Notes: I honestly don't like the way their supports go. So I flipped the situation on its head. And with no ChromRobin either, like I did with Slice of pie. This time around it is only for the advertised couple.
Stats: 2500 words and a couple hundred pegasi for SumiaChrom.
Sumia had a passion: caring for all animals, except for cows.
She had a dream about them as well: to raise pegasi for the rest of her life now that the war was over.
But for that, she needed Chrom's permission to get a good patch of land. And he wasn't making it any easy for her, not at all...
"Sumia, you must marry me! I love you!"
He was again on one knee, holding her left hand and trying to put his ring on her finger. She moved it around, mildly annoyed, and he persisted, as if that piece of jewelry would magically change her mind once it was in place. It wouldn't, but she still didn't want it.
"Chrom, you can't keep doing this every time you see me," she admonished.
Sumia glanced over at Robin, who was holding up a book to hide her face as she laughed, and Frederick, who tried very hard to act busy shuffling papers on the desk. Both had long given up on trying to convince the king not to pursue Sumia as desperately as a wyvern in heat. They wouldn't help...
"This is very inappropriate!" She pulled her hand away.
He looked up at her sadly. "I can't live without you!"
"Please try, milord."
"I don't want to!"
She sighed in resignation. The sound made him more alert, and he inched closer somehow, his hopes soaring.
"The answer is still no," she muttered. "I have a dream I wish to accomplish, and marriage and family forms no part of it, much less becoming a queen."
"But you just resigned to your fate..."
"My fate? No!" Dear Naga, this man was truly grasping at straws. "I sighed because you are a lost cause. But things are as they are, and I will have my pegasi farm, even if I have to save every gold coin I earn from now on. Good day, milord," she firmly declared, turning on her heel and leaving the office.
She was halfway to the nearest corner, when she heard someone running toward her. Fearing it could be Chrom again, she spun and prepared for further embarrassment, this time in front of all the servants.
...but it was just Robin, smiling sweetly. "I admire you so much, Sumia. Anyone else would have given up on their goals to bed a king of all people long ago, let alone to marry him. But you? You are your own person, writing your own destiny!"
Sumia blushed lightly at the unexpected compliment by the tactician. "Oh, thank you, Robin, it's good that you at least believe in me for this." Even if she wasn't exactly helpful. "Not everyone is as understanding..." she trailed off.
"You mean, like Chrom?"
"Aside from Chrom, he's a special case," she clarified, before she continued with her sad story: "Everyone else wants to convince me to abandon my dreams, in order to marry into royalty! But it's not what I want, and they don't care. They insist so much! It is sad to have so little support for what I want to do with my life."
She got a tight hug from Robin, and she cheered up a bit. "We'll find a way to make it real, so you can be happy. As the king's most trusted advisor, I'm sure I can convince him to give you some farmland where you can start up."
"Oh, Robin, that would be great! Well... I mean, if you think you can handle that for me, it would be."
"I can give it a try. You wouldn't need to worry about meeting up with Chrom, I can handle him for you, as well."
Why did that sound like an angelic choir descending upon them? "I'd be so grateful."
They smiled at each other in a friendly manner, and continued walking down the hall, turning to the left together. They passed a series of windows that faced the town surrounding the castle, the cries of a thousand eligible women reaching their ears, all begging to meet with the unmarried king for a chance to be queen. Those girls had no shame, and no idea what kind of desperate bachelor Chrom was!
"Chrom is so popular with the ladies," Robin said, trying not to giggle.
"And he has to have eyes only for me, when he could have anyone else," Sumia replied, sighing. "Eh... Are you following me?"
The tactician also seemed unsure, possibly a side-effect of her memory problems. "I will for the time being," she decided. "I have nothing else to do... I think." That didn't sound reassuring at all. "Where were you going?"
"I'm having tea with Cordelia and the others."
"Oh... I see..."
"But you can join if you want! The more, the merrier, right?"
"Ah! Can I?"
"Sure! It will be alright, just us girls chatting and having a nice time."
They walked together for a few minutes more, and got to the little cozy room Lissa had turned into her gossip den. The princess and Cordelia were there, and also Maribelle and Olivia, and surprising both new arrivals, Sully was present as well.
