Robin - Garreg Mach Garden

Robin sighed in relief as he found a shady spot in the garden away from everyone else. It had been three days since he'd arrived at Garreg Mach and he'd barely had any time to himself. According to the Archbishop, he, Corrin, and Byleth were to pick their respective houses in two days time. From then on, they would become full-time educators. Despite having no prior experience in a classroom, Robin had - on more than one occasion - been the primary trainer for the new recruits in Chrom's army when Frederick and Cherche were unavailable. He'd even managed to snag a few books on the subject from the monastery's library that morning.

"Can't be any harder than teaching Chrom proper shower etiquette...", Robin muttered as he remembered his lord's incident with the ladies' shower house. With a relaxed smile, Robin leaned back against the tree, and withdrew the first book. He hadn't gotten two pages in when he heard a voice call out to him.

"Hello there! You are one of the mercenaries I presume?" Robin looked up to see a young man waving at him from a white gazebo in the middle of the garden. He was a young man with bright orange hair and a refined manor about him. It seemed as though he had a selection of herbs spread out in front of him on a small table. Giving up his moment of privacy, Robin pulled himself to his feet and walked over.

"Yes. I was one of the soldiers who arrived here with Jeralt Eisner, but I'm not one of his men." Robin explained to the man. "My name is Robin. Robin..." That tactician had noted that it was customary for people in this realm to have two names. One for themselves, and one for their family. He struggled to think of one that he could use, picking the first thing that popped into his mind. "Grim! Robin Grim."

"Grim? A rather unfortunate last name..." The man said. "Well it's a pleasure all the same! I am Ferdinand van Aegir!" He held a hand out to Robin which he returned with a firm shake. "I'm from the Black Eagle house. I assume you've met our house leader Edelgard?"

"I have. She's a very capable woman. I find it hard to believe a small girl like her could manage an axe so well on the battlefield."

"Yes, she is quite the leader", Ferdinand replied. "I'll have you know that I'm her superior in every way! I can even wield TWO axes in battle, even if I'm trained in the lance."

"So you're a braggert?" Robin asked bluntly.

"No no!" Ferdinand's face grew pale as he heard the B word. "Edelgard is simply my eternal rival and I must always be striving to be better than her. For you see, I hail from House Aegir. My father is the current Prime Minister and I'm due to take his place one day. It will fall to me to be the one to advise my future empress on all governmental matters so for that matter I must strive to be better than her!" Ferdinand smiled as he explained his dream to the white haired man. "Do you understand?"

At hearing that and seeing Ferdinand's bounding enthusiasm, Robin couldn't help but share in the smile.

"A desire to improve yourself for the sake of others? I understand that better than you know. What are you doing here exactly? What's with all the leaves?"

"Ahh! They're tea leaves", Ferdinand explained. "I'm something of a connoisseur of tea and since there's no class today, I was just thinking about the best tea would be. Would you care to join me, Mr. Grim?"

"Sounds lovely." Robin sat down across from Ferdinand as the latter began to prep the tea. "And you can just call me Robin for now. I'm not big on formalities."

"Very well, Robin! You may call me Ferdinand. Now how do you like your tea?"

Byleth - Training Grounds

Byleth wiped the sweat from his brow as he readied his sword for another attack against the training dummy. He normally wasn't one for skipping his training, but the last few days had been keeping him busy as he prepared for his upcoming role as a teacher. Fortunately, running a dummy through with a wooden sword was a halfway decent stress reliever. He unleashed a powerful Wrath Strike on the dummy only for his sword to break on contact. With a heavy sigh, Byleth walked over to where the tip fell and examined the broken piece of wood.

"Old wood..." he muttered, noting the battered and chipped condition of the blade. He turned to throw the sword away when a girl started running towards him from across the training grounds.

"Hey wait a sec!" She yelled, pointing at the broken weapon. The girl had short orange hair that looked like it had been hacked off with a hunting knife rather than being cut. She was wearing the Officer's Academy uniform, but it looked noticeably more ragged than the other students. She had even removed her jacket and was currently sporting it as a belt. In place of the boots worn by the female students, she'd switched them with a pair of dirty riding boots. The girl stopped short in front of Byleth, panting.

"You... aren't going to... throw that away are you?" She gestured to the pieces of the sword in Byleth's hands. "You know that wood can be recycled right? At the very least you could make the sword tip into a head for a training lance."

