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[claritatis]

"You've reached Ignis Scientia. Leave a message and I will endeavour to get back to you post-haste."

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[claritatis]

[They never really talked about this, did they? Not back then, and even now it feels like she's trying to avoid the conversation. Considering a future after this place has never been something entirely on the cards for them, but Ignis finds he wants to consider it. He doesn't want to have to think about saying goodbye to her.

Maybe that's selfish. Childish, even. It is, when he thinks about it, and it isn't entirely fair to put the weight of the decision on her shoulders, but it's her world, and he won't follow her to it if she doesn't want him to.

He manages to meet her eyes when she looks at him. Another of those uncanny skills he seems to have gained over the ten years since he went blind.]

That's fair. [Ignis says, and he takes a moment to find both of her hands and clasp them gently between his. An easily escapable grip, but one he hopes she won't fight her way out of.]

I know you're afraid of what might happen... and perhaps it's selfish of me to even ask this of you. I don't want to give you up. I don't want to give us up. Being with you is still the first thing I was ever able to want to have just for myself.

[He squeezes her hands lightly.]

And now, so is leaving here with you. The only thing that could have ever mattered to me more is already gone, Kate. You're not my reason for leaving Eos. I just... I have no reason not to. [There's a small pause, while he lets that sink in, and then he smiles.]

And even if things don't work out between us as we are now, we'll always be together in some way. I'd never abandon you, and I don't think you'd leave me to fend for myself either.

[dedikated]

... This is insane.

( She mutters more to herself than to him, head bowed towards her chest in thought. What hasn't Hadriel changed about her life and self in these few years? Now even the one fundamental belief she'd had — that once it was all over, life would go back to normal, without any changes — seems to be crumbling.

He's not the only one who doesn't want to give this up. None of this had been part of her plans, her assumptions of how returning to Hadriel would go or what she would end up feeling for the young man trying to make heads or tails of the new world he's been tossed into. But going against those assumptions made her happier than she can remember being for... well, perhaps ever. He's given her countless reasons to try, to relax, to not get out of bed at the crack of dawn, and losing those things — that smile, the gentle grip of her hands, kisses pressed to her knuckles — is something she'd resigned herself to, the same way she'd resigned herself to a lifetime of working at The Agency.

And that thought? When she's ten years away from that place, with a clinic of her own and a whole new skillset? That's the final chip at the cracks in the wall of fear which has her resisting.

This, undoubtedly, is absolutely insane. She has no idea how she's going to explain any of Hadriel to her friends in a way that doesn't have them worrying for her sanity or drinking habits. But this makes her happy. He makes her happy. And the kind of happiness he gives her is something she's never been able to find back home. )

... Alright. ( The answer comes in an exhale, the release of so much weight, the undoing of a knot in her chest she'd barely noticed. ) Come home with me.

( Four little words which almost leave her dizzy as they leave her lips. )

[claritatis]

[It is insane, he can't deny that, yet when has anything about their life together been normal? Meeting here, when they never should have been aware of one anothers existence. Somehow falling in love against the odds, through separations of space and time, through separations of years... His feelings for her have never changed, and he might even say they have grown stronger with his own age, once his memories of her had been fully regained.

Even now, this time and place that they choose to talk about this, is utterly insane. Of course they would choose now.

He doesn't expect too much of a fight against his suggestion, and he doesn't get one. She gives in, and Ignis can't stop the bright smile that flashes over his features as he slips an arm around her to pull her in close to him and kiss the side of her head.]

You won't regret it. I promise you that.

[And neither will he. Eos holds little for him now that would be better than being with her, wherever she is. If he thought she would agree, he would have invited her to come back with him instead.]

But we can speak of it in more detail later. When this is over.

[dedikated]

[ Ah, of course.

There's still a war outside. ]

Hold you to that.

[ But for now? For now she'll hop off her perch and offer a hand with a brush of fingertips against the back of his, reach for weapons and breathe in. It's time to push the future aside and concentrate on surviving the present. ]