Before arriving to Garreg Mach Monastery, Felix Hugo Fraldarius was considered by many to be unemotional outside of his extremely temperamental attitude. His attitude after the Tragedy of Duscur and his brother, Glenn's passing had forced a great shift in his attitude towards his father, his status as heir to the Fraldarius family and his overall emotional state. This change made him grow cold and distant to even his closest childhood friends, who all tried their best to accommodate to these changes. They knew of his underlying feelings of grief and anguish that he tried to cover up so desperately with his training regime to push himself to be stronger than his brother Glenn ever was, strong enough to protect anyone he cared about.

But even his best friends were unaware of foreign feelings that began to stir within the young man, a mere two years before enrolling into Garreg Mach.

His father had called out to Felix from the entrance to the training grounds, informing him that some noble family he had cared little for was going to be staying in Castle Fraldarius for the night before leaving the next day. Felix couldn't care less about some noble family he'd never met; continuing his training, cutting down one dummy after another. When the sun had begun to set and the light in the sky begin to slowly disappear, Felix left the training grounds, promptly moving to the bathhouse to clean himself off. With a loud sigh, Felix sunk into the water, letting his body relax in the warmth that surrounded his body.

Felix would often take advantage of the time he had in the bath house to reflect on the day that had passed. The techniques he practiced, how many dummies he'd cut down, the strength behind his attacks, and more; Felix would observe them in his head, thinking of different things to try the next day in order to correct any mistakes he made, or even the smallest grievance he had with techniques he'd made along the way. A ritual that he begun to perform everyday after seeing his performance when participating in the battle against a rebellion in West Faerghus; a battle that had changed his view on his childhood friend, Prince Dimitri forever.

Felix growled at the memories, seeing Dimitri gladly revel in killing people with his own hands. He was no human, he was a beast, a boar through and through; of which caused Felix's heart to harden and stray further away from his childhood friends more than ever. Shaking the thoughts from his head, he cleaned himself up, drying and changing into a light set of clothes, heading out to the castle's dining hall. Felix's mind continued focusing on the next day's training regime when a voice he couldn't recognise reached his ears. Felix instinctively reached for the training sword at his hip, in spite of knowing it wouldn't do him any good if he intended on attacking someone. Moving his sword hand away from his weapon, Felix crept towards the greenhouse on the Fraldarius grounds, a place he had little interest in visiting outside of a few exceptions. Opening the door ever slightly, the door's loud creak did not seem to perturb whoever was singing in the greenhouse, much to Felix's surprise.

Felix slinked his way in, closing the door behind him. Walking through the greenhouse, Felix couldn't help but feeling oddly mesmerised by the colourful wildlife that surrounded him, the echoes of the strange song's strangely soothing notes bouncing off the walls of the greenhouse, only getting more audible as he approached the rear end of the building; the plant life was something he knew he did not take any notice of beforehand, and could not help but feel confused and curious as to why he'd taken such an interest in them now.

Questions for later. Felix's forced his footsteps to become lighter with every step that got him closer to the end of the greenhouse, soon stopping on a dime as he turned a corner around a large box that contained growing fruits. Before him, there was a young girl, probably around his age who was strangely dancing around, Felix finally being able to get a discern the lyrics that left her mouth.

Today's dinner is steak and then a cake that's yummy yum... Now it's time to fill my tummy tummy tum... Oh, this mountain of sweets, and treats that I long to eats... Oh, stacks of steaks and cakes and crumbs and yums...

Felix let the strange lyrics and the timing of the song sink in, watching her dance around, watering the plants that at this point, Felix already knowing they'd been tended to. Felix concluded that she seemed innocent enough, perhaps a part of the noble family that was going to stay with them for the night.

The young lady's distinct and unabashedly happy tone of voice was something Felix was not well acquainted with after the incident two years ago; a voice he doubt he could ever muster, but had the strange urge to try, if only by the small smirk that crept up on his face.

The petite girl wore a blue and white dress that went down past her knees; with strikingly bright hair as bright as the sun it was almost blinding in contrast to his dark blue hair that perfectly accented his dark and brooding personality, as Sylvain had pointed out to him once. His face fell into a frown thinking of Sylvain, recalling how his childhood friend claimed his hair was bright because he was a happy and chipper guy. Felix wondered if this girl was much the same.

