Despite what the many people thought, Noire's first encounter with the other girl could hardly be called the stuff of epic friendships. In her opinion, the only epic it had been was epically disastrous.

She hadn't liked the shorter girl at first. She was… loud. Which, admittedly, was a poor reason to dislike someone but the girl was too loud. And too assertive. And too pushy and just… too much in general.

Which was rich coming from her, considering that her own alter ego regularly screamed curses and condemnation on a daily basis.

So when her parents one day told her that some of their old friends from the war were coming over, Noire knew that she was coming as well. Which was just a disaster waiting to happen. So the first thing she did when they finally came over was to scurry off to the kitchen pantry and hide her sorry self in there until they left.

That was the plan and it had worked. For an hour. Then door opened with a bang and the girl she had been avoiding came in with all the force of a storm.

"Are you Noire?" she asked without preamble.

She jumped and dropped the teddy bear she had been playing with, the poor thing falling to the floor with a betrayed squeak. How on earth did she manage to find her here of all places?

"U-uhm, y-yes?"

The pig tailed girl walked in and put herself in front of her, placing her small hands on her hips. Her eyes went up and down and her brow furrowed, as if she was annoyed by what she saw and Noire had to resist the urge to simply apologize as she unconsciously backed away.

"I'm Severa," said the girl and even back then, it had sounded more like an assertion than a statement.

Noire dropped her eyes and nodded. "I-I know. Mommy and daddy t-told me about you."

"That's funny. Mama didn' say anythin' about you." She sniffed and then tilted her head, brows still furrowed. "You avoiding me?" she asked accusingly.

"Huh?! N-no, I-I wouldn't…!"

The girl's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Yes…" she admitted, finding out in that moment that she couldn't lie to the shorter girl, not when she looked so intimidating.

Her reaction surprised her; she hadn't expected the other girl to actually wince and for a brief second, there was a flash of hurt in her eyes. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone.

She straightened up and glared at her. "Whatever. I didn' wanna be here anyway." She flicked one of her ponytails. "Mama's stupid idea."

The amount of disrespect the girl showed to her own mother made Noire more than a little uncomfortable. If she ever said something like that to her own mother, she'd get hexed. Or worse. "You could tell her you wanna go home," she mumbled, hoping to Naga that the girl would do just that.

"I guess," she said unconvincingly, twirling a strand of her hair round her finger. Obviously bored, her attention focused back on to her and she frowned. "You're pale, ya know? Like, paler than daddy's hair and his hair's white."

Noire winced. She was well aware of the fact and her own poor health was a cause of endless worry for her own relatively healthy parents. Both of them had differing ideas on how to make her healthier. Her mother had done her part by casting hex after hex in an attempt to bolster her immunity and her father had done his part by taking away her mother's charms and getting hexed in the process.

It was a vicious cycle.

The girl leaned into peer more closely. Her lip curled and Noire was sure that she was unimpressed by what she saw.

"You look like death."

Harsh, but not untrue. Still, she found tears welling up in her eyes that she quickly blinked back. She didn't need to add cry baby to the list of things the girl could use to make fun of her.

The girl, meanwhile, had found the teddy bear discarded on the floor and she picked it up by the leg and raised an eyebrow at her. "This yours?" She gave it a disdainful wiggle. "You still play with these?"

Noire instantly stiffened. Oh no. This wasn't going to end well at all.

"G-give him back…" she whispered.

The girl, unfortunately, was unable to hear anything other than an incoherent mumble. "I can't hear you. Speak up!"

"Give… give…"

The girl huffed in annoyance. "Gosh, stop mumblin'! Say it louder!"

And just like that, she switched.

"WRETCH!" she screeched and she was gratified to see the other girl leap up in shocked surprise. "DO NOT PRESUME TO HANDLE MR. FUZZLE VON BEARINGTON IN SUCH DISRESPECTFUL MANNER LEST YOU WISH TO INCUR MY WRATH!" She pointed accusingly at her, eyes flashing dangerously. "GIVE HIM HERE, NOW!"

The girl's mouth fell open and her eyes widened to almost hilarious proportions. "I-I-I…" she stammered incoherently.

von Bearington slipped from her nerveless fingers and Noire snatched him before he could hit the ground again. She hugged him close to her chest and quickly inspected him for any signs of tear before looking back at the girl.

She simply stared back at her, mouth still agape.

Instantly, she felt the flush of mortification warm her cheeks and her other self melted away in shame, retreating like a whipped dog with its tail in between its legs. Great. One more person to add to the list of people who thought she was a freak.

