Roxy looked up at the prince and shrugged.  It wasn’t much of a secret by now. Besides, what was the harm in it?  It wasn’t as if she were directly manipulating people into doing terrible things.  All she and Ashe were doing was steering otherwise oblivious people towards each other.  

“What’s so concerning about it, Your Highness?”

Dimitri regarded Roxy in silence for a few moments, his eyes scanning her face for any measure of embarrassment or shame at being found out. His gaze fell to the floor, regarding it with a perplexed look as he brought his fist to his lips.

How was one supposed to chide a person who felt no shame?

He’d never had any measure of success with Sylvain in that matter.

“..Roxanne, do you have a moment?”

Dimitri didn’t particularly like to accuse those in his house of wrong-doings, especially without any hard evidence. Frankly, Dimitri preferred not to accuse anyone of anything. Reprimanding his charges was his least favorite aspect of being a leader. But he couldn’t let this one pass.

That was true – the people of Wallachia seemed even more closed-off than those of Faerghus, at least to one another. Though it was hard for him to tell if that was because of his own appearance, or because of the vampire attacks.

It would seem that they were just naturally that way.

Ashe’s sentiment only made him more surprised, and made more warmth bloom in his chest. The little ‘I’m’ made his heart skip a beat for reasons he couldn’t quite place.

Perhaps it was as Alice and Ashe had already said, and that he was very lonely. Wasn’t that what had driven Dimitri to bring Alice back to the castle? Was that not the reason Dedue himself wanted Ashe to stay as well? Why would N choose to live in the woods outside, if not to see Alice and Ashe?

They were lonely, all of them.

Dedue’s smile grew tender.

“Thank you. It would seem that everyone here could use friendly company, and someone to speak to. Including myself. I hope that, should you find the need, you will talk to me about your troubles as well.”

Ashe smiled back, the weight of his embarrassment lifting from his shoulders as the other man offered his ear in return.

“I will,” Ashe promised, rising up from the water to settle at the edge of the pond next to Dedue once more. He leaned over onto the grass to meet Dedue’s gaze with bright eyes.

“And, the next time I go into town, you can come with me. At the very least, I want to take you to a restaurant. I want you to try some local cuisine. I promise, just getting out there, seeing more of the world outside of the castle - you’ll start feeling better already.”

“My skulking hasn’t carried me into any armory, but I think I know where it is. In any case, you’re here, so you can show me yourself.”

He’d be her opponent? She balked.

“You’re going to fight me? You can’t be serious. I’m not even sure I know how to hold a sword properly yet. The match will be over in less than a minute. And you can’t intend to just stand there and play the part of a training dummy..”

Alice glanced up at him as they walked, her own pace having to get a bit faster to keep up. When she spoke again, though, her voice lacked an edge, replaced by a soft curiosity.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but…what made you want to teach me, exactly? And don’t say it’s to keep me from bothering Dedue, because we both know that’s rubbish.”

Dimitri huffed.

“I’m not going to unload decades of training upon you as an excuse to pummel you into the dirt, nor am I going to sit and allow you to grievously wound me in an attempt to teach you how to swing a sword.”

He eyed her from the side. “I’ll be your opponent in a purely technical sense. For lack of a less flowery metaphor, you cannot learn to dance without a partner. I’ll teach you the stance, you’ll swing, and I’ll stay on the defense. I’ll begin by walking you through several basic techniques.”

He frowned. “Ideally, you’re not going to be slamming your sword into my side at full strength, but it’s not as if I haven’t survived that before.”

At her question, his eyes seemed to narrow.

Dedue watched as Ashe seemed to melt into the water. He looked red. Was he overheating? The water was cool enough he thought it would prevent that.

But Ashe’s shaking voice brought up another possibility, one that had Dedue shifting uncomfortably in the water.

“If I have embarrassed you, I apologize.”

Friend things. Friend caring. Friends worry and do stuff for each other.

Slowly, Dedue nodded.

“Ah. I see,” he said, thinking he’d gotten a grasp of it, “You wish to take care of me, should I ever be injured or incapacitated.”

