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Sully grunted as she blocked a sword swing from one of the knight trainees she was working with. She pushed his wooden sword away before returning a strike of her own, but the slippery bugger wormed his way out of reach, only for Stahl to get a solid lance poke right into his ribs. The padded end of the lance still knocked him down and out of the sparring match, and as Stahl had apparently cleaned up his partner beforehand, that made the two of them the winners.
Reaching down to pull up the poor sod, Sully laughed. “Damn, Luke. You've been improving fast recently! That was a damn good match. It wasn't two months ago you tripped every time you were pushed back. What changed?”
Luke stumbled as Sully forcefully dragged him up. “Well, you remember Riley, right?”
“Your bean sprout?”
“Yeah, she wanted to learn ballet and I wanted to spend some more daddy-daughter time so I decided to learn it with her.”
“That's sweet, she's good to have ya.” Sully smiled at the image of Luke and his daughter toppling over each other as they lose their balance, before laughing in a pile.
“Aw shucks, thanks. Anyways I ended up working a whole ton of muscles that I normally don't use, so I reckon some of that must have come around t’ help fightin’.” Luke scratched the back of his head.
“Sounds like that's it. So how's the sprout like spending time with her old man?” Sully chuffed.
“Well, she gave up after two weeks, but I'm still going on strong.” Luke chuckled.
“That sounds like kids, alright. My little siblings started a ton of hobbies they gave up on growing up.” Kellam smiled fondly as he held out water canteens to both Sully and Luke. Luke jumped a mile as Sully just took the offered drink. She was starting to be able to predict when the tin can would show up. Still couldn't spot him for the life of her, Robin's squinting trick didn't work.
“You mean yer still doing that girly shit? If the brats out then put some actual hair on that chest and be a man.” A low growl rumbled from behind Luke and Sully as Stahl and Luke's random partner walked up. Stahl wisely stepped away from the bastard as he dug his own grave.
“Pick up your blade.” Sully said, with a killer calm.
“Wh- Why?”
“So I can kick your ass and you can't say you were defenseless.” Chrom said Sully could do whatever she wanted with bastards like this, she was pretty sure he meant fire them, but this was so much more satisfying.
“I'll go get Lissa, I guess.” Stahl sighed.
“Take your time, I figure this will take a while.” Kellam sighed with him as Luke watched Sully in morbid fascination.
One broken nose and bruised ego later, Sully was scrubbing the blood off her knuckles in the Shepherds Barracks’ baths as a familiar pink head bobbed over the steam. Olivia seemed blissfully unaware of anyone else taking a midday bath, humming some meaningless ditty to herself.
“Giving you a fair warning, I'm in here.” Sully called out to the dancer before the poor girl gave herself a heart attack seeing Sully.
“Wah- oh thank you. I'm not intruding on anything? I can go…” Olivia squeaked.
“Nah, just washing off after training the recruits. Didn't want to spend the rest of the day all sweaty. Same deal with you?”
“Yes. I -uh just finished practicing… Naga knows I need it.” Olivia muttered the last part as she walked into the bath and sank down into the heated pool.
“You got a big shindig coming up or something?” Sully relaxed into the warm water as she started to chit-chat.
“No! I just dance like a dropped ham is all.” Olivia jumped slightly, like she didn't expect to be heard.
“Ham's a better dancer than I thought, then.” Sully cracked a smile at her own joke.
“S-so you're t-training recruits? How are they?” Olivia seemed real quick to change the subject.
“They're not complete shit. Few of them show some real promise”
“-but don't tell them that?” Olivia interrupted with a giggle.
“Bah, never been a fan of that crap. If someone impresses me or does a damn good job I'll make it known.” Sully makes it a point to look Olivia in the eyes as she talks, making sure she gets the point.
“Y-yeah, I always thought it was a bit silly too.” Suddenly the wall was particularly interesting to Olivia.
“Say, speaking of the recruits, you're pretty athletic, ain't ya. One of the boys was saying he was getting a real workout dancin’.” Sully gave Olivia a quick glance, like scoping out an opponent. Olivia's lithe body was quite as defined as Sully's was, but Sully could definitely tell she had some real muscles.
