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caraidean · 5 years

Text

Riverside Talk

Participant(s): Mia, Ike (@radiantxhero)

Words: 6,459

Type: B-Support

Summary: Mia stumbles on Ike bathing in a nearby river during the events of Part 3 in Radiant Dawn, and they end up working through some of their concerns for the future.

It had been a long while since they’d come across a calm river to set up camp beside. Everyone, including their many mounts, could get a drink of fresh water. Clothes could be cleaned properly, and everyone would get a chance to clean themselves up without having to worry about their water supplies. Army life was simply like this, and while most everyone was used to it, that didn’t make it an enjoyable thing in the least.

The evening meal was finishing up, and Ike had squared away most of his more pressing duties for the night. Seeing as most people were either still eating, helping with camp maintenance or watches, or getting ready to retire for the night, Ike saw this as good a time as any to wash off in the river.

The sun had all but disappeared by now, but there was still a pink light to the sky before the darker hues of night started to creep in. With the flickering lights of several not too far off torches to navigate by, there was enough light for Ike to work by, and not feel too vulnerable to any potential threats.

Besides, he never went anywhere without a weapon, not even to go bathe.

He’d already left his armor and cape in his tent, his sword also joining them once he’d gotten everything set up for the night. Boots crunching against several stray stones in the gritty dirt by the river, Ike pulled his shirt and undershirt over his head in one go and tossed both haphazardly onto a gathering of mid-sized rocks nearby. Sitting down on one of the rocks, he undid his headband and placed the worn material atop his discarded shirt, tugging his boots and socks off next, followed soon after by his gloves.

Standing up, and running a hand through his hair – which only served to mess it up further – Ike started to undo his belt buckle and drop his trousers; he removed the small dagger he kept at his belt, setting it aside and within sight before he kicked his pants over to the rest of the pile of clothes he’d made. Then it was just a matter of getting off the last bit of underclothes, and he could get this over with.

Stretching his arms up over his head, Ike braced himself for the chill of the water – and the water itself, even though he wasn’t gong in very deep at all – when he heard the sudden exhalation of “damn” from off to his left.

Instinctively, Ike turned towards the voice, hand reaching for his dagger–

When he saw that it was Mia.

He blinked, relieved that it was a friend and not a stealthy foe. Ike relaxed his stance, wondering why she seemed so…focused? What was she looking at, exactly?

And then, the fact that he was buck naked in front of her slammed into his conscious thought like a bag of bricks.

“Gods, Mia–! What were you…I mean, you could have w-warned me–!”

Ike stammered wordlessly for a beat, before his rational thought kicked back into gear and he ducked behind what little protection the rocks gave.

This was so…awkward. He’d just wanted to wash off as quickly as possible, how had this happened?

“How long were you there…?” he finally managed to get out coherently, avoiding even looking at his friend, let alone having eye contact with her in this moment. Ike didn’t have much issue being seen naked by men; that wasn’t unusual, and it wasn’t like they’d see anything different. But women…

Ike wasn’t sure how to deal with any of the women in camp catching him like this, accidentally or not. He’d known Mia for some time now, of course, but he honestly wasn’t sure if that made this better or worse…

Mia was just grateful for a chance to sit by a river for a while again, truth be told. She’d wolfed down her dinner within moments, thanking Oscar and diving out of the tent with her normal displays of energy. She’d figured most would just think she was eager to get back to her tent and practice with her blade again, pinning her down to the one aspect of her personality. Then again, she was awfully keen about it. Perhaps she shouldn’t blame them too much for it.

Still, she was here now, idly resting her back against a few rocks with bare feet resting in the running water. She felt another pang of homesickness, the river reminding her of her home village in Begnion, the rickety bridge she’d run over and the willow tree she’d sit under and just think, dreaming about her future. Granted, back then she’d been fantasizing about all kinds of things, and right now she was flicking between memories and some of the new sword styles she’d seen in her travels, although two jarring thoughts kept interrupting her attempts to stay objective. She ground her teeth as they struck her again- an obsession with her commander that she just couldn’t seem to place, something that was getting far too overwhelming to just be respect for his abilities; and what she was going to do when this war ended. The two always seemed to follow each other, for reasons that she could never quite place.

