Nathan sighed as he fiddled with the quill he held, flipping it around between his fingers while sitting at his desk. He was currently signing off on a stack of troop transfer files, quickly reading through them and scribbling his signature at the bottom. The grandmaster chuckled at his own exasperation. This was a far cry from the horrors of war, but felt even more tiresome.
It had been around a year since he returned to Ylisse after defeating Grima. Normally his daughter, Morgan, would be the one dealing with all the grandmaster duties. However, he had agreed to fill in the post while she was on her honeymoon with Yarne, her newlywed husband.
"I forgot how much work this was…" Nathan grumbled as he quickly flipped through another file, scanning the pages. Looking through the new files made him feel old, seeing pictures of fresh-faced new soldiers that he didn't recognize. He laughed when he saw who the general for the troop he was supposed to be signing off for was.
It was Kellam. But, more importantly, while most of his file was filled out (In what looked like the man's own handwriting no less), there was no picture attached to his file. Instead a piece of paper was attached to it that said 'NO IMAGE AVAILABLE'.
For his own amusement, Nathan drew a crude stick figure on the back of the paper, before signing off on the file and adding it to his pile of completed forms.
"You aren't vandalizing our precious troop transfer files, are you?" A familiar voice teased from behind the man.
Nathan turned around to see Chrom walking into his friend's workroom. The two had known each other for around five years now, and the tactician could swear that Chrom never aged, looking the same as he did the day they first met.
"Oh – m-my sincerest apologies sir, please don't rat me out to Exalt Lucina!" Nathan mockingly joked, pretending to shake his hands in fear. The two shared a laugh as Chrom pulled up a chair next to the man.
"So, what can I do for you?" Nathan asked curiously, wondering why his best friend had come to pay him a visit.
"Actually, the question should be what are you doing for Lissa," Chrom replied. "You do know what day tomorrow is, right?"
Nathan scratched his head in confusion. "Tomorrow is…Friday? Or is it Saturday, I'm horrible with keeping track of my days…"
Chrom raised an eyebrow, concerned for his friend. "Tomorrow is Valentines' day, Nathan…"
The room was eerily silent for a moment as Chrom's words sunk in for Nathan. The man's eyes suddenly widened as he nearly fell off his chair, swearing loudly.
"OH MY GOD, YOU'RE RIGHT!" He yelled in panic. "I FORGOT! HOW DID I FORGET?"
"Probably because you've been up here, signing papers every night…" Chrom muttered. "You were kind enough to remind me when I forgot a few years back, so I figured I should do the same, since I had a hunch that you forgot…"
"Well, thanks for letting me know, but I'm still kind of screwed…" Nathan replied. "How am I supposed to come up with something? It's nearly night, and Valentines Day is tomorrow!"
Chrom rubbed his chin in thought. "I…hadn't thought too much about that…but hey, uh, at least I reminded you!"
Nathan rubbed his head as sweat started to drip down his forehead. "This is gonna be…quite the bit of work…" The tactician groaned.
"Oh, come on! You're the legendary hero who killed Grima! Compared to that, this is just a walk in the park!"
"I think I'd rather fight Grima again right now…" Nathan joked, letting out an exasperated laugh. "Anyways, I'm curious…what are you doing for Sumia?"
Chrom smiled at his friend. "Not too much, actually," He explained. "We're going out for dinner, I bought her flowers…y'know, that type of cliché stuff."
Nathan nodded. "Sounds like you've got things under control…"
"You could say that. I've had plenty of time to come up with what to do…with future Lucina taking over the Exalt duties now, my days pretty much consist of me walking about the castle, training and playing with our-timeline Lucina…"
The two had a bit of small talk before Chrom went off to find Sumia and head to bed. Nathan however, after quickly signing off on the remaining troop transfer files, headed down to the courtyard of the castle to try and come up with a plan for the next day. It was going to take some quick and genius strategies to figure out something good for Valentines Day with this little time…
Nathan sat on a bench in the Ylisse castle courtyard, racking his brain for some sort of idea of what to do. It was times like this when he sorely missed Owain-well, the grown up version of him. The dramatic swordsman had left with Severa and Inigo not long ago, shortly after Morgan and Yarne's wedding. The three had headed out to travel the world, and had not been heard from since. Owain certainly would be quite helpful in a situation like this, always able to come up with some crazy plan that was sure to make his mother laugh.
