Questioning

A Fire Emblem: Awakening Fanfic

By ashardoffreedom

Summary: No one really questioned it until Morgan came around. Chrom/MaleMU

A/N: Someone had to write it. Warning: contains slash. If it's not your cup of tea, there is a conveniently-placed back button in the upper left hand corner. I tried to keep the both of them in-character as much as possible (and with Robin that's sort of a hit-or-miss thing).

Read, Review and Enjoy!

~Shard of Freedom

Robin and Chrom were close. That much was obvious. They spent most of their time together, wrapped around charts or maps or battle strategies, and when they weren't doing that, they were mainly fighting with each other on the training grounds or eating together.

The prince wasn't a very sociable person, although he was a brilliant leader. So when he seemed to take a liking to Robin, none of the Shepherds questioned it. It was simply good that Chrom decided to enjoy the company of someone other than his sisters or Fredrick. Even if they spent most of the time arguing.

The tactician, on the other hand, was well-liked through their little rag-tag group. Robin was known for his brilliant strategies and keeping everyone alive. His white hair was a subject of both gossip and teasing among the men, and he blended throughout the army with easy grace. But no one could argue that he held everyone at a distance, whether it was intentional or not. Perhaps it was his lack of memories, or just the way that his personality was. But all those walls seemed to come down around Chrom.

They were a matched pair, the two of them. White hair and blue, fair skin and tanned. They were opposites in many ways and argued on any number of things—from routes that they should take to how to handle weapons to the benefits of magic over swordplay. But all their arguments were held with an undertone of teasing, and it became a conventional pastime for the rest of the troops to watch as the two leaders fought over the dinner table.

They weren't glued to the hip by any means. Robin liked his privacy, and occasionally enjoyed a nice day alone with his books, sometimes joined by Miriel, where they would have nice conversations about the deeper truths of the world. Chrom started spending more and more time with Sumia during the days when his faithful tactician wasn't at his side. They would talk and laugh and she taught him how to brush a horse properly. In their own way, they too were a matched pair.

Which was probably why Robin and Chrom had their first real argument in the middle of camp.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

It began as something stupid over the dinner table. These days, with Robin spending more and more time pouring over his books, what with the war on Plegia coming to a forefront and all, and Chrom spent far too much time with Sumia for it to be simple "friendship" as he called it, there was a lot more awkward silence between the two of them than there had been in the past.

It began with Chrom asking a question—a question that was lost in the chaos of the argument that would come—and Robin responding back sharply "Why don't you go and ask your good friend, Sumia?"

The entire mess tent inhaled at the comment and the Pegasus knight shoved her head in her hands, flushing bright red as Gaius came by and patted her on the back, murmuring a joke into her ear that she chuckled at softly.

But while Gaius was comforting Sumia, a far more entertaining conversation was underway.

"What have you got against Sumia?" Chrom said loudly, the threat clear in his tone.

"Nothing, I was just wondering if I should be concerned about her well-being, Chrom," Robin snapped back.

"You dare!" Chrom raged.

"Yeah, well, she's your new best friend—why shouldn't I assume, huh? You've traded up, Chrom!"

"What about you, Robin? Spending all your days over your books! You're like a hermit!"

"Oh, well that's better than being a flirt! Why are you leading her on, Chrom? You can't be that oblivious, can you? But I suppose that that's in your nature!"

At that comment, Sumia stiffened, and Gaius was the one to quickly lead her out of the tent before something bad happened. He only hoped that he could comfort Stumbles before something really upset her. She defined the meaning of water works. Strangely, it was sort of endearing.

The rest of the tent was waiting in varied states of anticipation. Sully was already creating a betting pool while Lissa winced as the conversation turned ugly. All of them were concerned for the two of them in different ways—everyone knew that the Shepherds wouldn't be able to function without the both of them.

"You know what, Robin, I think you're scared!"

Robin scoffed. "What, me, scared? I haven't been scared of a thing in my life! I'm at least doing something! You—what are you doing? Why are you scared?"

"I'm not afraid!"

"No! You're a coward, Chrom!"

