Dimitri, mercifully, reacted in just the way Eve needed him to. He sputtered and blushed and tried but failed to meet her eyes. She knew that his rational mind would recognise what she was doing, but she was also painfully aware that the part of him that foolishly loved her would relish in hearing her say those words.
For her part, Eve acted bashful and a little defensive as if she hadn't meant to blurt that out—as if it hadn't been a calculated tactic. Sylvain, ever her partner in crime, played along, acting surprised that she hadn't told even him that she loved Dimitri.
And, as if by the grace of the Goddess, Felix kept his mouth shut through the rest of the ordeal while the others at the table teased the couple.
Hilda was busy gloating that she had been right while Claude wouldn't give the flustered Dimitri a break. Meanwhile, Eve dealt with the awkward apologies from Ashe and Ignatz who insisted they hadn't meant to pry. Dedue and Raphael were the only two who hadn't gotten involved, both sitting quietly at their respective ends of the table.
When the meal was over and they all went their separate ways, Eve didn't even need to say a word to Sylvain, Felix, and Dimitri to get them to follow her out of the dining hall. She was angry, seething, in a way none of them had ever seen her.
They trailed dutifully behind her when she led them into Abyss, not daring to ask why when she told Yuri she needed to borrow the Ashen Wolves' classroom.
"What the fuck was that?" Eve finally spoke when they were alone with the doors closed behind them, her voice raised so much that it echoed around the room.
She whipped around to face the three men standing there in stunned silence. None of them had ever heard her curse or yell like that. Though Sylvain and Dimitri had no reason to believe she was angry with them specifically, her wrath at the moment didn't seem to be too concerned with specifics.
"Were you born a colossal idiot, or did you have to train to be this stupid?" Eve shouted at Felix.
Now it was apparent why she had taken them to Abyss. She could yell here in a way she couldn't in any of their dormitory rooms. And in Abyss, she didn't have to worry about nosy people caring what she was shouting about.
"Eve, I-!" Dimitri tried to interject.
"Do not." She shot him a poisonous look, shutting up the prince instantly, before turning back to the object of her wrath. "Felix, do you care to explain to me what kind of mysterious rot took over your mind that would cause you to do that?"
"Everyone was pushing their delusions of love onto you." Felix scowled, the only one not visibly petrified by Eve's anger. "They all have these perceptions of you that aren't true, and it made me angry."
"Did you not stop to think for a second that I created those perceptions?" Eve snapped back at him, her harsh tone making him flinch. "And since when are you to decide how people perceive me?"
"They think you're in love with the boar and you're not!" Felix shouted back, motioning at Dimitri. "You should have seen the way he sat there, letting Hilda's comments go to his head. He's just as convinced as they are that you love him."
"What does it matter to you what Dimitri thinks?" Eve threw her hands up in frustration.
"Kitten…" Sylvain tried to reach out for Eve, his voice soft in an attempt to calm her.
"Don't you 'kitten' me right now, Sylvain." She swatted his hand away and fixed her glare onto him. "I appreciate your help back there, but I am far too angry right now for you to try to calm me down."
"It matters because the boar thinks you're in love with him." Felix answered Eve's question, crossing his arms. "But you're not. He should know that you're in love with me."
"What?" Dimitri's eyes went wide, flickering between Felix and Eve.
He had known Eve cared for Felix, but did she truly love him?
"Woah, hey." Sylvain looked at Eve questioningly, wondering if she had lied to him about her true feelings. Had she been concealing the fact that she actually was in love with Felix?
"What is he talking about, Eve?" Dimitri asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.
Why did he feel this way? He always knew that Eve had feelings for Felix. And he always knew that she did not return his own feelings of affection. But perhaps he truly had let Hilda's comment go to his head—letting himself believe the delusion that she could love him deep down in her heart without knowing it.
"Any time you can't find her, she's with me." Felix sneered at Dimitri. "You want to know what she was doing that made her late to tea today?"
"Felix, stop." Eve's voice was loud, commanding, drawing back the attention of her audience.
"He needs to know you're not his." Felix narrowed his eyes.
"And you need to know that I'm not yours either." Eve replied harshly. "Was that what all of this was for? Was it so important to you that Dimitri know your claim on my heart that you would ruin everything I've so carefully built? You forced my hand; made me add one more lie to my mountain of deception."
"I'm tired of being second to the boar." Felix retorted. "Why is it that he gets to have all of your time when I'm the one you care for."
"You knew it would be like this, Felix." Eve shook her head. "And yet you begged me to give you the remainder of my time. I promised you until the Ethereal Moon. But I have always made it clear to you that my duty comes first—regardless of whatever I may feel."
"It shouldn't be like that, though!" Felix shouted back. "You're always putting yourself second. Just be selfish for once damn it!"
"Do you have any idea what's happened when I've been selfish?" Eve's voice took on a shrill quality. It was the first time Dimitri or Felix had ever seen her lose her composure like this. "My selfishness killed-!"
"Eve!" Sylvain's voice boomed as he called out her name in panic, cutting her off.
