Chapter 10: Unravel

His hand caressed her face when he withdrew from their kiss. Heavy breaths intermingled. Lips brushed.

"I'm here," he whispered before kissing her again.

The two words echoed in her mind and urged her to catch them and hold onto them, in case he disappeared again. Robin dug her fingers into his shirt, pulling him in closer. All of her rationality and logic evaporated, especially with his tongue slipping into her mouth again.

Her stomach suddenly lurched when the elevator began its descension. It snapped her out of his spell. Immediately, Robin shoved him away. Chrom stumbled back into the opposite corner of the elevator.

"Robin."

"Stay right there. Not a word."

The elevator stopped at the fifteenth floor and opened. A businesswoman occupied on her phone stepped in. She didn't glance up at either Chrom or Robin; instead, she pressed the ground button when she noticed that the button board was completely unlit and the elevator unmoving.

Whoever designed this hotel was clearly an idiot, thought Robin. Who in their right mind sticks the restaurant at the top of the hotel?

Guilt gnawed away at Robin's conscience as the elevator sank closer to ground floor. She felt his eyes on her. She avoided any eye contract, severing any connection they had previously established. Furthermore, Robin moved her bag to her other side to put more space between them. She needed to get out of here before he had another chance to sway her.

When the elevator bell sounded, like the gunshot at the start of a race, Robin pushed past the businesswoman. The race was on. She nearly stumbled and instantly regretted not wearing flats that day. Nevertheless, she kept speed walking to the exit. It looked so far all the way at the end of the hotel lobby.

"Robin, wait." His footsteps were catching up to her. "Robin, please."

Her heels clicked faster and faster, his own shoes keeping tempo with hers.

"Damn it, Robin." Chrom grabbed her hand and spun her back into him.

"Chrom, let go," said Robin through gritted teeth, struggling against his grip. "People can see us."

"I'm not letting you go until you promise we've talked. I don't care if people see us."

People were staring at them. Chrom was recognizable from a mile away with his stupid blue hair. Robin wished she could fade away on the spot. Chrom, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Of course, he didn't care. This wasn't going to hurt him like it was going hurt her.

"We've talked! There's nothing to talk about," begged Robin. "Chrom, please let go."

"Please don't run. You felt it too. I know you did. I meant every word. It'll be different this time. I'll protect you. I'll protect us."

"Chrom, people are watching us. Please. Stop. I don't know what you want me to do."

"All I want is to have you back in my life. We don't even have to in a relationship. I just need my best friend back in my life."

She shook her head, blinking away tears. She wished he'd shut the fuck up. "Don't do this to me. I can't do this again with you. You know we're never going to be just friends. What you're asking of me is to be unfaithful."

"Chrom?" Both of them turned their attention to an older Valmese businessman heading towards them. His cautious smile grew more confident with each step. "Ah, it is you!"

Chrom hesitantly released Robin and moved his hand to her waist. "Mr. Faro, it's a pleasure to see you. Are you staying here for a business trip?" He extended an open hand and Mr. Faro shook his hand.

"Nice handshake, boy. My, the last time I saw you, you were only fifteen and came to the gala with Carlisle. How is he?" asked Mr. Faro.

"Father's doing well." Chrom smiled politely.

Robin watched the conversation between the two men and saw that the older gentleman had glanced over at her once and chose not to acknowledge her. It shouldn't have bothered her, but it did. The man might asked her if she was sleeping with him to get to his money.

Once he started asking Chrom about his plans being back in Ylisse, Robin took the opportunity to break away and run.

"Chrom, why don't you talk to Mr. Faro and I'll be right back?" said Robin, adding a sweet smile like a punctuation mark. "I need to go to the ladies' room."

Chrom turned to her and back to Mr. Faro before responding. Robin knew if it were just a personal acquaintance, he would've just cut the conversation short, but it was a business acquaintance, and as an Exalt, he had an image to upkeep.

He played along, his words leaving a forced smile. "We're going to have to leave soon. You promise you'll be back soon? We still have some details to go over."

She faked a laugh. "Of course. It's not like I'm going to run way." Robin patted him on the chest. "Good day, Mr. Faro." She shoved his hand off and coolly walked straight to the entrance of the hotel.

Upon the first step she took past the sliding doors, she bolted. She nearly collided with a pedestrian when she stepped out into the sun from the roofed driveway of the hotel, folding her ankle as a result.

"Fuck," she hissed. She would ice once she got back to the office.

Not twenty meters away, she checked over her shoulder to see that Chrom had already found her. She didn't want to talk. She couldn't. He'd make her want to go back to when things were good again, even if those moments were few and far in between. He made saying 'no' so difficult.

"Robin!"

It killed her that she missed him. It killed her that she wanted him back in her life again. It killed her that it made her knees go weak every time he said her name. But she knew she wouldn't be able to handle the all the shit again. Not a second time.

