The Game of Love

Disclaimer: I do not own Super Smash Brothers or Hyrule Warriors. That goes to Nintendo. The only characters I own are those from the Golden Land, angels from Skyworld including the royal bodyguards, Angel Assembly and archangels along with all the other angels and of course the witch hunters.

Summary: Rob was always three steps ahead of the game as long as it didn't concern his sister. However when it came to the game of love, he always ended up one taking one step back. There was no way he could actually confess to Shulk, so a certain witch takes advantage of this situation despite the red flags being waved.

Pairing: Rob/Shulk, Reyn/Pittoo, Pit/Virtue (OC), implied Pit/Rob, Magnus/Dunban, Cloud/Sharla, one-sided Pittoo/Lana and Rob/Cia

Rated: T (for teen) and E (for explicit) on AO3

Genre: Romance, Drama, Humor, Friendship and Hurt/Comfort

Warning: Sexual themes, nudity, swearing, violence and unintentional OOC

This would be my Christmas gift to Ignitious who is obsessed with trash, so I'll write it in my universe just this once. Enjoy!

"And that is checkmate."

An eyebrow began to twitch as the chessboard began to shake. Red veins were popping up over the loser's head as the person threatened to flip the chessboard over in anger. An evil growl escaped the person's lips as the loser looked over to the winner of the game who had an arrogant smirk plastered on his lips. He sat in his chair like a king and waited for his opponent to respond.

"Despite Zelda's claim, you're not really good at strategy, Cia."

Cia was just about done with the male tactician across from her at this point. She was never a chess person and just wanted to play with Rob to pass the time. The black witch wanted two things out of the male tactician. The first was she wanted Rob to lose the game of chess, so she can prove that her strategies back in Hyrule were actually good and not reckless like Ganondorf had claimed. Rob had proven to her otherwise by using chess as a metaphor of Cia's actions and beat her more easily than Zelda did in the actual battle. The second, more sinister thing Cia wanted was for Rob to let his guard down so she can use him as a guinea pig for her new spell. She had resisted the urge on using it on the male tactician and actually considered using it on Link or Dark Pit instead, but she knew she would be in big trouble if she used them. Cia had promised never to have Link be involved in her schemes in order to not invoke the wrath of Hylia. As for Dark Pit…after what she did that one timeline to him when he was trying to get her to trust him, she actually felt awful putting him through hell when he just wanted to be her friend.

Rob was a different story and was risky business. On one hand, Cia didn't have many sympathy points for the white haired magician compared to the other guys that came to mind with testing this sort of spell. On the other hand, Lana had made it her goal to make Rob's life easier in the previous timeline seeing as how Rob was a huge victim of Raven's timeline shenanigans. There was also the fact that Cia did not want to be on the receiving end of the Monado. Shulk was a very kind individual, but Cia had noted that when a Homs had found a mate, they go above and beyond to make sure that their loved ones stayed safe. Shulk was the most dangerous Homs with a sword that can slay a God and make the other Goddesses in the mansion cower at the idea that Shulk could one day turn on them and kill them.

In this timeline though, Rob has yet to confess his feelings to Shulk. There was a pattern that Cia picked up rather immediately. Rob and Shulk would first meet when Master Hand brought in the newcomers. He would arrange the rooms up to how he saw fit, and then gave everyone a tour of Smashopolis to understand the place they were living in. Rob and Shulk would hit off their friendship rather quickly due to their similar tastes. When it was time for Rob to fall for Shulk though, he would start entering a phase where would distance himself from everyone and become rather shy. Cia had to go to Smash Library to see what the books said about Homs behavior. Most Homs tended to be the ones to fall in love first and were usually the ones to resist the temptation of a mate. It would be proven futile once the relationship started and it was difficult for a Homs to leave a relationship. They were a proud, dedicated race of aliens after all.

