professor

dependent to isola radiale

[demonofash-blog]

bienaimee‌:

★★　　the compliment hit him as a surprise– the personal weakness it showed, as well as the praise itself. this wasn’t the byleth he had come to care for, the one who had earned every bit of trust with blood. but neither did he seem the petulant child sylvain had initially taken the professor for ( and had found no real evidence against, prior to the war ).

still, sylvain was the king of honeyed words, and they would have no pull over him. “don’t be so hard on yourself, professor,” he offered, his dangerous air not dissipating in the slightest, but his words no less genuine for it. “i don’t know if understanding is what you have, where i’m from, but you certainly have.. something. in the right circumstances.” which were not the here and now. couldn’t be, he didn’t think.

“but acceptance.. isn’t that easy. what if i told you… look, you remember how i was back then, you heard some pretty serious threats from me yourself.” played off as a joke, but if byleth had ever believed it was entirely a joke, he was stupider than sylvain ever could have guessed. “what if i told you.. that was nothing. what if the me now is someone who killed dozens without mercy, without caring who was innocent or guilty, all for my own selfish desires? what if i told you i made a man, already defeated, choose between gouging out his eyes or tearing out his tongue?” he paused a moment, his voice had gone low as he spoke, all pretense dropped, but he took a moment for another drink of tea anyway.

“That’s not very nice. You shouldn’t do that anymore.” Byleth said, his eyes not changing at all. He supposed those words were disgusting, that they should have made his blood run cold, but his blood was already frozen in his veins due to a heart that did not beat. All Byleth felt was a little bit sad, that Sylvain who was already burdened when they first met, added so many more sins to his burdens. 

“They called me a demon. I killed. For money.  Over and over again no expression crossing my face. I felt nothing. What you did for the past five years, I did my entire life.”

Dorothea once told him he did not show any weaknesses. Because, Byleth had never left that battlefield. He saw no reason to show any in front of others. They could be enemies tomorrow. 

But Sylvain who always lied, who always forced himself to put on a smile was now being honest with Byleth. Byleth wanted to return that feeling, however he could. 

“But then you called me professor, instead of demon. So... if you’ve done all that then I’ll call you by your name.” 

A breath.  “Sylvain.”

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

To walk by your side….words he’d said in passing, though it had only been but a few months ago that he uttered those words to Byleth, wasn’t it? It was haunting to ear them out of him with this visage, when he wouldn’t know why they had been spoken to him.

He flinched a bit at the pinching, but only because he was being pinched.

“I…I may be alive, but…for many years, the only company I had was the commune of the dead. I was barely alive, as it were. I don’t believe you should be asking your worth to walk beside a living corpse. To exist is simple, to truly live perhaps not so much.”

His gut churned at saying those words, and it felt…odd to say them, and they didn’t seem quite right, yet, even if that’s how he felt. Maybe at this point they were both living corpses but…also living corpses that were made to feign life in different circumstances. 

“What are you trying to get at, with these words?”

Byleth wondered if he had said those words wrong. If he said them with the wrong emotions. If Dimitri thought they were insincere. Is that why he made such a face? 

Byleth was terrible at putting his feelings into words. He was also terrible at being any kind of delicate. He could tell even now, Dimitri was fragile. He was so, so worried about saying the wrong thing. Dimitri would never even know how much he thught about that, because his endless thoughts sank to the bottom of the ocean in his eyes and he never displayed any of those feelings.

So he just blurted it out. 

“Yeah, but your heart still beats. So you’re only metaphorically a walking corpse. I’m a real one. My heart... doesn’t...”

His eyes that always kept something hidden, were vividly transparent in that moment as he stared into Dimitri’s. 

“I feel like I’m dead, all the time. I’m not... human, in the same sense that you are. I don’t feel...” 

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

The words of the other have been on his mind since he heard them. Rhea did something to her–probably to them as a whole. But Dimitri didn’t really know much of anything–just that one day, Byleth would split the very sky open, hair washed of color, and assume the role Rhea left.

Like watching flower bloom and close, it was the sort of thing that wasn’t quite apparent until it was observed in retrospect. 

As it was now. 

He didn’t catch all of what Byleth said to him but…he caught what he was probably intended to catch. How did one…look alive? For a moment he didn’t really know if he had an answer, but maybe a man haunted for as long as he was was precisely the person to ask, even if Byleth didn’t know it.

