Work Text:
I: EVER
At first Byleth had thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her. It was probably the darkness, she had thought to herself, when she saw his figure standing alone as she was ascending the staircase to the roof. The pale moonlight and the faint speckles of stars dotting the jet black night sky could only do so much to illuminate the scenery between them. But when he turned around, supposedly alerted by the trodding of her footsteps, and the light shone on his surprised face, it became increasingly impossible to repudiate his presence.
“D-... Dimitri?”
“Professor! Fancy seeing you here.” There was an unmistakable delight stitched within his words as they exited his mouth. The joy on his face radiated luminously, the teeth in his grin flashing white and his eyes lit up almost to the extent of his maya blue irises igniting.
“I could say the same,” she concurred, walking up to him, copying his position and placing her hands on the rails at the perimeter of the Goddess Tower. She closed her eyes, inhaling and letting the fresh air rejuvenate her lungs. Rarely ever did she take the time to experience nature at this proximity - even she would admit that she had needed this for a long time. Just staring at the river surface, twinkling like a sheet of diamonds in the starlight, felt like a cathartic experience, like letting her mind free from earthly shackles. Hearing the wind rustling against the forestry around her was like music to her ears.
“I suppose you’re not too fond of the festivities downstairs, are you Professor? Forgive me if that’s too presumptuous.”
“No, you’re absolutely correct. It’s so much… quieter up here. I like it that way.”
He nodded in affirmation. “We have that in common.”
She turned to him, catching him staring at her. He immediately flushed, ducking his head down sheepishly and scratching the back of his head. She had to invest quite some effort to restrain herself from giggling in response.
“S-... say, Professor, that reminds me. Do you know the legend associated with the Goddess Tower?”
She frowned in confusion. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Oh, that’s a little surprising. No matter. It’s quite a simple one, but legend has it that if a man and a woman were to pray for the same thing here, on the night of the ball, the goddess will actualize their prayers. I wonder who came up with such a silly notion.”
“So it’s like granting a wish?” She turned to him, raising her eyebrows slightly. “I presume that you don’t believe in such a thing.”
“Legends are… well, just that. Legends, nothing more. I find it hard to believe that ‘wishes’ can actually be granted up here - after all, the goddess just watches over us from above, a spectator that never interferes with the conflicts of the world.”
Her frown deepened. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Professor - if someone were to be dying on the battlefield, no matter how much they may pray for mercy and for their life to be spared, she would never so much as offer her hand. And even if she did, I think we would lack the means to reach out and grasp it.”
She winced. “Wow, Dimitri, that’s…”
“... A little cold?” He attempted to finish, feeling a drop of sweat trickling down the side of his neck. “I-I’m sorry, that’s just how I feel about it. The goddess has a power that truly transcends any ‘wish-granting’ ability any old wives’ tale could regale.”
“Well… when you put it like that, you don’t sound wrong,” she agreed. “But… in any case, even so, I guess there’s not much of a harm to making a wish anyway? It is the night of the ball, after all, and we are a man, and a woman, aren’t we?”
“We certainly are,” he remarked, smiling. “And… you’re right. Maybe it would no harm praying - or ‘wishing’, to the goddess, notwithstanding.”
He couldn’t help but keep staring at Byleth - how every feature of her face that he adored was only highlighted in the lighting, and how entracing it was to peer into her own mysterious, royal blue eyes. It was almost like an addiction, and tonight in particular he could not help catching himself looking at her for too long. He could hear his heart pounding away in his ribcage, louder as the night went on.
“Shall I-... “ he shook his head, pulling back up his facade of serenity. “Well, ladies first.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t. After you, Your Highness.”
He was sure from the temperature of his cheeks that he was absolutely red, but nevertheless, he pressed on. “Well, Professor I - , if you insist. A wish of my own… I suppose… hmm. My wish... is for a world in which no one would ever be unjustly taken from us. A world in which we can continue to fight for and where peace and justice reign supreme. Something, at least, along those lines.”
She flashed a smile that was so blissful it felt like an arrow piercing his heart, only to evoke pleasure instead of pain. Most people in their spot would probably have wished for fame or fortune - or even wisdom would be a selfish gain. But Dimitri, of course, was so different than most people.
