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“I didn’t think it was possible for Teach to look sad. I’ve only seen him smile a handful of times but to see him cry like that,” Claude blew out a heavy breath. “I didn’t like seeing that.”
“None of us did.” Hilda said softly, peeking over towards their professor’s door. They hadn’t seen him for two days now. “Does anyone know if he’s eaten anything?”
“I brought something by this morning, it looks like it was eaten.” Claude was tapping his fingers against his thigh. “But I didn’t see him grab it but he could have while we were in class.” He scanned the courtyard slowly and was surprised to see Dimitri and Felix heading their way. “Lovely.” He put on a smile and waved at them as they got closer. “And what do we owe to have such an honor-“
“Go get lunch,” Felix interrupted as he sat on the bench, adjusting his sword casually.
“Huh?” Hilda looked between the three guys. “Shouldn’t you two-“
“We’ve already eaten. You two go” Dimitri gave a small nod towards the dining hall.
Claude continued to stare at them before he shrugged, smirking a bit. “Alright alright.” He tapped Hilda’s shoulder to get her to follow him. He waited until they had gotten far enough away before he tipped his head to her. “I think they caught onto what we were doing.”
“Who told them?!” Hilda frowned, pushing open the dining hall door. “I thought we all promised not to say anything to anyone.”
“We did. I think they just caught on and decided to help. Teach may be ours but he knows all the students and has been helpful to everyone.” Claude waved to Mercedes as she caught eyes with him. She waved back and then left the hall with a plate of food. “Yep, they definitely have. Seems like we don’t have to keep watch later. Lions have it.”
“Okaaayyy~” Hilda sang, glancing over at her friend. “We’re gonna go back later tonight though right?”
“Nah, Ig and Raph said they’d be there tonight so we could sleep.”
Hilda hummed before clapping her hands together. “Then we can plan something else to try and get our Teach back, right?”
“This is why we’re friends, Hilda! We think similarly.” Claude grinned, he nodded toward where the rest of their class was after they had gotten their food. He sat down next to Ignatz and grinned at everyone. “Heelllooo~”
“Aren’t you supposed to be-“ Lorenz’s brow furrowed slightly but paused when Claude held up his hand.
“Someone’s watching, don’t worry. Hilda and I were trying to come up with a plan to get him out of his room and potentially out of the monastery where some memories might be a bit too fresh for him. I was thinking class camping trip.” Claude looked at everyone, gauging their reactions and was surprised to see them all nodding. “Whoah, that was unanimous. I don’t know how we’ll pull it off. We’d have to get some serious permission to do it.”
“We could just go directly to Lady Rhea about it?” Ignatz suggested. “She’s very fond of our Professor. I’m sure she’d do anything to make sure he was okay.”
“It’s not her I’m worried about. It’s Seteth.” Claude sighed, pushing his food around.
“Invite Flayn.” Marianne said quietly, flinching when everyone turned to look at her. “Well um, it's just that i-if Flayn were involved…”
“Marianne I am so proud of you!” Claude nearly bounced out of his seat. “Suggesting we use Flayn as a bribe against him! You of all people!”
“We-we don’t ha-have to do it!” Marianne was quick to backpedal and shrink in on herself. “It's not a very nice idea to use her like that.”
“I would be more than happy to do that!” Flayn piped up behind them. “What do I need to do in order for this all to work out?”
They all stared at her before Raphael cheered and held his hand up for Flayn to high-five him. It took her a moment to understand what he was requesting before she slapped their palms together. She sat down next to him, eager expression on her face.
“I really do wish to see the Professor happy again.” Flayn said with a sad smile. “I miss fishing with him in the evenings.”
“Is that where he’s been?!” Ignatz put his face in his hands. “Of course it is. Why am I not surprised.”
“He’s quite the excellent fisherman! Oh!” Flayn gasped before grinning wildly. “I can tell my brother it would be a fishing trip! Or some sort of class exercise and I wish to be involved in it!”