“…You’re here, and I can touch you,” Dimitri said, placing a hand on his shoulder, aware of the curvature of Byleth’s armor under his hand. Solid, grounding. This was real, not an imagined sensation. “And I can feel that. So In that respect, you’re alive to me.”

He looked at him eye-to-eye for a moment, his gaze drifting off to the rest of the city beyond. “Things that aren’t alive to me are there, all the time. But they slip through my fingers if I try to get too close, or try to reach out. And sometimes the living….their mind isn’t there, and it’s consumed by something beyond them.”

His gut churned a bit; it was all so peculiar to be this open with Byleth specifically about all this. Would he respond any differently to him, knowing this? 

“But that’s neither here nor there. Why do you ask…?”

If Byelth was a flower.  He was a flower that bloomed from a corpse.  He knew this, dead things, buried in the ground, no longer moving, no longer living, no sleeping and no dreaming. Those were what made goo fertilizer so that flowers could grow. 

Byleth did not understand himself well, but he thought there was someone who would always be able to understand him. The first person to trust him, the first person to smile him, the person who made me, me. He was Byleth, because his students called him by that name. It did not matter how far they were apart in space or time Dimitri would understand Byleth. 

That was what he hoped. that was why he never wanted to lose sight of Dimitri, either. “It’s really that easy - being alive...?” He reached out and suddenly grabbed one of Dimitri’s cheek, pinching it, the same way someone would pinch themselves to check if they were sleeping. “Then you’re alive, good.” 

As usual Byleth responded to all of Dimitri’s words in his own way. Dimitri always spoke with so much emotion in his voice, Byleth hoped one day he would understand other people enough to return even a fraction of that.

His eyes gazed back at Dimitri, ponderously. Blue eyes, a cold, cold color, lacking in the warmth of life. “What you see are people’s souls, right? Something inside the body that makes them alive, that leaves the body when they died. Humans are heart, soul, and emotions given flesh. But... if somebody was lacking in all of those things, would you still consider them alive? Alive enough to walk by your side?” 

[demonofash-blog]

@exaliant

There were ripples in Byleth’s blue eyes. He stared at Dimitri’s back and realized how massive it had become. It was like a wall between them. The student he used to be able to easily grab by the shoulders and get his attention, had grown taller, and grown away from him. 

Dimitri was always his student, but sometimes it he did not think he was worthy to be Dimitri’s teacher anymore. The professor Dimitri had known would have never left him alone for five years. He would be able to understand him the way he was now. Byleth bit his lips, as he forced those emotions down, as if he was trying to drown them. 

“Dimitri...” Byleth spoke up in a quiet voice. They agreed they would both learn about each other, stay together now to make up for the time they were apart. However Byleth did not know where to start. He mumbled something about having a question to Dimitri, and then after quiet thought blurted out of nowhere. “Do I look alive to you?” 

Byleth hid things too. He hid as much as Dimitri did. That was why he wanted to show just a little bit of what was inside of him. 

[demonofash-blog]

terribletornado‌:

Tatsumaki’s berating could have continued all day. There were truly very few things that she despised than being considered a child, just like this man had done. Perhaps even villains and monsters ranked lower than this particular grievance. So, she continued to shout, not caring that other people had stopped to stare. 

Yet upon being touched by this stranger again, she went into silent shock.

“…”

The people that were staring soon moved on, thinking the two of them to be nothing more than a parent and child (or even siblings). Sitting atop his shoulders, Tatsumaki didn’t even know what to say. How could such anger be expressed through simple words?

“You…”

“I’m really going to murder you.”

A shame, since she couldn’t actually do so– even if she had the physical abilities to do so, murdering civilians was against her moral code as a hero. However, she spoke with true intent, even if there was nothing to back up her threat.

“Killing is rude.”

He really was just trying to help. Byleth tried to review his actions, but he could not think of a single thing he had done to make somebody else angry. Not that he understood other people’s anger all that well to begin with. 

He removed her from his shoulders and pinched his eyebrows. That slight change in his face was the only way he could convey the emotion he felt. For a normal person it would have been the equivalent of screaming in another person’s face. 

