It takes Robin all of thirty seconds to decide she doesn't like Regna Ferox.
The land is cold before they even cross the border, and by the time they reach the capital the snow is coming down thick and fast and she can barely see three feet in front of her. It makes doing her job as a tactician almost impossible when they have to fight the Feroxi army, and she spends most of the fight apologising to Chrom for the fact that she has just learned she's useless in the snow. Sumia is more help, she discovers, the Pegasus knight dodging arrows while finding a path through the snow for them.
Raimi is forgiving once the Shepherds have proved their strength, and lets them through to see the Khan. Flavia is kind and caring, and Chrom, who is also kind and caring, agrees to fight for her. It's an annual thing, something that Robin doesn't really understand (or perhaps remember), but Chrom is willing to go along with it, no matter how dangerous a situation they may be getting in to. Lissa reminds them that they are royals, thank you very much, and they shouldn't really be risking their lives like this when it's not entirely necessary. But Chrom, being Chrom, doesn't listen.
It's only when the battle is over that Khan Basilio offers to lend them his strength, unfortunately not directly. He offers them his entire half of the Feroxi army should they need it, and his strongest soldier for the road. The man he offers is tall and silent and doesn't seem to particularly want to go with them, but Basilio and Chrom shake on it and the deal is sealed.
It takes Robin all of thirty seconds to decide that maybe Regna Ferox isn't all bad.
Lon'qu is quiet all of their next march, and it doesn't take Chrom long to find him a job. He makes him Lissa's personal bodyguard, and the younger girl seems to fawn over him at every given opportunity. Robin quickly figures out that the Feroxi man seems to have a phobia of women, which leads every female soldier in the Shepherds to make it their personal mission to change this. Maribelle serves up etiquette lessons, and Miriel conducts experiments on him to see if she can find a scientific explanation for why he is the way he is.
Robin, however, is paired up with him for training.
"Swordplay is a man's pursuit," he says, after less than two minutes of training. It's probably the first full sentence he's ever spoken to her. He mumbles a 'yes' or an 'okay' to her when given an order, but aside from that he tends to ignore her. She's not impressed by his complete lack of faith in her (or any of the other girls') sword skills, and she has to wonder how he has completely missed Sully decimating their enemy on the battlefield. So in a completely sensible move, she lifts the bowl of figs that sits at the edge of the practice area and throws them at him, and unrelenting storm of fruit that he can barely avoid. She's a mage, and can attack from a distance, and in her head, figs are the same type of weapon. As she shimmies towards him, pelting fruit as she goes, he has to contort his body into a million awkward shapes in order to avoid the attack. Robin steps closer and closer to him, and eventually he gives up.
"I won't stand here to be pelted with fruit by a madwoman!" He yells at her, already most of the way off the practice field. "I'm leaving."
"Coward!" She yells after him, certain that half the camp can hear the two of them screaming at each other. "Get back here!"
But of course he doesn't, and she can't really blame him. She didn't even get that close to him, and yet he scarpered. She hums to herself- the whole situation is very bizarre. But Robin is a determined woman, and she is not about to give up easily. She wants to get closer to Lon'qu, and find out exactly why he acts the way he does, even if he makes it difficult for her.
Robin is a smart woman. Everyone who knows her would agree with this. So in an effort to get Lon'qu to talk to her, she pairs them up on the battlefield. Fighting in the desert is not easy for either of them, but she finds that despite the fact he seems to openly hate her, Lon'qu has her back whenever she's attacked, and occasionally steps in to block an attack that would otherwise have killed her. She's shocked by his actions, and when she looks at his face she sees that his is too. It's just a reflexive action, she tells herself. When she sneaks a glance at him again, when he's wiping the sweat from his forehead, she notices that he has a sizeable bruise on his face, and makes a mental note to check in on him after the battle (even though Lissa will definitely get to him before she manages to).
