Work Text:
Title: Can I Touch Your Hair?
Category: Fire Emblem
Rating: T
Pairing: implied Corrin/Takumi friendship Jakob/Takumi
Summary: Takumi is jealous of the relationship that Corrin has with her butler and retainer, Jakob. Especially since Takumi doesn’t trust either of his retainers with his hair and his wife’s hair always looks shiny and well taken care of, something that his hair does not. Takes place in Birthright
Author’s Note: I am doing a small serious about taking a quote from each husband in Fire Emblem Fates when you are bonding with them and making it into the story. All the Corrin in this series will be female.
Disclaimer: I do not owe any rights to the franchise.
~~Story Begins~~
When Takumi married Corrin, he wanted to get his callous fingers tangled into her soft, shiny, pink hair and know if it feels as soft as it looks or if it’s just an illusion. His hair was rough with knots and course ends because he didn’t care of it. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s just that he tried four times and something bad happened all four times.
The first time he had asked Oboro to do it thinking that she’ll know how since her family sued to own a tailoring shop and the fact that she was a girl. He didn’t expect for her to gush over how much she dreamed of touching his hair or the fact that she took too long to decide on how to style it which only led him to hate it since every part of his hair was sticking up like spikes. He felt awkward after Oboro and left and refused to his leave his room.
The second time he asked his other retainer, Hinata, to do it which a was a mistake because Hinata was way too rough on the tugging and put in like five elastics to hold the hair place but the entire time, Hinata was excited about this since he thought it was a competition to see who can wear their hair up better. After that, he had a terrible headache and his scalp was hurting.
The third time he had asked both of his retainers to work together on his hair, which never happened because the two of them argued over what to do with his hair. He snuck out without them noticing and by the time they found him - forty-five minutes later - his hair was already in his usual style.
The fourth and final time, Takumi tried to do it himself. He didn’t know who to ask for help without being judged and some of the products that Ryoma had given him made no sense on how to use it. His hair looked like a storm of mistakes came bursting through and if it wasn’t for the fact that Yukimura found him and helped him get all the products out, Takumi knew he would have been the laughing stock of his family.
His wife’s hair isn’t the only thing that he is jealous of though, the relationship that she has with her butler, Jakob, is the other thing. Takumi had wanted to talk to his wife, he had a terrible day in practice but when he went inside their treehouse, he saw Jakob there brushing all the twigs, leaves, and knots out of her hair.
“What’s going on?” Takumi asked.
“Jakob’s just getting out the twigs and leaves ou-OW!” Corrin started to reply before letting out a small yelp.
“Apologies milady,” Jakob said. “But I did warn you about this knot.”
“Anyway,” Corrin continued. “He’s brushing my hair out like he does. It just hasn’t been this bad before.”
“That’s what happens when you chase Kaden through the forest,” Jakob scowled.
Since that day, Takumi has asked Corrin he can touch her hair, hoping it wouldn’t be weird. He’s jealous that his wife has a retainer that can actually style her hair without causing a headache or embarrassment. He would hear Jakob come in on days that he oversleeps and sees Jakob braiding her hair or styling it where it looks a lot shorter than what it truly is.
He woke up one morning to see Jakob standing in the treehouse and Corrin wasn’t there, “Good morning, Lord Takumi,” Jakob greeted. “Please do hurry and get ready. I do not have all day.”
“Why should I get ready? You don’t take order from anyone who isn’t Corrin,” Takumi grunted.
“Precisely and I have my orders from milady which are to be a secret,” Jakob responded. “You are wasting my valuable time here!”
Takumi smiled, ever since they had their sparring matches to help Takumi approve, he realized that Jakob had cold and dry humor which a lot of people don’t get. “It’s my valuable time too and I’m not going to get dressed with you standing there and watching.”
“Very well,” Jakob bowed. “Come outside as soon as you are done.”
Takumi chuckled as Jakob left but did wonder as to what Corrin told Jakob to do. He got ready and dhis calloused hands put his rough feeling hair up. He hated it, he hated that Corrin loved touching it, petting it in a way, he also hated that her touching his hair also helped him calm down.
When Takumi left the treehouse, Jakob was tapping his foot against the deck, but it was nothing more but a joke. Takumi saw Jakob get furious and impatient with Felicia and this was nothing compared to that. “Are you ready?”
“I don’t know, what exactly are we doing?” Takumi responded.
“My orders are to remain a secret, come on now,” Jakob replied leaving the deck with Takumi following.
Takumi followed as they left the camp and entered the mountain range, “You aren’t here to murder me are you?”
“It has crossed my mind a couple of times but I will not act upon it.”
“That’s good.”
“Only because it will break Lady Corrin’s heart and I’ll be losing the best training partner that I have ever had.”
“Thank you,” Takimi said.
Jakov went in between two mountain sides where a crack was at, “Oh, that wasn’t meant to be a compliment. You are the only training partner I have ever had as well.”
