[Image Description: A digital sketch of a brunette girl in a simple long white dress and black sash, hugging a befuddled God of Love by wrapping her arms around their neck. The God of Love visibly freezes at the touch, cheeks turning pink as their hand hesitates in the air. The only color in the sketch is the pink hair ribbon in the hair of the God's host, resting behind the God's right ear. End Description.]
My belated Christmas gift and early New Year's Gift to @partialdignity and @lunarimpact, courtesty of @panyum. Thankie for taking another comm request of mine, Pan. You're still my favorite FGO artist, and this looks amazing to me. Just, thankie.
To Carim and Chorus, well. Thankie for being friends with me in this past year. I hope we have more years together for a long while to come, and that Vy hugging your Assassin delivers that. I love you both platonically, so so much.
And well. Per my username, I have to have another story go with the art, right? With a song to accompany it too, even if I've heard it many times over.
------------------------------
It wasn't hard to admit to herself that Vy wasn't perfect. No human being could really claim that they were perfect, because from birth and through living life one day at a time, personalities clashed with the world. People sometimes learned, people sometimes didn't.
Even then, when looking up at the God of Love that was Kamadeva, in spite of everything that had happened between them — why did you have to involve Novum Chaldea in your Ooku, why did you have to nearly turn Robin into a skeleton, why burn the world, where would it leave you — Vy still felt sympathy for the former Beast.
After all, not everyone was able to choose how they wanted to die. And Kama's legend in particular had a cruel death — an undeserved one. That wasn't even factoring in Rati, Kamadeva's spouse and consort, who screamed and cried at her husband's death and smothered herself in his ashes to curse Parvati forever. Kamadeva had only been doing the job the gods dealt them in awakening Shiva with their arrows— Shiva had no right to incinerate them the way they did. It was no wonder Kama wanted to lash out at the rest of the world for what Shiva and Parvati caused — Vy still couldn't meet one of her oldest contracted Lancers in eye contact after learning about all that. Sure, it didn't make Kama's scheming against Chaldea any less personal, but the reasons made it understandable, even if Vy couldn't empathize entirely with it.
And now, in Novum Chaldea, where they were surrounded by ghosts of old and former enemies, Vy looked up at the God of Love and made a decision.
"What is it, Master? Are you trying to play nice again, even when Humanity is still—"
"Kama, not to be rude, but is it okay if I could hug you?"
Assassin froze, mouth left open from Vy's sudden question as they blinked at her. "...What the hell are you spouting now?" left Kama in a soft, uncharacteristically raw voice, arms left barely extended in Vy's direction as they met her eyes with sheer disbelief. "A hug? For what?" Vy did her best not to flinch away at the broken laugh that left Kama's lips, only left watching as Kama held their stomach. "I nearly killed your beloved green Archer! I took your home away! Why hug someone like me when you and I both know we're ugly inside—"
"Because it feels like you deserve one," was all Vy could whisper back, interrupting Kama's tirade. "Because love to me isn't just about giving and taking, Kama. Ugliness or not. Corrupted or not."
Kama lowered their hands, inhaling shakily as their head barely bobbed up and down.
Vy wasn't sure if it was a nod, or, hell, if it was even a sign, but she took it anyways. She stood up on her tiptoes, gently wrapping her arms around the God's neck, and Kama froze yet again, muscles tensing underneath Vy's grip. "Vy..."
You used my name.
"I don't know how exactly to teach you about love," Vy murmured into Kama's ear, tightening the hug as she pressed herself against the Assassin's chest. "I don't even know how to consult a friend about love when I'm still figuring it out myself. I'm just a simple Vietnamese girl who wants to see her family again and help the people around her be happy. And for a God like you, who was hurt by the world around you, the least I can do is hug you and say, 'I care about you.' Because I do." Against her will, tears bud in the corners of her eyes and Vy did her best to smother them by resting her nose into Kama's shoulder. "Because even Gods deserve hugs too."
Kama didn't hug back. But the heat underneath Vy's arms was warm, real, and there. The person, the god Kama, in a human body, was there.
"...You are a foolish Master, Vy," was the eventual response that brushed Vy's ear, a cheek roughly bumping the side of her head once the words lingered in the air. "You are so, so foolish."
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Or, to better organize all the extra stories that have been written for Passing Days, the author made a collection on AO3 for more accessible reading.
Dedicated to the original writers, @partialdignity and @lunarimpact, because I wouldn't be as invested in writing for this messy universe of Fate/Grand Order. Thankie, friends. :)
To everyone else, I hope you enjoy the extra content.
