"Hey, Willow.. Willowwwww.. Willieeee..." Henry called as he poked her cheek.
Willow lightly groaned and sat up in bed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She felt exhausted, probably because she was asked to wake up early without her consent.
"Yes, Henry?" she replied.
"It's time to go! Wake up, sleepyhead, heehee..~"
The female dark mage remained silent as she slowly turned her head to look at the man next to her. The moment finally clicked in when she realized she ended up falling asleep in his tent.
"... O-oh.." she said awkwardly.
Looking down, Willow felt the bed sheets with her right hand and confirmed she really was in his bed.
"... Hen-Hen... Where did you sleep..?" she asked quietly, looking back up to smiling eyes.
Henry tilted his head innocently and smiled brightly.
"Here of course! To be exact, the bed also, nyaha!" he cackled.
The man continued to laugh while Willow had a blank expression on her face as she took in the information.
"... It would've been better if you woke me up before hand so I could head back to my tent.."
Henry waved a dismissive hand and rested it on top of her head, gently stroking her messy locks.
"I didn't want to bother you. Besides, it was nice to have someone nearby," Henry reasoned. "Well, awkward too I guess, but better than not having anyone close in general."
The woman held in a smile though she nodded and got off the bed quietly.
"I guess that's true..." she agreed.
She yawned a bit and decided to head back to get ready for the morning march with Henry following her.
"You don't even smile when you sleep...!" Henry giggled as they left the tent. "How odd!"
".. Please don't sleep with me again," she mumbled, wondering if she did ever smile while they both were knocked out.
Henry felt disappointed in hearing her response. Grabbing her wrist, the male dark mage pulled her into him and smiled gently, not as crazed or as wide as before. It seemed more genuine than before.
"Don't worry, I didn't see any sort of smile nor tried anything funny," he reassured her.
Willow looked down and hid a smile as she nodded understandingly.
"I-I still need to get ready..." she told him, quickly wiping of her smile.
The man allowed her to and continued to follow since he already finished his part while she was asleep, not having anything to do now.
"Hopefully we don't encounter any problems during the march..." Willow mumbled.
"Ehhhh? Why not? There will be lots of fun and fighting and blood and decapitation and more blood!" Henry listed off.
The woman cringed at the mentioned events and shook her head.
"Sorry, Henry, but I don't like those kinds of things.."
"True.. I know you don't, so I'll be here to prevent you from getting hurt and seeing violence!" he exclaimed.
The woman blinked and looked over at him awkwardly.
"What? Not cheesy enough?" he asked with a grin.
Willow silently rolled her eyes and stalked off quickly. She didn't want to be he reason for keeping everyone waiting if she took her time, not like she was holding them up in the first place. Henry was still walking with her from behind, smiling brightly. It seemed to be radiating off his face since the woman was able to determine whether he was grinning or smiling. Then again, he's always grinning and smiling. Nevermind about that.
When they got to Willow's tent, the female dark mage entered, but soon after poked her head out the makeshift building.
"..."
Henry was now giggling as if he was a child playing pranks on his own parents.
"Did you clean up for me?" she asked curiously, her voice sounding soft and gentle.
The man nodded and gave a quick pat on her head. Willow sighed a little and nodded a little before murmuring a quiet "thank you."
"But do tell..." she added, earning an understanding nod.
The young woman then entered her tent again to grab her things before they went to meet up with all the other sheperds. The number of awoken people was slowly increasing as everyone finished getting ready for the next march.
"Lilli..." Robin whispered quietly.
The female tactician hummed a dull "hm?" as she looked through a list she scribbled up the night before.
"Help me..." he continued after receiving an answer.
Sighing, Lillian looked up to face the man and see him point at Tharja nervously. Again, the female black mage was going all out with stalking on the male tactician the very morning.
"Hello, Tharja. Are you all ready to head out?" Lillian asked politely, smiling.
Nodding, Tharja's eyes quickly shift from the man to the woman next to him and back again.
"Finished early. Just to see Robin...~" she replied.
Robin shuddered and backed away a little, closer to Lillian.
"Probably just infatuation, should be a normal thing for certain people. Calm down.." the female tactician mumbled to him. "She'll get over it sooner or later... Maybe never.."
