Byleth made a point of spending time with her students. Whether it was training after class, relaxing at the sauna, sharing meals, or taking tea, she dedicated most of her free time to them. At first, it had been to gain their trust. She was a stranger and by no means an actual professor, so she understood that the Blue Lions were wary of her. But slowly it became a habit. She found it was a good way to boost morale and gauge how her students felt about her and each other. Not to mention she remembered how happy it had made Jeralt, saying something or another about her 'hanging around kids her own age' as if she were a child. Though, she did have to remind herself to ask her father how old she was if she wanted Seteth to stop bothering her about it.
But of all her students, Byleth spent the most time with Dimitri. As the Blue Lions' leader, he was often privy to information she wasn't when it came to his peers. They trusted him with their issues and their complaints, and he would dutifully relay them to the professor. And he was often a reliable source when it came to the other students at the Officer's Academy.
So on the afternoon of one of her free days, Byleth found Dimitri in the Knight's Hall as usual and invited him to tea. He seemed preoccupied; however, his chivalry would not allow him to decline her invitation and he followed her out into the garden. She had prepared his favourite tea, which took asking Ingrid and Eve to discern, and had even had the forethought this time to bring some pastries from the town below. Byleth felt slightly guilty at times that she was essentially using Dimitri for information, so she thought the least she could do was give him sweets in return.
The two chatted politely for some time about this or that. Dimitri was a fairly simple conversational partner, though Byleth was still getting used to the whole 'talking to other people' thing. She and Jeralt hardly had to speak to each other, it didn't come naturally to her. Byleth became acutely aware of her lack of conversational skills when she brought up some gossip she had overheard about a couple in the courtyard. She had thought it would be the type of light-hearted thing Dimitri wouldn't mind talking about. But instead this conversation topic seemed to upset him.
Deciding the small talk was going nowhere, Byleth decided to ask Dimitri what she really wanted to know. She was curious how the Blue Lions felt about yet another mission in Kingdom territory. How was Sylvain actually holding up? She hadn't caught him trying to sneak out to the town at night lately which was somehow more concerning. Byleth also wanted to know what Dimitri thought about recruiting new students to the Blue Lions. Linhardt had asked to join her class after she did a guest lecture for the Black Eagles one day when Manuela was particularly hungover. He claimed her class was the only one he hadn't fallen asleep during, so he wanted to join the Blue Lions. She also had her eye on Ferdinand to bolster the cavalry units in her class. If she could get him to join her class, she could have Dimitri go back to being on foot where he could be with Eve as it seemed he was on edge having to be so far from her on the battlefield. And she was also considering Lysithea as a possible recruit, she was incredibly talented with magic and had some of the sharpest wit Byleth had ever seen.
But her questions seemed to fall on deaf ears. Dimitri would politely nod now and again, but his answers seemed vague at best. Byleth could tell there was something weighing heavy on the prince's mind. She could hear Sothis noting that while Dimitri often seemed troubled, he was usually quite good at hiding it.
"Dimitri." Byleth cut herself off in the middle of what she was saying.
"Yes?" He blinked, looking up from his tea.
"Something is on your mind." Byleth stated.
"I assure you; it is nothing." Dimitri smiled, forcing back his princely front.
"I'm your professor." Byleth pressed. "You can come to me with anything."
Dimitri seemed to struggle with something as Byleth watched. Finally, he spoke up, "may I speak freely, Professor?"
"Of course." Byleth nodded.
"How do you conceal your emotions so thoroughly?" Dimitri asked with a small frown on his face. "I feel I am often far too affected by my own emotions."
Byleth frowned at this. She had no doubt heard how others spoke of her emotionlessness and how it was often unsettling. She had even once overheard her own father speaking to some mercenaries about how much it pained him the first time she ever took a life, the way she didn't even flinch. So it was puzzling to her that anyone would want to emulate her lack of emotions.
"Perhaps the boy has fallen in love with someone who is not his fiancée." Sothis provided.
