#and as soon as she's alone she throws herself over the edge of Gil's bed

[softquietsteadylove]

Would you please do one more chapter for the president AU? Like Thena is holding a speech and Gil protects her from a sniper, getting shot on scene but she learns later about his status cause she is being Transported to safety?? Some intense stuff? Thank you so much love your stories never stop please!! ❤️❤️❤️

Thena looked up as Sersi approached her with gentle steps. Sersi always walked lightly but she truly was walking like a deer on a frozen lake. She had been chosen to face the slaughter. "How is he?"

She seated herself quietly. Sersi was also shaken by the events of that morning's press conference. A shooting was always enough to have anyone on edge. And for a bullet to have actually landed--wounded one of their own; everyone was anxious. "He's still in surgery."

Thena nearly curled over her knees completely in her seat. It wasn't the presidential thing to do. But she couldn't breathe. "Sersi-"

"Thena, I'm sorry," her friend whispered, leaning across the seat to rub her back.

Sersi had witnessed first hand the way Thena had cried and screamed Gil's name as she was dragged away from him for her own safety.

There was always a risk for her safety. It came with the job. But the shot was planned, came from above. Only the wind and Gil's sharp instincts had saved them all. And while he had gotten her down in time, he was less fortunate.

His name had ripped out of her throat at the sight of his blood. She couldn't control it, couldn't conceal what seeing him hurt did to her. The rest of her SS guard pulled her away and under the cover of their protection. She could remember her hands clawing to get back to him. In the end, they had picked her up in order to evacuate without her struggling against them.

Gil's body was just...lying there.

"Sersi, I can't do this," Thena repeated, nearly gasping for air. Air Force One was far, far from crowded, but she felt as if she were being tossed around in a glass jar.

"Yes, you can, just breathe," Sersi encouraged, kneeling in front of her. "He's alive, Thena, that's all you need to worry about for now."

He was alive for now. But the thought of the man she loved lying on a steel table being operated on--possibly never hearing her last words to him; it was unbearable. It was unthinkable that their last kiss had been in the office between meetings, or that the last they'd held hands was when he was helping her in and out of the beast.

How could the last time she told him she loved him be 17 hours ago?

Thena attempted to pick her head up. She blinked, but the tears were far from controllable at this point. Not that Sersi minded. She shook her head, "if he dies-"

"You can't think of that right now," Sersi tried to urge her to calm herself again. She stood, using the natural movement to ease her back into her chair properly again. "He's getting the best care he can right now. I promise as soon as we get word we'll turn right around."

They couldn't. And even if redirecting the Eagle were that easy, they were only so capable of speed. Sheer distance still separated him from her. And if things took a turn for the worse and she didn't make it in time-

"Thena," Sersi followed as she stood, unable to sit any longer. The sound of their heels was muffled on the aircraft carpet. "You have to-"

"I don't have to do anything!" It was true, that was her position as designated by their godforsaken country. And with anyone else, she might not have felt quite as bad for it. But Sersi's face betrayed immediately what her outburst felt like to receive. Thena sighed, lowering her shoulders. "I'm sorry, I just...you don't--I can't lose him."

If Sersi had wondered at all what their relationship was before - which was honestly doubtful - she certainly had her evidence now. But she came over to her again, wrapped her arms around her and hugged her as a friend, not an advisor or cabinet member. "You won't."

Thena shook her head again. She wasn't so confident, and in a rare moment like this when she could afford to be unsure, she was rampant with doubt. She hugged her friend back. "This can't be how it happens--it can't."

Sersi gave up on the empty platitudes, rubbing her back as she listened to her weepy breaths.

"I can't do this without him," Thena pulled her head up again, attempting to resolve herself. "I mean it. I can't do this - any of this! - without him. I'll go insane."

Sersi had no argument for that. Gil was her personal aide, as well as defacto security for her, and that said nothing of the fact that Gil was just the best at generally handling her. "Things will work out."

The words barely sounded like words by this point. Thena looked out the window, starting to pick at her nails. Gil would usually pick up on her nervous ticks and stop them. He could say it was unsightly for Madam President to bite her nails, and then he would have an excuse to hold onto her hand for three whole seconds.

What good was having an aircraft with the highest level of clearance in the world if it still travelled at this kind of speed?

"So," Sersi started along a different path. She lightened her tone, seating herself and looking up at her, "how long?"

Thena remained staring out the window, tearing at her finely cared for nails layer by layer. "You want the exact date?"

It was sharp and sardonic, but Sersi smiled. "I suppose not. Obviously it's long enough, though. And I'm guessing it was since before Ikaris."

That did pull Thena's attention away from the clouds below them and back to her friend. She didn't bother hiding her surprise; Sersi never talked about Ikaris in any way.

But she continued, breezing over the mention of their past with treachery. "It was easy to tell that you were close, and not just as handler and VP."

She didn't think they had been so obvious. But then again, Sersi actually had an oddly sharp sense for the dynamics people could have with each other. It was part of what made her such an asset.

Thena finally sat down again, wrapping her arms around herself, only to start biting her thumb. "It was just going to be nothing--in the beginning. It happened once, let's move on."

Sersi waited patiently for the rest of the story.

Thena sighed, "but then it happened again, and then a third time. But we always said it couldn't be more than that. We had jobs to do. And we both understood that."

"Until," Sresi prompted her, and even smiled impishly when she was glared at for it.

Thena closed her eyes, and imagining Gil's smiling face was almost enough for her to smile in real time. "He was escorting me, as always. We ended up talking and, in essence, we both determined that we were not achieving the casual intentions we had claimed."

"So, you were already in love, is what you're saying," Sersi clarified. Thena glared at her again for her impertinence, but it did nothing to make the quiet woman back down. "I could have told you that."

Thena rolled her eyes, but it did bring somewhat of a smile to her face. "We agreed to explore the potential for more--quietly."

"How did you keep it a secret?" Sersi asked and leaned forward, her curiosity pulling her in. "I mean we had our suspicions but the biggest doubt was simply 'how would you even get away with it?'."

"With practice," Thena conceded, even letting her head tilt back to the head rest. "We got good at sneaking him in and out under different covers. And it worked--for well on a year."

"A yea-?!" Sersi nearly burst out loudly, even for being within the sound cover of a jet. But she managed to rein herself in. She cleared her throat more quietly, "a year?"

Thena nodded. The best years of her life. She gnawed at her cuticle. "Then everything happened. The transition of my position was so fast and so imperative, we didn't really have time to talk about what this meant for us. But Gil...Gil said he wasn't going anywhere."

Tears sprung to her eyes again.

Sersi put the pieces together. "You did fight awfully hard to keep him as your personal detail when you took office."

Thena scoffed, "and let some stranger guard me?"

"They wouldn't be a stranger," Sersi scolded her for denouncing the entirety of the rest of the secret service. But she sighed, "but I suppose you wouldn't have been a good protectee for any of them anyhow."

Especially not if she knew she could have Gil instead.

"It had to be him," Thena resolved, going back to fidgeting with her hands on her lap. "We kept saying we just had to make it through the rest of the term."

Sersi made a face. It wasn't nearly so simple to just exit the office. But this wasn't the time, and she knew that very well. "Thena-"

"He made it!" Kingo ran out, holding up the satellite phone in his hand as if he were a horseman riding at dawn. "They got him stabilized, at least."

"He's alive?" Thena asked, although she immediately discovered she had no air in her lungs. She stood and walked towards Kingo but her knees weren't strong enough anymore.

Both Sersi and Kingo lunged for her as she fell in the middle of the aisle.

"Whoa, hey," Kingo whispered as he caught her, lowering her into a seat properly. "Gil's alive, we're already cleared to return to land and we'll put a bypass on the hospital so you can see him, okay?"

Thena gasped. She couldn't breathe, but for an entirely different reason. She accepted Sersi's shoulder as she cried, hyperventilating into her soft green cashmere dress.

"He's fine, Thena, just breathe," her gentler friend soothed her, running her hand over her hair. "Not much longer. I promise we won't pull you away until you've spoken with him."

"Uh, we really can't-" Thena could hear Kingo begin, and then cut himself off, presumably being glared at by Sersi. He cleared his throat and stepped back, "you got it, Boss. I'll tell Phastos the news."

"He's alive, he's alive," Sersi repeated to her, whispering in her soft accent like a lullaby. "You'll be with him soon."

