It took me soooo long to map out what I wanted to have happen here... I'm just going to leave this mother-of-god long chapter here and hide...

Also, thank you so much! I hit 100 reviews (exactly haha) last chapter. You guys are wonderful and sweet and just generally amazing. I'll write something special next chapter?

To my lovely reviewers:

DietMilk: Thank you! Sully/Chrom is such a cute romance. I'm a total sucker for best friend type things though... And Smash! Omigod I am so excited!

Whisper6636: Oh, Gangrel... you creep. Also, let the ships leave the harbor! And Vessels, thank you... I can safely say that's going to updated veeeery slowly until this is done.

Random Chicky: Gangrel will return! He IS still technically in band...

Mattariago: Thank you!

OneShotMasta: Thank you! And Gaius and Sumia are toooo cute in game!

PrincessMiAmoreCadenza: Gangrel will indeed be in future chapters! Thanks!

A Shadow's Lament: Thank you! Chrom may yet deck someone, but not today. ;) As for Chrom/Sully, the real question is 'what does Chrom think?' because, yep, poor Sully's got it baaaad.

zelda . fan1971: Thank you! I am reading your story! I just have this bad habit of reading a chapter while I'm out, thinking 'gee, I should review this when I get home,' and then promptly forgetting to review it. As for Sully/Chrom... I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

namelesspenname: Gangrel will come back, and more will be explained. You are very right when you point out that things escalated a little quickly last chapter. As far as romance, it's a combination of me trying to introduce everyone else and being limited by Robin's POV. The girl doesn't exactly understand romance.

AnimeAngel: Heheh. Maaaaybe. ;)

Cormag Ravenstaff: I can 100% confirm Anna next chapter. Yaaay! As for Gaius, I love how you write him! Don't change a thing. :)

ChocoIsu: Thank you so much! Inigo and Gerome should both debut in the next few chapters, and they're two of my personal favorites. Also, tell me when your story is up! I wanna read it!

pureshadow013: Yesss! I am so happy they included Robin in Smash!

akuma-chan25300: Gangrel will reappear. I do, after all, have a redemption arc to write, right?

Chief of the Storm: F!Morgan and Inigo is one of my favorite pairings! Those two are such cutie pies. As for M!Morgan... :) Anna will be in the next chapter, so get excited!

Concealing Eyes: Stahl is... Well, the next few chapters will resolve a few things... ;) And Lucina's dance partner, funny you should mention, is the subject of today's chapter!

Jessiichuu: Thank you!

Meg: Thank you!

Shout out to my shiny new followers: Chew-a-Pick, Blazing Sceptile, Zmijajuri, InterludeLife, Shinymudkip25, Sorell, richiqeckos, Chief of the Storm, rebelfairpirate, Lazerman789, Jessiichuu, B1ue3xceed Happy

And thanks for all the favorites

Enjoy!

It was the week of Halloween, and Robert was excited. His feet were drumming against his seat in band, eyes shining. "Robert," Robin said, casting an eye at the grinning boy, "has an announcement." Her lack of enthusiasm probably shone through in her monotone, but Robert bounced to his feet, smiley enough for the both of them.

Robin moved to stand by Cordelia and Sumia as Robert surveyed the band. "My sister tells me that for a band, we're actually on the small side, but despite the three days a week we practice, I'm not sure I've even talked to some of you," Robert said. "So I was thinking we should have a little bonding get-together this Friday-Saturday, a Halloween sleepover party at my place. Guys in my room, girls in Robin's, mother will be gone at some neighborhood thing most of the night anyways."

Robert had already run the details by Robin several times to perfect his speech. Robin let her eyes glaze over. She couldn't even remember the last party she went to that wasn't a musician's dinner. She was a little uncertain she had even attended a party of her peers that wasn't a birthday party. Were they like the musician's dinner, where people twittered around in pretty dresses, little flutes of champaigne she was never allowed to touch clasped in their fingers? She sighed. Two weeks before she heard back from the second stage of her audition. As Robin took back her conductor's stand, she crushed the little reminder that the end of October meant one month closer to her Plegian audition.

Robin couldn't concentrate in practice. When she finally dismissed the band, it was with a little sigh of relief. As she began to pack up her things, a warm hand ruffled her hair, and Robin turned from her scores to find Stahl looking down at her. "Hey," Stahl said. He was giving her his smile again, the one that crinkled his eyes and warmed her belly.

"Hey," Robin replied. Stahl's grin broadened.

"Can I borrow you? I'll walk you half-way home today," Stahl said. His hands drifted to play with a corner of one of her scores, folding and unfolding it. "We're heading the same direction this time."

Robin nodded. It wasn't the first time they had walked together. While Stahl's house was in a different neighborhood, some days he didn't go home, off to some other engagement. After the first time he had waved it off, Robin learned not to ask, just like with the diner. "Yeah. Just let me get Robert, and—"

"Without Robert," Stahl said. He wouldn't meet her gaze, eyes fixed on his hands, still folding. "If that's alright."

He had never asked for her alone. They had been alone together, of course, but Stahl had never asked. Robin twirled around quickly, before Stahl could see her face warming. "Well, c'mon then," she said, grabbing her backpack.

