A/N: Another great Seisen pairing, Lex/Aira! This fic will be two parts, based mostly off the manga. The scenes are taken from there, but the dialogue is my own, as is the description. It would make more sense if you've read the manga, but it's not necessary at all. At least, I hope it makes sense! This was a weird piece for me to write, for some reason, but I hope it comes together.
Please read and review and enjoy!
Never, in his entire life, had he seen swordplay quite like that. And from a woman, nonetheless. In the middle of the battlefield, he went slack-jawed, as if watching a spirit dance. She might as well have been a spirit, with her exotic black hair and sharp beauty.
He didn't know what came over him then. But he could not resist challenging her. With a shout, he charged toward her, his voice catching her by surprise.
"What's a lady like you doing on the battlefield?"
She whipped around in just enough time to raise her blade against his axe; the resulting crash sent tremors up his arm. Quickly she leapt away to regain her composure. By the time Lex wheeled his horse around for another strike, she was ready for him, undercutting his blade and twisting the handle.
"Prepare to die," she hissed.
He growled with the effort of pulling his weapon free. When it came to brute strength, he had her beat; but she did not pause in initiating her next attack. She aimed for his left hand, the one clutched around the reins of his horse, and missed by a mere hair. When Lex next tried to strike her, he missed, but only partially – the long handle of his axe caught her shoulder, pushing her to the ground and sending her sword skittering away. Lex leapt off his horse and, towering over her, held the blade to her throat before she could move.
"Who the hell are you?" he said, his breathing hard.
She scowled. "Like I would tell you," she said, and kicked him hard in the shins. With a grunt of pain, Lex fell to his knees, infuriated.
"Like you could defeat me with a move like that!"
He caught her arm before she had time to scramble away. He pulled her back to the ground, pressing her down with his body, sliding the handle of his axe so it rested firmly upon her pale neck. He pinned her sword-hand helplessly to the ground.
"Looks like it is you who must prepare to die," he said softly. Blood pounded in his ears, both from the adrenaline of battle and the instinctive pleasure of feeling this woman helpless underneath him. He could not help but desire her. It was not simple lust, either; no, there was something about her that he had never sensed in any other woman.
It was then that he noticed her eyes. Even narrowed in battle-hardened hatred, they shone with tears, furious tears, true tears. Again Lex's mouth fell open, and he dropped his guard. How could he kill a crying woman, even if she was a soldier?
She did not miss her chance. She rolled out of his grip and dove for her sword, snatching it at once, whipping around to face him in her most powerful stance. She spat at the ground, ignoring the tears on her cheeks.
"There's no way I'll die," she growled.
Lex rose to his feet slowly. He couldn't imagine what she was fighting for, and for all that he had been dying to challenge her, he was now loath to finish the bout. He gritted his teeth and locked eyes with her. "Give up," he said. "Give up so I don't have to kill you."
"Don't patronize me!"
He realized belatedly that he could hardly have expected that to work. But it was no matter. She had chosen her fate – just as he had chosen his, to be here as a soldier, when he ran away from his home. He would not trade it for the world. If part of his new life was to kill a striking young woman, a soldier, then so be it. He would do it.
A princess. A goddamn princess. He winced every time he thought of it. He'd battled a swordfighting princess and pushed her to the ground like a common whore. Then again, she had been trying to kill him, so perhaps it was fair.
Busy thoughts swirled around his head as he rounded a corner in Evans castle, talking absently with Azel, unaware of his surroundings.
And, of course, she was right there. She sat alone save for Prince Shanan, who was entertaining himself as children do, and she was staring blankly at the floor, her back straight, her posture sharp. At once Lex broke off his conversation, leaving Azel a little confused behind him.
She didn't look at him as he approached. So, praying that he wasn't about to get himself skewered – for she still had her sword, while he was weaponless – he sat down next to her, stretching and relaxing.
"What are you doing?" she asked without looking at him.
"Sitting down. I was tired of standing."