All he could manage was looking a little upset. He put her down in front of him, and looked into her eyes. His blue, her green. 

“Did anybody teach you manners? Fine, I’ll be your teacher.” 

[demonofash-blog]

bienaimee‌:

★★　　it was exactly what he’d expected to hear. dimitri has always been this way, and byleth wasn’t entirely wrong. at his core, dimitri was the same. at his core, sylvain was the same too. that didn’t mean they were anywhere near the people they had once been. sylvain didn’t answer immediately, focusing on the tea instead, and when it was finished brewing he brought it to the coffee table in front of byleth and sat down in a chair opposite with a smile. “a shame i can’t give you a proper tea party, but it’s better than nothing.”

“you really think he’s the same, huh? of course that part of him is always gonna be there, nothing could make dimitri feel less intensely, but..” sylvain’s features were soft, disarming. how quickly would he go for the throat? he hadn’t decided yet. “you’ve missed a lot, you know? it’s not your fault that you don’t know who we are anymore, what we’ve done, where we’ve been. what, six, seven years total? that’s a lot to not know. i don’t think a single one of us is the same cute student you used to dote on.”

the tea was still too hot, but he took a long drink anyway, ignoring the burning down his throat. “what are you gonna do, if you end up not liking us anymore? if we became someone you can’t accept?”

Byleth felt eyes upon him, like a predator looking for weakness. But that was fine. Sylvain was his student. He would never see his student as his enemy. If Sylvain hated him, Byleth did not know what he was supposed to do. He did not even really understand the feeling of hatred. A little bit like, what I felt for that girl...

Then what could he do? His deep blue eyes,  they trembled like troubled waters as he thought. Byleth stared into the ripples of his coffee. Ah. He did not even realize his hand was shaking. He must have been feeling a lot right now. “Sylvain, you understand people so well...” 

Byleth voice his praise softly. That much was obvious from how much thought he had put into this. “I can’t understand people because I’m not...” He thought all of the students, even if they were to lose control like Dimitri did were far more human than he was, but he had a hard time putting that into words. “But even if I can’t understand, I can accept. That’s what I want. To try to accept them.”

Because they once accepted me. He could not say that part either. 

[demonofash-blog]

cetraborn‌:

        when she was surrounded by such a variety of seed packets and fully grown flowers in the particular flower shop within the market, it had almost felt like bliss to her. her eyes had been unable to pull away from the view given the smells they were giving off that she could sense so clearly. it was easy to get distracted on this island after everything that happened within her previous life but an island so different from gaia, midgar… how could she not be excited? 

it was not hard to recognize the boy next to her, who just so happened to take interest in the same flower, with the air of mystery surrounding those pair of blue eyes. aerith might even say that she had taken interest after a brief stare as she turned her head. 

“those pink and purple orchids? do you like these particular flowers? i heard the blue orchids are quite rare these days. i’m surprised that they’re selling here.” if he wanted it, she had no qualms with finding different flowers to purchase. “those blue orchids i think would suit you well, so i think you should definitely look into purchasing it!” her excitement in contrast with his deadpan voice. 

while it was rather easy to tell what someone was thinking, this boy in particular was different– part of her wanted to press on to see what he was thinking. she turns her body, until her face was completely facing his. “are you perhaps interested in gardening? it’s hard to tell since there’s practically zero emotion on your face, y’know.”

“Really? But everyone tells me I am too loud and emotional.” 

He said in a quiet monotone. 

“I’m wild.” 

Joke.

It was difficult to tell because his tone of voice or face did not alter in any way as he told the joke. His blue eyes watched her, and wondered how a person could ever be so expressive. She was like a flower swaying in the breeze, all of her, her face, her body, her hands, they moved carrying her emotions. 

She must get tired. 

Blue eyes. Cold eyes. A chilling voice. If aerith was a flower than Byleth was the snowfall come to suffocate the flower. He felt like he was boring her. He wished he could smile as easily as he could. All he could do was slightly tilt his head in one direction, his hair falling over his shoulder. “I garden. Alone. It’s quiet.” 

The girl in front of him gave him a strange feeling. He was sure she was his polar opposite. Friendly, approachable, always smiling, and yet he got a similiar feeling from her, like someone who knew what it was like to be alone. “...You?” 

