Alex was hard at work, sorting through papers and documents as he organized or, moreover, reorganized the Shepherds' papers and some of the critical members of the Marauders', keeping tabs on what was damaged, need repair, or just need new sets of papers altogether. The day marked Month Nine after the Plegian War and Alex was actually surprised that with the month came the opening of relations altogether.
Barlowe heaved deeply as he was cornered in the room, eyes widened as Alex worked to fix what had been scattered. "SIR!"
"Yes, Barlowe?"
"LITTLE GIRL... MANAKETE... WHAT... YOU!" Alex sighed as he massage his temples before he looked over to the spooked mercenary.
"First off, breath, Captain." Barlowe was not breathing too smoothly so Alex stood up and gripped Barlowe's shoulder, channeling his powers of the winds to restore Barlowe's sense before he repeated. "Barlowe... breath."
He breathed more and more until he inhaled and spoke. "Where did you get the manakete?"
"We rescued her and Gregor from the reaches of the Grimleal, joining our cause before we even approached the castle of Plegia." The hand left as Alex resumed his work. "Though, to see her in better spirits with Ricken should make the day a lot better... if she hadn't pulled him through the whole palace in celebration."
"Aye, sir, that was an event..." Barlowe paced about in venting as he continued. "Still, to know that a manakete has been living with you and your company long before the Marauders even existed, that scares me something good."
"Give or take, friend." Alex replied as he continued his sort, looking for any documents that had suffered from the quick fly-by when the door was knocked. "Enter." A wyvern rider opened the door a bit and walked up to the desk with a few papers in hands, attire adjusted to be female as she spoke.
"Forgive me for the intrusion, Captain and sir." She bowed as custom to her training from Barlowe, also maybe some maid ethics from either Maribelle and Fredrick. "I have come to deliver several forms for you, Sir Alex." Alex took the papers off her hands and she bowed once more before about facing and leaving the same way she entered.
"A bit tense to be part of my band, isn't she?"
"I believe that she is one of the recent members from the clerics who decided to don the attire of a wyvern rider, but is still reeling from her encounter with her wyvern." As Alex started to look through, he made a note. "Before any more training, Barlowe, see if you can straighten things out, I don't want any wounds or deaths here all because someone is growing too worried of their standing."
"Of course, sir." The first document was a crude declaration of Vaike's contest of strength, something that caused Alex to roll his eyes as the Fighter, having recovered from the ordeal of the enchanted bottle, had tried to make a contest to prove that he is the strongest when he has only been knocked out in the first round ...several times. The next few documents were detailed notes for a number of shipping lanes, all of them Anna businesses as there was some telling Alex that some of their shipments were lost in Ylisse and they were willing to do business at ninety percent should someone find them.
Maribelle, involving a deep thank you for the rescue of Gaius as she was focused on his recovery before she could send any regards, inquired for a small series of law books that she was interested in for some time and now asks for them for the duration of a few days. However, there was a hidden letter and Alex removed it from the small amount and looked it over, its papery form laced with a sweet smell like strawberries or oranges before he headed around to pull out a letter opener and cut it open, pulling out a sole message that was unaddressed. 'Meet me in the Shepherd barracks, I... want to talk about... something.'
Alex cleared his throat as he suspected someone closely friends or a Shepherd was the one to call him out and he decided that it was best to approach it alone in case they were one of those shy individuals or... someone else as he directed his words to Barlowe. "Barlowe, I need you to find Fredrick and inform him of Vaike's contest."
"Do you want me to deal with the other issues on your paper?"
"No, the second one is to be entrusted to one of the Shepherds as Chrom can muster the manpower to search and Ricken is familiar with the contorts of the royal library, being a studied mage and teacher in the arts."
"But..." Alex held up a hand as Barlowe understood and took the papers off Alex's hands and headed out with the Grandmaster close behind as he locked the office and headed out toward the barracks which was undergoing some repair from the months just in case.
Moving past the small manor's campus through the open corridors and past the columns, The Grandmaster watched and listened as the Marauders were put through their paces alongside some of the Ylisse army, working together to better their skills and develop a type of kinship that was more like siblings than relatives. He was also listening for another sound and was pleased to hear it, a click of heels on the floor and his keen eye need not a sharp sight as the figure followed a distance away as he turned back to his walk, greeting a few of the soldiers and heading in to look about in a calm silence.
Crates were stacked about as the gear was going to be either moved or stored for transport later, but that was beside the point as he was here for the unaddressed individual, the same that now walked closer to not kill, but to be close as it stopped short as Alex spoke. "Tharja?"
"Yes?" By the tone of voice, she was indecisive about something, but the both of them knew it from the moment she entered.
"Don't you think it's time you stopped standing right behind me?"
"Why?" A coy answer, she enjoyed toying with people at times, but here her coy response was ill-placed.
"Because I can't see your face."
