Morgan sulked the entire trip back to camp. At first she tried to convince Robin to tell the rest of the story on the way back, but the stubborn tactician said he needed to concentrate on the path so they wouldn't get lost in the woods. After her attempts at satisfying her curiosity failed, she changed to her tactics to complaining. Luckily for Robin, he was able to drown out the noise of his daughter's protests until they were back at camp at about half past seven.
Once there, Robin went over to his tent to grab a few things from his travel bag when he saw Lucina laying on her bedroll sleeping. She was smiling and it looked like she was enjoying her dream so Robin decided not to wake her. Instead, he quietly grabbed a small packet of peanuts from his bag and exited the tent. Back outside, he tended to the fire that had burnt out long ago, and with the help of Morgan they gathered some firewood to rekindle it.
When that was finished, the two of them sat around the fire for a few minutes to get warm.
...
"Hey Morgan, catch." He called and tossed a small bag
Morgan's eyes widened and her reflexes kicked in. She reacted just quick enough to extend her arm upwards and catch the object that nearly flew over her head. Bringing her arm down, she looked at what Robin just threw at her. "Peanuts?" She asked confused
"It's our breakfast." Robin replied
"Wait what?!" Morgan said stunned, "That isn't a real breakfast!"
"It is when the cook is asleep."
"Mom is still sleeping?" Morgan said surprised.
"Yep, and very peacefully I might add."
Morgan stayed still for a moment and stared at the bag of peanuts in denial. They were taunting the tactician who loved her daily plate of pancakes and sausage. "I can't eat this for breakfast!" She cried.
"Well, you are welcome to cook your own, but our last attempt trying to make food failed miserably." Robin chuckled.
"Our attempt at catching food failed too." muttered under her breath
"That's not true." Robin proclaimed "We caught a boot."
"That is not food." Morgan said bitterly
"I am pretty sure it is. That boot is made of leather which means it came from a cow's hide. Besides, you don't even know what it might taste like. It could be even better than steak you know."
Morgan shook her head in frustration and said "If that is the case than you eat it!"
"No thanks." Robin said trying to hold back a smile "I think I will stick with peanuts for breakfast."
"Nng." Morgan lowered her head and sighed. "So after all our work, all we get for breakfast is a bag of peanuts and a stupid shoe?
"Hey, look on the bright side." Robin said cheerfully
Morgan slowly raised her head and looked up at Robin with a sliver of hope. "What bright side?"
"You could have been born without feet. If that happened then that boot would be completely useless to you."
Morgan tried to respond and even raised her finger in the air, but she couldn't find any words to say. Instead her jaw hung out wide open and her body froze solid unable to comprehend her father's words.
Robin saw her go into paralysis and tried his best not to laugh. She was obviously distraught, hungry, and very tired from her lack of sleep, and he was not helping. "Heh, but seriously. You wanted to hear the rest of the story with Marth right?"
Morgan let out a large sigh and whispered. "...Yes."
"You know if you keep sighing like that than we will have to start calling you Cordelia." Robin snickered "But alright."
After Marth said we needed to talk, I invited her into my room, and we made our way to my small dining room. We sat on opposite sides and I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the silence to be broken.
"What are your intentions Robin?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't act all innocent. I know what you are trying to do."
I scratched the back of my head and said confused, "Um, then would you care to explain it to me? Because I honestly don't understand what you are talking about."
Marth gripped her hands tight and took a deep breath. She was very upset, but she was doing everything she could to calm herself down. She bit her tongue and carefully said "What-are-your-intentions-with-Sumia?"
"Sumia?" I whispered unsure of what she meant. "Oh! Sumia! The two of us started a book club! Er, well we are trying to start one at least. Unfortunately only the two of us showed up today, but she is optimistic about the future."
"Aha!" Marth cried and rose from her chair "So you admit it!"
"Admit what?" I asked startled.
"You admit to being alone with my ... with Sumia while no one else was around!"
"Yeah..." I replied not understanding what she was getting at. "Is there something wrong with that?"
Marth was about to lash out at me, but she closed her mouth and stopped herself. She shook her head and said, "I know you are trying to seduce Sumia."
"Seduce... Sumia?" I froze for a moment completely stunned by those words. "Seduce? ... heh, ha ha, Hahahahahaha! Oh that is rich! Ahahaha!" I banged my fist on the table unable to control my laughter.
Marth's faced turned red and she was obviously insulted by my response. She gritted her teeth and cried "What is so funny?"
