"Based on Kagero and Saizo's scouting reports, as well as the mathematical calculations of the map," Ryoma was saying the next morning as the Key Dragons headed onward, "we should reach Ranwara in a matter of days."

"And from there we'll head up the mountain, yes?" Xander pressed.

Ryoma nodded solemnly. "And hopefully take care of this invisible menace for once and for all."

Xander snorted in a very un-regal fashion; Ryoma did a double take. "You know, if I hadn't seen them myself," the Nohrian said, "I would have called that statement mad."

Ryoma smiled, just a little "To be fair, we've also been calling them something else, at Castle Shirasagi." At Xander's raised eyebrow, Ryoma added, with a sort of sheepish grin, "Uzai."

Xander's other eyebrow shot upward. "I don't think my childhood lessons in basic Hoshidan covered that one."

Ryoma was doing his damnedest to keep a straight face. "They wouldn't."

There was a pause.

"So what does it mean?" Xander prodded.

Ryoma put a mock offended hand to his chest. "I will not be the reason the Crown Prince learns to swear in Hoshidan!"

"Oh, for the love of the Dusk Dragon…!"

Ryoma started laughing, and it broke his stern façade in such a way that made Xander wonder if others were just as surprised when he himself did anything besides scowl. "'A pain in the ass,'" Ryoma translated.

Xander broke into genuine laughter himself. "I wish we could be that honest in my father's court."

For some reason, Ryoma felt compelled to add, "It's Hinoka's second-favorite word, so it just sort of stuck."

"Second-favorite? What's the first, then?"

Ryoma sighed. Well, you've come this far. "Kuso. It basically means 'shit.'"

Had Xander been drinking anything, he would have spat it out in surprise. "I'm falling behind," he said in mild dismay. "My favorite word is 'defenestration!'"

"Eh, come again?"

Xander huffed. "It's the act of throwing someone out a window."

Ryoma burst into startled laughter, to the point that Kagero and Saizo appeared to ensure that all was well with their liege. Ryoma waved off the both of them, but his loyal ninja refused to be deterred.

"Milord?" Saizo asked.

"The Nohrians…" Ryoma managed between spurts of laughter. "…have a word for…. throwing somebody out of a window!"

Saizo's face remained impassive (no doubt, largely thanks to his mask), but Kagero had to stifle a smile. "Well," she said, "what is it?"

"Defenestration," Xander said again.

Kagero produced a small sketchbook from somewhere within the confines of her shozoku and put pencil to paper for about a half-second before she paused. "Could you write that on the page somewhere, Lord Xander? My Nohrian spelling is atrocious."

Xander shook his head slightly as he held out his hands for Kagero's effects. He paused in walking for a moment to write the word in question across the top of the page in his neat, cursive scrawl, and then handed everything back to the ninja.

"Thank you, I… oh." Kagero paused, staring at the word for a moment. "You have really nice handwriting, Lord Xander."

"Thank you," Xander said, impressively straight-faced as the unflappable Saizo snorted, "I do a lot of paperwork."

"Do you not have a scribe?" Ryoma asked, curious about the inner workings of the Nohrian court.

"I dismissed her a few years ago when I caught her reading my letters," Xander said. "So, sometimes Camilla or Leo will help, but mostly I do everything myself."

"Sounds like you need a wife," Saizo observed. Kagero pinched him just beneath the ribs, and his face twisted in pain.

"Camilla says the same thing." Xander pressed his fingers into his forehead, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. "But I think she's just tired of answering my correspondences."

"If she's anything like Hinoka," Ryoma said as his retainers disappeared again, "I'm sure she is."

Xander glanced out across the Key Dragons. "I'm not sure our sisters are anything alike."

Both men glanced to where Camilla was deep in conversation with Corrin and Beruka (although as usual, the assassin was simply lurking and listening), and then over to where Hinoka was in the middle of helping Azama pull Setsuna out of a rabbit hole she'd managed to get herself stuck in.

"Perhaps not," Ryoma conceded.

A silence fell across the two princes, and for the first time since their uncomfortable truce, it was not, in fact, uncomfortable. Not necessarily pleasant yet, but not nearly so tense as these sorts of things used to be. Neither was quite sure what to make of it.

Maybe that was why Xander could talk about what had been on his mind for a few days, now. "Ryoma, would you say that Corrin's…" He struggled to find a word, given that the usual was abduction. "…sojourn in Hoshido early last year was beneficial to her?"

The samurai seemed surprised at the question. "Yes," he said after a moment, "I believe so. My step-mother missed her daughter terribly, and so did my siblings and I. Ever since her…" Ryoma struggled to find the word he needed, given that the usual was hostage situation. "…sojourn in Nohr, Castle Shirasagi hasn't felt quite right. We each grieved in our own ways, and when we came back together, things were…" A hundred Hoshidan words came to mind, but in Nohrian, Ryoma simply had to settle for, "…well, just different."

"Call it by its name, Ryoma," Xander said. "A kidnapping is a kidnapping, even if the King of Nohr is the one doing it."

A pregnant pause fell across the two men.

