Chapter Text
Ayrll woke up that morning to silence. For a split second she feared the worst. That it had been merely a dream of her desperation and longing than true. But when she rushed out of her bed and looked down to the dishes still set up on the table after cleaning them from the feast of yesterday she let herself breath.
But it was silent still.
She crept down and peaked into the room that held the brothers, only to find it empty. Only Ocean sat there, slate in hand as he gazed at a photo. The room was empty and no bags were left. The bed was messy as if used but the guests in the house were gone.
Ayrll came behind Ocean as she looked at the picture he was gazing at. It was all of them together, smiling in the very room they stayed as Ocean was framed in the middle. They were smiling.
“They left already,” Ocean stated, finally looking up to her.
Ayrll hummed as she let her hand stay on his shoulder.
“Then let me get dressed, I have something I want to show you,” She stated. Letting Ocean tilted his head in confusion as she left to put suitable clothes on.
It was still early dawn where the sun had yet to rise. It was perfect. After slipping on her clothes with the sash around her middled, she came down back to Ocean. Letting her hands tease his long hair before he put it back.
“Are you thinking of cutting it?” She asked.
“Perhaps-” he teased back, “But I rather like it this length.
She hummed before teasing his chin with her finger as the coarse beard hairs touched her fingers, “I hope you aren’t keeping this, it doesn't suit you well.”
Ocean rolled his eyes as he took her hand and put it down.
“It itches too much anyways.”
She laughed. Pulling him along outside as the dawn threatened to arise as the waves still crashed and the salt air came to meet her head on. Ayrll breathed deeply of it and let it fill her lungs.
Ocean stopped as it reached him. Letting it run over his form and breathing deeply of what he missed. His eyes were lighter as he gazed at the sea and the island. Of his home where he had been gone so long.
Ayrll was happy to show him the light. She could still see the darkness lurking on him, of the weight still on his shoulders. She had yet to gain the story, but knew too well what it would involve. How the eldest of them had come to her. Eye low as he asked before disappearing with the others for her to take care of him. To help him heal, and Aryll wouldn’t ever deny it or walk away. Now with her brother. She wouldn’t let him suffer alone.
So she brought him here. To the place it had once begun for his journey to another one to end and for a healing to begin.
She had taken his hand in hers as she led him. Letting him wonder where they would go as the sand teased their feet in its grains, the wind pushed them back from its force by letting it lovingly dance around Ocean like it had when he had been a child.
And Ayrll looked back to him as she saw his eyes gaze out and realize they were alone. That there were only two footprints on the sand and not others who he called family with him too. Watched as his expression twisted and eyes darken.
And suddenly, it pushed into Ocean. He gave a choking sob and pressed it into his mouth as he gagged in his sorrow. Sinking to the sand as it sunk into his boots and pants. Shoulders hunch in shame as his eyes filled with tears and his breath was shakky. Ayrll sank down next to him, concern knelt in her features as she rested a calming hand on his shoulder that wasn’t pushed away.
“Link?” She asked with a tender tone.
Ocean just choked again, eyes spilling tears and the blue orbs like the setting myst from the early dew growing a hint darker with the sudden emotion.
“Talk to me,” She begged. She would see the shadows, the darkest parts-but she wouldn’t run. Not like a little girl, no, she was a woman now and she wouldn’t run away. She wouldn’t hide from it. Not this time. She would face the dark with a steel grit expression and determination that she grew into like her beloved brother before her.
But now she knelt on the ground, humbled before her greatest hero as he faced the darkest depths of the world in his own mind. Fighting a battle without blood but rather the ones of sanity and peace. And she would help him through it-through every battle. And she promised she wouldn’t ever stumble in her taske of it.
“You can speak to me,” She replied with Ocean’s eyes leveled with her. Breaking and reforming.
He swallowed the lump in his throat as he said with a dry tongue, “I-I miss them.”
Ayrll gave a crackled smile, “I know,” She whispered.
And it was the final shove and Ocean broke .
He wepted, years after years of denying things so long, he let himself break. He gave a wordless scream of agony as he leaned forwards with the weight of the world on his back. Sobbing as tears traced over his cheeks and rushed down to his chin. Like rain finally cascading from the storm clouds to reach the blue sky. After all, to ride a storm you first had to survive it. And Ayrll would make sure she would stay through the tempest and the hurricane. Forever she would wait and help hold her brother's hand, to show him that there were blue skies to be seen. A sunrise to see. That it was worth the struggle and the pain. And her promise was still going to be here in the early morning as she would show him in the parting clouds that still settled over his mind that there was hope.
