AN: So I'm back from the dead! Life got crazy and thus the fic went without having been updated for a while! But I am back with a new (unedited but WE SHALL IGNORE THAT) chapter that hopefully sort of makes up for my long absence!

Chapter Four-A Meal To Remember

Robin

Robin sat up, still dazed from a sleep of…six hours? Eight hours? She had no idea how long. Honestly, she barely remembered staggering into a tent and collapsing on her bedroll after Frederick helped her off his horse.

That memory certainly didn't help her mental clarity.

Frederick. Everything seemed like it was changing, Robin reflected as she stood up dazedly, raking her fingers through her tangled hair. The world had turned upside down. Before, Robin knew for certain that she hated Frederick. Just seeing him was enough to put her in a bad mood, make her cross, and anything he did would irritate Robin to no end. But she was starting to tolerate him at least…and the idea of marriage still made her stomach turn, but somehow that turning was different. Accompanied by a flutter of her heart, flushing of the face. All feelings that Robin didn't really want to deal with. It's just the exhaustion, she told herself. Exhaustion makes people feel strange things all the time. This is totally normal. But Robin couldn't quite manage to convince herself.

She walked out of the tent. Allowed the gentle sunrise, tinged with pink and orange and blue, to wrap her in its tranquility. Knelt by the small creek that ran next to the campsite. Splashed some frigid water on her face. Gasped at the sensation of crisp cold that came all so suddenly. It seemed rehearsed. Somehow, everything didn't quite feel real, like she was watching it happen from miles away. Her mind was too tired to deal with any of this. But certain duties still had to be performed, certain obligations still tugged at her. And one of those very much had to do with the marriage.

"Kellam?" Robin called as she walked through the empty campsite for what felt like the millionth time. She'd thought this would be easy. Maribelle would be too coarse for Robin to deal with right now, Lissa would be exhausting to talk to with this much energy, as would Vaike, and Chrom certainly couldn't be consulted about something like this. So it had to be Kellam, seeing as he was one of the original Shepherds that had been with Frederick for what felt like forever. But conveniently enough, Robin had failed to account for his disappearing habit. Infuriating, really. How could he not be found?! Kellam wore massive armor, he wasn't a small man, and he was the sole guard assigned to the campsite while everyone else scouted around (Chrom had ordered Robin to stay behind and rest)-by all means he should stick out like a sore thumb. But obviously that wasn't the case. "Kellam! Where are you?!"

"Right here." Robin's heart practically leapt out of her chest as she simultaneously whirled around and staggered back. "I'm sorry, I thought you saw me. I guess I just blend in…" Kellam stood calmly, just behind where Robin had been a moment before, watching her with a tinge of concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just needed to talk to you."

"Me? Why?"

"You know Frederick fairly well, right?" Kellam frowned slightly, tilting his head and looking Robin in the eyes.

"Is this about the arranged marriage?"

"How do you know about that?!" Robin moaned, turning bright red.

"I was in the barracks when you were talking to Sumia," Kellam shrugged. "I called over to you to let you know I was there." Robin's blush deepened. "I really think you and Frederick could work well together. It was nice that you showed up to training to please him, and I know he really cares about you too."

"Did he tell you that?" If Robin's face could have turned any redder, it would have after that last comment.

"No, but you saw how concerned he was about you the other day when he lifted you up onto his horse. He cares."

"You saw that too? Where were-never mind. Frederick and I would NOT be good together! So I need to help get him to break it off. What can I do? What would he hate?"

"Well…he's pretty picky about his food. Cook something for him. Something he can't stand. Maybe meat. He really dislikes meat." Robin remembered the way Frederick avoided bear meat the day after she'd been found, remembered how his face contorted into a grimace at just the smell of it. It would work.

"He still hates bear meat, right?" Robin asked, just to make sure. Kellam frowned.

"I don't think you can be that obvious. If there's one thing I know, it's that sometimes it's good to not be noticed. Pick something else. Make it more subtle than that." He did have a point, Robin reflected. If she was too horrible to Frederick, he'd know what she was doing and then her plan would go out the window. He knew she was there for the bear meat, so bear meat was out. She'd make it nice, cook the meat—a slightly gamey one but better than bear—as well as she knew how. And if Frederick happened to like it, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Robin was a tactician. She knew how to adapt. It would present a welcome challenge.

"Okay, thank you, Kellam! I think I know what I'm going to do."

