Comms and Other Long FE Oneshots

Nohrian Schemes Part One

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

"So why is this door impassable?" Odin eyed the sliding door that would open to Lord Takumi's room with sharp green eyes. "Is it barricaded? I don't see a lock."

"Barricaded," Hinata confirmed. "Lord Takumi put his dresser and a bunch of other heavy things on a tatami mat and dragged them to the point between where the door slides and the frame, completely blocking it from being opened from the outside."

"And you Hoshidans have never smashed down the door when he's too ill to be out here? Isn't that when he would be in dire need of people?" Odin asked, crossing his arms.

Hinata grimaced. "It's not like that... I don't know exactly what's going on, but it's apparently incurable, and he's not in his right mind when this is happening. He's been surprisingly quiet this time around, but... well, let's see."

He moved closer to the door and pressed his ear up against it, and Odin did the same. It took a moment, but he could make out soft mumbles behind it. He closed his eyes, straining his hearing. "Couldn't have happened... can't be here... tired... why?"

The mumbles lapsed into syllables that he'd heard several times but had never managed to understand, and his eyes blinked open. "Does he usually speak in Nohrian?" he whispered, backing away from the door.

"You can hear what he's saying?" Hinata looked at him in disbelief as he too backed away.

Odin shifted uncomfortably. He'd had to be able to hear things shifting in the dark since he was very young, but that wasn't something the samurai needed to know about. "An easy feat for the great Odin Dark, I assure you. He's speaking out in disbelief, saying he's tired, complaints of that nature. Probably objecting to the fact that he was out of his room last night and ran into milord."

"What?" Hinata's gaze snapped back to the door. "Oh, that's not good. Still, if he can get out on his own, that means we have absolutely no reason to keep that door barricaded on his terms, so I guess it could be good?" He scratched his head. "I hope... I mean... Did he do anything to Lord Leo?"

"Just a slap, and milord assured me that he brought that on himself. He also mentioned that Lord Takumi might be hostile when we open that door."

"Might be, huh?" Hinata stared at the door, obviously thinking something over. "...He's awake, I think, if he's mumbling. I think that we should open the door somehow." He grimaced. "He might say I'm violating the Code, though, and that could cost me my sword. He'd never do it if he was in his right mind, but now..."

"The Code?"

"Of Bushido." Hinata nodded. "All samurai in Hoshido are bound by it, and... well, the gist of the issue here is that Lord Ryoma and I agreed not to break down this door because Lord Takumi begged us not to, and the rest of the palace is under direct orders not to touch it."

"So if you open the door, you're basically invoking his wrath upon the palace and that's not protecting anyone. So you'll lose your sword."

"Pretty much."

"But if I mess with the door, there's no strings like that attached." Odin grinned. "Time to put my skills to work, then."

"Really?" Hinata gave him a relieved smile. "Just... be careful."

Odin put a hand on the door, and began muttering in the Ancient Tongue. This was a seeing spell, or more like a feeling spell, he supposed. He got a pretty good grasp of where everything was on the barricade after a minute or so, and then took a deep breath and began slowly moving things off of the barricade by shifting his words.

One of the items hit the floor, and he practically felt the Hoshidan prince's sudden, sharp, angry gaze, despite it being on the other side of the door. "Stop."

The warning was a low, hoarse growl. Odin kept moving things, and he heard Lord Takumi shift. "Stop. Stop it." Odin looked toward Hinata, and though the samurai looked unusually pale, he gave Odin a nod. Odin gave the dresser a slight shove, grimaced at the sudden, sharp pain that arced through his head, and cut off the spell just as the prince started yelling. "No, no, no, no, STOP!"

There was a scrambling sound in there and then a thud against the door before a quiet whimper. "Milord?" Hinata asked, right up next to the door before Odin could even register him moving.

"It's not supposed to move, it's not supposed to open, stop it, stop it, stop it!" The door shuddered as something banged up right against it. Odin and Hinata both winced as there was a sudden clatter. "No... this isn't supposed to happen!"

"...Milord?"

Lord Takumi lapsed into Nohrian again, screaming angrily at the door as things began smashing against it. "What did you do?" Oboro came running up to them.

"I moved things in the barricade via spellwork," Odin admitted. "I trust my fellow retainer-"

"Yes, yes, I know that you're aware of what's going on," she snapped, crossing her arms, then grimaced at the door. "The others should be returning from the town soon."

"In other words, leave him alone and hope he calms down?" Hinata asked, then flinched as there was another smashing sound, and the door shuddered again before there was a soft cracking sound. Dead silence fell both out in the hall and in the room. There was a soft whimper, and another soft shift before silence fell in the room again. "Milord?" Hinata asked hesitantly again.

"Hinata?" Odin swallowed. He'd never heard the proud Hoshidan prince sound so vulnerable. "I... They... Go. Please, please go away."

"No one's here but us, milord," Oboro supplied, going up to the door and placing a hand on it. Her voice was softer in tone than he was accustomed to hearing as well.

"Leave me alone."

"You can hear us, though..."

"That doesn't automatically mean that I've improved," was the sharp response, then another soft whimper. "They heard me, didn't they?"

"Like I said, milord, no one is here but us. The rest of the royal family and their retainers in town at the moment."

There was silence, and then another several soft shifts. Oboro sighed, taking her hand away, and gesturing for the boys to follow her down the hall. They did so. "The door cracked," she told them quietly. "He seems to be somewhat aware that you Nohrians are here, and so he's still making an effort to control himself."

"He's really not doing too well with it, though," Hinata pointed out uneasily. "It's generally the second day that's the worst, but that's after the door's locked and everything. He's not letting himself rage this time around... well, to the best of his ability, anyways."

"Hence why he's locked himself away." Odin nodded. "I'll continue thinking about this."

"Hopefully something that doesn't involve him screaming?" Hinata asked.

"Hopefully not," Odin agreed, and they walked away from the door in question and out to the garden to await the return of the other royals.