Welcome to the second chapter of my Marileth Week story. I'll go ahead and give you the heads up this story will be jumping a fair bit around the timeline of Three Houses, but it'll be in one continuity. Think it's the first time I've ever written a story that's in anachronic order. ...could be something I'm not thinking of. *shrugs*
I will go on and say that while I had the idea for the beach day one… I didn't know if either nation had a beach. I was ready to shrug it off and either say the location is not revealed or place it in the Heroes area. Then I got some nudging in the right direction from people who actually played the game. I will be giving them a special thanks once we reach the end of this story, but for now, I won't say who it is. Though, they know who they are.
Before I forget, I am going to give a shout out to TealPiccata, not only for their review of the first chapter, but also for working on their own Marileth story. It's really good and I recommend you go give it a look.
Regardless, I hope that you'll enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimers: Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Techmo, etc.
It had been several weeks since the war between nations had ended. The members of the Golden Deer, and the allies they had made, had been successful in ending it and stopping those who slither in the dark. Byleth was within his room, trying to catch up on a little bit of sleep he had missed out on, before he heard a knock at the door. He gave off an exhausted sigh, then got up and opened the door.
"Hey, Teach," Claude greeted.
"Yes…?" Byleth tiredly asked.
"We're going to be heading somewhere to celebrate our victory. Pack your bags," Claude explained.
Byleth just exhaled, realizing that he had no way of getting out of whatever Claude was planning, and tiredly complied.
A few hours later, the Golden Deer and their associated allies were now flying away from the remains of the Monastery and towards an unknown destination apart from Claude.
"Where do you think we're going?" Yuri asked from his mount.
"Best guess? Somewhere in Almyra…" Byleth guessed from the back of Claude's wyvern.
"Wait, he's Almyran?!" Bernadetta nearly yelled.
"...you guys didn't know that?" Byleth questioned.
"How'd you figure it out?" Hilda asked.
Byleth gave an almost deadpanned expression as he thought back to all the times that Claude had mentioned the nation before he actually explained it to the former teacher. He simply shrugged his shoulders, "Lucky guess."
Marianne gave a soft giggle in response to that remark.
"My fellow deer, welcome to the Almyran capital, Dredriu!" Claude proudly proclaimed as he motioned around the capital as they landed in the city.
The city had a lot of water and various buildings that were built around it. Nearby, Byleth could see a beach that was fairly empty in spite of the number of people roaming around.
"I would invite you all for a tour, but I've got an important meeting with my dad. Feel free to explore. Just… don't worry about any language barriers. I'll give you guys a rundown later," Claude told the group.
Thus, most of the Golden Deer headed off to go exploring. The only ones that remained were Claude, Annette, Byleth, and Marianne. Marianne remained by Byleth's side for a moment before she noticed something that made her walk off. Byleth just watched her head off, then turned towards Claude and Annette.
"Mahal kita magpakailanman," Claude told Annette.
"Mahal din kita, aking usa," Annette responded with a small wink.
Claude then proceeded to walk off to go get something ready, leaving Byleth and Annette.
"...what were you two saying?" Byleth couldn't help but ask.
"It's Almyran," Annette informed.
"...I didn't know Almyra had its own language…" Byleth admitted.
Annette simply nodded a little, "Well… if you wanna know what we said, 'I love you eternally'. 'I love you too, my deer'."
Byleth gave a small nod of his head in response before Claude walked off.
"Uh… Teach? Aren't you going to go do something?" Claude inquired.
"I don't know what to do," Byleth informed with a shrug.
"Well… why don't you go to the beach? You and Marianne could enjoy some alone time there," Claude suggested before he snapped his fingers, "Actually, a beach day for our victory sounds nice! Me and Annette will finish what we need to finish and then we can gather the others to join you two."
"Alright then…" Byleth nodded.
Thus, Byleth walked over to Marianne. He saw that she was admiring some of the ocean life that was visible from the city.