“Um, yeah, I guess. It's not really the same kind of thing that you do though. I'm not very strong, but I'm flexible and have a good sense of balance.” Olivia also scanned her eyes across Sully, but she settled on Sully's abs for a bit longer than she intended before blushing and locking her gaze back on that wall from earlier.
“Would'ya mind teaching me some? I mean just like the basics. Not exactly planning on leading a recital. Guess I don't know how to make it worth your while, but I'll owe you one at least. No pressure of course.” Olivia's eyes shot back to Sully as she gaped like a fish at Sully's request.
“I-Im not sure I'm the best option to teach you. Surely there's a better option…”
“One even half as good as you and I can trust to do the job right? Not on this continent at least. Now if you don't want to, I get it.”
“I can try, at least. Or at least help you get started… How flexible are you?”
“Uh, flexible enough for being a knight, not sure how far that'd get me. How flexible are you?” Sully scratched her cheek.
“Heehee, that's something I'm at least a little proud of, watch.” Olivia ducked her head down and pulled her leg up and behind her head, then let her head hold it in place up there. “I can do a lot more, but you won't need to do this, it's just something extra I like to push myself to do.”
“Wow, never clocked you for some kind of contortionist. How flexible do I need to be for dancin’ though?” Sully gaped at Olivia's feat of flexibility, as well as how her shyness seemed to fade away as she talked about her passions.
“Oh, right. Would you mind if I walked you through some stretches to see where your baseline is.” Olivia dropped her leg back down and crawled toward Sully.
“Go right ahead.”
“All right, let's start with this one.” Olivia started a simple stretch and let Sully move to copy it. Sully's muscles stretched to the new position and even though it was tight, she could do it well enough.
“Okay now let's see how far you can go.” Olivia undid her stretch and placed her hands on Sully's back, pushing her deeper into the stretch. Her muscles and joints screamed in displeasure as they stretched well beyond the limit that Sully thought was possible.
“I think I heard a popping noise.” Sully strained.
“That's normal, let's try the next one.”
Sully repeated the steps across as many stretches as her devious drill master could think of before Olivia was finally satisfied with pulling her around like a ragdoll.
“Okay, you did a lot better than I expected. If you just copy those stretches during your normal stretches for your workouts, we should be good to start in a couple weeks. That should also give me some time to prepare a basic lesson plan and make sure I'm not throwing you into the deep end.” Olivia lightly clapped her hands and smiled like she hadn't been Sully's personal tormentor for the past ten minutes.
“Right. And if you think of anything you wanna ask from me, just let me know. I owe you one for helping me out.” Sully groaned before slowly getting up out of the water and trodding over to dry off as her joints begged for mercy.
“I- I'll let you know”. And the shyness was back.
Olivia and Sully have reached C Support!
After a few weeks Sully had gotten flexible enough that Olivia thought she was ready to start. At least her body wasn't screaming with soreness whenever she sat down anymore. Olivia walked Sully through a whole bunch of beginner exercises to get her used to holding her body up on her toes and the smooth structured movements of ballet.
Since Olivia didn't want to bother anyone else, or be seen by anyone else, their practice was done in a clearing with only the sound of a metronome and Olivia's humming to guide Sully's steps. If she was offbeat, then Olivia made her start the exercise over, and Sully didn't exactly have the best sense of rhythm.
However over the past few weeks she's improved decently well, if she said so. Olivia was making her restart less and less and she wasn't falling over herself like she was at the start. She was also already seeing some of the gains that she wanted in the first place and was enjoying the new exercise…
“-and pirouette two three four! And bow! That's enough for today!”
But that didn't mean she didn't get exhausted. Sully practically dropped on the spot as soon as Olivia gave her final instructions.
“You know as a drill instructor you'd give Frederick a run for his money.” Sully gasped as she pulled her groaning body into a cool down stretch.
“Um… s-speaking of which… I-I thought about what I wanted to ask of you.” And like clockwork, the moment the topic wasn't dancing, the she-devil's stutter came roaring back.
