Notes – Written because there needs to be more Dimitri/Claire in the world. Set during the flashback period of the third game, a while before the disaster and with heavy spoilers for the third game.

Dimitri was the sort of person whose alarm clock never rang.

The reason for that being because he always managed to wake up sometime before the alarm sounded to turn it off. He told himself that it was because he hated the noise, but in truth he'd always been a light sleeper. His mind was too full of all sorts of advancements that could be made to the scientific community for it to ever really shut down enough for him to sleep. Claire said he should try harder or else he'll end up with terrible grey bags around his eyes before he was thirty.

Claire was always saying things like that; she really cared for the well being of those around her.

Claire…

No! He didn't have time to daydream again, he had lots of work to do in the lab today and he had to be up and ready for that.

Pulling himself out of bed, he made his way to the bathroom to get ready. Looking in the mirror he had to accept that Claire was probably right about the bags in his eyes. But no matter, he was more concerned about getting on with the work ahead of him. After washing up and grabbing a quick breakfast of bread and jam that he could eat on the go, Dimitri made his way outside to face the world.

It was a short walk from where he lived to the street that the lab was based at, which he appreciated since it meant that he could get there sooner and get the early starts he enjoyed so much. Really, when he thought about it, the lab was in such a down scaled part of the city. That wasn't to say that it was in a rough area, but around the building there were apartments and houses where people lived, which was sort of unusual considering laboratories tended to be based in more industrial areas. But it didn't seem to matter as the people who lived in that street just regarded the scientists as part of their everyday lives. They were accepted and went about their business with minimal fuss. Dimitri in particular didn't really bother with those who lived close to the lab too much. With one exception.

"'mitri what are you doing?"

A young boy in a flat-cap came over to him. Dimitri inwardly cringed. It wasn't that he had any problems with the boy, but it would be nice to get to work one day without being stopped by him.

"Same as always, Clive, just heading to work," Dimitri answered calmly.

"Can I come?" asked the little Clive, already walking alongside him, making the answer pretty certainly 'yes'.

"I don't see why not," Dimitri sighed.

Kids weren't, strictly speaking, allowed in the labs. But Clive seemed to almost be a regular fixture there and Claire approved of a young boy taking an interest in science. If Claire was fine with him being around then so was Dimitri. The only person who vocally objected to it was Bill, who'd complain loudly that it was almost as if the boy never went to school. Admittedly Dimitri had wondered about that as well. When it came to listening to either Bill or Claire, however, he knew whose words he took more seriously, and it wasn't Bill's.

Reaching the lab, he pushed his hand against the door, Clive keeping pace next to him, and then came to a sudden stop. His mind froze. No, he couldn't allow himself to be caught off guard like this; if he did then Claire would know there was something wrong. Clive was already looking up at him curiously for stopping.

The sight before him, in the lobby of the building, was Claire, the co-worker who Dimitri knew that he was very much attracted to. This on its own shouldn't have been a problem, but with her was… um, her boyfriend.

Yes, the reason Dimitri had never once mentioned that he had feelings for her beyond that of two fellow scientists to the girl herself was because Claire was already seeing a man called Hershel Layton.

This would have been so much easier if Hershel was the sort of person who was easy to hate, but he wasn't. At all. He was pleasant and kind and genuine and possessed all the traits that made him a really nice guy. Regardless of whether or not Hershel was the perfect man, Dimitri knew in himself that he was the perfect man for Claire, so he'd always kept quiet about his feelings for her to avoid creating a difficult situation.

But right now he was standing in a doorway, mind completely blank and at a loss for what to say that wouldn't seem suspicious. Perhaps if he was lucky they wouldn't notice him…

"Dimitri, glad to see you made it here on time," Claire said, walking over to him. No such luck there then. As he swallowed a lump in his throat she went on, "I'm here a bit earlier than usual; Hershel gave me a lift before he disappears off to the university. And I was just telling him that he shouldn't be worried about the test he has coming up, there's no way that he won't graduate with flying colours. Oh, I see you picked up Clive on the way here."

He'd just been nodding mutely as she spoke, but that pause seemed to require him to say something.

Clive beat him to it.

"Who's that guy with you?" he asked Claire, looking up at Hershel with confusion.

"You haven't met Hershel yet? Well, he's my boyfriend and pretty soon he's going to become a professor," Claire answered cheerfully.

"You give me too much credit, Claire," Hershel laughed, embarrassed.

Her explanation hadn't cleared up Clive's confusion; "Your boyfriend? But I thought Claire and 'mitri were-"

Dimitri jabbed his hand over Clive's mouth before he could finish, making both Claire and Hershel jump slightly.

