Suikoden IV, Prompt 100: Writer's Choice
Title: Waves
Fandom: Suikoden IV
Character: Lazlo
Prompt: 100: Writer's Choice
Word Count: 528
Rating: PG
Summary: This isn't poetic or ironic or anything. It just is.
Author's Notes: Spoilers for the 'good' ending of Suikoden IV, meaning the one where you collect all 108 Stars. Big spoilers, as in right up to the very end... As always, the table for the rest of the stories for this challenge can be found here.
It isn't anything special that wakes him up. Not the memory of his mother's voice, or her serene smile, or her touch... She doesn't urge him to awaken, to keep living for her sake, or his father's, or anyone else's.
It isn't like before, when he opened his eyes to find his friends standing over him in a worried little huddle, back on the beach or inside his room. In some way, he's glad for that. He's never enjoyed being the center of attention; in some ways, he hated not having somebody to defer to, to take the focus off of him for a while... Though he's pretty sure he can't ever really go back to that now. If anything, Snowe's ready to let him take the lead now, with all that implies.
It's not an irrepressible desire to live that stirs him, either. Sure, he'd like to stay alive, but at the same time, he'd use up every drop of strength he has left just to ensure even one of his friends survived. After all, he knows how hard they've worked to try and protect him -- him, not this stupid Rune, but him -- and he wouldn't be a very good friend or leader or anything else if he wasn't willing to return the favor.
It's not even the gulls shrieking overhead that wake him up -- though, admittedly, that's part of what keeps him awake. Though he's pretty sure the splitting headache he's got isn't caused by those birds.
No, it's nothing so poetic or ironic or anything else that stirs him from his slumber. Just the steady bobbing of his boat, the cool air brushing his face, the dull, familiar sound of the waves that gradually pulls him awake. Nothing especially dramatic, nothing especially poignant or powerful.
It's a gradual, slow process, and just as it's starting to sink in where he is -- or rather, that he can't tell exactly where he is -- a boat looms in the distance, and he finds enough of his strength has returned for him to stand up and wave. He feels a lot stronger now than he has in a long time, actually, or just hardier... healthier? Maybe because it's been a while since he really got a decent rest, and maybe there's some of the irony he feels should be inherit of all of this, or maybe he's reaching.
...But it doesn't really matter. So what if this doesn't feel very dramatic or miraculous or anything else? It's not like this is the end of his story or anything so pat, like in those old legends he used to love reading. He's alive; he can figure out where to go from here...
So he waves, and smiles when he sees the people on deck pointing and calling out, and maybe he recognizes some of the faces, or maybe it's just a trick of the distance and he'll see that he misidentified them as the boat draws closer, closer... but right now, he doesn't really care. He's alive, pure and simple. That's all that matters...
Fandom: Suikoden IV
Character: Lazlo
Prompt: 100: Writer's Choice
Word Count: 528
Rating: PG
Summary: This isn't poetic or ironic or anything. It just is.
Author's Notes: Spoilers for the 'good' ending of Suikoden IV, meaning the one where you collect all 108 Stars. Big spoilers, as in right up to the very end... As always, the table for the rest of the stories for this challenge can be found here.
It isn't anything special that wakes him up. Not the memory of his mother's voice, or her serene smile, or her touch... She doesn't urge him to awaken, to keep living for her sake, or his father's, or anyone else's.
It isn't like before, when he opened his eyes to find his friends standing over him in a worried little huddle, back on the beach or inside his room. In some way, he's glad for that. He's never enjoyed being the center of attention; in some ways, he hated not having somebody to defer to, to take the focus off of him for a while... Though he's pretty sure he can't ever really go back to that now. If anything, Snowe's ready to let him take the lead now, with all that implies.
It's not an irrepressible desire to live that stirs him, either. Sure, he'd like to stay alive, but at the same time, he'd use up every drop of strength he has left just to ensure even one of his friends survived. After all, he knows how hard they've worked to try and protect him -- him, not this stupid Rune, but him -- and he wouldn't be a very good friend or leader or anything else if he wasn't willing to return the favor.
It's not even the gulls shrieking overhead that wake him up -- though, admittedly, that's part of what keeps him awake. Though he's pretty sure the splitting headache he's got isn't caused by those birds.
No, it's nothing so poetic or ironic or anything else that stirs him from his slumber. Just the steady bobbing of his boat, the cool air brushing his face, the dull, familiar sound of the waves that gradually pulls him awake. Nothing especially dramatic, nothing especially poignant or powerful.
It's a gradual, slow process, and just as it's starting to sink in where he is -- or rather, that he can't tell exactly where he is -- a boat looms in the distance, and he finds enough of his strength has returned for him to stand up and wave. He feels a lot stronger now than he has in a long time, actually, or just hardier... healthier? Maybe because it's been a while since he really got a decent rest, and maybe there's some of the irony he feels should be inherit of all of this, or maybe he's reaching.
...But it doesn't really matter. So what if this doesn't feel very dramatic or miraculous or anything else? It's not like this is the end of his story or anything so pat, like in those old legends he used to love reading. He's alive; he can figure out where to go from here...
So he waves, and smiles when he sees the people on deck pointing and calling out, and maybe he recognizes some of the faces, or maybe it's just a trick of the distance and he'll see that he misidentified them as the boat draws closer, closer... but right now, he doesn't really care. He's alive, pure and simple. That's all that matters...