Keiji is visited by a nightmare from his past before awakening beside Corrin.
Tenderness
Throughout your life you've had two recurring dreams. Well, one is a dream you can't make sense of. The other is a nightmare you can't escape. One casts you into the icy cold; the other into searing flames most immense. A dream of Ice. A nightmare of fire.
Much to your displeasure, you walk the icy road this day,
A woman's scream tears through your head and shakes you to the ground. Everything turns a blinding, agonizing white.
It starts as a normal day like any other. In this dream, you are but a young child. Your parents go on a trip a snowy village in Nohr to celebrate the anniversary of their wedding. They take you with them. It isn't long before watching them link arms as they say mushy, romantic grown-up things makes you feel fed up. So you wander off for a second. Only for a second.
"Do be careful not to stray too far," your mother Kasumi warns.
"I'll be careful, Mother. Real careful!"
Before you is a huge lake. It looks so very mysterious to your childlike mind. Its surface sparkles with the splendor of a huge diamond gemstone. "Oh wow! They don't have lakes like these at home!"
You dip your finger into the water's edge. "Ouch! Freezing."
Shocked by the deathly cold, you slipped against the ice.
Stabbing pains lance clean through your skull. Your lungs cave flat. The heart within your chest kicks, threatening to burst as the icy water chills to the bone. Deeper and deeper into the abyss you sink. There was no way out. Your pulse slows to a crawl as the seconds drag on, and your frail body is overwhelmed.
"Keiji!" your mother shouts frantically, "No! No! Swim darling, you have to swim! Somebody help! Please!"
The last things you hear are a pair of loud splashes and darkness overtakes you.
After what feels like an eternity your eyes flutter open and a dull throbbing grips the back of your skull.
Through blurry vision, you reach out for someone. For anyone.
Another hand grips yours. It is one of the most comforting moments of your whole life.
"We did it! He's waking up!"
The haze clears from your vision and two little girls sit at either side of you. Twins. One with pink hair, the other blue. They not have been much older than you in this dream you often endure.
"W-Where am I?" you ask, struggling to sit upright.
"You're safe here, with us," the pink-haired girl tells you. "My name is..." The words leave her mouth, but you never hear a sound. Or to be precise, you don't remember her name with the passage of time.
"And my name is," the blue-haired girl also says. Again, you're met with silence.
An icy village. A frozen lake. And twin girls. A memory with power enough to survive within your oftentimes-troubled mind to this day.
"If only I could remember the names of those girls," you lament with an exhausted outward breath.
Another flash of white ushers you to back to the world, as it always does at the dream's end.
You awaken with a yawn to hazy strands of daylight peeking through the wooden window shutters. This bed is so warm and comfortable that the last thing you want to do is leave. In an ideal world, you'd stay here forever - in this bedroom beside your dear Corrin. Your oftentimes-heavy heart feels free of worries while lay you next to her like this.
"Milady," you whisper with a smile, brushing your fingertips against the princess' cheek as she snoozes, "sleep well."
Light Dragon knows she has earned a peaceful sleep after last night.
"Stand tall! To attention!" You hear Hana outside, your sense of calm shattered. She's likely putting some soldiers through their morning drills. "Great, you're getting the hang of it! Now, keep up those strikes! We can't let the Nohrians think we're lightweights."
As ever, the lady samurai hasn't changed. You roll your eyes, and then you yawn. "So much for sleeping..."
The short-lived tranquillity was nice while it lasted.
You pull the covers away, the cool morning air making your skin tingle. "I'd better go explain our plan to Flora," you tell yourself in a low voice - a reminder for the day ahead. "Sooner this damn spy's caught; the sooner we can make our move."
You pause for thought, recalling the recent battle.
Felicia's scream tears through you, a mental imagine of her falling limply into your arms dominating your thoughts. The dreadful smell of blood overwhelms your senses. Second by second, a guilty twinge rises from your stomach, until it grips your chest.
"No..." You shake your head, purging the rogue memory before it drags you down. "I need to focus."
