Title: seen your eyes (before in anouther life i lived)
Author: Rapis-Razuri
Beta: ObsessiveCompulsiveValkyrie
Word Count: 6,730
Game: Awakening
Characters/Pairings: Inigo/Lucina, minor Chrom/female!Robin and Henry/Olivia, plus a few mentioned or implied in passing.
Notes: Okay so... I haven't updated A Reason to Smile in a while... well, now you know there's a non-school related reason for that. This was just anouther plot bunny I was going to keep to myself, but then it turned out to be a surprisingly stubborn plot bunny that kept going "Write me! Write me! Write me!" in my head, so here we are.
I will likely post my lengthier, story related (and disorganized) author notes on my LiveJournal later.
The title comes from Erutan's song "So Far Away and So Near."
Big thanks to ObsessiveCompulsiveValkyrie for all her help!
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In some other life, she was the princess who couldn't protect her world, and he was the hero who stood by her side when she made her last stand.
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"Can take your order, Miss?"
The first thing she thinks of when she makes eye contact with the silver haired and brown eyed barista is that he strikes her as strangely familiar.
Which is completely ludicrous. She's certain she's never seen him before in her life.
She is a regular at Café Themis and knows nearly all of the staff, in addition to a few of her friends who work here, by face.
He stares right back, patiently awaiting her order. When she says nothing while staring at him and not at the menu behind him, he decides it is time to quip with a smirk, "I know I'm sexy and I know you would like nothing better than to stare at me all day, but I'll have to remind you there is a line of people you're inconveniencing behind you."
Lucina blushes because she isn't used to having attractive (to his credit, he does make the uniform look slightly – but only slightly – less ridiculous than the other male employees did) strangers flirt with her and hastily utters her order alongside an apology.
When she hands him her credit card to pay for the coffee, he takes a moment to examine it before swiping. "So your name is Lucina? Pretty name," he says as he hands it back to her. Then he winks, "but not as pretty as the person who bears it."
Once again, her face reddens. She retakes her card and the receipt a little more aggressively than usual and tries not to watch him when he starts making her mocha.
His name - Inigo - is tagged on her receipt. She can't explain why she thinks feels as though she has just been reunited with a dear friend she hasn't seen in a very long time.
She also notes that he charged her at half-price. A fluke, she thinks when she tosses the slip of paper into a nearby trash can, or maybe he does that for all the pretty girls he serves at Café Themis.
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It was bad enough that Grima killed all their friends, one by one, right before their eyes, but it sent the ten of them for the two remaining before any others as if mocking their failures. Glowing eyes, pale skin, and the growls they made marked them as Risen, but other than those small changes, they looked and fought almost the same as they did before.
Ten Risen against two living, breathing humans. They've faced worse odds than this and survived, but somehow those ten undead warriors each felt like an army of a thousand.
They charged.
She let her instincts, honed through years and years of fighting and fighting, take control of her body for she knew she would hesitate if she allowed herself to see her enemies as anything but, no matter what their appearances implied.
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Some new neighbors had moved in the house next door a week and a half ago. Lucina hasn't been able to meet them since she has been out enjoying the summer before her senior year with her friends.
Robin, on the other hand, has had the opportunity and managed to strike up a quick friendship with one of the occupants and invited her and her family over for dinner.
From what her mother has told Lucina of their guests, Olivia was a professional dancer who has danced all over the world and now teaches classes at the local community center. Her husband, Henry, is a veterinarian and they have a son who was the same age as her and will be attending the same school when September came.
On the evening of their scheduled dinner, Robin begins making introductions starting with Chrom and then Lucina and her brother. Lucina greets the couple politely and shakes their hands, Olivia rather shyly and Henry very enthusiastically.
"You've already met my husband, Henry," Olivia says to Robin, "but I don't believe you have met my son?" She pushes the young man forward and Lucina couldn't say that she expected him to be the same barista who served her what was admittedly the best ice mocha she's ever had in her life.
"Hello, Lucina," he addresses her with a smile. She is actually rather surprised that he actually remembers her name because he seems to be the type to flirt with girls and then forget their names the second he turns his back.
"You've met?" Robin asks, surprised.
"He works in Café Themis," Lucina explains automatically, "but I didn't know he's our neighbor." Her father glares suspiciously at the boy, but her mother takes it all in stride.
"Now that the introductions are done, why don't you come in?"