“Haha, seriously where are we going?”
“We are almost there,” the butler responded. Once he stepped out of the crack, Takumi saw white ground and crystal blue water. “Please do hurry, Lord Takumi.”
“I’m coming, just hold your horses,” Takumi said getting out of the little path only for Jakov to grab the back of his neck and kick his legs out from underneath him, “Hey what are-”
“Take a deep breath and hold,” Jakob said before dunking his friend’s head in the water.
Before Takumi could register that he was on his knees, his head under water, his head got pulled back above it. “I thought you wasn’t going to try and kill me.” He felt his now wet hair start to come out of the elastics, “No! Stop! I command you to stop! What are you doing?”
“Sorry, but I do not listen to your orders. Only Lady Corrin’s. Now, take another deep breath and hold,” Jakob said with a smile. “Come back up for air in five seconds.”
Takumi’s head was pushed back under the water but the grip on his neck was gone. When he came back up for air, Jakob’s metal gauntlets were off and he was shaking his head. “Do you not take care of your hair? Is it a Hoshidian tradition or something?”
“No,” the archer spat. “I just don’t care too and considered it a waste of time.”
“Yeah,” Jakob drawled, “and I’m Lady Corrin’s husband while your the butler. If you think it’s a waste of time then why are you always staring jealously at your wife’s hair?”
“Okay fine,” Takumi snapped. “I’ve had four bad experience with people spending time on my hair.”
“There’s the problem,” Jakob said in delight. “I’m warning you now this might hurt. I’ve never seen one’s hair so knotted and damage before.”
Before Takumi could come back with another insult, he felt fingers gently combing through his hair followed by a brush. It felt good. Jakob’s fingers got stopped by a knot, his fingers would remove themselves and the brush would slowly get the knot out. “Why are you doing this?”
“Lady Corrin’s order,” he replied working diligently with Takumi’s hair, “We both figured out that you envied her hair and guessed that it was because no one helped you properly or you didn’t ask for help. Sorry for the upcoming tug.”
The huge snarl that he had been working came undone while Takumi let out a yelp at the sudden pull. “Could have given me more warning.”
“Blah,” Jakob responded as his fingers and the brush combed through the hair one more time, “Dunk your head under water.”
Takumi did as he was told and when he came back. Jakob was already doing something his hair, “I didn’t realize you guys knew.”
“Plus Lady Sakura and Lady Hinoka were talking about it. This is a part of Lady’ Corrin’s git to you.” Jakob noticed that their was silence, “You do know what today is, don’t you?”
“Is it a holiday?” Takumi asked.
“No, how about your first your anniversary of being a married couple,” Jakob said coldly. “You totally forgot.”
“Gah, I did and I don’t have a present for her,” Takumi said. “What am I going to do, she’s going to leave me!”
“Pity,” Jakob said dryly. “It’s also a pity that you have so little faith in your wife.” He wrapped something in Takumi’s hair before removing his hands and going to retrieve his metal gauntlets. “I’m done with your hair, have a look.” He tossed a hand mirror at Takumi who caught it.
Takumi looked at the water’s smooth surface noticing that his bangs wouldn’t get in his way by a simple white hair clip. When he held the hand mirror up to take a look at his hair, he almost fell into the water. His hair had a foreign pattern in it almost like it was a braid but yet it wasn’t. The way two strands of his hair wrapping around the one strand reminded Takumi of a castle being protected by air and the way his hair shorn was more than what he ever hoped for.
“Dude, this is wonderful, thank you.”
“Shall we get going?” Jakob asked. “Most my time has already been wasted on you and I am worrying for milady’s safety.”
“Yeah, chill out. What has my wife done now that might cause her bodily harm?” Takumi asked standing up. His hair felt lighter to which was strange.
“She’s shopping with Felicia and Sophie,” Jakob said lead the way back towards camp. “Oh, she’s not worried about a gift from you since you gave her one.”
“What did I give her?”
“A child,” Jakob said watching Takumi closely. Corrin would have told him that she was a pregnant but a week ago the couple were seen avoiding each other due to an argument about starting a family during this time of war. Corrin wanted to be a mother and her dragon was demanding to be pregnant, to carry the dragon blood onto the next heir, to keep the dragon blood alive. Takumi refused and didn’t want children at all. Corrin was scared about what his reaction would be.
“A what?” Takumi asked unsure if he heard it right.
“Wow, even the poorest of Nohr residents knew what I said. Lady Corrin is pregnant with a child - your child- inside of her. It will be the first child for the two of - Hey! Don’t faint!” Jakob shouted letting Takumi fall to the ground, not even trying to catch him. “Fainting is my job.” No answer or remark as Takumi laid there, still unconscious from fainting. “At least let me know if your fainting is a good sign or a bad sign.”
~~The End~~