Becca POV

After dinner that night, I slip out of the Shepherd's mess hall, fully aware of all the members watching my every move, Chrom in particular, making what I'm planning the hardest thing in the world to do. Without meeting their eyes, just keeping my gaze set up and forward, not straying towards the tables even once, trying to keep my resolve intact. If I look at even one of them, I know I'll wind up unable to go, just the fear in their eyes will break me.

Somehow, I find myself in my room, staring out my window, before I know it, gazing out over the city and fields beyond bathed in moonlight. It seems almost ethereal, as though I'm somehow trapped in a dream, the features of the land and city are just so clear and beautiful, and I just want to stop time, and trap myself, here and now, forever.

A gentle knock on the door draws me back to reality. "It's open," I call back gently, almost solemnly.

The door creaks open almost as gently my voice. "Becca," Chrom breathes, voice hardly a whisper, as his feet rush up behind me, his arms wrapping around my waist and shoulders, pulling me back tightly into his muscled chest. "Please, don't do this," he begs.

Tears rush to my eyes, and I bow my head, gripping the bare arm wrapped around my shoulders. "Don't let me do this, Chrom. Make me stay, please. I can't live with myself if I do it," I finally sob, realizing for myself at long last that I would never have been able to leave him again.

He wordlessly walks me over to my bed, spinning me about and forcing me to sit down, kneeling on the ground in front of me. "I would never let you go, even if it were you fooling yourself into thinking you were doing so by your own decision," he whispers with a smirk, kissing my forehead before helping me out of my boots and sheathes. "You need to rest, sweet."

I shake my head. "I'm not tired, Chrom," I complain, glancing up at him and grabbing his hand.

He sighs, before pulling off his own boots and tackling me down onto the bed, sealing his lips over mine to swallow up my gasp of surprise. He pulls back with a playful glint in his eyes. "As much as I could like to carry on, I don't think you would be very happy with me if we were to do so. But, I think we can resume from where we left off yesterday…"

His fingers ghost over my sides, but I grab his hands and hold them off of me, although not without some struggle with his very strong body over mine. "Not again, Chrom! Why can't we just relax for a little while and read together, or play some really bad card game?"

He cocks his head to the side. "You mean one of the ones you taught us from your world?"

I nod. "Maybe Slapjack, or Gofish?" I offer, knowing he used to like those two the most.

"Hm, Gofish just so that we don't accidentally hurt each other," he decides, finally getting off of me and pulling me up, just in time for another knock on the door. "Who is it?" he asks as I light a few candles, placing them around the room as I do.

Frederick and Robin step in, carrying a jug and a bowl of fruit. "I was hoping we could talk about what you were wanting to do, Becca," Robin mutter, shifting nervously as she holds the bowl of fruit.

With a gentle shake of my head, I take the bowl from her and set it on the short table in front of the fireplace. "I'm not going anywhere, Robin, so there's nothing to discuss. But we are going to be playing Gofish, if you would care to learn?" I offer.

"You cheat at that, Becca," Frederick accuses playfully, though he sits down and takes the cards to begin shuffling them thoroughly.

I gasp, imitating a noble lady having been offended. "You wound me, Sir Frederick! I would never play dirty at a game such as this, especially one so simple."

Robin and Chrom shake their heads. "Alright children, let's just explain the game to Robin, rather than bicker about why Frederick always comes up in last place in this game," he interjects in their banter.

"Ah, yes. So, it goes something like this." I turn to her and grab a random handful of cards from Frederick, greatly annoying him in the middle of his shuffling. I give us each a hand of five, finding two sixes, a three, a ten, and a king. She has two kings, a five, and three tens. "So, what you want to do is try to get four of a kind of each card, and when it gets to your turn, you choose one person if they have a specific card. For example, if you were to ask me for a five, I would say Gofish, and you would have to pick up a card from the extra deck, so you would do that." She does so for the demonstration. "Now, if it were my turn, and I were to ask you for, let's go with, a ten, you would have to give me every ten card you have, and to hold any back is to cheat. So, since I have one, and you have three, I would have four of a kind, and I would put them down. That would mean asking for them is no longer allowed in the game. Do you get it so far, Robin?"

She nods, even though she's frowning. "I think so, but I think it'll take a few tries. Maybe I should sit out a few rounds to see how it's played."

"Nuh uh, you aren't going to get it until you start playing it. If you start running into problems, I'll give you a few hints," I promise her, collecting the cards and handing them back to Frederick for reshuffling and dealing.

Frederick grunts as he gives us our hands. "You mean give her the cheats."

"She's never played before, and in my defense, I gave those exact same hints to all of you, you all just never listened! And that's why I always win!" I see Robin about to show her cards and curve her hands to keep them to herself. "Almost forgot to tell you, when you accidentally show others your cards, it's called bleeding your cards, and could lead to actual cheating. Curving them inwards like that keeps that activity to a minimum."