"I love him," Thena choked out desperately. It ripped out of her just as desperately as she had cried out his name after seeing him get shot. She had to say she loved him, just in case something tried to take him from her again.

"I know," Sersi soothed. "You can be with him soon."

[fuwafuwamedb]

Dodging Death Pt 13 (CasGil, Hans, Hakuno, )

Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

___

If this could just end, that would be great.

The world hadn’t been this complicated before. She would go to school, study hard, get some good grades, go to work, harass Hans, and then go home to lay down and relax. There’d be a little wine here and there, usually accompanied by a large, liberal amount of ice cream or chocolate cake.

When Gilgamesh had come along, she’d imagined doing the old cat lady maneuver. She would lay down at night and have her large, fluffy cat join her. They would enjoy the late night television that she wasn’t really supposed to watch since she had to head to school early in the mornings. They would sneak to the kitchen for bits of turkey or some other treat. In the end, she would enjoy the life of solitude and peace.

That was it.

Sitting on the cold marble floor of a hotel suite high up in one of the largest hotels in Fuyuki, staring at a test she sincerely hoped would be flunked was not in her plans. She hadn’t pictured some random blond throwing himself into her life, showing her magic and claiming her for himself.

At most, she’d imagined being with Emiya.

Embarrassing as it was, she’d had a lot of late nights with him. There’d been a lot of take out menus and bad cooking jobs done on her part. She’d made memories painting her house some subdued colors, escaping the exotic and poor paint colors she’d bought her house with. There’d been times where she’d ended up calling Emiya and coasting over to his and Cu’s place to crash on their couch and shower while her own was being repaired.

Who could forget the classic toilet repair attempt, where Emiya had opened the tank of the toilet and had been plunging with a great gush had come up.

The pure look of disgust and agony on his face…

He liked Sakura.

That was well and good. Sakura was an angel of a person and there was probably no one that would treat him with as much kindness and respect as she would. She was a bit dependent too, which was something that Emiya was used to accommodating. The two would get along well.

Plus, she’d already agreed to give Gilgamesh a chance.

The king was tall and handsome. He was clearly intelligent. He had a pride that saw no shame or reservation.

If there was something he wanted, he was going for it. If there was something he didn’t like, it was dropped and abandoned fully. There was no halfways with him. There was no second chances or regrets. The man lived his life like so many wished to live their life.

If she had told Emiya that he was having a child, there would have been fear.

She had no doubt that the man would have been panicking and going through a long list of reasons why that would be a bad plan. His fear would feed her fear, the two of them would have been sending one another into pure panic attacks with all of the things that they would be risking, if there were things that could be risked.

Gilgamesh, meanwhile, was thanking her.

You’d have thought he was receiving some kind of special award with the way he had wrapped his arms around her and thanked her for doing this. In the car, her hand on the shift had been stroked for ages by the man. He’d tried to even follow her to go into the store, earning himself a good warning that she was going to just get a couple things and come straight back out.

One minute.

Just one minute left on this test and then she was going to shower and talk to Gilgamesh again.  

This was going to be a good talk.

The first thing they needed to do was talk about her house.

Going back was an option, but the axe killer getting into her home made that very uncomfortable. The person had slipped right in, almost killed them, and then left. She hadn’t heard a word from the police. No one had mentioned the killer being caught. Her home was even on the newspaper she’d seen at the store.

Sure, she could return, but there was no point.

Hakuno leaned back against the wall in the bathroom and stared up at the ornate ceiling.

Another option was to sell the house.

Being that Fuyuki was a clean and well off city, there was no doubt that the place would sell pretty easily. It wasn’t even the best neighborhood either, but it was close enough to the bus and the subway and to a few decent food places. Someone would take it.

That meant she’d have some money on her hands.

Gilgamesh was also handling this bill for the hotel. As questionable as it was to use him like that, it meant she could save some money. Hell, if things didn’t work out, she could probably just have him return to Uruk and she could be in charge of that wealth remaining.

First thing she’d do was travel.

Maybe she would move to the countryside somewhere and have a flock of sheep. She could sew her own clothes and wear furs in the deep winters, looking over the mountainside and calling out to the wolves in the distance.

Or, she could open a little shop.

She could be the owner of her own sweets shop, making them for the pure pleasure of making confections that would amaze and excite shoppers. She’d pick her own hours, opting to close early to go out into the great summer sun and lounge while a group of kids played in the grass or some elders played croquet or something.

That was if things didn’t work out though.

If they did…

If she found that she liked being with Gilgamesh…

The gods themselves only knew what then.

She would be sharing her life with someone. They would work together to make plans and chart a course towards the rest of eternity together. There was no doubt now that she would have a child. It was only a matter of how soon and to what situation.

Hopefully Gilgamesh knew a lot about families because she didn’t know a thing.

Her three tests on the counter blinked.

She didn’t move.

Right now, she was both pregnant and not pregnant.

She could go drinking and perhaps there would be consequences. She could take a fall or a hit to the gut and perhaps she would be risking lives.

Maybe…

Maybe she wouldn’t look.

Hakuno stood up, moving to the door to tell Gilgamesh no and to continue this talk about how their lives would continue. She had the knob half turned when she looked back.

The three tests gleamed on the counter.

It was best to look though…

She should have a look, see the negative, and carry on. It would only take a minute and then she would be back to the task of avoiding an axe killer and living life. There was nothing that was dire about those three white sticks on the counter. Nothing said she needed to fret that much. Her tests had been more terrifying.

Right. She could just-

Hakuno closed her eyes again, turning away at the last minute.

She was not brave enough for this.

“Gilgamesh!”

The door opened. The man himself glancing in to find her hovering near the counter.

“I-I can’t look.”

“You can’t look?”

She shook her head.

Looking meant finding out. Looking meant that she would have to face the consequences of whatever was said. While she thought that, looking up at Gilgamesh while thinking that felt entirely ridiculous.

The man glanced at the three tests, picking one up to look at the information.

“Gilgamesh…”

A small kiss was pressed to her shoulder.

She was, wasn’t she?

Hakuno wrapped her arms around the man, holding him tightly to herself. Her eyes closed, her hands holding onto his shirt.

He needed to say something.

Don’t worry about things, you’re not pregnant.

Congratulations, you’ll make quite a mother.

Something would work.

Anything at all would work.

The silence was building. The need to run was combined with the deep need to hide against him until the end of time.

He just needed to say something. Anything.

The man was constantly talking. He had been more than happy to go on and on for ages in his Epic and in her class. He enjoyed talking about anything and everything. He was insistent upon filling the air… So why was he quiet?

“Gilgamesh?”

He captured her lips, pulling her up into his arms. She didn’t get the chance to look now. He was carrying her over to the bed and draping her across the sheets. His lips were pressing to her cheek, her jawline, her neck; he kissed lower and lower down her person. The zipper of her dress was sliding down, the undergarments snapped faintly before she found herself laying exposed on the sheets.

Where did the time go?

Unbuttoning the man’s suit, tossing his clothes to the wayside, once more finding that strong chest with her hands as she met those lips and lost herself once more to the waves of their great chemistry; Hakuno found herself distracted once again.

Being at this during the middle of the day was not helpful either.

She could see the sun pour in from the windows, making the man’s sunkissed skin and golden hair simply gleam. She could see every single inch of him, built to perfect and looking up at her as she shoved him onto the mattress and straddled his waist.

The time simply went out the window.

She learned how to drape her leg over his chest, using the other to help her movements up and down his person. She learned how to hold his bent leg with her arms, glancing over at him as she rode him hard and fast. He rolled them over as she came, resuming a more standardized position.

The sun was far off over the horizon as Hakuno found herself stirring at his side finally. The bed was a mess, their clothes abandoned to the wind. She was pretty sure the marks on Gil’s person were going to be there for a while.

4:15 in the evening.

“Gil.” Hakuno moved to the edge of the bed, tentatively standing up on wobbly legs. “Gil?”

He didn’t move.

Maybe it was best to leave him to rest while she went to work.

That didn’t sound like a bad idea. She could focus on getting some alone time in and getting her head on straight. Maybe get some homework done too. Rin and Rani would be able to give her some notes.

That sounded like a great plan.

A new dress would work for work. It wasn’t like she was going to be going too many places for a few days. She could have both dresses in the wash in the morning.

A quick trip to the bathroom showed her that she’d be wearing her hair down. The faint signs of redness on her neck were definitely going to be noted by patrons otherwise. She washed her face a bit and tried to think as she glanced in the mirror.

