A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! This chapter is a bit darker, and so… trigger warning for off-screen child abuse.

The Third Trial

Wherein Ike has the diet of a toddler, and Soren eats the eye-candy

Ike woke up to the loud knocking on his door. "Hey Ike!" came his father's voice, "You get breakfast in bed!"

He only got a moment to ponder why this was happening when a servant walked in with a tray of food. The servant put the food down on Ike's lap and left. Ike just stared at it - it was a tray of food, but the food was all… vegetables and apples… and one bread roll.

"Ugh," said Ike, running his fingers through his bed head. This did not make any sense. His mother usually made him breakfast and knew Ike was more of a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Then he spotted the card that read: from a secret admirer.

"Ugh," he said again. "Not another one!" Somehow he managed to attract those a lot. He'd been hit on, allegedly at least, by a pegasus knight, a cat laguz woman, apparently Ranulf (if Soren was to be believed, but Ike didn't see it and neither did Ranulf for that matter), and an older lady who really freaked him out. They always made Soren prickly, which was irritating.

Mist poked her head in and started laughing. He glared at her as he picked up the roll and took a bite; at least something on this plate was edible. Then he belatedly realized he was chewing on a piece of paper. With shock he pulled it out of his mouth and read it: Stuff your pockets.

He read it over and over again but it still didn't make sense to him. "Hey, quit laughing and help me figure out what the heck is going on."

His sister came in and sat on the bed as he explained what little he knew. "I wonder if maybe it's from Soren," Mist guessed thoughtfully. "I mean the note in the only thing you'd eat just screams him."

"Yeah but why would he torment me like this?"

"Well he is still Ashnard's kid, maybe he has a quota? You know, 'must torture someone at least three times a day'? Or, oh! Maybe it's related to the next challenge!"

He tried to remember what had been said about it yesterday. "It would unfairly favor Elincia, is what he heard."

"Ohhh, so it has something to do with-"

The arena where this had all started was covered with a large net. Six horses with wings and horns were flying around, neighing with what Ike guessed was either anxiety or anger. Or both, who knows. "Oh, it all makes sense," he muttered, having an idea as to what the third challenge was.

The king had a rather sadistic smile on his face, which made Ike want to punch him more so than usual. "These are pegasii – majestic and rare, and wild from birth. Your task is to place a halter on one of them."

"They have horns so they aren't pegasuses, right? They're pegasus-unicorns. They're… pegacorns," Ike grumbled to himself, but Elincia heard him and giggled.

"That is distinctly unfair, the girl has an advantage!" Lekain snapped.

Ashnard laughed. "Life isn't fair, Senator. Prince Skrimir, you were the first to return from the prior trial and may choose when you go now."

Skrimir chuckled, stepping forward. "I will of course go first." He shifted into a lion and took off at a run. Ike was wondering how he was going to pull this off, but it turned out a massive powerful lion is perfectly capable of jumping up and scaling the walls of the arena, making the people in the stands scream in horror as he pounced from the sides to tackle one of the pegasuses.

To his credit, when he landed the creature was screaming in fury but unharmed, and his efforts had been smooth and graceful. He held the horse down until it stopped fighting him, then transformed back into his humanoid self. The hardest part he had was figuring out how to get the bridle on.

The judge announced, "Prince Skrimir has completed the third challenge!"

"Like a barbarian," Lekain muttered. From the look on her face Elincia agreed with him. Ike was just happy the poor thing was still alive. Both Ludveck and Tauroneo were unreadable.

(Ranulf, sitting with the royal twins, facepalmed.

"You're going to get bruising on your head if you keep that up," Pelleas pointed out helpfully.

"I don't know why you're surprised. All this does is reinforce that to Skrimir, he is a magnificent hammer and everything in the world is a nail," Soren added.

"I've told him that exact thing multiple times," Ranulf replied. "The problem is that I'm supposed to break him of the habit."

"You'd have an easier time completing this entire tournament yourself."

"Now that, that I could do. But teach Skrimir?" Ranulf sighed and shook his head.)

"Duke Lekain, you are second!"

He marched forward, visage pissed off. Once he was beneath one, he pulled out what looked to be a magic wand and waved it. The pegasus fell like a boulder.

Elincia covered her mouth with a horrified expression. "How the hell was that any better than what he did?" Ike demanded. Lekain did not deign to answer the question even as he got the halter on and completed the trial.

"Do you want me to go next?" Ike asked, since she looked so pissed off.

"No, I've got this." Elincia was clearly some sort of magic princess, since as she walked forward one of the pegacorns circled above and landed near her. It sniffed her over and then, pleased by the smell, began to nuzzle her. "Why hello! Aren't you a sweetheart! You probably smell my pegasus on me. Yes yes, I love you too." She gave it kisses, and it let her put a halter on.

