'Hey now, Green - what's running through that head 'o yours?'

'Er…' Stahl stalls, eyes like jewels or grass or similarly flowery things turn towards her from where they were staring through the camp fire at the captain. Sully's partner was always contemplative, thoughtful in ways that their men like Vaike weren't. She wasn't always able to keep up with him in ways outside of battle but she had only need ask and he would tell her - eventually.

Now, though, Stahl's stalling like he does when he's picked up on a person's sensitivity and is contemplating doing something but doesn't know how to talk about it. Stahl was like that, a damn bleeding heart but he was at least in good company. 'Spit it out,' Sully demands as she elbows him into the soft of his cloaked side.

Stahl's cheeks are flushed and he fidgets as he glances to Lord Chrom and then back to her. His tongue peaks out to wet his lips and before Sully can make Stahl hurry it up, he is shifting on the log they're sharing with Gregor and Miriel. Stahl's knee bumps into Sully's, his arm pushing into her side as he curls towards her direction.

Stahl's eyes glow in the fire as he stares up from the thick mess that is his hair, cowlicks flicking in every direction to fall artfully around his head. Sully forces herself not to swallow as she notices how close he is, with his attention now on her and his breath warming her cheeks as the climate lowers with the night. The closer they get to Ferox, the colder it got as landmasses shifted and the weather changed and the sun disappeared.

Sully caught herself from leaning forward, towards his heat, as Stahl's voice catches her unaware. 'You…you've noticed - Lord Chrom and Robin?'

Stahl asks this, trying to be tactful though Sully could only guess that it was for any soldiers that could overhear as those two had been an undeniable, unsaid fact since the captain had first brought their tactician home. 'I have eyes, Stahl,' Sully responds as that's all it took. The two lovestruck fools were utterly devoted; she didn't need a romantic bone in her body to see the affection between the two.

Stahl laughs awkwardly, just under his breath which fogs in front of him from the ice in the air. 'Lord Chrom will be crowned once we're home and you know the council…' he trails off, once again glancing at the captain who is staring stoically at the ground as the two khans attempt to engage him in conversation, and try to distract him from what was obviously on his mind: Robin, and how he was so far away with such a serious wound.

Chrom had been determined to get to Ferox as soon as possible, if he hadn't been commanding an army, Sully doubted he'd allow himself rest. He was showing his respect for his duty, and maybe for Robin as well, who had spent his nights, his days and his damned sanity saving them.

Now, it was nighttime, they hadn't stopped until dusk had fallen and now Stahl was implying that the council would try and force a marriage on a prince Sully had put good effort into keeping him in one piece. Sully came from a family of knights though; she had a strong heritage even if she refused to use their influence in the courts and instead relied on hard work, and perseverance to climb the ranks. But her background still have her insight, from the name she wouldn't keep too close to her chest that those old dastards weren't beyond pushing their own wants above other's.

'No one would allow that,' Sully says absolutely. Every one of the Shepherds were loyal to Chrom and would fight for him on any battle field, however much politics made her feel dirty. Robin, in her books, had done enough for the lot of them for a lifetime of favours even if it meant ensuring a romance she didn't really want to think about. They were too much like her brothers for her to entertain conversations about it. 'Anyone says anything and they're gonna meet the sharp end of my sword.'

Stahl's expression softens - face like a bloody dogs, all big eyes and tilted head and shit. 'I think…I think not saying anything about it is part of the problem,' he admits as his fingers tangle and knot themselves in his lap.

'Say what?' Sully blinks in confusion and hopes that Stahl can explain and that he does it quick. Lunch had ended awhile ago now and she didn't relish trying to have this conversation again, because she would since it seemed important but she'd much rather Stahl just get to the meat of it so that they could get around to fixing it.

Stahl infuriatingly enough taps her knee as he responds. 'Robin - he…I think when I was helping him to the healer's tent that he was about to tell Lord Chrom how he feels,' he utters quietly, his breath heating the space between them. 'He hit himself before he could -'

'You what?' Sully winces at the thought. Stahl had woken her early to guard Robin before he was taken by Nowi before them, and he had looked awful; like a small gust of wind could knock him off of his feet. It wasn't something she could say she was accustom to, as however tired or injured Robin was, there was always an element of reliability about him. When Sully had followed Stahl to help prepare Robin for his trip, she hadn't expected for him to look so bad, or for the amount of pain he was in.

