Chapter Text
Drabble 1: Sprout
Frey’s second spring in Selphia was a lot like the first, while also managing to be completely different. The air smelled the same, all floral and fresh cut grass and Porcoline’s strawberry cakes. But she was different. She could feel it in her bones.
She was stronger and braver and positively alive .
“Princess!” The cheery tenor voice of an even cheerier Vishnal roused Frey from sleep.
She managed to yawn out a garbled, “I’m up.” before he even entered her room. She did not think she would ever manage to get used to the way Volkanon, Clorica, and Vishnal greeted her, or her facade as royalty. Although she had no recollection of her life prior to Selphia, she was sure by the squeamish feeling in her stomach that she was not royalty in that life either.
“Busy today?” asked Vishnal, placing a hot cup of her favorite tea - Jasmine Green with an extra helping of sugar - beside her bed.
Frey nodded, rubbing her eye as she stood. “Water the crops, feed the animals, the usual.”
Vishnal smiled in agreeance, but instead of turning to leave like he usually did, he lingered awkwardly in the middle of her room. Gloved hands clasped together, and he ran one shoe across the carpet nervously.
Frey raised an eyebrow. “I know that look. What is it?”
“N-nothing!” stammered Vishnal.
“ Vish, ” said Frey, her tone getting dangerously close to warning.
“I’m sorry Princess. I really am. It’s just that he...he insisted on seeing your farm before you were awake,” said Vishnal.
If it were physically possible, Frey was sure that Vishnal would have hidden inside of himself. He was quivering like a leaf from head to toe.
“Wait, who are you talking about?”
“Leon. The man you saved last week,” said Vishnal. “Princess, I am so sorry that I failed you. As a butler, it is my duty to - ”
Vishnal began the usual spiel, but Frey’s attention was turned towards the door to her farm. There was a little window on top of it, still foggy with morning dew, that gave her the smallest view of her land. Out of all of the people Frey saved, Leon was the hardest to figure out. What could he possibly want with her? Surely her warrior side was much more interesting to him than the agricultural one?
“Vishnal, please,” said Frey, shaking her head. “It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?” he squeaked.
“Yes.”
He seemed to perk up in that instantaneous way he had, and Frey managed to bid him good day. Still clad in her baby blue nightgown, unbeknownst to Frey of course, she opened the door and braced herself to talk to Leon.
Frey squinted as the sun rushed towards her all at once, and she held a hand up to her eyes to shade them. Leon was standing near a particularly messy plot that Frey had not yet gotten around to fixing. It was littered with weeds, twigs, and rocks, and she felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment at the mess.
Leon did not seem to notice her presence, so she walked slowly towards him in the hopes that she would not startle him too much. All of the people she saved were so different when they finally came to. Amber took to Selphia like a duck to water, but Dylas and Dolce had a longer period of adjustment. She could not help but wonder which end of the spectrum Leon would fall.
“Good morning,” she said.
Leon looked up as if he hadn’t a clue that she was approaching him. He stared at her for a moment, taking in her appearance from head to toe, and then he smirked.
“Is this what people in your time wear to do farm work?” he asked.
Frey tilted her head in confusion and then looked down at her outfit. Her eyes widened with horror as she realized she was very much still wearing her night clothes.
“No! Not at all! Umm, I guess I just, err, forgot to change,” she said, arms hugging each other across her chest in the hopes that it would somehow shield Leon’s gaze.
He laughed, a loud full laugh that rattled Frey’s insides and made the sun suddenly feel that much warmer on her skin.
“You’re quite something,” he said. “I think I’ll find teasing you to be rather enjoyable.”
Frey pouted in frustration. “Nice to see it was worth it to wake you up, after all,” she mumbled.
“Aw, now I’m hurt,” said Leon, a hand pressed to his exposed chest like her words left some sort of physical wound.
“Why are you here anyway?” she asked.
“I overheard Dr. Jones mention something about you running a farm, and I had to see it for myself,” said Leon, eyes as blue as the sky in the heat of the summer scanning the fields of her farm once more.
“This is it. Not much, but I’m proud of it,” said Frey.
Leon smiled again and then reached out one big hand to ruffle her hair. She guffawed in surprise, but didn’t try to get out of the way. He was more boisterous and playful than she imagined, but there was something about the way that he smiled that was strange to her. It never quite reached his eyes.
“Alright, it’s settled then,” he said. “I’m going to watch you work this morning.”
“Settled?” Frey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course. I promise I’m great company.”
He was so matter of fact and blunt that Frey was stunned into silent agreement. And that was how she found herself working in front of Leon for the better part of the morning. He was mostly observant, occasionally offering a comment or two that was mostly unhelpful and entirely teasing, but Frey did not find his presence a nuisance.
“These weeds keep sprouting in this same patch,” she huffed, wiping sweat from her brow as she bent down to clear the messy plot.
“Weeds?” asked Leon.
“Yeah, they’re all over the place,” said Frey.
“Wait!”
His urgency caused Frey to stand back in surprise, and suddenly Leon was hovering over her with his brows creased in concern. He bent down beside her then, crouched so close to her face that she could smell his earthy scent and feel his breath against her cheeks.
“They aren’t all weeds,” said Leon quietly.
“What do you - ?” Frey couldn’t seem to find the end of her sentence as she watched Leon brush aside some of the more dominant weeds.
Hidden underneath the mess, a yellow flower was just starting to poke its head out of the soil. Frey heard herself let out an audible gasp as Leon’s hands gently brushed dirt away from the petals.
“Sometimes the most beautiful things are ones that are hard to see at first,” he said.
“How did you know this was here?”
Leon stood before offering her a hand. She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet before deadpanning, “I had time to survey the land. You sleep in quite late, Frey.”
She yanked her hand away from his and frowned. “And here I thought we were having a moment.”
Leon laughed again, and Frey watched as the laugh danced momentarily in his eyes. It was only for a split second, but it was enough that she knew someday he would be okay.
“This was fun,” he said earnestly.
“It was.” And she meant it.
“I’ll have to check in again soon. To make sure you don’t accidentally rip out any more flowers, of course,” said Leon.
“I’d like that,” she said.
He smiled and Frey watched him lazily stroll the north path exiting her farm. It really was spring again, and the feeling in the pit of Frey’s stomach was telling her that things were about to get a lot more exciting around Selphia.