The attendees fell silent as all eyes shifted to the couple. Lucina's blush intensified as she became aware of all the eyes now trained on her. She was not sure what to think about the tactician kneeling in front of her. He had said to "play along," but why would he do this? Still, she trusted him implicitly.

"Yes, of course I will marry you," it felt odd saying those words - not necessarily bad - but it seemed that this was some sort of farce. She was confident that he had a reason for doing this that did not include being unable to hide his feelings any longer, and she felt…something about that. What was that feeling? Regardless, she put on a smile and played the part as Robin had requested.

They were greeted by a round of applause by most of the people in attendance, however, not everyone was celebrating for the "happy couple." Chrom found his way to them while wearing a warm smile, but his eyes were cold and his handshake firm.

"Congratulations," he said aloud for the masses before murmuring to Robin something along the lines of, "Care to explain?"l

Robin just shot him a "trust me" look and Chrom reluctantly agreed while eying his friend precariously. Most of the rest of the night was spent receiving the well wishes of the guests. One in particular seemed…upset with Robin. Perhaps that had something to do with all of this. In any case, thinking about it helped keep her mind off of how embarrassing all of this was.

Her mother gushing over her in tandem with her sister's teasing did not help matters. During the whole instance, Robin would only look at her when he was expected to; no more, no less. He seemed to be embarrassed himself which gave her some form of comfort; though the apprehension in both him and her father was not so reassuring.

Eventually the crowd dwindled until it was just the royal family and the tactician along with some castle staff cleaning up. Once he was sure that all the guests had left, Chrom turned to Robin with a stern expression and his arms crossed.

"Now, care to tell me why you just proposed to my daughter?"

"I must say I'm a bit curious myself," Sumia concurred with her husband with a thoughtful expression in contrast to his hard one now that the exuberance of the moment had passed.

"I can explain," Robin looked at the staff, "But maybe we should take this elsewhere."

So they went to the private dining room to resume the conversation. Once they arrived and closed the doors, Robin started to explain why he did what he did.

"I see," Chrom held his chin contemplatively, "I appreciate you looking out for my daughter, but was proposing really the best course of action?"

"It was the best I could come up with short notice."

"So, what?" Cynthia asked from her position leaning on the table, "Do you just call it off now?"

It was what Lucina expected, however, it was not the answer she received.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. We do that while the contract is still valid, and we're right back to square one. No, for now we need to keep this charade running."

"So how do we fix this?" Cynthia asked sitting on the table before being shooed down by her mother.

"Good question," Chrom thoughtfully rubbed his chin, "If it really has the royal seal, even I can't nullify it. To think my father would stoop this low. Honestly, I'm not surprised though. He would have stopped at little to continue his war with Plegia."

"We may have to call in Maribelle," Robin suggested, "She is our resident legal expert."

"Right," Chrom agreed, "The last thing we need is to have this looming over our heads forever."

"In the meantime, we'll just keep up the act and hope that we have a solution before Cynthia turns twenty-one."

"Hey! What now?"

"Don't worry," Chrom turned to her, "It won't come to that. I promise."

"Fine," She crossed her arms and huffed, "Cause I'm not marrying that creep."

"This is all well and good," Sumia interrupted their conversation, "But what about the engagement?"

"Mother?" Lucina, who had remained silent during the exchange, responded in confusion.

"Ploy or not, news of your engagement will spread like wildfire! There are certain expectations of you two."

"Hmm," Robin vocalized, "I suppose so. So…what exactly would that entail? I must admit that I'm not an expert on these matters."

"Well for starters you need to get her a ring! That is one of the most basic parts of an engagement!"

"True, I'll remedy that tomorrow."

"Perhaps you two need to be tutored on proper courting procedure."

"Mother, please–" Lucina pleaded with her mother to stop as she really did not care for any more embarrassment.

"Alright, alright," Robin stepped in before Lucina could finish, "You're free to provide pointers, but we don't need to go overboard." The glint in Sumia's eyes was not reassuring.

"Alright then," Chrom interrupted eager to end this line of conversation, "Let's turn in. It's been a busy day, and tomorrow is likely to be the same."

The others agreed and filed out of the door while Robin called for Lucina to wait.

"I just wanted to apologize for all of this," the tactician responded sheepishly.

"It's fine, Robin. You were doing what you thought was best," Lucina reassured.

"I promise you that I'll do my best to help find us a way out of this," why did he act like it was such a bad thing being engaged? It was just for show after all.

"Of course," Lucina smiled, "I trust that you will."

The two smiled at each other before wishing the other a good night; both trying to determine what the other was thinking.

A/N: To reiterate, just because the deal was secret, does not make it not binding, and Robin just got a portion of it. Perhaps I misused the term backroom, but it is legal. Small retcon already though, the deal called for them to be twenty-one specifically, not because it was coming of age.

Also, I updated the other story, but I received word that the notifications may have been off for some people, so if you didn't see it, it's there.