Pairings: Implied Gaius x F!Robin
Timeline: Hmm… After endgame so slight spoilers
Warnings: Angst?
Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem: Awakening
Authors Note: Happy father's day! (I know I'm a few days late T.T) This story won't be happy at all… Sorry…
.X.
"I didn't know what kind of flowers to bring… Do you even like flowers?" Robin tenderly positioned the daisies against the headstone. She crouched in front of her father's grave and rubbed her fingers against the engraving on the stone.
A harsh, dry wind whipped across the graveyard of Kings in Plegia. The current monarch surprisingly granted Robin access to the graveyard, perhaps because of his obvious goal of getting in Chrom's favour. In her opinion, if you weren't a sociopathic Grima lover, you were Chrom's favourite person.
Robin let her hand drop. She had traced nothing more than the mark of Grima. The unmarked gravestone was the only one without a name in the yard but even that seemed cruel by Plegia standards. "Sometimes it's hard to believe they even bothered burying you in this yard." She meant to sound angry, hateful and bitter, yet it came out sounding nothing like that.
"You must be wondering why I'm even here… I was asking myself the same question. Why would I want to visit my father who only gave me life to sacrifice that very life to Grima?" Robin shrugged off her cloak, unable to take the heat and rocked back on her heels. She had a distinct feeling Validar was replying with some strange, cryptic answer only he could invent.
"Maybe that's why. No doubt you were a terrible father, but you were still my father. It doesn't matter what you did – well it does matter – but staring at your blank tombstone reminds me that you were as human as anyone. Subject to the coercing of the Grimleal, you made your choices and that made you human. Not a monster." She isn't sure if that last bit was more to convince herself rather than Validar. (It's irrelevant that she's discussing this with a tombstone.)
She chocked back the tears she felt brewing and wrapped her arms around her knees. "It scares me how much I wanted to love you. You may have taken away my freewill, but to me, you were a link to my past. I may have rejected you, but I was terrified of how much it seemed I wanted to please you. I might have actually abandoned my family for you… if you actually loved me." Robin scrubbed her eyes, unable to stop her tears. "I wanted you to love me."
Robin couldn't believe she was nearly sobbing in front of the grave of her father, a man she basically killed. A part of her honestly does wonder if she would have risked it all for her father. A small part, nevertheless how small, did ponder Validar's offer. Her legs gave out.
Breaking down before her father's grave might have actually given him a sick satisfaction if he was alive. She didn't care. Blubbering, she managed to speak. "I'm pregnant right now, father. My little boy will be raised in a world safe from the beliefs you attempted to drag it into. I've sworn to not let him turn out like you…" Protectively enfolding her stomach, she allowed the tears to fall freely. "Even as I say this, I desperately wish – at least some part of me does – that Morgan might have known you. My husband doesn't have any family left. If you hadn't been raised the way you were, you might have known your family."
"I'm so sorry, father. You were evil. To the very core you were evil. And I can't hate you. I try and try to hate you but I can't. To the world you might be despised however you are my father. I can't…" Robin's words were interrupted by a violent sob. She gave into the burning sensation in her throat and nose, roughly wiping away snot with the sleeve of her discarded cloak.
Covering her eyes, she forced a doleful smile and whimpered out, "Happy Father's day."
A hand gingerly touched her shoulder. She didn't even need to glance at him through her watery eyes to know who it was. He sank to his knees and tugged her into his strong arms. Robin clenched his cloak, coming undone in his arms.
"Why can't I hate him?" she wept. He held her.
"You've already answered that, Bubbles," he muttered in her ear.
"I know… I know… I just wish it could have been different." Validar might have been malicious, but he was a human who made mistakes like everyone else. And that very well could have been the part Robin couldn't hate.
.Fin.
I hope you enjoyed reading this delayed father's day story… I feel like this would be an accurate representation of their relationship. No matter what your father's done, he's still your dad. That love is unconditional. And despite Robin not knowing her father before he revealed himself to her, she still accepted him as her father. I don't know, every time I write for this fandom it seems like it's filled with headcanons…
~Emerald~