Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.
I need to keep a delicate balance here of plot progression, relationship progressions, and Claude analyzing other characters and species. I say 'delicate', but what I really mean is 'whatever the hell I feel like at the moment', though I'll try to refrain from going full romance all the time despite the fact that I'll inevitably fail horribly.
That said, I'm not very varied in the relationship dynamics I know how to write, so it's probably for the best I restrain myself.
Also, Ignatz is surprisingly hard to write. I keep feeling like I'm not doing him quite right. Like I'm making him too… timid? Too nervous? Something like that. It's bugging me.
"What's that?" Hilda asks, peering over his shoulder. "You've been staring at it for a while now." Her eyes drift to the bottom of the page, and her eyebrows quirk up. "Margrave Edmund? Marianne's adoptive father? What does he want?"
"Help apparently." Claude murmurs. "Strange of him to request it from me of all people. Well, the Golden Deer, but the message was sent to me."
"Not Rhea or Seteth?" Hilda frowns. "That's… interesting. What does he want?"
"He's having some trouble with dire animals attacking his border villages. Most of his military is currently occupied protecting trade routes, especially the aquatic ones because it seems a scylla has taken issue to massive boats sailing through their territory so frequently."
Hilda whistles. "Yowch."
"Yeah." Claude doesn't envy being the poor soldier that actually ends up fighting that thing. "So we're being asked to provide help. He'll compensate us, of course."
"That's still weird." Hilda mutters, looking at the amount. "He could have hired mercenaries for that much."
Claude hums in agreement, his expression neutral. "I have a theory."
"Hmm?"
"I think this might be an excuse to have Marriane visit home." Claude says.
"Why? If he wants to check on Marianne, he could just… send a letter."
"And you think Marianne would be truthful? You think she's going to say "Hey, I feel like shit and avoid everyone all the time, thanks for sending me somewhere I'm incredibly uncomfortable to be"?"
"I don't think she'd say that… but good point." Hilda mutters. "So do we accept?"
"Well it's not up to just us. We need to consult Teach and the other Deer." Claude reminds her.
"And excuse you, the message is addressed to me Hilda." The boy adds sarcastically. "Do I accept, not you."
"Sorry oh great leader." Hilda says sarcastically. "I'll defer to your wisdom."
"You mock me being the leader, but mocking my intelligence too?" Claude says, trying to look as wounded as possible. "You doubt me Hilda? My brilliant brain? The best part of me?"
"That's your best part?" Hilda asks in disbelief. "I'd hate to see your worst then."
"Gack!" Claude grabs his chest. "The pain! I thought we were friends! Hilda, how could you?"
She rolls her eyes to the heavens. "Sorry great leader. Do you need a lollipop or something?"
"I can't be bribed by sweets. I'm not Lysithea…" He huffs. "Give me some credit."
###
They end up accepting the mission. The class is all fine with it (Lysithea is annoyed, and Marianne nervous, but that's about it), and the Demon just says "okay" when they present it to him.
The trip to Edmund territory will take a few days. They start along merchant roads, even buying a sheltered cart and horses so they don't have to walk the entire way (though Byleth requires them to march at least a few hours a day for training purposes).
That leaves them with a lot of downtime though. Since they're not walking, that means they don't have something to focus on. Everyone's pastimes are different. Byleth... doesn't have one. He sits at the front of the cart guiding the horses the entire time except when he's walking, in which case either Marianne or Leonie guide the horses.
Marianne spends a lot of time up at the front of the cart even when Byleth is walking. She seems to like being around the horses. When she's not guiding the horses she's either walking or praying. She doesn't talk to anyone unless spoken too.
It's Thursday when they leave. Claude knows Friday and Saturday are Marianne's feeding days, and they're going to be on the road during that time, so he's interested to see how that turns out. Maybe he can figure out something useful…
Lysithea reads pretty much the whole trip. She is just as, if not more, antisocial than Marianne, though because of intense desire to study rather than sheer shyness.
Leonie does a bunch of small tasks. She cleans her weapons, fixes her clothes, does any little thing she can while travelling. She even takes to fixing other people's things just to have something to do.
Raphael talks. That's really all he does. Thankfully, he has a lot of stories to tell, and it keeps the relatively cramped space of the cart from feeling too awkward with his cheerful tales.
Speaking of cramped, Ignatz is squished all the way in the back. Being the smallest of the group (well, tied with Lysithea), this also means he basically disappears behind all the other bodies. Really the layout of people in the cart isn't the smartest. All the small and antisocial people are in the back. You know, the most cramped part of the cart. Lysithea is huddled away in one corner, Marianne in the other, and Ignatz is between the two. Raphael and Leonie and Lorenz are on either side of the middle of the cart, and it's Claude and Hilda who usually sit at the end.
Anyhow, Ignatz is squished in the back. He spends some time trying to draw, but paint or ink aren't practical to use in a shaking cart, so he has to abandon that. There's a solid hour on the first day where he just sits there staring out the back of the cart and glancing at the people around him. He eventually tries to make quiet conversation with Lysithea (which fails, she's busy reading) and then Marianne (which goes a bit better, but they're both too awkward around each other to talk for more than a few minutes).
Lorenz also spends time reading. He has a variety of probably very new and fashionable books to occupy his time.
He still hasn't learned to fully control his light. Everyone within the cart is subject to random blasts of light until Leonie gets fed up and throws a blanket over the boy to block it out, and Lorenz reluctantly complies.
Claude and Hilda banter. A lot. Any subject to talk about is good enough for them to stave off boredom. Hilda copes with it better than Claude to be fair, she has a variety of easy art hobbies she can do even while they talk, but Claude is well used to situations a lot worse than this so it's not bad for him either.
Another way to spend time in the cart, which Claude expects everyone will partake in at some point, is sleep. First it's Marrianne, and entirely by accident. She's probably asleep for a few hours with her head resting against the cart wall when-
"Did no one bring a deck of cards or dice or something!?" Leonie barks, startling the poor blue-haired girl awake. "Seriously, we're going to be travelling for multiple days in this thing!"
"That would have been a good idea." Claude thinks to himself dully. He's watching Hilda make a bracelet at the moment. Somehow the inactivity of the cart is more tiring than a full day of activity, so he's lying down on the bench.
When they stop for dinner, Byleth hands them a bag of dice and cards. Apparently he knew to bring them along. The person who needs them the least was the only person to think to bring them.
###
They don't have the knights of Seiros looking over their shoulder for this mission, so they can assign tents however they want. There's five tents, meaning one person gets their own and the others have to share. Everyone unanimously agrees Lorez gets his own tent, because no one wants to deal with his random flashing. Lysithea stays with Marianne, Ignatz with Rapheal, then Byleth with Leonie, and Claude with Hilda.
Leonie had complained about being stuck with Byleth, but Claude was absolutely not going to be able to sleep with the Demon in his tent. Even Lorenz would be better than that. So, while Leonie wasn't exactly happy about it, that was more because it was Byleth and not because he was male. Leonie really couldn't have cared less about that.
Without the knights though, guard duty needs to be done. Byleth volunteers for the first shift on his own, but the other two shifts require two people each. Byleth actually vetoes allowing close friends to go on guard duty together, pointing out that they'll distract each other.
So that's how Claude ends up on guard duty with Marianne on the second shift. Why Marianne of all people was chosen is beyond him. Marianne is probably the worst person to do guard duty of all the Deer.
Actually, maybe that's why she was put with him. He's the best choice for guard duty because he can see in the dark, and Marianne is the worst because of her skittishness. He can compensate for her.
Incidentally, the reason they're not sleeping in an inn or something is literally just because it didn't occur to Byleth. His father's mercenaries rarely slept in inns just because of how many of them there were and the collective cost of doing that, so he never even considered the fact that they could stop in an inn instead of camping.
Claude isn't about to let this opportunity pass him up. He can't think of another situation where he'd be able to privately talk to Marianne without explicitly seeking her out (which could raise suspicions).
"So Marianne…" Claude says. The girl is sitting around the fire while Claude does rounds at the edge of the camp, making use of his night vision. He takes a seat across the fire, just for a minute, so he chat. "How's school treating you? I notice you tend to look rather tired. Is the course load too much?"
"N-No, it's fine…" Marianne mumbles, staring at the fire. Her hands fiddle with the gem on her necklace. She looks miserable at the moment. Her eyes are slightly red, probably from exhaustion and being on three hours of sleep at the moment, and her makeup is smudge-
"Makeup?" Claude blinks. "She wears makeup?" That's not something he expected. He figured from the bags always under her eyes that she paid very little attention to her appearance. Claude squints, trying to make out the fine details. "Actually… I think the bags under her eyes are the makeup. I don't think she actually has bags."
That makes a certain amount of sense. One of the passive abilities of succubi, as you might expect, is an immaculate appearance. There's a solid chance in Claude's mind that Marianne puts active effort into hiding that fact or making herself look worse.
"Are you sure? You don't have to be polite for my sake." Claude prods. "I've noticed how exhausted you tend to look before the weekend."
Marianne squirms uncomfortably in her spot. "I-It's really nothing Claude…"
"Come on, I'm house leader! It's my job to listen. No problem is too small!" Claude grins. "Or maybe you're staying up late, is that it? Marianne…" He jokingly shakes his head. "I would never have taken you to be someone who ignores curfew."
Marianne actually blushes a bit and her hands squeeze the gem she's holding. "I-It's not that…"
The "usually" is implicit, because Claude knows very well it is sometimes that. She feeds after curfew after all.
"I-I don't go out of my room, but I sometimes stay up to pray." She murmurs.
"Seems like an interesting time to do daily prayers. They hold those at the Cathedral during the day too you know."
"I attend those as well." She says softly. "But I feel my prayers bear repeating, so they may better reach the Goddess's ears."
"Ah, right right…" Well, that's a somewhat plausible excuse. Claude doesn't really know what he's doing here. Maybe he's trying to catch Marianne out in a lie? No, no. He just wants to learn something, and the best way to do that is to prod. "But there's no point in exhausting yourself just to pray. Unless you're secretly some horrible murderer and you're trying to repent, I doubt you have that much to pray for."
Marianne mutely shakes her head. "I-I'm not that, but I still have much to ask the Goddess to forgive. I have sinned, and prayer is to be my only solace…"
"That sounds… dramatic. And drastic." Claude notes. "Prayer is your only solace? There are usually other ways to solve a problem or fix something you've done."
The girl shakes her head again. "M-My sin is not something that can be solved, or fixed. Apologies, reparations… nothing would be sufficient."
Claude leans back and stares at the sky. What does he say to that? Claude doesn't mind religion all that much, but it can really be a pain sometimes. You get mentalities like this where people think talking to some faceless being in the sky is going to solve their problems, and because it's based on belief rather than logic, no matter how much evidence you bring up that they're not going to fix anything by praying, they won't listen because they have faith.
He's seen the same problem in Gilbert. Rather than just confronting his problem he thinks devotion is going to magically fix everything.
What bullshit. Unfortunately Claude really doesn't know how to handle someone with a mindset like that.
"Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree." Claude sighs. "I've never been one to put much stock in prayer as a solution for something. The Goddess must be a busy person you know? She'd probably appreciate it more if I could handle my problems myself so she can pay attention to other things."
"I-I suppose?" Marianne stammers, and her eyes come up to look at him for a moment. "I never considered that…"
"Right? So come on, share." Claude grins. "Not with me if you don't want to. Hilda maybe? You seem to enjoy tea together sometimes, and I can assure you she's more reliable then she pretends to be. Or maybe Ignatz? You two seem… fond of each other."
The girl curls in on herself, and her hands start to fiddle with her necklace again. She won't meet his eyes. Claude realizes something he said must have made her nervous. "O-Oh? Really? U-Um... I'll c-consider it…"
"Great." Claude grins. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should make some more rounds. We're supposed to be doing guard duty after all!"
As he walks by her, Claude takes a chance and pokes Marianne in the cheek. She startles, eyes snapping up to him, and he grins and winks at her.
"Pay attention! You're a guard tonight too!"
Her cheeks blush red in embarrassment. "R-Right. Sorry…"
The rest of the shift goes uneventfully for them, and they wake up Ignatz and Lorenz for the next shift before turning in.
###
Marianne really looks dead on her feet the next morning. Her makeup is much less elegantly applied, she's dazed and constantly zones out of what's happening, and her tendency to stare is back in full force. The others seem to think she's tired and didn't get sleep, but Claude and Hilda exchange silent looks. They know exactly what's going on.
Unfortunately, because everyone else doesn't know what's going on, they all try to get Marianne to sleep. No matter how much the girl protests, everyone is determined to get her to sleep, until...
"Maybe it's like what I get guys." Ignatz suggests. He turns to Marianne. "Sometimes I wake up after a long night of sleep and just feel really tired, b-but I feel really inspired in the afternoon! And it's a pleasant sort of tired… and I usually have a hole in my memory the night before… uh, is that what you're going through?"
"Oh dear." Claude thinks, trying not to smile. Ignatz just described the results of Marianne's own feedings to her, and there's no way Marianne doesn't know that. Maybe it's mean of him to find this funny, but it is.
Marianne wilts in her seat. Her eyes fall to the floor and scrunch up like she's going to cry. "I-I… no… sorry…"
Only Claude and Hilda realizes her saying sorry is actually apologizing for feeding, and not just her usual tendency to apologize. Claude stops finding the situation funny upon seeing the water in the corner of Marianne's eyes.
"Good job Ignatz." Lysithea mutters, shooting a glare at him.
"I- uh- did I say something!?" Ignatz yelps, seeing the girl tearing up. He reaches out, only to stop short of actually touching her upon realizing he doesn't know if a touch would be welcome. "Sorry? Sorry!"
Marianne shakes her head. "N-No, it's n-nothing. D-Don't apologize. You d-didn't do anything..."
"Are you sure? Are you okay?" Ignatz frets. He musters up enough courage to lay a hesitant hand on her shoulder. "Is there something I can do? Do you want something?"
Marianne mutely shakes her head.
"Are you sure you're not tired?" Ignatz keeps asking. He wants to do something to help. "You can lean on me if you want so you're not leaning on the wall…?"
Again, she shakes her head. The blue-haired girl looks a bit calmer now.
"Do you need a drink or something then? I-I have some in my canteen-"
"Stop bugging her!" Lysithea snaps again.
"It's fine, really." Marianne refutes quietly. She looks to Ignatz. "Really, I-I'm okay, you don't need to worry…"
"But you're clearly not!" Ignatz protests. He squirms in place and frowns slightly. "Marianne, you've been distracted all morning and you have bags under your eyes!"
Claude debates whether he should step in, but he wants to see how Marianne will respond first.
"I-I just… well…" Marianne fidgets with her necklace. "I'm… nervous."
"To what?" Ignatz frowns. "Ooh.. is it because we're doing a mission for your father?"
"Yes." Marianne sounds relieved. Claude knows what she just did. Marianne didn't have an answer prepared at all, she let Ignatz think up an answer himself and then just decided to roll with it. Clever.
"Don't be!" Raphael says with a wide smile. "We can handle this easy! We already had a mission dealing with demonic beasts, remember? Some big animals won't be a problem!"
"Ah… thank you…" Marianne nods. Her relief is enough to convince the others that the problem is resolved and they drop the issue. Claude and Hilda share another look, wondering how long everyone is going to buy that excuse.
###
The Golden Deer end up taking an unplanned detour when they come across a very rare and very dangerous creature attacking a farm entirely by accident. Normally Manticores were unique to the mountain range in the centre of Fodlan. It's strange to see them this far out.
Yes, them. Plural. There's two.
The family owning the farm had the good sense to hide in their house, but that leaves their livestock at the mercy of the manticores. Manticores are about twice the size of a cow, have spined tails that can be used as clubs or the spines can be fired as projectiles with quite the impressive rate of fire. Combine that with the usual claws and a jaw that can open large enough to fit a horse's body in it's mouth, and you have a creature that most people don't want to get within a mile of.
Oh, and they can fly. They're not particularly fast in the air like wyverns or pegasi, as manticores are not primarily arial creatures, but they're not clumsy, can shoot spines while flying, and are at least fast enough to keep up with someone running.
"Everyone out! Weapons ready!" The professor barks. Everyone piles out while Byleth ties the horses to a tree a fair distance away. The Deer eye the two manticores nervously. The creatures are currently feeding on a cow they killed, which at least allows the Deer to get close before getting noticed.
"Do we have a plan or something?" Leonie hisses.
"Kill them all." Byleth says simply.
"How though?"
"With weapons."
"She means our tactics professor." Claude chuckles.
"Stay behind cover as much as you can. Hit and run. Melee fighters protect our ranged fighters and don't approach." Byleth says curtly. "That tail can hit all around it. Too dangerous to approach for most people."
"Aww…" Hilda pouts. She's the only person aside from Byleth who doesn't look worried. "Boo."
"You can throw things Hilda." Byleth says.
"Fiiiiine." Hilda swings her mordenkrad off her back and onto her shoulder. "I'm relying on all of you then~!"
Everyone scatters out in a loose semi-circle, hiding behind trees and a small shack as they prepare to fire.
"Ready." Byleth instructs. Claude and Ignatz draw their bows, and Lorenz, Lysithea, and Marianne prepare spells, all aiming for the closest manticore and Hilda prepares to throw her hammer at the other one. "Aim… fire!"
Two arrows stick into the first manticore's hide, unfortunately not seeming to do that much damage. Lysithea's miasma and Lorenz's fire are more effective, leaving dark burns on the thing's side, and nosferatu from Marianne does unfortunately negligible damage.
Hilda's hammer does what most of her attacks tend to do. It completely obliterates the second manticore, effortlessly punching a hole in its chest. The hammer skips off the dirt once, sending it far into a corn field where it knocks over several stalks before coming to a stop after making a fairly long furrow in the ground.
The surviving manticore doesn't take nicely to being shot, nor to having its companion killed. It roars. The noise sounds like a cross between a lion's roar and the wail of a banshee. It's loud and deep but also has a high-pitch screech incorporated into it. Its tail whips around, firing several spins at the Deer. Everyone ducks behind cover, and the spray of projectiles impacts the trees with a series of dull thudding noises. The spines that hit the shack actually snaps some boards clean off, and the flimsy wood isn't enough to fully stop all of them. Lorenz takes a hit to the arm, though the spine thankfully doesn't go too deep and falls out after losing momentum.
Marianne heals the wound easily, but the manticore doesn't stay still. It takes to the air and soars over the hiding place of those behind the shack. It's tail whips around again, sending a hail of spines raining down on them accompanied by an enraged roar. Lorenz, Marianne, and Lysithea scatter, trying to avoid the attack, but the wide spread of the attack means Lorenz takes a spine straight through the leg and Marianne is hit in the side of her stomach. Lysithea only avoids being hit on account of her small size.
Unfortunately Byleth can't do much in his current position. His daggers won't have much of an effect on the creature's thick hide. He moves out to protect his students though. He carries Lorenz to the cover of the trees to be healed and swats a few spines out of the air in a rather impressive display of timing and accuracy with his sword.
It's hard to return fire onto the manticore with how quickly it shoots its spines. Claude can snap a few shots, timing them for during the lull after the manticore shoots, but his arrows just don't have the power (or maybe just the abundance) to have an effect.
"Hilda! Why don't you just go punch it or something!?" Leonie hisses.
"I'm strong, not tough! And I can't jump that high!" Hilda huffs. "Well, I'm tougher than the rest of you, but not as tough as I am strong. Those spines would still turn me into a pincushion! If you want me to kill it, get me another hammer!"
"Just throw a tree or something!" Claude suggests.
"I don't think she's that strong…" Leonie's voice trails off when she sees Hilda grab a large, meter-thick tree and rip it straight out of the ground. "Goddess above… what are you?"
Hilda's muscles strain to carry the giant tree. This is near the upper limit of what she can feasibly lift, but lift she does. Rather than throwing it, she thinks better of that and just uses the tree as a giant club to swing at the manticore flying over them. It makes for an effective distraction, and the tree also acts as a nice shield against the spines the manticore tries to shoot.
Byleth makes use of Hilda's new weapon to do something else entirely. He leaps up onto the tree Hilda is holding, dashes up it, and uses the height afforded to him to leap off the top and onto the manticore's back when it makes another pass. He holds onto the creature's thick mane with one hand, and uses the other to repeatedly drive his sword into the thing's neck.
The manticore falls out of the sky and crashes into the forest canopy. It's orange mane snags on branches and twigs as it falls, tearing off clumps of fur and decorating it's path with small orange streamers.
Byleth is mostly fine when he crawls out from under the monster's carcass. His shoulder is dislocated from it hitting the dirt first when he landed, but that's an easy fix. He calmly rolls the joint back into place and chugs a vulnerary, and brushes off Marianne's worried healing.
Marianne's own wound, a cut to her stomach, will take a bit to heal because no one else knows how to heal, but at least she can use a vulnerary and it will be fixed by the night.
Lorenz isn't so lucky. The spine went right through his shin, and while Marianne can fix most of it she doesn't have the energy to heal it all.
Except, she shouldn't be that incapable. Claude has seen hear heal more than this in a short span of time before. It can't be mana sickness either. This is the only time Lorenz has been healed today… so it must be Marianne's health that's the problem.
Magic takes effort to cast. Even faith magic. So, it stands to reason that if the caster is already tired before they start casting, then they won't be able to cast as much.
"Well, that's problematic…" Claude frowns. He watches Marianne profusely apologize, though she's swaying in place from lack of energy. She looks like she's going to fall over actually. "So basically she can't heal because she needs to feed. That's awfully inconvenient and kind of unacceptable. We can't have our only healer incapable of healing because she doesn't keep herself as healthy as she should."
Not that he wants to make her feed more. He realizes she probably hates doing it, but at the same time they really can't risk someone dying just because Marianne isn't feeding frequently enough.
So Claude finds himself in the awkward position of needing to confront Marianne not to try and help her, but because he needs to make sure no one dies.
"What am I supposed to say?" He grimaces. "'Hey, can you just fuck someone so you can heal?' That's not going to go over well."
He feels mildly embarrassed even thinking of saying that.
"I should ask Hilda to do it, or maybe the Professor." Claude thinks. "No, not the Professor. Marianne would want as few people to know as possible."
He grimaces and comes to a conclusion. He'll have to ask Hilda to handle it. Hilda is on better terms with Marianne than he is.
###
"You're kidding, right?"
"Unfortunately not." Claude says. Hilda scowls and he holds up his hands. "Look, I don't like it either, but I wouldn't insist on this if it wasn't necessary. This could actually be dangerous."
Hilda sulks for a few moments, but sighs and agrees to talk to Marianne. "I'm going to do it alone though, and somewhere no one else will hear! The last thing poor Mariianne needs is her secret being public knowledge."
"Hey, sure, as long as it happens." Claude agrees. "Sooner is better than later, if you don't mind."
The Professor calls an early lunch break after the battle, and they all share a meal with the farmers they saved (who make a surprisingly good local stew involving beef, a few vegetables, and some syrup made from sap. It's an oddly sweet soup, but that's what makes it unique).
Hilda finds Marianne after the meal is done and while Raphael and Byleth are helping repair the damage done to the shack. Marianne is already on her own, which makes this whole thing so much more convenient. She's over near the horses, who are still tied up on a tree a bit down the road.
"Heeey Marianne." Hilda says as she pokes her head around the side of the cart. "What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Oh… hello Hilda…" Marianne murmurs. She really looks exhausted, and Hilda doesn't miss how the girl is keeping one hand on the tree to stop herself from swaying. "I'm making sure the horses get fed…"
"Ah, right, great!" Hilda smiles, though it's a bit forced. She really doesn't want to have this conversation… "So, uh… there's something I need to talk to you about…"
"Wh-What is it?" Marianne's shoulders rise, and she shrinks in on herself a bit. "Have I done something…?"
"No, it's more what you haven't done." Hilda sighs. "You weren't able to heal as much as you usually could today, right?"
"O-Oh… well yes…" Marianne is looking at the floor. "Th-That's because… um…"
"Because you haven't fed. I know."
Marianne's head snaps up so fast Hilda is worried she's going to hurt herself. "Wh-Wh-What!?"
