Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Look, Dimitri, all I am saying that at this rate, you’re never going to get yourself a wife” Sylvain sighed at the blonde in front of him.

Dimitri frowned, “I hardly think now is the time to be looking for a wife.”

“I mean I’m not saying to go look for her now and hey, maybe you don’t even want to marry, power to you if that’s the case, but all I am saying is that with your uh…. experience, I don’t think you’ll be able to woo anyone...ever” Sylvain cringes. He loves Dimitri. Truly and wholeheartedly, he loves the blonde. But he’s also fully aware that in the 10 years that he’s known the younger boy, Dimitri’s flirting is piss poor at best.

“I don’t see how me finding someone to date even matters” Dimitri sighed, shifting his backpack and continuing their walk to their homes. “Honestly marriage sounds great but I also very much don’t care about romance at the moment.”

“Which is extremely sad. Haven’t you heard that all you need is love?” Sylvian grinned, batting his eyelashes at the blonde in a way that he knew always made the younger boy splutter which was truly adorable if he was honest.

“Sylvain we’re in highschool, it’s too soon to talk about love” Dimitri mumbled.

The redhead hummed, “yes I guess you’re right, but I think once we’re older you’ll be thanking me for all of these flirting lessons I’ve been giving you.”

“You’ve hardly given me any lessons.”

“So many lessons” Sylvain ignored the blonde as they stopped at the corner of the street, Dimitri’s house was only three houses down while Sylvain’s was two blocks away in the opposite direction, this was where they usually split off which meant that this was always where he made sure to leave the blonde with something to remember. “Look all I’m saying is what are you going to do when you’re 23 and completely fucken single?”

“Well what are you going to do when you’re 25 and still unable to stop ‘falling in love’ with everyone you meet” Dimitri huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Touché” Sylvain mumbled before grinning. “Well I mean, if it comes down to it guess you and I can just make a promise.”

“Promise?” Dimitri frowned.

“Yeah. If by that time you’re still not dating anyone and I’m still not serious with anyone, then we can just get married. Make me into Sylvain Blaiddyd” Sylvain winked and instantly the blonde turned a deep shade of red. That alone caused him to bark out a laugh, mentally patting himself on the back for being able to get Dimitri flustered before they had to leave.

“You’re so cute Mitya,” Sylvain chuckled, ruffling the younger boy's hair before turning away. “See you tomorrow!”

Dimitri spluttered for a couple of seconds more before yelling out to him. “See you tomorrow!! Text me when you get home!”

Sylvain gave him a thumbs up before walking away. The promise he had made before already starting to faze out of his memory since to him, it had just been a joke.

“One, two— no no again!”

Sylvain groaned as their director forced them all to restart for the tenth time that day. He loved Manuela, he truly did, and he even admired the woman. He grew up watching her ballet performances and she had been the one ballerina that had made him try to pursue ballet professionally in the first place. But, goddess above, was she the most frustrating director to walk the planet. She was a perfectionist, and even though this was just simple warmups, she expected them to be at their best already.

“How many times must I repeat myself?!” Manuela practically screeched. “One two three, turn. It is not that difficult” she huffed before pacing around the room critiquing everyone individually.

“Seems like someone hasn’t had their morning dick” Dorothea whispered to him, making him sputter and laugh.

At 16 he had stopped dancing completely at his parents' request and it hadn’t been until he met Dorothea in college that he decided to pick it up again. He had been hesitant of course but after one drunk night where he admitted to the brunette that he missed dancing more than anything in his life, she practically dragged him to her practices from there on out. It had been hard of course, going 3 years without dancing had basically reverted him to beginner level but through it all she stayed by his side until he was good enough to join her troupe. And yes, his decision to drop out of business school and pursue dance had gotten him disowned, and YES, ballet sometimes left him with bruises and injuries for days, but he was happy. He was so fucken happy and he wouldn’t trade this for the world.

“Sylvain, can you come here real quick,” Manuale sighed. He gave Dorothea a knowing look before walking over. “Can you please help Johnathon with lifts?”

‘I always help everyone with lifts’, is what he wants to say but instead he just smiles and nods. A pro to being a guy in ballet was that the competitiveness for the ‘lead role’ was not so soul crushing as it was for girls (that didn’t mean it wasn’t competitive for guys it just wasn’t that bad). Of course the down side for guys was that you better be strong enough to lift all of the girls here and even some guys if you want to make it. Most guys that came didn’t know that, expecting to be able to be prima donnas and not bother with weight lifting like other dance majors but well. Ballet, if anything, required the most lifts that Sylvain knew of. Johnathon, the poor guy, had weak arm strength and couldn’t even pick up their smallest girl (which was concerning since he kept saying he’d been dancing for years) and so most of the practice revolved around him telling the guy to just go to the gym.

“Sylvie” Dorothea cooed the minute he got out of the changing rooms. The brunette waiting for him outside the room with a smirk on her face.

“Thea” he cooed back, earning a chuckle from her.

“Two things” she said as the two started walking down the hallway. “One, are you free this week? I need to start practicing for the lead part. I know I know, auditions aren’t until three weeks from now but there’s a lift in one of the scenes that I am a hundred percent sure that Manuela will have us perform during tryouts.”

He sighed, “yeah no joke. She’s been having me fucken teach every new guy how to do lifts for the past two weeks.”

“It’s funny how you became her little pet” Dorothea giggled.

“Haha so funny” he chuckled, rolling his eyes. “But yeah I’m free, I’ll help you out. I promised to hang out with Felix later this week though so I’ll text you when he decides on what day he wants to hang out.”

“How is Felix by the way?”

“Good but anyways what’s the second thing” he asked.

“The second thing is that Ingrid asked me to tell you to meet her at the park near the pond, she says you know the one” Dorothea explained as she grabbed her phone to reply to a text. “She says she has a surprise for you.”

“Ooh a surprise? For little ol me?” He asked. “Did she tell you what it was?”

“Nope” she grinned which meant that she had but was choosing to side with Ingrid this time around instead of him.

He sighed, “fine! Keep me in the dark you minx. When I show up on the news as the newest murder case know that it was because you didn’t warn me about what I was walking into.”

Dorothea barked out a laugh, “you’re so dramatic. Trust me. This will be great, you’ll love it.”

“I highly doubt that” he mumbled before checking his phone. “Did she want me to go now?”

“I assume so.”

He sighed, “well I don’t have time to change so they better not hope to take any pictures or anything.”

It wasn’t that he looked bad but he had just come out of practice, his hair was still wet from his shower, he was wearing worn down joggers, a loose fitted old tank top, and he wasn’t even wearing his contacts anymore. He still looked okay enough to go out but that was just thanks to his genetics and not because he looked like his proper usual self. Still. He knew what it meant to be late when it came to Ingrid planning anything and he quite liked being able to keep his limbs so he will take a shitty appearance over making the blonde wait for even a second longer.

“Well I’ll see you around” he kissed the girl on the cheek, before walking out towards his car .

The “park near the pond” was just a random park that Sylvain had taken them all to because he had seen a swan in it one time and ever since then, everyone deemed that to be the place to hang out if they wanted to be outdoors. It wasn’t breathtaking and it certainly wasn’t the biggest park in Garreg Mach, but it did have the occasional duck and way too many geese for it to be considered safe for children which was why they always frequented the place. And yes, they had all been attacked by the geese at least two times now, but hey, the ducks were nice sometimes so for that reason alone they still kept going there.

He parked at the same place he always did and walked to the place they usually hung out in, a picnic table that was right under the tree the furthest to the right where the pond shore was a little too close for comfort but far enough that no one had fallen in yet. He was, admittedly, a little annoyed that he was the only one there so far because now that he was here, he noticed that his hair was starting to curl in the way he hated. If he had known that he wasn’t running late then he would have, simply put, taken his goddamn time to get here.

“Sylvain?”

He turned and immediately beamed, “Mitya!! You’re here!!” He stood up to hug the blonde man. “I was getting worried that all of you left me behind to go eat or something. Fucken weird for me to be the one that gets here first.”

Dimitri chuckled nervously, “y-yeah. I think they’re all on their way.”

He sighed, “I wish they had told me I had time, Ingrid made it sound like I was running late by texting Dorothea instead of texting me directly. I would have gone back to my apartment and make myself presentable.”

“You look nice” Dimitri quickly stammered out. “You always look nice.”

“Aw thanks Mitya” he smiled. “Keep complimenting me and I might just swoon.” He winked.

Dimitri chuckled nervously again, and now Sylvain couldn’t help but frown. He flirted with Dimitri a lot… a lot. But he had since they were teenagers and it had, at first, started so that the man didn’t immediately have a heart attack whenever anyone paid him any kind of compliment but over time it just became a force of habit. And yes, one might say that sometimes he was a little bit overly flirty with Dimitri (cough Felix cough). And yes he had on multiple occasions sat on Dimitri’s lap as a haha funny joke because blushing Dimitri had always been adorable to him. And YES, he only really flirted with Dimitri out of all of his friends to the point that no one even batted an eye at him calling Dimitri various pet names. But again, he had been doing it for years so he was fairly sure that his flirting antics weren't the reason for the blonde's current discomfort which could only mean that something had happened and Dimitri was putting up a mask to hide that something.

“What’s wrong?”

Dimitri blinked at him, “what?”

“What’s wrong you’re acting weird” he cocked his head to the side. “If something happened you can tell me, you know I’m always here for you Mitya.”

“Huh? Oh no. No no, there is nothing wrong I promise. I’m just tired, you see, Glenn came to visit me and so I was up all night with him” Dimitri explained as he sat down.

“Aaaah so Glenn kept you up huh? Not surprised you two have gotten pretty close” he smirked.

“It’s not like that” Dimitri quickly spoke and Sylvain couldn’t help but laugh.

“Aaaaw does my Mitya have a crush” he cooed, getting up to wrap his arm around the man's shoulders, pushing his chest onto the man's back. “Ooooh! My little lion, finally getting some romance in his life!”

“It’s really not like that.”

“It’s fine your secret’s safe with me” he winked at the blonde before hooking his chin over Dimitri’s shoulder and sighing. “I will say though that you dating Glenn will probably cause some problems in the friend group but not to worry sweetheart! I will help you with managing everything” he laughed, pulling away. “No but seriously, I’ll help you at least with breaking the news to Felix because we both know he’ll throw a tantrum about this.”

Dimitri groaned, “Sylvain.”

“Okay okay okay,” he waved the man off, already thinking about ways to figure out if Glenn was interested. On one hand, Fraldarius’ sucked at anything romantic, but on the other hand, Glenn had come down here all the way from Fhirdiad just to hang out with Dimitri so there was a high chance that Glenn already did like Dimitri.

“Sylvain.”

He turned to look at the blonde and found the man a lot closer than he had been before and for a split second Dimitri’s eyes flickered down to his lips. His breath hitched at the sight of the blonde slowly closing the distance between them. And for a split second everything stopped and Sylvain believed wholeheartedly that he was about to be kissed by Dimitri but then bright blue hair quickly got closer and closer. Like a string suddenly snapping, his brain rebooted and he quickly looked to the side and smiled at Caspar, mentally chastising himself for ever thinking that Dimitri wanted to kiss him.

“Caspar! My man!” He laughed out as he stood up to hug the man. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh Lin and I were over by the swings when I saw you sitting over here and just thought I’d come say hello” Caspar laughed before looking behind him. “Hi Dimitri!”

“Hello Caspar” Dimitri sighed.

“You know I had no idea that you guys hung out in this park” Caspar mused, looking around them.

“Came here ‘cause I saw a swan one time and no one believed me” Sylvain shrugged. “Been coming ever since.”

“A swan?!”

Sylvain laughed at the younger mans reaction before retelling the whole story to Caspar. The entire time the younger man seemed absolutely psyched at the idea that maybe, just maybe, a swan would show up in the pond one day. It was fun, sometimes the people around Sylvain weren’t that excited to hear his stories or were used to his theatrics enough for it to no longer have an affect on them but Caspar wasn’t which was why he ended up getting really into telling him the story of the swan and then telling him other stories and by the time that he had Caspar wheezing on the floor from laughing so hard, he realized that the rest of the group had finally arrived though he felt like he was missing something because almost all of them (minus Felix who was still missing) looked pissed off. Like really pissed off.

“Holy shit Sylvain you’re so funny” Caspar wheezed out.

He preened at the comment because if there was one thing he was, it was prideful. “why thank you Caspar, it’s nice to be appreciated here and there.”

“Well I should probably check on Linhardt to make sure he didn’t die or anything but we have to hang out again” Caspar smiled at him. “Seriously.”

“Hey man, I’m free every weekend” he shrugged.

Caspar immediately beamed at that, “great! I’ll get your number from Dorothea then! I’ll see you around okay?”

“Bye bye” he waved the man goodbye before chuckling and shaking his head. “Guy knows how to make you feel like you’re the world’s best comedian or something.”

“I didn’t know you were so close to Caspar” Annette tried to come off casual but Sylvain could see the way her smile tensed around the edges which unnerved him to say the least.

“Uuh well I mean not really. I know him ‘cause of Thea” he spoke hesitantly, eyeing everyone questioningly before realization hit him and he sighed. “I swear to all of you I was not trying to get into Caspar’s pants so before you all maul me for not giving you all my undivided attention because I was ‘flirting’ with someone. Know that I was just being friendly.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Ingrid groaned.

“I was!! Ask Mitya! He was there when Caspar came!” He turned to Dimitri then. “Come on, tell them that I was just being nice.”

“He was” Dimitri answered though it sounded to him like he was pulling his teeth out by saying that.

He sighed, part annoyed and part frustrated. He wasn’t in the mood to be scolded and quite frankly, would rather be home than to deal with that. “Damned if I’m friendly. Damned if I’m not” he mumbled rubbing his face with his hand before standing up. “Look I’m tired, I just got out of practice and I’m not in the mood to be yelled at about wanting to fuck someone when I was just being friendly.”

Dimitri quickly straightened up, “Wait Sylvain—“

“It’s fine Dimitri” he cut him off, “I’ll see you all later” he waved them goodbye before walking away.

He thought that he had made it obvious to everyone that he had moved on from just mindless fucking, that he was trying to change but he can see now that he hadn’t made it obvious. That alone caused him to groan as he got into his car. He was trying for fucks sake, he was really really trying and hadn’t even gone on a date in months! And he didn’t even find Caspar attractive! Yeah the man wasn’t ugly and he was sure some people would be into him, but he wasn’t one of those people. He had just been talking, that was all he had been doing and for that to be thrown at his face. Well. He would be lying if he said it didn’t leave him feeling like shit.

The feeling didn’t magically go away once he got to his apartment either, it didn’t even go away when his dog, Whiskey, scampered over to say hello. He smiled at the little weenie dog, cooed at him and pampered him with kisses but he still, very much, felt like shit. Which was why he didn’t even bother with cooking, grabbing the goddess forsaken frozen corn dogs from his freezer and throwing them into his microwave.

He never did figure out what surprise Ingrid had for him.

That made him groan as he pulled out his phone, might as well call Dorothea and ask her what “surprise” he was supposed to get before he left. However, four messages were already there waiting for him. Two from Dimitri, one from Ingrid, and one from Glenn.

Glenn?

He doesn’t hesitate to unlock his phone to see what the older man texted him.

Glenn (7:45 pm):
call me

Wow. All that build up for just two words, he thinks. Sylvain should have seen that coming, if 12 years of being Felix’s friends had taught him anything it was that Fraldarius’ sucked at communicating so of course Felix’s older brother would be the type to just say call me without explaining why or anything else.

Because he was feeling petty he left the other man on read as he checked the other messages.

Ingie (7:38 pm):
Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was chastising you for talking to Caspar. I know you were just trying to be friendly, my groan was for something else I promise. Call me when you can, okay?

Because he sucks at dealing with problems like a proper adult, he leaves her on read too.

Little Lion ♡ (7:25 pm):
Sylvain I am sorry if I did something to upset you or to offend you, I promise that is not what I had meant to do today

Little Lion ♡ (7:39 pm):
Please let me buy you coffee as an apology. I really did not mean to ever make you upset

Because the blonde practically has him on a leash, Sylvain answers.

He immediately sees that the other man read his message and starts to type back his response but the beeping of his microwave pulls him away for now. He should be annoyed at Dimitri for not backing him up, maybe give him the same treatment as Ingrid but there’s very little Sylvain won’t do for the blonde. Whether Dimitri knows this or not, he has complete control over him. The man could walk up to Sylvain and tell him to get on his knees and he would gladly do that and more.

It wasn’t because he had a crush on the man though, he sternly tells himself this, as he plops the corn dogs on a plate; squirting an unnecessary amount of ketchup on the side and then walking over to his living room. He doesn’t have a crush on Dimitri, he’s just a friend. A very very close friend and that’s it. Sylvain shook those thoughts from his head, no use thinking like that anyways. He sighed, quietly eating his sad dinner before finally checking his phone for Dimitri’s reply.

Little Lion ♡ (7:45 pm):
No please, let me make it up to you.
Sylvain I truly did not mean for you to get upset today. I had been hoping to only make you happy and I am truly sorry that I couldn’t do that for you

Even still please let me make it up to you.

I would very much like to still make it up to you.

:)

He didn’t end up calling Glenn at all that night and he also forgot to text Ingrid back until the next morning. It wasn’t done on purpose he just got side tracked by watching random cooking videos. That and contrary to popular belief he sucked at texting people. He was on his phone all the time, that was true, but that didn’t mean he was texting. The amount of times he saw a message pop up and he told himself ‘Ah I’ll answer that after this video’ and then didn’t answer it at all, would amaze anyone.

There were only two people that got quick replies from him. Dimitri and Felix. Everyone else was shit out of luck. They would have a better chance at telling Dimitri (because Felix sucked too) to tell him something than text him themselves and wait for him to reply. That was why Ingrid always told Dorothea whenever he was needed after practice because if not, he wouldn’t see the messages until he was home and comfortably changed into his pajamas.

Sylvain woke up to one of the two people texting him.

Fefe the cat (10:12 am):
Hey. You busy?

the fuck does that even mean

i don't want to go running with you
I’m asking cuz i need to ask you something
or more like I’m being told to ask you something

go die

meet me at the shitty diner you like

One shower, a shitty traffic jam reroute, and 30 minutes later, Sylvain finds himself sitting in the old “shitty” diner waiting for Felix. It was personally, Sylvain’s little safe haven, the one restaurant that was close to campus that stayed open 24/7 and didn’t ask too many questions when someone walked in without shoes. Sylvain used to be a regular, practically stopping by this place every time he was out with one of his flings or just completely drunk. The owners knew him enough to know Felix’s number so that he could be “picked up” and that was the main reason why Felix even knew of this place. In the 5 years of him living in Garreg Mach, he had yet to bring anyone but Felix here and as he took a bite of his cheeseburger, he started wondering why because he was sure at least Ingrid and Dimitri would love this place.

“Why do you look like a fucken mess?”

He looked up to find raven hair and angry eyes, so naturally he found himself smiling. “If you keep complimenting me like that I think I might fall in love with you.” He swooned and before the younger man could maul him, he nudged the steak dinner he had ordered the man.

“You didn’t answer my question” Felix rolled his eyes as he sat down and immediately dug into the steak.

“Yes well insomnia is something I do have.”

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah feel like the past three months they’ve been shittier than usual” he sighed dramatically. “If only there was someone there to keep a young lad like me company throughout the night.”

Felix rolled his eyes, “suck it up and sleep alone pussy.”

Sylvain sighed, amping up the theatrics, “oh woe is me, a lover doomed to die alone!! OoooOOOooo! Poor Sylvain!!! A man who—“ he doesn’t get to finish the rest of his monologue as Felix quickly starts throwing things at him to get him to shut up. Sylvain can only giggle before resting his chin on his hand and smiling at the younger man, “Anyways why’d you want to hang out with me?”

“Who said I wanted to hang out with you” Felix, who drove here to do just that, says.

“Oh so you’re here to use me and then leave me high and dry? OOOOH POOR ME, A LOVER—“ he immediately gets more things thrown at him.

“Fuck you’re annoying” Felix mumbled though he smiled at the redhead.

“And yet I am your best friend if I recall correctly,” Sylvains grin grew at the sight of the blush on Felix’s cheeks.

“Shut up fucker” Felix mumbled before looking like he wanted to say something.

“Anyways what’s up? What mission has your little girlfriend given you?”

“Not a mission from her” Felix frowned before sighing, “It’s from Glenn.”

“Glenn? He came down to visit right?”

“A surprise visit he says” Felix sighed. “I have no idea why he came over” the younger man groaned, rubbing his face with his hand. “Though I’m taking a wild guess and saying that it probably has to deal with you hence why we’re here.”

“Ah fuck me?” He asked hesitantly. “It’s never a good thing when Glenn talks about me. Last time he did he told you to stuff my ass into a suitcase and ship me off to Brigid.”

“This isn’t a good mission either if we’re being particular.”

“FELIX.”

“Look just,” Felix sighed. “Are you single right now?”

He blinked at the man, taken back by the question before narrowing his eyes. “Why is your brother asking if I’m single…”

“Ew gross no he’s not trying to hit on you” Felix kicked his shin for even thinking that before shaking his head. “No he just asked me and wouldn’t tell me why. Honestly when I told him I had no idea he seemed annoyed with that until Ingrid suggested that I ask you directly.”

“Wait Ingrid?”

“Yeah.”

He frowned, “why the fuck does Ingrid want to know if I’m single?”

“Fuck if I know, like I said. They didn’t tell me why and I couldn’t be bothered to ask” Felix huffed, pulling out his phone to most likely text Glenn. “Anyways are you?”

“Um well, yeah” he answered hesitantly before chuckling, “I don’t see why that matters though.”

The younger man just shrugged, sending a quick text to his brother before putting his phone away. “Fuck if I know. I did tell them that you haven’t been hooking up with random people anymore so I think maybe they thought you were finally settling down with someone.”

That causes him to bark out a laugh, “me? Settling down? Please, as if anyone would want that” he chuckled again despite Felix’s frown. “Oh come on. Even you know my emotional baggage is too much for any sane person to want to deal with. I’m hot but not that hot.”

“How many times do I have to tell you you’re not worthless for you to get it through that thick skull of yours?” Felix glared despite the words he had just said. They had practically been the closest thing to affection that Sylvain would ever get if they were being real for a second.

“You are welcome to tell me as many times as you want if it means I get to get a compliment from you Fefe” he grinned and immediately, Felix started throwing things at him again, making the redhead laugh.