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[He only briefly closes his eyes, knowing how he's worrying her, and he can only lift his head up just slightly so that he can brush his lips against that furrow.]
I do promise to be careful. I certainly have no desire to be in a position where I'm forced to use that much aether again.
I do promise to be careful. I certainly have no desire to be in a position where I'm forced to use that much aether again.
[She makes a face at that because she hates the blistering heat and the frigid cold... Though she cannot say what the island will be like for whatever "winter" is in this place.]
I can't imagine it will be very cold, but in that case... all the more reason to lock you up for a couple of weeks. We can use that new fireplace.
I can't imagine it will be very cold, but in that case... all the more reason to lock you up for a couple of weeks. We can use that new fireplace.
[The sound of his laughter is like a song in her ears, and somehow, everything already feels so much lighter, all of it shoving away the other things that have been simmering in her head since she woke up. For now, she is happy to just lie in bed with him and talk about their future, however near or far it is, without the weight of the gods looming over them for the first time.]
Yes, there was that, too. Why can't I have both...?
Yes, there was that, too. Why can't I have both...?
[He truly does spoil her... and she seeks out his lips for another sweet kiss. But when she pulls back, it's with a more somber, thoughtful expression.]
I... merely wish for some quiet after all of that. From everyone and... perhaps a little bit from myself.
I... merely wish for some quiet after all of that. From everyone and... perhaps a little bit from myself.
[He savors that kiss, but when notices that change in expression, there will be just a slight furrow of his brows in concern as he gently brushes her hair back.]
We could always go to our island instead. Seems it's in a more temperate climate so it won't get too cold.
But how are you, really?
[Because she didn't really answer the first time don't think he didn't notice!!!]
With you and Garuda.
We could always go to our island instead. Seems it's in a more temperate climate so it won't get too cold.
But how are you, really?
[Because she didn't really answer the first time don't think he didn't notice!!!]
With you and Garuda.
[She hoped he didn't notice!!!
But he is as observant with her as he always is, and her expression falls a little further at his question.]
I am...
[She doesn't quite know, and her hand goes to her chest, closing around the pendant when she tries to reach further into herself, to try and find her. Garuda...]
When I had fallen unconscious, did Ultima show you anything?
[It's not quite a deflection. More a lead-up into what it is she wants to tell him.]
But he is as observant with her as he always is, and her expression falls a little further at his question.]
I am...
[She doesn't quite know, and her hand goes to her chest, closing around the pendant when she tries to reach further into herself, to try and find her. Garuda...]
When I had fallen unconscious, did Ultima show you anything?
[It's not quite a deflection. More a lead-up into what it is she wants to tell him.]
[Her eyes study him, watching as his own drift away from her at his answer, which is very much not an answer indeed. While she does give him a questioning look, one that tells him she knows he is not telling her the whole truth, she will let him hide for now, but he should know that she is going to come back to this. So, with one last narrowing of her eyes, she sighs, and the pendant clinks softly in the silence as she fidgets with it.]
... I had been stuck in a dream. Some sort of vision that Ultima saw fit to put me under.
... I had been stuck in a dream. Some sort of vision that Ultima saw fit to put me under.
So charming.
[She smiles at him, finding it difficult to part ways now, but she'll manage. She is excited after all—far more excited about this than anything else she had been in a long time. First their treehouse and now this, their proper home. A home that time has robbed them of for so long. And more importantly, it is their own in the sense that everything within it has been done to their liking.
Benedikta wastes no time getting to work in sorting through their things. What they want to keep, what she thinks they can toss, what can be moved up right away and what can wait. It's an ordeal that takes the better part of the day, lasting until dinner with a break for lunch in between, but the men that Cid had called are nothing if not incredibly efficient. She feels like she doesn't even have to lift a finger in the end.
It was important that their bed be moved up there as soon as possible, so that after they visit the pond in the evening and watch the fish shimmer and take a dip in the water beneath the moonlight, they can spend their very first night there together.
