Beta: ScorinVoidseeker


Chapter 21: Two Moments in a Soldier's Life

I lean back on the railing of the ship with my hand intertwined with Olivia's as we listen to Morgan's story with the royal family. It's weird but I can feel the presence of Grima on top of my head. It's like she is resting her arms on my head then has her chin on laying on her arms. It's like a kid when he or she is listening to an interesting story. "…and Scott pushed me really hard in our physical training, while Jeff helped me work out things in my life. Ken helped me with swordplay and magic while the oldest brother, John, taught me tactics and life things. Sadly, I had to leave them after two years in order to look for Lucy and you guys."

"Do they know about you and where you are from?" Olivia asks. Robin nods to that. Morgan scratched his left arm, which had the brand on his left shoulder, and chuckled nervously.

"I got badly injured…" I see Robin scowl "…while defending the village from bandits and they had to take of arm sleeve. Afterwards I had to explain everything, while they didn't believe it at first, I told them about the future and after more time spent with them they believed me."

'That's how you got this scar I presume?" Lucina said pointing to the long line running horizontal through the mark of the exalt.

"Yep. I'd do it again too." He said with a hint of pride. I raise an eyebrow at that.

"But we need to keep our impact on this world minimal." Lucina started. Chrom scowled then and Robin raised an eyebrow. "The less people know about us the easier it would be for us to leave." Morgan hung his head.

"I know Lucy, but I would do it again."

"Why?" Lucina asked. Morgan opened his mouth but Robin cut him off.

"What do you mean leave?" Robin asked. Lucina turned to our mother.

"Well we would return to our future and let you raise your children in peace, without worrying about us. We would have no place here. That counts for all the children." She says. 'Pfft I ruined that place, why would you want to go back.' My thoughts exactly, except the fact that we would make a place for them in our lives. 'Same here, they are called prisoners, duh.' No.

"Pfft that's silly talk Lucy." Lissa said. Lucina cocked her head.

"What do you mean by that?" She asks. I step forward a little to speak.

"One: Why would you want to go back to your future? It's a ruined wasteland, it wouldn't have changed because in your time we didn't kill Grima…" 'Still won't.' Lucina blinked a couple times at me. "…Two: We would be even more worried for you if you left. Which then leads into number three. Three: We would make a place for you, any and all of you. It's only been a couple days since you got your whole family back and you already look better than when I first meet you. I wouldn't want you to leave and judging by the looks on you parents faces I can safely say that they don't want you to leave either." I motion over to the hurt faces of Chrom and Robin. Lucina and Morgan turn to them.

"You think we don't consider you two as our children?" Robin asks. Morgan's shoulders slouched and Lucina stiffened. Chrom walks up to them and pulls the siblings into a hug.

"I would like for you to not leave back to your future. You are both my children, no matter what time you came from." Lucina let out a tear and buried her face into Chrom's shoulder. Morgan smiled and did the same but with no tears. 'Aww, that's cute. The scene, not what the other me said.' He then held out his arm to Robin who joined in on the group hug. 'No go away you bitch!' Chill Grima. Lissa sighed and leaned into Donnel who wrapped his arms tighter around her. I smiled and rubbed Olivia's hand. I hear her sniff and I turn to see her wiping her eyes. I chuckle and lean down to talk to her.

"You alright?" I ask her. She nods and looks up at me with wet eyes.

"I'm just excited you think that way. We haven't even met the older versions of our twins and yet I think of them as my children. Now I know that you do as well." I smile at that.

"I always did. But the first part of the little speech I have thought about a lot."

"I figured, it seemed a little too well thought out." She teased. 'Ha!'

"Hey! Now that's just rude." I say with a fake pout. I then lean to whisper in her ear. "How you going to repay me for that?" I whisper in an attempted husky voice. It must have worked because she blushed and pushed me away.

"Stop that!" She shrieked as I was laughing. I then notice everyone staring at us. She noticed it as well. "S-stop looking!" She then hid behind me. Robin then chuckled.

"Then you might want to tell your husband that he needs to learn how to whisper." Robin said as they all started giggling and snickering. I then blushed up a storm. Morgan then went into a full-blown laughter.

