Hadriel IC Inbox

[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]

[The fruit is abandoned, dropped to the ground with the lightest thud in favour of putting his arms around her. What's between them here is patient, comfortable, and Ignis long since grew entirely at ease with being seen displaying this kind of affection. He thinks nothing of the possibility of being observed.]

You didn't have to lure me out under false pretenses. [He tells her quietly when they part for air, a small smile in his voice.] If this was what you wanted.

[dedikated]

( This sort of comfort has so quickly become a part of this, the sort of thing where it's easy to forget the world around the in favour of simply being together. It's so utterly entwined with being together with him that it's impossible to imagine anything else, when being held like this feels right in a way it never has before. )

Do want lunch. ( She corrects, words murmured only loudly enough for him to hear. ) Got distracted.

[claritatis]

Hm. [He's close enough to feel her words more than he hears them. His fingers link in the dip at the base of her spine and he keeps her close without holding her there, yet still quite sure she won't pull away from him.]

Entirely my fault, I'm sure.

[dedikated]

( While he's correct (annoyingly often) that she doesn't pull away, Kate does pull back enough that she can speak normally instead of murmur into his lips. )

Aye.

( It was. Obviously.

Her eyes cast a quick glance at the fruit on the floor and back up to Ignis. As distracting as he is... )

Find somethin' better, then?

[claritatis]

Hold on. [He hums, amused.] What's the rush?

[She might have pulled away from him just that bit more but he doesn't let her go just yet. They have time, don't they? He leans down to lightly kiss her again, a small smile against her lips.]

We're not done, are we?

[dedikated]

( There isn't much need to rush when Hadriel is (reasonably) quiet, it's true, and it makes it easy to convince her to slow down even as her heart clenches in a way which leaves her slightly breathless. )

We're not?

( The words are playful and light, murmured just before another soft brush of lips. )

[claritatis]

Not yet.

[Ignis does not often verbally take charge of things happening between them. He has his own quiet ways of being in control, things he will and will not allow, but this is an unusual occurrence.

He does seem aware of this as he smiles wryly at her in those brief moments before she kisses him, and he holds her to him as that kiss is warmly returned.]

[dedikated]

( She trusts him in the kind of way that allows him to tether her back, to take charge without unnecessary arguments. These moments may be small, may be over in the space of a few heartbeats, but they mean as much as the big things when she sinks into them without complaint or awkwardness, fitting against him like she was always meant to be there. )

[claritatis]

[It would be difficult for him to explain how he feels about her in words. What exists between them is a feeling, an emotion, a near-tangible something that defies language. Ignis feels it in the way they subconsciously reach for each other when they're near one another; in the smile that always comes to his face when he sees her.

In the gentle fullness in his chest each time he thinks of her and everything they have built between themselves in such a short time. It could have been little more than lust - an infatuation that could have faded. Instead, a fire had been lit beneath it.

His fingertips trace the line of her jaw while he kisses her, curling into her hair and around the back of her head. He won't keep her too long though. They still have lunch to find. When he moves back, he takes her hand and smiles warmly.]

Let's try another tree.

[dedikated]

( Words are often difficult, but even more so when they all feel inadequate to describe what they've built here. How simple time spent together has quickly blossomed into an unspoken trust and treasuring of all they have. Things are so easily torn away in this city, in life itself, that it's been easy to try and turn such things away before, but he's all the reasons not to do so in one simple smile and touch. )

Hungry?

( It doesn't take much to add the implication to her tone that she wouldn't object to it just being another place to kiss. )

[claritatis]

That is why we're out here.

[It's entirely not Ignis' fault that Kate is so tempting to him, but he is quite hungry and not in the mind for something that looks like a small pear but tastes like cherries... and not particularly good cherries at that.]

Not that I have any objections to the company.

[dedikated]

( So who are we blaming because it isn't Kate's fault either.

It entirely is. She's being an asshole. )

Lead the way.

( She can probably give cliffnotes on more than a few things here, simply due to the amount of times lunch has been "six random things picked off a tree and ate as she walks back to the clinic." )

[claritatis]

[This, in all honesty, is always more about the time spent together than what they end up eating. Ignis laces his fingers lightly between hers as they move out from beneath one tree and under the next, his attention half in the branches and half on the woman walking beside him.]

