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The wind rustled through the hedge, Annette’s eyes catching on the movement and refusing to leave. It was better than staring at her hands, or staring at the table, or staring at her teacup, or, worst of all, staring at Felix. Why, oh why, had she thought this would be a good idea?
Earlier, as her boldness had caught up with her, Annette had found herself eating her favourite food mechanically, the normally heavenly sweet buns tasting like cardboard in her mouth. Thankfully, Mercie had talked her down before Annette went to meet Felix, and had given her a cute, stylish hair clip, that automatically made Annette feel a little more grown-up, a little more confident.
Annette reached up to fiddle with that hair clip. That confidence was fading fast. Felix wasn’t talking. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to it, but the way that he had said he would like to have afternoon tea with her, had made her think he would enjoy it. But every time she tried to start a conversation, she had only been answered with vague noises that she couldn’t discern the meaning of. Tea time with girls was so much easier.
“Has Professor Byleth given you any new swords?” she asked desperately. While she had been deliberately avoiding looking at him, Felix must have taken a large bite of food, and he was trying to swallow frantically in his haste to answer her. Annette looked at his hand and noticed the piece of cake in it. Cake? He would rather eat cake than talk to her? This was doomed before it even started.
As she was contemplating crawling into a hole and never surfacing, Annette’s eyes were drawn by a movement in the hedges. Was that a bird? Or a cat? No, surely that was too high up for a cat.
“Annette? Are you okay?” Felix asked.
“Fine!” she squeaked out. He was the one who hadn’t been paying attention to her, why was this happening? “I- ah, I just thought I saw something. In the hedges. It’s probably nothing. An animal or-”
“Yeah, it’s an animal, all right,” Felix growled.
“Felix?” Annette asked.
He didn’t answer her. He got up and moved so quickly around the corner of the hedge that the animal didn’t have time to run away. Felix emerged from behind the hedge, dragging Sylvain by his collar.
“Felix, I’m your best friend,” Sylvain pleaded. “Let go!”
Felix forced Sylvain to sit down in his vacant chair. “No, that’s Ingrid. And not until you apologize to Annette.”
Sylvain smiled his trademark bright smile at her. “Sorry, Annette. I was only trying to gather dirt on this guy. But on the bright side, at least your little date is kind of entertaining if I’m here.”
A little giggle burst out of Annette. It faded immediately when Felix said, “Date?”
“Felix, buddy, if you have afternoon tea with a girl, by yourselves…”
“Not everyone is as insatiable as you,” Felix spat out.
“No, but I could have sworn I heard Claude doing an impression of you practicing conversation starters for your date. You really shouldn’t do anything like that where someone might hear you, you know how fast gossip spreads here.”
“Sylvain,” Felix said, warningly, his hands in fists.
Sylvain finally recognised the danger he was in. “Bye, Annette,” he yelped, as he ran away.
“Idiot.” Felix shook his head and sat down.
“Um, don’t you want to chase after him?” That was how their arguments usually went, she’d seen it often enough.
“Uh, no, I’d rather stay here,” Felix said. “And, um, if this is a date-”
“It is,” Annette said quickly, before she lost her nerve.
“Ah,” Felix blinked. “Good.” He looked down at the table. “Can we start again?”
Annette smiled. “Yes, I’d like that.”
Maybe all wasn’t lost. He’d chosen to stay here with her. And what did it matter if Felix wasn’t particularly talkative? She could talk enough for the both of them.