The corpse of the Risen sorcerer that had found Severa's blade lodged in its chest hadn't even fallen to the ground before she flew off once more, the fire in her limbs propelling herself far ahead of the Shepherds. Her chest beat with anticipation as she locked onto her next victim, determined to lead the charge in tearing through the undead and making sure everyone's eyes, even the tactician's, even Chrom's, fell on her. The deformed purple entity two long strides away would make a fifth consecutive kill, a number she knew no one had reached up to that point. With the perimeter mostly exterminated of foes, Severa permitted herself a small smirk knowing that her record would remain secure. She could just about hear the praise from her fellow soldiers falling on her ears: "Hey, Severa, you did great today!" and "Wow, you were amazing out there!" They wouldn't just call her Cordelia's daughter, a title she had dreaded when they had made preparations to travel back in time and a title she cursed since the very first day the Ylissean army met her at that fortress. Closing the distance in the dark corridors of the abandoned manor, her blade began its horizontal arc, whizzing through the air as it howled with the intensity of its owner as she swung-
"Gotcha!"
The Risen in the path of her sword crumpled with a coarse groan, but Severa hadn't felt the satisfying contact in her right arm of metal cutting the diseased flesh off of the undead. It took her quickest reflexes, developed by the constant struggles of the future against the Risen, to divert the course of the blade away from the figure that now stood where her target had been. Her hasty reposition had blurred her vision during the frantic quarter-turn, and when she had regained her balance and discovered the identity of the person who had so rudely stolen her thunder, her fury could not have risen to the surface any quicker.
"Inigo, you stupid oaf!" she shrieked, having half a mind to turn her sword on him to make up for the kill that he had taken away. "That was mine!"
The sandy-haired mercenary - scratch that, villain would be an apter word - turned to face her with an expression of mock surprise before it transformed into another one of his haughty, ridiculous grins. "No need to thank me, just doing my duty."
A slight irritation in her temple made her wince. Without any further enemies to keep her moving forward, the adrenaline from combat started to fade away and brought to her attention an exhaustion that she hadn't realized. Not that she could allow herself to rest for a moment. The sounds of a couple of pegasus knights coming closer told Severa that she hadn't ran as far ahead as she thought and knew better than to completely blow up on Inigo in front of the rest of the approaching group, but she could still give him a piece of her mind. "Your duty of ruining me from getting the recognition I deserve! I was killing it out there, anyways - it's not like I needed help or anything."
"But you-"
The small partition in the walls that she had rushed through seconds before started to rumble, drowning out the rest of Inigo's response as both future Shepherds turned to address the spectacle. Severa dug her sword into the carpet to steady her balance and received a face full of dust thrown at her, raising her free hand to ward against further particles. A few offending fragments of sawdust had snuck into her nose and mouth and she repeatedly spat them out in the general direction of where she last remembered the dancer's son, wiping the rest off on her sleeve as she did her best to reorient herself after the dust had settled.
"What in the world?" she asked out loud. At first Severa thought she had ended up in a different place of the manor, but remembered she had not moved an inch during the disruption. Somehow, her surroundings had changed, with the gap in the wall no longer present and a different opening manifesting about halfway down the hallway. The rest of the Shepherds had been marching right behind her, but the interior redecoration would have delayed them for a good thirty seconds or so. While Severa could have made use of the extra time to give Inigo a satisfactory chewing out, she had since then cooled off and wanted to get back to the rest of the squad. No matter how much it hurt to see the tactician nod in approval every time her mother took down an enemy, or her friends express their admiration whenever Lucina danced around opposing thunder and fire magic and spears and arrows, she would far prefer to assimilate back into the shadows than have someone spot her alone with that manic philanderer.
"Hey, Severa, you all right?" he tried to call out to her, but she had already turned her back and briskly strode down the corridor, crossing her arms.
"I have nothing to say to you," Severa declared when she heard a second rumble from the walls, this one coming from further down. "Oh gods, not again…"
No explosion of dust attacked her this time, but she did notice with horror how the passageway down the corridor had closed up, leaving a wooden section of the wall identical to the already existing birchwood that lined the manor. The redhead looked down both sides of the hall, turning around to try the way behind her, but finding no luck. As far as she could tell, the mystical rearrangement of the walls had barricaded her in, leaving her at the mercy of any further Risen that might show up. Or worse…
"Now that you've got nowhere to run off to," Inigo began, walking up to her, "maybe I can actually get a word in?"
