Saizo learned a lot about the little princess in the weeks that followed.
She was needlessly bold, and almost seemed to enjoy making others uncomfortable to an extent. He sensed this was Nohrian humor- and, in all honesty, he did see the appeal of making her uptight noble friends squirm in their seats. But Corrin was also tenderhearted beyond belief, and devoted most of her time to helping the army in some way or another. She worked almost as tirelessly as Lord Ryoma, and Saizo respected her for that.
Aside from their bold natures and selfless work for Hoshido, Corrin and Ryoma weren't very similar. The princess didn't look much like any of her siblings either, though she and Sakura were about the same size. If anyone she looked like Takumi, and his harsh facial expressions were nothing like Corrin's innocent doe-eyed look. Of course, she wasn't blood related to any of the Hoshido royal family anymore. He spent a lot of lot pondering over how she must feel- she'd left the only family she'd ever known for one that she wasn't even related to by blood. If she grieved for them, Saizo never saw it. She always had a pointy- toothed grin on her face, her crimson eyes all alight.
It'd been fairly easy to trail her without her ever noticing. She was plenty absentminded and easily distracted; always doing something with others unless she was in her cabin to sleep. He'd noticed that she never spent her time indoors if she could help it, and if she wound up in a room alone she'd always go out to find someone to talk with. He attributed this to the isolation she was rumored to have been kept in her whole life. How could such a happy and beloved little girl be so socially capable if she'd been alone since she was a child?
She fascinated him, and that was worrisome. He'd expected this job to be boring, a chore. Not that following her around was exactly what he wanted to be doing with his time, but it was proving to be more interesting than he'd expected. He'd even spent some time directly with her, though they rarely spoke with each other during it. Kaze was usually with them, and as always, he did most of the talking.
Saizo had also expected Hinoka to release him from this duty after a few weeks, but the redhead stubbornly insisted he "keep up the good work." It was irritating, knowing Lord Ryoma was out there somewhere, possibly needing his help, while he was stuck here playing babysitter.
At least the weather had cooled down. Saizo lounged lazily outside Corrin's cabin, appreciating the pale moonlight across the grounds. The princess had gone inside hours ago, and he really didn't expect an assassination attempt on her. But there were beautiful and fragrant trees right outside her room, and he was fond of camping up in them while he watched visitors come and go from Corrin's quarters. He had nearly dozed off when her door unexpectedly opened, and the flaxen-haired dragoness herself emerged from the tree house.
Saizo was alert in a flash, sitting up stiffly as the tree branch shook beneath his weight. Corrin looked about briefly, a cloak drawn about her face as she made her way towards the woods on the outskirts of camp. The ninja followed behind her like a hunter after its prey. She looked over her shoulder worriedly every few seconds until he was almost sure that she knew someone was following her. But he was also certain there was no way she had seen him. In all his years of work, no one had ever seen him.
It was easier when they made it into the woods, where he could just skip about the treetops and watch her down below. She didn't go very far in, stopping after a few minutes of walking until she settled down onto her knees in a field of wildflowers. Her white hair glinted strangely in the moonlight as she began collecting the flowers, gathering them neatly into little bundles and tucking them away somewhere inside her robes.
Saizo watched in disbelief from up above. Is this what girls did with their free time? Picking flowers at midnight? Every so often she'd look up again with that same anxious look on her face before going back to her task.
She'd only been gathering for five minutes or so when a voice called out somewhere down the path in the forest. It startled her so bad that she let out a little yelp, dropping all the flowers she'd been tucking together. Saizo bit his lip, waiting for her to get up and leave. The voice was a fair distance off, if she left now she could be back to her cabin before they were ever upon her. Instead, the princess stood up, pulling her dragonstone carefully from her pocket. Saizo watched in shock, suppressing a groan.
Perhaps Hinoka was right. This girl did need extra protection if she thought it was a wise idea to take on an unknown enemy in the forest alone at night. The voice was growing steadily closer, distorted eerily by the wind and trees. It was becoming more apparent that this wasn't just a single voice, but rather voices.
