Fire Emblem Leo x Reader

Chapter 1 - Pave the Way

"Ugh, I can't do this!" You slammed your hands on the old wooden table. You were just trying to figure out this stupid equation for school, but the numbers and ideas stopped flowing from your pen. You ran your hands through your hair. How were you going to be able to support yourself in the future if you couldn't even handle this one equation? 

"Are you alright, dear?" You heard your mom call out to you from the other room. 

"Yes, sorry mother." You replied in monotone. Oh, how you loved your parents. In order to get you a good education here in the slums of Nohr, it cost them both an arm and a leg. They wanted you to succeed, to have a better life than they did. You really admired them for that.

You looked back at your equation. Maybe if you used a derivative? Yes... yes!!! Finally, a breakthrough!

Numbers began to rearrange themselves on the page as you scrambled to find the right answer.  "Silly me," you whispered quietly to yourself. "It was 42 and a third all along!"

---

You held the dry piece of parchment in your hands. Finally, after years of hard work, tears, sleepless nights, you held your certification. You have graduated and finished school; you were on to greater things. You sat with your class of 22 other students in rickety wooden chairs in the middle of the town circle. The head of the school stood by the center fountain, reading a long and boring speech to everyone in attendance.

Your eyes scanned the small crowd of parents. You found your smiling parents, absolutely beaming in your direction. They seemed so proud of you. You looked down to that piece of parchment in your hands. What were you even going to do with it? A wave of utter anxiety and fear swept over your entire body. It felt almost like jumping into freezing water. What were you going to do to support yourself and your loved ones?

You sat through the short graduation ceremony, racking your brain. You studied mathematics, probability, and statistics. What jobs had those things in Nohr? A math teacher? Maybe. You didn't want to work with children, they wore you out. Plus, they never made enough money. Maybe you could help with financials for a company? Sounded boring, but if it put food on the table, sure. 

You looked at your parents once more. Tears filled your eyes. They sacrificed so much for this stupid piece of paper. You tore your eyes away from their direction to some Nohrian guards patrolling through an alleyway to your right. Guards... army... An idea struck your brain.

You were going to join the Nohrian Military! Yes! They must need people to handle financials or to oversee the armory. Relief took the place of the anxiety deep in your chest.

---

You rubbed your hands together nervously as you looked down into Castle Krakenburg. The architecture itself looked intimidating. But you weren't going to back down now, though. You reached the gigantic, dark, steel fence. You handed the guard your identification papers.

"Why are you here, peasant?" he gruffed at you.

You shrugged off his rude remark. You didn't want to mess up your chances at a job by getting into a meaningless fight. 

"I am here to apply for a job in the Nohrian Military." you replied.

He snickered at your answer. "If you insist." He pulled a lever, opening the gate for you. He handed back your papers, 

You walked into Castle Krakenburg, through its towering entrance and by its terrifying statues. Before you stood humongous wooden double doors. Two more guards opened the doors slightly before you. You crept into the main hall, certificate in hand.

The castle interior was gorgeous! Red carpet flooded the hall, gold hung everywhere like stars. It was a glaring contrast to the dusty and dank home you grew up in.

"Hello. How may I help you today, young lady?" a man with long, black hair asked. No way, it was the royal adviser, Iago! Oh no, you had to impress him. He surely had high standards for the jobs you were going for.

"Hello, sir Iago," you curtsied. "I was hoping to apply for a job." you answered with as much fake confidence as you could muster.

"Oh, I see..."

You handed him your papers. "I was hoping you had a position open for an accountant or for the head of armory or anything with numbers really." Ugh, rambling already. Hopefully your nervousness didn't show.

"Statistics?" he asked after a while. "That's rare among mathematicians. However, we don't need anyone overseeing the armory now or an accountant. Besides, those jobs aren't open to civilian peasants."

You felt yourself grinding your teeth. Man, everyone seemed to love rubbing in your family's financial situation. You felt that cold wave sweeping over you once more.

"However, we are in dire need of a new tactician. One of them was recently killed and the other recently retired." 

A tactician? Seriously? You didn't want to be responsible for other people's deaths! This was insane! 

You thought about your other options. There was nothing more you could really do in the military, you would have to find a job elsewhere. But was the role of a tactician so bad? From rumors in you town, you worked side-by-side with the royals. Plus, they probably got paid a decent wage.

"Alright," you mumbled out. "If a tactician is what Nohr needs, here I am." 

"Lovely," he breathed. "Follow me."

He led you down a long, dimly lit hallway. Portraits of the royal family littered the walls. Lovely. He stopped, opened a door, and held it open for you to enter.

You quietly thanked him and looked up. That feeling of drowning in ice water you have been feeling all this week could never compare to what washed over you in this moment. It was the royal family; Prince Xander and Leo stood at a table in the middle of the room, looking at a map. Princess Camilla was busy playing with Princess Elise's hair on a cushioned bench in the back of the room. 

Prince Leo looked up at you. "Who might you be?"