Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.

I swear Cynthia's pegasus had a name, but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe I've just read so much fanfiction that I think it had a name, because the name I think it had was "Snowflake" which I've certainly seen in other stories.

Well, if it is a name someone else came up with, I'm using it too. I like it.

Nathan is our POV character. Lots of talking in this one.

"It's called being busy Morgan."

"But you weren't busy before!" She pouts.

"Yes, I was. You were just more busy." I say as I unload a crate. My strength is much higher than it was a few months ago, so this is a relatively easy task. I can't say I'm fond of all this though. Having muscles feels… uncomfortable, even if they're useful. "Because you were training all the time. I'm doing the same thing I was back in training, whereas you have less to do now."

"But that's not fair." Morgan pouts. When I put down the crate, Morgan embraces me from behind, stopping me from moving to the next one. "I want my boyfriend!"

"I'm very flattered, but seriously Morgan, you can wait until after I'm done everything." I say, and tilt my head back to look at her. "We still have multiple hours of free time on the regular, you can wait."

"No." Morgan huffs. She leans down and nuzzles my neck. "Now."

I silently roll my eyes. I suppose out of all the interruptions to my work, this is certainly the most pleasant. "If you want me to be finished sooner, you could help."

"But I'm a delicate lady!" Morgan gasps sarcastically.

"Bullshit. You're stronger than me in just about every way. You're also too crude to be a lady."

Morgan scrunches up her face at me. "Someone doesn't want fun tonight, if they're insulting their girlfriend."

"And you make my point." I retort, amused. "And we both know that's an empty threat."

"Well yeah, but I'm trying to play a part here!" Morgan says.

"Besides, didn't you once say something about taking care of me?" I tease. "Shouldn't you be helping me on that basis?"

"Oh, sure, take advantage of my good will." Morgan pouts.

"Seriously though, I have to work, can you let me go?" I say. "I promise to play with you later."

"Ooh~!"

"Morgan…"

"Come on, just let me be lewd once without shutting me down!"

"I'm not shutting you down, I'm figuratively rolling my eyes at you." I tease. "Big difference."

Morgan grumbles fondly, and pulls me around to face her for a moment. For a moment I assume it's another joke or part of the banter, but instead Morgan forcefully kisses me for a few seconds before releasing me. "Fine, what are we doing?"

"What?" I ask, a bit dazed.

"You said if I helped it would go faster. What are we doing?"

Morgan seldom lets me forget how lucky I am. "Well first…"

###

It's probably none of my business… but what is Nah doing? Why is she peering around the side of a cart?

I'm currently on my way to do inventory as my last task of the day, and I'm not under any real time pressure (as long as the report is in by sundown, and it's not even dinner yet thanks to Morgan helping with a few tasks, though now she's off doing a bit of practice for tactics while I do inventory), so I have the time to stop and ask what's going on.

Should I? Should I not?

I quietly peer around the cart myself, from a further distance. Nah seems to be looking at… umm… what is she looking at? There's nothing going on, unless she's watching Laurent take notes about the local flora.

Maybe there's a problem? I should ask. "Hi Nah."

"Ah!" She spins around, grabbing her dragonstone. "Who are- oh, wait, Nathan?"

"Yeah, hi."

"I keep forgetting you look pathetic now. It's weird."

"Gee, thanks." I say dryly.

"And you sound different."

"I'm well aware."

Maybe noticing my disapproving tone, Nah adds, "Not in a bad way, just… weird."

"Moving on." I say flatly. Nah winces slightly at my clear annoyance. To be fair, she was kind of rude. I know this is the first time she's gotten a good look at my new body, and I am rather wimpy, but still. She phrased it as rudely as possible. "Why are you creeping on Laurent? Did he steal something?"

"Laurent wouldn't steal something!" Nah protests.

I'm surprised she was more offended about me joking Laurent might have stolen something than my actual accusation of her being a creep. "Then why are you stalking him?"

"I am not stalking!"

"Fine, why are you sneakily observing him?" Otherwise known as stalking.

"I'm not!"

"Well unless you're looking at the sun or the grass or the trees, I'm pretty sure you're looking at him."

"Shut up Nathan!"

"Oh, I think he heard us."

"What?!" Nah spins about and peeks around the cart, only to notice that Laurent hasn't changed what he's doing at all. She then glares at me. "You dastard…"

"Your denial is adorable." I say.

"I am not in denial!"

"Do you hear yourself?" I ask, trying not to smile. ""I am not in denial", hmm?"

"Shut, up, Nathan."

"It's not a crime to admit you like someone Nah. Unless there's some law I'm not aware of."

