Ever since the day they drew water for camp, Morgan had kept true to his word that he'd come by and visit Severa an hour a day. He usually came to her at night just after dinner or before they went to bed, with Morgan bringing her a cup of tea or milk, anything that helped Severa sleep or give her better dreams. On days when they had night duties, the prince would simply come by during the afternoon and he came by every day, without fail, always specially seeking her out. They talked about anything and everything and Morgan never ran out of things to tell her. All of them, tales, news, gossip, opinions, ideas, Severa loved to hear them all and by the end of their first talk session, the mercenary had already been regretting her decision, giving him only an hour to talk as Morgan, for his part, was careful to stick to the allotted time.

After finding out just how much he valued his time with her, she tried hiding from him quite a few times out of curiosity and yet he still managed to track her down, every single time. She'd come up with an excuse not to talk to him but he'd wait until she was finally free. When Severa had missed their daily talking hour on purpose, Morgan had desperately argued the next day that she owed him another hour for that. Despite being happy that Morgan valued their time together however short, Severa had put up a good fight against it and yet, she still grudgingly agreed to it nonetheless, complete with her trademark complaints. She had long since stopped questioning his motives for his eagerness as she knew that he would only give her nonsense answers that confused or insulted her unknowingly. By now, she was used to it, having accepted that Morgan was slightly insensitive and really needed help talking to girls.

But then there was that other reason. Severa was still very much aware that this was only practice. He was still asking for her help so that he would be able to talk to the girl he likes. Someday, all these things that they're doing together, will be done with someone else, with a girl that was not her. Severa loathed that fact though she never thought about it anymore than she had to because she had resolved to enjoy her time with him, no matter how short.

Severa grunted in annoyance. This was one of those nights where she'd be having dinner later than normal and she was, in no way, grateful for it. She hated nights like these, nights when everyone seemed to momentarily forget there was a great war looming over them and started a civil war of their own. In the mess tent.

It was one of those most anticipated nights in camp where everyone helped make dinner for the entire army and everyone just threw in whatever seemed good. However, everyone usually meant Frederick, Cordelia, Cherche, Libra, Gaius (who was in charge of sweets and appetizers) and the unlikely, go-with-anything-but surprisingly-still-do-a-fine-job chef, Robin. Everyone else mostly shouted their requests and brought in whatever ingredients they picked up while the ones in charge of cooking whipped up whatever was requested. These kinds of nights usually meant making a huge clutter out in the mess tent and everyone usually scrambled to get a piece of everything. It did not help that Chrom, Morgan and Lucina, being the supportive family they were, often lead the little civil war themselves, usually the first ones in line hogging everything Robin cooked. Between those who unfailingly rallied behind the Exalt and those who wanted to snag even a bit of Robin's cooking (which was hard as the royal family were notorious for their large appetites, Lissa and Owain included), these nights often resulted in a commotion Severa preferred not to take part in.

During these nights, she usually sat alone by herself far from the mess tent, stroking whatever small fire she built to keep herself warm. She would wait for a few hours before she would decide it was finally safe to step in the mess tent without getting tackled and shoved out, soup and sauce flying at the entrance. The last time she tried, Vaike had nearly not-so-gracefully shoved her face in Lon'qu's potatoes which resulted in an hour-long battle between the two men. Noire had to restrain her; otherwise she'd jump in the fray without hesitation. She couldn't even eat at the corner without at least one or two pieces of vegetables flying at her. Four spoonfuls later, she angrily shoved her food away and stormed out.

Severa did the exact same thing that night. The loud shouts that erupted from the mess tent could be heard even in the distance from where she sat outside. She snarled and went back to stroking the fire she built for herself.

If she were being honest, she'd say that she felt lonely and left out whenever these things happened. She'd never admit it outright though, as she wasn't especially looking for attention.

Just as she was thinking about that, a figure suddenly plopped itself beside her without warning, effectively giving her company. Because she was in deep thought, she had failed to see the other person coming towards her so the sudden company made her jump away and even more so when it she had seen that the said other person was the future Ylissean prince, Morgan.

"Oh gods, that's one big hellhole in there today." The tactician prince gasped, slumping further against the log both he and Severa sat against. He slipped his cloak off his shoulders and fanned himself with its sleeves, doing minimal help to lessen the sweat falling from his forehead. He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced, possibly because of the unbearable heat he was currently feeling. Severa watched him continue as if he didn't notice her sitting close beside him. She watched as beads of sweat continued forming on his forehead, run down along his cheeks to his chin and drop to his knees when not wiped off. With his coat slipping off his shoulders, Severa could make out his lean figure despite the clothing that covered his upper body.

She could see how constant heavy training with Chrom and Lucina shaped his muscles just the way Severa preferred, not too scrawny, but not too built and muscular either. She then decided that his muscles were just right, firm and lean, definitely attractive and Severa was mildly surprised at this. She knew Morgan preferred using light tomes over heavy weaponries so she didn't think that he'd have such nicely developed muscles (she found herself staring at the pectoral and bicep areas more, they were definitely a charming bunch). Add that to the fact that he always had such a bulky and heavy looking coat on, Severa had always imagined him to be skinny. She briefly wondered how it would feel like to rest her head against his broad shoulders or his firm chest. It took her quite a lot of self-restraint just to keep herself from tackling him then and there. Instead, she mentally slapped herself and cleared her throat and Morgan quickly turned his gaze to her.

