The stunned silence that she fell into as she jumped back and watched her formerly-full plate fall to the floor, remnants of its food coming off of what Claude was wearing in clumps, was overridden by his almost defeated sigh, as he raised a hand to brush himself off fully before heading back towards the stairs. She could do nothing more than watch him go, unable to bring herself to explain why she'd been so wrong or why she'd turned when he came up behind her, but soon Marianne was there at her side, looking almost as stunned as Byleth herself. "Don't worry, I can clean this up for you," she said, giving Byleth a shaky, but confident smile. "Go take care of yourself."

Nodding although she didn't know what there was for her to do, Byleth's feet carried her off towards the staircase, where she could hear Claude up on the upper floor running down to his room. She took in a deep breath before ascending, hoping that if anyone tried to follow Marianne would stop them in their tracks, and when she got to the top she saw the hall was absolutely empty, just as it had been most of the time she'd been up there before. Claude's room was her end goal, and she wasted no time getting there, finding the door closed and locked when she arrived. The only thing that stopped her from knocking was the conversation they'd just had, her accusations of him dating Hilda enough to sour their attitudes towards each other.

Right as she calmed her nerves enough to be able to raise her hand to the door, it opened up underneath it, and Claude was standing there, his eyes looking down at her raised fist. "What, you want to uppercut me now?" he asked, a tense tone in his voice. "I thought better of you, Byleth, you never seemed like the kind of woman to make assumptions based on literally nothing."

"Look, I might've jumped the gun on that one," she replied, lowering her fist, but opening her palm to gesture towards the room he was still standing in. "But look at the prime evidence I had going for me. A room at her house? Really?"

Claude's eyes narrowed as he looked back over his shoulder for a second, turning back to face Byleth with his eyebrows completely furrowed. "It's a matter of convenience, because Hilda's been here for me when I've needed her. More than you can say, hm?" Almost instantly he took that back with his head violently shaking. "No, no, I know that wasn't appropriate, you've had your reasons for not being around and I've had mine for leaning on Hilda—or, more specifically, Holst and his money, but Hilda's the one handing it over."

"And I'm not exactly sure why you want me to believe that, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and…I don't know, believe it, I guess?" There were mixed feelings running through Byleth's mind as she processed what Claude was telling her, wanting to trust his word but also knowing how bizarre it would be if she did. "It doesn't explain why you've got your own room here, but it's a start."

His expression had been relaxing since he'd first told her that he was there on Hilda's brother's dime, but at her insistent refusal to listen he tensed right back up. "Now's not really the time to get into why I'm living at Hilda's place and not somewhere on my own, not when we've got a party to get back to. Sure, I was supposed to be wearing that stuffy costume to appease Hilda, but she gets it that accidents happen and she'd rather me wearing something clean than what you did to that thing."

"Appease Hilda, huh?" Once again Byleth felt like Claude was digging himself a hole that he had no way of getting out of, but his sly smile that appeared on his lips was telling enough that there was quite the story behind his choice of words. "Let me guess, you want to tell me about what you owe her but you won't tell me why you're living here?"

"One of these is a fun story, the other not so much," he replied, stepping out of his room and coming within a hair's width of where Byleth was standing, towering over her as he pulled his door shut behind him. "But I'm not telling either story right now, that's for sure. Ready to head back down with me?"

Her chest rising and falling as she took in deep breaths with Claude so close to her, Byleth was overcome with a sense of longing she'd never felt before, and without thinking much of it she let out a sigh, coming off much dreamier than she'd intended for it to. He'd heard it without a doubt, looking at her with his smile ticking upward on one side before he winked, lightly patted her shoulder, and passed her by to go back to where the party had gathered. As she watched him go, she felt her heart and stomach both aflutter, and she cursed herself for her behavior thus far, chalking up her stupid mistake to an awkwardness around people rather than anything else, and her ineptitude in talking to Claude to something she wasn't quite sure of. While she followed him down the hall and the stairs, she couldn't help but look at his almost intimidating form as it moved, his broad shoulders and tall posture things he'd fully developed in their time apart. She'd even noticed when they'd been staring at each other's faces that he'd let facial hair grow along his jawline, not just the dusting she'd seen when they'd been in the kitchen.

One thing was for sure, Claude had grown up over the past five years, and Byleth was genuinely sad she'd missed out on watching it happen. Yes, everyone else had grown up too, and she could've been around for all of them if she'd been able to pull herself out of her depression sooner, but the one she was most distressed about missing was the one she was following back down to where the rest of the people were gathered. Halfway down the staircase Claude stopped walking and Byleth nearly ran into him, only stopping because she realized that he wasn't continuing on, and he moved over to the other side, holding out his arm for her. "Come on, let's go in together. Show everyone that we've got no hard feelings between us and all that, they'll get a kick out of it." She swallowed down all reservations she had towards the offer and stood beside him, letting that arm wrap around her shoulders and hold them tightly, tenderly, completely different than he ever would have during their time at the Three Houses Club together.

"I can't believe we're going to actually do this," she murmured as they finished descending the stairs and went right into the party hub, where a resounding cheer went up at their presence, everyone smiling and looking in their direction at the display. She didn't know how she was supposed to react in such a moment, but Claude seemed to have been rehearsing for it all his life with his dramatic bows and winks and grins at everyone who was showering him with attention. That, or he was feeling just as awkward about it as she was, and he was doing what he did best and playing that awkwardness off as well as he could.

"I'm glad the two of you have gotten to reconnect so quickly," Hilda said, pushing Caspar off of her lap so that she could stand up, him hitting the floor with a loud thud before he was scrambling to get back up as well. "Here I was thinking that poor Byleth was going to be oh-so-lonely all night because she didn't have a date or anyone to hang on all night, because someone was supposed to be our holiday red guy and would be busy." Her eyes landed on Claude's definitely not costumed upper half, which he shrugged at. "Guess it all works out, but you owe me for not following through with your promise."

