In the week since Eve had come to Felix's room, things had both changed and yet stayed the same. For one, Eve stopped slipping away to Sylvain's room in the nights though she did still spend a lot of time with him. Felix tried to remind himself that they were friends now and it was normal she would spend time with him, but every brush of the shoulder and every flirtatious wink reminded him of the noises Sylvain had been able to elicit from Eve. It reminded him of the carnal way Sylvain knew Eve that she refused to let him know.

And that was something that hadn't changed. Eve didn't treat Felix any differently now that she had come as close to confessing as she ever would. In fact, Felix would go as far as to say that Eve was avoiding spending time alone with him behind closed doors. The one time they had tea together, she had insisted they do so in the courtyard. And she turned down his invitations for early morning or late-night training when there was likely to be no one around.

Something that had unexpectedly changed, though, was her relationship with the boar. Felix noticed how Eve seemed to be making some kind of effort to hold true on her promise to be a good wife. She wasn't doting like she had been when everyone thought they were marrying for love. But she wasn't distant or cold like she had become when the truth of her marriage to the boar prince was revealed. It was somewhere in between the two now, and Felix couldn't understand why.

Felix was reminded of this when he spotted Eve sitting in the greenhouse in the early evening before supper. She was knelt before the plants from Duscur that Dedue tended to in the back corner of the greenhouse. And, much like she did when she thought she was alone, she was singing to the blooms softly. As Felix approached on silent feet, he realised he couldn't understand what Eve was singing. At first, he thought he had misheard, but it became increasingly evident that she was not singing in the language of Fodlan.

"Eve?" He called out to her softly.

"Felix!" She whipped around, clearly caught off guard by the sudden company.

"You, uh," he scratched the back of his neck and avoided her eyes, embarrassed, "you sing well."

"I didn't hear you come in." She replied, effectively ignoring his compliment.

Felix came and crouched next to Eve, looking at the flowers she was tending to. He reached out to stroke the petals of one, feeling its fragile silkiness between his fingers.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" She asked, smiling with a certain melancholy Felix didn't understand. "Dedue takes such good care of them. This isn't the right climate for these flowers and yet he gets them to bloom so gorgeously."

"I don't know why he wastes his time on flowers." Felix muttered, instantly regretting it when he saw the small frown that formed on Eve's lips.

"It's not a waste for him to honour his homeland." Eve said softly before turning to look at Felix with an intense stare. "Not everything has to be a battle to be important, Felix."

"Yeah." Felix swallowed his words, not wanting to get irritated. This was the first time he'd been alone with Eve since that kiss and he didn't want to ruin it in his typical way by getting mad at her.

At that, Eve stood and stretched with a groan. Her knees popped; she had been there a while. Usually before supper she was training or studying. Felix wondered why instead she had gone to the greenhouse.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Felix asked as Eve began to walk away from where he was still crouched.

"I'm not." She frowned.

"Eve." He stood to look her in the eyes.

"I'm not avoiding you; I'm avoiding being alone with you." She sighed, avoiding his direct gaze.

"That's the same thing!" Felix cried out in exasperation.

"You don't understand, Felix." Eve shook her head, still refusing to meet his eyes.

"I know!" He barked, frustrated. "I know I don't understand, but it's not like you make any effort to help me understand."

So much for not getting irritated. He couldn't help it, though. Eve was always the puppet master of those around her. She held all of the cards when it came to her relationships with others. How much they knew, what they understood, was all dependent on how much she allowed them to know. Felix was tired of being spoon-fed information at her leisure. Eve would use the fact that he didn't know things to hold him at an arm's length, but never allowed him to know those things.

"Rhea's watching." Eve said solemnly. "I have to be on my best behaviour, and that includes not doing anything that could be misconstrued and twisted to be used against me."

"What are you talking about?" Felix folded his arms. "What does it matter that Rhea's watching? You're already engaged to the boar and it's widely known. It's not like she can just get rid of you or make you call off the wedding."

"She moved it forward, Felix." Eve finally looked up at him, a plethora of emotions in her eyes.

"What?" Felix frowned.

"Instead of getting married once we graduate," Eve explained, "she's making us get married at the monastery. At the end of the Ethereal Moon."

"Ethereal-?" Felix couldn't even finish his thought. "That's in four months."

"I know." Eve's voice was shaky, it was the first time Felix had ever seen her truly be uncertain. "Rhea is using Dimitri to punish me for my defiance. She said if I agreed to moving the wedding and stayed on my best behaviour, she would leave him out of it."

"You really care about the boar, don't you?" Felix couldn't help the jealousy and malice that crept into his voice, however stupid he felt for it. He wasn't some lovestruck schoolboy, so why did he keep acting like one?

"Of course I do." Eve's answer surprised Felix. He hadn't expected her to answer so immediately and with such conviction. "I care that he's a human person who doesn't deserve to serve as a pawn in a game he doesn't even know is being played."

"Did you know?" Felix asked.

"What?" Eve's brow furrowed, confused.

"When you came to my room that night did you know?" Felix asked again. If she knew that she had to start being on her best behaviour, why did she come to his room? Why did she seek him out if she knew she was only going to push him away immediately after? It was always this with Eve; always back and forth, push and pull.

"No." Eve shook her head much to Felix's relief. "I never would have gone to you if I knew she was going to do that. It was the morning after that she summoned Dimitri and I to tell us."

Eve stepped forward, reaching out to tuck a wayward hair of Felix's back into place. There was warmth in her eyes, but behind that warmth was remorse. Without words, Felix knew she regretted going to him that night. He felt anger bubbling up in his chest at the thought of her regretting what had happened.

