[ShiroSieg] A handful
Summary: Shiro just wants to hold Siegbert's hand. / pre-established relationship.
Note: AO3 link. Gift for @thecapturedspy (@munkustrap)! I hope you will like it, it’s full of fluff.~
One-shot: A handful
Shiro's plan was pretty simple, in fact, and didn't require formidable intellect to put it in motion. He wasn't known for his brains, after all, so he shouldn't do something that couldn't match with his personality and reputation. Asugi told him that he should be natural. Caeldori suggested he tried to be more romantic (how the hell, he didn't know). Kiragi thought that displaying his raw strength was already a token of his devotion. Yeah, right, Shiro wanted something better than all this, and he was gonna do it.
Holding hands shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.
***
Siegbert had the annoying habit of talking with his hands to illustrate his point, much like Shiro himself, but the difference was that his gestures were small, slow and quite repetitive, a simple flick of his wrist or a circling motion. Thus it proved very frustrating to just as brush their fingers together, let alone grab a hand. Shiro surprised himself by not noticing this habit before; Siegbert wasn't talkative, sure, but every couple of sentences was accompanied with a gesture. Great.
Right now they were spending time alone, sitting on a patch of grass away from camp, and Siegbert had been explaining the various plants that could been found in Nohr. He must have realized that Shiro was distracted since he stopped right in the middle of his speech.
“You are awfully quiet, today,” he said. “Which is a bit strange, since you usually display such an exuberant behavior.”
Shiro shrugged, his hands firmly grasping on grass (that made his shrug quite stiff and not very visible). He was leaning backward while Siegbert was sitting straight, like the good prince he was. How did they end up together, that was a question that many of their friends still had on their minds.
“Nah, just feeling the peace we're enjoying right now,” he offered. “With all this fighting we can't really relax like that very often, right?”
Siegbert nodded, a small smile stretching his lips.
“Yes, this is true. I am glad we are able to enjoy this together.”
Well, Shiro couldn't hold hands with Siegbert, but at least he got to see him smile, and that was worth it.
***
He felt more confident in his second attempt, because Siegbert requested he taught him how to properly wield a lance. Having been in the army for a few months now, the prince of Nohr decided that mastering both the sword and the lance would be a great asset on the battlefield, and Shiro couldn't disagree with him despite the fact it meant he was going to have a much harder time beating Siegbert in their next spar. A few lessons weren't enough to fully put them on equal footing, but well. Shiro liked winning.
But ten minutes into the lesson, Shiro wondered why Siegbert asked him for tips and teaching when his stance and moves were already downright great for someone who favored the sword. Siegbert had a really strong defense, not letting an inch of space between his weapon and his body for an opening, always ready to block any attack, and even though his offense was a little bit less perfect, he knew what he was doing and didn't attempt to chain hits at the cost of accuracy. That made him frown and scratch the back of his head, trying to find anything remotely useful to say. But Siegbert didn't give him the chance to criticize anything.
“Sig, I know you want to improve and all to become the perfect prince and soldier, but I think you don't need my advice at all,” Shiro sighed. “I mean, the way you're wielding your lance is almost perfect. As perfect as you can get, for a sword wielder.”
Siegbert seemed sincerely troubled by these words, as he stopped moving altogether and stared at his boyfriend. He must have expected something else. Shiro took a few steps towards him and mimicked Siegbert's moves with his own naginata.
“A lance is slightly different from a naginata, but the way we wield one or the other is basically the same.” He slashed an imaginary opponent vertically. “Your hands are on each third of the shaft, which gives you stability and strength. At this point you can do anything you want, you just need to practice with a weapon that needs two hands. Speed is important but I think that as long as you hit hard, it's not that necessary. And honestly, I might have trouble beating you now...”
Shiro swung his naginata around, a thrust on the left that transformed into a slash to the right, followed by a cut upwards and he finished with a descent supported by a small jump. He knew these moves by heart, after practicing them day and night with the prospect of beating his father one day—he didn't have anything else to do in his Deeprealm, after all. He was aware of Siegbert's sharp eye following his moves, and in the wake of the events he cast a mischievous look at the other prince and grinned.
“Wanna find out if you can beat me?”
Siegbert let out a small sigh, half-exasperated, half-fond.
“These are your words, not mine,” he reminded. “But I will gladly accept your challenge.”
