◿ pure heart ◺
war is cruel. no one is unaffected when the whole world is at war, not even innocent children, and joy has been harshly reminded of that fact today. she watches the funeral service in front of her, holding tightly to yuna’s hand.
she thinks about how lucky the girl is to even get a funeral. joy knows that the only reason she gets this little service is because she somehow managed to make friends with one of the princesses of duur. joy was actually a little surprised to find out that they had even let a princess come out here to an active war zone, but she knows better than to question it aloud. she’s glad the princess is here -- the girl deserved a nice funeral like this, and joy knows that she wouldn’t have gotten one had the princess not met her.
the ceremony is short -- even though a princess wanted it to happen, no one has time to spend too long mourning one child. there are more people who need help -- people who are still alive. neither the world or the war are going to stop because one little girl died, and that might be the saddest part of this whole thing: this is probably the most remembrance anyone who dies in this war is ever going to get.
as the service ends, joy kneels in front of yuna, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. both of them got as dressed up for this as they could, which essentially entailed nothing more than wearing their cleanest clothes and making sure their hair was brushed well. “how you doing, tiger?” she asks.
yuna stays silent for a second, staring at the ground between her feet and joy’s. then she looks up and meets joy’s eyes, a tiny crease resting between her eyebrows. “can i meet the princess?” she says, and joy blinks. she certainly didn’t expect that, though she probably should have.
“i’ll see what i can do. come on, let’s see if we can find her,” she responds, straightening up and taking yuna’s hand once more. it actually doesn’t take long to find the princess, standing next to the fresh grave with a couple men standing around her, glaring at joy. she assumes that they’re her guard, and her grip on yuna’s hand tightens ever so slightly as she eyes them nervously. she clears her throat, though, trying to get the princess’s attention.