There was a short pause. Lex studied her as her blank stare turned pointed and angry, and she crossed her arms. "Just a few short hours ago, we were trying to kill each other. And now you're making small talk? What do you want?"
"Do you always assume the worst in people?" Lex asked, frustrated. "I just thought you could use the company. You look worried. You can trust Sigurd. He won't give you away. He's the kind of guy who can never tell a lie – and I know. I've spent a lot of time with royals in court, and I can tell the liars from the honest."
"For all I know, you could be lying to me," she hissed through gritted teeth. "What evidence do I have that you are an honest man? You nobles, you men, all of you – you're all the same. I was not sorry to leave the royal court, even if it meant leaving my family and my country behind. Finally I had the chance to be my own person, I thought – to be respected in my own right, as a fighter, not as a princess! But what happens? I meet you, and you only prove what I have believed all along! Men are rude and conceited, and nobles even more so. Especially here. Grandbell attacked Isaac, my country, an innocent country, and for what?
"And you. What did you think when first you saw me? All I know is that soon enough you thought of me as nothing more than a whore, defenseless on the ground. And now you try to make amends, talking of all your grand abilities, acting like you're some kind of saint to befriend the lonely princess. You're a fool! I don't trust you, I don't trust any of you. Perhaps you bested me once in combat, but do not be so arrogant as to think it can happen again. I am only here to protect Prince Shanan, for I will not leave him in your hands, the hands of foolish nobles who will teach him only how to lie and kill. We may be of royal blood, but we are not like you. Do not presume to speak to me again in such a way, Lord Lex, or it might be the last thing you will ever do."
She leapt to her feet and shooed Shanan down the hall ahead of her. Belatedly Lex realized that, as was becoming a common occurrence with this woman, he was staring open-mouthed. She turned up her chin and looked away, disdainful.
Quickly Lex stood up and followed her, grabbing her shoulder. "Wait! Aira, you've got it wrong."
At once, her sword was at his throat. "I thought I told you not to speak to me again."
"You said not to speak to you in such a way. I'm taking that to mean you don't like excessive displays of pride. I don't believe I was excessive, but as you are the one with a weapon, I concede to your superior opinion."
Slowly, very slowly, she lowered her blade and sheathed it. "What? What do you want to say?"
Instinctively, Lex rubbed the back of his neck, searching for the right words. What was he going to say? He'd had nothing in mind when he stopped her. He just didn't want her to leave thinking so poorly of him. At last he sighed, deciding on the truth. "You speak of the nobility with such disgust. I understand that. I am nobly born, but I left my family, because they were exactly the type of nobles you described. It repelled me, how people could lie and scheme like that, and never be thought less of for it. But I joined Sigurd because he's not like that. You are nobly born, and you're a good person – blatantly honest, as I've just discovered – and you are not alone! Please, Aira… I may be a man, but I am an honest one. I came here to apologize. My conduct in our fight was instinctive, and largely unacceptable. If you would so oblige me, I would like to challenge you to a rematch."
She did not gape at him, like he had at her speech. His words weren't much in comparison to hers, he knew. But all the same, she seemed to soften to his silly grin.
"You are insufferable," she said, a hint of a smile at her lips as well. "A rematch then, Lex. You will not be as lucky as you were before. And… I am sorry, too, for trying so hard to kill you. Whenever it is that we will battle… prepare to be defeated."
With that, she took her leave, her back straight and her long, dark hair dancing behind her. Lex watched her until she disappeared around the corner, then smiled.
"Defeated…" he murmured under his breath. "Oh, I don't know about that."
As the slow days passed in the castle, Lex always kept one eye on Aira. He learned quite a bit about her through his discreet observances, her few but carefully chosen words, and their occasional sparring matches.
He learned that she was fiercely protective of Prince Shanan and fiercely proud of her strength. She'd cried during their first fight because she could bear the thought of failing in protecting her charge. In that, she would never change. But as time wore on, he noticed her becoming a little more trusting of the surrounding noble society. Lex liked to think it was due to him, of course, but he couldn't be sure, for she didn't initiate conversations with him very much. He was always the one to approach her. She didn't glare at him like she used to, at least.
