escordvi | closed ⚡🪶 and forevermore, i'll be chasing the storm we had.

[Her eyes close, and she leans further into his touch, head tipping so that she can brush her lips over the inside of his hand, leaving a trail of heat behind.]

You aren't the only one.

[She isn't sure why she feels so compelled to say so... Perhaps she can blame it all on the fact that he had been so pensive earlier, the stark difference from what she's become so accustomed to the reason for her heart wanting to spill itself for him in this quiet moment before it's over and they return to their usual selves.

Wanting to see to it that he no longer bears that weight alone on his shoulders, and that it is because of her alone that he doesn't.

To be wanted and needed again.]

You have given me far too many gifts. I don't know what to do with them all...

[And she doesn't mean the jewelry, the box, the mirror that he snuck into her bag, or the rest of the material things he has given her.]

Edited 2024-01-23 21:55 (UTC)

[He just smiles a little as that warmth from her lips and words tickle his palm and heart.]

Just enjoy it.

[He knows she doesn't mean just those material gifts, but the meaning of his words is the same.]

If you want to do something in return then I won't stop you... But everything I do is willing with no expectations of such returns.

[Once more the distance between them closes, his voice deepening as there is a slight smirk.]

I already get to enjoy your reactions.

[Her confusion, her embarrassment, her indignation, her surprise, her tears—and the occasional smile that slips through.

More than that, he just wants her to receive the things he had always wanted to give her but couldn't. Let her have that love that she had so desperately wanted but could never find. To undo the wrongs their world inflicted upon her... Where it, and he, had failed her before.

But if he told her that she would surely break, so he just keeps it all tucked in his heart and lets her hear and feel the subtle hints through his actions.]

[That gets a look of surprise, indignation, confusion, and embarrassment all rolled into one little flash of her eyes at him, and it all but softens in a single blink as she's shifting on his lap, moving her hips over his so that she presses into his warmth a little more.]

... And? If I want to return the favour?

[If she wants to give back, just this once? Or all the other times after? She knows that he doesn't expect it, and knowing that is taking some getting used to again, but he never did, did he? Even back then, when she had been most scared of that, he never asked for anything in return for his favours, his affection, his praise. Any of it.]

What is it that you want?

Hm.

[He just continues to smile as his thumb brushes over her cheek, down to her lips briefly before sliding down her neck and collarbone before disappearing beneath the water. Yet despite his subtly suggestive actions...]

...Just you.

[His voice and his words are softer.]

Stay with me. That's all I want.

[And then with his arms around her waist, he tugs her just a little closer over him.]

And everything that comes with that, of course.

[A slight teasing smile.

However, it is clear that it really is just her very existence that he desires. To have her choose him and be by his side, even if it's not wholly out of love. He can still wait for it to build up to that, so he is also content with what they have now. All he knows to know, to be sure of, is that even if she gets scared and flies off, she'll return to him. That in the end, he really is the one she wants to be with.

And no one else.

That will be his one little selfish requirement.]

[She had a feeling that would be his answer, but the softness in his voice is a bit of a shock to her system, her breath catching ever so slightly at the way he gently pulls her close. She can't handle when he is this kind, so warm and so sweet, so content with just being with her after all that time of them trying to run from each other.

Yet, despite the terrifying rate with which her heart absolutely races for him, she is like a moth to a flame, a small bird drawn to the maw of a hungry beast knowing full well that it is a trap. A trap that is his arms around her, his lips near hers—one that she willingly steps into when it's there because she knows nothing else. Wants what's there, waiting for here.]

That's a little broad, is it not?

[She knows what he means, and she swears she feels her heart somersault.

That is all she has ever wished for from him. To want just her, as she is. Scars, blood, tears, thorns, and all. Still, she cannot help but selfishly ask—]

... What does come with that?

Well...

[A low, slow drawl as his eyes remain fixed on hers, lips just barely brushing over hers...]

Another date, perhaps?

[And she'll feel that more humorous, teasing smirk as he lightly nips her lower lip.]

[Another catch of her breath, and it's her turn to grab his lip in warning, nipping lightly before soothing it with a light press, not quite a kiss, but close...]

Stop calling them that.

[Even though today was very much one.]

... But I might be able to swing one more outing of your choice. Two if the next is to my liking.

[Just a low chuckle, knowing how much she doesn't like it when he calls them that. But that's what they are, so she should stop shying away from it—]

Or should I have you try to plan one?

[Another teasing smirk, another brush of his lips, the warmth of their breaths mixing together.]

I wonder how that would go...

[She really wishes that she would stop blushing so furiously, the flush only making her breath that much hotter in the steam.]

Not as well as you think it will.

[Even she can admit she wouldn't be good at it, and she gives the slightest rock of her hips, the motion carrying a hint of her implications to it. But her voice remains quiet, soft.]

