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English
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Published:
2022-10-25
Completed:
2023-02-21
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2,150
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2/2
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Equivalent Exchange

Summary:

Annette continues her quest to bribe Felix to forget about her songs. Felix questions her methods.

 

just a short little academy phase drabble about first kisses!

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Felix stared down at Annette in disbelief. He must have misheard her.

 

“What,” he said. He figured that covered most of his most pressing questions.

 

Annette turned another, deeper shade of red, and began continuing on as if he’d understood her the first time – which he was pretty sure he had not.

 

“I don’t mean it as anything serious!” she said, her voice cracking as she leaned into the final word. “But the professor says I’m not allowed to take your chores anymore, and you don’t ever want my desserts at dinner, and I’m running out of ideas and Sylvain and Mercedes said that if I can’t do extra stable duty –”

 

“Annette,” Felix said, cutting her off before everyone on the second floor of the dormitories heard them. He already wished he’d invited her into his room instead of just leaning against the door frame; this conversation was not going the way he expected.

 

Annette cut off. “What?” she asked.

 

Felix swallowed hard, willing his own blush to fade. “I’m not kissing you as a replacement for stable duty,” he said. It sounded reasonable, as he said it. He was pretty sure he was being reasonable.

 

Annette looked at him as if he was not. “Why not?” she demanded, scowling up at him.

 

“I mean – a lot of reasons?” Felix said, although he was having trouble naming one. “For one, I don’t see how those two are even equivalent. And also, I never asked you to take my chores in the first place. And also,” he said, the final and best critique finally springing to mind, “Did you say you got this advice from Sylvain?” Felix felt a sudden, irrational twinge of jealousy. “Does Sylvain know about steaks and cakes and crumbs and –”

 

“Felix. Keep your voice down,” Annette hissed. She looked frantically around the empty hallway, and even though there were no obvious eavesdroppers to hear them, she pushed Felix back into his room, swiftly shutting the door behind them both. “No, Sylvain doesn’t know. He just said it might be something you’d find convincing, since the chores aren’t working.”

 

“What,” Felix said again. Annette had him cornered between the door and his desk, but at the moment he was able to think less about her hands pressing him into the wall and more about creative places to hide Sylvain’s body.

 

“Well, I don’t know, I just thought it was worth asking,” Annette said, and Felix couldn’t tell if she was angry or embarrassed at this point. “Mercedes agreed that it couldn’t hurt to ask.”

 

“Sylvain I can understand,” Felix said. “But why is Mercedes encouraging this?”

 

He had a distinct memory of Mercedes watching some student from the Golden Deer house lean in a little too closely when he helped Annette find a book on the taller library shelves, and the way she had actually growled under her breath before flouncing over to find the book for them both. Not that Felix could blame her. That guy was an absolute creep, and if Mercedes hadn’t intervened, Felix probably would’ve challenged him to a fight right there, no swords required.

 

Annette huffed, drawing Felix’s attention away from missed opportunities and motivations he didn’t need to be interrogating right now. She crossed her arms and glared up at him.

 

“She didn’t encourage it. You make her sound like Sylvain,” she said, with a full implication that this was an unpardonable insult. “She just said that if I wanted to, it would be a good way to take your mind off – ooooh, never mind! Leave me alone, Felix!”

 

She pushed him back, or maybe pushed herself back, and turned with a surprising amount of dignity, given that she nearly knocked a stack of books over off the desk as she swung away from him. She marched the few steps to the door and reached for the handle.

 

“Wait, Annette.”

 

Annette turned back slowly, and for a brief moment her bluster faded enough for Felix to see a moment of sincere anxiousness cross her face.

 

“You –” Felix swallowed, taking a breath. “You want me to kiss you?”

 

The anxiety intensified, and Annette’s eyes darted away from him. “I didn’t say – I mean – it would be nicer than cleaning out that stables, that’s all!” she said. She covered her eyes with her hands. “Ugh, I’m never talking to Sylvain again. Or you. Stop looking at me,” she said.

