Kana inherits the family bane. Corrin deals with an unexpected enemy. Sakura hovers.

Kana was bored. Really, unforgivably bored. He lay flat on his back in the boring grass of the boring courtyard and stared up into the boring sky and waited for a cloud to drift past the boring sun to give him something to look at other than the endless expanse of boring blue.

Siegbert had banned him from doing anything fun and it was so unfair! Well, okay. Maybe he had been getting into a lot of mischief lately but it wasn't really his fault that the goats had gotten into the kitchen and eaten all the preserves and he hadn't really meant to start a fire in the armory and yes, he had thrown a rock through the stained glass above the hot springs on a dare, but he couldn't be held accountable for flooding the building because how was he supposed to know that a storm was going to hit five minutes later?

There had been other things, but these were the big three that had upset Siegbert the most and now Kana could only go between the mess hall, their room, and the courtyard and if he was discovered somewhere else he'd be in a lot of trouble. Siegbert had even threatened to throw away his collection of interesting things he'd found around camp and kept in a heap beneath his bed and then what would he have to give his mama when he went back home?

So Kana lay in the grass and dozed off every once in a while even though it was a little chilly out and he thought it was weird that it was a little chilly because he thought it should have still been summer but Shigure said that the seasons probably worked different here and Siegbert said it would've been summer in Nohr when it was winter in Hoshido so maybe this place in-between also had seasons in-between the other two and Shiro had said that it didn't matter anyway and couldn't they just let him eat in peace without reminding them of how weird this place was and how nothing made any sense anymore because they weren't in the right past and then Shiro stopped talking because he said he had a headache and Siegbert said it really wasn't all that confusing because some mage or another had already made discoveries towards proving the existence of alternate realities and then Shiro yelled at him to shut up and then they started arguing and Kana just wished they could get along because they really weren't all that different but he didn't think that would ever happen because they both wanted to be in charge instead of working together.

Kana had said as much to Soleil once, when she wasn't in one of her bossy or angsty, that was word he'd heard his papa use once to describe Siegbert and his friends and he liked it a lot once he'd asked his mama what it meant because it was fun to say and summed up his older friends really well, moods, and she had agreed with him and had said that she'd tried talking to Siegbert about it once, but he'd said that Shiro was a blockhead and didn't want to listen to her because he didn't see the point in wasting time trying to get along with him when he'd already tried that and Shiro just seemed to hate him on principle. Kana had thought about trying to talk to Siegbert too, but he figured he'd just get a similar reaction so he didn't. He just thought about it a lot and wished that he could hang out with Shiro without upsetting Siegbert because Shiro was funny and he never bossed him around like the others did. But he didn't like upsetting Siegbert because Siegbert was already stressed out all the time and Kana didn't like making it worse so he just listened to whatever Siegbert told him like now even though he was positive he was going to die of boredom.

A group of people walked by and then he heard Auntie Charlotte, who had always insisted that he call her "Auntie" even though he felt weird doing so because she wasn't really his aunt and he'd told his mama as much and she'd just told him to call her whatever she asked to be called because otherwise he'd just upset her and now that Kana thought about it he didn't really know if he should be referring to her as Auntie Charlotte now because she wasn't really the Charlotte he knew. But anyway, he heard Charlotte, he'd decided against calling her Auntie Charlotte because he really didn't like doing so even when she'd asked, say something about needing to find something but he didn't hear what that something was because a really loud ribbiting sounded beside him.

Kana turned his head. A little speckled frog sat in the grass a few inches from his head. Its black eyes were shiny and big. Its little chin ballooned in and out as it breathed. The frog stared at him. Kana stared back and then the frog ribbited again. Kana reached his hand towards it, slowly, because he was scared of it running away. It didn't flinch. Its eyes swiveled to stare at his approaching finger. It let him touch its bumpy head.

Kana was amazed. Animals were always skittish around him, rarely coming anywhere near him and never allowing him to touch them. He'd never been taught horseback riding because the horses all hated him and would buck and kick if he so much as looked at them and he didn't know why animals hated him so much because he would never in a million years even think of hurting them and his mama had said that animals didn't really like her either and she was sorry that he seemed to have inherited the same thing, but she'd looked more scared than sorry and when he'd asked her what was wrong she just said it was sad that animals didn't like him and that was it, but he didn't believe her because his mama's eyes always wrinkled around the edges when she worried or thinking too hard but he didn't bother her about it anymore because… Well, he couldn't remember why now. It had been so long ago. But this frog didn't seem to hate him. In fact, when he drew his hand away, it jumped closer and then ribbited.