She cursed her shoes and ran. Up ahead, she saw that people were still crossing the busy street. A red hand flashed at her to stop with seven seconds left. Seven seconds was plenty. She had made it across the same street with three seconds left before. Without a moment of hesitation, she ran down the striped path. Loud honking from behind her startled her, causing her to roll the same ankle again.

"Fuck. Why?" she hissed.

"Robin! Stop! You're going to get hurt!"

She didn't listen. She took two more steps before her feet were swept off of the concrete. Air was punched out of her body. Her head bounced off of a glass surface, imprinting a shattered web.

Screech.

Thud.

The shock of the impact faded and agonizing pain and panic flooded her senses. Even with desperate gasps, she was starved for oxygen and the only thing she was rewarded for her efforts was a sob. All she could make out were shapes and colours through the blood mixing with fresh tears.

"Robin! No, no, no. Stay with me. Come on! Stay with me!"

The last thing she saw before being pulled into darkness was that damned blue.

That damned beautiful blue.

A low mechanical hum of a humidifier eased her back into consciousness. She blinked slowly to focus her eyes. Robin squinted. There were too many small pot light in the ceiling for it to be her room. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes—everything hurt so much. She held still, taking a moment to recollect her senses through the pain.

To her left she heard the nostalgic sound of button mashing. Carefully, she rolled her head to the side to see a ginger seated on an armchair playing a Nintendo 3DS covered in stickers. He bounced his knee uncontrollably and for an odd reason, Robin knew that he only did this when he was nervous. Behind him were full-length windows showing off Ylissean city night lights.

Yeah, definitely not her home.

"Eugh." The ginger man closed the 3DS and dropped it into the open backpack at his feet. He slouched back into his seat and stared at her. His eyes widened, a grin equally widening. "Welcome back, Bubbles. If you slept for any longer, I was going to change your nickname to 'Radish' in case you became a vegetable."

"That's not funny, Gaius," chastised a pink-haired woman, rushing up from her seat to Robin's side. She brushed away the hair on Robin's face. "Hey, Robin."

The ginger's face popped up beside the pink-haired woman. The pink-haired woman had the most subtle frown on her face before shoving the ginger away.

"What's your problem, Cherche?"

"You're crowding her."

"And you aren't?"

The ginger tried again, butting heads with the pink-haired woman. He yelled, "Do you know who I am?"

Robin winced.

"She's not deaf, Gaius! Stop yelling. At least I don't think she is."

"Who am I?" said the ginger slowly.

"Mmm…"

"You don't know who I am? We played video games together before you quit games forever. We used to eat sweets together and you used to get fat—"

The pink-haired woman glared at him.

"—and I practically grew abs, as you put it. Don't you remember? Do you remember Gemini? The demon twins from hell? Do you remember the time we went on that road trip and you fell into the porta potty?"

A named popped up into Robin's head. "Hey, Gaius."

"Hey, Bubbles." Gaius grinned.

"Hey, Cherche."

"Hi, dear."

"Water," Robin whispered.

"Of course, of course," said Cherche. "Gaius, go get some water for her and get a straw."

"I'm only doing this because Robin's my best friend. Not because I like you," said Gaius.

"Robin's my best friend too."

"She likes me better."

Cherche rolled her eyes. Gaius left the hospital room to grab some water for Robin.

"Where am I? What happened?" croaked Robin.

"You're in the hospital. You had an accident," said Cherche. "Someone decided to try to run the red light and hit you while you were crossing the street."

"I see."

"You broke your leg," said Cherche. "Bruised two ribs. You have some stitches on your forehead. The bruising on your body isn't as bad as it looks, I promise. The doctors are more concerned with potential head injuries right now. They're pretty sure you probably have at least a concussion."

Robin strained to see the white fiberglass cast from her knee down. "No more heels."

"Yeah. No more heels."

Gaius returned with a plastic cup of water and a straw twirling aimlessly inside it. He angled the straw into Robin's mouth. "Here you go, Bubbles. You look like shit."

"Way to make her feel better," said Cherche.

"She knows that means 'I love you and I'm glad you're alive, asshole'. Right, Bubbles?" said Gaius.

Robin groaned in pain and felt a headache coming on. "Mmm. How are you two in the same room? You hate each other."

"Our best friend is in the hospital. You don't think we could get along long enough for your sake?" said Cherche.

"No."

Gaius laughed and Cherche pursed her lips.

"We should leave," said Robin.

"Why?" asked Cherche.

"I don't think my insurance will cover this." Robin looked around the luxury hospital room suite. This could house at least eight patients. And she knew it was all of Chrom's doing. "Or any of this."

"Chrom's family is covering it. He got you a private room in one of the hospitals his family owns," said Cherche. "You have the best doctors at your disposal right now. We shooed him away for now because we thought he'd stress you out and mostly to let him reflect on spooking you."

"That's a really light way of putting it, Cherche, considering you threatened him that you'd fund research to create a wyvern and feed him to it."

"I get protective. And you're one to talk. You threatened that you'd hack into all his social media accounts and make it look like he had a furry fetish."

"Guys?"

"What is it?" asked Gaius.

