During class, they learn about the certification exams coming up, and Dedue finds himself slowly tuning out as Byleth speaks. He tries to refocus and feels his leg bouncing quickly in boredom, doing anything to try and keep himself focused. He stops bouncing his leg when he realizes that he is not doing anything to help himself. He's even more bored now than he was on the carriage ride to Garreg Mach.

He's counted to 81 when a hand crosses in front of his face. He starts, relaxing when he realizes that it was Annette's hand.

The younger girl looks concerned. "Dedue? Are you alright?"

His face heats up in embarrassment as he makes eye contact with Annette. "I'm alright," he says, calmly reopening his book. "Thank you for your concern."

"Don't worry about it!" She chirps, a smile on her face. "Although, if you don't mind me asking, why did you and Mihail switch seats today?"

The two both glance at the table in the front, watching Dimitri and Mihail talk with each other as they read over their books. "Mihail wanted to start rebuilding Kingdom and Duscur relations earlier than he planned," Dedue says with a sigh. "Besides, I do not always need to be directly by His Highness' side, right?"

Annette giggles. "That's true. I'm glad you aren't glued to his side, my own fath-" she cuts herself off and shakes her head. "Nevermind! Do you want to study authority together?"

Dedue wonders what cultural bug of Faerghus Annette was about to share with him. And then he decides to ignore it for now. "Sure. What are you reading about?"

They battle more thieves for training, and Dedue supports Mihail and Ashe as they fire arrows and magic at enemies, finishing up the bandits that don't fall to his classmates and setting up easier targets with his gambits.

He spots an arrow flying towards him and stomps the ground, causing a piece of stone to leap into the air and block the arrow. The archer let out a scream of frustration before a ball of light and an arrow streak towards her.

Dedue breaks off from the pair as Ingrid comes up to join them, her javelin flying forward to trip a bandit before Mihail's spell hit. It causes the spell to miss, and Mihail's indignant scream manages to distract a bandit long enough for Dedue to knock them out in one punch.

The next time they're in Abyss, everyone's sparring, the two Resitis deciding that no one, not even the two Academy students should skip the use of the small arena. Dedue works with Adrista as she wields a lance, constantly trying to approach her as she did a decent job of fending him off. Dedue manages to catch the lance in between his gauntlets, and as he pulls it out of her hands, he felt Adrista's fist tap his stomach. "You're too quick," he groans, giving her the lance back.

Adrista laughs. "You said that after we played hide and seek once as kids."

"I did," Dedue muses, smiling at the memory. "But I really couldn't keep up with you all."

"Oh, you couldn't," she agrees, leaning on her lance. "But then again, none of us could even think of catching up to Cibor."

"Oh, causa Ignis, we couldn't even touch him. I still think he outruns us."

"He does. It drives Yuri insane."

On the way out, Mihail is stopped by Yuri, and as the two speak, Dedue notices the woman next to him. Brown skin, red hair, and sharp red eyes remind him of the stories about the gens Astri, the small clan of Duscis families that lived on the other side of the mountains. The woman notices his stare and winks, lifting up one edge of her jacket to show a very roughly put together gemma, the metal dark as night, pinned to it's inside.

She nods, Dedue nods, and the interaction ends there. He and Mihail leave Abyss shortly afterwards.

The certification exams occur one weekend, and Dedue watches as Mihail and Annette look over their tomes as they walk into the room.

They both ace their tests. The entire class passes their own certification exams, and the rest of the day is spent fitting everybody in their new kits.

Dedue watches as Ashe finishes preparing the fish, nimble fingers moving deftly to clean it correctly. He steps in as Ashe starts adding salt and pepper, lightly tapping the counter top to let the archer know of his arrival.

"You do not need to add much," he warns, standing next to the shorter boy now. "At this time of year the fish are fat. Simply grilling them will bring out their best flavor. Steaming them with herbs is delicious too."

"Wow, you know a lot about this," Ashe says, putting away the condiments with a warm smile. "I'm learning so much from you, Dedue. Were you a cook at the castle in Fhirdiad?"

Ingrid's rancid cake pops into Dedue's head. "No."

"Did your family own an eatery of some kind?"

