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The first time Claude left, Dimitri was at her side. They had saved him. He owed them everything. His kingdom was gone, his army destroyed, and yet they had risked their lives to save him at Gronder. Through their care, sometimes a bit rough, Dimitri regained his mind and let go of his ghosts.
He had come to lean on them, the first to swear his fealty to Byleth when Claude proposed his crazy plan to put a crown on her head. He would stand by her through it all, offering advice when necessary, and a friend when it all became overwhelming.
Dimitri stood by her in place of Claude, and his heart ached. He forced himself to ignore the feel of it, for he would never deny the two he loved most their own chance at happiness.
So he gave Claude his word he would protect Byleth, and together they watched him ride off toward the rising dawn.
/
Dimitri roared as he charged forward, Areadbhar piercing the soldier’s side and lifting him from his screaming horse. The soldier grasped the shaft of the lance, already slick with his own blood. He struggled to pull it out of his body, but those struggles rapidly grew weak. Dimitri shook him off and left him with the rest of the fallen.
Battle howled around him, the chaos gifting him those old whispers that had always spoken their poisoned words when enemies were before him. Dimitri shook his head, cursing beneath his breath as he fought to steady himself.
“Boar!” A grounding hand wrapped around his bicep, pulling him away from the whispers. Felix’s stern face, those almost invisible lines of worry crinkling around his eyes, stared back at Dimitri. “Are they gone?” he asked.
Dimitri took a deep breath, the scent of blood and smoke filling his nostrils. His ghosts were long avenged. He had let them go, and chosen to live his own life. He lived in service to the living, had sworn to himself to protect them. He refocused on Felix and nodded.
Felix gave him a long, drawn out look, but eventually answered with his own nod. “Good. The Professor is calling for us to regroup beyond the bridge. We need to hurry. I don’t know how much longer Hilda and Leonie can hold out.”
Byleth!
Fear gave him wings, and Dimitri shot through the twisting streets of Derdriu. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered Felix cursing and following him. They leapt across channels, Dimitri at one point launching himself over a gondola that had managed to avoid destruction.
How had he gotten so far from her? He had promised Claude. Dimitri would never forgive himself if he - if -
No. He would not fail them. His legs protested the strain Dimitri was putting them through, but he would not stop. Not until she was safe.
When they shot across the bridge that separated Derdriu estate from the rest of the city, coming into sight of the rest of their ragtag band, relief washed over Byleth’s face. For a second her shoulders sagged, showing a fraction of the amount of exhaustion she must have felt.
“Are you all right?” Dimitri asked, his hand reaching out to steady her without even thinking about the motion.
The corners of Byleth’s lips tilted upward ever so slightly, Dimitri recognizing the smile of relief for what it was. Byleth placed her hand over his own, holding onto him for a moment as she took a breath. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “But we are rapidly losing ground. I’m not sure-”
“Professor!” Leonie called out, her horse snorting as she pulled on its reins. “Everything’s in place.”
Dimitri watched as Byleth’s face hardened again, her back straightening. She gave a sharp nod, raising the Sword of the Creator as a signal.
A moment later the ground beneath them rumbled. Dimitri took a step closer to her, fingers tightening around Areadbhar. The rumble grew into a deafening boom, stone flying skyward as the explosion played itself out.
“It gives us time,” Byleth told him, her dark eyes glued to the destruction. She looked sickened to have used a weapon from Those Who Slither in the Dark, even if it was significantly less powerful than the spears of light Thales had summoned onto them back in the war, but she was right. The rebel army was forced to stop on their way to the Derdriu palace, to find another way around.
“You should rest while you can,” Dimitri encouraged.
But Byleth shook her head, turning down the road to regroup her forces. “”No, there is too much to do. We need to find out how many of our forces are left.”
Dimitri knew they would not like the answer to that. There had not been enough of them in the first place.
“At the very least,” Byleth continued, “we can give the citizens time to get further away from here.”
Dimitri sighed heavily. “I suppose you would not even consider-” Byleth cut him off with a sharp look, and he shook his head. “No, I know you won’t.”
“You wouldn’t like me so much if I ran now,” Byleth teased, brushing aside Dimitri’s need to ask for forgiveness.
No, Dimitri though, clenching his teeth to keep his tongue still. I would love you even still.
Horns blasted through the battle, turning all their heads skyward. Silhouetted against the rising sun was an entire battalion of wyvern riders. Dimitri held his breath, Byleth doing the same next to him, waiting and hoping.
And as the wyvern riders came closer, their hope was repaid. Dimitri never thought he would ever be so grateful to see the Almyran flag.