Stahl nods, with a displeased slant to his brows and an unhappy glean in his eyes. 'Lord Chrom…I think he'll try implying things but, I'm not sure if he'll be able to - to just come out and say it and if he doesn't, I know Robin won't.'

Robin was a genius. He was honestly one of the most extraordinary people Sully had met, and she knew that when she had first run into them when the risen hadn't yet got a name, and Ruffles was following after her like one of Sumia's pegasi. It had taken her seeing that extraordinary person walk into the barracks after that battle, back at the beginning, and witnessing his eyes shutter close when Maribelle had turned that tongue of hers in his direction, to realise he had stupidly low self-esteem.

He didn't think he was worth anything and it always pissed Sully off. It wasn't priority or social status or crap like that, not really, for the short period of time Robin was actually in Ylisse, he had gone to town on the council and several lords without a trace of shame. Robin just had a habit of not thinking he was good enough and then letting that big brain of his reason the dragon crap out.

Sully didn't need to be able to read faces like Stahl could to understand Robin like that; she had her own insecurities too, she knew what it looked like. And just like that, Sully was starting to get what Stahl was reaching for; he was always good at getting Sully on track to where he was going with very few words.

'You wanna help out,' Sully states like there was ever any doubt.

Stahl is a strange mix of sheepish and solemn as he gives a small smile with a nod. 'I'm not sure how though,' he admits as he weaves a hand through his hair in frustration, the strands are stiff from the frigid temperature and stand up even more oddly.

Sully shrugs even if she finds herself look over to the captain whose huddled numbly into his thick cloak. His expression is unfocused and his eyes appear a thousand miles away, because they were. Chrom hadn't stopped worrying since Nowi had flown off with Robin to Ferox; it was the first time either of them had been seriously apart since Chrom had found Robin in that field, and it was because their birdie had gotten himself injured.

'Just lock 'em in a room, or something,' Sully suggests. The two idiots just needed a bit of a kicking; get them to stop being so stupid and notice what was in front of them.

Stahl winces and laughs awkwardly. 'This should…probably be handled a little more delicately,' he responds to which Sully shrugs again. 'I would talk to Lord Chrom, try to give him a bit of a push, you know? But…'

Sully frowns as she listens to the hesitance in Stahl's voice. 'But what?'

'But we don't know each well.' Stahl finishes with something off about his tone. 'I know he trusts me,' Stahl reassures when Sully's face twitches into something like annoyance. He reaches for her again, his gloved fingers skimming down her arm for a moment in his signal of comfort or calm, please don't hit me - don't kill them.

'Lord Chrom recruited me for the Shepherds, I'm a comrade of his but….' Stahl pauses, searching for words as Sully tries not to interrupt. 'I'm not his friend, not like - well, definitely not like Robin. But not like Sir Frederick, or Lady Maribelle or Sumia or….'

Sully raises an eyebrow as Stahl stops. 'Or?' she grunts in irritation as she waits.

'You,' Stahl breathes up as he grasps Sully's shoulders in excitement. 'You. You - the both of you trained together, didn't you?'

Sully's half surprised that Stahl didn't know this but she didn't tend to talk about her connection to the crown, or Chrom, and Stahl had been in with the wave of recruits after them. 'We played together as brats,' Sully replies.

Wonder flickers across Stahl's face but he doesn't even ask as he barrels forward. 'Then - you, I mean you'd have to be…sensitive - but you could talk to him.'

Sully would laugh if anyone else had asked her to be "sensitive" but this was Stahl, and it was a war too late to think he hadn't already seen in her everything there was to see. To get a lot of her fellow knights-in-training to take her seriously, Sully had gone out of her way to make sure that the only perceived femininity about her was physical. Sentiment had become a very foreign thing and trying to get all sappy with people just tended to make her feel awkward, but then a lot of things made her feel awkward.

'I'll…see what I can do,' Sully promises as she thinks about her knucklehead commander, even as she's already planning the best way to approach the man. They had a good comradeship and sure - Stahl was right - they would consider each other "friends", but it wasn't the same type of thing she had going on with Ricken or Libra or heck, even Vaike. However down-to-earth Chrom was, he was still royalty, there was still a wall.

Stahl smiles then and it's cold, they're all hungry, hurt and sore and weeks from anything close to resembling home but it somehow makes Sully feel soothed to her bloody bones. 'Hey,' he says abruptly as he folds his leg left on top of his right as he inches closer, his palm coming up to skim over her cheek, briefly sliding a few strands of of her hair behind her ear. 'We're almost there.'

