Robin mentally prepared himself, and then entered the meeting room. The room itself was very small, with a round table in the center. Frederick, along with some other high ranking officials were seated. However, all Robin could focus on were Chrom and Lucina, who were seated together. As he entered, Chrom and Frederick greeted him, but Lucina stayed silent and refused to even look at him. Robin grimaced. No doubt, she had been disturbed by his earlier conduct, and was too uncomfortable to say anything. But gods, just being in the same room as her was still making blood rush to Robin's head.

Chrom smirked when he saw Robin's face. "Well, Robin. I see you've received my message."

"Umm… yeah." Robin stammered, barely able to form a sentence. "No work for... a week. Got it."

Chrom laughed. "Good. Although I was a little surprised when Lucina told me how easily you gave in."

Robin gulped, trying to stop his mind from replaying the encounter in his head. He glanced at the princess, but she was still turned away. "Yeah, well, umm, I guess I was a little tired, you know? Hahaha."

"See, I knew you needed rest! Mark my words, Robin. After a week, you'll be thanking me for this. Now then, take a seat so we can get this over with, and you can start relaxing." Apparently, Chrom had assumed that Robin's strange behavior was only being caused by his exhaustion and not by any romantic delusions. Which was good, since it meant that Robin would live to see another day.

Robin looked around and saw that he was the last person to show up. Thankfully, the last open seat was next to Frederick. Chrom was seated with Frederick to his right and Lucina to his left, which meant that there would be a barrier of two people between Robin and the princess.

As Robin sat down, he figured that the meeting would be fairly easy to get through. All he had to do was keep his mind on Chrom and not allow it to wander to the woman sitting next to him, which would be simple since he could just avoid looking at her. However, Robin immediately realized the gaping hole in his logic the moment the meeting began. Because Chrom would be talking the most, Robin would have to look at him quite a bit. And because Lucina was seated right next to Chrom, Robin would have her in his field of vision. And having Lucina in his field of vision put a major complication in his "don't think about Lucina" plan. As soon as Chrom began to speak, Robin couldn't resist the urge to take a quick peek at the beautiful princess. One peek led to another, and eventually Robin found himself leaning forward and staring at her, unable to tear his gaze away. He knew it would be bad if someone saw him, but he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. Chrom's voice faded into the background as Lucina fully took over his mind. Gods, her elegant features, her beautiful skin, her flowing hair, her deep eyes! Everything about her was perfect. It was as if some kind of spell had been cast on him that wouldn't allow his eyes to leave her. Robin gazed at her, completely entranced.

Then, Lucina moved her eyes to meet his. The moment their eyes met, the spell was shattered. Robin's heart nearly exploded from the shock of being caught. He quickly spun his head away and slammed his back into his chair so forcefully that the chair moved back a few inches, violently screeching it did so.

Robin took deep breaths, trying to calm down. He shook his head in order to clear any improper thoughts from his mind, and tried to focus on whatever Chrom was saying. Which was nothing.

Why wasn't Chrom saying anything? In fact nobody was saying anything. The room was silent. And then, Robin realized why the room was so quiet. Just about everyone in the room was staring at Robin as if he had lost his mind. Only Lucina had turned way, hiding her face. He opened his mouth, trying to explain himself, but no words came out.

Eventually, Chrom broke the silence, his voice eerily quiet. "Robin? What are you doing?" His eyes were staring trained on him, full of suspicion.

"Umm… nothing!", Robin replied, trying his best to seem normal.

"Really? What were we just discussing?"

"… Castle stuff?" Robin didn't even bother berating himself over how lame his answer was. He merely accepted his fate. "Chrom knows", Robin thought. "There's no way he can't know. He saw me staring at her. He knows, and I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm...

"Gods, Robin. I… I knew you were in bad shape, but this is just… gods."

Right when he heard that, Robin looked back at Chrom. The suspicious look in his friend's eyes had been replaced with concern. "Frederick, I want you to escort Robin home, and only leave once you're sure that he's getting rest."

Frederick rose. "At once, my lord."

Robin let out a deep breath. By some divine miracle, Chrom had misread the situation completely, and was now allowing him to escape! Robin seized the opportunity, and silently walked toward the exit. Each step he took felt like a mile as everyone's eyes bored into him. As he moved, Robin wondered what expression was on Lucina's face. Was it disgust? Contempt? Horror?

