I hope you all are happy because the first request I got was to do Niles, curse all of you, but please keep giving requests and ideas, this is fun, but I think I'll be breaking the idea of setting up an order, maybe just alternate kids, but be warned, this may just become entirely Morgan, it's not like I hate Kana, but Morgan. Thanks go out to my friend, different friend this time, who read Her Voice despite never playing Fire Emblem and giving me the motivation to continue these one-shots, simply because she liked my writing.(and guilt tripping me to continue writing whenever I procrastinated)
Everyone has invisible strings linking them to those around them, strings that represent the bonds strong enough to defy fate itself. These strings may be tight and strong, or loose, leaving one to stumble and trip over the string. Sometimes, a tight string must be cut for one's own good, no matter how much it may hurt. Other times, it takes a lot of effort to tighten those loose strings, but when it does, those strings form a knot, one impossible to untie. When a knot forms in those strings, the bond between two people is the strongest one will ever see, a knot of love. When Kana's uncles Laslow and Odin told him this, he pulled on the older men's sleeves and wanted to know who he had knots with.
"That's the thing Kana, you shouldn't have to think about the strings you have, my sister never thought about how tight the string between her and her love were. Nor did I and Azura, or Odin and Nyx, or your parents." Laslow gave Kana his trademark smile before Odin spoke up as boisterous as ever, Kana didn't get time to think about this sister of Uncle Laslow's, but somehow a picture formed in his head of a girl a few years younger than the man before him, and a lot shorter than him.
"Your mother decided to pull on those strings, and help forge knots between our kindred allies, once foes. She decided to tug on the strings of everyone around her that fateful day, which put her through more pain than cutting half would have caused her, putting others before herself like a true scion of hope and peace." Odin would have kept going if not for the white haired man walking in on the two of them. Visits from Kana's parents weren't uncommon, but rare enough that Kana felt elated whenever one of them showed
"Odin, the doesn't need a lecture on how great my wife is. I should know, I'm the one sharing her bed." Kana's papa smacked the dark mage lightly, before ruffling his hand through Kana's hair. He spoke with his tone of voice that often made those around him freak out for some reason, Kana just enjoyed watching people's reactions."I don't mind letting you two keep an eye on him for a while, but try to keep the philosophy to a minimum. Let the kid learn to think on his own, that's what I did."
"Papa, when will Nina be allowed to visit?" Kana's sister snuck out of the Deeprealm the two of them stayed in for their safety. She was caught by their Papa pretty quickly, and now she was really angry with him for some reason.
"She's been a bad girl, squirt. May be a while before she isn't grounded." Kana's hair got another ruffle. When Laslow cleared his throat awkwardly, Niles seemed to remember about the time difference in Deeprealms. Many of Kana's friends that were in actuality around Kana's age or younger than him were now fully grown adults or teenagers, while Kana was still a kid. Whenever Shigure or Sophie visited it was really weird for Kana to think about how based on time outside the Deeprealms, Kana was the same age as the other two. "Or maybe Kamui and I could give you two a little special time every once in awhile."
At this Laslow's face blushed a deep red, "NILES! Those are your own kids, couldn't you at least tone it down. But, a little family time with everyone could be good for you and Kamui."
Kana never heard his father's reply to the still blushing philanderer, as he was already thinking about how happy Nina would be when she and Mama would come to visit. She could be a bit rude to other people around her, but she was somewhat doting of Kana, more so than his mama and aunts at times.
Thinking back to that day, Kana could only think that the 'family time' Uncle Laslow mentioned didn't end as well as they had hoped. Kana ended up having to wait a few months for them three of them to visit, and when they did happen, some 'really creepy soldiers' as Uncle Takumi referred to them showed up and…
Kana didn't really remember the rest. He woke up after all the creeps were gone, and Mama gave him a Dragonstone, saying it would help him control transformations, and that she needed one too. Kana somehow had convinced his mama to let him stay with Kana didn't really understand, but after talking with Velouria and Selkie about how to use it, he grew to like transforming into a dragon, even outside of battle he would play in the transformed state.
Transforming was far more natural to him than it was to his mama, or his sister who discovered her ability to transform shortly after he joined with her. However whenever he would play with Selkie and Velouria in their transformed states, he took note of how they acted toward each other, seemingly getting caught on the string between them, or how it would get caught in their mouths at times when talking to each other. The two of them never seemed to have these issues with Kana or any of their other friends. Kana would occasionally watch the two of them from across the room and see that the awkwardness continued when they were alone.
Kana decided it was time he brought it up the two shapeshifter's behaviour to someone, someone who would be an expert on something like this, luckily he knew just the person. Everyday, he did patrol around the fort with Nina and Soliel, originally he was only with his sister, but Soliel joined in at some point and he didn't mind. Soleil was a person he liked being around, she was nice and funny, almost like a second older sister, but at this point in time Kana wanted to talk to her for a different reason.
