Masked Emotions

Chapter Two: Sparring by the Lake E x N

Disclaimer: The day Marcus suicides is the day I own Fire Emblem (yes, you can tell by now that I hate Marcus a lot, can't you?).

Eliwood sat on the bank of a delicate beauty of a lake as he gazed out upon its loveliness. The color of the lake was a soft, pleasant light blue, unlike the usual dark, nasty green shade (and who knows what's concealed beneath those disgusting lakes?). It looked like the color of Ninian's hair. Eliwood longed to touch the beautiful waters of the lake. The surface of the lake, however, was smooth as glass, and he felt it would be a great sin to disturb the waters' peaceful rest. His hand fell back reluctantly and he let it rest back down upon the bank.

Suddenly, Eliwood heard a rustle behind him. His hand strayed to the hilt of his rapier as he whirled around, expecting to encounter a band of bandits, or perhaps even members of the Black Fang. It was, however, only a tall woman dressed in a Sacaen tribe dress. Her long green ponytail whipped out, flung by the chilly wind that signified the beginning of autumn. Lyndis. Eliwood sat back down, evidently relieved.

"Relax, Eliwood!" Lyn said laughingly, having noticed the unusual strain in Eliwood's face. "It's just me. I have come to ask a favor of you!" At the word favor, Eliwood's ears perked up and he stood back up, alarmed.

"Y-you haven't came to ask me to teach you how to be a lady again now, have you?" Lyn had ambushed him several times in the past few days, begging him to teach her how to be a lady, and he couldn't afford to let his guard down. It was not like he didn't want to help her – Lyn was a great friend, and usually he would have done anything to assist her – it was just that, well, he, Eliwood, was a male… and what would he know about being a lady? (That was the slightly more noble reason. The other was simply because Hector had listened in on their conversation once and teased Eliwood endlessly about being a lady; Eliwood could not even begin to imagine how absolutely horrible Hector would make his life if Eliwood ever agreed to help Lyn "be a lady"!)

"Why, yes! How'd you guess?" Lyn asked, frowning.

"What!" Eliwood exclaimed, "I simply cannot –"

"Calm down, Eliwood!" Lyn laughed. "Can't you take a joke or two? You take life too seriously. Well, Eliwood, I was just thinking, we haven't sparred in a while now, and since I really have nothing better to do at the moment, I just thought I'd come look for you. So, would you care to spar with me?"

"Thank goodness you just want to train!" Eliwood said, sighing with relief. "Now that that you mentioned it, I do miss sparring with you. But it's only fair to warn you, I've gotten stronger over the last few battles."

"So have I, Eliwood! Don't you go easy on me!"

As they circled each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move, Eliwood made up his mind to, despite his promise, go easy on Lyn.

All thoughts of secretly giving Lyn some advantages vanished, however, when she charged at him with the ferocity of a tiger and swung the Mani Katti at his side. He just barely blocked the attack with his rapier, when Lyn attacked him again.

The fight continued on for quite a while, with Lyn attacking Eliwood and Eliwood parrying her every move. Then, in an unspoken agreement, they both slumped down on the grass, panting.

"There's something on your mind, Eliwood. I can tell," Lyn said after they've recuperated from the exhausting fight. "You've been doing more defense than offence today, you made very few attempts to attack me, and your blocking was unnaturally weak. It's not just today, either. You've been pretty unfocused for the past few weeks."

Eliwood didn't answer. He looked out at the lake once more as he toyed with a blade of grass. Something, or, rather, someone is on his mind... but should he burden Lyn with his personal problems? He didn't have time to answer, when Lyn interrupted him again.

"Eliwood… it's Ninian, isn't it? You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Startled, Eliwood tore his gaze away from the lake and turned to Lyn. "How did you guess?"

Lyn shrugged as she leaned back and fixed Eliwood with a stern gaze. "It's kind of obvious, really. But that's beyond the point. What's wrong with you!" she added angrily after a short pause, startling Eliwood, "If you like her that much, then go after her and tell her your true feelings! Don't let her slip out of your grasp! Let her know how you feel while you still have the chance, or you're going to regret it when she's gone! Stop bottling up your emotions beneath your mess of red hair and express yourself!"

Eliwood was shocked when he realized the truth of her words. She was right – it was now, or never. They were constantly in danger, and who knew where Ninian would be tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow?

"If you truly love her enough, you're going to let her know that, or I'll go tell Ninian myself," Lyn declared. With that said, she stalked off from the scene in a huff, leaving Eliwood behind to gaze out once more at the lake.

The lake reminded him of Ninian, beautiful and delicate.

A/N: This chapter is so random. And the ending line is lame beyond lame. At this point I would like to express my anger at Mashounotenshi and her "go-finish-your-fanfic-or-else" -ness. – sigh - Oh, and just to clear things up – this story will consist of many chapters and "short stories" of possible Fire Emblem 7 couples that show examples of "Masked Emotions". So, it's just not about Eliwood x Ninian. Um, yeah, just thought I'd mention that. Oo;; Now, before I go off, here's a short summary on the next chapter (which is of the humor genre) because it might take a while before I finish it. "Serra, the legendary chatterbox, has long been the Queen of Gossip. Now, Serra kept a very secret diary in which she recorded all of the things she found out.. what will happen when Nils finds that diary…?"