When it had come time to pick out presents for Lucina's fourth birthday, the little girl had one thing on her mind to ask for. Without even slight hesitation, she looked at her parents, a huge smile on her young face, and told them that she wanted a little brother. Her mother could barely hold back her laughter while her father, quickly going red in the face, shook his head at his daughter's request. "You already have your cousin, isn't that enough?" he asked, watching as the little girl shook her head defiantly and repeated her exact request.
She was given a baby doll and an hour of playtime with her squirming little cousin as a gift that year, her father telling her that he was enough for her and that he was all she'd be getting. Lucina enjoyed getting to play with Owain by herself, even though she knew he wasn't going to do much more than roll over and squeal at her. But she knew that she could play with him at any time she wanted, due to him and his parents living with her and her parents, so the "present" wasn't much more than a way for her dad to dodge her request.
The following year, nothing had changed in Lucina's mind regarding a want of a little sibling, something she made clear when her mother asked her what she wanted. "A brother, please," she replied, smiling as she did, but her smile faltered when she added: "And not time with Owain again."
Robin reacted by nodding, patting her daughter on the shoulder in the most assuring way she could manage. "I'll speak to your father about this and see what we can do." She wasn't entirely shooting down the idea, but at the same time, Lucina knew that if her father was going to have to actually be asked, all hope was lost. She knew how he acted in regards to small children, and how he played friendly about them in front of everyone but yelled and complained about them every night when he was in his bedroom. There was no way she was going to be getting what she wanted that year, no matter how much her mother talked to her father about it, and she had to accept it.
On her birthday, she woke up to a lot of presents she didn't ask for and the news that she was going to be spending a day soon with someone with a young baby, just so she could get the "sibling" experience without actually having a sibling. When that day came, she was stuck spending the time playing with her cousin and his little baby best friend, both of whom were a lot of fun but she'd asked for Owain to not be involved. He wasn't even allowing her to get to play with the baby much, as he thought he deserved the time more. The day there with those boys just wasn't what Lucina wanted in the end, and she needed to get it across to her parents that she deserved a brother (or at least a sister) of her own.
When she turned six, she once again asked for a sibling as a birthday present, kissing up to her parents for weeks beforehand to try and get them to go along with her wishes. Knowing entirely too well that her want of a sibling was the reason for her good behavior, Chrom wasn't going to fall for it, but Robin raised a good point when she cornered him the day before Lucina's birthday to tell him, "You know, while having another child certainly isn't anything I want to go through, it would make this family feel more, well, family-like. Bring us all together more."
"We're all together pretty well as is, we don't need to add another mouth to feed and body to make space for." As they were talking right inside their bedroom, Chrom was able to look around at what space they had inside the room, shaking his head as he did. "Besides, this room isn't big enough for both of us and a child, and Lucina won't give up her bedroom for anything, I'd imagine."
"You're going to make this an argument about room?" Robin asked, bewildered at what she'd just heard. "You've made your sister raise her child in her tiny bedroom, yet you say there's not enough room in here for us to raise another kid? Making excuses, I see."
He let out a wavering sigh, not happy that she had called him out on his bluff so easily. "Yes, well, me bringing up my other reasons wouldn't quite go over well with you, so I went with the weaker argument instead."
"Other reasons?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Chrom, please, go on ahead and share these other reasons so that I can tell you how bad of an argument they make when put together." The way he hesitated, taking in small, shaky breaths as he looked her over, was enough to make her lose faith in any strong point he could have made. "Really, at this point, you're just denying your daughter's wish because you don't want to put in the effort."
"Th-that's not it at all, Robin! Look, what happened when you had Lucina still weighs heavily on my mind, and I can't imagine making you go through that again." Chrom's voice was wavering as he spoke, evidence that he still hadn't fully moved past the incident of his daughter's birth. "Not when there's so much on your plate this upcoming year as it is. Would you really want to be teaching, going to school for another degree, and raising another kid?"
Robin did have to think for a moment, her husband having actually raised a solid point there. She'd been working towards getting her master's degree for almost a year, another year still to go in her program, and with the reminder of what had happened the last time she was in school and pregnant, she almost didn't have the heart to continue arguing against Chrom's stubborn disapproval. "I guess I can see why you wouldn't want me to now, doesn't explain past years, but it's a good reason for the present I suppose. Gods help you when you run out of friends with babies to pawn off on Lucy for her birthday, though. That'll be the year."
"Then it's a good thing I've got someone for her this year, isn't it?" He reached out and flicked the tip of Robin's nose, watching her scrunch it in displeasure. "Maybe some year she'll get a sibling for her birthday, but not this year."
He opened the door to the room and left, fishing for his phone in his pocket as he walked. As he ducked into another room to call a friend about borrowing their baby, she stood there in the doorway, mocking him while she knew he couldn't hear. "'Maybe someday but not this year,' whatever! He's been saying that for years now, and Lucina's not going to stop wanting a sibling anytime soon. If I'm going to get him to rethink this for her sake, I'll have to get creative."
It wasn't that Robin particularly wanted a second child-she was content with just Lucina and the family life they had, and the pains of the first time were still fresh in her mind. She vividly remembered the pain, the agony, the feeling of being completely helpless...and she remembered how overjoyed she was when she first held her little blue-haired baby in her arms. A second child wouldn't necessarily bring the same suffering, but they would bring the same happiness into her life, and until she had fought to her fullest for that, she wasn't just going to let Chrom's word be the law of the house.
