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To the surprise of no one, the grand gardens of Smash Manor was always Daisy’s spot of choice for any occasion. There was nothing like being surrounded by beautiful flowers, the breeze of a cool summer evening, and the warmth of a nice cup of tea accompanied with a slice of her favorite cake to celebrate today’s victory in a match.
Earlier today, Daisy, along with her doubles partner, Byleth Eisner, had claimed victory in a match against the ferocious King Bowser and the radiant hero, Ike. It was an intense match, both teams fought tooth and nail to hold onto their final stock. It had left everyone on the edge of their seats in pure excitement and heart-racing anticipation to see what move either fighter was going to make. But in the end, team Daisy left victorious after knocking an unconscious Bowser skyhigh with her trusty cast iron skillet to avenge Byleth, Bowser claiming his last stock. She remembered the sound of the audience chanting her name as well with Byleth’s, celebrating the good fight he gave when in the arena.
She felt good. Winning always felt good.
The princess sets her tray of goodies gently on the garden table, grabbing one of the available matching metallic seats and makes herself comfortable, awaiting her teammate’s arrival. Meanwhile, she reaches for her cup of tea while it was still hot. Daisy takes a little sip and is instantly taken aback by the sweetened bitterness with an audible gag. She forced herself to gulp it down, wincing as her taste buds had to withstand the poorly brewed sugar blend.
Oof, she forgot she wasn’t very good at making tea….
Daisy places her revolting tea back on the tray, her attention now being brought to the devil’s food cake that awaited her next. The slice she had helped herself to had to have been big enough to divide into two slices. But she didn’t care. She deserved this cake dammit. After all, it represented today’s fight; A Big Piece of Cake.
The tomboy smiles at her big slice of chocolate delight while twirling her fork with anticipation, ready to reward today’s victory in moist rich chocolatey goodness. And with her shining utensil, Daisy pierces into the edge piece, making sure to get a good ratio of cake and icing. And just as she was seconds away from going to flavortown-
“I see you started the party without me,”
Daisy froze, putting her fork down and turned to where the voice came from. On her right stood her teammate, Byleth, his tall frame and black cloak creating a figure that initially startled the princess at first glance.
“Oh, B there you are!” she says. “You scared the hell out of me,”
“I tend to do that with everyone,” he replies plainly. From the corner of his eye he noticed the tray of tea essentials Daisy had already set, along with his lone empty cup. “My apologies for being late,”
“It’s fine, just take a seat!”
Byleth gracefully removes his draping coat. He was careful with its length, making sure not to knock anything over in the process. And after a quick but crisp fold, Byleth hangs it on the backside of the vacant chair to which he helps himself to across from Daisy.
“So how’s the coat?” She asks.
Had seen better days…” he replies, lifting the right sleeve to show off the once torn sleeve now neatly stitched back into place. “But your friend Princess Peach did a fine job stitching it back together. Certainly rude of Bowser to tear it like that. No one has consideration for irreplaceable clothing these days…”
His dry delivery made Daisy respond with a chortle.
She and Byleth weren’t strangers to having cups of tea together. In fact, they have been ever since Byleth entered the mansion.
Ever since that last January, where Daisy read the name of her doubles partner’s name; Byleth Eisner. She still remembered the day that followed the match, where they finally got to meet with their assigned teammate face to face.
The first noticeable thing being that Byleth was a shockingly tall person, laddering Daisy by at least a foot. His face wore a blank, unreadable expression with a set of crystal blue eyes and bold lashes that were almost hypnotic the more Daisy would stare. A very different face than what she was looking at now, however the eyes still were their hypnotic selves.
They were an odd looking pair side by side, but in battle, Daisy and Byleth’s skills were like bread and butter.
And after a mind-blowing first victory for the pair, an excitable Daisy had invited Byleth to a celebratory cup of tea (which she had deemed ‘victeary’) to which the professor accepted. Since then, the two had become close friends, using every post-match to gossip over several cups of chamomile.
