A/N: After some self-reflection, I decided this would be a form of mini-arc. Don't worry, though, you'll still have all the good fluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem Fates or any of its characters

Azura often kept a list of things she hated in her mind. Spiders? Check. Giant, mad dragons hellbent on bringing about the extinction of the human race? Double check. Holding court in front of a crowd of people? The paper's practically smeared in ink at that point.

It didn't help that she's been feeling incredibly exhausted lately, what with her back hurting out of the blue one day and what she assumed was her monthly cramps starting to pound the lower half of her body into a pulpy, bloody mess. Add in headaches and dizziness from reading through dozens upon dozens of pages of reports, and the very last thing she wanted to do was to hold court. Of course, this meant the one day her back pains went from mind-destroying to soul-splitting, her cramps went from aggravated assault to first-degree murder, and her headache went from dizzying to head-splitting, she had to hold court.

Wonderful. Just. Wonderful.

"Why did you drag me out here again?" she asked Corrin, not bothering to hide her annoyance at the fact that she was being forced to hold court with him in front of a dozen or so nobles. "I thought you said that you would handle all the political stuff."

Without looking towards her, Corrin whispered out the side of his mouth, "Are you saying that you would prefer doing paperwork over holding court?"

"Yes!" Azura whispered back, glancing nervously towards the crowd of nobles assembled before her. "You know I'm terrible with crowds! Why did you bring me out here to begin with?"

"Because it was the only way to get Count Hansen to meet with me in New Gyges," Corrin explained patiently. "He got most of his power from Garon, which means he can be a bit…full of himself."

"Then why didn't you force him to meet you here on your terms without me!" Azura asked.

Corrin glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow incredulously. "Are you mad?" he asked. "Count Hansen owns four of some of the richest mines in New Valla! We need his permission to use those mines if we're going to have enough money to buy food and supplies for this winter!"

"Then why didn't you force him to give you control of the mines?" Azura asked, exasperated. "Aren't you king? Are your powers not absolute?"

"I'm not Garon," Corrin said, ears slightly twitching. "Even as I keep the nobles in check, the nobles keep me in check. Pressuring Hansen to make a decision will only strain our relationships between Nohr and New Valla. Even though a majority of Count Hansen's land lie on our side of the border, his mines coincidentally fall on the other side."

"Of course they do," Azura said sarcastically. "Because you can't go a minute in court without someone or something inconveniencing you."

Corrin frowned and glanced at her again. Sarcastic and blunt remarks were nothing new with Azura—hell, they were part of the reason why he loved her so much—but her bad mood was certainly unusual.

"Can we not do this right now?" Corrin hissed. "I'm sorry if I upset you earlier, but—"

"I'm not mad at you," Azura huffed, crossing her arms. "I just want to get this over with."

"Azura—"

"Ahem, King Corrin?"

Corrin turned to look down at Count Hansen standing before him. The man was thin of build but lean of muscle. There was a wiry scar running down the side of his face, most likely the result of some childhood accident, and he had an auburn-colored goatee curling around his chin.

"Did you hear what I was saying, milord?" Count Hansen asked in his high, reedy voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt you and your queen's conversation, but—"

"Wife," Corrin corrected automatically. "And no, I did not hear what you were saying. My apologies. Can you please repeat?"

Count Hansen looked like an outraged bird, especially with the way he puffed up his chest and shoulders. "My lord, I will have you know, I live very far away! I do not appreciate you engaging in small talk with your queen while I'm trying to—"

"I am well aware of the effort it took for you to come here," Corrin interrupted calmly. "And I am very grateful to you for making the journey. However, would it not be a more efficient use of your time if we were to discuss the subject you came here for?"

Puffing his chest out slightly less, Count Hansen coughed into his hand and brushed some imaginary lint of his shoulders. "Ah, yes, I suppose that would be more…appropriate. As I was saying, your highness, there are numerous details that we must…discuss."

"Then let us do so," Corrin said, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward with enthusiasm, hands clasped together under his chin. "I'm looking forward to this."

Azura groaned.

