Renovating the Heart (FFXV)

XLVI) Perspective

"Welcome back!"

Rue grinned when Rayne threw an arm around her shoulders and dragged her into her office.

"Thanks for letting me take all that time off," she started. Rayne waved her off.

"Not a problem. It was, what, four days? Not a problem at all." Her face grew serious and she chewed her lip. "I hate to ask this, but I kinda have to. Are you sure you're ready to be back?"

"Definitely," Rue nodded. It felt strange to be in this office without a pair of heels on. "It's... better to not be sitting around at home."

"I get that," Rayne nodded, checking her phone.

"Speaking of... I may have moved. Do I, uh, need to change my address in the paperwork?"

"Yup," she nodded, plopping down in her chair far from gracefully. "You'll have to talk to Ignis about that, though. I don't have access to that #$%^, and even if I did, I wouldn't know where to start." Rue gnawed on the inside of her cheek, feeling her heart flutter at the sound of his name.

"Are you... sure you can't just ask him for me?"

"Why can't you?" Rayne countered, raising an eyebrow. "Is it because you think it'll be weird? Don't worry, he was way too cool about transferring you over. Kinda scary, actually." Rue swallowed her anxiety and nodded. "You should probably do that before anything else...?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Rue sighed, turning on her heels and heading down the hall. Her skin was covered in goosebumps beneath the sleeves of her heavy uniform and her heart fluttered at the mere thought of what happened when she was last here. In fact, that stupid moment was the very thing that had been keeping her up at night. What caused that lapse in judgment, not just in Ignis, but in herself? What part of her had melted her composure and made her forget everything else around them? It made her sick to think she had no control over some unknown part of herself. It took all the strength she could muster to knock on the painfully familiar door before her. Just pretend it never happened.

"Come in."

"Hey," she greeted with a forced smile as she peeked her head in. For once, she could see something deeper than the blank stare; he looked like he'd seen a ghost. Ignis composed himself quickly and set his pen aside.

"What did you need?"

"I moved," she replied, stiffly sitting in the chair before his desk. The room looked exactly the same as it did when she left it, and yet, it felt so foreign. "Rayne said I need to get that changed in the paperwork."

"She's right," he sighed, turning to his drawers and pulling out a file. Quickly, he flipped through page after page until he found hers, pulling it free carefully. "The address?" She pulled out her phone and read it out, greeted by a raised eyebrow. "You don't know it?"

"Don't give me that look," she huffed, feeling her chest warm as she gradually sank back into old habits. Forgetting felt so much better than pretending. "I moved, like, two days ago. I bought the place the day before that!"

"Alright," he sighed, but there was something playfully judgmental in his voice. Something relieved, too. He quickly wrote down the address and stared down at it for a moment.

"What?"

"... Did you know that Prompto lives on this road?"

"... You're joking." But she knew he wasn't. With a groan, she threw her head back. Ignis actually laughed. Elated, she kept up the drama. "Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but if he's at my house every day, he will die. I'm warning you ahead of time so you can prepare his funeral arrangements."