Chapter 21 - Cat

Warm wind brushed Cor's cheeks as he stepped out from the citadel hallway to the small yard that connected to the crownsguard training room. Spring flowers had bloomed and brought color to the sight. Some butterflies could be seen fluttering around between the colorful shrubs.

Unfortunately, on this nice and pleasant day, Cor hadn't seen his crush, yet. She wasn't in the infirmary when he stole a glance at that place before. Probably it wasn't her shift. And Cor was a bit disappointed.

How funny. The marshal was disappointed because he was unable to see his crush.

Cor didn't have the medic's schedule. He might be the marshal of the crownsguard, but the medic was under Elaine Heallint's supervision. Unless it was for an urgent matter, he didn't dare to ask about their schedule.

A sigh left his throat as he continued to walk across the yard to the training room.

Sraaa!

Cor quickly halted when he saw a shadow jumping in front of him. Out of habit he had already summoned his sword and formed a stance because of that sudden movement.

"Meow!"

Cor blinked, looking at a small black cat that was apparently the identity behind the mysterious shadow that jumped in front of him.

He parted his lips, wanting to say something but at the end nothing left his mouth. After giving a slight pause to process the event, he chuckled and put out his sword.

"Where are you coming from?" he muttered.

"Meow!"

Cor gave off another chuckle when the cat walked toward him and rubbed its head against his leg.

He wondered how on earth there was a cat inside the citadel. Well, probably it sneaked in from the gap of the gate. Or probably, it just sneaked in from one of the doors. Or, remembering that it was a cat, it might have climbed the gate and jumped inside.

Crouching, Cor observed the cat. He pondered whether he should take it outside or not. It wasn't a threat for anyone in the citadel. It was just a cat, not a malicious intruder. Letting it inside wouldn't be too bad. It might leave when it is bored or when it needs to return back to its home—Cor was sure that its not living in the citadel. But, it wouldn't be nice if the cat stayed and made a mess. Rubbing his chin, he debated himself in his head.

As he gazed at the black eyes of the cat, somehow it reminded him of a certain medic. It also had black fur, the same color as her hair.

Taking out the phone from his pocket, he opened an application he rarely used, "camera"—he didn't even remember when was the last time he used it. He thought she would like seeing this cat… And probably she would show up here to see it… Oh Cor, what were you thinking?

Cor looked at the cat through his phone display. The wrinkles on his forehead multiplied when he tried to snap its picture. He was bad at taking pictures, but he wished that the result wouldn't be so bad.

Snap!

Okay, that was so bad. The cat stayed still, and despite that Cor couldn't take the picture well.

Snap!

Okay, he moved his hands when he was snapping the picture. And because of that, it wasn't clear what the object in the picture was.

He tried again. Bad angle.

He tried again. Oh, the cat moved.

Cor held his breath, struggling not to move even for a slightest movement.

Snap!

He gave a long exhale and looked at the result of his bad photography skill. A bit blurry, but was clear enough, perhaps? At least he could see the cat was the object, and not just a fluff of blurry darkness like in his previous pictures.

Now he moved on to the next problem, "How to attach the picture in his message".

"Meow!" Now the cat was sitting in front of him. Tail swaying, probably it was happy?

Giving a soft smile, now Cor returned back his gaze toward his phone. He opened the messaging app, created a new email, selected his crush's name as recipient, then struggled to find the menu to attach the image.

Great, after pressing all the icons, he finally found which one to insert the image. It had been a really long time since he used this menu.

Selecting the image he just took, the man sighed when the image showed up in the body image. At last.

Now, he just needed to type some texts and send it to Eira….

"Ah, Marshal! Good afternoon."

Cor gasped when someone suddenly greeted him. The man was flustered, worried that someone saw that there was a photo of the cat in his phone. Worse if they found out that he was going to send it to someone. Thus, he quickly pressed the send button and put his phone back into his pocket.

