Commission for @the-divine-miss-blue / @phaedra-mero of her FFXIV character, Phaedra Mero with Thancred Waters! Thank you so much for commissioning me!! <3
Haven’t written Thancred and Phaedra in a romantical setting before so... here we are.
Thancred reunites with Phaedra (WoL) in Il Mheg.
[Please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors or lore based errors. Lore is not my forte. I’m trying. Also, forgive me if Thancred’s “voice” is not quite there. I’ve not written him much, and there’s a lot to unpack.]
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They were alone.
For the first time since arriving in Il Mheg, it was just the two of them. Urianger was elsewhere, preparing for the journey and tasks ahead and Minfilia was outside last time Thancred checked. Phaedra stood with her back to him, poring over an open tome on the table.
Thancred’s mouth was dry. He was immobile and all the words and emotions he wanted to express had now left him dumb.
Five years.
It was five years since he last saw her. Last spoke to her. Last heard her laugh, or say his name, or just breathe. Five years for him, and he was unable to articulate himself. Unable to tell her what seeing her again meant to him.
He was able to distract himself during those long years. He focused on mastering the gunblade. Then, on finding and liberating Minfilia from Eulmore. He learned all he could about the First and the Source and how they were connected. He did all he could. He didn’t thrive, but he managed. It was easy to ignore the pang in his chest when he was focused. When he didn’t allow his thoughts to drift to the life he led in the Source. To his friends, the war they were dragged unceremoniously from. The body he left behind, and the woman he left there, too.
The Crystal Exarch was determined, there was no doubt about that. The fruit of his labours stood not ten feet from him and, true to form, Phaedra set straight to business. Ridding Lakeland of its Light Warden, and already on the path to removing another. All quiet and sincere determination; she went about what was asked without complaint or thought for herself. She ran into fights over and over again, coming out bloodied and bruised, but victorious…
Thancred moved a step. The worn wooden floor creaked under him and Phaedra shifted. A tiny change in her stance to indicate she noticed. Her tail flicked lazily from side-to-side as she turned pages without reading them. Thancred tried to summon up his voice and the words he couldn’t find.
“Do you think Urianger has these arranged in any particular order?” her voice caught and stopped him. He swallowed a breath and started to close the gap between him.
“Somehow, I doubt it.” Stopping behind her, he chose action over words. Words he could use later. He could dazzle her with his words and wit later, at that moment he wanted assurance. He wanted – needed – the certainty that she was real. That she was a physical being in the First, not just his imagination or a wild fever dream.
Phaedra stiffened a moment as he slipped his arms around her shoulders. He expected that. He also expected, and was glad, to recognise her body relaxing against his, accepting his embrace. He buried his face into her hair, squeezing the fingers of her hand that she lifted to touch his.
“I have missed you,” Thancred declared, his throat threatening to close. “Terribly.”
Phaedra leaned back into him and he adjusted his hold to bring her closer to him. His armor denied him any real contact, but it was enough to be this close. “I’ve missed you, too.”
“The Gods certainly have a sense of humor… No sooner do I return to you, I find myself being stolen away.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his tone. Back in the Source, they spent more time apart than in each other’s presence during the year before Thancred was unceremoniously brought to the First. At home, his need to be secretive and hidden to work in the shadows meant communication by linkpearl was out of the question, except for emergencies. He had hoped to have time with Phaedra after the fighting was done, and the war was over but then… everything happened.
“That’s hardly your fault.” Phaedra turned to face him causing Thancred to lower his arms. He hesitated a moment before allowing his hands to rest on her hips in a strangely unfamiliar yet familiar way. “It is nice to see you haven’t lost your flair for dramatic entrances.”
He chuckled, “I do enjoy showing off now and then.” The corner of Phaedra’s mouth quirked into a smile. Thancred cradled her cheek in one hand and she leaned into his touch, kissing his gloved palm and allowing her eyes to close. She clasped his hand at her cheek with her own. “You’ve hardly changed.”
“Neither have you.” Her eyes slid open, turquoise as the seas of Costa del Sol and just as breathtaking, smiling up at him. “You cut your hair though. And I notice the lack of fuzz.” She brushed her thumb over his bare chin. “And no bandana, either?”
He shrugged, “I turned up here like this… Although, naked.”
“Again?”
“Hardly my fault.”
Phaedra laughed, “you just seem to have a habit of appearing unclothed.”
“Twice is not what I would call ‘habit’, dearest.”
It was nice to joke. Nice to laugh and feel a part of himself thawing with each word shared between them. Phaedra could relax him like no one else, and he was sure he hadn’t bee relaxed since the first day he arrived in the First.
“When the Crystal Exarch told me you had taken up with another companion I…” She lowered her eyes. Thancred’s stomach sank and he nodded once.
“You think I would stray so easily?” he leaned down to her height until they were forehead to forehead.
“Well…” her cheeks darkened, “five years is a long time and…”
He held her face in both hands breathing deep to settle the swirl of nervous energy in his stomach and chest. “The Gods themselves would be unable to tempt me. You are my heart – I thought that much was clear in the Dravanian Forelands.”
Another smile came to her lips, followed by a disapproving glance that did not hold the emotion she tried to convey. Their reunion Ishgard was more physical than this one. A night in Fortemps manor wrapped up in each other’s arms, a mess of limbs and sweat, expressing through gesture what was too raw to say.
“I’m sorry,” Phaedra brushed her nose against his, an act of affection that was familiar and made Thancred tingle down to his fingertips. She exhaled shakily, her breath ghosting against his lips. Thancred’s chest grew tight as she drew closer, tilting her head to one side. She paused before they made a connection, her eyes darting up to meet his gaze as if gauging his willingness and desire. Unable to bare it, Thancred closed the space between their mouths, kissing her soundly and pushing his hands back into long, thick hair to cradle the back of her head.
Gods, she was like air to him. Like air, and sunlight, and water, and peaceful rest, and she was like a blast of colour that spread across his vision and allowed him to see the beauty in the world of the First since he arrived here. Phaedra’s arms encircled his neck and Thancred stole a breath when she deepened the kiss and pulled him closer. He was both unwilling and unable to release her; this was something he had dreamed of in the five long years he’d been in this world forsaken by Darkness. The memory of Phaedra’s lips, her voice, the texture of her scales, the smell of her skin and weight of her were all fading before this moment. They were all sensations on the ver edge of Thancred’s memory, things he desperately tried to chase when in those moments between awake and asleep. To suddenly have her again in his arms; real, vibrant and his was almost too much to take.
Phaedra pulled away and Thancred concealed a chuckle, taking stock of her flushed face and slightly reddened lips. She smiled as he drew a thumb along her lower lip and laughed along with him. After a few moments he sighed.
“We have a lot of catching up to do.”
“We do.” Phaedra nodded once, “but more than that, we have a world to save.”
“Trust you to think of business.” Thancred quirked a brow and straightened up. Phaedra turned her gaze to the door that led to Urianger’s chamber; there was noise coming from within.
“The sooner we rid the First of this plague of light, the sooner all of us can go home.”
Thancred squeezed her hand, “let’s concentrate on Il Mheg. One step at a time, hm?”
Phaedra gave him a gentle shove as Urianger joined them.
