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“We need to go now, before your father is told. He won’t let me leave his side once he knows.”
“You’re going to fall asleep at the reins again if you don’t sleep.”
His lips tugged at the soft voice, the smile still strange even when they had come so often these past few months, as she gently roused him from his memories. Khalid bent his head, kissing dyed blue locks, and held Byleth tighter to his side. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have infinite stamina.”
“Mmm,” Byleth hummed. Despite the tone of disapproval, he felt her own lips smiling as she pressed a kiss against his jaw. “The stars are bright out.”
“I was watching them,” Khalid explained, his fingers lazily running through Byleth’s hair.
Byleth shifted in his arms, resettling herself so she could better gaze with him. Together with her, in the back of their travel cart, under the guise of a traveling merchant and his wife with all their royal trapping stripped away, Khalid felt rich and fulfilled.
“That is Shamil, the first wyvern,” he said, arm raised as his finger traced out the constellation’s pattern.
Byleth hummed again, retracing the stars and pulling more into the pattern. “It's the Immaculate One,” she countered.
This was not the first time they had this discussion, Khalid knew exactly how it would go, but he longed for the gentleness, the playfulness that brought a smile to her face, and so he would repeat it over and over again.
/
“What did you think you were going to accomplish?”
Any hopes Mahtab had of this being a happy reunion were instantly torn asunder. He turned his gaze away from Tiana, squeezing his eyes shut as he rested his head in his hands. “Did you really travel hundreds of miles just to berate me, my love?” He knew he sounded defeated, but he was too tired to hash out old arguments that had led him and Tiana to this point.
Her movements smooth and regal, Tiana sank onto the lounge with him, her knees close enough that Mahtab could feel the phantom touch of them. He longed to reach out and hold her in his arms the way he had when they were first married, whispering sweet nothings and sharing secrets with her long into the night.
But that was years ago. They had grown distant since, and Mahtab could not pinpoint the change. “When did we become strangers, Tiana?”
Tiana went stiff, her fingers clenching fistfuls of her dress. He could see her jaw work, fighting to hold back that hot temper of hers. “Do you really not know?”
Mahtab sighed heavily and looked up into her face. There was a storm in her eyes, those emerald orbs she had given to their son, anger and sorrow battling for dominance. “I don’t,” he was forced to admit.
Tiana echoed his sigh and forced her fingers to uncurl. “You stopped fighting for us.” Mahtab remained silent, knowing there was more to come. It seemed there were still parts of Tiana that she would show him, the vulnerability she tried so hard to hide from the rest of the world. “After Khalid’s....incident, you stopped fighting. Khalid could not take the throne, I understood this, but I could not understand why you regulated him to a shadow. Why you withdrew from me when I needed you most. I left behind all I knew for you, but you left me.”
Mahtab opened his mouth to protest, to offer some form of defense, but Tiana held up a scarred hand. He could remember how she received each and every one of them, recounting the battles with terrifying clarity. “I did not come here to discuss us. I came here to discuss our son.”
“He is not my son anymore,” Mahtab spat out. The quill had quivered in his hands as he signed the decree disowning Khalid, but Mahtab was left with little choice. He could not let the theft of one of his wives, one who was considered a goddess reborn at that, go unpunished. “Khalid is a fugitive now. Nader will bring him back to face justice.”
Tiana turned on him, and Mahtab braced himself, recognizing as the wall cracked around her temper. “Nader? You would truly do that to them? To ask the man who is more of a father to Khalid than you have ever been to bring him back for execution?”
Mahtab stood, his own temper flaring at Tiana’s words, but while she burned like the sun, his was winter’s chill. “I chose Nader because I know he will remain loyal to me, unlike the son you gave me.”
Tiana held herself tighter, back going rigid, as the harsh words swept over her. “No.” Those emerald eyes bore into Mahtab, the only ones that would not flinch away from his rage. “As much as I wish you to be a fool, I know you are not. You are testing them.” She spun on her heel and headed for the door.
Mahtab did not even think when he reached up to grab her arm, halting her retreat. Never before in his life had he begged, but then, Tiana’s departure from his life had never seemed so final. “Tiana,” he whispered, the word dragged out of a ragged throat, “I would fix this if I could.”
There was a long pause as Tiana’s eyes slowly traveled from where his arm held her back up to his face. The brightness, that clever spark of wit she had passed to their son, was no longer there. “Mahtab,” she finally sighed. Her hand raised to his cheek, and he leaned into her savage warmth. The kiss she pressed against his lips was one of finality and departure. “I failed your test years ago. If it means saving Khalid, I will fail it again.”
