~Chapter Six: Present Day~

It was a very tired Lucina that greeted her father the next day.

The little one rubbed at her eyes, still in her pajamas as she held Frederick's hand and watched her father suiting up for a march. As Chrom pulled his cape around his shoulders, the little girl murmured, "Will you be gone long?"

"Not too long," the Exalt reassured his daughter, adjusting the cape before turning to the shoulder piece he wore as armor. "I'm just going to drop your Aunt Lissa off with your Uncle Lon'qu and stay for a few days before coming back."

This got him a sleepy pout, before the four-year-old asked, "You aren't bringing Uncle Lon'qu back with you?"

Chrom smiled a little at the thought of it; Lon'qu spoiled his niece rotten and doted on her quite a bit, despite all his complaints of being bad with children. Shaking his head, the Exalt replied, "They'll be coming back together in a few weeks. Your aunt has some business to attend to in Regna Ferox."

"Well…" Lucina hesitated. "Don't take too long! I still want to hear all about Mother, and I know it's a long story!"

Finally finished with his preparations, Chrom turned around and crouched so that he was eye level with his daughter. Mussing her hair, he smiled at her before squeezing her nose lightly. As she giggled and pushed him off with her chubby, toddler hands, Chrom told her, "Since you know it's a long story, be patient alright? I'll be back in a few days, so please don't give Frederick too hard a time."

Lucina made a face, before leaning forward and making a beckoning motion. Complying, Chrom leaned forward and the little one cupped her hands around his ear and whispered, "I'll try, but it's going to be awfully hard if he keeps taking away my toy sword. I only destroyed one of the statues in the house once, and it was an accident!"

Stifling a laugh, Chrom pulled back and whispered, "That's my girl. Be good, okay?"

Lucina didn't answer, but instead threw her arms around her father's neck. They remained that way for a moment before Chrom gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead and stood up to shake Frederick's hand. Nodding at the Exalt, the knight said, "I will take care of her and the palace in your absence."

"Of course," Chrom said warmly giving his right-hand man a smile. "Give my best to Sumia; I know she's expecting."

Frederick blushed a bit at that, and Lucina wiggled in excitement, thinking of having a playmate nearby. Since the war and meeting their future children, many of the Shepherds had yet to actually start their families, although Lucina wasn't entirely without playmates; when Cordelia and Donnel visited the castle they brought five-year-old Severa along, and when Nowi and Gregor visited with their five-year-old Lucina would always have fun.

Nodding one last time, Chrom turned to depart for Regna Ferox before Lucina started, remembering something.

"Father, wait!"

Turning back, Chrom stopped as Lucina ran after him, before digging in her pocket. Patiently Chrom waited, but blinked in shock as his daughter deposited a small bonbon in his hand, the strawberry colored wrapper bright against the blue of his gloves.

"For your trip!" Lucina said cheerfully. "Since Uncle Gaius gave me some and I had extra, I thought I'd give one to you!"

Ignoring the look Frederick shot him, Chrom hugged Lucina tightly and murmured, "Thank you….Lucina."

Quickly standing up, he shoved the candy in his pocket and walked away as quickly as he could to where he knew the others were waiting for him outside.


He sat in the middle of the field, staring up at the sky with a frown on his face as he hid from the rest of the camp. After ripping down the embarrassing posters that Frederick had put up in every tent, Chrom was too mortified to stay among his Shepherds; he'd left camp as soon as he'd dispatched of the terrible things, wanting to get out as soon as possible as Lissa couldn't stop laughing and he couldn't stop blushing.

With a loud, frustrated sigh, Chrom flopped down on the grass and put an arm over his eyes. Just as he was about roll over, he heard familiar sounding footsteps, before he felt someone sitting next to him in the grass.

He was silent for a minute, before he growled, "Don't. Even. Say. It."

There was a pause, before Robin's voice asked innocently, "Say what?"

Sitting up in a flash, Chrom stared his tactician down with a beet-red face as he stuttered out, "You know perfectly what!"

