i know you've written ferdibert angst before....but how about turning the tables? with hubert left behind instead of ferdinand?
:) so remember that post I reblogged from @ferdinands-love-club ? Well... you asked for this anon. I've been working on this on and off all day, so I hope you're happy with what you've got
It wasn't enough time. Though, in reality, Hubert should've realized from the beginning that no amount of time shorter than an eternity would be enough.
They only had a few more years together, rather than the decades that they should've. They were scarcely able to enjoy the peace that followed before the damned Goddes saw fit to tear them apart.
They may have needed to fight the war against Those Who Slithered, and yet...Hubert couldn't. Selfishly, selfishly, he wanted to spend more time with Ferdinand. Wanted to learn more about the other man, wanted to see if he was just as bright and open in expressing his love as he was in practically everything else.
Lady Edelgard had allowed him leave, just for this. The look in her eyes told him all he needed to know.
They had spent those years together, spending nearly every moment together. Even the days where they needed to take care of one thing or another, they did it together, Hubert being unwilling to spend more time away from Ferdinand when he knew there wasn't long.
And even with the time they spent, even with the affection Hubert had learned to openly give in return for the affection Ferdinand already gifted him, even with Professor Hanneman and Linhardt looking to try and reverse the effects...
...it wasn't enough. If the Goddess truly existed, she must have been laughing in his face as she took his sun and extinguished his light.
Hubert had watched as Ferdinand steadily grew weaker, as he lost his breath more easily and simple tasks grew more exhausting, as his body grew weaker and his light more dim. He watched with a sorrow and fury more potent than anything ever before, a sadness as to who he knew he'd soon lose and a rage that he was too useless to do anything about it.
Hubert had sat by Ferdinand's bedside when he no longer had the strength to move around. Even then, Ferdinand's eyes still lit up when he laughed, still brightened just gazing at Hubert, as if somehow the sight of him was enough to make up for everything he had been through.
"Come now, Hubert." Ferdinand had to pause to catch his breath. He had to do that a lot lately. "In all my years of knowing you.....I have never known you to look so dour."
Hubert had felt his face twist into a scowl, though both he and Ferdinand knew it to be insincere. "Dour? Tch. You of all people should know why I'm..."
Hubert trailed off. Somehow voicing it was always just too much for him to bear, despite all he had done. Ferdinand understood what he meant though - he always had.
"Hubert. You've lived without me before. I know you will be able to do it again." Ferdinand had said calmly, far more steadily than he had any right to be.
Hubert might have been able to live without him before, but that was also before he knew Ferdinand. Knew what it meant to be privy to every side of him, what it meant to be able to bask in the warmth he gave so freely without even a thought to himself. What it meant to love him. And now that he knew, Hubert knew he would never be able to live properly without him.
"That is the furthest thing from the truth," Hubert had begun, the scowl shifting into something more sorrowful neither had wanted to acknowledge. "I may have accomplished such an impossible feat before, but I would not be able to do so again."
Ferdinand had laughed at that. It was a weak one, a far cry from the loud and boisterous laugh he'd often let out at the simplest of things, but it warmed Hubert's heart all the same. "The great Hubert von Vestra, so easily bested by a challenge?"
"Only because I do not have the wonderful Ferdinand von Aegir by my side," Hubert had replied without thinking, taking Ferdinand's hand in his as he let out a soft smile. The rings on their fingers clinked as they connected, though neither of them had paid it mind at the moment.
But now, the noise Hubert had paid no mind to once upon a time would never be heard again, no matter how much Hubert longed for it. For the bearer of the other ring laid six feet under, resting eternally when he should have been able to laugh and speak and breathe and live right by his side.
And in place of the warmth he once felt, all Hubert felt was a numbing cold.