Hilda hummed before tapping her fingers against the table. “What if,” She looked around before glancing over to the other tables. “What if we got the other classes involved too?” Everyone turned to her with various expressions. “C’moooon, think about it! If we posed it more of a class exercise between the houses, like a bonding thing! I’m sure we’d get a better reception if we phrased it that way instead of just a camping trip with everyone.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Claude nodded, stabbing his food with a fork as he gauged everyone else’s reactions. “How do you suppose we get the Eagles in on this?”
“Why just the Eagles?” Lysithea asked, looking towards where the Black Eagles were seated in the lunchroom. “What about the Blue Lions?”
“They’re already in on this.” Hilda said, smiling happily. “In fact! Dimitri and Felix are keeping an eye on the Professor’s door right now. You know, we didn’t see him but I’m sure Dedue wasn’t too far away.”
“I’m sure of that.” Claude agreed, chuckling. “So we just need to convince Edelgard. If we convince her, everyone else in her class will go along with it.”
“That might be the hardest part of this whole idea.” Ignatz said with a sigh. “How could we get her in on it?”
“By asking.” Flayn said, looking over towards Eldegard before looking at everyone else. “I’ll do it!” Before anyone else could stop her, she was on her way over to where the Eagles were sitting.
“Honestly, Flayn can be scarier than Seteth.” Hilda said, her eyes wide as she watched Flayn got Edelgard’s attention.
“Is this actually working?” Lorenz asked when he saw Flayn clap her hands together with a happy smile on her lips. “I can’t believe this is actually working.”
When Edelgard stood up and followed Flayn back over to where the Deer were sitting, everyone was dead silent. Mainly in shock.
“Flayn has asked me to contribute to,” Edelgard looked at Flayn before looking to Claude. “A camping trip?”
Claude nodded slowly before he shook himself out of his surprise. “Kind of. We want to pose it as a bonding exercise between the houses but turn it into a surprise for the Professor and-”
“I’m in.” Edelgard interrupted.
“We need everyone to-” Claude paused and stared at her before he grinned widely. “I knew you wouldn’t say no! Yes!” He punched the air happily and held his palm up towards her. When she didn’t give him a high-five, he laughed. “Don’t leave me hanging, Edelgard!” When she finally did it, albeit a bit weakly, he cheered. “Okay now we just have to convince Lady Rhea! And Seteth but Flayn, I’m going to leave you to your brother.”
“You can count on me!” Flayn clapped, smiling at them all. “Oh this will be so exciting!” She bounced on her heels slightly before stopping and looking at them all again. “When was this going to be taking place?”
“We haven’t quite figured out everything just yet but when we do, you’ll be told.” Claude said, looking around at everyone. “So for now, we just try and keep an eye on Teach.”
“Ah, I did notice you guys were doing that. Would you care for any extra watchers?” Edelgard piped up, glancing back at her own table. “I’m sure Caspar would be more than happy to help. Dorothea has been quite worried about the Professor as well and asked me about him recently.”
“We won’t say no to that!” Hilda nodded, giving Edelgard a small smile. “The Blue Lions have already started helping us out with it as well.”
“Very well, I will pass the information along.” Edelgard gave them a polite nod before walking back to her table.
“That was a lot easier than I expected it to be.” Lorenz muttered, shaking his head. “But, if we can pull this off, I’m sure it would put a lot of our minds at rest.”
“I miss the Professor.” Marianne said softly, fiddling with her hands a bit.
Lysithea nodded solemnly. “It just isn’t the same without him teaching us. I don’t feel like we’ve really gotten any learning done without him.”
Claude nodded, setting his hands on the table. “So to get this all started…”
***
It took a little over a week to get everything together and for them to get the permission they needed but after they agreed to take a few of the staff with them, the houses were set and ready to go on their “bonding exercise”.
Rumour had already broken out on what it actually was but no one was trying to stop it or change it. Rhea had even made sure that they had enough provisions and blankets to keep them all warm on their “exercise”.
The hardest part of it all wasn’t convincing Seteth. It was actually getting Byleth out of his room. It took all three house leaders to convince him to leave with them. And once they were on the road, it became clear that he was feeling guilty about leaving the monastery.
“You can do all your work at a later time, Teach.” Claude said as he walked next to Byleth.
“I shouldn’t have left it in such disarray.” Byleth said softly, his eyes trained on the road ahead of them. He had been surprised to see so many of the students going on the exercise, not used to seeing them all intermingle like this.
