Summary: A peek behind closed doors, a moment shared between lovers instead of Master and Servant.
Note: …I dunno what I'm doing. But I'm gonna try.
This story was encouraged by Carim (thank you so much, beloved friend, I love you) and so many friends in the Fate Fanfic Cafe Discord server; while also being inspired by real life experience with my own real life partner.
Borderline smut content warning, maybe? Because first smut piece ever?
For those of you looking for a theme song, I was actually listening to Idol from Yoasobi when drafting. Odd choice for me, but it worked.
Otherwise, you're free to go and read this whim of a story that literally came out of nowhere. Takes place roughly after Olympus and Heian-Kyo of Part 2.
Vy shivers whenever he holds her in his arms, he noticed. Almost like a little hedgehog or even a mouse (though he knows she wouldn't like the "mouse" description — let it be said her former friends had really bad taste in insults), her hands shaky through her casual clothes as she clutches at the No Face May King draped over his shoulders. It's hard to miss how her eyes are looking elsewhere too, her cheeks a pointedly rosy pink. Like she's scared of someone walking in on them, even when he locked the door and made sure no one had followed them on the journey to his room.
Or she's scared of something else.
His chest couldn't do anything but tighten up at the sight (and the thoughts running through his mind, not the time, not the time), and he extended a hand to press against her cheek. Her skin is soft and squishy against his palm, Vy unconsciously leaning into it — and putting her trust in him again — as brown eyes slowly turned to reflect his own.
His image looks hesitant even when reflected in those brown eyes, and Robin slowly smiles past the sudden dryness in his throat. "Hey," he murmurs, leaning down just enough to feel her breath mingle with his, "whenever you feel uncomfortable, little sparrow, you can always use a Command Seal to stop me."
To his surprise, Vy makes a soft Muu of protest, shaking her head while pressing her cheek further into his palm. "Th-That's too extreme," she whispered back, her breath tickling his fingers as she closed her eyes. "You don't deserve something like that, Big Robin. So…" Even against his skin, her cheek is growing warmer as she looks up at him shyly. "I-I'll let you know when I'm uncomfy. A-And right now, I want this."
Robin felt himself hold a breath he didn't need. A centimeter was all that was left between them, and he forced himself to swallow the sudden lump in his throat. "…You really sure?"
Vy smiles, a hesitant and shy looking smile, but the same determination and love that brought them together in the original Chaldea shines in her eyes (almost like stars) past the frames of her glasses as she nods. "I-I did say when we first got together that I didn't mind you taking more mana on a daily basis." She giggles, a sound that eases the tightly-wound ball of tension in his neck as he listens to her. "Just… um." The smile on Vy's face turns more honest, sheepish even as she slowly wrings her left hand free from the No Face May King to clutch at the front of her blouse. "I-I'm really really inexperienced with this kinda thing since, um, being ace and a virgin and all, so…" she unintentionally bats her eyelashes at him as her glasses slide down the bridge of her nose from clear nervousness. "Be gentle?"
As if I wouldn't. Especially with an honor like this.
Robin finds himself chuckling against Vy's lips as he nods, murmuring an extra quiet, "I'll do my best," for good measure before leaning in.
It's not the first time they kissed, and Robin knows it won't be the last. But there was something about how soft Vy's lips felt against his, how easily they slot together with his for a gesture that his past self would've seen as a passing fancy when alive.
I want more.
A little "Wah" is muffled between them when Robin gets the strength to slowly slip his hand past the waist of Vy's blouse, and he pulls back without thinking, concern overtaking the growing desire in his mind as he looks her over. Vy's cheeks are still flushed, embarrassed as her gaze lingers elsewhere, her puckered mouth and overall expression clearly reading, "why did I make that noise."
Aww, the traitorous part of his brain thinks.
"There's nothing wrong with reacting," he says the words softly, gently so that she knows he isn't rejecting it. "You can let me know if it doesn't feel good. Besides, the voice was cute." The skin of her waist is warm to his fingers, each little stroke he makes against the small of her back enough to form goosebumps as Vy continues to avert her eyes from his. "It's just hard to get anywhere with clothes on." Not impossible, but still a bit odd for the first time. "So, little sparrow, can I look?"
Robin forces the words, I want to see more, to the back of his mind. Far away from the bond he shared with the young woman in front of him, because the last thing he wanted was to put more pressure on her. When, for all he knew, she'd been hurt before by things like this. He knew he never wanted to add to it. Even if he truly wanted more.
Her heart mattered more in the end.
Vy still makes another Muu noise, her cheeks flushing a darker red as she meets his gaze with growing embarrassment. While pursuing her lips into a pout, she slowly, carefully nods her head, much to his growing relief. "D-Don't laugh, Big Robin, okay?" is the squeaky answer he gets, her left hand still wrinkling the front of her blouse. "I-I don't have fancy underwear or anything, a-and I might have scars."
