Author's Note: I needed some inspiration for something, and Smashboards managed to deliver. I'm still working on my FE7 fic just at a much slower pace, so please accept this as an apology. Also for the Smash Convo fans there is another one on the way, just not yet.
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR FIRE EMBLEM: AWAKENING.
Not at All the Same
Chrom kneaded his brow as he sat in the throne room. The worst time of year was upon them once again. Robin had clearly calculated this so only he would have to deal with a large majority of the work. The preparations for the Awakening festival were in full swing. The Voice (Tiki to her friends) had come to Ylisse as she had begun to do every year, and with her came a large entourage including Say'ri and the mood that festivals tend to bring.
This meant of course that there was a ton of preparation work to be done. Not only were he and Olivia busy, but even Inigo (Who returned once a year to check on his younger self and his family in this world) had been roped into helping.
This was because Robin had decided to take the week off. He had accumulated quite a lot of free days, but he never seemed to use them. Even now he could see Robin reading in the garden as he watched Little Lucia play. (They had decided it was best to separate this world from the one Lucina and her comrades had come from, and so Lucina became Lucia before the name stuck for good.)
"He still misses her, doesn't he?" Olivia said, peering out the window as well. Their momentary reprieve would not last long.
"It's an odd sensation." Chrom said. "As her father, even if I'm not her real father, those two being so connected just felt… odd."
Olivia smiled gently at him. She knew what was coming next.
"Even so I… I was happy for them. I don't pretend to understand time travel or even how we factor into the new generation's lives, but for her to disappear like that…" He sighed.
"Robin was gone too, you know." Olivia said. "Maybe she felt like losing him was enough to sever whatever ties she had left in this world?"
"Ties are not so easily broken." Chrom said. "What was the point of all that fighting, the sacrifices made, if not to prove that? Robin came back to us… because he loves Lucina. He loves all of us I'm sure, but her most of all."
"We can't force her to come back." Olivia said sadly. "Even if we wanted to."
"I know." Chrom said with another sigh.
Robin closed his book as he watched little Lucia play. Ever since he had returned three ago he had been helping Chrom around Ylisse as much as possible. A part of him had wanted to go look for Lucina, but he knew the last thing his friends wanted was for him to disappear again so soon after they had gotten him back.
When Grima had been defeated, he had vanished. At least, he thought he had vanished. The next thing he knew, he had woken up in the same field Chrom and Lissa had once found him, with those very two standing over him, smiling happily. He had learned that he had been gone for an entire year. That meant now that little Lucia was five years old as she traipsed about the garden. A fact she was very proud to tell anyone who would listen. Lucina and the other new generation members had probably just now broken into their early twenties.
Robin sighed. He supposed all that didn't matter much. The days he had spent talking with the girl from the future remained in his mind, but memories could only sustain a person so far.
"Uncle Robin?" Lucia said, making the white haired man look down at her. She was holding up a small ring of flowers. "For you?"
"Thank you." Robin said, accepting the gift graciously. He tried placing it on his head. It was far too small and made his already unmanageable hair look quite silly as parts of it stuck up to match the tiny flower ring on his head.
"It's not for your head silly!" Lucia said, giggling at him.
"Oh really?" Robin said, taken aback. "Umm… then where do I put it?"
"On your arm." Lucia said firmly, as Robin removed the crown. She then proceeded to help him attach it, since he clearly wasn't any good at understanding how he was supposed to wear her precious gift.
"Thank you." Robin said, patting the young girl's head. She blushed happily as she sat down next to him, letting her small legs swing forward and back.
"Uncle Robin?" Lucia asked. "Why don't you have a marriage?"
Robin's eyes widened slightly. "Where did you hear about that?
"Marriage is what Mommy and Daddy have." Lucia said, nodding her head as she explained. "And then there's cousin Inigo and cousin Severa. They have a marriage too."
"They're married, you mean?" Robin said, unable to stop himself from correcting her choice of grammar.
Lucia huffed "That's what I said! Marriaged!"
Robin shrugged and backed off before the little one could get more upset at him, even if she continued to use it wrong. "Okay."
"So why aren't you marriaged! Uncle Robin is the best most awesome ever so you should have marriaged!" Lucia said.
"That's… difficult to say." Robin said. "I suppose it's an 'adult' thing Lucia."
"Liar. Dad says marriged is simple as love. Then you don't love no one?" Lucia said.
Her grammar was getting worse. Robin supposed he was partly to blame for this lapse since he often aided Lucia in escaping Maribelle's etiquette lessons to have her go play with little Seria and Gerald. He wasn't the best influence.
"I love everyone here." Robin said. "Not enough to be married to them mind you. I did… once."
