AN: Happy holidays! Hope Santa Chrom bought you many nice gifts! As mine to you... have another chapter..
The camp was silent, save for the noise of the weather.
Rain fell on the campsite, the water running along the waterproof canvas of Robin and Lucina's tent. A low, pleasant sound filled the air. It did not often rain in Plegia, the arid climate lending itself more to sandstorms than rainstorms. It was the first rain they had experienced since the climax of their battle against Grima, though there were few still awake to experience it. The white-haired man lay restful on his bed under the tent's canopy. It had been raining after they had tried to save Emmeryn too, Robin remembered. That was now several years ago... it was scary how quickly time flew, how long they had been fighting in pursuit of a single cause.
Lucina lay next to him, sleeping softly, her long hair and limbs caught in the tangles of the blanket and pillows. Her breathing was even and steady. Robin looked at her, and smiled, as he did every time he snuck a glance at her sleeping form. The tactician wasn't one to stare, but she did look almost unbearably cute, fighting the linen as if she wasn't content just to fight enemies in the daytime. It was the same every night, as if she didn't know how to sleep in a comfortable position. For a long time, Robin reflected, that had probably been true.
He didn't mind how his wife slept; he was rarely in bed to find out. Robin slept irregular hours, and had done for a while - it wasn't a surprise for him to be up at this hour; Robin could often be found awake later than everyone else. He wasn't one to pace the camp or stand out staring at the sky; that was a favourite hobby of Tharja's, though had become infrequent of late, for reasons unknown. It was more often that the concerns of the day kept him thinking beyond the camp's generally accepted time for sleep. In this instance, his concern lay with his wife.
Robin mused. He could have guessed his wife's dilemma about the Fell Dragon. She had even said as much, after the fight in the Plegian sky, when Chrom had dealt the final blow; when after the fight, she had assured him about finding a permanent solution together...
Lucina had travelled back from the future to change the course of her future, not to kill the dragon. Robin reflected on that. He knew it already. His first conversation with Lucina was one night, when he had gone to her standing in the dark, and she had voiced to him her concerns about the future, and he had responded by doing his best to say he would make her more comfortable in the present, whilst they tried to change the future...
It had surprised him that he had not picked up on her latest worry. He had been so damnably busy. The tactician shook his head. Excuses were excuses. Robin sighed. If he had been good at looking out for people in his past, it was a skill he lost along with his memory, before being found in that field so long ago. It was something to work on. Magic? Magic came to him at will. The strategy and flow of the battlefield, well, that was intuitive. Dealing with people in the camp and finding out and sorting their problems - that was the province of someone like Lissa, and Robin was happy to leave her to it, except where Lucina was concerned.
He smiled. If he had been better at relationships, perhaps it wouldn't have taken quite so long to make his confession to Lucina, and he might have been able to do it with the minimum of awkwardness that his attempt had actually involved. At least she had said yes.
Robin pulled himself up in bed, moving as little as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping princess.
Princess. That was funny. Lucina probably fit anyone's idea of the typical princess very poorly, especially compared to Lissa. Robin was Chrom's closest friend, and that was a role he was happy to fill, but to be part of Chrom's family... that was different, and more so when you only just technically qualified for it. Never mind Facault's Third of Battlefield Positions; more complicated by far was involving time-dislocation in interpersonal relationships. There was a baby Lucina tucked up in Ylisstol, which the group would soon be returning to. Robin didn't know what to think about that issue, and unlike Facault's, he couldn't even begin to wrap his mind around how to tackle it. Present-Chrom might not have raised Future-Lucina, but he had fast mirrored Lucina's concept of kinship; they all had. Robin's head hurt when he tried to imagine having the same daughter at two different ages. It was not an enviable position. Chrom, for all his worries with battle and politics, hadn't mentioned it. Perhaps he didn't know how to deal with it, either. Robin looked again at his sleeping wife. Lucina would, ultimately, be the arbiter.
Chrom was happy for the couple, if nothing else. Lucina was Chrom's friend as well as kin, and the Exalt had taken the whole thing with happy surprise. He seemed to take an enjoyment in the fact that Robin was part of his family now; technically now his adviser and son-in-law both, the Exalt had taken to playfully ruffling Robin's hair at committee, something Robin was rapidly coming to hate about his friend.
Lucina, then, was many things. Heir of the Exalt of the Halidom of Ylisse (though in parallel, and a step down considering she had been Exalt proper in the future past); time-shifted daughter; friend; lover. And that was before you even considered her proficiency with Falchion.
