Chapter 13

Once they had arrived back in the capital, and were taking a bit of time to rest in castle Ylisse, Nathan decided to take the time to catch up with each of the shepherds, in order to try and find out what had happened while he was gone. As for himself, he had traveled a long ways before coming across a small village, where he met Donnell, one of the village boys, and helped him rescue his mother and the rest of the villagers from a group of bandits that had been attacking the small land. Soon after, he and Donnell headed together back to Ylisstol, to try and reunite with the shepherds, before hearing word of Maribelle's capture, where they met up with the others.

"…Oh, and some bandits burned my tent down as well, so I'm going to need a new one." Nathan declared to Chrom and Frederick, whom he was talking with in the castle's strategy room, explaining his story. Chrom nodded.

"Duly noted. We'll make arrangements on that eventually." He responded. Nathan nodded. Frederick then spoke up.

"You said you wanted to catch up with all of the shepherds, but I have a feeling you skipped someone…" The great Knight mentioned sternly. Nathan let out a loud groan.

"I know, I know, I should go talk to Lissa, get everything sorted out, I'm getting to it…" He grumbled.

Chrom laughed quietly at the man. "Hm? I thought you liked her!" He chided playfully. Nathan glared at the man, before letting out an exasperated sigh.

"I do, she just…annoys me, sometimes." He told his the prince. Chrom nodded.

"Understandable. Still, I think you should at least patch things up with her. She was quite upset after you left." He told the tactician, who sighed in defeat.

"Feelings are hard. Why couldn't dealing with girls be…easy?" He mused. Chrom laughed and nodded vigorously in agreement. Nathan then said goodbye to the two, before heading out to find Lissa.

Nathan found the princess in the courtyard of the castle, lying on the ground and staring up at the clouds.

"There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know." Nathan joked playfully. Lissa looked up at him and giggled.

"I'm not just lying here, I'm cloud watching! You should try it some time, take some time to relax for once…" She told the man. Nathan rolled his eyes.

"I have better things to do than that," He snapped back. He then gave Lissa a serious gaze. "Actually, well, we need to talk. I think you know what about." He offered the princess a hand to help get up, which she took, and the two walked over to sit on a nearby bench.

"Can't we both just agree that we said some dumb things and move on with life?" Lissa asked the man. Nathan sighed and nodded.

"True, but I feel like I have to make it up to you. I'll give you one more favour to use, I guess…" He replied. Lissa's eyes widened.

"Really! Hee hee, I like the sound of that! You should get mad more often!" She chided. Nathan groaned and put his head in his hands.

"You really are something else aren't you…you really ought to try being serious for once." He muttered. Lissa scoffed.

"Being serious is no fun, especially around you, oh master tactician who doesn't know how to relax!" She responded, clearly irritated. The two glared at each other, before Lissa's mind came up with another prank. She sunk into the bench and let out a loud sigh.

"Well…I guess I should do something for you too…tell you what, I'll give you a free favour too, AND a free shoulder rub! How does that sound?" She told him. Nathan raised an eyebrow, but then smiled smugly, believing himself to have won over her.

"Alright, fine." He simply replied. He then sat on the ground in front of Lissa, who went to work on rubbing his shoulders.

"Geez, your muscles are just one big knot back here…" Lissa muttered to the tactician, who nodded.

"Yeah…oh man, I needed this…" He sighed, closing his eyes. As irritated with the princess as he was, he had to admit she was doing a great job with this.

Lissa moved her hands as she quickly let something slip from out of the sleeve of her gown and stuffed it down Nathan's collar. "How about…. this?" She asked.

Nathan jolted alert yet again, as he jumped up and tried to shake whatever was down his back out of his clothes.

"AAH, AAH, COLD! IT MOVED! WHAT IN BLAZES WAS THAT, LISSA!?" He cried out, while the Princess was doubled over in laughter.

Nathan frantically shook his leg and saw the small green creature hop out, and hop away. He turned back and glared at Lissa, who was rolling on the ground, snorting with laughter.

"Was that really necessary?" He snapped. Lissa had slightly calmed down now, and blew a raspberry at the tactician.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was, because it was hilarious!" She replied. Nathan rolled his eyes and glared at the princess. Normally he didn't mind her pranks, but with everything going on between them, it had really started to get on his nerves.

"I'm pretty sure it was not!" He growled. "And anyways, I thought you couldn't stand frogs!"

Lissa gave the man a playful wink. "I'll have you know I'm willing to put up with a lot for the sake of comedy." She replied. Nathan scoffed.

"Ugh…anyways, I'm going to go wash up and get all this frog smell off of me. See you never." He told her. The two glared at each other before going their separate ways.