"Oh, calm down Morgan, Uncle Jordan told me what you did to Severa when you first say her again." Lucina said with a smirk. Morgan calmed down but shot her a curious look.

"Hugged her?" He asked. Lucina shook her head.

"Nope after that." Morgan stood there for a couple seconds before turning beet red. Lucina then made a pretty accurate recreation of the face Morgan made to Severa. "I'm dying to know." She teased.

"I told her I was sorry!" He exclaims. As Lucina chuckles and ruffles his hair.

"Just teasing." Morgan pushes his sisters' hand away and trying to fix his headband. Robin then gets a wicked grin and reaches for it. Morgan leans back to avoid the hand, but Robin presses on. We then watch Morgan bolt off as Robin chases past Fredrick and Cynthia. Cynthia giggles and Fredrick just sighs before motioning her to follow him as the walk in the directions tacticians ran off in. Lucina shrugs with a smirk while Chrom shakes his head with a smile. Lissa is snickering and Donnel just watches with a smile. I pull Olivia out from behind me and keep my arm around her. She leans into my shoulder and rests a hand on my chest.

Why can't every day be like this? Relaxed, worry free, fun. 'Because I'm coming to kill most of you. That's why.' Let me monologue damnit. 'What are you? A bad book villain?' You sly dog, you caught me monologuing. 'Quote?' Quote, but that guy was a good villain. 'I'll take your word for it… shit.' So, you listen to me as well? Ha. 'Shut up!' Ne- a pair of fingers snap in front of my face. I blink and follow the hand back to Severa who had walked up to me while I was having my absolutely fascinating conversation with Grima. 'Why thank you.' Sarcasm.

"Stop spacing out. I called you name several times. Gawds your lucky I find you adequate." Severa says with a huff.

"What does that last sentence mean…" I taper off "What'd you need?" I ask.

"Cynthia wants you to play a song over our sparing session. I don't care if you do or don't but she says something about it being heroic or whatever. Personally, I find it childish." She crosses her arms and I snicker.

"Severa, all you had to do was ask." I chuckle out. She blushes.

"I never said I wanted it!" She exclaims.

"Your body language says you do." Olivia says. Severa blushes and huffs.

"Whatever. Can you just go get your things?" She then stands there for a couple seconds. "Please." She says in a quieter voice. I smile, stand up from the railing, and ruffle her hair.

"How can I deny my future daughter-in-law?" I joke and walk away to leave her blushing and stuttering in front of Olivia. I duck down the stairs before she could respond. I weave through Nowi and Nah running up the stairs.

"Mother, please stop running." Nah begs. I smile and walk down the hallway and open the third door on the left to enter the room we were given. There was a lantern, by the Bluetooth speaker, on the nightstand that I had to make sure didn't fall on us do to the rocking of the boat. The trunk that held our, mainly Olivia's, stuff was at the foot of our bed along with the dog bed for Ridley. I knell on the dog bed and open the trunk. Rummaging through the clothes and other things in the chest to find my MacBook didn't take long because it was the only cool metal thing. I pull it out and grab the speaker off the nightstand. I close the door and look down the hall. Stahl hobbled out of his room, with a green face. Kjelle followed looking nervous and guided him down the hall.

"Was it that bad?" She asks concerned. Stahl turns his head to meet her gaze.

"N-no herk, it's the bo-oh that's not good." He rushed passed me and into the men's bathroom. I heard a violent upchuck from the behind the door. Kjelle runs to the door.

"Dad! Are you okay? Can I come in?" She asks worried. Queit for a minute before a soft yes from Stahl. She quickly runs in. I blink and nod my head. Rule one: don't try Sully's or Kjelle's food while on the boat. 'Or ever, that sounded really bad. I remember the only time I tried Sully's, I was bedridden for the rest of the day. It turned out well because Chrom was super sweet and caring during that time.' She sighs dreamily. Was that before or after you guys were together? I hold onto the rail as I walk up the stairs. 'Before… I think that was when I started falling for him… good memories.' I nod as I see a circle of people form. I push through Gregor and Vaike who were arguing about who was going to win. Cynthia or Severa. 'Cynthia has the weapon advantage but Severa is a more serious fighter.' Once I got to the front I notice Fredrick talking to Cynthia and pointing out things and other stuff like that. I look to the opposite side and see Gaius doing the exact same thing. I guess she doesn't want advice from her mother… or either of them.