After placing two tiny sugar cubes into his cup, Byleth carefully pours his tea. “I wanted to start by congratulating us both for another team battle victory,” said Byleth. “But more of a congratulations to you for being the last one standing,”
Daisy gives him a big smile. “Aw thanks, B. It was nothin’. Tusslin’ with big monsters one-on-one just ain’t a thing to me these days,”
He levels his cup and coaster to his chest, getting a light whiff of the fine aroma the deceitful brew gave off. “I can’t help but still express my admiration for your fighting skill, even after being your teammate some months now. It’s always impressive to see someone hold up in a fight with a fire breathing dragon twice her size. To that, I say congrats,” the professor says to the princess, giving her a motion of a small ‘cheers’ with his cup before tipping back his cup full of tea.
And almost instantly, Byleth’s eyes shot open in surprise from the shocking taste. Another victim of Daisy's bitter tea had been claimed. He quickly sets the tea cup down on the table, choosing to drain it down forcefully rather than spitting it out all over the table. A wind blew from his nostrils, grimacing at the revolting aftertaste lingering in his mouth.
“Oh that’s terrible!” Byleth marveled. Upon hearing a snort, the teacher took his bewildered gaze across from him to find that Daisy witnessed it all and was giggling at his reaction.
“Sorryy~” Daisy says in a sing-song tone of voice. The professor clears his throat, a hue of pink creeping on his cheeks embarrassed by his outburst in front of the princess. “Kinda forgot I’m not as good a tea maker as I am a tea drinker,”
“It’s fine… I’ll just have to get a fresh pot later…,” Byleth coughs into his napkin. He fixes his posture to present himself properly once more for his princess friend.
“But… as I said,” Byleth continues after clearing his throat once more, detecting the presence of leftover tea. “It’s not everyday you get to see a monarch punch the gut of a menacing beast, let alone use their own cooking utensil to knock it unconscious. Then delightfully helping themself to tea in the garden… regardless of how bad it is,” A hand rests upon Byleth’s cheek, his crystal blue eyes staring into the short brunette across from him with complete interest.
“You truly are a fascinating royale, Daisy. I never met anyone quite like you,”
Daisy’s stuffing of the face with cake had paused. This was out of nowhere. Byleth’s sudden commendation, along with his charm caught her completely off guard. So off guard that she didn’t notice her cheeks had burned a tint of pink.
She felt as if the world had stopped around her and Byleth as he continued to look at her. She was practically held captive by his gaze, his smile, his words that echoed in her mind… it was all that existed to Daisy at that moment.
There it was again… that feeling.
A feeling Daisy had begun dealing with recently. A feeling that made it difficult for Daisy to breathe, leave her completely tongue tied, and have a pit of butterflies for a stomach.
It made Daisy think back to today’s match that afternoon…
In the literal heat of the battle against Bowser, Daisy chose to leap above his fiery fire breath and attempt to slash the dragon with her jewel embroidered crown. However, she miscalculated her attack by an inch, resulting in her falling to the ground and leaving her completely vulnerable. The surface began to quake, signaling that Bowser was charging fast and looking to finish her off. Daisy quickly tried to get herself off of the ground, fearing it might’ve been too late.
Until…
An arrow had struck the Koopa King, sending him flying and giving Daisy enough time to get herself together. Meanwhile, she picked up a set of footsteps that were much softer than Bowser’s.
“Are you alright?” she hears in a tone of worry. Shadowing her kneeling body was Byleth, his gifted Failknaught in hand. He puts away the bow and arrow to carefully lift Daisy back on her feet with both hands. There, she got a good look at her teammate, and that was where the feeling chose to strike.
He was sweaty and roughed up from what she assumed was his brawl with Ike. But even then, Daisy could not deny Byleth was incredibly handsome, even with a face riddled in concern. Of course she was alright, Bowser didn’t touch her… but Daisy suddenly found she couldn’t say that… or anything. The thought of Byleth checking on her strangely left her lost for words.
