Hey all, when I wrote this I completely forgot that the Jehanna castle got destroyed in the game. So... Let's just assume the castle never got burned down just for this story sake, mmh-kay?

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem! Although I wish I did.

Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter 1

It had been almost four weeks since the Sacred Stones war had ended and the new king of Jehanna, Joshua, was recalling back on the events that had taken place in the ferocious war. From the time he was recruited with Eirika's army to the long journey home with Gerik, Tethys and Marisa.

He wished he could relive the experience again. Not the fighting, but the excitement it brought him as a swordsman. And now the chances of reliving that feeling would be slim. As the new king of Jehanna, Joshua knew he had 'king-ly' duties to attend to which included rebuilding his homeland. He knew it would become of him ever since his mother, Queen Ismaire, had died in the war, but he felt it was his obligation to carry on his mother's rein. After all, he had abandoned her when he was younger.

The only thing that kept him from going insane from boredom was his partner Marisa. Joshua's gambling ways always got the best out of him, and he felt lucky that he had won that one duel with Marisa during the war. His prize was her. As a sparring partner that is, as well for gambling.

Since the war had ended, he hadn't seen much of the Crimson Flash. He had been too busy attending to villager's complaints, rebuilding towns and villages, and keeping order of the castle.

He was surprised to see her sitting down on the marble bench in the castle's garden. Ever since the two have arrived to the castle, it's been nothing but chaotic and he had not seen much of Marisa, except for the occasional glances they would exchange when they passed each other in the halls. He wanted to talk to her, but never had the time. He felt bad for not properly showing Marisa around.

"Marisa. Here you are."

Marisa turned her head and glanced towards the King.

"King Joshua." Marisa said in her usual emotionless tone then continued to stare in the direction she had before.

"Please, no formalities. Just Joshua's fine." Joshua sat down next to her. He still wasn't used the title 'King'. It irked him. And he was not properly King just yet. With everything that's going on, he had yet scheduled a date for the proper crowning ceremony.

"But everyone else calls you King." Marisa blandly said as she continued to stare straight ahead.

Joshua scoffed. "I told them not to, but they do anyway. They're some royal knights, huh?" Joshua grinned as he looked at Marisa. She still hadn't budged.

Marisa was interesting to Joshua. He rarely saw too many female swordfighters, and a beautiful one at that. What he didn't understand was how could someone so beautiful and exquisite not be gawked at amongst the lads? After a few chats, Joshua had learnt that she dedicated her life to her sword. She was so dedicated that she didn't care about being social or her appearance. She was quite the warrior. And he liked that. He believed that by bringing Marisa back to the castle, they both could train and learn something from one another. For her, it would for her to hone her sword skill, for that he saw they were equals of the sword. And for him, to better himself as a swordsman and test his chances at gambling.

"So what have you been up to these last few weeks? I haven't seen you in a while." Joshua leaned back against the marble bench.

"Exploring."

"Exploring?" Joshua gave her a quizzical look even though she wasn't looking at him.

"The castle. It's big. I've also kept look out a couple of nights."

"Oh Marisa, you don't have to do that."

"There isn't much for me to do."

Joshua cleared his throat. "I'm, uh, sorry that I kind of abandoned you."

Marisa turned to face him.

After a moment of silence, he continued. "You know, ever since we arrived here, I haven't been giving you much attention."

"It's okay. You're King, I understand that you're busy. And I've managed to waste time here."

He gave her a little but guilty smile. Even though she said it was okay, it wasn't to him. He felt like a bad host abandoning his guests. But he let the feelings go.

"Ah, and also," Joshua leaned forward, arms now on his knees to glance at Marisa.

"What's this I hear about you fighting the guards?" Joshua raised an eyebrow.

He saw that her face tensed up, her lips perched together as if she was hesitant to tell him.

"I… have to practice everyday. And you're so busy. …I didn't want to bother you." Marisa looked down as if she felt guilty.

Joshua smiled, it amused him that she would feel guilty or embarrassed around him.

"I'm not mad that you're dueling with my men, in fact you're actually helping them!"

Marisa looked back up at him.

"By beating them, they're now motivated to practice more and more until they beat you. I hear some of them are actually afraid of you." Joshua said lowering his voice. "But I am mad that you're not dueling with me like promised." He crossed his arms playfully.

"Oh. Well, when you have the time, I'll be waiting."

"How 'bout now?" Joshua stood up and unsheathed his sword, and pointed it at Marisa.

Marisa glanced at the sword pointing at her then at Joshua. Her face was hard to read, it always wore the same motionless expression. But it was nevertheless beautiful.

"Okay." Marisa stood and unsheathed her blade, taking a few steps back so the tip of their swords met.