"Ah, finally!" A familiar, booming voice yelled from the entrance to the courtyard. "It's so nice to be back in Ylisse! I must go check up on Milords, no doubt their physical and mental states have withered away without myself around to watch over them…"
Nathan looked up to see Frederick and Cherche entering the area. While Cherche hadn't changed much, Frederick was now sporting a well-trimmed brown beard on his face. The tactician had to admit; it looked pretty good on the man.
It was only a few seconds before Frederick spotted Nathan sitting nearby. His eyes widened, quickly turning to his wife, who smiled sweetly at him.
"…Go ahead, love. I'll head up to our room." She told him. Frederick smiled to her, giving a quick peck on the cheek before bolting towards the tactician.
"MILORD! WHAT A PLEASURE IT IS TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" The great knight yelled as he took seat on the bench next the man, quickly smothering him with affection in a tight bear hug.
"Heh…great to see you too, Freddy…" Nathan muttered, his voice muffled from being squeezed into his old friend's chest. Eventually, the man let go and gave Nathan a chance to catch his breath.
"Anyways," The tactician muttered between tired wheezes, "What brings you around here again?"
"Milady Cherche requested we come down here, to see everyone. She said something about some sort of special day taking place while we were here, but I can't put my finger onto what…"
"Valentine's day?"
Frederick's eyes slowly widened as the realization dawned on him. Nathan reflexively covered his ears.
"VALENTINES DAY! IT'S TOMORROW! OH GODS, I HAVE NOTHING PREPARED! AND AFTER I SUNG A BALLAD OF ALL THE THINGS I LOVED ABOUT MY PRECIOUS WIFE LAST YEAR, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY TOP IT? OH, THE HORROR!"
Nathan watched as nearly all the birds flew out of the courtyard, squawking loudly, from Frederick's alarming voice. He turned to the man after the great knight had finally calmed down enough.
"Well, you're in luck, in a way." Nathan told him. "I forgot too, so I guess we're in the same boat, huh?"
Frederick looked at him in confusion. "But, you are a tactician! How could you possibly…forget about something as important as this?"
"I could say the same about you," Nathan joked. "We probably had the best memories in the whole army…pretty ironic, in a way."
Frederick nodded, rubbing his well-groomed beard in thought. "Perhaps one of the women put a curse on us, to forget this date, for some reason…anyways, no matter. We must figure out what to do!"
"Yep, we're in this together!" Nathan seconded with a smile, patting the much taller man on the back. "We'll figure something out, I'm sure of it!"
The two made their way into the castle from the courtyard, deciding that a walk in the castle might help kick start their brains to figure out romantic ideas. Passing through the many halls, they looked on the many portraits that decorated castle interior. There were entire sections dedicated to past heroes, dating all the way back to the first Exalt. The two stopped for a moment to admire the pictures of the Hero-King Marth and his most trusted comrades. Frederick pointed up to a portrait of a slightly older man with grey hair, wearing thick pink armour with large spikes covering the shoulder plates.
"That," Frederick explained, "Is Sir Jagen. He was King Marth's closest advisor, and one of the men he trusted most. I have aspired to be like him for Milord Chrom since the moment Milord was placed under my protection."
Nathan looked up at the portrait, tilting his head with a confused look. "…Did anyone ever figure out what the spikes on his armour are for, exactly? I mean, they look cool and all, but a bit excessive…"
Frederick nodded. "Milord Chrom said the exact same thing, when I tried to attach spikes to my own shoulder armour…"
Nathan raised an eyebrow at his friend, sporting an amused grin before looking back at the massive wall. He spotted portraits of Marth's most trusted knight comrades, Cain, Abel, and Frey. He always found it interesting to wonder what these people would have been like, after having read so much about them in the many history books that had been written about them. It always made him wonder if, one day, someone would be saying the same thing about him and his own comrades.
