Anything Can Change

We are the hearts And the future runs through our bones it's right here, it's right now and you've been waiting for so long forget fear, and just run your past won't catch you now Its all or nothing Chrom Rp Blog See Law or Mun page for more info The Dorklord has Risen

[challengeroffate-blog-blog]

Daaaaaaaaddy

Lucina found herself back in Ylisstol after nearly two years. She wasn’t entirely certain what had brought her back here–no, actually, that was a lie. She knew full well what had brought her back, she just…knew she should not be giving into her own weakness so, and thus did not want to admit it to herself. Regardless of her reasoning, however, the facts did not change: she was back. For better of for worse…she was back.

Hooded and cloaked, she hurried through the streets, slipping quickly down familiar alleyways and trying not to think about how these same streets had looked licked in flaming red tongues. This was a new time, and…and peace reigned. It was truly wonderful. That time would never come to pass.

…if only she could forget it.

Shaking off those depressing thoughts, she steeled herself and headed for the palace. She circled the palace wall, using the clutter of the marketplace to reorient herself, and approached the area where the familiar hole would allow her entrance. She was just going to check up on things, to…make certain everyone was well, and to see Morgan. Not older Morgan, but baby Morgan. He must be well, right? She wanted to see for herself.

She was both pleased and shocked to find the entrance exactly where it had always been. Pleased, because it made getting in and out a simple task, and shocked because she had /told/ father it was here. He should have fixed it! Regardless, she made use of it now, slipping inside the courtyard.

It was much how she remembered it. Slipping through the vegetation, she worked her way closer to the entrance. Then, she waited. Watching the guards carefully, she timed their movements and slipped inside, padding lightly down the halls. Just to the nursery, then out. Maybe a visit to her parents. Either way, in and out, quick and silent, leaving no trace.

She made it undetected to baby Morgan’s room, exactly where it had been in her day, and slipped inside. Leaning over the crib, she was relieved to see him there, sleeping contently. Reaching down, she ran the backs of her fingers over his cheek lightly.

“Yours…will be a happy future too,” she whispered. “Just know that your big sister will always love you, no matter what happens. Or what pranks you pull. Just be careful with the traps.”

[eminence-exalted]

Chrom stifled a yawn as he gently closed the door to Lucina’s room, turning to drag his feet through the castle halls and back to his own bed. He loved his children, more than the world and as much as the woman who was their mother, but when little Lucina came knocking on their door in the dead of night it was hard to miss the kind of night’s he’d had before two children had been introduced into his life.

Yet this was a triviality compared to what could have been. He had to be thankful that he was home to be the one to quiet her nightmares, and that they were only the simple ones that all children had. She knew nothing of the very real nightmare that plagued the sleeping hours of any who had the misfortune to witness it only 2 years ago. Her future was bright, unburdened with all the troubles that had been thrust upon her older counterpart, whose future, he hoped, was now equally sunny. Yet he had heard little from his eldest daughter since Grima had been defeated and her mother vanished, and while he had little reason to worry about her well-being, he couldn’t help it.

He passed by Morgan’s room, and spared a sleepy glance through the slightly ajar door to make sure his son still slept soundly. He had been so prone to crying in the middle of the night, but like so much else, this had improved with his mother’s return. For a moment, his tired brain registered only that Morgan was not crying, but in another moment it had processed that Morgan was also not alone. A hooded figure was barely visible beyond the cracked door, bent low over Morgan’s crib.

Immediately Chrom was awake and in full command of his body once more. Without any time to run anywhere for a weapon of any sort, he rushed into the room, a sharp cry on his lips, no other thought besides the safety of his son on his mind. Once inside, he soon realized who the intruder actually was. “Lucina!” he checked his voice this time, aware of the now fussing child in the crib, disturbed by his father’s shouting. Chrom has spent too much time with his daughter to not recognize her, even when her face was partially obscured by a hood. He moved forward to lift the distressed boy into his arms, cradling him gently to quiet him, then turned towards the figure of his daughter, his expression soft. If he didn’t have a weepy infant in his arms currently he would have embraced her. “What are you doing here so late? If you’d wanted to visit you could have come by the front door. Or, you know, in the day time.”

[eminence-exalted]

Come back to Me | Chrom & Robin

[black-crow-droning-on]

As Robin looked up at Chrom he chuckled a bit before caressing her cheek and wiping away some of her tears. She looked up at his blue eyes for a moment as her heart fluttered in her chest. There was no way she could express how grateful she was to have a second chance. When she did the final strike Robin truly thought that it was the end for her. The only solace she had in those moments was knowing that she had saved her family. She had secured the future for them, or at least she thought.

Robin wasn’t sure if she was done crying now or not. She couldn’t help but laugh under her breath as Chrom told her that she wouldn’t let death keep her away. “Somebody told me to keep fighting back,” she said quietly her voice threatening to crack again. Robin wasn’t used to be so emotional but this was obviously an exception. Her smile never fell away as she found herself unable to look away from her love as he turned to address others.

When she looked over she was surprised to see Lissa among the search party and Robin felt herself getting emotional again. She had just assumed that everyone would have gone off after the war, but they still had hope that she would return. Chrom raised a hand to signal that the search was over as Robin fought against a new wave of tears at this development.

