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“I want to go back to Galahd.”
Cor paused mid-sip, eyes flicking up to stare at Nyx over the rim of his glasses. He sat up a bit straighter and set down the coffee mug in one hand, and the newspaper in the other. With a quiet sigh he removed his glasses and set them on the table then went to rub the bridge of his nose.
“Pardon?” He asked wearily. He was always weary these days, Nyx noticed. He didn’t blame him, not really. Work was...well, work. Hard work. After their King had disappeared and night became eternal, Cor had fought his way back into Insomnia with the ‘Glaives when Lestallum became too small and too far away to do any good. They cleared out the sewers and the subways and set up a whole base of operations near the Citadel, making mission after mission to wipe out the MT’s who were still roaming about, awaiting orders that would never come. They slayed horder after horde of daemons and paved the path to ensure their King could return and usher them all into a new dawn.
Nyx still remembered the anguish on his husbands face when he walked out of the throne room the day the sun rose again, with the little Prince—no, their King — cold and dead and tucked into his chest. And when they lowered his body into the ground next to the plots reserved for Regis and Aulea, Cor swore he wouldn’t watch another one of his King’s die. The title alone held many hardships but it seemed the Lucii were sadistic bastards who got off on watching good men suffer and Cor was tired of scraping the bodies up of those he was sworn to protect.
Then it was rebuilding Insomnia, war torn and uninhabitable. At least, until they started allowing the citizens to return and volunteer in their relief efforts. They brought food and water and extra hands and within a few years, homes became permanent. Lucians. Galahdians, and Graleans alike came together under a new democratic Lucis, after deciding that their late King would be their last. After Cor decided, that they would have no other Kings.
So, he gathered Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto and made them into a new council and sent them off to do their work and Cor washed his hands of any more political involvement. Instead, he went to using his strength and he helped build houses and hunt outside the wall and just never stopped. Now, 5 years later, Cor was still weary. Nyx could see it in the deep grooves worn into his skin, around his mouth from frowning or the crease in his brows from furrowing them so often. He saw it in the streaks of silver that peppered his hair and his beard, or the way his shoulders sagged and if it weren’t for his bones to prop him up he’d likely melt into a puddle on the floor whenever he had a seconds reprieve. Which is why Cor needed this as badly as Nyx did.
“I want to go back home, to Galahd. And I want you to come with me.” Cor opened his mouth to speak but Nyx held his palm up.
“I know, what you’re going to say. But...just...godsdammit, Cor, look at yourself. Look at me. We aren’t young and spry anymore. We can’t work ourselves to the bone day in and day out without some serious complications. It’s been 5 years since First Dawn. And look around!” He gestured vaguely. “We’ve restored power to most of Insomnia, rebuilt a few apartments, cleaned up tons of debris in the Western and Eastern sectors, not to mention got a food trade going with Cleigne, Leide, and Duscae. Cor, babe, I love you but...they don’t need you here anymore.”
Cor scoffed at that and placed his palms on the table, carefully standing up and taking his mug to their kitchen sink. “They may not need me now but that doesn’t mean I can just...leave.” He sighed, gripping the edge of the counter and leaning forward, dropping his head. “What if something happens?”
Nyx stayed where he sat at their small dining table, eyes trained on Cor.
“Nothing is going to happen. The daemons are gone, the wars are all over, and people are starting to become more and more independant. Civilization will go on whether you like it or not, Cor Leonis.” Nyx’s lip twitched at the pointed glare Cor shot his way.
‘What I mean to say is,” Nyx continued as he stood, walking to the kitchen and wrapping Cor in a very warm embrace from behind, “we can leave and thing will be okay . You did your job, Cor. You got this place up and running in record time and now we can leave it to the boys to keep it that way. You know Ignis would never let this place go to shambles.” Cor snorted and Nyx felt the tension in his body slowly begin to ooze out.
“You’re not wrong...” He turned around in Nyx’s hold and leaned his weight back on the counter, parting his legs to let Nyx slot between them. Cor lifted a hand to Nyx’s cheek and watched him close his eyes and turn into it like an attention-seeking cat.
“So...Galahd, huh?” Nyx smiled into the skin of Cor’s palm and lavished it with a kiss.
“Galahd.” He answered and Cor sighed fondly.
“I guess I’ll start packing, then.”