Robin was close to Chrom now, his eyes hard with rage, an intimidating figure despite being nearly a half a foot shorter than Chrom. Chrom took a step back—and then the rest of the Shepherds saw what Robin knew was in his eyes—fear. Fear of what, no one knew.

"I'm not a coward," Chrom said, his voice low.

"Oh yeah? Then how was I supposed to take it when we—when I—when you—" Robin was at a loss for words, which was a rare thing. In a rage, Robin dragged a rough hand over his face and just decided to outright deck Chrom across the face. Chrom stumbled back and crashed into one of the tables, where it broke under the weight.

The silence in the mess tent was deafening.

Robin rubbed his knuckles, which were a bit sore from punching the prince. His eyes retained a cold malice that none of the Shepherds had seen before. Robin often had physical outbursts—especially when his mettle was tested or people underestimated him—but never had he been this cold.

"When you want to deal with me like a man," Robin spat, "you can come to the training grounds. I'll be waiting."

Robin stalked out of the tent, his tactician robes flapping, leaving Chrom in the middle of broken splinters of wood, rubbing his jaw and wondering how the hell he had let the entire situation get so out of his control.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

A lot of the Shepherds had wanted to stick around and watch Chrom and Robin going at it with full power, no holds barred, anger-filled moves and all that, but surprisingly, it was Sumia and Lissa, along with the silent presence of Miriel, who made the Shepherds go back to their tents.

Sumia gave a gentle, yet slightly forced smile. "You really don't want to be there when it comes to a conclusion," Sumia said forcefully. "And if either of them find out that you had been there, the results wouldn't be pretty."

When Sumia got forceful, you backed off.

Lissa and Miriel simply shook their heads. "Silly brother," Lissa murmured, "we all knew that it was going to happen sooner or later." The two of them made their way back to their own separate tents, Lissa, who had recently begun to study the art of being a Sage, asking questions about the proper use of wind magic the entire time.

Sumia stood guard outside the training field, just like Chrom would have wanted her too. Chrom had been confiding in her the past few weeks and although it hurt her heart, Sumia was grateful to hear it. It had come to head that evening, the rush of emotions, but Sumia knew that it was the end. She couldn't allow it to continue.

She had a silly infatuation with Chrom, and as she looked over at the training grounds, where Robin and Chrom fought with a ferocity and a passion that Sumia knew she could never match, she knew that she had to let it go.

Chrom hadn't looked at her once that way—not since Robin.

She sat there in the grass and pulled her armored knees up to her chest, wishing that Elise was here, because right now she really needed to bury her face in pegasus mane and spill out all of her problems.

Gaius found her there a half an hour later. He looked out across the training ground and whistled. "Well, then. That answers any questions that I was going to ask." He placed a hand on Sumia's shoulder. "Come on, Stumbles. I've got a mean recipe for hot chocolate, and it looks like you need all of it."

Gaius pulled her to her feet, and before Sumia could fully contemplate what she was doing, she had buried her face in his chest and cried, holding onto his cloths in a fierce grip, as if he was her anchor. The thief's eyes widened for a moment before he curled his arms around the young pegasus knight.

"It's okay, Stumbles," he said gently. "Sometimes these things need to happen."

Gaius stood there with her until her tears had run dry. She pushed the last ones away as she pulled away from Gaius. She gave a small smile to the thief, and Sumia was surprised to find that it wasn't forced.

"You said something about hot chocolate?" Her voice was a little hoarse from crying but it was steady.

"Yeah," Gaius said softly. He glanced back at the training field once, where Chrom and Robin were finished fighting. Instead, Robn had a hand twisted in Chrom's shirt, and Chrom looked as if he was going to say something before he was stopped by Robin's lips.

He led Sumia away from the training grounds. "Yeah, I did say something about hot chocolate."

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

Gaius wasn't too surprised when Robin came by the next morning and sought him out. Robin didn't say anything, just stood there for a moment, his arms crossed over his chest and a cold indifference on his face, but Gaius could see that there was worry in his eyes, and something else too. Gaius didn't want to spend the mental energy that it took to figure out what that something else was.