Ironically, this rule didn't seem to apply to Shulk a lot. He was as oblivious as a Slowking and Pit had constantly made that analogy in the past. The blond had failed to pick up that the older Smasher had developed feelings for him, and as a result made the process of hooking up longer than it needed to be. Compare that to Shulk's best friend Reyn who became overprotective of Dark Pit the longer he got to know him. Shulk's mentor Dunban, who normally wouldn't care about romantic relationships unless he was doing the matchmaking, would surprisingly fall into the same quiet, "submissive" state concerning his apparent crush on Magnus.

Even if the rule did not apply to Shulk now, Cia did not want to see his possessive side kick in and be on the receiving end up if. Cia was not a trustworthy individual, so she would be mauled down the minute she stepped out of line. If it weren't for Dark Pit, the witch twins wouldn't be able to walk around the mansion. The black witch felt like this was just taking advantage of Dark Pit seeing as how he had made it clear that he will work with anybody who is willing to atone. The white haired witch wouldn't be able to do so in a while…

"Cia, I hope you understand that some people just cannot win at chess."

Rob was making things Cia forget there would be consequences for using Rob in her plan instead of the other boys who would have forgiven her for her actions. She gritted her teeth as she shot him the nastiest glare imaginable.

"Are you calling me a loser?"

She shouldn't be letting Rob taunt her like this. She had forgotten that when Rob was in this stage of denial for his feelings for Shulk, he became rather smug to hide the fact that he had fallen for his Homs friends. Taking it out on someone who was equally as arrogant as he was would push her over the edge.

"If you keep charging in recklessly, then yes. I think I can label you as such…wouldn't you agree Cia?"

That does it! He was a dead man. Or rather, a puppet in Cia's eyes that was meant to be dominated.

"Stop your chirping, you stupid bird." She hissed as her eyes started to grow a bright purple. Her hands started to grow the same color as her eyes. Rob realized too late that he messed with the wrong woman. "You want to sit on a tree branch high above where no one can reach you? Well, you can come to the ground now and be my servant. Obey!"

If Rob wasn't caught off guard, he probably would have been able to avoid her hypnotism spell. She let out an evil laugh at how easy it was to control the smaller male. In the back of her mind, she was still wondering if this was a good idea…

Cia had to wonder how things got to this point. Looking back though…it was still her fault.

The witch twins did what they did in the previous timeline (when Lana came up with a plan to help Rob out by introducing him to Gretel very early on, so the two would always encounter each other from that timeline onward. This would help Rob's self-esteem greatly thus allowing many bad things from previous timelines from occurring sooner). They reintroduced themselves to Dark Pit as his allies. They were met with the same resistance as last time, but the dark angel still trusted their words and asked Master Hand if they could be pardoned for whatever they had done in Hyrule. This infuriated Zelda, annoyed Ganondorf, and got words thrown at him by Midna (with Ghirahim snarking in silence behind Ganondorf). They didn't need to stay in the mansion though seeing as the two would just steal the room of a potential Smasher and stay in there unless something came up.

Then they set things up for Rob to meet Gretel without the whole three weeks of secrecy that the white haired magician put the Monado boy through. This allowed Shulk to accept Gretel more easily, but at the same time, it would take even longer for Shulk to realize that he liked Rob more than a friend.

With Gretel, things should have been easier for Rob. Technically, it was because the pink haired confectioner had apparently told Rob that beating around the bush wasn't going to get Shulk to notice his feelings. He had to be more open if he wanted Shulk to be his boyfriend. Unfortunately, Rob was too shy to confess his true feelings and ended up moping around the mansion when he wasn't helping Gretel at work.

Cia is very much aware of Rob's schedule just from observing him from the previous timeline. There was a reason why calling her a stalker was still appropriate even if she attempted to change that. Now, she just needed to make sure Rob was willing to be alone with her at night for her plan to work.

