Chapter Text
Another vague nightmare haunted the Warrior before her body jerked back to life. Here there were no more blades cutting, no more yelling, no more running and fear chills setting you on edge. Just the sound of distant footfalls, a fresh breeze, a soft pillow…? Where was she now? Beretta pried her sticky eyes open. The last she had remembered was Ghimlyt. Zenos had bested her, sword drawn with the psychotic craze that was the only emotion the Garlean seemed to ever show, but she had watched him fall with her own two eyes. Watched his own hand sign his own death warrant at the royal gardens, then rise again as fearsome as ever. Even with the rumors his appearance should not have been possible, and after she fell?
Nothing.
Her friends were still dropping one by one, falling to some unknown malady, bidden by a voice she couldn't place but felt she should know. War was on the horizon. At least she had powerful friends by her side, but it was little solace being taken one by one. A silken voice next to her slowly dragged threads of her sanity back from the aether of sleep. She pulled herself upright on shaky arms, the broad scar aching less than before as she gathered her bearings. At least she had managed to wake without hurting herself this time, and it seemed her dear friend was already waiting at her bedside to soothe the hurt all the better.
"You awake once more. How better are you fairing, dear?" The familiar voice was hopeful but calm, to her relief.
Aymeric. Ishgard. Safe. In pain, but alive to heal. His words from earlier echoed through her.
"No one is without their limits. Even you."
Her heart sank. She was a fool.
"Much. Sorry I scared all of you. We got separated, I know, but I… I couldn't let him get away with cutting down even more of our precious allies, not with Lyse and Hien and Yugiri there…" The words were lost once more to her overwhelming frustration at her own helplessness. He graciously picked up from there.
"Such is the nature of the chaos of battle, as we both well know. You are afforded as much time as necessary here to recover in all senses of the word, no apologies necessary. I came to check on the hero of the hour, and take note of any unmet needs you may have. Do you require anything?"
Hero of the hour, when she had failed so spectacularly. His words felt bitter in the back of her dry throat. Sad as she was to have her failure branded so plainly across her chest, it was all she deserved for her folly.
“Water.”
Immediately Aymeric perked up, rising and grabbing some from across the room. It seemed rather odd for him to have an empty schedule, but she didn't press it. He had as much reason as she to cling to whatever small bits of peace he could get, times as they were with handling an impending war along with appointment as Ishgard’s steward to a new future. Things seemed to have come to a stand-still when Zenos withdrew from Ghimlyt anyway, and she knew her friend was stressed to the same degree as she was over the possibility of more fighting. The Empire had clearly gotten fed up with the Alliance, and that unease weighed her down as much as the lonely echo through the Rising Stones. Aymeric and Estinien were some of the precious few allies remaining she could confidently call friends, and they had cared for her when she could not. Beretta squeaked out a weak whine when she reached over to take his offering, and his fingers over her own were surprisingly soft. He furrowed his brow in worry before she sighed, shaking her head. "I just woke because my back hurts, that's all."
"Understandable, given your state. We had our best sent over to tend to you, but I am sorry there is only so much chirurgeons are able to heal that time alone can truly mend." He said.
Beretta felt guilty again, for lying to save her pride, and for making him wonder if his support was sufficient when it had never been in question. "No! I- No." Her normal sass was dropped cold, shoulders deflating. "You don't have to apologize for helping me, Aymeric. I’ve seen worse."
“Beretta?” Her name was reverent on his lips, but his gaze told her that he knew she was lying. She had wondered more and more these days if he paid her special attention with all this unneeded charity, but it was difficult to tell at times. Aymeric was a private man, but he lived boldly when it mattered, and curious minds wondered why he would go to such lengths even for a friend. “Would it be presumptuous of me to offer to help. I may have picked up some measure of finer skills being raised in the manner I was, though they oft prove frivolous. If that could take some of your burdens, then…”
There must be some reason he was here time and again, why they came to the Holy See instead of Mor Donah when she was in duress, why Ishgard was quick to offer help out of their way to whatever crazy mission she got caught up in. Sure, she had gotten a small apartment in town on impulse, as threadbare as her shared barracks in the Rising Stones; it was only natural that they would find each other more often this way. In all honesty, she could not tell you why she bought something here in this cold place. Maybe she just felt closer to the Lord Commander and Azure Dragoon due to proximity during the Scions hiding, and maybe the bias she was sensing was on her own selfish end. It wouldn’t be the first time wishful thinking overextended her free time, but she couldn't help but hope with the insistence in those clear blue eyes of his, shining intensely even through the half pulled curtains behind her.
