TIME AFTER TIME [nagisa x klaudius]

Two days.

It had only been two days since Empress Thalassa appointed him -- him -- as her Defender, yet already it felt as though he had lived it for a lifetime. The recollection of her voice calling out to him, of him falling to his knees and rising again before her, anew and reborn as Him, Defender of the Talori -- it felt like nothing more than a distant memory, as though he had been watching it occur through someone else's eyes. Had it even happened, or was it all a figment of his imagination - the culmination of a soldier's greatest fantasy?

He inhaled, and felt the sudden weight of the plate upon his breast.

No, this was as real as it got.

With a deep exhale he continued walking, finally reaching the sand he had been longing for since he was given the badge. He doubted in the following years of his service he would have nights like this -- these few, brief moments of solitude and serenity, where no strife kept him awake into the early hours of dawn, or where agony of the unknown gripped him like a vice. Klaudius saw the fleeting vision of wild eyes, the sounds of strained chains and snarling teeth...

The lull of the waves brought him back, as did the faint sound of laughter.

Well, privacy be damned.

Truthfully, he did not mind the presence of others -- rather, he welcomed it -- but he was also vaguely aware of the scene he was presenting, and he wondered how it may have been perceived by others. At least, that's what he was thinking, until he saw exactly who else was occupying the beach, and then his apprehension eased until ultimately it fluttered away entirely, and was replaced by something much more akin to bashfulness, which he definitely loathed far more, and -

he caught her eye, and did not look away. The two had not spoken since his ascension, and he did not have to wonder why. Klaudius dipped his head to her momentarily before turning and descending to the shore, staring out across the great expanse of the sea solemnly. The water was bathed in soft orange light, and he felt the warmth of the fading sunlight upon his skin. He only needed a moment, and then he would be gone.