Standing up hurriedly, Cor turned his body around to see that it was the prince who greeted him. Next to him, the blonde Argentum was standing—slightly behind, looking awkward, and seemingly wanting to greet but hesitant as he only parted his lips without saying anything.

"Noctis. Prompto." Cor greeted them, putting back his stern face to hide what he was doing a few seconds ago. He didn't want the prince and his friend to find out that the marshal had just taken a picture of a cat and sent it to his crush.

"Meow!" The cat suddenly meowed then ran away, startling both Noctis and Prompto who didn't know there was a cat there as Cor's big profile hid it from their sight.

"What? What's that? A cat?" Noctis frowned, eyes following the cat who disappeared behind the bushes far from them.

"Yeah, seems like a stray," Cor answered.

"Eh? Don't tell me that you just petted it?" Noctis asked.

Cor glared at the prince. "No."

"Hee…" Noctis doubted him.

"Let's go to the training room." Cor quickly said, diverting the topic from the cat. He turned around then walked toward the training room.

Sighing softly, he was glad that it seemed none of them noticed that he was taking the cat's picture and sending it to a certain someone. Of course they wouldn't. The phone display was too small and they were on his behind. They couldn't see what was on his front.

He was worried about nothing.

Eira sighed, brushing her face with both of her hands before dropping her head on the table. It felt like her brain was going to explode as it was now full with theories, formulas, chemicals, tables, and diagrams. Her head was heavy. Moreover, remembering that her academic advisor was clearly not pleased with her thesis. She wanted to throw all of the papers, which were currently under her cheek, and let out her rage.

Unfortunately she was in the citadel library right now. Shouldn't create a ruckus, right?

Shutting her eyes, she decided to doze off. In the dark, she was thinking of going to the cafeteria and buying some puddings or ice cream to freshen her mind. Or perhaps just a cold drink to cool off her head. Placing them on her head might be nice...

Drrt!

She jumped, sitting straight on her seat again because the phone she placed on her desk suddenly vibrated. Her heart increased its rate, beating rapidly that it was rather unpleasant for her.

While trying to manage her breath and calm herself, she took her phone, curious about what kind of notification it was about… only to find out that her heart was raising its speed again to see Cor's name written on it.

It was an e-mail.

Now she completely forgot about her thesis.

Quickly moving her finger, she opened the email. And a smile passed over her face when she saw a slightly blurry picture of a black cat.

She was so happy. Just a simple picture of a random cat from Cor, and she was so happy. Like she was floating in the air, like all of the torture from the research paper she was reading for references never existed.

Scrolling down the message, Eira blinked as she didn't find anything written in the email. She wondered why Cor just sent the picture without any words. It didn't have any subject. A bit curious, but she didn't really question it. Probably he just simply wanted to show her the cat he found. Now she was rather curious where he took this picture and whose cat it was. No way it was Cor's pet.

She couldn't catch the place where the picture was taken. The background was blurry, even the cat itself was actually a bit blurry. Eira chuckled, amused by the thought that Cor was bad at taking pictures.

Okay, no more questioning in the head. What about asking Cor regarding the cat?

She typed, [ Awww! So cute~! ( ´,,•ω•,,`) Whose cat is that? Don't tell me that it's yours. ]

Sending the email, she returned back to Cor's message. The cat was so adorable and looked so fluffy. It would be nice to pat its head, rub its belly, and softly pinched its paw. It had been a long time since Eira played with a cat. Ah, finding out that probably Cor liked cats, she got an idea to invite him to a cat cafe she loved to visit.

Upon receiving Cor's message, it felt like her spirit was replenished. Placing the phone back on the desk, Eira took a deep breath before continuing her thesis.

Unfortunately, it was rather hard for her to focus. Every few minutes she glanced at her phone, wishing that Cor would reply to her message sooner. After fifteen minutes she just realized that it was the time for crownsguard training. Cor might be away from his phone, right?

Tapping both cheeks, Eira now decided to regain her focus solely for her thesis. The crownsguard training just started and would be over in the next five hours—or more—after all. Cor wouldn't reply until then.

