Chapter Text
They had been friends since he could remember.
Since Yor’s family had moved from Ostania when she and Loid were eight years old.
Back then, no one was against having people from Ostania living in Westalis. In fact, all this weird stuff about hating people from Ostania was recent.
Now Loid and Yor were thirteen. Neither of them cared about the way people looked at them when they walked the streets of Luwen together. As usual, adults were acting up.
People in town tried to make him understand why they hated Ostania. If everyone was struggling, if there was no money and businesses were closing it was because those Ostanian pigs were hording money and taking advantage of Westalis.
But Loid knew this had to be a lie or a big misunderstanding. Yor’s family was from Ostania, and they weren’t hording money. In fact, they were struggling a lot; probably even more than any other family in town because Mr. Briar’s business barely had customers anymore. Nobody wanted them there. It wasn’t too hard to figure that out.
On top of everything, there were rumors about war starting between countries.
Loid saw his parents get really nervous about that. Maybe he didn’t understand all the implications of it, but he knew that war was bad.
Nevertheless, when Yor and Loid were together, neither of them wanted to think about that. Nothing had happened yet between their countries, and there was no point on worrying like their parents, so instead, they joked around, laughed and played, like they had always done.
Loid was Yor’s only friend. Everyone at school had turned their back on her when things started to get sour between Westalis and Ostania. But Yor didn’t care. As long as she had Loid by her side, she lacked nothing.
“Do you want to go swim in the river?” she asked him.
“Sure,” he answered.
It was a hot summer day. They were on vacation, so after helping their families with daily chores, they would spend most of their time together.
They were so used to each other they didn’t care about swimming in their underwear. They swam, splashed each other, and played by the river until they cooled off.
“One day, I'd like to swim in the ocean,” Yor said as they sat by the river.
Neither of them had ever seen the ocean.
“Let's go together one day,” Loid proposed, sitting next to her.
They shook hands. That's how they used to agree on something when they first met and they kept doing it throughout the years.
The river sounded peaceful that day.
“Hey, what do you think about this whole war thing?” Loid asked Yor while they dried off.
Yor twisted her black hair and squeezed out the excess of water, so her hair would dry faster.
“Who knows,” she shrugged after listening to her best friend’s question. “My parents are very worried. They think we may have to go back to Ostania.”
Upon hearing this, Loid stomach started hurting.
“That’s crazy! Luwen is your home!” he argued.
“I know but…”
But things were really bad for the Briars. Aside from a few customers here and there, Mr. Briar’s tailor shop was almost broke. Nobody wanted them there and Yor’s mom was starting to fear for their safety. If war broke, people would be angrier than they already were.
“But?” Loid pressed.
“I’m not even sure we would be allowed to stay if there’s a war between our countries,” Yor declared. “Nobody in my family is from Westalis. My dad says the government would probably kick us out anyways.”
Loid stayed quiet for a few minutes looking at his wet feet touching the ground. Yor kept looking at the river. He didn’t want his best friend to leave.
“Let’s get married,” he came up with a solution for the problem.
“What?” Yor thought that probably she hadn’t heard well or maybe he was joking.
“Let’s get married,” he repeated. “It’s an easy solution. If you marry me, you become a citizen of Westalis by marriage.”
At that moment, it wasn’t about romance or love. It was a simple solution for a big problem.
“Uhhhh…I don’t know,” Yor said.
Yor knew Loid’s intentions were good, but it sounded crazy. They were 13! Yor was pretty sure marriage was not allowed until at least 18.
She shook her head.
“Oh, come on! You want to stay, don’t you?” Loid tried to convince her.
“Well, yes, but…”
“This is the best way,” he kept going. “And if there’s a war between our countries, it won’t matter. We’ll be together.”
Together.
That’s what Yor really wanted. She didn’t care about anything else. She just wanted to stay with Loid.
“Well, I guess I would have to ask my parents’ permission,” she told him. “And I’m pretty sure I’ll need a dress.”
Loid smiled big. Problem solved. Now he only had to tell his parents too.
***
“Are you insane?!” his parents told Loid at the same time.
Loid didn’t get why it was a big deal. He knew he was going to marry Yor at some point. He’d known he’d marry his best friend for a long time, because he didn’t want to be with anyone else.
His dad pulled him aside, away from his mom, so she wouldn’t listen.