"Soliel, would you say you know girls really well, like really well." Kana broke the question in the middle of patrol. In all honesty he called it patrol, but the three of them just walked around the magical fortress that the army used as a base of operations and talked with each other.
"That I would, any particular reason? You got a girl in mind? Who is it? Wait! Don't tell me, I wanna guess. Is it Midori? I mean, she's cute and all, I can see why." Soliel started getting really hyper and excited as she talked, unlike her brother, who seemed to stay really calm and stoic no matter the conversation. That was one reason Kana liked Soliel over Shigure, he could tell when Soliel was happy or angry or having any emotion at all. However, when she got excited, she could go on for a while, she hadn't even noticed how Kana's face was blushing so badly it resembled a tomato.
"N-no, that's not why…" Kana stammered, already losing track of what he wanted to ask.
A quick smack was heard as Nina's open palm slammed against Soliel's skull, Kana could tell from the sound his older sister didn't hold back. "That's enough. If my little brother doesn't want to say, then butt out." Nina slightly shook her hand before returning it to her side.
"I wanted to know about Velouria -" Kana got cut off by the sunny swordswoman, who once again started going on a rambling session.
"Velouria, huh, I mean she likes you, which is something. She doesn't really like me, guess she isn't really the touchy-feely type y'know. But I didn't think she'd be your type, I mean you get along with her pretty well, but she doesn't really show emotions that well. I thought Selkie would more be your type." At a breath Kana decided to interrupt her.
"I wanted to ask about Selkie too!" Before Soleil could start again, Nina slapped her palm over the lesbian mercenary's mouth.
"Two girls? You sure you thought this through? Bad idea, don't end up like this loser's dad, flirting with every girl in sight, or like her, while I'm at it." Nina finally removed her hand from Soliel's mouth.
"That's pretty rude, I don't flirt with every girl. Hey, I've even calmed down some since I've started dating Ophy." Soliel crossed her arms in annoyance.
"Quite frankly, 'some' is nothing, and it really shouldn't take dating Ophelia for you to realise you need to stop. Besides, she doesn't even consider going to that little tea shop of yours a 'date', you know." Nina spat, not caring about the words she said to her best friend, and Kana knew she'd regret them later. She had trouble talking to most people, and she only really talked normally to Kana.
"Stop fighting! I don't like either of them! I wanted to know about what Soliel thought about how they act when they're together!" Kana pulled on the two teenager's sleeves to get them to stop fighting, knocking both of them off balance in the process.
"That makes more sense, why didn't you say so? Glad you aren't gonna end up some deadbeat." Nina huffed, not even trying to deny to anyone who she had in mind.
"Those two, huh? Well, as our resident expert on girls, those two have it bad." Soliel hummed in thought. "Too bad neither one of them wants to be shot down."
"You think so? When I talk to Velouria, it's not like she's thinking about Selkie night and day or something." Nina argued, far more passive than earlier, also in thought trying to think of her interactions with the Wolfskin. "And I certainly don't see anything when those two are with you. Either way, I don't know what you'd do about it."
"That's because not everything works out like your little fantasies. Dad told me once about how my grandpa managed to get two of his friends together by just making sure that they talked to each other. Then again, we already do that…" Soliel trailed off.
"Just who are you trying to help?" Nina smacked the swordswoman's stomach slightly, causing Soliel to bend over, mostly out of surprise rather than pain.
"Guilty as charged, but my point still stands. If it were as simple as those two talking, then they'd be together by now." Soliel straightened herself out and rubbed the back of her head.
"Unless the problem isn't them talking, it's what they're talking about!" Kana's exclamation caught the attention of the two girls.
"I mean, I guess. If they're talking about something other than playing around it might make a difference, but habit is hard to break, take this airhead for instance." Nina piped in, playfully jabbing at Soleil without any malice.
"I'm not an airhead, it's hard work running a mercenary group, I'll have you know. Probably harder than what you did after running away" Soleil danced around the subject. It was weird how no one would tell Kana what Nina did when she ran off, or how their Papa had found her, although Kana could guess, he'd never know for certain. They were at the end of their patrol route, namely the mess hall, where Kana would wait to meet up with Velouria and Selkie before the trio started to play. Nina gave a small wave to her brother as they went their separate ways.
"You wanna bet, I'll show you what I had to do…" Nina's voice faded as the two girls headed away from the mess hall.
As Kana grabbed a small bowl of berries to much on as he waited, he picked up bits and pieces of various conversations going on in the busy place.
"And then Arthur was hit by a whole brigade's worth of wyvern poop, but somehow it all missed Setsuna!"
"How unfortunate for him…"
"She's definitely related to Morgan, doesn't take a genius to realize that."
"The resemblance is clear but the true mystery persists to prod at my soul, why have the gods declared that all your kin is fated to be with mine?"
