Author's Notes

I'm trying a somewhat different writing style this time. Hope it works!

This is probably one of those "rated T for a reason" sort of fics. Haven't had one of those in a while!

I'll Show You!

That mage woman! I mean, Lute... she has no confidence in what I'm claiming! Well, I'll show her! I'm going to increase my training, and make sure she knows that I'm serious!

Ross, well, he's not in a good mood right now. He's been talking to the supposed "mage of superior brilliance," Lute, and every time he does that, he regrets it. She shows no signs of wanting to hold a normal conversation, and all she does is talk about how great she is and how un-great Ross is. That's not very nice of her.

"Lute!" he calls to her now as she's walking away, "I'm gonna start a new training regime tomorrow to make sure that you'll take me seriously. Mark my words!" With confidence, he strides away triumphantly, unaware of the plan that Lute is conjuring up in her head.

"Well then," she remarks, "I'll prove to him how futile his words are. No one can prove me wrong."

To begin her perfect plan, she heads over to her personal library to pull out a book she never expected to have to read:

"'The Art of Seduction' written by Sain Virion the 713th," Lute reads aloud. "Being a woman, I can utilize this. I'll break him. 'Disappointment is a cruel mistress', I just said to him, but I can't be proved wrong. Not to mention that any knowledge is good to have in an emergency."

As for what kind of emergency information like this will help someone in, no one has ever figured it out yet. It's unknown whether such a situation even exists.

"Now then... 'Chapter One: Use Your Body, Part One'..."

This will not end well.

"A woman's chest is her greatest weapon, but it must be used properly. With great power comes great responsibility."

The next day, Ross starts his regime off strong; he finds some weights, and begins lifting them. For a long time.

Apparently, such a technique is indeed useful. No one is really sure why, though.

"R-Ross, I've a-arrived," a voice calls to him, and he turns around to find a shivering Lute in her skirt like she normally wears... but unlike normal, her torso is covered in nothing but a wet night-shirt.

And it appears to be somewhat see-through.

"Lute!" Ross shouts, staring at the sight before him, "what are you doing? You're going to get sick!"

That's the first thing he thinks of? Impressive.

"N-n-nonsense!" she replies confidently, even though she is clearly freezing in the wet shirt. It's a bit of a cold morning, so it's really bad weather for such an outfit choice. "I'm f-f-fine..."

Soon, though, she whimpers and falls to her knees, wrapping herself with her arms in an attempt to warm up. Ross cannot stand to watch such a sight any longer, and he gives her his overcoat to wear before hurrying her over to the healer's tent.

"Lute! Don't do that again! Stay in here until you warm up!" he directs her before he goes back to lifting his weights. Meanwhile, inside the tent, Lute ponders over the results of her actions.

"So it appears that this could be more difficult than I thought. I'll go for the next strategy..."

Wrapping herself up in the warm overcoat, she smiles somewhat. "But first, I'll change and warm up for a bit..."

"Don't underestimate the legs. While generally not as powerful as the chest, they can be deadly when used properly and against the right opponent."

Ross continues his regime and switches to another technique; stretching. While it is unknown what the ability to reach an extra quarter-inch farther than normal will do, he proceeds regardless.

Until, that is, Lute shows up again. This time, she's wearing her normal attire... but unlike normal, she isn't wearing a skirt, proving to Ross that she's wearing a pair of really short shorts.

And of course, they're quite tight on her rear-end.

"I've returned in my efforts to destroy your resolve," Lute now says, (although Ross somehow doesn't hear her) and she kneels down to sit in front of Ross. However, on the way down, she slips on a rock and scrapes the bottom of her thigh in the process. It's pretty obvious that she's in a lot of pain now.

"Lute! What are you doing? Your normal skirt would have prevented that scrape! Here, lay on your front and I'll bandage it up!"

In too much pain to even argue, Lute obliges, unknowingly (to Ross) scowling in the process. This allows Ross to pull out some spare bandage wrap and vulnerary gauze he has with him and begin his work.

However, before starting, he swallows nervously; he's never really examined a woman this closely before, and it's... enlightening, to say the least. It would be enlightening for anybody, really. Lute's at least 18, meaning she's fully developed everywhere and ripe for a 15-year-old's inquisitive eyes.

And now, he gets to rub her bare thigh!

Ross definitely didn't expect this to happen. It could have helped if he had fully noticed what she was just wearing previously, and now he dearly wishes he had paid more attention.

Regardless, he begins his work and somehow does a decent job in bandaging his patient. When he announces that he's done, Ross helps Lute up (since she's having a hard time collecting herself, due to the nature of the injury) and takes her back to her tent. "I mean it, Lute! Stop trying to distract me! I vowed to be able to protect you, and I won't be deterred!" he resolves before hurriedly leaving.

Lute, meanwhile, completely ignores him as usual and gets her book out to try out her next technique.

"No matter. There's no way he'll resist this time," she tells herself, flipping pages furiously. "I'm a mage of superior brilliance. I should have not underestimated him, but now, I must go all out... but I'd better disinfect this wound first..."

After (somehow) examining the injury, she is amazed to find it treated properly and in no further need of immediate attention. She had no idea that Ross has the amount of talent to do such a thing, although she eventually remembers that injury inspection is an important factor in being a warrior, which is his goal, after all. You can't be a warrior if you can't look after yourself.

"...impressive..."

"When your opponent is much more resilient than you'd expect, sometimes you just have to make yourself vulnerable. A woman in need is a man's greatest weakness!"

