I do not own fire emblem, or the characters. All credit goes to... the creators and all that jazz. This...isn't like the canon story though... Everyone gets along, Edelgard isn't...you know, and there's also a lot of different things going on. Oh. And be warned...some things may be a little intense... mentions and actions of attempted sexual assault... abuse...and stuff like that. Anyway, try to enjoy.

Caspar didn't know what to do. He thought Lin was his best friend. Now these new feelings are overwhelming. How can he be best friends with somebody when he's got the biggest crush on him? The worst part is, Linhardt isn't the type of person that would date someone so loud... and annoying.

He sighs. "Now what...?" He says aloud.

"What's the matter, Caspie...?"

Caspar turns around quickly. "Oh! Hey, Dorothea... It's nothing."

Dorothea sighs and sits down next to him. "Want me to get Lin? I swear, he always knows exactly what you're thinking. I mean-"

"EXACTLY WHAT I'M THINKING?! Ooooh no... what if he knows??? Aghhh! No, no, no... What if he doesn't want to be my friend anymore?! What if-"

"Woah woah! Caspar! Oh my goodness...! Why are you so worked up?? What could you possibly do to ruin your friendship with him?"

"... Nothing... "

"That's it. I'm gonna go get him. Maybe you're sick... " She shrugs, then gets up and quickly walks away.

Once she leaves, Caspar sighs and turns his attention back to the little scratch on the desk, not even hearing what she said about getting Linhardt.

A few minutes of silence pass, before a familiar voice is heard. "Caspar?"

Caspar doesn't answer. Great. Now he's gonna know that something's up.

Linhardt places a hand gently on his friend's forehead. "Are you alright...? Dorothea said you were acting strange. She seemed worried-"

"I'M FINE!!"

He feels a little guilty when Linhardt jumps at his sudden outburst.

"I-I... mean... sorry. I uh..."

"... " Linhardt slowly removes his hand from Caspar's forehead, looking slightly hurt, but he quickly covers it up with a tired look. "That surely woke me up." He tries to laugh it off, but when Caspar doesn't laugh, he sighs.

"Look, Caspar," He sits down on the floor and tries to make eye contact. "When something is wrong, I can tell. If you don't want to tell me, then that's okay... But... I'm concerned, and I'm here if you want to talk, okay? You can even wake me up if I'm sleeping." He chuckles a little at the end, and so does Caspar. "Thanks, Lin... and I'm sorry for scaring you."

Linhardt smiles warmly. The smile he only keeps for Caspar. "I want to help you... but I can't if you don't let me. Would you like to tell me what's gotten you so upset?"

"I want to tell you, Linhardt, I really do. I just... I can't... Not yet... "

"... I see. Very well... I'll be off, then. Professor needed my help with sorting out the mess in the library. That's where you'll find me." He gets up, gives Caspar one last smile, then walks out.

Caspar sighs. "I can't... not yet... " He repeats quietly. "I've still got time... right...?"

"Strange, you say?" Byleth asks as he slides a book in the shelf. "How?"

"Oh, I don't know... We've never really kept too many secrets from each other... but I can't tell what's wrong... I'm worried... " Linhardt replies quietly.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on him. But if you see him acting too weird, get me, okay?"

"I will... Well, that's that." He adds, sliding the last book into place. "May I be excused now Professor?"

"Of course. Careful, Linhardt. "

"Thank you, you too, Professor." Linhardt walks out quickly, hoping to get to his room before nine. It was already 8:30.

"That took longer than expected...there wasn't even that many books..." He mumbles to himself. As he's passing the officer's academy, he feels the air grow cold. That's odd... He thinks to himself, before being tackled to the ground. He yelps and tries punching his attacker, but to no avail.

He feels himself get hit multiple times. Tears sting the corners of his eyes as he tries yelling for help. His mouth is quickly shut roughly before he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. The tears flow as his muffled screams can hardly be heard.

