It was three incredibly hungover Ylissean expats who appeared at the retainers' table for breakfast the following morning.

"Good morning, fellow friends of justice!" Arthur boomed.

"Shh, Arthur," Selena ordered. "Not so loud."

"Aww, does the princess have a headache?" Niles jeered.

"You'll have one too if you don't shut it," she threatened.

Niles' good eye narrowed. "Oh, I dare you."

Selena opened her mouth to shoot off something else, but Effie effectively cut her off: "Enough! You're behaving like children."

Pissing Effie off first thing in the morning sort of took the fun out of verbal sparring, even for Niles, so everyone broke off into their own conversations, dutifully shoveling down porridge (sometimes with an extra handful of berries or dollop of honey).

"How are you feeling this morning, Lazzy?" Peri asked, giggling as if she already knew the answer.

"Oh, fine," he said, winking at her in the usual way. He was immensely pleased when she giggled harder. "I just love fencing with a migraine."

"You could come with me down to the stables?" she offered. "It's my turn to clean the stalls." She made a pouty face.

"Hmm," said Laslow jokingly, "incessant clanging or horse shit? I will have to think about it."

Peri giggled. "Don't forget the wyvern dung."

"Oh! And wyvern dung!" Laslow said. "Well, how could I possibly say no to that? You, my fair lady, have a deal."

Selena shot him a meaningful look when they cleared out of the mess hall, and Laslow pretended not to see it.

The pair set out across the castle grounds in companionable silence, mostly in deference to Lalsow's headache. Peri gave Lilith a merry wave as they passed, while Laslow merely nodded a polite hello. A moment later, a harried-looking Lady Corrin burst out of the temple, barely stopping to say hello before pressing on.

"Does she seem stressed out to you?" Peri asked.

"Incredibly," said Laslow. "I have to wonder why."

"She hasn't seemed like herself lately," Peri said. "Normally when I burst into tears she'll make sure I'm okay, but the other day my mascara was running and my nose was dribbling and she didn't even ask why." Peri pulled her mouth to the one side, annoyed.

"That doesn't sound like our Lady Corrin," Laslow agreed, studying Corrin's retreating figure as she went. "What's gotten into her?"

"I don't know," Peri said. "But I'm worried. She's been spending a lot of time in Lord Xander's tent, too."

"To see Lord Xander or to talk about the war?"

Peri shot him a look. "I don't know. I just see her leave there a lot, especially after dark."

Laslow's first thought was that Niles would have a field day with this information, but his second thought was that nothing good could come of any combination of the Nohrian royals meeting in secret. (Or at the very least, private.)

-)

Mucking out all the horse (and wyvern) stalls went about as well as Laslow had expected, but at least it was blessedly quiet. The place might have stunk to high heaven, but by noon his headache had mostly dissipated, and by midafternoon he almost felt like himself again.

Unfortunately, with the use of his brain came his memories of last night. If you could go home, would you? Selena had asked.

Up until the exact moment she had asked him, Laslow had always assumed his answer to that question would be 'yes.' And he fully intended to return to Ylisse at some point in the future, hopefully when the baby Inigo was old enough to understand who he was. He would like to see his parents again at some point, to see Robin and Chrom and the Lucina from his time.

But when Selena had outright asked him that, Laslow found that he couldn't answer just a straight "Yes." And maybe it was because there was a war going on that he was rather involved with, or maybe it was that he knew Lord Xander counted on him and Laslow was no deserter, or maybe it was that Selena and Odin were here and he wouldn't desert them, either.

All of those sounded like part of the truth, but none of them quite struck at the heart of it.

"Peri," Laslow said, pausing in shoveling fresh hay into one of the stalls, "do you ever think about what you'll do after the war?"

Peri stuck her shovel into the ground at an angle she could lean on. "I'd keep working for Lord Xander, of course. He's the best."

"Have you never thought of returning home? To your family's mansion?"

"Oh." Peri worried her lower lip for a moment in thought. "I guess I could, but I don't really want to."

"Why not?"

Peri shrugged. "It's just my daddy there, now. He says it's too hard to find servants anymore, no matter how much he offers to pay, even though… even though I…"

Laslow knew the signs, alright, but he was powerless to stop them. "Peri, it's alright. There's no need to—"

She inadvertently interrupted him when she burst into tears.

Now you've done it, Laslow berated himself. Already, Peri's mascara was running and she was shaking like a scared animal, clearly about to bolt. "Hush, Peri," Laslow said softly, taking quiet, cautious steps toward her. "It's alright."

