Alira
Galarian adventurer!
- Location
- Galar, Slumbering Weald
- Pronouns
- She/her
AN: Uh, so I'm not dead XD Just fell down SEVERAL rabbit holes and currently am in the one known as Final Fantasy XIV, sooooo. I've been writing aLOT for that after getting my main chara to the current end of Main story quests XD
This is for one of my various verses for it, mainly a collab one between me and two friends of mine where, BASICALLY versions of ourselves get tossed into the bodies of our characters and end up going through the plot of the game, with various changes the trio does either on purpose or accident. Also they have knowledge up to the most recent patch as of writing(patch 5.58), and will be going into the new expansion releasing in november completely blind. It's honestly a wild ride and way too much fun for my shippy heart to write XD
Also the Alira here is, alot of fun and fairly cathartic to write cause she changes ALOT and is pretty complex from expansion to expansion, though the one here is the second one Heavansward and where she ends up taking center stage protagonist wise for the whole expansion.
Can talk more on this verse later, I've already rambled too much so lets get to what I wrote XD
Alira's current class/class being used here: White Mage
BEWARE MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HEAVANSWARD!! It IS in the free trial for FFXIV so I need to note that this contains MAJOR spoilers for both BASE HW and the quests added to it's MSQ with patches due to Alira's future knowledge which she uses here!
(also unbeta'd or grammarly'd XD)
Alira found herself fleeing the sea of clouds one night, riding on the back of that gifted black chocobo that Haurchefant gave her, despite knowing full well she should just stay and do her part. She had been there from the start of this storyline, of Heavensward and unlike how it was before with her and her friends all sharing the same role of protagonist in A Realm Reborn, she was clearly the singular one in this.
So she knew it was utterly foolish of her to run off on a mad and frankly idiotic search for a scion she knew for a fact would show back up again after the main Heavensward story.
But, she couldn’t get the events of the previous day out of her head, rushing through the vault, towards that damned archbishop-
“Look out!”
Her shoulders hitched and it took every single ounce of her self control to not burst into a fit of sobbing. Wasn’t the time, it was never the time, didn’t matter that she had no clue if Haurchefant was alive or dead, she still, she still….!
“Fucking damn it all…!” She gasped out, viciously rubbing at an eye with her palm as she hissed at herself. “Stop that stupid shit, you useless fucking miqo’te of a healer….! Focus, focus, on, o-on finding Thancred. If I just, do what I know I CAN do as a healer, I can track his aether.”
Granted, Alira was certain she was not like Krille in the slightest and likely couldn’t track someone as well like her, but….. She HAD to try, as a healer she could already sense the aether of living beings around her and tell if they were sick, and gods know she spent so much time around him….
Her chocobo landed in the thick of the dravianian forelands, her hopping off the back of it almost as quickly. She just as quickly turned to her chocobo and told it. “Now, go hide, find somewhere safe to rest, I’ll call you again when I’ve found my quarry.”
The black chocobo looked a touch confused but nodded regardless, soon running off in the direction she noted as being in the general direction Tailfeather was in.
Shaking her head and refocusing, she began to channel her aether enough to get a better sense of her surroundings, and what was around her along with the unique feel for each signature of aether…..
She could swear she could feel something off in the distance that felt familiar, so she swiftly turned on her heel and began to rush off in that direction.
Even if it was a false positive, it was a START at least.
Alira wasn’t sure how long she had been searching, probably hours, long, long hours, but gods it seemed like an eternity.
And the drain to her energy to be more aware of the aether around her wasn’t helping matters, currently kneeling as she caught her breath with a hand to her chest.
Her head was twinging painfully at the strain she had been putting on her body for several hours, and it was the sort of twinging she knew was warning her if she kept this up she was going to make herself pass out at this rate.
But still, still…. She felt her head twinge very painfully as she forced herself to do a brief scan of the surroundings, swearing that the familiar aether signature was so close-
She heard what sounded like a familiar voice shout and the roar of a bear in the near distance, making her force herself to her feet and bolting in that direction as fast as her legs could carry, staff strapped to her back slamming and thumping against her backside with how fast she ran.
‘No way, please, god, dear god please let it be him-’
She saw the hide of a large brown bear, rearing up and readying to attack whoever was it’s target, and while she couldn’t see who it was attacking, it didn’t matter, she swiftly grabbed her staff and immediately forced an instant cast of the spell stone aimed right for the bears back.
The sound of the stone being flung from the ground rang out, and she didn’t hesitate to ready another, it being cast and thrown as she heard a slashing sound from the front of the bear.
