Hineas is OOC, I can't write Hineas to save my life XD Amusing, considering he's my favourite characters from anything, ever. I always write him with a building up his ass instead of just a stick XD But it's AMUSING, and I think I've got Ephraim and Joshua down pretty solid ... so, yeah.

(Hineas Innes in American release. I use the Japanese names, as usual. Feel the need to explain this.)

SOMEDAY, I will write Hineas well :p

Hineas wiped the sweat from his forehead as the hot afternoon sun beat down on him and moved back slightly, trying to get under the foliage of the sparse tree he sat near. He muttered, disgruntled, to himself, working at the string on his bow, and growing more frusterated by the second. He had never liked being in Lunes. It was hot here, and the air was always heavy. And the scenery was nowhere near as nice as Frelia's but not as exotic as any of the other countries he'd visited, lately.

Not to mention, it reminded him uncomfortably of ... things.

He shook that off. Things that were far behind him, now. Things that had been worked out. Things that he had gotten to the very root of his feelings about, and was now prepared to completely stop thinking about.

Completely stop thinking about.

Completely.

He growled and tugged on the bowstring.

At least, he could have completely forgotten about it. He had been perfectly willing to just let it go, situations being now as they were. But then -- once again -- he had dragged it back up to the sruface, just like he always did. Hineas was certain he was baiting him. Just trying to make him angry.

Well, it was working.

He stopped tugging on the string. He was going to break the damned thing, at this rate. He'd learned that ages ago, never string a bow when put out at Ephraim. The string was too short, anyways. Who'd packed these strings? Taana? Oh, probably.

He settled back against the little tree, which had apparently been spared from the burning and pillaging of Grado's troops, and the disgusting defacing done by the monsters, his mind mulling over everything he had to think about.

"I'm not talking about this," he spat.

"Listen. Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"This! What you've been doing since we met! This ridiculous little war. We're adults, and this isn't the time."

"You actually expect me to simply ... drop this."

"Yes."

He laughed shortly. "It isn't that easy."

"Why not?"

Because I've based my entire life on you. Because the moment your lance broke mine, you gave me a reason to be alive. Because you make me the best I can be. Because you're the standard I have to measure myself up to, and without you there, I wouldn't know who I am.

"Because it just isn't. Now just ... go away. I don't want to talk to you right now."

"... no. I want to resolve this."

"There is nothing to resolve!"

"You would really just prefer me gone from your life."

You couldn't be further from the truth.

For some reason, no words came out when he tried to speak.

"You're right. There's no point to this. Our game has had its moments, Prince Hineas. But this is silly. It's distracting. I can't focus. We are adults. Whether you want it to or not, it's ending right now." Ephraim turned to go.

He'd never know what posessed him in that moment, but all he saw was Ephraim turning to leave, and something snapped within him. A hand reached out to grab the front of his cloak, and in an instant, he had his lips pressed against the other prince's, and couldn't decide whether he was glad he'd done it, or if it was the most foolish choice he had ever made.

And there it was. Life couldn't be expected to simply return to the way that things had been before, now that something like that had happened. Hineas shook his head to himself, closing his eyes and leaning back against the tree, keeping his ears open for the order -- a Prince of proud Frelia taking orders, really, he owed his life to Eirik, but she wasn't the one giving the orders anymore, now was she? -- to resume march that could come at any moment. Completely losing control of himself in that moment was something that he had assumed he would never do. Indeed, until that very moment, he'd been quite certain that he rather hated Ephraim, to the point where even thinking about him made him out of sorts, and he hated to do so much as say his name. But in that moment ...

Well, thinking about it was silly. Dwelling on it was silly. It had happened, they had discussed what the best course of action would be to follow it up, and then, they had proceeded with their lives. They had simply proceeded ... together.

Together. With Prince Ephraim of Lunes. How wrong it felt to not want to shoot off a round of arrows at unsuspecting targets when he thought about the man.

Together with Ephraim of Lunes was not a particularly ... unpleasant. Odd, maybe, he had never really thought about a man in such a way before, but not unpleasant. It actually had its moments, really. There were times when he was really quite ... glad, that things had ended in this way.

Well. At least he had been. Until recently. Until --

"You're blushing."

Hineas snapped his eyes open and glared up fiercely at the face he knew he would see there. "I am not!" he protested on instinct.

"You are."

