Natural Superiority

By ElwynWanderer

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Summary: That mage-girl was maddening. She was stalking him yet again, and as much as he liked Lute enough was enough! KnollxLute, FE8

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Disclaimer: I had one wish left, and I was going to ask my genie for the rights to Fire Emblem. Then I thought, "Why wish to own Fire Emblem when I could wish to go there?" My wish was granted, but that's another story.

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The army wearily set up camp one night on the way to their next battle. The healers pitched their tent and began treating the wounded while the army's cooks - four Frelian citizens who were in charge of the convoy - prepared that evening's meal and a soldier or two went hunting or fishing nearby. Quiet conversations drifted through the campsite as friends got a chance to catch up and discuss the latest battles.

Knoll, however, had nothing to do that evening. None of his old friends were in the army (in fact, many of them had been executed back at the Grado capital), and he did not feel like explaining Lyon's story again to yet another awestruck listener. And so he found himself wandering aimlessly through the camp, contemplating some of the future events he had seen in Grado.

For no particular reason he turned left, and that's when he saw it - a brief glimpse of purple as someone scrambled to get behind him again. He quietly groaned. Lute was stalking him again.

That mage-girl was maddening. He could never make sense of her; first she spent days dogging his footsteps everywhere he went, then gave him a lengthy lecture about how she was a prodigy and his presence was a threat to her natural superiority, and then dismissed him as inferior. That, at last, had given him some peace.

But now she was back to stalking him. Why, why? What had he done to deserve this? As much as he liked Lute enough was enough!

Knoll abruptly stopped and whirled around. "Why are you following me again?" he demanded. "I thought you were done studying…me…" He made a kind of choking noise as he realized Lute had been tailing him much more closely that he had thought, and now that they were facing each other their noses were nearly touching. Knoll hastily took a step back, but Lute, who rarely became flustered, seemed unconcerned with their sudden closeness.

Instead she cocked her head and gave him an analytical look. "I'm not sure. Clearly my magic is far superior to yours, but I suspect you still have some secret skill that you've been concealing from me. I must discover what it is and become better at it than you. Thus I am studying you because I cannot allow you to threaten my natural superiority."

Oh, no, she was launching into another one of those long intellectual arguments that no one could follow. In desperation Knoll thought frantically for a way to shut her up. Nothing seemed to work on Lute, but perhaps if…

Hm…

An idea occurred to him, and before he could lose his nerve he took a step forward, lifted her chin, and kissed her thoroughly. Lute abruptly fell silent.

It was a surprisingly good kiss. Not that Knoll had much to compare it to, as he didn't habitually go around kissing cute purple-haired girls, but his small bit of experience with one or two girls from Grado indicated that this kiss was far from objectionable.

Then Lute excitedly pulled away. She snapped her fingers. "So that's it! You are a better kisser than me! I cannot allow that. I must prove my natural superiority in this area. I will need to observe your techniques and practice often, and by the time this war is over I will be the best kisser!" Then she spun on her heel and darted away.

From then on it became a pleasure to Knoll whenever Lute sought him out for her "research." And by the end of the war she was quite a competent kisser, indeed.

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A/N: I offer no explanation for this piece - mostly because I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote it. Oh, well. I hope you enjoyed it anyway.