Normally, the Shepherds had no need to set up their supplie's tent. They only needed it for when they were setting up camp out in the wilderness. When they were safely in town, there never was enough room for such a large tent. However, with the weapons Anna supplied, they set it up outside the town's walls for the sake of transporting the weapons into it. Robin recalled that it was Stahl and Kellam who transported the arms, but what they failed to do was take down the tent afterwards. Not that the tactician did not mind. In fact, it served his purposes well enough.

Robin was fortunate enough to glance over the records of the transaction between the Shepherds and was quite surprised to see one of the newly acquired weapons was a spell tome. Not just any tome, but Thoron. The tactician heard of the spell through his research and knew of its potential and power. Such a weapon would be valuable and necessary in their war against Plegia. He was certain that Chrom would not mind that if he took part of his free day to secure the tome. It was only a few minutes at most and time better spent now rather than tomorrow, where he would be back to work.

The tent stood outside of the walls of the town, the gentle breeze blowing the flaps to the side. Robin sighed upon seeing no other Shepherd standing guard over the supplies tent. Then again, Kellam was one of the two assigned to set up the tent. For all the tactician knew, the silent warrior could be standing guard over the tent. Maybe he was trying to stop him from entering. He chuckled outat the thought and made his way into the tent, not giving it second thought.

The familiar sight of crates and weapons earned a sigh of relief from Robin. There was a part of him that missed the early hours where he worked alone in the tent, keeping track of the storage of the Shepherds. Yet, today, he was not alone. Cordelia's back was to him as she remained seated on one of the crates, fastening her javelin together. The tactician swore that his heart skipped a beat when he saw her. He remained motionless, looking at her and questioning himself on why he was not able to talk to her. He nearly gasped when Cordelia glanced over her shoulder, offering him a friendly smile.

"Robin," she greeted, turning around and standing up. "Sorry. I guess I didn't hear you walk in."

"It's quite fine," Robin responded, wondering how much time passed. "I just wanted to check on something."

"And I was hoping to talk to you," Cordelia told him. "That morning in that one town, before we arrived in Ferox, you offered me ideas on how I could improve my javelin. Do you remember?"

"I do," Robin nodded. "The point was prone to break, the grip was weak, and the material was fragile."

"Well, I created a new javelin based on your feedback," Cordelia told him, holding her javelin out to him. "Want to take a look?"

"You made one?!" Robin asked in shock, taking the javelin and looking it over. "As in, you forged it yourself? You didn't assembled it from a kit, or something?"

"I cut a sapling, fashioned a grip, and hammered a point in the forge," Cordelia explained, motioning to length of the javelin. "Look. See the pattern on the shaft? It's my own design. I just finished it up in here. Well? What do you think?"

Robin was speechless at the effort she took. In the course of days, she created her own javelin, one of which was superior in terms of quality to what the Shepherds have received originally. He was amazed at what the pegasus knight was able to accomplish when she sets her mind to something. The shaft was engraved with dancing pegasuses soaring throughout the javelin. It was an unnecessary detail but one that she took great pleasure in. There was so much on his mind that he wanted to tell her. The tactician wanted to tell her how amazing she was. Still, he held his tongue back. He could not trust himself with telling her too much out of fear that maybe something would risk.

"I think that I wasn't expecting you to go and fashion a whole javelin from scratch," was all Robin was able mutter, just loudly enough for her to hear. "You really are a genius!"

"I beg your pardon," Cordelia took a step back from Robin, nearly looking away from him.

"Oh, uh, I, well, sorry," Robin struggled to recover, realizing the mistake he just made. "I know you're sensitive about that word. Just a slip of a tongue, that's all."

"It's alright, Robin," Cordelia sighed in relief. "I know you meant no harm with your words. It's just something I am trying to accustomed to."

"Moving on, I'm glad I was able to help out," Robin told her, holding the weapon back to her. "You did an excellent job with making your javelin. I hope it serves you well in battle."

"Thank you, Robin," Cordelia accepted her javelin back. "I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for your notes on how it could be improved."

"If there's anything else I can do, please tell me," Robin offered, smiling.

"Robin, you are far too kind," Cordelia complimented, then, much to the tactician's surprise, frowned. "N-no, wait. We can't be doing this. People will get the wrong idea!"

"The wrong idea?" Robin muttered, his cheeks starting to burn red. "Cordelia, you don't mean what I think you're implying, are you?"

"It's just that because you're so kind to me all of the time," Cordelia started. "People will start to think-"

"I know," Robin interrupted."We should talk about-"

"-we're friends," Cordelia finished. "Robin? Is something wrong? Your face is all red?"

"It's nothing really," Robin quickly assured her, sighing in relief. "I thought you were going to say something else."

"Say what?" Cordelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's nothing," Robin replied. "But why would it be bad that we're friends? We are friends. I mean, aren't we?"

"D-do you think so?" Cordelia was shocked just as Robin was earlier. "Truly?!"

"Of course," Robin nodded, his cheeks slowly fading of its color. "Why not?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Cordelia closed her eyes. "I guess… I guess I was not accustomed to not having any. I was the youngest recruit in the pegasus knights. All of my comrades were veterans. There was no one whom I could truly call my friend."

"That's so very sad," Robin stepped forward to comfort Cordelia.

"Oh, well, as I said, I grew accustomed to it," Cordelia opened her eyes and weakly smiled. "Besides, I had Aurora to talk to, even though the conversations were one-sided."

"Heh, I bet they were," Robin smirked jokingly. "Still, you may consider me a friend, Cordelia."

Even without Gaius being there to guide him in his pursuits, Robin was glad that this was the right step to take. If step three was talking until he stood out, then he definitely stood out to her with this conversation. Cordelia now had a friend she could rely on. There were different obstacles the tactician faced, from risking his life in battle to fighting his nervousness, but eventually, he overcame his weakness.

However, Robin was quick to remind himself that he made two mistakes with talking to Cordelia. The first is, even though he did his best to limit his compliments to her, he did let slip that she was a genius. Although he knew it for a fact that she was a genius, she hated to be call such due to how the pegasus knights used to treat her. Such a mistake would have ruined the progress he was able to make today if he was not quick to recover and apologize.

The second mistake was a new problem he faced in that he nearly revealed his feelings to Cordelia too soon. He was quick to assume that she was referring to love when she meant friendship instead. Even the tactician could not predict how the conversation would turn out if he had let slip how he really felt. Mentally, Robin reminded himself that Cordelia did not feel the same as he did, not yet at least. Her heart still belonged to Chrom.

"Speaking of weapons, good work with using your tome last battle," Cordelia complemented. "I thought that you would do better with a spell to cast."

"Thank you, Cordelia," Robin nodded, feeling a little bit guilty about wanting to replace it with a more powerful tome.

"And before you ask, I already took record of the new supplies," Cordelia reported. "That's why you came here, right?"

"Uh, of course," Robin nodded, taking the way out. "I'll just double check everything. It's just what I'm used to. I'm confident that you got it out."

"Very well," Cordelia bowed and made her way to the tent entrance. "Don't take too long. I'll see you later."

"Of course," Robin sighed out, his cheeks slightly blushing.

A/N: I'm back and ready to continue the story. I apologize for my abrupt absence. An unexpected event came up that required my full attention. Nothing too terrible though, all fun but a lot of preparation. Well, I should be able to write for a few more months until Summer catches up. I'm hoping to have this story completed before I leave for college this fall. Here's to hoping I can make it.

Until next time.