Two hours later, they broke for lunch. As soon as the doors boomed shut behind the nobles, Azura rose out of her throne and furiously jammed her hand into Corrin's chest, causing him to fall back into the stone momentarily glanced towards her with a raised eyebrow.

It hurt.

"Ow!" Corrin said, wincing as the back of his head cracked against the stone. "What was that for?"

"Don't try to pretend!" Azura snapped. "You dragged that out on purpose, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Corrin asked, getting to his feet. "Are you talking about me and Count Hansen?"

"Of course I am!" Azura said. "Did you have to drag it out for so long? 'I'm looking forward to this.' Why else would you say that?"

"That's just a figure of speech to get the nobles to relax!" Corrin looked at her in confusion. "Azura, are you alright? You're never this—"

"I'm fine," Azura snapped, crossing her arms and turning away.

"Azura—"

"I said I'm fine!"

Corrin sighed. There was no getting through to her when she was this angry, even if her anger was somewhat unusual. He would just have to wait this out. It never failed before

"Fine," he sighed. "Fine. I'm…I'm going to eat lunch right now. Do you want to eat with me?"

"Yes," Azura said bluntly.

Without waiting for him, Azura briskly turned and walked towards the dining hall where they always shared their meals. Corrin blinked, flabbergasted. Something was definitely off with Azura today, but only time would reveal its cause.

Azura wrinkled her nose. "Is it just me, or does this sandwich smell really bad?"

Corrin paused mid-bite and looked at her curiously. Today was just full of unusual behavior, wasn't it? Fifteen minutes ago, Azura was snapping at him, but barely two minutes later, they were engaging in small talk like nothing had happened. Now Azura, the last person he would expect to be a picky eater, was being just that—a picky eater.

Deciding to humor her, Corrin set his food down and casually reached over to pluck a tomato out from between the bread. After exaggeratingly putting up to his nose and smelling it, Corrin shrugged and put it back on her plate.

"Smells normal to me," he said.

"Don't put it back in the sandwich!" Azura protested flinging the offending piece of fruit back onto his plate. "That's gross!"

"Grossness is a subjective concept," Corrin said nonchalantly. "What's gross for me might not be for you, and vice versa. Say, for instance, I had a sandwich—"

Corrin cut himself off as Azura threw him a dirty glare.

"Of course, it doesn't have to be a sandwich. I'm just using it as an example—"

Another glare.

Sighing in defeat, Corrin set his fork down and swapped their plates. "Better?"

Azura cautiously picked up a piece of lettuce with her fork and sniffed at it curiously before wrinkling her nose again and pushing away Corrin's plate.

"It smells even worse," she remarked flatly.

"Alright, then it's definitely you," he said, frowning. "I'm literally half-dragon, which means I should have a pretty good sense of smell, but I don't smell anything wrong with either of our plates."

"Well, something's wrong," Azura said, crossing her arms. "If it's not me or the food, then there has to be something else."

"I'll see if I can find Flora or Jakob," Corrin offered helpfully. "Maybe they can bring you something that doesn't smell. Like strawberries!"

"That may help," Azura mused. "Also, how is it that strawberries have no natural scent of their own, but we still know something smells like a strawberry?"

"Don't ask me," Corrin asked as Jakob briskly trotted over. "I'm a philosopher and part-time king, not a biologist."

"You are not a philosopher."

"Those who deem others unworthy of a role are also often unworthy themselves."

"That's not even philosophical! That's just some theme or moral you pulled out of some random story!"

As Azura watched Corrin talk animatedly with Jakob, she suddenly couldn't help but feel incredibly dizzy. Everything save for the table and the fork in front of her turned blurry, and before she knew it, Corrin was peering down at her, concern, fear, and above all else, confusion plastered over his pale face.

"Uh…Corrin? Why are you upside down?"

"You blacked out," he said simply, though judging by how his shoulders sagged, Azura could tell he was both incredibly relieved and angry at the same time. Whether he was angry at himself or at her, Azura couldn't tell.

"I asked you if you were okay, Azura!" he said angrily.

