Author's Notes: Ahhh...sorry for such a slow update. I wasn't sure where to cut the chapter.

Also, I'm not sure if it was clear, but I thought I'd clarify. Robin is strictly answering Frederick's questions, but as the narrator, I'm going further into the past to reveal more.

Chapter 8:
Broken (Part 2): Friends

Robin readjusted herself in the bed. She gathered her hair over her shoulder, allowing it to hang freely as she propped herself on her elbow. She pulled up the covers closer to herself before continuing.

"I happened to come across Chrom every time he broke something," said Robin, her eyes crinkled. "If you ever find something broken in your office, it was probably Chrom."

Frederick listened with a keen attentiveness to everything Robin had to say. She didn't open up much about her past. When inquired about it, she'd charm her way out with a smile and say that the past didn't matter when she had to savour the present and prepare for the future.

It dawned on him that today was probably going to be a lazy morning n bed with Robin. He couldn't recall the last time he had one of those days. It was always work, work, work.

"Actually, now that I remember, I broke my nose when I was with him," said Robin.

"How?" asked Frederick in a concerned voice.

"It wasn't anything serious. We were at a house party and I tripped and smashed my face into a wall. That's what I get for wandering around drunk. I ended up fracturing my nose, but I don't think it was serious considering they didn't need to do any X-rays or surgery," said Robin. "Chrom was there when it happened and he took me to the hospital. So I guess, that's how we became acquaintances."

Frederick had a feeling there was more, but Robin wasn't technically not answering his questions. She was. He just felt there was more. Maybe it was better for him not to hear.

"You guys were friends before you two started dating?" asked Frederick.

"Yeah," she said.

"Damn it, Bubbles!" Gaius threw his arms up in the air with one hand clutching the game controller. "How did you do that?"

"Practice," said Robin with a smug smile. "Lots of practice." Re-plays of Robin's video game character winning played on the television screen.

"How though? Isn't your dad super strict?" asked Gaius. "When did you have time to practice video games?"

"Well, we made a deal. As long as I don't sleep around, do drugs, and hang out with the wrong crowd of people before graduating from high school, I can do whatever I want, as long as I maintain my grades," said Robin with a shrug. "Oh, and no boys."

"So, you made a deal to not have a life," stated Gaius.

"Hey! I had a life! And I earned my father's trust," said Robin. "This is why I'm in Ylisse for my education. He wanted to keep a better eye on Aversa."

"Sure, daddy's little girl," said Gaius.

Robin rolled her eyes. "Another round?"

"No, I think the brownies are almost done," said Gaius, getting up from the couch. He walked over to the kitchen.

"Awesome," said Robin. She put down her controller and reached over for her phone. She had one text from Golden Boy.

Robin frowned. How odd. They hadn't spoken much to each other since last semester. Well, she hadn't made an effort to hold up a conversation when he tried to talk to her. Whenever he tried to sit beside her, she'd put her bag in the seat, and if he tried to sit in the seat on the other side of her, which he often tried, she put her jacket there. One time, it was too cold to take off her jacket, so she was forced to put a pen on the seat.

Robin opened the text conversation. What did he want?

Hey, Robin. Could I get the notes for this week's finances lectures? 1:23 PM

2:11 PM Golden boy, did u skip class?

Oh thank the gods you responded! I thought you were ignoring me 2:11 PM

2:11 PM No

I was sick all week and I'm still sick 2:12 PM

Well, there was that case of mono going around. He must've caught mono. There was always that crowd of people following him around. Often, the number of girls outnumbered the number of boys.

2:12 PM Mono? lol

No…flu. I feel like crap :( 2:12 PM

2:13 PM Don't you have other friends?

"Bubbles!" Gaius shouted from the kitchen. "The brownies are so good," he moaned.

"Save some for me!" she yelled as she scrambled over to the kitchen.

"Hurry up! I also have vanilla ice cream for you, you boring loser," said Gaius.

When Robin arrived in the kitchen, Gaius was already pigging out straight out of the pan with a spoon in his hand. She grabbed her own spoon and took a scoop of the hot, chocolatey goodness.

"Shouldn't we wait for it to cool?" she asked.

