Day 5:
The royal lounge was uncomfortably quiet. Half of his Crownsguards were still in the hospital. The others were all over the city, helping put lives back together. Noctis had ruled that was more important than protecting the Citadel and Regis had agreed when consulted. So Cor was the only one left. Too crippled to help reconstruction efforts and too stubborn to stay in bed.
Well he wasn't a damn invalid.
Regis gave him a more important job anyway.
"I want you to stay with Reina. She will tell you she does not need to be looked after and you will disregard that."
He would have done even if Regis hadn't added that last bit.
"She is in my room," Regis said. "I have left her sleeping—I hope. She needs as much rest as she can take. I am expected in the city, so I must leave that responsibility in your hands. And Cor—do whatever you can to make her feel comfortable."
That wasn't really his specialty. Hell, the last time he'd seen her, she could hardly look at him. Right after she'd hugged him and told him she missed him. Still wasn't sure what had changed between those two things.
"I'll do what I can," Cor said, hoping he sounded as if that was more than nothing.
"Good." Regis clasped his shoulder and left. He was more energetic since the Wall had come down. Stronger. He limped less than Cor did.
So Cor was left alone in the empty lounge. He was tired of sitting, made to be on his feet. All this laying around and resting was bullshit. Yeah, sure, they said rest was the best thing for a bum knee, but he could walk it off.
He walked down the hall to the end, where the big double doors were conspicuous without a guard outside. He took up the post and stood there until she screamed.
The door was unlocked. He shouldered his way in and raced inside. His knee objected strongly. He told it to shut the hell up.
"Reina?" He stopped in the bedroom doorway, but only because from there he could see her sitting up in Regis' bed, eyes wide open.
She took a halting breath. He had just enough time to wonder if she was awake at all—the last time he'd seen one of those Dreams had been in Tenebrae, but she had looked awake when she wasn't—before she looked at him.
And tears began to fall. "Cor."
No daemons to stab. No MTs to decapitate. No burning Magitek ship to carry her out of. He was way out of his depth. How the hell do you fix a problem you can't hit?
"It was just a nightmare." She swiped at her cheeks, but the tears kept falling. Was she telling him or herself? "It's seven fifty-six. Seven fifty-six. Insomnia never fell. Father is alive. Drautos is dead." Herself. Definitely herself.
He hesitated in the doorway, not much good as anything but a substitute door. Distantly he registered that there was a proper procedure for comforting someone. Whatever that procedure was, it had not been part of the Crownsguard curriculum and no one had bothered to teach it to him.
After a few moments she looked up at him. "You're still here."
"You want me to go?"
"Yes," she said. Immediately followed by, "No. What year is it?"
"Seven fifty-six."
"What… what do you think of me?"
That first question had a real answer. But this one? What did he think of her? Sure hadn't been on any Crownsguard tests. He gave it a shot anyway.
"You're Regis' daughter. I watched you grow up and it's my job to protect you just like I protected him and your grandfather. Don't think we ever really got along before, but I always meant to protect you. Then you came back to Insomnia and tore the empire a new one. Saved my life. I fought next to you and not in front of you. I respect you. That's not usually something that happens overnight."
Two days ago sitting in this same room he had told her he would always stay at her side if she allowed him. Maybe even if she didn't. But she couldn't remember any of that. Could she?
She stared at him so long he couldn't remember if he had said anything out loud or if she was still waiting for an answer from him. His knee ached. Damn it.
"I'll stay by your side until I draw my last breath," he said. "Follow where you lead."
The only way he knew she heard him was because of the tear that ran down her cheek. At least he assumed that was what it meant. She climbed out of bed and crossed the room toward him. He let go of the door frame and inched backward in case she wanted out. Made a better door than conversationalist.
"Stay right there," she said.
He stopped. She came all the way up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face against his chest. That was a new thing she did since yesterday. He still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, but she hadn't objected yesterday so he hugged her back.
Should he ask what the nightmare had been about? Or was it better to pretend it hadn't happened?
Why had Regis left him with this job again?
"You don't hate me." She said it so quietly against his chest he wasn't sure he'd heard it at all.
"The hell would you think I did?"
What the hell had she Dreamed? First she couldn't get farther than saying he'd been part of her retinue without breaking down and apologizing for something she'd never done. Now she thought he hated her? What the hell had he done in that Dream?
She shook her head against his chest. Couldn't tell him. Probably better that way, since he was in no way prepared to deal with what had happened last night.
It was a few minutes of them standing around like that. Eventually she pulled away, ran her hands over her face. There was a wet patch on the front of his shirt. It would dry.
"You want to go back to bed?" Cor asked without much conviction.
"No." She looked up at him. If not for the redness around her eyes, he'd have said she was never upset in the first place. All the emotion drained away just like that. Or was locked away. "I'll be fine. I just need to take a walk. Clear my head."
"Regis doesn't want you up. He said you need the rest."
"I don't do everything my father wants."
"I noticed."
"You're not resting, either." She looked pointedly at his knee.
Two of a kind, they were.
"Alright," Cor said. "You want to walk, I'll go with you."
This seemed to surprise her—shouldn't have, but it did—but she didn't object.
"You can't go walking around the Citadel like that, though," he said.
She looked down. Maybe she'd forgotten that she was wearing one of Regis' shirts and nothing else. It was a good thing she was so damn small.
"I suppose not," she said. "Maybe in my old rooms…"
She brushed past him and out the door into the hall. She led and he followed. That was how this was going from now on. If she didn't like it. Well. He didn't do everything she wanted.
