Had to split this one into two, which works out for Valentine's right around the corner. For those of us without significant others, you have something to look forward to next Friday!
Want
Rain continued to patter against the walls, sliding past the window revealing another overcast day outside.
Lucina stirred, beginning to stretch as she did every morning, and found her movement restricted. Her brow furrowed, heavy eyelids lifting to make out a shape obstructing her vision. It wasn't uncomfortable, quite the opposite; just unfamiliar.
The shape pushed against her forehead, and pulled. Gently, like a rocker lulling her back to sleep, and she was reminded of a simpler time, when she was safe and protected. She didn't know when last she'd felt this. Like a childhood memory long forgotten.
She didn't know the last time she'd felt safe.
Her brain began to wake as her eyes opened wider, and the warmth she felt throughout her body concentrated in her face, inches from Robin's. They were on the living room couch before the fireplace. It would have been cramped, if half her body wasn't draped over him. Judging by the light outside it was still early morning, and she was grateful she'd awoken before anyone else in the house. If someone else had found them…
That was careless. She hadn't intended to fall asleep on him, but she needed to be more aware of the others now their group had grown in number.
Robin still slept, arm cradling her, chest rising and falling with his deep breaths. His face was tilted up, lips slightly parted, and she couldn't stop the smile that spread to her face at the pounding in her heart. She was here, in his arms, and all her objections to the prospect of growing close to him seemed like a million miles away. She was loathe to move, but she knew she should, before‒
"What,"
Lucina started, jumping at the hiss coming from behind her.
"Is,"
She looked up to see a shadow over them, eclipsing what light came from the window. Robin began to stir.
"This?!"
Lucina didn't have a chance to rise before claws yanked her off the couch by the collar and she stumbled for footing. Tharja dragged her half across the room before Lucina's reflexes kicked in and she rolled, squeezing Tharja's knees together and shouldering into her. Tharja stumbled away to fall against the wall, rising again as Lucina found her footing.
"Th-Tharja?!" Robin stood, swaying slightly from standing too fast. "Everyone calm down, let's talk about this‒!"
"This?" Tharja spat, glaring murder at Lucina. "This," she repeated, purple aura radiating from her forearms, "isn't something we talk about!"
Dark flames licked her elbows as her hands became engulfed in black fire, and Lucina's eyes widened as Tharja's arms lifted. Lucina dove, wave of destruction engulfing the fireplace behind her. The stone hearth began to liquefy, embers relit with purple flame.
Lucina knelt beside her boots, hand on her dagger, not wanting to harm the other woman but having no intention of melting today. Robin ran to intercept Tharja, but without even looking she cast a wall of wind in his direction, blowing him backwards over the toppling couch.
If Lucina threw the knife, Tharja would take a split second of magic to deflect it‒ Lucina would have the chance to close the distance and incapacitate her.
She threw the dagger hilt-first, dashing in an arc to the same target.
Tharja sidestepped, fully facing her again with nothing between them as her flaming arm rose. Reflexes were not typical of mages, and Lucina had gravely miscalculated her plan.
"Tharja, stop!" Robin commanded, stumbling forward.
Tharja hesitated for one full second, pupils dilating at hearing his voice before focusing on Lucina who collided with her. The two stumbled, Lucina pinning one of the sorceress' arms flat against the wall with her back as she fought to control the other with both hands. Tharja snarled, reaching for the girl's face with a fiery grip.
Robin appeared, clutching Tharja's flaming hand with both of his own. A sizzling crackle split the air, Tharja's eyes widening as the flames died instantly. Robin hissed but didn't let go, knocking Lucina aside as he knelt with Tharja.
"R-Robin!" Tharja uttered, clutching his hands in hers now, kneeling beside him as he sat against the wall. "I'm so‒ I d-didn't mean to‒!"
"It's ah," Robin winced, breathing through gritted teeth, "It's my f-fault, I should have told you last night."
Lucina said nothing. This was her fault. This was her life, she knew better. If she felt safe, it was because someone else was in danger. Tharja was just yet another example. If Lucina hadn't been with him last night, come between him and Tharja, putting herself before others…
"I-I have medicine, in my bags," Tharja spoke quickly while rising, "Wait, just wait, please don't move."
She glanced to Lucina, worried eyes flashing anger for a second before returning somberly to Robin, and she disappeared upstairs.
Lucina hesitated before kneeling, taking Robin's arm gently in her hands. His darkened hands were already shining, but she was just relieved she didn't see bone.
"I'm sorry," he smiled at her through wet eyes, "Lucina, can you…?"
"Shh, it's okay," she whispered, nursing his arm, careful not to touch the burns, "What do you need?"
"I need you to turn away for a few minutes while I weep, openly."
Lucina stared at him before her lip began to tremble. It wasn't that the situation was at all humorous, rather that he would even attempt to de-escalate such a situation with such a request while wearing that ridiculous expression on his face ‒ biting his lip somewhere between playfully impish and earnest pain.
"Are you about to laugh at me?" he asked, incredulous.
"Stop," she said seriously, maintaining eye contact.
"I just got fifth degree burns, and you're about to laugh at me, directly into my face."
"I'm not going to laugh," Lucina vowed, straightening her expression and holding his arm close.
"Good. Because then you'd be a terrible person." He stared into her eyes, "Trying to do a nice thing, keeping you from dissolving first thing in the morning, and you're about to give me a nickname like Hot Hands or Jerky Fingers."
