Okay, this was a Secret Santa fic so obviously I read it at one point, but I suppose I never reviewed it so I guess it’s prime time I get around to doing that! I don’t remember the specifics of the prompt/s you were given but that’s fine, it probably makes this reread of this fic a lot more exciting if we’re being honest. Anyway here we go, let’s get into this fic that’s got two great characters as its tagged inclusions.

Aw I love when Brady is put in situations where he’s not just some useless healer having to piggyback on everyone else’s successes and failures to get anywhere. He’s actually a fighting unit at this point, but even though he’s got the physical strength he’s still a bit of an emotional train wreck, or at least he’s still hard on himself. Poor guy, especially while on guard while it’s raining, must be a rough life. So he goes to find his umbrella and ends up finding some crying mess named Noire who always is in need of a big hug, some hot tea, and a few comforting words. All of these are things that I’m sure Brady was raised around, but he’s not exactly capable of giving to her.

At any rate, the quest to calm Noire down involves still getting that umbrella (because yes Brady is still on watch and he needs to be responsible) and keeping her dry with it while he still remains soaked. So anyway, they get somewhere that he can hear her story out and, true to Noire’s canon, she’s talking about something or other that her mother did to upset her. Specifically, it’s something about weakness, which you’ve twisted into a bit of a trigger point for Brady, and that’s great! Except he takes it the wrong way and gives Noire this huge, empowering speech that she says she likes, despite being about the wrong thing entirely. It’s a really cute moment between the two of them, just as a moment of missed intentions and non-romantic gestures that you definitely portray in a friendly way. Seriously, a writer with less talent than you would’ve butchered all your intent and made this painful to read, but you’ve made the embarrassment and the awkwardness actually tolerable and relatable, and if you were writing like this three years ago, /imagine/ how well you’d tackle a similar situation now!

Anyhoozle, you reference looking up into the sky/at the stars at the beginning and at the end, once alone and once with a friend, and that’s a perfect bookending for this fic. You did a great job with this way back when and I hope this revisit to the story brings a smile to your face!

Signel

Let me start off by saying I'm so sorry I didn't get to reviewing this sooner! Now that that's out of the way I can review properly.

When I was submitting my application to do the FE:A Secret Santa this year, that night I was struck by a real hankering to read or write Noire. She's such a fun character who can have so much depth to her, but I feel she's under-appreciated so I wasn't expecting anyone to write her, but you did and I was so surprised and happy to see that! On top of that, you also wrote Brady, who's another great kid who meshes nice with Noire, AND you wrote both of them so well!

On top of that, the fic was adorable, short, sweet and to the point. I loved it and I'm glad you wrote for me in this exchange. :) Keep up the good work!