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

Inspired by Thief Robin as requested by Rotciv557 (though this Spy Robin and not Thief Robin, but being a thief really made no sense for any version of Robin's character so I took the closest thing).

"Gaius."

"I still can't find an opening…"

"I need your help."

"Eh- sure, what is it Bubbles?" The thief's voice is slightly distorted by the magic earrings they're using to communicate.

"I need a distraction." The midnight-blue haired tactician whispers, mindful of the guards around. It's the middle of the night, and Robin is on the inside of the wall while Gaius is outside. Robin got in by grappling over a section of the front wall, Gaius still can't find an opening to get in the back.

"Where?"

"East side, second spire. There's a balcony window with the lights off, I think that's my entry point."

"Got it. Give me a few minutes."

Robin sits silently in his bush as he waits for his partner in crime. The Ylissian Royal Palace has so many bushes and trees in the main yard it's like they're inviting him in. His mission is rather simple: map out the interior of the castle and find out the schedule of as many people as possible in preparation for Validar's attack.

"I'm in position Bubbles. You ready?"

Robin's pull out his grapple crossbow, preparing to shoot for the balcony. "Ready."

Nothing for a few seconds… and then shouts. He's not sure what Gaius did, but Robin imagine he probably threw a dagger or something. It's not nearly as risky as it sounds, he and Gaius have a pre-planned escape route after all.

The patrols move to the walls, but Robin also knows it's temporary. They won't leave the yard unguarded for long. He raises his crossbow, aims carefully, and fires. The grapple and rope shoot high, catching the railing of the balcony.

Success, but he only has a moment. Robin ties the end of the rope around his waist so it doesn't fall and starts pulling himself up. The railing shakes a bit under his weight, which worries him, but he's relatively light so this should be fine.

He pads up the wall as quickly as he can. As soon as he's at the halfway point he slows down even more. Robin knows he's safe now, people seldom tend to look up. His boots grip the stone wall and he climbs methodically. Step, pull, step, pull…

It takes only about three minutes to climb to the balcony. Robin carefully puts the rope away and places the grapple crossbow onto his back. He dusts himself off, smirking at a job well done, and turns to enter the darkened room.

He finds someone staring back at him. A girl with pale brown hair, holding a book and a candle, blinks in surprise at seeing him climb up onto the balcony. Robin's mind races, what does he do now? He's been discovered!

Wait, she's not a guard. Maybe he can convince her to stay quiet. Yes, that's it, Robin will bribe her… except that the window is locked.

"Just talk, buy time." Robin thinks. "Err… hello!"

"Hi?" The lady squeaks nervously, eyes darting side to side. She clenches the book nervously. "Wh-Who are you?"

"I'm uh…" Robin's mind darts rapidly. She hasn't instantly gone for a guard, which is good. Why though. "My name is... Gayle."

"Gayle…"

"And who are you Milady?" Robin asks as charmingly as possible. He gives her a roguish grin (or at least he hopes it's roguish, he's seen Gaius do it before). "Can I have the pleasure of your name?"

"S-Sumia."

"How lovely… Sumia." Robin says, pretending to test out the name. He feels like a moron being so over-dramatic but it seems to be working for whatever reason. Maybe this girl is a bit of a romantic. "It rolls well off the tongue."

Sumia flusters a bit, and her feet tap on the floor nervously. "Th-Thank you."

This is going inordinately well, Robin leans against the glass and tries to press his advantage. "Would you mind letting me in, my beautiful Sumia?"

"L-Let you in?" She stammers, blushing madly. "Ohh… I don't know if I should." It's phrased like reservation, but her tone is one of excitement. "I really don't know you."

"Yeah, and I just climbed up the wall too." Robin thinks, trying not to roll his eyes. "Well you're not going to get to know me more with a wall between us my Dear." Is he laying it on too thick? He feels like he is. There's no way he, the weedy tactician and thief, is actually wooing someone successfully. His experience with women is limited to his sister and Tharja. This should not be working.

Robin is flabbergasted when the lady actually puts down her book and her candle on a small table, and unlocks the window. He steps inside tentatively, this isn't how he expected the get in the castle. Sumia steps right up to him, and the boy quickly pulls himself upright, trying to keep up his suave facade.

The lady puts her hands on either side of his face, and the tactician freezes. He doesn't know what this means, what is he supposed to do? "It's…" Sumia sighs, rubbing his cheek. "It's a shame this is a dream."