"I never said I liked him!" Nah squeaks indignantly. "What makes you think so?"

The denial is strong with this one. "Nah, we already established he didn't steal something from you, and you defended him before defending yourself. Add that on to anything you could possibly want from him you could probably get from someone else, I think it's a fairly safe assumption you like Laurent."

Nah's fists clench and unclench. "Don't say anything to him!"

"I won't." I say. "Though… how long have you been interested?"

"None of your business!"

"Alright, alright." I say, putting my hands up in surrender. "Have fun, uh… magewatching."

I start to walk away, and am mildly surprised when Nah grabs my sleeve a moment later. "Wait, wait… you know things, right?"

"I know a little about a lot." I say slowly. She must be desperate if she's seriously coming to me for help. "It depends on what you're interested in."

Nah glances at Laurent, who (obviously) still isn't looking our way and probably won't so I don't know why Nah keeps looking, "I… you helped Noire before, right?"

Did Noire tell her about the talk we had almost two years ago? The one about Tharja and being your own person? "It's questionable how useful my advice was, but yes, I suppose I did." I say. I can't give myself too much credit. Noire really only needed reassurance, I don't think there was any real possibility she would turn out as bad as future Tharja.

"How do you impress someone?" She asks in a whisper. "You somehow got Morgan, so you must know something."

I think it's less that I "got" Morgan than she chose me. "As far as I can tell, that's thinking about it the wrong way." I offer after a moment of consideration. "It's not about impressing someone so much as it is connecting. It doesn't matter if they think you're cool if you don't get along otherwise. Also, quite frankly, you probably wouldn't have to worry about that anyways on account of being a girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nah asks sharply.

"I… okay." I sigh. "Do you know the choosy/competitive dynamic?"

"What?"

"So there's this dynamic you see in a lot of mammals when it comes to finding mates. One sex is choosy, one is competitive." I explain. "One sex watches for valueable mates, and the other sex competes to appear high-value. Following?"

"Yeah… what does that have to do with me?"

"Humans are like that too, at least on the basest level." I say. "Females are choosy, males are competitive. It also somewhat follows that it's not exactly difficult for a female to find a mate. After all, males are competing just to be able to have a mate at all, and all females have to do is choose… again, on the basest level, ignoring societal stuff and greater human intelligence. If we were dumb-fuck animals, that's about how it would work."

"Is that why Inigo is so desperate?"

Ouch, poor Inigo. "I can't speak for him, but… it wouldn't surprise me. Where I come from it's not unusual to hear of men who are desperate just to get a date, from any woman at all. You could see that as the choosy/competitive dynamic at work. Men take what they can get, because otherwise they probably won't get anything."

"Still don't see what this has to do with me."

"I'm saying the odds are stacked in your favor." I say. "Usually men have to compete, so to be chosen, much less have someone actually approach us without having to go through the emotional roller coaster that is trying to approach ourselves… that's immensely flattering. Now, I'm giving you an extremely simplified version of courtship, ignoring culture and how human intelligence factors into things, so I won't pretend it's a guarantee things will go well. However, on the most basic level, if you approach, you arguably have a good chance. You still need good chemistry and all that of course, and I don't know your relationship before this, but… basic human nature is in your favor."

"That's possibly the single most unromantic piece of encouragement I've ever heard." Nah says bluntly.

"I know." I say. "But would you have preferred if I'd given you a generic "go get 'em girl" talk?"

"...no."

"So then you get science-ish encouragement." I say. "So, again, short version: men don't get approached much, so being approached is flattering, that's an advantage in your favor if you want to capitalize on it. Has he been nice to you before?"

"Yeah."

"Consistently?"

"Yes."

"Then try. You probably stand a decent chance."

"But what if romance never crossed his mind?" Nah mutters, glancing furtively at the boy who is still not looking our way Nah, you don't have to peek every five seconds.

"Then this will bring it to mind." I shrug. "I wasn't considering a relationship until Morgan suggested it."

"But…"

"Nah." I say. I put a hand on her shoulder and kneel down to eye level. "It's always a gamble. I think it's in your favor, but there is a chance of failure. That's not going to change. You can try now, or you can wait until… I dunno… after Grima dies, or just never. Up to you. Timing might change those odds, but there are always going to be odds. It's never going to be a certainty."

"Auuugh." Nah groans. "That sucks!"

"Yeah, it really does."

"Stupid humans and their weird courtship rituals." Nah mutters.

I flick her in the forehead. "Says the girl stalking someone."

"Why can't you all live for a few hundred more years?" Nah complains. "I'd have time to gather my courage!"

"If it takes you a few hundred years to gather courage, I think you have other problems."

