Everything © their respective owners
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
KN: Just take this MarthXRoy oneshot. I don't even.
Warning: MarthXRoy. Is this what fluff is? Fluff warning?
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
"Marth, it's June, right?"
"Yes."
"And…that means it's summer, right?"
"Where are you going with this, Roy?"
"You can clearly see what I'm seeing right now." Roy gestured to what was in front of them melodramatically. "Why is it snowing?!"
Snow piled up around the building the smashers lodged, more fell with each passing second. Strangely enough, it was also snowing inside the building. Kirby had changed to Ice Kirby and was making ice sculptures and igloos while Ness made snowmen with Toon Link and Villager. Samus walked around leisurely as other smashers hastily pulled their jackets on and wrapped scarves around themselves.
"Oh, that." Marth chuckled. "I hadn't noticed." Roy might've believed that considering the ex-prince was standing at ease as if it wasn't currently colder than the snowcapped peaks of Ilia in winter, but he liked to think he knew Marth pretty well.
"It's n-not supposed to snow during this time." Roy shivered, crossing his forearms over his chest so he could move his hands up and down his biceps. "Unless Smash Brothers has changed more than I thought and adopted a tundra-like climate in the time I've been absent…"
"I think the weather regulator is malfunctioning." Marth said, lips forming a small grin. "Unfortunately, Master Hand is out at the moment discussing the fighter poll data, so it looks like we'll be stuck with this till he gets back."
"Oh…" Roy looked down at the frozen floor. "Is there any warm area left in this toybox?" He wondered aloud.
"Why don't you come to my room?" Marth suggested coolly.
"Well, it sounds like it'll be better than here." Roy answered, wrapping his cape around his shoulders.
He followed Marth through the halls, some more familiar than others. The building had been reconstructed to accommodate the growing roster, but there were still some remnants of the architecture from when Roy had been here. The high windows remained, and if Roy could see through the blanket of snow on the floor, he was sure they'd be the same cream tiles.
They walked into a large room with a fireplace, tempting Roy to just stay there instead of going to Marth's room. Charizard was lighting the fire.
"When did Bowser lose his shell and grow wings?" Roy asked all of a sudden. Marth was about to ask where that question came from when he saw Charizard fly out the window and back in carrying twigs in its mouth. He then turned to Roy with an eyebrow raised.
"Roy, that…that's not Bowser…" The ex-prince answered. Roy turned back to him with his arms crossed.
"Of course, it's Bowser." The Pheraen lord said matter-of-factly. "Who else is a fire-breathing reptile?" Marth rested a hand on his forehead.
"Okay, then why does 'Bowser' over there keep repeating the word, 'Charizard?'" The Altean lord pointed out. Sure enough, Charizard purred out its name as it curled up near the roaring fireplace. Roy looked thoughtful for a moment. Just a moment, though.
"Ah, he must've lost his ability to articulate in order to gain wings with hopes of ruling the sky…" Roy hit the open palm of one of his hands with the butt of his other fist. "Such is the price of evolution…" He nodded in understanding.
"What…?" Marth shook his head. He glanced around the room before his eyes fell on the real Koopa King, his son, and the Koopalings. "Roy, Bowser's over there." He gestured to them. Roy followed the direction of the ex-prince's hand.
"Ah!" Roy took a step back. "He's capable of multiplying! However," he peered at Bowser Jr., "that smaller copy of him seems to be closer to the original than all his other forms…" He leaned back with a hand on his chin. "I wonder why that is…"
"No, those are…" Marth started to explain, but the gears turned in his head. He took a step back and studied Roy's small grin and the mischievous glint in his eyes. "You were messing with me." He concluded.
"But you knew!" Roy accused him. "Anyone would've at that point!" He laughed cheerily. "Heh heh…you're still pretty kind if you're willing to humor me, though." He gave Marth another small smile. "Whatever happened to that bully I met so long ago? The one that said he'd never associate with the likes of myself?"
"So eager to meet him again?" Marth raised a brow at that. "I didn't think that was the type you preferred."
"You bring him back, and you're losing a boyfriend." Roy quipped, crossing his forearms behind his head. That slid the cape off him, so he stopped midway and wrapped it back around him, shivering.