She froze up when she heard someone approach, hand moving to the hilt of her sword - but she relaxed when she saw it was Ike. She let out a small chuckle and was about to speak up when he started to strip down, and she froze again instead, eyes wide. A light blush spread to her cheeks as, somehow, he didn’t see her off to his left. The rocks she was sitting between must have kept her hidden from view for a moment, although she didn’t really have the time to process this fact as the last of his clothes hit the rocks. Unable to stop herself from speaking, she let out a slightly awed sound as he stretched.

“Damn.”

She almost bolted to her feet when he turned to face her, but she relaxed at the same time he did. Still, she couldn’t quite help herself, eyes flickering down to his stomach and…admittedly, lower, until finally the brief moment of quiet was broken by Ike’s realization. She let out a slight wince as he dived behind the rest of the rocks, scrambling to her own feet and awkwardly walking over in his direction - eyes focused on the other bank of the river now as she cleared her throat.

“Sorry, Boss. I was going to, but then you were…you know…”

She was never going to live this down, she reflected grimly as she gestured in his general direction. She glanced over at him, vision focusing on his head this time as she let out a small laugh at the absurdity of the situation. “Boss, I was here before you were. You really need to check places like this better. I mean, think about it, what if I’d been someone else? …granted, from what I saw I think most of those Begnion loyalists Sigrun brought with her wouldn’t really complain about the free show, but…"

She groaned and ran a hand over her face, wincing. She hadn’t really pegged herself for someone who, well…got off on this. Or was overly interested with it in general, really. Eventually she rallied her thoughts, shrugging slightly as toes curled in the sand of the river’s bank. "C'mon, boss, I’ve seen you with your shirt off often enough. It’s not that much weirder.”

Ike very deliberately hid his face in his hand, fighting back the urge to groan.

He didn’t really know what to do here. Ike had grown up with a majority of men; he was used to changing around them, bathing around them, and everything in between that came about from living in close quarters. Some situations were awkward, while others were just commonplace daily life. But, for the longest time, it had only been Mist and Titania around – one being his sister, the other being like a mother figure. As a child, Ike knew he’d been naked around both women, but that was when he was a kid.

He was far more aware of things now.

“Y-Yeah, I seem to have gotten a bit lax in checking the area…,” Ike muttered, finally taking his hand away from his face, though his shoulders hunched in a way to keep up some sense of hiding even with Mia so close.

Ike was kicking himself for not doing a better job of securing the spot he was going to use. While this was painfully embarrassing, he had gotten lucky with Mia being the one here; if it had been someone else, someone not a part of their group, he could have been in a bad situation.

“Gods, I…don’t even want to think about that…”

Really, he didn’t. Mia was one thing, they were at least familiar living alongside each other – but any of Sigrun’s pegasus knights walking in on that? Ike was fairly certain he’d die on the spot.

An even more frightening thought was Aimee coming across him in a compromising position like that…

Ike was silent for a while, debating on what to do now. Hiding behind the rocks was rather pointless, as Mia had already seen everything there was to see. Most of the time, Ike didn’t even really mind being seen in the nude, but as soon as it was brought to attention, he got uncomfortable.

“I…suppose it’s not much different…and, well, you…you already saw. Just, ah – let me…let me get into the water,” Ike rushed out, not allowing himself time to think about it as he stood up and moved back toward the river. He kept his gaze straight ahead, and even once he was in the water, made sure his back was to Mia – if only to maintain a little face, as he could feel his face was flushed.

Clearing his throat, and starting to vigorously scrub dirt from his skin, Ike hesitantly spoke up, “…What were you doing out here all by yourself?

“Hey, easy.” Mia chuckled as her commander started to grow more despondent, drawing a little bit of amusement from how he realized he was close to having screwed up. She personally still felt a little embarrassed, but she was starting to rally herself now that she saw the feeling was mutual. He was lucky there hadn’t been some kind of confrontation, she realized, glancing at the treeline on the other side of the river. Had their scouts even reported back yet? No, they must have done - her commander wasn’t that careless, after all. He must have known the coast would be relatively clear if nothing else before letting his guard down like this.

