"Hello. I'm Nah." She sticks out a hand in greeting. Gerome looks at her behind one of his masks, and takes it after a pause.
"Gerome. And this is Minerva." He adds, introducing the wyvern.
"This is Saeymour," Nah replies, introducing her own wyvern.
Gerome looks at the other beast, its scales glimmering with an almost unnatural shine with a toss of the head. Looking at Nah again, he sees her gently stroking Minerva.
"Don't touch her," he snaps possessively. Minerva squaks in protest, but he'd rather they not get attached to another probable-eventual-corpse.
Nah frowns and then backs away to care for her own wyvern, checking the straps of the saddle and harness, as well as making sure that her extra weapons and potions are secured.
Gerome watches her, thinking that he may have hurt her by accident. "Sorry, it's just that-"
"I know how you feel. We all miss our parents, but I think we should cherish the time we have before we need to hide from our present selves." Nah replies.
"I disagree. I don't think we should reopen fresh wounds. I only came back so Minerva could be released into the wild with other wyverns." Gerome replies non-optimistically.
Nah gives a little "Hm," of thought as they mount their beasts and take flight above the battlefield.
Gerome was always apathetic, so when he noticed a pattern of flutters around Nah, he was quite concerned.
"Cut it out, it's not like you should get attached to others anymore." He mutters to himself.
"Hey! Gerome!" Calls out Nah, running at him and Minerva the fastest her short legs can carry her.
"Argh." He mumbles to himself.
"Hello, Nah."
"I...I wanted to apologize about last week." She awkwardly kicked the ground. "It was...intrusive of me. And irrational."
Self-consciously, Gerome reaches up to push up his mask, obscuring his scars and burn marks. "It's alright. Don't do it again." He pats Minerva on her head and walks off to go on patrol of the camp. Unluckily for him, Nah followed.
"I hope you don't mind if I follow you some more. But I want to know how you got them." Sensing the anger darken the air around him, she added quickly, "I promise not tell anyone either."
He continues to walk in thoughtful silence. Finally, he begins.
It was a long time ago. Or a long time ahead.
I was just a young child. A clumsy child as well.
I was playing with Minerva, since my mother was inside the house.
I fell down a cliff, scared by a strange ping and green dragon flying by. She tried to save me, spewing flames. She managed to grab ahold of me...with her talons.
Needless to say, it was painful. It's not something I like to relive.
Gerome looked up to see Nah holding his hand with pain in her expression.
"I'm sorry this happened to you."
"Leave the past in the past." He replied dismissively.
Her hand comfortingly gripped his, assuring him that he shouldn't be sad or negative.
Her hand...holding his...
Gerome rarely blushed deeply enough to be visible beyond his mask, and was incredibly thankful for the dark cover of dusk, as well as the somewhat nippy wind.
"It's getting late. Would you prefer to stay at my tent?"
She nodded. "It's much scarier to wake up alone...I used to do that a lot..."
Nah awkwardly picks at a loose thread on her new clothing as she waits for Gerome to finish tending to Minerva for the night. When he returns, he raises an eyebrow at her new attire.
"I thought you were a Wyvern Rider?"
"I...well...Robin thought I should return to doing what I was doing in the first place."
"He's an odd fellow."
Nah nods in agreement as she turns to lie down and curl up in a bed opposite Gerome.
Oh, you ought to be braver, Nah! She mentally chided herself.
But what if he rejects me? Or what if he decides to never talk again? Or spreads rumors? She scrunched up her face in the dark and took a silent, deep breath.
"G-Gerome? Do you mind if I sleep next to you? I'm afraid I'm quite cold..." She mumbled quietly.
Suddenly, she looked with her half-closed eyes to find him carrying her gently, placing her on the bed before he laid down to sleep.
"...I appreciate it..." She whispered sleepily.
Oh, damn it all! Gerome cried internally. He leaned forwards and kissed her quickly and bravely.
The next battle, Gerome found Nah wearing a simple white dress with red boots and red gloves, and her hair carefully done into two thin braids framing her face.
"Hello, beautiful." He whispers to her quietly as she jumps up on Minerva, wrapping her arms around his torso so as to not fall off.
Nowi ran up to the duo, unfazed at her daughter holding onto a man.
"Don't wear yourself out, and only use it when you need to! Don't get hurt, honey!" Nowi says with a happy smile and runs off again.
"What are you?" Asks Gerome.
He feels Nah shake her head on his back. "Not yet." She mumbles against the wind.
The pair lands in a forest clearing, Nah jumping off Minerva to run alongside the Wyvern and its rider.
Arrows begin to fly from the trees. Gerome yells in pain.
Nah presses her eyes together in fear.
She reaches for the stone in her purse, raising a stone high above her head. The sun shines off it as a huge lotus blooms and unfurls to reveal a pink dragon.
Gerome doesn't see, he's closed his eyes and willing to accept death.
He hears silence, and stands up slowly.
"Nah? NAH?!" He yells out for her.
The dragon returns with Brady in tow.
"There. Be careful!" Brady says after healing the two. He runs off to find other injured warriors. The dragon lands as Gerome instinctively grabs an axe in defense.
"..." It looks away, sadly.
Realization strikes him as he drops the axe and walks forwards. He touches the dragon gingerly on the wing.
"You caused this." He said, pointing to the mask.
Nah looks away, ashamed.
"And you saved me today." He adds. "Please Nah, let's keep each other safe. Forever."
The dragon bends forward as a low rumble hits his ears. It's distorted and deep, but her feminine voice responds. "I am yours."
a/n: On my first playthrough of awakening, I had reclassed Nah into a wyvern rider before I made the decision to marry her to Gerome. In short, it seemed like he had never "met" her while she was still a manakete class. I thought it would make for a good fic once I reclassed her back into a manakete.