"Smart-ass."

"Stalker."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Stop acting like one then." I say. "Go up to him."

"Fine!" Nah huffs. "I will!"

"Okay."

"Okay!"

"Go then."

"I'm going!" She all but shouts, and marches towards Laurent… only to slow to a nervous shuffle in a few seconds.

"Stalker." I whisper after her. Her head whips around in a glare, but it has the desired effect of giving her her courage back (if merely to spite me and prove me wrong) and she properly walks up to Laurent.

I can't quite hear what they're talking about, but Nah hasn't run off in tears so I assume things are going well. Rather than spy on this relatively private moment, I take my leave to do inventory and decide to check on Nah later.

I learn later that Nah didn't ask Laurent out, but she did spend a nice hour and a bit with him as he explained the local flora to her, and he asked if she'd like to join him in his search for certain rare plants, which Nah seemed very happy about.

###

I don't care what she says about being "weak" in her human form, I'm fairly sure the reason why Nowi didn't want to fetch her dropped dragonstone was because it's at the bottom of a cliff. Granted, not a very large cliff, but it takes a good hour to find a way down. I refuse to believe Nowi couldn't do this herself, because I've seen her casually scamper up trees as easily as climbing stairs. I'm too soft-hearted, and she knows it. That's why I'm at the bottom of this stupid cliff looking for a shiny rock in dense undergrowth.

Lazy dragons. Can't solve their own problems. That makes two dragons I'm helping in just as many days.

"I'm starting to think I should have just gotten Morgan to burn everything. That would probably make this easier." I think to myself, using my sword to swat aside some particularly big-leafed plants. "Or maybe mages have arcane sight, like DnD. Maybe they could just point it out by seeing a magical signature or something."

So, again, I should have just gotten Morgan. Heck, at the very least she would help me search. But Morgan is busy anyways. She's got tactics training (also see: playing with figurines) and is helping Robin study maps of Valm and Valentia in advance so it's easier to formulate plans once we arrive and can properly assess the war situation.

Hmm… I wonder if any of the other mages would have helped me search if I asked. Maybe Laurent. I know he's got a good will streak. Other than that… probably not anyone. The price of not having friends I suppose.

In case you're wondering, dragonstones are palm-sized, and Nowi's is light green, making it that much more difficult to find. I'm looking for a plant-colored stone in a bunch of plants.

"Do not fear, soldier!" A female, loud (very loud) voice calls out from above me. "The great and powerful Cynthia is here to… to…"

I glance up to see a pegasus hovering a few dozen meters above me, with a confused-looking Cynthia looking around. Eventually our eyes meet, and she speaks again.

"I was told there was someone in trouble around here, have you seen them?" She asks. "I don't want my entrance to go to waste!"

I see she has her priorities straight. "Was the person who told you that, by any chance, Nowi?"

"Yeah!" She nods. "How'd you know?

"Because I know she's too embarrassed to come back and check herself." I grumble. Nowi probably realized I was taking a long time and sent Cynthia to come check on me under the guise of "someone's in trouble!" If she put as much effort into finding the dragonstone as she has avoiding responsibility, we'd already be done searching. "No one's in trouble Cynthia. Nowi lied."

"No way!" Cynthia gasps. "That's not very heroic of her! She shouldn't be crying wolf if there's no wolf!"

I guess that moral tale exists here too. "She wanted to save face. She lost her dragonstone and asked me to find it, and it's taking a while."

"She didn't even stay to help? That's just lazy of her." Cynthia huffs.

No kidding.

"Well never fear! For I, Cynthia, hero of justice, will help you!" She pronounces. "And Snowflake too!"

The pegasus snorts. I don't know if that's agreement, or if snorted because it heard it's name. How intelligent are pegasi exactly? I never did figure that out.

Cynthia carefully finds a place to land and hops off her pegasus… or at least she tries to. Her mother really shines through in her, and by that I mean she would have face-planted into the dirt if I didn't catch her.

"You didn't see that!" Cynthia says, and scrambles to her feet. "I was totally elegant and cool!"

"If you say so."

Just like everyone else in the Shepherds, Cynthia's appearance is remarkably accurate to the game; though either because of the few years that have passed in this world or just because she's probably an adult just like everyone else, she does appear a bit older than her game portrait. I don't know how to explain that in physical terms though. A slightly sharper face? Maybe she's taller than expected? I don't know what it is, but there's something different. She's very clearly a young adult rather than vaguely teenage.

Also, just like all the other pegasus knights I've seen so far, Cynthia has armored boots that protect her lower leg and knee and an armored skirt which covers bare thighs (why is that the case? Why not armored pants? There has to be a reason!) and her chestplate now extends to cover the stomach area unlike her game portrait.