Okay, so it's definitely me then.

"You could've told me that you weren't feeling well, and then I wouldn't have forced you to hold court with me, and—"

"I'm fine, Corrin," Azura said, sitting up. "Don't worry, it's been like this for a couple days now, and—"

Azura groaned as another wave of dizziness assailed her. At the same time, Azura almost thought Corrin was going to pop a blood vessel in his eye judging by how red his face suddenly turned.

"A couple days?" he asked. "You've been fainting like this for a couple days?"

"No, today was my first time," Azura said as she sat up again. "But I have been feeling pretty dizzy."

"Why didn't you tell me? I would've called you a healer, or—"

"They're not going to see me just because of a little headache, Corrin."

"Of course they would!" Corrin said, exasperated. "You're the Queen! You're literally the most important person in this kingdom! Of course they would want to serve you to make sure you're okay!"

"Fine then," Azura said, her temper starting to rise up again. "How about you call me a healer since you so generously offered, and you go back to dealing with those damned nobles!"

Both Corrin and Jakob, who was standing silently behind him, looked taken aback by her sudden outburst. Almost immediately, Azura felt a pang of guilt at their shocked expressions.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, shaking her head to fend off another wave of dizziness. "It's…been stressful these last few days, what with all the paperwork I had to do and my period starting up again. It's…it's a bit much, to say the least."

"And you said you preferred doing paperwork over holding court," Corrin said sarcastically.

"Well, someone has to do it," Azura said playfully. "If not me, who else?"

Again, both Corrin and Jakob looked taken aback by her sudden change in demeanor. The two men both turned to look at each other before turning back towards Azura.

"…right," Corrin said slowly. "Alright then. Uh, how about I cut our meeting with Count Hansen a little bit short so we can both see the healer together?"

"No, no," Azura said hurriedly. "I know how important this meeting is to the kingdom. I'll call the healer myself. You just finish up the meeting with Count Hansen and the rest of the nobles."

"I guess I'll just start tidying up the mess you two made, then," Jakob said smartly.

Azura and Corrin looked up. Azura's chair was tipped over and pieces of lettuce and bread were splattered all over the floor.

"Uh, yeah. You do that," Corrin said awkwardly. "Thanks, Jakob."

"No thanks are needed, milord. How else am I supposed to earn my keep?"

"You don't—" Corrin shook his head exasperatedly. "Nevermind."

Turning back towards Azura, he squeezed her hand worriedly. "Promise me you'll find someone to look at you."

Azura sighs affectionately. How could she ever say no such a dear, sweet, exasperatingly protective man that was her husband?

"I promise."

"Vell, pazed on zee rezults, nozing seems to be vrong vith vu. Could pe schtress"

Azura shook her head. "I-I'm sorry, can you repeat that again?"

The healer—"I am ein doctor!"—a stern looking man with small, thin glasses, and black, short-cropped hair, looked sharply towards her over the rim of his glasses. "I zaid, zere vas nozing vrong vith vu!"

"I-I'm sorry, it's just really hard to understand you because of your accent and—"

"Oh, zo now vu vring up mein accent, huh? I could haffe—"

"Alright, Dr. Ludwig, let me take over from here," interrupted a young woman. As she hastily shoved the angry doctor away, the woman smiled apologetically towards Azura.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Dr. Ludwig once served on the front lines during The War, and he's…well, he's been a bit more temperamental ever since."

"His accent sounds familiar," Azura noted, rubbing her wrist. "Stutmany?"

"No, Teuton," the assistant corrected. "He…well, while he may not have as much compassion for the sick as other healers, or even the same level of respect for basic human dignity, Dr. Ludwig is one of the best around with it comes to diagnosing his patients. As for actually healing them…he was never particularly gifted at healing magic, which was why he hired me. Now, back on topic!"

The woman tapped her cheek while peering curiously at Azura. "Hmm, well, let's see. Constant dizziness. Cramps. Backpains. Headaches. Mood swings. There's only one thing that can cause all of these at the same time."

"What is it?" Azura asked.

