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It was a cold winter afternoon at Garreg Mach. The sun was already making its early exit as snow gently fell from the sky. Marianne and Ignatz were walking over to the Golden Deer’s classroom, making small talk along the way.
“Personally, winter is my favorite season,” Ignatz gushed. “I just adore all of the cool blue hues of winter. The icy blue of the ground, the deep royal blue of the sky, the bright twinkling blues of the snowflakes and stars. It’s a scene that feels more like a painting than real life. I wish I could capture a mere fraction of the beauty of a winter landscape.”
“Mhm,” Marianne agreed “it’s just got a nice cozy feeling to it. Like I could just sit in my room huddled around a fireplace for hours without feeling guilty about not doing something more productive.”
“Winter is definitely a nice break from everything else going on. Or at least it usually is, since we still have to go to class and all.”
“At least the training drills aren’t anywhere near as common now as they are in autumn. Trying to do training drills in this weather would be awful.”
Ignatz chuckled, “You do make a fair point there. I don’t think I’d want to be doing training drills in this weather either.”
Ignatz and Marianne arrived at their classroom and were greeted by Claude and Hilda watching the entrance like a hawk. Ignatz and Marianne paused in the doorway, which Hilda and Claude used as an opportunity to greet them.
“Ah, Ignatz, Marianne, I'm so glad to see you here in class today,” Claude welcomed theatrically.
“Yes, we’ve been waiting for you two,” Hilda said, matching Claude’s over dramatic tone. “We’ve been preparing for a while and I wouldn’t have wanted all of that effort to go to waste.”
“Preparing for us?” Ignatz questioned “please, that's not necessary, I’m just coming to class.”
“You shouldn’t have wasted your time on me anyways,” Marianne added.
“Now don’t disparage yourselves like that,” Hilda objected “you two definitely deserve this.” “Yeah she’s not gonna let you go until you accept it anyways,” Claude smirked, “so you really don’t have a choice here anyways.”
“Oh alright then,” Ignatz sighed in mock exasperation, “where is the gift you got us anyways?”
“Why don’t you two find it out for yourselves,” Claude grinned mischievously “I'll give you two a hint of course, just lemme think of a good hint to give.” Byleth finally decided to pipe up from their desk “Claude and Hilda came here like 30 minutes early,” they monotoned, taking a break to sip from their cup of tea “hung up some mistletoe above the door frame.”
“Aw c'mon Byleth, you ruined the surprise!” Hilda pouted “but yeah, they’re right, we totally did place mistletoe up on the door. And we all know what happens when two people are under the mistletoe don’t we?”
Ignatz felt heat rising in his cheeks and Marianne felt a lump form in her throat as soon as he heard the word mistletoe. He should’ve known something was up as soon as he saw Hilda and Claude watching the door like it was their jobs. And with it being winter time too, Neither of them could believe they had missed this of all things.
Though … this could just be another one of Claude and Hilda’s pranks, maybe they were lying about the mistletoe just to get a rise out of Ignatz and Marianne. Would it be worse if Hilda lied about the mistletoe, or if she was telling the truth. The only way to know would be to check, so Marianne and Ignatz looked up at the door frame. Just as Hilda and Byleth said, the mistletoe was dangling from the door right above them.
Marianne and Ignatz’s blush intensified tenfold now that they knew the mistletoe was there. The two turned away from each other out of sheer embarrassment, awkwardly fidgeting with their hands and making sheepish smiles at nothing instead.
Ignatz was internally panicking, mentally lambasting himself for falling directly into Claude and Hilda’s trap. He should've just showed up to class super early, or not come here with Marianne at all. Ignatz did LIKE Marianne, obviously, how could he not. She was nice and sweet and cute and it was just nice to share the quiet moments of life with her rather than being alone. There was a reason Ignatz brought her of all people to see the sunset on that day.
Marianne wasn’t exactly calm upon seeing the mistletoe either. She knew she couldn’t have possibly seen the mistletoe coming, but she still hated that she was in this situation at all. Marianne did LIKE Ignatz, how couldn’t she. He was kind and observant and always helped to cheer her up whenever she was feeling depressed. When he brought Marianne over to see the sunset, she wanted to kiss him right then and there.
Ignatz and Marianne never acted on these feelings for their own reasons. Ignatz thought that there was no way a noble like Marianne would even be allowed to date someone like him. Marianne thought that someone like Ignatz didn’t deserve to be burdened with someone like herself. Neither of them felt that the other would reciprocate anyways, why even take that risk if you thought you were doomed to failure. So confessions of love remained unspoken, only existing as thoughts to ruminate on in the late hours of the night. Claude and Hilda noticed these two lovebirds and decided to help them confess to each other, and with it being wintertime, using mistletoe was an easy and festive way to nudge them into finally letting their feelings be heard.
Ignatz finally broke the silence “I guess you two really got us didn’t you, heh heh,” Ignatz nervously chuckled, replacing the awkward silence with awkward conversation.
“We sure did,” Claude smirked, “caught a pair of lovebirds right here.”
“L-lovebirds?!” Marianne and Ignatz exclaimed in unison.
“I-I mean we are pretty good friends,” Ignatz sputtered.
A-and we definitely hang out a lot,” Marianne stammered.
“B-but I promise,”
“I-It’s nothing more,”
“Then completely,”
“And utterly,”
“Platonic,” the duo said at the same time.
“Uh huh, sure,” Hilda doubted. “I don’t really think it’s my place to spell out your feelings for each other. So I’m gonna let you two say it out loud to each other instead of just keeping it inside of your heads.”
Ignatz took a deep breath. “O-ok f-fine, maybe I do have a bit of a crush on Marianne,” Ignatz confessed, wishing that he could be almost anywhere else right now. “I love every moment I spend with her, she’s cute and kind and she means so much to me as a person.”
“Ignatz…” Marianne whispered softly
“And I-I know this is horribly out of line. I’m a commoner, you’re a noble, there’s no way this would work. Besides, it’s not like you’d like me back anyways, I’m just hopelessly rambling on deaf ears aren’t I.”
“Ignatz I … I,” Marianne blushed deeply, and took a step towards Ignatz “I … I,” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Ignatz’s lips. Ignatz made an exclamation of surprise, causing Marianne to recoil away.
“I-IM SORRY, I-I-I don’t know what possessed me there,” Marianne hastily apologized.
“M-Marianne no I-I was just surprised,” Ignatz clarified “It was actually pretty nice.”
“So you liked it?”
“Y-yeah, I liked it a lo-,” Ignatz was interrupted again by Marianne giving him another kiss. This time, Ignatz closed his eyes and accepted Marianne’s kiss with grace as he wrapped her in a warm embrace of his own.