"Woah! ...Sumia brought Robin over! Yay!" Lissa exclaimed.
"No matter how many times we have invited her, she always forgets," Maribelle complained in a ladylike manner.
"She could have been busy..." Olivia shyly piped in.
"There's no use for tacticians in peacetime, is there?" Sully wondered aloud.
"Girls, come on, sit down," Cordelia addressed them directly, pointing at two free seats.
Sumia looked at Robin in concern, but she didn't seem to notice the attention her presence had gotten, as she sat down with a big smile. She truly was a special one, wasn't she? No wonder she could stand being around Chrom all day... They were like two halves of a whole idiot, brought together by fate.
"So, Sumia, how has your day...?" Maribelle started asking.
But she was cut off by Sully: "Let's skip the prologue. Sumia, have you said yes to Chrom yet?"
All the women turned to look at her suddenly, except for Robin, who stood up as someone knocked at the door. "I'll get that!"
"Well... no," Sumia admitted, wishing she could become invisible. "I don't like him that way. You all know my dreams are my priority. I have no time for romance."
A maid walked in with a huge vase holding so many roses, they couldn't see her face. "Oh, just put them on that table at the corner, please," the princess said, as the tactician sat down beside her again. The maid went to the corner.
Sumia felt something was off, but Olivia interrupted her thoughts. "You could always marry him, and get servants to work on your horse farm."
"Pegasi farm."
"Aren't they the same, but with wings glued on?" the dancer asked as she turned completely red.
Sully laughed out loud, while Maribelle groaned. "Oh, darling, you haven't been near a pegasus ever? That's not how it works."
"They freeze back in Ferox..."
The loud crash startled all of them, and they looked over at the maid with the vase. The table had fallen over. Lissa sighed in exasperation. "Fine, put them on the table at that other corner, please." The maid walked on.
There was still something very suspicious about that maid, Sumia thought. She felt she had seen her before, and not as a servant around the castle.
Sully broke her concentration again, "Sumia, you have the most marriageable man in Ylisse after you. How can you turn him down for some livestock?"
"Why, I'd have never thought you would say that, Sully," Sumia replied, honestly surprised.
"I wish I could marry that guy, but he's not interested."
Maribelle's lips twisted with displeasure. "That is quite direct, but yes, I feel the same. I wish I could marry the king too. My noble lineage would be perfect for a queen." The princess giggled.
"He's handsome, and rich, and he's probably nice... I don't know him well yet. But if he asked me, I'd not say no," Olivia confessed.
"I threw my smallclothes straight to his face, and he didn't even notice me!"
An awkward silence ensued, as they all stared at Cordelia in shock. Even Robin.
"Were they clean or worn?" the tactician asked after a while, grabbing a cookie and dunking it in her tea absentmindedly.
Cordelia made a strange sound before she curled up in her seat, hiding her face. She didn't look up when they heard another crash in the next corner, the table there turned over as well.
"Maybe that side of the room is cursed. Try by the window, please," Lissa requested. The maid complied.
Sumia was convinced now that the maid was not a real maid. She was starting to suspect she was actually a man in a servant's dress...
"Well, the point is, Sumia, everyone here thinks that Chrom is a good potential husband, except for you, and..."
Robin interrupted Maribelle, going for a second cookie: "I don't think he's good at all either."
"Oh, dear," Lissa whispered, "we're out of tea, imagine that. Let me bring more," she obviously lied, yet she picked up the half-full pot and ran out of the room.
Cordelia remained frozen in her position, but the other remaining three ladies were all glaring at Robin. Sumia tried to shield the tactician from the other women's ire. "It's a matter of personal opinion, everyone. Every girl has her likes and dislikes, that's how it goes. Chrom doesn't match Robin's, and that's not the end of the world, right?"
"No. We understand that his insistence makes you uncomfortable, but there's no justification for her lack of interest," Sully replied.
"I actually thought she was already sleeping with him," Olivia whispered, "so it'd be concerning if she didn't like him at all and was just using him."
