Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem. This is based off of Miss Selah's 100 Little Pieces, but the prompts are different, though some are the same (which was actually accidental). After awhile at looking at those who answered her challenge, I felt that her prompts left things unsaid for me. So I created my own.
100 Little Pieces
Saleh and Ewan
1. Destiny
They had first met when he was a child, no older than nine, on a random occasion. He had fallen in the sage's path while running errands for his sister one day, and even at a young age, he had known their meeting was destiny.
2. Dance
"Teacher, would you like to dance?"
Saleh looked up from his book, suddenly very aware of all the chattering among the small army. His student stood in front of him — a small boy who was barely half his size — with one hand held out to him, and Saleh found that he couldn't refuse anything that Ewan asked. He took his hand.
3. Fire
He smelled smoke coming from behind him, and when he turned around, he saw that his cloak had caught fire.
And then, suddenly, a cold bucket of water was poured over him, and as he rubbed the liquid out of his eyes, he could see his student drop the bucket with a horrified expression on his face. Laughing and dripping wet, he only shook his head and went back to his book.
4. Innocence
When he was older, he noticed that when Saleh explained the principles of anima magic, there was a hint of innocence that everyone thought had disappeared. He rather liked it.
5. Tree
He didn't know just exactly how the boy had gotten stuck up the tree, but he found out that day, as he tried to coax him down, that he was scared of heights.
6. Butterflies
Ewan couldn't stop laughing, though Saleh continuously asked him what was so funny, but the redhead didn't have the heart to tell him that there were a few butterflies that seemed to like him.
7. Secret
Once Ewan became his student, he found himself enjoying the times when the boy would hesitantly tug on his cloak and whisper a secret in his ear. Though the supposed 'secret' was usually half-murmured nonsense, it meant the world to him.
8. Scrape
He both hated and loved getting hurt in his training. He hated it because the scrape hurt, and he loved it because then his teacher would fuss over him as he healed it with a Heal staff.
9. Spiders
When he heard Ewan screaming and had rushed out, Saleh had expected enemy brigands attacking him. What he found was a harmless spider that had chased the boy up another tree.
10. Adorable
He really is adorable when he sleeps, Saleh mused some seven years after their first encounter. He set down his tome and pulled the covers back over the sixteen-year-old's shoulders, choosing, instead, to watch over him.
11. Panic
Panic swelled up with him when he saw a living skeleton stab his student with its lance, followed quickly by pride when he saw that the boy still fought even with his wound.
12. Snowflake
"Look, look, Teacher!" cried Ewan as he rushed up to him.
Saleh turned his head, "Yes?"
"I caught a — huh? It's gone!"
The sage laughed and ruffled the boy's hair, disrupting the snow that had gathered there. "Well, then, catch me another one."
"Okay!"
A moment later, he heard Ewan coming back, and the cycle continued until dinnertime.
13. Blush
There were only a few times that Ewan had seen the sage embarrassed. Once was when he had slipped on some mud while they walked back to Caer Pelyn. The other was when he had messed up on directions, completely missing their destination by a few miles.
Ewan didn't know why, but he was determined to see him blush again.
14. Name
"I don't like my name," the redhead stated one day, and he couldn't help the confusion that settled in his expression.
"Why? I think it suits you."
"Duh! Because it's my name!"
Saleh smiled. "Exactly. So, why change it when it's yours?"
"Because I like your name better," he answered indignantly, flushing.
He chuckled. "I'm sorry, but you can't have it."
"But then what can I have?"
"Everything else of mine — just not that."
15. Birthday
For his nineteenth birthday, he asked for a kiss, knowing that his teacher couldn't refuse anything on his birthday.
He found out later that that was what Saleh wanted for his own birthday, as well, and he was more than happy to oblige.
16. Angels
"You know, sometimes I think I see people with wings," the redhead said after a moment of silence as he took off his shirt, setting it on one of the dressers inside the room they'd been given. "You know, like angels."
"I see one right now."
Ewan turned around. Saleh was watching him.
