Compass

Disclaimer: Nope, nope, nope.

Summary: Estelle's kissed all of her friends at least once, except for Yuri.

AN: This is basically me writing cute, happy shit to get away from various stressers, anxieties…nothing I can't handle, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, certain elements and tie-ins from my other Vesperia stories are included in this (particularly from A Test of Courage and Tales of the Campfire) so if you like this, go on and read the others too! Some are things I've written by myself, others are collaborations that I've done with one of my best friends, Celirian.

That said, go forth and read!

If my heart was a compass, you'd be North.
-Owl City

Karol

Karol's dead silent and sniffling and everyone's trying to ignore it for the sake of his pride. Estelle doesn't blame them; Karol looks like he'd rather die than have this acknowledged, face unattractively red and eyes suspiciously wet. Estelle tries her best to be gentle and wishes that she could just heal him, take the poison out like she normally would, but the claw's wedged in too deep to heal around so she has to take it out by hand, working the sharp barbs through skin and muscle.

It's delicate work and she's the only one with hands steady enough to manage; Yuri's afraid of hurting him and Raven's job is to stand behind Karol with his hands on the boy's shoulders to keep him still while Estelle works. Rita, normally never squeamish, is off to the side and more than a little pale in the face. Repede the faithful has his paws stretched across Karol's legs and his head in his lap.

"It's going to be alright," Estelle tells him, sounding so much calmer than she actually is. She's really not calm at all and she doesn't know where the sudden steadiness in her hands came from; she'd normally be quick and flustered and be worried about doing more harm than good, but there's something about this that stills her. She's never been this calm in a crisis before and this is definitely a crisis. The area around Karol's ribs, around that wicked claw, is an angry red and slowly going a sickening violet like a bruise gone bad. "I'll have this out as quickly as I can. I promise."

"I-I'll be okay. Just—" he lets out a ragged, hitching breath full of pain, "Just do it the way you have to."

And Estelle knows what that has to cost him because she'd be begging for it to be taken out any way it could be, regardless of the damage that would cause, just to have it gone.

Her gloves lay in a heap next to her where she yanked them off; she needs all of the delicacy she can manage.

"You're doin' just fine," Raven tells him, hands quiet and unflinching, "Don't worry about a thing. It'll be out in a jiffy and you'll be up and about in no time. You're in good hands."

Estelle hopes that their faith in her isn't unfounded, and she works the claw like she's working out the snarls in her hair, bit by bit and piece by piece. When Raven says hands he's not kidding, because Estelle literally has her fingers in Karol's side, working their way into the wound as gently as she knows how to wrap around the base of the claw. It's wedged in deep, buried in between his ribs, and she's not qualified for this, she's definitely not qualified for this. She's no healer, she doesn't have any real training outside of the basics, doesn't even have any tools outside of a knife and a fire to sterilize it. She's just flying by the seat of her pants and if she messes this up—she doesn't know what she's going to do.

Slowly it begins to come loose and Karol lets out a hiss of pain but says nothing, says nothing about the mess or the way Estelle's not breathing at all or the way Yuri can't help but twist his hands around his sword just to have something to do with them.

"Almost, almost," And Estelle realizes that that tight, foreign voice is hers, doesn't recognize it at first. There's a distance required for this, she thinks, because if she thinks about it she won't stop thinking about how this might be more brutal than any battle she's ever been in because this is on purpose.

And then it's out, sliding on her palms through the red slick that streaks her hands, and split second later there's a sudden flurry of spells; for poison, for healing, and Karol's sagging backwards against Raven to wipe hastily at his face and Estelle's wiping her hands on the grass to try and forget where it came from. Her calm's gone and her head swims like she's just been upside down for too long.

Estelle doesn't know when Rita shows up at her back, pressing against her shoulders and encouraging her to sit down before she falls out of her kneel, and the other girl takes the claw from her slack hands and hurls it away as far as she can.

"Thank you," Karol tells her even though he's exhausted and desperately needs to clean up, and Estelle doesn't know what comes over her except that the next thing she knows, she's ducking forward to splay her hand out on his cheek and press her lips firmly to his temple.

Ba'ul

Ba'ul is underappreciated, Estelle thinks. He hauls them around, comes when he's called without fail through any kind of weather (often awful) at all hours of the day and night, and doesn't complain. If he complains, he complains to Judith and she's not talking anytime soon.