"So what does Nowi's dragonstone look like anyways?" Cynthia asks as she tries to kick aside some plants.

"Light green, palm-sized, reflects the sunlight." I say.

"Ooh… that's going to be hard." Cynthia mutters, eyeing the plants around us.

"That's why I've been here for so long." I sigh. "Do you have a torch? We could burn some stuff. That might help."

"I don't think the Khans would appreciate us starting forest fires in their country." Cynthia notes.

"Ah, good point."

To my surprise, Snowflake is helping. The pegasus is kicking around plants and sticking its nose in shrubs, apparently looking for the dragonstone. Is it mimicking us, or is it actually looking?

You know what, I've got a pegasus knight right here. I can just ask. "Cynthia."

"Yes, soldier?"

I don't think she knows I'm a Shepherd. "I'll admit to being very unfamiliar with pegasi, so I have a question if you don't mind."

"Sure! I know a bunch about them, obviously!" Cynthia says proudly.

"I don't doubt it." I say. "So, I suppose there's no polite way to put this, but how intelligent are pegasi? I've been told that they're intelligent, but I have no context for what that means. Are we talking human-level, or, like, dog-level?"

Snowflake snorts and beats its (her? his?) wings at me. That's probably offense if I had to guess. Apparently Snowflake understands me.

"Oh shush Snowflake, it's just a question." Cynthia tuts. "Brady asked the same thing before and you didn't snort at him!"

Snowflake tosses their mane and snorts again petulantly.

"Don't mind her; she's just huffy. Proud thing." Cynthtia says fondly. "Pegasi are close to human as far as we can tell. Somewhere around a monkey."

Snowflake whinneys, and Cynthia sighs in exasperation.

"I'm not saying you are a monkey, silly!" She huffs.

Cynthia spends the next minute arguing with her stubborn pegasus. I've resorted to slashing apart the undergrowth in an attempt to see better, and honestly it's not helping. Now I have a bunch of loose leaves in my way.

"Aah, don't flap! You might blow away the dragonstone!" Cynthia whines as Snowflake beats her wings in irritation. "Snowflaaake!"

"You know who else throws tantrums?" I ask cheekily. "Monkeys! Not helping your case Snowflake."

If a pegasus can glare, then Snowflake glares at me. She does stop being fussy though. I'm also starting to think that pegasi have to have higher than monkey intelligence, because Snowflake apparently understands what we're saying.

Even with Cynthia and Snowflake's help, it takes a few dozen minutes to find the dragonstone. It's actually Snowflake that finds it. She sticks her nose into a shrub, knocks a few branches aside, and picks out the green stone with her teeth.

"Ooh, good job Snowflake!" Cynthia praises, and the pegasus drops the rock in her hands. "Thanks for your help!"

"And thanks for yours." I say. "This would have taken hours- well, more hours- without you… though I suppose part of the reason it took so long was because it took an hour to get down."

"An hour?" Cynthia blinks.

"Yeah." I nod. "That's an almost completely vertical cliff, and I don't have climbing gear! I was being cautious."

"Well…" Cynthia looks at the cliff. I probably took longer than I needed to going down, but whatever. I've never tried to climb something difficult before. "Okay, fair enough. I get to fly, so I never considered how long it would take."

She climbs on Snowflake's back, and then pauses.

"Are you coming?"

"Oh, uh…" I hesitantly approach the pegasus. "I've never ridden a pegasus, or any animal for that matter."

"No time like now!" Cynthia says cheerfully. "I don't have stirrups, so you'll have to do a bit of a swing to get on. Snowflake?"

Snowflake vocalizes what I can only call a sigh, and lowers her wings to the ground.

"So, you're going to have to stand facing the opposite way as me." Cynthia says. "And grab my waist."

"Okay…" I cautiously do as she instructs.

"Tighter."

I oblige and tighten my grip a bit. No time to be shy I suppose.

"Now, you're going to swing your far leg up over the saddle while pushing off with your other one and pulling with your arms, and I'm going to help by grabbing your shirt. Oh, and mind the wings."

"This doesn't sound easy."

"It just takes practice, and it's easier because pegasi are shorter than horses, you can even do it on the move!" Cynthia says cheerfully. "Though that requires a certain amount of timing. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be…"

"Come on then!"

I try to execute all the necessary movements at once, and it's decidedly ungraceful. It's only thanks to Cynthia's surprising upper body strength as she hauls me up by my sleeve that I manage to get on Snowflake's back without falling. Snowflake sways a bit during the process, and I have a moment of fear that she's going to throw me off. I did mock her earlier.

