Ha ha, this was supposed to be a one shot, but I'll have to split this story in two parts because it would end up really long.
Anyway, for those who don't know me, I mostly write Super Smash Bros fanfiction. So I took a break from writing about Smash Robin to write about Fire Emblem Robin. And for those who DO know me (somehow) you are already aware that I ship Robin/Robin with a fiery passion of a thousand stars.
Hope you enjoy!
Another night, another crisis averted. The villagers cautiously left their houses one by one as Sully stabbed with her iron lance the last thief that tried to break into the house of an old woman. The village could sleep well for another night thanks to the hard work from the Shepherds, knowing that they were safe from the bloodshed and arson that was about to take place there.
Robin stood by Prince Chrom's side as he was thanked and praised by the common people, a sense of pride taking over her over the fact that her tactics had led their comrades yet to another victory without casualties. Being their chief tactician, it was her duty to keep everyone alive, so she could call tonight's battle a success.
"Thank you so much for everythin', Yer Highness," one of the farmers thanked, almost falling to his knees. "If ye didn' arrive here sooner, they would've sacked up our entire harvest."
"Not a problem, I'm glad we could have helped you," Chrom said, giving out that charming smile that lowered even the sturdiest defenses. "We have set camp not that far away, so we'll keep watch on your village for the rest of this night, just in case. So you can all sleep well, right Robin?"
"Of course," she gave a nod of head. "If there's a thief that's still hiding in the woods, we are sure to catch him."
Once everyone's spirits calmed down from the attack, the Shepherds marched back to where they have sent camp, bringing with them a young boy villager called Donnel, who helped them in fending his home off from the intruders. Some were skeptical of the boy's abilities, mainly the more skilled soldiers like Sully or Vaike, due to how scrawny and weak he was, but Robin still saw potential in the kid and convinced Chrom to bring him along. He already knew the basics of fighting with a lance, surely Frederick could help him get in shape and Sumia could help him in getting more experience with heavier lances.
The Shepherds scattered once they arrived in camp, some going to rest for a couple of minutes in their tents before having to leave to patrol the village, some wandering off to get more logs to help in keeping the campfire burning, Donnel included. Chrom watched him leave with his sister, Lissa and with Frederick, before turning to Robin.
"Well, I hope you are right in deciding to bring him along," Chrom said in the most casual tone.
"I just made a suggestion. In the end, the decision was yours."
"I guess you're right," he chuckled. "Look, I will go on patrol with Sumia soon, so you can rest for this night, okay?"
"Patrol, uh?" the tactician teased. "You mean going on a nice, romantic flight on her pegasus under the full moon?"
"D-Don't go assuming things," his cheeks got even redder with the other's smug grin. "Just go back to your tent, will you? And go get some rest, you've been overworking too much."
"Why, of course, captain," Robin turned around and gave a pat on his shoulder. "Goodnight, then. Have fun patrolling with Sumia."
She left before her commander could say anything else, her steps slightly faster than usual, almost as if she was restraining herself from running towards her tent without raising any suspicions. Which was basically her situation at the moment. In a swift movement, she entered her small tent, a sigh of relief escaping from her thin lips once she found herself completely alone.
She had been waiting the entire day for this moment.
Robin walked towards the small brown bag that laid by her bed's side and carefully took out a thick book with a dark purple hard cover, not unlike a Flux tome. There was no title, no indication on the cover for what one would find when they opened that particular book, it was only a purple cover with a worn out pink lining on the borders. Robin bit her lower lip and opened the book, quickly flipping over the pages until she reached the first blank page she could find.
Suddenly, by magic, the page began to be filled with words of black ink. There was a certain spark in her dark eyes as she began to read them:
So, how did saving the village go? Did you find Donnel?
Cautiously, Robin grabbed the ink and pen that also were in the bag and sat on her bed with crossed legs. She held her breath for a moment, biting her lower lip as she inked the tip and pressed it on the thick, yellow-ish paper. It was all just so surreal to her, to be able to answer the book, but it was not something she wasn't used to at that point.
First of all, hi. Second, yeah, we did find him. It was just as you said, he was standing outside his village, worried sick about his mother and friends. I still can't believe we arrived just in time to save the the people there! From what you said before, I thought we were too late.
She patiently tapped her fingers on the book, waiting for the answer to appear. It could take seconds, minutes or maybe even hours (and she sincerely hoped that was not the case) for the answer to appear, but she was considerably patient and didn't have a whole lot to do that night, so she would wait. Okay, so maybe she had some work to do, like having to map out the safest route to return to Ylisstol so they wouldn't be attacked by barbarians, but that was more of a self-imposed job than something Chrom had asked her for.
Before she could ponder on what to do, however, she saw more words filling up the page. Looks like he was also without much to do.
