❄️
Wriothesley pushed Chronie away from his body, interrupting the heated kiss they shared.
"...What's wrong?" She asked, her smeared lipstick covering her mouth.
"...We can't do this." Wriothesley panted, stepping away from the wall he had her pinned upon.
"What?" Chronie walked closer towards him, her ponytail now messy from his hands. "Why?"
"This is getting in the way of my work." He said, buttoning his shirt back up.
Chronie scoffed, moving his hands away from his chest. "Don't be ridiculous. What we have going on now is completely discreet."
Wriothesley moved her hand away, avoiding eye contact. "I don't care about it being discreet. I care about my reputation here."
Chronie huffed, grabbing his face and forcing him to look at her. "Whatever weird emotion you're feeling right now... just take it out on me."
Wriothesley felt himself tense. Her words played back into his mind, and a familiar sentence came about his memory.
"Ah. So your fight with me was nothing but a game with a punching bag, then."
With her image now burned into his head, he grabbed Chronie's waist and pressed his lips into hers.
He picked her up and placed her on his desk, moving his hands to her top. He pulled the strings from the back of it, feeling it loosen as she let out a moan from the sensation of his hand traveling up her spine.
"Enjoying your reputation?"
Pushing her down, his body pressed into her chest, moving to her neck as he bit and kissed at it.
"I have a name, you know."
Wriothesley moved his hands down to his pants, undoing the zipper.
"Some kind of masochist you are, Wriothesley."
Chronie placed her hand down towards his, applying pressure to his erection.
He groaned in response, closing his eyes.
"Y/N..."
"...What?"
Chronie's voice caused him to snap back into reality. He removed his lips from her neck, pushing himself off the desk.
Chronie stared back at him, turning her nose up. "Did you just call me that bitch?"
Wriothesley's body flinched.
He zipped his pants up, stepping away from her.
"Hey, what are you—"
"Get the fuck out."
Chronie was taken aback by Wriothesley's voice. It was deep and scornful, causing her to grip onto her falling top.
"...Excuse m—"
Wriothesley found himself walking out before Chronie, his fist writhing in anger and unrelenting lust while he slammed the door shut.
He knew he was going to explode if he didn't punch something within the next minute.
That entire time he spent with Chronie, Y/N was on his mind. He refused to admit how much he thought of her, especially after seeing her in his bedroom. He had to fight off the urge to push her onto the bed and strip her of that robe she wore. Her words played like a soothing playlist through his mind, and he had even managed to convince himself that she was the one he had pinned on the wall and onto his desk.
Charging towards the Pankration Ring and hoping that there weren't people there, he found himself running into Deakin, causing their bodies to clash and stumble back.
Deakin fell down, leaving Wriothesley staring daggers at him.
"Don't tell me you're actually in love with him."
He gripped his fist tighter in pure rage at the sight of him.
But Deakin's mouth shouted out the name that lingered on his mind.
"Y/N!"
Looking over, he watched Y/N's body collapse to the ground, a puddle of water coming out of her body.
❄️
"She's alright."
Wriothesley sat anxiously in a private room located below the infirmary. Sigewinne fixed the blankets over Y/N's damp body, watching her chest rise and fall ever so slowly.
"..." Wriothesley looked down at his fists that were shaking on his legs. Trying to calm himself down, he took his gaze off Y/N.
"Go ahead and tell me the bad news." He spoke in a cracked tone.
Sigewinne hesitated before speaking. "...She's in a coma, which isn't good. The Primordial water she consumed is taking a toll on her. If she doesn't wake up soon and throw it up... I don't know what will happen."
Wriothesley breathed out shakily. "What about pumping her stomach?"
Sigewinne shook her head. "Not while she's unconscious." Taking out her stethoscope, she pressed into onto Y/N's chest. "...Her heartbeat is slow."
"..." Wriothesley tried to think of many ways to save her, but he was no expert in the field of medicine.
"...I can only wait a week. If she hasn't woken up by then, I'm going to have to cut her open." Sigewinne looked at Wriothesley, who stared coldly at the ground.
"...Cut her open..." He said.
"Yes. The most... humane way to save her would be to allow her body to naturally get it out. But if all fails, I'm going to have to do surgery." Sigewinne looked at Y/N, watching her breath come to a halt and then return.
"...She's not from Fontaine." Deakin, who was in the room, stood next to Wriothesley. "Is that why she hasn't dissolved yet?"
Sigewinne nodded her head. "Despite that, though, it shouldn't hurt her this badly. Consuming Primordial water would only make her sensitive to some elemental flows and energies."
"I don't understand..." Deakin looked at her, fear settling on his face of the unknown.
"Let me go through her file." Sigewinne went over to a dark area in the corner of the room. She pulled a small folder out from the shelf, walking back over to the bed.
"...Nothing too particular that stands out in here." Sigewinne said as she read the contents of the folder.
A soft knock was heard above the room. Sigewinne looked up, waiting to hear the pattern of the knock again.
"Come in." She answered.
A man opened the hatch and stepped inside. He held his hat in his hands, closing the panel from above.
Wriothesley looked up at him, watching his movements. "What is he doing here?"
"I asked him to come here." Sigewinne started. "He knows more about Y/N than we do."
Wriothesley recognized him as the Pankration worker— the one Y/N was talking to before their match.
"Sorry..." The man started, looking over at her unconscious body. "I probably won't be of much help."
"That's alright. We just need you to tell us all you know about her." Sigewinne reaffirmed.
"Alright... ah..." The worker thought to himself for a moment. "She said she had been sent here because she was fighting off Gardemeks near the city. She thought they were hostile and ended up defeating an entire army of them. Miss Clorinde arrested her, and she was put on trial. She said that she was originally given 6 months, but due to the Chief Justice realizing she was foreign, he was able to half her sentence."
"Pretty sure her file would just say all that." Wriothesley spoke. "We're going to need more details."
"Wriothesley..." Sigewinne said in a calming tone, making him bite his tongue.
"Apologies... um... she also told me that she was visiting her mother." The worker said.
"Her mother?" Sigewinne asked.
"Yes. Her mother runs a boutique here. I remember her telling me that she was from here. That's why she came here from Sumeru— to visit."
Wriothesley looked up in surprise. Sigewinne returned the same look.
She's half Fontainian.
"Th-Thank You. You can return back up, now. But don't tell anyone about this." Sigewinne warned.
The worker bowed and took one final look at Y/N before walking back up through the hatch.
Everyone listened for a 'click' until the conversation reappeared.
"No wonder her body is still physical... she can withstand the power of the water, but only for a short moment of time." Sigewinne scribbled down into the folder.
"Miss Sigewinne." Deakin started. "You said she only has a week. Now that you know this, what's your new estimate?"
Wriothesley looked at her, watching her eyes avert away from the two men.
"...Three days, at best."