At the same time, Chrom was finishing up his call to borrow a baby, grumbling as he put his phone back in his pocket. "What do they mean, they want to be invited in order for me to use their kid? We're not having a party, and the only reason I'd invite them would be if he was providing food. They know this." He was beginning to pace back and forth, trying to think of a solution to the problem, when Robin poked her head into the kitchen where he stood, catching him by surprise. "Gods, Robin, don't scare me like that. Could have triggered a heart attack."
"You're too young and too in shape for that, I think what you're looking to accuse me of is triggering a guilt trip." Robin grinned in his direction, while he still had his hand gripping his chest to calm himself. "I stand by what I told you, about running out of friends' babies to borrow for this purpose."
"I've got one for this year, that's what matters right now," Chrom said, his heartbeat finally back to normal. "Why are you suddenly so insistent on making a case for us having another child? It's not really because Lucina wants a sibling, is it?"
"Actually, it is, but glad to see you think I'd want to go through that again." Laughing, Robin placed her hands on Chrom's shoulders. "Maybe if it's me wanting a second kid instead of her wanting a sibling, you'll think about the situation differently." She waited until he brushed her off to speak again, time during which she thought about how much she really didn't want to have another child. While the idea was nice, to get to raise another miniature version of her and Chrom combined, she was content with the one child she had. "We'd be doing it to make Lucina happy, you know."
"Lucina being happy means very little when you could almost die again to give her what she wants." Chrom's gaze was rough, disapproving what he'd heard. "I'd rather her be unhappy and you be fine than her possibly not even getting that sibling after all and you being dead."
Robin frowned at the idea of her possibly dying, but shook it from her mind when she remembered that she wasn't in this argument to advocate actually having a second child right then. Her intentions were merely to keep Chrom from permanently putting the idea down. "I'd love to at least try to really make her happy, but I can see your point as to why we can't," she conceded, letting her head droop a bit. "Let's just get through tomorrow with her borrowed baby, I suppose."
"I'm glad you've begun to see things my way," he told her, gently wrapping an arm around her and kissing the top of her head a couple of times. "We don't need a second child in this family, not when the one we've got is perfect the way she is." He let his hold on her linger for a few moments, until his phone started ringing again. "Gods damn it, why is she calling me now? She's in the house with us!"
Laughing as he let go of her, Robin watched as Chrom took his phone out once more, glaring at it as he did. "You know how your sister gets sometimes, she gets stuck doing something and needs one of us to bail her out. You want to see what's up or should I?" Based on his hand-wave as he answered the phone to see what the issue was, she assumed it was the latter option, and when he left, grumbling as he headed towards one of the other bedrooms in the house, she was left to look around the empty kitchen. There was very little space, a fact she'd gotten used to in the years they'd lived there, and the lack of room continued throughout the house; their living space was so small that she could hear every word of the conversation between brother and sister taking place somewhere across the building.
If they were to do what their daughter wanted and have a second child, they would have to make some serious lifestyle changes in order for it to work, finding a new place to live the top of the list. Her eyes, shifting around the room, ended up lingering on the front of the fridge, where schedules for both of the families in the house were drafted. Just looking at everything they all had going on, between work and social commitments and raising kids, there wasn't exactly time to be spent changing up how they lived in order to commit to having a second child. Maybe it was for the best that Chrom had found a kid to borrow for the following day's events, and maybe it would be best if he could find another one for the next couple of years.
Her eyes fluttering open at the first sign of light coming into her bedroom, Lucina knew what the day she was waking up into was. She shot up, throwing her blankets off from herself and her bed, just to jump onto the floor and make a mad dash for her bedroom door. She didn't bother looking at what time it was—it just needed to be morning time, which it clearly was if there was sun entering her room. The door was opened quickly, her not bothering to stop it from hitting the wall, and she ran down the hall from her bedroom, knocking first on her parents' door, then on her aunt and uncle's door, before making it to the living room, where she flopped on the floor and waited.
This was going to be the day she finally got what she'd been waiting for, and she was so excited for it that she didn't care that people were trying to sleep. She needed her mom and her dad to come out to where she was and tell her the good news, the news that she was going to be getting a sibling (but hopefully a brother) for her birthday. It was the only thing she'd asked for, evidenced by the fact that there weren't any presents laying around for her, and so it had to be the only thing she got.
"Lucina, what are you doing up already?" It wasn't the voice of either of her parents, but hearing her dear aunt talk to her was a good sign. Maybe she'd be the one telling her the news instead? "It's too early for you to be awake, even if you're probably super excited about what today is and all that. Go back to bed for a little bit, will you?"
"I can't, Auntie Lissa," she replied, kicking her legs a few times there on the floor. "I'm too awake to go back to bed. I want to get my birthday present now!" Her aunt crouched down to be next to her, and when the little girl looked at her face she saw that she looked incredibly tired, like she'd been woken up without getting much sleep at all. "Please, just get my mom and dad so I can get it!"
After yawning, another sign of how tired she was, Lissa shook her head. "No can do, missy. They'll give you your present when it's a decent time. I don't know why you're actually awake this early, but you really should go back to bed."
"I'm awake because I want my present!" Kicking her legs a bit more, nearly hitting her aunt once in the process, the girl started to raise her voice as she proceeded to continue on with her protesting. "It's my birthday, I want what my mom and dad are giving me, and I want it right now!"
"Don't scream, please, it's way too early…" Lissa knew that pleading with her niece wasn't going to work, so she took matters into her own hands, picking the kicking girl up and carrying her out of the room. "Here, I'll just bring you into my bed and you can try to sleep in there with us until it's not this early. Either that, or you go to your room and sleep there."
