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“Ediiiiie... !”
Dorothea sat on the bench and embraced her House Leader, arms tightly wrapped around her waist, body pressed against Edelgard’s side.
“Dorothea ? What’s wrong ?”
Though surprised by her friend’s theatrics, Edelgard didn’t try to escape her embrace, instead wrapping an arm around Dorothea’s back to hold her close. The songstress sighed in contentment and nuzzled Edelgard’s shoulder, relaxing slightly in the embrace.
“It’s sooo cold today, I’m freezing ! Can I just stay like this for the whole day ? I won’t be able to warm up otherwise.”
Edelgard chuckled, and Dorothea pouted at her, though the amused sparkle in her eyes assured Edelgard she didn’t think the Princess was mocking her. Edelgard tightened her grip on Dorothea and smiled at her friend :
“It wouldn’t do for one of our best students to freeze to her death, so I suppose I’ll allow it.”
Dorothea grinned, genuine, and kissed Edelgard’s cheek as a “thank you”, bringing a blush to Edelgard’s face, before snuggling even closer to her friend. Edelgard couldn’t hide her smile at that, though it faded slightly when a light tap on her shoulder diverted her attention to her right side.
Petra was standing in front of her, a slight blush gracing her cheeks, though her gaze remained determined and, after taking a deep breath, she asked :
“Lady Edelgard... If that would not be much trouble... Would I also be able to hug you for warmth ? My coat is of much warmth itself, but it is not enough with the wind of today.”
Edelgard was more surprised about this request than Dorothea’s. It had become a rather common occurrence for the songstress to cuddle up to her on cold days since she had realised Edelgard ran at a naturally hotter temperature than most people, but none of the other Eagles had asked to share her warmth yet. Then again, it was particularly cold today, especially for the students of the Empire who had spent their whole lives in much warmer climates than that of the Monastery.
After that first second of initial surprise, Edelgard smiled gently toward Petra and nodded, moving her right arm to invite the other Princess to sit against her. Petra’s face immediately lit up and Edelgard could swear she saw actual stars in her eyes. She had no time to second-guess her vision though because Petra was already snuggling against her, pressing her body just as close to Edelgard’s as Dorothea. Edelgard felt blood rush to her cheeks : it was the first time Petra was so close to her and one of the first times since her siblings’ deaths that someone (other than Dorothea) had held her so intimately. The contact, however, was pleasant, and Edelgard knew from her conversations with Petra that Brigid society was much more comfortable with casual physical touch than Fodlan, so she breathed to calm down her racing heart and wrapped her arm around Petra, just like she did with Dorothea.
A second later, the songstress started giggling and, upon seeing the two Princesses’ confused looks, explained :
“This position feels like something right out of an opera : a conquering Emperor on the path of victory awaiting her enemy’s surrender in her throne room with two war brides, one on each arm, to display her power~”
That description brought blood back to Edelgard’s cheeks with three times its previous intensity. She could only groan at her friend’s laughter :
“Please, Dorothea, stop putting me in operas, or I’m afraid my cheeks will stay red even after my death.
- But she has a point, since I am being a war prisoner in techni... technically.
- Not you too, Petra !”
Edelgard groaned again, louder, as Dorothea’s musical laughter rang out in the classroom, soon followed by Petra’s.
As the two descended into giggles and Edelgard contemplated the idea of sending them back to their own seats, Linhardt’s tired voice rose from behind her.
“It is freezing today, and that makes it hard to sleep. Would you mind if I took advantage of your heating properties as well, Edelgard ?”
She sighed. Of course Linhardt would be more concerned about his sleep than propriety.
“You do realise it is generally frowned upon for a noble man to carelessly touch an Imperial Princess, yes ?
- Caspar does it all the time.
- Caspar is... Honestly, I’m not even sure what to classify him as.”
For all his noble blood and heritage, Caspar didn’t behave like a noble man in any case, living his life according to what he felt was right. That included jumping on Edelgard’s back to try and scare her, or to congratulate her after winning a sparring match. She guessed she could tell him to stop and he would listen ; he had never done that to Hubert, Dorothea and Petra in the first place, stopped doing it to Bernadetta after she ran away screaming the first time, did it to Ferdinand once but got so bored by the nobility lecture that he never approached him again and had stopped jumping on Linhardt after making him fall over and face plant on the ground one too many times.
