Hello. I'm back from the dead and am writing another novice Fire Emblem story. XD;;; This time I'll be doing a different pairing... unless I change and end up doing lots of pairings... This might end up as a kind of sequel to my last story, A Mercenary's Desire. But I don't think you have to read that to figure out what's going on here. And it happens somewhere after Chapter 26, because there are characters here that appeared after Chapter 18. I'm missing a few characters 'cause I don't have them and don't know when they appear. Renault, for example, as I've only seen him in Chapter 18x and never got him.
Disclaimer: Fire Emblem is owned by Nintendo (or at least I think it is.) I do not own it. If I did, it would be nowhere near as popular, and Erk's nose probably would have come out off center.
Erk: ...and my nose is off center because...?
Scarabsi: Because you're so adorable, charming, handsome, and a fan girl magnet, and I'm such a bad artist. I still think Guy is the cutest, though. Sword-using dorks are attracted to other sword-using dorks, I guess.
Guy: I- I'm a dork?
Scarabsi: (shrugs) That's what everyone says.
Warnings: This story contains multiple shonen-ai (slash, homo, gay, whatever you want to call them) pairings. I'm sorry if you like shoujo-ai too, though; I'm not very good a writing those, so they're not in here. (Sighs at her own patheticness, which is not a word.) It also contains some straight couples, so if you're afraid of those (yes, I know someone who claims to be), you might not want to read this.
Credit: I think I'll dedicate this story to Amethyst Bubble; I mainly wrote this so that she'd write more chapters for her wonderful new story, The Troubles of Matchmaking (you should read it, if you haven't already). So... yeah... (sweatdrop)
Guy: whacks me with blunt end of his sword Shut up and get the story going already!
Scarabsi: (cries) Okay. (Swords hurt, whether it's the sharp end or the blunt end that gets you.)
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Chapter One
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Serra walked sleepily out of her room. She was a little too tired to do her usual squeals; the discovery of the fact that Raven and Lucius were an item kept her late up last night, cooing about how cute they actually looked together, now that she thought about it. She also thought about who else could be a couple; obviously, life as the healer of the party wasn't all that fun, because she had recently been craving more romance to keep her mind from straying to her own feelings.
"Hmm... I wonder if I can find another excuse to make Priscilla call Erk to her again..." The pink-haired cleric giggled at remembrance of the last time she had drawn Erk to the troubadour. She herself had developed feelings for the young Etruian mage, but she would rather see him happy than have him for herself, seeing as Erk found her so... annoying.
She walked over to Priscilla's room and knocked rather loudly. A few moments later, the red-haired beauty appeared at the door, with her usual calm expression. Immediately, Serra put on her big smile, all traces of weariness erased from her face. "Good morning, Priscilla! Is there anything I can help you with today?"
Priscilla smiled patiently, and shook her head. "Not today, Serra. I'm a little tired... I need someone who can help me feel better¡K about the shock of milord brother, you see..."
Serra's smile faltered for a second, out of pity for the other girl. It wasn't that Priscilla was homophobic, because nobody in the group was, but because Priscilla herself had hoped that Raven would carry out his promise to marry her. "Sh- shall I call Erk in, Priscilla?"
Priscilla nodded. "Yes... perhaps that should help." A second after Serra turned to head to Erk's room, though, Priscilla added, "You stuttered, Serra. Is something the matter?"
Serra jumped slightly at the comment, shaken that her mask had slipped for a moment. "Um... no! Nothing's the matter! You must have imagined it, Lady Priscilla!" Then, flashing her trademark smile, dashed toward Erk's room. But the red-haired troubadour remained at the door of the room, still slightly confused at Serra's abnormal behavior. "She never uses any high-ranking titles for anybody but herself... something's very wrong."
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Serra reached Erk's room and knocked even more loudly than she had on Priscilla's door. She could hear a soft grumbling as the source of her heart opened the door, purple hair slightly rumpled and annoyance written all over his face. "What is it, Serra?" He grumbled.
"It's Priscilla, Erk!" Serra exclaimed cheerfully as if beautiful healers always wanted something to do with Erk. "She wants you in her room! Something about making her feel better about her brother..."