Lucina, well-aware that hitting her aunt to try and get her to put her down was not an appropriate course of action, gave a huffy sigh. "Fine, Auntie Lissa, I'll come to your room and sleep again. But I still want my present."
"I get you, birthdays are always so exciting when it comes to getting presents!" After setting the girl down on the ground so that she could open the door to her bedroom, Lissa poked her head in to make sure everyone else was still asleep before pushing the door open further. "Here, come on in, you can sleep in my spot on the bed and I'll find something to do to keep me awake," she said, pushing her niece to get her to enter the tiny bedroom. "I don't need to sleep nearly as much as you do."
The young girl, following her aunt's nudging, stepped inside and immediately regretted agreeing to doing that. "Auntie, there's no room on your bed," she whined, waving a hand in the direction of said bed, where most of the space was taken up by a grown man and a young boy, both fast asleep. "I don't wanna have to try to sleep close to Owain or Uncle Vaike, please don't make me!"
"Then why did—oh, Lucy, I won't make you lay there then, no problem." After yawning once more and rubbing at her eyes, Lissa looked at her niece and saw how close to tears she was becoming at the prospect of having to share that bed. "Here, since it's your birthday and I try to do nice things for people on their birthdays, why don't we go through some pictures and stuff while we wait for everyone to wake up? Would that be fun?"
Judging by how quickly the girl's face lit up at the idea, it certainly would be fun. Lucina waited patiently (like she didn't want to in regards to her parents waking up) as her aunt rifled through a few of her dresser drawers and then through her closet, pulling out stacks of papers and folders that were most likely filled with all sorts of pictures. "Why do you wanna show me this now?" the girl asked as her aunt started laying some of the papers out, beckoning for her to sit down on the floor to start looking. "What's gonna be so cool about any of this?"
"I don't know, I think it's fun to just look back on old things sometimes," Lissa replied with a shrug, flipping through one stack and gasping when she saw a particular picture in it. She pulled that one picture out and set it in front of Lucina, going back to her searching while she let the girl look at it. "That's at the first graduation at the school after I started working there. You're too little to remember it, but there's a picture to remind you."
Peering at the picture with wary eyes, Lucina tried to find people in it that she recognized. Her parents and her aunt and uncle were easiest for her to find, but there were a few others that she knew from how often she got taken over to the school. But as she looked, she couldn't seem to see herself, prompting her to ask, "Is there me in this?"
"Of course you're in it, you've been to every graduation there since you were born. You're probably hiding behind your dad's leg or something at that point, honestly." Shrugging, Lissa went back to her searching, laying out a couple more pictures that she had found. "But see, isn't this cool already? You've gotten to see an old thing, and now you're going to see more."
"This one's from when you got married, I know this," the girl said, pushing the graduation picture away to look at one of the full-family ones from her aunt's wedding the previous year. "I got to be flower girl, and I was so pretty!" She pushed that one aside as well, reaching now for a holiday picture that had her scrunching her face in confusion. "Auntie Lissa, what's with this one?"
After looking at the picture once more, understanding her niece's question once she saw it, Lissa put the stack she was still going through to the side so that she could focus on her explanation. "Well, uh, what do you want to know about it? It's from back before you were born, so if you're wondering where you are, that's—"
"I'm not in this picture?" The distress in Lucina's voice was clear, and she was getting louder as she got more concerned. "But Auntie Lissa, I'm in all pictures with my mom and dad! Where am I? And why's…why's my mom like that?"
"—Lucina, please be quiet, I don't want you waking Owain up by being so noisy! And you're in the picture, you're just not in the picture, does that make sense?" Taking the picture for herself, she admired her young self for a few moments before sighing, setting it down to explain better. "You see, before babies are born, they live inside their mommies, which is where you are in that picture. See, look here, that's you!" She pointed to the slight curve that was noticeable to Robin's stomach in the picture, a sight that only had Lucina scrunching her face more. "You're not very big in this picture, and you didn't ever get really big at all while still in your mommy, but that's where you are!"
"Is…that why I can't have a brother or sister?" Lucina asked after several seconds of sheer horror at what she'd just learned. "Is it 'cause my mom did that with me and she doesn't wanna do it again? Oh no, I don't wanna hurt my mom to get a brother!" Tears were starting to well in the girl's eyes, and when she blinked they dripped down her cheeks. "Please, please please please I can't make my mom hurt!"
Hiding the picture to keep the girl from getting more distressed, Lissa quickly pulled out a picture of young baby Lucina fast asleep in her arms, from an unmarked time after her birth. "Here, why don't you look at how little of a baby you were and not cry over maybe other babies. There's no reason for you to feel bad about wanting a sibling, I bet your dad begged his parents for a baby sister until they gave him me, so…" The girl snatched the new picture and stared at it, trying to make sense of the fact that little version of her was in the other picture in such a strange place, all while her aunt regretted suggesting this activity as a way to pass time.
"Pssssst, Lucy!" a small and tired voice whispered, catching the girl's attention and dragging it away from the picture. She looked up on the bed to see Owain looking down at her, grinning as he did. "You in my room!"
"I am in your room, yes," she replied, tossing the picture towards her aunt before standing up to be more at the same level as her cousin, "and you are s'posed to be sleeping."
He replied by laughing, nearly knocking himself off of his perch as he tried to get closer to his cousin; his mom gasping and grabbing him to steady his balance was the only thing that kept him from falling. "I not sleepin', it okay!" he laughed, reaching at Lucina with one hand while the other tried to push his mom away. "You in here! Why?"
