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It was a pleasant morning in the Margraviate of Edmund, and Marianne was roused from sleep by the sounds of birds chirping and the gentle warmth of sunlight on her face. Letting out a long yawn, she stretched out her arms, which proved to me much too easy of a task. She turned her head to one side and then the other to confirm that she was indeed alone in bed, which could only mean one thing: her husbands had stayed up all night, again...
Marianne sighed and shook her head before getting out of bed to start her day. Linhardt did tend to stay up later than her and Caspar, but she usually woke up to him still fast asleep, and he wouldn’t wake up for a few hours after his spouses. Caspar, in contrast, was typically the first of the trio to wake up, but he would at least wait until Marianne woke up to get out of bed.
After she had gotten dressed and fixed her hair - while hoping that her husbands weren’t causing trouble in their sleep-deprived states - Marianne left her room with the intent of going over some paperwork in her office. Even though she had the day off, she still liked to get some work done to lighten her load on workdays. However, as soon as she opened the door to her office, one of her maids rushed up to her.
“Excuse me, Margrave Edmund!” the maid - one of the new hires, Eliza - said as she bowed. Marianne brought a hand to her face and stifled a chuckle.
“You can just call me Marianne, Eliza.”
Eliza gasped and gave her head a hard shake, looking absolutely offended at the very idea. “Oh, I could never, ma’am! U-Um, anyway, I just wanted to let you know that Master Caspar and Master Linhardt are in the dining room and, ah, they seem to be in the middle of a little squabble...”
“I see...” Marianne let out a sigh and rubbed at her temples. She would have loved to try and break Eliza of that ‘Margrave’ and ‘Master’ habit, but that would have to wait until after she rounded up her grumpy husbands. “Thank you. I’ll go see them now.”
Bowing deeply once again, Eliza quickly took her leave, and Marianne redirected her course to the Edmund Estate’s dining room. As she got closer, she heard the muffled, annoyed voices of Caspar and Linhardt snapping back and forth at each other.
“...and another thing - Ow! Not so tight, Linhardt!”
“Will you sit still for once in your life, Caspar?”
“See? This is exactly what I mean!”
Her husbands bickered on as Marianne entered the room, and they didn’t even notice when she walked up to the table next to them and crossed her arms over her chest. It seemed that Caspar had somehow hurt his arm, and Linhardt was tending to his wound, and not being gentle about it.
“Ahem.” Marianne loudly cleared her throat, causing Caspar to yelp and shoot straight up in his chair, and Linhardt to wince as he rubbed at his temples.
“Aha, h-hey honey!” Caspar said, standing up and giving Marianne a quick kiss, and it took all of her willpower not to giggle when his beard tickled her face; she was supposed to be upset, after all. She placed her hands on her hips as Linhardt gave her a kiss as well - a bit slower, as he had to pause to yawn first - and she took over tending to Caspar’s arm, much to his relief.
“My dears...What kept you up all night this time?” she asked, and Linhardt averted his gaze, while Caspar hung his head and spoke first:
“Er, well, those knights from Garrag Mach that visited a few days ago taught me some new axe tricks, and uh, I guess I lost track of the time last night practicing...”
When Marianne turned to Linhardt, he let out another long, draw-out yawn, and she knew that he did that on purpose to stall. “I was just - yawn - pouring over the research notes that Professor Hanneman sent me. And they are quite fascinating, you know. I just - yawn - couldn’t put them down for even a moment.”
Linhardt’s eyes narrowed and he let out an irritated huff. “And then Caspar came bumbling in with another injury for me to deal with, completely derailing my focus and-“
“Hey! I didn’t even ask you to help,” Caspar retorted, his eyes narrowing into a glare as he poked a finger to Linhardt’s chest. “I was gonna deal with it myself, but then you started lecturing me and wouldn’t let it go!”
“Apparently I need to lecture you more, considering you keep getting yourself hurt.”
“Why you-”
“Stop it!” Marianne’s commanding voice cracked between the bickering men like a whip, and their mouths immediately snapped shut. Letting out a tired sigh, Marianne took Caspar and Linhardt’s hands, giving them a gentle squeeze.
