Work Text:
Maybe we got lost in translation
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece
Till you tore it all up
Farah Dowling and Saul Silva have been best friends since their school days at Alfea. After meeting in the courtyard on the first day of school, the two were rarely ever apart. This was also fueled when they had discovered that they had a special bond. She was his fairy and he was her specialist. Although the two had a close relationship, they never actually dated. The timing was always wrong. In their early years, Farah had been seeing someone. After her relationship ended, Saul had just begun dating a girl who was a year below them. When graduation had rolled around, both were finally single, but Rosalind had handpicked them to be a part of her battalion. Her own personal soldiers. They were then too busy training and avoiding being killed in missions.
Rosalind liked to switch them around when venturing out into the field. Her favorites had been Andreas and Farah. Saul knew he had nothing to worry about because Farah did not harbor any romantic feelings for his best friend. Andreas on the other hand he wasn’t sure of. The man tried to use his charms on anything that moved. That included Farah. His worries were put to rest when he caught Andreas trying to ask his fairy out to dinner and she simply rolled her eyes and flicked her finger in his direction - sending the arrogant specialist flying across the grassy field and landing sprawled on his back. His heart warmed when Farah’s eyes lit up when she spotted him and quickly made her way to his side. Once she had reached him, she quickly leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek and grasped his large hand in her smaller ones. The two of them held on to each other tightly until they had made it back to the school and went their separate ways - Farah to the fairies’ hall, and Saul to the specialists’ hall.
On one of their rare days off, the fairy and her specialist had gone on a walk to the lake behind the school. Once they had reached the docks, a smile had spread on Farah’s face when she realized her specialist had set up a picnic for them. Saul was up late the night before, trying to prepare the supplies and food he needed to surprise his fairy. He was almost late meeting her at their bench outside of the school because he had overslept. He was still feeling drowsy, but it was all worth it when he saw the way Farah’s eyes sparked upon seeing his surprise. They ate in comfortable silence and once they had finished, Farah was wrapped in Saul’s arms as they watched the sun set.
“I want to ask you something.” Saul murmured, his lips brushing her temple.
“Hmmm?” Farah inquired.
“Would you like to go on a date with me?”
The fairy turned around, her eyes glowing an icy blue. Saul felt her trying to pull on their bond to see if he was only teasing her. He let her reach in to see and feel that he held strong feelings for her. When her eyes returned to normal, the specialist reached up to softly run his thumb back and forth on her cheek.
“I’m serious, Farah. I would like to take you out on many romantic dates and be in a relationship with you.”
Farah reached up to hold the hand on her cheek and moved closer until their foreheads were touching and nodded in acceptance. “I would like to go on many romantic dates and be in a relationship with you too.” She grinned.
The specialist and his fairy went from best friends to lovers. They went on dates whenever they had the day off and whatever time was left after their trainings were spent tangled together underneath the sheets. On the days where Rosalind was being particularly ruthless with their drills, they only managed to exchange quick kisses and caresses before they were off running to do the headmistress’ bidding - like perfect soldiers.
“I’m sure she’ll love it.” Ben sighed, exasperated.
“Are you actually irritated at me, Benjamin?” Saul snatched the small box from his friend’s hand and tucked it back in his pockets.
The earth fairy smiled at his friend. “You’ve asked me a million times if she’ll like it. You can tie a piece of string on her finger and she would still say yes.”
“I’m not some animal, Ben.”
“I beg to differ.”
The two friends’ bantering was interrupted when Andreas came running in the greenhouse.
“Rosalind wants us to suit up and meet her at the gates. We’re going to Aster Dell.”
Their group trekked through the mud in the woods leading up to Aster Dell. The headmistress was leading in the front, Ben and Andreas on either side of her, and Farah and Saul walking side by side behind them. Saul grasped Farah’s hand in his and tugged lightly to gain her attention.
“I need to talk to you about something important after we’re done here.”
Farah smiled and nodded. She squeezed his hand tightly before letting go and following the other two fairies in the direction of the cliffs that overlooked the entire village.
Everything had gone downhill in the blink of an eye. Saul was having a conversation with his fellow specialist when the other man had let it slip that he knew the village wasn’t actually evacuated of its innocent residents. He had tried to run in the direction of the fairies when he was stopped by his friend.
“They’ll kill hundreds of people!”
“Rosalind has given her orders.”
“You have a choice,” Saul dug his finger into his friend’s chest, emphasizing his words. “Your orders or your morals?”
Andreas had made his choice clear when he threw the first punch and ended up with Saul’s sword buried in his flesh. Saul had tried to run back to his fairy to warn her when he was thrown back by the explosion from the village. What looked like a peaceful settlement once, had charred remains in its place. The fires burned high and hot. The specialist felt it heating his already sweaty face. He turned to look back at the top of the cliff where he saw the three fairies and found none of them. With his heart dropping with worry, he quickly got up and ran to where he last saw the woman who held his heart.
