All righty, here's the final chapter/epilogue. I thought about splitting them up but the word count for both isn't much anyway. Enjoy!

How to Be A Heartbreaker:

Chapter 4

Frederick's exercises were brutal, to say the very least. Olivia had never exerted any part of her body as much as she had done in those three days. Her joints ached and she could barely pull off a dance move without her body feeling as though it were creaking. Needless to say that when Frederick wasn't making her do sit ups, chin ups (which was virtually impossible for both her and Maribelle to do only to have Frederick eventually concede and do more sit ups), push ups, hour long squats, and ten mile runs, he was making them practice fighting and dodging on each other and when they weren't practicing, Chrom had enlisted them to battle together against Risen skirmishes.

She had known Frederick could be passionate about workouts during her short time here but never this much. It served her right for embarrassing him like that, but on the bright side, he was completely unable to make eye contact with her which gave her a sense of satisfaction.

Olivia was too tired to dance at midnight. She was too tired to speak or to do anything.

Olivia felt well enough the day after their punishment to go outside, make a fire, and practice her dancing at the very same spot Maribelle had first observed her. She felt more flexible and lithe than usual, despite her joints still aching from the workouts. It also helped that she had a canteen of tea ready by the fireside whenever she felt overpowered. She also brought two cups to fill just in case as well as some backup boxes. She also had her brand new diamond cane to practice dance moves with and to use as a prop. She liked to twirl it like a baton and toss it into the air while pirouetting.

"Again, your dancing is exquisite, even though I cannot imagine physical exertion after all that!" Maribelle said as she sat next to the fire. Olivia didn't even panic when Maribelle showed herself. In the past weeks she had grown used to her presence. "At least you managed to make friends with that gentleman."

"I think it was worth it," Olivia said. "Oh! Would you like tea?"

Maribelle nodded and Olivia sat in front of her, pouring her a cup of tea.

"How is it that you still have tea?"

"I have at least a month's supply at the very least. Plus, he gave me that diamond-tipped cane. I don't know. I felt a bit guilty."

Maribelle took a sip and flicked her hand. "Such a small price to pay for the company of two beauties!"

"I still had a lot of fun, though, even if I feel guilty for taking all of this stuff." There was a small pause between the two of them as the fire reflected on Maribelle's downtrodden eyes.

Maribelle took a deep breath. "I came here primarily to apologize, Olivia."

"Oh gosh, no! Don't apologize! You were only trying to help."

"I was, but although I wanted to see you grow to your full potential, there were other reasons I wanted to help you socialize." Olivia raised an eyebrow. "I grew up as a duchess in training and I've known about the social pressures and demands of being a noble. I've been lucky that most of it has come naturally to me, but when someone as shy as you is spotlighted, I can't help but want you to shine. I wanted you to understand."

Olivia was truly confused now. "Um..."

"I was told that Chrom had interest in the two of us as his potential pick as his future queen." Olivia froze. Queen? Me?! Then again, Chrom's always looked at me weird since I helped him out back then with Basilio.

"I wanted to help you in case Chrom proposed to you."

"But I've only said three words to Chrom since we met," Olivia said. He was probably attracted to her, but she didn't know him well enough to have fallen in love with him. In fact, there was no one in the army she had even felt remotely attracted to. She wasn't going to deny that she did feel attracted to Gaius for a moment, but he seemed to have more of a rapport and better chemistry with Maribelle. The way their their bodies would communicate whenever they fought or dance was unmistakable to her, even if he did flirt with Olivia and called her Babe. Olivia then quickly remembered he had a nickname for everyone in the army.

"There's another thing I should apologize for," Maribelle said while simultaneously sighing and shaking her head. Olivia offered to pour her another cup by gesturing the canteen and she accepted. They were now out of tea.

"Oh?" There was more?

"Remember the shock therapy idea? The one that led to all this? Well, apparently this is an exercise meant for...gentlemen only. When Gaius had given me the book from my father's study, it was old and weathered and some of the pages fell apart. It wasn't until he had given me the book's jacket had I known."

"So all those lines you made me say were..."

Maribelle finished for her, "Completely inappropriate for women of our station, yes. ...Especially the wolf whistles. ...And the bit about his legs 'going all the way up', yes. We had misinterpreted it as dance moves. Silly us."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them and Maribelle's already wide eyes were pleading with Olivia for forgiveness and Olivia couldn't take it anymore. She fell over her log and howled with laughter. That explains so much! And it also explained why Gaius's red hair was singed to the point that it was inches shorter if he was the one who gave her that book.

"What's so funny?" a confused Maribelle said.

Olivia kept laughing and made the attempt to get back to her seat. Her stomach ached, adding to the familiar ache of her abdomen from the workouts.

"It's just that we were SO serious! We spent all that time memorizing lines! And it was completely inappropriate! Ha ha ha! How embarrassing..."

Maribelle finally began to laugh alongside her, even if her laugh was a bit more hesitant. "It WAS rather embarrassing, wasn't it?"

"Well, your methods were wrong, but your lesson still worked. Before all this, I was terrified of even speaking to a man of that age and station. You were never told of how I got so close to Basilio?"

Maribelle shook her head.

"My troupe and I were performing for the Basilio and other nobles near and far. One of them took an interest in me and approached me that night to tell me how amazing I was. He was older too, about that man's age and I started getting gifts from him soon after the performance. At first, it was chocolates and other foods and I would throw them out because I didn't feel comfortable eating food given by people I didn't know." Maribelle continued watching her intently as Olivia told her story. It felt weird telling someone something that still felt so raw and had totally changed her as a person.

