Happy birthday, Felix! (Family/CelebrationMourning/Birthday) There's a little family... At least mentioned.

My first Fire Emblem fic! Hopefully no one is too OOC.

Anyway, please enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Happy birthday Felix!

Felix is not hiding from his classmates on his own birthday. That would be ridiculous. He just wants to be left alone for some peace and quiet. The only person who's acknowledged his birthday so far is the professor, who simply wished him a happy birthday and invited him for tea later.

Unfortunately, he knows he can't expect the same treatment from his classmates. Sylvain and Ingrid have probably told everyone it's his birthday, and they'll all probably insist on making some kind of big deal out of it. With attention, and cake and stuff.

At least it's Saturday, so they can't corner him in class at least.

Which he really doesn't feel like. Which is why he's currently sitting near the pond at the Garreg Mach Monastery. With a cat on his lap. Because the first place they'll look for him is the training grounds. Which is why he's not there. As for the cat... well, they're good company, that's all.

"Hey, Felix! There you are!"

Well, there goes the peace and quiet. And the cat, that gets startled by the sudden shouting. When he turns to see who exactly has arrived, to no doubt annoy him, he's not really surprised to see all the Blue Lions, minus the professor, standing at the staircase.

He briefly considers leaving but decides against it. Knowing his classmates, there's no way they would actually leave him alone. And he's not going to run away because he doesn't like celebrating birthdays. So he just resigns to his fate. Maybe it won't be so bad, so he can just get it over with, then spend the rest of the day training.

By the look of it, Sylvain is the one who yelled loudly and interrupted his peace. The obnoxious redhead is waving wildly at him, as he makes his way down to Felix and pulls him into a tight hug. The kind where his arms are pinned to his sides so he can't even push him away.

"Happy birthday, Felix," the redhead says with a cheerful smile, thankfully letting go of Felix soon. Only to immediately plant a kiss on his forehead before Felix has time to react. And then he quickly jumps back before Felix has a chance to smack him. So he just settles for turning away with an irritated huff.

By now the rest of the class have also made their way over to Felix. Ashe and Annette are carrying what looks like a cake, while Mercedes is right there with them, making him guess the three of them are the ones responsible for that. Ingrid is carrying a box, a present. Dimitri is hanging back a bit with Dedue.

"Happy birthday, Felix," Ashe says, smiling happily. He and Annette place the cake on a nearby barrel, probably because they don't want to drop it or something.

"We made you this cake," Annette tells him, also smiling, but also looking a bit nervous. "Mercie and I, that is," she clarifies, as if he really needs to know that. When he opens his mouth to inform her that, thanks, but no thanks, he doesn't really like cake, she quickly adds "Don't worry, it's not sweet!"

"Ingrid told us you don't really like sweets," Mercedes says, with that kind, patient smile. "So we made sure this cake is not. We had to ask Ashe and Dedue to help us with it though, since we're both so used to just making sweets."

"It took four people to make one cake?" Felix has to clarify, because that sounds a bit over the top.

"Yep!" Annette confirms happily, seemingly proud of this. "Well, Mercie and I made it," she kind of corrects herself. "The guys just kind of, supervised."

"We wanted to make a cake you like, since it's your birthday and all," Ashe adds, looking a bit sheepish, yet hopefull.

"And it took a lot of effort, so you better like it!" Annette cannot sound threatening to save her life, and Felix almost has to supress a smile at her attempt. It's kind of cute. She reminds him of a kitten, not that he's going to tell her that.

"I'll like it, if it's good," he says instead, looking at the cake. It looks like it contains...cheese of some kind? And maybe some nuts?

"Come on, try it," Mercedes encourages him, handing him a knife to cut the cake with. "First piece goes to the birthday boy!"

"Fine," Felix grumbles, knowing very well they won't let him go without at least trying their dumb cake. As long as they don't start singing or something... So, he takes the knife and cuts himself a piece of the cake and tastes it. And it's... actually pretty good.

"It's alright," he says when three pairs of eyes stare at him with nervous anticipation.

"Don't worry ladies, and guys," Sylvain feels the need to but in. "I speak Felix. He thinks it's great!"

Well... he's not wrong, but it's not like Felix is going to admit that, so he just settles for taking another bite of the cake with a somewhat irritated huff.

"Alright then, cake for everyone!" Mercedes announces and within moments all the cake is gone, and everyone has a piece of their own. The others chat around for a bit, about the cake, about the weather, about whatever, really.

Felix kind of stops paying attention after a bit, once he's made sure to let the others know he's not really in a social mood. They seem pretty okay with this, content to be around him and keep him company, even if he doesn't contribute to any conversation.

Sylvain makes himself at home right next to Felix, scooting closer bit by bit and when Felix doesn't react, he carefully slides an arm around his shoulders and pulls them close together. For once, Felix actually doesn't even mind, even leaning into the tall redhead to his surprise.

"Hey, guys," Sylvain interrupts the conversations going on all over, getting them to quiet down. "Should we maybe give Felix those presents now?"

"Right, presents," Ingrid sounds like she's completely forgotten, despite having carried one of them over there. Then again, Felix thinks, she probably forgot all about it once she got her hands on some cake.

"Don't tell me you went and bought a bunch of useless riffraff," Felix says, really hoping they didn't do exactly that.

"Don't worry," Dimitri speaks his first words to Felix that day. "We only got you one present. We all chipped in with some money for it. It should be something you'll find useful."

"Well, let's hope so," Felix answers, eyeing the two boxes places in front of him.

"Yeah, there's two presents," Sylvain guesses why he's eyeing them weirdly. "Your dad sent you a present, too."

"Of course he did," Felix mutters. The old man always gets him something for his birthday, and it's always something practical he'll actually have proper use for.

There's also a letter, which he opens first. Nothing special, really. Just wishing him a happy birthday, hopes his studies are going well, proud of him for learning some reason magic, so on and so forth.

He opens the present, which turns out to contain a few whetstones and a new hunting dagger. Not bad, he thinks. Not bad at all, old man. He makes a mental note to send back a letter at some point.

The present from his classmates turn out to be a pair of new gloves. He looks them over a bit, before trying them on. They seem to fit well, at least, and will keep his hands warm in the cold weather.

"They should be designed to give you a good grip on your sword, but also conduct magic without burning them," Dimitri explains.

"We thought you'd need something like that, now that you've learned that thunder spell and everything," Sylvain continues, stroking Felix's hands with his own. "Besides, your old ones are really worn out, so you need new ones anyway."

"So, what do you think?" Ashe asks him, sounding very hopefull. Annette and Mercedes have similar looks on their faces. They really want him to like his present, he notices.

"They seem fine," he says, "but -"

"But you'll have to test them out before you know for sure, right?" Sylvain feels the need to interrupt, knowing exactly what he's going to say.

"Exactly," Felix agrees with him, before turning to the redhead. "Thank you for agreeing to be my test subject, Sylvain." With that, he shakes his hands free from Sylvain's grip, and starts heading toward the training grounds.

"H-hey, wait up Felix!" Sylvain calls after him.

"What?" Felix asks him, "you're the one who suggested I should try them out, so you should also help me with it." He waits until Sylvain catches up to him before continuing with "Besides, you haven't been training enough lately. Again."

"Fine, alright," Sylvain agrees, sounding almost resigned to his role as Felix's training partner. He perks up quickly enough, though. "I'm treating you to dinner afterwards, okay?"

"Sure, whatever," Felix says, causing Sylvain to cheer in joy and pull him into a second hug that day, as well as another kiss. Something tells Felix it won't be the end of it. "Let's get some training in!"

He can't say he doesn't like the thought, as they head on to the training grounds.