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“Come on, Tharja, don’t tell me you’re planning on lying under that tree all afternoon.”
“Yeah, come and play with the rest of us! We’re going to see if Noire is ready to swim on her own.”
Tharja looked up from her book and glared darkly at Chrom and Robin. The two were leaning over her, and though she could appreciate the view granted by the swimming clothes Robin was wearing, she was otherwise annoyed by the interruption.
“…you go ahead. I’d rather stay here.” She turned her eyes back to her book and flipped the page for emphasis.
Chrom and Robin straightened up and shared a Look between themselves. Robin leaned back down, positioning her arms in such a way to show off certain… assets… which had to be on purpose.
“Are you sure, Tharja…? The girls and Morgan would really like it if you joined us.”
“I’m sure.”
Robin straightened up again, and Tharja ignored her frown. Chrom came forward to put a hand on Robin’s shoulder.
“C’mon, honey. Let’s not leave the kids waiting.”
“R-right. Well, Tharja, if you want to join us, we won’t be far.”
“I know. ...have fun.”
And when she went back to her book, she couldn’t help but watch the goings’ on—just over the top of her book, of course.
“S-so Mother won’t be joining us?”
“I’m afraid not, sweetheart.”
Noire sat cross-legged on the sand with her younger self in her lap, helping the toddler Noire to make a lopsided sand castle that looked more like a sand blob. The two of them looked remarkably similar—at least, as similar as an adult woman and a toddler could look—with the notable exception that the adult Noire had Robin’s white hair and her baby counterpart had Tharja’s black.
“It’s alright,” Noire said, helping smooth down the top of the sand mound. “It was a long shot anyway. Mother never really liked… playing around outside.”
“She was preoccupied with other things, for the most part,” Lucina explained. The younger Lucina had found a stick, probably from the same trees Tharja was sitting under, and was drawing in the wet sand closer to the water; Chrom kept an eye on her from afar just in case she decided to wander into the ocean on her own. She could swim, but not well enough for him to trust her to swim without someone nearby. “With the two of you gone, she… really started to focus on her studies.”
Chrom knew that was code for locking herself up somewhere dark and suitably creepy to work on her curses.
“Well, that might have made sense then, with Grima threatening the world… but there’s no reason for it now.”
“Mother’s just not a very social person, that’s all,” Lucina said, offering a reassuring smile. “She’s not the sort who finds it enjoyable to play around in the sun.”
“She comes from a desert realm; you think she’d be used to the sun.”
“Relax, Chrom.” Robin rested a hand on his shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze. “You know how Tharja is. She just needs her space. She’ll come around sooner or later.”
“I hope so…” Chrom wasn’t entirely certain Robin was right, but he had learned to trust her judgement more than his own.
“Mother! Father!”
Morgan came running up to them with his arms full of shells. He came to a sudden stop in front of the group and dropped his collection in the sand.
“This place is amazing! I’m so glad you brought is all here!” He laughed with wild abandon and plopped down in the sand next to the two Noires. He looked around, and his smile faltered just a bit. “Where’s mum?”
“Oh—she’s just resting over there, under those trees.” Robin gestured somewhere behind them, in Tharja’s general direction. “She’s just absorbed in her book right now.”
“Oh?” Morgan looked disappointed, but it lasted only a moment—before long he was back to his usual smiling self. “Well, I’m sure she’ll want to join us later. Maybe all the excitement is just too much for her.”
“Probably.” Chrom couldn’t help but smile—it was amazing how like Robin Morgan could be sometimes. Though his rampant enthusiasm outshined even hers; she was much more grounded than he was. “For now… there’s no use sitting up here drying out on the beach when there’s so much ocean for us to enjoy. Last one in’s a rotten egg!”
“I’m gonna beat you, father!” Morgan was already on his feet and racing Chrom towards the ocean, leaving the girls to stand back and laugh at their antics.
Robin couldn’t help it, though—as the two of them jumped into a massive wave, she looked back at Tharja (who of course hadn’t moved from under her tree, though she could swear she saw her peeking over the top of her book at them and quickly looking away when she noticed Robin looking at her)—and frowned.
There were high-pitched toddler screams, and Tharja genuinely couldn’t tell if they were happy screams or upset screams. Well-meaning (annoying) people tried to tell her that expertise would come with time, but two toddlers later and she still wasn’t certain.
She peered over the top of her book again to see Noire and… well, Noire, splashing about in the water. The older Noire looked completely baffled by the way her toddler counterpart was kicking and splashing. She was clearly having the time of her life, to the chagrin of her elder sister-slash-keeper. Chrom was floating on his back with the younger Lucina on his chest, which was amusing to her in the way only a child could understand. Morgan and the older Lucina were lazily swimming about, caught up in conversation together.
