Glen/Selena - "and I can't live this life without you by my side"
Whenever Glen returned from battle with scratches or bruises that hadn't been attended to, Selena would run over to his side and heal him. It was a habit that began when she first joined the military and was placed under his command. He was a Lieutenant General at the time, as the adjutant of the previous Sunstone, but he was her superior officer nonetheless. Even though he insisted that she didn't need to waste her staves on such minor injuries, she always used the excuse that she was practicing her skill with staves. He never bought it—it showed in his eyes—but he let her do what he wished.
Unlike Duessel, Valter, Tirado, and several other high-ranking Grado officers, they weren't born into nobility. They were both born as peasants who barely scraped through by tilling the land. Although they came from different villages, their stories of home were similar, and a sense of camaraderie quickly formed between the two of them. They bonded over silly things, like the kind of local food they had at home that was harder to find in the capital, to the games they'd play with the other kids in the village when they had a scrap of spare time, to the kinds of flowers they'd get their mothers for the Festival of Parents that was celebrated throughout Grado every year.
The days that they spent together turned from days, into months, into years. Before long, Glen became a General after the retirement of the former Sunstone, and Selena beamed as she watched the ceremony. To either side of Emperor Vigarde stood General Duessel and General Valter, both with proud smiles on their faces. Duessel, with all of the fatherly pride that he was famous for, wrapped an arm around Glen's shoulders and roughly mussed his hair with a hearty laugh. For as crass and dismissive as Valter was, he still gave Glen a fairly genuine congratulation after the ceremony was over before slipping away.
Selena too became a General, after Valter's exile. She never knew the details, and something inside her whispered that she didn't really want to know, either. Nonetheless, she was proud to serve her Emperor, and fought for him with a passion that caused some rumors to fly up. Naturally, she laughed off the ones that said that she had an eros love for Vigarde; he was much older than her, and it was his honor, wisdom, and caring heart that she loved. Bemusedly, she noted whenever she caught wind of such talk that it was really only the women who were slapped with such rumors.
No one spoke of her relationship with Glen, despite the bond that the two shared. It may have been their professionalism, which made their public interaction seem much more restrained. In private though, the two of them were free to show their true selves to each other. Without a care in the world, he'd lay down on the floor of her private chambers (she always had trustworthy attendants accompanying them, one of them the woman Glen had promised himself to). He was always more comfortable feeling the earth against his back when he laid down, and the floor was the closest he'd get with their luxurious rooms. While she loved the soft pillows and blankets that beckoned her to them, feeling the ground served as a reminder of why she was there, and so she would join him. They would talk about all sorts of things: of home, of hardships, of strategies, of places to visit around Grado.
Eventually, though, their duties saw them separated. Glen and his younger brother, Cormag, were often sent around as border patrol. Disgruntled mercenaries from Carcino and Jehanna had started turning to banditry, and encroached on Grado and Renais' borders. Selena was sent to more remote areas of Grado, where Emperor Vigarde heard rumors of corrupt nobles and suffering peasants, to discern the truth and lay down justice if necessary. Their experiences changed them, and it was apparent with each subsequent meeting. Glen's expressions became more serious, more reserved—Selena reckoned that she never saw him smile after one particular mission to southern Grado, which involved quelling a coup. She slowly became more fanatical in her defense of her emperor, as she witnessed, time and time again, greedy nobles spewing their twisted version of his ideals to manipulate the people.
So when she saw Cormag's face in Bethroen, left behind by Glen who had gone in search of Princess Eirika, she felt a nagging sensation in the pit of her stomach. Emperor Vigarde's orders to eliminate the traitorous Duessel. Caellach's careless massacre of Frelia's soldiers. Her own words to Glen in the last time they'd talked face-to-face, admonishing him for questioning His Majesty's behavior. They were like weights on her conscience, trying to grab her attention. But she'd promised to never falter in her duty to her emperor. And so the only words that came out of her mouth when Cormag, too, questioned his duty were more words of chastisement, much like she had given to his brother.
Not long after, though, did Valter arrive with his new adjutant Beran. As she saw him sweep through the doors of the fortress, as she saw the sadistic smirk on his face widening, her mind wandered to one of the nights she spent talking with Glen, about the ambitious recruits and how their self-centered fancies were dragging the Grado army down.
"You understand me, Selena. And you think the same, right? Honestly," he sighed, "I don't think I'd be here without you by my side."
Where did it all go wrong?
Author's Notes: I stole one of the unfilled Nagamas prompts, from the 2014 Summer Bonus Round. When I started writing this, I was on board with Glen/Selena as a romantic pairing, but over the months, as I've analyzed FE8's story, I've stopped pairing them. As a result, this fic has somewhat romantic undertones even though the two of them state in the story that they see their relationship in a platonic light.