03/23/20

Ingrid is my absolute favorite so I've decided to write this here story about Byleth and Ingrid.

If you've been notified of this story but don't remember following it, that's because originally these were all separate oneshots (Saying Hello, Moving Houses, Holding Hands) but for the sake of convenience I'm fusing them all, the original source was "Holding Hands" but now they're all together and retitled as Galatea. Enjoy!

Saying Hello

Garreg Mach Monastery. Everything about this place was so different from what Byleth was used too, the towering structures all around him, the people walking through the halls and talking to one another, the atmosphere was a far cry from the battlefields, taverns and inns that made up almost every day of his life as a mercenary. He couldn't help but feel the slightest bit intimidated.

However, as his father always told him, mercenaries are meant to be adaptable and so with a deep breath and intense focus he began to take in as much of his surroundings as he could, familiarizing himself with the layout of the monastery, taking in every person he saw to make note of who belongs where and who frequented what. It was only the first day but if he kept this up, he'd be able to establish schedules and patterns and that always made him feel more comfortable. Knowing.

As he continued walking about, he passed by the Officers Academy. He had been told to speak to the respective house leaders and so he did: Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude in that order. They told him about the Monastery, about themselves and about the students in their respective classes.

Upon returning to the Archbishop he had made his choice, he was going to lead the Black Eagles for the academic year. Following that, he was left to his own devices so he decided to continue wandering through the Monastery. Getting lost before classes began? That was the last thing he needed.

"You do have to admit. A teacher getting lost and arriving late to his first class? Wouldn't that be quite a sight?"

Sothis laughed, Byleth could only sigh before he continued his casual walk through the halls. As he examined his surroundings, he saw Edelgard standing in a field with Caspar and Petra. The three seemed to be discussing something and they all had training weapons in their hands. That's when he remembered that there would be a small mock battle soon, no doubt they'd been training hard for it even before he arrived.

As he continued on his way he came upon a far less populated section of the school grounds. The few people who were around were tending to the plants or speaking lowly to each other, none of them paid any attention to him. He liked that.

That was when he saw her. One of the Blue Lion students was standing in the grass all by herself and swinging about a training lance.

Crossing his arms, Byleth watched her movements with interest. His strength was in his swordplay but he could at least recognize and appreciate the skill it took to handle other weapons and the student before him was clearly well trained with the weapon in her hands.

Each move was precise and there was quite some strength behind the strikes. With a nod he decided to approach.

The girl seemed to sense him approaching, her training movements stopped as she turned to see him. There was surprise in her eyes.

"You...didn't you just come by the Blue Lions classroom? Are you a new student?"

Byleth shook his head.

"Ah...then, what are you doing here? Serving the Monastery?"

"No. I was just watching you train."

The girl tilted her head.

"Watching me train?"

Byleth tapped his chin before noticing several more training weapons on the ground. Without much more thought he bent down and picked one up.

"Wouldn't it be better to train with someone?"

There was a curious look in her eyes as she evaluated him.

"It would be...unfortunately Sylvain has a tendency to get on my nerves so I'd rather train on my own. Ah. I'm Ingrid by the way, daughter of Count Galatea from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus."

Sticking her weapon into the ground she held her hand out, Byleth taking it and offering a single shake.

"Byleth."

He watched her crack a smile before laughing, which then gave him some peculiar feeling.

"Sorry I just...with all the titles and such that I'm used to hearing around here that was a nice change of pace. Byleth. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Ingrid."

Byleth took a few steps back from her and moved into a fighting stance with the training lance.

"Oh...you were serious?"

"Do you not want to?"

Ingrid thought for a moment before deciding, why not? Training with an actual opponent was always more rewarding than doing so alone. Dropping into her stance she nodded.

The pair watched each other for a few moments before Byleth charged forward, his lance was quick and strong, Ingrid blocked his opening blows with relative ease but each one still managed to push her back significantly.

As she continued to block and now evade she noticed that his movements were easy to read. Clearly he wasn't as practiced with a lance as she was, so she began to make her move.

Every time Byleth swung his lance around and attempted to strike her, she bounced the weapon away with her own. This caused Byleth to pull back and move away as he regained his footing and his grip on his weapon.

The wooden training weapons clashed with one another, the sounds of the impacts filling the area as the pair continued their spar.

Ingrid realized rather quickly that Byleth seemed to be learning on the fly. It took less than a minute for her to see that he was using her own moves against her. Shaking her head she changed up her approach, no one knew her movements better than she did.

Not only was she avoiding Byleth's strikes but now she landed a few of her own on his chest. Taking a few steps back, Byleth nodded before charging in again.

Block. Block. Dodge. It was easy enough for Ingrid, at least she thought so. She went for a block only for Byleth to switch his weapon from one hand to another and strike her lower unprotected torso. The blow was heavy, causing Ingrid to buckle and stumble away.

Byleth's movements came to a stop as Ingrid struggled to catch her breath.

"Ouch."

"Was that too hard?"

Byleth looked to his weapon and thought his actions through once more. Seems he was too used to the life and death situations he and Jeralt found themselves in and as such, he put all his strength into his strike. Looking at Ingrid's face he could tell she wasn't taking it well.

"Sorry."

