Work Text:
“So, how did you two get together? How did you even meet?” Morgan asked her parents, during dinner, while waiting for the desserts to arrive.
At the table, everyone stopped eating to look at Robin and Lucina. There were seven people at this table: Chrom, Sumia, Cynthia, Robin, Morgan and both Lucina, from the present and the future.
“That’s a very sudden question, Morgan…” Robin said, clearly embarrassed. “But… I’m not sure th-”
“This is kind of a long story, Morgan…” Lucina said, thinking about what to say next.
“Oh? Do you finally understand why I fought so hard to avoid telling you, Lucina?” Chrom joined the conversation, trying to tease his daughter.
“No, Father, I still do not understand. I am just trying to find a way to start the story…” Lucina answered, totally missing the joke.
“It was this easy to get the answer? Darn, I should’ve asked sooner.” Cynthia said.
“Hee hee, Robin, it seems like we’ll know how romantic you were.” Sumia teased the man.
The little Lucina stayed silent, as she was always curious to hear stories about the past of her family.
“Thank you, Mother!” Morgan said, as she got her way.
“You’re welcome, dear… I think I could start the story from my world, as it is there that I technically first met Robin… He was usually always talking to members of the Shepherds, or working. I didn’t think a lot about him in those days, I just knew that Father trusted him…”
“You’ve got a good memory, Lucina! When I came in this world, I couldn’t even remember Father’s face, ha ha!” Cynthia commentated.
‘I’m not sure this is something you should be laughing about, Cynthia…’ Lucina thought.
“Even if you weren’t close in your world, was he any different?” Morgan asked, curious.
“Hmm… That may be just an impression I had, but now that I know Robin more, I would say he was a bit… Distant…” She said.
‘That would make sense… If I knew all my life that I could become Grima’s vessel, I probably wouldn’t have wanted others to get too close to me, and to put them at risk…’ He thought, remembering that Grima was the one to cause his amnesia, meaning that in Lucina’s timeline, he had his memories.
“Well, it’s a good thing that this wasn’t the case here.” Chrom said.
Robin wanted to sigh, but decided not to. Now that his wife had started the story, he had to play his part.
“For me, my first encounter with your mother was when she fell from the sky to save Lissa. She was quite distant, as well, at the beginning. For two years we knew almost nothing of her.”
“Not even the fact that she was a woman for a while, might I add.” Chrom said, interrupting his son-in-law.
“What? No way! Ha ha ha ha! I can’t believe you really pushed the Marth persona that far, Lucina!” Cynthia laughed, she didn’t think Lucina really did it.
“Ha ha ha, Mother, to make Father fall in love with you while pretending to be a man, you must have really been a handsome one.” Morgan started to laugh, too.
Chrom and Sumia tried, and failed, to hide their smiles. Lucina was blushing, and Robin looked away.
“Why did you make them think that you were a man?” Little Lucina asked.
Everyone looked at her. Of course, she knew that the Shepherds saved the world, but never knew more, as they wanted her to be old enough to understand before explaining.
“Hmm… It was…” Lucina tried to improvise an answer. “It was… Because I wanted to prank them!” She said. “A good prank is always funny, right? Ha ha…ha…” She finished by laughing awkwardly.
“Oh! I see! Hee hee, yes, you’re right, it is funny to trick people!” The explanation seemed to be enough for Little Lucina.
‘Did… Did she just… Is the reason why Morgan love pranks so much because she received a similar explanation in her world, as a child?’ Robin wondered.
“Oh, Robin, I guess she hid the fact that she is a woman by using that mask Gerome gave her… But what did you think when you saw her without it?” Cynthia asked.
‘Why do you seem as excited to hear this story as Morgan?’ Robin thought. “Well… I did think that she was beautiful, but I couldn’t focus on that… We had more pressing matters to deal with at this moment…”
“Come on, what could be a more pressing matter than you seeing your wife’s face for the first time?” Cynthia said, not satisfied with the answer.
“Saving our aunt Emmeryn, Cynthia.” Lucina answered in Robin’s stead.
Cynthia realized her mistake. “Oh… Sorry…”
Sumia quickly noticed that the room became silent, so, she decided to help Lucina and Robin continue.
“After that, we didn’t see you for two years, Lucina. But I can tell you that Robin didn’t forget you.”
“What do you mean, Mother?” Lucina asked, Robin and her never really talked about this two years gap.
“Oh… Gods… Don’t tell me you remember that…” Robin said.
“I do remember that, Robin.” She said, smiling at him. “Don’t be ashamed, that was cute.” She continued.
“What happened, Grandmother?” Morgan asked.
