Truly Beautiful

The day before Forde was supposed to paint Eirika's official portrait was the day that changed her life forever.

That particular day, Eirika had been exploring a forest near her home of Renais, but soon, she had somehow gotten lost. The usual trail she followed whenever she visited this forest was buried beneath the carpet of fallen leaves, but it hadn't deterred her from continuing her short expedition. Much, much later, though, she wished she had kept better track of where she had come from, for it was dark by the time she finally found the exit.

In her haste to return home, a bandit caught her completely unawares before he fed her a strange herb that knocked her unconscious...

When she came to, she found herself lying in a field near the castle, not entirely sure about what happened. She looked herself over, and when she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, went back home to get some rest before her official portrait was to be painted the next day.

It wasn't until she removed her long-sleeved shirt that she saw what the bandit had done to her, and a bloodcurdling scream could be heard throughout the castle as she lamented over her condition. As she removed the rest of her clothing, the screaming worsened; it appeared the bandit stripped off her clothes and completely burned her arms, legs, chest, and torso for no apparent reason. He must have also given her some sort of intense painkilling substance that was starting to wear off, because a horrible dull ache started plaguing her now. She would need to have that looked over very shortly.

Regardless of the circumstances, now she was completely covered in scars, and an assessment of the severity of the burns gave the conclusion that they were most likely permanent.

The worst part of the situation came when she looked into her mirror and noticed that her face was burned and scarred as well.

Eirika began to sob into her hands. How could someone do something so horribly cruel? How could she get her portrait painted in front of the entire kingdom when she was disfigured so horribly? How could she stand in front of her people when she looked like...

...a monster?

Eirika called for her closest friends and servants to hear her pleas for comfort, and they were shocked at what they saw, which did not help her confidence. Unsure of what to do, she asked for everyone's opinion on whether they should continue the portrait as scheduled or to cancel it altogether.

Forde's opinion was an optimistic and reassuring one: "No matter what, you're still Princess Eirika. I believe that we should continue on as planned. If the people can't get past something like this, they don't deserve you as their princess."

While everyone else nodded in agreement, Eirika's brother, Ephraim, thought differently: "Sister, I love you dearly, and everyone close to you does too. However, I understand the people very well after being the king for a year or so. If they saw you in your state right now, there would be a riot that no man could control. I'm sorry, but I believe that we should cancel the public portrait and simply have one privately made."

Ephraim's logical argument changed the minds of the whole group, including Eirika, but with the exception of Forde. Nevertheless, Eirika made the final decision to have her portrait painted privately, and she cried in Ephraim's arms as she said this.

Forde wished that it would have been him being her source of comfort at that moment. After all, he loved the princess very much, and no alteration of her appearance could change that.

However, he had to prove this to her, if not, at least, for her own sake.

She at least deserved to have peace in knowing someone still thought she was beautiful.

The next day, Eirika and Forde met together in Forde's workshop to start the portrait. She wore the most impressive gown she owned... or at least the one that could cover her whole body. When Forde finished the portrait, he showed his creation to Eirika.

She could tell instantly that there was no heart, no emotion, and no genuineness about the portrait.

But that was because of her. Eirika couldn't properly portray any sort of happiness about herself because of her new circumstances. Regardless, she thanked Forde without complaint, yet left nearly in tears. Even though she tried to hide her true feelings, Forde caught onto them quickly enough, and Eirika's pain pained him.

He now knew for sure that he would have to put his plan into effect.

"Eirika, I promise you, I will not laugh or grimace or do anything that will hurt your feelings. Please, just let me see your scars."

The next day, Forde went to confront Eirika directly so he could start up his plan. The first step involved him seeing all of Eirika's scars. After asking her politely and apologetically, she removed her outer robe to allow her arms to be completely exposed. Next, she removed her leggings, which exposed the majority of her legs. She hesitated after this, but Forde urged her on; Forde mentally sighed, knowing this to be the one and only occasion in his life that Eirika's naivety worked to his advantage.

Eirika now undressed so as to be in only her undergarments, and at the sight of herself in the mirror, she began to cry at the horrible sight that revealed itself to her; the sight that reminded her of her supposedly hideous state. Eirika believed that she could never get over the disgusting sight she viewed her body to be.

But Forde didn't see it that way.

All Forde saw a wonderful, caring woman who desperately needed reassurance as soon as possible.