That earned him a smile; Robin shrugged, leaning back on her hands before saying nothing. Chrom continued to stare at her, wondering what was going to happen. They remained that way for several minutes; Chrom staring, Robin silent and admiring some nearby clouds.

Finally, the young lord couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't believe he did that," Chrom muttered, curling his knees to his chest and pouting. "Who does that to someone else? Getting a…a naked picture of me…and putting it up in everyone's tent…there goes any respect anyone might have had for me as a leader!"

"Well I can only speak for myself," Robin said casually, before her smile softened and she turned to face Chrom fully. Picking at some nearby flowers, she began to make a daisy chain before softly saying, "No one saw them, you know."

"Whatever. They were everywhere, there's no way-"

"No one saw them," Robin interrupted smoothly, "Because I saw Frederick putting them up and managed to tear most of them down before you came charging through on a rampage."

"Oh."

The two were quiet for a second, before Chrom sighed and said, "I just wish he didn't feel the need to do stuff like that…I'm not a child. I understand that he cares but that was overboard."

"Of course he cares," Robin said soothingly. "He just wants your approval. Don't be too upset with him, okay? He really did mean well."

At this Chrom just grumbled, knowing full well that his tactician was right-she usually was, and she never let him forget it. Before he could say anything else though, Robin bumped him with her shoulder roughly, catching him by surprise and nearly knocking him over in the process.

"Hey!" the young lord said, "What was that for?"

"No reason," Robin replied with a shrug, before rummaging for something in one of her vast pockets. "Actually, I didn't come looking for you because of what Frederick did.."

As she continued to search her cloak, Chrom tilted his head to the side with a puzzled look and asked, "You didn't?"

"Nah," Robin said, still digging. Her eyes lit up triumphantly a second after, and pulling her hand out of her pocket she grabbed Chrom's hand and pulled it towards her.

"Palm," she commanded, and obediently Chrom opened his palm only to watch as she dropped a brightly colored wrapper into his hand. As he stared at it, Robin said proudly, "Gaius had some extra sweets so he gave some to me and I had extra, so I thought I'd give one to you!"

Staring at it, Chrom couldn't help but smile, already feeling better about the afternoon's fiasco. Casually, easily, the young lord leaned on his best friend, their shoulders touching as he closed his eyes and a peaceful expression came over his face.

"Thanks," he murmured. "Thank you, Robin."


Chrom came to with a jolt, realizing that he'd been marching along stoically as he stared at the candy that lay in his palm. He hadn't expected Lucina to say something like that; something that her mother had said to him once before, nearly word for word. It was shocking enough that it had brought back a flood of memories.

Bittersweet as it was, the Exalt had come to both love and hate the times he got lost in his thoughts. Robin was an imprint on his mind, something he couldn't bear to lose despite the emotional toll it often took on his current mood.

Ricken, noticing this, piped up, "Chrom sir, we're nearly at Regna Ferox. I bet you're excited to see Morgan and Lucina."

Instantly Chrom smiled; his children from the future were constant reminders that he wasn't alone in his quest to find Robin, their search never ending as they looked for their lost mother.

Before the Exalt could reply, Lissa interrupted and said, "I hope Owain and Lucina are back…speaking of all our kids, I have a question for you, Chrom."

"Yes?"

"Since you're telling this story to Lucina-that is, present Lucina-how are you going to explain that somewhere out there in the world right now is a future counterpart of herself and the other little kids she knows?"

Chrom hesitated; he hadn't thought of that.

Shaking his head, the Exalt shrugged and replied, "I can't very well leave them out of the story. I guess I'll just tell it like it is and hope she won't ask too many questions-she's only four after all."

"And she doesn't seem to care too much about the fine details so long as you're talking about her mother," Olivia pointed out, joining the conversation as she and Henry caught up from where they had been straggling behind. "She's a lovely toddler, although how you don't mix up which Lucina you're talking about I never know."