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She withdrew her sword from the last of their fallen comrades and the body dissolves into a black mist. Fatigued from the battle for their friends had fought as fiercely in death as they did in life, she descended to her knees to catch her breath and offer a silent prayer though she did not know if Naga would listen.
She heard him approach her and felt his hand lightly touching her shoulder.
"They'll understand," he said softly, "they would rather you kill them again than serve Grima."
"I know," she replied dully. After all, hadn't she done this before? Killed friends, loyal soldiers, and the very people she fought so hard to protect when their corpses rose from the earth at the fell dragon's command?
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Lucina is in her room talking with Severa on her phone when she hears something hit the sliding glass door that lead to her balcony. Annoyed, she asks Severa to hang on for a moment and goes to investigate. She steps outside and finds a red rubber ball that doesn't belong to her.
She hears someone calling her name. Inigo is waving up at her from his backyard, which she had a good view of from where she is standing. A large golden retriever sits beside him on its haunches, panting with its tongue out and tail wagging. She throws the ball back at him and he catches it, though with a slight fumble. He shouts his thanks before continuing to entertain his canine companion.
At some point, Henry and Olivia join him in the yard. The three of them laugh together as Inigo, now sitting on the grass, is covered with dog kisses. Henry waves a treat in the air, causing the mutt to release the son and playfully jump on the father instead.
Lucina finds herself watching them for a bit longer than she intended. The sight of the family smiling and laughing makes her heart swell for some reason.
She hears a beep from her hand and realizes that Severa has gotten tired of waiting for her and hung up.
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It had started raining sometime during the battle.
If he hadn't knelt to help her back to her feet, she might have stayed there, letting the rain wash the blood and dirt from her face and for even longer after that. She was too exhausted, in both mind and body, to protest and insist on walking in her own.
The warmth of his touch brought her both comfort and despair. Comfort in knowing that she was not alone. Despair because he was the only one she had left.
The rain fell harder, as if Naga was weeping her inability to aid her champion and the world she watched over in their darkest, and final, hours.
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"Can I have a medium iced cappuccino with extra caramel and whipped cream and a piece of," she's never seen a dessert named something so elaborate before. "...that cake?"
"You're not going to stop and stare at me today?" Inigo is her waiter again. Lucina wonders if she has done something to anger some higher power.
She glares at him and mutters a flat, "No." That was a one time mistake she won't be repeating.
Inigo does not seem too discouraged as he left the cash register to prepare her order. He turns on the coffee machine first before grabbing a cake shovel. "And you wanted this one?" he asks to make sure.
"Yes."
"Your cousin named it."
Well, that explains the name, she thinks dryly. He hands her finished coffee. She is just turning away when he suddenly grabs her wrist, not hard, but enough for her to stop. "Wait." He is looking into her eyes.
"Is...something the matter?"
"Your eyes are different colors," Inigo tells her, somewhat mesmerized. "The left one is a little lighter blue. I've never noticed before."
She says the first thing that comes to mind, "Were you expecting to see some kind of birthmark instead?"
"Maybe I was, " he smiles mysteriously and lets go of her. "Either way, you have pretty eyes."
She blushes and automatically looks away.
As she leaves, she hears Inigo, no longer in that trance-like state, call, "Hey Noire? We're out of that ridiculously named cake Owain is so fond of." There were a few roars of 'INSOLENCE' and 'BLOOD AND THUNDER' from the back room followed by Brady shouting "Are ya trying to meet an early grave?"
She notices he charged her at half price again. This time, she keeps the receipt.
(The skin where he touched her still burns.)
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They retreated into what was once the majestic throne room of Castle Ylisse, but now it was just another ruin waiting to crumble into nothing. Most of the roof had caved in a long time ago, so it provided little cover from the rain.
They sat down, still holding onto each other, in front of the half-broken throne to rest before the next wave of Risen arrived to finish them off. There would be another wave of Risen upon them soon, they both knew. Grima was so close to its goal of eradicating humanity, save for those of the cult who served it, and there were only two standing in its way.
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Since she turned sixteen, Lucina would sometimes have dreams. She would be dressed in a regal blue attire with a sword in her hand. They would always show a disjointed sequence of events, but there was always one thing that remained the same: him, a young man, dressed in blue and white armor.
Sometimes there would be others (she swears the girl on the pegasus is Cynthia and the masked dragon rider bears a great resemblance to Gerome) but he is always there. She has no idea who he is or what he looks like, but he is always at her side (offering her a hand to help her up, watching her back in battle, walking by and reminding her to smile) when she experiences what horrors this series of night visions wish for her to see.