"You haven't fed, right? That's why you're so out of it today." Hilda tries to remain calm. She leans casually against the wagon, trying to be as un-intimidating as possible. "Claude says it's irresponsible of you to hamstring your ability to heal like that by not feeding as frequently as you should be."
Marianne's face is a messy painting of multiple emotions. Mortification, embarrassment, fear, anxiety, panic… all the negative ones. "C-C-Claude knows too!?"
"Well yeah-"
"Oh Goddess help me…" Marianne hides her face in her hands. "I'm so s-so sorry…!"
"Sorry?" Hilda blinks. "Uh, hey, it's fine, you didn't know it would affect your healing, right? Just… feed more, I guess?"
"I can't do that!" Marianne moans. "I cause enough pain as is!"
"Uhh…" Hilda blinks. That's not the response she was expecting.
Marianne staggers a few steps away, backing into the trees. She has tears in her eyes which smudges the eye-shadow underneath them. "I'm sorry for being a monster! Pl-Please stay away from me!"
"Marianne, calm down, come back." Hilda tries to soothe. "I never said anything about you being a monster."
"I didn't want anyone to know!" Marianne says in response. Tears are actually coming out of her eyes now, and she starts blubbering in a very undignified manner. "I'm sorry for hiding it, b-but I was told to hide it, a-and I j-just wanted to stay! I l-like being a-a part of the c-class! D-Don't kick me out!"
Hilda can feel the situation rapidly spiraling out of her control. She knows how to handle a lot of social situations, she knows how to handle Claude when he's being paranoid, or how to reassure someone when they're stressed, but this is one of the few situations she feels wholly unqualified to try and handle. It's not like she can ask someone else for help either. That would mean revealing Marianne's secret. The only person she could get help from is Claude, and his silver tongue doesn't extend to emotional reassurance. She's on her own here.
"No one said anything about kicking you out." She reassures. Hilda takes slow steps forward to try and close the gap between them. "No one is blaming anything on you. We just need you in top condition, alright? We've actually being trying to find a way to talk to you for a while for other reasons. We've been… worried."
"I'm s-sorry for the b-blackouts! F-For making people t-tired! I t-try to keep it on the weekends!" Marianne rushes to explain. "I-I just don't want them to remember what a monster I am!"
"Monster sounds like a bit of an overreaction…" Hilda says hesitantly. She's close enough that she can put her hands on the girl's trembling shoulders, and she does so. "Look, it's fine Marianne. Besides, only me and Claude know, we didn't go around telling everyone or anything."
"Oh…"
"But it's in his notebook! Don't even think about mind-wiping us!" Hilda huffs. The way Marianne suddenly looks away makes Hilda think the other girl might have been considering exactly that.
"H-Hilda…"
"Hmm?"
"What do I do...?"
"What do you mean?
"Wh-Who do I feed on?!" Marianne asks desperately. "I-I hate having t-to stalk a-and corner someone! I hate that I have to s-s-se… assault someone! But I don't have a choice! Wh-What do I do!?"
"I don't have answers." Hilda grimaces. The way the faint hope in Marianne's eyes flickers out feels like a punch in the gut, like she's just killed the girl's dreams. It's only occurring to her now that Marianne must be desperate for help but since she can't talk to anyone about it she's never had the chance to ask until now. She just got shot down on her first chance to find help. "But I don't see what the problem is. Feeding is… sex, right? From what I'm aware it really shouldn't be that hard to find someone willing, heck, some guy eager for it. It's not like your feeding is dangerous either right? There's no reason you couldn't just ask around."
Marianne shifts from heartbroken to red in the face. "I-I c-can't just go around asking random people! Th-Then people would th-think of me as a... as a…" She's unable to finish the sentence, being too mortified to say the last word, but Hilda gets the idea. "B-Besides, I don't do th-that… I feed the long way…"
Hilda raises an eyebrow. "The long way?"
Marianne nods. She doesn't elaborate on what that is exactly. "A-And… I paralyze whoever I f-feed on. I'm a monster Hilda… who would ever want that?"
Hilda shrugs. "I dunno, I can think of a few people who would probably be into it."