His eyes widen as he sees the man start to take his pants off. Taking the opportunity, he kicks at his face, but it doesn't do much as he gets punched again. Harder this time.

Linhardt's vision turns red, then slowly fades into black. He can't even hear the terrified voice calling his name.

Caspar stands as he hears a scream. It gets quiet, so he assumes it was someone being scared by a noise or something, but when he hears Linhardt's voice starting to yell for help, then being muffled, it's like his nightmares have all come to life.

He runs outside the Black Eagle's classroom, searching for his friend. "Linhardt?? LIIIIN?!" He turns around to see a dark shadow of a man on top of his precious friend. "LINHARDT! HEY! YOU! BASTARD! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

He runs over and, without thinking, plunges his axe into the man's flesh. He screams in agony and tries to get away, but Caspar doesn't let him get a foot away before smashing his head with the axe.

Making sure he's dead, he kicks the body. Panting, he suddenly remembers. "Linhardt!"

Blood. So much blood. Not only from the man, but also on him. "No, no, no! Please tell me that's just that bastard's blood! Lin! It's not the time for a nap! GET UP!"

Not receiving an answer, he quickly takes the limp form in his arms. "NO! LINHARDT!" He sobs into his friends chest. "No...!" Looking up, he starts screaming as loud as he can. "HELLPPPP! HEALER! SOMEBODY! ANYONE!!? PLEASE!"

"Please, don't leave me, Lin...Hang in there..." He quickly gets up, holding Linhardt close. "Hold on, I'll find someone...!"

"Caspar?! What is the- WOAH!"

"FERDINAND! Please, help!"

"I-I am afraid I don't know any healing techniques either! Here, let's search for a wound first!"

"Of course, of course!" He lays him back down on the ground and Ferdinand tears the shirt off. "Right here! We need something to wrap-"

Caspar tears his own shirt off. "Use this!"

"A-alright!" Ferdinand quickly wraps the shirt tightly around the wound. "Let's try getting him to the infirmary! Agh, we always count on the healer to do the... well, healing! What are we supposed to do when the healer needs the healing?!"

"You're right! Professor Manuela is in there right?!"

"... She should be!"

"PROFESSOR MANUELA!" Ferdinand and Caspar yell in unison. "HELP!"

Manuela stands up from her chair at the table. "OH MY-! Set him here, here!"

Caspar and Ferdinand set him down on the first bed gently as Manuela runs over with all kinds of things. "Alright. Caspar, I want you to hold the wound when I remove the shirt, okay? Keep a lot of pressure. Ferdinand, I want you to run and get another healer. Can you do that?"

"Right!" Caspar says quickly.

"Of course!" Ferdinand runs off, then comes back with Mercedes, who says, "I heard the commotion. I'll do my best to help!"

"Good. Thank you. Ready, Caspar? Mercedes, get over here too."

Manuela removes the shirt and Caspar applies pressure to the wound. Mercedes starts healing as Manuela throws the shirt backwards and starts to prepare some pain medicine. "Ferdinand, could you please try to get some of the blood cleaned up? It'd be bad if he woke up just to faint again."

"Right away!" He wets a rag and gently wipes some of the blood off of Linhardt's face, then a little around the stomach, but not the wound itself.

"Healed as much as I could! It's not bleeding anymore, so you can let go now Caspar.. " Mercedes says gently.

Caspar slowly takes his hands off of Linhardt's bruised and scratched stomach.

Manuela and Mercedes step outside to discuss something as Ferdinand finishes his job. "Caspar, what happened anyway? Did you see or was he just... there?"

"I saw it all right! Some bastard was on top of him and beating him up, so I killed him. Didn't you see the body?"

"Oh. I didn't see, no. But I was only looking at... you know... "

"Yeah... " Caspar looks at Linhardt again and sighs. "I wonder how scared he was... He probably couldn't even fight back..."

"You don't know that.. Look." Ferdinand holds Linhardt's hand gently to show Caspar. "These scratches and marks on his knuckles... see?"

