Author's Notes: Genderswap? Genderswap. When talking to a friend of mine whom goes only by the name DarthSlaverus, the subject of Pherae and Ositia being the largest territories of Lycia came up. He mentioned how, if either Eliwood or Hector had been a girl, they'd be married off to each other. ...you don't say stuff like that to me and expect my head to remain idle. A female Hector is just terrifying, so I went with genderswapping Eliwood instead.

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Nintendo.

Characters: Hector, female!Eliwood.

Pairings: Hector/Eliwood.

Warnings: Don't read if you don't like genderswap, or if you're opposed to Hector/Eliwood pairings since that's essentially what this is... Should be pretty safe otherwise.


It was probably safe to say Hector was in a foul mood. He was well aware that his brother was the new marquess of Ositia (despite his stupidly young age- who had heard of a fourteen-years-old marquess?), and he was also well aware that this, until his brother had sons, made Hector himself first in line to take the throne after Uther. But seriously? He was seven. He should be running about outside, with or without axe in hand, with or without retainers trying in vain to catch him.

He should not be stuck in this room with the other heirs to the rest of the Lycian territories. Some were around his age, some quite a bit older, some a lot younger. They were free to move around the room, but leaving it was out of the question- council had put one of Ositia's infamous living walls in front of the door so the kids couldn't escape. Hector could probably try and make a break for it, but his brother would get mad at him for that.

With a sigh, he slumped down in a chair between two occupied ones. To his right was a boy his age, except his weight came from fat rather than muscles -Hector didn't have to be a physician to see that-, with ratty brown hair who had been observing the other children, apparently trying to match the names his father had told him to the faces. Considering he was Erik, the son of Darin of Lahus, probably meant he was doing this to figure out who it was he had to get in favor with.

If that were the case he probably already knew who Hector was -he caught eye, what with being a lot taller than the other kids his age and quite a bit more muscular-, so before the guy could say anything, Hector turned to his left. He had not expected to end up with his face so close to that of a girl. She was just sitting there, quietly, like a good girl. Unlike Hector, she was apparently the kind of kid who could kill a lot of time with reading, for she was ignoring most of the noise around her -the smallest ones were making quite a racket- and gazing into the book she held in her lap with one hand. Her other hand was clenched around the glass of water she stabilized on the armrest of her chair.

Using her apparent dedication to not looking up from her book to get a better look at her, Hector started to try and find a name to go with her face. She was pretty, with her fair, untainted skin, her bright blue eyes and her shoulderlength, scarlet red hair. There was only one 'royal family' in Lycia whose members were well-known for their eye-catching hair color, so Hector concluded she must be the princess of Pherae, the second-largest territory of Lycia and the largest one in the east. She'd caught his eye before, when she had come in with her parents. He remembered feeling bitter towards her because she got to keep both her parents while his had had to die last year. But he figured it couldn't be helped.

He only realized he had leaned closer when the girl tried to put her glass back on the armrest, but bumped it into Hector's arm. She jolted, spilling the remaining contents of the glass over her navy dress, immediately shutting her book as if to keep the water from staining her pages. She put the book on the armrest not occupied by Hector, who had jolted back when she had spilled her drink, and started to rub her dress vigorously with her now free hand.

"Aw geez," Hector said, a little uncomfortably and wondering if the girl (whose name he still couldn't remember- come on, it was something simple. Anna? No.) was going to get mad at him. "I'm sorry. Should I get you, eh, some tissues or something?"

"Don't worry about it…" she didn't even look up at him, still rubbing her dress. "It's black. It's not going to stand out that much." She set her glass down on the ground, where Hector quickly picked it up.

"I'll get you a new drink if you'd eh, like." He motioned to the glass faintly, very embarrassed and not really knowing what to do with his suddenly far too big-feeling body. "Just water? No juice?"

"Water will be fine," she said, smiling at him. Hector didn't know how fast to turn around and make for the table where glasses containing drinks were constantly refilled by servants. When he came back, she had her book in her hand again, this time with a small strip of loose paper in her other one, and she was browsing through the pages. "…didn't look at the page number either," he heard her mutter when he came back into her hearing range. Erik of Lahus had turned a bit in his chair, giving the girl his undivided attention without her really noticing. Hector didn't know why, but somehow that made him a little angry and he sat down in between them again, using his size to block Erik's view of the girl.

She finally decided she had found the page she'd left off at (or close enough, anyway), marked it with the strip of paper and closed her book again, taking the glass from Hector with two hands. "Thank you, umm… Hector, right? Of Ositia?" Well whoop-dee-doo. She already proved herself to be better with names than he was.

"Eh, yeah. I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't wanna, you know, scare you."

She laughed when he avoided having to use her name. It was cute. Wait, what was he thinking. "Do I look that old? I'm only seven, you know. You can use my name." When Hector flustered a bit, she laughed again, crossing her arms while still holding the glass with one. "Unless, of course… you don't know my name?"

"I know your name!" Hector protested, a little more loudly than he would have liked, "I just, eh… it's on the tip of my tongue, eh… …err…" She chuckled for the third time. Apparently his embarrassment was highly entertaining. Wel, at least she wasn't mad at him, right? "I swear to Elimine I know it."

"Protip," the girl said, still laughing, "My father's name is Elbert and my mother's is Eleanora. There's your hint."

"How is that supposed to help me?" he said, scratching his head. Man, this was almost humiliating. His brother had told him a couple of names, too, and he knew the Pheraen princess' name was in there, too. Lizzie? No, that wasn't it either. After almost a minute of head-scratching and digging through his memory, he sighed. "I give up. What's your name?"

"It's Ellie," she said, finally taking a sip of the water. "Ellie of Pherae." Riiiight. THAT was it. For the past few generations, those born into the royal family of Pherae were given names that started with el-. Hector didn't know why, but he should really have remembered it, for the rest of her name was a dead giveaway after that. "Not really that hard to remember, I'd think."

"I'm bad with names okay."

There was no real way for them to have known it at the time, but their clumsy, not very typical child-like meeting, would be the prelude to a long-lasting friendship… and maybe even more.


Additional Author's Notes: This'll be a series of one-shots and maybe drabbles, although I can't guarantee they'll be chronological, canon (even aside from Eliwood's gender surgery) or even otherwise related to each other. Obviously this won't be on a regular update schedule- it's one of the two 'for fun' things I want to do on the side.