Lissa knew what she was doing. Kind of. She had a slight grasp on the knowledge required to pull off destructive magic, and the information was all right in her hand, located amongst the text on the pages within the tome that wasn't heavy at all. She could easily hold it up during battle, no problem. It was simple, splitting her focus between the enemy, preparing the required magical energy, and of course performing the actual spell would be a piece of cake. She had absolute confidence in her abilities to pull it off...

But... on second thought, maybe this was actually harder than she initially thought it would be, and it was just maybe a little bit disheartening. Or maybe it was horribly disheartening and she didn't think she could pull it off whatsoever. She flipped the tome open to the page she thought read the easiest, and she extended her hand towards the dummy as Robin had instructed her to do so many times before. She sent one last look his way, and his eyes shone back with anticipation. Robin believed she could do this. After all, he wouldn't have offered to help her train if he didn't. She took a deep breath and felt her body's natural magical aura channel from her soul into her arm, and through her arm to her hands.

Lissa felt her fingers tingle with power, and she knew that she had no idea what to do next. A mere commoner would say she was downright screwed, and, honestly, she would say that too, but she was afraid that Maribelle would somehow peer into her mind and find out, and then proceed to berate her and instruct her on the proper ways for a lady of noble blood to speak.

If she were holding a staff, it would have been so much more simple. A healing staff was used as a conduit which helped magic travel outwards, and healing magic had so much more to do with just closing your eyes and willing it to happen with a wave of said staff. Destructive magic used with intent to hurt, or even kill was so much more dangerous and wicked. It required more skill than just closing your eyes and telling it to do such, something Lissa was all too aware of.

Destructive magic knew when you were afraid, and she was very, very afraid of it. Robin warned her that that was bad. He tried to quell her fears with little luck. Lissa had never so much as hurt a fly before. She tried to pretend as if she was every bit a warrior as the others in the camp, but even Maribelle never pretended to be anything more than what she was. A lady, who just so happened to know how to heal people. She wasn't one for fighting, and she had never tried.

Lissa wondered why she was even putting in the effort to do this in the first place, but no answers came to her as the magic coursing through her readied appendages grew stronger, and more volatile. It was becoming impatient; she was holding it too long. She felt her heartbeat quicken in pace, and she was sure that she was going to mess up. This was her tenth try this session, and like all the other times she was going to mess up and have to rely on Robin to help her defuse whatever situation her mess up caused. She was sure this time she didn't want to start a fire, so she at least made up her mind in that respect. Lightning would just cause even more damage, so she quickly decided that lightning based magic was out of the question as well.

The tome in her hand was one of miscellaneous spells, weaker versions of more powerful spells were mixed in with them, offering more variety in that one tome than with any other tome Robin had possessed. He figured that weaker spells would cause less damage as she trained, but even Lissa knew that even inexperienced magic users could cause the weak spells to backfire horribly and hurt as much as the more powerful ones.

She knew she needed something that wouldn't hurt as bad when she inevitably failed, so she quickly scanned the pages of the tome frantically and found the perfect one.

"Elwind!" she shouted desperately, and everything went wrong. She knew she had let the magic build up too much, it was unstable. Foolishly, this was the third time she had done this. She was picked up off the ground and thrown back against a tree. A cry of pain escaped her as Robin immediately rushed to her aid with a shout of worry. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had felt so much physical pain. In all her time amongst the battlefield, she had thankfully managed to avoid severe injury. The occasional burn and scratch was common, but anything severe wasn't. She had never been cut badly, she had never been stabbed, or hit with an arrow; she was insanely lucky.

But this?

"Oh gods, maybe Maribelle was right, Robin, I don't think I'm cut out for this…" Lissa said sadly, groaning in pain and holding her arm. Her shoulder was out of socket. She remembered the familiar feeling from her childhood. She and Chrom always were a little rough, especially when he called her delicate. Maybe he was right as well, maybe she was delicate.

"Nonsense," he assured her, kneeling down to inspect her further, making sure there were no other obvious injuries aside from her arm. "Do you think I was as good as I am now when I was learning? I mean, I can't exactly remember when I was learning, but I'm sure I was just as bad." His tone was unsure, but she appreciated the words nonetheless.

"My shoulder is pretty messed up, I think I'm done for today… can you…?" Robin didn't need to be asked twice. Lissa laid down on her back and extended her arm, thankful for Robin having at least some medical knowledge. She knew that it was best done this way, and doing it herself was always hard for her. He sent her an apologetic smile, and she yelped in pain as he pulled her arm and it popped back into place. She lowered her arm immediately to her side and took a few deep breaths as she was pulled up by her good arm. "I'm gonna go lay down, I don't think I'm gonna try anymore."

It was clear to Robin that she was in low spirits, but giving up was never a part of his vocabulary, and he didn't really want it to be a part of hers either. "Lissa, sure, you've messed up, but I think you could really get the hang of this."

