"Claude, I'm bored."

The young man napping in the shade of the tree opened one eye to find a familiar face looking down on him. Clever eyes and a cute, petulant expression, with two long pigtails swaying gently in the breeze over his head.

"Hey there, Hil," Claude yawned, stretching against the bark of the tree. "Is it lunch time already?"

"No," Hilda said grumpily as she sat on the grass next to him, legs arranged neatly to the side. "I can't stand all this waiting around. If we don't have a teacher, we should be allowed to skip class until we do. We've been wasting time for weeks."

"Now, now," Claude said, waving his hand carelessly at her. "We may not have lectures just yet, but we should gather and get to know each other when we have free time. We're not like the other two classes, all bound by chivalry and loyalty and all that nonsense; may as well use this time to make friends."

Hilda scoffed loudly. "You don't even believe your own rubbish, Claude; if you really cared about making friends, you wouldn't be hiding out here where no one can see you."

"Sure they can see me," he said, closing his eyes again. "You found me, didn't you?"

"Yes, well, I made an effort. Lorenz will not shut up and if I have to stand there with an insipid smile for five more minutes, I'm going to lose it."

"So go hang out with Marianne," he shrugged. "Or Leonie, if you're looking for a bit more cheer in your morning."

"Marianne is busy with a rabbit she found earlier. And Leonie is having a grand old time chatting with Raphael and Ignatz. I'm not really in the mood to go join them."

"But you're in the mood to bother me, clearly," said Claude. Hilda gave a small tsk of annoyance.

"No, I'm just bored."

"And?"

"And I won last time, so it's your turn to make the rules."

"You didn't win," he scoffed. "You cheated."

"I did not cheat, I used everything in my disposal to win."

"You got that guy to sell them all for you!"

"Yes I did, with my own charms and a good bit of skillful convincing," she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "So it's still a win for me."

Claude rolled his eyes. "Cheater."

"Whatever. You are a sore loser, Mr. Schemer."

"No, I just don't think its fair, you using your wiles to manipulate someone into winning the game for you. It's hardly skill."

"So you try it, if you think it's so easy," she huffed. "It's not as if the game has rules."

"Maybe I will," he said. "And maybe it should."

Hilda made a noise between a snort and a laugh. "Oh please, playing wouldn't be half as fun if we were limited by dumb constraints. Besides, you're the one who said everything goes."

"Yeah, I did, before you cheated," he said loudly. She smacked him lightly on the forearm.

"You can't cheat if there are no rules, dumbass. And getting people to do what you want them to? It's way harder than it looks."

Claude snorted so hard he had to cough to clear his throat.

"Oh please, you have nothing I don't have," he said. "Cute face, pretty eyes, great body, a gift for charming everyone who turns for a second look... I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but I am a treat, Hil. I mean, look at me." He held out his arms as if offering her a prized glance. She shrugged.

"Eh."

"Don't you 'eh' me, young lady, I've seen you eyeing the goods," he said accusingly.

"Oh, I'm not denying you're cute as fuck," she said, turning her head slightly to get a good look at his backside. "That ass, not gonna lie, I'd hit it."

"Thank you, I do appreciate a good ass compliment."

"Don't we all?" she chuckled. "But being hot is not the same as knowing how to get people to do what you want them to. It's not just about being cute, you know."

"Sure it is. I just turn up the charm, give them that cheeky bastard grin, you know, the one that looks like I'm imagining what you look like naked-"

"That is a very effective look."

"And it's not very hard to pull off," Claude admitted, raising his arms behind his head lazily. "I have literally never needed to actually imagine someone naked to manage it."

"Well duh, that's not what people actually look like when they're thinking about you naked. It's just what you want people to think you look like."

Claude eyed her curiously for a moment. "You are so much smarter than everyone gives you credit for, Hil."

"Of course, do you know how annoying it would be if everyone knew I wasn't a shallow idiot? No way, I'm not about it."

"So how come you let me know?"

"Because you're not stupid either, and it's too much work to up the charm when you can see right through it. And anyway, the game is fun. Keeps me from dying of boredom, and I get to rub your smug little face in it when I win."