[demonofash-blog]

bienaimee‌:

★★　　“dimitri?” his voice was light, curious, but the second his eyes landed on his former professor, hair that old deep blue, they were taking him apart. his sharp examination was softened by his easy smile and casual shrug, “his roommates probably sent you this way, huh? they were right to, he’s over here all the time– just not right now.”

he didn’t know how urgent byleth’s business with dimitri was, or how urgent it even could be in a place like this, but he didn’t particularly care either; his arm was already looped half around the professor’s shoulders, pulling him inside with all the ease to make it seem like it had been byleth’s own idea. “but while you’re here, we have to catch up. it’s been years! you’ve missed so much!”

leading byleth to the living room couch he moved further in to the kitchen, “i’ll make us some tea, nothing like back home but it’s not bad.” as he fiddled around to do as he said, he glanced back at byleth over his shoulder– watching.

“so. dimitri. he’s changed, huh?” maybe it was a bit cliche, to give his professor a test.

//// @demonofash​

The last time he talked to Sylvain, the boy said in a low voice barely above a whisper that he hated Byleth, and laughed it off as a joke. Alll Byleth felt was a little empty, he did not know what the truth was but either way, he could not respond to Sylvain’s hatred, or laugh with him when he told a joke. 

Sylvain must have been lonely. That was all Byleth thought, perhaps if he had a more developed sense of self he would have been capable of understanding what Sylvain felt. Perhaps he would have known what to say instead of silently listening as always. 

His blue eyes had followed the boy in red all this time, but he had been too deep in thought to speak. He probably looked like, he was not even listening. When Sylvain asked him that suddenly, his eyes widened slightly. 

“Dimitri was... he always those held feelings inside of him. Too many feelings. Too much. Don’t you think?” Dimitri and his bleeding heart, always so full it might burst, might overflow, Byleth considered the prince his opposite.

Byleth’s face quietly started to pout. “I miss tea parties.”

[allcapsisola]

YOU’RE NOT A BURDEN. NOT TO ME.

- (m) byleth ( @demonofash )

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

“Please, don’t worry about it. I…I don’t know what happened either, I assumed you disappeared in the rubble as the Adestrian forces began to press onward.”

He could never blame Byleth, even when he was at his worst, he always assumed it was how Dedue had gone, an assumed sacrifice. it had nothing to do with abandoning him. Knowing he was a mercenary, too intimate with death, didn’t change this much.

(In fact, it didn’t really change anything, they both had blood on their hands at this point.)

“I’d beg to differ. You put a lot of care into training us…even if you didn’t look much the part. If you grow up around things….you get used to it. You were simply just used to death.” It admittedly…felt rather awkward to reach out and comfort him when they were like this, Byleth still very much in the mind of a teacher. The most he could do is simply offer a small smile, a kind gaze. “In Fodlan–especially Faerghus, it’s a very rather unavoidable, really.”’

 “I’m sorry I don’t know what future me was thinking when he left you behind.” Byleth was not used to talking to Dimitri like this. Before the boundary had always been clear between them as Teacher and student. Not only that, but Dimitri himself always seemed to be wearing a mask around him. 

He was hiding something, Byleth knew that. He thought it must have been lonely behind his mask, afraid anybody would accept him. He was sure the Byleth that Dimitri knew was someone who he had let his mask down around, but right now he was practically a stranger who did not know about this side of him. But, all Byleth could do was stay by his side. “I probably thought, I want to keep living by his side.” 

As a teacher, a friend, anything was fine. He wanted to be around the people who made him feel human, even when he was not. The thought that their homes, the way they grew up, was at least a little bit similar made him feel like a connection was there. At one point they were both children lost in ashes. As long as he could keep following that thread, he would find his way back. “You’re like me... a little. I hope I didn’t teach you any of my bad habits.” 

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

He was…he couldn’t smile, not like he used to.

His hands weren’t warm, like they were that night, in the rain.

Words couldn’t come just yet; he could only just think about that response, and how different it was. It was incredible to have seen how far he’d come, knowing him here in this state for only such a brief period. How did the goddess’ blessing affect him so profoundly? 