If she were an Entelexeia turned unofficial chauffeur, Estelle's pretty sure that she wouldn't be anywhere near as good natured as he is.

Maybe he's not actually that good natured.

Maybe he spends all of his time not transporting them flying around and grumbling about the state of his life, or taking Tokunaga for joyrides. She hopes so, he's certainly entitled to them.

Normally when he drops them off at their campsite he immediately flies away but tonight, he swoops down with a booming thud. It wasn't that long ago that he was quite little, Estelle remembers. Small enough to ride. How old is he? Does he have any family at all?

So tonight, instead of following her friends to the campsite, Estelle approaches Ba'ul. Calm eyes watch her as she reaches out her hands to bury them in his whiskers, scratching him firmly on the chin.

"Thank you," she says to him, because she can't remember anyone going out of their way to thank him before. Not outside of Judy, anyway, who mostly speaks to him silently. He keens at her, an unusual sound that reminds her of a creature of the ocean, and Estelle smiles. "We couldn't do this without you, Ba'ul."

Ignoring the stares she's getting, Estelle leans forward and plants a kiss on Ba'ul's nose.

Rita

The easiest way to get Rita to be quiet and listen when she's on a roll is to surprise her, Estelle has learned.

The girl has a temper and that's never going to change, and Estelle's accepted that right along with the rest of it when she decided that she was going to be friends with her. That doesn't mean that she has to like it, not at all.

She hasn't even been paying attention to what sets her off, only that one moment they're all sitting around the campfire and eating dinner, the next Rita's raising her voice and glaring. Which, honestly is nothing new.

What is new is the way she doesn't think about how she flings out a hand and nearly upends Estelle's curry into the campfire, and that's just a little too close for comfort, thank you. Because Estelle never had to think about where her food came from and now she does, and Judy spent a good while hunting the boar that's currently in their curry and Karol cut the vegetables and Raven cooked it, and that's just rude.

Estelle interrupts Rita's rant by reaching out to wrap her fingers around the nape of Rita's neck. The touch cuts her off but that's not enough, and Estelle leans in to kiss her on the cheek, leaving Rita bright red and speechless.

"What are—what are you doing?" she sputters and Estelle just blinks innocently up at her, utterly nonplussed.

"You're making a scene," she says and lets her lips tilt up in a smile, "Please be careful; you almost knocked my bowl over." Rita gapes.

Yuri gives an audible snort and Judy snickers into her curry.

"But—but you—y-you kissed me!"

"Would you like another one?" Estelle asks with a tilt of her head, and that's enough to render Rita even redder and burying her face in her hands, wordless with shock. She's so busy congratulating herself for a job well done that she doesn't notice Yuri watching her with scrutiny over his food, a single dark eyebrow raised to his hairline.

Judy

The thing is, Estelle's always been a little bit intimidated by Judith. Not because she's mean (because she's not) or because she's scary (well, she kind of is but that's not why either) but because Estelle respects her. As a person, as a fighter, as a friend, because Judy has the kind of self-assurance that Estelle can only dream of and she makes Estelle want to be more than she is.

Judith is the one who tells it like it is, force-feeds the hard truths, and takes on the things that everyone else is too afraid to touch, and for the longest time Estelle regards her with something akin to both hero worship and abject terror.

But the thing is, somehow they end up becoming friends and Estelle's not sure what starts it, whether it's Estelle picking up the armored greaves she finds in a shop window because they're shiny and silver and strong and she knows that Judith would like them or if it's when they're eating dinner and Judy sets the book about volcanoes in Estelle's lap (because she's been talking about how she doesn't know enough about them). It might be when Estelle volunteers to make dinner (bad idea number one) because she knows that Judy loves curry and she thinks that even she can make curry (bad idea number two) or it might be when Judy decides that someone ought to give a certain princess The Talk and renders Estelle a blushing mess who can't keep from muttering things like no, stop, I read and I promise, you really do not need to tell me this the entire time.

Or it might be when Estelle finally takes Judith up on the offer to talk after her kidnapping ordeal.

It shouldn't be so hard when in the end all Estelle has to do is whisper Judith? into the silence of the tent but it's one of the most difficult things she's ever done. She's mostly afraid, then. Afraid of everything, really, but especially afraid of being rejected. Still, it's like Judy was just waiting for her to say something because the response comes in the span of a heartbeat.