He gave her a knowing look, reading right through what she was saying. "You saw what happened to it, I can't be held responsible for Byleth's clumsiness causing her to run her plate right into me." That was when he remembered what she'd been holding when they'd made contact, and he immediately turned to look at Byleth and her blank stare back at him. "You're still hungry, aren't you? I guess I forgot that you'd been preparing to eat when all that started, do you want to go get something or are you good for now?"

"Food wouldn't hurt," she replied, wanting to escape everyone's watching eyes as she couldn't break from Claude's embrace, and he quickly led her out of the room, them both hearing Hilda and several others resume their cheering (with some wolf-whistles added in) before they'd rounded the corner into the kitchen. Once they were in there alone, he let go of her and grabbed her a new plate, while she sighed, running her hands over her legs to calm herself down. "Okay, Claude, I don't know what you're planning now, but can we not get all that attention on us when we go back? I'm not exactly comfortable with all those eyes right now."

"Yeah, see, you're going to get all the attention in the world if you're in there, whether you're there with me or not, so why not play into it?" After she was given her new plate, which was exchanged after she'd accepted that he was speaking the truth, he was grabbing himself a drink and slamming it down as fast as he could, hands visibly shaking as he reached for a second. "I'm not enjoying it either, but I knew it was what I was in for the moment I heard you might be here."

"And why's that?" Noticing that he was drinking, and his choice wasn't anything non-alcoholic so she knew there was going to be trouble, Byleth didn't want to pull her attention off of him to get her food. There was something about being there with Claude that made her want her eyes on him at all times, and him using that time to start building towards getting drunk was not helping matters. "You're going to explain yourself on that one, aren't you? I'm not going to let you keep everything secret from me tonight."

His second drink went down as fast as the first, the cups tossed into the trash one inside the other, as he grabbed at his hair and gave it a couple firm tugs. "Oh, no reason, just that I've been living with Hilda off and on since she left Garreg Mach and she knows exactly why just going to live full-time in Almyra wasn't going to work out for me, so she's been hoping that the person I've been living in Fódlan for happened to crawl out from under her rock and rejoin society someday. No big deal, if we're being honest."

The words hit Byleth hard, and she was thankful she hadn't started grabbing food because that new plate hit the ground when her trembling hands couldn't hold onto it any longer. "I…I'm the reason you're living here with her?" she asked to clarify, making sure she'd gleaned the right information from that rather convoluted statement, and when he chuckled she knew she'd hit it right on the head. "Claude, why would you do something like that? That's such a big decision to make, and for…me. I'm not worth that."

"Trust me, the last time we saw each other I swore to myself that wouldn't be the actual last time, and getting expelled from the academy trying to get your ban revoked—which, fun story there too, believe it or not—was not going to stop me from seeing you again. If it meant sacrificing my sanity to live with Hilda and her particular brand of gossipy-hen nonsense, it wouldn't be too big a price to pay if it meant I saw you like this." His conclusion was a grin, followed by reaching for his third drink, which he only didn't grab because Byleth commanded that he didn't. "Aw, what's the matter, you won't let me get drunk because I can't handle what's going on?"

"No, I want to spend time with you while you're sober, if we're being honest. I want to hear all about what I missed, and I don't want you leaving out details just because you're drunk and don't remember them." Bending down to grab her plate, Byleth watched him reconsider his motions before pulling his hand away from the cup he'd almost taken, and for as long as she was in there getting her food he kept away from the drinks, but couldn't resist in taking one for the road when they went back to the living room. Re-entering the group didn't come with all the fanfare it had the first time, and they were able to get a seat together on a couple of chairs against the wall without needing to push anyone out of the way.

The room was constantly crowded as people came and went, the only consistent thing being Hapi, Dorothea, and Petra in their one corner at all times, and as Byleth watched the three of them seemingly engrossed in their conversation, she remembered something she'd heard when she'd first spoken to Hapi. "Dimitri's not going to be here, is he?" she asked Claude, who nearly choked on the water he was drinking at the moment when he heard her words. "Based on that reaction I'm going to assume not."

"Alois really left you in the dark about all the nonsense happening up at Garreg Mach after you got kicked out, didn't he?" he replied once he'd composed himself, having to set the cup aside so that he didn't choke again. "I'm not sure if that's the sort of story you want to hear while you're here, but—"

"Claude, please!"

"—yeah, I figured I'd get that reaction if I thought about keeping it away. So you got kicked out and I wasn't there much longer after you were gone, Rhea was sick of me protesting your unfair removal and she banned me from academy grounds as well." Seeing Byleth's jaw drop at the revelation was bittersweet for Claude, knowing that the event had happened five years prior and she was just learning about his so-called sacrifice for her now. "But whatever, without me there the Golden Deer needed their new leader and they couldn't find one because no one wanted to step up and do it."

"You catching Byleth up to speed on our lives?" Hilda called out from her chair in the corner, a rare moment when she was there alone. "Make sure not to mention you-know-who while you're doing it, thanks!"

Mimicking her cadence with a couple head waggles, Claude continued on, "Okay, let me backtrack a bit and say someone did want to step up and do it, but no one wanted him to and when Hilda wouldn't back him up he got pissy and abandoned his friends. Whatever, it's not important. Point is, from that moment the Golden Deer really weren't any more at the Three Houses Club, and that was when big-headed Edelgard decided that she had the position and the power to become the de-facto leader of the club itself."

"And how, exactly, does this play into Dimitri not being here?" Now, Byleth was pretty understanding that there were elements to the story she needed to understand other people's exclusion from the party, but she wasn't seeing the point to hearing about Edelgard getting power-hungry. "Come on, Claude, we've got all the time in the world after this to get into her story, I want to know about Dimitri!"

