A/N: Oh gosh, I was smiling the entire time I was writing this. 😆 An excerpt into the long fic The Lion and The Lotus, coming soon to FFN!

Our Little Secret

by WithPatienceComesPeace

(cross-posted on AO3)

Then came the day Flayn found the Duscuri math professor sitting on her own, with her fork stuck in the air with a piece of chicken on it, her eyes scanning across a page full of something much more tasty. Flayn announced herself to the professor, got no response, and walked around the edge of her round lunch table to look at the book she was reading.

It was a romance novel.

Flayn had never seen a romance novel, not inside the Monastery. She had learned from Claude just yesterday, that her father, that cur, had been sweeping clean the shelves of the library of all media of contemporary entertainment, maintaining that this was an institution of learning and must reflect as such. For the professor to be reading this work, in the cafeteria — in such the public place! Flayn's jaw dropped. Seteth's policy must not yet be known to the professor!

Flayn quickly scanned the back cover before, like some mythic beast, the book could disappear. The top of the back cover was populated by titles by the same author:

The Earl and His Pearl

The Duchess Quite Fairly

A Day Drink Delight

Sweet Duchess Demise

Whisper Solemn, Love of Mine

Love Vainglorious

The Almyran Tyrant Surprise

Duscur Luster

Five Days in Nuvelle

The professor's hand was in the way of the summary.

"Can I help you?" the professor snapped, slapping the book down onto the table before Flayn got a peek at the front cover.

Flayn jumped, startled. "I was wondering, Professor… Could I, perhaps, read this book, please?"

The professor was hesitant. "This one's my favorite one…it's my stress book. And I need it now." She furrowed her brows, then said, "Why don't I get you a different one?"

"A different one?" Flayn asked, astonished. "You have…another one?"

The professor gave her a funny look. "Not the same one, obviously."

Flayn's tummy and jaws were both tingling so much she couldn't speak for a full minute. Parvati put a finger under Flayn's jaw-dropped mouth and closed it for her. "Before a bug gets in," the professor said.

Flayn didn't have time to ask the mathematics professor what she meant because the next thing Professor Parvati said was to come to the Blue Lions classroom after class tomorrow morning. She would have a book for Flayn.

The next eight hours, Flayn floated here and there about the Monastery in a haze. She wondered what the book would be about. She wondered if there was a brooding prince or a cursed princess in it. Childhood friends, separated by tragedy? A tryst? A…forbidden…kiss?

She thought about this as she cast her line for a fish.

She thought about this as she flew on the wind.

She thought about this as she sang evening hymns.

She was so quiet during dinner in their apartment, Seteth asked what was wrong.

"Nothing, Father!" Flayn insisted, racing through the rest of her meal so she could escape into her thoughts as she washed dishes in the sink, then brushed her teeth and combed her hair and set her clothes out for the next day.

Then she realized, she needed to make plans.

Her father had had so many loves. In the ten times she had awakened over the last one thousand years, a new soul, kind and lovely, was ever at his side. A new mother, another mother, who would take Flayn warmly into her arms.

How, now, had he become such a ruthless prude?

She planned for where she would hide the book. She planned where she would read it. She carried her plans into her dreams and came out of those dreams with even more plans, and still it was too early. Flayn pawed her way out of her curtained, four poster bed, made herself ready, and took her tea and madeleines to the window.

Fifty minutes later was still fifteen minutes too early for even the beginning of the Advisory class. Nonetheless, Flayn found herself loitering outside the Blue Lions classroom.

"I had a feeling this would happen," Professor Parvati said when she saw Flayn.

Flayn bounded up to her. "Professor!"

Professor Parvati had come barely in time for a class that should begin in one minute. Not an early bird like Flayn's father. Blue Lions students looked curiously Flayn's way as they passed by.

"Professor! I have been waiting! I have been so excited! I have almost had not a wink of sleep!"

"Well, did you get at least two winks?" Parvati asked her. "Sleeping is done by closing both eyes, after all."

Flayn blinked. "Professor… That joke lands dangerously in Alois territory."

Parvati chuckled. "Oh, yes! I love Alois!"