Her eyes drifted to the tests still chilling on the counter.

…

Hakuno turned and walked out, finding Gilgamesh sitting up and frowning.

“We spent too much time in bed, didn’t we?”

“I’ll head out. You can rest a bit-“

“I’ll come. You will just need to give me a minute.” He yawned, pulling her close to kiss before heading for the bathroom.

“Gil! I have to get moving!”

“I’ll only be a moment.”

A moment had the shower turning on.

Hakuno groaned at the sound, opening the door and glancing over at him checking the temperature.

“I have to leave now, Gil. I work at 5. That means I have,” she checked her phone, “thirty minutes to get in my car, over to the library, park, run in, and clock in.”

“Hakuno, you will be fine-“

“If you take a shower, then I won’t be on time.”

He sighed, turning off the shower.

“You will owe me,” he pointed out.

“I owe you too much already.” But one more thing wasn’t going to make much of a difference. She moved from the doorway so he could grab his clothes, watching him fix everything once more back into place. His tired little yawn in the midst of buttoning his shirt was almost enough to call in, but Hakuno turned away.

The wood grain on the door became of interest, all the way up until Gilgamesh was moving to her side and clearing his throat.

She nodded to him at seeing him ready.

“We will go there and back. You need rest as well, Hakuno.”

“Straight to the library and back,” she agreed.

The elevator ride was a quiet one. The trip to the car was no more exciting. Hakuno made record time in navigating the roads, pulling in and clocking in without issue. Gilgamesh settled himself near some of the art on display, deciding to look at one of the pieces with great interest as Hakuno went to clock in.

“You’re dressed up weird,” Hans noted, barely looking away from the books that he was scanning back into the system.

“I ah… I got engaged.”

“What a waste. White hair wasn’t worth your time. He has a stick so far up his ass that it’s a wonder it hasn’t messed with his brain. I don’t doubt he hates his younger self.”

“Emiya is not that bad,” she argued. “You’re um… You’re not still mad about his age comment, are you?”

Those sharp eyes glanced her way, narrowing dangerously.

So… he was mad.

“That… friend of yours, lacking any brains at all, uses poor humor and dry remarks to cover up the fact that he is a depressed, selfish asshole with an axe to grind against the world for no other reason than-“

She wasn’t listening.

It was hard to listen when there was a cute little blong woman coming into the library this evening. She looked a lot like Rin for some reason. Her blond hair bounced as she walked, her small smile was so nervous, especially as she murmured into her phone.

The girl was probably here for her boyfriend. She somehow didn’t seem comfortable with this kind of place.

Poor girl.

“-And furthermore, if you’re going to get engaged to that kind of man, then you really need to look at your own life decisions and think about where you see your future heading.”

“I’m engaged to the blond guy in the art area,” Hakuno told him simply, watching the blonde woman head up the stairs.

She seemed so sad for some reason. Sad and frustrated.

Maybe she could take a few minutes to help cheer her up a little. There were still some cupcakes in the back probably. Rani was typically bribing her for doing her work.

“…You married him?”

“I’m going to.”

Blonde Girl was going into the archives. She must really be suffering. Whoever was making her do this work was definitely paying her. The spotlights in the room left a bit to be desired. It could get creepy in there after a while.

Hans moved into her range of vision.

“You’re marrying that guy?”

Hakuno followed his gaze, nodding at the sight of Gilgamesh.

“Yes.”

“Blondie in a suit?”

“If he had his way, I have no doubt that I’d be married and with at least one kid right now.”

Gilgamesh glanced her way, earning a small smile from her.

The proud smirk and nod had Hans turning away.

“He looks like some kinky minded, sex addict. You be smart and sign a prenup. Maybe make sure he pays you for any divorce. I’d write a will too. Guy like that looks like he’d put the hit out on someone for looking at another wrong.”

“He’s fine, Hans.”

The blonde woman was back on the stairs again. She was moving to search the next area of rooms.

Hans followed her gaze, frowning as well as the woman moved into and back out of the room.

“Hakuno, go check-“

“I’m on it.”

It was the duty of a librarian to help those find whatever they were looking for.

[onwesterlywinds]

A Kingdom Worthy of You

Subdued by the vera tonic and what remained of the Garlean sedative, Ashe dreamed of Ludo Swiftwind.

They had met on a bright and sunny morning, the first morning all week that hadn't been obscured by La Noscean rainclouds. The boardwalks and planks all across the Aftcastle still held little puddles that soaked through her thin leather sandals, but even the locals were commenting on it being a "mild" day - their term for whenever the city reeked of fish less than normal.

She stood high up in Maelstrom Command with a full stomach for the occasion of her business, face to face with an officer whose voice filled her with a fury and frustration she couldn't rightly explain - only that he was condescending to her.

"This is ridiculous." The worst of their quarrel had reached its end, but other visitors to the office had long since halted their own business. Heads that had turned to stare would not turn away; mouths whispered in a multitude of languages about the scene unfolding before them.

And it truly was a scene, as she had been the disruptor. Worst of all, she had cast herself as the angry Ala Mhigan woman.

"As I've said, Miss Riot," said the Midlander man behind the counter. "Maelstrom regulations require a minimum of three members at the time of a free company's founding. This is to avoid a-"

"'Misallocation of resources,' yes. You made that part clear thrice over, and-"

A hand touched her shoulder. Before she could whirl around to take a swing at whoever it was who so dared to touch her, a clear and confident voice spoke out. "It's alright."

The speaker was a tall man, much taller than her, though he had neither the musculature of a Roegadyn nor the grace of an Elezen. At first she took measure of his pale skin and wondered if he might be Garlean, but she saw no third eye and supposed she hadn't ever seen a Garlean with such pleasant features: he had long chestnut-colored hair tied back into a ponytail, soft brownish-green eyes, and a delicate mouth quirked into an appeasing smile.

"I'd be happy to discuss other options with my friend here," he reassured the Maelstrom officer. "Thank you most kindly for your assistance. We'll contact you again if the need should strike us."

He turned on his heel and departed. Ashelia, in her confusion - this stranger had called her his friend - could only follow him back to the Drowning Wench.

"So you're trying to found a free company," he eventually said to her. He tore with his fingers into one of the freshly baked bread rolls he'd ordered from the bar, then reached for a knife with elegant ease to slather on copious amounts of butter and jam. "What a coincidence. So am I."

Ashelia could only scoff, roll her eyes, and cross her arms over her chest. She did not touch the plate of food before her and would not do so until she was confident her new "friend" would cover the entire tab as promised. "What a coincidence," she echoed.

He bit into half of his butter-jam mixture, washed it down with a swig of ale, and grew somber. "I overheard what you were telling the officer."

So did half the Aftcastle, she thought.

"You're looking to reestablish... an entire arm of the Ala Mhigan military?"

She shook her head. "Just a free company." For now. "But I would name it after the rank my father held."

The man nodded. "And what was the name of his order?"

"The Dangerous Criminal Task Force. Known best as the Riskbreakers."

"Right, right." He broke into a grin, revealing perfect white teeth. "I'd like to join you, if you'll have me. And if you do agree to take me on, I will guarantee that we'll get these Riskbreakers of yours all the way to East End without taking a single gil of Grand Company resources."

It sounded like a dream come true, which was precisely why she couldn't trust it. Scowling, she leaned back in her seat to survey him further. "You're no Ala Mhigan."

"Gods above, no."

"Then why do you give half a shite?"

"Because I've been there. Many years ago, now, but I'll never forget it."

"What color were the ramparts?" she retorted.

"I'm sorry?"

"The ramparts about the capital. What color were they."

"A sort of... rose-tan in the sunlight, provided the Garleans haven't knocked them down in my absence."

Gundobald had warned her in the past that others would lie about even the most basic facts in order to win over her sympathies. This man, at least, had been to Ala Mhigo - and he spoke of Garlemald with as much bitterness as any one of her kin.

"You'll have full command over your forces," he promised. "I'm not asking for leadership, nor am I seeking to... insert any agendas of my own into your plans. I want only to take part - to strike out against the Empire alongside someone who actually cares." He leaned in, lowering his voice to a more urgent whisper. "I have just under a hundred thousand gil - gil I've saved for the purpose of investing in a paramilitary organization capable of taking on the Empire. It isn't much, but it'll be enough to sponsor a full party for the equipment, weapons, and tech to get started."

"Your name?"

"Ludo Swiftwind. Yours?"

