For a moment Liliana nearly quailed. Husband? Wife? Those weren't words that were meant for her. They spoke of warmth and cheery domesticity. Of children and white picket fences and strictures and, no, such things were not for her. She was zombies and death and independence. She did as she wished and when and with whom. She was Liliana Vess, not some meek and mewling wife. She was all ready to tell Ignis that she'd been wrong, she'd made a mistake, that yes, she wanted to be with him, forever, but not as some ungainly hausfrau, mending shirts and running after snot-nosed children--
Well, if anyone will be mending, it will be Ignis, a voice - her own voice whispered in her mind's ear. He wouldn't trust you to do it anyway.
Which...true. Ignis knew her well-enough to know that waiting for her to mend or tend or fix something was a fool's game. And they'd already discussed - and then lived through - her absolute lack of desire for children. Would he expect her to change so completely simply because of a ring on her finger and a new title to add to her list of them? Did she think he would, to even want those things?
And--wait. She was Liliana Vess. Who was she to be unnerved by mere words? Husband? Wife? Yes, other, lesser people might end up taking on sad little lives that hemmed themselves in with rules and constraints because they thought they should, but not her. Never her. She had done as she pleased for two hundred years and no bits of rocks and metal wrought into a pleasing form - which she hadn't even gotten yet! - or words mumbled over by some person with pretensions of authority over her - ha! - was going to change that. Could ever change that.
And...unless she truly didn't know him at all, Ignis would never want them to. Which was why she did love him. Could love him. Could marry him. Because he knew her, far better and deeper than she had ever thought someone could and still wish to stay...and had chosen to do just that. Stay. Love her. Bind himself to her far more deeply than any ceremony could.
She cupped his face in her hands - not chill, no, warmed by his own, his body heat just one more thing he gave to her so freely - and kissed him. Heavy. Deep. Like a promise. "Ask me again," she murmured. "So I can answer it right."
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Well, if anyone will be mending, it will be Ignis, a voice - her own voice whispered in her mind's ear. He wouldn't trust you to do it anyway.
Which...true. Ignis knew her well-enough to know that waiting for her to mend or tend or fix something was a fool's game. And they'd already discussed - and then lived through - her absolute lack of desire for children. Would he expect her to change so completely simply because of a ring on her finger and a new title to add to her list of them? Did she think he would, to even want those things?
And--wait. She was Liliana Vess. Who was she to be unnerved by mere words? Husband? Wife? Yes, other, lesser people might end up taking on sad little lives that hemmed themselves in with rules and constraints because they thought they should, but not her. Never her. She had done as she pleased for two hundred years and no bits of rocks and metal wrought into a pleasing form - which she hadn't even gotten yet! - or words mumbled over by some person with pretensions of authority over her - ha! - was going to change that. Could ever change that.
And...unless she truly didn't know him at all, Ignis would never want them to. Which was why she did love him. Could love him. Could marry him. Because he knew her, far better and deeper than she had ever thought someone could and still wish to stay...and had chosen to do just that. Stay. Love her. Bind himself to her far more deeply than any ceremony could.
She cupped his face in her hands - not chill, no, warmed by his own, his body heat just one more thing he gave to her so freely - and kissed him. Heavy. Deep. Like a promise. "Ask me again," she murmured. "So I can answer it right."