“That’s a wonderful wish,” she said, her voice so tender to the ears.
“Tha-... thank you, Professor. How about you? Would you wish the same with me?”
“Of course,” she agreed. To his surprise, she stretched out a hand towards him. “Shall we pray?”
“Y-...Yes, of course,” he stuttered, trying to control his tone and not betray all of the bliss that he was feeling. “Let’s make our wish.”
He grasped her hand with both of his, feeling the warmth of her skin and exhaling softly in bliss. He shook his head, closing his eyes. He felt Byleth’s other hand clasp her own over his, and she too bowed her head slightly. They recited a prayer - one of peace for the world, and for justice for all, and if they had opened their eyes, they would have espied a shooting star streaking over their heads in the blanket of the night sky.
They simultaneously opened their eyes, connecting their lines of vision for a moment too long. Dimitri blushed, and he instinctively dropped their hands and averted his gaze. Byleth shot him a confused look.
“Uh… Dimitri? Something wrong?”
“Oh! No, Professor.” he blurted nervously. “I was just… lost in my thoughts. I’d rather not try to put them into words; I’d - probably look like a fool.”
“No, it’s alright,” she encouraged, the edges of her mouth curving upwards. “You can be honest around me.”
“Well… if I were to make a full disclosure - I’ve been thinking that you look... ravishing, under the moonlight. Just holding your hands too, has made my heart skip a beat or two.”
“Oh!” Her face immediately turned red, and she averted her gaze. “T-... Thank you, Dimitri.”
“I-it’s nothing. I’m simply stating what I’m thinking.”
“You know Dimitri… you’re really a special person, you know that?”
Dimitri’s thoughts began to swirl around, like as if caught in the middle of a tornado. “Professor, is that supposed to be… I don’t understand your connotation.”
“Oh! I meant it well, of course. It’s just… your wish is just - well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you would make that wish, but if I were to be honest - I sort of am. It doesn’t seem like the kind of wish most people in your spot would wish for. But you’re far more exceptional than most people anyway. I mean - well,-”
“I understand, Professor,” he interjected. “I thank you for your kind words.”
“But just hypothetically, what would you wish for, given an absolute freedom of choice?” Byleth asked innocently. “I mean, if you had the choice to be selfish?”
“If I were to be... selfish? That feels like such an indulgent thought. Although… at a time like this, it would make more sense for me to wish that we’ll be together in love, for all eternity. What do you think?”
As the words left his mouth, the regret began to cascade upon him as Byleth conspicuously balked. Her pupils shrank, and immediately her heart race began to accelerate. For a while they exchanged the exact same look of bewilderment, letting the pregnant silence balloon between them. He swallowed the saliva pooling at the back of his throat, unsure if he should really be the one to crumble the figurative wall of ice that had materialized between them. He supposed it was his duty, after all, since he started it. But what could he possibly say?
“No I… I was just thinking,” he started, kicking the rational part of his brain into overdrive. “Lovers in our spot would probably wish for that, wouldn’t they?”
Still stunned, she could only manage a short reply. “...I would… think so.”
“Yes. I… I suppose that’s what I mean.”
“But what about you?”
“Pardon me, Professor?”
“Would you… wish that for us?” Her voice was soft in tentativeness.
“Well…”
“The legends never said anything about making more than one wish, did they? So… if you wanted to, would you be-... well, opposed? To wishing for … our eternity?”
He pursed his lips. He would have gone off on a tangent on how he was bluffing, but it was quickly dawning on him that it was too late. He had to mentally control himself from hyperventilating. This was really real, wasn’t it? This was happening?
“I… I don’t know. I mean! This feels a little abrupt, don’t you think? To immediately jump to forever? I don’t even know if… if you would wish the same thing as me. That feels selfish of me, if -... I mean, of course, if we’re assuming that I’m wishing for it.”
She considered it, but only briefly. They were already this far. And truth to be told, she knew deep down there was a chance that he would say no. But a small part of her, even if but the size of a mustard seed, a part of her didn’t care, and that was enough for her.
Her voice was quiet, but unmistakable. “I would wish for the same thing if you did.”
