The dumb country names piss me off, so I'm going to use actual names.
"We can continue tomorrow, your Majesty," the doctor said. "This should be enough for one day."
Izetta shook her head in determination, her eyes set in front of her. "No," she insisted. "I can still go."
The doctor hesitated. "It really would be better to rest now."
"Finé's working hard. I can't slack off either!" Moving her hands further up along the supports, she stood up straighter, and experimentally shifted her weight to her right leg, then her left, easing slowly into a standing position.
The surgery had been successful, giving her feeling in her legs back, but walking was something she would have to learn again. Scientists from Canada, which was now an independent nation free of Britain, had been working on medical advancements while the rest of the world geared up for war. They developed a new surgical procedure to fix her nerve cells to heal her paralysis. When the existence of their research was made public, Finé paid Canada to get the surgery done on Izetta. The doctor who had performed it and now oversaw her rehab was from Elystadt who had studied in Canada.
Izetta gritted her teeth, her legs shaking. For a moment she paused, before biting her lip and pressing forward, shifting her weight to one leg. She could not support herself, and lost her balance.
"My Queen!" the doctor said, rushing to catch up before she fell, his eyes wide. He and his assistants were super protective of her, loath to let even the slightest harm come to her. Izetta had a shrewd suspicion it was because they were all afraid of Finé's wrath if they let Izetta get hurt.
"Thank you," the witch said, then smiled. "My wife is a reasonable woman, doctor. She knows I might fall down once or twice while learning to walk again."
The doctor rubbed the back of his head, looking a little sheepish. "No, your Majesty," he said. "We simply want you to recover as soon as possible."
Oh no, she hurt his feelings.
Her eyes went wide as she raised her hands before her in a hasty explanation. "No, that's not what I meant! I didn't mean you don't care about me – "
Her legs gave way. The doctor stared at her, unable to react in time to catch her, and she tumbled to the ground. She landed heavily and hard, ungracefully, an "Oomph" escaping her.
The doctor rushed to her. "Are you okay?" he cried.
"Ow… Yes, I'm perfectly fine!" she assured.
The doctor was helping her to her feet when the door opened. They turned to see Finé stride in, purpose in her step as always. The doctor blanched the slightest shade.
Finé paused, seeing her wife with one eye closed in pain, half-way between standing and lying upon the cold wood floor. For a moment it appeared as if she had something to say but completely forgot, before breaking into a run, crossing the room in a second and taking Izetta in her arms. The doctor took a step away.
"Are you alright?!"
Izetta smiled gently. "I'm fine, Finé," she said. "I just fell."
"Oh, Izetta! You need to stop worrying me!"
"I'm learning to walk again," she said sternly. "Of course I'm going to fall a few times."
Finé looked at her in silence for a moment, before sighing and embracing her. "I missed you," she said.
Izetta closed her eyes then, and melted into her. "I missed you too."
For a while they held each other, the doctor waiting silently, and Finé's guards waiting silently too but with considerably less nervousness. Finé took a breath before pulling away, and Izetta smiled at her, and took the supports in her hands to stand up on her own. Perhaps it would be imperceptible to anyone else, but the blonde Queen's eyes noticeably softened in an expression she only ever looked at Izetta with.
Finé turned to the doctor, and he bowed low. "Your Majesty," he said.
"Rise," she said, and although she wasn't really issuing an order a shiver ran down Izetta at the beautiful power her voice always commanded. "You got my wife the use of her legs back. I am forever in your debt. You need not be so formal around me."
The doctor inclined his head respectfully, and Izetta found herself blushing at how perfectly her wife always carried herself, dealing with anything and everything with swift ease, making everyone around her look crude and unsophisticated without ever trying. "It is my immense honor to be of use to our Queens."
Finé inclined her head as well. "We thank you, doctor." She turned to Izetta. "Are you done for the day, dear? Should we go home?"
Izetta hesitated for a second. Sometimes it was hard to wrap her head around the fact they were equals now, and Finé held no power over her. Well, legally she didn't. In actual fact her heart would always be Finé's to command however she wished.
Izetta smiled and nodded. "I was trying to practice some more, but I fell." She paused, then giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry," she said, sticking her tongue out at Finé apologetically.
Finé looked torn. "Oh, Izetta," she sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"
Izetta blushed slightly, a decidedly improper suggestion to answer that question rising to the tip of her tongue before she caught herself in embarrassment and said nothing. Finé stared at her with a knowing gaze that told Izetta the other girl understood exactly what she did not say, and Izetta's blush intensified.
