"Hey Blue, watch out!" Gaius jumped in front of Chrom moments before a wyvern knight managed to land a blow on the prince's chest. "Pay attention!"

It had been barely a minute since their guide through breakneck pass had betrayed them to the Plegians, and it was already chaos.

"Thanks, Gaius, though I'm fairly certain that this isn't the time for nicknames!" Chrom yelled back as he deflected a blow from an enemy with his sword and lunged in for the kill.

Gaius, instead of responding, took out an archer who was aiming for the wings of Sumia's pegasus. "I got ya covered, Stumbles!" he shouted out to her before heading for the next archer.

"No one's got you covered, scum!"

Gaius turned to see the leader of the pack of Plegians, Vasto throw a hand-axe towards his head. Gaius was able to dodge most of the blow, even with the short amount of time he had to react. However, he wasn't quite fast enough, and the axe struck his sword arm, rendering him unable to fight back. As Vasto pulled out another weapon and prepared to deal the final blow, a powerful burst of wind magic struck him and he fell to the ground. Gaius turned to see Robin standing a few metres behind him.

Robin rushed to him. "You alright?"

He nodded. Robin held up his arm and he winced. "Shoot, this isn't good. Be more careful!" She noticed the stick poking out of his mouth and rolled her eyes

"Seriously? Candy? Never mind that, Head over to Lissa, quick!"

Gaius ran over to Lissa, trying to ignore the pain in his arm. "Damn, now I really do need to give Bubbles something…" Lissa, seeing him and the blood coming from his arm, ran up to him and selected the appropriate staff, before proceeding to fix the wound.

"There, good as new," Lissa smiled, "but don't go totally crazy for the next few minutes, or it might open again."

Testing out his arm, Gaius smiled. "Thanks, Princess. You saved my bacon. I guess we can call it even, now."

"Gosh, were my muffins really that lethal?" Lissa shook her head in dismay before realizing that there was still a battle going on. "This isn't the time to be talking about that. Get out there and fight!

She gently shoved him back into the battlefield, where he took out more archers. As he finished up with the last one and was about to help Vaike take down a Wyvern Knight, he saw a flash of red in the corner of his eye.

A young woman with long red hair landed by Chrom and another soldier, and began telling them something. From what he could tell, it wasn't good news. After talking for a few moments, Chrom turned back to the battle and the woman flew up into the sky, helping Sumia take out more wyverns and their riders.

"Hm, what's this? Candy? Not Candy?" Gaius picked up a satchel from the ground and shook it. The faint clicking sound of metal hitting metal could be heard. Opening the bag, he saw several dozen silver coins.

"Ah, well, I guess I can't expect everyone to have candies like Blue…" He pocketed the coins and turned back to a small group of people- Chrom, Lissa, Emmeryn and a soldier. They were having yet another discussion with the red-haired pegasus knight who had joined mid-battle. As he drew nearer, he could hear part of their conversation.

"I should have stayed… I should have stayed!" The young woman was sobbing into her hands. "Ah, gods, I can still hear the screams…"

The soldier who was accompanying the Exalt put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Peace, Cordelia. You have done your duty. The sisters rightly prized your youth. You've many years to keep their legacy alive."

Cordelia shook her head, and amidst the tears, managed to speak, "I abandoned them! I'm weak! Their legacy deserves better. Oh, Captain Philia. How can I go on like this? They were my family!" She broke into sobs again. "Gods, oh gods…"

"Damn those monsters!" All eyes but Cordelia's turned to Chrom. He looked as if he was about to say something more, but was interrupted by his older sister.

"I must return to the capital." Emmeryn said with a grim but determined look.

At this point, Gaius knew that he shouldn't be listening. After all, even someone like him knew that these matters were most likely to be confidential, or even personal. Chrom was pretty nice, but eavesdropping on royalty was not considered polite, no matter how nice the royal in question was. Instead, he wandered over to where Stahl, Vaike and Lon'qu were.

Since they were finished cleaning up on their end of the field, the three Shepherds passed time by playing cards atop one of the horse carts.

"Hey, Stabby!" Gaius tapped Lon'qu on the shoulder before dropping down beside him. Popping a few chocolate-covered caramels into his mouth, he asked, "What're you playing?"

"I would prefer if you would not call me 'stabby'." Lon'qu stated.

Vaike laughed. "We're playing poker! Loser has to tell us who in camp they fancy!"

Popping yet another candy into his mouth, Gaius chuckled.

"Wow, Muscles. Very creative. Didn't you already do this yesterday, with that "Most Popular Girl in the Shepherds" poll of yours?"

Turning to Lon'qu, he continued, "I have to say though, I'm surprised that Stabby here decided to join in on the fun."

Lon'qu looked annoyed.

"It was no choice of mine."

Vaike averted his eyes in a sort of teasing way, showing that he had somehow forced Lon'qu into making that sort of gamble.

Feeling amused, Gaius leaned back.

"Tell you what. I won't join, but I'll watch." Turning to Lon'qu, he then added, "I'm betting on you, Stabby, so you better not lose!"

