Chapter Text
(Background Music: Fire Emblem Awakening - Anna's Shop)
Location - All Star Resort: Melee Time Square Building 1
Lucina was stomping back to her shared dorm room after a brutal match against Bowser and Ganondorf, clearly pissed off. She had just come back from another match against them, and it had been brutal for her.
“Even though it was a Free-For-All battle, Ganon decided to force Bowser to cooperate,” she muttered under her breath. “I was three stocks ahead of them, yet I was the first to get out of the match!”
She lost track of how many times she had been ganged up on over her Smash Bros career, but she could confidently add that last match to her list of matches where she called bullshit on how it ended. The only good thing that really came out of it was that Bowser threw Ganondorf in the air to give him that match. The Koopa king had met up with her later to apologize for the low blow he did, which she took well and accepted his apology for. Despite their clear differences, they were surprisingly good sports to each other.
“Well, at least Bowser apologized afterwards. Stupid pig king calling me a…”
Growling before she could finish that sentence, she felt her left boot step on something gooey, and it wasn't Kirby's dark blue blob of a friend either.
“What the-”
Lifting up her left leg, she takes off her boot to examine the culprit.
“Aw, come on people!” The Ylissean princess yelled. “I just got back from a match!”
Apparently, to top it off on a sour note, she stepped on gum. On her favorite boots, no less.
Sighing as she realized that it was going to be one of those days that end in why, Lucina peels off the sticky object from her boot, tossing it in a nearby trash can before taking out her keys and started walking back. It didn’t really take long for her to find the room number, so she sighs in relief for this small convenience.
Right when she was about to go to her room, one of the newcomers— or rather, she should say, two of them— catches her eye. Both of them were from her same universe, the world of Fire Emblem, so she quickly figures out who they were by the mere fact neither of them wore shoes: Corrin, along with his female counterpart who went by the nickname Core, from the World of Fates.
From the time she’s known them, Corrin was known to be a little bit of a teaser between the two; mind you, while Lucina was one of his frequent victims, he only teases her just to be friendly. In stark contrast, Core was a bit stricter overall, usually being the one who keeps her male counterpart in check whenever they go anywhere. However, she’s friendly enough with the princess of Ylisse that they get along with each other.
They actually first met each other during a separate incident when their worlds were starting to get messed up for some reason. They, along with everyone else who was in that same position as well as two other royals who were locals, helped get things back in order. They’ve kept in touch as best they could ever since, usually meeting up in Askr a few times often to catch up.
“Hey! Lucina! Lucy!”
“Over here!”
Turning to see both Corrins waving at her, she waves back as they run towards, eagerly wanting to engage in small talk.
“Hey guys,” she greets casually, treating the dragon royals like they were old friends. “How have you been doing these first three weeks here?”
When Feh, Askr’s white owl, brought over a letter for both Corrins one day, they never expected it to be an invitation to join the ongoing tournament. As soon as Lucina found out, she arranged for them to have a tour of the area for when they got there, personally showing them both the ins and outs of the Smashverse.
She’s been especially incredibly kind towards them both since they joined the Smash roster, considering that they unfortunately had to come along with another, quite controversial, new and final arrival. That, and they were both… foreign royals who didn't know that you don't touch people's faces as a greeting, but that's a different story.
“Great, thanks,” Corrin replied without giving much thought. “Even though we had to join with Bayonetta, she's actually not all that bad.”
“Really?” Lucina asks, raising an eyebrow in interest. “I’m honestly surprised, given her track record of interactions not being that good, from what I heard.”
“So were we. She actually apologized for coming off as rude earlier and invited us for some target practice. We just came back from sparring with her a few hours ago, believe it or not.”
Leaning over to sniff the dragon prince, Lucina simply faux sneezed, confirming what was said. “Huh. Well that explains the scent of sweat around you.”
“It was pretty splendid,” Core chimed in. “It reminded me of sparring with Takumi back in Hoshido.”
“And how are things with your families, by the way?”
“We kind of miss our families a little, but we write to them whenever we can. I actually got Elise's reply a few days ago in my room if you want to read it.”
"Maybe tomorrow,” Lucina declined, stressing out her back. “I gotta get back to my room now. How is Elise doing?”
“She said that she misses you and hopes that she can visit Smash City soon,” Core replied. “That’s the long and short end of it. But enough about us. I want to hear about your day. How was it?”
MY day? Shit, why did she want to ask me that NOW?! Lucina cussed in her mind. What am I going to say to her, 'How was my day? Oh, it was crappy!' Nuts to that!
As much as she loves making small talk, this was probably the worst day to be answering that question. Besides that absolute shitshow of a match, not too much had been going well for her today.
Looks like I'm gonna have to 'wing it,' as everyone else puts it.
“Okay, how do I put this…” she begins, pausing for a moment to come up with her answer. “Well, this morning, I smelt nasty garlic cloves in my room again-”
“Stupid Wario…” all three groaned, rolling their eyes at even the mention of his name.
