Just the "100 little pieces" challenge by Miss Selah for Joshua/Natasha, split into two halves. I was inspired to make one after reading the Eirika/Seth version by Nagasasu, as it appears in her story Crossroads. Hopefully it's satisfactory!

I don't own Fire Emblem. Enjoy, darlings!

100 Little Pieces
1-50

1.Introduction

Even though he had so casually spoken to her on the streets of Serafew, Joshua was actually hesitant to get to know the cleric. That changed a week later, when she looked to him with a smile and he swore a mischievous gleam in her eyes, and said that she wished to learn the name of the man who's hand she was stitching up.

2.Love :

He loved watching her heal the wounded, because it had been a long time since he had seen a woman properly use authority.

3. Light :

"May the Light protect us," She had breathed before they moved into battle. Somehow, he felt safer that day—because Natasha had said the prayer and the Heavens had to listen to one of their own.

4. Dark :

There were only two times in the war she thought that darkness would win. One was when her own prince destroyed the Stone of Renais. The other was when Joshua silently cried as he set down the body of his mother.

5. Seeking Solace :

Natasha had been the one to step up and bless the dead each time their army lost a member. He didn't ask her to do so for his mother—he just pulled her into a hug that she returned without words.

6. Break Away :

"If I didn't see my country for myself...how could I govern my people?" He asked her one night while she ground powder for an antidote. "I had to get out of the palace...can you understand?"

"...I...ran away to become a cleric," She admitted for the first time.

7. Heaven :

He never really took stock in religion as much as he did in spirituality. So he was overjoyed when the holy woman didn't preach redemption and blasphemy; but simply was somebody who would get to Heaven on their own—none of his hated courtliness needed.

8. Innocence :

A temple wasn't as sheltered as he thought, because as she looked at the corpses that lay on the field, Joshua knew that she had seen this before. And why couldn't they keep her safe?

9. Drive :

Natasha sat, terrified, on the seat next to the swordsman. She decided he was never driving her healer's wagon again. Ever.

10. Breathe Again :

Her healing magic had to work, it had to work, it had to work, it had to—.

He took a breath in, and she released her own.

11. Memory :

That was his mother's ring, she recalled dizzily; so why was he holding it out to her?

12. Insanity :

After Jehanna Hall, fire always got to him. He would sit at the cooking pit and try not to look, but he could still hear his comrades screaming as they looked for an escape route and for him to move because his mother was dead and he couldn't take her body with him because there was no timeAnd he would end up staring into the blaze, with his mind slipping away into notions of Demon Kings and resurrections and maybe Lyon had the right idea...

...Then Natasha would come, and the fire burned forgotten.

13. Misfortune :

"Looks like Lady Luck's not on your side today," Joshua said as he held out his hand. She flushed as he pulled her from the ground, up and away from the broken stool she had been standing on.

14. Smile :

Her face lit up in a tiny smile. "I'm glad to see you're awake, Franz," She softly told the soldier. When she turned to get her medicine vials and saw Joshua holding them out, her smile grew a bit more.

15. Silence :

"Be quiet! We won't listen to what a traitor has to say!"

"We will not heed your words, traitor Natasha!"

"...Fine. I'll hear you out," He had sighed, lowering his blade. Thank the Light, she could speak now.

16. Questioning :

"What happened?!" She said, eyes widening at the gash on his thigh.

17. Blood :

Blood stained her robes, and blood coated his hands, and this time, his bloody skin wasn't from killing. But as Gilliam fell eternally still, Joshua's hands still trying to hold his intestines in while Natasha forced more magic out of her staff; he thought that he'd rather feel the pain of killing a hundred than that of loosing a life. And Natasha looked like she would, too.

18. Rainbow :

He had started out to get her to see the rainbow stretching across the canyon ridge, but when he found the cleric sleeping, he decided not to wake one beautiful thing to see another.