“Well…good…I’m glad I’m not a burden…There’s a lot of things to cover; so much happens in five years. You’ll smile for real, for one,” Dimitri looked him in the eyes, hopeful. Maybe knowing that will bring Byleth some optimism. Maybe. “But I’ve killed many. I thought Edelgard to be responsible for a lot of wrongs in the world, and one of her sympathizers ended up on the throne in Faerghus…she tried to get me executed, and after that…I thought I lost Dedue for good, and with you gone…I….

I’ve taken so many lives, Professor. They all pain me so,” He turned to the void of the hole and…while he doesn’t want to slide in he thinks of all the people that would probably want him to go in there, to never return. Those who like him, could only know closure in death.

Byleth shook his head suddenly. Seeing Dimitri’s guilt just reminded him of the boy who felt so much for others and nothing at all for himself. Ever since Dimitri first smiled at him, Byleth had wanted to protect that boy’s kindness, knowing he was much too kind for a world like this. The fact that he failed made his lips turn down into a slight frown. 

“I... left you all alone?” Byleth could only see that as his failure as a teacher. It was no surprise Dimitri was lost, they were both like that, useless on their own. Byleth especially, he was barely human. That was why he had wanted to stay by his side for as long as he could. “I’m... a killer.” 

Byleth said suddenly, immediately thinking of what he could say to comfort Dimitri. Jareth always patted him on the head, but Byleth rarely needed comfort to begin with. When his father... it was Dimitri who comforted him... “They called me the ash demon. I didn’t care about anybody, living or dead. I killed without feeling a thing, because there’s not a drop of kindness inside of me.” 

Byleth never remembered talking this much about his past before. Perhaps it was because, Dimitri was here he was able to speak so clearly. “You care... about the dead... that’s why you’re so kind.” 

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

Everything–?

His throat got kind of dry, and Dimitri subconsciously gripped the hair on the back of his head with enough force he could feel it in his scalp. His brain was empty aside from that one word, the whole spaghetti-hair thing leaves in the wind at that point.

It was an arduous task, recounting five years of history since lost to Byleth…he wasn’t even sure if he could manage it. Goddess, could he even pull it off–one look at his face and he decided. He had to, he had to try. (He was kind of heartbroken that Byleth had to force his mouth up like that, honestly…)

He was doing a terrible job at trying to keep a distance from those who didn’t have to witness the horrors of time marching on, but he’d already found him out….

“I can try,” his words caught a little on the grain of his throat, yet, and his voice became serious, but not harsh. “Listen….what I have to tell you, I hope you won’t think any less of me when you these things. I…I still don’t know if I can be forgiven. It’s not your load to bear, so please don’t think of it as such,” He took his hand from his nape and sat down on the crater’s edge, gesturing to Byleth to sit with him, trying his best to look welcoming. “If you still want to hear, then get comfortable, It’d be rude of me to make you spend all this time catching up standing.”

“I.. can’t smile...why not...?” 

Byleth suddenly reached a hand to Dimitri’s face as if he were trying to trace the features and memorize them for himself. The face of a person so different from Byleth, filled with so many wonderful things while Byleth was empty. 

“It’s probably... loneliness... I miss you ... that sort of feeling.” 

The people who made me, me. That was what Byleth considered his students to be. Losing them felt like losing parts of himself. That was why he wanted to gather up all the scattered pieces again and paint a portrait of him and Dimitri. 

Byleth noticed there was nowhere to sit, so he just sat down right where they were standing. He was never one for common sense. His cape draped at his shoulders, and he patted the spot next to him for Dimitri to sit down if he wanted. 

He had no idea what to say about Dimitri’s warning so he just quietly reassured him. “You’re not a burden. Not to me.” 

[demonofash-blog]

terribletornado‌:

Tatsumaki was minding her own business, running errands. She was a responsible adult after all, who had responsible and adult-like things to do. So, naturally, she did not expect to be touched and addressed so suddenly by a stranger.

“…”

Tilting her head back at this man, it was clear that Tatsumaki was now consumed with unfathomable rage.

“You bastard…”

“Just what do you think you’re doing?!”

Her petite frame suddenly surged upward, so now that Tatsumaki was the one looking down upon the man.

“Who are you, walking around touching people? Are you some sort of pervert? I should crush you where you stand!”

Oh, if only she could.

Tatsumaki held nothing back in her sudden berating– once her anger had been ignited, there was little anyone could do to stop her.