/
Claude had eyes only for Byleth. He was out of the saddle and running for her before his wyvern even touched down. Byleth disappeared in the embrace of his arms, Claude holding her close and whispering relief into her ear.
Dimitri wanted to hold them both, to revel in the fact that they were all still alive. He wanted to take them both away from all this, and make sure that they would never have another thing to worry about for the rest of their days.
He watched as Claude ran his fingers through Byleth’s hair, kissed her cheeks and lips. As Byleth’s fingers scratched at his beard, kissing his chin and leaning into him. Dimitri watched it all.
When Claude finally had eyes beyond Byleth, he met Dimitri’s stare. That bright smile stretched across his face, Dimitri’s heart leaping when Claude’s happiness was reflected on his face
‘Thank you, my friend,’ Claude mouthed to him.
It hurt as much as it healed.
Dimitri nodded, turning to find somewhere he could help, something to do to distract him. If asked again he would protect Byleth. He would protect Claude, and their happiness together.
They were meant for each other, meant for that happiness.
/
“Come on.”
Dimitri stared at the hand shoved in his face, following it up along to Claude’s smiling face. Claude gestured, becoming a bit more insistent when Dimitri simply blinked at him.
“Should you not be dancing with your wife?” Dimitri pointed out.
“Alois has claimed her for this particular dance.” Claude tilted his head toward where Byleth had a worried look on her face as Alois laughed and bawled at the same time as he bounced her around the floor, loudly declaring how proud Captain Jeralt would be. “I’m not particularly ready to sit down myself yet, so I’m going to drag you out there.”
Dimitri found himself smiling in spite of himself, shaking his head. “There are more than enough people who would be happy to dance with you.”
“True,” Claude hummed. “But I want to dance with you. Besides, I would not have anyone looking sad at my wedding.”
“I am not-” Dimitri began to protest, stunned. He thought he had done a rather good job of hiding his sorrow.
Claude grabbed both of Dimitri’s hands, pulling him up out of his seat. Dimitri instinctively pulled back, his strength causing Claude to stumble, swept up in Dimitri’s embrace as Dimitri, realizing his mistake, attempted to catch him.
Dimitri’s cheeks flushed a deep red upon realizing just how close Claude was to him, their chests pressed up against one another, Dimitri’s hands on Claude’s hips. He was very aware of Claude’s arms curled up around his back, resting against his shoulder blades.
Claude laughed and winked, taking one step back to put some distance between them. Not enough , Dimitri thought, still able to smell the cinnamon and pine that mingled together in Claude’s unique scent.
“Come on,” Claude prompted once more, gentler this time. “Dance with me.”
“All right,” Dimitri relented, taking Claude’s hand and letting the king lead him out onto the ballroom floor.
Claude set Dimitri’s hand onto his hip, allowing Dimitri to guide the dance. “I’m afraid I’m a bit out of practice with Fódlani dances,” Claude explained.
Dimitri answered with a soft laugh. “I feel that is all I have been doing since Byleth was crowned.”
Claude nodded as Dimitri spun him, his eyes seeking out his newly wedded wife for a brief moment. “Thank you, for looking after her. By told me how much of a help you have been to her while I wasn’t here.”
“The two of you saved me,” Dimitri whispered, dipping his head so he did not have to look into those emerald eyes when Claude turned back to him. “I can never repay you for that.”
Claude’s hand squeezed his, silently prompting Dimitri to lift his head again. “None of that now,” Claude insisted. “We told you long ago no payment necessary.”
They danced in silence, allowing the music to wash over them. Alois loudly greeted them as Byleth stumbled, her dance partner not noticing when she accidentally slammed her heel into his foot. Hilda and Marianne swayed with each other, discussing fond memories from their own wedding. Leonie was allowing Lorenz to lead her through the dance, but insisting that Lorenz allow her to teach him how to really dance later. In a corner, out of the way of others where Cyril could hide, he stared down at his feet as Lysithea instructed him through the steps. Mercedes had even managed to lure Dedue out for a spin.
They were surrounded by happiness and love, and it all pressed around Dimitri like a weight. He was happy for his friends. He was glad they found love. They all deserved it. And for the briefest of moments, Claude was in his arms. It would be so easy to pretend, but Dimitri had forbidden himself that long ago.
But when the music ended, and Byleth slid her hand over Claude’s arm, seeking refuge from her over exuberant partner, and he only had eyes for her.
Not that Dimitri could blame Claude.
