Chapter Text
The mask was off.
( BGM Playing – Victory Fanfare -Comsos- from Dissidia Final Fantasy )
The Ex-SOLDIER's mind snapped as he noticed that the Hero King's mask was off and IMMEDIATELY hid it away behind his back. And raised his chest up from the ground, smiling in victory. "I did it! I won! I-"
( BGM Playing – Duke from Tales of Vesperia )
The blue-haired fighter raised his head up, hearing Cloud's boasting. The spiky-haired man quickly shushed in silence as he noticed who this fighter truly was. It was a young woman. A gorgeous, beautiful young woman.
"A woman…? Pretending to be the Hero King? She…she looks very cute…platonically speaking." Cloud thought to himself as he couldn't stop staring at her.
"Wh-What? Stop staring at me and say something!" The woman said weakly.
"Huh? Oh. Uh…sorry." Cloud said as he shook his head, got off the ground, and lend out a hand to raise the woman up. "Cloud. Cloud Strife."
The woman was surprised to see the man she fought against being surprisingly nice. "…Lucina." Lucina replied as she took Cloud's hand and was raised off of the ground.
( BGM Playing – Hollow from Blazblue Calamity Trigger )
"You fought pretty good. I-I mean, you did pretty good." Cloud said as he corrected and embarrassed himself.
"You did good as well." Lucina said, giggling.
"It seems that you BOTH did pretty good!" Palutena stated as she appeared next to the duo out of nowhere.
"WAAH!" Both fighters shrieked upon being surprised by the Goddess of Light.
"…In making a mess out of this place, that is." Palutena said, talking about the crater that the three are currently standing in. "Be glad that Viridi isn't here, otherwise she'd be going on yet another rant how humans destroy everything during battles and nature is dying because of them and yadda yadda yadda…"
Cloud and Lucina looked to each other in confusion. "Who's Viridi?" Cloud asked, as the description of this human-hating goddess was quick to remind him of a certain silver-haired swordsman he had a personal vendetta against.
"Viridi is-"
"No wait…" Cloud held up a hand, interrupting the green-haired goddess. "On second thought, I don't care to know and I'm-"
"Not interested?" Lucina interrupted.
"Y-Yeah." Cloud was a little flustered. "Not interested in knowing who this Sephiroth-wannabe is."
"Who's Sephiroth?" Both women asked.
"It's a long story. A very, very long story." Cloud replied, as he hid his face and glared to the ground, thinking about the many…horrible events that transpired because of Sephiroth. The more he thought about him, the angrier he became as he started to grit his teeth, clench his fist, and-
"Cloud? Are you okay?" Lucina said his name in a concerned tone of voice, noticing his body trembling.
"Huh? Oh. Sorry. Sorry you had to see that." Cloud stopped trembling and took a deep breath.
"Oh, it's alright. I-I've made some enemies of my own and…many of my allies have been slain because of them. Including…including my…my…" Lucina grabbed her cape and hid her face, not wanting Cloud or Palutena to notice that she was now crying, thinking about all the people who were killed by Grima. Especially her father, Chrom.
Palutena and Cloud gave each other a reassuring nod, and hugged Lucina together, comforting her. Lucina let go of her cape and cried onto Cloud's shirt.
"(It seems we have a have few things in common. We've both put on a bravado at least once or twice in our lives, we've lost those who were close to us, we're both on equal footing in terms of combat…)" Cloud thought to himself. Lucina, wiped the tears of her face, found herself in the comfort around Cloud's arms and behind Palutena's…*ahem*…treasures. The blue-haired woman was blushing hard.
"Um…Th-Thanks for the comfort, you two can let me go now…" Lucina said quietly. Both the spikey-haired man and the green-haired goddess obliged.
"(Ahhh…In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned such a hateful goddess of nature to two, scarred warriors…)" Palutena thought somberly to herself. Cloud looked her, then just simply shrugged and smiled, as if to say "Hey, I know you didn't mean to dig up bad events from our pasts." The goddess nodded cheerfully in response to this.
"Well, I better go find Master Hand to have this arena fixed. Oh, but before I do…" Palutena stated, as she tapped the bottom of her staff to the ground twice, summoning the Buster Sword and Falchion near their respective users. Both warriors thanked her in response. "You need to get ready for your next battle. It's somebody who's been wanting to see you." Palutena looked and said to the Buster Basher.
"…Alright. I wonder when I'll be done." Cloud asked, looking over to Lucina. "Oh, right…" Cloud grabbed out the mask and hair bands he hid away from Lucina and handed them over to her. "Sorry for attempting to force you to unveil your identity."
"It's alright. It's something I do for fun." Lucina stated shyly to herself.
"For…fun? You've put on a fake impression of the Hero King for fun?"
"H-Hey! It's just my interpretation of the Hero King. And besides, it's not like our worlds are in danger."
"Hm. That's true."