"Lilli...!" Robin whined quietly.
"Hey, Robin, would you like to go check on Chrom with me?" she asked looking back at him with a smile.
"Eh? A-ah- sure, yeah!" replied the man quickly. "I'll come, err.. Help out.."
"We'll be back to see if everyone is ready once we check up on him."
She then walked off in the direction of the prince's tent with Robin quickly following close beside her.
"Help out? We're just checking on him," muttered Lillian.
"Well, sorry..."
Tharja remained quiet as she nodded and sighed exasperatingly.
"Another miss.. Oh well..."
Looking over his shoulder, Robin noticed that the woman was still watching him leave, but wasn't moving anywhere. He felt relieved, but then he forgot she was able to cast curses on him at any moment, quickly walking off and dragging Lillian with him.
"Ah?" she questioned.
"Thanks, sorry," he murmured quickly, his face paling.
"She's not going to do anything..." the female tactician assured him. "Well, correction: to you. I don't know about me. Probably not."
She eventually caught up to his pace and continued to follow, not like she had a choice with him gabbing her hand.
"Chrom should be up by now... I wonder if he's packed yet?" the woman thought out loud.
"I'm sure he-"
"Whee! Birds! Nyahahahaha!" Henry exclaimed out of nowhere, running passed the two tacticians with a dense black cloud of crows following him.
"H-Henry...!" Willow squeaked, slowly running behind the crows nervously.
She would run, well more like jog, and stop once in a bit to conserve her energy for the march unlike Henry who is running all out.
"They sure are lively this morning..." Robin commented.
"No... I think it's just Henry that's lively this morning.." Lillian corrected.
"... Yeah, I think you're right.."
"H-H-Henry...!" Willow called again quietly, stopping the chase altogether.
The man eventually turned back and ran towards her, picking her up as he came. The crows seemed to be following him nonstop.
"Eep!" she squeaked out of surprise, holding onto him after he scooped her up into his arms.
Lillian and Robin continued walking off after the two disappeared again. It was silent and quite awkward.
"Hope for the best.." the man said as he looked at the shrinking figure.
"She'll live. Let's go," Lillian replied with a smile.
Smiling back, Robin willing left with the woman, letting go of her wrist to walk more comfortably with each other. They eventually arrived to Chrom's tent and stood outside to decide who should head in first.
"Ladies first?" Robin asked instead of said.
"Oh whatever..." she replied as she walked in. "Hey, Chrom-"
Apparently, Frederick was still in the process of violently waking him up while the two tacticians were entering the tent.
"Sir, you're oversleeping! You slept late last night, didn't you?" he exclaimed worriedly, shaking him a bit before dragging him up right and letting go.
When he did let go, Chrom just fell backwards onto his bed again fast asleep.
"Err... I think we interrupted something we shouldn't have a second time..." Lillian told Robin in a hushed tone.
The male tactician nodded awkwardly and led her back out.
"Maybe we'll let Frederick handle it this time around..." he told her, bringing her else where.
"Yes, let's..."
Meanwhile, after a minute later of running, Henry was panting and giggling to himself while Willow sat on the ground with her head hung low. The crows were finally gone.
"Hehehehe, that was fun.. Don't you think, Willow?"
"No..." she said quietly.
Feathers were stuck in their hair now, but no one was injured nor even scratched up from the event.
"Aw, I thought that would work too..." he said, still smiling. "Nothing is working so far."
Willow was wondering, by now, how he is able to keep up his large smile every single day. Even she would get tired if she forced herself to smile just for a few minutes.
"I'm not smiling until I get you to stop smiling first, Hen-Hen."
Henry rose a brow at her declare and tilted his head.
"How about on the count of three we both flash the opposite expression we create then?" suggested the male dark mage.
No response came out of Willow's lips; there were no body movements either as she stared at him silently.
"I'll take that as a yes. One, two three!" he counted down quickly.
None of them bothered to change their face expressions, not even a tiny bit.
"Ooh, you're tough.." he giggled hugging her. "Come on, smile! I want to win this time around!"