Robin just gestured once with his hand and Gaius didn't ask any questions as he followed the white-haired boy back to the war tent, which was basically renamed "Robin's Study Room." No one other than Chrom went in there without permission.

Robin slumped down in a chair behind a desk covered in books and papers and scrolls. He dragged a hand down his fair face once in exasperation. Gaius stood and waited for the younger man to speak.

" . . . I know that you saw us last night," Robin said at last, his tone carefully measured.

"Us?" Gaius said. He wasn't going to make this easy for the tactician.

Robin gave a sigh. "Me and Chrom. I've already talked to Sumia. She agreed just so I didn't bring it up. But . . . Chrom doesn—Chrom and I don't want it to get around camp."

"What? That you guys are a thing? We're all soldiers. We know how things work."

Robin nodded. "Sure. But Chrom's a prince. Regardless of how this . . . thing . . . between us works out, Chrom has obligations. Chrom doesn't like to think of them but I look ahead. It's not going to help anything to let people know that the prince of Ylisse is having an affair with a man. Especially an affair that we both know isn't going to last." Robin stated it blankly, but there was poorly concealed turmoil underneath his mask.

Gaius's brow furrowed. "Then why did you push Chrom? Why did you want it to happen in the first place?"

Robin shrugged and then wrapped his arms around himself. "Because I wanted to know. I wanted to figure out if I was the only one who was having the crazy delusions. And . . . I probably would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I didn't at least try." Robin sighed. "Besides, I . . . I still don't regret it. I don't think that Chrom does either. Chrom knew what he was getting into last time and I knew what I was getting into this time."

"Last time?"

Robin stiffened. He probably hadn't meant to say that. "Yes . . . a few weeks ago, he approached me about this. I stated every reason that it wouldn't work—the first and foremost being that I was a man and he was a prince. But he pushed it aside. He believes that as long as Emmeryn is the Exalt, he won't have an obligation to have heirs. He thinks that it can work."

"And you?"

Robin sighed, rubbing his arms as if he was cold. "I wish it could. But the world doesn't work like that."

Gaius didn't respond.

Robin shook his head like a dog, like he was trying to forcibly remove the thought from his mind. "Anyway, even if it is for a little bit of time, I would like to keep it. And if the entire Shepherds know, we will not have any peace. So, if for the time being, can I trust you to keep it a secret?"

Gaius nodded.

Robin smirked slightly. "Oh, and just in case you aren't entirely sure . . ." Robin reached for a book at the top of the stack on his desk. Gaius's eyes widened when he realized it was a Thoron tome and was all too quickly reminded of how scary their tactician could be.

Gaius made a hasty retreat. "Don't worry, I won't say a word."

He practically ran out of the war tent and into the sunlight.

He wished Chrom all the luck in the world. With a guy like that, he was going to need it.

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

When Emmeryn died, it was like a cloud had fallen over the Shepherds. No one blamed either Lissa nor Chrom for their grief. No one walked too close to Lissa when she was drowning in her tears in her fiancé's lap, but that was mainly because of Lon'qu's fierce glare. The girl definitely wouldn't have minded being comforted.

Chrom worked through his grief. Robin stayed by his side at nearly all hours, but as far as anyone could tell, they never mentioned Emmeryn. But their conversations had a hint of sadness hidden between the facts and tactics and they lingered longer on each word, as if they would never talk again.

No one looked too much into their conversations. If Chrom's hand lingered on Robin's a little bit too long, or Robin left the prince's tent at a far too late hour some nights, then it was okay, because they were close, and Chrom needed friends during this time.

Sumia watched them with a horrible sense of melancholy. Because in a perfect world, Emmeryn would have lived and Chrom wouldn't have to worry about being the King. His sister would have taken the crown for the rest of her life and then passed it down to her children and Chrom could have lived the life that he wanted.

Sumia knew that he hadn't just lost his sister. Chrom had lost his freedom, his life, and worst of all—he had basically lost Robin.

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

Chrom didn't refuse the crown. He accepted it with a sigh and a smile, promising to uphold the legacy that Emmeryn had given all of them.