"Father once joked that it was genetic, the 'Exalt' trait if I remember correctly, guess it skipped me, huh."
"Sounds like something the crazy dastard would say, luckily we haven't had to set sail since we joined, I don't think I could handle anymore flashbacks."
"Thank the gods for both things."
"I don't even know who keeps setting these traps, but it's frustrating pulling Setsuna from a pitfall every two minutes."
"Speaking of Setsuna, where is she?"
"She's just over… Oh Dawn Dragon help me, we better go find her."
"You know, it's been forever since we've heard you play piano, I hear Elise has been practicing with Princess Sakura, maybe we could set up a concert. It would be lovely for morale, darling."
"You know Sakura would die of stage fright, and besides I'd rather not intrude on what they're doing together, you know? Besides I want my siblings to get along without my interference, this is perfect for that."
"Then how about just the two of us? I'd still love to hear my darling little sister play for me again. Maybe I could bring Selena and Beruka too? It'll be fun."
Kana snapped to attention when a new hand reached into his bowl of berries, greedily taking a handful of the juicy fruits. Even without a glance upward he knew that it had belonged to Selkie, especially once a different hand began picking up only the ones Selkie had knocked onto the table. Velouria seemed focused on her task at hand as Selkie happily munched on the handful she had swiped from the bowl. "Heya Kana, what's got you so messed up, fall off the bed again?"
"That was one time, and no. I was just kinda wondering, is there anyone that you two like?" Kana realised that he was probably being way too direct with them, but he had to at least try.
"I mean, I like you, and Daddy, and…" Selkie trailed off for a moment before seemingly perking right back up.
"Dwyer makes good cookies, and Nina's frustrating but nice to be around." Velouria popped a berry into her mouth after speaking.
"No, no, like like like." Kana corrected himself, letting the table hold his weight as he rested upon it.
"Oh… Well, nobody comes to mind like that." Kana didn't miss the way that Selkie's ears and tail twitched as she said that, or the way her eyes shifted toward Velouria, watching as her ears drooped slightly, and her tail visibly slowed to a crawl.
"Yeah, nobody as special as Daddy is…" Velouria looked away from Selkie as her ears continued to droop. Unlike Selkie she didn't even pretend to perk back up and rather continued to stay gloomy.
"Well, what would you do if there was someone you liked?" Kana reached for some of the few remaining berries, he would have to finish the conversation quickly, before Selkie ran off without food to entice her into staying.
"Wolfskin are very protective of their mates, but I'd show them my treasures." Velouria mumbled, still avoiding eye contact with the Kitsune beside her. Kana questioned the way that she used 'mates' but chose not to bring it up, didn't that mean friends? Not someone that you liked… unless Nina was actually right about Shiro.
"Play with them lots and lots, and give them plenty of cuddles." Selkie piped up, completely oblivious to the Wolfskin's behaviour. "So what's with the questions, thinking 'bout Midori?" As the Kitsune leaned on the table, Kana decided a smug look didn't suit her face.
"Why does everyone keep saying that? She's just a friend, same as you two." Kana grumbled before noticing that the bowl of berries they had been enjoying was now empty. "Anyways, since we're out of snacks, let's play!"
"Yeah, let's go."At this point Velouria put on a smile, clearly thankful Kana switched the conversation.
"'Kay then, where to? The river?"Selkie giggled, pointing in the direction of the creek.
"I'm pretty sure Kiragi said he and Uncle Takumi were going hunting today, so I think that's a good idea, away from the woods. Don't wanna get arrows shot at us again." Kana shivered at the thought of the last time Kiragi was hunting in the woods while they played, he had mistaken Selkie for a pheasant and tried to hunt her. Even scarier was when their parents had found out, Kana knew Selkie and Velouria's parents were a bit overprotective when it came to hunters, something about people liking their fur, but seeing it in action was more frightening than he thought.
"Yeah, yeah. I just wanna splash, let's go! Last one there loses!" Selkie was about to dash off when Veloria grabbed her sleeve.
"Swimsuit." Velouria muttered, barely audible, her face covered by her hood. Selkie immediately realised her mistake, looking down at her clothing. Selkie didn't realise how fast Velouria's tail was wagging, despite the fact the tips of her ears were still pointed down.
"Oh yeah, first stop, swimsuits! C'mon Vel, I'll help you find a cute one!" Selkie's tail was wagging at an even faster rate than Kana believed possible as she dragged the Wolfskin towards her quarters. Kana quickly decided that is would be best to meet them at the river and left toward his own room to get his trunks.
Kana watched as Selkie continued to pull the Wolfskin, who without her hood was now flushed beet-red, to the waterfront. The Kitsune came to a stop in front of the river, where Kana was already waist-deep in the water.
"Sorry we took so long! We ran into Forrest and I guess we look cuter than we intended! Especially Vel, like Forrest just gave her this one! I mean she's normally cute, but this is even more so!" Selkie presented the blushing Wolfskin in front of her, either not noticing or ignoring the fact that her blush kept getting deeper and deeper.
