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Update: Revised for AO3 reposting


-Special Story Quest-

-Corvus x Viator-

~Wärme des Lagerfeuers~

(Warmth of the Campfire)

Friendship level: 10

Affection level: 5


It was a very cold night.

Which was an understatement of the century, the temperatures in Dragonspine always neared sub zero levels.

It made the blonde haired Prinzessin, who was currently lying on a thick makeshift cot covered with the thickest blanket possible, a shivering mess despite the massive bundle she was in and was very close to a fire pit.

"ACHOO!"

The traveler's floating companion looked at her fallen form in equal parts pity and amusement.

"...Paimon thinks Fischl should've worn something warmer."

"For that I concur with the little fairy, Mein Fräulein."

The blonde glared with teary eyes at the two floating annoyances.

"D-Da ya think the P-Princhesin deer Vertilang would wear a-anything l-lesh than r-royalty? A-and is m-my plight f-funny?" she slurred, her voice stuttering.

Grumbling, she sniffed in an attempt to prevent her from sneezing, her nose stuffy from all the accumulated mucus.

Unfortunately for her, it failed.

"I'll h-have you kn-ah ah ACHOO!"

The strange small companion of the traveler burst out laughing while the raven chuckled.

"Ehe, see! Even her speech is strange."

"That I can't deny, I believe mein fräulein is much more honest when she's sick." the sentient electric bird mused.

"though I do worry about her current state-"

"*Sniff* S-Shut it! I-I'm fine! This i-is nothing! And I-I'll have ya know that I is an h-honest always, uh, um prinshesh!"

Her voice a few pitches higher than usual that it was close to shrieking and cracking, with the addled garbled speech, it just made her sound whiny instead.

Seeing the usually haughty prinzessin reduced to such a pitiful state, it was a sight to behold, so much so that It made Paimon burst out laughing, much to the blonde's ever increasing ire.

"Pfft What the-HAHAHAHAHA!"

"S-Stop it! C-Come here y-you a-abnoxious imp-!"

While the small fairy laughed loudly and the prinzessin trying her best not to strangle her, the raven was currently trying to control the situation from getting worse as the poor sickly girl just couldn't catch a break with how the obnoxious emergency was all over her.

The traveler on the other hand, who was standing guard by the entrance of their temporary shelter, seemed to be very worried.

At the moment, they were all holed inside a small cozy cave, which they luckily found on time before a strong blizzard nearly swept them away.

The small entrance way was blocked with Starfell Sword to prevent the biting cold winds or any enemies from entering, it proved to be effective as the geo construct held in place firmly and ensured that not only were they protected, but also kept the entire interior of the cave insulated.

It was fortunate that he was currently resonated with geo or they would've frozen to death outside long ago.

Aether felt like it was his blunder for dragging the blonde into his quest of placing survey beacons on top of the mountain summits, which lead to them taking too long that a snowstorm almost got them swept away.

It was also his fault as well for not giving her enough time to change into warmer and thicker clothing, and while he did pack the necessities for setting up camp, he forgot that while he was more resistant to the cold weather most of the time, his blonde girlfriend on the other hand, wasn't.

And now she had gotten sick because of him losing common sense.

His lack of foresight made him want to slam his head against the wall.

Seeing as the blonde looked to be close to exploding with Paimon constantly making fun of her, he gestured to his small partner to stop.

"Okay, that's enough."

His tiny companion seemed to cease her teasing and relieving Oz of having to be the peace mediator, but the way Paimon was snickering and mumbling "Snotty Princess" were not exactly subtle.

Fortunately he managed to avert a catastrophe as the blonde immediately quieted down.

He didn't want to incite the blonde's uncontrolled fury, especially when she's ill, she may overload the firepit and rob them of their only source of warmth, the flint he had already exhausted its spark so he didn't want that to happen, he also realized that he should've brought Bennett along as well as he was the only pyro user he could recruit that could keep them from freezing to death, maybe then they wouldn't be in this predicament.

Though in hindsight, bringing along Bennett was a bad idea, he somehow got the feeling that they would get stuck inside the hellish mountain if he were with them compared to where they are right now.

Going back on topic before his mind veered off, as much as he wanted to also tease his girlfriend, because doing so only brought out her cuteness, the situation at hand was entirely his fault and making it worse wouldn't help, so he would do what he can to rectify his big mistake.

Once she was lucid and was in a much better condition, he would make her a nice warm meal, and later once they get out and back at Monsdadt, he'll treat her to somewhere she likes, it's the least he could do for making her sick and involving her into this mess.

Sighing, he quietly approached the cot and sat down right next to the bedridden blonde.

"...Fischl? How are you feeling?" he asked softly, tucking the blanket properly on her, and then placed a hand on her forehead.

The Prinzessin, who was previously enraged, now seemed to look jovial and bashful as she turned her glazed eyes to the traveler.

"N-Never been better my sweet dear traveler~" she squeaked, sinking her further into the blanket.

If it was possible, her pitch was even higher than before, and he had come to witness the miracle that was her biggest goofy smile, a rarity on her face, something he never thought he would see.

It was absolutely adorable.

He also found it hilarious on how quickly her mood changed.

The way she was acting was a far cry from her usual haughty princess persona, and it was a shame that the Kamera didn't have any recording capabilities.

Poking her head out of the covering, her flushed face and glassy eyes seemed to sparkle with a feverish cheerfulness as she addressed the traveler.

