Summary: Lucina waits with Tharja while Chrom and Elysa are busy in Valm.
AN: Thought we needed a little fluff, especially as we get to the conclusion of the Valmese arc. This short takes place pre-Chapter 18. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a review! :)
It wasn't quite late morning yet, but late enough that it was no longer considered "early." And if it wasn't "early," then she was late.
"Lucina," a finger poked her cheek. "Your breakfast is going to get cold at this rate."
"Mmm..." The little princess rolled over, her mop of tangled blue hair pooling over the edge of her blanket as she burrowed away from her awakener and deeper into her bed. "If I'm sleeping I'm not hungry," she mumbled into her pillow.
"But you'll be hungry at lunchtime. And then you'll eat too much at lunchtime and make yourself sick." She could imagine Tharja folding her arms crossly over her bed. "Three square meals a day – you promised Daddy, remember?"
At the mention of her father, Lucina pushed herself up onto her elbows sluggishly. "When are my parents coming home?"
"Soon, dove," Tharja sighed. "Sooner, the faster you get on with your day."
"That's not how time works."
"It's a relative— oh, nevermind," Tharja muttered. "Where's Lissa? Isn't she the one who's supposed to wake you up usually?"
"I usually wake myself up," Lucina rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands, yawning as she dangled her legs off of the edge of her bed, and hopped down into her slippers. "But today I was dreaming about Mommy and Daddy... and my bed felt extra comfy."
Tharja's frown softened. "Hey. They will be back before you know it. I promise. And does Aunty Tharja ever break a promise?"
"Never," Lucina smiled. She reached for Tharja's hand.
As her "Aunty" helped her along with her morning routine, Lucina pondered why so many of the other grown-ups didn't seem to get along with her. Tharja was a little pointy sometimes, and not as bubbly as her Aunty Lissa, sure. But she was always full of good stories and let her do all kinds of fun things that her mother and father wouldn't approve of. What was there to dislike?
After washing her face, she patted it dry with her fluffy white towel, softer than a pegasus's wings. She hung it up on their towel-stand, beside the fresh linens that patiently awaited her parents' return. Before I know it, she reassured herself, that's what she promised, right?
Breakfast had survived Lucina's late departure from bed, and was still plenty warm by the time it was served. Lissa was waiting for her.
"There you are, Lucina," she beamed as her niece skipped into the hall.
At her side, Lon'qu bowed his head respectfully to the princess. "Good morning, your highness. Lady Tharja."
"You don't need to do that all formal-y, Uncle Q," Lucina laughed.
"Don't call me Unc— ow." The myrmidon's protest was cut short by a small pointy elbow in his ribs from Lissa. "...My apologies, little princess."
"Did you sleep well?" Lissa laid her napkin out on her lap while Tharja helped Lucina into her chair. Lucina mirrored her aunt, plopping the white cloth over her legs, but Tharja picked it up and tucked it into her collar instead.
"I slept great!" Lucina fiddled with the napkin discontentedly. "I had nice dreams about Mommy and Daddy. What did you dream about, Aunt Lissa?"
"Cakes," Lissa sighed. "All the cakes I don't have time to bake with how busy I am since my brother's away." Lon'qu coughed to suppress a rare chuckle.
"But we have lots of cakes lying around," Lucina tipped her head at Lissa's plight. "Does Tharja not let you eat cake? Sometimes I don't get dessert if I haven't been doing all my chores, or—"
"Eat," Tharja tutted, peeling an apple.
Lucina scooped a spoonful of scrambles and hash with carrots onto her fork and stuck it in her mouth obligingly. "—or if I haven't eaten my meals yet," she finished, with her mouth full.
"The awesome thing about being a grown-up," Lissa smiled as she cut her sausages into delicately thin roundels, "is that Aunty Tharja doesn't get to tell me when I can or can't eat cake. But I don't need to be eating cakes, I want to be making cakes." She sighed, resting her elbow on the table and cupping her chin in her hand.
"Teach me how to make cakes!" Lucina said around another mouthful of eggs.
"I would love to," Lissa smiled. "We'll find time somewhere. Maybe we'll steal off to the kitchens during reading time one of these days..."
Lucina polished off her breakfast, and the apple that Tharja had cut up for her. She ran to the kitchens with her plates to thank the servants, as her mother always told her to do, even though Tharja thought it was unbecoming of a princess. But the kitchen maids always brightened at the visit from their princess, and sometimes even gave her sweets or an extra apple.
After breakfast, Lucina went to the library and studied with Tharja and Miriel, their best librarian. This occupied the bulk of her morning, and before what seemed to be a very short time, lunch had already come and gone, sandwiches stuffed down quickly in anticipation for having some free time after the meal.
Tharja walked with Lucina to the palace gardens, where she always met with Cordelia's daughter and Olivia's son. Severa and Inigo were not there yet, presumably still finishing their mealtime.
"Will you be okay waiting here for your friends?" Tharja looked down at the little girl. "Don't wander off, alright?"
Lucina glanced over at the guards by the gate. "Mhm! I'll be okay."
The Plegian nodded. "Alright. I have an errand to run in the market — I'll come see you this evening after dinner."