"B-but it's because of me!" she sobbed. "My daddy is all alone because of me!"

Laslow winced, but his voice remained calm. "How could you have known? You were only a child—"

"I was a monster!" Peri shrieked. A few of the birds in the rafters were startled into flight. "I was a tiny, evil doll—and I still am."

"No, you aren't," Laslow said firmly.

"Yuh-huh! Even Lord Xander thinks so."

Laslow seriously doubted that. He drew in a deep breath, and immediately wished he hadn't. The horse stink was wretched. "Well, I don't."

Peri blinked at him for a moment, agog. "You don't?" she asked, sounding very small.

Laslow shook his head carefully. "No, I don't."

Peri's eyes narrowed, although she was still crying. "You told me I was horrible."

"No," Laslow said patiently, "I said that killing people who had done nothing to wrong you was horrible."

"And that their loved ones would miss them," Peri said quietly, almost too much so to hear.

Laslow tried to smile, like he always did, but his face wouldn't work quite right. More and more, he'd noticed, it was getting to be a challenge to smile at everything anymore. "So you remember that, do you?"

"'Course," said Peri. "That's when everything got all complicated. And when Lord Xander said…" She sniffed loudly, and Laslow went searching for his handkerchief almost without thought. "…When Lord Xander said that I should talk to somebody about everything."

"And you did, right?" Laslow wasn't quite sure when it had happened, but Peri was suddenly standing within arm's reach. He could see each individual tear still clinging to her eyelashes.

She bobbed her head up and down a few times. "Yep, right until we had to go to war."

Laslow felt his chest tighten. How many times had he heard that, he wondered? I had something good, something to help me, something to heal me—and then I had to go to war.

"Laslow? Are you crying?"

He smiled—for real, this time. "No, Peri, I think that's you."

"Oh," she said, with a little laugh. "Real tears. They happen more often now, since Lord Xander made me go talk to the nice doctor-man."

"Was that helping?" Laslow asked.

"Sometimes. Other times it just made me feel bad." Peri wouldn't look at him. "Sometimes I'd leave his office and just want to curl up under my covers and cry—really cry, like this." She gestured to her face. "Especially…" She stopped.

"Especially when?" Laslow prompted, leaning to the side a bit in an admittedly futile attempt to get her to look at him.

Peri rocked onto her toes and back. "When he'd make me talk about my mommy."

"That can't have been easy."

"Oh, right," Peri said, startling Laslow with how quickly she looked back up at him. "I forgot. You miss your mommy, too."

"Every day," Laslow said, any hope of false cheer gone. "We're a matched set, you and I."

Peri just studied him for a long moment, as though seeing him for the first time. Something in Laslow's gut twisted and tightened, and he wasn't sure if he felt the need to put a lot more distance between them, or a lot less.

And that's about when Odin walked in main door.

"Laslow? Peri? Selena said you'd be in—oh!"

It was hard to tell who was more embarrassed—Laslow, or Odin. The dark mage had averted his eyes as if he'd walked in on someone changing clothes, and Laslow felt his face practically erupt.

"I, um, didn't mean to intrude," Odin said weakly.

"Did you need Laslow for something, Odin?" Peri asked.

Odin chanced a look through his fingers, and then straightened up. "The royal family wanted to see Laslow, Selena, and me as soon as possible."

Laslow looked down at himself. He was covered in mud and shit and Naga knew what else. "Can I change?"

"I don't think so," Odin said apologetically.

"Dammit," Laslow muttered, looking about for his sword. "I'm sorry, Peri. I'll make it up to you."

"Don't worry about it," she said, sounding more hoarse than usual. "I don't want everyone to see me like this, anyway."

"People see you overflowing with sorrow all the time," Odin pointed out.

"No, they don't," Peri said quietly, picking her shovel back up again. "It just looks like it."

"Oh," said Odin. "Well, now that I've thoroughly made an ass of myself—come on, Laslow. Let's get this over with."

"Is this about last night?" Laslow asked, buckling his swordbelt back over his hips.

"Can't imagine what else."

"Good luck!" Peri called after them in a childish singsong.

"Thank you kindly," said Laslow. "We'll probably need it."

-)

To those without PM:

Melpa31: Thanks for taking the time to review! I'm glad you're enjoying it

Alina: Thanks for taking the time to review! Character interaction is sort of my specialty. (Well that and dialogue)