Warnings: Cursing, child abuse, violence
zero
He's ten and amnesiac. He's ten and he does errands in EDEN.
He's ten and supposedly an orphan.
The Ylisse family takes care of this branch. You would think mistakes would not be repeated in this branch but honestly, the mistakes here are much worse at times.
LordKnightmon isn't here and UlforceV-dramon is but that's a part of the story for much, much later.
Instead, Robin is eleven now and has no parents but a caretaker who presses bruises into his arms with a little push and derides him. The man behind him causes more pain.
Robin learns not to cry as soon as possible because he likes living and living without pain is even better. And the tears make the people give up for whatever reason. He follows it as much as he can. The sooner they give up, the quicker he can do something else.
Eventually, he finds his revenge in the computer systems they hate and the chatrooms where he can be himself and not the weird boy with curved scars on his skin like he is everywhere else.
(He has a reunion there when he's sixteen, a reunion that is years in the making and like the others, he doesn't know but he doesn't need to because these are his friends.)
He has dreams of a blue boy. Dreams of a blue haired boy with a weird tattoo and a bright smile. He doesn't think he'll see him again but he does.
In EDEN.
It's not Kowloon, but it is EDEN and the world connects all over.
His sister comes along and they gently tease and provoke each other and they cause a lump to form in his throat for a few seconds and it hurts it hurts it hurts-
But it doesn't only hurt, it feels good for him to look at and smile at. So he does, under the safety and comfort of the hood he can pull up and hide behind.
Until they notice him of course.
(They aren't carbon copies of the other chosen children who are doing some real saving but that's fine this is the one in many millions world where things still happen and mistakes are still made so don't worry, Aiba, don't worry this world is different-)
They see him sitting on the ground and the boy laughs and it's different and shiny in a sense.
Gods, he's in love.
It's not the first time. The first time was a girl named Olivia who was as shy as he was and they kissed in net cafe chairs and stole moments underneath the safe bleachers of soccer practice. She had convinced him into volleyball like he had convinced her back into the drama club-
He misses her like an ache in his heart, he wishes he had told her to come. He wishes and she's not here and the person is offering a hand to him and when he does, it feels warm (which is weird this whole world is data he's studied it there should be no warmth) and his hood falls like a romance novel's timing.
"You're okay!" the sister chirps.
"This is a data world," her brother reminds her. "If he wasn't, he'd log out."
"Well yeah but viruses are weird!"
"You're fourteen you shouldn't know anything about this."
"How do you think we've escaped Frederick all the time?"
They're bickering again and his heart aches so much for this and he doesn't know why. Then the young man turns to him and they're still holding hands, by the gods-
God, sings a woman in his heart. You're looking for god in the wrong place but you've found fate without me.
He doesn't pull away, he wants to but he doesn't do it until the other does it. And his cheeks are a nice pink and Lissa chirps out their names and everything is out of order but it's fine. It's all fine.
It's going to be great when Robin can talk and not stutter like an idiot.
His Digimon helps. Shoutmon is a bit of an asshole though.
He's here on an errand, his Digimon. He's here because a friend said, hey, help out some loose ends and tie them up so here he is.
And they see why, they know why, they feel why in their digital insides when those tentacle monsters show up.
Those tiny monsters it's trying to eat get smashed into the ground by a fireball and Shoutmon leaps after it with a roar and his golden scarf flowing in the wind.
There's something Robin wants to say about it but he's too busy shoving Chrom and his sister forward, his small weak hands finding strength somewhere inside him and then there is nothing but pain from his ankle all the way up and it needs to stop and it doesn't, it doesn't-
There's a giggle in the back of his brain and it feels more real than it should.
A woman with purple hair and a woman with green hair sigh in unison for different reasons. Then they share a laugh and get back to work.
Robin wakes up with no face but it's not the strangest thing that he's ever dealt with. He thinks. He hopes.
And his helper is a kindly woman who claims to be Chrom's sister and Chrom hugs him like they've known each other for years.
"We'll fix this," he says, with Lissa at his heels. "We'll save you. I owe you a favor."
Robin smiles through pink cheeks and regaining his eyes and quite honestly wants to kick himself.
Shoutmon is smart yeah, but he's smart in ways that matter, that cause bleeding and death and for people to be saved. He's not smart in how to keep them alive but Robin is, has to be really, to survive the disapproval of who know him.
"You make me think of my general," is all Shoutmon says when he points this out and though the words hurt his heart for some reason, he doesn't quite mind. "You don't think you matter so much either."
Obviously, Robin wants to say but he does not say it. If he mattered, he would have been saved too and he wasn't so he isn't. And if he mattered he could sleep without it hurting, he could not be screamed at for being at the hospital and unconscious.
Emmeryn gives him a bed in their spacious apartment.
When she's the only one there, he cries, and she lets him.
A/N: Please leave me alone this ship is killing me...
Challenges: MiniFic Masterclass (DFC C) Crossover 2 Small MC, Diversity Writing GG 44, crossover boot camp - owe, Interseason boot camp - bizarre, gameverse boot camp - cluttered