“So after cleaning up the mess he made for 30 minutes by myself because Pichu went out before I woke up,” Lucina continues, “I went down to the mess hall where the younger Smashers dumped a bunch of oatmeal…”
“All of them?” Core asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, most of them,” Lucina corrected herself, “not all of them. I forgot it was April Fools Day.”
“What is that?” Corrin asks, genuinely confused about the holiday.
“Usually, a holiday where people would play pranks on someone,” the Ylissean Princess explains, “though, to what end, I don’t know.”
“That sort of sounds awful.”
“Y’know… that would explain why the rest of today went sideways for me.”
“Come again?”
“After that, not much else happened that morning. This afternoon, though, all of the Koopalings besides Lemmy, Villager and his friends, Toon Link, and that Duck Hunt dog thought it was funny to chase me down like it was Duck Dynasty because SOMEONE had dumped sticky Cucco feathers on me. On top of that, I just got back from a Free-For-All match where I got ganged up on, so…”
Counting up all of the aforementioned things she just said on her fingers, Lucina shrugs and finishes up with an honest statement. “I don't know. It seems like it was a crappy day for me.”
“What happened in that match?”
“I got ganged up on by Ganondorf and Bowser.”
“Oh… That's… uh…”
An awkward silence filled the air as Corrin’s sentence fell unfinished. Not even he had any idea how to answer what he just heard.
“Anything wrong?” Lucina asks, glancing between the two dragons in confusion.
“Uh…” Corrin stalls, clearing his throat. “Excuse us a sec, please.”
As soon as he excused himself, he pulls his female counterpart aside, a few steps away from Lucina.
“Uh, Core,” Corrin whispers to his female counterpart, “I think we may have a problem.”
“What's wrong now, Corrin?” Core whispers back.
“Have you not just heard her now? It sounds like she's been getting bullied!”
The female dragon kin let out a small gasp in shock. “That's horrible! The poor thing… Wait, how do you know she's getting bullied?”
Corrin doesn’t immediately answer. He quickly looks back at Lucina, trying to get a read on her face, only looking back at Core when he couldn’t. “No clue. Men's intuition?”
“Ugh, just like usual,” Core groans. “Idiot.”
“Well, any bright ideas on how we ask her?” Corrin asks.
“I don't know. Why do you figure it out yourself?”
“I can't do that! You figure it out!”
“What?! Why me?!”
“Hey! You just called me an idiot! It's not my fault that I'm not Einsteinium here. Look, I may be dumb, but even I know better than to open my mouth like that.”
“One, it's Einstein, not Einsteinium; that's an element. Two, if you're so aware of how you can talk, why can't you come up with a simple plan?”
“Good idea. Get someone who isn't good at plans to come up with one to save the smart ass who can't save herself,” Corrin sarcastically points out.
“What's going on there?” Lucina, who had been waiting for them to finish their conversation, asks, noting how much whisper screaming was happening.
Core quickly turns around and sweats a little, clearly nervous. “Nothing! Nothing, but…”
“But…?”
Shit, Core cursed in her head, now I have to ask her face to face! C'mon, think, dammit…
Sharply inhaling, the female dragon kin braces herself.
“There's something that’s bothering me…”
Corrin shoots her a glance at the omission.
“Or well, us…” Core quickly corrects, “with what you just said, and I'm gonna ask. Answer as honestly as you can. How do… How do you handle bullying?”
Lucina’s face quickly grew taut with shock, clearly caught off guard with the question presented to her. “Excuse me?”
Nice going, Core. Now she's gonna ask why just because you asked…
“H-How did you know…?” The Ylissean princess slowly questions. “You two have only been here for a few weeks now. Where did you come across that information?”
“Wait wait wait: so it is true?” Corrin, equally just as surprised by the confirmation, asks in turn.
Lucina lets out a sigh, leaving against the wall behind her as she stares at the two, crossing her arms between. “Yeah. Kind of. I-It’s complicated.”
“How is that complicated?” Corrin argues. “Bullying is bullying, no matter what.”
“Yeah, but there’s a lot behind that.”
“Behind the bullying?”
“Behind the behavior.”
“The behavior?” Core chimes in. “What are you getting at?”
“I don't know, Core,” Lucina replies. “I'm just…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, seeing that neither dragon would be letting this go. It was true that she had been targeted by a certain individual a lot, but the way they were doing was… She wasn’t sure if it was really bullying or if it was them targeting her because of their own personal problems. Neither of those sounded good, but Lucina was fully aware of why they were like that, and she couldn’t blame them.
After all, she knew the truth of the story behind it as well.
“…Do you guys want to know the story?” Lucina asks after a moment of contemplation. She receives two nods of confirmation in response.
“Okay. I’m going to tell you guys straight out. Promise not to tell anyone?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly,” Core responds.
“Stick a needle in my eye,” Corrin follows.
“Good.”
The Ylissean motions them to come closer, waiting until they were huddled to her area to begin her explanation.
“You know about my roommate, yes?” Lucina begins.