Flayn shook her head. Then, she watched closely as the professor opened the top flap of her bag. She tried not to peek too obviously. The book Parvati withdrew was — somewhat smaller than what Flayn expected. She accepted it.

"The Gloucester Roster?" Flayn read aloud.

Parvati glanced into the Blue Lions classroom — where three of the students blatantly stared back — and took Flayn aside by the elbow to beyond the doorway, where they could whisper in private. She said, "This is the first novel."

"The — first?" That meant Flayn didn't have to be disappointed about it being so small! Flayn took a look at the cover art and immediately pressed it to her skirt. "Does this mean…do you have the other novels?"

Parvati thought for a moment. "I think I have the second one…and the last…not sure about the third."

"That is — quite fine!" said Flayn, giddy in the brain. She thanked the professor and was on her way.

And it was everything she wanted.

The next day, she returned to the Blue Lions class. Her heart was absolutely jubilant. What a wild ride it had been! It was about a cursed princess, and a knight who taught her to love herself. There were laughs, there were tears, there were contented sighs, and lots of poetry and tea. She was fairly certain her father would approve of this one, if it hadn't been for the — ooh! — that cover art.

When Flayn arrived the next morning, there was no one inside the class. She waited outside for about fifteen minutes, but then it got too cold and she took shelter instead. She took a spot in the class. She sat in a chair, at a desk. She had never before attended a class. Her mother and father had taught her everything, and it wasn't until she had awoken this time that she found out, her father was now the principal of a prestigious academy.

She swung her hanging legs and looked around. This is what it would look like if she attended class. On her left, would be another student. Someone who looked her age. Maybe…a friend… And on her right, would be another student. Another person who looked her age. Maybe another friend. Come to think of it, she had been here for over a year and a half. How could the daughter of the principal of the academy not be taking classes in one? It would be easy. She surely knew already everything they came to learn. Why, this was preposterous! Why wasn't she in a class?

"Flayn?"

Flayn whirled around. It was Ignatz, a student she had met in the Cathedral. He had been surprised by how much she looked like the statue of St. Cethleann.

He pushed up his glasses and stuck his head into the classroom. "What are you doing, Flayn?"

"Oh! I was wondering…when does Advisory begin?"

"Advisory? There is no Advisory. That only happens on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."

Flayn was crushed. She slid the book behind her, out of sight of Ignatz, as she processed this. In only one day, she had finished the book. She needed the second one now. She had already made plans to just curl up in bed and read the afternoon away. If her father had questions, she'd slip the book into her pillowcase and claim to be tired today. She had even acquired milk and cookies! But this terrible news from Ignatz left her so distressed, she hurried back to her apartment and sobbed. Then she decided, she would just read the first book again.

The next day, Flayn met Parvati properly after the class this time. Again, the Blue Lions students glanced at her, curious, but from what Flayn had heard, they had to be at the training grounds right away. When the professor approached, Flayn started gushing about The Gloucester Roster. "I even read it twice!" she said.

Parvati said she was happy to have found a fellow fan, and on Flayn's favorite character, she said, "Oh yes, he is my favorite too. Isn't he lovely?"

Flayn paused, looked up and down the Three Houses hall to see if her father was anywhere near…and then leaned in conspiratorially, for she had never said this about any boy or man before. She said, "Yes. He is lovely!"

She felt like it was magic. Like she had crossed some invisible threshold. She had said such words aloud, about a boy! She would never go back to being innocent again! The deed was done! This was one step in maturing that she would never have to do again!

Then she asked for the next book. Parvati was surprised. "Oh, I didn't bring the next book, Flayn. I woke up late today…" She trailed off when she saw the impact her words were making on Flayn's face. Then she said, "H-Hold on…I'll… I'm sure I can make time to head back to my apartment to get it."

She met Flayn after her Standard Mathematics class. The exchange was made with no words, but one mysterious grin. Professor Parvati waved Flayn away with a sing-song "Have fu-uuun!"

"What was that?" asked the other redhead student as he stopped outside the hall to see what Parvati was doing. Flayn mistook him for Sylvain and ran away, but Parvati maintained a mysterious grin as she considered Ferdinand. She slipped back out The Gloucester Roster, since all the other students had walked away, and put it in Ferdinand's hands.

