Byleth found Eve and Dimitri in the courtyard as usual, having tea. She was thankful that, as of late, Eve's movements had been rather predictable. In a situation like this, the Professor wouldn't have been keen on having to search high and low for wherever Eve disappeared off to when she couldn't be found with Dimitri.
"Professor." Dimitri noticed her first as she approached the two. "Would you care to join us for tea?"
"No." Byleth shook her head. "I need to ask a favour."
"A favour?" Eve looked up at her curiously, lips pursed.
"Felix received a letter from his father asking for aide." Byleth explained. "He's gone ahead but has asked me to recruit some members of the class to come help."
"Lord Rodrigue is safe, I trust?" Dimitri asked, casting a wary glance at Eve.
"It seems there are bandits running lose in Fraldarius territory. There's a possibility they might be the remnants of Miklan's men from the conflict at Conand Tower." Byleth shrugged. "I don't think Lord Rodrigue is in any mortal danger. But I do think time is of the essence."
"Then we should leave at once." Eve cut in, already standing up from her seat.
"The others are all ready to go." Byleth nodded. "We can leave once you two are ready."
"I am sure all is fine, Eve." Dimitri comforted, turning his head to speak over his shoulder at her.
The Blue Lions were already most of the way to Fraldarius, and with each minute on the road Eve had become more and more tense.
"I know." Eve huffed, but her hold around his waist tightened from where she sat behind him on his horse. "I know how strong Rodrigue is. I'm more worried about Felix…"
She felt guilty for saying it as soon as the words left her lips, feeling how Dimitri's posture stiffened.
"Of course." He said, his voice rigid. "Felix is a good fighter, though, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."
"That's not what I'm worried about." Eve replied gently. "I'm worried about Felix lashing out at Rodrigue. I don't know what he was thinking asking Felix to come out here. And I don't know what Felix was thinking asking everyone else to come as well."
"I cannot claim to know what goes on in Felix's mind." Dimitri admitted with a light shake of his head.
Eve let out an amused huff at that but said nothing more. And for the remainder of their ride into Fraldarius territory, she remained silent.
Dimitri knew that there was a storied past between Rodrigue and his son as well as Rodrigue and Eve. And a rather juvenile part of him was eager to see the Fraldarius Lord in the same setting with Eve. He was hoping that perhaps being around someone she trusted would allow for Eve to open up a little more.
"I see them!" Ingrid called out from above on her pegasus when the class approached a town on the outskirts of Fraldarius territory.
The Blue Lions looked out to see Rodrigue and his men on the ground fighting a large group of bandits. And amongst the fighting was Felix, backed into a corner with a dozen or so enemies surrounding him.
"Felix!" Eve cried out when she saw him.
Without a second thought, Dimitri spurred his horse on to rush to Felix's aid. The rest of the class followed suit, rushing into the chaos to lend a hand without waiting for the Professor's orders.
As soon as they drew near, Eve hopped down from Dimitri's horse to put herself between Felix and one of his attackers.
"What are you thinking?" Eve shouted at him as she cut through her opponent in a flash of steel. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"I knew you'd show up in time." Felix said confidently, though Eve didn't trust his words.
There wasn't much time for more words to be exchanged as their forces focused on driving back the bandits while also protecting the villagers in the town.
"Oh, Prince Dimitri is here to help!" Rodrigue called out in surprise when the Blue Lions met up with him and his men. "I am humbled, Your Highness, and so sorry to trouble you."
"No, it is fine." Dimitri shook his head. "As a man of royal birth, this is the obvious course. However, it does not exactly seem like they are remnants of Miklan's faction."
"Indeed." Rodrigue agreed as he disposed of a bandit that rushed towards them. "Nothing but common bandits, and yet... Ruffians like that have recently surged in number."
"Pathetic. Struggling to defeat some ragtag bandits." Felix cut in with more than a little venom in his voice.
"Felix…" There was a certain sadness in Rodrigue's eyes as he regarded his son. "You may know this already, but no matter how many you kill, more always appear. Anywhere in the Kingdom these days you can see the same kind of scenes. His Majesty, the late king, would despair to see it."
"A dead man doesn't despair." Felix scoffed. "Besides, let's focus on the living."
Eve watched the exchange between the three silently, not daring to voice her own opinions. Now wasn't the time; not in front of all the other Blue Lions and the Professor. In front of the others, Rodrigue was nothing more than a stranger—the father of one of her classmates.
But all of those careful thought's flew out the window the moment Eve saw a group of bandits rushing the Fraldarius Lord. He had been left exposed after a number of his men and the students had spread out in order to help more villagers evacuate. She was the closest one to him, the only one who would be able to make it in time to stop the blade that was about to cut into his back.
"Rodrigue!" She shouted urgently as she dove forward, narrowly blocking his assailant's sword with one of her own.
He turned around to see her shove the blade away and land a swift kick into the bandit's stomach. But while she ran her sword into the bandit that had initially struck towards Rodrigue, another one ran a short dagger into her side.
"Shit." She hissed as she elbowed the bandit that had stabbed her and hit him with a fire spell to the face.
Eve didn't have to worry about the rest of the bandits as they were disposed of quickly, all rapidly run through with a lance in a flash of silver and blonde and blue.
"Eve." It was Dimitri who came to stand by her.
"I'm fine!" She gritted her teeth and held a hand to her bloody side. "Worry about the villagers."
