#MAEDA * chews thru a 15mm thick sheet of titanium *

[arcstral]

❛  𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠  ❜   —   Caeda  &  Marth

arcaediaen​:

He says her name like it is a prayer, each syllable brimming with reverence: SHII — da. 

      It is sweeter than any song, his intonation clear and bright, like a swiftly running brook or waves crashing onto the shore; she understands, now, why the gods demand hymns and arias to be written and performed in their honor. Is this how the greatest of gods hear their names upon a worshiper’s tongue? A sound like honey and rolling fields and campfires all in one? Caeda thinks she could stand here forever, amidst the dust and hay and barn animals, with his arms around her waist and voice in her ear. 

      She could be drunk upon him — the mere sight of him is intoxicating. Contention steals over her; even if the sun darkened and the earth crumbled beneath their feet, Caeda does not think she would ever want anything else. Her heart aches for him at his profession, and she longs to tell him it was the same with her, too. There was no shortage of company, no matter where she went, and she is glad for it. Those bonds she had forged are irreplaceable, and she carries them closely to her heart. But to be with him is to be complete, whole. 

      He had missed her inconsolably, he says, pressing his forehead to hers. Caeda leans into the gesture, drawn to him as the tide is to the moon, hoping he’d find condolence, comfort, in her touch. They’d kiss, if Caeda just tilts her head just a slight bit more to the right — but before she could decide to act, he pulls away. Her face remains as it was, her eyes betraying her with only the barest look of disappointment, his own eyes searching for any trace of something amiss.

      “I am fine, Marth.” she says, tone somewhere between exasperation and appreciation. “The journey was an uneventful one, and it would take more than just a ship ride to tire me out. I miss the sea air, though I cannot say I would board again anytime soon. I fear I do not have the patience to bear the monotony any longer.”

      Cerulean gaze narrows, her brows furrowing. “And what of you, love? What of your time in Fódlan? I am not naive to assume it has been all smooth sailing, but I trust it has not been an exhausting experience. Do you yearn for home, yet?”

               MARTH  COULD  sympathize with his lover to the humorous extent of visualization; chuckling quietly as he imagined the loveliness of Caeda’s features joined by a sullen frown. Spry as the wind with a kinetic energy that matched the waves, to confine the pegasus knight upon what must have felt to her to be a toy boat was unfitting at least and outrageous at most. An offense matched only by whisking the Hero-King away from his duties of the crown. " Hah! Of course, perhaps I had little cause to worry to begin with. You’re one of the strongest people I know. If the Princess of Talys could not match the sailors in their resilience, I would know of few who could. “

               Compassionate as always in her consideration, breathtakingly beautiful at every angle of lighting and expression. It is easy for those around her to adore Caeda with all that they have, and to remember why he does. No matter how many years might pass to weather his love surely even a century would not decay the intensity of his feelings. Always to remain as vivid as the day he professed them; a mere boy known only to war and military sequence stumbling his way through a confession. As far-flung from the endeavor as rust upon wood, more bewildered of his course than a farmhand seated clueless upon the throne and asked to rule.

               “ The time we spent apart was filled with enriching experiences beyond the counting; and some, even beyond the imagination. I will admit I have had few opportunities to brood over my feelings of home with my activities, but even so... I never once failed to think of you. Every day and every night. “ No sooner were these words ejected -- with such sincerity that forethought scarcely preceded the action -- did the reality, then the embarrassment, kindle Marth’s face in an illuminating betrayal of heat and color. The prim clear of his throat an obvious diversion from the evidence, his burning cheeks were willed to calm with only middling success. One would think that more pressing authorities than his lady love had meandered into view with the way his gaze flitted to everywhere but her! “ Err, uhm... Ahem-- yes, well, in any case...! “

               With the return to eye contact came a release of boyishly distraught features, the mortified tension stiffening the king’s shoulders seeping out as if siphoned through a drain. Both trifling issues and tall suffering troubles seemed to shrink from importance at the sight of the Talys angel who dawned upon Fòdlan from a great distance. A smile traveled across his mouth, guided so easily into place by her winds. “ Welcome to the academy, Caeda. I’m truly glad that you’re here by my side once more. To see you as you are, to feel your presence again, few joys could compare. “