Comms and Other Long FE Oneshots

Still Strained

*Part of something I call the Takumi Timeline. Conquest up until Izumo, and then stuff happens. All royal siblings survive.*

All of this would be much easier if he could put his condition into words.

Takumi stared at the pages of his book, curled up in the several warm blankets that swamped this Nohrian bed that was entirely too soft to be comfortable. One stumble in the hallways of Castle Krakenburg, and Hinoka had banished him to bed despite his protests, having Sakura hover until he'd waved them both off, swearing to stay in bed until dinner as long as they gave him something interesting to read and left him be. He'd said much the same thing to both Oboro and Hinata when he'd sensed them hovering, and he knew that they were gone now as well. Probably hoping that if they weren't bothering him, he'd fall asleep.

He sighed. It wasn't like he was actually sick. Sure he hadn't been getting a lot of sleep while in this gloomy country, working to repair ties and visit Corrin and Azura. He just had issues around Nohrians still, a deep-seated resentment. It, unfortunately, still included Corrin and the siblings despite him knowing that the war hadn't been their fault. He hid it best he could, ignored it best he could, it frightened him because he knew how powerful it could become. That if he fed it, it would swallow him whole.

Like it nearly had.

He was distracted from thoughts of the war by a soft whimper and a sound by his door. He looked up when it opened and a small face peeked in. She was wearing a red hood, but he could still see her light brown eyes and white hair. Princess Camilla's daughter, Velouria, who did not look happy at all. She looked at him curiously, the scared and sad look in her eyes fading, and then scampered into the room and clambered up onto the bed. He raised an eyebrow, watching her sniff at him curiously before settling herself into the nook that his curled body had created. "Hello, you," he murmured. "What do you think you're doing?"

She blinked at him, scrunching up her nose. Then she pulled up some of the blankets around her, making a burrow until she was out of sight, her warmth still pressed up against his body. Takumi couldn't help but smile. The Nohrian siblings he could hold something against, but the kids had absolutely nothing to do with the war. They'd been placed in Deeprealms during it, but with as quickly as things had been taken care of, they hadn't had time to grow to adulthood they would have had had the path been taken to its bloody finish. They ranged from four to ten years old, Shigure and Seigbert being the oldest. Velouria looked about six, and her small body was a reminder that he wasn't the Takumi in his nightmares.

He put his head on the pillow, and found himself actually able to focus on his book this time. "Guess I can't argue with you, then," he told the covered girl, and she gave a contented huff, making him smile again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He is still asleep," Hinata told Oboro over his shoulder. "Should we make an excuse for the Nohrians?"

"No, Lord Takumi wouldn't like that." Oboro shook her head before lowering her voice. "Much as I'd like to. Being around the soldiers and the royalty is setting him off, even if he's hiding it."

Hinata shrugged with a grimace, knowing exactly what Oboro was referring to. "Well... the Lord Takumi we knew would want to push through whatever was hindering him, whether it was good for him or not. But if he doesn't show up for dinner, will there be political problems that are way over my head?"

"Most likely. Come on, let's get this dinner business over with." Oboro entered the room at her usual brisk pace, moving toward the bed before hesitating. "Hinata."

"What?" Hinata hurried over, hearing the sudden alarm in her voice. He looked at the bed to see that Lord Takumi hadn't moved at all from their intrusion, but something under the blankets was. Both of them flinched back when a sleep-tousled head with wolf ears peeked over his side at them, brown eyes narrowing grumpily. "Oh gods. That's Princess Velouria, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Oboro slowly exhaled, her hand moving away from the spear on her back. "Dang it, kid, your mom's been looking for you for the past two hours."

The little one's ears perked up, the grumpiness fading. "Mommy!" she exclaimed with a big grin, her hands pressing down on Lord Takumi's side. The prince gave a soft sound of discomfort, stirring slightly, but otherwise didn't react. Oh good gods, he was out.

Oboro's gaze had moved from Princess Velouria to Lord Takumi's face, apparently coming to the same realization as Hinata. "Can Hinata pick you up, little lady?" she asked Princess Velouria, her voice growing gentler. "I need to wake up your snuggle buddy."

Princess Velouria nodded happily, and Hinata heard her tail thump the bed. "Up you go, then," Hinata told her with a smile, coming over and gently picking her up by her armpits. She kicked slightly, and Hinata lifted her up to sit on his shoulders, watching as Oboro took Lord Takumi's book, marking the place his thumb had been in before Princess Velouria's arms covered his eyes. "Can't see, little lady," he told her.

She giggled, putting her hands on his head instead. "I wanna see my mommy," she told him, and he felt her tail swishing on his back.

"I need to make sure milord's all right, first," he told her. "What are you doing in here, anyways?"

"I was looking for my mommy," she told him, a slight pout entering her voice while Oboro started shaking the prince, repeating his name. "But I got tired, and I peeked in here, and Forrest always said that Uncle Takumi was super nice, so I stayed." Hinata opted to keep the comment about how hilarious it was that Shigure and Forrest adored Lord Takumi while their father wasn't even close to friends with him to himself.

"Lord. Ta. Ku. Mi." Oboro had resorted to emphasizing each syllable with a shake, and Hinata watched the prince finally give a significant reaction, groaning while trying to wave her off, mumbling something that Hinata couldn't quite catch. "Sorry." Oboro left off shaking him, straightening. Lord Takumi turned his head, blinking up at her. "Dinner's ready, and you mentioned needing to go to that."

"I do need to go to that," he muttered sat up, running both hands through his long gray hair that was currently loose, obviously still slightly out of it. "Holy crap."

"Are you feeling all right?" Oboro asked, picking up his teal jacket that was carefully folded on the chair next to his bed. "You usually aren't that hard to wake up unless..." she glanced at Hinata and Princess Velouria. "Well, you know."

"I'm fine." Lord Takumi waved a hand. "I guess the past two days of not really sleeping caught up to me is all." He looked toward Hinata as well and gave a low sigh. "Could you go tell my sisters and Corrin that I'll be down in a few minutes?"

"Yep," Hinata replied, heading for the door.

"Byyyyye, Uncle Takumi," Princess Velouria called, waving while they left. There was a soft, amused sound from inside the room, and Hinata grinned, picking up the pace. The prince needed his own kid. He felt the half-wolfskin sniff at his hair. "Why do my cousins call him Uncle, mister? You're all the Hoshidan pack," she told him.

"Well, Lady Azura was raised in Hoshido, so he sees her as his sister." Despite not seeing him as his sister before she'd been kicked out of Hoshido and had defected to Nohr. "We're all supposed to be one "pack" now."

Princess Velouria leaned on his head. "Mommy doesn't like him. Daddy is fine with him. My cousins adore him. I don't understand."

"Neither do I, kiddo," Hinata admitted. "Not really."

"You adults are all silly," she stated firmly, and Hinata shrugged, continuing down the hallways whose dark purple and black color scheme was so very different from Castle Shirasagi's white and gold halls.