Someone was missing in the room. Someone Robin really needed right now. "Where's Frederick?"

Cherche looked at Gaius, who shrugged and shook his head.

"Oh. Wait. Is Frederick the person your current boy toy?" asked Gaius.

"Well, here's thing, Robin. We wanted to call your family and Gaius was willing to unlock your phone, but it got run over. Actually, your entire bag did. Everything's kinda broken," said Cherche.

Robin nodded and sniffled. "Oh."

"Honey, please don't cry," said Cherche, sitting on the edge of the bed. She held Robin's hand in hers.

"I'm not," choked Robin.

"Gaius can ask Chrom for Frederick's number and we can give him a call."

Robin nodded again and swallowed back the lump in her throat.

Gaius snorted. "Why would I ask him? She's in this state because of him. I'll just hack the employee contact directory."

"You're not going to resort to your illegal methods, Gaius. Just go ask Chrom. Like a civil person."

"Guys. I don't care how you get him. I just want him here."

"What's his last name?" asked Gaius.

It took Robin a moment, but she answered him, "Knight."

Gaius grumbled, leaving the room with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Cherche lectured him until he swore he was going to rip his own ears off on doing this ethically. But where was the fun in that? Gaius made his way to the cafe on the first floor, bought a chocolatey iced drink, and set his laptop up on a table. He had flirted with one of the nurses earlier and gotten the Wi-Fi password the hospital used.

Within five minutes of typing away, he had a list of seventeen Fredericks. Gaius narrowed down the list to one Frederick. Frederick Sebastien Knight. He had Frederick's address, number, his entire work history at Exalt, and how much he earned.

Gaius whistled. "Aren't you paid a pretty penny, Director Knight."

Gaius dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number on the screen. He sucked on his straw, listening to the phone ring a couple times before someone finally picked up.

"Frederick speaking."

"Hey."

"Hello. Who am I speaking to?"

"Gaius. We work at the same company. We've never met because I work on the fourth floor with cyber-security."

"If you want to make an appointment, please go through my secretary, Carson," said Frederick brusquely.

"Umm, no. That's not why I called. So, Robin's my best friend. And if I'm correct, you're her current snuggle buddy."

"If this is some kind of joke—"

"It's not. Okay. Hmm. How do I say this?"

"Did something happen?" asked Frederick.

"You're a rather quick one. She's in the hospital right now. She had an accident and she just woke up. She's asking for you."

"Which hospital?"

"New Hope."

The call came to an immediate end. To Gaius, Frederick sounded rather calm. Or maybe he was one of those people who went scary silent when they were upset. He wondered how this would all play out.

Frederick sped through every orange light on the road to New Hope Hospital. If he remembered correctly, it wasn't far from Seraph Hotel, which was hotel franchise that the Exalt family had purchased and rebranded a couple years ago. The landmarks told him that he still had ten minutes to go. He continued to weave through the cars every opportunity he got. Going even faster was an option, but in his emotional state, putting himself and others on the road in danger wasn't going to do anyone good. And the police often patrolled the area he was driving through. Being delayed by getting a ticket was the last thing he needed.

After a couple more blocks, a road sign with an 'H' told him he was close. Frederick made a sharp left turn and spotted the hospital. He slowed down into the parking lot and parked at an odd angle. It was within the lines, so he couldn't care less.

He got out of his car and locked the car with the key remote as he ran to the hospital entrance. The automatic glass doors slid open sensing his presence. Frederick made his way over to the information desk, startling the woman with his urgency.

"I'm looking for Robin Grima. Where is she?" said Frederick in between breaths.

"One moment." The woman typed on her keyboard.

Everything was moving too slow. The lobby secretary didn't seem too rushed at all. His heart wrenched at the thought of Robin's broken body. The pain she must be in. How lonely she must feel.

"She's on the top floor. Floor eighteen in suite 1803," said the woman.

Frederick forgot his manners and rushed over the elevators. He fidgeted in a small crowd of people waiting for the elevators. An middle-aged woman glanced over at him and nervously frowned at him. The elevator took its sweet time counting down from floor thirteen, until finally, it arrived, allowing people to exit and accepted a new group of passengers.

He pressed '18' while walking in and calculated how much longer it would take with the four other people who had pressed floors 4, 8, 11, and 12. Too long for his liking. It tortured him that the elevator made so many stops. Taking the stairs would've taken less time for him.

Somehow, he survived and made it to the eighteenth floor. The signs shaped like arrows were the first things he saw when he got off of the elevator. Suite 1803 was to the right of the hallway intersection.

1810, 1809, 1808, he counted down, sprinting past rooms, until arrived at 1803. Underneath the room sign 'Suite 1803' was 'Robin Grima'. Frederick fought the urge to break down the door. Like a civil man, he knocked on the door twice before entering.

A pink-haired woman and a redhead, who Frederick assumed was Gaius, watched him enter the suite. The pink-haired woman appeared to be mildly surprised, while Gaius looked intrigued.