Finé shook her head as if to clear it, then turned back to the doctor. "Well, we'll be leaving then, doctor."
"Thank you for today!" Izetta said.
The doctor bowed.
The doctor's office was a ways from the palace, too far to walk comfortably, especially in the summer heat. Even now, almost four years after what was now called the World War II, there was still work to do. The extent of Emperor Otto's true horrors unleashed upon the countries he'd taken over had left all of the West stunned.
The influence of Nazi Germany was farther reaching than anyone had originally realized. The estimated death toll Emperor Otto was responsible for was now placed at around 11 million by expert estimates. The truth of what they'd done had caused a ripple of horror around the world.
Six million innocent people, almost a third of them children, were systematically murdered. Otto blamed the decline of Germany following WWI on one race, and proceeded to murder every last one within his borders in the largest case of ethnic cleansing in human history. His methods for killing them were morbidly fascinating, in the way that you would wonder what form of insanity could possess someone to come up with them. Many had been gassed, for example, and others had been baked alive, among other horrific methods of genocide.
Finé had felt a shiver run through her when they finally uncovered the extent of the Holocaust. Izetta, on the other hand, had frozen when she heard, and later that night Finé had woken up to see the witch shaking in silent sobs, her fingers digging into her arms, her teeth clenched. Finé embraced her, assuring her it was not her fault, but Izetta wept for weeks.
That was three years ago, but it would take a long time before the survivors recovered from the trauma. There was work to be done for both Europe and the United States, and not only because of the Holocaust and post-war rebuilding. Tensions between the Western world, of which Elystadt was part, and the Soviet Union and its allies were high, with people whispering Joseph Stalin was a greater threat than Emperor Otto had ever been.
It was stressful and time-consuming, and Finé worked all day, while Izetta was learning to walk again. The witch was a Queen of Elystadt as well. Because of that, and also – perhaps more so – to help Finé, she worked tirelessly as well, but she could not spend as much time working for the country that was now hers as well as she would like because learning to walk unfortunately took a priority. Finé made sure it did.
Despite the work that had to be done, Finé could not bring herself to ignore her wife, and came to pick her up from the doctor's every day. Finé traveled the few cobblestone miles in a carriage down the slightly hilly, almost wavy, road. Honestly, she would not mind walking either, but she knew Izetta could hardly make it home from there on foot.
It had been several months since Finé found Izetta getting up after tumbling down to the floor. The witch had been making steady progress since then, and among the oceans of paperwork she and the rest of the Western leaders had been drowning in since the end of the war, Finé found herself living for those looks of hope with which her wife greeted her at the end of each day, standing up straighter and for longer before collapsing into her arms each time. Izetta fell again as well of course, several times actually, and every night when they recounted their days to each other Finé found herself growing irrationally worried that a fall might seriously hurt the witch.
Finé's guard rode with her. Her entourage was as small as she could afford to have it, but it inevitably drew attention. The people knew the Queens traveled along this path every day. Izetta's paralysis was common knowledge, but Finé knew she felt a little bit uncomfortable around people. She wished they'd leave her wife alone, and, surprisingly, the people seemed to have gotten the message. Perhaps it was in the protective, possessive haste with which she guarded Izetta as she lifted her up into the carriage every day – trusting no one else to do it – or perhaps it was the glares she threw the people she admittedly loved enough to give her life for if they looked at Izetta the wrong way. But whatever the reason, they hadn't approached the Queens outside court in a long time. Normally, neither of them would have minded being approached, of course, but Finé was glad they gave Izetta space until she learned to walk on her own again.
The sun was still high in the sky when Finé got to the clinic. There was work to be done like always, but she'd gotten a call from the doctor's receptionist, requesting her presence immediately. Her heart beat slightly faster, and she'd had to consciously force herself not to rush on the way, but the worry in her heart could not be ignored. What happened to Izetta…?
Bianca opened the door and stood aside as Finé stepped out of the carriage. There was a slight breeze in the air, providing a nice contrast with the shining white sun. Taking a breath, Finé stepped up to the doctor's office, Bianca closing the carriage door behind her and joining her.
Finé pushed the door open and entered, the soft light inside the clinic cool after the run. Finé and Biance stepped forward, and the receptionist looked up to see them.
"Ah, your Majesty!" the receptionist said, a strange expression in her eyes, as if she was trying to conceal something. "Go right inside, please."