"You're welcome, Robin," Kellam replied, but it was lost in the wind as Robin rushed off. And unnoticed again, Kellam chuckled. Master of subtlety, indeed.

Frederick (The next evening)

Frederick took a deep breath and stared at the entrance to Robin's tent, trying to convince himself that nothing strange was happening. Yet the situation presented before him was entirely atypical—Robin had invited him to a dinner so the two could become better acquainted with one another. A gesture to mend fences? More likely a gesture to poison him, Frederick mused. Chrom and Lissa didn't call him Frederick the Wary for nothing, and this situation surely had something wrong with it. He even smelled smoke from behind Robin's tent and could feel the barely warm coals from a recent fire. She'd cooked for him. Never before had she done that. Something was clearly wrong. But Chrom had overheard Robin invite him, and Chrom would be devastated if he didn't accept or if he ruined it. Frederick looked up at the stars, took a deep breath, and opened the flap to Robin's tent.

The scene before him wasn't a particularly fancy one, but it was the best they could do for being in a small camp far from civilization in the middle of a mission, and it was more than Frederick could have expected. Robin had laid a blanket out over the ground inside her tent and folded up two more as makeshift cushions, facing each other, and in the middle of the two sat a small oil lamp that cast a gentle yet fiery glow around the tent. It bathed Robin in its light as she sat, made her long blond hair look an almost angelic white and lit up her brown eyes with an earthy warmth. "Go ahead and sit down," she offered with a slight smile, and Frederick obliged. Just then, the scent of cooked meat wafted up around him, and his stomach turned. Robin knew how he felt about bear meat. Surely she wouldn't. That would be worse than poisoning! Death would be a merciful release after the horrors that bear meat brought. But he couldn't just sit there and stare across at Robin, who was looking at him expectantly…and with a trace of smugness. He had to stomach it. She couldn't beat him now. Frederick took a deep breath, beat back his nausea, and took a bite.

A subtle spicy taste permeated the meat as Frederick chewed, and rather than suppressing a gag reflex, he found himself savoring it. Somehow, the unorthodox texture worked because of how perfectly cooked the meat was. How Robin had found this combination of spices and how she'd cooked the meat this nicely out here was beyond Frederick's comprehension, but he certainly wasn't complaining. Once he swallowed, for once he actually found himself craving more.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Robin asked, looking half amused.

"It's…it's excellent," Frederick stammered, unable to find a more tactful way to put it. Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, really?" She looked completely mystified for half a second, before resuming her previous expression. "Well…thank you." She took a bite of her food, and for a few moments the two ate in silence.

"I expect…that you asked me here for a reason?" Frederick asked, trying his utmost not to look as though the silence had made him uncomfortable.

"Yes. I just wanted to get to know you a little bit more. I mean…if we're to…marry…" Robin swallowed and took a breath. "Then we shouldn't be strangers."

Raising an eyebrow, Frederick cautiously asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Well…when did you start serving the royal family?"

"A very very long time ago, to say the least. I don't exactly remember when, I only know that I was quite young when I began."

"A teenager?"

"A boy of perhaps eight or nine. Chrom and his family offered to take me in and train me in the ways of a knight, and I accepted. My family had served the royal family before, so it was only natural for me." Robin nodded.

"That's really a long time."

"It doesn't seem so long. I enjoy my duties very much. And Chrom has been wonderful to me. His whole family has, actually." A smile spread across Frederick's face as, just for a moment, he was consumed with memories of the days of old, playing with Lissa as a toddler, training alongside Chrom, looking up to Emmeryn like a big sister. And Robin was smiling too, listening to him reminisce.

"I'd tell you more about me, but I really don't remember that much." With anyone else the words could have seemed bitter, but her genuinely good-natured smile and the way her eyes were still full of light and happiness helped assuage any of those worries.

"That's alright. You can tell me about what you enjoy now, I assume."

"I can," Robin chuckled, her mouth quirking up at the side for a moment before she started to discuss her interests.

By the time Frederick finally decided to depart, the camp was silent and the moon shined high in the sky. He felt oddly at ease while talking to Robin. Perhaps this could work after all, he thought as he made his usual rounds through camp to ensure that no one would trip on pebbles as he or she walked. And when he finally settled down for the evening, thinking about the dinner all over again, he found himself falling asleep while smiling contentedly, something he hadn't done for a long time.