A series of short stories for Chrobin Week 2016. Each story is inspired by and titled with a line from a different song by a different artist.

Day 7: In a Better Life

Song: Q&A by Kishi Bashi

It was the middle of the night. She wasn't sure what had woken her, but when she turned over, she was surprised to find that the other half of the bed was empty. She sat up, confused.

"Chrom?" she called, her voice tenuous in the darkness.

There was no reply. She hurriedly got out of bed and pulled on her robe, her bare feet sinking into the thick carpet.

He wasn't in the washing room, or in the hallway. He didn't seem to be in any of the rooms adjoining theirs, and she was considering going downstairs to see if he'd gone to the kitchens when she saw the faint flicker of candlelight from underneath the library door. She pushed it open.

"Robin! You scared me!" he said, his face pale. He was sitting on the windowsill, his robe draped over his shoulders like a cloak.

"You left me alone," she said. She didn't mean to sound so bitter, but the castle still didn't feel like home to her. If he wasn't there, she couldn't calm down.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he had a genuine look of concern on his face. He held out a hand for her and pulled her into the alcove with him. "I couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake you," he said, making room for her. She sat opposite him, pulling her knees up onto the bench and hugging them to her chest.

"Did you have a nightmare?" she asked.

"No, I was just thinking," he mused, staring out the window. Below them, the palace gardens stretched out as far as the eye could see, a muddle of dark green and shadow in the moonlit night.

"About what?"

"Nothing really, just... thinking," he said, shrugging. "I was remembering my sister."

"The one who left?" she asked. She had never met Princess Emmeryn; she had left Ylisstol long before Robin had arrived.

"Yeah. I haven't written to her in ages, and now that I'm married, I was wondering how things are going in her life."

"She married into a Valmese nation, didn't she?"

"Yeah, but like you, she was sent away. I haven't seen her in a few years. I hope she's not unhappy," he added wistfully. Robin felt her heart ache painfully.

"Does... does that mean you're unhappy... with me?" she asked, her voice small. He quickly turned to her, horrified.

"No, of course not!" he said, taking her hand. "I know we've only been married for a little while, but of course I don't feel like that." He pressed her fingers to his lips.

A wave of relief spread through her. She nodded, her cheeks warm.

He laughed at her expression. "Gods, I didn't know you could look so cute," he teased.

"Sh-shut up," she said, hiding her face in her knees.

"Haha, you're adorable, Robin," he said, interlacing his fingers with hers.

"A-am not..."

"Are so."

"I'll curse you," she said, looking up at him, but he was smiling, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Well, normally I'd take that kind of threat pretty seriously from a Plegian... but seeing as I didn't turn into a frog last night..."

Her face burned with the memory of his touch, and he reached to pull her close.

"I said it then and I'll say it now," he whispered into her ear. "I don't regret marrying you, and I never will." He kissed her forehead, her eyelids, each tattooed cheek, and finally her lips.

Robin suddenly woke with a start, her heart pounding and her face flushed. It took her a moment to realize that she was alone, in her tent, and that it had all been a dream.

Another strange, vivid dream, she sighed, covering her eyes with the back of her hand. How many does this make now?

She'd lost count. Even as an amnesiac, she knew this couldn't be normal. If they weren't such strange dreams, she would have assumed they were her forgotten memories, resurfacing in her sleep. But although they were incredibly detailed and intense, nothing in them made any sense.

And they're all about Chrom... what am I, a pervert?! she groaned to herself, ashamed. But the more she tried to forget, the more she remembered that younger version of him caressing her cheek, kissing her brow, holding her tightly against him.

No, no no no no! Stop, stop that right now, Robin! She slapped her cheeks lightly, trying to get a grip on herself. He's the commander, and you're his tactician. You only just met him a few months ago, and having these kinds of thoughts about him is wildly inappropriate.

She stared up at the canvas of her tent.

So why do I keep dreaming about him?

"No, going through the hills will take us longer-"

"But if we take the valley path we'll be wide open-"

"What if we just went around the mountains-"

Robin stared thoughtfully at the map spread out on the table. Everyone seemed to have different opinions on how to proceed through Plegian territory, but something about the whole plan of attack was bothering her.

Why does it feel like we've already been through this area before?

She traced a line from their current camp through the valley and found that she got a bad feeling when she considered crossing through there. An... ambush, I think... She looked over toward the pin that had been placed to indicate the mountains and was surprised when she got a similar feeling of dread.