Gaius shook his head. "Takes too long. I want food now."

"I hate you for having the metabolism of a professional athlete," grumbled Robin.

"I love you too," said Gaius.

The two friends occupied themselves by eating Gaius's amazing baking skills, occasionally dipping into the tub of vanilla ice cream, leaving brownie crumbs behind.

"So, Gaius," said Robin.

"So, Bubbles," said Gaius.

"Golden Boy wants my notes," said Robin. "What do you think it means?"

"Guy that broke your nose?" asked Gaius with a mouthful of brownie.

"He didn't break it. Things happen to get broken around him," said Robin. "Gosh, you should've seen how my entire family freaked out when I had to video call them last exam season."

"Unless asking for notes is what people choose to say for wanting to have sex nowadays, I'm pretty sure he just wants your notes," said Gaius.

"But why mine?" asked Robin.

"Probably because you're an organized freak," said Gaius. "You probably write every word that the prof says."

"But he's surrounded by people. Why bother me?" asked Robin.

"Probably because you're so approachable," said Gaius sarcastically.

"Ha. Ha," said Robin.

"Just 'cause he's surrounded by people doesn't mean they're actually his friends," said Gaius. He stabbed his spoon into the ice cream.

"Oh. Never thought of it that way," said Robin.

Maybe he didn't have real friends. She pouted. Now, she pitied him. Damn.

She actually understood how that felt—having people pretend to be your friend and then stab you in the back. It was hard to make real friends when everyone already knew everything about you, or well, about your family background. Maybe he was in the same position.

She could've easily been him if went to University of Goetia in Plegia instead of coming to Ylisstol University.

"Fine, I'll send him my notes," said Robin.

"I didn't say anything," said Gaius.

"You said a lot," said Robin, glaring at her best friend. She put down her spoon and left the kitchen table. She paused at the entrance and glared at him. "In fact, too much."

"Where are you going?" called out Gaius.

"To help the friendless loser!" Robin shouted.

Gaius chuckled and went back to increasing his blood sugar level.

Robin shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she stared at his door. She couldn't believe she actually came here. He was probably waiting for her after he buzzed her in. She had hesitated too long and there was a weird burning smell in the hallway that was starting to get on her nerves.

"Whatever," she muttered and banged her fist on the door.

It took longer than she had expected, but Chrom eventually opened the door. A waft of the burning smell invaded her nostrils and she cringed. She could also feel the warmth radiating from his unit.

"Hey, Robin," he said through a stuffy nose that was an inflamed red, most likely a result of blowing his nose all week.

Chrom looked terrible. His hair was a mess and instead of being well-dressed as usual, he was in a crumpled grey Ylisstol University t-shirt and blue flannel pyjama pants.

She grimaced. "Hi." Robin slipped one strap of her backpack off her shoulder and swung her bag in front of her.

"Thank you so much," he said, then burst into a fit of coughs as she unzipped her bag.

"Is something burning in your house?" asked Robin as she pulled out her handwritten notes. She offered it to her.

As if on cue, the fire alarm in his apartment went off. "Oh, crap," he cussed and ran off.

The door almost slammed shut in her face but Robin jammed her foot right in the door. She heard a loud, angry hissing sound from the kitchen, followed by the piercing sound of the fire alarm.

What an idiot, she thought while rolling her eyes. She tucked her notes back into her backpack and zipped her bag close.

"I'm coming in," she said, slipping into his place and shutting the door behind her. She heard Chrom coughing again. Robin took her shoes off and neatly set them aside. She padded into his place and followed the burning smell.

In the kitchen, Chrom was trying to fight off the angry smoke coming from the pot of questionable contents. The sound of the fire alarm was deafening Robin, so she decided to help him. She grabbed a dish towel and began fanning at the fire alarm. After waving the dish towel with the desperation of waving a white flag to a distant ship on a stranded island, she gave up. Robin looked around to see if there was any way they could remove the source. From the kitchen she spotted a balcony.

"Chrom, go put that outside," said Robin, pointing to the balcony.

He frowned in confusion for a moment and then followed where Robin was pointing. He mouthed 'oh' and nodded. He headed to the balcony with the pot in hand, slid open the glass door, and dropped the pot outside.

