A/N: I always find it amusing to write from Lucina's point of view- externally she comes across as quite composed and dignified, maybe a little short-tempered, but internally she's just a mess of angst and a little angry ball of repressed emotions. She's such a little drama queen, ahaha.

Chapter 4: Take an arrow for the pretty boy

It was difficult to wake up. Sleep was heavy and clawed at her and her eyelids would flicker only for it to drag her back down into velvety darkness. At last, she jerked awake, a sort of odd panic hitting her squarely in the chest and her eyes flew open. She was aware of a deep, painful ache in her shoulder, though when she shifted it rapidly morphed into a debilitating sting, sharp and noxious.

"Wakey, wakey." A gentle, warm voice sounded, and Lucina looked down to find Lissa smiling warmly at her, a small wet towel stained with red in her hands. "How are you feeling, Lucy?"

"Bad." Her voice came out in a feeble croak, and though she tried to shift her position, she could not move without sharp pain lancing through her shoulder. "Where am I?"

"You're in one of the houses back in the village- they allowed us to use it to tend to any wounded." Lissa informed her. Lissa wrenched the towel and water dripped into a small basin on a table beside the bed, before moving to Lucina's side to help her sit up. "You should have been more careful. Removing arrows isn't exactly the nicest duty. Though I suppose," a cheerful grin glinted in Lissa's eyes and there was something cheeky about the tilt of her mouth. "A girl in love can't help herself, huh?"

Lucina flushed red, but did not protest, instead turning her head slightly to the left.

"I would have done the same for any of my comrades." She muttered. It wasn't a lie- there was sort of an instinctual desperation that had set in when she saw the archer aiming for Inigo and she had pushed him down before her mind caught up with her body, but she had no doubt it would have been the same for any of her friends.

"But you did it for Inigo." Lissa pointed out, smug, before turning away. "You guys have been distant lately- it's almost like you've been avoiding him."

"We're not that close to begin with." Lucina muttered. Lissa shot her an odd look.

"Well that's a blatant lie, if I've ever heard one. Morgan's told me all the stories."

Lucina didn't get a chance to respond because Morgan burst into the room in the following moment, close to hysterics.

"I thought you were dead!" He declared dramatically, tears pouring down his cheeks as he struggled to embrace his sister.

"It will take more than a little arrow to bring me down, Morgan." Lucina informed him with a little half smile, awkwardly patting his back as he sobbed into her uninjured shoulder. Her parents followed behind him, slower and calmer.

"You're up." Her father said, the relief heavy in his voice and expression as he smiled at her. She nodded, trying to peel off Morgan who was still sobbing hysterically though she was pretty sure he was doing it to be annoying rather than any actual distress.

Her mother pulled a stool up to Lucina's bedside and sat on it, frowning slightly.

"I'm glad you're alright, love." She said with a soft smile, and then her expression hardened just a fraction. "But I still made sure Inigo got an earful for acting like that!" There was something frightening about the steely glint in her mother's normally-warm eyes, and Lucina felt a sting of pity. Her mother could be downright terrifying when she was in the right mood.

She even went so far as to open her mouth to defend him, or to convince her mother not to punish him too harshly, before remembering the careless grin and flirtatious wink he had angled at the young villager and his outrageously showy manoeuvres when fighting the brigands, to the extent that he had almost taken an arrow to the chest. Any defences that she might have had for Inigo quickly died on her tongue and her expression darkened.

"A few extra earfuls wouldn't hurt," Was what came out in the end and amusement sparked in her mother's eyes. "He did blow our cover to impress a girl."

Her father's hand landed on her head and he gently ruffled her hair.

"We'll let you get some rest. Morgan, stop crying, let Lucina have some space." He said, and both her parents stood to leave. It took Morgan a moment, but he straightened and grinned at her, proving without a doubt that the dramatics had only been partially real and his true motives were to irritate her. She glared at him and he darted out of the room with a cheeky grin.

"I'm just about done as well, so I'll let you get some rest, Lucy." Lissa said, following Morgan out the door.

Which left Lucina on her own to dwell with her thoughts. So naturally her first thoughts were of Inigo, much to her frustration. That stupid grin he had shot the girl shortly before he leapt into the fray was stuck in her mind, and had burrowed under her skin. It had only been a few days earlier he'd shot a similar grin at her, full of reckless abandon and a lazy kind of cheer she could never achieve. Quietly, she groaned to herself- it was no secret that Inigo was fond of doling out more suggestive comments to any female he came across, and yet it still bothered her. He had mostly left her alone when it came to his philandering ways, which had, at first, made her feel a little left out, but she had come to appreciate. He had always been one of her most trusted friends- she had simply assumed his lack of advances were a testament to the respect they held for each other as friends. Because they were friends. Just friends. Yet, he had suddenly turned his attention to her, in the training room, in a different way to his normal teasing, in a way that was a little more intentional than just him poking fun at an easy target. It had made her feel strangely good- like he was finally recognising her as a woman in his eyes. Only for him to treat a random girl the same way and remind her just how meaningless his attentions in that regard were. Not that she resented him for rescuing that young woman- just seeing how that man had handled her made Lucina's skin crawl, as if his treatment of Laurent hadn't been the straw that broke the camel's back.