The words struck him like a bolt of lightning. Instantly, he could feel his hands trembling in utter nervousness. “You… you would?”
“Yes. But of course… you have to want to wish for it too in the first place.”
“I…”
“Dimitri,” she swallowed her saliva, now aiming directly at him. “Would you… wish for us to be together?”
His mind racked over it. How was this happening? It felt surreal, like one of those once in a lifetime dreams that overflowed with ecstasy and made you devastatingly crestfallen when you awoke. Except, there was no waking up, and this was real.
“I… I would.”
“Would you like to wish for us to be... together forever?”
“...yes. If… if it was possible to spend a lifetime - nay, an infinite amount of lifetimes, with you Professor… I would.”
“Would you like to spend that forever… as lovers?”
“I-... If I said yes, would you wish for that, too, Professor?”
Her eyes flitted downwards, and at first, he presumed that she was about to reject it, and let the subject fall like a hot stone out of shame. But she reached for Dimitri’s hand, gingerly cradling in her own, and interlacing her fingers with his. As rough as his palm was from the healed scars, it was still relatively soft to the touch, and she revelled in it.
She nodded her head. “Would you like to do the honours?”
He was hesitant at first, but this time, instead of merely holding her hands, he reached for her shoulder. He did this slowly, gradually, testing the waters ever so slightly more as every second ticked by, but she relented as much as she could, making an effort to be visual about it too. He grasped her shoulder, letting his hand briefly trace her collarbone, and, again slowly, he took steps towards her while pulling her closer, closing the space between them. Soon enough, his hand, and then his arm was behind her back, and their bodies had no distance between them. He inhaled her scent - lilies and lavender - and immediately his mind wandered off into a seemingly never-ending expanse. He wanted to get used to this. So badly.
“It would be my pleasure. Let’s make a wish.”
They closed their eyes again, and tried to focus deeply on their wish. When the words rolled off of Dimitri’s mind, he could not help but feel incredulous. Your own Professor! As your… partner? Not only in friendship, but in romance, for all of eternity? It felt completely strange - and yet, something fought within him against that strangeness. Perhaps if the legends were real, he could be with his Professor forever. And maybe that wasn’t so far fetched of a notion as he had previously - at least, before tonight - thought. He wanted it to be a reality. So badly.
And of course, even if he had only the faintest of a suspicion right now, it was still true - she was absolutely thinking the same thing.
When they opened their eyes and looked at each other, they probably had an idea of what was coming. Byleth was the first one to take notice of it and delve herself ever so slightly into making it a reality - their hands, still entwined, fell to their sides as her head lifted just a notch. His grip tightened instinctively, and he let his hand rub against the side of her back. If his heartbeat had been quick before, it was now racing like mad in his chest, and he could hear the constant drumming thudding away in his ears. Her lips were trembling as her head slowly began to tilt upward, her eyes like small moons gazing up at him - her focus of attention.
There was a part of him that just wanted to leap for it, his innermost impatience that he had been repressing ever since he saw her face, but he wanted to make sure she was comfortable every step of the way. His muscles gradually became tenser and tenser, her fingers reaching more and more north from his chest, to his shoulder, to the navel of his neck, and finally to the back of his hair. Soon they were chest to chest, and he could feel her scorching breath spill in the space between them. Slowly, her eyes began to close, as did his by instinct, and their faces slowly began to close the distance between them… inches away… centimeters away… and finally, nothing.
The taste of her lips immediately sent a wildfire of electricity through Dimitri’s body, and in that instant he let the last traces of rationality and restraint fly out the window, letting his feral instincts conquer him. He brought his hands up to her face, cupping them gently, trying his best to not to grip too tightly in response to the synapses of pleasure coursing through him. Byleth’s other hand reached back around to grasp his hair as well, her grip tightening as their kiss began to deepen. Goddess, he thought to himself, I never want this to end.
Her lips tasted like overripe strawberries, and it was slowly becoming addictive even now. Unwittingly, his tongue began to protrude, and Byleth moaned softly in response. The sound made Dimitri growl in ecstasy, and he began to exert more force into the kiss. She took a step back in pre-emption, but her mind started to swirl, and beneath her eyelids she began seeing stars. The more their lips tangled with one another, the hungrier Dimitri got, and the more desperate his movements were. Her breathing began to accelerate, and his name left her lips over and over, until she felt herself getting dizzier, and dizzier, until…
“Professor!” Dimitri’s instincts were quick, and he reached forward to grab her from her back to catch her fall. Her eyes took a moment, but they flitted open, and she gasped repeatedly for air. “Professor, are you okay?”
