The first clue that the practice she'd walked into was different than usual was the fact that Robyn saw someone walking down towards the field without their shirt on. It wasn't Chrom, so she wasn't too interested or concerned with the sight, but at the same time she was curious about why the guy in front of her didn't even seem to have a shirt with them. "Maybe it's just a thing here at this college to go around topless sometimes," she suggested to herself, trying to explain it without getting too invested in seeing the real reason. "I doubt he'll be allowed to practice like that, though."

Little did she know that, when she got into the stands, she would be treated to the sight of everyone on the team that was currently on the field wearing pants, shoes, and protective headgear if needed, but no shirts. Her reaction was to look around specifically for Chrom out on the field, wondering what he'd look like without his shirt on, and her wildly-turning head earned her a laugh from Maribelle, who was already sitting in her usual spot. "Welcome to what we always call the one practice session everyone should attend," she said, motioning for Robyn to sit next to her. "The practice where the captain decides he's going to let the team bruise up their bodies while we sit here and watch."

"Where is the captain?" Robyn asked in response, not realizing how desperate her voice sounded until Maribelle was already laughing at her about it. "Er, I mean, I don't see Chrom and it wasn't me keeping him occupied this time, so where is he?"

"You really only come here to watch him, don't you?" Watching as Robyn's face turned bright red, Maribelle curbed her laughter to explain what was going on properly. "He's convincing those players who don't want to be shirtless that it's not an optional thing, it's team-building or whatever term he's using for it. The only one who's allowed to have something on their top is Sully, and that's because it's morally illegal for her not to. But, you know, some people are just super self-conscious, but why do I care? There's some good-looking guys out there right now and I'm getting to look at all of them."

There were several things that came to Robyn's mind to be said, but what she picked to run with was the most shocking and important part of it all. "You're telling me that the fiery redhead that hangs out with all these guys all the time is a woman? I…I don't think you're telling the truth here, Maribelle. Wouldn't it make more sense for—" she looked out at the team to point at the person she'd assumed was the team's sole female player, but found that who she was looking for was shirtless and decidedly male in figure, "—excuse me, what? What's going on here? I don't understand!"

"If you're referring to Libra, don't worry, most people assume he's a woman when they first meet him but they quickly learn he's not, he's just a man with hair and a heart of gold." Sighing as if she was enamored with the person she was speaking about, Maribelle ran a hand through one of her ringlets, breaking the curls apart just for them to clump back together. "I've been jealous of his hair since I met him, he won't share his secret for keeping it so lovely even when he's playing baseball. Which, by the way, he only does because Chrom's sister asked him to give playing with her brother a shot."

"I wasn't aware Lissa had that much pull over people," Robyn remarked, before seeing Maribelle's deadpan reaction to the statement. "Oh, you're talking about Emmeryn aren't you? That makes sense, I guess. But enough of that, what do you mean short-haired, loud-mouthed, 'I'll punch you if you look at me funny' Sully is a girl? No one bothered telling me that about her!"

Maribelle shrugged, looking out at the team once more. "It's not that big of a deal, she plays ball better than some of the guys on the team and is proud to let everyone know it. You weren't here for the first game so you missed it, but she hit the first home run of the season, which has given her bragging rights over everyone, more or less. They got out-hit by a girl, they have to hear her tell them all about it."

"Would she really do that?"

"Clearly you don't know her very well, you'd know that she loves to rub people's faces through the dirt whenever she gets the chance." Letting the thought linger in the air for a moment, Maribelle turned to face Robyn with a smile on her face. "But, good news for you, she has exactly zero interest in anyone on the team so you don't have to worry about her as you're vying for Chrom's affections."

"Doesn't have…okay, now you've got to be pulling my leg. I've seen her sitting on those guys' laps before, you're telling me she's got nothing for either of them?" The nod Maribelle gave her in response made her eyes widen as she tried making sense of this news. "That's crazy and I'm not entirely sure I believe you."

"Ask her about that yourself, I just know from my sources that she's not into anyone on the team." Robyn raised a hand and reached towards Maribelle's throat, almost as if she was going to choke her for being so difficult, and it made her jump back in fear for her life. "I'm not going to tell you everything about everyone on the team, you have to learn some things on your own! Do I look like some lowlife gossip who knows everything that goes on with the players of a team I'm spitefully invested in?"

Dropping her hand back into her lap, Robyn chuckled at Maribelle's statement. "I don't know, you do look like you know a lot more than you should about most things. So just get on with it and tell me who she's interested in, or what's up with her little boyfriends. Either one works, really."

"I'm sorry but I can't! What I know about them in specific is personal information that I—ouch!" She was interrupted by Robyn stomping her foot down on top of hers, grinding it into the metal ground of the bleachers. "Why are you physically assaulting me just for some simple gossip, when you can ask any of them and get this same information from them!"