"Riot."

"That's all?"

"Ashelia Riot."

"A lovely name. And what say you to my proposal, Ashelia Riot?"

A hundred thousand gil was a bigger sum than she could wrap her head around, and that fact above all else gave her pause.

But she was not seeking to put a price tag on her father's legacy, nor was she selling out her lifelong dreams. She was forging an alliance - one that could easily be broken at a moment's notice. If this was what it took to get her to Baelsar's Wall...

"I'm in."

Ludo's eyes widened. For a moment, he looked as stunned as though she had announced her intention to marry him. Then his face broke out into a grin, almost childlike in its enthusiasm, and he burst into delighted laughter. "Alright," he said. "So when do we start breaking risks?"

"Ashe. How old were you?"

They tramped back together to the crypt's entrance, he with his tomes and she with her axe, at the end of their first successful venture. Ludo's words cut through the stillness of the Deepcroft, through the lingering tension that had gathered in the wake of the piscodaemon's demise.

"I told you not to call me that. What are you asking?"

"When Ala Mhigo fell. You must have been young."

It was a question no one had ever sought to ask her before; everyone else in the refugee camps had simply known the answer. "I had scarcely turned five," she replied. "And you? You've never told me where you're from."

"Coerthas." He kicked at a pebble in their path and watched it skitter over the edge, down into oblivion. "Western highlands. A village called Riversmeet, to be precise. A beautiful place, before the Calamity."

"I've never met anyone else from Coerthas before. I hear they're supposed to be pricks."

"They say much the same about Ala Mhigans," said Ludo. He cast a smirk over his shoulder and ignored her responding glare. "Well, assuming we go about establishing your company the right way, you won't ever have to find ou-"

He stopped dead mid-stride, and so did she. From somewhere close behind them came the same scrape of shifting pebbles - the sound of a misplaced footstep.

"Did you hear that," he breathed.

She shushed him and drew her axe up over her head in preparation for a one-handed throw. The torches all about the path seemed to flicker far more violently, though she could just as well have not been paying them enough attention before their pause. A consistent plink of water echoed around them from some distant source; the remainder of the tunnel sat still and silent, with nothing else at all to indicate that they were not alone in the tunnel.

And then, out of the corner of her eye, a figure clad in white robes rounded behind a corner.

Ashelia whirled to face it. Something was barreling down the tunnel toward them - something that looked like a giant Hyuran face.

She swung her axe with every last bit of strength she could muster, and she must have made some sort of contact in spite of her glancing blow because the creature let out a piercing screech into her ear.

"RUN!" she shouted, and Ludo complied. Together they sped through the ancient halls, past the crypt-lined walls and the Wood Wailers stationed at the Deepcroft's entrance, sprinting onward until they emerged out under the cover of the forest canopy in what little remained of the daylight sun. Ashelia practically tripped headlong into Ludo once he stopped to catch his breath against the trunk of a giant tree.

"There was definitely someone there!" she fumed. "Someone small and slim, and..." At a loss for any other way to express her shock, she whirled back around toward the moss-covered ruins and screamed, "FUCKING MIDLANDERS!"

Ludo was practically wheezing with the effort to draw breath. Tears streamed from his eyes as he sank down to the forest floor. He was, in spite of their shock, laughing.

And soon enough, so was she.

"Which of the Twelve should I thank," Ludo said when she returned to their inn room with clean hands, "for finding a partner in favor of showing no quarter to imperials?"

He sat propped against a pillow, poring over a thick, leather-bound notebook and doubtless chronicling the day's many events. Every muscle in her body ached; questioning the hoplomachus had taken more out of her than she had expected. She made to sit down on the bed beside him but thought better of it when she spied his inkwell perched precariously amid the bedsheets. "Nymeia, most likely. Patroness of the Ala Mhigan monarchy. But never mind that." She slapped down the stack of papers in her hand. "Will these mean anything to you?"

Ludo’s jaw dropped. "Shite," he swore, and then said something in a language she didn’t recognize but supposed had to be Ishgardian. Still, he cast a hasty glance up at her as his long fingers flipped one by one through the pages. Some were supplemented with diagrams of magitek devices or graphs with numbers so big they could only denote sums of currency. "Well, Grand Steward. It seems you’ve found a Garlean weapons repository."

"What?"

"There’s a secret weapons cache out by Bloodshore. And this document is a list of everything it contains. Prototype bombs, signal jammers..." There was no mistaking the shock etched in every line of his face. "Incredible. If we leverage this the right way... we could have the XIVth in the palms of our hands."

The room was dark all around her, quiet except for her own fevered breathing. Once again, she had awoken in such a panic that she could scarcely recall who she was, let alone where; the lingering memories of her dream still held her captive, filling her with shame at the very idea that she could ever, even subconsciously, serve the Empire as a willing soldier.

"Are you alright, Ashe?"

Ludo was sitting up in bed on the other side of the room but made no effort to turn on the light.

"Where is this?" she breathed.

"The Whistler, the inn out by the Grey Fleet. It's a few hours until dawn."

"What's happened? What did I-"

"You were reciting entire Garlean protocols," he said. "You're certain you didn't read through those documents we found?"

"I told you. I can't read."

"Alright, then." He laid himself back down and pulled his own set of blankets back up to his chin. "Must've been a hell of a dream."

The Goblet was a bastard to navigate, she had decided at least half a bell ago, but Ludo had deemed it very important that she meet him at a particular set of coordinates and hadn't been able to shut up about it since early that morning.

"I'm here," she said into her linkpearl, then realized she wasn't entirely certain she was; she checked her map yet again, then glanced up at the massive building in front of her. Sure enough, she was at the precise spot he had indicated: a house in the neighborhood's third ward.

"Mansion" might have been a better word for it. The building towered over all of the other houses she'd passed by, only in part because it was situated on its own little hill along a more solitary street.

"Took you long enough!" came Ludo's reply. There was a stroke of mischief amid his sarcasm that she neither liked nor trusted. "Right, then. Next step: go inside the house."

"Ludo, I don't have time to get arrested today. I have to meet with Curious Gorge before noon."

"Just trust me."

A strange tingle ran up her spine as she took her first steps across the lawn. She gave the front door a tentative push, and it creaked open at her touch to reveal a wondrous grand hall. The place was empty, save for its stone masonry, dark wooden paneling, and a massive brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling - and for Ludo, who sat off to one side of the staircase directly before her. He leapt to his feet, his arms stretched out wide.

"Welcome home."

"What..."

She had to forcibly cover her own mouth to keep every thought that sprang to her head from babbling out; Ludo's own grin was now well past the point of concealment. She stared up and around at the mansion, taking in its every immaculate detail for the first time, and the word kept echoing through her head: home.

"What do you think?"

Ala Mhigo was home and always would be, but this was a more beautiful house than any she had seen - and only three moons ago, she had been living out of her bedroll.

"How did you even manage-"

"I have my ways."

"Don't give me that. You didn't get this with only eighty-seven thousand gil."

He stepped forward and took hold of her hands. The gesture took her by surprise at first and she very nearly drew back, but the warmth and sincerity in his eyes gave her pause. "No, I didn't," he said. "And it was still worth it."

Nothing he said was serving to dispel her suspicions. "We agreed not to speak of the cache to anyone. You didn’t sell the weapons, or-"

"I wouldn’t have dared." He gestured over toward one side of the unfurnished manse, to where sunlight streamed in unfettered from the east. "Might I suggest over there for the location of that bar you spoke of having?"

It was an unskilled deflection, but she chose nonetheless to take it in stride. "Only if I can name it the Sandsea."

He wrinkled his nose. "Sounds much too similar to the Quicksand. Wouldn't want to attract that clientele, would we?" Before she could protest, he removed from the inside of his robes a full jug of spiced rum. "One more surprise: something to get us started. Though I don't have any glasses, I'm afraid."

She shrugged. "Means we'll have to break it in the Ala Mhigan way." Before he could so much as raise an eyebrow, she demonstrated her intentions by plucking the drink from his hands, uncorking it between her teeth with a dramatic twist of her head, and taking a long draught as he looked on in amazement. "To the Riskbreakers," she concluded once she’d had her fill, and held the bottle aloft.

Ludo held his own imaginary glass toward the chandelier. "To the Riskbreakers. And to the Sandsea."

