Dawn without you

synopsis:Dainsleif watches as the new day begins and relishes in the memories he shared with you five hundred years ago.

pairing: Dainsleif x fem!reader

tw:bittersweet fluff and angst, established relationship in the past

word count: 1.1k+ words

author’s note: the idea came spontaneously, when i heard a small bit of a song and translated it into English to use somehow later. So yeah, here it is, heh

I am taking pictures of the dawn…

“Hey, Dainsleif, do you find dawns beautiful?”

That was a strange question Traveler once asked him. Throughout those long five hundred years as Dainsleif has been cursed with immortality he has seen how the sun rose and set thousands of times, and the beauty of it has long but faded in his eyes.

Dawns mean the beginning of a new day, a world basking in a warm light that reaches earth and saves it from night’s darkness. But his nation lived in that darkness for a long time. In Khaenri'ah there were no dawns, nor were there sunsets - it was underground realm mostly barren of natural life. However they had science, they could create life, they could create light, they could create everything to live happily.

For the longest time they did, they lived happily, and he was among these people, those who knew what it meant to be joyful. His memory is fading, and he doesn’t remember his human life before his nation’s fall in miniscule detail, however some things stay unchanged within the confines of his brain. Many faces were wiped away and he can’t imagine them no matter how hard he tries, but yours is still clear. 

He remembers your smile - soft lips, he married so many times with his own, stretched delicately. He remembers your eyes - two shining gems that looked at him with nothing but devotion and love. Light was captured in them, illuminating his path. Path to you, no matter where he was, no matter how busy he was, he always found his way back to your loving embrace, to your soft gaze cast upon him, to your lips pressing against his cheeks, murmuring sweet nothings and everythings.

Your hand would brush against his, and he’d feel relief as a cold metal band touched his skin, the similar wrapped around his ring finger. You were everything a man could wish for, he was so incredibly lucky to have a wife like you. 

He remembers how you’d drop by his headquarters, effortlessly passing right into the palace since everyone knew you - they loved your presence. Everyone would turn a blind eye and let you and your husband slip out in the early hours of the morning - the only time you managed to be alone for the most cases. Knights knew the mission put on their shoulders and could carry on with their duties immaculately even with the supervisor absent for a couple of hours. They were aware of how hard their commander worked, so a small walk with his wife must’ve been a blessing. Halfdain would always cast a glance at your linked fingers and smile, nodding as you passed by. ‘I’ll take care of your duties, don’t worry.’

And Dainsleif didn’t. Holding your hand, being led by you in the gardens he felt tension from night duties leaving his body. He’d happily listen to your voice, telling him about your day before, and smile guiltily once you’d start lightheartedly complaining about your shared bed not being shared again. He knew you didn’t really mean it, you married him with a full understanding of who he was and what his job was, which he greatly appreciated it.

He’d bring your hands to his lips and kiss every knuckle as you cooed about his chivalry behavior. You’d escape his hold for a moment with a soft chuckle, running forward to make a distance. Then you’d turn around, skirt twirling and hands clasped behind your back as your lips formed a smile - you were beckoning him to chase you in the early hours of the morning, the artificial light slowly brightening your homeland and you looked beautiful in it. He never could fight the attraction and always made his way to you.

You did the same for him. If he had to leave for a relatively safe mission, he was always taking you with him and you followed happily, not minding one bit the nights spent in a tent, if only it meant they were shared with you both wrapped in each other’s embrace.

That was one of those times when the two of you witnessed the dawn for the first time together. Dainsleif can’t remember why his troops were out of Khaenri'ah in the first place, but he remembers being out there with you. How you woke him up disgustingly early on his only day when he could sleep in with someone else taking care of guarding duties. Excitement and joy was written all over your face as you impatiently tugged on his hand.

Abandoning his attempts to dress in armor, he let you drag him out in only his pants and a shirt, as he tried to rub the sleep out of his tired deep blue eyes.

And then he felt it first rather than saw - a  light, caressing his cheek and trying to creep into his sight with its annoying blinding brightness. Getting eyes used to it was a bit of a challenge but once he did, he couldn’t tear his gaze off of the view. 

You, a couple of steps ahead already, with your arms spread and head thrown back, were twirling in place with the colors of rich red, orange and yellow as your background. You were looking like a perfect picture, and if it wasn’t for your movements and soft giggles falling and taking their flight from your lips, he would’ve thought it was a painting.

And your eyes… How precious the look of them was, with the real burning sun reflecting there, creating the prettiest loveliest gleam…

He swore he lost his heart in them and found it again.

Dainsleif knew he’d have to thank you for convincing him to purchase a recent invention that allowed to memorize a moment in the material form of an identical picture. Having retrieved it from his bag, he returned to you, ready to capture that morning, that dawn and you, his precious wife, the love of his life.

He brings Kamera - a replica created in Fontaine this time and given to him by the Traveler - closer to his face; a starish eye is looking straight through the lenses, watching the skies change their color as the sun is taking them in its possession. He knows you’d like that view even hundreds of years later. He knows you’d still look magical, rightwith this five hundred years old dawn as your background.

He imagines your figure, wind caught in your hair, slightly ruining flowers woven between strands, loose sleeves and long skirt fluttering around your arms and legs, and you smile. You smile, lips stretched wide, eyes, with sun captured in their depths, semi-closed and cheeks rosy, caressed by warm rays. He can almost hear his name leaving your phantom mouth, echoing in the soft click as his finger presses the button.

I am taking pictures of the dawn

Just like many years before

Without you

Without you

Without you