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The fight itself had probably been Felix's fault, because most things that went wrong for Felix, life-altering family tragedies notwithstanding, were Felix's own fault. So far as Annette could tell, at least. Felix had most certainly thrown the first punch! In his defense, the man's face had looked extremely punchable, and he'd been saying some very rude things about... something? And then a lot of people had been throwing punches, breaking bottles, and beating each other with chairs. The chairs at this pub weren't very good for beatings, but people did their best anyway; Annette could admire that.
Annette had not joined in at first, and had remained in her seat next to Dimitri, who occasionally put up an arm to stop a flying bottle or chunk of wood from hitting her. Annette could have protected herself, but Dimitri had big muscles and good reflexes and liked to make himself useful, so who was she to stop him? Now, however, she was at the exact stage of drunk where everything was lovely, and therefore it was a very lovely idea to end the fight by using a wind spell to flip the biggest table in the pub out the window.
And so she did just that. If she happened to toss out the man Felix had punched as well, these things just happened. The man landed on the table outside on the street, groaning. He wasn't dead. Annette never misjudged a throw, not with magic.
The fighting stopped immediately. From across the room, still holding someone up by their shirt with his hand raised into a fist, Felix looked at her like she was the only person who had ever existed in the entire world; but he couldn't be blamed for that, because everyone else was looking at her that way too. It occurred to her that maybe she should have just gone with the spirit of things punched someone, but that looked like a lot of energy, and she couldn't reach very many people's faces.
"I think you're all being very silly!" she said, and sat down to steal the rest of Dimitri's pint, because she could get away with it.
Dimitri, who had no grounds on which to be exasperated by anyone else's bad behavior, put his face in his hands and sighed.
It was at this point that the barkeep threw Annette and Felix and told them never to return to this pub ever again and that he'd have the Knights of Seiros on them for disorderly conduct and damage to property. This left Dimitri to stand up and explain to the woman that he was the King of Faerghus--no, he truly was, here was his signet and his Crest--and the Crown would of course pay for any and all damages incurred this night by his trusted family retainers, and he apologized sincerely on their behalf.
Annette, on her way out the door, did not hear anything but that last bit. She was a warrior for her Kingdom, and Dimitri had called her--
"Trusted family retainer?" Annette said, rolling up her sleeves to go back inside. She wasn't quite sure why she was angry, but between here and Dimitri, she'd find a reason. And she'd give him the hiding of a lifetime! The nerve.
"Hmm," Felix said.
"My father was a trusted family retainer," she said. Oh, there it was. "I'm a soldier. There's a difference. Do I seem like my father to you?"
"Your hair is less grey," Felix said, as meekly as he ever said anything, and picked her up under the arms, physically turned her away from the pub. "It's cold, let's go back to the monastery."
He was right. She wouldn't be grey for a long time, and she'd never, ever be like her father. Annette would have been insulted at Felix manhandling like her she was an ill-behaved goat, except it had been cloudy when the three of them had come into town and now a drop of rain fell on the tip of her nose.
"This is all your fault," said Annette, grabbing Felix by the arm and dragging him Monastery-ward. She and Dimitri were going to have a nice night away from the monastery, to have a few drinks not as liege and general but as two old school friends, but then Felix had come along and said Someone has to keep an eye on the boar, as if Annette could not handle Dimitri herself if Dimitri got a bit too... Dimitri.
Another drop of rain hit her on the forehead. "And now you've gotten us thrown out of the nicest pub this side of Fort Charon--"
"That's a very low bar," Felix muttered.
"And you make stupid puns about it!" Annette said.
Felix's brow wrinkled in confusion, which told her very clearly that he'd had no idea he'd made a pun until she pointed it out. Of all things, this took some of the wind from her sails. Felix had never made a joke in his entire life. It must have been a terrible burden. She couldn't be mad at him.
Besides, the raindrops were coming harder now: not hard enough to get her nice dress wet in any meaningful way, but just hard enough to be insulting. Well, she couldn't go up to the Goddess's heaven and fight the sky, for all she'd felt like she'd been able to a few minutes ago.
"Oh, no. Felix," she said, clutching his arm. "I think I may be very drunk."
"You are," he said. "So am I."
"The rain is also your fault," she said, gesturing at the sky and then ducking into the shadow of an old tree. The night was dark with clouds, and darker in the shade, and she set a little fire to bobbing around them. It lit Felix's face with a dull coppery glow.
Felix began, "If the Boar--"
Annette cleared her throat. When they got back to the monastery, Felix was going to have to put a silver in the Boar Jar. He'd already put a copper in today, and if he called Dimitri any variation on 'boar,' 'animal,' 'beast,' or 'swine' one more time, it would be a whole gold piece. She and Dedue were going to be rich enough to buy Derdriu by the time they broke Felix of the habit.
Felix scowled. "If Dimitri had done something--if he'd said something, I wouldn't have had to punch anyone."
Okay, maybe she could be mad at him.
"And what was it Dimitri was supposed to do something about, hmm? What did you ruin my night over?"
"Nothing," said Felix haughtily. "It's none of your concern."
"Well, if you did it for no reason, it's definitely my concern, and I am going to leave you in the dark and go back to Garreg Mach myself."