Yes, Estelle?

Estelle doesn't sleep that night but she does talk and in the morning she's tired but it's worth it, and things are different.

And that's how Estelle manages to become friends with Judith, only it's not like any friendship she's ever had (not that she's had all that many to compare to, but still…). Most people probably don't have a sort of passive-aggressive favor war going on with their friends but most people probably don't routinely fly around in a rickety ship being carried by someone resembling a giant whale either, so Estelle figures that they're all due for a little weirdness.

Which brings them here.

When Judy walks by and casually drops the chunk of amber in her lap, Estelle's first thought is something along the lines of spirits, there is no possible way that I can do better than this.

Her second thought is where did she even find this?

Her third is oh my gosh, it's so beautiful.

Estelle goggles at it for a few seconds, marveling at the way that there are actually flowers and a couple of insects trapped inside the golden stone, and Judy preens, straightening up and grinning like she knows that there's no way Estelle can top this. She kind of can't and she knows it and Judy knows it too. Yuri looks like he doesn't want to know any of them but that changes when Estelle bolts to her feet and flings her arms around Judith, pulling her close to kiss her on the cheek.

"Thank you!"

Without a drop of embarrassment, Judy just widens her smile and kisses her right back in return, teasingly waggling her fingers at Yuri (who's wide-eyed and slack-jawed) and Karol (who seems to have caught Yuri's desire to not know them while still managing to look reluctantly intrigued) and Raven (who looks as if this is a dream come true).

Raven

Estelle knows the sounds of insomnia well.

It's not like she gets nightmares every night like she used to and sometimes she doesn't have any issues at all but sometimes, sometimes the silence is louder than the rest of the world and Estelle slips out of her tent to go sit by the embers of the campfire, soaking up the warmth she can get. She forgets this night that it's Raven's turn on the night watch and she won't have the fire to herself, but he sees her before she can back away and pretend like she'd never been there.

"Can't sleep, darlin'?" he asks, twangy (and affected) drawl soft and comfortable to her ears, and Estelle shakes her head.

"No," she replies, coming closer and settling down next to him just outside the dirt ring they dug out earlier that day, lined with stones to contain the crackling blaze. This isn't anything new and she doesn't really feel the need to say anything. Raven knows why she can't sleep and she knows why he can't sleep and she's happy enough to just sit there in quiet. She doesn't want to talk and they almost never do outside of the initial, quiet greetings. "I'm not bothering you, am I?"

"Not at all."

It used to be strange in the beginning but it's almost routine now, not in how often it happens but the pattern that shows up after a while. She used to sit across from him but that was no good because on nights like these, she doesn't really want to look at anyone either. It's enough that someone else is just there, a living presence that she doesn't have to explain herself to.

Raven's got his own thoughts, his own problems, his own demons, just like she does, and Estelle hopes that maybe he can take the same kind of comfort from her that she gets from him. She always asks as she had the first one, two, ten times this happened whether she was bothering him and he never asked her to leave so she never did and it always makes her feel a little better, if only to have someone who gets it.

She adores Yuri, loves Rita and Karol and Judy, but it's Raven who understands what she means when the walls inside her own head start caving in and doesn't ask anything from her outside of what she can give. He's like her secret-keeper, Estelle thinks sometimes, and the only time he's ever told on her was the night she sat by the fire and cried silently until it was nearly Yuri's turn to take the watch, and Raven didn't so much tell on her as he went and got him early (much too early), tugging him rumpled and bleary-eyed out of his tent.

Those are the nights that they do talk but tonight's not one of those; tonight is one of the quiet ones where she doesn't want to break the stillness with words, not really.

It's a clear night, or would be if not for the bleary form of the Adephagos streaking across the sky and Estelle starts listing the glittering shapes in the sky in her head, star by star, constellation by constellation until she doesn't remember which she's named and which she hasn't. Raven just sits next to her in his standard butterfly pose, hands brushing patterns along his knees, watching the fire like Estelle watches the sky.

This night is one of the quiet ones and as Estelle manually fills her head with stars, Raven draws a pattern in the dirt with his fingertips.

