Chapter 4: Consideration

Robin let out a yawn as she stepped into the hallway, stretching her arms out as she walked towards the library. She rubbed a hand against her eyes as she tried to remove the last vestiges of sleep from her mind. She was wearing just a simple white tunic, dark fitted pants and her comfiest boots. No reason to dress up for a day most likely spent toiling away with a bunch of books.

As she heaved open the large double doors she noticed Ricken already sitting at one of the large wooden tables, a stack of books on the verge of tipping over as he focused intently on the tome in front of him, scribbling down notes on a piece of vellum. He glanced up at her entry and smiled widely when she waved. "Good morning Robin!" he chirped cheerily.

A wry smirk crossed Robin's features. "Here I thought I was up early." She walked up to the table and leaned over it, looking at the tome that Ricken was studying. She noticed the dark purple cover hidden underneath the pages. "This is that book you were telling me about?" she guessed.

Ricken set aside his papers as he nodded. "Yep. I've been trying to translate these runes," he ran his fingers over them on the page, "But they seem to be in some sort of weird, old Plegian script." His face scrunched in thought, and Robin couldn't help the mental comparison to a bunny. "At least that's what I think," he admitted.

Robin glanced over them again before walking around the table. She pulled up a chair and sat next to Ricken on the other side of the book, peering at the inscriptions intently. She ran her finger across a few symbols. "Well, this says something with regards to life, or life force? Maybe it's supposed to heal? Like Maribelle and Lissa do?" she suggested.

Ricken shook his head. "They were using these tomes like weapons. It feels kinda….chilly...when they use it on you." He shivered at a memory and Robin glanced at him sympathetically before looking back down at the book, scanning through it. "That's weird. I don't know what would cause cold. There's no wind symbology that I can see…" She flipped the page over, as if looking for context, before turning it back.

Ricken looked over the page himself, a concentrated frown on his face. After a few minutes of contemplative silence, Ricken glanced up at Robin with a bit of confusion. "Where do you see the life symbol? I don't see it anywhere on this page."

"Oh, it's up here," she replied, absently running her finger across an embossed rune as she scanned further down the page. She didn't see Ricken's concerned frown. "Robin… how can you read that? That's not any Ylissean script I know."

Robin felt her her body tense and quickly dissected Ricken's tone. There was no accusation in it; if anything, it was worry. She frowned, her focus now turning inward. "I...I don't know," she admitted uneasily. "I can't even really read this. It's more like...a feeling?" she tried to explain. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, eyes locked on the rune as if that would force it to reveal its secrets. Suddenly she felt extremely self conscious. How could she read an old Plegian script? The only answers she could conceive were unnerving, to say the least, and downright damning at worst.

A hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her thoughts and her eyes jumped to Ricken. He looked at her with understanding, not pity or false-cheeriness. It gave her the strength she needed to kick her thoughts out of their destructive logical noose. Right now, it didn't matter where her brain was pulling these tidbits of information from. What mattered was it was helping. Focus on that, Robin.

She flashed Ricken a quick smile and patted his knee in thanks. When he jumped and turned bright red, Robin quickly pulled away, her own cheeks tingling with heat. "Sorry! I uh… is that not okay?" she asked awkwardly. She was still learning the do's and don'ts of non-wartime social interaction.

"N-no! Uh, I mean, yes! No, It's fine!" Ricken quickly denied, waving his hands hastily in front of him. "I just, uh, wasn't expecting it. Don't worry."

Robin rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously and noted that Ricken still seemed flustered. But if he was saving her from her own embarrassment, the least she could do was let him. "Alright," she relented. Her fingers ran through her mussed locks before locking in front of her on the table. "So then, with this sigil…"

Robin came to consciousness reluctantly. She was warm and comfortable, and felt a sense of calm that she'd found rarely in the last months. She shifted sleepily and pressed her head more firmly into her arms. Wait… arms? Come to think of it, she wasn't quite laying down all the way, was she?

She blearily opened her eyes and noticed piles of books. Was she still in the library? She shifted up from where she had been slouched on the table, her back twinging in displeasure. She felt something slide of her shoulders and glanced down to find familiar periwinkle robes now pooling to the ground. She blinked, her still-waking mind connecting the dots slowly.

"Oh, you're awake! Sorry, I didn't bother you, did I?"

Robin slid her eyes to the chair next to her and saw Ricken still pouring over a tome, working by the light of a candle next to him. How did that not wake her? She noticed the small pile of books that had been stacked between them and a small, sleepy smile twitched at her lips. He was awfully considerate, wasn't he?

