Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.

Taguel/Laguz/Shapeshifter Robin, inspired by the suggestions of WarriorofLight12 and XenoEmblem4TW. Not taking everything from the suggestions, just what I can make a good story out of.

Don't ask me where in the timeline this supposedly takes place. I have no idea.

"Hide me."

"Panne again?" Chrom chuckles as the boy cowers behind the desk.

"Evil bunny!" Robin hisses. "I don't know anything about 'taguel customs' or whatever and I don't care! I don't want to drink nature juice and eat leaves either!"

"She asked you to tea Robin, that's very normal."

"Herbal tea, with lettuce as a snack. Lettuce Chrom!" Robin growls. "Who eats lettuce as a snack!?"

"Apparently Panne."

"Yeah, I got that already."

"Just entertain her Robin. You're the only other of her kind, she's probably lonely."

"I'm a wolf Chrom, not a bunny!"

"You're still taguel though."

"Details details…"

There's a knock on the the office door, and Robin stiffens.

"Say nothing." He hisses at the prince.

The man shakes his head in amusement. "Come in."

"Fuck you Chrom." Robin mumbles, crouching lower behind the desk.

Panne steps into the room. Her eyes quickly flick over the room, not seeing what she's looking for. She sniffs the air for a moment, and her head stares directly at the spot Robin is hiding. Chrom chuckles in greeting. "Hello Panne, looking for Robin?"

"Yes." The Taguel says curtly. "Robin, why do you squat behind the desk? Are you searching for something? Why did you run upon seeing me?"

"I'm uh…." Robin coughs, shooting Chrom a final glare as he stands up. "I lost a document."

"Under the captain's desk?"

"Yes." the tactician says with a completely straight face. Sometimes Robin's ability to lie amazes the prince.

"I will assist you then." The taguel says firmly.

"Er, no!" Robin coughs. "It's not too important. Did you need something of me?"

"Yes, I wish to continue our conversation from earlier…"

Chrom chuckles as Robin reluctantly follows Panne out. He shakes his head and returns to his paperwork. The tactician is exaggerating as usual, he'll be fine.

###

"Seriously?" Chrom sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Owain, I expect you to know better. Robin… what in the world were you thinking?"

"We were just just acting..." The tactician pouts, crossing his arms. His long black hair falls in his face, and he petulantly blows it out of the way.

"By charging around the courtyard in wolf form with Owain on your back?" The prince asks dryly.

"We were enacting a glorious charge of Odin Dark and his faithful steed: the Hellhound!" Owain says dramatically, pointing Missletain to the sky. "The hero and his companion ride towards the armies of the Fell Emperor Xero! The dark hero's cape billows in the wind and Hellhound's fur ripples as they move across the plains, the sky as dark and cloudy as Odin's soul-!"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture!" Chrom interrupts. Gods these two are a quite the pair, Chrom wishes Robin wouldn't encourage Owain's theatrics. As much as Chrom loves his nephew from the future he never could follow the boy's ramblings, and he doesn't need his best friend making that worse. "Just use common sense next time."

"Sorry Uncle Chrom." Owain coughs.

"Yeah yeah…" Robin huffs at the prince. "Whatever Killjoy."

Chrom rolls his eyes to the sky. The things he puts up with…

###

"You give the taguel great shame." Panne scolds. "Letting them climb over you like that…"

"You're just jealous." Robin hums, rolling his large wolf form onto its back. Two year old Lucina and one year old Owain (the younger version obviously) along with little Cynthia gurgle happily, and grab at the fluffy tufts that are his ears. "I bet you don't get your ears scratched."

"I would hardly define their childish pawing as getting one's ears scratched."

"Jealous~!" Robin sings. He nuzzles the little boy and gives him a lick on the nose. "Come on, join in."

"No."

"Suit yourself." Little Lucina clambers onto his stomach, so Robin lifts a paw to playfully bat at her hands. The girl shrieks in delight, flailing her little hands in responds. "Go do something else then, you don't need to hang around me Panne. I've already told you I know nothing about Taguel traditions and whatever."

Panne stays silent, watching the wolf play with the children. Robin a tactician with no war to fight, it seems to her like he has plenty of free time but wastes it on playing with the royal infants and hanging around the future children. Panne herself spends most of her waking hours in the royal library searching for any possible reference on the taguel. The books being Ylissian, however, mean that such references are rarely flattering or even vaguely helpful. The characteristic racism of the Ylissian people shows strongly in their depictions of other people, Panne has a hard time finding a factual account of Taguel activities but pushes her search anyways...