“Yeah? What'd'ya got in mind?” Sully grabbed the water canteen the angel in front of her offered.
“I- want you to help me speak my mind, like y-you do. You're able to say what you mean without second guessing yourself and I admire that about y-you.” Olivia blushed as she blurted out her desire, before slowly dropping into a meek stammer.
“Oh, that's it? Talking like I do isn't all that special. Are you sure that's what you want?” Sully could feel her face heat up slightly at Olivia's earnest praise.
“Y-yes, back home I'm always surrounded by people who are able to speak whatever they want, but I always second guess my every word, w-worried about saying something wrong and messing something up for my dancing career or angering someone.” Olivia, to her credit, looked Sully dead in the eyes as she spoke.
“All right, then. I think I know where to start.”
“Y-you do?! A-already?!”
“Yeah, we just need to get you some practice saying what you mean and building up your confidence. Feel free to speak your mind with me, I'm not gonna bite. ”
“I don't know if that's gonna work…” Olivia drifted off.
“It's how I learned to stand up for myself, I have several older brothers. Eventually I had to be ready to give ‘em what for and make sure everyone knew what I stood for. Besides, if it doesn't work for you, we'll try again and find something that does.” Sully put a hand on Olivia’s shoulder and gave her a gentle smile that sent a massive blush across Olivia’s face.
“Well when you put it that way… I'll give it a shot!”
Olivia and Sully have reached B Support!
Sully held her form alongside Olivia as she focused on staying on beat to the song, which was a lot harder than she realized without the metronome she had used beforehand. Olivia thought she had improved enough to practice with actual music and so she asked some band to practice with the two of them. They got their practice in and Sully and Olivia got actual music to dance to; win-win situation. Olivia apparently knew them pretty well, so this was a familiar deal for her.
As the song wound down the two of them flourished as they finished their routine; face to face as random passerby who stopped to watch clapped. Since the band was here, their practice wasn't as private as before and some people chose to stop to watch a dance or two before going on their merry way. The few that stuck around were waved off by the band’s violinist as that was the last song for the day, Sully and Olivia had danced a full recital's worth of songs.
“Phew, the more we do this, the more impressed with you I get.” Sully panted as Olivia waved goodbye to the band.
“Oh, I'm not that good. Besides, your progress is what's really impressive. You did amazing for a beginner!” Olivia cheered, but something about her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
“And what do you really think?” Sully challenged, stretching her muscles before relaxing.
“If I danced that poorly on stage I think I'd need to kill myself or go into hiding or or…” Olivia had a far off look in her eyes before she snapped out of it. “Oh! But I wasn't lying about your progress being impressive! It really is! You really could be hired as an understudy for a troupe.”
“Pff… Hahaha! No hard feelings. But next time you try telling yourself that you ain't shit, think about how my ‘amazing’ is your ‘garbage’. We're still working on that confidence and cutting that negative talk is the first step.” Sully guffawed.
“Oh, err right. When you put it that way…” Olivia trailed off before perking up. “Oh, d-don't turn around, but there's a little girl staring at us…”
“Yeah? We did just end up giving a pretty show?” Sully peeked over her shoulder at a surprisingly familiar kid. “Riley?”
Ignoring Olivia’s quiet complaints about her turning around, Sully waved the girl over before ruffling up her hair. “Hey bean sprout, you just don't stop growing, do ya?”
“Y-you know her, Sully?” Olivia asked as Riley pushed Sully’s hand away.
“Yeah, one of the recruit’s kid, stops by every once in a while to bring her dad lunch. Same guy who got me interested in dancin’ in the first place.”
“Oh, it's nice to meet you, Riley. I'm Olivia.” Olivia squatted down slightly to be on Riley’s level as she smiled brightly.
“H-hi, Miss Olivia. Y’re really pretty when you were dancin’ w’ th’ cap’n.” Riley stared at Olivia with wide eyes.
“Hehe, thank you. I've been teaching her for a little while now, I'm glad to hear our work is paying off.”