Sully's cheeks feel like they're on fire but she manages to return the smile. 'Yeah, Green.' She allows herself to stretch out her hand, a mirror to his as Sully inclines her head in agreement. 'Almost there.'

Sully knocks on Chrom's tent-post awkwardly, her toes curled in her shoes as the captain's voice calls out for her to wait. She shifts as the cold bites at her through the layers of clothing that seemed to do little for her. Hopefully Robin was doing alright with the temperature, Feroxian's were good with extreme weather, from biting snowstorms to scorching heat but Plegians weren't so adjusted to anything but the sun. Tharja seemed to be barely holding on.

'Hello - oh, Sully.' Chrom blinks in curiosity as he registers who had called for him so late after peaking through his tent flap, the dark bags under his eyes only further highlighted by the candle he was holding between them.

Sully tries not to frown too much as she crosses her arms over her chest. 'You gunna let me in?' she demands though she knows Chrom was probably expecting a report or a problem to be bought to his attention at this hour, and for her to be quickly on her way.

Chrom's head tilts in silent question but after a moment he steps back without word and allows her access into his tent. The insides are plain but spacious and already a lot more than any of the other tropes could call their own, but also far too simple to be labelled a prince's room. The cot was looking ignored in the left corner while the desk was cluttered, a candle burning to the side with a map sagging to the floor. There is a coin purse and a compass that also catches Sully's eye before she double-takes on the ring that is left on a stain bag -

'Sully?' Chrom asks in a way other people would ask "I thought you wanted to talk to me, why aren't you looking at me?", but that was the captain for you.

Sully takes a seat on his chair and waits until Chrom's down hovering and he's plonked himself down on his cot. 'You…wanted something?' her captain asks warily, and yeah, that's fair. The last time Sully had gone to speak with Chrom privately about something, it was because Vaike was trying to spy on the girls bathing.

'Yeah,' Sully huffs as she attempts to figure out how to broach this. The silence starts to buzz and Chrom is definitely looking more and more uncomfortable before she goes, ah to hell with it. 'So about your crush on Robin…how far have you gotten, exactly?' Swear, some of the more observant recruits were whispering about them eloping, which might've been something Chrom would try to pull but Robin was sensible at the worst of times and wouldn't have it.

Chrom sort of chokes on air. 'Sully!' he finally exclaims as an embarrassed flush raises against his cheeks.

'C'mon, Chrom,' Sully urges while ignoring her own self-consciousness. Stahl had tried to make some suggestions but they had ended up agreeing that they'd simply tag team the pair of them, and that Stahl would try whispering into Robin's ear once they met back up. 'You've been a nervous wreck while we've been marchin' to Ferox and you must be thinking 'bout Robin's condition. Ya been joined at the hip since forever.'

Which was a nice way for her to say "since Robin's greatest self-proclaimed failure, since Lady Emmeryn fell to her death, since you watched your sister die and then started pulling everyone so close that it was near suffocating, after you tried pushing them all away".

Indignation crosses Chrom's face but Sully simply stays seated and waits him out, reminding who exactly was talking to him. After a moment of tense stillness Chrom looks away, chin hitting his chest as he slumps in defeat and Sully knows she's won some leeway.

'Robin is my greatest friend,' Chrom states with a gentleness he reserves for Robin and his sisters and small children, but she'd have to be deaf and stupid not to also hear how he laments over his words.

Sully feels her nose flair in irritation and she can't help the way defensiveness raises in her stomach on their behalf, because Stahl's right; they wouldn't get anywhere like this and if it was because of those lords she was getting her horse and her sword and - well. 'I've been friends with Ricken since before he could walk proper, but I don't look at him the same way you do to Robin.'

Chrom's lips thin as he leans forward a bit to semi-snap: 'no, those looks are reserved for Stahl.'

Sully feels her shoulders draw back, tighten but she tries to keep her cool. She had deliberately cornered her captain about something he was uncomfortable about, she had to expect some blowback. 'Who the heck told you that?' she demands because Chrom wouldn't have figured them out, he was hopeless with that sort of thing to the point it was surprising that he knew his own feelings.

Chrom sighs as he reluctantly replies. '…Robin may have implied it, accidentally.'

