Chapter Text
Annette continues to look forward, guiding Felix through the dorms, passing the dining hall, and to the gazebo. During this time, Felix himself was pondering on what the curious girl would want with the boy. He could feel his chest tighten, the cold steel air chipping it’s way into Felix’s lungs.
Why am I getting so nervous? Why does Annette even want to talk to me?
His injured arm starts to ache again, feeling as if the pain was boiling the bruise. Felix lifts up his sleeve to allow the injury to breath. The chilly air did well cooling it down of sorts. He finally regains his focus again to look in front of him. He notices how Annette too was uncomfortable, almost dissociating while looking down at the ground, worried. The boy couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with her. To distract himself from worrying, he looks at his arm, then at the plants around him, then to the giggling students he passes, then back at his arm.
I am really out of it, aren’t I…
It’s not until Annette calls out to him that he finally grounds himself mentally, and sees that Annette is sitting at one of the small tables at the Gazebo.
“Um, would you like to sit down?” The girl asks. It isn't until Annette asks again seconds later that Felix truly snaps out of his internal distraction.
“Felix, are you listening to me? You are really out of it today.”
“Oh, um. Sorry,” says Felix.
An apology? From Felix? Thought Annette. Felix finally walks back to Annette and sits down at the open chair in front of them. He stays there, almost staring at Annette, pondering on what this magic girl could possibly want with him. His piercing gaze, his judgemental attitude, assessing the situation and what could be the reason for this.
Heh, just like tea time with the professor.
Annette finally gathers the courage to break the silence.
“First, I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me,” Annette’s overly formal greeting waves a flag, admitting to how nervous she is, “Um… I brought you some of these!” Annette, happy to remember this, quickly rummages through her bag and takes out something wrapped in a cloth, “Here!”
“What are they?” asks Felix.
“Cookies! Oh, but don’t worry! These are not super sweet or anything. Just, well, fruity while still having the greatness of eating a dessert,” assures Annette, almost sounding prideful of sorts. While saying this, she places the cloth on the table, and unfolds it to reveal, low and behold, cookies! Not just any cookies, mind you: strawberry, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, apple (yes apple) cookies.
“... thanks,” says Felix. Too surprised and confused to deny the gift, he accepts the cookies - he simply wanted to get this horrifically awkward and tense conversation over with. He looks at the cookies, and decides to eat one of the strawberry ones. He takes a bite out of one of them, and they taste genuinely like strawberries. Even though it was a sweet dessert, it wasn’t so sweet that he disliked it. Just as Annette said, it has the fresh sweetness of eating real fruit instead of the fake sweet taste you’d get from eating candy. It isn’t until he eats his second cookie that he realizes Annette staring at him, waiting for his response.
“... they’re good,” compliments Felix. Annette gives a sigh of relief, glad that this relieved the awkward atmosphere even a tiny bit.
“Oh, thank you!” Annette says
“So,” Felix pops another cookie in his mouth, “... what do you need me for?” Annette, again, felt relieved that the delicious cookies helped ease Felix from looking so tense and serious - there was something about his cold demeanor and him innocently eating cookies that made the situation charming and cute even. This helped her feel comfortable as well.
Where do I begin… thought Annette. First, there was that Mercedes situation that she wanted to confront Felix about. Then, there’s the incident of Felix saving her on their last mission. Annette didn’t know how to go about this situation. I mean, with both events in mind, it’s as if two different people were at fault. How could someone so mean to Mercie also selflessly protect her on the battlefield, sustaining an injury?
“Annette? You’re zoning out again. What’s wrong?” Annette looks up, surprised with how much she was getting distracted.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she replies.
“This is how you almost got killed in our last mission. I had to save your ass, remember?”
“Y-yes… sorry about that.” Annette says, giving a genuinely pained and guilty look on her face. Felix sees this, and feels guilty himself for chastising the girl.
“... I don’t want to see you get hurt.” This remark gave Annette an emotional whiplash. First, she talks to him about singing and dancing. Then, her best friend vents to her about how this same man was mean to her. The next day, he risks his life and sustains an injury protecting the singer. Now, in less than 10 minutes, Felix managed to accept cookies from her, then criticizes her, then states how he doesn’t want to see her get killed… was she talking to the same person? This mystery was honestly driving her insane.
“Ugh, Felix, why are you like this?” At this moment, Annette quickly widens her eyes, knowing that she said this thought out loud - rude, insensitive, impulsive, unnecessary, and blunt.