"Haha ..ha...heh ..hoo." I took a second to catch my breath and looked up to to see two angry eyes glaring at me. "F-forgive me."I said desperately trying to fight the urge to laugh. "I just wasn't expecting to hear something like that." I took another gasp of air as I struggled to pull myself back together. "I...I can assure you that I have no such intentions."
"You expect me to believe your little charade?" She scoffed
"I am telling the truth." I tried to say convincingly, but the fact that I was laughing was not helping make my point.
"Hmmph! Easy enough words for a liar to spit out." She muttered coldly.
"Wait a second." I paused realizing that she was dead serious about this. "What makes you think I am trying to romance Sumia?"
She banged on the table with her fist, and stared at me with a look that could kill "Other than the fact that you're ALWAYS lurking near her whenever the chance presents itself? Today was just a long list of occasions I have seen you alone with her and laughing together. It's almost as if the two of you are... lovers."
My jaw dropped and my eyes widened in bewilderment as I heard her say that. It felt like a force was trying to push me out of my chair. "What?! No, no, no, NO! I would never! Gods. What kind of sick person do you think I am?!"
"You tell me."
"I... I swear to you under the threat of angering Naga that I am not trying to seduce the Queen."
"You dare mock her name with your impudent oath?" She said in a furious rage. "I ought to cut you down right now!" She yelled and went for the hilt of her sword
"Hold on!" I cried in a desperate attempt to calm her down "Lets think this through logically for a second. If I was to do something that stupid than Chrom would mercilessly kill me. I would lose my best friends, a beautiful life, and everything I hold dear. Now why would risk all of that on a married woman?"
"Because you are jealous of Chrom and his life."
"Jealous?" I repeated in confusion. "Hah, not at all. I would hate to have the responsibilities of a king. He has to deal with the nobles and make sure the kingdom stays on track economically. I mean yeah he has complete control over the kingdom, but that just means he is responsible for everyone too.
"You expect me to believe that you, a tactician, have no ambition for power?"
"Yep." I said without hesitation "I am very happy with my life, and I would not want it changed in any way. Which is another reason I would never think of trying to flirt with the queen.
"If what you say is true, then why are you spending so much time alone with her?"
I grabbed my chin and carefully thought over the past few weeks. She was right, I did see her often. "Today was just an accidental thing that we happened to be alone, but for the other cases it is probably because we are really good friends... ... Emphasis on friends." I paused for a moment to see Marth's reaction but she stayed silent. "It's just one of those things. When you are near someone like Sumia, you can lose track of time laughing together and before you know it, hours have passed."
"And what happens when you spend so much time together that you fall in love?"
"Very simple, I remind myself that she is married." I laughed at the ridiculous question. "Though, up until this conversation I never even thought about it before."
The tension in Marth's arms dropped and she looked a little more relieved. She looked down at the table and then back up to me. "Still, you could be subconsciously trying to take advantage of her!"
"Marth." I raised my hand in the air and lowered my tone. "If there is one thing in life that I am sure about in this world, it's that Chrom and Sumia will always be together. Even if I was trying to seduce her, which I am not, I could not hope to break up the bond those two have." I said sincerely "The one thing I don't understand is why you are even concerned about this."
"I have my reasons." She said blankly and turned away from me.
"Let me guess." I crossed my arms leaned back in my chair "Something to do with this terrible future you keep talking about but never mention directly."
Marth nodded once to confirm my theory.
"Why again can't you tell anyone about it?"
"Because I risk altering the future more than necessary. If I change too much, than the world will be drastically different than it is supposed to be." She said with a strong and burdened voice.
"So?" I asked unsure of her reasoning. "What is wrong with that?"
"What is wrong with that?!" She repeated bewildered. "Did you not hear what I just said?!"
"Yes, I heard you very clearly. According to you, our world is fated to meet a terrible end by some unknown force." I grabbed a piece of paper on the table and tore it into pieces to clarify my point. "So, why is it bad to drastically change the future? Correct me if I am wrong, but any type of future sounds better than the one where the world is destroyed."
A bitter silence covered the room as Marth thought it over. She grimaced a few times before she finally said. "But that isn't the way its supposed to be. I can't afford to change the future any more than necessary.
"Because?"
"Because its wrong!" Marth shouted in anger. "How would you live with yourself if your actions caused someone to get hurt or worse."
"I would feel terrible, but isn't that supposed to happen anyways with the Armageddon thing?"
"You're missing the point!" Marth yelled. She was breathing heavily now and I could see a fierce pain in her eyes. Her whole body seemed like it wanted to collapse and yet she refused to let it.
...
"I'm sorry." I said softly. "I have no idea what you are going through, but it just doesn't make sense to burden yourself with something like this. After all, one of the greatest parts of living is knowing that you can shape the future however you like it, and if you can stop the death of millions, then why does it matter how you achieve it?"
