He was coming home today.
She wasn't supposed to know, but those tiny little details didn't matter to her... because he was finally coming home; he was coming back to her.
He had discreetly sent a letter to Mist about his return, and in response to that, Mist passed word along to Titania who had 'discreetly' dropped hints about it to her. It didn't take her long to figure out what the scrambled messages meant and when that moment of realization did hit her, she had to be careful not to interrupt the meeting she was in.
After all these years... he was finally coming back to Crimea.
That morning couldn't come fast enough for her.
It seemed like she had spent hours making sure everything about her looked perfect, from the way her hair curled delicately down her back to how her light cover of make up didn't smudge or tear; even her outfit of white and gold needed to be clean of wrinkles or folds... she couldn't help but to giggle at the way she was acting like a young school girl. Or maybe like that Princess she was six years ago. She knew he didn't care about the expensive fabrics and threads that went into making her elegant gowns and uniforms; he didn't really bother with a loose lock of hair that would spoil the entire style, or even the slightest smear of lipstick at the corner... All he cared about was her.
Laced fingers gently moved forward and eased the top drawer of her makeup dresser open, acting as though the slightest squeak from the aged wood would give away everything she was working for. Right there, on top of hair clips and the elegant beads that had decorated her hair once before she saw them as more of a nuisance, rested a small folded piece of paper. It crinkled lightly when she picked it up and even more so when she started to unfold it; taking great care not to strain the thin paper or cause it to tear as she unraveled it.
The words that had been concealed on the inside were still in mint condition with every careful stroke still as bold as they were three years ago.
This was the letter he had left on her nightstand the last night before his departure; the last night they spent together wrapped in a warm embrace with tussled bedsheets and the broken silhouette of moonlight across her bed. She remembered waking up to find the bed space next to her empty but still warm from his skin just before her eyes settled on the folded note that had been perched just on the other side of her bed. Fingers had been tender with how she pulled the paper over towards her and unfolded it to see what his last words were going to be... She practically had the words and sentences memorized now, but she still liked to read them directly from his handwriting; it just made them seem more real.
"In addition to the struggle and awkwardly placed happiness of being a fighter for Crimea and Tellius herself... fate has given me the happiness of becoming her husband. During the four years between the fighting and the making up, and then back to fighting again, she has remained an inexhaustible source of support, strength and love at my side; she has reminded me again and again that even as the depths of war began to drain away every ounce of humanity and humility we as people have... that there will always be a brighter outcome. That we're still humans, that we're still capable of earning and deserving happiness. And even as she underwent greater amounts of suffering, especially during the last period of our time together... she always smiled and always had a warm place for her people to stay. I find comfort in the fact that she always knew days of happiness and love, and that she took that knowledge and spread it to those around her. I hold hope that our next collection of years together continues to grow brighter, that this whirlwind we threw ourselves in not so long ago will continue to carry us further. I remember you as that Princess the country knew nothing about, the Princess that I gave my word and everything to... and now as my Queen, my wife, I will still continue to give you those things. Because you are my everything, Elincia..."
The words continued to bring a soft smile to her as she lightly folded the paper once more and slipped it into her belt. Pushing herself to her feet, she brushed her hands over her outfit once more before she started to depart her room finally. Lucia was out with Count Bastian this morning, a task she seemed to dread but took it upon herself anyways, and Geoffrey was training a few of the new recruits... so sneaking out would be easy enough without detection.
After all, she was going to have to question him about the content of his letter...
In his newest letter though, the one he wrote to Mist, he seemed pretty adamant about describing where he would be, what path he would be taking and a decent judgment of when he would be arriving. She didn't really know why he felt the need to list out such things but it certainly helped to navigate her to wherever he wrote that he would be. It was an empty field just a mile or two from the castle itself... probably about a quarter of the way from where Greil's Retreat was... he might've chosen that path just for that. With his departure three years ago, the old Mercenaries building had seemed fairly vacant with only a few visitors every now and again; she had gone just a few months ago but the place showed signs of recent activity... so at least someone was looking after it.
She played fingers against the tips of the grass that lightly waved around her as they played victim to the soft oncoming breeze. For once, she considered how odd she appeared standing out here... how odd it would seem if someone spotted the Crimean Queen standing fully dressed and decorated in this empty field. It was a funny thought almost- mostly because she didn't have a proper response if someone were to question her about it.
At the very least, she had an hour to wait.
"And just what are you thinking about, Princess?"
