Please make sure to check out my pateron at /ShadowJ314, It would mean a lot to me and would encourage me to write more :P
The Worries of a Daydreamer
Corrin opened the door to his private tree house quarters, something he was still very happy he could call as such and be perfectly serious, to find what is normally a very familiar sight. His beloved Setsuna had somehow gotten herself stuck in their hammock again. However something was different this time. Instead of her taking a nap or wearing a relaxed smile, she had tears on her face and was sobbing, and that was something Corrin had never seen her do before, not in all the time they had been together.
After teaching her how to avoid traps as best he could, Setsuna confessed to being in love with Corrin. The truth was Corrin had fallen for her long before that day. Meaning he didn't hesitate to return her feelings and asked her for her hand in marriage more or less while they were still in the trap she had gotten them both stuck in. In one of the many conversations that followed their engagement, which Hinoka smugly refers to as their "Marriage Trap", Setsuna said she hoped for a chance to get caught in a trap with Corrin again sometime, and while Corrin honestly wouldn't mind getting stuck in a pit or another suspended net with the woman he loves, he unfortunately does have duties to take care of. He can't afford to spend hours, or days as Setsuna claims to have, unable to help train troops or study new strategies to end the war. So he suggested they get a hammock for their quarters instead, which made Setsuna more than excited. "Oh those are great! They're like traps made for sleeping."
So returning to find Setsuna unable to free herself from the hammock was not uncommon, but never once, not through all the insults she took as compliments, horrors of war, or days on end in a trap, had Corrin truly seen Setsuna sad enough to shed tears. Corrin spoke weakly "...Setsuna...?"
Setsuna jumped a little in the hammock, apparently only noticing his presence now. She looked at Corrin and began to wipe her tears and hide her face with her sleeves, not saying anything. Once again, Corrin didn't hesitate. He drew his Kodachi he kept on himself, even while relaxing, and cut the hammock down, catching his wife before she hit the floor. After untangling her and confirming she wasn't injured in any way, he helped her sit down on the bed. It appeared they had to talk. However, unsure of what to say, Corrin just held her hand. Fortunately for him, Setsuna decided to break the silence first. "Sorry... about the⦠hammock"
Now Corrin knew this would definitely be a serious conversation. Ever since they first gotten it, she had referred to the hammock as their "cuddle trap", much to his own embarrassment. "It's alright, it was just a cheap thing I got in town any way." he said with a smile.
"But I need to know," He began "What was it really that you were upset enough to cry about?" "It's the first time I've ever truly seen you shed any tears at all, and I kind of doubt that's for lack of reason."
She looked at Corrin with a sad smile "Really? honestly this is probably the first time I've ever felt sad enough to cry... like this."
Corrin decided he should put out the offer to talk about all of this later if she wanted to think about it some more before hand. "You don't have to tell me right now if you don't wan..."
"No." She interrupted someone for perhaps the first time in her life. " It's ok, I think I can." She held his hand tighter. Setsuna looked past Corrin over at her child, Kana, still an infant laying in a crib not far from where they were sitting. It had only been about a week since the both of them had returned from the deep realm where they had carried out her pregnancy together. "I'm just... worried about Kana."
Corrin began to understand, "Oh..." though he knew better to say anymore than that, and waited for her to continue.
"You know how I am. I can be so distracted with daydreams that I walk right into pits..." She began to tear up again. "And then you helped me learn that there are some people who like daydreamers enough to marry them... But what if my clumsiness... is something I can pass down. I'm scared that Kana will become just as day dreamy as I am, and will end up like me, silly and sloppy. If she does I know it will be my fault." Setsuna was beginning to become surprised with how seriously she was talking herself.
"Would that really be so bad, for Kana to be another daydreamer?" Corrin decided now would be a good moment to put in his say. "Honestly the world is already in a really bad shortage of people who dream of what they could do." It was time to tell her something he should have said sometime around their wedding "Setsuna, did I ever tell you the moment I first realized I loved you?"
She shook her head. "No... but if I had to guess, maybe sometime around the 42nd time you saved me from a trap?"
"Nope" He prepared himself for what came next. "It was the after the 3rd in fact" He saw Setsuna's eyes go white in surprise and continued. " After I got you out of that metal boar trap, which I still can't understand how you got into, I asked you why you never got upset or scared about your knack for traps, something many would think of as a curse. After saying you knew Hinoka or I would come looking for you, do you remember what you told me."
She nodded, remembering that day well. "I said that It would only become scary or even seem dangerous if I over thought it and let it become something that bothered me." She started to see where he was going with this.
"That right there, is exactly why I realized you were possibly the most special person I had ever met. That attitude of taking something others see as painful, and turning it into something you enjoy is something I lack a lot of the time. That doesn't mean it's the only way to think of everything all the time, but you made me want to take all of the things weighing on me and turn the way I thought of them around into something completely different." He paused for a second. "Not to mention that your daydreaming hasn't stopped you from being one of the best Archers in Hoshido. So if Kana inherits that from you, why is that bad?"
Setsuna wasn't sure how to respond. She knew many saw her daydreaming as a curse, but normally she was too busy daydreaming to feel insulted or scared for herself. Yet here was Corrin, telling her that what the world really needed wasn't one less of her, but one more like her. "Are you sure she would be happy with that, possibly getting caught in traps all the time because she was busy daydreaming."
"It could be worse." Corrin finally let his smile fade. "You aren't the only one scared of what Kana may or may not inherit from her parents." Setsuna didn't quite catch on to his meaning until he explained further. "I'm clearly part Dragon... and I don't just mean how I can turn into one." He turned his head away. After a small silence he continued. "Not many of the others have called me out on it yet, probably saying its just me being stubborn, but I tend to think I can decide the way things should be. Whether anyone likes that version of the world or not. I would think that our enemy shares almost the same mindset. That anyone who says the world is different from how we think it is, is a fool who needs to move out of our way, or be put down." Corrin's eyes were now fixed on the ground unable to make eye contact with Setsuna.
Setsuna started "Corrin, you are nothing like..." but fell away from that when she looked a bit harder at the way Corrin went about everything. He helps hundreds nearly everyday, but whenever someone more self centered or greedy came near him. Corrin would invite them to change firstly, but if they refused, he would sometimes enter what Azura might describe as a dragon's rage. So technically he was right. "But that isn't so bad either!" She shouted.
It was now Corrin's turn to look surprised. "What do you mean?" He wasn't sure what she was trying to say. "You do understand that if Kana chose to become a monster I doubt anyone, even us, could stop her right?"
"Maybe so." She said softly "But I'm sure that if we can raise her as any good parents should, it would make it that much easier for her to choose when and how to use both of our traits" Setsuna Immediately covered her mouth. She had intended to say that Kana would know how to use Corrin's traits best, but she somehow managed to insert her own as well. "I... meant to say..."
"...Your right." Corrin turned his head back to look at her. He was now tearing up as well, also an almost unheard of sight to see. "I see that now. That you and I together, we can help Kana grow to make those kinds of choices. I don't think we'll ever be able to stop her from daydreaming or from being stubborn about how she thinks things should be, but we can raise her into someone who chooses when and how those traits should flourish." He smiled and pulled her into a hug. Setsuna, of course, hugged back just as tightly.
Both were now crying, but it was a good cry. A cry that told them both that they were up for this challenge. That they could help the infant not far from their bed, destined to spend a significant amount of her childhood in a deep realm, grow into a mighty, daydreaming, stubborn, hero of a woman some day. If that was the path she chose to go down at least.
"Corrin, I..."
"I know... Me too..."
"... We need a new hammock." Both said in unison.
