AN: Happy Valentines Day! Take some second person almost Chrobin fic. I tried to keep Robin's gender neutral in this so it could go either way.
When you first wake up in the field with no idea how you got there and three people who by all means shouldn't exist in the first place standing above you, you clam up. It's always been what you've done when faced with people and situations that you were clueless about or that were just plain overwhelming. And right now, you're very overwhelmed.
You listen to them talk about countries you've only heard of in a video game; Ylisse, Plegia, Ylisstol. Nothing they're saying makes any sense. The only explanation that's even a little sane is that you've been sucked into the world of Fire Emblem: Awakening. Either that or someone is playing some elaborate prank on you. Neither of those feels very sane.
But if you are in the game, and it's seeming more like that's what's going on every minute you're here because this feels way too real to be a prank, then that means that there's magic, a war or three, some poorly explained time travel that was probably relevant later in the game, and… auto marriage. You didn't get all the way through, but you do know that Chrom will marry whoever he's closest to by the end of the first arc. You try to remember how you got here but all you're coming up with is that a) you can't remember anything except the game for some reason, and b) you really don't want to marry Chrom.
So, when they ask you who you are, what your name is, where you've come from and what you're doing lying in this field, you just shrug in what you hope is the universal gesture for 'I have no freaking idea'. Honestly, you're panicking too much right now to say anything, especially to Chrom. What if you accidentally trigger a support rank and he proposes on the spot and you can't say no because you're panicking too much to speak? It's just easier to stay quiet.
You listen as they discuss you and Lissa diagnoses you with muteness and amnesia. This is done by you nodding in answer to both questions. Chrom and Lissa are trusting enough, but Frederick is confident that you're just making everything up and are either an assassin or a spy in disguise. It's easier to pretend you can't speak than to have to try to explain the answers when you don't even know any of them yourself.
Chrom convinces Frederick to let you stay with them until they reach the nearby town and they can pawn you off on whatever people live there (the convincing is pulling rank, but you're fine enough with that right now, just as long as he doesn't propose).
On the way there, they name you Robin because of how your face lights up when you hear the birdsong and how you dance to try to disguise your attempts to jump up high enough to see their nest. You smile at this but remain silent. It's not like you remember your real name anyway. And robins are familiar; a little taste of home.
You try to remember something, anything about who you were before you woke up in the field. Nothing comes to mind, not your name, not your home, not your hobbies or interests. You only have spotty knowledge of the first half of the game, and that's assuming it stays the same. You'll probably mess it up anyway. It looks like you're going to be Robin for a while.
There's smoke on the horizon. They tell you to stay back where it's safe. You don't. What can you say? It feels like something's pulling you there.
You arrive just in time to blast one of the raiders about to attack Chrom. He looks around for a moment, confused. Then he notices you and nods and you give a little smile.
Then he turns and shouts to the others that it looks like you can hold your own in battle after all.
A few minutes later, he makes an offhand comment about how it feels like he's known you longer than he actually has, leading Frederick to give a three-second explantation of support ranks and you start to freeze up. What if you triggered one?
You go and stand by Lissa, defending her while Chrom and Frederick take the lead.
Afterwards, Chrom asks you if you want to join the shepherds while Frederick glowers at him in the background. You don't really want to join but you have no idea how this world works and you have no idea to get home, wherever home is, so instead, you nod in agreement and just like that, you're a member of the shepherds, defenders of Ylisse. Now you just need to keep out of Chrom's way and everything will be golden.
You arrive in Ylisstol and everyone just accepts that you can't communicate when Lissa explains that you can't speak.
Everyone except Muriel that is. She strides right up to you in a way that's kind of intimidating and asks if you know how to read or write. You don't, or at least you don't in Ylissean, so you shake your head and Muriel says she'll teach you. Everyone else gives her a look that you can practically read. They all think she's found a new lab rat. Personally you've always loved to read, so you nod thankfully.
It isn't easy. Muriel's convinced that it's possible, but you're used to learning new languages by speaking. Learning when you're unable to say a single word is a whole lot harder. She drills you every day on the way to Regna Ferox and you spend nights in your tent whispering the words and sounds to yourself long after everyone else has gone to sleep. After you master reading, learning to write comes slightly easier and soon you carry around a slate and a piece of chalk with you wherever you go.