She glanced up at the voice and watched as the blue-haired mercenary slowly made his way over to her; the soft breeze caught the ends of his dark-green headband and caused them to dance lightly behind him. A soft smile brought itself to her lips before she turned her attention back to the resting sunset on the horizon just outside of her reach. "I remember sitting out on the pastures all the times as a child and watching the sun disappear behind the hills; I always thought about how beautiful it was and how unfortunate it must've been to people who didn't witness it as many times as I had. Back then my views of Crimea had been limited to that small little cottage and the wide pastures that surrounded us- sometimes to the rural town just a few miles away, but now... it's more expansive than I ever imagined. I guess I never really thought I'd be able to witness all that Crimea was. The sunsets just look so different now..."
"Well to be honest with you... we might just be in the same boat here." he offered as he moved to stand next to her. Titania had shown a mild sense of worry when she couldn't locate the Crimean Princess, asking for him to find where she had gone off to; he guessed the red-haired Paladin thought since the Princess had gotten rather attached to him that she would reappear if he was around. He just told her that she probably went out on a walk somewhere to get some fresh air, these days of traveling had exhausted her but she was determined not to let the others see it. Titania only reminded him once more that it was best if they didn't allow for her to leave their sights, especially in an unknown area like this one. "I haven't really moved all too far from the small town we were in; I've never even seen Gallia and yet we're on our way there right now. Hopefully we'll both be able to adapt quickly and get used to these new sights."
"Do you think so?" she asked, looking over to him once more; she watched as he wrinkled his brow for a moment in thought before he moved one hand to the back of his head.
"I don't think we really have a choice right now." Ike answered, fiddling with the knot of his headband for a moment before he looked back to her. "But, I think regardless of that, we'll both pull through; at the very least, we'll come out with some experience, right?"
A light chuckle escaped her at his mixed response, half of him confident while the other half tried to remain somewhat realistic. Tucking aside a dark-green strand behind one ear, she moved to tangle her fingers in the loose material of his sleeve. "Thank you, Ike."
He glanced down at the motion and noticed how a look of faint contentment seemed to have taken over her expression; for this brief moment, she seemed happy and he couldn't figure out why. "For what? I can't say that I actually did anything to comfort you."
"You're trying, that's the least I could ask for, right?" she remarked. "I mean, you didn't have to believe me when I said I was the Crimean Princess... especially since it wasn't released to the public; you don't have to put this much effort into keeping me safe or even escorting me across Crimea, but you are. You're risking your life right now, it would seem like there's nothing that I can do to repay that."
"Just... restore Crimea to where it used to be, that'll be enough."
She snapped up slightly at the sound of someone knocking at the door to her chambers and quickly moved to grab the handkerchief she had set aside on her dressing cabinet just moments before; trying to dab the material to wipe away the tears that had been coming nonstop since the day before without smudging her make up anymore than it already was. The least she could do was try to make herself seem more presentable and less like the uncontrollable piece she was.
"Just a minute." she called after securing some kind of hold on her voice. It took a little more cleaning up before she seemed presentable enough to answer the knocking. Clearing her throat one last time, she moved across her room and reached out to open the door; taking the last second to pull one more wrinkle out of her dress. Pulling her door open, she peeked out first to see who it was before allowing for the door to slide out of her grasp. "... Sir Ike."
"Princess- uh, I mean Queen." he started, quickly correcting himself as soon as he caught his mistake; a brief chuckle escaping from him for a moment. "It's still a difficult concept to remember."
She offered a light smile in return and tucked aside a strand of hair. "You think it's difficult for you to understand, how do you think I feel?"
"Touche."
"Is there something I can help you with? Are there not enough blankets in your rooms? I can get some extra pillows if you like." she offered. "Those supplies we promised will be here by dawn tomorrow- I hope they'll be in time before you guys leave."
"No, no, everything's fine and everyone's settled in, I promise; we're not planning on leaving till well after dawn." he assured. "I just... wanted to check in and see how you were doing."
There was a pause in her words before they were spoken, a hesitation in her answer before it was given. He wasn't the first to ask her that but he was the only one she couldn't bring herself to lie to; she couldn't bring herself to blatantly tell him she was fine now that the Ludveck episode was over, now that Lucia was safe and sound again, that everything was just perfect now that the Greil's Mercenaries were back. She owed him too much to simply lie to his face like that... and yet she couldn't bring herself to break down either. Her sense of pride had been crushed again and again in a matter of three years; she thought she could give Crimea what it needed, what it deserved but... she was a failure. Her reign would go down as some kind of shame in Crimean history. She owed the both of them so much, but she forced herself to give a short smile in a false facade of assurance. "I'll live."
