"It's finally day one! We'll begin the challenge now!" Henry declared, laughing his silly little laugh afterwards.
The woman wasn't really looking forward to what the man was planning to do to her and decided it was best to keep a good distance away from him by immediately walking away from his space after his speech. On the other hand, Henry thought it was an even better idea to stick with her at all times when possible as she walked away.
"I don't see why you'll have to stick so close to me..." Willow commented as Henry walked beside her, his arms resting behind his back.
"How else would I make you smile?" questioned the man who began to suspiciously widen up his grin, showing his excitement. "Got you something..."
He then revealed a pile of black feathers which were most likely from crows sitting in his hands softly he has been hiding behind himself. Willow blinked as she registered what it was in her brain within just a mere second and then frowned.
"Please don't tell me you killed another crow for THIS instead of something important..." stated the disappointed woman.
"Maybe I did, nyahahaha," laughed Henry." Come on, you're a dark mage, Willow, and that means tons and tons of killing! Ooooh hoohoohooo... I can see all that crimson liquid dying the land and bodies red..."
Willow growled and immediately left the sadistic pale man in black to fantasize for himself, but that wasn't the case when he kept following her with the crow feathers.
"Willow, want me to revive the bird? I mean, it'll still be a zombie, but it's still revived," he called.
"It's already dead, damn it. You don't need to go screwing around to let it suffer and kill it a second time."
Henry was smiling as always. His expression just wouldn't change, but he was slightly guilty about what he did, especially since he already knew what her reaction was like. Though then again, he wasn't actually thinking twice.
"Please, Henry, dispose of those feathers somewhere..." she requested in a displeased tone.
"Aye aye, missy!" he said as he marched off to look for a peaceful looking spot.
I mean that IS what she meant by dispose, right? Leaving it somewhere far away from its own corpse, far away from a battlefield, far away from possible enemies and risens. Actually, no one would know since she said "dispose" when she is usually telling Henry to not mistreat a single thing, dead or alive.
"Hmmmm, would a risen's ripped off limb work?" he questioned himself curiously. "Nahhhh!"
Willow wanted to see the man lose his trademark smile for once as well, but she already knew that if she got mad at him at a little thing such as that, he would laugh it right off and continue to smile, fake or not. But for now, she needed to stay away.
"Willow! It's disposed of!" he called as he ran back to her.
"What is with this noisy screeching..?" Maribelle commented irritably.
However, no matter how disgusted she sounded, she meant no offense to anyone around her.
"Henry, was that you? Please, show some manners around here! No one needs a screaming banshee roaming around camp!" scolded the blonde woman.
Of course he ends up laughing at such comment which caused the ladies to sigh.
"I'm sorry, it's my responsibility," Willow apologized, bowing down to Maribelle.
The noble immediately reacted and pried her to stand back up in which she didn't. Henry felt quite uncomfortable since she's always going around apologizing for everyone especially for his trouble, stopping his smile for a quick second. Nobody caught it luckily for him.
"Willow, dear, don't you worry too much. You're not at fault!" Maribelle told her, trying to pull her back up.
"She's right, Willow. Come on, it's just for a little fun!" Henry chuckled loudly, pulling her up to him. "Sorry about that, Maribelle!"
"It's fine, but please do keep your voice down sometimes," she said, smiling at Willow. "You don't have to go out of your way to apologize for anyone. They need to learn to do it themselves."
Willow blinked and nodded silently as she looked up at Henry who only grinned cheekily.
"I guess... It became a bad habit since back then.." she commented apologetically as she looked at Maribelle.
"Oh, well I can help you with that, dear! Don't you worry too much; Lady Maribelle here will be of assistance when you need it!"
"Well not today, woman! She's sticking with me for today, nyahahaha!" Henry laughed.
"Henry, please keep your grubby blood obsessed hands to yourself!" Maribelle warned as she eyed where he was holding the quiet female dark mage.
"Hm?" hummed the man who looked at where he grabbed Willow.
Slightly opening his usually smiling eyes to reveal unknown colored eyes- was it black? Was it brown? No one actually knew, but it was quite mesmerizing for the women who usually never see them- the man looked down to see that he was resting it at her hip.
"Whoopsiees!~ My bad, hahaha!" he snickered, closing back his eyes and pulling his hand away. "My hand just happened to land there!"
"Do watch where you touch a woman especially if you aren't together," Maribelle scolded as Willow awkwardly looked away.
"You got it!" Henry exclaimed, saluting to the leaving pink figure.
Silence over took the two dark mages again until Henry chimed in once more.
"Want a risen's arm?"
"... No..!" Willow replied in a disturbed manner as she left.
"Aw... How about a hex? A curse? Blood! Someone dead?" he listed.
"No, Henry...!" said the cringing woman. "Nothing that deals with death, please...!"
Thinking that he was now a complete bother instead of a company to the woman, he remained quite the rest of the way over to the camp's training grounds to pick up the tome she left back when she took off from Frederick's harsh workout. Now humming to himself, Henry thought of other methods to get her to smile. However, there was something that bothered him just a tad bit... Did she like him? Or was he just a nuisance? Not like he cared or so he thought, but it was just to satisfy his curiosity.
'I won't say a word...' he thought to himself, covering up his curiosity with his smile and jolly sounding hum.
'His mood hasn't changed yet and all I've been doing is ignoring or scolding him.. What else should I do...? I don't want to hurt him...' Willow thought, softening her frown.
"Whatcha thinking about?" the sadistic man asked innocently.