"Wow," Kana said. He laid his hand flat in the grass, palm up. The frog hopped towards it and then, after a throaty croak, leapt into the palm of his hand. It stared at him.

"Wow!" Kana shouted. He jumped to his feet, frog in hand. The frog seemed perfectly content to sit between his curled fingers. As Kana made his way across the courtyard, it ribbited happily. Kana had made it halfway to the arena, where he'd parted ways with the others earlier, when he realized something important. He brought his cupped hand a few inches from his nose and then peered at the little frog.

"I've got to name you," Kana said. "Every good pet has a name!"

The frog stared at him. Its chin billowed.

"What about Emilia, that's a good name isn't it?"

The frog shifted in Kana's hand, kicking its little legs around until it faced away from him. Kana frowned.

"Okay, so you're not an Emilia."

The frog turned back around. Its tongue peeped out of its lipless mouth.

"Hmm, what do you like? Bugs and plants, right?" Kana mused. The frog ribbited.

"So then what about Daisy? Daisy's a pretty name."

The frog stared at him. Then, it croaked.

"Daisy it is then!"

Kana continued towards the arena, gingerly holding Daisy in his outstretched hand. As they walked, he chatted loudly, happy to have a friend that listened.

"I went to the orchard the other day because it was safe to go there again and I heard that the apples were ripe but I got stopped on the way there by the other kids and they wanted to play hide-and-seek but I didn't want to play hide-in-seek because I was going to the orchard and I told them that but they seemed pretty cross with me because I'm the best hide-and-seeker so I put off going to the orchard to play a game with them but then by the time they found me it was getting dark and Siegbert told me not to go wandering outside the gates after dark even though none of the bad things can get in so I—"

"Who are you talking to?"

Kana stopped walking. He'd been so engrossed in talking to Daisy that he hadn't even heard the other boy approach and his hearing was really good! Kana had never seen him around before. He was a lanky boy with long arms and he was bigger than Kana but that wasn't saying much because Kana was really little even though his mama said he should have gotten his growth spurt by now. The boy stared at Kana with narrowed eyes. His eyes were green and Leo thought that was pretty interesting. He didn't know anybody with green eyes.

"Huh?" Kana said.

"I asked who you were talking to," the boy said and he said it like he was important and that Kana had no choice but to answer. Kana didn't like this boy. He had a mean face.

"That's none of your business."

From between his closed fingers, Daisy ribbited.

"Have you got a frog?" the boy asked, pointing to Kana's hand.

"No," Kana said, putting his hand behind his back.

"Yes, you have!" the boy cried. He lunged for Kana, but Kana darted away.

"Let me see it!" the boy shouted, but Kana wouldn't let him. They shuffled around each other for a few moments and then the boy said, "Fine, if you won't let me see it. Then I guess I have no choice."

Before Kana could even think about what the boy meant, he shoved Kana hard in the chest. The breath whooshed from Kana and then the boy shoved him again. He shoved him so hard that Kana lost his balance and went toppling over. He crashed to the ground. His hand hit the dirt and then his fingers bounced open. Daisy hopped from his palm and into the grass.

The other boy whistled and then said, "That's a three-toed speckled frog. They're supposed to be good luck."

No! She's Daisy and she's my friend! Kana wanted to shout, but his chest hurt from being shoved and from falling. Instead, he could only stare as the other boy approached Daisy. He knelt and then extended a finger towards her little speckled head. Daisy stared at the grimy finger as it drew closer and then, when it was nearly on top of her, she reared up and munched down on it.

The boy squealed. He snapped his hand away. He stuck his finger in his mouth and then sucked on it like Daisy had taken a chunk out of it. Kana laughed as he rolled over onto his belly to stand.

"You think that's funny?" the boy asked with a sneer, popping his finger out of his mouth. Spit swung off the fingernail in a gross arc.

Kana didn't answer. He knew it was a trick question.

"Do you think this is funny?"

The boy raised his foot and then brought it down like a meteor on Daisy's little head. When he raised it again, the sole of his boot was covered in speckled frog bits and slimy guts. Kana screamed because it seemed like the kind of thing he should do. He didn't know what else to do with his grief. He'd only just found Daisy. He wasn't prepared to say goodbye so soon.