He did refuse to get married.

Oh, he had an heir after a hell of a lot (Chrom's words) of yelling from both his royal advisors and the populace. The Shepherds were never really quite sure how it happened, but apparently Chrom had found a village maiden who was pleased to bare a king's child, and poof, Lucina happened.

Personally, Lissa suspected that Robin had a lot of involvement. He had cunning plans and sharp execution when there was something that he wanted, and at that moment in time, he clearly wanted Chrom to not get married at any cost.

So, when Lucina was born and Robin shoved Chrom onto the palace balcony with a planned speech he had written and nearly all of his citizens waiting below, Lissa wasn't really that surprised.

Robin actually did a lot of maneuvering in those two years. He created a brilliant plan for both the populace and the council—Lucina, although not legitimate, was the king's daughter, and if that didn't suit their fancy, Lissa was sure to have children with Lon'qu and if that didn't work out, Maribelle's family had enough royal blood that they could inherit the throne. It had no loopholes or changing of the Exalt bloodline, and when Lucina was born with the Brand of the Exalt in her right eye, it seemed that the matter was completely and utterly settled—Ylisse had an heir and Chrom didn't have to get married.

Lissa was never really sure exactly how Robin pulled it off, but she wasn't complaining. Chrom, for the first time after gaining the throne, honestly looked happy as he presented Robin's speech to the masses.

Lissa, despite being only seventeen herself, spent a lot of time taking care of Lucina. Because although she had nursemaids and Chrom and Robin spent a lot of time with her, there was nothing quite like having a mother and since the village maiden hadn't been contracted to actually raise the child, Lissa felt like she had an obligation to be around the child.

She wasn't upset that Chrom didn't get married. She looked across the room at Lon'qu, who looked out of place among all of the finery yet still smiled when Lissa's eye caught his.

You couldn't rush those things, she knew.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

Despite Robin's quick maneuvering concerning the marriage, things weren't that simple between the two of them. Although Lucina was born and by the loosest of technicalities, Chrom had an heir, it was a different story about their relationship.

They always had to be careful. The council was still pushing for Chrom to actually get married, to actually have a legitimate child and heir to the throne. And there would be riots in the streets if anyone figured out that Chrom was having an affair—a nearly three-year-long affair, but an affair none the less—with a man.

They couldn't even let the rest of the Shepherds know—even if Gaius and Sumia, in their ridiculously long courtship, occasionally smiled knowingly at the two of them.

Robin and Chrom were close.

But they both feared that they would never be as free as they wanted to be.

It was only a mix of stubbornness, courage and love that got them that far and Robin was terrified that it would fall apart.

Which was why the presence of Lucina—Lucina from the future, the elusive Marth who always seemed to know too much—scared the hell out of him.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

Lucina looked to Lissa as a mother, that much was clear to anyone who bothered to look at them for more than a few seconds. And to Robin, that was a comfort. Although Chrom could have gotten married later in life and Lucina had never connected to her, Robin found that unlikely and took Lucina's reaction to Lissa as a sigh that Chrom hadn't officially left him.

Of course, that was still a distinct possibility, seeing as Lucina greeted him with friendly and sometimes forced distance every single time that they met.

Robin could never show how clearly distressed he was by Lucina's treatment of him. He knew that it worried Chrom, but not nearly to the level that it worried Robin. Robin was fretting over it. And when robin fretted, he thought about possibilities like the world was pieces of his chessboard.

In the future, was he a part of Lucina's life at all? Or did something happen to their relationship? Did it break down because the two of them simply got tired of trying to make it work? Or did the council find out—no, Lucina was still a princess, so Chrom would still have been the king but maybe the blame would have been shifted completely onto Robin and Chrom had to deny knowing him at all to save the blame from the rest of the company—

Stop it, he told himself. Now he was just spiraling into possibilities.

Besides, it might not have been any of that. Robin might have just died before Lucina got to know him better. Perhaps that was why she didn't know him.

That didn't make Robin feel any better about the situation.