"Okay, long story short, he challenged her claims to power and she had Hubert cut him." There was a moment's pause when he caught Byleth giving him the most unbelieving look she could manage, and he couldn't help but laugh. "I wish I was joking there, but I'm not. He quite literally cut Dimitri on her behalf, and naturally got them both removed from the academy for inciting violence. And even though he'd done nothing wrong, Dimitri got the boot as well, and he's…not really been seen around much since, far as I'm aware."

"That's because he's lost his mind thinking about getting back at Edelgard," Sylvain called out, his voice slightly slurred from the drinks he'd been sharing with his friends. Ingrid and Felix were sitting on the floor in front of him, both looking to be just as out of it as he was, but neither of them seemed to be interested in backing up what he'd said. "Guy won't even let us, friends he's has since he was a kid, go to see him. It's like…what the hell did we do to deserve that?"

"I don't know," Byleth answered, knowing that she wasn't actually expected to say anything at all, "and that's unfortunate for all of you."

Claude shook his head, patting Byleth's arm to make sure her attention was back on him. "So there you have it, that's what's going on with Dimitri. Anyone else you want to know about? Or did hearing that answer all the questions you have?"

"That's all I've got right now." Truly, Byleth would have loved to hear more about the fight that had broken up the formerly inseparable duo of Hilda and Lorenz, but she knew that approaching that topic where they were would be tricky. "How did everyone who Edelgard was close with handle her behavior? I mean, most of them are here, except…" She looked around, trying to remember everyone that had once sat at the Black Eagles table there in the club building. "Ferdinand? Is he the only one missing? Is that because he sided with her?"

"Traitorous scum, at least in Hilda's eyes, and so he wasn't invited. Nothing to do with Edelgard in the slightest, and all to do with…a certain someone else." Claude handwaved it off like it was no big deal, and Byleth accepted that she wasn't going to get details there, which meant that she was pretty well informed on what was going on with everyone she'd once cared about. "But enough about that, want to talk about more exciting things that happened after you and I both left? Or are you burnt out on this trip down memory lane?"

"I'd listen to more—" Byleth wanted to tell him that she was interested, but her sentence was cut off by the return of several muscular men into the room, carrying with them what looked to be a sleigh filled with different boxes and giftbags of assorted sizes. She gave a meek wave at Raphael, who about dropped his side of the sleigh when he saw Byleth waving, but he at least gave Caspar and Balthus enough time to set the thing down before he was rushing over to where she was sitting to stare down excitedly at her.

"I've gotta tell you, when we were bringin' this in we were talking about how you probably wouldn't have a gift in it, but Caspar insists you've got one waiting for you." He was speaking breathlessly, his words overly energetic despite that fact, and Byleth's face contorted into an expression of confusion as she listened to him. "It's like a holiday miracle that Hilda knew you'd be here before even you did, huh?"

At the question, Claude snorted, which had Byleth turning her head to look at him just as confused as she'd been while Raphael was talking. "Pretty sure Hilda's been holding on to the same gift for five years now, bud," he explained, causing Raphael's spirit to fall slightly while Byleth grew even more confused. "She'd wanted to give it to you back when everything was still chill, except then she couldn't before you got banned and she couldn't get Alois to do it for her. He always said she'd get the chance someday."

"That's really sweet to hear that she'd keep it for this long, but I wonder what it is." Her eyes flittering towards the sleigh, Byleth could only begin to imagine what the gifts in there were for everyone, let alone for herself, but she knew the time to find that out would be upon her soon enough. All she had to do was wait for when Hilda said it was time to hand them out, then she'd know, and she'd be able to get out of there not long after. Yes, getting to reconnect with friends (and Claude) was nice, but she was socially burning out fast and she knew she wouldn't last much longer.

Somehow, not much longer turned into way longer than she'd expected, because the moment people began drinking more and things started to get wild, she knew she couldn't leave and miss the excitement that would happen without her there. The presents were allocated but they were all forbidden from opening them until they were home, and to occupy her mind while she tried not to think too much about what she'd been handed in half-torn wrapping paper, Byleth had ended up moving to sit with Bernadetta and Ignatz to watch the fireworks beginning to go off between everyone else.

Even with how much everyone had been drinking, the "fireworks" amounted to the occasional argument that ended in laughter and a shared drink between the fighting parties, but it was still enough of a backdrop for the conversation going on towards the back of the room that occasionally they'd get distracted from what they were saying. "Usually it's just the two of us sitting off to the side," Ignatz said with a chuckle as he motioned towards Bernie with his shoulder, her nodding to confirm his words. "Not that we mind each other's company, but…it's nice to have you with us too, Byleth."

"It's nice to be here, I suppose," she replied, catching a glimpse of Bernie's smile as she knew that she was so proud to be the catalyst for her presence. "I didn't expect everyone to quite act like this when I saw them again, though. These past few years really have changed everyone, haven't they?"

It was a question that needed no answer, as the proof for it was sitting throughout the room around them. There were half-asleep people slumped back in their seats, spilled cups of various liquids covering the floor and laps of unsuspecting others, a couple of people had snuck off to do things of their own, and there was Balthus in the sleigh in the middle of the room, double-fisting what had to be a record amount of alcohol while several people around him cheered him on. "Parties like this remind us all that we're here for each other," Bernie declared after a few moments of watching what was going on in front of them. "It's been rough for just about everyone since the club fell apart, so being able to get together like this is when everyone feels like they can relax."

"Hilda's done an amazing job hosting these every few months, just so that we can keep an eye out for anything bad happening to anyone else." Grabbing his glasses to clean their lenses for a moment, Ignatz stared blankly in Byleth's direction until they were replaced, her admittedly noticing how much he'd grown up and become more handsome than he'd ever been before in the time where he couldn't properly see her. "I only wish that sometimes, just sometimes, she'd make them dry events so we can do things beyond exactly what we're doing right now."