"Pray, don't hold back for my sake. It is no bother either way. Would you require a balm of some sort?" He said after her long silence.
Polite as always, but more forceful. Beretta blinked fast, sipping from the water offered to stop her loose tongue from stirring up more trouble than she could handle. It sure sounded like he was begging her for any reason to stay, and she found it impossible to think of a reason to say no.
"A massage? Is that what you're telling me? Someone might have the wrong idea." She giggled low in her chest.
His eyes held a vulnerability she hadn't seen before, and all she could focus on was how foolish it was to hope for any reciprocation. It was hard to look at him; they both had more important obligations. After all, she saw just how badly things could backfire when you slept with coworkers after having to reconcile with Thancred for everyone else’s sake. Perhaps her new life here brought with it it’s own anxieties, for with friends came accountability and her every impulse now bit her harshly in turn. Before it was so easy to live on instinct alone, worrying only about survival and quenching whatever the most pressing need a body would have at the time with no future to plan for. None of these sticky things like someone worrying about your well-being, or potentially fumbling a critical alliance because you managed to fall in love with the first doe eyed ally to tell you he missed you. She was nearly shocked when his touch landed on her knee.
“You seem haunted. I apologize if my offer was uncouth, but be assured I have nothing but your best interests at heart.” He pressed.
Of course he would see through it. She thumbed over the glass in her hand, back and forth as she tried to reason out what was smart from what was true to her. But he had offered, and it was purely her own selfish wants that drove it to a place more purposeful than he had explicitly said. She could absolutely stop herself at wishful daydreaming… Not that she had managed it before.
“If you’re offering...”
Just a touch of her trademark deviousness seeped back in with a wink. Aymeric smiled softly, moving the large hand on her knee to gently swipe the hair behind her ear from where she normally kept it braided in place. Aymeric held one gentle hand over her cheek, rising to gently remove and hang his heavy coat behind the door. The action still held true the determined resolve that drew her in at first. It was the only thing that broke his diplomatic mask for quite some time, and the tension in his hands as he spoke words half-true in the name of a nation he had long lost hope in. Kind, but unrelenting, just as his words now.
"If you would, your top. Whatever would best suit your pain level at the moment."
Beretta was glad for both the kind offer and the opportunity to ogle him in the too tight undershirt he now wore. Her arms crossed her top over her head before a sharp inhale alerted him to the hurt such a simple action still caused. He turned quickly and lunged to help before she held out an arm half stuck in a sweater out to stop.
"I won’t be pitied." She nearly spat the words out, freeing herself and dropping the loose sweater to the side with an eye roll before she looked back at her friend.
He was staring. He tried to shut his mouth and cover the blush from long ear tip to ear tip as he approached her, but it was too late. Aymeric chuckled and shook his head, moving his chair to the far side of the bed. Something in his earnest admiration of her form choked her jaded heart up.
"I wouldn’t dream of such, dear." He said gently.
Halone’s tits , he was testing her for sure. The blonde blinked blankly at his iconic coat hanging discarded across from her, a gentle admission of trust.
“You seem more reserved than normal.” He prodded her.
“Ah, yeah. Just. What’s been happening. That, and I’m convinced my brain just babbles to try and assert dominance sometimes, so when I’m comfortable I do that less.”
He chuckled under his breath as she settled in, pushing the blankets back and scooting closer.
“Full glad I am that I have your trust, though I am rather fond of your flirtatious cheer.”
She shrugged before he set in, feather light and warm against her skin trailing from her lower back up and back down. Deft hands gently worked at her lower back, avoiding the still healing scar. Beretta could have fallen asleep, had it not been for his touch softening and traveling upwards towards the bindings across one shoulder.
"If it isn't a trouble, does it hurt much?"
