"P-Professor, what is the meaning of this?"
Edelgard had been exposed to a certain amount of oddities ever since enrolling at the Officers Academy, through both the people within her own house and the variety of characters that inhabited Garreg Mach Monastery. The person that undoubtedly took the cake in that regard, however, was her esteemed professor.
Make no mistake, she thought the world of him – his battle prowess was unrivaled, his mind was as sharp as a tack, and his ability to listen to others were all things that proved he was overwhelmingly qualified for his position. Setting all of those qualities aside however, she couldn't deny that her professor was…odd. Whether it was from apparently living around mercenaries for most of his life or other means, from what she could tell he didn't exactly understand certain bits of common social etiquette. He certainly was polite in his speech and had decent eating manners, but sometimes he would get just a little too close when talking and demonstrating things, or even the way that he showered particular students with gifts without any prompting whatsoever.
And yet despite all of those oddities, Edelgard honestly couldn't have expected stumbling across her professor in such an…interesting state.
Byleth's dull blue eyes blinked slowly as he regarded the Black Eagles leader, making no move to shut them despite the deep orange of the sun washing gently over his face.
"The meaning of what, exactly?" He responded, looking up at Edelgard with a completely blank face. Trying to see past that façade was akin to pulling teeth, and thus it was something she had long since given up on trying to achieve.
"Why are you floating in the monastery's pond?!" Edelgard couldn't help that her voice jumped a few octaves as she questioned her professor, attracting the attention of a few monks on the way back to their quarters. One of them got up on their tip-toes to see what the angry princess was addressing, and moments later made a noise and ducked down, her pace increasing as she shuffled out of sight. The small congregation followed with a few chuckles, and then they were alone in the midst of the darkening sky.
Byleth shifted his position from floating on his back and waded over to the dock, resting both of his arms against the wooden surface as he addressed Edelgard.
"I enjoy swimming after a long day, and this is the closest body of water." His tone was as blank as his face when he answered her, looking up and brushing his wet bangs out of his eyes.
Did he really not see the issue here!?
"Professor, please…you need to get out of the pond. It isn't proper for you to be swimming in there, especially due to your position! People have been staring, and not to mention that you could catch a cold!"
"I didn't see any rules prohibiting my actions. Besides, I can catch dinner this way as well." Without missing a beat, one of his hands moved off of the wood and flashed underwater, and a moment later it came out with a medium-sizedfish in its grasp. Before it even had a moment to struggle, he squeezed, and the fish ceased it's movements.
Edelgard felt her eye twitch. Byleth blinked lazily in response. A few moments passed between the two before Byleth broke the silence, tossing the fish onto the dock with a large thump. Edelgard inhaled and stepped back a few paces, eyeing the offending object as if she were intending to kick it right back into the water. Her professor braced his arms against the dock and pulled himself up with minimal effort, getting to his feet without pause.
It occurred to Edelgard that she had never seen Byleth without his armor before – if she didn't know better, she would have assumed that it must have been grafted to his skin. Whether he was teaching, eating, going into town, or even sleeping (she had caught him napping once, and then never again), it always was present, and he seemed to have no issues with that.
At the current moment, though, it was nowhere to be seen.
The sun behind her reflected off the droplets of water still clinging to Byleth, some of them bouncing off his form as he bent to wring out the trousers that he was wearing. She idly noted that they looked like those that belonged to the regular school uniform, only cut off at the knee. Another note that she wished she hadn't taken was that her professor was…well, incredibly easy on the eyes without his armor. From the way there seemed to be no excess fat on his body to the way his toned muscles flexed as he righted his posture to look at her, it was certainly an image to behold.
Edelgard shook her head as soon as she felt warmth rise to her cheeks, masking the color by pinching the bridge of her nose as she glared up at him.
"Get dressed before more people come, and then go back to your room." In her state of current indignation and slight embarrassment, she chose to not apologize for commanding her teacher, and instead fixed him with a harder glare. Byleth, as frustrating as he could be, looked down at her with a look of slight confusion.
"I didn't bring any clothes with me."
"…e-excuse me?"
She glanced around, and it would seem that he was being entirely truthful – his familiar armor or an extra change of clothes were nowhere to be seen.
"You…walked here like this?" She asked, already knowing and dreading the answer that she would receive.
"Yes. I saw no problem with doing so."
Without another word, Edelgard brought a hand up to unclip the red cape on her shoulder, and immediately moved forward to loop the article around his shoulders.
"I can't believe you, professor…just…go get dressed?" Her voice was exasperated as she stepped away from Byleth – did he seriously not consider the fact that this was improper in any way? What if the staff at the monastery saw this, or god forbid one of her classmates!? She doubted that Dorothea would let him hear the end of it, and even more so she wouldn't because she was the one who found him!
Edelgard glanced around the area to make sure no one was observing them. She figured Hubert was around somewhere (he always was), but other than that she couldn't detect anyone. She sighed and directed her attention back to her teacher.
The man in question was looking down at her, having adjusted her cape so that it covered more of himself – a silent stare down ensued between them before he shrugged his shoulders and bent down to pick up the fish.
"No, don't take the fish. Go." The irony of her issuing orders to him was not lost on her, but at this point she just wanted this whole encounter to end – she could easily walk away from him, but Edelgard wouldn't put it past him to just get back into the water. Also, the idea of people needling him about his state of attire wasn't something that sat right with her, despite the utter ridiculousness of the situation.
"Aren't I supposed to be the teacher here?" Edelgard felt a stutter of fear at the monotone words from her teacher – had she overstepped her bounds? After observing him for a moment, however, the slight quirk of his lips (it didn't even qualify as a smile, honestly) alerted her to the fact that he was attempting to tell a joke. She felt her nerves settle as Byleth moved past her and towards the dormitories, exchanging goodbyes as he did. She couldn't help but watch him as he walked away, trying to delude herself into thinking she wasn't studying the strip of his back that was still visible as he walked up the stairs.
"That was…exasperating." She said aloud, glancing around just to make sure no one was still there. When she was satisfied that no one was spying, she tried to shake her head to clear the blush from her cheeks, beginning to walk towards her own dorm room.
Oh wait, she had forgotten something.
She kicked the dead fish back into the water.
Hello! This is my first fanfiction in many years, and the first time I've published something online in quite a long while. I hope that this was somewhat good, and I hope it was at least somewhat in character! I intend to keep up with this for quite a bit, so feel free to either PM or review suggestions for this concept if you'd like to. Hope you enjoyed, and have a good day!