Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem


Robin paused as a bird perched on her finger. Not taking her eyes off it, she dared not move a muscle. Hmmm… My namesake, she thought to herself as the robin swiveled its head to look at her. Her eyes took on a distant look as she crushed the tiny bird in her hand. "Oh no," she murmured as she looked at the bloody mess in her palm, "I didn't mean to do that." She felt a sick smile twisting its way onto her face. "Why are you that arbitrary?"

Robin paused as she washed the dishes. Did I do my homework? Rather than worry about it, she finished the dishes and began to text her friend, Cordelia.

What u doin?

Nothin much. Going to this party tho. U wanna go?

I mean, I need to get out of the house…

Thats a yes. C u at 8 ;)

Robin sighed as she set her phone down. "That girl…" She sighed. "I need to find something to wear." Despite her intense and thorough search of her closet, she couldn't find anything suitable for the party. After a moment's thought, she decided to wear her usual coat and boots. "Cordelia's gonna scold me," she said softly to herself with a wry smile.

And indeed she did. "I can't believe you're going to wear that!" she whined, gesturing at Robin's typical outfit.

Robin shrugged. "I didn't have anything to wear." Rather than scold her, Cordelia merely sighed and waited for her boyfriend, Gaius, to pick them up. He pulled up in a rusty red car. It was sort of stylish, but was definitely heavily used. Robin remembered Cordelia telling her that Gaius didn't exactly live in the rich part of town. Despite that, he always tried to bring her nice gifts and never anything lackluster.

After driving for about 30 minutes, they came to a fairly large house. It wasn't exactly an inconspicuous party. Robin was sure whoever was living a few blocks away could hear the music and commotion.

The party seemed exactly how Robin expected. It was loud and crazy with a fair amount of beer (even though she was sure that almost everyone there was under 21) and lots of drunken flirting.

"Maybe we should leave," she nervously suggested to Cordelia.

"And miss the party?" Cordelia asked. "Sheesh, Robin, you're being so square right now! Join in the ball!"

"That is so 60s," Robin muttered as Cordelia ran off. Sometimes, Robin felt like Cordelia thought she lived in the time of the greasers and flower children. She used words like "flake," and "fink." Hell, the main reason she was first interested in Gaius was because she once heard him say he got a "five finger discount." Basically, that was 60s speak for stealing something.

After a few minutes of wandering around, Robin found a place to sit in the corner, away from the racket. Or at least she thought she was alone, but a blue-haired youth who looked about her age (16) sat next to her. He was kinda sweaty and swiped a hand over his brow.

"Gods," he sighed, "this party is out of control."

Robin knew she should probably start talking, or as Cordelia would refer to it, "get with the words," but she was shy at heart and was simply tongue-tied.

Thankfully, she didn't really need to talk. He turned to face her. "And who may you be?"

"R-Robin," she muttered, feeling her face heat up at her stuttering.

After hearing a loud crash from another room, he sighed. "I told Vaike not to throw a party here…" He offered her his hand. "Hi, I'm Chrom."

"It's quite the party," she agreed shyly. "Why are you sitting here?"

"Well, I saw a pretty girl sitting all by her lonesome. Being a gentleman as I am, I decided to offer her my company."

Robin blushed even harder, if that was even possible. "I'm not someone you want to get involved with. You're life will be so much easier if you just leave now."

He leaned closer. "Now how could I leave such an interesting girl to resume my boring life?"

She laughed slightly at his remark. "This party is anything but boring."

He put his hand gently over hers. "Pardon me if I'm coming on too strong, but would you be fine if I give you my number?"

She was about to say it was fine, when she heard sirens from outside. Cordelia ran up. "Crap, it's the fuzz! Let's get out of here!"

Chrom quickly scribbled his phone number on her arm and waved goodbye as Cordelia dragged her away. Gaius was already waiting in the car by the time they got there. While they drove away, Cordelia wouldn't shut up about the party. "What'd he say?" she pestered Robin.

"I don't know. He seemed nice and he offered me his phone number. He's just a guy, Cordelia. You know I'm not really in a position to be dating."

"Oh yeah..." Cordelia's eyes took a solemn look. Knowing Gaius was in the front seat and could hear everything they were saying, Cordelia kept fairly quiet.