"Because I know and trust you, and I don't want to go ask any of them what's going on." While she felt a bit bad about resorting to violence, Robyn was beginning to get annoyed with Maribelle's behavior and wanted her to know it. "But if you're not going to tell me, that's fine, I'll find someone else who will. Chrom, perhaps?"
Maribelle shook her head in denial of the suggestion. "Chrom knows nothing but his own manly urges, I'm afraid. He knows when he's interested in someone, but knows nothing about who anyone else is interested in, including someone who's interested in him." She saw the light in Robyn's eyes and quickly shut that down as well. "Someone on the team who's interested in him, meaning not you."

"I doubt he's even noticed that I'm curious about him, if he's as oblivious as you're painting him to be. Why would he pay attention to me if he can't tell someone on his team likes him?" It hadn't dawned on Robyn that she, being a woman who wasn't associated with Chrom due to sports, would be attractive to him for many reasons, and it was taking all of Maribelle's strength to not call out the flaws in her thinking. "But whatever, I'm not getting any information out of any of this so what's the point, right?"

"I'd say there's quite a large point that you're missing, but the longer you stay oblivious to it, the better off you'll be. Just from personal experience, of course." Maribelle looked back out at the players in the field, giving a content sigh at what she was seeing. "Let's forget about all of this though, shall we? There are plenty of very attractive men to be watching today and us talking is doing nothing but distracting from it."

Even though she went along with the request and sat herself down with the goal of watching the practice for everyone, not just Chrom, Robyn ended up focused solely on him when he finally came out onto the field, a bat held over one shoulder and absolutely nothing covering his upper body from her gaze. She couldn't help being drawn to watching him, especially when so many of the other players were moderately-attractive at best; he was tanned, muscular, and had something tattooed on his arm that she couldn't quite make out from the distance she was watching at. Every time he did something, she was at the edge of her seat, hoping he'd come closer so that she could inspect him further, but he seemed to be intentionally keeping his distance from that part of the stands.

And he was, with good reason. "You really think she's only up there to see me here like this?" he asked Robin, who was standing beside him trying his hardest to look comfortable being without his shirt. "I wouldn't understand why, no one should have told her that we were practicing this way today."

"She's only ever here for you, she looks at you like a lovesick dog and it's going to become a distraction for you if you go talk to her," Robin replied, glancing towards the only occupied part of the stands, unable to see who was sitting there but having a strong guess that it was just Robyn and Maribelle, one of which was typically there and the other unwanted. "Just accept that she's into you, figure out a way to get her to stop being into you, and then you can go over there to heckle Maribelle as much as you want again."

"Please, don't act like all I want to do is heckle Maribelle, even if she makes it easy to do it. I like knowing that we have fans dedicated enough to come watch us practice." He was ignoring the part that she only attended practice to have fodder for teasing him, and to watch whoever she was interested in at the moment, but Chrom at least was being positive about someone being there. However, Robin wasn't impressed with his reasoning, because he was still justifying Robyn being there, and if there was one person he'd never want to see walk into the stands again, it was her.

"Will you two please stop chatting like we have all the time in the world and get back to practice? I'm about to suggest overthrowing you and electing a new captain," Gaius called out, throwing a curved pitch at the two that they had to dodge. "I'm thinking Frederick, he at least focuses on the game even if all he does is stand behind the plate and catch for us."

Hearing his name be dragged into the mix, Frederick shook his head at the way his role on the team was being used as a negative. "I'm sorry, but are we acting as if catcher is not a noble position for a player on the team? They don't receive the same recognition as everyone else, but are quite important in making sure the game moves smoothly. Would you rather give up your pitching glove for my catcher's one?"

"Not in a million years, because unlike you, people actually call out my name in the stands when I do something cool. Frederick who? Doesn't matter, Gaius is our guy." Sticking his tongue out to show that he was teasing, he hadn't been expecting the very guy he was making fun of standing up and walking towards the mound, tossing aside all of his equipment to keep him from being weighed down. The moment he got within range of being able to land a punch, that was when Gaius bolted into the outfield, only for Frederick to follow him, yelling out about how he needed to be respected, especially if he was someone that would be considered to be captain if Chrom was replaced.

Now without a pitcher or a catcher, the team stopped practicing entirely, standing around and starting to congregate near where Chrom and Robin had been talking at third base to begin with. "You know, I'm sure we could make the team a lot of money if we advertised these practices for all the girls to look at us," Stahl remarked, looking at everyone that was gathered there and how they were all at least somewhat in shape, but when he got to looking at Sully she was glaring at him, giving him a big middle finger. "Hey, I didn't think you would mind if girls were staring at you, you're probably more muscular than everyone here and that's kind of a thing girls like, right?"

