From Where We Go | Roots, an orufrey zine piece | Completed
Rating: PG-13 (Teens)
Relationships: Qifrey/Olruggio
Characters: Qifrey, Olruggio
Tags: vignettes, growing up together, canon-divergent, proposals, angst, angst with a happy ending
Summary:
When two trees grow so close to each other, sometimes, their roots can intertwine.
word count: 2400
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Witch Hat Atelier, or any of the related characters. The Witch Hat Atelier series is created by Shirahama Kamome and owned by Kodansha Ltd. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only. I am not making any profit from this story. All rights of the Witch Hat Atelier series belong to Kodansha Ltd.
The boy didn’t have to introduce himself for Olruggio to know who he was.
He was the subject of various bits of gossip and rumors that left not a single witch in the Great Hall to not know who he was.
When the skies decided to bless the Earth with a sudden downpour of the first rain of spring, Olruggio could have run back to his master on the other side of the clearing.
But the boy only stood in the rain, hair covering his eyes and his white robes turning brown at the edges from the mud.
He could have left the victim of forbidden magic right there.
Olruggio heard older witches whisper about what a disgrace the boy was; how he was an outsider and should not be allowed to practice the arts of magic. How they wished he was found dead instead of living a pitiful existence.
Of course, his master always berated such people and called them cowards who would dare not say such things in front of Master Beldaruit.
His master would then bend down to look at Olruggio and gently tell him not to believe a word of what they said.
And while Olruggio felt no personal hatred towards the boy, he also felt nothing towards him.
Olruggio didn’t like him; Olruggio didn’t pity him; Olruggio didn’t hate him; Olruggio simply knew he existed, and that was it.
However, the snow was far more harsh than the rain, and he knew what it was like to stare mindlessly at the sky as the cold settled in.
So he ran towards Oifrey and took his hand and pulled him deeper into the forest to take cover from the torrential outpour of rain.
Apathy had no place in the North, and the same rules should have always applied wherever Olruggio went.
As they ran towards the roots of a great tree, Olruggio could feel Qifrey’s hand slowly tighten his hold on his hand.
Finally, the world felt warmer.
When fall took its grips on the world, leaves turned orange and red before gently falling on the ground.
Olruggio picked a red leaf and spun it in his fingers, still somehow mesmerized at such a mundane thing. Beside him was Qifrey, using his fists to crunch the dried leaves if the sounds indicated what he was doing.
The moon was slowly disappearing from the horizon, from where the forest and the beach almost met. Soon, they would make their way back to the Great Hall and pretend they had their 8 hours of sleep, even if everyone knew they had not.
A yawn startled Olruggio out of his musings, and he turned to Qifrey.
“Shall we head home?” He asked.
“Hm? Yeah, sure,” Qifrey stood up and stretched, shaking off stray leaves that clung to his clothes. He offered his hand to Olruggio, who gladly took it.
As Olruggio stood up, he noted how Qifrey’s hands began to take a liking to the inevitable ink stains that all witches deal with. Absentmindedly, Olruggio allowed his fingers to brush against a particularly stubborn patch of ink.
“Olly?”
Hearing Qifrey’s voice, Olruggio snapped out of it and let go of his dear friend’s hand.
“Sorry, I must be tired,” Olruggio wiped his hand on the sides of his clothes, the electric feeling slowly fading. “Let’s go.”
Qifrey hummed like he wasn’t really convinced, but he didn’t put up a fight.
Together, they kicked off from the ground and headed back to the entrance of the Great Hall.
As the sky began to prepare itself for the arrival of the great sun, Olruggio couldn’t help but think of their future.
They were going to graduate from their respective ateliers soon and proclaim themselves as witches independent from any Master.
The thought made Olruggio crack a smile, which apparently did not go unnoticed by Qifrey.
“Do I dare ask my dear friend why he smiles so early this morning?” Qifrey’s teasing tone caused Olruggio to roll his eyes, but he moved closer to him.
“Just thinking about the future. We’ll be graduating soon, remember?” He reminded Qifrey.
“Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot.”
The innocent tone Qifrey put on made Olruggio let out an exasperated sigh. “You were the one who spied on our Masters and overheard them talking about letting us take the fourth test in a month,” Qifrey laughed at the not-quite-revelation and sped up towards the spire that led into the Great Hall.