She consciously controlled her breathing, avoiding eye contact under the pretense of examining his wounds. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her, shifting her attention outward onto him, rather than letting it turn inward and fester into guilt. He knew her, and she knew he knew her. That's why she couldn't allow herself to forgive‒
"Or He-who-spanketh-too-much."
She snorted, looking away, and he shook his head.
"I can't believe you laughed at me."
"Stop it," she ordered, wrestling with her muscles for control over her face. "Be serious, you could have been hurt, Robin."
"I was hurt. And then you laughed at me."
Their eyes met and his reassuring smile faded at her expression. She shook her head.
"Don't do anything like that again."
"If we're being serious, you can't expect me to promise that." Robin exhaled slowly as his arm began to tremble, "And I was serious, when I asked you to turn away. I really want to cry right now."
Lucina's expression softened as footsteps came down the stairs. Tharja reappeared, staring at them for a second, then approached with her bag. She avoided Lucina's eyes the entire time she doused bandages in an ointment. Lucina held out a hand to take one but Tharja ignored her, pushing past to wrap Robin herself.
The entire process was painfully awkward.
"Robin will need water," Tharja directed to no one in particular, though the implication that she herself was busy and that Robin shouldn't move made the target clear.
"I'll fetch some," Lucina murmured, giving Robin's elbow a squeeze and rising. She knew they needed some time to talk, and was surprised when Tharja rose and followed her out into the hall, Robin watching after them in puzzlement.
She would have been more surprised if Tharja tried something again, but kept her eyes on her hands for any sign of magic as the woman addressed her.
"Robin is mine. We were fated for each other, we were bred to bear children that would inherit a world, and I won't see our destiny averted for the sake of a highborn…" she waved a dismissive hand, looking Lucina up and down with a wrinkled nose, "trollop."
Lucina stiffened, looking down. Her brain was still catching up to the shock of finding herself in this triangle, this situation certainly never having been anticipated in any of her training. She knew what she wanted, but she didn't know how to deal with everything surrounding it, and she wasn't going to allow Tharja to bully her while she figured it out.
"I think I can understand your frustration…" Lucina spoke sympathetically, raising her gaze to meet the other woman's. "I would be terribly upset too, if I'd learned I was playing second fiddle to a trollop."
Tharja grit her teeth, fist clenching as her mouth and the front door opened. They turned to see Say'ri staring at them, misreading the tense situation. Her hand hovered near her sword hilt before Lucina relaxed, raising a hand.
"It's alright, Say'ri," she assured, no longer looking at Tharja. "She isn't a threat."
Tharja's nostrils flared before she rested a finger on her chin in thought, pondering aloud, "Is that why Robin was in my room last night?"
Say'ri looked like she was between a tiger and a crocodile, and made to close the door again.
"H-hey, Say'ri?" Robin's voice called from the other room, and Say'ri slid along the wall making herself as small as possible. She stuck her head into the room, spotting him sitting against the far wall. "Could I get some water?"
"I'll get it!" the other two women called, scuffling feet making their way down the hall as Say'ri moved towards Robin.
"I do not know what to ask first."
"That's Tharja, she's here with a bunch of Lucina's friends." Seeing that didn't explain her confusion he continued, "Technically-kinda-sorta, in some foreign country by entirely-archaic-and-misogynistically-traditional-methods, legally my wife… In-law."
Say'ri raised an eyebrow. "Most men do not know how to satisfy one woman."
"Yeah well, I'm twice the man." He motioned a change in topic as he spoke, "I deserve twice the number of unsatisfied women. Got something for me?"
"Last night's missions were a success but… What is wrong with your hands?"
"Trusty and Stranger have met with a terrible fate. But what?" Robin gestured again.
"But many operatives were taken while completing their missions. It appears they enabled us to pursue our objectives to ensure our capture. While we have dealt a blow to the city's defenses for when the Ylisseans arrive… I do not know how many more missions we have operatives for. Do you need to see a healer?"
"No, I think these bandages are counteracting the irreparable nerve damage. How many people did we lose?"
"We have not been able to get an accurate number yet. Many have gone into hiding…" Say'ri took one of his hands, ignoring his protests and peeling a bandage back. She sucked air through her teeth. "That is bad. Doesn't it hurt?"
"Only when someone else talks about it," Robin shook his head as he looked at Lucina's knife still on the ground. "So what do we have left?"
"Fie, enough talk of missions! The Ylisseans arrive tomorrow, we need to find whoever we have left, and you," she tightened the bandage, "Need to heal that. Try the onsen in old town. The guard do not patrol there often, and the waters may restore some of your… skin."
"Ahh, the hot-springs episode." Robin nodded in pensive consideration. "Interesting pitch, I was thinking of the beach but I don't think it'd fit. Plus this would give time for Lucina's friends to adjust to my existence, and for me to catch up with the boys."
Say'ri blinked. "Your hands are sickening, and you need to cure them before the battle."
Lucina and Tharja returned carrying a bucket between them. Neither seemed to want to let go as they approached, water slipping over the sides as they navigated between furniture, wobbling dangerously closer.
Robin braced himself for the inevitable as Say'ri stood. She took the bucket in both hands, nodding to Tharja and Lucina, clearly intending to act as a neutral party. Neither accepted the offer.
"You're going to spill it on him," Say'ri insisted.
"I won't," Tharja objected, not looking at Lucina, "And if she'd let go already, I can see to his wounds."