She could only nod in response, which made him give a smile that made her heart unexpectedly flutter.
“I’m glad that you are,” he says softly. Byleth turned to notice the screen display showing Bowser’s percentage had been reset, Daisy meanwhile was distracted by the fact that their hands were still interlocked. “But let’s continue to stay focused. It’s now two against one,”
…. That was until Bowser grabbed him and tossed Byleth off the stage.
Really though, it made Daisy wonder…
With how she would act downright goofy towards Byleth’s acts of kindness, and even thinking of him as handsome…
…Did Daisy develop a crush on her teammate?
Truth be told, Daisy never knew how to properly deal with having any form of affection for anybody upfront. These goofy feelings and her being flustered, it just felt wrong, she thought. Daisy knew she had to shake these thoughts of Byleth off before it got anymore overwhelming.
So, she did what she knew best.
Daisy suppressed her bashful feelings with her usual boastful behavior, her lips fixing a smug smirk on the corner of her mouth as she dramatically flipped her bob. Turning her attention away from Byleth’s hypnotic stare, she gloats, “Well… I don’t like to toot my own horn, buuut,”
Byleth hums a soft laugh. “And I’m guessing this cake is a reward?” the professor directs both their attention to the devil’s food slice Daisy had already eaten away bits and pieces of.
She happily presents her chocolate smeared china plate to Byleth with a fat smile. “Yep!”
“Hm. It looks good actually,” he says, studying the craftsmanship of how neatly it had been sliced despite it being slightly eaten. His eyes then flicker on Daisy again, a warm smile to his lips. “Mind if I have a taste?”
“Oh sure!” Daisy says. A thought hatched in her mind at that moment.
Byleth awaited patiently, watching Daisy carefully separate a bigger section from the slice of the chocolate dessert. She stabs it with the fork and up goes the chunk of cake…. Aimed at Byleth's face.
“W… What’s this?”
“I’m giving you a taste,” Daisy replies. She tilts her head. “I was just thinkin’, since you were feeding me those sweet compliments, I figured I should return the favor by feeding you something sweet,” smiling at the professor’s expression.
Byleth took a second to look at the cake piece a last time before leaning into the anticipating fork, taking a single bite of the cake chunk as Daisy lightly pulled the now clean utensil away from his enclosed lips.
“Good right?” Daisy asks.
“Mhm,” Byleth affirms with a hum and nod.
He leaned back into his chair, savoring the mouthful of chocolate cake. Across from him, Daisy wore her fat, cute smile that revealed her dimples. It gave him a sign she was very pleased he liked her returning favor, which made Byleth begin to blush.
“B…” Daisy calls then. getting his attention, she taps her upper lip to signal to Byleth where smeared icing had been located on his face.
“O-oh! Excuse me..!” Byleth fretted, Daisy noticing the pink shade clouding his cheeks had gotten more visible and quickly averted his gaze at the princess. …He was flustered.
The princess giggled. “You’re so cute,” She teases, making the redness on Byleth’s face worsen. He pats his mouth clean with his napkin, those once hypnotic eyes now scanning for anything else to focus on, and ultimately landing on the wasted beverages.
“I.. think I should go get us that better tea,” Byleth excuses with a shy smile. His mind was still in the middle of processing that he had been called cute, along with what had happened just moments ago, judging by his sudden clumsy body movement as he got up from his seat.
“Victeary, B~” Daisy corrects, winking at the taller.
“R..Right,” he bows, collecting the ivory kettle and its matching cups of now chilled chamomile, rushing back inside of the manor as Daisy watched until his figure was no longer in sight.
Daisy smiles to herself. Sure, didn’t know how to express her feelings upfront, but she could express them by giving the other a taste of how they made her feel. And she was happy enough with that.