Caspar and Ashe were excitedly chatting away while Ignatz and Ingrid were pointing different things out to each other as they walked. Edelgard had gotten caught up in Hilda and Mercede’s chatter.
It was a refreshing change to his mindset with seeing them all happily amongst each other.
You should be happy about this. They want you to be happy too Sothis chimed in, making Byleth’s walk stutter for a second before he corrected himself and waved Claude’s worry off. Fool
“So what is this all about? I wasn’t alerted to this coming up.” Byleth asked, taking a glance over at Claude who was suddenly talking with Dimitri who had lagged back to walk with them.
Dimitri was the one to give him a polite smile and answer his question. “It was a bit of a surprise on all of us as well. Some scheduling had gotten moved around and they decided to come up with something that would benefit everyone.” When he noticed Byleth’s usual deadpan expression shift just a bit, he couldn’t stop the chuckle that left him. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“It’s not that,” Byleth shook his head. “I just find it a bit odd that I wasn’t given any sort of notice on this until this very morning. Seems a bit unorganized.”
Claude gave Dimitri and grin and a wink before he took over. “Believe me, Teach. Everyone was surprised by it too. They decided to tell us yesterday right before classes ended so we had little to no time to prepare. I’m surprised you weren’t told about it though.” He shrugged, giving Byleth a grin. “I’m happy you decided to come along with us though.”
“It was hard to get all three of you to leave me be.” Byleth quipped, looking ahead of them again. “You can be surprisingly stubborn when the three of you work together.” That got a laugh from both of the boys. “And it’s hard to match Dimitri’s strength when he won’t let me shut my door.”
“That...I-I,” Dimitri sputtered, visibly flustered as his cheeks started turning red. “I do apologize for the force but-”
“It’s fine, Dimitri.” Byleth said quietly, looking at the flustering prince before he gave him the barest hint of a smile. “Thank you.” And with that, he sped up his pace to catch up with some of the other students. He had missed quite a bit while grieving and wanted to see how everyone was doing.
Claude whistled lowly, winking at Dimitri. “You got a smile! That’s rare!”
Dimitri was awestruck. He’d never seen Byleth smile before. And that was going to be engraved in his mind for a long long time now. He cleared his throat and started walking ahead, ignoring Claude’s laughter before he felt the other walk alongside him again.
The large group walked for what must have been hours before they finally were given the signal to stop.
“Alright, start setting up the tents. Make sure you all have adequate space surrounding each tent without being too far apart!” Catherine was quick to take charge and start ordering them around. She did her part as well, helping a few of the students out with learning how to set up their tents properly.
Byleth had set his up in record speed, garnering a few heckling words from those around him. “If you need my help, just tell me.” He responded as Sylvain complained about how Byleth was way too good at everything. Again.
“I’m not saying I need help. I’m saying you need to stop with those not having flaws thing.” Sylvain said, rolling his eyes. He barely managed to dodge the slap to his head from Felix, dancing out of his reach quickly. “That was not very nice, Felix.”
“And neither are you.” Felix muttered, pulling Sylvain back to their tent that was only half constructed. “Professor, it looks like Lysithea and Marianne could use your help.”
Byleth looked towards where the girls were and nodded, noticing that they did indeed need some sort of help. Lysithea was laughing as Marianne struggled to hold the tent up together only for it to fall right down onto the ground. He made his way to them and offered his assistance which was gratefully accepted from a laughing Lysithea and a furiously blushing and embarrassed Marianne.
It took a lot longer than anyone thought it would to set everything up, the sun nearly setting by the time tents were properly set up and their things stored safely inside. A few of the students had gotten together and built a few campfires, some others had started working on making dinner; Ashe and Dedue taking that particular task up swiftly before someone else could get their hands on it. The rest were amicably chatting away with each other.
Byleth almost felt out of place with all the cheer going on around him. It was then he realized that he hadn’t thought of his father all the entire trip out to the area. It made him feel guilty.
Why? Sothis asked softly, appearing at his side. You should not have to wallow in the pain forever. They’d already had this argument. When Byleth made to shake his head, she piped up again. You are an utter fool. An ignoramus. Look at all of them. They did this for you.
