#if this is 20-25 years before canon then surely their radios needed it lmao

[ahkaraii]

Young adult!Cor as a Royal Guardsman! featuring a younger Dustin and Monica :3 I like to think they went on many missions together.

They're primarily a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering team, first formed to infiltrate the budding Imperial bases in Duscae and Leide and then destroy them.

Dustin's a bit Ignis-esq, in that he's mild-mannered, well-educated, and secretly a fucking badass ninja assassin. He can wield pretty much any weapon more than adequately but he's fond of poison and crossbows for the silent-kill-at-a-distance. He prefers not to be credited for his successes. Kind of a sub lol.

Monica is the infiltration specialist, she's low-born like Cor and grew up robbing rich people's houses and getting around their security, so she's rough around the edges and damn scrappy in a fight. Her preference is for daggers but is handy with a gun. At first she's a punkass kid that talks back and takes no shit (which Clarus likes to remind Cor that he was just like that whenever he bitches about it), but she eventually mellows into a more compassionate while still passionate leader-type.

Cor's the hard-hitter and the expert at getting out of any dicey situation alive and kicking. He's technically team leader by rank but defers to Monica and Dustin's expertise while they remain undetected-- the moment they're spotted, though, he's barking orders and leaving a bloodtrail. Over those several months-long missions abroad Monica and Dustin get to know him very well, and become self-proclaimed experts at telling apart his scowls (he scowls whenever they say that). They also get quite good at making him quirk a smile, and laugh on occasion :3

I like to think they're the team that rescued Prompto ^^

Eventually they are eased out of this joint field work and brought back home separately, and shuffled into the Crownsguard positions they hold in canon. Cor at first distances himself from them simply because he's no longer around them 24/7, but when Dustin continues sending him intelligence reports and Monica continues doing favours for him when he needs it, he starts orbiting them again even off-duty. They become his friends.

Monica and Dustin become a lowkey item (they never marry and are very good at avoiding PDA, but they're a Thing), and Cor eventually becomes their kinda on-again off-again satellite. In my HC Cor's aromantic demisexual, with a very low sex drive, but whenever he does get an urge or a need, he turns to them to get it over with. He's not into romance, he's not into big gestures, he's not really even into staying over for the night, but they're cool with it. They respect him (and each other) immensely, so no hard feelings, and they always put the job first before pleasure anyway.

They're workaholics is what I'm getting at.

When Insomnia falls and Cor becomes de-facto leader of what remains of the Crownsguard, they unite once more to keep the whole mess standing and recruit Hunters and trained civilians to their cause. They keep Cor grounded and going and stop him from falling into a suicidal demon-killing spree on many an occasion over the years, so he's very grateful to them, in his own gruff way. When Dustin grows too old for the field and Monica semi-retires with him, Cor lowkey moves in, too.

I have a lot of endgame OT3 feels ok!!

Anyway here's a tentative age and height chart: