Chapter 13: Keeping An Eye Out

Finally, we're going to get some pay-off with this chapter. I was considering having something even more bleak for this chapter, but I think I've dragged that bit out long enough for now. Stories can't all be misery, after all. Otherwise they would always be unpleasant to read. But I'm sure I'll recycle my previous chapter ideas for a different part of the story, so look forward to that if you like depressing things happening to characters.

XXX

"So…" Bernadetta began. The hesitation in her voice was evident, but it was also clear that she was making an effort to be open with Sylvain. "I… uh… lostthechapterdraftbythrowingitatDorothea."

Sylvain arched an eyebrow at the last muttered part of Bernie's explanation. "You threw it?"

Bernadetta quickly grabbed her bed pillow, placed it over her face, and let out a scream in it. Even if the sound was muffled, it was very obviously the scream of someone who was just plain frustrated at themselves. Then, she placed the pillow back where it was, as if nothing happened, and continued.

"It was stupid, so stupid! I was going to leave it at your dorm room while you were away, but then I saw Dorothea, and I thought she was going to kill me, and I threw it as a distraction and ran and—Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Bernie audibly cringed. "You're so stupid, Bernie!"

"Hey, calm down!" cautioned Sylvain. "I kinda thought we got past the screaming bit…" he added under his breath.

"If I wasn't scared, I wouldn't have lost it! I bet Dorothea is laughing at it right now!" declared Bernie in her ongoing sorrow.

Sylvain looked to contemplate something for a moment, before speaking up. "Yeah, she's probably not doing that. Dorothea isn't really that kind of person, from what I'm able to tell about her. Why do you think she'd do that?"

Bernadetta sat up, now fully engaged with her own personal drama. "Why wouldn't she?! She's the prettiest girl here at Garreg Mach! She's got great hair, and a curvy body, and… bits that men like! I've got none of that, so of course she'd look down on me! I'm a bug to her!"

"And so, you think she'd mock your work for that reason, despite not even knowing that you're writing a book in the first place," Sylvain observed, putting a few things together in his mind.

"Yes! Absolutely!" Bernie vehemently insisted.

Sylvain sighed. For a while now, he had just kind of accepted that Bernadetta had her quirks, mainly that she was just a flighty and paranoid person by her nature. But with her outburst, a few things were made perfectly clear. The first thing was that Bernie had cripplingly low self-esteem. Now, Sylvain wasn't a stranger to feeling down about himself from time to time, but those bouts of thinking were at least usually temporary. Bernie seemed to live in that mindset at all times. Secondly, feeding that low self-esteem was some kind of persecution complex. Although Sylvain wasn't too well-read on that topic (adventure stories were always better than academic books, after all), he at least had the knowledge and sense to realize that Bernie felt like people were always gunning for her simply because they could. He had no idea where that kind of thinking even came from, but it couldn't have come from a good place. In any case, he would have to tread carefully around that kind of emotional fraying. There was a certain irony to that, coming from him. But his emotions were a different problem for a later time.

"Bernie, Dorothea is a person who's a lot like me. And if I get along with you fine, then I'm sure that she will too. You just have to give her the chance to show that attitude to you," Sylvain explained.

Bernadetta frowned. "And how is she like you? You're different!"

Sylvain couldn't let out a small chuckle. "Well, the both of us have great hair, cultivate our looks, and overall are just hunting for someone with a good personality," said Sylvain. He intentionally left out the 'constantly fishing around for relationships' comparison between himself and Dorothea.

That sentence made Bernie pause and think about the parallels presented. "…Well, I mean, I haven't seen those parts of her, so I dunno… But I do want to believe you. Trust me, I do. But… well, Bernie doesn't know."

Sylvain stood up from the bed and dusted off his pant legs. "Well, there's only one way to find out. C'mon, let's go ahead and ask her ourselves about your draft."

"Wh-wh-what?!" Bernadetta squealed as she grabbed Sylvain's right arm. "N-no way I can do that! The chapter's a lost cause! L-let's just write a new one, okay Sylvain?!"

Bernadetta was tugging at Sylvain's arm with such fear-based strength that it felt like it was going to pop out of its socket. He had to take his free hand to try and get Bernie to stop. "Hey, hey, I'm going with you! If you want, I can do the talking. Although I do want you to at least see that Dorothea isn't really too bad of a person."

"No, seriously Sylvain, it's fine! I want to write more with you anyway! Let's not go!" pleaded Bernadetta.

Instead of pulling off Bernie's hand, Sylvain took advantage of the situation to pull her up to her feet beside him. "C'mon, it won't be too hard! You trust me, right?"

Bernie pouted as she looked down at the floor. "…Yeah, but…"

His voice taking on a softer tone, Sylvain then said, "It'll all be over in a flash. And I'll be your side. So, trust me, everything will be fine."

"Hrmmmmm…" Bernie grunted. Fortunately for Sylvain, her body language indicated that she wasn't exactly resisting the idea anymore. He'd manage to break through to her with his words. Now it was time to put those words in action.

Sylvain began to lead Bernadetta towards the dorm room doors, and readjusted her hold on his arm so that he was leading her by the hand instead. If Bernie wasn't still facing the floor, he would've seen her ace turn bright red at the hand to hand contact. It totally was only because of how sensitive the human hand was to touch that the Varley girl felt her blush spread. The crimson shade on her cheeks had nothing to do with the idea that the feeling of his large hand gently cupping hers was a pleasant sensation.

The Gautier and Varley duo walked out of the dormitory together, holding hands. Normally, the both of them would feel rather odd about such a public display of closeness, but the close was clear outside. Well, mostly clear. Professor Byleth looked like he wasn't paying attention at all as he passed by at a distance, holding his fishing gear over his shoulder as he muttered something to himself under his breath. All that mattered was that his attention was focused elsewhere. It was a small, yet greatly appreciated favor from Sothis that he didn't notice the two.

The two walked the few feet over to where Dorothea's dorm room was, and Sylvain wasted no time politely knocking on the door. "Are you in, Dorothea?"

A muffled response came. "Coming!"

The large wooden doors opened, and Dorothea appeared in the doorway with her normal, if somewhat seductive, smile. The smile immediately dropped upon seeing Sylvain in front of her, before turning to a slight frown of confusion at the sight of Bernadetta beside him. "Uh… Can I help you?"

"Hey there, Dorothea. Bernie lost something, and she was wondering if you had it," the Gautier boy said, gesturing to his purple-haired partner. "Mind telling her what you're looking for, Bernie?"

Bernie couldn't bring her gaze up to meet Dorothea's eyes. "A, uh, document binder. A-a leather one. It has my… things in it," she muttered.

"Oh, that thing? Yeah, I still have it," said Dorothea. "Let me just go grab it really quick."

At that, Dorothea disappeared back inside of her room, rummaging around to find the binder that Bernadetta was looking for. Sylvain took the opportunity to say to Bernie, "See? No problem at all."

"I guess not…" noted Bernie.

After only a short moment, Dorothea returned to the doorway with the leather carrying case in hand. "I've been waiting for a chance to give it back to you, so I'm glad you came along for it. Just don't wait so long next time, okay Bernie-bear?

With a lightning-quick reflex, Bernie took the document binder out of Dorothea's hands and held it against her chest. Now looking the former diva in the eyes, Bernadetta gave a rapid series of head nods at her request. "Right, right, thank you!"

Dorothea gave a small smile at her classmate's reaction. "No problem."

"Well, thanks for handing back Bernadetta's stuff! We appreciate it," thanked Sylvain with a wink.

"Actually, if you don't mind, I want to ask you something. Privately," said Dorothea to Sylvain. Her smile dropped once again at the sight of the red-head.

Bernadetta became paralyzed in place at the sound of what seemed to be a threat. "S-Sylvain?"

Sylvain shrugged. "It's fine, it'll probably be quick. Just head back over, okay?"

There was a moment of hesitation where Bernie's body refused to move, before her typical flight-over-fight reaction kicked in and she sprinted back over to her dorm room. As Sylvain walked inside of Dorothea's room, he could hear Bernadetta slam her door shut behind her.

Dorothea also wasted no time in shutting the doors behind her once Sylvain was deeper inside the dormitory. "Okay Sylvain, what's your angle?" she frowned.

"Excuse me?" asked Sylvain.

"Don't give me that crap," Dorothea growled. She jabbed her finger onto Sylvain's chest. "Do you think she's an easy target for your 'charms' or something? Because if you do, that's low of you to take advantage of her like that."

Sylvain furrowed his brows at the insinuation. "First of all, it's nothing like that. Secondly, is it so hard to believe that I like her as a friend?"

Dorothea let out a dark chuckle. "I know your type, Sylvain. Galivanting around with your dick out, looking to sleep with as many women as possible, like you're keeping score."

