Noctis Lucis Caelum (veggiehater) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-03-03 20:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: noctis lucis caelum (2), ₴ inactive: nyx ulric |
Log: Noctis & Nyx
It was just them now but it was also late. He was pretty sure he could only get away with making people night fish every maybe once a month before everyone stopped fishing with him period, so he stayed focused on the task at hand. Quality brother time could involve drying glasses, after all.
He gave the bar a slow once over and set a glass aside to pick up another one. “Did you ever imagine your life would involve owning a bar? I mean, before you joined up with the Kingsglaive?”
It was nice having Noctis there helping out. He'd always enjoyed Noct's company - even long before he knew they were related. He'd settled into cashing out the tills as Noct worked at wiping everything down and the easy silence was nice. The question when it came though brought a bit of a smile to Nyx's face. There was a little corkboard on the wall beside the till he was at, various flyers and a few photos pinned to it, and Nyx pulled one down that had been half hidden at this point by other things.
He moved to Noctis and handed him the photo. Nyx had done some work but the bar was still mostly recognizable as the same in the photo. He, Libertrus, and an older man stood behind the bartop, grinning at the camera. "Bar predates the Glaive," he answered lightly. "Lib and I took it over from Tiernan when we were nineteen, back before Galahd fell," he added.
“Oh.” Noctis took the photo and stared at it for a moment. He recognized Libertus Ostium. He’d spoken to him a few times over the years and seen him often by Nyx’s side. Libertus had been a brother to Nyx long before Noctis even knew he had a brother. It stung, in moments like this, to think of the time they’d missed getting to know each other.
“Sometimes I forget how much of your life I know nothing about,” he admitted. His smile was a little thoughtful and his gaze serious as it sometimes got when he got into his own head. “I was probably like eight when this picture was taken,” he snorted. “You guys look happy. Guess that means this was always meant to be, huh?”
"Could say the same about you," he offered, a small shrug. Of course everyone had known of Noctis, that sort of came with the territory. But that didn't mean he had really known his brother much before all this. Even the time he'd spent training Noctis there had been a clear line between them, despite Nyx being as casual about it as he could. Like Noct, he felt the loss there, a guilt of missing almost all of his brother's life.
"But we got time to fix that now, right?" he added. Time on back of some random force that seemed to have no rhyme or reason to who stayed or went but it was something he figured.
"Still feels a little weird doing all this without Libertus," he admitted, "but I'm sure he'd be happy to see it carrying on."
“We better have time,” Noctis grumbled. Maybe he sounded a little worried but there was mostly good humor in his smirk as he held the photo out to Nyx. Time hadn’t even been exactly kind to either of them at home. He didn’t want to think about that, though. He wanted to learn more about his brother.
“You guys knew each other since you were kids, right?” It was a guess based on their vibe and things he’d overheard them say. He wiped down the last glass on the counter and then hopped up to sit next to it. “I’m sure he would be happy the bar gets a second life here. That you get a second life here. And you’re happy. Married and domestic,” he teased. He could only assume anyone who cared about Nyx would be happy about all these things.
Nyx set the photo aside and leaned against the back counter across from Noctis. "Well I'm not planning on going anywhere?" he offered with a shrug. Nyx knew that they didn't really have a choice. This place seemed to do whatever it wanted when it came to that. But it was more a reassurance that he wasn't going to bail on getting to know Noctis while they did have the time.
"Yeah, young enough I don't even really remember meeting him," Nyx answered. Galahd had been a pretty tight knit community before everything happened. Libertus was just one of many people Nyx could remember just always being there. He laughed a little at Noctis' tease. "You forgot the twelve kids too," he pointed out. And while most of the goats were technically out of the "kid" designation it still amused him to refer to them as such.
"He's married too," he added. "Has a little girl." Nyx smiled a little to himself at the memory of the brief catch up they'd had. "I uh - came back before ending up in another universe," he added, but didn't begin to elaborate. A story that was probably overdue to be told and would explain why he knew they were related, but one that involved things like you're supposed to sacrifice yourself and you spend ten years in a crystal that he honestly didn't want to have to put on his brother.
