A Final Fitting
Warnings: A mention of Lon'qu/Cordelia; Chrom/Olivia
"I… can I really wear this?"
Severa let out a snort. "You better! Your mother-in-law did most of the sewing!"
"Now, Severa…" chided Cordelia as gently as she could.
"Well it's true."
"I still think a cape would've made it look even more epic, but it's going to look beautiful, Lucina!" added Cynthia, who had been mostly instrumental in bandaging her mother's fingers and entertaining the temporary seamstresses with her chatter. In between fighting and moving camp, they had made use of whatever spare time they had to gather material and put Lucina's wedding dress together.
Cherche smiled at the young woman looking at the cloth in some wonder. "It will fit well, I believe. But you should try it on one last time, just to see if we need to make adjustments."
"It feels like I'll tear it," said Lucina with a laugh, as she gathered it up in her hands. "I'll be careful though." She headed to a corner of her tent blocked off by a makeshift curtain to form a changing room.
Just as soon as she did, Nowi, Nah and Noire happened to hurry in. All were carrying baskets full of large daisies. Flowers were a Ylissean must at weddings, Sumia had claimed – a symbol of good fortune and blessings from the guests who would fling them onto the newlyweds when the ceremony was complete. It was as important as dancing, and joining both traditions of Ylisse and Ferox would boost such morale, she had said. (Lucina hadn't the heart to question the absolute necessity of this. She had been assured that wedding tasks took everyone's minds off the violence they had to face most days. It was a good thing, she'd been told.)
"We picked thiiiiiis many and there's still even more left!" said Nowi excitedly as the younger girls tipped the flowers into a large box. "All just as white and yellow and cute!"
"They're perfect," said Olivia. She smiled up at the flower gatherers. "Would you mind terribly if I asked you to go back for more? Inigo and I could use some in our performance."
"Yaaay, more flower picking games! Let's go girls!"
Nah sighed as her mother bounced off without another word. "I better go make sure she doesn't eat them. Again."
"W, wait up! You forgot the baskets!" Gathering them up again, Noire hurried after them, throwing the tent flap back down behind her.
Sumia positively beamed at the flowers. "Oh, look at them all – so bright and cheery."
"Daisies were a good idea," said Cordelia with a smile. "Costs nothing, found everywhere, and looks beautiful, especially against Lucina's dark hair."
Cynthia looked up curiously. "Speaking of… Lucina! You done?"
"Almost…! I'm just not sure…" She poked her head out from behind the curtain. "Mother?"
Olivia chuckled gently. "Coming, dear."
As she went behind the covering, the tent poles outside were tapped on. Severa lifted the tent flap and blinked to see Lon'qu standing before her. "Daddy? What're you here for?"
The warrior wore a slightly queasy look, a side effect at having been sent to call on the women (apart from his wife and daughter anyway). "Frederick asks if it's possible for anyone else you can spare to help with the preparations for dinner tonight."
Sitting nearby, Cordelia smiled at him. "Of course. Go ahead and we'll catch up."
Lon'qu threw her a short grateful glance then hurried away again. Cordelia looked back to the others and repeated his message.
Sumia laughed. "I've a feeling Frederick just wants reinforcements to make sure no one interferes with his new recipe for sweet fig bread." Getting to her feet, she turned to Cherche. "Will you be alright with the alterations?"
Cherche looked up with a laugh. "'ll probably be of more help in the kitchens – Gaius must be haunting the place. Whatever that may need doing here, I'm sure Olivia will be able to do well." She lowered her voice. "And perhaps she and Lucina could do with a quiet moment together."
Sumia and Cordelia smiled at that, then ushered their own daughters out. Cherche followed behind, calling out to Olivia that they would be leaving for a while.
So it came to be that the only audience Lucina had for her wedding dress when she stepped out from behind the curtain was her mother. But in the circumstances, perhaps it was for the best. Blushing brightly, Lucina had one hand over her chest and the other clapped to her side. "Mother, I don't know if… well, isn't this… not quite as much cloth as we normally use?"
Olivia shook her head as she took several steps back. "How well it looks on you! Come, put the hands by your sides… there now. Take a turn, let's have a look."
Bare armed and bare shouldered, the simple white cotton dress was held up by two strings across Lucina's shoulders, secured at the sides by more crisscrossing strings (though its openings were still large enough to bare some skin), and flowed to her ankles. Round her hips sat thin, tasselled ropes with an iron button – the Brand had been specially carved into it – and another extra belt to hold her Falchion (Lucina had insisted on this – she would have her sword with her just in case, wedding or no. She wouldn't take chances on that.)
