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“H-hey, Iago… do you happen to have a map? Because I keep getting lost in your eyes.”
As soon as the words were out of Corrin’s mouth, he knew this was a bad idea. His cheeks flushed a brilliant shade of red and he looked around for some way to make his escape, futilely hoping Iago had taken no notice of him. He would have run for the door if not for Iago choosing that moment to look up from his book and fix him with an icy stare.
“Have you finally lost your mind, then?” Iago asked with a sigh, as though he’d always expected that very thing. “Or is this the start of some elaborate joke?”
“N-no… oh, gods, I knew this was a terrible idea. Forget I said anything…” He started backing towards the entrance to Iago’s tent like a cornered animal. “I-I’ll just leave you alone now…”
Iago sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose. “As nice as that would be, even you aren’t stupid enough to interrupt me while I’m working for nothing… or just to spout off some ridiculous pickup line. So why don’t you get it over with and we can both go back to more important things?”
“A-ah… right…” Corrin laughed nervously, tugging on the collar of his shirt. “W-well, I actually came to bring you something… I’m not sure you’ll like it, though.”
He reached into his bag and pulled out the wildflowers he had found. He even had a vase that he’d found among their miscellaneous supplies, which he set them in.
“I’ll bring you some water for them later. I-If you want to keep them, that is.”
Corrin carefully studied Iago’s face as he set the vase on his desk. He frankly wasn’t sure whether to find the way his expression didn’t change encouraging or discouraging… although he was naturally leaning towards discouraging… and edging ever closer the longer Iago remained silent.
“I know you’re not really a flower person… b-but they’re the same colour of red as your eyes. I thought of you as soon as I saw them.” He laughed nervously as Iago turned those same eyes on him again.
“You’re certainly fixated on my eyes. What’s next? Sweets? Long walks in the moonlight? Or perhaps you fancy yourself a writer an have written some sappy poetry.”
Corrin’s breath caught in his throat, and not in a pleasant way. He looked down at his feet, unable to meet Iago’s gaze any further.
“Sorry. I knew this was a bad idea… like I said, I’ll just leave you alone now.” Oh gods, he was so embarrassed—if only the ground would open up and swallow him that very second.
“Wait.” For the second time, he felt his heart do a flip-flop as he wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to get lectured or not. He gathered the courage to look back up at Iago, and was surprised to see his expression had actually softened. “I… appreciate the effort, I suppose. Though why you thought such things would be of any interest to me, I have no idea.”
“Well… as you know, I don’t exactly have a lot of experience with this kind of thing,” he said, wringing his hands together. “So I mostly had to go off of what books have told me, and advice… from Elise.”
“I’m amazed that you were able to find the one person in the army who has even less experience with romance than you to ask for advice.” Iago turned back to his work, scribbling away at whatever it was he did—since he was no longer a tactician, Corrin wasn’t quite sure how he filled his hours, especially since he seemed to be working almost all hours of the day and night. “But you hardly need to mutilate plants and wax poetic about my eyes to impress me. I can guarantee you it won’t help.”
“S-so… what should I do?”
“…Pardon?” Iago looked at him as if he had three heads. All the embarrassment he’d had to endure so far was almost worth it just to see that expression on his face. Usually he just looked exasperated, or annoyed, or… tired. Any change from that was more than welcome.
“Well… you said all of those typical romantic things wouldn’t impress you. So what would impress you?” he asked. “Or did you mean that I don’t need those things to impress you because you’re already impressed with me? Because that’s almost what it sounded like…”
“I…” Iago was one of the palest men he knew, so the blush that crept over his face took over in seconds. It seemed like the tables were turning! Corrin couldn’t help but smile at that. “W-well. I… suppose that’s one way you could look at it. I will admit that I find you a lot less repulsive than most people…”
“That’s high praise coming from you,” he said, chuckling. “But honestly… you do like me, right?”
“You know, generally that’s something you ask before doing all of this romantic drivel,” Iago said with an exasperated sigh, though the effect was somewhat lessened by the fact that his entire face was still a brilliant shade of red. “Besides, I thought I made it very clear how I feel about you when we… well, when we had that discussion…”
“It’s weird seeing you get so embarrassed… that’s usually my job.” He laughed again; seeing Iago turn red definitely made his own embarrassment worth it, he had decided. “I don’t know… I guess it’s just… hard to believe sometimes. You definitely treat me better than pretty much everyone else here, but you’re still so distant, and it’s pretty rare to hear you say anything nice about me... I-I know that’s just who you are, and I’m probably too needy, but at least when I do things like this it makes me feel like we’re actually… you know, a couple.”
And now he’s come right back around to being embarrassed and wishing he had never set foot in Iago’s tent at all. Gods, what had possessed him to say that? He wanted to just crawl into a hole and die—
“You don’t have to do anything to impress me.”
“…wh-what?”
“You heard me,” Iago said with a sigh, closing the book he’d had open when Corrin had come in. “You were right earlier. I said you don’t need all of these ‘romantic’ gifts to impress me, because you already have. When you convinced me to join this ridiculous venture, I still thought of you as the naïve shut-in I knew from the Northern Fortress. But you’ve become an apt tactician who strives for self-improvement. …and you’re smart enough to know when to turn to your betters.” Iago smirked, looking self-satisfied; then again, when did he ever look otherwise? “You’ve come a long way since your siblings first delivered you to Castle Krakenburg. And believe me—it takes a lot for me to be impressed with someone.”
“Somehow, I gathered,” Corrin said, laughing as much from relief as from amusement. “And I have no intentions of stopping now. Being with you… it brings out my competitive streak. It won’t be too long before I’m an even better tactician than you, I bet.”
“Let’s not get carried away.” Iago scowled at him. “For now… why not just try to come with an actual half decent gift?”
“You can be such an ass.”
“You wouldn’t be the first person to say so.”
“And somehow… I’m willing to bet I won’t be the last.”