Iris raced off to her room, frantically thinking about how she could prepare for her training with Ravus that night in a way that would impress him with her commitment and resolve to being the best field support he could ask for. When she arrived in her quarters, she flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling "How am I supposed to get ready for this? I almost lost it when he touched my hand, how the hell am I supposed to actually spar with him?" She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and rattled off a text to Aranea:
Iris: He wants to have a training session 2nite with just the 2 of us! tf am I supposed 2do?
She paced back and forth across the room until her phone beeped with an answer
Silver Queen BAE: So? You'll be fine. We've been training for this!
Iris sighed; one thing she hated more than anything was wilfully handing someone the ability to tell her 'I told you so', and it didn't make it any easier that Aranea had been so confident that Iris was kidding herself about her feelings for Ravus. Now Iris had to validate that confidence and admit something she didn't want to admit to even herself. She took a deep breath and typed out her response:
Iris: We had breakfast this morning. He touched my hand and I almost died. How am I supposed to deal with that actually fighting him?
The typing bubbles popped up for a few seconds and disappeared, only to pop up again before disappearing one more time as the message came through.
Silver Queen BAE: Oh shit!
Silver Queen BAE: You've got it so bad I totally knew it!
Iris rolled her eyes and groaned, flipping over onto her stomach and flailing her limbs weakly.
Iris: Yeah, yeah, you were right, I know. That doesn't solve my problem tho!
Silver Queen BAE: Ok, you're right, let me think
Silver Queen BAE: Iris you're just going to have to deal with it. I know it's gonna be hard, but you're going to have to keep your cool. idk what else to tell you.
Iris: Fiiiiine. I'll do my best
Tossing her phone aside, Iris buried her face in her pillow and let out an exasperated yell "Fuuuuuuuck!" she pounded her fists against the bedding a few times before sitting up and taking a few deep breaths "You can do this, Iris." She told herself "You're not going to let your feelings get in the way of this opportunity. Just suck it up!"
As she lay there trying to calm her nerves, Iris found herself getting drowsy "I did get up really early this morning, maybe I should take a nap." she mused with a yawn "Yeah, I think I deserve a little more sleep. Plus, I'll be so much more prepared for whatever Ravus is going to throw at me tonight. A nap is an excellent idea!" she then proceeded to lazily roll around the bed until she was comfortable, and pulled a blanket up around her chin. She had fleeting thoughts of setting an alarm, but dismissed them "I have all day before I even have to start getting ready. There's no way I won't wake up with hours to spare." Confident in her ability to wake herself up at a reasonable hour, Iris snuggled deep into her blankets, imagining that a certain tall, ashen haired commander had his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight to his chest. "He's just so BIG," Iris said to herself, a blushing smile creeping over her features, "he probably wouldn't even fit on my bed, especially not with me in it too." The idea brought her an immense amount of joy and embarrassment as she fought to keep the fog of sleep away for just a little while longer, wanting to enjoy her day dream as much as possible before slumber overtook her. "I...wonder...how big...his own bed...is..?" her thoughts blurred and ran together as she slipped away, soon to be completely lost to the world; for a little while at least.
Iris slept a sound, dreamless sleep for hours, not even waking at midday when she was usually starving. When she did finally come to, it was slowly and she felt as groggy as if she had challenged Prompto to a contest of who could win a race after drinking three Slow potions. She was conscious of being awake, but refused to open her eyes, the temptation to remain under her covers too great to cast off in an instant.
As she became more aware of her surroundings, Iris noticed a heavy weight lying across her middle; turning her head as gently as possible, she found herself penned in by something solid behind her as well. Peeking under her blankets, Iris saw that it was a man's arm slung around her waist. "Ravus is here in my bed with me" she thought instinctively recognizing he the limb as belonging to the high commander himself "I wonder how long he's been here." As she lay there, thinking about how nice it was to be so tightly held, his voice came floating softly over her shoulder "Ah, you are awake."
