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They were thoughts Chrom couldn’t quell. Despite the fact they were only days away from the fight of their lives, a fight that could end him and his dearest friends…his mind swarmed with memories from his childhood. From training with Frederick to escaping the castle grounds with Sully to visit the slums where Vaike resided…all of it came back in full force, as though he was living every instant of his past like it was the present. Emmeryn’s kind smile would flash before his eyes, and Lissa’s tiny, pudgy hands would squeeze against his arms. Was this recalling of his happiest days some kind of warning, an omen to be wary of as he made his way into the last battle of this dreadful campaign?
“Hey, Chrom! You in there?” a voice boomed from outside his tent, and the visions beginning to resurface over his eyes quickly evaporated. In his haze, the voice sounded distant, foreign even. But there was that touch of gruff familiarity that Chrom could never forget, “Dinner’s about to start, and all those hooligans are gonna leave you nothing but scraps if you don’t hurry your ass over.”
“Yes, I…I was aware,” Chrom lied, looking over to the tent’s entrance. A tall, curvy silhouette stood to the right, hands placed firmly on top of wide hips. There were only so many people who would approach him with such nonchalant authority. And very few of them happened to be women, “Please, Sully. Come in. I should be done soon.”
“Huh? What are you working on?” Sully wasted no time ripping through the flimsy canvas, her steps heavy with purpose. She gave Chrom a brief glance, taking in his wilting form sitting behind his table of maps. He could tell, by the way her brows furrowed and her lips made the slightest of parts, that she was concerned – had been for a while. Which would make sense; they hadn’t spoken plainly to each other since…
Well, since Emmeryn died.
He didn’t want to worry her, though. Sully upset with him he could handle. Sully worried about him? For him? That set off a whole new rush of feelings Chrom couldn’t quite decode in his current state. Not with memories of her small, dirty face laughing as he fell off his horse and into a pile of mud dancing so vividly across his eyes.
“Nothing too big,” Chrom tried to smile, but it was almost painful to crease his lips upward. He settled for hanging his head and gathering random, insignificant slips of papers into his hands, notes from either Robin or Frederick calling to his attention various strategies they still hadn’t considered. Truthfully, he hadn’t given the notes or the maps much thought in the last day or so. And he understood, knew of all the potential consequences if he didn’t look over every tactic Robin proposed in incredulous detail. Such misjudgment had cost him so much already.
He didn’t notice Sully approach his side of the table, too wrapped up in his doubts and constant second guessing. He didn’t realize he had left her question unanswered, and that she was one of the few who would demand anything of the exalt-to-be. He wasn’t even aware that she had gingerly pressed her fingers into his shoulders until she spoke out, her tone much softer than he was used to, “Chrom…I’m sorry.”
Chrom’s eyes widened and he crooked his neck to get a better look at her face, undeterred that his own paled and his eyes watered over at her very words. He wanted to ask what she was sorry for, but he knew how stupid a question it would be. Plus, his throat was so tight he could hardly breathe, let alone speak without breaking in front of his dearest childhood friend.
Besides, the look on her face alone was enough to do so.
Her cheeks were flushed, eyes red with tears threatening to spill. She bit at her lips and her chin quivered. There had been just one time before where Chrom had seen her so vulnerable, so completely succumbed to the emotions bubbling up inside her. They had been young, and Lissa had been severely ill for weeks, as if Death himself rapped against her door every night. Both of them had been too afraid to be without the other, unsure how they would react if they were alone. They even slept in Chrom’s bed together, holding hands underneath thick, blue blankets.
He vaguely wondered if that same reaction would be appropriate now.
When she realized Chrom was beyond words, Sully continued, several fat tears rolling down her cheeks, “I – I loved her, too, you know? She treated me like I was…like I was her very own sister, and that – that meant the world to me. She accepted me just the way I was, like you do. And I’m so very sorry it had to end the way it did.”
“You –” Chrom coughed, and tears spilled from his eyes and onto his clothes. Hell, when was the last time he had cried in front of anyone that wasn’t his sisters? When was the last time he had let down his defenses so readily? “You have nothing to apologize for, Sully. Emm wouldn’t…she wouldn’t want you to feel like this.”
Sully narrowed her eyes and bent down, taking Chrom’s hands into hers. Her tears did not stop, but something in her voice changed. It was sturdy, filled with a resolve Chrom was all too familiar with, “And she wouldn’t want you to feel and look like this either! I know it’s only been a few weeks, and you’re putting up such a brave face in front of the others…but dammit, Chrom! You don’t have to lock yourself up and push yourself like this. I’m here – we’re all here to support you.”
“But that’s not how it should be!” Chrom croaked, grasping onto her hands and leaning forward until their foreheads were mere inches apart, “I’m the leader, I can’t – I can’t show weakness. I can’t let them see this. I even told them as much. I promised not to falter, I promised not to step back. But here I am, wallowing in this tent, with all these memories of Emm circling around me. It’s suffocating, it’s unbearable, it’s – ”
“It’s human, Chrom,” Sully interrupted. Her crying ceased, leaving several streaks of dried tears against her reddened face, “It makes you human. No one expects you to be over Emmeryn’s death so easily. And if they do, I’ll wallop them until they see the error of their ways! You’re strong, and you’re going to make a great exalt, but you have to give yourself time to heal – to accept she’s gone. And that probably won’t happen until this shitty ass war is over. But in the meantime…”
Sully bent forward, pressing her forehead onto his. She looked towards their held hands, and her thumb rubbed circles into his knuckles, “Let your friends help out, alright?”
Chrom remained silent for another minute more, concentrating his attention on the sound of Sully’s deep, even breaths. It reminded him of all those nights spent together, when she had been his truest source of comfort.