The girl sighed, waiting until her aunt had situated her cousin down on the floor beside them, at which the boy started trying to make a mess of the pictures they'd been looking through. "Auntie Lissa wanted to show me things for my birthday. And she wanted you still sleeping, which you aren't." She pursed her lips together, looking every bit as stern and disapproving as her father could on occasion. "Owain, why are you so bad?"
"Not bad!" If there ever was a time that words didn't mesh up with actions, it was then, as Owain was reaching for one of the pictures, just to grab it and promptly start trying to rip it up. For a few seconds, Lissa was obviously considering stopping him, but she chose not to when she saw how her son couldn't grasp the paper well enough with both hands to do any damage to it. However, Lucina felt like her point of saying he was being bad was proven and she smiled at him smugly as she watched his attempt at being destructive. "Lucy, you get 'icture too? Help?"
She shook her head, doing what her aunt wasn't doing and taking the picture just to put it back on the pile it had come from—although when she saw what the picture was of, she picked it right back up and stared at it in horror. "Is this more of babies being inside their mommies?" she asked, tilting the paper so that her aunt could see it and swallow down hard before nodding, all while Owain still tried to take the picture to destroy it. "Oh no, I really can't make my mom do that for me to get a brother or sister! I don't wanna make her look like that!"
"Okay, wow, she wouldn't look like that, first of all, and secondly, that hurts that it takes you seeing me before Owain was born to realize that you don't want to make your mom go through that again." Now taking the picture back for herself, Lissa gave a fake sniffle as she looked at it, pretending to be hurt by what Lucina had said. And while the girl tried apologizing, having to deal with her cousin beating up on her a bit for making his mom cry, Lissa eventually dropped the upset act. "Besides, I think I looked pretty good then, even if I really clearly didn't," she said, tucking the picture somewhere in the middle of the stack. "That was after a whole lot of…well, it wasn't fun and I promise, your mom wouldn't have to deal with even a slightly similar experience!"
"But still, I don't wanna make her hurt and get big to give me what I want." Leaning back against the bed there in the room, Lucina closed her eyes and sighed. "But all I really want for my birthday is a brother, or a sister if I have to. I think a brother would be fun!"
"You have Owain, he's like a brother, isn't he?" Lissa asked, earning a side-eye from her niece as she explained, for what felt like the tenth time, that her cousin wasn't the same as a brother would be, and that she wanted both if she could have them. "Hm, I guess I see what you mean there. Besides, it's not like we're going to always live together, maybe it would be best if you had a sibling to keep you company for when you don't have Owain around."
It took a moment for her aunt's words to sink in, time during which Owain was giving a garbled and nonsensical explanation of why he was absolutely perfect for being in the position he was, and it was when he mentioned being little that Lucina hushed him. "I don't just want someone to be around, I want someone little to be my baby sibling! That means Owain is not a good replacement brother, since he's not a baby anymore!"
"Not a baby?" His lower lip jutting out, Owain started crying, pushing his head into his mother's lap while she sighed and stroked his hair, trying to get him to stop. "No, baby! Owain is baby!"
"Hush now, please, you are still my baby and Lucina didn't mean to make you think you're not," Lissa pleaded, her calming efforts being ignored by the boy curling up against her legs. "She's making a point that's kind of true, you're not a baby but you're my baby, and that's all she was saying, so don't cry…" He still ignored her, even when she tried repeating herself, and so his crying got louder and louder until the sound of the bed moving scared the poor boy into silence, him turning to look up at what had caused the noise.
"It is far too early for ya t'be cryin' like that, kid," Vaike's tired voice said, "and if it weren't for the fact that your mom's already tryin' t'get you to stop, I'd be all over that myself. What'cha doin' up this early, anyway? Can't be time for bein' up."
Hearing her uncle talk was sending shivers down Lucina's spine, because she knew him being woken up by her accidentally upsetting Owain wasn't a good thing, but she wasn't going to let her aunt take the fall for this one. "I made him cry, sorry," she apologized, standing up and turning to face her uncle, who cracked a grin when he saw her owning up to what had happened. "I didn't mean to, but I did, and now you're up, and—hey!" She was caught by surprise when he reached out and pulled her in close, grabbing her into a big hug. "Uncle Vaike! What are you doing?"
"Huggin' ya, that's what it looks like." He let go of her after what felt, to her, like forever, time during which Owain stopped crying, jumped to his feet, and wanted in on the hug as well. "Not now, kid, it's your cousin's birthday and that means she had t'get a big hug first thing in the mornin'."
Hearing her cousin start to whimper again, Lucina said, "No, it's okay if he gets a hug too, I don't wanna make him cry more just because I'm here and stuff."
"No need for this kindness business you've got goin' on there, the boy's gotta learn how to deal with others gettin' what he can't, and cryin' is no way to go about it." Ruffling his niece's hair as he spoke, Vaike was looking straight down at his son, who was rubbing at his eyes and trying to stop himself from crying more. "Now, once he's stopped cryin' like a spoiled kid, maybe then he can get himself a hug."
"And back to bed, because it's too early for any of us to be awake," Lissa added, going back to the original point that had led her to bring Lucina in the room in the first place. "Which, if that's going to happen, I guess Lucy should go back to her room. Gods help us if we try getting Owain asleep again if she's still here."
Lucina nodded, getting out of her uncle's reach and heading for the door, trying to fix her hair with her fingers as she walked. "I'll go back to my room, I promise," she told them, opening the door and stepping out into the hall, not waiting for them to respond before she closed them in the room. Before she moved anywhere, she listened to see if they said anything about her behind her back, but all she heard was the adults beginning to argue about something relating back to crying, and that wasn't anything she was interested in listening to. She also wasn't interested in doing as she'd promised and going back to her room, knowing that admitting defeat and trying to sleep in her own bed was not going to solve anything.
The couch wasn't the comfiest place in the house, but she'd heard stories of people living on it from time to time (not that she honestly remembered anyone ever doing that), so it must have been suitable for her to sleep on for a few hours while she waited for her birthday present. Sleep didn't come very quickly at all, her mind wandering to thoughts about what she'd asked for as a gift and how she was beginning to second-guess wanting that after all, and by the time she did drift off she'd gone over a million ways to let her parents know she'd changed her mind on the whole sibling thing.
When she woke up once more, the house seemed to be the same as it had been when she'd fallen asleep, meaning that she hadn't been out for very long at all. Defeated, she sighed and kicked her legs over the side of the couch, sitting up to make it look like she hadn't been sleeping out there after all. "Looks like someone finally decided to wake up after all," she heard her father say from somewhere just out of view, making her gasp in shock. "Did you sleep out here all night, Lucina? The excitement get to you too much?"
"N-no, I slept in my bed but woke up early and moved out here," she replied, beginning to look around the room to see if she could find where he was. Judging by how he wasn't in her line of sight, it meant that he had to be hiding around one of the corners, and she was too tired from just having woken up again to go searching for him. "That's okay, right? It's my birthday so I can do that…?"
"You can do whatever you want within reason, which sleeping on the couch isn't exactly reasonable but I'll forgive you this time." He could be heard fighting with something wherever he was, as evidenced by the sounds of rustling paper and soft cursing, and she giggled when she heard her dad complain about something along the lines of "this dumb present"—after all, him complaining about a present meant that it couldn't be what she'd asked for! "Lucina, why did you have to not be in your room like you're supposed to be? You're making this a lot harder than it should be."
"I can go back to my room if you want," she said, still giggling but trying her hardest to not let him hear that. She didn't think she could explain why she was laughing, especially since all she really remembered of it was that it had something to do with her aunt telling her where babies came from. "Dad, if you really want me to, I can!"
"Don't worry about it, Lucina, your father can handle what he's doing without you needing to hide." Coming into the room, the appearance of her mother, looking as radiant and lively as always, made Lucina jump to her feet and rush to hug her tightly. "Whoa, what's this about? You're not usually this affectionate this early."
"I just wanted to hug my mom, that's all." Pressing her face into her mother's side, Lucina sighed happily. "I mean, my birthday is a good day for me to play nice, so I'm gonna play as nice as I can! Maybe I'll get what I want if I do!"
Bending down a bit, pushing Lucina away as she got more on her level, Robin shook her head and gave a solitary laugh. "I don't think that's quite how it works, Lucina. You know, the one thing you've asked for this year is kind of a big thing, and we're not really sure if we want to get you that quite yet or not."
"Oh, it's okay! I don't want it anymore!" The words clearly catching her mother by surprise, the wish being the only one she'd expressed for years, Lucina knew she'd have to explain what had caused her change of heart at some point. But right then, with her mother's shocked expression in view and the muffled sounds of her father's frustration in the background, it didn't seem like the right time. "I'm sure what you got me instead is so much better, anyway!"
"Er, well, yes it will be, but you've always been so insistent on getting a sibling." Standing back up, Robin rest her arm on her daughter's head, the girl reaching up to wrap her own arms around it. "I appreciate the consideration you've clearly given to the situation, because it makes me feel much less guilt for turning you down over and over. But at the same time, it rather…complicates your gifts for today."
Her face falling, Lucina dropped her arms and let her head tilt forward. "Lemme guess, I got another baby to watch today to make me not want a sibling?"
"You know your father and his gift-giving plans so well," Robin replied, lifting her daughter's head back up to continue using it as an arm stand. "We can't exactly tell this baby's parents the deal is off, not when your father made quite a few promises to them to get things into motion, so we'll just have to deal with tonight's meal being a bit louder than normal." At the sound of Lucina beginning to protest that, she hushed her with, "Don't complain, we made sure to get you something else too. It's not a complete wash of a birthday, I promise."
"B-b-but, okay, I guess!" Trying to shake her mother's hand off with no luck, Lucina gave up her attempt and merely slumped up against her. "I don't know why other babies are so great to give me, but I guess I'll take this because it's kinda-not-really what I asked for!"
"There you go, that's the way to look at it. It'll all be okay, especially when you see what we got you that's yours to keep." Pushing Lucina back up to standing, Robin's head turned at the sound of Chrom loudly cursing outside of the room, at which she shook her head and laughed. "That is, if your father can get through wrapping it without breaking the thing."
If she'd been sad about the turn of events, hearing that her father was in fact wrapping something for her made Lucina's whole existence perk right back up. "I get a real present for once and he's gonna break it?" she asked, trying her hardest not to laugh as she did. But the attempt was futile when her mother started laughing at the question, and soon mother and daughter were quickly both stumbling to the couch to fall onto it amidst their laughter. The laughter invited others to come check on the two, and soon the entire family was gathered in the room, half of them laughing and the other half trying to make sense of what was going on, aside from Chrom, who was red in the face and clearly frustrated at his failed attempt at wrapping his daughter's present. It was still before noon, and Lucina's birthday was shaping up to be one of the most interesting days in a long while.
Dinner that night was at the same restaurant it was every year for her birthday, and although the family had since grown too large to all fit around the table they'd originally shared, there was still a sense of fuzzy nostalgia that overcame the girl as they walked past their original table. Lucina couldn't remember why it felt so familiar to her, but as they were being seated at the big-enough-for-everyone table, she was greeted with a story about how, when she was just a little girl, that one particular spot was where they were seated for a couple birthdays in a row, making it a special place in their lives.
"It looks like a table to me," was the only thing she said on the matter, not wanting to think so much about birthdays past to focus on the one she was currently living through. Nothing of note had happened that afternoon, leading up to going out for dinner, and she was tickled pink to see her parents carrying with them the big, oversized present that they'd gotten for her in lieu of her original request. Of course, that present came hand-in-hand with what was going to be waiting for them at the table when they got there, but Lucina had decided somewhere over the course of the day that the second part of the present would be forgiven.
At least, it would have been, had one of the parents Chrom had roped into the day by borrowing their child not decided to invite himself to the dinner. "I just thought that, since you guys were going to have Kjelle with you tonight, maybe I could…you know, eat dinner with you?" Judging by the glare and silence he was met with, Stahl wasn't getting his request filled by asking Chrom, so he turned to face the girl whose birthday it was, pleading in his eyes. "Come on, little Lucina, I even baked you a cake!"
"Oh, I do like cake," she said, putting a hand to her mouth as she considered his offer, but as he tried to sweeten the deal further by showing her the exact cake he'd made, she couldn't help but laugh. "That's a really sad cake! Why's it all small like that?"
"Because, uh…" He looked around, trying to find an excuse to give her, but all he found were disappointed faces looking back at him, coupled with one trying its hardest not to burst out in ugly laughter. "Okay, not fair, I didn't even think about eating any of it this time, which I wouldn't do anyway because it wasn't made for me!" He got up out of his seat, allowing the family to take theirs (even though his child was still sitting there, not even fazed that her dad was just kind of leaving), and gave a loud sigh when they were in their places without him. "Seriously, just because it's a small cake, you're going to leave me out? What kind of friends are you?"
"Come back in an hour to pick your kid up, Stahl," Chrom flatly told him, no nonsense to be had in his voice. Despite another pleading protest starting, he did not change his stance on the matter, waiting until none of them could see or hear the man until he turned back to being a fun father as opposed to someone trying to get his way. "Now that he's gone, we have someone you need to meet, Lucina."
Already having been locked in a battle of stares with the unfamiliar child there at their table, Lucina nodded. "Her name's Kjelle, right? She's kinda funny."
"Funny as in how?" Robin asked, wanting her daughter to clarify the statement, but all she got in return was a shrug and a hand-wave in the baby's direction. "I see, you don't really know why she's 'funny', but you think she is anyway. Good to know."
"Mom, I just think she's funny! Look at her, isn't she funny?" Still waving her hand, Lucina was beginning to get the baby to do the same in return, and while neither of them were accomplishing much aside from nearly hitting others there at the table, it was quite cute (at least, in a couple people's minds) to see the older girl getting the baby to mimic her. "I think we should keep her around. Can we do that?"
"I don't think we can do that, you saw how badly her father wanted to stay with her while she's here with us, can you imagine what he would do if we tried to keep his kid?" Robin glanced over at Chrom, who was gripping the edge of the table, his plan of making his daughter despise babies to the point of never asking for one again not seeming to work. "Besides, I don't think your father would enjoy having her around for very long, he doesn't really think we need another child in the family."
Lucina dramatically sighed, but before she could say anything, her cousin leaned over onto her lap, his face staring up into hers. "Lucy, you have me!" Owain proudly said, pointing a finger straight into her face, one that her eyes naturally focused on. "That good, hm?"
"I guess that's good, Owain, but it's not the same." Remembering how easily it had been to make him cry when saying he wasn't a baby, she made sure to stay away from that exact wording as she explained why he wasn't enough, but he was clearly the best she was going to get. "It would be nicer if you were small and didn't talk and just played like I want you to, but I guess you're good the way you are."
He gave a loud screech, waving that finger more into her face, which simultaneously startled her (because of the fear of him hitting her on accident) and the baby across from them. Not one to cry when things weren't the way she preferred them, Kjelle reached for the first thing she could get her chubby baby hands on, which happened to be a complete roll of silverware, and she threw it the best she could. It didn't make it very far, but the thudding sound it made as it hit the table once more was enough to startle Lucina more, as well as make Owain screech a second time.
For the first part of that dinner, the three kids were trapped in an endless cycle of screaming and throwing things, one that was most definitely annoying the people trying to dine around them. By the time there was food starting to appear on the table, the shenanigans calmed down and there wasn't as much in the way of noise disruptions, but every so often one of the two younger children would let out a scream that would, in turn, set the other one off on doing the exact same thing. However, the appearance of food had its own set of problems, that being that now instead of silverware being what was tossed, it was whatever food made its way into Kjelle's reach, and she could throw small chunks of her dinner a lot further than she could a couple of forks.
When her dad came back to pick her up, he was greeted with the sight of his child almost completely covered in food, and the two kids across from her looking pretty dirty themselves. "You let her waste all that food for a fight?" he asked, almost in disbelief that anyone could do such a thing. "She's supposed to be learning to eat it, not throw it!"
"To be fair, she was the one who started it when she was throwing other things and watching as they didn't disappear from her view." Having been witness to everything that had happened, Robin felt she was most qualified to explain what had been going on, and so, before Chrom could interrupt her and tell a vastly incorrect version of the story, she continued speaking. "The others had fun throwing things back at her, and at each other, so I wouldn't lament the loss of the food too much, Stahl. Besides, their cooks must be having an off night, it's not exactly the most edible food."
