#faerghus four

Glenn and Sylvain were meant to be the green/red christmas cavaliers in fe3h and the entire reason there isn't a set of "actual" christmas cavs in the game is to underscore the point that glenn is fucking DEAD

This is at least 55% of Sylvain's Problem, he is missing his green boy!

Brought to you by replaying sacred stones, path of radiance, and thinking a lot about the parallels between Sylvain & Sain from Blazing Sword...

Dare I extrapolate from this that while Felix leans toward the BLUE in the blue/green of House Fraldarius, Glenn leaned toward the GREEN? Is that why Sylvain is always wearing green???

Halfway There 😤

My piece for @soc-fe3hzine Seasons of Change: A Fire Emblem Three Houses zine.

"And..." Felix puffed between breaths, "If you... look over at this, here..." they trudged to a stop, and Dimitri fixed a pleasant, curious expression on his face, eagerly awaiting Felix's explanation. "See that... big tree, there?" He was hunched over in his fur-trimmed coat with his mittens pressed against his knees, and a big white plume bloomed in front of his face with every exhale. "That's over four thousand years old," he declared, proudly.

Dimitri blinked. "Four thousand?" he gasped, incredulously, staring up. It was an impressive tree, true, but he would have never guessed it was ten times older than the Kingdom itself! "Are you sure you don't mean four hundred?"

Felix planted his hands on his hips and squinted. "You think I don't know the difference between a hundred and a thousand?" he demanded. "What, do you think I'm stupid?"

Dimitri's mouth fell open. He still wasn't used to the way Felix just -- spoke to him, like that. Like he was anybody else.

He loved it. He couldn't help the grin that came to his lips. "I didn't say that," he said. "Smart people are mistaken about things all the time, Felix."

Felix rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, and Dimitri noticed the way he stuffed his mittened hands into his own armpits, for extra warmth. The fields were empty, now, the last of the harvest pulled and safely stored, and Dimitri had heard his father call this the last week before winter travel becomes well and truly irresponsible.

The snow was nearly higher than poor Felix's skinny little knees.

"If you're mistaken all the time, then I don't think you're very smart," Felix argued. He enjoyed arguing, Dimitri had realized, at some point -- maybe more than anything else, except fighting, and it was always good fun to indulge him with either. Hours never passed more quickly than when he was with Felix. "And I'm not stupid or mistaken! This tree used to have a name, but it's so old that everyone forgot what it was. So now we just call it Grandfather. Come on! You haven't even seen the best part."

Felix flashed him a toothy smile, and then spun and bounded up to the tree's outer branches like a snow bunny wrapped in Fraldarius blue. Even more bunny-like, he wiggled and disappeared beneath.

Dimitri gasped. "Wait for me!" he cried, charging forward after him. Pine needles scraped his cheeks as he pushed beneath the tree boughs, but once he was there...

Someone had thinned the branches to create a hidden space, inside. Dimitri gasped as he stood and turned in a slow circle, marveling at the passageways that gaped between the branches. There was enough room that several people -- of their size, at least -- could fit within, quite comfortably.

Felix was wearing a proud grin, like he'd done it all himself.

"You... did you...?" Dimitri gaped, speechless.

Felix shook his head. "No one knows who did," he said. His face took on a thunderous sort of look, just for a blink. "Glenn only just showed me this place a few weeks ago, but I guess he's been bringing Sylvain here for years! How is that fair?"

"It's not," Dimitri agreed, solemnly. "What about Ingrid, does she know?"

Felix's face wrinkled up. "No," he said. "And you can't tell her, okay? Glenn said it's for boys only, here."

It sounded unfair to Dimitri, but if Glenn had said it...

"Okay," he said. "Can you show me around?"

"Hm?" Glenn raised his brows. "What do you mean?"

Sylvain couldn't tell if he was just playing innocent, or not.

"I mean, how do you think Felix is going to react, when he finds out Dimitri is head over heels for some Adrestian girl he's never even met?" Sylvain crossed his arms. "You haven't thought about this at all, yet? Really?"