"Well, Robin, do you have anything to say?" Maribelle asked, gripping her parasol really tight. "Or do you want us to tell you why you're wrong?"
Sumia looked at the tactician, who smiled back at her, reaching out for a third cookie. She turned to the others, a big smirk on her lips, "You can try!" she dared them.
...the vase came crashing down to the floor loudly, and they all jumped off their seats, startled. The maid's back was all they could see, as she reached out to open the window wide for some reason, then kneeling to pick up some of the porcelain pieces.
"You're not a maid, are you?" Sumia asked. "Are you spying on us for some reason?"
But before she could get her answer, they saw someone descending from outside, slowly and carefully, until his feet were supported by the windowsill. Then Chrom leapt in, over the maid, sporting a huge grin.
Sumia felt herself blush; she had actually thought the king had come in dressed as that maid... What a horrible mistake.
"My dear!" he said once he spotted her standing with the others, hurrying to her side. "You must say yes! Marry me now!"
"Chrom? Not again, please," she replied, noticing how Maribelle and Olivia seemed about to swoon due to his presence. "And think, I cannot marry you in a random room in the castle, that's not how it works."
Unexpectedly, the maid spun around, throwing away her... his head cover, revealing beautiful golden hair. "He requested a priest be present for this happy occasion, milady," Libra said solemnly. "You can marry."
Robin lost it, falling back on her seat laughing loudly. Sully helped the other two down, before they had an incident, then poked Cordelia until she looked up. On seeing Chrom, though, the redhead ran out of the room, holding a hand to her nose. And Sumia was now without anyone to support her, again.
"Chrom, I'm saying this for the last time, I will not marry you."
"It's good that it's the last time you say it, that makes the next one a yes."
"Are you joking?"
"Not at all."
"I'm still standing by my decision; I will accomplish my dreams, raise dozens of pegasi on a farm far away from this castle, and I don't need a husband for that!"
Chrom threw an arm around her shoulders, looking her straight to her slightly spooked eyes. "Robin?" he called.
"Yes, Chrom?" the tactician answered, her laugh cut short and her serious side taking over. Was she trained?
"Can you tell my bride what I have been doing since I first heard her request?"
"Of course." Robin cleared her throat, "Sumia, we have started breeding pegasi of three kinds in lands near Ylisstol; normal, dark, and those with the cute horns. We only have a couple hundred, so we can move them immediately if you give the order to send them far..."
"Robin?"
"Oh, sorry... Got that wrong. They are the queen's pegasi. She'll be the one to own them. All of them."
"This has to be a form of extortion," Sumia told them simply.
"The best kind of extortion," Chrom agreed, squeezing her shoulders tight.
Robin sighed, walking over to Libra and handing him a book from her pockets. "Indeed. We have prepared your dream for you, and beyond what you expected to ever accomplish alone. You can fill your days with caring for the ones you like the most, and servants will..."
"But that's not what I wanted either," she finally protested. "I want to care for each and every one myself. It's not about numbers. It's about the work and the love you can give them. They're living creatures, you know?"
Robin and Libra seemed extremely moved by her words. Chrom was obviously not. "I tried really hard to get it all ready for you!"
"And now you have a couple hundred of pegasi that are your responsibility, imagine that."
"Please, Sumia, be my wife, and they're all yours," he was back on one knee, ring at the ready.
"As a queen, I'd be unable to even see them every day. Duties here would hold me back," she tried another angle to get him off her case.
His eyes burned with irrational passion. "Then Lissa can be the queen in my place."
"Wait..."
"...what?"
"Yes," Chrom said with confidence, "I will step down from the throne. And I will follow Sumia and help her realize her dream, starting with those couple hundred pegasi."
Her heart seemed to change in that moment, suddenly overflowing with love for this man who preferred to renounce to everything he had for her sake... She held out her hand, and he finally put that ring of his on her finger. He stood and they embraced.
"You don't even like pegasi," she whispered to his ear.
"Anything for you, my love," he whispered back, and she nearly squealed.
Robin started clapping, and their other friends in the room joined her. Libra groaned, "They're not married yet, hold the celebration back until I bless their union, please, ladies."