Title: Word of the Day v. FFIV
Author: Garnet Eyes
Archived: fanfiction. net, livejournal. com
Last Updated: 10 Jul 2011
Summary: 11 November 2000 edition.
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Kain, Kain x Cecil x Kain
Author Notes: introspection, noun;
1. The act or process of self-examination; contemplation of one's own thoughts and feelings; a looking inward.
Disclaimers: Final Fantasy IV is owned by Square-Enix and I in no way, shape, or form profit off of my writing. This is simply for my own pleasure, and may at any time be removed and/or modified as I see fit.

...

The dragoon sighed as chocolate eyes traced over peaceful, sleep-relaxed features. Cecil really didn't look like much of a fighter outside of his armor. There were a lot of things that the younger knight didn't look like, honestly. First and foremost, he didn't look like a man. Kain had proof to back up that belief, proof in the form of small children asking why the "pretty lady" was wearing pants. And that happened every time the bloodless prince went out to the city sans armor. Cecil didn't have the makings for a beard, either. Kain had always thought that was odd, but it was kind of nice because that meant that pale skin was always smooth no matter the time of day. So he could, at this moment late at night, brush his fingers against milky skin and feel only silk beneath his calloused touch. Nothing was stopping him, so he did just that, watching that unflinching pale face as the young prince slept on obliviously.

Cecil was kind of an enigma without meaning to be. He was a strong fighter, but his stance was off compared to the other knights. It was a stance that Kain had attempted to emulate, because the bloodless prince was a superior warrior, but the dragoon had quickly come to the conclusion that the width of the stance was all wrong; Cecil could hold poses that put Kain all out of alignment. Out of idle curiosity, the dragoon covertly got Rosa to strike the same poses and stances on a whim without explaining the reason, and she'd done so easily. That was Kain's first tip that the younger man had hips that were a little wider than they should have been. It wasn't otherwise apparent, or at least not unless you were deliberately looking for it, because the dragoon certainly hadn't noticed until he'd started actively looking and comparing and he'd known Cecil for the majority of their lives.

So, Cecil looked a lot less like a man than most men. That automatically meant that people underestimated him outside of his armor, whether they even consciously understood that they were doing it or not. Kain had to admit that he used to do that, too, a lot more than he did now. Sometimes he still slipped and just assumed that the little prince wouldn't be able to handle something, or would be too much of a prissy princess to take care of it himself, and the blonde was always knocked back when Cecil proved him wrong without even knowing what Kain had been thinking. The dragoon never doubted that the bloodless prince could hold his own in combat, but he felt stronger urges to step in and handle the situation himself when Cecil was in his silks instead of encased in steel and iron. It was reflex, and Kain had a hard time controlling it, as though he was spitting on chivalry somehow to leave the younger knight to fend for himself.

Shifting in the bed, the blonde winced and found himself smirking as the pain dulled. It didn't really matter that the little prince didn't look like he was strong or dangerous or manly or anything else; Kain was rather intimately aware of what exactly Cecil was capable of. Sure, the younger knight was unpolished, but no one was perfect the first time. Although, if the blonde could believe his little prince, Kain had come pretty close after the first bit of fumbling. But the point was that, for all of his peculiarities, Cecil was very much a man.