 

It was barely two steps over to the doorway. Felix half expected Annette to run away before he closed the distance, but she stayed where she was. Slowly, hesitantly, he grabbed her hands, pulling them away from her face. She looked up at him, and he was fairly sure she wasn’t angry at him, even if she was redder than ever.

 

Not that he was any better.

 

“If you don’t want to, I understand,” she said. “Just don’t tell anyone we had this conversation. Sylvain is going to ask, but just tell him you don’t know me. Or maybe don’t talk to Sylvain ever again, either. I think that’s very good advice that we could all try to –”

 

Felix wasn’t sure what to say to any of this, so he leaned in and kissed her instead.

 

He almost immediately wondered if he’d made a mistake. Not the kissing Annette part – that part was wonderful in exactly the way knights’ tales were always blathering on about, much to Felix’s dismay. Annette smelled of roses and old books and her fingers fit perfectly between his and the whole room seemed warm and out of focus, but pleasantly so, like sunshine in summer.

 

But Annette’s tightening grip against his hands, the surprised squeak that caught at the back of her throat, the way she stood completely still as if all the muscles in her body had tensed up – no, he had definitely made a mistake. He didn’t have a lot of experience kissing, but he was sure it was a bad sign if the object of your affection didn’t kiss you back. He should have stuck to swords.

 

Felix pulled away quickly. He tried to take a step back, but the desk was behind him and Annette still had his hands in a vice-like grip. Backtracking with his words was no more successful.

 

“I didn’t mean – I thought you wanted –” he tried. “Listen, Annette, for once I understand if you think I’m a –

 

Annette dropped his hands to grab his shirt collar and pull him down to her level before kissing him again.  

 

Felix realized for the second time that day that he’d been mistaken. This was what the knights’ tales, blast them, were always talking about. Felix leaned down to kiss Annette properly, sliding his hands around her waist, and when she sighed against him it was like the first note of a song he was planning to commit to memory for the rest of his life.

 

They broke away, gasping, and Annette placed her hands flat on his chest as she stared up at him. Felix realized she was smiling. Even more surprisingly, he realized he might have been, too.

 

“That was . . . nice,” Annette said, the corners of her mouth turning up even further.

 

“It was,” Felix agreed.

 

“Maybe Sylvain has a point?” Annette said begrudgingly.

 

Felix snorted. “Absolutely not.”

 

Annette giggled at this, and Felix felt his face grow warm again.

 

“So this means you’ll forget my songs, right?” she asked, leaning in towards him.

 

“What?” Felix asked yet again, bumping into the desk behind him as he leaned back. “No, of course not.”

 

“Felix!”

 

“If anything, I’m going to think about them more,” Felix said. He was blushing again, but he saw no reason to be dishonest at this point.

 

But he probably didn’t need to worry about how red he was turning, given that Annette’s face had flushed several shades darker over the course of a few seconds.

 

“Ooooh, you’re impossible!” she said, pushing away from him and crossing her arms. “And we were having such a nice time, too! You have to go and remember that.”

 

“Annette, I –”

 

“Don’t try to apologize, Felix!” Annette said, which was fine, because he hadn’t been planning on it. “I’ll remember this forever and ever!”

 

She turned and stormed out of the room, finding the doorknob much more deftly than before and slamming the door behind her.

 

Felix sat down at his desk and absently prodded the books back into a new stack. Maybe this was the third mistake he’d made that day. Maybe he should go make a fourth mistake and actually try asking Sylvain for advice for how to resolve an argument after you kissed a girl. Sylvain certainly had experience in that area.

 

On the other hand, experience wasn’t success. And Felix wasn’t even sure if it was an argument. Things had been going so well until they hadn’t.

 

And they’d agreed on the most important thing, in the end:

 

Felix was going to remember this forever, as well.

Chapter 2: whistling in the dark

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“How dare you. You . . . you absolute villain!”

