Robin couldn't remember having a childhood. She couldn't remember doting parents or their busy hands or fretting voices making a fuss over her.

The closest she ever came to that feeling was Frederick.

Within her first days as a Shepherd, she'd seen how he cared for Chrom and Lissa. Each of their molehills, their knight would turn into a mountain, and it seemed he never tired of doing so. He was everything from their shield on the battlefield to their tailor and launderer in camp.

Lissa had forgotten to eat breakfast? Pears were her favorite, and Frederick had seen to buying an extra crate of them just for her. Chrom needed a blanket at night? The peach one would suit his complexion best.

Robin found it endearing, in a way, how Chrom would bat his caretaker's hands away, whining something like, "My cape is fine, Frederick!" And Lissa only seemed to take reprimands seriously when they came from him. It was clear there was a special kind of respect between the royal siblings and their retainer, and beneath the surface, a unique kind of love.

They loved Frederick, Chrom and Lissa, even though they frequently complained that he treated them like children. Well, if they were children, Robin realized a father must look something like Frederick did.

As for her own relationship with the knight, Robin felt they had their own kind of mutual respect.

Over the months, his demeanor had grown less cold and suspicious towards her. He still didn't draw her baths or sew the holes in her tent; that privilege seemed to be reserved for his lieges only. But he'd begun trusting her judgement on the battlefield, then actively seeking her opinions. Eventually, his eyes stopped burning into her whenever she was to be left alone with Chrom or Lissa.

She'd earned his trust, and she was honored by that. Honored and relieved, for that trust turned his chilly demeanor to a comfortable lukewarm.

It was when she married into the royal family that lukewarm began to grow warmer.

Suddenly, she began to catch glimpses of what Chrom and Lissa had felt all their lives. She'd wake up to find her favorite tea brewed and sitting on the table in the bedroom. Frederick would have her favorite clothes laid out for her, her coat steamed ("and perfumed with one of milord's favorite aromas!")

Despite the fact that he had to take care of Chrom and Lissa as well, he seemed to be having no trouble fitting her into his schedule. Meticulously, he'd busy himself with the little details in her day, iron out the wrinkles in her agenda (and her clothes), for weeks trying to find time in her day to send her to the royal tailors.

"If you are to be a member of House Ylisse, milady, you'll need to look the part."

Robin's tongue stopped short of asking him to drop the "milady." She was to be a member of House Ylisse, she realized as he bustled around her room trying to take measurements of her garments. Was she... a new royal sibling?

During the hours he spent in etiquette lessons with her, Frederick drilled her on history and social customs - then he sounded like the lieutenant she remembered! But they also practiced dinners, made polite conversation, and through it all he seemed so very calm. He never lost his patience when her elbows hit the table, and his voice never grew angry with her when he told her to sit up straighter. He had the air of an older man for whom this etiquette was routine, who had taught these lessons many times before.

Of course, he probably had, she realized. At least twice.

Some nights after Robin and Chrom's wedding, the newlyweds lied awake in bed discussing their lives, what had been and what would be. Though, to be fair, Chrom took the lead on the former.

"Frederick is probably the closest thing I ever had to a father," Chrom had admitted to her as he recounted his childhood. One arm folded behind his head and the other around her shoulders, he stared at the ceiling with a fond but pensive look in his eyes. His voice low, he confirmed to Robin what she'd already known: "Along with Emm, he practically raised Lissa and me."

And so, when Robin listened to the royal guard tut-tutting about Chrom not eating his grapefruit at breakfast and Lissa sleeping in far too late, she felt sure the feeling she'd had when joining the Shepherds was correct. Though her memories contained no fathers and children, she was sure they looked something like Frederick and the royal siblings.

"Honestly, Frederick, I'm fine," Robin insisted as the man laid a blanket over her shoulders. Her swollen feet were propped up on a cushioned stool before the hearth, her hands rested on her swollen stomach. "I'm pregnant, not terminally ill."

