On a shopping trip, Annette has a funny idea.

On the occasional days when supplies were needed and the market hadn't come to Garreg Mach, someone was **** to make the trip to a neighboring village. Today, after a medical emergency had used up much of the infirmary's stock, that task fell to Annette. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have complained about doing the task herself. A nice walk to work off lunch and a trip to market in the middle of the day would suit her tastes just fine.

This day, however, it coincided with what was supposed to be her turn studying the Boom Box. Instead of getting in the dance practice she'd been hoping for since she woke up that morning, she found herself carrying the mysterious device as a quiet parcel into the marketplace with her.

That wasn't the only strange thing accompanying her into the bustling market of the nearby village. "Felix, I appreciate the help. Honestly, I was surprised when you volunteered! I can't imagine there's much more boring for a guy like you than a supply run."

"Hmph." As of that moment, Felix hadn't burdened himself with carrying anything, so he was free to run one hand through his dark ponytail. Whether he was irritated or not, he always managed to give off that impression. "If you drop things on the way and they break, someone's going to end up helping you, anyway. Might as well get ahead of the problem."

Annette gave him an unbothered smile. "Well, thanks! You're a nice guy, no matter what people say about you."

Felix raised an eyebrow, then clicked his teeth, deciding not to pursue that further. "There's another reason. You didn't leave that toy of yours at the monastery. If there's a more attractive target for robbers than an unarmed girl with both of her arms full, I can't think of it."

Unlike before, Annette had a lot of problems with that statement. "This _woman _isn't going to just leave something so important out of her sight, where someone might stumble upon it and take it for themselves. The safest place is here with me. Besides, I can defend myself! ...And, um, I'm stronger than I look! I could surely have stacked the rest of the boxes, then made it back up that... winding, pebble-covered dirt road with my vision blocked... Now that I say it out loud, it does sound a bit silly. Sorry, and thanks."

"Keep your apologies and your thanks. Let's just get it over with so I can get back to training."

"Yes, about that... You were going to help keep watch with my training again, weren't you?"

"... Yes. As I said, it's not any trouble for me. I can train at the same time."

"Okay... But maybe you also found my training a little interesting? I don't mind if you want to observe-"

"I'm just keeping watch," Felix interrupted her. "You could stand to be more watchful, yourself. We passed the pharmacist three stalls ago."

"That's because we're making a little detour. I have to pick up something for a friend while I'm here. It won't take but just a moment!"

Any quiet complaint from Felix was drowned out in the busy marketplace around them. The two finally made it to the stall Annette had been guiding them toward. When Felix saw it, he did speak up, making his displeasure known. "Of all the things. You're buying face paint?"

"You're the only man in the Academy who would call makeup facepaint, Felix," Annette commented, mostly ignoring both him and a pushy merchant as she began browsing the products on sale. She'd pick up a pallet and turn it over thoughtfully, then set it down and ponder over some mascara, then some eyeliner.

... The "moment" Annette described her detour taking seemed to include a complete review of the beauty products on sale. Felix had been tapping his foot on the cobblestone since nearly the start. He noticed she had carelessly put down the Box she'd apparently been determined not to let out of her sight in order to browse the wares.

When she had gone over everything and returned to the very first item as if in new consideration, Felix finally protested. "Hand me the funds. I'll get the supplies and head back to the monastery alone."

"Oh, don't you dare! I'm very nearly done here."

"Not as nearly done as me. What use do you have for new paint, anyhow?"

"I know you're calling it paint on purpose," Annette pointed out with a sigh. "If it were for me, it'd be easy. This is for a friend, so it's taking me a little while to decide what looks best. If you're so antsy, though, here! Take these funds and the list Professor Manuela gave me and take care of it. I won't make any more detours, so whoever finishes first, either you come here or I'll go there."

Felix swiped the bag of gold from her testily. "I'll go and be done with it. If you're determined to waste your time with this, can you at least keep your eyes on the paint? I've noticed you eyeing that bauble."

"How can a man raised in a noble household call quality makeup 'paint' and such a breathtaking necklace a 'bauble?' I think your unique perspective is wasted at this table, Felix." She shooed him off, then got back to her consideration, muttering to herself. "Would Ingrid look better with something subtle, or a little bolder? Hmm..."