“Please don’t kill me. I like being alive.” 

Byleth replied. He knew usually when you were being threatened you were supposed to cower in fear, but he himself was referred to as a fearless demon. It was not that he never felt fear, he just did not know how to show it. 

Even if he wanted to shake, his body was as still as a stone statue, his eyes were clear pools of water without even a single ripple in them. 

Byleth felt the same we he did when Sothis lectured him. He had no idea what he had done to set her off, but he would like if it was possible to apologize. If only to stop all the noise. 

He searched for some way to surrender to the tiny tyrant in front of him. “I’m sorry for calling you small, here...” Byleth suddenly picked her up and raised her into the air on top of his shoulders. “Now you’re tall. All better.” 

[demonofash-blog]

enthronize‌:

     “Gee, way to make a girl feel great. I do not understand      how you are so popular when you’re quite blunt and rude!”

Ah, but maybe she shouldn’t speak, considering all the times she’s called him a fool and his students children or brats or something related to that. But, at the same time, she knows that this is their relationship - he is the quiet one, she does most of the talking, and somehow they manage to work together. Again, perhaps Byleth likes how loud she can get. It’s a reminder that not everything is silent and lonely.

Such a lonely existence, Byleth leads. He may have his father and the band of mercenaries he is a part of, but it’s still lonely. Byleth was always the strange one… at least, that’s what she can guess. She doubted a lot of his companions thought highly of an emotionless swords man who speaks so little. Sothis can’t help but feel the guilt inside of her wrack up, as though she was responsible for all of his hardships.

But, that is neither here nor there for now. She stood under the umbrella, cursing the hot cement under her bare soles. Nodding at his words, she looks ahead.

     “We may not like the sun, but it grants us warmth      and light, while the moon grants us shade and tides      of the oceans. The two cannot exist without the other.      But, I’ll save that story for later. Come now, let us      depart… that way!”

And she points in a random direction.

“Maybe it’s because I’m good looking.” 

Just a joke. Byleth could not imagine anybody seeing anything in him. He must have looked like nothing to them. Though, it was probably worse for Sothis who was invisible all the time. 

“If I insult you, you get upset. If I compliment you, you get upset. How difficult.” 

Byleth sighed like he was dealing with a particularly troublesome student. Though he doubted Sothis had anything to learn from him. She was always guiding him instead. He doubted the secret to her identity would be in this city either, so he was practically useless to her now. 

Byleth followed her finger and wondered if Sothis had any idea where she was going, or she was pretending to be confident. Either way he decided to go along with her. 

He followed for a little bit and then. 

“Wait.” Byleth stopped at another stand and bought (stole) a pair of sandals. He thought of a good lie to tell the store owner. “My daughter’s feet are burning, please... She might cry.” 

He offered the sandals to Sothis feeling like he had done something useful for once. “Hmm, do you need food? Wait, do you eat food?” Now he was just acting like a grandparent spoiling their grandaughter. 

[demonofash-blog]

exaliant‌:

He was caught rather off-guard by the comment; touching his hair himself idly as Byleth brought it up. He actually hadn’t thought of it; he must’ve looked so haggard to him in this state. 

But to trim it off…it didn’t seem quite right either. 

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ve gotten a bit used to it looking like this,” He gave a small laugh, strands tousled around the fingers he was rubbing his own scalp with. “Besides, are you sure you want me to go back to that hairstyle I had back then? I remember a few offhand comments about pasta regarding it.”

Comments he’d taken in stride,honestly, but they’d still come up. Was Byleth even aware of it?

He gave a little sigh, turning to look at him a bit more; a hint of a lopsided, bashful smile on his face. Even if things right now were a bit…odd, it was nice to talk to him again. His guidance had pulled him out of a rough spot more than once…he didn’t know if he’d need that help again. But the line was there, waiting to be tugged on if he needed to be brought back from falling too deep…

Byleth worried he had said something wrong. He was tactless as usual. If only he could just, talk to people, and understand them. He had no idea why he was such a failure at what other human beings did so naturally. He always knew there was something unnatural about him...

But Dimitri accepted him. That was why Byleth wanted to accept the boy in front of him as well. If he could not do it in words, then he would try to put him at ease with actions or maybe... a smile. “I remember that I wanted to laugh back then-” Byleth said, before quickly adding. “Hey, don’t pout, I thought you wanted to see me smile?” 

