Spending time together became a regular thing for Byleth and Claude, whenever he could catch a ride over to her apartment to pick her up, or he could get someone to drop him off over with her for a couple hours. It wasn't ideal that they were at the mercy of other people's help to get to see each other, but it wasn't the end of the world, not when Claude could easily get one of his many friends to help out as long as they had the time. "Maybe it'd be for the best if we learned out to drive," Byleth admitted one day when they were at her apartment, her laying on her bed while Claude was sitting on the floor playing on his phone absentmindedly. "It'd save us the trouble of needing people to help us out."

"As great of an idea that would be, I already know how to drive," he replied, setting his phone down on his leg and giving Byleth a shrug, her sitting up to look at him rather incredulously. "Don't have a legal license in Fódlan, though, and my license for driving in Almyra wouldn't fly around here. Also doesn't help that I don't have a car to drive."

"Pretty sure that Father's old car is still parked outside, I think Alois would use it from time to time if he didn't feel like using his own." Biting her lip, Byleth tried to think of how to proceed at the moment but she was at a loss as to what they could do; she knew that if Claude couldn't drive without a Fódlan license, that put the burden on her shoulders, and she wasn't exactly eager to be behind the wheel of a car at any time. "I suppose I can look into taking lessons and learning how to drive for myself, but that's a process and it's not an answer for right now."

"I could always see how much of a headache it'd be to get my license transferred over, if it means that much to you. I'd never thought I'd be staying in Fódlan on a permanent basis but if it's what's going to happen, I can prepare for it." As he was picking his phone back up, they both heard the front door coming open, which shocked him as he'd been told Alois was not going to be there that day—and Byleth, just as surprised, was jumping off her bed and running to go see what was happening.

"Stay in here, please!" she begged, watching Claude nod in understanding as she opened the door and slipped out into the living room, finding Alois coming inside with a grim expression upon his face. "H-hello there, Alois. I thought you were going to be up at the academy all day today?"

He made sure to lock the door firmly behind him before facing Byleth, his eyes shifting from side to side without really meeting hers at any point. "Yes, that was indeed today's plan! But requests and demands from Lady Rhea take priority over my plans, you see, and if she needs me to prepare for something else then it's my job to do exactly that." His soft chuckle was not one that gave any reassurance to Byleth, who was already feeling squeamish at hearing Alois speak about Rhea as he was. "There is something rather important I need to inform you of, Byleth, and I feel you may need to sit down for this."

"It can't be worse than you telling me a family member was killed in a shooting," she muttered, sitting down on the couch just to humor Alois, and when he chuckled again she felt like she shouldn't have said a thing. "Well, go on, I guess. What's going on that's so important you had to drive over here while you should be working?"

Alois walked over to the door to what had been his off-and-on bedroom over the past few years, opening it just a crack. "Now, I want you to accept that this was not my plan, and this was not anything I had asked for, but the situation is dire and with the Hresvelg girl causing waves in the headlines on a daily basis with her threats it was deemed best if we went through with this right away."

"You're not telling me anything," Byleth pointed out, knowing that what Alois was doing was building suspense for something she didn't particularly care about (although hearing him mention Edelgard as he had did surprise her). "Just get on with it."

"Right, of course. Effective immediately, my position at the Garreg Mach Monastery Academy has been turned from security of the grounds to round-the-clock monitoring of the archbishop's living quarters." He pushed the door open just a bit further, taking a step backward into the room at the same time that Byleth, almost in a state of disbelief, stood up to turn to challenge what he'd said. "I know, this is something that you would rather me not do as it means I cannot be here to provide care for you, but my allegiance to Lady Rhea has always been higher than to anyone else, regardless of if they're the lifeblood of a friend of mine or not. It has been a treat to spend time caring for you in Jeralt's stead for the past five years, but I feel he would think that it is time you blossom into your own woman, Byleth, and I am inclined to think this is happening to allow for exactly that."

"You're really going to change what you've been doing for the woman who blamed me for being upset that my father died for her? The very father you've been taking care of me for?" Rage was building in Byleth's heart, and she wasn't sure why Alois would make such a decision, even though he'd just explained it to her. She knew that fighting him was not going to do anything because he was too devoted to his boss to care about her feelings on the matter, but she still wanted to get her thoughts out while he could hear them. "I get it, she needs to be protected from people who want to murder her, but she was fine with alienating someone whose father died for her!"