As their footsteps echoed against the hallway tiles, Robin chewed on her lip. Stahl was quiet, and Robin found herself studying everything in the absence of his chatter. Everything except him. When she looked to him, which happened once and very quickly, Robin could feel her face heat up. Her eyes seemed to drag on his mouth, and her arm tingled as it brushed his. The request for her, alone, twisted something in their dynamic.

"I…" Robin, eyes fixed on the speckled tile floor, caught a glimpse of his worn sneakers before her forehead smashed into his chin. Stahl stumbled backwards a step, wrapping his hands around her shoulders. "Erm, sor…" Her face was pink, which was stupid, because they had hugged and touched before, but Robin stared at Stahl in mild, residual surprise at their collision with her silly, warm cheekbones. "Sorry," Stahl said, lifting his hand from her shoulders to his pockets.

His gaze flicked from her eyes, to her lips, still parted from her gasp at their collision, to her shoes. More to disrupt the silence, Robin shifted her bag on her shoulder with a rustle. It was light, unusually so. "Um… I think I… forgot my scores in the band room," Robin said.

Stahl flicked his eyes up to hers. "I have to go to work," he said.

Robin nodded, but neither of them moved. He was nervous, Robin realized. Stahl couldn't keep his hands still, letting them drift from his pockets to rub his nose, to stretch his fingers. "You could—"

"It wasn't that important anyways," Stahl said, "I'll umm… just head out now."

You could walk back with me, Robin wanted to say, but Stahl's nervousness was making her more nervous. Wringing his hands, the boy turned around and walked—fled, really at that speed—away. Robin walked back to the band room alone. Robin chewed on her lip. She probably could have left the scores here, and a part of her cried for her to just turn around and run back to Stahl. Robin ignored that part.

When she pushed open the door, her scores were sitting on her stand, pale white against the dark metal. While the band always cleaned the room after practice, most of the chairs were left out as well. The chairs were supposed to go in the band room closet. It was tall, long, gray-beige metal, and, as Robin looked to it, currently rattling. Gaius had locked a freshman in there once, for about five minutes before finally releasing him in front of her shocked gape. Owain still wouldn't go near the closet. With a groan, Robin stuffed her scores in her bag and yanked the closet door open.

Robin supposed, since she had opened the closet, it would be best just to close it and feign ignorancee. In the shadowy corner closest to her, Robin could just see Lucina clinging to a petrified Yarne. Hands still wrapped in the boy's shirt, Lucina was staring at her with the flushed face of a thoroughly kissed individual, chest heaving. "You can't tell my cousin," Lucina gasped. It was now officially too late to close the door.

The younger girl stumbled out of the closet, a hand wrapped around Yarne's wrist. "You know what, I don't even want to—"

Lucina straightened her mussed up dress and looked to Robin with a pink glare. "Yarne and I volunteered to clean up the band room," she said. Yarne looked like he wanted to melt into the floor. He wasn't what Robin would pick for straight-laced, serious Lucina. The boy looked like he had risen up from the Earth, his loose cargo pants hanging low on his hips, tree green shirt advertising something about saving Ylisse forests, dreadlocks doing nothing to obscure his panic. "I-I'm going to put up the chairs."

Lucina walked off, swinging her arms in determination. Robin spun after her. "I'm not going—"

Hands on her shoulders, Yarne turned her back around. Robin hadn't talked to the boy before, but she didn't have to to recognize his terror. His fingers trembled against her skin, eyes darting from Lucina to her to back again. Robin cursed not running after Stahl. "Please don't tell Chrom," Yarne said, voice a panicked whisper. "Do you know what happened to Lissa's last boyfriend?

"No," Robin said. She glanced back to her conductor's stand. "I just need my—"

Yarne's fingers dug a little deeper into her skin. "Neither does she," Yarne said, nearly hysterical. "Chrom's pretty much Lucina's older brother. He's going to kill me."

Robin resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Chrom was about as deadly as a plush teddy bear, but Yarne looked near tears. "Is this why you're so nervous in band all the time?" Robin asked, hopeful the disbelief in her tone would convey the ridiculousness of the situation.

"It's why I'm nervous all the time all the time. Have you seen his friends? Vaike looks big enough to eat me. Sully could split me in half. Frederick's been plotting my death since my sister broke up with him. Chrom probably already knows. He has ears everywhere. Listening to everything." Yarne flit his eyes around the room for good measure.

"Chrom's clueless. Not to mention he can't even compliment a girl without turning bright red. He'd never even contemplate kissing a girl in a closet," Robin said. Lucina inched by with another pair of chairs and a suspicious frown. "Also—"

"Wait a sec," Yarne said. He stared at her in wonderment, hesitant grin breaking his terror, and smoothed her rumpled shirt sleeves. Robin took a step back. "You're Chrom's girlfriend."

Robin took three more steps before Yarne yanked her back, rough in his sudden enthusiasm. "I'm not—"

"I'm counting on you, Robin. You understand my pain. Being with someone everyone else doesn't want you to be with. We could swap intimidation stories. A few days ago, Frederick—we're neighbors—lit a pile of leaves on fire and just stared at me through the flames."