The tactician's duties always end up taking up more of her time than she means them too. Between weapon checks and involuntary inventory, and the mountains of tactics that she first has to plan, then run over with Chrom and Frederick, and then fix, and then check again, and then explain to everyone else. This barely gives her time to sleep, but somehow she manages to fit all this in along with socialising with the others in the army. Lon'qu is still awake that night, after she's finished everything, sitting in the mess tent by himself, picking at a bowl of food that doesn't quite look edible.
"Hello, Lon'qu," she greets with a small smile (so as she doesn't scare him off). She sits beside him, one seat in between (so as she doesn't scare him off)."Hey, where'd you get that nasty bruise on your chin?" He grimaces a little at her question, then raises an eyebrow, as if she's supposed to know. Ah. "Right. Fig wound. Sorry about that. ...gracious, it looks rather swollen." She's about to each a hand out to touch it, but thinks better of it, and leaves her hands resting on the table instead.
"I never imagined you'd continue your fruity assault while I slept!" He exclaimed, self consciously covering his face with a glove. It wasn't her best tactical decision, Robin had to admit, but...
"It was the only way I was ever going to hit you..." she excuses lamely, but he doesn't buy it.
"And how reckless of you to be sneaking into my tent at night. What if you'd been seen?" He hisses, and Robin raises an eyebrow. That's the real issue here. "Imagine what people would've thought!"
"Oh, it's alright. I know exactly when and where everyone sleeps," Robin says casually, as if knowing the sleep schedules of every member of their army was normal."I made sure I wouldn't be spotted." Though part of her wishes she had been seen, just to see what the reaction would've been.
"I honestly cannot tell sometimes if you are a genius or a complete dimwit," he says. Genius. He thinks she's a genius! She manages to ignore the end of the sentence. For Robin, there was no bigger compliment than someone telling her she was smart. Of course, she knew it, but getting validation for it felt good.
"Well," she says, picking her words carefully, "silly can be cuter than clever, don't you think?" Genius who? That was probably the worst thing to ever come out of her mouth.
"I... have absolutely no idea what you mean by that."
"Er... yes. I think I was trying to be clever, and disproved my own point," she says, sheepish. Embarrassed. This isn't the first time she's embarrassed herself in front of Lon'qu. He laughs this time though, which makes it so much worse. Well, it's not really a laugh, more of a grunt with a hint of a smile on his face. "Wait. Did you just laugh?"
"No."
"Yes you did! I distinctly heard you say 'heh'."
"Never! You are incapable of provoking so much as a chuckle from me."
"Ooooooh," Robin smiles, leaning towards him a little. "That sounds like another challenge."
"Damn," Lon'qu curses, though his face doesn't look wholly like he hates the idea of her torturing him a little while longer.
"Right! The game's afoot! I shall make you laugh one more time, no matter what!" She exclaims, jumping up from her seat, a huge grin on her face.
"How do I get myself into these things..." he sighs, and now he grimaces, as if he's just realised the implications of what he's in store for. She yawns then, and makes her way out of the mess tent, still smiling to herself.
"You should go to bed soon," she says, hand holding the flap of the entrance up. "Goodnight, Lon'qu."
"Night," he offers, but only after she's left. He turns back to his food, and is wholly disgusted to find himself smiling.
Emmeryn's death shocks the army to its core, no one more than Chrom and Lissa. Chrom retires to his tent and refuses to see anyone apart from Lissa, Frederick and Robin, the latter of the two for official business only. Robin busies herself with her tactics for the battle where they'll take down Gangrel once and for all. It was the Feroxi that got them out of the battle, and while she owes them their lives, she can't get the new soldier out of her head.
Olivia. Olivia, with her curly pink hair and purple eyes. Olivia, who's thin yet shapely and carries herself with an amazing air of grace. Olivia, who is meek and shy and everyone seems to fawn over. Olivia, who is already friends with Lon'qu. She shouldn't be jealous of the dancer. It's not like her and Lon'qu have a thing. They're barely even friends. But Lon'qu is more relaxed around her than most women (even if he's still almost one hundred percent uncomfortable. He's maybe ninety seven around Olivia).
