The sun glistened off the freshly fallen snow as we exited our tent. Apparently, we weren't the only ones that had Christmas shopping left to do. Most of the shepherds were scrabbling around camp, carrying rolls of festive cloth and string to their tents to wrap up their gifts. As we walked to Chrom's tent, a clumsy Sumia ran right into me, pushing me into the cold icy snow.
"I'm so sorry Rin! Are you hurt?!" She blurted out, clearly flustered. Sumia quickly got up and brushed off her snow covered armor.
"Im ok. Just be more careful next time," I replied, grabbing the hand that Megan offered to me. Once I was back on my feet, I noticed to group of boxes scattered all over the ground.
"What's all this?" Megan asked before I could get the words out.
" Just some presents that need to be wrapped" she replied. Sumia started to quickly pick up the scattered packages. I decided to help her, you know, being in the Christmas spirit and all that. After they were all back in Sumia's arms, we parted ways and headed off on our original course.
" That was oddly generous of you," Megan said confused. " Usually you can't even stand to be in the same room as her."
" Well, I don't really feel like ruining Christmas Eve for other people, so I decided to be nice," I replied. Megan just smirked at my reply.
When we got to Chrom's tent, we found him discussing something with Frederick. They stopped as soon as we entered the room.
"Er... Good morning Rin. Megan." Chrom said nervously, nodding at us.
"Good morning milady,how are you faring?" Frederick said as he walked over to Megan and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed at his gesture.
"Rin and I are doing well enough" Megan replied, smiling, "though we're better still, now that we've seen the two of you" she raised her fingers to his forehead and swept a lock of Fredrick's hair further away from his face. There was a warm feeling of ease between them.
"You didn't hear any of that, did you?" Chrom continued.
"Not a word," I replied.
" Oh, good." He said, a look of relief on his face. Megan and I shared confused glances.
" We came to ask for permission to leave." Megan said, obviously wanting to get back on track to what we came here for.
"For what, may I ask?" Frederick chimed in.
" Umm...we need to...do some extra training...out of town!" I said nervously, hoping they wouldn't notice my flustered tone. I saw Megan give me a look in the corner of my eye. Smooth, it said sarcastically. " The next battle might be fierce, and we need to be prepared." I said with more confidence, showing Megan that I can get us to where we need to go.
"Fair enough," Chrom replied.
We lightly bowed as to say thank you and headed out of the tent.
" Rin," I heard a voice call behind me.
" Be careful."
"Always" I replied reassuringly.
Once we explained to the guards at the entrance of the camp where we were going, we headed off to the nearest town.