And what a night it is. Cracking open a bottle of wine in bed, they celebrate their usual way with several sips, laughter, and then promptly forgetting about their glasses on the nightstand as they tangle with and bury themselves in one another. A night that she thinks is well-earned, and much-needed because she cannot recall when she had felt this happy.
Sure, she had come to live at the Roost with him in his home, but it was mostly his, now with her own things strewn about. But this? For the first time in her life, Benedikta finally feels as if she can put down her own roots in a place that is not only his, but hers too. She has never had that before. She had tried in Waloed and convinced herself that she had, but now that she knows what it is like to have a place to belong, a place to really call home, that was never the case.
A part of her always knew that the only place she ever could be one with him. It was never a house or a country, never a world. It was always a person—it was always Cid. He was always her safe place, her perch to land when her wings grew weary. Wherever he goes, she would follow, knowing now that they had somewhere to return to together. How long she has waited and wished...
How long she has waited to say that she has finally come home...]
[She smiles at him, finding it difficult to part ways now, but she'll manage. She is excited after all—far more excited about this than anything else she had been in a long time. First their treehouse and now this, their proper home. A home that time has robbed them of for so long. And more importantly, it is their own in the sense that everything within it has been done to their liking.
Benedikta wastes no time getting to work in sorting through their things. What they want to keep, what she thinks they can toss, what can be moved up right away and what can wait. It's an ordeal that takes the better part of the day, lasting until dinner with a break for lunch in between, but the men that Cid had called are nothing if not incredibly efficient. She feels like she doesn't even have to lift a finger in the end.
It was important that their bed be moved up there as soon as possible, so that after they visit the pond in the evening and watch the fish shimmer and take a dip in the water beneath the moonlight, they can spend their very first night there together.
And what a night it is. Cracking open a bottle of wine in bed, they celebrate their usual way with several sips, laughter, and then promptly forgetting about their glasses on the nightstand as they tangle with and bury themselves in one another. A night that she thinks is well-earned, and much-needed because she cannot recall when she had felt this happy.
Sure, she had come to live at the Roost with him in his home, but it was mostly his, now with her own things strewn about. But this? For the first time in her life, Benedikta finally feels as if she can put down her own roots in a place that is not only his, but hers too. She has never had that before. She had tried in Waloed and convinced herself that she had, but now that she knows what it is like to have a place to belong, a place to really call home, that was never the case.
A part of her always knew that the only place she ever could be one with him. It was never a house or a country, never a world. It was always a person—it was always Cid. He was always her safe place, her perch to land when her wings grew weary. Wherever he goes, she would follow, knowing now that they had somewhere to return to together. How long she has waited and wished...
How long she has waited to say that she has finally come home...]
[It's always one thing after another with this place. One of these days, she is going to kidnap Cid to their island and take them as far away as possible for as long as possible. First it was Ultima, and now it was this, but there had been something nagging at the back of her mind in the first few days that she had heard about this expedition to the Farplane.
She thinks of Lily and Marcus, the couple that they had met and help reunite and then marry on the Ghoul's Moon. She remembers their wishes and their words, and how they wanted to live their lives happily in the Farplane, and how they could not do that until they had finally married. And perhaps a part of her wanted to protect that—to go into the leviathan so that she could see for herself what sort of life they could live, and if she's lucky, find them.
Which is what she had said when they made the decision to go, on top of trying to close the cracks that allow the souls to bleed out into the world of the living.
There may be other reasons for her coming here—reasons that she thinks Cid might be silently thinking about as well, but ones that neither of them is willing to say out loud to one another.
Reasons that have her hesitating at the edge of Respite Reef, looking rather pensive as she looks out to the wide land in front of them. It feels like a whole other world in here.]
... Where to even start?
She thinks of Lily and Marcus, the couple that they had met and help reunite and then marry on the Ghoul's Moon. She remembers their wishes and their words, and how they wanted to live their lives happily in the Farplane, and how they could not do that until they had finally married. And perhaps a part of her wanted to protect that—to go into the leviathan so that she could see for herself what sort of life they could live, and if she's lucky, find them.