"S-sorry," she mumbled, bolting straight out of the pantry as she clutched Bearington tightly to her chest. A few treacherous tears leaked out of her eyes and plopped themselves on the bald spot on top of his head.

And her parent's wondered why she didn't have any friends.

Her father knew better to question why she was crying and in a rare display of intimacy, he set her on his knee and stroked her back with a callused palm, letting her tears slowly subside into sniffles and then into hiccups. Afterwards, he asked, in his usual blunt way, why she had been crying. When she told him, a wry smirk appeared on his face.

"That girl," he said, referring to Severa, "is too honest." He shrugged. "She gets it from her fool father, probably."

She sniffed pathetically, not quite understanding what her father was saying. He was like that at times, all cryptic and worldly and it honestly frustrated her at times. But he did seem to know something she didn't…

"So… she was just being a-a meanie then?" she asked. Meanie or not, it still wasn't an excuse for saying she looked like death. Or for hurting Mr. Bearington. Poor, balding, Mr. Bearington

"Hmm," went her father. "Not exactly." He paused, searching for a way to put it simply. "The problem with honest people like her is that they're never very honest with themselves."

"I… don't get it."

Her father chuckled. "Don't worry. Adults don't either. The best you can do is to try and view things from their perspective."

"Their… per-perspe…ctive?"

He nodded. "That's right," he said before something in the doorway caught his attention. "In fact, why don't you try it now?"

Still sniffing a bit, she turned around in time to see the girl walk hesitantly into the room. She had a mug cupped in her small hands and an unsure expression on her face that grew more pronounced when she noticed the two of them. She cleared her throat and marched over to them.

"Hey," she greeted, her voice unconvincingly neutral. For some reason, she was pointedly avoiding looking at her, opting instead to stare at her shoes.

Her first thought had been to hide behind her father but he nixed that plan when he lifted her off his knee and set her down on the ground. She looked back at him a little panicked, but he gave her an encouraging push and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Courage, little bird. Remember, perspective."

Easier said than done. In her opinion, this perspective business was just an adult way of saying that the other girl was a meanie. In addition, she sincerely believed courage was one of the many redeeming qualities that she lacked. That and a backbone.

But… if her father believed in her, then maybe she could be a bit braver. Just this once.

Hesitantly, she took a step forward. "H-hi."

The girl nodded eyes still on the floor. In an awkward sort of motion, she thrust out the mug in her hands, nearly spilling some of the contents onto the floor.

"Here," she said shortly and without any sort of explanation why she was shoving a cup of hot liquid into her hands. "Be careful. 's hot."

She blinked back in surprise, not expecting that. "F-for me?"

The girl rolled her eyes impatiently. "Uh, duh?" she said and then grimaced. "S-sorry, I-I meant, yeah. For you."

Was this what her father meant about honesty? If it was, it still didn't make much sense to her. Still, she mumbled out a "Thanks," and took a tentative sip, if only out of politeness.

A rich, creamy, cocoa flavor hit her tongue and her eyes widened in surprise. "Is this… hot chocolate?"

"Y-yeah." The girl sighed, seemingly unsatisfied with it. "Probably tastes yucky. Mama makes it way better an'…"

"This is good!" she took another sip, loving how the taste lingered on her tongue. Treats like this were rare in Feroxi and even more so in her family since her mother despised any sort of domesticity and all her father wanted to cook was potatoes. "Really good!"

Severa looked up in surprise. "R-really? I mean," she straightened up and flicked one of her pigtails over her shoulder. "Well of course! Mama showed me her recipe and it's the best in alllllll of Ylisse!"

"Wow!" Now that was impressive. "The best in all of Ylisse?"

Severa paused, a flash of uncertainty on her face. "I… think? Maybe? I don't know. How many people are in Ylisse?"

Noire looked questioningly towards her father.

He quirked his brow at her. "A lot."

"A whole lot," she repeated.

Severa straightened up. "Well, my mama taught me and she's perfect…" she said and her eyes glared defiantly, as if challenging her to refute it.

It was rather funny how quickly the pigtailed girl changed her mood and Noire couldn't help but giggle a bit at that. "I believe you," she said and gave her a tentative smile. "Thanks for this."

Severa blinked and then turned to the side. "I-it's nothing," she muttered and then looked nervously up at her. "You're… not angry at me anymore, right? I-I'm sorry for saying you looked dead. Mama said I was being mean."

