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fire-emblem-heroes-supports · 4 years

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Takumi/Rhea C-A Support

A/N: Possible content warning for Takumi’s description of his nightmares. Nothing terribly graphic (here) but see here for context if you’re concerned.

Written by @sharyrazade

C SUPPORT

Takumi: [notices woman vocalizing] (Huh, Azura sounds different. Does she have a cold or something?)

Takumi: [following garden path] Azura! Is that you?

[Takumi approaches “Azura’s” general direction.]

Takumi: [not looking closely] That’s an interesting song, Azura. I’ve never heard you-

Rhea: [notices Takumi] Oh! Hello, young man.

Takumi: [somewhat embarrassed] Oh, sorry! I thought you were someone else!

Rhea: [smiles gently] Pay it no mind, child. I do not believe we have met before.

Takumi: Of course! Were are my manners? My name is Takumi, prince of the Kingdom of Hoshido.

Rhea: You may call me Rhea. In my own world, I am the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros.

Takumi: Hmm, that’s interesting. Back home, we have plenty of priests and monks, but no archbishops. I guess whoever is on the throne serves a lot of the same purposes, but no bishops.

Rhea: Your homeland sounds just fascinating to me. Would you mind if we discussed your country and its religious practices sometime?

Takumi: Not at all! In fact, I could probably talk about it all-

[Hinata and Oboro appear]

Hinata: Lord Takumi! Finally, we found you!

Oboro: Lady Azura was actually in the library. You know how quiet she can be.

Rhea: [smiles] These two are just delightful. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.

Takumi: Oh, yeah! These are Hinata and Oboro. They’re probably the best retainers anyone could ask for.

Rhea: It is a joy to meet you both.

Oboro: [stammers and blushes slightly]

[Hinata simply stares in awe at Rhea, mouth slightly agape.]

Takumi: Staring like that is very rude, Hinata. You were raised better than that!

Rhea: Pay it no mind. It was a pleasure speaking with you all.

[Rhea leaves.]

Hinata: [watching Rhea as she walks away] Damn!

Oboro: (She’s almost as gorgeous as Lord Takumi!)

Takumi: [sighs] I don’t know what I’m going to do with you two.

[Takumi and Rhea have reached support rank C.]

B SUPPORT

[On the archery range, the Summoner can be seen/heard fighting with an even more sour-than-usual Garon, waving Breidablik threateningly in the faces of Iago and Hans.]

Summoner: And didn’t I ban your goons from this place already?!

Garon: Hmph. You tolerate that one mad dog of a wyvern rider. I fail to see the difference. And you common rabble call us hypocrites!

Summoner: Yes, “tolerate!” But “tolerate” and “enjoy having around” have entirely different meanings! Do you have any idea how much effort it is keeping him away from Erika?! Or to keep Ephraim away from him in return?!

[One of the Fujin Yumi’s bolts misses the target completely, said target pockmarked with random marks- none of them at the center unusually.]

Takumi: [listlessly draws back the Fujin Yumi’s string, his focus seeming somehow impaired.]

Rhea: [approaches him from behind] Er…Prince Takumi…?

Takumi: [jolts to face her, looking noticeably fatigued.] What?! Oh! I’m sorry. It’s only you.

Rhea: [wearing a concerned expression] Are you alright? You look as though you slept poorly. Is something bothering you?

Takumi: [shortly] I did and no, nothing’s bothering me.

Rhea: If you’re certain.

Takumi: So what did you need, Archbishop?

Rhea: No need to be so formal. Rhea is fine. I simply wished to continue our conversation about your home and their faiths from the other day. If you’re not too busy, of course.

Takumi: Oh, of course! Well, where I come from, pretty much everyone has their own choice of god or exact practices, but nearly all of us worship the First Dragons in some capacity. The royal families of Hoshido and Nohr are even said to have been granted their blood as a symbol of their respective pacts.

Rhea: Interesting. Very interesting. (I knew it! I told Seteth it was not simply a hunch!)

Takumi: [glances sideways at Garon being yelled at by the Summoner] But about the Nohrians…they’re supposed to worship the same gods as everyone else on the continent, but…

Rhea: But what?