How is the clinic?

[Idle small talk. There's more to what he's asking than the question.]

[dedikated]

( True enough, when her gaze so easily wanders from the trees (a stop at something growing bananas in a bright orange skin because they're actually really nice) to him as they wander the rows and rows of trees. )

Not bad, despite everything. ( They're busy, because of the state of the city with the monsters and the rubble, and they've had better months on supplies, but it's not so desperate a situation that they're facing catastrophe. ) We're surviving.

[claritatis]

[The fruits pretending to be bananas look interesting enough, and he'll pause below that tree without complaint, reaching a few down for the both of them.]

I suppose things could be worse.

[They could be in the middle of a war zone, injured and half-starved, waiting for it to end. Again.]

But 'surviving' is low bar.

[dedikated]

( A shrug as she takes a bite of her fruit, chews and swallows. Still good. )

All we've ever done here.

( Hadriel is pretty much the definition of low bar standards. )

[claritatis]

All?

[Is that so? He looks ever so slightly surprised to hear her say that as he looks down at her, but rather than immediately challenge it he plants a kiss on her forehead and shifts away to lean against the trunk of the tree.

The heat of the day is still uncomfortably oppressive, and he hates it, but it's a little better in the shade.]

I see.

[dedikated]

( Just because he doesn't challenge it doesn't mean she can't hear it in the tone of his voice or see it in the way he moves. They spend too much time together for her to miss those. )

... What?

( Surviving is the bulk of what they do, after all. )

[claritatis]

Mm, nothing.

[He takes his time with a mouthful of fruit before he speaks again.]

It's only surprising to hear that 'just surviving' is all that it boils down to for you.

[dedikated]

( She looks at him for a moment, uncertain of what to say to that. Nothing that's come out of Hadriel for her has been intended, and much of it has been a welcome surprise, but all the same... it's a bonus, really. )

Low expectations of this place. ( A shrug. Can anyone really blame her when they've been dragged here without any knowledge or acceptance of it, tossed into the middle of a war they never signed up for? ) Stops me being disappointed.

( And makes things like this all the more pleasant and treasured. )

[claritatis]

[Again, he takes his time in replying. He looks at her like it's an appraisal, as if he's considering something that he hadn't thought of before, all carefully concealed but hanging between them regardless.]

I think... we can do more than just survive. [He says, expressing a level of optimism about the place that isn't common to him.] In the small things. What we choose to make of our lives here.

[Such as they are, for as long as they last.]

If all I did here was survive, I wouldn't have you.

[dedikated]

( That... actually makes her smile, small though the expression is. He's not wrong, and she was - in her own way - agreeing. They've managed a lot more than just surviving here. She just... likes to remain guarded, she supposes. )

... That was my plan. First time I got here. Just... stay alive and find a way out. Thought the people saying it were impossible just... weren't trying hard enough. Or they were just human. ( Kate shrugs, casually as she can while recalling memories that have aged and been jumbled in the mess of leaving and returning. )

Was a stupid mindset.

[claritatis]

I won't disagree.

[Because it is, and just giving up has never been something that Ignis has been good at. Settling for 'just enough' is a state of mind he would hope never to find himself in.

He mimics her shrug, a small smile along with it.]

There may be a way out, but we'd miss out on a great deal by focusing on nothing but that.

[dedikated]

( It's also one she hopes he never has to deal with. It still poisons her thoughts from time to time, evidently, even after years of reasons to think more of life. It's easy enough to call realistic, but is it truly that?

Kate isn't sure it is any more.

But for now, she clears her throat, pulls her eyes away from studying the fine changes in his expression, and holds onto the warm weight which seems to fill her chest. )

S'pose so.

( The fine art of understatement. )

[claritatis]

[Ignis laughs then, his expression warming and his eyes briefly falling closed with the mirth of it.]

Did I just win a debate with Kate Galloway? [He questions, gently teasing. An understatement it might have been, but it sounds like an agreement, and one so easily given that he has to wonder just what could be distracting her so much.]

I wish I had a calendar to mark the date.