He hadn't even opened his eyes when he realized that something was wrong.

No, not wrong. 'Wrong' wasn't exactly the right word. Robin settled for 'off'.

Yes, something was off.

Wearily, he opened his eyes to an expansive blue sky. It was calm, as far as he could tell. Birds chirped, the grass and trees blew lightly in the pleasant wind that was also passing over him. Robin swore he could hear water flowing, somewhere nearby. It was a sound that he hadn't heard for a long while. The whole scene, from what he could tell using the senses that were still working, was rather peaceful. It was almost doing a good job of distracting him, of keeping his mind off the heaviness he was feeling right now.

Something was definitely off.

Robin lifted himself to a seated position, his body aching from the position he'd been lying in for who knows how long now. He looked around, taking in his surroundings, filling in the missing details of the picture he was busy filling in. He was in a field, very similar to the one he'd woken up in when he'd first met Chrom.

Chrom.

Robin stood quickly, but staggered, clutching his head. He felt dizzy, no doubt caused by his standing up too quickly. He looked around with his swarming vision, searching for Chrom. Searching for Lissa.

Where were they?

Robin's 'off' feeling was upgrading itself to his original 'wrong' very, very quickly.

He staggered in a direction, feeling a mixture of anxiety, dread, and, as he would quickly realize, a worrying case of deja vu.

"Chrom! Lissa? ...Frederick?!" he called out, in vain. There was no response, and Robin's stomach felt heavy.

There was something wrong with this situation. Yes, this was definitively firmly in the 'wrong' camp, now.

Where were they? They're supposed to be here! Why aren't they here?! This isn't how it's supposed to-

Wait.

'This isn't how it's supposed to go'?

Robin stopped, wracking his brain.

Why did he think that? Was he expecting them to be there when he woke up? Why? He had no reason to expect them to be there. In fact, he had no reason to believe that he'd wake up at all. That he was standing here was a miracle in and of itself, so why was he more concerned than anything.

Robin felt a small headache coming on, and he clutched his head again.

It was then that he registered something on his finger. His ring finger.

He brought his left hand to his eyes, finally noticing the ring on his finger. Robin, despite himself, couldn't help but smile. The proof of his marriage. The matching gift he'd gotten after giving his promise to his wife.

Lovely, lovely Ol-

...

Su-...

Ma-...

...

No. It all begin to slide into place. He felt sick to his stomach. It couldn't possibly be right. He knew it shouldn't be right, but his memories betrayed him.

Why did he expect Chrom and Lissa to be there when he woke up? He knew the answer now, but it didn't even make him feel better anymore. No, it just made him feel worse.

He remembered them being there... the last time. It had all happened before. He remembered watching Sumia sweep Chrom off his feet, barely avoiding getting skewered by javelins. He remembered Emmeryn, walking off the precipice to her death. He remembered their incredibly risky tactic of ramming their ships into the Valmese fleet. He remembered when his clone revealed himself as the future version of Grima, come back to the past. He remembered him sacrificing himself to destroy Grima once and for all.

And he remembered it happening over and over and over again.

He remembered the look on Lissa's face when she opened the box he gave and found a ring inside. He remembered trying to left-field Maribelle for advice on confessing. He remembered Cordelia throwing her home-made javelin off the cliff. He remembered all but thanking Minerva for allowing him to be with Cherche.

He also remembered the look on Lissa's face when she showed him the needlepoint cat she was going to give to Gaius. He remembered Maribelle twiddling with the signet ring on her finger. He remembered how happy Stahl looked when he and Cordelia finished their duet. He remembered watching Donnel lugging an enormous ring back into camp.

The details changed each time, but it happened over and over.

The conclusion hit him like a ton of bricks, and he doubled over, suddenly feeling very nauseated.

He remembered.

He remembered all of it.

A/N: So, here we go. I've finally decided to dip my foot into the sea of fanfic writing. Hopefully I don't drown.

This is the first fanfic I've ever written, and although I've done a bit of creative writing (thanks to PbP RPs), I've never actually gotten around to writing a work of fiction by myself.

I've been toying with two ideas in particular for this fic, after playing Awakening non-stop for the last 2.5 weeks (incidentally, it's not even my Awakening copy. Or my 3DS). The first idea should be fairly obvious from what's seen above. The other one won't show up until maybe a chapter or two later.

Anyways, thanks for reading this if you have been. Please send a review or two my way, and stay tuned for the next chapter (whenever that is)!