"Oh uh..." Byleth looked down at the sword. "Is that something you do here? I'm sorry I'm no-"

"Oh I know EXACTLY who you are, Byleth Eisner! Believe me when I say that I asked Captain Jeralt all about you. I'll have you know that, even if you are the captain's son; I'm still his number one apprentice. Don't you forget that!" Byleth just stared at the girl in confusion.

"You know my father? He never spoke of you before." Upon hearing this, the girl's face twisted into an expression of annoyance and frustration.

"You mean he never told you about me?! I'm Leonie Pinelli, and I'm going to become the one who succeeds Jeralt as the next Blade Breaker! Even if you are his son, I'm going to surpass you!" The girl started to turn away before she quickly snapped her head around. "Oh! And don't forget to recycle that sword." With that, Leonie stormed off across the training grounds, leaving Byleth standing there, processing what had just happened.

With a heavy sigh, Byleth took one last look at the training sword before he tossed it aside. Retrieving a new sword from a nearby weapons rack, Byleth returned his attention to the training dummy. As he began a new round of attacks on the dummy, his mind began to wander back to that Leonie girl.

"I hope I don't become HER teacher..." Byleth muttered to himself.

Corrin - Fishing Pond

"Damn it..." Corrin cursed under her breath as yet another fish escaped from her line. Despite her step-brother Ryoma having taken her fishing on the Shirasagi Lake several times, the young queen had never been particularly good at it. She felt her patience wearing thin as she tried to do the breathing exercises Ryoma had taught her to help relax her. "I've been at this for over an hour. You'd think I'd have SOMETHING by now." Suddenly, a voice came from behind Corrin, causing her to jump and whip her head around, missing yet another bite in the process.

"You're reeling in too quickly. You have to let the fish fight for a bit and wear them out!" Standing on the dock was a little girl with long curly green hair, a warm smile, and impish green eyes. When she saw Corrin missed a bite, she quickly blushed. "Oh no! I'm so sorry, I made you lose a fish!"

"No no! It's fine!" Corrin hurriedly reeled her line in as she tried to compose herself. "I wasn't having great luck anyway as you probably saw. I'm Corrin!" Corrin offered a hand to the young girl, but she didn't seem to recognize the gesture.

"Flayn", she said, offering a formal bow. "I know exactly who you are. You are one of the mercenaries who saved the house leaders on their mission. My big brother Seteth has told me all about you, or rather... he talks in his sleep. He... doesn't have much faith in you new professors."

"Figures..." Corrin muttered. Before Flayn could ask any questions, Corrin quickly changed the subject. "You mentioned you could help me with my fishing? It was probably obvious I'm not very good."

"Oh of course! I may not look it, but I've been watching students and fishermen here for years. What you need to do is fight the fish rather than trying to reel it in the moment you catch it. Go on, give it a try!"

Corrin quickly prepared her line again and cast it out into the pond. After several moments, there appeared a glittering shadow underneath the water. Suddenly, Corrin felt a sharp tug on her line.

"I got it!" Corrin said excitedly as she tried maneuvering her fishing rod as Flayn had suggested. The fish put up a hard fight and Corrin feared her line would snap under the weight of this fish. Eventually, Corrin felt the fish give way and a brilliant white fish exploded from the water, landing squarely on the dock. The fish's glimmering white scales shone in the afternoon sun and gave the fish an almost regal air of authority.

"A Goddess Messenger!" Flayn squealed in delight as she looked over the fish. "This is an incredibly rare catch even here at Garreg Mach! This is one of the tastiest fish in the pond! You really are quite the fisher, Lady Corrin!"

Corrin blushed a little bit at the compliment before returning her gaze to Flayn, "Thank you. It wouldn't have happened without your coaching. Now... what say we take this big thing into the cafeteria and have a meal? I'm starving!"

"That sounds lovely!" Flayn's smile grey even bigger as Corrin hefted up the large fish and they took off for the cafeteria.

Hey guys! Sorry this took fooooooooooooooorever to get out, but with everything going on in my life right now it's been harding finding the motivation to sit down and write anything. Add on computer issues and it's been damn near impossible to get anything done. So for now, please enjoy these little bits of filler. I'm proabably going to pepper in some 'Monastery Life' chapters every now and then in place of doing traditional support conversations with our main heroes. Hopefully you all think this is a good idea and hopefully I can keep it going. Chapter 7 is underway and we should be picking up the plot soon. Until then... stay healthy and stay safe.