#the prince and his lovers
Officially, Ingrid is only Dimitri’s lover. It is how it works between them, she is Dimitri’s as much as Sylvain is his and Felix’s. Felix and Dimitri are… cordial, at best. They adore and care for the same people yet it is but a foolish thought to think them to one day share a bed or their soul.
Officiously, Ingrid is conflicted. She shouldn’t be, this she will allow herself to admit but she is, because despite her love for her partner and soon-to-be King, she finds she longs for Felix just the same. She has, for quite some time at that, for a few forsaken years following Glenn’s death, which is the exact reason as to why she refuses to speak any of it.
She was engaged to Glenn. More than that she had loved him tenderly before, had flushed at every compliment he offered her and wept like a widow once the fateful new was brought to her house by a delivery boy she barely knew. Just that. A letter, announcing the end of his life as if it was nothing but the daily news.
The reason she refuses to speak of it is simple. Because Glenn was Felix’s brother and she loved him, because for the blood they shade they bore the same midnight hair and piercing eyes and she cannot fathom the idea of sharing her smitten thoughts to him, in the sole fear he will think she only sees Glenn in his. That she loves and years for him only because of the resemblances between them.
Because it was the reason why Felix chose such a different path from his brother. Why, with every little thing, Felix chose to stray further and further from his brother’s example and memory, because he dreads the idea of never being recognized as his own being, rendered to becoming the echo of his brother’s ghost. His lacking replacement.
His father doesn’t mean wrong when he compares them. He speaks his name and sings his praises so they never grow forgotten, so both can age on a path he can no longer walk, but Felix loathes it, craves not to see his every deed overshadowed by the ghost of the son his father could have had.
So, because she had loved him, because she had adored Glenn, Ingrid will not share her affection for Felix.
Because she refuses to let him think she would settle for him only because of Glenn’s absence, that he would only be worthy of her love once his brother was no longer.
