This fandom is in sad need of some Vanessa and Innes love. -.- I just thought that with a completely straight face. I freaking love Vanessa, she's always my number one soldier in the game. It takes forever but eventually she can fly around killing anything. And I think it's sweet, the whole loving someone like Innes. (Which really means, she's a saint for loving someone with a pole so far up his ass.) I actually think they'd be a good couple. I mean, I get the whole Forde and Vanessa pairing appeal with the low status and incidentally handsome knight with the good humor and charisma that really loves her and blah, blah, blah, blah. Can you tell I'm bitter?

My annoying little rant aside that everyone who bothered, regretted reading- HERE IS MY STORY!

Disclaimer: I OWN THEM! I OWN THEIR SOULS! Noooooope. I don't. Sad. I do not own Fire Emblem nor any of it's characters. There. Happy?!

I sighed and rolled over in my sleeping pack as the thunder pounded once again. The loud explosion of sound reverberated through the camp and I sat up rubbing my eyes. I could never sleep with this noise. I stood from the twisted blankets and slid on my normal robes and brushed out of my flimsy cloth tent that had been dripping.

I winced under the sudden downpour of rain. I blinked a few times to get the water out of my eyes and looked around to get my bearings. I watched in amusement at the going ons around me. The little archer girl named Neimi sprinted out of her tent and into the one that belonged to that thief boy. Erika also raced out of her tent with slightly messy turquoise hair and looked around franticly before running into General Seth's tent. Then came the mage with purple hair that rushed for the other mage's tent. Artur, I think was his name.

Those were only a few of the various females rushing around to get to their various love's tents. I chuckled a bit and shook my head. Then I remembered something that sobered me up. What if she was running for some other man's tent. Immediately I felt my face fall into the usual scowl and I began to sift through the mess with my eyes for emerald hair and porcelain skin. Nothing.

I shook my head and ran my fingers through my now soaked hair. Why should I care? She's only a knight anyways. It's not as if I have any romantic interest in her.

I blinked my eyes closed and sucked in a deep breath of the rain filled air. I began to walk through the squelching mud towards the watch post we had set up. Any enemy must be mad to attack now, but nevertheless we had a guard on guard duty. I wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight with the idea of her being comforted in someone else's arms so I might as well be productive.

I heard soft words and whimpers coming from all the tents I passed and it no longer felt funny to me. In fact, it angered me a bit that all of these men had so easily obtained their loves just by merely holding out their arms while she rushed to them. There was nothing like duty dividing them, or miles and miles of sky while you watched her battle on her Pegasus. They all had it easy. It wasn't fair.

Finally I began to draw near to the rock on top of the hill that the appointed guard would sit on. I took the last few steps up the hill and stopped in surprise.

There she sat, in her soaking wet Pegasus Knight garb. She wasn't shivering though, but then again, she'd never do anything as unproductive as shiver while on duty. Her dark hair had fallen out of its braid and it made dark outlines against the pale skin on her neck. She was sitting pole straight, holding her new silver lance in her hand. She had become one of our best soldiers now, and she was skilled enough to wield a silver weapon. She was extremely proud of it and spent every opportunity she had training with it to become accustomed to the immense weight.

She whirled to face me, shifting into the fighting stance and pointing the tip of the lance directly at my chest. Her small body heaved with quick breaths and her emerald eyes glinted with determination. They softened when they saw who it was looked me up and down taking in my water logged appearance. She eased out of the ready stance and a soft smile lit her face.

"You too, Sire?"

"Vanessa, how many times must I tell you to call me Innes?"

I took a few steps towards her as she sat down in front of the rock and leaned her back against it. I eased down beside her and looked out at the valley we had crossed the day before.

"Sorry, force of habit."

"What did you mean by you too?"

"Oh," she said softly, "I meant you couldn't sleep too."

I looked at her in surprise and she turned to looked at me as well. She looked especially beautiful with clear drops of water sliding down her cheeks and clinging to her eyelashes. Even during the daytime though, she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Not that I'd ever told her that.

"Yes," I finally replied, "I decided to come take watch so whoever the poor devil was up here, could have a break."

She chuckled and turned back to watch for nonexistent enemies approaching up the hill. "Me too. Kyle was reluctant at first but once I told him that Syrene was considering searching for Gilliam because he himself was on guard duty and unavailable then he went sprinting down that hill."

I felt the corners of my lips tilt up as I imagined Eprahiam's knight rushing down the slippery slope in a frantic haste for his own emerald haired Pegasus knight. The lucky bastard.

"Did you see the mess?"

I watched her face carefully as her eyes dulled a little bit. "Yes," she murmured quietly.

There was a bit of silence before I said, "I thought you had ran to someone's tent like the rest of them."