Why was the whole school convinced she and Chrom were dating? And why did it have to cause so many headaches? Robin suppressed a little growl. "I don't—Well, Chrom's fan club has definitely tried things, but I don't think that's what's happening to you. Not to mention they've misunderstood—"

"Vaike tells me in percussion how skinny I look all the time. In cross country last Thursday he kept talking about how easy it would be for me to break something while training. My life is a serious of thinly veiled threats. Thinly veiled threats, Robin," Yarne said, shaking her at each of his last four words. "I can't even sleep at night knowing Frederick is one house down."

"Vaike was probably just concerned, and the fallout from torching your house will keep Frederick from actually setting it on fire," Robin said. "This is ridiculous. Can I just get my scores and go now?"

"You can't go. I need you to save me. Vaike's probably contemplating ruining my chances to have children. Just… you know, get all cuddly with Chrom, and then in the heat of the moment make him promise not to hurt me. And not to order his friends to hurt me. Casual. It's how I got Lucina to go on a juice cleanse with me." Lucina looked up at her name. "Love you, baby," Yarne said, weak grin pasted on his natural features. "Even if your family is nuts," he added in a whisper.

"Her family is crazy?" Robin just wanted to go. Was that too much to ask?

Yarne sighed and shook his head. "You're just too love-blinded to see it, Robin. Anyways, us boyfriends-girlfriends should stick together. I'm sending Chrom to you tomorrow, and you're going to seduce him for me. Please, Robin, I—Oh, sorry Lucina, I was going to help, but…" Yarne said. Lucina rolled her eyes, and Robin thought she caught a hint of a smile on the girl's lips.

Lucina looped an arm through Yarne's and began to pull him away. "You worry too much. I think we can count on Robin to keep her mouth shut," Lucina said. She pushed out Yarne out the door before spinning back to Robin. "Please don't tell Chrom. I… If he knew, he would worry. You know how he is." Lucina looked back to Yarne and left. Robin could feel a headache coming on.

Gaius was sitting outside her locker the next morning, hard peppermint poised on the tongue he flashed at her as she arrived. Robin dropped her bag on his foot. As Gaius yelped, the peppermint skittered across the floor. "Go away," Robin said.

"I'm wounded, Bubbles. Quite literally."

Robin was tired. Worries over Lucina and Yarne, what she was to tell Chrom, and—inexplicably—what Stahl had wanted to tell her dragged homework out several hours longer than it should have. "I'm not in the mood for—"

"Robin, I heard there was something you wanted to talk." Robin whirled around to find Chrom, hair damp. The boy followed her gaze to take a strand of hair between his fingers. "Showers. We just finished cross-country for the day. Yarne said you needed to tell me something urgent after practice." Chrom turned a little pink. "It involved a lot of… winking. He ran away before I could ask."

Gaius smirked. "Oho, should I give you two lovebirds some alone time?" he asked. Robin had explained to him—several times—she and Chrom weren't dating. Gaius told everyone who asked they were anyways.

"Will you actually go away if I ask?"

Gaius stretched his legs a little farther into the hallway, a barrier between her and Chrom. "Nope."

Robin glanced back to Chrom again. He didn't look like the sort to kill anyone. A little, familiar head of dreadlocks peeked around the end of the hall. Yarne must have followed Chrom from cross-country. "Do you..." Robin was a sap. "Do you have a sec?" Chrom nodded. "What do you think of Yarne?" After a night of debating whether to tell Chrom at all, Robin decided bluntness was best.

Chrom frowned. "Yarne? He's a good kid. Really jumpy though. Reminds me a little of a bunny or something. He's harmless. Why?"

"Right. He's dating Lucina." It rushed out before Robin could overthink it. Gaius contemplated it for a moment and then nodded. Chrom simply stared at her, like she had spoken some foreign tongue the boy couldn't translate.

"Wait. What?" Chrom asked.

He truly had no suspicion. Either Lucina and Yarne were rather sneaky, which Robin doubted after yesterday, or Chrom was a little dense when it came to romance. "Yeah, I found them making out in the chair cabinet after band yesterday," Robin said.

Chrom squinted, blinked a few times, and then turned a slow, creeping pink. "Making out? Like…?" Robin nodded slowly as Gaius made dramatic, wet kissing sounds. Chrom opened his mouth and closed it again. "Why did neither of them tell me this?"

Gaius smirked. "Well, from the sound of it, their mouths were a little busy," he said. Chrom's mouth popped back open. He looked a little like a fish, which, while humorous, was probably counter to Robin's goal.

Robin stomped on the orange haired boy's foot. "Errr, Chrom, are you okay?" she asked.

Chrom shook his head. "I am a-okay. Peachy. Lucina's an independent girl who can make her own decisions," he said, but his voice sounded a little strained. Yarne was still watching them from the end of the hall, making strange finger mashing motions.

Even if Yarne was worried, Chrom was much more reasonable than he or Lucina suggested. Robin nodded. "Oh, good. You know, Yarne thought—"

"Just, don't you think she's a little young to start such an emotionally complex experience? I mean, she's fourteen. What if… I mean…" Chrom waved his hands in some aimless gesture. Perhaps he did need a little convincing after all.