Her plan was incredibly stupid in retrospect, but the previous timeline had depressed her. After all the pain that occurred in the timeline where she first met Dark Pit, everyone had to restart because of the Golden Land. The Harvest Festival made her realize how lonely she was without Ash. Everyone else was dancing away and enjoying their time with their significant other (or others seeing as how Dark Pit was followed by his entire harem during the festival). Even Lana got to enjoy her time with someone even if she probably wouldn't meet her again due to the bad luck she had. Cia just wanted to enjoy the evening with Ash, but even if he had memories of their meeting, he wouldn't always go to Smashopolis to find her. As a phantom, he would wander around and end up in a different location each time. Cia expected that he might have vanished into thin air in some timelines due to his role as a phantom already being fulfilled. Regardless, the black sorceress didn't want anything to do with the undead. Her feelings were getting out of hand, and she couldn't afford it getting in the way of her atonement. She needed someone in the mansion to help her get over her growing love for Ash.

Again, this was why Link and Dark Pit were off limits. Going for either of them would ensure a war with a Goddess and Cia was just tired of being a toy to the divine beings. She considered other options as well. Marth was immediately thrown out the window because she knew if she tried to romance him, she might mess up the timeline with Chrom and Lucina. Cia appreciated Lucina's companionship, so she didn't want to lose the future princess because she decided to romance the narcissistic prince. Roy was an idea…but Cia noted how Roy seemed to be fond of girls who danced or just stared at Ryu all day because of his muscles. Ike was…gay…for his tactician back in his world…and Cia really didn't want to mess up another dumb timeline even though she assumed that Priam would still exist because of Ike's little sister Mist who could pass the bloodline down.

Continuing down her list of potential boys, Cia was asking for trouble if she tried to go with Pit. That angel was already having problems with love because of his refusal to acknowledge his engagement. Cia also did not want to deal with Palutena again so she scratched Pit off. There was Shulk…but she honestly did not like him. Yes, he was an honest man, but the fact he was a Homs made her think of the person who revived and abused her until she found a way to escape his grasp in future timelines. Even now, the alien isn't aware of what he has done with her, so at the very least she can avoid those terrible incidents from happening again. Shulk wasn't Arrow. Cia knew this…but just couldn't bother with trying to romance someone who was constantly referred to as a Slowking behind his back when it came to recognizing other's feelings.

Everyone else on the list simply wasn't attractive or were taken. This left Cloud and Rob as the last two candidates. Like Pit, Cia didn't want to mess with Cloud. He didn't even want to be at Smash Brothers Mansion. He didn't brood as much as people made it out to be, but Cia felt like she would press all the wrong buttons…plus she noticed that Cloud enjoyed Shulk's friend Sharla's presence at the Harvest Festival in the previous timeline. This left Rob…who was usually taken by Shulk in most timelines but on the few occasions he wasn't with the Homs, he was with Pit…due to some really odd circumstances.

If she could just have a one night stand with Rob and fall for him, Cia thought she could forget Ash and move on. If Rob wasn't the one, but he made her forget Ash, then she would win the game of love.

Of course…Cia forgot that during this phase that Rob became an arrogant prick when he was talking to anyone but Shulk and Lucina. Even Chrom and Robin were not immune to Rob's snappy attitude during this state. It made it hard to approach Rob when he was a cactus, so Cia had to take advantage of his cocky attitude and challenge him to a game of chess. The black witch wasn't bad at the game per say, but the tactician twins just excelled at this game. Robin was apparently better than Rob, but according to her younger twin, she couldn't beat Virion back in their world. Rob could only because he played the same way as Virion, but lost to his sister because his sister simply knew how her twin would react in the game of chess.

During the game, Cia had attempted to manipulate Rob the entire time, so it wasn't like him calling her a loser wasn't uncalled for. The male magician felt like she was deliberately bringing up subjects he was uncomfortable with such as his growing feelings for Shulk. She told him constantly that he needed to tell the Homs his feelings or risk losing him forever. Rob constantly barked that he wasn't interested in romance even if his face and actions said otherwise.

"Stop acting like Pit…" Rob growled as he moved his pawn to take Cia's pawn off the chessboard. "I know what I'm doing. I'll do it…when I feel like it…"

"Then how about this? If you lose to me, you have to do whatever I want. If you win, I will leave you alone about this."

"As if I'll lose."