Robin went back to trying to placate the fire alarm with the dish towel. "Chrom, leave that open," she said. After another half a minute, the fire alarm finally stopped.

"I'm so sorry about that," Chrom coughed out the words.

Robin took a step back. The last thing she needed was his flu.

"Sorry," said Chrom, sniffling.

"It's fine," said Robin dryly. "What were you cooking?"

"I was heating up some soup and then I fell asleep because my medications knocked me out. I was lucky you woke me up," he said sheepishly. "I can't smell anything with my stuffy nose."

She nodded, hoping it came off as sympathetic. He had fallen asleep in the five minutes he buzzed her into his building.

He groaned and muttered, "Oh, jeez. You're giving me that look again."

Her brows furrowed and forced a smile. "What look?"

"The I'm-judging-you-so-hard-right-now face," he said.

"No, I'm not," she said.

"Yeah. Now you're giving me your I'm-not-comfortable-around-you-but-I'm-being-polite face," he said.

She scowled at him. "What's your problem? I'm trying to be nice since you have like zero friends to give you notes for your missed classes."

He blinked at her, like he was trying to understand whether she had insulted him or not. He opened his mouth to give a rebuttal, but then closed it.

Robin crossed her arms and smirked. "What? Cat got your tongue?"

"Sorry, what did you say? I'm having a lot of difficulty processing things. I think it's the drugs," he said, frowning at the floor in between them. Chrom picked his head back up to stare at Robin again. She averted her gaze after Chrom refused to break eye contact. "You know, the guys were right."

Tension gripped her. Right about what? Were the other students saying shit behind her back? Not that she cared, since she had dealt with worse. She could handle it. She had heard every thinkable accusation and rumour, from sleeping with the teachers for her high grades, doing drugs with the popular, rich kids, and how her face was a result of a botched plastic surgery (it wasn't hard to see that Aversa had gotten all the beauty genes). High school was the equivalent to living hell and she had survived it. She could handle whatever these stupid, snobby Ylissean students had to say about her.

Robin tipped her head back and tried to stare him down, but found it difficult to do so since Chrom was much taller than her. "Y-Yeah? What?" She cleared her throat. "You think it bothers me what people say?"

He weakly shrugged. "Maybe. Since everyone cares about what others think of them no matter what they say."

Robin wondered how much medication he had taken. He didn't seem to be all there in the head with his hazy eyes. If she didn't know better, she would've thought he was high on cold medications.

The golden boy rubbed his face with both hands and then let his arms drop to his side.

"Why? Is it so offensive you don't want to repeat it?" snapped Robin.

This time, he shook his head.

Robin clenched her hands into fists. "Spit it out!"

"That you're cute," he said quietly.

Her breath got stuck in her throat. Heat rose to her cheeks and she immediately turned away from him. It was hot because she was wearing her winter jacket in a warm apartment. Obviously.

"Well, they didn't say 'cute'. They used 'fuckable' and 'hot' and something else I don't feel comfortable telling you, which I think you'd appreciate me not repeating, but it was something about you being on your knees and something about amazing blowjob eyes?" said Chrom, obliviously continuing on.

Robin eyes flashed up at him. Great, the male students saw her as a piece of ass to be conquered. Wonderful.

"Gee, thanks, Golden Boy. I thought you said you weren't going to repeat it. And I also remember you saying you weren't a fuckboy. This isn't helping your case."

"I'm not. What are you talking about?" he said with fatigue betraying his heavy words.

"You just kinda revealed everything you said you wouldn't," said Robin shortly.

"Huh?" he asked. Chrom was back to blinking dumbly at her.

"How much drugs did you take?" she asked, rubbing her temple.

"I dunno. A lot. I think half the bottle and most of the pills," he said. "My head doesn't hurt now. It's just fuzzy and I feel mellow. I think it's a good sign."

Robin dug through her bag and pulled out the small stack of papers she brought for him. She would hand her notes to him and then leave. "More isn't better, Golden Boy. I want my notes by Monday."

"You know, one of my friends wanted to know if you had a boyfriend," said Chrom.

"You're high. Shut the hell up and go to bed," said Robin, shoving the notes into his chest. "And no more drugs."