When doing the finishing touches on her tactics for the battle, which include making Sumia and Cordelia the stars of the show, she hears a voice from outside her tent, calling her name. She pauses in her writing, but she doesn't hear anything again. Getting up from her seat, confused, she peeks her head out of the flap. Lon'qu stands in front of her tent, looking as confused as she is about why he's there.
"Is there something I can help you with?"
"I thought you might want some company. Frederick told me to come and find you."
It's the most he's ever said to her in one go, and she's a little shocked. Regardless, she moves aside to let him in, before sitting back down at her desk. He stands awkwardly for a minute before she looks up and glares at him. Then he sits on the one other chair in her room, beside her bed, and takes out his sword to begin sharpening it.
"The Feroxi army are joining us for this one," she tells him. He nods. "I'm sure you know most of them. Aren't you glad to have your friends back?"
"I'm not from Ferox."
"Oh?"
"I'm from Chon'sin."
"Ah," Robin says, tapping her pen against the ink pot, as if she's just made sense of something. "That makes sense."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You look like you're from Chon'sin, not Ferox. Not... not that I know what a lot of people from Chon'sin look like. I don't remember."
"I forgot you had amnesia."
"You forgot," she says with a grin, looking up from her paperwork.
"If that was your attempt to make me laugh, you'll have to try harder."
"Rats," she mutters under her breath. When she drops her head to her maps again, she misses his smirk.
They sit in a comfortable silence for a while. The silence isn't really silent though, with Lon'qu sharpening his sword and the sound of Robin scribbling on her map. She sighs every now and again, scratching her head, trying to work a way around the problem that faces her. When Lon'qu glances up to her later, about to wish her a good night, he finds her head on the map, snoozing with her head on the map she was working on. With a loud sigh, he leaves his sword at his seat, and goes up to her, placing her coat which was formerly on the back of her chair around her shoulders. He can see her map from here, a mess of lines and names and abbreviations. One thing sticks out to him, however. On the right hand side of the battlefield she's placed herself, and his name is beside hers, with a line through Chrom that was there originally. He scans to see where Chrom is now- where he might have been before. He finds his name scribbled out next to Olivia, and leaves Robin's tent wondering what she has up her sleeve.
When the war is over, the army can relax a little. While they still run through drills on the way back to Ylisstol, nothing is taken as seriously, and there is more time for fun. They stop by festivals in small towns and by the beach at one point (at a lake, unfortunately, the sea too far away). Robin, with no tactics to write, no battles to prepare for, has a wealth of free time on her hands. She drinks tea with Maribelle, and becomes subject to Lissa's intense pranks. Checking her bed for frogs or other creatures each night quickly becomes tiresome. Lon'qu on the other hand, ignores the fact that they're no longer at war, and trains with Vaike and Gaius and Gregor, until his hands bleed and he can no longer think straight.
Robin is assigned to him again one day for a group training exercise, though she postpones their training session until late at night due to her accompanying Panne for a shopping trip to find herbs for the taguel's tea. It leads to her seeking him out in the evening, and she finds him, once again, in the mess tent. It'll only be a few days until they arrive back in Ylisstol, and she reckons he'll return to Regna Ferox afterwards. So she takes this time to be selfish, to enjoy what will quite possibly their last moment together alone. She throws half hearted spells at him with a smile on her face, ducking under his sword with surprising agility as he attacks her. She remembers her promise to make him laugh again, and changes tactics, adopting something a lot more up close and personal. She gets in close, and tickles him, hoping that this will be the thing to crack him.
"Enough, Robin!" He says eventually, dropping his sword to his side.
"What? What's wrong?"
"You've been mocking both me and your training. Don't deny it."
"How so?" She asks, tilting her head to one side innocently.
"When we spar, you adopt a curious expression and poke me in the ribs. Today isn't even the first time this has happened."
"And haven't you noticed how much more relaxed you've been?" She smiles.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how I stand close, and you don't even break a sweat," Robin says, biting her lower lip. Perhaps she'll use this time to tell him? Or...
"...gods above. It's true..." Lon'qu seems more than a little taken aback by this revelation, as he turns away from her. "How could I not notice? What witchcraft is this?"