17. Thief
When he was a child, Saleh had once been labeled a thief under false pretenses and jealousy. So, when a big burly man accused Ewan of the same, he just had to step up in the boy's defense. He won that argument without any sort of fist fight. But, hey, wasn't magic his specialty?
18. I told you so
"You're going to make yourself dizzy, Ewan," Saleh stated as the child spun around in circles, delighted in the adrenaline rush it gave him.
Seconds later, he landed face-first into the grass, his head spinning as fast as he had been.
"I told you so."
19. Scared
A knock on his door awakened him when the moon was high in the sky, and as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he saw the boy, huddled up in a sheet, muddy, and shaking. "Ewan? What's wrong?" He knew that the boy's own village was some ways down the mountain range. He looked to the redhead's feet, seeing the blood crusted on them, and frowned as he knelt in front of his student.
"I…" he whimpered. "I had a nightmare."
20. Music
He found that the sound of Saleh snoring softly as he slept was the most beautiful piece of music he had ever heard.
21. Broken
His teacher was broken, and Ewan was afraid that it was all his fault.
22. Sick
Though he loved his sister dearly and would do anything for her, he found out at a young age that his sick body would only respond to Saleh's touch. Sometimes he felt guilty for it, but, right now, as his teacher placed his hand on his forehead, the eighteen-year-old felt too peaceful to care much about anything else.
23. Nightmare
Ewan was ripped apart into bloody pieces by his own hands, and he laughed cruelly all the while, as his fingers and palms were forever stained red.
He woke up, drenched in a cold sweat, to the room he and the young man had purchased from the inn. Looking to the naked, sleeping form beside him, he sighed, because Ewan was still there and whole. It was only a nightmare.
24. First Time
Their first time together was one of the greatest nights of his life, and he knew he would always remember it as so.
25. Cutting
When he and the boy were still in the small army, he often let the younger cut in front of him in the food lines, despite the groans that echoed from behind him.
26. Stain
"This is just proof that you're going through adolescence," Saleh stated to the teenager one night, as he lifted the sheet and exposed the splash of white there. The redhead blushed, hiding his sticky hand, but his mentor had seen it when he'd entered the room. "That's good — for a moment there, I thought you were falling behind somehow."
27. Drunk
Ewan had never seen his teacher drunk even once since he had met him. Everyone thought that the sage was incapable of such a state, but the redhead was ready with a jug of ale to prove them wrong. After all, Saleh couldn't refuse him anything, right?
28. Caught
"Teacher, what's wrong? Why aren't you moving?" he asked, looking behind him, but unable to see him. He found the man a little ways back, with his shoes ankle deep in mud. "What happened?" he demanded, baffled.
Saleh's cheeks tinted pink. "I…seem to be caught."
29. Snort
"When Ewan was younger," Tethys explained when Saleh asked about the boy's earlier childhood, "he used to snort as he laughed. Sometimes, he still does it."
As if on cue, the boy's laughter echoed into the tent, mixed with that of Ross and Amelia's own. A second later, a snort followed, which caused a new wave of guffawing to burst out, followed by that same snort. The cycle continued, much to Saleh's amusement.
Giggling, Tethys turned back to him with a slight smirk on her lips. "See?"
30. Jump
"Ewan, hurry!" Saleh called urgently from the other side of the broken bridge. Behind him, the rest of the group shouted similar phrases, but it was only his teacher's voice he heard. He was afraid of heights, and since the bridge was broken, everyone had had to jump to the other side.
The boy looked back at the enemies that were running toward him, and paled.
"Ewan, jump!" the sage ordered.
And he did, praying that he would make it.
31. Blood
It was a horrible sight; one that Ewan never wanted to remember, even though it was imprinted in his brain.
Saleh lay in the cot, his breathing harsh and ragged, with a still-freely bleeding gash across his torso. His shirt was beside him in mere tatters and though Natasha the healer told him repeatedly to leave the tent, Ewan didn't move an inch, though he could feel the sage's blood drying on his hands.
32. Death
Saleh felt that no matter how childish it seemed, it just wasn't fair. Ewan deserved to live a full and healthy life, but the healer had just announced the teen as a failed case, and everyone knew what that meant.
