A/N: I saw this prompt where prior to Fates Xander and Corrin were in a secret relationship and despite the fact she still loved him Corrin still chose the birthright path because it was the right thing to do. Not long afterwards she found out she was pregnant with his child, the plot bunnies immediately started to jump around in my brain and I decided I had to try my hand at it. Although from a different perspective.
I might do a part two or a prequel if enough people want one
Siegbert had always known he was different from everyone else, all he had to do was look in a mirror to see so. Yes, he did posses black hair and brown eyes which were commonplace in both his family and the rest of Hoshido but the similarities died there. Most people in Hoshido either had spikey hair or straight hair, Siegbert had curly hair that no matter how much he tugged and tried to straightened curled right back into place the moment he let go. His features were also a lot harder, sharper and straighter than anyone else, his cousin Kiragi even joked that if somebody were to throw a rock at Siegbert's face the rock would snap in two. He didn't even resemble his own mother all that much outside of hair color, some servants told him he resembled his grandmother, Queen Mikoto, but Siegbert had seen pictures of her and while they did have the same coloring he didn't look much like her either.
Siegbert's own name differentiated him from others, Siegbert was a name not used anywhere else Hoshido, it wasn't even a word used there. This difference gave other children the opportunity to taunt him, stating his name was abnormal and weird, some even claimed that Siegbert didn't even have a real name since his held no meaning, that he meant nothing. Siegbert tried not to let their words bother him, but about two years ago he couldn't take it anymore and begged his mother to change his name to something more Hoshidan. That had probably been the biggest mistake he could have made, his mother had refused to change Siegbert's name and she, his aunts and uncles all had 'a stern talking to' with the parents of the children who had bullied him. While the taunts did come to a grinding halt, Siegbert soon found that outside of his cousins he had very few friends- although, really he had very few friends to begin with. While he didn't think he was a bad or even annoying person it seemed other kids just didn't want to hang out with him for some strange reason.
The only good thing that came out of that predicament was that Siegbert found out his name did have meaning.
"Your name means bright victory" his mother explained as he laid in bed, she had come to his room for their daily before bed chats "I gave you that name because you were born during a very dark time."
"The second war?"Siegbert questioned, he had recently learned about the second war in studies. He still had a lot to learn but what he did know was that it had been war against the warmongering Nohrian's, lead by the ruthless king Garon and his family. Siegbert's own family were important figures in the war especially his mother who, as his new tutor Mr. Osaki told him, was the one responsible for brining peace to the people of Hoshido. That last fact always made Siegbert swell with pride.
"Yes" his mother muttered, her eyes became downcast "That time was probably the darkest period in my life, there... was... a lot of sadness and pain in me at the time. I'm not gonna lie to you Siegbert there were many times where... I wanted to give up..."
"What! No!" Siegbert shot out of his bed, anger edging his cry. That was impossible, his mother was so strong and brave and she was a hero, how could she say something like that?
His mother's downcast eyes rose and her face gave way to a tiny smile as she stroked his cheek gently, causing Siegbert's anger to slowly disappear. When she saw he had calmed down a bit her smile grew a little bigger "I know, sounds wrong doesn't it but it's true, there was a lot going on in my life at the time and it was all very stressful. Yet one warm spring evening I achieved my greatest victory in the entire war, a victory that gave me back my hope, my courage and my strength."
Siegbert blushed and tentatively asked "you mean me?"
Siegbert's mother smile grew even wider and she gave a small giggled, she answered "Yes, when I held you in my arms that night it was one of the happiest moments in my life. You, Siegbert, helped raise me up and strengthened my resolve to make the world a better place, so you could grow up safely and happily. You were my light in the dark, my victory in all the chaos."
His mother kissed his forehead and hugged him tight, Siegbert hugged her back feeling much better about himself. Siegbert loved it when his mother hugged him, he felt so warm and safe, he felt like no matter how big the threat was she would always be there to help him. Yet despite the comfort, Siegbert still had so many questions he wanted to ask his mother; Why had she felt the way she did? Why was the war so horrible for her? and most importantly, why wasn't his father there to help her too?
