Chapter Text
For a moment or two, Robin touches that vast nothingness. It exists around him, in him - he is within the nothingness, and he is nothing. Touch, emotion, love - these things cannot exist, and yet he knows what they are, knows that he wants them.
And then he sees her - the great dragon, lovely and alien. Her voice echoes across him, flaying him to the core with its strength, but it also draws him back to his body, his pale existence.
“Slaying Grima has caused the end of your life as well, Fellblood. I did not promise it would be a swift death, or that you would return. But you have done a great thing, and the world shall know and remember what you have done.”
Her words are meant to be comforting.
Breath fills him, his cold, dying body surrounding him, holding his spirit to this plane for a little while longer. He jolts against the pillows that he knows Morgan put behind him, hours or days ago. When he parts his dry lips, someone puts a cup of water to them. He drinks, and knows his time is approaching.
A soft voice is speaking beside him, has been speaking for some time. “…okay, Robin… it’s okay. More healers are coming soon… from Regna Ferox, from Valm… from across the far seas, if I have to. I’ll save you… just please, stay with me?” He recognizes the voice.
“Chrom,” Robin says, opening tired, foggy eyes.
“Robin!” Chrom sounds surprised, as if he didn’t expect Robin to come back this time.
Robin can’t make out the newly exalted prince too well, but he sees a blur of blue hair. When Chrom comes close enough, there’s no mistaking the pain in his blue eyes. Robin touches his face, his fingers trembling, and Chrom squeezes his eyes shut. Robin feels Chrom’s tears splash down on his hand and arm.
At least he can still feel, although judging by the tingling in his legs beneath the supposedly warm blankets, he won’t experience that for much longer.
That thought should fill him with some emotion, fear or pain or anger, but it doesn’t. Not yet. He feels numb and cold, and so tired. If he could just sleep, he thinks he might feel better… but something in the back of his mind won’t let him sleep just yet.
He had expected to fade immediately after Grima - everyone was relieved that he survived. They had celebrated, as Robin braced for the worst, but hours and then days passed. He had just started believing that he had been spared, that he would survive - and then, a week after killing Grima, his body started failing him.
The weakness grew worse and worse, spreading through his body, and none of the healers had been able to help him.
Robin’s hand falls to the bed, muscles heavy and tired. His body aches and burns, and parts of it are going numb. “You know I’m… dying, don’t you, Chrom?”
“No, that’s not true,” Chrom protests, and his voice sounds like glass shattering, so fragile and jagged.
“It’s happening… as Naga said it would.” Robin draws in a breath and expels it slowly. “I’m fading like Grima.”
“No. Stop that! You’ll be fine!”
“Chrom,” Robin chides.
Chrom’s face is tight and distressed, and close enough that Robin can see it clearly. Part of Robin wishes Chrom would back up, disappear into nondescript fuzziness, so Robin won’t have to see his lover’s pain. His chest hurts, and he realizes he’s forgotten to keep breathing.
A quick gasp, and he forces the air into and out of his lungs.
Chrom finally says something other than false promises. “Robin… I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Robin says.
Tears form in his eyes. Not for himself - no, these tears are for Chrom, who has to watch Robin die a slow death. Robin wishes there were something he could do to keep Chrom from feeling this pain. Robin loves Chrom as a friend, a soulmate, and when he spoke of being two halves of the same whole, Robin meant it. He knows that his death will break something in Chrom, much as the exalt’s death would do something unfixable to Robin.
Chrom is a beacon of light to him, the man who pulled him from the ground and dared to offer his hand in friendship - and eventually more than friendship.
He loves Chrom with every fiber of his being - every unwinding strand, as he comes apart and disappears into the unknown.
Robin shakes his head, running his fingers through Chrom’s hair. He speaks, because if he doesn’t, he’s going to panic, and he has to stay strong for Chrom. “Don’t say that, Chrom. You didn’t know… it would be like this.” His voice trails off into a weak cough, and it is difficult to draw breath for a moment, as if his own body is protesting the very air he needs to survive.