(They are always horrors. She could smell the smoke and hear the people's screams. When she wakes up, they don't feel like dreams, but memories of a time long past.)
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"You can still get away." She found herself saying after a while. They were both soaked to the bone by this point, but neither of them bothered moving to someplace more sheltered. "Your father was a Plegian, was he not? Perhaps you can use that to convince Grima to let you join it."
He looked at her astonished. "And leave you here?"
She held his gaze steadily. "I'm a dead woman. Grima would never let me live, but you... you might have a chance."
He laughed, hollow and mirthless, "This hopelessness is making you crazy isn't it? You think Grima would really let me into its little cult after everything I've done? I am just as dead as you are." His hold on her tightened and she buried her face against his collarbone.
"I can't imagine anything worse than dying alone. I won't leave you to suffer that fate."
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Whenever she has a particularly bad one, she would always step out onto her balcony to give herself some fresh air. Tonight is no different.
Lucina catches sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye. It is a cloudless night and the moon is almost full, so she recognizes the figure almost instantly: Inigo.
What is he doing in his backyard in the middle of the night?
Curious, she watches him as he stands motionless in the middle of the yard. The possibility that he is sleep walking crosses her mind (because really, who would walk outside at night and just stand there?).
And then he dances. Spinning, turning, moving with far more grace than she would expect from someone with his physique.
Lucina knows Olivia is a dancer, of course. The pink haired woman had been fairly shy and quiet throughout their dinner but once Robin brought up the topic of her career, she had spoken so enthusiastically and fondly of it.
If she isn't watching him right here and now, she never would have been able to guess that Inigo shares his mother's passion.
(Then again, she rationalizes, she really doesn't know all that much about him.)
Here she realizes that he is much more than the flirty barista that charges her coffee at half price.
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She swallowed and buried her head in her knees. Tears are threatening to spill. She never cried, not since her father's death, because there were so many others looking at her to be strong, steadfast and fearless for them. Now, there was only one person who could see her cry and he already knew she was slowly reaching her breaking point.
She cried because she was scared, but not for herself. "I don't want you to die." she stated as if saying it aloud will allow it to come to pass. "You're the only one I have left."
"I don't want you to die either," he replied quietly.
But we will was the unspoken thought in both their minds. There was no point in denying it any longer. They were the only humans who weren't part of the Grimleal left, all five gemstones of the Fire Emblem have been shattered, both were injured with only a single elixir to share between them, and the Risen will not stop coming until they were dead.
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Brady's parents owns the coffee shop where Inigo works and her cousin, Owain, is another employee. Apparently, the three of them had become quite good, if somewhat vitriolic, friends during their work shifts.
She shouldn't have been surprised when she learned that they invited him to join them in their plans to see the midnight premiere of Ending Winter.
As it turns out, Laurent and Kjelle had a summer class and track meet respectively the day after. Nah is visiting family in the rural side of town, and Panne had decided to drag Yarne out camping to 'teach him some pride.' They had all sent their apologies with a message to go and have fun for them. On the day, Noire ended up feeling too feverish to go and Gerome canceled for reasons unknown at the last minute. In the end, their original group of thirteen dwindled down to a party of seven, consisting of herself, Morgan, Severa, Cynthia, Brady, Owain and Inigo.
In a way, it is probably a good thing the number of people in their group was cut in half. If it was this hard to keep six other people in her sights, then twelve would have been an utter mess because the theater lobby is crowded.
Some stumbling in the dark theater is unavoidable. Lucina is accidentally pushed against somebody by a near hysterical mother in her search for her lost child.
"Steady," she hears Inigo say against her ear. "You alright?"
She is more aware of the hands on her body, though nowhere inappropriate, now that she knows to whom they belonged. "Yeah." He lets go of her. "Thank you."
"I think I saw Owain and the others go this way..."
She nods and follows him.
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In a way, their friends were the lucky ones.
No doubt, their corpses will be revived when their lives would be finally taken from them.
They would become nothing more than trophies to serve as an example, and a reminder, of what will happen to those who would dare oppose Grima.
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"Can't sleep?"
Lucina jumps when she hears his voice. Another nightmare had woken her.
Inigo is standing on the balcony opposite of her's with a notebook and pencil in hand. She knew the couple who lived in the house before him used the room directly a cross from her's as a guest room that was always unoccupied. Perhaps she had taken the privacy she had during these evenings for granted.
