Robin sat his mug down, the container drained of the rather strong alcohol that it had once contained. The Shepherds had just won Flavia head Khanship of Regna Ferox for the next half-year, courtesy of a stunning victory by Chrom over the masked Marth who served as Khan Basilio's champion. Of course, Flavia declared the only appropriate thing to do to celebrate the win was to throw a huge party, several dozen casks of booze brought out of storage to help said celebration along.
Robin, unlike most of the other partiers, was sitting in a corner on his own, watching the antics of his fellow Shepherds rather than join in.. Chrom and Vaike were in the middle of an arm wrestling contest, the cool look on the prince's face in sharp contrast to the red and wheezing look Vaike had as he strained against the other man's grip. Miriel stood at Vaike's side, spouting off advice that Robin honestly couldn't understand, and if he couldn't, then there's no way Vaike was getting anything out of it. A number of Flavia's men were crowded around, money passing hands as the duel seemed to shift favors between the two combatants.
However, that number paled to the number surrounding the other competition. Sully, Stahl, and Virion sat at a neighboring table, mugs filled with ale sitting in front of them.
'Well,' Robin mused to himself silently, 'Stahl and Sully are sitting there, anyway.'
Virion, in contrast, was slouched in his seat, not even the cheers of the Feroxians enjoying the spectacle of the drinking contest enough to wake him from his unconsciousness. Sully and Stahl were still going strong, Sully's stubbornness and ability to hold her alcohol being a match for Stahl's sheer ability to put away food and drink. The two slammed what must have been at least their seventh drink down, only for an eighth to be pushed into their hands. Virion's was poured over his head instead, which would definitely only add to his poor day the following morning.
Robin shifted his attention instead to Lissa and Sumia, who were quietly conversing in the corner. Whether due to something Lissa said or because of the drink in her hand, Sumia was bright red, stammering something the bubbly princess. Lissa only laughed in response, the red in her face definitely caused by her drink. Robin was apparently not the only one watching this response, as Frederick quickly walked up to his charge and confiscated her drink, her annoyed cries of "FREDERICK!" being so loud that Robin could hear them even over the cheers of the Feroxians as Chrom finally slammed Vaike's hand to the table.
Completing his scan of the room, Robin's gaze landed on Lon'qu, the silent swordsman similarly on his own. Or at least Robin thought, until the suit of armor next the man moved, startling Lon'qu and tuning Robin into Kellam's presence. The two men quickly settled down (or at least Robin assumed Kellam did: he quickly lost track of him), and Lon'qu went back to nursing his drink.
Having confirmed no one's eyes were on him, Robin slipped out of the room, walking down a hall out into the frigid cold of the Feroxian plains. With a shiver, Robin walked over to the edge of the building, resting his arms against the balcony's railing. He sat there for what felt like forever, letting the cold wind brush through his hair as he looked out across the barren landscape, snow twirling lightly as if fell from the sky. It was beautiful, a calm sight Robin had never seen before.
He frowned as the thought crossed his mind. Had he really never seen gentle snowfall before? With only a month's worth of memories, he certainly can't remember seeing it, but that means nothing when he must be at least twenty.
An aggravated sigh leaving his lips, Robin began to turn to leave, only to be stopped by unexpected words.
"Hey, you okay, Robin?" Lissa asked as she walked out onto the balcony, twintails swaying in the wind. She looked even colder than Robin felt, the light red of her face a mixture of the effect of the cold's embrace and the remnants of her stolen drink. Rather than focus on her obvious discomfort, her eyes were placed on the tactician, his face reflected back to him upon their blue surface.
"I'm doing fine, why do you ask?" Robin quickly answered, turning back to the blanketed plain before him. He ran a hand through his white locks of hair, trying to muster up annoyance at Lissa for following him, but that annoyance quickly snaked back around into disgust at himself.
"Well, everyone else is inside having fun." She pouted at him, sliding up next to him. "At least I think everyone is in there. I haven't seen Kellam. Oh, and Stahl finally passed out, so Sully is trying to get more people to join her drinking contest again."
"But Frederick wouldn't let me do it!" She huffed, backing away from the balcony as she continued to complain. "I thought it would be fun, especially since Vaike was going to start by catching up to Sully's count! But no, he said it was too 'unladylike' to join a drinking contest."
She mimed Frederick's stoic tone with the last bit of her statement, looking at Robin from the corner of her eyes, as if she expected a chuckle. When no such reaction was forthcoming, she deflated, plopping herself next to Robin again. She glanced at him, the look in her eyes showing she didn't believe Robin's deflection.
The silence stretched on, Robin not willing to break it and Lissa refusing to leave until she got what she wanted. Robin was content to sit there, waiting for the princess to eventually break and drop the topic, until he saw just how hard she was shivering. He quickly shrugged his coat off, draping it around her, a squeak escaping her as he did so.
"You were getting too cold." He said in response to the question in her eyes. He turned back to the sight before him, only to feel a touch on his shoulder. His back straightened at the unexpected sensation, getting rid of the slouch he hadn't even realized he had slumped into.
"Robin, what's wrong?" Lissa asked, concern clear in her voice. She continued with "I'm not leaving until you tell me, and I will take off this jacket and freeze if that's what it takes."
