Chapter Text
Emilia found delivering that letter, one of the hardest things that she ever had to do. She knew the outrage that it may invoke, and then having to say she was the one that Guile chose to succeed her? It felt like terrible joke to play on Swain, but it was real, and it was true. She knocked on the door.
"Yes? Who is it?" His gravely voice betrayed his exhaustion, she knew that she had been unable to take on all of Guile's work, but she tried to handle as much of it as she could.
"Emilia." The door clicked open as Jericho opened it with his magic. His eyes were set on a document, but she knew that he wished for her to speak.
"Guile has a message to deliver to you, and Darius upon his return." Swain put the paper down and immediately took the sealed letter.
"Typically, they don't bother you with deliveries. They have messengers when they need them." He muttered, cracking the seal.
"It's... important. So, they had me deliver it." Emilia avoided staring at him while he read, not wanting to see his reaction to the news. She thought he would get upset, insist that Guile could continue working.
"I had a bad feeling that they would say that. I imagine they relayed their successor to you, Emilia?" He looked at her with such a business look that she wondered if she had been gone for too long. That she had pushed too far, but she didn't have time for it now.
"They... They wish for me to take their position as Guile." Emilia braced for his response, an expected cough and sputter.
"Truly? I don't doubt you, I don't pretend to know who Guile would choose in this situation." He seemed unsure what to do, which Emilia guessed only made sense, the Trifarix was a young government, and no other position had any change. Swain being the most unlikely candidate to change, with Darius only compromised with a human lifetime. Jericho held out his hand to her, and she took it uncertainly. "Congratulations on your promotion, Guile." It felt wrong, it felt like she had stolen something that wasn't hers.
"Thank you, Swain." She turned around and left the office quickly, wanting for the moment to be over. She was busy the rest of the day, taking on Guile's mask, it felt odd at first and slowly it became less and less odd as the day went on.
-
"Quilletta, do you think I could try talking to him now?" Emilia asked after returning from the Immortal Bastion for the day, she was antsy, and she wasn't sure if Swain's behaviour was just because they were working or if she had messed up something.
"Fine, go ahead. Don't stay there though." It felt strange that Emilia had to ask Quilletta to go see Swain, but otherwise it was too easy to fall into letting their relationship return to the way it had been prior.
"I won't, I'll be back to make you dinner in a few hours." Emilia promised, and Quilletta nodded, laying down on the couch.
She knocked on the manor door, having done her makeup fresh and wearing one of her favourite dresses. A simple long black dress that had two slits on each hip to allow for easier movement. It felt once again felt strange for her to act in such a way, they had jumped past the point where they would dress to impress. They had seen each other at their worst and had been happy to fall face first into a relationship that lacked the development it needed. Maybe Jericho had been right about their vulnerability, but it wasn't just her own situation, it included him as well.
The door opened and Swain stepped back, seemingly shocked by her appearance on his steps.
"Can we talk?" She asked before Jericho had a chance to say anything in response.
"Yeah, come in." Swain pushed the door open further and moved to let her in.
"Wow, you must have been busy, it's almost looking like a real manor again." Emilia commented as she saw how the repairs were going.
"Emilia, can we skip the pleasantries?" The impatience was clear in his voice, and Emilia sighed.
"I missed you, and... Well." She had put so much idea into all the things that she could say, yet no words came to her. "I want us to start again. The proper way this time, if you still feel the same." Jericho stood there stiffy, making Emilia feel like her visit was either too late or too soon, she couldn't tell.
"I missed you too, we can do this however you like. Honestly talking to you makes a world of a difference." He said as if that wasn't the cutest and saddest thing she had ever heard. She closed the gap between them, hugging him tightly.
"You're such a lost puppy, and here I thought you were all tough and grumpy before." Emilia put her hand on his cheek before giving him a kiss on his forehead, causing her to need to stand up on her toes. His own hands slow to return the gesture, but after a few moments, he held her just as tightly.