"No, you didn't," she said with a yawn. She ran a hand through her hair, smoothing out a few tangles before she pushed the wall of books out of the way and leaned over towards Ricken and the tome. "Any luck?" she asked.

Ricken yawned as well, and Robin couldn't help thinking it was adorable, with his big, brown eyes scrunched up like that. In fact, he was pretty cute in general, yeah? From his puppy-dog eyes and his button nose and permanently-cowlicked brown hair, to the way he was eager to learn and endlessly considerate of others. And now, without his robes, she could see the lean muscle definition in his arms. How hadn't she noticed that before? Even if he didn't count on close combat, he clearly hadn't used it as an excuse to lay around.

"Uh... Robin?"

Her stare flitted from their unintentional stop on his arms to his face, which was starting to color pink. Oh no, she'd been staring! Curse her sleep-addled eyes for betraying her! Her own cheeks began to warm. "… Sorry, can you say that again?" she asked sheepishly.

She couldn't tell for sure with the candlelight, but he seemed to flush a few shades darker. Oh gods, she was so embarrassing. "With the runes you recognized, I think we might have figured it out," he re-explained. "I was hoping you and Miriel could look over the translation tomorrow, if you have time." He met her gaze hopefully, and she felt a twist in her stomach. "Yeah, of course," she answered without thinking. "Do you want me to look over it now?"

The look Ricken threw her was as close to a smirk as she had ever seen from him, and it did some funny things to her insides. It was a knowing, slightly teasing smile with, she thought, a hint of fondness. "No," he answered decisively, "You should go to bed. It's late."

She sighed, but couldn't deny his point. But she could drag him into it. "You should, too. Come on, up and at 'em," she jibed, knocking her shoulder against his arm before she pushed herself up from the table. Ricken's eyes followed her with a curious expression, but he joined her nonetheless. They both replaced the books they no longer needed, extinguished the candle, and tip-toed out the library doors.

They walked in an amiable silence, sleepiness weighing on both of them. When they reached the hallway where they would go separate paths, Robin smiled to Ricken and wished him goodnight as she turned towards her room.

"Wait! I should walk you," Ricken hastily insisted. Robin blinked at him, confused, and Ricken colored again. "I… it's the chivalrous thing to do," he rationalized.

It was Robin's turn to blush and she was thankful for the dim hallway. He was just so cute. "Oh, then…" she tilted her head towards the hallway. "I'm down this corridor."

Ricken rejoined her and the silence returned, still amiable but with a slight nervous charge to it. Ricken was clutching his books to him a little more tightly than before, which was unintentionally showing off the muscle in his forearms that Robin tried and failed to ignore.

When they reached her door, she stopped and Ricken came to a pause a step or two after her. "Thanks for walking me back, Ricken," she said, breaking through the stillness. She smiled at him, and he returned the gesture. He nodded. "Have a good night, Robin. Sleep well." As she was turning to open her door, Ricken's hesitant voice stopped her. "Hey Robin?"

She turned to face him again, curiosity etched on her face. He was bashful again, but summoned the courage to meet her eyes clearly. "You're one of us, no matter what your past is," he said with conviction, "You aren't alone. You don't have to deal with anything by yourself." Robin blinked at him, and he immediately deflated. "I… just felt like you needed to hear that," he admitted sheepishly.

Robin couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face or the warmth that bloomed in her chest. Almost instinctively, she reached out and wrapped her arms tightly around Ricken. He sputtered, but quickly regained his calm and tentatively put his arms around her back. "Thanks, Ricken," she said into his shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly, but that just added to his charm. She pulled away and almost immediately yawned, which he then caught. She giggled tiredly. "We should both get some sleep. Good night Ricken. And thank you. Really."

Ricken scratched the back of his head, but his smile he had was genuine. "Good night Robin. See you tomorrow."

The moment Robin stepped inside her room, she collapsed onto her bed, not even bothering to change out of her clothes. As she quickly fell into slumber, she held onto the warmth Ricken's words had imparted to her and it stayed with her throughout the night.

My muse finally came back! After a three month vacation, she waltzed back in and took me by storm. A lot of you wanted Ricken, and I wanted Ricken, so Ricken it was for this first standalone chapter! I really hope you guys enjoy this! And if you have any other characters you want to see have a moment with Robin, let me know! I'm planning to do at least another two chapters like this, so hit me up if you feel passionately about a character!

And thank you guys so, so much for all your support! Seeing the favorites and follows each week really helped entice my muse back! You guys are awesome!

❤ HeavensScribe