That was probably the biggest thing that made Siegbert stand out from a lot of other people- he didn't have a father. Of course that wasn't completely true, while he wasn't sure how the process worked he knew for a person to exist they had to have both a mother and a father (he one time asked his uncle Azama how creating a baby worked but before his uncle could explain his aunt Hinoka dragged her husband off stating Siegbert 'was way too young to learn about those things.') Siegbert had just never met his father, he didn't even know if his father was alive or not.
Siegbert had what he heard some people call 'father figures' in his life. He had his uncles Ryoma, Takumi, Azama and Subaki and his mother's retainers Jakob and Kaze, all of whom were nice to him, played with him and gave him advice whenever he ran into a problem but all of them already had children of their own and Siegbert had wanted his own father not somebody else's. Siegbert got very jealous and very sad whenever he saw one of his cousins, friends, or even complete strangers interact with their own fathers. It made him feel as if their was a piece of himself missing, an important piece that helped keep him up and while he could still stand without it, it felt like he could still fall over.
Siegbert thought about asking his mother a few times but every time the opportunity came for him to ask her, he would get sacred and back out at the last second. He was afraid that if he asked he would make her upset, sometimes whenever his mother didn't think he was looking she would stare off into space with a sad expression on her face and while those times were becoming rarer now those still were the only times he saw his mother upset. Siegbert never asked his aunts, uncles or his mother's retainers about his dad either because of the fact he would catching them staring too, not into space but at him and not with sad expressions but expressions he couldn't identify. He loved his extended family but sometimes he felt rather uncomfortable around them, mainly the adults.
The only ones who knew about his dilemma were the only people who could understand where he was coming from; his twin cousins Shiro and Shigure. While Shiro and Shigure still had their father their mother, Lady Azura, had died not long after they had been born. Siegbert only knew a small amount of information about his aunt: he knew she loved to sing, she was very kind, his mother's best friend and had been the love of uncle Ryoma's life. So much so that when he became king uncle Ryoma refused to take another wife much like how despite many marriage proposals Siegbert's mother refused to take a husband. Siegbert, Shiro and Shigure had spent much time discussing on what they're parents must have been like, while it didn't fill the void Siegbert felt, it did provide comfort that he could talk about his father and no one would get upset.
"Maybe your father is some kind of traveling Ronin" Shigure thought up one night at dinner. Instead of at the palace as usual, Siegbert and all of his cousins were at ramen restaurant in the town plaza with their aunt Hana. The rest of their parents were working late tonight, some kind of important council business that needed their immediate attention, so their aunt Hana who was more of a fighter than an advisor decided to take the children out for dinner that night. She was at the table right next to one Shiro, Shigure and Siegbert were eating at attending to their younger cousins with the help of her friend lady Setsuna who had brought her own daughter Selkie.
Since they were nine years old and didn't need much management aunt Hana had let them eat by themselves at a different table, albeit one that was close to theirs.
"Maybe he goes around the world bringing justice and helping people where ever he goes" Shigure sighed wistfully, Shigure loved tales and songs about mythical heroes fighting ancient evil and saving the world from total destruction.
"That's interesting I guess" Siegbert lied, he would much rather have his father be here with him and his mother than traveling the world even if he does help people.
"No offense Shigure but that's kind of dumb" Shiro stated his mouth full of pork, eggs and ramen noodles.
"It was just a thought" Shigure said grinning, showing that he didn't take offense to his brother's bluntness, clearly used to his behavior already. Shigure then reached over and handed Shiro a napkin "Here and don't talk with your mouth full it's gross."
"Whatever you say dad" Shiro said, spitting out bits of food which hit Shigure's tunic causing said boy to shake his head while Shiro giggled and Siegbert smiled slightly. It was moments like these Siegbert wondered what it would be like to have a sibling, especially a brother, from what he had seen from his cousins it seemed both fun and irritating in the best combination possible.
"What are you laughing at Sieg-snitch?" A familiar voice asked from behind Siegbert, he turned around and was met with a slightly older boy with spikey blue hair, narrow green eyes and a sneer on his face. Kenya had been on of the kids who had picked on Siegbert because of his name and subsequently had gotten in trouble because of his actions and even since then he had assigned himself as Siegbert's personal bully.
Siegbert gulped "Um... hi..."
