Ah, so it was a bank holiday, and I was able to fit in the time to write yet another chapter, and so soon after uploading the first too! I've already had a few positive messages and reviews about this story, so I decided that I would upload this today too! So, I hope that you all enjoy!

"Ack-! I- I'm dying!… S- So dark... T- Tell Chrom that- That I-!"

"You're not dying. You're… What's the word?… Exaggerating." Robin rolled her eyes as she watched the over-dramatic acting of Frederick, upon the revelation that he had been eating bear meat, not venison. "If you were honestly dying, you might as well die here, or else- Or else you won't last long… On the battle… field?... Oh gods..." Robin shivered mid-sentence. "That was some intense deja vu…"

"Indeed. I said the exact same to you, once upon a training session. And you are correct. If one cannot withstand this, I am not worthy of protecting everyone on the front lines..."

As the conversation continued, Robin was continually shocked at simply how Frederick was talking himself back into allowing her to make him eat bear. It did, however, disturb her greatly at how quickly he was able to do so. But either way, she felt pride more than anything. She had helped Frederick get over (what she thought was) his irrational fear, and he seemed to have opened up to her much more than he had ever done.

"… I just need an attitude like that, don't I?" Robin mumbled to herself as she lay back that night, trying to get some sleep. She had hoped that reminiscing would be enough to send her into a deep sleep that could at least last until morning, but alas, that simply would not be the case.

The pain from her injuries were keeping her awake. Her leg, thankfully, had returned back to a state of dull aching. Her arm was still weak, and vaguely sore. But her head… Her head was worse than anything. She was suffering from a horrible throbbing headache. She had never felt so much pain concentrated into one area of her body like that before, and it was making her want to cry out and headbutt something just to make herself fall unconscious. Waking Lissa or Maribelle wasn't a good enough option either, neither of them liked to be disturbed in their sleep no matter what.

Then she realised something. She had been awake for at least twelve hours by that point… Had she even ate anything? She knew for sure that she had been given drinks – the aftertaste of tea In her mouth was evidence enough of that. But no, she had not even had something to eat.

Nights in Plegia were just as harsh as the daytime, if not more harsh. It was colder than Regna Ferox, and gods, did Robin hate how cold it was in Ferox. Even her coat couldn't help her out this time. There was only one problem with her wanting to go outside to get food though… She needed Frederick's help to walk.

Gods, Chrom and his silly ideas. It was just a relief that Lissa hadn't heard of this arrangement yet.

Though, she didn't exactly mind having Frederick help her. Thankfully, he was good company for her. She could have ended up with, say, Miriel having to help her, or Vaike (who was proven to be slightly drunk at the time that he panicked that Robin was 'a ghost'.) even. At least he trusted her now too, because if he didn't… Maybe this entire situation would have ended up with completely different results.

She could have died, and what would have happened to everyone after that?

Who knew…

With a sigh, she forced herself up to her feet. Her neck felt as though it were supporting a ton of bricks, not a head. Hair clung to the back of her neck, and was falling into her eyes. She had only just realised that she hadn't tied it up as she usually does. "Such a pain..." she grumbled, quickly sorting her hair out as she leaned against a crate of her belongings to keep herself stood up. "How can we be expected to win this war with someone like me holding everyone back?…"

Slowly, she was able to make her way outside. So far, so good. She hadn't fell over constantly, like she had done the day before. "Um… Where is the food then?..." Robin looked around, trying to shake her memory to remember whereabouts the food normally was stored. "Ah… I remember now..."

Thinking about food was a good enough distraction from her headache. But gods, knowing that she hadn't ate in days made her feel as though she were dying. Which, in theory, was probably true, being in the middle of Plegia and all.

"Food… So hungry..." She mumbled, food obviously being her only priority now, not even trying to stay stood upright.

"What are you doing?"

The sudden hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her food induced daze.

"Huh?… Oh, Chrom?…" Robin had to force herself into putting on a happy face at the sight of seeing her friend. Though tired, he found it easy to tell that she was feigning her happiness. "Isn't it cold to you?..."

"Very cold. But what are you doing out here? You should be resting… We need to move tomorrow, the Plegians are trying to close in on us, and we need you awake then..."

Robin placed her hand on her stomach and groaned. "Food… Not ate since I woke up..." By the looks of things, she was quite evidently starting to feel sick staying stood still.

