Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.

I honestly didn't expect to make a second chapter for this. This was supposed to be a one-shot. However, another idea came to mind that fit really well, so here it is. You may or may not be surprised to find it involves Mercedes. For those of you familiar with my other works, you know quite well how partial I am to her.

It starts with a daily greeting. It was a surprise at first, but it was nice at the same time to be acknowledged. Ashe knows he's a bit of an outsider, the Blue Lions have pre-established groups already and he's left as the odd one out, so it's nice that he's not being completely ignored.

Then Mercedes invites him to tea. It comes out of nowhere and Ashe is momentarily suspicious. Is she just being polite? Does she invite everyone for tea at least once? It would be rude to say no though, right?

"I'd be happy to join you." He responds with a smile. He tries to look calm, comfortable. He isn't so sure he succeeds. He allows the girl to lead him to a secluded area in the gardens, where everything is already prepared. "She planned for this…"

Ashe feels a bit small sitting in the large gazebo as Mercedes pours tea. The structure and the table are clearly meant to hold more than just two people, and the wide, empty area around the gazebo only makes him feel more exposed.

Mercedes seems unbothered though, and passes him a steaming cup. "Careful, it's hot."

"Thank you." Ashe says. He's never really had tea before. Lord Lonato wasn't partial to it, and his parents didn't have much money to waste on frivolities. How long is he supposed to wait before trying some? Maybe he'll just wait until Mercedes sips before taking one himself.

There's a silence as Mercedes adds two sugar cubes to her drink and stirs it. Ashe fiddles with his cup, not sure if he should be doing the same as her or if he should maybe take a sip now. It feels wrong to not be doing something with his drink.

"Are you liking the monastery?" Mercedes asks when she finishes stirring. "It's quite impressive, isn't it?"

"Y-Yes!" Ashe nods rapidly. Finally, something to break the ice. "It is! I've found the library particularly impressive for it's large stock of books."

"Really now? I don't read too horribly much myself, at least not the sort of things you'd find in the library."

"I-I see." Ashe nods. They drift into silence, and he feels like he somehow failed the conversation. He wasn't supposed to say something else there, wasn't he? He should have asked her what she liked to read. "How foolish of me. I'm too nervous for this. It would be too awkward and obvious to ask now though."

"Do you want some sweets?" Mercedes asks suddenly. She motions to the tray of cupcakes, cookies, small tarts, and a few other desserts. "I made them all myself."

Ashe feels even worse about how poorly this outing is going now, because she apparently put in a lot more effort than he first expected. "I-I'd love to." He reaches across the too-large table to awkwardly snag a cookie off the tray, and Mercedes visibly frowns.

"This isn't working…" The girl says. Ashe cringes, blaming himself, but it quickly becomes apparent she isn't blaming him. She stands up and transfers everything over to Ashe's side of the table, then comes around and takes a seat next to him. She scoots her chair over so that they're sitting nearly side-by-side. "There we go, much better!"

Ashe swallows. His throat feels tight, and he feels the pressure to not mess up increase. Mercedes is being polite to him despite not knowing him, and he's done nothing but be an awkward bumbling mess and eat her cookies. Well, one cookie. He hasn't even touched his drink yet. Maybe he should do that?

He takes a small sip of his drink and instantly spits it back out. The liquid is still searing hot. He quickly sets his cup back down. So quickly in fact that it spills out of the cup and onto his hands and burns them equally as bad.

Ashe shakes his hands to be rid of the burning liquid, but it leaves unsightly red marks on his flesh that sting despite the irritant being gone. His tongue feels equally pained, and overall he feels like a complete fool.

"Oh dear!" Mercedes exclaims. Her hands quickly move to his, glowing with a soft light, and the pain rapidly fades from his hands. "Be careful with the tea, it takes a bit to cool off."

Ashe nods mutely. His tongue still burns uncomfortably. The girl takes notice, and her hand goes up to touch his cheek. She heals the burn through his skin. Ashe flushes, thoroughly embarrassed by his fumble and needing to be healed. He's shown himself to be a spectacular failure in basic social interaction in front of someone who seems like they put quite a bit of effort into preparing this nice meet-up.

Now Ashe just wants out before he can make more of a fool of himself in front of Mercedes. He pushes his chair back and stands up. "L-Look, I need to go. I'm sorry all your effort is going to waste Mer-"

"Now, there will be none of that." Mercedes interrupts with a frown. She grabs his sleeve, and pointedly tugs him back into his seat. Ashe meekly complies and hunches in his seat, feeling sheepish. "I organized this tea party so we could be properly get to know each other, and I intend for that to happen."

All Ashe can do is nod. He still bumbles his way through the conversation, missing obvious cues and the like, but at least he doesn't spill his tea again. He ends the tea party feeling quite embarrassed, and thinking that Mercedes is certainly never going to want to invite him to such a thing ever again.

###

He's invited to another tea party not three days later. He feels even more worried about this one than the last one, because he feels compelled to not be as much of a fuckup as last time.

He doesn't feel very confident to begin with, and any confidence he might have had abandons him when he notices that he isn't the only person who was invited.

Ashe has a vague idea of who Annette is. He knows enough about her to know that she and Mercedes are very close friends. If anyone else had been here instead of her he would have felt less afraid, but a tea party between just the three of them, especially in Mercedes's room rather than a public space.

Maybe coming here was a bad idea. Ashe feels like he's about to be interrogated. He already opened the door though, he can't just leave now without being rude, so he steps inside and reluctantly closes the door behind himself.

