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“You need a bath Dimitri.” That was an understatement.
A low growl was Byleth’s only answer, the prince didn’t even look at her.
Staring up at the taller man, Byleth considered her options as she took in the dirty appearance of the once immaculate man. Once silken golden hair was matted and greasy now, hanging around him in unkempt tangles that stuck out at odd angles. While the dark circles under his eyes had started to show up later on during the year, especially that last month before Edelgard invaded. Now though it was so much darker under that lone eye— and wouldn’t Byleth like to know the story behind that wound— almost like it was trying to make up for its missing companion. His armor was filthy, but oddly enough probably cleaner than his body due to the rain that had fallen the other night. Byleth had hoped that the water falling from the sky would help wash off some of the filth and blood. Unfortunately it seemed like the rain had the opposite effect, like a wet dog, the smell seemed to have gotten worse, as if it had refreshed the dirt on him, doubling down in an attempt to cling to its host.
“I am going to give you a bath.” It wasn’t an option anymore. At this point the filth on Dimitri wasn’t just an offense to everyone else's sensibilities but it was starting to become a danger to Dimitri’s health as well.
In response Dimitri only grunted, again not bothering to look over at her.
Taking that as an agreement, he wasn’t telling her to go away, Byleth nodded her head before taking off. It was going to be a long few trips to the bathrooms to grab a tub, soaps, water, an array of wash clothes… The list went on, it would be quite a bit of work to just get everything up here, but Byleth didn’t mind. She didn’t mind doing this to help her friend, five years ago he had helped her realize her own emotions, helped her realize just what it was to be human, rescuing her from the half existence she had been living before.
As she gathered the necessary supplies she fought off the feeling of guilt that started to come over her. Would he have descended this far if she had been there? Would she have been able to save him from five years of torture? Leaving him alone with the voices was probably the worst thing that any of them could do. She wasn’t the only one who thought so either, every time she came to visit him she saw a member of the ex-Blue Lions lingering nearby, sometimes trying to talk to him, coax some sort of reaction away.
The members of the church seemed to think that was a fruitless endeavor, seeming to only tolerate Dimitri’s presence due to even the rumor of him being alive seemed to summon countless citizens from the Kingdom to their cause. They couldn’t see or have the same faith that her former students had, they didn’t see how he only growled at them to leave, never forcing them away no matter how much they seemed to annoy him. They didn’t hear how he begged the ghosts to leave him alone, pleading with them, hoping that if he brought them the vengeance they craved that they would finally leave him alone. Byleth had hope that beneath all that pain and anger Dimitri was still under there, waiting for them to rescue him.
Pouring the last bucket of water into the tub, Byleth summoned up a bit of magic fire, doing her best to heat the water up a little, knowing hot water would help her scrub him down a bit better. Upon finishing she grabbed some of the expensive soap she had been gifted for her birthday, not bothering to read the instructions she proceeded to dump the whole bottle in, she was going to need all of it.
Upon finishing, Byleth stood up, tossing the bottle to the side and turned to the fallen prince. “Bath time.”
He was watching her, his single eye dark with an unreadable expression, not moving as she made her way over to him. He did hiss when she reached out to the straps of his armor. “Don’t touch.”
Looking up at him she gave him a blank look, making sure that not even he could read her emotions. “You need to bathe.”
“Go away.” Not backing down she continued her work, managing to unstrap his shoulder armor before his hand caught her in a firm— but not painful— grip. “Go away.” He repeated, exhaustion clear in his voice.
“No.”
Their gazes met as they stared one another down, both fighting for what they wanted and neither willing to back down. Unfortunately for Dimitri— and fortunately for everyone else in the Monastery— no one could beat Byleth when it came to a staring contest. The prince simply grumbled and looked away, not saying anything. That was probably about as good as Byleth was going to get for a go ahead these days from him. With her permission granted she resumed her task of removing his armor.
Eventually Dimitri was standing in front of her, armor removed and stacked neatly on one of the remaining pews. The outfit he wore to protect his body under the dark armor was woefully thin and torn in quite a few places. Byleth sighed as she reached over and tugged at the hem of the shirt in an attempt to get it off of him. Sadly, while Dimitri had seemingly agreed to allow her to bathe him, he wasn’t going to be any help whatsoever, standing there, arms all but glued to his side as she tried to tug the threadbare fabric up and off of his whip thin frame.
Eventually she gave up on her tugging and craned her neck to look up at him. “You need to remove the rest or I will rip them off.” This of course led to another pointless staring war that of course Dimitri lost, because as mentioned above, everyone lost to Byleth. The low grumbling that left him as the blond started to tug at his torn up shirt.
Seeing that she was being obeyed, a small spark of joy ran through her, Dimitri was here enough to respond and listen to her, she turned her attention back to the tub. Dipping her fingers in she noticed that it had chilled a bit as she had stripped Dimitri from his clothes. With a quick flare of magic she brought some more warmth to the water, the cathedral was already cold, getting Dimitri in the cold water was like asking the man to get sick. Shaking the bubbles off of her fingers, Byleth looked around the empty hall as the prince finished stripping down and without prompting sat himself down in the tub.
The sight was just a tad bit comical, such a large man sitting in the tub waiting to be scrubbed down. It wasn’t funny for long though as she took in the sight of his dirty and scarred body. The long pale expanse of skin was battered and bruised, a sad map of the pain that Byleth had failed to protect him from during her absence. Sighing she kneeled down and picked up one of the rags she had gotten.
She scrubbed Dimitri off in silence, Byleth never being one for talking, and while Dimitri used to be able to draw conversation out of her, he was in no state to be doing so. Instead, the only sounds that could be heard in the cathedral was the slosh of water and the sound of cloth rubbing against skin.
By the time Byleth finished scrubbing her former student down the best she could the water in the tub was cold. The bubbles had long disappeared and the water was a dark murky color. Byleth hadn’t brought anything to wash Dimitri’s hair with, something she regretted, but she didn’t think she would be able to do much more washing anyway with this water or how clean she would have left it anyway. Bidding the other to get up, surprised by how docile the prince was acting. Byleth kept him standing in the tub as she reached over and took the bucket of clean water she had spared, it was cold now too but she didn’t dare let Dimitri see her heat it up. Instead she reached up and dumped the water over his head, making sure to wash off any dirt that might have clung to him from the water.
Heading over to where she had laid out the fluffy towel she had borrowed from Mercedes, Byleth watched as Dimitri shook himself off like a dog, wet hair sending water droplets everywhere. When he finished she approached him with the towel spread wide and wrapped it around him. He was shaking lightly, it was likely he didn’t even notice that himself, as Byleth rubbed the towel over him in an attempt to dry him off and warm him up a little bit. The prince allowed her to do that, just looking down at her with a blank expression on his face, no light seemed to shine from behind that lone blue eye.
Seeing Dimitri like this was painful, the once cheerful boy who tried his best to make everyone happy, to draw Byleth out into the world, was buried so deep. Byleth was sure it wasn’t gone, he couldn’t express himself with so much passion at times if it was, he wouldn’t have listened to her and allowed her to wash him if it was.
He never would have shown up at the monastery again if he was beyond redemption.
All she could do is be here for him now and try to bring him back to her and the rest of his friends. She just hoped that one day she would have back the man that she realized she had fallen in love with all too late.