prompt: We've been dating for almost a year now and your dad's side of the family is in town and you really don't want me to meet them even though I've met your mom and oh it turns out you're the heir to a small country what
Won't be home for dinner tonight. Something came up.
Severa stares at her phone, bemused. In the ten months they've been dating (and three months they've been practically living together), Lucina's never missed a "it's not delivery," stay-in pizza night, not even for that time her brother got his nose broken trying to pick up girls at the bar down the street from Severa's apartment. And that had been relatively early in their relationship.
Frowning, she texts Inigo, figuring he, if anyone, should know what's going on in his sister's life. Do you know what's up with Lucina? She just cancelled pizza night.
Yeah, sorry, his reply comes, not a second later. Something big came up. Talk to you about it later. g2g
"Thanks for nothing," Severa mutters under her breath, debating tossing her phone aside but deciding she'd rather spend her suddenly free evening with someone instead moping by herself.
She settles on calling Noire because she knows Noire will eat her pizza without asking too many questions.
Lucina doesn't make her appearance in Severa's apartment until the next morning, a solid twelve hours after she was supposed to.
To say Severa's a little irritated when she tries to slip into bed, unannounced, at five in the morning is something of an understatement.
"So what was the big thing last night you couldn't tell me about?" Severa asks once Lucina's settled in, her arms wrapped around Severa's waist.
"Oh! I didn't realize you were awake."
"You know I'm a light sleeper," Severa shoots back. "And stop trying to avoid the question. You never skip out on pizza night."
"I'm sorry, Severa. It was… an unexpected emergency," Lucina says. "I'm afraid I can't fully explain it yet."
Severa huffs, glad that she's facing away from Lucina because the last thing she wants to look at right now is that puppy-dog pout Lucina wears whenever she knows Severa's irritated with her. "Can't explain your big emergency. Right."
"I'm..." Lucina trails off, before snuggling further into Severa's hair. She's the only person Severa knows who actually wants to be closer to the people who are mad at her; it's weird. "I just don't know how to explain it yet. Give me some time, and I will, alright?"
"Fine," Severa huffs again for good measure, so Lucina knows that her cuddling shtick isn't getting her anywhere. "But don't think you can get away with cancelling on me last minute like that again."
Lucina smiles — not that Severa can see it with her laying the way she is, but she can feel the way Lucina's lips quirk against her neck before she presses a kiss to it. "Of course. I wouldn't dream of it."
"And it's good for you I get cold easily, or I'd make you sleep on the couch this week."
Lucina laughs at that, the sound and her warmth already lulling Severa back to sleep.
Dating Lucina does not come with many downsides, but of the particularly notable ones, Severa is pretty sure having to put up with Inigo is the worst. (Her terrible fashion sense, at least, means Severa has an excuse to demand that Lucina never go shopping without her, and making her model-level-hot girlfriend play dress up with her at all the local clothing stores sits towards the top of her favorite activities list. Getting hit on by her girlfriend's younger brother while said gorgeous-but-adorably-infuriatingly-oblivious girlfriend remains blissfully unaware does not.)
And it's not even like Severa dislikes Inigo or blames him for flirting with her. She's fully aware of how hot she is, and she knows that's just how he is. Inigo flirts with everything that moves. He's all bark and no bite, if that time she jokingly flirted back just to see what he would do and he looked vaguely like he was going to piss himself is any indication.
That doesn't mean she can stand talking to him for more than half an hour at a time.
"So why's it such a big deal that your dad's in town?" Severa says before taking a bite out of her burger.
"He's a busy guy, and he doesn't live around here," Inigo tell her, waving a fry around. "Plus, Lucina's always been daddy's little princess, so she likes to make time for him."
Severa grunts around her mouthful of food. "And why couldn't she just tell me that your dad dropped by unexpectedly?"
Inigo chews thoughtfully for a moment. "Hell if I know," he says, a few crumbs flying out of his full mouth and making Severa wrinkle her nose in disgust. "You'll have to ask her about that."
It's an obvious deflection if Severa's ever heard one, but she decides not to press it. There's something up with this impromptu fatherly visit, and Lucina's clearly already asked Inigo not to fill Severa in. And it's not like Severa can just ask Lucina why her father's in town when Severa's not supposed to know he's around in the first place.
"So," Severa says instead, "Lucina's as much of a daddy's girl as you are a momma's boy?"