Kenya's sneer grew at Siegbert's weak reponse and so Kenya gave his own, stronger response "What do you think your doing here? This a place for normal people not for a weirdo like you."
Siegbert felt himself slouch, while he wouldn't say he hated Kenya himself he did hate how he felt whenever Kenya was around. Siegbert stared at his lap and meekly said "J-j-just go away."
Kenya snorted "I'm sorry what was that? I can't read minds if you want to say something than talk for real next time."
Siegbert goes to open his mouth but quickly shut it, if he were to say something Kenya would be sure to say something nastier back. As much as he wanted Kenya to go away, Siegbert knew the situation would get worse if he stood up for himself. Shiro stood up and went up to Kenya, staring at the other boy straight in the eye, "Leave him alone, as the high prince of Hoshido I order you to leave him alone" Shiro said uncharacteristically dignified.
Shiro never used the fact he was the high prince for anything, not even to get out of trouble for pulling pranks on the servants. This made Siegbert feel both surprise and elated, while him and Shiro were friends they did butt heads a lot and if the argument was bad then both boys would stop talking to each other for a little while. So it felt good to hear his cousin try and defend him.
Despite the threat however, Kenya was not deterred, mockingly he claimed "Oh pardon me my illustrious prince I was just making sure the weirdo knew his place. I am just protecting my fellow citizens from him."
Siegbert felt himself grow smaller and his stomach clenched, he suddenly didn't feel so good. Shigure seemed to understand what was going in Siegbert's head as he got up and pulled on his angry twin brother's arm. "Shiro, maybe we should go find aunt Hana and leave" Shigure whispered, tugging on his arm continuously as if that would motivate him more to leave.
"Just give me a minute" Shiro murmured brushing off Shigure's hand, he turned towards the now grinning Kenya "What would you need to protect other people from? Siegbert's harmless, he can't even harm a fly without getting upset let alone be a someone people need to be protected from."
Siegbert really wished Shiro wasn't defending anymore.
Kenya snickered "Oh really? Well considering what he is I'm surprised he's that big of a baby."
The latter sentence caused the three boys to stare at Kenya. A bad feeling started to form at the pit of Siegbert's stomach, what did Kenya mean by what he is?
"What's that supposed to mean?" Shiro asked his anger replaced with confusion, Shigure who was also confused let go of his brother's arm and Kenya smirked.
"You mean you guys don't know?" Kenya hissed his gaze focused on Siegbert. Siegbert knew he should start speaking for himself but the sickness in his stomach started to spread towards the rest of his body, preventing him from doing much other than stare at Kenya.
"Know what? I've known Siegbert my entire life so I already know everything about him?"
"Really? Then can you tell me who the weirdo's dad is?" Kenya questioned still staring at Siegbert as if he was posing the question more towards him than Shiro, Siegbert blushed.
"Ah... he- um"
"I thought so" Kenya interrupted "My uncle fought in the war with the Nohrian's when he was younger, so he's seen what they look like and he told me Sieg-snitch looked exactly like one of them. In fact when I got in trouble my uncle told me the only reason I did was because your dad trying to protect Sieg-snitch's mothers honor, he said that Sieg-snitches mom had a baby with Nohrian commander that's why Sieg-snitches name and face are so different. He's an outsider."
Shigure and Shiro stood there stunned at the accusation while Siegbert's eyes widened and he felt ready to throw up his dinner, that couldn't be true. Mr. Osaki had said Nohrian's were evil; they had killed his grandparents, Shiro and Shigure's mother and many good people throughout the war. There was no way his father could have been one of them, that would mean his mother had fallen in love with the enemy, that would mean he was a part of a group of people his family had fought against for years, that would mean Siegbert was... was...was-No!, It wasn't true, Kenya was just a bullying who got excitement out of trying to make his life miserable this was probably just one of those times. Siegbert searched Kenya's face, trying to find any sort of hint that he was lying, sadly when he looked at Kenya he could tell he wasn't lying, he was trying to hurt Siegbert but he wasn't lying.
Suddenly everything started to piece itself together in his head- his face, his name, his mother never bringing up his father, his mother's sad expressions, his families stares, everything started to make sense the moment the idea came into his head. If this was true why didn't anybody say something to him? Why didn't his mother say something to him? What did this make him, an outsider?
