The dark was a dangerous place, filled with monsters who chewed away at Robin's guts and mind. She swore she'd never recover from the wounds; the pain, the nausea, the overwhelming helplessness. It was when she was laying in bed that her worst fears fired in her brain. She felt like it lit her entire body up like a torch so that her pangs were on display for anyone.
Chrom certainly didn't notice it, when he slept so soundly next to her. Robin wasn't foolish, though. She knew the pains her husband went through, and continues to go through.
Everyone felt the change that reverberated in him when his eldest sister died a year ago. It changed his atmosphere to something bleak and catastrophic. No one truly believed the sun would shine again. But even the worst storms pass, and even Chrom was able to rise stronger for his people and sisters, alive and dead.
Robin had a deep-seated envy for him. When the world threw him a heavy blow he came back, even when the blow was nearly fetal. Robin couldn't do that. She was stuck on the ground, barely breathing. Her failed tactics were the entire reason their former exalt was gone. She was the reason why her people lost a dearly loved leader, who honored peace more than her own life. What a tragic tradeoff; an exalt for a broken tactician.
It couldn't be helped; what had been done was done. She was here now, with her husband and friends. The people who mattered held no transgressions to her faults, or at least they let it go. She was sure Chrom had to have held some resent for her decisions, no matter how much he told her he didn't.
Boiling rage practically filled her to the brim in the night, yet she lay perfectly silent. This night was no less different, but her emotions were becoming were beginning to overflow, making Robin feel like she'd reached her limits. Why did her comrades give her a free pass? Why did no one put her on the chopping block for all the trouble she'd caused? All the trouble she was sure to cause in the future to come?
Robin's wails and gasps broke the silence of the night as she desperately hit her own head with a clenched fist. She wanted these feelings gone, and maybe she could beat them out.
A succession of blows reached her head before there was resistance and she was no longer hitting herself. Her tears were blinding but it was obviously Chrom holding back her arm. An immediate sense of shame washed over Robin. She'd woken her husband with a fit accustomed to a toddler.
"Robin?" His face was nothing short of shocked, and more notably horrified, but his words were spoken with concern. The humiliation was enough to stop her wailing and, soon after, tears.
"I'm okay. I'm fine, really." She used her free hand to wipe the tears pooling in her eyes.
The disappointed gaze he produced was almost laughable to Robin, even in such a moment as this one. "Gods, Robin, we've been married for how long, and you still think I'm a fool enough to believe that?" His voice was underlined with anger, but he was purposefully keeping it low and calm.
"I don't." The tears were still stinging.
A weighed sigh left Chrom's throat. He reached out to his wife, pulling her body to his. He made conscience circles on her back, switching to her cheek in a moment. "Fair enough. But, you really must tell me what has ailed you this much." He was speaking softly.
Robin felt her chest lift. He knew she was hurting, and that was enough in this instant. She didn't need to hide it, and the tears were back. "Not tonight, Chrom, but surely I will soon." Her body melded into his, finding comfort in it.
"Of course." His lips met her forehead, and she was drifting away.