When they got back to Robin's house, Cordelia turned towards her friend. "I thought you were on your meds!"

"I know but I just don't want to take any risks!" Robin protested. "It's not exactly something I want to risk. And besides," she admitted, "I've been getting headaches lately from it so I've been off."

Cordelia immediately took a step back upon hearing the news. As if Robin were an unstable thing that could break violently and without warning at any moment. "Look, I'll check on you in the morning. Just...head to bed…"

Even my friends don't want to see that other side of me, Robin thought as Cordelia walked away. Rather than dwell on her bitter thoughts-for that was known for instigating her other side-Robin did as Cordelia suggested and headed to bed.


Come on, let us play. You never let us have any fun anymore… Robin struggled to ignore the voice. She was hoping that those dreams would stop. But the voice still persists. Let me have a turn. You've been running the show for too long.

Robin struggled in her sleep. "No! I don't know what you'll do!"

Oh~? Don't be like this. After all, we're the same person. If you don't know what I'll do, that just means that you don't know what you'll do. Even if you kill your friends, even if you blame me for it, we are one and the same. No matter what happens, it'll be our fault. Now let me do as we please for a little while. Or else I'll just do what we want by force.

Robin finally stopped fighting and a single tear rolled down her cheek as she finally capitulated. "Okay… Just don't hurt anyone…"

Oh dear, the voice whispered. You know that if we do it, you want it, too. If someone ends up hurt, you will relish it.

"I'm not a killer," she whispered, her voice faltering from lack of conviction. And as she woke up, she couldn't help but shiver at the savage words that only the deepest depths of her mind could conjure up.

Desperate for something to occupy herself, she called the number that was written on her arm in blue ink. She heard a tired-sounding voice answer.

She paused. "Is Chrom there?"

"Robin," she heard a breathless voice say. "What is it?"

She tried to smile. "Maybe you'd want to catch some breakfast or something?"

There was a silence on the other end where she swore she could hear him smile. "All right. Where to?"

She paused. "Anywhere. How about Ronald's?"

"All right. I'll see you there at 8. Sound good?"

Robin smiled in spite of herself. "Yeah, thanks. Bye." Right after she placed the phone down, Robin searched her room for something decent. Cordelia was right, she thought. I really don't have anything suitable to wear. At last, she found a comfy yet flattering tank top and some jeans to put on. Since Ronald's was right down the block, she had no need for her dad to drive her and instead jogged.

She found him near the window tables, checking the very expensive watch on his wrist. She sat down across from him. "Boy, that sure is an expensive watch. Where would a high school student have such an amount of money?"

He blushed. "My parents were kinda rich. Then...they kinda passed on. I inherited a good chunk of it while my older sister got most of it."

Robin sat and digested the information while perusing his figure. "Is it hard?"

"What?"

"Inheriting all this money and stuff. Is it hard?"

He paused as a wistful smirk took home on his face. "Why, yes. Yes it is. My life isn't all wild parties and booze. Nor is it all sex, drugs, or pimping out women. In fact, none of it's the last part."

Robin sent him a sly grin. "Hmmm… How disappointing. And I thought all rich men had sex, did drugs, and pimped out women.

Chrom smiled back and ordered some soup. "Tell me about yourself."

Robin looked at him. "Pardon?"

"Tell me about yourself."

She paused. "I… I was born in this town. I-I don't know. You're so straightforward."

He smiled as he started to drink his soup. They talked for a while until the waiter dropped off the tab. Chrom leaned over towards her and smiled. "Are you gonna pay, or am I?"

She smiled back. "Depends. If this counts as a date, then you should pay. If it's not, then I will."

He grinned. "I wouldn't know. Do you consider this a date?"

Robin paused, struggling to hide the blush on her cheeks. "Um… I guess so." She tried not to look at him. "I mean, I don't really want to pay, so I would just say that no matter what. It's not like I actually wanted to go on a date with you or anything. I mean, we're just friends…"

Chrom took a drag from an imaginary cigarette and faked a western accent as he replied, "Well, that's a darn shame. Shucks, a pretty maiden such as yourself would be a fine wife for any man."

Robin smiled as she felt herself playing along with his little game. "Talking about marriage already, are we? If you want my hand, you'll have to defeat 1,000 men!"