"I don't care what the hell you think, I'd mind being objectified by people like that, thank you very much." Giving a second, different rude gesture that had the same meaning, she also gave everyone there a once-over, before shrugging. "But you might be right, I'm easily the most muscular person here by a damn mile, and that's not even partially a lie. All of you are just really, really bad at getting yourselves to look fierce."

"'Fierce' is not something I have been trying to attain in my life," Libra's soft voice replied, standing a couple paces back from everyone and looking just as uncomfortable as Robin still was, even with no one actively paying attention to him. "Being part of this team wasn't anything I had intended to make a long-term deal, and the rigorous training required to become more like the rest of you is not appealing to me."

"Then leave the team, we don't have the time to deal with people who don't want to be here," she snapped, before realizing who she was talking to and putting her hands in front of her face in shock at how she'd just spoken to him. "Damn it, I'm sorry about that, I know that you're here for reasons that aren't glory and winning games, I shouldn't have gone to suggesting that you leave."

Snapping his fingers to break up the argument before it could go further, which he could tell was likely given that Libra was actively trying to pull words together to reply, Chrom gave his input on the topic at hand. "Now, now, we're not allowed to make people pay to come to practices, and if we could I doubt the school would let us do practice this way. They already let us get away without having an actual coach, I don't think we could get away with much more than that."

While that should have been a good stopping point for the conversation, it only opened the door for more people's opinions on it. "C'mon, makin' money off of practice just so we could show off our bodies sounds like a great idea! Can ya imagine the possibilities with it? Girls losin' their minds over lookin' at all of us and tryin' to decide which one they like most? We'd all be swimmin' in girls interested in us, and that's livin' the dream, ain't it?" Vaike grinned, ignoring Chrom's shaking head at what he'd said. "I'd be down for that, hell, I'd fight t'make it happen if I needed to."

"You, offering to fight for something, what a surprise," Lon'qu immediately replied, rolling his eyes. "The less women we have getting involved in this, the better for the rest of us. While I can respect the one woman we have on the team, we don't need more following us and becoming part of our daily lives."

Two very different reactions happened to his comment: on one hand, Sully was thanking him for actually showing her some respect despite his clear dislike of being around ladies, but on the other Vaike was not taking that without some kind of explanation, especially since he'd already gotten down for the idea that was never going to be explored. "Ya can't just talk like that about women, what did any 'a them ever do t'ya?"

"We are not getting into that, it is my personal history and that is as far as you will find out. I don't need a vulgar, uneducated jerk knowing things about me just so he can accept me not liking his idea." His reply was enough to cause them to almost come to blows, but once again Chrom had to step in to stop anything from happening, giving a warning that fighting was not tolerated and that they weren't going to start charging money for practice, no matter how much they could make off of it.

That was enough to get the team to settle down, minus the two still running through the outfield chasing each other with stern words being thrown out. "I'm still not a fan of there being an audience for this exercise anyway, but what does my opinion on this matter?" Robin said, his eyes glued to Chrom as he talked, knowing that his thoughts were once again going to be ignored. "We're becoming a spectacle of a team, we need to band together and actually make it to the championship game of both seasons, we don't need the distractions that anyone watching practice from the stands provides."

"We need the cheerleaders up there, that's why we let them come." Exactly as predicted, Chrom was once again defending the presence of the ladies in the stands, looking around at his team as they all stood mostly-shirtless, itching to get to practice. "This team needs all the supporters it can get right now, with how close we got to winning last year only for it to slip right between our fingers. Do you think this school wants to keep letting us bend all the rules to have this team, just to lose tournaments? I don't think so, guys."

"It's not like they're hurting anyone being up there, I suppose," Robin conceded, prying his eyes off of Chrom's muscular upper body long enough to glance towards Maribelle and Robyn, only to find them both missing. "Er, perhaps this argument is no longer necessary, because they seem to have left. Let's get back to practice then, while we have this moment of the stands being empty."

That wasn't the real reason why they were getting back to practice, but it was about time for the fun and games to end and the difficult part to begin. Without shirts on, everyone was much more mindful of where the ball was at all times, especially once the catcher and pitcher were both back in position and actual gameplay practice was possible. Gaius was capable of lobbing some painfully fast balls at whoever was on home plate, and sometimes he would intentionally chuck a slow one directly at them to watch them dodge. This was a habit that no one on the team really cared for him acting on, but the only person willing to call him out on it was Frederick, and as they'd already spent plenty of time playing cat-and-mouse that afternoon it wasn't going to be happening again.

Every couple of minutes, Robin found himself looking back to where he knew Maribelle should have been sitting and watching, only for her to still be missing. He wasn't going to let her whereabouts distract him, but he had a sinking feeling that she was doing something with Robyn and that could easily be plotting how to antagonize both himself and Chrom all the time, rather than just the usual teasing Chrom had to endure. If he was being honest with himself, his disdain for Robyn was greater than his worry for where Maribelle was, yet the combination of the two of them was one to be scared of.