~
There was a poster back in Nyx’s old apartment (Cor had only visited it once and after that they agreed to have date nights and rendezvous at Cor’s place) above his bed and it was a touristy poster of Galahd, back before...well before. Nyx had said he taped it on the ceiling so that when he went to bed at night he could dream of the good times when he and Selena would get lost for hours in the forests and find new waterfalls and pools hidden under canopies of trees, instead of the way Galahd had looked when he left. He left those details out, but Cor had seen enough reports to know, that when Nyx hopped on a boat to Insomnia with his closest friends, they were leaving home behind, with its plains on fire and swarms of MT’s dropping from the sky, faster than the Galahdian soldiers could take them down.
Nyx didn’t often talk about his home unless they were completely alone and he could describe to Cor every little detail he remembered. And he only ever talked about the good things, because the bad things were a bitter pill to swallow and that wasn’t Nyx. He didn’t wallow in the memories of what could have been but in fact, celebrated what had been. He would animatedly discuss his first hunt or the first time he’d ever been shocked by coeurl, hard enough to scar but not enough to kill. Cor would trace his fingertips over every raised line in his skin while he spoke, memorizing the feel of what Galahd had done to him, a mark more permanent than the tattoos interspersed on his person.
They had laid there all night in his bed, staring up at the ceiling while Nyx told him story after story, claiming the poster didn’t really do the place justice.
“ One day,” he whispered, head tucked in the crook of Cor’s neck, “I’m going to take you to Galahd so you can see it for yourself. So you can feel Galahd.”
And here they were now, stepping off of a boat and being welcomed by Libertus and Crowe, who had come a few years ago and decided to stay.
“Well well well, the shithead finally decided to show up.” Crowe grinned and pointedly dodged the duffel bag Nyx threw at her head before he charged at her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on tight, laughing when he swirled her around for good measure.
“Okay, alright, I missed you too, point made. Down boy!” Nyx set her back down to her feet and laughed, loud and loose and free and something about that made Cor ache deep in his chest. It wasn’t that Nyx hadn’t laughed like that before but there was something so different about the way it felt now. It wasn’t that restrained chuckle when they were on guard duty at the Citadel together, or the boisterous laughter when they’ve had one too many at the bar. No, this was genuine happiness, laughter he wasn’t afraid of anyone hearing.
“Welcome home, Nyx.” Libertus smiled and wrapped Nyx in one of his patented bear hugs and Nyx held onto him for dear life, as if he were afraid he might disappear if he let go.
“Leonis.” Crowe nodded her head respectively and Cor rolled his eyes.
“I’ve known you for how long, Crowe? You can call me Cor, you know.”
“I know, Leonis. I just like the way it rolls off the tongue. That, and the look you get every time I call you by your last name is priceless.” She cackled when Cor shoved at her playfully before he tugged her back into his chest and hugged her.
“I hope you lot know that Nyx has been miserable to live with since you all left and never came back for him. I’m pretty sure he thought he’d been abandoned.” Cor picked up their discarded luggage and started to walk down the dock with them, heading towards the safety of shore.
“Well, someone had to make sure Galahd was habitable, huh? And old Nyxy here wanted to stay back in Insomnia with his husband so it’s his own fault really.” Libertus shrugged, grunting when Nyx smacked his arm.
“I’m right here , you know.” Nyx exclaimed and Crowe brought a hand up to her forehead, eyes scanning the area.
“You guys hear something?” She asked and Cor shrugged.
“Sounded like a dying cat to me.”
Libertus hid his snickering behind a hand and Nyx, Queen of the Dramatics, crossed his arms and sulked. “ You guys are assholes .”
“Last time I checked, you were quite fond of those.” Cor smirked at the way Nyx’s ears burned bright red.
“Oh gross! I definitely don’t want to think of you guys having sex. That’s like...picturing my grandfathers having sex.” Crowe shuddered at the thought, shaking her head and hoping the thought would erase like an Etch-a-Sketch.
“Oh come on!” Nyx whined. “I’m not even 50 yet!”
“No, but Cor is definitely 60 and that’s old.”
Cor snorted, not offended in the slightest. “She’s not wrong.”
Nyx gave a long suffering sigh and shook his head. “Why did I marry you?”
“Because you love assholes.” Cor reiterated and laughed as Nyx stamped off to join Libertus, who had gone up ahead in hopes of avoiding whatever their conversation might have turned into.
They made it off the docks, which were settled at the base of a cliffside, and walked up a series of wooden steps that were embedded into the steep wall of the cliff. But when they made it to the top, Cor froze and dropped his bags at his side. Galahd was...not what Cor had expected it to be. It was so, so much better.