"Yes is probably the answer to whatever question that little brain of yours is formulating, Blue," Gaius said. Chrom flinched, hands stopping abruptly in their waving. Gaius shrugged at Robin's glare. "What? I'm just educating. A chivalrous gentleman like him doesn't understand the rogue's perspective."

"You're stirring up trouble," Robin hissed. "Chrom—"

"If Yarne thinks he can sneak around in closets with my innocent cousin, he's got another thing coming. That boy's not going to be able to have children when I'm done with him." With pink cheeks, Chrom folded his arms over his chest. His muscles flexed at the action, and Robin understood just why Yarne was terrified Chrom would hurt him.

"Just think, you're the innocent cousin now." Gaius pulled a lollypop out of a pocket and with a crinkle of paper, popped it into his mouth with a feline grin.

"Don't—Ignore Gaius. You said Yarne was a good kid," Robin said. Her voice was higher than she would have liked, wheedling. Robin just caught one of her hands mid-stretch towards Chrom's arm. Her hand hung in the air between them, and Chrom frowned at it.

"He's corrupting Lucina. With his… dreadlocks and nature… and—and—I don't know, but that boy's no good. He's leading her into closets," Chrom said, with a glance to Gaius. Gaius nodded supportively.

"But what happened to harmless?" Robin asked.

"The boy's a monster, Bubbles," Gaius said.

"No. You don't get to talk. Chrom—" The bell for first period rang, shrill and piercing. Chrom, still red, whirled on a heel as Robin groaned. "I hope you're proud of yourself, Gaius."

Chrom wasted no time confronting his cousin. In practice, Chrom and Lucina shared a stand, per usual, and it quickly devolved into a fight over stand custody. Watching the two argue made Robin a little sick to her stomach. It ended in a clatter as Lucina shot to her feet, knocking over the stand, shrieking that 'she only wanted not to worry him.' Robin ended practice early. Lucina was gone before she could finish, Chrom and Yarne the only two to not watch her leave.

Amidst the packing band members, Yarne wiggled his way around stands and chairs. "Robin… I—"

"You're not talking to Lucina again," Chrom said. He yanked Yarne back into the second row. The younger boy stumbled over Sumia's chair leg with a squeak. "You made her upset. You and your… your… I'm just trying to protect her. If you take her anywhere near a closet again, I—"

"Stop," Robin snapped. "Yarne's cleaning up the band room with me today, and I need him in one, unthreatened piece." Chrom released the back of Yarne's shirt with a frown. As Yarne cowered, Chrom elbowed around him. His face was darkened with anger and a hint of guilt. Robin spun after him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Look. I get you want to protect her, but she's only going to hate you if you make a spectacle of it. Relax a little," Robin whispered. Chrom's ear was pink as Robin turned back to Yarne.

Once the room was deserted, she and Yarne packed away the chairs in silence. Robin placed a pair of folding chairs into the closet with a sigh. "I don't get it," Robin said. "Why you and Lucina would make out in that closet. Why couldn't you just wait til you knew you were alone?"

"Well, we thought we were alone," Yarne said. The bitterness in his voice was like old, black coffee, long cooled on the kitchen table.

"You were at school though. Even if you thought you were alone, you're at school. You don't just…" Robin searched for the words but couldn't find them.

Yarne seemed to understand. "With the right person, should it matter?" he asked.

"But you knew what would happen if you got caught."

"Well, in that particular moment, all I was really thinking of was how pretty Lucina's smile was. Her real one, not that stiff one. It's like… I can't even describe it, because it's for me. My smile, and whenever she grants it, it's something precious and private. If I were to explain it, it would be a violation of our trust." Yarne smiled, but it faded quickly, like a passing shadow. "There's not someone like that for you? Someone where one minute you're talking to them, the next minute you're kissing them, and you don't even remember stepping closer?" Yarne asked.

"I don't get it," Robin said. It sounded a little scary, potentially dangerous, and the closest sensation she could recall was the school dance. Robin folded up her next chair with a clatter, cutting her train of thought before her face could heat up.

"Clearly," Yarne said. "If you weren't so heartless, Lucina and I would still be a couple."

"I'm not playing this game. Seems to me the guilt should be spread equally among a lot of people," Robin said. "And I think I'm supposed to get the least of it." The thought didn't stop her internal cringe at Lucina's heartbroken flight from the band room. Robin placed the last chair in the closet and slammed the doors shut.

"You were supposed to be my ally." His voice was desperate, and Robin was glad she still faced the shut closet doors. Robin tightened her hand around the closet handle. The cool was grounding. Robin could image Yarne's face, crumpled and betrayed like Lucina's.

"Your shield, actually. If you want me to help, prove it," Robin said.

"Prove it?" Yarne whined. "I just explained my devotion to her. Robin. Please help me. Robiiiiin. Robiiiiiiin. Robiiiin, pleeeeaaaase."

"For someone fixated on self-preservation, you sure have a death wish." Robin ripped her hand from the door handle and turned to frown at the boy. He looked as heartbroken as she imagined. "We're done with this."

Yarne lunged for her, hands wrapped around her shoulders once more. His grasp was firmer, desperation hardening it. "Noooo, wait. Please. Please. Please. Please. I'll cry," Yarne said. His eyes did look a little shiny. "I can't do this by myself, but I can't not do this either."

"Here's the deal. You drop that. Now. That Halloween party of Robert's? I'll talk to Chrom about you. You persuade him to let you date Lucina." Ducking out of Yarne's grasp, Robin whirled out of the band room.

On Wednesday, Lucina and Chrom sat next to each other in icy silence. Yarne, however, was much calmer. Before Robin could confront any of them, however, Sumia and Cordelia steered her out of practice to Cordelia's house. In the name of 'finding Robin a dress that didn't look like something my mother would wear,' Sumia and Cordelia raided the red-head's closet. It was nice, distracting, watching the pair pile dress after dress, even if Robin was exhausted afterwards. When Robin finally left with a black number so tiny Robin blushed looking at it and a pair of shoes—Cordelia had nice shoes. She noticed that a few weeks ago, when the red head's cast finally came off—, Robin felt lighter than she had in days.

Then it was Friday night, and Robin was intensely regretting that same dress. Robin knew it was too tight, mostly in the bust and hips, but also just everywhere. Squeezing it on at Cordelia's had been a miracle, and Robin now found herself yanking the fabric over her hips with just enough force to inch the fabric upward while keeping her hair, twisted in some elaborate bun Sumia had to arrive early to fix, in place. People had started to trickle in, muffled voices in the hall. Robin wiggled, doing little to pull the fabric over her curves. Cordelia was too damn skinny. "Oi, Robert, which room?" It was a male's voice, and Robin exhaled in relief. They were headed to her brother's room, not hers.

"Shit." Robin jerked her head up to see Chrom, face as red as a tomato, mouth hanging open. Robin clutched the dress to her chest, but her brain couldn't seem to function any further than that. She stared as Chrom stared. The boy backed up a step into the doorframe, and the collision seemed to jumpstart him. "H-he said left. Your brother. He… left. Left door. This is your room?"

Robin grabbed the nearest thing to throw at him. Her sneaker ricocheted off the corner above Chrom's head. "Shut the damn door," she shrieked. Robin's face warmed. Hopefully, Chrom would just interpret it as rage.

Chrom clicked the door shut. "I am sooo sorry. So sorry. You have—"

Robin clutched the dress even closer to her chest. Despite his attempt to stare at her face, Robin caught Chrom's eyes barely flicker down at the action. Robin could feel her flush, like his gaze, trailing down her neck. "I meant with you on the other side," Robin hissed.

"R-right." Chrom was frozen. He groped for the doorknob, unable to rip his eyes from her. Robin fumbled for her zipper, and with a determined tug, she slammed the zipper upward. Ignoring her new inability to breathe, Robin stalked over to her door. The dress fit. Kind of. "You look nice. The dress," Chrom added.

"The doorknob is here," Robin said. She whipped the door open and gestured Chrom outside. As the boy walked by, Robin couldn't meet his face.

When Robin entered the living room, a few of the band members were already there. Morgan sprawled across the couch between Yarne and Owain, Cynthia somewhere by her feet. Tharja trailed after Robert as he organized food in the kitchen. "Hello, Robin." Robin spun around to find Kellam at her shoulder. "Heh. I guess I snuck up on you. Your face looks a little red."

"Robert's room is back that way."

"He showed me. I actually have a message for you," Kellam said. "Stahl's going to be running a little late. He's got work tonight. Said he meant to tell you, but you guys were both busy. Little sad he's got to work at the pharmacy tonight, eh?"

Stahl hadn't mentioned a pharmacy to her, unless pharmacy was code for diner. "Y-yeah," Robin said. Kellam smiled at her. He expected something more, and Robin's brain seemed stuck on 'pharmacy.' Stahl told Kellam things, things he didn't tell her, and the thought stung. "He's a good guy though, even if he's a little forgetful." Kellam laughed, and Robin laughed weakly along with him. When Donnel cut in, Robin escaped their conversation.

The party was like a musicians' dinner, Robin decided, except that there was a lot more skin and the food was mostly salt and sugar. Tharja slunk by her side on the couch. "You look tense," the Goth said.

"Thank you," Robin replied. Perhaps she had been a little preoccupied. Cordelia had floated away to stand on the outskirts of Chrom's conversation with Sully and Frederick, but the thought of Chrom scared Robin away from that conversation. Sumia and Gaius had vanished somewhere long ago. Stahl still hadn't arrived, and it was almost quarter to ten. Yarne kept darting his eyes around the room like he expected some attack, from her, to Chrom, to Lucina, to his friends, and back again. Tharja scooted a little closer. "Sorry. I don't know where Robert is. Or Virion. Or Nowi. Or whoever you're looking for."

Tharja flicked her eyes from Robin to Chrom. "I have an idea. One that could solve a few problems."

"I'm not in the mood—"

"Including one with a certain someone's cousin."

The words hung between them. Why did Tharja have to be so observant? "Fine."

Robin supposed, as Tharja shut the closet door behind them, she should have been suspicious when the Goth asked her to remove about half the coats from the closet. She should have been more suspicious when Tharja wouldn't let her see what she was doing with the bottle Robin gave her. "I think Tharja might have rigged Seven Minutes in Heaven," Robin said. "If that's possible." Chrom was little more than a dark, fidgety shadow in the closet. "You should say something, else it's going to be a long seven minutes."