Both attacks connected at the same time, and the bear soon collapsed to the ground, with it concealing whoever it had been attacking due to it’s size.
“My thanks for the assistance!” A familiar voice rang out, footsteps stepping around to the side as Alira’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t meant to accost it’s nest, but frankly speaking how was I-”
He came into view while still talking as he sheathed his daggers, brown eye quickly falling upon her form, his sentence immediately halting as his expression shifted to shock.
“....T...Thancred….” Her voice, faint and so very fragile like it was nowadays, rang out and he visibly jolted slightly at the sound as she put her staff away.
“...Alira.” He said, looking positively shocked to see her. Thankfully, he seemed to have already acquired that outfit she knew he got at a certain point, eye patch and all, so he must have already bartered with the Vath for it.
She found her eyes watering despite her trying to not have a relieved sobbing break down, feeling her hands move to cover her mouth as she and him just stood there for a few moments.
Which didn’t last very long, though to be frank Alira likely wouldn’t have stood idle for long.
“Oh thank god…!” Her voice came out more shaky than she intended as she quickly moved to bridge the distance between them, though she wasn’t the only one moving as Thancred quickly moved to meet her.
Though it wasn’t intended on Alira’s part, as soon as she was within reach Thancred reached over and pulled her into a tight embrace, one she quickly reciprocated just as tightly.
She let her fingers dig into his back, holding on for dear life as if he was about to disappear if she let go and gods above she did not care if she sounded desperate in thinking that, not after what she had gone through in the last few days. Not after worrying and fearing and trying so so hard to not-
She felt her eyes water as she hid her face in his shoulder, fighting so hard to not burst into a fit of tears, she couldn’t tell if Thancred noticed but his grip on her tightened when she did.
They remained like that before Thancred pulled away, gripping onto her hands with his own tightly when she let out a small noise of confusion, quickly saying to her. “It’s not safe to linger here, come with me.” He let go of one of her hands, gripping the other tightly as he quickly began to lead her somewhere at a near sprint which she kept up with as they ran through the forelands.
He led her through underbrush and around several trees, almost zigzagging as they ran, heading, somewhere. Though it soon became apparent when they ran up to a cliffside with a ledge above them.
Only then did he let go of her, turning to her and putting his hands together as if to boost her up. “Up there is where I’ve been living for the past few months, it’s safe from most threats.” He explained, then wryly commented. “Granted if a dragon or something with wings showed up they could get up there, but I haven’t bothered the local dravanian population.”
She snorted a little, nodding as she backed up a bit, before stepping on his hands and he swiftly boosted her up. Though she thought at first she’d scramble to grab on to the ledge, handmade gaps near the edge made big enough handholds for her to latch onto, giving her enough leverage to pull herself up onto the ledge.
She quickly saw there was a small cave, which from where she was able to tell definitely looked lived in, but didn’t note much else as she turned back around and peered over the ledge at Thancred below.
She braced herself on one of the handholds and lowered her hands, offering it for him to grab much to his surprise before he nodded.
He backed up before taking a running leap up the cliff side and reaching up, grabbing onto her hand and letting her pull him up onto the ledge.
Once he was on even footing, he stood and helped Alira up, leading her into the small cave with a small quip of. “Well, we should have enough privacy, mind telling me what brought you to these woods?”
She leveled a tired smile at him as they then sat down on what she knew was a hand made fur, rug she supposed? He had to do what he needed to survive, especially here….
“You sure you want to know?” she lightly teased him, shifting to be sitting right beside him, far too close but she didn’t give a damn- “It’s a LONG story if you want all the context.”
“Yes, I am sure.” He welcomed the closeness it seemed, if the light arm snaking around her middle was anything to go by, his other hand lightly holding one of her own. “From your flight to Ishgard to what led you here now, I want to know what’s happened while I’ve been trapped in the wilderness.” His grin was light, but the gleam in his eye showed concern.
“Alright….But take that eyepatch off.” her words were bold, almost challenging. Slipping back into the familiar rhythm was a relief from the burning pain in her chest. “Unless your eye got gouged out or something, I think it can come off for a bit, no doubt your depth perception is suffering with it on.”
His eyebrows raised before he chuckled, letting go of her hand briefly to swiftly take the aforementioned eyepatch off with a firm tug, letting it drop to his lap as he took her hand in his once more.
“There we are, now you have my undivided attention.” His eyes, now mismatched brown and pale silver, were alight with light amusement and very much focused on her. “Now, what happened after fleeing the tunnels beneath Ul’dah?”