My fear is unfounded though. Snowflake does nothing of the sort. She only brings her wings up and beats them once to signal her readiness to fly.

"Okay, now hold on tight." Cynthia says. "This is your first time, so arms around my waist. You can normally get away with less, but it helps if you know how much you need."

"No chances." I mutter, wrapping my arms around her. It's decidedly uncomfortable because of her armor.

"Exactly." She chirps. "Alright Snowflake, let's go!"

I look down exactly once before deciding I don't like the look of the ground falling away from me, and I instead stare at Cynthia's armor for the duration of the flight and probably hold her a bit more tightly than needed.

(The armor on her skirt doesn't go all the way around, it stops halfway. I guess it's so Cynthia doesn't have to sit on metal?)

Okay, I have to ask about it. I have to. The more I look at pegasus knight armor and equipment the more confused I am. I have to know if the weird saddle and the armored skirt and whatnot are practical considerations, or if it's aesthetic.

I have the good sense to wait until we're down on the ground though. Cynthia gets off first and helps me down (and by that I mean I all but fall off and Cynthia catches me, not unlike when she got off at the bottom of the cliff).

"So?" She asks giddily. "Fun?"

"I was going to go with "terrifying", but fun works too." I say.

"Aww… well I guess flying isn't for everyone." Cynthia sighs.

"Also, I have another question."

"Please don't be about pegasi intelligence again, I don't want Snowflake to be mad at me." Cynthia says.

"I promise it's not about pegasi intelligence. In fact, it's not about pegasi… directly."

"Alright, I'm listening. Let the heroic genius Cynthia answer all your questions!"

Yeah, she and Morgan will get along well. They have almost the exact same personality, or at least the exact same tendency to stroke their own ego. "Why is your armor and equipment so weird?"

Cynthia pauses. "What do you mean…?"

"Well, I know how saddles usually look, and usually they're more than just a seat and some straps." I say, pointing to her saddle. "There's usually more fabric around the sides, hugging the horse's body, right? Also, your armor is odd. I noticed you only have half your skirt armored, and for some reason you don't have thigh armor at all, and I was wondering if that's an aesthetic thing or if there's an actual practical reason."

Cynthia hesitates for a moment, then says. "You know, this is probably the first time I've had a guy talk about my skirt in a way that I think isn't supposed to be creepy."

Oh, uh… yeah… maybe that was a bad question to ask someone I just met. Shit. "Sorry, my thoughts get ahead of me sometimes. I'm used to Morgan being fine with literally anything I ask, so…"

"Oh, oh! You're…" Cynthia snaps her fingers a few times, trying to remember. "Nathan, right? The outworlder? Morgan's boyfriend?"

"That's me."

"Noire told me about you!"

Oh good. I don't think Cynthia would be nearly as happy to find out who I am if Inigo had told her about me.

"Am I actually a legendary hero in your world!?"

"Uhh… well, you're a character from a game. Legendary might be a stretch, but you're certainly a hero."

"Yes…!" Cynthia cheers quietly, pumping a fist in victory. "I'm a hero in another world!"

Eh, sure. We'll go with that. As long as it makes her happy. "So, uh, my questions…"

"Oh, right." Cynthia perks up. Her earlier hesitation is completely gone. Apparently "Morgan's boyfriend" is prestigious enough of a position that she doesn't assume I have weird intentions. Yay? "Well, the saddle and lack of thigh armor are kinda one thing. We don't really know why but having skin-to-skin contact, skin-to-fur I guess, helps with coordination. We're not sure if it's magic or if it's some subtle feeling of the muscles in our legs, but the lack of thigh armor and the different saddle are based around allowing for that contact to happen. The armored skirt is obviously to make up for that, and it's not armored in the back because we don't want to sit on metal! It's not like skirts have a nice fixed structure where you can put padding inside in the right places, so if we sat down wrong with metal back there things might get uncomfortable real quick."

"Fair enough." I say. "Doesn't that chafe…?"

"Only if you don't brush your pegasus well." Cynthia says, then frowns. "I would know, I made that mistake once, and it sucked. That burn took forever to go away."

"I can imagine." Friction burns are not fun.

"Well, if that's all, I'm off to do hero things." Cynthia says. She hands me the dragonstone. "Tell Nowi she's lazy and terrible for me."

"I'll relish it."

Nowi is sheepish and apologetic when I hand her the dragonstone back. Apparently someone else (and by that I mean Nah, who is very critical of her mother's behaviour if you'll remember) already chewed her out for passing on the job to me, so I pass on Cynthia's disappointment as well as a small scolding from myself and leave it at that. I'm pretty sure Nah chewed her out better than I ever could, knowing her.