The tactician was brought back to reality as Frederick turned to continue on down the hallway. Nathan quickly caught up to the man, and looked up at him with a concerned expression.
"Looking at pictures is great and all, but…shouldn't we be trying to figure out what to do for tomorrow?"
Frederick shot Nathan back an equally concerned look. "You, of all people, should know how to approach this situation!" He replied. "We must look for ideas, but also calm ourselves down to avoid rash decisions. That is what you would no doubt have told me, back in the heat of battle…"
Nathan sighed sheepishly, scratching his dark brown hair. "Well, I've gotten quite a bit rusty, without any reason to practice my tactics anymore…" He admitted. "I really need to keep those skills tuned, for situations like this."
The great knight nodded in agreement as the two stopped again, looking up at another wall covered in portraits. This one was from their most recent wars, and featured elegant paintings of each of the members of the shepherds, along with all the others who had played a pivotal role in the battles against Plegia, Valm, and the Grimleal.
Standing nearby, hanging up another portrait, was Libra, the blonde-haired priest. He was wearing white coveralls with paint spots staining his clothing, face, and long straight hair. The man gave Nathan and Frederick a warm smile after spotting them admiring the paintings on the walls.
"Ah, good to see you Nathan. And Frederick, when did you get here?"
"Just earlier in the night," The bearded great knight explained. "Did you paint all of these, Libra?" He asked curiously, gesturing to the wall.
The priest nodded. "Nathan and Chrom begged me for long enough that I finally caved in…" He replied with a smile. "As much as I enjoy painting, it has been quite a bit of work. It's been months since I finished the first portrait, and I have countless more left to complete…"
"Well, you were definitely the right man for the job, these are beautiful…" Nathan praised, taking another look at the covered wall. His heart swelled with pride as he noticed two pictures side by side that stood out to him: One was of his family, Owain, Morgan, Lissa and himself, all standing together. The other was of Himself, Donnel, Lon'qu, Ricken and Chrom in some sort of battle formation with their weapons drawn. The caption 'Justice Cabal' had been scrawled underneath the drawing.
The tactician was snapped out of his daydream by a loud yell from Frederick, who suddenly turned back to Libra with his eyes widening.
"Is there something I can help you with, Frederick?" Libra asked curiously.
The man nodded. "You must teach Nathan and I your ways! It is the only way we can save this upcoming sacred date of Valentines!"
Nathan raised an eyebrow at his friend. "…Are you implying we need to become priests for tomorrow? …And, if so, why exactly?"
"No, no, don't you see, Milord?" Frederick snapped exasperatedly. "We should paint something, as a gift for our wives for tomorrow!"
"That is…a really good idea, actually!" Nathan admitted, smiling at the great knight before turning to Libra. "Could you teach us?"
The Priest thought for a moment, before nodding. "You won't become master artists overnight, but I can teach you two a thing or two." He told them. "Follow me back to my art room, and I'll show you the basics."
Nathan turned to Frederick, thoroughly impressed. "Look at you, turning into a romantic genius out here!" He playfully joked.
"Well, being romantic was never one of your strong suits, so I figured I would need to step up…" Frederick jabbed back with a grin.
"Did you just…make a joke?" Nathan asked with a bit of a laugh. "My god, Frederick, you're losing your touch!"
The two shared a hearty laugh as they followed Libra down the halls, hoping he could help them solve their problem.
It wasn't a long trip to Libra's painting room, which was conveniently located near the halls of portraits. Nathan and Frederick looked around the room in awe, seeing Libra's setup, filled with blank canvases and unfinished portraits all about. The room itself was quite messy, covered in spots of paint that had splattered onto the stone floors and walls.
"Wow…" Nathan muttered. "I can't say I've ever been in here before. The door is always locked whenever I come by…"
Libra nodded. "I need concentration when I paint, and I've found that to be the best method for it," He replied. "I apologize for keeping the rest of you out, though. I think you two are some of the first people to set foot in here!"
The tactician grinned at the priest. "Well, if it lets you keep making all these amazing paintings, I say barricade the door shut all you want!" The man joked. "They really are amazing!"
"I agree with Milord," Frederick added, a twinge of impatience in his voice, "But can we please begin? Time is of the essence, Sir Libra."