"I think you've done enough for his wounds today," Lucina replied calmly, also refusing to look in her direction as footsteps preceded feet appearing at the stairs.
"You guys always make this much noise in the morning...?" Severa called, appearing with a yawn before Gerome. "...What happened to the fireplace?"
Gerome's quick eyes flitted between Robin, Tharja's and Lucina's standoff, and the melted fireplace. His nose wrinkled in a silent snarl.
"Caught fire," Robin explained quickly.
"Fel-fire," Gerome specified, glaring at his bandaged hands.
"It was my fault, Gerome," Lucina drew his attention, and he frowned as she tried to explain the situation while refusing to relinquish the bucket. "I was careless, and Robin protected me."
"Don't make this about you, homewrecker," Tharja rebuked, tugging the bucket away.
"Could I have some water?" Robin asked meekly, and the battle of the bucket resumed for a second before Say'ri wrestled it away. She glared at them both and shook her head.
"Children."
She turned towards Robin and slipped on the flat side of Lucina's knife.
"And that is why I decided today would be a good day for the hot springs episode," Robin finished, holding his arms out to get some airflow for his shirt to dry as they walked through an alley, before the rain began to fall again and he gave up on the hope of having dry clothes today.
Gaius glanced at Vaike, unconvinced. "It sounds like you just wanna get away from your love-triangle situation."
"There is no triangle," Robin sighed as they made down a narrow alley.
"Yeah, it's more like a square," Vaike agreed, holding his fingers up to illustrate, "With Gerome in love with… But then Severa loves Gerome…?" he contorted another finger into the diagram. "What is that, a pentagram? Why you gotta make this so complicated?"
"No, and I'm not."
"Most men are content to just have affairs, but you go and marry another woman," Vaike continued shaking his head.
"Most men do not have affairs, and…" Robin shook his head, "Look I only told you guys about this trip to the springs because I didn't want to think about that other stuff. The others can go do whatever it is they do, Lucina can catch up with her friends, and my hands can stop feeling like they're on fire."
"You look like you wanna talk about that other stuff though." Vaike shrugged as they exited the alley and Gaius pointed in the direction they needed to walk.
"I don't."
"But… You look like you do," Gaius replied, winking at Vaike.
"Gods you know me too well. Can we just walk in silence so I can appreciate what great and trustworthy friends I have?"
"So you cornered Vaike to ask where they were going, because he's the dumb one?" Cynthia concluded.
"He's not dumb! He just… Thinks the least." Lucina explained, "I'm worried about Robin, and I want to make sure he's okay."
Severa followed behind, looking unimpressed.
"He can't fight in his condition," she continued, unprompted.
"Uh-huh," Severa grunted, eyebrow raised.
"He's saved my life on several occasions."
"Right."
"What?" Lucina asked, rounding on them.
"Are we really following you following your boyfriend to make sure Tharja isn't following him?" Severa asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lucina muttered, turning away.
"It's okay to be jealous, that means you care about him so much that you can't bear to think of him with someone else," Severa explained, "It's healthy, but only if you recognize it."
"Actually, jealousy is a sign that you don't trust your partner, stemming from self-insecurity, and most-defs-not healthy," Cynthia commented knowingly, holding a finger up, "I read it in a book. The women in this time were very educated! But if you trusted him more, you wouldn't have anything to be jealous about."
"I'm not jealous."
"It'd be okay if you were a little jealous, though. I mean, you've seen what you're up against, right?" Cynthia added, stepping behind to squeeze Lucina's waistline. "Tharja has hips for days, and don't get me started on her‒" her hands moved up as she spoke before Lucina swatted her away.
"E-enough! I'm not 'up against' anyone, and what I have with Robin isn't…" she trailed off, realizing she was about to speak about the very matters she needed to sort out.
"What?" Cynthia asked, and Lucina looked to see both girls with the fires of curiosity burning in their eyes. "Talk to us, we're your closest and coolest friends!"
It was true, Lucina could speak about anything with them, and maybe talking it out would help sort her own thoughts. But how could she express everything they'd been through? The closeness she felt to him, deeper than anything she'd ever felt before, and yet challenged with increasing regularity by more and more of the world.
"Physical?" Cynthia teased.
"What?"
"Your relationship…?" Cynthia backfilled, eyebrows raised suggestively.
"No," Lucina answered, unsure what her younger friend was even talking about.
"It isn't?!" Cynthia asked in surprise. Lucina looked to meet their questioning stares.
"...No?"
"You know what we're asking about, right?" Severa asked, visibly recognizing Lucina's familiar expression of incomprehension.
"The thing with the legs and the tongue-caressing?" Cynthia offered tactfully.
Lucina looked at her, then to Severa to translate.
"Gotten married?" Severa offered, more tactfully. "And consummated all which that entails?"
Lucina wracked her brain, imagining all the things married people consummated. Married people… shared a bed?
"We've slept together...?" she said hesitantly, thrown off by their look of alarm. "Sh-should we not have?"
"No! I mean not No!-no. No!-don't-feel-bad-no. You should do what feels right. Like waiting for when he takes you on a romantic stargazing getaway. And you're sitting on a hill overlooking Ylisstol, with the city lights like fireflies below you, and the cool breeze gives you just a little chill until he puts his arms around you, giving you a tight squeeze and you can only think, 'I'm gonna break me off a piece of that.'"
Lucina stared at her. "I already didn't do that."
"That's because you've been touched by a man before," Severa explained, yanking their daydreaming friend aside before she was hit by a passing wagon. "Get advice from someone who's actually had relationships."