"Do you?" he asked, accepting this week's notes.

"Why do you care?" she asked.

"It'd be rude to make advances if you did," said Chrom, "have a boyfriend."

"So, you're saying that this friend of yours will respect another guy because I'm considered his property, rather than my wishes to not be pursued?" asked Robin.

Chrom opened his mouth and shut it repeatedly like a goldfish. "Umm, could you repeat the question?"

"Eugh, Golden Boy. You're sick," she said.

He nodded.

"Go to bed. I'm not dealing with your fuckboy nonsense," said Robin, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not a fuckboy," he said. "If I was a fuckboy, I wouldn't think it's important to take the girl I like on a couple dates before…y'know, and only if she wants to."

"Good for you, Golden Boy. I'm sure all the girls are tripping over themselves to date you," said Robin.

"Do you hate me?" he asked genuinely.

Robin was at a loss of words and she stared back at him.

"Because I like you. Not in that way. Just clarifying. My friend's interested though," he said. "You're interesting and I'd like to be friends, but you seem to hate me."

Chrom's eyes bore into Robin and it made her stomach tighten into knots. There was nothing wrong with not liking someone! But he made her feel bad.

Her lips were pressed together. She wasn't going to say anything. Nothing.

She didn't know what to say.

Then, the growling of Chrom's stomach sliced through the heavy air. He added, "I'm hungry."

Robin sighed. "Have you eaten anything? Don't you have a girlfriend or someone to help you out?"

"No," he said.

Robin quirked an eyebrow. "So you were taking meds on an empty stomach?"

He nodded while coughing.

"For the love of the gods," she muttered. "Do you have anything to eat?"

He shook his head. "The thing that burned was the last canned soup I had."

It felt wrong to leave him in this state, to fend for himself. "I'll make you some soup. Because I feel bad for your sorry-ass-state, Golden Boy," she said.

"You don't have to," he murmured. His stomach betrayed him and growled in protest.

"Don't argue with me. You have to pay me back, obviously. I saw a grocery store on the way here. I'll go buy some ingredients for chicken noodle soup and make a huge potful for you," she said.

"Why? Aren't you busy? I thought you hated me," he said.

"I'm done all my work and I have a free weekend. And I'm doing this because I don't hate you," she said over her shoulder as she headed back to the door. Chrom followed behind her and didn't bother trying to persuade her otherwise. "I'm leaving my bag here."

"Okay."

"Is there anything you need from the store?" she asked.

"Do they sell friends?" he asked.

She made a face. "We really need to get you some food. And don't take more medication. That stuff sounds strong. I bet you're a bit of a dorky drunk."

"Yeah," he said with a sheepish smile. "We should great drunk together when I'm better."

"How about no. I'll probably break an arm or leg next time if I'm around you and alcohol," said Robin.

Chrom laughed, and it made Robin stop for a moment. It was so clear and genuine.

"Well, better than me breaking your heart," said Chrom. "Since you hate me and all."

"Golden Boy, stop. I don't hate you."

"Is this seat taken?"

Robin picked her head up from the slides for today's lectures she had printed out. The student in front of her had a warm smile and matching blue eyes and hair. He no longer sported the messy look with a glowing red nose. She plopped her bag into the seat closest to him while maintaining eye contact to make a point.

"Come on," begged Chrom. "I thought we were friends."

She returned to reviewing the notes before lecture again. "We're not friends."

Then she heard something rustling and something was placed on the ground in the space between her seat and the seat beside her. Robin's face grew dark as she spotted her backpack on the ground.

"Did you just move my bag?" asked Robin in a low voice.

"I brought your notes," he said, ignoring her growing anger. He unzipped his bag and pulled out her notes. "Thanks a lot for your notes. You're an impressive note-taker. And your soup made me all better. Your future boyfriend is a lucky guy."

"I never said you could sit beside me. And I don't exist to take care of a sick man," hissed Robin.

She already felt the glares of the girls in the department drilling into her back. If looks could kill, she'd be dead a hundred times over. She didn't want to deal with drama. She just wanted to complete her degree in peace and graduate.

"Shh. Aaron's here," he leaned over and whispered.

