Day 44:
Once he had showered and taken stock of his own injuries, Ignis went next door to offer Cor the same opportunity. When he tapped on the door, Cor answered, still looking in much the same state as he had been before—though perhaps slightly less irate. Reina was nowhere to be seen, but the door to the bathroom was closed and the water was running.
"If you wish to have a shower, I will watch the princess." Ignis pulled his room key from his pocket and offered it to Cor.
Cor looked him over and Ignis had the uncomfortable feeling of being under inspection without prior notice.
"You're not calling me Marshal anymore."
"Ah. Apologies. I suppose breaking blood side-by-side rather negates any usual formalities."
"Good." Cor lifted his jacket from his chair and threw it over his shoulder. "First Aid kit's on the bed. Patch yourself up while you're waiting."
He slapped Ignis' shoulder as he walked by, taking the offered key and disappearing down the hall. He had not, Ignis noted, taken his own advice. Then again, perhaps a shower was a prerequisite to bandages. The dust from the desert seemed to coat everything, inside and out. They were all going to be coughing up Niflheim for weeks to come.
But Ignis had a fair few scrapes and cuts of his own, so he sat down and set about covering them. Usually they would have had a potion and a nap and that would have been the end of it. The enchantment to create a potion, however, required Reina to use magic and, while it wasn't an exorbitant amount, it was best if she didn't use any more for the time being. Not after that battle. Not after the lecture Cor had doubtless given her.
Ignis was just tying off the last of his bandages when the bathroom door opened and Reina emerged—fully dressed, though she held the hem of her shirt up above her waist to keep it from touching the gash along her side. Her hair hung wet about her shoulders. Unkempt. Casual. And very much discordant with how he usually saw her. He felt as if he should have been averting his gaze. Of course, it wasn't as if she was indecent or anything, but…
Well. There he was staring at her anyway.
He couldn't help but look for any indication of lingering damage. The image of her skin cracked open like a broken porcelain doll with violet light showing through would be fixed in his mind for the rest of his life. But her skin seemed whole now.
"Your Highness." Ignis rose, too stiffly to be called graceful. He had spent rather too much time sitting for the comfort of his tired muscles.
"Ignis." Her eyes widened briefly, then swept the room. Her thoughts weren't usually printed so clearly on her face anymore, but the encounter with the Messengers seemed to have left her raw and bereft of walls. "Have you taken over for Cor?"
"I thought he might like to wash the sand and blood off as well. But if you'll take a seat, I'm certain I can patch you up just as deftly."
"If you have something for me to enchant, I can—"
"I believe we both know the answer to that, Reina." Ignis was no stranger to the reproachful down-the-nose look usually found only on the faces of mothers and school teachers. He also had no qualms using it against the king's children. "Sit, please."
She sat, any further objections wilting on the spot. In truth he was rather surprised it had worked so well on the first try. He knelt on the ground beside her, taking stock of the injury on her side first. It was still bleeding, though without much conviction. Likely the hot shower hadn't agreed much with it but, on the up side, it was no longer caked with dust.
"I'm surprised Cor trusted anyone else with this," Reina said as he set about his work.
"Indeed." Ignis spritzed antiseptic across the wound, keeping his touch light and his eyes determinedly fixed on his work as he held her shirt out of the way. Reina gasped on contact and he realized, rather belatedly, that his hands were rather more cold than was comfortable. "Apologies."
"It's fine. Just cold." She leaned back, propped on her arms as Ignis wrapped gauze around her waist.
"Incidentally, you may be surprised whom Cor trusts with what recently."
"What do you mean?"
"He sent Ardyn ahead when we had word about the Messengers."
Stunned silence settled between them.
He tied off the bandage around her waist and shifted onto the bed beside her to begin work on her shoulder.
"I'm glad." She smiled faintly.
He wasn't certain what that meant, but was disinclined to ask questions, given his prior experience with it. She fell silent without offering any further explanation. Ignis finished bandaging off her shoulder and scanned her over for any other wounds worth treating. The cut on her brow had been bleeding when first they found her, but was almost too small to note now. Even so, he pushed her damp hair back from her face and turned her head to get a better look at it.
"I wish you wouldn't do this to yourself," Ignis said.
"Better me than you."
"Is it?" He looked sharply down at her. "Heir or not, you are of Caelum blood. And I, for one, am of the opinion that royal blood is worth more than mine."
"It isn't."
"Even if you were not the princess and I not a retainer of the royal family, your blood would be worth spilling mine for. You spend so much time focused on protecting those you love… has it not occurred to you that there are people who love you as much?"
Or more.
"No," she said. "I destroyed that in my Dream."
"That never happened, Reina!" Ignis sighed and dropped his hands from her face. "I still have no notion what truly happened. You have hinted that something occurred between us and I will not press you for details. Nor would I ever presume that you should harbor feelings for me here, in this lifetime, due to events that occurred in another world. I am not the same man I became in your Dream and I suspect I should be thankful for that. But one thing has never changed. And if you know anything of me, you know it to be true."
"What thing?" She asked.
She must have known. If anything had come to pass between them, he would have told her.
But she was staring at him with those eyes, almost desperately. Was it possible she didn't know? Or had she willed herself to forget in whatever darkness had followed?
He took a slow breath and released it. She knew. Or she had, at some point. He could tell her what she already knew, even though he had never been able to admit it before.
"That I love you, Reina," he said. "And I always have. I expect I always will."
A single tear streaked down her cheek. Ignis brushed it away. She shifted her weight and tipped head-first into his chest, giving him little choice but to wrap his arms around her and hold her upright.
"I love you," he repeated, and it felt a great weight off his chest.
"I know," she murmured against his chest. "And I don't deserve it."
She didn't say the same and he didn't need her to. Had never needed her to. This emotion wasn't contingent upon her feelings; if it had been, it wouldn't have hurt so much when he had witnessed her and Gladio…
"And I'm afraid that the person you love doesn't exist anymore," she said.
"You know it is not as simple as that," Ignis said. "Just as your father and brother will always love you, no matter how you change, so, too, will I."
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his neck. "I hope you don't change your mind. When you know the truth."
When. As if she had decided to tell them what, precisely, the truth was.
He could think of nothing to do, save hold her tighter and swear, "I won't."