Chrom turned back to her and Robin once again looked up at him as their foreheads touched. She couldn’t help but giggle slightly as the happiness seemed to bubble out of her chest. “Sounds like a great plan,” she whispered as he spoke of going home. Robin was still curious though about what happened to Reflet after everything. She knew he was never fond of Chrom but she couldn’t help but wonder if Reflet left Ylisse or if he stayed in the castle. “Is Reflet there?” she asked curiosity getting the best of her. She really did want to see her brother again, but she wasn’t sure how easy it would actually be.

[eminence-exalted]

Chrom’s smile wavered to hear Robin speak Reflet’s name. He had known this would come, there was no way she wouldn’t have asked about him. But still he wished he could put off the moment he had to tell his wife her brother was a monster a little bit longer.

“Yes,” he said a little hesitantly, “Reflet is… in the castle.” He was reluctant to meet her eyes, and instead watched their boots. “But… Robin,” he sighed heavily. “Reflet isn’t—he isn’t, well, the same as he was.” The arm he had wrapped around her waist loosened slightly, before he was able to muster himself again and look her in the eyes. “Robin, how much do you remember?” a sudden horrible thought washed over him. “You do, you remember most of it, right? You don’t have amnesia again, do you!?” His eyes were wide in concern, panicked at the vague thought that she might have forgotten all about how she knew him. What would he do? If he had gone all this way to find her and she barely remembered who he was?

He shook his head vigorously. “No, that was stupid, forgive me,” he muttered, “You wouldn’t let me be this close to you if you didn’t remember…” She had hugged him after all, and she knew enough to ask about Reflet…. Reflet! Gods he had gotten sidetracked.

He laughed shakily, “Sorry, I’ve been a bit of a mess lately,” he shook his head again, this time more in exasperation with himself than in an attempt to clear it of hasty conclusions “I had hoped you wouldn’t have to see me like this. But really, ever since you’ve been gone,” his voice shook again, threatening to break again. “Things have been so much worse than I ever would have thought. Reflet, it’s been worse for Reflet. He’s… he’s…” Chrom struggles for words. Being possessed by the very evil you almost died to defeat? That wasn’t exactly something he could just say. But he had to. “Reflet—Grima is… inhabiting… Reflet’s body.” He winced. That came out awfully. “He’s still the same, but he’s...violent. More than he ever has been.” He didn’t even want to try and tell about how Reflet seemed to have a deep rooted desire to eat him. “I—I didn’t know what to do.” He clenched his jaw hard, trying not to let anything resembling a sob slip through his teeth, but the shaking of his shoulders gave him away nonetheless. “Robin, I’m so sorry.” He released her waist, instead taking her hands in his. It didn’’t feel right to hold her so when he was telling her how badly he had treated her twin. “But, yes, Reflet is in the castle. I had no choice but to lock him there.”

[devour-the-crooked]

Stay On My Side~Chrom & Reflet

[devour-the-crooked]

      The warmth of his strained breath mixed with the hot blood that flowed into his mouth, as his fangs tore away at the already broken flesh around his lips. Visible in the cold air of the dungeon, as he tried to calm the rage that rattled his aching body. Barely having the energy to keep himself pressed against the bars of the cage he had been shoved in. But his anger was hardly linked to his current location and condition, blurred and distorted by Grima’s own hatred of the Exalted line, he struggled to separate his own feelings from the fell dragon’s.  And his mind was clogged with all of the beast’s desires, confusing his own. Was there truly so little difference between himself and Grima?

       No, he was still human. And he would cling to the last shred of humanity that he still had. He shook his head in protest at Chrom’s words. No, the suffering of this world was not his own. But Grima’s pain was his, as was his own. For only a brief moment he could find him sympathizing with the monster. For all of its hatred, and now all of the agony that it shared with him; he could almost bring himself to understand the creature. These feelings, however, were insanity, and he knew he could not give into them. Even as Chrom claimed others cared for him.

      “No, Chrom,” He growled, lips quivering, as his teeth still clung to his bottom lip. As if he was trying to hold himself back from snapping at the other man through the bars. “Perhaps I do not, but you,” He wheezed, “You are a burden to me. We are not the same. We never can be. How my sister understood or loved you is beyond my comprehension, but she was a better person than me. I do not want your compassion, and to know your love for my sister still makes my body burn.” He couldn’t tell if his own feelings were meshing with Grima’s now, but he felt anger in the very pit of his soul. He had attached Robin’s suffering and fate to Chrom for so long that it was difficult for him to move that blame to the dragon within his body, perhaps even impossible now.

     His head leaned on the bars, stealing what warmth he could Chrom while the man still held the bravery to remain still. He couldn’t think straight anymore, and rational thought was leaving him, but he tried to hold onto it. Pain. He was in so much pain. The burning inside of his soul, and the sensation of his body ripping itself apart from the inside out. As if someone had shoved a hook down his throat, and was trying to pull his soul from his body. As if his body was being torn in half by two horses, and trampled upon. As if something was trying to suffocate him. Every sensation drowning him at once, and the pain was unbearable.