She gave a conflicted smile before quickly launching into her tale.
From her mad dash to Ishgard without Alex or Raven after the bloody banquet, to traipsing around the dragon controlled lands in a bid for peace, to eventually finding the two wayward friends of her, to finding the truth of the dragonsong war and ‘defeating’ Nidhogg, she told him of it all.
However, she found her voice faltering, cracking, her limbs trembling as she began to recount the previous day’s events, fighting to keep her emotions in check.
But it was getting harder to stay composed as she neared the end.
“Uh, so we were racing through the vault after, taking out that one guy.” She fidgeted with her free hand, her other one was gripping Thancred’s tighter and he clearly could tell she was getting distressed with how his arm around her middle tightened and he was gripping her hand as tightly. “Um. The, the archbishop was going to his airship, Aymeric caught up and he was, pleading with his father to stop this course of action, that there was another way.”
She shook her head then, taking a moment to gather herself, and pressing on. “The fucking IDIOT refused to listen though and told Aymeric as much, so, so. Me, Alex, Raven and d’a-um, H-Haurchefant ran to try to stop him, we didn’t, I-I. I-I didn’t.” Her inhale was shaky, Thancred’s arm tightening and almost pulling her right up against his side but she pressed on.
“One, one of the heavensward was up on the top of the vault, the roof, and he, he uh-” she was stumbling over her words, what composure she had she was fighting to latch onto to keep going. “He threw a spear of light at, my back, I didn’t see-Haurchefant saw, and he, he shielded me from it, but-” She couldn’t help the sob that slipped out. “Even with Alex weakening the spear, it-it STILL pierced through Haurchefant’s shield, it, god the SOUND-”
She inhaled sharply, shaking her head vigorously, her grip on Thancred’s hand was so tight her knuckles were white. “He, uhm. He’s a-alive last I knew, the-the healers got there and carted him off to the infirmary but, there was so so much blood….” She swallowed, gritting her teeth to get to the end of her tale BEFORE losing it in a fit of tears. “We…. We followed them, the, the Heavensward, to the Sea Of Clouds, but I….”
...How the HELL was she supposed to explain suddenly running off to find him when, logically speaking, she shouldn’t have even known he was here to begin with?
Well…..
“I couldn’t think well, so I sort of, needed a bit to breathe, so I just….” Her voice shook much like her body was doing. Half the truth was better than a full lie. “I ran off with hardly a word, I-I couldn’t-I-”
And there went her composure, flying away in the breeze as her eyes watered and her shoulders shook, but before she could start trying to regain her composure, Thancred swiftly tugged her to himself, letting go of her hand to wrap that arm around her shoulders to hold her against his chest.
She vaguely noted he pulled her into his lap but didn’t care as she hid her face in his shoulder and began to sob, wrapping her arms around his middle and clinging to him as if her life depended on it.
Damnit, she tried so hard to not just let her emotions flood out like this, she had been doing so well since the banquet to not let it show how much the events affected her, but damnit Haurchefant’s near death yesterday was just-
“It’s alright, Alira…” Thancred’s voice was right by her ear and she realized he was carding his fingers through her overgrown hair with one hand. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere, so just… Let it out, you’ve been through alot since we last saw each other, and I think we have enough time.”
She sniffled, breathing in and just…. Doing as he was saying, she was not going to be calming down anytime soon if she didn’t, so for what she felt like was an eternity she let out her tears, her sobs, her outright grief and fear and stress over just…. Everything.
She wasn’t sure how long she cried for, only that she cried for as long as she needed while Thancred soothed her and held her. And dear god she needed to let all that out, she hardly realized it felt like she was going to drown in it before she started letting it out.
“...Alright now?” he asked once her tears dried and her trembling had ceased, still holding her close but loose enough she was able to pull back.
“...Yeah, sorry for, just having a crying fit.” She leaned back enough to rub at her eye with a tired laugh. “We only just found each other again and I’ve already had a mental breakdown all over your shoulder.”
“It’s alright, small price to pay for seeing you no longer miserable, and I hardly mind.” He gave her a gentle smile, cupping her cheek in one of his hands as he gently brushed the tears away. “When you’re ready, we can head back to the sea of clouds if you have a mount that can accommodate two passengers.”
She nodded, giggling a bit as she thought about a certain black chocobo. “Oh I think I do, even if he doesn’t look like it.”
