Right. This was supposed to be short. Like five MS Word ages short. But it stretched out... till it was 32 pages long, and needed to be divided into 3 chapters 0_o

This is set in the FATES world. Spoilers abound!

I'm sorry if the characters seem OOC or if I've gotten parts of the Fates plot wrong, I'm just working with what I know here.

Reunion- The Meeting

Ever since he'd gotten to Nohr, Inigo had thought of seeing Lucina again. And not just seeing her, but actually telling her how he felt, how much he loved her, what a terrible mistake he'd made when he'd left without letting her know of the feelings in his heart.

However, he would have to admit that meeting her in a field in Nohr while he was tied to a tree was one thing he could have gone without.

"Uhhh…." He mumbled, blinking at her. The apparition of Lucina leaned towards him, gently cutting at his ropes with a small knife. He turned his head, feeling her hair brush against his face, and the warmth of her body against his own. "You- you're real…"

She looked at him, and her eyes were the same deep blue, with the same serious expression that she'd always had. Without thinking he reached out to touch her face. "It's… really you," he said wonderingly. "It really is you."

Lucina jerked her head away from his hand. "…yes," she said slowly. "So… you do recognize me."

"Of course!" He said, trying to take a step towards her, and nearly fell over as the ground seemed to lurch.

"Careful," Lucina said, grabbing his arm, "That woman you were with probably drugged you."

"Woman-" Lazward winced as the memory returned. The usual stroll into town on his day off, a gorgeous woman who'd accepted his request- he couldn't remember anything after that but he could fill the gaps in well enough.

"Ugh," he said. "Why does that always happen?" He rubbed his forehead, trying to clear the fug from his mind.

"Are you… alright?" Lucina asked carefully.

"Oh yeah," he said with a wry smile, "this has happened plenty of times. Its okay, I'll be fine. But tell me," he continued, looking at her with shining eyes. "How did you get here?! When did you get here?! I don't understand!"

"I could ask you the same question," she said in a low voice, her eyes narrowing. Despite the sunlight shining through the trees, the temperature in the clearing suddenly seemed to drop several degrees. "Where have you been, Inigo?"

"Well, uh, I-" he managed before Lucina cut him off.

"Five years! Five years you've been gone!" She exclaimed. "With nothing but a note, saying that you were leaving on some work! And you just up and left! And none of us knew where you were or where you've been all these years or were you even alive!"

Lazward stared at her. There was a prickly sensation going up and down his spine. "Well, I didn't go alone," he muttered weakly.

"Oh and that makes it better?!" She stormed. "The three of you just leaving like that?! You think that makes it better! We worried about you! I worried about you! I spent the past two years looking for you!"

"You were looking for me?" He asked, slowly. "For two years?"

"For all of you!" She yelled, "two years, two years I spent travelling through the lands, travelling through Outrealms to gods know where, thinking that you might be dead, or- or dying, I-" Her voice cracked, and she turned her face away, trembling.

"Lucina…" Lazward said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were so worried. I didn't mean this." Gently, he reached out again to take her by her arms, but she backed away out of reach.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, no, no. You cannot make this to be a mere accident. You cannott tell me you did not think that any of us would look for you."

"Well, we'd gone our own ways, Sev and Owain and I didn't really think you all would be that worried," Lazward said, suddenly painfully aware of how thin the excuse sounded. "I guess time just got away from us."

"Oh, is that right?" She asked, fresh anger in her voice. "You forgot? Is that your excuse?"

"N-No," he stuttered. "Its just- its complicated. There is a big reason-"

"No, I understand," she said bitterly, "After all, picking girls is a very important thing, right?"

"No" He exclaimed, "It wasn't-"

"I don't want to hear it," she choked out through her tears, turning away, "I-I just need to get away."

"Wait!" He called as she broke into a run.

"Do not follow me!" She said, without looking. "Just… leave me be."

'No,' he thought, watching her go, 'no, no, no…' There was an odd ringing sound in his hears. Dully, he rubbed his temple, sinking to the ground. His legs felt weak, and he wondered if this was a nightmare, a part of whatever drug he'd been given.

How long he sat there, he didn't know, staring at the path Lucina had taken. Eventually, almost as if in a dream, he got up and stumbled back to the castle.

x-x

"Pieri's telling you, Pieri knows why Lazward has been so quiet all week!"

There was thud as the meat cleaver landed on the table-top, sending spots of blood flying. Pieri wrenched the cleaver away and looked earnestly at Flannel, the only other person left in the kitchens. The other chefs had fled soon after Pieri had made her way in.

"But that doesn't make any sense," the wolf-man said, rubbing at a spot of blood, "Lazward has been rejected dozens of times. Sometimes in the same night! And he's never been upset about it for more than a couple of hours. Whats so special about this one?"

