After what seemed like an eternity of smiles, kind words, pitying glances, and more, Marth was exhausted. 

Well, and upset. 

How could they have known that he got really mad when HE was even brought up in casual conversation?

How could they have known that he felt like a failure for letting himself be lied to by the first person he'd loved?

Shulk had eventually broken the reunion up, saying that it was high time that the kids were led to their new rooms. Thank the gods he had, otherwise Marth was considering taking one of the fancy ass candelabras and smacking someone over the head with it.

He was now sitting in his room, staring up at the ceiling while sprawled on his bed. His room was nice and all, but it was... quiet. 

Too quiet.

It was his room, and although Lucina's room was next door, he still felt... unsafe without her in the room with him. 

A sudden knock on the door startled Marth, making him sit up so quickly he felt dizzy. 

Well, that's one way to stop wallowing in your own self-pity. 

Slowly, since the world was spinning under his feet, Marth stumbled to the door. Before opening it, he made sure to count to three so that he didn't look like a drunk bastard when he opened the door. 

He was not expecting to see Robin on the other side of the door, but then again maybe he should have. 

Marth was many things, but he wasn't a fool. He knew that Robin was fond of Lucina. He also knew that Lucina liked Robin back. 

But she was his sister, and as trustworthy as Robin might be, sometimes something about the white haired boy seemed... off. 

Could he really trust Robin not to hurt his sister?

"Robin. Good evening." Marth greeted his friend, stepping aside to let him enter.

"How's it going, Marth?" Robin asked, entering the room and nodding his thanks. 

"Fine. Now, I assume you want something." Marth replied, keeping his answers short and to the point. Normally he wasn't so blunt, but he was exhausted and angry and didn't want to deal with people right now. 

"Yeah." Robin looked at his hands, then back up at Marth. 

Instead of responding, Marth just kind of looked at him like "bruh just say it already."

"CanIaskyoursistertobemygirlfriend?" Robin asked, speaking so quickly that Marth didn't catch anything beyond "sister" and "girlfriend."

"Slow down, please. It's alright, Robin. I'm not that scary." Marth said, kind of in a patronizing tone. He was good at that. 

Robin took a deep breath. Then, slower, he said "Can I ask your sister to be my girlfriend?"

Well, shit.

How was he supposed to answer this?

Obviously Marth wanted the best for his sister, but like he'd been thinking about earlier, he wasn't sure if Robin was the best for her.

"Uh...." Marth ended up saying, because he's really intelligent like that. 

Robin just looked at him, still hopeful. 

"I don't know, man. No offense or anything, but you kind of seem... weird sometimes. I just don't want Lucina to get hurt any more than she already has." Marth said. 

The hope in Robin's eyes flickered out and died. He looked absolutely crushed, and the expression on his face made Marth feel like a horrible person.

Then, something snapped in Robin's eyes.

"I'm sorry, what the fuck did you just say?" Robin asked, but his voice sounded... cruel and cold. 

Marth backed up a bit, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "Dude. Chill. It's not the end of the world. I might change my mind, you know."

"Might? Might? Ha! Like you ever change your mind once it's made up." Robin sneered.

"What's wrong with you? You hardly ever lose it like this!" Marth said. He didn't enjoy being sneered at. Something in Robin's voice now reminded him of the way the Headmaster spoke, and that freaked Marth out.

"There's nothing wrong with me-" Robin started saying, but then he winced and held a hand to his head. "Damn." 

"Guess I was right! If you can't even control your own temper, how am I supposed to let you date my sister? You'll just get mad and hurt her, and I don't want that to happen!" Marth said, edging towards the door. 

"Fuck you, Marth." Robin hissed. "I was only asking you for your blessing to date her as a courtesy! I don't actually need it, now do I?" Almost immediately after he spoke, he closed his eyes and grimaced in pain. 

Then, in what was probably the cherry on top of the weirdest day of his life, Robin opened his eyes again and looked at Marth like he didn't know where he was. 

"What in the world?" Robin asked, voice back to normal now. 

"You just yelled at me, and now you're acting like you didn't do anything? Wow. And I thought this day couldn't get any better." Marth said, voice heavy with sarcasm. 

"Marth, I swear I don't remember what just happened! What did I say?" Robin exclaimed, sounding a little panicked now. 

"You swore at me and were an all around asshole." Marth said flatly. 

"I'm so sorry! I-" Robin started saying, but Marth cut him off. 

"Get out. I don't want to hear excuses. My answer is no, and that is likely final." Marth said. 

Robin bowed his head in acknowledgement and fled the room.

././.

Robin wasn't usually an emotional wreck, but something about the way Marth had looked at him while he said "no" was really screwing with him. 

As luck (or maybe misfortune) would have it, Robin nearly ran into Lucina while he was fleeing the Wrath of Marth. 

"Robin! I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Are you-" Lucina stopped mid sentence, as she looked up at him and saw the expression on his face. "What happened?"

"Can we go sit down somewhere, please?" Robin asked softly.