He read the back of it before flipping it to the front. His eyes went wide. "It's — romance."

Parvati smiled. "It's the joy in my blood and bones."

Ferdinand looked at it hard and threw it back into Parvati's hands like it was a hot item, fresh out of the black market. He didn't want to be caught holding it.

But Professor Parvati bounded it back to him. "Oh come now, romance is also for boys. Don't be shy."

Ferdinand was turning as red as his hair as he looked down the hall — he truly was curious… — and jammed it in between the textbooks in his arms. He said, "I must away!"

Professor Parvati's shoulders shook with her laughter. She had no idea in what way she had just become an agent of chaos.

Meanwhile, Friday came by, and so did Flayn. But this time, Flayn was met with a horror.

"You don't have the third book?" Flayn squealed.

Parvati shook her head. "I already told you. Why don't you just check in the library? This is an incredibly popular series, by an incredibly popular author. They are bound to have it."

Flayn shook her head. "Professor, you don't understand!" She explained that all the romance books had been banned by Seteth. And all the mystery books. And all the horror books. And, actually, all the novels. And many things aside from that.

Parvati stared at her, her eyes so wide they were round like a fish. "He — I — what?"

And in this way the professor discovered she had been handing Flayn — contraband.

But that wasn't her biggest concern. She said, "This can't be, Flayn! Are you telling me — you mean the only books that I have right now — are the ones in my own, hackneyed down, stockpile?"

"Professor, you must, must get it for me! Please, Professor, you must get me the third! …Or — can I read the next?"

Here, the professor turned into a demon, saying, "No!"

Flayn flinched.

Parvati said, "You cannot skip the third!"

"But can't I go back and read it later?"

Parvati shook her head vigorously. "No! The damage cannot be undone! You can't read out of order, Flayn! That is not how it's done! …It's against the law!"

For a moment, Flayn thought it was Seteth's voice coming out of the professor's mouth. This sudden, confounding, irrational stubbornness was not something she wanted to see in the professor. She said, "How long before you can get your hands on the third book?"

This was how they became a pair of accidental but true conspirators.

Professor Parvati muttered to herself about "supply chain" and "the process" and something like, "This could take a couple of weeks."

Flayn felt herself turn into a husk, a shell. She said, "I… I can't survive for weeks…" She begged Parvati to get back the copy of the first novel. "I'll make do reading these two over and over again."

Parvati grimaced. "Somebody else has that novel."

Flayn looked at her. "Someone else? Who?" Did this mean…she could have someone to talk to…? Besides the professor! A…student!

Professor Parvati killed that hope before it began. She told Flayn, "I can't tell you. But I can let you…read a few of the other books instead. I'll have to reread them to ensure they are mild." She looked at Flayn. "Have I been handing you contraband?"

This was the third time they were meeting in the classroom of the Blue Lions. They were now getting used to huddling near the table in the front, or even better, at the blackboard, in the corner, which hosted a kind of chicken scratch Flayn felt sorry the other students had to read.

Flayn threw up her hands and shook her head in alarm. "Don't worry. I'm very careful, Professor! I know how to hide things well!"

Professor Parvati looked reassured (this would be her first mistake) and muttered angrily (her second mistake). She said, "How dare he? Just because he doesn't appreciate it doesn't make it less valid. They carry the people through dark times — and these are becoming such dark times, little Flayn."

"I'm not little!"

"Such dark times indeed…" Parvati put her hands upon Flayn's arms and said, "This is our little secret, okay?"

Flayn looked into her eyes and nodded gravely.

And from on high, up in the Blue Lions classroom's rafters, Shamir nodded as well.

"Our little secret."

A/N end: If you enjoyed these shenanigans, you may be interested in my longfic The Lion and The Lotus, currently posted on AO3. It starts off super serious and devolves into a lot of this: Seteth, Catherine and Shamir trying very hard to be villains.

Key word: try. I've always wanted to write Team Rocket style villains, but Flayn is one wrench that gets thrown into these plans. And a couple of other wrenches. 😆

Well! Hope you enjoyed!