"Wait... what? He... Poor Lin... "

They pause as Linhardt's eyebrow twitches, then his eyes flutter open slightly. "Caspar...? Ferdinand...?"

"Oh, thank goodness you are awake! We were so worried!" Ferdinand says happily.

Caspar looks down. "Lin... I... "

One of Linhardt's eyes open more, the other stays closed because of a black eye that Caspar just notices. "Your eye... Lin... "

"I... I thought nobody would come... How did you hear me?"

"I could only hear you start to say help... I... I was so scared...! Lin...!" Caspar reaches forward and gently hugs him. "You were so...lifeless... I thought you were... d... d.. "

"Caspar, it's alright... Just don't think about it... it's... "

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! LINHARDT YOU LOOKED DEAD! THERE WAS SO MUCH BLOOD! AND YOU WERE ALL LIMP, AND I DIDN'T SEE IF YOU WERE BREATHING, AND-"

Ferdinand awkwardly takes a step back. "I'll be... out here."

He scurries out and Caspar falls on his knees, sobbing. "Linhardt, what would happen if you died?! What would we do?! WHAT WOULD I DO?! WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT YOU?!?! LIN, ANSWER ME!"

When he doesn't respond, Caspar finally looks up at him. He's crying just as hard, but not making a sound.

"... I'm sorry... Linhardt, I'm sorry. I'm just so freaked out...I shouldn't have... "

"Caspar... "

"I shouldn't have taken it out on you. It's just... I've never been good at handling things like this..."

"Caspar."

"It's all my fault... If I would have been there... If I talked to you earlier... you wouldn't have been walking alone... or maybe I could have waited for you by the library... "

"Caspar."

"But now I sit here and complain and cry as I make you cry as well. Look at me... making you cry... I'm such an idiot... "

"C-Caspar, please, before I p-pass out...!"

"Huh? Oh, now I don't even let you talk! Some freakin friend I am! "

"Caspar... I c-can't stay awake m-much... lon... ger... "

"And the fact that I'm so loud and annoying. You were right, I-... Linhardt?"

He moves slightly. "... Cas... mnh... "

"Lin? Are you okay? Oh! Rest! You need rest! Got it! Frick. He wanted to say something and I just kept talking... "

Caspar places a trembling hand on the scar where the wound was, making Linhardt squeak a bit. "Look what he did to you..."

Linhardt groans a little in his sleep, and Caspar jumps. "Shhh... shhhhh... I'm sorry... "

Ferdinand finally walks back in, this time he has Hubert following behind. "Is he asleep?" Hubert asks.

"Yeah. I think he's in pain though..."

"That's very likely-ow!" Hubert rubs his arm after Ferdinand shoved his elbow into it.

"Hopefully not too much. " Ferdinand says, then looks at Linhardt. "Manuela said we could take him back to his room. But... "

"We have our concerns about it." Hubert finishes.

"... Oh. Well... What are we gonna do?" Caspar asks.

Ferdinand smiles. "We are going to leave him in here tonight. If he's well enough tomorrow, we'll see."

"Okay... but..." Caspar starts.

"Yes, we know how concerned you are. We are as well." Ferdinand says quietly.

"... So we went ahead and asked Manuela if we could all spend the night in here." Hubert finishes Ferdinand's sentence again.

"Huh. Alright." Caspar says, relieved. "Say... You two are getting along really well. Finishing each other's sentences, standing right beside each other... "

"It's nothing to be concerned about." Hubert says quickly. "We are just... getting along well today I suppose."

"But what about you and Linhardt?" Ferdinand asks. "You seem... distant from him lately. He's even mentioned that you have hardly spoken to him this week."

"I uh... I don't know what you're talking about! We were just talking earlier today!"

All boys pause for a moment, before Manuela's voice is heard in the doorway. "Boys...! I said you could spend the night in here! I didn't say anything about chit-chatting all night! Get to sleep please."

"Right! Sorry Professor Manuela!" Ferdinand calls. "We'd best get some sleep." He says to the other two.