"No magic, I swear." Robin says, holding her hands up in front of her. Lon'qu narrows his eyes, but he seems to believe her. "Just two comrades-in-arms who've grown accustomed to fighting side-by-side." She smiles at him, hoping for a similar reaction from him. "I'm sorry if my behaviour seemed strange, but I was only trying to help. I know all about your phobia of women, so I came up with a plan. I thought if I acted strangely enough, you'd be so distracted, you'd forget all about it!"
"You are a con artist of the highest order..." he says, a small laugh escaping his mouth as he shakes his head.
"Hey! I made you laugh again!"
"I guess you did."
"I told you I would. What do I get as my reward?"
"It was a challenge, not a bet," Lon'qu responds defensively, taking a step away from her. "You only get the joy of winning."
"Rats."
"I should go. I'm on mess tent duty in the morning."
"Then you should go to bed. Sorry for keeping you up so late."
"No problem."
He turns to go, reattaching his sword to his belt as he goes. Robin watches him leave, sighing quietly to herself. She had finally come to terms with her feelings for the swordsman, and was determined to tell him, but when the opportunity presented itself to her, she chickened out. Clenching her hands into fists, she calls after him.
"Lon'qu!"
He turns around, and raises an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. She pauses.
"Good night."
Chrom offers her a room in the palace, since Robin doesn't have a home to return to after the war. According to him, the previous royal tactician lived in the palace, but since Chrom isn't specific, she has to wonder if he's making it up to give his friend somewhere to live. She's a little hesitant to accept his offer, considering that she'll be sharing a home with a pair of newlyweds. But Lissa begs, and begs, and begs, and Robin is so worn down that she agrees. Chrom and Olivia are joined at the hip, and Robin wonders how much of a hand she played in them finding love in each other. Living with them will be strange, and Robin ends up spending most of her time living there cooped up in the library.
"I've received some troubling news from Ferox," Chrom informs her one day. Robin's mind immediately goes to Lon'qu- is he safe?
"Oh?" She says, struggling to keep her face straight.
"Well, Ferox, via Rosanne. Valm have invaded Rosanne."
"I thought Valm was a tiny country. How have they invaded anywhere?"
"Unbeknownst to us, Valm have invaded a lot of the continent. Rosanne's citizens fled to Ferox, which is just across the sea."
"We need to do something about this before they bring war to our shores," Robin nods, carefully coming up with a new plan.
"I'll write back to Flavia and tell her we're on our way. I'll need to write to the Shepherds and gather them up again."
"Let me do that," Robin says quickly. "I'm sure you have a lot on your hands, what with Lucina."
"You're right," the exalt laughs. "Thanks Robin."
Once Chrom leaves the room, Robin scrambles to grab writing paper and her pen set. It was true that doing this gave her something to do, but she has an ulterior motive. She can fire off generic letters asking them to meet in Ylisstol at the end of next week, when they'll march to Plegia. But there's one Shepherd that she wants to write to, but has never known what to say.
Dear Lon'qu,
I'm sure you've heard, but Valm has invaded Rosanne, just across the water from Ylisse. As such, Chrom has asked me to write to all of the Shepherds and ask if you'd be willing to meet up with everyone else in Ylisstol at the end of next week. From there, we will march to Ferox, and then on to the continent of Valm across the sea.
Of course, since you are already in Ferox, you can just meet us there. I can write to you when we're almost there.
One a more personal note, how are you? It's been almost two years since we've spoken. I've wanted to write to you, but not knowing what to say has put me off from doing it. Well, we'll see each other again soon. I hope Ferox has been treating you well. Stay safe,
She wants to write more, to tell him how she feels. She thought that perhaps time would have lessened her feelings for her, but the distance has only made her grow fonder. They spoke at Chrom and Olivia's wedding, which he travelled down for with Flavia and Basilio, but hadn't any contact since then. She folds the letter up and puts in an envelope and moves on to writing to Sully.
Robin, begins the response, and she notes the lack of a 'dear' with a pang in her chest.
I'll meet you in Ferox. The extra time will give me time to perfect my sword technique.
