Author's Notes: Just for future reference, for the future chapters that involve the Hero or Heroine I won't be using any real names for them since they have no official names other than Hero and Heroine. Anways, why don't we get onto one of the most popular pairings in the fandom?

Horizons

(Stormshipping/Muneshige x Ginchiyo)

A flash of lightning, followed by the clap of thunder. The howling winds beating against everything in sight. That was all Ginchiyo had grown up knowing.

Some would call it bleak. She thought of it as conditioning. The fierce conditions were perfect for training - training which produced the finest warriors in Ransei - and she felt her pulse quicken at the thought. Ginchiyo leaned closer against one of the windows of Violight's study, letting out a quiet sigh as another clap of thunder roared out in the distance. She hated being cooped up.

Muneshige's quiet chuckle broke the silence. "I know what you're thinking."

Ginchiyo felt her eye twitch at just imagining the small smile spreading across his face, and she spun around to face him - only to wince when the motion caused an objection from her shoulder. The Warlord resisted the urge to reach underneath the sling her arm was resting in and prayed her retainer sitting across the room didn't notice the grunt or expression that flitted across her face for the briefest of seconds. Much to her dismay, Muneshige was looking up from the book he had been reading, lips having curled up into the knowing smile she was so used to seeing and brown eyes staring at her amusedly, like he could read her every thought. She just narrowed her own steely gaze in his direction, and he remained completely unfazed.

"You do?" she demanded, and a quiet chuckle snuck past his closed lips.

"You're not in any condition to be out there," he replied cheerily, gesturing to her dislocated shoulder before moving his hand to the wind-battered window. "And certainly not training."

The Warlord opened her mouth to object, but flinched when she tried to cross her arms and found the words dying in her throat. She hated it when he made sense - not that he would ever get the satisfaction of hearing it from her.

Ginchiyo heard an all too familiar chuckle escape his lips - the one that meant he had somehow figured out her thoughts, and there were times where she was convinced he might have been a psychic. "Silence speaks for itself, you know."

The Warlord just turned back around and leaned against the window, silently wondering why she kept him around, while Muneshige went back to his book. A few seconds of awkward silence passed, dominated by Muneshige turning the pages to his book and Ginchiyo wondering if she was still fit to be Warlord if she could make such a rookie mistake. It was a reckless charge, in Muneshige's words, and while it won them the battle her retainer could sit back and point out he was right - like usual - while she was forced to stay cooped up and practically watch Violight decay.

Muneshige looked up when he heard her boots scraping against the floorboards, and their eyes met again. Ginchiyo's lips pursed, and he leaned back in his chair, waiting for the inevitable. "Why do you even care so much?"

He gave the same blithe, toothless smile that never ceased to frustrate her. "It's a retainer's duty to compliment their Warlord, milady."

"One that you seem to shirk quite often," Ginchiyo retorted through narrowed eyes, while Muneshige chuckled quietly and put aside his book. The Warlord managed to give the illusion of crossing her arms by resting her good one in the sling. "But that doesn't answer the question."

The warrior shifted in his seat a little, and Ginchiyo knew that she had managed to corner him. But Muneshige remained as calm and collected as ever - and she admitted that she admired his unflappability in the back of her mind - and brushed his hand through the side of his hair while offering up a small smile.

"Perhaps I just want broaden your horizons," Ginchiyo raised an eyebrow, and he continued. "Most of your time is spent training-"

"Because one of has to," the Warlord muttered loud enough for her retainer to hear. She allowed a shadow of a smile to cross her face at Muenshige's subtle reaction, but he wasted no time in bouncing back.

"But you'll eventually train yourself out of a job," that caused Ginchiyo pause.

"What?" it was more of a demand than a question, and Muneshige was happy to oblige.

"The war won't last forever, milady," he said with a small smile as the implication dawned on her. "And once you come out on top..."

"Better that than being conquered! Violight cannot fall, no matter what!" Ginchiyo retorted before spinning back around to face the stormy horizon. Might was the only way to preserve the Kingdom entrusted to her, and she refused to be the first of her family to let it fall. And perhaps it was also useful in keeping her retainer's head on his shoulders, she mused in the back of her mind.

"True," Muneshige replied with a small chuckle. "But conquer or be conquered, peace is inevitable. We might as well prepare for it now rather than later."

Ginchiyo looked back in his direction and raised an eyebrow. "And how would you propose we do that?"

She caught him leaning back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling in mock contemplation, folding his arms behind his head while a small smile spread across his face. "Oh, perhaps we could go visit some of the other kingdoms sometime? There's plenty we can learn from our neighbors off the battlefield, you know. Maybe we can make a little trip out of it."

"In fact," Muneshige sat upright again. "I happen to know a particularly nice restaurant in Chrysalia that would be worth the visit."

"See the world, hm?" Ginchiyo put her good hand to her chin as she pondered the idea. And between his logic and her inner monologue, something struck her like a sudden flash of lightning, and she spun back around to face him. "I'm the Warlord! If anything, I'll be taking you across Ransei!"

"As you wish, milady," Muneshige replied, bowing in mock humility with a more genuine smile. Ginchiyo was just happy to have settled that minor quibble, but another realization sprung up in the back of her mind.

"You still didn't answer the question," she heard another amused chuckle from Muneshige as he reached for his book.

"I know," came his reply. Ginchiyo only shook her head to mask her own small smile, and then turned back to the storm-battered window.

The storm would end, eventually, and she would be able to see the horizon once again.