Even Eve startled at the sound of her name, especially from Sylvain. It didn't go unnoticed by Felix or Dimitri either that he didn't use his pet name for her in this instance.
"You're upset." He lowered his voice and spoke gently now. "Let's not keep yelling and saying things we don't mean to say."
He gave her a pointed look, one that meant to tell her to stop before she revealed too much to Felix and Dimitri. In her anger, she had lost control. Eve wasn't sure what had come over her, why she had lost her composure in this way.
Perhaps it was because the lie she had been forced to tell hurt both Felix and Dimitri in a way she hadn't ever desired to. She knew Dimitri's imagination would run wild from hearing her voice say that she loved him, whether or not he knew it to be false. And she knew that in the same regard, Felix wouldn't be able to forget her saying those words—especially when she had never said them to him.
It was the perfect storm that put all of them between a rock and a hard place. And Eve was angry because it could have been avoided. Had Felix not been unable to control his jealousy, had she not invited him to dinner, had she not accepted his proposal, had she not succumbed to her selfish crush. There were so many things she should have done to prevent this from happening.
"I am going to say what I need to say." Eve said, closing her eyes as she tried to level her breathing. "You are going to listen and then you are going to leave. Am I clear?"
"Of course." Dimitri nodded.
"Whatever." Felix grimaced and looked away.
"Are you sure, kitten?" Sylvain looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"I need to clear the air." Eve said. "And then you will all leave me alone before I decide to change my mind about letting what happened tonight go."
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself so that she didn't lose her head again. While it had been oddly therapeutic to let go of herself like that, she had nearly said too much. If Sylvain hadn't been there, she would have been done for.
"Dimitri," Eve looked directly at the prince, "I need you to know that I do not love you. I am sorry. I know we've discussed this before and it's cruel of me to reiterate it like this, but I know how the heart can run away without the mind. I don't want you misunderstanding anything."
"I understand." Dimitri nodded; composure written on his face though his eyes were sorrowful.
"I have indeed been meeting with Felix in secret." Eve continued. "I have promised him the rest of my time before we are wed. And I apologise, but I have no intention to stop meeting with him until the day of our wedding arrives."
She now turned to address Felix with a blank face. It was frightening to all of them the way she had simply turned her emotions off after such an explosive outburst. But it was also painful to see how adept she was at burying her own feelings.
"That being said." Eve began again. "Felix, you have to understand that I don't love you either. I cannot allow myself to be in love. I do have feelings for you, but I will not allow myself to discern if those feelings are love or not. And no matter what, I will still marry Dimitri come the Ethereal moon."
Felix seemed to grapple with a series of emotions as she spoke, but he remained silent. He realised that he would rather accept this secondary role in her life rather than be cut out completely. And for as long as she allowed him to be in her life, he still had a chance to convince her to be with him.
"Felix, I'm very angry with you for what you've done tonight." Eve added. "And the next time you want to take your jealousy out on me when you see me with Dimitri, remember that you are in a hell of your own creation. You did this to yourself."
"I didn't do anything wrong!" Felix cried out in frustration. "So what if people see you don't love him? Maybe then you wouldn't have to marry him."
"So what?" Eve felt the anger bubbling back up in her throat. "So people see that a mere child defied not just the Archbishop, but the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Church of Seiros too. So people like Lonato and the Western Church feel emboldened to turn their blades towards the Church."
"That's not your burden to carry." Felix argued.
"It is, though. Don't you see that?" Eve's brow creased as she regarded the boy before her. "Goddess, you're just like Glenn!"
She remembered her frustration when Glenn hadn't understood the weight she carried, why she did what she did. It had been the first thing they truly fought about. Although, just like now, it hadn't deterred her from what she felt for him. The truth was, having someone who didn't understand—someone who would urge her to act for herself at times— was refreshing.
"Predictable." Felix clicked his tongue. "Bringing up Glenn as soon as I start to press you on something."
"Felix." Sylvain said, his voice unusually grave as he placed a firm hand on his friend's shoulder. "I think you've done enough damage tonight."
"But I—" Felix started to object but stopped when Sylvain just shook his head at him silently.
"Goodnight, Eve." Dimitri, who had been silent up until now, finally piped up as he bowed politely. "I do apologise for putting you in such a harrowing situation."
His politeness, paired with his suddenly stilted language, made Eve's heart hurt. He was in pain, injured by the constant reiteration that she did not return his affections. And here he had had to watch her spat with Felix—no doubt wondering why she would choose someone who irritated her so over someone who gave everything for her to be happy.
"Let's get you out of here before you make things worse." Sylvain said to Felix, hand still tightly clasped on his shoulder as he all but dragged the Fraldarius heir out of Abyss.
Eve watched on in silence as they left, only relaxing with a sigh once they were out of sight. She was tired, exhausted from expressing her emotions so outwardly. In her current state, with her mind abuzz, she couldn't fathom going back to her quarters to be alone with her thoughts.
"I need a drink." She sighed to herself, running a hand through her hair as she decided to stay a little longer and find out just how terrible the ale down in Abyss was.