... Huh. She was the only one Caspar still jumped like that.
... She would let him be.
“So ?”
Coming back to the present, she turned her head toward Linhardt who was looking at her expectantly... Well, as expectantly as forever-half-asleep Linhardt could look, anyway. She let out a sigh and gestured for him to come over.
“Bring a bench or a chair and sit behind me.”
For once, he obliged without grumbling too much over the physical work and was soon pressing his front to her back, arms looping loosely around her waist and head resting against her shoulder blade.
“Aaah...Perfect for a nap.
- This may be a bit late for a warning, but I hope you’re ready to deal with Hubert.”
She felt Petra tense against her at that and said :
“Don’t worry, he’s never said anything to Dorothea, as far as I’m aware, it’s just Linhardt that might be a different story.
- No, he didn’t say anything to me, except that I should avoid hugging you like that where Sylvain can see if I don’t want to hear his thoughts about “two beautiful women being so close” and what he’d like to do about it.”
Edelgard’s face contorted like she was about to retch in her disgust, which made Dorothea and Petra snort. Linhardt didn’t react and Edelgard assumed he’d already fallen asleep.
Caspar’s voice rang out from outside the classroom and Edelgard steeled herself. The other half of the Black Eagles was coming in, and among them, Hubert.
The classroom’s door opened and Caspar’s words became intelligible enough to understand :
“I’m telling you, Hubert, that weed was as thick as my arm !
- Oh, I do trust your measuring capacities, Caspar, I just don’t believe it was a weed. Most likely, you pulled out a young tree.
- Come on now, I can differentiate between a weed and a tree ! ... Hubert ? What’s wrong ?”
Edelgard was now pretty limited in her movements, unlike Dorothea and Petra who peered at the others over her shoulders.
“Welcome back !
- Hubie, you look even paler than usual : here I thought the cold would finally bring some colour to your cheeks !”
Edelgard sighed. She didn’t need to turn around to have a perfect image of Hubert’s shocked face in her mind’s eye. She decided the least awkward course of action would be to act as if everything was normal. She turned her head as much as she could without disturbing Linhardt and greeted her classmates :
“Welcome back. I assume your chores went well ?”
Caspar, ever so energetic, ran over to her desk, asking excitedly :
“What are you guys doing ? Has Edelgard started choosing consorts for when she becomes Emperor ?”
Dorothea laughed nervously at that, cheeks taking on a pink hue, while Edelgard choked, face turning as red as her cape, and Petra looked between them in confusion.
“Consort ? What is a consort ?
- It is a word used to design the Emperor’s spouse,” explained Hubert while walking into her line of sight. “Adrestia’s Emperors have a... reputation, let’s say, of taking multiple spouses, sometimes for purely political reasons, sometimes out of love.”
He had put on a mask of neutrality, though Edelgard could see the tiniest hints of a smirk on his face as he rejoiced in her embarrassment. She thought it was fair, considering he had just walked in on her cuddling with almost half of her classmates.
She felt Petra nod against her shoulder.
“Thank you for the explanation. However, no marriage proposals were made.”
Edelgard’s blush would not leave her this whole day, would it ? She took a deep breath and raised her eyes to meet Hubert’s.
“The day is particularly cold and everyone wanted to warm up, which is why we ended up in this position. I don’t suppose you have a spell that would make this room’s temperature more bearable, do you ?
- Nothing that would be effective in a room as big and draughty as this one, I am afraid.
- Still, Edelgard,” Ferdinand interjected, planting himself in front of her desk with flushed cheeks and an outraged expression on his face, “cold temperatures or not, such behaviour is unacceptable ! I didn’t say anything about Dorothea until now since she isn’t of noble birth, but such proximity with Petra and Linhardt is bordering on indecency ! You’re going to ruin their reputations if this gets out ! As nobles, you three should set better examples !”
Petra and Dorothea’s hands fisted the fabric of her jacket and Edelgard coldly ordered :
“Caspar, smack Ferdinand.”
With a grin that spelled chaos, Caspar smacked the back of Ferdinand's head, hard, the noble boy bending at a nearly perfect 90° angle and almost smacking his forehead against Edelgard's desk. He spluttered and raised his head, shock visible on his face, but before he could say anything, Edelgard mustered her coldest, most sinister tone to address him :
“Don’t ever imply that Dorothea’s reputation is of lesser importance than anyone else’s again. Is that clear ?