Ben had his head hung low as he faced the woods where they had come from. Farah was hunched over on the ground, her knees close to an unconscious Rosalind’s head. Saul ran his eyes along his fairy’s body, breathing a sigh of relief when he did not see any obvious bruises or bleeding. He dropped to his knees next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder to show his support.
“We didn’t have a choice.” Farah quietly said. “She told us she’d taken pains to evacuate the village. We should’ve questioned her.”
They spent a few moments trying to figure out what to do with their incapacitated headmistress, what to say to the faculty, and what to do with the destroyed village. They had decided to go with the story that Rosalind had arrogantly gone off on her own, away from the rest of their group, and was surprised by a stray Burned One. It was too late for anyone to help her by the time they realized what had happened. Queen Luna of Solaria was called right after the group had settled on a story. Farah had told her of Rosalind’s war crimes - leaving out the part where she wasn’t actually dead, but rendered incapacitated by her protégé. The Queen was more than happy to cover up what had transpired that day. According to her, appearance is everything . She couldn’t let anyone find out what the head of the most prestigious school in the realm had done. By the time they had finished sorting their stories out, the sun was starting to set.
They made their way through the woods and to the waiting cars. Ben had taken the first car with Rosalind still unconscious in the back seat. A fairy and her specialist took the second car. As Saul drove, he told his fairy what had happened with his best friend. She kept silent and squeezed his hand tightly in support after he finished recounting what had transpired below the cliffs. The rest of the drive back to Alfea was spent in silence. Farah kept his free hand in hers and occasionally wiped the stray tears that would make it out of both of their eyes. It was late and everyone was asleep when their cars passed the school gates. They sealed their headmistress underneath the school and placed a protection barrier to all the exits and entrances that led to her. Once they had finished, Ben bid his friends a good night and disappeared down a dark hallway. The air was cold, but something about it felt like home as Farah and Saul walked tiredly hand in hand to his private quarters. Once they had reached his suite, they silently started removing each layer of armor they had equipped that day.
”We should eat something before going to bed.” Saul mumbled.
The specialist made his way over to the suite’s kitchen area and rummaged through the fridge. He dug around for a few minutes when he heard a sniffle behind him. Abandoning his search, he left the fridge door open and reached for his fairy instead. He wrapped her in his arms and started slowly swaying them while rubbing his hands up and down her back to provide some semblance of comfort. Saul watched their shadows move together, illuminated by the refrigerator light.
”Why don’t we just get some sleep instead, hm?”
He felt her nod against him and they quickly undressed and reached for each other in the dark once they were settled in his bed.
“You know this can’t continue anymore…” Farah mumbled into his chest. “The school needs a figurehead. The fairies and specialists need figureheads. Queen Luna already had me take an oath to become the new headmistress. The specialists also need someone to guide them. You’re the obvious choice, my choice. I would like for you to be their headmaster. With that said, we can’t be what they need if we’re together. We can’t be distracted.”
“Is that what I am to you? A distraction?”
“You know that’s not what I meant. I love you. And it’s because I love you that I can’t be with you.”
Saul’s grip on the fairy tightened. “I love you too, Farah. We can make this work.”
“The students need our undivided attention. I can’t give that to them when all I want to do is spend every moment with you.”
The specialist sighed deeply, pushing back his feelings of hurt and frustration. He knew deep down that she was right. The students of Alfea needed them now more than ever and they can’t properly lead the school when they can’t keep their hands off of each other like the hormonal teenagers they were now in charge of. He was now also in charge of the well-being of a toddler. He had murdered his best friend and the least he could do is make sure his son grows up loved and well taken care of. Saul was pulled from his thoughts when he felt tears drop on his bare chest.
“I’ll wait for you Farah,” He cupped her cheek and wiped her tears away. “No matter how long it takes.”
The fairy didn’t respond, only wrapping her arms tighter around her specialist. She blinked away the last of her tears and slowly drifted off to sleep, lulled by the strong heartbeat of the man she’ll love from afar for over a decade. Saul laid still in the dark as he felt his fairy’s breaths even out. His thoughts went to the small black box sitting in the dresser. This day did not go as he had planned. He never got the chance to speak to her until they were back in his suite. By then, it was at the bottom of their list of important things to do. And then, after their most recent conversation, it seemed like it was time to just scratch it off that so-called list entirely and be revisited in the future when the time is right. Saul closed his eyes and threaded his fingers through Farah’s hair. Maybe in a year or so, when everything settles down, he’ll broach the topic of their relationship again and she would accept what the small black box contained.
No one could have foreseen that sixteen years later, the small box would continue to stay in the very same drawer - forgotten - underneath an old scarf that still smelled like Farah. Its intended owner lying silent and unmoving underneath the earth as her specialist weeped over the seventh grave.
‘Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you’ve ever known
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well