Ike took a deep breath and strode forward. One of the pegacorns - damn it he was going to call it what he wanted to - had landed and was regarding him warily, and Ike slowly walked to it. "Hi, horsie horsie," he cooed, pulling carrots out of his pockets and holding them out. He was pretty sure he heard Ranulf laughing but he ignored his friend and focused. Now that he was up close, he saw more specific details: it had curly fur, and a cream-colored base with lots of flecks of different colors ranging from white to black and all over the brown spectrum. "Aww, you're kind of cute. Here, have my carrots. I sure as heck don't want them."

The creature nibbled on the carrots with glee. It regarded him with big brown eyes, and Ike realized it was not going to try attacking him. "Heh, you like food. Just like me. We should be friends." He petted its ears. "I know you're only humoring me because I'm giving you food," and he fetched some broccoli out to offer, "but I will definitely take it. I'd be screwed otherwise." His new best friend didn't want to let him go get the halter, but while it tensed up, he was able to get it on.

("Interesting," the king said to his son, "Very interesting that the boy just happened to be carrying food in his pockets."

"You clearly have never met Ike before," Soren replied, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. "The man always has snacks."

"Hmmm." Soren could tell his father was not buying it, but since he didn't expel Ike from the competition, Soren considered it a victory regardless.)

Tauroneo was as methodical in catching a pegacorn as he was in doing anything else. First he took out pegacorn bait-well, more food- and then he set it out. After that he rigged up some kind of rope trap around the bait and waited. He caught a grey pegacorn within 20 minutes. No pain and minimal time spent. Impressive.

Ludveck, on the other hand, stepped out and pulled a crossbow. He shot one in the wing, waited until it crashed and then put on a halter. The poor creature screamed in agony. Ike's hand went to his sword. He didn't hold with abuse of any kind.

Elincia put a hand on his arm. In her other hand she had out a healing staff. "Don't, you'll just get in trouble. I hate it, too, but look-"

Healers had descended on the injured pegacorns and were healing them. Ike reluctantly sheathed his sword. He would crush the man as soon as he could.

As all contestants were announced victorious, King Ashnard looked downright disappointed in the stands. Ike didn't feel the least bit sorry for him.

Much later that day, Soren sat on the edge of a fountain in the courtyard, taking shallow breaths and trying to focus on the book in his lap. He was fine, he was perfectly fine, there was no reason why he shouldn't be able to understand this light tome. It was just an entry-level introduction into playing with sparkles! He was an archsage!

His already tenuous concentration was ruined by Skrimir and Ranulf coming into the gardens together, talking. He considered trying to hide, but movement was not going to go well for him and besides, he was certain they could smell him. So instead he focused on his book and hoped they got the hint.

"I have to admit I am so far unimpressed with the dreaded King Ashnard's challenges," Skrimir was saying. "Six participants are still in even after the third trial. Were my uncle to create a series of challenges for prospective mates for me, I imagine few would survive the first one."

"You say that as if anyone would fight for you," Ranulf replied with a good-natured snicker.

For a man as egocentric as Skrimir, he actually seemed to have a decent sense of humor. "No one has ever left my bedchamber complaining."

"Where you could hear them…"

"Oh! Hello, little one!" Skrimir waved to him, and Soren sighed, knowing that he was about to be pulled into their conversation. Skrimir also seemed genuinely happy to see him, which was confusing. "We weren't ignoring you - it's hard to smell well out here sometimes, given the cold. It's the one thing I miss most about Gallia. Given that you are out here in multiple layers, I imagine it will be something you'll appreciate."

He closed his book. "I wouldn't know what to do in the heat."

"We were coming out here to spar a little," Ranulf said smoothly before Skrimir could continue. "Prince Skrimir gets cranky if he gets too much energy built up."

"Back home I have more ways to work off steam," the lion prince interjected.

"We can find another place to fight if you'd be disturbed…"

Soren shook his head, mindful of the importance of keeping them in the castle. "Not at all. Go ahead."

Daein's racist propaganda was aimed toward the populace, emphasizing the laguz as mindless beasts (or birds or lizards) unworthy of being called humans. As an insider, Soren was privy to the fact that the intention was to make any war against Gallia, Phoenicias, Goldoa or Kilvas more palatable should the need ever arise or the whim ever take Ashnard. In private, Ashnard was actually quite impressed by the sheer strength most laguz could display. As a result, Skrimir and Ranulf were significantly safer in Daein Keep than they were anywhere else, and Soren knew it. And at first, that's all it was.

Then it seemed like the world went into slow motion as Skrimir pulled his shirt off. Soren may or may not have heard a slow saxophone riff and seen sparkles.

