Forward: Ch1 is pre-skip and focuses on Dorothea, Ch2 will be post-skip and focus on Marianne.
Marianne is also transgender, and six feet tall in this canon.
When Dorothea first hears of Marianne, she can hardly believe such a person exists. A noble who hates their position? That would rather live like a commoner? The sentiment just reeks of condescension to the songstress, and Dorothea knows she needs to see the noble girl and suss out what she's like for real. She knows Marianne is quite shy and timid, doesn't really speak to anyone aside from Hilda occasionally, but experience with Bernadetta has given Dorothea the tools to safely approach her fellow classmate. First thing's first, make it a place of comfort, in this case the stables.
Dorothea peeks around a corner and sees Marianne's back as she brushes a pleasant looking brown horse. The first thing that immediately jumps out at the songstress is how much taller Marianne really is, every other time she's seen the noble girl she's been sitting, or slouched, or otherwise bent over and not standing straight. But here, either because she's away from everyone's eyes or because she simply does not notice, Marianne stands fully upright to better brush the horse's mane. Dorothea had thought she was the tallest girl studying at the academy, even without the heels that added to her figure, but here Marianne was, standing in flat soled shoes standing at least half a head above her.
Dorothea swore she wasn't jealous.
So the songstress discreetly cleared her throat and prepared to make an introduction, walking closer with heavy steps to make sure Marianne was duly alerted, and not overly surprised when she began talking to her. "Oh hello… Marianne, is it not? Dorothea began, noticing how Marianne immediately began slouching to her eye level right after turning to face her. The young noble didn't return her greeting, and Dorothea mentally slapped herself in the face for forgetting one crucial fact. "My apologies, I didn't properly introduce myself, I'm Dorothea, how are you faring today, Miss Marianne?"
Marianne glanced past Dorothea and blinked a few times, looking somewhat nervous. She finally answered after a very pregnant delay, "Okay."
Dorothea felt a bead of sweat grow on her brow, thinking that getting through to this woman would be even harder then it had been with Bernadetta. "I've seen you with this horse before, is he a friend?" Dorothea asked, hoping that getting Marianne to talk about her interests would help.
She did light up just a little bit, a small curl at the edges of her lips, "Yes, this is Dorte… say hello to Dorothea." Dorte whinnied softly, and the songstress smiled. She was about to speak again but Marianne suddenly argued, "You shouldn't spend time around me, Dorothea, I'll bring you bad fortune."
"Come on, Marianne, why would you say that? What misfortune could you possibly bring me?"
Marianne looked down at the ground, rubbing the toe of her boot into the stone floor. "I mean it, Dorothea, people who get close to me, bad things happen to them, it's happened again and again."
"Do you think you're cursed or something?"
"Yes, that's exactly it, Dorothea."
The songstress was flabbergasted, Dorothea thought she had self loathing issues, and yet with just this short conversation she could tell this young noblewoman hated herself on an entirely different level.
It simultaneously made her feel sympathetic, and yet also somewhat revolted.
"Marianne, I've seen my fair share of bad luck and misfortune, but none of it has led me to believe that just being around someone can cause it." Dorothea stated. Marianne was about to pick up again but the songstress continued, cutting her off, "I came to see you because I noticed you don't seem to have many friends at the academy, I'd like to get to know you, Marianne, I find you very interesting."
"You think… I'm interesting…? Why?"
Dorothea stepped a little closer to Marianne and extended her hand for a shake, "How about we talk about it over a picnic once you're done here?"
The noble tentatively shook her hand.
And that was how Mittlefrank's diva ended up having a very pleasing date with the young, blue noble. Dorothea even had Marianne's favourite tea, lavender, which she got the idea for by offering to cover a fair amount of Hilda's chores, getting several other useful tips in the process.
Hilda later told Dorothea that she would've spoken at length about Marianne completely free of charge, just being happy to help her friend get a cute date, but also stated that she couldn't refuse such a generous offer.