The thought was touching, and it showed on his face in the form of a warm smile. Hoping to calm Ashe’s nervousness, Dedue placed a hand on his shoulder.

“…I would welcome the help, should the need arise. However, I will work hard to ensure that it does not. I do not wish to worry you,”

Or Alice, or his Highness. He wasn’t sure if his absence would worry N, but he seemed to worry about enough as it was.

Ashe seemed to jolt, briefly, beneath Dedue’s touch.

“N-No, you didn’t embarrass me!” He squeezed his eyes shut, and sighed - before opening them again.

“Sorry, I’m just not used to people being so..” Forward? No, that had certain connotations. “Um, direct? It’s not a bad thing! People in Wallachia don’t usually say things out loud like that, b-but I guess it’s only because people here are k-kind of.. closed off? It’s nice talking to someone who isn’t.”

Maybe there wasn’t even a cultural divide. Maybe Ashe was just weird. Alternatively, Ashe was a little too used to clients getting snippy with him. He really needed friends - he was out of practice. He could ask Alice her opinion on the matter later.

Asking a literal hermit for help with social cues. Good god.

“What else could you have meant?”

The indignant noise he made, as well as his expression, alerted Alice that she’d actually managed to embarrass him.

Well…that was a first. He almost looked like he was blushing. Was she imagining things? It was kind of endearing.

Alice weighed the sword in her hands, getting used to the feel, and trying to figure out if she should be flattered or insulted by all this. Dimitri always seemed to make it a chore to figure out. Usually, it was an insult. But she’d started to realize he liked wrapping up other feelings in them.

Alice stepped out beside him, holding the sword down and away from him.

“It worked well enough on you, didn’t it?” she asked slyly, not even bothering to hide the smirk on her lips, before turning back to the hall and walking down it. Dimitri would overtake her pace soon enough with those long legs of his.

“But I’d rather not press my luck, no. So if you’re offering lessons, I’ll be happy to take you up on them.”

Dimitri rolled his eye, his scowl offering a glimpse of the sharp, pointy teeth that he usually kept hidden.

“I hadn’t intended to kill you until I’d figured out what was happening. You would have known had I meant to deal you a killing blow.”

They were beginning to fall back into their usual back-and-forth banter. It wasn’t a good sign for things to come. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath - and started after her, quickly coming up beside her and matching her pace.

He’d do his best to hold his tongue. At least, long enough to teach her how to defend herself.

Dedue’s face turned serious.

“Ashe. If you are ever wounded again, do not hesitate to come here, as quickly as is safe. I will always care for you.”

Realizing that, perhaps, came off too strongly, he added, “As will Alice, I am sure. You have won the friendship of us both. His Highness may not admit it, but he, too, counts you as an ally.”

An ally, yes, but possibly a disposable one. Dedue refused to think of that. He wanted to believe Dimitri was better than that.

But it was Ashe’s last comment that had him staring back at him wide-eyed.

“Take care of me?” he repeated in surprise, “I am afraid I do not understand. In what manner do you mean?”

Ashe hunkered back down into the water, unable to hide the rapidly spreading redness on his cheeks before he quickly craned his face as far away from Dedue as he could manage.

Oh, there was no way Dedue was doing this on purpose, and that just made it a thousand times worse. Now Ashe’s heart was beating a million miles per second and he felt like a creep. But, seriously - how else was he supposed to react to a handsome, shirtless guy telling him something like ‘I’ll always care for you’? It was a line straight out of a book.

Maybe there was a language barrier. Maybe that was why Dedue said things like that. Gosh, Ashe felt bad.

“U-Um.” He brought a hand up to his mouth. “Um, I-I just, I didn’t mean anything b-by it.. ! Just like, friend things - friend caring? Y-You know, ah -- friends just, uh, worry, a lot, and do stuff for e-each other.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, you grew up a prince, I’m sure women regularly paraded to your door and tossed themselves naked into your arms. I don’t give a fig. Have some common courtesy. How would you feel if I walked in on you undressed?”

Then the handle was offered to her. Alice reached out, hesitating, before slowly taking it, her eyebrows raising.