Lon'qu simply sighed and looked the other way.

In the midst of their second hand, with Lon'qu in dead last, Chrom walked over. Saying he was angry would have been an understatement.

"Now's no time for games! We've got to keep on going to Ferox!" he yelled before storming off. He was obviously extremely upset, and Gaius could guess why.

Vaike, on the other hand looked rather confused. "Well, I guess that's that. We'll just have to wrap it up here. Looks like Lon'qu's the loser! And since Gaius was betting on him, looks like he needs to fess up, too."

"Nope," countered Gaius, "I said I'd bet on Stabby, but I didn't say with what. Here, Muscles, Bedhead, take these muffins." Chuckling inwardly, he added, "They don't taste very good, but you could use them to poison an enemy."

With that, he threw two of Lissa's muffins at Stahl and Vaike before walking off. To himself, he murmured, "That bag of silver goes to candy if Blue's upset about the Exalt going back, and it goes to the treasury if he's not."

The bag of silver went to candy. Though he felt a bit bad about making that sort of bet, Gaius's sweet tooth prevailed over his morals, and he decided to head out to the market to pick up some sweets. Gaius had also decided to, for the first time in several weeks, open up a stall in the market. Not wanting to ask Chrom, who had seemed to be in a bad mood for several days straight, where a good place to set up a stall was, he decided to just head out with the things he wanted to sell and set up a shop.

The Shepherds had been resting in Ferox for a few days, and it had been a rather ordinary morning. Cordelia seemed to have recovered somewhat from her emotional outburst, and was acting as what she called her 'usual self'. However, it didn't really seem that usual to Gaius; she was always helping out or cleaning something,, be it a person, room or animal. He was certain that if she saw him, he would end up being fussed over by her for hours on end.

Gaius's supplies made him bulkier than he would have liked, hindering his ability to avoid Cordelia and her neat-freak tendencies. He almost made it, and he would have, if it hadn't been for the bracelet which he was going to sell. It slipped over his arm and crashed onto the floor, and Cordelia turned to investigate what the noise was.

"Ah, Gaius." she said as soon as she saw him. She stared at him for a few moments before speaking. "Say, weren't you wearing the exact same clothes yesterday?"

Gaius inwardly cursed his bad luck and sighed, "Is that a problem?"

As if she didn't hear his comment, Cordelia continued, "Also, unless I'm very much mistaken, you also wore them the day before that."

"Yup," Gaius agreed. Though naturally, he had a good reason for doing so. "This is my favourite outfit. Why are you so interested in my attire anyways?" Teasing her, he added, "You fancy me or something?"

Putting her hand to her forehead, Cordelia stated, "I'm just trying to give some friendly advice here. Perhaps you don't realize that you smell like the floor of a tavern. Your shirt is covered in crumbs and honey, and the less said about your pantaloons, the better."

Stunned, Gaius looked down at his clothes to see that what she had said was actually correct.

Seemingly on a roll, Cordelia went on.

"Not to mention, your hair needs a trim and you have more crumbs stuck to your face… and is that a turkey leg I see sticking out of your pocket? Heavens, Gaius!" she cried, "Don't you care about your appearance at all?"

Now the scolding was starting to get on his nerves. She had made her point. There was no need for her to continue to question his hygienic preferences, or lack thereof.

"Well," he retorted, "so long as it doesn't slow me down on the battlefield. I'm not some fancywaist who needs to strut around like a peacock."

"Well, perhaps you should consider it regardless."

"All right, all right," Putting his hands up in submission, Gaius rolled his eyes. "Message received. I'll go put on some new clothes, mother."

Oblivious to the sarcasm in his words, Cordelia spoke on, "Don't forget to comb your hair! And wash those old clothes in vinegar, or you'll never get the smell out."

Slowly edging towards the door, Gaius quietly said, "I'm going now…"

"Once washed, if you want to reduce the wrinkles, take a willow reed and- hey!" Gaius had fled the room.

"Don't walk away when I'm talking about laundry!"

Gaius ran back to his room- he and the other Shepherds were given said rooms for their stay in Ferox. He put down the wares he was going to sell and changed clothes, just to get Cordelia off his back. He was a little curious though- were his clothes really that bad? Picking up his old shirt, he took a whiff.

"Gods, these do smell awful!"

Author's note: Well I had a thirteen-hour plane ride today, so plenty of time to get this one done. I would like to emphasize that though this fanfiction ships Gaius X My Unit GREATLY,this fanfiction follows Gaius through his time in the Shepherds, as his feelings for Robin develop. If you are upset that I have added a Cordelia support, or that this chapter contained no further developments, it is because this fanfiction is centered more around Gaius himself than the pairing, though there may just possibly be a B support with Robin coming next chapter… maybe… .

maybe.

Okay, there will be. Happy?

So any supports added are because I want to show everyone Gaius's time with the Shepherds as well, not just skipping to and from the supports.

Anyways, B support coming next chapter. Hopefully that will satisfy you for now ;)

Anyways, Happy reading~

PS: Sorry for the rant.

PPS: As usual, comments and critiques are more than welcome :)