One of the first questions they ask you is what your name is.
You just shrug and write Robin. When they press you further you write out that it is your name and you don't remember having any other.
They don't ask you anymore after that.
Your main role on the battlefield is a mage; Muriel coaches you on that too. The tactician's role, the one that you filled when playing the game, is filled by a combination of Chrom and Virion. For the most part, they manage to get everyone through the everyday encounters in one piece. You should be fine to let them just do that, but strategy has always been one of your passions, it was what attracted you to fire emblem in the first place, even if you didn't make it all the way through, so you pester Virion (but not Chrom, never Chrom) to teach you how to play Ylissean chess. He's better at it than you, but after a while, you get good enough that you're able to almost beat him most of the time.
(Chrom challenges you to a match once or twice and at first you panic because what if this is your support conversation and he asks you to marry him and you say yes because you always have to say yes or nod or something in the S-rank. But those fears start to fade as it becomes clear that he's more interested in testing his skills than pursuing you. There really isn't much talking involved, just moving pieces. And besides, the matches end after you beat him so thoroughly that he flips the chessboard in frustration, flinging the pieces all over the tent. You laugh at him silently as you both crawl around on the ground picking up the pieces. After that, his pride is too wounded to challenge you again.)
After a while, Chrom and Virion ask your advice when planning out their strategies and you help them out best you can. The shepherds start to be a tad more victorious after that, so that's encouraging.
One day, you realize something; if Chrom marries someone else, he won't marry you. You pay close attention to his relationships with all his potential brides, but none of them jump out as the future Mrs. Chrom. Sumia's busy trailing after Frederick and you know that Chrom will never look twice at Cordelia. You have high hopes for Sully, but then she and Vaike announce their engagement and that hope goes down the drain. Ditto for Maribelle, only she marries Ricken. It looks like you are resigned to a life of hoping that he falls for a village maiden.
When Emmeryn is captured by Gangrel, you know that the first arc's almost over. You spend far too many long nights staying up and staring at the chessboard, reading strategy book after strategy book, trying to come up with a plan that will save her despite the sinking knowledge that nothing will work.
And in the end, when it fails like you know it will, you push aside any other worries or fears you have and stand by Chrom as you retreat through the rain, trying to comfort him without words.
You stand by his side. You are his shoulder to lean on; an ear to talk to that will never repeat what was heard.
(You tell yourself that this is for the good of the army. They need Chrom to be strong in order to be strong themselves. And if Chrom needs to lean on someone to be the leader they need him to be, you can do that easily enough.)
In the fight against Gangrel, you plan from the sidelines, and support with your magic like you always have. And then the war is over and in an instant things have changed because no one wants to fight anymore after the Mad King dies. After Emmeryn's sacrifice, he was the only one who truly wanted war.
And when everything is done, his sword splattered with the Gangrel's blood and thrust into the ground beside him, his tattered cape fluttering in the breeze, his clothes wrinkled and covered in mud, his face slick with sweat and his skin splattered with dust, Chrom takes a knee and proposes to Olivia. While everyone else around you coos and offers congratulations, you are surprised at how hurt you feel.
In the end, did all those little interactions you had not even equal one support rank? When you were his pillar to lean on, did it mean nothing? Was everything you did worth less to him than some dancer that he hadn't even known for a day? And that night when it's too dark for anyone to hear you, even yourself, you whisper "I would've said yes."
And then you go back to sleep and pretend it never happened.
During the peace, you throw yourself into your studies, basically living at the library, reading every book you can find, be it on tactics or magic or the legends that everyone but you seems to know. You know that there's another war coming up and want to be prepared when it strikes.
Chrom invites you over to his family dinner once a week and you sit there and smile and enjoy the good food and listen as everyone but you talks and laughs and you silently join in best you can. Now that you're no longer trying to avoid marrying Chrom, you can actually get to know him better without fear.
When baby Lucina is born, you're named her godparent, and sometimes, when Chrom and Olivia are out of the room and can't hear the voice that isn't supposed to exist, you slip up next to little Lucy's cradle and, whispering, sing her the lullabies that you somehow remember your mother singing to you. You only remember the words and have to make up the tune, but that's enough to make her smile.