He released Claude into his wife’s arms, his heart torn between the complicated emotions of joy and sorrow at the sight of them together.
The entire room watched as Claude and Byleth danced to a much slower paced song, completely unaware of the rest of the world around them.
“Lord Dimitri.”
Dimitri startled at the gentle voice, not having seen Flayn come up beside him. She smiled up at him, reaching out her hand just as Claude had. “I hope you do not mind. My brother has been scaring off any potential dance partners, but I do not think he could protest if I danced with you.”
Dimitri took Flayn’s small hand in his own. He had come to know Flayn well over the few months they had both stayed at Byleth’s side, and her own longing was something he recognized within himself. So he danced with her, fulfilling one of Flayn’s small hopes, and for a while they both forgot their longings.
/
Claude was supposed to have left for Almyra a month ago. Instead, he had sent Nader and Judith to see to his interest across the Throat. He stayed glued to his wife’s side, hovering ever near to her in a way that made it seem as if she were about to disappear.
He wanted to know how to help. Dedue told him to be patient. Flayn answered with a secretive smile, saying it was not her information to share. Not too long later Marianne began to do the same.
Dimitri tried hard not to feel hurt that they had yet to tell him whatever was going on. He really did.
When he was invited to their private sitting room, Dimitri’s heart was pounding a mile a minute. It had been so long since he had spent any time alone with the two of them, since before their marriage, and it brought every emotion he had buried clawing their way back into his mind.
“Dima!” Claude beamed, pouring Dimitri a cup of tea. He gestured for Claude to take a seat across from them on a plush couch.
Byleth sat beside her husband in a simple navy dress, happily munching away on a plate of sandwiches. Dimitri watched as she stuffed a second in her mouth, and then a third, until the entire plate was gone and Byleth stared down sadly at the empty space.
“Would you like more, my star?” Claude asked, brushing Byleth’s hair back behind her ear.
Byleth shook her head, leaning into his touch until her head was resting on his shoulder. “No, I already had a plate before you got here. I shouldn’t have another one.”
Dimitri blinked in surprise. Byleth’s appetite was infamous, but even that was quite a bit of food for her. But Claude just laughed and continued to run his fingers through her hair, Dimitri doing his best not to stare at the archer’s hand. “You have an excuse right now, my love.”
“Maybe later,” Byleth relented, sitting back up as her gaze went to Dimitri.
“Ah, right.” Claude picked up his own tea, taking a long sip of it before continuing. “As you may have noticed, I did not leave for Almyra as intended. We received some news that prompted me to stay.”
“I have tried not to pry,” Dimitri answered, flinching away from the hurt he heard in his voice.
Claude’s smile softened. “We did not mean to keep anything from you, my friend. We simply wished to...wait until we were certain things were going smoothly.”
Dimitri frowned at Claude, trying to mimic confusion. But he knew. He would never let himself admit it, but he had suspected, and now he knew. Claude’s announcement was no surprise to him. “Byleth is pregnant.”
He forced a smile, even as he felt every piece of himself breaking apart. Until now, there was always some hidden hope, some strange idea that he would be invited in. He would have held Byleth as Claude did, basked in the joys of fatherhood with them. But his place was outside of that.
It would forever be one more step distanced from them than he wished.
“We were wondering,” Byleth continued, her hands sliding around Claude’s, resting together on his knee, “if you would be our child’s godfather?”
All right, that one he had not seen coming.
“At least consider it, please,” Claude pleaded gently. “There is no one I would trust more with my child.”
Trust.
Something Claude had said multiple times was a foreign concept to him. And yet Byleth had taught him how. Now he sat there, offering that same branch of growth to Dimitri.
“I-” Dimitri stamered, too many words trying to come out all at once. “I would have killed you at Gronder. Everything the two of you have done, I would have ruined, all in the pursuit of revenge that would have destroyed me. I-”
“Hey.”
Dimitri’s mind shut down. Byleth’s arms were around him, pulling him to her until his head rested against her shoulder. Claude’s hand was on his shoulder, the other on his knee. They were so close. He had no idea what to think, what to do, was not sure when the tears began to fall from his good eye.
“That is in the past,” Byleth said softly, soothingly. “We rescued you because we believed there was still good in you, and you did not disappoint us. I am so happy you returned to us.”
“What she said,” Claude agreed. “We all have things in the past that we would rather leave there. Neither of us regret what we risked for you. We would do it all over again if needed.”
After what felt like an hour, Dimitri managed to make himself nod, brushing his forehead against the cotton of Byleth’s dress. She smelt of jasmine flowers without the typical mix of blade oil. Between all her duties it had been some time since Dimitri had actually seen her on the training field.
