April: Comatose
Owain peeked inside the drawers himself. "Are there any other tomes?" He rifled through the files, but only found a data report that there was a successful attempt. "It seems as though we have squeezed all the knowledge from this sponge. Time to regroup!"
Sophie quickly suggested, "Yes! Let's meet back up in Valla. I want to see if Siegbert is awake yet."
They hustled through the roads of Hoshido, going as fast as they could to Siegbert's side. To distract herself, Sophie brainstormed ways of letting her mother know she was engaged without her freaking out. She was still coming up with a solution when at last they arrived. Sophie rushed over to the infirmary where her fiancé was. She blinked back tears when she saw he was still in a coma.
A nurse smiled. "I have some good news. Siegbert will survive. We also sent a message to King Xander and Queen Hinoka of Nohr to let them know what happened to their son."
Caeldori inquired, "Do you know when he'll be conscious again?"
The nurse shook her head. "No, but we think soon."
Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. "I feel better now. Thanks. Do you know where Mother is? I need to tell her something."
The nurse pointed behind her. "I believe Queen Corrin was coming up with clever ways to recruit more soldiers for the army. She's in her office."
Sophie thanked her and bounded over to the royal office. "Moooooooother! Moooooooother!"
Corrin glanced up from her notepad. "Oh, hello dear. I'm so glad you came back safely. Is there any update on the situation?"
Sophie gulped. "Y-yeah. There's going to be a meeting soon; I'm sure. The nice nurse lady said that Siegbert is going to live. So, um, speaking of Siegbert, there's something I need to tell you."
Corrin prodded, "Okay. Which is?"
Sophie emotionally thrust her hand in Corrin's face. "He proposed! I said yes!"
Corrin's jaw dropped, "Oh, wow! That's great," her eyes narrowed suddenly, "wait a minute, so by the time we reunited to stop the Twilighters, you were already engaged and didn't tell me?!"
Sophie winced and thought, "Aah! I knew it! I knew she'd figure it out and flip! What do I do?!"
Sophie reddened. "No, Mother! That is, Mother, I didn't tell you because . . . because . . . we were busy fighting and I didn't want to distract you! Byleth says that distractions in the heat of battle get you killed."
Corrin motioned for her to stop. "It's alright. You have a point there. Sorry for raising my voice. It's just . . . I really want to be in your life, Sophie. And you're growing up so fast. I already missed a huge chunk of your life while you were in the Deeprealms because of the war. Now I'm missing even more time while you save all the worlds."
Sophie froze. Her mother was right: they really did miss out on a lot. She placed her hands in her mother's. "I promise, once this is all over, we're going to catch each other up on everything. Then we'll spend so many fun days together. And after I move to Nohr, we can still visit each other often."
Corrin embraced her eldest child. "I would love that, Sophie. I really would. Even though I'm upset that I had to be absent for most of your life, I am so proud of what a kind and brave girl you are."
Sophie hugged her back tightly. "Thank you, Mother. I had two excellent role models." The mother and daughter stood there, basking in each other's love for some time before they let each other go.
As Sophie predicted, there was a meeting to update the Vallites on what happened. Soleil cracked her knuckles when the last speaker finished. "Okay! With that in order, it's time to return to Garreg Mach and tell everyone there!"
Sophie paled at the notion of leaving already while Siegbert still unconscious. "Can we stay here and rest for a bit? I'm sure we're all tired after the battle and the long trip."
Soleil argued, "But we can just do that at Garreg Mach. Why do we need to do it here? Ooohhhh, I get it! You want to buy some extra time in case Siegbert wakes up! You are too cute!"
Caeldori supported her best friend. "I agree with Sophie. We do need to rest. If Siegbert happens to wake up, it'll be a huge morale booster for the final leg of our journey. Plus, we could be there to encourage him recover. Usually with psychological support, people heal faster."
Byleth winked at Sophie. "That's definitely true. Before my grandmother Rhea was healed by Sothis, she said that she only got to the point where she was because I was there for her."
Ferdinand announced, "All in favor of resting here, say I." Everyone, even Soleil once she knew the reason Sophie wanted to stay, assented to staying in Valla for a little while longer.
Now that that was out of the way, Sophie wandered off to the nurse again. "Hi! Um, is there anything I can do to help my fiancé recover from the coma?"
The nurse bit her lip. "Well, we're trying to wake him up. I suppose you could try talking to him."
Sophie gave her a blank stare. "Huh? How is talking going to help if he can't hear me?"
The nurse replied, "The doctors in Izumo, the best in this world, found that when loved ones talked to a comatose patient, the patient would recover sooner than if they didn't."
That was certainly hopeful news. Sophie cruised over to Siegbert. "Hey there. The nice nurse said that if I spoke with you, you might get better soon. So hey! It's me, Sophie. We first started talking after I was training to take my mind off a fight with Avel. I was so scrambled up that when I referred to Mother, I called her by her first name. You made me feel better and I was inspired to go fix things with the big dummy."
Silence. As expected. She looked up at the ceiling. "Then Avel had the audacity to steal," Sophie looked around to make sure no one was listening, "my teddy bear I take to bed every night. You walked in on the worst moment and found out my secret. I was so mortified! You tried to pretend that you didn't see it, but it was too late. I ran away because I was too embarrassed to be next to you."
Still nothing. Still as expected. Sophie rubbed her hands together. "You felt bad about the whole thing and went to the market and bought me an adorable stuffed bunny. When you said you were embarrassed to buy it, I felt flustered and claimed I didn't like it because I was afraid you'd think I was like a child. But then you started getting nervous I didn't accept it so I did. You have great taste, by the way. I still have the bunny."
Sophie stretched her arms to sneak in some of her daily exercises. "Later on, you approached me and decided to proclaim your feelings for me. I always shied away from my role as the heir to Valla, but when I realized we loved each other, I wouldn't be able to avoid being Queen of Nohr one day. You assured me that I'd be the perfect queen and gave me a promise ring. I wear it right under the engagement ring. See?"
She kept talking like that, repeating heartfelt stories, funny jokes, and her favorite memories of them several times over the rest period, up until Siegbert's eyes cracked open and he said, "Sophie?"