Bernie gave a soft laugh at the idea, but Byleth knew that she didn't have the knowledge of what typically happened at the parties to know if she could agree or not. "Marianne's not drinking either, that's something," she pointed out, knowing that the blue-haired woman was around somewhere, just waiting to jump in to assist if anyone needed it. "And Claude…"

"Claude's notorious for getting just as into the drinks as, say, Raphael," Ignatz quickly stated, confused about where Byleth was going. "If you think he's not drinking tonight, you're bound to be mistaken."

Looking around the room to see if she could see him, Byleth found no sight of Claude and began to suspect that perhaps Ignatz was right. "I'd asked him not to drink, so I figured maybe he'd listen to that request, but I suppose if it's tradition it can't be helped." Deep down she really hoped that she'd been listened to, but all bets were off and she wasn't going to let herself get hurt by Claude doing what he wanted.

A bellowing yell from across the room silenced all three of them and drew their attention over to where the sound had come from, which had been followed immediately with a chorus of raucous laughter and clapping. Somehow Sylvain had ended up flanked on all sides by ladies and was reveling in their attention, and it was Ingrid who'd yelled at him to get his attention away from half-clothed chests and back onto her, the other ladies all laughing when he'd sheepishly looked to his friend instead of them. "Things like that are why I don't let myself drink," Bernie admitted, turning her eyes back to her companions. "I just know that if I start getting drunk, Dorothea will swoop in and include me in all of her teasing that she does to Sylvain at these things."

"Likewise, I stay sober so that I can be the one to get Raphael back into his bedroom in one piece." His face going serious at what he'd just said, Ignatz stood up and shook out his legs. "I've gotten rather good at deadlifting him if he misses his bed when he falls asleep, but it really does a number on my knees and back for the following days." After he'd limbered himself up suitably enough, he sat back down, making sure to not knock over any the non-alcoholic drinks they had sitting at their feet to sip on.

Byleth, having never been to a party where there were so many people drinking, wasn't sure how to explain why she'd stayed away from the drinks without venturing down a path that she didn't want to be on. "I've never been a drinker," she chose to explain it as, even though all she could think about was Jeralt and Alois and their drinking nights that she'd sorely missed being around for. "Don't really see that as being in my future."

"You'll come around to it," she heard Claude say, and her eyes immediately shot to where he was standing in the second doorway to the room, what looked like water in the cup in his hand. "None of the liquor Leonie brought holds a candle to the stuff you can get outside of Fódlan, but we're not exactly breaking out the expensive spirits tonight."

"Please don't tell me you're drinking more," she pleaded, jumping up and taking out all but one of Bernie's cups with her feet as she leapt over to the door, where Claude reacted by holding his cup up above his head so that she couldn't reach it. "What did I say earlier, Claude? Doesn't what I say matter?"

"Calm down, it's the first thing I've had since then, you're overreacting if you think this is going to knock me off my feet." Byleth didn't quite believe him, but based on how he was speaking clearly (which could not be said for just about everyone else), she felt that he was at least clean enough to not be impaired in conversing. "I wanted to come check on you, since you've chosen to hang out with some old friends over me."

Her eyes shifted as far as they could to try looking at the other two, but when she couldn't see them she had to turn to see that they were both encouraging her to stick with Claude, even with them both now on the floor cleaning up the mess that had been made when she'd jumped up. "I think they're telling me I should go with you instead," she said, pointing out what was clearly obvious to anyone witnessing it. The look on Claude's face when he heard that was one of delight, and he took Byleth's arm in his hands and dragged her towards the kitchen before she could say anything more.

The scene in the kitchen was much different than it had been earlier in the night. Gone was the collection of cups for drinking, replaced with the bottles of different mixers and liquors for everyone to use as they pleased, and the food that had been so lovingly prepared was picked through and almost entirely gone. Marianne was in there, working on cleaning up dishes, and she was joined by someone with long orange hair who had been carrying some plates in her hands when she caught a glimpse of Byleth in there; the plates all flew in the air as Annette charged at her, grabbing her in a big hug that Claude barely got his arm out of the way of. "I heard you were here, but I guess I missed seeing you every time I was out in the room with everyone else!" she cried, squeezing Byleth tightly. "I'm so glad I get to see you! Did you get to see Mercie before she left?"

"I did, I spent some time with her and Ashe earlier." At once Annette let go of her, putting on a deep pout and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "W-what's with that reaction? Is there a problem with that?"

"There is! Neither of them mentioned that they got to talk to you before they left, I didn't find out you were here until, well, until Claude said something about it just a bit ago!" Cue Claude giving Byleth a sly smile when she looked at him for answers, while Annette went back to helping with the kitchen cleaning. "Anyway, thanks so much for bringing her in here, that's really made my night since my friends totally bailed on me!"

Byleth took a couple steps forward to start helping Annette out, but Claude grabbed her arm once again and pulled her back into him, earning a confused look from her. "Hey, Marianne, if anyone asks where we are, let 'em know we're upstairs, will you?" He got a quick from his friend to show she'd heard him, and true to what he'd said Claude was heading up to the top floor right away, Byleth following behind because she was being dragged, not knowing what was going on but not exactly complaining that she was going to be spending time with Claude where no one else was.

He took her to his bedroom, letting her inside before closing the door behind them while he held his still-full cup in between his teeth, taking it and setting it on the top of his dresser once he could. "Do you usually take ladies you haven't seen a while into your room like this?" Byleth asked, knowing that the scene she'd been brought into was something ripped straight from a trashy novel. "I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but—"

"You wanted answers about things I wasn't going to talk about earlier, but now I think that you've seen a bit more of how everyone's coping with our lives, so you're ready to know all the details." He sat down on his bed and motioned for her to join him, which she did after hesitating over the fact that this really was what someone would find in some novel teachers would deem too scandalous to read in class, but at that point she knew that if she wanted answers, she had to do it.

