It Was Meant to Be
Synopsis — When it came to soulmates, Annette couldn't believe in what she didn't understand and Felix couldn't understand why so many believed. Little did they know, they were about to find out that finding your soulmate wasn't always a matter of belief or understanding, but rather the courage to try in spite of their absence.
Author's Notes — this is my Soulmate AU based on an idea from the Felannie discord (I'd posted this first chapter on Felix's birthday but completely forgot to cross-post oops). Just note that this is canon divergent in the sense that the inciting event that kicked off the tail end of pre-timeskip never happened so everyone is making their way back to Garreg Mach for the Millennium Festival as planned for the five-year reunion. Pretend like Edelgard and Dimitri talked it out and Claude was simply eavesdropping nearby.
—
Every morning, a mild tingling sensation reminded Annette about what she didn't know.
If she hadn't made a point of dressing or bathing herself without help of the maids — or doing either task while keeping her eyes closed for that matter — seeing the coin-sized mark in teal and orange too would have added insult to injury. Five years ago, it still would have lingered in her mind's eye, but right now? Not so much. These had become ingrained habits severed from their raison d'être.
Just like it was now habit to pick the most modest of dresses with high collars or supplementing sweetheart neckline dresses with turtlenecks. Or huge bows. Or both. People simply accepted that this was her fashion sense at play, and quite frankly, she had too. Though they were byproducts of the circumstances, the outfits were cute.
Today's date, however? Decidedly less cute.
This morning she had to rise and shine at an absurd hour, even by her standards, to begin the several days' journey from Dominic to Garreg Mach for the Millennium Festival.
And while Annette loved an excuse to try out new makeup palettes and even newer dresses, it also served as a solemn reminder that she no longer had the luxury of pretending like there wasn't a reason why she unnecessarily made things ten times harder for herself.
While parties generally attracted those who didn't balk at the prospect of social interaction, Professor Byleth had an otherworldly knack at summoning the most reclusive of introverts to join in on the fun. Namely, those who would never show up at social events under any other circumstances — including, but not limited to, being threatened at knife-point.
That meant there was a more than 0-percent chance he'd be there.
Annette would have skipped out at the prospect of that alone but with Dominic in a precarious position, turning down the opportunity to schmooze with Faerghus's elite wasn't exactly an option in her Uncle's opinion. More importantly, she wanted to see her old classmates she hadn't seen in ages.
Besides, she didn't know how this all worked, after all. For all she knew, Felix might not have been cognizant of the existence of a small but unmistakable Crest of Fraldarius on her chest.
And while she put more faith into reason than the other way around, Annette prayed that was the case.
She wouldn't know where to begin otherwise since all she ever got when she broached the topic of soulmates was a patronizing, vague and downright non-informative cooing chorus of, 'you'll just know why.'
They might as well should have answered with, 'because I said so' for all that was worth.
—
Every evening, a mild tingling sensation reminded Felix about he was too painfully aware of.
The irony wasn't lost on him that he loathed the idea of pre-determined fates as much as the concept of soulmates themselves and yet he couldn't stave off the appearance of a soulmark on his body.
He'd spent the last five years hoping it would disappear with time but as the orange and Fraldarius blue mystery mark remained as vibrant as ever, he settled for seclusion. A having the mark of a soulmate branded on his body meant nothing if he never met the alleged party in question, after all.
A simple but effective parrying move in theory but in application, it ignored three fundamental truths.
One - no matter how much he trained and accumulated experience in battle, he was not wholly immune to the occasional injury.
Two - some wounds needed traditional healing and as much as healers were miracle workers in their own right, they apparently drew the line at dressing a wound overtop of one's clothes.
And lastly, three – all of the household servants served Duke Fraldarius first and foremost.
And so, the aftermath of all these three things culminated in the situation where he was now.
Despite his efforts to live his life on his own terms, the old man had learned through some of the aforementioned healers that he had a fully-formed soulmark above his chest.
While Rodrigue had believed Felix when he said he didn't recognize the mark, he was fairly certain that his father would if his hunch was correct. It had slowly begun to materialize 5 years ago around the time he was at the Officer's Academy. And between his predilection of mostly keeping to himself and the fact that the design did not match any of his oldest friends' crests, he was fairly certain it belonged to one of his other Blue Lions classmates.
Felix was self-admittedly rather blind to crest politics or even the mere ability to recognize them on sight, but even he could tell something was a crest by design alone. And if he knew this much, his father would most certainly fill in the blanks if he saw it once his bandages were off.
Considering House Fraldarius was notoriously steeped in tradition to the point of drowning, he was fairly certain he would no longer have an excuse to ignore the invitation sent by Professor Byleth for the Millennium Festival at any rate.
Still, one question remained in the back of his mind.
It was one thing for him to ignore a truth for five years, but he had to wonder about the reason why the other person had not made correspondence with House Fraldarius at all given their standing in the Kingdom. All he could rule out was their death - his mark would have lost all pigment aside from the faintest of outlines much like Ingrid's crest of Fraldarius mark on her back had.
Felix was not the most curious person by nature, but he had to admit this intrigued him just a little.
—
She'd thought the coast had been clear when she'd only seen practically everyone but Felix after her long trip to Garreg Mach and the handful of days preceding the actual festival itself. Each and every teatime she spent catching up with various old friends without nary an interruption lulled her into a deeper unearned sense of security.
Up until the morning of the ball where she'd decided on a sharing an early morning cup of tea with her dear old professor in an otherwise-empty dining hall, that was. That was when he'd asked her a question that nearly caused her to choke on a biscuit.
"Is there something between you and Felix?"
"Why would you ask that? He's not even here."
Byleth shook his head. "He's been here longer than you."
Once more, Annette was reminded why she placed more stock in reason over faith as she set down the remainder of the biscuit on her plate. If she hadn't noticed him by now, Felix must have been avoiding being spotted in her line of sight. And if he was doing that then…of course he knew about their little predicament.
If she was keenly aware of the sands of time before the past few days' momentary respite, the grains were absolutely slipping through her fingers now to make up for lost time. With not much in the way of options, Annette decided not to fight against the flow this conversation was headed towards. After all, on top of his introvert-wrangling skills, she was also fairly certain Professor Byleth's knack for seeing through people hadn't dulled one bit over the years either.
"You know how…everyone has a mark of their…you know?" she discreetly explained in a low voice. Byleth nodded. "I figured out who mine belonged long after I'd graduated. I wanted to research more about marks first before doing so but no one would give me answers that made sense or any at all so…I never reached out."
"And now that you know that he knows, what will you do?"
"I don't know. That's the problem." she admitted, burying her head in her hands for a second before daring to be perceived once more. "This is like taking one of your famous pop quizzes while being banned from studying in the library. No offense."
"None taken." Byleth replied, a slight amused lilt to his tone. "I have a suggestion though."
"Oh, you do?"
"Yes. Focus on what you do know."
"That's kind of hard when there's so much I don't know that's important, Professor."
"That can be true of any situation and yet we often choose to move forward anyway." he pointed out. "Do you remember when I told him he'd be your adjutant for the Blue Lions' first mock battle?"
"It's hard to forget. I can still vividly picture how he stormed out of the classroom in a huff."
"Do you recall anything about the day of the battle?"
"Yes, I remember I'd spent the night before worrying that he wouldn't show up so I took an extra-long morning walk to calm my nerves. I bumped into him as he was headed to the meeting spot so we walked there together in silence. I don't remember much of the actual battle but I know that I was amazed that he listened to my directions without a single grumble. If memory serves, he saved me from a few close calls too."
"That decision won us the battle."
Annette blinked. "Really? In what way?"
"Pride can be someone's greatest asset and undoing." he simply answered. "I could tell he was skilled with the blade and had far too much pride from my first week of instruction alone. I used that to my advantage even though I knew little of our opponents."
The long-lost memory hit Annette like a Bolting spell. "…That's right. A lot of students from the other classes over-extended and ended up biting off more than they could chew." she recalled. "And if I understood correctly, you banked on his pride to show up but gave him a supporting role to use that pride in a less reckless way."
"Perfect marks for you." he commended before taking an exceptionally-long sip of his tea. "Now the real lesson begins – how can you apply this to your situation?"
"Hm…"
The Professor's story was about using what he knew to his advantage even though he didn't have the full picture. So, in this case, knowing about how soulmates worked would be out of the realm of possibility – at least for now.
But what was she left with? Felix's pride? Pride could definitely explain why he didn't reach out to her if he knew she was his soulmate. He was a prideful fellow. Maybe he kept to himself for these five years because he thought she didn't want him?
Backing up a moment, did she want him though? He was a villain who overheard her when she sang and made jokes at her expense about it, after all. But wait, why would someone like that be her soulmate?
Never mind, never mind…digging too deep there, she reasoned.
Maybe this was another one of those things she'd have to keep in the 'unknown' pile. She could assume the universe made some cosmic mistake until she had proof. That did support the useless comments of 'you'll just know why.' Yes, that was fair.
Ok, so where did that leave her now? Hm…
"What do you have so far?" Byleth asked, effectively interrupting her chain of thought. With the night's festivities looming ever closer, Annette didn't mind the disruption.
"The pile of unknowns that I have to leave alone are the how and who of the you-know-what process." she began. "Pride could explain why I didn't get a letter or anything during the past five years and…that's as far as I got."
Byleth didn't mince words in his response.
"You're going to have to talk to him."
If Annette had the biscuit in her mouth she would have choked on it again.
"Professor, I can't just do that!" she stage-whispered, frantically looking around to make sure they were still absolutely alone after her outburst. "There's a reason why I keep wearing high collared dresses. The unhelpful people I've talked to could not stop cooing over the fact that what I have is apparently a lover's mark! You can't just walk up to someone you haven't talked to in five years and ask if they love you. That's a lot of pressure to put on someone. It's not right! Especially when I don't even know if…if his is in the same place."
"Annette, take a step back." he calmly instructed. "Theorizing without proof will get you nowhere, stick to the facts you do know. You have a mark and he doesn't know where that mark is. The reverse is likely true as well. You don't have to confess to everything all at once but you have to address this issue to him because it concerns him."
"I know but I…" her voice faltered as too many thoughts tumbled around her mind, "…I'm afraid because everyone keeps gushing about how wonderful soulmates are but no one tells me how they know who they got is right for them. It doesn't make sense to me that everyone gets one picked out for them by the universe. There have to be some people who get less-than-perfect assignments and…"
Mercifully, he cut in before she'd made the words become real.
"-I understand." he interjected. Something about his slightly-pained gaze truly made her believe that. "But you still need to talk to him. Before the ball if you're able to. I'd like you to enjoy tonight's festivities instead of dreading them."
Resigning to the indelible truth that his words had merit, even if it was not what she wanted to hear, Annette rubbed her eyes and took a small sip of her tea to collect herself.
"I'll try but that'll depend on whether or not I can find him." she tentatively promised. "But to be completely honest with you, I'm not sure where I'd even begin with this whole situation if I did."
"Stick to the facts you know." he reiterated yet again. "No theories. You're dealing with a straight-forward, no-nonsense person - keep straight to the point."
"That's…true." she sheepishly conceded to that obvious truth she somehow overlooked. "Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it."
"You're welcome."
"One thing I am still curious about though." Annette commented. "For that mock battle, why did you pick him to be my adjutant and not someone like Mercie who filled more of a support role?"
If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn there was a hint of a smile on his face.
"I still needed him near the frontline." he frankly answered. "Pairing him with someone he already knew seemed counterproductive to my goal. I was also concerned he would persuade Ashe to swap roles on the battlefield. By process of elimination, that left you."
Annette nearly snorted. "Is this your way of saying you thought I could stand up against Felix being a bully?"
"Your words, not mine." he deflected, seemingly glancing at something beyond her for split second. "You should ask him yourself."
A chill ran down Annette's spine. "…He's right behind me, isn't he?"
"Not right now, no."
"But…he was at some point, right?"
"Yes but only for a second."
"When?"
"You should ask him yourself."
Accepting defeat in this battle of wits, Annette suppressed a sigh as she grabbed her long-forgotten and half-eaten biscuit.
"Alright, alright. I'm going to eat this and enjoy the rest of my tea first if you don't mind."
"Not at all, Annette." he said, picking up his cup and raising it towards her. "Cheers."
She couldn't help but laugh a little at the ridiculousness of it all as she followed suit and clinked their teacups together.
"Cheers, Professor."