 

Felix turned towards the voice and was greeted with the strange feeling of having to look up at Annette Dominic. It helped that she was standing and he was sitting, he supposed. He glanced around the great hall, but no one else was nearby. Annette was definitely talking to him specifically.

 

“What,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” Annette said, glowering down at him. “Everyone thinks you’re sooooooooo nice. But I know the truth!”

 

Felix raised the other eyebrow. None of that sounded right, to him. Still, he hadn’t had much luck winning arguments with Annette since arriving at the academy. And now he was curious.

 

“The truth?” he prompted, swinging his legs around the bench and leaning back against the table.

 

“You’ve been talking about my . . . songs , haven’t you?” Annette said, lowering her voice to a dramatic whisper that was louder than her speaking voice.

 

“What?” Felix said again, genuinely surprised this time. “No I haven’t.”

 

“You have! Claude was asking about them during class today!” Annette leaned down. “He said they were cute and interesting . You’re the only one who would call them that!”

 

Felix had never called anything cute in his life. He’d thought it, maybe, but he’d never –

 

And what was Claude von Reigan doing listening to Annette’s songs?

 

He was getting off topic.

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Felix said, leaning back against the table and away from Annette. “Maybe he overheard you singing them himself. You tend to sing in public you know.”

 

“Fine! Don’t take responsibility!“ Annette slammed her hands on either side of the table, boxing Felix in as she leaned closer. “None of this would be a problem if you’d just forget the songs like I asked. I have my reputation to consider, Felix. You can’t just go around –”

 

“Woah. Hey there. Am I interrupting something?”

 

Annette turned around with a squeak and practically fell into Felix’s lap. Felix caught her around the waist with one hand, to save himself as much as her, though he might have made matters worse.

 

Claude stood a few feet away, smirking at them.

 

“I heard you were on greenhouse duty today, Annette,” he said. “Mind if I tag along? I can come back later if you’re busy.”

 

“I – Claude! It’s not what it – I don’t have –” Annette stumbled through each sentence without ever finding the ending, and Felix could see the panic building in her eyes in real time. He had no idea what exactly she was panicking about , but he didn’t like it, all the same.

 

“Buzz off, Riegan,” he said with a scowl. “Annette’s helping me with Reason tutoring this afternoon.”

 

“Ah. That’s what that’s called.” Claude shrugged, looking more delighted than disappointed. “A shame! I’ll just creep on over to the greenhouse myself, then.”

 

Annette’s fingers dug into Felix’s arms as Claude walked away, whistling. It wasn’t until he was out of sight that she pushed herself firmly away.

 

“Felix!” she gasped, looking down at him again once she was on her feet. “That was . . . that was –”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Felix said, offering her a rare smile.

 

“That was terrible ,” Annette said, balling her fists up even as she kept her arms straight at her sides. “Claude’s going to tell everyone – you know what people are going to say now ! I can’t believe you!”

 

She stomped away before Felix could ask her what people were going to say, or if she was still mad about the songs, or if he needed to challenge Claude to a duel or something.

 

He really didn’t understand that girl.

 

Felix sighed and got to his feet. This was why he didn’t leave the training grounds.

 

He had Annette’s songs stuck in his head all the way to sparring practice, but unlike some people, he had the decency not to whistle them out loud.

 

Notes:

I've been writing some short fics over on twitter and I did this one for Felix's birthday and really liked how it turned out. It seems like a spiritual successor to the previous chapter, in that Felix is confused the entire time and Annette's logic almost holds together if you're very drunk. Keep the flat "whats", add Claude to the mix. We have fun here.

Notes:

I really like writing academy Annette because she definitely has an internal logic but nobody really knows what it is. Including me. Felix never stood a chance.

Just something short today, babes! We all need a break between longer projects, I figure. As always, you can find me on twitter or leave a comment below if you want to say hi, or to tell me your own headcanons for Felix and Annette's first kiss. I'm sure it's disastrous in every universe. Good for them.