It's a kinda fluffy chapter! Hope you like it!

That day, Frederick sent off Chrom just to see what Robin would do. And then, he took to following her around camp. Chores. Nothing but chores. Goodness, the other soldiers were getting lazy thanks to her. It appeared that she was doing all their work for them. Well he couldn't have that? The little miss couldn't slip her way out of loneliness by turning to work. She'd be a fatigued mess on the battlefield.

He instructed some others to take to work with a fair bit of guilt-tripping.

He watched Robin suddenly become free of her workload and coincidentally ran into her just as she was exiting the cooking tent, after being practically shooed away.

She narrowed her eyes as she spotted him, wondering if he had anything to do with it. But of course, he was just wearing his usual grim look. "You need some training."

Robin tried to pretend not to hear him, but he was following behind her with great determination. She looked back at his expectant face and sighed.

"Excuse me, even if you are right, who are you to tell me so?" she adjusted her cloak and walked at a brisker pace. She didn't need any more stinging advice from him. Frederick did search for every opportunity to put her down, but he was almost genuine in this.

"If you are to help lead the movements of this army, it is best if you're not fell in battle—even if you're convinced I prefer that happen." His eyes are steeled, but perhaps from the hurt that his assumption of her assumption is correct.

"You take great pains in planting the thought in my head. But, I suppose training would be for the betterment of myself. And I'm not doing this because you suggested it. I can learn something from your skills." She shrugged as she said so, trying to come off nonchalant, but he could catch a faint blush in her cheeks.

"So you admit that I have an ability to gain knowledge from?" He had a smug look on his face, and he wasn't about to disguise it either. Finally, he'd gained something on her. He wasn't sure what, but it was something.

"My pride isn't such that I'll insult you where you deserve praise. I'm not blind, nor stupid." She adjusted her robes again, and looked at him expectantly. "Well, let's get this over with."

A fearsome smile graced his lips and she gulped. The look he had was quite foreboding.

"Your grip, stance, and breathing are wrong. Focus, Robin. Again!"

He was deriving great pleasure for this. He handed her a wooden sword and instructed her to take a hundred swings at a tree. He had to stifle a chuckle every now and then at her growingly bizarre battle cries.

"Hiyaaargh! YAAAARGH!" she shouted vehemently with every hit. She's certainly attracted a few bystanders. Chrom watched rather fearfully, and asked Frederick to go easier on her. To which the knight naturally said no to, and told her to instead increase her pace. Gaius stood by giving over exaggerated compliments.

"You go Bubbles! You got this! Stick it to 'em!"

Chrom turned pink when Gaius said the word bubbles, and looked at Robin with a troubled expression. Frederick looked at him inquiringly, but got nothing. He shook his head and excusing himself after patting Robin with encouragement. He couldn't even begin to piece together what any of it meant.

Gaius was whooping some more, though with less fake enthusiasm. Frederick gathered that from the shrewd look on his face that he hadn't let any of what had happened gone unnoticed. So the Knight wasn't overthinking things. Not that he appreciated a thief affirming his thoughts; he wasn't even pleased the other man was accepted into the ranks. Was Chrom determined to just pluck suspicious and untrustworthy people and turn them into a Shepherd?

He concluded their training early; well actually he ordered another hundred swings from her and snuck off when she wasn't paying attention. She only noticed when she turned around to yell at Gaius.

This earned Frederick an apple to the head. Spoiled, of course.

They agreed the next session should take place somewhere more isolated. Though odd distractions would be good for her focus, he thought he'd be a little more lenient. (The truth was, some part of him wanted to keep the sight of her working to exhaustion to himself).

"Today, let's throw you into sparring with me. Let's see what's resulted of all of those dramatic swings. Perhaps you won't even need them. Those frightening battle cries of yours just might do the trick in doing in our opponents." Frederick allowed himself a chuckle at her previous display of aggression and she turned pink. She tucked away a few stray hairs in embarrassment and grumbled something about getting started. "As you wish."

He took a few paces back and smirked. "I'll let you have the first hit." Oh how he would relish this. "But I must request you to hold back on your fearsome cries, lest I die of laughter."

Robin bared her teeth, charged forward across the crisp grass, lifted her weapon, and brought it down. The earth hit the poor girl as Frederick easily pushed her away, and her weapon flew out of her hand. "Frederick!"

He felt a strange tingle yet again as she spoke his name, even if with pure annoyance. "Come now. If you can't handle this much, you may as well die now, rather than the battlefield."

She growled in irritation, but it looked like she knew he was right. Though she was too loathe to ever admitting it. She stood up and brushed off her robes and looked up at the sky. The sun was mercifully hidden behind the clouds. The weather was amiable. She had something on her side, at least, from a tactical point of view. The ground was sturdy. Her weapon was light. She could do this.

"Don't admire Mother Nature all day, Robin. Rain or sunshine, your skills are weak."

She stuck her tongue out and retrieved her weapon. She took a fighting stance, but he clucked his tongue. "Do you retain nothing I teach you?"

"That tone of exasperation does not suit you well," she said as he stepped behind her and prodded her into place. "Hey!" she protested, but she did not flinch away from his touch this time, he noted, as she had when he taught her how to tie knots. "Be a bit more gentle!"

"Ah yes, tell that to the next archer to pierce your shoulder with an arrow." As he put her into a satisfactory position, she took the chance to take a whack at him, one that he easily dodged. "Trying to pull one over your teacher? Such dirty tactics."

Robin shrugged, and offered him an impish smile before taking another leap at him.

Slowly her smile changed into a grimace, as she took swing after swing at the man. Not a single hit landed on him, and his grin grew ever the wider. He was barely breaking a sweat, while she was drenched in sweat from head to toe.

"You'll never hit me," he claimed proudly, and she threw her sword at him (which clanged off of his armor). "Giving up now? You might as well die here, because—"

Before he could say his spiel again she launched herself at him sans weapons. Robin took him by surprise and knocked the knight over, and let him take the brunt of the fall. She pounded her fists upon Fredrick with all the frustration she's built up in a relentless attack. He was groaning as he tried to recover from the fall, and she was not making matters better. "You are the worst teacher ever! You horrible, horrible man! You're annoying and an annoying teacher. Irritating, obnoxious, stupid—" Before her verbal assault grew vulgar, he grabbed one of her wrists, and pulled her in closer so they were nose to nose. Her sweat trickled down her face and onto his as they glared at one another. The scents of fresh earth and the saltiness of her sweat filled his nose, but his ire was such he didn't have much room to think of their proximity.

"Listen here. Don't blame your lack of success on my—"

"All I'm doing is whacking trees and trying to hit you but it's not working! Why put me through this!" Robin's nostrils flared and her teeth were gritted. She regretted ever taking him up on his offer. All she felt that happened was that she was exhausted and wasted her time.

"Woman. Get off of me. I assure you, you've improved greatly from the beginning. My fault lies in that I didn't tell you."

Robin finally noticed that she was uncomfortably close to him; she was straddling him, and her elbows would be digging into his chest if it were not for the armor. She scrambled off of him, her cheeks even redder. He stood up and offered a hand, but she ignored it and clumsily stood on her own. "Are you saying this because I've offended your teaching skills?" Frederick could see she'd calmed down quite a bit; perhaps that was the result of giving him a good verbal beating. Or maybe it's because for once he'd given her some semblance of praise.

"Partially," one corner of his lips turned up. "But you can't see your progress. I'll tell you what. You get one hit on me, and I'll treat you to something."

"No biting remarks for a day?" Robin quipped, and for the strangest reason he had to hold the urge to ruffle her hair.

"I make no promises."