In the end, Shiro completely forgot about his initial plan on taking Siegbert's hands to show him how to wield a lance, since he ended up on his butt while Siegbert was still standing.
***
The most obvious instance where Shiro could achieve his goal(s) without being suspicious would be helping Siegbert on his feet if he fell, but that wouldn't feel natural and the contact would last only so long. The whole ordeal was getting incredibly ridiculous, he noted in the back of his mind, but he couldn't just abandon an idea he would just eventually do. Their relation wasn't explicitly in the open, only their friends knew—he didn't feel comfortable telling his parents yet, and neither was Siegbert. So, could someone blame a guy when he wanted to touch his partner?
The third opportunity that was presented to him took form in traveling through a rather cold night. Corrin had decided they should at least stop in a more covered place to spend the night. Which meant Shiro could use any kind of shitty excuse to hold Siegbert's hand; being cold, making sure they wouldn't lose each other, that stuff. But there was no way he would resort to such sappy lines, it wasn't cool and not his style at all, right?
… It wouldn't hurt to try, though.
“It is getting darker and darker, I hope Lady Corrin knows where we are headed,” Siegbert commented.
“Well, there's my old man and your father with her, so they probably know.” Shiro shrugged. “Sleeping in the open doesn't bother me, but I guess some people prefer being under trees or behind rocks, I dunno, to feel safer.”
Shiro couldn't care less about natural protection since he always carried his naginata around, and getting out of a tent wasn't that hard, even after waking up.
“That is right. It does give a sense of security, although I think we do not really need it, given we are all skilled warriors.”
“Glad to see we're on the same page.”
The Hoshidan prince smirked, and Siegbert smiled a little, like he usually did when he was amused, sending a wave of satisfaction in Shiro's mind. This smile showed some unique characteristics, small but powerful in its meaning, always synonymous of contentment, and Shiro would do anything to preserve it.
So to hell his reputation. He reached for Siegbert's hand, not even looking where he was extending his, and he might have seen his boyfriend's face transform into an expression of surprise—
“Okay, we're going to stop here!” Corrin shouted in the front.
The sudden call made Shiro froze, then he quickly retracted his hand to scratch his head instead, ignoring Siegbert's curious look as he laughed it off.
“C'mon, let's go set up our tent,” he said.
Well, shit.
***
The day after, Shiro, upon leaving his tent, was ambushed by an irritated Ignatius who told him he was on breakfast duty, which Shiro had totally forgotten sometime in the night. He groaned and let out a long sigh, grabbing his naginata before heading towards the mess hall (well, the tent that served this purpose). Siegbert could have at least woken him up! The Nohrian prince was nowhere to be seen, so he was probably training somewhere or talking with his father.
Shiro was greeted with a scowl from Rhajat and a small smile from Forrest (was that a Nohrian feature?), so he went to work immediately. Cooking had never been his forte, if his burnt dishes were of any indication, but breakfast didn't require as much concentration and thoroughness as lunch or dinner. He simply needed to cut bread, grab some cheese, make onigiri, and he would leave the omelets to actual decent cooks. Nothing too extravagant, so.
Forrest was an efficient partner, Rhajat did things in her corner, and Ignatius was of great help despite his rough appearance. They finished quite fast, given that Shiro was late and that they had to produce enough food for an army of over fourty people. But they did it, and they gladly handed over bowls and food to people. When Siegbert arrived he was smiling, and Shiro grinned.
“Hey there,” Shiro greeted. “I was late because you didn't wake me.”
“Apologies,” Siegbert chuckled. “I will keep in mind you cannot be left unsupervised in the morning.”
And then he stood next to Shiro, grabbed a slice of bread and took Shiro's hand in his own as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. The Hoshidan prince's brain short-circuited and he stared at his boyfriend. Siegbert's smile widened.
“If you wanted to hold hands, even for no reason, you simply needed to ask, or to do it,” he said. “I do not mind.”
In the back Shiro thought he heard Forrest laugh quietly, but he didn't comment. Then he barked out a laugh himself, shaking his head as he realized these past few days were really, really stupid. He kissed the corner of Siegbert's mouth, to which the other prince hummed in satisfaction.
“Okay, I overthought a simple thing, sorry,” he offered.
His grip on Siegbert's hand tightened, and they both chuckled.