Being quiet, you gather up your scattered clothing from around the room. A large and elegant mirror adorned with a rose-golden trim leans against the wall beside Corrin's dresser. Sighing quietly, you begin dressing. A part of you wonders where Corrin came across such a wonderful item.
A possession she brought with her from Nohr, perhaps. Quietly curious, you collect your discarded undergarments and shirt.
There are many things you wonder about the princess truth be told. Questions you've not yet asked. How she fared living a secluded life away from her Nohrian family, is one such wonder. And chief among your curiosities, how she is able to transform into a dragon.
True, her Nohrian and Hoshidan siblings both bare the blood of their respective patron deities, the Light and Dark Dragons. Whatever the case though, being able to physically transform into a dragon is amazing as far as you're concerned. You will consider asking Corrin more about it when you've less errands.
"Ready," you whisper, mindful your good lady is sleeping. Finishing getting ready, you slip on your swordsman's coat.
"Keiji?" Corrin calls out groggily, the bedcovers rustling behind you. You turn around to the princess. She crawls out from her blanket cocoon. Droopy-eyed and groggy. She ruffles her scruffy wavy white hair and sits upright against the headboard. "Is it time to get up already?"
You eye her ladyship warmly, quietly enjoying how nice she looks even having just awoken. "Not if you don't want to. The soldiers outside woke me," you explain. "I wouldn't blame you for going back to sleep." Gods, you'd do the same if you didn't have tasks ahead of you.
"I'm awake now, so I'll just get up," Corrin says, yawning again. Throwing back the covers, she swings her legs over the side of the bed and gets to her feet slowly. She reaches her arms up to stretch with a big sigh. "Much better..." Joining you by the mirror, the lassie links an arm through yours and holds onto you tightly. Her eyes full to bursting with love and adoration, she leans close and pecks your cheek. "And thank you, for last night."
You return her kiss, nodding. "The pleasure was all mine."
"I'm sure it was," Corrin giggles, cuddling you. You breathe in the sweet scent of the girl's hair as she rests her head against your chest. After a couple of moments extra closeness, she eases free of you. "I should really get dressed."
As much as you enjoy the sight of her - from her pretty face down to her wide hips - you're inclined to agree. A part of you wonders how she isn't cold.
Regardless, a little teasing wouldn't go amiss. "And here I was enjoying the view," you wink.
"You enjoyed yourself plenty last night, I'm sure," Corrin remarks, smiling shyly.
"More than I have in a very long time, you may rest assured."
"I'm glad... because last night was a first for me," the princess, a hand clutching her heart, tells you.
"And what a wonderful first it was," you encourage her, honestly humbled by her gifting you her purity.
A look of subtle relief about her, Corrin turns around and heads over to her dresser beside the bed, with a spring in her step. Kneeling, she opens the bottommost draw and picks out a fresh pair of underwear. They're plain white with pink frills around the waistband. "What about you, Keiji? When did you-" A nervous pause. "When did you first give your heart to another...? Was it Miss Hana?"
"No. Not with Hana." You sit down at the foot of the bed, watching Corrin putting on a new bra. It's pale pink with floral patterning.
"Really...? But I thought the two of you were betrothed...?"
"We were... But Hana wanted to wait until our wedding night." Trudging this path of conversation awakens a feeling of gloom within you. You'll persist for the sake of your beloved's curiosities though. "But then..." You sigh shortly, clenching your hand into a first.
"The Okashi Village Massacre," Corrin says somewhat quietly and painfully, sparing you the trouble.
"Yes." You nod. A scar upon your very being: one forged in flame and punctuated by anguish.
An agonizing silence befalls the room.
Corrin closes the bottom draw and rises to her feet. Opening the top draw now, she gets out a pair of black cotton stockings and matching socks. "...I heard about the incident," she tells you partway through putting on her stockings, "though I still lived in the Nohrian Fort at the time."
You've an angry, morbid intrigue. "...And what did you hear?"