Vanessa looked down at her hands that held her lance tightly and whispered, "Whose tent would I run to?"

For some reason, I felt the overwhelming urge to say: Mine. My tent. I would have taken care of you because you try so hard to take care of me.

"The Cavalier's," I found myself saying instead. "The blonde one with the paint."

I felt a bitter taste in mouth after I said those words but continued to watch Vanessa. Her eyes widened and she looked at me in surprise.

"You mean Forde?"

"Yes," I said in a bitter voice, hating the name even more when she said it. "He likes you." I disliked the feeling of jealousy which I had never experienced until I saw her smiling at the blonde cavalier while he showed her his sketches. Only I am allowed to make Vanessa smile.

Vanessa smiled and shook her head. "No he doesn't. He wouldn't like someone boring and uptight."

That wasn't true at all and I wanted to tell her so in a loud voice while shaking her shoulders but I restrained myself. "That's not true at all, Vanessa. Your presence is very enjoyable."

I watched as her cheeks turned a light pink and she turned back to face the valley. "Thank you, Innes… I wouldn't love him anyways. He's too laid back, I'd probably be nagging him all the time."

I felt my shoulders lighten as if a burden had been removed and my lips turned up. I continued to watch her face silently with interest. She didn't even flinch when the thunder pounded.

"You aren't afraid of thunder and lightning?"

Vanessa turned back to face me with a bitter smile on her face. "I'm terrified of thunder and lightning.

I raised an eyebrow at her confused and my point was made when another boom and flash came and she didn't even twitch.

She sighed before beginning to speak. "Before I became a knight, I was fighting off mercenaries with a few comrades. It was raining… A lot and it made it hard to see. I was doing all right though till thunder sounded. Titania bucked and steadied but I was still shaken. My fighting wasn't as good and I got a wound on my arm."

I watched as she pulled back a sleeve to reveal a white scar that stretched along her forearm. I looked back up at her eyes as she continued her story.

"But that wasn't even the worst part. All of a sudden there was this big bright light all around. It blinded me and the static around us made Titania balk. I couldn't even control her or even try to calm her down, I was so scared. We had to flee and go back after the mercenaries the next day."

I watched as her eyes fog over and a memory played behind them.

"But wouldn't that make you even more afraid of storms?"

Her eyes focused on me again and she smiled a bittersweet smile. "It made me scared stiff of storms. The mention of one sent me shivering. But…"

She took a deep breath before continuing. "I didn't like being afraid of something or weak. The area was one that received lots of storms like that so I asked for leave to train there. Every other day or every day, there would be a storm and I'd force myself to go out and ride Titania and practice all through the storm. I did that for a whole two months and finally I stopped shivering and I could focus when I went out. Now I can fight in storms just as well as when there isn't one."

I felt my lips tilt up at the story. That was classic Vanessa. Eliminating all weakness and forcing herself to become a better knight. That was one of the things I had always admired about her- her unbreakable willpower. Sometimes I envied her for it.

She turned away from me after the story was done and looked out at the valley once more with an upset face that confused me.

"What's wrong?"

I was surprised to hear a sniff and I watched in horror as her eyes began to well up with tears. "I'm not normal," she burst out. "I'm not like all the other girls who can run to find someone to be with when there's thunder! I'm not pretty like them and I don't act like them! I'm uptight all the time and all I do is train! I don't have a life, I'm pathetic!"

I felt my eyes widen and I watched as her shoulders crumpled from their straight position into a hunched one as she began to shake with sobs. I couldn't help but wonder when she had last allowed herself to cry. Probably years.

Not knowing what else to do, I decided to follow instinct. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my chest. I felt her stiffen and I worried I'd done the wrong thing till she burrowed into my chest and began to cry even harder. I stroked her wet hair gently and wondered how on earth she had managed to make me so soft.

"I think I'd rather be in love with a girl who doesn't run away from thunder."

At my words, Vanessa pulled back enough so she could look up at me with slightly pink emerald eyes. "What?"

"Think I'd rather be in love with a girl who has the persistence to continue to train herself the way she should be for a battle even though it scares her half to death."

Her eyes widened and I decided to continue. "I think I'd also like to be in love with a girl who is dedicated enough to train herself to exhaustion for a cause she believes in. And I'd also like to be in love with a girl I can discuss battle strategies with. And a girl that never, ever panics no matter what happens. And… I think I'd like to be in love with a girl who's always by my side. I think I've found one but I honestly don't know if she loves me back and I'm going to feel like a real imbecile in about two seconds if she doesn't say something."

I watched with apprehension as a slow smile lit her face. "And I think I'm in love with a silly Prince who fell for his knight."

And with that I leaned down and kissed her because I suppose she had made me rather silly.