#just with slightly blonder hair and a little lighter skin because of his mother

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2023

Day 08 - Shed

The sun had long vanished beneath the horizon as A'viloh sneaked out of the house trying his best to not wake anyone. It was a clear night and the dark blue sky was filled with millions of stars shining in all kinds of colors. In A'viloh’s opinion this view never got boring, he could marvel at it for the rest of his life and wonder if somewhere up there someone else saw a similar sky and did the same.

Quietly he crossed the Aetheryte square, staying in the shadows as best as he could, alway keeping an eye out for people who could see him. He wasn’t sure if it was really necessary to be this careful but better safe than sorry.

U'laqa had asked to meet him at midnight by the wooden shed at the springs. This had been earlier that day after their archery training session. While everybody else went to retrieve their arrows U'laqa had casually stepped beside him and whispered in his ear. Before A'viloh could reply anything U'laqa had already run after the other boys, not that he would have replied anything dumbfounded as he was.

All afternoon he had been torn between worry and excitement about this secret meeting. A few weeks had passed since Dalamud’s fall and the world hadn’t come to an end after all. That night as the dust started to settle and worried voices called out for them, they had embarrassedly untangled from their embrace and pretended nothing had happened. The oasis had remained relatively unharmed by the catastrophe and so all things had quickly returned back to normal. A'viloh had already began to worry that things between U'laqa and him had also returned to normal. He feared that what U'laqa had said to him that night as the two of them watched in terror as the red moon fell out of the sky had long been forgotten.

Now, as he stepped towards the springs, all he felt was nervousness. A tiny fire burnt in one of the braziers but there was no one to be seen. He looked around, but found nothing. Carefully he peaked into the shed, nothing either. Then suddenly something gripped his shoulders from behind and snarled. He shrieked and spun around only to realise that it wasn’t a monster that attacked him but just U'laqa who had pranked him.

As the other Miqo'te heard A'viloh surprised scream he quickly pressed a finger to his lips and gestured for him to be quiet.

"Shhh! They’re going to hear you.", he whispered and because A'viloh stared at him like he just had a heart attack he added: "I’m sorry A'vi, it was just too tempting. By Azeyma! You should have seen your face!" Then he started to laugh heartily.

A'viloh grimaced. "Haha, very funny… So you called me here to scare me to death, is that it?"

"Maybe!", Laqa answered with a cheeky glint in his golden eyes and that kind of wide amiable smile on his face that never failed to make A'viloh speechless.

Silence settled between them and for a few moments neither really knew what to say. Then U'laqa nervously ran his fingers through his bright blonde hair and his face became more serious than usual.

"No… actually I wanted to to talk to you, about… you know, what I said when Dalamud fell…"

A'viloh made an anxious face. So it was indeed how he feared. All of this had been a misunderstanding and now U'laqa wanted to take back what he said.

"I see…", he muttered disheartening.

"What’s with that gloomy face now?", he asked obliviously.

A'viloh forced a weak smile onto his face. "I understand. I know it was a weird situation, end of the world and everything. It‘s alright if you changed your mind. I really shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up…"

"What?!", the other Miqo'te exclaimed. "You thought I didn’t mean it?!"

A'viloh couldn’t believe what he heard.

"You didn’t? No, I mean: You did?"

U'laqa sighed and slowly shook his head, smiling in a way that made A'viloh think he was making fun of him. "Oh, you silly, adorable idiot…"

A'viloh still struggled to understand and just stared at the other boy in confusion.

Finally U'laqa grasped his hands and said: "I meant every word, every single one. I love you, A'vi. I loved you since the day we met."

"You do??"

U'laqa chuckled at his puzzled expression.

„I do.“

Still A'viloh couldn’t quite believe it and wondered if this was just a dream he would wake up from every second now.

After a moment U'laqa raised an eyebrow and quizzically tilted his head. "Please don‘t tell me now that you don’t like me back…"

"No!", A'viloh exclaimed. "I do too!"

When he realised what he just said his face went hot and he quickly looked down in embarrassment. Very quietly he added: "I like you very much. For a long while now actually but I never thought…"

"Shhh…", U'laqa said quietly and A'viloh instantly fell silent, as the blonde boy cupped his face in his hands and made him meet his gaze.

Then he slowly leaned down and kissed him.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2023 #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #ff14 #final fantasy 14 #ffxiv writing #pre-ARR #A'viloh Tia #U'laqa Tia #I think this is my favourite prompt yet! #here I am stuck with the backstory instead of writing about the actual game haha… #also please imagine Laqa like a young and very handsome version of u‘odh #just with slightly blonder hair and a little lighter skin because of his mother #and his mother’s golden eyes of course…