Shaking her head she lowered herself to the ground on one knee and rubbed her no doubt bruised torso.

"No...it's fine...thank you, Byleth."

Stepping closer he took a vulnerary out of his satchel and handed it to her. Ingrid smiled and thanked him before taking it.

"Is this your idea of a first impression? Make a girl laugh and smile and then strike her body with all the might you can muster? What a gentleman."

"I didn't mean to."

"Well you did!"

"What did you say?"

Byleth looked to Ingrid to see she was confused. It was only then that he realized he was speaking aloud.

"I'm sorry."

Chuckling, Ingrid struggled back to her feet.

"It's fine. It was a good learning experience for the mock battle."

It was just then that Byleth realized he chose to instruct the Black Eagles yet he gave a lesson to one of the Blue Lions.

"Fool."

He sure felt like it.

"I hope to see you around, Byleth and I hope to spar with you again."

The man nodded as the bells began to ring. Ingrid gave Byleth one last smile before retrieving her training weapons and running off, stopping to yell something back.

"You can keep that one! For next time!"

With a wide smile, she resumed running back towards her classroom.

Byleth looked to the wooden training lance she had left him, the barest hint of a smile formed on his face as he looked the weapon over.

"...and the winner of the Great Tree Moon mock battle is...the Black Eagles!"

With Jeralt's announcement, the class cheered at their victory. Most of the class. Hubert and Edelgard turned to Byleth, the house leader simply smiled and offered thanks while Hubert was quick to turn his attention elsewhere.

Byleth's eyes wandered to the other classes, they all seemed pretty upbeat even with the tired expressions they wore. He could see Dimitri and Hanneman discussing something, perhaps devising a new strategy? Or discussing future training specifications.

The Golden Deer meanwhile, seemed to have lost all interest in the combat as Claude was saying something Byleth assumed was funny given everyone around, Manuela included, was laughing.

"She really floored me...I wasn't expecting it…"

Byleth turned back to Caspar who was talking with Petra.

"Floored? I'm not quite understanding."

"I mean she beat me, hard. Ingrid, from the Blue Lions."

Petra tapped her chin before nodding.

"Ah yes! She was having much strength!"

Byleth looked back to the Blue Lions where he saw Ingrid talking with Mercedes. She took to the fight with fervor and was able to beat Caspar into submission quite flawlessly. She then proceeded to give Petra a hard time, Byleth wanted to step in but he didn't think it fair since he was the one who had given her that unintended lesson. She took far more from it than he expected. Even as she pushed Petra back, Byleth found he didn't need to act as Edelgard was closer and she was able to knock Ingrid out of the competition.

It didn't take long for Ingrid to look in Byleth's direction. There was some surprise and realization in her face, the same as when Byleth first revealed to the Black Eagles that he would be their Professor.

Ingrid raised one of her hands and waved, a gentle smile on her face.

With a nod, Byleth waved back.

Hearing his students calling for him, Byleth returned his attention to the Black Eagles before the group began heading back to the Monastery with Jeralt in the lead.

As they walked through the forest, the other Houses began to follow. Byleth decided to take what he saw from his students during this mock battle and use that to determine how his first lessons would go.

As he planned the training regiments in his head he couldn't help but recall the training weapon Ingrid left with him. If she could learn so much from him after one brief spar, who knows how much a full training day could do? The thought of it had him looking forward to that day.

A few days after the mock battle, Byleth found himself on a bench outside in the early morning hours. With a quill in one hand, he was deep into writing his lesson plans, given the composition of the Black Eagles he had many different ideas with who should specialize in what and who should partner with who. There were many possibilities for strong bonds and that would make future battles proceed far more smoothly.

"Byleth...my apologies. Professor."

Looking up, he spotted Ingrid.

"Hello."

She looked him over.

"I never would have expected you to be a new Professor. You're so young."

"It wasn't exactly planned."

With a sigh, Ingrid bowed her head.

"I apologize. If I had known you were the Black Eagles Professor I wouldn't have accepted your offer to spar."

Byleth shook his head.

"Think nothing of it. I chose to teach the Black Eagles mere minutes before our spar...speaking of, are you here for another lesson?"

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly."

Byleth stood up and looked around, noting that there was no one else around given how early it was. He then looked to Ingrid and gestured at his face.

"Huh?"

With his thumb he wiped the corner of his lip. Ingrid gasped as she quickly did that, realizing that there were indeed crumbs on her face from breakfast. She quickly apologized and bowed once more, Byleth felt...amused...at the situation.

"My room isn't far, I can get the lance you left with me and we can have a quick round. I don't mind."

Ingrid thought for a few moments. It wasn't against the rules especially when one considered that Professors were allowed to call on students from other houses to assist with missions and assignments, so what harm could it do?

With a nod, Ingrid took a few steps back while Byleth went to his room and returned mere minutes later with the training lance.

"Seems she had her own on her this whole time! Quite the eager learner she is."

Byleth agreed as he took up his stance, Ingrid doing the same.

Some part of Byleth couldn't help but enjoy this, while all the rules that went with teaching and living here at the Monastery were still so foreign to him, being able to spar, train and exercise with those who desired that experience was a welcome breath of familiarity to him.

With a nod, he advanced, Ingrid doing the same and so their weapons clashed.