Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my twisted sense of humour.

The city lay spread out before her, a shimmering sea of light pulsating with life. They danced about in the safety of their walls, little orbs of orange flickering in and out as they struggled to keep out the onslaught of the night.

How beautiful, she thought, as she stared down from her high vantage point. It was beautiful how people struggled to live even though the odds were clearly against them. Like those little lights, they flitter in and out of determination, but somehow, always finding themselves making it through to the morning. A smile crept into her expression.

It only made hexing them so much more fun.

A gentle breeze was starting to pick up now, teasing her long ebony hair that she wore down her back. The woman hardly wore what could qualify as clothes – a skin-hugging low-cut crop top that extended out into a transparent suit – but she barely felt the cold. She had stopped feeling the effects of the elements long ago. Then again, she had stopped feeling altogether until she met him.

Ah, Robin.

The moment she had laid her eyes on him, she knew that he was an exceptional one. Highly intelligent but with enough wits about him to survive on the streets –well, that was a rare quality in itself. She would hear some of the other women in the camp gush about his looks too, but oh were they so foolish. No, there was something she saw in him that filled her waking moments with thoughts about him.

A certain darkness. Yes, even though he looked at her with such gentle eyes, she knew that he was capable of being so much more. But yet he either chose to resist or ignore it, looking upon everyone below him and still acknowledging them with that ridiculous soft expression!

An electric shiver of delight went through her just by thinking of it. What a man! What a cruel, cruel man!

Just as she cupped her cheeks, feeling the heat beneath it grow, a voice piped up behind her. "Oh! So that's where you were, Tharja!"

She didn't need to turn around to see who it was. The owner of that voice was responsible for the sinking feeling of dread she had experienced for the past few weeks. It drained her of any motivation to dabble in dark magic, and even her close observation of Robin was done with less enthusiasm.

Henry. Just the name irritated her. Tugging her cloak tightly around her, she gave him a deadpan stare from beneath her bangs.

The grass hardly gasped as he settled himself down beside her (and how dare he!), his head of white hair an offensive shock against the dark surroundings. On his face he wore the eternal mask of a smile, unnaturally never reaching up to the corner of his eyes. And when he spoke, those slit for eyes seemed to be staring right into you and everywhere else at the same time.

"You know, you shouldn't run off like that after dinner. People were worried." He crossed his legs and plucked a wild flower, seeming to study it with interest.

"Oh? Was Robin looking for me?"

The other black mage paused thoughtfully, looking up into the night sky. "No, I don't believe he was!" he laughed, though it was void of any mirth at all. That's the thing with Henry – you could never tell.

She brushed back a stray hair that had flown too close to her companion's face. "Hmph, then it doesn't matter."

A silence seemed to swallow both of them as Henry continued his fascination with the plant. She had been told that she was hard to approach before – even cold, if you would call it, whatever that meant. But she just didn't see the point of what the young prince had termed, 'team-bonding'. The only bonding she wanted to be involved in involved a strand of someone else's hair and a straw doll.

"Is there anything else you need from me?" she tersed.

A petal fell to the floor, dissected neatly by Henry's fingers. "Hmm, nope! I don't think so!"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Then why are you still here?"

He seemed to consider that, as if it were something of a cosmic mystery. It went on for a few seconds, to which he suddenly shrugged and said, "Well, I was looking for you earlier because Chrom was worried that you were sneaking into people's tents and stealing their hair to curse them again but…oh, that's supposed to be a secret, okay?" A few more petals made their final descent to the earth. "Hey Tharja! Aren't those lights down there pretty?

"You didn't answer me."

"Aw that's difficult, because you didn't answer me either. But honestly, you know, I have no idea! I was thinking about it, and the lights down there just distracted me."

Unbelievable. This man was absolutely ridiculous. She hugged the giant tome against her chest, wondering which curse she should use on him later. Maybe a tripping curse? A black mage who fell flat on his face in spite of being able to slice up a hundred men – now that would be perfectly humiliating.

Another flower was uprooted from the ground by Henry, and he raised it his nose, smelling it. "…Don't those lights make the city look like it's on fire?" he sighed happily.

She pondered the scene before her and felt a tug against the corner of her lips. "Yes, yes it does. If only it were."

"Do you want to see it on fire?"

She whirled around to face him. Why was he being so obliging? "Would you really do that?" she tested the waters.

"I would, I mean, setting things on fire is easy. It's just rather boring because you can't really see what's going on in there after a while. But if that's what you want, I would gladly do it!"

She didn't understand him at all. Was he belittling her competence? Did he not think that she could spark it off on her own? "But Robin would get mad at me." She muttered to herself. Then she straightened, nearly dropping her tome.

"What are you plotting against Robin! Don't think I can't tell you're trying to separate me from him." She hissed, a glint of warning in her violet eyes.

He threw his hands up, that permanent expression of empty joy still on his face. "I'm not trying to plot anything – I swear it on any god that I haven't tried to curse! Robin is a little strict and no-nonsense, but I wouldn't dream of separating you from him! Maybe just separating him, but even that doesn't seem too appealing. You might even try to murder me if I did, and that's a no-no."