33. Horse
When he found out that his teacher didn't know how to ride a horse, he sought to remedy that. The next day, the young man came to the village with a chestnut mare and a grin on his face.
34. Storm
Separated from the rest of the camp with a single blanket, a canteen, and within the shelter of a damp, dripping cave, the mentor and pupil huddled together as the thunder and lightening clashed outside.
35. Table
At the celebration that occurred at Castle Frelia, the members of the army were seated at a grand table with large amounts of all sorts of food. And though Ewan was hungry, he found himself wishing that he had been fast enough to steal a seat next to his teacher. From the way Saleh looked down the table at him, the redhead could guess that the man wished that, too.
36. Candle
"There's only one candle, Saleh," Ewan said as he walked into the dim room, holding said item in one hand.
"That's fine, Ewan," replied the man as he called up fire from the tome. He lit the candle, and its glow erupted and lightened the room. There, he could see that the older male was waiting for him, bare chested and sleepy. With a grin, the twenty-year-old set down the candle on a nearby dresser and went to his lover for a peaceful night.
37. Sharing
The one time Saleh had gotten drunk at his request, he had insisted on sharing his bed with the boy, and, despite his sister's alarm, Ewan had accepted. In the morning, Ewan was proud to say that the only thing Saleh did while he was drunk was talk — a lot.
38. Allergy
"What are you allergic to, Teacher?" Ewan asked him one day.
Saleh grimaced as he watched the boy take a bite out of an apple. "I'm allergic to what you're eating."
From that day on, Ewan stopped eating them.
39. Language
Saleh stared at him in shock, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Blinking innocently, Ewan tilted his head, his brow wrinkling. "Did I say something bad?"
40. Story
Ewan couldn't sleep that night, and his sister was in the other village, so he went to the next best thing. To help the boy fall into slumber, Saleh told him a story of a prince who gave up his title for a life with the one he loved, even though his love had been a man. Ewan listened, enraptured, well into the morning.
41. Sunrise
Since he had stayed up the entire night, he had insisted on watching the sunrise with Saleh, but when Saleh looked down to the boy beside him a moment later, he found him curled up in his cot, sound asleep and holding his hand.
42. Drool
When he had gotten in a fight with one of the other kids in the village, he ended up with a black eye and a swollen lip. Saleh seemed to find it amusing that his lip caused him to drool sometimes.
43. Painting
Eight years after the war, Forde asked for him to pose for another portrait. Eight years ago, it had been the most boring experience in his life. This time, though, his teacher joined him in the painting, reading to him out loud to pass the time. He found that he didn't mind lying on the couch, frozen without his shirt on, if it meant he could listen to Saleh's voice while he did.
44. Bug
Saleh laughed as Ewan let out a cry and fell backwards in his chair. Seconds later, the redhead poked his head back up over the edge of the table, his cheeks red, to look at the object of his freak-out session.
The tiny beetle's antennae twitched, before it spread its wings and flittered out the window.
45. Birth
He saw the birth of Ephraim and Tana's twins, and was captured by the pure innocence of the babies' cries. There was an instinct inside him that filled him up to the brim. He finally noticed that his cheeks were stained with salty tears.
A hand gently touched his shoulder, and he looked over. Saleh smiled at him, his own eyes filled with unshed tears, and Ewan knew that he felt that instinct, too. The instinct to love those children until the both of them died.
46. Insane
"I'm not insane!" Ewan retorted indignantly to Ross' statement.
Everyone in the room looked to him, and behind the crowd, he could see his teacher raise a brow in question, a slight smirk on his lips.
"Okay," he mumbled after a moment, when everyone but Saleh had turned away, "maybe a little."
47. Addictive
Saleh found that he would prefer Ewan's kisses to any sort of addictive weed. He didn't need them. After all, the young man was addictive enough by himself.
48. Pillow
"I found it!"
The sage looked up in confusion, after the last enemy had been defeated, to see Ewan running up to him with an excited expression on his countenance. He was waving something white back and forth as he ran.
"Found what?" he asked the boy when he reached him, almost tripping over bodies in his haste.
"I found the pillow you wanted last night!"