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

Robin was freaking out. Chrom could see that clear as day on his face, although to anyone else it would simply a blank mask. But Chrom knew that that was always how Robin got when he was upset.

To be honest, the entire situation wasn't making Chrom feel any better. He probably felt it just as hard as Robin and he didn't have nearly as convincing of a poker face.

Now he knew exactly how Robin felt about Lucina.

When they had found Morgan on the ice, without any memories, Chrom had decided right then and there that he wasn't going to see the girl. Robin, after a major and complete freak out, decided that he needed to calm down and go see the girl who claimed that she was Robin's daughter. Robin steeled himself, but he collapsed into Chrom's arms for a long time before he went to see Morgan.

Now he knew why Lucina never reacted when Robin talked to her.

Clearly, sometime in that future, the two of them had went their separate ways. Robin had apparently gotten over their break-up and married some nice lady and had a child together—a child that they had named Morgan.

Chrom crushed one of the mission reports in his hands and immediately regretted it. He and Robin had never really talked about Lucina or the future. Lucina had mentioned that he was dead in the future—that all of them were dead. Perhaps sometime between "when he was dead" and "when Robin was dead," Morgan had happened. Maybe they had never fallen apart. Perhaps it was simply a matter of time.

But there was something wrong with that scenario. Morgan and Lucina were far too close in age. Chrom had only seen the girl for a moment, but she was probably around sixteen. Lucina was nineteen. They were far too close and Chrom had been alive far too long after Lucina's birth.

"Chrom."

Robin walked into the tent. He no longer looked as devastated as before. He had schooled himself into his normal "tactician" face, the one that he always wore when things were difficult, but not hopeless.

Chrom breathed out slowly and released his clenched fist from the table. "Please tell me that this is all just a horrible dream and that I'm going to wake up with you in my bed and Lucina in her cradle."

A smile ghosted over his face for a moment, but Robin calmed easily. "No, but it might not be as bad as you think it is. I need you to come and see Morgan so I can figure out if I'm right or not."

"Oh, no. I'm not doing it. I do not want to look at the girl who was made after our relationship—our four-year-long relationship—fell apart. Gods, Robin, we've talked about forever and neither of us has been bothered by it. We've been committed to each other. I don't want to see the proof that it's all fallen apart."

Robin grabbed Chrom's sword-calloused hand in his equally rough palm. "And I'm still as committed as I was when we talked about that future." His brown eyes were hard, but not uncaring. "Chrom—she looks nothing like me."

It took Chrom a few moments for him to process that information. "What?"

"She doesn't look like me at all. We don't share a single feature with each other. And before you feed me some bullshit about how 'she could have taken after her mother'—don't. There isn't a single shared feature. I might have adopted her. So calm down and come and see her and prove that my theory is right."

"Your theory?"

Robin rolled his eyes. "Now come and see her with me."

Chrom sighed and nodded.

They made their way out of the tent and Robin released his hand as soon as they were in the bright sunlight. Chrom felt a sting of regret for a moment—even when their relationship was falling to pieces because of all these future children, they couldn't show it in front of others.

As the two of them walked, general and his tactician, the space comfortable but distanced, Lucina came and walked with them, matching them step by step.

"I assume that you're going to go see Morgan," Lucina said easily, but there was barely concealed excitement in her tone. That was odd, Chrom thought. His daughter was usually much more private with her feelings, only spilling over when she was in desperate situations.

Robin nodded. "Were you close to her? To . . . my daughter?" It took Robin a bit of effort to get the words out, but Chrom supposed that he might as well get used to hearing them.

Lucina sighed. "Well . . . I haven't been entirely honest with either of you. Not that I've lied, but I've been skimming over a part of the future. The truth is—"

"SISTER!"

The cry came out of nowhere and suddenly Lucina was tackled to the ground by a blur with dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. The girl had a slim build and her hair had cowlicks in it that made it rest across her head in short ribbons.

Morgan, Chrom realized. Robin was right. She looked nothing like him.

Morgan looked up at Robin. "Dad, why didn't you tell me that Lucina was here?"