"You're carrying the heir to the throne, need I remind you," replied Frederick, arranging the edges of the blanket neatly around her arms. "As the son or daughter of my liege, that child's well-being is my responsibility. As is yours."

"All I need is my book, and my being will be well," Robin said kindly, gesturing to her latest novel on the table beside her chair. Brought to her by none other than Frederick, of course. With a good-natured smile, she added, "But I do appreciate the sentiment."

"It's the least I can do, milady."

He left her side, satisfied as her blanket was now safely tucked around her. Tireless, he moved right onto lighting a fire in the fireplace. Robin found it admittedly a bit warm for March, though she didn't voice the thought. She doubted that would stop him, anyhow.

With a chuckle, Robin realized hers was just the first of the royal pregnancies the poor knight would have to play witness to.

"I can only imagine how doting you'll be when it's Lissa in my position!"

Over the striking of flint on steel, she heard him grumble, "Perish the thought..." Three little words, and he'd revealed so much more than any doting ever had. "And I resent the notion that I handle any members of House Ylisse unequally."

A member of House Ylisse... it was still nice to hear sometimes.

As a flame was finally struck and the wood began to burn, Frederick stood. Gently, he brushed a bit of dirt off his knees, and Robin could almost see him making a mental note to send a maid up later in the evening.

With a clearing of his throat, Frederick turned to face Robin, a serious and humble look on his face. Hesitantly, he said with great care, "I hope you don't continue to feel that I... As though I hold any grudges against you, milady."

The blanket around Robin's shoulders felt a bit heavier as realization dawned on her. The blanket, the book, the fire burning warm in front of her...

"Oh, Frederick," she laughed softly. "Is that what all of this has been about?"

The knight was quick to give a shake of his head. "No. It is my duty and wish to see that you are well," he replied. "However, I merely want you to know that I no longer-"

"I know," Robin stopped him gently before he could finish.

The two of them had had a bumpy start, that was for certain. Anyone could have seen that Frederick had been suspicious of her, and he never could've been mistaken for giving her the benefit of the doubt. However, she'd understood his misgivings, and over time she'd seen them disappear and morph into something like…

Something like doting.

Robin suppressed a smile at the thought. She truly was a member of House Ylisse now, wasn't she?

"And for what it's worth," she continued. "I no longer bear any grudges toward you, if I ever did at all. You're... family now."

"Pardon?" The knight's eyes seemed only the slightest bit phased, a mixture of touched and confused.

"Mm. It's nothing." Robin dismissed the notion with a small wave of her hand. Something for another time, perhaps. Moving on, she requested, "If you could, would you remind Chrom to meet me in the library this evening? He promised to look through the family genealogy records with me."

"I already reminded him once this morning, but I'll see to it that he is reminded again," Frederick responded dutifully. A bit more sarcastically, he tacked on, "Gods know it's necessary."

"Haha! You, of all people, would know."

He smiled that small smile of his, the one most of the army feared. But here in the castle, there were no training exercises to be done, no sadistic pleasure to be gained from working anyone to their last breath. Here, he was simply pleased to be of service.

"Frederick?" said Robin, grabbing his attention. With sincerity, she returned his smile. "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure, milady," he replied. "I only hope you'll be comfortable. The windows in this old sitting room have gotten rather drafty… I'll be sure to have them looked at. In the meantime, how about I bring you some warm tea to enjoy with your reading?"

Back to bustling about, Frederick was just about to leave for the kitchens when Robin stopped him.

"Wait!" she called. Excitedly, she suggested, "Why don't you keep me company for a while?"

"Pardon?"

"If you don't have anywhere else to be, that is. With Chrom meeting with the council so often and Lissa in Themis visiting Maribelle…" She drifted off, feeling her point was implied. She hadn't had much company lately, and she felt she'd just broken down a wall, so to speak, between herself and the family knight. "Do you have the time?"

"I... suppose I do," replied Frederick slowly. Stiffly, he took a seat on one of the chairs near the "drafty" windows. "What would you like to discuss?"