He clamped his mouth closed and looked away. "It's a sunburn," he said tauntly.

Ephraim shrugged lightly, and settled down beside him. After wrestling with himself for a moment, Hineas reached out and took his hand. If he was going to do this, he was going to do this. Hineas of Frelia did not do anything halfway.

Whatever his motives were, though ... he had to admit, it did feel rather nice when Ephraim curled his hand around his in response.

"That's some sunburn. Vanishing so quickly."

The irritation returned. "You're not half as funny as you seem to think you are."

"Mn, I know."

Ephraim's easy way of agreeing with criticism always left Hineas unsure of what to respond with, and this time was no exception. He stared at his bow on the ground, the Pegsus' in flight that were carved into the wood with disinterest as his hand grew sweaty inside of Ephraim's and the sun tried to find more and more holes through the foliage to settle on them.

"You're angry at me." It wasn't a question.

"I'm not angry."

"You're put out, then?"

Hineas jutted his chin forward. "You were being --"

"Very difficult and rather patronizing. And having too much fun at your expense."

"... yes."

"Mn."

That was it? All he had to say for himself was some small, noncommital noise?

"I wasn't particularly happy with it," he said tightly.

"Oh. You weren't?"

Hineas ground his teeth at the note of false surprise in his voice. He supposed this was a side effect of being on his good side -- the only people who Ephraim teased were people he cared about, Eirik, Leon -- but it was infuriating. "No," he said.

"Hmm."

"Hmm, what?"

"Well, it just didn't seem like that to me."

Hineas sat with his mouth open, looking for a suitable response for a long time, and realizing that his "sunburn" was probably acting up once more, before settling with. "I don't want to talk about this."

"That's fine."

"Good."

A long silence passed, before Ephraim finally spoke again, that teasing lilt still in his usually serious voice. "Well, if it was just the way things were set up that made it unenjoyable, we could try it differently next time ..."

Hineas flushed so hard he thought he must be glowing, and he pushed his lips together in a thin line, "I said that I'm not talking about this."

"Suit yourself," Ephraim said agreeably, and Hineas heard the touch of laughter in his voice. Laughing at his expense. It was hardly funny. He wouldn't be laughing particularly hard in his position, now would he?

"Now look at that!"

Both men snapped their gaze up to be greeted with Joshua nursing an apple, peering at them from beneath that silly hat he always wore. Hineas assumed, now that he knew the frusterating gambler's secrets, that he wore the thing so low so as not to be noted for looking suspiciously like the Queen of the White Dunes, but it was still ridiculous. It was a wonder he could move without running into things, with how far down it was pulled over its gaze.

"Awful cute how you're being so open about these things," Joshua chewed thoughtfully. It was infuriating, how he insisted on keeping up these pretenses of being and uneducated idiot when Hineas had plainly heard him talking like a scholar to his mother. "Thought maybe people would start talking, with how close you're being in public, but I guess so long as Princess Eirik marries that knight of hers and Princess Taana marries the dragonrider, there's nothing to complain about, heirs are out there."

Hineas wanted to snatch his hand away from Ephraim's. But his own words to himself forced him back. If he was going to do this, he was going to do this. Hineas of Frelia did not do anything halfway. He scooted closer to Ephraim, who seemed somewhere between surprised and amused at the motion. "I don't see how this is any of your business," he said.

"Call it foreign affairs?" Joshua replied lightly. "Actually, it's more casual curiousity, to be completely honest. There's just something I've been wondering since I heard about the things going on between the two of you."

They were the talk of the army, apparently, which irked Hineas somewhat.

"What's that?" Ephraim asked.

The smirk and the jaunty angle of Joshua's head should have tipped the Frelian prince off before he opened his mouth, but the heat was making his mind sluggish. "Who's on top?"

And while Hineas sputtered and jumped quickly away from Ephraim, the Lunes prince simply smirked and said lightly. "We were just talking about that, actually, weren't we, Hineas?"

"Oh?" Joshua asked, his grin widening.

"I don't think Hineas likes our current arrangement."

Hineas did not regret kissing Ephraim. After all, being together with the Prince of Lunes had moments when it was actually quite ... pleasant. But he had to wonder, as he got to his feet, collected his bow, and stiffly walked into the bright, hot sun, with Joshua howling in laughter and Ephraim sitting completely straight-faced, what exactly he had been thinking when he did so.

He suspected he'd never know.