"Robin, I appreciate the help, I really, really do. But I'm just not good enough for this. Definitely not as good as you. You're an excellent teacher, but I feel like I should just stick to learning from Maribelle. Your talents are just wasted on me." Robin shook his head as she dusted off her dress, her pigtails bobbing as she wiped off the impact as best she could. The pain was still there, but she tried to play it off like it was nothing. Robin knew she was just trying to be strong when she didn't need to be. Being strong wasn't about shaking off pain like it was nothing, after all.

"Lissa, I offered to teach you because I believed, and still believe, that you could, and can, do this. You've shown such a natural talent for healing, I truly do think you could develop a talent for using tomes as well. It's really not so different once you start thinking of magic as magic. Even I've used a staff before, and I can assure that it's really no different when you really get the hang of it." She eyed him up and down as her frown slowly twisted into a small smile. There was just no possible way she could remain grumpy forever in his presence. He just always made her smile when she needed to.

"Thanks Robin, I can always count on you for a pep talk, but, honestly, everytime I try I just end up hurting myself, and eventually I'm afraid I'll hurt someone else. I made an oath as a healer to never hurt someone unless I had a good reason too, even in battle, so I wouldn't even be using the tomes unless I needed to defend myself."

"And I think that's amazing, I do, but defending yourself is important too. Just think of what would happen if we lost you out there…" the mood of the conversation had suddenly shifted, and Robin knew that there was no turning back from the topic he had just brought to the table. Death was… inevitable in their line of 'work'. But premature deaths had been kept to zero in the ranks of the Shepherds, and he wanted it to stay that way. He wanted to protect each and every one of them with his skills, and his life.

"Do you think about that often? Robin, I… I can take care of myself, but I understand why you're worried." Lissa was blushing. He really was concerned for her, she could see it in his eyes, she could hear it in his voice. He said 'we' as if he were talking of the whole camp, but she knew that he was talking about himself. They were such close friends now, after all this time. Best friends more than anything. Most people assumed that he and Chrom were best friends, and Lissa couldn't deny that they were close, but it was more like they were brothers than anything else.

"Just please, for my sake, think about it a bit more before you truly give up? You knowing how to attack with even a D class spell would ease my mind a ton." She looked down and fiddled with her fingers, her demeanor reminiscent of that of a shy child. Robin was the only one that could make her act like that.

"I'll give it a few more tries. I promise." She looked down at her arm, and Robin understood that this was no safer than her being on the front lines of an actual battle. If something went wrong with a fire spell, she could end up severely injured. It would be his fault, and he wasn't sure he could live with that. This was necessary either way, and the both of them knew it.

"I'm sure you'll get it tomorrow, Lissa. I have faith in your abilities." She smiled and looked up from her arm, staring into those comfortable, warm, friendly eyes of his that she had grown to love so much over these past months. They had always been close, perhaps, but undeniably there was something growing between them now. Something amazing, and she couldn't wait to see what it was given time to let it grow.

"You know what, I think I do too. But I'm a little tired right now… walk me back to my tent?" With a smile on his face, Robin linked his arm in hers, and Lissa felt a happy tingle race up her spine and butterflies flutter in her tummy.

"Of course, Princess, it would be my honor." His voice was practically dripping with teasing mirth, and she playfully smacked his arm and giggled in a very Lissa-like way, earning a chuckle from him in return.

She gathered the energy into her hand, just like before. But this time, she knew she had to be quick. No more thinking, no more stalling. She just needed to do it. She could do it.

"Elfire!" Lissa shouted, and she felt fiery at that moment. She felt hot, warm, like her very soul had been set ablaze. And then she felt cold, very, very cold. Like the fire was just… extinguished. She sighed as the energy seemed to disappear and the spell canceled itself out.

"Gods damn it all!" she cried. "This is like, what, the sixth time this has happened! What am I doing wrong?!" Robin smiled at her whiny tone, and he was sure that far off, back at camp, Maribelle somehow felt the harsh words Lissa had spoken.

"You have to mean it, Lissa. You're doing everything right, and I'm really proud of you, but you're not really wanting to burn the dummy, are you?" Robin asked calmly, and Lissa turned to look at the dummy she was supposed to be firing the magic at. It was short, fat, and perched on its head was a pan. Donnel's pan. How Robin had ever managed to convince him to part with it, she had no idea.

"Gregor like new hat, farm boy!" Gregor said heartily, laughing as Donnel beamed up at him and corrected said 'hat'.

"Why thank you, Gregor! It was mighty nice'a Robin to buy a new one for me. I never even thought of replacing that old thing, but this new one is shinier'an a ring found in a pig's den after a wash!" Gregor laughed even more at Donnel's amusing rhetoric, and slapped him on the back, knocking him off balance.

"Well," started Lissa hesitantly, "it's just…"

"Yes?"

