A/N: Okay, so this was a request by my friend Lin, who wanted Innes/L'Arachel with Ephraim in there being really confused. xD Which, honestly, was the saving grace of this fic, because iunno how I would have paired them without that. (I think they actually did have a support in the game, but I don't think I ever had them support. xPP)
But yeaaaah. There's way too much Ephraim and barely any L'Arachel, and I hope it's okay, Linnie. xD; I wrote it on a plane while I was already jetlagged from it being a connecting flight, soooo. ^^;;
Ephraim doesn't know why, but he is sure Innes seems grouchier than usual. And for some mysterious reason that Ephraim cannot even begin to attempt comprehending, the main force of that grouchiness seems to be directed at him.
Even though he is now King Ephraim and Innes remains a prince, the Frelian man does not see fit to bow before him when they pass in the halls—not that that Ephraim minded that; they had fought the Demon King together and he would have honestly settled for nothing less than being treated as complete equals with all of his comrades-in-arms, whatever their social status happened to be, but Innes seems to glower and glare at him whenever the opportunity arose, and never speaks to him unless directly addressed first, and even then keeps his responses short, clipped, and with a painfully acrid bite of his usual sarcasm underlying them, even in a simple hello.
Even stranger is that the Frelian prince goes out of his way to be polite and courteous, almost friendly to Seth, who, even as a paladin, is still below him in station. He also seems to enjoy making a show out of showing the same courtesy (or if possible, even more) to his twin sister, striking up conversations with her, opening doors for her and letting her through first, taking her hand as she got off carriages into the town proper and back to the palace, and generally displaying every gesture of chivalry known to man in a way that is almost revolting to Ephraim. The only thing that prevents him from wanting to smack the prince is that he likes Eirika is getting pampered a bit while they are hard at work rebuilding the kingdom and the palace of Renais.
But the strangest of all is his behavior towards the princess of the theocracy of Rausten, who, along with her two comports—Rennac and Dozla—is remaining in Frelia for a while to offer moral and added financial support (along with a bit of physical labor on Dozla's part) to the children of the late King Fado while they rebuild and attempt to restore the faith of the people, after the several months of misrule by that misguided, traitorous fool Orson.
Whenever he sees her, he turns away and begins grumbling and muttering under his breath, and if he catches Ephraim's eye, doesn't hesitate to give him a look dark enough to make chills run down the Demon King's spine. And often times, he scoffs loudly at her personality and behavior and launches into a bit of a rant about how L'Arachel does not act in a way that befits her station, and how much of a disgrace it would be if Frelia had a princess like Rausten's.
Ephraim doesn't understand what is going on, and he doesn't want to bother Eirika (who hasn't appeared to notice much of a change in his behavior) with something so trivial when there's still all the work left ahead in restoring Renais…but he's noticed that others in the palace seem to. Seth and Moulder, for instance…Seth appears to be smiling more than usual, a twinkle of mirth in the paladin's eyes that gives Ephraim the distinct (and slightly uncomfortable) feeling that if he were anything less than royalty that Seth was in the service of, he would be laughing and snickering out loud at his obliviousness. He sees Moulder with a similar expression when they cross paths these days, and the priest seems to be spending quite a lot of time with Seth these days and he can't remember them having been such good friends before, even during the war with Grado.
Normally, he would have just let them be and minded his own business, but it's clear to him that they understand something that he doesn't, and it's driving him crazy because he can't seem to put together the pieces, no matter how hard he tries.
So he resolves one day, after getting a particularly moody glare from Innes when they are both headed to the dining hall for breakfast, to approach the two and ask them what it is that they know that he's missing about the situation.
But as he heads towards Seth's quarters, as he believes it will be easier to get the paladin to talk to him about it (and, if it came down to it, he could order Seth to talk, which he couldn't do with Moulder), he finds himself accosted by the rambunctious Rausten princess, exuberantly cheerful as usual and all at once greeting and beginning to encroach on his personal space and talk to him in that overly familiar manner that Ephraim is not entirely sure he is all right with but supposes is simply a part of her personality and cannot be helped.
And although he usually doesn't mind talking with her (although he sometimes feels just as exhausted as he would after a battle after finishing a conversation with her), he was about to excuse himself so he could find Seth or Moulder and hopefully clear up this whole nonsense with Innes, he finds the very Frelian prince that was occupying his thoughts at that moment walk by and stop before them.
He doubted that the Demon King, even before he was sealed the first time into the Grado Sacred Stone and later forced to steal Lyon's body, was capable of delivering such a disquieting look as Innes shot him then.
And at that moment, Ephraim snaps. He can't take it anymore and can no longer wait to ask Seth about it later.
"Is there some kind of problem, Innes?" he finally asks, as polite and restrained as he can, even though he feels like thwacking the Frelian prince upside the head for being such an immature twit in his opinion, because the question is burning inside him and he just has to know.
Innes continues to glare for a moment, and then he scoffs…and tells him that it's disgraceful for a king to be showing affection to a woman so publicly without even being married.
Ephraim just stares at him for a moment, utterly dumbfounded and unable to form coherent speech, but is saved from having to say anything when L'Arachel, as usual, interjected herself into the conversation without warning.
"So it worked, did it?" she said smugly, giving Innes one of those cheeky smiles that only she seemed to be capable of.
The two men could only gape, Ephraim having lost his composure no sooner than having regained himself from Innes's comment.
"If you keep your mouths open like that, insects will fly into them!"
And with that, she pranced back down the hall she'd come from and struck up a conversation with Eirika like that encounter had not even happened.
Two jaws clicked shut in unison.