And so Ocean cried. Weeping from his brothers he wouldn’t ever see. Clinging to his scarf and pelt across his body as he longed for the comfort of hands that weren’t Aryll’s own, but going through the gust of the feelings he tried to push away.
Ayrll rubbed his back, stroking it lovingly like a mother as she watched Ocean get it out. Red rimmed eyes and voice soar, huffing and puffing as his lungs acked, Ayrll stayed. Knees in the sand and the cold chill on the wind stroking gently through Ocean’s hair. Seeing how her older brother had grown too, but still came home with too many scars that needed healing. But it was okay, because Ayrll always knew him best. And She would stay through it all.
After he calmed himself, when Ayrll had brought him to her chest and watched as Ocean clung to her like it was his last hope, she stayed. She always would stay. With a rough voice, weak from all the things it had been put through, croaked open.
Ocean licked his lips once as he said rasply, “I miss them… their laughs, their stories, their hugs-their advice… I told myself I was ready. I thought I was ready finally-”
Ayrll hushed him silently, hands weaving themselves through his hair as she combed a part and absently minded fingers started to braid like he once had done her own hair. “We’re never really ready to let anyone we love go-but I’m so proud of you, so proud of you for being strong enough to go through this. It will be hard, but trust me, it will get better. It always get better.” She whispered into his hair.
“I want them back,” Ocean wither with a cracking voice.
“I know,” Ayrll whispered. “We always want them back-it’s hard to know we won’t get them back… but remember them. Remember the good things-even the bad-but remember. Remember it all and keep that memory. It’s okay to hurt.”
Ocean sighed, Ayrll started to hum on her breath a short song. Something her Partner had taught her long ago. Ocean fell into it. Herding the wind and the waves join in the beat of the hum. It was peaceful, Ayllr relished in the moment.
Finally, after getting some strength back, Ocean broke from the hug. A small braid near his ear that he didn’t quite register. He’s eyes were red and his cheeks gave off some final tears as Ayrll's shoulders suddenly felt a chill with his absence. He looked to Aryll as his shoulder pulled in and for a moment he looked younger than before-not the man Ayrll had seen in her house, but rather the boy she saw leave with eight others on a new joinery before. He was alway the same, even after all these years.
“I was meant to be over this! I was-” Ocean stuttered out with shame licking his face. Voice rough and hands clenched white as he glared into the sand.
“Oh,” she cooed, cupping his face as she answered, “Who said that healing was linear?”
Ocean’s eyes met hers with an honest gaze. Tears still fell from his eyes as his chest heaved with an invisible force making it harder. She wiped the tears from his eyes with her thumbs as she smiled at him. A smile at who was with her, even if he was in need of healing.
“I thought I’d be better…” He whispered childishly. Fear touching his eyes, but not controlling him. Rather just a part of the shame that held him now.
Ayrll smiled bittersweetly, “You are better, you can’t see it now, but you are so much better… you don’t see your progress-but I do. Do you trust me?”
“Of course-” Ocean replied instantly.
“Then trust that you are getting better, the first steps just might not look like a lot-but your moving. I see you moving. So trust in me, please” Ayrll pleaded. And Ocean obliged with a small nodded.
Ayrll smiled, giving a rustle to his hair as she pulled him up.
“Good, then there is something that I wish to show you.”
Sunrise thing and Aryll looks at Ocean and she can see him growing. See his eyes clearing and knows there is trouble ahead, but they can do it. They can go through it all. They can final healing. The worst was over, and now they were here and Aryll would take him the rest of the way.
“Come on,” Ayrll pushed. “Up an adam.”
Ocean sighed, grabbing Aryll’s arm as he pushed himself up. Swapping a bit as his metal war was too angry. Ayrll helped stabilize himself as Ocean gazed off at Aryll arm for a second, the brief comment that he probably wasn’t even aware of saying, “When did you get strong…?”
Ayrll huffed, “Well Tetra wasn’t gonna leave me defenseless-I’ve learned somethings well you have been away.”
Ocean got another dark look on his face. Of disappointment. Of failure. Of sorrow. Ayrll wouldn’t let it be brewed any long, knowing too well what his first thought was. Wasn’t there for her, wasn’t there to protect his little sister like he should’ve been-
Knocking her shoulder against his, she added, “But it has been useful. Tetra has made the great sea more peaceful than ever, but she swore-”At this she bundled up a sneer on her lip and puffed her chest as she declared loudly, “‘Everyone should be defend for and I’ll be darned freaking stupid to not teach the best little sister how to fight as good as the Hero!’”In her sentence she made sure to censure herself, even if she had heard all the curses before and might have used one of them once, but she was always trying to be better. She was around children half the time on this island.
