The mock battle went rather well. Byleth was an incredibly capable commander, managing to crush both houses in the battle. Edelgard and Claude were rather impressed.
The celebration was not a huge one but was fun regardless. Ingrid stuffed her face with food as usual. Sylvain hung around all the women, but at the end, he found himself nursing a black eye. Felix just kind of sat there, not really partaking until Ashe offered him a plate of very not-sweet food, which he couldn't resist. Mercedes was chatting with Annette about Byleth and how capable she was. Dedue stayed back and mostly watched until Ashe also offered him a plate, not taking no for an answer. Dimitri was trying to work up the courage to talk to Byleth, with Sylvain trying to coach him. Mercedes had handed him something cold to hold against his face to keep the swelling down.
"Dude, you already know she's the one, just go talk to her!" Sylvain said, then hissing at his eye.
"Why am I accepting coaching from you? Who's the one nursing a fresh black eye?" Dimitri jabbed. Sylvain feigned hurt.
"How dare you, downplaying my abilities like that! I just got unlucky! You, however, need to grow a pair and talk to her! She's our professor and your soulmate, better start now," Sylvain said, lowering the cold thing from his face. He had already started to bruise a little. Dimitri sucked in a breath in sympathy.
"You sure you don't want Mercedes to heal that up?"
"It's fine. Now, go talk to the Professor!" Sylvain almost pushed Dimitri towards the professor, causing Dimitri to stumble a little. He took a deep breath and walked over to her.
"Oh, Dimitri, how are you?" the Professor greeted. Dimitri chanced a look back at Sylvain, who had asked Mercedes to use some magic to heal his eye.
"I'm doing quite alright, Professor. You're quite a capable commander," Dimitri said, doing his absolute best to hide his nerves.
"No, you guys did all the hard work, it was a rather close battle," the Professor stated. Ah, so humble, Dimitri thought.
"I wouldn't say that," Dimitri said. He looked at her, and he could have sworn he saw the faintest hint of pink wash over her cheeks for just a second.
Ashe was crying. Or at least, trying to, but it seemed the tears had dried up. Mercedes and Annette were doing their best to cheer him up with baked sweets that Mercedes had made, and Dimitri had even gone to get the sugar candies Ashe liked, despite his protests.
They had just killed Lonato. And Ashe took it really hard. One would expect him to, Lonato was like a father to him.
Ashe had taken to holing himself up in his room all day, and Byleth was starting to get a bit worried. It had been a week, and she'd only seen him leave his room once to go to the cathedral. She finally plucked up the courage to go visit him. She knocked on his door.
"Please go away," a faint voice called from inside the room.
"Ashe," Byleth called.
"Professor? I hate to be rude, but I'd like time to myself right now."
"Ashe, I'm not leaving until you let me in."
A sigh, and a few seconds later the door swung open. Ashe's face was red and streaked with tears, and he was trying his best to wipe them away with a cloth. "What do you need, Professor?"
"Everyone's starting to get worried about you. You don't usually pull a Bernadetta."
Ashe laughed a little at that, but it was short lived, as the frown came back all too soon. He stepped away from the door, waving to let Byleth know she was welcome to enter. She closed the door behind her.
"I know I'm taking it really hard, and I know it's not good for me to shut myself away like this, Professor. I just don't understand why Lonato did this, why he did what he did. He would have known the church would do something about it," Ashe said.
"I don't have the answers for you, Ashe. But what I do have is this," Byleth said, revealing a card signed by all the students from all the houses. Ashe smiled at that, tearing up a little looking it over.
"Everyone's worried about you, and just wants you to pull through this. And you will. It does take time, but you will. For now, I want you to rejoin society a little. Come eat. I haven't seen you at the dining hall all week. I was getting worried you hadn't eaten all week."
"Dedue's been bringing me food. Granted I haven't had much of an appetite. I'll join you," Ashe said, standing up. He placed the card on the desk and finished drying up his tears.
When he got to the dining hall, he was met with plenty of smiling faces, all glad to see him out and about.
He couldn't deal. Nope. The poor prince was a blushing mess at the end of training. Byleth had taunted him the entire time, causing Dimitri to get flustered and lose focus, allowing Byleth to get the edge on him.
"Professor!" Dimitri whined indignantly. "That's hardly fair!"
"Dimitri, you can't get distracted in the middle of battle. That's how you lose. You can't lose focus for a second, that's how you get hurt at best," Byleth said, her fingers glowing with white magic to heal a cut on Dimitri's hand. "Do you think your enemy won't be taunting you sometimes? Battle is hardly a silent affair."
"I know, but you didn't have to bring up the timers!"
"I simply asked if you knew anything about Claude's timer. I must admit, I've been rather curious since the day we met. He keeps his timer completely under wraps."
"All I know is he wants to hide it. Other than that, I know nothing."
"And Edelgard's has been spent for a while, correct?" Byleth asked.
"Yes, she said it finished when she was about four, according to her father. That's when she met Hubert," Dimitri explained.
"I see, and you know this how?" Byleth taunted.
"Because Edelgard is my friend, we talk about things sometimes," Dimitri said, the tiniest bit flustered.
"I know yours is spent too, who's the lucky lady?" Byleth said, causing a breath to hitch in Dimitri's throat.
"I'm not certain, I wasn't quite paying attention when it ran out," Dimitri lied. He knew full well how glued to his timer his eyes were in Remire Village when he first met Byleth.
Byleth smirked, but Dimitri cut the conversation short, excusing himself with the excuse that he was tired and wanted a bath. Byleth waved goodbye and retired to her own quarters.
Dimitri was red in the face. And of course, on his way to take his well-deserved bath, he met up with none other than Sylvain.
"So? How'd training with the Professor go, lover boy?" Sylvain taunted.
"Shut up, Sylvain," Dimitri said, trying to hide the figurative steam coming out of his ears.
"Never. So? I take it you had fun, Your Tomatoness," Sylvain remarked.
"We got on the conversation about timers. She asked about mine. I told her I wasn't paying attention when it ran out," Dimitri said. Sylvain laughed a little.
"Knowing you, that's the biggest lie ever. You obsessed over that thing since we got to the Academy because you knew it was gonna run out soon. You and the other house leaders get back and you're talking about how you think you met her, then it turns out to be our new professor," Sylvain remarks.
"Sylvain…"
"When you found out she was our professor, you were so flustered you couldn't string two words together."
"Sylvain, that's enough. I shall take my leave!" Dimitri said, wishing that he had run into literally anyone else as he left.
"Don't forget, her birthday is coming up soon!" Sylvain called out with a laugh, "Please don't give her a dagger!"