Claude's intentions really were pure though, with nothing devious or scandalous planned for their time in that bedroom together. He carefully, as chronologically as he could manage, recounted everything of note for Byleth that had happened since her banishment from Garreg Mach, fitting in all of the details he'd already told her where they fit as well. He talked at length about his time spent back home in Almyra, and about how he'd never felt like that was where he belonged but it was where his family was and where they wanted him to stay, as well as how he'd managed to get back to the town where all of his friends had stayed over the years after reaching out to Holst first, then Hilda at his insistence. There was a lot about what Edelgard and Hubert had done in their time being banished as well, which had been news-worthy had Byleth cared enough in her depression to look at it, and there was more about what had happened to Dimitri.

"In fact, I think he's why Mercedes jetted out of here so early," he concluded when he'd talked about how Dimitri had grown to be consumed with the need to get back at Edelgard for being responsible for damaging half of his face, rendering one eye completely useless. "I know that she visits him and Dedue every chance she gets, just to play mother hen with them, so that's probably it."

"I'll have to ask if I can visit him sometime too, then," Byleth decided, her voice strong as she felt like she was making an important choice right then. "He was my date to that dance, after all, he did mean something to me…even if that was only because you couldn't be there."

"No worries, I'd see him too if I could." Claude clasped his hands together, looking into Byleth's eyes with the faintest smile upon his lips. "You know, I don't know how many times you've heard this in the past few years, but you're quite attractive. I always thought back during our time together in the club that you were the best-looking woman there, hands down, but now that I'm older I feel like I can say it."

She wasn't sure how to react at the compliment, a smile feeling too fake to put on and there not really being anything else that felt appropriate in that moment. "Thank you, Claude, you've grown from a charming boy to a handsome and charming man, if that means anything to you," she replied, breaking their eye contact to stare elsewhere in the room, feeling sparks begin to fly that she wasn't confident she was ready for all of a sudden. That caused her to break, blurting out, "I'm sorry, but I'm not ready for you to kiss me, if that's what you're looking for."

"What? No, come on, that's not what I want from this." There was a tone to his voice that seemed surprised to hear such a thing, but one look at Claude's face made it clear that he'd been hoping they'd lean into each other and lock lips (at least, in Byleth's mind anyway). "I really only wanted you in here to talk to you about everything, since if you're going to hear it, you should hear it from me and as soon as possible."

Still, even with that assurance she couldn't bring herself to look Claude in the eyes again for quite some time, choosing to distract herself with everything he'd collected in his bedroom away from home. "I'm thankful you're willing to spend this time apart from all of your friends to catch me up to speed on matters," she said, shifting where she sat on the edge of the bed, "but don't you think people are going to get suspicious about what's going on?"

"Marianne's got it under control, she's not the meek girl you once knew anymore, she'll set someone straight if they start assuming. Unless it's Hilda, but at this point? She'll be doing worse once the house is empty, she can make up any ideas she wants to about us." Claude waved a hand, in the direction of where Hilda's bedroom was. "I'm honestly surprised you haven't tried digging more about that whole situation."

Byleth blinked, not knowing why Claude would bring up such a thing. "I thought talking about it wasn't allowed."

"In her presence, but we're in my room and she has no say on what I say in here. She's only so touchy about it because she knows she's stayed with Caspar this long because she's using him as her 'so there' towards Lorenz." At saying the name, Claude looked right towards the door and made sure it didn't fly open for someone or something to smite him for what he'd done, and once he knew the coast was clear he laid back on his bed, relaxing with his hands behind his head. "That's where their whole discord started, when she picked Caspar over him for the dance, and it only exploded once I was banned from the academy and he felt someone needed to be in charge and she wouldn't let him be the one."

"I guess that makes a lot of sense, but they always seemed so close…"

"Trust me when I say that they were only 'close' when they thought they had power. The moment that power was taken from them, they couldn't bother caring about each other any longer. At least Hilda was able to come around to staying friends with everyone, but Lorenz?" Claude gave a shrug. "He's better off galivanting around with Ferdinand and probably Edelgard and Hubert at this point, let's be real."

They talked for a while longer, moving away from discussing matters of the past and getting into talking about things that mattered where they were, specifically about what they were doing with their lives and time. Since Byleth had thrown everything she'd ever had away in her depression, she didn't have much to talk about, but Claude was able to tell her all about the jobs everyone had acquired over time and that he didn't really do much himself, minus sit there in his room and think about what there was he could do. "I'd do things if I could, but as someone who was expelled from Garreg Mach and not even from Fódlan, there's not exactly a lot people want me for," he admitted, still laying on his back with Byleth sitting next to him, her hand fidgeting with the ends of his long hair. "Guess we can try setting off into this crazy world together, see what anyone would hire a depressed college dropout and an 'uneducated' Almyran guy to do."

"Wow, expecting me to just abandon my life to follow you wherever you go, I see the game you're playing here," Byleth teased, taking hold of his hair and giving it a firm tug, just hard enough to get him to look at her. "No, but getting away from this area might do me some good, I've gone absolutely nowhere since Father was killed and I've done nothing with my life since then. Alois is probably beyond tired of having to take care of me, him and his wife both, so they'd appreciate it if I went off with you for a while."

"Sounds like someone's eager to get her life started." His reply came after looking at her for a few silent moments, as he thought about what he could say. "Not that I'm not eager myself, it's been a long time waiting for you to come back."

She slowly loosened her grip on his hair, as she felt her face warming up at the statement. "T-that's silly, Claude, I know you weren't waiting for me. You have all of your other friends, you didn't need me back."