The rain hammered itself into sheets that afternoon and extinguished every hope they'd had left for the comfort of a warm fire after their miserably long day. She stomped through the tropical underbrush with sodden boots, trying not focus more on anti-imperial endeavors and less on how much havoc her new puppy was surely wreaking in her absence, and it barely struck her that she must have strayed too far ahead for Ludo to keep up with her driven pace.

But then the rain abated around her for only a moment, and a broad sheet of green dipped forward across her line of sight. Ludo had torn a leaf from the giant trees all around them and was wafting it above them as a barely effectual umbrella.

"Come on," he said. "Let's find somewhere to rest. And then you can tell me why you looked like you were about to go into a rage when I recognized that man in Wineport."

This was a habit of his that she hated: using a reasonable request as a preface to something else he wanted. She repressed a growl but ducked out from under his giant leaf to find a more sturdy source of shelter: the nearest low-hanging palm tree. "It was exactly what my mother does," she replied at length, once he had stretched out his legs beside her. "Picking someone out from a crowd, then digging up their life story."

"He had connections we could leverage-"

"'Connections'?" She let out a single peal of mirthless, sarcastic laughter, and even that reminded her of Tia. "Fuck connections! We're scarcely a stone's throw away from Castrum Occidens of all places, and we're nowhere closer to tearing it down than we are Baelsar’s Wall! We could be best friends with the Admiral and that wouldn’t change!"

Ludo said nothing for a long time. "My mother was the same way as yours," he said at last, so quietly that she could scarcely hear him over the tumultuous rain. It was the first he'd ever mentioned his family to her, but the topic made his brow furrow into a deep frown. He murmured something else that she could not hear over the rain, then loosed a low growl. "I hate this," he conceded. "Being so close to where we need to be."

"And yet so far." She smoothed back some of the hair that the rain had plastered to her face and attempted to wring it free of moisture.

"It isn't only the castrum." He leaned his head back against the trunk of the tree. "There's a rumor going around the network of hunt informants that there’s something else inside Occidens: an entrance to Bahamut's Coil, of all places. That would change everything in our favor, Ashe! Everything!" His fist clenched against the sodden earth. "Do you know how many times I've thought of venturing down there? More than I can count on one hand, certainly. Not so much for the money or the glory, but for answers. I've longed for them ever since the Calamity - for myself, and for everyone who suffered and lost that day. But I couldn't-" He stopped speaking as abruptly as if someone had punched him in the gut; recognition dawned over his face, and when next he beheld her, his eyes were full of a newfound resolution. "That’s been the only thing holding me back. I can’t abandon you. I won’t. Not... Not with all of Ala Mhigo at stake."

He was soaked through to the skin, as was she, but his eyes burned with an intent that left her stunned-

Fuck.

In a single, breathless moment, she leaned forward to close the indiscriminate distance that had existed between them for so long. She pressed her lips to his and his gasp turned into a low moan from somewhere deep in his chest. She had almost been expecting him to break away and offer some excuse; instead, he reached up with both hands to hold her face with a tenderness that prompted her to open her mouth ever further and taste on his tongue the flights he'd sampled in Wineport only bells before - to take her measure of every part of him and trust that she would not find him wanting.

Though their makeshift shelter had begun to take on water, she no longer cared. It was still a veritable paradise for one who had grown up in the desert.

"You must be Ashelia!" the Miqo'te airship attendant exclaimed.

Ashe was so winded from having sprinted all the way from the Hawthorne Hut to the Carline Canopy that she could scarcely understand a word the woman was saying; what was more, she'd been awake the entire night at Oriens testing the Garlean transmissions blockers and some of the other gear from the weapons cache.

"It's okay. Your boyfriend's asked us to hold the flight. He's already waiting for you on board!"

Sure enough, Ludo sat on one of the wooden benches directly beneath the airship's awning, scribbling away in his leather-bound notebook with one hand and absently scratching below his collar with the other.

"He's not my boyfriend," Ashe snapped.

"Oh!" The attendant bit at one side of her lower lip with a lengthy incisor. "I'm sorry, I-"

Ludo glanced up from his writings and his eyes flooded with the warmth of recognition as their gazes met; smiling, he beckoned for her to board with the hand still holding his quill. Ashe lowered her axe from its holster across her shoulders and strode past the attendant to give him a full report of her mission. "We're partners."

"I was born," he said, reaching up with shaking hands to undo the buttons at his collar, "Osamu bas Maevius." With a single tug, he pulled his silken cravat free; it floated to his bedroom carpet like a feather on a light wind. "And I'm not fully Hyuran. My mother was Auri - of a Far Eastern people with... horns and tails. I have neither. I take much more after my father, who was as Garlean as they come." He shrugged off his coat, tossed it to the floor, and started on the fastenings of his tunic. "I hardly ever saw him. I spent most of my childhood in a little white room with only my mother and books to keep me company, and I was always expected to be the good little soldier boy, for the both of them. There was hells to pay if I wasn't." She had met plenty of bastards throughout her youth, among them some who resembled Garleans too closely for the comfort of others. Ludo's shirtless frame bore the telltale musculature of a Garlean man, yes, but he was lithe and poised as she had always known him to be, endowed with a wholly different sort of power.

"But I am Coerthan by choice," he said firmly, staring at her as if she wished to challenge the assertion. "I left Ilsabard when I was fifteen, when it was made clear that I was to serve under van Baelsar in Ala Mhigo. I've never looked back once. I found a caravan of traders and they brought me to Riversmeet. I was there when I made my name; I was there when the moon fell."

"I..." She was nearly lost for words, but so too did her heart pound with unspoken relief.

"Gods, Ashe. What did you think I was hiding?"

"I thought you were going to tell me you're a virgin."

He was still nervous, even after revealing all that he felt he needed to - she could see it in the stiffness of his shoulders, in the way he held himself - but he let out a little chuckle all the same. "I'll let you decide that for yourself," he offered, holding out the ties to loosen his breeches.

She stepped forward and, with a desperation born of relentless need, had them undone in seconds. She slid a single hand down the front of his trousers and smirked when he drew in a gasp at her touch. "Would that have been better or worse than being half-Garlean?" he prompted.

"Worse. Much worse." She could not resist going to her tiptoes to press a kiss to where the faintest hint of stubble grew along his jaw, but then she sank to her knees and watched his eyes widen. "But still manageable."

"An elite mark's taken someone out by the Silver Bazaar, and a Garlean patrol's been creeping closer to Vesper Bay. I'll take the former, you the latter?"

She holstered her axe with a nod in his direction. "I'll see you tonight."

"Wait, Ashe." Before she could make for the door, he took hold of her arm, halting her progress with a gentle squeeze. She huffed and tried to disentangle herself from him but stopped when she noted the desperate stare in his eyes. "Please. Be careful."

She loved to watch Ludo read. He sat halfway propped up in bed, his glasses perched on his nose and a newspaper spread out against his knees, and his lips moved ever so slightly to shape the words his eyes captured as they darted back and forth across each page. Neither of them had bothered to dress since the previous night; their bedcovers pooled down around their waists to reveal bodies toned but battered from their near-constant adventuring.

On such relatively quiet mornings, Ludo was not so quick to tie his hair back into his customary low ponytail. A small patch of rose-colored scales lay uncovered below his jaw, no more than five or six in number but enough to captivate her attention.

Ashe tucked a long strand of his brown hair behind his ear and leaned in to press a kiss to the side of his mouth nearest to her. He averted his attentions at once from his reading. His eyes closed tight to the letters on the page and turned to properly greet her, that he might reciprocate with a kiss of his own. She had come to crave these moments of gentleness: the soft press of his mouth, the heat of his bare skin ignited a slow ache in some deep part of her being. She trailed a hand up across his chest and crossed one of her legs over his own - not to tempt or rile him, as she would have with all the other lovers she'd known in the desert, but to truly savor every sensation and touch they shared between them.

It dawned on her then that she had never before wanted so badly for something to last forever.

"Please have a cocktail; there's this entire pitcher to finish and it's just the two of us."

"No, I-I'm really okay."

As a compromise, she shoved the half-finished plate of bacon breads over to the opposite end of the booth and refilled her own glass. "It was... A'zalea?"

"A'zaela," the woman corrected gently, and took a bacon bread to nibble at.

"Ah. Apologies." She took a sip of her drink and sighed. The estate had not seen very many guests that day for their - and Ashe could not believe she had let such a useless pair of words escape her - first annual Moonfire Faire celebration. Yet the absence of what few visitors she'd attracted rang anew, now that there was only her and A'zaela and their new shared memories of laughter and indulgence with people who were no longer strangers. "My thanks to you for coming out."