"I don't think either of us would want that." Marth smiled despite himself.
They continued on their way soon after. The piles of snow inside the building got higher as they trekked, so Roy hoped they wouldn't have much longer to go. Something caught the Pheraen lord's eye as they went through a hall, and he stopped to observe it more. The flash of a tactician's cloak and a mess of hair…
"Mark!" Roy found himself saying before he could stop. He even found himself following after the familiar person despite distantly hearing Marth say something else. Roy grabbed that person's shoulder, only to have them turn around and look nothing like what he expected. "Er…no, not Mark?" He realized. "You're someone else."
"Brilliant deduction." Marth said as he caught up to him.
"Well, he just has that aura, you know." Roy made some kind of strange motion with his hands. "Like he's someone you've been alongside on the field of battle…" Marth gave him a gentle smile.
"I thought he was someone I knew too." Marth thought back fondly. "Roy, this is Robin." He gestured to the familiar person that wasn't Mark. "Robin, this is Roy." The tactician's face lit up.
"The Young Lion of Pherae!" Robin clasped his hands together. "I've heard about many of your adventures in Elibean lore as well as your experience here from the Hero King. It's nice to finally meet you."
"It's nice to meet you as well." Roy bowed courteously. Robin studied Marth's expression when the lord looked at Roy, and then he glanced at the Pheraen lord.
"So you two have that sort of relationship…" The strategist concluded. Marth looked like he had been caught while Roy's expression remained unchanged. "Heh heh, I never would've guessed."
"Yeah, Marth's a pretty hard guy to figure out." Roy nodded. "The first five seconds he sees someone, he automatically decides whether or not he likes them, and if he decides he doesn't like you, you're in for a bad time!"
"I like to think I have good instincts and judgment." Marth said evenly. He gave Roy a quick once over. "I'm starting to wonder if I was wrong with you, though, Roy."
"Your instincts were pretty dull if they couldn't tell you who you'd fall hopelessly in love with." Roy grinned.
"Heheheh…I suppose." Marth could only agree. Robin observed them for a few seconds more and smiled.
"Well, I think I should take my leave." The tactician tucked his hands back into his sleeves. "You two might forget I'm still here and get carried away."
"You didn't have to worry about that." Roy assured him. "Marth doesn't like people who are heavy on public displays of affection." That was supposed to be a whisper, but Roy purposely said it loud enough for both people present to hear. Robin gave him a quick "oh, I see…" and walked off scribbling that bit of trivia in a small notebook.
"You don't either." was all Marth said when they were alone again.
"I'm not the one who gets jealous." Roy replied in a sing-song tone.
"I don't get jealous." Marth promptly denied.
They continued on their way again. Marth told him about Ylisse and how there were actually two tacticians, one male and one female. Both were named 'Robin,' for some reason. He promised to tell him more later, since they were close to their destination.
There was a hallway with the Fire Emblem logo etched on its entrance. When they got there, Roy noticed another symbol underneath the logo. It looked like a teardrop on top of a smile with a pointy bit under it. Whatever it was, Marth seemed to look at it fondly.
About midway into the hall, they saw Ike about to exit his room. The Tellian Lord glanced out of the corner of his eye and turned enough in that direction to see them coming.
"Oh, Roy, you were visiting today?" Ike greeted him cheerily. Marth tried to give him a neutral look, if only to stop himself from glaring at the other man.
"Hopefully for the rest of the week as well." Roy replied with just as much goodwill. "And hopefully, it stops snowing by then." Roy rubbed his hands on his arms.
"Yeah, it sucks that the weather regulator decides to fail the day you arrive." Ike sympathized. He gave Roy a quick once over. "You didn't bring a jacket or anything?"
"I assumed like any normal person that it would be sunny when I made it here." Roy pouted.
"Ah, yeah…" Ike nodded. "Well, you can borrow something of mine if you want." He offered as he entered his room again and leafed through his closet quickly. "I know you can't handle cold weather." He came back with a blue down jacket. He looked from the jacket to Roy. "It might be a loose fit on you, though." He admitted as he handed it to Roy.
"Oh, tha-!" Before Roy could even touch it, Marth ripped it out of Ike's hands and promptly chucked it with enough force that it landed all the way at the entrance of the hall.