He was right in calling her his anchor.
“Do you…do you remember when we hid from Vaike in the forest that one time? When you said he looked like a headless chicken?” Chrom asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Sully snorted, and she rolled her head up to meet his eyes, “Yeah, and then we got so bored we ended up playing house on that tree branch! Even with imaginary food, you said my ‘Sully Special’ tasted like charred dirt!”
“And then you got mad and threw me off of the tree!” Chrom exclaimed, a stray tear falling onto his hand, “I still can’t believe you did that – I could have broken something!”
“Well, that’s what you got for being such a goddamn craven,” Sully shrugged, “I just can’t believe it still took Vaike another five minutes to find us after all that commotion.”
“Yeah, he really was a dumb kid,” Chrom chuckled.
“Was?” Sully crooked a brow, a smile spreading across her face, “He’s a pretty dumb kid now. Just yesterday he got caught peeking at the women bathing by none other than our grand tactician. Was a fucking riot afterwards – my horse chased them both around for a good hour or so. You should have heard them, squealing like pigs!”
Chrom laughed again, his shoulders relaxing. He had missed this – talking to her, watching her smile as she told him of all the stories he had averted throughout the day. While he was royalty, a king-to-be, Sully could never let him forget that he was just a man, one that she knew as much more than a distant, unyielding leader.
Sully saw him as an equal, and Chrom thought of her the same.
When Sully finished talking, and the nearing silence threatened to push Chrom back into his former state of guilt and mourning, he absentmindedly brushed his lips against her nose and whispered, “You’re the only woman I can still do this with. You know that?”
And while she stiffened underneath his delicate touch, Sully did not sputter or blush, but merely tightened her hold on his hand and scoffed, “I think you’re losing your edge, Chrom. You’ve said that to me before.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Chrom grinned and stood up, bringing Sully up along with him, “Thank you, Sully. For everything.”
“Aww, don’t get mushy on me – at least not yet!” Sully exclaimed as she guided him out of the tent and towards the mess hall, their fingers interlocked, “You can save all that for when we win this damn war. Hell, maybe even find our future queen at the after party!”
“Truthfully, Sully?” Chrom replied, “I think I already have.”
“Really?” Sully didn’t turn around, but he could tell with the way her fingers loosened their grip onto his, her next words didn’t necessarily ring true, “Fantastic – can’t wait to find out who the little vixen is!”
They didn’t speak much after that night, with countless preparations for their last battle being thrown in his every direction. But her words renewed his purpose, and the constant loop of memories gradually faded. For he realized in their moments together, in the dark quiet of that flimsy canvas tent, while Sully was the anchor that connected him to his past, that kept him in the present…
She was also the key to his future, the sliver of hope he had so desperately tried to find after Emmeryn’s death.
For a king didn’t merely need a queen. He needed an equal. And Sully was the only woman that could ever compare.
So when the day had been won, and Sully rushed to his side in an excited glee, he thought of no better time to slip his oldest treasure upon her fingers and ask her to be his.
“My parents had it made to celebrate my birth,” he clarified as she stood there, breathless with one hand fiercely clutching at her chest. She looked exposed, so very much like a woman in love, “They wanted me to give it to the woman I would spend the rest of my life with. Take it – take it and know that I will fight with you and for you until my last breath.”
It took Sully a moment more to steady herself, to understand that this wasn’t some grand hallucination induced by a hard hit to the head. She shook her head then, and took a step back as her face and neck flushed, “This is…Oh, Chrom! I can’t friggin’ believe this!”
He chuckled and closed the space between them, taking her hands into his. Despite all he had lost, and despite that his wounds had yet to truly heal…he was happy that Sully could be no one but herself, even as he proposed a lifetime together, “I’ll need to ask for a bit of patience in the near future. My first duty must be to heal the scars of war and assume my role for the people. But then, we can begin our life together.”
Sully snorted, and her voice grew gravelly and robust. A few tears sprang from the corners of her eyes, but either she didn’t notice or didn’t care that she had them in the first place. Or maybe it was because Chrom had a few tears of his own running down his cheeks, “Oh, I’m not going anywhere! You’d have to kill me to get this ring off my finger now!”
Before Chrom could reply, or even press his lips onto hers, her eyes grew distant and soft, perhaps calling upon childhood memories of her own, “It’s funny…I’ve known you for so long, we’re practically one mind. But I didn’t see this coming at all. I feel…happy. Happy beyond belief.”
Sully then narrowed her eyes and scrunched her nose like she did when they were children. A face reserved for extravagant gifts or heartfelt compliments. When she felt more like a “lady” than she did a warrior, “What have you done to me, you damned son of a griffon!”
I think the more appropriate question is what you’ve done to me, Chrom thought as he took another step forward and pressed his forehead against hers. He couldn’t wait to have Sully as his own, to have her sleep in his bed every night. To hear her laugh and cry and whisper silly things in his ear.
She was the anchor. She was the key.
She was the love he always had and always would have.
A blush spread across his cheeks, and he spoke his next words softly, trying his best to sound earnest and kind, “I know together we can bring joy back to the royal palace. I’ll do everything I can to make the palace a happy home for us…my love.”
“Okay, that’s going to take some getting used to,” Sully snickered, crooking an eyebrow, “Honestly, you dolt, a kiss would be worth so much more than all the cutesy pet names you’re planning on giving me.”
Chrom smiled, taking the initiative and squashing their noses together, “You know, Sully? I think you might be onto something.”
And when they kissed, and Chrom’s heart squeezed with an adoration he had never felt before, he knew Sully’s words to be true.