In spite of how he was carrying himself, Felix was really more flummoxed than furious. As he turned from Annette to take care of their duty, he thought to himself about what Annette had let slip. "For Ingrid? For all the use that'll see, she might as well be giving it to me, or to the rubbish heap..." For all the years Felix had known her, Ingrid had definitely never stricken him as the "bolder makeup" type.

While Felix might not be as irritated as he was letting on (generally speaking, he wasn't self-aware about just how pissed off he seemed about everything), he was, in fact, eager to get back to the monastery and back to training. He finished buying the goods they'd been sent for, fixing the seller with a glare that said he knew exactly how much the transaction ought to cost and he'd brought the exact amount he intended to spend. The whole thing was over before it started, and he intended to point out just how quick their trip could have been when he returned to Annette.

It seemed Annette had saved him a walk. He saw her shoving her way through the crowd, moving towards him. He noted with relief that she was carrying the important Box... his mood soured, however, when he saw she wasn't carrying a purchase. "Annette, I have limits. If you plan to try and **** me to help you pick something out-"

"N-no, it's not that," the young woman sighed, catching her breath and resting against a stall counter. "Felix, I need to borrow some gold from you! I found something perfect for my friend, but I'm just a tiny bit short. It's literally just five gold, and I'll pay you back right away when I can get to my room."

"No," Felix responded without hesitation, frowning at Annette from around the stack of medicinal supplies he was now burdened with.

"Seriously? I'm sure that's chickenfeed for someone of your household! Why ever not?!"

"This feels like an opportunity for you to learn a lesson about planning ahead, or about resisting temptation. One or the other, I don't care. Moreover, I don't want to become known as the sort who lends out money, certainly not for something as trifling as face paint."

Felix had turned his head to avoid Annette's big, swimming blue eyes and frustrated pout, but he could still feel her training them on him. For such a paltry amount of gold, he really only meant to make her squirm before graciously meeting her request, and was shortly about to acquiesce.

Instead, he found himself again surprised as she tucked the Box she carried under one arm and dragged him towards a back alley, nearly making an ironic mess of the crate of potions he'd come with her to secure. He jerked his arm free, but not before she'd managed to get him all the way out of the crowd and into the shadows between buildings. "Annette, I think you're intelligent enough to know nobles only step into back alleys to get robbed. What's gotten into you?"

His fellow student looked at him with a stubborn pout and red cheeks. When she spoke, it was in a whisper. "Felix... I think I was awfully nice to let you see what I did yesterday. Surely that was worth a measly five gold?"

The young nobleman scoffed, setting his cargo aside carefully before it could somehow get broken. "Are you trying to extort me? You're going to want a weapon."

"No, not really, it's just... If you keep watching over my training with Slutty, you're probably going to see a number of free dances. I'm just wondering if five gold is really too steep of an ask for that kind of performance."

"If I'm going to be paying to guard you, I'll find another place to train."

Annette continued to give him the pout he'd intended to cave to earlier. They were past that point now, though. Felix needed Annette to understand how unreasonable she was being, so he held his ground, crossing his arms. Finally, Annette sighed and set down the Boom Box in front of her. "Fine. I can't believe I'm about to do this, but how about another show for just five gold, right now?"

Before Felix could protest, Annette hit the button on the Box to start the music. The volume was down low, but the acoustics of the alleyway were surprising, and the fast-paced otherworldly beat that filled the air immediately threatened to spill out of the tight space. In spite of that, Annette heedlessly turned in place and began shaking her ass for her classmate, bending over and pressing her hands against the masonry wall of the building next to her to give him a better look.

Felix was as mesmerized by the show as he had been when he first saw it. Annette, he was only now noticing, seemed to have traded in her blue slacks for a similar pair of spats, leaving the pale skin of her thighs visible between the cutoff of the legs and the tops of her boots. There was more than that different about her, however. "Annette, have you been practicing this since yesterday?"

"Only a little bit last night. Is it looking better? Ready to pay up, Sir Stingy?"

Felix didn't reply, keeping his thoughts to himself. The same eyes he normally used for sizing up the fitness of potential opponents now told him clearly that Annette's previously skinny body had changed since he saw it the day before. It wasn't just the revealed skin playing tricks on him: the muscles in her legs seemed subtly developed, and the cheeks she was bouncing seemed just slightly more full. He had no idea what kind of exercise could produce that kind of effect in just a day. He found himself transfixed, staring at the strange sight of his classmate's mysteriously developed ass.

