Chapter Text
Robin had slipped away from the reception a little after ten o’clock. The party was winding down by then, and a mellow pleasure had settled over the hall. The remaining guests laughed easily and touched each other’s arms in full feeling, their cheeks rosy with drink. The newlyweds had not retired for the evening yet, but they would soon.
Frederick let a few restless minutes pass. Then he looked to the high table. Chrom looked older in his wedding clothes. He looked handsome. His hair had been slicked back, but now an errant strand lay limp against his temple. A gentle ache filled Frederick’s chest.
He waited for Chrom to look at him, and in a short while, he did. They stared at each other, neither of them saying anything. After a moment, Chrom nodded. Then he smiled—a quick motion meant just for him. So despite his permission, Frederick lingered. Then Chrom turned to his wife, and he took his leave.
The hall outside the ballroom were lush with candlelight. The candles grew fewer in number the further he walked until the halls were lit only by the moonlight spilling in through the high windows. It was a bright night, clear and full of summer stars. He crossed the courtyard to the clocktower, then quickly ascended the stairs.
Robin was perched at the top. She’d taken off her shoes and threaded her legs the iron retaining fence, dangling her feet over the edge of the tower with her skirt bunched up on her lap. She was fishing pins out of her hair, sliding them onto the cuff of her sleeve. The sight stopped him on the stairs. He felt suddenly apologetic, as if he’d walked in on her in her dressing room. Then she saw him, and the feeling passed. He invited himself in.
“Could you hold that?” Robin asked, offering him a fistful of hair. So he did, crouching next to her and holding her hair as she teased a pin out of a tangle.
“Thanks,” she said when she was done. She tossed her head, loose hair shivering down her back. Her shoulders peeked out of her gown like table ledges. “It was starting to give me a headache.”
“You were also drinking.”
“Not that much. I’m completely sober.”
She was, he realized. The easiness that ran through her was not from alcohol.
“You’re smiling,” she said.
“I don’t believe I am.”
“You are.” She was grinning now, too. She scooted a closer to him. “That was nice, wasn’t it? It was a really beautiful ceremony.”
“It certainly was.”
“But I guess most weddings aren’t that grand?”
“Not by half. Though many are still quite beautiful.”
“Hmm.” Robin leaned back, a lazy smile still on her lips. She closed her eyes. “I’m so happy for them.”
Moonlight silvered her face and neck. She was so close that he could see the breath moving through her, the even rise and fall of her chest.
“I’ve thought about your offer,” she said. Frederick’s heart kicked against his ribs.
“Oh?”
“Yes.” She opened her eyes. “That’s my answer. Yes.”
Frederick reached into his pocket. Then he took Robin’s hand and slid the ring over her finger. It was an unadorned thing, yet she held it up to the light, appreciative.
“It fits perfectly,” she murmured.
He’d known it would, having taken her measurements while she slept. Still, he was relieved.
“Thank you,” he said.
“I don’t know why you’re thanking me.” There was a note of laughter in Robin’s voice. She laced her fingers through his, the cool, metal band pressing against his skin. “Can I kiss you?”
He nodded, and she did. Her mouth was pleasantly warm.
“Careful,” he said as she let her head drop against his collarbone.
“Yeah.” Her words were muffled by his jacket. “You smell good.”
Frederick let her rest her head against his chest. He did not know when she’d started doing that—draping herself over him, cat-like, in moments of intimacy or rest. He liked it, though. He found the casual weight of her body comforting.
“Actually,” Robin said after a moment. She sat up, leaving her warmth upon his clothes. “There was something I wanted to ask you, too.”
“What is it?” he asked. But she was looking down at the gardens now.
“We’re pretty high up,” she said, a touch of nervousness in her voice. Then she pulled her legs back from over the edge. She arranged her legs under her, very careful, and smoothed down her skirt. The sound of her hand whisking over the silk filled him with vague unease.