Lucina, who was groaning under Morgan's weight, shoved the girl off of her. It was rougher and more playful than Chrom had ever seen her. "Morgan, I haven't exactly got around to telling the two of them about it yet . . ."

Morgan's brow furrowed. "Why? I mean, Father wouldn't be too upset about it I don't think. We both saw how worried he was about the whole thing . . ."

"It's not that simple, sis."

Suddenly, everything that had happened in the last few minutes came crashing down on Chrom. And apparently it came crashing down on all of the Shepherds in the immediate area who had gathered around the spectacle.

Robin was the quickest on the uptake. He moved forward and looked at the two girls, who were still on a heap in the ground.

"Hold on a second," he said calmly. "You two are sisters?"

Morgan's eyes widened. "You honestly didn't know, did you? Oh, I'm so sorry. I must have caused so many problems for you and Father, especially if Lucy didn't say anything about it."

Chrom stood there is shock. Robin forced out the words.

"Me . . . and Father?"

Lucina cringed. "I didn't want to ruin too many things in this timeline and since Morgan hadn't come back, I wasn't sure. It all seemed to be pretty hush-hush, so I thought it would probably be better for me not to tell you until I was sure that Morgan had made her way back. That way I wouldn't rock the boat too much."

"What . . . exactly . . . are you saying?" Robin's voice was strangled and he seemed not to care about the crowd of Shepherds that were gathering around them. He just wanted answers. Chrom wanted them too.

"Isn't it obvious?" Morgan exclaimed. In a fluid motion, she pulled down the collar of her tactician cloak, showing a deep green brand on her right shoulder, resting against her tan skin. "You and Chrom are our parents!"

Robin promptly fainted.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

Lucina felt horrible. She knew that she should have told Father and Dad earlier about their roles in her life. But she saw how they acted around each other, with careful indifference, and she was worried—worried that perhaps, they hadn't gotten together in this timeline and she didn't want to ruin a friendship with the explanation that they hadn't been "just friends" in her own life.

It had hurt Lucina for the first few weeks to take a step back from her dad and treat him just like another member of the company, not like her parent. She had always had Lissa and she took out her parental frustration by clinging to her second mother strongly.

When Morgan had blurted out the relationship between her and Lucina, Lucina honestly thought that it was all over. She had ruined whatever relationship that her parents might have had because Morgan couldn't have kept her trap shut and Lucina was positive that her parents figured out their feelings for themselves.

But as she watched Chrom carefully pick up Robin and marched him back to the king's tent, Lucina now realized that she was wrong.

All of the Shepherds started bombarding the four of them—even the unconscious Robin—with questions, but Lucina and Morgan simply quickly followed their parents back to the king's tent. As the flap closed behind Lucina, the questions seemed muffled somehow and when they disappeared altogether, Lucina knew that Lissa and Aunt Sumia had been at work.

Father laid Dad down on the bed gently and weaved a hand through his white hair. Father then leveled his glare at both Lucina and Morgan. Both of them winced. Of the two of their parents, Father had always been the one to handle any sort of punishment. Not because Dad couldn't—it was more along the lines of Dad firmly believed in the statement "live and learn" and insisted that they had to figure out how to crash, burn, trip, fail and ruin their lives on their own.

That scared the two of them more than any glare that Father could have given them.

"Alright. I want the two of you to explain all of this to me. You have no idea how much grief Robin and I have gone through because of all of this future children business—first Robin, because Lucina acted as if he wasn't around for her childhood, and then me, because Robin apparently had a child. Explain. Now."

Lucina cleared her throat. "Um . . . first, may I ask you a question?"

Father inclined his head.

"How long have you and Da—Robin been together?"

Father looked confused by the question. "Nearly four years. Since the war with Plegia. He was the one who made it possible for me to have you without getting married—because me getting married would have ruined our entire relationship."

Lucina cleared her throat. She didn't really want to think about how she was conceived or all of the political games that her dad had to play simply to get her into the world. "Well, that's the story in my own future as well. You and Da—Robin—"

"You can call him your dad, Lucina," Father said gently. "It won't do anything to offend me."

