Author's note: The stories in this collection won't be in any chronological order. They will take place at different points in time during and after the events of Awakening.
This particular story takes place during the war against Valm. I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic.

Synopsis: Robin and Tharja go stargazing together and have a small conversation about memories.

Stargazing

Darkness was dwelling over the continent of Valm. The sun has gone down a few hours ago and the full moon was accompanied by the shiny presence of thousands of stars in the black sky. The shepherds had decided to set up their camp here near a small forest, so that they would finally be able to enjoy a peaceful night after enduring a few harsh battles in the last few days. Some of the soldiers were already asleep, while others were sitting around the campfire, laughing, joking and telling each other various stories.

However, one particular person was absent from the camp. Robin, the tactician of the shepherds, had taken a short walk away from the others, sitting himself down onto the cold grass in an open field. He wanted to be alone for a while, take a break from the cheerful demeanor of his friends and fellow soldiers and think about various things that have been on his mind lately.

The war with Valm had been very draining for him and he knew that the worst was yet to come. The Valmesian army was massive and it became more and more difficult for him to devise effective strategies to make sure that all of the people who relied on him would survive the many battles. But for tonight he wanted to forget all about the war, since there was something else that has been bothering him recently.

Lately he has had very weird dreams almost every night. Dreams in which he saw vague images of a white-haired woman looking at him from above. She seemed somewhat familiar to Robin, and yet he couldn't tell who this mysterious woman was, having never seen her before. Or at the very least he didn't remember ever seeing her.

Robin felt like this person might be someone he knew from before he had lost his memories. He even had a slight suspicion regarding the identity of the white-haired woman, but there was no way he could confirm his theories. Frustrated, Robin looked up into the stars and sighed deeply. If only there was a way for him to regain his memories. Maybe then he would know…

Suddenly Robin was taken out of his thoughts by a familiar feeling. A feeling that he had experienced many times before in the last two years. The feeling of being watched.

"Tharja, don't you want to come out and join me?" he asked without turning his head. As soon as these words left his mouth, he heard leaves rustle, as if someone just walked out of a bush and soon a shapely figure appeared next to him.

"You noticed me so quickly." The Plegian woman commented. "I thought that I was perfectly hidden in the shadows, but if you could so easily tell that I was here, then I must have been slacking."

"It's not so much that you are getting worse at hiding, it's more like you stalked me for so long that I developed a sixth sense for it." Robin answered and patted on the ground next to him, indicating for his wife that she should sit down. While he originally intended to come here to be alone, he certainly didn't mind Tharja's presence. She was usually rather quiet and having her around him had an oddly calming effect on the tactician.

Tharja sat down in silence and immediately snuggled herself into Robin's side.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked a bit worried. It was a little windy tonight and he didn't want his wife to catch a cold.

"I'm fine. Don't worry." Tharja answered, though for some reason Robin didn't believe her.
He took off his coat and wrapped it around the two of them. "Here, now we are both warm."

Tharja didn't feel the need to say anything and simply smiled at her husband's gentle gesture. Cuddling together, they sat there for a while and stared at the night sky. Minutes passed and the sounds and voices of the other shepherds, who have still been audible from all the way here, were growing quieter until they ceased completely, yet the young couple was still gazing at the star-filled darkness above, neither of them having said a word for quite a some time now.

After a half hour it was Robin who broke the silence.
"The view here is truly beautiful." he mumbled. "You rarely get to see such clear skies at night."

Tharja, who has almost dozed off, was put back into awareness by her husband's words, yawned and replied with a tired voice.
"It kind of reminds me of the sky back in Plegia. Here in Valm it is almost always clouded and Ylisse was usually like that too, but in Plegia you could see the stars shining in the blackness of the universe every night."

Robin turned his head to look at his wife. "Do you ever miss your country?" He asked her, slightly concerned that Tharja might suffer from homesickness.

But she only responded with an empty, joyless laugh. "Do I miss Plegia? Hardly! It's a dreadful land filled with sand, criminals, moronic cults, sand, scoundrels, diseases and more sand. I don't think I would mind forgetting about this horrid place completely now that I have you."

Robin was surprised to see Tharja's animosity towards her own home-country. He figured that Plegia probably wasn't the best place to grow up in, but was it really not even worthy to be remembered?

"Tharja, I get that your childhood wasn't the best, but forgetting it completely? If life in Plegia is really as terrible as you say it is, then that doesn't mean it should be forgotten about, it means that something needs to be done about it. I really hope that Chrom and I can strengthen the bonds between Ylisse and Plegia after we end this war and help out the people who were tormented under Gangrel's tyranny. Together we might be able to improve the lives of the Plegians and bring peace to both of our countries. I believe that Plegia can and should be turned into a place worth living in, because no person deserves starve or suffer, just based on what country they were born in."

