Vistalia sat alone by a fountain, staring intently into the water. It was just the beginning of twilight and her heart and mind were already full of thoughts and mild fears. She had nearly been out there in silence for two hours but hadn’t the foggiest idea of how much time she actually spent out there. It only felt like a couple of minutes, not hours. She lowered her lids and gently ran a hand through the water, still lost in thought. 

“What are you doing out here?” Vistalia jumped a bit, broken from the trance she was in. She turned to the voice; a young man approaching her slowly, “You know you shouldn’t go somewhere without telling me where, first,” She let out a sigh through her nose. She then smiled gently at the young man known as Erhard, her guardian, “It’s been two hours, Lady Vistalia.”

“My apologies Erhard, I didn’t think though that I was out here that long,” She gave an earnest shrug and turned back to the fountain.

“Mhh,” Erhard just gave a meer grunt in return, looking up at the fading light from the sky. He turned his attention then to some storm clouds rolling in from the east side, “Lady Vistalia-”

“Just Vistalia is fine, Erhard,” She gently reminded.

He grunted again, “L... Vistalia, we should head inside. It appears a storm of sorts is approaching.”

“Ah,” She nodded and stood up. She gently dusted her skirt off and gave Erhard another tiny smile as the two-headed inside together.

It wasn’t until later that night, until after dinner and it was time for bed that Erhard heard soft weeping from inside Vistalia’s room. He sighed absentmindedly to himself and tried to ignore it for a while. It didn’t work so well he found out, no matter how much he tried to tune it out. What could he say though? He wasn't the best at dealing with other’s emotions, he wasn’t entirely sure if he understood even his own. But eventually, he turned and knocked on the door, figuring that he should really check up on the woman he was supposed to be guarding. He messed with his cuffs a bit out of habit and cleared his throat before he spoke, “Vistalia, are you alright in there?”

It was a moment of silence before Vistalia’s voice came softly out from behind the door, “Y...Yes,” She smoothed down her dress collecting herself, “I'm fine.”

Erhard looked at the ground for a minute before knocking again, “M’lady, May I come in?”

Vistalia thought about that for a moment, she didn’t like being alone but she didn’t want Erhard to see what a mess she was either. She took a deep breath and then sighed, “Alright, come on in.”

Erhard nodded to himself softly and pushed open the door gently. The room was mostly dark with a single lavender-colored light adding a small glow the room. He walked in slowly to meet with Vistalia’s back turned to him. She was sitting on her bed and faced towards the grand window that lead out to a balcony in her room. She seemed to be watching the pouring rain that was outside but Erhard could see that her head was dipped down lightly as if she were sad… Or maybe ashamed? But ashamed of what, he couldn’t guess. Or even maybe he was just over-evaluating things again. He began to say something but then paused, looking to the side. It was a few moments of silence with the pitter-pattering sound of the rain against the window. He then found his words and looked back at Vistalia, “Vistalia, if I may inquire, these last few past days you’ve seemed to have been lost in thought a lot…” He looked to the side again and asked himself if he was really going to ask his next sentence. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when Vistalia didn’t respond he looked at her once more, “Is something the matter?”

“...Well,” Vistalia began then paused. She wasn’t sure she should say. After all, Erhard always seemed to be the type that didn't like to talk about feelings. He always seemed to be the more logical type, the kind that kept their emotions bottled up and when the topic of anyone’s feelings came into play he maybe felt a bit uncomfortable with it. But then again, if he was to be her guardian then maybe she should learn to open up to him about her feelings and thoughts… And maybe with time Erhard might become a little bit better about handling the topic about feelings and maybe even open up a bit himself. She smiled to herself for only a moment when thinking about Erhard being more open to her.  But still, she wasn't so convinced she should say anything. After all, she was supposed to be a refined lady. Poised and caring and collected and-

She was surprised when Erhard came to sit down by her. She jumped a little and looked over to meet his eyes with hers. She blinked a few times at him and leaned back a bit when she noticed he seemed to be studying her face intently, but she didn't break eye contact either. She had never noticed before how pretty, and yet somewhat pained his eyes were before. Sure she got a good few looks at him from time to time back when she first met him and was trying to convince him to become her guardian. But until now she’s never truly gotten a good look into his eyes. It made her feel calm and more confident in sharing out with him. And after a full minute of the two just looking into each others’ eyes she finally broke eye contact and looked away sadly. “You see, Erhard... I am a Memoria, right?”

“That is correct.” Erhard shifted his weight.