The contrite tone in her voice reminded Noire of her own alternate outburst and she hunched up sheepishly in return. "Y-you don't have to say sorry. I know, I'm sick a lotta times… I-I'm weird like that."

"You're not weird," said Severa and Noire shot her a skeptical glance. "Okay maybe you're a lil' weird," she amended. "But not the weirdest. Owain's a weirdo and a BOY," she said and her face contorted, as if the weirdness of this Owain was contagious, like cooties.

Her father snorted.

Noire shook her head. "N-no, that's not what I meant…"

Severa looked confused for a second before her expression cleared. "Oh, you mean when you got really, really angry? Kinda like Daddy but without the smiling?"

"Yeah, um…" she hesitated, not sure how a person could smile and be angry at the same time. Just how much of herself did she want to reveal to this girl? "T-that person before… wasn't me… but it also was, i-if that makes any sense?"

Severa now looked extremely lost. "Wasn' you and was you? What does that mean?"

Her father stepped in. "What she means is that she has another person inside of her, one that comes out when she gets nervous or when she needs to be…" he paused, searching for the word. "Louder."

That pretty much summed it up in her opinion and she nodded. "Lotta kids think I'm weird because of it, s-so I don't have…" she trailed off and mumbled the last part, her public shame. "I don't have any friends."

There was an awkward pause and then Severa snorted. "That's stupid. Everyone has frien's."

"Not me."

Severa shrugged and then said casually. "Then I'll be your friend."

Noire snapped her head up and stared at her incredulously. "W-what? Why?"

Severa looked hurt. "You don' wanna be frien's?"

"W-well…" she shook her head. "Why me? I'm… all the other kids call me scary."

"You're not scary. You're daddy said you just need to be louder and I can do that for you." Severa puffed up her chest. "And I'm the loudest person I know! I beat Kjelle in a screaming match," she said and began taking in air to prove her point.

"We believe you," her father quickly intervened and then he looked to her. "Well, Noire? What do you say?"

Was this how people became friends? It almost seemed too easy to her, too painless. Surely there had to be some side effect like a curse. Maybe a runny nose that lasted three days?

Severa looked expectantly at her. "Well?"

Noire swallowed. Courage and perspective. "I… okay. We can be friends… if you want to."

She hadn't expected Severa to suddenly fling herself at her and she nearly keeled over, despite the other girl coming just below her head.

Severa leaned out and grinned at her and unconsciously, she felt herself smiling back.

"Friends forever," she said, and it was an assurance and not a bossy command and Noire realized, oh, she had just made a friend and it wasn't that painful and really, no side effects. "Okay?"

"O-okay," Noire said and then giggled. "Okay!" she repeated, louder and stronger.

Severa giggled too and she gave her another quick hug before stepping back. "I gotta go now, but can I come back later?"

"Lemme ask." Noire looked up to her father with her best puppy dog impression. "Papa, can Severa come back to play next time?"

Her father stroked his beard with immense gravity before shrugging. "I don't see why not."

"Yes!" Severa wrapped herself around his leg and he immediately stiffened in response but thankfully, Severa let go quickly and turned to hug her again. "Hurry and get healthy! Then we can play and I'll even bring Kjelle over, kay?"

With that, Severa dashed out of the room, brushing past her mother who had just come in. She raised a bemused eyebrow at the uncharacteristic happiness on her face.

"What was that all about?" she asked her father.

Her father merely shrugged, in his wise sort of way. "Friendship, I suppose."

She looked momentarily surprised before she smirked at with a wry twist. "How charming," she said, reaching out to smooth her hair. "How charming."

That had been that and over the years, the two steadily grew their friendship, coming to understand each other in ways only childhood friends could achieve. Noire came to learn that Severa's abrasive personality was just her way of showing she cared and Severa in turn, learned to barely bat an eye whenever Noire's alternate personality emerged on the rare occasion it did (which admittedly, wasn't all that often around Severa, but she assured her that she didn't mind one bit. It was a refreshing change of pace in a way, she said.)

And thankfully, as she got older, her own health improved as well, yet that didn't stop Severa from fussing. Despite all her protests to the contrary, Severa could be surprisingly domestic and motherly when she chose to and more often than not, she would put Noire's own wellbeing over hers, which left Noire feeling both touched and a tad guilty.

Yet Severa would always insist, in her trademark impatient huff, that she didn't mind whether Noire needed a hand or a friend and that same insistence continued all the way through their childhood. She didn't mind breaking off with playing with the other children to come sit with Noire, who was always too timid to join in the roughhousing.