"Well that's good." he nodded, returning the smile she offered. "I should be checking in on the others and making sure they're not... you know, getting too rowdy or throwing some kind of party without me there."
"What else are they supposed to do without supervision?" she chuckled, moving to tuck aside a loose lock of hair. "I have a few papers I have to go over as well, maybe we'll have a longer time to speak tomorrow before you go off again."
"I would hope so."
She watched as he turned away and continued back down the corridor behind him. Hands pushed the door closed once more and locked it back into place, removing him from her eyesight which was probably for the best right now. How could she do that? Just... carry on a conversation and give out lies like they were nothing. What kind of person had she turned into? Crimea deserved someone better, someone more fit and deserving of a title. Stepping away, she started back across her room to return to her dressing cabinet- hoping to get out of this dress and turn in early for the night. It felt like her entire body ached even though she had done very little as of recently; she just wanted to close her eyes and maybe never open them again.
And yet a second knock on her door broke that almost welcoming thought.
Shaking her head briefly, she had to turn heel and retrace her previous tracks to answer whoever was on the other side. Fingers barely reached out for the doorknob before the door was pushed from its frame without her permission. She frowned slightly at the sudden intrusion but the look easily melted away at the sight of the blue-haired Mercenary on the other end; his expression almost seemed to mirror her own in some kind of way. "Ike... what is it?"
"I can't do this."
"Do what?"
"I can't just... walk away." he answered, looking as though he was trying to break his own restraint. Hands forced the door closed behind him at the earliest time before he took those few hesitant steps between them. "This is probably breaking some kind of law out there but... damn it to hell, I back talked the Apostle three years ago and I'm still alive to claim those charges. I'm sorry I walked away."
For a moment, she wasn't sure how to react and stumbled through her thoughts to try and recover some lesson in speaking. "No, no... it's alright; you had matters to deal with, Count Bastian said-"
"Not when I walked away three years ago, I mean like how I did just now."
Another light frown curved at her lips as she tried to decipher his reasoning. "What do you mean?"
It seemed like he had his own troubles to fight through and struggled to catch the words that played on the tip of his tongue. Those blue eyes of his showed a definite change three years had made on them; wherever he had disappeared off to made an even greater impact on his overall physical form- it was impossible to not notice how he was looking more and more like his father every day. Even she could see pieces of Greil in him... "You're not okay and I almost left you like that."
She heard the almost break in his voice and nearly lost control on her own emotions. "It doesn't help that I would attempt to lie to you like that... if you had decided to walk away and not turn back around, it wouldn't have been your fault; I put you in that position."
"Come here." he whispered as he pulled her in towards him.
It had been three years since she last felt those arms wrap themselves around her... and they hadn't changed the least bit. Fingers tangled in his shirt and curled into his back as she buried herself into his chest.
"I love you... I still do."
The feel of his heavy, tired hands against her waist tightened as he lifted her clean off her feet and held her against the sky above them; giving her a few short spins that his remaining sense of strength would allow him to do.
She heard the light way their tired laughter seemed to blend in perfectly with one another's as she enjoyed the brief feel of the cool breeze moving against the tears of her uniform. The damaged form of her sword had been tossed to the ground to meet with his own; her light transparent cape fluttered behind her while his thicker one offered a more stiff dance. When he moved to bring her back down, it was a subtle, sweeping motion; an ease of movements that left them closer than expected but all too tired to bother with those who played witness to this rare, unbroken scene.
Her trembling fingers moved to push aside his sweat-laced bangs, careful not to touch at the open gash that tore the skin completely off one temple side. For a moment, she questioned whether or not this was some kind of cruel illusion created by the Goddess to get her hopes up only to crush them bitterly seconds later. But the mental countdown she had given to that paranoia faded with time to spare and an almost graceless smile found its way to her lips.
The war against Ashera herself was finally over...
The eruption of cheers from all around them said that they all would live on victoriously.
This single battle for life would serve as a turning point for all those present here; for all the countries that stood in representation before the Goddess herself... Things would be different from here on out, the changes would be drastic and there would be a lot of work needed to settle out their unimportant differences. But those could wait... she had a far more important cause to take of right now.
