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It was in the way that your eyes lit up when he saw you find something you liked in the marketplace. It was the way you would lean your body in towards him as you listened with full attention when he would recount his day. It was the way that your hands fit perfectly within his when he searched for your touch and the way that your lips, soft as it was, moulded against his when he would press it into a kiss.
All these things about you made you beautiful, Aymeric thinks. It makes you who you are - the person behind the Warrior of Light.
Aymeric regarded you as a holy figure, as if you were an angel sent down by Halone herself to gift him for all his years of loyalty and service in Her name. Moreover, it was the manner to which you would set his heart ablaze without trying. The way you had reminded him of the reason why he must continue to fight against the world’s injustices, why he had begun to ingratiate himself so deeply with the Eorzean Alliance. It was you.
You and the hope that you continue kindling in the hearts of the people.
Perhaps it is with this reason that he had deluded himself thus far. Aymeric has seen the good sides of you and was quick to shoot down any naysayers that condemn your good name. You are strong, he thought to himself. You are what he inspired to be - a natural-born leader to which the people would follow, not simply because it is by the orders of a commander.
What he sometimes forgets, however, is that you are but a single soul in a sea of thousands.
Aymeric woke up with a start and had begun instinctively reaching out for Naegling near the wall at the sound of screams. When he blinked the haze away, he turned to find that you had jolted upwards in bed, breathing heavily and shaking like a frightened, abandoned cub. Against the moonlight peeking through the curtains, your dazzling eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
You had a nightmare and you weren’t entirely aware that you were awake.
The viscount reaches out and pulls you easily into his arms. You jerk against his touch and he feels the beginnings of panicked flails coming from you, so he reassured you with his voice.
“You are safe,” he tells you. “It was a dream. You are here. With me.”
Indeed, you both sat in the comforting cushions within Aymeric’s bedchambers. The manservants have long since retired for the night, leaving the two of you alone in this rare moment of vulnerability. You two, alone, in this temporary box of security that you have made for yourselves. You wear no mask. He wears no armor.
Neither of you wear your titles.
So, you allow yourself to weep in his arms. Allow yourself to bathe in weakness as he protects your heart from the bitter truth of reality. Slowly does your tears cleanse the gashes left by your adventures and quickly does his soothing ministrations become the tourniquet that stops the bleeding.
Aymeric recognizes the bloody business all too well. The way you hide behind your titles to smother your pain. How you shoulder responsibility to escape from yourself.
How you release a cry from the deepest abyss, praying someone will hear.
After a while, you have managed to stay your tears and steady your pulse. Your mind has calmed from the endless tsunami of fearful thoughts and memories that you wish hadn’t come true. All the pain from your history before you became an adventurer and all the anguish that came after. Sure, it had made you who you are, but it doesn’t make the hurt any less an act of torture than what it is now.
When you lift your eyes to meet your lover’s, you find that a single tear was streaking down his cheek as he gazed upon you patiently. Any word of apology that was to slip from your lips is shoved down as concern washes your very core. Yet, before you could release a sound of question, Aymeric had leaned down to press his lips gently against your forehead in the gentlest kiss you have felt him give thus far.
Another pair; one on each of your eyes.
Then, he lifts your hand and presses kisses on the each of your fingers.
Aymeric could see the way your cheeks began coloring as you watched him with adoration. However, he wanted to give you more. He wanted to lay fervent markings all over your skin, lay claim to every single scar that painted your body, in the desire to engrave a bit of him on you. That, should the next time you feel such sorrow, you may be reminded that you are not alone, for you have bits and pieces of him wherever the winds carry you.
That, when you look back and are reminded of today, you would be reminded of what you have now.
Being the Warrior of Light, you have come to accept that the most beautiful things in life come and go like a gentle breeze. It is why you hold fast and hold true the bonds you make and keep along the way. With each passing day, a life could be lost just as easily as it could be brought onto this star. Each soul that exists, going about their lives - the merchants, the nobles, the farmhands, the repentant - you love them all. It is why you continue on the path you have chosen, though it is paved with the dead, because you have found something in each person on this star that you cannot bear to lose.
Aymeric, in witnessing your tears, realizes this.
You may hold up your mask as the Warrior, wear your crown as the strongest in the realm and be basked in fame and praise for your countless accolades that could have bards singing for lifetimes.
However, the preservation of innocence and the joyous highs of your victories are temporary.
You are a single soul amongst countless others. You are a mortal that can feel emotions just like any other. There is still the ‘you’ behind what it is the world makes of you.
Aymeric knows that you think the most beautiful things in life come and go like a gentle breeze. However, he has resolved himself to helping you see that some of these things can stay with you for as long as you have the courage to reach out your hand towards it. He’ll help you come around, he promises, as he starts by vowing to become a permanent fixture in your life.
With that, he reaches into his nightstand drawer to retrieve a small black box containing a ring.