He blinks once, twice. A dream…? Actually, that's a perfect excuse. What are the odds of her actually coming face to face with a dashing, roguish man grappling up the castle wall? Well, maybe that would be more accurate if he were Gaius, but Robin would like to think he's at least decently attractive. "A dream? Perhaps you should wake then."

"I don't want to though." She murmurs. "But I suppose I should."

"Indeed. I'm sure you have a book to finish reading, don't you?" I say, nodding towards her book on the table.

"Right..." Sumia says with a dreamy smile. "I can't wait to know what happens to Lila and David."

"Exactly." I say. "Now go on, lie down."

"Alright." She sighs. To Robin's shock, the lady leans forward and kisses him. "I'll miss you Gayle."

Robin has never felt so flustered in his life, but he holds back his discomfort at this whole facade. "Nonsense Dear, this is a dream. You can see me whenever you want, you just have to close your eyes."

This melodrama is absurd to the tactician, but Sumia nods. "Alright." She sits down on the couch, where Robin now notices a large number of pillows and several books. It seems she was occupied with reading. "See you tomorrow night."

"Enjoy your day Dear." Robin whispers. He reaches out and pushes her eyes closed, and the lady happily curls into her pillows.

The tactician waits a minute, and eventually sighs in relief when he notices her breathing deepen and her muscles slacken. She's asleep. Robin blows out the candle she placed on the table, and creeps further into the castle…

###

"Good morning Cordy…"

"Sumia, did you fall asleep in the library again?"

"Yeah, but I had a fantastic dream!"

"Really?"

"There was this man called Gayle, he came through the window into my arms… he was so dashing."

"I think you're just reading too much smu-"

"-Romance!"

"Right, romance…"

###

Sumia takes to reading late in the library after her lovely dream. She spends the time she isn't training on the same couch curled up with her books. The book she was reading when she had her dream, "A Duchess' Favour", is long since finished, but the pegasus knight has an extensive backlog of titles she's been meaning to finish so she's not at a loss for content.

She falls asleep in that couch night after night for a full week, but Gayle never graces her with his presence. Sumia takes to reading on the balcony itself, though she returns inside to sleep in the couch… usually.

After that week of sleeping on the couch, she accidentally falls asleep outside on the chair. She wakes an unknown amount of time later that night to the feeling of arms carrying her inside. Sumia takes care to feign sleep, but cracks open an eye to see the person carrying her.

Gayle. The man from her dream. He gently puts her down on the couch before returning back to the balcony to grab her books and candles. She watches silently as he places her stuff on a table, pulls a blanket up to her chin, and leans down to give her a single kiss on the forehead.

He doesn't have the same cocky, dashing grin he had on before. Gayle seems nervous, gentle, tender almost.

Sumia also realizes that this isn't a dream. This is an actual person. An actual person that climbed the castle wall and came in through the balcony. An intruder. Oh dear, oh dear, what should she do? What is he doing here? She let him in last week! Oh gods…

"Reading again Sumia?" The man chuckles quietly, and musses her hair a bit. "Well, at least you're getting proper sleep." Gayle reluctantly turns his back to her and walks towards the library entrance, slipping out silently into the hallway beyond.

Sumia lies on the couch, gripped with indecision. It's hard to admit that she has to alert the guards and turn him in, because she likes the man despite not knowing him. However, her sense of duty is stronger than her base attraction, so she reluctantly rises out of her seat and moves to the hallway to find a guard.

###

"Greetings." An elegant lady says politely, sitting down at the table in front of Robin. The tactician watches her impassively, though in truth he is very unnerved to be speaking to Exalt Emmeryn herself. The knight glaring at him over her shoulder is somewhat intimidating too, but Robin is aware that the man won't do anything without being ordered too, so the tactician mostly ignores the knight. "I am Exalt Emmeryn of Ylisse, may I ask for your name?"

"Robin Underfell, special operations in the Plegian Army, twenty-first of march 1004." The tactician responds curtly.

Emmeryn recognizes the standard capture procedure Robin is following: name, general rank, date of birth. As per his training that's all he's allowed to give her. This is obviously a problem, as the Exalt can't negotiate if the other party isn't willing to converse. "Nice to meet you Robin. I hope your stay has not been too uncomfortable?"

The tactician remains silent. The cell he was given is equivalent to the cell of a normal thief, which is to say basic but clean. If he were a murderer or a rapist,he would have gotten one of the moldy lower cells. It's still not comfortable though, the cell is still made of stone and the bed is threadbare.

