A/N- I don't know why but Matthew/Leila is the one pairing that makes me actually get off my ass and write fics. Also if I predict Performing Arts Nils or Leila with this I'm going to flip.
Are You Mine, Or Are You Not?
Matthew's eyes opened slowly at the crack of dawn like they did on most mornings. A spy like him always had to be a light sleeper, even in the safety of a place such as the castle of Askr, lest they get surprised and kidnapped in the middle of the night for the information they knew. It had been about a year and a half since he had arrived, he was one of the first Heroes that the summoner had summoned to fight on Askr's behalf, and he had earned the respect of said summoner and the royal family they worked for. He wasn't the strongest, most handsome, or most popular Hero in the Order, but he was quick, intelligent, and sneaky and those skills lent itself well to the responsibilities he had as a senior member.
"Well, let's see what's on the docket today." He said to himself as he sat up in bed and walked to the door of his room. Assignments were given through a slip of paper under the door so he picked his up and opened it. "New Hero orientation, if necessary. See summoner after breakfast. Nice, might get a day off today." The summoner didn't summon every day and when they didn't then the Hero assigned to that got another day off that week. So Matthew cleaned himself up as much as he could and got dressed in his best looking normal outfit, he didn't want to make a bad impression on the new Heroes after all. Then he headed down to the mess hall and had his breakfast, a bowl of hot oatmeal with raspberries mixed in. When he finished and brought his bowl back to get cleaned he searched the room for the summoner and eventually found him finishing up his breakfast as well.
"Oh Matthew, glad to see you." He said friendly. "I know you might have been expecting a day off, but I do plan to do some summoning today, sorry."
"Nah, I get it, I've gotten out of doing orientation before and I trust your judgement after all this time." Matthew assured him. "But why today, anyone in specific you looking to have join the Order?"
"Yeah actually." The summoner said with a nod. "You know that performing arts festival me and the Askr siblings went to the other day? Well, I saw some Heroes that I think would really fit in pretty well and raise some morale as well."
"Anyone I would know?" Matthew asked prodding for some information. The summoner just gave him a grin, but he didn't want to ruin the surprise in case he didn't summon the person he was wanting to.
"Maybe, but you're going to have to find out when we get there." He told him with a smirk. "Meet me at the summoning stone in about an hour okay?" Matthew nodded and he walked the grounds for said hour wondering to himself just who the summoner was trying to get. He was sure that the people were from his homeland of Elibe, but it was strange. Usually the summoner was more open about what he was doing, but now he was being a bit secretive. Fortunately as he walked he ran into Sharena and he mentally smirked knowing that he could probably get more information out of her.
"Matthew! What a nice surprise!" She said with that ever warm smile. "What are you doing just wandering around here?"
"Just wasting a bit of time before I help the summoner with the new Heroes that may be coming in today. Something about interesting people from a performing arts festival. Anything you can tell me princess?" He asked.
"Well, they are a bunch of your friends from Elibe, at least I hope they are your friends. They were really nice to all of us and we left on a really great note!" She answered, not really giving him anything.
"Were they people we already know from the Order, or were they new people?" He prodded. Something told him that the summoner had already gotten her in on his little secret plan, but this was probably something she would be able to tell him.
"Oh, they were all new, not even any Lyns, Hectors, or Eliwoods which is strange for these worlds wouldn't you think?" Sharena told him. "One of them mentioned you went we fought them, so I'm sure that's the one the summoner wants to bring here."Oops, I think I may have said too much. Don't tell the summoner I told you that Matthew! Please?!"
