A/N: Chapter 2! One more to go! I still don't own Fire Emblem, or the plot, which was thought up by Starreaver who thinks that if I draw any character under my own free will, it makes me a fangirl. Really, a random Matthew doodle during computers and he raises an eyebrow! Gah.

"Erk! Are you okay?" She poked him on the side with her extra staff as she knelt down by his fallen self. The sage groaned and turned over so his back was on the ground and his squinting eyes caught a glimpse of pale pink. "Erk…? Wake up!" Serra poked him with the stave once again, ignoring the fact that he was actually in the process of sitting up.

"Ugh, Serra…" He diverted his eyes from her partially concerned, partially angry stare, and found himself glancing at the ring instead. "The ring!" With a sudden burst of energy, he took a firm grasp of the cursed jewelry and tugged on it with all his might. Unfortunately, the thing was on there pretty darn tight.

"Erk, what are you doing?" Serra asked as she leaned over his left shoulder absently, making her question seem more of a warning for not paying her respect.

Her only reply was more of a grunt as the sage continued to struggle with the ring that was still lodged on the finger as if he had been born with it. "Must…remove…ring…!" he managed to choke out through sporadic breaths.

"Remove rin-"

Serra never finished her question. Apparently, Erk's final tug that was quite proving of his new strength sent his elbow backwards with an amount of thrust that should have removed the jewelry. Of course, his hand was a bit clammy after all the struggling so the ring hadn't moved even an inch, leaving all the force of his jerk to go into whatever he hit with his elbow. Ever so slowly, Erk turned around…

[…]

The first words that rang through the young sage's mind were ones that his mother would have been appalled of, if she had been able to read minds that is. "Serra! Serra!" He shook her limp shoulders as he continued to chant the cleric's name. Finally he noticed her eyes beginning to open and he leaned her back to the chest that had been the one to knock her out. (Erk had merely abetted just a tad, if one really thought about it.)

Serra sucked in a deep breath of air as her consciousness was regained. For a second she just blinked, the entire world seeming a vast blur, until she was finally able to make out the violet haired escort before her. "Erk…?" Upon saying his name, a sharp pain shot through the back of her neck and she clasped it tightly with one hand. A slight dampness on her skin startled her and she brought the hand to her eyes. A small line of blood was trailing off her fingers and slowly making its way down her arm. "A-Ah! What happened?!"

He kept his eyes on cleaning the blood off her arm and neck with the edge of his cloak, as he spoke somewhat-calmly, although still shaking a bit. "Uh, well, I was trying to remove my ring and my hand slipped and I hit you in the head so you slammed against that chest…"

"You…what?" Serra growled, retracting her hand from the man's grip.

"It was an accident, Serra, I swear-"

"Oh, when the head priests find out about this…"

"My apologies, please, just…"

Suddenly a thought occurred to the girl whose grin could scare away a bear. "Say, Erk…" He looked up, fearful of what would happen if he ignored her once more. "Didn't you say you could use staves now?" Obviously she knew what being a sage could do to him at this point.

"Well…" Erk trailed off, his eyes darting to the healing staff in the corner of the room. The last thing he wanted was to touch that thing and go "sage" again.

"Please, Erk, if you don't do anything then surely someone will notice…" Serra sniffled through false tears of pain.

With a heavy sigh, and heavier feet, the young sage unwilling picked up the healing tool and returned to a seated position beside the wounded soul. 'Please, don't make do anything I'll regret…' he prayed inside his head as he brushed away a few stray strands of pink hair to get a clear view of the wound.

He nearly choked, as it appeared to be nothing more than a paper cut. But for some reason his hand wouldn't let go of the staff, and his voice had stopped working completely.

"Well, aren't you going to heal it?" Serra asked, growing impatient.

As much as he tried to keep his mouth shut, the words wouldn't stop, "Why of course, angelic one." How Erk wished that his sage self could have said that with an ounce of sarcasm.

Reluctantly, he brought the tip of the stave to linger on the center of the wound, ignoring a small shiver from the patient. From the back of his mind, words he never thought he knew became the spell to activate the stave's powers and in no time at all had the wound healed with no hint of scar or blood. A pleasantly warm feeling that had traveled from his chest to his arm and hand had disappeared as quickly as it had begun.

"There, finished," Erk smiled, placing the staff down at his side as Serra clasped her neck to make sure he was right.

"Thanks!" she smiled back, turning to face her healer. "Shouldn't I receive a treat now, Erk?"

"A treat?" he repeated playfully.

"Mm," the girl nodded sweetly, "Whenever I was younger and was hurt, the elder priests would always heal me and then give me something afterwards, like a jewel or a trinket."

"Really now?" Erk grinned, raising an eyebrow, "I think I can find something for you…" he trailed off, gradually leaning closer to the cleric.