       A hollow laugh managed to part his lips when Chrom spoke again. “Friends?” He spat at the word. No, they would never be friends, and if Chrom considered this beast to be his friend, well, he was crazier than Reflet had imagined. “You’re wrong. I am the only one to blame for who I am.” And what I have become. Had he been a stronger man, he wondered, could Grima have done this to him? Had he been there to kill Grima instead of his sister, would she still be here?

        Almost every part of him knew that Chrom would not grant his wish. That he in no way could understand his reasoning, or see the justice in his desire. And that was one of the many reasons he disliked the other man, but this man was all he had now, and he was willing to take his chances. And his hands tightened against the bars. “Kill me,” came his harsh words, a spark of hope contained within them.

[eminence-exalted]

Chrom’s fingers were trembling, with what until now he had presumed was the dread chill of the dungeon. But with every word that dripped from Reflet’s bloodstained mouth he felt more and more acutely that they shook with a quietly suppressed rage. He stood quickly, taking a step away from the cell, the hand that had so gingerly grasped at the other man’s only moments ago now clenched against his side.  

He looked down at the man beneath him, his lip curling in anger. To think that he had been deceived into thinking that this creature was still the brother that he had so loved. Was he Grima? Absolutely not. But he wasn’t Reflet, not as he had known him. The insults he had dealt him cut deep, striking with words he had always feared lurked within Reflet’s heart but had now been drawn out and coated in Grima’s venom.

This isn’t reflet, the part of his heart that still loved the man cried out, even as it nursed the wounds it had been dealt. But the other part of him, the prideful part that he often hated to acknowledge, had taken wounds too and was prepared to fight back instead of sit down and weep. For a moment the two parts of him wrestled for control over his throat, threatening to both yell and cry at the same time. But eventually his pride and his anger won out, and when he opened his mouth to retort, his voice was lined with knives.

“Me? A burden to you? It feels at this point as if it’s the other way around. I took you and robin in when you had nowhere to go, made every effort to keep you safe because I knew your sister would weep to see you gone.” Because I would weep to see you gone, the phrase remained unspoken in the the back of Chrom’s throat but he swallowed it, and continued, his voice a devolving into a low hiss, “You say Robin was a better person than you, and you’re absolutely right. Do you think for a moment that if I don’t wish that you had died there, and that she had lived? I’m sorry that the fact that I love her so offends you, but I can hardly help that you’re jealous that someone other than you might have her attention.”

He stopped himself there, breathing hard. For a moment, in his anger, he considered Reflet’s plea. The falchion he still wore at his side weighed there more heavily than it ever had before. If he were to draw it, the weapon fated to kill Grima… It’s not as if anyone would fault him. There were plenty of people now who cried out for his execution after the blood he had spilled with his own hands. All Chrom had to do was say that he had deemed him a threat, that it was more dangerous to keep him here than it was worth, all the true things that the guards had implored him with when he had set Reflet imprisoned here. If he said it was necessary, the no one would object to him taking the life of the vessel that housed the fell dragon. He was of exalted blood after all, it was his inheritance. But even as he was fated to fight the ones who carried the fell blood that so opposed his own, he had also been fated to fall in love with one of that self same bloodline. Could he kill Reflet for bearing that curse when his own daughter shared his blood?

He exhaled heavily, his body which had been so tense a moment ago relaxing to stand there powerlessly, exhausted. He drew a shuddering breath, which even that was more effort than he could quite bring himself to make. “But no, even now, I can’t kill you.” He muttered. “Even as you lay there, spitting nothing but hatred.” He raised a hand to cover his face, his jaw clenched and his lips fighting against the trembling that heralded tears. “I loved you once, and I know that Robin loves you still.” He removed his hand to look Reflet in his horrible six-eyed face, his own cerulean gaze now swimming with tears as his voice finally broke, “Would you have me face her with her own brother’s blood on my hands?”

[eminence-exalted]

Come back to Me | Chrom & Robin

[black-crow-droning-on]

Robin kept holding onto Chrom as he wrapped his arms around her as well. A part of her felt like she didn’t deserve to cry at the moment. Sure she had died, but it only felt like a few moments to her. To Chrom and Reflet she had no idea how long it was for them. Lucina probably didn’t even remember who she was now.  Robin barely got to spend any time with her before the War and she had no idea how old her daughter would be now.

She felt Chrom’s chest move as he laughed and it comforted her strangely. Robin was glad that he was happy again and prayed to the Gods that this wasn’t some weird afterlife dream. Maybe life would finally return to normal now, or at least as normal as she could imagine. Robin didn’t spend much time home but she wanted to stay there for as long as possible.

Chrom just laughed at her apology before complimenting how she was during the last battle. Robin couldn’t help but laugh along with him feeling like a burden was lifted from her chest. She was glad he wasn’t mad with her, and a part of her wondered why she ever thought he would be in the first place/ Hopefully

Reflet wouldn’t be mad at her too, he understood why she did it right? Hearing her husband’s last words she smiled even more the tears still streaming. They weren’t from guilt anymore though, no, Robin was truly happy. Pulling back so she could look up at Chrom she smiled softly. “And I’m staying this time,” Robin said hoping that she could keep her word on that.