"Byleth, you need to understand that some things are larger than you may see them, and this is one such instance." With that, Alois fully stepped into the bedroom and closed the door, and when he came back out a couple minutes later, his arms were filled with clothing that he'd stored over at the house. "I will be running these out to the car, there's just a few other things I have to grab before I will be gone," he told her, and Byleth was too annoyed at what was actually happening around her to say a word. He did exactly as promised, but when he came back inside, before he went to grab those last things he stood in the doorway again to speak. "I do want to tell you that your father left behind quite a bit of money for your well-being, and now that I will no longer be your guardian you will have access to it. Your rent on this apartment has always been month-to-month, as Jeralt had wanted it, so you will need to decide sooner rather than later—"

He was cut off by the sound of Byleth's bedroom door opening, Claude coming out without his shirt on and looking like he'd just been woken up. Alois' jaw dropped at the sight, while Byleth went pale knowing that she was about to be in an even worse situation. "Oh hey there, Alois, long time no see," he greeted, giving a salute-like gesture to the man who stood stern-faced watching him. "What brings you by?"

"—I was not expecting to see the Riegan boy here with you," Alois said, looking at Byleth and giving no actually address to Claude. "At any rate, what I was saying was that you will need to decide by the end of the month if you're staying here or moving to greener pastures, the leasing office will be expecting your message as soon as possible." Without another word he went into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him, leaving the other two in the living room staring each other down.

Mouthing at Claude in complete shock that he'd done exactly what had just happened, Byleth didn't know what she would say to him if she could find her voice. It was a treat to see him without his shirt on, his chiseled body easy on the eyes, but for him to have come out like that while Alois was already dropping some harsh news on her, it wasn't appropriate no matter how much he was trying to help her. "Look, I heard him talking and I figured you wouldn't be happy about what he was saying, so I came to lighten the mood. Was that a problem with you?"

"Yes, but also no," she admitted, sighing a deeply-held breath that she'd been holding in all of that nonsense. "I just…I can't believe he's going to be out of here forever. He's been caring for me since Father was killed and now…I'm on my own, I guess?" Her eyes found a resting place on the closed door that she knew Alois was behind, finishing collecting his things before he disappeared out of her life while he focused on work over her. "I don't know what to do about this, Claude…"

He shrugged, bringing both hands up to the top of his head, where he interlocked his fingers and let them rest on his slicked-back hair. "I'm not really sure what you can do either, it's not a pretty situation. Although…no, no, I'm not going to suggest that to you. That'd be too far, I think."

"What's your idea?" At that moment, it didn't seem like any idea would be a bad one, because Byleth knew she was not prepared to face whatever was going to be coming her way in life from that day on. But when she saw how hesitant Claude was to say anything else, she began to suspect that he might have been right all along; that sort of was proven to be true when he ducked back into her bedroom and left her all alone in the living room, having to process her new reality there by herself.

When Alois came out of the bedroom he'd been using for the last time, he had a bag over his shoulder and a sorrowful look in his eyes as he came to Byleth's side, opening his arms for a hug but finding her standing like a statue and unwilling to budge for him. "Byleth, please understand that this decision I've been forced to make was not one that was easy for me or my life as it's been for five years. Do you think I want to be living in Lady Rhea's quarters? Do you think I want to be separated from my wife every day until this all blows over? Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, and the archbishop is that greater good right now."

"You're leaving someone who doesn't know how to live their life to do exactly that."

"Not because I want to! You need to understand that this is not what I have wanted to do to you, and if I had a say in it this wouldn't be happening as it is." Alois, knowing that he was fighting a losing battle with her because she was only going to see his actions as a betrayal and an abandonment, stepped towards the front door. "If you need anything from me, I will be just a call away, but I'm going to assume that contacting my wife will be easier than contacting me. Make wise choices going forward, Byleth."

Even his parting words felt fake at that moment, and Byleth couldn't bring herself to say anything in response to them, even with tears beginning to well up in her eyes as he shut the door and slid the key underneath it after he'd locked it. He'd been a father figure for her since she'd lost Jeralt, and now he was lost to her as well, and she'd been helpless in keeping him around. "Maybe it'd be best if something bad happened to Rhea after all, so people would stop losing themselves trying to protect her," she spat as the tears cascaded down her cheeks, her losing all control of her emotions. "I think I'd almost rather have Edelgard and Hubert do whatever it is they're trying to do to her, instead of all of this stupid selfishness and entitlement and everything she's got going on!"