The loud chatter of the lecture hall came to a hush when the professor took his spot at the podium and began to set up his laptop for the lecture.

"Aaraon? You mean Professor Smythe? You're on first-name basis with me?" demanded Robin as quietly as she could. She felt a tinge of envy. She had yet to become friends with the professors in the Faculty of Business.

"Yeah. He's a family friend of ours. He comes over to our holiday events," said Chrom.

There it was, thought Robin. There was no way Chrom would be that close to the Head of Faculty on his own.

"We're going to finish up the last couple slides of last week's lecture," said Professor Smythe.

Robin flipped through the stack of notes she gave Chrom and stopped at the last lecture set to pick up where they left off in class. The tips of her ears burned as the whispering harpies behind her critiqued Chrom's seating arrangement today. She wished he'd just go away.

When she thought it couldn't get worse, he leaned in again. "Let's get lunch today together. It's on me."

The whispering behind her got even louder and the insults harsher.

"No. I'm not hungry," she said. That was an utter lie. She had to skip breakfast because she woke up late today. Robin was starving.

"Dinner? You're going to have to eat eventually," he said.

"Chrom, I'm trying to pay attention to the lecture," she said, giving him a harsh side glance. She was gripping her pen so hard that she half-expected her hand to be covered in black ink any moment now.

"Yeah. Smart. We'll talk after lecture," he said, relatively unfazed.

As soon as the professor went over the important points and concepts to know for the upcoming midterm, Robin grabbed her bag and gathered the rest of her notes and pencil case in her other arm. Before Chrom could even had a chance to stop her, she bolted.

"Robin!" he shouted after her, earning the two of them quizzical stares. "Wait up!" He grabbed his laptop and bag and ran hurried down to the front entrance of the lecture hall. "Let me repay you!"

Robin's cheeks burned as she ducked past the crowd of students leaving the lecture. The last thing she needed was the nasty, unwanted competition of the female students vying to be the next Mrs. Exalt. Regret sank in when she realized that she encouraged this.

"Robin!" he called her name from down the hall. "Let me buy you lunch!"

She stopped in her tracks. She gripped her stuff tighter, her back still turned to Chrom. Great, now everyone was watching. There were a couple whistles and hoots, then followed the buzz of whispering.

Robin turned around. "I'll pass."

There was a sympathetic cry from the crowd for Chrom.

"No, it's not like that. I'm just paying her back for taking care of me last weekend," said Chrom. There was a collective wooing from the students.

"I need to get to class," lied Robin and she quickly left.

She had never felt so humiliated after coming to Ylisse. Now everyone probably believed that she was his one-night stand and he was being nice by trying to pay her back.

For the remainder of the week, Chrom pestered her about buying her food. Luckily, he didn't make as big of a scene as Monday, but everyone watched the two with amusement, hoping maybe her answer would change.

When Robin demanded why he was bothering her, he told her that's what friends did with that disgustingly nice smile of his. It was give and take. He had taken from her and he wanted to give back. Robin nearly skipped a class just to avoid him. The jealous whisperings of his female harem was wearing her patience thin.

Then, something odd happened the following week: Chrom didn't come to the first two lectures of the week. From what she recalled, Chrom was a fairly good student and attended classes unless he was high on medication from the flu. However, he did show up on the Friday lecture. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. Whenever he saw a friend or classmate, he did greet them, but his voice didn't have the enthusiasm as it usually did.

Robin held her breath as he walked towards her row. She wondered what was going on. Was he sick again?

Her heart sank when he sat at the end of the second row. Perhaps 'sat' wasn't the best description. He collapsed into the seat. Her brows creased ever so slightly. Robin bit her lip.

Who cared if Chrom didn't sit with her? Isn't this what she wanted?

Throughout the lecture, she watched Chrom's head bob up and down, struggling to stay awake in class. Scowling, she cursed him for detracting her attention from the professor's lecture. The pen in her hand tapped in a regular, irritated rhythm.

Why hadn't he come to class earlier this week? Was he trying to get her notes again? Why was he falling asleep in class? Didn't he know better?

Once the lecture came to an end, Robin groaned as she flipped through her rather empty notes. Great, now she was going to have to comb through the textbook for notes. That meant more work. She stood up and packed her stuff with annoyance pronounced in every shove. Robin made the decision to give him a piece of her mind for distracting her all class!