"My apologies for such measures, I know you are simply doing your job, but we have protocols of our own to follow." The Exalt continues. Robin is almost positive she's lying, there's no reason for her to apologize for capturing an enemy spy. "Even so, I wish to converse with you. Perhaps we can come to understand one another."

Perhaps, but Robin trusts the Exalt very little and he doubts she trusts him either. Lying is easy after all. "Under Plegian law I cannot converse further than giving you what information I already have… however laws are often flawed. Still, why should I talk with you at all?"

"Because I wish for peace, and I think you can help me." The lady says honestly. "I know very little about Plegia beyond superstition and rumor, and I cannot effectively negotiate without some understanding of Plegia's position."

This makes sense to Robin, but there's still a problem. "You're asking me to divulge information about my country."

The Exalt sighs. "Unfortunately yes. I do not require exact details, but I am asking you to give me information on Plegia."

Robin's orders tell him not to say anything, common sense is drawing a blank, but the tactician's logic sees the benefit in cooperating… under the presumption that Emmeryn is being truthful right now. While his father may push for war, Robin would much prefer peace. The tactician needs confirmation that the Exalt is truthful though. "Prove yourself."

"Pardon?"

"Prove you're telling the truth. I can't say anything until then."

The knight in the corner seems agitated at Robin's words, but Emmeryn is calm. "How?"

"I don't know." Robin admits. "But I can't trust you blindly."

"I see. How about an exchange then? I will have you moved to a proper guest room if you will offer me something in return."

"What?"

"You may choose."

Robin broods for a moment, considering the question. Eventually though, he makes his offer. "You said you know nothing about Plegia, so I'll offer information on the major powers in the country."

"Deal." Emmeryn says, offering her hand. The tactician hesitates, still distrustful, but shakes and seals his status as traitor.

###

"You have a guest today Plegian." The knight growls, stepping inside the room. His metal boots creak against the wood of the floor as he takes up a position just inside the door. Robin stands up from the chair at his desk where he was writing and turns to face the entrance.

A familiar lady with pale brown hair steps inside, and smiles nervously at the tactician. "H-Hello again. It's actually Robin, right? I'm Sumia, though you already know that…"

"Yes, I do. I remember." Robin says cautiously. He consciously remains expressionless, trying to determine what reaction is appropriate here. "I hope you enjoyed the book you were reading, seeing as you stayed up so late to continue it."

"Oh! Yes, uh, it was amazing." Sumia giggles "I've moved on since then, but it was a good book."

"You would recommend it?"

"To certain people…" She says with a smile. "Depends on taste."

That's evasive, Robin assumes it must be a niche book. "Fair answer. Eye of the beholder and such."

"So, uh, anyways… I have a question if you don't mind." Sumia smiles nervously. "That first night…?"

"Total improvisation." Robin admits bluntly, and a bit sheepishly. "You caught me off guard. I had to stop you going off and getting guards. The other option was to kill you, and I'm generally not a fan of killing innocents."

"Oh, uh, well, thank you." The girl blinks, a bit off-put and visibly disheartened. "It was a facade though...?"

"Mostly." The tactician says, his mind racing. Why is she sad? "I'll admit it was enjoyable, even if I was out of my element. I have a friend I was trying to emulate."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, Gaius is a smooth one." Robin snorts. "Though he's usually just trying to steal a girl's candy and the flirting is an afterthought."

"Candy?"

"He's addicted to sugar."

"Ah…" Sumia says with a smile. "He sounds interesting."

"That's one word to use. I would call him childish." Robin snorts. "Reliable teammate though, despite his tendencies."

"I'd love to meet him."

"Well… considering that meeting you got me captured, I doubt he'll be too keen on that. Plus, I'm sorta stuck in this room." Robin coughs.

"Ah, right. I'm really sorry about that by the way, but I had to!" Sumia squeaks.

"Oh I know, I don't blame you." The tactician responds, waving her off. "You were doing your duty, just as I was."

"Right, yes, so anyways I have something for you." She says nervously, and holds out a book.

"Wyvern Wars: Terror at High Noon?" Robin says, accepting the book. His brow scrunches up in confusion.

"I thought you might not have anything to do while you're here, and since you were nice to me and all that and didn't hurt anyone, I figured I'd give you something." The girl rambles. "I-I got permission from Emmeryn of course."