"Ashe, good, you're here." Mercedes greets with a smile. "Sit, sit."

Ashe nervously sits on the third chair around the small table. Just like last time, it's filled with tons of Mercedes's self-made desserts. There's also tea, and when Mercedes pours it Ashe makes a point of setting it aside so he doesn't burn himself again.

Annette is the one to start conversation this time. "So, Ashe, how are the assignments treating you? I'm finding historical battle tactics a bit of a challenge myself."

"Ah- um- I find math problematic." He offers tentatively. "And I don't really see how it's useful."

"Math? I'm good at math!" Annette says eagerly. Her eyes sparkle with excitement. "I could help you!"

"O-Oh, thank you." Ashe stammers.

"Do you want some cookies Ashe?" Mercedes asks softly, offering a plate of them to him.

"Y-Yes, thank you."

"Oh, oh! Here!" Annette snaps up a scone and trusts it onto his plate. "You have to try this too! Mercie makes great scones!"

"O-Okay."

A bit overwhelmed, Ashe accepts all the food pushed onto his place and tentatively nibbles on a cookie as the two girls smile at him. He's thankful when they turn away from him for a moment to talk among each other.

It doesn't last long though. Mercedes quickly turns back to him. "Are classes treating you well? What about our classmates? Are you fitting in?"

"Classes are fine, and everyone is nice enough." Ashe responds tentatively. "Though they seem rather occupied among themselves. I haven't gotten to talking to them all that much. Except Sylvain, but he's… um…"

"We're well aware what Sylvain is like." Mercedes nods. She sets down her own plate and leans forwards. "Now Ashe…"

The boy immediately shrinks in place. Mercedes's tone is one of slight scolding.

"Are you getting enough sleep? Your eyes have bangs under them." She asks, learning forwards in concern.

"Well I've been up a bit late with studying." Ashe coughs.

"Unacceptable." Mercedes frowns. "You must get enough sleep Ashe."

"I need to study though Mercedes."

"Don't study more, study better." The older girl scolds. "Sleep is far more important than studying anyhow. If you need help studying, we can help you, but I insist you sleep enough."

"Oh." Ashe says meekly. "Okay."

"Good." Mercedes smiles. "Now, how about we talk about something else?"

###

"I'm fine Mercedes!" Ashe insists as the girl fusses over him. "I promise I've been sleeping enough."

"Then why do you look so tired!?" She frowns as she holds his face and scrutinizes him. "It's early!"

"I just finished some early morning training." The boy explains. He shifts in place, trying to look away from the girl, but with his face being held that's hard to do. "I'm fine, really.'

"You can't be exhausting yourself before class even starts!" Mercedes huffs. "Did you at least eat before training?"

"No…?"

"Really now!" Mercedes mutters. She grabs him by the arm and firmly pulls him towards the mess hall. "You shouldn't exhaust yourself on an empty stomach!"

"Mercedes, really-"

"I won't hear any excuses. You will eat if I have to force feed you!"

Ashe can't imagine something like that. Even when she's trying to sound firm, Mercedes's soft voice fails to be forceful in the slightest. Similarly, she's not actually that strong. She's only pulling him around because he's not fighting her.

She brings him to the mess hall and makes sure he gets something to eat. All the while he consumes his meal, she fusses over the fact that he looks tired, that his hair is messy, and that his clothes aren't straight.

Really, Mercedes reminds Ashe of his mother. The thought embaresses him, but he can't deny that it's true.

Once his food is finished, Ashe is then taken back to his room by the girl. She firmly (as firmly as she can anyways) tells him to sleep. When he tries to protest that class in in two hours, she promises to be back to wake him up. She refuses to leave until he's physically in his bed with the covers pulled up, and warns him of deceiving her.

Ashe thinks she's blowing the whole situation out of proportion, but doesn't fight her on it. It's been a long time since he's had someone fuss over him, and while it's thoroughly embarrassing it's also nice because he knows without a doubt that she cares for him. She's also one of the few people he talks to on a regular basis, so Ashe doesn't want to risk annoying her. He was an outsider in the Blue Lions until she pulled him into having tea parties with her and Annette on a regular basis. A few forced naps and a bit of fussing is a small price to pay for what she's given him.

He wakes up three hours later when Mercedes rushes into his room, apologizing profusely for her bad memory. Professor Manuela finds the whole affair adorable and easily forgives their lateness.

Team Mom Mercedes takes care of social outsider/precious boi Ashe.

I realized a short while ago that the Blue lions has the most distinct groups of all the houses. Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Sylvain, make up one firm group of old friends (and Dedue), and Mercedes and Annette make up another, leaving Ashe as the odd one out. That was more or less the idea behind this story: Mercedes makes an effort to help out a socially isolated Ashe by pulling him into her and Annette's activities, and then proceeding to generally fuss over him because that seems like something she would do.

I headcanon that Annette joins in on caring for Ashe too at some point, and basically the two girls make it a point to provide support to him out of no other real reason than kindness. They recognize that he's a bit socially isolated and out of place, so they make a point of helping him out until he gets on his feet… and it just becomes a habit at some point so they never stop.

Ashe is also a bit more timid in this story than you might expect. I'm pulling from the headcanon of him being the outsider, as well as the fact that he's the youngest of the Blue Lions, and the only common-born of them (aside from Dedue I guess). He really don't fit in when you look at the Blue Lions as a whole. It's strange actually. Anyhow, all of those combined, I think it's reasonable for him to be a bit more meek here.