Severa sighed, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but you need to be careful. Robin's dangerous. I know the things you've described sound like a completely different person, but those stories didn't come from nowhere. We don't have the whole picture, and you're so wrapped up in it, I don't know if it's a good idea to have his baby."
Lucina's mouth had been open to object, but now it remained open as Severa finished.
"Does that… Make sense?" Severa asked, unsure of what to make of her expression.
"She's getting really red," Cynthia observed, whispering, "Did you make her angry?"
"Wh-wha-who‒!" Lucina stumbled over her words.
"You were too harsh, Severa, we talked about this," Cynthia chided. "Now she's going to be mad all day."
"I'm not having a baby!" Lucina managed, staring at her friends in disbelief. "Where did you even think of that?"
"You said you slept together!" Severa defended herself, face reddening too.
"Yes!" Lucina confirmed, eyebrows raised incredulously. Severa matched her expression, half-shaking her head.
"That means sex, Lucina."
"W-well we haven't done that!"
"See now, present-perfectly-speaking, you're implying the status as subject to change‒" Cynthia analyzed, before Lucina spoke over her.
"We didn't do that!"
"So you might, in the future!" Cynthia pointed at her accusingly. Lucina rolled her eyes.
"You're telling me you've slept together‒ on multiple occasions, I'm going to guess by how easily you said it," Severa spoke slowly, "And he never even kissed you?"
"H-he has not," Lucina answered truthfully, clearing her throat, "Kissed me."
Cynthia's eyes narrowed. "You said that really weird."
"I, ah…" Lucina swallowed, nodding towards a street corner, "I think that's where we turn!"
Severa and Cynthia shared a questioning look as Lucina strode ahead.
Inigo leaned against the doorframe, acting lookout while Gerome spilled the contents of a bag out over the bed, rummaging about Robin and Tharja's room. Frankly the hot springs Lucina mentioned sounded like a much better way to spend the day. He wondered if they had mixed baths…
He yawned, turning his attention back to his surly partner.
"So them being gone is… The perfect opportunity to snoop?"
"Gather evidence," Gerome rephrased, running his hands over basic travel supplies, seeking ill intent. Nothing looked abnormal. Standard supplies, a map, balled paper, dried food.
"Ah," Inigo approached, leaning over to examine the dried meat more closely. "The devil eats. Your investigative skills baffle lesser minds."
"You make light of a dire situation," Gerome snapped, throwing the materials back into the bag and pulling the other before him. "Robin's corruption has poisoned Lucina against us, and when I reveal the truth… She'll be forced… to..."
He frowned, pulling a set of silky fabric strings from the pack. Inigo tilted his head.
"Some kind of… Binding?" Gerome inquired, testing the tensile strength. He turned, holding it up to Inigo and seeing where the strings rested. "Or harness."
"I don't think it's Robin's…" Inigo realized, looking to the groin. "It wouldn't cover… Anything."
"Well it's not Lucina's!" Gerome objected defensively, tossing it on the bed and diving back into the pack. "Of course he'd be a deviant as well. What did he have in his sick mind for her…"
"Erm, Gerome?"
"If I hadn't found them when I did, there's no telling what depravations he would‒"
"Gerome."
"Not while I live," Gerome seethed, pulling another garment from the bag as he shook with anger. "I don't care what lies he's fed her, if he thinks he can lay his filthy hands upon‒"
"Gerome!"
"What?"
Gerome looked to Inigo not looking at him. He followed his gaze to Tharja in the doorway. A petite woman, yet her presence seemed to take up the entire frame, shadowy aura obscuring the hallway from view.
It was silent for a long moment as Tharja's dark eyes glinted under her bangs, voice a husky growl when she finally spoke.
"Can I help you find something?"
"No," Gerome dismissed, looking back to the article in his hands and finding them on a nightie's robust cups a bit beyond Lucina's dimensions. His eyes traveled back to the pack as realization dawned. "...Oh."
The room was still another moment before he folded the nightie carefully, tucking it back into the Tharja's bag and rising. He brought a fist to his lips and cleared his throat, cheeks pink.
"S-so hey, I thought y-you went to the hot springs with the others?" Inigo broke the silence.
Both Gerome and Tharja looked at him, and to his surprise she actually looked abated. Her murderous glare shifted into a curious gaze as her eyes moved past Inigo.
Gerome instinctively flinched as she stepped forward but her eyes were on the bed. He'd missed the balled paper when shoveling Robin's belongings back into his bag, and the visible swirl of dark ink had apparently caught her attention. The two men might as well have been invisible for all the mind she gave them now, focused entirely on the paper she unfolded carefully. Her eyes widened.
Inigo and Gerome quietly moved to look over her shoulder. Gerome hissed, "Robin's dark magic."
"Don't be an idiot," Tharja muttered, drawing the paper closer for a moment to confirm, "It smells nothing like him… And magic like this is beyond anything we've..."
She drew silent and Inigo raised an eyebrow at her. Tharja knew more than she was letting on, and he could see the gears working in her head as she analyzed the intricate diagrams.
"You're dismissed," Tharja waved a hand at them, not taking her eyes off the paper as she sat on the bed.
"You have no right to 'dismiss' us, we are not your servants," Gerome argued, clearly interested in how the paper could implicate Robin.
"You were found going through my drawers," Tharja reminded him, still reading, "I would take this pardon, like your smarter friend."
Gerome looked around, finding himself alone with her in the room, and sighed in defeat.
