A/n- Just a short and cute Rutger/Lilina moment some time after the war for today! Enjoy!

The Commission Files- File #a1018 Beauty in the Ruins

Characters: Rutger, Lilina

Based on: a commission by LimeChii on Twitter

Rutger and Lilina were in Bulgar, walking through the streets together as they inspected how well the city had rebuilt since the war. Rutger was finally able to return after all these years, his trauma not completely gone from that horrible day, but he had it under control enough for something like this.

"This place is so bustling!" Lilina commented excitedly. "I've always heard the stories of Bulgar but I never had the chance to come visit myself. I'm so glad you were okay with taking a trip here Rutger, I really appreciate it."

"I figured it was finally time for me to see if I could handle it and try to move on even more, and I think I'm doing pretty alright." Rutger noted. "But if you want to talk about bustling, Bulgar was at least twice this busy before the war, I don't think it's reached it's peak again just yet."

"I would have loved to see it and everything else, but I doubt many of the buildings from them are still standing." Lilina commented. "War really sucks for things like preserving history." When she brought that up it gave Rutger an idea of a place he could take her.

"If you really want to see some history, I know somewhere I can show you that you'll probably like." Rutger told her.

"Really?" Lilina asked with a bit of of excitement in her voice. "Okay, where is it?"

"It's towards the northeast outskirts of the city." Rutger noted. "If we start walking now it should take about half an hour to get there."

"Let's get going then!" Lilina said taking Rutger's hand in her own and letting him lead the way. It actually took them about an hour to get to the spot Rutger wanted to show her because they kept stopping to look at other buildings and shops and to get some snacks and such. But eventually they got there. On the outskirts of Bulgar there were the ruins of long gone castles, bits of walls covered with vines and growths, the bricks an mortar meshing with the colorful flowers hanging from them. Birds and butterflies were flying about and as the evening started to fall there were even fireflies beginning to light up the darkness.

"Here it is, what do you think?" Rutger asked as he looked over the landscape. This was the one thing in Bulgar that hadn't changed since the war, and it probably would never change. It made him think about himself in an introspective manner for a bit. If this place never changed, there was probably parts of him that would never change and hopefully they were just as wonderous as these ruins could be.

"Rutger, this place is beautiful!" Lilina said looking around and starting to explore around the area. "I can't believe a place like this still exists here in Elibe. How has this been here all this time?"

"Honestly, no idea." Rutger admitted. "My father had some theories, one I really liked was that these were castles from the time before the Scouring because of how different the architecture is, but before the war this was just treated as almost a sacred area because it shows a piece of Elibe's history you can't find in many other places. And I'm sure that's the case now as well."

"Yeah, the brick work does look slightly different, and look at these stained glass windows, the designs almost look like they come from another land completely." Lilina noted. "Though now that I see it a bit more closely, it does look sort of familiar to the artwork we saw in Arcadia, so maybe Mark was right."

"He was right about a lot of things, so I wouldn't be surprised." Rutger replied. "But speaking of windows, come over here." He said leading Lilina to one in particular. "This one opens up to a bit of a balcony." So he opened it up and on the other side there was a softly flowing river along with a ledge big enough for the both of them to sit on.

"Ooh, pretty! Let's get closer." Lilina said stepping out onto the ledge. Rutger followed her and closed the window before sitting next to her. There was enough space that they could sit back to back to each other as they looked out to the river. Rutger kept his feet on the ledge but Lilina was willing to hang them out over the ledge.

"Careful, Roy did the same thing when I showed him this place and he fell in." Rutger warned.

"You took Roy here first? When?" Lilina asked.

"Oh, about a year before the war." Rutger noted. "He loved it just as much as you did. Until he fell into the river and I had to get him out." Lilina chuckled at the thought.

"That is a totally Roy thing for him to do." Lilina added. After that the two of them just passed the time watching nature around them. Some fish jumped out of the river from time to time, a group of fireflies flew up to Lilina and she observed them with glee, and they just talked and felt comfortable with each other in this peaceful moment they fought so hard for. But eventually the night was starting to fall and they needed to head back into town to find an inn to stay in. So they stepped through the window again and walked to the edge of the ruins, turning around to give in one last good look over.

"This was really wonderful Rutger, thank you for showing me this special spot. I can tell it means a lot to you." Lilina said as she locked her arm around Rutger's.

"It is, it shows me that no matter how much things change, there are somethings that just never will." Rutger noted. "Like the way a person is, or how much I love you."

"Ahh, that's sweet Rutger." Lilina cooed before placing a kiss on his cheek. "You're getting smoother and smoother by the day. And of course I love you as well."

"That's always reassuring." Rutger said kissing her back on her forehead. "Alright, we need to choose an inn to stay in. Are you gonna want us to have some privacy or not?"

"I'd say better safe than sorry, you have been pretty romantic today." Lilina teased him.

"Well, then we should go to this one my parent's loved to go to, I saw it got rebuilt in the same place as it was before." Rutger noted. "It's run by an Anna so you just know it's a quality place."

"Anna's always run tight ships, I'm sure I'll love it!" Lilina noted.

"Then let's head off!" Rutger said leading the way again. "You have money right?"

"Is that your idea of a joke?" Lilina replied.

"Perhaps, I'm working on it." Rutger noted.

"You've still got some work to do if you want to reach your father's level." Lilina teased him again.

"Well, I've got all the time in the world to practice with you."