Byleth thought on this proposition briefly. It could be reasonable that Dimitri would have avoided bringing the topic up with her if the issue was one of love. But then again, she never saw him interact with anyone in a way that could be construed as romantic. Dimitri was kind, chivalrous, and polite, but he held everyone at an arm's length. The only person he couldn't do that to was Eve. Regardless of whatever circumstances led to their engagement, Dimitri and Eve were linked together.
"Why would you want to conceal your emotions?" Byleth asked, taking a sip of her tea. "I would expect something like this from Felix rather than yourself."
Dimitri flinched at the mention of his childhood friend, though nearly imperceivably.
So it has something to do with Felix, Byleth thought. She knew the two often butted heads, but things never really escalated past a few snide remarks from Felix.
"I am afraid I have graced someone with the unpleasant honour of being the recipient of my affections." Dimitri spoke into his teacup.
"Speak plainly, Dimitri." Byleth said, brow furrowed.
"I've… fallen in love." Byleth was distracted from Dimitri's words by Sothis' gloating at her accurate prediction.
"I see." Byleth replied, not sure what else she could say. She could help with any number of issues from battle strategy to weapon maintenance but matters of love were completely out of her scope.
"I apologise for troubling you with something so juvenile, Professor. Please forget I said anything." Dimitri shook his head as if to shake the very thoughts from his mind.
"How can I help you?" Byleth asked. She might not know enough to come up with any solutions on her own, but perhaps she could be of some assistance to Dimitri regardless.
"I…" Dimitri trailed off. He looked as if he were scolding himself for something. It was rather uncharacteristic of the prince to be like this.
"If I can help, let me know." Byleth urged.
"I have a rather selfish request." Dimitri sighed finally.
"I'll be the judge of that." Byleth replied.
"I would like to ask that for future battles you pair me with Eve." Dimitri bowed his head slightly. Byleth wondered why he would find this selfish given she had prior shared her intentions to do just that until he continued on, "and if possible separate us from Felix."
"Felix?" Byleth frowned at this stipulation.
"I worry Felix has fallen in love with my fiancée." Dimitri admitted with a low voice, clearly anxious at the prospect of being overheard.
Byleth blinked once, twice. She supposed stranger things had happened. But the idea of Felix falling in love with anyone was rather bizarre to her. Though, if it had to be anyone, she wasn't surprised it was Eve. Eve was the only person other than the professor herself that Felix couldn't beat in a sparring match. It made sense that he would grow affectionate towards someone who shared his love for the blade.
"If it is too much to ask, please forget I said anything." Dimitri said when Byleth didn't immediately respond.
"No, it's no worry." Byleth shook her head lightly. "Of course I will have to apply it on a case-by-case basis, but I will keep your request in mind when I make our battle strategies."
The relief was apparent in Dimitri's eyes and Byleth became exceedingly curious as to what the situation was between him and Felix. She didn't concern herself with student gossip, but it was rare for something to affect Dimitri of all people. And at the behest of Sothis who was desperate for entertainment, Byleth decided that she would invite Eve to tea later to discern more about the situation.
Claude was the only person who noticed the wyvern tail peeking over the edge of the cathedral roof that afternoon. And truthfully, he had only happened to look up that high by chance while wondering how long it had taken to construct such a tall building. With nothing better to do, he decided he had to figure out why there was a wyvern on the roof.
It took very little convincing to get Hilda to shirk her sky patrol responsibilities onto him, and very quickly he was saddled up and ready to fly.
To his surprise, it wasn't just the wyvern that was up there. There, taking a nap in the beast's shadow, was His Princeliness' little fiancée. She had an open book resting on her face, but there was no mistaking who she was. For one, she was the only female student Claude knew who wore trousers. But there was also no mistaking that hair of hers that was even darker than the night itself.
"Eve?" He called out to her as he coaxed his wyvern to land on the roof. Even for him it was a difficult manoeuvre and he wondered how someone who allegedly had no flying experience managed it.