Noct didn’t need the reassurance, but it was still nice to hear. Nyx had never struck him as the type to abandon family. Quite the opposite really. He smiled gently as Nyx talked about “kids” and only blinked a half-dozen times or so when the part about another universe came up. He was sure Nyx had mentioned that, but Noct wasn’t always great at asking questions that needed to be asked.
“Oh, right. I think you’ve said something about that. It’s hard to wrap my head around. I’m glad you got to see him at least and that he was doing well?” There was no way to know if Libertus was still back in that other world or if he was stuck now in darkness at home. Noct rubbed a hand over the back of his head. “Did you see anybody else from home?”
"It doesn't get much easier to do so," he said. In less than three years he'd woken up from the literal dead in a ruined Insomnia, found out he was King Regis' son, got pulled to two separate universes and seen three different versions of his brother. It was a lot. And while he was relatively chill about it all and tended to look at the bright side of what all of that had given him, he understood very well the hard to wrap your head around it sentiment.
"I saw quite a few people before I got pulled to Texas," he answered. "Bahamut too," he added. "That's uh - how I found out about us actually." He shifted his weight a little, folded his arms across his chest. "The stuff between dying and seeing Bahamut is pretty fuzzy but - I remember him coming to me, offering a deal." He paused and glanced to his brother. "My life for making sure you gave yours basically, which - honestly fuck that," he added with a somewhat bitter laugh.
"Woke up where I died, found you and everyone else and thankfully enough people were on the same page of your dying being bullshit so we figured out another way." Nyx had never put much stock in the gods, other than they were there, but after all that he had been more than happy to entirely write them off. "Really only started to wrap my head around the whole thing before I ended up in Texas."
Noctis’s eyebrows shot upwards and he nearly knocked over the glass at his hip. He had to rest his hands on his knees to regain some balance. “Bahamut came to you and told you I was your brother? Gods, Nyx, that’s--”
He didn’t really have words for what that was. He’d been having his own up close and personal run-ins with the Astrals ever since leaving Insomnia and sometimes a headache would crash into him even now. But he couldn’t imagine what it was like for Nyx, finding out about his father and brother from the God of War. Being offered life at the cost of someone he was just told was family. Someone who had finally started to accept that his sacrifice might be required to save the world anyway.
You should’ve taken the offer, he thought.
“I wondered how you found out but I could’ve never guessed this,” he said out loud. “Did he explain or just here’s your offer, take it or leave it? I mean, I can’t even--” He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes for a moment. “I’m in the Crystal! I don’t know how to get myself back so somebody else must figure out how to bring you back?”
"Yeah, you think he could have brought that up when a bunch of our ancestors were deeming me unworthy and laying out the terms for my death because I put on their ring though," Nyx said. He'd made his peace with what he did, he knew it was for the greater good. But there was some bitterness there at knowing his heritage was only of worth to the gods when it came to their plans.
"He gave the least amount of information I think possible really," Nyx answered. He tried not to think too much on the encounter, it was liable to make him feel all sorts of weird ways about the world, life and death and the fickle nature of the gods and no one needed to go down those thought paths. "Basically that the King was my father, he legitimized that claim to the line of Lucis and suddenly I had all the magic I'd had as a Glaive and more, told me what I was supposed to do and sent me on my way."
He took a moment to grab two glasses and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf of the bar. He poured each of them a drink and picked his up before returning to lean against the back counter. "It was after you got out of the crystal. I didn't really get to pick your brain on that before getting pulled away from home on the why but from what I gathered you just… showed up on Angelgard one day," he said and then took a drink from his glass.
“I’d say the Gods don’t see us as equals enough to tell us anything but I don’t think they tell each other anything either,” Noct grumbled. Thinking about the Astrals was making a headache form – a normal tension one, right at the back of his head. He massaged there and frowned at Nyx.