"Do you still love me, Sir Ike?"
Her question brought a light chuckle to his bloodied, raw lips before he carefully drew her in close against him. He leaned down just enough to touch his forehead against her own and watched as those golden eyes of hers seemed to light up at the motion. "When we were standing before the Goddess Ashera herself, staring down our very own creator that gave life to us and this world we live in... I told her I had a very important piece of information to share with her before we dealt the final blow. And when Yune was gathering the power we would need to end this mess, I looked her right in the eye and said there was a lady waiting for me out here to come back to her and I had no intentions of failing her. When Yune questioned what exactly I was doing... I said that I was still in love with the Crimean Queen and a Goddess like herself was not going to stop me from coming back and telling her that... So to answer your question, Your Majesty, yes; I never stopped loving you."
The sight of a dark figure eventually appearing on the other end of the field in front of her drove her heartbeat to triple its ongoing speed.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling at his distant form and had to restrain herself from wanting to run across the field to him; there was nothing more she wanted to do than to throw her arms around his neck and make the both of them disappear into the tall grass below. But... she had to practice some sense of self-control to prevent herself from ruining this moment... after all, it would be more rewarding for him to finally make his way back to her rather than the other way around.
And so, she waited patiently as he drew closer and closer with every step.
She wasn't supposed to know about his return, but at this given moment, she didn't care.
There was that familiar grin that told her he wasn't the least bit surprised to see her here; it was almost as if he had planned the whole thing out from the start and instead of surprising him, she had just fallen into his plan all along.
"I'm pretty sure I specifically wrote and told Mist not to pass that letter around." he remarked with a brief chuckle as he tossed aside the bag he had braced over one shoulder. His appearance had only changed a little through the passing years. If it was possible for him to get a bit taller and wider in stance, he did; his hair was a little longer and he had a mild scruff growing down the sides of his jawline.
He was still the same person she had been looking forward to for years now...
"Well, as the Crimean Queen, I have my ways of getting information." she replied, settling her hands on her hips for a moment before she moved one to quickly withdraw the note she had tucked into the inside of her belt that morning. "Like this one for instance... I'm still waiting for someone to decode it for me."
"They must've wrote it wrong." he remarked, taking those next few steps between them before he gently eased the note from her hands. Unfolding it, he held it out in front of him to scan for a moment before he gave a brief nod. "Yeah, definitely all wrong. All of this... it needs work."
She found herself frowning briefly at his words before she reached forward to take it back, only to have him hold it out of her reach at the last second. "I think it's perfect just the way it is, although if you'd like to enlighten me about what it means..."
"I'll have to re-read it myself and bring it under extreme evaluation first..." he started. "But when I come to a conclusive answer, I'll present it back to you with my report."
"Enough of these games." she retorted lightly, placing one hand against his chest as she tried to stand on her toes and reach up to get the note back from him; her fingertips missing by only a few short inches. "I have waited three more years for your return, Sir Ike, do not tempt me to put you in the dungeons."
"Oh, the dungeons." he repeat as he wrapped his free arm around her waist and lifted her up into a small spin, still managing to keep the note from her. "I didn't know Crimea had dungeons. What kind of charges are you going to bring against me, Queen Elincia?"
"Being a jerk is the first one."
Chuckling lightly at her subtle attempts to get an answer from him, he set her back safely on the ground and allowed for her to finally get the slip of paper back. "I wrote that letter to you three years ago almost to this day, and even with that kind of time passing, those words still hold true to what I was saying. Nothing's changed... if I remember my words correctly, you were the Princess that I gave my word and everything to... and now as my Queen, and soon to be my wife, I will still continue to give you those things. Because you are my everything, Elincia... You always will be."
That smile found its way to her lips again and she moved one hand to cup the curve of his jawline. "I could not ask for anything more... to have the honor of being called your wife will be the second greatest title I carry."
He gently cupped his hands against her cheeks before he leaned down and lightly brushed his lips against her forehead. "I hope you don't have these words memorized, I was going to use them for the wedding ceremony-" he stopped at the sound of her light laughter as it cut him off before he could finish.
"Sir Ike, you could say the same words again and again and they would still sound new to me." she assured before she moved one hand to grab at the leather strap that ran across his chest, giving it a light, playful tug. "Now come on, everyone's probably already waiting for you at the retreat, and as tempting as it would be... I don't want to keep you all to myself. At least not yet. There will be time for that later."