Felix raised an eyebrow, noticing the girl's strange hairstyle, wondering how on earth she could pull it of maintaining such a style without it coming apart. Shaking his head, he stepped towards the girl, chastising himself for acting so strangely, staring at the girl for so long.

As soon as he had the idea to speak up, the girl spun on her heels, her eyes meeting face to face with Felix's.

"Okay~! All done- eek!"

The young girl flinched in surprise stepping back away from Felix. Her foot hit a barrel, the girl losing her footing and falling back towards the garden behind her; she shut her eyes, bracing as hard as she could for the fall's impact. Felix instinctively stepped forward and grabbed her hand with his left and wrapped his right arm around the girl's small waist. Once the girl had stopped moving, she opened her eyes, making mutual contact with Felix's own.

For a few moments, Felix felt something crack within his heart, as if something had been chipping away at it for the few moments of silence that had settled in over the greenhouse. Felix's stared into her eyes, orbs as bright as the ocean he'd seen long ago, his heart strangely skipping for a moment before it began to rapidly beat.

It was a strange foreign thing he'd never felt before.

"U-um…"

Felix jolted back into reality, letting poor girl stand on her own two feet, letting go of her hand and moving his arm away from her waist.

"Th-thank you," the girl mumbled, her face flushed with red from the close encounter. "I can't believe I didn't see that barrel there…"

"Sorry," Felix mumbled, coughing awkwardly. "And it's no problem."

Almost immediately after, a blanket of awkward air settled in over the greenhouse, the girl before him twiddling with her thumb staring at the ground, kicking up dirt quietly while Felix could hardly take his eyes off the girl before him for… some reason.

"So…"

"You must be a part of that family that's staying here for the night," Felix said with a matter-of-fact tone.

The girl gave Felix a strange glance, eyes widening as if she had come to a realisation.

"R-right! You must be Felix, right?" She asked, Felix unsurprised that she knew his name, knowing his father. "My name's Annette. Annette Fantine Dominic. I've come from my family's territory to go into Fhirdiad with my uncle."

Dominic, Felix noted in his head. He'd heard the name before, but never met anyone form that house outside of that one man that had trained the boar on occasions.

What was his name? Gustav? Felix thought curiously, swatting away the thought from his head.

"Annette. I see," Felix spoke her name aloud, missing her shiver from saying her name. "You're a visitor, you know," Felix pointed out, his eyes looking at the watering can. "You don't have to do any oddjobs while you're here. You're a guest, after all."

Annette gave Felix an incredulous stare in return, the latter who seemed just as confused as Annette was. She wondered if it was anything that she said that made him give her such a strange look.

"Umm… I wasn't told to do it or anything. I know I'm a guest, I just… wanted to water some plants, is all," Annete explained, shrugging her shoulders. She suddenly stopped, her head snapping up towards Felix's own.

"You… you didn't hear any of that did you?" she frowned, Annette feeling sweat on her brow.

"Yes. I did. A little bit of it anyway."

Annette groaned, her hands in her face in pure shame, while in contrast, Felix couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of amusement.

"Did you… did you at least not see the dance?"

Felix wasn't one for lying.

"Yes. I did. And like I said before, only a little bit of it," Felix replied, unsure as to why she was embarrassed. Though dancing was not something he was fond of, he knew from both his father, instructor and… him that dancing would often help better one's footwork; and it was clear to Felix that her footwork was reminiscent of fencing footwork.

"Oh no… what a day this has turned out to be," Annette complained.

"I'm not sure what the problem is, but we should really be going. My father's probably sent out servants to look for us now that it's so close to dinner. I heard we're having steak tonight."

"You don't see what the problem is? How?!" Annette exclaimed, balling her fists. "A-and don't tease me like that!" Annette pouted, her red face staring at the ground. "You're so… evil!" the redhead exclaimed, running past him and out of the greenhouse.

"Not my problem if she gets lost," Felix mumbled taking care of some errands before going to the dining hall.