“How’d you manage t’ do that? I tried t’ learn but it was too hard and I couldn't stay up.” Riley mumbled under her breath.
“Well, I've been practicing since I was younger than you, and when I started I fell on my face more times than I can count. Sully also wasn't any better when we started a few months ago. But we both wanted to get better and so we stuck with it as much as we could.” Olivia patiently explained to the grumbly girl.
“So, I should try again?”
“Ya know, your old man would be ecstatic to be learning with you again.” Sully decided to pipe up.
“But Pa’s a dork!” Riley snapped
“A dork who loves you and wants to spend more time with you.” Olivia patted Riley on the head and Riley’s face flushed as she didn't push Olivia away.
“Um, I guess that's true… I'll think about it!” Before anyone else could get a word on edgewise, Riley ran off into the town blushing up a storm.
“Pff… You're really good with kids, she's not a simple one and she was basically putty in your hands.” Sully chuckled at the running away girl.
“Y-you’re over exaggerating.”
“Nope. I told you before, if I see something impressive I'll let you know.”
“I-I do remember that.”
“You know, you’re probably her first crush, she's getting about that age.” Sully smiled as Olivia began to blush as much as Riley did.
“Y-you're just teasing me!” Olivia slapped Sully’s arms as Sully burst out laughing.
“Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. All I'm saying is I don't get called Miss Sully, I'm just ‘the captain’.”
“That’s kinda cute in its own way though, isn't it? Captain?” Olivia giggled and leaned into Sully, trying to push her slightly.
“Was that sass out of you? You're already getting some progress with your confidence in that case.”
Olivia and Sully have reached A Support!
Sully flipped over the same letter from her folks over and over in her hands, and the contents of it never changed into anything more appealing. She wadded it up and shoved it in a pocket before walking towards Olivia as she practiced on her own before their lessons.
“Fair warning, I'm here.” Sully called to her… friend? Teacher? Crush? Damn letter had her second guessing her relationship with Olivia. At least faster than Sully wanted
“Oh, perfect timing I was just winding down!” Olivia dropped her form and sidled up to Sully.
“Before we start I do have a couple bits of news, one good, one bad. What do you want to hear first?” As Sully spoke, the small smile on Olivia’s face shrunk.
“Well, I guess let's start with the good news…”
“Luke wanted me to let you know that Riley’s first recital is coming up, and the two of us have been saved tickets to see it.”
“Oh that is good news, I'm so excited!” Olivia clapped lightly as she spoke.
“She'd certainly be happy to see you there.” Sully cracked a smile.
“Oh hush you, quit teasing me about that. Anyways if that's the good news, what's the bad news?”
“Well, potentially bad news. Still unpleasant. Chrom’s throwing this ball shindig and unfortunately I can't just work security, my folks want me to represent the house. I already tried talking to Chrom and he can't cancel it. Said if he has to suffer, so do I.” Sully sighed.
“O-okay? I get why you don't want to go, but why are you telling me?”
“I uh, well these noble events are all about- or rather my folks want me to- Gods now for once I'm second guessing myself.”
“Take your time, I'm here for you.” Olivia grabbed hold of Sully’s hands and suddenly Sully had her answer.
“Will you be my date to the ball? I mean, if you want to, if you're comfortable. If not I totally get it-” Olivia chose to interrupt Sully by kissing her on the lips.
“We're going to have to adjust our lessons, how long until the ball?” Olivia smiled as Sully tried to restart her brain.
“Uh, a couple weeks, why?”
“I do have to make sure my date’s ballroom dancing is up to my standards.”
Olivia and Sully have reached S Support!
Merry Nagamas!
A few thoughts:
>The moment I saw the pairing I was reminded of how in like 2016 American Football players had a trend of doing ballet for balance reasons and lo and behold the idea was born
>Luke and Riley, are in fact named after the Pokemon Lucario and Riolu, I don't know how or why they ended up with Southern Accents, Sully also got it a little bit too, its contagious
>I really love the idea of a really shy character losing all traces of that shyness when they're in The Zone about their special interest. So I brought that here a bit with Drill Instructor Olivia