Deep down in the snuggly part of Felix's heart bloomed an awareness. It was a tiny little bud, a soft petal contrast to his ambitious nettles. Here, his being swelled with adoration at the sight of stray cats in alleyways and short, studious girls with good fencing footwork and melodious voices. The swordmaster preferred to remain aloof about these blossoms, but when the Love Bug came nipping on the leafy stalks, he felt the beginnings of an allergic reaction similar to the one he'd witnessed his brother experience throughout his courtship to Ingrid.
It was mind boggling: Felix wasn't involved with anyone. Not unless he counted the scores of enemies on his battlefield, that is. Just the same, the symptoms began to take their toll with rapid alacrity.
Classes came and went, the days blurring together amidst a backdrop of Annette's songs lulling him to sleep each night. The lyrics were clear as icicles in his dreams, no longer the muddled lilting of a singular voice echoing about his skull. Soon after, the words came into focus in the waking world, confirmed entirely upon a lucky stumble across the warlock once more in the midst of her chores.
"It has a charming tune to it. All of them, really," he found himself complimenting her newest ballad.
He truly didn't mean to chance across her path so often. Felix simply walked wherever he intended to go and suddenly a wild warlock was before him. Eyes widening in alarm, Annette crouched low to the floor, her hands cupped with fresh soil. Her every movement was graceful and quick as a feline. A contented feeling nearly succeeded in hooking the corners of his mouth up and into a smile, but he tugged the fish hook lines down until he was in control of his faculties. He didn't want to shoo her away again, he foolishly thought.
It didn't matter how sincerely he praised her or how many times he reassured her that he held no ulterior motives. She'd angrily stamp her foot on the cobblestones and rebuke him, cheeks ruddied with mortification and irrational fears of bullies spilling from her lips. Felix couldn't understand why she thought he was there only to mock her.
"Do you write them as they come to you?" he pressed her.
"You're gonna spread them around for everyone to laugh at, aren't you?" She clutched at her head as if an ache were pulsing through it.
"Why would I do something like that?"
Her gaze flit to his, suspiciously. "I'm onto you."
To Felix's astonishment, it set his heart into a frenetic gallop. The idea of her keeping an eye on him was invigorating as freshly smelted steel. But as always, Annette would leave him alone with the plants inside the greenhouse, a sugary scent trailing in her wake. The greenhouse lady would shake her head in disbelief, muttering about the hopelessness of youth.
The cycle continued, further perturbing Felix's addled mind. One moment, Annette was brimming with energy, effulgent as a dancing flame. At others, she would peter out into dim embers, flushed aglow with warmth when she approached him in class during group-work. Mercedes often chanced glances their way, leaving him to wonder why Annette left her with Ingrid.
"You and cats, I swear," Sylvain chuckled to himself, wagging his eyebrows at Felix as Annette headed his way. "If you're not trying to feed them all the time, they're flocking to you."
"What?" he deadpanned, right before a heavy tome slapped onto his wooden desk. Annette pinned her blue gaze down on him, almost as if trying to intimidate him with the intensity behind her stare. Heat pricked up his neck and he flicked his gaze down to the textbook's tattered cover. "I have mine with me today."
"He doesn't look loved," she countered breezily, nodding her chin at his spotless textbook. "Do you study? I mean, I know you get good grades, but do you use the poor, lonely book at all?"
Upon further inspection, Felix discovered that Annette's textbook was a testament to many sleepless nights. The cover was scratched and scuffed and the title along its spine was nearly illegible thanks to many creases. It looked like a bloated sandwich, the pages swollen from repeated thumbing. He'd seen her carefully handle each and every book in the library when they went together as a class, so he assumed she must use her textbook so frequently they tattered and split, rather than handle them much like a boorish brute might.
Sylvain snickered as Felix stared down at the wrecked tome.
"I have a good memory," he said as she continued to peer at him.