Rob consented to Cia's plan without a second thought. It was why it was so easy to hypnotize him in the first place afterwards. Cia didn't play fair, and Rob's current state of mind prevented him from seeing that the black witch wasn't going to win after he annihilated her in the game of chess.

"Strip my slave. Your robe is in the way."

Cia wasted no time in getting Rob to start the sexual encounter. She scowled at him seeing how he was hesitating to remove his clothes. Even if he was under her spell, he still was able to resist to a certain extent. He was a powerful tactician who resisted the evil Grima. Cia would be nothing in comparison. However, she her spell was simple hypnotism instead of trying to take over Rob's body like Grima would attempt with Robin in the past.

She tapped her foot in impatiently waiting for Rob to remove his robe. It wouldn't take long to get him completely naked because Cia noted how Rob wasn't wearing anything underneath the robe. Chances were that he was going to change into his pajamas, but Cia had prevented him from going to bed early. As a result, some skin was visible with only the robe being in the way. Once Rob loosened it, the robe slid down to the ground. The tall woman's eyes widened seeing how lean Rob was underneath the robe. The robe was supposed to hide his skin as much as possible and for good reasons. Compared to the other guys in Smash, Rob was rather lean. The angel twins had more muscle than Rob, but this might have to do with the fact that because Pit was always training that he was able to build up his muscles. Dark Pit was slightly thinner than Pit, but that might be because he hated the hard work that Pit was shown doing.

This was a sorry excuse of a man though. If Cia was cruel, she would have asked Rob to put his robe back on. Even Ash who was dead was hot underneath the clothing, but maybe Cia just didn't like feminine looking men. Rob had attempted to not fall under that stereotype, but when he became sickly, he couldn't help himself. Only someone like Shulk would accept Rob for who he is.

"When I said strip, I meant everything."

Rob's cloudy purple eyes glanced at Cia before nodding his head. The belt was removed next before his boots. Finally, Rob grabbed a hold of his underwear and pulled it down. Cia continued to be disappointed with what she was looking at. Then again, she got to see Ash in all of his glory…and he was dead.

Cia's negative thoughts about Rob, caused him to cover his chest if only slightly. She did not order him to do so, but he must have felt self-conscious and uncomfortable being naked around her.

"Good. Now undress me." Cia ordered as she took a seat back on the chair. "Make it snappy. We don't have all night."

She really didn't have all night. If Shulk came back and realized his roommate was missing, it would be her head Shulk would be serving to the Smashers tonight. Zelda would enjoy seeing her head on a plate like it was the Harvest Festival dinner.

Again, Rob went over to Cia and started to remove her garments. She smirked seeing him hesitate with her. Despite all that talk about S Support, he honestly had no idea what he was doing. She was mostly fine with this because of how she wouldn't have to worry about being dominated while he was under her spell.

"Having a hard time, darling? Here, let me help you."

Cia had no problem taking her clothes off in front of a rag doll. She had gotten to the point where she couldn't respect her partner. Why would respect matter when he couldn't talk back to her? She would have her way with him whether he liked it or not. All of this just so she won't have to remember Ash anymore.

Even if Rob's body was unconscious, Cia could still get the body to move around with her spell at the cost of using more magic to keep the body from becoming a rag doll. She needed to act like nothing had happened in the archive room, so she waited until she was certain no one was wandering around the hallways before tiptoeing out of the archive room. Most of the Smashers should be sleeping after midnight anyway. The only reason Rob was staying up was because Shulk apparently needed to do something in Smashopolis that would prevent him from returning at normal hours. She just needed to make sure Rob was asleep so Shulk wouldn't notice anything happened to his roommate.

Just because most of the Smashers were asleep though doesn't mean all of them were sleeping. Cia was caught off guard that someone was actually waiting for her to leave the archive room before making his presence known. The black witch should have expected much from this person though seeing how nosy he was.

"Oh…it's just Pit." She growled. "What do you want?"

"So Ganondorf was right." Pit murmured as he approached her. "He told me to be weary of you. I didn't see the problem as long as you didn't cause any problems, but I see what he meant."

