#fluffy fluff they're being lovey dovey and gross

[dawnslight-aegis]

1. envoy

As the snow of Coerthas slowly gave way to the forests of the Northern Shroud, howling mountain winds replaced with the rustle of leaves and the sigh of the breeze, warmth spread slowly through Kaede’s body, recovering sensation and feeling in the tips of her fingers and the ends of her toes. She sighed as the gentle rise and fall of her companions’ conversation washed over her, though she was not truly paying it any mind. Her mind was elsewhere – or it was trying to be, and she was doing everything in her power to keep it anchored firmly on the uneven path under her chocobo’s talons.

A task made all the more difficult by the fact that every few moments she could feel Aymeric’s gaze lingering on her, warmer and more intense than even the sun on the back of her neck. Gods help her, the man was staring, and it was infinitely more distracting than it had any right to be.

They were on their way to a war council, there simply wasn’t time to be mooning about like a maiden, no matter how recently they’d become…whatever it was they were. Every time she had attempted to locate a word to encapsulate the nascent relationship, she had found her vocabulary wanting, all the options too shallow or too saccharine.

After a particularly long moment of silence, a sound from Aymeric’s other side caught Kaede’s attention as Lucia cleared her throat. “Lord Commander.” From her tone, she had been waiting some time for a response that had yet to come, and had grown impatient enough to let it filter into her voice.

“Ah… yes? My deepest apologies, Lucia. My mind wandered for a moment,” Aymeric murmured, somewhat sheepishly, but without even the slightest hint of regret.

The stoic Garlean made a noise that from someone else, Kaede might have been tempted to call a snort, then shook her head and urged her chocobo forward. “I can see that, my lord,” she muttered flatly. “By your leave, I will make directly for the city and see to our lodgings – I trust that I will see you both at the council this evening?”

A sharp green eye studied Aymeric and Kaede in turn, and the raen fought the rather ridiculous urge to salute as Aymeric nodded.

“Thank you, Second Commander. We shall endeavor not to be late.”

Skepticism flashed across Lucia’s stern features and then was gone as she spurred her bird into a canter, disappearing into the Shroud.

Kaede had scarce lost sight of her when a long-fingered hand shot out and caught Rose’s bridle, tugging the black chocobo closer to his own mount. As the birds bumped into one another with a quiet kweh of protest, Aymeric’s other hand slid against her jaw and tipped her head back, his mouth covering hers before she had time to react. Tenderness spread through her like sun-warmed honey, thick and sweet and golden, leaving her helpless to do aught but return his affections in kind.

When he finally released her, there was a hint of mischief in his expression – something that she was still unused to seeing in him, but that she was growing to cherish more every time she saw it. “Forgive me, my lady, but I have been thinking about doing that since before we left Ishgard, and I found myself unable to wait a moment longer.”

“Hmm. Well. I suppose I could be convinced not to hold it against you, but I don’t know that I can say the same about Lucia.” Kaede grinned at Aymeric as she nudged her chocobo back into parallel with his own, rather than risk the barding becoming entangled, but a full fulm closer than she’d been before the Second Commander’s departure. “You might have been a bit less obvious, you know.”

“I might have, but then I would not have been afforded a half-bell of peace and quiet with you.” The spark of mischief in his eyes flared into full-blown amusement, laced with pride.

Kaede shot him an incredulous sidelong glance, stifling a laugh behind her hand. “Are you telling me that you were intentionally acting the lovestruck fool in order to annoy your second in command into leaving us alone? All so you could kiss me? Halone forfend, ser.”

“’Tis not much of an act, I fear.” His smile turned a touch rueful as he caught her hand and brushed a kiss across the back of it.

Linking her fingers with his, they let the chocobos meander towards the city at their own pace as they soaked in the dappled sunlight and late spring warmth.

Though a part of her was loath to break the peaceful silence, the greater portion did not want to waste the few stolen moments before they assumed their roles, and so Kaede squeezed his hand and tipped her head in curiosity. “Have you visited the Shroud before? I must say, it’s somewhat strange for me to see you surrounded by anything but stone or snow.”

“I have, though I have not had the pleasure in some time. I have always been fond of it – Gridania is beautiful.” A faint look of melancholy touched his features and he sighed. “Coerthas was not always so gloomy, you know. I wish I could show it to you as it was. Cold, still, but green, with lakes warm enough to swim without losing fingers to frostbite. We used to spend summers in the country, my parents and I. They are among my fondest memories.”

Not for the first time, but perhaps the fiercest, Kaede wished she could control when the Echo triggered, so she could see through his eyes what he longed to show her – but whatever it was that made the visions overtake her sight lay quiet in the back of her mind. All that was left was her imagination, and try as she might, she could not picture the highlands as anything but austere, cold and harsh and magnificent.

Kaede let out a long breath and peered up through the pale green leaves above them, to the blue sky beyond. “It sounds beautiful. But I like the way it is now, too.” Ishgard’s cold made the warmth of her hearths all the more inviting, the standoffishness of her people making their welcome a treasure dearer to her than any gold.

They rounded a corner on the path, and the Yellow Serpent gate stood before them, Gridania all but hidden by the trees beyond. As if of the same mind, they both brought their chocobos to a stop, the reminder of exactly why they had departed Ishgard unable to be avoided any longer.

War was on the horizon once again, and the Twelve only knew what it would require from each of them, but it was near a certainty that their moments together would be shorter and less frequent than even now. Kaede could see in his eyes the same ache that clenched like a fist around her heart, the wish that the world could stop – or at least slow – for a while. But the Keeper waited for no man, and the Spinner had decreed their paths soon diverge once more.

Aymeric dismounted and stepped over, holding his hand out to Kaede. From anyone else, she might have been tempted to be insulted at the insinuation that she required help, but from him, the courteous gesture seemed as natural as breathing. As he pulled her from the saddle, he tugged her into his arms, and they stood clinging to each other for a long moment, barely daring to breathe for fear of disturbing the last gasp of calm before the storm.

Eventually, Kaede forced herself to loosen her grip around Aymeric’s waist, and in turn he stepped back and briefly caught her hands in his own. “Well, shall we?”

Summoning a faint smile to her face, Kaede nodded. “I suppose we must.”

It seemed to Kaede the first in what would be a long series of farewells, driven not by desperation, but by the inexorable tug of duty. To stand still in one another’s presence, but parted as surely as if there were malms between them.

Together but apart, they walked into Gridania, to face whatever awaited them on the horizon, beyond Baelsar’s Wall.