Her light tap suddenly turned to batting, patting Robin's shoulder until he shook it off, a slight laugh escaping him. With that expression of emotion, Lissa's look of concern turned to one of triumph, knowing this was going to go the way she wanted this time. Robin sighed again, realigning himself to look directly at Lissa (and also block the majority of the chill from the wind from getting to her, but she didn't need to know that).
"You know that I don't remember anything before you and your brother found me in that field, right?" He said. Lissa nodded in response, a 'of course I do, what kind of question is that?' adorning her face. Robin let the silence surround them again, trying to figure out exactly how he wanted to word what would come next.
"It just makes me think. What was I before?" He said, looking at the tiles beneath his feet. "What if I was something not worthy of my current place in the Shepherds? I landed among you by mistake, who's to say I deserve it? You, Chrom, everyone else has a reason to be in the Shepherds. I'm here because I don't know where else to go."
His spiel finished, Robin lifted his head back up to Lissa. He expected Lissa to be mad at him or laugh at his dumb problems, but was shocked to see tears welling in her eyes instead. His brain switched completely from self doubt to panic. He was prepared for Lissa's explosive emotions, just not this one.
"Why?" She asked, the word thick with her unshed tears. Robin continued to mentally backpedal, trying to figure out what exactly she meant.
"Why what?" was his very intelligent response, matching the bewildered look on his face. This seemed to be the wrong answer, as it only led to Lissa switching from looking at him with teary eyes to actually crying.
"Why do you think you don't deserve to be here!" She shouted past her tears as she wrapped Robin's coat tighter around her. "Do you have any idea how much you being here has helped us?"
Before Robin had the chance to respond, Lissa continued "Because I do! Without you, Chrom would be our tactician! And Chrom doesn't know anywhere near the amount of information you do about how to lead the Shepherds strategically! He just has us hit things till we win!"
Lissa's tirade didn't stop there, as she paused only long enough to sniffle before continuing with "Chrom would have gotten really hurt at the border if you didn't have Sumia in the back ready to swoop in in case the negotiations went bad. If you didn't plan out how we were going to keep the other people off him, he wouldn't have been able to beat Marth."
Robin could only stand there, hopeless to stop Lissa's crying. Fumbling at straws, he drew her into his arms, holding the younger Shepherd as tears rolled down her cheeks. She didn't immediately pull away, which Robin hoped was a good sign.
"I don't care if you think you deserve to be here." Lissa mumbled quietly after a few minutes had passed and her tears had stopped. "You have a place here with us. Whoever you were before you lost your memories isn't who you are now, so it doesn't matter who you were then, right? You're Robin now, our tactician."
"I guess you're right." Robin sighed, patting Lissa lightly on the head. "I'm sorry I upset you, Lissa."
"Upsetting me isn't the problem." She said, pulling away from him and taking her place back beside him on the railing. Robin turned with her, the cold of the wind the last thing on his mind.
"You're important to us, Robin. Saying all those horrible things about yourself isn't ok." Lissa said, letting the snow pile on one of her hands. The flakes landed softly, building up slowly as Lissa's body heat continually fought the rising number. Once she had a decently sized mound on her hand, she turned and poured the snow over Robin's hair.
She giggled at his indignant expression. "I can't even see the snow, it matches your hair perfectly!"
"And to think I lent you my coat, only to be betrayed in such a way." Robin responded dryly. Lissa's giggles switched to snorts at that, and very quickly the both of them dissolved into fits of laughter. The wind slowed, allowing the positive sounds to hang around the balcony much longer than Lissa's crying had.
The laughter eventually petered out, and the two Shepherds returned to their vigil looking over the plain. Robin didn't want to tell Lissa, but even with her pep talk, his thoughts hadn't completely dissipated. Sure, they were no longer consuming his every thought, especially with Lissa at his side, but he couldn't shake them all entirely.
Lissa was the one who broke the silence this time. "You know, I have problems with not thinking I'm ladylike enough."
Robin looked at her, saying "The princess that slips frogs down people's shirts thinks she isn't ladylike enough? Surely you jest."
"Hey, I'm serious!" Lissa lightly smacked his back alongside those words, but the smile on her face was still genuine. "I don't have the same poise as Em, and I'm not a guy, so the nobles wouldn't be alright with me lacking in manners the same way Chrom does."
Her smile dipped slightly as she finished, a melancholy look on her face. Robin once again felt the need to comfort her, but was stumped again. He didn't notice his issues disappearing to the back of his mind as he wracked his brain trying to think of what to do to fix this.
"See!" Lissa said suddenly, poking Robin in the cheek. "You also try to help us fix our problems! So having problems is ok, but talk to us, alright?"
She looked a bit meek as she continued, "I get if you'd not want to talk to me again, after I yelled at you, but at least talk to someone, ok?"
"Fine," sighed Robin, "you win, Lissa. Don't worry: if I have problems, you'll be the one I come to."
Her wide smile was worth the snow in his hair and the tears on his shirt and coat. Lissa leaned into his shoulder as they once again looked out to the horizon, nothing but the falling snow to keep them company as the party inside continued deep into the morning.