Cia really didn't want to cause a scene here. Pit may not remember what happens come the next timeline, but she didn't want those who did remember vote against her. If she wasn't allowed to hang around the mansion, she wouldn't be able to protect Dark Pit.

"Oh?"

"Look what you're doing to Rob. You're not fooling anyone with a spell like that. I can tell he's unconscious and that you did something to him. He smells just as bad as you!"

"…Excuse me? What did you say you stupid buzzard?"

"It's not like I heard that insult before." Pit extended his wings at that moment to make himself look more menacing than he really was. "I don't know what exactly happened in the archive room, but I do know the smell of sex. You're kinda an awful person for taking advantage of Rob. You know he's desperate for S Support, but you do realize he'll only do it with people he trusts, right?"

Besides using some childish dialogue, Cia had this nasty feeling that if she didn't do something, she would find an arrow lodged into her forehead. She pointed toward Pit as if she was going to make an accusation toward him. What ended up happening was Rob's body moving in the direction of Cia's finger. She wanted to change the subject so badly, but the only thing that came up was to just fling the white haired mage in Pit's direction.

"What are you doing? Why would you think this would even work?!" Pit asked, but surprisingly didn't move when Rob moved in front of him and suddenly embrace the angel.

Cia chuckled nervously to herself seeing how Pit was reacting to Rob clinging to his body seductively. The white angel could be in a relationship with a demon for all she cared. All she knew was that the brunette had an obvious soft spot for the shorter Smasher and it showed in his actions. Cia assumed Pit would have just pushed him to the side before he clocked the dark skinned witch in the face. Instead, he barely resisted Rob's advances except when his hands were trying to make its way into Pit's boxers.

"Eh heh heh. Aren't you a little too comfortable with your friend being like that?" Cia questioned catching the angel captain blushing at the question.

"Shut up. Why would I be turned on by…" Pit cut himself off as he smacked Rob's hand away. "He has your disgusting odor on him. You better remove the spell."

"But why would I do that now? He'll never confess his love for Shulk if he's not this honest."

"You got a point that Shulk is thick headed like the orangutan, but Rob wouldn't want to-hey! Stop!"

Now Pit had covered Rob's mouth with his hand just to stop the male tactician from kissing him on the lips. The brunette was getting tempted to pick Rob up and carry him back to the fourth floor. He would not do this in front of Cia though and let her get away with her little hypnosis spell. Although…it did sound kind of kinky to know how the spell worked so he could use it on someone as strong as Virtue to do his bidding…

No! No naughty thoughts! Pit shouted to himself as he shook his head. "Cia, you either stop the spell now, or I'll beat you up and then tell Lady Palutena!"

"Oh? So you're not going to ask for permission to fight me?"

"I'm not her lapdog!"

Cia had to disagree. Seeing the haughty expression she wore, Pit resorted to saying that would put the black witch in her place.

"…If my threats or Palutena's wrath won't be enough to concede…then I'll have to tell Shulk that you're stealing Rob away from him."

Now Cia wasn't laughing anymore.

"You're joking?"

"I'm not. He may be part of the Slowpoke family, but if there's one thing I noticed about these aliens is that they are possessive of their destined mates. You're skunk fume on Rob is going to get him to activate Monado before you can say, "Floor ice cream gives you health!" And we know he would use an ability outside of what he uses in Smash."

The comparison was terrible, but Pit still got the point across. For a moment, the angel captain was relieved that Rob was relenting from his hugging. Rob gave the slow zombie walk toward the black witch before he stopped right in front of her.

"If I'm going to get caught because of my wonderful scent…" Cia began. "Then…I got to fix things."

"Well, you could probably give him a shower and Shulk probably wouldn't notice." Pit joked. "But I doubt you can fix things so easily."

The white haired sorceress had no way to retort that statement. If she was thinking clearly, she wouldn't have had done this, but now she has to find a way to make it so Shulk wouldn't go after her even when she was done with her plan that would benefit the young Smash couple.

