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secret-engima · 4 years

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Cor/Amissa on the run/fighting Niflheim? (That 100% counts as a date for them, right?) Any way, after Insomnia falls (possibly spoilers for this verse I suppose) or like, Cor was out doing something and got separated from the group and Amissa just happens to be in the area. Ooh, or Cor follows Amissa and something goes wrong and they have to get back to the Kingsglaive forces/Insomnia by themselves. Much bickering/one upping ensues. Bonus points for Amissa using badass janitor skills

YOU INSPIRED ME TO DO A THING. THIS IS AWESOME. I was gonna just do some HCs but then this thing grabbed my eyeballs and ran away with me so HERE. HAVE A 2.5K THING. I may end up incorporating this into a later chapter or interlude of Stand Strong because I just- had so much FUN with this??? I HOPE YOU LIKE IT. Also tagging @wolfsrainrules

…

Cor was used to going on solo missions. Few people could keep up with him —though the Kingsglaive seemed to be doing so more and more as they warmed up to him—. So when a tip came in on new movements from Niflheim that needed to be confirmed, Cor wasn’t afraid to take the opportunity to get out of his office for a few weeks and go alone. He told Regis and Clarus where he was going, promised —yet again— to be careful, then set out for the remote area of Cleigne that the tip had described.

Supposedly, Niflheim was building something there. Possibly a new supply depot or fort. If they were, that would prove a problem. While Cleigne was the region farthest from Insomnia, it was also one of the ones that had the least Niflheim presence, held at bay by the angry wildlife and the rebels that lurked in the thick forests and brush. If they set up a new fort, it would be used as an extra foothold in the region alongside Fort Vaullerey. An extra launching point for them to finally crush resistance in that area.

Cor had no interest to see Cleigne burn like so many other rebellious regions had —like Galahd had, which, as he was coming to learn, had been so much worse than any of the reports Regis received—.

So. Scout the area, see if they were in fact setting up another fort or supply depot, then round up some Crownsguard or Kingsglaive to destroy it if they were. Assuming he had time to go back to Insomnia and requisition an infiltration party. If they were already almost completed, Cor might have to go in alone to destroy it now and apologize to Regis for his “reckless behavior” later.

It took him a week to both get into Cleigne and find Niflheim’s new project. Building a new fort was hardily a quiet or subtle process, so it wasn’t that hard to locate. Especially when the natives were all too willing to point him in the direction of Niflheim’s newest monstrosity —Dave, his primary contact in the Hunters, was particularly distressed, because the new Fort was on a route most Hunters used to get around and now they would have to take the long way and risk not reaching a Haven in time while on Hunts—.

It took him another three days of scouting the base from afar to conclude that it was almost finished and by the time Cor went back to Insomnia and jumped through the right hoops to get a sabotage party together, the thing would be up to full strength and on the alert for any infiltration attempts. As it was, construction was still underway, there were multiple spots where security could be exploited, and multiple emergency exit points if something when wrong. That and a lot of gunship fuel not yet stored away that would make wonderful explosives.

It seemed he would be apologizing to Regis soon for reckless behavior. But this was why he had brought along a few packets of explosives.

Sneaking into the under-construction base was tricky, but not as much as it used to be. Amissa’s lessons had worked wonders for his stealth operations, and even seemed to work on MT units to a certain extent —he’d have to thank her after he got back, she would be back from her vacation by then, maybe they could … go out for coffee or something, like Clarus was always suggesting in an effort to decrease their spars—.

Still, his stealth wasn’t perfect against so many electronic systems, and about halfway through his careful exploration, an alarm went up. They had spotted signs of his infiltration and knew there was an intruder, but they didn’t know where he was, or if there was more than one intruder. He could work with that. All he had to do was find someplace to hide from the MT patrol coming his way-.

