literature

Iceland x Reader ~Starbound~

Deviation Actions

GydroZMaa's avatar
By
Published:
10.6K Views

Literature Text

~Starbound~

Emil was waiting at the same spot you had first met him. Unlike before, you had come far into the night. It had taken some work, but with the help of the starlight and moon overhead, you were able to find his location without the use of a flashlight.

“You’re still here,” you breathed in relief. “I was afraid you might have disappeared.”

Emil made a face. “I’m not a ghost, you know,” he said, but it was almost impossible to believe such a statement when he had strange white hair and unusually pale lavender eyes.

You laughed. “Yeah, but I get the feeling that you’re more than what you appear to be—you know, with you being a star-seer and all.”

“No, I’m pretty normal.”

“I guess.” You dug your heels into the dirt. “Hey, do you mind going on a walk with me?”

In the soft white light, you could see a befuddled expression toying on Emil’s pale face. “Where to?”

You shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. Just somewhere.”

“Somewhere, huh?” Emil repeated. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stay out here a little longer…”

“Good!” you beamed grabbing his hand and dragging him through the thicket. “Let’s go!”

“H-Hey!”

Emil’s hand was thin. It didn’t carry the same warmth as the hands of the others you had held. It lacked intimacy.

“You haven’t held hands with too many people, have you?” you asked.

“Where’d that question come from?”

“Just thought of it,” you replied. From behind, you could hear Emil snorting.

As expected, his strength was as feeble as his confidence. It didn’t take too long before his breath grew short and weak so, to take a break, the two of you decided to pick a spot atop a little cliff overlooking the bowl-shaped valley.

“Sorry for going so fast, Emil,” you wheezed. “I got a little ahead of myself.”

“Don’t mention it,” he grumbled.

You let out a heavy sigh and looked towards the night sky. It was a clear day today, a perfect day for someone like Emil to read the stars.

“Hey, Emil?”

“What?”

You swallowed. “Does your brother know…well, you know, when it’s going to happen?”

The star-seer remained silent for a long time. When he didn’t give you a reply, you turned your head towards him and saw that he was staring at the stars.

“He doesn’t,” he finally said. “I don’t want to worry him when the time comes.”

You tightened your fists into balls. Star-seers were supposed to be able to predict futures, give little pieces of advice to others, and tell those who were unfortunate how to succeed. Emil was different. Unlike the other star-seers, he couldn’t make others happy. He couldn’t even make himself happy. He only knew one thing from the stars and one thing only: the day he was going to die.

It had frightened you when he had finally told you what his star-seeing ability was. You had initially searched for him in hopes that he would be able to predict the outcome of your own future. He had responded by saying your future was yours, alone, to control. At least you had a future.

“Emil…”

“Now what?”

“Are you afraid?”

The star-seer sighed. “Not really,” he muttered. “I don’t know how I’m going to go, but I’ve accepted it by now. The stars have told me the exact date and time down to the second. I’ll be ready.”

“What if they were wrong?” you asked. “What if all of this time, you’ve just been wasting your life away waiting for something that wouldn’t happen?”

“______________, I’m a star-seer, remember? The stars never lie to me.”

A tear rolled down your cheek. “But they didn’t have to tell you something so horrible. I-I would be so scared if I knew when I’d die…It’s just not fair.”

“What’s not fair?”

“That you had to know in such a short amount of time,” you sniffed.

It was true. According to Emil’s brother, star-seers weren’t supposed to be able to inherit their powers until they reached a certain age. With the way Emil was behaving, it looked like his time in this world was shorter than he had expected.

Emil let out a heavy sigh. “_____________, it’s not so bad. At the very least, I could prepare for my death. It’s given me a chance to look at what I’ve been able to experience. I’ve had a good run. I had good friends, I had a good—though sometimes annoying—brother, and…I met you.”

Your heart fluttered. So Emil had feelings for you after all.

“Emil,” you whispered, “let’s leave this place.”

At first you thought he would just brush you off like he had in the past when you had suggested he go somewhere before passing on. This time, like the last, he was quiet again.

“Er,” you caught yourself, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I was just thinking that maybe— ”

“Where?” he asked.

You blinked, surprised you had peaked his curiosity. To tell the truth, you had no precise answer for him. You only wanted to be with him.

“Anywhere,” you said. “It can be somewhere you’ve always wanted to see. Maybe then…maybe then you can escape your fate.”

Emil shook his head. “You’re something else. I already told you I’m a star-seer…” He stared at the stars. From your angle, you could see the twinkling lights overhead reflecting into his pools of lavender.