“I think Chrom will be a good father someday,” Robin said. The timing was startling, though the thought itself wasn’t. In fact, Frederick had thought the same earlier that day. He blinked at Robin, trying to discover her intent.
“I mean,” she continued. “He’s really grown up, hasn’t he? Of course, I haven’t known him as long as you have, but I’ve seen it. He’s a great man, and he’ll become even greater, right?”
“He has certainly come into his own,” Frederick agreed slowly. “Is this what you wanted to ask me about?”
“I’m working up to it. I’m trying to figure out how to ask.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, then looked at him directly. “Do you trust me?”
Frederick thought, then, that he understood what this was about. It saddened him, but it was a relief, too.
“I do,” he assured her. “I know I said I could not trust you when we first met. But you have done more than enough to prove yourself since that day. I trust you with my life. I have trusted you with my life.”
Robin nodded, almost impatient.
“But that’s conditional?”
“What?”
“There are things I could do that would cause you to distrust me.”
“I…suppose.” He did not like where this was going. “All trust is conditional.”
“Right. Of course.” She was nodding again. Her finger was tapping quickly against the stone floor. “I’ve been having these dreams…”
“Your nightmares?”
“Yeah. I wish I could remember them. I just wake up with a bad feeling. Like I’ve just done something terrible. Like I’ll…”
“Robin.” He placed his hand over hers. “What is this about?”
She tried to smile at him, but he could see the distress tugging at her expression.
“You love Chrom, right?”
“I…of course I do.”
“And you wouldn’t let any harm come to him? You would do anything to protect him?”
“Yes.” He could see that she was struggling to hold his gaze. He gripped her hand tighter. “What are you asking of me?”
“I want you to…” But she stopped. Frowned. Tried again. “If, and I mean if, I do anything to confirm your suspicions about me, if I prove myself a danger to Chrom, then I…”
There was a roaring in his ears. It was as if his head were being held underwater.
“I would like you to kill me. Please.”
The summer night felt suddenly very cold. The metal band pressed beneath his palm was like ice.
“That is ridiculous,” he said, his voice very low. “That is an awful thing to ask.”
“I need your answer.”
“Do you believe you’re a danger to Chrom? Is that it?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“But I don’t know that, do I? There are still so many things I don’t know about myself.”
There was something pinched in her voice, and for a second, Frederick thought she was going to drop her head onto his chest again. But she didn’t. She took a deep breath and drew her shoulders back.
“I just want to have something in place,” she said. “I wanted to have discussed this with you before we go any further.
“But why ask it of me at all? Robin, I proposed to you. I said that I would protect you.”
“And if that becomes incompatible with protecting Chrom?”
He must have flinched, because Robin’s face softened. She placed her hand on his arm.
“I do love you, Frederick,” she said. “And I know how much you care about me. But I refuse to make you weak. I won’t do that to you.”
He wanted to tell her that she hadn’t. That he had felt stronger fighting by her side. But he wasn’t sure she would believe him. Not now, at least.
Robin studied his face. She removed her hand from his arm.
“It probably won’t come to that,” she said. “I’m probably worried about nothing.”
That was her concession to him. Maybe they wouldn’t need this. Maybe.
“And would you do the same for me?” he asked. “If you had to choose between my life and his, would you choose his?”
“Yes.”
Her reply was quick and painless. It surprised him, how painless it was. For him, at least.
“I would do it,” Robin said. She spoke coolly, but he saw now that her jaw was tight. “It would kill me, and Chrom would hate it. But you would hate me if I didn’t. So I would.”
Frederick wondered if he should be proud of her. After all, he’d wanted her to prove her loyalty. This was loyalty, wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it?
“Alright,” he said, though he didn’t feel like it was. “Then I shall do as you ask. If the need arises, that is. Though I trust that it will not.”
“Swear it.”
“Excuse me?”
Her eyes were steel-hard.
“You’re a knight. Do you swear it?”
Robin had balled her hands in her skirt. The moonlight caught her ring. It gleamed like a tooth.
Frederick met her gaze and willed his heart into a fist.
“I do.”