Familiar fingers twined with his and tugged him away from the corner he’d been about to duck behind, instead dragging him into a closet before he could grab his sword and retaliate. His wrist was pinned to a shelf before he could draw his weapon and he paused in disbelieving confusion as mismatched blue and green eyes stared up at him in amusement, “Don’t speak,” she hummed in a pleasant, conversational tone of voice rather than the whisper that would have been more appropriate. She nudged him into a corner with a bunch of hanging uniforms and rearranged them so they were mostly covering him. Then she shifted position and began to calmly sort through the items on the nearby shelf, as if he wasn’t still partly visible and the MT units weren’t tramping ever closer.

The closet door yanked open and red eyes in an expressionless mask stared at Amissa. Amissa stared back without so much as raising her hands, just shifted so that she was better facing the MT unit. Cor braced to have to lunge past her to behead it, but then it-.

Turned and kept walking. Like Amissa was not another intruder.

She turned back to him and gestured, “Well? Get dressed if you don’t want to get caught.”

What.

A blink and he registered-, “What are you doing here?” He hissed back, looked her up and down and realized she was dressed in a baggy janitor uniform, just like the ones she’d hidden him behind.

“Same thing you are,” she deadpanned as she put some of the items on the shelf —window cleaners?— onto a cart, “just better. Now stash that sword in your armiger and put on the suit before the units come back.”

Two minutes later, dressed as a Niflheim janitor, Cor stalked after Amissa and growled under his breath, “I thought you were on vacation.”

“I am. But this fort is on what used to be my favorite stargazing spot. So I decided to deal with it.”

“…Stargazing.”

“Yep.”

“There isn’t a Haven within ten miles of this place.”

Amissa glanced at him and raised an eyebrow in a silent “so?” that … Cor really didn’t know how to respond to. He sighed and rubbed his face until Amissa shoved a mop into his hands instead and glared him into … mopping the floor of a Niflheim base. While he did that and she washed the windows, Cor finally asked, “Won’t they be suspicious of two janitors cleaning during a base alarm?”

“No. You only set off a level two alarm, thanks for that by the way it hurts my ears, so most of the base is supposed to continue normal operations while the search parties look around. Helps detect suspicious behavior or something like that.”

Cor paused and leaned on the mop to stare, “You know Nif protocols.”

Amissa pointedly kicked the mop out from under him and snickered at his glare, “Yes. I’ve done this before. But this will be easier if I had explosives. Don’t suppose you have any?”

“…Yes. I came prepared.”

“Good, I know just where to put them. Come on, the next hallway over needs a good mopping.”

Cor followed his … girlfriend? Friend he was attracted too? Lover? —Did they count as lovers when they had never taken each other to bed like mass media appeared insist was necessary for romance?— through the Niflheim base, invisible to the MT patrols tramping frantically about, and mused to himself that sometimes, just sometimes, he actually forgot who he had fallen for. Just sometimes he would find himself lulled into only thinking about her janitor day job and her dry sense of humor, and her unnatural stealth and calm and ability to screw people over would be just a sidenote.

Then something like this would happen —admittedly never on this large and obvious a scale— and Cor would be sharply reminded that Amissa was as impossibly strange to him as he was to other people.

Getting into the more secure parts to the base were stupidly easy in their current disguises, and Amissa kept a careful watch as Cor set the explosives in places where they would do the most damage and they strode cautiously away, hyper-aware of the timer ticking down. They were just on the outermost edges of the base when someone finally noticed them and realized that two janitors should not be outside, sauntering toward the nearest exit.

The MT units came for them, and Amissa laughed as he ripped his sword free of armiger and tossed her one of the ridiculously large broadswords she always favored despite her smaller frame. She swung the blade without any seeming effort of the weight, cutting through three units at once before she whirled away from a spray of bullets, “Three!”

…Was she…? Cor eyed her as he carved through a swath of his own opponents. She caught his gaze and winked before bisecting an MT unit with a cheerful, “Four!” She was. She really, genuinely was. In the middle of a fight where they were hopelessly outnumbered and had to escape before the timer finished and they all died in fire and shrapnel.

Cor felt his lips curve into a feral grin as he beheaded an axe unit, “Eight!”

A delighted expression and a sweeping attack that carved through metal torsos and knocked back several more besides, “Thirteen! Do keep up, Mo Leòmhann!” My Lion.