- That was not-
- -not what you meant ? Yet it is what you said. Maybe you should start thinking twice about how hurtful your words can be instead of lecturing other people on their behaviour.”
Ferdinand gaped at her, flush with shame, and for once didn’t find anything to say. Caspar chuckled at that :
“Wow, never thought I’d see Ferdinand lost for words ! Come on buddy, I’ll help you to your seat and you can write an essay about it if you want. Don’t count on me to read it though.”
As the two walked away, Linhardt mumbled from behind her :
“Like I said, nobles are fools.”
The girls chuckled at that. Then Dorothea leaned up to kiss Edelgard’s cheek again, murmuring a “thank you” against her ear. Despite the situation, Edelgard felt a delighted shiver run down her spine.
To distract herself, she looked up to Hubert, still smirking as he kept his eye on Ferdinand. She guessed he had been hoping for someone to give the boy a good punch for a while now.
“Hubert, did I scare Bernadetta away ?
- No, Lady Edelgard, she is cowering in the back of the classroom. Though... she seems to be shivering harder than usual. Do you still have some space left for her ?”
Now his smirk was directed at her and she wanted to let out a groan ; he’d never let her live it down.
“... I guess so. Do you think you can bring her here without scaring her into fainting ?”
Now it was Hubert’s turn to groan and hers to smirk. And he dared pretend like he didn’t understand it when people said he was scary.
(Though a part of her was happy that he still defended himself like this. Her eldest sister, Estella, had been the first person in Hubert’s life to tell him she didn’t find him scary and she knew he still cherished the memory.)
Without a word, Hubert walked toward the back of the classroom. Dorothea and Petra peered over her shoulders in interest and chuckled at Hubert’s attempts to get Bernadetta out from under her desk. They were too far away for Edelgard to understand what they were saying, but Bernadetta’s high pitched screams didn’t sound very encouraging. Luckily, Ferdinand must have taken her earlier words into consideration because he didn’t try to interfere in the conversation. About a minute later, the screams stopped and footsteps approached the front of the room. Petra whistled softly.
“He baited her out with much expertness. I must ask him about his methods later.
- Oooh ? Do you intend to “bait” Bernie into doing something with you, Petra ?
- Well...”
The girls’ whispered conversation came to a halt as Hubert and Bernadetta arrived at their side.
“There she is, Lady Edelgard.”
Bernadetta whimpered and Edelgard addressed her what she hoped was a reassuring smile -though there was no saying what was reassuring and what was frightening when it came to Bernadetta. Dorothea showed much less restraint, though also a lot more friendliness, in inviting Bernadetta in their collective hug with an open arm and an enthusiastic :
“Come on in, Bernie ! Edie is really warm, and it’s so comfortable !”
That only made Bernadetta squeak and take a step back, her eyes darting from face to face, though Edelgard wasn’t sure if it was simply because she wondered where she could still fit or which one of them was least likely to attack her.
Hubert decided to not take the risk of letting her run away : he grabbed her by the waist, earning a deafening shriek of terror from Bernadetta, lifted her up and plopped her down on Edelgard’s lap. Dorothea and Petra immediately each wrapped an arm around her, keeping Bernadetta’s back pressed to Edelgard’s front.
“There you go !
- HIIIIIIIII !!!
- Do not be worried, Bernadetta, Lady Edelgard has accepted all of us hugging her for warmth. She will not harm you.
- Yes, I promise. You can relax.
- WHO COULD RELAX IN A POSITION LIKE THIS ?!”
Edelgard sighed and rested her chin on Bernadetta’s shoulder -thanking the heavens that girl was always slouching, even in a seated position, otherwise she would have had a much harder time reaching her shoulder. Bernadetta immediately stopped moving and Edelgard worried she might have even stopped breathing.
“Breathe, Bernadetta.
- I... can’t... too... scared...
- ... Should I ask Petra to give you mouth-to-mouth then ?”
This time, Bernadetta’s shriek was accompanied by a fierce blush and it was Petra’s turn to choke on air. Dorothea buried her face in Edelgard’s shoulder to muffle her laughter, though it wasn’t all that effective, while the Princess could hear Linhardt’s chuckles from behind her. Much louder were Caspar’s roar of laughter and fist banging against his desk as well as Ferdinand’s outraged splutters. Even Hubert couldn’t hold back a few chuckles.