49. Cute
He never thought he'd think this, but at the moment, while his teacher slept, completely oblivious to everything that could be happening, Ewan thought that the man was cute.
50. Argument
He hated arguing with the young man, but in this subject, he was completely correct, and though he sometimes loved Ewan's stubborn streak, the redhead had to realize that his teacher knew the answer.
That night was a lonely one, and for a long while, he considered forgetting the argument and apologizing to the twenty-year-old.
There was a knock on his door. When he opened it, he found Ewan there. Apparently, neither of them were happy with a lonely night.
51. Clothes
Ewan was looking through his things one morning, pulling out his old clothes from when he was a boy, and as he gazed down at the shorts and the rest of the outfit, he suddenly understood just why his teacher refused to get so close to him back then. He pictured himself in the outfit, acting as adorable as Saleh sometimes described, and laughed, because he knew he would have had a dozen awkward and very uncomfortable moments if the roles had been reversed.
52. Lucky
Ewan supposed he was lucky. After all, how many people got to love and be loved by their hero?
53. Bath
There was a time that Ewan would have practically rolled in mud if it meant he could take a bath with his teacher. Now, as an older, more mature person, he didn't have to roll in mud to do so.
54. Mimic
Though mimicking another behind their back had always been absurd in Saleh's eyes, when Ewan did it, it seemed to be much funnier than it probably was.
55. War
"Teacher?"
"Yes, Ewan?"
"When do you think the war will be over?"
"Soon, Ewan, I hope very soon."
56. Why
Saleh found out that when a child just keeps asking you why after every sentence, he just wants attention. Did that same principle apply to adults, too?
57. Gray
"Um…Saleh?"
The older man looked up at him.
"I think I'm seeing things, but I think I have a gray hair…" Ewan continued as he fuddled with his hair.
"Nonsense," Saleh answered, beginning to walk over. He stopped, because, right there, he saw a single line of gray layered among the red locks. He sighed. "All right, let's pluck it."
"Okay. Then we'll do yours next."
He chuckled. "There are too many in my hair to simply pluck."
Though he understood Ewan's slight obsession, he'd still love him even if he had a thousand strands of gray.
58. Blanket
"What is this ratty old thing, Saleh?"
Saleh looked up and let a small smile come to his face. He took the old article of fabric from his lover's hands, and then wrapped it around the both of them, effectively keeping them warm. "It's the blanket you used to sleep with. What else?"
59. Short
When Ewan was younger, he had always hated being short compared to the other sage. Now that the roles were reversed, he felt much better.
60. Marriage
As Tethys and Gerik kissed under the great expanse of flower wreaths, Saleh wished it were him and the woman's brother, instead of those two.
61. Fishing
He had to admit that, after awhile of sitting next to Saleh with a pole tied with a thin string on the end, he'd rather be doing something else with his mentor. Anything that didn't stink as bad would do.
62. Colors
When he was a child, he never really paid much attention to hair or eye color, but now that he was with someone who appreciated things like that, he found that he often compared things with that someone's hair and eyes.
63. Darkness
Saleh had never liked the darkness much during the war, but eight years after it, he knew now that pleasant things could be hidden in the dark. Like an eager Ewan.
64. Books
"Wait, Ewan, don't pull that! You'll — "
The whole shelf tilted at an odd angle, slowly toppling over. Books flew everywhere and, a second later, Ewan became buried. Another second passed, and then the boy popped his head out from the pile, looking indignant and pouting.
He looked up at his teacher. "I think the books hate me."
65. Insomnia
Even a year after the war, Ewan still had problems sleeping peacefully. Sometimes, he didn't sleep at all, fear overriding that need and pushing it to the back of his mind like something meaningless.
Then his teacher would come and wrap him up in a blanket, begin to talk to him, and soon his voice would drift away, all thoughts of the war gone in the presence of the man.
66. Stretch
Ever since Ewan was a child, Saleh often compared him to a kitten while he stretched the sleep from his limbs. Now that Ewan was an adult, he found Saleh to be the more kitten-like of the two of them.
67. Hearing
He was afraid to lose his hearing, because then he couldn't hear his lover's voice. Saleh found that to be a very big tragedy, indeed.