...and Robin, also a member of the taguel race, seems to care so little for the history of their people. Instead he plays and frolics his days away. Disappointing.

The taugel lady watches for a moment longer, sighs, and leaves. She has something productive to do.

###

"That's hella stupid." Robin snorts, leaning back. "Seriously, wow."

"It's tradition Robin." Chrom sighs.

"Chrom, that's like saying 'we shouldn't change it because its old' which, by the way, is terrible logic." The tactician scoffs. "Are you going to say that we shouldn't let women in the army then 'because it's tradition'?"

"You're intentionally picking the worst possible examples." The prince accuses.

"Yeah, because it makes my point!" The tactician protests. "Don't let the church get its way here! They have no place in this!"

"It's just a party Robin, there's no harm in inviting the pope even if it's just because of tradition."

"Nay I say! Never! Don't give in to the grips of tradition Chrom!" Robin cries. "Step away from the dark side! Improve on the past, don't submit to it!"

The prince sighs and rubs his forehead. He should have known better than to bring this up with Robin.

###

"Boo!"

"Eek!"

"Gah-! Boss?! Don't do that."

Robin grins at the two children, and stops hiding behind the tree. "Sorry, had to. Noire, Brady, I have a question for you both."

"Shoot." Brady grunts.

"Did Panne have a kid?" The tactician asks.

Noire shifts nervously. "W-We're not supposed to talk about stuff like that. We shouldn't influence-"

"I don't need to know anything about them! I just want to know if she had one." Robin clarifies.

Brady looks suspicious. "Why Boss?"

"You tell me and I'll tell you." Robin counters. He smirks to himself as the blond boy mulls it over. He chose to ask these two because he thought they'd be the least resistant to giving him information, and it would seem he's right.

"Gah… fine." The monk sighs. "Yeah, she did."

"All I need to know." The tactician says. "Thanks."

"So spill, what's the reason you need to know?" Brady prys.

"She's always so focused on customs this, tradition that, I was worried she isolated herself from everyone. She gets too little contact with other people as is currently…"

"S-So you were just concerned?" Noire asks.

"Yeah." Robin grunts. "Glad to hear she finds someone though. She's one of the few Shepherds with no significant relationships at the moment so…"

"You keep track of that stuff?" Brady says, surprised.

"Of course I do! It's my job to take care of everyone under my command, and that includes making sure they aren't socially isolated their entire lives." The man huffs. "Either way, thanks, but I can't talk more. I've got a meeting to go to."

"Well don't let me keep ya." The monk snorts, shooing him off. "Go keep Owain and Cynthia entertained."

"How'd you know?"

"Justice Cabal always meets Thursdays, hard to forget when Owain always pesters me to come." Brady says, wearing a dry smile. "Now shove off, yah interrupted our walk."

###

"Panne! The Wolf would speak with you!" Robin says dramatically, sweeping into the library.

"I refuse to refer to myself as 'the Bunny', no matter how many times you ask." Panne says curtly, not looking up from her book. "Why have you come here tactician?"

"What? Can't a man visit his friend?" He asks cheekily, taking a seat. "But seriously though, I've come to ask ask how your research is going."

The woman raises an eyebrow. "And here I thought you cared little for taguel traditions."

"Oh no that's very true." Robin admits bluntly. "I don't care. Tradition just means doing something because other people did it in the past, and sometimes that thing is totally pointless like sacrificing a goat to ensure good weather."

"Humans haven't done that for years."

"Yeah, but they did do it for a while even after they realized it wouldn't make a difference just because of tradition." Robin's sneer makes it very clear what he thinks of that. "What a waste of a life… That's one of the more extreme examples of course, but a lot of the time I do think people would be better off if they used actual logic rather than just listening to tradition."

"That explains why you care so little about Taguel history." Panne sighs. "I cannot say I agree with you, even if I understand your thoughts. Traditions are part of who we are, they show respect to those who came before us and give us a sense of unity."

"And sometimes they're stupid, destructive, impractical, and/or pointless." Robin responds curtly.

"Perhaps." Panne says, pursing her lips. "But that is not always the case."

"Yeah, but most traditions fall into the pointless category." The tactician grumbles.

"You place little value on the past, do you?"