Smoothing a hand over his arm, and interlocking her fingers with his, she nestled in closer to his chest, answering with a nod and a sleepy "Mhmm". They lay there without speaking for a few moments until Iris broke the silence, lifting her head and turning to get his attention; "Ravus?" she asked, waiting for an acknowledging hum before continuing "Why aren't you waiting in the dojo? It must be almost time for you to test me, shouldn't you be there?" He leaned forward, resting his chin on the crown of her head "It's still light out. We shouldn't meet until well after dark to avoid rousing suspicion. We can just stay here until then." Iris laid her head down and closed her eyes, "I'll get up in a little bit, this is just really nice..." she was just dozing off when she had a sudden sensation of falling, and jerked herself awake.
As she tried to collect herself and slow her breathing from the shock, she was aware of the emptiness of her bed. Ravus was nowhere to be seen, and she had just begun to reason that he had gone to prepare for her assessment when she smacked herself in the forehead with the palm of her hand, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks "I'm an idiot!" she said it out loud, the sound of her own voice seeming to add extra emphasis to the exclamation "It was a freaking dream! He'd never crawl in bed with me, much less even set foot near this area of the palace! Uggghhh I'm such an idiot!" she rubbed her eyes furiously, trying to shake she slumber from every part of her body before going to check the time on her phone and seeing that she had gotten a text from the high commander himself.
Ravus: I'll meet you in the dojo at midnight
"Shit!" she exclaimed "It's already a quarter til! How did I sleep this long?!" her plans of having plenty of time to mentally prepare and do some dynamic stretching prior to the test had been dashed, and she flew around the room, gathering her gear and yanking on different articles of suitable clothing. Once she was dressed, Iris grabbed the handle of her door and stood there, taking a few minutes to breathe deeply and calm herself down before heading out. She knew that if anyone saw her dashing urgently around the palace, they would immediately alert her father, and he would have her brought to him and spend the next few hours grilling her about where she was headed in such a hurry at that hour of the night.
Confident that she was sufficiently calm, Iris turned off her lamp and slowly opened her door. Creeping out of her room and keeping herself pressed against the walls, she stealthily made her way through the shadowy halls of the palace to the dojo, certain that if she were even a minute late, the chance to impress Ravus would be completely lost to her. As she drew close to their meeting place, Iris saw that there was no glimmer of light coming from any visible area of the training house, making her think that she had either beaten him there, or made some mistake about the time and place of their meeting. Deciding to go inside and wait for a bit, Iris slipped through the front door, made her way through the darkness to the sparring room, and pushed open that door, whereupon doing so, she was a little blinded by the light from all the lamps in the room, creating a stark contrast to the dark that she had just come from.
Iris stood there just inside the door, blinking in the light for a few moments, and waiting for her eyes to adjust before she could take account of her surroundings; as she became more used to the light, she surveyed the room, seeing all the equipment in its rightful place around the walls, and there at the center, the high commander, facing away from Iris, one arm stretched across the front of his body while the other arm assisted in the stretch, as she could see in the mirrors that lined the room. Iris swallowed thickly a few times as she gave him a quick once-over; in place of his usual impressive white uniform, Ravus wore black pants, similar to the ones she'd seen Noctis often wear, a black tank top, and black fingerless gloves. "Ah, there you are," he spoke, catching sight of her in the mirror and turning to face her "shall we get started?"
As nervous as she had been at the prospect of having to go hand to hand with Ravus, Iris found that, in actually doing so, she was incredibly calm and focused; able to concentrate on the task at hand, and remain objective in performing it.
Ravus began their trial in a very similar way to Aranea, having Iris perform several block, strike, and dodge maneuvers, in order to assess her level of knowledge and agility. Once he was satisfied, he stepped over to her and they squared off, circling each other, fists raised, trying to feel out the other's strengths and weaknesses. Iris struck first, throwing a light jab at Ravus' ribs, to test the waters. He blocked it easily with a dropped elbow, and returned it with a blow of his own, aimed at her head. Iris dodged to the side, swiping a hand across in front of her as she did so, and giving his hand a light tap as it passed by, a hair's breadth from her face.