The first thing that caught his eye was the verdant green of the landscape. Lush grass ran for miles along the ground and there were deep forests in the distance, canopies formed by the protective blankets of leaves high up on the branches. But then there was the bright blue of the waterfalls and rivers that ran through the land, weaving their way over hills and cliffs, sliding alongside villages and emptying out into a wide canyon.
Cor had only ever seen photos of Galahd, like the one on the poster above Nyx’s bed. Or the hastily snapped polaroids of the destruction, left behind by the Empire, taken when Insomnia swept the area for survivors. Back then it had looked dead, what with it’s barren land and the dried grass that crunched when you walked over it, blackened burnt sticks shooting up from the ground that once used to be strong trees, so thick and unbreakable you’d think only a God could tear it down.
And of course Nyx had painted many pictures in Cor’s mind, talking about the water so clear you could see through to the bottom or how the grass felt so good underfoot when he and Libertus and Crowe would play in the meadows and Cor could see it now. He could see the families and their children in the nearby villages looking for all the world that they were at peace in their land. He could picture a young Nyx in their stead, freshly shaved hair and beads clinking along in the small braids behind his ears. He could hear his laughter and envision the freedom he must have felt as a child in such a beautifully magical place.
“No one had set foot in Galahd since the war,” Libertus explained, once Cor had picked his jaw and bags up off the ground and started walking with them towards the cluster of homes that was their village.
“Everyone still remembered what it used to look like. What the air tasted like when the plains were burned and ashes were falling from the sky. The smell of the dead piling up and being set ablaze in their homes. And when the daemons came, well, no one wanted to return. We didn’t know what we’d return to .”
“But when Dawn surfaced, the first thing we wanted to do was come home. Lucian’s wanted to go back to Insomnia, but us Galahdians wanted to come back to Galahd.” Crowe supplied, walking alongside their little group.
Cor nodded. “Makes sense. The Empire drove you off and the daemons kept you away. But with both gone…”
“Galahd could be safe again.” Nyx finished. “Hopefully, anyways.”
“When we finally crossed the ocean that first year and set foot on our land again, it felt like we’d never even left. The storms had come and washed away the sins of the Empire, leaving us with fresh land that bloomed all over again. It sounds almost…divine.” Crowe laughed and looked up towards the sky for a brief moment. “We decided not to question it and rather just accept the second chance we were given. Now, few years later and look at us!” She spread her arms out wide, twirling around in a circle. “We’re thriving again and new, little Galahdians are being brought into this world, in their land.”
The four of them eventually ended up outside a large cabin with a wooden porch that wrapped around the building. The logs that made up the home were left bare, as were the planks that comprised the railing and floorboards of the porch. It gave it a nice rustic vibe that Cor found he greatly appreciated.
“This is home sweet home.” Libertus announced and made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “Made it myself,” he added proudly and Crowe snorted.
“With help from me and the rest of the crew. Anyways, this is where you assholes will be staying until you build your own. Please tell me I don’t have to help with that.” She whined and Nyx grinned, throwing an arm around her shoulders.
“What, don’t wanna help your old brother out?” Crowe scowled and threw his arm off.
“No, thanks. I’ve got enough splinters to last me a godsdamned lifetime.” She muttered angrily but Nyx just laughed.
“Alright, fine, I guess Cor and I will have to make do with just the two of us. Isn’t that right, babe?”
Cor rose his brow and made his way up the porch. “No, I’m old. You’ll have to do it all by yourself. But I’ll watch and cheer you on.”
Nyx scoffed and quickly followed behind him. “You’ve never cheered a day in your life,” he argued and Cor cleared his throat.
“Woo,” he deadpanned. Crowe cackled and doubled over, hands on her knees as she wheezed. Nyx rolled his eyes and shoved at Cor, which made Libertus snickern and shake his head fondly. He finally opened the front door and ushered them inside. Libertus’ home was quite...interesting. It wasn’t messy, per se, but it was definitely full.
The cabin opened up into the living area first, with a low table and plush, decorative cushions surrounding it in lieu of chairs. There were also larger cushions fashioned into a sort of couch and placed behind the table. Pictures and paintings lined the walls, some of Galahd and some from Libertus’ time in Insomnia.
To the right was a large open kitchen, with a wood burning stove next to a large sink. Cabinets lined the walls and they were chock full of what looked like different types of spices and foods, things that Cor had never even seen before.
And to the left was two separate doors, both open to reveal what looked like two bedrooms. One clearly lived in, with bedsheets unmade and clothes strewn about, while the other was more pristine. Cor figured that’s where they would be staying for the time being.
