The door shut. The fiery hair tossed about his face as emerald eyes moved from the door, remembering where she had been. He smiled before turning to the indigo haired prince whose sapphire hues were upon his friend with concern.

"So what is it Blue?" he asked his hand going to his friend's shoulder.

"Frederick told me you found Saphire yesterday."

Gaius' eyes sparkled remembering what had happened. The look he gave Chrom bred an angry fire inside of him, "Yes. She panicked and ran to the gardens. She wanted to run away from everything, she thought she'd destroy your life." he confirmed everything that Saphire had said.

"Thank you for convincing her to stay, I don't know what I would have done had she not showed up at our wedding..." Chrom sighed, heart aching at the thought.

"Blue," Gaius put his hands on the Exalt's shoulders looking him square in the face, "She loves you, so much. She wants nothing but the best for you and all the joys even if she must remove herself to get it..."

"Is that her talking?" he paused furrowing his brow, "Or you?"

"What do you mean?" his eyebrow raised in confusion.

"You told me that you were in love with someone, the same day I admitted my love for Saphire. Did you end up telling her..."

"Chrom..." Gaius' eyes welled up with a sudden surge of pain, "I..." he looked away.

"Tell me the truth..." Chrom's hands went to his friend's holding him there, "Did you tell her the night you said you would?"

Blue and Green collided as they stared one another down. Chrom's resolve to hear the truth from Gaius would overcome any push the red head would have against him.

"No..." was the reply that flatly escaped his lips.

"Why didn't you tell her..."

"Chrom why are you bringing this up? What's done is done..."

"Because I want to hear you say it..." he pulled Gaius' hands off of him and held his wrists. "Tell me the truth Gaius. I want to know everything."

His face dropped, it had been hard enough keeping it a secret but it would be even harder having this out in the open now that they were married. "Chrom, I love Saphire. I've been in love with her for as long as I can remember but... when I found out you were in love with her, I couldn't let my feelings interfere. She loved only you. I was the one who told her to come forward to you. It was your reaction that frightened her off. She can be delicate as a rose when it comes to her emotions."

Chrom let go of Gaius' hands, "She never knew until..."

"Yesterday. When I found her I admitted I loved her, only because... she needed to understand what I'd sacrificed for her. And how much you meant to her. She was letting self doubt cloud her judgment..."

"THEN WHY DID YOU KISS HER?" he shouted without raising his voice. "What made you kiss my fiancée on her wedding day?"

Chrom could feel anger bubbling up inside. He felt a deep sense of frustration at not realizing this beforehand. They stared at one another for what seemed like eternity. Chrom resisted the urge to grab his falchion and behead his friend. Foreign feelings of hatred filled his head.

"Chrom, Saphire loves you and only you. I couldn't give her my love because neither of you would be happy. I... admit, I kissed her, I wanted to. I'm sorry for losing control but, she is yours, I will guard her with my life because she is my friend. I will love her forever but she will never be mine. Please understand and trust me."

"Trust you?" Chrom shouted, "You were my friend. You didn't trust me to tell me that we pined over the same woman! You didn't feel that I cared about you or your feelings to admit to me that Saphire was the one your heart ached for." He grabbed Gaius's collar leaving him bewildered, "How? How can I trust you? You didn't consider me a friend to tell me what was in your heart. You decide to tell her when it's too late to do something about it!"

"I don't want to do something about it! I never did!" Gaius pleaded, "I want her to be happy. YOU Lord Chrom, YOU make her happy. She has loved you for a long time just as you have loved her and I'll swear before the Gods that I will not allow you or anyone to hurt her."

"I would never hurt her, she's my wife!" Chrom's hands rose, lifting Gaius to his toes.

"CHROM!" Saphire cried coming and pulling her husband away, "What are you doing?" her copper hues shifted to Gaius as she silently apologized.

"I... I couldn't stand the thought of him..." he stopped himself from speaking lest anyone hear what had happened. "I..." her soft caramel hands touched his face, feeling the heat of his anger, "Saphire..."

"Chrom..." she kissed him softly, "It's not his fault. He's our friend, he brought us together. He gave up his love for ours, we shouldn't hate him." she smiled at him offering him some sense of peace, "You don't have to forgive him for kissing me but you can forgive him for everything else. Everything he has done has been for us. To bring you to me, to give me the love of my life."

Gaius watched as the woman he loved defended him and his actions. He could do nothing but stop and stare at her as she pacified her husband trying to make him leave the situation before them. "Saphire..."

"Gaius," she moved and brought her arms around his neck, the warmth of her body against him made him feel weak, "You made all of this possible. Chrom and I would never have admitted our love without your help and sacrifice." Her lips found his cheek and his face turned red, "I will be forever in your debt."

Chrom fumed as he watched his wife caress their friend. "So what do we do then Saphire..." he said through clenched teeth.

"Nothing..." she stepped away and replied. "We should just let the issue lie. We have more important things to worry about don't' we? We have a world to rebuild. A place to rule, a family and friends to take care of..." she moved towards the door her blue gown swishing about her, "I'm... going to go lay down." Saphire forced the words out, trying to hide the weakness in her voice.