“Must have been a long day for you.” She said, trying to distract the two of them from the situation as he practically fled into the water. She kept her eyes drilled on the small of his back, not really wanting to look away but at the same time knowing that…well, looking anywhere else felt almost intrusive at this point. It was stupid, she’d admit, but she shrugged and sat down on the rock he’d put his clothes on, dipping bare feet back into the river and glancing over at him once she was sure he was submerged.

That was better.

“…I came to think.” She admitted after he asked her, tilting her head and glancing down at her reflection in the water. “This place…it kinda reminded me of home, you know? Where I come from. In Begnion, I mean.”

She was stumbling over her own words, and she had to frown and pick apart the ones she actually wanted to say. Gods, but maybe she should have taken Soren up on one of those times he’d snidely offered to teach her how to speak our language properly instead of, as he said, stab it with a sword until a sentence formed. Maybe then she’d be able to actually figure out what words she wanted to use. “Remember back when we were on Sanaki’s payroll, when we went after those slavers? I grew up in the town next to the river we fought at. I kinda slipped away to say hi to my folks afterwards, that’s why I was running late - I know, I should have just brought it up, but…”

And the words were away from her again, and she groaned in frustration and rapped some knuckles against her forehead. “I don’t know, boss. It seemed kinda cruel to ask if I could go see my parents since it was just a few months after…you know…”

She was making a mess of this, and she hastily changed the subject back to what he’d originally asked before she put her foot in her mouth any further. “I’ve just been thinking a lot, you know? About what I’m going to do when this war’s over. I think…I think I’m sick of this part of the life. All the armies, and the politics, and killing people who haven’t done anything wrong because their bosses absolutely sucked. Sometimes I just think about…going somewhere where this won’t happen again, and getting paid to scare off bandits and train. But I don’t know if I can leave everything behind, you know?”

Frustration was seeping into her voice and she kicked the water with a foot, sending some splashing towards her boss. “Not just my parents, but everyone in the Mercenaries. Titania, Mist…even Boyd, bless him. Shinon, I’d be less sad about, but there’s always one isn’t there? So I came here to try and figure it out. I always thought better when I was next to the river as a kid, that’s all.”

She huffed and stood up, ignoring any protests as she hooked her fingers under her shirt and started to peel it off. Wasn’t her fault if seeing him wash had reminded her she was an absolute mess physically today. Besides, the water had seemed warm enough when she’d dipped her feet in there. With any luck, it’d distract him from what they were talking about while they were at it. “Alright, boss, budge up. I should probably get washed too while we’re at it.”

Ike felt mildly better now that he was in the water, and could focus the majority of his attention on just cleaning up while keeping an ear out for what Mia was saying.

Pausing for a moment in scrubbing vigorously at his arm, dirt and sweat slowly clearing off with the help of water, he spoke up, “…Every day is a long day. For…for everyone, I think…” Certainly, being the one that everyone was looking to made things…exhausting. But, Ike wasn’t so self-involved that he was unaware of the wear that this all put on everyone in camp; from simply marching, to actual battles, to everything in between. It was tiring for everyone involved, not just himself.

Really…Ike didn’t mind the physical part of being a genera or commanderl. He enjoyed sparring with people, making sure soldiers were up to snuff and everyone knew how to operate in the tactical maneuvers Soren came up with. He had no problem setting up camp, helping move supplies around and whatever else was needed.

It was most everything else that rubbed him the wrong way.

Ike didn’t feel comfortable giving orders to those outside of the Greil Mercenaries, even if they were technically soldiers under his command. He didn’t feel he was the best to be making decisions, ultimately. And, even with Soren and Titania’s help, balancing and keeping track of everything in an army was…overbearing in several ways.

Being in the position he was now, Ike just felt that he didn’t quite fit, and so he was chafing against the role despite accepting it.

Reminded her of home, huh?

“I see…,” he murmured, voice quiet as he listened to Mia’s next words intently. This, too, was part of his duties.

Ah, of course…That made sense. Ike often forgot that Mia was from Begnion originally; having met her in Gallia, and then the war ramping up, that simple fact was often left somewhere in the back of his mind. It made no difference to him, of course – Mia was Mia, and she was a part of their little group.

