Chapter Text
'I've been looking everywhere for you!" There was one thing that the Emperor couldn't command, with armies or force of arms or the powers of her crest, and Edelgard wasn't sure if that fact was comforting or not.
"Couldn't stay too close. The patrols have been going further out."
Byleth was seated cross-legged on a boulder, her wings stretched out and tilted to better catch the evening sun. The dragon's wingspan took up half the tiny clearing, the delicate skin stretched between the bones of her wings shimmering with shifting moods of blue. Like the ocean, never quite the same shade from one day to the next. Edelgard tried very hard not to remember running her hands over them, the tiny scales at once smooth and pebbled like fine beadwork.
Once Edelgard looked she couldn't quite tear her eyes away. The dragon had curled horns like a ram, and her taloned feet flexed against the stone. When she glanced up, Edelgard could see her pupils draw to a thin slit in the bright daylight. Her face was almost human, if humans were beautiful in the way that stone carvings of the goddess were beautiful. Everything about Byleth - even the parts that superficially resembled a human - was so transparently removed from humanity.
The church would call Byleth one of the holy dragons, an emissary of the goddess, but all Edelgard could see was that crooked smile with a flash of fang. The divine briefly giving away to something quiet and soft and within her reach.
"What are you doing?" Edelgard asked, ducking under a wing to catch a glimpse of what was holding all of Byleth's attention.
"Flower chains." The large, coarse hands with their scales and claws were surprisingly clever at their work, weaving small wildflowers with larger blooms. "Got bored waiting."
Edelgard perched on the rock and leaned in to get a closer look. She recognized some of them from the imperial gardens - probably a fugitive from some long-abandoned homestead. Byleth hummed to herself, tail flicking against the ground in an irregular beat. Her hair was wilder than usual, and it took every ounce of Edelgard's self-control not to comb it out with her fingers. She focused on sinking into the quiet between them, the small refuge she allowed herself despite all the reasons she shouldn't.
She almost didn't notice Byleth turn, but she couldn't miss the garland dropping onto her head. Or the hands that hesitated just short of working it into place.
"Is this okay?"
Edelgard swallowed. "Yes. Of course."
At first Byleth was simply neatening it up, twining the flowers around Edelgard's crown. But somewhere along the line her touches started to linger, her gaze searching for disapproval. Edelgard only tilted her head, giving Byleth better access to the place her buns were secured.
Her hair fell down around her shoulders with only a little coaxing, claws scraping gently against her scalp drawing out a shiver. Byleth murmured an apology, but Edelgard found reassurances caught in her throat. Byleth wove the flower crown into her hair with such simple, obvious pleasure in the contact, her expression softening once more into that almost-mortal warmth. There was honeysuckle among the flowers as well, Edelgard realized, the scent twining close and closer.
The horned crown fell in the grass, forgotten.