Kiran never liked the feeling of walking on fresh grass. That slight lack of traction; a drop of uncertainty that could taint an ocean of stability. Of course, that was a bit of a stretch. Also, Askran grass had the habit of being a little too healthy for walking on. It made weird sounds underfoot, as if something sentient was being trampled, wheezing out their dying cries from below.
Damn it, it was just grass. Anything could be overthought under the proper mental duress though.
"Is something bothering you?"
The unpleasant thoughts dispersed upon the sound of a sweet familiar voice. The summoner smiled with a pursing of lips and a not so subtle head shake.
"White isn't the best color to be walking on grass with. It's a pain to clean, you know?"
Oh, the stains were a pain in Kiran's ass too.
"I suppose it is."
Kiran never liked the feeling of Fjorm's presence nowadays either. So uneasy, like she had secrets worth sharing that weren't worth knowing.
But it was her health that was the sour note, not her mood. Her cough wasn't much of a secret.
"You're shivering again."
"A-am I? Sorry. I'd think it's been getting colder..."
"Colder than a snowbank in Nifl? You seemed just fine there."
A stern Niflin glare.
"Perhaps all that time in Muspell acclimated my body towards more... festive climates. It could be many things, I imagine."
"I suppose that's... well, if that's to be the case... Hmm, never mind. I suppose we'll be seeing cooler nights like this more often. It's nearing the winter season."
Kiran sighed, the pockets in the Summoner's robe able to fit both arms in a relatively casual posture.
"I'll be fine, Kiran."
"If you say so."
Fjorm and Kiran continued walking, the princess lagging slightly behind the lax pace of the summoner.
"I've been meaning to ask, Princess," Kiran began, hesitant. Fjorm stopped walking, eyeing the cloaked tactician warily.
"Yes?"
"Why did you return with us? Your sister and brother would very much like to be with you. There's a lot to be done in Nifl."
"Hrid and Ylgr... they'll forgive me I hope. They know I have a debt to repay."
"A debt that has been repaid, you mean. Surtr is dead. Nifl is setting its foundations again. You should be there."
"I have my reasons, Kiran. Would you not have me stay?"
"I would, Fjorm. I would gladly let you stay here. But were it up to me, I would have you be with your family instead of with us. Just for now."
Fjorm gave a slight grimace, shoulders dropping.
"I can't. I do not consider my debt to you repaid yet."
"Then what? What more can you do for us? We've done what we set out to do in Nifl. We've-"
"Kiran, do you want me to leave? You know full well how I'm indebted to you. It is up to me to determine when I consider my debt settled."
"It would be very disrespectful to dismiss you, but I'd hope you'd shirk this debt and return to your siblings. I wouldn't mind."
"It's more than that," Fjorm admitted, turning away. "Much more."
"I know."
"Huh? What do y-"
"I've learned how to understand the motives of people the year and a half I've been here," Kiran explained, gesturing to the princess to continue their walk. "It's a hard thing at first. But I can see in other's eyes, in their body language. Especially their footsteps. You're not the only homesick soul that's bound by duty to remain here."
"So you know that I want to stay. But do you know why I want to stay?"
"Not really, aside from the reasons we've discussed. But I do know why you haven't left."
"That's what I just asked."
"There's a minute difference, Princess."
"I would ask what you mean."
Kiran paused a second, placing together the proper words.
"Once you return back to Nifl, you will stay there, I think. I don't think you will be finding yourself in Askr for a while if you return home. There would be too much to do-"
"That's not it at all."
"Oh?" Kiran asked in surprise. "It has nothing to do with adventure or curiosity or camaraderie?"
"I have left home for lesser things, Kiran. I already have had all the fun and adventure I could want."
"Well when you say it that way, I sound like some fortune-telling fool. So enlighten me. Why haven't you left?"
Fjorm took a small breath, unnoticeable if they were surrounded by people. But in the cold, starry Askran night, it might as well have been a gasp.
"Because I would be near the one who saved me. I would do everything in my power to... I drone on and on, don't I? I want to be near you, Kiran. There's no getting around it. With you by my side, I feel... fulfilled. Not in an Askran castle, not in a Niflin courtyard, and not in a Muspelli throne room. Only by you."
Kiran was glad Fjorm stood in the rear of their two-soldier procession, where she couldn't see past the large hood that blocked two blushing cheeks.
Kiran didn't blush often.
"O-oh. Well, I can appreciate your good t-taste."
"Now you're shivering," Fjorm teased. "I didn't think you would ever be cold in that coat of yours-"
"It wasn't the cold and you know it," Kiran yipped back playfully, turning and revealing a very genuine smile. "Thanks. This means a lot to me, you know."
"Really? Every single solder in the Order of Heroes seems to confess their hearts to you on a daily basis. What makes me so special?"