Severa raised her sword with a sweaty pair of hands, her contempt nearly bursting out of her skin. "Ju-just stay away from me," she ordered, scanning the corridors while keeping one eye on Inigo.
The mercenary sheathed his sword, raising his hands and standing still. He seemed to have learned his lesson, but that did not stop him from continuing. "Now, I'd welcome the prospect of matching your fury with my own flames of passion, but I could never get myself to raise my sword against you, Severa."
"Stop with the flowery words and just say what you have to say, then." If she had no way to get away from him, she could at least let him say his fill and leave it at that.
"Right, so back to the Risen. Maybe you got excited with some kind of bloodlust from the scent of battle, but you didn't realize that the zombie you were hacking at had its lance pointed directly at you," Inigo explained. "Its tip was burning with that black fire that Robin says injects you with some cursed poison, you know? We've got healers that can cure it, of course, but that's a serious wound if it hits you, and just look at this place… I don't know when the others will find their way here, if they can at all."
His story had not impressed her at all. "Oh, so now you're playing the part of the concerned lover? Trying to act nice and worried about my safety that I'll just cave in and collapse in your arms? I cut through four of them before that, and none of them had this black fire that you were talking about on their weapons. I was going to be fine," she insisted, taking deep breaths and trying to steady her respiratory system.
Inigo frowned. "Okay, just because I enjoy teasing and flirting doesn't mean I can't be concerned for the people in the army. The way we're organized under Chrom and Robin, we're all family and we should be looking out for each other. One person shouldn't have to shoulder the burden for the rest of us. You don't have to do this alone."
"And who are you to say what I can or can't do?" she shot back. Why was she choosing to waste so much breath on arguing? "They're always pairing us up instead of seeing what we can do on our own. Just because we're their children doesn't mean we're babies!"
"Severa, I'm in your generation too, and of course I want to be out there taking on several enemies at once! I want to prove that I can compete with the best of the soldiers. I always try to give a good show for the women, but even I have to admit that it's just foolish to try all this dumb stuff alone," Inigo said softly. He sounded a lot different when he didn't intentionally try to sound suave.
Severa looked off to the side. "It's not like I'm rushing out there trying to get myself killed," she insisted. "I'm trying to prove myself just as much as you, if not more."
"And I wouldn't doubt that," the mercenary agreed. "It took me a while to get this too - my father had to sit down with me and beat it into me - but he made me realize that it didn't matter if this is the past, present, or future. We're still in a war and our lives are much more important than anything we might've gained from showing off. Besides, women all over the continent and across the sea would weep if their dear Inigo would end up as one of the dead bodies left out to the vagaries of war. I can't sit down with a fine lass and a cup of tea with a sword through my stomach!"
For a moment he had started to sound serious, but that didn't last long. "You're trying to lecture me about death, and yet you have the gall to make such jokes?"
But Inigo had seemed to stop paying attention when she made her rebuttal, a furrowed brow on his face as he looked at something in the distance past her. Severa glowered indignantly. "That's what I thought. All this big talk of you tryi-"
She felt like a door had just slammed into her as Inigo suddenly tackled her to the ground only half a second before a sphere of dark magic smashed into the ground where she had stood. Severa struggled under his heavy frame pressing her to the ground, flailing her limbs as she tried to get him off. Seeing the rather compromising situation in which his actions had placed them, Inigo hurriedly rolled off to the side, turning his back to her.
"S-sorry about that," he hastily apologized. And as much as Severa had wanted to find an excuse to yell at him again, the black detritus on the carpet told the real story.
"No, it's not a problem," she admitted, sitting up on the ground next to him. "That Mire attack… I didn't even notice. I was too caught up… arguing with you."
He continued to face away from her. Out of all the times to act shy, he had chosen now? "That's still partly my responsibility, for dragging you into this in the first place. If I was only a little slower…"
"But you weren't, and that's what matters. I… I don't want to argue over arguing, that's just silly," Severa said, her cheeks slightly heating up. "Hey! The least you can do is turn around and face me when I'm trying to be nice!"
The sandy-haired boy slowly turned to face her, his normally neat hair somewhat of a mess after their landing. Inigo no longer had the usual twinkle in his eyes whenever she saw him, and she thought that she had caught his own cheeks recovering from a blush.
"So, uh… thank you," Severa managed. "For saving me." All the anger in her had faded away thanks to that stupid Mire tome. A part of her had wanted to take the corruption, to prove to him that she could still endure it even after taking on the Risen warriors, but she had to force that thought back. It would have wasted Inigo's effort, and after all, she did think it a bit heroic.