Saizo briefly considered his options, before dropping down below and grabbing Lady Corrin from behind.
She gasped as he folded his arms tenderly about her waist and over her mouth, pulling her back silently into the trees. "Shhh," he warned, pressing his lips against her pointed ear. "Don't struggle." Corrin immediately went limp and nodded against his palm, her whole body sagging into his in relief. He held her well out of sight behind the trees as the voices finally emerged into the clearing she'd been sitting in just moments before.
It was Setsuna... and Azama? The monk appeared to be quite irritated, while the archer trailed after him dreamily, rubbing her wrists.
"This is the last time I save you from a trap, lady. You gotta stop going out into the forest by yourself!"
"But why should I stop when you'll come get me?"
Azama let out an exasperated sigh, pulling Setsuna after him in an angry flurry of verbal abuse. Saizo stood there for a long moment after they'd left the forest, Corrin pressed against his chest with his hand still held tightly over her mouth. He realized this and released her at once, turning to face her with a deep scowl on his face.
To her credit, she didn't immediately assault him with questions. She meet his gaze with a blank expression, tilting her head to the side before she spoke. "You followed me in?" She asked quietly, almost timidly. He nodded, crossing his arms and offering no further explanation. She wrinkled her nose, crossing her own arms in reply. "I'm not a child. You've seen me fight, you know I can handle myself."
Curiosity overcame him. "How old are you?" Corrin blinked, surprised by his question. "... Seventeen," she said reluctantly, narrowing her eyes when he scoffed. Her seventeen years to his twenty-five was practically a child.
"It's very kind that you want to look after me, but it's really not necessary." He ignored that, gesturing to the field of flowers behind them.
"And why are you out here alone at night? Do you think it wise to put your life needlessly at risk?" Corrin scowled, shaking her head violently. "It's Kagero's birthday tomorrow, and she once mentioned liking these flowers. I had forgotten to get them yesterday, and I wanted to give them to her at breakfast..."
Saizo felt his face soften at that. Of course, it was just like her to do something like this. Corrin took a step towards him, standing on her tip-toes to better look up at him. Even on her toes, she was almost a foot shorter than he was. "What can I do to convince you that I'm capable?"
He considered simply telling her the truth. Hinoka would probably not be too pleased if he were to do that, and wasn't sure he wanted to admit he'd been following her for weeks. "Let me train you," was his brilliant reply.
Corrin raised a white brow, rocking back and forth on her heels as she considered that. "Like... on how to be a ninja?" She asked slowly, eyeing the shuriken in his belt wearily. He shrugged, smiling minusculely at her reaction. "You're weak to ranged attacks and your speed could use some work. I could improve you." The princess looked up at him for a long moment, before finally lowering her head in a stiff nod.
"And if I do improve, you'll believe I'm a worthy asset to this army and won't try to protect me anymore?"
Saizo nodded, lying through his teeth. "Absolutely."
Corrin found her new training sessions to be both mildly exciting and absolutely loathsome. There wasn't a set time they spent training or amount of lessons Saizo gave her, but every time was torture on her body. He made her run miles, pick up things almost twice her size, spend hours jumping between poles he stuck in the ground, and then there was the dodging. He'd throw shuriken at her, he'd throw punches and kicks and even rock at times while she helplessly skipped about like a marionette on a flimsy string.
But she noticed changes immediately. Her muscles hardened, especially in her arms, and her face became less rounded and childlike. Battle was nearly too easy at this point. She took out her opponents like a god of death, and sometimes she'd turn to see Saizo watch her conquest with a smug look of pleasure on his face. He was a patient and gifted teacher, if deranged in his methods. And who was she to complained while she was thriving under his instruction?