“Only that it’s not someone else from our universes,” Corrin replies. “Why?”
“She’s… part of the reason that it’s complicated. She’s not the easiest to get along.”
“Don’t tell me you got Bayonetta for your roommate.”
“What? No, I’ve had one since I got here.”
“Oh.”
“Ganondorf’s got it out for her, but I got lumped in because of my association.”
“That jerk!” Core hisses. “I knew he was a villain, but mistreating Zelda even outside of their universe is not cool.”
“It wasn’t Zelda either,” Lucina clarifies, “she’s dealt with him before.”
“Then… who are you talking about?”
“… Let’s just say that he’s been bullying her because of what she did to him in the past.”
Both Corrins looked at each other, then back at Lucina with a worried face.
“What?”
“You didn't think to tell anyone about this until now…?” Corrin asks with bated breath. “Why?”
“Well, no,” the Ylissean princess admits, looking down at her boots. “I haven't because… I was uncomfortable telling anyone else about it. I-I figured that it would only make things worse.”
“That's horrible!” Core frets. “You poor girl…”
“Hey, Core…” Corrin giggles, nudging his counterpart’s elbow. “You owe me one.”
“Shut up,” was the other’s response as she pushed the other elbow away. “Listen, Lucina. Neither of us really know what’s going on, but if it helps… We’re here for you.”
“That means a lot,” Lucina answers as she moves her back off the wall. “But are you sure? I don’t want you guys to get involved in this and it ends up being something you guys regret.”
“Hey, it’s no problem at all,” Core reassures. “You helped us before when we needed it, so why not do the same for you?”
“Even if it means learning to put up with a personality that’s less than ideal?”
“Even that. Everyone here has personalities that are diverse, so what’s one more to deal with? Besides, could you imagine what would happen if it was the other way around with everyone having one personality to act upon?”
All three of them shudder at the prospect, thinking back to when Starlight Glimmer was running an authoritarian mono-political role in a village she founded. That was not even mentioning the very manner of how she did it.
“Point taken,” Lucina acknowledges.
“Oh nuts,” Core suddenly blurts out, backing away as she went off topic. “I just remembered! We have a scheduled match to go to against both Robins… What time is it?”
Lucina counts in her head how long it’s been since she saw a clock and estimated what time it read back then.
“Almost 9:30,” she and Corrin, the latter of whom had apparently took out his phone to check, said at the same time.
“Oh, crap! We're late!” Core exclaims. “We gotta go! Corrin, let's move!”
“Good luck in your team tag match against both Robins, guys,” Lucina bids.
What Corrin replied with is the reason why he's also known to be the nick naming smasher.
“Thanks! Bye, Blueberry! See you soon!”
That also earned him a slap across the face from Core.
“Corrin! What's with you and the nickname giving?!” Core berates.
“Ow! What was that for, Core?!” Corrin whines. “It was just a joke!”
Lucina couldn’t help but giggle, as mean as it was to otherwise. She’s long been accustomed to their dynamic, so it didn’t phase her at all to witness it again.
“You guys… Well, good night, then,” she bids, seeing them begin to make their way to their match.
“Good night, Lucina,” both dragon royals replied, opting to take the stairs to leave.
As Lucina took out her keys to open her dorm, she went into deep thought about her time here in the Smashverse. It’s been a whole new experience for her to be living like this compared to back home. From the technology being integrated in a way that was easy for her to understand to the accessibility of things she never knew existed, it opened her eyes to a lot beyond her understanding. Even her social life had changed drastically since her invitation.
Time sure flies by, Lucina recalls. It seems like only yesterday that I came to live here. Thank the gods that the Pantheon connects my world to the Smashverse. New friends, new enemies, and of course… her.
As thought went to thought however, she reminisces about her roommate. The same one who first influenced her life, and was actually a former Smasher from when Melee was active, which had been so long ago. The one who eventually became her best friend.
Eventually, as she found the right key to unlock the room, her mind thought back to the earliest days of her Smashverse life.
If I hadn't come along that alleyway that night, who'd knew what would've happened to her…
(Background Music: File Select (Super Mario 64) - Mario Kart World OST)
She turns the knob, letting herself into her shared dorm. Lucina takes off her boots, putting them down to the side to clean up later. Tiredly, she saunters over to the couch, flopping her whole body down like a ragdoll.
“Finally…” Lucina breaths out. “I’m home.”
“Mama?” A small, childlike voice called out from a different room. “Is that you?”
“Yes, baby, it’s me,” Lucina replies. “Anything new happen today?”
“Yeah! I got something I want to show you!”
“Well, can you come over here please? I’m a bit tired right now.”
“Sure thing! I’ll be there!”
Small footsteps made their way towards the couch Lucina was on, barely making a sound on the carpet floor. They got closer, although the tired princess made no attempt to move up, knowing full well who it was.
That much was certain when she felt a small body leap into her chest. Barely looking up, Lucina smiled as she was greeted by her roommate, happy to see her again after the day she’s had.
“Hey there, Pichu.”