###

"Morgan…"

"Hmm?" She mumbles.

"Did I ever tell you my name isn't- wasn't I guess I should say- Nathan?"

Morgan rubs her eyes. "Is this a bit Nathan…? We are trying to go to sleep, right?"

"No, it's not a bit. I just remembered now." I say quietly. "I meant to tell you a long time ago. Naga reminded me of it when I spoke to her, and then I just sort of… forgot."

"So your name isn't actually Nathan?"

"I mean, it is now." I say. "I took on that name when I entered this world, mostly as a way to emotionally distance myself from being stuck here. I could put on a facade by taking on a new identity."

"Basically roleplay." Morgan murmurs. "But on a bigger scale?"

"Yeah. And then it started to fall apart after a little while after I knew I'd be stuck here. Couldn't put on a mask forever." I say.

"I get it." Morgan murmurs. "So, who are you then?"

"I'm Nathan. That hasn't changed." I assert. "Everything I've told you about myself is true, it's just that I used to be called Eric."

"Eric, huh?" Morgan hums. "I don't really have anything to say to that. It's a name."

"It is."

"And I'm still tired."

"Is this the part where I say "hi Tired"?"

"Mmm…" Morgan mumbles, and closes her eyes. "You could just say "goodnight Morgan". That works too."

"Alright. Goodnight Morgan." I say quietly. "Please don't be angry when you wake up."

"Just a name..." She says, already fading off. "Talk in the morning..."

To my relief, Morgan isn't angry when she wakes up. She seems rather indifferent to the information actually. I won't complain. I don't want this to be a big deal.

###

"-back your kind hand, lest precious love slip away like time's sand…" I sing quietly to myself as I hang up laundry on a line. It may sound strange, but out of all the chores I have to do I like laundry the most. It's basic and repetitive, which means I don't really have to think about it. My mind can wander to whatever else I want. I've started to have new story ideas, and so this is the perfect time to mull them over and consider how they'd work. I doubt I'll ever actually write these, it would be weird to write fanfiction about Fire Emblem, even if not Awakening, now that I know those characters actually potentially exist.

I could probably abuse all the knowledge I have of media properties back on Earth to have an easy time pumping out stories that are novel to everyone in this world, and I will probably do that at some point, but I'd like to write something original too. It really sucks that I can't do sci-fi though. People here aren't going to know what guns are, much less space ships, lasers, and droids and such.

Anyhow, that's not really the point of me doing laundry at the moment. The reason I bring up this scene at all is because it's rudely interrupted by a certain redhead.

"You!" Severa shouts, stomping into the laundry area.

"Me." I respond, sparing her only a glance before returning to work. "Hello Severa."

"Don't "hello" me! I know what you've done!"

"Really? Well, that simplifies things. Here I was worrying I'd have to explain my entire backstory to yet another person." I say sarcastically.

"Don't sass me!" Severa says. I hate her already. That didn't take long. "How dare you corrupt Inigo's sister when he wasn't around to stop you!"

"I'm sorry, have you met Morgan? If there was anyone doing some corrupting, it wasn't me, that's for sure."

"And another thing!" Severa says, completely ignoring me. "Who said you could go looking into our secrets! That's rude! I don't want someone random knowing all about me!"

"Oh sure, and how about you never get invested in the characters of a book ever again? Just so we're being fair here?" I respond acidly. "Are you quite done being an unreasonable brat? You can leave."

Severa stomps a foot. "I am not being unreasonable! What right do you have to pry into our lives and take away Inigo's sister?! You didn't struggle through a dead world and spend years on the run!"

Ah, so that's the issue. I'm an outsider intruding on the tightly-knit group of the future kids, which Morgan is still considered a part of. From that perspective, yeah, I guess I might look rude. That's still an illogical assumption to jump to if you bother to put more than ten seconds of thought into it, but it's not like I had high expectations of Severa.

"No, I didn't, because you were all fictional characters to me until a few years ago." I say curtly. "It's not like I was intentionally prying into your private thoughts. And as for Morgan, she approached me I'll have you know, and it's not up to you to restrict who can and can't interact with members of your little group."

"I know it's not! But you're trying to steal her from Inigo!"

"I have used neither force nor coercion, thank you very much." I say. "Morgan is free to do whatever the fuck she wants, I'm certainly not stopping her. I don't know why you're so hung up on the idea that I'm intentionally trying to keep Morgan away from you."

"Because Inigo doesn't get to do anything with her!" Severa protests. "Morgan is always busy with you!"

