#while he's definitely ... got healthier ways of coping with it than dimitri ... it's plainly impacted him just as harshly

[lesbirdan]

dedue deserves the world & i just want him to be Cherished ... he’s so surprised, caught off-guard, a little wary, in all his C supports where someone first reaches out to him (mercedes, annette, ashe, sylvain ... byleth) and i want! him to know! that he is beloved! i want him to know how much he means to the Lions, how important he is to all of them -- i want him to have more than two people he believes he can trust and rely on. i need him to believe his life has meaning for its own sake, for what he means to the people around him, to his friends, not just for his role as protector.

(even felix. god i wish they had an a-support where felix apologizes for treating him like that. felix? apologize? never in a thousand years but STILL.)

it’s like. it’s the major draw to dedue/dimitri for me because it’s so, so plain that all of the trust & faith that dedue places in dimitri is returned with interest. "never throw your life away again.” “maybe you believe that i am someone special, but i believe the same of you. you are irreplaceable. cherished.” the scenes in Dedue’s paralogue -- Dimitri asking if Dedue wants to explain the Tragedy, or if it’s too difficult a subject, and accepting without a word Dedue’s affirmation that no, this is his to explain. “you will call me your friend, again and again! no matter how many hardships i must endure ... ” / “to be your friend ... is what i have always wanted.”

there is just ... so much softness and love between them, so much gently reciprocated respect and care, so much devotion freely given and returned -- the dedication to each other that comes from truly shared ideals and goals, from unity of purpose

and to return to my original point -- dedue finally allowing himself to be loved? finally believing that he is so, so loved? irreplaceable, and cherished?

it means the world to me and i care about this so much 😭

#fe3h #blue lions #dimidue #dedue molinaro #i have other thoughts about dedue's reservation and kind of #bricking himself into the protector/bodyguard role as a means of emotional self-protection #from the prejudice of others yes but ... also from loss #his family was murdered in a horrifically traumatic way when he was thirteen and #while he's definitely ... got healthier ways of coping with it than dimitri ... it's plainly impacted him just as harshly #if he doesn't let himself get close to people -- these people with whom he is semi-regularly in danger #these people he will see on the battlefield #will see wounded and maybe killed #he can't feel that loss again #can't feel that terror or the guilt of seeing someone he cares for in pain #if he makes himself a shield; if he takes every blow so no one else has to -- he will never have to feel grief again and that's fine. #( ... it's neither fine nor terribly healthy but hey this is ... the other reason it means so much to me that he DOES loosen up and begin to #heal and bond with the other Lions over the course of their support chains) #ha i should just make this another post huh #life of bird #what is their ship name anyway #fe3h tag #blue lions tag #dimidue tag