68. Jealousy
"So, you were jealous of her?" Ewan asked him one morning, when the topic had somehow changed to a woman the young man had been together with.
"Yes, I was," Saleh answered shortly. He supposed that he always would be. After all, she was Ewan's first.
69. Fear
There was nothing to fear, Ewan kept telling himself, waiting outside the room and hearing his sister's screams as she pushed her child out of her body. She'll make it. She'll make it.
But it wasn't until Saleh took his hand and said the same thing that Ewan actually believed it.
70. Dirty
Many men had stated that their wives often spoke dirty things to them in bed. Ewan was proud to say that his husband didn't do the same. The other men looked at him funny from then on.
71. Rock
On one of his normal walks about the border of the village, Ewan found a very beautiful stone with reflective specks inside it. He thought that it was probably some sort of egg. But when he showed it to his teacher, he simply shook his head and stated that it was just a rock. He remembered being very disappointed, then.
72. Scratches
Saleh preferred him scratching the hell out of his back in bed, because as those marks scarred, he knew he would always have them. He learned a long time ago, after his grandmother died, that voices will eventually disappear.
73. Tears
It was too strong, and as the current pulled him deeper along the river, Ewan suddenly remembered that he couldn't swim, before everything went black.
When he emerged from the blackness, coughing up so much water that it burned his throat and lungs, he saw his teacher leaning over him, dripping wet and breathing hard. He couldn't help but think that those droplets of water that dripped onto his face looked strangely like tears.
74. Violin
"You know, Ewan, if you wanted to learn the violin that badly, you could have just asked me," Saleh said casually as the redhead tuned the instrument a bit.
The boy looked up, confused. "Huh?"
"Your current instructor may be well known, but you should know that I'm the one who taught him," he added as he left the tent, leaving the boy to look after him, shocked.
75. Suicide
Saleh never understood the want or desire for suicide until Ewan died. Now he knows from personal experience just how gratifying it can be when one is alone.
76. Old
He knew he was getting old when he threw out his back the other day, and he despised it.
Not far behind Saleh, Ewan only laughed and said he was looking into his own future, and if the sage continued to live, he said he would like it very much.
77. Grandchildren
"You know that we'll never have grandkids, right, Saleh?" Ewan whispered unsurely, his eyes still on the ring that the sage held out to him.
"Why would I need them if I have you?"
78. Time
He didn't know why, but when he slipped the ring onto the younger man's ring finger, he could feel time stop in place, and he was very happy for it as he kissed him.
79. Torture
Saleh had always assumed that the way Ewan undressed slowly was a way to torture him. It wasn't until a few years later that the man told him the real reason why; he had been unsure if the sage had really wanted him, burn scars and all.
80. Jingling
They experimented a little, and Ewan found that he liked the thought of chain restraints. So, imagine his surprise when he saw Saleh pull them out of one of his packs. No wonder he'd been jingling before!
81. Bandits
He'd always disliked bandits, but when he found out that one of them had violated the man, he despised them with every fiber of his being.
82. Hanging
Saleh watched in horror, trying to break through the crowd of observers and peasants, as the noose was put around Ewan's neck, and the trap door fell out from under his feet. The young man was killed instantly from a snapped neck. The crowd, disappointed, dispersed, leaving the sage to cry in silence.
83. Murder
He once considered homicide to get his teacher's attention on him, rather than the boy he remembered. It was a good thing his sister got to the sage before it could come to pass — Ewan had already picked a target.
84. Laughter
There were those random times when they would say something at exactly the same time, and then they would burst into terribly long fits of laughter. It was in those moments that they realized all over again that they loved each other.
85. Sturdiness
He realized the exact qualities of a well-made bed a little early in their relationship, but he knew that the only quality anything needed for the two of them to be happy was sturdiness. They tended to break things when together.
86. Dare
His sister once dared him to strip for the sage, but he would have done it even if she hadn't. It seemed that Saleh enjoyed the view.
87. Yawn
All was silent until he yawned, and Ewan couldn't help but spit up some of his drink in his haste not to choke on his laughter. Meanwhile, Saleh continued to yawn and watch him, amused beyond belief.
