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As a child, Felix always looked forward to Fhirdiad’s annual Winter Festival.
Between the food, the displays of craftsmanship, the games, and the entertainment; it had just about anything to catch the interest of a young child in Faerghus.
After a certain point though (and he knew exactly when that point was) the appeal was lost to Felix.
That said even if he lost interest in the event, he wasn’t going to begrudge the people for celebrating. Especially with this year’s festival being the first one in years.
Felix had planned to let the people celebrate while he stayed in Fraldarius and continued working on his territory’s recovery… except…
“Come on, Felix! It’ll be fun.”
A certain someone was determined to convince him to go with her.
“Annette, if you want to go that badly, you can go by yourself. You don’t need my permission.” Felix stated as he continued looking over various papers on his desk
“But that wouldn’t be as fun and I would be lonely!”
“Then go with Mercedes.”
Annette gave a sad pout, “But I want to go with you. I thought it would be nice for both of us to have a break from all the work rebuilding Faerghus.”
At this point, she began playing with the silver ring on her finger.
“And… we haven’t really had much time for ourselves since the wedding.”
…She had a point… they only just had their wedding a couple moons ago but immediately threw themselves back in the Kingdom’s reconstruction.
Felix sighed, looked up from the papers he was looking over, and saw Annette’s face pleading with him.
…Dammit…
In all his years alive, Felix had fought bandits, monsters, and the entire Adrestian Army… but he could never stand a chance against Annette’s begging bright blue eyes.
“...Alright. I’ll inform the staff and we’ll get ready to leave in one week.”
Annette smiled and embraced Felix (knocking over a few things on his desk) as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you! I think this will be good for both of us!”
Maybe Annette was right, if only because it had been a while since Felix had seen that big a smile on her face.
The week passed by quickly between Felix trying to get any remaining affairs settled and Annette thinking up plans for how to spend the evening.
When the day arrived, Annette was practically bouncing with excitement. While he didn't particularly share her eagerness, Felix did let slip a small smile.
After a thankfully uneventful carriage ride, the two made their way to the city plaza.
Looking around at the various stalls, musicians performing, and children running around, you’d never know that just a few months ago, this was the sight of a great battle. In fact, it was almost just like the festivals in Felix’s childhood.
Suddenly he hears a gasp from Annette and before he could ask her what was wrong, he feels himself dragged over to one of the festival stalls.
Unsurprisingly Annette had taken him to a stall selling various baked goods.
Before the two were a collection of assorted cakes, fruit tarts, cookies, and more. Felix could practically feel the cloying sensation of the sugars in his mouth and the fillings getting stuck on his teeth. Ugh.
But he can here to the festival because of Annette, the least he can do is let her enjoy some swe-
“Felix, you have to try this!”
Felix turned to his wife and almost cringed at the sugary monstrosity on a pewter plate in her hands.
It looked like a pile of brown dough drowning in chocolate and powdered sugar.
And it was with a little dread that Felix realized that there was another reason why Annette was so adamant on having him accompany her to the festival.
Ever since Annette had learned that Lysithea had “accomplished the impossible” (Sylvain’s words not his) and got him to enjoy a dessert, she had been determined to find something else sweet that Felix would like. Lysithea tried to offer the recipe to her but for whatever reason, she refused.
And with many bakers and merchants offering various treats and sweets, Annette likely saw the festival as a perfect opportunity.
“Annette… what is that…?”
“It’s called Strauben!” The stall vendor stated proudly
Annette nodded as she continued the explanation, “He told me that it’s based on a dessert from Almyra and was brought over from Adrestia...err… I guess what used to be Adrestia? Still trying to wrap my head around all tha-”
“Alright but what is it?” Felix asked, trying to prevent Annette from rambling
“Right! It’s batter dipped in hot oil and then they drizzle it with chocolate and sugar!”
Felix grimaced at the plate in Annette’s hand. Honestly he’d call the toppings less a drizzle and more of a downpour.
“Come on, Felix! Try it with me! I’ll even find a piece that doesn’t have as much chocolate and sugar for you.”
‘Is that even possible?’ Felix thought to himself as Annette looked over the dish.
Annette did pull off a piece that wasn’t entirely soaked in chocolate and brought it near Felix’s face to offer.
Felix sighed and took the piece from Annette’s hand to his mouth.
“Well…?”
“It’s… crunchy…”
“It is fried so… I guess that makes sense? What else?”
“The chocolate is… sweet”
“Well yes, chocolate tends to be sweet.”
Thankfully, Annette seemed to realize what was going on and lost all her enthusiasm before Felix could run out of less critical descriptors.
“Okay, I get it. You didn’t like it. Oh, thought I finally got something there.” Anette remarked as she pulled another piece off and nibbled on it
“You know you’re going to make yourself sick if you try to eat that whole thing.”
Annette pouted, “Not if I take it slow. And it would be rude to let this go to waste.”