"No," Dedue sighs. "My sister and I helped with cooking at home."

Ashe looks impressed, lighting the stove. "Wow, that's all? I thought I was confident about my skills, but next to you, I feel like an amateur." He finishes checking the flames and comes back to the counter to wait for the pan he was using to cook with. "Hey, could you give me some advice about other kinds of meat, besides fish?"

It's a very tempting idea. At this point, Dedue has only really cooked for himself and Mihail, although he hasn't ever missed his own dinner duty. Ashe seems nice enough, but-

"Ashe."

"Yes, Dedue?"

Dedue makes sure that he has direct eye contact with the archer before he speaks. "Why do you spend time with me?"

"We're friends, right?" Ashe asks, brows coming together in confusion. "I just want to get to know you better. Is that so odd?"

In Dedue's eyes, it isn't. He would love to spend time with others more honestly. He would love to talk about childhoods and families and stories that you omit details and names from because you swore to keep it a secret, but it's just too good not to share. However, by Faerghus standards-

"I am from Duscur," Dedue says. What he doesn't say is something already well-known: Thanks to the Kingdom, Duscur and their people do not have the best reputations.

Ashe scoffs as he gets up with the fish. "So? Look at me-" The fish starts to sizzle as he places it on the pan. "I came from a life of poverty. I was lucky to even be let in here, to study with all these high-class people. I think we have a lot in common."

Dedue can't help but raise an eyebrow. "Being poor and being from Duscur are two different things," he notes, mostly out of benign spite.

"Oh, I know!" Ashe says quickly, somehow visibly and honestly apologetic about his past words with even saying an apology. "But we can still be friends, can't we?"

Dedue lets the idea play in his head for a bit, a blob of amorphous clay. It slowly takes shape into something that seems better than what he has now. "You are a peculiar person."

Ashe smiles as he takes off the first piece of fish and replaces it with the next. "So I'm told!"

Dedue ducks his head, trying to hold in his laughter. When he looks up, Ashe is facing the pan again, working on his task. It's closer to the end of his cooking time that the kitchen door opens and Sylvain runs through and closes it behind him. The redhead pales as Ashe and Dedue look at him. "Hey, Dedue. Hey, Ashe."

Ashe waves. "Hello, Sylvain! What are you doing here?"

"I had a bit of a misunderstanding," Sylvain says, a smile on his face. "I think I'm just going to wait here for a bit."

Dedue taps the counter next to him, where the table takes a seat. "This is not healthy, you are aware of that, right?" He whispers, voice low, making the conversation private as Ashe starts cleaning up.

Sylvain's smile becomes slightly more strained. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Dedue," he whispers back, "but it's nice that you're worried for me. Can I cash that in for some cooking lessons? I hear a girl loves a man who can cook."

"Do you even want to date someone?"

The shaky smile turns into a pointed grimace. "Does it matter what any of us want? I'm going to have to be Margrave Gautier, some woman is going to win the bid to have my Crest baby"-Dedue still shivers at those words-"and neither of us will truly be happy."

"That's," Dedue starts, then stops, because this conversation is usually one that didn't happen outside of Sylvain's room before the sun went down. Something is wrong. "That is a very bleak vision. Is everything okay?"

Sylvain looks somewhat relieved, but guarded. He glances over to see Ashe is nearly done with his task. "Do you mind if I tell you some other night?" he asks, and Dedue realizes that this meant that something had to have happened for this conversation to make any sense.

So he nods, Sylvain nods, and soon everyone is in the dining room, eating dinner and talking about their days.

Fighting against Lonato is pretty easy. There is only one mage in the opposing army, and Byleth works to guide him and everyone else weak to magic away from the mage as Annette takes the man down.

Watching Ashe accidentally kill Lonato is very difficult to watch. The adrenaline and terror on the lord's face, the jumpiness that gathered in one arm, and the quick movement of Ashe running up to his adopted father comes together to start the drastic chain of events.

However, Ashe is also running on adrenaline. Trying to beat Catherine to Lonato so she doesn't kill him, fighting people along the way, Ashe was alert enough to duck under the swing of the spear at his head.

He also has the muscle memory to quickly draw an arrow and pierce Lonato in the throat.