It had been a very, very long time since Cor allowed himself to be anything but deadly serious on a mission. Since before he fought Gilgamesh and learned the folly of his pride. But as they carved a path to freedom through MTs and mecha units, all while racing death from explosion, Cor found himself grinning without restraint as they yelled out numbers and performed increasingly risky, dramatic stunts to up their score before time ran out.

Standing on a hillside safely out of the danger zone ten minutes later, watching the fort burn and fragment under the force of its own burning fuel and machinery, Cor felt himself settling in his own skin. His scent was out and relaxed, mingling with Amissa’s as she languidly flopped down onto the grass to watch their handiwork. Cor knew they should be leaving the area already. There was too much risk of Niflheim reinforcements or someone escaping the base to hunt them down. She patted the grass beside her and Cor found himself sinking down to sit beside her, legs stretched out on the grass as they got their breathing to settle.

“We should do this more often.” Amissa announced in the sudden silence.

Cor huffed, “Risk our lives to blow up Niflheim bases without backup?”

Her head came to rest on his shoulder, “Yes. It’s a lot more fun than sitting in a dark, noisy movie theater for three hours.”

Cor stilled, rolled that thought over slowly, then asked, “Are you … suggesting that this was a … date?”

She idly nuzzled his jawline and Cor forced his breathing to stay even, “Isn’t it?” She hummed lowly, “We left the Citadel, we got all dressed up in clothes we usually don’t wear, we went somewhere new, and we had fun playing a game together. That I won by the way, I got forty to you thirty-nine.” A casual nip at his jawline that made his chest rumble with pleasure and the feeling of her grinning against his neck was a perfect distraction from her claims of victory in their game, “We even get to watch some fireworks afterward. Isn’t that all the ‘date’ behavior Amicitia was talking about?”

Cor took half a second to picture Clarus’s face if he ever found out his checklist of “proper date behavior” had just been used to describe infiltrating and blowing up a Niflheim base and burst out laughing. He flopped over, rolling to cage Amissa beneath him with a growl, “I think your missing one very important item on that list…”

A flash of white teeth in her dark face and a gleam of pure mischief in her blue eye, “Then check the box, Mo Leòmhann.”

He caught her lips with his own and felt her start to purr like far off thunder as her fingers came up to twine through his hair and pull him closer. His purr rose and mingled with hers, a deep, bass sound that shook his own ribcage as she playfully nipped his bottom lip before letting him deepen their kiss. He finally pulled away just enough to rest his forehead on hers and pant, “There. I’d say the checklist was complete, wouldn’t you?”

She grinned again, wild-eyed and fae, “Hmmm. One more time just for good measure. We’re bad at this whole dating thing after all.” She kissed the corner of his mouth before purring in his ear, “Need a little more practice.”

“And practice makes perfect,” Cor agreed with a bark of laughter before letting her tug his head down again for another kiss.

…

Additional Omake:

They slipped back to the Citadel two weeks after Cor had left, clothes rumpled from more than escaping Niflheim pursuit and eyes glittering with the same smug light that would make Clarus take one look at them and groan in despair and Nyx cheer approvingly.

Regis sighed at Cor’s delayed return as he came to report to his king, “You went and blew up that base on your own again, didn’t you.”

Cor didn’t even bother to glance Amissa’s way, he could already tell she was radiating amusement as she stood at lazy attention at his right side, “No, Your Majesty. I didn’t go and blow up the base all by myself.”

Regis’s eyebrows crept upward suspiciously, pointedly taking in his smug, relaxed posture and the written report on the table that said the base had been very thoroughly destroyed, “Is that so?”

Cor nodded, and for once it was a fight to keep an open smile off his face, “Yes, Your Majesty. After thoroughly scouting out the base, I went on a date with my Courted. She was on vacation in the area and it seemed an opportune time.”

Regis sat back, utterly flabbergasted, “You … went on a date. While on mission.”

