Even with Lust running rampant in the streets of Ravenloss weighing heavy on his mind, the moment Aegis had appeared frantic before him saying something had happened, Tomix had rushed out from the underground city like a bat out of hell. Aegis filled him in on the details on the way up.

First off, there had been a war, not that that was a shock since there seemed to be a war every month in this country, especially in months with holidays. Hell, there was a war on two fronts in Ravenloss not too long back. He still wasn't sure whether the conclusion of that one could be called a win for any side, but that wasn't really important.

What was important was that the Hero—that his friend—had been sealed away in a block of ice. And try as he might, Aegis couldn't break it.

The sight of the battle wasn't that far from Falconreach, only marginally farther from Ravenloss which some niggling part of his brain told him he would be better off staying in in case Lust tried anything, but the few hour's travel to reach it may as well have been years.

A great field, still on fire in parts with large chunks of the earth scrotched in others and the whole of it reeking of charcoal, burnt hair, and cooked meat of a sort that he really didn't want to think about what it might be.

A battleground, and in the middle of it a veritable mountain of ice, thick to the point of being almost opaque, but if you squinted you could see faint figures within it. He guessed there to be two, maybe four of them in there, and lamented that he couldn't tell which was the Hero.

His soulclaws had been destroyed during the confrontation with Greed, but he was not without weapons. Aegis offered to try and absorb some of the ice while he chipped away at it. It's ice, it's brittle, surely it will break, right? Tomix readily accepted, and the hours went by.

The ice did not break. The ice did not chip or fracture or give any indication that their attempts to free those trapped inside were anything other than futile. Tomix refused to give up. He would get his friend out. Everything would be fine.

—

That was three months ago.

He'd reluctantly returned to Ravenloss. No matter how much he wanted to free the Hero—they'd done so much for him it was only fair, the least he could do was to free them they'd saved his life—Lust was far more immediately important. He'd asked Aegis to keep tabs on the Hero while he was underground. While Aegis was not his SoulAlly, and thus not obligated to do a damn thing for him, he continued to bring updates from the surface world. A small comfort for the two men mourning the loss of their friend.

Tomix threw himself into his work. Exploring Pellow Village, networking, trying to figure out where Lust was and what she might be trying to do. He discovered nothing, and tried to force the Hero from his mind. There was a part of his mind that whispered to him, when he would be out looking for information, that things would be so much more successful if the Hero were here. They handled people so much better than he did, they were affable, he was awkward, and in any case an extra set of eyes and hands would be a godsend at this point.

He'd lost track of Aspar. He tried not to dwell on the fact that the loss of someone he'd known for years stung less than the loss of someone he'd known only for a number of months.

When those thoughts came he forced them away and refocused on his work. When he couldn't do that he slept. When he couldn't sleep he found himself staring into the Void and waiting to hear a voice that he knew he wouldn't. He told himself things would get better. Everything will be fine, he said, late at night or day or whatever hour it was in the world above. Everything will be fine. It has to.

—

At two years he found himself standing in front of the ice block once more, still without soulclaws or spirit loom and now without hands to wield them with. Somehow the ache in his chest this place brought him was worse than the ache he felt in his wrists, and he tried not to dwell on it. Today was supposed to be a happy day, one he'd learned the significance of by pure chance.

The great swathes of melted ice before him where two others imprisoned in the block had already escaped haunted his vision, and he opened his mouth to address the last remaining prisoner of the war.

"Happy Birthday, to you….."

He wasn't sure when the tears came, or when they had stopped, but he paid them no heed and continued his dirge.

Slowly, tiredly, he held a hand out to the ice separating him from the one he sought after. The projection of his hand phased through the particles and continued until the ice hit the dead flesh of his wrist, preventing him from reaching any farther towards his friend, his Hero, and he found himself wishing that if only the rest of him were merely a projection, then maybe he might be able to reach them.

He found himself wishing that things hadn't gone so wrong, that the war hadn't happened, that he'd never weaved that damn coat, perhaps that he'd never met the Hero so that he wouldn't know how dark and dreary his life was now in comparison to the sunshine he'd known when they were with him.

What hope he that that things would turn out for the best, that things would be fine left the day that Aspar did some short weeks later.

—

He'd purchased a ship to sail into the Void and track down Aspar with. While the pain of his friend—his former friend's—betrayal would never truly leave him, Tomix supposed that the closure of finally completing his mission and destroying all seven of the spirits he'd released would dull it over time.

There were refugees from the aboveworld who waved at him as he walked by, acquaintances and strangers that he'd become familiar with as they pooled in from above. Some had pitched in to fund the ship, deciding that it was a worthy cause, some had offered him shelter, and others had commissioned woven crafts from him in an attempt to support what, as far as he knew, they thought was a young starving artist driven underground by the Rose like the rest of them.

It was a welcome gesture, but an unneeded one. Whatever else his exposure to the Void might have done to him, he didn't need to eat anymore. He didn't need to sleep either, and found himself spending a lot of time gazing out into the Void. Five years passed, and he still found himself waiting for a voice that at this point he was sure he wasn't remembering correctly anymore.

"See something interesting out there?" Someone called out from behind him. Likely a new resident. Those who had been in Pellow Village longer than a few weeks had quickly gotten used to seeing him gazing at the Void around them. He ignored the speaker. Talking had never been his strong suit and he didn't care much to get practice in now, not in this sort of mood and—

There was a hand on his shoulder and he whirled around to face the stranger who refused to take a hint, stopping head mid-turn at the sight of them because there was simply no way he was seeing who he thought he was seeing.

Hero

They grinned at him, eyes tilted upward to meet his and he suddenly became aware that he'd grown over the past five years, he'd changed, everything had changed except them, and—

"So how've you been since I was frozen?" They asked.

It took him a moment to find his tongue, to form a response, to think of something to say that could possibly describe what he felt at the sight of them, his friend his sunshine his hero, but for the life of him all that he could say was, "Fine. I'm fine."

Everything is going to be fine now that you're here.

NOTE: Another tumblr prompt-turned full-blown oneshot. This was supposed to be a chapter of prompted to speak, but then it got awesome.

So I realized it's entirely possible that Tomix legit is in love with the Hero and doesn't know it because he doesn't really seem to have a good grip on his own emotions, the Hero acts friendly towards him (unlike Riadne, who was initially flirty) and thus thinks they must be a friend, and may be mistaking his feelings towards them as simply being happy to see them again and not wanting to lose them.