...Suki...

(With Lysander)

Name:
Suki

Gender:
Female

Age:
58

Race:
Elf

Physical Description:
Shoulder-length brown hair, blue eyes, tends to wear her engagement ring around her neck on a string. A scar runs from just next to her right eye, across the bridge of her nose, ends on her left cheek - a souvenir from an encounter with the 'other' Lysander.

Personality:
Generally happy-go-lucky, but she became more serious since becoming a single mother. Has complete faith in Lysander to pull through with his promise to find her, even though Houtei doesn't understand how she could've kept the engagement ring after all this time.

Story:
Childhood:
Suki hugged her knees to her chest in the back seat and rested her chin on her knees as she watched out the window at the passing landscape. The heavy breathing of the horse that was pulling their carriage and the sound of the heavy rain hitting the roof seemed frightfully loud as her father turned to her.
"Suki?" He asked her, getting her attention.
She looked up at him uncertainly.
"Yes, father?" She replied respectfully.
"How old are you now?"
She blinked in surprise at this, a little hurt by the question. He was her father! Surely he knew how old she was...
"Twelve." She told him.
He humphed.
"Twelve..." He muttered, "Suki, it's time you started finding your own way in the world, rather than relying on us to provide for you."
She stared at him, confused.
"What do you mean?" She asked him, suddenly scared as the carriage came to a halt.
He gave her a pointed look for a moment before he opened the carriage door to the cold and the pouring rain. Suki gave her mother a pleading look, but she wasn't paying them any attention.
After a minute, when she realised no one was coming to her rescue, Suki finally bought up the courage to step out of the carriage onto the wet road outside. She was soaked through within the first two seconds. The carriage door slammed shut behind her and the carriage was gone, leaving Suki standing on her own at the side of the road, with nothing but the clothes on her back. Nothing but the sound of the rain to keep her company. She could do nothing other than stand there shivering, her arms wrapped around herself in a futile attempt to preserve her rapidly disappearing body heat. It was freezing.
The squelching of mud under somebody's boots was the first sign she got that there was somebody there with her. She spun around so fast she slipped in the mud, and fell to the ground heavily enough that the breath was knocked out of her.
The elf that had approached her was only about her own age. He was pale, with longish shaggy silver hair and beautiful amber eyes. He looked nervous as he hesitantly held his hand to her to help her up.
"Are you okay?" He asked her as she gave him a suspicious look before accepting his outstretched hand. His question made her eyes swim with tears, and she wished the rain was enough to hide them as a few fell and trickled down her cheeks. "What's wrong?" He asked her, alarmed.
Suki didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do. She hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder as she cried. She felt the boy tilt his head against her curiously, but then he was hugging her back, rubbing her arm comfortingly.
Teen Years:
"Suki!" Suki turned around as her name was called, smiling and not even letting the thought of resisting cross her mind as Lysander pulled her into his strong arms to hold her tightly against him. She stood on tiptoes to be able to press her lips against his, and he responded eagerly for a moment before he pulled away and looked at her with hints of nervousness in his beautiful amber eyes.
"What's wrong?" She asked him worriedly, tilting her head at him.
He took a deep breath before he replied, resting his forehead against hers. His skin was hot, as usual. His headaches usually gave him a high fever.
"Do you mind stopping by mine after school today?" He asked her nervously. "There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about."
She gave him a confused look and nodded.
"Sure." She promised him. "I'll be there."
He smiled at her gratefully and kissed her again, but then the bell rang and he pulled away.
"I'll see you later." He told her, giving her a reassuring smile before he took off in the direction of his next lesson.
All through the day Suki was too busy worrying about what Lysander might want with her after school to pay any attention to anything in her lessons. Thankfully it was the end of the year anyway, so the teachers didn't care if they were listening or not. It would be a little while before they had to worry about details for the graduation ceremony.
Lysander was silent after school as he led her up the hill to his house, holding tightly to her hand the whole time. He didn't say anything until they were locked in his room, sitting on his bed.
"What's going on, Lys?" Suki asked him nervously as she stared at her hands in her lap.
She could sense the comforting smile he offered her as he took her arm, tracing patterns in the palm of her hand.
"If it makes you feel any better, I have no intention of breaking up with you." He assured her. "I promise."
She relaxed at that, breathing a sigh of relief, and allowed him to pull her into his arms as he lay down on his back. She unbuttoned his shirt and lay her head on his bare chest so she could feel his steady heartbeat, her arms wrapped around his waist as he ran his fingers through her short brown hair.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" She asked him encouragingly, tilting her head so that he could kiss his chest lightly.
Lysander sighed nervously before he continued talking, and his heartbeat was suddenly a little bit unsteady.
"I've been thinking..." He started hesitantly, "I ... I want..." He sighed again, and his free hand found something in his pocket and grasped it tightly. He seemed a little more confident then. He swallowed before he finally continued. "Marry me."
Suki blinked and raised her head to look him in the eye, shocked. He was trembling beneath her, but his gaze was steady, watching her nervously, waiting for her answer.
"Seriously?" She asked him excitedly.
He managed a weak smile and nodded, and she flung her arms around him, holding him against her tightly.
"Of course I will." She promised him.
He took whatever it was he'd been gripping out of his pocket and gently took her hand from his shoulder, slipping the ring onto her finger. She kissed him, and he kissed her back passionately. While this was by no means their first kiss, there was something different about this one. For once, neither of them had anything they had to do, no reason to break it. And this kiss was suddenly becoming far more passionate than any of their others. Suki gasped as Lysander gently pushed her down on the bed and lay down on top of her, his hands slipping under her shirt.
Adulthood:
This had gone on for far too long now. It had to stop. Suki could sense how scared Houtei was as he clung tightly to her hand as they walked through the school gates. She hated this - having him so scared of going to school. She'd changed school three times already. Why did the other boy hate him so much that he felt he had to follow him between schools just for the sake of beating him up every day? She pulled her son gently into the school playground and quickly spotted the other boy's mother. She was standing near the wall, doting on him.
"Excuse me?" Suki called to her as she approached, wishing Lysander could've been there to support her through things like this. Why had he still not come? Suki put her hand to the engagement ring on the fine chain around her neck as she waited for the woman to respond, but she was just completely ignoring her. Suki glared at her and gave Houtei a comforting look as she dropped his hand. It was only a second later that she grabbed the other woman by the front of her fancy coat and slammed her hard enough against the wall behind her that some of the bricks cracked.
"What the hell are you doing?!" The woman demanded, shocked.
"I'm warning you." Suki told her. "Whatever your son does to my son today, I'm going to do to you at the end of the day."
The woman's eyes widened in fear and shock and she nodded mutely. Suki dropped her and picked up Houtei, walking away without looking back at the human.