She had chosen, and so Mahtab let her go.
Losing Byleth was a political embarrassment. Losing Tiana was equivalent to a mortal blow.
And Mahtab had not held onto his kingdom for so long by simply rolling over and accepting a situation that was not to his benefit.
A moment later found the fearsome King of Almyra racing for his guard, ordering them to halt Tiana at the gates. Curse that stoic goddess for making him complacent. And curse the fallen star his son had become. He was a war lord, a conqueror. He would not let go of what he wanted without a fight.
/
“By.”
Byleth turned as Khalid called her name, the shortened version he had taken to calling her when they were out in public now. She blinked at him, the only show of her surprise, when Khalid pressed something against her lips. Byleth opened her mouth and Khalid happily fed her the fruit he had acquired, the richness of the ripened strawberry bursting over her tongue.
Khalid smiled when she hummed happily, turning back to the merchant to buy an entire bundle. “Claude,” she said, using the strange new name he had chosen for himself. “The strawberries are not a necessity.”
“No,” Khalid agreed, settling their purchase with the rest of the foodstuffs they had already acquired. “But they make you happy, and that’s all the reason I need.” He leaned over and brushed his lips against her cheek.
Byleth relented, knowing this was not a battle she would win, nor one she particularly felt strongly about fighting. She slid her arm in his, ignoring the star struck gazes that followed them throughout the market. She was not fond of the attention their romance attracted, but it seemed to do Khalid good to dote on her.
There was a part of her that missed the open cart, the simple life they had tried as merchants themselves. But as her belly swelled, it became necessary to find someplace stationary. This pregnancy sapped her energy, and there were many days when Byleth was left with little ability to do much more than amble around the abandoned hunting lodge Khalid had claimed as their own.
Today, however, was a good day. Byleth had assuaged Khalid’s worry, promising she would tell him the instant she felt tired. And so Khalid had brought her along, making a day of the simple market trip.
There was a freedom in this Byleth had never known before. She had thought once, the night that Mahtab took her vows and laid her bare, that she was not meant for peace. She had thought she could never be content with such a thing.
But Khalid had given her his heart, and she in turn had reclaimed her own unbeating one. When he smiled at her, when she curled up in his lap at night and he read to her from whatever book he had gotten his hands on, that was a kind of quiet Byleth could accept.
“By, how do you feel about salmon?” Khalid asked, breaking Byleth out of her thoughts.
As soon as he said the word, Byleth’s mouth began to water. “Yes. And some candied almonds.”
Khalid stared at her before sighing and shaking his head. “By, those two things do not go together.”
Byleth simply pointed to her round belly, the source of all her sudden strange cravings.
“You know, soon you aren’t going to be able to use that as an excuse.”
“Then I had best take advantage of it while I can,” Byleth countered, her soft smile matching the one tugging at Khalid’s lips.
“All right, you love birds,” the merchant joked good naturedly. “Take the show elsewhere if you aren’t going to buy anything.”
Byleth stepped back and Khalid bantered with the fisherman, standing content with her hand resting on her stomach. The market bustled around them, but it was nowhere near as large as the one at Garreg Mach. They could wander aimlessly without fear of being jostled by the crowd.
But it also made it harder to hide. Her breath caught sharply in her throat at the sight of a man staring at them, his brown eyes hard. Muscular arms were folded over a broad chest, a heavy axe strapped to his back. Byleth knew she had seen him before, his presence large even as he fell in step behind Mahtab.
After a moment, the man turned from them, his eyes continuing to search the market. Byleth could only hope that with Khalid’s back to him and her own hair dyed, body changed from her pregnancy, the man had not recognized them. But she could have sworn his eyes had lingered, and she did not wish to take that chance.
“Claude,” she called softly.
Khalid turned to her, presenting the now wrapped fish up like an offering, but his face fell when his eyes met hers. “What’s wrong, By?”
She shook her head, not wishing to alert any of the populace around them. “Can we go home? I’m feeling a bit tired.”
Khalid immediately placed his arm around her, letting her lean her weight against him. Byleth tried not to, she knew how much his leg still pained him at times, but she was so comfortable against him that it was hard not to snuggle closer.
She would tell him as soon as they reached the town’s limits, but for this last brief moment, Byleth wanted her moment of peace.