"But…" Dimitri's brow knitted in worry.
"I said-!" Eve grimaced, cutting herself off as she activated her Crest and a bandit that was rapidly approaching Ashe suddenly clutched his side in pain. "I'm fine."
"You! You're His Highness' fiancée, are you not?" Rodrigue asked after he had finished disposing of the other bandits surrounding them. "That is quite an impressive Crest you bear. I thank you for your assistance."
Eve gave Rodrigue a knowing nod before examining the hole in her uniform shirt. The fabric was bloodied, but there was no other evidence left that she had ever been injured. Not even a scar remained where once the dagger had torn through her flesh.
After that mishap, though, the remainder of the battle went by without incident. The combined forces of Rodrigue's men and the Blue Lions class were able to dispose of all of the bandits with no civilian casualties.
As thanks for their assistance, Rodrigue had invited them all back to stay at the Fraldarius estate for the night to feast and rest before making the trek back to Garreg Mach. And despite Felix's clear aversion to the idea, the Professor gratefully accepted Rodrigue's invitation.
But while the Blue Lions enjoyed a feast in the Fraldarius dining hall, there was a notable absence that concerned Felix. Much like after the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, no one had seen Eve since they had departed the battlefield. Not even his father had seen her in the time since they returned to the Fraldarius estate.
So Felix found a quiet moment to slip away from the feast to find Eve. He had imagined she would be happy to be back in Fraldarius, in a house she knew very well. It was why Felix had asked the Professor to recruit the others for this battle. He had wanted to give Eve an excuse to come back to a place she felt at home in.
After quite some time of wandering through the estate and even checking the servant's quarters to no avail, Felix decided to take a walk outside. And though he wasn't conscious of it, his feet ended up taking him towards the Fraldarius graveyard where the remains of his ancestors were laid to rest.
It had been a very long time since he had paid a visit to his brother. There was something so unsettling, so upsetting, about the idea of Glenn's remains being there just beneath the cold dirt. After the funeral, he hadn't ever really wanted to return. And yet now his feet had brought him here.
But just as Felix was about to turn away from the graveyard and the notion of his own mortality, he heard what sounded like a hiccup.
"I've missed you."
There was no mistaking who that slurred voice belonged to. Silently, Felix crept forward, sticking to the shadows, to see Eve sitting in front of Glenn's headstone with several discarded wineskins around her.
"Everything is terrible." She slurred after taking a sip from one of the wineskins that seemed to still be filled with liquid. "The Officer's Academy is stifling, Dimitri is in love with me, Rhea is a nightmare."
Felix couldn't help but stare in awed silence at Eve's state. She was absolutely inebriated—even having a hard time sitting up straight. He knew she would often drink with Sylvain in the town when they could sneak away or in Abyss with Yuri when leaving campus wasn't possible, but he had never seen her lose her wits from drink.
And as he watched her drink with his brother's grave, Felix couldn't for the life of him figure out why she would get this drunk. Was there something about being back in Fraldarius that made her upset to the point of drinking herself into oblivion?
He had known she was close to Glenn; she had told him that Glenn knew everything since he was in line to become the head of House Fraldarius. But for what reason would she be here, alone, talking to a dead man's grave rather than him or even Sylvain or Dimitri?
"You know," she hiccupped, "he almost beat me in a duel the other day. I think you'd be proud of him."
It took a moment for Felix to realise she was speaking about him. And though he felt he shouldn't continue to eavesdrop, he couldn't get his feet to move.
"He's become so much like you were." She laughed. "So stubborn and headstrong and talented and… hmm and handsome."
Felix blushed at her words of praise, especially at the idea of her saying that he was handsome.
"Wish you were here to knock some sense into him, though." Eve clicked her tongue before taking another swig of her wine. "If there's anyone he'd listen to, it's you. I don't know how to get him to talk to your father again."
"You know," she continued, her voice making the drastic shift from jovial to melancholy, "he's the only one who doesn't look at me like I'm the reason you're dead."
"Even I look at myself like I'm the reason you're dead."
Her laugh was hollow and sad, choked off by another hiccup. She drowned it in another drink from her wineskin, finishing off the rest of the liquid inside.
"Rodrigue does it too." She said softly. "I know he doesn't mean to, neither does Dimitri. I told him I didn't want to go to Duscur, I begged him to let me stay behind. I should have been there. I know he doesn't blame me consciously, but…"
An unexplained anger bubbled up in Felix's throat. Was his father the reason Eve was acting like this? Of course it would be his weak old man's fault. Leave it to his father to blame Eve for something she couldn't control.
Felix was brought out of his seething thoughts of anger by a choked sob coming from Eve.
"How did I mess up so bad?" She had her head in her hands now, shaking it as she spoke. "I didn't mean to have all these feelings for him."
Felix's ears perked up once more, eager to hear Eve speak on her feelings for him. Like him, she was never one much to let her feelings be known. And though it always felt like she was holding herself back from letting herself have emotions towards Felix, in this inebriated state there was no way she could keep her guard up.
"I…" She paused for a moment, snapping her head up to look at Glenn's headstone as if it were the man himself. "I think I'm in love with him, Glenn."
(A/N: I apologise for the short and delayed chapter. I've been very busy with work and haven't had much time to write. I will still try to update at least once a week, though, schedule permitting.)