Marianne gave another little smile as soon as she smelled her favourite tea wafting from the pot. "Thank you Dorothea." She chirped, adding a touch of honey to her cup and taking a short sip. After that though the two women just sat on their blanket, looking at one another, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
"So, Miss Marianne, you wanted to know why I found you interesting?" Dorothea asked, breaking the uneasy silence between them, not minding that her counterpart was too busy staring at her tea cup then paying attention.
"Oh, my apologies, would you prefer 'Lady Marianne?'' Dorothea then offered, remembering from Hilda that Marianne liked getting comments on her femininity. She seemed to brighten a little, but the blue noble quickly turned her offer away, "You don't need to be so formal, Dorothea, just call me Marianne, please."
So the songstress had an idea, "Ok, how about Marie then?"
Marianne jolted a bit, opening her eyes wide, "Marie? Like, a nickname?" Dorothea smiled, "I like to give my classmates nicknames, Edie, Hubie, Ferdie, now Marie."
She felt elated when Marianne giggled a bit, immediately asking how her classmates were, and they ended up talking and talking for what felt like hours, swapping stories of their studies and battles.
Dorothea never did get to tell Marianne about her interest, they both completely forgot about it.
Later, two things happened which drastically changed how Dorothea felt about her new noble friend.
Around a month after their picnic date, Marianne asked Professor Byleth to join the Black Eagles and her request was granted. Everyone gathered together in the classroom to welcome their new student to her first day, which was pretty overwhelming to the timid girl, though she felt better once Dorothea took hold of her hand.
But, before that, Dorothea visited Marianne in her room, and accidentally saw something.
"Ah! I'm so sorry Marie!" The songstress shrieked, doing a one-eighty and pressing her back to the wall beside the door, she really should've knocked, for upon opening the door she was greeted with a full view of Marianne's completely bare back. But what actually upset Dorothea, enough that she could feel the beginnings of tears in her eyes, was just how many marks the noble had on her.
She had only seen her back for a split second, but instantly the sight of burned over and scarred flesh was seared into Dorothea's mind, and her forearms, they made the singer's own wrists start to sting as she clenched her fists.
Dorothea stood there against the wall for a couple minutes just listening to the light footsteps coming from Marianne's feet, eventually hearing her quiet voice speak. "Please, come in." The songstress slowly peeked around the corner, wanting to confirm that Marianne was well clothed before actually entering her room, noting she had apparently decided to go with some lighter summer clothes that Dorothea thought were adorable.
Though she couldn't take away the image of how marred her beautiful skin was.
"Does anyone else know?" She asked after sitting on Marianne's bed, watching the blue noble close and lock the door, she simply turned to Dorothea and whimpered. "Just Lord Edmund."
"Your father?"
"He's only my adoptive father," Marianne immediately spat back.
Suddenly a lot of things made sense to Dorothea, but she didn't want to press for answers, she'd caught her friend at a vulnerable moment, what mattered was comforting her.
So the songstress held out her hand, slim, with soft digits, expertly manicured and painted nails. Marianne put her own hand, fingers shaking, rough skin and with bite marks on the nails, on top of Dorothea's, and they clasped.
From then on the two were inseparable, Marianne would always sit with Dorothea in class, at meals, in the cathedral, which the songstress was willing to do just for her noble friend, being as non-pious as she was. One time Dorothea even spied Hilda and Claude watching the two of them from over a hedge while they shared tea, the pinkette flashing her thumbs up and then ducking out of sight immediately.
It was nice to know that Marianne's former housemates were making sure she was doing ok.
Then, during the victory celebration over winning the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, Dorothea had gotten so worked up and excited that she accidentally kissed Marianne on instinct.
"Sorry!" They both yelped in unison, Marianne trying to continue apologizing while Dorothea interrupted, "You don't need to apologize, Marie, I should've asked first."
The blue noble was considerably redder than normal, glancing around to confirm no one happened to be looking at their little corner. "Dorothea, ahem! May I kiss you again please?"
This time there was no abruptness, the two just slowly closed up and embraced each other by arms, sharing a deep, long kiss that lasted until someone saw the two and spoiled the fun.
"Aww yeah! There's another winner in this house!" Caspar cheered out, causing the two women to flinch and back away just after pretty much everyone else caught eye of them as a result.
