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Robin sighed. “This is turning out to be a huge pain.”
The reason for the comment just chuckled, which seemed to echo in Robin’s ears despite the culprit's current size.
“So you’re stuck like this?”
“For now, it seems. Until Master takes care of the situation.”
With a resigned furrow of his brow, Robin said, “Really, you of all people.”
“Well, it’s no secret how many kids I had.”
Kazuradrop’s current escapade was just one of a long line of shenanigans affecting the last Master of humanity and company. Nevertheless, the struggles were always just as chaotic. For, it seemed, Kazuradrop’s spell to shrink the contestants for her best father competition had a bit wider range than intended. While Ritsuka was dealing with the situation itself along with Goredolf, Kadoc, and Oberon, Robin was left with another problem to deal with and nothing to do but wait.
Still—
Robin looked down at David, who was currently making a comfy seat for himself on a paperback book. Other than now being about the size of his finger, he didn’t seem to have changed much, or even seemed to be bothered by the situation at all.
David kicked his legs back and forth, glancing all around the room like a kid at a grownup’s party for the first time. Though Robin couldn’t fully make out the subtleties of his expression like this, it seemed clear he was shrugging the whole situation off with a grin.
“Why am I even here?” Robin asked. “Can’t you just turn back into spirit form until you change back?”
“Da Vinci asked you to keep an eye out, remember? Gotta report in if I get sucked into the game too. Man, that would suck. I’m sure Master of all people wouldn’t want to hear my parenting tips, haha.”
Subtle reference to one of Chaldea’s touchy subjects aside, Robin couldn’t really argue with the rest of it. Despite how much he always tried to wriggle out of it, he was a regular at dealing with these types of annoying scenarios. Pain or not, he couldn’t bring himself to say no.
But that didn’t change the fact that David’s downright cheeriness on the matter was giving him a headache. Playing babysitter for Ibaraki and Liz was one thing, but when he had to do it for a grown adult, and a king no less, it was really getting on his every nerve.
On a whim from his half-hearted frustrations, he poked the top of David’s head and wiggled it, enough to make him swivel back and forth.
“Woah, a little rough, don’t you think?” said David, though his playful look didn’t disappear.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry.”
However, not that Robin would ever admit it to anyone, but… pushing him around like this was kind of fun. He poked him again, albeit a bit gentler this time. As small as he was now, David’s hair felt like the tip of a brush that had been flattened out. If he had the desire, Robin could probably pick him up by his head and shake him around. Tempting, but a bit much for his tastes.
David laughed as the fingers as large as his entire body brushed against his sides and bare legs. “Ha, that tickles! Feels like an elephant’s trunk.” Due to battles alongside Darius, both David and Robin had experience in that particular front.
“You know,” David continued with his annoying grin.. “I’m sure I could admire lots of beautiful women like this.”
The image of him swan diving into a Servant’s cleavage wasn’t the worst thing to cross Robin’s head that day, though it was definitely up there. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“Hm?”
“You talk about how much you’d love nothing more than getting with lots of women, but you’d never do something creepy like that. You’re not Blackbeard.”
“Ha, you really think so?”
But the words had seemed to strike the tiny king.
“If you’re bored enough to make stupid jokes like that, I can at least bring you somewhere more interesting than a bedside table,” said Robin, holding out his hand.
David’s face lit back up to the expression he’d had before. “Oh, I’d love that.” He hopped onto Robin’s palm, wrapping his arm around the other’s thumb.
Robin stood up from the bed with David in hand, keeping his fingers only lightly curled as not to risk crushing him. They left the bedroom behind and traveled the halls of the Storm Border. While not quite as outfitted as the Wandering Sea or original Chaldea had been, there were still several options when it came to activities.
“So, where are we going?” Robin asked. He personally couldn’t care less. “The simulator?”
“And get crushed like a bug? Haha, sounds a bit intriguing, but not today.”
Losing track of him did seem like it would be a hassle to deal with. “What then, the cafeteria?”
“Oh!” David’s eyes shone bright. “I could have a champagne jacuzzi. Add a girl on each arm and it’d make it a lifelong dream.”
“Can you try having some dreams more fitting for your shepherd form?”
“Hm hm, quite a fair point!”
That left…
“The library…?” Robin frowned. Neither of them were big readers. Hell, if it wasn’t for the knowledge gifted to him by his summoning, he’d probably still be barely literate.