"I tell you what, I'll help you get something to eat… But you have to promise to rest until we move in the morning afterwards, okay?" The stern look given to her from the prince as he spoke let her know that she wasn't allowed to say yes or no, she had to go along with what he had said no matter what she thought or did. "Come on. You look tired too, and you can barely stand straight, so I'll help you quickly."

"Yeah… It looks as though the Plegian city is just a bit further ahead… Inside that giant… skull..." Robin whispered, looking at the skeletal remains of… some sort of massive creature in the desert. The six eyes upon the skull made her instinctively look at her right hand.

Her brand bore six eyes too.

She was quick to make the link that this mark upon her hand must have been Plegian. Was she really from Plegia? Does she have some sort of past in Plegia? She had no idea. Being an amnesiac made it so hard to answer such vague questions.

"Are you sure about walking, Robin?"

The sudden voice ringing out was enough to snap Robin away from her thoughts. "Huh?… Oh, yes. I have a lot more energy today. I suppose a day of not walking whilst we moved yesterday allowed me to rest up enough, Frederick. Anyway, I think we're almost where we need to be for my plan to be set into motion." She nodded towards the skull again, before looking at her bandaged wrist. "Plus, this is more of a concern than my legs now! Can't use a sword properly at the moment..."

"Well, at least we still have your head!" Chrom laughed as he overheard the short conversation, before trying to ruffle her hair.

"Even then… I've not been thinking straight. You know that plan to rescue Emmeryn that I showed you yesterday?… Well… That was the fifth draft of the plan which I had come up with… It is full of little faults, but it has about an eighty, maybe seventy percent chance of success… At least that's higher than the twenty percent of the next best idea..."

"What? Have you been distracted or something?" Frederick questioned, and she simply stopped in her tracks.

"How could I not be distracted?… I've been who everyone is worrying over! I'm not the exalt! I'm not the one that brings peace to everyone, it's Emmeryn! Why are you all worried about me when we should be worried about her?!" She suddenly shouted, before dropping to her knees crying. It was a shock to everyone in the Shepherds to hear Robin have such an outburst, but they were sympathetic to the pain in her voice. They understood why she felt as though she shouldn't be at the forefront of their minds, but they also understood that she didn't know that she was one of the most important members of the Shepherds.

"Don't talk like that." Frederick growled his response to her, and that just made her clench her fists as she sobbed even more. "You don't understand how important you are. Talk like that, and everyone in the army is forfeiting their lives for nothing. Be positive, Robin. Smile."

There was that word again.

It had started to slip into almost all of their conversations now.

Just hearing yet again was suddenly able to change her entire mood. "Gods… We're going to keep saying that to each other until we die, aren't we?..."

However, Lissa and Chrom had also began to notice that pattern too. As a matter of fact, everyone had.

"Chrom… Are you sure that you don't think that there is anything going on between those two? I mean, they're spending almost all of their time together and are trying to make each other happy!"

"I'm sure, Lissa… Anyway, I ordered Frederick to stay with Robin. It stopped him from training excessively, if you have noticed."

"I agree with the princess, Blue. Has to be romance."

"AHEM. Need I remind you that we can hear your conversation?"

With a pout, Lissa backed away with Gaius, and they continued to quietly talk about how they thought that there was definitely something about Robin and Frederick's relationship being more than something professional. Chrom sighed at their childish attitude.

"I'm so sorry about those two..."

"Don't worry… We knew that Lissa would be one of the downsides to your plan, Chrom..." Robin muttered with a sigh. "Can we just get to saving Emmeryn now? My head isn't going to be able to take this much more..."

"Right… Anyway, from what our scouts have reported… Today… This afternoon… I- It's when Gangrel wants to..."

"We know… We'll have Emmeryn rescued by tonight, and we can be on our way back to Ylisse…" Robin continued to smile as she spoke, giving the lord hope. And without realising it, she was making Frederick smile too. He didn't even realise it himself.

"Stop it! Stop that right now!" Lissa was glaring at Robin as she had to slap the tactician across the face. "Emm died because of Gangrel! Not you!"

"But- But my plan failed-!"

"Enough about your damn plan, Robin! What's past is past, we need to get the hell out of here!" Sully's voice echoed in the canyon which they had to escape through, whilst rain poured down around them.

