I'm still not dead yet. Almost, but not quite.

Been involved with life up to my forehead + writer's block from HELL. This is the only thing that I could write. Got inspired for it after playing FE10 (HAAAAAAAAAAAATE YOU STUPID DAWN BRIGADE WHY MUST ALL OF YOU EXCEPT NOLAN SUCK?)

-ahem- Just a Shinon and Rolf centered fic. No spoilers, I think. Just read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I still don't own FE.

"Hey, Shinon, nice shot!"

Shinon swept his hair out of his eyes, nocking another arrow. "You expected less from me, kid?" He glared at Rolf for just a moment, making the teenager's smile falter. "If you have time to compliment, you have time to practice."

Shinon stepped away from the practice target, motioning for Rolf to take a turn. The kid stepped up, his brow knotting in concentration as he loked at each of the targets around him. After a moment, he took out an arrow, took careful aim, and shot. The arrow hit just above the bullseye.

"Goddess, are you ever slow today." Shinon plucked the arrow from the target, dispositing it in Rolf's quiver.

"I...I'm trying, Shinon..."

Shinon knocked his student on top of his head. "How many times do I have to tell you that there is no such thing as 'trying,' Rolf?" The sniper readied his own bow. "You have to know where your target is before you shoot it. If you look at it, you're already dead. Watch."

Shinon spun and shot the target behind him, hitting the center of the bullseye. He did the same to the next target, then jumped into the air, again hitting the bullseye. He hit the ground on his side, shooting between Rolf's legs and hitting the last target.

"Shinon, I'll never be as good as that..."

"Of course not." Shinon went to each target, collecting his arrows. "Nobody can be as good as I am. But you," he poked the kid in chest, "not only can be good, but absolutely great, instead of horrible like you are now. Which is why I don't want to see you again until after dinner. Practice practice."

Shinon gave Rolf a quick pat on the back, then stalked off to Aimee's tent. The kid's got talent, but he has to stop thinking about hitting the target if he wants to be a good sniper. Goddess, I've got my work cut out for me.

"Shinon, can't you go vulture over someone else?!"

Shinon bit into an apple, eying Boyd with interest. "Where did you get a stone like that?"

"Mordecai got it for me," Boyd said, chipping at the rock face. "He helped shape it, but I wanted to do the...the rest..."

"Good," Shinon said, smirking. "That hairy half-beast wouldn't know the difference between his As and Zs."

"Will you stop pestering me?!"

Shinon snorted, walking off. He took another bite, looking around the camp. It was a sunny day, with a light breeze from the north to cool everyone. Perfect weather for a battle, let alone the daily work and training that occured around the camp. He might've even called it a beautiful day.

But it wasn't. It had been an absolutely horrible day yesterday, and today was going to be even more horrible than the previous one. The pleasant weather was a slap in the face, a reminder than the world didn't feel the need to mourn death.

"Hey, how are you holding up?"

Shinon looked over his shoulder, wondering how Gatrie could have snuck up on him without him noticing. The knight wasn't wearing his armor.

"You look weird with your clothes on," Shinon remarked, walking away.

"Oh, come on, Shinon, I thought you might need to talk!"

"No."

"Shinon, don't be like this!"

"No."

"Shinon, please, I understa---"

Gatrie closed his mouth when he saw Shinon take out his bow. "Don't you dare say you 'understand,' Gatrie, because you don't. I'll shoot you dead if you even THINK you understand. Got it?"

They stared at each other for a moment, then Shinon lowered his bow, sighing. "Where's Oscar?"

"In his tent with Mist...and Rolf."

"Yeah, I thought so." Shinon put away his bow, turning away again.

"I wouldn't go near him if I were you," Gatrie said. "I mean, I've never seen him lose it like that before, not even in a battle. Scared me for a moment."

"Go near him? I'm avoiding him as much as possible."

"What was the final casuality count again?" Soren held a quill in one hand, hovering over the book that he recorded their battles in.

"Ten of the laguz, and one of our group." Titania replied, her voice strained. Shinon looked up at Soren, and saw that their grumpy tactician had an eyebrow raised. "One of us? Who?"

"Rolf."

Soren's lips grew thin, and he sighed as he wrote down the name. "I knew it was a mistake to deploy him, but noooooooo, he absolutely HAD to go." The tactician snorted. Shinon knew that it meant nothing more to Soren than a black mark on his grade as a tactician, and it made him want to strangle the half-breed. "Any idea how he died, Titania?"

