Practice made perfect.

"I think you need to practice more," Doc always told Little Mac whenever he could not figure out whatever training lesson he had to go through. "The mind is sharper than any sword you'd find in the world. You'll get it eventually- even if it's not now."

He always kept himself in check. Maintain the proper stances, act without always being the one reacting- a boxer like him had to make sure the neutral game between him and his opponent did not slide away from him.

Stances were one thing, the punches that came with it were another.

Jogging under dawn, Little Mac huffed and puffed. The sign of morning rose, for he jogged longer than usual this time around. It wasn't unusual for him to change up his schedule for the sake of keeping himself invigorated.

Some could find him to be a boring man, but to him, training was the soul of his boxing. And from what he could tell, his soul wasn't too far from his mind.

He jogged…

…and jogged…

…again, and again.

There was once a time when he jogged together with Doc Louis frequently, and although those days weren't long gone yet, he could not help but realize that he had grown enough to learn on his own. It was all a part of growing up.

Both by mind and maturity.

Some called Bayonetta a "witch." Others replaced one of the letters in that particular term and made it offensive out of frustration.

According to Ike, she could vanish at any given moment. She wore flashy clothes, and sometimes none at all. There was an odd standard to her actions, for while she certainly felt risqué compared to most of the Smash Brothers' feminine fighters, something about her felt rather classy. Perhaps it was the elegance of her movements mixed with the brutality of her nature.

But since Little Mac never met her, he could not really judge her for anything.

Sitting at the cafeteria with three burgers on his plate, he ate hungrily. He had to ignore a certain feminine Wii Fit Trainer who gave him a funny-looking stare. After all, he seemed to eat burgers every time he walked into the cafeteria, the only exceptions being where Robin recommended him to try something else out.

Food in general was worth living for, though. Especially when burgers tasted nice.

As he took another bite out of his first burger, however, he noticed someone standing at the entrance of the cafeteria glaring at him.

A blue-haired woman stood with her cheeks puffed and her arms crossed.

Uh oh, the Bruiser from the Bronx thought as he lowered his gaze back to his food. From the corner of his vision, he saw her approach him, no longer crossing her arms. She sat next to him with a teary-eyed pout.

He wondered what could have happened for her to just sit next to him without a word.

When she just continued to sit without saying anything to him, he asked, "Something happened?"

And lo behold, he blew up the emotional dam.

"Stupid."

"…?"

Mac raised an eyebrow as her pout intensified. It was such an intense pout, he wondered if she could possibly pout beyond the transcendence of time itself.

Okay, maybe not that much, but it was still a funny pout.

"Robin is… stupid. He's dumb!" Lucina finally spoke, her very first words already cutting to the chase. "He's just… gah! Never in the years I fought alongside him did I ever think he could be such a dense person!

"He's a dummy!"

A dummy.

Wow.

The normally composed swordswoman who travelled back in time to save not only her father, but an entire world, called the tactician who just happened to help her a "dummy."

Remaining silent, Mac took another bite from his burger as he watched Lucina shake. Whatever she felt must've been a lot to take in.

She remained still for a moment before perking up. Little Mac tilted his head as he blinked at her.

"S-Sir Mac!" She turned to him with a hopeful look.

"What?"

"Do you think Robin is the type to prefer… c-c-curvy women? Do I look like I can be curvy at all?!"

Well, you quite literally dropped a bombshell of a question.

Putting up a thoughtful look, Little Mac put down his burger on his plate- something nobody had managed to achieve so far. He quickly analyzed her body, but then realized something.

He didn't know what "curvy" actually meant.

So he decided to tell her everything he could honestly think about the shape of her body.

"You're like a slim washboard- AUGHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Lucina apologized, pulling away the fist she used to instinctively bonk Mac with.

…

So according to Lucina, something did happen before she went to Mac.

"Oh, Robin~?"

"Grk!"

Overly stylish heels clacked against the floors of the mansion as a certain witch in a white fur coat made way to the tactician at the cafeteria. His eyes darting around, he thought about throwing out an uppercut at her in an attempt to run. When he realized he wasn't Little Mac, however, Robin realized that he had no choice but to meet Bayonetta face to face.

"H-Hello, miss," the white-haired tactician of Ylisse bowed as he got up. "If this is about the noodle incident-"

"It certainly is about the noodle incident."

Although neither of them properly described what the noodle incident exactly was, it made Robin slam his knees against the ground as he bowed regretfully. "I'M SORRY! I had no choice at the time, and I was aware that I might have offended you…"

Most people hated silence when it came at the most important moments. Robin was no exception.

Much to his relief, however, the witch smiled as she cocked her head at him. "Sorry, Robin, but kneeling is one of your least fitting fortes. And I'd rather like to see it remain that way."

Getting up from the ground, Robin rubbed the back of his head as a faint blush heated his cheeks. He hated the idea of making mistakes, and that was probably even more of a case due to his role as a tactician. It was clear that whatever he did in the "noodle incident," he wanted to get rid of it from the face of the universe.

"Say," Bayonetta said as she reached for her pocket and took out a small notepad. "A little something slipped out of your pockets, tactician. I recommend you watch your steps more."