"Your men were boring me anyways." Joshua swore he almost saw a grin appear on her face but the shadows of the trees and plants were illuminated from the sunset hid her face.

"Oh ho, insulting Jehanna's finest men are you? Well, on behalf of them, I will redeem their honor."

Joshua ran forward, sword at his side and swung it toward Marisa. Marisa raised her sword and blocked the attack. To her surprise though, she had forgotten how strong Joshua was, and the momentum of the block sent her tumbling back. Ready again, Marisa held her sword toward Joshua, with both hands. She believed that she needed the strength of both arms to withstand Joshua's strong force.

Joshua stroke first again, with the sword in his right hand he quickly threw slashes at Marisa. Diagonal, horizontally, vertically. Marisa was quick to dodge all of them, taking crucial steps backwards.

Untill…

She found herself backed up onto one of the garden's wall. She hadn't been aware of her surroundings until she was forced to block one of Joshua's deadly strikes. Although she was backed to the wall, the pressure of the block pushed herself harder against it.

In one swift move, Joshua flicked his wrist and sent Marisa's sword flying and land in the grass. To prevent her from running towards the sword, he pressed his left arm against the wall, just beside her head, and pinned Marisa against the wall with his body as he leaned towards her. Joshua slowly raised his sword just below her jaw.

Both breathing heavily, inches away from each other, they felt each other's hot breath upon their face.

Joshua had never been so close to someone as he was with Marisa. He looked into her big lavender eyes as it was staring at his eyes. He had never noticed how milky her skin looked. It was radiant. His eyes made its way down to her lips. Joshua thought how perfectly shaped they were. Arched like Cupid's bow and how soft it must be when kissed upon…

What am I'm thinking?

His eyes averted downwards and watched the rise and fall of his chest against hers as he gasped for air.

"You haven't lost your skills."

Joshua shot his eyes back up, to Marisa's eyes. He noticed that she shot her eyes quickly back up to meet his gaze.

Had she been examining my lips like I was to hers?

The thought intrigued him and curled the left side of his lips upwards. He couldn't help but to smirk.

"Well, I guess I'm just a natural. My sword skills never leave me." Joshua said proudly.

"Maybe. But if you want kill the enemy, aim for the throat." Marisa slowly moved her hands upwards to Joshua's sword and softly grasped his hand. She lowered the sword so that it was against the bare of her throat.

Joshua observed the movement of the sword as the sword laid gently against the milky complexion of her throat.

He realized that Marisa had already recuperated, while he was still panting hard. He felt that maybe he had lost a bit of his strength. He never had to breathe so hard in a battle.

"Oh." Joshua pushed himself off the wall and released the defeated swordswoman. She walked over to where her sword had landed, and bent over to pick it up.

"Heh, the honor of Jehanna's royal knights has been restored!" Joshua said jokingly.

"You won because I have been lowering myself the past week to level with them. I didn't even warm up." Joshua could tell Marisa was angry. From the way she quickly stressed her words to the part where she sheathed her sword quite nosily. The roughness of the sheath scratched slowly against the sword, it made a squealing sound that made Joshua scrunch his face up to the painful sound.

He looked back up to Marisa as she quickly turned around and headed towards the garden's entrance.

"Wait! I was just teasing." Joshua held up his right arm as if to grab her.

Marisa turned around to face Joshua with her left hand on her hip. A sign of annoyance.

He could tell that she was mad. Of course he knew better than to criticize Marisa on her swordsmanship, it was everything to her.

"Besides," Joshua walked up to her.

"If you hadn't backed into the wall and kept dodging all of my attacks, I would've tired myself silly." A slow and reassuring smile appeared on his face.

After some moment of silence, "heh. Alright." Marisa arm fell to her side as she turned around and began to walk.

"Oh yeah, I won so… I want something."

"But we didn't bet anything" Marisa once again turned around to face him.

"Oh Marisa. You should know by now," Joshua had his arms crossed and took 2 steps towards her.

"I'm a man of gambling. When it's not my coin that I'm gambling with, it's my sword."

"Okay. What do you want?"

It didn't take long for Joshua to figure out what he wanted, but for dramatic effect he place right hand on his chin and gently stroke it as he grinned at Marisa.

"I want to spar with you everyday. Same time, same place."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." Joshua was taken aback from Marisa's reply. He was hoping she would be happy at this.

"It's just. You're king now and you have your country to look out for. I don't you want you to me before Jehanna."

What an odd way to say it.

But he knew what she meant.

"Don't worry, everything has settled already, I just have to tend to a few documents, reparations, and money problems. But at the end the day, I'll be available."

"Okay. If you're sure about it."

"I am." Joshua nodded his head.

Marisa turned around again and headed out the entrance of the garden that led into the castle before she called out, "Good night Joshua."

"G'night Marisa!" He shouted back and she was gone.