"My lips are sealed Princess Sharena." Matthew said moving his hand across his lips to show her he was telling the truth. "But thank you, you've given me something to think about." It was about time for him to join the summoner but as he walked that way he started to think about just who this Hero could be. First off he had to know them well enough that they would consider him a friend. That was a number of people, but Sharena told him that it was someone knew, so that nixed Hector, Serra, and Legault. Jaffar would never consider him a friend so that was a double cross out. So that left him with two people in mind, Oswin and Guy. Guy seemed more likely to be in some performing arts thing than the stuffy knight so he was slightly pleased with himself in guessing who it might be. In the very back of his mind he wondered if it could be Leila, but after he had asked the summoner one time if he could bring her back and he explained that the summoning stone didn't work that way he stopped thinking about it as much like he had to learn to do with his normal life. It still hurt to not have her around, but it was less so after all the years he had gained under his belt. When he was at the end of his thoughts he was finally at the summoning stone where the summoner was aiming the holy relic, ready to see if it would work today.
"I still can't believe such an important tool only works about five percent of the time, you think that they would have made this thing better." The summoner commented when Matthew strolled up. "I mean even bows and arrows have better success rates than this thing, not to mention the guns from my realm I mentioned to you before. But enough chit-chat, you ready to see what we've got here? I used about a hundred orbs to to charge this thing up, so we might be here a while."
"A hundred orbs, you must be really wanting these Heroes to join us." Matthew said with a bit of shock, but the summoner just shrugged and began the process. The colored orbs showed up on the summoning stone and he started to shoot at them as they popped up. It was lucky that the summoner was such a good shot back in his own realm, otherwise they might have had to use even more orbs just to practice their marksmanship. Matthew noted something though, he wasn't really going for any red orbs when he shot. It wasn't too strange, sometimes Heroes used different weapons than their 'normal' counterparts so when Matthew saw he was only shooting blue and colorless orbs he figured that Guy had been using a bow because of his Sacaen heritage. Either way soon enough when one of the blue orbs broke dust came out of the summoning stone and the summoner stopped shooting to allow the Hero to be summoned.
"Hey, I know that kid." Matthew noted with a smile when they came into view. It was Ninian's brother Nils. He was a bit more dressed up than usual but there was no mistaking who it was with that teal hair and red eyes of his. So Matthew walked up to him with a smile and greeted him. "How's it going kid? Learn any new songs lately?"
"Do I know you?" Nils asked with a confused look on his face. This man that was speaking to him looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite put his nose on it.
"Ha, good one Nils, it's me Matthew." Matthew replied with a chuckle because he thought Nils was joking.
"Oh yeah, you're the guy who- Well maybe I shouldn't tell you at this point." Nils said a bit more seriously in tone. But that didn't really tip Matthew off to anything because Nils was always acting older than he looked. "Well, if you guys summoned me here you must need my help and I'm willing to do whatever I can."
"Nice. Well I'm here to tell you about everything that goes on around here and show you to your room. I think we've got one right next to your sister and Lord Eliwood's room, so take that as you will." Matthew said before handing him some papers and a key. He then turned to the summoner. "Are you going to keep going?"
"Yeah, but I doubt you'll miss anything, just give him the basics for now." He assured the spy. So Matthew led Nils around the castle showing and explaining everything before showing him to his room. It still felt like Nils didn't remember who he was though and that was a tad concerning. But he let those thoughts go as he got back to the summoning stone.
"Any luck?" He asked the summoner when he came into view.
"Nope, and I only have about five shots left." He replied before shooting a few more times without results. He was now just shooting at colorless orbs and that just strengthened what Matthew predicted about who the hero was. The last of the five shots was taken an nothing happened so Matthew figured they were done, but the summoner took some more orbs out of his pockets to try again.
"Hey, maybe you should try later, I don't think Guy will be too mad if you take a break." Matthew commented as the summoner loaded up one more shot.
"Who said I was trying to summon Guy?" He commented before shooting and hitting a colorless orb dead down the middle. Again the dust came out of the summoning stone and a new Hero started to come into view. At first all Matthew could see was that it was a woman and that she was wearing a purple dress. It was less frilly and poofy than most dresses, but it wasn't straight either. His eyes slowly trailed up her form and he saw an assassin's knife in her hands before he got to her face. There was a small mole on the left side of her chin and that's when his heart stopped beating for a few seconds. That smirk, those eyes, the reddish-purple hair, it was her. It was Lelia. He quickly ran up to her without thinking and suddenly wrapped his arms around her in the biggest hug he could muster.