Ah, the Curse. Well, that explained things. Sully didn't think there wasn't a thing Robin didn't know about any member of the Shepherds, which made this whole truth-telling business doubly inconvenient. 'If you know that much now, you can bet I recognise what it looks like,' Sully reasons as she pushes the feeling of her stomach down to the pits of her toes.

Chrom bites his lip as he uses one hand to run through his already ruffled hair, leaning on the other arm on his knee. 'Robin…he's magnetic. I've - I'm no good words, I can't wax poetry about him.'

'I'm not askin' ya to,' Sully replies a bit more kindly but also searchingly, hoping that it is enough to prompt him. Luck must be on her side this once because Chrom weaves his fingers together and tries again.

'He is my closet friend and I - gods above, Sully, I'd do anything for him,' Chrom admits quietly, almost shamefully because they both know where devotion has led Ylisse; they've seen what it does.

'I know,' Sully tells him just as softly. 'You love him.'

Fear is the brightest light in Chrom's darkening eyes. 'Sometimes I think I'm over this, I think to myself that Emmeryn raised me well enough to stop however much of my father I have in me from surfacing, and that I…and I can just, go up to Robin and tell him, stop this whole charade but then…'

'But then he gets hurt,' Sully finishes for him, she can see the thought process behind all this and remembers a time gone by from before she was knight, from before Chrom was a man.

Chrom nods hopelessly. 'He gets hurt and I see him in pain and my blood - Naga forgive me, but my blood boils and…' he gestures uselessly, limbs appearing twice their weight and just as graceless. 'When my father died and the ethnic cleansing was stopped, I promised myself that I wouldn't find love; I couldn't be my father.'

'You're not him,' Sully states as strongly as she can but she's not much for words either and she doesn't know how to help this, Stahl would be better, Robin would out do himself like he always does but they're not here.

'I could be,' Chrom rebukes emotionlessly. 'I'm his son, after all, I've heard them comparing us and I'm not that ignorant. And I love Robin, I do. I love him, I…'

Sully feels her jaw clench, how her teeth grind together. 'He's good for you, anyone'd be able to see that. He's pulled you back from the edge before -'

'Robin's suffered and toiled and given his mind to efforts that aren't his own, he's supported me and yes, he's stopped me but I'm not afraid of that, Sully. I'm not afraid that he'll - he'll "fail" me. I'm afraid that I can have him and that I'll love him and that Robin will… When Emm…I painted that battlefield red, Sully…'

Sully swallows as her mind draws back to the events that had turned into a nightmare, faded from colour and shape but vivid in how it sometimes keep her from sleep, how it haunts her; that battle more than others. They've been made to retreat before; it is not the first time Robin has led them either, but it was the first time they had had to flee on the backs of fallen comrades.

Chrom had been - hellish, almost possessed in how he tore through enemy troops, which had set out to meet them in the storm that echoed every Ylissean's rage and sorrow. The captain had been charging ahead, breaking formation to kill anything in his path and Robin - his eyes during that, they were the worst she'd ever seen but not defeated, not then.

Robin kept them moving, kept them alive - kept Chrom alive and got them out. Robin - a foreigner without paper to his name or a memory of his past - had somehow become the most stable thing in Chrom's life, had become "it", the "one"; whatever they were labelling it these days. Sully could hear what Chrom couldn't quite bring himself to say, which is that he didn't trust himself not to fall apart should Robin die.

'We're at peace now -' Sully attempts to reassure but that just seems to aggravate Chrom more as he stands, his cloak flurrying around his legs as it resets itself to the new angle.

'We were at peace then.' Chrom swings his arm wide, exposing a somewhat threadbare tunic which he quickly hides again from the shock of the cold. 'Mother…she died and Father's mind just - snapped.'

Sully sighed and stood herself. Her knees creaked as they unlocked and she felt the lower end of her spine whine at the new position but she turned to his desk, swiped two objects off of the surface and met Chrom in the middle of his tent.

He wasn't looking at her now, cheek turned away and the longer of his fringe obscured his eyes. Sully didn't fully think it through when she used her empty palm to slap him but damn was it satisfying. Chrom's whole body jerked from the submissive thing he had had going on, as a large pale hand automatically went to tend to the injury as he came to stare at her.