"Oh, but I did, and I'm not going to let you go away again." Once he knew her hand wasn't entangled in his hair he sat up, hopping off the bed and making his way towards the door. "I'll go let Marianne know you're staying here overnight, just so that you don't slip away without everyone knowing and then…who knows when I'd see you next. You can sleep in one of the spare rooms, and then tomorrow after this house has been cleaned up of everyone else who's got to stay overnight, we can do something. Sound good?"

Byleth's heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest at just the idea of staying there that night, knowing what was going on outside those bedroom walls, and if others were going to be crashing there she didn't want to be somewhere that they could walk in. "One condition and I'll stay here," she said, following him off the bed as he turned to watch her give her stipulation. "I sleep in here, with you. I'm fine with the floor, I just want to know I'm somewhere safe."

"I'll take the floor in that case, and you can have my spot. There, problem solved, let's go tell Marianne so she doesn't arrange for you to have a ride home." He seemed rather eager to get out of the room to deliver the message, and Byleth was curious about why that was, but she didn't ask him for fear of distracting him further from what he was trying to do. But when he opened his door and stepped out into the hallway, the defeated sigh he gave told her that something else was there to distract him anyway.

When she popped out of the room as well, she saw what had caught Claude's attention: sitting against the wall that bordered the hallway down to Hilda's room was Felix, looking annoyed at the world as he stared at who'd dared intrude on his sitting. "Wasn't expecting to hear both of you come out of that room," he grumbled, pushing strands of stringy, seemingly unwashed hair out of his pale face. "I'm trying to find somewhere comfortable to sleep and this was about all I could find."

"There's several bedrooms you could pick from," Claude replied, trying to be helpful as he pulled his door shut around Byleth, as she was watching Felix with raised eyebrows. "Besides, didn't it already get arranged that you, Sylvain, and Ingrid would be getting the bigger guest room for the three of you? What happened to that?"

"Look, I love those two even if they make me wish I was dead, but I'm not sharing a room with them tonight." The cold tone with which Felix spoke showed he was serious and meant business, but neither Claude nor Byleth could understand why he was making such a statement until he explained his reasoning. "I was given the floor between their beds, but they're both so drunk that I'd be getting woken up all night because of them. I'm not spending my night holding back Ingrid's hair, and I'm not having Sylvain wake me up begging me to get him water because he's too scared to go downstairs and embarrass himself in front of the ladies. I'll gladly take the hallway floor."

"Nah, no reason for that. We're bound to have somewhere downstairs you can sleep, or I bet Marianne could hook you up with a ride home if we can't find you one." Motioning for Felix to follow with them, Claude watched him stagger to his feet, showing that he wasn't as far from being blackout drunk as he'd implied his friends were. "Byleth, mind following behind him in case he stumbles? Bet between the two of us we'd be able to catch him."

"Sure thing," she said with a nod, taking her place in line as they started walking. She'd never experienced seeing someone quite that drunk, not when her only times with people drinking had been with her father, and he'd always kept himself relatively sound.

When they were halfway down the stairs Felix stopped abruptly, reaching forward and grabbing Claude's shoulder to support himself and let the leader know to stop moving. "I just remembered, you mentioned asking Marianne to give me a ride home. One, can't do that, if I show my face in that house while I'm like this my father will never let me hear the end of it. Two, she's already gone for the night, so we couldn't ask her anyway."

"Already…gone?" Claude repeated, hearing Felix spit something about how he hated having to say the same thing twice but that yes, she was gone. "I was under the impression she'd be running drunks home all night. Guess she got her work done earlier than expected?"

Felix didn't give a response and instead let go of Claude's shoulder so they could continue on, leaving them with less answers than there were questions to be asked. By the time they got down to the lower floor and into the living room, they could all see that there was very limited space available for someone to crash, every raised surface covered in some way. "It kind of looks like a giant sleepover," Byleth remarked, looking at everyone's sleeping (or in some cases half-awake and looking like death) forms as they crowded on chairs and the floor alike. "I'm glad I'm not part of this."

"So happy for you," Felix sarcastically replied, turning out of the room and causing the other two to follow him for the moment. "I'm guessing I'll be stuck in the other room, or else it's back up to the hallway for me."

Them following him lasted only as long as passing the kitchen, as that was when Hilda came out at them, clearly plastered and barely cognizant of what was happening around her. "Oh my goodness, you're both still alive!" she trilled, grabbing Claude in a surprise hug that had him stumble-stepping to keep himself standing. "I was so worried that you'd died because I hadn't seen you at all! Where have you been?"

"Byleth wanted to catch up, so I took the time to get her up to speed on everything," Claude answered, telling the truth but leaving out the detail of where the conversation had happened, for obvious reasons. "We came down to look for Marianne, but she's already gone, according to Felix. What happened there?"

Backing off, Hilda's dramatic pout was clear to them both. "She decided she was going to be a giant meanie and ruin my night, that's what," she slurred, swaying as she tried to be over-the-top with her delivery. "It wasn't fair, Caspar wanted to stay over here, but she said he had to go home because Lin wanted out, and then she said she was going home, and I was like…but Marianne, if you're taking Caspar home, you've gotta sleep in my room with me to keep me company!"

"Is this how she always gets when she drinks?" Byleth asked, leaning as close into Claude's ear as she could manage given their height difference.

"Every single time," he replied out of the corner of his mouth, before putting on a fake empathetic smile as he reached out to pat Hilda's shoulder comfortingly. "I know it's a bummer that you lost your possible bedmates for the night, but if you need it, I'm sure Felix is desperate enough for somewhere to sleep that he'll fill the role."

Down the hallway, with zero regard for the hour or the need for rest that everyone else had, Felix could be heard snapping, "I'd rather sleep in the cold than with her, when she'll be throwing up more than everyone else." Byleth certainly heard the remark and she found it amusing, but she didn't know if Claude or Hilda had heard it as well.