"Well, Pieri doesn't know," Pieri said, continuing to chop in a businesslike way. "But he came back sad, and cried all day, and has been sad all week. He kept telling Pieri: 'She left me! She left me!' It made Pieri quite upset."

"Really? He said that?" Flannel asked. "All he's given me are cryptic hints and sad smiles." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Its kind of sad, though. Lazward is a good guy. If there was some way we could help him-"

"Pieri thought so too!" She said enthusiastically, "Pieri thought about going after the girl and threatening to chop her to bits, but the girl wasn't anywhere Pieri looked!"

"Wait, isn't that a bit too much?" Flannel asked frowning, "I'm sure there's a better way… maybe we could just go talk to her?"

"Talk- to her?" Pieri looked unsure. "I suppose… will that work?"

"It might," Flannel said, "If we could go talk to her, or even bring her here, we could help them reconcile, and-" He broke off suddenly, sniffing the air.

"Niles, I can smell you," he said sharply, looking towards the door. "Stop eavesdropping on us!"

Niles appeared in the doorway. "Well I didn't really expect to hide from your sense of smell," he said, leaning against the door.

"Niles!" Said Pieri, looking startled, "Why are you here?"

"Eavesdropping," Niles said, sauntering over to the two of them. "And I couldn't help but hear of your dilemma."

"That's none of your business," said Flannel, bristling.

"Oh come on, Lazward is my friend too." Niles leaned against the table grinning. "I love how he dances, the way he moves… why wouldn't I want to help him?"

"I-" Flannel began, but Pieri leaned across him excitedly. "So Niles has a plan?!" She exclaimed.

"Hmm… I don't know, but Flannel's idea seems good enough," Niles mused.

"Really?" Flannel looked suspicious. "You think that'll work? I wonder if she'll even talk to us. What if she doesn't even want to look at us?"

"If she won't Pieri will threaten to kill her!"

"Yeah," said Niles. "But I'm sure she'll come if you use a little persuasion." He made a carrying gesture and grinned. "But hey, Lazward's such a nice guy, I'm sure she'll come around."

"But that sounds a little bit wrong," said Flannel, wrinkling his nose. "Surely she won't like it."

"hey, its just a suggestion, Niles said shrugging. "After all, Princess Corrin was kidnapped and brought here, and she's happy enough to be with us now. But I'm sure you two have better ideas. Right?" He winked at Pieri, who nodded.

"Come on, Flannel, lets go!" She exclaimed, dropping the cleaver.

"W-Wait, but how will we find her?" The wolf-man stuttered. "We don't even know who she is!"

"Pieri knows a way! Pieri know just how to find her!"

"Yeah, you two do that," Niles said, backing away. "Meanwhile, I'll go find Lazward and comfort him."

"Yay! Come on Flannel!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him away behind her.

x-x

"Hm, I dunno," Flannel said, "it smells like Lazward mostly. Someone else's scent is there as well, but it's very faint."

They stood outside the main gate leading out of the castle. Behind them, the levels of land descended down to the castle itself. The sun was about to set, and its red light and dark shadows made the land look like it was covered in dried blood. The withered trees of the mountain forests loomed in front of them uninvitingly, but Flannel merely glanced at them before looking down at the small piece of wood in his hand.

"But what do you think this is anyway?" He asked, holding it up to look through the slits. "It looks really nice; look at the shape and that burnished edge."

"Who knows?" Pieri told him, "Can you find the girl?"

"Hey, I'm not some bloodhound," Flannel said in an injured tone. "I'm not going to be running around just because you say so."

"So you can't find her?!"

"No, no, of course I can! Don't think I can't!" He said quickly, puffing up his chest. "I totally can. I'm just reminding you that I'm a noble Garou and all, not some dog of yours!"

"Pieri didn't say that!" She insisted, folding her arms and pouting. "Pieri just wants Flannel to find the girl!"

"Well, it's a pretty faint scent!" He insisted, sniffing, "however… it's also very strong."

"What?"

"The girl's nearby!... or Lazward is… anyway! Let's go!" He pointed to the north, towards the forest. "She's somewhere near there!" He broke into a run in the direction of the forest, Pieri following him. As they made their way through the trees, Flannel spoke up.

"So… how're we gonna play this?" He mused.

"Hm? What you do you mean?" Pieri asked, looking at him curiously.

"Well, we have to think of a plan of action," Flannel pointed out. "I think we should lay out our groundwork first; we'll just introduce ourselves and tell her how much we've heard about her from Lazward, and how sad he is without her and how much he misses her and stuff. Each visit we'll tell her stuff like that, so that she gets a picture of him pining after her and starts to miss him as well!"