Marth refused to look at or answer me and tilted her head down.
"Look, all I am saying is that if you need help. Chrom, Sumia, the Shepherds, and I would all be glad to aid you with whatever you are facing.
...
"Wait a minute!" Marth rose her head and pointed at me. "You are trying to use sincerity to make me think you are trustworthy so I wont try to stop your advances at Sumia!
"I am what?"
"You almost had me for a second, but I wont fall for it! You will not deceive me or Sumia!"
"Oh gods not this again." I felt a small migraine coming along.
"Just admit it!"
I shook my head and closed my eyes for a second. "Look, if you don't believe me than I think have a proposal to fix this."
"Oh really? What foul plan have you concocted?."
I rolled my eyes and shrugged at her statement. "If you can find time in your busy schedule of saving the world. Why don't you follow me around?"
"Follow you around?
"Yeah. You know, watch me and see if I try and do anything wrong. That way if I try to get to close to Sumia than you can stop me."
"... I suppose that could work."
"As a sign of good faith I will even tell you my schedule for the day to make it easier to track me." I put on a fake smiled, but sighed on the inside and wondered how I got in this bizarre this situation. "As you know, my first part of the day was the book club, and next I am playing poker with the guys."
"The guys?"
"Chrom, Stahl, Frederick, Gaius, Gregor, and Lon'qu." I counted the fingers off of my hands to make sure I got them all. " We do it every Saturday. Oh, and after the poker game I have to speak with Cordelia about improving the feed for the Pegasi. By the time that is finished it should be about dinner time. After that I will spend the rest of the night in my room to continue my research."
"Research?"
"I'm working on a theory to turn gold into chocolate."
"...Why are you trying to do something like that?" She asked confused
"Because I like to eat very rich chocolate." I chuckled
Marth froze and looked at me very puzzled. She must have thought I was crazy if not insane.
"Er...that was a joke."
"..." Marth shook her head and got up from her chair. Without saying a word she turned away from me and caught a glance back at the butter fly mask hanging on the wall.
"Um, so I guess you are taking off?"
Marth nodded with her back turned and said, "Don't think I wont be watching you."
"... Right. ...Well, take care of yourself then."
Marth glanced back at me one last time before headed for the door.
"Oh, and Marth!" I called out just before she reached for the door handle.
"Yes?"
"Please don't watch me sleep. I still have nightmares after the last time Tharja tried it."
...
Morgan yawned for the third time and her eyes were blood-red. She was exhausted and she struggled to keep her eyes open, but refused to close them. "Did mom really say all that?" Morgan asked wearily
"Heh, yeah." Robin chuckled. "Though looking back I can understand why she would think that. Afterall, at that time the only thing she knew about romance was whatever Inigo told her in their world. After his antics, she must have thought I was just another philanderer."
"I see." Morgan muttered unconsciously as she shook her head back and forth to stay awake. "So what happened next?"
"Not much else. I won 50 gold at the poker game. Though Gaius did accuse me of cheating, again."
"No, I mean with the story."
"Oh, well are you sure you are awake enough to hear it?"
Morgan slowly nodded her head and tried to stop a yawn from escaping her mouth. "Ye aaaaah."
Robin laughed watching the tired tactician fight just to stay awake, but decided to appease her. "I'm not so sure about that, but alright. I'll try to make it quick."
Morgan nodded and rubbed her eyes while Robin threw another log on the fire.
"For the most part, everything returned to normal. The next few months went by without any trouble, and our book club managed to reach ten regular members. Even Chrom showed up once after his wife's persistent persuasion. But other than that everything stayed the same. Same tortuous workout with Frederick and Lon'qu, and I found my job to be consumed with paperwork. In fact, I was sitting at my desk sorting through my pile of reports when I noticed a yellow coated letter with the wax seal engraved by a noble insignia.
...
Greeting and salutations my esteemed and worthy adversary.
As your superior and handsome rival, I find it prevalent to warn you of my upcoming arrival in Yllistol. Circumstances have put me in a position to revisit the great capital once again, and I have to expatiate to Chrom on a matter most urgent. I hope that you will inform him of my request for an audience, and I believe this matter would concern you aswell. Also, I will eagerly anticipate our stimulating battle of wits. I shall endeavor to give you a fighting chance this time before I checkmate without mercy.
This letter should give you a weeks notice to study up on your tactics so you can atleast make our match somewhat challenging. Though, I doubt it will meet my renowned standards.