(AN: Quick note, but no the two dorks here are not a couple yet even if they're acting like it XD They're very close and comfortable around each other and affectionate cause I HC the both of them as touchstarved so heck it, and end up pinning for each other for several expansions until Shadowbringers XD)
This is for one of my various verses for it, mainly a collab one between me and two friends of mine where, BASICALLY versions of ourselves get tossed into the bodies of our characters and end up going through the plot of the game, with various changes the trio does either on purpose or accident. Also they have knowledge up to the most recent patch as of writing(patch 5.58), and will be going into the new expansion releasing in november completely blind. It's honestly a wild ride and way too much fun for my shippy heart to write XD
Also the Alira here is, alot of fun and fairly cathartic to write cause she changes ALOT and is pretty complex from expansion to expansion, though the one here is the second one Heavansward and where she ends up taking center stage protagonist wise for the whole expansion.
Can talk more on this verse later, I've already rambled too much so lets get to what I wrote XD
Alira's current class/class being used here: White Mage
BEWARE MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HEAVANSWARD!! It IS in the free trial for FFXIV so I need to note that this contains MAJOR spoilers for both BASE HW and the quests added to it's MSQ with patches due to Alira's future knowledge which she uses here!
(also unbeta'd or grammarly'd XD)
Alira found herself fleeing the sea of clouds one night, riding on the back of that gifted black chocobo that Haurchefant gave her, despite knowing full well she should just stay and do her part. She had been there from the start of this storyline, of Heavensward and unlike how it was before with her and her friends all sharing the same role of protagonist in A Realm Reborn, she was clearly the singular one in this.
So she knew it was utterly foolish of her to run off on a mad and frankly idiotic search for a scion she knew for a fact would show back up again after the main Heavensward story.
But, she couldn’t get the events of the previous day out of her head, rushing through the vault, towards that damned archbishop-
“Look out!”
Her shoulders hitched and it took every single ounce of her self control to not burst into a fit of sobbing. Wasn’t the time, it was never the time, didn’t matter that she had no clue if Haurchefant was alive or dead, she still, she still….!
“Fucking damn it all…!” She gasped out, viciously rubbing at an eye with her palm as she hissed at herself. “Stop that stupid shit, you useless fucking miqo’te of a healer….! Focus, focus, on, o-on finding Thancred. If I just, do what I know I CAN do as a healer, I can track his aether.”
Granted, Alira was certain she was not like Krille in the slightest and likely couldn’t track someone as well like her, but….. She HAD to try, as a healer she could already sense the aether of living beings around her and tell if they were sick, and gods know she spent so much time around him….
Her chocobo landed in the thick of the dravianian forelands, her hopping off the back of it almost as quickly. She just as quickly turned to her chocobo and told it. “Now, go hide, find somewhere safe to rest, I’ll call you again when I’ve found my quarry.”
The black chocobo looked a touch confused but nodded regardless, soon running off in the direction she noted as being in the general direction Tailfeather was in.
Shaking her head and refocusing, she began to channel her aether enough to get a better sense of her surroundings, and what was around her along with the unique feel for each signature of aether…..
She could swear she could feel something off in the distance that felt familiar, so she swiftly turned on her heel and began to rush off in that direction.
Even if it was a false positive, it was a START at least.
Alira wasn’t sure how long she had been searching, probably hours, long, long hours, but gods it seemed like an eternity.
And the drain to her energy to be more aware of the aether around her wasn’t helping matters, currently kneeling as she caught her breath with a hand to her chest.
Her head was twinging painfully at the strain she had been putting on her body for several hours, and it was the sort of twinging she knew was warning her if she kept this up she was going to make herself pass out at this rate.
But still, still…. She felt her head twinge very painfully as she forced herself to do a brief scan of the surroundings, swearing that the familiar aether signature was so close-
She heard what sounded like a familiar voice shout and the roar of a bear in the near distance, making her force herself to her feet and bolting in that direction as fast as her legs could carry, staff strapped to her back slamming and thumping against her backside with how fast she ran.
‘No way, please, god, dear god please let it be him-’
She saw the hide of a large brown bear, rearing up and readying to attack whoever was it’s target, and while she couldn’t see who it was attacking, it didn’t matter, she swiftly grabbed her staff and immediately forced an instant cast of the spell stone aimed right for the bears back.
The sound of the stone being flung from the ground rang out, and she didn’t hesitate to ready another, it being cast and thrown as she heard a slashing sound from the front of the bear.
Both attacks connected at the same time, and the bear soon collapsed to the ground, with it concealing whoever it had been attacking due to it’s size.
