Time Matters Not

Rated K+ for being lost in the endless void of time and taking a year to update

Robin groaned as the first snow started to land outside his window. He hated the stuff, everyone had to wrap up in extra layers, and then they were all going to be slower and less mobile...it was a tactician's worst nightmare, really. Well, weather in general was, to be fair, but snow was probably the worst 'basic' kind of weather that wasn't a full-out storm.

Lucina stirred next to him in bed, slowly getting out of bed and kissing behind his ear, smiling.

"Good morning, Robin."

"Good morning, Lucina" Robin smiled, turning to face his wife and lightly nuzzling her hair. "Sleep well?"

Lucina gave a small shrug and a sigh. "Relatively, I'll say. It got awfully cold around half an hour ago." She glanced at him, frowning. Robin chuckled sheepishly.

"Sorry, I woke up half an hour ago." Robin said, walking over to the window. "...I suppose it looks nice, at least."

"mm." Lucina said with a smile, pulling on an actual shirt before glancing at him again. "Come on, we don't want to miss breakfast."

"Right..." Robin smiled. "I wonder what the day holds for us this time..."

The day passed in a fairly uneventful fashion, all things considered. They ate, Lucina went to talk to Lissa for most of the day for...some reason that he'd probably forgotten, Morgan watched Lucia and Celica for Chrom and Sumia while they did royal things, and Robin found himself organizing the ledgers again because someone had decided to play tome stackers with them.

Some of Morgan's games were just flat-out irritating on occasion. Still, it was somewhat endearing of her. Sighing, he glanced out the window as the snow piled up again – he couldn't remember the last time it'd fallen this heavily, even in Regna Ferox. Spotting a few blue blurs out the corner of his eye, he watched as Lucia dashed outside while Morgan chased her, with the two of them eventually sinking into the snow and vanishing completely.

Maybe they'd need to restrict people going outside if it was as tall as Lucia was. Smiling to himself, he slid the last ledger back onto the shelf and left the study, whistling. There wasn't much to do these days, with almost all the risen wiped out and the majority of bandits deciding that with three active sub-groups of Shepherds wandering the country at all times maybe they should just give up and become farmers.

Well, it was getting dark anyway, he'd need to get Morgan and Lucia back inside before they caught their deaths. Shaking his head, he opened the door and stepped outside to call them in when the pair of them streaked right past him, shrieking about 'cold'. Blinking, Robin turned around and was about to follow them in when a large amount of snow got dumped on his head from whoever was cleaning the roof, which was...Cynthia.

"GOT YOU, DAD!" Morgan yelled from further down the hall, before vanishing around a corner. Grinning, Robin shook the snow off of him and gave Cynthia one of his patented death glares, making her vanish back inside the window with a 'meep'.

One of these days, his sister-in-law would grow up enough to not wreak havoc with his daughter...but on the downside, he already worried about what would happen if the child Cynthia grew up alongside his own younger child.

It was something he'd worried about a thousand times – what if Morgan wasn't an only child? It wasn't like she could remember anything, after all...he didn't think he'd mind, but he wasn't sure how he'd take the news of more children that had failed to survive whatever calamity befel Morgan.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he reached into the nearest pile of snow for a few moments and rummaged around until he found the crown princess of the country, who currently resembled a shaking white blob.

"Regretting this yet?" He asked with a smile, as Lucia shook her head, still shivering.

"Nope."

"Come on, let's get you inside before your mother kills me." He sighed, ushering her back through the door and brushing the snow off of her. Immediately, she shot off inwards, probably to beg her mother for some kind of warm treat. It was fascinating, really – how different she was from the woman he loved. A different upbringing might do that to a person, after all – gods knows Miriel was taking advantage of that fact to write some kind of paper that she claimed would finally end the nature versus nurture argument. The fact that neither Laurent seemed to complain just made matters worse.

"Playing with your sister-in-law, are we?" Lucina said mischievously, as she caught up to him. Sighing, she brushed snow off the top of his head. "Morgan got you too, didn't she?"

"Your sister, actually, although I'm convinced she was behind it." He smirked. "How did she get you?"

"…she insisted that someone was in trouble and proceeded to bury me under the snow." She grumbled. "I've always hated that stuff."

"I think we're just a little bitter that our daughter out-thought both of us." Robin grinned. "Come on, let's go get dry."

The day finished in the same relaxed manner that it had started, with the married couple curled up next to the fire while their daughter snored in the chair nearby, buried under a pile of books. Sighing, Robin shook his head and kissed Lucina's forehead lightly.

"I hate this weather…" He admitted. Lucina smiled again, shaking her head.

"Oh, I don't know. I think you might learn to associate it with some happy memories in the future…"

Robin blinked in surprise as Lucina smirked at him.

"It's not often that I manage to catch you by surprise. Besides, if you're so smart, guess what I was talking to Aunt Lissa about?"

He managed to get a strangled squawk through his throat. "How far along?"

"About two weeks." She blushed. "Soon enough, isn't it?"

"Yes…" He said lightly, stroking her hair. "…oh, gods, I don't know how to plan for this."

"We'll do fine, Robin." Lucina assured him. "Trust me, we'll do fine…"

The two dozed off in front of the fire, Robin's hand protectively stroking Lucina's stomach as a small grin came to his face.

Not much longer…Morgan.

A/N: Short, but it's setup for the next one, which hopefully shouldn't take a year to come out.