Chapter Ten – Untangled

"And that's everything...The whole truth; the good, and the bad. Perhaps all these details seem irrelevant now, but I believe I owed you the explanation.

"You've got to give me some credit, though, when I say it is not easy being a spy. As you've just heard, there's a lot you have to deal with. Disparaging Newspapers. Nosey detectives. Overenthusiastic play directors. Broken bird wings. Thunderstorms. Old Hags. Neglected health. Bad dreams. Slightly premature midlife crises'... The list goes on...

"However, the hardest is when you truly come to care about someone a great deal, and that person distrusts you. That's tough. The worst part of that for me, was that you had every reason to doubt me. I guess you were right when you said I've always been a liar. I would like to say that spies always end up becoming chronic liars, but it probably isn't true. Even before I became a spy, the lies came all too easily.

"But if there was ever anyone who I wished I had never lied to, if there was anyone who I wished never had a reason to distrust me, it was you.

"So that's one of the reasons why I came, to tell you all that. I felt it was the only way I could untangle myself from the massive web of lies I told..."

Nash trailed off into silence. He was leaning in the doorway of Chris' bedroom in Brass Castle. For the past couple hours, he had been recounting his experiences to Chris, who was leaning her back against the window at the other side of her room. She had been listening quietly for the entire time he spoke, and Nash was grateful.

However, now that he was finished, he wasn't quite sure how she was going to react. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, but her expression was unreadable. For a long moment, Nash feared she wasn't going to say anything at all.

However, just as Nash was thinking of leaving, she finally spoke. "Why did you start your story when the Fire Bringer first formed? Why not when we first met in Iksay?"

The question greatly surprised Nash, who had expected any response but that. It took him a second to think of the reason.

"I believe that's when the tension really began between us," he said finally, and when Chris looked disbelievingly over her shoulder at him, he quickly continued. "That is, there was always tension, but that was because you hated me at the beginning... It was when I began caring about you, when it really became tough."

This did not remove the incredulity on Chris' features, though even in the shadows of the moonlit room, Nash could see a slight blush creep upon her countenance. "What?"

Nash smiled slightly. "I probably started caring quite early on, mind you, but I don't believe I realized it fully until the Fire Bringer formed... Because then you were back to being a captain, and I rather missed traveling with you."

"You... really mean that..." she stated quietly.

"Every word of it," he confirmed.

There was a long silence.

Something then occurred to Nash. "You know, you don't seem very surprised about everything I told you, save for the fact that I actually care about your well-being."

Chris shrugged. "Most of it I already knew."

"What of the part about my 'missus'?"

"That too."

"I'd be very interested to know how."

"Your friend Sierra. After she appeared to help me take you to the Infirmary, we talked a bit while Tuta was looking after you," she said, rather hesitantly, her back still to him.

"Why would she tell you that?"

Chris paused. "I... I thought maybe she was your missus. I asked her if she was, and she laughed."

"Laughed?"

"She said there was no way she'd marry a supercilious fool like you, and she said she was surprised I could believe a woman would be capable of surviving a marriage to you. Her exact words."

"That Hag!"

"I rather liked her," Chris replied.

Nash sighed. "I suppose that doesn't greatly surprise me."

There was a moment of silence.

"...So, would it be too bold of me to ask if I will be forgiven?" he asked finally.

"I already did, quite a while ago," she replied, almost casually.

Nash paused. "...You did?"

"Yes."

"...Why?"

"Did you not want me to?" she asked testily, her eyes not meeting his.

"No, it's not that," Nash said hastily, "But if you knew I was lying about my missus, you could have easily used that as confirmation that I lie about everything. So, why did you?"

Chris hesitated slightly. "There were many reasons... When you got sick a couple days before the final battle, I realized how hard you really had been working for us... and then after all the things Sasarai said you'd been through, I thought maybe I had been a little harsh with you..."

"A little!?" Nash blurted out.

She glared at him briefly before continuing. "Then I spoke with Yumi and she... told me about how you wanted to apologize and explain everything to me, and she told me what you said about truly regretting that you had been deceitful. That's what really led me to believe you were being sincere. So I forgave you."

"You never did answer my question, before," he said suddenly.

"What question?" she asked, taken aback by the abrupt change in subject.

"Did you come and see me in the Infirmary that one morning? Tell me the truth."

Chris hesitated for several moments, but finally responded. "Yes... Tuta asked me to try use my True Water rune on you, to hurry your recovery along. It worked better than I expected."

"That explains the blue light, and the cool, refreshing feeling," Nash commented. He paused and added, "...But why did you kiss me?"

Chris looked stunned. "I-I didn't."

"You're lovely, even when you lie."

"I'm not lying! Why would I do such a thing?"

"Well I must admit, I can't help but think that it was something very uncharacteristic of you to do. However, I don't think there's any denying that we all sometimes do things differently, when we believe no one is looking." Nash winked.