This became clear as practice was wrapping up and the two ladies came running out onto the field, arms flailing to get the players' attention. "We saw some creeps sneaking around the back of the stands earlier and were trying to get them to leave you guys alone, apologies if you thought we were missing," Maribelle said, with Robyn nodding eagerly next to her. "The good news is that they left, but the bad news is that we missed seeing your shirtless practice, and I know that's why I was here today."

"What do you expect us to do about that?" Chrom asked, not noticing that, at the mention of unwanted people being around a couple of the players had begun to hightail it to where they'd stored their belongings to check if anything had been stolen. "My team's done with practice, you'll just have to wait until we do this again. Sorry, Maribelle, but I'm not making them practice longer to please you."

"If not her, then me, maybe?" Robyn suggested, putting her fingertips to her cheeks to make a large smile appear on her face. "Come on, I'm new to this whole baseball thing and I wish I'd gotten to see whatever it was you were doing today."

He seemed a bit hesitant to turn her down as well, something that Robin standing next to him caught onto immediately, but he did tell her no as well. That was when a couple of the players piped up behind them, saying that they'd stick around to do some extra practice if it was what the crowd wanted. "I mean, if you're going to volunteer, I won't tell you that you can't. I've got homework to attend to, if I'm going to remain eligible to play I need to take care of that, but if you guys—and lady—want to amuse our audience, then by all means, go for it."

"I'm not sure that's the best course of action right now," Robin mumbled, but he wasn't heard by Chrom, because Chrom was too busy leaving the field to go grab his things and get to that supposed homework. Seeing how few members of the team were left, Robin shook his head and pointed directly at Robyn, her eyes widening when she saw his finger coming towards her. "You better not be planning to ruin anything around here, I promise you that if anything goes wrong while you're out here I will make sure Chrom knows you did it."

"Chill out, Grimsley, it's not like I'm planning on doing anything except watch some shirtless fellas do what they do best," she replied with a laugh, even though she was shrinking back at the accusatory finger still in her face. "You can go follow everyone else and be lame, or you can stick around here and hang out with the rest of us."

He dropped the finger but did not seem happy as he said, "I have a class to attend in twenty minutes, I cannot afford to stick around here any longer than I already have. You behave yourself, Grimmel, you're not fooling me with how you're acting here." She was left wondering how to respond as he turned and began chasing after Chrom, calling for him to wait up for him, and a major part of her wanted to follow them and prove that none of this was really over.

The chance to do that would have to come another day, she currently had Maribelle and three baseball players to deal with. One of those was easy to handle, because her and Maribelle shared similar goals in wanting to watch the team and maybe make things more difficult for a certain blue-haired captain if given the chance. But the others, they didn't know anything about her beyond her name and even that was questionable at best, and they all shared a class together! "So, we're practicing for these ladies, right?" one of the three players who were standing around still asked, looking at the other two with uncertainty in his eyes. "But none of us are exactly…good at pitching, so batting's out. What are we going to do for them?"

"Oh no, you don't actually have to do anything," Maribelle said with a laugh, watching all three of them snap from their individual focuses to staring at her. "While it would be nice to see you in action, we aren't actually expecting anything from you. Sorry if that bursts your bubble there at all, Stahl."

"No, it really doesn't. I didn't think you'd want to see something from the most average player on the team, anyway." While he might have been accepting of the fake-out of plans, the other two were not as easygoing about it and were already starting to kick up a fuss, to the point that at once he got punched in both shoulders and had two different demands to not be so passive about things. "Ouch, you two, I have feelings you know. Feelings, like pain and hunger. Can we go eat?"

"Normally I'd be down for dropping everything to eat, but I agreed to do some extra practice and I'm not leaving until I get to do it." Popping her knuckles on the hand she'd punched him with, Sully shrugged off the defeated look that Stahl gave her. "Sorry, but if you want to leave that's on you. Pretty sure I've got someone here who will help me the best he can, isn't that right?"

She glanced towards the person who she was referring to, and how he was staring blankly back at her, as if he didn't know what she'd just said. It took her loudly calling his name to get his genuine attention, and then a repetition of what she'd said to get him to actually understand what was going on. "Oh yeah, y'know if there's anyone who'll be around t'do that sort 'a thing, it'll be the Vaike, hands down. Wanna let me flex my muscles for these ladies and start this off with a little runnin', or are ya scared I'll stomp ya into the ground?"

"I was looking more for you attempting to pitch so I could show off my batting skills, but a race is fine by me. Try not to let your ego get too far ahead of you, I'd hate to hear you tripped over it while trying to catch me." Their banter was playful, and after they'd lost their third person the race properly started, the two shouting insults back and forth even as they were running against each other, no actual end defined.