It shouldn't be half as funny as it is when Inigo starts choking on his food.
As it just so happens, Severa's really bad at sitting on secrets and pretending like she doesn't know them.
"How come I've never met your dad?" she ends up blurting out one night while she and Lucina are cuddled up on the couch watching one of those rom coms that makes Lucina tear up and Severa roll her eyes.
"Huh?" Lucina responds, and it's perhaps the least eloquent Severa's ever heard her girlfriend in the two years she's known her.
There's no going back now, so Severa grits her teeth and pushes off her human cushion. "I've been to your mom's dance studio like a million and a half times, but you never talk about your dad. How come?"
To her surprise, Lucina smiles gently. "Well, to be honest, I don't get to see him much anymore. He and my mother divorced when I was still in high school, and my mother relocated here."
"So your mother got custody?"
"No, not quite. It's a bit complicated," Lucina says, with small frown. "They had an amicable divorce, and they still love each other very much, but Mother couldn't handle Father's lifestyle. They agreed on joint custody, but Mother would get Inigo for most of the year and Father would have me. We switched for school holidays."
Severa blinks. "That means you still grew up with him."
Lucina blinks back. "Yes?"
"So that doesn't explain why I haven't heard anything about him until now."
"Oh."
"Nevermind," Severa says with a sigh. It's obvious Lucina doesn't want to actually tell her anything about this mystery father of hers if she's kept it from her this long and confronting her about it is like pulling teeth. "Forget I mentioned it; it's not important."
"Don't say that," Lucina says, reaching out for her and closing the gap that opened between them. "If you cared enough to ask, of course it's important. I just… You tell me so much about your family that I often forget that I don't always return the favor. I'll try to be better about that in the future."
Severa lets herself relax into Lucina's arms, fully aware that Lucina's managed to get away without telling her what she actually wanted to know. "It's fine. It's not like I ever asked until now anyway."
Lucina hums, leaning down to peck Severa on the lips. "I love you."
Smiling despite herself, Severa presses their lips together a second time. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I love you too, dork."
It's kind of stupid how Severa ends up finding out.
There's a newspaper on the kitchen table. That shouldn't matter; Severa doesn't read the paper, doesn't even know how it got in her apartment. But she does notice the headline "World Leaders Arrive for Three-Day Trade Conference" in big block letters across the top.
And more importantly, she notices the picture — not even the main one under the headline, but the smaller one underneath that — of Lucina and Inigo standing next to some important-looking man she's never seen before. Perhaps most importantly, she reads the caption under that picture: "Prince Chrom of Ylisse (center) with his two children."
"Luci?" Sev calls, absentmindedly turning the stove off because she's done cooking anyway, and the last thing she needs upon discovering that her girlfriend may very well be a princess is to burn the apartment down. It'd make for a good story, sure, but she'd rather get her security deposit back someday.
Lucina pokes her head into the kitchen, so blissfully ignorant of the bombshell Severa is about to drop on her. "Yes?"
"What's this?" Severa asks, motioning towards the paper on the table.
Lucina glances at it. "The morning paper?"
"No," Severa says, feeling strangely calm, given how jumbled her thoughts are at the moment, "what's this?" She points at the offending picture.
Lucina takes another look at it and then pales. Severa's not sure if she's ever seen Lucina go so white in the entire time she's known her.
"That's…" Lucina starts before closing and opening her mouth a few times soundlessly.
"Is this why you cancelled pizza night?" Severa presses. "Why you haven't told me anything about your father?"
Instead of answering, Lucina pulls out one of the kitchen chairs and takes a seat. "I didn't mean to keep it from you," she says, though if her expression is anything to go by, she's as painfully aware of how much like an excuse that sounds as Severa is.
"Riiiight," Severa deadpans. "You weren't trying to keep it from me, but you also didn't see the point in informing me that your father's actual, literal, fucking royalty." Lucina winces, and that's Severa's first clue that she might be a little more angry about this that she thought she was. "Why? Why wouldn't you tell me about this?"
"If it's any consolation, I didn't tell anyone else, either," Lucina says, glancing at Severa before promptly averting her gaze when Severa gives her a look. "I promise, it's not like I didn't want to tell you. I did. It's just that…"
Severa raises one perfectly shaped eyebrow, and Lucina sighs.