"My face has that affect on people." He answered, not saying in response to being called a puppy. He pushed her hair behind her ear, looking at her with such forlorn that she wanted to apologize for her departure.
"I am needed at home, but the break is over. At least with me, I don't know what Darius plans on doing when he returns. Keep care of yourself, Jericho. You look like you've been struggling to sleep." She exited his arms, returning to a more comfortable distance between the two.
"I have, had some trouble sleeping." He muttered, she wasn't sure if he understood what she had said. "Is Quilletta alright? Her letter concerned me." Swain still had the habit of avoiding uncomfortable conversations, but Emilia let him change the topic.
"She is alright as she can be, she struggles getting around and standing. She doesn't seem to let it phase her, it's hard to believe that she continues to bounce back even after such a nasty injury." Emilia responded, and the two seemed to fall back into silence.
"Is she upset with me? She wasn't exactly in a good state when she left." Jericho asked, but Emilia shook her head.
"No, she wishes the best for you and us. She's been holding us accountable."
"Accountable for what?" Jericho's cluelessness was sometimes too funny for Emilia deal with, she snorted.
"Do you think it was easy for us to leave and stay that way? I think Quilletta had heard more than enough of our reasons for wanting to visit you sooner." Swain adjusted the way he stood, leaning against the nearest wall avoiding pressure on one of his knees.
"You both seemed fine without me, and I... Thought maybe..." Jericho trailed off, and Emilia looked at him with disbelief.
"You're trying to tell me, that you thought Darius, the man who was happy to forever be in the closet would suddenly change his mind on women and date me? Jericho, he's a flower, but he blooms on the opposite of the tracks and only shines for you."
"I don't know, Emilia. I was searching for reasons why you both seemed so unbothered." She noticed him shuffling to get his weight off his knee.
"Let's sit down, your knee is bothering you, isn't it?" Leblanc walked over to him again, offering her hand. He took it, leaning into her as they moved to the couch.
"How did you know?"
"Both you and Quilletta avoid accommodating your pain, also I'm not blind. I'm not going to get mad at you if you need to sit down." She let go of his hand as he sat down, letting out an exhausted breath.
"Do you need help with your work? I can probably manage some of it outside of work hours. I know they left you a lot to do." Emilia offered, she was worried about how tired he looked, and he almost looked sickly.
"As Guile, you already have more than enough to do. You taking her position was honestly the best you could do to help. Darius was just in the middle of several negotiations, and they take, a ridiculously long time and eat up most my day. The same ramble and ramble over and over. We want this, we want that. I think you could put the idea together." He declined, but Emilia was happy that he was talking more. It didn't feel so terribly awkward.
"It feels wrong to call me Guile, she lost her job because of me, she's in pain all the time because of me and yet she handed it to me with such confidence, with no concern whatsoever." She was thankful to get her thoughts out, the guilt that she had squished down and tried to avoid talking about around Quilletta. "How can I accept it? How can I take her position and not feel the guilt that I had caused it all?"
"You didn't make that decision for her, Emilia. She likely thought she would die for what she did, that was her choice, you didn't make her do anything." Jericho tried to rationalize the situation, it dug deep and sharp in response.
"Is this really any better than being dead? She's constantly in pain, she struggles so much and yet she hides it all behind her smile. No matter what I make her to help with her pain, it makes little to no difference. How can I not feel guilty for my hand in that?" Emilia hated to think of Quilletta being dead than how she was.
"You will always feel the guilt, whether it was your fault or not. It isn't fair for you to decide if it's worth living for her, would it be any better than me deciding without magic that you were better off dead?"
"No, of course not. I, just wish I could do more, that I could find something to rid her of her pain, that there was something, anything that I could do to give up myself to spare her."
"Emilia. She sacrificed herself for you, do you think it would change anything to give up that chance and disrespect her decision?" Leblanc turned inward, clasping her hands together to stop herself from picking at her skin.
"No. I'm feeling her pain, and I can't handle seeing her like this."