Kana stood. His hands had begun to shake but he wasn't making them. The boy laughed at him. Rage boiled Kana's thoughts until there was nothing left but mush and cold fury. His skin began to tingle and then it began to throb. His chest burned and then anger replaced his breath. Kana burst apart, but he came back together, bigger and stronger and completely unhinged. He could see, but not with his eyes. He could hear a thousand voices and the whine of every dragonflies' wings. He tasted sweat, but also the dirt beneath his feet and the moldering bones even farther below. Daisy's murderer stopped laughing.

As Kana threw his head back and roared, he wasn't Kana anymore. He was something else. And he was angry.

Corrin had been able to enjoy very little alone time with Silas. Their romantic interactions were limited to small hugs in public or kisses stolen during gaps in her busy schedule. Today, she'd managed to cut out a chunk of time between lunch and the war council, canceling her training session with Xander because her back still smarted from him sweeping her legs out from underneath her the day before, to spend entirely with Silas. They'd had about twenty minutes of frenzied kissing and heavy touching before Felicia had thrown open the door, screaming, "There's a monster in camp!"

Of course there is, Corrin had thought as she'd thrown on a shirt and grabbed her Yato and nursed her stifled libido. Judging from his jilted expression, Silas had had a worse time of it.

But now, as she ran through the unnatural path marred by overturned trees and deep scours in the dirt, the heat that had flicked in her chest from his touch seemed like a distant memory. Her leg strained to match Silas and Felicia's pace. She tried summoning her draconic plating to abate the stiffness, but it resisted her calling.

Months of training and still nothing to show for it, she thought bitterly as she leapt over a downed tree. The muscles in her leg felt like they might snap. She stumbled and then cursed. Silas stopped, but she shouted, "I'm fine!"

She began running again but her leg slowed her. She did her best to ignore the singeing pain, but her face was set in a constant grimace. She made it a few more feet before a monstrous roar tore through the still air. Her adrenaline spiked and then power was coursing through her legs. She outpaced them quickly.

The woods opened up in front of her. She could immediately see Kaze, Jakob, and Shiro with their weapons drawn and then, as she drew closer, she could see Siegbert and the monster. But it wasn't a monster.

That's a dragon, Corrin thought. A dragon that looks like me.

She had never considered the possibility that there were others like her. The marble statue of Anankos that had sat top the fountain in the square of the burned village frequented her thoughts, but she knew that this dragon wasn't Anankos. It was almost puny.

Is it human too? She thought, but then dismissed the notion. There was no time to wonder. It was here and it was dangerous.

Its massive claws sunk into the soft earth beneath it. Siegbert stood in front of it with his hands raised and empty. His sword jutted from the ground by his feet. The dragon's eyeless head was aimed his way, but it made no move towards him. It was inches from him.

The tense peace shattered the second she skidded into the clearing and Jakob shouted, "Lady Corrin?"

The dragon looked her way and then it whirled on Siegbert. She shot towards him and tackled him just as the dragon lunged. Its claws caught her in the side, but skittered off the scales that had risen there. Still, it hurt and, as she crashed into the ground, she yelled. She gripped at her side and then swiped her fingers over the shallow divots in the plating. The dragon roared. Its form blotted out the sun. It raised one of its front legs. She threw her arms in an x over her chest and then braced them against its foot as it slammed into her. Her skull felt like it might crack open from the tension. It raised its leg and then stared down at her. She sputtered for air. Its expressionless face crept near hers.

Azura's panicked, pale face strobed through her mind and then Corrin felt new guilt at the terror she'd instilled within the other girl so long ago in Hoshido. The dragon continued to push against her.

Flashes of brushed silver danced across the dragon's head and neck and then careened into the ground, barely missing her face. The dragon roared. Its foot bore down on her again. She caught it between its claws, straining to keep it from driving her into the dirt. Her hands, braided with scales and claws of her own, were miniscule in comparison to its. Blood roared in her ears.

It lifted its foot and brought it down again and again and again. Her head pounded with each impact. Daggers and shurikens bounced off its thick hide. One hit her in the leg. It didn't cut, but it distracted her. Her arms wavered. The foot lifted and then she rolled away. The foot slammed into the dirt beside her. Someone screamed, "No! Don't!"

The hair on the back of her neck stood up and her teeth tasted like metal and then the sky split in two. Her ears rang.

Then, the sky was blue again. She sat up. The world spun. A smoking black crater disfigured the grass inches from her right pinky toe. Ryoma lay sprawled on the ground, touching his nose and cursing. Shiro lay just beside him, disheveled and guilty.

