rodrigue's death... my family... everyones. And now I am to learn that two deaths which killed another part of my joy were illusions toying with everyone's mind."
    The silence of the room was haunting at best, but it didn't stay silent. When Annika was about to speak again, he opened his mouth. "One night before the ball, I decided to take a nighttime stroll and ended up coming across you feeding a dog some leftover fish. I had asked you 'what are you doing out this late?' and you simply said 'this dog reminded me of you when i saw her earlier, so I decided to feed her when it was late'. I laughed when you said that..." he paused and took in a breath, and that's when she noticed he was crying. She could see how the dim lamplight in the room was reflecting the tears welling up in his eyes. "And then you asked what I was doing, so I told you that I was taking a stroll to clear my head. You joined me on that stroll, and we walked together through the garden... and the courtyard until you asked to stop when we approached the bridge to the cathedral.
"Y-you said 'look over there Dima' and so I did and I asked you 'well, what am I supposed to be seeing?'. You pointed over the bridge and at the hills over to the north and I squinted my eyes.. Looking for what could have attracted your attention but saw nothing. 'Over those hills are the most beautiful of flower fields, I remember them well. During the spring months there is nothing but hillside of flowers.' and I asked 'To that direction is Duscur, right?'. 'Well yes, but I know their flower fields are nothing but gorgeous. If we get the chance, we should go there. See the flowers... it would be a great break from this job. The job of school that is.' and I just laughed and remember looking at the hills and asking you if you promised to take me there, to see the flowers. You promised... and then Belle left with Edelgard and the war began and then you- you died before I could-"
Annika let go of his hand and had already turned to face him, but she got onto her knees and leaned forward. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, slouching to the right so she could be comfortable. He immediately stopped speaking and hugged her as well, tears streaming down his face from under the eyepatch and his working eye too. She didn't feel him move as he silently cried while holding her, making her also feel like crying too. She didn't enjoy people in pain, and hearing everything that happened and everything that Ghost did to manipulate him and others made her stomach churn.
"Dima... it's ok, I'm right here. The one you knew wasn't all fake, I'm sure part of me was there. I'm sure that some part of that Annika was some part of me," she whispered and felt him nod, but he still clung to her. "I'll keep my promise. I will go show you the flowers when this is all over. We'll go as friends."
"What did... did you think of me before this? What do you think of me? Am I a monster to you?"
"You are anything but. I... care for you, deeply. But I do not want my previously established emotions to override and completely control the new ones that will appear with you here. I find you charming, and you are very kind to everyone despite the words they may spit. I admire that," she took a deep breath and pushed away from him, letting his arms fall to the side of his body as he took a cloth and wiped his eye. "I won't let my emotions override any of yours. But I do expect the same at some level. Let us just... take it easy tonight with everyone else. Let us be friends, and if someone does come of this, then I suppose it does. I won't immediately consider all my feelings from looking at you and experiencing your story from a screen to be the ones I feel when looking at you and being near you now."
"I suppose that may just be for the best," he gave her a small smile and laid back down on the blankets, a hand to the wound under his shirt. "Will I sleep here?"
"It will be best if you do. That way I can come in without disturbing others so I can check on your wound and hydrate you."
"Can I keep the lamp on?"
"Of course," she smiled at him and got a small smile back, "I know this wasn't the most ideal way to "reunite"-"
"-to meet. We are two changed, different people to what we know and knew. We are meeting."
"Then this isn't the ideal way of meeting, but I'm glad that we got to see each other now and can help each other. I know, for a fact, that many people will be upset and enraged that someone like me got the chance to meet the person you are." And with a quick motion, she kissed his forehead and stood up, looking back at him for any change.
"Get good sleep," he mumbled and shifted, closing his eye.
"You too Dima, bonne nuit."