[eminence-exalted]

If Chrom had his way, he would never let Robin go again. He had spent enough nights missing her embrace to ever voluntarily separate. He’d carry her back to the castle if that was what it would take to keep her in his arms, but with the strength with which Robin was clinging to him, he could tell that she was as keen to stay as they were as he was.

She pulled back to look at him, and Chrom was infinitely glad to see her smiling again. He chuckled softy, reaching a hand to caress her cheek, wiping her tears back gently with his thumb.  Her words gave him hope. They would be able to more than make up for half a year apart with the lifetime they had ahead of them. “It would certainly seem so. Even death itself couldn’t you from me.”

Still smiling broadly, he turned around, spotting the small company he had left behind in his haste. He raised a hand, signaling that at long last their search had been successful. A messenger would be sent back in advance to the castle, to make things ready for their return.

 He leaned down to briefly kiss the top of her head before tenderly pressing his forehead to hers. “Let’s go home, shall we?” he said, his voice soft. With Robin back it really would feel like home again. 

[eminence-exalted]

{I found this and had to use it.}

'Never'

[devour-the-crooked]

Stay On My Side~Chrom & Reflet

[devour-the-crooked]

      It was as if each and every word that fell from the Exalt’s lips had been finely crafted to weave beneath his skin, and a send a chill up his spine. His voice failing to flatter or rattle, and Reflet felt his own rage begin to boil in the very pit of his stomach. Every fiber of his being dreading every second that slipped past them, as the very sound of Chrom’s voice was slowly grating against his shot nerves. Mentally cursing his own fate for ever bringing him into contact with the man in the first place. Regret blurred his exhausted mind; he knew the problem here wasn’t Chrom. It was him. It had always been him. But the grave he had dug for himself was deep, and plagued with dangers too great for him to ever begin to believe that he could crawl out of it.

       But deny as he might, he could still feel the fear clinging to the air. His senses keen despite the overwhelming pain that racked his body. And perhaps he was speaking truthfully, and he feared the monster that was harbored within Reflet’s body instead of the man that provided it with life. But it didn’t change the fact that this monster was him, in some sense, he knew. He could feel Grima’s pressure, its desires, slithering through his body, and wrapping tightly around his soul. He could not, try as he may, deny that his fate had been sealed. He and Grima were one, and the beast would slowly destroy his body. But together they would die, and that brought him some peace of mind.

        Yet, not peace enough to dismiss the words that had been spoken. “Then you fear me.” The smile that appeared on Chrom’s face made a low growl rumble in Reflet’s throat. Lips quivering as the sound vibrated through his neck, anger distorting his gaze, and making his hands twist in their restraints. Wrists yanked hard against the solid metal, forcing his torn skin to rub against them in a pitiful attempt to reach the Exalt’s face. “What right have you to fear my death? You are not the only to have lost someone precious to them. Do not speak my sister’s name as if your suffering could be equal to hers,” He snarled, tugging against the chains once again. His body protesting the action, yet every part of him yearned for the sensation of Chrom’s blood on his hands.  

        The realization of his own thoughts made a shiver crawl up his skin. He had never gotten along well with Chrom, yet he had never desired to hurt him before. No, even now he didn’t want to bring harm to him. His feelings were merging with Grima’s own, and he could feel the dragon’s desires racing through his mind. Through his body, making his throat burn and his tongue dry. His snapped his mouth shut, fangs digging dip into the soft flesh of his lips, as he tried to swallow the strong desire for blood that was lingering in his mind. Canines tearing into his skin, and drawing the red liquid from his own person. Mixing with drool, as his eyes slid shut.

        No part of him wanted to gaze upon Chrom now when such thoughts were distorting his mind. He was still him. Grima hadn’t won yet, and he wouldn’t allow the beast to. It had robbed him of the most precious person in his life, he would not let it do as it pleased to his body. No, together, they would suffer. Together their souls would be torn apart. He would take Grima to the grave with him.

        “Liar,” He breathed, falling onto his legs, as his knees gave out beneath him. Arms pressing into the cold, filthy ground, as he panted. His body shaking, and his will to argue with the other man fading. He leaned forwards as far as the chains would allow him, setting his forehead against the chilled bars of the prison holding him back. Briefly able to feel the warmth of Chrom’s skin against his own through the metal. His fangs digging deeper into his skin, as he felt the burning, salty sensation of tears trailing down his skin. Stinging unbearably as they flowed into his newly created eyes, and into the torn skin that ruined his visage.  

         “I’m sorry, Chrom.” For ever desiring to harm you. For being a wreck. For being useless. For snapping. He could feel his emotions welling up inside of him. And he felt like himself again, even if it was in the most pathetic of ways. Exposed, and weak in front of the man his sister had loved so dearly. Did this man deserve to see him like this? No. No one deserved to see the weakness of a monster.

         His eyes opened slowly to look at Chrom. His heart plunging into his stomach at the words. If there was anything I could do for you. I would. There was; there was something. “Chrom,” He pleaded, raising his trembling and sore hands to clutch onto the cold of the bars. “If I truly have your pity and love, prove it.”