She's just grateful that she had something covering the flimsy nightgown she has taken to wearing during the warmer summer nights. (Note to self: start buying less revealing sleepwear now there's a guy practically next door...)
She sighs, "Nope."
"Bad dream?" he asks sympathetically.
Lucina sinks into the foldout hair she keep there for nights such as these and laid her head in the railings. "Yes," she murmurs, "I don't want to talk about it."
(She remembers seeing a beautiful fuchsia-colored dragon fall from the sky and a giant rabbit being shot down by several dozen arrows and her throat is sore and dry as if she had been screaming.)
Inigo doesn't press her and for that she is grateful.
They sit in a surprisingly comfortable silence. The only sounds she hears are from the cars driving by on the road and the faint scratching of his pencil moving across paper.
He is so fixated on his work that he doesn't notice her watching him, because if he did, he likely would have said something. Lucina finds herself wondering about him and in her mind, rehearses ways to start a conversation.
In the end, she doesn't. She stands again and denotes that she will be going back to bed.
He doesn't look up from his work as he says, "Sleep tight, Lucina. Don't let the zombies bite."
(She should have asked him where he had gotten 'zombies' from, but a part of her doesn't want to know.)
They don't. She doesn't dream for the remainder of the night.
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"Do you think it will hurt?" A childish inquiry. One that had slipped out without meaning to.
"What, dying? ...I don't know how much of an answer this is, but death is a natural part of life. Everyone will die someday, it's only a matter of when, and we'll all be reunited on the other side, whatever it may be. ...Father... he told me that...when my mother died, 'You'll see her again someday, even if someday is fifty years away, so until then, stop being sad and start being happy for me, and for your mother, okay?'" He shuddered and exhaled, "Sorry, I didn't mean to get nostalgic there... anyway, what I'm saying is, even if it does hurt, the pain will only be fleeting."
She was sure the rain was not the only thing trickling down his face at this point.
"...I..." Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Whenever Lucina wakes up in the middle of the night, she steps out onto her balcony as she always did. Sometimes Inigo would be on the opposite one. Those nights, they begin talking to each other on the nights where they were both on their balconies. He enlightens her a bit about his life before moving here. (She learns his dog is named Goetia – don't ask. Henry was the one who named him – and he was a stray with a broken leg and would have likely starved if his parents hadn't taken him in and nursed him back to health.) In return, she tells him stories from her past. (He found the story with the giant cockroach a lot more amusing than she did.)
"Here, catch." Lucina tosses a small drawstring bag across to him.
It lands safely in his hands. Inigo looks up at her when it landed safely in his hands. "What's this?"
"Your present. It's August 7th, isn't it?" she replies, "Happy birthday Inigo. It's not much, but I hope you like it."
(She's never has any bad dreams after speaking with him at night. Whether it is truly coincidence or if talking truly has helped, she feels like she owes him a birthday present at the very least.)
"This is the first time a girl's given me candy," he says, picking up the blue rock candy she placed in the cheap drawstring bag from the grocery store two blocks away. The one he is holding now comes from the only batch she and Morgan made last week that managed to crystallize properly. There hadn't been enough to give each of their friends' one as they had hoped, so they had divided the successful ones among themselves and their parents. "I hope you aren't trying to poison me."
"I can cook just fine!" Lucina snaps defensively. She is no pâtissier like Noire, but she likes to think that she isn't as bad as Kjelle either.
"I'm just kidding," he says quickly, "And... you made this?"
"With my brother," she confirms. Morgan has always been the brainier of the two of them. "He said he wanted to grow some crystals this summer."
"I take back what I said before," Inigo deadpans, "This is the first time a girl's given me the leftovers of a chemistry experiment."
"If you don't want it, you can just say so."
"No, I want it," he takes the wrapper off and there is a discernible crunch when he takes a bite. Lucina finds herself anticipating his reaction to it. Chrom and Robin both said they loved it, but she isn't sure how much that claim was biased.
"Um... how it is it?"
"Good, actually," he says, "A lot better than the stuff from where I used to live."
"Really? You can tell me the truth you know. I promise I won't be offended."
"That is the truth. Are you and Morgan going to make any more?"
Lucina thinks of the jars still filled with sugar crystals in their kitchen and how Morgan is so determined to get it right 'next time' so they can share their creations with everyone.
"I believe so."
