Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first time they met, Byleth didn’t say a word.

It’s Edelgard who had demanded that they do a training session out in the woods, next to a village near the monastery. But what they had thought would only be a few thieves turned out to be a well-organized band of bandits, and they were quickly overwhelmed and separated from the rest of their classmates.

Having trained with some of the best knights in the country, they’d gotten cocky and overconfident. They had thought that they would be able to defeat a few bandits, but then were forced to scramble for a retreat once they realized they were outnumbered and overpowered.

The Knight’s training scenarios were nothing like the real deal, and it made Dimitri want to stab his lance into a straw training dummy. Which he couldn’t do, of course, because they were being chased by bandits.

With the bandits’ blades hot on their heels, Claude was the first one who noticed the small camp of mercenaries. They glanced at each other, knowing that they had no choice but to hope the mercenaries were friendly.

Dimitri hissed as a fire spell missed his shoulder by mere inches, setting the bushes by his feet aflame. The acrid smoke burned his lungs, and he was sure that Edelgard and Claude weren’t faring much better.

Edelgard stumbled, an arrow sailing through her long hair and embedding itself into a tree trunk.

He heard Claude muffle a curse as a branch snagged against his bow.

They managed to shake the bandits off their trail when Edelgard swung her axe against the tree, sending it crashing down and blocking the bandits’ path, buying them a few precious minutes.

An alert, heavily armored mercenary jumped to his feet at the first sign of the disturbance, intercepting them just as they stepped into the bright glow of the campfire. He signaled to another mercenary, who dashed off and quickly returned with two more men in tow.

Dimitri didn’t like to ask for help, but even he knew when he was overwhelmed. “Please forgive our intrusion. We wouldn’t bother you were the situation not dire.”

The gruff-looking man’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized them.

“Those uniforms…”

Dimitri tensed. He recognized their uniforms? They knew of the monastery? But before any more could be said, the clangs of blades and armor announced the bandits’ arrival.

“Let’s take care of these thieves before they overrun the village.” It was well versed and the mercenaries organized themselves behind him in a smooth formation, weapons out and ready.

Dimitri wasn’t surprised. The mercenaries seemed experienced, and the gruff man, who he assumed to be their leader looked capable.

Throughout the whole exchange, the second, silent man merely raised his sword.

He took down the bandits with an ease that left Dimitri’s breath faltering, slipping past the bandits’ defenses. A skillful parry, then a block and a sidestep let him dart around the bandit and deliver a finishing blow to the back of their head.

Even the experienced knights that the Officers Academy trained with would be hard-pressed to gain the upper hand against this man, who couldn’t be more than a few years older than he was. How did he move like that?

He remembered the grueling sparring sessions that they went through at the Academy. The Knights of Seiros were unforgiving in their training, but it was different when they were up against unruly bandits who didn’t care much for the distinction between allies and enemies.

When Dimitri managed to disarm a bandit, he stole a glance at the other man, just in time to see him block a blow meant for Edelgard. The bandit went flying backward and hit the ground with a weak groan.

Alois and a few other Knights arrived mere moments later, though not quickly enough to do more than watch one of the mercenaries knock the last of the bandits unconscious.

The man’s eyes remained cold, unfazed

Somehow, after they managed to defeat the bandits, the merry band of mercenaries followed them to the monastery. Along the way, he learned that the man’s name was Byleth. There was some odd connection between the gruff man - Jeralt - and the Knights that Dimitri didn’t quite understand, but decided that it wasn’t his place to pry. Especially when it seemed that Jeralt would have rather been anywhere but with them.

Dimitri had heard of Jeralt before. The records they kept in the library had him as a former captain of the Knights of Seiros, praised as one of the strongest knights to have ever lived. Then he vanished in a fire twenty years ago. The fledgling Knights they trained with spoke about him in hushed whispers, how they had wished that it was Captain Jeralt instructing them instead. The senior knights, the few times they traveled together, would pass around stories of his glorious feats.

So Dimitri wasn't the least bit surprised when the captain’s son also turned out to be an adept swordsman.

He was surprised, however, when Byleth agreed to get roped into teaching at the monastery, and even more so when he chose to teach his house. The stoic man didn’t seem like the type who’d enjoy spending his time grading papers and reading reports.

“I like him!” Annette exclaimed, perched on top of a desk and swinging her legs. “He even asked what I liked to do in my free time!”

That didn’t add too much to what Dimitri knew about Byleth’s character; Annette liked everyone.

“Professor’s a mercenary, right? So he’s probably got a lot of stories to tell!” Ashe was just as excited as Annette. Mercedes nodded along in agreement.

“Ah, I hope he knows how to use a lance.” Ingrid mused beside him.

“Hey, do you think he has a sis-” Sylvain started.

“He’d better know how to use a sword. He wouldn’t be a worthy professor otherwise.” The elbowing that Sylvain gave Felix was entirely expected.

No one batted an eye when Felix retaliated by kicking Sylvain’s feet out from under him and watched him collapse on the stone ground.

Annette merely pulled her books away from Sylvain’s flailing hands, letting him smack against the desk full-force on his way down.

“Aw, did you really have to do that?” Sylvain slumped over on the ground, rubbing the sore spot where his shoulder had hit the edge of the desk. “Usually it’s the ladies asking me to sweep them off their feet, but for you, Felix, I’ll -”

Sylvain didn’t get to finish when Felix all but stomped him back into the ground. Nobody tried to stop Felix this time either.

Ingrid frowned slightly and then sighed, rubbing her forehead. “It’s been years Sylvain. By now, you should have learned better.” Than to provoke Felix went unsaid.