Robin might have been a little bit socially awkward, but since making his confession, and his subsequent marriage to Chrom's daughter, Robin had found there was another skill he was quite proficient at, one that-
"Robin," Lucina whispered. She was peeking out from the top of the coverlet, her Brand almost glowing in the darkness as her eyes shone in the dark. "You're up and thinking again."
Robin blushed, caught, not daring to move. "Am I excused if I'm thinking about you?"
The portion of Lucina's face that was visible turned red, too. "Yes, but you're probably thinking about naughty things. "
Robin felt his face similarly heat up in the dark.
"Mmhmm," Lucina sighed. "You should be asleep, and resting." Movement under the covers, as Lucina consciously - and stiffly - straightened herself out a bit. "Everyone in this team needs you fit and ready for tomorrow. So do I." She softened, sighing, trying to vent her expression in the night air. "Come to bed, Robin. It's cold."
"I can't sleep, otherwise I would be already," Robin murmured. "My mind just keeps spinning with stuff. It's like it's trying to pen a monologue to someone or something. You would have thought we had less to worry about since Chrom drove Falchion into Grima's neck, huh?"
"It never works out like that, Robin," Lucina said, her hand snaking out from under the blanket to take her husband's. "What is that quote you're so fond of? I know that we talked earlier, about I was worried for. What's keeping you awake at night?"
"Stuff," Robin began, not evasively. "I'm a tactician, Lucina, my job is to think about things. I .. I suppose I just don't know when to stop. Thinking too much off the job. Not that there really is an off-the-job when it comes to helping our efforts. I have politics, and strategy, and Chrom, and the group to worry about. And last but not least, you."
"We talked earlier about futures," Robin offered. "I don't think I said that I worry about ours, too, even if not in the same way. For a long time, our goal was working towards Grima's defeat. Now that he's gone, I feel a bit aimless. You probably do as well. It's hard for people like us, who have so much experience in having to plan out our actions. It leaves one feeling adrift."
"I didn't deal with it well," Lucina offered.
"What?"
"I never was able to stop worrying either, in the future past. Especially with all the responsibility on my shoulders," she sighed. "When Father was cut down, I was a few days past my tenth birthday. Before I had time to cry a single tear, the househould staff were on me, telling me it was my duty to become the next Exalt."
"That's hard," Robin admintted.
"I was Exalt for ten years, and even before Grima had become a threat, there were days when I just felt like falling on my sword," Lucina continued. "Then I remembered what the sword represented, and knew I had to get on with what I could, even if I didn't want to." The woman shook her head. "Still, now look where I am. Compared to that, and Grima, everything from hereon in is easy. Especially with the support of my friends," Lucina smiled, "...and you."
"I know your past was hard," Robin said. "Did you not have friends to help you then?"
"Yes," Lucina said, quietly. "Yes I did. And I lost them all moments before I fled back to this time, trying to do what we could in our own."
The tactician nodded, before the realisation of what Lucina had just said hit Robin like Vaike's axe. Hard.
"I... Naga, Lucina, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Lucina said. "You have dealt with it too, with Emmeryn. I had to turn my grief into a strength. I came to the past future with no attachments, only a sense that I had to make things right. And do it, for my friends."
"I don't know what to say," Robin offered. "Did none make it back?"
"It's possible," his wife conceded. "But so far, nobody has arrived. I had no idea what I would see when I stepped out of the portal that presented me to you and Father; it is possible others got away and ended up Naga-knows-where. We have yet to find any of them, at least."
Robin frowned, and rubbed his temples. "Time dislocation is hard..."
"You're telling me," Lucina smiled. "I lived through twenty years that haven't even happened yet..."
Robin smiled, weakly, before positioning himself on the bed where he could hug his wife
"We can decide on our future tomorrow, Robin," Lucina murmured. "Perhaps that might be a good idea?"
"I think so," Robin said, tiredly.
Lucina smiled, smiled at him; the smile that always made Robin's heart sing. Robin smiled back.
Lucina shuffled, and Robin made to back up his words with a deliberate move into the cover Lucina had spooled out for him. Lucina felt him pressing himself up against her back and kissing the nape of her neck.
"How's that," Robin whispered. Lucina shivered.
"Good," she whispered.
Robin thought for a moment, slowly wrapping his hands around his wife. "There's one more thing I need to say, Luci," Robin muttered.
"Go ahead," she sighed, content.
"What were you saying about naughty things?"