Open-endedly, Robin responded, "I don't know." She thought on it for a moment, and realized there was one topic Frederick surely would've been more eager to talk about than any other.

"Would you tell me about Chrom and Lissa, when they were children? Most of the Shepherds grew up with them, so I often feel a bit out of the loop. You practically raised them alongside Lady Emmeryn, didn't you? Who better to hear the stories from than you?"

Frederick's brows raised ever so slightly, but it was an expression Robin had never seen from him before. He masked it well, but he looked genuinely… moved.

"I... Well, I wouldn't say I raised them. Exalt Emmeryn was a mother to them in almost every sense," he replied, humbling himself. "Although, I supposed I have a few tales I could tell."

"Let me hear them!"

When Chrom was finally through with work for the evening, he did remember (without a second reminder from Frederick) to make his way to the library to meet with Robin. However, he never quite made it that far.

Through the hallways stained with the setting sun's light, he heard a very familiar laugh from one of the sitting rooms. It sounded like Robin. And the baritone chuckle alongside her surely wasn't… Frederick?

Slowly, he approached the doorway of the sitting room, and lo and behold, there sat the duo he'd suspected right before him. Robin sat with her back to him, her feet propped up as Frederick perched next to her armchair on a stool. The fire burned a bit too warm, but they seemed comfortable and happy. He smiled as he took in the scene; they seemed to be having quite a good time.

"Ahaha! I can only imagine!" Robin choked out through laughter. Frederick, too, had a larger smile on his face than Chrom had seen in awhile. Seems he'd let that invisible wall down... A rare occurrence, to say the least.

Grabbing their attention, Chrom slipped into the room with a humorous kind of caution in his voice. "What's going on in here?"

Robin turned around as much as she could in her chair, and Frederick stood up promptly, the wall building itself up again. "Milord!" he greeted his liege. "My apologies. I didn't realize how late it had gotten."

"It's quite alright. I see you had a worthy prior engagement." He walked to Robin's armchair and lay his hands on her shoulders. Her fingers raised to rest on his own.

"Frederick was just telling me about the time you tried to cut your own hair," she told him, a hint of a teasing grin on her lips.

He paled, and Frederick even more so.

"Ah-ha," Chrom laughed nervously, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. Gods, he could remember that haircut well. Unfortunately. "Not my proudest moment."

Frederick added, "Respectfully, not your most stylish, either," to which Robin responded with a laugh.

Chrom chuckled kindly as well. Leave it to Frederick to remember all the embarrassing details of his childhood. He was simply thankful Lissa wasn't around to join the fun, or the really humiliating stories would've come out… "So, I take it Frederick's been telling you-"

"All about your childhood," Robin finished for him. With a warm tone, defending the knight, she explained, "I asked him to."

"I apologize if I overstepped a boundary, milord," said Frederick with a slight nod of the head. "But I thought it fitting for milady to know the history of the family she is now a part of."

Chrom let out a small laugh. The family she's now a part of, huh? He knew Frederick had meant the royal family, but in some odd way, "family" had a larger meaning to the royal siblings than name and blood alone. Chrom had more than just his sister, more than Emm and Robin and his unborn son or daughter, even. It only made sense for him to say he also had the man who had been with him and Lissa through their childhoods (and lived to tell the tale). The man who cared for them to a degree that most parents would find excessive.

And now Robin would have him and all his doting too. If she wanted to hear about her new family...

"Did Frederick also tell you about the time when Lissa had just learned to run, and he slipped face-first into the mud while chasing her?"

"She swerved," Frederick declared sternly.

"You, on the other hand, did not!"

It was nice, Robin realized that day - belonging to a family. Because she couldn't remember having a childhood. She couldn't remember doting parents or their busy hands or fretting voices making a fuss over her.

But she could always remember Frederick.

A/N Not my best work, I know. However, I'm tired, sick, and severely out of practice! Have had the outline of this fic lying around for about a year and figured I'd get my butt in gear and get this written, get started practicing again.