There too? But... how would I even know that?

She chewed her lip pensively, wondering whether she should speak up.

"Robin, what do you think?"

Is it worth heeding this gut feeling? Or am I just imagining things...?

"Robin?"

"Huh?" She was startled out of her thoughts and saw that everyone at the table was staring at her.

"Welcome back, Robin," Chrom smiled at her. Frederick clicked his tongue in annoyance and a few of the others chuckled. Robin immediately blushed.

"S-sorry, I was just thinking," she murmured sheepishly.

"Don't apologize, that's what we keep you around to do," Stahl said kindly. "Did you come up with another daredevil strategy?"

"Well..." She looked around at all the familiar faces gathered around the table, making her mind up quickly. I guess there's nothing for it. "I don't think we should use any of these routes," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

Frederick rolled his eyes. "Robin, perhaps you have some kind of teleportation magic at your disposal, but the rest of the army needs to walk. Would you please try to make sense?"

"Hold on, Frederick, let her explain," Chrom said. "Go on, what do you have in mind?"

"This is probably going to sound insane... but I get a bad feeling about crossing these mountains no matter which path we take. There's something... wrong about them."

"You can't possibly be insinuating that we should make a decision based on something as unscientific as a bad feeling," Miriel scoffed.

"I dunno, gut feelings are sometimes the only thing that keep you alive out there on the field," Sully said, chewing on a piece of jerky as she spoke.

"Yes, but that's on the field," Frederick said, shaking his head.

"I think the coat-wearer has a point," Panne chimed in, crossing her arms and indicating toward Robin. "Instinct exists for a reason. If she says she does not like the feel of this place, then I say we look elsewhere."

"Everyone, calm down," Chrom said firmly. "Robin, do you really think we should avoid this area?"

"Y-yeah," she nodded, unable to catch his eye. "I know it sounds crazy, but I just can't shake the feeling that we'll be making a mistake, crossing here."

He nodded. "Do you have an alternative?"

"Well... what about this ravine?" she asked, pointing at a dark feature on the map. Several people hissed.

"No way, that's way more dangerous," Ricken complained, and a few others shared concerned looks.

"We'll be picked off one by one from the cliffs," someone said, and Sumia shivered.

"It'll be a flurry of arrows..."

"But... I don't get any bad feelings from this route," Robin insisted. "I think the Plegians will assume we'll take the high ground, so they'll prepare for us up there. No one will be watching the bottom of the ravine."

"Robin, I know you're looking out for us, but we can't be sure we'll be ambushed at all," Stahl said slowly. "And if you're wrong, we'll have less of a fighting chance in a ravine with archers surrounding us than in an open space where we can fight back..."

"Stahl is right," Frederick said immediately. "Choosing the ravine is foolish, milord. We can't trust something as baseless as instinct for this," he addressed Chrom.

Chrom looked down at the map, clearly thinking hard.

"I think we should go through the ravine," he said finally.

For some reason, Robin felt her heart leap at his announcement.

It took Grima a while to realize he was missing. She paid it little heed at first; the boy was left to his own devices when she was away. There was little danger to him if he was Marked. The Risen and Grimleal had orders to leave him be, and there were too few independent humans to pose a threat. The greatest danger was posed by wild animals, but Grima always swept the area they were staying in before leaving him alone. He seemed to have a good head for directions, even at a young age, so he rarely got lost, even when he strayed.

But that night, he didn't return to the ruins. Grima left his food out, expecting him to come running when his hunger got too great. When he didn't, she told herself to ignore it; he had probably fallen asleep somewhere or run away. Wasn't that what she had always hoped for anyway?

Still, he didn't return, and Grima felt herself growing anxious. Finally, she set out to look for him.

Stupid boy, she thought angrily. What do I care if he's gone and hurt himself? What do I care if he's gone? But she continued to search.

Two days later, she came upon a small group of humans, hiding in the woods. She wasn't interested in them at the moment, so she planned to spare them.

Then she caught a familiar scent in the air and she saw Morgan, knocked unconscious and tied up among their belongings.

Slavers, she realized.

Her fury was insatiable as she killed each and every one of them, spilling their blood mercilessly across the forest floor.

When they all lay dead at her feet, her coat spattered in gore, she tore the cords from Morgan's small body and hoisted the boy over her shoulder. He stirred slightly.

