closed 🪶⚡ i'll be the light to lead you home

[garudas]

Who: Cidolfus Telamon & Benedikta Harman.
Status: Closed.
Where: The Roost, The Farplane.
What: Cid and Benedikta move to a new house in the Roost. Event stuff later.
Warnings: The usual. :)

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[garudas]

[She'll just continue what she was doing, massaging into his back now as she adjusts to sit up, all the better for him to reach her, too.]

You ought to let me treat you once in a while, you know...

[ramuhs]

You treat me all the time.

[He half turns to let her have better access.]

But the focus was supposed to be on you.

[A slight look because he hasn't forgotten how this all started and is questioning whether she is trying to sneak her way out of it.]

[garudas]

[She might be. But she might also be wanting to indulge in him a little, too... It can be both.]

Why can't it be on both of us?

[ramuhs]

[He'll look at her for a moment before there's a small smile as he says playfully.]

Bit hard for me to reach when I'm turned around like this.

[garudas]

[Just going to continue washing and lathering and rinsing, and this time, she leans in to press kisses to his shoulder, chasing the trickling water.]

Too bad. Should not have turned around then. [She smiles at him.] But you need to relax just as much as I do. And let me spoil you. So no more complaints.

[What she isn't saying is that she is still worried about him, and as her hands trail back up to his chest, she remembers what she had seen when he dismissed his magic.]

[ramuhs]

It was foolish of me, it's true.

[And he could just turn right back around, but since she's adamant he'll let her do as she pleases. Plus it really is nice...]

But it'll be your turn after this.

[garudas]

Alright, you win.

[Leaning up from his shoulder, she moves to press a kiss to his cheek instead before going back to massaging with the soap. She guides his legs up out of the water so that she can wash them too, working her fingers into the muscles of his thighs one after the other. At some point through it all, her head had fallen back to rest on his shoulder, her motions slower now that she's nearly finished...

And she'll feel her fingers brush over the length of his scar again. Slowly and carefully.]

Did this hurt at all...?

[The words slip out of her idly, almost sleepily, as she stares at it through the water and the bubbles, the raised skin smooth under her touch.]

[ramuhs]

[He'll relax further as she continues, moving and shifting a bit as she needs. When he's back to facing her, he'll idly move his hands to wash some parts of her or run the water over her skin in turn. Maybe be a little playful and tease her with a poke a little tickle here and there before she rests more against him. At that point he just sits back against the tub and relaxes, letting that fatigue and soreness fade away with her touch.

Until...]

Hmmm?

[It takes him a moment to register where exactly she was touching, and he is silent for a few moments.]

Briefly, but it might have been more a phantom pain caused by Ultima than anything real. It's never really bothered me otherwise.

[And he's added more scars since arriving into this world... Ha. Ha.]

[garudas]

[All of his new scars are ones that she has memorized—where each one of them are, and how he got them. Many of them he received when he was with her. But this particular scar...

She lifts her head from his shoulder to look at him.]

Today?

[ramuhs]

A little, when I woke up. But more so during the fight.

[garudas]

[She looks at him carefully then, her eyes searching his face for any answers he is not giving her, especially as she continues.]

During the fight? It was bothering you?

[ramuhs]

Not so much bother...

[He does hesitate a little before he finally lets out a breath.]

It was during his little mind games... "Reminding" me of my ending, so to speak.

[garudas]

[His hesitation says plenty before he even gives an answer, but Benedikta does perk up anyway when he does, a rush of anger burning through her chest.]

... I thought so.

[She calms herself by continuing to run her fingers along the scar, reminding herself that everything that they saw was not real. Just mind games.]

He showed you something, didn't he?

[ramuhs]

[He wants to tell her it's nothing she needs to fret over, but he knows she won't let him go so easily. So he just remains silent another moment before he sighs.]

He was trying to convince me that my efforts were futile, and of the sacrifices made for my efforts.

[He still can't quite bring himself to tell her exactly what he was shown, however.]

[garudas]

[She certainly would not let go that easily, and the way that she watches him in that silence says as much. But it is only because she is worried, and that she wants to listen. She wants to know, especially considering that he hadn't mentioned any of it earlier when she'd told him what she saw.]

You know that they were not, yes?

[It's less of a question, more of a gentle reminder, as she feels a pang of sadness that they both had not been there to see it. Especially knowing now why he had started it all to begin with...]

There was... something else that Ultima had shown me, too.

[ramuhs]

...I know.

[Though it would be hard to not feel that guilt still, guilt that he's at least told her once before.

But he looks at her then.]

...What did you see?

[garudas]

[She is still a little foggy on the details, but...]

When you had attacked the Mothercrystal, it was Drake's Head, was it not?

[ramuhs]

[There's only a small pause when she refers to it, and then another look when he quickly connects the dots.]

...It was.

[His expression hardens a bit.]

Did he show you?

[garudas]

He showed me... something.

[She thinks back to when Garuda and Ramuh had tumbled through the sky, and how she'd caught a glimpse of so many things in his life then. How different it felt watching it unfold now.]

He showed me you getting this scar. Not Ramuh, but you...

[Her fingers move along the edges of it now.]

And I had to watch, powerless to stop it.

[ramuhs]

[A harsh click of his tongue followed by a rough, low sigh.]

I'm sorry.

[Always...it was always using him.]

[garudas]

[Her free hand comes out of the water to reach for his chin, tipping his head so that he can look at her, and she him, and so that she can kiss him gently, stealing that sigh away.]

I do not wish for your apologies.

[Or pity, or whatever else is laced into those two words.

She takes a deep, quivering breath as her forehead rests against his.]

He'd transformed into Garuda then, too. It was her claws... always her...

[ramuhs]

[The guilt still lingers, no, it actually deepens when kisses him, knowing what she's trying to do. But he doesn't try to fight it or protest, instead closing his eyes in resignation. A weight that carries in his voice.]

Always me and Garuda.

[garudas]

[She wishes that he would not feel so guilty, or even responsible for it, but she also knows that is asking a lot. He is too good and he cares too much. It still will not stop her from trying.]

You and Garuda are both so... intrinsically tied to me now. There is no escaping that. But I suppose fate did have some of its blessings...

[An attempt at a light-hearted comment that falls flat, even with her.]

Perhaps a part of me did think that... had things gone differently, I could have been there...

[ramuhs]

[He does his best to push aside his own unsettled and regretful feelings to focus more on her, his hand gently running down the length of her back.

And he will smile a little.]

Perhaps you could have helped me the first time I tried. But even if you were there at the time, I don't know if it would have ended differently.

[garudas]

I think that is what he was trying to say to me. That... even if I had, fate would have caught up to you anyway. That I would not have been able to do anything to save you, or Garuda might have done it herself?

[She shakes her head.]

I don't know.