Hiding her phone behind her laptop, she began to type again. Even though she was actually still wishing for Cor's reply.

.

.

.

Eira was a bit nervous when she stepped inside the yard between the hallway and the crownsguard training room. She didn't even understand why she decided to wait for Cor here. The place where the rest of the crownsguard members would walk across toward the hallway to the citadel entrance.

Sitting on a bench, she held a bottle of milk tea from a vending machine near the hallway to the infirmary. She fiddled her fingers by tapping the bottle while her eyes sometimes glanced at the training room.

The sound of clanging wooden swords and the voice of the crownsguard in training could be faintly heard from there. There was an urge to take a peek, but she was too shy. Also, afraid if someone caught her peeking and interrogated her about what she was doing there. Moreover, peeking into the training room… That is creepy, isn't it?

Ah, right! She could just use "finding Lizette" for the excuse. But, if Lizette was still actually there, Eira wouldn't be happy to receive some tease from her. Nope. Okay, she would just stay here then.

Opening the lid of her milk tea and taking a sip, she hoped that it would calm her down. She was a bit worried that someone would catch her waiting for a certain marshal. But, she was foolishly waiting here, where many of crownsguard would see her if she was interacting with Cor.

Also, she didn't have any appointment with the marshal. Why would she wait for him? More importantly, why would she wait for him here?

She just wanted to see him for a glance, right?

Eira scolded herself for being stupid. It would be better if she went to infirmary instead.

"Meow!"

However, right before she got up from her seat, a cat jumped from the bushes behind her and stopped in front of her.

"Ah!" she blinked in surprise. "Eh? Cat?"

She didn't understand why there was a cat here in the citadel. She never saw one invading this place.

With excitement, she left her seat and squatted in front of that cute big cat.

"Hello! What are you doing here?" she stretched her hand, giving her forefinger to be smelled by the cat—a greeting to the cat. After a few sniffs, the cat walked closer to her and let her pet it.

"Oh… Sweety…" Eira chuckled and softly scratched its head.

"Are you lost? Hmm? Aw… You're so big… You eat a lot, huh?" Now Eira had used both of her hands to rub the cat.

"Meow!" The cat lay on its back and showed her its big belly, giving her the permission to play more with it.

But then Eira noticed something. She thought that this cat was familiar…

"Ah!"

It was the same cat as in the picture that Cor sent this afternoon.

No one noticed it but Cor didn't do well today. He could maintain his focus when he trained the crownsguard, but he sometimes found himself not in the present. His mind wandered around, thinking about a certain medic whom he sent email with no subject nor content before. He was kind of worried that she would think that he was being weird for sending only a picture of a cat he found outside the training room. He couldn't stop wondering what Eira's reply would be.

Unfortunately he couldn't peek at his phone since he kept it inside his locker. Also, he needed to gather all of his focus solely to train the crownsguard members. Especially to the young Argentum who needed extra attention from him.

When Cor walked out from the shower room, Noctis and Prompto were already in the locker room, well-dressed and ready to leave.

"Marshal, see you tomorrow!" said Noctis casually.

"Ah, Marshal. Thank you for today." Unlike the prince, Prompto was so stiff around Cor. He bowed down deeply in front of him and stuttered as he talked to him. "I'm looking forward to your guidance tomorrow."

Cor had already told him before not to be too formal toward him, but it seemed that it was hard to do. Even a certain medic who was close to him needed days to not call him as marshal when they were not working. Asking a new crownsguard cadet to be comfortable around him would be impossible.

"Rest well." Cor said.

"Yes, Sir." Prompto nodded. And the two left afterwards.

Cor dressed in a hurry. And while one hand was rubbing his hair with the towel, the other hand hastily reached for his phone. Cor was impatient in seeing the reply from Eira.