[eminence-exalted]

This time around it was Chrom’s turn to laugh. He didn’t make a habit of such a scornful thing, and as such the sound was hollow and unnatural coming from his own mouth. He didn’t have a right to fear Reflet’s death? Certainly the sentiment behind his words could be understood on some level, but he was taking it too far.  “And don’t you speak as if all the suffering of this world has landed on your shoulders alone.” He chided, “There are those besides you who care about the wellbeing of you and your sister. That isn’t some kind of right you can gatekeep.”

Chrom turned away again, unwilling to watch Reflet tear through his lips with his own teeth. He was injured enough, must he do more damage to himself? But it seemed that his latest outburst had drained the last of his rage fueled energy, and Chrom returned his gaze towards Reflet in time to see him approach the cell bars where he still knelt.

He resisted the urge to flinch, even though Reflet’s lips were still bleeding with the force of his fangs, he wasn’t making any move like he was going to hurt Chrom. He relaxed, allowing Reflet to close the distance between their faces. He was only slightly uneasy with the way his horns slotted evenly along both sides of his head through the bars. Part of him wanted to force himself to get used to the new additions to Reflet’s skull, but the other part of him was still clinging to a hope that the dragon’s power could be reversed, and that those awful protrusions wouldn’t be permanent.

He remained silent, knowing that the other man would not want him to acknowledge his tears and so pretended not to see them. He knew, that just as he trusted Reflet with his own weariness and weakness it meant a lot that Reflet was willing to return the gesture. “My friend, you have nothing to be sorry for.” He murmured, trying to be as reassuring as he could with things in their current state.  His hands were covered in blood, it was true, but that wasn’t his doing. Just as Robin wasn’t to blame for wounding him under Grima’s influence, Reflet too could be absolved of these actions. “This is not your fault.”

Yet Reflet’s next words brought fear back into his heart. He knew what Reflet was going to ask of him, and it was perhaps that very reason why he had dreaded seeing him again in the first place. It was his nature, after all, to be so self-sacrificial. When Lucina had leveled her blade against him he had made no move to stop her, and it was this very flaw of his that had led him to take Grima’s spell on himself in his sister’s stead. Yet despite already knowing the question and the only answer he could give, he answered Reflet’s plea, placing his hand over the bloodied one that gripped the bars of his cell, “If by my power I can grant it, what would you have me do?”

[eminence-exalted]

Come back to Me | Chrom & Robin

[black-crow-droning-on]

The last thing Robin ever wanted to do was to break her promise to Chrom.  She couldn’t live though if it meant a horrible future. Her life wasn’t worth the fact that Grima would return in the future. No one should have to deal with it. It was a heavy burden to leave on her brother and Chrom but she believed that they were strong enough to carry it. Lucina and Morgan deserved better than a grim future hanging over them once again. Before Chrom or Reflet had the chance to stop her she did the finishing blow. Fading away from the world, Robin tried to keep a brave face on. She had thought that she saved everyone but in one last moment Reflet once again protected her. And then there was nothing.

It stayed like that for a while, that horrible nothingness. Robin wasn’t aware how long it had been until she had felt a slight breeze. She didn’t budge; her mind was still horribly empty. Her surroundings barely registered in her still sleeping mind. The grass brushing against her skin, the breeze that slightly moved her hair, it all meant nothing. There were faint footsteps that got louder and closer. Nothing stirred her though, not until he spoke.

The painfully familiar voice shook through her, making her heart throb and stirring the memories. Opening her eyes she saw a familiar scene, just like the first time they met. He spoke as if nothing had happened and already her sight began to blue as she looked up at him in disbelief, a small smile on her face. “Chrom…”

Without hesitation she took his hand and got herself up. Robin wrapped her arms around him burying her face into his chest. “I’m so sorry,” she cried out not hiding her feelings for once. She didn’t know how long she had left him with Lucina and her brother for and the guilt for the pain she undoubtedly caused crushed her. Robin held onto him tightly as if she were disappearing again if she let go. She didn’t know if she would ever feel his warmth again and Robin felt guilty for immediately sobbing on him as soon as she woke up.

[eminence-exalted]

Chrom pulled Robin to her feet, accepting her arms round him immediately and returning the embrace with equal fervor. “Welcome back,” He managed to say, his voice only now threatening to break. He could feel her shoulders shake with tears, and almost unconsciously moved to soothingly stroke her hair, putting himself at ease as much as it was an attempt to reassure her.

He laughed, feeling slightly out of place for being so happy while his wife cried into his chest. But he couldn’t help it. In that moment all his problem’s seemed to have faded into the distance. They could return to the capitol, resume the lives that Grima had so badly displaced. Lucina would have her mother back, and even though she was barely over a year old, Chrom knew that she’d be just as happy at her return as he was. 

Even as far as Reflet was concerned, he had a new hope. If Robin could be reclaimed from Grima’s power, then surely he could be as well. He had been as damaged by Robin’s disappearance as any of them. Perhaps now, with her back, they could resume the palace life they had lead after the war with Plegia had ended.

