I.

He doesn't usually come to this part of the library. Garreg Mach University has such ridiculous amounts of government funding that the famous St. Macuil Resource Center had three stories and two sets of elevators to boot. And even then, no one really goes there unless they were planning to find some obscure study among the archives, cram in the isolated study rooms, or be blown in the abandoned basement.

It's a waste of tax dollars, if anyone asks him.

And so it's with some trepidation that Felix steps out into the dark recesses of the third floor, which is pretty much a ghost town at this time of night. He has a list of articles for his Introduction to Horology class in his hand that he's determined to track down even if it kills him, which is a definite possible considering how abandoned this place is.

As he makes his way down, frowning at the awkward spelling of the authors' names as he slowly collects his books, Felix pauses as a strain of soft, dreamy humming floats to his ear. The voice is female, sweet, and it comes from the only lit spot on the floor.

Who SINGS in a library?

He finds himself gravitating towards the sound. If this were a slasher movie, Felix would probably be that naïve idiot who dies in the first ten minutes of the film. But he can't help himself. The song is…intriguing, to say the least.

"Oh, how I just love to clean. Clean the library room! Just takes a flash of light and then it all goes boom! A flash and then a big boom!"

He rounds the corner. There's the source of the singing, a slim girl busily filing heavy hardbacks on the shelf labeled 300.1 to 350.1. Teetering precariously on one of those spindly metal stepladders, it's a miracle she's staying balanced, although it is probably because of her small (and thus more manageable) frame.

He observes her for a bit longer, amused by the way she seems to be lost in her own world without two earbuds tucked in her ears. She isn't bad to look at either, with her pale complexion and swept up hair that frames her wide slate blue eyes.

With a start, Felix realizes that he recognizes the girl. She's friends with that tall girlfriend of Sylvain's that he's always bringing over to their apartment. She always leaves before he has a chance to properly meet her.

What's her name again…?

Heir of House Dominic, of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.

He rubs his temples. Late nights make his head ache and conjure up the most absurd things. Just now…

The singing girl pauses in her singing to squint at one of the covers in her hand. She catches a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye and shrieks in alarm, tipping backwards. "AAAHH!"

The disaster happens in slow motion. The textbooks fall first amidst a flapping and tumbling of scholarly pages. The girl tumbles next, her arms wind-milling as her doe eyes widen with terror. And as she keels backwards, Felix's arms fly up.

In hindsight he can't tell whether he was shielding himself or actually trying to catch her, because by the time his brain could register what was happening, she's already falling on top of him in a messy tangle of arms and legs.

CRASH!

Seeing stars is the best term to what he's experiencing right now. The jarring impact is enough to send sparks of red and black spots scattering across his vision.

He groans, trying to sit up. One of his textbooks was a hardcover and its sharp corner is digging into his thigh.

But something far softer and far warmer is also draped on top of him, and for a beat of three seconds two pairs of eyes, cerulean blue and copper fire, stare into each other with mirrored expressions of dazed shock. It doesn't take long for Felix's stupid brain to register that her slender waist is molded almost perfectly against his.

His head throbs, and for a moment he swears she's wearing a long, white dress, rimmed in blue and orange ribbon.

The girl's lips part in surprise. "A-Ah…!"

And then immediately comes the inevitable flustered scramble of separation. She detaches herself with the speed of someone who just realizes that she was just practically glued hip to hip with a stranger. He pulls away with the speed of someone who has no intention of violating Title IX-like codes anytime soon.

"I'm so sorry!" The girl blurts, scrambling to pick up the scattered books around them. "Are you okay? That was a really bad fall!"

"I'm fine." He grunts, wincing as he sits up gingerly, rubbing his hip. "You?"

"A bit shaken, but I think I'll live!" She smiles uncertainly at him as she offers him his books. He takes them with a brusque nod, relieved to see that none of them are badly damaged, just a bit wrinkled where the pages were bent out of shape.

As she dolefully begins to collect her own books, Felix finds himself asking, "What's that song you were singing earlier?"

Interestingly, the girl's face turns a dark red, pales to a sickening gray, and then flushes a bright shade of pink as her hands slowly came up to cover her mouth in mute horror, all within a space of a few seconds. "Ohhhh, did you…hear me?"

He nods, bemused. "It was…unique."

She groans, burying her face in her hands. "Ahhhh, please forget what you heard! It's so embarrassing…"

"I don't see how it's embarrassing." Felix says honestly. "Your skill is impressive."

