AA: Falling Apart

For Elise, it started with her family's fall from grace. She had been pushed by her father to court Sigmund for years, but always thought the young prince spineless and the cause not worth it. Things changed when the Zimmermanns fell for their part in the Marquess of Alden's treason. Seeing her snubbed and upset at a ball, one of the first after his return to court, Sigmund spurned decorum to ask her for a dance despite the new chasm in their ranks. It was a moment of impulse - a result of projecting his own feelings of being dismissed onto her despite their rocky relationship. For her though, it was the first realisation that he could be dependable. Spending more time around him and mutual friend Lorna, benefiting from Sigmund's gift habit in his efforts to include her, convinced Elise that he in fact fit her ideal - the consummate romantic. But it wasn't lost on her that he only truly had eyes for Lorna. She confessed, he rejected her and she left them alone to pine from afar.

For Sigmund, it started with Lorna's departure. With it he lost not only his first true love, but his best friend and the one person who he would allow to be his bedrock... as Fabian had been for him in the past. He was consumed with grief but couldn't show it let alone release it. Trapped in his crushing loneliness, he grew only more and more desperate for a replacement to all she had been to him.

Elise saw and stepped into the role. She knew exactly what - or who - he really wanted, and how to give that to him. It didn't matter to her that it wasn't real love - it was something, better than nothing. It didn't matter to him that she was Elise, a sister figure at best - it only mattered that he needed someone to assauge the feelings he couldn't control, and that she was willing.

Or, it didn't matter at first. Slowly, inevitably, it falls apart as reality niggles at the delusion - she is not Lorna, and he does not love her.

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2StreetsDown
Lines, background, description, Sigmund Roenach
 
taiwonton
Sketch, colors, Elise Zimmermann, Wolfric Zimmermann

Lost-In-Canada
Lorna Gallanreul