Robin could feel nothing but responsibility for the Exalt dying as they all tried to escape the mass of Plegians that were not too far behind them by that point. Everyone was telling her otherwise, but she just would not believe them. The rain pouring onto her face was easily capable of hiding her tears. "Gods… I'm not worthy of helping any of you… I'm not worthy of being trusted..." The thing is, nobody heard her say that. She was using that as evidence enough to reinforce her opinion, and she was not going to stop herself from thinking this was so long as she knew that.

"Come on! There's more Plegians ahead of us now, we're going to have to fight our way through!" Chrom's voice echoed over the sound of rain, and the occasional rumbling of thunder. There was only one upside to them being stuck in the middle of a storm though… It cleared the air.

And the clear air did give Robin a clearer mind, so some of the stress which she was experiencing was lifted off her shoulders. Unfortunately… Not all of it.

'If anything goes wrong...Remember that as long as you have hope, you cannot lose anything… At least, that is what Lady Emmeryn said whenever times were dark in Ylisse. That can apply even now, if we all so wish it…'

Those words which were spoken by Frederick to get Robin to cheer up earlier, a few minutes after Emmeryn's death. He was dwelling on them now, despite the fact that he was only really saying it to keep the tactician's hopes up about winning the war.

As a matter of fact, he wasn't the only one thinking about those words. It was everyone but Chrom and Robin. The two of them were getting frustrated and upset with any Plegians getting in the way, and were blindly attacking them without a thought.

Though, Robin was in a much worse state than Chrom. She was constantly having to keep her tome stashed under her coat, which was now starting to get soaked. And boy, was it frustrating her.

Seeing the two fighting without a care did, however, quickly snap Frederick out of his thoughts, alongside a few others.

"Milord, Robin, stop!"

"Geez, big brother! You're going to get killed! You too, Robin! You've almost died once this week already!"

"I'm not stopping until they pay for what they did to Emm!"

Robin just pretended to blank out people shouting to get her to stop. She felt as though she had lost all of the trust that she had earned, so why not?

Yet, she was being told otherwise.

What use was she anyway? It wasn't as though people ever fully wanted her here anyway, wasn't it?

And despite that, people were acting otherwise. They were trying to stop her from fighting.

"Hehe… Allow me to stop her from hurting herself..."

The creepy laugh from Tharja was enough to unsettle everyone. It was even enough to get Chrom to stop fighting, and give her a concerned look. But Robin? She just ignored it, for the most part.

However, she was not prepared for a wave of tiredness to hit her so suddenly. "Ugh… What?..." She held her hand against her head as she sank down to her knees, and dropping her tome into the mess of sand and mud which was around her. "So… Tired… What did she do?..."

"Hey! Don't make her completely fall asleep! She just needs to calm down a bit! We all need our trusted tactician to get a level head in battle, not a sleeping one!" Cordelia's voice was heard shouting, just as Robin felt Sumia and Nowi pull her up to her feet.

"Trust… What do you mean, trust?… Do you all still… Trust me?"

"To relinquish our credence towards the tactician is to abdicate our lives and this bloodshed."

"Why would we not trust our fine lady tactician?"

"Haha, yes, tactician lady is very trusted!"

Hearing that before she yawned did manage to raise Robin's spirits a little bit, though it didn't stop her from feeling so tired. "I thought that you all no longer trusted me… I guess not..."

"May you please remove this curse which is tiring Robin?" Libra's voice was then, heard, another voice soon following.

"Tch… They've surrounded us."

As soon as Tharja was forcefully made to stop her curse from making Robin fall asleep in Sumia and Nowi's arms, everyone got ready to fight – this time with a tactician who actually did as her role intended.

And she was smiling.

It was a smile which could rival Lissa's, and was infectious. "So then… It looks as though we have four different routes to take here…"

The cold snow of Ferox was surprisingly a welcome change from the dry and hot climate of Plegia, and all of the Shepherds were relieved to set foot in the magical feeling substance, and none more than Lissa, despite her initial dislike of the snow.

"Hehe… I couldn't do this with sand… But I can do this with snow..." She packed some snow together to about the size of a dragonstone, before throwing it to the first person who came into her line of sight.

Chrom never saw it coming.

