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As a child, she sat in his lap when they fished. There, he taught her how to bait her line, how to cast out, how to reel in, and even how to kill and gut a fish. His lap, with his torso at her back, keeping her tucked in between his bulky frame is what she remembers when asked about fishing. It's how they bonded.
Even when they traveled all over Fodlan (and the surrounding countries, too), Jeralt Reus Eisner and Nessarose Byleth Eisner would always have one fishing trip after a job well done. They've had a lot of good fish thanks to those trips, and it's just become a tradition at this point.
"How's teaching?" He asked, his chin resting on top of her head.
Now that she's bigger, it's harder to stay tucked into him, but they still manage. Many things might have changed, but she refused to give up sitting on his lap. His legs are loosely crossed, and her butt sits more on the dock than his lap, but it's the only way she fits now. She's hunched over a little, but it's fine. It's still comfortable.
"I think I like it," she answered. "Linhardt likes to fish, too. And Leonie."
"You should have invited them to fish with us, By," he said.
"No, thanks."
It got a laugh out of him.
"Don't want to share, do ya?" He asked with a laugh.
"No," Nessa answered honestly, "I like this. It is quiet."
Upon taking up her post, Nessa was found to be quite the popular professor. While it was fairly obvious she never had any formal education, her very hands-on teaching style made her quite a hit among the Black Eagles… especially her Monastery wide "simulation" to test out new battle tactics.
("Professor, do you mean Capture the Flag?" Caspar asked when the Professor explained that week's lesson plan.
"Capture the Flag?" Nessa asked, bewildered.)
It turns out it was actually Capture the Flag. What was originally a class simulation turned into Monastery wide simulation teaching the importance of trusting your teammates, and how to work with those you only just met. Once the rest of the Officer's Academy joined in, Nessa divided students from all the other houses onto her predetermined teams to teach them that lesson.
Also it was funny to purposely mix up the royals and their retainers. In the end, Edelgard and Hilda made a truly terrifying team and Team "Shut Up Ferdinand" destroyed the others.
(The team name was purely accidental, thanks to Edelgard shouting at Ferdinand as he went off on one of his grand declarations of whatever he was talking about. He likely was declaring his team would claim victory. But this occurred while Nessa was asking the three groups for their team names, so she accepted it as that team's name.)
But her unconventional methods didn't stop there, no, she also introduced them to a slightly more complicated game of Tag as a way to maintain constant vigilance, and various battle reenactments in their classroom. It was no wonder she was such a popular professor when she had such interesting lessons.
The downside of popularity was the lack of privacy that came with it.
"Sorry I haven't been able to keep our weekly fishing date. Rhea has me running all over the place," Jeralt told her softly.
"S'okay," Nessa mumbled, "Edelgard and I have been having tea to discuss lesson plans for the upcoming week instead."
Jeralt smiled. He was happy to see his little girl bonding with someone else. After waking him up early that one night, it seemed Nessa stopped being so nervous around her little crush and now seemed to try and spend as much time with the girl as she possibly could.
"Well I'm glad you weren't lonely," he finally said. There would be plenty of time to tease her later. Now was for fishing. "Do you have tea today?"
Nessa shrugged, "I told her you were back and we were fishing."
Jeralt sighed, clearly he had more to teach her when it came to wooing women.
"You could have invited her," Jeralt told her, "or am I not good enough to help with lesson plans?"
"Papa," Nessa groaned, "stop!"
"What?" Jeralt asked with a grin threatening to overtake him.
"That would be weird."
Jeralt mock sniffled, "I knew this day would come," he declared in mock heartbreak. "I hoped this would never come to pass. I knew it was too good to be true. You've finally gotten too cool to introduce me to your friends! You're growing up!"
It was hard to be dramatic, but after years of listening to Alois, Jeralt thought he did a good job. At least his voice had some sort of emotion, which was more than his typical bored tone.
"Obviously I'm not cool enough for you to introduce to your little girlfriend," he teased.