Ultimately, Cia's plan to fix the situation was to force a confession out of Rob. He had no intention of saying anything to Shulk until it was too late. As a result, she had taken the shorter male toward his room. There, she would cloak herself using a spell while she controlled Rob. She ordered him to sit on the bed where he would wait for his prince charming.

Cia tapped her foot impatiently. She had to remain calm if she didn't want to be seen. She didn't know the extent of Shulk's powers, so he could very much see her in his room. She wasn't exactly wrong though because even if Shulk couldn't see her, she had a feeling the Monado could detect her somehow.

Shulk would return at one in the morning. That was way too long for Cia to maintain both spells. The seer was exhausted from whatever he was doing. The first thing he noticed though was that Rob was still awake.

"Rob, you're still awake. I didn't know…were you waiting for me?"

Rob didn't respond. He waited for Cia's orders on what to do next. Cia waited to see if the blond had noticed her presence despite being invisible. Shulk was too tired to actually sense her presence.

Be a good boy and show Shulk how much you love him. Cia thought darkly to herself. You wouldn't stop moaning his name out anyway.

Rob got up from the bed and walked toward the taller male. Shulk was rather confused at Rob's actions. At first, he thought the white haired tactician was going to close the door. He wasn't expecting the shorter Smasher to wrap his arms around his neck and pull him down onto his bed.

"R-Rob, what are you…mmmmh?"

The only way for someone as dense as Shulk to realize how you felt for him was to kiss him. Words just weren't going to cut it for Cia. Perhaps Rob was only as aggressive with the blond was because this is how Cia would take the Monado boy if he didn't scare her.

Rob wasn't going to pull their lips apart until Cia gave the order. She didn't but decided to stop the hypnosis spell since Shulk should know what was on Rob's mind now.

It was so convenient for Rob to snap out of his trance after the two broke apart. Rob's eyes widened in horror realizing the situation that he was put in…his robe was threatening to slip off…his hands around the taller male's neck, the fact that Shulk was giving him a hungry look after the first kiss…

"W-What?! S-Shulk! T-T-This isn't…"

Oh, he was sputtering now. He forced himself to let go and tried to push the seer away. By trying push him off, the blond ended up putting his arms on either side of the older male. Rob wanted someone to dig a grave for him now. He couldn't handle this embarrassment. He couldn't even remember how this happened. All he recalled was making fun of Cia after beating her at chess before everything turned black.

"Rob…" Shulk began in a rather seductive voice. Rob had to ask himself why Shulk was talking like this. He wasn't usually so forceful…or did he hit a nerve? "You cannot just kiss me and give me that adorable face…and reject me now…can you?"

He couldn't. Why would he? He loved Shulk so much but couldn't get the words out. Actions did speak louder than words.

Closing his eyes, he allowed the blond to kiss him on the forehead. Immediately, Shulk felt something was off.

"Rob…you smell different…" Shulk murmured. "You smell like that one woman that hangs out with Dark Pit…did something happen?"

"We…just played chess…" Rob muttered. "I could have sworn I won, but if she must have done something…"

At this point, Shulk noticed the presence of Cia. She was already rushing out the door while invisible before the blond could say anything. When he realized the presence was gone though, his first thought was to take Rob to the bath to get rid of the smell. He had no problem with Cia's scent, but for some strange reason…he hated it on Rob. He wanted Rob to smell like lavender again.

"Umm…Shulk…what are you doing?"

Shulk smiled cutely as he got off of the older male and lifted him off the bed causing him to gasp at the sudden movement.

"H-Hey! Put me down!"

"We're going to the bath."

Shulk said no more afterwards. He wasn't going to accuse Cia of doing something sexual with her boyfriend despite the proof filling up his nostrils. He just wanted Rob to himself now after a day's work.

Cia made her escape before Shulk had the idea of going after her once he was done attending to Rob. Shulk had the tenacity to take the bus all the way back to Smashopolis just to find and call her out even if he was exhausted from whatever he was doing. Cia questioned Shulk's visions and if they could figure out where she lived. She felt like his visions weren't that powerful. If that were the case, he could prevent every bad thing that happened to him and his friends. But he was just one Homs. He may have been promoted to Godhood but he lacked the experience that Rosalina and Palutena had.

