Chapter 1

The Chon'sin sun had become unbearable after so many years of Feroxi winters. Lon'qu could feel sweat collecting on his forehead, the back of his neck, and the side of his face. The black high collar of his armor radiated a heat of its own and, had he not padded the edges earlier, it would have burnt a line across his back. Being on the march meant walking on the open road in armor and so their patchwork army trudged forward, shoulders hunched and cloaks held out to shield themselves from the blinding rays. And as they approached the Demon's Ingle, the heat only worsened.

Once, this weather meant nothing to him. When he could still read his native language and speak more than halting, accent tinged sentences, this humidity, the way it coated his entire body, made his tongue thick in his mouth and his muscles loose, had been all he had known.

He stole another nervous glance at the Chon'sin princess, marching only a couple strides away. Say'ri moved through her homeland's air with an impatience that tolerated no sweat or fatigue. Back when he had no boots for his feet to sweat in, he had seen her once in the streets of the capitol. They were not far apart in age, the street urchin and that tiny princess. He had been on a rooftop, hands full of stolen pork buns, when the horns announced her presence and he ducked behind the moulding. Security became tight when nobility paraded the streets and he had already narrowly avoided being caught once. Still, he could not help his curiosity and had peered over the edge to see a sliver of a girl with a straight back that clutched her older brother's coat with one hand and a real short sword with another. Guards flanked her from every side and that difference between them was a chasm.

They might stand on equal ground now and she, like most people he knew, only came up to his chin, but that did not stop him from giving his homeland's fallen princess a wide berth. Say'ri had glanced his way several times, taking note of the color of his face, the arch of his nose, and the coal black of his eyes, same as the villagers they saw working in the rice paddies. She did not approach him, perhaps sensing he had no desire to speak to her, or worse, having heard the stories. Still, he did not come to Valm, a place he had vowed to never set foot in again when he fled it all those years ago, to relive some ill-conceived nostalgia.

That lifetime was long gone, just like his ability to tolerate this damn heat. He wiped his forehead again and squinted through the glare. Up ahead, even Lissa had become listless in Frederick's saddle. It was not just him and while Lon'qu would never admit it, he hoped they would stop for some respite before reaching base of the mountain range before the volcano.

Sprawling around them, the fields became more regular, the rice stalks rising up lush and strong despite the heat. The sight achingly familiar, made Lon'qu scowl as they tramped across the continent. It was these small familiar smells, sounds, even the taste of the air, that made him lose focus of the road in front of him and made memories swirl up with the whorls of dust the army kicked up. And it was too damn hot.

Finally Chrom called for the army's halt and they paused in the shade of an enormous bamboo forest that stretched up into the mountains, until the Demon's Ingle took over and the scorched earth ended the vegetation. The road had split and both options were uncomfortably narrow for the caravans. Lon'qu could see Say'ri rush over to Haura and Chrom who were bent over a mess of maps and they gestured wildly up to the smoking, burning peak. It was hard to look at their destination without a grave sense of apprehension, no matter how much they trusted the prince and the tactician.

Soldiers ducked into the meager shade behind horses and wagons. No one wanted to waste their dry lips with conversation. The closer he stood near the crowd, however, the more the cloud of shared human body heat engulfed him. Lon'qu walked away from the hustle and bustle to where the forest began.

The bamboo around the edge of the road grew new shoots, tender and flexible, but he could see that only a couple feet in, old, tough stalks grew in a thicket only navigable if he walked with sword in hand. Gnats swarmed out of the vegetation to pepper his sweaty face and Lon'qu did his best to ignore them. He had forgotten how many insects Chon'sin seemed to breed.

Back then, when a horned beetle or a butterfly had been as good as a half-eaten duck leg landing in his lap, Lon'qu had spent hours laying in the fields, watching the little diligent bees fly from wildflower to wildflower. It was easy to forget the gnawing of his half empty stomach if he stayed still and just watched the delicate movements of the praying mantis capturing its prey. Lying in the dirt of the fields had felt cleaner than sitting in the slums, near puddles of poisoned water, begging for alms. With a fond smile, he ran his hands through the leaves. The shoots, if they were not too old, could be made edible. The older, hardened stalks had been his first practice weapons. And he had begun to learn how to poach small birds and rabbits then. He could remember lying in the grass in wait-

Screams above his ringing head as his unfocused eyes latched onto a row of ants moving without concern, as the blood of a young girl soaked the grass. She was screaming for him to run-

"Would you like some water? The village up ahead has graciously let us use their wells to refill our supply of water." Haura had snuck up behind him and Lon'qu gave a little start.

He scowled. Not only had she been able to surprise him just by walking up, he had been lost in the exact thoughts he had promised himself not to think. He had no desire to begin reliving nightmares during the day.

"What's with that face? If you don't want it, I'll just-" Haura said and he could see the heat had begun to gnaw at her patience as well.

"It's nothing." He thanked her as she handed him her hip flask with a puzzled expression. He wanted to mean those words. He did not want her to know and worry, after he realized his nightmares woke her as well many nights. Being an inconvenience to her irritated him to no end, even as Lon'qu was starting to learn she liked being leaned on and his pride often left them with stony silences that neither of them enjoyed. Lon'qu did not like to be just good enough, and that extended to being a partner.

As he drank, he stared down at her. Today her hair had been tied back and arranged to look short, her chest had been pressed flat by her armor, and her coat, too hot for this weather, had been wrapped around her waist to hide her hips. She would give the handsome young eunuchs favored in the old Chon'sin palace a run for their money. His lips curled into an amused grin around the metal rim where her lips must have been recently and Haura grew more puzzled.