Ashe doesn't let anyone sit next to him on the carriage ride back. Dedue watches as Mihail nonchalantly sits in front of the archer and "just happens" to start floating an arrow above his hand. Annette's excited about the show of magic, and soon there's a small smile on Ashe's face. His eyes still look sunken in.

That night, right before he's about to go to sleep, there's a knock on Dedue's door. Dedue calmly gets up and walks over to the door opening it. "Mihail-"

His voice dies out when he sees Ashe standing there, eyes red and collar of his leisure clothes damp.

"Is"-Ashe hiccups, tears still running down his face-"Is it okay if I sleep with you tonight? Like, not in the way that Sylvain-"

"I get it," Dedue says, feeling awkward. "I- I um, I"-Dedue simply nods, allowing the archer into the room and closing the door behind him. "Do you want anything?" he asks. "Maybe some tea? Napkins?"

Ashe slumps onto the bed. "Thanks," he mutters, his voice audibly wavering even through the muffling.

Dedue quickly gets a flat stone onto the middle of his desk, running a hand over the top of it and muttering a quick prayer to Tellus to enchant the top of it to start warming up."It's no issue," he says, enchanting another stone with a message and tossing it up into the ceiling. "What kind of tea do you want?"

Ashe looks up, wiping his eyes. "Do you have any mint leaves?"

"I do," Dedue says, grabbing a few and placing them next to the hot stone. "If- uh- If you want any sugar or milk or honey-"

"I'm fine without it," Ashe says. There's an awkward silence in the room before there's a knock on the door and Dedue opens it to see a kettle full of water and a few cloth napkins on the ground where Mihail placed them. Dedue takes the items and closes the door, putting the kettle on the stone and holding out the napkins for Ashe. Ashe quietly takes the napkins and uses one to blow his nose.

It doesn't take long for Dedue to make the mint tea, and soon both of them are sipping tea on the floor of his room. It's obvious to see that the silver-haired teen is still haunted by what happened today. It's sad to see, and Dedue can't imagine what it would feel like to be directly responsible for-

"How"-Ashe surprises him by speaking first, voice still quiet-"How- how do you live with losing a family member?"

The question hangs in the air for a few moments. Dedue sighs, thinking about his own family. "I don't know," he admits, pouring himself another mug. "I just live."

"Oh," Ashe mutters. His mug makes a hollow thud as he places it on the ground. His bright green eyes water. "It's that simple?"

"I don't know if it's simple," Dedue says, "but it works. Mostly." He notices that Ashe is about to start crying again, and quickly hands over another napkin. "I wasn't in the best state when it happened to me, and I didn't really have anyone to support me."

There's a long pause before Ashe actually looks at Dedue, visibly confused. "But, I thought you had help from His Highness."

Dedue doesn't know how far he can push with Ashe. He doesn't know how Ashe will react if he talks bad about Dimitri The Prince or Faerghus. "It's- It's not the same," he whispers, and Ashe seems to accept that answer, nodding.

"Alright," Ashe says, stretching upwards. "I- I'll leave now, if I'm being too much of a bother-"

"You aren't," Dedue interjects, picking up his mug and standing up. "I don't think it's a bother to help those who need it. Especially if we're friends now."

A soft smile crosses Ashe's face and he giggles a bit. "We are, aren't we?"

Dedue picks up Ashe's mug too, noticing that it's mostly empty. "Should we go to bed?"

"We should," Ashe agrees, also standing up. "Uh, I'll sleep on the fl-"

"No, absolutely not," Dedue states, pointing at the bed. "Friends don't let friends sleep on the floor."

Ashe looks amused. "Where did you learn that?"

"Mihail told me that the first time I slept over at his cousin's," Dedue answers as he cools off the stone. "We can just share the bed. Unless that's uncomfortable for you-"

"It's not!" Ashe blurts out, face turning rosy. "I mean, I did the same with my siblings over the years, so it's not awkward."

Dedue feels his face heat up at the awkwardness that he's brought up now. "Great." He gets on one side of his bed, feeling Ashe take the other side a few moments later.

There were no more words spoken as the night passes, and the only sounds in the room are simply the sounds of breathing as they fall asleep.