"H-Hilda!" Marianne shrieks. Her voice is shrill and hoarse.
"What? It's true. People, especially teenagers, are kinky." Hilda shrugs. "I remember this one time hearing Sylvain talk about how he was with this girl who was into-"
"Shhh!" Marianne claps a hand over the girl's mouth. Her face is furiously red and her expression is that of someone dying from embarrassment. "P-Please stop!"
"Sorry, sorry. I just didn't want you to worry. It shouldn't be hard to find someone who's into this 'long way'... uh… what is the long way?"
Marianne looks like she wishes she could be anywhere else right now.
"At least she's horrifyingly embarrassed rather than horrified at herself at the moment." Hilda muses. "I doubt she wants to be answering questions about her sort-of sex life."
It's not as if Hilda isn't really embarrassed right now too. She's just better at hiding it.
Marianne shakily raises a hand and taps her lips. Then she says in an equally shaky voice "c-can we not t-talk about h-how I feed?"
"Sorry, sorry." Hilda says. "Yeah, we can stop. It's just that you need to feed more frequently, and I was hoping to help you find a more comfortable way to do it."
Marianne looks away. "There's no good way for me to do it. It will be horrible no matter what…"
"Oh come on. I thought I already told you that there's totally people who would be into it."
"Th-That's not the problem!" Marianne yelps. "I d-don't want to feed on someone I don't k-know! It's scary…"
Hilda blinks rapidly. "Marianne… you're probably the second most dangerous person on campus behind myself, and I'm the girl who can break stone walls with her fists. You touch someone, even the slightest bit, and they are utterly in your control, period. It's not like you charms don't work from a distance either. You have nothing to be scared of."
In hindsight, basically telling her "Hey! You're scary as hell!" probably wasn't the best move, but thankfully it works.
"B-But it feels strange…" Marianne says nervously. "I-I feel worse d-doing it afterwards, but I also f-feel more comfortable feeding on people I sort of know…"
"Ahh, so that's why you go after Ignatz so much." Hilda nods sagely.
"H-How do you know that!?"
"Claude keeps a list of all the people who suffer feeding symptoms. He started keeping it before we knew it was you actually. It's part of how he figured you out." Hilda explains cheerily. "You know, you might be able to just ask Ig and not wipe his memory, he'd probably be willing to-"
"Nooo!" Marianne shrieks and hides her face in her hands. "I- B-But- Then h-he'd remember!"
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Noooooo!"
"Ah, right… I guess it would be a bit embarrassing to have someone remember you giving them a blowjob."
Marianne's eyes widen in horror and her face blushes scarlet again. Her hands shake violently, and then she opens her mouth and yells: "I-I DON'T DO THAT!"
"Huh?" Hilda blinks. "But you did this when I asked you what the long way was." Hilda reaches up and taps her lips, just like Marianne did.
"Th-That means a kiss!" Marianne explains frantically.
"Ahh, okay. I assumed it was a blowjob." A smile creeps onto her face. "You know, putting the succ in-"
"THANK YOU, I'M GOOD NOW." Marianne says loudly, and tries to push Hilda away. Hilda has never seen Marianne try to be this forceful, and it's adorable. "I-I'll be sure to feed! I just need a spare hour."
"An hour?" Hilda blinks. "You have to kiss for an hour? Or is that just how long it takes the paralysis to wear off?"
"Yes, I have to do it for an hour… it takes about ten minutes for the paralysis to wear off…" Marianne mutters. "B-But the charm stays around f-for another hour and a half usually, and the exhaustion takes several hours to start to wear off…"
"Geeze…" Exhaustion, charm, and paralysis? Talk about overkill. It's not like Marianne has a choice not to use them though. That's the bare minimum of what she can use on someone too. She could do more if she put active effort into it. "Well, maybe we should wait until night then."
"Y-Yes…"
"An hour though…" Hilda whistles. "That is kinky. Ig has no idea how lucky he gets sometimes, huh?"
Mianne buries her face in the horse's fur and doesn't respond. She spends a lot of time trying not to think about things like that, and this is not helping.
I guess my new goal is to embarrass Marianne to death?
