Chapter 17

Nathan grabbed what few things he had brought with him, and followed Lissa to her tent. Once they got inside, he took a second to look around the space, always astonished at how big her tent was. Chrom and Frederick really did go out of their way to make sure she had the best. He picked a spot in the far corner, away from Lissa's large bed and dresser. He silently thanked himself for Miriel coming up with the compression spell that allowed them to store everything inside of the tents, while having them be able to be folded up and carried around no matter what was inside. He had a feeling that all of this would still be a part of Lissa's tent from Chrom and Frederick's fussing over her, and would be quite a pain to bring around.

"So…" Lissa muttered, snapping Nathan out of his thoughts and back to reality, looking over at the Princess.

"Hm?" He replied. "What is it?"

"How are we going to do this?" Lissa asked. "I mean, being together all the time. You're busy with strategy all the time, right? How can we make this work?"

Nathan rubbed his chin in concentration. "I suppose we'll have to compromise. I can take my papers with me if I have to, but for the most part, we'll just split time 50-50. I'll take time for my work, and we'll do time for…whatever it is you do." He told her. Lissa nodded in agreement.

"Alright, sounds fair." She replied. "Oh! And another thing…" She added. Nathan raised an eyebrow.

"C-can you teach me more magic? I really feel like it makes me more useful as a shepherd, so I'd really appreciate it…" Lissa timidly asked the man. Nathan smiled warmly and nodded. He found it quite strange, how quickly a simple conversation with the princess could re-ignite his feelings for her. He cursed himself for not having the guts to talk to her earlier.

"Sure. But, you have to teach me about how to 'relax' like you do," Nathan replied with a playful wink, getting a giggle out of Lissa.

"Deal!" She replied, holding out a hand for Nathan to shake, which he took before quickly recoiling when he felt something cold and slimy in her hand.

"Waugh!" He yelled, pulling his hand back. Lissa laughed as she let the frog she was holding hop away.

"Gods…how many of those do you have?" Nathan muttered. Lissa motioned him over to his bed, where she lifted the flap underneath to reveal a bucket of water filled with weeds and frogs.

"I could've sworn you said you hate frogs, and that they're cold, slimy and gross…" Nathan recalled with a frown, to which Lissa giggled.

"I do hate them, but I'm willing to put up with a lot for the sake of comedy!" She playfully responded. Nathan sighed with a slight smile, shaking his head.

"Tell you what, how about: I'll only teach you magic if you stop pranking me. One prank and the deal is off." The tactician proposed sternly. Lissa sighed in defeat and nodded.

"Fiiine." She responded. "It's better than having you mad at me, anyways. It's no fun when we're mad at each other."

Nathan laughed quietly and nodded. "So, how about we take these frogs to the pond, and then head to a meadow and get in some practice? I have a couple fresh new tomes that we can test out." He said, to which Lissa grinned happily, and agreed. The two then walked out of the tent together, with Nathan carrying Lissa's large bucket of frogs.