"One question first," the woman said reassuringly. "Have you been bleeding yet?"

"No."

"But you've been feeling these cramps for…what, a week now?"

Azura nodded. "I've…I've been taking precautionary measures just in case, but there hasn't been any blood yet, which probably means I'm just having a lighter load this time around."

"Perhaps," mused the woman. "Or it could mean something else entirely. Female-exclusive, of course."

"What is it?"

To Azura's surprise, the woman simply smiled. "Is it not obvious? You're pregnant, milady."

Azura could've sworn the room was spinning around her as she gaped at the woman. Slowly, without realizing it, Azura rested her hand on top of her abdomen.

"…Pregnant?" she repeated slowly, as if each syllable was foreign to her. "M-me? I'm pregnant?"

The woman nodded. "Yep. You're pregnant, milady."

"B-but that's impossible!" Azura said. "Aren't you supposed to throw up when you're pregnant?"

"Most do," the woman admitted. "You're probably one of the luckier ones, though I'm afraid those headaches are going to stick with you all the way through."

"Miss Bauling?" The doctor peeked his head out from behind a door and seemed caught off-guard when Azura was still sitting on the bench.

"Ah, vu're schtill here, milady? Did I mistiagnoze vu zomehow?"

"Sort of, Dr. Ludwig," Miss Pauling said, rapping her clipboard with her knuckle. "You said everything could be because of stress brought on by her cycle and workload, but I think the answer is something else entirely: pregnancy."

"Ah, bregnancy? Congratulazions!" the doctor said earnestly. "Congratulazions indeed!"

"I don't…I don't…"

"She's still in shock," the assistant whispered to the doctor. "Hasn't fully wrapped her head around it yet."

"Vell, zere's always one," the doctor whispered back.

Kneeling down next to Azura, the doctor gently rested a hand on Azura's shoulder. "Alright, first zings off, zere's zome zings vu need to keep track of…"

Azura sits there, shocked into silence as the doctor lists off how far along she mostly likely is—"zix veeks!"—what activities to avoid at all cost—"no heaffy lifting, horzepack riding, or bhyzically hurding yourself"—and what foods to avoid eating.

"No raw meats!" the doctor proclaimed. "I know how much vu Hoschitans loffe your raw fisch und...zuschi—is zat how vu zay it?—put for zee pabe's zake, I vould hadffize hakainst zuch ein diet."

"He's saying no raw meats, which means no sushi," the woman explained. "Don't worry though—you can still have sex, if that's important to you!"

Before Azura knew it, the doctor was pushing an elixir into her hand to help with the headaches and dizziness, another drought to help deal with morning sickness, just in case, and a slip of paper containing their office address and names.

"I'm afraid you're on your own with the mood swings, though," the woman said apologetically as they helped Azura to her feet. "We simply just don't know enough about how a woman's body changes chemically for us to make a drought for that, and even then, every pregnancy is different. What works for you may not work for someone else, and most people aren't exactly willing to ingest something that even the healers don't know would do."

"O-oh, um, okay," Azura stammered out.

And so, fifteen minutes later, Azura found herself standing outside in the hallway, arms full of elixirs, droughts, books, and gods knows what else. Slowly, ever so slowly, Azura rested her free hand on her stomach again.

"I'm…pregnant?"

A/N: I would just like to thank The Apocryphal One for writing this short little work on her tumblr that ended up being the inspiration of this entire chapter. I would also like to thank everyone who's been keeping up with the story. I know I haven't been updating nearly as much as I used to in the past, and I'm sorry, but between school, work, college-apps, and constantly being distracted, it's been..."difficult" for me to squeeze out any ideas. I know I said I would finish this story, and I will, but I'm afraid this work will never reach the amount of publicity I thought it would, especially after the release of Three Houses. If the worst comes to worst and this story ends up dying...I'm sorry. I gave it my all, but I'm pitted against a pretty steep wall, and I don't have the metaphorical climbing gear to scale it.

On a lighter note, I've been playing Team Fortress 2 again, which should be pretty apparent.