"Well, isn't this a warm welcome?" Leila teased before she saw who was hugging her. Her eyes widened for the briefest of moments before she smiled even brighter and hugged Matthew back. She looked at the summoner and just shook her head at him. "If you would have told me that he was here I would have come back without the need to summon me here."
"Yeah, but that kind of felt like breaking the rules of the realms so I wanted to do it the right way so you two could reunite." The summoner said getting closer to the pair. "Matthew, this is why I wanted you to join me today and why the room next to yours got cleaned out the other day." For the first time since he got here there were tears flowing down Matthew's face because he was so happy to have the woman he loved back.
"Thank you, thank you so much for this man. This means so much to me, you have no idea." He told him truthfully.
"Hey, you've been a loyal and productive team member, not to mention one of my close friends, you two deserve this." The summoner told him. "You take the rest of the day off and show Leila around and catch up with each other okay? And try not to be too loud tonight yeah?" The two of them nodded and Matthew lead Leila away from the summoning stone, the euphoria of this moment still clouding his judgement a bit as they walked. As soon as there was no one in sight though Lelia pinned Matthew against a column and started kissing him on the lips very passionately. Matthew wasn't going to complain about this one bit so he started kissing her back.
"Mmm, you are just as good as this as I remember." She commented as they continued on. They had always been very affectionate with each other and soon enough their tongues started reaching for more and they were fully making own within mere moments. They kept going on like that, making sure no one was going to catch them until Leila made a strange commented. "Elimine, it's been so long since we've done something like this, I was starting to worry I'd never feel like this again." For whatever reason this got Matthew's mind churning normally again and while it took him a few moments to realize what was going on, eventually it clicked for him and he started to push Leila away from him.
"Stop, stop, we can't do this." He said keeping her at arms length, knowing at this point he had already gone too far. He really didn't want to talk about it though so he looked above him and saw an escape route. "Sorry." Was all he said before he started to climb the column to try and get away. He knew he couldn't outrun Leila so he was trying to get away from her vertically.
"Matthew you dumbass!" Leila yelled back at him as she gave chase. She wasn't just about to let the man she loved say something like that and not explain himself. And even if she was in a dress, she was and always would be the better spy then him so she was gaining ground on him quickly even though he was pretty smart to start climbing than running away. Matthew saw her chasing after him and he picked up the pace, running across the rafters of the ceiling looking for a place he could duck into to lose Leila and let himself think about what was going to need to be done. He spotted a balcony he could jump down to and start going through the hallways behind it, so he started to move towards it. Unfortunately for him Leila saw it to and as soon as his feet hit the ground of the balcony so did hers and she was standing in front of the doorway so he couldn't leave without jumping down. He might of risked it, but there was nothing in range for him to jump to and the fall wasn't going to be worth it.
"Damn, I forgot how much faster you always were then me." He said trying to play it cool as he rested back on the railing.
"Matthew, cut the crap." Lelia told him seriously. "You went from being the most happy man I've ever met to running away and risking injury to get away from me, what is going on with you today?" She moved over and rested her arms on the railing as well and Matthew turned around and did the same next to her.
"Fine, you got me. While we were making out I realized that it felt kind of weird to me, kind of wrong in some way." Leila was about to chime in but he put his finger up to tell her he wasn't done. "You see, I've been here for a while and I've seen things here, seen many different realms, many different Elibes. And each one always without a doubt has the same people in it, always a Hector, a Serra, even down to the most inconsequential people. And I realized that you're not my Lelia, you're another Matthew's and even if we are the same person, it's not fair for me to butt in like this and take you away from him. Especailly when you-" He caught himself before he told her what her supposed fate was. But she knew what he was going to say.
"Don't worry, when we met during the festival the summoner told me about how in most Elibe realms I'm dead." She told him. "But in my world, it's very different. In my world, you're the one who is dead Matthew. Killed by a Black Fang assassin and strung up on the Dread Isle as a warning for our group." Matthew's eyes were full of shock when she told him that. It was like their roles had been reversed and he wanted to know how.
