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Annette lay, once again, wide awake on her bed.
She huffed and puffed, and turned around, annoyed. She eventually gave up, and stood up to change the sheets. But half an hour later, it was clear to her that dirty sheets were not her problem. Maybe if she changed her nightgown?
As she looked through her wardrobe searching for another piece of sleepwear, Annette reflected on her last couple of weeks. She had arrived at the Monastery for the reunion, hoping to see her friends once more. She got way more than she wanted since she was not greeted only by her former classmates, but also her father, his Highness, and the Professor. Well, “greeting” was not what happened exactly. Both her father and the Prince ignored her -although to be fair, Dimitri ignored everyone, and her father had been avoiding her for almost a decade- and the Professor seemed a little lost, claiming to have been asleep for the past 5 years.
This was hard to believe, but their Professor was not the kind of person who lied, and they had more pressing matters. Like, you know, war.
Back in Dominic, Annette hadn’t been able to do much. Her family had sided with the Empire, and she was not allowed to visit her friends, so she could only watch longingly from her window while she invested most of her time to study and practice magic. She planned her escape for weeks, with the hope that her friends from the Academy were going to keep their promise to meet in 5 years time, and thankfully they did.
However, it seemed to be too much for her. She went from peacefully spending her days to running around the Monastery helping with its restoration, meeting in War Councils, and fighting in actual battles. You’d think that she’d be exhausted, and yet, sleep evaded her.
Insomnia had become her new roommate, accompanied by the anxiety, anguish, and even hope she had felt lately. She lay for hours with her eyes wide open on her bed, moving from side to side restlessly. Sometimes she gave up and paced anxiously in her room. Others, he would go over the notes he took in the meetings, reviewing what was discussed and reflecting on possible possibilities. She even went on a night walk one night, although without much success, as the guards on duty got mad at her for being out so late and urged her to go back to sleep.
But Annette simply just couldn't sleep. And there was no way that lack of sleep was stopping her from her many daily tasks and responsibilities, so she went about them with watery eyes and heavy feet.
This can’t go on like this, she thought. I don't think anyone has been able to sleep peacefully since the war started, but I have to be able to sleep more than a couple of hours per day. If not, she realized with horror, I’m going to become a liability! Being a burden was the last thing she wanted, she wanted to add to the army, not drag them down.
With determination, Annette went back to her bed. Tomorrow she would put her pride aside and ask for help. Maybe the Professor could help her? She had slept for 5 years straight after all ...
And then she was back on her bed, with fresh new sheets and a new nightgown on. She knew that it would be a couple of hours until sleep would find her, but despite this knowledge, she sank on her mattress, shielded by her quilt. Tomorrow would be a brand new day.
The next day, she woke up early and in a terrible mood. This, however, did not deter her from her objective: she was going to find a way to sleep properly. There was not a problem in the world that could not be solved with hard work!
She first went to see the Professor. Even after five years, she looked just as she remembered her, and her habits hadn’t changed at all. Byleth invited her over for tea, and Annette brought cookies.
After some small talk -in which Annette distraughtly informed her former teacher that the greenhouse was in a terrible state- Byleth decided to be true to her nature and go straight to the point.
“So Annette, what troubles you?” she asked. As usual, her expression gave away nothing. You’d think that a woman who spent 5 years unconscious would freak out after learning everything that had happened - including the death of a former student- but she remained impassive. Truly admirable. And a little weird.
“I was hoping to poke your brain, Professor. You see, lately, I’ve been having trouble with falling asleep. I go to bed really tired, and yet I remain awake!” Annette placed her cup in her saucer with a little more force than she intended to, which made Byleth raise an eyebrow. “I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.” she finished sadly.
Byleth spied her from the brim of her cup. Her sharp, bright green eyes seemed to look right through her, yet they were not unkind. Unlike her, Byleth placed her cup gently.
“First, there’s no way you’re doing something wrong, I don’t think there’s such a thing as sleeping wrong.” she began, slowly. She took a small sip from her cup, with a very calm expression. “Second, It’s hard to come to a conclusion so early on, but I think you might be stressed. It would seem the most plausible answer.”
“Stressed? That’s not possible!” Annette answered, in disbelief.
“And why not?”