Estelle's not sure how much time goes by (could be an hour, could be two, no more than three because it's not time for Yuri's shift yet) but eventually her eyes begin to feel heavy and the yawns show up, and this is the time that Raven always shoos her off to bed and she almost always listens, because by the time she's tired her brain is quiet and ready for sleep.

Before she leaves this time, though, Estelle leans down to brush his bangs away from his face with a steady hand that knows the gesture, ducks in to brush her lips against his forehead.

"Goodnight."

Raven's face is a mixture of shocked and considering but his reply is the same as it always is.

"G'night. Sleep well."

Repede

It's more like a habit and a running joke than anything else, Estelle's pretty sure, but that doesn't make her any less jealous that everyone else seems to get along so much better with Repede than she does. Oh, she knows that there are a good many people (nice people, normal people, not the kind of people who want to destroy the world) that Repede dislikes much more than he dislikes her but that doesn't change the fact that she wishes that something would change.

Not just from the shallow (but genuine) desire to pet him, but just because.

Because he seems to like everyone in the group but her, and she hates it.

Still, she figures, running joke at this point, because they traveled all the way from Zaude together to come back to Zaphias -just the two of them- without any issues. She supposes that it's like all the times that Raven bounded up to her with his arms spread wide to ask for a hug, at least it was until Estelle just shrugged one day and took him up on the offer, but that's neither here nor there.

That's just how it goes. She tries, Repede rebuffs her efforts, everyone laughs, the end.

Still, even Estelle realizes one day that it's just never going to happen and she stops, because it's a joke that isn't funny anymore.

She stops trying to pet him, stops offering her hand to shake, stops most everything, really. Why shouldn't she? It's not like anything comes of it anyway and she's sure that it's probably annoying, having this girl constantly trying to bother you when you don't want to be bothered. And things go on as normal for a while even if Estelle still has to stop herself every time from reaching out to try and touch him.

It's after a battle, though, that something changes. The monsters are all dead, everyone sets down their weapons, and Estelle's still standing next to Repede who's already fixing her with the don't-even-try-it stare…

And she just walks away.

Estelle doesn't look back as she approaches Rita to finish mending the cut on her arm that runs from shoulder to elbow, not until Rita peers around her and says, "Hey, pooch."

Repede's sitting on his haunches behind them and looking…almost affronted. Estelle waves to him.

"Hello, Repede," she says but doesn't move, and the dog glares at her. Why's he look so annoyed? It's not like he ever lets her pet him anyway, why should he be angry that she's not trying anymore? Estelle would think that he would be happy.

But no, he just looks mad, and when Estelle makes it clear that she's not coming any closer, he sidles up to them and butts his head up underneath her slackened fingers. She doesn't think twice about taking the opportunity to pat him on the head even though she's sort of confused about the whole thing.

Repede just whuffs at her and pins his ears back, flicking his tail back and forth.

"What is it?" Estelle asks, kneeling down. "I thought you hated it when I tried to pet you."

I thought you hated me.

In a rarer-than-rare gesture of something, Repede gives an unimpressed snort and nudges her cheek with his nose. If dogs rolled their eyes, he would be rolling his. This time Estelle reaches out properly, burying her fingers into the fur at his neck and leaning in to kiss him on the top of the head.

The next time, it's like nothing's changed. Estelle still tries to pet Repede, he still offers her his tail instead of his paw, but Estelle doesn't feel quite so bad about it, or, in fact, bad about it at all.

Flynn

It doesn't matter that Estelle isn't a princess anymore. Well, she is, technically, but she's no longer in line for the throne because the council's finally given in and decided to back Ioder for the position, which is okay with her. Estelle isn't necessarily a princess anymore (at least not a princess that matters) but Flynn's still her knight.

She's an idiot, he tells her with a sullen mulishness to his voice that she'd only ever heard him use with Yuri (and why does that make her happy to hear?) the first time she tries to give him the slip, because she might be a fired princess and he might be a commandant but he still sees her as his fired princess and like hell she gets to fire him. And honestly, Estelle doesn't want to.