For a moment she forgot she wasn't alone in the apartment, so when she stormed into her room, she was immediately taken aback by seeing Claude in there, still shirtless, sitting on the edge of her bed with his phone pressed against his ear. Her anger subsided slightly as she was given a finger gesture that told her to be quiet, as he was having some sort of conversation that seemed important enough that he wasn't joking around as he spoke to whoever was on the other end. And when the call was over, and he set the phone down next to him, his gentle smile in her direction made her feel like her tears were evaporating on the spot. "You'll never guess who that was I was talking to," he said, motioning for her to come over to sit with him, which she did. "Never guess it at all."

"You're right, I don't have a clue," she replied, thinking about all the possibilities and only knowing that it wasn't one of his close friends, just based on the seriousness. "Are you going to really make me guess, or will you just tell me?"

"I suppose I could just go ahead and tell you." His voice came out as a slight sing-song, which clued Byleth in that he was being playful, so she quickly made her way to sitting next to him, her shoulder brushing against his arm as he was grabbing his phone to get it out of her way. Once she was settled, she was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to give her his news, and he delivered as soon as he found the words to do it: "I called Holst and asked him if I could duck out of my living arrangement with his sister, because I found somewhere else to live. Or, rather, someone else to live with. Not quite sure where we'll be living."

The way he still had that gentle smile on his lips was meant to be comforting, but for the first couple of seconds Byleth was filled with a sense of betrayal, that they'd been working on building a relationship and he would do such a thing to her on the same day that Alois had walked out as well. Then, much like a bolt of lightning from the clouded skies above, it struck her that he wasn't talking about some random someone else he'd be living with—he was talking about her. "A-are you sure you want to do that?" she stammered, completely confused about why that would be anything Claude would be willing to do. "I mean, you've got it good there with Hilda, why give that up to live with me?"

"One, because living with her isn't all glamorous as I'm sure you think it is, she's lazy and always has Caspar coming over and I'm kind of over being their third wheel. And two, because we're…something, right? You need somewhere to stay and I need to get out of where I'm staying, we'll be a perfect pair going through this together." At seeing her look of confusion not fading he grimaced, unsure of where it was she was still tripping herself up. "I just want to do what's best for you, Byleth, like I've always been doing."

"What do you mean that we're 'something'?" she asked, revealing which part of his explanation had kept her from fully understanding him. She could believe that he wasn't enjoying living with Hilda, she could believe that he wanted to do what was best for her because he really had been doing that since they'd met, more or less. It was just his use of calling them something that she didn't understand, and she wanted him to explain it. "Are you saying what we've got doesn't have a label?"

"I mean, if you want to put it that way…" He trailed off, his cheeks darkening in color as he reached up and grabbed her chin, turning her head slightly until he had forced her eyes to lock with his. "I didn't know what else to say about it, didn't want to overstep some boundaries or anything like that. I'd love to give it a label, because calling us friends? I don't think that's going to cut it."

She knew that he was trying to get her to stare him down until some confession was made, but her eyes kept flickering downward, towards his lips, where she could watch him carefully choosing the words he spoke. Never before had she noticed how pronounced he made his movements when he talked, something that had to be a consequence of needing to mask a native accent or a lisp or anything that he must've thought would be picked apart. "What do you want to call us then?" she tenderly asked, keeping her eyes glued to his for the most part, even though each glance at his lips felt like it lasted longer than the previous one. "I'd like to hear it from you."

"Roommates," he joked, unable to say it without a laugh (and when he said it, she'd watched his lips purse together and tremble before he'd gotten the word out, so she knew he wasn't being serious). Once he'd collected himself and righted the mood, he reset his lips back to a neutral line and took in a few deep breaths through his nose, his bare chest rising and falling as he steadied his mind and body for what he was about to admit to. "No, but as fun as just being a pair of roommates would be, I'd feel guilty keeping us at that level. I adore you, Byleth, always have and always will. When I first found out how old you were I thought I'd never have a shot with you, you'd find some older guy to hook up with and leave me behind, but here we are, sitting in your bedroom…"

"I've never had a boyfriend before," she pointed out, voice flat but exhibiting a bit of innocence that she was sure Claude had already figured out about her. "Never had a crush on anyone, never wanted a kiss with anyone, never wanted to spend time with someone, never had anything quite like this…until you came along."

