#Which on the bright side is good for Nowi I guess

[tsukki-monster]

-

[sylvanfreckles]

Day Five: Mistletoe

Fandom: Fire Emblem Awakening

Summary: Chrom and Lissa recruit Robin to help plan a solstice festival for the Shepherds.

(Yep! It’s the third of my top-three game series!)

After nearly an hour of poring over the field reports brought in by their scouts, Robin slowly became aware that someone was standing in front of him. “Oh. Hello, Lissa. Did you need something?”

Chrom's sister was smiling down at him—which usually meant trouble—with both hands innocently tucked behind her back. “Do you know what date it is, Robin?”

“It's, um,” Robin shuffled through the reports. One of them had been dated. “It's...winter?”

“It's nearly solstice,” Lissa explained cheerfully. “You know what that means?”

“Uh...” he squinted up at her. “The...shortest day of the year?”

Lissa giggled and brought one hand out, holding a sprig of some kind of plant and dangling it over Robin's head. He stared up at it in confusion, then looked further up to the gleeful expression on the young cleric's face. “Lissa?”

“Holy wow,” Lissa rolled her eyes. “You really don't know anything but strategy, huh? This is mistletoe.”

“Okay?” Robin shrugged. Mistletoe was a parasitical plant, and Miriel used it in some of her research. That was about all he knew of it. “What about it?”

“Duh. When two people are under the mistletoe they're supposed to kiss.”

Robin felt his cheeks burn bright red and he tried to scramble away from Lissa. “That-that wouldn't be appropriate! You're the princess...Frederick would...and Chrom...!”

Lissa just giggled at his consternation and leaned over to place a dramatic kiss on top of his head. “Solstice is a time to celebrate, Robin. We're just trying to spread a little cheer! Put your books away and come to the mess tent, Sumia and Stahl are talking about making a special meal.”

He let her grab his wrist and tug him to his feet, following the flounce of her yellow skirt through the camp to the mess tent. “Maybe you can help me convince Olivia to do a special dance,” Lissa continued brightly. “Or-or at least convince Henry not to. And Mirabelle's looking for anyone who used to do those old Yule plays in school...but I guess you wouldn't remember that...anyway, here we are!”

With a dramatic gesture, Lissa swept the mess tent's entrance flap aside. Inside, several of the Shepherds were busy arranging boughs of evergreen branches along the tent's frame. Nowi seemed to be helping Cherche untangle a mass of red and white ribbon, but Robin was fairly sure the Manakete was just tangling things up further on purpose.

“Chrom! I found him!” Lissa waved at her brother across the tent and pulled Robin through the chaos. “Your favorite tactician, big brother,” she announced, shoving Robin forward.

The Exalt chuckled, resting his chin in one hand. “He's my only tactician, Lissa.”

“All the more reason he should be your favorite!” she replied with a cheeky grin. “Now, here, you two work on your plans. I'm gonna go hunt for more mistletoe.”

“Keep it away from Tharja!” Chrom called to his sister's retreating back. He offered Robin a warm smile and patted the empty spot on the bench beside him. “We've been planning a little celebration, and I was hoping you'd help me.”

Robin sat and rested his hands in his lap, fingers twisted together. The bustle around him was so cheerful, so comfortable...and so unfamiliar. “I don't...Chrom, I don't remember anything. From before.”

“Hey,” Chrom's hand on Robin's shoulder was warm. Comforting. “We're making new memories, right? I'm not asking you to come up with anything, I just need my favorite tactician to do what he does best.”

He couldn't help but smile at Chrom's words. “And what's that?”

“Strategy,” Chrom held up a few loose sheets of paper. “I've been trying to think of different things we could do, but I can't seem to get it into any kind of order.”

Robin flipped through the pages and nodded to himself. “I think I can see what you mean,” he said, digging for a spare quill in his robes. He took a scrap of paper and roughly sketched out two-hour blocks of time and started filling them in. “You want to have active events, like the wrestling tournament Sully wants, a couple of hours after a meal. Mirabelle wants to do a play or recital, that should be directly after lunch.”

“We could have an informal dinner,” Chrom suggested, spreading the loose pages across their knees. “We used to have a solstice ball every year...it could only be something small out here in the camp, but I think everyone would like it.”

The tactician's quill darted across the page as he made notes. “Does...does this page just say 'candy'?”

Chrom groaned, crumpled the page up, and tossed it over his shoulder. “Gauis was here a few minutes ago.”

“Right.”

Robin leaned over the paper, making new notes and crossing old ones out, drawing lines to move events around. Eventually Chrom got up to bring him more paper when their notes began to overflow the pages. Someone brought them bread and ale at noon, though they were too busy arguing over whether or not to include a horse race for the solstice festival. At one point Vaike simply dragged their bench over to one side so he could decorate the tent pole that had been behind them.

“...look, all I'm saying is, Cherche always wants someone to pet Minerva,” Robin explained, leaning back away from Chrom to keep his quill out of reach. “She doesn't need a special day for a wyvern petting zoo, I'm pretty sure she slipped that into your pocket while you were asking Sumia if she knew how to make mince pies.”

“I know that,” Chrom retorted. He planted a hand on Robin's shoulder and held the tactician down long enough to pluck the quill out of his outstretched hand. “I'll ask you this...do you want to tell Cherche we left Minerva out of our solstice festival plans?”

Robin shuddered at the thought and watched Chrom scrawl Minerva's name next to the box for Sully's wrestling tournament. “Right. I think we have a good schedule here. Maybe...”

“Robin!” Lissa pelted into the tent, leaves caught in her blonde hair. “Oh—Chrom! You're both here!”

“Lissa?” Chrom was already on his feet, holding his arms out to stop his sister's mad dash. “What's wrong?”

Lissa doubled over, panting for breath, hands resting on her thighs. “It's awful. I was looking for mistletoe, and she...Tharja followed me. I didn't know she was there, I swear!”

“Tharja?” Robin felt another shudder run up his spine. He climbed to his feet, papers scattering around him, and clung to the back of Chrom's tunic to steady himself.

“She found the Mistletoe! Oh, Robin, you have to hide!”

“Follow me,” Chrom seized Robin by the wrist and fled the mess tent, pulling the tactician along in his wake. “Frederick is working in the armory today, he'll know what to do.”

Robin stumbled along, nearly tripping over his own robes as Chrom pulled him between the tents. “This is...is solstice always like this?”

Chrom smiled back at him over his shoulder. “It is when you're a Shepherd!”

* * *

Next time: Trifles - “No”

* * *

Day Four - Master List - Day Six