"M-mother?" he murmured groggily.

"I'm here," she said, and she had to resist the urge to kiss his hair reassuringly. It was a very Robin-like thing to do, after all.

As Robin had said, the four day trek through the ravine went smoothly, though not without major complaints by several members of the army. It was with heightened nerves that the troops followed her orders, only to find that no one was waiting to ambush them at all. A later sweep of the area by the pegasus knights showed that the Plegians had been amassing on the far side of the mountains, but that none had been stationed to prepare for their unexpected crossing. In one move, they'd completely avoided an unnecessary altercation and come into Plegian lands without so much as a scratch.

It wasn't the first time that Robin had miraculously saved them from a difficult situation, and Chrom was relieved that he'd decided to trust her intuition. Whatever her instincts actually were, they were uncannily accurate and had become indispensable to the Shepherds.

As he walked through the new camp that evening, he absentmindedly slipped his hand into his pocket and his fingers brushed against the ring he'd taken to carrying with him since he'd had it made, several weeks ago. Though he'd fully intended on giving it to her as soon as he could, his chances to speak with her alone were rare and he never seemed to be able to work up the courage to propose when he had one. He couldn't count the times he'd marched up to her tent, preparing himself, only to have his strength desert him as soon as he caught sight of her face. Those warm brown eyes took all the breath out of him each time, without fail.

Stupid, so stupid! he bemoaned, hiding his face in his hands as he reached his tent. Why is it that I can face a Risen like it's nothing but I can't even look Robin in the eye without my knees buckling?

He sat on the edge of his bedding and pulled out the ring, turning it over in his hands.

It had been a gradual process, but looking back he supposed his fate had been sealed from the moment he'd found her lying in that field. He'd merely been curious about her, at first. She was mysterious and strange, having lost all her memories, but from that point forward, she'd continued to astound him. She was a brilliant mage and a tactician of amazing skill. Her determination and work ethic were second to none, and the light in her tent often burned late into the night. She spent the little spare time she had improving her swordsmanship and reading up on new types of magic, and she quickly grew to be trusted and respected among his men. Chrom found himself irresistibly drawn toward her, first as a friend, and then as a man.

I have to give it to her, he told himself, but instead of getting up and going to search for her, he sighed and returned the ring back to his pocket, throwing himself back on the bedding. If only I wasn't such a coward, he thought bitterly.

"Chroooooom, my feet are killing me," she whined, throwing her arm over his chest. He groaned.

"Don't remind me, I'm trying to pretend I don't have feet at the moment," he said tiredly. As soon as they'd gotten home to the castle, they'd collapsed into bed, too exhausted to even undress.

"I don't think we practiced enough," she said, her voice muffled in the crook of his arm.

"If anything, I think we practiced too much," he replied, wincing. "I have blisters on my blisters."

"But I still stepped on your feet..."

"And I still stepped on yours, so we're even," he said, ruffling her hair gently.

"I hate weddings," she muttered mutinously. "I hope Olivia and Ricken step on an acorn together."

He tried but failed to hold in his laughter.

"Don't say that, we're getting married too, you know. Do you want people to wish us ill?"

"That's not gonna happen, because if there's even a hint of a dance at my wedding, I'll set the orchestra on fire."

"In that case, I'll do you one better and just outlaw it to begin with."

She laughed.

"Can you imagine Maribelle's face if we told her that dancing was illegal at a royal wedding?!" she giggled.

"I'd rather not. We'd both be dead in minutes," he chuckled.

"Still, I think I'd rather chance her fury than have to face this kind of foot pain ever again," Robin said, wincing.

Robin was still half asleep as she set about her duties that morning. For some reason, her feet had been killing her since she'd gotten out of bed, so she wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around her. As she made her way tiredly to the bathing tent, she bumped into someone, hard.

"Ow!"

"I'm so sorry!" she said, hurriedly, but when she looked up she saw the last person she wanted to see.

"Ch-Chrom...?"

He looked equally startled to see her.

"R-Robin..."

They stared at each other awkwardly. Though she couldn't remember the details, she was sure she had dreamt about him again, and she was too self-conscious about it to face him.

"Sorry, I'm in a hurry," she muttered, avoiding his gaze, but he followed and grabbed her wrist before she could make a break for it.

"Wait! I..."

She was heavily aware that several people were staring at them.