“Professor, my default emotion is stressed!” she replied, a bit frustrated “You know how I’m always working too hard, always overthinking too much! I’m always like this, but only now it stops me from sleeping?” Annette crossed her arms on her chest and pouted slightly. Byleth gave her one of her rare, sweet smiles.
“That's true. However, these circumstances are rather unique Annette. We’re in the middle of a war, but the chances of winning, now that Dimitri is leading the troops are...higher.” For a moment, Byleth remained silent and looked behind Annette. She thought that she wasn’t looking at anything in particular but rather was lost in her thoughts. “There’s a lot going on right now, which could explain what’s happening to you. I think you should do something else to help you sleep at night.”
“Something else...like what?” Byleth looked up from her cup.
“Don’t worry. Nothing too complicated.”
Byleth’s suggestion was, as she said, nothing grave. She had immediately stood up, grabbed a small wooden box, and filled it with chamomile tea. She instructed her to drink one cup an hour before she went to bed, and if she could read a book that she thought was not too complicated, even better. She claimed that it was so her mind wouldn’t need to “concentrate too much”, and would distract her from current events.
There were no “uncomplicated” books in Annette’s life. She didn’t spend much time with novels, choosing instead to bury her nose in enormous tomes of black and white magic. She had recently founded an advanced magic book that there was no way that she was going to find in Dominic, and Sylvain, who had been with her when she founded it in the library, had joked that it weighed more than her. Needless to say, she did not find his comment funny.
Annette gave Byleth’s idea a chance, though she didn’t think it would work at all -if reading and drinking tea were the solutions to her problem, she wouldn’t even have it in the first place- and this attitude came with some light reprimands from Mercedes.
“Annie, if you think it won’t help, then I assure you, it won’t.” she told her one night while they were having dinner. “I think Byleth just meant to help you relax and feel a bit less anxious, and I agree with her idea.”
Mercedes, however sweet and with good intentions, didn’t understand. Annette wouldn’t know what “relaxing” meant, even if someone were to hit her with a dictionary to her face. Repeatedly.
To no one’s surprise, the tea wasn’t helping. It was nice to try something new, and even better to have a delicious drink while she enjoyed an interesting book, but sleep kept avoiding her. Begrudgingly, she decided to skip the book and settle for only the cup of tea. It didn’t work.
“You obviously need to train.” had suggested Felix. He was holding her books at the library while listening to her complain. “You’ll sleep like a log after exercising, you’ll see.”
“Is training the only thing you can think of?” Felix shrugged. Mercedes, who was sitting at a table near to them, laughed quietly.
“He has a point, though” she added “if you’re tired you’d probably sleep better. If you don’t want to train, you can always come to the kitchens to help.”
“Yeah, you can wash the dishes...not cook.” Annette glared at Felix, and he smiled back. “I know, I know. I’m a terrible villain, the epitome of evil.”
Annette pouted and looked away, trying to hide the blush that was blooming in her cheeks. Damn that handsome smirk.
One hour later, while she tended to the garden she considered these options quietly. She exercised plenty, and even if she wasn’t training, moving around the rubble of the monastery was a physically demanding activity. Adding more exercise would not be a bad idea, it would make her more tired, maybe it would help her sleep easier?
Annette went to the kitchens first. She enjoyed cooking more than she did training, so she thought it was the obvious first choice. Ashe welcomed her warmly, but the cooks and the assistants looked at her warily. She walked with her head high and avoided their stares, rolling her sleeves up, ready to work. She was going to be focused, and prove them wrong!
She cut herself while trying to chop vegetables, distractedly bumped into everyone, and dropped pans and pots. When she started insisting that she was going to stir and watch the sauce, Ashe decided it was time to stop, and gently walked her out.
“Annie, I’m afraid you’re far too distracted to do this. You need to be more careful, you could hurt yourself!” Annette sighed. Great, now she was sleepy and disappointed in herself.
“Maybe you don’t need to tire yourself out, maybe you just need to relax,” he said. Annette was about to point out that she had already tried that, however, before she could say anything, his face was suddenly overcome with excitement “Why don’t you join my book club? Ingrid and I love it! We mostly discuss books about knights, but you can make recommendations!”
Annette tried to suppress a groan. She loved Ingrid and Ashe, but they would both drop their easygoing, calm selves to passionately discuss novels. They would banter back and forth, overanalyzing everything and making up strange theories about it. They would always invite people to join them, but if you were not on their same wavelength, the conversation was hard to follow.
