Work Text:
Byleth made her way out of her room at an hour that was far too late for bathing. She had meant to go for a bath hours ago, but someone always needed her. She had been swept through meetings and war councils, spent hours studying maps and giving advice.
She desperately needed to unwind. At least she should be alone in the baths. The last thing she needed was someone coming in and arguing a battalion’s budget with her while she was trying to wash her hair.
She changed out of her filthy clothes and set out a fresh set. She wrapped a towel around herself and stepped into the steamy communal baths. She was glad she had gone in with a towel, because she wasn’t alone.
Dimitri was in the water with his back to her. He didn’t notice Byleth enter until the changing room door closed behind her. He whipped around, bath water splashing up over the edge. His gaze softened when he saw it was her and a blush crept over his cheeks.
“Professor,” he said softly, his gaze lingered on her just a moment too long and he quickly brought his eye off her nearly nude form.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” Byleth said. “I can wait in the changing room until you’re done if you would prefer privacy.”
“Nonsense!” Dimitri objected rather quickly. “You have as much right to the baths as I do. The bath is very large so it’s not like we’ll be in each other’s way.”
“If you’re sure,” she said as she padded over to the opposite end of the bath. Dimitri averted his eye as she dropped her towel and stepped down into the hot water.
She sighed. It certainly was relaxing to be in the hot water. Her aching muscles felt immediate relief. She tried not to steal too many glances at Dimitri. Byleth hated to think he would assume she was judging him.
Byleth and Dimitri hadn’t had much time to really talk since that rainy night on Gronder Field. Despite all the heartache of that awful day, she was still happy to see that the Dimitri she had known had not died. He was still a part of Dimitri even as he was on a single minded quest for revenge.
Like her, Dimitri had been pulled in every direction as well. Now that the king had returned, everyone wanted their time with him. Byleth did too.
He looked so vulnerable in the bath. His body was littered with scars and wounds. Some were fresh and still had a chance of healing well and others were old and deep. They had healed wrong and he would surely carry those the rest of his life.
“I’m sorry I haven’t made time to see you,” Dimitri said softly.
“I see you every day in the war council, and I’m happy to have you there,” she said with a smile, even as she knew that wasn’t what he had meant.
“Perhaps a tea time? To make up for some lost time? Unless it’s too presumptuous on your time, you’re busy leading a war effort—.”
“Dimitri,” Byleth interrupted his worried spiraling. “I would love nothing more than to have tea with you. I will always make time for you.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Dimitri blushed as a smile crept over his face.
They sat for a moment in a comfortable silence. Byleth leaned back and let the warm bath water envelope her. She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining another warmth around her: Dimitri’s arms. She got so lost in the fantasy of Dimitri, she almost forgot the real thing was here–and that they both were naked–until she heard him disturb the water.
Byleth opened her eyes. Dimitri was grabbing a bottle to wash his hair. She felt the curious urge to help him. Byleth swam her way over to Dimitri, careful to keep her nude body below the surface.
“Need some help?” Byleth asked.
“Oh, Professor, you don’t have to,” he managed to say.
“What if I want to?” she replied and placed what she hoped wasn’t too presumptuous a hand on his shoulder. He seemed to recoil from her touch a bit, but it seemed to be more out of surprise instead of discomfort.
“In that case,I would be happy to have your help,” Dimitri said with a smile.
“May I?” Byleth gestured to his eyepatch. He hesitated a moment before nodding for her to remove it.
Byleth slipped it off his head and laid it gingerly on the towel he had beside him. It felt terribly intimate to see him without the eyepatch, even with his back to her. He handed her the shampoo bottle and she set to washing his hair.
It felt nice being this close to him, helping him. She massaged through his scalp and he let out a low groan. He mumbled a quick apology, but she understood completely. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had human contact that wasn’t based in violence. She wanted this to last forever.
“My apologies, Professor,” Dimitri said after leaning against her chest. He had bolted upright, but she certainly hadn’t minded. She was glad he was feeling relaxed, but the buzz from the contact of his skin—even briefly—on her breasts was still pulsing through her.
“Byleth,” she said quickly. “You can call me Byleth, I don’t think I’ll be teaching again any time soon. You’re alright though, you can lean against me if that would make you feel more comfortable.”
“Thank you, Byleth,” he murmured, though he didn’t seem quite comfortable yet calling her by her first name. He didn’t lean back into her either. When she had finished washing his hair, he dipped back into the water and she rinsed out the last of the soap, running her hands through his hair to remove the tangles.
Dimitri stared up at her and for the first time, she got a good look at his eye. The skin was scarred and his eye was milky and clearly unseeing. With his good eye, he caught her staring.
“Not many people have seen me without my eyepatch,” he said quietly. “Just you and Dedue, I believe. I’m sure you can imagine why I’m not eager to share it with others.”
“It's nothing to be ashamed of, Dimitri,” she assured him, she gently cupped his cheek just below his scarred eye. He leaned into her touch like a cat. “Not your eye, or any of your other scars.”
“Thank you, Byleth,” Dimitri said softly.
“Now, how about you do me?” Byleth said nonchalantly and Dimitri turned beet red and looked as though he was considering drowning himself out of embarrassment. Byleth giggled as she realized how her words had been misinterpreted. “I meant, why don’t you wash my hair.”
“Oh, right! Of course!” Dimitri said. “I would be more than happy to return the favor.”
Byleth turned so her back was to him and dipped her head to wet her hair. He touched her head tentatively, gingerly, as if he were afraid. As he continued to lather through her hair, he grew bolder and more confident. His touch felt good on her scalp and she felt herself leaning more and more into his touch.