His hand pulled away from her chin but she kept her position even without it, although her eyes were no longer locked on his. What she'd admitted to had been true, and no matter how exposed she felt having gotten that out into the world, she could tell that he wasn't going to use it against her. "I feel honored knowing this is your first time wanting, desiring, needing, whatever you want to call it, something like this," he told her, moving his head in closer to hers as she lifted hers to match his angle. "I promise you, I'm going to be here by your side for as long as you'll let me, and I'll promise it with this."

Kissing hadn't ever been something that Byleth had thought she'd do with anyone, because she'd never felt the spark with anyone aside from Claude—and as their lips locked she felt all of the desire of five years' time flowing out of his body and into hers, as if he'd been waiting since that day outside the back door of the Three Houses Club to finally get his chance. His lips were as warm and inviting as they'd looked, and even though she knew they weren't perfectly locked together she felt like she never wanted to break away from them. Their arms were wrapping around each other quickly, and without warning they were falling back onto the bed, trapped in each other's embrace as they came apart and smashed back together several times, the final one lasting several seconds before they were finished.

Heads coming apart to the point that there was a hair's breadth between their noses, the look of pure passion in Claude's eyes met the one of relief and understanding in Byleth's. "I've been waiting a long time to do that," he told her, confirming what she'd thought when they'd been in the middle of their kiss. "When you disappeared after everything happened, I thought I'd missed my chance, but now I know I'll have a million more chances to keep doing that."

"It was nice," she said, at a loss for how else to describe it. Things may have been stressful, and going out into the unknown now that she was in full control of her life was not going to help matters, but knowing that she'd have Claude there with her for all of it made it seem a little less daunting. "But we can't spend all day laying around kissing each other, we need to decide what we're going to do now that we're—"

"Roommates?" he suggested again, unable to get the whole word out before he was laughing.

"—I was going to say dating, probably, but that works too."

Much like Alois had directed her to do, Byleth reached out to the leasing office at the apartment complex by the end of the week and let them know that she would be moving out at the end of the month, because now that she had control of her life she didn't need to keep living in the place her father had provided for her. They were willing to work with her on getting the place cleaned up and packed for her move, but she insisted that she had it all under control and thanked them for the multiple years of letting them live there on a month-to-month basis, because she'd learned in researching for new places to live that an agreement like that was not standard.

The reason she'd turned down the offer for assistance was that she didn't want anyone else trying to pack her life into boxes, and she knew that her and Claude and their friends could do it just fine. In reality, the day they'd decided they weren't going to stay there any longer they'd started moving everything that Byleth insisted on keeping over to Hilda's place to store it temporarily, the arrangement of Claude living there expiring at the end of the month as well so they had the time to use the place as they needed. He was frequently getting people to drive from the apartment to the house, while he was helping Byleth pack as well as calling every agency he could to get his papers legal for driving in Fódlan; by the time the whole apartment was either stored or tossed, very little worth trying to resell, he could officially drive for himself and that was one less headache for them.

But with having everything out of one place and into another with a few days to spare, they still hadn't finalized where it was they'd be living come the first of the next month, and time was beginning to work against them. "Hear me out on this," he suggested after they'd spent over an hour looking at places for rent in the area around Garreg Mach and finding nothing. "What if we branched out, headed off to a new place where not everyone knows who we are or what we've gotten banned from?"

"That's something that Father always wanted us to do when I was growing up, find new lands to live in and call home for a while. The longest I've lived in one place was in that apartment, and most of that was because of…well, you know what happened." Steepling her fingers in front of her face and tapping them together as she thought, Byleth could see that Claude was eagerly awaiting her counter-suggestion. "Stop looking at me like that, I don't have anything other than that I don't want to leave everyone, not after I've just barely started to reconnect with them all."

"You know what? That's completely fair, didn't think of it that way." With his plan firmly dead and in the ground, Claude went back to looking at the rental listings, only to have another idea crash into him. "Then if you're insistent we stay around here, why don't we just, uh, buy a place together?"

"You're really moving this relationship fast, aren't you?" she teased, although it was an idea she'd had herself when she'd seen a couple of cheaper homes up for sale in the nearby area. It seemed risky to throw themselves into the realm of home ownership when they'd been only sort of officially dating for less than a month, even though the sparks had been there for a long time before that. He gave her a shrug as he continued scrolling through the different apartments and townhomes on his phone, while she grabbed her own phone and pulled up a list of homes. "But I mean, the money Father set aside for me has enough to put down a good chunk on a place, and then…we'd need to start working."