With Well Regards,
Virion the Marvelous
P.S. I do ask that you pardon my inadequate handwriting. The barbaric crew of this vessel constantly rocks the boat back and forth despite my forthcomings, and this makes it difficult to perform my elegant and noble penmanship.
...
"Ah, good ole' Virion. He hasn't changed in the slightest." I smiled and remembered the games we shared nearly a year and a half ago. "It will be nice to see him again. I wonder what he has been up to, and what is so important that he need to talks to Chrom about it."
"He probably needs to seek shelter after angering a powerful young maiden." I laughed and pictured Maribelle hitting him over the head with her parasol like the old days. It was hard to believe so much time had passed, but it wasn't like it flew by. Quite the opposite actually. Each day I spent in the castle was memorable in its own special way.
...
"Robin?" someone called out and knocked on my office door. "Are you in there?"
Hearing my name brought me back to reality and I quickly concealed a few classified papers on my desk before I called back. "Yeah, you can come in. The door is unlocked."
I heard the rattling of the gears inside the lock and then the door slowly creaked open behind me. "I have the report you wanted."
"Ah good." I turned around and grabbed the folder he had in his hand. "Thanks Stahl."
"No problem."
I opened the folder and quickly glanced at the first few pages. "How is the treasury looking?"
"It could be better. The reparations from Plegia are helping, but we are still recovering from the payments we made to the relief effort."
"Well it was to be expected. You can't give thousands of gold to the cities affected by the war and still think that you will come home with a full wallet.
"True, but if you look at the report you will see the recovery is going better than we hoped. Even the towns that were burnt to the ground are rebuilding faster than we anticipated.
"We can thank Chrom and his leadership for that." I replied while looking at the total cost for the programs we paid for. Over 350,000 gold was spent, many of our precious jewels were sold, and even the Shepherds took a cut in pay to help finance it. "What about the situation in Plegia?"
"We are sending more aid, but the water shortages are still a major problem."
"Hmm." I grabbed my chin and thought it over. "That's odd. Even with the drought, our help should be enough to support them."
"That is what Chrom thought too. but ever since the drought hit when Valider took over, the water problem keeps getting worse."
"...I see, is there anything else to report?" I asked and circled a few numbers on one of the statistical papers.
"No, nothing big anyways."
"Good. What about you and Olivia. How is that going?"
"Its going okay" Stahl said in a low tone ... "I am trying Gregor's advice, but she is so shy that it makes it difficult."
"Well at least you can talk to her face to face now."I said cheerfully
"Haha, yeah. To think a few months ago I had to send her letters just to ask for a needle and some thread." Stahl laughed. "Now if only I could get her to stop apologizing for everything."
"Heh, good luck with that." I said in disbelief. "Oh, and speaking of letters. Can you tell Chrom that we will have an old friend return next week?"
"An old friend?" Stahl asked curiously.
"Yeah, Virion is visiting."
...
Robin stopped talking when he felt two warm hands wrap around his chest. He didn't need to look behind him know who it was, but a huge grin appeared on his face as he recognized them. "Good morning dear. Did you sleep well?"
Lucina smiled and grabbed tighter to hug him from the back. "Mhm. I had a wonderful dream."
"That's good... Was I in it?"
Lucina lowered her head to rest it on Robin's shoulder and said, "That is why it was a wonderful dream."
Robin smiled in pride and looked to his left to see his wife's shining face.
"So how was your fishing trip with Morgan?" Lucina shifted to the left of Robin and sat down next to him by the fire.
Robin looked over to Morgan, but saw that she was sleeping in the sitting position. Her head had drooped down and she was leaning forward almost ready to fall off her seat. Robin chuckled as he saw her in that state and said, "It went well."
"I can see that." Lucina shared the laugh as she looked at her sleeping daughter. "Did you catch anything?" She asked and moved her hand on to his leg
"A boot." Robin pointed to the brown foot cover over by Morgan. "And I told a little more of the story." Robin replied and put his hand on top of hers. He moved his fingers in between hers so he could hold the top of her hand and felt her smooth and soft skin.
Just a boot?"
"Heh, I never was good at fishing." Robin laughed.
"True." Lucina replied. "But at least you managed to tire Morgan out."
"Yeah, I guess she doesn't like waking up at five in the morning."
"Hehe, yeah. So what part of the story did you tell?"
"Oh not much. Just about how Marth accused me of trying to seduce Sumia." Robin said nonchalantly and tried to hide a smirk.
Lucina blushed in embarrassment. All she could muster was the word, "Oh."
Robin let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her instead. He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek and said. "It turns out you were right. I do love Sumia"
...
"But as a mother-in-law."