Guardian Moon, Day 14, Imperial Year 1186

Being the Emperor was never easy. Time was something Edelgard rarely had to herself anymore, now that the fate of the Empire rested largely on her shoulders. She spent most of her time these days working on her reforms, battle preparation, training for said battles, or meeting with her officers to refine and enact her reforms and battle plans. About the only times she had to herself without Hubert popping up out of nowhere to keep her working on her own tasks were when she was sleeping, bathing or eating, and the latter of those was often indulged alongside her work. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if her sleepwalking flared up again so that she could get more work done to free up her waking hours.

Of course, it wasn't as if Hubert was malicious with his enforcement of her responsibilities. He had is own duties to perform and he dutifully and diligently did so, taking some of her work off her hands when he was able. And since the professor had returned, she had taken on a lot of the planning work as well. But it seemed as if more work formed itself from the ether whenever more people were able to speed up the process.

And so, Edelgard was now working through multiple towers of paperwork that threatened to collapse and literally bury her and her desk. This threat became suddenly more serious when the door burst open and Byleth marched right up to Edelgard's desk, the force of each step causing the towers to wobble.

"P-Professor?" the started Edelgard stuttered out. "W-What is it?"

"You need a break."

"I-I do?"

"Yes."

"I mean... Yes, I do. But there is hardly time for that. With the next battle fast approaching-"

"You'll wear yourself out if you keep going at this pace."

"That's ridic-"

"And then who'll lead your army in the battle? You want to always be on the frontlines to make a statement, right? You can't do that if you're asleep. I mean, unless-"

"Please, don't finish that thought."

"Then take a break.

Edelgard sighed in frustration. "Fine. You win."

"I think we both win," Byleth retorted with a genuine smile, revealing the small sack she'd been carrying that Edelgard had somehow not noticed until now. She placed the sack on the desk and began the process of systematically moving each tower of papers, with perfect, inhuman balance, over to another part of the room to clear the desk.

"How... Never mind. I'm probably better off not knowing..."

Byleth looked briefly confused by the comment, but moved on quickly. She opened up the sack and began removing smaller bags and boxes of various kinds of sweets, biscuits and cakes, placing them around the desk in a neat rainbow order. She had been able to fit a surprising number of them inside that small sack.

"What's all this?" Edelgard asked in awe.

"Sweets," Byleth replied flatly.

"Y-Yes, I realise that. But why is it all here?"

"You said this was what you wanted, right? To just take a day off and gorge yourself on sweets."

"You... remembered that? That was five- Well, I suppose, to you, it was only a few months ago..."

"I'd still have remembered it," Byleth responded earnestly. "But I would have done it sooner if I'd been able."

Edelgard smiled. "Yes, I'm sure you would have. But where did all of these come from, anyway?"

"Let's see. These ones were baked by some of the other girls under Mercedes' tutelage. These were made by the kitchen staff. Those ones were being sold in the market in town. I made these ones. Anna-"

"You made these ones?"

"Yes? Have I never mentioned that I can do that?"

"No."

"Ah. I learned back when I as a mercenary. There were more than a few women in our group and they taught me how when I asked them how to express my thanks to my father."

"How old were you then?"

"If I was born soon before my father left the monastery, I would have been... seven, I think."

Edelgard's cheeks withdrew to make way for her wide grin as she envisioned a tiny version of Byleth being doted on and fawned over by a group of otherwise tough female mercenaries as they taught her how to bake these vibrant orange tarts for her father.

"Are they orange because of Jeralt?"

"Yes. I don't know what his favourite colour was, but I always defaulted to that when I got him a gift." Byleth's own lips curved into a nostalgic smile. "I guess that habit stuck with me after I became a teacher. Bernadetta's gifts were usually purple, Hubert's black, and yours red."

Upon hearing this, Edelgard's mind flashed through every gift Byleth had ever given her and, sure enough, the vast majority were predominantly red in colour. And most of those that were not had individual reasons for not being so. "Is that because I was the head of the red-clad Black Eagles house?" Edelgard asked as she idly picked up a tart.

Byleth grinned. "No. It's because you naturally gravitate towards red." The way her eyes were angled downwards, Edelgard thought she was staring at her attire, only to realise as she bit into the tart that it was lined with strawberry jam. Then her cheeks turned red in realisation.

Edelgard did her best to hide her cheeks behind her hand as she finished the tart. "Delicious," she mumbled.

Byleth smiled warmly. "Thank you. I'd be happy to bake more for you any time you wish."

"I-Is that so? Well, if your other works are even half as good as that one, I will have to take you up on your offer. Now, which would you recommend I try next?"

