Time Matters Not

Rated Potentially Lethal due to Fluff Overload

Lucina's eyes fluttered open from her first good night's sleep in weeks. Yawning, she stretched and sat up, blinking as the sun's rays hit her in the face.

With a slight groan, she forced herself out of the bed and started to get dressed. It took her approximately five minutes before she realized what today was.

oh.

The last few times her birthday had come by, they made it more about Lucia, mostly on her own insistence that she should get the childhood Lucina never did. The newly twenty-three-year-old suddenly realized something that she should have a long time ago – this was her first birthday that Robin would be around for.

Well, as a couple that is. She remembered her twentieth birthday, which had occured shortly after she had reunited with her parents. Robin had still been a stranger back then, but like everyone else in the camp he made sure to congragulate her.
She remembered thinking that the fact that most of them had probably been around when she was born, and were now treating her like any other soldier in the camp,was actually the weirdest part of the entire day.

She sighed to herself, pulled her hair back behind her ears – she'd thought about getting it cut, even asking Robin about it during the night they had spent together (His reaction had been pure horror) – and settled for her normal blue tunic.

She moved to open the door, and found herself face-to-face with a grinning tactician.

"You slept in." He noted. Lucina flushed and shut the door behind her, smiling back.

"I guess so. I...thank you, Robin. You really helped." She said sheepishly. "With the dreams, I mean."

Robin offered the princess his arm, a smug expression crossing his face. Lucina frowned at him.

"What are you planning this time?"

"Oh, I thought we'd go say hello to Lucia before sneaking off." Robin said brightly. Lucina blinked. "After all, I figured you wouldn't want to spend your birthday watching you get something you never could."

Robin paused for a second, groaning.

"A whole week planning this out, and I still couldn't figure out how to phrase that sentence. I hate time travel."

Lucina groaned. Early it might not be, but she still wasn't awake. "Robin, you really don't have to do this for me-"
"I didn't have to stay up all night with you because you had dreams. I didn't have to let you nap in my tent because you were tired. I didn't have to spend the last six months since I got back doing paperwork just because it was the only job that let me see you every day." Robin winced and looked away briefly. "I didn't have to almost kill myself making sure the world was safe...for you and Morgan. So, let's just not have the whole 'Don't have to do this for me' thing anymore, okay? I'm probably going to do it anyway."

Lucina opened and closed her mouth a few times, before sighing.

"...where are we going?"

Robin grinned at her, and Lucina felt her heart skip a few more times. "It's a surprise."


After they'd finally managed to tear Lucia away from Morgan, the three of them set off, Robin promising Chrom they'd be back before long. They spent most of the first few hours of the day riding, with Robin holding on for dear life while Lucina and Morgan rode on ahead of him, laughing. Eventually, the pulled up next to the shepherd's barracks, where Stahl waved lazily at them.

"Hey, Robin" He yawned, stretching as the three approached him. "I got that stuff together for you."

"Thanks, Stahl." Robin sighed, grabbing the basket from the paladin. "How's the training going?"
"These guys are idiots." Stahl deadpanned. "You'd think they'd have learned that Sully not loaded up on hormones was a bad enough trainer and not to disobey her orders when she's angrier than normal."
Robin winced in sympathy. "Sheesh. That's gotta be rough."

"You have no idea." Stahl groaned. "Enjoy yourself, yeah?"

They wandered off, and everything fell into place in Lucina's mind as the hill came into sight. "You couldn't resist, could you?" She sighed happily. Robin grinned.

"Not really, no."

Morgan grumbled to herself, something about how she hoped they didn't get 'too' intimate in front of her. Robin playfully cuffed her on the back of her head, smirking.

"That's enough, Morgan. Come on, help me set up."

As her daughter and fiance stretched out a blanket and laid out a small banquet's worth of food, Lucina found herself feeling happier than she had in weeks, too. Robin had to wrestle the bottle of wine away from Morgan, insisting that the eighteen-year-old was still too young to drink. Lucina briefly considered telling him that she'd walked past Morgan and Inigo sharing a bottle earlier in the week, but decided that that particular parental breakdown could wait a few years.

Hours creeped past faster than expected, Lucina not even noticing the time passing as she flitted between sparring with Morgan, laughing at some antic of her fiance and finally dozing off with her head in his lap. Robin laughed as she woke up again, yawning.

"You're awfully tired these days."

Lucina sighed in content, stroking Morgan's hair much like Robin was stroking hers. Her daughter must have collapsed from exhaustion while she was dozing.

"I can afford to be now." Lucina replied with a small smile, looking up into Robin's brown eyes. "I take it back. Thank you for doing this."

Robin grinned down at her. "Happy birthday, Lucina."


A/N: Estimated word count for the Wedding chapter: 10,000. Progress: 2,000.

Let's do this.

Thanks to a random guest reviewer for reminding me it was Lucina's birthday today, I figured I should put out something today, even if it's only 900 words.