“I’ll...think about it. Thanks anyways Ashe! I’m going to the training grounds now, see you later!”
“Don’t forget we meet in the library every Tuesday and Thursday after dinner!” - Ashe yelled back while he waved.
“It is weird.” Felix snorted. As usual, he was holding a sword, and Annette, on the opposite side, decided to train with an ax. “They are both obsessed with knights and chivalry. Pathetic.”
“It’s not pathetic!” Annette replied while giving him the stink eye “There’s nothing wrong with chivalry or knights! They just...take it a bit too far.” she finished lamely. Felix snorted.
“Whatever. Training was the right choice. You’re great at it and you will be too tired to think afterward. Trust me, you’ll be sleeping like a baby in no time.”
Annette blushed. She was not the kind of person who was used to receiving compliments, but hearing them from Felix always made it more difficult. She still had a hard time believing he liked her silly songs -which he insisted on listening- and would always be caught off guard whenever he said something nice to her. According to Mercedes and Ingrid, Felix was never nice to anyone, and complimenting someone was out of the question. Once, Ingrid had told her that the nicest thing Felix had ever said to her was that she “didn’t suck”. Considering the fact that they were childhood friends, that was a little too...little.
But he would always compliment her, and despite her tendencies to overthink, she thought that he sounded genuine when he did. He would talk to her after war councils and tell her that her ideas were great, he would praise her magic and ax skill, and he’d never be surprised if she figured something out. You’re smart, he would say, and you work hard. I’m impressed.
Annette wasn’t sure what it meant, but it definitely didn’t help calm her roaring crush. She had a childish attraction to him since she was a student, which she had tried to suppress wildly then, telling herself that he just made her nervous because she thought he would spread the words about her songs.
But he didn’t. And like now, he would always be nice to her. He even asked Byleth to fight beside her, which had earned him a never-ending string of teasing comments from Sylvain. Despite his annoyance and discomfort, he insisted, and she had spent most of her school year fighting alongside him.
During the five years they spent apart, he would write to her frequently. His letters were very brief, but he always had time for her. For someone like her, who had been abandoned by her father, having a crush on someone who would keep paying attention to her despite the distance meant a lot. Especially when that person was Felix, who was famous for pushing people away. She had even casually mentioned a thing or two that Felix had told her in her letters to Ingrid, who had written back to her shocked that Felix even wrote to her.
She tried to ignore it. She told herself that she was young and naïve then. She ignored the way her heart pounded in her chest when his letters arrived and ignored the strange sensation she felt when he insisted on sneaking her out of Dominic.
You’ll be safe in Fraldarius, he had said. We can fight together again.
Annette was afraid of what it could mean, so she kindly rejected his offers, of what Sylvain had jokingly described in his letters as “dashing knight who wants to rescue his damsel in distress”. She was afraid of her thoughts, of how she would act around him, of what it would mean if he actually felt the same way as she did.
Eventually, they met again in the Monastery. Felix had told her that going was a stupid idea but changed his mind when she told him she was going. She had received two very long letters thanking her profusely for changing his mind from both Ingrid and Sylvain.
Back in Garreg Mach, things hadn’t changed much. Felix sought her out as he did before, and still insisted on fighting with her, now using a much more urgent tone than before.
He had even told her that he was her captive. She didn’t know what to make of it, if she was giving herself false hope, fed by his rare smiles and undivided attention.
So Annette worked and focused on war. And also, was not able to sleep, apparently.
She had agreed to train, thinking it couldn’t hurt to try. But now, standing before him, she was certain: training was not going to work either.
The problem was Felix after all.
“Get ready.” he said, and he raised his sword. Annette knew that he was not going to go easy on her because he didn’t look down on her, he respected her. The thought was very flattering and distracting.
His little smirk was very distracting.
They trained for a while, but as time passed, it became even more difficult to concentrate. Felix looked extremely attractive while he trained, all confidence and smugness, and he eventually ditched his shirt.
Annette was officially distracted. And very much awake.
“I think...that that's enough for tonight.” she said while placing the ax on the floor. Felix sheathed his sword and smirked her way.
“Already tired? That’s too bad...I could go for hours.”
Annette gave a small yelp, quickly said goodbye, and tried not to think of the implications. Or how handsome he was. Or how he looked without a shirt, all sweaty…
She rushed back to her room, feeling feverish. Once again, sleep was going to elude her.
Two days later, she found herself sitting between Ashe and Ingrid. They met in the library as Ashe had told her, and she had attended with much hesitation. As soon as she sat down, they both began to comment on the last book they had read. Apparently, they had very different points about the moral of the knight who was the protagonist, which led to what it really meant to be a knight. From the way they carried the conversation, it was not the first time they had discussed it.
Annette didn't even think to comment, because it was literally impossible to include herself in the conversation. Were they aware of this? She wondered when did they breathe. Or did they breathe at all?
But as soon as, after 40 minutes, they began to argue about the romantic interest of the protagonist, and both insisted on characters that apparently had hardly interacted in the books, she decided that it had been enough.
She politely excused herself and set course to the church. Feeling disappointed, Annette thought that the only option left was to pray.
While she walked, she distractedly thought that maybe the Goddess would help her. She wasn’t asking for much, she just wanted to sleep! Maybe, if she confessed all her sins, the Goddess would bless her with rest. But she wasn’t a sinful person, so what she could confess?
The thought of a shirtless Felix, and the dreams that followed, made her hurry. Unfortunately, in her hurry, she failed to pay attention, and she bumped into something.
Annette stumbled but luckily, it wasn’t a something but a someone. Dorothea had awkwardly caught her, and was looking at her with a worried expression.
Great. Perhaps her sins were not only daydreaming about shirtless swordsmen but also being painfully clumsy.
“Annette, what are you doing here so late...oh Goddess!” she exclaimed “you look terrible!”
Annette sighed. She knew that she looked bad: dark bags under her eyes, heavy feet, slouched posture. Dorothea immediately tried to apologize, saying that she didn’t mean it, but Annette brushed it off. She was right after all.
“Let’s not go to the Cathedral Annie. I just came from there and...well, Dimitri is there.” Dorothea looked rather uncomfortable, and she understood. Dimitri angrily paced around the Monastery every day, and he wasn’t doing that and scaring the passerbys, he could mostly be found brooding by the altar. It was a disturbing sight, to put it lightly, hearing him muttering to himself. Whenever she went to pray with Lysethea, she would angrily complain about his presence. Said he ruined her breakfast.
She agreed to leave the Cathedral, and suggested they change their way towards the greenhouse.
If praying wasn’t an option, then maybe gardening would give her some peace of mind. Her goal was to find a place with some calm and silence to concentrate and think. The cathedral seemed like the perfect candidate, with the addition of its spiritual atmosphere, and the opportunity to be able to communicate with the Goddess, but the truth was that it was not necessary to be inside a Church to be able to pray. Besides, the garden was one of Annette’s favorite places; she loved to water and take care of the plants, even more so if she was alone and could accompany her activity with a song.
Dorothea thought it was a good idea and decided to accompany her. On the way they had a light and relaxed chat. By the time they were arriving, Annette told her where she came from.
"You went to Ingrid and Ashe's book club? Annette, that's crazy!" she exclaimed in surprise. Then, unable to help herself, she started laughing. "They're both so cute...but they get over-enthusiastic when it comes to their novels. Watching them debate is really amazing, but it's a little scary."
Annette nodded, and as they walked into the garden. Used to working there, she quickly walked over to one of the watering cans, and reached for another, and handed it to Dorothea. Soon, and in silence, the two began to work.
Dorothea concentrated on one or two plants in front of her, whistling quietly and distractedly. Annette, as always, already had her plant care routine. Routines, and the methodology involved, were comforting to her, especially being so tired, as it allowed her to shut her brain off from worry and concentrate on the task at hand.
But the silence could not last forever.
"Well...and are you going to tell me why you went to the book club?" asked Dorothea curiously. Her curiosity was justified since everybody avoided talking about chivalry in front of those two, as they would immediately get intense on the subject, and it was very difficult to be able to stop, at least politely, the conversation so they could run away from the duo. Earlier that night it had taken her two and a half hours until she was able to escape, so Dorothea’s curiosity made perfect sense.
"The truth is, I'm having trouble sleeping Thea." Annette frowned. "I've tried a lot of things to be able to help me fall asleep, I thought the book club would tire me out. It was my last hope! I never thought it would work, but since none of the other things worked..."
Dorothea probed a little further into the subject, what had she tried? Annette began to recount her list of attempts and failures. As she spoke, in a defeated and weary tone, Dorothea nodded slightly, staring at her. There was a slight twinkle in her eye, and as Annette continued, a mischievous smile began to form.
When she was done talking, Annette rested her watering can on the floor. She raised herself up to look into her eyes again, and tell her desperately that she didn't know what to do anymore.
"I'm exhausted Thea...I just want to rest, even if it's just for an hour or two." Dorothea nodded solemnly and looked at her for a few seconds in silence. After reflecting, she nodded to herself and bent down to pick up the watering can. As she carried the watering cans to put them away, she decided to speak to her again.
“Dear Annette, I think I have the solution for you.” Annette looked at her with surprise.
“Eh? I don’t want to be mean Thea, but I’ve really tried everything.”
"Not everything," she replied. The noise of the doors of the cabinet in which they kept the gardening tools made a soft noise as it closed. Dorothea turned around, showing her a smile full of gleaming white teeth. “There is something you did not try. Something that brings together all the aspects of the things you tried. "
Annette looked at her in shock. What could it be? She had even asked the Professor...!
"You know Annette? You are not the only one who is stressed. You have trouble falling asleep, and others have other difficulties. But there is something that definitely checks everything you did: it is enjoyable, relaxing, and it is a physical activity that is both fun and exciting.”
"And what is?" Annette asked anxiously.
Dorothea approached gently and placed both hands on Annette's shoulders. She bent down slightly and leaned close to her ear so that she could whisper to her:
"Sex, Annette. Sex "
Annette had returned to her room with Dorothea's instruction that she should take a night off, and then proceed to go to a tavern in the nearest town and sleep with some man she found mildly attractive.
"Don't expect to find the man of your dreams or a prince charming, just someone you like, are attracted to and feel comfortable with" She had then given her recommendations for contraceptives, and had gone back to her room. She left looking very pleased with herself, as if she had told her the most obvious thing ever.
Annette, on the other hand, had gone back to her room in shock. At first, she had been surprised that Dorothea would suggest that so blatantly, but she had told her that it was "very common" and that she knew "several people who did it." She had even told her that she would be surprised if she knew who frequented the bed of strangers during the war to relax.
"It’s very common Annie! Who knows, maybe you know one or two people that do it and never thought it possible." Dorothea chuckled under her breath, and Annette immediately decided she wasn't going to try to think about who she was referring to. Nope.
The idea frightened her as much as it intrigued her. On one point, Dorothea was right, it could help, but on another, her embarrassment and modesty were getting the better of her.
Annette put on her nightgown and decided to look at herself in the mirror. In the last few years she had grown breasts and become a bit more curvaceous, but in her eyes she still looked childish, and not at all attractive. She never thought of herself as someone who could just stroll in a bar and have some fun with a man of her picking. In her mind, the women who did that were confident and sexy. Everything that Dorothea had, and Annette lacked.
Annette sighed, defeated, and decided to go to sleep and lock those thoughts - and insecurities- away. Tomorrow would be another day and maybe she could consider this with a bit more clarity. Sleep eluded her as usual, and when it finally found her, she had already made her decision.
The next day Annette awoke at dawn, exhausted.
… It wouldn't be such a bad idea.
As she dressed up for the day, she went back to her list of pros and cons that she had made in the late hours of the evening while she tossed around in bed. The pros had already been said by Dorothea the previous night, so she went back to the cons.
Would it be embarrassing? Felix and Claude had caught her singing her silly songs, and she had gone ahead. Felix still teased her actually.
What about her modesty? It would be going against what the Goddess taught, and everything a proper young noble lady should do. But they were in the middle of a war, and she could die tomorrow. And above all, she was not sleeping today. So, who cared? There were more terrible things than sleeping with someone!
What about her sex appeal? Annette still didn't believe she could be sexy, but she was well aware of men's standards -which were non-existent according to Sylvain-, and she knew that she was at least pretty. They wouldn't reject her, and she wasn't going in with her standards too high either.
The rest of the day she walked around with determination. She asked Dorothea for the contraceptives, who cheerfully accepted, chose a dress of hers that, while nothing indecent, showed too much of her collarbones for her taste, and ignored the suggestions of the rest to try again what she already tried so she could sleep. Only Sylvain, with his classics innuendos, managed to make her hesitate a bit. After all, what he suggested was what she was going to do.
As the afternoon ended and evening loomed, Annette returned to her room. She took off her dress and put on the one she had chosen, put on her makeup and perfumed herself. She spent twenty minutes trying on different hairstyles in the mirror, feeling increasingly nervous and undecided. Finally, she decided to leave her hair down as she always wore it, so she wouldn't have to think anymore. She had to act, not overthink.
She grabbed a small purse and opened the door to leave, but on the other side she was met with a surprise.
"Felix?" Felix had his fist raised as if he was about to knock on her door. He blinked in surprise at the sight of her in her new outfit and Annette could almost swear that his eyes had for a quick instant been fixed on her cleavage.
Immediately, Felix looked up and frowned.
“Don’t go.”
"What...?" It couldn't be, could it? There was he knew what she was going to do.
"Dorothea told me. Don't go." For an instant, Annette was overwhelmed with a lot of sensations all at once. Embarrassment because he knew what she intended to do, anger at Dorothea for telling Felix, and the impending nerves of what she was about to do.
But most importantly, Annette felt tired.
"I don't know why Thea told you-" she began with annoyance in her voice"-but I've made up my mind. So I'm going." Annette tried to move forward, but Felix moved to block her way.
"Hey!"
"Do you really want to do that with a stranger?" Felix's tone rarely rose, but she was always able to detect the fury within. He would never address her that way, so Annette looked at him in surprise. "You don't know if they're going to hurt you. No, what am I saying, they are going to hurt you. Men are pigs."
“Not to state the obvious Fe, but you are a man.”
"But I wouldn't do that Annette!" he exclaimed. This time he did raise his voice a little, and Annette raised an eyebrow. Felix, noticing this, coughed slightly and lowered his voice. "I mean...that I would never make you...well, I don't mean I wouldn’t do it with you, but, no that's not what I meant...!" Felix looked away, uncomfortable. He lowered his head and he scratched his neck, without meeting her eyes. "What I mean is that I would never treat someone like that, as an object, a mere pastime. You know, as Sylvain does."
"I understand what you’re saying Felix, but I’m perfectly aware of what I’m doing. To me, this is simply about two people who have a mutual understanding and want nothing more from each other, no commitments, no promises. Just...a little fun." As she finished the sentence, they both blushed at the implication. An awkward silence settled in. Annette tried to look anywhere but into the swordsman's eyes, and swayed on her feet.
Finally, she gathered the courage to look him in the eye. Felix was staring at the floor as she had done before, with a slight blush on his cheeks.
“I made up my mind, so I’m going, and you can’t stop me.” Annette tried to walk out of her room, and Felix moved so he would stand in her way, but this time he gently grabbed her by her arm. She tried to meet his eyes, but he insisted on looking away.
“And what if… and what if you do it with someone you know? With someone you trust?” Annette blinked.
“Well, I’d feel more comfortable I guess.” she pondered “But they’d have to understand that it would be with no string attached.”
Felix looked up to meet her gaze. The hand holding her arm shifted until it held her hand. Suddenly, Annette realized she was having a hard time breathing.
"Then do it with me." Immediately after he said it, they both exploded in a hot, angry blush. However, neither looked away.
What he said couldn't be unsaid. And it lingered between them, a potential of something they both secretly yearned for. Something that could change everything, with a simple ‘yes’.
Annette should have stopped to think. To think why Dorothea had told Felix, to think why he had stopped her, why he had offered. But all she could think about was how the weight of his hand felt on her arm. Of the warmth emanating from his body, from his skin, from his eyes. The calluses of his fingers. A fleeting moment, a crucial decision. The point of no return.
She wanted this so badly.
Breathlessly, she nodded.
A long time later, Annette would not be sure how it started. Who had entered the room first? Who had initiated the kiss? Who had slammed the door and locked it?
All she would remember would be the sensation. Felix's hands anxiously running down her neck, bringing his mouth even closer to hers, to her waist, to her hip. Annette was restless, caressing his shoulders and back.
She only understood the passion of the kiss and how good his caresses felt. The giddy sensation she had when her legs collided with the bed, and Felix leaned over her, roaming his hands under her skirt and caressing her thighs. Distantly, Annette thought that perhaps they were moving too fast, but it was a thought that lacked weight and faded with each kiss.
Felix finished laying her down on the sheets. His hands came up from her thighs and began to touch the beginning of her butt, while one of his knees pressed into her center. Annette moaned in his mouth and immediately pulled away. He stared into her eyes, hair tousled and pupils dilated, and pressed again.
Annette moaned loudly. Later, she would bury her face in her hands in embarrassment, remembering her looseness, but at that moment she couldn't help herself. At that moment, she desperately wanted to grind him, to feel that pleasure again.
"Fuck." he whispered.
Felix's lips immediately went to Annette's neck, to kiss, lick and nibble it. Meanwhile, he began to clumsily untie the laces of the dress down her back. Annette arched her back to give him space, and the dress fell gently down her shoulders. Felix pushed it down until he could see her breasts, and abandoned her neck so he could pay them attention
He sucked them mercilessly and nibbled on her nipples. Annette moaned again, and this time she buried her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. He continued his assault without regard or delicacy. He kept licking and brought his hands up to massage the breast his mouth wasn’t assaulting, and as she writhed beneath him, he pressed his leg against her again.
One of Felix's hands left her breast and moved downward. He looked up from her breast as he kept licking, and without missing a single beat, he began to play with his fingers on the edge of her panties. He stayed like that for a few minutes, until Annette realized that he wasn't going to make any progress unless she did something.
Ha, she thought, rough but sweet.
Annette pushed his hand away so she could lift her ass and slide her panties down her legs. Felix, who looked mesmerized as he looked, helped her undress, pulling her dress over her head as well.
She didn't have time to think that she was actually completely naked in front of Felix Fraldarius, because as soon as he finished removing her garment, Felix pushed her back onto the bed. Trying to catch her breath, she watched as Felix hurriedly removed his armor.
Felix had kissed her and touched her with a certainty that it made her think that he had thought of her that way before. A desperation, a hurry, a clumsy way of movement so different from his usual confidence, that made her feel that he was finally where he wanted to be. Like a kid who was trying cake for the first time and didn’t know where to dip their spoon first. The thought of Felix, alone in his room, touching himself while he thought of her, biting his hand with his eyes closed so he wouldn’t make any noises, turned her on immensely. She was already wet, but the unsettling feeling that something was missing increased.
While she eyed him hungrily, with nothing but dirty scenarios in her head, Felix tried to undress. He had a hard time doing it, nervous and anxious, and as he unbuckled and unbuttoned he desperately tried to keep his eyes on her. Annette thought that he looked like he couldn’t believe he was there, watching her naked on her bed, waiting for him.
The idea turned her on even further. It made her feel powerful. It made her feel confident.
It made her feel sexy.
She liked this sensation very much.
Felix clumsily pushed his pants away, and she watched him lazily while he struggled. Slowly, she started to suck on one of her fingers. Felix stopped to look at her, eyes opened wide, but that did not intimidate her.
She continued with another one. Felix watched, hypnotized. She stopped sucking -the finger left her mouth with a sultry pop! that the swordsman did not miss- and she used her now wet fingers to start to gently play with her clitoris.
Felix couldn’t get out of his clothes faster. He stumbled, stuttered, and cursed as he tried to undress without losing sight of her. Annette felt the familiar pleasure of stroking herself, with the added bonus of watching him devour her with his eyes.
When the last piece of clothing came off, his cock was finally released. Annette stopped touching herself for a minute, and she used her elbows to lift herself up so she could get a better look, curiosity written in her eyes. She knew how they looked from drawings and pictures in books, but she had always been too embarrassed and naïve to stare for too long then. Now, she looked at his fully erect member, and all she could think of was how badly she wanted it to be inside her.
With that thought in mind, she decided to slip one finger inside of her. In response, Felix moaned breathlessly.
“Goddess Annette, you’re so hot…” Annette wanted to tell him how hot she thought he was, but words escaped her, as the only thing that came out of her mouth were sighs.
Felix gently took her finger out to replace it with one of his own. His body heat and the fact that his finger was longer than hers, made her clench anxiously around him, wanting more.
He wasted no time. He started to slowly pump it while he licked her clitoris. He tested the waters, pushing it against her walls, clenching it, measuring her moans, her sighs, her hands clutching the bedroll.
After a couple of minutes, he decided to add another finger and pick up the pace.
Annette writhed and moaned with abandon. She pushed his face into her pussy with no shame and rode his fingers hungrily. Felix couldn’t help but look at her with amazement.