"Ack-! Are we under-!" Lissa laughing wildly cut the prince off mid-sentence. "Gods… Now isn't the time for this, Lissa! Our sister is dead, we are under the threat of attack at any time, and you are throwing snowballs everywhere!"

"I'm only trying to lighten the mood! You've been acting different since Emm died… I don't like you acting this way, big brother!" Lissa began to pout after that, before seeing Robin stood nearby. "You agree with me, right?!"

The tactician gave her a blank look as she was called to, before shrugging her shoulders.

Angrily, Lissa shoved past Chrom, looking to see where Maribelle was, to see if she could get someone to agree with her. She wanted her brother to be happy, but gods, she was not going to see that at any point until she got this other opinion.

Robin didn't want to get involved in what she could only see as a family feud, so she didn't pay any attention to Chrom cursing under his breath once Lissa had walked away. She was trying to keep herself happy, after all.

"Robin? How are you feeling now?"

Hearing someone talk to her then made her smile. "Oh, I'm fine, Stahl. My wrist still hurts a bit from using my tome before. How come you are asking?"

"Just curious. I wanted to know if you could lend me a hand in cooking tonight's meal… Everyone is tired, so they need a big meal to give them their energy back. Of course, not having much energy applies to me too..." the cavalier laughed, just for Robin to nod. She had been learning how to cook before she sustained her injuries a few days before, so she would be willing to try and cook something to see if those lessons had paid off.

And so, debates ensues. What were they actually going to cook?

"Maybe some sort of stew? Soup?"

"What about a roast dinner of sorts?"

"Stahl, they take almost six or more hours to cook fully! We would have had to start hours ago!"

"Oh, right… Then what about a casserole? Um… Something with a lot of potatoes maybe? I've heard Lon'qu is good at preparing potatoes..."

"We should just go with a stew, Stahl… We literally only need to prepare the ingredients and throw them into a pot of boiling water for about an hour..."

"Fine, fine, I guess a stew it is then."

Meanwhile, Chrom, out of his agitation, had asked Frederick to help him train for a while, to forget about yelling at Lissa.

"Try not to tense your arms so much, milord. Your blade will apply less pressure when you loosen your muscles."

"It's hard not to do that though, being out here..."

"Then you shall have to train your endurance also. If the Plegians were to follow us here, we would be in danger of losing the war if you are incapable of fighting in the snow."

"I know..."

Chrom tried to relax his arms, against what his mind was telling him to do, and let his instincts kick in as he swung Falchion towards Frederick. The knight's reflexes were enough to prevent Chrom from wildly attacking though. He was quick enough to block the attack with his lance.

It didn't take long for Chrom to realise that maybe, just maybe, he needed to think his attacks through. Unfortunately, in those few moments, he found Frederick's lance pointed at his chest. "You let your guard down, milord. You were open for an attack. If I were an enemy, I would not have taken a moment to think. I would have pierced you with my lance."

With a sigh, the prince pushed down the lance before sheathing Falchion. He had never been able to best Frederick in training, and this time was no different. As a matter of fact, he had never seen anyone best Frederick – in battle or when in practise.

This man seemed almost invincible.

Almost.

Chrom noticed that Frederick had began to think about something, and smirked at this golden opportunity. Within seconds, his sword was pointed right at his neck. "What was that about letting your guard down, Frederick?"

"My apologies… I could just smell something cooking. Quite distracting."

Frederick was right. There was a smell lingering in the air, and it was most definitely food. And by the smell of it, it would be delicious food of sorts.

"Stahl, we forgot the carrots!"

"What?! Quick, pass them over, Robin! Oh, and the leek!"

"Leek? There was meant to be leek?! I thought it was celery-!"

"Oh, just add that then… It won't make much difference..."

After a few more minutes, the two who were meant to be cooking collapsed down onto some seats, and sighed deeply. They had honestly no idea what they were doing at first, despite Stahl's expertise in cooking. With the differing tastes of everyone in the Shepherds, it was hard to decide on ingredients which would appease each and every single one of them.

However, Robin had decided to be a bit cheeky behind Stahl's back. Yes, she had helped Frederick 'recover' from his phobia of bear meat, but he still flinched at times when eating it. And then there was Lissa. She thought that bear meat tasted worse than rough leather boots.

