Winter
He is winter, cold, broken, lacking the warmth and brightness of the sun.
Leo takes off his crown with every opportunity he gets, that heavy cage on his head smelted into the finest dark make the smiths could craft to fit his golden head.
It hurts to feel the ancient circlet that should've belonged to his brother on his own head. It is a travesty, and he cannot ever put it on without feeling the physical weight pulling him down.
The royal cloak does nothing to stop the frigid air from entering his bones.
O.O
Camilla weeps only once, at the burial. Her head's bowed, and her mouth works when they place Xander's coffin into the iced earth. But when they began to lower Elise's even tinier one into the gaping hole, she lunges for the pallbearers, screaming in that raw voice that only crying could shape.
"Don't you dare", She shrieks, her eyes wild. "Don't you dare put my baby sister in the ground."
Leo snatches her arm, pulling at the dark lace of her mourning gown, but tears are falling down his face as well, a steady flow as he numbly watches the silent servants place the small, much too small, casket into the earth, next to Xander's.
Camilla collapses, and her pale retainers carry her back to her chambers, where she lies in the grip of a fever for several days.
O.O
Leo rules over the shattered remains of Nohr with the equal firmness of his family, but with a calculated degree of leniency, enough to reassure his wary people that he is not his father.
For several months, they refuse all attempts at alliance with Hoshido. Whenever an envoy dressed in robes of scarlet and white arrives at their borders, Leo sends his own, decked in black and gold, with a respectful but firm message.
We refuse all Hoshidan contact until the proper time of mourning has passed.
Then, one day, a larger-than-usual entourage arrives on the border. And instead of scarlet and white robes, the slim figure that slips from the pegasus' saddle is dressed in rose and gold, a tiny circlet nestled in her vivid hair.
Royalty. A princess.
Leo can't refuse her now.
O.O
Princess Sakura is a strange choice for an ambassador, Leo first thinks.
She is a girl, a woman barely past her first flowering. She is timid, small, and soft-spoken, whereas in the past Leo remembers the past emissaries as loud and forward, thumping masculine fists on his father's marble tables.
But on the first day in court, Princess Sakura bows her head and publicly offers Hoshidan condolences to Nohr for losing two members of esteemed royalty. Then she thanks him for accepting her here.
A political move designed not to cut to the quick, but rather to strike dully on the hearts of Nohrian nobility. The court murmurs and shifts, and they look up to their young king seated on the onyx throne.
He leans back in his seat, tall, eyes glittering. But he allows a small, faint smile to play over his features. "You are most welcome, Princess Sakura of Hoshido."
O.O
It is frightening how much she is like Elise. Her smiles, her demeanor, even the way she waves her Sun Festal.
But she can never replace that laughing golden haired girl snatched too early from him, the maiden he called his sister for so long, the sweet girl that used to weave flower chains and set them on his head, giggling even though he groused and grumbled.
Now, Leo will give up his heavy metal crown for a single daisy chain woven by his sister, his laughing, silly, beautiful Elise.
So he closes his eyes when Sakura talks or laughs, and tries to pretend that the soft lilting voice belongs to his sister.
It doesn't work.
O.O
Through the many meetings she attends with them, Leo discovers that Sakura is actually a marvelous ambassador.
Though quiet and frightfully timid, she asks probing questions and answers loaded ones with admirable calm. She writes everything down, the scratching of her pen sometimes louder than her voice.
Though the atmosphere in the court is often charged with hostility, she arrives every morning promptly on time, and Leo begins to look forward to her arrival. He memorizes her entrance, the way she enters the heavy doors with cautious, yet unafraid, steps. Her retainers flank her protectively, weapons on full display.
But she is still of Hoshido, the kingdom that slaughtered their royalty, and that alone guarantees the black looks, the hateful whispers, and then, the assassination attempts.
O.O
The night the first assassin is caught, Leo busts into Princess Sakura's chambers, Brynhildr humming in his clenched fist, Niles and Odin on his heels.
The rooms are filled with candlelight and the metallic scent of blood and magic. The paneled windows are open, the slanting rain pelting the stone floor. When they charge in, the sky knight nearly takes off their heads with a gleaming lance, but backs down and apologizes profusely.
In her bed, Princess Sakura is pale and trembling, redness blooming across the hem of her nightgown, but it's not hers. The pretty swordswoman is dragging the assassin's body off the covers, her mouth set in a grim line, her rapier slick with dark red blood.
Relief sags at his shoulders, tugging them downwards. She is fine. She is alright. He sighs, and leans against the door frame, shoulders lax.
The pretty swordswoman glances up, and nearly has a fit. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, this is still a lady's room!"
Leo feels his cheeks heat and quickly backs out, carefully shutting the doors behind him. He turns to see Niles giving him what can only be described as a "devil's grin."
The grin is quickly wiped away as his liege speaks quietly, all traces of softness gone. "Get me the bastards who orchestrated this."
And in the morning, Leo watches their heads roll.
O.O
Most princesses would've run straight home after such a harrowing incident.
Princess Sakura, however, simply asks for a different chamber with two fireplaces. "It's colder here than in Hoshido." She twists her hands together, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I know it's a bother, but…."
Then Leo laughs, and she looks up with surprise at the unexpected sound. "Of course, princess." He says when he can speak without chuckling, and she smiles timidly back.
Maybe it was then he started to fall in love with her. Maybe. He still wasn't too sure.
