There's a plate of at least five sandwiches fit for an entire day on his plate, set beside a steaming cup of tea . Wrapped in parchment is an ornate tome, far fancier a version of his Rexcalibur than he might have expected . It says, "I heard you might be hungry. This time, the only thing that's changed is I made them myself this time. Remember - I'm always standing by you." No Valentine's Day words, merely his signature. " - IKE."
Most would greet a plate of sandwiches and tea as they might a favoured snack, something made to sate hunger, perhaps indulge their taste buds but little more. Yet the sight makes Soren pause, stills his ever turning thoughts for a moment.
He knew those sandwiches.
He’s briefly brought back to days he slept curled in the roots of a tree, when food came seldom and less frequently than the scorn of villagers. A sandwich was the first piece of food he’d been given, by the first soul to ever show him a bit of kindness. Hard times they had been, yet that day… it was still a day he cherished. The day he’d first met Ike. A rare smile sits softly on his lips as he approaches the plate; he doesn’t need the note to know from whom they came.
He picks up one of the sandwiches and bites into it, though subtly different they are much the same as that day. This piece is eaten more slowly, savoured unlike the one he had wolfed down so desperately as a child he only scarcely tasted it. He sips the tea, still warm and betraying that the gifter could not have been here long ago. It slowly diffuses through him, warming chilled limbs before curling contentedly in his chest.
Yet despite all this, it is the parcel that surprises him most; something he not expecting. He pulls the paper away to reveal a decorated tome, far more ornate than any he possessed. He can already feel its magic pulsing through his fingers as he quietly inspects it, smile never falling from his features. He knew well what a tome of this quality worth. He must have spent a small fortune.
“And I by you.” Soren answers to the empty space, tucking Ike’s note carefully within the tome’s pages. A small reminder what he fought for; though he needed it not. He was reminded every day. he was reminded by Ike’s kindness, by all that he fought for, through his gestures both small and on a scale to change the entire world… He would stand by Ike through anything.
He would stand by Ike through everything.