A'zaela had told her more than once that she hadn't known there was to be a party that day, but she smiled all the same. "It’s good to be here. Truly."

"And I'll see about waiving the paperwork requirement for your application to the company."

"Oh no, th-that won't be necessary."

"Nonsense. You've already told me you grew up in the Sagolii, and that’s all the proof I need of your talent." She couldn’t resist raising her bright orange drink in a clumsy sort of salute, but she still had enough of her wits left in her not to tell A’zaela that she was the only Seeker she'd ever been able to tolerate for so long. "So how did you say you knew Ludo?"

"I don't exactly know him. I accidentally bumped into him as I was leaving the Goldsmiths' Guild yesterday. He mentioned the Riskbreakers and told me to come here if I was interested in joining a free company."

Ashe frowned. "Yesterday?"

"Y-Yes." A'zaela narrowed her eyes in thought. "Well, two days ago, now that it's past midnight."

Ludo had told her only that he'd be going back to Gridania to meet with an officer of the Wailers about a notable hunt.

"Where is he?" A'zaela asked. "I'm surprised he isn't here."

"He's... been out attending to some business for a few days." She hesitated. "Between you and me... he told me not to throw a party tonight."

"Why not?"

"Unnecessary expenditures, to use his words. He didn't think anyone would come."

One of A'zaela's ears twitched as she wrinkled her nose, but she said nothing.

"Now I can tell him he was wrong." She grabbed hold of the pitcher once again and topped off her glass. "And on my birthday of all days."

"Your-" A'zaela blinked. "But it's my birthday as well! I'm turning twenty-five!"

Ashe very nearly dropped the pitcher at that, spilling a bright orange puddle of whiskey and bitters all across the tablecloth. She stared agape at it for a long moment, utterly astonished at herself, and then A'zaela began to giggle a little nervously.

"I suppose this truly was meant to be." At a loss for what else to do, she bundled up the sodden tablecloth and unceremoniously tossed it into a corner of the bar. "Welcome to the Riskbreakers, A'zaela Linh."

She had dragged herself into the habit of bringing in the day’s mail and sorting through it whenever she took Argath out for his morning business, having long since resigned herself to the fact that the majority of it was Ludo's anyway. There was less and less mail coming at all nowadays, ever since he took up his meetings within Ul'dah proper. She could not say she cared one way or the other for the stacks of envelopes, but some part of her did sting with the unspoken injustice of her own lack of an invitation.

For that exclusion, Ludo had excuses aplenty: she was too inexperienced for such negotiations, too busy in her weekly schedule or else too tired from training. Though she never heard Ludo suggest it even once, she could only suppose her temper had something to do with it.

After finding only two items in the mailbox that morning, both of them for Ludo, she whistled twice for Argath and he came barreling back in through the open door; from there, she ducked back into their shared quarters and approached the desk to deliver them to their designated spot.

A page bearing her name in his handwriting caught her eye. It was the only word she could recognize at a glance, in his hand or in any other, though her reading had improved greatly since he'd begun teaching her during their shared evenings off.

Each word she read was like another punch to her gut.

"The Syndicate, Ludo?!"

"I've told you, I'm settling it, alright? It's being taken care of as we-"

She slammed her palms down onto the gazebo's little stone railing. Even after she had dragged him out to the waterfall to ensure they wouldn't be overheard within the house, some part of her still ached at being so visible – so vulnerable.

Her pain, her betrayal laid out for the world to see.

"You funded our house with Syndicate gil - and you didn't tell me because you knew I would disapprove!"

"Ashe, please-"

"Don't deny it! How much have they stolen from Ala Mhigans - from my people! They've taken our labor and our bodies and every other thing we have left for a pittance! Do you even care? Do you even give a fuck that I now owe all I have to the same monsters that sat and watched me starve?!"

"Of course I care," he said. "I should never have done it, or kept it a secret for so long. I knew it was wrong, especially for you."

"For me, but not for my company."

But Ludo shook his head. "I made certain that neither you nor the Riskbreakers were mentioned in any of the contracts I signed," he insisted. "So that if anything should happen to me... you wouldn't be held liable for my debts."

Held liable. Those two words, more than anything else he might have said, evoked the utter finality of what he had done. "And that's why we can't get married."

"Yes," he whispered.

She had not cried. She had sworn to herself that she would not cry, no matter what she learned. She was much too strong for such a sentimental display, after all, and had the company to think of. The company, and the hopes of all Ala Mhigo riding on it.

She was so, so tired of being strong.

He stepped forward and drew her into him. She could not stop shivering, whether from her grief or from the cold spray blown from the falls on the night wind. "I'll fix this," he said, running a hand along her back. "I've journeyed deep into the Carteneau Flats. I've found more Allagan ruins in an area no one else can reach. I'll go in there, find whatever I can-"

"Shut up," she sobbed into his coat.

He complied but did not slacken his grip, swaying her ever so slightly into what should have been a soothing rhythm. Only at long last, when the night had darkened around them both, did he ask her, "Do you want me to go?"

Though there could only be a single answer, she could not bring herself to say it.

"Just..." He parted her hair with his fingers and laid a kiss on her forehead. "You’re wrong about one thing only." She heaved a deep, shuddering, tear-ridden breath but could not bring herself to respond. "You’re the one who’s brought yourself this far. The Syndicate had nothing to do with it. And... and neither did I."

"His name is Ludo Swiftwind," she told her mother. Her eyes stung, though only from the heavy somnus smoke filtering through the thin evening air within the mesa. "And I mean to marry him."

Tia let out a quiet, derisive snort and said not another word for the remainder of the evening.

She awoke out of a solid sleep in the dead of night to find someone tall and thin standing over the bed.

"Ludo?" she whispered, once her racing pulse had calmed enough for her to speak. "What are you doing?"

It had been days since she'd seen him last; since a vigorous tumble didn't count as conversation, it had been longer still since they'd spoken.

He made no response, nor did he offer any other acknowledgement of her presence. He remained deathly still in the darkened room, so still that she was halfway toward accusing him of having come home drunk when she caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were honed in on her with an almost unnatural focus.

"Come to bed, Ludo," she pleaded. Those words triggered something in him: he took another step closer and she began to unbutton his shirt and trousers as he watched. Each of her enticements went unheeded, even as she helped lay him down and brushed her thumb along the opalescent scales at his neck, his spine, his hips. It was as though he were suddenly immune to her touches, and she could not help but direct her shame at herself for the sheer inadequacy of her efforts.

She whispered a goodnight and expected no response.

But Ludo did not fall asleep. She could hear him breathing, curled up against him as she was. Each time she rolled over fitfully to steal another glance at him, he lay on his back with his eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling.

When she arose the next morning and went into the kitchen to find him holding out a steaming mug of coffee for her, she saw the very exhaustion she felt mirrored on his face.

"What was that all about last night?" she asked.

He blinked - a visible tell of hesitation - then shrugged.

She knew then that he had no memory at all of coming home.

"I don't mean to pry, Ashelia," A'zaela began. The young Miqo'te had the good sense and decency to first glance about the bar to ensure that her incoming question would remain truly private. "But... I have to ask. Is Ludo... feeling alright?"

Her heart, which had ached all day as though it were being clenched by a vise, began to pound anew. "Why do you ask?"

But A'zaela's eyes were full of concern, without so much as a hint of the curiosity Ashe had been expecting. "I-I don't know," she stammered. "I haven't seen much of him at all, really - even since I moved in. But he hasn't... seemed himself."

"He's been spending more time in the field," she explained. "I imagine once things settle down some, he’ll be able to catch up on his sleep. We both will."

A stack of letters had accumulated on Ludo's desk over the course of the past ten days, but he was still out in Mor Dhona or Carteneau or some other corner of the realm; he had not come by to collect them. With Argath barking at her heels for yet another round of fetch and only minutes until she was due to attend the last of her warrior training, she brought the day's mail into the office, where she promptly threw each unopened envelope into the fireplace.

"Don't do this to me, Ludo."

"What am I doing to you, Ashe? Why don't you tell me?" When she could summon no reply, he pressed on. "You told me before that you didn't want me to leave. Which is it?"

"It doesn’t matter now, does it?! You might as well have left, given all you’ve been away!"

"And I thought you of all people would understand. I'm away because I'm out getting you what you need."

"Oh?" she drawled. "Enlighten me. Like you always do."