Robin blinks. A gift. "Oh, well thank you."

The stifling awkwardness continues until Sumia stammers out a goodby and scurries from the room. The knight, still glaring, follows her out and locks the door behind him. Robin stares blankly at the book for a minute, takes a deep breath, and sits down to read.

###

"My name is Chrom." The Prince says, extending a hand. Robin shakes tentatively. "I understand you'll be guiding us today?"

"Yes, I am." The tactician says nervously. It's been two months since his capture, and the Exalt is already letting him outside the castle to help weed out the Grimleal cults in Ylisstol's underworld. "We're just waiting on my teammate to arrive, he should have identified where we can hit first."

"And by teammate, you mean the man that was causing a ruckus outside the walls two months ago." Frederick, the grouchy knight from before, growls.

"Well of course, it's not easy to break into a castle like this on your own." Robin says calmly. At this point he's plenty used to ignoring the knight. He taps his earing, and speaks aloud. "Gaius, you almost here?"

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses Bubbles." The thief grunts back. "I'm just around the corner."

Just as he says so, Gaius comes wandering around the corner. He stands out in the elegant upper city dressed in leather and cheap cottons, and the other people walking the streets give him a wide berth. Frederick wrinkles his nose upon seeing the man, Robin just chuckles and shakes his head.

"You have the information I asked for?" The tactician says in place of a greeting. He tosses the thief a small pouch, which the man immediately opens.

"Of course I do Bubbles." Gaius chuckles. The orange-haired thief pops one of the candies from the pouch into his mouth, humming happily. "I'm surprised how many cultists there are here, but a lot of them are just doing it for kicks. There's a lot of teenagers, and they're probably just doing it to be rebellious. The serious cults are a bit more well-hidden, but I've weeded out a few we can tackle."

###

"I've brought another I think you might like." Sumia says, placing another book on the desk. "It's a story about about a man torn between two loyalties, and how his choice affects the world around him!"

"Thank you Sumia." Robin chuckles. "You do realize I'm not stuck in my room anymore, right? I can go to the library myself."

"Well of course you could, but I like bringing you the books myself." The lady smiles nervously. She wonders absently if it would be too forwards to admit she brings him books just as an excuse to visit. "By the way, how's you like the last one? Recette and Tear: From Rags to Riches?"

"It was surprisingly good." Robin admits. "The premise is a bit basic, but the characters are the main draw of the story anyways so it works well."

"Who was your favourite?" Sumia asks eagerly. "I liked Tielle."

"I'm as a fan of Louie myself, though Recette is a solid character as well." The tactician says.

The two chat for a few minutes, but Robin has work to do and Sumia has practice. They agree to talk later, and the lady leaves. The tactician stares at his door for a minute, waiting for the nervous bubbling in his stomach to die down, and returns to his paperwork.

###

"I never thought we'd be doing this Bubbles." Gaius grimaces. "Fightin' our own country."

"For the greater good." Robin murmurs. "But yes, I would not have imagined it myself. It is still strange to realize that Grimleal are far more insane than I believed for all those years."

"Also weird to think Gangrel is a maniac." Gaius sighs. "Damn shame, he told good jokes."

"Indeed."

"You two are alright?" Chrom asks, stepping up to them. The two Plegians are standing on top a dune at Plegia's borders. "I know this must be harder on you than the rest of us."

"It's an unpleasant necessity." Robin says calmly. One hand subconsciously grips the crossbow on his back, taking reassurance in the familiar weapon. "I just hope to avoid as much collateral damage as possible."

"I don't like this Blue, but I joined up for a reason." Gaius admits reluctantly. "Things need to get done though, and if I can help peace along I will."

"And I thank you for that." Chrom says earnestly. "Both of you have been very helpful, we couldn't do without your knowledge Robin, or your underworldly skills Gaius."

"We do what we have to." Robin grimaces.

"Do your job and we'll do ours Blue." Gaius sighs.

"Of course. I'll make your trust worthwhile." The Prince says firmly. He pats them on the shoulder once each, and walks back to camp.

Robin looks after him, sighing audibly. "I don't like this."

"Yeah, but it ain't all bad." Gaius chuckles. "You've had a fancy little romance with that noble girl."

"It's not a romance, that was me making things up during infiltration, we just talk about books now." Robin denies.

"Whatever you say Bubbles." Gaius snorts, rolling his eyes. "Either way, these people ain't so bad. Not home, but not bad."

"I don't think that was ever in question."