Chrom broke the facade as he chuckled. "Anyway, I'll pay this. Any last words, Robin?"

She frowned as she felt reality catch up with her. "I-I'm afraid we can't meet each other again."

He frowned as he looked at her, all amusement and tomfoolery gone from his demeanor. "Why?"

She looked away from him. "This is just a catharsis. I can't afford to hang around with those I care about."

"Tell me." The words burned into her, forcing her to bare all.

She pushed the feeling away. "I-I can't say just yet. All I'm going to say is that you don't know every facet of me. And some of those facets are very…unpleasant."

He squinted at her, but said no more. She almost laughed at the quirk of his brow. It was shaped in such a way so that it seemed as if he were mocking her, in contrast to the tense scene occurring at the moment.

Robin got up from the table. "Look, I'd better go. My father wants me home as soon as possible."

"Wait!" Chrom watched as she hurried out the door, pausing for only the briefest of seconds to look back at him regretfully. She really does love me, he realized. He quickly handed the money to the cashier and told her to keep the change, even though it must have been 20 dollars extra. He hurried out right after. He had someone special to find.


Robin suppressed a violent shiver that ran through her. She felt the cold sweat on the back of her hand, and felt the familiar chill of panic wrap itself around her. They told me that the meds would work!

Her father appeared around the corner of the house, his features irate. "When did you plan to tell me you were going to college?!" he hissed.

Robin shoved aside the worry as a pang of anger washed over her. "I didn't."

He loomed over her, his menacing presence making itself known. "How many times have I told you? You are staying home and taking care of the house! College costs money! Something we haven't had much of lately since your mother past."

"Don't play that card with me!" Robin snarled, feeling the fulcrum of her anger spill over. "Mother's death hurts me as much as it hurts you! Stop trying to guilt trip me out of an education!" She felt her other half stir as a few ugly words fell out of her mouth. "You just don't want me to become smart because one day, I'll realize that you're just a pathetic old man who needs to rely on me after his wife died."

Validar tossed her a knife. "If that's how you feel then stab me. Go on. Don't be shy."

Robin paused to look at the blade clutched tightly between her fingers. Its metal sheen made her blood turn to ice at the horror of the possibilities of what to do with it. "I'm not going to stab you."

He smiled an ugly snarl-like grin. "As I thought. We'll discuss this later."

"Robin!"

She turned to face the source of the voice, her eyes widening in surprise. Chrom ran up, his hair windswept and wild all over his face.

Robin leaned against the wall of the house as her stomach tightened sickeningly. "Go away, Chrom!" she shouted. "This isn't the best time!"

It was raining by then. It soaked their clothes and hair, letting not the smallest bit of surface remain dry. Chrom stepped forward. "I just wanted to tell you that I think that every part of you is wonderful and it doesn't matter how unpleasant you say you are."

"That is the most cliched thing I've ever heard," Robin muttered. She could hear the voice muttering in her ears. You've been a bad girl, Robin. I guess I'm gonna have to take control by force. She felt a sudden hot flash and stumbled.

Chrom caught her. "Are you okay?"

She tried vainly to shove him away. "Go away, Chrom! You don't need to be involved in this!"

"But I-" The reply ended abruptly as the gleaming metal embedded itself into his chest. Chrom knelt on the ground, clutching his side.

Robin felt the tears flow freely as she tried to stop the bleeding. "Chrom! I'm sorry…"

You wanted this. We just made it a reality.

"Shut up!" she howled. I'm a killer, she realized. The brutality hit her like a tidal wave and washed her away with the rain and her sense of reality. As the shock became the only thing she felt, she closed her eyes and fell toward the ground. They should kill me. I'll just end up hurting others… she thought as all senses faded away.

Fin


Hmmm… Finally, I finished it! I've kinda been distracted lately since I was the youngest person in my area to win a gold key in the Scholastic Writing Competition. I'll be heading to nationals soon! Also, I'm thinking about writing a fic with a happy ending for once. Maybe. I just write what I feel like-there's no planning or anything like that. So that's why I mostly write sad fics. And I won't be having any more interruptions anytime soon. The grades are stabilized. At least, for now. And they aren't in any immediate danger. Anyway, hope you enjoyed~