The princess smiled sweetly up at Tharja, and released her hand, plopping herself down in a tuft of thick grass. Tharja shook her head, unable to resist an uncharacteristic smile herself, and she turned to leave.
It wasn't long before a pair of red pigtails and a mop of silver hair appeared at the gate, and Severa and Inigo came stomping across the grass to her. "Lu!" Inigo stumbled slightly, falling behind Severa a bit. "Look what I brought!"
Inigo, Olivia's son, was carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle in his arms. Severa stopped to wait up for him, folding her arms and scowling impatiently. "I asked if you could carry it on your own, and you said you could."
"I can! I'm doing just fine," Inigo protested as they arrived before Lucina. She looked up at them curiously.
"Is it something from Ferox?"
"Mhm!" Inigo nodded excitedly, dropping the bundle on the ground with a muffled clatter, and bent to undo the twine tying the ends shut.
"Khan Flavia had them made for us, apparently," Severa sat down next to Lucina. Inigo flipped the cloth wrappings open, revealing two tiny wooden swords and a lance.
"Wow!" Lucina's eyes widened, and she crawled over on her hands and knees. Severa scooped up a sword quickly.
"No way am I gonna play a pegasus knight. You always make me be Caeda when we play Archanea games." She scowled, a tiny replication of Cordelia's trademark worried frown.
"I'll be Caeda!" Inigo grabbed the lance, and smiled cheekily. "As long as Lu is Marth."
"But she always gets to be Marth," Severa complained.
"Well, she's basically Marth, right? Cuz Marth is supposed to be her great-great-great-great-great-great-great—"
"We get it," Severa interrupted, and sighed. "Fine, I suppose. I'll be... Navarre."
"You're so dramatic," Lucina giggled, and popped to her feet, the other sword in her hand. Before Severa could make a quip in return, Lucina caught sight of a rustling in the bushes. Her imagination took flight. "Come on! We've gotta catch Nergal!"
The afternoon came and went, playtime flying by as if the two hours were two minutes. She spent the hours before dinner in the gardens with Lissa, while the older princess lectured about Ylisse. At dinnertime, Lissa brought along a storybook, reading it aloud to Lucina through mouthfuls of food, which earned her a particularly irked pout from Lon'qu.
After polishing off her dessert pudding and folding her napkin back into a little flower shape on the table, Lucina went and had the servants draw up a bath for her. In a cozily lucid haze from the warm bubbles, she curled herself up in her nightclothes and started to brush her hair before bed.
There was a knock at the door, and Tharja let herself in. "Still awake, I hope?"
"I was just going to sleep soon, you came just in time!" Lucina smiled, tugging through a stubborn knot in her damp hair.
"Excellent," Tharja said, in the closest her tone ever came to sounding pleased. She left the door barely ajar behind her, and pulled a large brown parcel into view. "I've brought you something. But you can only have it after you listen very carefully to what I have to say, and promise to take it to heart, all right, dear?"
"Yes," Lucina plonked her hairbrush down and sat up on the edge of her bed, wiggling her legs in excitement at the present.
Tharja seated herself next to the princess, setting the parcel down on her free side. "You're growing up awfully quickly, you know that?"
"I'm trying," Lucina giggled.
"Don't try too hard," Tharja chuckled. "Once you're all grown up, believe me, you'll spend most of your time wishing you were little again. There are far fewer of the world's troubles knocking at your door." Her expression turned serious. "That brings me to what I want to tell you, and ask you to promise me."
Lucina tipped her head attentively.
"There may come a time when the peace we enjoy and take for granted flees from Ylisse, and a time when your mother and father will not be there to protect you. Someday, you will be the Exalt, and you will be the one all the people of Ylisse look to for support and leadership. No one has spoken much of this to you yet, because it has not come to much importance, but I'd like to steal the honor of being the first." Tharja paused, and picked up the parcel, pulling the strings on it off. She pulled out a small but serviceable, beautifully wood-carved and painted replica of Falchion, and placed it in Lucina's lap.
"If you want to be a blade princess, then you shall learn the ways of the sword soon enough. I had that made for you, so that you'd have something special to practice with, rather than the dingy old wooden swords that they'll give you to swing around. Maybe you're a bit young yet to start real training, but the spirit of it is already there. Lucina... promise me this," Tharja placed a hand tenderly on the side of the princess's face, and pointed another at her heart. "You have a light, right here, that can never be snuffed out or dimmed, and you must always trust in it to show you the way when all other lights go out. Promise me that you'll always take care of it, and when the time comes, let it shine for the world."
Lucina nodded serenely. "I will, Aunty. But... you're scaring me a little, with all this big talk about the future. I don't have to worry about that soon, do I?"
Tharja planted a chaste kiss on Lucina's forehead. "Not soon, dove. But this was something I wanted you to hear as soon as you were ready to understand it."
"I do understand," Lucina squeezed Tharja's hand. "Thanks, Aunty Tharja," she said politely, turning over the gift in her hands. She raised the sword so that the hole in the center of the crossguard was before her face, and peered through it.
Tharja looked at the Brand of the Exalt staring at her through the eye of Falchion, and smiled to herself.