"That's something I'd like to discuss with you and Oscar," She said. Soren looked at Shinon, and gestured for him to leave.

Shinon decided to wait outside. It wasn't long before Oscar and Boyd filled in; Boyd looked both angry and heartbroken, while Oscar was just silent. Neither looked at the sniper as the went in, and Shinon could hear nothing from inside the tent for a few minutes. That is, until he heard Boyd's loud "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

The world suddenly exploded in a ball of bright light as a fist collided with Shinon's face.

"You son of a BITCH!"

Another fist followed the fist, this time nailing the sniper in the gut, and another knocked out one of his teeth. Shinon wasn't surprised that he was getting beaten up; what surprised him was that it was Oscar doing it, and not Boyd.

"Oscar, hold!"

"He killed my brother! I'll kill him! I'll destroy him!"

"Let him explain himself first!"

"It was his arrow that did it!"

It was only after three more punches and a kick in the side that they were finally able to pull Oscar off Shinon. The sniper opened his eyes, seeing that it took Titania, Soren, and Rhys to hold Oscar back; Boyd was being restrained by Mordecai. Shinon stood warily, spitting out blood and a couple teeth.

"Shinon, now would be an excellent time to explain!" Soren snapped.

Shinon did not go to the funeral.

Sure, he could have, but facing a homicidal Oscar and Boyd was not very wise. To top it off, Ike had expessly banned him from attending. That made him want to go just to spite the commander, but he refrained from doing so. Instead, he did the next best thing: Drinking two bottles of wine.

Why did that have to remind him of Rolf?

"There you are, Shinon. I was looking for you."

Shinon opened his eyes, grinning a little at Rolf. "Rolf! Whaaazzup?"

"Oh, you're drunk again."

"Is that a problem?"

"No, but you're just so...different when you're drunk." Rolf sat beside Shinon, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"How am I...different?" Shinon leaned his head against Rolf's shoulder.

"Well, you wouldn't be doing that..."

"Oh, shorry," Shinon sat back up. "Didn't realize I had done that."

"Why do you drink, Shinon?"

Shinon sighed, thinking as much as he could. "Weeeeeell... Because there are things that I like to celebrate, and things that I'd like to forget."

"Doesn't make much sense to me." Rolf said, frowning a little.

"I hope it never doesh, kid." Shinon took another drink from a bottle of wine, then looked back at Rolf. "Yer brothers ever let ya' drink before?"

"No."

Shinon handed Rolf the bottle of wine. "Try shome of that. It tastes like shit, though."

Rolf wrinkled his nose and took a little sip of the wine, only to spit it out immediately. "This is HORRIBLE!"

"I told ya' it tasted like shit."

"Those were shome good times, Rolf." Shinon murmured. Night had fallen, and two bottle of wine had slowly turned into two and a half, swiftly becoming three with each drink. Shinon hadn't felt like drinking alone, and he found himself wandering over to where Rolf was now buried, sitting against the headstone.

"Ya' died waaaaaaaay too young, kid," Shinon said, chuckling a little. "Ya' missed out on shome really good stuff, like...like...money and...liking beer...and...sex. Oh god, you died a virgin!" Shinon poked the stone, as if he was poking Rolf. "Why did ya' have to die a virgin, Rolf? That's...like...a tragedy! I mean, even Aimee would've had pity sex with ya'...then again, I pity anyone she has sex with. Gaaawd..."

He laughed, slapping his knee. "Rolf, that was a silly thing ya' did, dying. Why, y'know, I should've taken you around the town so ya' could've become a man, and ya' would've been even more of a man than Flowery Prancing Princess Ikey-poo. That would've been SHOMETHING, dammit!" He sighed, closing his eyes. "Dammit, kid... Ya' could've been great...even greater than me... I never told ya' that... I wanted to see if yeh'd get angry enough to be better than me... I would've loved to see that...but now...yer' just rotting with the worms and maggots riddling yer' eyes and brain... oh gawd..."

That was too much for Shinon to imagine. He rolled over and threw up (he probably would've anyway--three bottles was past even his limits), then laid on his back. He didn't know how long he laid there, or even if he passed out or not, but when he was finally aware of his surroundings again, he realized someone was talking to him.

"Shinon, get up."

Shinon opened his eyes a crack, looking for the person. Of course, it was Gatrie. "Go away."

"C'mon, Shinon, you'll freeze to death like this."

"Don't care."