"Well, you're real, I suppose. You're a living breathing human in their natural state. You haven't died."
Fjorm frowned instantly.
"..."
"Err, well, you kinda realize all the heroes I summon are dead, right? I mean-"
"I get it, you don't have to go into detail."
Fjorm relaxed slightly, though still a little tense.
"That was in bad taste. I should pick my words better."
"They weren't wrong, I suppose."
On and on they walked, side by side now instead of in a file.
"You're going to stay for a while then?"
The Princess shrugged, hands empty and forced to twiddle thumbs without Leiptr to hold on to.
"I've had much time to meditate on this. My mind is set."
"I know it is. I thank you for staying with us, nonetheless."
"It is my honor to. Debt or not, you are-"
Kiran halted. Niflin cyan eyes met Askran azure ones.
"But that doesn't excuse the fact that you haven't seen the healers yet."
The Princess coughed as if on demand.
"I've no idea what you mean," Fjorm attempted, the faintest of cracks in her defenses.
"I see it now. I don't want to, but I do."
"See what?"
"The life in your eyes, in your face. It's fleeting. I don't need to be a healer to see it. I think I know why you will not return to Nifl."
"K-kiran, I assure you that-"
"Listen, Fjorm. Rite of Flames, Rite of Frost. Both require blood, a willing sacrifice... We already saw what happened to Laegjarn."
"...So you know. I did not think you would have done thorough research."
"Alfonse- He loves his books. I'm sorry if you were going to keep it a secret, but I will not have you die under my watch. And I will not return a body of one of my closest companions to Nifl."
"B-but... it's too late! I've already committed my soul into undoing Surtr's flame. Revenge sated or not, my spirit will not return to me, even now."
Kiran let out a sigh, gazing longingly into the night sky above.
"Many of us would have done the same thing, I think. Bearing it upon ourselves, withholding information like that."
"I apologize. I did not want to burden my siblings-"
"But it was fine to burden me?"
Fjorm gulped slightly.
"N-no. That's not what I meant."
"This hurts, Fjorm. I know it's insensitive of me to say, considering your... situation. But Princess, I feel empty, now that I've pieced things together. You would pick me rather than your siblings in your... last days. I don't think I like that. I feel guilty."
"How do you think I feel, Kiran?" Fjorm asked quietly, her hands quivering. "I'm the one on borrowed time."
"I cannot begin to imagine," the summoner replied just as solemnly, keeping a respectful tone. "You have nothing but your convictions now, and you made a damn tricky decision. in the face of..."
"Death."
"I don't want to think of it like that."
A pause, just enough to gather thoughts.
"Neither do I. But it presses, gnaws at me. Every second I spend not thinking of it is an inch it gains upon my will."
"How long do you have?"
"I don't know."
"I think you do," Kiran urged.
"Not much, I suppose. Days, weeks... months?"
"That's not enough. I have so much I wanted to ask, but now... I don't know what to say."
"Let me stay here... please. I don't want to die in my home. I will not share a demise where my sister and mother did. At least grant me that much."
"I... I will. I won't leave you, not now, not at the end. I owe it to you that much."
"Thank you, Kiran. You... you didn't have to comply with me but you did. I promise I'll do everything I can to-"
"But there has to be a way. I won't leave you to wither away. Not like Laegjarn."
"I would not die willingly, Kiran. Healers can do great things, but they cannot restore life that is gone. I have accepted this... and with what time I have left, I would not spend it with anyone else but you."
The summoner looked at Nifl's Princess with a bitter smile, only to see it mirrored in the same mood.
"Surely family is more important than a selfish little summoner, isn't it?"
"Consider it a lapse in judgement," Fjorm replied, stepping an inch closer. "And it's too late to change my fickle mind. I think I'll just have to focus on the consequences."
"So you're suggesting I should roll with the punches, as it were," Kiran began, matching Fjorm's approach.
"If this isn't what you want-"
"But to be honest, I've had this thought out for weeks. I was kind of hoping you'd stay. Just not like this."
"Really? I didn't think you would consider me a residing member of the order after our stint into Muspell concluded."
"I thought of you more than I'd like to admit, actually."
The two stepped closer still, easily within arm's reach now.
"How so?"
"Shh..."
"...Heh. I have to cough."
"Not on me-"
Fjorm coughed heavily through a gritty smile, the pain in her eyes paired with the glimmer of a shining hope.
"Ouch," Kiran remarked, warm hands straightening out the cyan tips of Fjorm's hair. "You're freezing. Even more than your usual. This isn't contagious, right?"
"Oh please, I'm both surprised and not surprised you know my body temperature. What with your constant poking of all of us."
"It's an ancient tradition of my people," Kiran lied, poking the side of Fjorm's neck for good measure. "Plus I wanted to have a reason to see you."
"Any reason's a good reason."
