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Diamant sighed as he gazed into the unfamiliar waters, his fishing line dropping listlessly in the water from his flimsy grip.
What a strange reality this realm was. Heroes and villains summoned from all different worlds, different timelines, different realities, were all working in tandem to protect the Kingdom of Askr. Diamant was relieved he was summoned alongside his brother and his brother’s retainers—despite the prince and princess’s attempts at making him feel at home, he’d be awfully lonely without them. The others from Elyos were…
Well, they weren’t quite the same as he remembered them.
Princess Céline had a less confident air about her. Etie was more focused on tea parties and muscles, and Chloé excited about exploring all the food stalls in Askr—both carefree, rather than war-hardened like the women he knew. Queen Lumera was alive, and the Divine Dragon was both a man and a woman—certainly the most bizarre instance of all!
And yet, Diamant found himself most fascinated by the crown prince of Firene—not by his lighthearted and carefree attitude (he was always a beacon of positivity even during the darkest times), but by the different patterns of scars littering his body than the Alfred of his world.
In Brodia, scars were the mark of a proud warrior, stories to be told while waiting for fish to bite the line, hearty tales told over pints at war celebrations. And… that meant all of this Alfred’s stories were completely different from the Alfred he knew.
If he felt lonely without his retainers, he felt trapped in an endless void knowing this Alfred wasn’t his.
“Hey there, Prince Diamant!” Alfred greeted, breaking the silence and taking a seat next to him. Diamant stiffened, causing his line to shudder. “Hey, you look like you haven’t been sleeping well again. I can’t imagine you could possibly be working while summoned here to Askr, so what’s got you down, buddy?”
Buddy. Well, at least now he knew where this Alfred stood on those matters.
Although, Alfred seemed to know him well enough to suspect something was wrong.
When Diamant remained silent, Alfred tried to fill in the blanks. “You’re still missing Amber and Jade. I get it, y’know! I miss having Boucheron, and my sister misses Louis too. And Princess Ivy’s the only one here from Elusia so far!”
“Er, well, that is certainly part of it, I suppose, but…”
“Buuut?” Alfred asked playfully, but expectantly.
“Askr is a strange place, isn’t it? Heroes from far off lands and times… even you and I aren’t from the same reality,” Diamant answered, his gaze focused on the water.
“Huh. How do you know that?” Alfred asked, cocking his head.
“That scar, faintly on your cheek there—the Prince Alfred of my realm has one on the opposite side, from an arrow when we challenged Emblem Lyn to test our bonds,” he explained. “Tell me, what is yours from?”
“The battle against your… well, I assume y’know…” Alfred clutched his arm with his opposite hand, a frown marring his bright face. “Yeah. During that battle.”
“I see… and—oh, your hand! What happened there?”
A blush crept its way onto Alfred’s cheeks. “Ooh, er, that! Well it’s um… well, y’see…”
Diamant furrowed his eyebrows seriously. “Is something the matter, Prince Alfred?”
“It’s just that it’s um, from our uh… first time fishing together as a—as… a—“
Diamant’s stomach lurched excitedly. Perhaps he and Alfred were more than “buddies” in another realm after all?
Alfred squeezed his eyes shut, exhaling loudly as he finished, “As a couple. I er, I know this is silly for me to admit! But I’ve been really worried not knowing if you were the same Diamant I knew or not! I didn’t want to assume! I know there are a lot of heroes here from all different timelines. I hear Prince Chrom of Ylisse has even married an unknown village maiden in someone’s timeline! So I didn’t want to assume, but I was hoping that maybe—“
His question was answered by Diamant taking his hand, rubbing his thumb along the protruding skin. His fingertips tingled with electricity, as if he was conjuring magic for the first time. “Why didn’t your Prince Diamant show you how to bait your line properly?”
Alfred laced their fingers together, sending the spell spreading down to Diamant’s toes. “Well, he did, but I may have gotten a teensy bit distracted by a handsome prince while casting my line.”
“So that’s it!” Diamant chuckled. He held up their hands and flipped them so that Alfred could see his fingertips. “See that scar on my thumb? I got that one from making flower crowns with my Prince Alfred. You know, I never did consider scars could tell much outside victorious conquest, but it seems I’ve been proven wrong.”