rosage: (Mist)
Rosage ([personal profile] rosage) wrote in [community profile] femslashficlets2015-08-15 01:04 am

A Different Home (#020 - Remainder)

Title: A Different Home
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Pairing: Almedha/Titania
Rating: G
Prompt: #019 - home (#20 - remainder)
Word Count: 995
Summary: Takes place after Toil and Trouble.

Almedha examines the company’s weapon inventory, her thoughts on it unreadable. She seemed impressed enough by Titania’s axe—or maybe just Titania—but the company keeps only the weapons as it needs, which at the moment is fewer than times past.

“If you’ve need of shelter, you’re welcome to stay the night,” Titania says as she puts away her axe. Almedha has never accepted the offer before; now she wrinkles her nose, a gesture Titania misinterprets.

“I’ve no need,” Almedha says. Of course—she should have castles and vassals to suit her needs, not a fort and a company far from home. “But I daresay you need me here if you’re not to rust. I’ll accept.”

Titania smiles, more pleased than she’d expect. Her muscles still burn from training under Almedha’s watchful eye, and she’s in a good enough mood to disregard Almedha’s more grating traits.

“It’s a shame Oscar isn’t here, but Mist’s cooking has gotten quite good,” Titania says while Almedha lifts a sword. She doesn’t hold it with the grip of one trained to, nor does she seem fazed by it. Titania wishes Almedha’s puffed sleeves didn’t hide her muscle tone, for curiosity’s sake.

Almedha switches the sword to her other hand, staring down its point. Her hair reflects across the metal in dark bands that climb up and down the blade. “Oh? I’m sure it will do.”

Belatedly Titania remembers how Almedha ate the insects by the lake like dried fruit. “If you’d like us to prepare anything in particular, or would prefer to dine alone…”

Almedha’s hair dangles dangerously close to the weapon. She tosses a lock over her shoulder. “I’ll dine at your table, and I’ll eat whatever you see fit to serve a guest.” She’s kept one hand in her hair, stroking it absently, and Titania fancies what it would look like in a braid. Jerking her chin to look sharply at Titania, Almedha grins, peeling her lips away from her gums as if purposefully showing off her mouth’s oddities. “Don’t worry. I’m not as drab and finicky as most of my kind. If my baby brother were here, you’d be unable to serve meat lest you make him ill. Though among Beorc food, I like Daein’s food best. Especially the hunted meat and the wine.”

The wine—Titania restrains a grin. Somehow it’s not hard to picture Almedha at a bar, knocking back drinks and winning bets against foulmouthed locals. Titania’s made the treasured acquaintance of other Laguz royals, so she isn’t much surprised.

When Mist’s told of the visitor, she’s just happy to have someone else to cook for. In the mess hall she sets a heaping helping of meat stew in front of Almedha, a dish she normally cooks in colder weather. Almedha sniffs the steam wafting from it and glances in silent question at Mist, who’s bouncing on her heels. The hall is quiet. Boyd and Rolf took their trainees on an expedition early that morning.

“It’s my current go-to for cheering people up,” Mist chirps. “It’s warm and hearty, right?”

“That it is, but do I look in need of cheering?” Almedha sounds more amused than affronted, stirring the stew with the accompanying crust of bread. Mist stutters anyway until Titania suggests she deliver some to Rhys, who’s in bed with a fever. Titania sits beside Almedha with her own bowl, seeing that Almedha is situated before closing her eyes to take the first bite. Mist’s cooking is as familiar as anything now, and while Elena never got a chance to teach her, it invokes a similar comfort.

When she hears only her own chewing, she opens her eyes and finds Almedha watching her. “For someone so fierce in training, you look rather soft,” Almedha says. Though chuckling, Titania lowers her gaze and changes the subject. She’d thought the same of Greil, once upon a time, in a different home.

The discussion turns to Almedha’s travels, which turns to politics, which heats up as courtesy makes way for the two’s differing views. Almedha finds Queen Elincia’s foreign policy too passive, as in the aftermath of the rebellion she’s focused on her own people. Titania has seen first-hand how Crimea’s villages have been healing as a result; ‘thinking small,’ Almedha claims. Something about her curtness makes Titania settle into the debate as if they’ve done this hundreds of times.

Long after the food and drink are drained Titania notes that Almedha has been propping her chin up with a hand, and Titania stands to escort Almedha to her quarters. Partway down the hall, Almedha halts and turns sharply, stopping in front of a closed door. Titania freezes. Almedha’s hand is on the knob, her nostrils flaring as she inhales. “The tactician lived here,” Almedha says.

“Yes, and well, it might sound silly now, but he was such a private child…”

Almedha drops the knob. “Perhaps later,” she murmurs. “You were showing me to my room?”

Relieved, Titania redirects her, holding back from the threshold out of courtesy while Almedha enters the guest chamber. After giving her a chance to sort out her bag and sit on the bed, Titania asks if the room is suitable, to little response. Almedha stares at a spot on the floor she scuffs with her heel as she mumbles words Titania can’t understand, part of her shadowed as Titania holds the lantern in the doorway, and Titania understands what Mist meant.

“Kurth begged my return home,” Almedha says quietly, “but I can’t go yet. After all I’ve done—I mean…”

It doesn’t seem like she’s talking to Titania, but Titania enters to place the lantern on the desk. “All are welcome here. Stay as long as you would like.”

Almedha mouths her thanks, and Titania takes the hint. As she leaves, she sees a teal stone cradled to Almedha’s chest, glowing between her clasped fingers.

For someone so fierce… Titania thinks. She closes the door gently.