“But, you know something?” he breathed. “I wouldn’t mind going there as long as I’m with you.” Then, he held his hand out to you. “Let’s say goodbye to my brother first. He at least deserves to know we’re going somewhere.”

“Yeah,” you nodded and took his hand.

-----

Unlike the star-seer, Emil’s brother, Lukas, was normal just like you. In contrast to his brother’s pale, exotic characteristics, he had light blonde hair and dark blue eyes. The two looked nothing alike.

“Lukas,” Emil spoke when he returned home, “_______________ and I are going away for a while.”

His brother set down the papers he was holding. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but something was different about the air in the house. In the past, when you had visited Emil’s house, it had always been quiet, but today, it was particularly still.

“Are you going to be gone long?” Lukas asked.

“Not really,” Emil answered. “We’ll be able to get there on foot.”

A small smile cracked on his brother’s thin lips. “Alright, then. Be sure to come back soon.”

“I’ll try…”

“And _____________?”

You looked up. “Yes?”

There was a soft look in Lukas’ usually cold and distant gaze. He looked at you for a long time before finally speaking again.

“Thank you for spending time with my brother. I really appreciate the company you give him.”

“Oh, n-not at all,” you replied.

Just then, you felt Emil’s thin hand wrap around yours. “________________, let’s go,” he quietly said.

“Right,” you nodded and followed him out of the house.

Before closing the door, Emil stopped and looked back at his brother. You weren’t able to put it into exact words, but something connected between the two of them. Nothing had to be said, but there was resolve in their eyes. Without so much as uttering a single word to each other, Lukas disappeared into the house, and Emil took you away, far from the confinements of his home and deep into the thicket.

-----

“Hey, when you said you were going to that place, you said we’d be able to get there on foot.”

“That’s right,” Emil said. “It won’t take long to get there. We won’t need to travel very far. It’s quicker this way, too.”

“Quicker?” you repeated. “What does it matter? You should be able to enjoy whatever it is you’re doing to the fullest.”

“Yeah, well, it’s going to be enjoyed either way, ______________.”

You had no response to this and simply allowed Emil to lead you through the trees and darkness. Overhead, the starlight glimmered with enough brightness to walk in the night without the use of a flashlight.

When the two of you finally stopped, you noticed that it was the exact place you had brought Emil to barely even an hour ago, a small cliff overlooking the bow-shaped valley.

“Emil, what’s going on?” you asked. “We’re back to where we started.”

The star-seer chuckled. “I’m sorry about that, _____________. To tell you the truth, there’s no other place I’d want to be other than here.” He craned his head towards the sky. “This place is special enough as it is. It’ll do.”

You frowned. “I thought you might have wanted to go to see the mountains or a large desert or even another country. This place is just so…”

“Normal,” Emil smiled. “It’s normal, and that’s all I could ever wish for.” He paused. “Did you know that even though we can still see their light, many of these stars have already died? We’re just seeing their light probably hundreds to even thousands of years later because it’s taken that long for their light to travel to our eyes. It’s pretty depressing to think about being able to read my fate from things that have already vanished from this world, huh?”

“Don’t say it like that, Emil.”

“It’s true, though. ________________, I’m sorry I lied to you, but I’m really afraid. Before, when I first found out about the time of my death, I had accepted it as it was. I had no desires, nothing I really wanted to see, and no important things I wanted to do. When you came along, however, I began to wonder: what if things had been different? Suddenly, I was wondering if it was unfair that there were so many people that got to continue on with their lives being completely ignorant that they didn’t know when they would die.

“_______________, for the first time since falling in love with you, I didn’t want to die.”

You shook your head.

“No,” you whispered. “Emil don’t…Stop talking like that…It’s…it’s making me angry.”

“_______________?”

You knew now. You knew why it had been so different back at his house. You knew why Emil had gone back to his house. You knew what Lukas was doing with those papers. You knew why he was telling you these things now.

“Emil…Today’s the day, isn’t it? You’re going to die today.”

The star-seer smiled. It wasn’t a sad smile, nor was it a happy smile. It was just a smile.

“Yes,” he said in a calm, even tone. “I didn’t want to worry you, but I guess you found out, didn’t you?”

“That can’t be…! There were still so many things I wanted to do with you! I wanted to tell you so many things…!”

Emil placed a finger on your lips. “________________, it’s alright,” he whispered. “You don’t have to. I already know.”

