After witnessing how hard her mother fell for Prince Chrom, Severa had always told herself that she will never, ever fall for royalty. She knew how hard it broke her mother's heart, seeing the love of her life wed someone else; sometimes she doubted if her mother truly loved her father or if she only used him to forget about the prince. Of course, what hurt the most, was how often her mother seemed to put work first before her and to Severa, it would always look like her mother would choose Chrom over her. All the time.

Being friends with Lucina was easy. At first, she hated the princess. She envied the princess for all the things she wasn't. Lucina was a true-born leader, she was kind, intelligent and wise, she was good at fighting and everyone was drawn to her like moths to a flame. Lucina was perfect and she was all Severa ever hoped to be. Why was Lucina so perfect, and yet, Severa wasn't? Severa wanted to continue envying her, hating her with every fibre of her being, but it was a hard thing to do. It was hard because after everything that had happened to them, it was Lucina who tried to shoulder everything for their sake. It was her who tried to make things better, who never gave up despite everything, despite the odds.

It was hard to hate someone like that.

And then, there was that other one, Lucina's younger brother. He was that irritating, loud-mouthed, insensitive, dork of a boy named Morgan. Severa didn't like him at all. She never understood how he could be so happy all the time. Even Cynthia and Owain had limits, but this boy seemed to be an endless ball of energy running around carelessly around the camp. She couldn't understand him. He was just… too much.

Severa thought of him as a waste of energy and she often wondered up until when he would continue on until he finally slumps down to catch his breath. After all the running and shouting with Cynthia, he had much to spare and would follow his mother around despite knowing the fact that Robin was already busy enough. Severa couldn't deal with someone like that and she didn't want to either.

Severa had her arms crossed and eyebrows raised as she watched the young prince run around the camp, a stack of tomes held out in front of him. It seemed like a struggle that he was willing to take on himself, though she had to admit, it was amusing to watch him waddle around carefully so as not to bump into anyone, what with the large stack impending his view. She watched him stop and greet every single person he passed by too, calling out their names as if he had them memorized and engraved into his brain. Seeing that this was Morgan, it might have been possible, as just the other night, she had run into him vigorously reading the highly-classified roster his mother had gotten from who-knows-where.

The mercenary huffed and stood by the side. Having decided that she was merely wasting her time watching something senseless as Morgan, she turned away, preparing to leave until someone had called out to her enthusiastically. Of course, it was Morgan, surprise, surprise. She wanted to ignore him, to walk away and just pretend to not hear him but her body's reaction was different, much to her annoyance. As if on autopilot, she turned around and faced Morgan, who was smiling and waving at her, perfectly balancing the seemingly heavy stack of tomes in one hand. Severa had to convince herself that no, it was definitely not something to be impressed at. Not when Kjelle can do it with more ease! Though to be fair, Morgan didn't look like the type to be able to do that sort of thing. She has never seen him without the usual baggy cloak he wore, so she just assumed that he was a scrawny kid who preferred to use blast magic out of his fingertips than work his arms with swords.

"You doing something?" the prince asked with eagerness, as if her business was the most interesting thing. He always made things much more interesting than necessary and she knew people liked that about him.

"What's it to you?" she spat out with as much venom as she could muster, if only to scare him away and leave her alone. She really didn't feel like dealing with him now or ever.

However, despite putting on her worst snarl, Morgan's smile did not falter even for a bit. Gods, it seemed as if it grew even wider, according to Severa's eyes, if they were still functioning properly. She thought he looked ridiculous and she had to roll her eyes at him just to insinuate it. Of course, Morgan missed it by a mile, though that was hardly a surprise. "Well, I was just going to ask if you wanted to… well, talk maybe? Oh, after I drop this off to my tent I mean!" he laughed, as if that was a joke meant to be laughed at. She wondered what exactly came up that made him want to talk to her of all people, especially when he looked busy. He had come across a lot of people and she had a feeling that they were more willing to spend time with the prince than she was. However, here she was, watching Morgan bounce expectantly on the balls of his feet, as if he was so sure she would accept his company.

"And what makes you think I want to talk to you?" she snapped, hoping that this might throw the boy off and leave her alone. Not that he had been clinging to her, no. For the past week, after he was found by Chrom and Robin in some ruins they had visited lately, Morgan had been reaching out to the other Shepherds, mostly to the other time travellers, trying to see if he could bring out forgotten memories. So far, apart from normal greeting that she could easily dismiss as a simple, polite gesture, he hasn't initiated a proper conversation with Severa, and this makes it the first time.