And much to his surprise, she's there, sitting next to a man with similar coloured hair, his father sitting across from them with the boar to his right. Spotting a plate of food at an unoccupied seat, next to his father, he sits down, eyeing the steak on his plate.

"Steak, huh?"

"Mhm!" Dimitri confirmed. "It's really quite good."

Felix ignored him, and instead sighed as his eyes wander to where Annette is sitting across from him. Their eyes meet for a moment, Annette looking back down, glowering… something, quite red in the face. Felix doesn't take any care to find out what it was and began to dig into the food. As per usual, Felix spaced out any conversation his father and the boar participated during dinner, which of course included Lord Dominic and his niece, Annette, who'd move to Fhirdiad to prepare for her tuition at the Royal School of Sorcery; Felix occasionally stealing a glance at her.

What.

Felix stopped eating for a moment when a sudden realisation occurred to him.

How do I even know that she's the Lord's niece? Or that she's moving to Fhirdiad? Felix thought to himself, furrowing his brows at the idea of somehow, against all odds subconsciously listening to the conversation his father and the boar was having at the table.

So why in the eternal flames do I not remember anything else?

Before he could foster another thought Felix heard his father speak his name.

"Hm?"

"Oh! And so he joins the conversation, how lovely," Rodrigue sarcastically remarks with a smirk on his face. "Oh I kid, I kid. Now, there is something I would like to ask of you Felix," his father spoke with a tone that was rare; one that was clear he was completely serious. A sort of tone he used in battle, and since they evidently weren't in battle, Felix couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable, not that he should care.

"Rodrigue? Is there something wrong?" Dimitri asked, concerned by his foster father's tone too.

Rodrigue looked at Annette's uncle, who only nodded, as if he was giving approval to ask him of something. "That depends, since this concerns young Annette here too."

Annette's eyes went as wide as the dinner plates her food was served on, panic clearly starting to form on his face.. "M-me? I-I didn't do anything, I swear!"

"Get to the point old man," Felix scoffed, rolling his eyes at how unnecessarily overdramatic his father was being.

Rodrigue sighed. "Very well. Felix. Annette. Is it true that you two were… getting intimate in the greenhouse earlier this afternoon?"

Silence filled the room, Felix and Annette looking at each other, playing the question over and over in their heads. Dimitri's jaw dropped looking between the young boy and girl; Annette being the first to react.

"I-Intimate?!" she squeaked, her face as red as Sylvain's hair. "What are you talking about?!"

"Well, one of the servants staffed at the greenhouse for today informed me that they saw you two get rather cozy with each other. So we wondering that if you two were by any chance close before today."

Felix stood on his feet, grinding his teeth. "You really are disgusting, old man. No. We weren't being "intimate", I saved her from falling over into the garden and then we talked afterwards. Like normal people. And even if we were, there's no way I'd let such a breach of privacy slide, because you're the last person I'd tell if I ever were in an intimate relationship, because not everything has to be about making babies and heirs like it was with Glenn and Ingrid, because all that would've meant is having another generation of kids who could "die like a true knight"," Felix snarled, stomping off from the table and out of the hallway.

"Felix…" Dimitri frowned looking at him storm off. "Rodrigue, I can go get him to come back if you want him to come back.

Rodrigue shook his head. "No. Don't worry about it," he said in shame. "I'm sorry for asking such a question, Annette. Your uncle and I were curious, but I should've known what kind of reaction that would've illicit from the both of you. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."

Annette looked down at her plate, her remaining food suddenly appearing significantly less before. "U-um, it's okay, really!" It wasn't. "While I appreciate the food, I'm quite full now. I'll be in my room uncle," she informed him leaving the table and exiting the dining hall.

That evening Felix couldn't sleep. The audacity of his father to ask what he did keeping him up more than it should have. That and a little tune in the back of his mind that occasionally played on repeat. It was annoying at first, but he grew comfortable with it quickly.

The fact he grew comfortable with it at all was… concerning. With nothing better to do that evening he left his room, curfews and consequences be damned. Felix made his way from his room to the outskirts of the castle, near a large lake with crystal clear water, the moon reflecting off the water in a way Felix couldn't help but find extremely calming.