"With you? Oh. *cough* Yeah... it is."
"There's that cough again. Does it hurt?"
"It's not so bad, I hope. I've been handling quite well, all things considered."
Kiran's hand was still there, resting on her shoulder now. Fjorm kept her distance, or rather lack of distance. Her boots and Kiran's were essentially touching.
"Doesn't look like it. All things considered."
Fjorm lifted up her right to hand to rest atop Kiran's left, equally craving body heat and affection.
"I shouldn't lie to you but... it hurts, Kiran. Not the Rite... but the fact that I don't have much longer. I thought my body could take the pain but... my heart cannot. I don't want to leave you. Not now."
"I suppose it would require a miracle, wouldn't it? Some divine intervention, something that can give you just a little bit longer?"
"Just a little bit is more than enough for me. I love you," Fjorm added softly, pulling the summoner's hood away and freeing her intended target. Kiran shivered instantly at both the touch and the cold air touching previously covered ears.
"Wait, what did you say- Oh geez, it is freezing out-"
Cold lips met open ones, cutting off Kiran's words.
"I-mmm..." the Summoner droned off, eyes closing on reflex.
Fjorm laughed through Kiran's mouth, the vibrations causing the summoner to laugh as well. Her right hand gripped his left tightly, fingers intertwined. Eyes also closed and now spewing a gross volume of tears, Fjorm felt for his right hand and-
Click.
A blinding light shot out from Kiran's right hand, which in turn was holding Breidablik. Fjorm immediately recoiled back, disconnecting herself from the Summoner and looking herself over, and then to the grassy plains around her. Seeing nothing out of sorts, she turned back to the dazed summoner.
"What was..."
Breidablik was glowing.
"What did you just do."
"Repaying a debt I owed," Kiran replied forcefully, visibly shaken. Quaking fingers dropped Breidablik and a knee hit the ground hard. The other dropped soon after, but by then Fjorm had rushed over to hold the summoner upright.
"You shot yourself. Why?"
"I-it's a custom in Nifl... to repay those who rescue you from the s-snow."
"What are you talking about? I owe you, not the other-"
"Gunnthrá asked me to protect you, *cough* and she did give me the Snjarsteinn to fulfill your Rite of Frost. I couldn't pay her back before she died, so-so t-this is the best thing I could think of."
"Gunnthrá, what? Wait, my body..."
Fjorm looked herself over, slowly raising a hand to her neck and feeling her temperature. Lowering it slowly, she turned back to Kiran, who flashed her a sheepish grin.
"What did you do! Please tell me you didn't just take put the rite upon yourself-"
"I couldn't do much, I-I'm sorry," Kiran apologized, staggering back but unable to support much on wobbly legs. "I gave you as much as I could."
"Gave me what?"
"..."
"Kiran, what did you give me?"
"Years."
"Whose? O-oh. Oh no."
"Breidablik lets me resurrect the dead, right? I didn't want to wait to try it on you. Besides, you're t-technically not a hero. So I tried something else. I won't pretend that us Askrans have some magical Rite but this is about as close as it gets. Years of my life are now yours. Not a bad trade, I think."
Kiran staggered upright, finally able to stand again. Stretching about, it took a very long time to manage a somewhat normal posture.
"Now that that's settled, where were we?"
"You would do that for me?" Fjorm whispered, not quite believing what just happened.
"Of course I would. That whole debt thing is technically true, I do owe Gunnthrá for saving us in Nifl, but come on. I'll be a real shoddy hero if I let you die without an effort to save you. And I'd be a horrible person to let the woman I love slip out of my grasp."
"Y-you l-love... heh- Wait! But Askr needs-"
"Oh don't spoil my decision. And really? Askr needs me but Nifl doesn't need you?"
Fjorm smiled again, feeling a little better about all this.
"You do realize if I didn't have a good reason to be indebted to you then, I definitely do now?"
Kiran feigned an expression of shock, standing up straight and letting out a pained sigh.
"But we're not in the snow. And you're not in a snowbank-"
"That's not how it works."
"What, are you going to go back to Nifl?"
"That's a fantastic idea," Fjorm announced, turning tail and play-marching away from the summoner, as if the hundreds of miles to Nifl were traversable in one night.
"Really? Wait, come back!"
Kiran groaned, running after Nifl's Princess and tackling her to the ground. Fjorm gasped in surprise, but wasn't injured due to most of the impact being absorbed by the out-of-breath summoner.
"At least take me with you," Kiran joked, reflecting Fjorm's smile with their own.
"You have no idea what this chance means for me," the Princess confessed, hugging Kiran tightly. "T-thank you."
"You're very welcome," Kiran replied softly, stroking Fjorm's hair. "Well, technically, I'm just doing what your sister asked m- mmm..."
Lips met once more, this time for quite a while.