“One night, while I was pregnant, I decided to go in the gardens, in order to get some fresh air. When I got there, I took a sit, and after a while, I noticed Robin, so I got up, and went to him. Hee hee, I startled him, because he didn’t realize that I entered. And do you know what he answered when I asked him what he was doing here?”
Obviously, only Robin knew, and all the others waited for Sumia to reveal what it was.
Sumia made the best Robin impression she could. “‘Sometimes, I come to check and see if Marth hasn’t returned… She seems to bear heavy responsibilities, and yet, she helped us twice, without letting us return the favor… I just…worry, I guess…’”
For another moment, the room was silent.
“Dawww, Father, that’s so cute! No wonder Mother fell for you!” Morgan exclaimed.
Robin stayed silent, obviously embarrassed. Lucina, while she was happy to hear this, decided to not voice it, in order to allow their story to continue.
“But… It all really started soon after I finally joined the Shepherds.” She said.
“I remember, except for your family, you pretty much isolated yourself from the others, Robin being one of the rare exceptions… Hmm… Maybe I could’ve seen it coming, had I paid more attention…” Chrom said, thinking of her first few weeks among his army, and of the surprise it had been when they revealed their relationship to him.
“Yes… Now, I realize that I could have opened up to them, but I don’t regret having been careful. But, I needed to talk to Robin. As our tactician, it was important that he, more than anyone else, understood his role. So, one evening, I went to him, and waited until he finished what he was doing, and told him as much.”
Everyone turned to Robin, who guessed that it was his turn.
“I listened to her, and assured her that I would do everything in my power. That I would never stop fighting for her, Chrom, and all the people of the world.” He explained. “She thanked me, and told me that it was what she wanted to hear. After that, we stayed silent for a while, and she took her leave.”
Morgan was smirking, so Robin looked at her questioningly.
“Aw, that was the first time you spoke alone, and you told her that you would never stop fighting for her! You’re so romantic, Father!” She said in all honesty.
Lucina smiled silently, Cynthia and Sumia giggled.
“Robin, you’re blushing, hee hee hee!” Little Lucina exclaimed.
Robin blushed a bit more after the child pointed it out. Chrom rolled his eyes, amused. He was used to living with Sumia and her love for romances, so it wasn’t a surprise to him that her daughters and granddaughter liked that as much as her.
Robin cleared his throat, in order to change the subject, unfortunately, the tactician was now the center of attention, and had to continue.
“The… The next time we had a moment together, it was when I noticed your mother, all alone.” He said to Morgan, trying to ignore the eyes of the others.
“I…” Lucina hesitated, he knew that the others wouldn’t like what she was doing, and Robin knew, too. And she decided that it was for the best if she was the one talking about it.
“I was thinking of my world, wondering if there was survivors, or if no one was left… Robin did his best to empathize with me, even if he admitted that he could hardly imagine what it was like living there…” She explained.
“After that, I asked some questions, in order to have a better grasp on it… Only to have confirmation that over there, nothing could be done anymore.” Robin said.
“And it is at this moment that I confessed to him why, no matter how dangerous a situation could be, I had to take the risks, otherwise, it could’ve been our defeat… After that… He made me realize something… That I… That I didn’t have to do everything alone… That I had friends I could rely on… That I also had…him…” She said, with a smile and a blush when she reached that last part.
“Robin… Did you court my daughter whenever you had the chance?” Chrom said, obviously joking.
“Father! This wasn’t like that! He was genuine when he tried to help me!” Lucina exclaimed, defending Robin’s intentions, because she didn’t get her father’s joke.
Robin was grateful, because thanks to Lucina’s reaction to Chrom’s joke, all the eyes on him that were ready to tell him that ‘he was cute’ were now on Lucina, thinking that ‘she’s cute’.
“Lu… Lucina, I know that Robin isn’t one to take advantage of people’s weaknesses in order to win their heart… I was just joking…” Chom said, still not used at how much Lucina wasn’t getting jokes.
“But I do wonder. When did you two realize your feelings?” Morgan asked, in order to distract her mother from being saddened to have, once again, failed at recognizing irony.
“Well… I don’t know when I realized exactly… But I did start to question my feelings soon before that conversation… Ha ha…ha…” Robin said, laughing but embarrassed. ‘Why am I the only one to be embarrassed at this table?’ He wondered.
“As for me… It was soon after that… I started to think of him from times to times, wondering what he would think, or what he was doing… I… I didn’t think too much about it at the time… Thinking that since I wasn’t talking to a lot of people, it was normal that I had the few I was talking to often in my mind… I started to question it when we started to recruit more and more time travelers, and that he continued to take more place in my thoughts…”
“Oh yeah! I remember! Sometimes when Robin crossed our path in the camps, you would follow him with your eyes for a moment, before shaking your head to re-focus on what you were doing!” Cynthia exclaimed.
