Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem

A/N: Firefly for the win. Anybody who notices the reference gets a cookie.

Ross walked alongside the head of the merchant's caravan, deep in thought. Apart from the occasional sound of fighting that came from the battle taking place about a mile ahead the road was quiet, and he was glad of that. Some Grado soldiers had attacked them earlier and although they'd won the fight pretty easily, one of them had gotten in a lucky hit on Lute, who was now sitting on one of the carts the traders used for transporting letters, grumpily trying to read a book. One of her arms had been put in a sling and she was finding it more than a little difficult to hold the book upright and turn the pages. Finally, she stopped struggling and slammed the book down beside her. Ross slowed down until he was walking parallel to her. 'You OK?' he offered, smiling at her.

'I'm bored, Ross! I have nothing to do!' She rubbed her eyes with her free arm, pouting.

'You could always sort out the letters.' He nodded towards the large pile behind her.

'I'd really rather not.'

'We could play I-spy'

'...Seriously, no.' She hopped off of the cart, stumbling a little bit as she struggled to keep balanced. 'I'm going to go for a walk.'

'Don't get lost!' He called after her already retreating back. She waved back at him in response. He glanced back at the cart, then did a double take. There was a letter on the top of the pile, with Lute's name on it and a large pink heart on the corner.

A love letter? For Lute? He went to call her back, but stopped. Instead, he pocketed the letter. Revenge he thought to himself, pressing his feelings of guilt to the back of his mind.

He walked faster until he was keeping pace with the head of the caravan again, putting one of his hands into his pocket, touching the letter. Did Lute really have a boyfriend? Well, she was always off following that shaman guy, but then she'd called it getting information on any threats to her position as a genius or something (if he was honest, he never really listened when she started ranting about the other magic users, the same way she stopped listening when he was talking about becoming a great axe-wielder) and besides, he'd never struck Ross as the type to send love letters. There was always Artur – but him sending any girl a love letter would contradict all of the rumours Ross had heard about him and Cormag. She did get on very well with Kyle (very very well) but Kyle seemed too stiff and formal. And besides, any talking the two seemed to do was done strictly in military terms as the two planned strategy together. Although her occasional glances at him (and vice versa) told Ross that they were attracted to each other, neither seemed to have made a move towards a relationship.

Then there was Vanessa, neatly rounding off the list of people Ross knew Lute knew. She was nice and kind (although he was biased since she'd saved him from bandits and introduced him to Princess Eirika) and really good looking. Plus, he was sure she'd be the sort to sign her letters with hearts. So, Lute had a girlfriend? If he wasn't on duty he'd have gone immediately to meditate on that thought in his bunk. Instead he pushed the distracting images (involving pillow fights and rather see through pajamas) to the back of his mind for later to concentrate on the task at hand.

He wasn't normally of a vengeful nature, but the Amelia Incident (as he termed it in his head) was the culmination of weeks of pranks and jokes at his expense. He simply had to retaliate, and even if he had no intention of destroying a healthy relationship (especially if it was with Vanessa) he wanted to have information on her love life so that he could use it against her. It would be nice if he was the one teasing her for once.

He took the envelope out of his pocket, gulped, then opened it gently. Almost immediately a sweet soft sent hit him and he took out the letter to reveal a couple of small, sweet little flowers pushed into the bottom of the envelope.

Oh yeah. It had to be Vanessa. None of the others would send flowers. How girly was that?

Then his eyes skipped down to the bottom of the letter to read the name of the sender and his smug grin was wiped off of his face.

'Whatcha got there, son?' One of the older traders asked, noting Ross' suddenly almost melancholic look.

'Nothing.' Ross said, quickly putting the letter back into its envelope. He sealed it back up (with a little difficulty), then put it back into his pocket before walking on, lost in thought.

When Lute caught up with the merchant's train, they'd set up camp for the night and the main army had joined them. She'd gone to get some food and find Titania and maybe Vanessa and Artur to talk about the really cool nest of spiders she'd found in the woods when Ross grabbed her by her free arm and dragged her away from the camp. She'd been about to snap at him when she saw the strange look on his face, a mixture of remorse and utter sadness. 'What's wrong?' She asked, warily.

'Here.' He handed something to her. A letter. 'This is yours. I took it and I shouldn't have.' He stayed there as Lute opened the letter, his hands crammed into his pockets, avoiding her eyes.

'This is a letter from my grandmother.' Lute said finally, raising her eyes from the paper.

'Yeah.' Ross rubbed the back of his head bashfully, still avoiding her eyes. 'I- I took it. I'm sorry. I wanted to get even with you because of the whole 'Amelia' thing. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have.'

'No. You shouldn't have.' Lute glanced at the paper again. 'You- you don't get much mail, do you Ross?' She asked suddenly.

'No, I don't get any.' Ross said, looking up surprised. His eyes met hers and he dropped his gaze back down to the ground, his face going red with shame. 'Dad's the only person I have in the world, and we see each other every day. There's no point in us sending each other letters.'

Lute looked at the letter, and then pushed it into his hand. 'Here.' She said, slightly gruffly, 'You can have this. Just cross out all the "Lute"s and replace them with your name.'

Ross looked down at the letter, then back up at her, before finally accepting it. 'Thank you.' He said, softly.

'Not a problem.' She walked away a few meters, before turning back to look at him. 'Don't forget, we've got a day off tomorrow.'

'Please' he said, smiling for the first time in a few hours, 'This'll be our first day off in a month! How could I forget something like that?'

'I don't know. I'm not the idiot.' She smiled as he silently fumed. 'See you the day after tomorrow.'

'Yeah, I guess.' Ross pouted, then waved as she left. Lute waved back languidly as she left.

A/N: Wrote this during a headache attack and while comment spamming on lj, so it may be a little bit weird. Here's the epilogue, Lute's letter (AKA why Lute wanted to get rid of the letter):

My dear Lute:

It's nice to see you're finally doing something useful, although you could have told me you were leaving! I spent two weeks thinking you were still in your room studying!

Well, at least you're out of the house. And in an army too! That is a lovely place to meet boys. I do hope you are meeting some nice boys, because like I always say, you can't marry a book deary! Speaking of marrying, do you remember that nice man from over the way? His daughter just got married! Although there are rumours that she is in the family way which is horrifying as you can imagine!

Speaking of which, when are you going to give me a great-grandchild?

Love, Granny.

It is a scientific fact that grandparents live only to tell their grandchildren to settle down.