Chapter Text
With the Alliance over and new lords to recruit for the Kingdom’s cause, mountains of preparations to be made for the battle to come, and the daily demands of life around Garreg Mach, Dmitri was understandably under a lot of stress. His bad habit of spending nights working himself to the bone had stuck with him all these years, burning through candle after candle as he sat at his desk and plotted out battle plans and wrote up reports, even though you and him were meant to share that responsibility.
Despite the many protests that you and Dedue mounted against him, insisting that he best get some rest, he’d simply shake his head and argue that he couldn’t sleep most night anyways. He never mentioned nightmares but you could guess that the voices of his family must be keeping him up at night, plaguing the corners of his thoughts like stubborn, sickly weeds.
Then the soft clatter of a teacup onto its saucer shook you from your worries. “I’ve heard two sighs from you now in the last five minutes,” Mercedes teased gently, “It’s not like you to be so lost in thought.” The two of you were having afternoon tea together under the shade of the lemon tree in the garden, a much-needed break from both of your growing responsibilities around the monastery.
“I’m sorry Mercedes, I’m getting distracted again,” You apologized sheepishly. Mercedes laughed and reached over to touch your arm comfortingly.
“What troubles you Professor? Is there any way I can help?” She offered, “You’re always so kind to listen to my troubles and I’d like to listen to yours as well, if you’d let me of course.”
Hmm, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask others for advice on how to deal with Dmitri. “It’s about Dmitri,” you sigh, “You’ve seen how he never sleeps; he’s constantly working himself to near death but he won’t listen to either me or Dedue when we urge him to rest.”
Mercedes nodded her head knowingly. “He is certainly the stubborn one,” she added.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a sleeping potion that I could use on him would you?” You asked jokingly; Mercedes laughed.
“I fear that that would anger him more than it would help him,” She replied, “there must be another way to get him to take a break.”
“What do you normally do when you need a break Mercedes? Perhaps a different relaxing method might work for him.” You asked.
Mercedes looked off into the distance as she tapped her finger against her chin, giving your question much thought. “Normally I might take a walk around the monastery,” She said, “Or have tea with you, Professor, or perhaps Annette. I find talking to my friends to be very relaxing.”
“Maybe a walk could work,” You mumbled, but you sincerely doubted Dmitri was the kind of person who enjoyed a leisurely stroll. You stared down at the teacup in front of you with yet another sigh, hoping to find the answer lying there underneath the brim.
Suddenly you gasped and sat straight up in your chair, catching Mercedes by surprise. “I’ll ask Dmitri to have tea with me!” You said excitedly, eyes shining with delight, “Chamomile is his favorite, after all, that’ll certainly help him get some sleep. Maybe talking to me will also help him relax a bit.”
Mercedes eyes lit up as well as she clapped her hands enthusiastically. “Yes Professor, I think that’s a great idea. He’d never turn you down for tea.”
She found it rather amusing that you didn’t catch her drift when she commented on Dmitri’s seeming inability to ever turn you down. Mercedes, and the others in the Blue Lions, had all begun to catch onto the growing intimacy between you and Dmitri. Since Dmitri had finally begun to move away from the revenge-obsessed mentality he’d been drowning in for so long, he had slowly begun to warm up to his friends and comrades again, but nowhere near as quickly as he had opened up to you. Most days, you and Dmitire were nearly inseparable, strategizing for battle and pouring over reports from the front lines together.
But, the two of you were both completely oblivious to the feelings that were budding inside the both of you. It couldn’t be helped though, given the fast-paced nature of the war that everyone was so deeply immersed in.
Perhaps after the war is over, Mercedes hoped, could the two of you get the chance to find happiness with one another.
…
You knew that simply asking Dmitri to tea wouldn’t guarantee that he would go; he was likely to protest and say that there was no time for such frivolous activities. So, you decided to resort to a little bit of lying just to make sure he’d show up.
Dmitri came rushing through the doors of the Officers Academy with such a look of concern on his face that you felt a teensy bit guilty for lying, but also warm that he’d come so quickly to your side. When he saw you standing by the back door of the building he hurried forward with confusion on his face. “Is everything all right Professor? I just got your message, but there was something urgent you needed to see me for?”
You nodded and tugged him along by the sleeve of his shirt to the small field just outside of the Officers Academy, trying your hardest not to break out into a smile. When the two of you rounded the corner, there was a little table set out with a big pot of chamomile tea, a heaping platter of cheese, crackers, grapes, and a number of cured meats, and a vase of flowers, courtesy of Dedue.
Dmitri was puzzled, to say the least. And then it dawned on him that perhaps this all had to do with all the nagging you’d been doing lately about taking a break. He looked over at you and you could tell he was trying hard not to let his exasperation show on his face, but you pushed on anyways; you were determined to get this crazy man to finally breathe.
