Work Text:
Annette hits her fist against the solid wood oak of the door she’s currently standing in front of, shifting from foot to foot.
“Bernadetta?” Annette asks, pausing and waiting for a response that doesn’t come. “Are you in there?”
No response. For a split second, Annette thinks that she should just give up and walk away. Maybe someone else can help her… but this thought is overridden by the mess of fabric and stitches in her satchel. She has to do this. For Mercie.
All of a sudden, a loud thump followed by a half-shrieking, half-squeaking noise emits from inside Bernadetta’s room. Annette winces, but she’s sure Bernadetta’s in there now.
“Bernadetta? Are you alright?”
“Y-yes! Don’t come in. I’m, uh, sick,” Bernadetta finally responds, voice coming out stuttered and high-pitched. Afterward, a few feeble coughing noises follow from behind the door. They sound more like someone saying the word “cough” then they do an actual cough.
“You don’t sound very sick to me!” Annette exclaims, voice filled with skepticism.
“W-well, I am,” Bernadetta squeaks, “So, go away!... P-please.”
Annette sighs. “I don’t want to bother you, I swear,” she tells the other girl. “I just… need some help. From you.”
“Help...? From… me?” Bernadetta timidly asks. The door of her dorm room creaks open ever-so-slowly, but she only opens it up just a crack, so that Annette can see one of her wide, gray-brown eyes peek out. “Why?”
“Welllll, I heard you were really good at knitting and embroidery and stuff,” Annette starts. She reaches into her satchel, pulling out the small embroidery hoop. The stitches are clumsy and she’s stabbed through the fabric in random places out of pure frustration.
“Well, um-”
“I was trying to make Mercie a present for her birthday, and she loves sewing so I thought I’d try to embroider something nice. I’m already banned from the kitchen so I couldn’t cook anything and although I went out into town to buy some sweets, I really wanted to make something special. But I’m really no good at sewing, and I can’t do it, but it has to be perfect for Mercie, because she’s such a good friend and I﹘I’m rambling aren’t I? I’m really sorry, Bernadetta, but please help me!”
After a few moments, Bernadetta opens her door wider, a silent invitation for Annette to come in. Annette takes a huge gulp of air into her lungs, out of breath from rambling so much. She walks into the room, unsure of herself as she stands in the center of Bernadetta’s room while the latter closes the door behind her.
“D-don’t look at anything! Please,” Bernadetta squawks. Annette nods her head, focusing her eyes on the floor in an attempt to make the other girl comfortable.
Bernadetta gently lifts the embroidery hoop from Annette’s hands, flipping it over to examine it. Annette continues to shift nervously from foot to foot until Bernadetta looks up at her.
“I﹘uh﹘I think I know what you’re doing wrong,” Bernadetta says, walking over to sit on her bed beside a basket filled with rolls of fabric and spools of thread. Annette follows her, gently sitting alongside her on the edge of the bed.
“First of all…”
“Thank you so much for your help, Bernadetta!” Annette exclaims in a cheerful tone.
“Oh. Uhm, you can call me Bernie if you want...” Bernadetta suggests, rubbing her thumbs together.
“Alright then, Bernie it is!” Annette says, nodding. “But seriously, thank you for your help. I can’t let Mercie down.”
“It was no problem!” Bernadetta squeaks loudly, head darting around to see if anyone’s watching or approaching the two of them.
“To be honest, you’re amazing at sewing!” Annette tells her. “I bet you could give Mercie a run for her money… that’s no small feat!”
“I’m really not that good…”
“You are! I enjoyed sewing with you, Bernie. If you don’t mind, can we do this again sometime?”
“You… actually enjoyed it? Oh, uhm﹘well, I think I’d like that too,” Bernadetta tells her, a shaky, yet genuine smile plastered on her face.
“Great! Then it’s settled,” Annette says cheerfully as she skips her way down the wooden stairs, before stopping to turn around and wave at Bernadetta. “See you later, Bernie!”
“Oh, Annie,” Mercedes exclaims, staring down at the embroidery work in her hands. “It’s wonderful! Thank you so much.”
At first, Annette was a bit nervous to deliver the gift. What if she doesn’t like it? No, Annie, of course she’d like it, what are you saying? But what if someone gave her something better? Oh no, what then?
But upon seeing Mercede’s happy, gentle gaze as she was surrounded by the gifts brought to her by her fellow Blue Lions, Annette couldn’t just stand there. Flowers from Dedue… Needles and scissors from Dimitri… Even Felix gave her something! Annette would not be the only one out of the Blue Lions to not give her something.
Sure, she had the sweets she’d bought in town still, but it felt like the easy way out. Annette wasn’t one to roll over and do things half-heartedly. So, she musters the courage to walk up to her best friend and hand her the embroidery.
To her delight, after giving it to Mercedes, her friend sweeps her up into a hug, which Annette happily returns.
“I didn’t know you could sew so well, Annie!” Mercedes tells her afterward. “Though, I suppose it doesn’t matter. It looks great, really!”
“Well, I had some help, actually…” Annette splutters, face turning red.
“Oh?” Mercedes asks, a further question on her lips.
Annette smiles. “It’s a secret! But she﹘I mean﹘they are amazing at sewing. I was a wreck without their help…”
“Maybe I need to get Dimitri to go get lessons from them, then!” Mercedes laughs. Annette has heard all about her house leader’s rather… disastrous attempts at sewing. Annette rolls her eyes, smiling fondly as they chat about their classmates.
She glances back towards the dorms, where Bernadetta is surely holed up in her room. Maybe she’ll sew something cute to give to the other girl as thanks… though perhaps then she’ll have to ask Mercedes for help…
But still, she really thinks Bernadetta deserves it. Despite her attempts to brush other people off, Bernadetta is a talented person! Annette wishes she was that talented…
Annette spares one final glance at Bernadetta’s door.
Thank you, Bernie!