"Did you know that, where I come from, the princess of Ylisse has a golden-haired son? Or that the young prince from the future is not a prince at all? Or even that the King's wife he met when he woke her on the side of the road?"

I furrowed my brow.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm not from this world," she said. "I knew it when Chrom didn't recognise me, and when I observed the soldiers around camp. I just didn't think it could be true."

I leant back on the log, careful not to fall back all the way. "Another world? Like, my children?"

"Yes. But, then again, not quite," Yuming shook her head, her soft blue hair falling across her pretty face. Not that I was attracted to her—I am a married man. But a man notices these things. "I'm…different. No, I'm not from a world like theirs. I'm simply a version of yourself, who drifted from my own world to yours."

I blushed, I think. That, or my face just started burning up for no reason.

"Version of me!? What are you talking about?" I suppose it did explain her stance in battle; her great skill with both tomes and blades, though I knew she was probably much stronger than me.

She laughed gently. "That's right," said Yuming. "Imagine you were born a girl, Robin. And instead of naming you Robin, your parents named you Yuming. And when you woke up on the side of the road with no memory of your past, instead of becoming best friends with the prince of Ylisse, you fell in love with him, and your friends all married within the army, and had children come back from a future of despair. Now imagine that, when you traversed the Outrealm, another version of yourself was born. One that fell into another world, in which you were born a male, and your husband married a dear friend of yours, and where your children do not know you, your son does not exist, your friends' children don't recognise their fathers…" I saw her close her eyes, and stifle tears and choke down sobs. When she composed herself, she opened them again, and looked ahead at the campfire, where the rest of us had gathered to eat dinner—bear meat. Frederick must've been on hunting duty. At least Morgan looked happy with the dish. She was an odd girl, that daughter of mine.

I turned back to Yuming.

"So, you're telling me that…in your world…I don't exist? Instead, you exist, and you married Chrom… Which means you're Lucina's mother…"

"That's right. Now he's catching on," she gave a wry smile. "We had—have—a son, too. Morgan."

"Like my daughter!"

"Yeah. Except, instead of red hair, he has blue. And the mark of the exalt surfaced on his arm."

"Wait, wait, what about Inigo? He's Chrom's son, too."

"He's another's son. Olivia and her husband… Her real husband."

"So—" I was trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. All I really could manage to pick out of the swarming mess that was my head was me briefly thinking, 'Wow, I make a pretty beautiful girl.' "—does that mean that your husband—the other Chrom—and your children and your army… I mean, does that mean that you're missing from your own world now? Can't you go back? I know where the gate to the Outrealm is, I could—"

"I'm afraid it's not that easy. The real Yuming is still with her family. I'm only a copy that was made when she entered the Outrealm. I can't go back, because there's no place for me. Nonetheless, her memories are still mine. I can still remember."

"I'm so terribly sorry…"

I had a lot of questions to ask her. I was so curious about her world—how everyone would be if I were Yuming instead of Robin—oh geez, this was going to get confusing.

"Thank you, Robin. I appreciate it. But there's no use sulking about it. I'm going to have to watch them shower another woman with affection, and I'm going to have to get used to it. Olivia is a fine woman. I only wish she had married the right man in this world, too."

My eyebrows raised instinctively.

"The right man? Who? Who did she marry?"

Yuming laughed at me, patting me on the back. "Someone's curious, hm? Well, I wouldn't want to colour your view of anyone in the army."

"M-My view? Like, I'd see them differently? W—Wait, don't tell me…" I started to blush, and after glancing at my perfect little family huddled by the fire, my wife Cordelia and our two daughters, I gripped Yuming's arms. "Who's the jerk who married my wife in your world!?" Oh gods. This was beyond weird. Just saying it, I realised how weird it was.

"I shouldn't tell you, Robin. I mean, it's not his fault you weren't around for her to fall in love with, right? And she couldn't keep pining after my husband forever. Besides, there's no way she'd love him in this world," there was a tinge of bitterness in her voice, which disappeared when she smiled and said, "Your wife's a good woman. Don't let her go."

"I don't intend to. I love her very much. As I love my daughters."

"Good. Who knows? For all we know, another version of you could have made his way to my world, and maybe he's having this conversation with me right now. Maybe, somewhere across time and space, you know my pain."

Together, we watched the campfire crackle. Maybe her eyes wandered to Chrom, whose arm was around Olivia's shoulders, and whose children were laughing and chatting with him. To me, it was normal, but to her it must have been the strangest thing in the world.

I could only imagine what it would be like to watch Cordelia with another man, or to see my daughters treat another man as their father. I could only imagine.

"So you said the princess of Ylisse has a golden-haired son, right? That must mean Owain. So? Who did she marry? Who did everyone marry? You've got to let me in on this," I knew I must have sounded like some lovesick schoolboy, but I didn't care. It was a brief moment of respite we didn't often get—and I wanted to seize it. I wanted to learn more—for purely educational purposes. The concept of different world did fascinate me.

"You remind me of my son, you know. Always pestering me for something."

"Oh, come on. Just give me a hint. Who's blonde in this army…? Wait. It couldn't be V—"

"I'm not saying anything!"

A short story based off my friend getting my streetpass character. Yuming, my first playthrough character in both Japanese and English, is married to Chrom, but my friend's Chrom is married to Olivia. When he recruited Yuming, (who he said was "too expensive") he said that the recruit message I'd set was really sad and that he felt bad for taking Yuming away from Chrom. Welp, that's what he gets for pairing up Chrom with anyone but F!Avatar :/ It was also really weird because his Lucina and Inigo were siblings and mine were married. When he looks at my card in the logbook, they have the same hair colour x_x like incest.

Anyway, hope you enjoy. It's also implied Lissa/Vaike. Because that's definitely another pairing I just love.