The sound of metal slamming against the blade of a sword rang out in the camp.

Heavy metal boots trampled grass and flowers alike as the great knight, Frederick the Wary, headed towards the noise. He had been searching for their leader all morning, and with that recent and quite hearty clang, he was certain of his location. The brunette narrowed his eyes as he escaped the shade of the tents and a hand raced up to protect his onyx orbs from the bright morning sun. Adjusting to the sudden surge of sunlight, he looked upon a grassy field.

Sure enough, a blue-haired swordsman was locked in combat with a slightly shorter sword-wielder, their eyes locked just as tightly as their weapons. Despite the heavy robe covering the brunette woman he was dueling with, the man seemed to be sweating far more from the effort of holding her blade back. A small amount of bitterness rose in his throat at the sight. Personally, he didn't exactly trust this newest Shepard. After all, how anyone could come down with a case of amnesia and yet still remember the name of Chrom, leader of the Shepherds and prince of Ylisse was a mystery. In his mind, he had come to the conclusion that such things were impossible. However, she did make quite the actress.

He decided right then to interrupt the standstill with a well-timed clearing of his throat.

Chrom's vibrant blue eyes snapped to his lieutenant before the brunette even had a chance to look away from the weapons. The prince flashed a warm smile at the sight of his friend, allowing his focus to shift away from the duel. "Ah, Frederick. It's a pleasure to see you." The knight nodded before slowly shifting his attention to the woman. Surprisingly, she wasn't even sparing the newcomer to the field a single glance. Instead, her deep brown eyes were still locked on the two blades, the Bronze Sword and the Falchion. "Please, do tell what brings you here."

"Well, 'Milord," Frederick narrowed his eyes in displeasure at the lack of respect the new tactician was putting on full display. "It seems all is in order with our supplies. Our weapons are stocked, polished and at the ready, our food supply is at quite a respectable level and our tents themselves are almost like new." He paused to see the young woman splitting her lips in a sickening grin. Before the great knight had a chance to warn the prince, his blade was knocked away, taking its owner with it.

Chrom looked up in surprise just in time to greet the business end of the blade. That sharp and deadly weapon hovered right above his nose, swaying ever so slightly as to mock his fall. Frederick found his hand on his Silver Lance, gripping it tightly and waiting for her next move. A breathless laugh escaped her lips as the blue-haired man gave her a half-hearted—and admittingly childish—glare. "Well," Her voice carried across the grass, ringing out with a strong and smug tone. "I believe the term is checkmate?"

"That doesn't count!" The brunette man watched on with a slipping grip as the woman lifted her free hand to her face and brushed a stray lock of chocolate back to its proper place beside her cheek. "One does not strike when the opponent is distracted. It's common courtesy."

"Not true," The tactician retorted quickly, almost as if she had been expecting such a childish complaint. "I distinctly recall you referring to it as 'the element of surprise', and endorsing it heartily against the enemy." Her lips flashed yet another twisted grin before her hand lowered the sword's tip to his chest. "I am simply practicing what you have taught me, Chrom."

Reluctantly, the fallen swordsmen nodded. "Well, I can't exactly argue with that reasoning." Black eyes narrowed as the man let a small laugh escape himself. Had the leader of the Shepherds actually lost his mind? "However," A stern quality took over Chrom's features as he awkwardly held himself up just enough to dodge the blade. "I still consider this irrelevant to our current total."

"Pah!" Frederick turned his attention just in time to see the woman sheathing her sword with a slight lift of her feet. She then extended her hand towards her fallen leader, a smile still painted on her face. The blue-haired man didn't even pause for a single instant. He immediately grabbed on to the offered hand and let her aid in returning himself to an upright position. The two brushed off for a second before the brunette shot her leader a sly grin. "You simply don't want my total to surpass yours."

The man in full armor simply stood there with a frown at the sight. The young woman had been here for a month, and yet she had become one of Chrom's closest friends. Everyone in the Shepherds seemed to trust this woman with literally their very lives, and yet she didn't even bother to give herself any further identity besides a name and a class. Did no one else fear that the woman was a viper, waiting to strike the prince when all was calm? Had they no sense of disbelief over her tale?

Feeling relatively sick of their cheerful chatter, Frederick decided to speak up. "'Milord, everything is in order." The swordsman simply nodded absently and continued to pay attention to the smug and self-satisfied words pouring out of the woman's mouth. That earlier bitterness was starting to take a clear form of both frustration and suspicion, forcing his eyes to sharpen into silent daggers. However, the chosen target was too busy teasing her leader over her recent win, earning calm and steady retorts and denial from the man beside her.

Ignored, how wonderful.

The sound of grass bowing down to another individual made Frederick turn his head. Lissa, the team's Cleric, was simply bounding over with a smile and wide eyes, obviously cheerful per the usual. "Frederick!" The man let out a sigh before letting his chin dip. Oh boy, here it comes. Might as well forget about stealing Chrom's attention at this point. "Hey, have you seen—" The young blond stopped short as she found her brother conversing with their newest Shepard. "Oh!" She nearly jumped in place at the sight. "There you are, Chrom!"