Takumi: I can’t put it into words that well…they’re just weird about it. I know, I know. Everyone says that about ways of doing things that aren’t their own, but those people just have a lot of weirdness surrounding the way they look at the world.

Rhea: Come now. I’m sure they cannot be that strange.

Takumi: Well, I could look past the Nohrian custom of giving three greetings or goodbyes, it’s not THAT strange. The fact that the Nohrian breeds of chickens are known to be paranoid and aggressive to the point of attacking people in flocks is a little interesting. Their strong taboo against wearing green to births, weddings, or funerals is pretty strange too. But it’s definitely weird for a country that’s about a third mountains and another third forests to have a strong aversion to, even contempt, for trees over a certain height.

Rhea: Is it…a specific type of tree, perhaps?

Takumi: No, just trees in general. If they can’t be avoided or cut down, I’m told a lot of old-timers will just reflexively spit whenever they pass one. Even one of their princes, one who called it an “infantile common superstition,” to me. He still avoids trees over a certain height on sheer instinct.

Rhea: Is green clothing considered a bad omen there as well?

Takumi: [shrugs] From the sound of it, yes. Someone else summoned from Nohr- a commoner- once mentioned in passing that his cousin showed up for his brother’s wedding in green and got beaten half to death for it. Talked about it like you’d talk about your friend losing his house in a flood- unfortunate, but unremarkable.

Rhea: Your neighbor seems to inspire some…passionate opinions. Just from your tone, I take it you’re no great lover of them.

Takumi: You could say that, I suppose. They did murder my father, after all. But what I think about them as a people…it’s not really much worse than the common opinions. That they’re loud, rude, arrogant, and obnoxious- generally speaking, of course. Honestly, you should ask my retainer, Oboro if you’re that curious about the topic. She has even less love for Nohr, but even then, she’ll still usually be polite when speaking to them.

Rhea: [shuts her eyes in contemplation briefly] I understand this may be something of a sensitive topic, but are you privy to the common Nohrian opinion of your people?

Takumi: [winces unconsciously] Oh, you know. The usual. That we’re filthy, depraved, sneaky, dishonorable, inscrutable, not really people, beasts in human skin, and so on. That we do horrible things to women and little girls as rites of passage, sacrifice live babies to the Dawn Dragon. All that good stuff.

Rhea: My goodness! Where in the worlds do they get these impressions?

Takumi: [sighs] I couldn’t tell you. From what I’ve learned, they mostly couldn’t either. You’d probably have to ask whatever demon gave them these ideas.

Rhea: Is that…what was bothering you?

Takumi: [visibly angry] No, it’s not. I told you. Nothing is bothering me.

Rhea: If you’re sure, child. If you ever need to confide-

Takumi: It’s nothing! NOTHING is bothering me, okay! So just drop it!

[Takumi storms off.]

Rhea: Oh dear. Perhaps I handled that poorly.

[Takumi and Rhea have reached support rank B.]

A SUPPORT

[In the same garden as earlier]

Takumi: Er, Rhea- Archbishop. I…I meant to apologize for that outburst the other day.

Rhea: [somewhat surprised] Oh! Prince Takumi! No, it is I who owes you the apology. I pried into a clearly sensitive topic and-

Takumi: No, the fault is mine. My conduct was unbecoming of a prince and a man in general, and there’s no excuse for that. I apologize for my behavior.

Rhea: Again, you need not ask my forgiveness.

Takumi: But you were completely right about one thing. Something WAS bothering me. And it continues to bother me.

Rhea: [nods sadly] I had suspected as much.

Takumi: Are you…sure you want to hear about this…? Pleasant is the very last thing this is.

Rhea: Yes, if it would help to put your mind at ease.

[Taking a deep breath, Takumi sits down next to Rhea, staring off blankly into the distance.]

Takumi: You had already figured out that I don’t sleep very well a lot of the time. Gods, it sounds so childish, but…I have very vivid nightmares. Violently vivid, in fact.