Chrom rubs at Robin’s back, and helps hold him upright as he gasps, and after a few moments his lungs relax. The exalt wraps his arms around Robin, gently, and rests his head against Robin’s shoulder. “I know, but… Robin. I’m sorry you are suffering like this, Robin. I love you. I’m sorry we couldn’t find another solution. I’m sorry that you’re leaving me and you might never-” he cuts off with a wordless noise, almost a sob, not quite a cry.
You might never come back, Robin finishes for Chrom, and fat tears leak down Robin’s face too. In that instant Robin knows that Chrom feels the approaching emptiness too, the pain of an empty heart. They huddle together against it, protecting this small dwindling flame from the chill winds.
“Chrom, it’s okay.” Robin twists as much as he can and puts his arm around him, feeling Chrom shudder as he struggles to keep the tears away. And now the tingling is in Robin’s hands, and he raises one up and realizes that he can see through it.
“Chrom,” Robin says urgently, and the exalt looks up.
“No,” he hisses, touching Robin’s hand. Robin can barely feel his grip, as if through wads of cloth. It is so cold, colder than he’s ever been, but his body has no energy to even shiver.
“Chrom, I’m scared - I’m so scared,” Robin gasps, and Chrom clasps his hand tight, a lifeline to safety and security and comfort. Robin feels something deep within him start to crumble, like an old stone wall weathered away by time and inevitability. “It’s dark and cold and empty and I don’t want to go yet-” The words tumble out of him, and he was going to be strong but he can’t, not in this instant when his body is literally fading before his eyes. He brings his hands up to his face and covers it, but he can see through them. “I don’t want fade into nothingness-” He chokes on the words and cannot continue.
“Listen to me,” Chrom says, and there are tears in his eyes, but there’s also that determination that made Robin fall in love with him so long ago. Robin watches through fading eyes as Chrom pulls himself back together with that strength that made him continue on after Emmeryn’s death, after their betrayal in Valm, after Robin stole the Fire Emblem from him at his father’s request. Chrom sits up straighter and clasps Robin’s face and cheeks. His hands are warm on Robin’s skin, and the touch stabilizes him.
“Listen to me,” Chrom repeats. “There is no nothingness. There’s something out there, when we die. I don’t know what it is, but there is somewhere that you will still exist. I don’t believe that Emmeryn is gone for good, and you…” Chrom swallows hard, but keeps pushing through the tightness in his throat. “You won’t be gone forever, either. I love you, and I will find you again. In this life or the next, even if we never come back to this world again. I will find you.”
Robin stares at Chrom, hopeful in spite of what he’s felt. It sounds so promising. Chrom has never lied to him. Robin believes him, as he trusts him. He raises a fading hand and presses against Chrom’s hand on his cheek. Through the icy numbness he feels Chrom’s skin beneath his palm, for just an instant, but it is enough.
He knows how hard it must be for Chrom to be strong in this instant, but he’s doing it for Robin.
Chrom continues, still crying, “I will miss you so much, Robin, but it’s okay. You did a great thing, getting rid of Grima for good.”
Robin pulls Chrom to him for a gentle kiss. A brush of lips is all he can manage, but Chrom closes his eyes and just rests his forehead against Robin’s for a moment. Robin can feel Chrom’s hair pressed between their skin.
“I love you,” Chrom says after a pause. “And if you don’t come back to me in this lifetime, Robin… May we meet again in a better one.”
His words sink deep into Robin, into that calm center, and he swears he can feel that invisible tie connecting him to Chrom, to Morgan, to every one of the Shepherds.
“We will. I know we will.” Already Robin can feel that darkness seeping into his body, but he’s not afraid of it any longer.
Robin smiles, even as Chrom rises and goes to the door, calling urgently for Morgan.
His daughter staggers over to Robin, her eyes dark as she takes in his fading hands. She throws herself into his arms, and he feels her arms around his body for all of an instant. Over her head, he locks eyes with Chrom, his eyesight suddenly clear.
“I love you,” he whispers into Morgan’s hair, as he stares at Chrom.
Those invisible ties are with him as he slips out of his cloak and into the soft, welcoming darkness.