Ten Random Characters

Chapter 13

Lucina had noticed long ago Dark Pit had a habit of disappearing without a word for hours, and though she looked for him, she hadn't been able to find any trace of him. Of course, this was before she'd heard some sprays of cursing about some archer shooting down a Pegasus Knight coming from the closet in the laundry room one night when she was on laundry duty. She'd never told Dark Pit she'd found his hiding place, but she had sometimes used that room as a place to read whenever she grew impatient of her roommate's constant banter, which was more often than not directed solely at herself rather than Lucina.

On this night, she was grateful she hadn't told him she knew of the place, because she was certain she was the last person he wanted to see. Unfortunately, she could not allow his to be left to his own devices to sulk and feel guilty about what had happened, so she knocked squarely on the closet door and heard a small shriek in reply.

"Pit, just leave me alone!" hissed the angel clone. "I don't want to talk to anyone and I'm in the middle of the third stage of Apotheosis."

She lamented her inability to do a good Pit impression and quickly took a few hair pins and pinned her hair back like she had so long ago when masquerading as the Hero King. Hopefully the light would be dim enough that he couldn't see her face well enough to doubt her persona. "It's Marth," she lied in a lower register than usual. "We figured a non-involved party would be the best one to send to console you."

A gap of silence in which she could practically hear Dark Pit rolling his ruby eyes followed. "Lucina, I know it's you," he retorted sadly. "I'm not as stupid as I look."

Throwing the door open, Lucina pushed the top of Dark Pit's 3DS down. "I'm not upset with you. You know that, right?"

"Why shouldn't you be?" asked the angel clone, avoiding eye contact.

With an exasperated laugh, Lucina cried "Because you did nothing wrong! If anything, I should be mad at Palutena, which I am."

"She didn't kiss you," Dark Pit pointed out dejectedly, looking intently at the blue light coming from the sleeping handheld console on his lap.

"She might as well have," declared Lucina. "If she would have just left you to confess when you were ready to do so, everything would have been fine. Now I just kind of feel she ruined that for us."

In the faint blue light, Lucina could barely make out the crimson flush on the boy's cheeks. "W-what us?" he stammered out.

With a sigh, Lucina put a hand on the angel clone's shoulder. She sometimes forgot how clueless boys were when it came to girl's feelings. "Look, it's not as if I didn't notice that I'm the only person you don't completely despise. I've known you felt this way for a while, and if I'm being entirely honest, I was happy that my feelings were returned. I only hope Palutena didn't repel you from them."

"Wait, you knew? And you didn't hate me?"

"Of course not," Lucina affirmed. "Before I met you, I hated every inch of this stupid mansion! I wished I'd never Ylisse in the first place. I mean, Robin's nice, but she can get a bit irritating in large doses, and Lord Marth was nothing like I'd expected. Well, I mean, he's still incredible, but I didn't expect him to be quite so dramatic. Honestly, I feel Inigo and Owain take after him more than I do. But that aside, I just feel like you understand me so well, and you feel like a bit of home and something new and wonderful at the same time. I couldn't hate this place for a minute now, because if it wasn't for this place I'd never have met you, and I don't want to imagine a world where I never knew you."

She was pulled into a hug by Dark Pit, which was probably the first hug he'd willingly given in his whole existence. "I hated this place too. The only reason I'm even here was that after Pit left I was practically dead because of that stupid clone link we have, so I had to come here too if I didn't want to be out cold until he came back. Really, you're the only thing keeping me from choosing near death over this place. Thank you, I guess."

"For not being upset or for returning your feelings?"

"Both, I guess," Dark Pit replied with a laugh, breaking away from the hug. "Can we keep us a secret for now, though? I don't want Palutena thinking what she did was a good thing, or God forbid Peach and Robin start writing Fanfiction about us."

Lucina nodded. "I suppose that's wise. I don't want to hide it, and it'll probably get out by the end of the night anyways, but I just don't want Palutena to do something about that crush Pit has on Rosalina."

"Wait, what?" exclaimed Dark Pit in shock. "What crush? Why don't I know about this?"

With a giggle, Lucina marveled at his obliviousness. "Really? He gawks over her every time they're in twenty feet of each other! How did you not notice that?"

"Sometimes I wonder if Robin is really your mother instead of Olivia," Dark Pit jested. "You certainly seem to care an awful lot about peoples' love lives."

"I grew up with Inigo flirting at every girl that came his way, remember?" Lucina countered. "It's not easy to come out of that childhood without knowing exactly what it looks like when someone has a crush."

For some reason, Dark Pit flinched at the word "childhood". Was that because he really didn't have a childhood except coming out of a mirror to attack his light counterpart or for some other reason? "Hey, do you remember what Marth was saying earlier about us all being clones?" he quickly blurted out.

"Yes, but why is that important right now?"

"There's some truth to that," divulged Dark Pit rather gloomily and quickly. "Well, as in some of us are clones and some of aren't. For instance, I'm not a clone, and neither are Mario or Kirby, but Shulk and Olimar are."

"And Marth is one as well, right?" Lucina added. "Well, that explains how I exist while he clearly is not with Lady Cadea."

"Yeah. All of the people from your world are, actually," admitted Dark Pit sheepishly.

After a moment, it registered in Lucina's mind what that meant, exactly. "Me included?" A nod from Dark Pit confirmed it. Something inside of Lucina wanted to freak out over this revelation, but something else told her that it wasn't anything to worry about. All it meant is that this place was her home, not Ylisse. While that may change some of the friendships she thought she had before Smash, that didn't change anything about her, or the fact that she had friends here. It was almost a good thing, as it meant she wouldn't have any obligation to leave the friends she made here.

"Alright. I suppose that means I have no reason to return to Ylisse after this is over. Perhaps if the flames of ardor haven't cooler by then I could come to Skyworld with you when the tournament ends," Lucina offered, taking deep breaths to suppress her slight panic.

Another hug was given as return. "I shouldn't have told you that," Dark Pit sobbed into the folds of her cape. "But thank you. Lucina, I really do li- no, love you."

Something warm fluttered deep in Lucina's chest. She didn't ever want to part from his embrace, but people would start to worry if they didn't hear from them soon. "Love you too. We should go back to the game now. They're probably starting to place bets on whether or not we made out again."

With a laugh, Dark Pit stood up and took Lucina's hand to pull her up. Hand in hand, they walked back to Ness's room, but they reluctantly let go before entering.

AN- I know what you're thinking. "But Joltik, where's the funny? I like the funny!" Well, the funny will be back next chapter. I just wanted to write a nice little fluff for my current OTP (well, other than IkexMarth and RedxLucas…), and it fit in well with the heavier themes in the story. If you'd like, as a peace offering, I'll make the next chapter the one where the characters just say who they married in Awakening I mentioned a while back. So, thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik