So... I needed a small break from writing things in the romance genre, and I've had this in mind for quite a while now! Cute little father-son interactions between Frederick and two different aged Morgans in the absence of Robin! Hopefully it is good enough!

He was six years old, and gods, was he as inquisitive as his mother. If he wasn't asking a question about one thing, he would be reading about this, that and the other in order to answer his own questions. The child even read in a similar way to her, by candle-light late at night, even when told that he should sleep, or when sat out in the open. More often than not, he fell asleep reading too. It was painful beyond belief for his father for these reminders, aware that the boy's mother, his wife… may possibly never return.

Robin had been absent from Morgan's life for four years, having gone and protected Chrom from a potentially fatal attack from Grima, in turn removing Grima from existence permanently. It had been a shock to everyone, and had left them all with a huge hole in their lives. The exalt without his best friend, adviser, tactician. The princess without someone to confide in, or to prank when feeling down. The knight without someone to assist him in his duties, someone to relax with, and also to train alongside, not to mention caring for their son. After all… She was the knight's beloved, having been married for three years by the time of her sacrifice.

Frederick could barely cope initially, trying to find a way to balance his duties as a knight and as a father. Normally, in the first two years of their son's life, Robin would have been the one who Morgan would cry for, crawl to, or clumsily toddle over to. He would only really go to his father when he couldn't find his mother, or if they were spending time together whilst Robin was occupied with things such as strategising or spending time with her friends at the Ylisstol markets. It was funny, really, considering that Morgan was almost the exact opposite to Chrom's young daughter. Mother's boy, father's girl. Morgan was eager to get his nose in a book, Lucina would swing a wooden sword around giggling.

And thinking about those differences hurt, particularly when reminiscing about the past.

"Father! Hey, father, look at this!" Morgan's shouting for Frederick induced a sigh. This had been the fourth or fifth time in a matter of minutes in which the boy had called out for his father to look at him, due to him searching around in particular belongings which had been boxed away for quite a while. "This is so warm, but it's so big!" He giggled, clambering up onto the bed beside him.

And when Frederick turned to look at him, his eyes grew wide. "Take it off."

Morgan folded his arms with a 'hmph'. "I don't want to..."

"I said take it off, Morgan."

He was wearing the one thing which he had kept hidden away in order to push his memories to the back of his mind… Robin's coat. It reminded him of the most horrible and painful moments of his life….

"Grr… You cannot defeat me! I am the fell dragon! I am a GOD!"

The exalt and the tactician exchanged glances before their attention was fully focussed upon the woman before them. Further back, the members of the Shepherds were keeping the risen which Grima was constantly summoning away from the duo, in an attempt to allow them to send Grima into a long slumber, just as planned. Robin was scared of death, so she had promised to allow Chrom the final strike.

"This is it… Everything we have done has prepared us for this moment… Are you ready for a future of peace, which we have fought for? Are you ready to give our children an era of happiness, not a world full of troubles?"

"I'm more ready than I ever have been, Chrom, did you really need to ask? I can't wait to get rid of this burden held by my bloodline… Free Morgan from any such fate too..."

"Cover me whilst I go for the final strike then… I don't want to be cut down at the last moment, do I?"

"Hah, yeah..." Robin tightened her grasp of her tome then, her heart pounding wildly through the fear and excitement coursing through her body. She straightened her face as Chrom went to attack Grima one final time, keeping her position as she kept an eye out for any risen which dared slip past the others.

Her concentration was broken by her arm suddenly being grabbed by one of the risen though, the cold grasp enough to send her arm numb. "Wah!" She tossed her tome down then, and pulled out her sword from her coat quickly, before swiping at it quickly. She was thankfully released then, and glanced around.

Everyone was beginning to be overpowered by the risen… They were going straight for her and Chrom.

And then she looked at Chrom in a panic, and her instincts took over when she noticed that Grima was secretly pulling out a tome to attack the exalt with at the last moment.

"Watch out! She's going to kill you, Chrom!" Robin shouted out as she ran closer to her friend, which in turn made the fell dragon speed up and whip out her tome.

Chrom's eyes grew wide then, seeing the new weapon, before stepping back in shock. That was when Robin stood in front of him with her own tome, which she had ended up recovering. "Change of plan..." She gulped, before she threw a blast of electricity at Grima, striking her dead on. "I'm s- so sorry… But Ylisse needs their exalt. If it means sacrificing my life then… So be it!"

The tactician's shout was heard by everyone, including Frederick. Giving no regard to his life or the battle, he dropped his weapon at Robin's words. Morgan, the person he was fighting alongside, also panicked at those words. "F- Father, I'm going to mother! M- Maybe I can stop her!"

"R- Robin..." Frederick's eyes then narrowed, and nodded at what the teenager had said, whilst running alongside him to her.

When they got to her though, it was too late. Purple smoke was billowing from the woman's body, and she was crying. Chrom was unsuccessfully trying to keep her calm, and seemingly, he was making her terror worse. The sight of her husband and future son was able to make her smile through her suffering though.

Quickly, her arms flew around his neck when he was close enough to her, and she began to cry even more. "I- I know… I promised… I promised that I would be coming home with you tonight… But it was either my life or Chrom's… Y- You can't blame me for that, right?..." She then laughed quietly, before kissing him quickly. "But… Hold onto some hope, okay?… I may still be able to return, if my bonds with everyone are strong enough…"

Frederick was too shocked to make out any words. Never before had he ever felt so much pain. As though he had failed not just as a knight, but also as a husband. She was practically dying in his arms!

"We'll meet again in a better place… That's a promise that I will keep, okay?..."

At the side, both Chrom and Morgan were looking on in shock. Robin was sounding so scared, yet she was trying to reassure the one person who she loved more than anything that this wasn't the end. Within seconds, Morgan flew at his parents crying too. That was enough to even send Frederick into tears. Nobody had ever seen that happen before…

The reality of the situation sunk in moments later though, when Morgan and Frederick could no longer feel Robin in their arms… But a single piece of clothing.

The coat which she had been wearing.

"B- But-"

"Please, take it off. I don't want to say it again..." With that, the young Morgan jumped down of the bed, tears welling up in his eyes. And then he ran as fast as he possibly could out of the room. Frederick was absolutely fine with his son messing about with things such as little souvenirs and trinkets which Robin had managed to build up a collection of, but wearing her coat was territory which he wished not to venture into again.

Sighing, the knight stood up and went to put everything which Morgan had pulled out back into the boxes… At least until a voice rang out in his head, with something that he hadn't heard in years… 'Gods, you silly thing! Remember, Morgan is only a child, he needs some leeway, okay? Go and see if he's okay!' Robin had said that to him about two, possibly three months before she had sacrificed herself. Their son had accidentally bumped into a table and had knocked a cup off it, and he had got a bit annoyed at the fact that he had to clean the mess up.

How had he forgotten that?… He needed to see if Morgan was okay. Not tidy up after him.

"Oof-!" Morgan was quick to end up running into someone whilst trying to get away from Frederick, and the person was confused as to who had bumped into her until she noticed the familiar dark brown hair and the coat. "Morgan? Hey there… What's the matter?"

"L- Lissa!" Morgan looked up with tears still welling up in his eyes as he noticed the Ylissean princess stood in front of him, before she crouched down to ruffle his hair. He could trust her, aware that Lissa was one of his mother's closest friends. "F- Father is being mean..."

She tilted her head in confusion, before she smiled at him. "How come? You can tell me, right?"

"H- He shouted at me for wearing this..." Morgan held up his arms, in order to show her the coat. Lissa was quick to recognise the patch upon the arm where the risen had ended up grabbing hold of Robin, as she had seen it when Frederick had broke down after the final battle against Grima, and she frowned.

She then pointed at a doorway to the castle gardens, before she gestured for him to go outside with her. He was confused, but never questioned it. When outside, Lissa pointed to a small patch of flowers. "You see those flowers?"

"Yeah… B- But I don't get why you're pointing at them..."

"Did your father not tell you?"

"No..."

Lissa then put on a soft smile, before walking over to the flowers with Morgan. She then knocked a tiny bit of moss off a stone which was there… It was almost like a gravestone. "The reason why your father didn't want you wearing your coat is explained on there… Can you read it?"

The child knelt down in front of the flowers, before leaning forward to read. "Yes, I can read it..."

"What does it say then?..."

"In memory of Robin… Wait, that was mother's name!" Morgan smiled as he thought about his mother, before continuing. "Who… gave up her life for everyone's future… What does that mean, Lissa?" The wording confused him a slight bit, and so he was confused about what it meant.

"It means… Your mother… She might be dead. Maybe she can come back… but we don't know yet." Morgan then felt himself be picked up by a pair of arms which were quite evidently not Lissa's. "She was wearing this coat when she disappeared. I feel like crying when I see it, that's why I told you to take it off… I didn't mean to sound angry at you, okay?"

Morgan then felt himself be perched upon Frederick's shoulders, and he noticed that he was starting to tear up. He had never seen his father cry before. "Should I take it off then?" If the coat was upsetting him, he didn't want to keep it on. Knowing that his mother practically died wearing that coat made the entire situation much more understandable to him.

"… No. You should keep it and wear it, Morgan… Maybe you will grow into it when you're older, and you can have a reminder of your mother that you can wear every day..."

Lissa then took that moment to throw in her five cents to the current conversation. "Yay, and so, father and son are happy again! Robin would be proud of you both, I bet!" She then grinned at the two, before looking behind her. "I'll leave you two alone then, give you both a chance to make up properly! Anyway… I can't leave Owain alone for much longer, I don't think his father can take his silly antics for long!"

And so, the duo were left alone, with Frederick silently looking at the ground before him, and Morgan leaning on Frederick's head, taking in the comforting scent of apples which the coat seemed to have embedded within its fibres. The quiet gave them both a while to calm themselves down, and allow them to start to think straight about what had been going on. After some time had passed, Morgan finally broke the silence. "I love you, father… And I love mother too..." Even though the boy couldn't see his father's face and had the lack of any sort of verbal response, he knew that Frederick had put on a smile when he had said that. "And mother loves us both, doesn't she?..."

"… Yes. She does… No matter where she is now… I know that she does."

Then, Morgan began to start fidgeting, making Frederick crouch down so that he could clamber back down onto the ground. However, Morgan requested that Frederick stayed there for a moment. Seconds later, the boy laughed as he put Robin's coat over his father's shoulders. "There! And now mother is with you… You miss her more than me, so you need her with you immediately!"

That then set off Frederick laughing, and he stood up, keeping the coat over his shoulders. "I tell you what… That box of your mother's things… Why don't I bring it out here? Seeming as you know about what happened to her now… I feel better about talking to you about her..."

Morgan sat down in front of the flowers and nodded, before he reached out and touched the stone with the engraved message. The whole time… He thought that the stone was just decoration… Not something dedicated to his mother's memory. "Yeah… Then we can share this memory with mother! She'll like that… won't she?"

"She would, yes. You know her well, Morgan..."

Morgan winced as Frederick had to tend to yet another cut which he had managed to gain when searching through the box, due to an excessive amount of broken seashells within it. "Stupid Chrom..." He mumbled, before yelping as Frederick wiped away the little bit of blood which was on this fresh cut. "D- Did he have to give mother all of these shells?!"

"Well, we were invited to an outrealm with a beach then, believe it or not, Morgan. And because your mother only had memories of fighting since we found her, Chrom wanted to give her a gift to let her have a happy memory. The shells are what happen to be left of a necklace which he had attempted to make..." Frederick then got Morgan to hold a damp cloth on his hand for a few minutes, whilst he quickly pulled out the last few pieces of shell from the box to prevent further injuries. "Don't get me started upon when we were invited to a hot spring outrealm though… Your mother managed to get these… And it had to specifically be these."