/
“By, you’re looking a bit tired. Get some rest. I’m just going to grab a few more supplies so we won’t have to worry about it for a bit after the baby is born. I’ll be back before you know it, love.”
“Liar,” Byleth spat through gritted teeth. More than a day had passed since he had spoken those words, but still Khalid had not returned. If the pains gripping her were not so powerful, Byleth would have gone out to find him. She had warned him of the man she saw in the market, and he promised to be careful, yet he had not returned to her.
She had tried not to worry the moment he walked out the door, but her nerves were frayed, leaving her restless and discontent. She never should have let him distract her. Byleth had no doubt that Khalid had done something stupid to draw attention away from her and the hunting lodge, and now she was in no condition to go save him.
No, she was stuck in their reclaimed home. It was a clever place to hide, already ransacked by thieves and forgotten by the commoners. Khalid had busied himself over the last few months making it a home for them, and Byleth had thought perhaps they could finally be happy here.
She should have known.
Byleth paced the length of the atrium, chewing on her thumb nail and throwing desperate glances at the door. She wanted desperately to go after him, but the babe within her was taking too much of her energy. Her entire body hurt, and every time Byleth reached for the door, she was left gasping in pain.
Another circle of the hallway, past forgotten paintings, the broken statues and cobwebs the first things to go when they moved in, but it only brought Byleth right back to the unopened door. She turned to make another circuit, but a rush of water soaked her legs.
Byleth hastily pulled at her nightdress, fearing for a moment that the liquid was blood, but her hand came away clean. A terrible pain gripped her, worse than the last, leaving her shaking.
Byleth had known fear. She was terrified when the Almyrans invaded the monastery, when she learned Rhea had swallowed a vial of poison, the first night Mahtab took her into his bed. She had feared for herself and Khalid when they had run, abandoning everything in their haste to flee before Mahtab could learn the news of her condition. But it had never felt like this. Those were moments she knew she could weather, facing down whatever storm would greet her.
This...this was something she could not face with the same certainty.
Byleth stumbled her way back to the bedroom she had shared with Khalid for months now, as if they were some proper married couple, and allowed herself to collapse upon the mattress. She curled into the cool sheets, suddenly realizing how hot she had become.
“Khalid,” she breathed out, gasping as another contraction gripped her. “Khalid, please come home.”
/
“Hey, kiddo.”
Khalid barely looked up at the voice, instead shoving the second tankard of ale he had ordered at the man.
Nader settled his broad frame into the seat across from Khalid, throwing his head back as he swallowed half the mug immediately. “Guess I should have asked if you poisoned it before I did that!” Nader said with a laugh, seemingly unconcerned if Khalid had actually done just that.
Khalid took a sip of his own drink, truly nothing more than water. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Nader,” he answered softly. “Not without reason. Are you about to give me one?”
Nader sighed heavily, his chair groaning in protest as he leaned back. “I should.” He took a long pause, turning the mug absentmindedly in circles on the table as he thought. “What were you thinking, kiddo?” he finally asked.
He knew what Nader wanted to hear, that he was not, and that he would hand Byleth back over. But he was not about to do either of those things. So he remained silent, slowly sipping on his not ale until Nader sighed again.
“He disowned you, you know?”
Khalid nodded. “I heard the proclamation. It was scandalous enough to lead the market gossip for an entire week.”
Nader chuckled again, even his softest volume drawing stares from the tavern’s other patrons. “You always did know how to get the whole world talking.”
Khalid answered him with a scowl. “I was a shadow, Nader, nothing more. Drawing attention like this was not my intent.”
Nader raised a brow in mock surprise. “Really? They still whisper your name in bedtime stories to children. And then you go and deliver an entire goddess to your father, followed shortly by stealing away said goddess for yourself.”
Khalid’s scowl deepened. He did not like that expression, and yet that was the prevailing sentiment every time the story was told. “I’m not going to give her back,” he said, cutting to the chase even as he realized he was playing into the hated story.
A barmaid was quick to refill Nader’s drink when he motioned for her, silent until the girl was done with her task and had left them alone once more. “Kiddo, see reason here. Mahtab isn’t going to let you go. Give the girl back and you can escape on your own. You’re clever enough you can make a life for yourself somewhere else. Find yourself some other pretty girl to warm your bed, one who isn’t married to your father.”
“No,” Khalid answered sharply.