"Sure it was, you said you didn't like this." The thief reminds him.

"I was talking about the situation, not our teammates."

"Yeah, whatever. I just hope we can get Tharja and Henry on our side. I wouldn't want them getting hurt in all this mess."

"You just want Henry around so his crows can help you steal candy again."

"Maybe. You miss them too though."

"Yeah, I do…"

"Robin, Gaius!" A clear voice calls. Sumia waves from the bottom of the sand dune. "We're leaving in ten minutes!"

"We'll be ready! Thank you Sumia!" Robin calls back, and waves his own arm in response. Gaius watches with amusement as the girl shoots a number of glances at his friend as she walks away.

Just book buddies. Yep. Totally. The thief is starting to think getting caught was one of the best things that ever happened to Robin, and not just because of his totally-not-romance. It's the first time the tactician has really got to work towards peace, and not just blindly follow his father's orders with the vague promise that it's for the greater good.

Or maybe Gaius knows nothing and the Exalt is just manipulating them. Right now though he'll put his faith in Robin, and hope that their home can recover and be better for it after this war is done with.

I couldn't really find a natural end point for this idea without dragging it out. As a consequence not all the plot threads get the time they need to develop, but you at least get snippets of the ideas I'm going for. Sumia was actually rather difficult to write, I never paid much attention to her when playing so I don't have a strong idea of how I should write her.

Darklight of the 0 arcana: Beast Robin? What do you mean? Taguel has already been done if that's what you mean.

My frame of reference for autism is literally just the internet, so I took my best guess based on Wikipedia and some youtube videos of people talking about their experiences. My general idea was that Robin would be sensitive to loud noise and extremely so to touch, have a strictly defined schedule, stim by light rocking, and be a bit oblivious in social situations (she'd have trouble identifying when an idea is implied and not explicitly stated). That was how I tried to write her, I didn't want to make assumptions and just guess what autism was like.

That being said, I'd love to hear your advice if you have some. I don't know what you mean by 'the way they think', so if you wouldn't mind clarifying I would appreciate it. Specifics would be useful.

Laughing Dog: Ahh, thank you.

IsThisWorking: Never played Dark Souls, so I don't know what you're talking about unfortunately.

You're totally right, I never thought of that. A pirate captain's coat isn't that far off from Robin's is it?

Again, that's another reference I don't get. Also, the link got cut off. Fanfiction net does that a lot unfortunately. You have to do some weird spacing so the website doesn't cut it out.

That seems fitting enough. I assumed it was like Fire Emblem myself, and that Virion's plans amounted to throwing all your units at one spot and muscling your way to the enemy commander regardless of your own losses and that Robin played more properly.

You give me far too much credit. With a bit of practice you could do fine. Look where I've gotten in only four years.

Guest: More monster girls will happen! Just you wait!

Mr. Martin: Thanks, didn't find that term.

Angel Robin, noted.

Showing all the future kids for each and every iteration of Robin would take way too much time. I want to stick to the core idea of this collection, so I only throw them in when it fits.

Dracofighter: I'll be honest, I don't like time travel. It complicates a story far too much, and doesn't make that much logical sense to begin with (hence why my headcanon is that all the kids just come from a similar dimension to the Awakening one that just happens to be twenty or so years in the future). My apologies, but no.

ScorinVoidseeker: Let me go on a tangent here: M!Robin romance is hard, mostly because I'm used to writing the girl as the assertive one in the romance and everyone I want to pair M!Robin with aren't very forward (Lissa, Sumia, Emmeryn…) soM!Robin romance is new territory for me because I'm forced to use character types I'm not used to. I can't rely on the F!assertive/M!insecure dynamic I usually use (examples include Hairweaver, Replicate, Mirroreye) and instead have to deal with double passives and insecures, making the man the assertive one, or try to fanagle my way with two characters that are just neutral (which is really hard to write by the way, it's hard to write someone as not leaning strongly one way or the other). Lissa turned out far better than I expected, but as you can see I did fall back on that assertive/insecure dynamic again. I think this dynamic is a habit I picked up from my other main story Five Stars, and trying something else is yet to work well.

Miriel could have worked fine too, heck I could have used Maribelle, and considered Virion at one point, I just thought Lissa would be easier to write.

Hey! Replicate is a decent chapter! I didn't handle the gimmick well there, but the rest of it I think turned out fine.

I actually never considered what Owain would turn out like, you're totally right.