"Probably all three", Robin gloomily thought as he opened the door to leave.

"Do you need to be carried?" Frederick asked as they stepped outside.

Robin sighed. "No, Fredrick. I'm still capable of walking on my own, thank you."

Frederick carefully examined him for a few seconds, and then turned away. "Very well. Let us depart."

The two walked for a few minutes in silence, before Frederick finally spoke. "So, Robin. What was the cause of that… incident?"

"Exhaustion." Robin replied bluntly, not eager to talk.

Frederick shook his head. "Pardon me, Robin, but I believe that you are hiding something."

Robin stopped dead in his tracks. His face snapped towards Frederick, his eyes widening. "I'm… I'm not hiding anything!" he yelped.

Frederick once again shook his head, and Robin noticed that the his lips were curved upward in a rare smile. "My friend, you have many talents, but lying is not one of them."

All color drained from Robin's face. "I told you, I'm not hiding anything!" he almost screamed. However, Frederick remained perfectly calm.

"Come now, Robin. There is no use in lying to me. You have certain feelings, do you not? Feelings that you are trying to supress? I must admit, I had my suspicions before, but nothing concrete enough to be certain. However, your actions today were more than enough to prove my theory."

It was at this point that Robin began to panic. Until now, Robin had only thought about how Chrom and Lucina would react to his feelings. However, the fact that Frederick was the royal family's most protective and loyal soldier suddenly dawned on him, and filled him with dread. Gods, if Chrom found out his secret, at least he would just kill him on the spot, and it would be over. But Frederick was a master of working a body to its absolute limit. He knew exactly how bring people precisely to the brink of death, and keep them there until he was finished with them. His fanatical fitness hours had proven that. If Frederick had found out about his secret, who knew what horrible fate lied in store for him? Robin's stomach nearly turned inside out as he thought about it.

"Robin", the knight continued slowly, "You are in love with Lucina, Are you not?"

Robin spent a few seconds trying to form a defense, until he realized it was pointless. "...Yes. I love her."

Frederick opened his mouth to speak, but Robin cut him off. "You think I'm disgusting, don't you? You're about to tell me that loving my best friend's daughter is wrong. You think I don't already know that!?" Robin knew that he must sound pathetic, but he couldn't calm down. Now that his secret had at last been exposed, he could finally let loose some of the wild emotions that had been building up inside him due to his feelings being repressed for so long.

"I know that I'm a weird pervert! I've tried to hold these feelings back, but you know what? I don't care anymore! I don't care what you think! Just leave me alone! I already know my thoughts are horrible! I don't need some damn knight with a stick up his ass adding to my guilt! Just let me suffer alone, dammit! LET ME SUFFER ALONE!" Finally out of breath, Robin stood there panting. His face was completely red due to his intense emotions as well as the vigor of his speech, and there were tears in his eyes, which he roughly wiped away. He realized that he had gone from being a pathetic fool to a raving lunatic, but that fact was completely unimportant at the moment. He simply stood, glaring at Frederick, awaiting his response.

Frederick, for his part, had calmly been observing Robin during the whole rant. When Robin finished, the knight looked at him a few seconds before asking, "Are you done?"

"Huh?"

"Actually, I was going to say that your feelings are completely understandable, and that you should make them known to Lucina as soon as possible."

Robin stared at at Frederick in absolute shock. "So... you don't think that I'm a creep?"

"Not at all."

"Even though she's my best friend's daughter?"

"Admittedly the circumstances are somewhat... unusual, but you both are adults of nearly the same age, so I don't see anything wrong with the situation."

"And… you're saying that I should confess to her right away?"

"Precisely. You yourself have just experienced how unstable one can become by suppressing emotions for too long. The sooner you confess, the better."

After hearing what Frederick had to say, Robin felt incredibly touched by his unexpected support, as well as deeply ashamed at how he had just treated him. He looked down and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, um…. Sorry for yelling at you like that just now."

"Please, do not worry about it. Your behavior was to expected from a man in your position. Now, let us continue walking. We must reach your quarters as quickly as we can, so that you may rest."

"Okay, Frederick… and thank you for the advice."

"Just doing my duty."

As the two walked back, Robin felt more alive than he had in a long, long time. He was filled with the hope that maybe, just maybe, he had a chance at being with the woman of his dreams.

A/N: So, what did you guys think? I know there wasn't much of Lucina in this one, but don't worry, she'll feature more prominently later.