Camp had been growing cooler and cooler, so they spent most of their time training in her spacious cabin now. Corrin sat expectantly on her bed, braiding her long hair as she awaited the ninja's arrival. He entered shortly afterwards, closing the door and crossing over to her without so much as a floorboard squeak to announce himself. She was constantly amazed at how very quiet he was, but no amount of pestering seemed to convince him to reveal the secret of stealth.
"Princess," he grunted, crossing his arms tightly across his chest as was his habit. Corrin kept her nose upturned, resisting the temptation to look at the opening of his shirt where his defined chest was on constant display. The only men she'd ever been around in Nohr were her family and Jakob, and she could hardly gawk at them. To her embarrassment, she found herself attracted to the red-headed ninja. He was so tall, and menacing, and even his voice, all grunty and deep, made her heart go aflutter at times.
He even looked a great deal like Kaze. They both had the same chiseled bone structure, though Saizo's mask covered most of his jaw. Corrin often wondered if he was as horribly scarred across his lips as he was over his eye, and that was the reason behind the mask.
"Not, 'Princess.' Corrin," she corrected grumpily, knowing that her efforts were futile. Even after several weeks of training, he still insisted on calling her 'Princess' or 'Lady Corrin.'
"We're going to work on your flexibility today," he informed her, raising a red eyebrow pointedly until she stood from her bed with a sigh.
To her extreme shock, he grabbed her informally by her shoulders, walking her backwards until her back hit the cabin wall. She caught her breath, staring up at the ninja while he looked back down expressionlessly. The first and last time he had touched her had been that night in the field of flowers, and she often found herself fantasizing about the ninja pulling her close to him by the waist as he had that night.
But he just grabbed her about the calf, raising it in slow increments in front of her until she was whimpering in pain. "This is as far as you can go?" He demanded, disapproval thick in his tone. Corrin huffed indigently, wincing when the movement sent another spasm of pain up her leg.
"My toes are practically touching the wall," she complained, her face a brilliant pink color at the way his hands were gripping her leg as he held it in midair. He grunted in reply, slowly lowering her leg down and repeating the action with the second.
"Saizo, I... wanted to ask you something," she said timidly, avoiding his sharp eyes. She reached up and touched the cool metal of his mask. "Why do you wear this all the time? It must be uncomfortable."
"It helps stifle my breathing. Good for stealth."
She nodded thoughtfully as he pressed her left leg higher, until her knee was pressed directly against her rib cage. "Why doesn't Kaze wear one?"
He paused, narrowing his eyes before answering. "You've already asked your question, now I will ask one. That night we agreed to begin training in the forest, you looked almost... afraid. Did you suspect someone was following you?"
Corrin blinked in surprised, following Saizo's lead as he released her from the painful stretching and sat cross-legged on her floor. "No. Why would I think anyone was following me?" She bit her lip, debating on whether or not to lie. "I'm afraid of the dark," she finally admitted, watching his reaction from beneath her eyelashes. "Back in Nohr, I'm sure you've been told I spent most of my time isolated from the world. But I had my maids and butler, and they were my company. And of course my siblings came to see me... but, at night, I was always alone. And Nohr is a dim place even during the day, so the nights were absolutely pitch black. I don't think I ever got over the fear of when my maid would tuck me in and leave me alone in the dark for the night..."
Her voice cracked and she trailed off, avoiding the ninja's gaze shamefully.
He must think her weak for having such a childish fear.
"And you ventured out into the woods alone at night to gather the flowers anyway," he said slowly, shaking his head. She tilted her head, surprised at his reply.
"You have a heart of gold, Lady Corrin."
She smiled widely at the compliment. He didn't offer her a smile in return, but she was used to his grim expressions at this point.
"Your flexibility, however, needs some work." She stuck her tongue out at him, following him sullenly as he led her into the next exercise. Corrin was an honest person, and being honest with herself was just as important as being honest with others.
And the truth was that she was wildly attracted to this strange and quiet man, and had no idea what to do about it.
And that's the second chapter~ I'm thinking there may be four or five in total. Enjoy!