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Perhaps it was desperation or need, but whatever it was, when he slammed his lips against hers, she didn't protest or push him away. She responded to his kiss with equal passion, entwining her fingers through his wet hair, and tasted the salty tang of tears that might have been her's or his and found that she didn't care.
There may have been love behind every desperate caress and every breathless gasp, the kind of love that she read about in fairy tales, the kind her parents had before her mother yielded to Grima, but it was mostly the actions of two people, the son of a Feroxi dancer and Plegian sorcerer, and the last daughter of Naga (and her antithesis), who have lost everything except each other.
And they were about to lose even that.
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Some nights they will talk. Other nights, Inigo would be in his yard, practicing his dancing. She begins noticing patterns in his steps and where he made changes. After a few of these sessions, she guesses that what he's been scribbling in his notebook must be dance routines.
She hasn't told him that she has been observing his practice, but one day, when Inigo tears a page out in frustration, she slips.
"Choreography not going well?"
There is silence and Lucina realizes what she just said.
Oh, no...
"How-?"
"I'm sorry!" she apologizes at once, "I didn't mean to, really! Um...not at first, that is..."
"How long have you been watching me?" Inigo doesn't wait for an answer and he sighs deeply and covers his face with his notebook. "Oh gods, this is so embarrassing..."
Now at what you've done, Lucina. He's probably going to stop...
If he did, she is really going to miss it. "It only became a habit when I saw how good you are..."
He lifts his head up to look at her again, but his expression is unreadable in the dim lighting.
"...but if it makes you uncomfortable, I'll never watch you again, I promise."
He is silent as he considers. Lucina nervously laces and unlaces her fingers, fearing what this would do to their steadily growing friendship.
"I don't have a problem with it," he says at last, to her great relief. "But next time don't just stand there like a creeper; throw something, whistle... just do something to let me know I have an audience. And uh," he has become uncharacteristically sheepish when he asks, "let's keep this a secret between us, deal?"
Is he embarrassed about his dancing? If so she cannot fathom why.
"Deal."
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Maybe she could have loved him, allowed herself to love him, in some other life, one where her father wasn't slain by her mother with an electric knife, one where her brother didn't choose to turn his back on his exalted bloodline, one where everyone was alive and smiling in a future they saved together.
Regardless, what she did with him tonight forged a bond between them that will make the unavoidable loss a hundred times worse when it would finally happen.
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Cynthia's family (well, mainly Gaius) takes Halloween very seriously. They're famous amongst the neighborhood for the huge party they throw every year.
Lucina and her family attends as they always do. Her parents are a witch and wizard this year respectively and Morgan... Well, she isn't quite sure what Morgan is supposed to be. (He has components from costumes of a knight, a zombie and a ninja, but she has no idea what it is when those pieces are put together.)
Morgan hands the punch bowl filled with his multicolored rock sugar creations to Robin and runs off when he catches sight of Nah. Amused by her younger brother's obvious (to everyone except himself) interest in the girl, Lucina gives her parents a nod before leaving herself to find her friends. She rounds the corner and collides into someone.
In a way, she isn't surprised that it is Inigo. It seems that fate has been taking every opportunity to make their paths cross since their first meeting. Only this time, he is the one doing the staring. His expression is awestruck, as if he's never seen anything like her before. Unlike her, he manages to recover quickly enough before she feels the need to call him out on it.
"Let me guess," he says, "a princess?"
"Yes. " Lucina had forgotten to prepare a costume for this event. The lavender dress belongs to her mother and the tiara is borrowed from Severa. It is the best thing she could throw together in two hours.
"Princess Lucina," Inigo murmurs under his breath. His eyes are distant as if recalling some distant memory. She is about to ask him what's wrong before he is all normal again as he flashes her a smile, "I suppose being a princess is so utterly cliché nobody would ever think of dressing up as one, ensuring that you'll be the only princess present. How clever."
She lets his strange behavior go. "And what are you supposed to be? A pirate?"
"A musketeer," he corrects. Then he rolls his eyes, "I was supposed to be one of three, but then Owain decided to come as a 'dark avenger' without telling us, so Brady and I are one member short." 'Dark avenger'; it sounds like her cousin alright.
There is an explosion and a flash of lights. Lucina and Inigo look up to see the start of the firework display Frederick, Mirel and Laurent puts on at least twice a year. This year however, they've truly outdone themselves. The sky is colored with multicolored lights in a variety of patterns and shapes.