Unless you like spending a night in your quarters while we sail out someplace far away...

[He gets it and responds with his own roll upward, his hands moving closer to her hips now.]

Maybe that's exactly what I want.

[Her eyes close at the feel of him, and it takes every bit of strength to keep hold of her restraint. It seems they both understand one another, but she wants to be sure that this is what he wants, too. That if she were to kiss him right now and send them crashing into that same place they always go at times like this, that he would want to be there with her...

That his mind is not elsewhere.

Not wandering back to their world, or to the relics, or to anything. Nowhere... but on her.

A whimsical sigh leaves her before she can stop it.]

And then we run away... and we don't come back...

[They had been words she's said before, once upon a time, though that dream never did come to fruition...]

Wouldn't mind that either.

His lips travel over hers before drifting to her jawline.]

Everyone can take care of themselves.

[Whether he's aware of it or not, he will encourage her to pursue what she's feeling, for he is wanting the same. Especially now after their little heart to heart... After he understands more of hers.]

[What she is feeling is exactly that. To find that relic and sail to the ends of this world, just the two of them, and leave the rest behind. If she could not have that before, then maybe she could have it now, and at least then—at least now, she could be sure that they would remain together, no longer fearing the rifts or being left behind anymore.

Until then, however, that last part will remain just a distant wish.]

Then it's settled.

[She finally tips her head, finally captures his lips, finally gives him that kiss she has been wanting to for so long. It's brief but still warm and lingering even after she parts, her lips falling open with a sigh.]

Once you find that relic... that is what we will do.

[Cid had always lived his life knowing that whatever he makes, whatever he does, he will always be leaving it all behind to be handled by someone else. Before, it was his own death that he knew would be the cause. That is why he prepared as many safeguards as he could, found the right people who would succeed him and carry on his efforts. Made sure they were all strong enough so that they could still continue even without him. Perhaps finding Clive when he did was the onset of that succession. He may not have planned it at first, Otto and Gav his original intendeds, but seeing the growth in Clive and realizing his own fate pushed him there. Now, the once boy now man is fully capable of handling things even without him, so should he still be around, he's certain Clive could handle it.

And even if Clive were not... As always, Cid would make sure there were either others who could take up the mantle of their little crew, or just give everyone the option to leave. It's still young, and realistically there were other fine groups that could take them in if needed. Or perhaps they will forge their own, who knows. The stakes are far less high here, so while he won't be irresponsible, it's doubtful anyone would mind if he decided to retire once and for all when the time comes.

Retire to be with his one true dream. His wish.

So he returns that kiss with equal if not more heated fervor, the taste of her lips sweeter and and more tempting than it ever has before.]

I look forward to it.

[It's a low quiet whisper, but it's a genuine, heartfelt one before he's capturing her lips again, a kiss that's still sweet yet more fervent, hungry. A signal that they've done enough talking with words—now it was time to seal it all with how they always do.]

Edited 2024-01-24 03:09 (UTC)

[Immediately, she shakes her head, her lips rubbing over his as she does.]

No.

[Without moving the rest of her, her hand fumbles around in the water for his, searching until she finds them gripping at her hips. She takes it in hers, her grip firm as she guides it to her chest, the sound of the water barely drowning out the sound of her increasingly heated breaths, and with her other hand, she pulls the pendant and places it firmly into his palm.]

Don't look forward to it. Promise it to me.

[Right here, right now. Promise her. Make that vow, and then seal it in that way that only they can do. A light wind made up of her aether caresses his fingers, concentrated just like his little ribbons of levin, as her own threads through, locking the little pendant in place between them.

If she is going to choose him, then she needs to be absolutely certain that he will do the same. That he would give it all up if it meant choosing her. Sailing away to some end of the world to a place away from all of this, away from the reminders of their fate, of their past, of what they have had to fight through just be to be right here with each other, just like they were always meant to.]

Edited 2024-01-24 03:18 (UTC)

[There's a slight widening of his eyes in surprise, but it's an easy answer for him to make. As his fingertips grip the pendant, she'll feel the warmth of his levin mixing with her wind, forming something like a chain that gathers around the pendant before it crawls over to the place over her heart and then spreads out to his, creating a visible link between them. A link made and bound by their aether.]

I promise. Once we find that relic and change the rifts, we'll sail away and leave everything behind. Start our own life together.

[His grip tightens over the pendant between them and thus over her fingers as the heat from his levin intensifies, as if digging into their skin.]

...I already lost one lifetime. I'm not wasting another.

[He spent all his life serving others, sacrificing his own wants and will until it burned him out. Of course, he made those final years, those final moments count, but he will always resent the decades he had been used before, of all that had been taken from him. This time, he will be sure he live the way he wants and keeps fast of what he desires.]