Her palms touched wood as she pushed through the throne room doors and she let out a deep sigh. Her body was tense and she felt light headed. "Queen Saphire..." Frederick's voice could be heard. She collapsed and he hurried to hold her up. She clung to his armor, her body heaving as she breathed heavily.

"I'm fine Frederick... Please just help me to our chambers..." her copper eyes stared at the carpet as she allowed him to guide her up the stairs without another word. He pushed the doors open, allowing her inside. Saphire let go of him and found her way to the bed. "Today was just much too stressful and I don't think I can handle any more excitement today."

"My Queen would you like lunch brought for you?" Frederick asked trying to hide the concern in his voice, "I can summon the king to..."

"No. I want to be alone," she held her head, "Please don't tell anyone I'm unwell. I just need some time to unwind. The wedding, the reception, all these preparations. I'm exhausted." she groaned and turned into the pillow. She felt Frederick sit on the bed.

"Saphire," he offered, "You're not alone here. Your friends support you, and your husband is here for that too. You should think before pushing everyone out. The results could be disastrous."

The black haired queen didn't lift her head. Her mind was on how to get Chrom and Gaius away from one another so that the air could be cleared. Frederick left her quietly to her thoughts. The only way she could think of was to start mending the bonds between countries that had little to no ties with Ylisse.

Flipping onto her back, she looked at the ceiling that had been painted to represent the sky. The sky that they all shared. She forced herself out of bed and headed to the war room. There she sought out a map of the entire world. She saw, to the north past Ragna Ferox a place where no one had mentioned. Pulling books from the shelves, researching into this place she understood that success would be found here. She would take the King to this kingdom, to meet the ruler of that country, the build new bonds and to hopefully keep the peace. Grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill she began to write, her mind on her goal.

With a bright fire of determination in her gaze she blew on the letter to allow the ink to dry. Then held it firmly as she brought the rolled up map out of the war room. Saphire just needed to find Chrom. She returned to the most obvious place, their room. He was pacing, still angry at what had transpired.

"I don't know how I'm going to be able to get through knowing he did this. How can I look at the man who sacrificed his love for mine, then goes and betrays that action. It just makes no sense." he replied, "I..."

"Chrom..." she interrupted his brooding, "I was thinking and I figured out where we should begin."

Just the sound of her voice, its gentle pitch in his ear had caused th e King to turn in her direction. His gaze washed over her caramel body in the large gown. It was easy to understand she was trembling and forcing herself to stand. Saphire was strong, he'd never doubted this, but it seemed the ordeals of the last few months had finally worn on her. He shook his head and went to her, placing his hands upon her shoulders. He felt them slump as she looked down, her eyes upon his white shoes. Inhaling deeply, she breathed slowly to keep calm. Pulling away from her husband her soft steps led her to the desk where she unrolled the map, then extended her manicured caramel hand to her husband. He approached and his hands went about her waist as he stood behind her.

"Saphire... I don't want to talk about travel and rebuilding. We just married, isn't there..."

"No." Saphire replied flatly cutting him off, dropping her hand and placing it on the map. "Here. This is where we will go. Past the borders of Ragna Ferox. We haven't explored there. There is a town there, I've seen it. It has been ruled by a queen for several generations and yet Ylisse has never opened trades with them."

"There's reasons for that... hundreds of years ago..." Chrom was at her side running his hand through her hair, "We can't go there..."

"We're going there." she insisted, "If it's been hundreds of years it's been too long. Chrom, you are not past kings. You are your own man. You are stronger than a feud that has nothing to do with us anymore." Saphire felt her knees begin to give away and her heart started to race. Chrom noticed instantly and his arms went beneath her to lift her up. She held the letter in her hands as he carried her to bed.

"Saphire." he sighed "You've been queen for a mere hour and you're already working yourself too hard. And you're giving me orders on top of it. You're obviously stressed and you can't just pick up and travel."

She pretended not to hear him and as Saphire felt her body drop softly to the bed. The letter in front of her she spoke slowly, "You will send this letter to the Queen and we will depart for these lands. It will take three weeks to arrive by horse and we don't have time to spare." She gazed at him sadly, "I want to start my life with you. Once the world is set right then we'll be free to truly be husband and wife."

"You're trouble, Tactician..." he smirked taking the letter. "You get your way but when we get back you and I will have our own private time. No work, nothing to distract us from one another."

"You have my word." her fiery gaze captured his deep blue waters, steam building between them.

"Well then, now that this matter is settled I'm going to take what I didn't get this morning my beautiful Goddess." her face flushed as he his lips captured hers and his hand slid beneath her gown to caress her legs.

"Chrom? I..." The caramel skinned queen was unsure how to react, adoring his affections and yet afraid of the new sensations she'd experienced with him.

"Shhh. Saphire. Don't be so tense. Relax with your husband." he smiled, assuring her, "I love you so much my beautiful queen." He moved in to kiss her once more, his dark blue hair falling about his forehead, her hands reaching for his cheek pulling him closer, accepting him with a kiss of her own.

"I love you Chrom." she broke away to say before reaching and undoing his shirt so they could enjoy an afternoon of passion in the weaning sun.