Chapter 3

Byleth watched the sky as he leaned against the railing on the balcony. The cool breeze of the night was in stark contrast to the heat in their room, but for the moment he felt he needed it. He saw the many different bright lights in the sky and wondered what they could be. Perhaps different worlds apart from their own?

The sound of light footsteps from the room brought his mind and eyes down from the sky as he turned and saw Lysithea come outside, looking like she just woke up. Her hair hung freely down her back and she was wearing her light nightgown. He could see the small bump on her stomach, the visible sign that she was pregnant with their first child.

"My love, are you alright?" She came forward towards him and grasped his hand with her own.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you Lysithea?" Byleth kissed her forehead as she settled herself next to him.

"No, well not intentionally anyway. Lately I've become a light sleeper. It's quite annoying." Byleth could see the grimace on her face as she said this. Lysithea had indeed not been a light sleeper before so he could understand her annoyance.

"It will pass in time." Byleth comforted her by taking his free hand and stroked her head and hair with a gentle touch. He saw her close her eyes and lean into his touch as he did, enjoying it.

"Mhm, you didn't answer my question." No fooling Lysithea, Byleth thought to himself.

It wasn't that he wanted to keep things from her, not really. It was just that recently he had started to worry about her health ever since she became pregnant. It had become hard to avoid thinking about it and the gloomy thoughts of everything bad that could happen to her as a result was taking up more of his time than before. She had been through so much in life, especially with having two crests implanted into her and then later removed.

She had been in good health since the removal, but Byleth still worried that the added stress of her position and work as queen along with the pregnancy would take its toll on her health. Lysithea herself had been adamant at continuing her work as long as she could.

"Just thinking about a problem I received word of earlier today. Nothing you need to worry about Lysithea." He tried to sound convincing but was pretty sure she wouldn't be fooled by it.

When he felt her turn next to him and looked at him with disappointment and even some anger in her eyes, he knew he went too far.

"Byleth, didn't we promise to always be honest with each other? Why are you suddenly keeping things from me?"

He remembered the promise they had made after she had agreed to their marriage at the Goddess tower. It was one of his most important promises and one which he had been keeping true to ever since they had agreed to it. It was just…

Byleth sighed as he brought his free hand through his own hair before he turned and looked at Lysithea.

"I remember the promise, I'm just…" Pausing to think about how he would explain things, he settled for just being honest as he should have been from the beginning. Now he had just made her angry instead.

"I'm scared of losing you Lysithea." As he said it, those dark thoughts came to his mind, trying to take his focus away by showing him all that could happen. But he fought himself free of those dark thoughts and kept his focus on Lysithea.

"Losing me? What do you mean?" Lysithea asked and looked at him, some of her anger had quickly dissipated and turned towards curiosity and even worry at his words.

"Recently I've had my thoughts occupied with worry over what could happen to you now that you are pregnant, how your health will be affected by it. Even some of my dreams… show your death when you give birth."

Lysithea was surprised at his words but soon it turned into understanding and even a small amount of relief.

"I can't have you die Lysithea. I don't think I could handle it, going on without you." The emotions he felt inside him came forward, those that had previously been repressed. As he let his worry out, turned those thoughts into words, a familiar sadness came over him imagining how it would be if Lysithea died. How the heartbreak would feel as it would take hold of him like it did when Jeralt died, how it would probably be even worse then how he imagined.

Byleth felt a lone tear roll its way down his cheek, one which Lysithea was quick to catch as she put her hand on his cheek, gently rubbing her thumb.

"I have no intention of dying my love. Remember what we said at the goddess tower? We are going to live out our long and full lives." She said this as she gave him her beautiful smile, thinking back to their time when they started out their joint lives together.

"Lysithea…" Byleth started but she just shook her head, silencing him again. She wasn't done.

"I understand your worry my love, and I can't be honest if I don't say that thoughts on how much I can work given my condition have crossed my mind. So how about this?" Lysithea took both of Byleth's hands in her own as she held them close to her heart. He could feel it beating regularly just as it should.

"I will from tomorrow start doing less work and give myself more time to rest and relax and increase the amount little by little as time passes. And in about a month or two I will focus all my attention on keeping myself healthy and relaxed. How does that sound?"

Hearing her explain her thoughts helped calm Byleth's own thoughts as he understood that she was doing this for his sake. The fact that she would do this for him just made him feel even more stupid about trying to keep things from her. The love he felt for her at that time surged through his body as he smiled and answered her.

"Thank you Lysithea, I appreciate that. And I'm sorry that I didn't tell you my worry immediately."

Lysithea responded with her own smile as she took a step forward and gave him a quick kiss on his lips.

"Water under the bridge my love." Byleth noticed that Lysithea's body seemed to be shaking a bit. She was probably cold since they had been out here a while and she wasn't wearing appropriate clothing for the lower temperature out here.

He started to move back towards the room and gently pulled her with him as he said: "Come Lysithea, let's go to bed again."

"But what about the problem you were thinking about?" Lysithea looked at him with curiosity as he pulled her close to him and embraced her.

"Tomorrow Lysithea, I will tell you all about it then. For now let's go to bed." He gently picked her up in his arms to her surprise and embarrassment. As he took her back to bed he could see a pout on her face and she had her arms crossed over her chest. Byleth couldn't help but chuckle at the way she acted when he carried her back to bed. He felt happier now that he had talked about his worry and heard her response. He hadn't really thought he would carry her back but he had just done it in the spur of the moment. It felt right.

Soon enough they were back into their bed, snuggled close together with Byleth's arms around her body and his head next to hers.

"Speaking of promises, don't think I've forgotten that you still haven't told me your favorite tea yet." Lysithea grabbed his hands as she then settled into position in Byleth's arms, feeling the heat from his body warming her up from the cold air that had cooled her during their time outside.

Byleth smiled as he heard her say this. "Well, I haven't found my favorite one yet." He said with a hint of playfulness in his voice as he kissed the back of her head.

"Hmm… it seems we need to continue our tea times until you do." While Byleth couldn't see it, Lysithea smiled as she said this.

"Yes we must. And once we find it, we will enjoy our favorite teas together."

"It's a promise." Lysithea said as she yawned, feeling herself falling asleep in the comfort of Byleth's warmth.

"Yes it is, good night Lysithea. Sweet dreams." Byleth also felt himself getting sleepy as he enjoyed the closeness they shared.

"'Night my love." A short while later they were both asleep, comforted by the others presence.

This one has been in my mind for a while now and felt good to write. I might be inclined to continue it further as a separate follow up story but we'll see in the future.

Anyway thanks for reading it, hope you liked it!