Really? I guess me and Morgan have fallen back into our habit of spending almost every free moment together, so that does mean that she has precious little time otherwise to spend with other people. I mean, she could take time out of our time together, it's not like I'm stopping her, but she doesn't particularly care to. "That's up to Morgan. I've not been stopping her or anything, so it really isn't my fault."

"It is! You're distracting her!"

I roll my eyes. "Sorry for being her boyfriend."

"As you should be." Severa huffs. "Inigo wants to time with his sister, alright? Stop hoggin her."

"Why didn't he just ask himself…?"

"He's shy! Gawds, what's so difficult about this?" Severa complains.

Severa leaves me alone after that, but she's certainly given me something to think on. It was easy to forget that I'm an outsider, and it was easy to forget that the future kids are very closely knit. It's also easy to forget that Morgan has a family. I don't mean that I forgot Robin or Inigo existed, but they've been kind of a non-factor in our relationship. Beyond a few words of warning from Robin, they've mostly kept out of our way (or maybe Morgan has kept them out of our way, I don't know).

I don't know what to make of this information. I'll have to mull it over. Severa is still a bitch though. I can understand confronting me for Inigo's sake, but she seriously didn't put any thought into the situation. At least she's loyal to her friends I suppose.

###

My little games library is starting to show some results, and more important, pull a profit. Not much of a profit considering I'm not charging all that much, but a profit nonetheless.

"I charge five copper per hour, with a ten copper deposit that's refunded when you return the game." I say. "That means twenty rents for an hour each is one silver! Not bad, huh?"

"That is pretty good." Morgan says in amusement. "Look at you taking advantage of the Shepherds having decent money."

"I know it's a bit expensive just to rent a game." I say sheepishly. Considering a loaf of bread is one copper, this would be way expensive back on Earth. Imagine charging… uh… twenty dollars Canadian to rent a game for an hour. "But it works."

Actually, now that I think about it, that's not the worst thing ever. A bit pricey for sure, but not ridiculous. There's no way this scheme would work with people who make less money than the Shepherds though. Five copper isn't pocket change to someone like a farmer.

For reference, in being a Shepherd I earn three silver a month and get free food, housing, equipment maintenance (assuming it wasn't my stupidity that broke something) and other perks. So I basically get three silver, and have no expenses. That's a good deal, and more importantly, it's enough that people can occasionally spend a mere five to ten copper on renting a game because they have literally no expenses (or at least no basic expenses).

"That's great." Morgan says again. Why does she still look amused? What's funny about this? "So how much do you make a month from that?"

"I mean, I haven't even been running this for a month yet, and it's rather inconsistent." I say. "But, let's see… I usually get someone renting each night, so let's just say five copper a day. Five copper times twenty five… a silver and twenty-five copper. That's more than a third of my pay for being a Shepherd!"

"Pretty solid." Morgan says, still smiling in amusement. "You've got a neat little stockpile of money for yourself now, huh?"

"Yep." I nod. "Or, well, both of us if we need it, though I guess you still have all that gold…"

"Nathan." Morgan says, grinning now. "Have I ever told you how much I make?"

I think I know where this is going. "No."

"Well, I'm a tactician, I get more than soldiers." She says.

"Right…" I say slowly. "So how much a month?"

"Oh, just a gold."

My roughly four silver and twenty five copper is nothing compared to that.

"Though, granted, I'm not just a bog-standard field tactician." Morgan says. "If I was the lowest rank tactician I'd probably be looking at maybe ten silver a month. The Shepherds obviously bump the pay a bit, but even so, I get as much as I do because I'm skilled. I'm almost comparable to Father in terms of skill after all. I did one one or two of our mock battles."

It's true, she did. I guess I never considered how much authority that actually gives her. Robin is High-Deliverer, which is roughly analogous to being a General (from what I can tell). Robin technically has the authority to command an army. Now, granted, he's a tactician before being a strategist, and it's questionable if he would actually ever be put in charge of an army, but his rank technically allows it. I don't know what Morgan's rank is, but it must be significantly higher than I was expecting.

"That also means I'm going to have a lot more responsibility when we get to Valentia." Morgan murmurs. "Because I will be expected to lead squads on the battlefield. If we ever have to split the Shepherds, well, I'm our next-best tactician behind Father."

"Joy." I say dryly, making it very clear I don't think that's joyful at all.

"But that's not fun to think about!" Morgan chirps. "I just wanted you to know that you don't have to worry about me." She hugs me, and continues patronizingly (if jokingly). "I'm still going to take care of you~!"

I roll my eyes, trying to cover for my embarrassment. I'm glad Morgan is having fun with this though. "The hope is that you won't need to."