Spring
He takes her to ride one of the floating gondolas on the river just outside Castle Krakenburg, the fabled mystic stream that was supposedly touched by the Dusk Dragon.
Sakura is awed by the graceful boat, running her hand along the glossy wood, voicing her admiration for the remarkable craftsmanship of the vessel.
Leo watches her converse shyly with the respectful gondolier, and there's an ache in his chest. Sakura turns to glance at him, and a slow smile spreads over her face.
He dares to hope.
O.O
People were beginning to notice his…interest with the Hoshidan princess.
Camilla says this, flatly, during their private dinner. "She can never replace our darling, sweet sister, you know." Her fork and knife click against the plate, cutting the meat into neat, geometrical cubes. She doesn't look at him.
"Of course not." Leo replies carefully. He watches her vibrant eyes finally slide to him, cold, assessing eyes that have changed drastically ever since she emerged from her hazy illness.
Camilla places a slice of meat in her mouth and chews slowly. When she has swallowed, she speaks in a tone so soft Leo has to strain to hear her. "The pink-haired little thing galls me. The resemblance. I despise her for it."
Leo looks at his older sister, at the empty chairs around the dining table. When he speaks again, his voice is rasping. "And that may be the reason I treasure her company."
Camilla stares at him as he knocks back his goblet of wine, downing it with one desperate gulp. When Leo sets it down, wiping his mouth, her dead eyes have blazed to life.
"I'm not letting a Hoshidan chit into our family." She slaps her utensils onto the table, a sharp, ringing sound that awakens the fighting instincts in Leo, making him rise with equal fervor.
"She is every bit the princess her title grants her." He snaps in return. Their retainers are approaching them with alarmed worry, their eyes darting back and forth between the two royals.
Camilla sits back down with a thump, her face physically pained, as if he has struck her. "Have you forgotten that Elise's birthday is in a scant few days?" Her voice is high, raw and rising in pitch. "Have you forgotten how just last year, we took her to see a concert in Windmire, and she was so moved she cried and laughed at the same time? Have you forgotten the way Xander smiled in the light of the stage lights? Have you forgotten-"
He slams his fist into the table. "I haven't forgotten anything!" His shout echoes around the room, and Selena drops her sword in shock. He could hear Odin muttering worriedly to Niles.
Camilla clamps her mouth shut, and Beruka prowls to her side, staring at Leo.
His sister then proceeds to sweep out of the room, and Leo slumps into his chair, running a hand through his blonde hair, exhaling a shaky breath.
The hurt in Camilla's eyes were a mirror to his own.
O.O
That night, Leo attacks the training dummies with a ferocity that had never burned in him before, even during the war. The pages of Brynhildr are humming with green flame, his fury channeled into the spells, unleashed upon the lifeless mannequins until they are nothing but shredded pieces of straw and wood.
Even then, he is not finished. He vents himself on the racks of training swords and lances, the ancient words of the powerful tome chanted like a battle cry, until the book burns his hands, searing through the gloves.
He screams with frustration and slumps to the ground, letting Brynhildr fall out of his numb and shaking hands. The tome lands on the stone floor with a dull thump, smoking slightly.
He shivers and wraps his arms around himself, exhausted. Leo places a hand over his eyes and inhales deeply. He stands.
The king of Norh then proceeds to quietly clean up the room.
O.O
Several days later, Camilla sits next to him as he is reading in the library, a book of her own.
Her voice is a soft whisper of noise, barely discernable. "I'm sorry, Leo."
Leo surprises both himself and her when he roughly hugs her. He is now tall enough to rest his chin over her pale shoulder.
His big sister holds on to him.
O.O
Sakura is a pale glimmer of light in the castle gardens, flitting noiselessly on the gravel paths. The night breeze stirs her hair, let loose for the night, and she tucks it behind her ear. Sakura reaches out to pluck roses with a naked hand, and bleeds because of it.
Leo watches her. She is Elise, and yet she is not. Her quiet strength is her own, and the artful magic she wields is of a kind wholly foreign to the science of Nohrian spells.
He begins to walk towards her. No. She is not Elise.
She is Sakura.
Leo reaches out, and snaps a dark blossom off the towering hedge, his arm hovering a hand's breadth over her cheek. The rose-haired princess starts, but glances timidly into his face. Her eyes are a blend between youthful naiveté and ancient wisdom, the strange combination utterly of Hoshido's.
Leo offers Princess Sakura a rose of Nohr. She takes it.
O.O
The day of her departure comes all too quickly.
They gather in the front courtyard to say their farewells. It surprises Leo when Camilla embraces Sakura tightly, whispering something that makes the younger girl smile and reply in kind. When Leo meets his sister's gaze when Camilla steps back, he sees nothing but the warmth of friendship.
Sakura approaches him, her pale face radiant in the light of the sun. She glances shyly at the ground and then raises her eyes to meet his. Leo catches his breath; she is wearing his rose in her hair.
He impulsively takes her hand and brings it to his lips. Her skin is warm under the silk of her glove, and something in him hums when her eyes widen and her pulse quickens.
"Do come back next year." Leo says when he finally releases her hands, his palms already missing the shared contact. "I-We will miss having you here." He winces inwardly at the slip-up.
But Sakura is smiling so brightly at him, and his heart skips a beat when she returns his smile, delightfully warm and reassuring. "I will."
Winter has no place here anymore.