I've been well. Busy. We can speak more when we meet up in a few weeks.
Lon'qu
It's brief and to the point, as Robin would've expected from her beloved. She doesn't like to refer to the man as such, but she can't think of a better word. They're more than friends- she got through his defences, at least, something that no other woman she knows can say. When they talked about him once over tea- Maribelle's idea, of course- she denied knowledge of how to do so. Selfish, yet again. She wanted to keep him for herself, didn't want anyone else meddling.
When they do meet, in Ferox, it's a warm reunion for Chrom and Basilio, the two of which have struck a strong friendship over the last few years. Olivia is greeted with the same warmth from those who she used to work for. For Robin and Lon'qu, however, it's a different story. Since technically they're 'just friends', the two of them stand in front of each other for a while, staring blankly at each other.
"Hi," she manages eventually. She wants nothing more than to wrap her arms around him, and not let go, but that wouldn't be appropriate by anyone's standards. He's gotten more attractive, she decided. His hair is a little longer, and for once, he gives her a smile.
"Hello."
And then they're swept away by the crowds, Vaike patting Lon'qu on the back and Robin being pushed aside so that Basilio can be spoken to.
When she finally gets a moment alone with him, it's on the boat on the way to the port. It wasn't planned, not like so many of their other meetings. They simply bump into each other on deck, and stay there, since it's quiet on the sea at night, and no one else is there to annoy them. Robin split herself and Lissa up from Chrom and Olivia- partly to give them some peace, and partly to split their forces in case they're attacked. The newly discovered Lucina is on that boat too, and Robin is sure that she's bonding with her parents, given she didn't know them well in the future. She leans over the edge of the boat, and he joins her, back to the waves.
"How have you been?" He asks her, continuing on their conversation from their letters.
"I've been good. Also busy. Well, sort of. I have the barracks in Ylisstol completely destroyed, since I found a collection of new tomes in the library in the castle."
"Practice makes perfect. It's understandable you'd have the place destroyed. I wouldn't expect anyone else from someone like you."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She asks, mock offended, and he only smiles. "I've been meaning to ask. For a long time, actually." She hesitates a little. "How come... how come you're afraid of women?" He stiffens at that, and for a second she thinks he's going to go and leave her here. But he softens, and takes a deep breath.
"In Chon'sin, I had a friend. A girl. Ke'ri was her name. We spent a lot of time together. But one day, when we were out, she was attacked. And then murdered. By bandits. I couldn't protect her." He clenches his hands into fists and stares down at the wooden deck. "Her parents blamed me for the whole event. Said I was a bad influence on Ke'ri. So... I fled to Ferox because I'm weak, and I can't protect anyone I care for."
"Lon'qu..."
"There's nothing to say, so you don't need to say anything. It's in the past. And as you said... you can get close to me now without me freezing. Surely that means I can move on."
"I thought you said that was because I was a con artist," Robin smirks.
"Maybe a con artist is what I needed."
Needed strikes Robin in the heart like an arrow would a Pegasus- devastating. Past tense. He needed someone to convince him he was strong enough to get through his pain, but now he's through, he doesn't need her anymore. He pats her on the head as he walks past to go to bed, and she can feel her face heat up.
"Good night, Robin."
"Good night," she squeaks in response.
He goes to bed, lying on the uncomfortable mattress and willing the waves to lull him to sleep. He finds his mind wandering, however, to the white haired girl he left on deck. She was the only woman, besides Flavia, that he could get close to. The only woman that could make him smile, never mind laugh. He was certain that the letter he received was more personal than the others. She seems to be interested in some way, but whether that was because she was kind-hearted, or because she-
He doesn't want to think any further.
He told her about Ke'ri. He hadn't even mentioned the details of that to Basilio, who he trusted more than anyone else. Lon'qu curses himself for being so weak to Robin's charms. He curses himself for being weak, for falling victim to a woman that he swore he wouldn't fall for when they first set eyes upon each other all that time ago in Arena Ferox.