"She fell asleep again. Please be quiet," whispered the pink-haired woman.

Inside the suite, a young woman with silver hair splayed on a pile of pillows was in the patient bed. The bed was so excessively big, it looked like it was trying to swallow her.

Her right leg was wrapped in a cast. Judging that it was below the knee, she probably had broken something in the tibia or fibula. An IV drip was connected to her right hand. Frederick knew she was going to complain about that once she came to her senses since it was her dominant hand.

He sighed as he approached Robin and saw that she had a couple stitches on her forehead and scratches marring her sweet face. She was going to complain about scarring on her face too once she was better. Frederick choked out a laugh when the coiled up stress within him released upon seeing that she was in one piece.

"Hey, Freddie."

Frederick turned his attention to Gaius, who had managed to get sucker in his mouth in the short time he arrived. "Don't call me that again."

"Alright. Relax. I'm the one who called you. Gaius. Robin's fine. She's a bit loopy, but the doc said she'll be fine," he said, sucking on a lollipop.

Frederick nodded. The candy gave it away. "You're 'Candyman'."

"Did she tell you about me?"

"No, I saw her take your call before. You interrupted our morning," said Frederick, recalling the morning that she had leave early to help babysit his niece and nephew. "This isn't how I wanted to introduce myself to the important people in her life, but I'm Frederick."

When Frederick offered Gaius a hand, Gaius shook his head. "I don't do handshakes. Too formal. I would do a fist bump and crack a joke about you sleeping with my best friend, but it doesn't really fit the occasion today."

Frederick turned to the other friend with an extended hand. She uncrossed her arms to shake it. "Cherche. Would you like a seat, Frederick?" Cherche dragged a chair to him.

"I've got it." He took the armchair from Cherche and set it near the bed. "She needs to be more careful."

"Do you by any chance have her family's number?" asked Cherche.

"No. Cherche. I told you. Robin will freak out if you call them. All three of them will fly over and make everything worse. Trust me. I've seen it happen before. You should've seen what happened when she slipped and bruised her coccyx that one time during the winter when we were in university. They wouldn't believe her that she was fine and they all flew over to Ylisse. She did not shut up about it the entire time they were there," said Gaius. "Let her do it once she's better."

She scowled at him but relented.

Cherche's crumpled blouse was starting to untuck from her skirt. Gaius, on the other hand, looked like he had stayed home all day in his sweater, jeans, and worn black sneakers. If Frederick didn't know better, he would've assume that Gaius didn't work at Exalt, but he knew that the programmers and software engineers had a far more casual dress code than everyone else. The two of them had been here for several hours and hadn't gone home yet.

"You two should head home. I can keep an eye on her for the night," said Frederick.

"Are you sure?" Relief and concern conflicted on Cherche's face. "We could go back home and come right back."

"No, it's quite alright. There's no need for three people to stay here," said Frederick. "I'll stay with her. I can take a day off tomorrow." After all, he had too many personal days accumulated, since he never took them. He was already making a mental list for tomorrow—give Carson a call to push all his meetings back; drop by at home to wash up; head to Robin's apartment to grab some stuff for her; and then return.

"Well, if you say so," said Gaius, getting up from his seat. "You have my number on your phone now, unless you don't have caller ID, which I doubt. Give me a call if she needs anything. We'll drop by tomorrow after work.

Cherche dug in her bag to pull out a business card and gave it to Frederick. "Here's my number too."

"Thank you for keeping her company," said Frederick. "I wouldn't have known if you hadn't contacted me."

"No problem. And don't stress to much. She's not hurt as bad as she looks," said Gaius. "Okay, evil wyvern lady, let's go." He tried to usher Cherche out of the room, but she slapped him away.

Once the door closed behind them, Frederick turned back to Robin, who was still fast asleep, and sighed in relief. Thank the gods she was alive.

The second time Robin woke up, the lights were dimmer in the room. Gingerly, she lifted her head up from the pillow, but a soreness in her neck put an abrupt stop to her efforts. She released a tired breath before checking to see if Cherche or Gaius were still in the room. When she checked the chair Gaius had been occupying, she was pleasantly surprised to see Frederick nodding off in the armchair.

Robin smiled. His arms and legs were crossed and his head bobbed almost as if he had fallen asleep during a meeting. He wasn't wearing a suit, so that meant that he had been home.

"Psst."

He immediately woke up. Frederick dragged his chair in a little closer. "Hey, love. How're you feeling?"

"You're here," said Robin softly. "How did you get here? How did you know I was here?"

"Gaius called me. Scared the wits out of me," said Frederick, yawning.

"How did Gaius know?"

"He told me you were asking for me. You don't remember?"

She shook her head.

"Let's focus on the details when you're better. Do you need anything, Robin?"

"Everything I need is here now. Thanks for coming."

"Why wouldn't I come? You weren't answering my calls or texts and then you didn't show up for dinner. I nearly filed a missing persons report to the police."

"That would've been overreacting, don't you think?"

"I don't think you have the right to say that, seeing how you're in the hospital."