She feels Inigo lightly brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear and she turns to him questioningly. He is watching her and not the fireworks.
"You're smiling."
"Hm?"
"You're smiling," he repeats, "You're really pretty when you smile. Er..." when he continues talking, he sounds less like a suave self-proclaimed ladies man and more like the awkward and easily tongue-tied teenage boy he really is. "Not that you aren't when you're not, but..."
She is suddenly too embarrassed to look at him in the face further. "Of course I smile," she says while looking at the pumpkin lantern behind his left shoulder. "I have feelings you know."
"Not around me."
"I've smiled around you before."
"From your balcony at night," he points out, "I've never seen you smile up close before and in public."
(The tender way he gazes at her makes her heart both beat and break for reasons that are lost to her.)
"...you really are beautiful when you smile. Don't be afraid to show it to the world."
She doesn't know how to reply. Is he just flirting as usual or did he really mean it?
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The Risen were approaching. Grima was amongst them, perhaps wishing to be there during the moment when mankind would finally be extinguished, save for those loyal to it.
"Don't ask me to stand down again," he said, taking her hands, "I will never bow down to Grima. My loyalty belongs to Ylisse and to Naga." He was only a breath away from saying to you, but as he brushed his lips against the back of her hand, he didn't need to. She was as touched as she was grieved by his fealty even though he was never truly a knight of what used to be her halidom.
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"Lucy." Cynthia slips into the chair at the table where Lucina is working on an assignment with Severa in the library.
"Is something wrong?" Lucina asks.
"Hmm, no." Cynthia says, "Nothing wrong, but I was wondering if you can explain something for me."
"Are you having trouble with your homework again? Because if you are–"
"Nope, not homework," she shakes her head, "Gerome helped me with that an hour ago."
"Then spit it out already," Severa interrupts, "We don't have all day either."
Cynthia pouts and takes out her cell phone, bringing up a picture to show the other two. "This was in Mom's camera roll."
Severa takes one look at the picture and takes the question right out of Cynthia's mouth, "Are you and Inigo dating?"
"What?" Lucina exclaims, flushing, less from the suggestion of her dating Inigo (which surprisingly enough, she doesn't find as abhorrent as she originally thought) and more about the fact that Sumia managed to snap a picture of her and Inigo during the fireworks. That was supposed to be a private moment! "Where did you even get the idea?"
"You mean besides the picture?" the twin-tailed girl says sarcastically, "Oh, I don't know, maybe it's the fact that he hasn't been flirting with other girls at all lately? Even when he does flirt with you, he does it all differently; he actually seems to respect you." She stops to dot her i's by stabbing the paper with her pencil. "And guys don't charge you your coffee at half price for no reason. For all the pick up lines I had to endure the first month, not once has he given me a free fifty percent discount."
"I..." she is stunned and speechless, "I don't understand..."
Severa lets out an exasperated sigh, "Sometimes Lucina, you can be so daft."
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"There's no room for regrets," He stood with his back to her, sword drawn and staring at the Risen army approaching. She could read his intentions in his stance: whatever end awaited him, he was going take more than a few of Grima's army down with him as his last act of defiance. "Don't look back, Lucina, face forward."
Death was the only thing she saw forward, but, thinking of what he said before, there was an odd sense of relief in that thought. There was nothing left in this world, but in the next...if there was a next...
She rose, a hand on Falchion's hilt and the other wiping the rain (and tears) from her face.
Face forward, don't look back. There's nothing more to lose.
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"Dammit Goetia, come back here!"
Lucina is walking by the park on the route home from the library when the golden retriever bounds up to her and barks happily. Inigo soon follows and after catching his breath. "Hey, Lucina," he reattaches Goetia's leash to his collar in case the dog decides to run off again without warning. "Strange, he's usually dragging me away from the pretty girls."
Her conversation with Severa and Cynthia changed the way she looks at him. Could Severa be right? Is it truly possible that he likes her? As in, like-likes her?
She is spared from having to find something coherent to say to him when she feels a drop of water on her face. A drop turns into a drizzle and then it becomes a storm. Lucina curses, "I don't have an umbrella."
"Neither do I," Inigo grimaces. "Themis is nearby, why don't we go there?" he suggests, "You can call somebody to pick you up from there."
She agrees because she doesn't want to walk home in the rain without an umbrella. By the time they arrive at the Café, the rain is falling harder than ever and they are both soaking wet.