"Any food is edible food if you put your mind to it. I can't believe you didn't let me eat with you, then let her waste everything, and now you're going to make me clean her up! Do you know how much yelling there's going to be when I get home?" Stahl shook his head, taking in his arms the child who seemed to be upset that she wasn't still sitting in her little high chair, rather than overjoyed at being with her father once more. "You're lucky I like you guys enough to have let you borrow Kjelle like I did, or else I wouldn't have done it without making you treat me to dinner too."
"Go home, Stahl. You know what you're getting for letting us have her for an hour, don't push it." Putting an end to the complaining, Chrom might have been acting like he wasn't happy with his friend's behavior, but it didn't stop him from escorting the man to the front door of the restaurant. When he came back, he took his seat with a smile on his lips. "He wanted to apologize for being so unhappy, he said it was something about not having eaten and being somewhere with so much food," he told everyone, before focusing his eyes on Lucina, as she ran fingers through her hair to get food out of it. "As for you, my daughter, he wanted to wish you a happy birthday, and he wanted to know if you enjoyed spending time with his little girl."
"Yes, I really did!" she replied, pulling her hand away from her hair with her fingers caked in different kinds of squashed food. "'Cept I still would rather have a brother if I could get one, but I know, I am not getting one, so she was okay."
"Then maybe we'll work something out so that you can spend more time with her, I don't know." Shrugging, Chrom gave a sly look and accompanying smile in Robin's direction, while she rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming. "And that's why we borrow other people's children, because I knew we'd find one that would get her to drop the wanting a sibling thing, eventually. No need to thank me."
Robin pursed her lips together and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before she replied to him. "You're only gloating because she's given up on it right now. Give it a few weeks and I'm sure she'll be back to how she always has been, tonight's events just a memory. You've done nothing but temporarily pause her want. But yes, sure, you don't need thanks for what you've done here today."
"Don't be so offended, and don't be so negative either. Things are looking up for us in this situation now, and we both know it." The smile on Chrom's face grew smugger, looking back over at Lucina and how she'd gotten herself distracted from her parents by talking to her cousin once more. "Maybe next year we can do a birthday dinner for her that won't require anyone outside of the family to be here. That'll be the life."
"The life, sure, but do you realize how hard that will be? You're going to be fishing for another friend's child to use, and I doubt anyone else'll be having one." Robin crossed her arms before her, sighing as she did. "Chrom, what you've done here is get us into a mess that there's only one way out of."
He scoffed, waving a hand in the air. "There's plenty of ways out of this, and I'm sure tonight's given us a good one. I'll work something out with Kjelle's parents, they'll love having somewhere to toss her for a few hours at a time, and we'll never hear our child ask us for a sibling again, ever. It's just how it is." Robin was still not believing him, even with how insistent he was, and with good reason: not even a full day after Chrom did as he said and arranged a couple subsequent meetings with their young dinner guest, Lucina was back to casually mentioning that she would appreciate having a sibling (more specifically a brother) in her life.
The look on his face when he heard the request once more was priceless, and when Robin saw it she couldn't help but laugh, although she refrained from gloating like her husband had when he thought he was right. This was no joking matter, it was something that had become more serious than either of them could fully grasp—and as long as Lucina wanted what she did, they weren't going to hear the end of it. So what was there to do? They didn't want another kid, they couldn't have one, it wasn't going to work with the lives they led…
Yet, was permanently disappointing their daughter an option?
The summer that followed was one of the most hectic times that Lucina could remember ever experiencing, even if she herself wasn't involved in most of what was going on. It seemed that every morning, something new had happened overnight that was tearing the family in different directions, and almost every day was spent with people constantly coming and going for various reasons. None of these visitors were even there to spend any time with Lucina, and they were distracting her parents from spending time with her, always wrapping them up in issues that belonged outside of the walls of the house.
She wasn't jealous, but rather trying to make sense of everything that was going on to try and get involved if she could. Which, she discovered after walking into the living room while her parents and her aunt were loudly and tearfully arguing one night, wasn't something that was going to be happening. Even trying to approach any one of the three of them while they didn't have anyone else around only left her more unsure of what was going on around them, and so her attempts at getting involved were relegated to only when someone actively approached her for something. And that rarely happened, although when it did she found that she would rather have been left out.
There were only so many days that summer that she could be saddled with the task of playing with her cousin and his best friend before she would lose her mind on them, after all. But there was something different about being stuck with them on these occasions, because rather than them being the playful and inquisitive boys they normally were, it was just a lot of sitting around in silence or with someone crying. (And, Lucina noticed, it wasn't just the kid known for crying at everything with tears in his eyes all the time, which only made the situation hurt more.) Since she wasn't getting the time to pester her parents about what she wanted, she was beginning to take out those desires to be an older sister on the boys, trying to make sure they both smiled and had fun at least once a day when they were all together.
Somewhere in the middle of the summer, there was a day where Lucina found herself completely alone, the boys nowhere to be found when they normally would have been there at the house. In fact, she couldn't find anyone who was normally there, aside from her father, busy working on things relevant to the coming school year. He'd brush her away every time she approached him, reminding her that interrupting his work wasn't polite, but she wasn't used to, well, being alone. For every day of her life to that point, she'd had at least one person around her paying attention to her and what she wanted at all times, and this was her first taste of being by herself.
It made her want for a sibling to always have with her intensify, but at the same time it gave her some insight onto why certain things she might not fully understand in her life were affecting people like they had been. She'd have to give her cousin a big hug the next time she saw him, that was for sure. But at the same time, she really wanted to talk to someone, anyone, at that very moment, and when the only person around was pushing her away, she couldn't quite do that.