"Papa!" Nessa whined, squirming slightly and digging her bony elbows into his legs. She adjusted her body so her back leaned against his chest and her knees up with her feet flat on the dock. In this new position she could rest her fishing rod on her knees, but it forced Jeralt to adjust his arms so that his elbows rested on his knees and the bottom of his rod hovered just above Nessa's stomach.
"Oh right, she's not your girlfriend yet," he joked.
Nessa pulled her body forward slightly and then slammed back into him with enough force to knock the both of them off balance. Jeralt fell backwards against the dock, and Nessa followed, bouncing off his chest and rolling on to the dock. The suddenness of the action had the two lost for words.
And then Jeralt laughed.
Nessa turned her head to look at her father. The two made no move to sit back up, and Jeralt just kept laughing. His laughter was contagious because it eventually got a grin out of Nessa. She playfully shoved him, which only made him laugh harder and pull her into an awkward hug.
"I love you, kiddo." Jeralt told her quietly.
Nessa didn't reply, opting to curl into his side. It only lasted a moment. The sound of wood sliding against the wood made Nessa's eyes go wide.
She popped her head up and looked over towards their fishing rods that were laying haphazardly at the other side of the dock… and one was slowly moving towards the edge.
"A fish!"
In a flurry of limbs, the two tried to force themselves back up into a sitting position in order to get the moving rod. But, before they could clamber over to the rod, someone rushed by them and caught both rods before they could slide off the dock.
The figure pulled back with a mighty tug, pulling not one, but two airmid pikes out of the water.
"I have to admit, I did not think that would work out as well as it did," they said in a mirthful tone.
"Edelgard," Nessa mumbled as she looked up at her student. She had fallen forward and started crawling across the docks in a truly childish manner in order to catch the fishing rods. Only falling onto her stomach when Edelgard rushed by to save their fishing rods. Now, she was mostly laying on the docks, half propped up by her elbows as she looked at Edelgard in pure unadulterated awe.
At least, that's how some could describe it. Jeralt would say that his kid looked at the Adrestian Princess like she was some sort of Goddess of Fishing, with the sun hitting her back just right so her entire body was illuminated. A light breeze blew the red capelet and her white hair ever so slightly and coupled with the fish laden fishing rods, she looked like something right out of a painting.
In that moment, Jeralt knew what he was getting his daughter for her next birthday. It would be a lovely painting and he would call it 'The Lady of the Lake'. Nessa would simultaneously love him and hate him at the same time and it would be a worthy sacrifice. Now he just needed to find that one artsy kid from the Golden Deer.
"Excellent catch, Your Highness. Looks like you just caught us some lunch," Jeralt said from next to Nessa. Unlike his daughter, Jeralt was sitting up and not making a complete fool of himself. Not that either girl noticed since they were far too busy staring at each other.
The Princess looked equal parts amused by Nessa's current position, but also embarrassed or flustered by Nessa's adoration. Meanwhile, Nessa was smitten, or as smitten as she could be given her typical impassive face. No one else could read Nessa like Jeralt, except apparently Edelgard.
As the two girls stared at each other, Edelgard slowly lowered the rods until the fish were able to start flopping on the docks. Of course, neither of them noticed, but before Jeralt could say anything, one of the fish flailed just enough that it managed to smack Nessa right across the face.
Jeralt roared with laughter, Edelgard dropped the fishing rods (that Jeralt quickly recovered because there was no way they weren't keeping those fish), and Nessa laid face down on the dock.
Nessa didn't get embarrassed. Not usually. She had very little shame, as some of her students saw when they had to camp outside the monastery overnight. But being smacked in the face by a fish in front of the girl she definitely had feelings for seemed to bring out the embarrassment.
Edelgard, Goddess bless that kid, ignored Nessa wallowing in her newly found embarrassment, and gently coaxed the young professor up to a seated position. Gloved fingers hover over lightly pink cheeks, checking to see if Nessa was hurt in any way.