A sudden wail from outside froze him in his spot, "Save me! Bandits are gonna get me!! They're in the village! Kill them!! Kill!! Before they kill me!!!"

Kent's voice followed the scream. "I find it rather odd that our tactician is so skillful, yet so easily scared..."

"Yep," Sain agreed, "No wonder he always hides. It would be a lot easier if we all just got cell phones so his voice wouldn't get sore."

"What?"

"…Nothing. Let's get going."

"Ahem!" Serra cleared her throat loudly, gaining the attention of her escort who still seemed to be hovering over her. Erk turned to her with a partially dazed look, making it clear to her that the mage in him was almost back. "Sage, my treat?"

In an instant had the ring-powered charmer returned, the inner mage's cries growing weaker and weaker by the second. "Ah, yes…" And he leaned closer once more.

"Hey, the tactician says he wants a mage out there and …" The large man, axe in hand, standing in the entryway of the tent became silent as he rose an eyebrow at the scene.

With the sound of Dorcas's unnaturally low voice had Erk been able to snap out of his sage-state and withholding a yelp of fear from what had almost done, he stood up shakily.

"Ah, screw it," Serra cursed, standing up and walking out the tent exit, making an annoyed 'hmph' sound as she passed the man who had ruined her chance.

"…"

Erk followed in suit, pausing by the redhead. "I want to thank you, Dorcas. You saved me from a fate I could never imagine." The sage nodded and continued on his way, purposely leaving the stave in the tent.

"…"

[…]

Erk smirked as he stepped between two massive axe-wielding foes. "Really now, is that all? These fools couldn't even harm a rock, let alone a village."

"Erk, attack from afar!" the ever wimpish tactician whimpered from a disclosed area.

"Afar? To be afraid of a strike from this is insane!" Erk laughed, gesturing at one of the confused brigands.

"Grug, little purple hair thing insult me?" he asked, scratching his head with his axe.

"Indeed he did, Romulus, indeed. Horrid manners of children these days."

"I'll have you know, I am not a child!" the sage growled, snapping his fingers and causing a small ball of fire to dance upon his fingertips. With a low incantation, he set the small spark aflame and right into the balding bandit.

"Romulus! Save yourself!" Grug yelled seconds before he was incinerated.

"This for brother!" Romulus shouted, raising the axe above his head to bring down upon the 'purple hair thing'.

In a single movement did Erk duck the incoming attack, pivot around to face the foe, and followed it up with an impressive move that got him through the brigand's legs and behind him, unseen.

"Where…purple…?"

"Erk is behind you, Romulus," the sage grinned, snapping his fingers and lighting the bandit on fire before the poor soul could even turn around.

"And I'm behind you!" another voice laughed, taking a swing with his overly large sword. Everyone there had seen Erk duck the massive blade, and spin to face his enemy. But for some reason he looked angrier than usual (although in his current state, there wasn't really a usual in the first place).

"Hey, Erk, are you alright?" Lyn yelled over from above the corpses of the ex-bandits she had just slaughtered.

He remained silent as he knelt down before the grinning mercenary. Keeping a steady eye contact, he let his hand drift over the dirt before stopping on some nearly invisible object. He picked it up and held it before the bandit's eyes. "You bastard…"

It was certainly hard to tell what Erk was holding from that distance, but Lyn's eyes never failed her. It was a strand of violet hair. She raised her eyebrow slowly, realizing it was best not to interrupt.

"Yeah, I am. Damn proud too. Come a little closer I'll have me a fur coat."

Wordlessly, Erk raised his hands to the heavens, the sky darkening as his anger grew. A soft mutter was followed by a roar of thunder and a great flash of light. When the group was finally able to see again, the only part left of the brigand was his ashes. "Deserved it," Erk shrugged, clapping his hands to get rid of the extra soot from the attack.

As Lyn had been distracted at this time, she hadn't noticed that one of the bandits she thought she'd killed was actually still alive (although barely at that). With his final unnoticed breath, he took his axe and drove it into her foot. "Ah!!" Clutching her pained foot with one hand, she gave him a good stab through the skull, as well as a few of the others, just to make sure. "Hey, Serra?" The blood from her foot was starting to drip through her fingertips.

"Mm?" the cleric looked up from her conversation with the tactician to see Lyn limping over.

"Do you mind?" She gestured towards her foot.

"Oh!" Serra was about to lower her stave to her comrade's wounded foot when a thought occurred to her. "Wait, let's have Erk do it!"

"Erk?" Lyn, still hunched over and gripping her wounded limb, glanced up at what she thought to be still a mage, just in an unusual mood that day. He was currently tiptoeing backwards from the three piles of ashes, somewhat fearful of what he could do. Serra grinned; it was obvious his mage self had control of his brain, but she'd bring back that sage charmer soon enough.