"Chrom..."

"W-what?"

"You're about to walk into the women's bathing tent," she said in an undertone. He immediately let go of her wrist and blushed.

"S-sorry!"

"R-right... Uhm, I'll... see you around," she said quickly, taking her chance to escape. She hoped he hadn't noticed how red her cheeks had grown when he'd taken her hand.

Her eyes scanned the ground below her thoughtlessly, thinking it might be nice to travel a bit to the north for the afternoon, when a solitary figure moving on the Wild caught her attention. It was moving too quickly for someone on foot, and Robin could tell that it wasn't a god from its aura. Her curiosity peaked, she swept downward, her wings stretched out to catch the updraft.

She was wondering whether or not to reveal herself when she recognized the shape of a white horse. Seated on its back was a single rider, cloaked. As she approached, the figure looked up. She immediately felt her heart soar. Though they were older now, she would recognize those blue eyes anywhere.

"Chrom!" she cried, her feathers falling away as she fell to the ground and rose to her full height. He pulled the reins and leapt from the saddle, his momentum causing them both to fall over and tumble down the hill until they came to a stop at the bottom, breathless.

"I came back," he said, grinning boyishly. He was pinned beneath her weight and he reached up to take a strand of her hair. "It seems I love you after all, Robin." He kissed the blood red strands wound in his fingers.

Her heart felt like it would burst. She began to laugh and buried her face in his shoulder.

"You came back," she repeated, taking in his all too human scent. "Will you stay?"

"Yes. The rest of my life is yours, if you'll have it."

"If you'll give it," she replied. "But a human life is short. Are you sure you wish to spend it with me?"

"A thousand lives would mean nothing if I had to spend a single moment more without you," he said seriously. "You've been all I've thought about for the past year."

"The love of a human and a god will be difficult," she warned. "You may never see those you love again."

"I've made my peace and said my goodbyes."

"You may regret choosing to live among spirits."

"I don't care, I've been regretting leaving you behind all this time. It's too late for me now," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I'm already in love with a goddess, and I would rather die now than have to give her up."

The further they pushed into Plegian territory, the stronger Robin's deja vu became. Other than the dreams and strange gut feelings that based her decisions when crafting her strategies, the addition of several new recruits came as a shock. When Tharja joined their ranks, for example, Robin almost cried. There was something intimately familiar about the sinister, dark haired woman, and she had to stop herself from running to embrace her when she saw her for the first time. At first she thought it might be because Tharja had known her in the past, before the amnesia had set in, but the sorceress insisted she'd never met Robin before (though she wasn't against the idea of getting to know her now).

A similar, though less powerful, feeling swept through her when they recruited Libra and several others. It seemed to Robin as if she were meeting old friends that she hadn't seen in several years, though none of them seemed to know her at all.

It was a baffling experience, only compounded by the fact that her dreams continued to get more and more vivid, without any sign of stopping.

She began to keep a written record of them. She wasn't sure what drove her to it; perhaps she just wanted to see if she could make more sense of them if she had them documented on paper. But though she did her best to write them down as accurately as possible, they remained impossible to understand. Several of them took place in worlds she could barely comprehend, and much of the terminology that made sense when she was asleep was completely lost on her once she regained consciousness. Those particular dreams were almost impossible to write down, and when she looked back through them she hardly understood what she'd been trying to convey.

They can't be something I just dreamt up on my own, she thought, frustrated. The dreams were too coherent for that, as if she was watching a series of lives unfold in front of her in pieces. They took place in different worlds, different times, and often had different people in them, some of which she later realized seemed to be people she knew from the Shepherds, though they weren't quite the same either.

But no matter how different, every single dream had something to do with herself... and with Chrom.

Before she knew it, she had an entire journal dedicated to her dreams, and still they would not fade.

Robin followed behind the three of them, watching wistfully. The little boy was no longer a baby, and he clung to his father's hand tightly as they prepared to cross the street. Lucina, as always, triple checked the road before she turned to Chrom.

"It's alright now, daddy," she said, clinging to the straps of her backpack. He smiled at her.

"You're so responsible, Luci," he said, patting her hair gently. Lucina beamed and the three of them began to cross. Robin, out of habit, checked one last time that no cars were coming before she hurried to catch up.

"Daddy, why Lushi go?" Morgan was asking sadly.