"That Hans breached the Hoshidan barrier with Iago's help and raised a village to the ground. That he had intended it to be a declaration of war."
A declaration to which Hoshido didn't respond," you add, your heart twisting in your chest.
All thanks to my mother being merciful, I'm told," says Corrin as she finishes putting on her socks.
"Right. Lord Ryoma and Lady Hinoka wanted nothing more than to raise an army and set sail for Nohr's coast after the village was put to the flame," you explain, relaxing your fist into an open palm and standing. "But Queen Mikoto stopped them. Apparently by holding a speech in the capital, talking about how spilling further blood would only bring misery. It calmed the hearts of the country's most intense warriors... for a time."
"Until she died, you mean," Corrin recounts grimly.
"With her passing last year, yes."
"Because of me, because of Father using me." Her words laced with pain most supreme, Corrin reaches for her discarded shirt from the bed.
You've heard the tales of Queen Mikoto's passing and Corrin's involvement. Everyone did. You don't believe Corrin is to blame for it though. You couldn't possibly with how well you know her now.
"An event which wasn't your fault," you your beloved warmly, reaching over and touching a hand to her back while she unbuttons her shirt. Pausing her dressing, the girl sighs. "The sword was cursed, from what I hear. And you were none the wiser."
Corrin smiles thinly, unfastening her last shirt button. "...I'll stop blaming myself for Mother if you do the same for Okashi."
You withdraw your hand and hang your head. "Light Dragon help me, I wish you hadn't been told you of the whole affair..."
"And how could I not be, when Sakura is my sister, and Hana serves her?"
"A fair point." You raise your head, hardening your resolve. "Though unlike you, I am to blame for what happened. Because I wasn't strong enough."
"Strong enough or no, you shouldn't blame yourself," Corrin insists.
"...Tis not so simple, I'm afraid. To pretend I did enough would be to forsake those who died."
"And to cling to the memory is torturing you love, clearly. Worry tarnishing her features, the princess slips on and starts buttoning her shirt.
"If you'd been there, you'd know why I can't let go."
"...Then tell me, what was it like...?"
You've but one way to describe that dreadful day. "It was as though Hell itself," you recall, closing your eyes.
Corrin grabs one of your hands, tying your fingers in a showing of support. Knowing you're not alone is the encouragement you need to continue:
"I set out in search of Hana after she and several soldiers hadn't returned. And what I found... the things I saw..." You re-open your eyes, feeling sick to your stomach. "Dead samurai, dozens of them - nailed to the village gates as gruesome icons. A sky, black with smoke from burning houses. And the women. Gods help me, the women. Villager or soldier, mother or maiden, it was the same... Hans' men cared not for their pleas, not their cries."
You squeeze Corrin's hand, tormented screams alive in your mind.
"I and the few comrades I'd brought with me were quickly overwhelmed. They were killed, and I was dragged before Hans. The bastard had just overpowered Hana, and had bound her hands to stop her from struggling. That was when he noticed she and I wore matching rings."
Your skin sizzling with purest hatred, your eyes narrow. "I was pinned by two of the bastard's thugs - a knife held to my throat. And I was made to watch as he tore the clothes from her back and-" Your throat tightens, your hands trembling. "And..."
"It's alright," Corrin says gently, squeezing your hand. "You need not say anymore. I understand..."
Relieved to have survived the conversation, you free your hand from hers and exhale exhaustedly. "And now you know why I must do this; why those Nohrian monsters need to be driven from the Ice Tribe Village. Tis always the innocent folk who suffer in war. And I'll not abide it."
Corrin appears pleased with your saying as much. "Then you really are a good Hoshidan."
"I try to be." Good intentions be damned, you sometimes struggle to contain your anger. And your desire to attain power for your goals.
"You are," Corrin insists with a stern nod. Walking past you, she makes for the door. You get up and follow. "Shall we be off?"
"Before we go..." You've a question.
"Hmm?" Corrin folds her arms, leaned by the doorway. "What is it?"