"I-I'm sorry. Just… About your room. Robert said left, but he meant his left and not my left, and I guess I didn't really think about it. And then I opened the door, and you were there, and my brain kinda froze. In a good freeze. But also a bad one. Veeery bad. I just—"

"Don't even worry about it. It's forgotten," Robin said. "Just… knock, next time." It wasn't forgotten. Chrom's red, shocked face was imprinted on her brain, and the memory was making the closet feel cramped.

"So closets… I guess I can understand why people… Why they… I mean, it's definitely a very intimate space. For intimate things. I mean, I think our hands must have brushed at least five times now." Chrom laughed weakly. Robin could feel the tips of her fingers just around her own. She must not have even noticed the first four times. Was this what Yarne meant about not even realizing the transition between talking and kissing?

Robin shook her head, more to clear her thoughts than anything. "I suppose. It definitely feels warmer in here. Probably—"

Chrom's laugh sounded fuller in the darkness. "I was a little worried that was just me."

"It's not just you." They were stuck in an enclosed space with layers of heavy fabric. Why would that be just him? They drifted into silence again. All the closet was doing was making her think of Yarne and Lucina. She had told the boy she would talk with Chrom, and now Robin didn't really have an alternative. "I guess… Perhaps the heat… encourages people to do things with other people they wouldn't usually do… I mean, someone responsible—"

"If someone hypothetically thinks something romantic about while they're stuck together in a closet, it's probably just the heat," Chrom said. Robin smiled encouragingly. Perhaps Chrom was better at subtle than she thought.

"Yes," Robin replied. "So, whatever happened, as long as both parties were okay with it, it should probably just be ignored by the general public. Because of the heat."

"Right. As long as both parties are okay with it."

Yarne would be pleased. "Right. Which I think both parties are so—" Chrom placed a chaste kiss on her lips. His mouth was soft and cool on hers, the touch of his hands gentle on her shoulders. "Chrom?" she gasped.

It wasn't unpleasant, his mouth on hers as he planted a firmer kiss on her lips. Robin stood there as Chrom moved his hands from her shoulders to her waist. In movies, the woman wrapped her arms around the man's neck, so Robin, her own hands suddenly feeling very present, did. She felt Chrom jerk under her touch, bumping his nose against hers. "Errm, I'm sorry… Was that no—"

He kissed her a third time, tongue brushing its way hesitantly across her mouth. Robin heard the rustle of a coat, felt the scratchiness of its fabric against her exposed skin, as Chrom pressed her into the closet. His hands on her hips pulled them closer together, knee colliding with hers. Robin gasped at that, and Chrom snuck his tongue inside her mouth.

Another strange, but not unwelcome, sensation, Robin decided. Surely it had been more than seven minutes, though, of Chrom's shaky hands, his nervous exploration of her mouth. After a moment, Robin mimicked his actions and determined Chrom tasted like mint chocolate. Chrom pulled her closer, a hand snaking up to twine in her hair. "It took me twenty minutes to do that bun," Robin mumbled over his lips. "No touching."

She felt rather than saw Chrom's smile as the boy trailed shy kisses, damp from her own mouth down her neck. As his hand drifted from her hair to her shoulder, Robin tilted her head back to give better access to her skin. This was a distinctly nice feeling, she decided. Robin sighed. Somehow this didn't seem quite what Yarne described, too aware, analytical. Chrom took the sigh as encouragement, turning more attention to her collarbone.

When Tharja released them from the closet, Robin stumbled out, blinking in the sudden light. Chrom followed after her, a hand just grazing the small of her back as he steadied her. He smiled down at her, very briefly, before returning to his seat. Unlike his powdery pink cheeks, Robin's felt cool. "You feel a little more relaxed?" Tharja asked.

"That was more than seven minutes," Robin said. It was practically an eternity, an eternity Chrom may have read a little in to.

Tharja shrugged. "You used those extra minutes well. I don't think you had that bruise when we shut you in there."

"Huh?"

"That's what happens when you have fun a little too long." Robin scrambled off to the bathroom. Robin stared at herself in the mirror. If she squinted, her face looked a little flushed. Further down, just above her collar bone, a small, redish-purple bruise was beginning to bloom on her pale skin. Tharja's smirk was just visible in the mirror. "You're welcome."

When they walked back, the room was staring at them—her. Robin scowled, and the more bashful ones looked away. Chrom's flush deepened as Vaike elbowed his shoulder. "I'm out of the game now, right?" Robin asked, flopping down on the couch, out of the circle.

"It won't work if you rejoin," Tharja said. "Now, the left of Robin is Yarne, so…" The boy shot a panicked glance at Lucina, but the girl ducked her head, poking a finger into the beige carpet.

"I-I'm not so sure—"

"Just go ahead," Robin said. It came out snappier than she meant. Something about the mark on her skin irritated her. "I'm willing to bet," Robin said, with a glare at Tharja, "it'll work out just fine for you."

