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Your little brother never tells you but he loves you so
You said your mother only smiled on her tv show
You're only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope
I hope you make it to the day you're twenty-eight years old
Byleth finds herself stepping between Felix and Dimitri more and more. The war was ramping up into their worst nightmare and everyone was stressed and on edge. She understands where Felix is coming from but trying to get the man to be a little more tactful is an impossible task. "Cage the Boar before he really goes wild." Felix snarls at her even when his eyes never stray from Dimitri's back. Its an echo from five years ago - back when Dimtri's thin hold on sanity was finally starting to wane. Byleth nods silently with a promise to at least try but she cant say for sure what good she can do. Everyone seems to think if Dimitri can be reigned back in Byleth is the only one who can do it. She can't say where their confidence comes from. Still she turns and marches out of the training grounds to follow after the lost prince.
It's easy to find him - his haunts are the same as they were five years ago. She stands a little ways behind him and watchs his back. For a moment she can imagine him as he used to be. A young man who was open with her. He'd told her about so many things - his father's love, the sad smile of his stepmother, the knight who taught him, how he'd met Dedue. Now he was closed off and silent. No soft spoken words or tears - just silence.
Byleth knows though what the intoxicating taste of revenge feels like. Knows how the temptation can change a person. She knows for all that he seems like a different man entirely this is just one more side to Dimitri. If this side couldn't be completely subdued than the side that was kind and gentle couldn't either. "All I ask of you Dimitri," She begins making him jump despite having known she was there, "Is to live. See the end of this war and the world born of it."
You're dripping like a saturated sunrise
You're spilling like an overflowing sink
You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece
And now i'm tearing through the pages and the ink
The rain came down in fat heavy drops with almost enough force to be painful. It reminds her too much of the day her father died. So much that when she sees Dimitri slip away she follows after him. She doesn't catch up with his long strides until he's made it to the stables. So many possibilities for what he might be planning fly through her head. Too fast for to reasonably pick the most likely option so instead she plants her feet infront of him.
"What do you want?" That stings more than the hard pelting rain does.
She has tried her best to support him. To keep him from completely falling off the edge, "Where are you going?"
His control is slipping as he insist it is none of her concern and that she should get out of his way. Yet she remained foolhardy and steadfast - feet planted firmly in the wet earth before him. She doesn't care what he has planned she will follow him anywhere.
"Do you still try to quiet the dead?" The question prompts another outburst.
He spills his heart at her in seething rage filled tones until the anger in his heart settles like a flame in the rain, "How do I save them?"
"Forgive yourself. You've suffered enough."
"What do I live for then?"
"You live for what you believe in Dimitri." She says it softly enough the rain almost drowns out her voice.
She offers a hand to him silently promising to be there for him. The feeling of his cold fingers on hers fills her with concern - he's freezing. "You're hands are so warm. Have they always been?"
Everything is blue
His pills, his hands, his jeans
And now i'm covered in the colors pull apart at the seams
And it's blue
And it's blue
The war is nearly over as they march to reclaim Fhirdiad.
"I'm proud of you." She tells him standing in the streets of his home.
He smiles but something sad colors it, "I do not deserve that. With you or Rodrigue, I would have been lost. I'm grateful from the bottom of my heart to have you at my side."
Her unbeating heart swells at that and she's only recently put a name to the feeling. She lets the word float silently in her head as she slips her fingers into his palm. She steals a piece of that moment - silent and reveling - and tucks it away for later. They take the city and they feast and celebrate the first real ray of hope for a happy ending. She's never been much for parties despite how much she adores those she will always lovingly refer to as 'her kids'. So she steals away from the part - just far enough their voice drift out to her but never quite fade.
Byleth isn't surprised when Dimitri finds her no long after. She talks with him perhaps more than she has ever talked with another person before. She revels when she can draw a laugh or smile from him. Feels it deep in her heart when he talks of how he feels no matter if their are happy or sad ones - speaks of atonement and ending the war.
"Dimitri, can I make a request of you?"
"Anything." Byleth feels breathless as she takes his hand again - the emotion between them still silently unnamed, "Please do not die."
"Only if I can make the same request of you." He says leaning forward until his forehead rest against hers, "Please Byleth. Do not leave me alone."
"Never."
Everything is grey
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color He don't know what it means
And he's blue
And he's blue
The end of the war comes at a bittersweet cost - adds Edelgard to Dimitri's list of spectres. The stab wound leaving nothing but numbness in left hand. He tells her the wound has healed well despite that and its the first time in a long time that Byleth gets to see a real smile spread across his face.
She fiddles with the ring he gave her as she watches him from across the room. The confession of his feelings and hers still fresh in her mind. Everyone was excited and she may have caught a muttered "Finally!" from Sylvain when they announced it. The girls were already making plans to help her with planning the wedding. She catches his eye and offers him what might be the biggest smile shes ever had in her life. Dimitri nearly trips over himself.