It was easy to guess not when they both seemed unfazed by it, Hilda once again falling into Claude with her arms open for a big hug. "I'm just, like, so bugged by this. I thought Marianne had my back, you know? And now she's going and ruining my happiness for tonight, like a big meanie."

"I think we're going to take you up to bed ourselves, so you can sober up and realize that she's done you a big solid." Claude glanced to where Byleth was to make sure she was out of his way, before he lifted Hilda and began cradling her in his arms, her giving an unnecessary whine as she threw her head back, her pink hair nearly brushing the floor. "Enough of this, Hilda, you know that if Caspar was here the two of you would get into nothing but trouble."

"There's no kind of trouble we could've gotten into," she retorted, kicking her feet and narrowly missing hitting the walls as they walked, whining off and on as she saw necessary. Like before, Byleth hung back, staying just far away that if anything were to happen she could dive in to help, but close enough that she could hear all of the words spilling out of Hilda's mouth without a problem. It was mostly complaining about how she was being treated like a child and that she shouldn't have had her boyfriend taken from her like he'd been, but Byleth completely sided with Marianne's decision on that one. In fact, after Hilda had been deposited on her bed with a friendly wave and a blown kiss from Claude as he waited in her doorway to see her slip under her covers, she wanted to say something about it, but he beat her to the punch. "She's so out of it, she's completely forgetting that Caspar is also as drunk as she is, if not more, and between the two of them they wouldn't have the common sense to wrap it," he joked, closing Hilda's door tightly and taking Byleth's hand to lead her back to his room. "She'd love for him to stay over, until consequences would need to be faced and let's be real, she wouldn't want to bother facing them."

"Oh yeah, it's best that she's not having to cross that road anytime soon," Byleth agreed, despite not really knowing how Hilda was anymore when she wasn't drunk. "It's not a road any of us need to be crossing right now, I don't think."

"Some people might be closer to ready to cross it than others, I don't know." Claude paused after he spoke, chuckling to himself as he opened his bedroom door and they went inside together. "Not saying I'm anywhere near ready, that's a commitment I'm not intending on making anytime in the near future."

She nodded, fully understanding why he was clarifying like he was but wanting him to know she'd thought nothing of it. "It's okay, I wouldn't expect you to be making that commitment, since you're clearly single and don't have any intentions of bedding a woman."

"You got me there," he laughed, pointing at her playfully. "Definitely missing some key components to that equation." As he prepared himself a spot on the floor, Byleth watched Claude looking at her almost wistfully, while she got comfortable on his bed that reminded her very much of the one she had at home, down to the firmness of the worn-in spot on the mattress. She could feel herself growing physically tired as she tried watching where Claude was in the room at all times, him going from the closet to the floor and back and forth over and over, until her eyes closed and she tuned the world around her out.

When her eyes reopened, the room was filled with soft morning light and she felt the warmness of another person laying next to her, causing her to roll over to see Claude's sleeping face on the pillow next to hers. Her heart sank as she slid her hands up and down her body, checking to make sure that she was still wearing what she'd been when she fell asleep, and when her clothes seemed to be in order she gave a sigh of relief, knowing that Claude must have climbed into the bed when sleeping on the floor didn't cut it for him, and that he'd meant no harm with it. Still, though, she was in his room and there were plenty of others in the house to make assumptions by her whereabouts, and the faster she could get out the better.

Without waking him she rolled out of the bed, taking a look at his curled-up legs and how he'd barely covered himself in the blanket minus his arms and chest, before she headed for the door. It had to be early enough in the morning that everyone who'd been drinking was still asleep, and then she could seamlessly slip herself somewhere and raise no suspicion; she was dead wrong when she opened the bedroom door to hear the bustling of many others throughout the house. It wasn't until she'd closed his door that she'd realized her belongings were still in his room, but reopening it to retrieve them ran the risk of waking him, so she'd have to wait until he was up by his own decisions before she went back in.

Downstairs was quite the happening place, many of the people who'd been there the night before returning to life, albeit groggy and most likely hungover. "Hey there, where'd you end up?" Leonie asked her, hair thrown all into disarray as she stretched at the bottom of the staircase. "Last anyone remembered seeing you was early on, when you were chilling with Ignatz and Bernie. Where'd you go after that?"

Not wanting to truthfully answer, Byleth gave a shrug and continued on her way, Leonie's eyes following her as she went into the living room, calling after her that she'd get the answer sometime. "How was your night?" came the next question, courtesy of Dorothea, who'd clearly fallen asleep without a blanket or pillow on the floor and had ended up with someone's jacket on to keep her warm. "I can't recall when we last saw each other, but I'm sure that's my fault, not yours."

"Mm, yeah, that's true, I saw you around last night looking like you were having a great time." It would have been nearly impossible for Byleth to forget what she'd seen Dorothea doing while she'd been drinking, but she was going to be polite and not bring it up specifically. "My night was fine, though, just a lot of wandering around trying to catch back up with everyone with how long I was gone."

"Makes sense, if I end up disappearing for months for opera engagements I always feel like I'm playing catch-up when I get back as well, and that's just for a few months! You've been gone for five whole years, Byleth, and we all missed you terribly." The sad look Dorothea put on her face was replaced immediately when she heard Petra nearby waking up, mumbling something about bright lights, and she giggled. "Oh, looks like someone couldn't handle the Fódlan drinks as well as she pretended she could! Let's go get you some water and hopefully get you right as rain, shall we?"

It seemed that as long as she didn't act suspicious, everyone would notice Byleth but not pay too close of attention to her, and once Dorothea and Petra were gone, she took their spot in the room, hoping that she'd be in the clear once there. The plan worked for the most part, with the only person who didn't move on right away from conversation with her being Leonie, who was simply certain that something had happened that she wasn't being told. But all good things couldn't last, and when Claude finally came downstairs with confusion in his eyes as he looked around, she knew that she was about to be caught in what she'd done. "Next time, you get the floor," he said to her as he approached, several others in the room watching their interaction closely. "I've slept in worse places, but there was something about being on the floor in my own room that just…didn't work."

