Summary: Nostalgia is such a weird thing. [Post-game Inigo/Lucina/Owain/Severa drabble, mostly Severa-centric]
Pairing(s)/Character(s): established Owain/Severa, established Inigo/Lucina
Rating: K+
Warning(s): sliiiight innuendo but that's all
Words: 828
The A/N can be found at the end of the page. Also - my profile has been updated to include other places you can contact me, in case you ever want to discuss something (esp since ff honestly isn't the best social platform...) Just thought I'd let you all know and I hoped you all enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it! ^^
"Remember, Owain," Lucina says, last second, turning just to face her cousin in particular. "Always keep your Brand covered."
Severa watches from the corner of her eye as the myrmidon lifts his already covered forearm, a sunny beam gracing his features. "No need to fret, dear cousin."
A sort of relieved smile tugs at Lucina's own lips, and even though she already seems to be assured Severa isn't too surprised as she repeats, "Always. We don't want to cause confusion." The princess turns to Severa then, eyes shimmering with trust and understanding - a mutual trust that Severa realizes she'll miss greatly. "I'm going to be depending on you to keep an eye on him, Sev."
Severa nods, a smirk of her own coming upon her face as she replies, "Of course." She finds herself looping her arm with Owain's then, becoming used to Lucina witnessing their displays of affection long ago. "Someone's got to keep his sword arm under control, after all." Lucina laughs then - and it's a true, genuine laugh that has her reaching to cover her lips and leaves her shoulders shaking with giggles even after she's recovered.
It is only after Lucina's giggles have faded away that Inigo interjects, "Although, love, I don't think it's fair to expect that Owain always has it covered." His gaze swoops towards Severa, brown irises twinkling with mischief as he adds, "You'll allow him some time without it, I'm sure."
A scarlet blush overcomes Severa's face, though she had grown somewhat, and her embarrassment makes her bring Owain closer to her rather than flusteredly shove him away. "Well, on occasion, maybe..." She glances towards Owain himself, and isn't surprised to see his own brow furrowed in confusion. The second they make eye contact however, the implications of Inigo's protest clearly hit, and his own face comes to sport its own crimson hue.
Lucina, however, is unsurprisingly slow on the uptake. "That won't do," she notes, matter-of-factly. She frowns, looking to her own companion as though trying to figure out what would lead him to suggest such a thing in the first place. Her gaze then travels to Owain and Severa, still puzzled as she adds, "Unless bathing, we really can't be lenient..." It is only after she comes to register the blushes painting her cousin and his companion's faces that the meaning of Inigo's words seem to hit her. She doesn't waste a single second before shooting an embarrassed punch in her partner's direction. "Inigo!"
Inigo laughs then, even though by now he's blushing himself and feebly holding up one hand in an attempt to defend himself. Again, his gaze comes to rest on Severa before flicking to Owain. "Seriously, though. Take care, you two."
Severa expects the carefree nature of this departure to suddenly fade away. She expects tears, confessions, fear of the change to come. Instead, she finds Owain herding the four of them into a bit of a messy group hug, laughter shared between them as they joke around together for what could easily be the last time.
"We'll see each other again," Lucina whispers to her just before the hug breaks apart, and Severa is shockingly not at all surprised by the princess's ability to read her mind - as dense as she is, Lucina has always had a deeper understanding of all of their comrades, even if said understanding didn't necessarily carry into the jokes they made. It's odd, as upon meeting the princess in their own time, Severa had envied, even despised the older girl's empathetic nature, but now... Now she merely appreciates it as a part of Lucina's role. A sort of nostalgic scoff falls past her lips - gods, she has matured.
Nostalgia is such a weird thing, and it is that very feeling that weighs Severa down as she watches Lucina and Inigo wander away. She has no doubt in her mind that she was the first to be aware of Lucina's feelings for the philanderer, so them announcing that they would be departing together came as no surprise to her. Yet there's still something... Mystifying about watching them walk alongside each other, smiling and joking around together as though they were always meant to. As she glances down at where her arm is still curled around her own companion's, she finds herself wondering if anyone thinks the same of her and Owain.
As though sensing that she were thinking of him, Owain glances down at the girl standing beside him. "Does something ail you, Severa?" She shakes her head, sliding her hand down so that it can intertwine with Owain's fingers rather than having it wrapped around his forearm.
"No... Just thinking," she admits. She doesn't quite know how to verbalize her thoughts, and finds herself oddly relieved as Owain doesn't request her to. Grinning, she looks up to the boy that she had always been in love with. "So - where are we headed to first?"
Author's Note: Finaaaally, I get to publish another Owain/Severa piece ^^ It's been too long honestly, and I've certainly missed writing about these two losers. I've been working on several plot bunnies circling around the two of them for the past couple months now, and even though this piece definitely isn't the most romantic piece I've ever produced, I'm very pleased with how it came out just the same. I even got to throw in some Inigo/Lucina to boot! :D Aaaanyways, I want to talk a bit more about this piece just because I really like talking about my writing lol -I'm so self-absorbed-
First of all, I guess I kind of wanted to discuss the mood of my writing recently. In both Kinship and this piece, I personally find the feeling to be very... Melancholy, I suppose? It's not necessarily a negative feeling, I suppose, just very... Whimsical in nature. I guess the most logical excuse for this is that I only just graduated from high school and a lot of my writing is feeding off of those feelings ha haaa... Somehow, the mood of my two most recent pieces remind me a lot of the mood in Stretch, which also fed a lot off of my own circumstances at the time. But that's nothing more than personal musings, really.
In the past year, I feel like I've been thinking a lot about what I define as love, and as of late I've been hoping to capture that sort of ideal bond within my writing. I think above all else, what's really important in a relationship is being comfortable with the person you're romantically involved in, as well as merely... fully accepting of them. I don't mean that in the sense that if the one you're in love with is abusive towards you that you should just accept it but rather that there should be some sort of unconditional acceptance of them as a person. This is coming out kind of vague, but I guess love itself is a vague feeling to begin with lol. The point I'm getting at though is that with this new definition of love in mind, I've been thinking a lot more about Owain and Severa's circumstances after the S Support. Of course, their epilogue isn't too extensive, merely saying that they went on a lengthy quest together in order to "stay Owain's sword hand" and that while Severa nagged her husband mercilessly, she also provided much love and support. But obviously this is merely a summary, and there must be much more to their relationship - both before and after the game ends - than just that. In my mind, this piece is something of a mid-point between the before and after: here, Owain and Severa are just about to depart on the adventure their epilogue speaks of, and while Severa and Owain don't actually interact a lot in this piece (as it is a short and rather brief piece in general), I hoped to express at least minor changes on Severa part in her behaviour towards Owain, such as her embarrassment leading her to "bring Owain closer to her rather than flusteredly shove him away" and her also refering to Owain's sword hand as such - all small little things that I saw as indicating their relationship growing ever closer to that "unconditional acceptance" I spoke of earlier. I also have a loooot more post-game headcanons for the two of them that I plan on documenting at some point in the near future, buuuut talking about that will have to wait for then I guess. =v=;; This note is already excessively long (who wants to bet that I can write an essay on these two? I'm almost tempted), and thank you so much if you've managed to read all this nonsense! As always, feel free to drop a review ovo