Summary: The queen gets a surprise.

"You look like you had fun."

"I did, thank you."

It was Saturday, the twenty-third day of the Red Wolf Moon, Imperial Year 1180. A free day among students and faculty, and for our pair they passed the time outside of campus, seeing the sights and having enjoyed dinner without the hustle and bustle of the monastery's dining hall. The evening uniform of the officers academy, while overly formal, kept Marianne warm with all of its layers, yet it was subtle, much stealthier than even her usual dress. Byleth, meanwhile, took to borrowing a uniform himself, fitting a cap and glasses on in a thinly-veiled attempt to disguise himself.

Still, they could not go five minutes without any amount of grazing of skin, and by evening the Edmund heiress was clinging to the professor's arm as they snuck back onto campus.

Skirting by the fishing hole's edge, Byleth looked towards the dining hall, its windows fully illuminated as the sound of silverware clattering against ceramic and ladles scraping against pots and pans rang out into the evening air. The facility was in full swing—a perfect opportunity to sneak away a final moment together…

And then Marianne nudged him away from his intended destination of the stairs leading to the dormitory's second floor and instead to the right.

"Ah—"

"I'm sorry, but… I don't want this evening to end."

Crossing the grassy lawn in front of the second tier of dorms and up another flight of stairs, the two found themselves at the doors to his quarters, looking at one another as Marianne tried to work up another capacity of courage.

"S-so…" she started, rubbing the fabric at the inner elbow of her opposite arm as she thought of her words. "I had a wonderful evening, truly, but… I…"

"You dragged me here when I was going to bring you back to your dorm."

"Y-yes…"

"It's a long way from your dorm, you know," Byleth said, pressing his shoulder against the doorframe.

"I know, but… What I want to do with you… It would be more awkward if a teacher was seen on the second floor late in the evening, no?"

Byleth merely blinked as he re-thought her words over and over again, until…

"Ah."

Marianne watched as a sense of understanding crossed his face, his mouth having dropped into a small "o". "Last week, you asked what kind of gift I wanted."

"And you told me you'd tell me today."

She shook her head, her hand moving up to her jawline as she met his eyes. "This is… This is the gift I wanted."

Behind the lenses of his spectacles, Byleth's eyes closed as a soft laugh worked its way out from his mouth, a gentle smile on his face as he pushed off from the wall, and soon had Marianne against the oak wood of the doors.

"I want this, too," he said as he slowly pressed his forehead against hers, her heart racing as a pounding was heard in her ears...

"Hey, wake up…"

Opening her eyes, Marianne found herself in the dark, her immediate sight being the bundles of blankets layered over both her and the massive bed she was in.

It was the bedroom for the king and queen of the unified Fódlan, the massive chamber slowly coming to view as her eyes adjusted. Judging by the amount of moonlight creeping through the curtains, it was very early in the morning.

Sitting up with a mumble as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she looked over and found Byleth at the bedside looking back, his seafoam-green hair a mess. She opened her mouth to speak, only for another round of pounding to work its way from outside of the doors before fading out.

"Who's up at this hour?" she asked, reaching over to the night stand to fit a band into her blue locks; it was not the time to sit down and braid her hair.

"I… I didn't want to check it on my own."

"So you woke me up?" She watched the king nodding his head, his eyes glancing to the side in a brief moment of humility as she held her hand out. "Can you help me up?"

"Of course."

Despite donning socks and sleepwear, the two made their way to the door, Byleth resting his chin atop her head as they looked down both directions of the hallway. Their feet made barely a sound as they kept an alertness, alternating taking point at every turn. The faint pounding came to their ears as they turned their heads, catching a glimpse of two near-identical figures and a smaller one running across the hall quickly.

"... We're gonna have to sit them down for a talk, aren't we?" Byleth said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yes, we will have to," Marianne returned, her body relaxing from high alert to mild caution as they followed in the direction of the twins and the toddler.

Shortly after marrying in the Great Tree Moon of Imperial Year 1187, the couple had been blessed with seeing another member joining the royal family. Due to his initial disappearance during Garegg Mach's fall, this was the first time Byleth was becoming a father, and, despite his outward appearance, almost all of his former students that visited them knew he was infinitely more nervous than Marianne.

