✧ ⁺ - @raikuroji asked:
it's odd, seeing her in person after all of the stories. he'd never met her. not on the battlefield, not in their real lives removed from all of that until now. shiro thought corrin would've been larger than life. she had to have been to have shaken up their entire country, to have led to—people keep saying he should be thankful they'd brokered peace. that he'd eventually be able to lead hoshido to recovery when he was old enough to ascend the throne. he doesn't know if she's thought of what her peace cost. but, it doesn't really matter. he's here because he's an envoy for queen hinoka. not as shinonome, who is ryoma's son, who she killed without killing— he kisses the back of her hand and feels the blood come away against his lips. "nice to finally meet you, aunt corrin." / a kiss on the back of their hand, formal yet intimate; a la post-conquest, as it were!
Crimson eyes blink soft, slow, considering the boy before her the way one might a painting of a distant past. Boy, no, that's not quite right. He is something more, and yet it's hard to come to terms with such a fact.
Not for the strangeness of time, but rather a grief she still has yet learned how to stifle. A guilt that, no matter how assured she is and will always be in her choices, follows her to bed every night.
He looks like his father, no spitting image but Ryoma is written in his every feature. It makes her chest heavy, watching him, feeling where they touch and the ghosts that sit between their skin.
Aunt, he calls her and, whether he intends it or not, a knife's edge twists in her heart. She wonders if he sees it in her gaze, feels it in how her hand trembles. She wonders, distantly, if he feels better for her guilt.
"It is nice to meet you as well," her voice is soft, steady, but it catches when lips start in the shape of his name. Corrin swallows.
"Shiro."