At the sound of his little sister's voice, the man looked up. "Ah, Lissa!" The brunette beside him simply blinked at him before turning to face the two at the edge of the field. Her eyes narrowed momentarily at the sight of Frederick, knowing full well of his distrust. However, this dark cloud passed fairly quickly, allowing her attention to be stolen by more important things. For example, the young girl beside the knight. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well," The great knight and tactician frowned as they realized Lissa had started her sentence with the worst thing possible, an inhale. "I was starting to get worried due to the fact that you seemed to disappear! One minute, you're over here in the camp, and the next second, you were gone! I decided to go looking for Frederick to see if he saw you, but it looks like you were just training with Robin again!" The brunette's frown lifted at her name, her attention reluctantly given to the girl with pigtails. "I shouldn't have worried," She slowly admitted with what seemed like a bit of embarrassment. "After all, you two have been spending an awful lot of time together lately!"

"..What?" All eyes snapped to the tactician as a suddenly dark tone overtook her voice. She shifted on her weight as she stared at Lissa, her sword's sheath flashing in the sunlight. "What do you mean by that?"

Frederick's attention had now been stolen.

A bit of a smirk formed on his face as he examined her condition. Hiked up shoulders that blocked her neck, tight stance with outward pointing toes and yes, even the famous folding of the arms. Aha, so the young woman had taken a defensive stand against such a claim? Nothing could be more interesting or even incriminating than that. So, against his normally wise and rational judgement, he started to poke at the hornet's nest.

"Why, it makes perfect sense to me, Lissa." Robin and Chrom both snapped their attention to the great knight as he began to grin. The woman raised an eyebrow at this, seeing as her whole time with the Shepherds had consisted with Frederick's skepticism. The man ignored her eyes and instead grinned at the young blond beside him. "Once a man and a woman start spending time with each other, it is only a matter of time before an attraction occurs."

The prince suddenly stood up straight with wide eyes and bright cheeks, already catching where his lieutenant was taking this conversation. The young tactician beside him however, seemed blind to the meaning, and instead glared at the man in full-body armor. Chrom opened his mouth to speak, but not a single sound left his lips. In fact, his embarrassment was ignored by all parties present.

"After all," The great knight shot the duo a meaningful smirk as Lissa simply clasped her hands together and laughed. "I would not be surprised if our young tactician had already fallen victim to that pink menace." Lissa beamed at this and immediately started babbling on about love and the stories she had heard when she was young, about great heroes finding their true love on the battlefield and guarding the haildom of Ylisse.

Frederick simply nodded absently at the young princess and instead turned to the two training partners. His heart nearly stopped as he saw the fruits of his work. He had expected to see Robin standing there with wide eyes and flaring cheeks and a quivering lip, unable to hold her composure with the mention of such feminine things. Instead, he was standing witness to Chrom's stuttering and bright face, unable to stand still for a single second. It was at that very second that he realized that his plan of exposing a motivation for the brunette had backfired. If anything, it had officially ruined any and all chances of claiming her as a viper.

For if his leader was in love, there was no way he could sway him to dislike the newest Shepard.

A pale hand clenched as Robin ground her teeth. Love? Pah! Such a trivial thing would never sway her! She was a tactician, and now, a Shepard. How undignified! How unprofessional, to fall in love with one's commanding officer! She would never bring shame to Shepherds in such a way. Her right boot dug in to the soft soil, uprooting a patch of grass from its home. Her chin was plastered to her chest as she fought the urge to yell. She would handle this with dignity and grace, not like a child.

"Me? In love?" All eyes snapped to the young brunette as she started to slam that boot into the new patch of exposed earth. "Pah! The utter thought is ridiculous, Frederick! Why would I ever do such a thing?" The brunette man raised an eyebrow in interest as the woman childishly scrunched up her face and flicked her hair out of her eyes. The prince beside her stared on with a mix of confusion and worry before wiping all emotions from his face, leaving a stern face to rival even the great knight.

"Chrom and I are simply sparring partners, nothing more."

Not even bothering to wait for their reactions, the young woman strutted away with an audible huff of air and heavy boots. The brunette cut between the two fellow Shepherds blocking the way to the camp's heart and walked away without even so much as a passing glance to the man who had utter such blasphemous words. The three watched as she roughly tossed aside her tent's entrance and hid away from their eyes, sealing the makeshift doorway with a loud exhale.

Well, that was one way to end training.

Author's Note: Guess who got Fire Emblem: Awakening for Christmas this year? Yeah, this girl right here.

So, after finally being able to pass Chapter One/Two, which the demo forces you stay on, I realized how great these characters are. I just really like the personality they all have, you know? So, after realizing that the Robin on my save file has a bit of arrogance and remembering a distinct lack of Brunette!Robin out there, I decided to fix that. So, hello there, Awakening fans! I, IllusionsOfInsanity will be writing a Arrogant!Brunette!Robin, so I hope you enjoy! This is my first time writing in this universe, but I'm certainly no newbie to this. I'm a bit rusty on their speech patterns, but I'm hoping that I'm not too far off.

Hope you stick around!