Cupping water in the palm of his hand, Ike splashed at the back of his neck, his hand lingering there for a moment. “…While it would have been good to know, you aren’t…obligated to bring up personal things to me, you know that, right?” he put forward, shifting in the water to glance at the woman. He appreciated her…thoughts, not wanting to hit any sore spots with him, but it wasn’t necessary. She wasn’t the cause of his father’s death, and Ike wouldn’t have begrudged her for wanting to visit her own family.

Ike made a noise in the back of his throat, somewhere between understanding and mildly concerned.

He could fully understand getting burnt out on this sort of work. Wars were…they weren’t anything the regular person wanted to be a part of – at least, that’s what Ike liked to think. Even if you came out on top, so much happened on all sides…so much death and hurt, destruction and Gods’ knew what else. What was it really worth? It was never as simple as saying that side is doing something wrong. Ike had thought that when he was younger, but that lesson had quickly been learned in the Mad King’s war.

It was never that simple. Innocent people got hurt. Those who didn’t even want to fight were often forced to. People who merely wanted their families to be safe and happy were killed for a cause they may or may not have believed in.

That sort of thing…it weighed on your soul, no matter what you tried to tell yourself.

Ike was about to speak up, but he noticed Mia starting to remove her shirt, and he stoically averted his gaze as she continued to undress.

He could tell she was trying to shift the subject. And, while Ike would allow it to be put off for a bit, this was a topic that seemed to need to be talked out. If only to give her an idea of what she needed to do for herself. Ike would…there would definitely be a loss, were Mia to leave the company – she might have been the newest member to Greil’s Mercenaries, but she had fit in fast. But…if it was what she needed after all of this, Ike wasn’t going to stop her, even if it would be difficult.

Quickly dunking his head back into the water to get his hair wet, and reemerging shaking himself like a dog, Ike mused out loud, “You know…if you went somewhere for a while…there’s nothing saying you can’t come back.”

It was something he’d been casting more than an idle thought to himself, really…

Letting water drip from his hair and over his face, Ike eventually blinked his eyes open and glanced over to see if Mia was in the water yet. “Where…would you go? If you did leave, where would you want to go after all this mess?”

“I know I don’t have to bring stuff like that up with you, boss.” Mia said, huffing a little at that statement. She paused in a half-dressed state, trying to figure out if she could express exactly why she’d been so hesitant to bring anything personal up around Ike even years after they’d met. It was like it was…she didn’t know. It wasn’t just about his parents, she knew that much - it felt like something she wasn’t sure he should know. Like it would start to shift their relationship from professionals-slash-friends to something else. She couldn’t figure it out. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t stupid to wander off without telling anyone where I was heading. Titania ripped into me for wandering off when we got back, said she was a few minutes away from sending out a search party to drag me back by my heels. Guess she was worried some of the slavers had grabbed me while everyone was distracted, like I’d let that happen.”

She finished stripping down, resting shirt and pants next to his on the rock before slipping into the water behind him with a slight groan as the chill seeped into her bones. Gods, but that felt good - and she winced, growing aware of a half-dozen scrapes and bruises she’d picked up in the months of fighting. Maybe a proper physical from Rhys or Mist was overdue at this point, but she’d neglected healing anything other than the major wounds to try and keep up a good impression. She was starting to think that a number of the common soldiers were believing that the Greil Mercenaries were invincible, which was a scary thing to be considered.

Her mind flicked back to the words she’d said before she started to strip down, sighing a little as she turned to face him. He wasn’t looking anywhere near her, was he? That frustrated her for some reason, and she filed that away under emotions that she’d try and figure out another day. She had a lot of those these days.

“Relax, boss, I’m in-” She started, but he ducked his head under the water before she could finish and she couldn’t help but let out a snort. He brought his head back from the water as she sank a little more into the river, water resting around her neck as she laid her head back, purple hair spreading around her like a halo as she laughed a little more.

“Heh - think you’re wet enough, Boss?” She chuckled, bemused before she concentrated on his words again. She stood up straight again, the water level shifting to just under her shoulders as she tilted her head to get a better look at him. Fingers that were meant to be washing herself shifted to trace a mish-mash of scars over her right collarbone, an injury that she remembered telling him about…gods, years ago now. That was strange to think about.

