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Byleth grits her teeth as she carries Dimitri on her back, his feet dragging against the dirt and head leaning on the back of her neck. Using his lance as a crutch, she moves with purpose towards the hidden cavern a few ways back. She can’t stop now, not with pursuers hot on their heels.
He was completely and utterly reckless, charging into a horde of enemies, especially in such a dense forest. Far from their main forces, Byleth continued after Dimitri and did her best to reduce the number of enemies separating the two of them.
And that was when she saw the hidden soldier in the brushes. The man rushed out from his spot, an ax raised high as he swings down toward Dimitri’s head. Byleth’s blood runs cold as she readies her body for a divine pulse, hands raised with magic tingling at the fingertips.
Either by a stroke of luck or the reflexes honed from all those years of fighting, Dimitri narrowly avoids being cleaved in half. With a fist, he smashes the tomahawk blade and twists to grab at the soldier’s head—fingers digging into the man’s skull. A cruel smile on his face as he squeezes, the Imperial soldier howling in agony as he futilely claws at the hand ebbing away at his life.
The man’s arms fall lifelessly to his sides, but Dimitri continues to squeeze, set on crushing the dead soldier’s skull. “Dimitri!” Byleth yells, forcing her legs to move quicker. She’s a few paces away until she sees another Imperial soldier—bleeding from a fatal slash in his front from Dimitri’s lance—come up from his blind spot. “On your right!” She shouts, her hands letting loose the energy gathered at her fingertips, but the man has already swung down on Dimitri’s head with his broken sword.
A split-second maneuvering comes from Dimitri. The jagged end of the blade misses but the blunted hilt slams into his temple, causing him to drop the lifeless soldier and stagger back. The energy finds its mark and rips through the man, his dying scream echoing in the forest as he falls to the ground with a heavy thud. Byleth comes up to Dimitri, breathing ragged as she holds his arm to catch her breath. “Dimitri, let me see.” She pants.
He yanks away from her touch, stumbling from the motion, “Do not touch me.” He growls.
“I saw the hit connect, hard, let me—”
“Cease your incessant yammering, I’ve no time for your concern.”
Anger begins to swell through her, why was he being so stubborn? “Dimitri, let me see,” She repeats in a hard tone. “We’re deep in enemy territory and you’re hurt. I know a blow like that could be worse if left unchecked.” She reaches out, hands glowing with the telling signs of a recovery spell before Dimitri swats away her hand.
“I do not need your help,” He snarls out. “I’ve come this far without it.” His piercing blue eye, unfocused, as he slightly stumbles when attempting to walk. Byleth ignores the sharp sting in her chest and tries again. This time Dimitri grabs her wrist with an iron grip, her gauntlet creaking from the pressure.
“Don’t,” He glares, the intensity boring holes into her. They stare at each other in what feels like mere moments, a faraway look in his eye, before muttering, “...don’t waste your energy.” His grip loosens just enough for her to pull away. She doesn’t.
Byleth silently stands there, unmoving. The look in his eye, as if he’s looking past her and not actually at her; a look she’s seen many times during his nights in the Cathedral, one that doesn’t register her being there. Anger soon gives way to a steady ache in her chest. In the distance, she hears the call of enemy stragglers.
They’re at a disadvantage here, surrounded by all sides, and with Dimitri injured it’d be difficult to make their way out. “Dimi—” She starts but his body falls towards her. Byleth frantically spreads her arms to catch him, the heavy pressure of his weight bearing down on her.
Fear consumes her as she calls his name, arms wrapped around his body to support him upright. He groans and Byleth lets out a relieved sigh before frustration takes its place. If he wasn’t so stubborn... and had she been more resolute, she would’ve ignored his refusal for healing and this could have been avoided.
“I heard them over here!” She hears in the distance as apprehension takes hold. She’s unsure of the number of enemy reinforcements approaching and with Dimitri unconscious, protecting them both herself would be difficult.
Byleth turns her body. She pulls Dimitri’s arms around her neck and has him draped on her back. They passed a cavern somewhere, she’ll hide him there and divert the enemy’s attention to her. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to dispatch them all and return to his side. If not then…
Byleth finds the cave soon enough, placing Dimitri down gently on the ground with his lance a ways apart. Luckily, the cave’s deeper than she thought since one wouldn’t be able to glimpse inside from the entrance. Still, on her way out, she’ll make sure to camouflage the entry enough for Dimitri to stay hidden.
Byleth stares at his sleeping face, no longer creased in pain. She did the best she could to heal his head injure. Once they returned to their main forces, she’ll have Mercedes give a more in-depth examination, along with tending the wound. He would be fine, she assured herself; however fine he could be these days.
She absently roams her hand in the pouch around her waist, nearly empty after using what she could on Dimitri. Resolved on her next move, Byleth gently traces the lines of his jaw.
"I'll be back." She whispers.
If Dimitri didn’t care for her being here, then that was fine. She could live with that pain. She was here now and she’d make sure he’d make it out of this alive, make it out of this war, alive. And she’d make it back to him, even if her body was broken in the process.
Dimitri wakes to the sound of pained gasps. When he opens his eye, his head’s throbbing with a painful headache. He stares up blearily at an unfamiliar sight; gray stones covering the ceiling, cold gravel beneath him where he laid, and light coming in from one direction—the exit he assumes. It seems he was in a cave of some sort. He slowly sits up, the pounding in his head amplifying from the shift.
He surveys his surroundings. The cloak he wore was blanketed over his body while unconscious, his lance off to the far wall—empty vials scattered around it, and a tunnel from where the light was coming from. He sluggishly rises to his feet, careful to lessen the burden his head was facing.