She glanced around the room, then, and noticed, with some relief, that Laurent was sleeping peacefully in another bed on the other side of the room. His parents hadn't accompanied them on the mission, as they hadn't known at the time that it was Laurent protecting these villages. Seeing Laurent was enough for her to decide to continue her brooding elsewhere. She threw her sheets aside and swung her legs off the simple mattress she had been lying on, and slipped out into the hot desert air in the village outside.

She didn't have long- Morgan would soon be back to check on her, and he would no doubt scour the village and drag her back to her bed once he discovered she'd slipped away. Still, it felt nice to stretch her legs and explore the village. She hadn't really had the chance to before they set out for the brigand camp. It was a small village- small mud huts were scattered haphazardly around, and there was a dusty stone path guiding the way between the little homes. She knew from what her mother had told her before she set out, that the surrounding desert was rich in opals, and the village survived by collecting them and selling them. They were a popular jewel in Ylisstol, though Lucina had never seen one- villages such as this one could only get by in times of fortune for the halidom, and she had not come from a fortunate time for Ylisse. Though the inhabitants were well versed in surviving in the desert and finding food, and the oasis was close enough to keep them all well-watered, particularly now that the brigands had been driven off. She slipped between two houses and came across a small courtyard, shaded and secluded from the main portion of the village. In the centre stood a well, though it was probably dried up.

Movement caught the corner of her eye and she ducked behind the corner of a building, peeking out to watch the only occupant of the small space.

Inigo extended both arms ahead of him, one leg stretched backwards, and as she watched, he brought his leg around in a smooth arc to the side of his body and spun on the balls of his feet. Mesmerised, she watched as he gracefully wove through the air. Strands of silvery hair clung to his temples and his hair was ruffled and unkempt as if he had been running his fingers through it repeatedly. He spun across the ground and landed, before kicking off into more movements.

Lucina dared not breathe- it was a rare treat, murmured about in the camp, to have the opportunity to see Inigo dancing. She had seen his mother dance, and many insisted he may be better than her. He definitely held all her grace, and there was something heavier about his movements, more entrancing. He had always been at his most graceful in a dance, and she had only ever had the fortune to stumble upon him practicing once before.

Suddenly, Inigo paused, and dropped his arms, exhaling in a heavy sigh. His back was to her, so she couldn't discern his expression.

"I know you're there." He said, his voice heavy and resigned. She frowned, as she stepped away from the corner she had concealed herself behind. He turned slowly, and when he met her gaze, there was a weary look to his eyes. "Shouldn't you be resting?" He asked.

She was struck then, by how drained he seemed. Perhaps her mother had given him a more thorough tongue lashing than she thought?

A more likely (and more appealing) option, based upon the guilt written into the tired line of his face, was that he felt bad that she had taken the arrow that had been aimed at him. She stepped forward into the small space and his gaze flickered to her shoulder, heavily-bandaged beneath the cloak she had slipped on before she ducked out of the make-shift infirmary. She frowned, just slightly, still staring at him.

"I was, it's just…" She paused- she couldn't tell him she was brooding over his womanising ways. His gaze remained fixed on her shoulder, and she shifted just slightly, breaking his focus. "My eyes are up here, Inigo." She said, cupping her injured shoulder protectively. His eyes flickered up to her and he frowned quite obviously. She didn't like it- he was meant to smile, not frown.

"This is not your fault, you know." She admitted, looking away, unable to meet his gaze when she admitted it. "If that is what troubles you, that is." She shot him a furtive glance from the corner of her eye, and saw he was staring at her with an odd, unreadable expression, before she looked away once more and anchored her gaze on the wall just to her left.

"And on what grounds can you make that claim?" She could hear the slight scorn and self-deprecation in his tone, and glanced to her feet, tapping her toes together before meeting his gaze with a steely determination.

"Because it was my choice." She told him. She wanted to fold her arms but one arm dangled uselessly in a sling. Instead she gripped her elbow with her uninjured arm. "A choice not necessarily confined to you." She muttered. "But it was you, who was in the line of fire, and I would never let that happen, as long as I draw breath."

He didn't respond, and instead advanced towards her, pausing directly in front of her.

"You're not being noble, Lucina, you're being stupid." He said. "If I were to lose my life, it would be another casualty of war, but if you were… if you were…" His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat, looking away awkwardly. "If you were hurt, then any hope at a new future is lost."