"Let me guess, that's normal behavior for them?" Robyn asked, not paying any attention to the footrace that was happening as she watched Maribelle's head-shaking reaction to it, which turned to a nod once the question was asked. "Interesting. They seem like they're all good friends, the three of them. Is that also normal, or…?"

Maribelle went back to shaking her head as she replied, "It's normal, but it's clear that there's something else going on between them, don't you think? I've been trying to decipher it myself, and Lissa and Ricken have assisted as much as they can, but all we know that none of them are strictly straight and—"

"None of them? Huh, interesting." Tapping a finger to her chin in thought, Robyn hear Maribelle give a displeased grunt before she realized what she'd done, and so she sheepishly apologized for interrupting her. "That was rude, I guess I was just surprised to hear that."

"—oh, trust me, if you bring it up with any of them they'll deny it until their last breath. I believe that's most of the reason why they stick so strongly together, to give the impression that they're interested in each other, but I see right through it." Pausing, Maribelle turned her head to see where the runners were (and found them in the outfield, screaming at each other without any movement between them), and she sighed. "Let's just go, I know you wanted to come down here for Chrom and he abandoned you like a true gentleman wouldn't. I'm not sure what you see in him, but he isn't worth it."

At that specific moment, Robyn's mind wasn't focused on Chrom or anything about him, but rather about the members of his team she'd just learned about. Something they were sensitive about having brought up to them? She loved knowing people's weak points, and she'd just been gifted several of them without much effort. "I think going's the best idea, sure," she replied, closing her eyes quickly to refocus on where she was. "Maybe if we're quick we'll catch someone on the way out."

"I highly doubt that," Maribelle said, gently patting Robyn's shoulder, "or at least, not the person you're hoping for."

"Right now, I'm hoping for someone else, so it could happen." It didn't, but Robyn knew who she needed to learn about next, and she knew how she'd learn about them, it was only going to have to take a bit of a peace offering.

Slowly, Robyn found herself getting invited into the fold of the baseball team, everyone coming around to accepting her as their newest fan (minus Robin, but she knew that his disdain for her would never ebb). She made it a point to attend as many practices and games as she could manage, skipping only the ones that contradicted her class schedule or other plans that she had made, and she figured that once they knew her to be reliable on showing up, they'd start inviting her to more team events that weren't open to others. There were a couple parties that she got on the invite list to, and there was one study session for Ethics that she attended with the team, but for the most part her relationship with these people remained strictly as a fan.

The one exception to that was Chrom, who was definitely smitten with her, and she wouldn't be lying if she said she felt something for him as well. He wanted to do all he could to impress her, to make her feel like she was included as part of the team despite not being a player or a manager, and it drove his right-hand man crazy with how much he talked about her. "I'm telling you, she's bad news, and her getting so close with everyone is not going to end well," Robin warned, for what felt like the millionth time as they were in the locker room before their last game of that half of the season, the last time they'd take the field before the tournament that determined if they were playing next semester or not. "I know you think she's a good luck charm, but she's not, trust me."

"We've been winning with more points than ever, and very little's changed about the team itself since she started attending games, so I'm inclined to disagree with you there." Smiling at his phone as he read a message from Robyn about how she was in the stands cheering for them that day, Chrom looked up not to see his exasperated friend but to see the awkward state of the rest of the locker room, players eyeing each other with a tension that he couldn't quite place the source of. "Uh, Robin, have you noticed that some of our players are acting a bit weird today?" he asked, going back to reading the message instead of waiting for an answer. "I'm going to say it's nerves but I wonder if it isn't."

"I haven't heard of anything weird going on, no." Robin's reply came with a quick scan of the state of the room, seeing how certain players were avoiding each other's eyes, how others were talking to people they tended to avoid, how it seemed like none of them particularly wanted to be in the same room as anyone else there. "But it looks like there might be something, perhaps there's a smear campaign against the team and everyone's let it get to them? But that would be strange, as I haven't heard anything about it…"

"Do me a favor and find out what's going on, I can't have our team throw away our bid to the tournament right now." Tossing his phone into his locker after sending a message to Robyn in response to hers, Chrom gave a wave towards Robin as he headed out to the field to see the fans in the stands and get a glimpse of the last team standing between them and tournament play. Robin shook his head, wanting to give a rebuttal but choosing not to because of how close it was to game time, knowing that if Chrom was upset as he took the field the results could be disastrous.