A startled chuckle leaves him before he can stop himself and he does his best to resist the growing pout in front of him. "We all have scars, Vy," and ain't that the truth, "but that doesn't mean you aren't beautiful." Robin ducks down to peck Vy's lips before she can protest, smiling against her mouth once he pulls back a centimeter. "Or I could try to ease the fear another way?"
"Eh?" Vy blinks, pout fading. "How?"
Robin smiles, tugging her along so that she's hovering over him as he sits down on the bed. The tips of her ears redden to match her widening eyes, but he still unlatched the clasp to the No Face May King, taking it off before doing the same to his top — tossing both garments to the side. The air conditioning makes his shoulders feel somewhat cold, but being bare chested is nothing new to him. More so after that one summer on that cursed Luluhawa island. Only this time there was no fear of BB watching. Right now...
"How's this?" Keeping one hand to the back of Vy's waist past her blouse, he tried to ignore the self-conscious urge to rub at the back of his neck as she stared at him in shock. "Helps even out the playing field, doesn't it?"
Vy still flushed a dark shade of scarlet as she took him in, her arms left with no place to be but around his neck as she then went on to duck her head and hug him tight. Even through the thin fabric of her blouse, Robin can feel her shivering, but there's no mistaking the nod that brushes his hair as she snuggles him. For safety, for love — either could be in Vy's ballpark. "Y-You didn't have to," is the whisper that echoes in his ear, her voice cracking even through the cover of her long hair. "B-But thankie."
Robin hummed softly, keeping his arms around her waist and ignoring the urge to move them up to pull on her blouse. "Of course," he whispered back, tilting his head to press what he hoped was a reassuring kiss to the side of her hair. "I wanted to do it. Take your time, little sparrow. I'm not going anywhere."
Vy twitched at that, slowly pulling back from the hug to look him in the eye, and even with the embarrassed blotchy redness on her cheeks, that familiar determination was back in her gaze as she lowered her hands to the hems of her blouse. To his surprise, she proceeded to tug at it, pulling it over her head to reveal a modest pink sports bra underneath as she tossed it over her shoulder. For such a bold move, her cheeks didn't look like they wanted to stop reddening anytime soon, her bare arms coming up to hug her middle soon after it was done. "S-So that we're really even. Just d-don't stare too much," she quipped, looking small in her remaining skirt and stockings. "I did say I didn't have any fancy underwear."
"…It's hard not to stare, so you'll have to forgive me for that," is what leaves his mouth in lieu of a choking noise because hot damn. Not even the Lostbelts took away from how well sculpted Vy was as a person, from the generous swell of her breasts past the sports bra to the slim slope of her bare waist. But past all the growing lust, Robin could feel his chest tighten for different reasons, no thanks to the various jagged lines and patches of healed wounds covering various spots of her bared skin. It was all gruesome reminders of what she had survived, he knew that, but it didn't make seeing them put together hurt any less. Sword slashes, a dip or two from former bruises, nail marks from Shimosa (damn that other Shuten to hell), maybe even some teeth marks from her time in Shinjuku and Agartha — there was so much he couldn't put to name with the sudden dryness emerging in his throat.
All marks of when I couldn't protect you, his mind provided helpfully instead. It was enough to make him tempted to kick himself, because now wasn't the time to mull over regrets.
Not when his little sparrow was still in the circle of his arms.
When Robin finally raised his head to get himself out of his thoughts, sure enough, Vy was looking at him with concern and self-consciousness coloring those deep brown eyes, glasses barely sitting on her nose as she asked in a quieter voice, "…Are you still okay with this, Big Robin?"
With me? Her gaze spells out through their new glossy sheen, as if she's about to cry. Even if I'm not as pretty as the other girls you might have seen in your past life?
Without hesitation, Robin smiled, leaning forward to press his nose into the center of Vy's bra-clad chest, nodding his head against her bare skin. "Of course I am. You're still beautiful, little sparrow. And I want you."
You're the only one who saw the real me. Why wouldn't I choose you?
Vy shuddered in response, and Robin squashed the instinctive surge of panic running through his veins once he felt the first wet droplets fall onto his scalp. Thin arms shakily wound themselves around his neck to hug him again, a tiny sniffle echoing above his hair as fingers brushed through his hair. "Th-That's something," and Vy definitely is hiding a sob behind the newest laugh bubbling up in her voice, but there's gratitude mixed into the sound as she tightens her grip, unintentionally pushing him further into her chest (not that he minds). "Th-Then is it okay to admit… to admit that I'm still a little scared? Even when the rest of me wants you too?"
Robin finds himself chuckling in return as he nods, moving his hands up the slope of Vy's spine before finding his target of the bra clasp. "It is. And like I said at the start of this, I'll do my best to be gentle, Vy. Trust me."
One kiss to her skin is enough of a distraction to undo the clasp, and he pulls her down with him to the bedsheets.