Felix groaned and shook his head. He loved Annette, he truly did, he would never have proposed to her if he didn’t… but by the goddess she could be stubborn.
Annette stood a little out of the way to continue on her strauben.
Felix glanced over at the vendor as the older man laughed.
“Well at least Duchess Fraldarius appreciates my work.”
Felix sighed as he prepared to explain that his dislike wasn’t meant to be a personal attack or criticism of the man’s baking.
Except the vendor just shakes his head and assures the young Duke, “No offense taken, Your Grace.”
Felix nods and rejoins Annette; still working on her dish. The two stood to the side and watched the crowds go from stall to stall. Once she was finished, Annette rushed over to the baker to return the pewter plate with Felix walking behind.
“Thank you so much sir! It was wonderful!”
“My gracious thanks to you Duchess Fraldarius.” Replied the baker with a formal bow
After placing down the plate, Annette turned around and took hold of Felix's arm.
"Shall we continue?"
With that, Felix and Annette continued making their way through the festival grounds, admiring the wares of the various artisans. Felix was especially impressed by the weapons made by the local blacksmith while Annette adored figurines made by a glass maker.
Felix ended up buying a glass figure of a cat much to Annette’s joy. He couldn’t help but smile a little, watching her admire the little statue.
The night went on, the two visited more stalls, spoke to the vendors (though Annette did get a little annoyed at Felix for “bringing work along”,) and a couple more times Annette attempted to get Felix to try some pastry or candy.
“Annette… I have to ask…”
“Hm?”
“Why are you so determined about the sweets? This didn’t use to bother you so much. What’s going on?”
Annette’s shoulders slumped and her face turned red..
“I’m not bothered or anything… it’s just… well… Lysithea and I kind of had this friendly rivalry back at the Academy. We kept trying to encourage each other to do better by trying to outmatch the other. I guess… when I heard Lysithea got you to enjoy something sweet, I thought “Well I can do that too, right!?”.”
Felix stared at Annette before sighing and giving her a small peck on the lips.
“...You’re overthinking again. Why would I care that Lysithea could do something you couldn’t? I married you, not her.”
“I know but I just thought… it would be nice if we had something we can both enjoy.”
“...You’re still overthinking. It isn’t like we have nothing in common. I have and will always love you regardless.”
Tears began to form in Annette’s eyes which she immediately wiped away. She then smiled and pulled Felix into a hug.
“I love you too. And I’m sorry for all the trouble.”
“Annette…”
Maybe he’ll regret this but he wanted to see Annette’s smile again, a proper happy smile.
“I could… I’ll try one more thing. If it’ll make you happy.”
He could tell that Annette was briefly debating with herself whether or not to agree to that. But thankfully, she smiled and nodded.
“Okay! One more. How about over there?”
Felix looked over to where she was pointing, yet another stall selling pastries with a sign offering something called “tea leaf cookies.”
The two approached the stall and the young woman behind nearly panicked when she realized that Duke and Duchess Fraldarius were standing before her. Annette was the one to calm the poor girl down and ask her about the tea leaf cookies.
“Th-they’re exactly as it says, Your Grace! We grind up a bunch of tea leaves and bake them into the cookies. I’d be happy to give the both of you a sample. Just tell me what kind of tea you like and I’ll see if I have that cookie!”
He didn’t think the baker had included either of his preferred blends. After all, neither of them were known for their sweetness. But Annette looked up at him and well… he did say he’d try one more treat.
“Almyran pine needles?”
To his surprise, the baker nodded and looked over the different displays until she pulled out a cookie with a green tint to it.
“Here you are, Your Grace. I hope you enjoy it!”
Felix stared at the cookie in his hand. He’d be lying if he said the green color was a little off-putting. (Images of Flayn’s… “creative” recipes flash in his head.)
Before he could start to second guess himself, Felix took a small bite.
…
…
“It’s… actually not bad…”
Annette’s eyes widened.
“Really!? Cause if this is a joke, it’s not a very funny one you villain!”
“I mean it. It’s good. Congratulations, Annette, you found a sweet I can enjoy.”
The smile on Annette’s face could only be described as relieved.
The night continued on but eventually it had to end. Felix and Annette made their way to their carriage and practically sunk into their seats.
As the carriage started to move, Felix started to hear humming from Annette.
“A new song?”
“Oh… well… I haven't… figured out the words yet. I really want to start with "sparkling glass~" but I don’t know how to follow that up. Oh, maybe “footsteps crunching in snow covered grass?””
“Even though the festival is inside the city and thus not on grass?”
As he expected, just like every other time Felix questioned a part of Annette’s songs, she glared at him (the effect somewhat dampened by her puffed up cheeks) and half-heartedly elbowed him.
“It doesn’t have to be realistic! It’s about setting a scene! Ugh why do you have to take everything so seriously!?”
Felix simply smiled and closed his eyes. As much as he would tease her, he still looked forward to the final song, however she decided it would go.