Braids of Time, Braids of Love
Summary: Set during Half Moon Lies (Season 2, episode 2, so very definitely spoilers) while Claudia gets ready. A user on the TDP subreddit posed the theory that Claudia's mom had favored this hairstyle. I lay down, tried not to cry, cried a lot, and then wrote this.
Claudia looked in the mirror and took a deep breath. She separated her hair out into sections and reached back to begin the slow process of twisting and tucking the smaller two front ones into plaits just loose enough to remain smooth, but tight enough that none of the hair fell out.
She had to restart a few times, and was surprised she remembered it as well as she did. Her father seemed to prefer her hair down, having looked upset the first few times Claudia had attempted the look on herself. He'd said she looked unkempt, but inside, she knew what the heart of the matter really was.
To her father, her mother was just one more person who couldn't see things his way. He'd mostly been angry when she'd left, but Claudia knew he was also sad. As intense as Viren was, he'd cared for his wife. But that hadn't been enough—her mother had said as much several times. They'd always thought Soren and Claudia were asleep. Both pretended to be; Soren, to try and ignore what was happening, and Claudia, because she couldn't do anything else.
She paused for a moment willing her hands to stop shaking, then started pinning the braids around the net holding the bun in back, smiling as she watched it all come together.
Claudia loved watching her mother style her hair. Noble women in all the kingdoms tended towards elaborate hairstyles, but Del Bar was known for its simple elegance.
"Mom, can you do my hair like that?" Claudia tugged at a lock of hair, trying to will it to grow more quickly. "I think it's long enough now."
Her mother laughed gently. "I don't think it's grown quite that much since yesterday, Claudia."
Eight was too old to beg, but Claudia was determined. "Please, mom? Can't we just try?"
After a moment's thought, her mother moved around, separating out Claudia's hair and tucking most of it up into a bun before securing it with a net. "I think perhaps we can just tuck the ends of the braids into here, hm?" She bounced the bun in her hand.
Claudia squealed with delight, but stayed still. Nothing happened. "Mom?"
"I think it's time you learned how to do the braids yourself."
Claudia grinned eagerly. "Okay!" She reached for the section on the right side of her face and split it up evenly enough, then started to braid as she'd seen her mother do.
"You're doing well, but let me teach you a little trick." Her mother took the braid. "If you braid straight down and try to tuck it back, you'll look like you have horns on the side of your head. See?" She held the braid back and Claudia giggled. "It's a little tiring, but you need to braid loosely enough and start pulling it just a bit back towards your neck for it to look right."
In the end, it took fifteen minutes for Claudia to finish one side, and her mother took over to do the other, but as her mother finally pinned an ornament in to pull it all together, Claudia was beaming.
"There. Beautiful." Claudia's mother walked in front of her and took Claudia's face in both her hands. "You are so lovely. Hopefully someday I can show you off at court in Del Bar. Just you and me, on a grand adventure."
Claudia frowned just a bit. Her mom and dad had been a little unhappy lately. Was Mom going to take her? Would she ever see Dad again?
She shook her head. No. Surely it wouldn't come to that.
Throwing her arms around her mother, Claudia buried her face in her mother's side. "Thanks, Mom. I love you."
Claudia's mother immediately embraced her back. "I love you too, Claudia," she whispered.
Too young to hear the unshed tears, Claudia squeezed her mother once more, then skipped ahead out of the room.
Claudia's eyes were still red-rimmed as she let down her hair before going to bed. She hand-brushed at the small waves the braids had created. They were always her favorite part, but tonight, she just couldn't find the joy in it.
She'd hurt Callum. It had been necessary, but she'd done it all the same, and in a way she hadn't needed to. It just hadn't felt right, relying on his obvious crush and lying to him on top of that. She just hadn't expected it to hurt her quite this much, too. Callum was silly, and fun to flirt with, but also very sweet, and Claudia genuinely did care. Maybe there was something more there—she didn't know just yet. What she did know was that she cared enough to realize that owing him the truth outweighed taking the easy way out in the moment.
She'd been just a bit less than truthful when Soren had asked her if she was still able to carry out their mission. She had been mostly sure of it, and now that Callum knew about Harrow's death, at least she wouldn't be lying to him, but at some point, this was bound to hurt Callum again. At the very least, his being on good terms with the Moonshadow elf girl would make it difficult when they had to part ways, and that wasn't even taking into account exactly how that would inevitably happen if Soren had his way.
But it had to happen. Her father had a plan, and Claudia had to support it. As long as she did that, everything would be alright—she had to keep on believing that.
As she lay down and rolled onto her side, Claudia caught sight of the flower she'd tucked in her hair. Her eyes watered again, but this time, with happier (if still bittersweet) memories. She imagined her mother's hands running through her hair again, and with the tangles and snarls, her worries, too, were subdued, and she drifted off to sleep.
A/N: There you have it: my first TDP fanfic. And my first fic on here in... far longer than I care to admit. I'm so rusty. But goshdarnit, I tried!
A note on shipping: I didn't mark this necessarily as Callum x Claudia because Callum really figures very little into this particular story, but given that Claudia does come around to telling him the truth rather than kissing him, I do think that she cares in some capacity. I don't think she's as romantically attracted to him as he is to her, but I'm not going to completely exclude the possibility for now.
A note on Viren and his ex: Claudia doesn't note exactly how old she was when they split, but given that she tells Ezran she was a kid, I figured eight was a safe age to go with here.