“My thanks for the assistance!” A familiar voice rang out, footsteps stepping around to the side as Alira’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t meant to accost it’s nest, but frankly speaking how was I-”
He came into view while still talking as he sheathed his daggers, brown eye quickly falling upon her form, his sentence immediately halting as his expression shifted to shock.
“....T...Thancred….” Her voice, faint and so very fragile like it was nowadays, rang out and he visibly jolted slightly at the sound as she put her staff away.
“...Alira.” He said, looking positively shocked to see her. Thankfully, he seemed to have already acquired that outfit she knew he got at a certain point, eye patch and all, so he must have already bartered with the Vath for it.
She found her eyes watering despite her trying to not have a relieved sobbing break down, feeling her hands move to cover her mouth as she and him just stood there for a few moments.
Which didn’t last very long, though to be frank Alira likely wouldn’t have stood idle for long.
“Oh thank god…!” Her voice came out more shaky than she intended as she quickly moved to bridge the distance between them, though she wasn’t the only one moving as Thancred quickly moved to meet her.
Though it wasn’t intended on Alira’s part, as soon as she was within reach Thancred reached over and pulled her into a tight embrace, one she quickly reciprocated just as tightly.
She let her fingers dig into his back, holding on for dear life as if he was about to disappear if she let go and gods above she did not care if she sounded desperate in thinking that, not after what she had gone through in the last few days. Not after worrying and fearing and trying so so hard to not-
She felt her eyes water as she hid her face in his shoulder, fighting so hard to not burst into a fit of tears, she couldn’t tell if Thancred noticed but his grip on her tightened when she did.
They remained like that before Thancred pulled away, gripping onto her hands with his own tightly when she let out a small noise of confusion, quickly saying to her. “It’s not safe to linger here, come with me.” He let go of one of her hands, gripping the other tightly as he quickly began to lead her somewhere at a near sprint which she kept up with as they ran through the forelands.
He led her through underbrush and around several trees, almost zigzagging as they ran, heading, somewhere. Though it soon became apparent when they ran up to a cliffside with a ledge above them.
Only then did he let go of her, turning to her and putting his hands together as if to boost her up. “Up there is where I’ve been living for the past few months, it’s safe from most threats.” He explained, then wryly commented. “Granted if a dragon or something with wings showed up they could get up there, but I haven’t bothered the local dravanian population.”
She snorted a little, nodding as she backed up a bit, before stepping on his hands and he swiftly boosted her up. Though she thought at first she’d scramble to grab on to the ledge, handmade gaps near the edge made big enough handholds for her to latch onto, giving her enough leverage to pull herself up onto the ledge.
She quickly saw there was a small cave, which from where she was able to tell definitely looked lived in, but didn’t note much else as she turned back around and peered over the ledge at Thancred below.
She braced herself on one of the handholds and lowered her hands, offering it for him to grab much to his surprise before he nodded.
He backed up before taking a running leap up the cliff side and reaching up, grabbing onto her hand and letting her pull him up onto the ledge.
Once he was on even footing, he stood and helped Alira up, leading her into the small cave with a small quip of. “Well, we should have enough privacy, mind telling me what brought you to these woods?”
She leveled a tired smile at him as they then sat down on what she knew was a hand made fur, rug she supposed? He had to do what he needed to survive, especially here….
“You sure you want to know?” she lightly teased him, shifting to be sitting right beside him, far too close but she didn’t give a damn- “It’s a LONG story if you want all the context.”
“Yes, I am sure.” He welcomed the closeness it seemed, if the light arm snaking around her middle was anything to go by, his other hand lightly holding one of her own. “From your flight to Ishgard to what led you here now, I want to know what’s happened while I’ve been trapped in the wilderness.” His grin was light, but the gleam in his eye showed concern.
“Alright….But take that eyepatch off.” her words were bold, almost challenging. Slipping back into the familiar rhythm was a relief from the burning pain in her chest. “Unless your eye got gouged out or something, I think it can come off for a bit, no doubt your depth perception is suffering with it on.”
His eyebrows raised before he chuckled, letting go of her hand briefly to swiftly take the aforementioned eyepatch off with a firm tug, letting it drop to his lap as he took her hand in his once more.
“There we are, now you have my undivided attention.” His eyes, now mismatched brown and pale silver, were alight with light amusement and very much focused on her. “Now, what happened after fleeing the tunnels beneath Ul’dah?”
She gave a conflicted smile before quickly launching into her tale.