"Future Lucina is just Lucina," Lissa decided after a moment, " And little Lucina can be called Lucy for short. Since they're actually kind of different at this point since they've got different pasts, I think Lucy fits present Lucina a bit more."

"Lucy is a cute name," Olivia agreed, while Chrom just smiled and continued the march towards Regna Ferox, wondering if his future children had found anything in their stay with the Khans.


"Father!" Morgan squealed, all but pouncing on the Exalt as he walked through the door to Morgan's study. The tactician-in-training hugged his father tightly, before pulling back and saying cheerfully, "It's so nice to see you!"

Chrom smiled wide and ruffled Morgan's hair, pleased to see that his son was healthy and happy despite living separately from the only family he had.

"How've you been?" Chrom asked, moving aside a stack of books and papers to sit while Morgan flitted around him clearing space for a meal.

Setting up bread and tea, Morgan replied, "I've been great over here; Khan Basilio has been so nice to let me and the other children from the future stay here with him, although when Aunt Lissa and Lon'qu finally have present Owain I don't know what'll happen. I think we're all gonna move somewhere else."

"You're leaving?" Chrom asked, alarmed at the thought of not seeing his son.

Seeing the panicked look on his father's face, Morgan hurried to reassure him, "No, no, we're not leaving yet, but we plan on all leaving sometime. We all know you guys care about us, but we want you to focus on raising the present us too! Besides, I've got some places I want to travel in mind and I know Owain's got somewhere he plans on going next; Lucina will be going with him to keep him in check, of course."

Relaxing a bit, Chrom allowed Morgan to pour some tea before he said quietly. "I wish you wouldn't feel as if you have to be away from the castle and keep away from your present selves. I understand it's a bit of a conundrum, but all the same I miss you and Lucina. All of the Shepherds miss their children from the future."

"Don't worry, Father," Morgan said, sitting down. "We're all old enough to want to take care of ourselves a bit. And we won't be leaving for awhile so you can still visit!"

Chrom smiled, staring down at his drink before saying, "How optimistic you are…you're very much like your mother, you know."

"Thanks Dad," Morgan replied enthusiastically, a pleased blush slowly creeping onto his face. "Speaking of us…how's little Lucina doing? I know you've been taking care of her by yourself so I'm just curious…"

"She's fine; she's happy and healthy, just like you and your sister Lucina. Actually, she's been asking a lot about your mom."

"Really?" Morgan laughed. "So you're telling her everything, just like that?"

"It's more like a bedtime story for her," Chrom explained, smiling back at his son. "We're on the part where we went to fight 'Marth'."

"Ooooh, tell me too Dad!" Morgan asked, his eyes already in begging mode as he stared at his father. "You can always think of it like practice for telling little Lucina!"

Unable to refuse his child, Chrom shook his head and said, "Alright, alright! You don't mind not hearing the beginning part?"

"Nah, this is one of my favorite parts anyways. Go on!"

Chrom gave his persistent child a pretend stern look, before saying, "So we'd finally gotten past Raimi and the guards…"


Morgan is quite possibly the cutest thing ever, in my opinion :P I'd love to have a son like him in real life! I also actually really don't mind Sumia as much as I thought I would when I orginally started playing Awakening; quite honestly I think she and Frederick have one of the best romances in the entire game, I mean you can literally see them falling in love as he does stuff for her and guides her and admires her whereas with Chrom is just kind of seems like she's chasing and idolizing him and he's just kinda like, "yay pie". But that's just my opinion XD

For awhile there I was worried about how I was going to have future characters going on while present characters were going on, but I think that in the end the future kids want to see their present selves grow up with doting parents. Also, they can visit whenever since they're grownup and can take care of themselves XD They already got a childhood with their parents even if it was cut short, so I think that they'd want to give their present selves the past they never had.

Wow that last paragraph sounds weird when I read it out loud XD Hope it makes sense lol. Anyways, thanks all for the reads and wonderful reviews, and I hope to see you on the next update! :)