“You’re so good Annette, so good for me.” he whispered “You’re so beautiful, so fucking beautiful” she couldn’t help but be turned on by his praise, so rarely given.
“Felix, I’m going to...!” and as soon as she said that, he took his fingers out. She felt the cold absence and managed to glare at him from her sweaty, unkempt self.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, but if you’re going to cum, you’re going to do it on my cock.” He said smugly. Then, he reconsidered. “Unless, you don’t want to go that far…” he seemed to hesitate slightly. Annette wanted none of that, so she boldly started to stroke his cock.
Her bold strokes were immediately guided by Felix’s hand. He taught her how to do it, how to squeeze, what he liked best. He was an amazing teacher, and she was his eager student.
Things changed. Felix became putty in her hands as soon as she started touching him. He wouldn’t moan loudly as she did, but he would make small, breathless noises, and most importantly, he was bright red. She couldn’t help but reveal in his state, knowing that she was the only cause of the way he looked, of the way he felt. His dark eyes, his sweat, the way his chest would rise and fall rapidly, to the beat of her strokes. All hers. His eyes would travel from her lips to her breasts constantly, appraising them wantonly.
However, Felix’s plans were elsewhere, so he grabbed her hand so she would stop. Words were not necessary, as Annette slightly opened her legs, and Felix leaned forward. He started to kiss her again, and she finally felt his tip, awkwardly poking at her entrance. She reached out with her hands to help him inside of her, and when he finally did, they both exhaled.
The tip felt amazing, if not a bit painful. Felix slowly started to push in forward, without taking his eyes off of her, probably measuring her reaction.
“You ok?” Felix's worried expression brought her back to reality. She briefly panicked, what was she doing? She was about that have sex with an old schoolmate, who would hide so he could listen to her sing, who was always kind to her despite his stern and rude manners. He was the boy - now a man- whom she had a crush on since she was a teenager, and whom she still wanted as an adult. For a moment, she felt the weight of her history with him, and what what they were doing meant. But in that instant, Felix accidentally pushed a bit farther, his face contorted in pleasure, his knuckles white from clutching the sheets.
There was no going back, and there was no way she was stopping.
“Yes-” she answered sweetly “-I’m fine.”
What followed was an awkward moment in which their bodies finished settling together on the bed, and in which Felix finished entering. The sensation was not as painful as she had thought, but it was still something new and a bit annoying.
Annette clung to Felix's neck as he, with a desperate expression, kissed her lips passionately. Sometimes he would stop, and take a deep breath, and turn his lips to her neck, but even though Annette knew he was dying to move, he didn't.
As soon as she felt a little more comfortable, she tentatively thrust her hips, and Felix immediately thrust back. They both tried to match the rhythm, but found it difficult to coordinate - Annette was feeling very clumsy, and she could see how Felix was having a hard time holding back.
After trying some more, they found a somewhat smooth rhythm. Felix leaned over her as he penetrated her, and she could enjoy his erotic moans and his compliments. He kept telling her how good it felt, how beautiful she was, what a good time she was having.
After a few minutes of the same movement, that they had both found comfortable, Felix decided to change positions. He took his cock out -Annette complained in surprise, not expecting it- and grabbed her legs. He folded them over her so, instead of having her knees by his waist, her ankles would rest on his shoulders. He looked over to her in a silent way of asking her if this was okay.
At that moment, that man could’ve asked for pretty much anything and she would have said yes. Faintly, she nodded.
Felix penetrated her once again, and this time, he used her legs as a way to balance himself forward. She then understood what he wanted: to go faster.
The new speed left her lightheaded. The pleasure built inside of her while she moaned with abandonment. Felix concentrated face above her, as he fucked her hard, added to her pleasure.
"Harder! Harder Felix!" The future duke's expression turned almost wild when he said that, and he increased the speed even more. Annette almost cried out in pleasure as she scratched his back, and soon she felt it, that which her fingers sometimes gave her but this time, even more intense.
Annette watched, exhausted, as Felix writhed with pleasure on top of her, until finally, and with her name on his lips he came as well.
As they both lied together in bed, tired and sweaty, Annette vaguely thought that it could get so much better with practice. Felix sweetly caressed her hair, and she thought she heard him say something, but it was too late.
She fell asleep.