"Fair. Hey, teddy bear, do you want to join me in the bed?" asked Robin. "There's enough room for both of us."

Frederick thought about the offer before agreeing. He helped her make room for him before settling in. She cuddled up against him best as she could, but gave up when she found that moving was too painful and difficult. Instead, she settled with Frederick lying on his side beside her.

His thumb brushed against her scraped cheek. "What happened?"

Robin rolled her head to the side to face him.

"Do you want me to get you a lawyer? I have a friend who's—"

"I'm not planning on suing anyone, Frederick. Besides I think Chrom is all over that shit on his own."

"So, he was present."

"Yeah, in a way."

"You're going to have to clarify."

"Lunch…didn't go well."

"I can see that."

"One of his past dates showed up and I got upset and left. Then, he trapped me in the elevator…and he umm…kissed me."

"He what?"

Frederick tensed beside her, pushing Robin over the fine line between unease and guilt. Although she was facing him, she couldn't look him in the eyes. When he chose not to say anything for a while longer, Robin took that as a sign that he was waiting for her finish her story.

"So from there, if I remember correctly…he caught me in the lobby after we got to the ground floor and wouldn't let me go. People were staring, it was awful. It wasn't until someone who knew his father interrupted him. Eugh, Frederick, the way that man looked at him. He looked at me like I wasn't worthy to even breathe the same air as Chrom.

"Anyway. I took that chance to run. And he still managed to catch up with me. I should've been more careful, Frederick. I know I should've, but I needed to get away and there was still some time left on the crosswalk. And the rest, well, you know what happened."

Another silence lingered after Robin finished.

"I'm sorry."

Frederick held her tighter.

She looked up at him and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I would understand if you didn't want to see me anymore. I feel like I'm worth more trouble than you've signed up for. I realize how much more ridiculous it sounds when I say it out loud. Ex kisses girlfriend. Girlfriend runs into traffic and gets hit by a car."

"I'm not very happy about what happened."

Robin's heart sank. This was it.

"But I'm just grateful you're alive. I'm staying right here. I'm not going anywhere."

She didn't deserve him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for things to happen this way."

"I know. But if you do want to make it up to me, you can start by getting better."

"Are you sure you're not angry?"

"Love, go to sleep."

It was rare for Frederick to be actually woken up by his alarm. Usually, he'd wake up before the alarm went off and only set it as a backup in case something happened. Not that anything happened. But Robin's half-asleep whimpering roused both of them on several occasions last night. When he asked what was wrong, she murmured it was the pain before slipping back to sleep.

Frederick searched for his phone and immediately silenced it so that Robin wouldn't wake up too. She stirred beside him before falling still again.

He climbed out of bed, careful not to wake her. Then, he tucked her back into bed. He straightened out his crumpled clothes and searched around for a pen and paper. In the end, he had to leave the suite to ask someone at the nurses' station. The nurse who had given him the pen and paper complimented his neat cursive writing. Quietly, he thanked him and went back to Robin's room to drop off the note before heading out.

The staff woke her up for breakfast and Robin sat alone in her bed nibbling on a cheese and ham quiche and a vibrant fruit salad. She had expected everything to be served on a plastic tray, but it was all presented on fine china.

It wasn't until midway through her breakfast that she spotted Frederick's note. She smiled when she unfolded it and saw his familiar writing. He had far nicer writing than anyone she knew.

Hey love,

I'll be back as soon as possible. I need to go back home to change and wash up. I also took your keys so I can get you some stuff from your apartment during your stay here. I do need to drop by at work, but I'll be back in the afternoon. Since I know you haven't memorized my number…

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Robin refolded the paper and set it on her dining table. "Who is it?"

"It's Liana. Liana Exalt."

She frowned. "C-come in."

A beautiful blonde in her early fifties entered the room. She had a handbag in one hand and a large gift bag in the other. Liana was well-dressed well, as always. Her kind face was distorted by worry once she saw Robin.

"Mrs. Exalt," said Robin. "I didn't know you'd be coming to visit…"

"I heard from Chrom what happened." Liana took Frederick's original seat. "He's so heartbroken about it."

Robin forced a smile. "I'm doing okay."

"Darling, you hardly look okay," said Liana. "It saddens me to see you like this. Do you have everything you need? Have you contacted your family yet?"

"Not yet," murmured Robin.

"You should do that immediately! Your parents would want to know what happened!" scolded Liana. But Liana's scoldings never sounded like scoldings. They were far too doting to possess the harsh characteristics of a scolding. And her voice was always far too soft, lacking the disciplinary tone.

"I will. Once I get a new phone," said Robin.

"Already taken care of," said Liana, setting the gift bag on the bedside table. "I had Libra take care of it. Your possessions were damaged, so I had everything replaced. I couldn't find the exact model of the bag you owned, so I got you the latest satchel from Luna."

Robin's face fell. That was the first designer bag she had bought with her own hard-earned money. No replacement would ever make up for the sentiment behind it.