“Y-... yeah, I am. I-... I think I fainted for a while… hehe…”
“I’m sorry, Professor, I must’ve gotten carried away with myself,” he lamented. “My apologies for my irresponsibility; I should have shown more restraint and-”
Byleth interrupted him with a quick peck on the lips. The smile that she showed made any doubt or regret within him vanish, like a ray of light dispelling the darkness. “Dimitri. It’s okay. I… I really enjoyed that.” Clearly, she thought to herself. He made her faint on his first kiss. That would be a story to tell.
“Well…” Dimitri cleared his throat, his mind still swimming in an ocean of contemplation. “I-... I’m glad to hear that, Professor. I… felt exactly the same. I’m still… I’m still overwhelmed by joy, if I had to be completely honest.”
She giggled. “I’m glad you’re being honest, Dimitri.”
“Well… Professor, I’d love to stay up here with you forever, but I should think it’s getting late. Would you like to head back?”
“I-... I would love to. But first…” She stepped up to him, holding his hands in hers once again. I swear, Dimitri thought to himself, I could stare at her smile forever.
“Dimitri… I want to hear you say it.”
“Say… what?”
“That you’d like to … to court me, of course.”
“Oh! Oh. Of course. Okay. Well… Professor-”
“Byleth,” she interrupted. “You can call me by my first name, Dimitri. If we’re going to do this forever thing, you should probably call me by a title that will last that long.”
“Right! P-... B...Byless. Byl-... Byleth! Goddess, cat must’ve gotten my ton-... ahem. Byleth. Byleth… would you like to… to be my beloved? From this moment on?”
Her smile widened to the point of almost touching her eyes. “I would absolutely be delighted to be, Dimitri.”
“I… I’m so happy, Pro- Byleth. I wish I could see your smile like this for all my life. It… it truly is mesmerizing.”
She giggled in response. “That’s what you said the last time.”
“Really? Well… that hasn’t changed, has it?”
“Certainly not.”
“...well, beloved, shall we head back?”
“Of course.”
From that day, wordlessly, they agreed to keep their relationship secret. There wasn’t much of a choice, given the likely reaction of the rest of the monastery of a teacher courting with her student that happened to be the heir of the Holy Kingdom. Of course, that only made the stolen kisses even more exhilarating, and the times they could revel in each other’s touch privately and exchange sweet nothings all the more precious. A value that would only exponentially increase… the moment the war came.
II: BACK
Even when Dimitri had seemed to shatter whatever darkness or consumption of vengeance that surrounded him, he had refused to really formally show any affection to Byleth. Every time Byleth got closer, nudging forward to provoke maybe something, he always succeeded in backing out of it. Always an excuse, always something he had to attend to, always evading the questions she snuck in their normal conversations.
Obviously getting him back as a confidante had been a giant burden lifted from her shoulders, but to having gone from spending what seemed like hours huddled together in her bed, to basically going more lukewarm than platonic with no rhyme or reason - it was like her heart was perched precariously on a cliff, like a giant boulder of glass waiting to shatter in a supernova of smithereens.
One night, something snapped within her. She lunged for the door before Dimitri could even reach for the doorknob, and the absurdity of it all finally reflected on her face.
“Dimitri! What’s … what’s with this?” She spat, furious. “Why do you keep avoiding the question?”
He averted his gaze sheepishly. “I … I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Even he knew how transparent the lie was as it fell out of his mouth.
“Dimitri. Please don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what you promised, what I promised, what we promised, on top of the Goddess Tower. Please, Dimitri. Please tell me you remember it. Don’t you recall what we wished for?”
“Of course, Professor. We wished for the world to be just and peaceful… isn’t that what we have been working for this past year?”
“And what else?”
“... Professor?”
“Dimitri…” She was already losing her control, but she pressed on nonetheless. This was a catharsis long time coming for her.