"My apologies for the…" He gestured and cleared his throat. She ignored him. "If you find anything that incriminates him, please bring it to my attention."
"I won't do that."
He stiffened, closed his mouth, and departed.
"What do you mean, I can't go in?" Gaius exclaimed, staring between the mortified hot springs attendant and Robin depositing his shoes into a cubby in the lobby.
"Your sweet shoulder tattoo. They can't handle it."
"My brand? That I didn't ask for in the first place?" Gaius argued, sliding his shirt back on to cover himself. "Would they deny someone with a disfiguring scar too?"
"I don't know how to ask that."
"Try."
Robin turned back to the attendant who stared at him in shame, clearly wishing this interaction would be over. "Onegaishimasu…"
The attendant raised his eyebrows hopefully.
Seeing he was waiting for more than just a simple expression, Robin continued, raising his arms to help mime. "Kunoichi o tabetaidesu, katana wa sashimiimasu… Da-ka-ra… Kimono Banzai!"
The man sighed without taking his eyes off Robin.
"The fact that I understood some of that means this probably isn't working," Vaike broke the silence, looking to Gaius, "Can't you just hop the fence or something?"
"I shouldn't have to! I'm being treated unfairly!"
"You sound like a bad tourist," Vaike commented.
"Seriously. Please Gaius, you're embarrassing me." Robin shook his head and bowed slightly to the helper in apology on behalf of his friend before ushering Gaius away. "Hop the fence, we'll meet you inside."
"But‒!"
"Men's-only bath, that way Vaike won't make the women uncomfortable," Robin slapped the larger man's shoulder with his wrist and turned back inside, lifting his shirt and spinning to show the attendant he bore no such taboo markings. He and Vaike were led further in, and Gaius exhaled in frustration at the obvious problem.
A door creaked open, accompanying the sound of a yawn and shuffling feet. "Gerome? Inigo?"
Owain made his way downstairs, noting the melted fireplace and faint smell of food from the kitchen.
"Cousin…? Other girls?"
He waited for a response before shrugging. Looks like the house was all his today… What would he do with the day off?
He pondered visiting the Old Town hot springs, but he'd overheard a guard last night talking about making sweeps through that distract today, some big crackdown. No sense in taking that needless risk.
"Well, if no one else is around, no one else is gonna mind," he decided, stripping. "It's time for a Naked Day."
The chair squeaked as it tilted back on two legs, young girl using her foot against the desk to balance herself as she yawned. The high that came from the successful apprehension of so many resistance terrorists last night was tempered by a lack of recognition, and the monumental task of evacuating the refugee camps before the Ylissean army arrived.
A faint knock on the door foretold the limp-wristed visitor before it opened, and Morgan threw her head back in resignation, taking in the upside-down Excellus.
"You're here to complain?"
"What are you doing? Why are the refugees given food and soldiers to move away from the gates?"
"You're here to complain."
"We finally make progress against the resistance, and you squander our advantage playing charity for the homeless?"
"Okay well first, I made progress against the resistance. You licked hors d'oeuvres and ate boots all night. Second, I thought it'd be really nice if the Ylisseans weren't greeted by a volunteer peasant army upon arriving at our gates."
Excellus scoffed, waving a hand. "What if they do? Will they make a human ladder to scale our walls?"
She scowled. "Aside from the ethics of the situation, we don't need to be fighting a war against our own country. Battles don't breed cooperation or good will, and today's peasant army is tomorrow's trained resistance fighters ‒ which I really don't look forward to recapturing."
He opened his mouth but an expression of realization settled over her and she raised her hand. "Actually I just remembered… I'm the Tactician-Primus, and you aren't. I don't need to explain… Well, anything to you. So go do something else somewhere else with someone else, while I do both our jobs."
Excellus bristled and grit his teeth, but also seemed to realize he had no grounds to compel her to do anything.
"You can start that now, I know it will take you a while." Morgan made a brushing motion like he were dust, and turned back to her desk. "I need to finish the evacuation logistics."
Excellus unclenched his jaw and composed himself, turning to leave. He paused in the hall, glowering at her as she flicked her wrist, and the door closed.
Vaike stood by the door, examining his hair in the mirror across the room as he waited for Robin to finish folding his shirt without the use of his fingers. Robin held one shoulder in his teeth, and using his bandaged hand as a hanger, attempted swinging the rest into position with his free arm.
"Feel free to jusht kee' watching, thish ish much eashier than it looksh," Robin called through teeth clenching the fabric.
"I was just thinking, you seem a bit mellowed out. Compared to how you used to be."
Robin got the fold to stick and spat out the cloth. "If you're going to try to get profound I'd prefer we go back to my pentagram of love."
"C'mon dude, we never get a chance to talk man-to-man, just us, no one else around," Vaike lowered his voice and checked the hall behind him before turning back to Robin who was stumbling out of his pants. "Did she tame you or something?"
Robin leaned against a wall and shimmied his legs free. "No one 'tamed' me, I'm the same me I've always me-d."
"You're way more uptight."
"I've been away for what, two months?"
"That's how dramatic the change is."
"We've been reunited for like eleven hours!"
"Yeah, eleven whole hours and we haven't had a single scrap, or walked into a room full of enemy soldiers, or barely escaped risen."
"You're making it sound like walking around with me is an action-story, where every day something exciting and nearly-fatal must happen for the plot to be carried forward. Sustainability of that lifestyle aside, I'm curious when in the last eleven hours any of those situations would have come up?"