*I wonder if he remembers how I said it happened?*

That wasn’t relevant. She blinked a few times to focus, a scowl flicking over her face as she berated herself for drifting away again. At least he’d dragged the subject back to what she’d tried to drop - it’d be a distraction from whatever her thoughts kept drifting to right now.

“I could come back.” She admitted, sighing and closing her eyes. Maybe it’d be easier if she wasn’t looking at him. “But it’s…it’s all weird, boss. Like I’m scared if I leave everyone else is gonna leave too. Like I’ll head back to the Retreat one day and you’re not gonna be there.”

Well that was an awkward stumble, and she caught herself right after, eyes snapping open. “Uh, someone’s not gonna be there, I mean. Either because they left too, or because I wasn’t there to watch your-*their* back. You remember how Soren almost got stabbed when we saved Lucia, right?”

She needed to clear her head again. This was distracting. She scowled for a moment again before copying him, forcing her head underwater and rising up after a few seconds with a loud gasp, hair plastered to her face and chest. God, but that felt better, and the cold was like a shock to her system as well. She shouldn’t be saying anything like that again for a moment. Still, he gave her an option to change the subject again, and she gladly took it.

“Honestly? I’m not sure.” She admitted, frowning. “I might try and hunt down that village that Stefan guy said was in the desert, but I’m not so good with the heat. Guess there isn’t really anywhere I can hide without getting dragged into something by some country or another - maybe some weird random part of Gallia?”

There was an even crazier option, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to consider it in anything other than brief passing. “They say that Micaiah has some kind of Laguz from across the desert by her side. Maybe I’d just…ya know. See if I can get away from Tellius entirely. Not the desert, that’s stupid, but…maybe there’s some islands across the ocean I could go to? Just lay low for a few months each year?”

Ike couldn’t help snorting in amusement as Mia brought up Titania’s reaction at the time. “That explains why she was so frazzled after everything with those slavers,” he commented, thinking back on how fidgety his deputy commander had been once they had completed the job. Few things could shake Titania’s calm-headed persona while on duty, but one of their group suddenly disappearing after a battle like that would certainly do it. Even though Mia had been a recent addition, Titania still looked out for her like any of the others – Ike tended to think it was a point of pride to the former Crimean knight.

Ike sympathized when he heard the groan Mia let out when she finally entered the water. It was a bit brisk, but clean was clean, and after so long, it felt good to get all the dirt and grime off.

Ike thought for a moment before responding with a sage, “Just wet enough to get the job done.” Really, he didn’t want to stay in the water longer than he had to in order to get clean. Now that it was safe to fully glance in Mia’s direction without infringing on her…privacy, Ike shifted around in the water to face his companion.

He noticed the way she massaged at the scar bundle of scars on her shoulder, the brief thought that the old injury was bothering her flitting through his head.

Instead of bringing it up, however, Ike listened as Mia went into a bit more depth about why she was having a hard time deciding what she wanted to do. It was a fair point she made – when Shinon had left, so had Gatrie; the two hadn’t even stayed together once they had left the Greil Mercenaries.

Ike hummed in understanding, the sound sort of melancholy. “We…We always seem to make our way back together, even when we stray away for a while. As for…your other concern, it is a risk of the job. It could happen if one of us were to leave, it could happen if we all stick together for the rest of our days.” He hadn’t really meant for it to sound so fatalistic, but it was simply how things were in this sort of work. You could be the best around, and still make some sort of miscalculation or get into the wrong situation that ended poorly for you or a comrade.

That was all he could think to say in the moment, and then Mia was dunking herself underwater, effectively putting an end to that topic for the time being. He drifted from side to side until Mia surfaced once more, purple hair sticking to her face, neck and shoulders in a wet drape.

“Really? All the way out there in the desert?”

That was a bit of a surprise. Ike hadn’t thought there was all that much out there to see or explore, at least that interested him enough to deal wit the sand and the heat. A Laguz from the desert, though…That was interesting. But…was there anything out there on the far islands?