"Ohh, it's so pretty. Gerome won't be able to take his eyes away," giggled Olivia.
Lucina looked up, bright red. "Mother!"
"Well, you do want him to look at you, don't you?"
It was probably the air of festivity infecting her normally sweet mother with more mischief than usual. Nonetheless, Lucina pushed past the heat in her face. "Y, yes."
Olivia beamed. "There then. You're about to marry the man you love – it's only natural."
"Um, about that, Mother. Could I ask you a personal question?" Olivia nodded, but it took Lucina another second before she spoke.
"When, when you got married, you… hadn't been with any other men before, had you?"
If Olivia hadn't realised she had a remarkable talent for tripping over herself while standing still, she did now. The sudden query had thrown her literally off balance, as she landed on her side on a convenient cushion. After Lucina hurriedly made sure she wasn't hurt, Olivia had to take five minutes to fight off the waves of embarrassment that were attacking her.
"Wh, why do you ask- n, no dear! No, certainly not!"
There followed a few moments of silence, with Lucina nodding fervently as if to assure her that she believed her mother.
That could have gone better, thought a dismayed Olivia. But the princess, seemingly understanding the mortification that had struck her mother, shone like a crimson paper lantern too. She had definitely inherited her blush from the dancer-queen. "Th, then, on your wedding night…"
Olivia stared at her as the realisation of what Lucina was getting at dawned. "Oh. Oh. OH." She took Lucina's hands, embarrassment very quickly replaced by understanding. "Oh my dear, I was rather waiting to talk to you about that. I wasn't sure if you knew. I mean, I know things were terrible in your time, so I didn't really know how you may have understood, um, relations between husband and wife."
Lucina shook her head rather confusingly. "There wasn't time to go into details, so to speak. We were all fighting, trying to survive. A, at least I didn't think about it much. But we had books, and Severa and Nah talked about it a few times but…" She grasped Olivia's hands instinctively tighter, unable to continue.
Olivia took in a deep breath. "Well, okay. The thing is, when…" The blood rose to her cheeks despite her attempts to remain calm. The words seemed to come too slowly, and uttered too heavily. "When a bride and a bridegroom… are alone together on that night… uhm, well, he has to-"
"Mother, what I meant is I... I've read. I know what happens per se. It sounds… straightforward in a book but it's different in real life, isn't it? Like swordplay?" When Olivia nodded slowly, she looked down at their joined hands. "I don't think I'll be able to… be a proper wife that way, somehow."
There was a few seconds of silence as Olivia frowned sympathetically. She'd never quite seen Lucina so crestfallen. Come on, Olivia. For your baby girl.
"Lucina, when you see Gerome, how do you feel?"
Lucina looked up at her, and when Olivia nodded encouragingly, she pressed her lips together for a moment. "Safe. He's always protected me, since we both learned how to fight. And," A tentative smile emerged, remembering the day they'd both confessed their feelings. "I've always loved him, I think."
That smile made Olivia beam again. "And he has always loved you, yes?" At Lucina's slow nod, she pressed her daughter's hands. "Remember that feeling and it'll be fine. You don't have to be afraid of not knowing. Or disappointing him. Gerome himself may not quite know what will happen either, but that's also normal. Just… try not to think too much about it."
"What do you mean?"
Olivia wracked her brain. "It… works better when you don't worry too much about it. You see, I worried. A lot. I thought I might cast up my accounts on the day before my wedding. In fact, I worried to the extent that on that night, it all went rather wrong."
"…Wrong?" Lucina ventured, unsure if she'd like the rest of the story.
Oddly though, and comfortingly, a rather embarrassed smile had appeared on Olivia's face. "I'd been so worried about letting your father down, I hadn't realised he was nervous as well." She couldn't help a slight helpless grin. "I can tell you a pair of very anxious newlyweds doesn't make for a happy bed. I didn't know it then, but we both woke up the next morning absolutely convinced we'd ruined our marriage from the beginning. I actually dreaded the next night, much as I loved him.
"But then I thought, if I loved him as well as I kept saying I did, I ought to tell him that I hadn't meant to make it terrible. But when I said I had been scared and I was sorry, he told me he'd felt the same way. And we just decided maybe we should just… enjoy being married, and love each other as we always have, and not worry so much."