"Nothing important."
"Are you going to train?"
"I'm picking up my tome I dropped on the field while on the run from... Frederick..." she said with a shudder.
"Oh, him.." Henry said, looking away to hide his uncomfortable expression.
"Are you, perhaps, hiding a frown?" Willow asked, smiling not quite noticeably.
"Nope! Just your imagination, nyahahahaha!" laughed the mage who secretly returned to cringing in anxiety.
Willow decided to take a look to see whether he was lying or not, but as what she could identify from the way he's acting, he was lying. The woman stopped smiling and took a large step around to see his face though he turned away and continued to laugh.
"Are we playing a game now?" he asked as they continued to turn in a full circle until Willow grew dizzy.
"Whoa... My head is spinning!" Henry sighed contently.
"That's... not a good.. thing..." Willow told him as she swayed a little and fell.
"Really?" asked the man who shook his head like a dog and looked at her.
Apparently, she looked tired and very dizzy from chasing Henry for his expression as if a dog was chasing its tail. Sighing with a smile on his face, Henry quickly took off to retrieve the book she dropped on the training grounds without being noticed by the captain of the field, Frederick himself, and returned for Willow who was now struggling to stand.
"Let's gooooo!" he exclaimed, scooping her up as he shot past the area and back to the tents.
"H-Henry, careful!" she yelled after being bounced carefully and comfortably into his arms.
"Isn't this fun?" he asked, laughing a bit right after.
"I don't know how to reply to whatever you deem to be fun!" she whined, grabbing onto his arm and shirt tightly.
"Wheeeeeheeheehee!" he said, careful not to drop the woman. "Come on! Smile!"
'Why don't you smile? Your smile is not even real!' she exclaimed in his body.
"Talking nonsense againnnnnn!~"
'I'm not!'
Stopping by the tents and setting her back down on her feet, the woman felt light headed and stumbled around and back onto Henry who openly allowed her to fall back into his arms.
"Tired already? Man, you need to have some more fun and build up your stamina! Need a hex to fix this problem up briefly? he asked.
"I'm okay..." she replied in an unstable tone, holding onto his arms that are wrapped around her loosely. "Please refrain... from troubling me and yourself..."
"You need to stop assuming things about me, missy!" Henry scolded jokingly. "I really am having fun!"
Willow sighed and stood back up with the help of the man who still hasn't let go of her just yet.
"If you say so.. But it still isn't very convincing..."
Willow then staggered off and took off the decorative circulet around her head to get herself comfortable again. Of course both dark mages weren't very successful with their first day, but they didn't want to admit defeat just yet either. Especially Henry. Not at all did he want to give up without a simple fight. It's just making her smile, so how bad could it be? According to his afterthought of his not so brilliant idea, it turned out to be a little harder than he first thought it'd be.
"What if I did this?" he asked himself out loud as he jogged up to Willow and wore on her circulet, the veil falling behind his head gracefully as he picked up the woman.
Willow, caught surprised, looked at him with her wide, slightly bugging out eyes.
"Lookie here, Willow! Your prince-cough princess- in not so shining armor!" he announced proudly. "Heyyyy, this crown thingy is very comfortable...! I feel like royalty!"
Willow mentally giggled and held in a smile as best as she could until she could no longer do so. Quickly burying her face into his shirt, she cracked a tiny smile and calmed down to look back up at him.
"Did I make you smile yet?" Henry asked with a cheeky grin.
"No," she denied.
"Aww... I thought I got you this time.." he whined. "A great steed I'll be then! Another round of running, here we go!"
"Eh?" Willow said as he took off with her again for another quick lap around camp. "Ahh!"
"Don't worry, I won't drop you or your circulet!" he assured her, the headpiece bouncing around loosely on his head. "Well that's if I can't help it... Nyahahaha!"
Chrom and Lillian were watching the two make a mad dash and gave each other an anxious looking smile, pitying the female mage.
"Looks like they're having fun," Chrom commented.
"It sure does..." Lillian agreed hesitantly.
'Sometimes I wish I never agreed to this..!' Willow said in a hushed tone as she turned away to avoid the wind blowing against her face.
"I guess we both failed day one!" announced the man. "I'll make sure to succeed tomorrow and then on!"
"B-but I don't know how to get you to stop smiling... I don't want to hurt you either.." Willow told the man as he slowed down to a stop.
"Huehuehue... You'll figure it out soon!" Henry chuckled. "Let's get you back to your tent. You look exhausted and we're still traveling back to Ylisse! Almost there though!~"
Willow only nodded, but she already knew that the group was going to have to stop several times on the way back. More opportunities to do ridiculous things or so she thought. Not like she ever does anything ridiculous unlike Henry.
"Hm? Oh look, a crow!" Henry pointed out energetically.
The black bird looked up at him and stared curiously before pattering its way to the dark mage and gave a soft "caw" to him.
"Sorry, bud, but the one you're looking for is longgggggg gone," he told the bird, waving it away.
"It's the crow you killed off earlier for the feathers, right?" Willow asked, earning a tilt from Henry's head and shrug from his shoulders.
"Probably the one from last week. Who knows."
He then walked into the tent and placed her seated onto the bed comfortably next to him.
"Hey, Willow?"
"Hm?"
The man reached up to his head and removed the headpiece off himself and placed it back onto its true owner.
"Nevermind."
Willow blinked and nodded as she readjusted the circulet thoughtfully and sighed.
"Are you ticklish?" he suddenly asked.
"Eh?"