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The Hoshidan royal siblings were skilled at a variety of things, but managing their love lives was not one of them. Lady Hinoka clearly had the hots for that smart-mouthed retainer of hers, but they preferred to snipe back and forth at each other. Lady Sakura kept scurrying away every time she tried to approach Lord Xander. And Lord Takumi? Every time he so much as looked at Lady Camilla, he'd practically faint.
Lord Ryoma, Orochi decided, was the worst of them.
Scarlet was perfect for him. Adorable, strong, a good partner, they looked good together, and she clearly had the same feelings for him that he had for her. Even someone who wasn't a mind-reader could clearly see it, even Setsuna could see it and she'd taken forever to realize her feelings for Arthur.
Yet Ryoma remained completely oblivious. When you couldn't see something even Setsuna could, something was Very Wrong.
Orochi grumbled as she watched the pair by the Dusk Dragon statue, exchanging pointless information about their cultures. Again. Come on, don't you two know enough by now? You taught her how to use chopsticks, she bought you a three-piece suit, now go on a date! Or...a walk! Valla wasn't exactly the place to find restaurants or other venues as it was now, but a nice walk under the trees could still be a date.
Heck, there were plenty of places around the Astral Castle that could be date spots. The trees, the glade, the ore ponds, even the berry fields could be kind of romantic in a certain light.
Or the statue. A beautiful statue, under the setting sun, with not a soul around for miles.
Aaargh! You're less than an inch away from each other, just kiss already!
The cards had told her that Scarlet and Ryoma were perfect together and would life happily ever after, and those two idiots were making liars out of her livelihood.
Am I gonna have to lock you two in a closet together? No, Ryoma was a Master Ninja now thanks to a Friendship Seal they'd found a few days ago, he'd just open the door using Locktouch the moment she shoved them inside. Or worse, he could spirit himself and Scarlet away before she got her hands on them.
Scarlet's wyvern? Maybe Garnet would play along for a treat or two; Orochi was no animal whisperer like Benny or Corrin, but she liked to think Garnet knew her and liked her enough. Hmm, but she can get pretty noisy, that might drag the rest of the army over to see what's going on and that could mean zero chance of those two kissing. Especially if Scarlet's too busy fussing over Garnet.
No, something this important required subtlety and sophistication. She quickly found her Bird Spirit scroll and the Moonlight tome Nyx had given her; for weeks, they'd been working on a collaboration between Nohrian and Hoshidan magic, and this was the perfect time to test the fruits of their labor.
Normally, the Bird Spirit lived up to its name. But birds were highly inappropriate for this time of night, and there was sadly no Firefly Spirit scroll in existence (at least, that Orochi knew of). With the power of the moon on her side, these birds would become fireflies.
She closed her eyes, focused, and when she opened them again the sky was alight with the beautiful bugs. The moon itself was glowing brighter, too.
If this doesn't work, screw subtlety, I'm locking them in a closet.
"Wow!" Scarlet gasped. "So this is what fireflies look like." Cheve had never been as bad as Nohr in lacking anything close to nature, but it was still close enough that she considered herself lucky if she ever saw a butterfly, much less fireflies.
"Just like the ones back home," Ryoma said. "It's not summer yet, though...unless they woke up early this year." He laughed. "Sakura and Takumi always used to ask if the fireflies were gonna wake up soon, they were so impatient to chase and capture them, and Sakura would always let hers go. Takumi tried to give our mother a jar of them once..." He blushed. "Sorry, I don't mean to be going on about my kid siblings at a time like this."
Scarlet grinned, sidling closer to him, her head level with his shoulder.
"Like this, Lord Ryoma?" Even in the dim light she could see his cheeks turn a bright pink.
"A-ah...I mean, we're alone, there's all these fireflies, it's calm and beautiful, and, well..."
His arm slid around her waist, and her heart fluttered as she turned to face him.
"Lord Ryoma..."
"Ryoma." He cupped her cheek in his hand, nose brushing against hers. "Call me Ryoma."
She closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to his. Somewhere in the distance, she could swear she heard someone going yes!, but she ignored it.
The next morning, Orochi was grinning at them like the cat that ate the canary, and Scarlet realized where the fireflies had come from.