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Saying Chrom’s specialty was wall smashing would be an understatement—he was a master of the craft, there was no wall on Ylisstol castle he hasn’t shattered while training. But that was just an extension of his natural predisposition to accidents during training, no matter how or when, he would crash into a wall and destroy it.
And today wasn’t different, as Chrom tried to perfection his sword technique on his favorite training grounds in the castle on his own, the prince ended up taking a pair of missteps that ended him flipping head over on the air and landing against a wall that had been repaired more times than any wall should do in a single person’s lifetime, smashing it on impact; debris pilling around him as the world around him turned over, his neck pressed against the ground and both legs hanging over him and his sword sliding away with a loud clattering some odd meters away.
“Oh, boy.” Chrom huffed underneath his breath, wincing at the dull pain expanding on his back; it was a miracle he had never walked away one of these accidents with more than a sprained ankle or he would be dead otherwise.
He shook his head to try to get rid of the dirt and granite that found its way on his face, making him cough dryly, thinking on how he was supposed to get himself of this predicament.
“E-excuse me, is someone there…?” A timid voice came from the entrance, making Chrom jump on his awkward position, wincing as his neck cracked slightly. Of course, he recognized that angelic voice that made his face grow redder than a ripe tomato.
Oh, no, please no; Olivia already must think I’m a babbling excuse of a prince but now she will also think I’m a clumsy excuse of a babbling prince. Chrom thought utterly embarrassed; no matter how hard he tried, no matter no much effort he put and from how many angles he tried to approach her, somehow, he always put his boot on his mouth when speaking with Olivia. He knew he had no tact with the ladies already—a scar by his forehead courtesy of Robin was proof of it—and lacked conversational skills in general, but Olivia made him more tongue twisted than usual. As if looking at her make me dumber. He would think after each failed attempt.
Chrom wished he could stop looking like an idiot to her.
In a desperate attempt to save some face, Chrom tried to turn over and escape the hole he had gotten into but all was in vain as he had gotten his ass embed on the cavity he made—a Chrom shaped hole with no escape. For his trouble, all he got were some pebbles falling right between his eyes, making him wince with pain.
And soon enough Olivia’s pink hair and pale face peered from the entrance, her fingertips peeking from the other side as she watched carefully from the other side. Her purple eyes carefully examining the otherwise vacant training grounds.
Vacant except for, of course, Chrom laying head down on the ground, stuck in a wall on the most embarrassing way possible. Chrom was sure Naga personally hated him and had a personal vendetta, otherwise he couldn’t explain why this kind of stuff kept happening to him in front of Olivia.
Noticing him, she jumped on her place with a panicked look in her face.
“M-m-milord, are you okay?” Olivia asked with a worried squeal, taking some steps inside, her hands raised over her face and covering her hanging open mouth.
Even upside down she’s gorgeous. And maybe the blood was getting to his head as it wasn’t the moment to be thinking that.
“… um, hi, Olivia.” Chrom accepted his fate and greeted her with a clumsy smile, sweat that he couldn’t tell if it was out of embarrassment or from his practice effort falling down his face. “Not quite.”
With a deep furrow on her brow, clearly troubled, Olivia walked towards him on a tight pace and only stopping when she accidentally stepped on his sword, gasping as she almost slipped with it.
“Do you need help?” Olivia blushed as soon as she asked that, scrunching her reddened face as she slapped her cheeks. She soon chastised herself on a high-pitched muttering that didn’t escape Chrom’s ears. “Oh my gosh, Olivia, of course he does.”
As things couldn’t get any worse, Chrom accepted he couldn’t get up on his own and would need help. For once, he hopped Frederick was hiding on a bush despite him asking repeatedly not to—for once, he would have thanked the help, but alas.
“Yeah, some help would be nice.”
At the sound of his voice, Olivia—once again—jolted in her place, a yelp escaping her lips as she remembered he was there, probably very sore from the smashed wall he was stuck into. Chrom was glad at least it slipped her mind how odd it was that he broke a literal wall and how dumb he looked as she was way busier worrying over her own embarrassment—little victories and all of that.
“Of course! Ex-excuse me.”
Olivia came closer, stepping around him with an unsure look in her face, rounding him as she looked from all angles to find out how to help him while evading his gaze at all moment, looking into some odd spot in the wall instead of at him whenever their stares crossed despite him directly staring at her at all moments. Painfully shy as ever she was.
“How should I…? Er, should I pull your leg?” Olivia asked hesitant as she had no idea on how to help him. Trying to get him out, Olivia grabbed his left leg with both hands around his knee but she barely moved him and her feet slipped on the ground, leaving her huffing and puffing for the wasted effort.
“I don’t think that’s working.” Chrom stated the obvious, already feeling his head going heavy under the heightened blood pressure.
Aw, man, this is awkward. Chrom couldn’t even see the good in this situation, in fact, he was amazed this somehow didn’t got worse.
Noticing her strength wasn’t enough to pull him by sheer brute force, she kneeled in front of him and tried to change her strategy, this time grabbing him by the wrist of both of his arms, using her whole-body strength instead of just her arms to pull him from his Chrom-shaped hole with higher success, his body slipping against the ground and away from the wall with some dust and debris falling down.
Staring at Olivia upside down, the closest he had been to her and her face that’s now hovering over him as she’s putting all of her effort into helping him from his embarrassing accident. With blood rushing to his head and thoughts becoming disperse, he could only focus on Olivia—though he had focused on her without being upside down plenty of other times, once getting an arrow on his ribs for his effort—, on her bangs slightly tousled, blushed, puffed cheeks, tightly closed eyes and wrinkled nose over her efforts; at that sight, Chrom noticed something he had never noticed before. On her now reddened cheeks and the bridge of her nose, Chrom was able to notice a pattern of orange spots speckling all over her face.
“Freckles…” Chrom muttered with a held breath, mouth agape as his eyes couldn’t peel off those charming spots that dusted Olivia’s face.
“Huh?” Confused, the dancer opened her eyes to look down at him with a questioning look on her eyes.
Maybe it was the blood going down his head, maybe this time his brain was too rattled from the blunt impact he, maybe because he sucked at keeping his thoughts away from his mouth, but instead of keeping his mussing to himself, Chrom—very loudly—spoke his thoughts.
“Your freckles are so cute.” Chrom cooed with his mind utterly charmed by thoughts of Olivia, cheeks blushed as he could only stare and melt into goo with how absolutely adorable the fact Olivia had hidden in plain sight a set of lovable freckles.
Craaap, I said that out loud. And then he realized he told painfully shy Olivia something like that.
Olivia squealed the loudest, most chocked yell Chrom had ever heard as his words settled in. In panic, she released his hands to cover her face in utter mortification, falling flat on her ass as a result of the inertia working against her. And before Chrom could even have the time to think on how cute and adorable her reactions were and drooling over how darling those freckles were, a piece of boulder seemed fit to fall right into his face, over his nose and splashing his face, shirt and Olivia’s chest with sploshes of blood.
“Oh, no, Chrom!” Olivia hollered his name in panic as Chrom could only think that even if he humiliated himself once again, it was a well-paid price to notice something new to crush harder over Olivia.