I power on the speaker and place it on the ground by my feet. While it was smaller, JBL flip 4, it had a better sound than the one my dad used for practices. The sound for connection rings through the boat and silence washes over like a wave. I blush when everyone turns my way but smile and give a small wave. Cynthia and Severa took that as their unofficial get ready timer and both fathers backed off. I search through the songs I had. While I had an idea of what I should play, I skimmed through it just in case. 'What's the little 'E' by some of the songs?' Explicit language. Grima faked a gasp. 'Shame on you. I thought you were better than that.' I'm not playing one, that's my workout and training music anyway. I'm trying to find… "There you are." I mutter under my breath. 'Seven Nation Army?' Listen I tell her in my mind as I hit play.

The guitar starts up slowly but once the drums hit I could tell that the girls were now in the sparring mood. Severa smirks and starts the spar. She swings at Cynthia and said girl jumps back. She then goes for the stab with the wooden training lance but Severa parries it expertly. I wonder if she learned how to fight lance's due to the fact that she wanted to best her mother? 'Probably.' A hand rests on my shoulder and I take my eyes away from the intense fight to see Olivia standing behind me. She tries to talk but I can't hear over that sweet, sweet, guitar line. I move my head closer to her so I can hear her.

"I placed a bet on Severa, it was only ten gold though." She says and I move my head back while laughing. Even though she was shy and doesn't seem like she would do any gambling, Basilio has changed that. We, or she, usually wins the bet. She doesn't gamble though, like poker and blackjack, that's me and I'm up 200 gold and fourth in the shepherds. Gaius is first and also last… 'What?' You figure it out.

"Ha!" I focus back on the fight and see Severa rolling to the left while Cynthia misses a downward strike. Severa rushes to hit Cynthia in a vulnerable position, but it looks like said girl was expecting it as she sweeps the lance under Severa legs. While Severa jumps she also stumbles and loses momentum. Cynthia took the blunt end of the lance and drilled her in the stomach making Severa fall on her back. Cynthia jumps on the opportunity and holds the supposed sharp part of the lance at Severa's throat.

"Yield evil doer!" Cynthia shouts, and I realize that she just lost. "For you have lost to the righteous justice server Cynthi-ahh!" Severa sweeps out Cynthia's legs from under her and literally jumps on Cynthia. A knee in the gut, her lance knocked out of her hand, and Severa's sword at her throat made momentum switch sides pretty quickly.

"You talk too much." Severa says. "Yield?!" She asks and demands. Cynthia's then discreetly, or not at all discreetly, reaches for her lance. Severa whacks her hand with the flat side of her sword which elicits a yelp. "Yield!" Severa demands. The girls stare at each other for a couple seconds before Cynthia sighs, looks away and nods. Severa gets up, panting heavily, she looks at Cynthia who sits up but makes no move to get up. For the briefest second you see some compassion in Severa's eyes before replaced by indifference in expression and tone. "You put up a good fight, but don't expect it to be that close next time." She says before holding a hand out to her. Cynthia looks up with wet eyes before wiping them quickly and taking it. Once she hops up there is a big smile on her face.

"Yea! Because next time I'm going to win! Just you wait!" She says before picking up the lance and walking over to her parents. Severa shakes her head.

"Gawds, she thinks she can be-Gah!" Her belittling was interrupted by Gaius bear hugging her and twirling her around.

"I made 100 gold because of you!" He says giddily and I chuckle. "You also did great and kicked ass! Expect the thing we talked about earlier to happen sooner than later." He said with a wink before throwing a bag my way. I jump back and Olivia jumps up to catch it. She opens it up and counts out twenty gold pieces. I snicker and place the MacBook down by the speaker which had the song almost at the end. She then smiles and tosses it by my things. I catch her eye when she does that and she blushes. The blush goes away however once one of her favorite Earth songs comes on next. Little Talks by of Monsters and Men. She smiles, grabs my hand, and starts dragging me to the middle. While I do blush at the thought of dancing in front of the Shepherds who, while all love Olivia's dancing and singing don't like either of mine, have never have seen us do this in front of them.