"Come on let's just swim! It's weird just showing me off like this." If it was anyone else holding Velouria, Kana would have expected her words to come out as a snarl, but with Selkie it came out as a kind of embarrassed whimper.
"Sorry, it's just it's rare seeing you in something other than that hood, sometimes I need to remind myself that you wear other things. Just cuz you look cute in one outfit doesn't mean you shouldn't wear other cute stuff." Selkie pouted as if Velouria had in fact snapped at her, before letting go of the blushing Wolfskin.
"You think I look cute with my hood?" Velouria's blush deepened, and she looked away from the oblivious Kitsune.
"Yeah, why else would you wear it?" Selkie's ear twitched as she realised what she had said.
"It was a gift from Dadd-EEEEE!" Velouria muttered, before shrieking as cold water was splashed all over her. She turned to glare at Kana who quickly splashed Selkie in the same fashion.
"We came here to play didn't we?" Kana flashed the two of them a wide grin before they smirked and began to get in the water.
"Wanna play that way, huh? You're goin' down!" Selkie was already knee-deep and sent Kana a gigantic wave, before Velouria tackled the dragonling, knocking the both of them down to the riverbed before resurfacing. After a large amount of coughing and sputtering from the two, all three shapeshifters began to laugh and play normally.
The three of them went their own separate ways after drying off to prepare for dinner, Kana was already wearing a fresh shirt when his sister opened his locked door after a small knock. "You're supposed to wait for me to unlock the door." Kana mumbled.
"This way's faster. Besides, it keeps my skills sharp." Nina spun the metal lockpick in her fingers before slipping it up her sleeve. "So, how did the little spy's mission go?"
"I think they're definitely thinking about it, Selkie was a lot more open about it than usual, and I felt really awkward being there." Kana looked away from his sister, who was still standing by his door, unaware of the actions that Selkie had taken at the river.
"Well, if that's the case, you might want to act fast, who knows when the two of them are gonna close up again. If you notice a problem in security, chances your target has too." Nina said with ease.
"Okay, but um… Where did that come from?" Kana questioned the sudden phrase used by his older sister. His question clearly startled Nina, who began to flush red and look away.
"I-I was in a few strategy meetings, that's literally the only good piece of advice Dad gave during them. Guess it stuck with me for some reason, I kinda feel sick now that I think about it. Just uh, don't tell anyone about it, especially Dad." Nina sputtered, and Kana could tell she was hiding more, wasn't only the more experienced leaders allowed in the strategy meetings? Soliel and Siegbert was involved with them, but not any of his other friends. "Anyways, uh, dinner's almost ready, get finished up and come on down." Nina coughed before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
Dinner was pretty much uneventful, however Kana did notice that Selkie was sitting a bit closer to Velouria than normal, almost too close. The Wolfskin had to dodge the overactive Kitsune's elbows from time to time as she would reach across the table. Kana tried to make sure he wasn't staring at the two shapeshifters as he listened to the conversations around him.
"I doubt you could actually take me in a fight candy chump, not without your fancy ninja tricks. Can hardly call it a fight if your opponent disappears in a cloud of smoke. "
"Bring it on meat-for-brains, anytime anywhere. I won't even need any tricks to beat your face in, just my fists."
"G-guys we really shouldn't fight amongst ourselves like this"
"Actually sparring like this is a good way to relieve stress and build team relationships. Just make sure you stop by afterwards so I can treat you, alright?"
"You heard the doc, don't worry I'll be sure to drop off his unconscious butt once I beat it."
"Who's going to be dropping off who? I'll be the one carrying your bloody body to the infirmary."
"On second thought, maybe you should supervise the two of them, just in case."
"I'll make sure of it."
"Hey, did you know your father has a sister? I overheard our parents talking about it when I wanted to ask Mother something, but I'm not sure if I was supposed to hear that."
"Yeah, never met her, but Dad mentions her a lot so, she has to be pretty close to him, right?"
"The oldest curse of man prods at my very soul, I try to hold it down, but it builds ever stronger. Curiosity boils in my veins, I must know every detail of the exchange from our heroic progenitors."
"I'm going to murder whoever sold you a thesaurus, but I think I got the gist. Translation for the unaware: What did your parents say?"
"Apparently, you remind them of her a lot, mostly based on your, how should I say, habits."
"Speaking of which, scoot, personal space is something I would prefer having."
"I'm telling you, it's the perfect plan, if you have Ace roar on the other side of the forest, all the animals will come to me! Foolproof!"
"You aren't gonna accidentally hit Ace will you? I mean, you're good with a bow, but everyone makes mistakes sometime."
"Nah, the forest is really large, the arrows will probably hit the ground or a tree before ever reaching you two. I mean, I heard some Nohrian hunters use a similar strategy with dogs, right? This is the same thing, just on a bigger scale."