“Have a seat,” you said, gesturing towards the open chair and shooting him a welcoming smile despite the look on his face.
“What’s all this for? It’s not my birthday,” Dmitri replied flatly, but he did take a seat on the bench across from you.
“So you’ll only have tea with me when it’s your birthday?” You teased gently. Dmitri’s face instantly flickered over with regret for his words, but you waved it off with a soft laugh. “I figured you could use a break.”
“I’ve hardly been doing enough to warrant a break,” Dmitri sighed, “I still have to send out a response to the General stationed at the bridge by tomorrow, and there are those in the village near here who were asking about opening up trade routes into the former Alliance territories and -”
Dmitri stopped when he caught a whiff of the tea that you had poured into his cup, and his eyes widened. “Is that chamomile tea?” He asked, his typically reserved tone slipping into a tad of excitement.
You nodded your head enthusiastically. “I hope it is still your favorite.”
A small smile lifted the corner of Dmitri’s mouth as he took the cup into his hand, swirling the tea around before lifting it up to his lips. He let out a deep sigh of contentment as he swallowed it down slowly, savoring the warmth and the light flavor on his tongue. “It’s been a long time since I’ve last had tea,” He admitted softly, the lines of stress between his brows already beginning to fade away.
“When was the last time? With Dedue perhaps?” You asked as you picked up your own cup of tea.
Dmitri chuckled a bit darkly. “I believe it was with you actually, Professor, a little over five years ago. Before everything in Fodlan went sideways.”
You stared at Dmitri in stunned silence. It would do no one any good now to ruminate on the past, but you couldn’t help but think about how lonely those five years must have been for Dmitri, with no one to speak to but the voices in his head. You knew that it wasn’t your fault, but perhaps things could have been different if you had not been stuck in that sleep for such a long time.
Dmitri noticed your expression falter and cursed himself; he had not intended to dampen the mood. He could never seem to properly show his gratitude towards you, the person who owed the most to, and it bothered him. Perhaps if he were better at socializing, like Sylvain or Annette, he could make you happier.
“I’m s-sorry Professor, I didn’t mean anything by that,” he said sheepishly, tugging at the back of his eyepatch out of habit, “What I meant to say was that, I-I’m really glad that we can have tea like this again.”
Perhaps the light was playing tricks on your eyes, but you could have sworn that there was just the slightest pink blush dusting Dmitri’s pale cheeks. His eyes darted down to stare at his teacup in a rare bout of shyness and you stifled a laugh, not wanting to embarrass him any further.
“I’m happy to be having tea with you again too,” You replied, smiling over the brim of your teacup. And, in an urge of bold honesty, you added, “I’ve missed you.”
It was your turn to flush pink and glance away now, missing the wide-eyed look in Dmitri’s bright blue eyes. The words alone didn’t make much sense, you and Dmitri had been reunited for almost six months now, but the two of you knew what you’d meant. You’d missed the real Dmitri, the one whose eyes were hopeful and determined, looking toward the future. But now, there was no persistence for taking revenge but instead for making his dreams for the world come true. It was a nice change, a good one.
“Thank you Professor,” Dmitri mumbled quietly, unable to say the right words to capture everything you felt. But you understood him and smiled, nodding your head.
…
When Dmitri blinked his eyes open hazily, he startled at first, confused about where he was and how he’d gotten there. But when he looked up at your snoozing face above him, he suddenly remembered and his face flushed bright red; you had insisted that he take a nap here before heading back to work, coaxing him with promises to wake him in an hour. Unable to refuse you, he’d accepted, but he hadn’t expected you to offer your lap for his pillow. He had quickly protested at first but you refused to take no for an answer as you folded your coat over to make a pillow for him to lay between his head and your thighs.
And here he was, staring up at your sleeping face as his cheeks grew warmer and warmer by the second. The sun had begun to slip beneath the horizon, much longer than an hour had passed since he'd dozed off, but he hardly cared. He couldn’t help but stare at your closed eyelids, the soft rise and fall of your shoulders, the line of your parted lips shifting slightly with each breath you took. Your hand had stilled amidst carding through his blonde locks, emitting a soft warmth from your fingertips.
Just half a year before, Dmitri couldn’t have imagined being able to be here with you like this, passing the afternoon by in blissful calm. Perhaps if he were a bolder man, a better man more worthy of you, he’d reach out to touch you right now. But he violently shoved such thoughts out of his mind, at least for now. Now was not the time to entertain such fantasies.
He just hoped that you wouldn’t be roused by the impossibly wild beating of his heart.