But seeing the smile on her face, all my care about that was washed aside. Seeing her looking back at me with such a happy smile, losing the stage freight, losing the nervousness, was absolutely beautiful. I now followed her with little hesitation. She grabs both of my hands once we get to the middle and I can spy the people staying in the circle out of the corner of my eye.

"I don't like walking around this old and empty house…" She sings to me, and to a lesser extent the rest of the Shepherds as she separates from me, looking at the floor, for theatrics.

"…So hold my hand, I'll walk with you my dear…" I sing back as I grab her hand and tilt her chin towards my face.

"…The stairs creak as I sleep, It's keeping me awake…" She places her hand on my shoulder but looks away.
"…It's the house telling you to close your eyes…"
I cup her cheek.

"…And some days I can't even trust myself…" She turns her back to me and crosses her arms over her chest.

"…It's killing me to see you this way…" I hug her from behind.

"…'Cause though the truth may vary This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore…" We both sing at the same time and she turns to face me and we clasp hands together. Once the trumpets hit we were both off, dancing and laughing. I spin her under my arm and I can hear the Shepherds clapping. "Hey! Don't listen to a word I say Hey! The screams all sound the same Hey!" We sang the chorus and the Shepherds shouted at every 'Hey!'. It felt like such a short song to dance to because it was over quicker than I remember. Maybe it was the rush of the moment, adrenaline, or something else but I have only seen Olivia more beautiful than this twice, when I first saw her and when we had our children. The orange sunset in her amethyst eyes. The smile, the passion, happiness, joy in said eyes, the light and heavy breathing at the same time, the slightly messed up hair. I couldn't hear any other sound other than my heart pumping and our breathing. I couldn't see anything other than my wife behind me. I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do. What I wouldn't give for this moment to last forever.


"Oh boy. This is more intimidating in person." I mutter as I see the Valmese ships approaching.

"Now is not the time to become scarred." Robin said pointing to the map on the table with her OTP notebook right beside her. "You are the leader of boat defense three. While Chrom and I go after the Valm General, you and Fredrick need to make sure we aren't attacked from behind. Once the General is dead we will give the signal and you guys better book it of the ship." I can only nod.

"Who is with me?"

"Olivia of course, Sully, Stahl, Kjelle, Henry and Cherche. Make sure you watch out for the archers and mages. They don't have many but the ones they do have are powerful so please watch out. You also have a lot of ranged weapons with your group as well so some suppressing fire at the start would be smart. Do you understan- shit they are right on top of us. Go now!" She says as I see the ships getting ready to board. I run down the ship and find the third ship with one sniper, three cavilers, two knights, one general and one paladin. No mages. Henry and Cherche should attack the knights and general with magic and Cherche's hamm- I twitch and crane my head involuntarily. 'Oh ho ho! That is interesting!' Ignore her and meet up with the rest of my squad ready but waiting.

"Okay, here's the 4-1-1…" I start once I skid to a stop "…They have no mages and only one archer but it is a sniper. Cherche and Henry, you two are on knight and general duty. Blast them with your magic and your ham-" my mouth stopped working. Everyone looked at me weird. "Ha-a-a-m…"

"Hammer?" Cherche asked and held it up. I flinched and jumped back a little.

"Ye-yea that thing." I shake my head to clear my mind of the weapon. 'This is getting intriguing!' "Anyway, Sully and Stahl both have beast killers so they will prioritize on the paladin and cavaliers, just watch out for their own beast killers. If you see one with a beast killer let Kjelle or one of us…" I motion between Olivia and myself "… to either help you take care of him or let us do it. Olivia and I will b-line for the sniper then flank them from behind. Does everyone understand?" Five nods and one creepy smile from Henry means yes. "Good, cause get ready. Henry!"

"Yea boss man?" He asks all to chipper.

"Burn their sails." He laughs and ignites his hand.

"I like the way you think. Stand back Caw's this will get Cawrazy!" He throws the fire ball at the sails and they immediately catch fire. 'Smart move.' The Valmese laid down the wooden plank and the battle of boat defense three commenced.