He took a quick break from his little speech to catch his breath, as Tharja stared at him in silence. Then she let out a small chuckle.
"I really should have expected such a response from you." She said as she grew closer to her husband. "You have such a pure heart, Robin. It's admirable. I don't think I ever met a person who is so kind-hearted yet so smart at the same time. You always find new ways to fascinate me."

Her face suddenly got more serious.
"But I don't think I can be as optimistic about this as you are. I have seen Plegia at its worst and I stay true to what I said. Now with you at my side, I don't see the need for memories of that grim-filled place. As long as I am with you, I already have everything that I need."

The dark mage looked into her husband's eyes, awaiting his response. While she sounded very confident in what she said, Robin believed that it wasn't the whole truth.

"While it makes me happy to hear that, I can tell you from my own experience that losing your memories is a terrible feeling. Your memories are a part of you, they make you who you are. I can see the way you stare at the night sky, remembering your home-country. It is not a look of pure disdain. I can tell that even though Plegia is a terrible place to live in, it is still a part of you. Somehow, I don't believe you when you say that you want to forget about it."

Robin noticed that Tharja now avoided his eyes, suddenly finding the ground next to her incredibly interesting. For Robin that meant that he must have been at least somewhat right in what he said.

"Your memories and experiences shaped you into the person you are now. Just look at me. I have no memories of my own and what am I? A nobody! No past, no identity, nothing I can look back at." For a moment the white-haired woman from his dreams crossed his thoughts again, making Robin sigh internally.
"I sometimes feel like I am incomplete…"

Before he could continue, Robin was abruptly interrupted by a suddenly angered Tharja. "Can you even hear what you are saying?! Of course, you're not a nobody. It's true that memories are a part of someone's identity, but they don't make a person. It takes nothing more than a simple curse to alter or remove them completely, but not even the most powerful curses can truly change someone's core being. You are Robin, master-tactician, valued member of the shepherds and most importantly, you are MY husband and nothing will ever change that!" Robin wanted to respond to her argument, but before he even got the chance to open his mouth, Tharja continued her little rant.

"You have lead your army through countless battles, while keeping our losses at an absolute minimum, you have quickly devised a clever strategy for every problem we encountered and just now you talked about helping a nation that had brought you nothing but pain and suffering. You are… truly astounding."

Tharja had her eyes locked on him, her face dead-serious. Her praises had made Robin blush and he sighed quietly before looking at his wife's face with a smile. This time he waited a few seconds before he made a response, just to make sure that she was actually finished. "I think I see your point, though I don't know if I will ever get used to you complimenting me so much. You probably should stop praising me like that all the time. I fear that, if you keep constantly stroking my ego, I will become vain."

Once again Tharja let out a small chuckle. "Believe me, if there is one thing that you are lacking, then it's ego. You are an amazing person, Robin. I just wish that you would be able to realize this too. You really need to work on your self-conscience."

"Well, I guess that's what I have you for, right?" he joked with a smile on his lips, while wrapping his arms around his wife.

"Oh, I will make sure to remind you on a daily basis of how wonderful you are." Tharja responded, making herself comfortable in Robin's embrace. Though for a moment she lowered her head and looked to the side as she made a little confession. "And maybe you're not entirely wrong about my feelings for Plegia. It's very complicated…"

"So, does that mean you will help Chrom and me, when we try to strengthen the bonds between Ylisse and Plegia after the war? We could use someone who knows more about this country than we do." Robin asked and awaited Tharja's answer.

She lifted her head back up and turned it towards him, looking once again at her husband.
"You know that I will always be on your side no matter what you plan in the future. If you really want to improve life in Plegia, then of course I'm going to support you, regardless of my feelings for it. But for now all of that doesn't really matter. The thing that truly matters right now is that you should stop worrying so much about your identity. You are great just the way you are now."

"Thanks Tharja, you always know how to put a smile on my face. And I really appreciate our philosophical discussions." Robin responded. He noticed that Tharja was shivering slightly in the cold of the night and hugged her even tighter as a response.

"You know what's even better than philosophical discussions?" She asked him, as his soft embrace slowly warmed her body.

"What?"

"This." Tharja answered and locked her lips against his. Robin didn't have a counter argument for this, so he simply returned the kiss.

The stars watched over the young couple as they became lost in their own little world.

Author's note: Some of you might wonder who that white-haired woman from Robin's dreams is, so just in case it wasn't obvious, I will reveal that this woman was supposed to be Robin's mother. However I will not explore her character any further in this fanfic. Robin will never find closure on who that white-haired woman from his lost memories is and this is something that he has to live with.

Thank you so much for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it. I would be really happy if you would also leave a review. Have a nice day. Bye.