Frederick quickly pulled out three wooden figures from the box then, and held them out for Morgan to see. "Ah! Father, it's a little wooden you! And is that mother?! She looks funny made out of wood!" The final figure confused the boy though, and he leaned in squinting as he tried to figure out who it was. The person had the same outfit as Robin, but he wasn't sure as to who it could have been. He didn't know anyone who wore the same thing as her. "Father?..."

"That… Is an older version of you, and was extremely happy when she saw it. A little Morgan to go with a little Robin and a little Frederick."

That made the boy burst out laughing, before taking them off Frederick. "I want to look after little wooden us! Do you think that mother would mind?"

As he child said that though, someone walked outside, and upon the sight of Frederick and Morgan sat there, they quickly tried to jump back inside without being seen. Unfortunately Frederick coughed loudly in order to let them know that they had been seen. "If you wished to see her… You don't have to wait for us to leave. You have just as much the right to see her as us."

"Ah, gods… Was I really that obvious, fa- I- I mean… F- Frederick?..."

Oh, Frederick knew who the man was almost instantly upon the name stumbling. One of the very few of the future children who frequently traversed to the castle, holding their new identities as they lived in the present day. "Yes. You were. How else do you expect me to carry out my duties without a keen eye?" Frederick laughed, just as the young Morgan jumped up and grabbed the man's wrist.

"Hey, you are here to see my mother, right?!"

"Yeah, I am."

"Then why don't you sit with me and father then?! You obviously know mother so you can tell me stories about her too!" Little did the boy know that he was literally talking to himself then, having never been told about the time travel incidents which had occurred in the past. "Come on, I'm sure mother wouldn't mind there being three of us either!"

"Uh..." The older Morgan paused for a moment, before casting a worried glance at Frederick. The nod which he was given relaxed him though, so he then nodded to the six-year-old. "Okay then, I can tell you a story or two about her..."

Seeing his younger self so happy when it came to talking about Robin made him feel so happy, as he wasn't suffering due to Grima, such as his other future allies had done. And on top of that… The pain of seeing Robin fade from existence was dulled, knowing that her memory still lived on through this enthusiastic child.

The two Morgans sat down, before the younger one suddenly started asking questions, proving that he was still ever-inquisitive. One question caught Frederick and the older Morgan by surprise though. "What's your name?..." They hadn't been expecting that question being asked at all. The older two exchanged glances, but eventually, Frederick shook his head. The boy was too young to know about time travel actually being something that exists, let alone know that this new person was actually the older version of him.

"Well… I go by Marc. It's not my real name… But that is what I go by. Maybe in a few years I'll give you my proper name, but not now." He then looked down, and noticed the little wooden figures. That triggered a laugh as he picked them up, and looked at them closely. "You kept these?… Hah, R- Robin only got them because a certain woman that I know yelled 'tiny wooden father, here I come'.."

Morgan laughed as he grabbed hold of them then, before looking at the wooden figure which he was told happened to be reminiscent of Robin. "I really want to grow up like mother! I want to be able to… tacticise? Is that a word?… Be, um… Stractical?"

"Strategise and be tactical, do you mean?"

"Yeah! That's it! Haha- Oh! What's that?!" Morgan was quickly distracted when he then noticed a book which had his name scribbled on it in Robin's handwriting. "I'm going to read it! And then you can tell me stories about mother, M- M- whatever your name is!"

"… I'm so glad that he gets along with you… It makes me feel better about only having that one childhood memory of you, father..." The older Morgan quietly muttered, before laughing quietly. "Is he always like this?"

"Normally… He's like this around anyone but me. I guess that letting him talk about Robin has given him the chance to open up to me a bit… And helped me open up to him more also. We've been close, but not as close as he was with her… Both of you are absolute mother's boys..."

Well, this is it for a first chapter! I've already got the second chapter in progress for this, so I hope that this is okay!