She adjusted her jacket and slung her backpack over one shoulder and stomped over to Chrom. She would tell him he was being a terrible student.

"Hey," said Robin.

That wasn't what she expected to come out.

"Hey," he said quietly, staring at his laptop screen.

"Are you mad at me for not having lunch with you?" she joked and added an awkward chuckle at the end.

This definitely wasn't going her way. Curse the damned golden boy.

"No, I get it. I'm not worthy to be in your presence." Instead of anger from rejection, his words were punctuated with defeat and exhaustion.

"It was a joke," Robin murmured, shifting her gaze away from Chrom.

She watched him pack his backpack. Chrom made look standing up painful the way he straightened himself up. He shouldered his backpack and pocketed his phone.

The bag under Chrom's eyes were bruises he earned from fighting sleep. There was the faintest trace of stubble starting to grow on his face. His hair was at the verge of being able to be styled without any hair wax. Robin had a feeling Chrom was only being held together by the expectations of everyone around him, but nothing more. It wasn't a great look for him.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Robin in genuine concern.

"Everything's fine," said Chrom, staring at the ground.

"Yo, Golden Boy!"

Robin saw the briefest twitch on Chrom's face at the nickname. A tan male student with blond hair approached them.

"Hey, Vaike," said Chrom.

"Coming to the party?" he asked.

"Sure, why not. Let's get smashed together," said Chrom.

"Awesome, bro," said Vaike. "Who's this?" He pointed to Robin with his chin.

"No one," said Chrom.

"Ouch," said Robin. "I'm Robin. Chrom's…friend. And he's not coming to your party, we're hanging out tonight."

"What? We are?" asked Chrom.

"Yeah. We are," said Robin.

"Oh, okay. Yeah," said Vaike, giving the two an exaggerated wink.

"Get your head out of the gutter," snapped Robin.

"I'm going to head home," said Chrom, brushing past Robin. "Bye, Vaike."

Robin gave the blond a wave and followed after Chrom. From behind, Chrom looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulder. She pursed her lips. She didn't know what she could for him, but she knew he needed to be cheered up.

Once they left the business building, Robin picked up her pace and caught up to Chrom. They hadn't exchanged a word since. She didn't know what to say.

"So, you missed quite a few classes this week," she said. "Were you sick?"

"Yeah." He dismissed her question.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. "Do you want to have lunch with me?"

"It's almost four," said Chrom, rubbing his face with both hands.

"Dinner then?" she suggested.

Chrom stopped and turned to her. "Why are you being nice?"

"Because you look like you're about to fall apart."

"My bestie has been dying to try their food from this place. If he finds out that I did it without him, he's going to kill me," said Robin, splitting the chopsticks and rubbing them together in between her palms. "So it's a secret between us."

Chrom's smile disappeared as fast as it appeared. The two sat across from each other at his dinner table.

"Eat, you need it," said Robin. She opened all the delivery food and set it in between them. She reached over and offered Chrom the split chopsticks.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Chrom.

"I thought I already told you," said Robin, splitting her own pair of chopsticks. "Because friends take care of friends. Now eat. You look like you haven't eaten in a while."

Chrom thanked her and picked up his chopsticks and scooped up some noodles onto his plate. Robin waited and watched Chrom for the first couple bites to make sure he ate. After, she portioned some food onto her own plate and joined him.

She spoke and disclosed a personal tidbit. "I grew up in a pretty suffocating household."

He glanced up at her. The curious glint in his eyes was hard to miss.

"There were always high expectations. Anything short of perfection, the top, or first place was unacceptable," she said, pushing her cashew chicken on her plate with her chopsticks.

"What do your parents do?" asked Chrom.

"Mmm…" Robin thought for a moment. "Something to do with money."

"That's the vaguest answer I've ever heard," said Chrom. His laugh lightened up the mood. Robin giggled with him.

"But I'm guessing you're probably under a lot of pressure too, huh?" asked Robin.

"A bit," he said with a shrug.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Pretend like everything's okay when it's not."

Chrom sighed. "Then what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. Do what you want," said Robin.