Ricken is the only person there. He rises from behind the counter where he is going over today's sells when they open the door. "Oh hey!" he exclaims, "I was just going to close up."
"But isn't there still at least an hour before closing time?" Inigo points out. Goetia shakes himself, spraying the rest of them with water. "Ugh, sorry."
"It's been a pretty slow day today," Ricken explains. He isn't angry at Inigo's dog for getting him wet and reaches out to pat his head. Lucina recalls Chrom saying Ricken always did have a soft spot for animals. "I already sent the others home."
"Sorry," Lucina says, "We don't mean to intrude."
"It's not big deal," the red haired man assures her. "I actually have some business to take care of, but if the two of you want to stay for a while, you're more than welcome to. Assuming Inigo doesn't mind closing up when you leave?"
"No," the younger man answers. "I'll clean up after Goetia too, while I'm at it." Ricken gives them a nod and gives Goetia's head another light ruffle before stepping out onto the street and opening his umbrella.
There is silence. Lucina takes out her cell phone and dials Morgan. Both her parents were still working and she doesn't want to trouble them. Her brother comes through and promises he will be there as soon as he finishes the round of the video game he is playing with Owain.
When she hangs up, Inigo asks "Do you want something?" He had walked to the counter where Ricken had been sitting when she was making her call.
"Something warm would be nice," she admits. "Can I just have come regular hot chocolate?" Inigo nods and starts the machines.
As she watches him work, what Severa had said at the library comes rushing through her mind. For all the pick up lines I had to endure, not once has he given me a free fifty percent discount.
He hands her the cup before ringing up her order. This time, she doesn't let go of her card so easily.
"Why do you charge me at half price?"
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She could see the Risen leading the charge and the shapes of hundreds upon thousands more behind them cloaked in the shadow cast by the fell dragon's wings. So many had come for them... perhaps Grima had decided that they've been a pair of thorns at its side for too long and wanted to ensure that they will not live to see anouther day.
She reached out with the hand that wasn't holding her weapon to briefly link their fingers together for the last time.
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"I figured that if I gave you cheap coffee, it might encourage you to come back for more," he replies, embarrassed, "This was before I found out you were a regular customer. I just... wanted to see you again."
"And the subsequent times?"
"I just wanted to," Inigo says simply. Except it's been almost four months now. Maribelle would never let something like this slip under her nose for that long. He must be paying for what she didn't with his own paycheck.
Thus, Lucina is still dissatisfied with his answer. "There has to be a deeper reason than that."
"You want deep?" He cracks a smile for her as usual, but this time, it seems a tad pained, "I like you, as more than a friend."
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Their eyes met again.
She had never felt more synchronized with another than she did now with this man. Was this the sort of synchronization her parents (two halves of a greater whole, she recalled them calling themselves) had before their falls?
Maybe, maybe not. She doesn't want to think about the what-ifs but there was one thing for certain.
"Stay close to me, Inigo," she whispered, no longer fearing death, but almost eager to embrace it. "If we are reborn into a kinder life, I hope we will meet again..."
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"You don't believe me." It isn't a question. Inigo turns his back to her, leaning against the counter, and sighs in disappointment, not at her, but at himself. "I suppose I have no one but myself to blame for that."
(She sees him, maybe a few years older than he is now, standing in the rain with his back to her and dressed in blue and white battle-worn armor.
Though she still doesn't fully understand, everything just suddenly makes more sense.)
Lucina rises from her stool. Reaching out across the counter between them, she presses her palm between his shoulder blades.
He is not wearing armor, but she isn't bothered. The man in her dreams is a figment of her imagination but Inigo...Inigo is real.
"I believe you."
Inigo turns back around. Her hand slides and he catches it. "You do?"
She nods shyly. In contrast to his actions at Gaius's Halloween party, he is tentative when he brushes her hair with the hand that isn't holding hers. Swallowing, Lucina gently encourages him by covering his hand with her own and giving the one she was holding a light squeeze. "For how long?"
"Since the first day, strangely enough" he whispers, his lips lightly brushing against her fist, "As contradictory as this may sound, I don't believe in love at first sight."...but who says that was the first time we've met? "Does that make me sound crazy?"
"If it does, then call me crazy too."
She leans forward and closes the distance between their lips.
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...And maybe then we can be something more than the princess of a dying world and the hero who stayed by her side until the very end.
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think? *hinthint*
And I will update A Reason to Smile sometime soon. Promise!