"Luckily for us, when I got my license approved for Fódlan roads, they also cleared me to work here, so that's no problem for me." She liked hearing Claude mention that, because she was slightly tempted to try to go back and finish her degrees she'd been working so hard on before the depression had hit, so that she could get a job using them instead of just getting hired somewhere to get by. "We'll need to start working regardless of what we're doing with our living situation, so do you want me to start getting on that while you finish dealing with this, or do we want to know where we're going to live before I find somewhere to work."

She clicked her tongue a couple times before deciding, "We can do both at the same time, but you have to promise you won't be too picky about where I find for us to live if I do find somewhere good."

"I think I can manage that," he laughed, and their searches went their separate ways as they sat in the living room at Hilda's house, all of Byleth's belongings filling the room around them while they waited to see where they went next. Until they had somewhere to go, or until the quickly-approaching end of the month, her things would remain in boxes there and they'd be sharing space up in his bedroom, but that life wasn't going to be sustainable for much longer and they both knew it.

Fate, or perhaps the goddess, smiled down on them soon after, as they both found what they were looking for in perhaps the most opportune way possible: a newly-built collection of tiny homes had cropped up for purchase on the outskirts of the area, and with it had come a bunch of businesses looking for fresh employees to hire on. The moment they both told each

other what they'd found and realized the other had found it as well, they shared a laugh before looking deeper into what they'd discovered, and by the end of the next day they'd scheduled an appointment to look at a couple of the homes as well as put in some applications and having gotten an arranged interview at one of them, as a desk clerk at the new grocery store right outside the neighborhood.

With things coming together so quickly, it felt like it was meant to be, but Byleth knew that the moment things started to feel right they were going to fall apart again. The night before the interview and the home inspections, as they were laying in the bed in Claude's room, she voiced her worries to him and he comforted her by rolling onto his side and covering her with his arm, pinning her to the bed. "Come on, not everything happens in cycles of good and bad! I've got a great feeling that this is going to be the start of something great for us both," he assured her, watching as she solemnly nodded after a few tense moments. "Trust me on this one, Byleth. We're going to find a home we like there, I'm going to get that job, and everything'll work out just like it needs to."

"But what if it doesn't?" she asked, hearing him sigh when she said it. "I'm being serious here, Claude. I'm starting to think we hurried into a decision we shouldn't have made and we're going to be homeless in a couple days."

"It won't happen, just be positive! If it comes down to it, my family back in Almyra will help us out until we've got it all under control. And besides, Hilda's not eagerly looking forward to us getting out of here, she'd let us stick around a few extra days if we needed to." He leaned in closer to her, gently kissing her collarbone where it was exposed above the neckline of her pajama shirt, making her squirm at the contact. "You need to relax and let things happen as they will, it's all going to go great."

Believing in what he was saying took more throwing caution to the wind than Byleth would have liked, but she couldn't keep going against her boyfriend like she was. "Okay, fine, but when something doesn't work out tomorrow, I told you so."

"That's fair, and if it doesn't work I'll gladly accept the loss there." After one final kiss he rolled back over and exhaled deeply, whispering to himself, "But it's not going to happen, I know things will be just fine, I really do."

"I can hear you, you know," she said, doing her own rolling over to stare him down as he pulled a blanket up over his face to deflect her gaze. "And I want to believe they'll go just fine, but I don't know, everything seems like it's gone too good for too long." Rather than wait to see if he'd poke his head out to meet her for more conversation, she rolled all the way over so that her back was facing him and hiked her half of the blanket up as well, making sure there was plenty of space between them as she started to fall asleep. If there was anything she was going to stay mindful of, it was the fact that although they were dating, they weren't married and she'd had it drilled in her mind over and over again growing up that people weren't supposed to share a bed if they weren't married.

Yet even with that in mind, when she woke up the next morning it was with her legs intertwined in Claude's, and his arm over her protectively. "Good morning," he crooned, hitting her with his forehead as she dazedly looked at him with a tiny smile. "Hope you slept well on the night before our lives change forever."

"Can't say I did, but I sure tried," she admitted, not recalling a lick of her dreams she'd had but knowing that she'd clearly been sleeping fitfully enough to have him pin her down as he had. "Here's hoping everything doesn't fall apart when we get over to our viewing."