Dorothea gave Caspar a stern glare while she tried to sort of put Marianne behind her, mingles of gossip coming from many of the other students, all thankfully silenced by Edelgard declaring, "Enough is enough! Privacy! Please!" And everyone went back to their own celebratory activities.
"Thank goodness for Edie, right Marie? …Marie?"
The noblewoman was quietly hunched over and sobbing, and so Dorothea quickly took hold of her shoulders and led Marianne out of the party room to a quiet, empty hallway to let loose. "Hey… Marie, don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, ok? You're fine, I'm fine." Dorothea soothed, lightly rubbing her friend's shoulders as they found a bunch to sit on.
Eventually Marianne sobered up, softly replying, "I know, I'm not upset about that scene, I'm just, I'm remembering the last time I had someone this close to be in life."
Dorothea rested her head on Marianne's shoulder, grasping her hand and affirming, "You're not a bringer of bad fortune, Marianne, being with you has made me very happy, and I'm only leaving if you ask me to."
"What are we exactly, though?"
"Mmmm, I'd say we'll find out if we keep kissing."
"You'd like that?"
"No, I'd love it."
Pretty quickly Dorothea and Marianne became more than friends, consistently referring to each other both in and out of earshots as 'girlfriends', and for once, Dorothea felt perfectly content with her life. After all, her goal in coming to Garreg Mach was to find love, preferably someone rich, who would would and care for her, and her dear Marie was certainly all of those things, but even thinking about her in those terms suddenly made the songstress feel dirty.
Marianne wasn't a prize, she was a treasure, even taking the time to listen to her stories of living on the streets, her acceptance into Mittlefrank, and all her failed and dangerous romantic pursuits with absolute understanding and empathy. "I should tell you, when I turned fifteen, on my birthday, my mathematics tutor, he-"
Dorothea cut that off for both their benefit, "You don't need to say more, Marie, that's never going to happen again, I'll make sure of it." They kissed to seal the promise.
The night of the ball was magical, Dorothea noticed that Marianne and Hilda had been meeting in secret several times the past couple weeks, and doing a rather poor effort of hiding it. The way, though, was very quickly put to bed when the songstress saw just how pretty Marianne was in her fancy blue ball dress, elbow length and gorgeous hand-crafted jewelry. Rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, a tiara, she was shining more than a silver store.
"Wow, Marie, I knew you were gorgeous, but this?" Dorothea walked up to Marianne and slipped an arm under her elbow, "You're absolutely radiant."
"And I think you're divine, Thea." Marianne answered, admiring the very elaborate looking dress the songstress was wearing. It was a two piece brown and crimson ensemble, with a decorative silver corset around the middle, and the noblewoman had a hard time keeping her eyes off her girlfriend's even more then usual exposed cleavage. "Where'd you get that? If you don't mind?" Marianne asked, tugging at a sleeve.
The songstress lit up, launching into an explanation of its origins as a simple prop piece, "It started as just a failed costume attempt for one of our operas that never came to be, and the director thought about throwing it out and I balked, I said, 'Alfred I will buy that off you' and I was bluffing cause I was broke at the time thanks to some unfortunate setup anyway he just gave it to me and I spent nights-"
"Dorothea."
"-tuning it up and adding my own flairs and 'voila!' I had myself a bonafide masterpiece but I only wear it for very special occasions such as this, but I have to admit it's feeling a little tighter then usual I've probably been enjoying too much saghert and cream-"
"Dorothea."
"-in the dining hall but I don't mind cause I've been having it with you Marie yet you always look so slim and trim and maybe I'm just a little worried that-"
"Dorothea!" Marianne barked, finally breaking her girlfriend's rambles, who just looked at her blinking for a bit.
"I think it looks perfect on you, you're perfect." And Marianne gave her a very deep, loving kiss.
They shared their first and last dances of the night with each other, while in between exchanging partners one by one until Marianne was stepping with Claude, and Dorothea with Hilda. "I'm so glad you were able to get through to Mari, she looks so much happier now." The pinkette praised during their dance, leading the songstress to smile. "I feel a little guilty, I know you were trying to court her, then I swept in and-"
"I just want Mari to be happy and loved, and she is with you."