Finé nodded curtly, then stepped around her desk, a worry clawing at her heart. The door to the doctor's own office where Izetta did her rehab was painted white, along with the rest of the clinic's interior. The door handle was cold from the air conditioning when Finé clasped it in her hand. Bianca close behind her, the Queen pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The almost started, a slender body ramming into her with the energy of a dozen arrows, but instead of painful like an arrow would be it was gentle, or as gentle as a sprinting embrace could be. Finé gasped as Izetta embraced her almost as tight as the night Finé proposed to her in the forest where they first met.
"I – Izetta… You're okay? You scared me."
Izetta stepped back, a wide grin on her beautiful face. "Finé! Finé! Look! I can walk!"
Finé's eyes widened as Izetta stepped back. The witch jumped, once, twice, landing on her toes, before giggling and doing a small twirl.
"So it's done?" said Finé, slightly stunned. "You're back to normal?"
"Yes!" Izetta said, before running to the far wall of the room and back again, a spring in her step. "It's over! I can walk normally again!"
"I…" Finé paused, her heart suddenly pounding. "Izetta…"
"I know!" Izetta said, rushing forward and embracing her again. Finé's heart contained so many emotions she wanted to convey, each beat of her heart calling out, but she could not find the words, especially so suddenly, so instead she hugged Izetta back so hard the witch gasped slightly, breathing in the witch's scent deep into her chest. Izetta laughed, nuzzling into her.
"I can walk, Finé, I can walk!"
Finé could not help laugh as well, although it came out as more of a choked half-sob. Finé held her for a moment before releasing her, and Izetta drew back and looked at her, her smile wide and radiant and beautiful.
Finé wiped her suddenly moist eyes. "I'm so happy."
Izetta giggled. "I can go with you anywhere now!"
Finé nodded. "Yes. I never have to travel without you again." She took a breath, looking around the room. "Where's the doctor?" she said when she realized the man was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, he said he had to go out to do something. Come to think of it, where's Bianca?"
Finé looked behind her. Indeed, the guard wasn't there either, and she and her wife were alone in the room. She smiled, shaking her head slightly.
Izetta grinned. "Hey, Finé~. Can we walk home today?"
Finé nodded. "Yes… Yes, we can."
So it was hard for me to decide the point of this story. I just wanted to write a fic around the image of Izetta learning to walk again and Finé coming to see her, and I wanted to impress the fact that they're married in my headcanon, so I wanted to have a story where I used to term wife to specify I made them spouses. So this whole fic was basically born out of my desire to use a word. They do say writers are obsessive…
I wanted to write something that isn't my specialty (sappy teenage emo angst) or what I'm bad at (sex), and just have a fun little fic where there is romance but no one sheds "bitter, burning tears".
Self-deprecation, self-deprecation…
One reviewer mentioned that the emo stuff in my Finé/Izetta lemon was not as good as the smut, and I have to clarify – when I say I'm good at angst etc., I mean on its own. Of course it's going to be out of place in smut. That's part of what I'm working on.
Also, I'm Canadian (half-Japanese by blood). I just had to stick my country in there. Sorry.
Ooh, maybe I'll write a wedding fic for these two! Should I do that? I already make shit super sappy. That would be super, super sappy. I mean, no shit, it's a wedding. Let me know if you want me to write that story.
I was supposed to be working on my book today, and instead I'm writing fanfiction. sigh...
Anyway, if you enjoyed, please leave a review. 3
As always, yondekuretearigatou. :3
REPLY TO THE GUEST REVIEWER: Let me mention how immensely I respect you for leaving a negative review as a guest, effectively rendering me unable to respond in any meaningful way. I applaud you. Second, I just can't sympathize with you for losing immersion since I mentioned in literally the first line I was going to use real country names. If that was a problem, maybe you shouldn't have read? As for the second part of your comment - Archduchess? She was not an Archduchess. Yes, I know European nobility well enough to know an Archduchess is not a Queen, thank you for making that clear, Einstein. Never once is she referred to as Archduchess. I'm guessing you got that from some cheap English subtitles. I watched it without subtitles and she's only ever referred to as 姫, which for all intents and purposes exclusively means princess. The logical progression from princess is to Queen, not Archduchess. (Also, I'm not sure Dukes get coronated.) Holy shit, get your facts straight before leaving an angry comment. I guess that's why you hid behind anonymity. Holy shit. Aren't you a special fucking snowflake?
To everyone else: Sorry you had to get caught up in this. I know I overreacted, but stupid really, really ticks me off.