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Robin didn't believe in soulmates, well, no, he couldn't anymore.
Not when the letters inked onto his skin betrayed him, especially when the owner of the name had revealed his own soulmate's name laced onto his wrist to be of another.
So when a hit not meant for him had sliced through his stomach, Robin couldn't help but to feel releaved that he will soon leave this cruel world that had forced him to watch his best friend, his soulmate to love another.
When Robin steps out of the castle that were almost in ruins, his boots click onto the stone path, grass and weeds had overgrown between the cracks and the area surrounding the building isn't better either, mostly everything was in ruins or were dead.
Not to mention the bones that litter the ground.
Robin supposes that this is his punishment for his sins in his existence, when he was alive.
He turns his gaze upwards, to the blood red sky that is the closest to a morning here that he'll get, at least when nightfall comes the land is covered in darkness with only the moon leaving light, along with the mist that lightly clouds over the grounds.
Robin knows that he's not needed in part of Hel's plans, currently at war with the realm of the living, he's only a second option. He's only Hel's tactician when needed.
Even when dead, he supposes that his knowledge of war will always stick with him, the only thing he's useful for.
Lif and Thrasir call him naive, though Robin doesn't say much. He doesn't know what he's fighting for after all he was only brought here for his skills of being a tactician in his previous life, repeating it here. From the knowledge he was granted by Hel, he would have called Lif out but he'd be a hypocrite if he hasn't tried to do the same for his loved one.
He doesn't quite care for Thrasir's reasoning, so he doesn't bother with her much.
But Lif catches his attention, the other had reminded him of the one whom name is inked onto his skin.
Robin wonders if Lif minds that he spends his time around him, trailing behind but not to close like he had done with a certain someone when he was alive but deep inside he knows that he's only indulging himself because of that almost similar shade of hair.
Lif doesn't say anything about it though, shared glances between one another and lingering touches shared without anyone around besides the bones left behind. Robin thinks Lif also misses these kinds of affections when they had been alive, living, when he places a kiss to the skin at his forehead, the one place Hel hadn't taken.
They can be miserable together.
But they're at war with the living and Robin looks over the maps and plans that he had drawn out for Hel, he's kept in the dark but that doesn't matter. He's here to do a job.
Hel sends him out to distract the enemy, Lif and Thrasir already sent out on their own missions long ago.
Bones snap underneath his boots as he walks through this graveyard of bones, he keeps his vision set straight ahead, Robin doesn't much care about who's remains he's stepping on.
He has a job to do as he sweeps his emotions aside.
How terribly unhuman of him.
He doesn't know how long he waits, with the voices of the dead whispering to him, crying out from underneath his feet as hands reach out. This is all in his mind, Robin thinks to himself as he closes his eyes.
Then he hears them, the Askr army, the living.
But he knew they would eventually make it through here, and so did Hel.
This place is suppose to be their deathbed after all.
With a deep breath he doesn't really need, his eyes open, scanning through what heroes he had read in the library of the castle left in ruins Hel had claimed.
Robin wishes that maybe, he could have been summoned to the other side as a hero then be here. The thought leaves him bitter, though this isn't the first time he's thought this but the universe is so cruel.
He recognizes some faces from the books he had read in his spare time, and even if it pains him he also sees faces of comrades, friends, in the mix.
But his breath hitches when he sees him.
It's when they lock eyes that Robin begins to feel something in his chest start to move, to beat, once again since how long now? He hasn't felt like this in so long, maybe centuries, that it pains him. This feeling of wanting to grasp what is most important to him and cling onto it with all his being, to never let go how he had already done before.
But then Robin remembers that this is a battle field and that they are the enemies in the opposite side, the living, where corpses shouldn't be alive and free.
Robin blinks, the claws on his gauntlets dig into the olden material of his tomb, leaving scratches in it's stead with along all of the other marks left on it's cover.
He is the one that commands Hel's undead army, after all he is Hel's tactician.
But even so—
'I-I..' Robin hesitates for a moment before the contract that binds him to Hel takes over for him, to do his job correctly. Raising a clawed hand with magic to let the dead do Hel's bidding, rise from the scattered bones that had been left forgotten, abandoned, on the battle field to fight once again.
"Gods— They're rising from the ground!" Robin's eyes catch onto a girl with long blonde hair screech while she steps closer to a male with dark blue hair that almost looks familiar to him.
"Sharena! Stay close! You too Kiran!" The male shouts while he unshielded his sword at his side, stepping up to protect the girl and hooded figure to strike at a boney hand that tries to reach out for them.
Robin closes his eyes again as Hel's enemies here to battle gasp in horror at the sight, he doesn't want to see the expressions from them, the distressed and terror in their voices tell him enough as the undead fully comes to.
"Robin—!"
Robin's eyes snap open as his name is called between the sounds of metal and the sickening sounds of bones breaking, cracking.
He sees him as their eyes meet again, clear blues and amber brown, and the ache in his chest along with the rapid beating of his non existing heart.
Then Robin turns, ready to flee like the coward he is while the dead fights for him, giving him the chance to run, and so he does.
"Wait—!" A voice calls out for him.
Robin doesn't turn, instead he quickens his pace.
"We're advancing! Don't give up everyone!" Someone says in the background but Robin isn't paying attention, he needs to leave, to get out of here, to get as far away from those sets of eyes on his back.
This was just a distraction anyways.
So it's surprising when he's caught, back pressed against one of the lifeless trees in the forest, or what you can call a forest in this hel.
Strong hands on his shoulders hold him there and Robin refuses to look upwards, keeping his head and gaze downcast while the other shakes in front of him, his eyes trail over the familiar design of the outfit and follows over to the arm filled with colour with a brand on the shoulder.
"Robin.. What, why..?" He sounds so heartbroken while he rests his head between Robin's shoulder, the hands at his shoulders move down then wrap around him, and Robin doesn't say anything as he feels the life in this man holding him close, this warmth from the other even through his torn tattered clothes.
"Chrom.." A name comes out from between cold lips, and as if the words inked onto his wrist ever meant anything, it almost burns him underneath his armor.
Robin closes his eyes when the body pressed against him pulls away but the arms wrapped around him, lingering back to his shoulders again originally. He doesn't want to see the man standing in front of him with the concern that will surely be in those eyes that haunt him, meant for him, when a hand reaches out and gently rests on a cold cheek Robin only turns his head away, refusing.
They're enemies here, he doesn't have the right to look into those eyes.
"Robin, open your eyes, please." Chrom says so soothing, like he is talking to a frightened child, his hand moving back down to grasp ahold of one of Robin's hand, before squeezing in reassurance. "It's okay." He says quietly, only for Robin to hear.
Robin can't disobey, not when it's Chrom who as always is being so gentle with him, even in his own universe Chrom is always a gentle soul.
He opens his eyes to only quickly avert them down to his corner left, bits of blue caught in his peripheral before one of Chrom's hands return back to his cheek.
"Please look at me." Robin wonders if Chrom knows that those words almost break him, but he does as the hand on his cheek is so warm coming from the one person who he had sworn to protect.
Chrom smiles at him which Robin wants to curl in on himself because Chrom doesn't know the horrors he had done in Hel's stead, unlike Lif and Thrasir he can't toss away his emotions as well as they can.
"Why come after me?" Robin can't help but to get to the point, they're not friends here, not when they're fighting on different sides in a war. Robin can, will, toss Chrom aside in Hel's favour. "We're nothing but enemies."
"I, ah.." Chrom tenses under Robin's piercing eyes set on him, his hands grip at the tattered clothes on either side of his arms. "I know that we're.. We're fighting on different sides, but.. Robin, why? What happened?"
Robin blinks, why? He didn't have a choice in this, he's only doing what was given to him, nothing else. As for what happened, nothing happened. He's just doing as he was told.
Chrom's concern is meaningless, he doesn't need him.
"Nothing you need to know." Robin finally says, Chrom doesn't need to know anything.
"Robin, please." Chrom looks pained but Robin just shrugs, shaking his head.
"Then.. tell me this much," Chrom moves back, his hands still on Robin, just enough to see his face.
"Yes?" Robin meets blue eyes again, he can at least be honest here with Chrom before this moment ends.
"I.." Chrom hesitates for a moment, trying to put his words together before it comes out all jumbled. "You felt it too, didn't you? When we, when our eyes met." Chrom finishes as a gloved finger runs over the cuffs of his glove.
Robin stays silent for a moment while thinking back, the sudden ache in his chest as soon as their eyes had met, the sudden burning sensation, how he had felt so whole for a split second before the emptiness had came back—
Oh.
Of course, the universe is cruel.
"I can't believe this." Robin laughs pitifully to himself, because Chrom is his soulmate, he had always been his soulmate from the very beginning Robin was born.
Soul mates that were born in completely different universes, only to meet on different sides, the dead and living.
"How cruel." Robin mutters under his breath.
"I'm sorry." Chrom says while wiping at the tears that had formed at the corner of Robin's tired eyes.
They don't say anything, Robin lets the tears fall only because it's Chrom here, he wants to laugh at his miserable life that continues to go on even in death. When will his suffering end?
"Robin." Chrom says while he runs a hand through the soft white of Robin's hair. "Come back with me, we can work something out, it doesn't have to be this way."
Those words set off the rest of Robin's tears, he wants to go with Chrom, his soulmate, he truly does, he wants to be saved from this suffering.
"I can't— I'm bonded to her— I-I can't— I'm— I'm your enemy—" Robin chokes out, fingers desperately clinging onto Chrom, he never wants to let go but—
"I'll save you." Chrom whispers while he holds Robin, his Robin, his soulmate, in his arms.
"Chrom—" Robin tries to say but then warmth floods him for a second as Chrom presses a kiss onto cold lips.
"I promise."