Chapter Text
Fishing was simple. You put up a lure on and drop the line hoping that there would be a bite sometime soon. Often times, it was just nice to be able to sit and relax. It’s not procrastinating if there’s a catch and a meal at the end of the line.
Fishing also didn’t require talking. It was something that brought the father and son closer to each other. Simply head to a body of water, drop the line, and sit side by side until one of the rods jerked. There would be a bit of cheering, usually from Jeralt, as the line comes back up with a catch. Then the process repeated until there was enough for the whole mercenary company’s dinner (and then some).
The father and son duo often quietly spent time together back when they were mercenaries. Whether it was fishing, training, or whittling, they always made time to relax. It wasn’t hard to do so either. For mercenaries, once a job was completed there was always this small gap of a break until they found their next job.
At the Monastery, if Byleth wasn’t teaching, he was making study plans. If he wasn’t doing either, he was grading papers. There were after class hours for those that stuck behind to catch up on concepts they just couldn’t grasp. There were those that caught Byleth on his way back to his room for questions only for the two to return to the classrooms to go over concepts again. Jeralt himself seemed almost always busy as well. Rhea always seemed to have something for the returning knight to do, almost as if she was keeping Byleth away. Almost like she was afraid Byleth would have more questions popping up if they spent time together.
On his free days, he spent most of it running around the Monastery just as much as his non-free days. There was tea time with students, meals, lost items, talking with the students and his colleagues, and answering advice boxes. And then, there were still students that seemed to have questions.
It had taken things to settle down and for a few months to go by until Byleth finally bumped into his father.
“Hey there kiddo! It’s been a while since we went fishing. How about we meet at the docks?”
They would spent the rest of the day fishing.
“Rhea’s been keeping us busy, huh.” Jeralt asked. A rhetorical question.
“…I’ve been mismanaging my time too,” Jeralt’s brow came up. It was the first time his son replied to a question. “Oh?” He responded, nudging the pole to give the worm more encouragement.
“I’ll make more time for us.” Byleth simply stated yanking his line up to see a small sweetfish.
“I’ll do the same.” Jeralt promised.
At his peripheral, Jeralt noticed a small curl at the edge of Byleth’s lips. It was one of the first smiles he’d seen on his son’s face in a long time. Perhaps, the Monastery wasn’t such a bad place after all.
They sat side by side until they had a decent catch in their inventory. The rest of the day had gone by without more talk on either side. It was peaceful, to just sit and fish and enjoy the company of someone you loved. They only had each other after all. No Goddess nor Church in the world could steal the time that was meant for just the two of them.