[ Awww! So cute~! ( ´,,•ω•,,`) Whose cat is that? Don't tell me that it's yours. ]

He smiled upon reading her message. The heat swarmed inside his chest, and happiness filled his soul. He had been waiting for hours until the training was over only to look at this sweet message from her.

[ Probably a stray. It was in the citadel. ] He replied then put his phone in his pants pocket.

Tossing his towel to a bin in the corner of the room, Cor wore his coat. He wondered if Eira would be there in the infirmary as he really wanted to invite her to dinner again today. He couldn't resist himself from not asking her to dinner together. And the great thing was that she never once refused his invitation.

He just hoped that no one would catch them having dinner together. And, that was also the reason why Cor always asked for a private room whenever they went to their favorite izakaya recently. Avoiding smoke and noise he said, but that was just an excuse to hide their relationship.

Relationship, huh? They were just co-worker, though. No more than that.

It was already dark when he left the training room. It wasn't unusual anyway. He rarely saw the sunset because of the training. And when he finished the training, it was usually around seven or eight. Funny, he remembered that he often trained until almost midnight months before. But, since he often had dinner with a certain medic, he never trained until late.

"Aah it really looks like you after all!"

"Come on! Prompto! I think it will scratch my face."

"No, no! Please hold it a little longer!"

"Prompto!"

"Ahaha…"

It was so lively there in the yard. Following the source of the voices, Cor saw Prompto and Noctis not far from there.

"Two angry cats."

Cor blinked as he heard a familiar voice. A voice from a young medic he was thinking about since this afternoon.

"Ahaha, yes. Two angry cats!" Prompto laughed.

Cor kept walking until he found that Prompto was taking pictures of Noctis, who was holding a familiar cat. It was the cat he saw this afternoon.

"Come on, Noct! Smile!" Prompto said as he took the prince's picture.

"Meow!" but the cat in Noctis's hands didn't want to stay still and jumped off from him.

"Ah!" Noctis jolted, and the cat ran toward Eira who was sitting on the bench not far from them.

"He likes Eira over you." Prompto teased.

"What a flirty boy." Noctis grumbled.

"Ehehehe." Eira chuckled then bowed a bit to take the cat and put it on her lap.

Fuck, she was so adorable and Cor was enchanted by her more and more.

"Ah, Marshal." Eira noticed his presence, and her voice pulled Cor down to reality.

"Marshal! Good evening!" Prompto awkwardly greeted him and stood straight. He didn't need to greet Cor though, they just finished their training a few minutes ago.

"Playing with the cat?" Cor cleared his throat. This was so awkward. He didn't know what to say.

"Yes. Prompto wants to take its pic with Noctis." Eira answered. Damn, Cor really loved hearing her voice. Moreover, after hours of training. It felt like his exhaustion was being lifted just by it.

"But the cat didn't want to cooperate." Noctis was not pleased. But then he looked at Cor and asked, "It seemed like he doesn't want to leave. Can we just keep him in the citadel?"

"No." Cor quickly answered.

"But you just let it be before the training." Noctis argued. "I thought that it was an okay."

"I thought that it would leave by itself. Seems like we should help him leave the citadel," Cor replied.

"What a shame…" Eira muttered. "It would be nice to have a new fluffy companion here though."

Cor gulped. Glancing to Eira who was clearly disappointed by the decision, he felt guilty. But, rule is rule. No pets allowed in the citadel.

"Ah! Nochi!" a high-pitched voice suddenly broke the silence. Averting his gaze toward the hallway, Cor saw a little girl was running toward Eira. Behind her, Ignis was there, accompanying the little girl. It seemed that he was helping the cat owner to find it.

"Nochi?" Eira looked at the girl then to the cat on her lap. She then held the cat and gave him to that little girl. "Good to know that he has family."

"Nochi!" The girl hugged the cat. "I was so worried… Thank you for taking care of him, Miss."

Cor sighed, relieved that he didn't need to chase away the cat as the owner had found him. Glancing again at Eira, he watched her waving her hand to the little girl who once again thanked her.