They traded shallow hits back and forth for a little while, feeling the other out until Iris, feeling a spark of competitive aggression, kicked up the speed and intensity of her attacks, wanting to find out exactly how far she could push Ravus in a sparring match. He seemed to rise to the challenge, matching her speed blow for blow, but for some reason, didn't escalate from there. Emboldened by this, Iris decided to see if she could provoke a reaction out of him. She waited for his next blow, and when it came, she swiftly sidestepped it, seizing his wrist as she did so, and whirled toward him, dropping to the floor and sweeping her leg at the backs of his feet in an attempt to bring him to the ground.
Ravus anticipated her intent, and jumped lightly over her extended leg, twisting his wrist in Iris' grasp as he went, rolling out of her grip and grabbing her arm at the same time. She hadn't been prepared for how fast he was, and her split second window to react flashed by before she could react. She let out a surprised "Oof" when, in the same motion of grabbing her, he came around behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck in a chokehold, not tight enough to hurt her, but still with the purpose of subduing her. Holding on to the arm encircling her neck, Iris responded by kicking out hard at a hanging punching bag in front of her, using the backward force to propel herself up and flip over his shoulder, pulling herself free from his grip and wrapping her legs tightly around his waist.
Once in position on Ravus' back, Iris threw her body weight to the side with all the force she could muster; she was considerably smaller than him, it was true, but she had always been far stronger than she looked, causing most people who sparred with her to greatly underestimate her ability. It was instantly apparent that Ravus, who grabbed her legs as soon as she had got them around him, had made a similar miscalculation when he failed to adequately compensate for the power of her throw; and although Iris didn't manage to bring him to the ground, she destabilized him enough for him to drop down on one knee and loosen his grasp on her legs, allowing her to break free and roll away.
Leaning back on her heels, Iris grinned at Ravus from across the room; she was confident that she was doing well, and she was enjoying herself. "I see you much prefer to use your legs and body weight to your advantage, rather than your fists." he remarked "That serves you well." Iris shrugged "When you grow up with a guy like Gladdy for a brother, you learn really quickly that you have to play to your own strengths instead of trying to play by someone else's rules. Especially if that someone else is almost three times your size." she said it matter-of-factly, glad that he was taking notice of her skills, but not wanting to give the idea that it meant as much to her as it did.
They both rose to their feet and approached each other again, dropping into their respective fighting stances, and once again starting to circle each other. This time it was Ravus who took the offensive, although he took a different approach than he had before; rather than throwing punches, he advanced on her, deflecting the several strikes she made at him, until he was close enough, whereupon, he tripped her and took her to the mat almost immediately. They grappled for a moment before he flipped her onto her hands and knees, wound an arm around her neck and rolled onto his back, clasping her to his chest while winding one of his legs around her own, effectively immobilizing her.
Letting out a surprised yelp, Iris scrabbled at the arm encircling her neck "Wha…" she gasped, feeling suddenly lightheaded. Ravus released her immediately, rolling back over and pushing her back onto her hands and knees, giving her back a few hard pats "Easy, just breathe." he told her. It took a few minutes of spluttering before she regained her composure and could turn to him "What was THAT?" she demanded wiping a hand across her mouth as she leaned back on her heels. He gave her a questioning frown "Surely Gladiolus is well versed in grappling and submission holds, did he never teach you?" Iris shook her head vigorously "No! I mean all the guys wrestle with each other all the time, but he told me that it wasn't as important that he teach me that. He said that I needed to learn with someone my own size, though he was always against the idea of me wrestling with Noct or Prompto when they were still not much bigger than me." Ravus sighed and rolled his eyes "Then he is more of an imbecile than I had thought him before."