"You do," she replied, stunning him back into contemplative silence. The ginger-haired girl took the empty seat beside him, scooching the wooden legs over the tiles to sit closer. He fit his chin in his palm and watched her flip to the assigned page with nimble fingers. Her posture was perfect, her brow furrowed in concentration and her sleeves were rolled back for serious business. It was all so strangely endearing that he couldn't stop admiring her profile; the curl of her lashes tipped red in the soft sunlight spilling through the open doors, the wisp of hair on the crown of her head.
The young warlock was peerless. What could she learn from him that she didn't already know? He saw no advantage to partnering up with him when another gifted magic user sat beside her. Not to mention how close the two girls were. His first assumption was that Annette was trying to find a way to blackmail him into silence. Searching for a chink in his armor.
It dawned on him, albeit slowly, that he didn't mind what her aim was. Any chance to share a moment in her presence was enough. Sylvain's idiotic ranting swam to the forefront of his mind. Something about girls, as was always the case with him, and battlefields, which was more to Felix's liking. Ah, that's right, the daft skirt-chaser had said there would be rivals swooping in to claim Annette's hand for the ball.
Now that sounded exciting. A grand way to test his skills-
"Um, Felix?"
"Hm?" his gaze met hers over the textbook she had slid between them, her pointer finger acting as a placeholder.
"You're staring at me."
He blinked. "I'm listening to the question."
"Well, you're distracting me! Here, your turn." She pushed her well-loved book over to him, tapping at the place she'd stopped at.
Felix leaned forward, a lock of his black hair sliding out of his normally pristine, slicked-back bun. He paused, feeling the weight of a heavy stare boring through him.
"Y-your hair," she grumbled, reaching out to brush it back behind his ear. Her skin was like a branding iron, but oddly enough, it wasn't unpleasant. Annette sucked in a breath, jerking her arm back into her lap, and slid the book back over to her spot to read for him instead. A soft hue of pink dusted her cheeks. She spoke evenly and succinctly, as if calmed by the familiarity of a subject she loved. "...the velocity of such a speed will therefore render the opponent unable to parry in time. What then, should be the most efficient course of action to secure victory?"
He awkwardly did his best to answer the prompt, uncomfortably all too aware of the ever-present blaze of heat scorching the shell of his ear. Shaking his head as if to clear his senses, he leaned closer to her shoulder to see the next question. A sweet, cake-batter scent tickled his nostrils. As he read aloud, his gaze caught sight of several small scribbles dotting the margins. Doodles of three-tiered cakes, pastries shining with glaze and sprinkles raining like confetti over them all.
He started, a strange flutter tickling his heart as she continued to answer each question. Each answer she gave him was precise and perfect. Sometimes he had to take a moment to let her strategies sink in for processing, wondering how she was able to devise such intricate plans in such little time. Then again, perhaps she had already studied this part. All the same, a swell of pride lit him up from within like a candle lighting the way through dark corridors.
"Impressive," he told her, an amused glint in his eyes. "You'd make for a terrifying strategist."
A grin stole over her countenance, only to be replaced with a sullen shadow of her joy. "Yeah? Maybe someday he'll think so, too."
He wanted to ask her what was wrong, and he started to, when Annette swiftly plastered on a smile and shook her head. Her ginger braids whacked him on the arm with her vigor and before he could stop himself, a small grin betrayed him. Annette's eyes rounded, the blue of her irises nearly swallowed by her pupils, before she hesitantly smiled back.
And just like that, the infernal Love Bug sunk its fangs deep into petals, spreading its sweet, sweet poison. A flutter buoyed his heart up in the dingy of his ribcage, drowning his center of gravity and leaving him without anything to catch his fall. The stubborn strand of his hair slipped out of place again and he moved to tuck it back behind his ear when he caught sight of a boy from another class peering into his homeroom. His head was a dark mop that lay flat on his head, thick but unruly at the ends. He'd never seen him before. Or maybe he had, but Felix hadn't pinned him as anyone noteworthy to train against in the future.
