a/n: this is it! pretty crazy quick, but I hope you enjoyed this very fast and hectic fic, and that I didn't break your heart too bad. Can't wait to share what all I've been working on, but until next time, enjoy! :)

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read on!

vi.

[All the love in the world.]

My Corrin,

You'd think that so many years spent at your side would have taught me that you would outlast me, though I'm younger and you surpass me in days. Still, it hurts me that you'll be the one to feel the most pain that love can bring: the end. It's a mess, all of it, but this world gives you what it wills. It seems the fates have been kind to us.

Before I'm unable to, I wanted to tell you everything that I can remember—all of it, from the very beginning to the now—and I know for certain that I cannot speak it, for it would take me too long and you would have nothing to hold when I've left you here. Perhaps a letter is cliché, but I was quite taken with the idea that you would have something of me to put close to your heart when I'm passed.

From the start, you never did tell me how you felt those few days where you had to choose. I can't imagine they were anything worth remembering, so I never pried, not even in the many decades you've given me. Those years were the worst of them, the years where we fought and the blood of our people was spilt. It was so long ago, but it feels like yesterday, does it not? Ages ago, and now, the children sing of us in the battles and the tales, as they will for years to come. What a funny thought that is. I most vividly remember that I didn't really see you again until the day I was ordered to kill you. I knew it was unavoidable, but it still hurt me…. There were only a few battles before that one, but they never really mattered; I never truly intended to kill you in those. But this one I did and it scared me, mostly because I knew I had met my defeat before we even went to battle. I couldn't hurt you, much less kill you. It was a lost battle before you even looked into my eyes.

It was after the war that things settled in and settled down. I was there right before you faced Father and right before the death of my two closest friends. It's funny, the way that one love is sacrificed so that another sort of love may live on. I realized that when I asked you to marry me under a Hoshidan cherry tree. Xander and Elise gave their lives for us, so that we may live on and give such a love, the entirety of the world would envy without meaning to. I believe they knew that, you know, that we would do the things we did. Nohr has prospered so greatly since the Great War, Xander must have known what good we were bound to do. I still believe he would have made a better king than I, but in his stead, I must have done well enough for him to shine the sun upon us every so often.

Our lives really started after that, when we were married and the time passed so quickly, I couldn't count the days anymore. I always knew that you would be a great mother; you had grown up without the love of one, and because of it, you knew exactly what was needed. You were nervous, though, and I can't say I blame you—our children were quite the pair. Just when I thought I couldn't love anything more…they proved me wrong, Forrest and Kana. I know they'll do the royal family proud, and then on and so forth. Kana has already made a successful king, and Forrest will rule as his advisor for many years to come. Their children will bring Nohr only happiness and peace. It is a beautiful existence we have created, Corrin. The grandchildren will realize that someday, just as we have.

I know you will keep an eye on them for me when I'm passed, the children and the grandchildren, and by the gods, with your luck, probably the great-grandchildren. You've hardly aged a day since the day we married, you know, and it's quite unfair. I know Forrest chides me for telling you so, but your hair, grey or not, is still the prettiest and finest I've ever seen. Though your eyes have always been my favorite.

So thank you for this life you have given me, Corrin. For the love, for the tears, for the years. I cannot think of any other way to have spent my life on this world than with you. In certainty, forever and always, I have loved you, I love you, and I will always love you. Remember that, won't you? I won't be here to tell you so, but I hope you find it in the things around you.

I hope you find it in the fountain in the town center, where you pushed me and I fell.

I hope you find it in the rain and the windowsill, the cherry tree where we laughed and I told you I'd love you forever. The tree where I promised to care for you, in sickness and in health, and the bed I proved it to you, many times over.

I hope you find it in the room Forrest and Kana joined us, where we gazed into their eyes and found ourselves whole, a family, complete. The room where you sang both our sons to sleep each night, the one where they grew and they laughed and they played.

I hope you find it in our sons themselves, their eyes and their laughs, and the success and the love they have found for themselves. They were made from us, after all—if they aren't proof of it, I don't know what else is.

Most of all, I hope you find it in yourself, how I have loved you for so many years and kept my promise that I made so long ago. Though many things have been uncertain, you, my Corrin, never have been.

I'll die an analytical man, just as I've always been, but you really did teach me the most valuable lesson of all. Love is real, and by the gods, is it worth it.

I'll wait for you, always, in the world passed, until you find me. Xander and Elise and Camilla—they wait for me there, beside my real father, so do not weep. You will see me again. That, too, I am certain in.

Thank you for your life and for mine, my love.

All the love in the world,

Your Leo.

Corrin reread his letter as she sat atop his grave, his name etched into a stone set beside his brother and his sisters. The long and tedious service for his death was long over, but she wouldn't leave, not yet—it was too real if she left him, that he was gone now and she was really alone.

There's something that can never be named, as Leo had always told her, his grin a sideways, crooked smile on his face as he told her so, something that is only between two people and can't be expressed. It's a feeling that sets everything straight, but turns everything upside down. It makes no sense, but it fills up empty hearts and sets them anew, fresh and clean, a happiness within them so strong, there is nothing left but the joy there.

Corrin figured he had spoken of their love, of how it had developed and changed from such a puppy love to a whole and true feeling, an expression of only devotion and truth. But she realized, now, that he spoke of how they were connected, of how they stood together. He spoke of how he loved her so much, nothing would stand in their path of a happy life, not outraged fathers or growing nations or cold siblings.

Not even death.

She stood from his grave and dusted her skirts, folded the letter into the pocket of her shirt beside her heart, and then looked to the sky.

And she smiled.

Because of all the fates and the choices and the paths, she had found one that led her straight to a life of love and of happiness and of peace. She had lived a life out with Leo, and now, he would live one through her. It had started with mischief, a locked away tower and stolen kisses behind closed doors. Then it had been a war between those she loved and those she loved more, a conflict that had marred both of the nations she couldn't live without. It was her life with Leo, however, after the war and the pain and the choices, that had brought her such a smile, such a happiness that she could feel free in her love for her life and for her blood, both the blood that had been spilt and the blood that now thrummed through her grandchildren's veins.

Corrin realized that she, too, was content.

Thank you, she thought as she stared into the endless sky, the same sky she had gazed upon in the Northern Fortress, in the castle where she raised her children, and now, on the grave of the person she had loved the most. Whatever fates are out there, thank you for this beautiful and intricate path you carved for me.

Corrin took a deep breath and then began her descent down the long and winded road home.

"Leo! C'mooonnnn, we've got sparring to do!"

The voice was familiar somehow to the young prince as he curled in his bed, shifting so he could block out the noise. He felt stuffy, like he had no room to breathe, and moved onto his side. "Not now, Corrin, I'm sleeping…"

"But the sun is up and we totally can't keep Xander waiting again! He's waiting on us. I'm ten years old now, don't you know? I don't mess around anymore...so let's go!"

Corrin...?

Leo groaned into his pillow, but he sighed and gave in, twisting over and sitting up.

And as time and space passed, Leo opened his eyes in another world to a brand new fate.

a/n: thanks so much for reading! don't forget to PM me if you have any questions or leave a review if you have anything to say :) I don't bite! see you all next time!