“And as a Memoria, I am made by thoughts, yes? And well…” She fidgeted with her hands and lowered her lids, “I often wonder if I’m even.. Me, at times...” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and put her hands to her sides. She figured she’d just let it all out at once, “Am I even my own person?” she opened her eyes gently and put a hand to her chest, “Do I even have my own likes and dislikes, my own personality, or even my own ideas…? Or am I just simply just a collection of thoughts? Nothing more than just… Other people’s ideas and the like. Do I even truly exist at all?” She sighed again and looked to the side, hugging herself gently, “Sometimes it’s just… All so very confusing to me. And sometimes it even hurts a little.” 

…

It was another minute of fair silence and Vistalia recoiled a bit, now feeling a little stupid about it. Did she make the right decision to tell Erhard her concerns? Was she just overthinking it? She closed her eyes tightly and bit her bottom lip. She wondered if now Erhard would see her in a lower perspective-

“Well, that’s just stupid. Why does any of that matter?”

“?” Vistalia perked a little and looked over back at Erhard.

Erhard lowered his lids, was this what she had been crying about? Maybe he didn't fully understand because he was not a Memoria himself but it just seemed silly to him. “So what if you are just a collection of people’s thoughts?” He tilted his head a bit, “You’re still a kind, generous, graceful and wonderful person. And I don’t think that just because maybe you’re like that because of people’s thoughts that it matters. I mean, there are certainly worse things people can imagine you to be like.. Cruel and stuck-up, for example,” He shifted his weight again, “Plus, think about all the good you do. Even if you don’t exist… you certainly make other ‘existing’ people’s lives much better. That’s more than a lot of other people can say. Trust me, I know.”

Vistalia smiled a bit at him and wiped a tear from her eye, “Thank you, Erhard… That actually makes me feel a bit better.”

He shrugged slowly and looked out the window, “That’s just my opinion, honestly. Maybe next time look at things from a more… Logical standpoint maybe? I find that usually helps.”

Vistalia nodded gently and let out a cool breath, “I will, thank you,” She admittingly was finding it a bit hard to resist the urge to hug him, but she knew he probably wouldn’t like being hugged. So instead she chose to fold her hands into her lap to prevent herself from hugging an unsuspecting Erhard. “Erhard I also want to thank you for listening to me, I really do appreciate that. It’s nice to finally have told someone my fear about being a Memoria…”

Erhard nodded semi-absentmindedly as he watched the rain droplets trinkle and dance down the glass doors. He and Vestalia once more sat in silence for a while before he looked at her again, “I would also like to.. Apologize, for if I made you upset.”

“Hm? Upset, how?” Vistalia blinked at him.

“Well, Talking out one’s feelings is not really... Something I often do. Even if it’s just me sitting down and listening to someone talk about their feelings. So I apologize if I made you upset with my wording.”

Vistalia smiled at him again and shook her head gently. She closed her eyes and giggled a bit, “Don’t worry, you didn’t offend me. Actually… I suspected that talking about feelings isn’t your thing. So that just makes me all the more grateful for your kind words and just listening to me blabber in general.”

“...” He gently smiled at himself and looked at the ground. He hmphed softly to himself with a small shrug of his shoulders. You know what, it actually felt… Nice, to make other people feel better. He wasn’t honestly used to such a thing, especially because most people took his bland and blunt wording to be an insult. He frowned then again, his smile was nice and heartwarming, but it surely didn't last long. He couldn’t help it either when she started to think about all the people from his past or even some now that…

“Hey,” Vistalia slowly edged her pinky finger to touch his hand, “I haven’t really seen you smile before,” She smiled at him as his eyes met hers again. “I think a smile suits you much better than a frown. I’d really like to see you smile more- but only if you feel like it.” She gave him a closed-eyed grin, feeling like she had to tac on that last part so Erhard didn't take it as a direct order to smile more. If he was to smile more often, Vistallia wanted it to be genuine. She noted mentally to herself in the back of her head as well she would try a bit harder to make Erhard happy, just as he made her happy. She truly wanted that for him, because behind that blank face she could see that he really needed a bit more light in his life.

Erhard took a moment to process what she said and softly nodded at her. Had he smiled? He didn’t honestly notice. But you know… If that nice feeling he got by helping Vistalia out happened a lot from now on every time he helped her, he really wanted to stay close by her side now. Truth be told, he never got to experience that feeling a lot. But now that he had a better taste of it, he didn't want to let that feeling go, not ever. He smiled again a bit as Vistalia. The deeper he looked into her eyes, the more he realized that she was a blessing he had received. A break from all the annoying and cruel people who picked on him and disregarded him just because of what he is. Maybe from now on, he’d get nicer memories to remember than the ones he had received down on Terrarium. “Well,” He paused, “I’m sure I owed that smile to you. So, thank you.”

Vistalia blushed a bit and looked down quickly to hide her face, “W-well, I’m not really sure if that’s the case-”

“But I’m sure it is. Truth is, Vistalia, You make me feel better about myself and the people around me. As I'm sure you do for everyone around you. You’re truly amazing, Vistalia. Bringing out the best of people? I’m sure it’s a skill not many people are capable of.”