Usually, he'd forget about a curious student like him. But the kid was gawking right at Annette, as if he was staring at Saint Seiros herself in all her holy glory. He couldn't be some long lost sibling of Ignatz's, that much was for sure. He doubted the guy would be willing to share his obsession for the Saint with anyone. Surrounded by a group of his friends, the boy continued to watch Annette, a determined scrawl of resolution on his face. His friends jostled him with their elbows, snickers rising like a cloud of gnats.
"Who's that?" she glanced over her shoulder to regard the crowd of boys.
It was like watching parchment catch flame: the boy blushed all the way down to his throat and offered her a tentative wave.
"I don't know," Felix said.
She waved back somewhat hesitantly, a strained smile jumpstarting a ticking muscle in her jaw.
That's when Felix spied the letter held between his stiff, white-knuckled fingers. Annette noticed it too, and she hiked her shoulders up to her chin with surprise. Spinning around in her seat, she grabbed one of her braids and trained her attention back on her textbook.
"Hey, um, let's do the next one."
Felix readily obliged her, keeping a cautious eye out for the boy who was steadily inching nearer. Annette's nostrils flared as he came into her periphery and suddenly, he understood just what was happening.
And he didn't like it.
Before he had time to think things through, Felix slowly rose from his chair and rolled his shoulders back to peer down at the kid clutching what he knew was undoubtedly a letter of invitation to the upcoming ball.
He didn't know what he meant to do and as the two boys stood there, staring at each other in confusion, the bell chimed.
"Ah! Thank you, Felix. Mercedes, let's grab some lunch," Annette shouted. Felix watched as the girl stuffed her things carefully into a satchel and looped one arm through Mercedes'. Fast as a streaming torrent, the two girls rushed past them.
When Felix turned back to look at the kid with the letter, he was gone. Unnerved, the swordmaster ground his teeth together.
Sylvain rose from his seat with a yawn. "She's done a good job of fending off some persistent insects before the ball was even announced, but now the rest are crawling out of the woodwork."
"Anyone strong?"
His childhood friend let loose a long-suffering sigh. "I'm starting to think you may only find happiness with weapons. All I'll say is maybe you should consider the ball more as a priority than some training you do every single day of the year. A heartbroken maiden is among the most sorrowful of-
Ashe craned his neck around Sylvain, and cut into what would have indubitably been a lengthy diatribe. "Heartbroken? I don't think she has to worry about not getting asked to the dance."
Felix felt a strange constriction in his chest. "Did you ask her?"
The archer scratched his cheek with a nervous laugh. "I'm pretty sure she said she had someone specific in mind once."
"See? Even Ashe knows the value in these events!" Sylvain said, wrapping an arm around the poor guy's neck to ruffle his hair.
"Um, is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"I don't understand how women eat up your bullshit," Felix snapped, annoyance spiking in his stomach.
As Sylvain clutched histrionically at his chest, the swordmaster blew out a puff of air, oddly relieved to hear that Ashe wasn't his rival-
His eyes narrowed to slits. Rival? Wait. Why should he care? It's not like he was trying to beat the other contenders in order to prove himself the best man for the ball, right?
"What's wrong with me?" he grumbled, gathering his things and setting off for the training arena.
Sleep evaded him, possible dreams floating above his consciousness like phantoms. He couldn't catch them, couldn't wrap himself in slumber.
With a disgruntled sigh, he crawled out of bed and slipped his boots on. With a candle in one hand, he began pacing about the dormitories, hoping sleep would catch up to him instead. But his mind was plagued with events of the semester, none of which pertained to his classes. He was here to learn how to become the best swordmaster he could be, not become distracted by some girl he couldn't get out of his head.
Felix drew to a halt at the line of sallow light spilling out from beneath the library's closed doors. He didn't even need to question who was up at this hour.
Pushing open one of the doors, he poked his head into the room and found Annette hunched over her books. He opened his mouth to tell her how late it was when the flame of the candles on her desk caught the streaks of tears spilling down her cheeks, glittering like amber rivers.
Two strides were all it took to get to her side. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, setting down his own candle to drape a his winter jacket over her narrow shoulders.
