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The sky over Garreg Mach was bruised and lovely. The stoic swordsmaster had proposed to his professor at a blessed hour. He could not have planned a better backdrop for his efforts. He was surly and brusque, pushing his ring into her palm and demanding that she take it, hoping that the gesture would somehow communicate for him much of love and tenderness. Still she made him say it to her face, that he loved her.
“That’s all!” he snaps and turns away. This was going so badly! It was a mistake to even try. He was the epitome of swordsmanship, a weapon honed for conflict. What did he think he was doing wooing anyone, least of all Professor Eisner? He’d lost his sparring partner, that’s what he’s gone and done…
“Wait—“
“What, are you going to complain about something?”
“I accept,” says Byleth. “Before you make your decision, there is something you should know about me.”
“Oh, okay…” He lets out a breath. “I wasn’t expecting this. Is there a problem?” Felix looks more guarded by the minute, his face flushes up to the tips of his ears as he waits for a response that makes sense to him.
“That depends on you, really. I am not naïve; I know how this normally goes. I know what the ring means, but I don’t know what it means for us.” When he doesn’t say anything, and the silence grows, she continues. “Do you want to have children, heirs of your blood?”
“We’re getting right to it, then—shrewd as any matchmaker, I suppose,” he rubs his forehead. “To be blunt, I have been planning to adopt when the time comes. Although I have my doubts about how ethical it would be; I had a good father… I don’t know if I could live up to his example. But that’s not… it, I take it? You have an objection to becoming part of House Fraldarius? I would never impinge on your freedom--.”
“I would rather adopt too,” she says gingerly. “I have never had sex with a man,” she says. “And I don’t think I ever want to…”
“Oh,” he says. “But why—“
“I accept because I love you too.”
“Okay…”
“But you need to know, I probably won’t want to have sex with you even still… I don’t know, maybe I will but—“
“It’s fine,” he says. “I… Wow, I didn’t really know this was optional. What a fool I am!”
“Didn’t know?”
“Is that really all?” he smiles, suddenly as confident as ever. “This ring, for us, means we love each other and that I will always be at your side. It doesn’t mean sex, or children, or crests…”
“I… are you sure?”
“Sex disgusts me,” he said in a familiar tone, it was as if he were speaking of chivalry and the nobility. “I thought it was just… you know… that I prefer men but, no. I have been in love before but--”
“Oh. Okay… Dimitri?”
He closes his eyes. “And…Sylvain.”
“Sylvain?!”
“He’s a fool but he’s a good man,” Felix did not open his eyes. “And Dimitri thirsts for justice to an obscene degree, but he’s a good man too—when the boar is caged.” He finally opens his eyes. “But we were talking about us. If you don’t want to have sex, that’s no problem for me.”
Byleth looks askance. “Sex doesn’t disgust me, Felix… I just have never wanted it. I might, someday. I don’t know.”
Felix uncrossed his arms. “I am not going to start fighting battles before their time. For now, we are in agreement. You have opened my eyes… actually. A sexless marriage… Huh. I like the sound of it. But if you change your mind, you change your mind and we work it out.”
Byleth reaches into her pocket and hands Felix a ring cased round with floral motifs.
“What is this?” he says.
“You know what it means,” she crosses her arms. “I think, for once, we have a draw.”
“Huh! So we do…Fits nice too. So you’ve just been carrying this around hoping--”
“Hoping to get a chance to propose to you, if I’m honest. But the moment I take my eyes off of you you’re gone.”
He steps up to her. “That won’t ever be a problem again. I promise.” His eyes widen. “Incidentally, how do you feel about kissing?”
“I don’t know, but I think I’d like it.”
“Same,” he nods. He smells like spices and pine.