"That's hard. I'm the only son to Exalt. My father's not going to hand off the company to my older sister," said Chrom. "I envy how everyone else and you have so much freedom."

Robin snorted and rolled her eyes. "Don't make assumptions, Chrom. You don't how many people would kill for your position. So I'm guessing you had an argument with your father and it didn't go well, so you feel like shit right now."

"Wait, how…"

She shrugged and smiled. "Intuition?" she offered. "Moping isn't going to help."

"I'm not moping. Sometimes I want to stay in bed all day and do nothing," he said.

"You're allowed to have those days," she said in a soft voice. "Sometimes I do that too. You're allowed to feel sad and miserable, just don't let it get you down for the rest of your life. And if it is really bad, go see someone."

"The last thing I need a therapist, Robin. That would go so swell with my father," said Chrom.

"How about this? Every time you feel miserable, you give me a text or call and I'll come get your ass out of bed, get some coffee into you, and we can go to class together," said Robin.

He stared at her, his eyes searching her face.

"You're making this awkward, Chrom. Eat," she said.

Chrom said a quick apology and joined Robin. "This is pretty good."

"Yeah, I know. Definitely ordering from here again."

Frederick watched Robin with an invested interest as she elaborated on his question on Chrom and her being friends prior to pursuing a romantic relationship.

"He looked like he needed a friend. It sounded like his father had quite the hold on Chrom and they had a terrible relationship. As the only son, he had an incredible amount of pressure put on him," said Robin.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but her stomach grumbled. A blush appeared on her cheeks.

"My body demands sustenance, Mr. Knight," said Robin with a grin. "Breakfast?"

Frederick pecked her on the forehead. "Yes, let's get breakfast before you get hangry."

"I don't get hangry," said Robin.

"Love, unfortunately, you do," said Frederick.

Before Robin could argue, Frederick's phone rang and vibrated behind him on her bedside table. He rolled over to his other side and retrieved his phone. It was Chrom.

"Frederick, speaking," he answered the phone.

"You know how I mentioned that I put together an integrated team? And Father gave me the green light for?" Chrom asked in an excited, jittery voice.

"Yes," said Frederick, glancing over at a curious Robin.

"I put together a hypothetical team together over night," said Chrom. "I've had so much coffee, but I was on a roll, Frederick!"

The older man held back a sigh. From the sounds of it, Chrom had drank quite a bit of coffee. He noticed that Chrom drank an excessive amount of coffee. Perhaps that habit was transferred between Robin and Chrom. He didn't know who rubbed off on who though.

"I need you to look over it before I proceed. I want your input. And I happened to see that working with Robin and Vaike were not only optimal for the team, but also great for me since I've known them for years," said Chrom.

"Sometimes working with friends isn't the best idea," said Frederick.

It was the truth, but he had mixed feelings towards his own statement because he felt that he was saying so to keep Robin to himself.

Again, he glanced over at Robin who remained silent. He got out of bed. There was a faint grumble from behind him that were along the lines of how work ruined everything. Frederick headed to the kitchen with the phone pressed against his ear, while Chrom rambled.

"If I have all the logistics figured out, we could do a lot of amazing things, Frederick! I'm shaking with excitement," said Chrom.

"I think you're shaking from the caffeine," said Frederick.

Quiet footsteps padded into the kitchen. Frederick focused out the window at the sink, waiting for Chrom to finish up the conversation.

"Oh, maybe." Chrom chuckled.

Robin's body pressed behind him and her arms wrapped around his waist. She rested her head on his back. He felt her breasts against his back through the thin fabric of her shirt.

"Send the files to my email and I'll get back to you by tomorrow," said Frederick.

"Will do!" said Chrom.

"Try to get some rest," said Frederick before hanging up.

"Who was that?" Her hot breath warmed a patch of his skin through his shirt.

"Chrom. He's excited about something."

"I demand waffles," said Robin.

Frederick wasn't sure if she was ignoring his statement or didn't hear him. He decided to leave it as is.

Robin's stomach grumbled again.

"Damn it, Frederick. I'm hungry. Food!"

Author's Notes: Please leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter! Albeit, it was a bit of a mess. :l