It's nice because even though she's a fired princess, she has enough credentials from helping save the world as the rest of her friends, so while Yuri's using his newfound fame to wrangle unsuspecting people into his guild and laughing all the while, Estelle…well, for once Estelle gets to do what she wants rather than what she should or what she has to. Sometimes that means traveling but for now it means helping Ioder put the Empire back together, because she might be a fired princess but she's a fired princess who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, and it helps to have a set of royals who present a united front, who get along, and who aren't afraid to care about the needs of the people. It doesn't matter that she's not going to rule, what matters is that there's something she can do that she wants to do, and for the last two weeks, that's consisted of rebuilding the Lower Quarter and bossing Flynn around.

Which is probably a tiny bit more fun than it ought to be, all things considering.

The thing is, though, Estelle's met a lot of different people traveling around the world but now it's the people at home that she doesn't know. Sure, she's met Hank and a few other people a few times (and thank everything for Hank, because she'd be lost in this without him) but everyone else…to them, she's just another noble who's never tried to reach out to them, that's suddenly trying to make a difference and help, and where's she been this whole time? And Estelle's ashamed because they're right, and she knows that now that she's made herself visible she has to live up to it and prove herself. She's proven that she can help save the world, now she has to prove herself to her people.

So it's rough going, especially in the beginning, because no one expects her to lift a finger, and Estelle throws herself into it with everything she has even if sometimes that means working longer hours than everyone else, doing the things no one else wants to do, and often doing them alone.

No one says anything but no one needs to. Estelle knows that she's not trusted and that's okay, because why should anyone living here trust a noble, especially when she's been the person sitting in that huge, white castle and doing absolutely nothing?

So she takes it all and says nothing, grateful for those people who do trust her to do what she says, and for Flynn.

Thank everything for Hank but thank everything for Flynn too, because he's been an absolute lifesaver. The people of the Lower Quarter don't trust her but they adore Flynn (as nearly everyone adores Flynn, herself included) and he helps soothe tempers and ruffled feathers and just generally makes life easier for everyone involved. Still…even Flynn gets flack sometimes, oftentimes for her.

So it's a problem, then, when he shows up with injured knuckles that he hasn't bothered to heal and a tension between his eyes that means he's grinding his teeth in frustration, and how does anyone get the idea that between him and Yuri, Flynn's the calm one? Estelle's taking a quick breather on the steps when he shows up mad as a hornet, and he doesn't so much sit down as throw himself down on the steps next to her. It attests to their friendship these days that he doesn't even bother to try and hide it, just sits and seethes and clenches his fists.

Estelle eyes the scrapes and already purpling bruising with a practiced eye. She can't know without looking him over whether he's broken anything but she wouldn't be surprised if he had.

"You don't need to do that," she says quietly, because even though these came from a brick wall and not someone's face, there's only one thing these days that makes him that upset, "It's not worth it." Flynn just growls and Estelle moves to kneel down on the steps in front of him, taking his hand in hers. "Things will get better, you'll see."

She ducks her head and brings his hand to her lips, brushing a kiss to his hurt knuckles. Flynn goes stock-still and Estelle glances up just in time to see him simultaneously go red in the cheeks and pale everywhere else.

"L-Lady Estellise," he manages to stammer out just as a flash of a circle lights up underneath them and skin stitches back together again and Estelle repeats the gesture once more.

"You don't need to get into fights for me," she says and proceeds to ignore all of his protests, sidling back up the steps and settling down next to him again. She doesn't notice that the moment she dropped to her knees, all of the conversation and movement in the background stopped. Flynn just grumbles a little bit but gingerly flexes his fingers, and again with more confidence when there's no pain.

"Thank you, Lady Estellise," he says quietly, still pink-cheeked and flustered but no longer quite so angry.

"Don't mention it," Estelle replies and swings to her feet, holding out her hand. "Shall we get back to it?"

Flynn stares at the offered hand and eventually takes hold, allowing her to pull him up. "Yes, alright."

This time there's something a little different in the way Estelle's treated when she shows up again to get her work done, something a little quieter, something a little less frustrated and a little more accepting.

She doesn't even realize that it's because nearly all of the Lower Quarter saw the princess kneel down to the knight, but Flynn does and knows better than to tell her.

Yuri

It's about six months after they 'saved the world' that Yuri comes back to Zaphias.

The whole city, but especially the Lower Quarter, has changed more than he ever expected. Oh, he knew that once Estelle dug her heels in there'd be nowhere else to go but up (and it wasn't that hard to upgrade from the rubble that it had been before) but he's astounded now, walking through the streets and seeing buildings bigger and brighter and nicer than they ever were before, and flowers, and clean water, and people who don't look like they're suffering.

