Duvet
Fic by Adara
Song by BoA
The song Duvet is the opening theme from Serial Experiments Lain (arguably one of the best animes out there) and if you haven't heard it, then do so.
Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers and I don't own the song. Simple enough, ne? Very light Gaav/Valgaav yaoi implications as well as a Val/Firia coupledom that is fairly obvious. Some language. You're warned. I may be taking things just a little bit out of character for Val, simply because we don't know what memories he'll retain or what Firia's influence on him would be growing up. I chose to take the interpretation that Val would get a blank slate- i.e., he wouln't remember, or at least not well- and that Firia would manage to raise him up as a civillized Ryuzoku.... Val is supposed to be around early-mid adolescence, the equivalent of 14-15 for a person (not sure how old that would be for a Ryuzoku...::sweatdrop::).
Italics indicate song lyrics.
Bold indicates a flashback.
And you don't seem to understand
An elusive memory of red. Long red hair, accompanied by a clacking noise- it could have been any one of hundreds of things. Horses on a paved road, someone working with tools, even a particularly strong person chopping something with a knife, were all possibilities for what the sound was.
Or a sword, being drawn in and out of its casing, the hilt clicking against the sheath.
Where did that possibility come from? The same place that the red hair came from?
When Val had asked Firia about it, she had immediately gotten tight-lipped and refused to speak about it. She told him it was nothing.
A shame you seemed an honest man
"You really like to be the fuckin' bearer of bad news, don't you?" Valgaav snarled to Xellos, "Now tell me the truth."
"I never lie." Xellos said, opening his eyes and fixing the younger Mazoku in their eerie violet gaze, "I never lie." He repeated, and was gone.
"Gaav-sama...." Val whispered, "He can't be dead, he can't."
And all the fears you hold so dear
The memory, which had lingered in the back of his mind since he would remember, was becoming all-consuming. Who was he?
Sure, he was Valterria ulCopt, but he was someone else, too. Firia wasn't really his mother, after all, and there was still that memory of red....
Will turn to whisper in your ear
"Gaav-sama...." Val whispered. Where had that come from? Maryu-ou Gaav, perhaps, the Dark General everyone read about in history books, destroyed by Lina Inverse? Or something else... was he losing his mind?
And you know what they say might hurt you
"Why, Gaav-sama?" Val screamed to the empty sky later that day, after he heard that Gaav-sama was dead. There were tears running down his cheeks. "Why did you leave me? WHY?" His last cry echoed as he silently wept afterward.
And you know that it means so much
There were emotions connected to it now. Fear, anger, hate- but on the other side, there was loyalty and even, in a way... love- resided with that memory.
And you don't even feel a thing
"Stop it!" Val whispered harshly to himself, "You're going crazy over something that doesn't even exist! Everyone tells me it's just some imaginary thing from when I were little, and everyone can't be wrong... can they?"
I am falling, I am fading
It's... not real. But yet... it was consuming him, little by little.
I have lost it all
It wasn't just the red that tickled memories. Even looking at Firia stirred something- something Val was quite sure one was not supposed to feel about their mother. Something told him that this wasn't imaginary.
And you don't seem the lying kind
Why didn't Firia just come out and tell him?
A shame that I can read your mind
"Why her?" Val asked himself hopelessly, and began to repeat a mantra to himself while he walked. "Not her not her not her. Golden Ryuzoku are cold-blooded child killers, not her not her not her."
He was following Lina Inverse to revenge Gaav-sama. That Golden Ryuzoku, Firia... she had nothing to do with it. If he kept repeating it to himself, he'd eventually believe it... right?
And all the things that I read there
He needed to find a picture of Maryu-ou. Val had looked through all the books Firia owned, until he finally found one- with long red hair and a sword.
"It was him." Val breathed, his golden eyes confused, "But... who was I?"
And you know I don't mean to hurt you
The memories, which had been few and far-between before, came at an alarming rate now that Val had seen that picture.
But you know that it means so much
He remembered scattered fragments for the most part, with no real sense of continuity- there were memories of Gaav and of a violet-haired man, and of Jiras and Firia. Memories of nearly everything, except who- and what- he was.
And you don't even feel a thing
"Forget about it." Val muttered to himself again. He seemed to be saying that to himself a lot lately. Still, it was unsettling that none of the pieces matched up. How had he ended up with Gaav- after all, he had been a Ryuzoku, hadn't he? Why did he both love and hate Firia, and what was his relationship with Jiras? Why did he almost remember something whenever he heard a story about the Hikari no Ken or Lina Inverse, the Dra-Mata?
I am falling, I am fading, I am drowning
His world was falling to pieces around him little by little, as he remembered. Perhaps this was why Firia had never told him, but he had found out anyway.
Help me to breathe
I am hurting, I have lost it all
I am losing
Help me to breathe
What was he? Ryuzoku? Human? Even Mazoku? Who had he been?
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