"We also had some difficulty finding your phone model too. You had a very old phone. They don't even sell that on the market anymore. I hope you don't mind a Falchion. I picked out the rose gold one since my daughters seem to like it so far. We did what we could for all your other stuff, but we had to just get the next best thing when we couldn't find the exact item."

"You didn't have to," was all she could manage.

"I want you to rest easy while you're here. I've always been very fond of you."

"Mrs. Exalt, I can't accept all of this."

"Please. It's the least we could do. It would help me sleep at night," insisted Liana.

Robin mustered a smile but guessed that she probably looked constipated instead. "Thank you," she murmured.

Liana smiled and patted her on the hand that didn't have the IV needle pierced into it. "It's been a while since I've last seen you."

"It has."

"I'm happy to see you again, Robin. Chrom wanted to be here, but you know how his father is like. Carlisle probably wouldn't be happy if he knew if I was here too. We'll keep it our little secret."

She nodded.

"I'm sad to see you again under these circumstances, dear."

"Likewise, Mrs. Exalt."

"Please. Liana's fine."

Liana's motherly aura was completely different from Robin's own mother's. If her mother was here, Robin would've received the lecture of a lifetime. Oddly, she would've preferred to get yelled at than be coddled. It probably would've help alleviate the guilt. It always did.

"I won't stay too long, but I just wanted to thank you, Robin. For always staying by my son's side. He needs someone like you by his side," said Liana.

"Mrs. Exalt…we're…" Robin couldn't finish her sentence when Liana looked at her with so much hopeful expectation. "We're working through some rough patches since he's been gone for a while, but we should be fine in due time."

A bright smile lit up on Liana's face. "I'm happy to hear that, sweetheart. I put mine and Chrom's number on the phone. Call me if you need anything. And I mean, anything."

"Thank you for your kind offer." She knew she wouldn't be calling Liana for anything. She wondered if Liana knew too.

After about two hours of isolated boredom, Robin caved and opened the gift bag. She pulled out a drawstring bag with the Luna logo—a small Crescent moon and 'Luna' beside it—emblazoned on it. She pulled out a beautiful bag. Her fingers brushed against the pastel pink leather and lingered on the decorative white flowers on the front flap of the satchel. Robin bit her lip. It probably cost at least five months' of rent. But it was so much nicer than her old bag. Liana always had such fantastic taste.

Curiously, she opened the satchel and uncomfortably laughed. Liana wasn't kidding about them finding replacements for everything. They even replaced her shitty pen that she got for free with a pen she knew cost at least a hundred G's. There was a new ivory wallet with a tassel keychain with all of her cards and cash and then some. Robin pulled out a slip of paper and several too many 100 G bills that said 'Treat yourself, sweetheart. Love, Liana.' Even her lipstick was replaced by a higher-end brand: probably the original lipstick that she bought the dupe for.

Now it all made sense. Chrom's generous spending habits on others came from his mother. She wasn't sure about other girls, but being showered in expensive gifts and cash made her extremely uncomfortable, even if they were just being nice and replacing her items. Robin felt like she owed them something. If it wasn't considered a heinous crime in Ylisse (and Plegia) to return gifts, Robin would've mailed it all back.

Robin sighed and saw that there was still something left at the bottom of the gift bag. She reached in and pulled out the small box. It was a limited edition rose gold Falchion model.

Her side ached from sitting up for so long, so she endured the pain a little longer before rearranging her pillows to lean back. Then she opened the box.

Ever since the Falchion had been launched, it was near impossible to get your hands on a rose gold or gold model. She pulled out the most coveted phone in the smartphone world at the moment. Her team had slaved away for designing all the accessories that went with it, including the wireless charger, camera attachment, speaker attachment, VR headset, to name a few.

Robin's thumb rested on the power button. She could not turn the phone on and just throw it out. She could get a different phone. But it was such an insult to Liana and she hadn't done anything wrong. She also couldn't afford a new phone since her phone contract wasn't even close to ending and she was still making aggressive payments to her student loans.

She gave in and held down the power button and watched the Exalt logo glow on the screen. It only took a couple minutes for the phone to set up once she entered her email and all her contacts updated onto her new phone. She hated to admit it, but it was a nice phone.

And that's when the flood of texts and missed calls came in. A good chunk of them were from coworkers and friends, but most of them were from her family. There were at least thirty missed calls from her family. They were probably already on a plane over if Aversa hadn't succeeded in persuading her parents to remain calm.

Robin decided to deal with the texts after. Right now, she needed to worry about her family who probably thought she was dead. With the time difference, they were probably already up and about now.

She dialed the number and waited. It rang once, twice, and—

"You're alive! Why haven't you been answering you phone?" demanded her mom.

"Hey…Mom," said Robin carefully. "My phone got destroyed. I just got a replacement for it."

"You could've messaged us through your computer! We thought you died or worse," said her mom.

"What's worse than dying?"

"Don't give me lip, missy," she snapped.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," said Robin. "Did you guys already book your flights to hunt me down?"