No more than anyone else is suffering, anyway, trying to figure out how to live in a world without blastia.

In this one, everyone's in the same boat and in a lot of ways, the people of the Lower Quarter are luckier than some if only because they're weren't nearly so dependent on blastia in the first place. It's mostly a lot of rebuilding. Oh, is it a lot of rebuilding.

He's been back before now (of course) but the changes weren't as drastic then, and he hasn't told anyone that he's coming now, and as Yuri Lowell walks his way through the place he grew up, people stop what they're doing and stare. He finds Hank first and practically hefts him off his feet in a hug, but it's when he reaches the area with the most damage that he stops dead and just stares.

There's Flynn as he expected, who's shed his armor in favor of the lighter clothing underneath, perched atop a ladder to tend to one of the roofs. That's no surprise.

What is a surprise is Estelle, up to her knees in rubble and clearing out the piles of debris. That's not the surprise; the surprise is what she's wearing. Someone's finally managed to convince her that wearing white might not be the smartest thing to wear when doing the dirty work and she's traded her dress in for a pair of dove grey breeches and dusty brown boots and an oversized knight's tunic that had to have come from Flynn, belted and rolled up at the sleeves to keep it from getting in the way and she looks…

Honestly, like more of a wreck than Yuri's ever seen her before, ever, even when she's been covered in her own blood and everyone else's blood too. She's dusty, she's dirty, she's red from the heat and her hair's tied back with a raggedy strip of fabric that flutters around her shoulders. She looks strong and Yuri knows that she had to have a time of it with the people down here –his people- but that doesn't seem to be a problem now.

She's right in the thick of it, too, working together with the same people that watched Yuri grow up, and there's something about that that makes his insides tight though he can't put his finger on it if he tries. She could be anywhere, useful anywhere else, and she can go where she wants, but Estelle's chosen to be here with his people, her people, working to repair his home that isn't hers.

And for longer than he's ever going to admit to, Yuri just stands there and stares.

At least until Hank smirks at him and shoves him forward with a firm push to his shoulders. The noise and movement gets everyone's attention and then not a moment later, Yuri's got an armful of dirty princess barreling into him and Flynn's scrambling down the ladder, and there are hands clapping him on the shoulder, and Yuri wonders how he could have ever forgotten that this was his home.

Dahngrest is home too but this…

There's warmth here, nostalgia, and people he knows better than he knows himself sometimes.

"You didn't tell me you were coming!" Estelle pulls away long enough to chide him, words lecturing but face and voice unashamedly gleeful, and Yuri's missed that smile of hers.

"I thought I'd swing by and surprise everyone," Yuri replies with an easy grin and accepts the hug he gets from Flynn, quick and strong and already very likely annoyed that he didn't bother to tell anyone. Oh well, that's just how that goes because it's worth seeing Estelle's face light up with shock.

"Why don't you kids go on and catch up a bit?" Hank says.

"Oh, but I couldn't right this second…there's still so much to do, I can't just run off and leave my work to someone else…" Estelle replies and twists her hands in the hem of her shirt, clearly torn. Flynn reaches out to pat her on the shoulder with a reassuring smile.

"Go on, it'll be alright. You've done so much already, take the afternoon off. I can take care of it."

And this is why Yuri loves Flynn, because somehow he manages to convince stubborn Estelle that the world can take care of itself for a bit (something that Yuri's certainly never learned how to do) and that it won't burn down if she takes some time off. She's still reluctant but eventually nods an acquiescence, giving Flynn a quick run through of the way she's organizing the debris (from trash to salvageable to useable) and then she's bounding back to Yuri, as springy on her feet as a deer.

"Come on!" she tells him and grabs his hand to pull him along, "I have so much to show you!"

Estelle starts by giving him a tour of the place he knows like the back of his hand that's well on the way to bright and shiny, chattering nonstop about the work Flynn's done, about the things that everyone else has done, and very little about the things that she's done. Yuri can see her hand in places, though, because he knows her and he knows how she works, and there are touches here and there, on buildings and in the way things are designed, that could have only come from her. She sells herself short sometimes but she always throws herself into what she says she'll do from start to finish, and Yuri has no doubts that she'll stick with this, too.