"That's nice.." she commented, hugging him back. Henry was now swaying around both their bodies as if he was shaking her with him slowly. "But that doesn't mean I'll let you win.. Of course not at all..."
"How competitive of you! I never thought you were this type of person! Heeheehee!"
The woman muttered a few words to herself, hoping that she wouldn't get caught, but knowing Henry, he immediately caught her.
"Counter!~ No dirty tricks!" laughed the man as he disabled her curse.
"... I'm sorry."
"Again with the apologies. I would've done the same if I didn't hold back!~"
That is true. If he didn't hold back or if she never thought to ask him not to cast a hex on her, he would go all out. He is a powerful dark mage afterall and she was unsure if Henry would try to cast a hex she couldn't undo onto her.
"I didn't expect you to hold it back, but okay.. I'll refrain from doing so too," she said, pulling away and sit back to relax a bit.
Henry giggled and layed down flat on his back in the grass. He was a bit tired and was beginning to have second thoughts on running before the march.
'Maybe, running wasn't such a good idea.. Tired...' he thought to himself, opening his eyes a bit to see.
Willow quickly caught him and stared. He didn't really mind as he glanced at her for a bit and closed his eyes again.
"Yessss?~ Something on my face? Hahaha!" asked Henry.
Willow shook her head and looked forward again.
"Just odd to see you open your eyes.. You barely do so.." she answered. "Abnormal..."
Henry just chuckled and sighed.
"Don't like it?" he asked, grinning.
"I didn't say that.. I just said that it's different.."
Willow then returned to fixing the circulet around her head again quietly. After a few more attempts, she took it off completely and left it in the grass next to her.
"I'm tired, but I didn't run too much.. Why is that..?" she mused. "Oh well..."
Henry giggled as he sat up, faced her, and dropped himself back down onto her lap. He was careful not to hurt her when he layed his head onto her lap, turning to the side just to face her.
"We have time to rest. ..For a bit actually," he told her.
Willow nodded and leaned back against a tree as she picked out crow feathers from his hair gently. The man smiled as he reached up to pet her hair and grab a few black feathers that stuck out of it. Instead of throwing it away, he decided to stick it back into her hair behind her ear instead and chuckled.
"Black really does suit you.. Hm... Have you ever tried wearing something else other than black?" Henry asked with a grin.
Willow shook her head and continued to pull out the feathers tangled up in his hair carefully.
"It was always black ever since the plegians brought me in," she replied casually.
"Ahhh, I see... But your pink hair isn't black. Your red and gold eyes aren't black either. They're quite colorful actually, so you really are wearing something other than black on yourself! Just permanently, nyahahaha!" he laughed.
Willow shrugged and rested her hand onto his head after getting the feathers out.
"I guess you are right in some kind of way... Makes sense, I suppose.."
"Welcome to Henry one-o-one where you'll be enlightened by Henry the dark mage! I'm your host, Henry!~" he joked around.
"Errr... Enlightened...?" the female asked, earning a giggle and a nod combined. "And how will you enlighten me..?"
"I don't know," he replied, slurring the last two word together.
"... Okay then..."
Sitting back up and placing the circulet back onto Willow's head, Henry smiled and got back onto his feet.
"Let's go get food quickly before we head out!" Henry snapped, picking up Willow and running off again.
"A-ah... Okay..." she said hesitantly. "No more running.. We'll be marching soon..."
Henry giggled and stopped himself from dashing off again, just walking at a casual pace in response to her.
"If you say so!"
Stormy: Fire Emblem Fates is so addictinggggggggg! THERE'S NO SAVING ME NOW, AHAHAHAHA -in FE heaven- I have a Fates story in mind -sob-
Lillian: -Sweat- Over exaggerating...
Stormy: Am not.. -pouts- It really is addicting..
Willow: -Awkward- B-but we're fighting and possibly killing ourselves in the game?
Stormy: Ehhhhhh. No comment, Willow. Anyways, thank you for the reviews Guest, Kasey! I appreciate it very much and am glad that you enjoy this story! For the guest who also left a review on A Secret? I'm glad you liked that FE Fates one-shot! xD Hope you continue to support my stories and stuff! Even when I'm so slow with updates.. R&R and enjoy!
~stormy003