Even with some quick investigating, no one was saying anything about what had made the air in the room so sour. Ultimately it didn't matter, because if no one was going to say anything then there wasn't going to be anything done before game time, and once everyone was out on the field they seemed to bounce back to their normal selves, even if there was a tad bit of shoulder-to-shoulder behavior with a couple people that hadn't ever behaved like that before. It was enough for Robin to notice during the game, and it was more than enough for their dedicated fans up in the stands to notice as well, specifically Robyn and Maribelle, who both seemed amused at how the team was now interacting with one another. They talked back and forth about how the dynamics seemed different, and how they were changing plays to get to interact more, as if those were positive things to notice.

In Maribelle's mind, seeing Chrom's team come together different might have actually been a positive, but for Robyn it was nothing short of a disappointment. She'd been working so hard to build a rapport with these people and get them to intermingle and know each other in ways that they hadn't intended, and here they were working through the obstacles she'd created as if they were actually good things. Watching them win that game and get their bid to the two-game tournament to determine which team in the region got to go to the league season made her heart ache, but as she later learned they would have gotten a bid anyway based on how the other teams in the region ended their seasons.

Everything felt like it had been done for nothing over the next week, as the team was celebrated on campus for making it to the tournament once again. She shuffled between classes, trying to limit her interactions with people on the team as she decided what she was going to do about them. Her plan for ruining this season had been hastily built and executed and had come up short, and now she had not quite a week to come up with a last-ditch effort to end things on a bigger stage. She had friends in dark places to call on, people expecting her to do something about Chrom and his team that she'd been working for from the start, and now she needed to perform her best to make them perform their worst.

Yet no one was going to say that Robyn's plan to ruin the regional tournament worked either, but with all things considered having it work out would have been bittersweet at best. Since getting there took some travel across islands, she had been invited to attend by Chrom himself, because he thought that she would be interested in seeing him and his team in their biggest game in the region. She had told him to his face that she wasn't going to be able to make it, naturally lying because she'd been intending on showing up whether he invited her or not, and a last-minute invitation was easy to deny.

It was even easier when, because he felt bad for not inviting her until it was too late to make plans, he decided to take her out for a meal just to talk before he had to leave for the big game. They did talk, she was able to make him eat up her denial of the invitation even more, and she even managed to get her hands on his phone so that she could take a couple pictures of herself as a good luck reminder (among other things that he didn't even notice). Then, after handing his phone back to him, she had one sly comment she felt necessary to make: "I've always heard that guys like you, popular with the ladies and all that, have a secret folder of nudes on their phone. Do you have one?"

"Do I have…one? I've never really thought about sending pictures like that before, it doesn't feel like it's ever appropriate, you know?" Chrom was surprised to hear what she'd said, but to see her crestfallen expression at the fact that he didn't have anything to show her made him feel even worse about the situation he'd gotten himself into. "If you were my girlfriend I'd be able to show you, uh, that stuff without pictures, but since we're not dating I, er, don't know if I should…"

Hearing Chrom get so flustered brought butterflies to Robyn's stomach, and she reached across the table to grab his hands to comfort him. "Don't worry, if you send me them they'll be seen and deleted. I just, well, want to know what a big, strong guy like you might look like underneath all those clothes." She was laying it on thick, but she had a mighty need right then to get these pictures from Chrom, no matter what the cost. "What do you say, just this once?"

"I'll consider it, but if I'm sending these then you should have to do something in return for me. I don't know what, exactly, you should do, but I'm not sending naked pictures for free." Every word was dripping with uncomfortableness, and Robyn was eating it up because she loved seeing Chrom in this position. "I do have to make it up to you for forgetting to tell you about the game tomorrow until today."

"If you send me something, I'll send you something in return," she told him, giving him a seductive smile once she'd finished speaking. "It's only fair that I do that." Except that wasn't what she intended on doing even slightly, because her plans for the next day already involved risqué photos and being at his little tournament game. That night, after they'd gone their separate ways without anything more than an apology and a reminder that they could be exchanging nudes for nudes, she went back to her place and looked at her half-packed suitcase, laughing when she saw a rolled-up posterboard sitting inside of it. "Oh Chrom, you're so dense that you just don't get when you're being played," she said to herself, before beginning to pack on top of everything already in the bag. "You'll learn to regret your kindness soon enough, or else you'll be regretting something bigger."

Chrom was completely unaware of anything Robyn was planning, as he'd already gone into focus mode on the game the next day. He did make good on that promise he'd felt he'd been roped into, sending a couple pictures without context, because she'd know the context for them, and fell asleep waiting for her reply that never came. When morning rolled around, he was a bit disheartened that he'd been played like that, but he couldn't dwell too much because there was an hours-long bus ride to the stadium where their two-day tournament was being held. This was it, this was them getting ready for their regional win and their bid for league play in the next semester, and he couldn't let himself get distracted by a girl when so much else was at stake.