"This is gonna be awesome, we'll be able to catch enough meat to feed the whole army for a month!"
"Hopefully this works out better than the time you tried using me to attract animals."
"I said I was sorry about that!"
"Tell me that again when you go through Midori's experimental disinfectant method's, I think my arm is still the wrong color."
"Yeah that's not right"
"I don't think I have a charm for this."
"Really sorry about earlier today, but hey, you're is looking better than it was, so it's not serious, right?"
"A flame of passion/ A burning desire turns south/ second degree burns"
"I know you said you needed help, but how? We were practicing eating rice! You were using chopsticks!"
"Simpler solution, bring a fork, I don't want to have to clean any more soot stains or help heal an entire dinner party."
"I don't want to be rude!"
"Rude or not, I think they'll prefer keeping their lives"
"But-"
"Listen to him, trust me. If push comes to shove, show them the infirmary report, I dont care, just DON'T USE CHOPSTICKS!"
"-ana." A voice suddenly attracted Kana's attention as he turned to look at Forrest and Shigure, the latter of which was about to touch Kana's shoulder to get his attention. "We've been trying to get your attention for a while now," Forrest said, mixture of amusement and worry in his voice.
"Sorry, just wasn't paying attention. I was listening in to everyone else talking, what is it?" Kana responded, feeling a slight blush grow on his face.
"Eavesdropping isn't a very good habit, Kana." Shigure scolded, before thinking of something else, "Although, it is better than what your sister does, can you believe I found her hiding in a barrel while I was talking to Hisame?"
"Yes, Shigure, we've all met Nina. Anyways, Kana I wanted your opinion on the swimsuit I made for Velouria. Any problems that you noticed? I made it out of a material that shouldn't stick when wet, but I want to know if that actually worked." Forestt waved a hand dismissively in Shigure's face, before focusing his entire attention on Kana, not letting anything distract him from his work.
"Well, I don't know what I should really be saying, maybe you should ask Vel herself, but she was really embarrassed. However, that may have been more because of Selkie than the swim suit." Kana shuffled in his seat at Forrest's heated glare, shifting his eyes toward the Wolfskin, once again dodging another elbow from the animated Kitsune.
"Forrest, he's not going to know what he should be looking for, only you and Kiragi's mother would know that." Shigure tugged the aspiring tailor away from Kana, who seemed to calm down and deflate, accepting his loss.
Kana decided to take this opportunity to finish off the last of his food and leave the mess hall, rather than risk getting caught up in more questions, or getting caught looking at the two shapeshifters. He pretended to not notice Shigure scolding his cousin about "scaring the boy off" as Forrest awkwardly adjusted the dress he was wearing in embarrassment.
Luckily, Kana's actions didn't look too suspicious as various people were already leaving the mess hall and their own conversations to take care of the evening activities. Kana jumped as Nina suddenly wrapped her arm around him from his blind spot, a habit his sister had since she was born. "So, what exactly did our little spy observe? You know, meals are a great place to gather information. You just have to know what to look for in your target."
"What?" Kana was once again shaken by Nina's weird wording, "Where did that one come from?"
"Paraphrasing a bit from Soliel, she said 'Pay attention when you take a girl out to a meal, you'll find out everything about them if you know what to look for.' She doe say intelligent things from time to time, but she'll never hear it from me." Nina ruffled her little brother's already messy mop of hair. "So what did you notice?"
"Well, I tried to not focus only on them, but Selkie was a lot closer to Vel than usual. Vel actually almost got hit a few times because of it." Kana thought back to the Wolfskin barely dodging Selkie's accidental elbows.
"Interesting, and Velouria never said anything. In all the time I've known her, she hasn't really had much patience for stuff that annoys her. If she said anything we all would have heard it. This is an important step, they've subconsciously accepted being that physically close to each other." Nina declared, giving a small fist pump. "I think it's time to finish this. I'll let you figure out how, but now is the time."
Nina gave Kana a slap in the back that doubled as a shove before leaving the boy alone. Kana began to question how he could get the two of them to end up together with only a few hours left in the day. Kana began to formulate a plan, but it required precise timing and a lot of luck, but as it was his only idea, he had to at least try.
The first step was making sure the two of them were alone for a while, which ended better than he could have hoped, as he found Velouria 'salvaging' the forest for treasure as he wandered around aimlessly. By the looks of her current stash, which had at least three dead animal carcasses and other gross who-knows-what's, she had to been searching for a good amount of time. Before he could talk himself out of what he was about to do, Kana went to talk to the girl.
"Vel! I was just looking for you!" Not a complete lie, nothing wrong with that, Kana reasoned to himself, he really hated lying to his friends.
"What do you want? I'm busy looking for treasures, and you being here means you might damage them." Velouria half-hissed, annoyed that her precious treasure time was being wasted.
