10
"Ah! ROBIN, secretly meeting with women in your room I see" Lissa quickly spouts, a smile grows wide, the smug visage completely warping her face
Tharja frowns as Robin begins vehemently denying it but looks down as she feels Morgan's gaze on her. "...Yes?" she mutters in an annoyed tone
"You seem familiar" Morgan wonders aloud, causing Robin and Lissa to quiet down.
"Right!? Before Lissa decided to loudly intrude, I was asking her if she was your mother" Robin says quickly moving to Tharja's side.
"What!?" Lissa whines angrily but quiets down realizing the situation.
Morgan twitches and looks around, quickly grabbing Robin's wrist she pulls him away behind the changing screen, much to Tharja and Lissa's confusion. "Uh… hey remember when we first reunited and Chrom said you lost your memory… uh I wanted to mention it at the same time but I… might have also… lost my memory" she finishes it by giving Robin a dopey looking smile "oopsie!"
"…What? …and you didn't find that pertinent to tell me until now?" he narrows his eyes at her but there was no way this was going to be that easy.
"W-we were kind of busy… and plus, I guess it runs in the family… h-haha…"
The two poke their heads back out and slowly emerge from back behind the changing screen, now staring holes in Tharja, Lissa noticing their gaze also turns to look at her.
Tharja now the center of attention begins to grow embarrassed, not used to this she turns away facing her feet as Morgan hums and haws slowly beginning to circle around her.
"I'm not…" she mumbles quietly, too quietly as no one seems to hear her as everyone begins talking again.
"Did mother have black hair?... I know it was really nice and shiny buuut"
"Jeez Robin, you really know how to pick them…" Lissa hums placing a hand on her chin
"Quiet Lissa…"
"Have you ever lost your memory by chance?"
"You're not basing this on clothes, alone right?"
"What? No… why are you wearing that anyways?"
"Like it?"
"…No"
"Have you ever made this type of pie it's kind of gross but-"
"I said... I'm Not Her Mother!" she growls, the loud outburst gaining everyone's attention this time as she stands there with clenched fists.
"Oh…" says Robin seeming a bit dejected, he would have been glad to have this mystery all wrapped up along with the war.
"Now she sounds really familiar too…" Morgan hums, seeming a bit more confused.
"I could have told you that…" Lissa mumbles and rolls her eyes. Tharja's outfit hid nothing, and it was fairly clear to see she had never given birth. Grumbling a bit, she looks down, feeling a bit inadequate wearing the same outfit as her now. "Alright Morgan let's swap clothes again" she says taking the initiative.
"A-ah wait, I want to ask some questions, do you have a twin sister or like a cousi-" she tries asking while getting dragged back out of Robin's room.
"Sorry about that…" Robin says feeling like he's been apologizing a lot lately for both Morgan, and Lissa come to think of it.
Tharja at this point was a bit relieved to no longer be a centerpiece but as far as she was concerned the evening had been ruined, even if she was alone with Robin again.
"It's fine…" she mutters, feeling a bit gloomy now, back to normal for her, trying to salvage something she mumbles "If you need help… I might know a hex or two that can help you find the girl's mother…" Not that she wants to help but if it gives her a chance to meet with Robin again, she'll take it.
"Don't tell Morgan but I'm not exactly too eager to meet her mother… I don't exactly remember her and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act if I did meet her." Robin admits, figuring the dark mage likely isn't the gossiping type and will keep this a secret. He feels a bit better getting that off his chest.
"I'm unsure if things would go back to the way they were before we lost our memories, but it would be good if Morgan could find uh… a maternal figure" he pauses trying to figure out the right word, as of now Morgan was a smaller and less moral version of Robin and he wasn't very reassured by that.
"Is… that so?" Tharja smirks, quickly bouncing back at the idea of exploiting this insecurity in Robin. Placing a hand on Robin's shoulder she leans in towards his ear to whisper.
"Well… I" she starts as the door swings open; she pauses mid-sentence and sighs.
"Alright you… what are you doing with Lis-" shouts Marth who enters the room sword drawn, only to find the two now staring at her, both looking quite tired.
"I apologize…" she says and quickly pulls the door back closed, glad she could hold her composure as she exited the room, a bit embarrassed. Scanning the long cobblestone hallways, she continues her way, having made it a couple yards before mumbling.
"What's Noire's mother doing with Robin?" …hopefully the interference of Morgan and herself weren't causing too much trouble with how things played out in the past, though it's something she'll have to consider when meeting with people.
-0-
The festivities continued through the night though the next day Chrom made his first official, peacetime decision to quickly pack up the Shepherds and return to Ylisse, lest he hear Flavia drunkenly rant about Basilio again. Some Feroxi troops would be returning as well to help bolster and stabilize areas that were particularly devastated in the war. For that Chrom was extremely grateful, additionally he was grateful to Robin who he had given most of the work to begin said stabilization.
"I thought I might get a peaceful trip back" Robin mumbles looking over some maps, grumbling whenever the carriage would shake, causing him to lose his place.
"Well, you know… it makes sense to do this along the way, saves a trip if they don't have to go all the way to Ylisse first" Morgan says, having decided to help her father, or at least that's what she told him, and instead ended up getting distracted by a book.