"Who." It wasn't a question, more a demand as to who dared wake her from her nap. "Is there not one place in this stupid monastery where I can take a nap in peace?"
"How did you get up here?" Claude laughed as she lifted the book on her face to give him a disgruntled glare.
"Wyvern has a mind of its own." She squinted in the sunlight at him as she finally sat up. "Got stuck up here, figured I'd take a nap."
"Hm." Claude walked over to her wyvern where it sat. It seemed very well-behaved, sitting patiently while she had been napping. Any wyvern he'd known would have left her up here if she didn't have control over it. "Is that so?"
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, raising a single eyebrow questioningly. She didn't seem bothered by his challenge, busy placing a ribbon to mark her place in her book and reaching for a wineskin that was tied to the wyvern's saddle.
"Want some?" She gestured the canteen towards him after taking a swig.
"You really want to be drinking wine when you've got to somehow fly this wyvern you can't control back down?" Claude asked and came to sit beside her.
"It's just Ailell pomegranate juice." She replied, taking another sip and yet again offering the skin to him.
Claude accepted this time, taking a swig of the tart juice. It was slightly warm from sitting in the sun, but still enjoyable. As he drank, he stole a glance at Eve who was looking out on the horizon. She was an interesting one, there was no doubt about that. Finding out about her crest and about how her initial story was all a lie only served to add to her intrigue. And there was no doubt in Claude's mind that she would be valuable in reaching his goals. He just had to get his foot in the door, establish some kind of rapport with her outside of the friendly conversations they shared every once in a while.
"You're not from Fodlan, are you?" He turned his head to look at her, gauging her reaction. He had half expected her to deny or balk at the question. Instead, she seemed rather unaffected.
"What makes you think that?" She asked, eyes still trained on the horizon.
"Let's just say it takes an outsider to know an outsider." He grinned. Though she didn't really answer his question, he was sure he was right.
"An outsider, huh?" She seemed intrigued by this notion, slowly taking a sip of her drink in thought. "I guess I never really thought of myself as an outsider."
"Hey, don't think of it as a bad thing." Claude stretched his arms above his head, leaning back to rest against them. "I think being an outsider is the best thing you can be in a place like this."
"I suppose you're right about that." Eve mused. "Fodlan is all too much of the same."
"You've got that right." Claude chuckled, closing his eyes.
A silence fell over the two as their conversation stalled. And though his eyes were closed Claude could hear Eve gently comforting her wyvern, further solidifying in his mind that she knew exactly what she was doing when it came to flying. After what felt like some time, Eve spoke up again.
"What's your real name, Claude?" She asked suddenly.
Claude's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright to see her looking directly at him with a piercing gaze.
"What makes you think my name isn't my name?" He asked, taken aback by her abrupt question.
"Hm, let's just say it takes an outsider to know an outsider." She hummed with an amused laugh, throwing his own words back at him. Though she added, "you don't respond to Claude all the time. It's like you forget it's your name."
Claude weighed his options with her as she looked directly at him. On the one hand, he was very careful not to let anyone know anything about him. He kept everything behind a smokescreen of charm and wit. But it was clear to him that Eve was just as shrouded in mystery as he was. And she didn't seem to have any malicious intent in asking his name. If anything, this tiny detail would be exactly what he needed to get him into her good graces. Give a little, get a lot.
"Khalid." He said finally. "My real name is Khalid."
"That's an Almyran name." She pursed her lips. "I can see now why as the heir to an Alliance noble house you'd want to hide your name."
It was Claude's turn to purse his lips. Eve had supposedly lived her life sheltered by Lady Rhea and the Church of Seiros, so why was she familiar with Almyran nomenclature? There was much more to the future queen that he had yet to unravel. But his strategy seemed to work in gaining her trust. She would prove to be a vital ally, of this he was sure.
"Well then, Your Majesty," Claude stood, bowing to offer Eve his hand with a cheeky grin, "shall we descend?"