"I have to go to school, Mor," she said, not unkindly. Lucina loved her little brother, and she hated leaving him behind more than he knew.

"When Mor go?" he asked, pouting. Chrom squeezed his hand. "Three more years," he said. "Besides, wouldn't you rather stay at home with me? Isn't that more fun than boring school?" Morgan didn't seem to be able to answer, but Lucina nodded fervently.

"Yeah, school is dumb," she huffed. "I wanna stay home with you and daddy."

"Sorry Luce," Chrom said, grinning. "We all have to do our time."

"Mor wanna go with Lushi," Morgan whined, and Chrom picked him up.

"C'mon, Mor, do you really wanna make Lucina sad when she has to go all alone to such a boring place?" he asked, tapping the boy's nose. "Look, she's gonna cry," he said, and Lucina frowned.

"Am not!"

"Whoops, never mind," he laughed. They came to a stop; they'd arrived at the school gate.

"Good morning, Mr. Everett," the gatekeeper said, smiling at the small family.

"Good morning," Chrom smiled in return.

"Hello, Lucina. Are you ready for the first grade?"

"No, Mister," she sighed, looking back at her father wistfully. "Daddy... do I have to?"

"Sorry Luci, I can't do anything about it. Kids have to go to school," he said, putting Morgan down and crouching down next to her. "Tell you what, I'll make you your favorite cake when you come home if you promise to be a good girl and behave."

"Lemon cake?!"

"Sure," he said, ruffling her hair. She hugged him tightly.

"Yay! Okay, I promise I'll be good," she said, and Chrom kissed her forehead.

"That's my girl. Go show them just how smart you really are," he grinned.

"Right, just like mom!"

Chrom's eyes grew soft and sad. "Right. Just like mom," he repeated.

"Okay, see you later, daddy. Bye bye, Mor!"

Robin watched as her daughter ran onto the playground, leaving Chrom and his son behind, waiting for her to disappear among the other children. She watched as her husband picked Morgan up and hoisted him over his shoulders.

"Alright, let's go make your sister that cake, hmm?"

"Cake!" Morgan giggled, and Robin watched them walk back the way they came, wishing with every fiber of her incorporeal being that if she could just reach out, she might be able to touch them.

"Robin?"

There was no reply, and Chrom wondered if she hadn't fallen asleep. It had been a long day, and she'd looked exhausted when she finished her afternoon sword practice.

"Robin? Are you there?" He peeked into her tent and found that she wasn't. He was about to leave when he realized she'd left her candle burning.

Crap, that's dangerous, he thought, and though he would normally never enter a woman's tent without her permission, he hurriedly stepped forward to blow it out.

He was about to do so when something on her table caught his eye. Next to a pile of maps, there was a small, handwritten book lying open with a quill between the pages. On the open page, his own name stood out, several times.

Huh?

Curiosity got the better of him, and he leaned forward to get a better look. There seemed to be a series of journal entries, though many of them didn't make any sense to him. The ones that did, however, all seemed to be about Robin... and about himself.

"Spent the night with Chrom again. His father wants to send him to the provinces, but he said he won't go without me. The government thinks it's a bad idea, sending a Plegian princess among the people, but Chrom won't have it. He says we have to be seen together if the alliance is ever going to mean anything substantial," he read. What in the world?!

The next entry was just as bizarre.

"The boy looks more like Chrom every day. The other Robin doesn't like it, it upsets her, but I think I'm glad about it. The more he reminds her of his father, the safer he is."

And the next-

"We're preparing for the wedding. Maribelle is teaching me how to dance, but I'm still terrible at it. I don't think I'll ever make a good queen, and she seems to share that conviction. At least Chrom is glad I'm not stepping on his toes for now."

He was about to read another when a sudden sound startled him.

"Ch-CHROM?!"

He whipped around to see Robin standing at the opening to her tent, clutching her coat in her hands.

"What are you doi- HAVE YOU BEEN READING MY JOURNAL?!" she cried, her face blanching.

"Robin! I- I saw that you left your candle lit and..." but he knew it was no use trying to talk himself out of it. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have, but I saw my name and I-"

He didn't manage to finish his sentence. She hurled her coat at him and in the confusion pushed him from the tent.

"GET OUT!" she shouted, and Chrom thought there was a note of panic and despair in her voice.

The sound of her cell phone ringing startled her awake, and she was too groggy to check the caller ID before she answered.