After Lucina appears, suddenly a lot of the skirmishes the Shepherds intervene in seem to involve more future children of the army. Inigo is found, Lucina's brother, as are Severa, and Laurent, and a Taguel named Yarne, who Panne is overwhelmed to see. It leaves Lon'qu wondering if he has a child in the future. Vaike boast frequently about how beautiful Kjelle is, and though he hadn't ever really considered children before, he finds his mind wandering to what a potential child of his would look like. Would he be a good father? He would teach his child swordplay, regardless of their gender, because the other women in the army have taught him that those pursuits are for everyone.
Lon'qu ignores the little part of his brain that wonders who his child's mother would be.
One of their next missions takes place in an icy land, a structure that looks like it's made out of crystal. The floor is almost completely flooded, although enough tiles remain that the majority of people to traverse the terrain without their boots getting wet. It's full of bandits, Robin mentions to Chrom. They'll clear them out, and then move on. He wants to reach the Mila Tree as soon as possible.
The enemies are weak, at least compared to those they've been fighting recently. The Valmese army are terrifyingly strong, and to do battles like this in between is practically therapeutic. As they cut through the enemy forces, a loud cry comes from the centre of the battlefield. Robin's head turns to the sound as if she recognises it, and Lon'qu, from not too far away, follows her eye line until it lands on a child. He's very small, surrounded by enemies and clutching a tome to his chest. Robin fires a Thoron spell at the enemies, and drags Lissa along with her to investigate what's going on. Once the two of them have defeated the foes attacking the child, Lon'qu can see the boy clearly. He's wearing Robin's coat.
"Mama!" He cries as soon as he sets his eyes on Robin, and then the child has attached himself to Robin, who hugs him back. Some motherly instinct has kicked in, and Lon'qu feels an insatiable urge to turn away, as if this is some private moment he shouldn't be looking in on. That is until Chrom pushes half their army towards Robin and the child so they can get a good look at the newcomer.
"What's your name?" Robin asks quietly.
"Morgan," he responds. Robin bites her lip. It's clear from first impressions who her child's father is. While he has her coat and her face shape, he has dark hair and dark almond shaped eyes. Everyone else who has found a child has been married, or at the very lease engaged. But to everyone else's knowledge, Robin hasn't been seeing anyone.
And she hasn't.
Once the battle is over, Morgan is welcomed into camp with open arms. Lon'qu avoids the child like the plague. Morgan can't remember who is father is, but the rumours have been spreading like wildfire. Lon'qu has only made eye contact with the child once, and it was far too long. He could practically see the cogs turning in the boy's head- he's smart, like his mother. Lon'qu is sure that Morgan can see that they share features, but he doesn't want to admit that he is the child's father- for all he knows; future Robin could have had a relationship with some other Chon'sin man.
There's also the little niggling part of his brain that tells him that if he is Morgan's father, then that means that in some point in the future, he and Robin will-
He doesn't think he's felt so embarrassed in his life, especially when Robin's eyes meet his and her eyebrows raise in understanding. He fails to notice that her cheeks are reddened and how she turns her back from her friends to coo over her son.
He spots her across camp on his way to train one day, sitting with Morgan outside, pouring over maps. It's a warm day, with the sun shining on the camp. They briefly make eye contact, and she waves at him, shy and small. He nods in return, the corners of his mouth twitching up into a smile. Morgan waves too, enthusiastically. Lon'qu turns away from the mess tent and leaves the camp altogether.
The nearest town is a little while away. It's a large town, and Lon'qu wanders around for a while before he comes face to face with a jewellers. It's a horrible place inside- all pink plush cushions and fluffy carpet- the only place he's seen so much carpet is in the royal palace of Ylisse. He stares into the glass cabinets. They're full of rings. His hands are sweaty, and as the assistant comes up to him, he feels almost as though he'll be sick. But he perseveres- this has only made him surer that there's only one woman he wants to be around.
When he finally works up the courage to talk to her again, she's been studying outside again. Everyone else is in the mess tent, and the sun is setting- she seems to be neglecting them in favour of finishing her learning for the day. She finishes stacking up her tomes, rolling up her maps. He clears his throat. She turns around.