"It's really cute." For a short moment, Robin was quiet, absorbing her words fully. Then he busted out laughing. "Sh-shut up! Why would I want to burn something so cute?!" Lissa yelled, trying her best to sound angry. She was honestly embarrassed more than she was truly upset. It was a dumb reason, of course, but she liked cute things. Even if her definition of cute hadn't exactly lined up with most people's definition.

"S-sorry," Robin said, clearing his throat and trying to get all of the laughter out of his system, small chuckles escaping his lips every once in awhile. "Okay, okay… look, you have to mean it. You have to want to burn the dummy, or else it's not going to work. Like I said, the magic listens to you. For example, when you heal someone, you truly want to heal that person. It's never 'I don't want to heal them' or 'I don't really feel they deserve the healing', so the magic obviously responds to your wants. It's the same here. Just pretend the dummy has angered you in some way." Lissa merely looked at him confusedly. Robin figured that was warranted.

"Alright, question; how can I be mad at something that isn't alive?"

"Easy, you did it last week with the boxes you were supposed to be helping Cordelia unload." Robin's words quickly brought back the memory and Lissa couldn't help the blush that made its way onto her fair cheeks, all the while her expression turned into that of annoyance.

"It wasn't my fault, I was cranky! And I was tired! And also my back hurt!"

"But the boxes weren't at fault for those things, now were they?" Robin calmly replied with a slightly crooked and knowing smile.

"… no… but they still had it coming... okay, so I see your point. Still, I'm not cranky right now, nor am I tired, and my back certainly doesn't hurt." Lissa stared down the dummy as if she were daring it to make a move. But it was a dummy, and, alas, dummies could not move. Or at least this one couldn't. She just needed one good reason to burn the thing to the ground, and she could finally prove to herself that she was capable of actually performing an attack spell.

"Okay, how about this… If you destroy the dummy, I'll give you a reward." This piqued her interest. She loved rewards! She was already excited!

"Ooh, what kind of reward?" Robin could tell her excitement was the start of the drive she needed to reach all of her goals.

"I guess we'll see when you destroy the dummy..." he said, nearly sang. Lissa narrowed her eyes at him, accepting his challenge. She turned to face the dummy again, and she felt like the dummy was the only thing standing between her and what she wanted.

That dummy was going down.

She stopped thinking, letting the energy build from her center. This was the part she was good at, the preparation. She felt the aura around her change, and she knew Robin felt it too, his surprise was always noted happily. This must have meant she was doing a great job, far more than he possibly expected. She targeted the dummy in her mind, and took a deep breath as the energy that was growing inside of her surged.

Finally, she shifted a tiny bit, her feet still planted firmly into the ground, and the energy shifted with her. It moved throughout her body, and right where she knew it needed to be. Her fingers tingled with energy once more, and she felt determination narrow this moment down to the moment. The moment all her and Robin's hard work finally paid off.

She felt the heat build up inside of her already, knowing just what spell she wanted in advance. She took yet another deep breath and held out her hand. "Elfire!" She shouted for the umpteenth time, and she felt absolutely sweltering hot. She was burning alive, but it didn't hurt. It wasn't even the slightest bit uncomfortable. It was as if she was the flame, and she finally felt like she had control over it.

The ball of flame flew out of her hand and hit the dummy with a small blast. Robin let out a whistle, clearly impressed with just how hard it had hit, and Lissa looked down at her hand as she cooled down. Her mouth twitched into a bright smile as her eyes moved over to the destruction she had caused. "I-I… I did it… I did it… ROBIN! I DID IT!" She jumped up and down, shouting in glee as she rushed forward and tackled him to the ground. "I can't believe I just did that! Gods, Chrom is going to be so impressed! Maribelle's going to eat her words, and- and- and- AH, I'm so happy!" She giggled, no, laughed so loudly that Robin was starting to feel just as happy. It was contagious, and he enjoyed seeing her smile like this.

She stared down into his eyes, and there was more feeling there than last time. There was something else amongst the comfort, and friendliness… something so utterly attractive and amazing that she couldn't help herself. She didn't want to wait anymore, it would grow if it wanted to grow, but a little push wouldn't really matter too much, would it? She leaned down and captured Robin's lips with hers.

It was really a simple kiss, bordering on looking platonic should any bystander have caught them, but it held so much love that it couldn't be mistaken as such. Lissa moaned slightly into the kiss, and pulled away with a blush. "Thank you, Robin. Thank you so much…"

Robin smiled up at her, his cheeks too holding a rosy tint. "You don't have to thank me, it was all worth it just to see you smile. And to know that you'll be safer in battle, of course." They both smiled warmly, and Lissa stood up, pulling him up with her.

"I didn't have to, but I wanted to, so nyah!" She stuck out her tongue, and pulled the skin of her eye down, and Robin felt all the charm that was Lissa's personality in full.

"Never change, Lissa."

"I don't plan on it. Oh! What was the reward?" She asked happily, some of the excitement coming back into her voice.

"You kind of already beat me to it," Robin replied with a laugh.