88. Ocean
"Oh, wow!" the boy exclaimed in wonder, his eyes lighting up at the view of the vast ocean stretched out endlessly before him.
Saleh was definitely happy he had decided to take him to Grado.
89. Whistle
Sometimes Saleh noticed the hungry stares that women gave him, which made him understand that he was handsome. He also noticed how they would lick their lips as if thinking about doing things to him. They even wolf whistled like men.
But there was one whistle that he knew above all else; sharp and clear and true, it lead him to where Ewan waited by the inn. "Find what you wanted?"
"Yes, I did." He lifted a single quill, one that he had needed for writing.
"Good," Ewan grabbed his hand. "Let's go to bed."
Behind him, he could hear the women swoon at the implications their companionship presented.
90. Poetry
Ewan had never been interested in reading poetry until he realized that he was in love with his teacher, and that it all sounded like some sort of sappy sonnet. He discovered that he was rather okay with it.
91. Hands
Sometimes, he missed the small hands that Ewan used to have. They were just so cute.
92. Explosion
He found that when you introduce magic to certain baked goods, they cause random explosions that usually caused everyone within a good yard radius to be splattered with jam. Years later, Saleh once told him that he still smelled of strawberries.
93. Riddles
During the war, they passed the time by coming up with random riddles. Though Ewan's were more insane than Saleh's by far, it kept them entertained for most of the journey's traveling.
94. Deer
"I feel so guilty, Teacher," Ewan murmured, looking at his piece of cooked deer meat. He hadn't taken a bite of it, and his stomach rumbled in protest, practically eating itself.
"Don't be, Ewan," the man replied as he flipped a page of the book he was reading. He glanced down at the boy and smiled. "Now, eat up. I want you to be strong for the battle to come."
Somehow, that was enough persuasion for Ewan to take a big bite out of the meat. Years later, he would understand it as a small confession of what he felt for his teacher.
95. Trapped
Smooshed between a large woman and a big burly man, Ewan felt trapped in the crowd of bystanders. A cold sweat erupted across the boy's skin as he frantically tried to escape. Then, suddenly, he was lifted from the crowd and onto someone's shoulders. He looked down and saw that his teacher was smiling softly as he held him.
96. Confession
He found him sitting all alone in a room without any sense of elegance. Saleh was surprised by the lack of it, until he realized that all of the decorations in the small room had been torn down.
When he asked Ewan what was wrong, the redhead replied in a small voice, "I love you."
97. Loneliness
The boy never understood the term of 'lonely' until Saleh started going off for supplies in the nearby villages. As he sat on his teacher's bed and waited for the man to come back, he suddenly understood the word better than anyone else.
98. Valentine's Day
Saleh was asleep, and it was Valentine's Day, according to his sister. Based on what she said, if you love someone, this was the greatest day to do something special for them. So, he decided to wake up early and go to the flower fields. It was a girly thing to do, but he felt compelled to grab some brilliant white lilies for his teacher.
Unfortunately, all he found were some drab yellow flowers, but it was better than nothing. He left them on the sage's table and fled to his sister's side, explaining what he had done. For some reason, she started laughing uncontrollably.
When Saleh woke up that morning and recognized the golden colored flowers, he flushed, because he remembered that their pollen was used as an aphrodisiac, and he realized that it was his student that had given them to him.
99. Poison
Some considered love a poison that could kill slowly and painfully. Both of the men found that they rather liked this so-called poison.
100. Fairytales
Saleh had never believed in fairytales, not even as a child, but one story always stuck with him. It was a story he told to Ewan one night, about a prince who loved another man, and who gave up his title to be with him.
The sage found that he was like that prince; he would give up a thousand titles if it meant he'd be with the redhead forever.
Hm. Maybe he did believe in fairytales, after all.
I enjoyed writing this. Most of these were inspired and kept on going by the album "Heroes and Thieves" by Vanessa Carlton. Others were inspired by her other album, "Harmonium." Another bunch was motivated by the entire album "Lead Sails and Paper Anchors" by Atreyu.
I know it's not like the original 100 pieces, but review nonetheless.