This was the boar's fault.

Dimitri had charmed Eve with his chivalry and his manners just like he had everyone else at the Academy fooled. That was the only reason she'd so adamantly defend him. If she knew the boar for the beast he truly was, she wouldn't have cared if he ended up being a pawn in the Archbishop's game. Felix was sure of it. There was no other explanation for why she would care so much.

"Felix," Eve's voice was barely a whisper, "I'm truly sorry."

"For what?" He asked.

"Last week when I went to your room, I had made up my mind to be honest with myself about how I feel for you." Eve explained. "But I shouldn't have been so brash. I was just so caught off guard by how much I cared for you in so little time. I gave you hope that I would reciprocate your feelings for me only to turn around and shut you out because of Rhea's orders."

"Forget Rhea's orders." Felix replied simply. "Forget whatever obligation you think you have to the boar."

"It's not that simple." Eve sighed.

"Why isn't it?" Felix shrugged.

"You're just like him." Eve sighed again, turning her head to look away and wrapping her arms around herself

"No." Felix said angrily. "No, you don't get to do that again. You are not bringing up Glenn, you're going to actually talk to me for once."

"Glenn never understood why I stuck around either." Eve looked back at Felix. "Even knowing everything, he didn't understand."

"Answer my question." Felix gritted his teeth.

"If I press Rhea any further, there's no telling what she'll do." Eve turned her head away again, avoiding his gaze. "Dimitri doesn't deserve to be caught in the middle of that."

"Why do you care so much about the boar?" Felix narrowed his eyes at her, trying to discern anything he could from her body language.

"Because I failed him just as much as I failed you, Felix." Eve's eyes filled with pain. "I never told you, but I was supposed to be in Duscur. Your father asked me to accompany Glenn. And at the last moment, I decided not to go. I could've saved Lambert. And every time Dimitri looks at me since the moment he knew about my crest, I can see he knows. He knows if I had been where I was supposed to be, he might still have his father."

"Who's just like Glenn now?" Felix grumbled.

"What?" Eve's brow furrowed.

"Always talking about duty and doing what's right." Felix snapped. It was always this with her, but he couldn't help it. She was the only person who could make him feel things and for some reason these feelings always manifested as anger.

"Felix," Eve reached out and cupped his cheek in her hand, "there are two times in my life where I have turned my back on duty. And both of those time, people who were very dear to me ended up dead. That is why I stick to my duty to Dimitri."

"Whatever." Felix clicked his tongue, yanking himself away from Eve's touch. He had had enough of this. He didn't want to squander this time he had alone with Eve, but he had done it anyways. And now all he wanted to do was leave.

So he did just that, pivoting on his heel to walk around Eve and storm out of the greenhouse. He didn't wait to see if she followed, consciously making an effort not to hear if she called out after him.

Jeralt saw the Fraldarius boy storm out of the greenhouse like wrath itself as he came down the stairs from the dining hall. From what Byleth had told him, Felix had a notoriously short fuse. Still, he wondered what on Earth was in that greenhouse that could make him so angry. Jeralt only wondered this for a moment, though, until he saw Eve step out of the building with a worn look on her face.

She looked up, making eye contact with Jeralt. She seemed stunned to see him there, if not a little frightened. Seeing her reaction, Jeralt sighed and jerked his head towards the dock on the fishing pond. Eve nodded and strode over to join him there, taking a seat on the wooden planks.

"You're lucky I'm not Seteth." Jeralt said casually, glancing at Eve from the corner of his eye.

"I know." Eve sighed, her head in her hands. "And I'm going to pre-emptively say thank you for not telling Rhea about what you just saw."

"I'm guessing you told the Fraldarius boy about the new wedding date?" Jeralt raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. When he saw Eve's visible confusion, he added, "I might be old, but I'm not dead. I see how that boy pines after you."

"That obvious, huh?" Eve scoffed, tossing a splinter she had pried from the dock into the pond. "I wish I never came back to this place."

"But you did." Jeralt shrugged. "And so did I. There's no changing that."

"You'd think after all the lives I've lived I'd have learned how not to be a fool." Eve shook her head with a bitter laugh. "I have lived all this time and I don't think I've ever grown up."

"You're different from the time I first met you, though." Jeralt mused.

"How so?" Eve frowned, looking up at him as he stood above her with his arms crossed.

"How you were back then reminds me a lot of how my own kid is now." He huffed. "You were stoic, cold, shut off. I don't think I would have called you anything short of calculating. You were so good at reading other people, but no one could ever read you. You just didn't have emotions."

"Can you read me now, Captain?" Eve smirked at him with a challenging glint in her eye.

"You care about that boy. And you care about the prince too." He assessed. "I think for the first time in a long time you're allowing yourself to feel things. But you're not used to emotions, so it's making you confused and you're acting brashly because of it."

Eve whistled, looking out over the pond once more, "that one cut deep."

"I don't think it's a bad thing." Jeralt answered. "From the outside looking in, it looks to me like you've figured out how to live again."

"Is that so?" Eve hummed in thought.

Jeralt watched as her eyes danced over the water's surface as if some kind of answer would lie there. He thought about how she had looked the first time their paths had crossed. Back then, her eyes were lifeless and cold. He had watched her cut down enemies without even a hint of emotion much like his own child did. But now there was life in her eyes. There was conflict and confusion, but there was life. Seeing her like this, it was so easy to forget that she was no mere child. It truly gave him the impression that she never got to be young. And now, regardless of her true age, she was getting to be an adolescent.

(A/N: Sorry for the delay and the short update this time. I'm hitting a bit of a creative wall, but I'll try to keep bringing updates!)