"N-no he isn't" Shigure said though his voice broke a little bit "Siegbert's Hoshidan not Nohrian!"
"He's right, you shouldn't make stuff up like that" Shiro stated much more confidently.
Kenya merely snorted "Man you two are dumb. Look at him, does he look like he's from here? It's clear as day that he's an outsider, he doesn't belong here, he's nothing-"
WHAM!
Siegbert had never hit anyone before in his life, he never wanted to hurt anybody but right now he wanted nothing more than for Kenya to shut up. The combined sounds of Siegbert hitting Kenya and Kenya falling down hard to the floor caused the restaurant to go quiet and turn towards the scene. He didn't see the patrons staring at him or Kenya crying on the floor holding his bloody nose or hear the whisperings that started to circle around the restaurant. His beating heart blocked his hearing and the headache that was forming in his skull blocked his vision. Reality became distorted and he was only brought back when he felt somebody shaking him and yelling his name "Siegbert, Siegbert!"
It was his aunt Hana concern written all of her face, they were still in the middle of the restaurant with people still staring and whispering. Siegbert couldn't hear what they were saying and he was glad he couldn't. "Siegbert, what's wrong? What happened?" Aunt Hana asked not realizing or not caring about the other people around them.
Siegbert's headache felt like it was getting worse and all the energy from his body seemed to drain making him feel tired, without warning Siegbert fell into his aunts arms and rested his head against her shoulder. "Please, can we leave?" he asked.
"Sure" Aunt Hana whispered even though she looked like she wanted to talk to him about what had just happened, lifting him up like he was three and carrying him out of the restaurant. She motioned for Setsuna to take the other children and follow her back to the palace.
He ended up falling asleep in his aunts arms and he didn't wake up until the next day safely tucked in bed. When Siegbert woke up to blinding daylight, he wondered both what time was it and if what had happened last night had all been some strange nightmare, the last part caused his heart to rise a bit, maybe it all had been just some ramen induced bad dream.
His door slid open to reveal his mother, her mouth was in a thin line and worried eyes adorned her face, upon seeing he was awake her face softened a little bit and she said "Good afternoon Siegbert, it's good to see your awake now."
"H-hello mother- wait? good afternoon?"Siegbert said dumbstruck at his mother's choice of words.
"It's just about lunchtime" She explained as she knelt by his bedside "Are you feeling ok?"
"I'm fine" he muttered lifting himself into a sitting position, silence fell between them for a while making Siegbert feel uncomfortable.
"Siegbert... I know that's not the case" his mother said sternly, her voice was low and she seemed to be in thought "Shigure and Shiro told us about what happened last night."
Siegbert felt his heart plummet, now fully realizing what had happened last night was no dream. Siegbert had no idea what to do or say, he just shifted in his bed, a part of him wanted to ask his mother about everything, especially about his father but another part of him was yelling at the former part not to and just stay quiet. He was worried about his mother getting angry at him and yelling at him, even though he deserved it.
"Your not in trouble for hitting him" his mother assured, shocking Siegbert "What you did was in self defense."
Her words ended up open the floodgate, Siegbert sighed "I just wanted him to shut up so badly, I... I just couldn't take it."
"No one would, I would preferred you hadn't hit him but I understand where your coming from" She relayed as she stroked his curls, while it was clear she was upset over what had happened she wasn't angry like he had feared. It made Siegbert feel a little better and gave him the courage to start asking her about the truth.
"Mother... last night Kenya said his uncle thought that my f-father was... a Nohrian and that I was an outsider" there it was out in the open now " It's not true is it?"
His mother frowned and her eyes turned from worried to sad in an instant, and Siegbert slightly regretted his words. Before he could apologize, his mother's hand went down from hair to stroke his cheek, she leaned her forehead against his and shut her eyes tight, she whispered softly "I'm sorry Siegbert."
Siegbert felt the floor fall out right from under him and his mind begin to scramble, and he pulled away from his mother and stood up "No, it can't be- your a hero, your supposed to fight people who do wrong and vanquish evildoers! Norhians are pure evil so how could you have a child with one!?"
"SIEGBERT!" His mother yelled as she stood up and grabbed his chin to make him look her straight in the eye "Don't you ever say something like that especially not to me."