"Each visit?!" Exclaimed Pieri. "No we can't do that! We have to tell her to go back to him now!"

"Wha-" Flannel looked at her disbelievingly. "We can't do that! We don't even know the girl!"

"So?"

"What makes you think she'll even wanna listen to us?"

"But if we wait she might find someone else! Or leave! And all that time Lazward will be alone!"

"I know, but if we go by your way, what if we make her even madder? That'll make Lazward mad too!"

"Why would it?"

"Because we're meddling in his love-life! He's not gonna be happy about it!" Flannel argued. "We can't ju-" He stopped suddenly, looking around.

"What?" asked Pieri.

"…she's here," he said, turning around and moving towards a tree with a wide trunk.

"Er-hello," he said, to someone behind it, "Are you- do you know Lazward?"

Pieri ran to Flannel's side. A blue-haired girl sat quietly in the bole of the tree, looking faintly surprised. "That's her!" She exclaimed. "Its Lazward's girlfriend!"

The girl stood up slowly. "I'm sorry, but I don't know you two," she said. Flannel couldn't help but note that even in the dimming light she was pretty, if somewhat tired-looking, with blue eyes and a heart-shaped face. He licked his lips nervously before saying: "I'm looking for a girl who is friends with a friend of mine, Lazward. Are you her?"

She frowned. "I don't- no," she said, and he could sense faint resentment from her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" Flannel frowned at her. "I can smell lies, you know," he said. "And you seem to be not telling the truth." He held up the small memento. "Do you recognize this?"

"Wait…where did you get that?" She asked, eyes widening.

"Aha! So you do know it!" Flannel said triumphantly. "Look, this may be a bit-"

"Come back to Lazward!" Pieri broke in. "Please! He's very sad!"

"Look, I'm sorry," the girl said firmly, "I don't know you all, and I really do not think that this is something I want to discuss with you."

"What- come on, please just listen!"

"Ugh!" Pieri drew her sword, pointing it at the girl's neck. "Lazward likes you very much," she said in a low voice. "And if you don't go back to Lazward, Pieri will cut up your face."

"Pieri, don't do that," Flannel said. "Put your sword down, we're not here to threaten her!"

"But she doesn't want to listen," Pieri pouted, "and Pieri is tired of arguing."

"Wait," said the girl, slowly drawing her own sword. "I don't wish to fight you! Why are you doing this?"

"Because you are not listening!" Pieri yelled, lunging at the other girl.

"Oh shit," Flannel said, as the girl parried, retaliating with a blow of her own. "No, wait!" Both of them ignored him, too engrossed with fighting. Pieri seemed serious, but the girl was good too, matching hit for hit. 'At this rate, we'll kill her,' Flannel thought, wincing. 'What good would that do, huh Pieri?'

Trying to stop them in his human form would be worse than useless, he knew. Taking a deep breath, he transformed into his wolf-from. Letting out a loud bellow, he leapt towards them.

He nearly got a sword through his gut. The girl turned at the last second, kicking Pieri away just as Flannel fell on her. There was a loud crack, and a scream. Her sword grazed his side and he howled, lashing out in blind anger.

"Stop it!" He growled, pinning her sword hand down. Distractedly, he looked for Pieri, only to see her running towards them.

"Wait!" he yelled, but it was too late. Pieri swung the handle of her sword at the girl's head. She gave a little cry, and went still.

Flannel froze. He looked up at Pieri, who was watching him expectantly, then back at the girl.

"Did you kill her?" he asked nervously transforming back.

"Nun-uh!" Pieri shook her head vigorously. "Pieri wasn't trying to kill this time! Pieri merely knocked her out." She leaned in close, peering at the girl. "See? She's breathing."

Flannel quickly checked the girl over. There was a large bump and a gash on her forehead that was trickling blood, and several cuts and bruises. Also, her left leg was twisted at an odd angle. Flannel sat up, taking a shaky breath, and checked her pulse. It seemed regular enough.

"Well, are you happy now?" He demanded. "We couldn't have screwed that up worse if we'd tried."

"Well, Pieri is sorry!" Pieri said, folding her arms petulantly, "but she wasn't listening!"

"Yeah, considering we spoke to her for, like, two minutes," Flannel muttered, shaking his head. "So what do we do with her? We can't just leave her here. She needs help."

"We take her to the castle!" Pieri said, snapping her fingers. "That's what Niles said too!"

"What? We can't do that!"

"Why not? If we're quiet no one will know. You said yourself, we can't leave her here."

Flannel sighed. "Fine, you're right," he said He stood up, hoisting the girl onto his shoulder. "Let's just hope nothing else goes wrong."