A Catlike Companion
The life of a fairly new archbishop was always busy. Byleth had to learn a few parts of the Seiros faith he'd been unfamiliar with, meet with the cardinals, and do various other daily tasks that took up a lot of time. It would probably get easier later, but the first several months after hed taken over were always tiring.
Still, he had free days sometimes. And on those days, he liked to spend as much time as he could with Linhardt. He often found himself reading some new book Linhardt had picked up recently. Byleth had never hated reading, but he'd never really had time to do much of it before. So this was kind of a new thing to him, but he liked any excuse to spend time with his husband.
That day, Byleth found himself on a couch in his chambers with Linhardt sprawled across his lap. Byleth's book was sitting on Linhardt's back, and he absently traced his fingers through Linhardt's hair every now and then. Finally, Byleth got to a decent stopping place, closed his book, and looked down at Linhardt.
He really wanted to get up and do something else, but Linhardt was so absorbed in his book that it was hard to speak up. It was... kind of cute, to be honest.
Finally, Linhardt seemed to notice that Byleth was done reading. He must've noticed the lack of the slight weight on his back. Linhardt didn't roll over, but he did glance over his shoulder at Byleth.
"Oh, were you finished?"
"Well... yes," Byleth replied. "But honestly, it's not too bad to sit here like this, either."
Linhardt blinked. "Would you care to explain what you mean?"
Byleth stared at him for several seconds, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Of course, he liked to spend time with Linhardt anyway, so that was part of why this was nice. But there was something else, too. Linhardt stretched a bit while he waited for an answer, and suddenly something clicked.
"It's like sitting here with a cat," Byleth finally said.
"Did you just compare me to a cat? Now that is a new one."
"You like cats," Byleth pointed out, quite reasonably enough. "Besides, you're stretched out here like one. Cats just lie wherever they want. And it's nice to touch your hair. It's like petting a cat."
"...Well, I suppose that makes sense." Linhardt yawned, and Byleth couldn't help thinking the comparison was all the better. "And I do kind of like it. Cats can nap all they want, and people think they're cute even when they're lazy. Does that mean you think I'm cute right now?"
"I always do," Byleth replied, very matter-of-factly.
Linhardt snorted. "Well then, maybe I'll use this to my advantage."
He yawned again, closed his book, and immediately closed his eyes and fell asleep. Well, it had been a little while since Linhardt's last nap... It wasn't exactly out of character for him to just fall asleep at random. Byleth figured he had this coming after making the comparison.
...Well, so much for getting up and doing something. But a sleepy Linhardt was a cute Linhardt... Byleth shook his head and absently reached down to play with Linhardt's hair again.
His husband may have had his quirks, but Byleth liked Linhardt just as he was.