"Selkie was saying she wanted to 'play' with you tonight, but when if I asked if I could join she said I wasn't invited because it was a girl's room and past my bedtime." At the mention of the Kitsune, Velouria's semi-hostile attitude completely dissolved. "I mean, I don't think she hates me or anything, but making excuses like that is kinda mean. But, uh, don't mention this to Selkie, I don't want her to think I'm mad or anything, or really get you in trouble with her." Kana spoke quickly toward the end, lying through his teeth like this didn't feel right with him, but it was quickly pressed down out of determination to make the two girls happy.
"U-uh, yeah, I'll go see her tonight, thanks for telling me. Now, um, get out. Shoo. I need to finish collecting treasure before I go over." The wolfskin waved her hand as Kana turned around and began to leave the forest. Behind his back, Velouria reached up to her face with both hands as she felt a blush she was trying to hold back growing.
Kana managed to keep his expressions normal until Velouria was out of sight, where he grinned like an idiot. He actually managed to get the first part of the plan done, which he thought would be the hardest one. He quickly shook himself out of his semi-delirious state, making sure he moved on to the next part of his master plan.
Selkie was really easy to pin down, as she was in her quarters, looking through a large number of kimonos and other outfits, seemingly picking an outfit for the next day. When Kana knocked on the door to her room, she opened the door almost immediately.
"Heyya, Kana! What do you need? Didja wanna talk about something?" Selkie picked up two outfits and held them side-by-side, before turning to Kana, still holding onto the outfits, as if asking his opinion.
"Uh, that one. But, yeah, Vel was saying something about wanting to show you her 'most special treasure' tonight. But she wouldn't tell me what it was, something just for you. What do you think it is? I'm guessing something really embarrassing, like a teddy bear she had from when she was a toddler. " The young shapeshifter watched as Selkie's tail began wagging incredibly quickly, and Selkie shifted her eyes away from Kana.
"I-I'm not so sure about that, Kana" Selkie set the two outfits down and began shuffling nervously, a blush growing on her face. "I think it might be a bit more personal."
"Then, it might be rude to keep guessing, I guess?"
"Yeah, besides, you should probably go get ready for bed, it's getting close to your bedtime." Selkie began to lightly push Kana back toward the door, and once Kana was beyond the threshold, she closed the door behind him. As Kana began to walk away, he began to think about whether his plan would actually work. Suddenly, a girlish squeal rang out from the room he just came from, before suddenly getting muffled with a small 'slap'. Yeah, it'll work. After staring at the door the shriek came from for a few seconds, Kana began to walk to his quarters to follow Selkie's advice and prepare for bed.
The next day, Kana met up with his sister and Soliel in the mess hall for breakfast. The young dragon didn't miss how they're eyes had bags under them, as if the two of them didn't get much sleep. Looking around, only a few girls didn't have those bags, Mitama, Selkie, and Velouria, among them.
"I don't know how you did it, kiddo, but it's safe to say those two are now together." Soliel mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. "The two of them all but tied the knot last night."
"Really? So it worked?" Kana was practically bouncing in his seat a he spoke, glad that his two friends had finally gotten together.
"Yeah, the two of them were pretty tied up last night, never stopped either, kept the rest of us up till three." Nina muttered.
Before Kana could ask what Selkie and Velouria could be playing to make enough noise to be heard by all the girls in their rooms, the two girls in question came over to the table, ignoring the death glares sent their way.
"Hey, how'd you two sleep. Must've slept pretty well, I reckon." Nina said, passive-aggressively, before laughing when the two girls began to blush.
"Kana, can we talk to you, um, in private?" Velouria ignored her friend's giggling, instead turning to the lone boy at the table. The blush she had continued to grow deeper, now forming the color of an overripe tomato.
"Yeah, sure." Kana was internally terrified the two of them realised what he did and were angry with him, but the feeling passed once the three were away from the table.
"So, you see, Nina and Soliel might have told you but, we kinda started dating." Selkie whispered the words, struggling to get the message out.
"Good for you! I always thought you guys got along better than you did with me. I guess it was about time, huh" Kana hugged the two girls close in congratulations, both for them and himself, but they didn't know for certain about his involvement.
"Well, here's the thing, we, uh, haven't exactly told our Daddies yet, and uh, they don't exactly know that we're, uh, together. Or even that we're, well, like Soliel" Selkie shuffled awkwardly in her place. "And, well, we kinda want you there when we tell them."
"Okay." The two girls were surprised by Kana's quick answer, both were apparently expecting him to turn them down. "Let's go find them, I'm sure they'll be really happy." Kana grabbed onto the two of they're hands and began to drag them back towards the mess hall.
Kaden and Keaton were sitting right next to each other, with their wives on the other side of them. Orochi and Peri quickly waved over they're daughters when they saw the three shapeshifters coming as the girls' fathers broke off whatever conversation they were having. "Hey'ya Velouria! What's up! I haven't seen your face this red since we fought those bad guys and all their blood sprayed EVERYWHERE!" Peri laughed at her daughter's embarrassed face.