(It's fine, stop apologizing! Kjelle's a meathead anyway).

She didn't mind whenever Noire woke her up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom with her because she was frightened by the smallest shadow in the dark.

(Whatever, I was already… *yawn* …already up. No, I'm good. Besides, you need someone to watch out in case of Risen, right?)

She didn't mind staying up all night with her when Noire learned that her father wasn't coming back after a skirmish with the Risen.

(I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.)

And when her mother left too, all Noire could do was hold her head in her hands and alternate between the two extremes of her personality, crying and cursing until her throat was destroyed and she was spitting blood. Her mother could hardly have been called a paragon of maternal affection the last few years after her father died. But she was still her mother. And she was all Noire had.

Severa seemed to realize that and she didn't say a word, simply held her in a bone crushing embrace and let her cry herself into oblivion.

Later, when she thought she was asleep, she whispered a promise in her ear.

(I know it hurts. But I promise you, I'll make it better. I promise, Noire.

And she believed her because Severa, never, ever, lied, not to her).

A violent sneeze tore Noire out of her reminiscing. She wearily rubbed her nose for the umpteenth time as she tried to regain some feeling back into her fingers and shifted uncomfortably in her spot at the watch post.

While she did have her father's blood running through her veins, she generally disliked the cold, since the inevitable sniffles reminded her of a few uncomfortable hexes her mother used to cast. Unfortunately for her, a sudden cold front all but ensured that the next few days would be just that. Several, cold, miserable, bone chilling days that were made all the worse when she was assigned the night watch. But there was nothing she could really do about it, except grit her teeth and shiver her way through the night in the hopes that her nerves made it intact come sunrise.

She sighed. "So cold…" she muttered. "So tired…" Her stomach growled and she blushed, despite there being nobody present to hear it. "So hungry…"

"I'll say."

Noire jumped and let out a shrill shriek, causing Severa to shriek in surprise as well.

"Holy Naga, Noire!" she placed a hand over her chest. "You wanna go and give me a heart attack? Jeez!"

Severa. It was Severa. Severa, and not some undead Risen hoping to nibble on her head like an overripe aubergine. Curse her overactive imagination and that trip to the Outrealms. Noire quickly clamped down on her jaw and ducked her head in apology. "S-sorry! It's just so quiet and… I wasn't expecting anybody to come sneak up on me."

Severa raised a brow. "That's… not exactly the most reassuring thing to say when you're on guard duty, ya know."

"Oh… right." her head shrunk even lower. "Sorry."

The pigtailed girl took one look at the despondent archer and let out a huff that was a cross between exasperated and amused. "Oh stop. I told you before, when you make that expression it's like kicking a puppy while it's asleep," she said, giving her a rough pat on the back. "Besides, it's not like none of us have been distracted at the post before."

"You have?" Noire asked confusedly, embarrassment temporarily forgotten. Despite her frequent verbal complaints, Severa wasn't the type to do any job half done; she simply had too much of her mother in her.

"Well, not me," Severa amended. "But I know Morgan and Marc fall asleep all the time on their shifts because they snore loud enough to wake the dead. Uncle Stahl too, but he stopped when Daddy started to slip his collection of Risen thumbs into his trouser pockets."

Noire had to giggle a bit at that as the memory came back to her. "Oh, I remember that. Your mother was so angry that we could hear her across the camp! Thank Naga he didn't try it on the twins."

"Gawds, they'd probably ask Daddy if he had any more to share," Severa admitted and smiled when Noire giggled again. "Good, no more kicked puppy face. Here." She stretched out her other hand and Noire finally noticed the steaming mug. "Lil' pick me up for the night."

"Oh! This…"

"Hot chocolate, just like how Mother taught me." Severa raised herself just a tad higher and brushed back one of her pigtails. "Well go on. Drink up."

Noire eagerly brought the cup to her lips. And then paused. Not that she was ungrateful or anything but the dead of night seemed an awfully inconvenient time for Severa to just somehow show up with an awfully convenient cup of hot chocolate.

"What?" Severa asked and peered worriedly into the mug. "It's not bad is it? Damn it. Can marshmallows even go bad?"

She shook her head and then tilted it to look at Severa. "I just realized," she said slowly. "You're up awfully late, Severa."