"Are you gonna feed me princy? This princess needs nourishment, feed meeee~"

Blinking at the exaggerated pleading and her pouty puppy eyed expression, he chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"Just leave things to me okay? I'll be taking care of you now, also I'm currently preparing some Goulash to warm us up." he said softly.

Fischl's childish grin grew even bigger at that.

"Mmmkay~"

Nodding, Aether then kissed her on the cheek before standing up, which the blonde couldn't help but giggle loudly.

"Yay~ my princy aethy is taking care of meee!~" she cheered, wiggling her legs giddily.

"...And now it looks like she's become delirious..."

"Whaddyamean? Delirus? Me? Bah! This princess is 100% sobeer!~"

Without warning, she jumped out of where she lied, not caring if the carefully placed coverings flew haphazardly, and immediately clung onto him.

"Woah! Easy there Fisch- Hey stop that!"

"Weeeeeee~"

"Fischl wait a m-hmpf!"

"Muah~ Kissy kissy princy, this prinzessin needs her affecshun~"

Meanwhile, the two companions watched the scene unfold before them with differing reactions.

The small fairy already had both her hands covering her eyes.

"...Paimon feels kinda grossed out."

The raven on the other hand, while as peeved and unsettled as the fairy like companion, looked strangely fond as he was disgusted.

"Ah young love, when mein fräulein had been but a lonely girl in need of companionship, now time zooms by and she'd finally grown into such a fine young lady."

"...You know, it's kinda creepy with how you said that, and it doesn't even make sense!"

"What's wrong with what I said?"

Trying their best to block out the not so safe for the eyes scene unfolding in front of them, Paimon and Oz could only wait.

It was decided that everytime the two blondes would get lovey dovey, they would find alternate ways to block it out, and in Oz's case he would bury half of his face into the dirt ground, which he was also doing at the moment.

Luckily for them, the gross scene ended fairly quickly as the blonde now started to do other things instead, mostly involving being hyper, as if a kid on sugar rush ten times over.

"Weeeeeee~ Hahahahaha! Yerrrr Princess is here!"

"Please Fischl, stop that!"

The once serene cave by now were filled with the sickly Prinzessin's boisterous laughter, along with the panicked voice of the traveler as he tried to prepare their dinner.

For someone who was sick she could really be trigger happy.

While he was busy prepping their dinner, she wasn't exactly the most behaved but-

"Hey Fischl stop! You're gonna topple the pot!

"Nu uh! This princess is perfectly capable of pouring soup!~"

"It's not even ready ye- wait! don't do that you might burn yourself!"

"I got the spoooon~"

"Paimon, get the spoon from her! And Oz make her lie back down!"

"Mein Fräulein! Listen to the traveler, you should be resting."

"Blegh you can't tell me what to do!~ I'm a princess!~"

The traveler, and with the help of the other two companions, eventually managed to subdue the disoriented prinzessin, and when their dinner was finally ready, she was fed properly.

Well, almost.

It only took him about five tries to get her to stop biting his arm and to not throw Paimon and Oz around like a ragdoll in trying to make her sit still.

And as he continued feeding her soup, she still wasn't-

"Ow! Hey stop biting my- Hey! Don't lick my-"

"Hmm, delicious traveler soup~"

"I said stop-"

"Nooo! Here have a taste of princess soup too~"

"Hey give me back the spoon! And what are yo- hmpf?!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You know what? Paimon now regrets teasing Fischl..."

"...Mein Fräulein..."


Much, much later on, it became a normal affair as the commotion finally died down and they now settled for sleep.

Things for Aether however, weren't going so smoothly.

While his small companion and the raven slept snuggly in the corner, he on the other hand was having difficulty with sleeping.

Problem was, there was a certain blonde prinzessin, who had basically glued herself to him as she slept.

After dinner ended, she forcefully pulled him into her already cramped cot and basically made him sleep with her for the night.

Which now that he thought about that statement, it sounded absolutely wrong without context.

And as the sickly blonde prinzessin continuously rubbed her head on his chest like a cat as she straddled half of his body to hers, he could hear hear mumble random sweet nothings in her sleep.

"Hmmm~ You're so warm and soft princy~ my dearly beloved princy~" she murmured, and despite her being unconscious she still retained her high pitched childish tone of voice.

Aether for his part swore that he was as red as a tomato with how much she was being as physically close to him as possible.

He was also doing his best not to think about how certain assets of hers were hard pressed against him.

"Princy please hug me tighter~"

Hearing her clingy tone, he couldn't help but chuckle as he patted her head, which in response the unconscious ill blonde mewled contentedly.

"How cute..."

He found her to be adorable overall today, despite her being all jumpy and making a mess throughout the night with how childish and mischievous she was, and despite of her perceived childishness, she surprisingly could do the more daring stunts he didn't even know she was capable of doing.

It would take him a long time to forget that she did something that to him during dinner.

Nonetheless, he couldn't wait to show her the amount of pictures he discreetly took while she made a fool out of herself while she was ill.

Eventually, as his thoughts started to fizzle, he too had slowly fallen asleep as the warmth of his cute girlfriend, who was downright smothering him, enveloped him whole.

Despite the snowstorm raging outside and seemed to not let up at all, the small cave was glowing and bursting with life, and for the first time ever in the winter wasteland, the bleakness of the mountain couldn't hope to take away the respite of the otherworldly Traveler and his Princess.


-Special Quest Complete-

-125 Affection EXP gained-

Current Affection level: 5