"Power, Ashe." He stepped forward. "Isn't that the reason we've come so far? Hasn’t that been the point of all of this from the first? To find the means to tear down the Empire, no matter the cost. To tear down the Syndicate. To be free of them all."

Though no small part of her screamed to agree, she shook her head. "No," she whispered. "That's not it. That's not why-"

"Tell me what you have instead, then, from all your time spent sitting at home-"

"Oh, fuck you!"

"-or swinging that ridiculous axe on the beach. What do you have, Ashe? What have you done that makes you think you have even the slightest chance of standing up against the Empire?"

She had a box of forgotten imperial toys, a set of warrior’s furs, and a half-empty mansion she hated to be alone in - and she had done nothing so far.

"Ashe." Her heart ached at that whisper - the same tone he would use to wake her up from a long and troubled dream. He reached out to rest his hands on her shoulders, just as he had done so many times before, but he pulled their bodies together with such fervency that she nearly stumbled over her own feet. "You're naïve."

"Ludo, stop it-"

His hands raised up to both sides of her jaw, as if he meant to caress her face; then he seized her there with such force that her breath caught in her throat.

Somehow, she had never truly gathered just how tall he was.

She dug her nails deep into his wrists, into the tendons of his arms, into every one of the pressure points she'd learned by necessity from a young age. She kicked over and over at his shins and tried to angle her movements enough to knee him in the groin. None of it did her any good. She could not break his unnatural grip and despised herself for it. She had left her axe in their office and hadn't kept knives on her person since leaving the desert, and neither of those options would have availed her if he had her so firmly where he wanted her.

With his hands clasped along either side of her face, his thumbs digging hard into her cheekbones, he leaned in ever so slowly and pressed his lips to her forehead. She could only stand and tremble and endure the contact as each second passed as its own eternity. When at last it ended and he pulled himself away, he leered down at her with a hunger in his hazel eyes that she would never forget.

"I will come back to you." The words were as much a threat as they were a promise. "And I'll show you then what power looks like."

"L-Let me go."

She had no way of knowing if he would listen. The moment his hands came free of her skin, something deep within her snapped. She dealt him a single shove that broke the last thread of their physical contact.

"DON'T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!" Only after the words left her did she realize she'd screamed in her native language; she grappled with herself for only a moment before switching to the common tongue. "GET OUT!"

"Ashe-"

"OUT!"

She walked over to the door and threw it open. Ludo followed her steps and she, no longer certain that he would not try once more to take hold of her, pushed him again with all her might through the open doorway. The moment Ludo staggered over the threshold, she slammed the solid oak door shut and slid each of the three heavy bolts home.

All was silent for several long and breathless seconds. She had expected him to pound on the door, to scream at her and demand reentry; instead, she heard only a single muffled thud from well below the knocker.

And then there came another sound: low and even and steady but chilling beyond words.

Ludo was laughing.

Her thoughts tore her in myriad directions as she stood, still as a corpse, before the door. She did not know whether to trust in the manse's locks when all else at that moment seemed beyond trust. The bar spun all around her; her breaths came in short, shallow gasps. She willed herself to go and finally fetch her axe or barricade herself in their chambers or do something, anything to keep from gawping in front of the door where her partner sat laughing like a thing gone mad, but her heart and her thoughts alike were racing too fast to lead her to any sense. Perhaps she would have been able to snap out of it if she were any less of a selfish, stupid little girl.

She did not even know how long she stood there or who might have seen her. When at last she returned to her senses, the laughter from outside was gone and she was sitting in her pajamas on the bar’s hardwood floor, shivering as though she'd been left out in the rain.

"How did you hear about me?" the Roegadyn asked. It was only a bit too early in the day for drinks, but her guest had accepted a small mug of sweetened black tea and had been kind enough to overlook the layer of dust gathering everywhere in the den when Ashe had recommended taking up seats at the bar.

"The advertisement in the Mythril Eye," Ashe conceded as she fought back a sudden yawn. It struck her how similar this was to doing interviews for new recruits, and that somehow made the entire situation feel all the more absurd. A door banged open from somewhere behind them and Ashe gave a start, but a hasty glance over her shoulder revealed only Argath, who had come barreling from her office with a subligar he'd taken to using as a chew toy. The woman let out a low chuckle as her eyes followed him, and all the while, Ashe took several long breaths in an effort to steady her racing pulse.

"As for money..." The woman leaned forward on her bar stool a little conspiratorially. "Generally I charge five thousand gil a night. Generally. But my satisfaction rating and prior references speak for themselves - and even then, I'd be more than willing to halve that fee for you."

"You don't need to- I have money, I-"

"I insist. Besides, money isn't really the reason I entered this profession." She lowered her voice. "I want to use my gifts to keep people safe. You're a strong woman, Ashelia - and you are fearful in your own home. That is unacceptable."

Of all the fights she had to lose, it might as well be this one. "...Remind me of your name, if you would."

"Sylvan Rain."

"Thank you. Sylvan. I'm afraid I've been a little... tired of late."

"Naturally. But please, rest easy. If this former partner of yours so much as steps into the garden, on my word, he’ll have me to deal with." She cracked her knuckles and stood, stretching her arms out high above her head. "And I certainly wouldn't be opposed to joining you in your other operations, either. Assuming my guess that you’re running an anti-Garlean task force out of the back of this bar is correct."

"There’s not..." She cleared her throat and started again. Trust, Ashe. "...Please tell me it wasn’t that obvious."

Sylvan grinned and held out a hand to pull her from her chair. "Not at all. I just have an intuition for these things."

She permitted herself to stay in casual clothes for the third day in a row. There were no urgent matters to be handled in the field for once, and traffic to the bar had all but slowed to a halt. Most of the Riskbreakers' recruits were attending to their own affairs, which afforded her the time and the means to finalize the last of the company's plans to storm the Praetorium.

There would be Enea, a Miqo'te woman with a scarred and beautiful face who wielded with ease a sword taller than she was. There would be Ferrinas, an Elezen lass who had learned pugilism from a band of Ala Mhigans and had sworn to contribute to their liberation however she was able. And there would, of course, be A'zaela, who had witnessed her weeping for the first time in weeks over a stack of paperwork only the previous morning and had sat with her until her tears had dried, saying not a word of it to any of the others afterward. There would be Velas'to and Leodaire and Rael, all of whom had learned of the Riskbreakers and their efforts through the slaying of elite marks and had simply voiced their honest intentions of contributing however they could, if she would have them.

Sylvan had slipped into Ludo's spot in the ranks as effortlessly as she shifted through forms in battle, due in no small part to her willingness to voice gentle dissent whenever one of Ashe's proposed plans would lead them all off the rails. Though the monk had no formal knowledge of combat tactics, she possessed something perhaps even more valuable: sound logic.

Ashe, for her part, had invested the very last of the company’s gil into a monitoring system that would enable her to listen in on every transmission coming in and out of Cape Westwind. With that and the signal jammers from the Garlean weapons cache at their disposal, they could disrupt communications throughout the entire XIVth Legion long enough for them to infiltrate Castrum Meridianum. Once inside, the cache's bombs would see them to the Praetorium.

The Riskbreakers had toiled through two moons of constant momentum for this strategy, and they would have longer still to prepare before the opportune time to strike. She had trained all she could, rallied devoted troops, planned for every scenario she could envision - and that would have to be enough until the day came.

What happened after would depend on whether or not she and her company were worthy of their names.

Ashe had more than earned her three days of quiet but spent most of her solitude trying to convince herself of that fact. Whenever she was not throwing herself headlong into her preparations to tear down the Empire, she focused her thoughts on Ala Mhigo. She remembered the way light shifted through the leaves of the tree on her favorite hill, the color of the capital's ramparts lit up against the setting sun. She remembered the love she'd been given as a girl, and the love she'd given in turn for her family and her friends and the city she had always known to be her birthright - and she let those memories drive her past all that she had lost.

The front door suddenly swung open with enough force for it to rebound against the wall. Though Ashe gave a start and her pulse quickened at the loud bang, she maintained her casual lean against the bar.

A young Ala Mhigan man clad in the yellow robes of a Fist of Rhalgr strode in and glanced around at the Sandsea's sparse interior. She knew him at once as he turned to greet her - not so much by his appearance, but by the remembrance of an innocent, unyielding faith she thought she had left behind so long ago - and he in turn fixed her with a wide-eyed beam.