"Hey, I defended you to Bernadetta to get her to come over and get her binder back. I said you were a lot like me. And she believed it, since she wouldn't have come over otherwise. So where does that leave you, huh?" Sylvain hissed through gritted teeth.

Dorothea looked slightly perplexed as she took that information in. She tried to say something on reflex, only to take a breath to collect her thoughts before speaking. "I said I'd rip your balls off if you did anything to her. And it sounds like she trusts you. So, let me say that I'll do something even worse if you ever break that trust, got it? You're on thin ice with me, and my trust in you only goes as far as Bernie's. Got it."

Sylvain crossed his arms. "I wasn't planning on doing anything to her. You can hold me on that one. And why are you defending her so much? She's scared of you, you know. From the sound of things, you coming to her side is unwanted."

Sighing, Dorothea responded, "Sometimes, there's just people you can't push too much. I've seen it happen before back in the Mittlefrank Opera Company, and it isn't a pretty sight. Someone needs to stick their neck out for those kinds of people. It's just being a decent person."

"I think it's safe to say that we both agree on that point," replied Sylvain. "Now, can we stop with the interrogation? I don't want to keep Bernie waiting long."

Dorothea gave Sylvain a rather curt nod. "Go. And remember that I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"I should feel so lucky that such a gorgeous lady is constantly keeping a look out for me," cheekily said Sylvain as he walked towards the door. That earned him a highly-deserved push to the back by Dorothea, causing Sylvain to stumble through the dormitory doors.

As the wooden doors closed behind him, Sylvain readjusted some hairs that fell out of place due to the shove. Honestly, that confrontation went better than it possibly could have. At least he left with the family jewels intact. As long as Bernie still trusted in Sylvain, Dorothea would put her trust in their friendship as well. It wasn't the most conventional way for people to learn about the legendary Gautier-Varley friendship that was surely brewing in Garreg Mach, but at least it wasn't a complete disaster.

Those thoughts occupied Sylvain's mind as he walked back inside of Bernadetta's room and shut the door behind him, where he was then greeted with a large hug from the girl dwelling within. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she squeaked.

Patting Bernie on her back, Sylvain replied in kind with, "See, it wasn't too hard at all. Now, let's get to reading, shall we? I'm excited for your chapter!"

Bernie gave Sylvain a large, beaming smile up at her muse's face. "Of course! Oh, I'm so glad you helped me get it back! I can't wait to share it with you!"

Then, a sudden thought crossed the purple-haired girl's mind as she continued to hug her friend. "Wait, how did you know where Dorothea's room is?"

Sylvain didn't want to give the rather uncouth answer of roughly a third of the male (and also a third of the female) student body knowing where her room was. "Heard it from a friend," was his chosen neutral answer.

Fortunately, that answer was good enough for Bernadetta, who raised no further questions as she practically dove over to her desk to pour over the contents of her leather document case. Sylvain allowed himself a small smile as he settled into the room, taking off his boots and parking himself on Bernie's bed. After everything that happened over the past week or so, from everything with Miklan to inspiring Bernie to finally ask something of Dorothea, it was nice to finally get back to some sense of normalcy. There was nothing better than spending time with a highly valued friend. It was a heady feeling of freedom.

XXX

"You saw those two holding hands, right?"

"I don't see how that's any concern of mine."

"Whether you've been paying attention to them or not, from what I can tell Sylvain and Bernadetta have been getting closer to one another."

"I never took you as a fan of gossip, Sothis."

"I think those two would treat each other nicely indeed."

"Are you going to be talking about this the entire time I'm fishing?"

"Just merely observing a trend that you've been content to ignore."

"Again, it isn't any of my concern."

"I would say that it is somewhat your concern, given how much you bothered to care about Sylvain in the weeks prior."

"…Fine, I see your point there. But I wouldn't feel comfortable about trying to force them together. I'm their professor, after all."

"I would deign to command you to interfere in whatever relationship they have together. But I would suggest to you to hold out a bit of hope for them."

"Deal. Now will you please let me focus? I refuse to let the Teutates Pike I'm eyeing get away."

XXX

And there you have it! I hope you enjoy the conclusion to this arc. Granted, not everything has been resolved, but things like that always take time. Also, look forward to Dorothea and Byleth being in on the Sylvain x Bernadetta ship. Given how those two are, I hope you'll be interested in their further takes on the relationship.

This has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off on this chapter for now!