A silver sword. A sword that could kill a vampire. A sword that could kill him.

And he wanted her to know how to use it? Why? He didn’t trust her – or Ashe, or N, or anyone who wasn’t Dedue. He was always calling her ‘witch’. Surely he thought she’d stab him in the back.

“Are you…sure?” she found herself asking, her gaze leaving the blade to move back up to his. “You’re certain? I don’t…” She paused, then continued, “I don’t want you to end up…afraid to sleep, or to rest.”

Dimitri made a choked-off noise of protest in the back of his throat, Alice’s words finally seeming to land a hit on him.

“I didn’t mean it in that manner, and you know as much.” He glowered at her to hide the mortification threatening to rise in his cheeks.

“As for your other concern,” Dimitri drawled, letting go of the sword. “I don’t find the idea of you in my home with a sword any more of a threat than you in my home without a sword. You’re surely aware that there’s an infinite number of objects within these walls that - given enough time - you could easily learn how to enchant and turn against me.”

He turned his shoulder to her, stepping back out into the hall. He leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms as he waited for her to follow.

“His Highness has not been a vampire for long,” Dedue murmured, glancing away. “His health was…unsteady, as a human. I cannot overstate the impact that his turning had on him.”

His voice lowered, eyes narrowing at the water, a deep-seated anger rising in his tone.

“But it was what followed, what he suffered at the hands of those he trusted, that broke him. There is no doubt of that in my heart. That those who participated still sit in power…proves justice does not exist in this world.”

He still wished he could have killed them. But he hadn’t had the time. He’d barely gotten Dimitri out as it was.

Dedue glimpsed Ashe’s face out of the corner of his eye, and his anger evaporated. He turned back towards him, his expression softening.

“I live only to serve and protect his Highness. My well being is of little consequence. Although…”

He paused, the words coming slowly, almost ashamed.

“…I admit that your presence has been welcomed. Thank you, for continuing to stay.”

Ashe’s cheeks flushed pink as he ducked his head, and he rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous smile. It was hard not to react - Dedue seemed so painfully genuine all the time, and when had Ashe ever been thanked just for his company?

“O-Oh!” He chuckled, awkwardly. “I don’t know why you’re thanking me. I should be thanking you for letting me stay, and still bothering to take care of me after everything that happened. It really wasn’t smart of me to come here in the state that I did..”

It took a moment for his bashfulness to pass, Dedue’s words finally settling in. He bit his lip, fighting off the urge to just sink into the murky water and hide his face forever, and pressed the tips of his pointer fingers together.

She’d been trying to be nicer lately. God if it wasn’t difficult, with his sullen disposition and a temper that liked to ignite her own. But she’d been trying.

Alice had been bringing him tea, asking how he was. Through a combination of threatening, pleading and stubbornness bordering on bullying, she’d managed to clean up his study. It was still a bit of a wreck – she swore he mussed it up on purpose, in protest – but at least it wasn’t filled with rubble and dust.

Alice had been planning on changing when there’d been a knock. She hadn’t even had time to shut the wardrobe before Dimitri barged in. She stiffened up from having the sword pointed at her. Thankfully, she’d grown to trust Dimitri enough so that she didn’t immediately expect he had murder on his mind.

This time.

Alice slammed her wardrobe shut, and gave him a pointed look. “You nearly caught me changing into my nightgown, I’ll have you know. And no. I wasn’t given any lessons in combat. Why?”

A flicker of surprise danced across Dimitri’s face at Alice’s scolding, the expression passing quickly enough that it hardly seemed as if it was ever there to begin with. Apparently, whatever manners had been ingrained into him as a child still seemed to be lingering beneath the surface of his brooding facade - but only just barely.

“Please,” he scoffed. “I assure you - it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

It was difficult getting used to the concept of respecting anyone’s personal space but his own. Damned guests.

Dimitri gave the sword a gentle toss in his hand as he turned it, offering the handle out to Alice.

“His Highness was given a royal education. Such tutoring would have surely included lessons about the kingdoms neighboring his own, since he would one day take the throne.”