Mercedes hummed and leisurely pulled out a tome, flipping through the pages to look for the appropriate healing spell. Felix didn’t have any sharp weapons with him, so whatever damage he’d inflicted upon Sylvain probably wouldn’t be too serious.

Dimitri sighed. He thanked the goddess for Dedue, the only sane one in this whole mess.

He could only hope that their new professor wouldn’t add to the insanity that he already had to deal with.

Chapter Text

As Dimitri bit into the sugar cookie, he couldn’t help but enjoy the way that it crumbled and moistened around his tongue and the way that the granules of sugar crunched as he took another bite. 

If he had to choose a favorite tea time snack, he would have to pick the sugar cookie. Biscuits were too dry and the small cakes were too soft. But if he took most of the cookies, then there wouldn’t be any left for the professor. So, he forced himself to reach for a biscuit or cake between cookies.

Normally, he wouldn’t have eaten so many, but he missed breakfast in favor of taking inventory of the lances they had remaining after his admittedly less than ideal with the boisterous redhead from the Black Eagles, who would not stop using his own name as a battle cry no matter how much Dimitri told him that it was a bad idea to both loudly announce his presence and name to his potential opponent. Dimitri had definitely snapped one or two lances in his attempts not to skewer the other boy in his frustration.

And Mercedes wasn’t here, so he figured he could sneak a few more cookies. 

After he finished the cookie in his hand, he reached for his cup of tea. Chamomile, also his favorite. He finished half the cup in one long sip, then caught his professor’s eye over the rim of the teacup.

“Professor…?” By the time Dimitri had nervously polished off a half dozen of the small, palm-size desserts, his professor had only taken a small fruit cake for himself. 

“Hm?” The noncommittal hum he gave was customary, as they had all learned in the past few weeks. 

“Are the refreshments not to your liking?” Maybe he could ask the kitchen cook for more options. It would have been a good idea, had he even an inkling of what the professor liked to eat. 

“No, they’re good.” He didn’t elaborate. 

“Ah.” 

His professor looked like he wanted to say more but wasn’t quite sure how, his lips pressed into a thin line. 

Dimitri scrambled for anything that could diffuse the awkward silence. Or maybe it was just him. The professor didn’t seem to feel the slight edge of tension in the air, content to just take a few bites out of a cookie he had picked up after he finished the last few bites of his cake. His mouth was still pressed into a slight frown. There were a few granules of sugar remaining in the corner of his mouth. 

Not that Dimitri was staring at his mouth or anything! They were just... there , how could he not notice?!

It made him want to reach over and - and….? 

“You’re staring?”

“Oh, um.” Dimitri hoped that he hadn’t been noticed, but it looked like nothing escaped the professor’s sharp eyes. “You have a bit of sugar. Here.” He tapped the corner of his own mouth. 

“Thank you.”

His professor rubbed his thumb against the corner of his lips and brushed off the granules, eyes not leaving Dimitri’s for a moment. “Carry on.”

Carry on? With the professor looking at him with such an intense gaze? 

Dimitri could feel the back of his neck slowly start to flush, the heat making its way higher and higher until his cheeks started to burn. He was absolutely sure he looked like tomato and if someone didn’t come along and put him out of his misery soon...

He coughed lightly, finally breaking eye contact. Was this what the professor did during all of the tea times he conducted with his students? Something in Dimitri shifted uncomfortably. 

He tried to pretend that he couldn’t feel the professor’s gaze burning into his side. 

It wasn’t working. 

“Dimitri.”

The sugar cookie crumbled in his hand and he stealthily brushed the crumbs off his lap. 

“Y-yes?”

There was a slight movement, an almost imperceptible frown before the professor’s expression cleared, a carefully neutral expression in its place. 

“Would you like more tea?” 

Dimitri couldn't help but feel like he had missed something important. 

“If you wouldn’t mind.” 

With the way that the professor’s steady gaze was fixed on him again, Dimitri could barely stop himself from snapping the tea cup’s handle clean off. He quickly placed it back into its saucer before the teacup could be met with an unfortunate fate. 

His eyes darted left and right, his throat parched like he hadn’t just finished an entire pot of tea nearly single-handedly. With the ways things were going, he wouldn’t be surprised if he sounded like one of the swamp toads he had seen as a child, only he was giving his final croaks before he was slowly being baked alive from the other man’s steady gaze. 

Luckily, he caught sight of Sylvain’s shock of red hair. Of course, Felix was following closely behind him, berating him about forgetting his date with the innkeeper’s daughter from the nearby village. 

“Ah Professor, I must take my leave. I had agreed to meet Felix at the training grounds.” The professor made no move to stop him as he pushed his chair back to leave, but he did raise an eyebrow. 

Dimitri barely missed tripping over a flower bed in his haste to escape, following in the vague direction he had seen Felix and Sylvain disappear to. 

It wasn’t until hours later, while he was back in the privacy of his own room, that Dimitri realized that the professor had put Felix on stable duty with Bernadetta that day and there was no chance that Felix could have managed to wiggle out of it. The professor had eyes and ears everywhere . 

Of course, because someone out there wanted Dimitri to die of utter humiliation, the professor had scheduled stable duty right when Dimitri made his poorly executed escape. Felix was headed to stable duty. Most of the stables were within view from the gazebo. 

Dimitri must have looked like an absolute idiot , no wonder the professor had looked at him like that, what a liar he must believe him to be - 

Dimitri buried his face in his hands with a silent scream. 

—

He trusted Dedue to give him a proper funeral, complete with weepy mourners and an impressive eulogy. 

Here lies Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, biggest fool in all of Fodlan.