“Liar…” you sniffed. “If you knew, you wouldn’t have hid it from me…” You wanted to say something else. You wanted to tell him how you felt about him. However, the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. You couldn’t say anything beyond a few high-pitched hiccupping noises. It must have all looked pathetic in front of the star-seer.

Yet, despite all of that, you felt something grab onto your hand. It was soft, tender, warm. When you thought that was over, Emil surprised you even further. He pressed a single kiss softly onto your lips and remained, trying to fruitlessly comfort you as the realization of his fate was slowly starting to take hold. Finally, when your breathing had eased, he released you and slowly began to stand up.

“Emil…what are you…?”

“Thank you for everything, _____________,” he said. “Don’t follow me. It’s almost my time. I don’t want you to see me when I go, but promise me that you’ll live for me. Make sure you do the things that I could have never hoped to do.”

“No…!” you wailed. “Emil, don’t leave me! I love you!”

In the dying starlight, you thought you had seen Emil nearly stop and turn around, but he continued to walk further away from you. Whether he was really going to die or not, you didn’t want to take your eyes off of him. You didn’t want to believe it. You were afraid. Perhaps if you took your eyes away, he would really disappear for good like a ghost of the starlit night.

“Emil!” you shouted. “Come back!”

But Emil pressed on. He had done everything he had needed to in this world. The stars never lied to the star-seers, but a part of you didn’t want to believe them. Maybe it was all a dream.

You don’t know what caused it to happen, but suddenly, you found your shaky legs standing up. Even though you were still a little shaky, you managed to take a few steps towards the star-seer. Soon, you were able to take more steps until the motion of lift one leg in front of another became familiar to you again. In a short time after that, you could run again, and you were running towards Emil.

“Emil!” you cried. “Emil, wait!”

You couldn’t see him in this darkness. His familiar white hair wasn’t visible even under the stars. He wasn’t the only thing you couldn’t see. There were several thick roots that were popping up out of the ground. When you had trekked these parts of the thicket before, you had walked slowly so that you wouldn't lose your footing. This time, however, it was the complete opposite. You were going at such a high pace that you could stop yourself. You didn’t even bother to take your time to watch where you were stepping. By the time Emil did come into view, you had already felt your body gravitating towards the edge of the cliff. Your foot had stumbled on a stray tree root. It had been only but a millisecond of time. One faulty mistake had sent you tumbling towards the open sky.

But…at the very last second, an outstretched hand reached out. The touch of it was warm, full of life. In a single swoop, Emil had swung you over and back onto the safety of the edge. Unfortunately, like the other side of a rotating pendulum, he had transferred your momentum onto him, and to do that, he had replaced your position with his. Now, Emil was the one who was falling.

There wasn’t enough time to scream. The first thing that came to your mind was why he would have done something like that. It was foolish. He could have stopped his fate right here. What frightened you was that it was your fault. It was you. You were the one to make him die.

“Live for me.” That was what Emil had said. He had been planning to leave you behind all along, but it was his intention to make you continue on. You had come to him to know about your future. He had told you to make your own. You were unbound by your fate. Your future was yours to take control of. Perhaps that was what Emil had intended to do with his life all along, and you were going to be sure that you would take that chance to the best of your opportunities.

“Thank you…” you whispered. “Emil…thank you…”

Emil had said that he didn’t want you to see him when he left. It took all you had, but you looked towards the night sky hoping you would be able to blink away some of your tears. The stars above continued to glimmer as though nothing awful had happened. Then again, most of them were long gone anyway, their starlight still travelling to your eyes from many years past. Even so, they were still beautiful to look at. Overhead, the undead lights would deliver the futures of many others to come. While not for himself, Emil had done that exact thing for you. You would continue to live. The life he had given up was far too precious to throw away and waste.

Beyond the reaches of your hand’s grasp, a single bright light ignited into the sky, sailing past the atmosphere and vanishing as quickly as a dying flame. A thought had crossed your mind. Maybe it had been given to you through a whisper.
Based on a concept I've wanted to write about and draw for a while. There's an important message in here if you read carefully.

Also a contest prize for :iconmomo-shroom:.

Axis Powers: Hetalia and its characters belong to Himaruya Hidekazu.

Any similarities to characters, settings, scripts, or stories from other pieces of literature or media are purely coincidental.

This story and picture belong to me, *GydroZMaa.

Compliment story to Norway x Reader ~Spellstruck~
© 2013 - 2024 GydroZMaa
Comments172
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Birdsong231's avatar
Ahhh so many tears!!!! Whyyyyyyyy