"Old-Robin would have found a way," Vaike sighed wistfully, finally moving to help Robin fold his pants and rest them on his shirt. "But I guess that's the natural order of things. Men grow up, get married, become fat and responsible, and never hang out with their guy friends anymore."
"We are literally hanging out right now." Robin nodded in appreciation for the pants and followed Vaike.
"So you are married?"
"When my hand is better, I'm going to hit you," Robin vowed as they continued down the hall, passing doors that led to the women's changing room before Robin stopped in his tracks.
"What? Oh you little horndog," Vaike chuckled, glancing over his shoulder at the changing rooms. "You saw that, huh? I see marriage hasn't stamped out that little spark of mischief. You remember the time we 'forgot' our gear in the barracks when the pegasus riders had just finished showering‒?"
"Vaike."
"'Sup?"
"Where are your smallclothes?"
Vaike looked down. "I thought this was a bath."
"Are we in a bath, right now?"
The large man looked around, and shook his head. "But we're going to one, right?"
"Yes, but in the same way you wouldn't walk through the halls of the castle without a thread of modesty protecting the world from your everything, you shouldn't be doing that here, in this foreign country, where we're trying to keep a... small profile," Robin explained, voice lowering as movement could be heard inside the women's changing room.
Vaike frowned, folding his arms. "You have changed! When you'd get so prudish? Old-Robin would have joined me in the buff. Like that time in Regna Ferox, when the girls were trying on that super revealing armor‒?"
"I have no idea what that has to do with me but please stop thinking of arousing memories," Robin sighed, looking to the ceiling.
"I can't help it, I'm getting excited‒"
"I know."
"What if our baths are right next door to the women's baths?" Vaike asked, looking around, "How thick are the walls? Think you could do that hot-and-cold trick again to expand the wood and make some cracks‒?"
"Vaike, I'm going to get you a towel before you poke someone's eye out. You go into that spring there, and don't come out until I bring you something to wear."
Vaike saluted, glancing up and down the hall for signs of their neighbors, but the halls were empty. Robin looked in time to see Vaike's entirely-too-tan backside disappear behind the curtain, and made back up the hall with a sigh.
His feet lightly slapped the stone floor, echoing quietly as he thought to himself.
"Uptight" might have been the right word after all, if by definition it meant he had little interest past Lucina's well-being. Though he doubted Vaike picked up on whatever purpose Lucina gave him, so much as he needed to keep Vaike under control while they avoided detection in a city controlled by the enemy. It wouldn't have been the first time Vaike's loud boisterousness had put them in difficult situations.
He reentered the men's changing room, finding the towel bin at the edge of the counter by the mirrors. Robin shook his head, flipping the lid up with his wrist and draping two over his forearm, before bringing the lid down and looking up into the mirror to see a black shadow rise behind him.
He spun and leapt back against the counter, eyes wide as a shadowy finger rested on his lips to suppress his instinctive call for help.
The shadows slipped away from Tharja's skin, returning to the folds in her clothes as she held out her arms.
"Hush, love. It's just me."
"I know!"
"I want to talk."
"Please do, starting with what that was. How did you… Where did you learn…?" he demanded, staring her up and down. His mind raced to the page he'd stolen from the war room last night. The theoretical diagrams on teleportation. "There's no way."
"And yet…" She gestured, smiling coyly at him.
"You found it, deciphered it, and cast it in a matter of hours?"
"Minutes. But who's trying to impress anyone." Tharja held herself, suppressing a shiver, "I don't think you've ever looked at me this intently before, husband. I like the attention."
Robin stared. Who was this woman? He shook his head, his surprise could be managed later. With this new power on their side…
"You're thinking of how to use me, aren't you?" Tharja inquired, drawing a stool over to sit. "Well, now I finally have something you want… Something no one else can give you… I want to talk."
Severa slid the door open, eyeing the hallway suspiciously before holding her towel tight and sliding out.
"You're not on a mission," Cynthia reminded her, walking out and catching her towel as it slipped, "Oops."
"I can't believe we're supposed to walk to the baths like this, what if…" Severa left the statement unsaid, visibly uncomfortable as she looked up and down the hall again.
"This country is very safe, and worse-to-worst… Someone sees us in a towel," Lucina stated matter-of-factly. "But this part of town looked very empty. I will be surprised if we run into anyone else."
"We just heard men in the hall earlier!" Severa countered, staring at Lucina as if she suddenly didn't know her, "It's not like you to let your guard down."
"You were always the most paranoid person I knew," Cynthia concurred, tilting her head at her. "You're way too relaxed now. It's weird."
A corner of Lucina's mouth lifted. "I know someone who would disagree with that."
"See, she's smiling too," Cynthia muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Severa.
"What do we do? It's obviously a doppelganger," Severa uttered back, fake-smiling at Lucina.
"I can hear you."
"It can hear us," Cynthia hissed, alarmed.
"Stop it, I'm the same Lucina I've always been."
"That's just what a doppelganger would say," Severa whispered.
Lucina exhaled in frustration and the girls struck poses, unmoving.
"If we don't move, it can't see us."
Lucina rolled her eyes, stepping past them towards the nearest hanging curtains.
"Wait, isn't that the mixed bath?!" Cynthia called after her. Lucina looked back but the girl was still facing away in her frozen position, stance wide, arm outstretched.
"You're not even looking at it!"
