Chapter 18

Lissa had to admit, things were much more fun when Nathan was happy with her and not angry. The two made for quite a pair, taking the time to talk to everyone in the camp each day. His presence by her side had helped her forget about her worries for Emmeryn, who had decided to head back to Ylisstol after the group was ambushed by Plegian soldiers. At the moment, the shepherds were headed for Regna Ferox again, to rally more troops and supplies in case of war.

The journey to the northern region was always long and arduous, with the group nearing the colder territory yet again. Over the days, Nathan dragged Lissa to his strategy meetings at the crack of dawn with Chrom and Frederick, which the princess had quite a bit of fun with that one day, by pretending to be asleep (The trick always seemed to work on Nathan), who carried her on his back to the strategy meeting. Her feelings for the man were growing even stronger, and she needed to find some sort of way to find out if those feelings were returned.

Nathan, however, was left wondering the same thing. He knew that Lon'qu and Lissa had become good friends while he was gone, but didn't know anything else beyond that, and had tried to inadvertently ask Maribelle about if Lissa liked anyone, it ended up with Maribelle trying to learn about how "Common folk like him" went about life.

"Nathan. Stay focused." A deep voice said from in beside him.

Nathan snapped back to reality, looking over at Lon'qu, who was standing next to him. The two were standing in an open field, with a target set up far from them. Nathan saw the tome in his hand, and remembered that he was practicing with Lon'qu on trying to hit moving targets. The myrmidon was trying to learn how to use a bow, which was, unfortunately, not going too well, evidenced by the stray arrows throughout the field. Lissa was off at her teatime with Maribelle, which Nathan usually spent going out to train in an area near Maribelle's tent, which at this time was the field.

"Right." Nathan responded, readying his tome yet again, and firing a blast of lightning at the dummy, just nicking the arm of the wooden figure. He then came up with an idea.

"Lon'qu?" The tactician casually asked, to which the man simply grunted after missing the target with his arrow yet again.

"What is it, is there something bothering you?" The man replied. Nathan nodded.

"It's…complicated." He said. Lon'qu grunted again, his arrow going wide of the mark yet again.

"Well tell me, and I will do my best to help you solve your issue." Lon'qu replied.

"Well…" Nathan began, "You're a good-looking, able-bodied man, so I'm sure you've been with many a woman. How do you tell if they…like you?"

Lon'qu's face turned a bright red, taken off guard by the question. "Er…" He replied. "I'm afraid I can't help you with that problem."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?" He said. "But, how could you have never at least been with anyone?"

He pondered for a moment. "Are…are you gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just wondering."

Lon'qu glared at the man, clearly flustered by the conversation. "No, I am not! I'm just, well… I have a phobia of women." He confessed.

The two stood in silence for a moment, before Nathan burst out in laughter. "A…a fear of women?! Oh gods, Lon'qu…that's a good one…" He looked back at the man to see a solemn face. "Oh…you're serious." The swordsman nodded.

"But, when we fight, I've had you paired up with women in many battles…hell, you were hanging out with Lissa the past few weeks as well…does it not affect you in battle?" Nathan asked.

Lon'qu shook his head in response. "Only at times. And as for Lissa, Ricken was able to work up some sort of potion for me, which I used to withstand her presence and touch. " He said with a slight shudder. "As of late, I've been working with Maribelle to try and get over my fear of women. My training has become more intensive, and, quite frankly…" The myrmidon blushed. "…I've gained feelings for the woman as well. This is why I requested a leave from protecting Lissa."

Nathan nodded, taking in all the information he was given. The two stood in an awkward silence, before Lissa called out to Nathan from the entrance to Maribelle's tent.

"Naaatieeee, it's time to go!" She shouted.

"Be there in a second!" The tactician shouted back. He gathered his belongings, before running to meet the princess. "We'll spar sometime later!" Nathan yelled back to Lon'qu, who nodded, still flustered from the last conversation.

Nathan walked over to Lissa, and pulled out his small notebook, where he wrote down his daily schedule. "So…next is my time, and I need to go plan out some new march strategies. Let's head back to the tent?" He asked the princess. Lissa giggled, and shook her head.

"I don't think so, mister, I'm going to teach you how to relax right now!" She told him. Nathan raised an eyebrow.

"Um, I'm pretty sure this is my time though…" He told her. Lissa shook her head again.

"This won't work unless you put off doing work. Now, come with me mister, we're going cloud watching!" Lissa told him, grabbing Nathan's hand and dragging him with her. Nathan sighed in defeat and followed the princess.

Lissa finally stopped when the two had reached a small hill in the middle of the grassy field. She flopped down on the grass, and motioned to Nathan to lie down next to her. The two stared up into the sky in silence for a moment, before Nathan spoke.

"So…are we relaxing yet? And a better question…are we done yet?" He asked the princess, who rolled her eyes.

"No, not yet, silly…" She told him.

"Alright, so what do we do?" Nathan asked.

Lissa pointed up to the clouds. "You look at the clouds, and you describe what you think they look like!" She told the man. Nathan was slightly amused at this, and looked around before pointing at a larger, puffy cloud.

"Well, I'll start then," He declared, "That one looks like the villager protection secondary formation. Oh, and look, there's the primary pair-up attack formation! And there's a Pegasus standard recon flight path! You're right, this is fun!"

"Ha ha. Very funny." Lissa dryly replied. Nathan's brow furrowed, and he looked over at the princess.

"What's funny? I'm telling you what I'm seeing." Nathan responded with a serious tone. Lissa looked into Nathan's eyes, and then groaned.

"Oh gods, you're serious…" She muttered. The princess then took Nathan's hand yet again, turning both of their faces red again.

"Here, I'll show you how it's done. See that cloud?" Lissa asked. Nathan nodded.

"It looks like a dragon. That or a cavalier helmet." She told the man. Nathan squinted at the cloud for a second, then smiled.

"I…I think I see it." He replied. He then pointed to the cloud next to it. "That one…looks like Ricken's pointy mage hat!" He proudly declared.

Lissa giggled. "Hey, that was actually good!" She told him, and the two shared a laugh.

Lissa then quickly remembered that they were still holding hands, and turned red again before quickly removing her hand from his.

"Hey, uh…we don't have to stop holding hands…" Nathan said, blushing thickly as he looked at the princess. Her eyes widened as she looked back at the man, who quickly added, "Well, I mean, if you don't want to stop of course, you don't have to if you don't want to – I think it helps me think though-" He was cut off by Lissa quickly grasping his hand firmly again, and the two giggled at each other, with both of their faces a bright red. Nathan then turned back to the sky, pointing at a cloud.

"You know what that one is?" He asked. Lissa squinted at the cloud for a few seconds before shaking her head.

"No, what do you think it is?" She asked.

"It's a distraction." Nathan replied. Lissa then felt something slimy and wet wriggling on her hand which was entwined with Nathan's.

"EEYARGH!" She screamed as she recoiled her hand out of his grasp, as Nathan rolled on the grass in laughter. She looked down at where his hand was and saw a large worm wriggle away into the dirt.

Lissa looked at Nathan with a glare for a second, before it turned into a smile and he laughed along.

"I have to admit, that was pretty good!" She told the man. Nathan gave her a playful wink.

"I learned from the best, after all," He replied. "Now then, shall we get back to our cloud watching? I swear there isn't anything up my sleeve this time." He asked as he offered her his hand again, which she took as they lay back down in the grass, staring up at the clouds.