Rhea: [frowns slightly] No, I understand completely. I have…more than my share of sleepless nights, as well.

Takumi: Again, are you really sure you want to hear this stuff?

Rhea: If you’re inclined to share with me, I will listen.

Takumi: [exhales sharply] This is just one of them, but this recurring nightmare of mine…I can’t even describe it that well…but I could tell that it was in a town in Hoshido. The architecture told me that much. And strangely enough, I was this…ghost thing. I could feel the physical world- but I couldn’t really interact with it.

Rhea: That sounds…most unsettling.

Takumi: And I’m just getting started too! You know how I mentioned I could interact with the world? Oh, gods…there was so much blood. It must have been up to my shins! I keep wading through it to find the townspeople…it was probably the most terrifying thing I could imagine. So many bodies…they weren’t soldiers even, but civilians- old men, women, children! Most of them were missing ears, eyes, noses, hands, heads- half of them didn’t even have any skin left!

Rhea: [looking shocked and horrified] My goodness! That IS terrible! I scarcely have the words for it!

Takumi: [winces] It gets worse. Where did all that skin go? When I turned my head to face the “monument” the Nohrians had built in the town square, I was sick to my stomach. And Oboro…gods, the first time I had this nightmare, I couldn’t look her in the eye for a week! And Hinata…he was the worst of all! They weren’t just murdering him…they were TORTURING him! And you know what disturbed me most? It wasn’t even that I couldn’t even do a damn thing about it. It was that they were laughing as they did this!

Rhea: You poor thing…have you ever talked to anyone about these terrible nightmares?

Takumi: No, not really. And anyone I could, I…don’t think they could understand anyway.

Rhea: What do you mean?

Takumi: Well, my brother, for one. He’s so strong, that even in his nightmares, he’d hand those bastards their heads- literally! Same goes for my sister, too. And my other sister…no, I could do that to her. She’s sensitive enough that she’d probably start to have these nightmares just from me even starting to describe them! And her retainers would never forgive me either!

[Takumi starts to choke back tears, lying his head in Rhea’s lap.]

Rhea: [strokes his hair] You poor dear…you’ve suffered so terribly in silence.

Takumi: [sobs] Y-you must think I’m some kind of m-monster for having thoughts like this! I just want- all I ever wanted- was to protect Hoshido- protect my people!

[Takumi continues to sob as Rhea strokes his hair.]

Rhea: [sings] Iiiiiiiiin time’s flow…see the glow…of flames ever burning bright…on the swift…river’s drift…broken memories alight…

[Takumi sits back up, noticeably calmer.]

Takumi: That song…it’s so relaxing. That’s probably why I thought you were Azura!

Rhea: Yes, my mother would often sing it for me when I was young. It is quite calming to me, even to this day.

Takumi: My mother- well, my stepmother technically, but she was the only mother I ever knew- had a beautiful singing voice too.

Rhea: [smiles] She sounds just lovely. Inside and out.

Takumi: Yeah, she was. She was.

Rhea: And on the contrary, Takumi. I do not think of you as a monster or a demon in the slightest.

Takumi: Wait, why not?

Rhea: Because that fear and concern is born from a deep and sincere love of your people. I cannot- will not- blame you for that same love. I have encountered a great many powerful princes, nobles, merchants, and what have you, in my time. If even half of them had half of your concern for their own people, the world- all of our worlds- would be in far better condition.

Takumi: [finally smiles] Archbishop- Rhea…thank you. It’s…not exactly easy for me to open up to people, let alone about things like this. Again, thank you.

Rhea: Think nothing of it, child. If you ever require a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on, you may seek me out.

Takumi: And even though I came apart a bit there, I still meant every word I said. I don’t care what people want to call me. A monster, a demon, a zealot, whatever. My purpose is now and will always be to protect my people- from whatever wants to harm them.

Rhea: [smiles] A very admirable purpose.

[Takumi gets up and walks away.]

Rhea: (If only more humans could be like that young man instead of him... that thief.)

[Takumi and Rhea have reached support rank A.]

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem three houses #male and female heroes #takumi #rhea #takumi x rhea #submission

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