Author's Note:
Hello all and welcome to another chapter. This one bunces along the timeline and looks at three different events, tied together by the title. It has several characters present this time around and is largely humour. Thank you for your follows and favourites, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
"Well, it's like this…"
SMASH!
Hinata froze in horror, as a (rather expensive) ornamental vase shattered upon the stone floor of the palace.
Pieces of the hand-crafted masterpiece scattered across the floor, clattering mockingly, as if determined to let the whole of Castle Shirasagi know what he'd done. He glanced around wildly, half-expecting Queen Mikoto to swoop down upon him, magically summoned by the accidental destruction of one of her (very expensive) vases, but the corridor was clear in both directions.
Now what did he do?
In his head, he knew that he had to go to the Queen, explain what happened and apologise, however, there were a couple of issues with this course of action. One, he'd knocked the vase off its perch with a training katana (which he wasn't supposed to take from the dojo) when he'd been doing practice swings as he walked down the corridor (yet another thing he wasn't supposed to do). Two, Queen Mikoto was very precious about the palace as a whole and disliked any unnecessary damage to it or anything within it, he still remembered what happened to Ryoma when he'd unintentionally fried a, rather fetching, hand carved, wooden desk with Raijinto (it was enough to scare anybody off angering the queen). Finally, he'd get in trouble, and that was something no child wanted to happen.
With this in mind, he moved onto the next best (in his opinion) option, which was hide the evidence and hope no one found out it was him.
Swiftly gathering the scattered pieces, he gathered them into a small pile on the floor, and quickly considered where best to hide them. In one of the nearby flowerpots? No, someone would find them easily. The pond? Maybe, but that meant running the risk of being spotted as he ditched the evidence.
The sound of approaching footsteps pulled him out of his thoughts, panicking, he quickly swept the pieces under the table the (expensive) vase had been sat on and quickly stood in front of it.
He quickly arranged his face into what he thought was an innocent expression, just before Hinoka rounded the corner and spotted him.
The princess smiled, "Hello Hinata, what are you doing here."
Trying his best to act completely natural, he smiled back, "Nothing much."
Her smile immediately switched to a look of suspicion, "What are you up to?"
"Nothing, nothing at all, honest."
She frowned and leaned to the side, trying to peer around behind him. He moved to block her view of the table, still smiling innocently, and she simply frowned and pushed him gently to the side, instantly seeing the empty table and a few vase fragments that had somehow escaped being swept into hiding. She turned around and fixed him with a fierce look, "Hinata, what happened?"
Seeing that his plan was as shattered as the vase, the boy took a deep breath.
"Well, it's like this…"
Working swiftly, Silas bandaged the small wound on Hinata's arm.
It had been a completely out of the blue attack, a sudden ambush from a few, renegade soldiers, while he and the boy had been just a little too far from the rest of the army. In comparison to what they'd been through, it was really more of a butting of heads rather than a battle or skirmish, the renegades tried to attack and were beaten back with ease, but one lucky shot with a bow had grazed Hinata's arm.
The wound itself was really small (the boy had, apparently, done more damage to himself by accident or through training in the past) but it was the fact they'd ended up in such a position in the first place that was the problem.
He'd only taken Hinata with him because they were only going a short distance away to forage some extra supplies for their army and Prince Takumi had said it was okay, he hadn't meant to take them too far and certainly not far enough away to prompt an ambush. If people found out that his carelessness caused Hinata to get forced into a battle and hurt, then heads (most likely his own) were going to roll.
If Princess Sakura found out then she'd make him feel like a monster, Corrin would be disappointed, Princess Azura would give him death glares and frosty attitudes for days, Takumi wouldn't forgive him and Oboro would likely just outright kill him, provided the rest of the army didn't beat her to it.
The wound dressed, Silas stepped back with a sigh, "Well, this is going to be tough to explain."
Hinata grimaced, "Yeah, they're not going to be impressed. Oboro still hasn't quite forgiven me for following them to Izumo."
They fell into silence.
Since joining Corrin's army, Silas had gotten to know Hinata fairly well. Many of the royals considered him trustworthy and had often left the boy under his supervision when things like war meetings and such needed their attention. On top of that, Hinata himself had come to him for sparring sessions, curious about Nohrian fighting styles but not really comfortable with Nohr's other representatives. Many of the rank and file they'd recruited considered the boy either a burden or nuisance, not wanting much to do with him, and the Nohrian retainers were…eccentric. This left Silas as the best option and the young man quite enjoyed training with the retainer-in-training.
And now they both faced a joint problem.
Hinata looked thoughtful, "Do you think we could get away with just not telling them?"
Silas frowned, "We can't not tell them, we have to report something like this to them, otherwise those renegade soldiers could try again, we only scared them off this time."
The boy pulled a face, "I guess you're right." He sighed, "I just don't want to go through the frantic mother-henning from them, and never mind the result if Princess Camilla finds out."
Silas blanched.
Oh crap, Princess Camilla.
The Nohrian princess was overbearing to the point of extreme with her younger siblings and those she was close to, and since Hinata was an actual child, that over-mothering extended to include him the moment she saw him. It had reached a point where she and Oboro almost seemed in competition over who could mother the boy most and he was certain that Kaze had been helping the boy to hide when the two women got going.
In short, Camilla was highly protective of Hinata and she'd told Silas, in great detail, what would befall him should any harm come to the boy.
He was doomed.
If Oboro didn't kill him, then Camilla would completely destroy him, or both women would team up and put him through agonising, crippling pain, then kill him, possibly twice if Sakura and Elise were equally angry and brought him back from near death for a second round.
He clapped his hands, self-preservation in the forefront of his mind, "Right, we sneak back and find a healer to heal your cut, so they'll never know."