"Wait, don't--"
"I'm already leaving!" Annette said, and extinguished the flame and went out into the soft night rain.
The night was pretty, and now that her eyes were adjusted away from the lights of town, she could find her way by the muted light of the full moon behind clouds. The rain got less pleasant as she walked along the cobbled road up to Garreg Mach. She walked faster.
She was aware of Felix following her at a very respectful distance, but what did it matter to her! She was sobering up and remembering that she didn't care about his opinion, or anything about him, no matter how many times per day she caught herself thinking about his well-built shoulders or his excellent forearms or his surprisingly gentle hands when he handed her up onto a horse or pegasus. He insisted on doing this even though Sylvain and Dimitri and Dedue were taller and all could have just picked her up and and gotten her halfway onto her mount, except she hated it when they did that but could never find the heart to tell any of them how annoying it was. Felix, having spent a lot of time with Annette irritated with him, must have recognized the signs at some point and begun stepping in to save her from their good intentions. No, she definitely did not care about that, or all the times she'd noticed him rubbing his fingers into his palm after he helped her.
"Come on," Felix said behind her, sounding almost plaintive. "You're getting soaked."
"So are you," said Annette. She sped up, but her legs were short. "And we wouldn't be getting soaked if we were still at the pub."
"Look. I punched someone because...."
Annette whirled on him and prodded him in the chest. "What? For fun?"
"He was saying rude things about you," Felix replied. "I'm not going to repeat them. I couldn't let it stand."
"You should have let it go," said Annette. "I didn't hear what he said, how could it have hurt me?"
"I couldn't!" said Felix. The rain was dripping off his nose, and he was breathing hard. "Because--"
He cut himself off, frowning. Then he came to a decision, which was always worrisome. He leaned forward, and Annette registered what was happening only when his face was too close to hers for her to pretend it was anything else.
She'd expected Felix's kisses to be clumsy and rough, but his lips were warm despite the cold rain, and light on hers, too, as he coaxed her into kissing him back. He smelled like the rain, and wet wool, and he tasted faintly like the whiskey he'd been drinking before this all started. He was agonizingly soft and careful as he brushed his lips over hers.
That just would not do. If they were going to do this, she wanted a real kiss, not a dainty peck like she was a delicate princess who'd faint if he introduced his tongue into the equation. She had to stand on her tiptoes to put her hands on his shoulders and wind her arms around his neck. His body was hot against hers, and as she clung to him, it was her turn to coax him into opening for her. She threaded her fingers through the hair at the base of his skull and pulled a little, just to see what he'd do.
Felix exhaled hard. He shook like an autumn leaf, so she pulled harder. She took the opening and used her tongue to part his lips, her mouth pressing hard against his; his hands went to her waist, squeezing as if he needed her whole body to keep himself upright. Maybe some other time she'd let him be in charge of the kiss, but not today. She was still tipsy, and still annoyed, and this didn't change anything, except it did and she didn't want to think about it because here in the dark and the rain there was no war, no king, no titles or duties, just two people doing what they did when they wanted each other.
It had to end, though. She broke away from him and pressed a kiss to his jaw, and he leaned after her until she put a hand on his chest to straighten him back up.
"Because what?" Annette said.
"Huh?"
"You were saying something," she said.
"I try not to do that," said Felix. "Say things."
"Do you? Really?"
"You're right. But"--he balked visibly, then drew in a deep breath--"I couldn't let what that man said go because--that is, even if you don't much care for me, I--"
"Felix Hugo Fraldarius, I just shoved my tongue down your throat in the pouring rain in the middle of the night on a muddy road on a mountain," Annette said, suddenly awfully aware of just how cold she was. "Don't you think I like you at least a little bit?"
This was clearly a bit too much for Felix to handle, because he looked dazed and squinted down at her in the dim, dim light.
"I couldn't let it go because I love you," he blurted out, taking her cold hands in both of his.
Unfortunately, this was at the same time as Annette said, "Goddess, I'm freezing."
Now it was Annette's turn to squint at him.
"Wow," she said, looking at their joined hands, "okay!"
"Yes."
"You do?"
"I do."
"You do." Did she? Did she love him? He couldn't just spring this on her, this was ridiculous, she wasn't prepared for it. Hadn't she felt like she was walking on clouds when he'd told her he was her captive every time she sang? Didn't she thrill when she met him on the training grounds every morning, blinking sleep from his eyes and selecting a practice sword to spar with her, his muscle against her magic? Was that love? She needed to consult some texts. She needed to make a list. Maybe even two lists.
"You don't have to answer," he said, taking her face in both his hands and staring deep into her eyes. "I understand."
"But--"
"We're tired," he said, "we're still... incapacitated." (He fumbled that word a few times before he got it right. It was cute.) He squeezed her cheeks, and she snaked her tongue out to lick the nearest finger, at which point he yelped and pulled his hands away. Served him right.
"I need to make a list first," she blurted out, which she hadn't meant to, but she was still incapacitated enough to blame it on the drink. "When I make a list I'll know."
What sounded rational in her head sounded ridiculous aloud, but he nodded with complete solemnity, as though I need to make a list was a perfectly normal response to someone declaring their love for you in the rain after getting into a fight on your behalf. They walked on in silence, but Annette slipped her hand into Felix's big, warm one, and did not mind the rain so much.