"No. Your sister persuaded us out of that," said her mom.

"Okay, good." Now to explain what happened. "So…"

"So?" Her mom waited. "What is it? Spit it out."

Her mom was not in a good mood today. She probably had a trial today.

"I had a bit of an accident," she murmured.

"What? What kind of accident? Don't tell me. Are you pregnant?"

"Mom! No! Why would you say that?"

"You can't get upset with me since your sister has had enough pregnancy scares for both of you combined in my lifetime," said her mom.

Her mom meant a total of three pregnancy scares.

Robin didn't say anything. All she did was regret calling home.

"So what happened? Do you need us to wire you some money?" asked her mom. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"No. I kinda got into a car accident," murmured Robin and she braced herself.

It was the worst-case scenario: her mom went quiet. People often thought that her father was the scary, intimidating one. Sure, her mom put on the facade of being sweet and elegant, and she was, but between the two parents, her mom was the terrifying one. You don't piss off the nice parent. Ever.

"What do you mean you kinda got into a car accident?" she shrieked. "Are you okay? Where are you now? What happened? Why didn't you look both ways when you were crossing the street? Do you need me to come sue someone?"

"It's okay. I just…" Robin glanced at her cast. "Sprained my ankle. The car was only going like 15 km/hr, Mom. I was in a school zone and it was just a little bump. I'll be walking on it in no time." With crutches. "It just pushed me over. No biggie."

"Robin Charlotte Grima. You better not be lying to me."

Goosebumps raised on her skin. "I swear, Mom. I swear on all my student debts I'm telling you the truth."

"I don't believe you."

"I'm being well taken care of, okay? I do have a couple scratches, but I'm fine. Please believe me."

"Are you sure you don't want us there?" She sounded hurt.

"Yeah, it's fine. I have my friends and boyfriend who's been helping me with whatever I need," said Robin.

"Since when did you have a boyfriend?" asked her mom.

"I…uh…" Robin cleared her throat, trying to backpedal. This was why having a lawyer parent was so terrifying. Nothing went unnoticed. And every move she made was critically analyzed. No wonder Aversa got so good at hiding shit at an early age. "Didn't Aversa say anything?"

"No."

"Well, you know. I just wanted to wait before saying anything, in case it wasn't official or something," said Robin. "It's official! I guess."

"I'd say bring him home for dinner some time, but you only visit during the holidays," said her mom.

"I know. I'm a bad daughter. I'll try to visit more often," said Robin.

"It'd be nice if you just found a job in Plegia. It would put your dad and I at ease," said her mom.

"I know. But I'm working at one of the best companies in the world right now," said Robin.

"I know, dear. Just saying I miss and love you."

"I love you too, Mom."

"Okay, I need to head into court now. Text me every hour for the next two weeks. So I know you didn't die."

"Fine. Okay."

When the call ended, Robin sank further into the bed. Maybe going home for a bit wasn't a terrible idea. She could freelance for a bit and stay with her parents. Maybe she should quit her job and find a new one. Start fresh. Then she nor Frederick would have to deal with anything of this.

But there was a part of her wondering why Chrom hadn't dropped by to check in on her. And then she felt stupid for even thinking it.

Frederick was on his way to the hospital from work when he received a text from Robin asking him when he was coming. While he was confused that she was texted from the same number, he texted back he would be there shortly. He called her and put her on speakers once he was on the road back to see her.

"How are you calling me with the same number, love?" asked Frederick.

"I got a new phone," said Robin.

"I can see that." The traffic wasn't as bad as he had anticipated. "You didn't leave the hospital to get a new phone, did you?"

"Frederick, I have a broken leg. And no, not Chrom. Someone else I know dropped it off as a get-well gift. Do you think they'll let me leave tomorrow?"

"No. The doctors said they want to monitor you for a little longer."

She snorted. "Probably Chrom overreacting."

"Don't think about it, Robin. Don't you dare sneak out."

"I won't," she grumbled. "Okay, I'll let you go. Wait, can you get me a mango smoothie?"

"The one from Risen?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Extra yogurt?"

"You know me too well."

"I'll be an extra ten minutes."

"That's okay. Be quick like a bunny, bae." And she hung up.

When Frederick arrived at Robin's hospital suite, she grinned and giggled at him. "You look sexy with your hot pink overnight bag."

"I remember you saying that you found me attractive in pink," quipped Frederick.

She laughed. "Oh, I do."

He placed the bag on the bed. "I packed you some underwear, a change of clothes, and some toiletries. I'm not sure if I got everything you needed since I did it all based on memory whenever you brought stuff over to my place. But I did get you your comfortable granny panties, instead of your other panties."

"You're the best."

Frederick handed her the mango smoothie. "It's a little melted."

"That's okay." She took a sip from the straw. "Thank you so much. I've been dying for a smoothie all day."

Next, he placed the gift bag beside the overnight bag. "I also brought you some chocolate from that shop near the farmer's market to cheer you up. And a small gift to keep you company."

"When did you have time to get me a gift?"