“W-w-w-w-why would you s-s-s-say that ?!
- I must have agreement, Lady Edelgard ! This will not be helping Bernadetta calm down !
- Well, at least Bernadetta is breathing now, isn’t she ?”
The two girls gaped at her while the others’ laughter came back even louder. Edelgard could only smile, more relaxed than she had been in... months ? Years ? She wasn’t really sure. All she knew was that having so many people she cared about snuggled up against her, laughing with them, teasing them and getting teased, reminded her of the few scant memories she still had of her siblings from before the experiments, when they would gather in the palace’s gardens in late spring afternoons and cuddle on a blanket spread over the grass while Frederick and Estella, the eldest, recounted long forgotten fairy tales to their younger siblings. She could almost hear Frederick’s growl as he impersonated a dragon, Estella’s falsely distressed pleas for help as she played the kidnapped Princess, Noah, Oscar and Anastasia’s promises to save her, Mikael’s laughter at their attempts, Emilia’s sing-song calls to Hubert to come save his Princess, Victoria’s cooing over his blushing face and embarrassed look, Sirius’s claims that he would be the one to save and marry Estella because she was his favourite sister... Then all of the girls teamed up to tickle him until he begged for forgiveness. Amid the commotion, Oscar had managed to point a wooden sword at Frederick’s throat, earning him a kiss on the cheek from Estella and Frank wisely commented that the real treasure of this story was the memories they made along the way.
Hearing her Black Eagles banter like her siblings and her had done so long ago, Edelgard could only agree with him.
Byleth stepped inside her classroom, relieved to be somewhat shielded from the cold wind outside. She had done mercenary work in Faerghus in the past, so she wasn’t new to the cold, but she still preferred warmer climates.
... And it seemed her students were handling it much worse than she, for half of them had cuddled up to the space heater that was their House Leader. Only Hubert, who never seemed bothered by the weather, Ferdinand, who would never admit being bothered by it, and Caspar, who could not keep still for more than a minute and must be constantly warm from exertion, had not piled up on Edelgard.
Byleth walked toward the front of the class to tell her students it was time to go back to their seats, but as she got closer, she noticed that Edelgard’s posture was relaxed, her eyes closed and her head rested on a very still Bernadetta’s shoulder.
Was she... asleep ?
Byleth looked to Dorothea who managed to tear her gaze away from Edelgard’s sleeping face long enough to look at her and explain :
“She fell asleep a couple of minutes ago. I don’t think she gets enough sleep, Professor ; would you mind letting her nap for now ?
- No, but she won’t be happy when she wakes up and realises she slept through class.
- I’ll give her my notes.
- I will be helping her study the tactics in the lesson.
- I, uh... I can draw the maps and battle formations ? Maybe it will help complete Dorothea’s notes... I don’t know... It was stupid, please forget it !
- Nah, I’m sure she’ll appreciate it, Bernadetta... I’m not really in a position to do anything, but I’ve been studying the subject of today’s magic theory lesson, so I’ll help her with that if she wants.
- Of course, a noble like me wouldn’t leave their classmate in need ! Therefore, I shall give it my all to master the subjects of each of today’s lessons so Edelgard can come to me if there’s anything she doesn’t understand ! That way, she will have to accept that I am superior to her !
- When she wakes up she’s gonna be well-rested, right ? I’ve been meaning to train with her for a while now, so this will be the perfect opportunity ! We’ll get so much stronger, you won’t believe your eyes, Professor !”
Byleth felt a smile stretch her lips at her students’ thoughtfulness toward their House Leader. As detached as Edelgard tried to be most of the time, her kindness shone through and her classmates were now repaying her in kind.
She turned to Hubert and was surprised to see him smile as well, softer than usual. She blinked and it was gone, making her wonder if it had just been her imagination. Hubert nodded at her.
“This arrangement seems satisfying. You may start the lesson, Professor.”
Byleth nodded and turned to the blackboard. For the whole morning, the Black Eagles classroom was calmer than usual, every student keeping the noise to a minimum to let their House Leader rest. And for once, no nightmare came to trouble Edelgard’s sleep.