Written for anyone who ever suspected that Olivier and Miles are secretly married (open secret in Briggs, but genuine secret everywhere else), and she's the Amestrian wife Miles refers to. Because you just know she'd be the one proposing, and it wouldn't be terribly romantic at all.

I own nothing.

"…And if you're really so worried about this installation's reputation, Miles, I have a simple solution for you: Marry me."

Maybe you could understand Major Miles being a bit thrown by this, especially considering that the person proposing this… arrangement had just shot an implied death threat at him. And she was also his commanding officer, but really, that was by far the least surprising thing happening in this conversation.

So maybe you could forgive him for gawping like an idiot, even if the general greeted this expression with a disdainful glint in her eyes. "What?!" Miles asked, his voice coming out as something that would have sounded more appropriate from a teenage boy going through puberty.

"I didn't stutter, Miles. It's really a very simple question—I wouldn't have thought you incapable of answering it. It's also a very simple concept. There are many soldiers of the Amestrian army in your situation, who've gotten out of it due to having Amestrian spouses with the influence to pull strings. Like I said…" Olivier's grip on the hilt of her sword tightened, a sure sign that she was launching into one of her particularly stern lectures. "…Briggs functions as a unit. We are stronger together than we are apart, and we are strongest when no one has to fear for their careers or their lives over petty things like ancestry."

"Ma'am, may I remind you of the anti-fraternization laws?"

Olivier laughed humorlessly. "Things work differently in Briggs than they do in Central, Major." Which was to say: If anyone makes trouble for us I will relieve them of their capacity to make trouble. She glared at him. "I'm not asking for the typical hearts-and-flowers rot, but don't mistake the offer as one for a marriage of convenience, either. This is very real."

Well, now Miles was gawping even more. When he unstuck his jaw, he asked, "You've been waiting for an excuse to ask me this, haven't you?"

"I don't need an excuse, Major. Yes or no?"

"…Yes, then. Yes, I will marry you, General," Miles replied, still a bit nonplussed.

Olivier actually smiled. An honest-to-God, non-threatening smile. It was only there for a split-second, and she likely would have killed him for telling anyone about it, but Miles still saw it.

This was probably problematic and potentially a gigantic conflict of interests—the anti-fraternization laws did exist for a reason—though Miles doubted that the general cared about such things. Miles would admit that the general was an attractive woman, though she didn't take too well to being addressed as such. She was, well, worthy of admiration. He supposed that perhaps the fact that the general had emphasized that this was not to be taken as a marriage of convenience was a sign that the feeling was mutual, at least to an extent. Oh well. Miles had certainly heard of worse reasons for people to get married.

With that, Olivier started her walk down the corridor again, seeming satisfied that the issue was resolved. Miles followed after her, only for her to stop, and turn back towards him. "For what it's worth…" She frowned slightly. "…I am sorry about your family. But if you'd said that shit to anyone else, you wouldn't have lived long enough to make their deaths worth anything. Remember that."

He always would.

One likes to think the state of affairs in this 'marriage' improved over time.