Even as Robin mumbled apologies into his shirt, Chrom could only laugh. “My love, whatever for? You were so brave, and so strong.” He trailed off, pressing his face into her hair. “And in the end you kept your promise, you came back home.” He swallowed thickly, suppressing what threatened to be tears. They didn’t both need to be sobbing wrecks in their moment of reunion.

[eminence-exalted]

Come back to Me | Chrom & Robin

The skyline was clear of clouds, the sun shining brightly, but not harshly, on the expanses of land that lay at Chrom’s feet. Everyday that passed in this manner he was grateful for. If by some chance today was the day that Robin made her reappearance into this world, he could rest easy knowing that she wouldn’t be stranded in some muddy field being drenched by rain.

Some might say that he’d spent more days that he could count trying to track down her wearabouts, but he could in fact name every single day that he had spent in her absence, remembered every path that he had trecked and retraced with his sister in the hopes that they would find the girl just as they had years ago. Back then it had been by pure miracle, it seemed that it was harder to recreate such an event on purpose.  

The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but it had started it’s downward arc already. Chrom sped up, the sinking knowledge that no matter what he may hope and believe about Robin returning, the chances of them having spent another day in fruitless search was an increasingly looming possibility weighing heavily on his chest. It compounded with the fatigue he already been prone to falling prey too, bringing out his breath in harsher and harsher gasps. His quickened footsteps had left Lissa a ways behind him, and he was rather grateful that she couldn’t see him struggling to keep this pace so.

They ploughed on, off the well worn road and across the shifting expanse of grass that lay before them. It would have been beautiful, the rippling waves or verdant grass almost hypnotic in the wind that riffled through it. But nothing would have made it more beautiful than to find the sleeping form of the person Chrom desired most to see.  

So fixated on what he wanted to see, Chrom almost passed up the disruption in the grasses waving patterns, convinced for a moment that he had imagined it, as he had imagined it around every bend he had taken since her disappearance. Yet as he moved towards it, he realized that it was more than a figment of his wishful imagination.

His slow disbelieving footsteps quickened, before breaking into an all-out run for the place where the grass had been pressed flat. His heart pounding in his throat, he felt none of the exhaustion he had only moments prior. He almost didn’t dare to get his hopes up, but when he finally reached the place his feet brought him to an abrupt stop and he could have cried for the immediate relief that washed over him. There she lay, like the moment when he had first met her. “Robin,” he murmured, and almost as if in response to his voice she began to show signs of life. He bent down, extending his hand to help her to her feet, “I see you’re awake,” he smiled gently, “There are better places to take a nap then on the ground, you know.”

[devour-the-crooked]

Stay On My Side~Chrom & Reflet

[devour-the-crooked]

     Hot breath exhaled past chapped, and bloodied lips, as his body heaved with every breath it was forced to take. Chains rattling in his ears, dragging over the ground, and rubbing against his skin, as his body rattled against the restraints in pain. Lungs and heart pumped furiously within his being, as his felt his skin shaking; bubbling, boiling. Barely even able to kneel, as he felt the pain surge through his entire self; body and mind alike. As if he was being set aflame, yet even turning into ashes would not rid him of the agony that spread through every inch of him.

     His eyes twisting upward in near perfect sync with one another, locked, almost fixated, onto the man before him. Lips pulled back into a near snarl upon his features, stretching too far back to be human in nature, as the skin around them tore. Allowing the grin to extend to his cheekbones, snapping the strands of flesh that tried to keep his jaw hinged. Drool, saliva, and blood flowing from his tongue, as he ran is over his lips, tracing over his elongated canines. Resting over his lips like an animal, as he stared at the Exalt.

       Breathy at first came the sounds that echoed against the chamber when the other spoke up. Before they shifted into laughter. Horrible, grotesque, and cacophonous in nature. A cackling that echoed and rocked the stones in a foreign manner, as if belonged to no man, but to a monster. Oh, he could smell the fear that clung to the man’s being. The uncertainty. He could sense it all; the scent lingered on the brave Exalt. He feared the monster that knelt, chained, before him, and there was no escaping that fact. It made his blood boil. It made his skin crawl. Oh, dear Naga, wasn’t this man that told him he would trust him until the better end. And now, here he stood, at on the other side, terrified of not a monster, but a man.

        “You’re afraid of me, Chrom,” He hissed through his laughter. Was this even his voice anymore? Could one even claim his words sounded remotely human? Yet, just as Chrom had tried to reassure himself, he was him. He could feel Grima’s soul and being within him, but the man speaking now was him. This broken, torn, and mutilated body was his own. He could feel it ache with each movement. He could hear his labored breathing, and beating heart. He could feel the burning of his skin, as it ripped from his muscles to be replaced with scales. He could feel the weight of the horns upon his head, and the enhanced vision of his eyes. He could feel them moving upon his features, as he watched Chrom. It made his skin crawl. This was his body. This was his mind.

        What a pathetic man he was. “Of course it’s me. Or were you hoping I was gone?” He snapped, oh, but how he wished it wasn’t. How he wished the Fell Dragon had taken him completely. How he wished his eyes could not see the man in front of him. How he wished…he had died and not Robin. But at the same moment, he was so thankful she was not the one sitting here suffering. If by his being here, he was preventing his sister from this fate, he would be happy.