It is now afternoon, probably only about ten or so minutes away from the lunch bell to ring, and the warm sun has forced Ross to take his shirt off for the remainder of his workout.

Eat your heart out ladies. Even though Ross isn't trying to impress anybody, many women not named Lute would be impressed with his physique. Any women named Lute would only see it as a change in scenery. This Lute is no different, although she notices quickly that she can use it to her advantage.

So as Ross does his final exercise, push-ups, (what could be so useful about pushing yourself up?) Lute lays herself on top of him and holds onto him tight. "Ross, I have a problem. Somebody has stolen my clothes, and I need your help."

Ross freezes. Is she naked?!

"I'm in my smallclothes," Lute clarifies, "but I'm worried that perhaps someone is trying to peep on me. I was about to go to the bathing tent, and..."

"Lute, get off me!" Ross shouts, and Lute releases her grasp on him reluctantly before sitting cross-legged on the ground. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but it's..."

He turns around to face her, and he stops mid-sentence, his face turning beet red. It fully hits him just how cute Lute looks right now. Who knew that Lute had such a good-looking body? Certainly not Ross. Once again, his 15-year-old mind is taking in all of the new knowledge displaying itself in front of him.

And upon further inspection, it appears that... her brassiere has two big axes stitched on them as a design feature? Silver Axes, no less. Ross instinctively grabs the axe he always carries with him so he doesn't try to... grab her axes.

He's always wanted to wield Silver Axes.

Is it possible she knows about that?

"Now, then... Ross..."

Lute is interrupted by a rustling in the bushes, and so I motion for her to hide in the shrubs. She quickly does so. Seriously, she doesn't want anyone other than Ross to see her in this state, right? So after she hides, Artur causally walks by...

...carrying Lute's clothes!

He actually DID steal her clothes?

Ross storms over to Artur before saying, "Artur, why do you have Lute's clothes?"

Artur appears embarrassed (as he should be!) over the question, meekly replying, "well, they were just sitting in the middle of nowhere, and I thought I should..."

"You should be ashamed! Give me those!" Ross yells as he yanks the clothes out of Artur's hands and storms off. When Artur leaves the scene, Lute reveals herself from the shrubs and Ross then gives his clothes to Lute.

Neither of them speaks for a moment.

"...I owe you an apology," Lute finally says, averting her eyes. "I just didn't believe that you'd actually attempt to keep up this routine. You said you wanted to build yourself up so you could protect me, but I just didn't believe it, so I tried to make sure that you would give up in your resolve."

The logic in her reasoning actually makes no sense, when you think about it.

"But instead," she continues, "you still ended up protecting me the whole time. I guess I was wrong about you."

Ross smiles. "Don't worry. I always do what I set out to do. And..."

"And what?"

He somewhat blushes. "You're worth protecting to me! Is that a problem?"

"Hmm..."

Lute contemplates over his words for a moment, and then kisses him on the cheek! That seems a bit uncharacteristic, doesn't it? "Well, you've shown yourself to me now. You don't need to keep up this charade, do you?" she asks now.

Ross, too surprised to speak, just dumbly nods in agreement.

"Perfect. I win then."

Wait, what?

"You've just agreed to give up your regime for me, proving that I was right in that you wouldn't keep up your resolve, and that you were wrong."

"When all else fails, a kiss will make the opponent cater to your every whim... but ONLY if it's sincere."

No wonder her actions seem so uncharacteristic! Although that last part...

"What..." Ross breathes, completely dumbfounded over what's just happened.

"Well, so long," Lute nonchalantly says, and she turns around to leave, but first Ross reaches towards her and faces himself so that the two of them are eye to eye. "Lute," he starts, "whether you like it or not, I'm going to keep trying to protect you. And nothing you do will stop me, okay?"

Lute just stares.

But then, finally, she smiles.

"I look forward to it."

The two of them part, although Ross decides to watch Lute leave before he departs himself... and he notices another Silver Axe on the girl's underpants, right in the center.

You know... maybe she DOES care about me...

Meanwhile, Lute ponders over the boy's motives and actions.

You know... if he really DID put his soul into trying to protect me... I suppose it wouldn't be so bad...

THE END

Author's Notes

Uh, what? Please don't guest review!

This fic is for AnonymousSpeed! I'm pretty sure this isn't even close to what he expected, but I had no ideas for these two for the longest time. And then, this absurd idea popped into my head, and I rolled with it. And sadly, it may not contain much romance, but I tried to add some, I really did. Lute DOES care for Ross... in her own really weird way. And obviously, Ross feels something for Lute.

I wanted to try more of an "observational" type of third-person narration, meaning it's like first-person in that the narrator reacts to what's going on, but third-person because it's not someone specific who's narrating in the first place. I'm sure there's a proper name for it, but I don't know what it is. :D I'm not sure why I wanted to do it this way, but it made the fic more enjoyable in my mind, so I think that's reasonable enough.

Sain Virion the 713th? Obviously, it's Sain and Virion from the 7th and 13th games, respectively. They ARE the resident flirters of Fire Emblem, after all! And by the way, there are no official ages for Lute and Ross, so I just guessed.

In pure honesty, the logic in this fic is non-existent. Why Lute is even doing what she's doing is pretty hard to wrap your head around, and I'm not even sure if I understand correctly. :p And where in the world did she get those types of smallclothes with AXES stitched on them? If someone could draw this, that would actually be amazing. :D

On that note, look forward to the next A Glimmer of Hope chapter! The awkwardness continues!