19. Gray :

Joshua lied and told her that he had seen a gray hair that morning, just so her hands would run through his tresses for a few moments as she tried to help him find it.

20. Fortitude :

And she had been the one to turn so unflinchingly at the Demon King, even while he wore the mask of her country's ruler, and say that he was evil, and that he must be stopped. Natasha held none of the doubts of the nobility, and he wondered what made them think they were so strong, anyway.

21. Vacation :

Rausten was one place neither of them had been before, and he thought it such a shame that they couldn't be seeing it under better circumstances.

22. Mother Nature :

He had always thought the desert beautiful, but lacking in the department of pretty vegetation. That, Joshua said, belonged to Renais and Frelia and every other nation in Magvel—but Natasha simply knelt and pulled a handful of coarse grass from the sand.

It was brown and ugly, he observed as the cleric moved to place it in her satchel. "This will make help a fine remedy for a sunburn," She said to him.

"...Well. It's still ugly."

23. Cat :

When she took the injured kitten from Cormag, he couldn't help but to feel the urge to attack the man.

24. No Time :

"I'm sorry, Joshua, but I haven't the time to chat right now. There are too many sick with the fever..."

Too many sick, huh? He only saw Cormag and Knoll and the Silver Knight of Renais—all, of course, his unspoken rivals!—in the cots. He wanted to tell her that they could all vomit without her assistance, but that would have made the woman sad. So, he left her with a promise to stop by again later, when time wasn't so precious. Natasha wasn't quite sure what he meant.

25. Trouble Lurking :

There was a gorgon right behind her, and he'd be dammed if he let somebody else rescue her first.

26. Tears :

Joshua winced as Neimi burst into sobs at seeing her beloved awaken. The high-pitched, keening wails made his ears ache as well as his heart; but Natasha simply sighed as Colm stirred and patted the archer on the back comfortingly.

She told him later that she'd rather see tears of relief than of loss. He told her that he'd rather see no tears at all.

27. Foreign :

"It's the hair and eyes," She replied when asked how she knew he was from Jehanna, "That coloration is distinct to your particular region of Magvel".

He didn't to know she had a thing for accents.

28. Sorrow :

He had noticed that, in her first few weeks in the army, Natasha seemed rather desolate and mournful. Joshua assumed it was because she was fighting against her own country, but the first time they passed a temple it hit him.

She had lost her mentor just a month prior. Such sorrow she's held in!

29. Happiness :

He bet on her happiness. She gave him his.

30. Under the Rain :

The storm finally began, and the rain hit them both in a cold burst. He turned shocked to his companion, meaning to grab her and run towards camp.

But Latona, look at that body!

Joshua managed to laugh and tell her how silly they both looked.

31. Flowers :

"A bouquet for the lady," He said with a flourish of the flowers in his hand. She smiled and accepted them with a soft thanks. Anyone who looked in soon after that would have seen the two deep in making a strong pain reliever from forty-six, blazing red, poppies.

He gave her the lilies he had picked later that night.

32. Night :

He had warned the group that nights in Jehanna got chilly. But the sudden dip in temperature still made things rough for the cleric from the seaside, and he cursed his country's climate as he watched her shiver violently from under a cloak.

33. Expectations :

To serve the people.

That's what was expected from them, albeit in different ways. He saw no reason to not make things more efficient for the both of them and...No, Joshua decided. If he proposed to her with that, she'd never say yes.

34. Stars :

Ismaire told him from a young age that the stars were instruments of the Heavens; beams of light sent to shine on what was beautiful and true even in the darkest of nights. After she helped him through his mother's passing, he decided to try and find the constellation that Natasha had come from.

35. Hold My Hand :

"Hold my hand, and squeeze if the pain starts getting to you, alright?"

36. Precious Treasure :

"Joshua...take these." She watched as his mother placed the sacred relics of Jehanna at his side; and Natasha felt her heart tearing as Joshua ignored the items to try to keep his most precious treasure with him.