Nader sucked in a breath, eyes going wide with realization. His instructor always could read him, almost as easily as his mother. “You stubborn fool,” Nader breathed out. “You’re in love with her.”
When Khalid did not answer, Nader threw back the entire tankard in one large gulp. “You fool,” he repeated with a huff. “Khalid, I can’t go back empty handed. I will be disgraced.”
“And Byleth?” Khalid countered. “You’ll sentence her to a life she doesn’t want? You’ll return her to my father’s bed when she doesn’t want to be there? And what life will her child have, being half Fódlani? You can see what happened to me.” Khalid emphasized his point by touching the scar across his cheek. Stars, how many times had Byleth traced it with her own small hands, her warmth washing away the pain that clung to him? Certainly more than he could count, but not enough. Not yet.
“And Kidra?” Nader countered. “What happens to my daughter when I can no longer show my face in Almyra, and your father gives away all of my lands? She’ll be destitute.”
“Kidra started winning her own glory years ago. She doesn’t define herself by you anymore,” Khalid pointed out. He knew how shallow and selfish it sounded, because while Kidra would be fine, Nader would never be able to see her again. Stars, this would damn him, but thinking of Byleth tucked away, raising a child by herself and wondering what had happened to him, it tore at his heart. “Nader…” he started, trepidation slipping into his voice.
Nader waved him off. “Eh, enough of that, kiddo. I already knew I wasn’t going to take you back before I even got here. I just didn’t realize you were actually in love with that girl.” He paused, shaking his head as he leaned forward, propping his elbows onto the table. “Earth below, Khalid, you couldn’t have chosen another woman?”
Khalid laughed, halfway between a chuckle and a scoff, the corner of his lips twitching upwards. “If I had a choice at all I would choose her all over again, Nader.”
Nader groaned and slapped a hand over his face, but Khalid could still see his smile. “You’ve got it bad, boy.”
“I know,” Khalid agreed.
He took another sip of water before nodding his head to the group of cloaked soldiers entering the tavern, the bottom half of their faces covered in black cloth. His father’s stealth warriors. “Now what do we do about them?”
Nader looked over his shoulder. His sigh this time was more world weary than the previous few. “Should have known Mahtab would have me followed. Well, kiddo, time to see if you’ve forgotten how to use that axe of yours or not.” He grabbed the handle of the large battle axe on his back, patrons scurrying away as the soldiers pulled their own weapons.
“We’ll have to kill them if you want to keep this secret,” Khalid pointed out. But more than that, he needed to make sure they would not give away his location to his father. He wanted somewhere safe for Byleth to give birth, somewhere where they could at least spend the first few months of the child’s life before having to flee again.
Nader grunted in acknowledgement, bringing his axe up to block the first attack.
Khalid pulled his own axe off his belt, ducking around Nader to join the fray. Only one soldier broke off to engage him, but his strikes were swift, leaving Khalid on the defensive. He gave Khalid no quarter, clearly intending to take the fallen prince’s head back to the king.
Even as Khalid hooked the blade of his axe with the soldier’s sword, he was forced back, bending over a table that was abandoned in the center of the room. The soldier leaned with him, brown eyes flashing with hate. There was something there more than duty, something personal within those eyes that looked so very similar to his father’s.
Khalid had always wondered if he would be able to kill one of his many half siblings if necessary. It seemed the answer was yes, if the price to pay was his own life and Byleth’s.
He hissed in pain as his brother’s knee crashed against his side. Khalid used the momentum of the attack to roll off the table and onto the stained tavern floor, struggling to gain the upper hand. His axe was no longer trapped the sword, but it cost him a swift headbutt to the face, white hot pain making him cry out as his nose crunched.
“Enough!”
All movement stopped as the order was issued. It was impossible to disobey when the fury of a queen was directed at them. Khalid could only gap as his mother strode into the tavern, all regality and grace, with her own special blend of authority. “Enough of that,” she repeated in Almyran. “Lay down your arms.”
Khalid’s brother growled low, brandishing his blade once more. That was a bad idea. Tiana would put him in the ground. “He is a traitor, to be -”
Tiana raised a hand, a letter in her grip. The heavy vellum was stamped with the king’s own seal, an order that could not be ignored. His brother cast one last glare at Khalid before moving forward to grab the letter. The room held its breath as his eyes scanned the page, turning his glare to Tiana after a moment. She held it without blinking, not even when the prince growled again.