“Dimitri, did everything we do just… not matter at all, to you? When we wished for us to be together, for the rest of our lives? Are the words that we exchanged with one another just nothing better than dust? Have you wiped the memory of the warmth of our embraces, the taste of my lips, just completely clean? Do they… do they just all… mean nothing? Nothing at all?”
Her voice was crumpling like paper, and she could feel warm tears streaming down her cheeks. Her fists were balled up in tight knots, and the irrational part of her just wanted to swing at him with all her strength, but she nevertheless let him lunge for her, pulling her into their first embrace since the war began. He smelled exactly the same, the same aromatic musk of mint and firewood. He felt exactly the same too, even after all these years when he had grown taller and more muscular.
“Professor, I-... I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I- I didn’t want to hurt you… and if I was still, well,... unwell, and if I lashed out at you, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself…”
“Dimitri,” she sniffled. “Dimitri… it’s been 5 years. 5 fucking years since I last saw you… last touched you like this… last-...” She stopped mid-sentence, and wept briefly in his arms, clutching his shoulders. His grip tightened, and he too could feel tears welling up in his eyes. Of course she had been hurting already. What was even the point of pretending this all hadn’t been real? Of course it had. And, of course, it still was real. Nothing had changed, after all. It was so unfair to let her bear the brunt of it all.
“Dimitri…” she continued softly. “Do you know how much I’ve been hurting, ever since I reunited with you, and you’ve been… so distant from me? Do you know how many nights I spent… crying myself to sleep, not knowing if you’d ever … want me again? I… I’ve remembered everything, Dimitri. I always have… and I still… I still want it back…”
Wordlessly, he clutched the tip of her chin with his hand, and pressed his lips on hers. In that instant, her entire consciousness was yanked back in time, to a simpler, more pleasant time when the love between them was still blossoming like a rose. A part of her always feared that once the war had started, that rose had just wilted away completely. There was never a point of time, except now, that Dimitri was even remotely open to anything affectionate - and every time she saw his gloomy, down-trodden face, it was like a petal viciously ripped apart, like another piece of her heart torn away. And of course, for the good of the kingdom, for the future of everyone in Fodlan, she had literally no choice but to repress it all.
But from the way Dimitri kissed her, with a hunger and desperation she had never experienced before, she knew that that rose hadn’t wilted away. It had simply remained dormant, waiting for its moment of regrowth to come again. Her fingers crept up to his hair - longer now, yet silken soft to the touch. She could taste something slightly salty - unbeknownst to her, a combination of their tears - but she didn’t care. And neither did he.
When he pulled away he stared at her with the determined intensity of a thousand suns. “I’m sorry, Professor. I… It was my mistake, to hold it all back from you. Profes- Byleth. Byleth, I love you. I’ve always, from the bottom of my heart, loved you…. but I didn’t know you were hurting in the same way that I was. I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
“Dimitri…”
“If there was anything I could do… beg on my knees for you to have me back, forgive me for my transgressions, anything to make it up to you… please, Byleth, I implore you…”
“Say it again.”
“Say… what again?”
“Say you love me,” she instructed, placing her hands on his chest. “Let me hear it again.”
“I love you, Byleth.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you, Byleth. With every fiber of my being. Byleth… my beloved… would you like to be my beloved once more?”
She wiped a hand across her face, sniffling. “I would love nothing more.”
Their lips met once more, this time more gently, and this time taking the time to savour each other as much as possible. It was a pure, sweet, cathartic release, just as much for the Faerghus leader as it was hers. All the memories from before the war started to burst in, like a flood pouring forth from a broken dam. She missed him. He missed her. To reunite like this - truly reunite, as one again - was such a perfect feeling that almost overwhelmed her.
He easily lifted her, planting her on her bed while their lips were still connected. This night, it would be just the two of them, only him and her in their own little private world. His heart raced like a pack of galloping horses, and with every movement of his lips, every “I love you” he breathed, his emotions began to pour out like perfume from an alabaster jar. From that day forth, he promised to never leave her. He repressed every bubbling doubt otherwise - and let the ray of light that was her be the only thing that shone upon him.