"Dawn Dragon, Peri. People are trying to eat here." Orochi fake-gagged at the pigtailed cavalier's statement, before beginning to tease her own daughter."Although I must say, a shade of red like that does make it seems like you've been quite busy."
"About that, we, uh, have something we want to say…" Selkie sputtered out, her blush growing deeper.
"We, er, um, Selkie and I, have uh, well, we're dating." When Velouria finally finished her sentence, Orochi simply held her hand out her husband. A smirk grew on her face as a small bag of gold was placed in her palm.
"I told you dear, I know what I'm talking about." The smug diviner grinned from ear to ear as another bag of gold found its way into Keaton's hand.
"Just goes to show who knows their daughter better, huh." The wolfskin laughed as his Kitsune friend had to pay even more money.
"Wait, what? No one told Peri we were doing bets! Peri would have bled Laslow dry if she knew!" The Cavalier pouted as she realised how much money was going around.
"W-what?" Selkie and Velouria were shocked by their parents' actions, and the two of them spoke almost simultaneously in they're confusion, but Selkie was the first to recover,"Mom! I thought you said you wouldn't use fortune-telling on my love life!"
"Sweetheart, I don't need to. I've seen the looks you've been giving Velouria. They're the same looks that little Princess Elise gave for Odin before she finally confessed. And Hana gave for Lady Sakura, I could go on." Orochi's smug grin remained plastered on her face as she spoke.
"Daddy?You were in on this too?"Velouria looked both horrified and heartbroken at the thought of her father betting on her feelings.
"Vel, you gotta be kidding me if you didn't think we could tell you had feelings for Selkie, she's literally one of three people you talk to willingly." Keaton chuckled.
Embarrassed beyond belief, the two girls ran from the table as the adults laughed goodnaturedly, leaving a bewildered Kana behind, who began to chase after the two girls, before Orochi grabbed his shoulder.
"Give the two of them some space, they'll calm down." Kana relaxed slightly at her words, before the next thing the adults said to him freaked him out again.
"Thanks for giving them the shove that those two needed, kid."
Author's Note: So I'm gonna include a few notes for my non Fire Emblem playing friend, and anyone else who's interested in my thought process while writing.
Notes for Pulling Their Strings
1)Niles is the guy who every other line is an innuendo, just to watch people's reactions, and if he gets a night in someone else's bed then it's a bonus for him. He grew up in the slums as a thief, before being caught by Prince Leo(in his pajamas) while trying to steal from the castle, Leo hired him as his retainer seeing his skill. His daughter Nina snuck out of her Deeprealm to become Fire Emblem Robin Hood, stealing from the rich who didn't earn it fairly to give to the poor. Niles caught her on one of her heists and forced her to join Kamui/Corrin's army so she could learn her lesson. In actuality she spends her time fantasising gay smut(and writing it down) between any male exchange in front of her. She also uses her skills as a thief to hide and sneak around so people don't even know she's turning them into smut stars. I decided to use these character traits to influence how Kana acts, acting as a little puppet master for Selkie and Velouria, with bits of clever innuendo that he accidentally picked up from Niles. I decided to make Kana as similar and different to them as possible if that makes sense, for example Niles uses innuendo to rile people up on purpose, Kana picked up the trait and uses it more innocently, where he doesn't know what he's saying is innuendo. Nina writes yaoi smut, Kana acts as a matchmaker for a lesbian couple.
2) The opening paragraph is a small reference to Robin's " we're not pawns of some scripted fate" speech where he says we forge invisible ties between us all, I wanted to do a thing that implied each of the children close to Robin remembers the speech differently, as only Lucina was present at the actual thing, Morgan quotes the thing directly(admittedly with some difficulty and it's possible to happen before Robin makes the speech depending on the playthrough) in her C support with her Mother, Lucina could probably quote it exactly as she was present for it, Inigo and Owain remember it slightly differently(or are just telling it differently, I'll let you decide for yourself) from the actual speech.
3) The line about Laslow's sister is a reference to Her Voice, sue me.
4) It's my personal headcanon that manaketes(particularly Kamui and Kana) don't remember the first time they turn into a dragon, especially if it wasn't Dragonstone controlled, hence why the two manaketes in Fates are really confused when they transform the first time in every instance including Heirs of Fate.
5) I did way too much research on when the word 'lesbian' was first used to describe a gay woman. I didn't want to use modern slang in a game that takes place in vaguely medieval times, but turns out it's only off by a hundred years or so, so I think it's close enough to use. Not 'gay' though, only lesbian. I'll probably just ignore it later on though
6)SOLIEL IS GAY and Ophelia is her girlfriend, reference to A Support, and the only way that Soliel can get Ophelia to agree is to insist it's not a date.