Siegbert gulped and he felt himself shrink underneath her furious gaze, his mother seemed to sense his fear so she closed her eyes and took a deep breath "Siegbert" she sighed "I know this might be hard to believe but not all Nohrian's are evil, sure there are a few bad eggs but there are a few bad eggs here as well. A majority of Nohrian's are good people, some of the best people I have ever known were Nohrian- including your father."
Siegbert's eyes widen, he felt so confused, he rebutted "But weren't we at war with the Nohrian's a long time ago, didn't they have an evil king? Didn't they kill grandfather and grandmother? How could most of them be good if they did all of those things."
His mother frowned in sadness, she sat down on the floor and he followed, after a long pause she spoke "Siegbert war is a lot more complicated than it is in stories or songs; A lot of the time it's people forced to fight others because they have too, good people who are just following the order from others who are bad. That's what happened with the people of Nohr, they had a bad king who made them do bad things for his own desires. He was the one who killed your grandparents and started the war that the citizens of Nohr didn't want, the only reason most did fight was because they were scared not because they were evil. Fear can do a lot of things Siegbert- whether it's fight a bad man's war, punch others in the face or think an entire country of people are completely evil."
Shame and pity filled Siegbert's heart as he contemplated his mothers words. His mother was right, fear of the truth, fear that he came from someone evil, fear that he didn't belong in the place he called home and fear that he didn't belong anywhere. Fear had caused him to hit another and yell at his mother, two things he had never wanted to do before. His mother was right.
"That's awful" he said and his mother nodded in agreement.
"It is, but you understand now that not all Nohrian's are evil right?" She asked gently and he responded with a nod "Good, what made you even think all Nohrians are evil? Me, your aunts and uncles don't really talk to you or your cousins about Nohr, did you hear it from servants? From some of the civilians?"
"Me, Shiro and Shigure were told all Nohrians were evil by Mr. Osaki when he was teaching us about the second war" he told her.
His mother clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, she huffed "I really need to tell Ryoma to fire that man."
"Oh please don't mother, Mr. Osaki is nice usually and he's smart too. He helped Shigure learn how to due long division in under a day, he's a good teacher" Siegbert pleaded not wanting to get his tutor fired "Plus, everyone in Hoshido says it so it wasn't just him."
His mother pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed "I'll think about it."
"Thank you" now that his fear had been dispelled Siegbert's courage from earlier increased and right now there was a few questions itching at the back of his mind.
"Hey mother, was my father one of those people, those people who fought because they were afraid?" He asked politely.
His mother leaned back on her arms and stared at the ceiling, while he couldn't see her face he could tell she was thinking "Yes... yes he was in a way."
"Oh, mother is father... dead?" He too had started to stare at the ceiling.
"Y-yes, I'm sorry, Siegbert I wanted to wait another year to tell you but yes he is dead. H-he died during the war" The voice his mother talked with was one he had never heard from her before, it sounded almost weak.
Siegbert felt sad and disappointed at the fact that he would never get to meet his father, and while it was nice to finally know what had happened to him the truth still weighed on his heart. Siegbert waited for a little more time to pass before he spoke again "Mom, if it's not too much can I ask you another question?"
His mother smiled at him "Of course, you can ask me anything."
"Ok" he breathed "What was father like?"
To both his surprise and relief his mother gave a dry chuckle and smiled "Sure, but where do I even begin? Well first thing you should know is that he was very tall and you look almost exactly like him, you have the same nose, same chin, same face, same eyes and even the same hair-"
"He had black hair like you?" He interrupted holding up a chunk of his own hair
"Hehe, no that's about the only thing you got from me, your father had blonde hair like the heroes in some of your story books do" she said referring to the fairy tales, myths and legends he got every year for his birthdays from people he didn't know, he loved those books very much.
"Really, do most people in Nohr have blonde hair?"
"Some do, in Nohr people have bright hair colors as opposed to the darker ones here in Hoshido. A lot of people though, including your father, had very curly hair" She said gaily, she leaned over and tugged gently on one of his own curls making Siegbert blush.