"'Ello?" she muttered, and a loud, happy whoop came through the line.

"Mom! Oh my god, you won't believe this! I GOT THE INTERNSHIP!"

Robin blinked sleepily and turned to see that the alarm clock read 2 AM.

"Lucina, do you have any idea what time it is?" she groaned.

"I know, but I just got the email and I had to tell you! I'm the youngest applicant they've ever accepted! Aren't you proud of me?!"

"Ecstatic, honey," Robin yawned. Chrom stirred.

"Waz goin' on?" he slurred, and Robin half-heartedly gave his shoulder a pat.

"Is that dad?! Can I tell him?!" Lucina squealed, and Robin surrendered her phone without a second thought.

"Lucina?" he said. Robin turned her back to him. She quickly lost track of the conversation and was almost back to sleep when he nudged her awake again.

"Your phone," he said.

"Ugh, it's too late for this," she complained, flinging the phone aside. She thought she heard it hit the floor but she was too tired to care.

"Not for college students, it isn't," he chuckled. "Don't you remember all those late nights?"

"Chrom, half of those late nights were because Luci wouldn't stop crying," she said.

"Oh... right."

"And the other half were because you were having a breakdown as a result of Luci's crying," she added.

" Ah, I remember the suffering like it was yesterday," he muttered. "Why does it seem like not much has changed?"

"Because we're parents," Robin murmured into her pillow. "And we've been together for most of our lives."

"Now that... I wouldn't change that for the world," he said, kissing her shoulder.

For the next few days, she seemed to be avoiding him. Every time he tried to corner her, she managed to slip away, and it was driving him mad.

I just want to talk! he lamented as she managed to escape him yet again after dinner. He was curious and confused about her journal, of course, but mostly, he couldn't bear not being able to speak to her. Camp seemed much less lively without her presence, and even though she dutifully continued to take part in war meetings, she never stayed behind to chat like she used to.

He'd had enough.

"Robin."

She froze, her hand still clutching her quill. She'd been working on a diagram, sitting on the grass outside her tent when Chrom seized his chance.

"O-oh, Chrom... Good afternoon," she said faintly, looking up at him.

"We need to talk," he said, trying to use his sternest tone.

"Oh."

"Please," he added, and he realized he sounded slightly desperate. He held a hand out for her, hoping that she would accept. She stared at it, and then at him.

"Alright..." she said, closing her eyes, her mouth pressed into a thin line. She looked like she was girding up her courage for something she fully expected to regret.

They walked through the woods in silence, the cold autumn wind blowing through the trees. The spindly branches looked forlorn and bare without their leaves, and the ground beneath their feet crunched as they walked. It was still early, but the sun was setting earlier than usual, casting long, dark shadows over them. Robin shivered in the cold and pulled her coat tightly closed.

"Sorry, I know it's chilly," Chrom said, breaking the evening stillness.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," she grimaced.

He looked away for a moment, unsure how to begin.

"About the other night... I wanted to apologize for going in your tent without permission," he said.

Robin winced.

"Right... apology accepted," she said quietly. She could feel the topic of her dreams coming up, and she wished she could disappear.

"And about your journal..."

Here it comes...

"I'm sorry for reading it. No matter the reason, it was your private journal, and I had no right looking through it. I hope you'll forgive me," he said, looking pained.

She blinked, confused.

"You- You aren't going to ask about... what was written?"

He looked uncomfortable. "I can't lie and say I'm not interested in knowing, but it's none of my business. I hate not being on good terms with you; I think it wouldn't have mattered if you were plotting out my murder in detail in there, I still wouldn't have wanted to lose your friendship."

"Chrom..."

"I guess that sounds kind of stupid, doesn't it?" he asked, coming to a stop beneath a tree. "But that's how much you mean to me."

She took in his face, slightly flushed in the cold, and his earnest, kind blue eyes. For some reason, she was reminded of her dreams again, and she decided in that moment that she was tired of hiding them.

"They're dreams," she said suddenly, and he furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Huh?"

"In the journal. I've been writing down my dreams in it."

"Your... dreams? But I-"

She blushed slightly. "You're in them. Almost every night."

She'd never seen a man's face go so red. It was a startling change, and he stumbled back against the tree trunk, completely at a loss.

"Wh-what?"

Seeing him so flustered only made her feel more self-conscious about what she was about to say, but she forced herself to keep going.