Chris was now looking very flustered, and turned towards the window with her back to him.

"I'm not saying I didn't like it," Nash added, "I just want to know why."

Chris said nothing for a long time, and finally released a sigh. "If you must pursue this absurd issue... It was my forgiveness and my apology for being so harsh before."

"Why did you avoid telling me that at the Ceremonial Site?"

"I...I didn't expect you to remember, your fever was so high. Even if you did, I didn't think that I'd see you again," Chris replied, with a slight sigh.

"It was a kiss goodbye, was it?

"Don't be so dramatic about everything!"

Nash grinned. "My apologies."

"Stop smirking."

"How do you know I'm smirking, you're not looking at me."

"I just know. Now drop it. I took pity on you when you were sick, and I sincerely regret it."

"Okay, okay!" Nash said, then after a moment, decided to switch back to the first topic. "So if you forgave me before hand, why didn't you tell me? You could have spared yourself my big long story had you told me you'd forgiven upfront."

"Perhaps. But I was interested in what you had to say for yourself."

"Ah, I see."

She said nothing, and there was silence again.

"Nash?" she asked after a moment.

"I haven't gone anywhere. If you would turn around and look at me once and a while, you would know that."

Chris ignored him, and continued with her question. "You said that telling me all that was 'one of the reasons' you came. There was another?"

Nash straightened up from leaning against the doorway, and took a few steps towards her.

"There was. I also wanted to say goodbye, as I will be leaving these parts."

"I see... Is that all?" she asked, after a moment.

Nash rose an eyebrow at the question. "Why, should there be something else?."

"You tell me."

"Tell you what?"

Chris finally turned around to glare at him. "If there is something else."

Nash met her glare with a smirk. "Okay. There is."

"Well then, what is it?" she asked, slightly exasperated.

He paused before replying. "I'm going to miss you, Chris. I'm going to miss you terribly."

"Stop it."

"Hey, you asked!"

"Fine," she said, turning away from him again. "Goodbye then, Nash."

Nash stared at her back for a long moment, but she would not turn to meet his gaze.

Eventually, he turned to leave. He had almost made it to the doorway of the bedroom before Chris called him again.

"Nash?"

He stopped, and turned back to her. "Yes, I'm still here, though you almost missed me that time."

She finally turned to him. "For the love of Sadie, be quiet!"

"My apologies once again, it's just that your face is much more pleasant to talk to than your back." he grinned. "What is it?"

Chris stiffened slightly, and held her head up as though it was a struggle with her dignity to speak her mind.

"I wanted to say that... I shall miss you also," she replied, a serious look on her face.

Nash smiled genuinely, and stepped in close to her.

She stiffened even more, looking slightly affronted, clearly afraid he was about to mock her. "What are you grinning about?"

Instead of immediately replying, Nash grasped her shoulders and pulled her into an embrace, a gesture that truly startled the young knight. However, she did not attempt to withdraw, and Nash slid his arms around her shoulders and back, holding her tightly against him. Eventually, Chris returned the embrace, and they stood that way for a long time.

"Thank you, Chris," he said at last, his voice quiet in her ear. "That really does mean a lot."

A/N: It was incredibly hard for me to do this, but I decided to end the story on a somewhat platonic view of their relationship. That is, I didn't have them kiss and run off to get married, like I would have normally preferred. Why? Because I'm crazy. All I ever wanted was for Chris and Nash to run away together at the end of the game. And here they are in this fic, no infidelity in sight due to the twist I gave on his 'missus', and yet I end the story without them fulfilling the destiny that Konami so cruelly denied them.

In actuality, there were many reasons I ended it this way. The first is that I already wrote a romantic one-shot fic about the encounter so casually mentioned in the game's ending. I vowed that in writing this fic, I wouldn't end it with the 'Nash appearing in Chris' room to announce that he is leaving' scene, unless I could do so without it being a rehash of Parting On Good Terms. So in that way, I think I was relatively successful.

Secondly, as a person who is obsessed with these two characters and their interactions with each other throughout the game, I thought it important to write from different views on their relationship. 'A Little Bit of Trust' is the only remotely platonic fic I wrote about them. The rest are severely slanted towards romance. This one has some romantic elements, but ultimately things remain platonic.

Thirdly, I felt there just simply wasn't enough interaction between them in this fic for a plausibly romantic scene at the end. The fic is a 'behind the scene' story centered around Nash, and Chris, while a central theme in Nash's mind, was a secondary character. In fact, Sierra probably had more dialogue than she did

Lastly, I guess I felt I had to keep relatively canon. Ending it this way makes it much more plausible.

Anyway, naturally my story isn't perfect (I know there'll undoubtedly be a few of you raising an eyebrow at Chris' disputably out of character behaviour in this chapter), but overall I am quite happy with the story, (my second, completed, multi-chaptered fic) and I want to thank every one of you who has read and reviewed my fic, for all your input and encouragement! Thank you!