So they walk the familiar, cobbled streets and everyone recognizes Yuri and neither of them bother to untangle their fingers.

There's still so much to be done, especially now that they can't just use blastia anymore, but it seems like there's something satisfying about doing things by hand if the way Estelle talks is any indication. She's got more callouses than he remembers, in places that don't line up with years of swordsmanship.

"This looks amazing, Estelle," he says and she ducks her head to look away, squeezing his fingers in hers. He squeezes right back. "I'm serious. Everyone's done such a great job. It really…it really looks good."

"Thank you," she replies in a mixture of surprised and pleased and ridiculously gratified, "Everyone's worked so, so hard on it."

"I hope you're including yourself in that," he chides and Estelle goes a telling red.

"I…I've worked hard too," she finally admits and distracts herself by swinging their hands back and forth. Yuri lets her.

Estelle eventually tugs him up a ladder to the rooftop of one of the higher buildings. They can look over the entire Lower Quarter from this vantage point and it's even more astounding from above to the point that Yuri loses some of his breath.

"You know," he says when he can quit goggling at the wonders of human ingenuity, "I did have a reason for coming here." Green eyes blink at him.

"…yes?"

Yuri keeps a hold of her hand and lets the thumb on his free one loop in his pocket.

"I paid close attention," he begins after a moment of deliberation, "And I'm pretty much positive that throughout our travels together, you've kissed every single one of our friends."

Estelle worries her lip between her teeth and doesn't look like she gets where he's going with this.

"Everyone," Yuri repeats with a funny emphasis, "But me." If the strangeness in Yuri's voice could show up on someone's face, he's almost positive that it would look exactly as Estelle does now, confused and unsure and if he's not entirely mistaken (please don't let him be mistaken), interested.

"…does that mean that you'd—you'd want me to kiss you?" she ventures, stepping a tiny bit closer like she doesn't know she's doing it. Yuri steps closer too to match her.

This is no time for shyness or embarrassment. He came here to do something and he's going to do it the best he knows how if it kills him, because Yuri Lowell knows exactly what he wants.

"Yes," he tells her and watches her face go an extremely interesting shade of red, "That's exactly what I'd want."

And then he waits because an offer is all that he's allowed to make, all he can do until she gives her answer.

He watches the expressions shift on her face, until Yuri can't even tell what she's thinking anymore, and then she moves. Estelle reaches up to tangle her hand in the hair at the nape of his neck and pulls him closer and then just seconds later she's pressing a kiss to his lips. It's short and chaste but it's not the kind of kiss that you'd give a friend, not on the forehead or cheek, and Yuri's heart speeds like he's running the races. Estelle pulls back but doesn't step away, and Yuri's hands find the small of her back.

He can only stare at her.

Estelle opens her mouth like she's going to say something but the words don't come and she spreads her free hand over her face to hide it.

That's not right, Yuri decides. She has nothing to be embarrassed about, nothing to hide from in him.

"Estelle," he says quietly to get her attention, astonished at the way his voice has gone a little bit hoarse, "Just…" oh, he does not do the stuttering thing well at all, why is he stuttering? "One more?" Estelle nods silently like she can't believe he's even asking and Yuri leans down to kiss her back, tugging her close until she's pressed flush against him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as if to reel her in.

There's no need for reeling, he realizes with a start, there probably hasn't ever been. All he ever had to do was ask.

"One more," Estelle whispers into his mouth and spirits, they're kissing on a roof in the Lower Quarter and this is not exactly invisible, and Yuri doesn't even care.

It's some time later that they find themselves sitting on that same roof and just watching the people go by and Yuri can't help but mention,

"Ba'ul, Estelle? You kissed Ba'ul before you kissed me?"

Estelle levels a crooked little grin on him.

"I don't know why you're surprised. I believe you said yourself that I'd kissed everyone but you."

"Best for last, then?" Yuri teases, "I think I like that method." And he's rewarded by an arm slipping around his waist and a familiar warmth sidling up next to him as Estelle beams and proceeds to share some of her dust with him.

"You know, I think I do too."

AN2: If you liked this, hated this, hate me…please leave a review or even PM me! I love getting feedback more than anyone can ever know, and I'm always super interested in what ya'll think of the things I write. Thank you for reading!