His words felt like a slap in the face, and she felt her eyes widen. Furiously, she leaned forward and gripped his shirt collar roughly, forcing him down to her level.

"Is that what you think?" She snapped, and he looked shocked and confused at her outburst of emotion. She gripped his collar tighter, wrinkling the material of his shirt in her clenched fist. "That you are just a pawn to challenge fate? That my life is the only one that matters?" She couldn't keep the hurt and anguish out of her voice. He continued to stare at her, confused and speechless. Her gaze fell to his wrinkled collar between her finger, and she loosened her grip, smoothing down the creases. "I…" This was something she had never admitted to them, which was obviously why Inigo thought the way he did. "I didn't just bring you all back to the past to help me change the future… That was why Naga sent us back. But I also did it… so that we could all have a second shot at a proper life, without… without all the pain of war." Her hand fell loosely to dangle uselessly at her side. "So if you were to die, then I would have failed my objective. Your lives matter more than I could ever begin to describe."

Inigo was stunned silent, eyes wide, when she shot him a furtive glance. Emboldened by her own admission, she met his gaze once more and smiled weakly.

"I saw you a while back, with your mother. It looked really… warm. Your smile was so… real, and while I don't think I could afford a luxury like that, in the middle of war, I don't think I could handle it if someone tried to steal your smile." She coughed slightly. "Any of your smiles." She amended. Hopefully that didn't sound too much like a confession of desperate love. Not that she was in love, or anything. Not desperately in love. "As the princess, my life is not yours to protect- rather, your life is mine to keep from harm."

Conflicting emotions flickered across his face, and he took rapid steps backwards, his eyes wide and distressed. She frowned- her admission didn't appear to soothe his guilt or distress at all. Instead, he looked worse for wear. Finally, he allowed a weak smile onto his face.

"Big words for someone who's been avoiding me." He responded. Her eyes widened- she supposed Inigo had noticed her recent behaviour. It hadn't been intentional- she tried to talk to him when it was unavoidable, but Lucina had always been poor at hiding her feelings. Since she knew she was easily led by her emotions, she had found it was easier to spend less time with him. There was a less chance of her outing her slightly more than friendly emotions towards him that way. The next thing she knew, weeks had gone by without her properly talking to Inigo, apart from when he consciously sough her out.

"I haven't been avoiding you." She said quickly. He shot her a look that conveyed his disbelief.

"If you think I can't tell when you're lying, Princess, then you are sorely mistaken." He said. "Morgan mentioned something about you being mad?"

That was odd- Morgan was well aware of her… situation, and he knew she wasn't mad at Inigo. (Well she hadn't been before he flirted with that village girl and got her shot by an arrow). It was odd that he had told Inigo that she was mad at him. She looked away, and he sighed tiredly, the smile draining from his face. It made something deep in her heart ache terribly, but she didn't say anything as he turned.

"Get some rest Princess." He told her, before turning to leave.

Frustrated, both with herself and with him, she wandered back on to the main street. Owain practiced in the square a few streets down, and she welcomed the distraction, immediately detecting the weaknesses in his stance.

"Owain!" She called, striding towards him. He stiffened and turned slowly toward her, a grimace clear on his face.

"Lucina…" He muttered resentfully, his grip on his sword going slack and his head hanging like a scolded puppy.

"Your form was atrocious!" She said sternly, placing her uninjured arm on her hip and frowning. "Those moves would never work in battle, they're far too showy, and your stance was off-balance and don't get me started on that grip, the sword would be knocked from your hands in seconds."

Owain huffed.

"Do you dare criticise the great Owain?" He declared, hands on his hips and puffing his chest out dramatically. She nodded.

"I do dare!"

She didn't get to dare further though, because Morgan's shout rang across the square as he appeared on the far side of the square. His blue mop of hair darted towards them at an alarming speed, and Lucina's eyes widened as she took slow, hesitant steps backwards.

"I'll get back to you on this, Owain." She said slowly, before turning on her heel and trying to run away.

She didn't get too far though- blood loss and an injured shoulder were not conducive to sprinting away from crazed brothers and Morgan easily caught up to her, dragging her back to the makeshift infirmary by her uninjured arm, much to her displeasure.

A/N: Lucina needs to chill. Like, seriously, she's so intense and dramatic about everything. Also I don't know if I've conveyed this very clearly, so I'll just go over it here: Lucina and Inigo, before the events of this fic, were quite close. Almost like partners. Then Lucina began to notice troublesome emotions, and started to avoid him as much as possible. After an indeterminate amount of time, while Lucina began to get more and more strict about training the future children, they eventually put Inigo up to falsely romancing her (which he is understandably against), the premise for this fic. I don't know if it's obvious or not in the fic, but yeah, just thought I'd share.

Also, exciting, I got my first review-ers who aren't related to me! *Celebrates* Thank you very much!

Next chapter (this one's a fun one): The fortune teller lies