She couldn’t see Robin anywhere, even when she lowered her book entirely so she could get a better look.
“Looking for someone?”
Tharja jumped when she heard Robin’s voice, much closer than she’d been expecting—but Robin was smart enough to be out of arm’s reach, so she couldn’t smack her for it. Robin laughed and came closer, sitting down next to her and settling in close.
“Still not feeling very social?”
“Am I ever?” Tharja sighed and set her book aside, knowing full well she wasn’t going to get her reading done.
“When the mood strikes you,” Robin replied with a shrug. “But still… I really think you should join us. The kids put up with all of your curses and hexes, is one afternoon of playing around on the beach really such a bad trade?”
Tharja… was silent. Maybe Robin had a point—that was an argument for another time—but she didn’t quite have the whole picture…
“…it’s not like I don’t want to play around. Sometimes. On very rare occasions. …for the sake of the kids.” There, that didn’t sound suspicious at all. “…I just don’t like playing out in the sun. That’s all.”
“W-well, I suppose we can find something else to do… but can I ask why? I think it’s fun to get out and enjoy the nice weather sometimes.”
Tharja mumbled something under her breath.
“What was that?”
“I sunburn easily, okay?” Tharja glowered as she pulled her book up to partially cover her face.
Robin stared at her. And blinked.
And then suddenly started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Tharja was annoyed now, and it generally took her a lot to get annoyed with Robin—not as much as it used to, certainly, now that the two of them were so much more comfortable around each other, but still. She didn’t appreciate being laughed at.
“Y-you come from a desert!”
“I didn’t like the sun there, either.” Tharja frowned even harder at her. “You come from the same desert, you know.”
“Yeah, but I don’t remember it.” Robin sniggered a bit more behind her hand, then cleared her throat. “But that’s really the reason? You’re afraid to get sunburned? …isn’t there some way to stop that sort of thing from happening?”
“I didn’t bring anything like that,” Tharja admitted, cursing her lack of forethought.
“Well… it can’t hurt to play around in the sun for a little while, then go back to the shade, right?” Robin suggested, learning against her side and peering at her with a hopeful expression. Tharja sighed.
“…I guess not. But if I start turning red, you’d better tell me.” She rose to her feet, ignoring the way Robin was grinning triumphantly.
“Don’t worry, you won’t turn into a lobster as long as I’m around,” Robin assured her. “Now, let’s get out there and have some fun, alright?”
“…alright.” Although she couldn’t imagine any of this being much fun… she would put up with it. For now.
When they walked towards the ocean, Tharja squinting from the sun reflecting on the white sand and glistening water, Noire looked up from her flailing counterpart—and nearly lost control of the frantic toddler in surprise.
“M-mother…! I didn’t think you’d want to join us.” Noire pulled up the toddler Noire so she could hold her comfortably instead of trying to keep a grip on a child trying to swim on their own.
“…don’t get used to it,” Tharja replied as she waded into the water. It was a slow process; even lying in the shade, she’d gotten warmed up by the heat of the summer’s day, and the cold water was hard to get used to. “…but it’s not so bad for one afternoon.”
And then Robin decided to grab her from behind and suddenly pull her into the water, so maybe she was wrong about that last part.
“Owwwww ow ow ow!”
“Hold still, you big baby. It will only hurt worse if we don’t put this aloe cream on you.”
“I can’t help it; it stings.”
“Ugggh.”
Tharja rolled her eyes as she rubbed the aloe mixture on Chrom’s bright red shoulders. Robin, with a second tub of the stuff, had been assigned to leg duty.
“I can’t believe that of all of us, you were the one to get the sunburn,” she said as she started massaging Chrom’s legs. Tharja wasn’t nearly as gentle. She was more or less slapping it on his back and rubbing it in with as little grace as possible.
“He was the one who decided to take a nap in the sun,” Tharja said, her voice utterly deadpan. In no reality could she bring herself to feel sorry for him. “You didn’t want to listen, you get what you get.”
Much to her surprise, she’d actually managed to freckle—mostly just on her shoulders, but it wasn’t burning to an absolute crisp, which meant it was a pleasant sort of surprise. Robin had gotten a nice golden tan, like the top of perfectly baked bread. All of the children were various levels of sun baked—but Chrom was the only one who had ended up sunburned.
“I’m never going to the beach again,” Chrom moaned as Tharja moved on to his lower back.
She wasn’t really a ‘playing around in the sun’ kind of person—but maybe it hadn’t been so bad. And seeing Chrom like this made the whole thing worth it.