"…" Ike and Roy remained silent, the Pheraen lord hoping Marth would stop with just the jacket.
"You can catch up with Ike, Roy." Marth offered evenly. "My room's at the end of the hall." He gestured to the door with an image of Falchion carved into it. "I'll be waiting there when you two are done chatting." He informed him as he made his way there.
Ike left to retrieve his jacket and came back to Roy with an understanding look.
"I'm sorry about him." Roy looked down at the snow.
"You're not the one who has to apologize." Ike said pointedly as he shook the snow off the jacket. "Though, he would've shredded it if he was the same guy he was when I first met him."
"And then stabbed you." Roy added.
"And then stabbed me." Ike nodded, tossing the jacket into his room.
"Does he still hate you?" Roy cocked his head. What he was really asking was, 'Are you going to be okay? Has Marth done anything really bad while I was gone?' Ike looked out of the corner of his eyes briefly before turning his direction back to Roy.
"Not as much, lately." Ike admitted. "We have some newcomers from our franchise that he's taken a liking to, so he's usually in a better mood these days." What he was really saying was, 'I'm fine. It's not as bad as you think.'
"Huh, that was pretty quick!" Roy allowed himself a laugh, relief giving him permission. "We had to work to get his approval."
"You had to work." Ike also laughed. "I'm still working…" He clarified.
"Well, you could always apply for the position as his boyfriend?" Roy joked.
"I'd think I'd die on the first date…" Ike rolled his eyes.
'And besides that, how would I compete with someone as patient as you?' Ike thought.
"It would make quite the epic legend, though." Roy mused.
"Those tacticians would record it for the history books of Ylisse even." Ike nodded. "The day the Radiant Hero died on his first date… Who knew his inability to pay for dinner would cost him his life?" He gestured dramatically to match the way he theatrically delivered his line. This made both of them laugh.
"I think he actually likes you more than he'd admit." Roy shared his thoughts. "I wish he'd be a little more obvious about it if only to let you relax more."
"Yeah, well, until I'm allowed to go home to Tellius, I'll survive." Ike waved away Roy's concerns. "Let's hang out sometime later in the week. I'll introduce you to some of the other newcomers if Marth doesn't beat me to it." He suggested.
"Sounds like a plan." Roy agreed.
"Great." Ike smiled. "Now, I should probably get some training done."
"And I have an upset ex-prince to calm down." Roy nodded. They parted ways, and Roy found himself alone as snow fell around him. He reached Marth's door and entered the room.
Contrary to popular belief, Marth wasn't the most organized person in the world. Roy didn't know if it was just the snow covering the room or if it was still just Marth being disorderly as ever, but one of the snow piles looked like an upside-down desk for some reason.
What stood out was that the bed had a wooden wall on the left side, another on the right side, and another wood board on top, forming some kind of strange fort over the bed with its king (Marth) sheltered in the structure. That, and the room was missing something important.
"…what happened to your ceiling?" Roy finally asked, breaking the silence.
"It was destroyed when I blasted Ike through it." Marth answered matter-of-factly as he stepped out of the fort, pointing to some area of the missing ceiling as if to show just where Ike crashed through it.
"That sounds like it was eventful." If Roy felt betrayed that Ike kept quiet about this, the expression didn't show on his face.
"What was really amazing was that he took the entire ceiling with him." Marth thought back fondly. "And so, I was forced to build this makeshift wooden roof over my bed…" He gestured to the structure. "It was lucky I did, since it started snowing to-!" Marth was interrupted as the 'roof' part fell flat on the bed.
"…Does it fall on you when you're asleep?" Roy chuckled as Marth's expression remained unchanged.
"Only sometimes." Marth said evenly.
"Hm…" Roy hummed as he went to the bed, examining the piece that fell. "Ah, I see the problem. Marth," Roy gave him a mock disappointed look, "don't you know the first thing about building? No wonder it keeps falling!"
"Oh, like you would know any better?" Marth answered with the same tone. "You're just as sheltered of a lord as I was. What would you know of carpentry?"
"Traveling enlightens you on a lot of survival skills." Roy grinned. "Now allow me to rebuild your shoddy castle, your highness. If my construction falls even once, then I'll accept any punishment you see fit."