With a tilt of his head, he summoned his men, and just like that the fight was over. Khalid’s body still hummed with adrenaline, his axe tight in his grip wanting a target. But there was none to be found, only Nader blinking in the aftermath of the short chaos and his mother’s tight smile.
“Mother?” he whispered, breaking from his trace when she took a step to him. “What happened?”
Tiana pressed a hand to his cheek, her thumb gently tracing over his scar. “You’re safe, little sun. Your father decided to fight for us one last time.”
/
Sweat soaked her brow as Byleth strained against another contraction. She tried to remember the advice she and Khalid had sought from the town’s midwife, but it was hard to make her mind focus on anything besides the burning pain of her lower half splitting open.
It had gone on for hours now, her only concept of time passing the moon rising in the window. She could have sworn the sun was still high in the sky when it had all started.
She was going to die. This child was going to kill her, and then it would die too without anyone to care for it. Byleth gritted her teeth, pushing again. It was a constant hurt now, leaving her only able to guess when she should actually be pushing as the midwife instructed. Goddess, this could not be how it ended. It would not be how it ended. Byleth took the thoughts and mentally throttled them into submission, screaming through clenched teeth. She refused to let this be her grave. She was going to see Khalid again, and she was going to throttle him just as thoroughly.
“Byleth!”
Despite her thought a moment before, Byleth’s chest tightened as Khalid’s voice rang through the lodge. Her breath released in a sigh of relief, answering him with a scream as her mouth opened.
“Byleth!” Khalid called again. She could hear his pounding footsteps through the halls, and a moment later he was falling into the room. He raced to her, wrapping her in his arms and placing a kiss on her soaked forehead. “Byleth, are you all right?”
Byleth managed to glare at him before attempting to push again. She gripped Khalid tightly, feeling the bones in his hand move, but he did not pull away.
“Enough of that, girl,” another voice demanded. Byleth was vaguely aware of another person entering the room, clad in riding leathers and holding herself as if the world should bow to her. “Khalid, hot water and towels. Now.”
He pressed his lips against her forehead again before making to move, but Byleth held him back. No! she wanted to scream. He had only just arrived, she did not want to let him go.
The new arrival clicked her tongue and took Byleth’s hands, freeing Khalid. “Go,” she ordered again. “And you, pay attention. Push only when I tell you to. Now, deep breath.”
As annoyed as she was with the voice, it gave Byleth something to focus on. It talked her through the pain, instructing her as each new wave of pain attacked. At some point Khalid returned, holding her in his arms as she struggled. He did not make the pain disappear, but he certainly made it better.
As the first rays of dawn shone through her window, Byleth’s child came screaming into the world. Byleth let loose one brief sob, thankful that her fear her child would be like her, expressionless and stoic for so many years, was so swiftly pushed aside.
He was placed in her arms, his small face scrunched in displeasure. His skin was the same shade as Khalid’s, eyes chocolate brown, the same color as the few wisps of hair upon his head. But Byleth could see herself in the shape of his tiny nose and the curve of his jaw. He was perfect and beautiful, and he was hers.
/
Tiana was smiling at him when Khalid stepped out of the room. Her smiles were never kind, always more along the lines of a spider looking at the prey trapped within its web, but he had learned to interpret them through the years. She was pleased with him, but there was a touch of sorrow there as well.
“She’s resting,” he said softly, not wanting to disturb Byleth or the newborn child that slept in the crib beside her. “Thank you, Mother.”
Tiana nodded, almost absentmindedly. “Good. She’ll need it.” She took her son’s hand within both of her smaller ones, callouses from her axe catching against his own. “Will you be happy like this? You were always so ambitious, I worry for you, hidden away out here. There will be no glory for you.”
Khalid looked back at the door to their bedroom, knowing there was a dopey grin on his face. “I don’t know about that,” he answered, surprised by the honesty in his answer. It was something that had come more easily in the past months. “There is plenty for me here.”
His mother studied him with those critical eyes that had made even the most ardent chieftains kneel before her, before softening into something gentle Khalid had never seen before. “That girl has you wrapped around her finger, and it seems you are all too happy to be there, you lovestruck fool.”
That was exactly what he was, and Khalid was all too happy to embrace it.
He squeezed Tiana’s hands, silently reassuring her that he was precisely where he wanted to be. “And you, Mother? What will you do now? You are welcome to stay with us.”
Tiana sighed and shook her head. “No, this life you have chosen for yourself I fear would be too confining for me. I shall return to your father. I suppose I owe him after what he did.”