As they landed on solid stone, Qifrey took Olruggio’s hands in his, his eyes shining as bright as the stars.
Oh, how Olruggio treasured Qifrey the same way a dragon would with its hoard of treasure.
“Do you still plan on joining me? It would be preferable if you could be a teacher as well, but I don’t mind as long as you’re with me.” Qifrey told him.
Olruggio grinned at him and couldn’t help himself but spin them around, just like when they were still children. “That’s right.” His smile only grew bigger when Qifrey laughed that endearing laugh of his, his eye closed and his cheeks pink with euphoria.
“And we’ll finally leave the Great Hall together.”
Olruggio blinked and slowly dropped Qifrey’s hands.
“Leave the Great Hall?” He repeated slowly, trying to process the words.
Qifrey’s eyes were as wide as the moon, and suddenly, Olruggio felt like he was in front of the Qifrey that first arrived in the Great Hall. The Qifrey who bowed his head and glared at the cobblestones when being spoken to. The Qifrey who acted more like a wounded animal than a human. The Qifrey who wasn’t his friend.
A stranger.
“You know I hate this place. I can’t stay here any longer,” Qifrey’s voice was bitter and low. “I’ll drown one day if I don’t leave now.”
“The mists guide—”
“And one day if I make a mistake? Or if someone pushes me again except you’re not there again?” Qifrey shook his head. “This place has never been a home.”
“It’s a great place to find a job. The Great Hall will provide for us if we stay,” Olruggio recalled all the prospective job offers that he had lined up for him if he stayed in the Great Hall. “And it’s not too bad.”
Qifrey was quick to retaliate. “It’s not too bad if you haven’t been discarded in a coffin full of water.”
Olruggio instinctively took a step back and rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache building behind his temple.
“Then leave. We don’t have to follow the plan. You’d be fine on your lonesome,” he said, words scathing in a way he knew he didn’t mean. “Like I will.”
Before they could continue their dispute even further, Olruggio dropped in the spire and landed on the ocean floor with little fanfare. He walked into the mists, marching head-on, and ignored the sounds of another person walking behind him.
But a hand grabbed his, and Olruggio was forced to look back at his friend.
“But I’d miss you. Like I know you’d miss me.” Qifrey said, voice softer. “But maybe I’d miss you more, Olly.”
Olruggio stared hard at him before relenting. What was he weak against save for the cold and Qifrey?
With a heavy chest, he took Qifrey’s cold hand and pressed it against his forehead, reminiscent of the promise they made just days prior.
“Well, you’ll never know. Because I’ll be with you all the way,” Olruggio whispered, heart heavy with the declaration. “Wherever you go, I will follow.”
Olruggio had dreams.
Of hands taking what was his. Hands that held his and touched him in a way that only spoke of care and vulnerability.
And whenever he awoke, he was back in the atelier. Qifrey and his students were long gone, along with the last ashes of whatever nightmare his mind conjured the night before.
There were days when he stared at his hands. How they’d grown old and calloused over the years, no longer the same trembling hands that couldn’t complete a single spell from all the tremors that weighed him down in the North.
When Qifrey returned, he took his hands in his and pressed on them, like he was grounding him. Sometimes, Olruggio wanted to ask what was wrong. But it felt wrong to impose on the knowledge they somehow shared but wasn’t privy to.
Eventually, that stopped as Qifrey gained more students.
Yet the empty feeling stayed with him for several more years until he pieced everything together and found he loved the man despite it all.
The day Qifrey proposed was perfect.
Perhaps the sun heard of their plight because the sun shone directly on Qifrey, crowning his head with a halo of light as he took his left hand and pressed his lips on the third finger away from his thumb.
Olruggio fell on his knees and kissed Qifrey under the tree that bore witness to their promise. As soon as they gathered their belongings, they ran back to the atelier that would glow in the aftermath of their love.
But whenever night fell, and there was no laughter to guide them, they lay on the same bed, eyes unblinking, bodies stiff.
In the darkness of the night, Olruggio would always take Qifrey’s hand and squeeze it tight despite all the horrors it committed, trying to communicate he loved him no matter what.
And that continued for thirty moons and so on.