Well, she didn't often glare at him. For at the moment, her stare could melt steel. In his current position, though, he could not say that he wasn't surprised.
"What are you doing here?" she said. "This is my place – I found it first, I like the view! Move!"
"Is it really?" Lex said carelessly. He stretched out in the dip of the castle's turret. Here, on the tallest tower, he could see for miles, rolling plains and seas and forests and everything. The turret was just wide enough for two people to sit comfortably, but Lex was sitting sideways, his back against one wall and his feet against the other. "You could sit on my lap, if you like."
To his delight, a hot flush crept over her cheeks. She crossed her arms and turned up her chin stubbornly. "And why would I want to do that?"
"Oh, I don't know. I'm hoping you like me a least a little bit by now."
She responded by kicking him in the shins, forcing him to move or else risk falling off the edge.
"All right, all right, I'll scoot over!"
Her face still slightly pink, she sat down with her legs hanging over the edge. The sight made him a little bit nervous, but he deciding against saying anything about it. His shins were bruised enough already. As she gazed out at the scenery, she seemed to relax a little bit; her face softened, but her shoulders and her posture remained tense. Lex sighed.
"You're a very stubborn person, you know that?"
She nodded. "Lex, I have a question for you."
"Ask away."
"Why aren't you going back to your home castle? The fighting has been quiet for some time… and they may be nobility, but they are your family." Her gaze dropped to the ground, far below. "You should never desert your family."
Something in her tone made Lex look closely at her, but her face revealed nothing. Were she and Shanan all she had left of her family? Shanan was her brother's son, but Aira cared for him as if he were her own… So here was something else he had learned about her. She missed her family, her home, after all.
He, on the other hand, did not.
"I find that it's far more comfortable here," he said smoothly. "And… more importantly… there's a girl here who's piqued my interest."
At once – as he had planned – her cheeks lit up pink. Her eyes flickered up to meet his, her gaze a little confused. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but said nothing, and Lex couldn't resist teasing her.
"Oh, you thought I meant you just now, didn't you?" he said cheerfully.
She glowered at him. If she'd had a sword, Lex was quite certain she would have run him through on the spot. But he couldn't tell her anything just yet. Surely he didn't like her, or anything, she was just… fascinating.
"With you here, I won't get bored," he continued. "The first time we fought… I had never experienced that kind of thrill before. I don't want to lose that opportunity, you see. You're a fierce opponent."
Just before she looked away, he glimpsed a strange warmth in her eyes, a relaxed air about her that he hadn't noticed before. She fixed her dark eyes on the horizon, and Lex was content to sit with her in comfortable silence.
Maybe – just maybe – she was finally settling in.
Lex kept one eye on Aira's retreating figure as he examined the little trinket she had just pressed into his hand. It was so uncharacteristically adorable, for her to approach him like that, her cheeks flaming and her words hurried. She'd barely met his eyes. But all the same, her tone was sharp and direct as she'd explained to him what it was that he now held. She hadn't lost her pride.
It was a tiny ring, made with her own shiny black hair, tightly braided and cleanly fixed to a small bluish gemstone, set in metal. If you weave a ring with a turquoise gem and the hair of a strong warrior, the wearer will not die in the coming battle.
So she did care for him in her own way, after all. It was perfect timing, as well – just when he'd been talking to Azel, hoping that his friend would help him watch out for her, Aira had approached with the intention of helping to protect Lex. Not that he needed it, of course, but he appreciated it all the same.
Lex attempted to slip the ring on his smallest finger, but even then, his hand was too big. There was no chance that it would fit. Thinking for a moment, Lex pulled a long, loose thread from the end of his tunic, and slipped the ring onto it. He tied the string around his neck, and let the ring slip beneath his shirt to rest on his chest, right above his heart. He rather liked the feeling. A soft smile touched his lips involuntarily, and he hoped fervently that Azel wasn't still watching. It wouldn't do for anyone to see him so sentimental.