Rendezvous

"He talks of 'us' as fated and destined but frankly, I think 'us' was a product of luck. Unbelievably fortunate and blessed once-in-a-lifetime luck but still...luck nontheless." A series of chance meetings that lead to the chance romance. FE7. Sain X Fiora.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Fire Emblem nor wish to profit monetarily from it.

1. Re-evaluation

Of all the women in he had ever met, Sain had ranked Dame Fiora as the fourth prettiest. Lady Louise had topped the list easily with her golden hair, lethal beauty, and easy smile. His own lady liege Lyndis coming second with her striking wildflower appeal, and Lady Priscilla a close third with her graceful beauty and poetically tragic eyes.

True, it was not fair to construct lists as these but Sain found he could not help but do so when he thought of women - which was often. Sain loved all women but for some criminal reason, some attributes seem to appeal to him more than others.

As Sain sat there on the bench, enjoying a brief respite from the duties of sub-commander, he pondered more on his list and began a new one - ranking the attributes of women in order of its appeal to him. When he referenced this new list to his 'prettiest women' list, glaring errors and inconsistencies were immediately apparent.

It simply would not do!

If he were to rank women, it should be done fairly and in the most honest way possible. Pacing back and forth, Sain fervently flicked through the images in his head, amending his list to best reflect his preferences. That was where he reached a dilemma. An impossibly infuriatingly immovable obstacle.

Dame Fiora should never have been that high. Nowhere near that high. It was not that she wasn't a lovely woman, all in the list were lovely women, but that her total appealing attributes -"beauty score" Sain decided to call it- was so disastrously low, it was a grave injustice to all the other ladies that Sain had even considered her in the top ten.

But it felt a graver injustice to move her. The thought of lowering Dame Fiora from her esteemed place in the top five felt so disgustingly wrong and yet it was unfair, and yet it was wrong, and yet it was a show of dishonorable bias, and yet it was Fiora, and yet...

"Sain! What are you doing?" It was Kent, come to drag him back to his knightly duties.

"Trying to fix a ghastly error, my friend." Sitting back on the bench, Sain furrowed his eyebrows, "I would be no good as sub-commander this afternoon if this thing continues to plague my mind."

"Don't be ridiculous Sain. What could bother you so?" Kent sat next to him.

"Do you truly wish to know?"

"Yes."

"Truly?"

"Sain-"

"Truly?"

Kent exhaled impatiently. "Truly. So, hurry, tell me and I shall fix it."

Quickly, Sain considered what Kent could do to help, because while Kent was a man, he rarely appreciated women like Sain did. But a new insight, an outsider's view, had been known to solve many a dilemma and surely, Sain could trust his closest companion to-

"Sain! Tell me."

"Kent." Here goes nothing. "Who do you believe more lovely, Dame Fiora or Lady Ninian?"

Kent blanched and then cleared his throat. And then once more. "Sain...we have neither the right nor the time to discuss this."

"Kent!" Inhaling, Sain prepared his reprimand, "One: shouldn't all women have the right to have men marvel at their beauty. Two: I asked for no discussion but merely an answer. Three: recruits do not need to meet until after morning tea, which is at high noon, which it is no where near. Four: ...you promised you would help me."

"I did no such thing." Kent stood up and began to walk off. Sain quickly followed.

"Please Kent, help me, else Dame Fiora will continue her siege upon my thoughts. Whilst I have no problem with that, it will surely hinder my ability as your sub-commander and surely-" Tripping on a rock and falling face first, Sain cursed Kent's fast pace, "...surely you and I do not want to do such a disservice to Caelin."

Wordlessly Kent offered a hand.

"Kent, please. All you have to do is consider the-the..."

Getting up, Sain was on the verge of pleading for an answer.

"...physical attributes of both and from there, find which of the two is more desirable."

A pause.

Sain continued to dust himself off.

"Kent, it is a simple matter of-"

"Lady Ninian."

"What?" Sain was taken aback; he had not really expected an answer.

Kent's face began to go beet red as he repeated, "Lady Ninian."

"Wh-What? Why?" This time Sain was taken aback that Kent chose Lady Ninian over Fiora.

"Her ...um... dancing. It, uh, gives...I mean, there's a...ahem...appeal in the way she ...um... gestures. A-as opposed to the ...uh... knightly way that Dame Fiora ...ahem... gestures. Though I appreciate the ...uh efficiency, Lady Ninian's are far more ...erm...

graceful to …um... b-behold."

Sain briefly wondered whether Kent's face would ever return to the same colour again.

Regaining composure, Kent adopted a stern tone. "Are you satisfied Sain?"

Sain thought a little on his answer. With Kent's answer, which was rather concise and on a certain level true, Sain began to see his list so much clearer. The spots and placement made sense, because Kent's gracious answer did not count for Sain. And any other answer would not count for Sain. Only Sain could count for Sain. Not that weird analytical Sain, but the original Sain.

Clarity, at last.

Besides, Dame Fiora's efficiently stiff and soldierly movements gave her beauty a dangerously orderly edge. Such an edge is far more appealing than the wonderfully lithe body of Lady Ninian.

Sain smiled.

"You're wrong."

-00000-

Later that day, post a particularly invigorating nap on the castle roof, he chanced to see her. Well, to be honest, he saw a pegasus knight. But in a very Sain way, he just knew it was the wonderful Dame Fiora.

On impulse, as he did most things, Sain signaled to her, crooning about and making all sorts of ruckus.

He was sure it was her.

The way she flew on her pegasus - he was near her often in battle to know.

The way she kept the other pegasus knights behind her in precise order.

The way she threw her javelin-

-which was coming right at him.

Missed.

A band around the tip.

Surely Sain could not be so lucky.

Teal.

It was her.

She always tied a band on her projectile weapons so she would be able to recognize and retrieve them later.

"Frugality is an essentiality."

Grinning foolishly as he picked up the javelin, where it harmlessly clattered just beside him, Sain mused how he could have ever made the lovely Dame Fiora play second fiddle to the also lovely but ultimately inferior Lady Louise.

Amendments to the list were in order.

Immediately.

Or perhaps...

"Dame Fiora shall command a list of her own!"

Laughing gleefully, Sain rushed inside the castle to tell Kent of his resolved dilemma.