He didn’t mind that his hand would be tainted with the same dark ink Qifrey used; he’d accepted all of Qifrey, and that included hands that erased, took, and destroyed.
The same hands that killed him.
But just as the night was dangerous, there was beauty in it and Olruggio pressed himself closer to Qifrey every night, looking at the matching engagement rings they had on their hands.
They were fine.
They were fine.
They were not fine.
A contrast from the happiest day of his life, they walked as the sun and the stars would meet for the briefest of moments. Qifrey had pulled him out with a stony face, and all Olruggio could do was catch up and take his hand in his once more.
“I don’t want to marry you anymore.”
“Excuse me?”
Olruggio released Qifrey’s hand from his own like his touch burnt him the same way his inventions did at times. A thousand thoughts were flickering in and out of his mind, but he couldn’t voice a single one out. So he settled for the simplest thing to say instead.
“Do you not love me anymore?” Olruggio grimaced at how his voice cracked at the end. Somehow, he knew that Qifrey would leave him with nothing one day, but he never imagined it would come crashing down at that time.
However, Qifrey took his hands in his again and held them up to his chest. “Oh stars, Olruggio, of course not,” he said, his eye clouded with mist. “I love you more than anything in this world. So much it hurts.”
“Then why? Is this some sort of joke?” Olruggio wanted nothing but to cry at that moment. “What’s the matter then? I don’t understand.”
The wind carried leaves away, both dead and alive. The sun began to set in the distance. The birds started to return to the forest.
Nothing changed.
“I’ve done so many terrible things to you, Olly. I don’t deserve you,” Qifrey finally said, looking at him with the most pained expression Olruggio had ever seen on him since they were children. “You should leave me. You deserve more than this. I’m only dragging you down.”
Olruggio sighed and looked away from Qifrey to watch the sunset. Even then, the shifting colors of the sky when the sun gave way to the moon was always a treat to see. The varying shades of purples, the oranges, the pinks, and the blues made for a perfect painting in his head.
How many times had they had a conversation like that? Far too much to count perhaps, and a hundred more that he’d forgotten.
“You’re right. I could’ve left you a thousand times since the day we met. I didn’t even have to befriend you,” The brief thought that he’d never uttered those words out loud crossed Olruggio’s mind. “But I chose you. And I will continue to choose you a thousand times more. Because I love you Qifrey. And I’m the happiest by your side.”
Olruggio faced the man he loved once more but before he could see Qifrey’s face, his fiance wrapped his arms around him and clung to him like a man drowning at sea.
All Olruggio could do was hug him back.
Somewhere out there, a tree fell from its roots. At the same time, a sapling stood proud.
They would be okay.
Things finally settled down in their atelier.
The children ran around the forest, casting spells to repel beasts and creating new magic that would no doubt bring happiness to anyone around them. Meanwhile, Olruggio and Qifrey took a stroll together without the need to look behind their shoulders every now and then.
Their ink-stained hands intertwined, swinging as they wandered aimlessly through the clearing.
“Isn’t this nice? It reminds me of the days they would bring us up from the Great Hall to the nearby forest,” Qifrey said. “And we’d end up getting lost from the professors so they’d all run their heads off trying to find all their students.”
“It’s only happened once with me,” Olruggio said, rolling his eyes at his still-troublesome husband. “And that was only because I was with you.”
“Ah, yes. How could I forget?” Qifrey looked at him—or at least, an approximation of where his eyes would be.
Sometimes, it pained Olruggio to see Qifrey that way; his eyesight increasingly deteriorating, and his memories only half-intact from his encounter with the Brimhats.
But he was happier too.
And that was enough.
It was more than enough.
“I’ll just have to remind you then,” Olruggio pulled Qifrey to the roots of a tree that almost looked similar to where they first met. “That we met in the worst way possible.”
As Qifrey laughed and held onto his hand, Olruggio felt nothing but a fond warmth for the man he loved dearly.
They’d continue to grow together, their roots intertwining as one.
notes: this is my piece for Roots: an Orufrey zine!
i collabed with @_lietuus (https://twitter.com/_lietuus) for this fic and he made great art to accompany the fic :3c
i had so much fun writing this piece so i hope u all enjoyed this fic :>
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