Yarne spun the soda bottle over the carpet. As Lucina buried more fingers into the carpet, the plastic came to a muffled stop. Lucina and Yarne both cast Chrom hesitant glances. Chrom was far away, thumb rubbing across his lower lip in a slow, thoughtful caress. Lucina placed a hand on his shoulder. Chrom jerked. "I'm sorry. What?"

"You've placed a ban on me and Lucina in closets," Yarne said. His voice was shaky, but his frown was firm.

"Huh? Oh. Ohhhh," Chrom said. Chrom cast a quick glance to Robin, before flushing even deeper. Robin felt a strangely curious. Chrom was so very open about his emotions in a way Robin couldn't seem to be. Robin smiled at him, a test to see his reaction, and his ears turned pink. "P-perhaps, I was a little—"

"Well, she's going with me whether you like it or not," Yarne declared. His eyes were screwed shut. "Lu-Lucina's kind and smart and beautiful, and I'm not going to wimp out on this, because even if I need a little help, now and then, I can… kinda stand up for myself."

"Erm, yeah, I'm saying that's—"

"Lucina and I are going to make out in that closet, and you're not going to stop me," Yarne said. He rocketed to his feet with a triumphant glare.

"I'm not stopping you," Chrom said. Lucina gave her cousin a quick hug and swept to her feet. "Just, watch where you put your hands. And you only have seven minutes. At a second past, I'm finding you… Errr… Well, I'm sending someone else to open that closet door. I… perhaps I under—Just go on, Yarne, Lucina."

The doorbell rang as Yarne and Lucina were in the closet, and Robin hopped to her feet. Fishing for her shoes—Sumia and Cordelia had both given her strict instructions to wear them for Stahl. Robin was ignoring the implications of that—and adjusting the strap of her dress to hide the mark on her collarbone, Robin hurried to the door. She pulled it open to find Stahl on the other side, lazy smile and a rumpled collared shirt. "You're late," Robin said.

"Hello to you, too," Stahl replied. He shoved his hands in his pockets and trailed his eyes down her frame. Under his slow gaze, Robin felt just as flushed as when Chrom had walked in on her. "Is this even my Robin? This girl is in a dress… and heels… and, by the gods, I think that might be nail polish?"

"Oh, shut up," Robin said and stepped aside to let Stahl in. They sat together on the couch during Seven Minutes, talking about everything except work, the pharmacy, the diner, Robin's turn in the game. As Henry began his favorite horror movie, Robin swept to her feet and began to collect the dirty dishes that littered the room like Easter eggs. Stahl, with a yawn, picked up the rest. He followed her into the kitchen, cracking the door behind them.

They passed dishes in silence, Stahl running them under her sink, Robin drying them. Neither bothered to flip the light switch, and they cleaned the dishes under the moonlight peeking through the windows and the living room light oozing out the cracked door. "I know Kellam delivered my message for me, but what I wanted to talk to you about… It wasn't that I would be late," Stahl said. "I mean, it was. But it also wasn't."

"What does that mean?" Robin asked. Their fingers touched as he passed her a plate, his soapy, slippery, impossible to grasp.

"It means… Ahh, this is so very… Just… Close your eyes."

"Wha? Why?"

"I can't say it with you looking at me," Stahl said. "You'll read all my tells, and then you'll see how nervous I am."

Robin set the dish down and closed her eyes. She was nervous too for some reason, which was silly because this was Stahl. He wouldn't smack her when she had her eyes shut. "Okay, go."

"My father runs a pharmacy. Family-owned business. I run the register some afternoons. My older brother was meant to be the heir, to take over the business. Then, one day, he declared he wasn't. Said he wanted to do something else instead. Dad was… upset. He built the business out of nothing, you see, and while he liked the guys he started it with, really wanted to go into his son's hands."

This was what Kellam thought she knew. But Robin was willing to bet Stahl wasn't working the register at some pharmacy past eight on Halloween. Kellam probably didn't know about the diner, then. "Oh, Stahl…"

"Then, one day there was an advertisement. A month or two after I turned fifteen. They needed a part-time cook for that diner. When you're fifteen, there's some stuff in the kitchen you can't do, but you can do a lot, especially for the simple food they served. I shouldn't have. I knew it was wrong as I asked my brother to drive me to the cook interview, but I was excited. Thrilled. When they offered me the position, I agreed. It was stupid and selfish and—"

It was strange hearing Stahl's voice rise and fall, tumbling through a scope of emotion Robin itched to see on his face. She screwed her eyes shut tighter. "You're not stupid, and you're definitely not selfish," Robin said.

"Every time I stand over that grill I think 'I could do this the rest of my life and be happy'—even just scrambling eggs and flipping burgers. And I know even as I'm thinking it, that it's wrong, and I shouldn't be thinking that at all, because I can't. Why should my desires rank above my parents? What have I done that I can place myself above them?"

"You're overthinking it, Stahl. It's your life."

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. Besides wasting time and lying to people. You and my brother—and him only because he drives me—are the only two who know. My school friends think I work in the pharmacy all the time, and my parents think I'm at a friend's house all the time. It's a matter of time, really, before it all blows up in my face. But I keep walking into the diner anyways."