“Little sister?” Ocean asked, some amusement in his eyes.
Gaining a slit blush, “Tetra always said you were more like siblings then anything else-so when you were… gone, when you were gone she told me I was her little sister and that I could always depend on her. She’s lived up to her word of it.”
Ocean hummed, smiling.
“She'll be here soon. Within the week, you know .”
“She will?” Ocean asked, looking at her widely. A small part of him , Ayrll could see, was scared of facing her. Of disappointing her. But Ayrll knew too much that Tetra would hug the crap out of him, squeezing him to make sure he was real and over the moon for that fact. And then punch him hard so he would know the pain and guilt she went under because of him. The mere thought made Ayrll grin.
“Yeah-She took my Partner with her on a small trip so I could work on some wedding details-Tetra seemed a bit more… willing to take them then I originally thought. I think she’s giving them a whole talk. She was always fiercely protective.”
Ocean laughed, Ayrll basked in the sound. “I remember.”
“My partner's the same-you’ll like them. They’ve heard too much from me anyways, they’ll be excited to meet you!”
Ocean stilled.
He hugged his arms, looking off to the sea as the calming waves rushed to them. He asked softly as Ayrll waited patiently to hear his voice, "You still want them them meet me?""
At this, Aryll with drew a bit, wondering why she wouldn't want her beautiful partner to meet her brother. "Why wouldn't I?" She asked.
Ocean looked distanced, nails digging his arm, and he stumbled over his words. "We'll I mean-I'm really in-I'm a mess. I wouldn't-I don't if I should-"
Ayrll just rolled her eyes, looping her arm under his as she pulled him along. "You think too much! Come on!" Once Ocean was pressed next to her (he was taller. She was surprised but she felt a little disjointed how short she was still against him.) Once he couldn't escape and could hear her clearly she stated loudly, "Why wouldn't I want my amazing partner not to meet my awesome brother? You'll have a great time-please, I've wanted to introduce you for years."
Her brother snorted a bit at her language. Going back to the words she would always use constantly as a child but now still lingered in her vocabulary. She hummed as he smiled slightly and sank into the fact greatly.
“Come on,” Ayrll urged once again, “We don’t have far to go now.”
And Ocean followed her. Let her guide him until they were on the beach with the water on their toes as the sand brushed over it before it was gone again. She took a deep breath as she looked at Ocean seeing the horizon brighten as a warning.
“This isn’t your epilogue, Link,” She stated, letting him suck the air through his teeth as he watched her silently. Waiting patience for her words as every a breath was shared. She smiled at him, seeing the stress lines he had gained even out as the clouds gained color and hoped, she grinned. “This is merely a new beginning of healing, and I will be here every step of the way.”
He gasped, letting the air flow from his lungs and into the sea air he had missed for so long. His palm being grasped by his sister and sharing the warmth between fingers as she gave a squeeze and then looked up to the horizon.
And through the darkness, through the darkest nights that brought the absence of sound and the void of emotion, that stripped you of who you once were. Of youth brought to mature through sorrow. Through the moon and stars looked away from the night of bleakness and the monster that hid in the shadows as they clawed into your bring with the thoughts that killed and broken them all. Through the worse times of life where it seemed hopeless -a light shined.
Through the hours, days, moths- years . The light would come. Would stretch out a hand that burned at first from the inside of which it first shined, but would soften its gaze as it ran the shadows out. Pushed the darkness away and farther back than it could go. Embracing life with its light and hope that surrounded it. Of the peace it gave. Of the future you could now see and go towards where before you couldn't even see your own hand-
It was here, fighting in the night with blood gritted teeth and tired limbs you could reach the morning dawn. The hope you sought now here and giving you rest. It was here Ayrll would bring him, everytime. To strive through every night, every darkest that brought the worse, but she would pull her brother into the light every time. She would let him see the sunrise everyday and knew he made it another night; and Aryll would be there every time.
“Through the darkness, I will stay.” Ayrll said as Ocean looked on the sunrise, of the things he had passed and where he was now. Of what he could embrace. “I will be here for every sunrise with you, to help you through that night that makes you your worse, and I will stay.”
And Ayrll looked at the tear that dripped from Ocean’s eyes as she stated with words that rumbled through her and planted herself into the core of the earth to never be moved or damped. A promise- a vow , to always keep and never be broken. With her head high and her brothers’ determination through her blood as she told him with crystal blue eyes that met his own.
The sunrise on the pair as the light banished the darkness; creating hope.
“ I will stay for it all.”