Hinata blinked, "But what do we tell the healer?"
The knight hesitated, "Erm…you tripped by accident and cut it on a low tree branch, and we just want it healed to avoid people making unnecessary fuss over it."
The boy grinned, "Of course, that'll definitely work!"
"What will definitely work?"
The new voice sent chills down Silas' spine, and he gulped before turning to face the one person he really didn't want to face right now.
"P-Princess Camilla?"
She walked slowly towards them, her wyvern waiting behind her watching the meeting with…was that excitement? The princess' eyes roamed over their surroundings, noticing the signs of a fight and falling upon the bandage on Hinata's arm.
Instantly, she swooped down upon the boy, over-the-top concern all over her face, "Oh my poor dear, what happened to you!?" She pulled the bandage off, examining the wound for herself, and quickly recognised it as an arrow graze. As instantly as before, her demeanour became menacing as she advanced on the trembling knight, "Silas, what happened?"
His throat bobbed in fear, his previous plan had gone up in smoke faster than a dry twig, his only hope now was to be honest and hope Camilla's anger at the escaped renegades was great enough to let her spare his life, with at least a couple of his limbs if he was really lucky. Behind the princess, he saw Hinata give a barely encouraging grin and mouth 'Good Luck', and he bit the arrow and answered.
"Well, it's like this…"
Their march through Valla was long and tiring, with battle after battle slowing their progress.
While Ryoma didn't regret his decision to join Corrin, it was proving to be a serious test of strength, endurance and courage for all involved, testing the morale of the army. However, the gruelling trial had served to improve relations between the Hoshidan and Nohrian sides of their forces, forming and strengthening bonds of friendship and even love. He himself had found himself being pulled into romance, falling for the one he'd thought would only ever be a surrogate sister, despite them not sharing a single drop of common blood. Their love had blossomed, and in the end, he could not resist any longer and had pronounced his feelings for Corrin. His joy when she revealed that she shared those feelings had been immeasurable and had led them to finally marrying, revealing the truth of Corrin's lack of Hoshidan blood to all to stem rumours of incest.
Now, some unexpected news had complicated their position, throwing several things into uncertainty.
They had called together the other royals and they, and their retainers, stood together to hear what their army's leader had to say.
Corrin's speech was short, ending with a very simple statement of something that was anything but.
"I am now pregnant."
A deathly hush fell as everyone comprehended what she'd just said, several mouths were agape, and they simply stared until Xander finally composed himself, "Is this true?"
It was Ryoma who answered, "Yes, we know for certain that it is indeed true."
Elise was the next to speak, practically bouncing with joy, "How exciting, congratulations sister."
Sakura was quick to follow, "Oh, yes. Congratulations."
Leo however, was more practical about it, "But what about the war? You can't fight on the front lines if you're carrying a child!"
Corrin sighed, "We're still working on that, Lillith has an idea but we don't know if we can go through with it."
As others added their congratulations and thoughts, Ryoma found his eyes wandering to Hinata, standing behind Takumi and scratching his head in confusion, a cold realisation struck him as he remembered that there was one thing they'd never thought to mention to him. He was about to quickly cut off the inevitable, but the boy was faster.
"But, how did it happen?"
For the second time in the meeting, a deathly hush fell over them all, the Nohrians were staring at the boy in disbelief while the Hoshidans grimaced as they all had the same realisation as Ryoma, and remembered the one thing they'd forgotten in Hinata's education.
Leo looked at Takumi incredulously, "You mean, you've never told him about that!"
The prince coughed, "Well, he is still pretty young, and it never came up."
Camilla added her thoughts, "That is a good point, not everyone learned about it as quickly as you Leo."
The mage blushed while his older brother cleared his throat awkwardly, "Well, it seems someone is going to have to tell him now."
Unable to resist any longer, Leo's retainer, Niles, came into the discussion, his voice filled with almost glee, "My lord, if you wish, I could tell the boy everything he needs to…"
"No, absolutely not!" Oboro dived in before he could continue, "There's no way we're trusting you with this."
Takumi swiftly backed her up, "Indeed, this needs to be handled by someone responsible."
Camilla grinned maliciously, "Well, since he is training to be your retainer, perhaps you should take this responsibility, Prince Takumi."
The sniper blushed, "What! No! I really don't think I'm the one to handle this. Perhaps someone such as Prince Leo would be better suited."
"I don't believe that to be the best option Prince Takumi." The man quickly responded, "Since he is the ward of the Hoshidan Royal Family, it is best if this duty is handled by one of its members."
"Well, I think it is best if this is dealt with by a man, seeing as he is male himself, so me, Sakura and Corrin can't do it." Hinoka swiftly took herself and her sisters out of the picture.
Suddenly, all eyes fell upon Ryoma, and the samurai found himself stuttering for one of the few times in his life, "Well…I don't know if I'm best suited…"
"Prince Ryoma." Xander interrupted his flail of an answer, "As both a man and the oldest member of the Hoshidan Royal Family, you are the best suited for this responsibility." A hint of a smug smile crossed his face, "Furthermore, you are more experienced than the rest of us."
How Niles didn't explode with joy at that remark, no one ever knew, but Xander's swift strike destroyed Ryoma's potential defence and left him with a sudden, overwhelming duty. Like magic, the entire gathering disappeared, leaving him alone with a very confused Hinata, who had no clue as to why his question had caused such a reaction.
They stood in silence for a long time, Ryoma shifting awkwardly as the boy stared at him expectantly. Eventually, the samurai took a deep breath and steeled his resolve, looking Hinata in the eye, he took the plunge.
"Well, it's like this…"
PS-So I hope you all enjoyed that and I'll happily take suggestions for future chapters, Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.