Confused, Byleth looked around at all the students. What made Sothis say that? She didn’t say anything else to him and he was whisked away by Mercedes and Hilda suddenly, being pulled further into the mass of students. He was forced to sit with everyone just as the food was being passed around, everyone happily digging in once it was cleared for them to eat. The chattering started up again, most of them filling him in on what had been happening around the monastery while he was holed up in his room.
Not a single one of them gave him looks of pity. Leonie didn’t even mention Jeralt’s name once while speaking to him. Mercede’s only checked on his health once but she claimed it was because he looked paler than usual. Ferdinand even spoke to him about something other than nobility for once.
It made his eyes water up and he quickly ducked his head to focus on his food, avoiding looking at anyone directly in fear that he would start crying.
They care about you. Sothis whispered, her presence at his back. They wanted to see you happy again
And just like she was there, she was gone again.
Byleth took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking up just in time to see Flayn grinning at him as she sat down in front of him. She looked around at everyone before catching the attention of the three house leaders.
“Can we explain it now?” She asked, her smile staying.
“I don’t see why not.” Edelgard shrugged, a small smile on her lips as well.
“It’s been long enough, I believe.” Dimitri agreed, looking to Claude.
Claude nodded, clapping his hands together as he sat down next to Flayn. The other two did as well, both looking a bit sheepish. “So, Teach-”
“What is the meaning of all this then?” Byleth blurted out, looking between all four of them for some sort of answer.
“Well, it was Claude and Hilda’s idea originally.” Flayn replied, holding her hand up when she saw him try to say something. “But, collectively everyone agreed to it.”
“Right,” Claude nodded, grinning widely at him. “Welcome to the first ever Garreg Mach Class Camping Trip.”
Byleth stared at him in surprise before he started laughing.
The entire camp went quiet at the sound of it. Everyone being shell-shocked.
“You-You,” Byleth sucked a breath in to control his breathing. “I cannot believe this.” He shook his head, smiling at them. “How did you convince Seteth?”
“Why is he always the problem?!” Flayn laughed, rolling her eyes.
“You should know better than us.” Claude said, nudging her with a grin before he turned his attention back to Byleth. “Sooooo, whaddya think?”
“Thank you.” Byleth said with a sigh, still smiling at them and quickly ducked his head again at the tell tale feel of his eyes watering again.
Surprised yet again, the three leaders just looked between each other before they all smiled. “No need to thank us, Teach.” Claude said happily, leaning forward to get into Byleth’s personal space. “We’re just happy to get you out of your room. You were starting to turn into Bernadetta.”
Byleth snorted, shaking his head before he looked up. “Don’t be rude to her.” He ran a hand through his hair, sighing softly. “I’m serious. Thank you. To all of you.” He looked past them towards where some of the other students were milling about. “I should properly tell all of them as well.”
“I’m sure they would love to hear it from you.” Edelgard commented, glancing back as well.
Nodding, Byleth tore his eyes away from the other group to look at the ones in front of him. “But we will need to have a talk about deception and coercion later.” He then stood up and gave them all a bow before he was stopped by Flayn who quickly wrapped her arms around him. Unsure of what to do, Byleth stood there in surprise before he was released just as quickly.
“I have wanted to do that for a while now!” Flayn said happily, shooing him off. “Go now. Go see them now.” She gently pushed Byleth towards a group of students who were now watching them with interest.
Byleth cleared his throat and nodded. “Right.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he took off away from them and towards the other groups.
Edelgard looked between the other three with a soft smile. “Does this mean the plan worked?”
“It would seem so!” Claude said, rolling up onto his feet. “Let’s go join them!” He held his hands out for the other two to take them. He pulled them up and let go as he whirled around to walk towards everyone else.
When they got over there, they found Annette and Mercedes were practically crying while Ashe was trying his hardest not to. But everyone looked relieved to see their beloved Professor was interacting with them again.
Every single one of them were shocked back into silence when Byleth gave them a full smile.
The group hug that ensued after it broke them all back into happy chatter.
And Byleth hadn’t felt this happy in months.