"Oh, Severa!" he grinned and immediately slipped his coat back on, hiding the sight Severa had been staring at for the past two minutes. The mercenary nearly let out a groan of dissatisfaction. Instead, she sighed and looked away, back to the fire in front of them. "Yes, Morgan?" she asked, trying to sound as annoyed as possible.

"What are you up to?" he asked, still continuing to fan his face. His trademark smile slipped quite a bit before he finally decided that it was too hot and just wiped his face. "I was trying to enjoy a moment of peace and solitude. And you've just ruined it. Again. Thanks." She grunted, poking the fire. She heard him chuckle and shuffle his clothes to let a bit of air in.

"Ouch! You don't mince words, do you?"

"I thought you were used to it by now."

"I could be hopeful every now and then, right?" he grinned, to which she replied with a silent 'whatever'.

"But hey, if you're not peaceful anymore, does that mean you're free?"

"Wow. Someone's pushing their luck."

"Ha I know! Glass half full- that's me! Anyway, everyone's making dinner in the mess tent, why don't you join us? Our mothers are cooking again!" he exclaimed, obviously excited about Robin's cooking. Severa, who was too busy thinking about the on-going chaos in the mess-tent, couldn't find it in herself to be excited about Cordelia's cooking.

"If everyone is there, you won't miss me." She snarled in annoyance.

"Aww, don't be like that! I actually snuck off because I noticed you weren't there."

It didn't take long for Severa to process what he had just said. At once, Severa's face started heating up and her eyes found their way to Morgan's face, who offered her a gentle smile. He teasingly wiggled his eyebrows as he watched her reaction. Come to think of it, Robin was cooking. Severa could swear that Morgan would never want to miss his mother's cooking and he'd fight his own father and sister for a plate of his mother's dishes. For him to sneak away just like that was unheard of.

"…Unless you can't cook." His added statement managed to distract Severa enough to throw a retort back at him.

"I can cook well enough, thank you." She scoffed.

"Then come on! I'd love a chance to sample your cooking."

"Maybe I don't ever want to cook for you! Did you even think of that?"

"Look, it doesn't even have to be good. All I ask is that it's edible."

That comment made Severa frown. Up until now, she still didn't know if he was insulting her on purpose or he's just unbearably insensitive with his words. She was starting to think that it was the former. But only just. "Oh my gosh, you are so rude!" she nearly screamed at him, which caused him to back away just a little, hands drawn up. He chuckled nervously, his easy-going smile never slipping away.

"I'm not trying to be! I'm just curious about what you eat."

"Rude! What happened to trying better? Ugh! Morgan, you are hopeless! I eat what everyone else eats!" she exclaimed and this time, she really did scream, silencing the ruckus in the mess tent by a bit. Both of them turned towards the tent before falling into a silence, with Morgan breaking it with his jovial chuckles. A pointed look from her silenced him not long after.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean…" he drifted off and just stopped after a while. He picked up a nearby twig and went on to poke the fire the same way Severa was doing earlier. It took him a few more seconds before he spoke again, a gentle smile on his face.

"But y'know there's a lot of good cooks here huh? Never would've expected it from an army. Lucina gets lessons from Mother so their cooking tastes almost the same. Aunt Lissa's just lethal but Owain is a genius at it! He must've gotten it from Uncle Frederick. Cynthia's a decent cook too I guess. Although most of her creations could pass for desserts. Kjelle's really horrible. Really… Horrible." Morgan emphasized Kjelle's cooking grimly, his smile turning into a grimace. No doubt he remembered the time when Kjelle had cooked for the army and gave them a bad case of food poisoning and indigestion. Morgan was one of the unlucky few who suffered the most as he had blindly stuffed himself full even before the taste or the effects came rushing to him. The whole royal family had to stay with him for hours as he kept groaning, tossing and turning in the infirmary tent.

"Inigo, Laurent and Brady are okay… Yarne's cooking mostly consists of carrots on the other hand. And Gerome! He's great. As expected of Cherche's son! If he were female, I'd marry him right away. He can do a lot of things after all. He'd be a great wife." He contemplated, placing a hand on his chin as if he was thinking of a new tactic. "He's not bad looking either so I'm sure he'd be a beauty if he were female. He's got a good head on his shoulders. Definitely wife material." He nodded solemnly, agreeing with his own statement. Briefly, Severa wondered what Gerome would be like if he was a girl and she found herself unable to visualize it. Still, that idea left her thinking long after their conversation was done and ever since then, she couldn't bring herself to look at the Wyvern lord and not wonder.

"And then… there's Nah and Noire. Good gods, their cooking is delicious! S-Such delicacies are hard to forget. You should really come and eat with me and Owain sometime when Noire and Nah are cooking; you'd really agree! Although Nah uses weird ingredients every now and then, it's still really—"

"Fine! Fine! If I cook you something, will that shut you up?" Severa grunted, effectively stopping Morgan from his rambling. Somehow, it irked her that Morgan had been praising everyone else's cooking but hers, especially Gerome, who could very well be Morgan's definition of "wife material". Even Kjelle had managed to get an opinion out of Morgan.

Severa watched as Morgan's gentle smile grew into a beaming one and he nodded furiously. "Oh absolutely!" he exclaimed excitedly. The look he gave her suddenly made Severa feel determined not to disappoint him.

"Then I'll whip up something amazing and you'll never get to question me again!"

"Ooh! I can't wait!"

That's it. Time to use the special cooking skill I inherited from mother. I'm going to snatch that "wife material" title from Gerome even if it kills me.