Henry started things off with a flux tome to the general and with a shout of "Special delivery!" he killed him in one blow. Cherche then launched up in the air and Henry jumped of the boat only for Cherche to catch him by the hand with a scowl and smirk at the same time. I look over at the boat and notice the sniper aiming at them. I quickly load my mini bow and fire it to distract him. It worked because it hit him in the thigh. He turned and fired at me. I spin to the right and while spinning I load up an arrow on my bow. I kneel down right after the spin and fire at him and miss. He loads up another one. And fires it at me. I dodge and curse.

"Damnit." I spit out while hiding behind a random crate. I take a quick look out and see Kjelle throwing a javelin at the sniper focused on m- Ping! An arrow lands right next to me on the crate. I ducked down as fast as I could. I risk another look only to see a javelin standing straight up, giving me the finger or signal. Why not both? 'I'm impartial to the middle finger.' I hop up and run to Stahl's, who was left alone after Sully stopped a sword aimed for my wife, side and pull out my steel sword. We are facing the paladin and with Stahl not being promoted yet, we need to be careful. He goes for the strike and I jump in front to block it with my sword. "Rejected!" I tell him. He and his horse stumbles back as Stahl takes the chance to rush him and gets a solid slice across his torso. I come in cleaning back up and slice the opposite way. The paladin falls and I look around.

Sully pulls her lance out of another cavalier as Olivia deflects another one's strike. Kjelle comes in and pierces him with the javelin that she picked up from the sniper's body. Henry was getting reprimanded from Cherche for jumping off the boat all while he was laughing. Then the mast falls. We all jump back as it crumbles to the ground and makes a huge crack right down the middle. "We need to get off this ship." I tell them. Cherche grabs Henry and they fly off. Sully pulls Olivia on the horse and Stahl does the same with Kjelle and they ride off. I follow right after them. I look over at Robin who just released the Thoron bolt into the sky. My gaze falls over to the second boat which Fredrick just cut the wooden plank connecting us and them. "Fredrick!" I shout to try and get his attention. He turns his head to meet my gaze. "Robin just gave the signal! Get everyone off now!" He nods and I hear the second Thoron blast, which means the same as the first but just was there just in case not everyone saw it.

"Right!" He said and started spouting orders to his squad. I look towards mine.

"Hope y'all can swim." I say. No one laughed. I sigh. "Just jump or fly off." They all nod. Sully and Stahl, without horses for plot reasons, jump first followed by Kjelle. I grab Olivia's hand and run to the edge of the boat. I hear splashes from around us as we both freeze at the edge. While not a high jump, 15-20 feet, it was ocean waters. A lake is a whole lot different than an ocean, but I needed to get to the boat as quick as possible for…reasons. Olivia squeezed my hand and I look her way.

"R-ready?" She asks.

"Hell no. On three, okay?" She nods. "One… two… this is going to be cold, Three!" And we jump, into cold water. My nose really hurts now. I swim up and look around for Olivia. A second later she popped up with a greedy gulp of air. "Are you okay?"

"I-I-I'll m-m-m-manage." She shivers out.

"Let's get you some place warm." I say as I look out over the sea. My eyes finally land on the line of Shepherds swimming towards the farthest ship from us. "Over there, let's go." I say as I start swimming. It took around 5 minutes but we reach the ship and Olivia climbs up the rope ladder first. Once we got to the top I look out at the sea. 'Beautiful.' No it was not. Flames. Flames on the water. Ships sinking to the depths of the ocean. Pieces of debris everywhere. I freeze. There is a man, a Valmese solider, drifting aimlessly throughout all of the wreckage. I shudder and turn back to the Shepherds, laughing and celebrating a victory. I then hear the man cry. Thousands more will come, they don't need to hear or see this.

"Everyone!" I shout. "Get below deck!" They look at me with confusion. I steel myself and push on. "Trust me! Get below deck now!" I shout at them. No one budged. "This is not a request! It's an order! Please trust me!" I demand and plead in the same sentence. One by one they reluctantly follow. Robin ran up to me with an angry expression.

"Jordan! What the hell are you doing?!" She asks in a pissed tone.