The dragon swayed drunkenly. She stood. The dragon stared at her. Someone shouted her name. Then, she took off. The dragon thundered behind her.

Her body ached within the mesh of scales. It felt like pulp. Her mind raced.

She ran without direction. The air in front of her was sweeter than it was behind. She followed it. Trees exploded behind her. Splinters of bark showered her unprotected head. She hadn't been able to extend the shielding around her head since the day of the burned village. She didn't know why.

The tree line grew sparse before her. The horizon was familiar. The lake came into view. She planted her foot and then leapt from the cliff. The wind screeched past her. Then, the deafening splash, the slapping pain as she sliced through the lake's surface.

She sank immediately and absolutely. The water rushed past her, grabbing onto the fissures between her plated scales and drowning her. She thrashed in the muted depths, but only managed to turn to upwards. Her lungs ached. Cold water stung her eyes. Pondweeds whispered against her, coaxing her to unravel the armor shielding her from its grasp. There was a far-off splash as she slammed into the lake floor and the uninterrupted green above her became a mosaic of swirling currents.

The dragon sank just as she had, but it was motionless as the water took hold of it. Corrin could do nothing but watch it sink. Light flashed through the gloom. There was a boy where the dragon had been. His head lulled. The blue scarf around his neck was gray in the filtered sunlight.

She willed her panic to invade her thoughts instead of her body. Her dragonstone illuminated the murk in dull flashes and then she began to rise. She pushed off of the lake bed. A cloud of silt slunk out of the impact like an ink blot. Her bad leg shrieked in protest. Her chest blossomed with pain. Kana continued to sink towards her. When he was within reach, she wrapped her arm around his chest and then jerked upwards. Her lungs were failing. Her vision dotted black.

As she broke from the water, she gasped. The air was so fresh that it was raw. Kana was breathless in her arms. His hair had turned silver. She swam for the nearby shore.

When the water became shallow and the land was hard, she lay Kana on the moist ground. She pressed her ear to his chest. A feeble heartbeat fought to be heard through the bone and sinew.

"C'mon Kana," she said between gritted teeth as she pressed down on his chest in hasty rhythm.

It took only a few compressions. Water burbled from his mouth. He coughed but he didn't wake.

Corrin stared at him, but she didn't understand. He was the same as her, but he shouldn't have been.

Lying on the shore, soaking wet, he was so small, smaller than she had ever remembered him being.

Shouts sounded nearby. Corrin stared at Kana for a moment longer and then she knew what she had to do.

In a flurry of thumping adrenaline and instincts so blaring they were nauseating, she turned to scrounge through a heap of rocks on the shoreline. She found one with a sharp point and then returned to his side.

Corrin stared down at the silvery hair that clung to Kana's face and knew that she would have to work fast. She drew the pointed edge of the rock hard and fast across the curve of his forehead, from the end of his hairline to the tip of his brow. Blood welled from the broken skin. She threw the rock. It sailed out over the placid lake and then disappeared beneath it with only a tiny plip of sound.

Figures broke from the trees. They shouted her name. She wrapped one arm beneath Kana's leg and the other beneath his shoulders. She lifted him gently, shifting him so that his head rested against her chest. He was heavier than he should have been. The waterlogged edges of her hair tangled with the fine silk of his. They were the exact same color.

The three that approached were an odd bunch, but she didn't question their formation. She didn't need to know the path they'd taken to find her or where the others were.

"Take him to the infirmary," she rasped. Kana's eyelids flicked, but he did not stir. When Shiro took him from her, she saw that blood had snaked over his eyelids and down across his mouth. Silas came forward, touching her shoulder and asking if she was okay. She ignored him. His hand fell away from her.

"What happened to his hair?" Shiro asked.

"Ask the healers," Corrin snapped. Shiro bristled but then he left without a word, disappearing into the brush. Corrin longed to follow, but knew that would only cause suspicion.

I'll see him soon enough, Corrin thought.

"The creature's still out there," she said. "It knocked Kana into the water and then it ran away. We'll need to alert the others and flush it out of the woods."

There was a chorus of quiet echoes behind them. Corrin raised a hand to shield her eyes from the harsh sun. Ryoma, Siegbert, Jakob, and Kaze emerged from the woods on the top of the cliff. She squinted at them, but could discern little beyond their identities from such a distance. She walked towards them and then began to conceptualize the wild goose chase she needed to lead them on. Felicia and Silas followed in silence. The ache in her side spread throughout her body until it hurt everywhere.

