#but OH BOY are Dimitri's friends not winning any points with Dedue with their garbage when they're teenagers

[isan0rt]

See, here's the thing about Dedue and the non-Dimitri members of the Faerghus Four. They're not his friends. Ashe and Mercedes are his friends, Annette is debatable, but Ingrid, Felix, and Sylvain he is not even looking to be friends with.

They're his in-laws. In-laws that, at least in the Academy phase, he doesn't even particularly like.

Like, if not for Dimitri, he would absolutely not talk to those people. He's making nice with them because they're the closest thing Dimitri has to family that's not actively trying to murder either of them, and they're important to Faerghus so Dimitri has to have a relationship with them no matter what, and it's important to Dimitri that they and Dedue at least kind of get along with each other as much as possible.

But Dedue isn't trying to be friends with them! Dedue is like, I'll go to the family holiday party because it's important to you but if Felix starts talking shit or Ingrid says something racist then I'm not going to be the one to deal with that. They're your relatives and I'll be nice but that's your problem. He's not looking to be close with them, he just wants to have a halfway decent relationship with them for Dimitri's sake and like no more than that.

And they improve a lot in their supports, especially after the time skip, especially in Three Hopes, but like. The relationship there is still fundamentally in-laws. It's just a graduation from "shitty in-laws I'm putting up with" to "in-laws I've come around on and can have a decent-to-good time with." Depending on what supports you get they can even graduate to "in-laws I actively like and admire." But like. He's still hanging out with them because they hang out with Dimitri. He's not hanging out with them for their own sakes.

Dimitri has one important familial relationship with them and another vitally, crucially important relationship with Dedue. Both are fascinating to explore and I love to explore them. But they're completely different relationships.

Like they're not all a big five-person friend group, Dimitri is in the position of having to like. Try and keep the peace between his extended family in all but name who he still loves, and the person who has been the most important person to him for his entire teens so far. Even if Dimitri were tired of his friends' shit personally he can't just stop talking to them, they're the future leaders of their houses, the only houses that are all in behind House Blaiddyd and not fomenting assassinations. He HAS to maintain a good relationship with them for Faerghus.

Dedue gets this. He'll play nice with them. He knows Dimitri also needs them on his side if he's ever going to restore Duscur, but he doesn't have to like them. He'll save their asses on the battlefield for Dimitri but he's going to go hang out with Mercedes and Ashe after.