That was the day Soren discovered he had a type, and that type was buff.

Soren's cheeks reddened. He tried not to stare. He really did. But those abs, and those arms! Oh who was he kidding - that body was incredible, all of it from the chin down. He just needed to get that hair tamed… and that scowl really didn't suit him well… but the ears were pretty cute, honestly…

Soren felt a little disappointed when he transformed. Oh the lion was majestic in its own way, but damn, what a shame. He returned his eyes back to the tome on his lap, and made just as much progress on it as he would have without the distraction.

(A transformed Ranulf looked at Soren "reading" and flicked his tail before focusing on Skrimir. "That's cute. Stripping in front of the beorc to try to make him want you. I suppose if you can't impress him with your conversation, you have to start somewhere." He laughed. As they were shifted, none of this sounded like human speech but they spoke just the same.

Skrimir chuffed in his amusement. "I am not as dumb as you think I am. The little one smells of purity and sexual repression. And my gamble worked, he is definitely interested." He paused. "Also that shirt was expensive and Giffca would have my mane if I ripped it."

"Like that's ever stopped you before," Ranulf countered. "Use that body. It's all you have."

Skrimir made sure to hit Ranulf extra hard for that one, but he didn't mind. It had been worth it… but how was he going to tell Ike about this?

He stopped thinking about it when Skrimir came at him again so that he could dodge easily. The cat laguz wasn't as strong as the lion-no one was except the King-but he was faster both on the uptake and in general.

Still, the no shirt thing had been a good move and Soren had smelled interested. Ike would not be happy, even if he had nothing to worry about. Soren clearly desired Ike but more importantly was head over heels in love with him.

Probably.

Maybe.)

Ike was surprised when Elincia asked him to lunch, but his mom didn't raise a rude boy so he accepted. They ended up eating food Ike's mom made and sitting there, so it wasn't exactly fancy or anything fit for a princess, but she didn't seem to mind.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me keep calm during the trial," she said. "And I guess too for being nice to the poor pegacorns." She giggled. "You're silly, Sir Ike, you really are. Pegacorns is the cutest thing."

He shrugged. "I'm just glad I had food. I know it wouldn't have gone well without it."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

She giggled again, and Ike wondered if maybe there was no one capable of telling any jokes at all back in Crimea. "It's just - we've heard a lot of stories about the Mad King Ashnard. I'm here because I want to give him as little reason to conquer Crimea as possible. But, neither of his sons are particularly ruthless. How is it that happened? I was wondering if you knew…"

Ike chuckled to himself. "Oh boy. I've known them both most of my life. Pelleas is and has always been exactly who he is. As for Soren… when we were little, I still remember him getting upset because apparently some guy he didn't like looked at him. He tried to have him arrested for treason. I pointed out the guy didn't do anything wrong. Soren's exact reply, 'Huh, I don't have any other coping skills.'" Elincia laughed out loud. "It's been a work in progress, and he does have a streak of severity in him, but yeah, he was way worse when we were young."

"That is so cute," Elincia admitted. "I can just picture little you and little Soren!" Then she calmed herself, looked a little sad. "You care for him a great deal, don't you?"

He wasn't sure how to respond to that. Honesty was always the best policy as his mom liked to say, but she was still a competitor. But then he remembered he had literally announced it to the whole tournament before, so he admitted, "Yeah. I do. It's why I'm here."

She smiled, her eyes still sad. "That's very noble of you."

It was at this point Ike's sister appeared. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I couldn't help overhearing… Princess Elincia, if I had to guess, you have someone special at home too, don't you?"

The princess blushed, and Ike remembered Mist's knowing smirk from dinner the other night. "Yes I do," she admitted quietly. "But sometimes, duty comes first. He knows it."

Ike scowled even as Mist sat down. "You should marry who you want."

She smiled at him sadly. "If that were true, there wouldn't be a tournament. It's different for royalty."

"It's not fair, for any of you. Besides, if you're in charge, you should be able to make your own decisions."

There was a knock on the door. Elena bustled out of the kitchen and answered it. Ike heard her greet whoever it was happily.

Pelleas walked in. "Hi - oh, hello Princess Elincia, Mist." He looked at Ike. "Excuse me, can I talk to you for a minute, in private?"

Ike felt a cool wave of nerves, but he shrugged and stood up.

"Oh!" Elincia stood up too. "I'm sorry, I've lost track of time. I actually need to get going, I have letters to write and want to get them out before the post is sent." She smiled at everyone, doing a small curtsy. She moved to thank Ike's mom before she hastily left.

"Aw, poor thing," said Mist wistfully. When Pelleas looked at her, she jumped a little. "Oh, right, you wanted alone time. Got it." She scurried out too.