"She probably wants to 'accidentally' run into R-o-b-i-n," Severa spelled out, also facing away, hands on her hips.
"Accidentally-on-purpose?!" Cynthia gasped, "The audacity! The intrepidity! Old-Lucina would have never been so bold!"
"I'm right here! And I wasn't‒" Lucina fought to keep her voice down, cheeks warming as the girls struggled to keep their faces straight. "I am not inviting you the next time I go out."
She marched back up the hall in search of the non-mixed baths, passing the girls who held their breaths.
"I think they were actually the other way," Cynthia muttered after Lucina had rounded the corner.
After a moment Severa relaxed. "We shouldn't lose her. Doppelganger or no."
"Huh." Cynthia shrugged and called, "Hey, Lucina‒?"
They made their way up the hall and passed the corner, stopping when they saw Lucina. And Robin. And Tharja.
Lucina stood, staring at the ajar door to the men's changing rooms. Robin stood frozen halfway in the hall, Tharja on his arm, smug smile in place.
"This is‒"
"Exactly what it looks like," Tharja finished for him, squeezing his arm into her bosom.
"And super awkward," Cynthia breathed, wincing as she took a step back before Severa pulled her beside.
"This is getting good! You don't want to miss this tragedy unfold," Severa whispered, hugging the wall even though they were both in plain view.
"Your need for drama is sickening and you're right."
Robin cleared his throat, giving up on dislodging Tharja and fixing his towel higher. "This looks really bad, but we were just talking, and‒"
"Tharja, you seem to be in the wrong changing room. I will take you to the women's. These symbols can be easy to misinterpret," Lucina excused calmly, moving forward to take Tharja's bicep and peel her from Robin's arm.
The mage let go surprisingly easily, grinning at Robin as she allowed herself to be guided back towards the women's changing room.
"Lucina…" Robin called, but she didn't look back as she passed Severa and Cynthia. His eyes fell on them.
"This is even more awkward…" Cynthia muttered, but Severa stood taller, vindicated.
"I don't know what she was expecting. Everyone else knows exactly the kind of man you are."
"I did nothing except decide to come to the springs with my friends today," Robin sighed, running a hand through his hair when his brows creased. "In secret, I might add."
"In secret so you could sneak away some nookie?" Cynthia pressed accusingly, "Snookie?!"
"Is that…" Robin glanced at Severa, "Is that a word?"
"I didn't expect much from the man that did all the things we'd heard about. So I don't know why I believed Lucina for a second when she said you weren't that guy."
"Alright, I don't have to justify my molestation to the neologist and RBF," Robin exhaled, struggling to close the door with his elbow. They watched as he tried using his foot as extra leverage while he continued, pushing between breaths, "I'm going to take a bath... and I hope to not see you there, because... I don't really... like any of you all that much."
Cynthia cleared her throat, "Do you need a hand?"
"Oh you're funny!" he commented flatly.
Cynthia looked confused for a moment before Robin almost lost his footing, quickly grabbing for his towel. He adjusted it, looked at her, then Severa. "I'll close it later."
They watched him leave indignantly and Cynthia tilted her head. "He didn't seem very interested in defending himself."
"He was caught in the act! What's to defend?"
Cynthia shrugged. "I just thought someone really guilty would try to deny it more."
The door to the women's locker room opened and Tharja was thrown inside. She caught herself and rose to her full height, turning around to face Lucina who stopped before her. Tharja remained inches shorter.
"Is this where you tell me to stay away from your lover?" she asked, unintimidated.
"No, this is just where you stay away from him."
"So you are lovers, then…?" Tharja queried, smiling in satisfaction as Lucina stiffened. "Hm. I thought not."
"W-we've been through more together than you could imagine."
"I don't need to imagine," Tharja replied smugly, and Lucina grew red.
"Is that all your care about‒?"
"Yes, Robin is the only thing I care about in this entire war, which is why I deserve him."
Lucina closed her mouth. Did devotion merit affection? She herself was torn between her heart and her mind, as opposed to Tharja's singular obsession. Even by measuring actions, Lucina hardly scored better after all she'd put him through. It was because of her he'd been taken away from the warfront, and their comrades, and Tharja. Tharja, who'd by all accounts been first...
"You poor child, I could understand falling for him the way you did. I could even understand why he might let you believe it was mutual. You're useful, in a mindless-killing-machine sort of way. But you must understand that Robin is firstmost, and evermore, mine."
Lucina stared at the ground. Tharja sniffed in satisfaction, turning to disrobe. She looked to take a day in the baths in celebration of her victory.
"Then why…" Tharja slowed undoing the clasp of her robes when she heard Lucina's voice, "Do you speak as though you are afraid of me taking him?"
"There is no danger of that happening," Tharja smirked, eyeing her up and down before allowing her clothes to drop to the floor. The message was clear; compared to her, Lucina felt like a skinny little girl. She'd never cared much for her appearance before, practicality and survivability taking priority over attracting the opposite sex. But now she felt a foreign pang of envy.
She was inexperienced to be sure, but even she knew Tharja's voluptuous form was desirable. Enough that even Robin had been with her once, Lucina realized, remembering walking in on them on the ship. So some part of him did care for Tharja, that he'd… "sleep" with her.
If Lucina hadn't come back, Tharja would have certainly taken the place by his side.
"Robin's future is with me, and I will never stop until he understands that," Tharja continued, watching her with narrowed eyes now. "Who do you think you are, what privileged life did you lead, that you think you can just have whatever you want? Do you even care about the people you take from, spoiled princess?"
