I see plenty of posts about Blue Lions eagerly waiting for the Dimileth shoe to drop. But I raise you this: Friendly Neighborhood Shipper Gatekeeper.
That’s right, our friend the Friendly Gatekeeper is the ultimate Dimileth shipper.
Gatekeeper learned early on how to read Byleth’s stoic face, and has been able to tell even the tiniest details in their mood, I’m talking “Oh no! Professor’s eyebrows are .02% lower than before! The Professor must be super upset about something!”
Gatekeeper is a Byleth savant! He speaks Byleth and is the a professional Byleth translator. He got his degree in five minutes because that’s all it took after meeting Byleth for him to decide that they’re obviously #BFFs5Ever
So OF COURSE he’s going to notice if the Professor is slowly catching feelings for anyone. He probably realizes even before Byleth and he doesn’t have even half the context. But, *gasp*, it’s forbidden. A teacher and their student? Oh noooooo, it was never meant to BE!
Note he probably doesn’t even know WHO Byleth has feelings for because he never leaves that dumb gate. He just knows that his bestest friend is going through FORBIDDEN LOVE! (He refuses to believe they’re in love with someone in faculty because he would have heard rumors by now).
This is cause for drastic action!
Gatekeeper takes a day off.
Yes! A day off from guarding the gate!
This is a matter of life and death! His best friend needs him Goddess damn it all! He needs to do reconnaissance! For the professor! He needs to find the fiend that stole their heart and find a flaw in them so Byleth can move on!
Note that Byleth doesn’t even realize they’re catching feelings yet.
So Gatekeeper spends the whole day spying, looking for the despicable scum that wooed their best friend with their willy willy seductive ways. He’s stalking the professor the whole day and being totally obvious about it. Sorry Gatekeeper, everyone knows you’re hiding behind that bush. Byleth is just a good friend and not letting anyone call you out.
The Blue Lions all think the Gatekeeper is stalking Byleth. Felix offers to duel him. Ingrid just advises that Byleth report him to Seteth. Byleth, knowing that’s their bro, just tells the students it’s no concern and goes to see what the heck is going on. To which Gatekeeper, caught, does the only thing a man in his position can do and bursts out the whole truth through his tears. Bawling about how he knows about this seductive seducer that been trying to claim their heart with their fiendish ways, and how he was worried, and he wanted to make sure nothing happened to the professor because it’s his duty as their BFF to make sure that their heart remains unbroken.
The Blue Lions are…flabbergasted to say the least.
Then it’s full on panic mode because WHAT? What seductive seducer? Who is trying to steal Byleth’s heart?
And Gatekeeper is all like, “That’s what I was trying to find out!”
And now Gatekeeper has a class of baby lions basically spun into a panic thinking that there’s another Sylvain going around trying to seduce Byleth, only they’re a fiend out to purposely break their heart or something.
They’re pretty livid about the idea.
Gatekeeper is escorted out of the class by a mildly confused Byleth who promises to spend the day “mending their broken heart” with the Gatekeeper, leaving behind a very confused class, a Sylvain who wants to snoop because “what the fuck”, and a mildly jealous Dimitri. The incident isn’t forgotten, per se, but it’s brushed off.
By now Gatekeeper is much more protective of their friend, what with them having gone missing for five years. But he’s still able to read them like a book, and it’s only gotten easier with time and their growing emotions.
So it’s pretty easy to tell they’re head over heels.
He just doesn’t know with who.
Who would dare make them SAD!!!!!!?!?!
Be can’t take a day off to stop guarding like he used to, but he dang well keeps an eye open! He’s got them peeled, he’s watching everyone, he’s going to catch this fiendish fiend!
But whoever it is never shows up at the front gate with the professor. He just can’t seem to find them in the same room with them any other time either. And the professor is getting sadder and sadder, and even everything going well and having nothing to report is making them happy.
So Gatekeeper does the only thing he can.
He takes it upon himself to find someone else for the professor!
Now, love doesn’t just go away. It’s going to take some time to mend a broken heart, plant some seeds of romance, but he’s going to do it! In the name of friendship!
So he goes to the one person he thinks is as much Byleth’s friend as he is.
The professor spends a lot of time with him! And they’re always talking about them, and…and…
Gatekeeper is floored. Now it all makes sense! So much sense! The prince had been grumpy for months before that whole thing where he got better! Professor was always mentioning him! And..and..
So Gatekeeper, not a strong or powerful man, but filled with enough determination to fuel a Smash Competition, marches up to the Prince of Faerghus and just stares at him.
Poor Dimitri is so confused. He’s wondering what he did to piss off this guy, and if he accidentally killed his brother or something. He’s already moving to apologize, but Gatekeeper is already on him. Demanding to know his favorite foods, and color, and what does he finds romantic, and how he feels about dogs.
Dimitri is so fucking tired.
He’s so confused, but he just rolls with it because he’s newly on the atonement train and doesn’t wanna be an asshole, and figures this is just someone’s weird way of making sure he wasn’t going to kill everyone in the room and then himself.
Wanting to know his ideal date is strange though.
The convo actually takes a surprisingly heartwarming turn soon after though, when both men end up talking about Byleth and how much they mean to the both of them. Gatekeeper goes on about how Byleth is his best friend, and makes days guarding the gate seem like the most important job in the world, and Dimitri goes on about how without Byleth he’d still be lost. And suddenly they’re bonding over small things too, like chamomile tea, and lances, and fond memories they have of Garreg Mach. And, suddenly, Dimitri and Gatekeeper both have a new friend.
And Gatekeeper, after so long of Byleth friendship, has learned to notice when people are #Feeling and not noticing, and it’s pretty easy by the way Dimitri smiles when he says the professor’s name, and how he looks when he talks about them, and that tiny tiny smile that he’s pretty head over heels himself.
Gatekeeper quickly goes from over protective friend to rabid shipping fangirl watching their OTP on the fast track to becoming canon. He might squeal a bit when he gets back to his bunk that night. Every second of his life the next day is consumed by the mighty need to watch these two get married yesterday please.
His poor shipping heart can’t take it.
His eyes are on them whenever they walk by. He has to physically refrain from dying and mentioning how much they should kiss. He’s dying. Someone help this man.
He cries when they announce their engagement.
He gets to guard the wedding.
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
dededos
areudirty