Claude’s hand squeezed his knee, and Dimitri lifted his face away from Byleth. “I am sorry to have lost my composure-” he began before Claude waved him off.
“Think nothing of it, friend.”
“If you need time to think on your answer,” Byleth said slowly, settling herself into the spot next to Dimitri. Between the three of them, the couch was rather cramped. Dimitri could feel the warmth from both of them, Byleth like a passing spring breeze, Claude the summer sun.
Dimitri shook his head. “No, I do not need time. I would be honored to be your child’s godfather.”
Together they smiled at him, and there was only light.
/
It was not long after that Dimitri watched as Claude’s wyvern grew to but a spec on the horizon. This time, Claude took his queen with him, Byleth tucked comfortably before him in the saddle. They were headed for the Throat, to wait out Byleth’s pregnancy there, in the land between the countries they would unite.
It was the first time Dimitri had been without either of them since Gronder.
/
"Do you think I love them because they saved me?" Dimitri asked Dedue one day, staring toward the east. He had stood at this very spot months ago to say his goodbyes to his friends and watch them leave without him.
Dedue was quiet for a long time, standing beside Dimitri. "I think there are many forms of love,” he finally answered, his voice calm and deep. “In saving you, you saw a part of them you had not before. So, yes, but not in the negative way in which you are seeing it. At least, that is how I see it, my lord.”
Dimitri sighed at the title. It had not sat well with Dedue when Dimitri gave up his crown, but as the alternative was that Dimitri had survived, he did not openly disapprove. It was no surprise either that ever watchful Dedue had long ago figured out Dimitri’s feelings for the new King and Queen.
“I hope, in time, I will be able to leave it behind,” Dimitri whispered.
Dedue ‘hmm’ed, not questioning, but obviously displeased. Dimitri could picture the frown on his face without even needing to look. But then, he had not even believed his words, so it was no surprise that Dedue did not either.
“Maybe it is best not to let go of it,” Dedue suggested, a strained note in his voice suggesting he considered himself to be speaking out of turn. “Perhaps it is best to let it grow. What it blooms into may surprise you.”
“I am not sure about that,” Dimitri answered, his gaze raising once more to the eastern sky. “But you are the gardener, not I.”
/
His entire world shifted when they laid their daughter in his arms.
She was small and wrinkled, all flailing arms and chubby fingers. She was the most perfect being Dimitri had ever seen. She had thick brown hair and sun kissed skin to match her father, and eyes the color of her mother’s. She was so small. Until that moment, Dimitri had worried that he would lose control of his strength and hurt her. Now he knew he would never let any harm come to her.
“Congratulations,” Dimitri forced out, the emotion raw and new.
But Claude and Byleth smiled at him, as if they understood everything.
“Claude doesn’t believe me that she is going to be a troublemaker,” Byleth said, her voice laced with exhaustion.
Dimitri snorted a laugh. “Of course she will be.”
“Hey!” Claude protested. The smirk on his face however told a different story, as if he was already proud that people were saying his daughter would take after him.
Claude shifted from his position next to Byleth, leaving her side for the first time since Dimitri had entered the room. He reached up, placing a hand on the back of Dimitri’s neck and guiding him down until their foreheads touched. “Thank you, Dimitri. For all that you have done for us, and for everything you will do.”
Dimitri blinked, reminding himself he needed to breathe. “Will do?”
Claude’s smile grew, impossibly wide and bright, to the point Dimitri feared he would lose his sight in his remaining eye. “You’re her godfather, remember? I know you’ll be there to get her out of whatever trouble she manages to find.”
“Always,” Dimitri immediately agreed. “You and your family will want for nothing, Claude.”
Claude opened his mouth to respond, but his daughter began to kick, her little face scrunching up in displeasure. Byleth reached out for her, and with no small amount of reluctance, Dimitri handed her back over. “I should feed her,” Byleth said, settling her daughter against her. “Before Flayn sneaks back in to hold her.”
Claude threw his head back and laughed, returning to his wife’s side. “You were the one who insisted on making her godmother.”
“She has talked of little else for quite some time,” Dimitri added on, smiling at the memory of an excited Flayn chatting away about everything she wished to teach the baby. He bowed his head, taking a step back. “If you have need of anything, please call for me.”
“We will.” Byleth looked up and smiled at him for a moment before her attention was whole back on her little family.
Not that Dimitri could blame her.
They deserved their happiness. Dimitri was only glad that he could be a part of it.