Well, ladies and gentlemen, we've made it. The grand finale of Marileth Week. And, hoo boy, this has been quite the juggling task. Gotta be honest, this will probably be the last theme week for a long while. The timing ended up being a bit bad for me. ...would I exchange the work I put into this, though? No. This is a bit of a learning experience for me, and it's the first theme week I was able to complete within the time limit, given my one for Akiba Week ended up… not doing that. I promise that story will eventually be finished.

I'll say this did end up being a little shorter than I thought it would, but that's just something that happens at times. Ah well.

Anyway, it's time for the finale of Marileth Week. Let's do this.

Disclaimers: Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Techmo, etc.

Marianne was waiting outside for any sign of Byleth, simply standing by the entrance of the Goddess Tower and keeping a calm look on her face. She brushed her hair out of her face and looked towards the beautiful setting sun as she kept a patient, hopeful, look on her face.

"Hey," Byleth called out as he walked on over to her.

"Hello," Marianne smiled. She then motioned towards the tower, "Shall we?"

"Yeah."

The two watched the sun continue to set and simply admired the calm atmosphere. They were both quiet for a while, just taking in the area around them now that the war had finally ended.

"Byleth… I want to thank you…" Marianne spoke up.

"What for?" Byleth asked.

"You've always been so accepting of me. You've never rejected me for my flaws. You have given me the strength, hope, and courage to look forward to my future. Even though I'm not truly sure where it is I'll be going now that this is all over, I know that we'll always have each-other…"

Byleth let this sink in for a moment before he proceeded to turn towards her, "What have you thought of so far?"

"Well, my adoptive father wants me to return home right away. Though he put all that talk of marrying me off to a powerful noble on hold... for now. Apparently I'm being hailed as a hero back home," Marianne explained before she heavily blushed and giggled a little, "Can you imagine that? Me, a hero!"

"It's easy to imagine for me. I've seen how much you've grown, and how much stronger you've become. Hero is one of many words I could give to you…" Byleth smiled.

"...what are some other ones?"

Byleth then looked out towards the horizon and smiled, "Amazing. Wonderful. Stunning. Beautiful. Supportive. Divine…"

Marianne blushed a bit, then just smiled towards Byleth.

"So… do you think you're going to go back home?" Byleth then asked.

"No. I've been considering what would be the best course for my future… and I have decided… that I want to be by your side…" Marianne admitted, before she then got closer to him and gave him a kiss on the lips.

Byleth was a tiny bit surprised by this action, but simply let it happen. The two simply melted into the action and remained like that for a while. However, the need for air ended up making them split after a bit. Once they did, they both smiled at each-other.

"I love you…" Byleth stated simply.

"I love you too…" Marianne smiled, taking his hands, "And… I want to marry you."

Byleth gave a tiny bit of a surprised look at this as Marianne just smiled at him.

"You've shown me a strength I didn't know I had within me. I wanted you to see how far I've come, and how much I've grown... I guess... I wanted you to see me show a little bravery. I'm not asking you to marry me here and now. That would... be a bit much, perhaps. Maybe we can just think of this as a promise... that you will always be in my heart."

After a moment, Byleth just smiled at her and proceeded to take out the wedding ring that his mother used to wear, "...what luck…"

Marianne simply smiled and accepted the ring without another word. After a bit, they then kissed once again…

Several months had passed as Byleth was working on drafting up some documents about the unification of Fodlan as a whole and the eventual planned unification with Almyra. He scratched the back of his head in thought, then he gave an exhale and looked towards the papers about draft ideas for his wedding.

"So many things to do… so little time…" Byleth exhaled as he looked over a few papers about the location of the wedding and some of the people set to be invited. He then got back to work on finishing up the plans for the wedding…

Marianne, meanwhile, had returned home for a short while in order to make a few preparations for being married. She had listened to her family talk about how excited they were about her being married, yet she had decided to keep who she was going to be wed to a secret for the time being.

"Come on, let us know. Please?" her adoptive father proceeded to ask.

"I promise that you will find out… the day of the wedding," Marianne responded with a gentle smile, "I don't want overreactions is all."

The day of the wedding had finally arrived. Byleth remained by the podium and was waiting with a small smile on his face.

"I know that I speak for everyone here when I tell you this… congrats…" Sothis chimed in, "And may you have the best. ...now, speaking for myself, have you any ideas for what you'll name your kids? Because I have a suggestion for a girl…"

Byleth, knowing that Sothis was about to suggest naming a daughter after her, didn't respond with anything. After a bit, Marianne proceeded to walk over to his side and they smiled at each-other happily. Seteth, who was acting as the priest, began to give a wedding speech that the two mostly didn't listen to before he came around to asking if they had anything else to say.

"I'm stronger now, but I can grow even more if you stay by my side. I'll do everything in my power to support you... and I hope you will continue to support me as well! I ... I love you. So very deeply. Thank you for giving me the world…" Marianne told Byleth.

"And I'm stronger because of the support that you give me everyday by being by my side. I'm so happy that I have you in my life and I will love you for the rest of my days. Thank you for being here for me…" Byleth told Marianne.

Thus, with a kiss, the two were now husband and wife. A few tears dripped down from Byleth's and Marianne's eyes, but they were both of happiness. No words needed to be said after that.

The End

Special Thank You to…

House of Marileth for the prompts

The Claudleth Discord Server for help in details

Kilala_4 and TheSamigirl101 for their amazing comics and comic dubs that gave minor inspiration for dialogue

TealPiccata, Muk854, and ROCuevas for reading and reviewing

KKD Silver for just being a good and supportive friend

Yūsuke Kobayashi, Zach Aguilar, Sawako Hata, and Xanthe Huynh for giving life to Byleth and Marianne by voicing them

Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, and KoeiTechmo for making Three Houses

And to anybody who has supported this story in any way.

Short and sweet. And, truly, the special thanks are something I wanted to do. I was intending to include the special thanks to the Claudleth Discord earlier, but I figured I'd save it for the end of the story because of how supportive they are. There are some details in this story that got materialized because of them. Happy to be a part of it.

And, honestly, this was a blast. Sure, writing this may have had a few close calls, but I enjoyed it in the long run. I hope that you all enjoyed it as well. I'll openly admit that I did forget that, in the S Support, it was Marianne who proposed. However, I was able to write around that decently enough.

Favorite part is simply the ending. And, I'll admit, there was something I did scrap from the wedding because I felt like ending it on a sweet note would work better. These two are one of my favorite Three Houses couples and I won't be changing my mind. Sure, I do have other ships for both Byleths, but this will always be my favorite for male Byleth.

Well, see you guys next time for whatever I do next.

Just Live More.

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An oath to return, KRH.