Valm attacks and you're forced to turn to Plegia for help.
You can see that Validar, the new king of Plegia, is a little confused that you say nothing during negotiations even if he hides it pretty well. You're a little curious why. It was probably mentioned in the game, but you either don't remember or didn't get that far. You still get the goods you needed from your Plegian 'allies' regardless.
Fortunately, you manage to keep enough of your wits about you later that day that you're able to remain silent when Validar starts probing your mind and giving you a splitting headache. But on the other hand, all of that stupid craziness means that you get to meet Lucina.
She looks at you strangely when Chrom introduces you as his mute tactician, and now that you think about it, she seemed surprised to see that you were silent when you met the first time, too. But you shove that out of your mind and smile and extend a hand in greeting. She hesitates for just a moment before reaching out with her own.
You wake up in the middle of the night with Lucina standing over you, Falchion in hand.
She asks in a hushed whisper why you don't talk, why you're lying to her father and his men, why you aren't the same as the Robin she knew.
You grope around in the dark for the slate you always keep nearby. You can talk and you both know it, but at times like this, or anytime really, it's just so much easier for you to write.
I can talk, I just choose not to, you write.
"Why?" she asks
You shrug, It's easier. It's certainly easier than explaining to Frederick that you're not a spy and coming up with a reason why you pretended you couldn't speak in the first place.
She still looks confused but doesn't press it further.
You've run out of game you remember and it's causing way too many doubts. What if you mess up? What if you hurt Chrom? He's your closest friend in the army despite how you first avoided him like the plague.
He probably makes it to the end alive, he is the main character after all. But you don't know for sure, and that makes you uneasy. Especially since you've been having a recurring dream where he's definitely not alive, and you're the one that's killed him. On those nights you always jerk awake, covered in a cold sweat. Maybe Lucina's right to distrust you.
Maybe you aren't meant to win after all. Basilio died recently. You're pretty sure that didn't happen in the game. But he's dead here and you couldn't do anything to stop it. Just like with Emmeryn. Just like with Yen'fay.
You defeat Walhart and bring a peace of sorts to Valm, but that doesn't bring back Basilio or any of the other dead.
Validar claims to have the last jewel for the Fire Emblem. You can't shake the feeling that it's a trap. Nobody can. But you really don't have much of a choice, so all you can do is go in as prepared as possible. By the time you actually set out, you and Virion have come up with at least a dozen backup plans and escape routes.
On the way there, You find yourself leaning on Chrom more than ever. He's willing to be your shoulder to lean on just like you were his when Emmeryn died. And you realize that this is what marriage must be like and you know Chrom is married already, but at the same time, you feel like you two could've been something once upon a time if you hadn't pushed him away.
It was a trap. You run through one of your countless escape routes, but before you can leave they've caught up to you. You fight them but Validar has a grip on your mind that he shouldn't and you find yourself moving against your will and taking the fire emblem and giving it to the one person who shouldn't have it at all costs. And when he has it in his grasp, he finally lets you go and you're forced to retreat, but by then it's too late. The damage has already been done.
You avoid Chrom that evening. It's your fault that the emblem was lost; that the world's going to end and everyone's going to die.
Lucina asks to speak to you alone. You follow her to a clearing in the forest and wait for her to speak.
At first, she talks about Chrom, about how he's one of the bravest and the strongest and the best men that she's ever known and how she doesn't want him to die like he did in her future.
You nod, unsure as to where this is going.
Then, she draws her Falchion and points it at you. She's breathing heavily now and tells you that, in future, Chrom was killed by his closest friend and now she knows it to be you. "I have no choice. I have to kill you." She sounds like she's trying to convince herself as much as she's trying to convince you.
You just stand there silently. This must be how it ends; how you lose at this war. Why did you ever think that you could lead these people to victory when you never even finished the game in the first place? This has to be the bad ending; one of those ruined futures like the one that Lucina came from. Maybe if you die then it'll prevent the worst from happening; maybe it'll do nothing. You don't know. You've never known.
"Aren't you going to say something?" Her voice is shaking, her blade is quivering.