“Wait, so, you did take the offer?” He sounded relieved by that thought, but he still reached for the offered whiskey and took a quick swig. He needed to be sure he understood what Nyx was saying. It helped that it distracted him from the lack of information about how he eventually got out of the crystal. “And then you made plans to renege?” His frown reappeared, deeper, more worried. “Are you completely nuts? I mean, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you’re that crazy, but I am.”
"Took it long enough to buy some time to figure out a better solution basically," he explained. "So yeah, guess I'm that crazy," he added with a wry smile.
"I don't know, Noct - didn't seem too crazy at the time though," Nyx had some regrets about his life but the things he did to try to make sure others had a better shot at life were never that. "What was asked of you, of Lunafreya…" he paused for a small moment, even now it was still hard to think of her without the grief of knowing how her life ended. "Of everyone really -" because that was the kicker wasn't it. That a whole world suffered at the whims of gods. How many people were lost to the scourge, to the years of darkness. "It wasn't right," he finished. "None of it was right."
He glanced down, took a drink and then looked back at his brother. "Worked out alright in the end though, for everyone. Didn't get stuck down where I stood or anything," he assured Noctis.
“Not yet, anyway,” Noctis mumbled. The mention of Lunafreya felt like it scraped something raw loose inside his chest. His throat burned and he had to turn his head away to regain some control of his emotions before he spoke again.
“You would’ve made a good king.” He said it with gentle pride. He didn’t say you would’ve made a better king than me because that wasn’t what he meant. Even as wobbly as his self-esteem was some days, he didn’t doubt that he’d have tried to be the king Lucis needed, if he’d gotten half a chance. This wasn’t about that, though. It was about how good and brave his brother was. And right, too. None of their lives had been fair.
“You’re completely nuts,” he smirked, gesturing with his hand in a I mean, come on way. “But you might be one of the best people I’ve ever known.” He paused for a second and then raised his eyebrows. “Can I tell Gladio about all this?”
It wasn't the first time he had heard that from Noctis - you would have made a good king - and it still felt as weird then as it had the first time. It was something that even back home wouldn't had ever come into play, and mostly Nyx tried not to think about the politics of it all. Instead he chose to focus on the part of it all that was good and without a million complications - gaining a brother.
He raised his brows over the top of his glass as he took a quick sip. "At least until I inevitably fucked up some etiquette rule and scandalized the masses," he joked, deflected maybe a little. But the smirk faded quick. "But uh - thank you," he added, looking a bit floored by the kind words. He himself probably viewed the things he did a lot differently than others did, than Noctis did. After all it was pretty easy to give up everything for everyone else when your everything wasn't much at all. Even the people he'd fought with for the better part of his adult life had all either died or been traitors.
He nodded. "Yeah, tell him, I don't mind," he answered.
“Please,” Noct rolled his eyes. “Like I’m the poster boy of royal etiquette?” He used the whiskey glass to gesture at himself, perched on the countertop, and smirked. Finishing off his drink, he set aside the glass and hopped down. “Think that’s just more proof we’re related.”
Someone could argue that Regis had been the picture of manners, but Noct had a feeling that hadn’t always been the case. He preferred Nyx and himself being exactly as messy and honest as they were, anyway.
“You need to do anything else or can we get out of here?” Noct smiled softly and scratched at jaw. “You wanna come meet my cat?”
Nyx just laughed a little at that and raised his glass slightly to Noct. "Cheers to that," he offered with a smile.
He was glad though, that Noctis could let go the royal restraints here. That no one would bat an eye if he said something crass, if he spent evenings serving drinks or spent too much time out fishing. A freedom he wasn't sure his brother ever really had before. At least outside the little bubble with his retainers.
He set back the bottle he'd pulled down and set his glass in the sink to clean in the morning. A grin was shot at Noctis and he nodded. "Oh hell yeah I want to meet the cat," he answered. "Let's get out of here."