'Sully, what the -' He started to demand, tone rough and bordering on betrayed before she extended her other hand, the one that now had his ring resting in the centre. 'Sully -'

'I know what this is.' She glances down to this piece of jewellery, barely notes the craftsmanship that had gone into the thing, the mix of silver and gold and the sapphire that had been used to create the brand on the front. 'Your Ma had it made for ya, when you were born. It's for you to give to who you want to marry, it was created for that and yer still have it.'

Chrom's forehead creases, and he looks - sad as he stares down at it. 'Sometimes I look at it to - remind me -'

'And others?' Sully presses as she jerks the ring further forward.

'Others…others I want to see it around Robin's finger.' Hesitantly, Chrom takes the ring from Sully and that, he is careful with because Chrom has to be. 'I…'

'You ain't no saint, Captain and no one expects you to be. You have a temper and yeah, you've gone on a rampage or two but you've never hit an innocent; you've never crossed a line. I couldn't fight for ya if ya had. You're as good as most men are gonna get and you - you can't punish yourself for things you haven't done; for stuff that hasn't happened.'

Chrom's stare lifts from the ring and if Sully could just smack some of that fear out of him, she would. 'I can't -'

'Chrom, listen to me a second,' Sully interrupts as she claps his branded shoulder, trying her best to centre him. 'You've surrounded yourself with really good people and…I, look, if you ever do half of what your afraid of, you're gonna hear about it from somebody.'

Sully watches as Chrom's fingers clench around the ring. 'You can't promise me that.'

Sully frowns and tries to pick out all the notes from Chrom's voice and fails. 'Why the heck not?'

'Because no-one said anything before, not really.'

Sully's heart increases in speed. This can't go on, Chrom can't keep carrying this. He'll snap under all the weight eventually. 'Robin's strong and that brain of his -'

'Couldn't stop him from breaking his leg!' Chrom shouts with no small part desperation.

'Then whatta 'bout me!' Sully returns at equal volume as she instinctively pushed Chrom away from her.

Chrom blinks for a second, stumbling for his footing. 'What?' he asks in confusion, sagging forward where he stands his ground however unsteady.

'What about me? What if I - I could swear to you, to stop you,' Sully hears herself say but her voice echoes unreliably in her inner ear so she doubles down. 'Me an' Stahl can beat anyone together. What if I swear an oath to you, to stop you if you lose your mind and order another ethnic cleansing.'

Chrom's whole form is still and he looks shocked to his core. Sully is firm, her back straight and crap, she hopes she looks stronger then she feels. '…I can't ask that of you,' Chrom says eventually, voice tender, thankful but not at all agreeable.

It isn't when he's about to step away that Sully reaches out again. 'Like heck you can't! I am a knight to this realm, don't treat me like a stupid little girl. You'll be more then a captain in a couple of months and Robin - there's not a soul in this army of yours that don't owe that man an arm and a leg. If you promise to offer that ring to him, proper like, on bended knee - the whole shebang - then I'll swear that to you, I'll give you my word.'

Chrom's face is sort of..frozen. '…he might not even say yes.'

'Doesn't matter,' Sully insists immediately after. 'He can laugh at your stupid face and the deal'd still be on. It's my duty to protect people. Dammit, Chrom, I could be encouraging you to embrace a deep, secret desire to be a pegasus knight and it wouldn't matter a lick to me. This just happens to be the opera of your love life.'

Chrom's wavering with indecision and Sully tries another push, just one more even though she'd stand here all night if she had to. 'We're arguing in hypotheticals anyway, Robin ain't goin' anywhere and our birdie'd say yes to you because he's just as hopeless as you are -'

'Sully.' Chrom cuts in. 'Sully, what you've just promised me - if you ever went against me, even if it was to keep your oath, even if I had become my father -'

'Which ain't happening -'

'Sully, it would kill you. You wouldn't survive that.'

Sully's eyes narrow, a fire in her belly as she steps into his space, butting up against his chest even when she has to force her neck to kill the distance made between height and Chrom's stupidity. 'If you ever got as bad as the previous king, Captain, I promise you that neither would you.'

Chrom's eyes have turned into miniature moons, wide as they get on his pale face. His gaping mouth eventually shuts though, relief tempering his expression as the grip on the ring eases. '…thank you.'

'We got a deal, then.'

Con/Textual: I love Sully. I love love Sully. She's so awesome and Stahl's adorable. Writing these characters are great. Will work on the next chapter soon though I think I need to go over the chapters for another proofread :/.

(Upload: 18/02/2018)

OZ