"Shinon..." Gatrie knelt beside his redheaded friend, helping him to his feet. Shinon didn't fight it; he didn't feel like fighting anything anymore. Once on his feet, he grabbed Gatrie, and started crying.

"Let it out, it's okay," Gatrie said quietly. "You've had too much to drink again...it won't seem so bad in the morning."

"Gatrie...he shouldn't have died," Shinon choked out. "He was my student...I shouldn't have outlived him..."

"Things sometimes just work out like this, Shinon. We can't change them."

"It shouldn't have, dammit! I was supposed to have been killed, not him!"

"Shinon, calm down."

"Dammit, don't you know what happened?"

Gatrie sighed, and put an arm under his friend's shoulders to support him. "Tell me as we walk back to the camp."

"Oh goddess, there's too many of them!"

"Rolf, shut up and shoot!"

"Shinon, I---AHH!"

"Rolf!" Shinon sprinted over to Rolf, giving the kid a shake. "Rolf, snap out of it! This is no different than any other battle, we're just going up a mountain. Now stop being a crybaby!"

"But, that bolt went right over my head---"

"If you say one more pathetic thing, I'll hold you up so the next bolt is sure to hit you!"

Rolf nodded weakly, looking a little green. Shinon wrinkled his nose, shooting a charging soldier square in the chest. "And if you throw up, make sure you do it away from me."

"Oh...okay..."

"Good. Now, come on, start making my teaching skills look good!"

That seemed to snap Rolf into "soldier-mode," and the two shot their way up the mountain, clearing the way for Ike and Ranulf. Everything was proceeding as Prissy Princess Soren planned, until two wyvern riders came swooping down from the summit. Shinon and Rolf barely had time to dodge as the gigantic beasts flew right over them. Soren eliminated one of them with a bolt of magical lightning; beast and rider were paralyzed in midair, and Shinon involuntarily winced as he heard the sickening crunches that told him the enemy was falling down the mountain.

One wyvern rider still remained. Shinon heard Soren order him to retreat, and ignored it. The wyvern rider would go after someone else if it was left alive, and Shinon knew he could take care of it with one shot. That would leave him open to the ballista...but he'd figure it out when that happened.

Giving Rolf a shove, Shinon jumped into the air, making eye contact with the rider. "Hello, sweetheart." The arrow went flying, hitting the wyvern right in the eye. The beast cried out and fell backwards, crushing the rider under the weight. Shinon hit the ground, hearing the all-too-familiar click of a ballista firing.

"Ah, damn, just my luck..." He braced himself for the pain that was about to come...

...and was hit from the side, and sent sprawling in the dirt. No pain, no bolt through the belly. The sniper righted himself, knowing what had happened before he saw it.

"ROLF!" The kid was lying on the ground, desperatly gasping for air and clawing at the large bolt in his gut. Shinon knelt next to him, grabbing one of his arms.

"Stop it, you moron, you'll only make it worse," The sniper snapped.

"Shinon...it hurts..." Rolf gasped, tears running freely. Shinon took out a vulnerary, pouring the contents on the wound; it would not heal it, but he knew it would at least numb it a little.

"You stupid crybaby brat," Shinon said, glaring at Rolf. "Why did you do something as stupid as this?"

"I...I...didn't want to lose my teacher..."

"You idiot! The whole point of me teaching you was so you'd avoid ending up like this!"

"I'm...sorry..."

"Stop talking. You need to conserve your strentgh." Shinon looked around: Rhys was hemmed in by soldiers, and Shinon wouldn't be able to clear a safe path for him. Mist was nowhere to be seen. Even if he could get a healer, Shinon doubted they could actually remove the bolt AND heal Rolf before...

Shinon felt like vomitting.

"Shi...Shinon...please...it hurts..."

"I'm trying kid."

"I'm...gonna die...aren't I?"

Shinon looked at Rolf, trying to keep himself as composed as he could. "Yeah. Sorry about that." Yeah, he was going to die. Slowly. Painfully. A way Shinon never wanted to die.

"Hey, kid, you trust me, right?"

"Yes..."

"Well, this is the only thing I can do to make it stop hurting." Shinon stood, taking an arrow from his quiver, and aiming right between Rolf's eyes. "I'm sorry about this, Rolf. You had a lot of potential."

"Don't...miss..." Rolf said, closing his eyes.

"Me? Miss?" There was a twang as the arrow left the bow. "...Never."

Thx for reading, R&R. Unless you want to bitch about me killing Rolf, then the back button is right for you.