“Dimitri,” she sighed and hummed contentedly as his rough, calloused hands massaged through her minty locks. Hands that had known such violence but that were now being used for something so gentle.
“I hope I’ve done an adequate job,” he said sheepishly.
“Much more than adequate,” she said with a soft laugh.
Byleth dunked her head back into the water and it was her turn to look up at Dimitri. Lying on her back it was exceedingly difficult to hide her breasts below the water’s surface. Dimitri had noticed and he seemed to be trying his best not to look at her. Byleth found it quite charming. She had never been raised with much of a sense of modesty. She was comfortable in a state of undress around her fellow mercenaries, but with Dimitri it was different.
She wanted him to see her naked and reach out and touch her. His touch in her hair was not enough. Byleth needed his hands anywhere and everywhere. She desired him in ways she hadn’t thought she would ever want another person. Even when he had been almost lost to her, she had wanted him. When she saw him communing with the ghosts of those who had died, all she wanted to do was pull him into her arms and convince him he didn’t need to pursue this revenge quest.
What she didn’t want to do was make him uncomfortable. Dimitri had grown up in a completely different world than she had. She sat up as she realized that he might not have ever seen a naked woman before, and here she was flaunting her body around. Byleth dipped below the surface so only her chin and above were visible.
“Thanks, Dimitri,” she said. “The hair washing felt really good. I can’t remember the last time anyone did something like that for me.”
“It was my pleasure, I don’t remember the last time anyone did something like that for me either. It felt so…”
“Intimate,” she replied softly.
“Yes, I suppose that is the right word to describe it,” he murmured in reply.
Dimitri and Byleth sat in the water, but they both found their bodies inexplicably drawn to one another. Byleth kept drifting closer and closer to Dimitri until his hand brushed her cheek. His hands were large, but she felt safe as he caressed the softness of her cheek.
“Dima,” she cooed softly as she rubbed her face against his calloused hands. She knew he could no longer restrain himself and pulled her hungrily into his arms. She grabbed his face and crashed her lips against his like she had dreamed of from the moment she had first laid eyes on him.
There was no longer time for words, only desperate moans and hurried gasps. Byleth ran her hands up and down Dimitri’s back, desperate to feel as close to him as she possibly could. He seemed to feel the same, his own hands exploring his way down her back and to her plush rear.
Byleth pressed her breasts against his chest and rubbed herself against his quickly growing erection, no longer concerned about his modesty. It was quickly becoming clear that was not among his concerns.
Dimitri broke from their kisses and earned a needy whine from Byleth. She did change her tune when he hoisted her up over the edge of the bath and onto the cool stone floor. Dimitri hovered above her, finally drinking in her nude form. His one good eye was working overtime to witness her.
Byleth pulled his hands to her breasts, eager to have his hands on her again. Dimitri played with her breasts, squeezing them and tweaking her nipples before taking a pink peak into his mouth. He moved down her body until he had settled between her legs and had his mouth at her womanhood.
She wondered for a moment if he had ever been with a woman like this, but all thoughts left her mind as Dimitri lapped at her cunt. Her loud moans of pleasure echoed through the walls of the bath until she came all over his face and her legs shook around his head.
“Inside,” she managed to choke out as she recovered. Dimitri knew what she wanted at once.
He hovered above her, his large frame covering her completely. Byleth cupped his face softly as he pressed against her entrance. She let out a gasp as she stretched around him, he was certainly big–not that she wasn’t expecting him to be. He took her gently, cautiously, but she could tell there was an urgency and passion that he was eager to unleash.
“No need to be so careful with me, I won’t break,” she whispered in his ear.
“Only if you’re certain,” he replied, his breath ragged.
She replied only with a kiss that told him exactly how certain she was. Once he began to fuck her in earnest, their bodies found a perfect rhythm right away. It was perfect and easy, and it felt like it was something they had done thousands of times before. Making love with Dimitri felt so natural and so familiar and Byleth never wanted it to end.
She couldn’t deny though that her body craved the release she was sure to get from Dimitri. Byleth let herself get lost in the moment as their moans echoed off the stone walls of the bath house. She felt wet skin on wet skin, his tongue against her neck, the glorious stretch from his cock inside her.
Byleth snapped, her second orgasm rocked her harder than the first and she felt almost dizzy with pleasure. Dimitri came just a moment later and they both clung to one another as they came down. She nuzzled against him and thought of how happy she would be to lie just like this forever, naked in Dimitri’s embrace–even if she was lying on a cold, hard floor.
Dimitri carried her back into the water, and she decided that in Dimitri’s embrace somewhere warm was infinitely better. She laid her head against his chest and listened to the comforting beat of his heart as he wrapped her up in his strong arms.
“I do hope I wasn’t too rough with you,” he said softly as he noticed a few love bites blooming on her neck.
“I can assure you, you weren’t,” she sighed.
“It seems I am still learning to be gentle again,” he said, and placed his hand over his bad eye.
“Don’t trouble yourself with thoughts like that,” Byleth assured him. She extracted herself from his embrace and grabbed his eyepatch–surprisingly dry after their activities–and carefully tied it back on. She kissed him gently just above the eyepatch.
“Thank you, Byleth,” he said, and she was happy to hear he sounded more comfortable to have her name on his lips.
“You say you’re learning to be gentle again,” she said, resting her head back on his chest. “I do seem to remember even when you were at your most focused on revenge, that you would still follow me if I left the monastery on my own. I would go down into town and I would see a shadow of blue and black behind me, and I knew I would be safe.”
“I…I didn’t realize you noticed me,” he said, a blush forming on his cheeks again.
“I was always looking out for you too, Dimitri,” Byleth smiled.