"Hmph. I'm busy. Go bother someone else." She huffed, before turning away and flipping her long hair over her shoulder, not even glancing back. "Oh okay… maybe later then?" Morgan called out, to which the mercenary only responded with a 'whatever, do what you want!' comment.

Of course, a part of her knew that Morgan wasn't going to be discouraged just by her snarky responses and she proved herself right when the said prince came running up to her three hours later, looking just as cheerful as he always had been.

"Hey Severa!" He greeted, directing his warm smile at the mercenary. She had a mind to ignore him but based on previous experience, she knew that she's just setting herself up for further annoyance. "You don't seem busy right now… wanna hang out?" Morgan had inquired rather cheerfully after he had caught her doing nothing but sitting back against a tree and looking at nothing in particular. She cursed herself for spacing out and feeling so lazy sometimes. Maybe she should start following her mother's example; she knew that would do her well. Maybe she could indulge Morgan just a little bit, if only to get him off her back.

"Like I said, do what you want Morgan, it's not like I have you on a leash." she muttered instead. Once again, this didn't faze him at all and instead, he sat down next to her and leaned back. He let out a sigh of satisfaction that Severa thought (though she wouldn't admit it out loud) as melodic. Morgan's voice had changed, after all, from high-pitched and excitable to a mellow baritone that wasn't quite made for singing, but more for public speaking, just like his father's.

"So um… Severa, you're Lady Cordelia's daughter right?" he asked, unsure and careful. It felt strange hearing that question from him of all people, seeing as they almost grew up together. With Cordelia being the captain of the Pegasus Knights back in their own timeline, she had spent most of her days in the palace, playing with the other children. They knew each other well enough to have been called brothers and sisters.

"Yeah and?" Severa asked. It felt strange, being with him. It felt as if this Morgan wasn't the same one she knew from before and it was obvious that he was lacking. Severa never thought that Morgan's amnesia bothered her enough; she could only imagine what Lucina and Owain thought about it.

"Oh uh… nothing, really. Just making sure." He laughed. She almost hated his laugh, she heard it so many times before that it was a bittersweet thing; a taste of their bitter, past life, cloaked in a happy, carefree laugh.

"Just making sure? Well sorry if I don't look like my mother." she grunted, suddenly feeling irritated at the thought of being compared to her mother and falling short. Either way, she knew where this was going already. Whenever someone asked her if she was Cordelia's daughter, they would always point out how she was so different from her mother. How Cordelia was always so skilled and she was not, Cordelia was pretty and she wasn't. Her mother was nice and responsible while she was lazy and had a rotten attitude. She hated it. Severa hated it so much that she had started pointing it out and comparing them herself. They were going to do it sooner or later anyway. She figured Morgan was no exception and that itself, was painful.

She watched as the prince's smile dropped into a frowned, his eyebrows furrowing, and a look of confusion making its way into his face. It was something foreign on his face.

'Yeah, and you're not as great or as nice either'

Severa was waiting for that statement. Everyone said it and Morgan would too, it was really only just a matter of time. She watched as he opened his mouth to say something, expecting him to criticize her.

I won't make my mother's mistakes. I won't fall for some stupid prince who'll just choose someone else over me one day. Despite all my efforts, I won't be noticed anyway. I won't make the same mistakes, not again.

"Hmm? No, I was just really making sure! I was trying to memorize everyone's names from the roster the other day. Y'know, trying not to get mixed up and all?" he said, his frown easily slipping back into a smile. "Anyway, I guess you don't look like Lady Cordelia at first, but y'know, you have her eyes. Oh and her smile too! I think you're really pretty; prettier when you smile. I kinda thought that when I first saw you. Like, 'wow, she's beautiful!'. But I guess that's a different kind of beautiful from Mother's kind y'know, and I—wait, I'm rambling too much again aren't I?" the prince stopped short, slinking back a bit as a small dusted his cheeks. He was laughing nervously now, though his eyes never left her. She didn't know what to make of it.

Severa looked at him, kept his gaze and frowned. Morgan was this irritating, loud-mouthed, dork of a boy. She didn't like him all that much. Then again, they often say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Severa is her mother's daughter. She resembled the Pegasus Knight closer than she ever thought she would.