7) The 'story' Soleil is referring to about her grandpa is about Robin, 'helping' Chrom and Sumia get together. Or at least that what I had in mind, I realise that it could be referring to other members of the Shepherds, so rather than expanding, I decided to keep it vague. Places two and three would have gone to Nowi and Tharja's marriages.
8) Soliel ran a mercenary group(guild?) before joining the army, and Nina was in charge of a thief group trying to Robin Hood places
9) Conversations in the mess hall are as follows, reference to Silas and Beruka Support(double reference Setsuna and Arthur), Her Voice (once again, sue me), reference to Setsuna and Hinoka (not sure who she's talking to, either Ryoma, Takumi, or Azama), and finally Camilla(had to include her at some point) and Kamui(references galore here, one in Sakura and Elise's support, one in the fact that Kaze says in the My Room dialogue that F!Corrin(Who I always name Kamui) plays piano, another one to just the plot of Revelations, i guess) bonus points to anyone who got all the references without me writing this.
10) Nina and Velouria's Support is entirely about how to read Wolfskin body language, I like to think that 1) Nina taught Kana about it and 2) Kana's not an idiot and figured out it probably also works for Kitsunes.
11) I think in a couple places Keaton refers to his wife as his 'mate', and it just came across as something Shiro would say, also Nina with implying that all the men are gay, she pays close attention to Shiro, especially.(Hello Siegbert)
12) Look guys/gals/people, if a character has a hood, I'm using that hood to hide blushes, so if I ever say a character's face is hidden in a relatively fluffy moment, assume there face is 95% blood, 5% face.
13) I'm not sure if there's an example from the animal kingdom I can use for embarrassment , so I'll just say fast tail and sad ears, sounds right.
14) Selkie's support with her mother is all about makeup, so I feel like she would be big on fashion and looking cute, and dragging Velouria into it is a plus. However, let it be known I did not describe the clothes because I do NOT know fashion, I wear the same like 5 hoodies throughout the year. If I had to guess, I'd say Velouria is wearing a red and black bikini, while Selkie is wearing a floral print one-piece, but I don't know.
15) Nina is lying through her teeth, and it's fun to write the idea of "Don't let Kana know about the thief thing." Especially when she slips up like this.
16) More eavesdropping, these are fun to write, honestly and I feel are better than just skipping over such a social part of the day for the army. We got Shiro and Asugi planning a fistfight, where Sieg and Midori are worried about them, More Her Voice references(I tried to make it so Selena's kid wasn't Caeldori, but more ambiguous, but I don't think it worked, honestly), Kiragi and Percy planning to try a new hunting method, with Ignatius(who I forgot existed up until this point, actually) jumping in(I actually didn't want to use Ace's name, simply because I like the ambiguity in these scenes, but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work that was in character for Kiragi or Percy) And finally, a reference to Sophie's Support with Hisame, where Dwyer and Mitama(and I thought I hated writing Owain) had to heal the poor Samurai after Sophie's *ahem* mishap, I took my own little spin on it, I like it.
17) Did I use everyone? I forgot Forrest? And Shigure? Uh, quick think something!
18) I have no clue what I'm writing for Forrest here, like I said, don't know fashion.
19) Honestly, I'm seeing Kana as a terrible liar when he's trying to lie to someone close to him, just like Nina has trouble lying to him. If it weren't for the fact that Velouria and Selkie aren't paying much attention to the 'messenger' and his actual body language, they would be able to tell easily that he's lying.
20) At this point in time, the two of them are so tired, they aren't trying to censor the innuendos for doing the frick frack that Kana doesn't know, they're just lucky I want this to end so I didn't have Kana ask.
21) I'm not using the word gay, it's not happening this fic, gonna at least wait till I do another Gay Morgan one before I use the word gay
22) Gonna say it now, I normally don't use non important child character's parents because it always turns into "Wait I've already used Azura, I can't use her, Wait it can't be Kamui she's married to Niles, wait it can't be Selena, Kana was trying to avoid Velouria's conversation at dinner, DAMMIT KEATON"
23) As internally Peri is always Female Henry when I try to explain her character, blood puns are a must.
24)Is this gay fanfic gay enough, with one gay pairing and references galore to two others? No needs more gay.
25) It's over? IT'S FINALLY OVER? I'M FREE. What? I forgot Rahjat in every scene? No I didn't. Sakura and Hana are gay, Hayato never married. I totally didn't just think this up now. Screw it, I'mma start writing a Nahgan/MorNah fic
Support Levels in Pulling their Strings(for those interested)
Kana - Nina A, Niles B, Kamui A, Soliel B, Selkie A, Velouria A
Nina- Soliel A+, Niles not even a C, Kamui B, Velouria B, Ophelia A
Soliel - Ophelia A+(and trying for S so hard), Nina A
Selkie- Velouria A+/S, Forrest A
Velouria - Forrest A