Corrin enjoys teatime. Kana isn't homesick.

As the growing darkness of twilight settled across the sky, Corrin sat with her legs wedged beneath her on the floor of Azura's bedroom. She drew her lips tight as her legs began to tingle with the onset of numbness. Across from her, Azura sat in the same fashion, but, unlike Corrin, there was no strain to mar the soft swell of her lips.

"There's just something so relaxing about sitting and drinking this way. More natural somehow," Azura had explained, but Corrin wasn't inclined to agree. It always left her with throbbing legs and an aching back. As much as Corrin wanted to forge connections to the traditions of her homeland, there were certain things that she feared she'd never grow to love. She'd spent too many years apart from Hoshido to ever hope of truly reclaiming it in her heart.

Thanks, Garon, Corrin thought as she brought her steaming tea cup to her lips. She drank too fast. The hot tea scalded her tongue. Her eyes grew heavy with tears. She set the cup down quickly.

"Still hot?"

Corrin scowled. Azura chuckled softly and then blew on the steam curling above the lip of her cup.

It had been Azura's idea, as all good ideas were, to start meeting regularly. Speaking with Azura always helped Corrin to clear her head and calm her spirits. They made time for each other at least once a day and spent it chatting and laughing. They spoke of everything from their respective childhoods to dinner the night before.

"It's good tea," Azura announced after she'd ventured a sip. "I'll have to be sure to thank Jakob for suggesting it."

Corrin rolled her eyes. Azura raised a brow.

"If you do that, his ego will be unimaginable."

Azura smirked and then said, "It can't be much worse than it is now."

Corrin laughed. She tested her tea again, but it was still too hot. She set it down and then rubbed at her eyes.

"You seem tired."

"I haven't been sleeping well," Corrin admitted.

Which is the understatement of the century.

Azura had taken another drink of her tea, but she hummed and gestured for Corrin to elaborate.

"I've been having these nightmares that are really…"

Terrifying, horrific, chilling, Corrin thought but settled for, "Weird."

"Weird like you're late to dinner with foreign dignitaries and all your clothes have vanished?" Azura asked. Her smile was gentle, but a tension hovered beneath.

"Not exactly. They're more like memories almost. Memories of things that haven't happened and then sometimes they almost happen like—"

Azura's face had grown stony. Corrin turned to the window, staring out at the cotton clouds swimming through the sky.

"Like in Mokushu. A few days before Mokushu I dreamt that I was running through a forest pursued by Mokushujin ninja and Takumi was—"

Possessed, Corrin nearly said but took in the look on Azura's face and then thought better of it and said instead, "Something was wrong with Takumi. That's why I was so suspicious of Kotaro but it didn't happen like that and nothing happened to Takumi."

"How many have you had like that?"

Corrin watched Azura's tea cup buck and jitter in Azura's thin hands. Then, Azura set it down. A drop of tea stained the white satin on her arm brown.

"A few but like I said—"

"How many exactly?"

Azura's voice was cold.

"What's wrong? You're acting so strange."

Staring into the contents of her cup, Azura began to talk. Her fingers curled tight around the pendant hanging from her neck.

"In Valla, they believed that they could divine all sorts of things from your dreams like your future spouse or which color would bring you the most luck or the person or thing that would bring your demise."

There was an old Nohrian wives' tale like that, Corrin thought, Camilla used to say it all the time. Something about dreaming of fish and pregnancy.

But Corrin couldn't reminiscence. Azura continued talking.

"For the most part, it was superstitious rambling, but there was some truth to it. Those who spent time in the presence of Anankos experienced prophetic dreams. They were great oracles and they were the first ones to know that he had become mad."

"But that doesn't mean anything," Corrin protested. "I haven't been anywhere near Anankos."

"The oracles weren't the only ones that had those dreams. Near the end—"

Something darkened Azura's eyes and expression, but then she shook her head and changed her tone.

"There were others that Anankos sought out. He invaded their minds and manipulated them. The dreams always came first."

Corrin didn't respond. Her thoughts had gone numb with mute terror.

"I'll speak to Orochi. I believe Mikoto trained her in dream divination. She may be able to—"

There was a knock on the door.