"Oh sure, but I absolutely will if I have to." She says, then sighs. "Can't a girl pamper her boyfriend without him trying to be all "independant"?"

I laugh quietly upon hearing that, and a happy grin crosses Morgan's face in return. "Don't encourage me to be lazy Morgan, I just started being useful."

"Pff, you make it sound like I care about "skills" or something." Morgan jokes. "Don't you know all I care about is your cute face?"

"Somehow I'm not surprised." I say. "It's not like you make constant innuendos out of everything that imply you only care about appearances."

"Hey!" She pouts. "I mean, you're totally right, but that's rude and I'm going to pretend I'm offended!"

If my arms weren't somewhat pinned to my sides, I'd patronizingly pat her on the head right now. Alas, Morgan is taller than me now, so I have to settle for patting her on the waist instead.

"Seriously though, it's great you've got something going for you." Morgan murmurs. "I didn't mean to make your efforts feel insignificant. However, I will take care of you regardless of what happens; just like I know you'd try to if I was the poorer of us."

"I get it." I say. "I know it's not an ego thing. Well, not just an ego thing, because I know you rather enjoy having power."

Morgan shrugs shamelessly. "Guilty as charged."

"It's because we're partners." I say. "Right?"

"Obviously." Morgan huffs. "Clearly I haven't doted on you enough if you feel the need to ask."

I roll my eyes again. I was actually being sincere, if cliche. "Morgan-"

"I know you were serious, and I agree." She says quickly. "But can we have fun, please?"

Have I really been shutting her down that often? I know I tend to nudge us away from outright lewdness (partially out of habit because Morgan's lewdness is a running joke that, and also partially because I'm nervous that I'll have no idea what to do if I actually let Morgan take things further), but it's not like we've had any lack of cuddling or, uh, makeouts the last month or so. Am I really moving too slow?

"Sorry, that was phrased poorly." Morgan backtracks. Did I make a face or something? I don't want to guilt her into holding back her thoughts. "I'm not saying I haven't had fun, I have, absolutely; you've been wonderful. Heck, you were doting on me more than the other way around for the entirety of training."

Yeah, but it's not like some housework and massages make up for multiple months of Morgan holding together my fragile emotional state and providing for me because of my (former) complete lack of survival skills.

"But I was hoping… so you know how we roleplay, right?"

"I'm well aware, yes."

"And we cuddle and kiss, right?"

"Yes." It's not like I could miss that. Where is this going?

"Okay, so… can we combine those?"

Ah. Right. I guess that was the logical conclusion to all the stuff we do. I guess, just by virtue of me poking fun at her lewdness in roleplay but seriously considering advances when she's serious herself, I've gently steered us away from this combination so far.

"We don't have to if you don't want to!" Morgan says quickly, seeing my hesitance. "Just… it seems like it would be fun."

"Yeah, uh…" I mentally scramble, trying to decide how I should be reacting to this. "Yes, sure."

"Are you positive? You sound nervous." Morgan asks.

"I am." I admit. "I'm not opposed, Naga knows I'm not. I'm just… uh… can I be blunt?"

"Please do." Morgan says. She's actually released me from the hug at this point to hold my hands in hers, and it's reassuring somehow. Maybe because it makes us even. Morgan isn't "in charge" right now.

Incidentally, that's part of the issue.

"I'm nervous about putting myself in your hands like that." I say. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just…"

"Letting someone physically toy around with you is scary?"

"Yeah."

"We'll set boundaries you know."

"I know." I sigh. "I'm sure I'll get over myself."

"You don't have to say yes Nathan."

"No, no, I want this too." I say. "Just trying to figure out my mental hangups and quirks is all."

"Ah, okay." Morgan says. She allows a grin to cross her face once more. "We're going to have so much fun."

I take a deep, calming breath and nod. It will certainly be something. I also can't help but feel this is an intentional distraction from the whole "going to war" thing, but hey, at least it'll be a fun distraction. Might as well figure out how far we're willing to go before we're dealing with lengthy marches, constant fighting, and severe physical and emotional strain. "Yeah, we will."

So… yes, this new part of Nathan and Morgan's relationship felt like a natural extension of their dynamic. Now that it's been established though, you won't see much of it unless it's somehow relevant. It's very much a background detail. The way you see them interact is going to be mostly the same.

Anyhow…

Cynthia is both easy and fun to write, and Severa is… difficult. Yes, I intentionally made her a bit of a bitch here. She has serious negative traits (especially in Nathan's eyes), but she's not all bad. I made sure to make her a bit more sympathetic in the last chapter, and it's not like her motive was bad here.