"As for his personality your father was a very... complicated man" She had gotten much more serious now but he sensed a fondness in her voice all the same "He was very serious and very mature, even when he was very young. Your father was the oldest in his family and because of that he had- different responsibilities from the rest of his siblings, responsibilities that required him to be different from everyone else."
"Wait he had siblings. I have other aunts and uncles?"Siegbert blurted out.
She smiled wistfully, "Yes- he had a brother and... three sisters... sadly though, two of his sisters died during the war although your uncle Leo and your aunt Camilla are still alive. In fact, they're the ones who send those books to you for your birthday every year."
"Really, that's so nice of them" Siegbert his mind racing with ideas of what his aunt Camilla and uncle Leo were like "How come I've never met them before?"
"Your aunt and uncle are very busy people and Nohr is so faraway we don't- we can't really see each other. I still write to them though and for your tenth birthday we, I had been planning for them to come to Hoshido so they can properly meet them."
"That's still going to happen, right?" He questioned hoping it was.
"Yes it is, I can promise you that, they really want to meet you especially your aunt Camilla" She affirmed, her smile growing wider.
"Great! So what else was he like, he was stern, mature, he was the oldest..."
"Well despite being very serious and a bit of a stick in the mud he was very kind and very, very loving. Everything he ever did was to benefit the people he loved, the people of Nohr, his friends, his siblings, me and even his father who was not the nicest person. That's one of the reasons I fell in love with him, he never had any reason to and really he shouldn't have but he was so kind to me and always tried to make me feel better when I felt alone" She blushed which made Siegbert blush as well at hearing his mother confess her love for his father.
"Yet at the same time as much as he tried to help others he had a hard time letting others help him, he was very reserved with his emotions and his problems and to many appeared hard hearted even though he wasn't. He, so stupidly sometimes, insisted that... a man of his position needed to be strong and stand on his own, not to burden others with his problems. Sometimes he would get into terrible arguments with his father and instead of talking with someone he would train for hours with his sword."
"He knew how to use a sword?"
"Yes" She replied "He was one of Nohr's best warriors, if not the best. He became that way through a lot of hard work as when he was younger he was actually rather weak but he never gave up. He became a gifted rider, commander, and swordsman, he even managed to become powerful enough to wield a legendary weapon called Siegfried."
"Siegfried? That's almost exactly like my name" Siegbert pointed out.
"Siegfried and Siegbert have very similar meanings, they both mean victory but Siegfried instead of meaning 'bright victory' means 'protection & victory', which was befitting for him considering how much he tried to protect others especially his family. My original reasons for naming you Siegbert are still the same and the main reasons but Siegbert being so close to Siegfried did play a factor I will admit."
Siegbert now had a very clear picture of his father, he could almost see him now a tall curly haired man with a frown on his hard features with a sword at his belt but his brown eyes were kind and his frown could quickly turn into a smile if the moment need be, Siegbert also imagined he was a very quiet man. "Mother, how did you meet father?" He asked leisurely, the conversation made him feel light and relaxed.
His mother rested her chin on her hands as she thought about what to say "Well... me and your father met when we were very young and at a time in our lives when we were both very lonely, he was one of the first people I remember ever been nice to me. While it wasn't love at first sight we did become friends rather quickly and he always made sure to watch over me. We started doing many things together like study together, play games together, eat together, train together or just talk together for hours on end sometimes just about nothing really but it was fun and being together filled the loneliness in our lives. My initial feelings of... friendship eventually turned into love, though I didn't say anything at first because I didn't think he would ever feel the same way. One day however everything came to a head and we confessed to each other, it all felt so natural as if we had been together before but just had never really said what we were together."
His mother sighed but instead of in sadness she sighed in happiness causing Siegbert to smile at her, his parents story sounded very nice and loving. It sounded like something out of a dream, while observing his mother talk about his father Siegbert understood that he wasn't the only who wanted his father back. This made Siegbert wonder though if his father was from Nohr and his mother was from Hoshido what happened to their relationship when the war started? He assumed of course it couldn't have ended well considering he died in the war and his parents were on two opposing sides.
"Mother, during the war what happened with you and father?" He wondered innocently.