"Er, Robin? May I have a word?" He can feel his face red, but he's got this far- he can't back out now.
"Oh, hello Lon'qu. Something wrong? It's not like you to initiate a conversation." Its true- she's the one that starts their conversations, aside from that time on the boat, which he puts down solely to madness on his part.
"In our recent battle, did you... do something to me? Cast a spell? Slip me a potion?" The potion's name is probably Morgan, the spell called fatherhood, and it scares him more than any hex she could place on him.
"No, of course not... why do you ask?" She stands up then, so that she's closer to eye height (but she's still a good ways off).
"I see... then this feeling in my heart is from natural causes."
"Er, Lon'qu, are you feeling alright?" She queries, and in a bold move, she reaches up to his forehead to check his temperature. "You do feel rather warm." He neglects to comment that her hands are clammy too.
"No," he says, removing her hand. "It's frightening... but wonderful... You see, Robin..."
"Please don't say it," she whispers, looking anywhere but at him.
"It appears that I've grown... quite... fond of you," he eventually manages to say.
"What?" She looks pained at his confession, but he somehow presses on anyway.
"It's true. These feelings have grown despite my best efforts..."
"It seems my plot to make you laugh had some unforeseen consequences." Unforeseen, perhaps, but certainly not unwanted, she smiles to herself.
"I must know," he continues, "do you share my feelings? Even a little bit?"
"Well, at first, I couldn't stand you. Or Ferox. But then... something happened..."
"Yes?" He presses, impatience getting the better of him.
"Amazingly, yes," she says, and he feels his heart soar. He can't help but smile. "I... I've come to care for you too, Lon'qu. Deeply." It happened a lot quicker than she'd like to admit, but maybe that's something she should just keep to herself.
"Ah. Right, then..." He pauses, staring at her. She's smiling at him, and his heart is beating a million miles a second, and all he wants to do is run into the hills and yell into the valley that she loves him too. "I am not used to dealing with women," is the sensible sentence his brain decides is suitable to say next. "What step should I take next?"
Kiss me, is the first thing that comes into Robin's head, but she manages not to say that.
"Er, you could embrace me, I suppose?" It's a gentler first step than a kiss, and she reckons he'll be able to manage that.
"Very well." He takes a step towards her, his arms wrapping around her waist, drawing her in close to him. She rests her head on his shoulder with a contented sigh, and he assumes that he's done it right. "Like this?" He asks, just to make sure. She doesn't say anything in response, but he can feel her nod her head.
"Amazing," she comments, with a laugh, the only laugh Lon'qu ever wants to hear again. "Your phobia of women is completely gone!"
"No. It just... It's only gone with you."
"That might be the greatest compliment I've ever been paid," she says, stepping back, relaxing her grip on him, but still very much within his embrace.
"The next step I do know..." He murmurs, letting go of her to fish in his pocket for the purple velvet box he purchased earlier in the week. He flicks the lid open and holds it out to her. "Will you accept this?"
"You bought me a ring? Wait, so you had this planned the whole time? I thought... I thought this just came about because of Morgan."
"No!" He says, alarming her a little. "No. Morgan was just the push I needed. I bought it in town for you a few days past. ...I cannot tell you how hard it was to enter a women's jewellery store." He's smiling, and she's smiling, and although he can feel his face red, he's not even embarrassed anymore.
"And yet you did it for my sake!"
"Never in my worst nightmares did I envision doing such a thing for a mere woman... But yes, I did it. For you. I hope you like it. For... you are no mere woman."
She smiles again- has her smile ever even left her face? He takes her hand- her hands are sweaty, as are his, nerves, he reminds himself- and slips the ring onto her finger. She flexes her hand to see it better- it's half hidden under her gauntlets, a simple band with one stone fixed on it. Though small, by no means does it look cheap, and it looks perfect on her slender mage's hands.
