personalapocalypse | [FFVI] Sweep Her Away (Setzer/Daryl/Maria, T)

Another step in the slow process of backing up my works from Tumblr.

Title: Sweep Her Away
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Characters: Setzer/Daryl/Maria
Word Count: 602
Rating: T
Warning: Character death
Summary: When Setzer came to sweep Maria away, he was keeping a promise someone else had made.
Notes: Written for Multiamory March on tumblr. No idea if that's happening again, and if I do participate it'll be as a participant, not as an archivist (and probably in a different fandom altogether.)

Maria had been dreaming of flying away with them almost as soon as they'd met, although she had not voiced such dreams until well after their relationship had become more intimate.

"You'll both take me away from there someday, won't you?" Maria would ask as they rested on the deck of the Blackjack, staring up at the skies.

"Of course, Songbird," Daryl answers, squeezing her hand. "We'll fly in, right under the Impressario's nose, and we'll sweep you away to parts unknown. And that's a promise!"

Setzer never answered, but he never needed to. He would always be along for the ride with her. Life with Daryl was never dull.

It had always been a dream, though - Maria was far too sought-after to permit any sort of vacation, and Daryl was given to flights of fancy that pulled her away from her dreams. Setzer was happy enough to wait until the right moment, and then gently nudge his partner into keeping her promise, into throwing all convention to the wind and sweeping their lover into their arms in front of all of Jidoor.

But the moment never came. Daryl's ship had crashed, broken beyond all recognition. She could not have survived. And Setzer... what could he do? He'd stood on their hill for hours the night she'd never come home, and after that, he'd never gone back there again.

He'd gone to Maria again, of course. What else could he do? But she was in as much pain, although her training allowed her to hide it well. They no longer went on wild outings, the ones that Daryl had insisted on. They spent their time together resting, in his ship or in her private chambers, trying to keep going without the painful memories pulling them too far down for them to keep going.

They didn't talk as much any more, either. Without Daryl there they drifted in silence, holding each other so that they wouldn't float away, out of fear and sadness. But it wasn't the same without her. The spark was gone.

"I'll still sweep you away," he finally said one day, when they were resting together in his cabin. He couldn't remember exactly why he'd said it - maybe because the bed still felt too large with Daryl there, or because the quiet had finally become too much.

"You will?" she asked, turning to look at him.

She looked as lost as he felt, but there was a spark of hope in her eyes that he could not bear to dash. If what he'd said had been a mistake, he'd just have to go ahead and make it. "Yes. I'll come to the Opera House during one of your performances, and I'll take you and carry you away. We can go anywhere we please, and they won't be able to stop us."

She reached for his hand. "Promise me," she says, looking him in the face. "Please." The way that she did, she didn't add, but she didn't need to say it aloud; he understood.

"Of course." He couldn't add the endearment; that had been Daryl's name for her, and it never sounded right with his voice. "That's a promise."

"Good," She wraps her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Setzer."

He stroked her hair, trying to recapture some of how it had felt when Daryl had been there beside them, her laughter always a bit too loud in his ears. What he wouldn't pay to hear that laughter again.

He'd keep his promise, of course. He owed them both that much.