"Lady Azura? Is Lady Corrin with you?" Gunter called.

Azura invited him in and then the door swung open, revealing the grizzled knight's dour face.

"I apologize for the intrusion Lady Azura," Gunter said, bowing his head to her, "but there is an urgent situation that requires Lady Corrin's attention."

Corrin stood. Azura followed suit.

"We'll finish this talk later," Corrin said, touching Azura's forearm. Azura nodded but gave no response.

Corrin left the room. As she went to close the door, Azura called, "Leave it open."

She did so and then fell into step beside Gunter as he led her out of the fortress and into the courtyard.

"A group of children got into a fight with some soldiers," Gunter said before she could ask for an explanation.

"Our soldiers beat up children?" Corrin demanded, stopping midstride.

"You misunderstand me," Gunter said. "The soldiers lost."

Then Gunter continued walking, leaving Corrin to scramble after him in shock.

Kana wasn't homesick. He didn't miss home. Home meant chores and lessons and readings and recitations and trainings and scoldings and going to bed early and waking up early and not running down the long hallways even though the long hallways were the best for running and standing up straight and smiling at the mean people that came to dinner because "It's polite to smile Kana and please stop sticking your tongue out at the Duke of Cyrkensia" and wearing ugly cravats that itched and ugly shoes that pinched and he'd begged mama to let him not wear shoes but she'd said no because he was a young gentleman and young gentlemen wore shoes and didn't make everyone stare at their grimy toes.

So, no, Kana wasn't homesick. But he was peoplesick. He missed his friends and his family and he even missed mean old Jakob and the way he scrunched his nose to shout about "decorum" or "posture" or "etiquette." And yeah, maybe Jakob was here but he didn't know who Kana was and there was no reluctant warmth in his glare, only annoyance.

But the past wasn't all bad. Clothes were still around even though Soleil had told him that everyone in the past ran around naked and he hadn't really believed her because if clothes weren't in the past then why did all the old statues have clothes? But he was still a little worried because he was fine not wearing clothes but he didn't really want to see anyone else without clothes because that might've been too weird like the time he'd walked in on Midori changing and she'd shrieked at him until he'd run away with his hands over his eyes and had run into a wall and hurt his head because he couldn't see. And his mama was here which was good. But it wasn't really his mama just like it wasn't really mean old Jakob but he really missed his mama so he sometimes he pretended that she was really his mama and that they were playing a game where she didn't call him Kana-bean and he didn't call her mama and whoever went the longest without saying it won.

"So, on a scale of one to that time Siegbert sneezed in the face of the wind tribe's chieftain, how screwed are we?"

Soleil said it like it was supposed to be funny but her face was nervous. Kana looked at the others and saw that they were pretty nervous too. Kana blinked. They'd been sitting for a long time. His legs hurt.

"Probably closer to that time we lost Kana in the city," Shigure said.

Kana didn't remember that but he knew it must have happened because they brought it up all the time whenever they were worried about getting in trouble.

"You guys lost him?" Shiro asked and it took Kana a minute to realize that Shiro hadn't been there because he'd only recently joined their group. It felt like he'd been with them longer than a few months.

"Uh huh," Soleil said with a nod, "We all went with my dad and Elise for carnival but then Kana got separated somewhere along the way and we couldn't find him anywhere so we had to go and tell his mom and she flipped and… Gods Siegbert, it wasn't that bad. You look like you swallowed a frog."

Kana looked at Siegbert. He didn't agree with Soleil. Siegbert just looked pale and a little sweaty. If he'd swallowed a frog, he would've been all green and warty. At least, that's what Kana thought.

"It wasn't that bad for you," Siegbert said.

Shiro snorted.

"I didn't think anything could be bad for you," he said.

Kana frowned. He didn't want them to start fighting. He'd had enough fighting for one day without hearing Shiro and Siegbert go at it again.

Kana didn't like fights. He was small and being small meant that fights didn't end well for him. Back home, he would sometimes get into fights with the pages around the castle because they were big bullies and picked on the littler kids or the servants that couldn't talk back and he usually lost and he always got a bloody nose or bruised knuckles but back home his mama would always tend his bruises and wipe his tears and make him promise not to do it again or she'd tell his papa but he always did it again and she never told his papa.