“Ah, well-” Vistalia felt her cheeks become heavier with more tones of pink and shrugged softly, “I-I thank you, Erhard, for more of your kind words.”

Erhard shrugged back and looked back out the window, “I’m only stating facts. Anyone can plainly see what I say about you right now is true. And well, if they don’t, they’re blind fools.”

“Erm, you don’t have to call them fools I don’t think-” Vistalia looked up at him.

“My apologies then, but it’s the truth.” Erhard shrugged again, rolling his shoulders.

Vistalia sighed a bit but ultimately choose to leave the conversation be.

Once more silent hit them as both ran out of things to say to each other. But neither could complain, after all, this had been the longest conversation the two really held up with each other on the subject matter of feelings and talking about one another to the other. So all and all- It was progress made between the two, to further understand one another and made their relationship closer.

“Well,” Erhard looked at Vistalia and began to get up, “I should be going. Try and get some much-deserved rest, m’lady.”

“Ah, yes-” Vistalia nodded, “Thank you Erha-”

It was just then that a sudden clap of violent thunder roared throughout the sky as it was followed by a flash of lightning. Vistalia let out a shrill shriek as she jumped almost right off the bed. She fell over to her side a bit as she did jump and instinctively grabbed Erhard’s arm tightly in a hug. She shook mildly, looking quickly around her as if to make sure there was no invisible man in the room.

Erhard blinked wordlessly as he was pulled back down onto the bed after Vistalia grabbed his arm. The thunder didn’t frighten him, but the sudden arm hug certainly did jolt his heart a bit. He looked down at Vistalia and lowered his lids. Who knew that Vistalia would be afraid of thunder? He supposed that it made sense though; since the fear of thunder or loud sudden noises was a common fear. He shifted his weight and didn’t protest against her hugging his arm. Oddly enough to him, it didn’t bother him so much as he thought it would, or as much as anyone would think. He then slowly raised his free hand and gently put it on top of Vistalia’s head to offer some more sense of comfort.

Vistalia blinked away tears and looked up at Erhard a bit questioningly when he did so. She closed her eyes gently as he rubbed her head a bit. She felt herself slowly calm down then, closely listening to the calm and heavy sound of the pouring rain. She took a deep breath in and let the breath out through her nose. And then slowly, she released her tight grip around Erhard’s arm. She didn't let go completely though, still cautious about the weather outside.

“Afraid of thunder are you?” Erhard tilted his head a bit at her.

Vistalia nodded slowly and took a gulp of air.

“Ah, Fair enough,” He untilted his head, “I never myself understood that fear, but I suppose it’s a common one.”

“I-” Vistalia closed her eyes and shook her head, “I’ve never been a big fan of thunder. Not so sure that it’s necessarily a fear, I just-” She shrugged and let go of his arm and sat up. She cleared her throat a bit and shook her head again wordlessly.

“Nothing to be ashamed of, really.” Erhard glanced out the window then back at Vistalia as another shot of lightning went by. Luckily this time around, the thunder was quieter than the first strike and Vistalia only jumped a little this time around, “Seems like the storm is moving away, so that’s good. But we did need the rain, so, let’s be glad the storm came by too,” he shrugged.

Vistalia nodded slowly and finally let go of his arm completely. She looked over at him and sighed slightly, “Sorry, by the way, for grabbing at your arm.”

“It’s no problem,” He nodded slightly to her.

“You sure?” She wanted to make sure that he was really okay with it and that she didn't just overstep her boundaries and damage her relationship with Erhard. They were getting along so well and she’d just hate it if she just ruined all that progress they made- ...She was overthinking it, wasn’t she? She shook her head at herself in her mind. She just supposed that… Deep in her heart she really, really, wanted Erhard to like her.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Erhard blinked.

Vistalia nodded and shifted then flinched as a low rumble of thunder passed them by. She breathed a bit out her nose and looked out the window with a frown.

“...Do you want me to stay?”

“What?” Visalia looked over at Erhard.

“Do you want me to stay in here, at least, just until you fall asleep? The storm is moving away, and probably already gone now, but just in case it comes back? Like, so if it does come back and thunder begins to happen again you won’t be alone in a dark room, shaking and afraid?” Erhard blinked twice, fumbling a bit with his wording. He hoped that didn’t sound weird or creepy.

“...” Vistalia smiled a bit at him, “Thank you, I'd really like that.”

“That didn’t…” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, “Sound weird at all then?”

“Well…” Vistalia slowly got into bed and under her covers, as Erhard stood up and walked over to stand by the door, “Maybe a lil’.” She giggled a bit, laying down fully and closed her eyes, “Goodnight, Erhard.”

“Goodnight, Vistalia,” Erhard nodded softly and turned off the light.