He hid his sincere words with his usual insincere joking around. Byleth tried to smile, but his face was too still. His eyes fell downcast for a moment. Then, he forced himself, putting a finger on each cheek and pulling his lips into a smile. 

“It’s alright, you’re still Dimitri so...” Byleth’s words got caught in his throat. “I want to learn everything about you, this time teach me.” 

[demonofash-blog]

enthronize‌:

     “Loud… Am I truly that loud?”

Now she was feeling a little self conscious. Did Byleth hate to loudness? He was always so silent, maybe he preferred it that way? No… No, Sothis knew that it was the opposite. He was distressed at it. He was distressed at not being able to communicate like everyone else, to feel in a way that others had felt. She knew this. She had felt it.

They were kindred spirits, after all. Living inside a person meant that you understood them a little more than others did.

The shade of his cloak was rather nice. The sun was beating down on her. The warmth felt nice on her skin, of course, but at the same time she was starting to get sick of it. The tiny girl shuffled close to the male, only huffing when he began to treat her like a child again.

     “I may be small, but I can easily yell for you if I am in need      of assistance. But, let us get out of this heat. I, for one, am      starting to get sun sickness from it. I had almost forgotten      what it was like to feel the sun on my skin… I do not know      how you and your students can stand it!”

“Yes.” 

Byleth answered, rather rudely. Not that he meant anything by it. It made his head feel a little less empty to hear a voice inside of it, even if it was somebody else’s voice and not his own. 

“You’re the loud one, and I’m the quiet one. It works.” 

He had no wish to part ways now or say goodbye to their little arrangement just yet. In fact it was a little bit lonely. They used to be two as one, and one as two. Byleth’s only constant companion before this had been his father, and faceless mercenaries. His father was the only one in the world who cared if he lived or died. Therefore, his life or death did not matter much. That was what he thought. 

It was comforting, to have someone continually nag him about how little he seemed to care about his own life. Then, he wanted to do the same for her. She was separate from him now, her own person, so she had to remember her life too.

He stopped by a stand and dropped his entire wallet because he did not know the currency for this place. He picked up one of the umbrellas they were selling. He might have just stolen it. 

He opened it above Sothis and held it over her head. “I don’t like the sun much either.” 

[demonofash-blog]

enthronize‌:

     “Goodness, so sentimental once more. But… I am happy      to hear that you think… fondly of me. B-But don’t think of      yourself as high and mighty just because!”

A finger was pointed in his direction, along with a huff. It dropped once he confirmed that he’s run into a few of his students, the ones that Sothis had also seen. It was both relieving to see that they were alright ( perhaps she had grown attached to them because of Byleth ), but also worrying. 

Just what was going on? Why were they were? Was this the will of their so called ‘goddess’? Did she bring them here, or was it an outside force entirely? There was so much to think about, so much to consider. All of those thoughts were interrupted when there was a poke of her cheek, the main culprit being Byleth himself.

     “A-Are you a child?! Geeze, of course I’m real! I could      have simply told you that myself! Still, I suppose seeing      you in high spirits is a good thing…But we must remember      the task at hand - we need to figure out just where we      are, and who is behind this. The Archbishop is not here      to give you an assignment, so I will do that in her place!”

“Of course I think, I’m just not as loud as you are.” 

Her words often were louder than even his own thoughts inside of his head. Byleth did not mind too much, he would be empty otherwise. He was silence, and that was why he despised it so much. 

Byleth had not thought much about their situation, far too wrapped up in the small girl in front of him ordering him around. He stopped himself from poking her any further and stood tall over her. Byleth picked up his cloak and held it over her so she would not get the glare from the sun in her eyes. 

Are you a child? Byleth gave a flat response. “No, I’m a teacher.” It would be bad if a child taught other children, Sothis should know that, but then again she had amnesia. He wondered if this was really him in high spirits, but then again a small twitch of his lips was the equivalent of somebody else breaking out into loud laughter. He looked out to the crowd of people much taller than Sothis. “I’m always relying on you.” He said nodding, agreeing to take her orders. “Stay close. You could get lost. You are much smaller when you’re not on your throne.”

Now he was the one treating her like a child.