The game started exactly as every game they'd ever played had, but almost immediately the team knew that something was amiss. There were hecklers in the stands, fans for one of the other teams in the tournament, which was strange given that the team they were there for was playing on the adjacent field at the same time—meaning that they had some reason to be there booing and chiding the Ylissean team, rather than rooting for their own. This was a team used to weird things happening to them, though, and so they shook off the jeers and played the best game they could manage in those circumstances.

Things were not made any better when, halfway through the game, an announcement rang through the stadium for security to take care of a pornographic distraction in the stands. It was one of those announcements that needed a double-take to be understood, and bewildered most of both teams on the field started looking around for what was being referred to—and when Chrom saw it, he first felt himself getting rather warm, before the feeling of shock at the image overcame him. It was a poster of Robyn wearing absolutely nothing, but he knew she wasn't anywhere near it, she'd said she wasn't going to be there and he had zero reason to doubt her word. Someone must've been playing a dirty trick on her to try and fluster him, and it was working, badly.

Trying to focus after the situation was dealt with was difficult, but the announcement specifically stated that it was a male who was holding the sign who was taken out of the stadium, which was the final proof that Robyn herself had nothing to do with it in Chrom's mind, and that meant that he didn't need to worry about her being involved. She was back at the school, safe and sound, and possibly unaware that someone had leaked one of her private images like that, but she was a strong woman, she'd know how to handle it.

Somehow, they won that game, even if he was a bit out of sorts for the rest of it, and he made a mad dash towards the locker room the moment he could, dodging his teammates as well as the college newspaper staff trying to get interviews. As he was running across the field, standing right above the entryway to the locker room was Robyn herself, looking frantic until she managed to lock eyes with him, and he slid to a stop as he looked up at her, her reddened face a surprise to see. "I thought you…weren't going to be here?" he asked, trying to stop his heart from racing. "If you were here, does that mean that you, uh, saw what I saw out there?"

"Ugh, yeah, someone stole that from my suitcase I guess, I brought that as a surprise for you after you won and I got to see you," she replied, her voice seething with rage that seemed to cool with every word. "Guess your whole team got to see my nudes, oh well. If they were interested in them before this I'm sure they would've asked."

"Y-yeah, I'm sure they would have." He needed to clear his mind, he'd seen her naked and she'd seen him naked and one of those situations had been in front of a lot more people than it should have been. "I'm gonna, ahem, go now, before my team gets over here and sees me talking to you. Let's chat later, okay?"

She dismissively waved him off, acting like her feelings were hurt at his behavior. As he ran into the locker room, she headed away from that entrance, a smug smile crossing her lips. "I can't believe how dense he is," she muttered, thanking her lucky stars that he hadn't pressed too many questions into anything, or even asked her about what she was supposed to have been sent the night before. She wouldn't have admitted to him that she hadn't gotten his pictures (but that someone definitely did, that much was true), or that she'd paid some guy rooting for a different team to hold up her "sign" for her, so that her hands weren't dirtied with the criminal charges that came with it. She wouldn't have even told him that she'd been planning to show up all along!

The heckling hadn't been her doing but she wished it had been, and with how powerful it was she knew that once the championship game happened, as long as the team those fans were there for won, the Ylissean team was beyond screwed. It did raise the question of why those fans were at that game and not cheering for their own team, but she knew she'd get the answer for that soon enough. Right then, though, she needed to get back to her room and begin tying together the final strings of Chrom's downfall.

While she went to do that, her name doppelganger was on a mission to get answers of his own. "Hey, are you ever going to tell me what that was you were doing last night?" Robin asked as he was coming into the guest locker room immediately after the game, before the rest of the team had managed to get off the field from their celebrations, slamming the only open locker closed because it was Chrom's and he was standing right next to it. "That was a pretty big distraction you caused with your 'lady friend', I hope you know."

"Sorry about that, I didn't know pictures of her would come to an away game this far from the school and I thought extending the offer for her as a person to come was a friendly act. Next time I'll make sure that she doesn't have any tricks for me up her sleeve when she comes to a game, promise." He'd come into the locker room right away to message Robyn to tell her that he'd enjoyed that photographic display during the game as well as her surprise appearance in the flesh, neither of which had been expected, but now that Robin was kicking up a fuss he figured it would be in bad taste to be telling the girl he so strongly hated how much he loved her little surprises, even if they were executed badly. But while he'd briefly been in their message thread, he couldn't find the pictures he'd sent her, which was odd because he hadn't deleted them completely from his phone yet.

To his surprise, there was a conversation up at the top of the list that he didn't think he'd sent anything to in a few days, and it was while looking at that conversation that he noticed the little heart next to the name, which he didn't remember Robin's contact information ever having. The gears in his mind started to turn and he glanced to Robin, who was eyeing below the belt a bit suspiciously, and he felt his blood run cold. The distraction he was referring to might not have been the nude sign up in the stands after all. "O-oh shit, I didn't mean to send you those pictures, those were meant for my almost-girlfriend and I guess I screwed up, or maybe Lissa changed my contacts, or something just went weird and I sent them to you on accident."