Good.
I told you there was still time. I'm also going to assume you have recruited him after you were done taking care of that band of thieves?
After what he told her about him, how couldn't she?
Of course. You weren't lying, the kid is a wimp, but he has a lot of potential. You just had to see how he handled this archer that was hidden behind a bush. He is very cunning and has already a grasp on how to use a lance. I'm sure he might evolve to something else in no time.
If he is anything like the Donnel we found here, he's going to be a fantastic Shepherd. So anyway, how was your day?
It has been a few weeks since writing on that magic tome became a routine to Robin and she grew fond of it as the time went by. What was once an old book a kind red-headed merchant they encountered on one of the Shepherds travels decided to give her (and by give, that meant sold with a nice discount), it suddenly became an object of comfort for her when she discovered what it was supposed to be used for.
Somewhere, in another time line and dimension, there was another version of herself. Somewhere, in another Ylisse, there was another Robin that served the same role as her as Chrom's tactician. This Robin was also found in the middle of nowhere, sleeping soundly at the side of the street of dirt, only to be woken up by him and realize that all memories of their past were gone.
The only difference between them was that this Robin was actually male.
To say that Robin freaked out at this discovery would be the century's understatement. Because, well, he was a male version of herself. Who wouldn't be freaked out?
Passed the initial shock, the urge to light the book on fire and once she started warming up to the idea of another her, however, the tactician suddenly realized that having someone who thought and shared the same experiences as you could actually be pretty fun and useful. They exchanged information, routes and battle strategies, always warning each other about what places to go and what places to avoid. Which village needed assistance and which routes were crawling with bandits.
Above all, they would gossip about the Shepherds for hours.
It brought a certain joy to Robin's heart knowing there was someone out there who was as enthusiastic as her when it came to talking about her comrades and discuss their relationships with each other. To make things even more interesting, despite him being the same person as her, there were still some differences in points of view, which was also great when it came to debating about who should be dating who.
He was already of a different gender, so it shouldn't come to a surprise to her that some other aspects and opinions of his would be different too. Even if they were completely wrong.
Sumia and Chrom? Are you insane? Those two have no chemistry! I'd rather see him with Maribelle or some other girl rather than Sumia.
Case in point.
Can't you see the way she looks at him? She obviously doesn't have eyes for anyone but him.
That doesn't mean he has eyes for her. I'm telling you, Maribelle seems to be a much better choice for him. She practically threw herself at the Plegian soldiers to keep Chrom safe!
This Robin obviously knew nothing about pairing people up. Chrom and Maribelle, what a disastrous combination. If it was permitted by law, Maribelle would probably marry Lissa in a heartbeat. Though, if by marrying him that would mean Maribelle would be closer to his sister, then Robin could see the marriage happening.
Nope. Still a disastrous combination.
And so their conversation went on, as per usual. A smile would appear on her lips every once in a while while she read the answers that started to gain more length over the time, her heart beating faster as every word of ink appeared on the delicate, yellow-ish pages. Every agreement, every disagreement, every little bit of information he gave about his life was a reason to make her all giddy on the inside.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for both of them to continue their conversation, and Robin soon found herself being forced to say goodbye and close her book. The tactician held it close to her chest for a solid half minute before carefully stuffing it back inside her bag.
Talking to Robin sure was pretty fun. She couldn't wait until next night.
Days, weeks, months passed by since the day Robin got that book that allowed her to talk to her other self and the tactician found herself getting more attached to it the more nights she spent talking to the other Robin. It just felt right, talking to him. Robin could easily spend the entire day writing on that thick book if it weren't for the fact that she still had a job to do and had to remember to leave her tent every once in a while to socialize. Because they were still at war, the enemy troops approached them each day and she really needed to formulate a strategy to see who was better suited to fight on the next battle.
That is, if she could keep her eyes open.
"Robin? Robin, hey, wake up!" Chrom shook his tactician's shoulder.
Robin jolted her head up, fighting desperately against the sleepiness in her eyes. Right, she needed to focus on the map in front of her. The Valmese troops would not slay themselves alone.
"Are you even paying attention?"
"Yeah, yeah," she rubbed her tired dark eyes. "So, from what our spies told us, Wallhart's fortress is being secured by a large number of soldiers, all of them under command of a woman named Pheros. I'm especially worried that most of them are Valkyries and Swordmasters, so maybe sending in people who are very weak to magic won't be a good idea."
"Right..."
"Milady, haven't you gotten any sleep last night?" Frederick questioned.
"Of course I did!"
"Yeah, right," Lissa pouted. "Robin, you're not convincing anyone. Your eyes look like two big dark circles."
"Stop exaggerating."
"I mean it! I swear I almost mistook you for a Risen when you left your tent two hours ago!"