"Sure thing." Lucina said. As she led him to somewhere that was a little bit quieter, she would glance back at him to make sure he was okay every once in a while.

Soon, they had reached a quiet spot to sit. 

"Here we are. So, what happened?" Lucina asked. 

"I went to go get Marth's permission to ask you out." Robin responded. "He wasn't sure, and then something happened, and now he's pissed at me."

"What did you say?" Lucina asked, her voice soft with sympathy. "Marth is in kind of a bad mood right now because of earlier, and the whole Roy business. It might not even be your fault. Marth might just be being unreasonable because he's upset." 

"No, I know I said something, I just can't remember what I said!" Robin exclaimed. "I feel really fucking terrible about it, too! One moment I was thinking about what I was saying, and then there's a weird gap, and then Marth is yelling at me for something I don't remember doing!"

"Robin..." Lucina whispered.

He didn't respond, as he didn't really trust himself to speak. He was breathing rapidly, trying not to freak out. Briefly, he closed his eyes and tried counting to ten. His count was interrupted when he felt Lucina's arms slip around his waist, and her head on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Robbie." Lucina whispered. "It's not your fault."

"I feel like it is, though." Robin whispered back, biting back a sob. Gods, he was pathetic. 

"It isn't! You just had bad timing. How were you supposed to know that Marth was in such a bad mood?" Lucina said. 

"But I-" Robin started saying, but Lucina cut him off by putting one of her fingers on his lips. 

"Enough, Robbie. You can't beat yourself up about it if you don't remember doing it." Lucina said. 

Robin sighed. Gods, Lucina was such a sweetheart. He couldn't stay mad at her brother, even if that whole conversation with Marth had gone downhill really quickly. Well, and how could he be upset when he was with her?

"Thanks, Luci. What would I do without you?" Robin whispered, smiling and slipping an arm around her shoulders. 

"I don't know. For a genius, you really can be an idiot sometimes." Lucina replied, laughing as she spoke. "I mean that in the best way possible, you know."

"Of course." Robin said, laughing along with her. 

At that moment, a stab of pain went through Robin's skull. It felt familiar, for some reason. But why? He swore he could hear two voices arguing in the back of his mind. Wincing slightly, Robin tried to listen to the voices, and almost immediately regretted it. 

"50 dollars says he kisses her."

"No way. He's too chicken."

"Holy Me, you really are stupid." 

"Listen here you little fucker-"

"Just take the bet. I'm bored."

"Fine. How are you even gonna pay up when you lose, though? I mean, you don't actually have any money." 

"Magic, bitch."

Robin stopped listening after that, but he could tell that they were both still arguing with each other. So he was just going insane now?

How wonderful. 

He couldn't deny that he wanted to kiss Lucina properly. But now maybe he wouldn't, just to spite the voice that seemed more familiar than the other one.

"Lucina, I don't think I tell you how much I appreciate you enough." Robin said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the two of them.

"Why so sentimental all of a sudden?" Lucina asked, adjusting herself a bit so she could look at Robin's face.

He shrugged. "I don't know."

Lucina laughed. "You're such a dork."

"Of course I am." Robin laughed. 

Looking at her now, how had he never realized that Lucina's eyes were slightly different from each other? Her left eye, the one with the brand in it, was a slightly lighter shade of blue than her right eye. 

But, no. Now was not the time to think about that. Marth had said no, and as much as Robin wanted to ask Lucina out, he knew that he couldn't. Forbidden romances never worked out-

"Am I interrupting something?" Sheik asked.

Startled, Robin and Lucina jumped apart. Lucina's face was bright red, and she cleared her throat while staring anywhere except at Robin or Sheik. 

"I-I swear it's n-not what it looks like!" Lucina exclaimed. 

Sheik looked surprisingly undisturbed by this, but then again, sometimes Robin was convinced that the blond boy didn't actually feel anything. Other times, he dismissed the thought, but at times like this...

"Lucina, Zelda wants to talk to you." Sheik said, basically ignoring what the blushing bluenette had said previously. 

Without a word, Lucina stood up and walked past Sheik, moving as fast as she could without seeming guilty.

Robin leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "I'm so fucking screwed." He groaned, sure that it couldn't get any worse. 

Those two voices were ridiculing him, but the slightly familiar one seemed pissed that he lost that bet he'd been talking about. 

Of course, it had to get worse. Ike walked over and saw Robin with his head in his hands.

"Dude, nice. Real smooth." Ike chuckled. He clapped Robin on the back and kept walking, still laughing.

"Please don't tell Marth." Robin begged.

"Don't worry, I won't." Sheik said, the toneless quality of his voice kind of scaring Robin a bit.

"Are you mad at me?" Robin asked.

"I'm not mad at you. It's got nothing to do with you. You'd better go to your room so you don't embarrass yourself further." Sheik replied. 

Robin obeyed, standing up and basically running over to the stairs.

"Oh, and Robin?" Sheik said, raising his voice to be heard.

"Yeah?" Robin responded.

"Get a room next time." Sheik said, then turned away.

Robin could have sworn he saw Sheik smile at his own joke.