The black witch easily warped herself back to the apartment that she and Lana shared. She didn't know who this room belonged to, but the two witches were going to occupy the place unless they had to leave. Cia would make sure the apartment owner wouldn't kick them out though.

Cia expected Lana to be asleep. She was sorely disappointed that the white witch was waiting for her older twin on the bed. If Lana wasn't on her bed, Cia would have just ignored her and went to bed. Instead, she would have to confront her younger twin.

"Cia, where have you been?" Lana asked rather seriously. "You said you would only go to the mansion to check up on Dark Pit. Why are your clothes so wrinkled? Did something happen over there?"

"Nothing happened. Just had to speak to Pit…that's it."

"For what? He doesn't know about us, so why would it matter?"

"…"

"Cia…" Lana began as she got off the bed and started to walk around her sister. "You smell funny…"

Cia's eyes widened as she pushed the bluenette back. The last thing she needed was for the innocent girl to realize that she had gone off to have sex with someone that wasn't Ash.

"I got into a small brawl with him." She lied. "Pit is an asshole. We have gone over this."

Pit was only an asshole if Cia did something stupid. Lana wasn't a fool. Dark Pit had begged Pit to not harm his friends unless they did something wrong. She also spotted the lack of injuries on Cia. She could easily conclude that Cia was fibbing her.

"Cia, please don't lie to me. Tell me what happened." Lana spoke.

"Nothing happened! Stop asking."

"…You're doing it again…not telling me what's on your mind…"

In a situation like this, Lana wished she was like the angel twins. They could read each other's thoughts rather easily. Despite being a part of Cia, Lana could never tell what Cia was really thinking. She could only guess and hope that she was right.

"I don't need to tell you! It's none of your business!"

"But you got into a fight with Pit. Pit wouldn't attack you if Dark Pit told him not to. What did you do to anger him?"

"He got in my way because of that snot nosed tactician!" Cia shouted. Her temper flared enough to the point where she would start giving away what had occurred at the mansion.

"…Rob?" Lana tilted her head in confusion. "What does he got to do with this?" Lana's mind was too innocent to realize the implication without Cia spilling out her crime.

"You want to know what happened?! Fine! I wanted to forget about Ash! I had sex with that stupid tactician, so I could forget about that stupid phantom! Not only didn't my plan work, but Pit was all up my ass for trying to take Shulk's pussy from him! If I wasn't so worried about the Monado being shoved in between my breasts, I would have told him he needs to find a better asshole because that's not going to cut it."

The older sibling could only wish that Lana found the humor in the insult. She did not. She was rather furious with those words even if she didn't understand all the innuendos.

"Cia…that's awful!" She exclaimed. "How could you damage Rob's trust? You know he's fragile! How did you even get him to…" Lana's eyes widened in horror when she figured out the answer herself. "Cia, you can't just abuse your magic like you did in the past! You could really hurt someone!"

"The only thing I hurt was Rob's pride." Cia snarked. "He can still get his virginity taken by another man if he has the balls to do so."

"CIA!"

Cia froze at Lana's tone. She really angered her younger twin this time.

"Cia, I worked so hard to fix Rob's anxiety issue!" Lana started as she stomped her foot when she said this. "Gretel is only the first step in boosting his self-esteem. What he doesn't need is you using him for your own problems! Now he'll think that he cheated on Shulk even if the two aren't together! Rob and Robin are so similar! They blame themselves for every little thing that goes wrong! The last thing he would want is someone only using him because they can't have someone else! We already know that Rob suffered from heartbreak in his world! He can't take this anymore!"

"Lana, it's not as bad as you make it out to be. In fact-"

"I'm not done yet!"

Really, Lana was losing her patience with the dark skinned witch for something that could have easily been avoided.

"What you should have done was use your powers to search for Ash! Ash doesn't do the same thing in every timeline! You have to actually find him! Don't expect him to come to you! If you love him, go find him and tell him how you feel! Don't drag Rob and Shulk into your love problems just because you're a coward!"