"Why would you want to?" A reasonable question, why see the face of your stalker unless you had a valid reason to do so. Alex relaxed as he moved for the first action, relaxing his arms for a moment and rolling his neck.
"Fine, I'll just turn around." With that, he spun around to catch her off-guard, her shocked expression evident as he loomed over her, his height greater as he had her cornered between an outstretched arm that he shot out on her right and a column of crates, his right arm resting beside him. "That's better." Both stared at each other in the quiet, but Alex was not done as he made the conversation. "...Now that I think about it, this is the first time we've stood like this... So close... face-to-face..." Though it had happened a long while ago, this was the first time Alex made the moves, not Tharja.
"Perhaps." Tharja was trembling, was she really afraid or was she ecstatic? She told herself that it was ecstatic nature, to have Alex talking to her alone, but it wasn't there, nothing but a sense of... terror, numb terror that shook her body.
"I rather like it." Her head shifted to the side with his right hand reaching up and taking her cheek in hand, its gloved texture moving her back to him as he continued, leaning in close like their first chat together, seemingly whispering in her ear. "Maybe we should do this more often..." She raised a hand to hold the hand that held her as she listened. "Maybe we could stand together... forever."
"...Forever?"
"...Forever." The right hand left her touch as it went into a pocket of his cloak, his heart pounding as he moved to pull out the second reason why he was there.
"Wait, what are you giving..." Her eyes went wide as the hand returned with a familiar box, a small violet thing that she had spotted with Anna's wares when she had come by one time. The reason was that it was meant for a wedding band, something Tharja found her heart trying to escape her chest from as it opened to a silver band with a diamond encrusted into the alloy. "...Alex, is this a ring?" Her face glowed beet-red at the sight of the ring, she thought that he was going to give it to someone else, not her!
"I love you, Tharja." Her Ruin tome dropped to the ground as she was stunned out of her mind, her book hand still holding the tome's empty position as Alex continued. "I want to be with you, forever."
Tharja finally moved as she nearly screeched in panic, pushing Alex a bit away as she spoke. "N-No! I can't! Not like this!"
"Oh." Of course she was out of her mind, her longtime stalk was suddenly proposing marriage and he was doing it in a place that was completely empty except the two of them as she was unprepared for this situation.
However, she paused and mentioned with her finger for him to turn around and he did so before her presence was made once more, pressing against his back as he could feel her heart pounding like crazy as she breathed, regaining a level of calm as she spoke. "...There." It wasn't going to be a slow process, with their interactions with one another, but her gaze to meet a husband was not ready than to meet a friend or companion. "Now try it again."
Alex gave a sigh as he spoke. "Um, well, I guess if this makes you more comfortable... In truth, I'm getting used to it myself..."
"Good." Taking the box in hand, she took the ring out and slipped it on her left hand before gazing at it longingly and resting her head on Alex's back. "I can't believe you made me love you! 'Course if you back out, I'll murder you in your sleep." Alex should have been scared of that little note, but the tone and the action told him otherwise as her arms wrapped around her torso and hugged it closely as she rested her head there. "I just... this is a wonderful day... I feel so... lucky."
"As you should, you are an amazing woman." Alex said as he took the box back and lifted the resting of the first ring to reveal a second one, a opal setted in this one as he lifted it up and slipped it on his right hand before plucking the Ruin book off the floor, but instead of returning it back, he inquired. "Tell me if you can, dear wife, what qualities do these rings share?"
"Don't make me curse you for the answers..." But she played along as she raised up her hand to look, its slivery glint an obvious thing until she spotted the first details, comparing the rings for a bit. "Both have wyverns encircling the gems?"
"Indeed." Alex was slow in his approach as Tharja searched evermore for another that stood out to her, her heart beating from the fact, was he of Plegian or of Valm heritage?
"They both have miniature figures... of us?"
"Of course..." His hands spun her around until they were face-to-face, her finding the last detail, the figures that held themselves close were also hidden behind an initials, S.L., an odd thing as she drew closer.
"S.L.?" So close that the words were hushed and quiet except to their ears.
"Shadowed Love, my lovely mage." With that, their lips met and they remained there, enjoying each other's company in bliss while the candles inside started to fade out, hiding the lovers in darkness before Alex spoke. "Opps, think anyone will notice?"
"...Most likely, I will help... the odd-fashion way..."
"So..." Chrom said as he studied the new sheet that was given to him about a number of objectives that his Grandmaster gave to him for completion. The first was dealt with in reasonable time as Fredrick, wary of Vaike and what could be prompting him to make ANOTHER fighting tourment, found the poor fighter and ran him through his paces SEVERAL times as 'correctional time', thus tormenting the fighter to exhaustion as said the little note on the revised parchment. The second and third were dealt in with the same level of focus as it was a time of peace and things could be done quicker as Anna gave the discount for the whole of Ylisse after the guards found the missing supplies in the storage hall and the books were thankfully easy to get by Ricken who felt indebted to Alex for trashing the office in the Marauder estate, yet the last one was not addressed as he inquired with Barlowe, finding the brother of Tharja to be an excellent companion indeed. "Grandmaster Alex never said what he was planning on doing there by the barracks?"
