Title: Dawn

Fandom: FE10 Tellius

Character/Pairing: Ike/Soren, light Mia Ike, Stefan shows up at the last minute, along with Oscar and Ilyana.

Rating: PG? Mild implied sex, so...

Summary: Mia thinks she needs to get a new sparring partner. Light onesided Mia/Ike, Ike/Soren

Wordcount: 1,500+

A/N:

Mia stretched as the first ray of morning hit the skies.

Already she could feel the anticipation flowing through her veins that a possible sparring match brought.. She preferred dawn because of the crisp, cool feeling of the morning air. Any later and it would grow warmer– not that she minded it too much. She'd fight in the desert if she had to, at high noon.

She began to loosen her muscles as she waited. Surely he'd be there, boss always kept his promises after all.

When the sun rose and morning light turned golden, she began to get impatient. A few more practice swings, she thought. Maybe Soren had something important to go through and had held him up, these things happened and Soren seemed to always find things that needed his attention when they were to spar. It was annoying, yeah, but she understood. Mia had even tried to strike up a conversation with Soren a few times; she'd never trained against a mage before, she figured it might be something interesting to liven up her practicing. However, he gave her the cold shoulder, and brushed aside all her attempts at fighting together or friendly conversation or anything, really. After a while she realized he was like that to everyone, so she didn't take it personally.

Mia looked forward to sparring matches with Ike. While she knew that Ike wasn't her rival, and would never be, he was the best swordsman she'd sparred with so far. He never held back because she was female. Maybe that's why she liked fighting him so much, others would treat her as a lady but Ike treated her like a person. He gave everyone equal jobs, and never seemed to consider gender or race into the equation. She'd been told to haul pieces of wood with Largo and Stefan alike, even though they were twice her size.

Only Soren seemed exempt from this menial labor, and Rhys as well. It wasn't really surprising, as they were both so fragile they'd probably strain a muscle trying to lift a twig.

Actually, she thought that Ike kept Soren from any menial labor at all. The extent of things he carried seemed to be supplies and spices. She shrugged at this; they were childhood friends, he probably had some brotherly complex. Soren was all brains and no brawn anyways, just the opposite of Largo. He could barely even lift the heavier tomes.

The sun was coming up fast, soon dawn was already about over. Sighing, Mia set off for Ike's tent. Someone needed a wake up call.

Boss kept his tent just like anyone else's, in fact, it was hard to find him as he never set himself apart or had a fancy tent like other generals. More than once he'd been mistaken for a common soldier, but if anything, he took that as a complement.

She pulled open the tent and let the light shine in.

"Hey boss, good morning! Boooosssssssss!"

The covers had fallen down and it revealed Ike didn't bother with pajamas. At all. Which was a nice thing to know, and not a bad sight either. She'd be lying if she ever said that Boss wasn't good looking, but unlike all those other girls, she wasn't swooning over that. What she really loved was his swordplay, but the fact that he had some really nice abs certainly helped.

He shifted away from the light, groaning. And that's when she caught sight of another person sleeping there. It shouldn't have been surprising to any other general, but with Boss? He just seemed uninterested in all the girls out there.

She squinted and could just make out black hair from the shadows, pale skin, a red twisting mark on the forehead... Oh. That explained a lot, actually. A whole lot.

Now she was faced with getting her promised duel and the sheer awkwardness of the situation. In any other situation she would've woken him up anyways, but with Soren there...she rather liked living.

She deliberated a moment too long; Ike still slept on just as soundly, but Soren moaned and began to open his eyes rather groggily.

She stepped back, but ran into a metal guard of some kind, and it clattered. There went her stealthy escape.Fully awake now, Soren turned his gaze on her. It was the most frightening, hateful stare she'd ever seen, in or out of the battlefield.

"Um, Boss owed me some sparring practice–"

Get out. he mouthed.

She hauled out of there, she wasn't going to chance him going for his Rexcaliber tome.

Mia made sure that she was far enough away to be out of range of any possible wind blasts before she finally leaned against a tree to rest and take a breath. Mia thought she needed to find a new sparring partner.

Soren frowned as he edged his way out of bed and scrambled for his clothes. At least Ike's grip hadn't been firm around his waist; on those days he simply had to be late, as he could hardly move Ike's arms away when they were clasped so tight.

The situation had turned out poorly. Soren assessed the damage and searched for a means to cure it. The girl – Mia was chatty, but he didn't remember her being prone to gossip. He doubted that she would be like Naesala or Volke, easily paid off to keep her mouth shut (Though Naesala would drag the blackmail on as long as possible, Soren knew.) He pondered this a moment further before setting it aside for later contemplation. He had other important things to attend to at the moment.

Now half dressed, he stopped from his thoughts for a moment to watch Ike sleep. Ike was extremely adept at sleeping, as he'd just proven, he could even easily withstand Mia yelling and light pouring through directly on his face. Soren at times wondered what he couldn't sleep through. An earthquake, perhaps? That remained to be seen.

When Ike slept he looked peaceful. It was perhaps the only time when he wasn't frowning. Soren liked this side, the times when he was detained by Ike's embrace, he rarely slept. Instead he watched Ike, watched his rib cage rise and fall, breathed in the scent of him.

Soren knew any subtle change in Ike's mood because he was always watching, waiting, listening for Ike's command. He would do anything for Ike, he would even be willing to die for Ike. It was so simple that he had never stated it. Sometimes he wonder if Ike knew this fact. Perhaps he guessed, but didn't know the sheer extent of Soren's sincerity and devotion.

Soren shook himself from his reverie and finished dressing. There was work to be done, this was no time for dreaming.

Ike slept on, peaceful and Soren placed a light kiss on his shoulder before he left. A twirl of dust and light left in his wake as the tent flap fluttered shut again.

So far the rounds of finding her next big rival weren't promising. Nobody seemed to actually be a swordsman and a morning person as well.

Soren was already up and gave her a curt, if suspicious nod. She honestly would've found Boss and Soren's relationship cute if Soren wasn't so edgy. It wasn't like she'd blab it around to everyone, what was their business was just that – their business, no one else's.

Mia shrugged. There was always tomorrow, another battle, another step closer to finding her rival. She never let setbacks keep her down long.

She went to the middle of camp where Oscar, another early riser, was making breakfast. Seated beside him was Ilyana, who waited like a hungry cat for milk, surely Oscar knew that was an endless pit for food, but he always gave her scraps anyways.

"Goood moooooorrrnniinng!" she said. Oscar smiled and nodded, Ilyana groaned.

Just in the distance she saw a tall, well-built man with mussed light green hair that hung over his ears. He wore the garb of a swordfighter and she could see the glint of silver in the morning light.

He kept well apart from the others, and drank his tea slowly while watching the sunrise.

"Who's he? Looks familiar but I can't place him..." she said.

"Hmm?" Oscar looked over his shoulder and then responded.

"Oh, that's Stefan. You don't remember him? He joined up during the last war, but he usually keeps to himself."

"Stefan, huh? There's my next sparring partner!"

"Maybe you—" Oscar said but she was already charging off and Ilyana was gnawing on his pantleg. Oscar sighed. He hoped that for Rhys' sake, Mia and Kieran never crossed paths while training.