Chapter Text
"Do you mind if we go this way instead?"
"Do you not wish to eat breakfast this morning?" Dedue asked.
"I'm not really hungry right now. And we're running a bit late, anyway, don't you think?"
Dedue glanced in the direction his liege had motioned in and took a moment to think of why he would want to skip his morning meal--they weren't actually running late. They were early, in fact. The route would take them pass the training grounds before curving into the courtyard and to class. "Are you feeling ill, Your Highness?"
"No, I just want to change things up a bit."
"We are not late." He thought of the training grounds. "Do you want to train before class?"
Dimitri didn't want to sigh. "You... found me out."
"It would be an honor to cross blades with you, Your Highness. Shall we go now?"
"Yes."
Textbooks in hand, they crossed the length of the dormitory, towards the training arena. As they passed by their professor's room, Dimitri did all he could to not gaze obviously in that direction. Dedue noticed this, of course, but either didn't think anything of it, or kept his thoughts to himself.
The pair managed to fit in twenty minutes of training, gaining a bit of a crowd in the process, before needing to leave for class. Fellow students tried to talk to the prince, but Dedue warded them off with a simple, "We are late for class."
"Okay, that should be it for this morning. Break for lunch and meet up back here for your afternoon tutoring sessions." Byleth slid an owl feather into her textbook, closed it, and then placed it in her tote. With the same fluidity, she brought out another book, flipped it open to a small indented page, and began reading.
Dimitri watched as she went through the motions. That was what it felt like most of the time; like she was just going through the motions. A question he had thought multiple times before in the past two days popped into his mind yet again: Why was she here? It was like she had no interest in them as pupils. He lauded her strength and skill with which she whipped around her blade on the battlefield, but what was she thinking when she accepted the offer to become professor?
At the end of the month, they won the mock battle. By this time, Dimitri had witnessed first-hand his professor's genuine care for him and his fellow Blue Lion classmates. The one-on-one sessions, the tuning of everyone's studies to match what they were personally good at, and consultations about the future for anyone who dared to ask. Yet still, he felt nothing when it came to her presence. To think of his professor as a being with good intentions yet no feelings made him uneasy. What was she?