"We don't have time for another of your spats," Soleil said. "Gunter's coming back."

Kana wilted. He didn't like Gunter. Gunter was mean and he'd broken up the fight by calling the soldiers a bunch of idiots and telling them to stay put or he'd cut their hands off and hit them with them. Now the soldiers sat across the courtyard from them, rubbing their bruises and muttering mean things. They glared at Soleil and Shiro a lot and that made sense since they'd been the ones to start the whole thing.

"Corrin's with him," Shigure said.

Kana perked up. Siegbert frowned but Kana couldn't tell if he was frowning at him or in general.

"That's a bad thing."

The frown was definitely meant for Kana.

"It might not be!" Kana protested.

"Kid's right," Shiro said. "If we can get on her good side, then it'd be a lot easier to figure out what the hell's going on."

Kana nodded vigorously.

"It'd also be a lot easier to blow our cover," Siegbert said.

"What cover? It's not people are going around looking for kids from the futu—"

"Shut up!" Soleil hissed as his mama-wait, no-Corrin approached with the old knight in tow. She looked his way and then she turned to the soldiers and yelled at them, but he couldn't listen properly because Shiro said, "If you think about it, we probably won't even get in trouble because they were the ones that started the whole thing by catcalling Soleil."

"If you hadn't punched one in the face, maybe," Siegbert said.

Shiro glared at Siegbert and rubbed at his bloody knuckles but he didn't say anything else and that was good because Kana could hear Corrin shout, "I don't care what you thought! You attacked children and that's reason enough for me to see you all scrubbing the stables for the rest of your lives!"

Then Kana heard Gunter ask, "Lady Corrin, might I suggest we talk with the children?" and then they were walking towards him and everyone got really stiff around him but Kana beamed a little because he was so excited to see his mama, even though he knew that Corrin wasn't really his mama yet.

"What are your names?" Corrin asked. They all spoke at once. Kana shouted to be heard over the others.

"Whoa, whoa. One at a time!" Corrin said. Then, they introduced themselves one by one and Kana went last and said his name like it was a surprise. She smiled at him, but then seemed to think she shouldn't because she made her face into a frown instead.

"The soldiers say you drew swords on them?" Gunter asked.

"Sword. Singular. Mine," Soleil said. Then, she pointed towards the meanest of the soldiers.

"He took it and I want it back."

Gunter turned and then walked back to the soldiers. As he walked away, Shigure nudged Soleil in the ribs. He narrowed his eyes at her. Soleil's thunderous expression drooped.

"I haven't seen you all around camp," Corrin said.

"We keep to ourselves," Siegbert said. "We don't want to get in anybody's way."

"Where are your parents?" she asked.

"Dead!" Soleil shouted a bit excitedly and even Kana knew to glare at her for it.

"We've all handled it differently," Shiro said and Kana thought that he was probably trying very hard to not roll his eyes. Corrin didn't seem convinced, but she couldn't say anything else because Gunter was walking back over and he called Corrin to his side. He showed her the sword and then they turned their back to him. They began to whisper, but Kana could hear them. He had good hearing.

"I thought we weren't distributing weapons to anyone other than the soldiers," Corrin said. Kana watched Gunter hand her the sword.

"We aren't and we didn't. This sword came from the royal forge of Nohr. Notice the seal impressed on the hilt. Only those within the king's inner circle are granted weapons from the royal forge."

Corrin and Gunter turned around to look at them. Kana quickly turned his attention to a bird flying overhead. When it flapped its wings, the sun shone through its sleek feathers. Then, he heard Corrin ask Gunter, "Spies?"

"It's a possibility that we can't rule out."

"Uh oh," Kana said. The others looked at him, but he didn't tell them what he'd heard. Siegbert looked like he was going to hurl. Corrin twisted the sword in her hands.

"Wait, no. This isn't right. Garon's seal has those horrendous eyes in the center of the crest. This one doesn't."

Kana thought of a thousand eyes blinking in the center of the Nohrian crest and shivered.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, I remember how much I hated using those swords in the Northern Fortress because I felt like the eyes watched me. It's a fake. A damn good one, but still a fake."