Iris opened her mouth to protest his slander against her brother, but Ravus, seeing what she was about to do held up a hand to silence her "Nevermind. I'll teach you a few things. Now, let me see what weapons you have available to you. It won't do for you to be out in the field with nothing but your legs to defend yourself. You'd only get in the way." He strode over to inspect the array of weapons, and Iris stood up, venting her annoyance with him by making a rude face at his back. As Ravus picked up a dagger to weigh its quality, a spirit of mischief came over Iris. Her eyes lit up with evil delight as she dropped into a crouch and crept toward the high commander, willing him to not turn around; once she reached the perfect distance, she dug her foot into the mat and sprinted at him, intending to give him a shock and get a little revenge on him for his snide comments.
Launching herself into the air when she felt she was close enough, Iris drew her legs up under her, preparing to wrap them around Ravus' neck, at which point she'd hurl her weight to the side and throw him down onto the mat. Her plan went perfectly for the first few seconds of it's execution, but in the split second before she made contact, Ravus whirled around and knocked her legs to the side with a powerful sweep of one arm, and, not ceasing his circular motion, threw an arm around Iris' waist and snatched her out of the air as she sailed past him, dropping her in a heap on the floor at the end of his movement.
Laying sprawled on the mat, Iris gazed up at Ravus, slightly dumbfounded about what had just happened. "You should really work on being lighter on your feet," he told her impassively "I heard the intent in them as soon as you dug your toes into the mat." Gritting her teeth in frustration, Iris grabbed onto the hand he held out to her, and sprang to her feet "I'm going to make it a mission to take you down when you least expect it!" she challenged, hands on her hips. Ravus only shrugged "You are welcome to do so. Though you shouldn't expect to be successful any time soon; you are still inexperienced, and we will have to work on that."
All Iris' thoughts of revenge flew from her mind as he said it. "So, when you say 'we'll have to work on it' do you mean that I'm up to your standards and can join you when you leave the palace now?" She asked, sure that the answer was yes, but wanting to hear him say it all the same. Ravus had moved to where he'd left his things on one of the low benches bordering the gym wall; laying his jacket over one arm, he turned to her "I believe you will be a useful asset to both Aranea and myself, and I look forward to exploring how our talents complement each other. Also-" he held up his hand to hold back her celebratory exclamations "also, I am uncomfortable with the idea of sending you into the field unarmed, so I will be keeping an eye on how those skills manifest as they grow in order to determine what type of weapon will be most advantageous to you."
Iris only nodded in response. The fact that she had worked so hard for the chance to get out of the city and begin really learning how to fight and kill demons, and now it was actually happening, had rendered her speechless with excitement. That speechlessness didn't last long, however, and her stunned silence soon gave way to overwhelming joy, and she impulsively threw herself at Ravus, flinging her arms tightly around his hips and babbling her muffled gratitude into his stomach. Her unexpected affections taking him by surprise, Ravus just stood there stiffly, his arms held out at an awkward angle, illustrating his extreme discomfort with such demonstrations.
Finally realizing that he should respond in some way, Ravus patted Iris' shoulder lightly before gently pushing her away and stepping back, clearing his throat as he pulled on his jacket "Yes, well I am glad that you are excited to begin field training with us. You did well this evening, and I can see that Aranea did not over-exaggerate in her assessment of your ability. Now, if you don't mind, I will be going. It's getting quite late and I wouldn't want to encourage unwanted suspicion if someone were to see you out at this hour." Iris nodded and followed him to the door. He turned to her one more time, pausing with his hand on the door's handle "Either I or Aranea will be in touch to let you know when to expect your first mission. Until then, Iris." With that, he was gone, and Iris made her way back to her room, her stealthy movements belying the joyous emotions overflowing her heart.
*I apologize for the slow down in updating this. I've been really busy getting ready to move and go back to school full time, starting really soon. I am absolutely committed to this fic, but I won't be able to spend as much time writing as I could when I started it, so you have my apologies for that. But anyway, thank you for reading as always!