"It's so beautiful…" Marianne whispered.
"Yeah, you are…" Byleth whispered as he took her hand.
Marianne began to blush a bit, only to giggle a little as she held onto Byleth's hand, "I was talking about the animals."
"I know…" Byleth admitted.
The two were now at the beach and roaming around it. They saw that the beach was rather empty apart from the visible ocean life.
"This is… lovely…" Marianne commented.
Byleth nodded his head a bit in response, simply continuing to hold her hand, before they found a spot they could sit down at. Byleth gently guided the way forward and made sure that Marianne could sit down comfortably.
"Such a gentleman…" Marianne smiled.
"Thanks," Byleth responded as he took a seat next to her.
Both simply continued to hold hands as they watched the clouds float and a gentle breeze blew along the wind.
"...I'll admit… I've never been to a beach before…" Byleth admitted, "The only time I can remember being at one was… on that one strange vacation where I saw special heroes."
"Do you think you can take me to that place after we get married?" Marianne gently asked.
"I'll try my best," Byleth assured her, "Otherwise… don't know what beaches are like. And… well… I remember a certain someone had seen so many people with swimsuits that they thought that it was custom to wear swimwear…"
Marianne couldn't help but giggle a little at the idea, "That sounds so silly…"
"Not that I could blame them…" Byleth added, "They couldn't find one for me, for some reason."
Marianne was about to respond, but the idea of Byleth in just swimwear made her heavily blush. She gently twirled a lock of her hair with her free hand and tried to regain her composure, "Um… I don't know if I could wear a swimsuit…"
"I think you could…" Byleth said absentmindedly. He then realized what he said and began to blush himself.
The two of them both quieted up at the idea of the other in just swimwear, their grasp on each-other's hands getting a little tighter, before Byleth shook the idea away.
"Let's… talk about anything else…" Byleth suggested.
"Good idea…" Marianne nodded.
The couple then began to try to think of something to talk about, but the beauty of the scenery around them ended up dashing away thoughts of conversation. Both simply smiled as they admired the area, with the beauty simply continuing as the sun slowly began to set.
"Ma-mahal…" Byleth began to speak.
"Huh?"
"Ki-ki-kita… magpa… uh… um…"
"What are you trying to say?" Marianne inquired.
"Something Almyran that I heard earlier…" Byleth informed.
"...don't strain yourself."
Byleth just exhaled a little before he decided to just say it in their shared language, "...I love you, eternally."
This made Marianne blush a little, but she smiled and gave Byleth a gentle kiss to the cheek. He just smiled back at her and he was about to kiss her, when…
"WHO'S READY TO PARTY?!" Claude's voice shouted out.
The couple then gasped and saw the rest of the Golden Deer had shown up and were making a lot of noise. Both Byleth and Marianne sighed a little, but they just smiled a bit at each-other before going over to join the others.
"This party is for our nation and the future!" Claude called out.
"For the future!" the other Golden Deer chimed in.
"The future!" Byleth and Marianne added.
I'll admit that I really don't know what sort of material swimwear is usually made out of and I haven't been to a beach in a very long time. So… yeah. No fanservice. Look to others for beach fanservice.
The other world that Byleth was speaking of is the world of Fire Emblem Heroes and the remark about someone thinking swimwear is customary is in nod to this little "choose a response" the official Twitter did and in nod to something you could say to Edelgard. I didn't name her in the narrative because I honestly didn't think Byleth would be comfortable naming a former enemy at the drop of a hat.
Oh, and as for what language "Almyran" is… look for a certain Claudelth comic dub and you'll figure it out. Not going to fully explain it. I just thought that comic dub made it really sweet and I wanted to give it a nod and use it in stuff I work on.
Otherwise… favorite scene is that exchange. Stay tuned for next time and what is the prompt I have the most amount of ideas for. ...and also when I have a bunch of classwork due. So~... apologies in advance if tomorrow's prompt ends up being late. It is what it is.
Just Live More.