From her mad dash to Ishgard without Alex or Raven after the bloody banquet, to traipsing around the dragon controlled lands in a bid for peace, to eventually finding the two wayward friends of her, to finding the truth of the dragonsong war and ‘defeating’ Nidhogg, she told him of it all.
However, she found her voice faltering, cracking, her limbs trembling as she began to recount the previous day’s events, fighting to keep her emotions in check.
But it was getting harder to stay composed as she neared the end.
“Uh, so we were racing through the vault after, taking out that one guy.” She fidgeted with her free hand, her other one was gripping Thancred’s tighter and he clearly could tell she was getting distressed with how his arm around her middle tightened and he was gripping her hand as tightly. “Um. The, the archbishop was going to his airship, Aymeric caught up and he was, pleading with his father to stop this course of action, that there was another way.”
She shook her head then, taking a moment to gather herself, and pressing on. “The fucking IDIOT refused to listen though and told Aymeric as much, so, so. Me, Alex, Raven and d’a-um, H-Haurchefant ran to try to stop him, we didn’t, I-I. I-I didn’t.” Her inhale was shaky, Thancred’s arm tightening and almost pulling her right up against his side but she pressed on.
“One, one of the heavensward was up on the top of the vault, the roof, and he, he uh-” she was stumbling over her words, what composure she had she was fighting to latch onto to keep going. “He threw a spear of light at, my back, I didn’t see-Haurchefant saw, and he, he shielded me from it, but-” She couldn’t help the sob that slipped out. “Even with Alex weakening the spear, it-it STILL pierced through Haurchefant’s shield, it, god the SOUND-”
She inhaled sharply, shaking her head vigorously, her grip on Thancred’s hand was so tight her knuckles were white. “He, uhm. He’s a-alive last I knew, the-the healers got there and carted him off to the infirmary but, there was so so much blood….” She swallowed, gritting her teeth to get to the end of her tale BEFORE losing it in a fit of tears. “We…. We followed them, the, the Heavensward, to the Sea Of Clouds, but I….”
...How the HELL was she supposed to explain suddenly running off to find him when, logically speaking, she shouldn’t have even known he was here to begin with?
Well…..
“I couldn’t think well, so I sort of, needed a bit to breathe, so I just….” Her voice shook much like her body was doing. Half the truth was better than a full lie. “I ran off with hardly a word, I-I couldn’t-I-”
And there went her composure, flying away in the breeze as her eyes watered and her shoulders shook, but before she could start trying to regain her composure, Thancred swiftly tugged her to himself, letting go of her hand to wrap that arm around her shoulders to hold her against his chest.
She vaguely noted he pulled her into his lap but didn’t care as she hid her face in his shoulder and began to sob, wrapping her arms around his middle and clinging to him as if her life depended on it.
Damnit, she tried so hard to not just let her emotions flood out like this, she had been doing so well since the banquet to not let it show how much the events affected her, but damnit Haurchefant’s near death yesterday was just-
“It’s alright, Alira…” Thancred’s voice was right by her ear and she realized he was carding his fingers through her overgrown hair with one hand. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere, so just… Let it out, you’ve been through alot since we last saw each other, and I think we have enough time.”
She sniffled, breathing in and just…. Doing as he was saying, she was not going to be calming down anytime soon if she didn’t, so for what she felt like was an eternity she let out her tears, her sobs, her outright grief and fear and stress over just…. Everything.
She wasn’t sure how long she cried for, only that she cried for as long as she needed while Thancred soothed her and held her. And dear god she needed to let all that out, she hardly realized it felt like she was going to drown in it before she started letting it out.
“...Alright now?” he asked once her tears dried and her trembling had ceased, still holding her close but loose enough she was able to pull back.
“...Yeah, sorry for, just having a crying fit.” She leaned back enough to rub at her eye with a tired laugh. “We only just found each other again and I’ve already had a mental breakdown all over your shoulder.”
“It’s alright, small price to pay for seeing you no longer miserable, and I hardly mind.” He gave her a gentle smile, cupping her cheek in one of his hands as he gently brushed the tears away. “When you’re ready, we can head back to the sea of clouds if you have a mount that can accommodate two passengers.”
She nodded, giggling a bit as she thought about a certain black chocobo. “Oh I think I do, even if he doesn’t look like it.”
(AN: Quick note, but no the two dorks here are not a couple yet even if they're acting like it XD They're very close and comfortable around each other and affectionate cause I HC the both of them as touchstarved so heck it, and end up pinning for each other for several expansions until Shadowbringers XD)