“That’s…not really a bad idea, I suppose. Not sure what there is to be found out on those islands, but finding a quiet place to lay low for a few months sounds…well, pretty nice to me. Just someplace to…live normally for once, for a while…Can’t say I haven’t given it a thought myself, Mia,” he admitted, idly waggling his fingers in the water, creating ripples.

“Wet enough to get the job done, sure. Gods, your hair must be disgusting if you have to dump your head in the water like a dog to get it clean.” Mia teased him, brightening up a little. She reached out and prodded at one of his bare shoulders with a finger, keeping a respectable distance even as she laughed. “You look like you enjoy it.”

Still, she listened to his words as closely as she could manage. It was like he was trying to avoid saying something that would ruin the conversation, either about their own mortality or about the idea of them all splitting up and moving away from each other. She wasn’t sure which of the two options was more scary to her, to be honest - she could barely imagine living without the rest of the Mercenaries these days, and unlike them she’d grown up apart and away from them.

It was nice to feel like she belonged somewhere.

“Yeah.” her eyes traced his own movements as he wagged his fingers in the water, a frown on her face. This was such a depressing conversation, really, but it was something that needed to be said. It was nice to feel that she wasn’t alone in this much - in wanting to get away from the war, from the violence and the horror and the relative innocents she knew she cut down whenever she was facing something other than bandits. She let out a groan, rolling her shoulders as she decided to finally try and get clean properly, grabbing the coarse cloth from where she’d left it on the rock by the river and rubbing it over her arms with a grimace. IT wasn’t the most thorough wash she’d have ever had, but it’d do - and the act itself took away from how strange she felt, essentially naked with Ike close by. She seriously needed to have a good, long talk with some healer or another about these intrusive thoughts she kept having about him, it was starting to get disruptive.

“Apparently, anyway. If you listen to the soldier’s rumor mill too seriously you’ll be convinced about a whole bunch of stupid things.” She forced a laugh as she scrubbed her other arm, eyes flickering back to where Ike’s fingers were idly playing with the water. A plan on how to get herself out of this conversation was starting to form, she just hoped he wouldn’t take it poorly. “Silly things like, I don’t know, that Micaiah’s actually a dragon in disguise. Or that Pelleas is some fake puppet propped up by his tactician, as if anyone would want to say they were Ashnard’s kid. Or that the Dawn Brigade are even remotely on our level when it comes to a one on one fight.”

The last one was delivered with the light air of a joke, but it was followed by one that was clearly much more mirthful. Maybe it’d even give her commander the briefest of moments to react before she moved, although given how deep in thought he seemed to be she figured that wouldn’t be the case. “Or that it’s impossible to catch the great General Ike off guard because he’s got eyes in the back of his head!”

Mia lunged through the river, hands shifting to playfully bring the water splashing at her commander’s face before she darted forwards. Careful not to get too close, she wasn’t completely blind to their situation, she grabbed the hand that had been fiddling with the water on top of the river and kept it clasped in a wristlock as she beamed.

��Just relax, boss. We’ll figure out what to do when the war’s over when it’s over.” She said sincerely - before tightening her wristlock a little, free hand splashing more water in her commander’s face. “So come on! Enough of this serious crap, let’s have some fun for a change!”

Ike merely shrugged, not denying that he was rather filthy. “It’s been a good while since I last had a chance to clean up proper, so…I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a mess,” he responded, not really caring one way or the other. He wasn’t about to waste water on the road just to feel clean, and while among soldiers, what was there to feel self-conscious about?

There was a brief silence descending on them, but it wasn’t quite as uncomfortable as Ike figured it could be. It wasn’t an easy conversation by any stretch, but that didn’t make it bad. Mia took advantage in the small break to focus on cleaning up – the entire reason they were both in the water now. He watched her for a moment or two, before sliding his gaze away from the cloth moving against her skin. He ran fingers through his wet hair, now a good deal less dirty, rubbing behind his ears as well out of childhood habit.

It did, at least, feel good to not be covered in dirt so thoroughly that it was almost a second skin.

Ike snorted at all the ridiculous examples Mia gave, knowing that at least one or two were ones that had actually been bandied about. He caught Mia’s sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t have the time to react, especially in the water. Ike spluttered as a miniature wall of water crashed over his face, flailing back in the water like a drowning cat before he regained his mentality, unable to really move too far away since Mia had captured his wrist with a hand.