        His eyes widened at the apology, his head whipping back, as he allowed laughter to rock his body once again. “Sorry?” He spat the word; howled it even. “Sorry,” He repeated in a hoarse whisper. “You’re a fool.” As if all of his rage, and agony were on display. As if he was a circus show. The longing. The desires. The pain of losing your own family. As if he could even begin to understand. “Don’t patronize me!” He thrashed against the chains. The force making them go rigid.

         “If you came here to make up excuses for yourself then leave,” He breathed, body relaxing slightly against the cold of the ground. Exhausted. Everything hurt. “I don’t need your pity. I never have. Cry to someone who cares, for you are no brother of mine.” Between pained breaths, and cries he had spoken the words. He had sealed his fate, and his feelings. “Look at me, Chrom. What am I?” A monster, but he hadn’t he always been just that? Hadn’t every failed strategy brought him that label in the past? Hadn’t he heard that words tossed his way when the rumors of Chrom’s future demise had spread through camp? At least now he looked the part.

[eminence-exalted]

What little warmth remained in Chrom’s skin was sapped immediately by the sixfold gaze that seemed to lock him into place. Those eyes were horrifying yet hypnotic, and he found himself unable to tear himself away from them, even as the visage that contained them contorted beyond anything Chrom could have prepared himself for. He stood transfixed, as Reflet’s terrible wheezing laughter broke the silence.

He was disgusted, and he was horrified, and no matter how much his conscious mind might protest the association of these emotions with the man before him that he loved so deeply there was really no hiding them. Reflet’s accusation on one level was true, but still Chrom wouldn’t bring himself to admit it.

“It’s not you that I fear, Reflet.” He spoke, and surprised himself when his voice didn’t shake or falter, “I fear that piece of Grima that lives in you.” And if you have any humanity left in you, you fear it too, Chrom finished to himself, but avoided voicing this claim. Relfet was clearly unstable enough as it is. “But I’m glad,” He passed a hand over his face briefly, allowing himself a shaky smile, “What I really feared was that you were dead, and that I had lost both you and Robin in the same blow.”

Bringing those words to light destroyed the broken smile he had managed to piece together in spite of himself. When confronted with the horror that was Reflet’s fate the reckless optimism he held about Robin’s return seemed as pale and weak as the light that filtered through the prison bars.

Chrom hadn’t expected Reflet to accept his apology, yet as the other allowed himself to be overtaken with laughter the only expression that crossed Chrom’s face was sorrow.  He watched his brother struggle and spit in the chains he had put him in and couldn’t even bring himself to be angry at the insults and the rage that was flung at him.

“A fool I may be, but with you, I’ve only ever been sincere. I am sorry, for more that you can probably ever know. It is not an excuse.” He hesitated, looking away from Reflet’s face for the first time since he had been pierced by his newly scarlet gaze. He sighed, dropping down to sit on his heels, bringing him down to eye level with his prisoner. He dropped his head for a moment against the frigid bars of the cell, allowing for a moment to allow all the wear and exhaustion he felt to show on his face. Compared to what Reflet was feeling it was nothing he was sure, but the only person left in this world he felt he could show his true mental state to was currently chained to this wall.

“If there was anything I could do for you, I would.” His voice was soft, barely audible over Reflet’s own labored breathing. He had always known that Reflet had felt this way, but still to hear them spoken aloud in such a venomous voice was like being stabbed all over again. “Even if you don’t consider me your brother, you can’t change that to me you always have been.” He brought his eyes back to meet Reflet’s, remembering and wishing for the time when they were a cool grey. “So if you want me to look at you I will. I’m not afraid of you, because when I look at you I still see my brother, no matter how changed he may be.” There was a fire in Chrom’s eyes now that belied the tired lines that set beneath them. Surely Reflet wanted him to admit that he was a monster, but Chrom had never bought that. Not when people had whispered it behind his back in the camps, and not even now. What made a monster wasn’t the number of eyes on his face, but the good that even now Chrom knew resided in his heart. “You won’t accept my pity or my love, but you have both regardless.”

[devour-the-crooked]

Stay On My Side~Chrom & Reflet

     The stench of rot and must flowed steadily into his nostrils. His nose wrinkled, as his brain tried to sort out all of the putrid odors that were overwhelming him at once. His head spun, as all of his sense smacked him at once, and his brain struggled to make sense of the mess. The splitting sound of his own skin making his blood curdle, as his eyes blinked open, distracting him from the overpowering scent of blood. Popping, and pulling as flesh yanked opened slowly. Threads of skin snapping apart, and hanging from his features, as deep, red eyes pried open upon his visage. Blinking in awkward, unsteady time with the set he had been born with. The sensation uncomfortable against his skin.

       His head leaning back against a solid wall, as he tried o force his body to adjust to the crawling sensation of his own flesh and bone. Knocking carefully against the surface, as he titled his head. A weight upon it that he wasn’t familiar with, yet felt drawn to. Thick and heavy, he could feel the bone firmly planted into his skull, as he shifted his head around. His fingers twitched, as he tried to move his hand to feel the unwelcomed appendages that had seemingly sprouted from his head. But he was must with resistance when he tried.

