Title: Alone
Genre: Angst, hurt/comfort
Summary: Luna laments her past, but looks to the future with hope.

Chapter 1: Alone

Lunafreya had always been on her own, ever since the invasion of Niflheim.

Her parents were gone; she had no siblings to speak of. She had learnt at a young age that showing any signs of weakness to your conqueror – to your enemy – could be fatal.

She learnt to still her tears before they could fall.

She learnt to grit her teeth with closed lips, concealing the pain from her abuser.

She learnt to focus her gaze just above her tormentor's brow. Close enough to give an illusion of listening to the twisted tales and poisonous words, but far enough for her to shut herself away from the mental torture.

She learnt to fake several different smiles; each saved for the right occasion. A thin, chill smile for the hated Emperor. A small warm turn of lips for her handmaids. A confident smirk when fighting for better tomorrow. A brilliant welcoming smile to Noctis and his entourage.

But there was a smile that she did not fake. It was a fleeting smile that only reached her serious eyes. She wore that smile as a comforting blanket when she was alone in the middle of the night and letting her mind wander to better days when Tenebrae was not an imperial province. Those precious days when she still had her parents to turn to. She missed the comfort of her mother's arms around her after hurting herself or the warmth of her father's large hand on her head after losing her first rapier.

But after the invasion, she lost all of that. She was often abused by soldiers of Niflheim. She never felt safe in her own home. The closest comfort she had was behind a locked door in her room, alone.

There was a time when soldiers who had been away from their wives for too long assaulted her and her handmaids. She had managed to escape just barely with the help of an elderly maid whom the soldiers deemed as "too ripe for the picking". Luna had ran away from the scream-filled chamber into the cover of dark corridors. Her clothes were torn from the attempts of physical abuse and her mind scarred from the feel of eager hands on her adolescent body. The elderly handmaid was never seen again, but Luna heard from the hollow-eyed victims that her corpse was tossed into the nearby river after the soldiers had vented their frustration and disappointment on her frail body. Luna swore never again would she let her guard down.

When she joined Noctis and his merry band of brothers, she tried to fool herself into thinking she was among friends and allies. They would not hurt her; she had no reason to be suspicious of them. But even amongst her newfound companions, she felt herself close off. She jumped at the chance to sleep in her own tent. Even if she always dreamed of having close friends like her groom-to-be did, she found herself preferring the familiar comfort of being lonesome.

Perhaps that was why when Noctis' head suddenly appeared at her tent's door she felt confused, even worried. From then on he slept in her tent, claiming he enjoyed not being flattened between his three friends and that he preferred her silent dozing to Prompto's sleep talking. He was lying, of course. She woke up the second she heard Ignis get up and finger his phone for an alarm. Quite often she was the first one up. She would listen to the symphony of crickets, Gladiolus' rough breathing, Prompto's quiet whiny exhale, Ignis' almost-but-not-quite-snore and Noctis' husky muttering.

She was fairly certain there was enough space in the tent for the four of them to sleep comfortably, but she did not comment when Noctis again entered her tent. He removed his shoes and slipped into the sleeping bag he had brought with him. He turned on his side to face her.

"'night."

And then he was out like a light. She let her gaze linger on his relaxed features for a moment before turning her back to him.

It was the closest thing to peace she had experienced in many years, but still a part of her insisted on keeping a polite distance from the quartet. She noticed Prompto tried to actively include her in his antics while Ignis always politely asked her opinion and insisted on female privileges such as having the first turn to bathe and last turn as watch. She appreciated the camaraderie the men were attempting to include her in, she really did. But it would take awhile before self-built walls would crumble and she could open up to the people around her.

Lunafreya turned back to face the sleeping heir to the Lucian throne. I am on the mend, she reminded herself. Her heart would heal, in time. Her features lit up with a genuine smile. She moved her sleeping bag closer to Noctis before settling down.

She was not alone. Not anymore.

A/N: I apologize for any strange word choices or awkward sentences. English is my second language and I'm not much of a writer. If you're wondering where the story's cover image is from; it's a drawing I did which can be found on my tumblr (haprilona) / deviantART (toxo).