Chrom snorts as he organizes his cards, most likely by numerical order, as I set mine in order by colors and symbols. "Where you learned so much about cards in your world at such a young age is beyond me, Becca. What are all the card games you know, anyway?"

I smirk as I see Frederick frown at his cards, most likely a bad hand, if the spirit behind him shaking his head is anything to go by. "I know Slapjack, Gofish, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Spit, Pepsicola, Old Maid, and I feel like there's a few others, I just can't think of them… oh, and BS."

"BS?" Frederick and Robin ask at the same time as Chrom stares at me.

"Bull Shit, if you want to be a bit more crude," I clarify in a singsong tone. "Frederick, do you have any queens?"

With a small growl, he hands me two cards, and I put down the four queens. "Oh, and Robin, if you get cards from the person you asked for them from, you get to go again until someone says Gofish, or until you decide you want to let the next person go." I then turn to Chrom. "Do you have any fours, Chrom?" He gives me one, and I put it in my hand, smirking to myself, knowing I just picked up a card that the others will quickly forget about and need. "Robin, do you have any twos?"

"Gofish," she whispers, and I smile.

"That has got to be a record," Chrom mutters.

Robin tilts her head to the side, curiosity piqued. "What does that mean?"

Frederick, with a hardly noticeable quirk at the corners of his lips, addresses her. "She has only gotten cards successfully in two consecutive turns out of three, and she usually has to give up with one card left, and gets to Gofish all of us up a wall, then flush us out all over again."

She raises an eyebrow at me, to which I shrug. "Hey, they play right into my hand, I want to see if you give me a challenge, and if they've upped their game over the years."

A smirk is shared around the room, and Chrom laughs almost predatorily. "It is so on, Becca."

Robin POV

Before she slumps over onto Chrom's shoulder from exhaustion, Becca takes first place in three rounds, then second for the first time the boys can remember to my taking first place. I find her struggle to stay awake fairly amusing, though Frederick looks as though he wants to scold me for thinking of her in such a manner. Chrom just shakes his head and wraps an extra blanket from the chair around her, not interfering with her body's demands for sleep, and her apparent desire to use him as a pillow. It's actually a really cute image, seeing the two of them together in such a manner.

A light knock at the door catches Frederick's attention, to which he frowns, looking at the stubs of the candles we replaced a while ago, then the position of the moon. "Who would be coming up here at this hour?" he whispers to Chrom.

The blue haired prince shakes his head, unclipping Falchion's sheath from his belt and slipping it out from between him and Becca, setting it under the table in preparation for a possible fight. He does, somehow, manage to keep an arm around Becca and not disturb her sleep, watching the door warily as Frederick makes his way over. Following Chrom's example, I set a hand on my Wind tome, just in case.

Frederick grabs a dagger off of Becca's desk and approaches the door, blade at the ready. "Becca, come on, I know you're still up," Lissa whines from the other side of the door.

We all breathe a sigh of relief and settle down. "Lissa, what are you doing up here?" Frederick asks in a scolding manner.

"I'm looking for Becca, since her room is lit so brightly I can see it from the city if I wanted to," she informs us.

I roll my eyes. "Keep it down, she just fell asleep," I scold her softly as Chrom lifts the younger woman in his arms, carrying her over to her bed, when I realize neither of them are wearing their boots. "Chrom, how long were you two barefoot for?"

"Uh, a few minutes while we were messing around before you and Frederick showed up, so for quite some time. Why do you ask?"

Lissa grins widely. "Ooooh, how do we know you two weren't doing more than just messing around?" she asks, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

The poor man blushes furiously as he tucks the oblivious girl into her bed. "L-Lissa! I-I-sh-she would ne-never do something like th-that! Why would you even suggest such a thing?!"

Even Frederick seems amused as he gathers up the bowl and jug from our late night snacking. "Milord, if neither of you two would do such a thing, then why would you allow it to fluster you so?"

Annoyed grumbling comes from the bed before a gust of wind blows out all the candles in the room. "Shhhrrrrr-rmmmmmppp…." is all I can make out from the muffled grumble, as though spoken into a pillow.

I can hear Chrom chuckling, before he yelps, and I hear the sound of a soft impact. "Guys, I think that's our cue to leave," Lissa whispers, taking my hand and guiding me out of the dark room. I feel Frederick's presence behind me, and continue after the small blonde cleric as she guides us down the stairs.

The walk seems to take forever in the dark, almost longer than it took to get up as we spiral downwards towards the main part of the castle, but as we pass a window, I take but a second's pause to admire the view of the land. I then realize Chrom got left behind in Becca's room, but then figure that she might have grabbed him and pulled him over to her, causing the yelp and impact. With a small shake of my head, I continue on down, an amused smile on my lips at the antics of those two lovebirds.

Ah, all the love. Isn't it beautiful?

I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening.