#sylbern

happy self care day for fe art scuffle 🫡

sylvain goes back to gautier. takes care of things. is responsible, but still messy. bernie renounces varley, and travels the continent. she writes and researches and draws, creating stories and botanical books 

eventually, bernadetta appears in gautier. she's welcomed with open arms; sylvain's happy to see a familiar face like hers. she leaves within a week or so, but eventually she starts to find herself taking "breaks" there more and more. it's become her home base, more or less 

he asks her to write to him, and after a while, she does, adding where she plans to go next so he can send her a letter back. they exchange letters back and forth for a long while, bernie occasionally coming back to resupply and give sylvain her work (which he helps her with)

one day, though, the anticipated letter from bernadetta comes a few days late. that was not entirely abnormal, but what was worrying was the fact that the letter was much more rushed--worse script and shorter paragraphs. far more simple and to the point than typical.

instead of bernie's usual anecdotes and drawings of flora, she tells him she's coming back to gautier soon. it's her next stop. she found a child. please don't be angry.

she found a child?!

when the woman enters the manor, she and the little boy are almost swarmed by the staff, but bernie's squeak of alarm reminds them to... not do that. sylvain quickly comes in to greet the pair, and brings them to his study.

bernadetta dumps her bags into his arms, then explains that the child--who's been silent all this time, clinging to bernadetta's clothes with his gaze downcast--was alone in the woods, wild and scared and cold. bernie couldnt stop herself from reaching out.

fed, cleaned, and clothed, the boy slowly starts to warm up to bernie. he does not speak, but he writes awkward words into empty notebooks. "nice lady. please stay." bernie never wants to stay in one place again, but she does want to stay with this child.

but the boy, so young and weak, likely could not keep up with her travels. so bernadetta takes him to sylvain, where she knows he will be taken care of. there, he will surely be loved. bernie knows sylvain's always had a soft spot for vulnerable youngsters.

bernadetta ends up staying at gautier longer than anticipated, but she doesn't regret it whatsoever. the boy never does speak out loud, but he writes and draws and eventually they all come up with a sign language. sylvain is gentle with the boy. bernadetta feels happy.

the nobles and staff and people of gautier are also quite happy with this. the margrave has a very lovely wife and son now, you know! obviously there's rumors, especially since the two came out of essentially nowhere, but theyre both so sweet holy cow

bernadetta returns to and leaves from gautier two more times. the third sylvain catches her arm, gazes into her eyes, and asks her to stay with them. she looks away. "i'll--i'll think about it." but then their boy asks her to stay, then, and she just cannot say no.

it took a lot longer than anyone thought for the two to actually get married (man they both have a lot of trauma related to that) but it's obvious for years that they've fallen in love.

Sylvain volunteers as reference