“Relax?” he eventually sputtered out, blinking water from his eyes. There was no time to relax. Not yet, and possibly not ever. “…I suppose, though I’m sure Soren would frown at our lack of proper planning. But, you aren’t wrong. We can’t do any of it yet anyways, so why worry about it right no–” Another splash to the face interrupted his words, though he had the sense this time to close his eyes. “Fun, huh?” Ike growled out, using his free arm to hit the water’s surface at an angle, dousing Mia in the process.

“Pft. Soren’s idea of relaxing is to stress out even more in the hopes of eventually going full circle. So far, no luck.” Mia waved a hand absently after cutting him off. She grinned at him impishly, keeping his wrist locked in her hand and tilting her head. “So please try not to listen to him about everythin-GAH!”

She hadn’t actually expected Ike to follow through on that, and she couldn’t help but flinch back more than expected when he actually did splash her. The grip on his wrist slipped and she fell backwards into the river with a mild shriek, surfacing a moment later with purple hair plastered to her face. An attempt to look indignant failed, Mia rising out of the water with hands on her hips as she stared slightly to Ike’s right.

Perhaps she didn’t have the best sense of direction. “That’s more like it, Boss! Now just stay there, I’ll-”

She lunged forwards halfway through the sentance, missing her commander with a muffled curse when she realized she just hit water again. This time she ran her hands through her hair, collecting it behind her head in a loose ponytail and too caught up in the moment to care about modesty as she levelled a determined glare at him.

“If anyone hears about that lunge, you dodged, understand?” She muttered, slowly starting to circle him in the water. “Feeling better now, Ike?”

Ike choked on a burst of laughter as Mia fell back with a shriek, a hand covering his mouth as she resurfaced, looking anything but formidable at the moment. Of course, his reaction didn’t last long when Mia rose out of the water, throwing any sort of modesty out the window as she practically put it all on display. The hand covering his mouth immediately swiped up to cover his eyes out of habit.

“I’ll stay here, but you stay there–!”

Of course, Mia wasn’t listening, and Ike heard her splash down into the water just beside him, causing Ike to start heading closer to the shallow edge of the river.

“Trust me, I won’t breathe a word!” Ike said, caught between trying to be respectful and trying not to laugh at how seriously she was taking this. It was highly unconventional, but he did feel a bit better than he had. “I do, but I really think we should try to focus on getting clean and not…er, muddying up the waters?”

“Do you feel better? You were the one out here, thinking, before this after all.”

“You better not. I’ve got a reputation to keep. None of these count towards the win/loss record, too, right?”

It was meant to be a statement, but came out more of a hopeful question. Mia often found herself getting caught up on the stupidest things more often than she used to these days, like she was grasping at straws to keep herself happy. Gods, but she really needed a break from…this. That was what this whole conversation had been about, hadn’t it?

Still she blinked at his last question, tilting her head and sighing. Did she feel any better? Well, the goofing around had certainly helped release a little stress, but she wouldn’t say it fixed all her worries. Gods know she still had that. At some point she remembered her nudity and glanced down, blinking before suddenly skirting away back towards the rock she’d left her clothes on.

“Eh. A bit.” She conceded eventually as she slid out of the river, trying to keep the terrain between the two of them. She toweled off as fast as she could, throwing her top on haphazardly and adjusting the skirt. She might look a disheveled mess, but at least she was a clean mess. Once she was sure he was either decent or hidden - trying not to think too hard about why that made her a little disappointed - she rose back up from behind it and gave him a smile, leaning her head against the rock.

“It was nice to talk with someone about it, you know? And…yeah. Maybe it’d be good for me to get away once this is over. Or all of us, who knows.” She snorted a little. “Good luck getting your sister to come, though. You’d probably need to let her bring Jill, and then before you know it the entire army would just be following you again out of habit or something.”

#Spirited Swordswoman;Mia #History Had Its Eyes On You;Thread Archive #radiantxhero #Sword Diaries;Mia Thread Archive #I Love More Than Your Technique; Mia & Ike

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