The entire day was spent with her keeping to herself, locked in her room drawing pictures of hypothetical siblings and coloring them to look just like her. When she heard the front door to the house opening that night, after a day of no sounds aside from her father's occasional frustrated screams drifting into her room, she was quick to run out and see who had come into the house. Three well-dressed ladies and two boys who had probably looked nice at some point in the day were standing in the living room, finishing up a conversation that had most likely been started hours beforehand. "Oh, that would 'splain why they weren't here today," Lucina said to herself as she approached them, doing as she had decided she would and hugging her cousin as soon as she could get her arms around him. "Where were you today, Owain? I was so sad and alone without you!"
"Get off'a me, Lucy! Too many hugs today!" Squirming until he was let go of, Owain puffed his cheeks out once he could see her face and how genuinely happy she was to see him. "Mama hugged me the whole day! No more hugs!"
"I didn't know she did, I'm sorry…" Apologizing, Lucina looked up to her aunt, who was still talking to her heart's content with the two other ladies. "At least she's happy today, yeah? She's been so sad so much…"
"Well if it isn't miss Lucina joining us after all." Bending down to pick her daughter up, Robin smiled at the girl as she grinned right back, burying her face in her mother's neck while they hugged for a moment, only for her to be set back down. "I wish I could have brought you with us today, but my invitation was last-minute and I didn't want to stress you out with searching for something to wear. I know how you get when you're asked to dress nicely without much warning."
The girl nodded, thankful that her mother hadn't forgotten about her but instead had been considerate about the situation. "But where did you go?" she asked, pointing at the dress her mother was wearing. "Was it somewhere fancy? I like fancy places, even if they're fancy-dress places."
Robin responded with a smile, choosing to ruffle her daughter's hair when she spoke. "We went to a wedding today, nothing too fancy but still something important." With her other hand, she motioned to how both of her companions were wearing much nicer dresses. "I got invited to accompany them both as they fulfilled their duties as part of the groom's party, because neither of them—"
"I don't think we need to discuss that small detail, Robin. I'm sure Lucina's smart enough to realize why we needed you." A finger to her lips as well as a quick glance to make sure her best friend still looked happy, Maribelle waited until Robin had given an understanding nod before she added, "Besides, making it a ladies' day was a lot more fun than the alternative would have been."
"I agree, letting it just be the three of us and the boys was nice, even if…" Her voice trailing off as she abruptly stood a bit taller, as if she were trying to shake something from her mind, Lissa looked around at everyone for a moment before she resumed her thought. "Well, if, you know, they would have been nice if they'd gone like they were supposed to. I just can't believe that…"
"You don't discuss it either! Gods, it's almost like we're aiming to ruin your day so close to its conclusion!" Maribelle playfully elbowed Lissa in the arm, both ladies laughing at it, although Lissa's laughter was a lot more subdued than her friend's was. That brought an end to their conversation, and after goodbyes were said and the two who didn't live there at the house were gone, the night took on the same pattern that almost every night before it had.
The summer continued in its strange blaze of glory, everything falling apart and coming together in unexpected ways that Lucina was unable to understand and was given no explanation for. In the middle of July, they held a birthday party for Owain there at the house that was noticeably less exciting than one would expect a party for a three-year-old to be. In fact, most of the time they were supposed to spend celebrating, the adults just sat around talking amongst each other, leaving the collection of children there to try and find some way to entertain themselves. (Apparently forming a group with the intent of having a fake trial didn't work when most of the kids were too young to understand what a trial was, but it was a fun way to pass the time.)
That night, when she should have been sleeping, Lucina was left laying in bed, listening to an argument brewing in the living room that had started sometime after sundown, when the front door to the house had been slammed open by, well, someone. She hadn't been gutsy enough to check to see who had entered their house and started a fight with her father, but based on some of the things she could hear being screamed, she could only hope that it was someone who actually belonged there.
After that, the summer seemed to get back to normal, even if the yelling and arguing flared up every few nights—but as long as the entire family was back in place, that was what matter to Lucina and her vague understanding of everything. There weren't as many days of her being left alone or stuck with her cousin from there on out, and once the school year started again it was almost as if nothing had changed over the summer after all. It sure didn't feel any different when she would get driven to her school in the mornings, her parents silent for the entire car ride there, and when she'd get picked up in the afternoons by various family friends because her parents were still at school, it was all blending into a long, boring routine in her mind.
If nothing had really changed, then something needed to, and she didn't want to bring up her greatest want yet again and get turned down, but, to her, it would be something to spice up their lives. Her parents wouldn't be able to spend as much time dedicated to their work if they had another child to raise, and that would mean that she'd get some more attention in the few hours each day she actually saw them. A sibling would give them something to talk about in the mornings before school, instead of the silence there always was. But she couldn't ask, because to her the act of asking was pointless. They'd had such a crazy summer, even if the end result had been for it to be like nothing had happened, so why should she try changing that?
All it would take is one big shakeup in their lives to accomplish it, and little did Lucina know that the shakeup her family needed wasn't anything to do with family drama, but rather something that they all knew was coming: a school conference taking place out of town.
A/N: this is the second midquel for plucky and prideful (coming after terribelle things) but most everything will be explained on its own if you don't want to bother reading either of those fics c:
yes there are a lot of, er, vaguely-mentioned things in this chapter. come on Lucina is like 6 years old here, it's not like her family is going to clue her in on all the family drama that's going down. don't worry, they will in the future and that's when everything will be explained. I've been wanting to write this fic for a long time, so I'm glad it's finally time. :DD