His mother stiffened and she bowed her head "Siegbert... when the war started me and your father split off into different paths him Nohr and me Hoshido. We both still loved each other, believe me but due to our families, our morals, our pride and many other things I don't think you would understand yet we had to end things between us no matter how much we didn't want to. Not long after we broke apart I-I found I was pregnant with you and a year later he died. That's how the story ends."
Siegbert got up and put his arms around his mother, she wasn't crying or gave any physical indication she needed a hug but he did it all the same. His mother wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace, she patted his back and murmured "Thank you, my sweet little soldier."
"Your welcome mother" Siegbert still had so many other questions but he knew it was best he leave most of them alone for now as he knew now they would get answered eventually and yet there was still one he still needed to ask "Mother, do you think dad would have... liked me."
His mother stopped hugging him,held him out to her still grasping his arms and looked him straight in the eye. Many things seem to pass through her eyes, she blinked slowly, when she lifted her eyelids her eyes became determined and firm "Siegbert, even without meeting you your father already loved you."
Siegbert gave a small gasp, his mother continued "I managed to tell him about you- before he died and he was so happy when he found out you existed, well first he told me 'considering who his mother is he's probably already gotten himself into a world of trouble' but wanted so badly to meet you even though he couldn't. So he asked me to take care of you and make sure you were happy"
Siegbert leaned against his mother and let out a deep breathe, he felt so calm and so peaceful that he didn't want to move even the slightest inch. They stayed like that for a while, Siegbert leaning against his mother who had embraced him again and started stroking his hair. "Mother, I think I would have really loved father as well, even without meeting him" he muttered softly.
"Hehe, I'm glad and thank you for asking about him, talking about your father after so many years felt good" She expressed, she got up and took his hand to help him up "Siegbert, if you want I could help you write a letter to your aunt Camilla and uncle Leo after lunch. They could probably tell you more things about your father as well."
"Sure" He exclaimed excitedly, "I hope my handwriting is ok."
"They won't care they'll just be glad to hear from you" She opened the door of his bedroom for him "Now come on the cook is serving grilled octopus and donburi for lunch and it smelled delicious."
"That sounds delicious" A thought struck him though at the though, they always dined with the rest of the family and he wondered what would happen now after last night.
"Mother does uncle Ryoma, aunt Hinoka, uncle Azama, uncle Takumi, aunt Hana, aunt Sakura and uncle Subaki know about father?"
"Yes, they would have had to and I won't lie they weren't pleased when they found out who your father was, especially your uncle Ryoma and Takumi but they accepted it and the only reason they haven't said anything is that I asked they wait until your a little older to tell you."
"But they still like me right?" He sheepishly asked.
His mother snorted as if that was the most ridiculous thing she's ever hear "Siegbert, they love you so much they were worried sick about you even Azama."
"Really?"
"Yes, and your cousins were worried about you too especially Shigure and Shiro both of whom I had to keep from busting down your door to check on you this morning" She laughed as she recounted the event.
Siegbert blushed and scratched the back of his neck, he snorted "I guess I did cause a pretty big scene last night."
"Don't worry everything will be ok, now come on lets go" She implored as they walked down the hall.
"Alright, but just one more question?"
"Just one more?" His mother raised an eyebrow.
Siegbert giggled "I'm sure just one, what was his name?"
His mother turned around and patted his head, she answered "His name was Xander."
Xander. That sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place where he had heard the name before. For now Siegbert would have to wait a while before he found out the whole story about his father, with all the intricate details but for now he was content and felt not so alone anymore.
The End!
Man I'm really tired, I really hope I got the characterizations of Siegbert and Corrin down. I tried my hardest to portray Siegbert as a kid wiser and more observant than most for his age but still a kid who still has a very black and white view of the world and is very insecure. As for Corrin, I always thought that the events of either Conquest or Birthright the events would weigh heavily on her even years later considering what happens in both. Especially for this one as this requires for her and Xander to have been in love prior to the birthright route so extra heartbreak and trauma for her. I tried to make where she was still wrestling with the guilt over what happened in Birthright to not just Xander but Camilla, Leo, Elise, Azura, Flora, Gunter etc. and especially since she's has a kid whose a constant reminder of all that went down but being unable to talk about it with him since he's way too young to even hear the vague details let alone the gritty ones.
I hope you enjoy leave a comment, critique or just a hello below I would really appreciate it.