Much to his surprise, there was another person at the lake, Felix moving quickly to investigate who was there. As he got closer, the light from the moon reflecting off the lake shone on the person who stood in the lake's shallow waters, Felix finally being able to discern who was there.

It was Annette.

As he approached her, Felix noticed his heartbeat began to beat faster as he approached her. The redhead took of Felix's light, Annette tensing up before relaxing, as if she were relieved to see him.

Ridiculous.

"F-Felix! What are you doing here?"

"Annette. I should be asking you that question, you know. But since you asked," he trailed off, placing his lantern on the ground. "I'm here because I can't sleep."

Annette nodded, understanding how he felt. "Yeah. I can't sleep either, so I decided to come here to get some fresh air. Besides, your father, Rodrigue, said the lake is beautiful at night, and he wasn't wrong."

Felix hummed, trying his hardest not to stare at Annette as she kicked up some of the lake's water.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out.

Why did I…?

Annette blinked, confused by his apology. Felix wanted to slap his forehead in frustration, or even better, somehow turn back the hands of time so that he never would've uttered those two words to Annette.

Felix couldn't remember the last time he sincerely apologised to someone after Glenn all those years ago.

"Sorry…? No, I'm the one who should be sorry. This is about that question Rodrigue asked, right? If I hadn't fallen down on the barrel, then you wouldn't need to have caught me and then your father wouldn't have questioned us about it and…"

"Stop," Felix said interrupting her. "I'm sorry," he said, throwing caution to the wind, having already blurted out the apology before hand. "What happened was my fault and that's that."

Annette furrowed her eyebrows. "No, no, I'm sorry! I need to be the one that apologises, I-"

Felix groaned. "Just accept the apology already!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"No, you do it!" Annette shot back, louder than Felix's voice, causing her apology to echo throughout the night. Annette slapped a hand on her mouth, shocked at how loudly she snapped at him. The two stared at each other for a moment before Annette started giggling.

"W-we really are silly aren't we? Trying to make a competition out of saying sorry to each other…"

Felix hummed, averting his eyes from Annette's own.

"But um… I really am sorry though. Rodrigue told me about your um… you know," she whispered, trying her best not to mention his name, which he appreciated. "And I don't know who 'Ingrid' is, but um… I'm sorry if I bring up anything up anything you don't like to think about, even if it's by proxy."

"Don't stress about it," Felix sighed. "I simply refuse to be another one of him. I don't want to be bound to someone in a loveless marriage, and I don't want to be a knight just to die a miserable death in a massacre," Felix growled feeling himself cracking the more he spoke. "He wants me to be another Glenn. It pisses me off."

Annette reeled back in shock. Rodrigue had told her that Felix was quite moody, and closed off from everyone he met. And yet, here he was, in spite of his angered tone of voice, letting her in ever so slightly. She wonders what she did to earn that sort of trust that even his father, nor the crown prince of the Kingdom didn't seem to have.

And so, she left him with a question and response that Felix would never forget; a scene that would always play on loop in the back of his mind along with her silly crumbs and yums song and dance that accompanied it for the next two years.

Felix turned his body towards her looking at her approach him as she gracefully left the water like a fairy from those folklore tales Glenn used to read long ago, watching her pick up a small pair of shoes nearby.

"Who are you?"

The Fraldarius heir squinted his eyes at the strange question, but decided to play along.

"Felix Hugo Fraldarius."

She looked up to meet his eyes, and with enough confidence to send a shiver down his spine, a feeling he'd only ever felt when he saw Dimitri descended into madness, she answered:

"Then that is enough."

Surprise! Yeah, I actually have a Day 9 fic. And it's TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS. Revolutionary, isn't it?

Being honest, I decided to split this chapter in two because I initially wanted to write a small prologue that would be in place before the actual songfic portion, which... ended up turning into the first chapter of borderline 3.4k words.

As for my song of choice... well, I'm sure you can figure it out, but if you can't, don't worry, you'll find out soon.

And don't worry, I do intend on finishing up this one unlike my... other multi-chapter fics I've done in the past (and still haven't finished)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! Leave comments, favourites, follows and the like, and I hope you all have a good one!