"You've only won like three times!"

"Out of five rounds!"

"You cheated!"

"I did not, and I'm gonna prove it! Next round, you try to charm someone, and we'll see if your pretty eyes and sweet ass are enough to get them to do what you want."

"Oh no you don't, it's my turn to set the stakes!"

Hilda laughed. "So you do admit you lost!" Claude sat up immediately and glared at her suspiciously.

"You are a tricky, scheming woman, Hil, and I don't trust you one bit."

"Good, you've learned," she grinned, leaning back and staring up at the branches in the tree. "Let's have it then, your conditions."

Claude sat cross-legged beneath the tree, thinking hard.

"Alright, let's prove once and for all that you're a cheater. We both pick a target and ask them to do something for each of us, and if they do it, then you win."

"Too easy," she groaned. "It should be something not just anyone would do."

"Well... how about asking someone on a date?"

Hilda burst into laughter. "As if that's difficult!" she snorted. "Any guy will trip over themselves to go on a date with a noblewoman."

"Well I didn't say you had to ask a guy," Claude said, a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth as he stared at something in the courtyard.

"What are you-," she began, but she was rudely interrupted as he took her by the chin and turned her head slightly so she could see what was going on with the rest of the class behind them. The other students were gathering around Seteth, who was speaking, and a vaguely familiar woman standing silently at his side. At some point, Seteth gestured to the woman and she came forward. Dark blue eyes darted from one face to the next as she spoke, but her expression was unnervingly blank.

"Isn't that the Eisner girl?" Hilda asked, tugging Claude's hand away grumpily. "That knight's daughter? Is she joining our class?"

"Looks like she chose the Golden Deer after all," Claude said cheerfully. "And no, Hil, she's not joining us. She's teaching us."

"What?!"

"Oh yes, Lady Rhea herself asked her to teach one of the houses after she saved me and the other two house leaders."

"And you didn't think to tell any of us?!"

He shrugged. "It wasn't relevant yet. But it is now." He turned to her, mischief written all over his face. "Any normal guy or girl would be an unfair target, seeing how cute and charming we both are; and picking a male student would be playing to your strengths too much, since we already know you are a master manipulator. But Professor Eisner... she doesn't seem the type to fall for cheap tricks or a pretty face, right? And there's the whole teacher-student barrier to overcome. It'll be difficult no matter who attempts it."

Hilda's mouth fell open.

"No way! We can't compete over a teacher! She'll get us in trouble! We'll be expelled!"

"Afraid then? Was all that talk about skill just you showing off?"

"Of course I'm not afraid!" she hissed. "But she has to be way older than us-"

"Not by much, I don't think," Claude said as he watched the students ask the new professor questions. "Her father left some twenty years ago and it seems she was born after the fact. She looks young, yeah?"

"Well, yes..."

"And she's pretty cute, wouldn't you say?"

Hilda bit her lip. "I mean... well, yeah, okay, she is kind of hot... Not as much as me, but... a good, solid 8, I'd say... Oh, dang," she muttered as the professor turned and pulled her cloak off, throwing it over her shoulder to reveal a set of well-toned arms, a curvy figure, and a more than sizeable bust. "Shit, that's a ten," she admitted with a sharp intake of breath.

Claude chuckled. "Hil, that's pretty dang gay."

"Fuck yeah it is," she said, biting her nail thoughtfully. "But I mean, can you really blame me? Look at her! Game or no game, that is a woman."

"Oh, I am looking," he said seriously. "I really am."

There was a moment of appreciative silence, and then, without looking away from their target, they shook hands.

"Fifty gold," Hilda said.

"Whoever gets her to agree to a date first," Claude added.

"Anything goes."

"Obviously. Let the game begin."

They got up at the same time, and dusted themselves off.

"I'm going to crush you into the dirt," Hilda said pleasantly as she straightened her skirt.

"Such a sweet, polite girl," Claude muttered under his breath as she set off toward the others. "But she'll win over my dead body. I haven't got fifty gold."