Almost instantly, the charming face of the young mage turned as red as his cloak. "M-me...?" As he almost never stuttered, this took both Serra and himself by surprise. "W-why would she want m-m-me...?"
"Oh, you silly Erk!" Serra giggled. "Because she likes you, of course! Why else would she want you?" She gladly, er, forgot to mention that she had only suggested Erk and that Priscilla really hadn't really specified whether she cared who came to comfort her.
Erk didn't believe anything Serra had said in her last statement, but he shuffled past her anyway and headed toward Priscilla's room, muttering something incoherent. Serra giggled again, for the third time that morning, and closed the door for him. Then she turned and skipped toward the dining room for breakfast.
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Lucius looked up from his breakfast when Serra arrived. He smiled a greeting to her, which she returned, and continued eating. Nobody had started a conversation with him today, and it had started creeping on the edge of his patience. The most he had gotten was Lyn, saying "Good morning, Lucius!" and Hector, asking him if he had seen Lyn. Even Serra, who was usually loud and annoying, was staying quiet around him. He would roll his eyes at anyone who couldn't guess why.
Lucius assumed that since last night, when Raven had walked into the castle with him in his arms, everyone was trying to think of something to say and couldn't quite do it. He sighed and aimed his fork toward another quail egg, but another fork caught the prize. When Lucius looked up, Raven filled his vision, eating the egg. The mercenary smiled and swallowed the egg. "Good morning, Lucius."
"Hello, Lord Raymond. I'm glad you're here; it's been a graveyard around me today." Lucius reached for another quail egg, only to have it stolen by Raven again. "Stop stealing my eggs!"
"I'm hungry," was the reply, as Raven finished the second egg. "And don't address me as 'Lord Raymond' anymore. It's too formal." He grabbed a plate from a stack at the front of the dining table and helped himself to his own food. Lucius took two quail eggs from Raven's plate and quickly ate them, earning a funny look from the redhead. "Lucius, you still act as if you're a child; must I remind you again that you are older than me?"
"No, but I'd like to know if you want to share this grape juice with me," the blonde answered. "I don't think I can finish it myself."
Raven rolled his eyes, well aware of the fact that the glass was very small and that Lucius was only looking for an excuse to share something with him. "Alright, I'll share it with you," he said. He sipped all the contents of the glass and kissed the blonde bishop.
After the juice had disappeared down both their throats, Raven broke the small moment with a smug look. "Like it shared that way?"
Lucius nodded and filled another glass. "May you do that again, Lord Raymond?"
Raven took the glass. "Yes... and don't call me Lord Raymond."
From his seat at the table, Legault watched the two with masked jealousy. He had felt alone for a long time; since he had left Black Fang, he decided. He was surrounded by a group of strangers, and he had missed the company of the real Black Fang; just him, Brendan, Jan, and the two brats. Most of the group had probably died by now; he had doubts that Brendan could stay alive around that insane Sonia for long.
"Uncle Legault!"
Legault nearly yelled at the sudden cry and whipped around, facing a very wide-eyed Nino, grinning ear to ear as was her nature. "Nino! Quiet down, I'll go deaf with you around." He paused, realizing that Nino had called him 'uncle'. "Why are you calling me 'uncle'?"
Nino shrugged. "You feel like an uncle to me. You're like Uncle Jan!"
Legault shuddered at the thought of being compared with the useless brigand. "R-r-really..."
The young mage nodded, smile still on her face. "Yep! I was wondering why you seem all alone. Doesn't anybody in this blasted army of mercenaries find you attractive?" She paused. "Other than me, of course...?"
Legault blinked at the oddity of the question. "Find... me... attractive?" He repeated slowly, to make sure he heard right. "Well, no... I think not... not with this scar." He rubbed his scarred eye as he said this, cursing the social repellant that had come with it. Nino, however, looked hurt.
"But Uncle Legault! That scar makes you look nicer! You're not unique without that scar! Isn't that what people in this crazy place look for?"
Legault shook his head. "Maybe so, but I don't think scars cut it. I mean, look at Vaida..." he looked over at the mentioned wyvern lord, and furrowed his brow at the ugliness of her scar. Although, that haircut needs to go too... "I mean, I normally find wyvern riders attractive, but... she's really an exception¡K"
Nino's eyes lit up. "Wyvern riders, huh..."