Beside him, Soleil groaned, "I'm not gonna get that back, am I?"

"You shouldn't have said anything," Siegbert hissed.

"My dad gave that to me!" Soleil whispered in protest. "And he'd be beyond pissed if I lost it."

"Especially since this is your fifth one," Shigure added. She glared at him and then snapped, "I seem to recall dad having to acquire a new spear for you more than once."

"He had to replace them because I broke them. I didn't lose them chasing after every girl that happened to glance my way!"

Soleil opened her mouth but she couldn't say anything because Corrin and Gunter had turned back around and Siegbert had hissed, "Enough!" so she just glared at Shigure.

Corrin held tight to Soleil's sword. She looked at each of them and then asked, "Where are you from?"

"Nohr," Siegbert, Soleil, and Shigure said.

"Hoshido," Shiro said.

Kana didn't say anything.

"And your parents? What did they do?"

"They tended wheat," Siegbert, Soleil, and Shigure said.

"Daikon farmers," Shiro said.

Kana was silent again. He didn't know what to say. He didn't want Siegbert to get mad at him if he got it wrong.

Corrin nodded, but she frowned at them.

"Alright, follow me," she announced. "We're going to the arena."

Kana shifted to stand up, but the others didn't move. He settled back into the dirt.

"What? Why?" Soleil demanded.

"Lady Corrin's reasons are her own," Gunter snapped. "It is not your place to question them, only to obey."

Kana looked at Siegbert and Siegbert looked at Shigure and Shigure looked at Soleil and Soleil glared at Gunter and then they all looked at each other, even Shiro, and then they all stood.

"Okay," Soleil said, "but I want my sword back."

"How dare you—"

"You can have it if you tell me where you got it," Corrin said. She held it so that the seal faced them and Kana didn't think that was unintentional.

Soleil glanced at Siegbert and then Siegbert nodded a little. Kana scowled. It made him a little jealous that Siegbert could talk to his friends without talking. Kana always had to talk, and talk a lot, to be understood.

"If you must know, my dad gave it to me," she said, sticking her nose in the air and crossing her arms.

"And how did your wheat farming father get his hands on military grade steel?"

"I…"

"That's what I thought."

Kana was worried.

"There's something about you five that I don't trust. Five children shouldn't be able to best seven grown men, seven trained soldiers at that, and they certainly shouldn't be running around with steel so fine that its branded with a false king's seal when they claim their lineage is wheat and poverty. So, I'll ask you again, where did you find it?'

"She found it," Siegbert said. "On one of the ruffians that burned our farmland and killed all our parents after the Nohrians killed him."

"The Nohrians aren't usually in the business of killing ruffians," Corrin said. "They much prefer to conscript them."

Kana could tell that what she said had upset Siegbert because Siegbert looked like a bird that had gotten its feathers ruffled but Siegbert didn't say anything.

"But I'll believe you for now," Corrin announced. Beside her, Gunter looked thunderstruck and a little angry.

"So, follow me to the arena and don't give me another opportunity to question your story."

And they did follow her, but Kana knew it was only because Siegbert went first.

A/N: So I've taken a lot of liberties with the narration in Kana's sections. There's a lot of run on's. A lot. But it didn't feel right writing his sections in perfect prose or with big words because he's young and he's excited even when he shouldn't be. He's just too sweet tbh! Also, I HATE THE DEEPREALMS. It's sooooo shitty that couples have kids (which they should really know better than to have kids during war time when they're literally always on the battlefield but I digress) and then immediately throw them into what is essentially a trans-dimensional locker until they're "old" enough to fight alongside them which is ALSO trash but I'll end my rant here before I get to far into the rabbit hole. This story will play heavily with a multiverse so I can avoid the deeprealm nonsense and still include the children because they have a significant role to play but also I just really like them because some of them are better written/more interesting than the non-children/1st-gen/I-don't-really-know-what-to-call them/parents.

Chasseresse de l'Est: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the original despite its flaws! I hope you'll enjoy this one as well! I'm definitely aiming to rectify those and to take my time with the ending instead of cramming far too much into far too little! Thank you for your kind words!