You've never said anything in this world, not anything that counted at least. Why should you start now? Besides, if this is how it ends, a culmination of every way you've failed, then what difference would words make anyways?
"I have to do this." Her voice is escalating, filled with worry.
You know. She's told you, and you're starting to believe her.
"It's the only way." Louder.
Maybe it is.
"Why are you just standing there?" She's shouting now. "Why aren't you trying to stop me? Say something! Dammit!"
Words wouldn't do anything, you've already lost.
She screams and runs toward you. Chrom steps out of nowhere, yelling at her to stop. The Falchion stops inches from your chest.
The moment's over. Chrom is separating you. Lucina is breathing heavily and crying a little. Chrom is telling you something about how you aren't going to betray them, that your bonds will surpass anything. You want to believe him, but he didn't feel Validar hands gripping your mind and twisting it, squeezing it so it blinds you and when you recover, you realize that you've done something that you never meant to do.
You make a plan to get the fire emblem back, but a certain part of you knows that's it's going to fail. You and Virion make plan after plan with dozens of backups and everything you can think of covered.
You want to believe that everyone will make it out alive, but every night you wake up covered in sweat, remembering the nightmare where you kill Chrom in all too vivid detail. This is how it ends. You've lost the game, it must have happened all long ago. You messed it up too much, now you're just trying to minimize the damage.
Lucina's still suspicious of you. Chrom doesn't trust you two being in the same room together, alone. But she still slips into your tent and watches you like a hawk as you spend countless hours hunched over your maps and your books, hoping against hope that you can somehow find a way to stop the inevitable.
Once, she asks you just how confident you are that this plan will work.
You shrug and write that you don't know.
She must see something in the expression on your face because the next thing she asks you is why.
I've been having nightmares, you write.
"What sort?" she asks.
You aren't sure how to describe it. The worst possible outcome? Only it's not, you've always let things blow out of proportion; you can think of half a dozen ways that this evening could go worse. You decide to go with the truth. Ones where I kill Chrom.
You avoid her eyes as you show it to her. The sound she makes is enough to confirm what you thought. She thinks she should've killed you in the clearing. But instead of reaching for her blade, she asks you with an icily calm voice if you have a plan.
You have ten, twenty, a hundred plans. That doesn't mean that any of them will work. When you tell her as much she offers you her help.
It takes half the night, but in the end, you've cobbled together something that you're more confident in than any of the others.
"Are you ready?" she asks.
You shrug. "I'm afraid." You surprise yourself by speaking. Judging by Lucina's gasp, you've surprised her too.
"Your voice is nice," she says softly after a few seconds. "You should use it more."
You shrug again. You've been shrugging a lot. It's easier this way, you write.
She nods and your temporary moment of unity is shattered when she turns and leaves, telling you to get some sleep before closing the tent flaps behind her.
You nod, even though you know she can't see it and that with the nightmare's you've been having, sleep isn't as restful as she thinks it is.
You get the fire emblem back. It isn't easy. But your plan works and when you shoot Chrom through with a bolt of lightning, you manage to weaken it enough that it isn't lethal. He believes it's because of the bonds you share. You believe that it's because of serious contingency planning. But you really aren't in any position to argue the point.
And it turns out that you are the human form of the fell dragon Grima. That's the reason you have that strange mark on your hand. That you've been having those strange nightmares, only they're not nightmares, they're memories. That you have all these ties to Validar and Plegia that you'd toss away in an instant. That you killed Chrom in the alternate past?
By now, you really aren't sure whether you on track to win the game or whether you lost a long, long time ago. When you stopped playing, there really didn't seem to be any signs of a war between gods or anything like that. By now, you only can only hope that you come up with a decent ending.
Chrom and Lucina have a plan to prevent the entire world from being destroyed and you don't really have any other options, so you opt to support them. That's always what you've been best at.
And you get to a temple of Naga that looks like it might fall down at any minute and apparently straights are dire enough that it merits a direct visit from the Divine Dragon herself.
She tells you that you can't defeat Grima completely, only put him to sleep for thousands of years. Which doesn't exactly sound bad, but when said evil dragon is destroying the world as you speak, most of you kind of want to destroy said evil god.