III: OUT
He hadn’t quite thought too much about it - it was, after all, dinnertime, and he was ravenous after an exhausting day of training. Seeing her face made every ounce of his soul’s essence illuminate in innocent happiness, making him smile widely and his legs rush to put one in front of the other, beckoning towards her.
“Beloved!” He exclaimed, wrapping an arm around her and placing a light peck on her lips. At first, he couldn’t quite register why she was so stunned and why her face filled crimson, but when he heard the commotion of the mess hall soften, it clicked and it clicked rather painfully. He didn’t have to look up to see the millions of stares of his allies and subordinates pierce him and his ‘beloved’. His mind scrambled to find something to say, anything to dispel the awkwardness, and he kept amending the sentence that would fall from his mouth to fix the situation.
“Right,” he began, clearing his throat. “The professor and I are… indeed, courting. That is all. Please get back to your own business. That’s an order.”
He winced when nobody quite obeyed him - everyone was still staring at him, with mixtures of wonder, muted excitement, and slight disgust. His eyes darted over to his former classmates - Felix and Ingrid were the only ones who ignored him and were discussing something else, but of course, written across the others were a much obvious bliss, especially Mercedes and Annette, whose eyes seemed to gleam with sheer joy even from halfway across the hall. Even Dedue could not quite conceal his own elation, and while bewilderment was predominantly etched on Ashe’s face, there was still an unmistakable sense of innocent jovialness mixed with admiration there.
“Woo, way to go Professor and Your Highness!!” Sylvain yelled, breaking the silence. He made a three-quarter open circle with his thumb and index finger, placed the opening in his mouth and wolf-whistled sharply. It began with Annette, and soon Mercedes, and then Dedue, and soon it was the entire class, and then the entire hall, but they were… applauding him? For what? He couldn’t tell if he should be flattered or embarrassed. It was likely both.
He turned to poor Byleth, the real victim to all of this and to his own mistake, but to his shock, there was even a faint smile creeping up on her face. Was she even upset that he had ruined the privacy of their relationship so abruptly like this?
“No, Dimitri,” she answered. He pursed his lips, realizing that he had voiced that last part aloud accidentally. She gently clasped his hands in hers again. “I… I’m okay with this. I… honestly? This is pretty nice.”
“I’m sorry, beloved,” he voiced, regretfully. “I was… I’m always just so excited to see you, it just blurted out…”
She tilted her head upwards, letting their lips meet again, and she could hear the applause in the mess hall become more raucous, Sylvain’s razor-sharp wolf-whistle piercing the room again.
“I’m glad,” she whispered in his ear, making shivers travel down his spine. It was his turn to flush red.
“Byleth! In public?”
She shrugged. “So?”
“...”
“I thought so. Come on, Dima. I’m starving. And not just for you…”
For the rest of that day, Dimitri’s mind had no choice but to function at half capacity. The rest of it was completely entangled in the vines of his love for her - and somehow he knew that he wouldn’t have it any other way.
IV: FOREVER
It really did all feel like a dream. Here he was, standing while his bride-to-be was walking down the aisle towards him as the organ in the background ushered them together. Of course, as tradition, he had been forbidden to see her for the day until now, and the anticipation in that period of time had almost killed him. And of course, Byleth had been similarly just as impatient, which made the sight of her dashing husband, dressed in smart white and blue officer colours, all the more of a pay-off for her. A singular tear rolled down her cheek, as she took one elegant step after another elegant step towards him.
Dimitri could only stand rooted, his eyes locked onto her as she made her way up to him, spellbound by how radiant her beauty was, how the snow white fabric of her gown flowed behind her and adorned her body so well. The veil in front of her face only made her more enticing. Couldn’t he just skip this part and onto kissing his newly-married bride already? He tightened his fist in an attempt to keep himself in check.
Byleth just could not stop smiling from the pure elation overflowing from within her, and it flowed straight into every pore of Dimitri’s being. “Hello, Dima,” she greeted simply, and it was music to his ears.