"So I take it you were the one with Lord Hector, defeating Nergal and slaying the dragon and such?" He asked her and she nodded. "But how? What made it so you went to Caelin and I went after the Black Fang?"
"Well, tell me if this sounds familiar." Leila started. "Lord Uther calls us to his office and tells us that he has two jobs that need to get done, one about the inheritance dispute and Caelin and the other a slightly more dangerous job infiltrating the Black Fang."
"We both wanted to take the Black Fang job to protect the other." Matthew commented.
"Exactly, so what did we do? We let a coin flip decide who would go where. I called heads and you called tails. You see where this is going don't you Matthew?" She asked knowing he was smart enough to follow.
"It landed on tails instead of heads like it did in my realm and I got to decide who went on what mission." He responded and Leila nodded again. "So that's why Nils didn't recognize me, he just knew me as that dead guy on the Dread Isle." There was a bit of silence as this all set in before Matthew realized something else. "Hey, when you found my body, did you happen to find a ring along with it?" Leila shuffled her hand inside her dress a bit and when it came back out there was a pretty plain looking engagement ring in it.
"You were planning on asking me when we were done with our missions weren't you?" She asked solemnly as she put the ring in his hand and closed it. "Matthew, it's been about two years for me since we defeated Nergal, and every moment I had any time to think it's been about you and what we could have been together. And now that I'm here it feels like we can have a second chance together, we can finally be the people we wanted to be. I guess I can understand if this whole thing makes you feel uncomfortable because of what you've seen and been through, but I really, truly want to make this work out. Ever since the summoner told me that you were here it's all I've been able to think about. So please, give it some consideration for my sake." She turned around and was going to leave to let him think but suddenly Matthew grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his grasp, their faces mere inches from each other.
"Leila, there hasn't been a day where I haven't thought about what we could be either. Some days I felt like I should just move on and let all my feelings go and try to get with someone else, but I never could." He told her. "You've always had a piece of my heart, ever since the first day we've met and there is no way in hell that I'm going to pass up an opportunity like this if what you just told me is true. Yeah, it's going to be a bit of a getting used to, knowing how things went down in your realm, but if you're willing to put in the effort then I sure as hell am as well. I've never stopped loving you Leila, and I doubt I ever will." The smirk came back onto Leila's face as she closed the distance between them again and placed a kiss on his lips.
"Look at you talking all romantic and such, it's enough to make a girl like me blush." She teased him, but she was blushing very heavily, a sight that not many Matthews across the realms saw that regularly. "But yes, of course I'm willing to put in the effort, I always have been. And no fair, I wanted to be the one who said I love you first this time."
"Elimine, I said it first in your realm as well?!" Matthew said rolling his eyes with a chuckle. "I wonder if that coin flip is the only thing that changed in your realm. Do you still have that scar on your butt?"
"You mean the one you gave me with your knife when you tried to cut a hole in my panties that one time when we tried to get it on during a meeting with the rest of the Ostian spies?" Leila aksed him back.
"Hey, if I'm remembering correctly, you're the one that was wanting to do it so badly. Something about 'being in heat' was it?" Leila blushed even more because it was embarrassing and he was right. But then the two of them eventually just started laughing at the whole thing like they used to in the past. They were getting right back into the swing of things, and while there might be a bit of trauma that the two of them would probably still have, nightmares and such of the other strung up dead, at least now they would have each other to help comfort them when it happened.
"Well, speaking of 'being in heat' I haven't had any of you for about three years and something tells me you haven't either." Leila said with a smirk when they finally stopped laughing. "How about you show me to my room and we get our bodies reacquainted with each other yeah?"
"Only if you tell me how you got yourself into a performing arts festival." Matthew teased her.
"Hey, like I've told you many times before, a great spy has to be multi-talented. You've seen me dance before, but have you heard me sing?"
"No, never."
"Well, then we have all the time for me to show you."