Wake up Loverboy!

Chapter 1: Apparently, he looks good in tights.

"So you didn't fuck?"

Gaius asks this question quite suddenly and Chrom actually spits out his beer.

"W-what?!"

"You and Bubbles." Gaius asks, snickering a bit at Chrom's reaction, "You guys didn't fuck yet?"
"'Bubbles'? Oh you mean Robin." Is what Chrom says before he turns as red as a tomato, "Wha-you mean Robin?! Of course we didn't!"

"Awww."

"W-why do you sound so disappointed...and why would you even think that, anyway?!"

"He was making you pancakes!"

"So what, that automatically means we had sex?!"

"He was making you pancakes while the both of you were as good as naked." Gaius clarifies.

"I told you that was a misunderstanding!"

"The misunderstanding where you broke into his house, thinking it was mine?"

Chrom opens his mouth to answer, but shuts it again as he considers those words.

"I think you're rubbing off on me." He mutters finally.

"That's good. Gods know that you need to loosen up a bit. And like I was saying, Robin never makes pancakes for anyone. Underwear or no underwear."

"I'm...going to ignore the underwear bit", Chrom says resolutely, "But why doesn't he?"
"It's a thing of his. Don't know the details, but apparently he doesn't step into the kitchen unless he absolutely needs too. Which is why I picked his lock and barged in; you know I don't usually do that."

"Uh, right."

"And then I find out that he's making them for you, a guy he barely even knows." Gaius tilts his head back up at him and squints at him, "The way I'm saying it, it doesn't sound like a big deal. But it is. A huge deal. Hope you enjoyed those pancakes, because you probably won't be getting them for the rest of this year. If at all."

"Why's...that?"

"Like I said, I dunno. He gets really upset if you confront him about it though. It's actually kinda worrying, specially considering the way he ended up here."

"The way he ended up here?"

"Let's just say it was like a B-grade horror movie. Blood and popcorn everywhere." Gaius shuddered, "Ugh."

"Somehow, that summary sounds even more worrying than the actual story."

"I'll tell you the rest later. When I'm not suffering sugar withdrawal. Which is all your fault."

"And I'm telling you Cordelia explicitly told me not to get you more sweets. Don't blame me."

"Now that I think about it, it's a reeeeeaaaaalllly wild story. I had no idea you could even use a knife for that sort of thing."

"Is that so. Well, now you do." Chrom says simply.

"Aren't you curious?"

"Huh?"

"I've known you long enough to know that you-"Gaius pauses here, squinting at him.

Then suddenly he smirks.

"...Hoh. If that's the case, I didn't even need to say anything."

"W-What?" Chrom asks defensively. The other man just waves him off and downs the rest of his beer. Licking his lips like the cat that swallowed the canary.

"Nothing, nothing."

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Apparently, Robin attends the night classes at Chrom's college.

Chrom was not aware of this. Understandably so, seeing as he's usually the one who starts trudging back to his house as soon as the bell rings to catch up on much-needed sleep. Wouldn't do to have him trudging around the court like a zombie during evening practice after all.
And he would have remained blissfully unaware of this fact if Lissa and Emm hadn't begged him to stay behind and help out with their play.

Which entailed him filling in for the guy playing the prince; a ridiculous, cravat-wearing prat that basically ran and hid when his enemies attacked and shot at men armed to the teeth with armour with a flimsy bow.
...This was definitely revenge for that time he'd accidentally threw a beehive into Lissa's room.

So while he was doing that infamous bow scene, one of the actors had clambered up the rope and leapt over the balcony right into the main stage area. And shoved a sword right in his face.

This was the part where the prince started grovelling, as he usually did, but Chrom was a bit too occupied with the fact that he recognized the face of his 'attacker'.

"Robin?"

"Chrom?" Robin asks, echoing his confused tone. From the way he was dressed, he seemed to be the Lord that corners the Duke in the play.

The Lord whose clothing choices Emmeryn and Lissa had debated over before eventually settling on a style that honestly seemed like a rip-off on every emo band and vampire in existence than an actual lord of days long past.
But apparently, Robin looked quite good fully-clothed in tights, a cloak, an armoured vest and an eyepatch.

...Good job , Sis.

"What are you doing here? Where's Virion?" Robin appears to be asking him.

"Lissa and Emm dragged me into practice because he couldn't make it. I'm taking his place." Chrom replies and to his credit , he didn't sound as dazed as he was currently feeling.

"I see. Well then", Before his eyes, Robin's face melded into a confident smirk. He raised the tip of his sword higher. Uh?
"'We finally meet, O Cowardly Duke of Rosanne." He says, and Chrom supposed that he was trying to make his voice deep and imposing to scare Chrom's character further.
It kind of had the opposite effect on him.

Oh Naga.

"..."

Robin's smirk falls away and he stares at Chrom in mild confusion.

"Line! Liiine!" Chrom hears Lissa hiss.

"It would...seem so." Chrom manages finally. Was that even his line? Hell if he knew.

...Judging by the way Lissa is glaring at him, apparently not.

Robin's rolling with it at least.

The sword tip just barely touches his neck and suddenly Robin's face just a few centimeters away from his.

This was so much harder than it looked like in the movies because where the hell is he supposed to look? Not like he can duck his head now.

And staring at Robin is doing weird things to his gut.

"I had to see for myself what kind of person this Duke was. Despite your cowardice you seemed to have some truly intriguing strategies. Tell me, is this all there is?"