She had 'substituted' the meat which was meant to go into the stew with bear. How she wanted to see their reaction after they had ate it, when she reveals the what the ingredient which Stahl assumed was venison really was.

What neither of them had expected though… Was that people began to gather around what they were cooking, and asking what the nice smell was.

"Ooh! Let me taste! Let me, please!" Nowi was trying to cup her hands, and scoop up some of the stew to taste it. Stahl quickly held the manakete back as Robin briskly placed the lid on top. "Why are you two being mean?!"

"It hasn't finished cooking, Nowi. You don't want to get food poisoning!"

"But I wanna try!"

"Wait for about another ten minutes, okay?" Robin stated, looking at the liquid bubbling away. "It's almost finished anyway." She had never actually made anything which had looked so nice before, and so she was excited about trying it out once it was done.

"Ah, okay! I can't wait!"

"So… It's you and Stahl who are cooking. No wonder it smells so nice!" Chrom's voice joined the commotion then, and the tactician could only sigh.

She was kind of hoping that the prince had made up with Lissa, but she knew that it probably wouldn't be the case, seeming as he was with Frederick. And that made her think of something else. Since they had escaped from Plegia… She had forgotten about Chrom's order of Frederick staying with her until she had fully recovered from her injuries, and they seemed to have forgotten too.

But, that didn't really matter right now. They all wanted to forget about what had happened in Plegia, so the food was a good enough distraction.

"Well, Robin did the most of it!"

"H- Huh?! No, you did, Stahl! I barely knew how to use the knife to cut anything, whilst you… You did so much!"

"You came up with the idea though!"

Seeing that they didn't get anywhere debating who did more, they suddenly shut up before they shrugged their shoulders. Who cared, so long as it tasted as good as it smelled?

And then, Robin felt a hand tap her shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Oh, sure… Just give me a moment to readjust this bandage on my arm, okay?"

"You can sort it afterwards. I need to speak to you now."

"Okay, okay…" Robin was confused as to why Frederick was suddenly talking so sternly towards her. It was almost completely different to how he had been for the past few days.

He quickly pulled her outside, into the snow, before looking at her worriedly. "Are you… Okay?"

"Why are you asking? I'm fine, Frederick."

"I just… Feel bad that I couldn't say anything when you thought that nobody trusted you before..."

Oh. Robin bit her lip then, looking down at her feet as she kicked at a bit of snow. "Why?… It was my own thoughts causing that, you have no need to feel bad..."

"I couldn't get you to smile, that's why."

"Smile… Literally every conversation that we have brings up smiling now..."

"I am aware of that, yes. And there is a reason…"

"Oh? And what is that?"

Frederick then smiled, adding to the irony of the conversation about them always trying to make each other smile. "Your smile… I like it. It sounds selfish, but I do like it."

A small laugh was earned from the tactician, as she pulled her coat around herself tightly. She had never heard him being selfish about anything before, even though it is only over something as simple as a smile. "Is that so?" She smirked then, before she looked back. "Oh! I think that the food is-!"

"Wait." Frederick grabbed hold of her injured wrist then, and looked at the bandage on it, before frowning at the horrible blister forming on her hand, and at the patch of fresh blood seeping over the old dried blood. "You hurt yourself again, and you failed to change the bandage this morning. What did you do?"

Robin could only gulp at him questioning her then. "I… scalded myself with some hot water, and it got me right in the centre of my palm… And I accidentally knocked a knife off the table when cutting vegetables… I promise though, there was no blood in the food!"

"That was a bit careless, wasn't it?" But much to Robin's surprise, he laughed at the explanation. "Gods, at the rate which you are going, I am going to have to supervise you all of the time! Not… that I would mind."

"Ah, I should stop injuring myself then!" She awkwardly laughed, before she tapped her foot. "You should go and eat. I need to change this bandage before I even go anywhere near the food now!"

"If that is what you want me to do." Frederick walked away with a smile then, leaving Robin stood alone in the snow. She went to where her things were being stored then, and after searching for a moment, she found some clean bandages.

And then, she suddenly realised something.

"Did he say… That he wouldn't mind supervising me all of the time if I kept hurting myself like this?..."

Heh... Hehehe... I'm sorry, I just enjoyed writing the very last part of this chapter so much. I love this ship so much~

I hope that this chapter is okay, and that you are willing to review~