"…Excuse me?"

Lana might have gone too far herself though seeing the purple aura was surrounding the black witch.

"Do not lecture me about love." Cia growled. "You of all people should understand the problem with Ash."

"What's the problem? He's kind. He's honest. He saved your life and brought us back together! Why would you not like him?"

"HE IS ALREADY DEAD!" Cia nearly screamed. Lana took a step back due to being taken back by her statement. "What can the living do with a dead man?!"

Lana wanted to speak but kept her mouth shut. Cia knew that this argument would have been invalid if Lana had spoken to the phantom. Ash's biggest insecurities with coming clean with Cia in the past was because he was dead and wouldn't be able to satisfy her. The sad thing is…Cia really was a lustful person and that really hurt her chances of loving him. Maybe she was being unfair to Ash seeing as how he was capable of manifesting into a living being. If she just worked with him, she could probably find ways around his phantom state. Instead, she just turned to someone who was already alive and was already insecure with himself.

"But I thought you loved him despite that…"

"…"

"You do…don't you?"

"…I'm going to sleep."

"Cia!"

"Stop talking down on me, Lana." Cia muttered. Her voice was getting softer as if she was losing the ability to speak. "You who cannot hope to get Dark Pit to love you is lecturing me on love. Come on Lana…I thought you knew better."

The white witch hated to be reminded that she was doomed to not have Dark Pit. It wouldn't stop her from trying. Eventually, she would open a route for herself and have Dark Pit at least once. Reyn was able to do that even if the Golden Land had tied Dark Pit and Lucina together first. Now, it was her turn to add herself to the harem (she would never call it that).

The black witch didn't bother to change into her sleepwear. She just plopped on the bed and started to drift off to dreamland. Lana wanted to continue the argument because Cia was running away from her problems again. She was not atoning for her crimes if she was starting up problems for Rob and Shulk again. This timeline might have ended on a somewhat depressing note, but what of the next time? What if Cia gets herself killed because she took advantage of Rob again? Lana couldn't allow her elder sister to do that. Unfortunately, Cia wanted to drop the conversation altogether. Lana wouldn't be able to do anything about it until the next time it happened.

The two would be on bad terms until the next timeline.

Me: Done with 7299 words.

Li: Way to take one step back when Rob and Shulk were doing just fine in the last timeline.

Me: Blame that on Cia. Her relationship with Lana took a step back too in this story. Notes!

1. The placement of this story is after Sweet Friendship/Harvest Festival timeline. I wanted to finish Harvest Festival first, but there isn't much to spoil besides the fact that Cia doesn't have a date during the festival, which triggers this story.

2. To make the scene easier to visualize, Rob doesn't have anything underneath his robe. He's wearing his robe like a bathrobe due to getting out of the shower. As a result, he only has his boots and boxers on underneath.

3. I'll bring up in a later story how Ari and I have this headcanon that Homs are more sexually active during the winter since they would have nothing to do during the winter season but breed. My headcanon is slightly more sexual of Homs in general with how they start distancing themselves from the person they like. If it's another Homs, it's caught on immediately, so it will never be a long period of time. I made Shulk have the opposite effect seeing how oblivious he is.

4. I tend to exaggerate Ash's dead status to the point its dark comedy in future stories where Cia has accepted that Ash is dead and doesn't lust for living companions. Ash is a phantom that is trapped between the world of the living and non-living due to a spell Marona's father cast on him before he died. Ash's only purpose in life is to protect Marona. Ash isn't allowed to think of his own happiness although the novel implies that Ash's happiness is to make sure Marona's mother is happy with him.

I'll bring it up right now. If you think Cia lusting for people to the point of dubcon is creepy, then you should see Ash when he was alive. Granted, he was just your normal teenager, but from what I have seen, he has a lot of wet dreams concerning Marona's mother(and the official information pretty much confirms that Ash was romantically interested in Marona's mother…but then she married Marona's dad and he still dedicated his life to her regardless)…so Ash and Cia share the sin of lust.

That's it. Reviews are appreciated. Ja ne!