Annette… why are YOU like this?! The singer thought to herself, not saying it out loud this time. Luckily, Felix wasn’t one to act so sensitive to such comments - you have no idea the amount of times Felix was scolded by his father. He couldn’t help but get a bit defensive and offended, however.
“Why are YOU being rude right now and wasting my time?” Felix asks.
Oh, that is it. Thought Annette.
“Felix, why me?”
“What?” asks Felix , surprised.
“A few days ago, I talked with Mercie-”
“Mercie?”
“Um, Mercedes, about the conversation you two had.”
“... conversation?”
“... yes. Conversation. You know, the one that hurt her feelings and left her alone and upset?” Annette leans in, stressing each word to get the point across.
Felix, you hurt my goddamn best friend. I swear to the goddess…
“... oh! Yeah, um…” Felix fumbles over his words at this point, trying to save his skin.
Felix, why are you getting nervous? Just tell her that what happened is none of her business.
“Annette, let me ask you a question. What did I specifically do that hurt her… ‘feelings’?” The hesitation of saying “feelings” almost pisses Annette off, to the point of her yelling back at him for his lack of tact.
Annie, remember to calm down, and think. It’s as if Mercie was speaking to Annette through her head. The girl takes a deep breath to steady her nerves, and closes her eyes. After a few seconds of peace, she opens them, and looks down at the table. She takes a cookie, and a bite of the raspberry jam-filled treat.
Ok… now I’m ready.
“Felix, why were you so mean to my best friend Mercedes the other day?” Annette now gives a stern glare to him, perfectly grounded, and determined on getting answers from him. The swordsman gives a confused blink, and shakes his head, as if waking up from a daydream.
“I-I’m sorry. What?” Annette gives a sigh.
“Ok, let me explain. This is through Mercie’s perspective, so, tell me if I’m wrong.”
“Ok?” Felix responds, suspicious of what she was going to say. To be blunt, the swordsman did not see the need for this conversation. In his eyes, no one was injured. In Annette’s eyes, this boy hurt the feelings of her best friend, after the healer tried to open up to him about her past.
“Did she say that you reminded her of her little brother? Did she give you tea and weirdly act like a mother to you?” Felix takes a second to process her question.
“... yes.”
“And how did you respond?”
“... by telling her to leave me alone.”
“Ok, before I say anything else, I have one last question. Was she actually bothering you that much?”
Felix rolls his eyes at the ridiculous questions. “Hm, I don’t know Annette. Maybe you should get into a conversation with someone you barely know, and have them project their lost probably dead sibling onto you-”
“FELIX!” Annette yells out loud, moving the table a bit. A bunch of crumbs from the cookies went flying in the air from the sudden reaction.
“W-what?!” Felix leans back from his seat, trying to gain some distance from the girl. He wasn’t sure whether he was scared, angry, confused, or all of the above.
“What is wrong with you?! You can’t just talk about someone like that!”
“Ok, I think you’re exaggerating the story a bit.”
“I don’t care! Mercie was obviously trying to help and connect with you! I know it must have felt awkward to be in that situation, but there were literally better ways to handle it back then, and you chose one of the worst possible solutions. What do you have to say about that?” A chilly breeze of wind blows a path through the teens’ faces, bringing a few dead leaves with them, as if anticipating the end to this argument. Felix just sits there, shaking a bit from the tense atmosphere. Annette glares down at the boy, waiting for a good reason for why he hurt her friend. Felix honestly didn’t know how to respond, though. He’s never been in a situation where he cared about offending or upsetting others. He himself lived his life by putting up wall after wall so that nobody could hurt him- figuratively speaking. He was rarely hurt by the mean words of others, so why should he care whether his words hurt them instead? He typically dealt with rude people by getting angry, or shrugging them off - being annoyed also comes with the territory. He’s only ever been trained to be physically strong and skilled with the blade, not to cry over the mean words of a stranger… but Mercedes wasn’t a stranger. Neither was Annette. Annette was probably the only person who was kind enough to speak with him. One where he felt comfortable being kind back to.
I… I hurt Mercedes’ “feelings”. Mercedes, Annette’s best friend...
“How do I feel about it…” Felix takes a second to calm his nerves, and gives a nervous gulp, “we don’t know … whether her brother’s actually dead or not, so … technically, I’m not wrong?”
...
Felix… what the actual fuck is wrong with you? Annette, just kill me. I deserve it.
The swordsman gives out a scared, nervous look, trying to form a fake smile, while his eyes scream caution. He continues to lean away from the table, gaining distance between him and Annette, him and the aggressor. He’s expecting that she start screaming, yelling, flipping the table over, casting all spells known to man on him - Annette HAS been studying with Lysithea, who knows what new skills she’s picked up from that sugar-addict child. He finally decides to look up at Annette, and to take his verbal and or physical punishment head on.