"It'll get easier, I am sure. You becoming Guile is a substantial change, and it won't feel right for a long time, but you can't let that stop you. I know you, staying at your place with nothing to do, would drive you insane, would it not?"
"Yes, but-"
"You need this, and I think Quilletta needed this too. Did you not realize that her handing it off to you was her asking for reprieve?"
"I didn't realize, I didn't think of that." Emilia wondered why she didn't think of it sooner, she was so tied up in Guile giving up her position that she had completely forgotten that Quilletta had to come to that conclusion herself, that she had to accept that she couldn't do it. "You're right, she had been less responsive to me. I thought it was the pain." Emilia admitted.
"How are your wounds? Are they healing alright?" She changed the topic, coming to sit beside Jericho before she thought much about it. She nearly went to touch him but stopped herself.
"They are healing alright, already getting scarring, the stitches should be removed in the next few weeks." Jericho looked disappointed, and Emilia reminded herself that what she already done was more than enough. She didn't even know what they were doing anymore.
"That's good, do you mind if I see them?" So much for her bright idea to not touch him. "I just want to check for you in case you missed something." Emilia wanted to laugh at her own terrible excuse, and Jericho tilted his head before taking his shirt off avoiding her gaze.
Could she have made it more awkward? No, she had reached peak levels of awkward, but she genuinely did want to make sure there was no infection in his cuts. Not that she thinks there would be, Darius's axe was well tended to, and clean. Emilia trailed her blackened fingertips over the front part of his wound, feeling for anything that may be out of place. Quilletta had done a rather respectable job considering how much the two were panicking over him. She definitely was good at working under pressure.
She felt him flinch from her touch, wondering if her hands were too cold or too hot, but Jericho didn't say anything. The slash to his front had healed quickly, not being anywhere as deep as his other wounds. She adjusted herself on the couch to get a better look at his back, because of it being the entry point, his skin showed the damage. The scarring would be much worse on his back, and it was even bigger than the exit was. She sucked in a deep breath, nothing to worry about there, it would heal with time. No bumps, and the she could see some spots that were red from inflammation were the stitches tied the skin together.
"There's some inflammation on your back, have you put anything on it?" She asked, and Jericho shook his head.
"I haven't had a chance to, doctor isn't coming for some time, and I can't reach back there." Good point... She got up and headed to where she remembered they stored their medical supplies, it seemed that they were in desperate need of restocking. It only made sense, there had been plenty of wounds for all of them to share.
"You know, you should probably say something before you go running off into my manor." Jericho called out, but his light tone brightened her mood. They could free themselves from the awkward space they had put between them. She grabbed some cream, a roll of bandages and alcohol swabs. She sat down beside him again.
"You know, you should probably still be wearing bandages, these are still fresh. You're asking for a problem."
"I don't plan on leaving home, and the bandages were uncomfortable."
"What are you, three years old? 'The bandages were uncomfortable'." She spoke in a high-pitched voice to tease him.
"I have dealt with plenty a wound, Emilia, I am not a child." Yet the moment she put the swab on one of the inflamed stitches, he gasped. She couldn't help but chuckle at it. "You enjoy my torture, don't you?" He glared at her with the least serious look he could muster.
"Oh, you're just so hilarious when you're in pain, I can't help it." She moved onto the next stitches, cleaning up any dirt or debris that had made its way intwined in the stitches. She felt him tense every time she reached a particularly bad stitch.
"Evil witch, I'll tell Darius you were torturing me." He muttered.
"Oh? He'd applaud me, pat me on the head and say you deserved it."
"Betrayal, mutiny, insurrection. How dare you?"
"Where will you fall, Jericho Swain? Scared of the same thing that happened to Darkwill happening to you?" Jericho shook his head.
"As if. With you and Darius at my side, I might as well be impervious to attack."
"Oh yeah? What a smooth talker you are." She responded with such a big smile, applying the cream to his back.
"Will you be my girlfriend, Emilia Leblanc?" He turned to her, and she felt her face grew red.
"Quilletta is going to kill me, but I can't say no to your dumb face."