"I meant to give it to your yesterday when you came over for dinner as promised, but you ended up here."

Robin pinched the tissue paper and pulled out the sheets, one by one. When she reached in, she pulled out a giraffe stuffie and gasped. Frederick hadn't seen her face light up like that in a long time.

"I love it!" she exclaimed. "Oh my gods, it's so cute. His name shall be Mr. Long."

"Astounding creativity." He chuckled.

"Shush you." She cuddled the soft giraffe against her chest.

The new phone on Robin's bedside table caught his attention. If it wasn't from Chrom, it was probably from his family.

"You should go to work tomorrow. I'll be okay," said Robin.

"I have so many personal days accumulated, it's not a problem for me to stay with you."

"Frederick, you're wasting your time and money by being here with me. Okay, before you tell me otherwise, I know I'm not a waste of time and money. I think you should get back to work than stay with me all week."

"We can talk about that later. How was your day?"

"Boring. I hurt everywhere and my head hurts sometimes. I called my mom. Got an earful," said Robin, but she had the widest smile. "I totally deserved it."

"Are they coming to see you?"

"No, I told them to stay put. I love my family, but we'll end up starting a war. I told her I sprained my ankle," murmured Robin.

"Robin, this is hardly a sprained ankle." Frederick gestured to her casted leg. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You downplay the bad things that happen to you. Or when you're upset," said Frederick.

Robin played with the giraffe stuffie in her lap. "Do I?"

"You do. Robin, I'm here for you. Let me be here for you. A lot of people are here for you. You can lean on other people."

She looked up at him and smiled. "Okay." Frederick didn't buy it, but he let it go.

"Who came to visit while I was gone?"

"Chrom's mom."

It came as a bit of a surprise, considering Chrom's father had been so harsh with his methods of trying to get rid of Robin. Frederick wondered if Chrom's mother was just as bad or worse than his father.

"She's a really nice woman. They met when they were in university. She was from a really poor family and Chrom's father really fought his family to marry her."

That didn't sound right. There were countless scandals of Carlisle Exalt committing adultery that were swept under the rug.

Robin laughed dryly. "I can see what you're thinking. If he married for love, why does he cheat on her over and over again? I have no idea, Frederick." She was about to say more, but closed her mouth. Instead, she smiled. "Yeah…"

"I saw Chrom at work."

She perked up. "Yeah?"

"He looked like he hadn't slept at all last night," said Frederick.

Actually, Chrom had approached him at work. It took every last bit of strength in him to not tackle Chrom, an urge he hadn't had since his rugby days.

"Makes sense. Hey, want to go somewhere nice after I'm out of here? I think I need to get away for a bit."

Last week, Frederick's mother had called and asked about bringing Robin down with him for the long weekend at the end of the month. He had been meaning to introduce her to his family, but hadn't had the opportunity and they didn't speak about family often. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity.

"How does Sainor at the end of the month sound?" asked Frederick.

"The city famous for its mountains? Hell yes. Wait. Are you going to drag me around hiking the entire time? Because you can't. Broken leg." She triumphantly pointed to her leg.

He chuckled at her. "No hiking. My parents want to meet you."

"Oh," she said in mild surprise. "Okay, sure. Yeah. That sounds great."

Sneaking out was never easy in the Exalt household. For the longest time, Chrom and Lissa believed that Libra was a vampire. The man never slept. However, as he started to establish his own workout regime of getting up before the house, Libra didn't question him as much. He did bring up the point that there was a gym at home, but Chrom reasoned that it was good for him to get out of the house. Libra let him be.

He seriously needed to find his own place, even if their home was so big that they he could go days without seeing any of his family.

Chrom shouldered his gym bag and left in a hoodie and jeans. He took his own car instead of the chauffeur. But instead of turning left at the exit to go to the gym, he turned right.

The drive to the hospital was quiet and the morning rush wasn't too bad. He even managed to find street parking to ensure that there was no incriminating evidence against him visiting the hospital in case someone saw his car. Chrom unzipped the gym bag in the passenger seat and pulled out a crumpled bouquet. Some of the petals had fallen off of the flowers but it would have to do.

Chrom locked the car and headed to see Robin. After having no sleep for the past two nights and over-thinking everything possible, he came to the realization that he needed to give Robin space. This would be goodbye until she was ready to have him back in her life. It was a hard decision, yet necessary.

By the time he made it to Robin's floor, it was 6:05 AM. He yawned and his body begged him to get some shut eye. He found that guilt was a far more effective than caffeine in keeping him up.

He was almost at Suite 1803 when he saw someone emerge from Robin's suite. Chrom frowned.

The man visiting Robin looked terribly familiar. He was tall and built with a headful of tousled brown locks. Chrom's stomach twisted into an ugly knot when he figured that the man had had stayed the night with Robin. He couldn't get a good look of the man's face because he was checking his phone.

This was the man Robin was seeing. The bouquet crinkled with his tightening grip.

When the man finally raised his head from his phone, resentment melted into confusion.

"Frederick?"