Instead… she just starts crying. Her surprised expression doesn’t change, however. The only difference is her shaking with frustration and sorrow, while streaks of thick tears run down the side of her soft face. All she did was stare at Felix in disbelief, unable to understand the anomaly that is Felix’s thought process.
“Annette?” Felix asks.
No, you have no right to ask if she’s ok. You’re an asshole and you just need to leave.
“Annette, I…” the singer sits down - the emotional whiplash and frustration during these past 10 minutes take their toll. She wipes her tears with her sleeve, and looks down at the cookies. Only a few left.
Heh, Mercie taught me how to make these cookies…
Felix faces his body towards the girl again, and clenches his fist. He straightens his back, (not) prepared for what he was about to say.
“Annette, I’m-”
Just leave her, Felix.
“I am… sorry.”
Stop talking. You’ll make things worse.
“I-”
Felix, I swear, you were not built for this. You were built for sword fighting and combat. Not this emotional crap.
“Lost-”
Don’t say another word, you fool. Get up, and walk away right now or else you’ll regret it.
“My-”
Last chance. Are you going to run yet?
“Brother…”
…
“...” Annette pops her head up again, looking at Felix. Tears were still running on her face, but now her focus was on Felix’s comment.
“W-what? What did you say?” Annette responds.
“I lost my older brother years ago...”
Lost his older brother? Oh, so Mercedes calling him her little brother... Thought Annette, feeling the gears turning in her head.
“To hear Mercedes say that I reminded her of her little brother… you could say it made me ‘upset’.” Felix tried to think back on a time where he had to defend his feelings. This was probably the first time he had to confront a person about why their words offended him, instead of just being mean to them and scaring them away.
“... Felix, I am so sorry-”
“Don’t say that, please. I’m sick of hearing those hollow words-”
“No. I’m sorry for… doubting you.”
“Doubting me?” Suddenly, a strike of crackling thunder tears through the sky. The bright loud boom rips a mark across the dark cloudy autumn day. Then, it starts to rain. The both of them shoot up from their seats.
“Damnit, I wanted to continue talking about this,” says Annette. She looks down to clean the table and packs the rest of the cookies in her bag. Looking down, though, there was nothing but crumbs. She looks up at Felix, confused at the remains of her baked goods.
“I told you, they were really good,” Felix responds, looking away embarrassed, “... and I would like some more.” Annette looks up from cleaning the table, confused.
“W-what?”
“... do you have any more of those cookies at your dorm?”
“Um, yeah. I made a bunch. It’s one of my favorite recipes.”
“Maybe… I could come over and have some more.”
“... what-”
“Annette, do you want to finish this discussion at your place or not?” Each word that came out of his mouth felt like a knife turning in his stomach. The singer finishes cleaning, puts her cloth in her bag, and straightens her back to look at Felix in the eyes. She gives him a reassuring smile.
“I would love that,” says Annette, “but only if you feel comfortable talking about this. I want to make sure you’re ok-”
“Annette, it’s fine. I… feel bad for making you cry. If you still want to talk now, then we can talk. I can at least do that.” Felix physically could not look at Annette while saying this - growing more and more flustered, while Annette’s presence made it difficult for him to be rude as a defence mechanism. He gives a frustrated grunt under his breath, hoping that opening himself up was worth it. The girl in response chuckles softly. She tries to cover her mouth, worried about appearing rude.
“Ok. Let’s get out of this rain. I don’t know why it came so suddenly, however.”
“Yeah,” replies Felix.
“You would think that rain only comes during sad moments.” The two of them start walking to Annette’s dorm, side by side.
“Are you saying that it’s a shame that I’m talking to you now?” asks Felix.
“... no, not really.” Annette couldn’t help but form a big smile, looking at the boy. Felix immediately looks away, and turns a bright flustered red that he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.
She remembers how warm and happy Felix made her, all the fun memories she has of them talking and relaxing together. That’s the part that confused Annette the most however. For such a stern and serious guy, Felix oddly made her feel… comfortable. Perhaps it was because he didn’t judge her, or make fun of her musical hobbies. Perhaps it was because it felt like he accepted her, and even enjoyed listening and watching her. But that raises the question Annette has been struggling to find the answers to: why her? Why is it that Annette was the one that Felix was the most kind too - only one kind to, really. Annette hoped to get the answer from him today, while alone with him in her bedroom… uh. Over cookies and tea, of course.