"You two should be glad." The deity interrupted. "That every fighter in this huge event are here to have fun. And not dragged here to fight and kill each other against their will. Like this one in the past." said Palutena as she pointed over to Cloud. Lucina was shocked by this statement.
"(Forced to fight others…against their will? What treacherous being would do such a thing?!)" Lucina thought.
"Aaaanyways…I should probably get going." Cloud spoke up.
"Right. Don't worry, Cloud. You only have six more battles to partake in, then you get to do whatever you want." Palutena smiled at him.
"Alright then." Cloud said as he looked over to Lucina and smirked. "(Hm.)"
Lucina gave him a warm smile. "I'll be waiting." The blue-haired swordswoman immediately covered her mouth, accidently blurting out something she didn't mean to say. Her face was blushing hard.
"Oh! Um…that's a promise…?" The spiky-haired man responded confusingly. Lucina then proceeded to cover her red-rosy cheeks with her mask. "(Did I just accidently set up a date with her…?)"
"CLOUD!" Palutena yelled.
"Agh! Sorry! I'm coming!" Cloud said as the blonde swordsman and goddess of light teleported away.
"…Hm…" Lucina was then left all alone, pondering about that…that handsome warrior- Err, newcomer that arrived at the 4th Smash Tournament.
"(I…I want to know more about him.)" Lucina sighed to herself, putting back on her mask, not even bothering to braid up her hair since she had no one there to help her do so.
-FLASH FORWARD TO THE PRESENT-
( BGM Playing – Dragon Ball FighterZ Results theme (albeit quietly) )
"…And that was the story of how I met Lucina."
Said the spiky-haired man as he finished telling the story of how he met Lucina to his friends, who were gathered around in a large circle, in a large dormitory that was above a bar ran by Bayonetta's friend, Rodin. Lucina was sitting next to him, who was fidgeting and slightly blushing.
"Hm…those were quite the fancy weapons you kids had there." Snake said, stroking his bearded chin.
"What a fascinating story, Mr. Strife!" Isabelle said cheerfully.
"A fascinating story indeed…" said Chrom and his date, Reflet (aka Female Robin) nodded in agreement. Lucina smiled to see her father enjoy the story.
"Wish I could've arrived in that tournament a little earlier to witness such a fierce battle." Kamui (aka Female Corrin) stated, who at the time, arrived at the tournament two months after Cloud did.
"Quite the bravado you've put up as 'Marth', Lucina." Richter jokingly stated, to which Lucina took as an insult and squinted at him.
*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* Link (who's based off his BotW counterpart here) was clapping profusely to the story, to which Cloud smiled at him, liking this version of Link more than his last counterpart.
*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* Zelda (who's based off her ALttP/ALbW counterpart here) was also clapping profusely, then used her magic to create mini-fireworks. Cloud and Lucina were flattered and impressed by this response.
"Woo! Woo woo!" Palutena jokingly cheered as she raised her arms.
"…" Luigi said nothing, but smiled and the duo a thumbs up.
"Quite an enthralling tale." Samus said, crossing her legs.
"Quite the action-packed story! Now when are we gonna hear the story about your little date?" Captain Falcon smirked, Cloud raised an eyebrow in response.
"Yeah. Let's hear about your first date!" Shulk demanded.
"Not intere-"
"Don't you 'not interested' us, spiky-boy!" Bayonetta interrupted.
"(Ugh. I'm tired. I don't wanna tell another story.)" "Spiky-boy" squinted and rubbed his eyes, as he cracked any bones in his body that needed stretching. The blue-haired woman took notice and raised her voice.
"Everyone, I hate to this say this, but…I think we should all leave and get to bed. Besides…" Lucina rubbed his shoulders, giving him a massage. "'Spiky-boy' needs his rest."
"Mmmmmph." Cloud moaned as the Princess of Ylisse kept massaging him.
"Awwww…" The entire room groaned, who really wanted to hear the story of their first date.
"…Okay, I'll tell you what…" Lucina stated. "We'll make a schedule for next week and I will be the one to tell you all the story of our first date. And it'll be at my place."
Everyone in the room murmured in agreement. "Alright then! Next week!" Shulk declared, then everybody except for Cloud and Lucina left the room in the next few minutes. Lucina was busy stretching her limbs, while Cloud walked over to his bed and fell into the mattress back first, eyes closed.
"Cloud, do you comforta-" Lucina turned around to look over at the blonde swordsman, but Cloud was asleep like candle being blown out.
"Zzzzz…"
"Eh…Hehehe…he's all burned out…" Lucina walked over to Gaia's Champion, looked around to make sure no one was looking, and gave him a quick peck on the left cheek.
"Mmm…" Cloud murmured in his sleep.
Lucina walked out the door and looked back at the spiky-haired boy, smiling.
"I'll be waiting…" The blue-haired princess slowly closed the door.
THE END