Olivia's eyes veritably twinkled at her next statement. "Then baby Lucina came along some time later."
Lucina blinked at her, then breathed in deeply. "So… don't worry?"
Her mother smiled wider. "And be honest with each other. Tell him how you feel, listen to what he says as well. And… like I said, just enjoy being married." She paused for a moment. "Try kissing him and not stopping. See what happens."
Lucina stared at her. "Is that what you did?"
Despite the furious colour that had overtaken Olivia's face again, she nodded. "Now, it may hurt, as it'll be your first time. But it can get better." She smiled reassuringly past the blushing. "It'll be alright, Lucina. All will be well."
The princess looked at her mother's face, comforting in its quiet beauty, and took in a deep breath. "I'll do my best, Mother."
So much maternal pride filled Olivia that moment, she could have danced. "That's my girl."
Suddenly inexplicably embarrassed – but perhaps not that inexplicably since thoughts of Gerome kept flashing through her mind – Lucina concentrated back on the skirt of her dress, swishing it back and forth.
As she did so, turning this way and that, Olivia's embarrassment began to fade, replaced by a sudden vision of Lucina carrying a tiny bundle of cloth in her arms. For all her awkward, halting questions, and against the disquietingly moderate odds that either she or Gerome could be killed in their next battle, Lucina was going to be married. Soon – a week from this day, no less – this incredibly strong, brave, intelligent, kind young woman before her would not only be Olivia's daughter but a wife. And perhaps a mother too, though no one could tell how that might happen in this present.
Maybe Cherche did too well with the dress, she thought as she placed a hand on the base of her throat.
Not noticing, Lucina decided to change the subject as she said, "I suppose for the wedding, it won't hurt to have a change of dress…" She looked back up and started slightly. "Mother?"
Olivia shook her head. She dashed away a betraying tear, trying to smile. "I'm being silly. You're going to be so happy, Lucina. I know it. I just didn't think I would have to give you away this soon."
Lucina stepped towards her, gently taking her hands into hers. "Can I tell you something?"
"Of course dear. Anything."
"Back in the future, I never thought I would marry." She smiled, somewhat wistfully. "Weddings were overshadowed by funerals there. But… I remember I dreamt once that I did get married. You and Father were there. I don't remember anything else except you were both alive to see me. So I suppose, when Gerome asked me to marry him, it was really a dream come true. In more ways than one."
Lucina's smile was almost heartbreaking in its pure joy, accompanying the watery eyes looking at the gentle mother whom she was so grateful to see again. "So, I'm sorry Mother, but when I see your tears, I feel happy. You're actually here to cry at my wedding."
Olivia could take no more. Embracing her daughter, both hers and Lucina's tears flowed freely, mingling into long blue hair, pastel pink locks, and onto the new dress. Neither of them cared as they cried for a future lost, and possibly one regained; for a mother she could not be, for the mother she now was; for a daughter she didn't have, for the daughter she could now see grown and married.
When the bouts of crying eventually subsided, and after Olivia scrambled for any form of scrap cloth they could use to wipe the tears away, mother and daughter surveyed the dress again.
The conclusion was the same: it really was quite beautiful.
.
End.
A/N: In case anyone's been wondering, this should be set some time in between Walhart's defeat and the march to Plegia (Chapters 20 and 21). This could explain Chrom allowing the marriage to take place, after so much sadness.
Yes, Lucina's dress is the one from the Fire Emblem Awakening soundtrack cover, that flabbergastingly pretty one. It looked nice and neat enough to be made in the middle of fighting. (and by this I give testament to the tailoring of said dress by Cherche and co. - anything that looks easy usually takes a ton of effort to do.) You can't tell me anyone who sees her in that won't comically run into a metaphoric lamppost. (Also yes, Lon'qu and Cordelia are married here as are Frederick and Sumia i.e. I like to send my precious ships sailing where it'd be reasonable enough to do so. I'm sorry.)
Yes, my headcanon has Chrom and Olivia's wedding night being extremely awkward, rather unfortunately painful and cause for any amount of second hand embarrassment if the story ever gets told. They got a lot better though.
...what can I say, I like pre-wedding embarrassing parent-children talk so much, I had to give Lucina focus as well. However! You'll be pleased to know there won't be anymore. Regardless, thank you for reading this far!