“Byleth… my love,” he greeted back, still completely entranced by the sight of her - and, more importantly, the ceremony that was commencing around him. He couldn’t believe that this was reality still - that here the former archbishop was right beside them, about to officiate their marriage all the way here in the Garreg Mach Monastery in front of all of their friends and allies from the war. Here he was getting wed to the girl he had loved the moment she had laid eyes on him and said yes to being the Professor of his house, the girl that had somehow managed to love him back unconditionally, miraculously. She had actually chosen him - proposed to him, said that she had loved him… the thought alone made him tremendously giddy in excitement and bliss.
But of course she did. He was the bravest, yet most caring; the toughest, yet most tender; the most determined, yet the most empathetic person she had ever met in the monastery. He was always in the forefront of her mind no matter what, and the first person she gravitated towards in almost any situation be it social or political or otherwise.
She took his hands in hers again, letting her fingers trace his knuckles and palms. She wasn’t even really paying attention to Rhea’s speech about the sanctity of marriage and about the love that they had - she knew it all too well. She wasn’t as impatient as Dimitri, of course, but staring at him just made her tremble in restlessness.
“Byleth Eisner,” he began, immediately catching her attention. Oh, it was time, she thought to herself. She hadn’t noticed how much time had flown past as they were simply gazing into each others’ eyes. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, unfurling it gingerly, momentarily letting his eyes rest on the passage that he had written the moment after she proposed to him, and started to read.
“From this moment on,” he spoke, his eyes darting back and forth between the paper and her eyes, doing his best to focus more on the latter. “I vow until my dying breath to love you, and to honour you, and to cherish you no matter what the circumstances. I will celebrate with you and laugh with you for every moment of joy we experience together, I will comfort you and hold you as closely as humanly possible in our times of tribulation. I promise to be your companion, your friend, your lover, your doting husband, your soulmate, through fire and ice, through heaven and hell, through space and time.
His voice started to creak, and he sniffled away a tear as he continued. “I choose you to be my wife, I will love you… , and I love you, with every fiber of my being, and I promise to stand beside you till kingdom come, as we did on the Goddess Tower. In sickness or in health, in periods of peace and in turmoil… as long as we shall live.”
He pursed his lips, averting his gaze and she resisted the urge to pull him into an embrace to comfort him right there and then. Only she could really bring this behemoth, this Holy King of the land, to tears right before her. It touched her ever so dearly. She brought a gentle hand to his face, wiping away a tear.
“You’re good, Dima,” she assured quietly, privately to both of them only. “I love you.”
She pulled out her script, tucked away in the ribbon encircling her torso, and tilted her head upwards to meet his line of vision, and began to speak from the words that she had wanted to mirror from her about-to-be husband’s own speech.
“Dimitri… Alexendre Blaiddyd,” her voice was as sweet and gentle as a symphony of harps and violins. “You are the light of my life… you are the center of my universe… you are the other half of me that I never knew I needed, until the day I met you. With this ring I swear that our love will join as one unbroken circle, and that every new day, I will fall in love with you all over again and again, and grow happier with you every moment passing by us. I promise to always take the time for us, love you for your strengths and accept you for your faults, and strive to be the best for you.
“I choose you to be my husband, I will love you, and I love you, with every piece of my heart, and I promise to stand beside you forever and always, as we did on the Goddess Tower. In sickness or health, in times of prosperity and decline… till death do us part.”
Byleth’s hands trembled as she reached for the rings, placing one in Dimitri’s right hand and carefully slid the other on his left ring finger. His eyes seemed to gleam in sheer glee when he took a closer look at it, and his breathing became faster. His hands were as shaky as hers when he put on her own ring, and he couldn’t resist tracing her finger lightly as he did so, revelling in her touch. She didn’t know that she had the capacity to, but she smiled even wider now.
“Byleth… Dimitri,” Rhea declared. “You have now been hereby anointed husband, and wife. Dimitri, please kiss your bride.”
The words had not even fully left Rhea’s mouth before he swiftly lifted her veil and pressed his lips onto hers. It felt exactly as exhilarating and as adrenaline-pumping and as imbued with joy as the first time, and for that matter every other time, they had kissed. The fact that they were now married was only another piece of evidence of their everlasting love. As Byleth wrapped her arms around her new husband, she - and he knew, too - knew that every day would be exactly as they had vowed one another - moments filled with purity and happiness… moments filled with nothing but love for one another.
This would only be just the beginning, the beginning of their forever.