Unsure of his inquiry, she answered honestly. "I am only upset that I may have ruined my best feature, and that we were so close to a resolution before I fucked it up. I feel the failure stings worse than this ever will." She snorted.
His hand gently ghosted over the edges of the bindings, flirting with the edge of too intimate, on top of everything else he had been doing.
"I fear all of us fumbled that meeting, but you place far too much value on the physical skills you offer to the great neglect of your other quality traits. T’would not be folly for failure that strikes deep at our shortcomings to haunt us far longer than is reasonable."
Us?
Beretta turned, finding his lips a hair's breadth away from her bare shoulder. She wanted so badly to trust him.
"What would your failure be?" she asked.
She was sure he would tell of being stabbed by a religious fanatic, a cruel reminder of his own reckless heroism, until his gentle arms wrapped around her. She had felt this entire time her flirtation had been tolerated at best, even if a few of her quips had been answered by a knowing smirk the more they spoke, but this left no room for questions.
"Forgive me my forwardness, but I have consistently found myself at an utter loss with you, hide from it though I tried desperately. It was not until Estinien safely delivered your unconscious body at my feet that I truly understood just how grave things were. I had never seen the terror in him that I saw that day, and I fear I can only say the same for myself. So my failure was in not taking into account just how much we have been demanding of you."
He breathed deep but he was shaking, and despite all of the pain she had known before somehow she felt it too.
"I was terrified, seeing your unmoving form. If you had been lost, for all our trust in your strength… Please, may I be frank?" He begged.
It was clear where this was leading, and she was scared of seeing her own weakness in him just as he was. She had only pined for Aymeric and his stupid smile and his stupid kind words because before now, it was safe and impossible. Well, pining for him and the man now standing shocked in the newly cracked door.
"Estinien?!" They said in unison.
Shock found all three faces in the room at the horrid timing before the newcomer bolted down the hall. Aymeric tried to mitigate disaster best he could, but he couldn't catch up to him without first making sure he didn't bump the healing warrior too much. Out Aymeric ran in his stupidly too tight black undershirt that moved with his stupidly sculpted arms, and any hope she had of resolving this deflated. The two were gone a few minutes, long enough for her to worry he had simply abandoned his coat in embarrassment, but just as she gave up to nap they returned looking a touch less upset than before. Whatever had happened was now glossed over while she was happy to milk her recovery for all she could and wait for them. Estinien spoke first, dry wit a blessed break in tension.
"That was not the most apt of greetings for fairer company, just a tip."
Estinien may not be outwardly upset, but he certainly wasn't cowed past behaving by whatever talk they had. Aymeric gestured wide, ignoring the sarcasm.
"Well, as I have come to surmise, Estinien had the selfsame idea as I. Apologies for leaving you without a word, my dear."
She knew they had some sort of history even if it had not worked out at the time, and their trust ran deeper than she could probably ever know; she just hoped they could make room for her as well and perhaps patch up the broken pieces of what once was. They now spoke in many silent tells hidden from the fairer eyes of Ishgard’s high society, ones laced with regrets of what could have been, and perhaps a hope of what could now be. Her eyes narrowed, hands clenching in the blankets as she gently flipped her legs out of bed.
"And what idea would that be? You didn't quite get to finish, Ser Aymeric."
They looked at each other expectantly, for all their height doing a fair imitation of flighty nutkin at her question. Estinien spoke, crossing his arms defensively.
"I simply wished to assure myself you had no petty needs unattended."
He didn't say no to helping, though it wouldn't stop her from a bit more teasing, turning her nose up at him. The dragoon deserved it for disappearing this long.
" Petty? All of my needs are very important, thank you kindly." she said.
Aymeric snorted into one fist, somehow still charmed at how childish they could be at times. "Don’t play coy, my friend. Tell her what you told me ." He sighed, nodding at Beretta. "Would you appreciate us assisting you with those needs further?"
Estinien softened just a touch, elegant shoulders dropping. He had trouble holding his gaze from her bare shoulder and abs just as his friend had. Beretta knew.
"Anything at all?" she asked.
Aymeric's eyes lit up, and Estinien's were clouded with desperation.
"Whatever you desire."