Not wanting to interrupt, Jeralt quietly took the two fish and moved to put them in the fishing bucket he and Nessa brought out to the pond.
"Are you well, my Teacher?" Edelgard asked quietly as her fingers softly brushed against Nessa's cheek.
"I am not injured," Nessa answered, refusing to meet Edelgard's gaze. "Except my pride, perhaps… that is the correct phrase, right?"
Edelgard smiled, "yes, Professor. That would certainly wound anyone's ego. Perhaps I should hit Ferdinand with a fish some time."
"It might make him shut up," Nessa answered with a small nod.
"Goddess be praised if that happens," the Princess joked.
"Remind me to bring you a fish tomorrow, then."
That had the princess laughing. Not loud, but a soft amused kind of giggle. The sound caused Nessa to melt, or at least feel like she was melting and she leaned more into the person keeping her upright. Edelgard didn't seem to mind, instead she adjusted her arms so that Nessa could rest her head on her shoulder. Despite being shorter, Edelgard was crouched down and leaning pretty heavily on one of the dock posts.
"What brought you here, Edelgard?" Nessa asked after a moment.
"Oh!" The Princess started off, "well, I knew you and Captain Jeralt had resumed your Sunday Fishing Tradition, but I thought I would drop by to invite the both of you to tea if you both had time."
"Oh," Nessa mumbled. She didn't realize how much she enjoyed having tea with Edelgard, and something about the girl asking her to tea made her… happy? Nessa liked it. Now only if the invitation was for just her, and not her Father too…
"I didn't know how long fishing would take," Edelgard said quickly, "I have never been fishing, but I wanted to extend the invitation all the same."
"Why don't you join us?" Jeralt asked, walking back to the edge of the dock with both rods baited and ready to go. "After all, you caught us lunch. Maybe you'll be lucky and you'll catch dinner too."
Nessa hastily sat up and took a rod from her father. Edelgard was a little more hesitant. Nessa looked up at her father, and then over to Edelgard before passing the princess a baited rod.
"Fishing is a very important skill," Nessa said sagely, "here. It is very easy. You will pick it up in no time."
"I don't want to interrupt anything," Edelgard said, trying to find a polite way to refuse.
"You aren't interrupting anything," Jeralt told her, "we were going to take a lunch break anyway. I'll get everything ready and we can just have some fish sandwiches."
Nessa looked up at her father and raised one eyebrow, "where will you cook it?"
"I'll run inside and cook everything. The lunch rush is over so it won't take too long," Jeralt said dismissively. "You two focus on catching dinner. After all, fishing is an important life skill that everyone should know."
Nessa realized he was trying to give her and Edelgard some alone time. Part of her appreciated that, but also having her father around was a good buffer. At least he understood her… Not that Edelgard didn't, but he was just better at it.
"Wait, you're going to eat those?" Edelgard asked, now holding the fishing rod as cautiously as she could.
"We, Princess. We are going to eat these," Jeralt told her, raising a bucket that held the two fish Edelgard caught. "There's nothing better than being to eat something you caught for yourself. By, show her the ropes. I expect a good dinner from you two."
His tone left no room for arguments and before they could even think of protesting, Jeralt turned and headed up to the dining hall kitchens.
Both girls watched him wander up the steps and disappear into the kitchens. Once he was gone, they looked at each other and Nessa shrugged.
"Papa says casting is an art. There is a proper technique in order to get a good cast. Here…"
Nessa reverted back into her professor persona, giving Edelgard a demonstration. To no one's surprise, Edelgard quickly picked up the basics of casting with ease. Soon enough both girls had their lines out and settled into each other. It wasn't obvious unless you stared at them, but their shoulders met and they were slowly starting to lean into each other.
"And now we wait?" Edelgard asked Nessa.
"Now we wait," Nessa agreed. "You may feel a tug, but never pull back at the first sign of movement. The fish are smart and test the bait before biting. So we wait until we get a good pull before reeling in our catch."
"I will keep that in mind," Edelgard replied with a small smile. "I never thought I would spend my afternoon learning to fish, but here I am."
"It is a valuable life skill. Perhaps I should plan a week in the field for the class," Nessa suggested. "It would be a good experience. Knowing how to survive in different environments is invaluable."
"I think that I agree, professor," Edelgard said, "A week or two out of the classroom might do us some good anyway."
Nessa nodded.
When Nessa wandered into class the next morning, she was late. For once it was not because of her oversleeping. Before her students could ask about her tardiness, Nessa dropped a wet bundle onto Edelgard's desk. Instantly, Hubert was on his feet, looking to discover the mysterious object before the Princess could hurt herself by touching something potentially dangerous. The rest of the students looked curiously at their Class Leader, awaiting her reaction.
Edelgard looked down at the cloth covered object, and then up at her Professor as the woman rounded her desk. When Nessa was centered behind the desk, she tested her hands flat on the desk, and leaned forward. One eyebrow twitched, and her head cocked slightly to the left. Blue eyes met lilac and Edelgard realized her professor was waiting for a reaction. No. This was a test. What would Edelgard do?
The princess raised her hands and wordlessly brushed Hubert's probing hands from the object.
"Lady Edelgard I must insist—" he started off, trying to tell her that he had not checked the object for every potential threat.
His words died in his throat when Edelgard pulled the cloth away.
"A fish?!" Caspar hollered.
"Is this being a Fodlan custom to be gifting fish to friends?" Petra asked quietly to Dorothea.
"No, Petra, this is the Professor just being the Professor," Dorothea mumbled back, doing her best to hide amusement and she and Petra stood on their toes to get a better look at what was going on.
"I am being most relieved," Petra replied, "Or I would be up very late catching the best fish for Dorothea after our lessons are being finished.."
If Edelgard had eyes in the back of her head, she would have seen Dorothea nearly swoon. Thankfully, she didn't need them, she only had to catch the reflection in the newly polished sword that rested on the professor's desk. It made the princess smirk.
"A fish?" Ferdinand's too chipper voice sounded from to her left.
That's when Edelgard's eyes widen. Lilac eyes met cornflower blue and Edelgard could have sworn she saw a hint of a mirthful gaze from her Professor. She also noticed the smallest of blushes dusting her cheeks, and were her ears turning pink?
Nessa's eyebrow twitched again, as if to ask Edelgard what she was waiting for. Part of Edelgard knew what she should do, being the future Emperor and Ferdinand being her future Prime Minister. She should maintain some level of professionalism… but the opportunity was far too good to pass up.
"Professor? What exactly is the meaning behind this? Are we fishing today? If that is indeed our lesson, then I, Ferdinand Von Aegir will ensure that my fish is—"
The second Ferdinand opened his mouth, Edelgard firmly grasped the fish by its tail.
"SHUT UP, FERDINAND!" She roared, whipping around, brandishing the fish as her weapon of choice.
Her attack landed with a loud smack, and Ferdinand soon found himself sprawled out on the stone tiles. The princess hit him so hard that she left the imprint of fish scales along his cheeks.
"Honestly, it's far too early for your voice to be attacking our ears. Now do yourself and literally everyone else a favor and shut up ." Edelgard declared, now standing and facing her 'rival' with her arms crossed and her fish limply hanging from one of her hands.
Ferdinand opened his mouth to protest, but when Edelgard brandished the fish again, this time in a far more menacing manner despite that she was literally holding a dead limp fish, he thought better and simply nodded.
"Excellent," she said with a nod and turning to face Nessa, "now if you will excuse me, Professor, I believe there are some cats outside that would appreciate this little offering."
Nessa nodded and allowed Edelgard to run out to quickly give the monastery cats their fish. When the Princess returned, the two shared a conspiratory smirk but said nothing else about the fish.