"Please trust me." I beg. She lost the anger when I begged. She slowly nodded.

"Explain to me later okay." I do nothing. I might, I might not. I can't say for certain. She turns and runs down the stairs. I sigh staring out at the sea. Any second now… I hear nothing but fire, fire on water. I shake my head, then pound on the railing with my fist.

"Damnit, Damnit, Damnit!" I shout. As I went to pound on it again a hand caught mine. I turn to see a worried Donnel and an annoyed Chrom.

"Jordan stop!" Donnel shouts. "If you want the res' of us down there so bad, then you need to come with-" There the screams are. Tens of thousands of people, crying out in pain, for wanting to be saved, in anger. I watch as Donnel's eyes widen and his grip loosen. I feel the tears prick my eyes.

"You weren't supposed to see or hear this." I tell him. Then I look at Chrom who was silently staring out at the flames. I then notice his eyes are closed. He opens them and looks at me.

"Neither were you." He tells me.

'This is what I like to see.'


"Hey there baby, has anyone told you that you look so beautiful right today?" Inigo said, leaning against the pier railing. The pretty redhead blushed and shyly looked away. He pressed on. "Because it would be a waste not to tell you that you do look absolutely stunning."

"Tha-thank you." She stammered out. Inigo put on the patented Meyer charm, trademarked… whatever that means.

"How about you and I grab tea sometime soon? I'm available whenever you are Severa." He then slapped a hand over his mouth with wide eyes. The girl went from blushing red to furious red, there is such a thing.

"Why don't you ask Severa you pig!" He then got slapped. Inigo watched the girl storm off then sighed. He rested his head on the railing and lightly bonked it on the railing.

"Smooth move there." His sister said.

"Shut it." He muttered. He then raised his head and stared out the pier. "I thought that I could get to know her and maybe get information from her about the group of Grimleal, but…" He lifted with his hand then let it fall. That was all Evelyn needed to know.

"We will see her again, you know that right?" She asked with her back facing the water, leaning on the railing.

"Yep." He muttered out. Normally Evelyn would tease him but he looked really dejected today.

"Are you alright? You seem less… you than normal." She asked. He lifted his head and leaned on his elbows. He gained a contemplative look before sighing and facing her.

"I feel like I keep screwing up. I lost the bag, we got lost from Brady, Owain, and Sev because of me, I couldn't gain any information because she had the same hair color as my friend…" Evelyn coughed bullshit at that "… I just can't win right now." He finished exasperatedly. Evelyn stared at him before laughing. "What the- Why are you laughing!? It's not funny?!"

"Yes it is! Because you are mad at yourself for screwing up. That's not like you at all. You really miss Severa don't you?" She added that last part cheekily. He blushed up a storm and fumbled for words.

"Wha-I don-N-Sto… Shut up." He tried to be angry but her laugh was infectious so he couldn't help but start laughing too. "I hate you." He laughed out.

"Same here Inigo." She giggled out. She then hopped off the railing and started walking back to town. "Let's go. There is a cute hotel owner that you should flirt your way into a room for the night. Maybe even one for your dear older sister."

"Two minutes!" He shouts and catches up to her. He then chuckled and Evelyn looks over at him.

"What's so funny?" She asks.

"I may miss Sev, but not as much as you miss-"

"Shut up Inigo!" Evelyn shouted and blushed. Inigo was laughing besides her as they walked down the street to find the inn.


AN: Not freaking dead! Just needed a little vacation with family and needed to think over OWD and the direction it was headed in. Safe to say that I have new motivation and ideas. I'll try to get back to the regular schedule and maybe speed things up a little bit. But that is honestly all I have for you guys today. Just want to thank ScorinVoidseeker for becoming the Beta, thank you for that my man. Any Children shipping ideas, leave them in the reviews. And vote in the poll. Thank you all and have a great week.


Reviews:

Hashirama1710(Ch.20): Thank you sir.

Asher919(CH.20): If everything goes according to plan, then yes, at least twenty more.

ScorinVoidseeker(Ch.20): While I have a rough idea on Morgan, c hange my mind (Any and all of you on the children ships). I might take one day to go through and fix all the spelling and grammatical errors but not right now.