He noted to himself what he needed to keep track of before he made the rash decision to hug her, not caring about the implications.

"Thank you. Please, don't worry. I'm going to make you feel better, I promise."

After he looked at her one last time, he went back to his workshop and pulled out his sketch book.

When he had marked down everything he noticed so as not to forget, he pulled out his painting canvas and started his most important painting projects yet.

A month later, Forde led a blindfolded Eirika to his workshop, who himself had an eager smile on his face. Now was the time to reveal his masterpiece.

Or, more specifically, his three masterpieces.

"My goodness!" Eirika shrieked when Forde pulled off her blindfold, and she saw three stunning portraits of herself before her very eyes.

The first portrait had her arms clearly exposed as she leaned over on a desk, and in the picture, sleepy eyes had overtaken her usual alertness, which implied her to be on the verge of sleep. Eirika found this to be adorable.

Another portrait had her in her combat attire as she stood in a battle stance, legs clearly exposed (up to her skirt line) and her rapier ready to strike, all while determination was written on her face. Eirika found this to be impressive.

However, Eirika audibly gasped when she saw the third picture.

The last portrait depicted Eirika in her undergarments, all of her scars clearly revealed to anyone who looked as she cried in her hands. She looked like she had no reason left in the world to live. But behind her, Forde was holding onto her affectionately, and it was clear that even though Forde's eyes were closed, he was doing everything in his power to comfort the poor girl in his arms. It showed that he couldn't have cared less about her new appearance. He only cared about the woman he was comforting.

"Wow..."

Eventually, a quick glance at all three portraits revealed that every single scar painted on the canvas matched the scars on Eirika's body, down to the smallest curve, colour deviation, or intensity.

"Forde, these are... amazing," Eirika revealed, and tears began to well up in her eyes. "How did you do this? I'm covered in all these scars, and yet, I... I..."

"Look beautiful," Forde finished for her, and she nodded in agreement. "Princess, the reason why these pictures strike such a chord is because they're you. That portrait I painted of you earlier, when you were in that restrictive gown... that wasn't you. The real you was guarded and hidden from view, buried beneath layers and layers of frustration, anger, and sadness. Eirika... these portraits prove that you are truly beautiful, and absolutely nothing will change that..."

With a whisper, he added, "and no matter what, nothing will change my feelings for you..."

He hoped that Eirika wouldn't hear that last comment.

But she did.

And that, combined with the subject of the third portrait, caused her to come to a certain conclusion: "Forde, do you..."

She hesitated before she finished the sentence: "...love me?"

Forde nodded solemnly, upset that she found out. He knew that his station as a knight and his hobby of painting would just be too low-class for a princess, even if that princess was Princess Eirika.

To avoid the awkward consequences of his actions, Forde closed his eyes and was about to turn and leave the room...

...but Eirika's lips got to him first before he could move.

"So the feelings are mutual, then..." Eirika whispered into Forde's ear, and she proceeded to kiss him a few more times until Forde began to respond to her on his own initiative, accomplished by kissing the scars on her cheeks with loving affection.

When they eventually married, Forde's complete acceptance of Eirika's body, scars and all, proved to be the starting point of when Eirika finally and undeniably believed that she was still truly beautiful. Even though Eirika's scars never healed, they lived the rest of their days in happiness.

THE END

Author's Notes

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

This fic is for Tom-ato13, as my final fic to be written for him... at least for a long time. Officially, I had already written his FordexEirika request a long time ago with Crazy Dreams, but that was a really weird fic, even though I still really liked it. I knew he wanted a serious attempt at this pairing, so I promised I would write a serious fic of these two for him. I didn't even MENTION his most hating pairing of EphraimxMyrrh at all in the story this time, which I don't think I've ever done for a FE8 story yet. :p

I have to say, this is a strange premise. But, I think it turned out well. It certainly led to the happy ending these two deserved, but doesn't really happen in the game. I don't know why I decided to write it in past tense, since I find past tense to be much more difficult and much less natural to write, but I did it anyway. Once in a while I decide that past tense would better portray a story than present tense would. Although, who knows if this even makes any plausible sense?

There weren't any jokes in this fic, which I believe has only happened once ever in my 30+ stories. Jokes would have made the fic lose something important, I believe.

Ah, it's good to be writing more of my pending requests again! But first, some more AGOH before writing another pending request!