"Ah! Thanks for that…"

As the tactician grabbed the notepad, however, the witch smoothly pulled herself with it as she whispered at an uncomfortably close distance,

"I'll be seeing you."

The young man froze deathly still as she contained her laughter. With that, she walked away. By the time the witch had left, Robin found himself smiling in both confusion and relief. Relief in that she didn't brutalize him, and confusion in that the whispering was completely unnecessary and took him by surprise.

It reminded him of Tharja a bit, except Tharja was willing to cross every single line, while Bayonetta did not know what a line was.

Looking around, Robin took a deep breath… but it never came out. He paled.

For sitting at one of the tables was a trembling Lucina who looked completely unamused.

Random smash attacks out of nowhere aside, Lucina had a point.

The tactician hung out with Lucina a lot, so it was clear that he, at the very least, appreciated her as one of his closest friends. After talking to the Time Traveler, he learned that the person who Robin had recently been seen talking with frequently was Bayonetta.

Mac only met the witch once, and that was in the middle of the public. She bought him a drink and went on with her way, with a gargantuan trail of admirers following her. The large sunhat she wore covered most of her face, too, so he could not tell if she was pretty or dazzling.

But if there was one thing he could tell Lucina and give her hope, it was to let herself realize her own good traits.

Little Mac believed that he did not have anything particularly special about him aside from his boxing prowess and ability to shrug off pain and keep going. He saw his own face all the time, bruised or not, so he could not bring up many things to compliment himself with aside from his willpower.

But after years of analyzing opponents in front of him and listening to the people close to him, he knew a bit about analyzing others' traits, even if he wasn't a genius.

"You're not curvy," he said simply. "If we're talking about 'body shape' here, you're definitely not curvy."

"I… see," the blue-haired woman slowly responded, a downcast frown visible on her.

"But I don't know what kind of physical traits Robin likes," Mac continued. "He has his own preferences, and I'm not one to judge because he never told me about them. He isn't a shallow person, though, I can tell you that."

At this, Lucina nodded. Surely, Robin would not just make friends because of how they look. He always peered into what kind of people those close to him were. Describing him as shallow would do injustice to someone as thoughtful as him.

Picking up his burger, the lightweight boxing champion told the swordswoman before taking a bite, "You may not be curvy, but you have unique traits as well."

"Do I?"

Chewing his food, the pugilist nodded as he covered his mouth to speak. "You're cute."

"…C-Cute?!"

Turning to the Time Traveler, he blinked.

"Ye."

The color of her face resembling a tomato, she hastily asked, "H-How would you know that? You told me I'd be Robin's best friend forever, too!"

While Little Mac did not know what a "friend zone" was, he did not need to know any of that to calm her down. He swallowed his food.

"Robin told me."

"…Eh?"

He opened his mouth to take another bite, but he lowered the food from his mouth. His eyes locked onto hers, he told her,

"Robin told me you're cute."

She fell silent as soon as he told her that.

In fact, she became quiet for so long, Mac freely ate his food up to his third burger. Chugging the coke he brought with the food, he set aside the drink and went for another bite.

"Is… it true?" She asked. "He said that about me?"

"Ye."

Steam rushed out of her head as her face became beet red. An overwhelming sense of joy rushed into her heart as she tried to find the words that could describe her happiness.

As Mac finished his last burger, he turned to her and saw her making a small smile. A small, but genuine smile.

Well, Robin wasn't wrong with what he said about her.

"Thank you."

Although embarrassed, the smile she could not hold back was enough to express herself.

"Thanks for reassuring me," she said. "About Robin, I mean. I wasn't thinking right…"

"Ye."

With his food all gone, and his appetite adequately satisfied, Little Mac got up from the table as he drank the last of his coke. The swordswoman remained sitting, her eyes blankly staring at the table in front of her as her train of thoughts ran. She looked hopeful, and happy to think in a hopeful manner.

A happy smile was one emotion Little Mac preferred seeing over many others.

A session of boxing passed, and Little Mac prepared to immediately go out for a jog.

As he untied his shoelaces to tighten them again, he appreciated the quietness of the mansion. For once, Falcon Punches and Warlock Punches did not collide, people weren't screaming things, and there were no chessboards to anger people.

He kind of liked it. But it wasn't something he'd need to live forever.

As he got up, a woman in a white fur coat passed by him. He did not bat an eyelash, but he knew who it was. They had met once, and most of the time, Bayonetta seemed like a busy woman. Yet sometimes, word that she made a fool out of a random Smash contestant would spread like wildfire.

She was an interesting person, but not one he could relax next to until he knew more about her.

With his usual athletic wear on, the boxer pulled the pink hoodie over his head as he walked out the mansion.

And he jogged again.

He jogged…

…and jogged…

…and jogged.

As the pugilist jogged his way out to his favorite trail, he felt like he got closer to many of the contestants in the Smash Brothers tournaments. It felt different to actually get along with a lot of people this time around.

That wasn't a bad thing at all.

Author's Notes:

It's probably Robin that's causing some of the Fire Emblem characters to get along with Mac, ironically enough.

Next chapter- "Gossip Tales!"