Dorothea could hear Claude and Marianne talking about something vaguely similar, something about being proud, and happy for her, but only barely. Once they were all done they swapped partners for the final dance of the night, the songstress being so enraptured by her girlfriend's smile that she nearly tripped wholesale over her feet.
Marianne caught her of course, and they laughed about it all the way back to Dorothea's room, kicking off their shoes and fancy dresses to just cuddle together in bed with just cotton shifts and undergarments between them.
"Um, Thea, can I stay the night here with you?"
"Like, in bed, you mean?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."
"...You don't mean to-"
"No, just, stay like this, this is nice."
"Of course, my Marie."
So they got wrapped up in each other's arms and legs under the covers, Dorothea under the crook of Marianne's neck where she could see a few areas outside her cotton shift that were marred by more burned flesh. She kissed every single one of them as the blue noble fell into the cutest sounding little snore the songstress had ever heard.
"Hey Marie? ...I love you." Dorothea whispered.
Marianne mumbled a little in her dozy state, "Love you too, Thea."
And then the next day was the incident at the old chapel, where Professor Byleth lost their father, and nothing was the same again.
"Has anyone seen Marianne?" Dorothea was asking, she had skipped out on class two days in a row now without warning, and while the songstress normally wouldn't mind that much, as they were all coping in their own ways after the tragedy, Marianne had always let someone know beforehand if she was unable to attend class.
She had also knocked on her door and received no answer.
"I'm not sure if it connected," Edelgard later told her in private, "But I was distributing mail we received on behalf of the Professor, and one of the parcels came from Margrave Edmund."
Dorothea rushed back to the dorms, knocking on Marianne's door, no answer again, she opened it and saw the familiar sight of Marianne lying sideways on her bed, facing the wall. "Marie!" The songstress shrieked, running to her girlfriend's side and pulling Marianne onto her back, especially checking her arms and thighs for any new marks.
The noble protestest weakly, "Thea, please, I just want to be alone right now." Dorothea gave a sharp no, stating that she had to make sure her friend and partner was ok. "Tell me what's bothering you, Marie, please talk to me." Dorothea pleaded, soothingly rubbing Marianne's shoulder. "Was is that letter from your fath- er, your adoptive father?"
A little squeak, "Yes."
Dorothea looked around and saw a loose, unfolded piece of parchment on the noblewoman's desk, she gestured towards it and Marianne nodded her head, so Dorothea leaned over to snatch and read the document.
…
"What the hell is that bastard thinking?" Dorothea exclaimed to an exasperated Claude in his room. "You might hate me for this, but I think he has a fair point, it has gotten pretty dangerous here." The Golden Deer house leader retorted, the songstress chuckle snorted in disgust.
"This is ridiculous! That bastard knows exactly how miserable his daughter is, and now he's planning to take her away from the one place she's been consistently happy? Away from me?"
Claude stood up and looked Dorothea in the eye, confronting with, "Are you upset on behalf of Marianne? Or of yourself? Do you not think there is merit to keeping her safe? Even if it upsets her?"
"Wha…?" Dorothea shuddered to think, the letter listed all the dangerous missions the students had been up to, as well as the kidnapping and eventual assassination of the Captain, arguing that as Margrave Edmund he had to pull Marianne out of school to ensure both of their continued, 'futures.'
"I just… maybe it's me, I think it's both, I just know that we need each other, more than you know, then Margrave Edmund could ever realize."
"That may be true," Claude admitted, sitting down next to the songstress on his bed. "But why are you coming to me about this? What can I do?"
"Well, you're the future Grand Duke of the Alliance, aren't you? Tell the Margrave he's crazy!" Dorothea insisted, with Claude just shrugging his shoulders. "As if that stiffy old codger would ever listen to a brat like me, no I think your best bet would be to talk to Marianne yourself."
Dorothea bit her lip, Lord Edmund wasn't exactly 'accepting' of her Marie, but he did care for her in a twisted sort of way, perhaps he would listen to her wishes?
...
"You're already packing?"