The longhaired blonde nodded, gesturing to two blank canvases standing nearby. "Why don't the two of you head over there, grab some paint, and try out your painting skills?"
Nathan shrugged. "Worth a shot, eh Freddy?" The tactician muttered, turning to his friend, who nodded in agreement. The two walked over, each pulling up a stool in front of one a blank canvas and having a seat. There were small trays of paint, along with a cup holding a few paintbrushes, next to each of the stands. Libra rattled off a few basic instructions, even painting up a quick example for them, before deciding to turn them loose.
"Try to start with something simple." Libra told the two. "Something with an easy design. I'll come back in an hour or so, I have a batch of paintings I left out in the hallway, which I need to hang up, and then I'll have a look at what you've completed. How does that sound?"
"Milord and I shall strive for greatness, High Priest Libra!" Frederick emphatically replied. "We shall see you soon!"
Once Libra returned in around an hour, Nathan and Frederick had made significant progress on their works of art, and the two were now covered in splats of paint, all over their clothes and skin. They anxiously turned with excitement to Libra as the priest and painter entered the room, with huge grins on their paint-covered faces.
"So? Whaddya think?" Nathan eagerly asked of Libra, moving aside so the man could see his painting. Libra squinted at the work of art, trying to make out what exactly it was. There were large blobs of Yellow, and white, dotting all over the page. As far as he could tell, those were the only two colours Nathan had meant to use, except he looked to have mixed some of the other colours in as well by accident, with random blobs of blue and green all over the painting as well. The green was near the bottom, and the blue on the top.
"Maybe that's grass…and sky?" Libra muttered to himself, squinting even harder at the painting as he scrambled to figure exactly what it was supposed to be.
"That's a nice…er…Pegasus, you've painted there, Nathan. I like the wings on it."
"…It's supposed to be Lissa. And those are her pigtails, by the way."
"My apologies-" Libra stammered, but Nathan quickly cut him off with a grin.
"No need to apologize, Libra. I've never been an art person myself, to be honest…" The tactician admitted. "Not sure about Frederick though, he wouldn't let me see what he'd done…"
The blonde priest turned his attention to Frederick, who nervously held up the painting he had done for Libra to see. The man stared at the work of art and his eyes quickly widened in surprise.
The painting was of Chrom and Frederick, surrounded by what looked like a horde of Risen. Chrom had a terrified expression on his face, and was being held, bridal style, in Frederick's bulky arms. The great knight was wielding both his trademark silver lance in one arm, and Chrom's Falchion in the other, with a fierce expression on his face.
"Well, I can't deny this is amazingly well done, but…isn't it supposed to be for your wife? Why would you give her a portrait of yourself and Chrom?" Libra asked.
"What do you mean?" Frederick replied confusedly. "I always paint portraits such as these, and Cherche tells me she loves them!"
"Well, I suppose with all the free time in wyvern valley, it makes sense that you'd do something with it…I would not have suspected painting, however." Nathan mused. "Also, what do you mean by always painting portraits 'like this one'?"
"My painting room at our home is filled with portraits of myself and milord together!" Frederick answered. "I've done a few of myself with you, as well, my tactical friend, and some of myself with Cherche, but mostly I work on paintings of myself with our precious Exalt, Milord Chrom."
"Well, um…" Libra began, unsure of what to say next, before Nathan quickly cut him off.
"…That's nice, Frederick, and I'm sure she enjoys them, but maybe as a Valentine's day present you should change things up a bit? Do one of you, her, and Gerome, maybe? Oh, and Minerva of course. Well, both Minerva's, but you get what I'm saying."
"Ah, such a beautiful idea milord! I am sure that my love will be most pleasantly surprised to receive something such as this! Now then, I have work to do!"
With that, the Great knight quickly pulled up another one of Libra's blank canvases, and set back to work, now on a new painting. Libra then turned to Nathan with a curious look in his eyes.
"So what about you, young tactician?" The man prodded. "Any ideas as to what your plans are?"
Nathan scratched his head in thought. "Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm not quite sure…" He confessed. "I was hoping the painting would at least give me some sort of idea, but I'm pretty stumped."