Khalid’s smile fell and he held onto her tighter. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t,” Tiana agreed. “But I once risked everything on your father, and it paid off well. I feel it might be time to take that risk again.” She untangled her hands from his, placing them upon his shoulders to push him down enough that she could brush her lips against his forehead. “Live well, my little sun. I hope you are happy.”
“You as well, Mother.”
/
“Papa!”
Khalid turned his head up as his son tugged at his hair, heart tightening in his chest at the sight of dark wings in the sky above them. He reached back and removed Jeralt from his shoulders, placing the young boy back on his own feet. “Go inside to your mother,” he instructed.
Jeralt’s eyes narrowed, a clear reflection of his mother’s stare when she was displeased. Usually the sight of it made him laugh, but Khalid shook his head and pointed. “Go,” he ordered again, not to be disobeyed in this.
Jeralt left on silent feet, another of his mother’s inherited habits. Once the front door of the lodge shut behind him, Khalid turned his attention back to the wyvern that had settled in his front yard. A large man, his hair streaked with more silver than Khalid remembered, dismounted the creature, but made no move to come further toward the house.
“Do you have any food or drink for a lonely traveler?” Mahtab’s voice boomed out over the lawn.
Khalid shook his head, not taking his eyes from his father as he slowly approached. “We both know that isn’t even close to what you are.” He stopped close enough that they would not have to shout, but well out of reach of the tavern's bite. "What would the King of Almyra want with a humble merchant?"
Mahtab snorted, the sound ugly and rough, making his wyvern shake its head, unsure of its master's intent. "Your own answer applies to your question as much as it did mine."
"Enough games then," Khalid relented. "Why would you come here?"
He heard the sound of the front door opening, quickly glancing over his shoulder as Mahtab's eyes followed. Byleth stood there in a simple black shirt and shorts, hair dyed its unnatural blue. Jeralt, with his ageless gaze that did not belong in a child's face, held onto her hand. Byleth's grip on him was tight, refusing to allow him outside. Her other arm was wrapped just as tightly around a swaddled bundle, their daughter's chubby hands reaching up to pull at Byleth's hair.
Mahtab breathed out in a rush, drawing Khalid's attention back. There was a longing in his father's eyes, a flicker of lust, overruled by a sadness Khalid had only seen after the assassination attempt. His eyes dropped to Jeralt, desperately drinking in the only sight of his youngest child he would ever take. "I would have given her to you," he whispered, voice breaking and harsh. "If it could have kept you in my life, I would have given her to you in a heartbeat."
Khalid crossed his arms, unable to keep a small smile from his lips. "I prefer it like this. I would have her love freely given, not taken by force."
Mahtab barked a laugh, and reached over to wyvern's saddle. He came back with an intricately lacquered box. Khalid recognized it immediately and knew what it held. He had received an almost identical one on his fourth birthday, his first weapon, a beautiful bow, given as per tradition. It was the only weapon an Almyran prince would be freely gifted with, every subsequent one taken by force or rewarded for some glorious deed.
Mahtab was the one to move forward to meet him, relinquishing the box to Khalid. He placed his hands on Khalid's shoulders, Khalid dipping his head to receive his father's blessing. The king leaned in, brushing chapped lips against Khalid's forehead before stepping back.
"Claude," Mahtab raised his voice, loud enough for Byleth to hear, "know you have the friendship of the King of Almyra."
The warmth of his hands lingered, even after the beat of the wyvern's wings took Mahtab back into the sky. It was only then that Byleth released Jeralt, his footfalls soft as they announced the approach of the rest of the family.
"For you," Khalid said, depositing the box into Jeralt's small arms. The boy almost toppled under its weight, his eyes going wide in a sudden show of surprise.
"Claude," Byleth interjected. She never used his real name in front of the children, only when they were alone at night, followed by whispered I love you’s.
Khalid leaned in, kissing away her frown. He untangled his daughter's tiny grip from Byleth's hair, his finger becoming trapped in the process. "I love you, By."
Byleth frowned again, her lips occupied with another kiss. She relented with a sigh, kissing him back with all the love and trust she possessed in her unbeating heart, which Khalid had come to learn was immeasurable.
It seemed so anticlimactic, all their fears and worries coming to an end. Peace was a strange thing, itching at his old wounds, but the warmth of Byleth's touch eased it away. Her kiss grounded him in reality.
And between Jeralt's gasp of surprise and his daughter's happy gurgles, Khalid found himself content.