"I suppose I should thank you, Xander," Ryoma finally said. "Corrin spoke endlessly of you, Camilla, Leo, and Elise, and the care and devotion each of you showed during her formative years." Xander froze, but Ryoma wasn't finished. "In particular, I think she looked up to you."

Xander's throat closed up. "I can only strive to be worthy of her." He coughed, and then continued, "Anyway, I didn't bring this up to exercise our linguistic skills, Ryoma. I did have a purpose." He drew in a deep breath. "I think that, perhaps after the war, Corrin would benefit from spending some time with you and yours."

It was only his training as High Prince of Hoshido that kept Ryoma's jaw from physically dropping at the news. "I think that sounds like a generous idea."

Xander smiled, but there was sadness in it. "I figure we can work it out like a divorced couple—we each get Corrin every other month and every third holiday, or something."

Ryoma laughed. "That sounds far more dignified than one side or the other re-kidnapping her every so often." Xander snorted, but Ryoma wasn't finished, "But will King Garon allow for it?"

Something cold and hard as flint fell across Xander's face. "One way or another, Ryoma, I don't believe my father will outlast this war."

And there it was, the wyvern in the room. The war between their countries. Omnipresent, if not necessarily pressing, and ever-coloring everyone's perceptions of the other side.

"I'm sorry," Ryoma said, not really knowing why.

A rueful smile tugged at Xander's handsome features. "Being royalty isn't all fancy dinner parties and endless correspondence. Sometimes, it's just shit."

Ryoma sighed. "Agreed."

"Xander, darling!" Camilla's rich alto cut across the building silence. "Could you come over here?"

Xander sighed the long-suffering sigh of an elder brother. Ryoma knew it well." And just like that," the Nohrian said, already on the move, "duty calls."

"I hear wives are worse," Ryoma said.

Xander made a wordless noise of a defeat as he departed.

Ryoma studied the Nohrian for a moment as he approached his sisters, arms spread and face, somehow, less stern. Camilla launched into something Ryoma was too far away to hear, and even if he hadn't been, probably couldn't have followed much of, anyway. The Nohrian royal family spoke quickly and in half-formed sentences when around each other, no doubt a by-product of their famed closeness.

"What did the Nohrian want?" Takumi asked sharply, and in lieu of greeting.

"Xander," Ryoma said, putting subtle pressure on the name, "wanted to go over the maps, and the plan for encountering the Uzai."

Takumi's brown eyes narrowed. "And that's funny, is it?"

Ryoma shrugged. "He's actually very witty. Also, did you know that Nohrian has a word for throwing someone out of a window?"

"Doesn't that imply that they need a word for throwing someone out of a window?"

Ryoma shook his head. "That's not how Nohrian works. They have useless words for a lot of things."

"Humph," said Takumi. "And you know that because…?"

Ryoma grinned—"Because I paid attention in my lessons."—and rustled Takumi's newly-shortened hair, just to annoy him.

"Don't do that!" the grey-haired prince snapped, swatting Ryoma's hand away. "I finally got it to sit right!"

This was ordinarily the point where Hinoka told Takumi to calm down or relax or both, but Ryoma was not Hinoka. "Have you been managing to get in some practice, on the road?" he asked instead.

"Here and there," Takumi said, his edges softening just a little. "Fujin Yumi's sort of noticeable, though, so I have to borrow Setsuna's bow when we're in towns."

"That's kind of her to loan it to you," Ryoma said.

"I don't think she notices anymore," Takumi said. "I asked her the first few times, though."

At that moment, a shrill shout broke across the Key Dragons: "Please, you have to help us! Who is in charge here?"

Xander's resonant voice boomed across the assembled "mercenary band," such as it was: "I am."

"Are you just gonna let him do that?" Takumi hissed to his older brother.

"Hush, Takumi," Ryoma commanded, physically putting a hand to his younger brother's chest. "Watch."

"What's going on?" Xander asked the man.

"Our village is being attacked by the Nohrians! Please, I know this has to be a mercenary band. We need help."

"Nohrians?" Xander was taken aback. "Has the war moved this far inward?"

The villager nodded vigorously. "They're being led by a bald man with a scowl and an awful beard."

"Hans," Camilla hissed, her hands tightening into fists at her sides.

Xander had been torn before about attacking his own forces, but that settled it. "Key Dragons!" he bellowed. "Form up!"

The Nohrians knew immediately what to do, falling into pairs and rolling their shoulders in preparation for the coming battle. The Hoshidans took their cue from them, although battle pairs were less formal things in the Hoshidan army and involved a lot more chatter.

"We can work out an exact price later," Xander said to the villager. "But know that we expect honest pay for honest work."

"Of course," said the villager in breathless relief.

"Then lead the way," Xander said to him, before calling out, "Key Dragons! Move out!" He made the "forward march" gesture that Nohrian commanders used when the clash of steel was too great for shouted orders.

The villager might not have noticed, but Takumi sure did. He bristled at the Nohrian command, grinding his teeth even as he fell into step beside Ryoma.

-)

As a belated birthday present to my Corrin (and also myself), I give to you lot a chapter! (Never mind that that's technically backwards.)

This one was actually really fun to write. And I'm glad so many of y'all are enjoying my work!