It had been a slow day in the infirmary before they had arrived. She'd heard about the attack, but only a boy, the one Corrin had rescued from the undead, had been injured so far. He'd suffered from a few scrapes and a mild concussion, but it had only taken a few minutes for Sakura to set him straight. Then, she'd sent him on his way.

The waiting had come after. She and the other healer on duty had sat together with their heads bowed, praying that none of their loved ones would be hurt.

Shiro and Kana had come in first. Then, the blue haired brother and sister, Shigure and Soleil. Siegbert had come in some time after. They all crowded Kana no matter how many times she asked them to stay back.

When he'd been brought in, the boy's face had been covered in blood, but the wound was shallow and she'd healed it in a matter of seconds. His comatose state and sudden change in hair color presented more of a challenge.

His ears were pointed, not as steeply as Corrin's but they peaked in an uncommon fashion.

Were they always pointed? Sakura wondered, but she didn't know. She'd never spent time with him and seldom saw him around the camp. Though, she did know that his hair had been a mousey brown. Now, it was a vibrant silver.

The same as Corrin's.

Her sister sat in the cot beside the boy. She'd asked that the curtains be drawn around them so that she and the children were masked from sight. Sakura watched their warped silhouettes move in the thin fabric. They whispered, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. At first, she'd thought that maybe Corrin wanted to discuss the monster, but now she didn't think so. It had gone on too long and too secretly.

Corrin's retainers had dragged her in about half an hour prior, shouting that she'd been struck hard.

"I'd have healed her myself but it's pretty serious and I'm scared I'll muddle it up," Felicia had said as she'd forced Corrin down onto the cot. Corrin had let her retainers strip her armor without a peep. When Sakura had stepped forward to examine the injury, Corrin's retainers flitted around her like gnats until Corrin had dismissed them all. Jakob had been the last to leave after she had drawn him near to whisper into his ear. Once they'd departed, Corrin had held her shirt just beneath the swell of her breasts as Sakura prodded at the bruised skin marring her side in thick, purple slashes.

As the muffled conversation continued, Sakura crept closer to the drawn curtains, pretending to change the bedding on the cot nearest their hushed voices.

"We're not lying!" Soleil hissed. "We don't know how he's like that!"

The girl's shadow shook as she threw her hands up in angry frustration.
Then, the infirmary doors banged open. Sakura jumped. Her hand smacked over her heart. Jakob stood in the doorway, a bundle wrapped in red clasped in one hand. He glared at her as he moved across the room. He yanked the curtains open, revealing three red faced teenagers, one dour blonde, a tense Corrin, and a very disoriented Kana, and then snapped them closed again with a flourish.

Jerk, Sakura thought. She returned to her post by the door. The other healer had left before Corrin had been brought in so she sat alone against the wall. She watched her sister's silhouette take the bundle from Jakob and then saw something thin and dangling removed from the wrappings. The murmurings continued, but she couldn't hear anything.

Before long, Elise came to relieve her. Sakura stared at her and her questions surrounding her sister's odd behavior fizzled as she wished the other girl would make a move towards reinstating their friendship.

I should have just kept my mouth shut, Sakura thought as Elise walked past her without even a glance in her direction. All the sour feelings she'd harbored towards Elise were gone now that they weren't friends anymore, but she didn't know what to do or say to make it better. Every instinct to apologize came too late. Too much time had passed.

I doubt she even cares, Sakura thought as she left the infirmary for her room. I doubt it made any difference to her.

It didn't matter anyway.

"I'm better off on my own," Sakura mumbled to herself. She repeated it in whispers to herself throughout the rest of the day until she could look at herself in the mirror without hating the girl that stared back.

A/N: I want you all to know that it hurt me to hurt Kana. The poor little cherub deserves nothing but love and sunshine, but, unfortunately, the world isn't love and sunshine :((((
Yayyyy more angst for Corrin to deal with lmao. Sometimes, I fear that I push her too hard, but its fine. Everything's fine.
The worst realization I've had while writing this was "Oh fuck, Sakura's me when I was thirteen" but maybe that's just the socially-awkward 13 year old mood? I dunno.
Anyway, anybody see that new FEH banner? I can't stop thinking about Camilla's fucked up little spaghetti arms and I need the validation that they've bothered someone else lmao.