He sounded heartbroken. Robin couldn't see his face, but she could feel his presence at her side. On a whim, Robin fumbled for him, wrapping him in her arms. It was different, somehow, when she initiated the hug, nerves zipping like little electric charges. Stahl curled into her touch, circliing his arms easily around her waist. Robin let her much shakier fingers thread through his hair with gentle strokes. He nestled into her neck with what was almost a purr, tugging her closer at the action. "Err… i-is this okay?"

"Feels nice," he mumbled. Robin listened to Stahl's slow, careful breathing against her ear. Her skin felt super-heated, and Robin was a little surprised Stahl couldn't feel it through their clothes. Usually, he was the one to stop whatever she was pushing. Instead, his fingers found her back, tracing delicate nonsensical patterns across it that seared her spine. Stahl sighed against her skin, and Robin squeaked.

Robin wanted to curl into a hole, but Stahl still held her trapped in his arms. One of his hands ghosted its way up her back, between her shoulder blades, grazing the nape of her neck to gingerly pull the bobby pins from her hair. The strands unraveled across her face and neck in pale tendrils. The bobby pins dropped onto the floor with little metallic echoes. Robin couldn't seem to breathe, his warmth forcing the air out of her lungs. Instead she hazily counted her bobby pins falling to the ground.

Robin fluttered her eyes open. Stahl hovered over her, gazing curiously down at the blood Robin could feel pooling in her cheeks. He had twisted their hug around, trapping her against the kitchen counter between his strong arms. Robin wasn't sure when his hands shifted her, but her skin seemed chilled without his touch. Was this what Yarne meant? Stahl dragged his hands up her arms, over her shoulders, frowning at the slight interruption of the straps of her dress. Robin sighed at his fingertips tracing her collarbone. "What's this?"

His voice was warm, sweet, and tempered with an underlying hardness. Robin only had to feel his thumb rubbing circles just above the bone for her stomach to curl in realization. "Oh. That. Seven minutes in heaven. I didn't know what I was doing, and Chrom didn't know what he was doing, and—"

"So he left a nice big no touching sign," Stahl said. Entranced, he stared at her bruise. "I guess I should've known." With a shake of his head, Stahl moved back to the sink.

"It was innocent. It doesn't mean anything," Robin said. Perhaps it was true, perhaps it wasn't, but she just wanted him back. The kitchen was cold. "I didn't—"

"Mmm, it always means something," Stahl said. The metal in his voice had vanished, and the gentle humor that remained was more painful. "Now, we were supposed to be washing dishes?" Robin nodded.

Stahl washed the plates while whistling a little, tuneless melody. Robin tried to dry tehm. When they reentered, Robin dodged Chrom's curious glance to her hair, instead looking to Lucina and Yarne cuddling in a seat for one. Yarne flashed her a quick grin, mostly obscured by Lucina's shoulder. Robin felt a little sick.

Bonus: Invisible

People didn't see him. Kellam accepted that, which was why he was a little perplexed by the current situation. "I need some advice…" Olivia twisted a strand of hair around a finger, her other hand playing with one of the leaves on the faux plant at Kellam's side.

"Fr-From me? Sure," Kellam said. He was probably dreaming, dozed off on Robert's couch somewhere. Pretty girls didn't exactly approach him. They came up to Stahl, sometimes Donnel, but Kellam could count the number of times a pretty girl asked him for advice on one hand. Once. Right now.

"It's just… I don't know what to do," Olivia mumbled. She really was as beautiful as the gossip claimed, doe eyes, soft voice, vanilla smell. Kellam's palms were already beginning to sweat. "I keep trying to talk to people, but I just… whenever they turn around to look at me, I don't know what to say. Everyone probably thinks I'm a weirdo or something." Olivia peeped up at him through long lashes.

Kellam smoothed his palms on his pants. Stahl and Donnel were nowhere to be found. It was just him and Olivia alone in the corner of the room. Kellam swallowed down his nerves. He could do this. He could talk to a cute girl. "Th-they don't think you're strange, Olivia. Everyone here is really nice. I bet they just can't wait to talk to you."

"But what do I tell them?" Olivia bit down on her lower lip. Kellam was suddenly very aware of the fact he was staring at her, but she was so like a porcelain doll, it was enthralling. "It's like my brain goes blank once someone looks at me."

Should he be happy or sad he didn't have this effect? Kellam pushed the thought aside. "Well, just talk about something easy… Like food. Everyone likes food. Go tell them how good the cookies Maribelle brought were."

Olivia frowned, and even that was adorable, wrinkling her nose into a little dot. "I… could do that. Just tell everyone how tasty they were… but then what?"

Kellam grinned. "You've started the conversation. Just let the rest follow naturally."

With a giggle, Olivia patted the top of the potted plant. "You know, you're a pretty good listener for a tree. Well, wish me luck." Delicate smile on her face, the girl skipped off.

Sighing, Kellam watched her tug hesitantly on Chrom's shirtsleeve. He aimed a light kick at the potted plant by his side. The pot was ceramic, and all kicking it did was make Kellam's foot hurt. "Stupid plant." There was a very brief moment where Kellam thought she actually noticed him.

So this chapter ended up reeeeally long. Oh, well... Next chapter, Anna debuts! And Cordelia gets the bonus section!