She cinched her eyes, turning away as if to hide her face. Her shoulders trembled like a leaf in the wind beneath his palms. Felix awkwardly sat down in the empty seat beside her, unable to think of what to say or do. He looked over her study materials, at all of the crumpled parchment littering the floor, the blotches of ink staining the tabletop.
"You study more than anyone I've ever met," he said. "Makes me wonder if I could do more."
There was a sniff, and Annette scrubbed at her eyes. "But you train more than anyone."
"Yeah, but I've yet to meet my match. Well, Professor Byleth is one but," he trailed off, unsure how he could even allude to his desire to spar against her.
"I doubt anyone could best our professor," she supplied, a hint of a smile in her voice. She sniffed again, causing Felix to hesitate, unsure if she should look over at her. Whether it might make her uncomfortable to be seen in a moment of vulnerability. As he was deliberating how he could help her, a sudden weight fell onto his shoulder.
Every muscle in his body locked up tighter than a treasure chest. "A-annette?"
She sighed, snuggling into his shoulder and pulling the jacket up around her chin. He dared a peek down at her and found himself captivated by her gaze as she stared up at him, tears shining in her eyes.
"I'll get over it. Always happens. Man, I wished you didn't have to see me like this," she said.
"I'm not going to laugh at you," he told her seriously, his voice cracking in his nervousness. "And I'm not going to mock your singing -
She cut in before he could start to ramble, "I know. I guess I was just really surprised to see you always coming in to listen to my singing and stuff. I thought a serious, tough guy like you would make fun of me for it." She laughed again, more warmly this time, and fell silent. "I was pretty rude to you. Sorry about that."
"You don't need to apologize," he murmured, unable to think about anything other than how he might stop the tears from leaking down her face. He watched as one fell from her ducts, shining yellow in the flames, and fell onto his lap.
"You're too nice to me," she said, her voice strained with emotion.
Felix's mouth felt dry, but he still forced himself to speak, knowing that right now, she needed someone to listen to her. Someone to comfort her, something he had wanted when his brother had died but no one was there to help him through it. "Well yeah. I like you - as a classmate."
She giggled, pulling away from him to dry her eyes. The absence of her body heat was stark, an ever-present conundrum.
"So, uh, do you need help with something?" He gestured at her open textbook.
"Oh, thanks but I got everything down."
He frowned, staring down at his hands on the desk. Felix felt frustratingly useless. "You study so much...almost too much. Are you sleeping enough?"
At that, the young warlock turned to face him, watching him intently. His pulse shot into a frenzy and he had the inexplicable urge to evade her searching gaze.
"You know, I thought it was kinda strange how you went out of your way to help me find some time to study for the exams. How you asked the professor to assign all my chores to you instead, how you helped me that night I got stuck in the greenhouse -
She cut off abruptly, staring straight at his chest. Felix didn't know why he thought of it, but for some reason he thought she was imagining how he'd pressed her up against the tree to keep them hidden in the dark.
"It's not like I was worried you were overstraining yourself or anything," he sputtered, hoping to Seiros that the flickering candlelight would somehow conceal the red blooming in his face.
Annette dissolved into giggles, her form curling into a tight ball. He was mesmerized, unable to look away. When she finally got a hold of herself, she shrugged at him and tilted her head to the side, an adorable toothy grin on her face.
Felix's eyes rounded.
"That's sweet," she whispered, running a hand over the jacket he'd draped over her. "Hey, can I tell you something?"
"Of course."
Her hand curled into a fist and a tiny little furrow dented between her brows. "Remember how I told you I had to study really hard to get into Garreg Mach?"
He nodded. She'd said something about it to him the day she learned he'd taken over all her chores, worried that Professor Byleth might find her lacking.
"So, uh, I honestly didn't think I had much of a chance to get into this academy at all. Studying was, and is, the only thing I'm good at."
"That's not true," he said softly, leaning closer to her. "Your footwork, your singing, your -
"Ah, that's okay you don't need to do that," she laughed uncomfortably, her brows drawing together. When he clamped his mouth shut, worried he'd done something to upset her, she deflated, casting off her mask of positivity and letting him see what lay beneath. "I came here for entirely selfish, impure reasons, Felix."
