Author's Note:
I don't own Xenoblade Chronicles and all characters belong to their rightful owners.
Funny story: So I sent my friend a scene to ask her opinion on it. She responded on her tablet and autocorrect pretty much destroyed her response, that in and of itself was funny, but there was one thing that made me stop and laugh for a few minutes. Autocorrect changed Reyn's name to Reynold.
I probably say it every time, but I just love writing the flashbacks. They're always so much fun.
Enjoy!
Melia stared into the crackling fire that sat in the center of their small camp. The star filled sky hung above them and the darkness stretched down to the horizon. Only a small circle of space could be seen around them, thanks to the fire's warm glow. Melia looked up at Dunban, who sat across from her.
"Dunban?"
His gaze moved upwards to meet hers.
"What is it Melia?"
"I am curious to learn more about this Valkyrie. All three of you know her very well but I only know what I read in the newspaper."
"Riki know! Valkyrie hero Hom Hom! Smart, brave, and pretty, Dun-Dun say so." The Nopon beamed with pride as he retold the facts. Melia smiled down at him.
"Dunban told you all that?"
Riki nodded.
"'Pretty'?" Fiora nudged Dunban's arm and grinned knowingly at him. "Still got that crush on her?"
"Fiora," Dunban closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "We are not discussing this."
"A…crush?" Melia tipped her head slightly in confusion.
"Yeah, Dunban's always liked Teanna," Shulk filled in. "But…"
"She shot him down." Fiora eagerly finished.
"I thought we weren't discussing this!" Dunban growled.
"There's no harm in talking about it," Fiora patted him on the shoulder. "Melia wanted to know more about her."
"…why would someone refuse to be in a relationship with Dunban?" Melia muttered to herself. She furrowed her brow pensively.
"Teanna didn't want to be in a relationship because of the war." Dunban explained with a sigh. "She just had to go and prove her point by dying…"
"Teanna's alive; you'll get to see her again. Don't worry!" Fiora smiled. "You'll get another chance with her, everything's so peaceful; she doesn't have a reason to say no to you now."
"Enough," Dunban silenced Fiora with a look. "Melia, what did you want to know?"
"Regretfully, it was not anything specific. I only wished to learn more about her character." The Empress sat in silence for a moment. "Shulk, Fiora, is there a memory of her that sticks out to you?"
"Well, we can tell you about the first time we met Teanna," Fiora glanced over at Shulk, who nodded for her to continue. "Okay, so we were just little kids…"
Shulk and Fiora sat playing on the floor while Dunban and Dickson sat at the kitchen table. The two adults talked about nothing in particular as they kept an eye on the kids. The door to Dunban's house swung open with a bang and it drew everyone's attention.
"Reyn! You can't just go barging into someone's house like that!" Dunban looked up, expecting to see Madeline, but to his surprise it was Teanna.
"Captain?"
"Huh?" Teanna looked up from her hold on Reyn. "Dunban?"
The two didn't get a chance to speak because Reyn slipped out of Teanna's grasp. He grabbed her hand and dragged her forward into the room.
"Come on, big sis, I want you to meet my friends!"
"'Big sis'?" Dunban and Dickson turned to each other in confusion. Dickson offered a shrug in response.
"Big sis meet Fiora and Shulk." Reyn released Teanna to motion to them in turn and smiled brightly. Fiora jumped to her feet and eagerly went over to Teanna.
"Nice to meet you! You're so pretty." Fiora emphatically shook Teanna's hand. "I hope I'm as pretty as you when I grow up."
Teanna smiled.
"Thank you. I'm sure you'll grow up to be beautiful."
Dunban watched the exchange in surprise, Teanna's usual coldness melted away. Her angry expression turned into an open and warm smile. It made his heart flutter.
Teanna looked over at Shulk, the boy had retreated over to Dickson. Teanna went over and knelt down a short distance away from him. He peeked around Dickson at her.
"So you must be Shulk."
He nodded.
"Ah, but who's that?" Teanna motioned at the stuffed animal clutched in his arms. Shulk gripped the bunniv tighter and looked up at Dickson, as if asking for permission to respond. Dickson chuckled and gently pushed the boy forward.
"Go on, tell her."
Shulk glanced back at Dickson before turning back to Teanna. His bright blue eyes peered at her through his long blonde bangs. In a quiet voice he replied.
"Circuit."
"Circuit, that's a nice name. Is Circuit a boy or a girl?"
"Boy."
"I thought so; he's such a handsome bunniv. May I pet him?" Teanna's comforting smile never left her face. It was a smile that could put even the shyest child at ease. A grin worked its way onto Shulk's face and he held out the stuffed animal. Teanna patted the bunniv on the head.
"He likes you. I like you too."
Reyn puffed up in pride, seeing that his friends liked Teanna. He demanded that she play with them, so the four sat on the floor.
"What are we playing?" Teanna looked at each of the three children in turn.
"Dolls," Fiora said decidedly. Sure enough, her dolls were already out.
"But we did that last time!" Reyn huffed. Dunban was about to intervene, he knew a fight when he saw one. Teanna picked up one of the cloth dolls.
"Who's this?"
"That's the princess!" Fiora quickly replied.
"Can I be the princess?"
"Yeah!"
"Then I wanna be the prince!" Reyn scooped up the doll before anyone else had a chance to protest. The rest of the dolls were distributed accordingly and the game began. Dunban and Dickson watched them.
Dunban got to his feet and approached the group on the floor. He tapped Fiora on the shoulder. She stared up at her brother expectantly.
"Do you mind if I steal her for a minute?" He pointed to Teanna. Fiora frowned slightly.
"I'll only be gone for a second." Teanna handed her doll over to Reyn. "Here, I'm sure you can handle this while I'm gone."
"Of course!"
"Okay, Dunban, I guess so." Fiora nodded. Teanna got to her feet and went back to the table with Dunban.
"Why's Reyn calling you his sister?" Dunban questioned, getting straight to his point.
"That's a bit of a long story. I'm close to General Theodore and Madeline, so I babysat whenever they came to Colony Six and whenever I was down here for missions, I always made a habit to stop by. Now that I've been transferred, they're basically like family."
"Why on Bionis aren't you this nice to us?" Dickson teased.
"I don't have any reason to be." Teanna shot back.
"I'm surprised at how good with kids you are." Dunban smirked. "I suppose if I acted like a child, you'd be kind to me then."
"Shut it, you idiot." Teanna rolled her eyes. "Or else I'm going to have to add more reps to your drills, again."
"So you're the reason," Dickson eyed Dunban with mock disdain. "Wait till I tell Mumkhar about this."
Before their conversation could continue any further, Fiora came up to the table and pulled on Teanna's arm.
"Teanna, Reyn's not doing it right." She pouted and her eyes were begging.
"Alright, I'm coming." Teanna stood and followed Fiora back to the little circle on the floor.