Glenn made a thoughtful sound, tapping his fingers against his chin. Ingrid did that now, too, sometimes, but Sylvain tried not to let the little things get to him.

"I've had a lot on my mind," Glenn pointed out. "Nothing for you to worry about, though. Or Felix, either!" He laughed, then, reaching out to give Sylvain's shoulder a pat. "Besides, what are you even asking me, for? We all know he goes running to you, when it has to do with the Prince."

Yeah. He did kind of have a habit of doing that, didn't he?

"That doesn't mean that I just magically know what to do about it," Sylvain muttered, inexplicably annoyed. Restless energy made his skin itch, made him want to shift and scratch and fidget in place. "What do you think I should tell him?" Have you even ever talked about this?

Snakes writhed around in his belly, as he wondered. He'd sure as hell never bring anything like it up with Miklan, not in a billion years... not if he valued his life, anyway.

But Sylvain had come to realize over the long years associating with House Fraldarius that not all brothers were the same -- he just had shit for luck, that was all.

Glenn gave Sylvain a look that he could only interpret as pitying: that slight dip of his brows, the knowing curve of his lip, the vaguely pained cast all his features took on, tight and harried. "Felix... he's growing up so fast." He sighed. "This is just a part of it. Every prince marries, eventually. I've been warning him from the very beginning."

"So, you think this is it, then? We've got our next Queen all lined up, now, or what?"

It was strange to see Glenn looking so troubled.

"Have you met her, yourself?" he asked.

Sylvain puffed up. "No, but I've seen her," he said. Between the way no one had let him even get close, and the way Glenn was acting right that very minute, though... what was he missing, here? "She's a skinny little brown haired girl, right?" He racked his brain, but came up empty. He hadn't recognized her at all, and why would he?

Glenn coughed into his arm. Sylvain didn't know exactly what that meant, but it probably wasn't good. He frowned, but Glenn spoke first.

"Yeah, I guess she is," he said, grinning just a little too wide, so Sylvain knew that he was full of some kind of shit. He just couldn't figure out what kind. "Real special girl..." he ran fingers through his hair, his gaze shifting toward the distance.

"Hey, what do you know?" Sylvain demanded, narrowing his eyes. "What's that look for?"

Ingrid gasps -- like she's never heard this one, before. "Don't say things like that," she scolds. "Hate is not a nice word, Felix. You shouldn't say that you hate anyone."

Felix's chubby baby face screws up all nice and tight and pinched, and he looks a bit like a chipmunk hoarding nuts in his cheeks, so Sylvain laughs at him. "You're out of luck, anyway, Felix," he says. "I told you. Dimitri already has a girlfriend."

Ingrid whirls to fix Sylvain with her flashing gaze, instead. Like he'd planned it. He feels a little guilty for that, too. "That's not funny," she says, which is technically just her opinion, but he won't argue.

This time.

He shrugs, instead, and slings an arm around each of them. "It's true," he says, pulling them close. "I've seen her. She's pretty cute, actually..."

Felix wriggles out of the semicircle of Sylvain's arm like it burns, but Ingrid... doesn't.

Which could mean anything.

Probably means nothing, granted -- but could is a word that Sylvain is starting to recognize as one that causes acid flowers to bloom in his belly, and he likes to tend the garden, sometimes, for fun.

"We should have all gone with them," Felix grouses, crossing his arms and looking west. The sunset is red-gold, and those big wet eyes he has reflect it, glimmering. "It's not fair!"

Felix's fiery eyes overflow with his tears, and now Ingrid pulls away, of course.

"I know you'll miss them, Felix," she soothes him. "I will, too. But your father and mother are depending on us to keep the estate in order, until they're home. You'll help me, won't you?"

It's the perfect thing to say. Felix perks up immediately, wiping his eyes. "Of course," he sniffles, dragging his arm across his snotty nose. Gross. Glenn would have wiped his face off for him, but Sylvain doesn't know how to take care of people, so he doesn't move. Ingrid sighs and pulls a handkerchief from a pocket and does it herself.

They're like a little family, already.