"I'll hold you to that, hired builder." Marth returned the grin.
Roy looked around the room for some nails and something he could use as a hammer and got to work. It was maybe twenty minutes in before the Pheraen lord started to complain about the cold again.
"D-don't you own a sweater I could borrow or something?" Roy shivered. Marth answered him with a look. "Oh right, I forgot I was talking to someone with the weather preferences of an ice demon…"
"You tend to whine a lot when we're alone." Marth observed as he unclipped his cape and wrapped that around Roy's shoulders. "How's that?" The ex-prince asked. Roy gave him a smile that meant bad news.
"Just makes me wish I was in your bed already." Roy answered as he continued his work. From what he could see of Marth's expression out of the corner of his eye, he placed his line well.
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
"Huh, well, what do you know?" Roy leaned back against Marth's chest. "It is pretty warm here."
After Roy was finished, the two retreated under the fort-like structure, undoing leather straps and discarding their armor and boots to the sides of the bed. Marth sat behind Roy, arms wrapped around the younger boy's torso, legs on either side of his hips.
"It's been a while since we've been able to do just this." Marth hummed into Roy's shoulder. Roy squirmed a bit under the ticklish action, making Marth hold him tighter against his chest.
"I bet this is the reason you didn't want me to wear Ike's jacket." Roy teased. "And you said you didn't get jealous."
"I just didn't want you smelling like him." Marth asserted. "And what do I have to be jealous of? There isn't anyone else in the world who could love you more than I do."
"Hm…" Roy hummed thoughtfully. "I guess you're right."
"You guess?" Marth asked in a mock offended tone.
"The world's a pretty big place, Marth." Roy informed him in a way that parodied a teacher. "And you think you have more affection for me than any other person living on this planet? You'd better have solid evidence to back up a claim like that…"
"I'll be sure to gather my evidence and present my case, then, professor." Marth joked.
"Good, I want it on my desk by next week." Roy chirped back. He relaxed in Marth's arms, reveling in the quiet moment.
It was strange how someone who could probably walk through a blizzard unscathed could exude so much warmth. But then, even with all of Marth's facades, Roy supposed the ex-prince was never really a cold person to begin with. Just kind of dishonest and stubborn.
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
Master Hand hummed as he surveyed the situation. He may not have been very knowledgeable about the human world, but he was pretty sure weather effects didn't naturally occur inside the buildings.
He floated around his control room, checking the equipment before he found the weather regulator. The dial was on a happy face. He turned the dial so that it landed on an image of a fireball.
The snow quickly melted as the temperature of a summer night returned, completely flooding the building.
"Oops…" Master Hand realized. He floated around the room to check for the 'in case of disasters' switches. He was probably going to be here for a while.
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
"Did you hear something?" Marth asked. "Like water or…" Roy reluctantly wriggled out of his warm spot near Marth and crawled toward the foot of the bed to look over the bedpost.
"Hey, the snow melted!" Roy called back to him. "The sky's clear too."
"How can you tell that just by looking at melted sno-?" Marth stopped short when he looked at what Roy was seeing. The melted snow turned into a clear, shallow pool around the room, reflecting the starry sky and the images of the people looking at it.
Marth's floor had never looked so otherworldly before. He wished he had a camera. Roy suddenly flipped around so that he was on his back and pointed upwards. Marth followed his lead.
"This is what a summer night sky should look like!" Roy said matter-of-factly. "Beautiful." He made a wide gesture to the clear sky.
"Yeah." Marth agreed, though he was looking at Roy the entire time. "Beautiful." Roy hid a blush and turned away.
"I bet you say that to all the girls." The Pheraen lord quietly quipped. "Hey, that's St. Elimine's constellation!" He pointed to a collection of stars in the sky that Marth had always looked at back in Altea.
"Nope." Marth replied. "Those are Naga's eyes."
"What?" Roy laughed. "Those don't look anything like eyes… Look, see, that star is St. Elimine's staff, and the one under it…"
They continued talking about stars and people and lands and gods for a good portion of the night.
And neither of them could think of another place they'd rather be.
.-:-.-:-.-:-.
KN: Man, it's been so long since I wrote an actual MarthXRoy… But then, that's kind of my fault for making their relationship so complicated in the first place. Well, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.