"You really gave your band of idiots a tongue lashing earlier didn't you, little lady?"
Yuri bent down to pick up Eve's shirt from where it had been discarded on the floor of the Ashen Wolves' classroom, straightening to hand it to her.
"I can't remember the last time I lost my head like that." Eve gratefully accepted the garment, slipping her arms into it casually though she made no move to button it up.
She watched as Yuri set to work on his own shirt, buttoning it up at a leisurely pace. Her eyes trailed up his torso, taking in the scars that told of his storied past. And she couldn't help when her eyes flickered down to her own bare stomach to see the scars that marred the skin there. She wondered if Yuri remembered how he got each of his scars the way she remembered each of hers.
"Well, I'm not complaining." Yuri smirked at Eve when he was finished with his shirt. "Their misfortune became my entertainment for the evening—in more ways than one."
He said the last part with a wink, raising his eyebrows suggestively as his eyes did a sweep over her still mostly bare body.
"I just needed to let off some steam." She sighed, running a hand through her hair and picking up her cup of ale that she had left on the side. "This stuff truly is horrid down here."
"We make do." Yuri replied nonchalantly, tossing Eve's trousers to her which she caught in one hand. "And the next time you want to blow off steam, let me know. You're fun when you're angry."
"I'm not making a habit out of this, Yuri." Eve rolled her eyes as she finally made a move to get redressed, hopping down from her perch atop one of the desks to pull her trousers on.
"That's a shame." Yuri tutted with a smirk. "We have fun, don't we?"
"It wouldn't be nearly as fun if we did this all the time now would it?" Eve raised an eyebrow at him.
"I suppose you're right." Yuri let out a hearty laugh. "Though, I don't get why you don't just sleep with that Fraldarius boy. You're clearly involved."
"I'd appreciate if you kept that to yourself." Eve sighed. "Anyways, he's too young."
"Too young?" Yuri asked, amused. "He's not much younger than you or I."
"He's not of age yet." Eve shook her head. "He's still just a boy."
"Never suspected you to be the kind of person to care about that." Yuri shrugged. "Though, I don't know that I know much of anything about you."
He frowned at her as he spoke, crossing his arms and watching her tuck her now buttoned shirt into her trousers. Eve picked up that this seemed to bother Yuri, the fact that he didn't know much about her. He was the type of person who liked to hold all the cards, and she figured it irritated him to no end to not know the truth about her.
"You're different than you used to be." He said after a while.
"Oh?" Eve raised an eyebrow at him, returning to the desk she had been sitting on and taking a sip of her ale. "How so?"
"It was just over a year ago and yet you're like a different person now." Yuri remarked. "You were so…how should I put it? Cold? Aloof?"
"Oh, you'll make me blush." Eve chuckled sarcastically.
"I couldn't get a read on you because you were so closed off." Yuri shook his head lightly. "But now I can't get a read on you because you're so erratic."
"Erratic?" Eve's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Though, she realised that was certainly a fair examination of her recent behaviour.
"You're all over the place; it's like you can't decide what version of yourself you actually are." Yuri gestured vaguely as he spoke.
"What version…?" Eve trailed off in thought.
She hadn't really considered it, but she could see how accurate Yuri's assessment was. Eve had lived so many lives, been so many things for so many people. She was constantly putting on a front that now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure who she was.
Was she the silent Fraldarius servant who loyally served her house, unseen by anyone but her Lord? Or was she the person Yuri had met in Abyss that time, cold and sly seeking out only physical pleasures. Or perhaps she was the version of herself who saw the pain in Dimitri and Felix and wanted to help them, heal them.
Maybe she was none of these things, though. Maybe she wasn't nearly as selfless as she would like to think she was. She wasn't helping people out of the goodness of her heart, she did it because she felt guilty. Fixing Dimitri, taking away Felix's pain—she wanted to do these things to make herself feel better.
"I suppose it doesn't matter, though." Eve said finally. "In the end, the version of myself that I will have to be is the version that's a good wife to the King of Faerghus."
"Why don't you just do what you want?" Yuri asked. "I know how much you hate Rhea. And it seems like even your three idiots want you to decide things for yourself."
"I'm certain you already know the answer to that." Eve looked at Yuri intensely. "My 'idiots', as you call them… they might not see it. But you do. I know you do. You see it down here in Abyss—the unrest. Fodlan is cracking at the seams. Something is coming."
"And you think you'll be the one to save us all from that by marrying the little prince?" Yuri smirked rather cruelly.
"I like to think I'm not that narcissistic." Eve huffed with a half-smile. "No, I think that I can do my part not to exacerbate the situation by marrying Dimitri. I think whatever's coming has been in motion for quite some time now. There's no stopping it. But I at least don't want to contribute."
"How noble." Yuri laughed. "And tell me, when whatever is coming does finally happen, who will you stand by?"
"Who will I stand by?" Eve echoed.
"I'm just curious to see who you'll choose to protect in the end—your fiancée or your little Fraldarius."