"I-impure?"
She nodded, heaving a deep sigh, oblivious to the swirling thoughts now eddying through Felix's mind. But what she said next stunned him speechless.
"My father abandoned me and my Mom after the Tragedy of Duscur. He never really told us why he was leaving, and I never got the chance to…" she swallowed, reaching up to dab at her eyes with her sleeves. Her voice warbled as she continued. "I thought I'd done something wrong. That he didn't love me anymore and so I did the only thing I could think of. I studied until I could barely keep myself awake, and I scored so high at the Royal School of Sorcery that they let me into Garreg Mach. I hate him for what he did, for how he just threw us away like we were nothing! But I thought maybe, just maybe, I could ask him why…but he keeps acting like I don't exist now that I finally found him."
Felix didn't think, he reached out and wrapped one arm around her, pulling the crying warlock into his side. "Gilbert, huh?" he asked as she sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Annette. You did nothing wrong. And I'm sure he's proud of you even if he doesn't acknowledge you. Anyone would be proud of their kids for joining this academy." He pressed his cheek onto the crown of her head, closing his eyes while he rubbed soothing circles into her back.
"What about your dad?" she croaked.
His fingers twitched. "He's a sack of shit."
She spluttered into laughter, tears dampening the material of his shirt. "Sounds like we've got that in common too."
"Oh? What else?" he asked, a smile in his tone.
Annette gasped, stiffening. "Um, well, you seem to like singing too."
His heart felt as if someone had thrown it high into the air and he didn't know how to stop himself from laughing like a fool next to her. "To be fair, I only like your songs."
"Huh? What's that mean?"
"Wait, forget I said anything!"
Annette pulled back just far enough to look into his face, a hint of mischief in her dimples. Dimples. She has dimples, he thought, staring.
"Which is your favorite?"
It took him a moment to realize what she was asking, and by the time Felix figured it out, he was already thinking of all the ways he might be able to keep the tears from ever spilling down her cheeks again.
"I've yet to hear them all," he said, watching as she practically glowed with delight.
"I have some more I've been writing, actually."
"Yeah?"
She nodded, shyly.
"Did you write anything about shit dads? I could definitely seal that in a letter to mine."
Annette cackled with surprised excitement. "Holy crap, you just made a joke. But no, I haven't. I will now though -
A yawn swallowed her words and she covered her mouth with a small hand.
He said, "Yeah, it's pretty late. Wouldn't want the ghosties to come out now, would we?"
She jumped out of her seat with a shriek, sending her chair to the floor with a clatter. "Felix, what are we gonna do?"
"Don't worry, they only go after people who study their heads off," he teased, unable to resist as the girl started to flit about the room, searching for possible hiding places in case a phantom decided to have some fun. "I'll walk you to your room, here." He held out his hand to her.
When she slid her hand into his, he could have sworn her thunder magic had sparked through his veins, sending him into a whirlwind of feeling. Suddenly bashful, Felix guided Annette back to her room, where she thanked him and apologized for everything.
"No need," he reassured her, a giddy but tired smile on his face. "Also, you're doing that thing again."
Her frown deepened, the skin between her brows forming another gully. "What thing?"
Felix reached out and smoothed the dent between her brows with the pad of his finger. Her eyes widened beneath his touch, heat in her skin. When he drew back, she blinked at him as if unsure what to say.
"Oh, um...we should study sometime," she finally said, her fingers curling around her door. "If you want to, that is."
Felix scratched at the back of his neck, confused by the turn of events, but secretly overjoyed. Why? He didn't particularly enjoy studying. "Sure. Let me know whenever."
Annette smiled at him softly, her gaze flicking to the floor. "Well, good night then."
"Night," he said.
AN: Despite careful planning, I still ended up writing much more than I wanted to. But I'm pretty happy with this little cute story and I hope you guys are enjoying it too! Will be finished with it soon.