He walks a few yards, using the light as a guide from the cave’s winding path, and comes across the entrance—covered by branches and vegetation to block the pathway in. A last-minute attempt to obscure the entrance, no doubt.
He recalls the battle before he lost consciousness. He pursued the enemy into the forest, rage filling every fiber of his being. A shouted warning from the professor, pain blooming from his head and his refusal for her help, then darkness.
Whenever Byleth was near, Dimitri could feel himself falter. Her very presence shook his desire for revenge, no, his desire to grant the dead their reprieve. All because of their time together during Garreg Mach. He scoffed. He faced worse injures than whatever he had sustained in that battle, had survived worse. Some small part of him was glad she was never there to see his descent into the blood-stained monster he now became. He was already teetering on the edge all those years ago at the academy.
Now that she saw what he truly was, why was the woman still concerning herself with him? It infuriated him. If she was there because she believed him to be the boy he used to be, she was sorely mistaken. The boy was dead, he had already told her as much, and in his place was a monster who wore his face.
Dimitri scowled. Where was the professor? The only person who could have hidden him away would’ve been her, seeing as she was the one who followed after him, but she wasn’t anywhere near when he’d woken up. Then that could only mean she went to dispose of the rats herself after hiding him away. Dimitri clicked his tongue. Why does she insist on protecting him? After the numerous things he’s said to her, he couldn’t fathom why she would still linger.
Dimitri heard that pained gasping again. Narrowing his eye, he looks towards the darkened corner where the cave’s wall met with the foliage. There laid the professor’s crumpled form with scrapes and cuts covering her face and arms. A broken arrow protruded from her thigh—a trail of blood trickling down from the injury, her signature tights ripped and tattered, and her beautiful face which had held a slight pink hue was now ashen-colored.
His eye widened in panic, how did he miss her?
Dimitri made his way and knelt beside Byleth, squashing the frantic urge to cradle her injured form out of his mind. If she hadn’t made a sound, he would’ve overlooked her completely, huddled in the shadows as she was. “What happened?” He says with a leveled tone, but he couldn’t rid the concern edging his voice. Byleth slowly opens her eyes, the pupils dimmed with fatigue, stares at him with a blank look, and stays silent.
His eye flits to the injury on her thigh, his gaze hardening. "I'm going to pull this out," Dimitri says gruffly as he grabs hold of the broken end of the arrow. “Steel yourself.” Thankfully, the arrowhead wasn’t deep nor did it puncture anything vital... He still needed her if he wished to make it to Enbarr.
Yes, that’s why he felt relieved, nothing more…
What he considered enough time, Dimitri quickly pulls the offending quarrel out. Byleth merely grunts, body jolting from the pain, but otherwise didn’t complain or say much else. He applied pressure to the wound, rummaging through the pouch she wore around her waist for vulneraries. Dimitri knew she’d carry at least a handful, but there wasn’t anything resembling the healing tonic in her pouch.
He frowned. Where were they?
It was then he remembered the empty vials scattered near his weapon when he woke.
So she used what she had on him.
No matter.
Dimitri bent forward, mouth clasped over the open wound, and sucked. Byleth gave a hiss of pain as her hand darted out to weakly push at his shoulder. “St… op,” she hoarsely rasped.
Dimitri ignored her plea and continued. A few moments later, he pulls off, spitting what was in his mouth onto the ground. He gazed at Byleth while wiping whatever blood trickled down his chin. She returned his stare, though with furrowed brows and mouth open as if to speak.
“Quiet,” was all he said. “Whatever nonsense you’re about to say, save it. Better wasted on recovering your strength.” He tore a sliver of cloth from inside her pouch for a makeshift gauze, wrapping it securely around her wound.
“Right now, you’re dead weight. I need you alive if I have any chance of reaching that woman.” He said lowly.
Byleth's eyes were sunken as she slowly blinks, a sad smile on her lips. She doesn't say anything, only closing those eyes that once sparkled with life. Now they appeared dull—not quite unlike her gaze when they first met in Remire.
Dimitri shifts so his back faced the wall and he sat behind her. He reaches out but hesitates. Then with a gentle touch, he began to move her body into a comfortable position, sitting her upright between his legs. He leans her back towards his chest, his right arm encircling her waist, as his left hand held his weapon. Byleth stirs a bit from the movement, head raised slightly to look at him.
“Sleep,” he commanded. Then as quietly as it was whispered, “...please.”
She remains silent while searching his face, her eyes flitting to his temple before landing back into his eye. Whatever she found, she made no move to comment. Byleth closed her eyes, leaning her head against his arm. Her pained gasps continued, but it wasn’t until her breathing came out at a steady pace did Dimitri begin to relax his body.
He turned his head to the light filtering in from the cave’s entrance. When the professor regained the strength to travel again, they would return back to the army; but should the enemy find them first—
Then, he would kill them all. Simple as that.
The dead demanded it of him, their voices pounding alongside his headache, urging him to quickly move towards the Imperial Capital—towards accomplishing their revenge. But for now…
He wouldn’t let them take her, to have her join the ranks of the specters shadowing his every move. During those years on the run, not once did she haunt him and she would not start now. He wouldn’t let that happen.
Dimitri rests his head on the side of Byleth’s, taking in the scent and warmth of her. He pulls her closer, his hold around her waist tightening. For now, he would wait and watch over the professor until it was time to move.
He closed his eye, lulled by the steady rhythm of her breathing.
Yes, for now, he would stay by her side.