"Yep, he's a sage now," she filled Lyn in, nodding proudly as if she had contributed.

Erk, now realizing he was the center of their conversation, nodded weakly. "But, it's okay. Serra, I think it would be best if you did it…"

"But Erk, you have to try out your new skills some more."

"You have more experience…"

"And you need more experience, Erky!" Serra giggled.

"Um, my foot…" Lyn interrupted, now gripping the wound with the other hand.

Serra pushed the stave into his shaking hands, and leaned in as she did so. "Get to it, Sage," she whispered in his ear.

Almost immediately did it trigger the effect's the cleric had hoped for.

"With pleasure, my cleric," Erk smiled sweetly, giving a small bow in the process.

"Serra…what did you do?" Lyn asked, staring wide-eyed at sage.

"Well, it took a while, but I can make him do that with a couple hints that he's a sage. Plus it happens spontaneously too," she replied matter-of-factly.

"…And how long does this last?"

"Depends. Keeps going 'til he's distracted or something," she shrugged.

"Are you sure this isn't…abuse?" Lyn questioned, not really paying attention as Erk raised her foot and ran the stave against her skin.

"Abuse? Lyn, who says having looks and personality is abusive?"

Before Lyn could bring anything else up, Erk stood up and put his arm around Serra's waist. "I like being like this. Please don't fret over me, Lady Lyndis."

Although his smile fooled the giggling cleric, Lyn was certain she saw fear in his eyes. "Alright…" she trailed off. 'If he's still like that tomorrow, I'll talk to the tactician about it…' Lyn thought as she gathered her weaponry.

"Everyone! Back to the camp before more bandits come after me again for stealing their gold!" the tactician shouted as he led the way.

"What?!" Kent shouted, fighting the urge to choke the one they depended on the most.

"Uh…I meant that Matthew stole."

"Me? I didn't waste time on those lowly bandits!" Matthew corrected, slightly appalled at the thought of stooping that low.

Kent glared at the tactician as he shook his head.

"Hey…well…you guys wanted better weapons right? Come! Feast and silver for all back at the camp!"

"Woot!" Sain cheered, earning a glare from Kent as well.

[…]

"One second," Serra called, breaking her stride with the few other female companions. Unfortunately, they didn't quite hear her (or they didn't quite listen, however one may interpret it), and continued on, although Serra didn't notice that herself.

With a content sigh, she leaned over the edge of a small river they were walking along, and admired the view in the steady water.

"It's a shame what these battles can do to me, but at least its better than doing nothing at all..." She dipped her hand into the cool water and brought it out to smooth the ends of her hair.

"Excuse me, Serra?"

Instead of turning to see who was behind her, she merely looked at the water's reflection, smiling as she saw a bit of violet hair.

"Yes, Erk?" She couldn't help but grin as she spun around, realizing he was still in his sage-mode.

"My Serra, I was wondering if I could request something of you."

The cleric frowned. As charming as he was, he still had that slightly anxious sound to his voice. She prayed the mage wasn't returning. "Of course..."

Erk took a slow breath and lowered himself onto one knee, unaware of the group behind him that had taken a particularly nice rest to view the pair's happenings.

With another breath, the sage took hold of one of Serra's hands and kissed it, clasping it tightly within his own. The other he brought to his heart, and lowered his head.

"Dear Serra, will you give me the honor of being your escort?"

The girl just stood there, speechless, as a small tint of pink fell over her face.

"Sister, is that the human way of asking for marriage?" Nils asked, tugging on a piece of Ninian's dress.

"I'm not sure..." she trailed off, continuing to watch with curiosity, as was everyone else.

Serra was still unnaturally silent, small tears welling up in her eyes and her jaw moving up and down, but emitting no sound. Finally...

"Oh, Erky, you don't know how long I've waited for you to ask that!"

"So that means..." he raised his lowered head a tad and gave her hand a small squeeze.

"Yes!" Serra's high-pitched squeal brought the audience's hands to their ears. She broke away from Erk's hand and with a remarkably high jump, prepared to leap into his arms, bridal style.

However, it was that high-pitched squeal that brought the sage to his normal mage mind. He quickly noted the situation, and doing the first reasonable thing he could think of, he scooted to one side.

"I…don't think so, actually," Ninian whispered to her brother, as Serra hit the ground.

[…]

A/n: thank you for reading, glad its alright. Mm, and sorry about the staff/stave thing, Lil' Rae! [points to Starreaver] he says he told me, but I tell you I don't remember. Hope it aint too bad… and this will be updated once again on Friday with the last chapter! Reviews and criticism always encourages…