Cor nodded again, “Yes, Your Majesty. According to all previous criteria explained to the two of us, we went on a date.” He caught Amissa’s eye without meaning to and saw the delight in her gaze, “We went to a unique and interesting location, we dressed ourselves in clothes we did not normally wear, we performed an enjoyable and competitive activity, and there were fireworks afterward.”

Twenty long seconds of confused silence, then Regis looked sharply down at the report with its picture of a flaming Nif base and a bark of laughter escaped him while Clarus pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned in despair. Amissa started to snicker at Cor’s side and Regis hid his face in a hand to smother his own laughter before straightening up and, “Well … next time you go on a … date … please take along some backup in case there are complications?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Regis sighed and waved them both away while Clarus irritably snatched the bourbon off Regis’s study desk and growled about “hopeless, reckless idiots”.

#SE asks #serafinastuff asks #Stand Strong Verse #Melodies and Manuscripts #Secret Engima Rambles #Cor/Amissa #cor leonis #Amissa (OC)

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secret-engima · 4 years

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So . . . What's SS!Ignis been up to? Idk when he started hanging out with Noctis in cannon, but does he get conflicting information on the glaives if he starts hanging out with them/Noctis after The Talk because he's heard people's prejudices but the LCs are cool with them? Does he go around asking all kinds of awkward questions to Figure Things Out and Make Up His Own Mind? Does he stumble across more cultural misunderstandings while doing this and everyone just goes "wait, there's more?!" 1/2

serafinastuff said: SS!Ignis cont. "Why must there be more?" Maybe something surrounding food since you mentioned he learned Galahdian recipes? Hmm, I mean, they all grew up as kids on the run in the jungle so they'll probably ready just about anything but that's not too surprising. Similarly, they probably have stashes of food and carry snacks with them always because you never know when your next meal will be (this is getting depressing, sorry) idk they probably also have rules about who eats first in a group 2/2

Me: Iggy is Noct’s current Keeper/buddy right now yes, so he is ... Not Happy when he first learns that Noct is hanging out with the glaives. Especially TITUS, because he’s heard all the rumors. Bu then ... Noctis, despite being young, is a generally good judge of character and when Ignis follows him down there the glaives are ... weird but not exactly terrifying? Sorta? Either before or after The Talk Iggy definitely goes around interrogating the glaives/Titus/Amissa to make up his own mind about them and eventually decides that they are ... strange but tolerable. Good for Noctis, because Noct is lonely and needs All The Pack.

Is probably the one to find out about their proclivity for running around on all fours, since they don’t bother hiding it around Pack and Ignis is Noct’s Pack so he is Pack by extension. Is more than a little exasperated when Noctis picks up The Ways Of Running On All Fours but okay.

Hmmm he might? Not sure what cultural misunderstands would come about over food, but he definitely notices their habits of hiding food stashes and hoarding snacks in both pockets and armiger. But instead of finding it weird he finds the snack thing useful and starts carrying food around for Noctis.

They do have rules on who eats first in the Pack actually! The youngest always eat first because they are smallest and most vulnerable, then the eldest eat next because they are the protectors and need the strength, the middle generations eat last because they are old enough to wait, but too young to need the strength to protect just yet. Amissa also insisted that everyone get regulated portions. Depending on how much food at a give time there was, she would divide it up as best she could so that the youngest got the softest foods, the oldest got the most protein rich/energy rich and the middle still got enough to stay healthy and grow. She’s not sure how well it worked but by the astrals she tried.

This rule has loosened since settling in Little Galahd, but it is still seen in how they serve their tables. Children get served first, their choice of the meat cuts and dishes, then the eldest/the fighting age adults get served next, and then everyone else can come take what they please (Little Galahd is big on buffet style eating, as well as group mealtimes. Often the entire community will casually congregate at random spots eating lunch or dinner together and telling stories in between bites).

Also the glaives eat free in Little Galahd. Doesn’t matter that the glaives are perfectly willing to pay for it, the glaives are the protectors of Little Galahd and so Little Galahd supports them with All The Free Food.

#SE asks #serafinastuff asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Stand Strong Verse

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