Lucina smiled gratefully. "You and Dad raised me for a few years. Then, around the time when I was three, you decided that it would probably be a good idea for us to have another child. The council started saying that since you were a king, you should have a male heir, and a lot of people were bringing up how Emmeryn had died and that there needed to be more than one child who had a claim to the throne."

"Owain—Aunt Lissa's kid—hadn't been born yet," Morgan added in. "He was born about a month after I was. I'm not sure if you've met him yet—he came back with us too."

Lucina shoved her sister's shoulder. "Anyway, Dad decided that there was an easy solution—just have another kid the same way that you had me. You were completely against the idea."

Morgan nodded. "And you would think that Dad would be the one who would be upset by it—I mean, he's the one who has to watch his lover have a child with someone else. But Dad pushed you. He said that Lucy needed someone to grow up with and that he had always wanted a bigger family."

"And after about a month of Dad coercing you, begging with you, beating you at practice matches and attempting to poison you—"

"Poison me?"

Lucina shrugged. "It wasn't lethal. And Dad always had an interesting way of getting his way. But you finally gave in. So, nine months later, we have a little Morgan with an Exalt Brand on her right shoulder crawling around the Castle."

Father was silent for a long time. Then, finally, he said, "Did people know about us? Me and Robin, that is?"

"Consort was his formal title," Morgan said, nodding, "but he never liked using it. Dad used to always say that he was just your tactician—only on more places than just the battlefield. But you were always together. I remember a couple of shouting matches in my youth having to do with Dad refusing to stay behind on a mission and how you would die without him. You were our parents, and everyone knew it."

Father looked down at Dad's sleeping face. "And—"

"People weren't always okay with it," Morgan interrupted smoothly, anticipating her father's question. "But that didn't really matter to you. The council didn't complain after Robin wrote them an eighty page report on every way in the Ylissean laws that it wasn't illegal and perfectly acceptable. And most of the people were supportive. Regna Ferox basically threw in their entire hand and said that they had known about it since Lucy had been born and that they didn't give a f—"

"What my sister is trying to say," Lucina interrupted with a glare at Morgan, "is that it was accepted. Even within this army, you two aren't the only people who have found comfort in another—regardless of gender or race."

Father smiled. Lucina didn't know who he was thinking about but she had a couple good guesses.

There was a groan. Dad got up from the bed, running a hand through his white hair. One of his eyes was shut in his typical expression of confusion or pain. "Ugh . . . what happened?"

Father grabbed his hand. "You okay, Robin?"

Dad nodded. "Yeah, I just . . . I remember Morgan telling us that we were her parents and then . . ." Dad paused. "Damn. I fainted, didn't I?"

Father gave a half-smile. "Yes. Yes, you did."

Dad shook his head like he was disgusted by himself. "Dammit. I bet there were people around too. Now I'll never be able to convince them that I'm not the girl in this relationship."

Morgan piped up. "Actually, from what I heard when I was old enough to understand it, Fa—"

Father shoved a hand over Morgan's mouth. "Not another word, young lady."

Lucina and Dad almost doubled over laughing from how red Father's face was.

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

Unsurprisingly, Sully was the first one who came up to them to talk about their relationship. They were eating dinner at their usual table, having their usual arguments, but the arguments were more of a family affair now. Lucina tended to side with Robin and Morgan with Chrom. It was ironically opposite to the parent they had first been associated with.

Sully slammed herself down right next to Morgan, who handled the intrusion well and offered the woman a drumstick with a casual air. "So I hear that these two are you guys' kids."

Robin simply looked at the red knight with a raised eyebrow. "Is that a problem, Sully?"

Sully smiled. "Nope. The Shepherds have had a betting pool going for a while about when you two were going to announce it to the camp."

"Oh, who won?" Morgan asked, the naturally inquisitive soul.

"Libra, if you can believe it."

"Somehow I can," Robin said dryly. With Tharja breathing down his neck as much as she breathed down her husband's, it was no shocker that Libra had all the insider's information.

"Anyway, I had a question for the two of you." Sully leaned over with a leer. "Who tops?"