[chocobabyporcelain]

Hey! Your dating Cindy hcs were cute omg! Could I request a reader insert drabble of Cindy taking care of her drunk girlfriend please?

Aww, thank you so much! Yes! Loving, caring girlfriend Cindy is exactly what I’m here for! Most of this is from my own experience of taking care of dumb drunks, or even being the dumb drunk being taken care of ;;;TW/CW for vomiting mentions, I guess? It’s only one tiny paragraph, but I know some people get queasy or even have phobias, so I’ll just forewarn you.

Gonna tag some lovely people: @neko-otaku13 @itshaejinju @themissimmortal @bespectacled-girl @expectogladiolus @angel-dream @itsmootothecow @zacklover24 @rubyphilomela @eternallydaydreaming2015 @insomniacapples @valkyrieofardyn As always let me know if it’s not okay to tag you, and on the flip side let me know if you want to be tagged

cind babewhere r u think i lost m shoe my foot is wet come get me pls

Cindy looked down at her phone and sighed. You hadn’t lost yourshoe, it was in your hand. And Cindy knew it was in your hand,because she had just watched you take it off from where she wassitting, around three feet away.

It was Saturday night, date night, and you had decided that youwanted to go clubbing. Cindy never really was one for clubs. Shewasn’t a big drinker and she had to drive home anyway, but she didlove seeing you dance, shaking those cute hips and watching yourskirt ride up just enough to get a little flash of your knickers. Shecouldn’t say no to you. So, you went clubbing. You and Cindy bothdid one shot when you got there, Cindy got herself a beer and youkept knocking back shots. Basically, by the time you text her,roughly two hours later, you were lucky you were still able to useyour legs.

Cindy tucked her phone back into her bag and shuffled herself out ofthe booth, she got to her feet, approached you and gently lay herhand on your shoulder.

You spun around, shocked expression quickly morphing into a widesmile. “Cindy!” you yell and throw your arms around her, leaningall of your weight on her.

Cindy just smiled, linking her fingers together behind your back.“Hey, baby.” she greeted, giving you a quick peck on the lips.“Ready to go?”

“No,” you whined, resting your head on her shoulder. You sniffed,tears burning your eyes. “Cindy, I’m so stupid!” You stumbledbackwards, pointing down to your feet. “I lost my shoe!” Youwobbled as you tried to raise your bare foot out in front of you,almost toppling.

Cindy reached out to steady you, grabbing hold of the kitten heeldangling from your fingers once she was sure you could supportyourself. “No, it’s okay, look, I have it.” She held the shoeup to your line of sight, coiling her free arm around you. “Nowc’mon, we gotta get you home.” She guided you towards the exit,ignoring the voices around her saying “She’s such a good friend.”and “Thirty gil says they’re banging.” It seems as thoughpeople are either well-meaning, but oblivious or utter arseholes.There is no in-between.

She managed to guide you to the car with little difficulty, stoppingonly when you stepped on a slug and started crying. She loaded youinto the car, wiping away the few stray tears as you babbled aboutthe “poor sluggy who didn’t get to live,” and quickly dashedover to the driver’s side, climbing in beside you.

The ride home was an uneasy mix of sleeping and weeping on your part,poor Cindy trying to soothe you when you began to sob. Luckily, yourflat wasn’t too far from the club. “We’re home, babe.” shesaid softly as she pulled up outside your complex.

You groaned, sick to your stomach at the thought of moving. “Cindy,”you sobbed out, rubbing your eyes with the heel of your hand,smearing already running mascara and eyeliner, turning yourself intoa drunken rendition of Bucky Barnes. “I feel sick.”

Cindy sighed, reaching over to brush your hair out of your face. “Iknow, sweetie.” she cooed. She reached down to unbuckle yourseatbelt. “C’mon, let’s get you upstairs and into bed.” Sheclimbed out of the car, circling around to your side to help you outand guide you into the building and into the elevator.

The entire ride up, you sobbed and sighed, your head resting onCindy’s shoulder while she and the mirrored wall kept you upright.Cindy rubbed your arm and pressed kisses against your head. As muchas she hated seeing you like this, it was self inflicted and she mayor may not have thought you were an idiot for letting yourself getinto this state.

The elevator dinged, doors opening onto your floor. With Cindy’shelp, you staggered out of the elevator and up the short hall to yourfront door. She reached into your bag, fishing out your keys andawkwardly trying to balance you and open the door at the same time.She tried her best, but her efforts were in vain as the two of youtoppled into the flat and onto the floor.

You gasped hard, coughing and retching. Cindy jumped up, grabbinghold of your upper arms and practically dragging you into thebathroom. She held your hair while you were sick, throwing up theentire contents of your stomach into the toilet until all you coulddo was dry-retch and cry. “Cindy, I hate this.” you bawled.

Cindy sighed and rubbed your back. “I know, baby. I know.” shewhispered. She leaned over you to rip off a square of toilet roll,wiping your mouth clean before dropping the square into the bowl andflushing it all away. She helped you to your feet, guiding you overto sit on the edge of the bathtub. She dug through the medicinecabinet for a little while before pulling out a bottle of Micellarwater and some make-up removal pads. She wet a pad and rubbed itgently over your eyes, wiping away the black smudges that had becomeof your expertly applied make-up.

“M’tired.” you croaked out, resting your head against the coldbathroom wall. “Can we go to bed now?”

Cindy tossed the blackened pads into the waste basket and ran herhands under the tap. “Sure thing, honey.” She smiled at you asshe dried her hands, then helped you to your feet. She lead you fromthe bathroom, down the hall to your bedroom, where you flopped ontoyour bed.

Repressing what felt the her fiftieth sigh of the night, Cindyperched on the edge of the bed next to you and tried to help you situp. “You can’t sleep in that dress, (y/n).”

You grumbled, but complied, letting Cindy manoeuvrer you into anupright position and pull down the zip at the back of your dress. Youcollapsed back as soon as it was down and wiggled your way out of it.You giggled, clumsily wrapping you arms around Cindy’s waist as sheunhooked your bra and tried to untangle you from it. She was notletting you sleep in that evil contraption. “Now you have to getundressed.” you sang.

Cindy chuckled. “No, no, sugar. Sleep time.” She tried to liftyou slightly, just enough to peel back the bedsheets and tuck you in,but you were at an awkward angle and maybe a little too heavy to liftwith one arm. “C’mon, into bed.”

You huffed, clearly unhappy, but did as you were told regardless,tossing your bra off the side of the bed. “Don’t make me sleepalone.” you whined as she pulled the covers over you.

“I’ll be right back.” she promised. She disappeared into thebathroom briefly to wash off her own make-up and deposit her outfitinto the laundry hamper. She wandered back to your room and climbedinto bed next to yo in just her panties.

You giggled, carding your fingers into her blonde curls and pressinga kiss to her lips. “Hey there.” you purred.

Cindy shook her head. “Not when you’re like this.” she said.She pulled you close to her, coiling her own fingers into your hair.“You need to sleep.”

You would have protested, but honestly, you didn’t have it in you.She was right. You groaned, tucking your face into the crook of herneck. “Love you.” you muttered.

“I love you, too, angel.”

The next morning hit you like a truck.

It was too bright, your mouth felt like cotton and already everythingwas the worst.

You groaned, turned over in bed and reached your arm out for yourgirlfriend, but felt nothing. You sat up, blinking yourself into fullconsciousness. “Cind?” you croaked out, throat protesting in amanner that was not unlike swallowing sandpaper.

You threw off the duvet and struggled to your feet, stumbling outinto the hall. You could hear a clatter in the kitchen that made yourbrain feel like exploding. Despite every instinct, you followed thenoise into the kitchen and sat at the table.

As expected, you found Cindy in the kitchen, hovering over the stove.“Morning,” she greeted. “Didn’t reckon you’d be up justyet.” She moved over to the sink, filling a glass with water andplacing it in front of you, along with two paracetamol. “Take thatand I’ll make you some coffee.”

“Thank you.” you whined. You tossed the pills into your mouth andknocked back the water. “Cindy,” you frowned, giving her yourbest puppy pout. “I’m sorry you had to put up with my drunk asslast night.” you apologised.

Cindy laughed, placing a mug of hot coffee on the table. “I know,right?” she folded her arms and sat nest to you. “You’re solucky that I love you so much!” She put an arm around you and youleaned into her and groaned. “As long as you don’t make a habitof it, we’ll be okay.” She teased.