"Well, what are you good at? You should be able to figure out something from your talents."
"Well, I sign a lot of papers, and write books about tac…" Nathan began to mutter, before trailing off into deep thought. "THAT'S IT!" He yelled. "Thank you, Libra! I know what I'm going to do!"
"I'm flattered, but I'm not sure how I helped…" The priest responded. Nathan laughed, before quickly running out of the room, heading back out into rest of the castle.
"Huh?" Frederick questioned, his head finally coming back up from the intense concentration he had on his painting. "Did Milord leave? Where did he go?"
"I don't really know," Libra muttered, "But at least it seems like he has things figured out…"
-THE NEXT MORNING-
Lissa felt the light shining in from the balcony window in her bedroom and groaned quietly. It felt too early to be getting up. She had the same thought every day at around this time, so the princess figured she was right. She let out a content yawn, eyes still closed, as she rolled over to curl up with her husband and go back to-
Well, that was odd. Instead of her hand meeting the usual warm body of her favourite tactician as she rolled over, instead she simply felt more blanket and empty space. She opened her eyes to see that the tactician was nowhere to be found.
The princess thought for a moment, before coming to a reasonable conclusion. With Nathan filling in for Morgan in the tactician's duties, he was more than likely quite busy working overtime, signing off on another stack of papers.
She slowly and sleepily got up to get dressed, wandering around the room to find something to wear. If Nathan had spent the whole night working away, he could probably use a pleasant surprise to start his morning…
The Princess, after getting dressed in her usual yellow attire, grabbed the wrapped present she had hidden in under the bed, and headed out to find her husband.
It wasn't a long trek to the Grandmaster's workroom, just a single flight of stairs from the room Nathan and Lissa shared. The Princess anxiously skipped up to the room, and quickly burst through the door of the workroom, spotting Nathan fast asleep, head resting on a closed book. The tactician quickly jolted awake upon Lissa's entrance, and let out a loud yawn as he stretched his arms before smiling fondly at his wife.
"Hey, Liss. Is it still morning? I hope I didn't sleep in too late."
"Yes, you dork, it's still morning…were you up here all night?"
Nathan shook his head. "I've been…around the castle, so to speak. Trying to figure out what to give you for Valentine's Day, actually. That is today, right? Chrom wasn't screwing with me?"
Lissa giggled and nodded. "It is!" She told him, handing the man her wrapped gift. "I got you a little something, I hope you like it!"
Nathan smiled weakly at her, still quite sleepy from the events of the night before. He slowly managed to tear off the wrapping paper and his eyes widened once he saw what was inside.
It was a fresh new copy of an old strategy guide, a rare text in fact. Nathan chuckled, remembering what had happened to the first version of the book he once had.
"I figured it was about time I got you that, to replace the one I covered in ink…" Lissa muttered sheepishly, remembering the moment from many years ago. In an attempt to doodle on the inside of the book, Lissa had managed to accidentally spill ink all over the inside of the text, making most of it near impossible to read.
Nathan laughed. "Sometimes, it feels like you ruined the old one just yesterday…"
"Well, at least now I've paid you back!" Lissa replied.
"As for my present…" Nathan muttered, picking up the book he had been resting his head on while sleeping and handing it to Lissa, "I tried something a bit different this year."
Lissa opened the book, seeing Nathan's writing all over the inside. "Ooh! A story!" She deduced excitedly, before looking back to her husband. "What's it about?"
"Me!" Nathan jokingly replied. "Well, it's kinda about me, but it's more about…us. I wrote down all about how we got to know each other, all the fights we had, all the pranks…it's kinda corny, but I thought it might be cool."
"Oh, Nathan, that sounds great!" Lissa responded emphatically, tackling her husband with a hug and nearly knocking him out of his chair. "So, what's it called?"
"You'll probably think it's kinda corny…"
"Even if I do, I still want to know."
Nathan sighed, with a tired smile on his face. "It's called…The Princess and her Frogs."
Just a little something I came up with, to tide me over for fates. Leave a review if you enjoyed, and, in honour of Valentine's day, let me know who your waifu is for fates ;)
-Nate