The words rocked Lucina like a blow from a hammer, but she contained her emotions. If there was one thing she'd learned from her time with Robin, it was how not to get sidetracked in conversation. Stay focused, decipher the meaning behind the words. Even if not all the words were entirely wrong, find the reason for the anger.
Tharja's aggression was primal, reacting to a threat to what she viewed was hers. A threat embodied by Lucina, but she was not its essence. Tharja was terrified of losing him.
"You say so many cruel things, because you are afraid," Lucina thought aloud, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."
Tharja awwed patronizingly. "I suggest you stop before you make a bigger fool of yourself. You're a lovesick girl who doesn't know the first thing about this."
"You're right. I don't, and I expect to make many mistakes along the way." Lucina smiled softly before her expression hardened, "But I know desperation well. Fear of loss has haunted me my entire life, and I lashed out in my fear, just like you. You believe he belongs to you because you've been physically intimate in the past. You cling to that hope because it's your only one. And in another life, you… I wouldn't be in the way."
Tharja's calm slowly melted into quiet ire the longer she spoke. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes I do. He and I have been through more in weeks than I have with my other companions in years. I will always be a part of his life, until I hear from his own lips he doesn't want me."
Tharja's eyes were hidden by her bangs, but her shoulders shuddered and Lucina knew she was driving the stake home. She resumed control of the conversation, letting the words come from her heart.
"He's held me close, and wiped away my tears, and made me laugh. He makes me feel… Happy, that I came back." Lucina took a deep breath as her heart pounded in realization. Tharja was probably the last person who should hear this, but somehow it made the truth that much more vital to convey. "I love him."
"I love him!" Tharja snapped along with the image of composure, taking a step forward.
"I believe you."
"He was mine by birthright!"
"He is mine by choice!"
"That is my soulmate. I've known him longer than anyone, and I will be dead before I see him taken‒!"
"He is not a treasure for you to covet!"
"He is my treasure to protect!"
"Not anymore."
Tharja's fist slammed back against the wall, sinking into stone as dark flames licked her forearms. She snarled as her hands glowed and the room grew darker, and Lucina was forcibly reminded that even in smallclothes, Tharja was capable of far more destruction than she was. But the other woman took a steadying breath, fist wresting free of the wall and relaxing as the lighting returned to normal.
"Play at your trysts. Enjoy this fantasy you're living in while you have it, but I will protect the man I love."
Lucina's eyes narrowed. To dismiss so confidently wasn't a whim, and easily backfired if it were a bluff. Tharja was planning something and Lucina wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of piqued curiosity. She turned away.
"Not even going to ask?" Tharja teased, pouting as she stooped to recover her robe. "No matter, nothing you say would change anything. I've already spoken to Robin after pra‒preparing for this moment for months. Now the cards are in my hand, I decide our fates."
Lucina glanced over to watch her pull her arms through the sleeves. "Were you going to say 'practicing?'"
Tharja cleared her throat. "I clearly didn't."
The faint hint of pink in Tharja's cheeks drove Lucina to press. "You've been practicing talking to him…? Does that help?"
"N-no!"
"'No it doesn't help', or 'no‒'? Is that what I heard last night? You talking to yourself in your room?" Lucina asked, remembering hearing Tharja's voice alone from the room when she thought Robin was with her.
"You are an insufferable child. Taking Robin back will be even less of a task than I anticipated."
Lucina tilted her head as Tharja finished robing, and finally asked, "Where are you going?"
"I've lost the mood for a bath, and the prospect of sharing more air with someone so ignorant makes me physically ill."
"You'll want to stop stalking Robin, then. I intend to be close by for many days to come," Lucina spoke with a concerned expression, as if recommending Tharja a new diet.
Tharja's lip curled sardonically as she departed, leaving the door open. Lucina watched after her for a moment, then slid roughly onto the wooden bench, heart racing.
Lucina was not in control during that conversation. The words that flowed from her heart to her mouth weren't measured or calculated; evidently the only thing she'd learned from Robin was how to antagonize, which she'd hybridized into her arsenal for combat.
She ran her hands through her hair, leaning forward over her knees. Her heartfelt words were true, but Tharja's weren't false.
They did both love him. The only difference was claim, for which Lucina's pedigree actually lessened, her past conflicted, and her own indecision insulted. If anything could be said of Tharja, it was that she was unflinchingly loyal to Robin, always. Lucina had come a long way, and even still held doubt in herself. She didn't know what was right anymore, did one give up their happiness for the sake of others? Or take what was given, with gratitude, and cherish every moment they shared for as long as they had it? All she knew was that she loved him more deeply than she'd ever cared for anyone before.
She'd learned that happiness for herself was important, that she was important, thanks to Robin. But all her life the world taught her to put others first, and if she truly cared about him… Then she had to admit Tharja was right about one thing: Robin had a future with her. A long life, a partner, children… Fantasies from the world Lucina had come from. However badly she wished it, none were guaranteed with her. Would she really deprive Robin of that life, to gamble on her?
Another pang of jealousy shot through her. Tharja was more free than she'd ever be. Free from lineage, fate, responsibility… Tharja could devote herself entirely to Robin without any reservation, while she…
Lucina's life was never about what she wanted, it was about sacrifice. She gave, so that others could have. That was her fate in the future, and she understood that to shy away from her principles now she'd finally found something she wanted more than anything else, would be hypocritical.
She would do what had to be done, as she always did.