#Asura is grumbling in the background like a particularly deadly Auntie

[autumnslance]

spy — for the single-word drive!

(700 words. This one took me a bit, stops and starts, other writing. But I knew it'd be our FF16 AU, "On Our Fates Alight", where Aeryn and Zaine spent some time post-Calamity in Eorzea up through the Banquet, and then meet the Scions again when they arrive in Thavnair to handle the Tower of Zot. But some things don't change, even across timelines...)

Aeryn stepped out onto the balcony and took a deep breath of the sweet, humid air. The last rays of sunset still lingered, the day's heat clinging to it as the familiar night sounds of the Meghaduta's gardens filled her ears, the city lights glimmering under the star-filled sky. She frowned, looking into the shadows for what had intruded upon her peaceful solitude.

"Forgive me, Princess," Thancred smirked as he stepped into view. "I had no intent to disturb you."

"I am not a princess," she reminded him by rote. It was an old game, one they had played in their initial meeting those years ago when she and Zaine had visited Eorzea. Thancred had teased that her place as the Satrap's ward ensured she lived like one.

Back then, he couldn't know what she truly was.

"No," he replied, as if hearing her thoughts. "The better term would be spy."

"That, I am given to understand, is your profession," she said, indicating the marks on his neck. She tried not to sound indignant, as he wasn't entirely wrong.

"Perhaps why we got along," the Scion said, stepping closer. She lifted her chin slightly, meeting his gaze. Trying not to tremble. She still didn't understand how or why this man, out of all the many in the world, caused such reactions. "Like recognizes like," he continued.

"Is that what you're doing now? Spying on me?" She stepped away to lean nonchalantly—she hoped—at the balcony rail.

"You're not denying what you were up to, when we first met."

"It would be pointless," she replied. "You've worked out that part of our duty in Eorzea was to gather information, particularly about those involved with Dominants. So we learned that the hero Louisoix's order had reformed anew, and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn drew in Dominants and their Eikons, against the depredations of the Empire." Aeryn sighed. "That we had to see for ourselves, too; the neutral stance of Thavnair could not last indefinitely."

"Not with you and your brother being Dominants as well," Thancred said, an accusatory tone to it.

Now she did look at him, bothered by the stern, near-scowl. "Please understand, I didn't wish to deceive you. But it was safer for us to travel in secret."

He sighed. "I do understand, it does make sense, I just…am still not sure how such a thing could get past me. Hiding from hunters like Gage, I can understand. But how did you hide even from the other Dominants?"

Aeryn smiled. "Some secrets must yet be kept, you understand."

"Then I suppose I shall have to try that much harder to prise them from your lovely lips."

Heat flared on her cheeks and she turned her gaze back to the cool, dark gardens, the city lights a haze beyond. "Your speech is not so silvery as to make me forget my duty," she said. "Even if discovery is your own goal."

She was terribly aware when he stepped closer, his hand resting close to hers on the railing. He took a deep breath, as if steeling himself. "Then perhaps we set aside talk of duty for now, and speak instead to what was happening between us then, and still seems to linger now."

At this, Aeryn's eyebrows rose. "Discuss? As if adults?"

Her tone made him laugh sheepishly and rub the back of his neck. "Much has happened, since the Crystal Braves forced our separation."

"So I have heard." She and Zaine hadn't been the only agents Thavnair sent to the nations of Eorzea, after all; merely the most visible. She adjusted her hand slightly on the rail, shyly brushing her fingers against his. "Much has happened, and yet in some ways it feels little time at all has passed."

And so they began to speak, haltingly, carefully, the tension of propriety versus their rekindled emotions a coiling string betweeen them.

So engrossed were they that despite their respective keen skills and senses, neither noticed the small, still simulacrum that had himself stepped out to enjoy the evening gardens in this way, and had heard each word from below. Now he smiled, and silently slipped away to allow the pair their privacy.