Away With The Wind (henrobin)

Away With The Wind

He could only watch.

        He could only watch as life itself fractured into the cracks of a shattered mirror. He could only watch as the reflection of his happiness, his joy, his love be gone with the wind. It brought him little comfort to hear that her last thoughts were of him and of their creation. To know that this goodbye, that this farewell in all its theatrics was indeed no show, not a stage where the audience was reminded that it was all an act, that roses were thrown on the stage to the appreciation of the still alive actors. No this is real, and that fact alone didn't quite hit Henry until the fading whispered words of I love you were the last thing to leave the hallowed ground that his salvation, Veryn stood upon seconds prior. What was left the tactician fell off her now-gone physical form and pooled on the ground. The "pool" turned out to be her thick trusty Grimleal Robe, the one she couldn't be seen without on every encounter of her journey with the Shepherds. Henry broke out of his grief-struck stupor and walked slowly to the article of clothing, each step taken felt like a massive feat of strength like he was being weighed down by the knees. He felt the gaze of the Shepherds burning into his back, each watching his every move, none dared to speak with the exit of the sorcerer's now late wife. A shock ran through Henry when his fingertips grazed a particular stain on the robe,  and colors started to flash behind his eyes.

"Hey Henry, I need some help re-arranging some of my to- what are you doing on the floor are you alright?" Henry perked up at the voice in his tent. He was currently working on dissecting a risen arm he had grabbed from the battlefield.  He decided to turn around and face the source of the question with his trademark grin"What's up boss?  Need me to lend a hand?" Henry thought he was quite clever when he'd pulled up his macabre-esque project for the punchline. The tactician or rather the lady in the fluffy grimleal cloak and chestnut hair looked spooked for a moment before she raised up a hand and chuckled softly at it . "I'll have to admit that one was pretty good, but I might have some more puns ready later to disarm this one with" she had said with a wink (the counter pun had succeeded in making Henry smile)   before correcting herself  "Oh, also the name is Veryn, you needn't call me anything else, but that. Besides that point I came to ask if you'd come help me organize the wind magic tomes, they got messed with when we had to pack up and march to Carrion Isle" . Henry really hadn't anything better to do so he'd attempted to get up when he'd tripped  over a fold in the tent floor, sending the opened up Risen arm at Veryn who could do nothing but attempt to shield herself from the horrid projectile. Henry had looked up and saw that she was splattered with the purple sludge that was risen blood and opened his mouth "My bad Veryn, guess that wasn't very HANDY of me." . He had not expected the tactician to actually crack up at his joke until he heard the snort and chortle of suppressed laughter before she offered her hand to him "I think I'm going to like you Henry."

The memory had faded, Henry felt a hand rest upon his shoulder. He almost lashed out with a burst of ruin, but stopped himself when he'd seen that it was his son and behind him was Lucina. The sight of how disheveled Morgan looked made Henry's heart tighten in his chest, his silvery hair windswept and his pale cheeks streaked with tears. Henry gripped the robe in his hand and wrapped his son in a tight embrace, the robe-free hand intertwined with locks of Morgan's inherited hair. Henry felt his son shudder before he'd felt him rest his head on his shoulder, tears spilling onto his cloak. Henry looked up at the shades of twilight now swallowing the sky and felt a warm rush of wind around the side of his head. It felt as if a hand was guiding his face to look at the setting of the sun, when in that moment he could almost hear the words that whispered in the wind.

" Dry your tears love, this isn't goodbye, take care of our son and yourself I love you "

Henry looked to his son and broke away from their embrace, but kept a light hand on his shoulder and the other wiped the fresh tears gliding down his sons' face. "Do not cry Morgan, for your mother is like gravity, she'll be away for a while, but in the end she always comes back, always." Henry had then taken his hands to either side of his own mouth and pulled them up into a smile "She wouldn't want to see us so down so let us smile for her like this Nya-ha!" Henry, despite smiling, felt hot trails of tears surge down his face. Morgan, in his tearful state, had brightened in the slightest and laughed, shaking his head at his father's antics, but nonetheless grateful for the optimism. Henry knew he had succeeded when a shaky smile bloomed on Morgan's face. "Atta boy Morgan, let us go home."

A/N: I recently beat Awakening with an S supported Henry and through his support convos, he quickly became my favorite character (Along with Cherche ofc). This was originally going to be a fluffy one-shot, but I decided to go a lil angsty and rewrite that ending scene where Robin is all like "Haha death go brrr." I am a novice writer so constructive criticism is encouraged