#okay so this is me having issues with how quickly everyone forgave gunter in-game.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

gunter slowburn fic excerpt ~ this is right after the events of the Vallite King when corrin's brought gunter back from the brink, and he's still touch and go in the healer's tents, only recently arriving back into consciousness.

naturally, ryoma decides to pay them both an unplanned visit.

unedited.

---

"Give me one good reason why this traitor is still breathing."

Raijinto was flickering rather ominously in the dim light, unsheathed.

"I wonder that myself." Gunter murmured soullessly, so quietly to be inaudible.

A holy rage-fire of possessiveness bubbled in Corrin's heart, and she took a step so bold toward Ryoma that he visibly blinked at her, distracted from his target.

"Please stand down, Brother. No violence, not here."

"... Right. Healer's tents, sure." To her greatest relief, he sheathed the lightning-sword instantly. Out of the very corner of her eye, she thought the old knight's lips twitched in grim humor at how meekly the samurai backed down.

"That still leaves the matter of this cretin." Ryoma's face hardened into stone when she bristled instantly. "Need I remind you he killed Scarlet? Almost killed you? Betrayed you? Almost killed all of us?!"

"I will talk to you about that, Brother." She tried to remain coldly diplomatic, biting down uglier words to match his shouting. "-- We will, I promise. Reparations will be made. But not now. Ryoma, he is recovering from death."

Corrin emphasized the last words with laced warning. Ryoma gave her a cutting glare in response. It was plainly written on his furious expression as to what he was thinking, only too polite and trained in Hoshidan stoicism to say it out loud.

He should have stayed dead.

"Dears, dears dears, if you are not a patient or a healer, this is not the time to be here." One of the older healers, a thin but severely dressed lady clapped her hands at Ryoma. The red-armored samurai all but jumped at the crack of sound, though Corrin thought it was more at the sheer audacity of his authority usurped. "You are disturbing our wards."

She didn't have to look at Gunter to know he'd be amused at the drama playing out by his feet, too. Corrin risked a discrete step closer to him, her hand searching for his, hidden by the bedside from the others. His immediate warmth from knobby fingertips that rubbed over hers soothed her like nothing could, and she stood a little straighter, her hand clasped in his.

Ryoma was muttering apologies that were trying not to morph into excuses to the healer, and the good lady was having none of it.

"Is this a mission critical discussion, fearless swordsman?"

"I-"

"Out you go."

"Excuse-"

"Yourself, yes."

#okay so this is me having issues with how quickly everyone forgave gunter in-game. #xander and ryoma fire emblem who were the two loveable blockheads whose suspicion of each other wrote the first half of the plot??? #HE LEGIT JUST BETRAYED THEM LOL and then they were suddenly cool with .... everything??? #shit i love the man more than is sensible and i still would have tossed him in a cell until after the final battle at MINIMUM. #like gunter's not /wrong/ but its not realistic for royals to suddenly change their worldview on 1 shady retainer bitching about past crime #gunter slowburn liveblog