No, sir, he just sent me to deliver the agendas to the agreed parties and he just headed to the barracks to address it himself." Barlowe gave a salute as Chrom reread the parchment before he rolled it up and headed out of the palace with Barlowe in tow.
"Well, if anyone was going to check up on him, it may as well be me, he expressed such a disagree with MY wander about during the war, he has no right to think that I won't do the same to him." Barlowe nodded in amaze as civilians and soldiers of both Plegian and Ylissean greeted their Exalt who waved to them in return. a few wanted to help him along his way, but he dismissed them as he had Barlowe, a man who has proven to be an equal to Stahl, if not better, as they traverse past the grounds of the Marauder company and to the barracks, its rebuilding giving it a wider space to treat new Shepherds and stock to keep the weapons on the ready as he entered. "Alex, where are you?"
"Ah, Chrom!" Lo and behold, Alex was reigniting candles for the inside as he set one down and turned to Chrom as he flicked the match to smoke and addressing the two newcomers while disposing the dead-object to the fire ignited in the center, a temp fire until the barracks was completed. "My apologies, I wasn't expecting anyone to be dropping by!"
"Yes, well..." Chrom cleared his throat as Barlowe was puzzled as to why the lighting of candles. "Barlowe brought me the parchment of your tasks and you were yet to report back as to the progress with the last one, we were questioning what was taking your time here."
"That would be me, sirs." Tharja stepped out from behind several of the crates as she set the candle in hand down and sat beside Alex as he too took a seat. "I wanted to clear the air up as all this romance and love was getting me confused."
"Wow, my sister confused about romance?" Barlowe said and continued in the same surprised tone. "Why clear up the air, I thought you hated romance?" Tharja gave a open sigh as she explained it.
"Just it was all mushy and stuff, I was slightly sick of it as everyone just radiated this aura of... unsettling affection that I am not fond of." Barlowe shrugged as the dark mage continued. "But a while ago, it came to me to talk about it with... someone who was willing to lend a shoulder and... won't freak out about it."
"Alex?" Chrom questioned as the Grandmaster gave a shrug of his own.
"Given my history with Tharja, it was the best idea, but she couldn't just talk to me, that is out of her comfort zone, though during our little chat, I have come to understand some things that have bloomed in the Shepherds during and after the war, mostly the whole 'romance' thing." Both Exalt and Marauder looked at each other in confusion before Barlowe cleared his throat and spoke.
"That sounds... interesting to be honest, but are you telling us, by the way, that you have been occupying your time here lighting candles?"
"They... went out for some reason, we didn't touch them at any point, they just faded out." Alex said with a small smirk and Chrom grimaced as the look often haunted him at times, the face of 'I know your move' present on the teal-haired tactician.
"Well, what ever the case, I have got what I was looking for, now if you will pardon me, I have a mountain of politics to go through."
"You are pardoned." Both Tharja and Alex said which should have caught their attention, but the Exalt just left with Barlowe close behind before the dark mage gave a reasonable hum. "You are right, that did sound pleasant and he is none the wiser."
"Excellent, now if you will excuse me, I need to..." Alex paused before lifting up one of the faded candles with a focused look, Tharja catching it as she stood up as well and looked.
"What's the matter, my love?"
"There is still usable wick on this candle..." They took a look and sure that some of the candle had melted, some of the wick still remained, giving the impression that it was set up. The holder was set down as Alex checked another to find a similar fate, candle melted with some wick still remaining and untouched by the flames beforehand. "If I am not mistaken, these candles was a gift from Maribelle, correct?"
"Yes, why...?" Alex started to smell before Tharja asked. "Alex?"
"It's scent... I know it..." He placed it back down and walked over to one of the boxes, running through its contents until he pulled out a book of candle making and opened it with Tharja looming over his shoulder. "It is a mixture of Ylissian scented powder and Valm wax, meant to produce a smell that marks the beginning of something, and if I am not wrong..." He ran a finger through and found it with a slight frown. "...They knew beforehand..."
Tharja remained silent as the meaning was not lost on her. "That red-haired thief... I am going to make him beg for forgiveness when I'm done with him!" She stopped short as Alex took her hand and brought her down on the seat, holding it close as he planted a kiss on her head, her blush rivalling Cordelia's red hair.
"Don't mind them, they have no control over us, I will need to speak to Maribelle about it, but for now, this time is between you and me or would you prefer my office over this place."
"O-Office, please!" Alex nodded as he returned the book and lifted Tharja up, aiding her out to his office to rest for a spell, this much excitement was getting through to her and she needs some quiet time alone, but he was willing, after all, that is how married couples should be...