"Get marriaged?" Lucia said, her eyes sparkling.
"Mmm… well… I never proposed." Robin said.
"Prop…ohsed?" Lucia said, trying to understand the new word.
"When you marry someone, usually the man proposes to the girl with a ring. That's what binds them to each other." Robin explained.
"You mean like mommy and daddy ring?" Lucia said.
"Yes, just like that." Robin said.
"Promise to be marriaged." Lucia said thoughtfully.
The two sat there as Lucia seemed to get lost in her own thoughts. "Uncle Robin no get marriage then?"
"Maybe someday." Robin said. "If I find the right person again."
"Lucia marriage you?" Lucia asked, looking up.
"No no, you need to be an adult before you marry someone, Lucia." Robin said. "Besides, you'll find people you loves lots more."
"Love more than Uncle Robin?" Lucia asked curiously. "Love more than Mommy and Daddy?"
"When you find the right person, yes." Robin said.
"But Lucia love Mommy and Daddy and Uncle Robin the most!" She said defiantly, puffing out her cheeks.
Robin chuckled. "Alright alright, I believe you."
"The marriaged me!" Lucia said, glaring at Robin.
"Tell you what Lucia." Robin said. "When you get older, if you still feel that way and don't find someone you love more, I'll consider it."
Lucia swung her legs a few more times as she thought about it. "Promise?"
"Promise." Robin said with a smile.
"That might… make things a little awkward." A soft voice said from the garden gate.
The voice was one Robin had been hoping to hear for a long time. It was the same voice he heard calling his name when he relieved that fight against Grima. Her cry was both one of sadness and hope and he vanished before her eyes. The same man she found herself unable to kill upon that hilltop when her heart nearly broke in two.
Within a moment Robin had crossed the short distance and gave her a very tight hug. Lucina hugged him back, tears falling lightly from her eyes. "I thought… I'd never see you again." Robin's voice nearly cracked as he said it, and Lucina tried desperately to stop herself from sobbing into his arms.
"I… I didn't want to lose you again." She said. "And once Grima was destroyed I… I didn't know what would happen to us. The future children. I didn't want to hurt you by going away." Her grip on his cloak tightened.
"Every moment is precious. No matter how long, whether a week, year, or our entire lives, you know I wouldn't have found anyone besides you." Robin said.
Lucina felt her tears growing stronger. "Hopeless fool…" She said. "I could tell you the same thing."
The two then kissed. The tears fell away as the joy the two had been missing for the past four years returned in full. They broke up just as quickly when Lucia suddenly interrupted them. "Marriaged people kiss! You two are marriaged!"
"Not quite yet." Robin said to little Lucia with a wink. "Remember what I told you before?"
"Propohsed?" Lucia said, her eyes sparkling.
"Yes." Robin said, as he pulled out a small ring before kneeling down before the Ylissian Princess. "Lucina, will you marry me?"
Lucina smiled as a blush spread across her face. "Yes, of course I will."
Robin placed the ring gently on her finger, and the two embraced again. "Before I forget, we should introduce you." He said, as Lucia looked on with sparkling eyes."
"But how will you?" Lucina said. "I've heard the cousins idea that Inigo went with but I'm…"
"Lucia, meet your sister." Robin said.
Lucia's eyes grew even wider. "Sister? Lucia has cool grown up marriaged sister!" Lucia practically jumped for joy before wrapping herself around Lucina's legs. "Happy marriaged sister!"
"She… accepted that rather easily didn't she?" Lucina said in confusion.
"She's heard about you before." Chrom said from the garden entrance. He and Olivia had come running down when they spotted the familiar long blue hair in the courtyard. "Since you didn't come back quickly enough, you don't get to pass yourself off as her cousin."
Lucina blushed as she hugged the smaller version of herself, who was brimming with joy to finally meet her. She began to wonder why she had taken so long to return.
"Marriaged means baby right? When get baby?" Lucia asked. The four other froze instantly. Chrom looked at Robin, who raised his arms defensively.
"I did not teach her about that." He said quickly.
Lucina's blush intensified, and even Olivia began to mutter something to herself as she began to blush. Lucia looked curiously around and wondered why no one would answer. "Aunty Lissa said that Marriaged means babies…"
"Lissa…"Chrom said. "Robin, we need a plan. Lissa must pay for this."
"Right away." Robin said, snapping to attention.
"And Lucina… Congratulations." Chrom said. "I know it may seem odd to you, but I'm happy you've decided to follow your heart."
Lucina smiled as she hugged her formerly younger self again. The world they created was a world full of hope for everyone. Not just for Chrom, Robin and Ylisse, but for herself and the other future children as well. They wouldn't disappear. This was a future for everyone.
The End