He looked at her as if she had spoken in Valmese or some other foreign language before coming up with a weak smile. "Right. It was no problem."
Severa continued to silently sit there for a few seconds, feeling uncomfortable at his continued proximity. But she couldn't just rudely back away, and she had no way of coming up with something frivolous like small talk after such an incident. The nagging feeling continued to tug away at her, and Severa sighed before speaking again. "So, I guess you weren't wrong about that black spear earlier, either."
Inigo looked at her funnily for a second. "I might spin tall tales and exaggerations, but I would never deceive a woman. That's not in the least bit honorable."
She drew up her knees close to her chest and stared at the carpet. "That makes it twice you saved my life today. Why did it have to be you, out of all people?"
The mercenary merely laughed rather than take offense. "Huh? What's so bad about that?"
"It's dirt that you've got on me. It's bad enough that you come around every day with terrible pickup lines, but now you can pull that 'hapless maiden' card on me. Now I'll be constantly irritated and indebted to you."
Inigo shook his head. "Like I said, we're supposed to be looking out for each other's backs. It's just the way the Shepherds work. You'd have done the same for me - well, I do hope so."
Severa forced her eyes away from the carpet and tried to look back at him. She couldn't hold it. "I'm sorry for being so harsh with you earlier. I was just way too caught up about the battle and just... wanted to prove that I wasn't useless. That I was worth something. For the army. For Chrom. For Mother."
He lightly knocked her on the elbow. "Don't be ridiculous. People might call you stuck-up and cold and an ice queen, but no one could call you worthless. I saw you all the way up there, giving it to those Risen, and I can assure you, you're pretty amazing."
Her body shook slightly. "I… I don't actually think you're that bad."
Inigo chuckled. "I'm not bad? I guess that's as good of a compliment I'm going to get from you. The honor is mine."
Severa hastily sat up straight and stretched out her legs again. "No, no, I didn't mean it like that! I was just saying that all those mean things I said earlier… I didn't mean them. You're… really kind."
His raised eyebrows indicated that he was having a lot of fun listening. "I'm terrible with compliments, I know. It's not often that I have to give them, so…"
"Maybe next time we can actually get a cup of tea without you yelling at me, then? I can teach you all the compliments you like then," Inigo offered.
Severa didn't know if her fatigue had worn her out, or if she had actually caved in to his ridiculous way of appealing to her, but she couldn't hide her blush. Thankfully, he didn't have a wisecrack to throw out. "That would be nice, I suppose. But don't think this will be a common event."
Inigo's eyes brightened. "Great! Well, it's still a long road home, and we won't get anywhere sitting around like this." He jumped to his feet, offering his hand up.
The all-too-familiar quakes of the walls nearly knocked Severa back onto the ground as she reached up to accept Inigo's hand. When the shaking had stopped, the walls once again, revealing a rather concerned group of Shepherds. She recognized the lime-green haired manakete in front, excitedly leading the army to their position. "Hey, you two! You'll never guess what we - oh, am I interrupting something?" Nowi asked, a cheeky smile forming on her lips.
Still caught halfway up off the ground with her hand in his, Severa found herself paralyzed with horror nothing but watch all the very intrigued expressions of the group as Inigo answered for her. "Hey, it's about time you guys showed up! I mean, the quality time Severa and I had while we were waiting was nice, but I'm still rather claustrophobic, and it'd be nice to get out of here!"
"It's… it's not what it looks like!" a very embarrassed Severa protested as she let go of Inigo as fast as she could, praying that her mother did not see her.
"Yeah, I know, I'm pretty pathetic for being scared of these dark closed spaces, but I was just so glad I had such a kind, caring woman by my side…"
"I swear to Naga, I'm going to kill you, Inigo!"
A/N: I'm pretty sure I started out on these forums looking up some fanfiction of Fire Emblem because I was so disappointed in the way Radiant Dawn ended in terms of story. And that was like six years ago so it's a wonder I didn't write stuff like this earlier. I've only just got Awakening and after some Internet research about support conversations and my first playthrough I decided to practice writing for another fandom and here you have this.
I was trying to make my writing less factual (not so many concrete thoughts, feelings and senses rather than visual descriptions) and more emotional and I never write fluff and stuff like this so let me know how the story flows.
I don't even think I ship Inigo and Severa, I just saw the S rank conversation and thought it was kind of off so I tried my hand at writing stuff for them myself.