"He had spies who watched me throw away his edible gifts so he cornered me and asked me why I was hurting his feelings like that. Then he gave me an opal necklace in an attempt to make me his."

Maribelle shifted in her seat. "He shouldn't have to made you feel like you were his. Disgusting."

Olivia nodded in full agreement. "I was never his. He continued to have me followed. I'd see him in all of my shows, sometimes even during the day whenever I was shopping with my troupe. Things escalated when finally one night after a show he had paid the owners of that night's location to scatter and showed up in my dressing room." Olivia debated on telling her how he had stolen her first kiss without consent and how she slapped him and threw a prop at his face, but went against it. "He was there to kidnap me with the intent to marry me. Feroxi outlaws kidnapping, but if the man marries the woman, then it gets overturned."

Maribelle was completely silent.

"Basilio caught him in the act, though the man changed his tune and he tried to pin me as a lowborn dancer who wanted to use him for money and who had assaulted him."

"What? That pig!"

"Basilio didn't trust him to begin with since he was already suspected of corruption and took me in under his protection. That man still walks free somewhere on this earth, but I'll never forget what he did and even though I was terrified of speaking to another older nobleman like that, it was exactly what I needed to prove to him that I wasn't going to forever be stuck under the shadow of that incident. Plus, Panne also suggested that in order to reach that place, I had to push my limits and be irrational."

Maribelle was completely engrossed in her story. "This is why I want to be a magistrate. I promise you that someday I will find this man and find some way to punish him. I too was kidnapped, but actually so, but never manipulated and made to feel objectified."

"I still really needed that. Thanks Maribelle. Anyway," Olivia wanted to change the tone and bent down, grabbing her cane. "Anyway, and now I have this really nice cane to help me with my moves!" Maribelle laughed. "Say, maybe we should sneak into town and meet another noble! Chrom won't have to—"

"Olivia!" Maribelle scolded.

"Hee hee! Besides, I'd rather hang out with you than some stuffy noble gentleman." Olivia reached down to gather her supplies. "I'm afraid we've run out of tea. So then, would YOU care to join me for tea, O fairest of nobles? Methinks heaven should count it's angels, for there is one standing in front of me! Those pantaloons must be made of mirrors, for I can see myse—" Olivia was interrupted again before she finished her line.

"That's enough, Olivia. It's time you started forgetting those lines. ... Still, I DO enjoy tea. And it would be churlish of me to refuse your invitation. Yes, then. Let us enjoy a cup of tea as newfound friends!"

"Friends! I like that sound of that!"

Two Years Later

Olivia and Maribelle were gathered for their once-a-week-midnight-teatime in the forest. Even though times weren't as peaceful as it was back when they became friends, they still had this ritual to keep them going.

They were older and slightly wiser and now married women but even then, they liked to let loose and joke with each other by reading chapters of trashy romance novels and occasionally going to town and chatting up noblemen and sometimes with noblewomen. Tonight's subjects was about their sons. Olivia had played with the idea of her future son playing together with Maribelle's future son when she got married and the thought festered once she met Inigo.

"And then I told him to say, 'WHOM did you piss off, Brady?' And then he sulked off! That insolent child!"

"Um, Maribelle, I'm not too sure that's totally proper speech."

Maribelle shook her head. "Such an uncouth young gentleman. He surely gets it from his ruffian of a father."

"Sons, right? Meanwhile I found out my Inigo doesn't want to practice dancing with me when I figured out he liked to dance too."

"Knowing you, he's probably a magnificent dancer as well. What a shame."

Maribelle raised her tea cup to her face while Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but they were interrupted by a loud voice echoing in the voices. "NO STINKING WAY! I AIN'T DOIN' IT!"

Olivia jumped out of her seat. "Eeeeek!"

"I know that voice anywhere," Maribelle said and put her teacup down. Maribelle made a run for it, parasol in hand.

"W-wait for me!" Olivia quickly put down her tea as well and went after her friend.

As she ran, she heard another voice. "Aw, come on! Don't be such a wet blanket, Brady! Just say it! I'll say it too! 'You have such bedazzling eyes the color of the most azurest of sapphires'."

Maribelle and Olivia stopped in their tracks as they were met with their sons, who had also made their own fireplace. Their gathering was a lot more reluctant than theirs.

"Ma? What are ya doing here?" Brady said, scratching his red hair.

"I-I'd say the same too, M-mother," Inigo said, unable to find his voice. He hid his eyes underneath his light hair, but Olivia knew he was unable to mask his embarrassment and reddened cheeks. Olivia saw her son holding onto a tiny book with torn and yellowed pages, but its shape was unmistakable.

"Oh don't tell me that's The Gentleman's Guide To Conversing With Beautiful Women, isn't it?" Olivia said.

"Brady! How did you two find a book that unscrupulous?" Maribelle said, thwacking her son's shoulder's with her parasol much like she would do to his father.

"Uhh, my Mother gave that to me...to help combat my shyness," Inigo said, defeated. "I was...gonna help Brady here talk to the ladies..."

Maribelle and Olivia exchanged a knowing look and at the same time, they laughed together as their poor, embarrassed sons watched them in confusion as the fires in the night laughed alongside them.

A/N: I'm not sure if I'll write a sequel to this centering on the Brady/Inigo supports, but this ending was definitely the one I had in mind from the very beginning as a precursor to why Inigo acts the way he does. I have vague ideas over what to do with it but my need to finish editing my Pokémon story is currently my greatest priority at the moment so I guess we'll see...So if you like this story, feel free to drop a review and thank you for reading!