       The rattling of chains ringing in his ears with the attempt, and he balled his hands into a fist. Pressuring his wrists to feel the cold metal of solid steel rub against his sore skin. And he yanked his arm forward, the chain screeching loudly in protest, as it snapped the limb back. His own legs feeling numb under his own weight, as he shifted against the filthy floor, tugging weakly at the chains bolted to the floor that wrapped themselves around his ankles. His body aching with each and every movement he made.

       A groan released itself from his lips, as he began to return to reality. Gaze lingering on the darkness of the room, and the bars not far from his own face. The dampness of the floors, and the general disorder that had been presented to him. He knew this place, though he had not been within its walls often. And certainly never on the other side of the bars now locking him within his own personal prison. A dungeon somewhere beneath the castle, but his only guides the lanterns that hung out of his reach. Glowing against the pale of his own skin, and forcing him to yank his gaze away from them.

        His eyes setting lazily upon his hands. Smeared a deep red, and he held them before his eyes as if they didn’t belong to him. Flexing his fingers, as he stared at the color coating them. A curse falling from his lips, as he brought his unsteady hands to his own face. Dragging the dried blood along his eyes, poking at the added sets that now decorated his visage. A moan of agony tore through his throat, something not human in nature, as he tried to wipe his hands along his pants. Picking out the sight of cracked, and broken flesh that covered his arms. Bits and pieces of scales shredding his own skin, and taking its place.

       His head lowered in defeat, and he brushed aside the sound of boots scrapping against the floor. He knew. He had always known. Ever since Robin had…had died. He could feel his body trying to tear apart, his skin giving way to the scales, and his flesh retreating. He had kept the dragon alive, and now it started to take form within him. Around him.

       He tore his gaze away from his own hands to look up weakly. “Chrom.” His voice hardly sounded like his own now.Scratchy, raspy, and horse, it sounded more like the snarl of a beast than the plea of a human being. And he could sense the fear lingering in the air. The distrust of the guards, as if they were confronting a wild animal.

[eminence-exalted]

Upon entering the dungeon Chrom immediately wrinkled his nose in distaste. The air down here was saturated with an unnatural stench of decay that hadn’t been present until it’s most recent inhabitant had been moved down here. The weight of the very air was making Chrom light headed, as it wasn’t enough that he hadn’t been sleeping well lately. As a kingdom, Ylisse’s future was looking up, yet the cost of what it had taken to get there still weighed on Chrom’s mind. Robin… Robin was lost. And as much as common sense might dictate otherwise Chrom still held faith that she would return. But until he found her again the struggle of trying to get along without her was taxing to say the least.

Yet he tried to put his unease at rest, or at least out of sight. The guards he passed looked troubled enough, to see their Exalt in a state of equal distress would only increase their fear and worry. And these were supposed to be times of peace. Wasn’t he supposed to have left the whole ‘keeping a brave face’ charade behind him? There were no more wars on the horizon, no armies to command. There was only one man left who seemed to have shouldered all the pain and misery in the world, and if he couldn’t bear that weight alone, then Chrom would carry it for him, even if he didn’t want him to.

His boots scraped across the stone floor, but it was barely audible over the inhuman wails that echoed through the halls. They sent chills down Chrom’s spine, and his jaw set heavily as he resisted the instinct to turn away and hide from such a bone chilling cry. But stronger than the fear that it instilled in him was the heart wrenching pity that gripped his heart. He could only imagine the kind of pain that would cause a man to produce such a sound.

He approached the cell where the man in question had been imprisoned. He hated to think of it that way, but it was true. No matter his intentions behind incarcerating his brother-in-law the fact remained that he had locked him behind bars and chained him to the wall. He tried to straighten his face, hide his disgust at the transformations that so horrible wracked the figure before him.

He tried to find the words to speak, but the other man did first. Again the sound of his voice, cracked and broken, made Chrom’s skin crawl. His own name sounded foreign, even though it came from the same lips that had spoken it countless times before. Chrom raised a hand, gesturing to the guards that they could leave them be for the moment. If he needed anything, he would call, although he doubted that if Reflet really decided he wanted to kill him anything in the world could stop him with Grima’s power in his hands.

“Reflet,” Chrom’s own voice sounded fantastically melodic in comparison to the rasping growl that had just come from the man he addressed, “You are still Reflet, aren’t you?” he hesitated, the image of the fell dragon in Reflet’s form that had been defeated only weeks prior still fresh in his mind. It seemed he remembered who Chrom was sure enough, but even when he and his sister knew nothing, they had known his name. “Of course you are,” he murmured, answering his own question softly. The Grima who had taken Reflet’s form before had not been in nearly so much pain, hadn’t had nearly such haunted eyes.

Chrom lapsed into silence. What else did he have to say? Are you alright? That went without saying. “Reflet, I’m sorry.” He offered instead, trying to encompass everything that had happened into the phrase. I’m sorry you’re in this mess. I’m sorry Robin is gone. I’m sorry you’re falling apart. Most of all he was sorry that as the way things were, he could do nothing.