Annette noticed. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Have I earned five gold?"

The young man snapped himself out of it, irritated with himself for getting distracted. "Annette, I'm not giving you five gold for this dance."

She frowned, but instead of stopping, she only twerked more furiously. She began to work in an enticing, taunting wave motion that was much friendlier than she currently felt. "I know this is good enough for such a pittance! Come on, Felix, I made a promise. I can't leave here without that makeup. What's it going to take? D-do I have to lose the shorts?! Because that'd be a bit- Gaahh!"

Annette's startling suggestion was cut off by an even more startling interruption as Felix gave her a smart, open-palmed swat on her round bottom. She didn't stop (she couldn't stop easily, of course), but she did look back at her classmate with a furious blush and a question on her lips.

Felix cut her off before she could begin speaking. "You're being far too cheap with your body. To give something like this away for five gold, it's hard to imagine you're a grown woman who knows the value of money. I'm not saying I won't pay the five for you. I'm saying I refuse to let you believe I'm paying you the five in return for this, and I'm definitely saying you can expect a stern word from me if I hear you trying to scrounge up coin this way again."

Annette wore a muddled look, somewhere between indignation, gratitude, and the questions she still wanted to ask. "Felix... Is that what they call a 'stern word' in the region you come from?! You struck me!"

"Don't be a child. That was barely a snap to get your attention. Get those silly ideas out of your head and make yourself decent. We'll head back and I'll give you the five. And don't sell yourself so short."

The young woman continued to wear a thoughtful expression as her body dipped itself low to add a new dimension to the performance. She curved back up, then spoke with some care. "So, you're saying my dance... is worth a lot more? Hm... I have to wonder how many dances would add up to that bauble you were laughing at me about?"

"Give it a rest." Felix turned the music off himself, then picked up the crate of supplies to show he intended to be done with that conversation.

Annette continued to bounce for a moment, gradually slowing without the music to carry her. She wiped sweat from her forehead, then bundled back up her Box.

The two went back to the makeup counter without wasting any more time. The specific product Annette had wanted to buy was already sold out; with far less thought than initially, she picked a backup for Ingrid that was much bolder. It was also more expensive, leaving her ten gold short instead of five. Felix paid the cost without any argument.

Not only was there no argument, there was no conversation, either. The two didn't speak to each other at all for the rest of the trip, any further than they needed to for coordination.

Annette couldn't think about anything except the strange and unexpected thrill of Felix taking an interest in her dance and technically paying for it. She tried and failed to follow up on the question of what had possessed him to take a hand to her backside. A reasonable part of her brain, raised in a noble, Goddess-fearing household and taught right from wrong, told her she surely ought to report this to someone or at least set a clear boundary. A more recent part of her brain, however, raised only by her new friend Slutty, had different ideas about what conclusions could be drawn...

For his part, Felix was unwilling to engage in any conversation that would reveal that rather than a scolding slap to teach Annette a lesson, his slip in self control been the result of an almost irresistible, feral instinct. The thing that bothered him wasn't actually the indignity of himself, the heir to house Fraldarius, doing something like that to Annette, herself a Crest-bearer and the daughter of a noble household, in a semi-public space, and it wasn't any sense that he might have actually hurt her; it was the funny feeling that what he did was the reasonable reaction, and that in the same circumstances, he'd do it again...

With their arms full, the two stood at the gate to the monastery, sorting out their thoughts as they waited to be admitted. Finally, Felix spoke. "Sorry."

"You don't have to be," Annette replied. When she realized how that sounded, the red that had been hanging around her face spread to her ears and she corrected herself. "Ah! I mean, you helped me out, so I can't complain! You only have to be a little sorry."

"Then I'm only a little sorry," Felix replied succinctly without facing her.

She saw him leave to take the supplies to the infirmary and understood her training with the Box was probably up for the day. She gulped. "That's probably for the best... Mercedes told me not to get carried away with this thing, and I think what I did today probably qualifies. I probably ought to give it to her, then bury my nose in the books..." Annette giggled nervously. "Maybe once I shove some good old magic equations in there, the funny thoughts will just slide right out!"