"Well, Lissa's description isn't that far off," Frederick chuckled. "Milady's already walking like one."
"Guys, let's focus on the battle that's about to come, yes?" Chrom said, bringing their attention back to him. "Robin, I don't know what's been going on with you these past days, but I suggest you step aside today and get some rest."
"WHAT?" the tactician shrieked. "You cannot be serious! You need me!"
"If by "need you", you mean "need you in better shape", then yes," her commander gave her a stern look. "This is not the first time you go tired into the battlefield, Robin. Going to war feeling tired is as suicidal and irrational as picking up a fight when you're drunk. If Cordelia didn't act fast last battle and swoop you off the ground in time, you would have had let that barbarian axe your head off!"
"..." Robin simply yawned. "Gnh, alright, I get it. I'll go to sleep then. Are you sure you will be fine?"
"You already traced our strategy and said who would be better suited," Chrom smiled. "With Say'ri's help, will take down Wallhart's fortress in no time."
"Aye, you can count on us, Lady Robin," the aforementioned Valmese princess smiled.
"You already do a lot more than most tacticians by going into the battlefield and helping us out," Lissa nudged her arm with her elbow. "Save some of the glory for us, will ya?"
Robin let out a chuckle and left the tent, passing by various of her fellow Shepherds on her way back to her own one. Now that Chrom had mentioned, she really was tired. Maybe going to today's battle would be a bad idea, after all. She would get her rest like he suggested.
After talking to Robin.
There was a spark in the midst of the swollen dark mess that she called her eyes the moment she realized she had just a little time left to talk to Robin a little more. After all, she remember him mentioning they had just defeated the tyrant Wallhard and returned the realm of Valm to princess (now queen, in his universe) Say'ri a few days ago. Surely he must have some thoughts on how she planned on the army's formation.
Who was she kidding? She just wanted to know how he was doing. Sure, discussing strategies was really good every once in a while, but she did not depend on him to know beforehand what she was supposed to do. Robin was confident enough on her wits to not need the other Robin's hand holding and the vast majority of the battles that the Shepherds had to go through had nothing to do with the other Robin's suggestions whatsoever. No, she just want to know what was going on with him before going to sleep, nothing else.
Robin could feel her heart beating faster the more she thought about him. Or rather, tried to have an idea of him. So far she had been talking to him for about almost three years and in this huge period of time, questions about his appearance and tastes happened every once in a while.
So far, she knew he has hair as soft and white as hers, only he didn't bother in combing it a lot, like Robin did with hers. He admitted he was kind on the short side, but Robin had the feeling she still could be shorter than him. Dark brown eyes, delicate pale skin and facial structure and not all that muscular, if Robin didn't know any better, she could swear that was a description of herself. Which kind of was. In the end, she was not surprised that this Robin was similar in appearance as well.
The tactician slugged her way to her tent, letting out a sigh of relief as she stepped inside, only for that sigh transform into a gasp once she saw a certain redhead merchant crouched with her back turned to her and digging through her bag that was by her bed.
"Anna!" Robin exclaimed in anger.
The girl jumped in surprise and turned around with that look on her face that just told she was caught on the act. "R-Robin, hey," Anna said in a sickeningly sweet and fake voice, the kind one that she used when customers came in complaining about a defective product of hers. "Um, what are you doing here?"
"This is MY tent."
"Oh, um, I guess it really is," she put her index finger on her chin. "But what are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be with our wonderful captain Chrom, figuring it out what we're going to do for the next battle?"
"We have already decided," Robin took a few steps closer and frowned at how Anna took a few steps further away. "What do you have behind your back?"
"Nothing! Nothing at all."
For Naga's sake...
Robin took out her Arcthunder tome from the internal pocket of her purple robe, not really in the mood to humor the sketchy merchant. She opened it and pointed it at Anna with a menacing look in her eyes. "Anna, you better tell me what you have behind your back or I swear I'll electrocute you so hard, that the only way to cure you will be by shoving a recovery staff far up your ass."
"Yeesh, that's not the mental image I wanted to have for the rest of the day," Anna shivered and hesitantly showed the very familiar book that kept Robin awake these nights. "Don't kill me, please! I'm very fragile, practically made of glass."
Robin snatched the book from her hands, her glare practically burning Anna's very soul. What was her deal, invading her comrades tents stealing stuff?
"What is wrong with you?" she opened the book and flipped through its pages, making sure that nothing was damaged. "You can't just go barging into another person's tent and try to steal things like this"
"Oh, relax, I wasn't thinking on stealing it. I was just curious, that's all."
"Curious about what?"
"About what you like to talk about with the other Robin."