The prince sighed to himself, then looked at Ike and said, voice firm, "Listen, I like you, I really do. But Soren is more important to me. So, if you hurt my brother, I will kill you."

Ike took a moment to appreciate the statement and who it was coming from. Then he started laughing.

"Stop that!" Pelleas demanded, which just made Ike laugh harder. "I'm serious! I really will!"

Ike was trying really hard to vocalize why this was so ridiculous, but he just couldn't. This was the hardest he had laughed in his whole life. "A-are you," Ike gasped this out between laughs, "g-goin' to t-tell the others the s-same thing?"

Pelleas glared. "So what if I do?" He no doubt was aiming for angry but his voice came out pouty instead.

Ike snickered more. "Good luck! Right. Well. I won't hurt your brother, so you won't need to try and hurt me. Luckily for us both." As Pelleas stormed out, Ike made a mental note to remind Mist she needed to give Soren the shovel talk. It would be about as effective, but only fair.

For dinner that night, Ike got to live out his worst nightmares: sandwiched between Skrimir and Ashard.

With dinner being vegetarian. Clearly a bumper crop of plant imports had come in.

It was actually made worse by Ashnard refusing to acknowledge Ike's existence. The man just looked at him, snorted in derision, and talked to his wife and Skrimir as if Ike wasn't sitting there. It was, of course, completely insulting, but there was nothing he could do about it. So he tried his best to eat his bunny food and imagined all the ways he'd kill Ashnard some day, because the guy really needed to be murdered for a bunch of reasons - the way he treated his sons in particular, as far as Ike was concerned, but there were plenty of others too.

He also watched across the table as Elincia had her chance to eat next to Soren. She seemed to be worried about something, but whatever it was Soren wasn't humoring her about it, as his responses were, from what he could tell, simple words. More telling was that his brow was furrowed, showing annoyance and frustration. Ike resolved himself to ask about it later… if he managed to survive dinner.

Ike climbed the tree and gracefully dismounted onto the balcony, going in the unlocked door to Soren's bedroom. The moment it registered that Soren wasn't there, however, killed any positive feelings he had. "Soren?"

"I'm here."

Soren exited the bathroom, and Ike noticed everything as if he was hit by it – the way his robe was loosely tied, how he carried himself gingerly. "Shit. What set him off this time? Did you breathe at him?"

Soren snorted as Ike helped him lay down on the lounge chair. "He didn't believe me when I said you carry food with you. He didn't see anything wrong with Tauroneo having it, but you, he assumed I interfered. The joke is on him, since you do seem always have snacks at hand. Just… not vegetables."

Ike winced. "Shit," he said again. "I'm sorry, this is my fault."

He shook his head. "Not at all. I was sloppy. I've been hurt worse."

That's what he said every time. "Anything in particular worse off?"

Soren scowled a little, which Ike recognized as his "I can't believe I have to admit to weakness" look. "My ribs. I think he broke a rib or two… or six."

"Shit." Ike clenched his fingers. "I'm going to kill him."

"You are not." No, Ike wasn't, the man was out of his fighting league, but if intentions mattered then Ashnard was dead a thousand times over. "I'm fine. I put some numbing oils on."

"That won't fix your broken ribs!" Ike snapped back, hands clenching and unclenching. "Do you have a vulnerary?"

"Of course not, they don't grow on trees. And I don't have the materials to make one, either."

Ike let out a frustrated noise. He tried to remember the healers he knew – his sister and mother, and Elincia maybe? That would explain why Elincia looked so concerned during dinner. "I'll go get Mist or my mom, or Elincia had a staff to heal the pegacorns-"

"Absolutely not."

Ike curled up against Soren's side. This was a long-practiced dance between them, but usually Ashnard didn't break bones. He tentatively placed his hand on Soren's hip. "Fine. But you need to stop helping me."

Soren leaned his head against Ike's. "I'll try to be more subtle."

"Don't you trust me?"

He looked at him with those garnet-colored eyes. Some people thought they were creepy, but Ike found his eyes gorgeous. "This isn't a matter of trust. There is a lot riding on your victory and I refuse to take chances."

Ike made a noncommittal hum. "I can do it, Soren. I will do it. I refuse to let you marry someone you don't want to."

Soren closed his eyes, relaxing. "Thank you, Ike. That means more to me than you'll ever know."

"And someday I will kill Ashnard. Just so you're prepared."

His boyfriend snorted delicately, and not for the first time Ike wished he knew what he was thinking. Ike found Soren's relationship with his father completely baffling, although he truly couldn't relate; some days Soren would protest that he would be the one to kill Ashnard thank you, still other days he accepted Ike as his future champion, or said that no one was hurting his father.

At length, Soren spoke, with a small smile on his tired face. "Pegacorn?"