Sully was blasted out of the mess tent with a well-placed Elthunder.

"Robin, was that truly necessary?" Chrom asked with a finger on his temple.

"Yes, yes it was. And, Morgan . . ."

"Yes, Dad?"

"Not a word."

UoUoUoUoUoUoUoUoU

One at a time, each of the Shepherds eventually came and asked them about their relationship. Some were kind about it—like Libra, who wished them all of Naga's favor in their lives—and some of them were not so nice—like Vaike, who joined Sully in the list of people who get Elthundered out of the mess tent.

Eventually, another betting pool was started about how many people would be kicked out of the tent by either Chrom or Robin or one of their daughters.

It was actually pretty nice to be open about their relationship. The four of them could go into town as a family—although they were often considered siblings—and enjoy time together. Lucina especially enjoyed the time that she had with her parents, as the weight of the future was always heavy on her shoulder.

But the first time that she tried to pick out a dress for herself—a horrible tacky blue covered with a picture of Emmeryn's face—Robin placed two fingers to his temples and dragged Chrom into the store, telling the king to "help our daughter or Naga, save me, there will be blood spilled."

Chrom, despite his looks, actually had decent taste in dresses.

Things went back to normal—or as normal as things got for the Shepherds. They found more of the future children—Owain was truly how Lucina described him, and Robin wasn't really sure what to think of Inigo—and fought more battles against Valm and eventually Grima.

And Libra was rather enjoying these betting pools, he thought as he counted the winnings. Even if he was a priest, Tharja wasn't, and his wife certainly had expensive tastes.

UoUoUoUoUoUoU

Robin woke up with an ache in his head.

As the light stopped blinding him, he looked and saw Lissa and Chrom staring down at him.

Chrom, oh Naga, how long had it been since he had been with Chrom? How long had it been since the final battle? Was everyone okay? What about their children? About future Lucina and the current Lucina and Morgan and all of the others?

But Robin couldn't make his mouth move, so he simply shoved himself off of the grass and into Chrom's arms, who didn't deny the embrace and simply twirled Robin around.

And when that stopped, Robin didn't even care if the entire company was behind them when he crushed his mouth to Chrom's.

"How long?" He asked between kisses.

"Almost a year." Robin was sure that Chrom was going to explain further but he didn't really want to listen, so he just decided to shut the king up again.

When Robin finally pulled back, he looked deep into Chrom's eyes. "Morgan? And Lucina? Chrom, are our daughters alright?"

Chrom nodded. "Don't worry. Lucina was bothered by the fact that there were two of her, but Sumia seemed to make the choice for her when she immediately decided that the baby would just be called Luna and that they could stay."

Robin smirked. "It's sure going to be awkward to explain to Luna when she grows up why her older sisters are practically the same age as her parents."

"Yeah, well, that can be one of your jobs."

"Sure. Then that means that you have to give her The Talk. I get off easy."

"That's not fair."

"I never said it was fair. Do you want me to get out the Thunder tomes? Because I might be a year rusty, but I bet that I can still kick your ass."

"Oh, yeah, well—"

"DAD!"

Whatever Chrom's response was, it was erased by two large, fully grown females crushing the air out of Robin's lungs as they tackled him to the ground.

"Lucina! Morgan! I'm so glad that you're alright!" Robin forced out between hugs.

Eventually, after the Inquisition was done with him—Where were you? Are you okay? Have you heard about Luna? And Owain was born but they decided to call him Marth for some horrible reason and—Chrom reached down and pulled him out of the grass. As he reached for Chrom, Robin noticed that the mark on the back of his hand was gone.

"You're free," Chrom murmured as he pulled Robin to his feet.

Robin leaned into Chrom and looked down at Morgan and Lucina, who were still sitting in the grass exchanging stories and at Chrom, who wore the same Falchion on his hip that his daughter carried. He saw that Morgan was wearing a different style of shirt and had abandoned her tactician cape to clearly show everyone the Brand of Exalt that was bright on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Robin murmured as Chrom's arms came around him. "We're free."

THE END