And for a moment Robin could feel her heart stop and her entire body freeze. Anna just kept looking at her with those huge, fake innocent maroon eyes of hers and her index finger still rested on her chin, like she didn't understand why Robin was shocked about that simple curiosity of hers.
"Wh-What did you just say?"
"I said," she repeated, a mischievous grin forming on her lips. "I was wondering what you and the other Robin talked so much."
"..."
"I mean, he's the reason why you haven't been sleeping well these past weeks, isn't he? You spend all night talking to him through that book."
"..."
"So, what kind of juicy gossips do you talk about?" she clasped her hands together. "Oh, OH, how are the Shepherds doing from his universe? Or you guys don't mention them much and just decide to say sweet nothings to each other and-"
Anna quickly shut her mouth as Robin dashed forward and firmly grabbed her shoulder with her free hand, her face a few inches from her own. Man, she would be a lot more scared if Robin's eyes weren't so droopy from the lack of sleep. Still, that grasp on her shoulder was hurting a lot, so laughing at the way her face looked probably wasn't best idea.
"How did you know about Robin?" the tactician hissed.
"What? You worried that someone else might know?" Anna gave an awkward smile. "Don't worry, I'm the only one who knows. But you might want to keep a close eye on Tharja, because she's now stalking you past midnight every now and then and might discover what your book is for."
"How. Did. You. Know?"
"Yeesh, calm down, love. You shouldn't be surprised that I know about your magic book. After all, you got it from one of my sisters, didn't you?"
A sigh of relief escaped from Anna as she felt the intensity of the other's grasp lessening, giving her an opening to free herself.
"Still... I got it from your sister, not from you," Robin brought the object close to her chest. "And I'm pretty sure you don't keep that much contact with your sisters."
"Not that much, but we all know about it. You see, this book of yours is sort of a variable constant in every other time line, universe, whatever you like to call. And it's always up to one of us to give it to the person we like the call the Avatar. In other words, you."
"I... I don't understand."
"Robin, you know about how there are countless time lines out there, right?"
"Of course, Lucina and the other children came from a doomed future to help us in the war."
"And you can agree with me that, despite the different events, everyone is pretty much the same, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, let's just say that your existence is a rather curious case of exception to this rule. Sometimes the Avatar, you, is actually a totally different person. I've heard of cases of Avatars being really young boys, or grown and buff men, or even drop dead gorgeous women... Errr, not that you're not drop dead gorgeous too. You look great," Anna coughed. "Anyway, for some reason beyond mine or my sister's comprehension, this book exists as a link between the different versions of you. And it's sort of our duty to deliver it to whoever is the Avatar. It's a family thing."
"Deliver? More like, sell it and pretend you're giving a discount."
"Well, it's a one-in-a-kind item. I say there's nothing wrong in trying to make a quick buck out of it."
Robin crossed her arms and looked at the ground, silently thinking about what Anna had just told her. So the other Robin wasn't just her male version. Both she and he were part of a much grander web of people with the same role and past who for some reason are different from each other in some time lines, but were the same in others.
And she just made a knot in her brain.
"Ugh, whatever, this is way too complicated. Just imagining how many alternate universes there might be is giving me a headache," she pressed her palm against her forehead.
"A little. That's why we usually don't talk much about this."
There was another short awkward pause between them.
"So, how did you know that this other Avatar was a guy named Robin?"
"Uh..."
"You read our conversation, didn't you?"
"...Just the beginning?"
It wasn't as if there was much she could get from the beginning of their conversation anyway, so Robin let that slide.
"Anyway, I think I'll just leave. I've had enough threats for one day and I'm not even supposed to participate in today's battle."
The redhead merchant turned around and prepared to leave, only to be stopped at the entrance by Robin's surprisingly timid voice. "Say, Anna," she said, still avoiding eye contact. "Was there ever a case of two Avatars meeting?"
"Um... I think not?" Anna turned around and put her index finger on her chin. "Why do you ask?"
"For... Reasons."
One good glance at the now flushed face of the tactician was enough to make Anna realize her intentions behind that question. A slightly grin cracked on her lips and she was thankful for Robin not looking at her in the face, or else she would cover herself and Anna would miss the spectacle that it was seeing Chrom's finest tactician blushing like a teenage girl in love.
Well, wasn't that something?
To think she found it weird that practically everyone in that army was getting married left and right, while Robin stood there, single and without showing interest in anyone. To think Anna thought it was because she swung the other way. Oops, what a shame.
"Hey, listen," she said, giving her one of her rare, genuine smiles of sympathy. "I said I've never heard of two Avatars meeting. I never said it was impossible."
"Heh, thanks a lot Anna..." she smiled back.
What a shame her heart was already taken, indeed.
"Anytime, love."
Yeah, to be fair, if I had a male version of myself that liked the same stuff that I do, the first thing I would talk would be about shipping too.