bonnefois: ghost_factory @ LJ (Default)
bonnefois ([personal profile] bonnefois) wrote2008-09-26 12:45 am

fic: memento

title: memento
fandom: FE 10
character/pairing: Ike/Soren
rating: quite G
a/n: Drabblet. Kink meme archiving. Original prompt: Ike x Soren. Fluff. Soren sees Ike cuddling with a teddy bear (keep sake of his mother's maybe?). Must have Soren and Ike cuteness. And anon would die if it was big, buff Ike too. :3

Thanks in advance! XD

Admittedly I’ve done the Soren-desperately-finds-a-precious-thing-to-Ike but this struck me as the most in-character response to the prompt (and since I apparently must fill every single one for this pairing that I didn’t request myself...) It's implemented differently anyways.


Ike hadn’t expected to ever see Ursa again. He recognized the grizzled fur, the black, cracked button eyes. Stuffed bears were not popular in Crimea, but Greil had boughten it for him long ago when he was still yet a baby and somehow it had withstood the attentions of a very strong and curious toddler.

He picked up the small bear. It was handmade, misshapen, worn all the worse for time. And yet, it had withstood nearly twenty years and returned to him without warning.

He clutched it and breathed in the scent, musty, yet he could almost make out the sweet tinges of home. One memory he had kept, his mother singing as she stitched together an arm that had fallen off. She sewed on the button eyes again and again, no matter how many times they fell off.

Memory overtook him, nostalgic, wistful and sweet. It all had been so long ago, lifetimes, it seemed. The smell of the bear was oddly familiar, he thought. Not just home, something closer, something on a daily basis.

Ike did not realize that he was no longer alone until he heard the tent flap falling back. When he turned, he was still holding Ursa tight.

“Soren, what are you doing here?”

“You disappeared off to somewhere,” Soren said. “I was finding you.”

Perhaps if anyone else had entered at this precise moment, they would have found the scene amusing. Ike, leader of the Greil Mercenaries, clinging to a mere child’s toy. Soren, however showed no response, except a slight pleased nod.

“I see you’ve found it,” Soren said.

“This? It’s just a memento.”

And Ike recognized the scent, so familiar that he’d caught on Ursa. Lye soap and dusty books, spices and the odd empty scent that was fastidious cleanlessness, the lack of smells.

“Soren you– You held it all this time?”

“..I did,” he said. “There was never a good time to return it to you. It was in a corner of the old fort, I found while searching for records.”

Ike remembered. He had been playing hide and seek and had hidden a little too well. When dinner came again, he never could find Ursa again.

“I wanted to clean it first, perhaps refurbish and replace some parts. But the war put a stop to that,” Soren said.

“Thanks, Soren,” Ike said.

Soren nodded. “It was nothing.”

“If you’ll excuse me–”

“Wait, Soren–”

Ike looked down at Ursa, he could almost see his younger self staring up at him, bright eyed with innocence. There were still a mother’s touch in this vision, a scarf wrapped for the possible cold weather, gloves packed away, a snack for later. Ike smiled at the younger vision, and the child Ike smiled back.

The vision expanded, a small boy stood beside him now, smaller and delicate through time. Dark hair and searching, cold eyes. Huddled in sadness, fierce and strong and yet needing protection through that brittle shell.

Soren turned, questioning, frozen mid-step.

“Yes, Ike?”

He placed Ursa in Soren’s arms. Soren stared down, surprise showing on his usually blank, expressionless face.

“Keep him safe for me, will you? When I was younger I always believed he kept nightmares away. You need him more than I do.”

Soren held Ursa tight, as if he was made of fine china and not stuffing and material.

“I will,” he promised.

[identity profile] r-amythest.livejournal.com 2008-09-26 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Awwwwwww. That's so sweet.

nijibug: Balsa & Chagum at "kaze ni notte ukabi" (magatama green)

[personal profile] nijibug 2010-12-06 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Heartbreaking ♥

That was delicately handled and well-written.