"I have no memory, I don't know what the past is and even if I did I have no emotional connection to it." Robin sighs. "I don't care what the taguel did or who they were, they're strangers to me. I woke up in a field among humans and found family among humans. The taguel are a tragedy but… I can't relate."

Panne seems to sag, the picture of someone defeated. "Then I am truly alone. I suppose I cannot force you to care. I had hoped that another taguel would have some knowledge of our traditions, and when that did not happen I had hoped to have assistance."

"I'm sorry Panne, really." Robin grimaces. "I wouldn't say you're alone though, that's just because you stay in the library most of the time. You do have friends Panne, even if most aren't taguel."

"Most? You mean none."

"Hey, I count!"

###

"Robin…" Chrom sighs.

"Hey, we're testing out a legitimate battle strategy! We even did it away from the castle!" The tactician protests. If a wolf could look like it was pouting, Robin certainly did. "It's just a few bruises Chrom, and we have vulneraries on hand!"

"I am not letting you and Owain do wolf cavalry."

"Hey, I'm the tactician here!"

"Tell me then, how practical is taguel wolf cavalry?" The prince asks dryly.

"It's… kinda shit actually." Robin admits sheepishly. "Having someone on my back limits mobility a lot. It looks cool though."

"So you're not crazy." Chrom sighs in relief. "Seriously Robin, don't you have a better use of your time?"

"Than what?" Robin asks, sounding genuinely affronted. "What better use of my time is there than spending time with my friends? It's fun Chrom."

"You're acting like children…"

"He is a child more or less. He's only sixteen."

"I was talking more about you."

"I don't remember being a kid Chrom." The tactician reminds him. "Playing with Owain and Cynthia are some of the only chances I'm going to get to know what that's like."

Chrom blinks in surprise. "Okay, I hadn't considered that."

"Yeah, well, amnesiac remember?" Robin snorts. "Plus, I have no outstanding skills beyond battle tactics and we're at peace right now so that's kinda useless. Keeping the kids entertained is something to do, and it's fun."

"And by 'the kids' you mean the infants, Owain, and Cynthia."

"Well yeah, they're the ones with a cool club."

###

"Paaaaanne!"

"I have no desire to attend your silly-"

"Come on shut-in." Robin chuckles, poking the reluctant lady in ear. "All the Shepherds are going to be there, even Tharja, and she hates this sort of stuff. If she can be there so can you."

"But-"

"The books aren't going anywhere Panne."

"Fine…"

I think I'll end this here. We've sufficiently explored Robin's psychology, Panne becomes a bit more social, and the nuances of tradition are thoroughly butchered by someone who knows very little about them (me!).

It was difficult to find a way to show Robin's powers without throwing pointless fights in there. Combat is fine, but if it doesn't serve some narrative purpose I prefer to keep it out.

Tradition is not a subject I was expecting to tackle in this chapter, but that's what I get for not planning these chapters out. I don't necessarily agree with either Robin or Panne, just showing both sides. This chapter is biased in Robin's favour, but that's more the case of the story being from his perspective than him actually being right.

Reader: Maybe not the Ranma thing, but Genderfluid Robin is otherwise an idea I can get behind.

The Restless Drifter: Never heard of that game before. Sounds horror-like.

I'll take it under consideration, might be a hard idea to work with though.

ScorinVoidseeker: Strange interactions are fun, though they often require the most work to write.

Guest: Yes. Not sure if I like Robin being male in this case, but I love the idea of Arranged Marriage Robin.

IsThisWorking: Memetic what-hazard? I presume that's a joke suggestion or a reference that's going over my head.

Darklight of the 0 arcana: Both of those ideas can very easily be story-breakers, but I do like them. I'm going to take Goddess Robin over Kryptonian here, because the latter is harder to fit into the Fire Emblem universe because it requires backstory.

Agent of Chaos 112: Yeah, that's already been suggested. It's on the list.

Can you explain further what you mean by nothing happened? From what I see quite a bit happened (assassination attempt, Robin saving Chrom and Lissa's life a few times, Chrom overcoming his fear of something unnatural), however if it was unsatisfying I'd like to know exactly why you think that. Was there too little of something in particular? Something missing?

Vanderspiegel: I'll add it to the list with the other Grima ideas already suggested. I do love a redemption/change-of-heart story though.

Fregler: Yeah, I like Succubus Robin too. Personally I'm partial to her, Hairweaver, and Mirroreye.