“Oh… You saw that? … That’s embarrassing…” Lucina answered, blushing.
“Hee hee, not only me! You know that for us, from the future, it was very easy to see your change of behavior. We would have started to make bets, if we didn’t all agree on what was going on. Well, more exactly, Owain, Inigo, Brady, Severa and I agreed. Kjelle and Gerome noticed how your face brightened when he was passing by, but didn’t care about it… I swear, they’re no fun sometimes, they even told us to ‘grow up’… And for the others… Well, you officially got with him, and we met Morgan before them, and I think I don’t need to remind you of how they reacted, hee hee!” Cynthia explained, making her sister blush even more.
‘I think I am starting to understand why you didn’t want to talk about your love story with Mother to me, Father… We easily become embarrassed… But, my daughter wants to know, and I will give her what she wants!’ Lucina thought. One of the things that hadn’t change since the war ended was her wish to spoil her daughter.
Lucina cleared her throat, letting the others know that she was back on track. “A-Anyway. After that, some time passed, and in addition of some small talks we had when we saw each other, I believe there was another important conversation before the confession of your father.” She said to Morgan.
Robin chuckled. “Oh, I think I know what you’re talking about.”
“One day, he went to me, and asked me a question. And from my answer, he deduced why I was so wary of everyone and why I felt like I had to do everything myself… He then managed to make me promise to take more care of myself… I was really moved… I really didn’t know what I could possibly have done for you to care that much about me… But it made me very happy…. So happy, that it is then that all the doubts I had left about my feelings disappeared…” She said, blushing, but smiling.
“Well… What can I say, I already realized my feelings, and I genuinely was worried that you would suffer from over exhaustion. I would’ve been worried regardless of my feelings, but these sure made my keep my eyes on you, and care for you more…” He said, looking at her in the eyes.
After some seconds where they kept looking at each other, it was Chrom who cleared his throat. “Robin, I don’t mind that you’re married to my daughter… But could you, maybe, not flirt with her right in front of me?”
Robin shook his head and looked away. “Right, sorry, Chrom…”
“Oh, come on, Chrom, they were so adorable…” Sumia chided her husband.
“Psst, Robin.” Cynthia whispered.
He turned to her.
“Just so you know, we did notice that she was taking a bit more care of herself. Still not enough in my opinion, but that was to be expected from Lucina. But, thanks anyway.” She said, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“I’m glad to hear it.” He answered, whispering, too.
“What’s next?! What’s next?!” Little Lucina asked, starting to get impatient.
“Well, I guess that it would make sense if I was the one to start the last part of this story.” Robin said.
He looked at his wife, who nodded, and he spoke once more. ‘Almost over with this…’ He thought.
“So… One day, I saw some flowers outside… I thought ‘I’d like to offer some to Lucina’… And before I realized it, I picked them up… I asked myself ‘What am I doing? I know that I can’t just tell her…’. But then, I saw her, from far away, and I followed her without thinking too much about it… When I finally caught up to her, I gave her the flowers. She asked me what was it that we were celebrating… And, for the last time, I lied to her, or maybe to myself… I told her that it was to cheer her up. But, when I said that, she looked pain…” He was going to continue, but was briefly interrupted.
“I feared that you were doing too much for me… That you were over exhausting yourself… I felt guilty…” She admitted.
He looked at her, and put on a smile. “And so, I finally confessed that despite her being the daughter of a true friend, despite how hard I tried not to… I fell helplessly in love with her… And that I knew that no matter what was yet to come, my feelings couldn’t change.”
Lucina returned the smile, and closed her eyes, in order to revisualize the scene. “As for me, I was relieved. I feared my love for him… But with his confession, and my own feelings… I finally had the courage to tell him that he was in my heart as well. And he promised me to always be here for me… As for me, I promised that no matter what the future hold, I would cherish every moment…”
When Lucina opened her eyes, she saw her mother, and sister crying.
“This is so romantic…” Sumia said.
“Robin, I swear that if you ever betray your promises, I will chase you down and give you a taste of a hero’s anger…” Cynthia said, just as moved as her mother.
Chrom just smiled. ‘I know that you’re trustworthy, my friend. And I only hope for you to be happy, Lucina.’ He thought.
Little Lucina said nothing, she was just enjoying the story.
Morgan chuckled. “Hehe, I’m happy, you two have a beautiful story! Thank you for sharing it for me.”
Soon after all of that, the family finally got their desserts, and they went on another subject.
However, Morgan couldn’t help but notice that her parents almost never stopped looking at each other.
They were thinking back on everything they lived together, and how they will continue to cherish every moment.