Legault raised an eyebrow. "Don't even think about it, Nino. I don't care if you somehow manage to remove Vaida's ugly scar, I won't- "
Nino smiled innocently at him. "Uncle Legault, do you fancy men? I heard you talking to Matthew, and I don't think it's very ordinary for a straight man to ask another man if they like him."
Legault turned red from embarrassment. "You... heard us talking...?" The beginning of that conversation was supposed to be a secret! Flux Nino for her unnatural ability to eavesdrop on a pair of bloody thieves...
"Mmmm... If you do fancy men, that would make things a little harder, would it?" Nino observed. "I mean... you can't know if a man is homo or straight... don't they usually end up marrying some other lady, and leaving someone with a broken heart, right? That happens with the women..."
Legault was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. "Uh... well, look, Nino, I... I really need to go now, so..." His eyes wandered around for an excuse to get away from the cheerful mage. "So... why don't you... go bother Jaffar?" He sprung, struck by inspiration. "Yes. Why don't you go talk to Jaffar, Nino? I'm sure you could find someone for him instead...?"
Nino whimpered from the idea of leaving Uncle Legault in the pits of loneliness, but when she laid her eyes on Jaffar, she completely forgot about Legault. "Jaffar! Wait for me!"
The scar-eyed thief sighed in relief when he was sure Nino was gone for good, and left the table. However, as soon as he left the dining room and got into one of the many halls of the castle, he walked head-on into a metal wall. After he finished seeing stars, he cleared his vision and slowly made out a lot of armor and a lot of green and white.
"Are you alright?" Heath asked, peering over at the fallen thief with concern running over his completely unmasked face.
Legault grumbled, moaned, and put his hand to his head. "Ow... my head... you should take off that heavy armor indoors. You know, in case you walk into anybody else..."
Heath blinked, looking down at his armor. "I have to be ready, in case Bern's soldiers come. I can be quick to my feet, or rather, quick to Hyperion, to hold up a good fight." He peered closer to the light-purple hair, guiltily noting how uniquely beautiful that scar made Legault's face look. "Uh... can you recognize me?"
Legault blinked a few more times, information processing to his brain. The green and white wall had mentioned something about Bern's soldiers, and Hyperion, who was... he racked his mussed up mind. Wasn't Hyperion the name of Heath's wyvern? Come to think of it, Heath's hair is the same color as this wall...
Coming to a slow realization, Legault's eyes snapped wide open and stared at the long-haired wyvern rider. His heart pounded faster and, with dread, he remembered the sentence he had absent-mindedly muttered to the wide-eyed and carefully listening mage.
"...I mean, I normally find wyvern riders attractive, but..."
Legault quickly got to his feet and nearly swore at the way his vision turned black for a second. He stole a glance at Heath, who had a confused expression, and ran up the stairs to his room like Nergal was after him. I am not thinking straight. I hit my head too hard on that blasted armor. That's it. That has to be it.
He locked the door and spent a long bit of the afternoon laughing at how he wasn't thinking straight... ha ha ha...
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Gods! That chapter was only four pages long... and even though it was in size eight font, it was double-spaced at the beginning of each paragraph when I typed the don't-upload version. sob Good thing this is a chapter story and not a one-shot, or this would be one hell of a short story.
Later pairings: L/H, M/G, possibly E/S, most likely H/L, obviously Raven/Lucius...
I wrote the first four pairings in the first-letter-of-name format in case you didn't want to find out what the later pairings were, because you wouldn't accidentally read it and get a good idea what the couple is. You kind of have to work at what the letter stands for (S/M stories had me strangled between 'is it Sesshoumaru and Miroku or Sango and Miroku?')
Now, why am I ranting about this? I don't know. shrugs I'll probably work on the next chapter after Amethyst Bubble posts her second chapter, but sometimes I have to eat my words when I receive all those sweet reviews. (melts into a pile of putty reading the reviews for 'A Mercenary's Desire') You people were so wonderful... (cries)
Please review, because it would make me happy. Again, corrections are accepted (was Vaida there in Chapter 26 anyway? Is Heath's wyvern named Hyperion?)
Thank you!
