"Rest easy, Robin. I sincerely hope you're in a better place now."

Sheik woke up with a start, his heart racing and his head spinning.

"Hylia herself, what the hell was that?" Sheik muttered.

That dream had felt so familiar. Almost like it had actually happened, which was crazy. Last time he'd checked, Robin was alive and well. The only rational conclusion was that he'd seen the future, which was wack. Nobody could see the future. That was a myth. (Of course, he was completely disregarding the fact that he'd had dreams like this before, but never on this scale.)

...okay, maybe he needed to stop reading those high fantasy novels before bed. Or those research papers about what medieval Hyrule had been like. Both of those were probably fucking with his head.

A glance over at his alarm clock told him that it was literally five in the morning. And he'd only gone to bed at two. Since he sure as hell wasn't getting back to sleep after that, he'd had three hours of sleep, which was actually pretty average for him. One of these days, Robin or Link was going to get after him for not sleeping again. It's not like they were going to be upset or anything, but they would be disappointed. Corrin had already noticed that he hadn't been sleeping much, and he'd tried to get him to stop working himself so hard.

Emphasis on tried. Sheik was really fucking stubborn when he wanted to be, so a lot of the time it was a losing battle for whoever tried to convince him to do something.

A specific image from his dream had really stuck out in his mind. Well, not image. Sentence.

"...even though you abused me, I can't hate you."

That was weird. It was bothering him, actually. He knew that his dream self had been addressing Robin, but the Robin he knew would literally never do something like that. The Robin he knew was literally a sweetheart.

Speaking of Robin, this was only getting him more on edge the longer he thought about it. Sheik was reasonably certain that the only way to ease his anxieties about this whole thing was to go find Robin and make sure he was actually, you know, alive.

Quietly, trying not to disturb Roy or Link, Sheik slipped out of his room and entered the main common area. To his surprise- okay, maybe he wasn't all that surprised- Robin was lying on the couch with his earbuds in and a stack of notebook paper scattered around him. Held loosely in his right hand was a mechanical pencil. His eyes were closed, but his glasses were perched precariously on the end of his nose.

Sheik rolled his eyes, but an amused smile found its way onto his face. Robin had fallen asleep songwriting again. He walked over to the sleeping man and shook his shoulder lightly. "Robin, you gotta wake up."

Robin's eyes opened, confusion written all over his face. "Wha- ugh."

"You forgot to go to bed, didn't you?" Sheik asked.

"Must've." Robin replied sleepily. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, in your bed. Not on the couch. Do you want to have a stiff back in the morning?"

"Hmphhh." Robin closed his eyes again. "Tired."

"I know. But I can't carry you all the way to your bed, I'm not that strong."

"Sure you are."

"You literally weigh fifty pounds more than me." Sheik pointed out.

"That's cuz you're skinny as fuck." Robin replied. "Speaking of which, when was the last time you actually ate something?"

"My eating habits aren't your business."

"Yeah well I could be asking about your sleep schedule."

"Okay fine, it was yesterday morning. I forgot to eat lunch. And dinner."

"No wonder you're so skinny. How do you just forget to eat?" Robin asked, actually opening his eyes again. He seemed to be a bit more awake now.

"Uhhhh...."

"My god, you're hopeless." Robin scoffed playfully. "Look, can you try to do better? I don't want you passing out or anything."

Sheik shrugged. "I'll be fine. It's not like this is the first time I've done this."

"I know, but still. I'm worried about you sometimes."

"You literally sound like Zelda." Sheik elbowed him and laughed.

"Oh come on!" Robin exclaimed. "There's literally no winning with you."

"Deal with it." Sheik poked his tongue out at Robin and stood up. He held his hand out to Robin, intending to help him get off the couch. "Now come on, you need some proper sleep."

"Touché." Robin grumbled. He grabbed Sheik's hand and pulled himself up, nearly pulling Sheik off balance as he did so. Robin laughed as Sheik stumbled slightly and threw out his free hand for balance. "Graceful."

"Your glasses are crooked." Sheik muttered, only mildly offended.

Robin pushed his glasses up his nose, then remembered all the notebook paper that was still on the couch. He turned and gathered it up, then started wandering toward his bedroom.

Sheik watched him go for a moment. Robin was clearly alive and well, plus he showed no signs of being abusive. He was just... Robin.

So what could his dream have meant?

A/N-

we're baaaaaaack! things are going to look a bit different this time around- for one thing, tweets won't be a thing. sorry. instead, I have a different aspect of social media to show off. starting next chapter, each one of these will be ended off with a "Viral Compilation of the Week." these will be short video titles like "15 minutes of Robin being a wholesome bean" or "7 minutes of Ike doing absolutely nothing." this will be followed by a short excerpt from the comments section and a description of the thumbnail.

also, quick note about the cover- I'm working on finding the image I used for the original book. I should have a cover sometime soon. if you're reading this after I've uploaded the cover, ignore this lol.

lastly, this is an AU of Brawltang, just in case that wasn't clear enough. HOWEVER, any impressions of characters from there (specifically Robin, Marth, Ike, Zelda, and Corrin) shouldn't carry over to here. if you want more clarification about why a specific character is on that list, just ask!