Byleth's intuition was found to be right come Lone Moon as everyone scrambled to accommodate the arrival of two children to the royal family.

Geraldine was another story. Three years after having the twins, Hilda had asked Byleth and Marianne to take some time off, the two having worked non-stop along with raising three children. After some teasing and promising to watch the kids in their absence, the royal couple went off on a short trip during the Pegasus Moon.

At the time, the two didn't think that Marianne would end up spending the entirety of her following birthday in labor over their second daughter.

"Bernard? René?" Marianne called out, at least as loud as she was comfortable saying early in the morning. Byleth followed closely behind, checking every door they passed.

"They just had to wake up Gerry…" he said, closing the door behind him.

"Yes, but why—" Marianne's eyes spotted the dark aqua hair of the twins as they continued their march. "They're headed for the kitchen."

"Oh no." The couple broke into a jog as they followed suit, the three children entering their sight once more. While the twins continued unfettered, Geraldine looked back in the direction of the footsteps, stumbling upon seeing her parents approaching her.

"Ow…" Before she could start to nurse the elbow that impacted the floor, Byleth had crouched down by her, his mint green eyes meeting her ultramarine eyes.

"What's grandpa's favorite doing up so early?" he said as he helped her upright, continuing to make eye contact.

"Oh, it's a secret," she cheerily said, finally getting a chance to rub at her elbow as her mother crouched down nearby. "But, Lily said if you follow Bernard you can find it."

"So, were you following those two to find the secret?" Marianne asked, her hand rustling Geraldine's blonde locks—identical in shade to her grandfather's.

A bubbly giggle rang out as Geraldine's hands went up in an attempt to push her mother's hand off of her head. "No, no! I know what the secret is! You need to find it!"

Byleth watched in amusement as Marianne continued her teasing, gently grazing her palm against the now-messy locks, eliciting another giggle. "C'mon, you two, we're not gonna see what this little secret is if you keep at what you're doing, okay?"

"How do you lose Gerry?"

"I don't know, she was behind René."

"Don't blame me, she was supposed to follow you!"

"I wasn't blaming you."

"Don't worry, we found her," Byleth said as the three entered the dining hall, Geraldine sitting on his shoulders. "Care to explain why all four of you are up so early?"

Bernard and René awkwardly looked between their parents then to one another, simply letting out a mumble.

"Lily, can you explain?" Marianne asked the teen. She mentally noted how her eldest daughter was wearing an apron.

"We… We wanted to make you something," she answered, trying her best to return eye contact. "Well, it was originally going to be for just you, but I figured dad would like to be there too… And then these three wanted to join in, but I didn't want them near the fire so I had them run around."

Looking past Lilith, Marianne found six cloches at the table, each one flanked by a napkin and silverware. "You made us breakfast?" She watched the head of sky-blue hair nod.

"Yeah... Happy birthday, mom."

"Happy birthday, mom," the twins said in unison, managing to look up at her from behind their eyelashes.

"Happy birthday, mommy!" Geraldine let out another laugh of joy.

"Happy birthday, Marianne," Byleth said, a knowing smile on his face.

"... Were you in on this?"

Byleth remained silent for a few minutes, looking up at Geraldine briefly. "Well, not entirely. Someone had to wake you up, and considering you slept through the three of them stomping past the door for ten minutes straight..." He watched a conflicted look flash across her face. "I'm sorry, I just… I wanted this to be a surprise for you, too."

"No, no, I understand," she quickly said, trying to ease his worries. "… Did I really sleep through all of that, though?"

"You did." After a soft pat to the top of his head, Byleth lowered Geraldine to the floor. "It looked like you were having a wonderful dream, though."

"It was. It was a wonderful dream." The small smile on her face only grew larger as she thought of it again. "Do you remember the first time we celebrated my birthday together?"

"I do."

"That's what I was dreaming about."

"Really?"

"So, are we just standing here, or do you want to eat breakfast?" Lilith asked, her hand at her jawline. "I mean, if you guys just want to stand there, that's alright, but I really don't want to hear about the first time you celebrated mom's birthday… And I do mean the 'first time'."

Author's Notes: Lilith's become self-aware.