Nevertheless, he had found himself in Chaldea’s library several times before. Whether it was because he’d been dragged along by some other Servant or sent to investigate some strange signals, he knew it like the back of his crossbow. The one on the Storm Border was much smaller than the Wandering Sea’s had been, which, in turn, was bigger than the digital-only files kept at the original Antarctic base.
Thinking about it… Robin looked down to David again. The two of them had been here together for a long time, hadn’t they? Some of the first Servants Ritsuka had ever summoned, they’d watched their Master’s journey since nearly the beginning. And as they were both Archers, they’d had plenty of their fair share of side-by-side battles.
David had been with Robin through summers, Halloweens, Christmases, and plenty of the other yearly aggravating events. They both remembered the Chaldea staff members who’d survived Lev Lainur’s explosion, and how half of them then perished in the Crypters' attack. They were there for the restoration of humanity, and given farewells before becoming dormant in the Saint Graph briefcase, only to then be brought back to restore the bleached Earth.
It felt a bit strange, living this long as a Servant in a single summoning. Robin wasn’t the type of guy to care much whether he lived or died in the first place, and he certainly wasn’t the type to stay connected with a large community. His time on the Moon Cell was only a blip compared to this.
And David… David had been here with him the whole time. He was, in Robin’s own terms, a little shit. Never a villain, but never quite trustworthy either. Not that Robin himself was above underhanded tricks, of course, but he wasn’t one to brag about his own debauchery either. A king before he’d become a king, David lived as a Servant right in the fine line of Robin’s ire.
“Something the matter?”
Robin had been lost in thought for a fair while. “Nothing. So, the library?”
It was empty when they got there. Even Murasaki, it seemed, had gone off to do something else. That was fine. Fewer people to have to talk to.
At some point, David had sat down, swinging his legs over the side of Robin’s hand and keeping an arm wrapped around his thumb. He looked pretty comfortable like that, and Robin didn’t understand why that got on his nerves. If he got too annoying, at least, he could just toss him aside. Or crush him, to go fully Kazuradrop. Instead, he settled his whim by rubbing the tuft of green hair again.
“Ow ow ow! A bit gentler if you wouldn’t mind?”
Robin set him down on top of a table and took a seat on a lounge chair nearby. Well, they’d come all the way here. Might as well make use of it. He picked up a random book and started flipping through. His eyes picked out a few words on each page, but otherwise he found his mind drifting away from the text.
David was doing much the same, the only difference being turning the page was a full body effort.
After half an hour of this, Robin felt his eyes blinking progressively slower each time. He was a Servant, so any sleepiness he felt was entirely mental, but that didn’t make it any easier to resist. He set the book aside and leaned back in his chair. The concept of comfort was a luxury out of his reach for most of his life, but it was one he’d grown more and more used to.
With a soft pat, David jumped down from the table and onto Robin’s lap, then began climbing up his cloak.
“What are you doing?”
“If we’re gonna rest, might as well do it on the comfiest seat in the house. It’s no sheep’s wool, but it’s still pretty soft.”
Robin closed his eyes. “Fine, whatever,” he said. Though it was difficult to ignore once David had reached his shoulder. His tiny fingers padding along his neck felt like the ticklish sensation of being crawled on by a bug. It made him shiver. Which, in turn, made David wobble.
“Whoops! Careful, I don’t wanna slip and fall from all the way up here.”
Of course, given he was a Servant it wouldn’t really matter if he did, but…
The voice coming from so close to his ear sent a tingling sensation across Robin’s skin. He shivered again.
“Woah!”
David slid down and slipped underneath Robin’s hood. He slid across Robin’s skin the whole way, even falling under his shirt to be caught directly against his chest.
This should have made Robin annoyed, but even that felt like too much energy right now. Besides, the heat of another person, even a tiny one, felt pleasant.
They sat in silence for a while, David shifting a bit but otherwise not moving again.
“Hey, are you stuck?” Robin’s voice was just a whispering mumble.
But David didn’t reply. Did he just fall asleep in his shirt? What was he, a kitten?
Nevertheless, Robin felt the drowsiness begin to overtake him. It wasn’t a tree he was used to napping in, but it couldn’t hurt for now.
“Ugh!”
Awoken with a start, Robin’s eyes shot open to see David’s very normal sized face pressed against his. Not only that, his shirt felt so tight on him it was like being crushed.
“Haha, looks like Master solved the problem!”
His breath had a faint smell of wine; their lips were nearly touching. David’s arms, which had been so small a little while ago, now wrapped around him with warmth.
“Feels kind of nice like this,” David said with a smile.
But any pleasant feelings would have to wait.
“Can you get out of my shirt?”