"Ha, why would you send me nude pictures on purpose?" Awkwardly laughing to try and move past what they'd just discussed, Robin couldn't quite pull his eyes off of where Chrom's pants clung tightly to his legs and groin area, knowing exactly what underneath the pants looked like (even if he wasn't supposed to know). "I hope she wasn't expecting them, you'd have disappointed her if she was. And maybe her acting out during the game was because she was deprived of some quality nudes, hm?"

"That might be it, now that I think about it." Going back to looking at his phone, and fixing the issue with his contacts, Chrom was clearly none the wiser that the mistake that had been made was completely intentional on someone's part, and that they'd never admit to doing such a dirty act. Yet when he went ahead and sent Robyn those same nude images that night, just because she'd been the one who'd asked about them—even if she'd meant for them to be sent to the wrong person all along—she couldn't help but be hopelessly attracted to them, even if her overall intentions for the pictures were horrible.

The only thing that stopped her from forwarding them to everyone at the college was the lack of accessibility she had to everyone's contact information, otherwise she'd have ruined Chrom's life and career in sports right there. But she had bigger things on her mind at the moment, and it all came down to what happened the following day, starting that next morning. It was then that she paced around her hotel room, glancing at the clock on her phone every couple seconds just to see what time it was, in case by some miracle the entirety of the game had flown by. She knew that she'd be expected to be showing up at some point, with how everyone she knew there in Ylisstol was going to be cheering on the team, but she couldn't go. As much as she loved spending time watching Chrom and his team, she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep doing it earnestly with the team they were playing for the championship title.

The Plegian team was in the middle of a surprise renaissance year and, honestly, watching them beat the previous season's champions would be nothing short of amazing. It wasn't that Robyn liked anyone on their team (not like how she liked Chrom, anyway), but that she wanted to see the underdogs win. She wanted to hear the pain in Chrom's voice when he had to break the news to everyone that their season was over halfway through, that there wouldn't be any practices or games in the next semester because they'd lost to a team that hadn't won a single game the year before. Shivers went down her spine as she thought about how much pain he would be in doing that, about how much he'd need someone to support him in the aftermath…how much she could abuse his attraction to her in that time.

Her phone started ringing in the time she was looking away from it and she immediately answered it, expecting to hear the caller ask her where she was. "You've missed it," the sultry voice on the other end said, sounding displeased with whatever was going on. "The team didn't even make it onto the field before the game was called, this happening after it was postponed yesterday."

"Which team?" Robyn asked, preparing to throw her shoes on so that she could run down to the stadium to get a look at the upset Shepherds sooner than expected. "You can't call a girl and tell her that without all the details, Tharja!"

"The Plegian team, who do you expect? Apparently there was some 'inappropriate conduct' behind the scenes with the team staff yesterday." Even though they weren't in the same room, Robyn knew that Tharja was rolling her eyes at what news she'd just delivered. "It's stupid, they got told either get disqualified for all of next year or lose their placing this year and they chose to lose it. This is why I don't care about this team, the school's the worst when it comes to decisions like this."

"They gave up their chance at the title? Are you kidding me?" Wanting to throw her phone down onto the floor in anger, Robyn instead kicked the bottom of the bed, causing her foot to throb in the process. "They were supposed to beat the Ylisseans! I wanted to see Chrom cry in front of me!"

Tharja dryly laughed, before saying, "Come up with a different way to do it then. I'm behind you the whole way, you know I only want what you want."

"And what I want is what he wants, you know this." Robyn was bouncing on one foot as she tried looking at the damage she'd caused to the other one in her angry kick, but all she could see was that it was red and tender from the contact. "The team failed to give us what we needed, so you know what this means, don't you?"

"Of course I do, looks like you're going to have to be working at this longer than we'd planned. All for your father, but what a waste of time if it doesn't work." Tharja was laughing again, her hand covering the receiver of her phone to muffle the sound slightly. "You're committed to making this happen against all odds, even if the Plegian people can't keep their act together to help you."

"The only thing in my way now might be the schedule itself, but I promise you I will make this work out. Father will get what he wants out of me, I am not going to disappoint him over this." Robyn hung up the phone, throwing herself onto the bed as she let Tharja's words sink deep into her heart. She'd already done so much work to sabotage this Ylissean team, now she'd have to do even more, but to see Chrom suffer at the end of the day…there was no sacrifice of her time she wouldn't make to see that happen.

A/N: hiya this would've probably been finished sooner had I not been in the middle of hyperfocusing on writing something else, sorry. next month's chapter might be a bit delayed as well, but we'll haveta see on that

also Robin has been warning all along that this woman is trouble, why has no one listened to him?