[He'll hear her breath catch, see her chest rise and fall, at the feel of his lightning and his aether, the static heat of it already threading into her own beneath her skin, binding them together in a way that no one else could. Binding that promise to them in a way that only they can. A way unique to them, and them only, and thus, a thread that cannot be broken. After all the rest that had been severed by fate and by themselves, they can finally forge something stronger.]

Me neither.

[She doesn't want to just survive. She wants to live. What that means, she still hasn't figured that for herself yet, but if this is what it means to live, then she wants it.

And with that, nothing else needs to be said. No more words. They've spoken enough, they've revealed enough, and now it was time to etch it all into one another. To carve those promises into each other's lips and every inch of themselves so that they may never forget.

There's a splash of the water as Benedikta surges forward, her lips crashing into his for that first kiss to seal them together. There's a soft sound of the metal chain as she frees the pendant from their hands so that she can wrap her arms around his shoulders for support as she pulls herself as close as she can be. And as she deepens the kiss, her lips parting in invitation for him, there are words that rest on the tip of her tongue.

Words that she may never speak, but ones that she intends to convey all the same through her actions. Her own reassurance, her own promise to him that she has held onto for a long, long time. She can only hope that through them, she can make him understand.

After reaffirming all the things they already knew and then the things they didn't, after sealing that promise wholly between each other, they move back inside, taking the food with them, only to stumble back into their ways again, and again, wasting away the evening completely caught up and lost in each other that she's hardly noticed the sun is setting by the time they rest their heads, only because they are far too spent to continue.

As they lie there together, her head falls to rest against him, her finger trailing a sleepy line up and down his front as she watches his chest rise and fall with every breath before her sleepy gaze moves up to peer at him. To just... look.]

[The time spent between them was both everlasting and a blur at the same time. Compared to all the other times before, this had more of a profound emotional weight between them. The rift still remains, but what was once a seemingly impossible distance now feels as he could just leap over and he would be there. The bridge that had once been torn and hanging by a fraying thread now almost complete. Work still needed to be done, and there is still a gaping hole that will be difficult to fill and cross...

But there will be no thoughts of that now. For now he has her in his arms—truly has her. Even if it wasn't an explicit declaration, it was clear enough that it might as well have been—she chose him. This time, she chooses him.

And now, lying together, with her in his arms and for once not having to wonder if she will flee or disappear (not that she has since they've been togerher), he just relishes and savors her presence and warmth. How many years have they both wished for this and for it to finally be so close in coming true...? And how many years were wasted because they were forced apart? Six or eight years may not seem much at first, but it's too long. Too, too long...

When he feels her gaze, he'll slowly look down to meet her, his eyes softening before he grins.]

Like what you see?

[Her eyes widen just a touch when he catches her staring, but for once, though a new flush passes over her cheeks, she doesn't avert her gaze or fumble about. She just offers him the same soft look back, a tiny quirk of her lip and a low hum.]

I always do.

[That much has never changed. She could have hated him all she wanted, but she never didn't like what she saw right in front of her, but...]

Today in particular.

[His smile only deepens as he takes a moment to take in her own face, those flushed cheeks just making her more attractive and tempting for him.]

Mm... Can say the same of you.

[He shifts to turn more onto his side so that his arm can fully wrap around her waist and his face can fall closer to hers. There's that usual gleam, that hint of mischief, but then it softens as gently brushes his lips over her cheek.]

...Thank you, Benna.

Hm?

[She hums in question at him, falling to her side as he moves to his so that they are more face to face now, a small breath of laughter forming in her chest when his beard tickles her cheek.]

For what?

[She wasn't expecting nor looking for thanks, so she is a bit surprised by it.]

[He just continues to smiles with a small shake of his head.]

Wouldn't be here if it weren't for you.

[But there is another reason. A deeper reason.]

[Now she flushes properly, and she shuffles closer, trying to find someplace to bury her face.]

You would have found your way here eventually.

[She just hopes that it would have been with her still.]

Maybe, but... It wouldn't be like this.

[He lets her hide, but that just means his mouth will be closer to her ear as his hand drifts up her back to thread through her hair that is still just a little too long.

And then with a little teasing tone and rougher whisper.]

Don't do it for anyone else.

[That draws out the small hum of laughter into his ear.]

As if I would. I almost didn't for you.

[A downright lie. She was waiting and waiting until Eltrut and Nogard were finally close enough that she could take off and meet him here in a flap of her wings.

But in case that message still doesn't come across, she offers quietly:]

Only for you.

Edited 2024-01-24 17:17 (UTC)

closed ⚡🪶 and forevermore, i'll be chasing the storm we had.

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💚💜 fin.