"Is there something funny? Because usually it's an accomplishment if I make you laugh, but I didn't do anything this time." She said as he handed back the empty canteen. Her lips quirked into that easy smile even as her brow drew up in confusion and Lon'qu could feel the sun spinning lower, making the shadows retreat and the burn of the rays dizzying. He blinked into the light that cut bright slivers across her face and-

"You simply look...rather handsome today, Haura." the words spilled out of his mouth in the muddled confusion of the sunlight. Heat pooled on his skin from his own too warm blood and he had to drop his head to stop staring into the blinding sunlight.

"Lon'qu-" Her voice was soft and filled with a gratitude that made his knees weak. And her hand, her palm burning through his skin, grasped his arm and she stood up on her toes to place a light kiss on the sweaty underside of his chin. Her lips lingered in the hollow of his neck and, as he swallowed Chon'sin air, the impression of her mouth left embers, kindling into flames, an ignis, spreading across his body.

He looked down at her smiling in front of his chest and the fire traveled into his ears, a dull roar in his head. Haura licked her lips, tasting the salt of his sweat, and reached up to lay one burning hand on his cheek. In the briefest of moments, his eyes flickered over her head because this moment had run away from him into sacred ground and he'd be damned if prying eyes interrupted them. Then, before Haura could follow his gaze, he bent down, arms circling her waist, and her mouth smiled into his.

"Thank you." she breathed into his lips and he wanted to say it back, to whisper it a hundred times into her skin, but when his lips parted, she brushed her tongue against his bottom lip and he was gone.

Kissing Haura was like trying to sing with your breath stolen away. She hummed and fluttered, placing kisses from the side of his mouth to his Adam's apple to his nose. Lon'qu took it as a personal challenge to capture her meandering mouth and hold it there until she panted that warm breath into his. And he did not like to lose.

They both had, at the beginning, with no experience and a lot of false starts, but, as he had said and she had laughed, they were both quick studies and diligent students. He may have still quivered each time she drew near with hooded eyes, but the knee-jerk fear became easier to choke down each time he kissed her lips, her cheeks, her throat, her nose. And when he had let a breathy laugh escape, Haura's resulting smile had tugged his heart in a terrifying high. Then she had kissed him again and he let that fear ease away.

They parted for a moment, their hearts beating fast and their breaths short. "Did we get any better?" she murmured.

"This is only the start of what I can do." Barely had the words left his throat when Haura pulled him down to her wet, waiting mouth and he kissed her hard, smushing their noses together. They still had a ways to go in finesse.

She laughed, a little rumble in the back of her throat. "Aren't you glad I gave you some water?" she said, even as she cringed over her own cheesiness.

"...Con artist." he mumbled fondly. She broke away from his arms for the air between them had begun to melt them and the sun was still high in the sky. He could taste her sweat, a familiar scent now. Watching him lick his lips, Haura flushed deeper.

They had been quite good at avoiding gossip even after two months of their marriage. Haura had enough of being in the spotlight during the interbellum years in Ylisstol and Lon'qu hated being teased on the subject of romance and relationships, two topics he was acutely aware of his ignorance. It had been effortless at first. Affection did not come naturally even after their marriage- the sudden desires to kiss his wife senseless did not overwhelm him until recently and, to his utter embarrassment, he knew exactly when he started craving regularly her physical affection alongside the camaraderie she always provided. Watching her try to recompose herself, Lon'qu could sense he was not the only one having these thoughts.

"We have another night before we reach-"

"I have a council meeting when we stop for camp-" They blurted out at the same time and both turned their heads to avoid the other's eyes.

"...you first." Lon'qu said.

"There's the war council meeting and an inventory check but after that-" Haura began.

"I'll check the inventory and do the laundry you haven't done." He interrupted. Haura gave him a sheepish look. Having only owned one pair of outer clothes throughout the entire Plegia-Ylisse campaign, she had not yet adjusted to the luxury of extra shirts and trousers. Lon'qu, fastidious in all his belongings and chores, had been shocked, when they moved into the same tent, upon seeing her books strewn all across the floor and desk, her clothes in rumpled piles on the ground, and, to his chagrin, her small clothes hanging in plain sight over her chair.

"Well, I guess I can use the extra energy for something a little more fun." Haura said with a grin that made Lon'qu's heart skip a beat.

"Please don't talk about...that...like we're playing some sort of a game." Lon'qu muttered.

"Stiff as ever-" she started jokingly, but then her face fell as she realized, "Damn, wait, don't you have night watch later this evening? I guess we can't-"

"Do you really think you can tire me out so easily?" Lon'qu retorted and his smirk brought Haura's own smile back.

"Aha, that sounds like a challenge to me. Prepare yourself." She whispered the last sentence, leaning in, her breath hot on the shell of his ear. Lon'qu's mouth turned dry and he had the distinct feeling he just walked into another trap. Then Haura's face turned serious and her mouth flattened with worry. "But really, we're going to arrive at Demon's Ingle late tomorrow, so-"

"Don't worry so. I am not so weak." Lon'qu reassured her. Then, because the damn heat kept spinning his head, the words came again, "You can...give me a good memory. To fight for." he stuttered out.

Maribelle insisted Haura come under her parasol for the rest of the march as to prevent the bright red sunburn on her cheeks from spreading.

A/N: Have some fic that was supposed to be silly, sappy, and just smut but whoops, blindsided by vague plot and navel-gazing. This was completely self-indulgent. There is, notably, actual smut the next two chapters.