“Son, have you and that girl been doing…stuff?” his dad whispered.
“What?” Loid’s eyes opened big, and he blushed immediately. “Dad, no!! Of course not! Yor and I, we’re not like that.”
His dad gave a big sigh of relief. Good. So that wasn’t the reason for this crazy idea. Then, why would a 13 year old wanted to get married?
“I want Yor to stay in Luwen,” he declared. “If war happens, she and her family will have to move away.”
So that was the real reason.
His parents looked at each other with a mix of relief and a bit of amusement. This was their only son, a sweet child, still very innocent.
“Darling, marriage may seem like an easy solution, but it shouldn’t be used to fix anything,” his mom told him, holding his hand and looking at him straight in the eye. “The only reason two people should get married is because they love each other. That’s it.”
Loid avoided his mom’s gaze and looked at the floor. He did that when he was very nervous or embarrassed (or in this case both).
“Mom, I love Yor,” he confessed—his ears felt like they were burning.
“Oh Sweetheart, we know,” his mom answered back. “We’ve known for a very long time.”
Loid kept looking at the floor.
“We know,” his father repeated and placed a solidary hand on his shoulder. “But you two are way too young for that step. I’m quite sure you and that girl will end up getting married someday, but not right now.”
So, the whole plan was a complete failure.
Yor’s parents reacted even worse than his.
It was funny how both sets of parents had thought exactly the same thing. Maybe adults had dirty minds by default. It had taken Yor days to convince her parents she and Loid had done nothing wrong, but in the end they finally realized their daughter was a terrible liar and wouldn’t be able to look at them in the eyes had something else had happened between her and her best friend.
Days after the big marriage fiasco, Yor and Loid were sitting at a bench on the town square eating an ice cream and trying to figure out their next move. Now they couldn’t even go to the river. Yor’s parents have warned her to stay in public at all times whenever she saw Loid. They were very conservative.
“So now what?” Yor asked him.
“We’ll have to think about something else,” Loid answered.
“If war happens, I guess we could always run away,” Yor joked, but Loid took it seriously.
“It's not a bad idea,” he replied. “Do you want to run away and see the ocean?”
They shook hands one more time.
It felt like a solid plan.
Weeks went by. Things remained more or less the same—talk about war, hate towards Ostania, rumors and worry.
Since they couldn’t get married, Yor and Loid kept living their life, as always. By then their parents realized they were still kids and allowed them to go swim in the river again. They knew that innocence wouldn’t last forever, but for now, they wanted to allow their children to be exactly that.
Until one night, everything changed…
Loid was asleep when he heard it. So were his parents and the rest of the town.
It was a noise like they had never heard before—loud and scary like thunder.
He wasn’t even fully awake when his dad came into his room to get him.
“WE NEED TO LEAVE!” he yelled and pulled his son out of his bed.
Loid was half dressed when they got out of the house. They had taken nothing except the clothes on their backs and his father’s gun.
The young man was fully awake and fully dressed now. While running, he realized they were heading towards the mountains, along with a bunch of people from their town.
When they got to the foothills and he saw what had happened from afar, Loid was shocked to see how much damage a bomb could make. Half of the town was destroyed.
Seeing the town on fire made him shiver and right then he remembered something important:
“Yor.”
He’d lived in Luwen his whole life and knew where everything was, that’s how he knew immediately the bomb had fallen near his best friend’s house.
Some strange force possessed him. Without saying anything, he started running back to the town—towards Yor’s house.
He didn’t even hear his parents’ screams for him to come back. He ran and ran, as fast as he could, with his heart beating as fast as he was running and a prayer in his heart: “Please, let her be okay. Please, let her be alive.”
When he got to Yor’s neighborhood everything was on fire. He passed Mr. Briar’s tailor shop, and it was completely destroyed. His heart was beating painfully hard, and he could barely stand the fear. Loid was shaking, and crying already, because he knew what he would find.
Nevertheless, he kept moving.
When he finally got to Yor’s house, fire was consuming it whole.
“YOR!! YOR!!” he yelled desperately. “Please, Yor!”
He didn’t even think about it. He just went into Yor’s house. If there was a possibility for her to still be alive in there, he needed to get her out.
But the house was burning down rapidly and as soon as he entered, a wooden beam fell on his head and knocked him unconscious.
His body fell like a sack of potatoes, while the flames engulfed everything.