I'm not going to act like I haven't been having an issue with motivation lately. This recent vacation was supposed to help me get back into the groove of things. However, while I was lazing about at a friend's house, I got a cute little email telling me I got a comment.

I don't mean to be sappy, but it was single-handedly the cutest and sweetest thing I've gotten to date. After reading, it really did boost my spirits, so I hope you enjoy this.

The Princess's Dragon Bride

Chapter 5: Striking Sparks

Lucina caught her brother's blade as it made its downwards dissent. Swiftly she batted it aside and rushed forwards, managing to land a hit to his chest again.

Marth groaned as he hit the floor. He propped himself on an elbow as his sister smirked down at him as she lightly tapped her shoulder with the practice blade.

"Try not to look so smug," he growled out as he righted himself into a sitting position. "you got lucky."

"Did I?" she couldn't hold back a smug grin. She held a hand out and helped pull her brother to his feet. "You wanna try again?"

Marth responded by walking away from her, turning, and taking a fighting stance. Lucina jumped back and readied her own blade.

She watched him and took note of his messy stance; it was clear he was at his limits. Behind his usually composed mask, it was clear his eyes were wild; he was at his wit's end. She watched him rush at her recklessly. His temper was getting the better of him.

She weaved this way and dodged every swipe and jab. He'll never last in a real battle if he lets his temper control him like this. She matched his next attack and threw him off balance. Something's clearly on his mind.

Now that she thought about it, he had been completely off lately. Although she wanted to ask about it, she knew that there was no use in interrogating him when his temper got this way.

She guessed his next move and prepared a counter. "Don't be careless," her usual smirk and confidence sipped into subtle concern.

He ignored her warning and charged headfirst into her trap. In one fluid move, she disarmed him and sent him tumbling to the ground again.

"That was amazing!" a cheer drew Lucina's attention away from her brother's out-of-character behavior.

She turned and locked eyes with the Princess of the Koopa kingdom herself. How long had she been watching? Lucina wasn't sure why a shy pride crept into her chest as the other girl rushed over to meet them.

"Corrin?" a smile crept its way onto her features despite herself. "What brings you to the training grounds today?"

"Well, at first I was hoping we could ..." Corrin turned to face Marth, and after a moment of regarding him, she said, "I was hoping we could continue our reading lessons."

Something about how she regarded him told Lucina the other princess had other ideas in mind. She was probably thinking of revisiting the city but chose to hold her tongue. "At first?" Lucina ventured. Something was appealing about it remaining their little secret.

"Well, I couldn't help but notice you're in the middle of training" she seemed to shyly look away from her friend.

An urge surged in her chest, and her lips were moving before she could register what she was saying. "We can get to it just after I get my practice done" she turned to her brother in hopes of explaining to him that their sparring could wait for tomorrow, but he was up and leaving.

"I'll be at the stables" was all he said before he was out of sight.

She pinched the bridges of her nose and sighed heavily. One of these days, I'm getting Marth to apologize for being so rude. She turned to Corrin to apologize, but there was something about the other prince's smile that seemed to carry her agitation away.

Corrin watched Lucina grumble something under her breath. She held out her palm again, trying desperately to summon something from the tome in her left hand.

Despite Lucina's irritation, something was fascinating about her. The way the wind would toss her navy blue hair this way and that. The way her deep blue eyes would catch and reflect the light of the sun and the sparks from her tome. It was mesmerizing.

Then after a few attempts, lightning would manifest itself within her palm. With an awkward motion, it was sent flying towards a poor unsuspecting practice dummy.

It went wide and flew over it, thankfully striking the stone of the training grounds. Corrin winces as Lucina slumped over, defeated "damn it."

Corrin righted herself on one of the nearby wooden benches, "Is something wrong?"

"Well, no.'' Lucina righted herself and stared down at the tome with a disappointed stare. "not quite."

The other princess walked over and plopped down beside her. "I was hoping to learn magic, and unlike my brother, it seems I have a natural affinity for it. but" she stared back at the book with the lightning bolt engraved into the cover. "I'm not very good at controlling it."

"Really?" Corrin wasn't sure why the idea of Lucina having trouble with anything sounded strange. It was difficult to picture the strong and charismatic princess having difficulties with anything, really.

"It's even harder since we don't really have a proper teacher for it." Lucina put the book down and leaned backward and, with a heavy sigh, said, "Shulk knows some healing magic, but he insists it's different."

"Pyra says the same thing about her fire magic," in truth, Pyra had mentioned something. How she had access to a special kind of magic that not many people could perform. So it wouldn't be for the best that she taught her magic. Then a thought hit her, "maybe I can help?"

She scooped up the tome from the bench and, with a flourish, summoned forth the magic within its pages. It opened, and as the pages fluttered to and fro, she channeled the magic into her palm. Then with the flick of her wrist, she sent the bolt of lightning hurtling towards the practice dummy.

"I'm sorry!" she looked away from the poor dummy before she heard a resounding crackle.

When she turned to face the other princess, she couldn't help but notice how the other girl's eyes sparkled with awe. "That was incredible!" Pride swelled in her chest at the praise. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

She could feel her cheeks heat up as she took her seat by Lucina again. "I learned from my father's lead wizard, Kamek."

"Well, not quite formally," she opened the book again and summoned small orbs of light. "but I learned everything I know from him."

"He would often visit, so one day, I snuck into his study and started reading any tome I could find." The two of them watched the lights dance around.

"He was quite furious with me when he saw the mess I had made in his study." She chuckled fondly at the memory, "and even more so when he saw the ash heap that was one of the spare rooms' furniture."

She closed her eyes and leaned back, "He said it was a miracle I hadn't burned the whole castle down,"

"He started giving tips on how to properly control it after the fourth time he caught me." She opened her eyes with a disappointed sigh. "he keeps fussing over me, says I shouldn't learn such things."

"Let me guess," she looked at Lucina as she spoke up, "it's not very ladylike? things a Princess shouldn't know, right?" there was a displeased expression on the other princess's face.

Lucina gave an irritated heavy sigh, "Trust me, the council gave my father the same speech back when he brought up the idea of teaching me how to fight."

"Jokes on them, though," she smirked, and Corrin couldn't help the tight feeling in her chest, "their precious prince has yet to beat me in a proper fight."

"You were amazing in that fight earlier." Lucina was the picture of nobility. She wasn't sure how someone could look so beautiful and fearsome at the same time.

Lucina shook her head, "Not as amazing as you were with that tome.'' Then there was a light in her eyes, something like watching the waves. "Hey, you said earlier that you wanted to help me with my magic, right?"

She beamed back at the blue princess, "As long as you're willing."

She was shy suddenly "it's the least I can do" she tucked a lock of her hair out of her face, suddenly bothered by it, "since you're helping me learn this kingdom's script."

"Then it's a deal."

AN/ I hope you enjoyed that; sorry for the wait, and that's it's so short.

Fun Fact: The reason Lucina and Corrin have magic potential. Fire Emblem Heroes gave them both a Blue Tome alt meaning they can both use thunder magic. Corrin's Summer alt and Lucina's Bunny alt.

Also, if any character has an alt in FEH, chances are I'll be using it in the story. Still, you don't need to worry about needing to know anything from FEH. It won't really matter too much.

~ S. Rosey (7/12/21)