Also, he can't stop staring at Robin.

"All there is?" Chrom asks, still sounding remarkably composed.

"By sunrise, you would be dead either way. Why not make things interesting for us both?"

Robin kicks at something and there's the shing of metal near his hands.

"Fight with me. Prove to me you have a shred of nobility within you."

Ah, common ground. He could do this.

"Somehow, I don't think that's a good idea." There's an edge of confidence in his voice now and to his left, he can hear Lissa sigh in relief.
"You have nothing to lose, do you not? save for your life, of course." Robin chuckles here. Deep and low, like his words had been.

There's a strange flutter in Chrom's stomach.

Nope, he can't do this.

"...I-I meant that it wasn't a good idea for you."

"Hm?" Robin steps back a bit as Chrom pushes himself to his feet.

His expression is confident. Or at least he thinks it is. It doesn't feel like he looks like he's way out of his depth, at least.

"If it's truly a fight you want, a fight you shall get."

"CUT!" Lissa yells and Chrom blinks. Draws himself back.

When had he gotten that close to Robin? They'd been practically nose-to-nose.

"What was that ?!" Lissa yells.

I have no idea.

"Hey, you didn't tell me someone was going to stick something long and pointy in front of my face!" Good excuse. Let's go with that.

There was a rather loud noise then, and from the corner of his eye, Chrom sees Robin cover his mouth, clear mirth in his guilty expression.

"Yes, I did! I said we'd go over the scene where The Duke gets caught by the Swordsman of Ferox right?"

"Uh..." Well, technically she had, but Chrom had kind of been occupied by the fact that the stranger who'd seen him hungover and half-naked and apparently been mistaken for a fling of his by his friend was playing the Swordsman. "I...forgot?" He offers lamely.

"Ugh...well, at least we have an idea of how it'd look onstage. And at least Robin's familiar with his lines. Do we need to go over it again?"

"No, I think it's fine. We can practice some other scene today, right?"

"Yeah. Stupid Virion..." Lissa mutters.

"Can I go home now?"

"Yeah sure, whatever." Lissa says, making shooing motions with her hands, "Just say bye to Emm, first. She's busy with the costumes."

"Right, right."

Chrom's shoulders sink and he yawns. All the fatigue from earlier comes rushing back to him and he yawns.

Maybe he should hit the sheets early today...

"Wait!"

"Mmmh?" He looks back to see Robin chase after him.

"H-hey, uhm...thanks for helping us out before."

"Oh." Suddenly, he's feeling much more energized again. "Uh, no problem." It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter, but somehow he'd actually seemed to have some degree of control over his motormouth-this time at least-because he didn't say that out loud.

"I never knew you were in this college. Did you just transfer in here?"

"No, I've been here for about two years."

"Really? I didn't...know. Um, s-sorry about that..."

"No, it's fine! It's understandable, seeing as we're in different class shifts." Chrom says hastily, "I mean, I didn't know you were here either!"

"Yeah but I only just transferred here. About 6 months."

"That's the middle of the semester. Wouldn't you have a hard time catching up with all the stuff in class?"

"Luckily, I'm one of those people who reviews the stuff before it's actually taught. And my last college was a bit further ahead so." Robin shrugs and gives Chrom an easy smile,

"It's not like I'm in any clubs either."

"But aren't you taking part in the play now?"

"Lissa asked me. I'm a forever-loyal member of the 'going home' club. Are you in any clubs?"

"Er, yeah. Football."

"Wow, cool! Er, I hadn't watched the match before, but I heard you guys won! Congratulations!" Robin said, sticking his hand out.

"Thanks."

Robin's hand was warm. Soft.

And...Chrom quickly lets go of it, running his hand through his hair awkwardly. "U-uh. So where are you going now?"

"Like I said, I'm going home. I need to catch up on my sleep."

"Yeah. You look really tired."

"Do I?"

"You have like dark circles around your eyes."

"Oh." Robin touches them lightly, looking mildly embarrassed, "I didn't think they were that obvious."

"T-they're not, don't worry!" Of course, Chrom noticed them because he'd been looking at the boy's face from little to no distance from earlier, "You also seem a little...sluggish I guess."

"Well, I have kind of slept 9 hours in this past week."

"What?! Isn't that way too less? That doesn't seem healthy at all!"

"Considering I've caught a fever twice this month, I think you might be right about that."

"A fever?" Chrom places a hand on Robin's forehead. The other boy flinched a little at that, but Chrom ignored him, "You still feel a little warm. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm mostly recovered so I'm fine." Robin replies.

"Your cheeks look a little red."

"Huh? Oh, uh. It's a bit hot in here so-"

"You shouldn't strain yourself."

"Ah...I'm not. I'm fine."

"If you say so." Chrom doesn't sound convinced, "So uh...yeah."

"Yeah." Robin echoed, "I...have to go now so..."

"O-oh, yeah! Sure." Chrom nods, "See you around then."

"Yeah. See you." Robin says with a smile. And he turns and walks off.

Chrom doesn't even realize that he's staring after him until Robin looks back and their eyes meet. And then he's aware of the awkwardness of the entire situation, but he can't just look away now, can he?...!

Robin looks a bit surprised, but his lips quirk up. Like he's trying not to laugh. And he gives Chrom a small wave.

Chrom then takes it as his cue to awkwardly turn around and dash for the door.

Nailed it.

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