Her friend immediately stiffened. "Oh uh…" Severa waved her hand in a terrible impression of casualness. "I was doing my rounds around camp, you know, like how Mother does. Checking inventory, making sure everything's in the right place, that sort of boring stuff."

"Your rounds took you into the kitchen to make a cup of hot chocolate?"

"Okay fine, I was on my way to the bathroom," Severa grumbled, dropping her hand. "And then I saw you and you looked like you were going to freeze to death so I thought you could do with a pick me up. So there," she finished, raising her chin defiantly. "It was hardly any effort, so don't say something silly like I shouldn't have or I didn't need to."

"I wasn't going to say that."

"Uh huh."

"I was going to ask if you've gone to the bathroom yet," said Noire, taking a careful sip.

Severa narrowed her eyes but the small smile on her lips gave her away. "Watch it, smart aleck," she said nudging her lightly with her shoulder. Noire nudged her back and took a sip, smiling as she did so.

The two fell into a comfortable silence after that. Severa moved closer to her to stay warm, yawning periodically. Noire could have told her to go back to bed, but knowing Severa, she would stubbornly insist on staying with her until she was comfortable. So Noire simply moved her arm to let Severa sidle closer and drank her hot chocolate a bit quicker, even though it scalded her tongue. When she was finally done, she handed her mug back to Severa. The pig tailed girl flinched when their fingers brushed.

"Jeez, Noire, cold much? You're hands are still freezing."

She tried flexing them. "Are they? To be honest I can't, uh… can't really feel them right now," she sheepishly admitted

Severa shot her a totally unamused look. "Gawds, Noire, really?" She sighed exasperatedly and held out her hands. "Here." She picked up her hands and slowly, so as not to chafe, she began to massage the feeling back into them.

"You seriously need to speak up more," Severa grumbled, though not unkindly. "What would happen if you lost a finger to frostbite?"

She shrugged, her shoulders moving an inch up or down. "Maybe give it to Mother for her experiments?"

"That's… actually very practical," Severa admitted, and Noire nodded in agreement. Having dark mages for parents made the normally morbid just a tad mundane. "But no, dummy," she nudged her again. "You don't deserve that."

I don't deserve a friend like you, a voice in the back of her head thought.

Severa lifted her hands up and breathed softly on them, the warm air tickling feeling back into her fingers.

You deserve a friend who appreciates you for everything you do, went the voice and Noire found herself unconsciously nodding.

"There, that should do it." Severa let go of her hand and she instantly felt the acute loss of her warmth.

"Thanks, Severa."

Severa hummed. She reached up and brushed the taller girl's bangs to the side. "Honestly, you still look cold as heck. I'll go see if I can't steal a couple of blankets, kay?"

"Okay."

"And then I'm going to have a talking with our 'glorious Exalt' and see if he can't give you a different watch." Severa huffed in exasperation. "No offense to Lucina, but her Dad's just so clueless! Doesn't he know that you can't stand the cold?"

Probably not, said the voice in her head as Noire watched her scamper off into the night. She probably knows us better than we know ourselves. We don't deserve a friend like her.

Noire nodded. But all the same, I'm still glad she's our friend

The voices made something of an agreement in her mind.

Let's do something nice for her, they suggested. Show how much we appreciate what she's done for us. Something to say how much she means to us. Something that she'll remember fondly. Something just for her.

Noire paused. Something just for Severa? That actually… sounded like a good idea. Now that she thought about it more, it was an excellent idea. A wonderful idea. But what could she do to show her appreciation to the other girl? Her baking skills were halfway decent. Maybe… she could bake a cake?

Mmm, no. She was a decent enough cook but so was Severa and besides, food was simple and mundane. A shopping excursion, maybe?

…Probably not. Severa would enjoy it but… it just seemed terribly material and not very memorable. Also, she wasn't sure if her purse and her feet could keep up with Severa for that long. Severa could buy a lot.

Oh! Of course! She clapped her hands together. Why not just ask Severa's friends? Well, her friends, too by proxy. One of the children of the future was bound to have a good idea, one that Severa would definitely enjoy.

Noire nodded decisively. Yes, this was a good start. Come morning, she was going to find a way to somehow show her appreciation for her friend.

Good plan, said the voices, pleased with the outcome.

"Great plan," agreed Noire, feeling at that moment very satisfied and not too guilty at agreeing with the voices in her head.

Still though, she thought as Severa came back into view, carrying a mountain of wool in her arms as a bedraggled looking Exalt trailed behind her. You guys still need to go away.

The voices made a protesting noise.