She goes on to explain that only Grima's power can defeat Grima.
That rings the little bell in your head that's labeled idea. Aren't I Grima? you write on you're slate.
Naga nods and her voice fills your head. You two are linked very closely.
Nobody else seems to hear her. You don't even bother to write out you're next question. Are we linked closely enough that I could kill him? you think directly at her.
Yes, but that would mean that you would also die.
But it would kill him.
Yes.
"Robin, you okay?" Chrom asks you, breaking up the silent conversation you've been having.
You nod and do your best to focus on what is being said out loud, your mind spinning with ideas. And like every problem you face, this one doesn't have a good answer.
Naga teleports you all up to a spot on Grima's neck that she claims is the dragon's blind spot. Once you get up there, you immediately decide that you're not actually in the blind spot like she claimed. You're surrounded by Risen and the other you, the evil one is standing at the other end of the huge expanse of Dragon. You can see the Plegia around you for miles. The entire country looks like it's in the throes of an apocalypse. You only look out for a second, but you see purple fires burning, sands stained red with blood and roads clogged with bodies. You look away before the destruction can overwhelm you.
And then Grima attacks you and you all nearly die because this is the power of a god and you can feel him and the other you laughing because did you really think you had a chance? Against them? And there's a voice filling every inch of your head, a voice that seems to embody fear. It tells you that you are nothing; that you have no hope. You try to push it out but instead, you find yourself sucked into to some other realm that's too black for you tell if your eyes are open or closed.
You feel your mind starting to leave your control. You won't stand for that. Even when your voice flees you, your mind is still yours. You refuse to let Grima take it, so you pull back. He pulls harder and you feel that you're almost going to disappear completely but then you hear voices. Fragments piercing through with a fuzz that clearer than anything else.
You can hear the voices of your friends, even if you can't hear the words that they're saying. You pull hard. Grima pulls back.
You give another mental tug. Now you can make out an occasional word. You hear your name, encouraging words with meaning that are confusing without context.
Another tug, you can feel Grima's grip on your mind starting to weaken.
Another tug and you can feel that you're almost to the surface. Just one more- and then Grima's pulling you back and you kick and kick but you're sinking.
Sinking, sinking, sink- You feel something. There's a brightness and Grima recoils just enough for you to make one final push and rise above and then you're gasping for breath, surrounded by Chrom and the rest of the shepherds. You've never been so glad in your life to find yourself on the back of an ancient dragon god of destruction.
The same light that helped you against Grima comes again and you can feel strength returning to you. You look around and that the others look like they're experiencing the same thing. Maybe you have a shot at this after all.
And then you fight like you never have before. Waves after waves of risen attack you. Groups break off to face them and eventually it's only you and Chrom facing Grima, the other you, the evil one, on the other end of the dragon.
Chrom knows what he's doing. You see him fight like a man gifted with divine power, which technically he is. And then you seem him prepare to strike the final blow and in an instant, your mind is made up.
When he makes to strike, you run and deal the final blow instead.
He looks confused and takes a step towards you. Grima, the dragon, is groaning and shaking and you fear that he is going to fall out of the sky.
"Robin, what…?" he starts to ask.
You look down at yourself; you're starting to fade. You feel like you have a thousand butterflies in your stomach and they're spreading, flying through your arms and your legs and up your throat. You have a thousand thoughts flying through your head. There's so much you want to tell him, but now that you've finally decided to speak, you only have seconds left to tell him.
He reaches out, his face still covered with a look of confusion.
You reach out and his hand slips through yours. You finally think come up with something to say. "May… may we meet again in a better life."
Your vision is starting to go black. The last thing you see is Chrom's face, filled with shock and confusion. And then there's nothing.
Maybe in another life, you won't be afraid.
AN: I had this idea in the shower. It'll be 1000 words, 2000 tops I said. 5500 words later I finally finished it and then I went back and cut out a bunch of stuff, leaving me with my final work at last.
This originally started out as an idea where I was wondering "what if Robin didn't want to auto marry Chrom? How would she avoid it? (because in my mind, it started with a she, even if I was trying my best to keep Robin gender neutral here.) And then it turned into silent-protagonist and slightly unrequited Chrobin fic.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!