So… remember how I said the last one would be the final one? Yeah… I lied.

Well… ORIGINALLY, the previous chapter was meant to be the final one. Then I discovered that it was Marianne's birthday on November 23rd, so~... eh. Why not just give this story a ninth chapter so as to avoid needing to think of something else?

Not really much else to say apart from happy birthday to my favorite character from Three Houses.

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

Marianne gave a small yawn as she got up for the day and walked on out of her room. She looked at the rising sun, admiring it for a little bit, before she heard somebody walk on over.

"Hey, Marianne!" Hilda called out.

"Oh… good morning…" Marianne nervously greeted.

"Happy birthday," Hilda smiled.

Marianne then blinked a bit, and then simply gave a bit of a nervous nod, "Um… thank you…"

With that, Hilda skipped off and left Marianne to admire the sunrise.

"HEY, PROFESSOR!" Hilda nearly shouted as she shoved open the door to his room.

Byleth only gave an annoyed sigh response, then looked towards Hilda.

"It's Marianne's birthday today! You gotta do something for it!"

"I've already made some plans…" Byleth informed, pulling the covers back over his body, "I'm really tired…"

"But-"

Hilda then stopped right in her tracks as Byleth used the Divine Pulse to pause the flow of time around him so that he could get a little bit more sleep. However, once he fell asleep, the stopping of time ended up ceasing.

"-it's her birthday! You gotta do something!"

"...I said I have plans for it…" Byleth irritatedly told her, "Now, please, can I get some sleep?"

"Can you please tell me?"

"No. I don't want anything to go wrong, no please leave me alone…"

Hilda gave a small sigh before she walked off and Byleth finally covered himself up under his bedding to get some sleep.

Morning soon arrived and Marianne was walking around the campus. She had a bit of a calm look as she roamed around, but then she noticed that somebody was walking towards her and she nervously stopped.

"Happy birthday," Edelgard greeted.

"Oh… um… thank you…" Marianne meekly responded.

"I know that it's not much, but I figured I'd at least give you something," Edelgard informed as she handed Marianne a small present, "Hope you have a good day."

And, with that, Edelgard walked off in another direction. Marianne simply stared at the present for a bit before she heard two more people walk on over.

"Good day, Marianne. Happy birthday," Dimitri smiled.

"...thanks…"

"Looks like Red Eagle girl got to her before we did…" Hapi remarked, seeing that Marianne had the smaller gift, "Well… it took a bit of searching, but we found something that you could see some use from."

Thus, Hapi and Dimitri handed her a book. She looked over the title a little before giving a bit of a confused look.

"It's tips about some classes that are native to where Hapi is from. She thought you could make use of them," Dimitri explained.

"Oh… um… I appreciate it," Marianne responded.

"Have a happy birthday, Mar," Hapi told her before walking off, with Dimitri following after her.

A few hours later, Byleth had gotten out of bed and was working on prepping the tea area for a small birthday party. He had just gotten a few things to make the area a bit more suited for a small party with some streamers and hats, but it was mostly unchanged apart from that.

"This girl must mean a lot to you if you're willing to do this for her…" Sothis remarked.

"Well… yeah. She means the world to me. I just… I don't know… feel something to her…" Byleth admitted in a hushed tone, "I don't know what it really is…"

"It's called love, you fool…"

Byleth began to blush a bit in response to this, but quickly shook it off in order to finish the last few things he needed to get ready.

Marianne spent some time by herself, simply going about her day without much worry, before she saw Bernadetta and Claude. The two then noticed her and she waved at them a little.

"Oh… happy birthday," Bernadetta quickly greeted.

"Hey, Marianne. Hope your birthday has been going well," Claude smiled.

"It has been…" Marianne admitted, nervously messing with a lock of her hair.

"Well, I got some good news for ya. Teach has been wanting to meet up with you at the tea area to celebrate."

With that, Marianne then quickly headed off without another word. Claude couldn't help but chuckle a little bit in response to this.

"Ah, young love…" Claude remarked.

"You get like that with Annette…" Bernadetta chimed in.

"And you get like that with Yuri," Claude retorted.

The two couldn't help but chuckle a little bit in response to that.

Marianne had a small blush on her face and a bit of a skip in her step as she headed off to meet up with Byleth. She then saw him outside and simply sitting around, which made her smile and, after a moment to calm herself, she walked out.

"Hello, Professor," Marianne greeted.

"Hi, Marianne. Happy birthday," Byleth smiled.

"Thank you, Professor," Marianne responded.

Byleth then walked over, gently took her hand, and guided her over to the table. She couldn't help but gain a faint blush at their close contact and just smiled as Byleth took the seat across from her.

"This took a lot of preparation…" Byleth informed.

"Which included at least five time rewinds so that you could get all of this ready…" Sothis chimed in.

"But, I hope you enjoy it."

"Professor… I don't know what to say," Marianne admitted, looking over some small decorations and the fancy tea and treats that he had gotten.

"You're my star student, so it's only fair," Byleth smiled.

Marianne giggled a little before she began to enjoy the tea and treats.

Once the two had finished their tea time, Byleth got out a gift for her.

"I had to work really hard to get this. Had to spend a lot of time working with Anna to get it…" Byleth explained.

"You didn't have to get me anything fancy," Marianne told him, "I mean… Edelgard got me chocolates and Dimitri got me a book. ...and then the others in our house gave me a few other things..."

"I wanted to give you something nice," Byleth told her.

Marianne proceeded to open up the gift and saw a beautiful golden necklace with a light blue gem in it. She couldn't help but gasp upon seeing it and then she looked up towards Byleth.

"Professor… I-"

"Please, just accept it. I worked really hard to get it for you," Byleth informed.

She then simply nodded and put the necklace on. After that, Marianne proceeded to hug Byleth. Byleth could only smile and hug her back.

Not really much more to say. I'm happy I managed to get this done. And, who knows, maybe I'll make a Christmas chapter for this. I don't know just yet. We'll see what happens.

I felt like having Edelgard and Dimitri appearing because of how they didn't appear in any other chapter in a major role. Well… I think Edelgard was in an earlier chapter, but didn't say anything. I can't quite recall off of the top of my head. ...I've been frazzled by both schoolwork and this, cut me a break. Anyway, the book is meant to be a nod to the DLC classes, which I read were recommended for a few of the Golden Deer. Which… well… I'll figure out how to cross that bridge at some point. *shrugs*

Not really a favorite part to this one. Just hope you enjoyed this little bonus chapter.

Just Live More.