"What are you reading anyways? One of Sumia's books?" he asks deciding to take his mind off work for a moment, and maybe roping Morgan into actually helping.
"Close! Cordelia gave it to me, she said she doesn't need it anymore" she chirps flashing the cover towards him.
"Make Him Fall for you i- Oh… yeah she won't be needing that one" he winces as he decides that moment of relaxation is done, and he should really get back to work while dreading the fact he'll need talk to Cordelia sooner or later. It's almost been a week since Chrom and Sumia's proposal, but he had to doubt she was really over the situation yet. He would like to help but having thought about it tactically, he concluded… he really has nothing helpful to say… Normally Sumia would help Cordelia with these issues but as she was the source of her grief, she wasn't a good choice… Lissa… probably not either... He'd have to think about it more later, but he can conclude he isn't the one who should be giving any advice unless it's on how to storm a castle or something.
Speaking of people, he needs to talk to, he never found Marth again after the previous night, in fact it seems like she upped and vanished after breaking into his room… Marth was definitely an oddity and always seemed to know more than she let on… and Robin was fine not having to interact with weirdos like that anymore.
Putting the map down he realized he also needed to talk to Morgan about her memory and not being so… yeah… and he needed to get out of Maribelle's etiquette torture somehow… and there was probably something else he was forgetting. Oh right…
"I'm going to be busy for a while…"
"I think you're busy now" replies Morgan who, upon not hearing a reply, looks up from her book, no longer seeing the tactician where he was sitting. "Uh… Father?"
-0-
Having hopped off the cart he walks alongside the convoy for a bit, watching horses and soldiers quickly pass by before spotting what he was looking for. Brought up from Ylisse to Regna Ferox, for the eventual ride back, Robin climbs inside one of the nicer ornate coach carriages, painted white and gold, it's a bit hard to miss.
"Lissa… Maribelle" he greets the two as he takes a seat opposite them, able to quickly relax on the cushioned bench.
"About time" smiles Lissa, clapping her hands as she leans back.
"It's quite uncouth to leave two ladies waiting you know" Maribelle huffs though given her tone she's not really annoyed yet, and hopefully it'll stay that way.
Hoping to save himself some torture in the future he tries not to whine. "Sorry, Chrom gave me some work I had to attend to… now Lissa, what was the important thing you needed?"
Lissa turns to look at Maribelle before turning back to Robin, smirking slightly "So?... Did you do anything with Tharja after I left?"
Robin stares at her and then at the ground, he should have expected this and decides maybe it's best to make an expediate exit, niceties be damned. He gets up from his seat, reaching for the door only to have Lissa's boot slam against the latch.
"Not so fast, so she wasn't Morgan's mother, but why were you two together in your room then?"
Robin caught off guard stares at her wide eyed. "What? Lissa!?"
"Oh, stop worrying, Maribelle already knows about Morgan" she waves off him off nonchalantly.
"She spilled the proverbial beans herself as soon as we met, we then agreed to keep it a secret from you" Maribelle replies, eyes closed, seeming quite pleased with herself.
Robin could only stare, mouth hanging open as he stares at the ground. "But…"
"Yeah, and Panne knows too…"
"And I believe Sumia told Cordelia."
Robin now speechless presses his hand against his eyes. "Okay… I think it's fine… it was only a secret in the first place because we couldn't trust her at first… and because it was embarrassing… but this is fine, let's not tell anyone else though."
The two ladies' glance at each other before looking back at Robin. "I don't believe any of the men found out at least…"
"If it makes you feel any better, having a daughter hasn't decreased your bachelor desirability at all"
"Forget it, let's move on… what?" Robin freezes as the information finally soaks in.
"Yeah! Well, it's not like you have much competition with Vaike, Ricken, Donnel, Virion…. Immature children or actual children really."
With a wrinkled nose and unnerved brow Robin stares at Lissa waiting for her to say she was joking, but not getting it, he begins. "Okay, well I don't know what to do with that information… but please start by taking me off this… bachelor list…"
"Cause Tharja!?" Lissa quickly interrupts, leaning forward.
"NO, because I have too much going on to deal with this right now… and Maribelle, shouldn't you be doing something to stop this? This seems very 'uncouth' and all" he gestures to Lissa, not sure if he's ever actually seen Maribelle reprimand her before.
Maribelle shuts her folding fan against her palm, seeming to think about it for a moment "You know Robin… relationships in secret ar-"
Robin jumps from his seat and tries to escape again through the other door only for Maribelle to swing her leg upwards, blocking his path.
"Just for that little stunt I'll have to expand our lessons from just etiquette to a more thorough aristocratic class, every Tuesday." She smiles, crossing her arms "we'll start now, Lissa be a dear and fetch the embroidery kit"
"Sure thing! You're going to have plenty of fun Robin, but uh I'll be hanging out with Morgan for a while" she says quickly exiting the coach.
Uncouth, can something be just plain couth?
I feel like I had something else to say here but I don't really remember right now. Might have to add something later.
Thanks for review(s), if anyone else has some writing advice it'd be helpful.
Any chapters I should rewrite by the way? I have one that seems to get way less views than the other.
Additionally, I was looking for an FE fanfiction with a premise I was hoping someone would have written by now only to find no one has done it yet. Is this the sort of trap people fall into where they end up writing multiple stories?