Dedue shook his head.

“I received no such education. Instead, his Highness made himself my tutor, teaching me to read and write, and about the politics and customs of Fhirdiad.”

Dedue rested against the edge of the pond near Ashe, melancholy settling over him just as surely as the water.

“His Highness’s knowledge of Wallachian monsters has come primarily from the books in the castle. Before he laid claim, it was a den of vampires and the monsters they kept as guards. He has combed through every bestiary in his possession. When he returns from his hunts, he often brings additional tomes back with him. His studies border on obsessive. I cannot help but fear the toll it has on his mind…”

Ashe’s offer took him by surprise, rousing Dedue from his thoughts, and causing him to stare at the other man for a moment.

“…I…would like that,” he finally said. “I do venture into town when errands require. I would enjoy accompanying you.”

Ashe frowned, lips thinning as he watched Dedue’s expression falter, his eyes drifting down towards the grass while he spoke of Dimitri’s peculiar habits.

“Oh,” he breathed out, softly. He felt a sudden urge to comfort the other man. “I mean -- I mean, to be fair, Dimitri is.. he’s much more put together than most of the vampires I meet! But, I guess..”

Ashe turned away from Dedue, worrying at his bottom lip.

“I don’t know, I hardly know him. It sounds like you’d know much better than I would, and I wouldn’t want to impose. But, I don’t think it’s a good thing for someone’s mind to be so focused on violence and death all the time, even if it’s for a good cause. Wallachia isn’t really a nice place, but sometimes he seems like he thinks everyone’s trying to take advantage of him, or hurt him. Or, um, you.”

He grimaced, a bit, hesitant to continue at the risk of offending Dedue.

The knock at Alice’s bedroom door seemed to be nothing more than a hollow courtesy, as mere seconds later it was shoved open without warning - the tall, looming shadow of Dimitri sweeping in from the hallway, an alarmingly sharp shortsword grasped firmly in his hand as he lifted the blade to point it towards Alice.

“You,” Dimitri grunted. He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing her in silence for a moment.

Introducing himself to a new patron was always stressful.

What was worse, though, was the fact that he’d effectively had to sneak out under the noses of Alice and Dedue. It wasn’t that their concern wasn’t appreciated, really! But this was still Ashe’s job, and a new vampire on the block meant a new source of money.

Money that he found himself desperately needing after losing his last benefactor. His sister was hitting another growth spurt, and those clothes wouldn’t pay for themselves.

It was difficult for Dedue to look at the size of the fish, thrashing about so furiously on the ground, and picture it as slow in the water. Clearly, he was wrong.

“It would seem I still have much to learn about the native species…your knowledge is quite impressive. As was your technique.”

Dedue smiled at him, his gaze trailing back to the fish on the ground, before turning to a frown. “…one moment.”

He hauled himself out of the water, picking the fish up in one hand and his axe in the other. He excused himself behind a tree.

When he returned, the fish was limp and missing its head. He hung it by the tail on a branch nearby.

“…my apologies. I did not want to prolong its suffering,” he explained, slipping back into the water, and hoping his companion did not take it the wrong way. Or think he was violently inclined.

“His Highness and I have only been in Wallachia a few years now. It is difficult to learn the culture and customs when we are purposefully removed from society.”

Ashe couldn’t help but wince at the soft ‘thud’ of Dedue’s axe as it cleaved clean through the fish and into the soil beneath it.

“Uh, no, it’s fine!” He waved his hands. “I get it, that’s.. probably for the best.”

It wasn’t that Dedue was all that intimidating, really. He seemed downright gentle, it was just -- well, Ashe was used to those displays of force being directed towards him, and gosh, that axe was sharp, wasn’t it?

“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised.” He quickly latched onto the next conversation topic, eager to tamp down that tiny, passing surge of adrenaline.

“I never said you should fake it.  Besides, it never sounds very convincing anyway.” There was a wicked gleam in her eye now.   

“There are plenty of single gorgeous people here to choose from~” 

That one managed to stun Dimitri into a shocked silence for several solid seconds before he was able to mentally reboot.