Which is what she had said when they made the decision to go, on top of trying to close the cracks that allow the souls to bleed out into the world of the living.
There may be other reasons for her coming here—reasons that she thinks Cid might be silently thinking about as well, but ones that neither of them is willing to say out loud to one another.
Reasons that have her hesitating at the edge of Respite Reef, looking rather pensive as she looks out to the wide land in front of them. It feels like a whole other world in here.]
... Where to even start?
[Her brow furrows thoughtfully, and she feels like she's trying to remember a distant, foggy dream. It was anything but that, but after all that sleep, it feels so much further away now. And part of it is that she isn't sure how much to tell him, and how much of it she is afraid to tell him...]
It was always Garuda... and you...
[Those last two words come out strained as the vivid images return to her.]
The day that you had found me, and the day that I had primed... she... her claws...
It was always Garuda... and you...
[Those last two words come out strained as the vivid images return to her.]
The day that you had found me, and the day that I had primed... she... her claws...
[There's a moment where he can only look at her a little confused, brows furrow, before realization hits. Immediately his eyes widen and he sits up slightly.]
He showed you what!?
[IF ULTIMA WASN'T ALREADY DESTROYED HE WOULD HAVE GONE OVER AND PUNCHED JOSHUA'S CHEST—]
He showed you what!?
[IF ULTIMA WASN'T ALREADY DESTROYED HE WOULD HAVE GONE OVER AND PUNCHED JOSHUA'S CHEST—]
[Her hand goes to his chest to stay that anger, and she gently tries to coax him back down so that she can lay her head there again. They have already taken care of things and it was over, and angry as she was then about what he had done to her, she had let it all out, and then let it go. Something that she has a hard time doing most days, but she felt she needed to for this.
But it is good that he understands, because she couldn't quite bring herself to say the actual words.]
Each time, he made me watch. As if he had been taunting me for that day. [Her arms go around him, her hold tightening, and her eyes move to linger on the scar as she tries to think of a way to ask him about that.] You and I, we were falling through the sky again just like we had, only it was... my claws...
But it is good that he understands, because she couldn't quite bring herself to say the actual words.]
Each time, he made me watch. As if he had been taunting me for that day. [Her arms go around him, her hold tightening, and her eyes move to linger on the scar as she tries to think of a way to ask him about that.] You and I, we were falling through the sky again just like we had, only it was... my claws...
[She'll find it quite difficult to have him settle back down, though he will slowly recline back. But his arms will be tight around her, that pensive, almost murderous air around him not so fast to disappear. And how could it? Knowing that Ultima used what happened to them to traumatize her further...especially when it's those traumas and fears that have kept her in that cage for so long. even worse when it's clear he's her weakness just as she is his.]
Enough, you don't have to say anymore.
[And he says that not for his sake, but hers. While on the one hand maybe it's better if she tells it, he can't really bear the idea of her suffering through it again.]
Enough, you don't have to say anymore.
[And he says that not for his sake, but hers. While on the one hand maybe it's better if she tells it, he can't really bear the idea of her suffering through it again.]
Cidolfus...
[She knows why he says that, but the way she whispers his name carries the hidden meaning behind it. The "it's okay" that she doesn't say. That perhaps this is something that she needs to voice and get out of her head in order to process it properly, and he is the only person that she trusts with it.
So before he can protest any further, she goes on, her words carefully chosen and coming slow as her fingers begin to trace over the raised skin of his scar.]
In that dream, I'd nearly transformed into Garuda myself. Her wings had split me open, and it hurt...
[She's afraid.]
[She knows why he says that, but the way she whispers his name carries the hidden meaning behind it. The "it's okay" that she doesn't say. That perhaps this is something that she needs to voice and get out of her head in order to process it properly, and he is the only person that she trusts with it.
So before he can protest any further, she goes on, her words carefully chosen and coming slow as her fingers begin to trace over the raised skin of his scar.]
In that dream, I'd nearly transformed into Garuda myself. Her wings had split me open, and it hurt...
[She's afraid.]
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