37. Eyes :

His eyes, partially obscured by his hat and hair, were the color of blood. They were also just as warm.

38. Abandoned :

He raced through the burning halls of his home, heart pounding. He had abandoned his country, his duty, and his mother's body—there was no way in Hell he would leave Natasha, too.

39. Dreams :

In his dreams, he returned home from the war dirty and tired; but his mother stood on the steps of Jehanna Hall. Regal and beautiful as ever, Ismaire stayed motionless until he addressed her. "Mother...was I wrong?"

The Queen of White Dunes would smile, and her arms would open. "No. Welcome home, my child."

In her dreams, she never entered the war. She stayed in the temple with her mentor and continued healing the commoners of Grado, and the man continued to teach her of the ways of the world. "Father, what do we all desire?"

The man would pause, smile, and his robes would flow as he patted her arm. "A home, Sister."

But in both of their dreams, there was also the other. And they needed no questions, because home was understood.

40. Rated :

"...This is horrible," He admitted, grimacing at the taste in his mouth. "I thought that the seafood here was supposed to be superb...".

Natasha sniffed. "Well, Frelian fish is overrated, Joshua. If you want good salmon, you have to go to Grado".

41. Teamwork :

Seth looked pointedly at his bickering knights. "That, gentlemen," He said, gesturing towards the swordsman and the cleric—Joshua was coming at the enemy paladin from behind while Natasha distracted him with a Shine spell—"That is how teamwork is supposed to look".

42. Standing Still :

Why was he remaining motionless on the battlefield? That brigand was rushing him, but the man from Jehanna stood impassively with one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, and weren't you supposed to dodge attacks?!

Then, in a flash of scarlet and metal, Joshua flew into action. Natasha could barely follow his path as he ran the man through and slid to a pause behind the body; barely taking a second to hover on the verge of stillness before whirling about and sliding, cat-like, to disarm another fighter to his left.

That was what the wind looked like, she thought, looking at his feet. They never seemed to touch the Earth below, even when he was so rooted before...

43. Dying :

He lay on the cavern floor, the hollow body of the Demon King before him. Pain coursed through his awareness, and he knew that if he were to look, he would see his side bent and shredded and crushed and ruined. Where was she, he wondered, the angel with her healing magic...? Nausea came, and he convulsed achingly on the stone, choking back bile. It hurt, it hurt, ohithurtsobadpleasemakeitstop!

But the pain wasn't coming from his outer wounds. Natasha, he knew, was dead. And he was dying.

44. Two Roads :

"You're traveling towards a pair of villages, one of which is filled with those who are only honest, and the other filled with liars. Before you reach them, however, you come to a fork in the road. One road goes right, one left, and a man stands in betwixt the two—"

"I ask him to take me to his village," She smiled. "Try again".

45. Illusion :

The ring holding her head covering on was supposed to give the illusion of a halo. Joshua thought that she needed no such illusion.

46. Family :

She still wrote to her family from time to time. After receiving a reply to the letter announcing their engagement, she said her parents wished to meet him. He regretted the fact that she couldn't at least meet his mother.

47. Creation :

"And in the Beginning," She said to him, quietly reciting holy scripture to keep his mind off of the stitches piercing his flesh, "The great Light brought Magvel into creation, and thus brought forth great life...".

48. Childhood :

"What kind of a childhood was that, fighting in the desert?"

"What sort of one was yours, serving in a temple?"

"I joined the temple when I was fifteen—four years ago—not when I was nine."

"...Touché".

49. Stripes :

As the soldier struck her, bright stripes of white cloth flew from her head. He returned the favor to the man, leaving angry red stripes of blood running down his torso. She assured him she was unharmed, thanked him, and gathered her hair back under what was left of her hood.

50. Breaking the Rules :

"Joshua, we shouldn't...it's..."

"Natasha," He purred, continuing to move towards her lips, "You can break a few rules here and there, can't you?"