Title: You have to be at A-Support to get my backstory

Summary:

C-S Support Conversation of Hoshido's High Prince Ryoma and his enigmatic mercenary tactician, Mao.

"You have bad experience with nobles, I see." Ryoma said.

Morgan didn't deny it. She did have bad experience with Lucina but she never generalized before. Damn, Morgan, mother will be disappointed in you.

"Sorry but you have to be at A-support level to get my backstory."

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

C-Support

Ryoma stood alone, looking over the camp with resting men. His heart was disheartened that this was what it came to be. All he wanted, all he fought for, was the return of his middle sibling. And now, they were gone with Sakura and Takumi. What an awful brother he must have been for them to leave his side.

"Yo!" As if called by his dark thoughts, Mao appeared before him, fire playing on her open palm. The light illuminated her in the dark of the night. "As a tactician, I ought to advise you that it is unwise to brood in the night without telling your retainers."

"How did you find me?" He asked.

She gave a teasing grin, "Why, I merely followed the sound of your brooding from way over yonder," a small laugh escaped her lips as she sat down beside him. "You were projecting quite loudly, your royal highness, try brooding quieter"

He felt a smile tugged on his lips. That was the mercenary he has come to befriend - uncaring of the difference in status. His crown is a mere ornament to her. He is a man she had judged and named a friend and a leader before he is a prince. She had always been a breath of fresh air he never knew he needed.

"If I know how," he said, "I would have brooded quieter then."

She frowned, "Ya, it's not fun when you just accept my teasing like so."

"Sorry," he said, "I'm not in the mood for a banter though."

She pursed her lips before saying, "You know, I do talk a lot and sometimes I tend to bulldoze you but I am a good listener."

His head snapped up. Though a trickster at heart, he knew her to be a good person.

"I was wondering if I was the reason my sibling has left." Mao was his friend, he realized. Not a retainer to be held at arm's length or a sibling he needed to be strong for. She was a person he trusted, for some odd reason.

"Now that is a load of pegasus dung," she scoffed."I mean, maybe you ought to have listened to your siblings before you went all ga-ga over your long lost sibling 'betraying' you. I do think it's about time you stop for a moment and, I don't know, listen to them over playing dress up here in Cheve."

"Mao-"

"Yes, I know, I know," Mao made a talking gesture with her hand, "'Not my place, yadda-yadda, super important princely spying, resistance as allies', more yaddas'. I've heard them all, but let me finish."

"Go on," he fell silent.

Mao took a deep breath, "your sibling made a choice. They chose neither side and that one isn't your fault. They didn't choose you because they love their other family more, they did it because they love you - the family they have forgotten about but still embraced them the same - just as much as they love the family they found in Nohr."

He made a face at that. He likely did not see the situation just as she does or even accept it just yet. He loves his sibling. He lost them for far too long as had them slip through his grasp just as he found them once more.

"We are their true family," he whispered.

"Family found is no less than family of the blood," Mao found herself reciting. It was something from a long forgotten memory by now but she found herself taking solace into the bits she can remember.

Ryoma remained silent.