Work Text:
“Felix!”
He turned at Annette’s shout, following her pointing finger. Sylvain’s lance had broken under a blow from his opponent. He kept hold of both halves, expression grim as he raised them defensively in preparation for the next blow.
The bandit, Felix realized, fingers tingling, was in range. He raised a hand, the first spell that could come to mind springing to life. Magic shivered from his core and down his arm. He released it with a shout, sending it winging towards the bandit’s unprotected back.
The man turned at Felix’s shout. Felix could just see his eyes widen as he caught sight of the spell - and just what had Felix casted anyways? It certainly didn’t look like a thunder spell. The bandit ducked.
The bandit ducked.
The spell hit Sylvain square in the chest. He stumbled back with a yell, tripping over his own feet as his limbs spasmed and light burned ever brighter where the spell had hit.
Well, that answered that question.
No time to dwell.
Felix rushed forward, sword in hand. The bandit was just standing there, laughing and gloating about their misfortune. He couldn’t quite get his ax up in time as Felix swung.
His blade cut a stripe across the bandit’s chest, just below his collarbone. The head of the ax caught on Felix’s crossguard on the follow-through, and he used that to knock it further aside. He reversed his swing, slamming his pommel into the man’s jaw.
He went down like a sack of rocks. Felix stabbed his blade through the man’s throat, just to make sure he wouldn’t get back up to threaten them again. Only then did he look over to see what had become of Sylvain.
The spell had run its course. The light was gone, leaving in its place a large, fluffy, furious ginger cat that Annette had carefully trapped in Sylvain's now empty pile of clothes. Sylvain thrashed in her increasingly precarious hold, hissing and spitting.
Felix flicked the blood from his sword and sheathed it as he stalked over. He scooped Sylvain out of Annette’s arms, holding him fast against his chest. “I know you’re pissed right now, but you need to settle down.”
Sylvain, having worked a paw free, swiped at his face. Felix dodged, swearing; he nearly dropped him.
“Um.” Felix looked up to see Annette watching them nervously, arms crossed tightly over her chest. “There’s a chance he might not understand you. We’ve only ever tested it on mice, after all, and they can’t understand us anyways.”
Felix stared at her for a second, then looked back down at Sylvain. He was starting to exhaust himself, his struggles growing weaker. “Fuck.”
He looked back up at Annette. “It should still wear off in a couple weeks, though, right?”
“What should wear off in a couple weeks?” Ashe asked. Annette yelped in surprise and even Felix twitched. Ashe smiled at them apologetically. “What’s with the cat? And where’s Sylvain?”
“Um.”
“You turned Sylvain into a cat?”
“In my defense,” Felix said, “it’s not my fault the bandit ducked.”
“You turned Sylvain into a cat!” the boar said again, as if Felix hadn’t heard him the first time. He was staring at him incredulously, the Professor and Molinaro watching the proceedings stoically from over his shoulder.
Felix adjusted his grip on a now docile Sylvain; figures he’d make for a particularly heavy cat. Sylvain was huddled, trembling, into Felix’s arms, his ears flat against his head.
It was honestly starting to worry Felix, just how frightened his normally unflappable friend seemed. Then again, cats weren’t exactly noted for their ability to dissemble.
“Yes, we’ve already established that,” Felix said. “Do you have anything new to add, or can we start heading back to the monastery?”
“Will the spell wear off?” asked the Professor. Their voice was as inflectionless as always.
“There’s no reason it shouldn’t. It did on every mouse we tested it on,” said Annette. Her lip was red from how much she’d been worrying it. “The spell lasts two weeks to a month, depending on the strength put into the casting.”
“A month, then,” said Felix. He adjusted his grip again. Sylvain squirmed in protest, letting out a soft mrrow. “I wasn’t exactly holding back.”
“Why did you even come up with this spell in the first place?” the boar asked. His shoulders had slumped in resignation; he stared down at Sylvain, brow furrowed.
“There was a Reason test a few weeks back,” said Annette. “We were studying together, and it was late, and we kind of hit a wall and were really frustrated, and, well, one thing led to another-”
“We were bored and thought it would be funny,” said Felix, cutting off Annette’s ramble before it could really get going. “We never exactly planned to use it on anyone. This is just bad luck.”
“Well, there’s nothing for it now,” said Ingrid. She’d stormed off earlier while Annette had explained the situation to growl and pace her frustration out. She came up beside Felix now to run her hand over Sylvain’s head, scratching gently at the base of his ears in an attempt to calm him. “We’ll just have to look after him until the spell wears off and he changes back. Can he understand us like this?”
“Doubtful,” said Felix. “The spell wasn’t anywhere near that sophisticated.”
“Won’t this be fun to explain to Seteth,” the boar muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“We’d best get moving if we wish to make it back to the monastery before nightfall, Your Highness,” said Molinaro.
The boar sighed. “Yes, of course. Let’s move out.”
He and Molinaro turned and started walking up the road, Mercedes and Ashe trailing after. Ingrid gave Sylvain one last pet before following. He chased her hand a bit, leaning out of Felix’s hold.
The Professor kept Felix and Annette pinned in place with their unfathomable stare. Their voice sounded like a death knell. “Since the two of you are responsible for Sylvain’s current condition, you both will be responsible for looking after him until he changes back. Understood?”
“Yes, Professor,” Annette squeaked. Felix grunted, hefting Sylvain higher into his arms.
The Professor stared at them a moment longer, then nodded and gestured them on after their classmates. Annette grabbed Felix’s elbow and towed him along at a near run, leaving the Professor to bring up the rear as was their wont.
“Oh, this is awful,” she said, her voice tight and nervous. “We’re going to be in so much trouble for this, and Sylvain’s going to be mad at us, and my uncle’s going to be disappointed- ”
“Calm down, it was an accident,” said Felix. “The most Sylvain will be is annoyed, and he always gets over that quickly. In fact, he’ll probably think this whole thing is funny once he’s back to normal.”
“You think so?” Annette asked, looking up at him for reassurance. Her eyes were wide and very blue, like the sky in winter, just going on forever.
“I know so,” said Felix. He held out his bundle of cat. “Here, my arms are getting tired, you take a turn holding him. He’s heavy.”