"Please, just—" Her wide eyes peek out from behind her fingers. "What did you say?"

Felix feels his ears grow hot. What was he thinking, blurting out something like that to a girl he just met? He turns around and begins brusquely picking up the rest of her scattered books. "Never mind."

The girl sticks out her lips in a pout. It doesn't do anything but draw attention to how plump and lush they are. Felix stomps on that observation in a hurry.

"Please." She pleads. "People will think I'm weird for singing these silly songs. Can't you at least keep it a secret?"

He looks over her with a steady eye, and she squirms under his silence. The lone fluorescent light buzzes above them as they stare at each other, assessing, considering, analyzing in the abandoned floor of the library.

"Alright." Felix finally says with a shrug. "But I won't forget about this."

The girl wrings her hands despairingly. "Not even a little bit?"

It's permanently etched in my memory

He speaks the words without thinking. "I can't. It's permanently etched in my memory."

The girl's eyes widen. Then they gloss over in a most disconcerting manner, as if her mind is suddenly teleported to somewhere faraway. Her hand come up to her temples as a faint wince twists her pretty features.

His head throbs painfully. He bites his lip as an overwhelming feeling of vertigo sweeps through his body.

Her voice pulls him back to the present. "Sorry." The girl says absently, looking at him as if he was some sort of alien. "I just…have we met before?"

Felix tilts his head. "Maybe. Your friend is dating my roommate."

The girl laughs suddenly, her eyes lighting up most brilliantly as her hands clap excitedly. "You're Sylvain's roommate?! Oh my gosh, Mercedes is there all the time! How have I never met you?"

He shrugs, a bit amused at her effusiveness. "We have…very different schedules." After a thought, he adds, "Plus, he's so damn sickening when he's with her."

The girl snickered. "I'll bet." Her face brims with merriment and just as Felix's realizing that he rather likes that impish look on her, she sticks out her hand jauntily. "The name's Annette, by the way."

Annette Fantine Dominic and heir to House Dominic of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus

He takes her hand and shakes it, ignoring the tiny, mysterious whisper in the back of his mind.

"I'm Felix."

O.O

"He's alive."

The hateful hiss jolts Annette out of her reading. She looks up to see Felix barging into the tent, tossing aside his sheathed weapon in disgust, his furs wet with blood and rain. "What? Who's alive?"

"The professor." Felix yanks off his gloves one by one, his jaw tight. "I saw him leading Imperial forces near the western border."

The heavy tome falls from her numb fingers. "He…I don't understand." Her voice trembles. "I thought he died five years ago!"

Felix curses, shucking off his outer coat. "It's hard enough to constantly fight off those Imperial bastards as it is! And now, due to some cursed black magic, the Ashen Demon himself is joining the Emperor's inner circle?!"

Annette reaches out a tentative hand to touch him. "We still have hope, Felix! We're still a ways off from Arianrhod and the-"

"It's not about strategy or the number of forces anymore!" Felix whirls on her, his eyes lit with a despairing fire that makes her tremble. "The professor is different. I saw him in battle, Annette. REALLY saw him."

His voice breaks. "Did you know that he doesn't flinch or wince no matter what he gets hit with? Swords, daggers, arrows…he just yanks them out and keeps fighting, plowing down soldier after soldier without so much as a hint of regret or emotion. He isn't human!"

Annette gasps as the coat falls from Felix's numb hands, heavy with red. She leaps to her feet. "Felix, you're bleeding!"

Felix smiles with no mirth. "He got a few good hits on me. I would've stayed longer to fight if the boar hadn't called to retreat."

Annette flies to him to assess the damage. Her hands shake as she uncovers more and more ragged flesh, torn from a serrated blade that was wielded with terrifying precision.

Her hands clutch at his chest.

"What were you thinking?" She glares up at him, her eyes filling with tears. "You need to stay alive! You have your dukedom to think about, and your friends! What would we do if you died in battle so recklessly?"

Felix stares down at her. Her shoulders are slumped, and her hair is matted. The dark shadows underneath her eyes tell their own story; of countless sleepless nights, of weary treks that last for days, of white-knuckled ambushes and midnight skirmishes. She's exhausted; they all are.

No one wants to be on the losing side of war. But they fight, nonetheless, for what else can you do when there's nothing but despair behind you and death in front?

What else can you do when there's no such thing as a second chance?