Cramped Quarters Lon'qu X Reader

        It was late in the evening, perhaps an hour or so after twilight. Everyone had just finished setting up the new camp and Chrom had assigned random tents, just for tonight. It was too early for you to sleep, but the masses of insects buzzing around your head drove you inside of your tent. ”Huh, no one's here yet.” Shrugging to yourself, you unrolled your sleeping bag and pulled a book from inside. About three chapters into the book, someone else entered the tent. “Well this should be interesting.”

Lon'qu stood frozen in the doorway. The corners of his mouth were pulled down into a deep frown, and his eyebrows were pressed together, showing obvious worry. “Am I in the wrong tent?”

“I don't know. Did Chrom assign you tent thirteen?” Lon'qu solemnly nodded. “Then you're in the right tent. Now hurry up and shut the door before you let even more bugs in here.”

“Sorry.” Instead of coming inside the tent, Lon'qu turned around and walked back outside. You weren't sure if you should go after him or not. With his fear of females, you may just run him out of camp if you tried to help. Your thoughts were cut short when he once again entered the tent, this time with several sand bags in each arm.

You watched him place the bags in a straight line between your sleeping bag and his. He made sure not to touch you, or any of your possessions as he worked. It was as if he was trying to build a wall between the two of you. A slight overreaction in your opinion, even with his strange phobia.“Lon'qu, what on earth are you doing?”

“I'm making the best out of a bad situation.” After dropping the last sandbag in place, he unrolled his sleeping bag and crawled inside, making sure to face away from you.

“Goodnight to you too. I pray you don't dream of women.” A little annoyed by his actions, you blew out the lantern and readied to sleep. You rolled over in your bag and pressed your face into your thin pillow. Something wasn't right, you felt a tickling sensation just above your elbow. Slowly, you lifted your head and opened your eyes. A huge, black and yellow spider was crawling down your arm towards your hand. “Get it off!” You screamed, flailed your arm around and jumped from your sleeping back to Lon'qu's. No matter how hard you swung your arm, the spider wasn't budging. “Get it off of me!”

Lon'qu calmly lit a lantern and roughly grabbed your arm to stop you from flailing about. He nonchalantly picked up the spider like it was made of plastic. “Please, calm down. It's only an orb weaver. They're harmless.”

“Harmless? That thing's half the size of your hand, how is that harmless?” You stared down at the bulbous spider with amazement and horror. “That thing could have crawled up my nose and eaten my brain. That isn't harmless.”

“It's much too large to crawl up your nose, or into your ear.” He sighed. “You females have overactive imaginations.”

You suddenly realized you were in Lon'qu's bed, and he didn't seem the least bit upset or worried. “Hey, wait a second, why aren't you freaking out?”

He sighed, stood to his feet and placed the spider outside of the tent. “As I've already said, they aren't dangerous.”

“No, no.” You shook your head and explained further. “I'm not talking about the spider. I'm talking about me. I'm sitting here, in your bed, and you didn't even wince. Not only that, but you touched me without fainting. Although, it would be nice to know how you know so much about bugs.”

Lon'qu shut his eyes and took a deep breath in, trying to keep calm after realizing how close he'd been to you. “Please get back in your own bed and I'll explain.” His voice was more gruff than usual, probably because he was embarrassed. Wanting to know, you quickly crawled over the sandbags and back into your bed. “First off, I didn't notice your closeness because of the danger you thought you were in. Secondly, when I was much younger, I liked studying insects.”

“Oh, I had no idea you were the scholar sort. But then I suppose it's always the quiet ones that are smart.” You chuckled, trying to lighten the stiff mood.

“I'm not. Now go to bed. And please, next time you find an insect in your bed, try not to scream like a banshee. Loud noises often scare things into biting.” Once again Lon'qu snuggled into his bed, this time, covering his face with a heavily worn blanket.

“Right I'll try to remember that.” Though he couldn't see it, you felt yourself blushing. “Thank you by the way.” With no response from him, you closed your eyes and tried to sleep. No matter how hard you tried to sleep, you found your eyes would pop open every few minutes. It didn't help that your camp was surrounded by the loudest crickets you'd ever heard in your life. Giving up on the idea of sleeping, you sat up, leaned over the sandbags and poked Lon'qu in the ribs. “Hey, are you asleep?”

“No.” He groaned and rolled over to face you. “How could anyone be asleep with these blasted crickets making this much noise?” Noticing how close you were, caused him to flinch and jerk away from you. “Are you not aware that the purpose of this wall is to keep you away?”

“Oh, is that why this is here?” You feigned ignorance and grinned. “I thought for sure it was to block out the sound of you snoring. From what I've heard, your snore louder than anyone else in camp. But anyway, since neither of us can sleep, you want to do something? I could help you get over your gynophobia if you wanted.” Wiggling your eyebrows in a failed attempt at being seductive, you moved a little closer and bit your bottom lip.

Lon'qu's face turned a deep red. He began breathing quick, shallow breaths. “No. I would much prefer it if you stayed on your side of the tent and stopped tormenting me. Though I admit this is a fear I need to get over, your method is the complete opposite of a good idea.”

“How do you know it's not a good idea? Have you ever tried? I mean really, how can this idea be worse than filling your tent with statues of women?” Against his wishes, you crossed over the barrier again and sat only inches from him. “At least give my idea a try. It's not like I'm going to do anything that could hurt you. I'm like that spider, Terrifying, but completely harmless.”

“I suppose.” He was reluctant, but willing to try. Probably only because he knew you weren't about to take no for an answer.

“Good, then just do what I tell you to do.” You had no idea what you were doing. You didn't even know if it would help or hurt his phobia. Still, you wanted to try. “Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” Lon'qu obeyed did as you said. You waited until he seemed calm again before gently placing your forefinger in the center of his left palm. He immediately flinched. Again, waiting until he calmed down, you drew small circles in his hand. Surprisingly, this didn't seem to bother him. After several moments you had worked your way up to his elbows, biceps, and finally shoulders. Lon'qu was no longer blushing or shaking, which you found amazing. It was time for the final test. You placed both of your hands on his cheeks and pressed your lips against his.

His eyes opened wide as he tried to pull away. Instead of being free of you, he wound up with you directly on top of him. Lon'qu almost growled at his words. “I think you skipped a few steps in my treatment.”

“Maybe, but here I am, laying on you, and you seem pretty okay with that.” You poked him in the forehead and smiled happily. “I think, we've made wonderful progress and in a very short time, we should do this again.”

Though he hated to admit it, you were right. “I doubt this progress will work with other females. It's likely I've only become more comfortable with you.”

“Then that's what we'll work on in the morning. I'm sure Muriel would be more than happy to help us with the experiment.” You kissed his forehead, crawled off of him and back into your bed. “The crickets are finally quiet, we should try to get some sleep before the birds start singing.”

Lon'qu stood up and snorted. “As if I could sleep now without having horrid nightmares” He shivered. “I'm going to peel potatoes. Sleep well.”