"I... I don't know why," she said, hugging herself. "Since I lost my memories, I keep having these strange dreams about you, and most of them don't make any sense to me. I thought they were just normal dreams, at first, but there's some continuity to them, like a story I occasionally hear a part of. And they're so vivid... sometimes I wake up and I'm so confused... I think I'm going insane, Chrom," she said, her worst fears more tangible by the fact that she'd finally spoken them aloud.

He didn't say anything.

"It-it's not only the dreams," she continued miserably. "Being here, being a part of the Shepherds, feels like I'm trapped in yet another dream. I have this overwhelming sense that something isn't right, that I've already been through this war. And some of the people here... I feel like I've known them for years, even when we've only just met. I felt it with Tharja, with Stahl, with Miriel... with hundreds of others. Especially... especially with you," she said, her voice almost inaudible.

Slowly, very slowly, he slid to the ground. He raised his hands, which were trembling, to his face, and let out a strange whining sound. It wasn't the reaction she'd been expecting.

"Chrom?!" She knelt at his side, terrified that he'd been injured or hurt somehow, but he merely shook his head.

"No, I'm... I'm alright," he said, his voice strained. "I just..." He paused and took a deep breath. "It's just... for some reason, when I looked at you just now... I felt like I understood what you meant, like I'd been hit by something... Since I met you, something about you has been..."

"Familiar," she finished for him.

"Y-yeah..."

"What does it mean?" she whispered.

"I... I don't know," he replied.

The wind whistled through the branches, a quiet, otherworldly song that filled the silence between them with anticipation.

"Robin... do you believe in past lives?" he asked suddenly.

"Past... lives?"

"In Ylisse, we have a superstition... that when we die, our souls merely move to another life and start again."

"You... you think my dreams are past... lives?!"

"I don't know... if neither of us is going insane... and there really is a reason for this deja vu... then maybe that reason is because in another life- no, in many other lives- we've already met, and we've already lived through all this."

"But... some of those dreams take place in worlds completely different from ours..."

"Maybe not all worlds take the same path," he said, and he looked up at the sky as he spoke. "Maybe there's countless worlds out there... We may not even be dealing with past lives; maybe the future and present aren't as linear as we think they are. I mean, what would we understand? We're only humans, after all."

"Then... why doesn't everyone experience this?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're special, or maybe your amnesia has something to do with it."

She closed her eyes, thinking.

If those dreams are all other lives... and if this feeling I've been getting... this feeling of experiencing things that are strangely familiar, is all because I have memories of those lives where I've already experienced these same moments...

"I still don't understand," she said softly. "Even if that's true... why are all my dreams about you? If all these lives are different, why does your presence never change?"

"I... I think I know why," he said, his voice thick with emotion, and he reached into his pocket. "Robin... give me your hand."

She did as he asked, but before she could ask what he was going to do, he'd pressed something small into her palm. It was a ring, small and silver, and something about it sent a shock of familiarity through her.

"Chrom...! This...!"

She'd seen this ring before, she'd worn it once. Around her neck, and on her finger, in several different dreams. And even once she'd lost it, in one lifetime, her son had found it.

"I've been meaning to give this to you for months," he said, and though he was still red, his voice sounded slightly stronger, more resolved. "I love you, Robin. I've loved you for as long as I've known you, and I think, maybe, if your dreams are any indication, I loved you before that."

Her heart caught in her throat.

"Chrom..."

"Please, Robin, this is torture," he groaned. "I can't take this anymore. I feel like I've been waiting an eternity to tell you how I feel. Maybe I have. I don't know what happened between us in your dreams, if things worked out or not, but at least here and now, in this life, I know that I love you with everything I am. Robin... will you-?"

He didn't get a chance to finish, because she threw herself into his arms.

"Yes, yes! A thousand times yes!" she cried. She kissed him, and a moment later he responded, pulling her tightly against him. They pulled apart to breathe, only to kiss again and again, each one more full of longing and a desperate familiarity than the last.

Her heart was swollen and full, overrunning with feelings that she wasn't sure all belonged to her. But for the first time since he'd offered her his hand, that day in the field, she didn't care if they made sense. At last, in Chrom's arms, everything felt right.

At last, she was home.

"You are the answer to my question

You are my accomplice in a crime

You are my wing woman

And did I mention

We were together in another life

In that dreaming, you probably were my wife."