It was well into the night. All was still and there was not a single light visible in camp.
By all means, he should have been asleep.
Robin sat in his tent with numerous maps, tactical books and his own notes strewn haphazardly across his desk. He could feel the fatigue tugging at his eyes. He stifled another yawn as he continued to draft their strategy in the final battle against Gangrel. More than anything, he just wanted to lay his head down and get some sleep.
But he couldn't stop working. Not now. Not yet. Not if he wanted to see that genuine smile of hers again.
He hadn't noticed it at first, due to having to adjust to his new life with the shepherds, but Lissa, being the social butterfly that she was, made the first move when she got the idea that plugging his nose was an idea that was "too perfect to resist". At first he was angry (it didn't help that she ruined one of his rarest texts), but thinking about it later, he felt oddly refreshed; as if he had the energy to take on the world. It wasn't only him either; he noticed that whoever the princess interacted with had a renewed vigor about them after the conversation.
He was confused about it at first. As far as his research and knowledge went, the only one who had the power to do what she did was a dancer, and Lissa was clearly not one.
He resolved to ask a few of his friends about this. But what started as an innocent sounding question to him quickly turned into his so-called "friends" teasing him about having secret feelings for the princess. He resolved to never ask his friends anything important again.
Even after mulling it over a bit more on his own, he still couldn't come up with an answer. He resolved to try spending more time with her to try to get some more clues.
After several toads (or rather, frogs) were dumped down his collar over several encounters, he was no closer to the answer than he was before. However, he still felt that odd sense of vigor just by being around the princess.
The answer to his inquiry came about in the worst way possible: after Emmeryn's sacrifice for the sake of her people.
After the return to their camp after their stinging defeat by Gangrel, he could tell that something was missing after talking to Lissa. In the quiet of the night of that fateful day, he finally found the answer.
It was her smile.
That smile of hers that could brighten up the day of any living thing. That could make even Lon'qu smile. Though she didn't believe she contributed much of anything to the shepherds, he believed that that ability of hers to brighten up the day of anyone she came in contact with was one of her greatest assets to the shepherds.
Over the time he'd been with the shepherds, Robin came to be very close to the princess; to interact with her as if she were his own sister. Through the time he had come to known her, he had never seen her go long without that signature smile of hers. He realized with a bitter smile that that was probably why he hadn't figured out the answer sooner.
Even now, after that tragedy, she tried to put on a brave face, to keep a smile on her face to try to cheer up the rest of the shepherds. But being around her this long, he could tell that the smile was forced, that she was holding back the torrent of emotions that she must be feeling.
More than anything, he wanted to see that smile return to her face, to bring happiness back to that person that meant so much to the shepherds.
He figured he could do that by bringing an end to this blasted war, to the war that caused so much pain, strife and tears to so many. To do that, he'd have to concoct the perfect plan: the perfect offense, the perfect defense, the perfect strategy.
So Robin continued to work tirelessly in the dead of the night.
A/N: Phew. So this is my first time writing a Fire emblem themed fanfiction as well as my first fanfiction ever. So I thought I'd start small with a monologue and then possibly build up to bigger projects.
After replaying the game up to this point, I wondered how Robin was able to recover so quickly after that defeat in chapter 9 when it's pointed out several times that they value every single life and don't consider the battle a victory unless everyone comes out alive. So I gave him a possible motivation behind that, albeit with a rather narrow focus.
All constructive criticisms welcome!