“I know you two are only acting like this because you’re sleep deprived, but I hate seeing you being so...mean to each other.” Marianne’s voice was soft, and Caspar and Linhardt’s gazes both fell to the floor, immense guilt very evident in both sets of blue eyes. “Please, apologize and go get some sleep.”
Caspar let out a sigh and turned to Linhardt as he ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right, as usual. Lin...I’m really sorry for snapping at you.”
“I’m sorry too, Caspar.” Linhardt offered up a tired smile, and Caspar beamed in return as they both hugged and kissed it out, and Marianne sighed in relief.
“And we’re both sorry for making you worry, Marianne,” her husbands said at the same time, leaning down to give her a kiss on her cheeks. Marianne giggled and wrapped her arms around both of them, basking in the warmth of their embrace.
“I forgive you. Just promise me that you both will get proper sleep from now on.” Marianne took their hands and laced her fingers with theirs. “It’s very lonely to wake up all alone in that large bed, you know.”
“Aw hells...We really messed up, hun.” Caspar turned to Linhardt with a pained expression. “Makin’ our Mari sad is just unforgivable!”
Linhardt tapped his chin and stifled yet another yawn. “You are quite right, my dear...We’ll have to come up with a way to make it up to her, hm?” He moved a hand to Marianne’s neck, and she shivered when he leaned down to place a tender kiss on her forehead.
“Hehe, I can think of a few good ways...” Caspar snickered and wrapped his arms around Marianne, lifting her into the air and causing her to dissolve into a fit of giggles.
“As much as I want that,” Marianne said as Caspar gently set her back on her feet, “it will have to wait until you two have gotten some sleep.”
They relayed their disappointment with a few mumbles and grumbles, but the two men relented and they let their wife lead them to their room. On the way, Linhardt abruptly fell asleep, so Caspar threw him over his shoulder and carried him the rest of the way, with his other hand clasped tightly in Marianne’s.
Once inside their room, Caspar dropped Linhardt onto the bed before tumbling on himself, and Marianne let out a surprised gasp when he didn’t let go of her hand and she fell onto the bed between her husbands.
“Caspar...?” she questioned as Linhardt immediately rolled over in his sleep to hug her arm and lay his head on her chest.
Caspar beamed as he wrapped his arms around both of his spouses and pulled them as close to him as possible. “C’mon, sweetheart! Stay and nap with us, for a little bit at least!”
“But I just woke up...” Marianne started to protest, but the way Caspar was looking at her with wide, pleading eyes, and the way that Linhardt snuggled closer to her in his sleep made her change her mind quite easily.
Marianne smiled as she let herself relax and settle in between the men that she loved more than anyone else. “Oh, alright. It is my day off, after all.”
“All right!” Caspar cupped her cheek and pulled her face towards him so that he could place a tender kiss on her lips. “I love you, Marianne. Thanks for always putting up with me and Lin’s weird quirks all the time.”
“I love you too, Caspar,” Marianne said, giggling when he nuzzled his nose against hers. “Quirks and all, but not when they start negatively affecting yours and Linhardt’s health...”
“Yeah...sorry about that again. Both of us will try a lot harder to sleep properly.”
“That’s all I ask, love.”
Marianne and Caspar shared a fond look, and Marianne looked down when she felt Linhardt’s head shift on her chest, until his lips brushed against her neck, causing a shiver to run down her spine.
“Mmm...love you...both...” Linhardt mumbled in his sleep, and the soft smile that crossed his face made Marianne’s heart swell with warmth. Running at hand through his hair, she placed a tender kiss to his lips, while Caspar leaned over to kiss his forehead.
“We love you too, Linhardt.”
Yawning loudly, Caspar lay his head above Marianne’s and hugged her close, letting his eyes slip shut as sleep finally claimed him. Marianne couldn’t stop smiling as she listened to the soft breathing of her dear husbands, and she felt the luckiest woman in the world to be able to fall asleep next to them every night...and sometimes in the morning too. They could be a handful when they let their quirks get the better of them and when they bickered like only childhood friends could, but Marianne loved them with all of her heart all the same.
Even though she had woken up only a short while ago, Marianne felt her eyelids grow heavy. Being so relaxed and embraced by the warmth of her husbands had her feeling sleepy again, so she let herself drift off as she mumbled words straight from her heart to the two men that she loved more than anyone else in the world:
“I love you Caspar, Linhardt...Always and forever.”