"You can be so secretly insecure sometimes under all that bravado," Lucina admits, quietly. "Sometimes you're so scared that you're not good enough and you won't measure up to anyone, and I think you're perfect the way you are, Severa, I really do, so I didn't want to be one of those people you think you don't measure up to. I was worried you might think you aren't good enough to be in a relationship with me."
Severa's stunned. So stunned, it takes all her focus to pull out a chair of her own and slump into it. Burying her face into her hands, she resists the urge to scream. "You didn't tell me because you were worried I might break up with you?"
There's a pause, so Severa can only assume Lucina is nodding weakly, followed by a meek, "Yes."
"Gawds, I can't believe you sometimes," Severa says into her hands, the sound muffled.
"So you don't feel that way?"
Severa isn't sure if she's talking about her apparent lack of self-confidence or wanting to break up. "I don't know, I might have before, but I'm trying to prove you wrong, so of course I don't!" she practically snarls, ripping her hands away to reveal Lucina's timid expression.
It reminds her of their first real date, when Lucina showed up in the most god-awful dress, prompting Severa to say "Dear Lord, what are you wearing?" and Lucina to give her that same small, scared look. The date had gone well in the end, but only after Severa had grabbed Lucina's hand, muttering "I guess we'll have to kill 'em with confidence instead", and marched into the restaurant with the sort of grace only befitting a lady.
But it's this moment, with Lucina looking so ready to crumble at the prospect of Severa giving up on what they have together, more than all the I-love-yous or pizza nights or hours they've spent curled up on the couch together, that makes Severa realize just how much Lucina truly cares about her.
She reaches out, putting her hand on Lucina's shoulder, though it quickly slides up to cup her cheek. "Hey," she says, her voice too naturally rough to ever achieve that gentleness that Lucina's can, but she thinks she's pretty close this time. "I don't care if you're the world's greatest con artist or a serial killer or even heir to some foreign country. I love you, and I'm not going anywhere."
Slowly but surely as the words dawn on her, Lucina's face splits into the most glittering, brilliant smile, that she quickly hides by turning her head to press a kiss to Severa's palm. "I was just so scared of losing you."
"Well sorry to break it to you, but you're kind of stuck with me whether you like it or not, so you better get used to it," Severa quips, doing Lucina one better and pulling her in for a short kiss to her lips.
Lucina just smiles at her, eyes watery, before leaning in for another and another. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Severa pulls off her helmet and immediately checks her hair in her side view mirror. "I still can't believe your father is the same guy my mom had one of those unattainable, celebrity crushes on in high school," she grumbles, fixing her hair until it's something similar to the way it looked before the ride over.
"The world is always smaller than we expect, I suppose," Lucina says with a laugh, sliding her own helmet off. Her helmet hair is terrible as always, and she's making no moves to fix it herself — Severa suspects Lucina prefers having Severa fix it for her — so Severa runs her hands through it until its typical volume has returned. "I should warn you before we go in, though. My parents may be divorced, but they're still quite affectionate with each other. Inigo likes to say they never left the newlywed stage."
Severa grimaces briefly, before nodding. "That's fine. I can handle a little parent-PDA. God only knows mine are some of the worst offenders," she says, swinging her leg off her bike and offering Lucina a hand while she does the same. "Wait, he's not the kind of dad that would sick his bodyguard on me if I walk in there holding your hand, is he?"
Lucina giggles, covering her mouth with her free hand and intertwining their fingers. "No, he's not. He's actually quite excited to meet you."
"That's," Severa considers it for moment — that's probably a good thing, right? — "good."
"He's going to love you Severa," Lucina tells her. "Mother and Inigo already do, and so do I."
"I'm not worried about that," Severa says, though if Lucina's grin is any indication, she doesn't buy it. "But thanks for the vote of confidence."
Lucina just gives her dazzling smile and a peck on the lips. "Now, come. I'm sure Father's beside himself wondering what's taking us so long."
And with that, she lets Lucina lead them into a restaurant way above her income level.
A/N: The first fic I ever posted was Fire Emblem fic, and here we are, seven years later, come full circle. I like to think I've progressed as a writer since then, but if the only obvious change is that I've gotten a hell of a lot gayer, I'll take it. Love me some lucisev.
Prompt taken from a whole list of Princess Diaries-inspired AUs here: post/140037209352