…

It was unfortunate that he couldn't see her with the cat a bit longer. But, it was a good thing that the cat finally could return to his home, right?

After waving her hand toward Noctis, Prompto, and Ignis who left with that little girl, Eira gulped, feeling awkward when it was finally just Cor and her. She was happy that thanks to the cat, she could stay here a bit longer until Cor finished his training. And now the man was standing not far from her.

Turning her head to see the charming marshal, she gave a smile.

"Hi…" but then she bit her lower lips, confused if she should call him by his name or not. It was already over work hours, but they were still in the citadel. What is it? It felt like they had a secret relationship. Even though, there was really nothing between them.

Just a friend… No more than that.

Just close enough to call each other by their first name.

"So, the cat has an owner, huh?" Eira said, standing up then fixing the crumpled of her skirt.

"Good that she found him back." Cor replied.

"That was the cat in the picture you sent?"

"Seems like that."

Then they began to walk toward the hallway. Cor was walking next to her, maintaining his speed not to be too fast for her. Having him on her right, her heart began to thump so loud. The swarming butterflies were fluttering in her stomach, and the heat gathered on her cheeks.

"I really thought he was your pet," she said, opening the conversation.

"Unfortunately not. I don't have any time to take care of them," Cor replied.

"Right…" Yeah, Cor wouldn't have time to take care of the pets. He was rarely at home, and when he underwent a mission, he would leave Insomnia for weeks.

She glanced at Cor to see his expression. His face was as stern as usual, with wrinkles on his forehead and that serious look which never faded away—even when he smiled or chuckled. But suddenly Cor glanced at her, making her jolted and quickly averted her eyes to look at her front. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Cor might have realized that she secretly stole a glance at him, he might have felt her gaze.

Clearing her throat, she stuttered, "Um… if… if you had time… what pet would you have?"

"Hmm…" Cor gave a pause, "A dog, perhaps."

"Not a cat?"

"Maybe both?" he chuckled.

"What about chocobo?" she chuckled.

"It would be nice." Cor turned his head at her and smiled. Oh, how much she loved his smile. Wish she was a bit taller so she could see his face clearly, though.

"How about you? Do you have a pet?" Cor asked.

Shaking her head, she answered, "I would love to. But, mom doesn't like pets."

"Ah…" Cor nodded. "But, if it was allowed, what would you have?"

"Cat!" she answered without hesitation. "Ah… but I also love dogs. Or owl…"

"Owl? That's intriguing."

"You know, there's an owl cafe in Insomnia."

"Really? That's interesting."

"And cat cafes. And dog cafes. I love visiting them, since I can't have a pet."

"Never knew such places exist."

Gulping, Eira gathered her courage then said, "If… if you have free time and want to visit it… I can guide you…"

Guide… just a word she used whenever she wanted to accompany the marshal, but didn't want to explicitly say it.

"Sure."

Eira wanted to jump happily after hearing his reply. "Great… Which one do you want to visit first?"

"Hmm… Cat? Maybe."

Eira grinned. "Yeay! It has been a long time since I visited a cat cafe!"

"Good." Cor smiled. "But, before going to the cat cafe... Want to have dinner tonight?"

"In a normal restaurant?"

"You want to eat dinner in a cat cafe now?"

"Eh… N-No… They only serve dessert, anyway." She blushed.

Cor chuckled. "Of course no. Usual izakaya, then?"

"Sure."

"And let me hear about those cafes while we eat."

Eira smiled, "With pleasure."

Author's Note:

Do I know about medical academics? No. Let's make the academic system myself, yes. Intern while writing a thesis seems like hell, eh?

I want to write more about Eira's academic background but idk can I write it in the story? So, yeah, like Ignis (and probably Gladio), Eira doesn't go to a common school and studies in the citadel. Focusing in magic and magic since childhood along with other knowledge… idk… I just want to write romance, okay?

Btw I'll be happy if anyone drop comment or follow me on twitter for more Cor content : flhcl_eiei