"Last night. And our talk just now. Does this mean you're alright with me going; leading the vanguard, I mean?"
The princess ponders your question long and hard, a small frown on her face. "I'm not pleased, but I won't stop you. Just promise me you'll be careful."
A fair enough request. "I will endeavour to act with caution," you pledge, bowing your head.
"Good. Because I want you by my side once we've freed the Ice Tribe Village."
"I shall be there. Although..." You lift your head. After such serious conversations this morning, you feel the need to lighten the mood. You point to Corrin's bare feet and smirk. "No shoes, milady?" You ask teasingly. "How come you never wear shoes?"
Corrin's cheeks redden amidst your observation. Walking over to you, she ruffles your hair. "That's why," she answers, snickering.
A declaration of war, then. "Very well, milady. You've asked for it." You snake an arm around Corrin's middle and hold her in place. Then you tickle her sides.
Falling against you with excited laughter, the girl struggles against your gleeful assault. "K-Keiji, please!"
You keep up your tickling until your mistress is teary-eyed with laughter, revelling in the lovely moment. Tired, she falls into your arms as limply as a rag doll. "H-How did you know I was ticklish?" Corrin asks, breathing shakily to collect herself.
"The night we first slept side by side," you inform her, pressing a small kiss to her forehead. "I brushed against your side, and you snorted."
Corrin's pinkened cheeks darken to an embarrassed red. "You remembered that...?"
"I certainly did."
"You're mean," the princess pouts, as innocent as she is precious.
"You swore me into your service as retainer, milady," you say with a chuckle. "Having second thoughts?"
"Nope." Corrin presses a fingertip to your nose, smiling warmly. "Never." Inching back from you, she returns to the door. "Now, let's be off." She opens the door and motions out into the hall with an extended arm. "Shall we?"
"Indeed." You prop open the door so Corrin might step out first, and then you shut the door behind you.
Your mistress awaits you with an extended hand. You take it and walk the corridor together as a couple.
At least in her treehouse you can enjoy some privacy.
"So, you're going to enlist Flora's help today, I take it?" Corrin asks while you walk.
"I am, yes. And I'll be writing a letter to my mother in Izami, as well."
"Oh? What for?"
"To request she take Felicia into our local shrine's care; so she might heal from her injuries quicker."
Corrin's grip on your hand tightens. "You really do love her, don't you?"
"I do, as much as you. Which complicates things, I know."
"The three of us will have the time to talk about all of this, I'm sure," Corrin says thoughtfully. "When you get back from the Ice Tribe Village."
"Still, I feel I must apologize. Feeling the way I do for the both of you is very ungentlemanly." You'll be honest about the reason why, while you've the courage. "And in truth, it's because I fear loss and grief. I give my heart to many because I hate the pain of losing someone and ending up alone."
"Because of what happened to Hana...?" Corrin wonders cautiously.
"Exactly, yes."
"...And do you still love her, too?"
A question that brings you only pain. "Being truthful, I wish I could. But what we endured left too great a scar."
"I'll bet. Keiji, has anybody ever told you that, for a man, your heart is a very complicated?"
You laugh bitterly at Corrin's remark. "More than I'd like to admit. Gods," you roll your eyes. "At times I feel almost Nohrian in matters of love." Tis no secret that those of standing within the Dark Kingdom take multiple lovers somewhat casually, though namely those in positions of power.
Corrin smiles weakly. "A Nohrian wouldn't have been as honest as you were, or as conflicted."
Arriving by the treehouse door, you can't help contemplating.
A desire to attain power; a great deal of anger, and a quiet desire to love several women. All of these traits are indeed very Nohrian-like. Leaning close, Corrin kisses your cheek. Her soft lips against your skin break you from your thoughts. And not a moment too soon. You're no Nohrian.
"I shall see you later," the princess bids you farewell affectionately, opening the door for you.
"You certainly shall, milady. Do take care." Parting blessings given, you step out into the noon sunlight.
If anything, this day has given you plenty to consider.
To be continued...
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