"S-sorry, kids do say the strangest things," he said, "Well, um, I'll take him through to the lab while you two say goodbye. Come on, Clive."

He tugged the boy through to the other room, not quite managing to miss Claire's raised eyebrow as he left. Any chance that she'd not noticed anything odd about that conversation were non-existent now.

Once they were through to the other room, Clive launched into questions.

"Why did you stop me from talking? Aren't you and Claire in love? Why would you let another guy steal her?"

"Please, just… be quiet for a moment," Dimitri said, trying to gather his thoughts; "First of all, a woman is not a prize to be won or stolen, you'd do well to remember that for when you're older." That advice went straight over Clive's head, since the boy was still so young that he thought Dimitri and Claire were a family who lived in the lab and did science experiments in their free time. He'd past Bill off as being some sort of strange pet they kept around out of pity. Without knowing this, Dimitri continued, "Next, well. Um, Claire and I aren't together in that sense. We work together but Claire has always been dating Hershel."

"But you like her a lot," Clive went on.

Kids were fascinating creatures. You could give them lengthy explanations to explain what they didn't understand then they'd completely disarm you with a short statement that was completely true.

"You can't always have what you want in life," he replied, awkwardly.

"Why?"

He wasn't going to get out of this one easily.

"Because… sometimes when you like someone you have to accept that they don't like you like that and they'd rather be with someone else. And if you really care about them you'll accept that them being happy with someone else is better than them being with you," Dimitri rushed through; hoping he'd left no room for further argument.

"That's just stupid," Clive concluded.

Before Dimitri could risk getting annoyed and embarrassing himself even further, Claire walked through the door.

"Is everything all right in here?" she asked, looking between the two of them with mild concern.

"Y-yes! Everything is fine!" Dimitri said, in a higher tone than he'd wanted, "I was just explaining today' experiments to Clive."

He saw the child looking up at him with eyes asking why he was obviously lying, but shot him a glance firm enough so that even Clive would know to keep quiet.

"Very well," Claire said, dismissing the oddities that had occurred earlier, "Hershel's just left so let's get started."

Thankfully for Dimitri, the rest of the day went by without any difficult questions concerning his feelings for Claire. As soon as the experiments started, Clive was too intrigued by the bright lights and small-scale explosions to let his mind be bothered by mundane things such as why a guy didn't tell a girl that he loved her. He giggled away, which caused Claire to laugh too, and this put Dimitri at ease.

He knew in himself that Claire and Hershel might well belong together, but the one thing that Hershel could never quite have was this side of Claire – the scientist. Hershel might possess a great intellect, but it was Dimitri who worked alongside Claire everyday and Dimitri who she'd talk to excitedly when they made progress on the time machine. They understood each other in that sense. They were two minds working towards a goal, throwing ideas off each other and really connecting. And as long as he could have Claire for that short time as a fellow scientist he was happy.

At the end of the day he bid her farewell, watching as Hershel's car pulled up to give her a lift home, noting Clive's look of anger towards poor Hershel, who had no idea what he'd done to annoy the boy, before Dimitri got ready to walk home himself.

Clive followed him for a short way.

"I still don't understand what you said before," Clive said, yawning, as he was tired from spending a full day in the lab.

"You'll understand when you're older," Dimitri replied.

He'd always hated that phrase, he felt it belittled children to say such things to them, but today he'd learned that maybe its use wasn't so much because the child wouldn't understand as it was that the adult just didn't know how to explain the subject. Clive was a bright boy, maybe he'd work out unrequited love better than Dimitri had one day.

The answer didn't satisfy Clive, but he was too tired to press the subject further.

"Okay, well I'd better get home. See you later, 'mitri," he said, dashing off towards his house.

"Yes, see you later," Dimitri replied, now able to continue his walk home with only his own thoughts for company.

After getting through the door and having a late dinner, he took one last look at himself in the mirror before heading off to bed. The bags under his eyes were still there. He always promised Claire that he'd try to get more sleep, knowing full well that he'd never really keep that promise. His life was too complicated and his mind couldn't get around not only the complexities of the scientific world but also the even greater complexities of romance that you just can't have.

Over the years he'd come up with the fool proof reasoning that as long as Claire was happy that he was happy too, but a small boy had completely shattered that illusion with three words – 'That's just stupid'.

He sighed heavily, rolling over and trying to get some forced sleep.

Clive was probably going to be the downfall of him one of these days.

But for now, he could live in the denial for those brief moments of the day where he and Claire could be together.