Chapter Two
The sounds of melodic humming danced inside Robin's eardrum that following morning as he was slow to rise. Due to the title of his role, his duties regularly required the tactician to be up just before the sun could grace its light over the camp. As his eyes began to crack open, he could just make out a silhouette sitting in front of him at the small, rounded table. Soon, that silhouette began turning into Lucina. Robin watched as the blue-haired woman was leisurely brushing her hair and singing a small tune to herself.
Robin couldn't help but smile. "Good morning, beautiful." He spoke softly, trying to find his voice.
Lucina jumped with surprise before turning to face the white-haired tactician, her face, slightly red with embarrassment.
"Robin!" She exclaimed. "You scared me half to death! I nearly forgot you were still here."
"So, in other words, I could compare with Kellam?" He chuckled.
The crowned princess rolled her eyes as she stood up from her seat and made her way over to him.
"Good morning, handsome." She said lovingly before kissing the man. "I think you need to go quickly, the sun is almost out, and I'm not sure how the others would feel seeing you sneak out of the Exalt's daughter's tent in such a disgraceful manner." She pointed out that the tactician was only wearing his trousers as the rest of his clothes were lazily piled up next to one of his boots, the other mysteriously missing.
Looking through the small slit between the gaps that lead out of the tent, Robin could see a sliver of sunlight ready to shine at a moment's notice. Wasting no time, he quickly sprang up and fumbled around putting on his clothes along with the one boot he had.
"Have you seen my other boot?"
Lucina shook her head. "Sorry, but I suppose it's normal since this place is a mess."
Robin looked at Lucina in disbelief her tent was 'messy' considering his tent was almost difficult to walk in from the many books, and embarrassingly food. With a quick sigh, the man knew he had no choice but to dash his tent, even with one boot on.
Lucina couldn't help but giggle at the sore sight of Robin hoping his way over to exit the flap. Just as he got there, she cleared her throat, getting his attention.
"Is there something you're forgetting?" She hinted, sticking out her lips with a big, fat smile.
Robin stopped in his tracks and quickly hopped back over to Lucina, kissed her, and then whispered in her ear.
"I know you hid my boot, but where, I suppose I'll find out later." He said before hopping back and exiting the tent, leaving a hysterically laughing Lucina behind.
His path, back to his tent, was even shorter than last night, as the one-boot man seemingly sprinted hopped his way back to his, nearly catching the glances of some soldiers, now exiting their tents, and heading towards the mess hall.
"Almost there!" He told himself as his tent was now in view.
After several more hops and two long strides, giving up on keeping his sock clean, Robin made a long-distance dive right into his tent only to meet several tall piles of books and molded food head-on. The dense cover on several of the books mixed with them being stacked in piles forming a wall was strong enough to hold the tactician back from entering his tent fully. Only the lower part of his body still stuck out of the tent as his brain, dizzy from the pain of just headbutting his volumes, tried to comprehend his inability of barging through.
"Hey, Robin, are you alright?" A voice asked as Robin could feel the person's finger poking his legs to make sure he was still alive.
Robin could only let out a small groan due to still being in a daze. He soon felt a hand grab his shirt and slowly help him up from the pile of books that were now scattered, even more, some lying on top of him.
"Thanks," Robin said quietly in embarrassment as he turned to the good Samaritan.
"It's no problem at all." Stahl smiled. "I'm just glad to see you're not drunk like some of the others."
Robin laughed. "That would be a bad look, not that I don't already look the part." He pointed to the one boot he only had on.
Stahl could only keep his smile as he patted Robin on the shoulder and sped walk away without another word.
Robin sighed as he walked into his tent, observing the now new mess of books knocked over and lying all over the ground. Some had opened during the fall creasing some of the pages while some sat soaking in the bacteria-filled rotten food.
'Maybe I should spend the day cleaning?' He thought to himself as he picked up some of the volumes to avoid any additional damage.
Stacking them neatly as possible, Robin began organizing as best as possible, trying to imagine how Lucina's room was compared to his. Collecting the old food that had also attracted flies and tossing it away accordingly, by setting it ablaze in the nearby campfire. Several soldiers looked on with wonder as they watched their leader take the time to clean up his tent. Several began making bets in the process as Robin continued with his self-motivated task.
"I bet the Exalt complained." One laughed
"I bet he's expectin' company later." Another joked
"Maybe he heard about the list?" One began to worry.
Robin could hear some of their chatter but didn't let it stop him one bit. Especially the part about the list. He knew he only joked about it but was a tiny bit concerned that it was true and began to think in the past how it seemed coincidental that everyone had something going on whenever he would invite them to discuss the latest book or just have a pleasant conversation.
Walking back into his tent, after unloading what seemed to be the eleventh trip to the campfire to incinerate the last of the food that could poison an elephant, he began his work on stacking his books back on the shelves. Once the shelves were full, any remaining books would be stacked neatly in piles next to the bookshelves, allowing space for entry for anyone, especially him. As he went through stacking the books, he even found some that he had borrowed from others in the camp. Several tomes from Tharja on curses, a few mystery novels from Ricken, and one large cookbook from Sumia with a few of her hand-crafted recipes.
"I'm starting to more understand why no one else would loan me their books." He came to the realization, placing the loaned books in their pile to ready them to be returned to their rightful owners.
With the last of the books put away, Robin turned to face his bed and could only sigh with laughter as his missing boot was neatly standing on his bed. Attached to the top was a small note with a winky face signed by Lucina.