“That’s your guys’ room,” Libertus confirmed and Cor nodded in thanks, wandering over to set their bags inside. The room was bare save for a mattress on the floor, covered with fresh sheets, and a nightstand with a lamp. Cor glanced around, piecing together all the little bits and pieces of the home before he stood up a little straighter and turned around, walking back out into the living room.
“Lib?” Cor started. “Where’s the—”
“Bathroom? Outside and around the back.” Crowe answered and laughed when Cor breathed a soft sigh of relief.
“Cor, Libertus was just telling me that he would love to teach you how to cook tonight.” Nyx said from the kitchen. Libertus crossed his arms and grumbled.
“I said I would show him how I do it, not teach him."
“Eh, same thing.” Nyx waved his hand dismissively and smiled at Cor. “So? Yes?”
Cor sighed. “I know how to cook, Nyx.”
“No, you know how to set our apartment on fire and then order takeout.” He corrected. He turned back to Libertus and smiled apologetically. “I promise we won’t set your house on fire.”
“ He promises,” Cor interjected and Libertus groaned, scrubbing his hands down his face.
“Either way, you assholes are going to have to rebuild my cabin if you do and I don’t want to hear a peep about it. Now, we meet here at 1600 hours. Don’t be late.”
~
“I can’t believe you burned down his kitchen.”
Cor and Nyx were sitting on the edge of a small cliff that overlooked one of the villages, legs dangling off the edge, and watching the dissipating smoke rise from one of the cabins. They each held a beer in their hands and Cor shrugged, taking a swig of his.
“I helped put it out before it spread past the countertops.”
Nyx snorted and sipped at his own beer. “Yeah but not before you singed one of his braids. And somehow turned his stove to ashes. A metal stove, Cor.”
Cor glanced at him and shrugged again. “He knew what he was getting into.”
Nyx laughed at that, scooting over to lay his head on Cor’s shoulder and Cor wrapped an arm around his waist, tugging him closer.
“How does it feel?” He asked after a while, eyes scanning the dark landscape.
“How does what feel?” Nyx asked, tilting his head to look up at his husband.
“Being home. I mean, does it feel...the same as before? Or different?”
Nyx mulled that over for a few minutes, considering his words carefully.
“It feels different but...good. Like coming home after being on vacation. Everything is the same, but there’s that extra sort of...peace you feel being in your own home after spending time away from it. You appreciate it more for what it is, and it’s almost like you’re experiencing it again for the first time. You know what I mean?”
Cor brought the bottle up to his lips and drained the last little dregs of his beer before setting it aside and wrapping his other arm around Nyx, enclosing him in a hug.
“I do. Though for me, home wasn’t a place. Insomnia was...somewhere I ended up. And somewhere I stayed, through my service to Mors, to Regis, and then to Noctis. But it wasn’t home, it wasn’t where I wanted to go back to after a long day or after a vacation as you put it.”
Cor’s grip tightened around his husband for a moment. “I preferred going to wherever you were. That was home.” He said simply and Nyx chuckled, pulling away from his grip to turn and look at him fully.
“That was the cheesiest fucking thing I’ve ever heard, Cor.” But Nyx’s heart felt tight in his chest and if he could, he’d marry Cor all over again.
“Might be,” Cor shrugged. “But it’s true.”
Nyx crawled over into his lap and Cor wrapped his arms around his back, holding onto him tight so he didn’t send them both toppling over the side of the cliff. It wasn’t high enough to kill but definitely high enough to hurt if they fell.
“Marry me.” Nyx whispered, grey eyes trained on icy blue.
Cor snorted. “We’re already married.”
Nyx rolled his eyes. “Yeah, a Lucian wedding. But I want to marry you here and have a true Galahdian wedding. You’re just so nice, I want to marry you twice,” he grinned and Cor groaned.
“You’re an idiot.” He scowled, leaning forward and dragging a fang over Nyx’s throat, drawing a quiet moan from the younger man.
“Probably. But that’s what makes me so great, right?” He said hopefully and Cor chuckled against his neck.
“Probably.” He answered, then laid back against the grassy edge of the cliff and Nyx followed him down.
“Sex on a cliffside? Cor Leonis, you scoundrel. Does that mean you accept my proposal?”
Cor smirked and wrapped a hand around Nyx’s neck, dragging him down for a kiss.
“Yes,” he whispered against his lips and Nyx smiled wide in return.
They laid together until the early morning, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the running river and waking to warm rays licking their skin and enveloping them in the promise of safety in Galahd.