Byleth pointed to a small, fluffy mint-green ball that was positively coated in sugar. Were she not so physically active, Edelgard would have worried about what this single sweet might do to her figure. That would likely become a genuine concern once the war was over, so she supposed she had best enjoy this opportunity while she could. Edelgard plucked it from the desk and noted that Byleth's eyes were following it all the way up to her mouth. Curious, Edelgard moved it away from her mouth, split it in two and held one half out for Byleth. "Would you like to share?"

The wide-eyed Byleth nodded her head vigorously, earning a chuckle from Edelgard. The two women enjoyed their halves of this minty, fluffy, sugary delight. And then they enjoyed most of the others together.

By the time Edelgard looked out the window, she realised the sun was going down. They had been talking and eating and laughing for the better part of two hours already. Edelgard enjoyed time spent with Byleth more than any other. She cursed that such times were always so fleeting, as if the universe itself were trying to make her get back to work. She let out a deep sigh, shifting back in her seat to lower her feet to the floor, having put them up on the desk at Byleth's insistence to help her relax.

"This has been a wonderful day, Professor. But I'm afraid I need to call an end to it now."

"Why?" Byleth asked between mouthfuls of Mercedes' biscuits. There were still plenty of sweets left uneaten.

"I have work to get back to. Important work."

"That doesn't mean you have to stop eating. The only reason you can't take time off to eat sweets is because you need your hands to work and to pick up the sweets."

"Yes, that is the case."

"But if you have an extra pair of hands to handle the sweets, that's no longer an issue."

"But I cannot acquire..." Edelgard trailed off as Byleth held one of the biscuits up to the Emperor's lips. Edelgard stared at the cookie, as if she expected it to do something. Byleth shook it a little, as if she thought Edelgard's vision was based on motion like some sort of lizard. Reluctantly, Edelgard conceded and opened her mouth wide enough for Byleth to slip the biscuit inside. It was delicious. "I truly cannot win with you," Edelgard sighed light-heartedly after swallowing.

"I'd call eating sweets all day a win," Byleth replied in a tone that suggested she might have missed the point.

"As would I. Very well then. So long as you have no other tasks to attend to and you can put up with the bare minimum of small talk while I work-"

"I'm not dumb, Edelgard. I know exactly what I'm offering. I wouldn't have offered if I hadn't thought it through."

"O-Of course. My apologies. I didn't mean to imply-"

Byleth stuck her tongue out to reveal a tiny sweet on her tongue that she'd been hiding for some indeterminate amount of time. Was she teasing her? Could she do that?

"Yes, well, please do your... thing while I work here." Edelgard cleared some space on the desk and Byleth brought one of the stacks back over. Byleth took a few minutes before she began feeding Edelgard, so as not to make her sick from overeating. Her caution and concern were not a surprise.

What was a surprise was that, after selecting something she thought Edelgard might like, Byleth moved behind Edelgard, slipped her arms under Edelgard's and moved her arms in a manner she thought Edelgard might, tapping her chin thoughtfully, then drumming the fingers on the desk in annoyance at her professor's antics, then tapping her sugary confection against her lips as she contemplated how best to punish the woman distracting her from her work. Edelgard was too lost in thought, thinking up some painless-but-still-discouraging act to inflict upon her instructor, to suck the sweet out of Byleth's fingers, leading to her teacher pushing the sweet into her mouth herself, her fingers winding up enclosed by the Emperor's lips.

Edelgard jumped at the sudden intrusion, feeling Byleth's fingers against her lips, pulled up like a hook snagging a fish as Edelgard jumped to her feet to end the shenanigans. But the sensation of it all made Edelgard's mouth clamp down harder, making it difficult for Byleth to tug her fingers free. When the panic subsided and the room stopped spinning, Edelgard relented and allowed Byleth's fingers free.

"P-Professor, please!" Edelgard exclaimed after swallowing the sweet. "I have serious work to do and your shenanigans are only distracting me."

"I'm sorry," Byleth replied sheepishly.

Edelgard sighed. "No, it is fine. I appreciate your attempts to liven up this... dreadfully dull activity, but I really must concentrate. If you wish to continue with this, please do so in a less disruptive manner."

"Okay," Byleth said in a manner akin to a child being scolded by their parent. It made Edelgard's chest feel unusually tight from the guilt, but she had no choice. The work needed to be done, and Byleth would need to blend into the background of Edelgard's perception, only emerging when Edelgard felt a sweet pressing against her lips, and then melting back into the shadows once she accepted the gift. As Edelgard went to sit back down, Byleth pointed her sugar-coated fingertips at her.

"W-What is it?"

"Lick."

"WHAT!? Are you insane!?"

"I don't think so?"

"Then why are you asking me to lick your fingers?"

"Would you rather I lick them clean after they've been in your mouth?"

Edelgard stumbled at the thought of allowing her teacher to taste her saliva. "J-Just wipe them on a handkerchief."

"That would be a waste of sugar. It isn't exactly cheap to produce. Because of the war." Edelgard couldn't tell if that little delay in Byleth's explanation was a result of realising her statement might require elaboration, or if she was trying to emphasise it to guilt Edelgard into going through with this absurdity.

Cheeks a blazing crimson, Edelgard leaned closer, using her fingers to brush some stray silver hair behind her ear as she shakily parted her lips, still tinged with the taste of Byleth's fingers, to allow the intruders to once again enter her mouth. Her tongue found them soon and began the excruciating process of extracting the now sticky sugar from the woman's fingertips. Her tongue began by simply lapping at the confectionary residue, finding the taste even sweeter than it had been on the sweets themselves. The taste was utterly intoxicating.

Her tongue, as if dancing to its own tune, began eagerly lapping up the sugar, swirling around Byleth's fingers, making sure to pass over every inch of them many times over. Her lips then joined in on the fun, raking themselves over Byleth's digits to make sure not an ounce of the taste got away. She became lost in the act of sucking on Byleth's fingers as if they themselves were the treat, the original intention behind this act lost in a haze as her movement became more vigorous, more sensual, more-

The door burst open to reveal Hubert. He had taken to avoiding knocking to ensure whomever he was checking in on could not quickly hide whatever distractions they had allowed themselves from their work. He froze as his eyes fell on the sight before him. Edelgard and Byleth, likewise, froze in place as their eyes met his. Had anyone else stumbled upon the scene, they might have thought Rhea had employed some sort of time-halting magic against the monastery.

After an eternity of stagnant staring, Hubert's face darkened. "Your Majesty... what, may I ask, is going on in here?"

"Hoober, is no' wha i' loogz lige," Edelgard mumbled through Byleth's fingers, which remained hooked inside her warm mouth.

"Am I to believe the professor is practicing her fishing in here? Otherwise, I believe I can see exactly what is happening here."

"I'm feeding her sweets while she works," Byleth explained obliviously. For someone so perceptive in battle, she could be astoundingly dim in social situations.

"Works on what, an act I dare not mention in Her Majesty's presence?"

"You're the one who made her do it."

Edelgard's palm came up to her forehead with a loud slap.

"I beg your pardon?"

"If you'd lay off on her once in a while, I wouldn't have to be the one to feed her like this."

"...I see we are having two entirely different conversations here. I am going to close this door, forget this ever happened, and open it again in two minutes' times. And I pray to the goddess that I enter a scene more befitting an Emperor and her instructor." And with that, Hubert slammed the door shut.

The room was silent for roughly half of one of those minutes as the two remained frozen, eyes locked firmly on each other.

"What's with him?" Byleth asked nonchalantly as Edelgard finally allowed her fingers to slip loose.

"How are you this ignorant?" Edelgard asked in utter disbelief. "What I was just doing was... It-"

"-felt nice," Byleth said casually as she stared obliviously at her still moist fingers.

Edelgard's face was still red by the time Hubert returned to check on her progress with the papers. Even after Byleth was shooed out of the room by Hubert, Edelgard was unable to concentrate on her papers for the rest of the night, her mind replaying Byleth's comment on loop while the phantom of her touch and taste remained on her lips, long after she had beaten her insomnia into submission to give herself a reprieve from its vile oppression.

Her dreams were filled with images of pastel-coloured confectionary prepared just for her by an apron-clad Byleth. It soon became apparent that the true Guardian Moon was Byleth's, as the apron was the only thing she was wearing. Staring, mouth watering, at Byleth's cheeks, Edelgard's own cheeks threatened to light her pillow aflame. Despite being asleep herself, she realised, something awoke within her that night and it would make her nights more... eventful in the future...


So, yeah, the planned Chapter 4 has been pushed back once again. This time, the reasons are that I want to get through more of Three Houses to make use of details from other routes there, and because I realised that for an Edeleth series, Edelgard and Byleth don't actually spend a lot of time interacting here. Edelgard spends half of Chapter 2 asleep, she spends half of Chapter 3 asleep and Byleth spends the OTHER half asleep, they fall out in Chapter 4 and spend most of it apart, the planned next chapter has Edelgard separated from Byleth for the bulk of it too, and the other chapter concept I have once again sees them separated for much of it. So I wanted to give them more time together, and do some more fun fluffy stuff after the heaviness of Chapter 4. Thus, Byleth puts her fingers in Edelgard's mouth and forces her to lick them, which was the first thing I wrote for this story.