"I confess...I do have feelings for... gods, must all these emotions be so vexing?" He can barely look her in the eye, and so she grabs his face and brings it down to hers, not wanting to wait any longer for this man to kiss her. She hopes that no one else is watching them, but finds herself not truly caring if they are or not. Their lips meet in an awkward first kiss, and she's laughing as she pulls away from him. It was all she ever wanted, and as she embraces him again, she hears him laugh too.
"You know, I loved you from the first time I set eyes on you at Arena Ferox," she says almost a year later, when she lies in the darkness in the comfort of his arms. It's not like her to be this openly sentimental, and it leaves a pit in his stomach.
"You shouldn't say things like that."
"Why not? It's true."
"Because then I will have to tell you that when I first saw you, I swore to myself that I wouldn't fall in love with you."
"That worked out well, didn't it," she snorts.
"I'm not complaining," Lon'qu says, playing a kiss to the crown of her head. They lie in silence. He knows, he knows deep down why she said that, why she's been doing everything the last few days to make sure he and Morgan know that she loves them.
"Don't do it," he whispers, and her silence weighs a ton on his chest. "Please, Robin."
"I..."
"Let Chrom do it."
"Then it's just someone else's problem a few thousand years down the line," she sighs.
"Robin..."
When she turns back to him the next day with tears in her eyes as she draws her sword, something she never does, he feels his world crumble around him.
Lon'qu returns to Ferox, Morgan in tow. The child is his son, so he bears sole responsibility. Unlike most other members of the army, there is no Morgan from this timeline. The conversation about having children never came up, and Lon'qu now understands why- Robin didn't want to bring a child into the world only to abandon it months later. So Lon'qu takes his grown up son and returns to the land that he can call home. They find a cabin just outside of town, where Basilio can keep an eye on them, and they live there happily.
Until Morgan decides to leave.
He's too like his mother, Lon'qu decides. He was too reliant on her, and not enough on him. Perhaps in the future, he had died first, so Robin had more of an influence on him. After all, Morgan could only remember his mother. Lon'qu feels sick to his stomach when he realises that in his son's timeline, Robin was probably his cause of death. He may be the best swordsman he knows, but he was too weak to Robin to defend himself from the dragon that she became.
So he's left alone, and he feels like he's right back where he started. He trains a lot, becomes competent with a bow as well as his sword, since Robin suggested long ago he would make a good assassin. He reckoned she just liked saying assassin, with the amount of times she suggested it, but he does it anyway, because he dedicated so many years of his life to the woman, to just stop now would be absurd.
The Shepherds come to visit him regularly, mostly Olivia, who travels up from Ylisstol every other week with her two small children in tow to have dinner with Uncle Lon'qu. He has to remind Lucina and Inigo that he's not really their uncle, but Olivia just laughs. Vaike comes occasionally, and tries in vain to cheer Lon'qu up. There are only two people that can cheer Lon'qu up now, and both are gone.
In the middle of winter, someone knocks on the cabin door. Lon'qu tells them to go away- he's in no mood for visitors. It's too cold to get up to answer the door, and even with the fire on and multiple layers of clothing, the cold still permeates through his skin. The knocking continues until eventually Lon'qu gives in and opens the door. The last person he expected to find was Morgan.
"Hi, dad."
"Morgan."
"I brought someone with me you'll want to see."
From behind Morgan- he's grown as tall as his father- steps Lon'qu's wife, dressed head to toe in Feroxi furs. Her hair is braided, but he can tell it's longer than it was before she died. She died. And yet she's here, standing in front of him. She lowers her scarf a little and smiles at him.
"Lon'qu," she says, her eyes filling with tears.
"Robin."
"Hi," she whispers, taking a step towards him. Unable to hold back any longer, he pulls her close to him, wrapping his arms around her, as though if he lets go he'll never see her again. He presses kisses to her face, her forehead, nose, until he captures her lips in his own. She's laughing when he pulls away, and he wipes away her tears.
"Hello."
A/N: I just have had a lot of feelings about these two recently because of my other fic and i decided to sit down and write a little something for them in the (almost) canon universe :) please leave a review if you enjoyed because this was super fun to write and i hope other people enjoyed it too. I also apologise for the insane amount of stolen canon dialogue rip!