"Sounds good," she replied, hoping that he was bluffing to answer everyone's burning question of where she'd slept, but not telling them the full truth. "Next time I end up over here overnight I'll take the floor. Which was what I'd originally offered, but you had to be the charming gentleman."

"You two can stop lying whenever you'd like," Sylvain interjected, making his presence in the back doorway known with the statement. "We're all not blind and deaf, we know you're trying to play something off like it didn't happen. Felix already told me you two were up in the room together all night, you're not convincing anyone that you didn't get to at least the squeezing stage, if not further."

"And you must definitely still be working off your alcohol, because there was nothing beyond innocent conversations that went down behind those closed doors." Claude's voice was steady, making it clearer he was telling the truth and not trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. "Yes, Felix did catch us up there, but he was drunk off his ass when it happened and he probably is misremembering what he saw because at no point, and I do actually mean no point at all, were any clothes removed or messed with, because we were up there being grown adults having a conversation too heavy for the festivities downstairs."

That was when Felix and Ingrid both came into the room, hitting Sylvain's shoulders with matching punches. "I told you that I just saw them come out of the room, I didn't say a word about what they were doing, you dolt," Felix snapped, while Ingrid looked apologetically towards the pair for what Sylvain had been saying. "If anyone was doing nasty things last night it was the two of you, anyway."

"E-excuse me, my hands never once touched Ingrid in a way she didn't ask for!" Breaking his previously smug (for what he thought was calling people out) attitude, Sylvain looked at Ingrid for her to back him up, while her jaw was dropping at the audacity Felix had to say such a thing about her. "C'mon Ingrid, back me up!"

"He knows he's making things up to make us feel bad about him sleeping down here, we don't have to listen to this…just like they shouldn't have to listen to you." Tugging on the unraveled braid that she'd been wearing her hair in the night before, Ingrid now mouthed an apology to Byleth before stepping back out of the room, Sylvain following her right away while Felix lingered, watching his friends go before he went with them as well.

"And things like that are why I was content in being just me, myself, and I all night," Hapi deadpanned from where she was laying on the floor, not even bothering getting up. "Once Freckles left me high and dry I didn't have anyone to watch things with, and I wasn't sinking to anyone else's level, no matter how fun it would've been. B had too great of a time for me to think about joining him." That was when she sat up, her eyes locking with Byleth's as she knew that she'd explained that nickname the night before. "Have you seen B around anywhere, actually?"

Knowing that the person they were talking about was not someone easily misplaced, Byleth looked around and recalled as many people as she could and their sleeping places before shaking her head. "He might've been in one of the rooms upstairs, but I can't say that I've seen Balthus since last night."

"Figures, I was supposed to be his ride home until he slipped me some drinks and we got stuck for the night, and now he's disappeared. Oh well." Hapi gave a defeated shoulder-slump, laying back down. "I'll stay right here until he shows back up."

"It's Balthus, knowing him he called Holst and had him send someone by to pick him up," Claude said under his breath, so that Byleth could hear him but Hapi couldn't. He raised his voice when he continued with, "Speaking of Holst, we might want to make sure his precious little sister didn't die in her sleep, given how drunk she was when we took her to bed. Care to come check with me, Byleth?"

Her heart gave a small flutter at hearing her name the way he said it, and she couldn't resist that offer when he made it so tenderly. They went back upstairs together, the one thing they did before they went being Claude asking Leonie if she could spare a ride to get Byleth home and bring him back to square one, which she agreed to. Rather than question why that was such an easy task to get in order, Byleth went right along with what Claude was doing, not even thinking to break away to grab her belongings from his bedroom until they'd done what they went upstairs for. Of course, that didn't happen until after Claude had checked each and every bedroom upstairs for anyone else who was still sleeping, finding that there was just one person other than Hilda still up there and leaving them to sleep rather than waking them up. Hilda, though, was treated to the lovely sound of him making a guttural scream outside her door, getting her to open it to see what was going on and finding Claude doubled over with laughter outside, Byleth bearing witness to her hungover body barely managing to stand there staring at him before she slammed the door in his face.

"I need my things from your room before we go back down and Leonie takes me home," she said once he'd collected himself and they were ready to go. "I'd hate for her to drive all that way just for me to not have my key, and I'm not sure Alois is there to let me in."

"Makes total sense, wouldn't want to inconvenience Leonie any more than we already do." He didn't follow her down to his room, allowing for her to duck right in, grab everything she'd brought and everything she'd acquired, and meet back up with him like nothing was different. "Come on, we don't want to keep her waiting for too long, not when she's going to end up driving so many others home like Marianne should have done last night. Seriously, don't know what's up with her bailing, but if it was really to keep Hilda's pants on her, then so be it."

The overall experience was one that Byleth wished she'd been more prepared to have, and as she rode home in the backseat of Leonie's car, she was granted silence to think about everything that had happened. Parties weren't her thing, and she should have definitely reconsidered one being her return to having a social life, but when she'd look up and see Claude glancing back at her in the mirror, she decided that some things were worth coming out of her depression for one wild and crazy night for.

If only she fully understood the new path her life was set on, all because she'd stepped out one time without thinking through the possible consequences. The Three Houses Club had been one life-changing experience, but waking up next to Claude in bed was a completely different one, and she'd find out soon enough just what being vulnerable with him would mean for herself—and for them.

A/N: I promise that, despite that last sentence, nothing impure has happened. in fact, I'll go ahead and give you a teaser: there is going to be shirtless Claude in the next chapter. so, like, extrapolate from that as you will.

sorry for the TWO MONTH hiatus, NaNo got me good lol.