Chapter 20

Nathan and Lissa walked out towards the outskirts of the camp. The awkward silence between the two was only interrupted by the hoots of owls up in the trees surrounding the camp, and the scraping of the shoes of the two against the dirt.

Nathan was the first to break the silence. "So…about that…" He began. His mind was racing with panic, trying to figure out how he could cover up what had just happened.

"…Yes?" Lissa asked eagerly. She, on the other hand, could hardly contain her excitement. For the longest time now she had been working on getting Nathan to like her, since her and Chrom found him in the field. Even though there had been rough patches in their relationship at times, in the end she had fallen in love with his humorous attitude at times, and his dedication to the wellbeing of the shepherds, not to mention that rubbery thing that he did with his face. She twisted her pigtail in nervousness. Even in the dark, she could see the sweat and blush on her friend as they walked, and could tell he was unsure of what to say.

At that moment, a combination of fatigue, stress, and lack of experience in the situation caused Nathan's tactical mind to fail him. "Er…so…Donnel was just joking around! I told him about us holding hands when we were cloud watching, and he was just trying to make a joke out of it by blowing everything out of proportion! Hahahaha…." Nathan told Lissa, laughing awkwardly. "We're just friends, right?" He asked the princess.

At that moment, Lissa felt as though her spirit was crushed. Not wanting to show Nathan, she simply smiled her normal grin, and nodded. "Uh…y-yep!" She replied.

"Uh…I just remembered there was something I had to do back at the camp! I can make it back on my own, so I'll see you later!" Lissa told the man, and before he could respond, she ran back to the camp, leaving him standing alone under the moon.

Hours later, when everyone was heading to sleep, Chrom realized that Nathan and Lissa had never returned to the campfire. Worried about them and wanting to make sure they were ok, he got up from his bed, strapping on Falchion just in case, and exited his tent. The prince tiptoed his way across the camp, skipping past Lissa and Nathan's shared tent (If they were in there, he thought it might be best to stay away), and made his way to where Lissa and Nathan had last been seen walking off.

As he trudged down the path, he heard loud yells and powerful hacks of a sword. He drew Falchion and headed for the noise, only to find Nathan, using a bronze sword and cutting away at a tree. Chrom could tell the tactician had been at this for quite some time, with Nathan's blade being somewhat bent and very dulled at this point, with many chips in the metal now covering the sword. The tree he had been slashing at had been cut crudely, simply struck by powerful slashes, missing parts of bark and covered in deep indents where Nathan's blade had struck.

"…Judging from this, I'd assume things did not go well." Chrom stated.

Nathan, covered in sweat and tears, looked over at Chrom. "I…froze…up." He said between pants. "I got nervous…and I couldn't tell her. Augh, gods, why?"

Chrom looked at Nathan with a serious expression. "We all get nervous." He said flatly. "Frankly, it's nice to see that you're human, and have some limitations." He joked.

Nathan laughed quietly. "Yeah…but…what do I do now?" He asked.

Chrom shrugged. "I think we've established that neither of us know what we're doing here…"

The tactician sighed. "Right. Stupid question."

Chrom motioned to Nathan, and the two walked in silence back to the camp.