Marianne was indeed carefully dividing her items between a pair of large chests, still wearing the same sweaty nightclothes from two days ago. "Please, you have to fight this Marie, it's not fair!" Dorothea continued to plead, but the blue noble wouldn't even turn to look at her.
"..."
"Marie, please, we need, no, I need you, I love you, please don't leave me."
"It's not my choice, Thea."
"Bullshit! It becomes your choice when you won't even fight it!"
Marianne spun around and glared hard at Dorothea, "You think I haven't tried to fight him on things like this before?! Like I haven't bore the brunt of defying him?!"
"Marie, I-"
"I just, I know you're upset, I am too, but he'll be here tomorrow and that's that, I'm sorry."
Dorothea hugged her girlfriend tight, trying not to cry too hard into her shoulder, "Take me with you!" Marianne let out a small gasp.
"I mean it! Your adoptive father, he's a businessman, and always looking for more influence, well I know scores of nobles from my time in the opera, so I can provide him with all sorts of good contacts from not just the Empire, but all around Fódlan!"
The songstress relaxed and stared at the blue noble's neck while she continued, "And not just that, I could bring a bit Mittlefrank with me, maybe help set up an opera house in Edmund lands-"
"Thea."
"-and you'll need a wife and heirs, correct? I could do all that, and if that's not enough I can be useful to Margrave Edmund directly, I could do private shows, work in his manor-"
"Thea."
"-I could even be his m-"
"THEA!"
Dorothea yelped in surprise as Marianne pressed palms to her cheeks along with the shout.
"I don't want to be alone, Marie, I'm terrified of it, I can't stand it, I need someone who will love, be with me, take care of me in old age."
Marianne paused before replying, "You deserve better than a broken girl."
"I don't care, it's you Marie, I. Love. You."
They stared at each other in solid apprehension for a good minute before crashing together with a fierce kiss. The songstress hopped up and locked her legs tightly around the noblewoman as they flailed and crashed about the room, knocking over the chests, Marianne's neatly folded garments, the desk chair, all the while caressing and nipping each other. Once an adequate amount of room destruction was completed Marianne let her girlfriend fall back onto her bed, the two wasting no time in mutually shedding their clothes, neither minding or caring that both wore their marks and scars openly for each other.
Marianne was now hovering over the songstress, fully at the ready, both ladies trying to catch their breaths after the initial freak out subsided.
Dorothea then demanded, "I want it, Marie."
"All of me?" Marianne cautiously asked.
"More than anything else."
Dorothea noted that Marianne was noticeably clumsy and awkward in making love, but every moment, every stroke felt more meaningful than the last, because it was her, the true love she'd been searching for all these years.
And she wasn't going to let anyone take her away.
Marianne started to fumble and slow down part way through so Dorothea flipped them both around and took over, clasping the blue noble's hands as she gently rocked and rode her, taking in every cute gasp and moan her partner exuded. And then without warning Marianne came inside her, grunting and sighing away in a small climax, Dorothea wasn't disappointed, it was clearly the blue girl's first time, and she was obviously tired, while Dorothea was unfortunately more of a professional at sex then she'd have liked to be.
"You're not done?" Marianne croaked as Dorothea carefully pulled out in order to lie by her side, smiling and planting kisses all over her partner's neck and face. She felt a hand graze her hip, slowly tracing a line to her centre, and Dorothea felt like crying. "No, no, Marie, you're tired, you did good, I'll finish myself."
"...you said you needed me, I'm here." And Marianne took her time in making sure her love had just as satisfying an end, and even with that done the two simply moved on to kissing and cuddling each other till nightfall.
...
Dorothea distinctly remembered falling asleep that night with her head buried in Marianne's blue, wavy, lavender scented locks, but when the songstress awoke all sore and groggy from the previous night, she was surprised, and then horrified to find the bed lacking warmth. She looked around from bed, Marianne was nowhere to be seen, her chests and things were gone, the room neatly tidied up, yet that lavender scent remained.
Dorothea raised her hand up towards her eyes and saw that she was clenching a tied up cord of Marianne's sky blue hair, nothing else remained.
She was gone.
No goodbye.
No farewell letter.
Just heartbreak and agony.
Afterword
Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!