His smile seemed to stretch a little further across his face, and he trailed as if it were an afterthought, "Although….that would be kind of fun. At least I would have all your attention. Hee hee."

An unnatural heat surged to her cheeks as she tried to digest his words. This was all a game to him, wasn't it? Catching her off her guard with his haunting smile and disarming words…Well, nobody but her was allowed to touch Robin! And if there was any separating to be done, it would be done by her! And she knew just where to start…

In a quick movement, she ripped open her tome and chanted out the short phrase from the page. Magic coalesced under her fingertips, rippling violently with power before she hurled it at Henry. She smirked. In such a close proximity there was no way he could avoid that.

But the magic soared through the air, only grazing his cheek when a raven suddenly swooped in to take the brunt of the blow. It exploded into a cloud of feathers, spewing some blood onto the both of them. There wasn't even a skeleton left at the end of it. It had sort of… disintegrated.

However, the expression on Henry's face never wavered. He swept his thumb across his cheek, smearing some of his own blood off. "Are we playing a game now? It's my turn isn't it?" he giggled, and she felt a similar sinister magic gathering under his fingertips. Only, that it was stronger and heavier than her own.

No! She scrambled to get up and put some distance between them. Her shield would activate in time for sure, but at this range it would most certainly be obliterated along with the rest of her. However, an arm shot out to catch her own, yanking her backwards with a little bit of force. On such a rocky terrain, her heels got the better of her, and she found herself facing the sky…in the embrace of the other black mage's arm.

"I guess I win this!" he exclaimed, and she squeezed her eyes shut just as she saw a ball of fire erupt from the man's outstretched hand. Her shield had popped up, a translucent shimmering field of blue that surrounded her in a dome – but he was just too close to her that he was trapped inside with her.

Well, I guess this was the end, she thought. She hated to admit it, but he had gotten the better of her. Dispelling her curses, always following her around, she knew that he had been up to something. Most people who talked to her for the first time would scramble to safety the next time she entered the room, but he didn't. Henry, the mysterious dark mage with a questionable motive and history, was the first person who did not grimace in her presence. If anything, he seemed to…be relaxed in it.

It's kind of too late, she mused, but perhaps his smile wasn't so annoying after all.

"And there! Tharja, this is for you!"

She cracked her eyes open, and was stunned by what she saw. Burning fiercely like a mass of fireflies, was the bouquet of wildflowers that Henry had gathered. Under the turquoise glow of her shield, they danced about like the life of the city, in shades of gold and red. It was…gorgeous.

Henry, who was still holding her in one arm, looked pleased by the result. "I remembered you didn't like flowers, see. But you said you wanted to see the city on fire so, I put two and two together, and since I can't set all the flowers in the city on fire, you would have to make do with this!"

His expression changed then, a subtle crinkling of his eyes that she never ever expected to see on his face. With a gentle blow, the burning petals of the wildflowers scattered through the air, surrounding them within the shield momentarily before dissipating into ashes. It was like a thousand falling stars, losing their time all at once.

She looked up at him, the picture of an unfaltering face above her. His blood had hardened on his skin now, but it did not mar his appearance. If anything, it gave him an eerie sort of beauty. An uneasy feeling bloomed in her cold chest, and she suddenly found herself stammering.

"Why?"

The black mage pulled her closer, his now-empty hand playing with her hair. She reminded him so much of his ravens – so sleek, so beautiful, so very dangerous. There was finally something that he couldn't destroy.

"Because I would do anything for you, Tharja. And there is nobody else who I would enjoy throwing fireballs with."

Audaciously, he nuzzled his face against her hair, getting some of the raven's blood onto his temples. He could feel her freezing up against him, but he didn't mind that so much. At least she wasn't trying to cut him in half like she did earlier.

The woman's face was now heated against his cold touch. At this rate, she felt like her chest was going to explode. What sort of curse had he quietly placed on her?

"T-There's still Robin." She stuttered, steeling herself to meet his gaze. It was so difficult. The longer she held it, the worse the pain got. "Robin is mine."

He pulled away then, exuding an odd sort of childish contentment. "Naw that's okay. You can play with Robin all you want, I'm just asking you to be mine." He traced the line of her jaw and lifted it lightly, sending electricity down her neck. "Now how about that?"

It wasn't a simple request. It was a daring one, with the kind of guts that in most situations, would be spilled all over the floor. But as she saw his lips hover closer to hers, she inwardly sighed and allowed herself a little smile. Lacing her fingers into his, she suddenly grabbed his coat and jerked him forward, crashing her lips against his. Robin was a man trying to hide the darkness away in the light. This ridiculous man here was reveling in its entirety while wearing the light as a face.

It wasn't so bad, she thought as she tasted the metal of blood in his mouth. If only for a few moments, we could burn the world together.

A/N: This is my first Fire Emblem fanfict, so I really hope you all enjoyed this! Henry and Tharja are just so fun to write about. Such a warped and twisted (un)love, it's no wonder that Noire grew up like that. Hehe, do leave a review if you loved that, hate me for imaginary raven abuse, or if the grammar nazi in you has spotted a glaring mistake that I need to be condemned for. Much loves!