"Already starting with the negative attitude, you're going to be the death of me before this is all over, aren't you?" Laughing as he pulled himself off of her and out of the bed, Claude was completely dressed in the nicest clothes he had before Byleth had moved from her spot, her giving him glares and side-eye looks while he was getting ready. Unbothered by this in the slightest, he made it a point to give her a quick kiss before he headed out of the room, which left her alone with her thoughts and her so-called negative attitude. She didn't have anything nearly as nice as what he'd put on that would be appropriate for the day's events, but a pair of dress slacks and a plain shirt that she wore a sweater over felt like it'd do nicely, and once she'd convinced herself it couldn't all be bad she was out of the room as well.

She met Claude down in the kitchen with Hilda, who was pouting about something that had to have been discussed prior to her entry to the room. "I'm just saying, you can rethink this," she was pleading, while Claude, unfazed with her words, was grabbing some cups of water for him and Byleth to have before they headed out. "I don't know why you're wanting to leave me when you've known me for so long!"

"Because I've got other people that need me now, first of all, and because I know that you'd rather it be Caspar here than me," he calmly replied, turning on his toes to hand off a cup to Byleth despite her not having made a sound upon entering the kitchen. "We'll just be across town if all goes well, it's not like we're hightailing it to Almyra or even back to places closer to, say, your brother."
"I know, but you're the perfect housemate! You do all the chores, you're a decent cook, and you don't expect me to do anything in return!" After getting her grievances out, Hilda looked at Byleth with eyes narrowed. "What do you have to say for yourself, stealing my roommate so you can keep him around you all the time?"

Rather than answering, Byleth took a long drink from her cup, continuing to pretend she was drinking even after it was empty, and seeing her stalling tactic made Claude burst into laughter, commenting on how she'd gotten Hilda good just then. Even Hilda found it a bit funny, and she did apologize for making such an accusation for a selfish reason, and just like that there was no ill-will between them, even if she was sad she was losing someone who did so much for her at home.

The viewing of the tiny houses was a bit before lunchtime, with Claude's interview about an hour later, and so once they'd had an actual breakfast that wasn't just water (it was jam on toast, because it seemed just light enough to not make nervous stomachs get upset) they headed out to the neighborhood they were looking into living in. As he was driving, Claude was pointing out all of the properties he'd seen in his searches and where they were, talking quickly to try and mask how nervous he was about things, and Byleth was doing her usual staring out the window, losing herself in the scenery passing by. It felt strange being in what had once been her father's car without him, but she knew that this was the way things were going to be and if anyone else had to be at the wheel, she was glad it was Claude.

Driving into the neighborhood, the first thing they both noticed was how actually tiny the houses were, looking like the size of Byleth's old bedroom rather than a real home. "You sure you still want to see what these are like?" Claude asked her, seeing her frantically searching on her phone to make sure they'd chosen the right place. "It's cool if you don't, this doesn't quite look like what I was expecting."

"No, no, this will be fine," she mumbled, verifying they were in the right area of town and that these really were the homes she'd seen listings for; a wave of confusion was coming over her as she tried to understand how these small homes would hold all of the amenities that they were advertising. "I'd like to at least look to see how they are on the inside, but we'll probably have to find a home elsewhere."

"Sounds like a solid plan." His agreement came as he was pulling up outside of the only regular-sized building within view, the office for the entire area, and as they got out of the car he could tell she was rethinking that plan already. "It's still not too late to turn back, I wouldn't judge you if you wanted to," he said, going through the gesture of unlocking the car after he'd already locked it, just for her to shoot him down with a handwave. "Whatever floats your boat, then. We'll be in and out quickly, from the looks of it."

It turned out that they were there much longer than they'd expected they'd be, even with the surprise that the homes were so small. The very first model the agent took them into was labeled as one of the smallest ones, and when they came up to it they found that it looked the part perfectly. From one end to the other was about twice as wide as Claude was tall, and it wasn't much wider than Byleth holding her arms out, but when they went inside it was like a completely different world. There were complete furnishings, a couch and a bed big enough for them both and a kitchen, all in their own spots. Above the bed was a loft that the agent told them was a second, smaller bed, but it could be used for storage space as well, and nestled between the kitchen and the bedroom, split between the sides of the home, were the parts of the bathroom.

"There's storage accessible from underneath the sofa, which folds out to be another bed if you so need it," the agent explained, lifting the bottom of the couch to show that there was indeed a hatch door underneath it. "There is also a table that folds out from the wall, and the panel over here—" she gestured to what seemed to be the wall across from the couch, "—opens up for shelving and room for a decent-sized TV."

"That's actually really neat," Claude remarked, while Byleth was still looking around, her mind processing all of the nooks and crannies in the home that hadn't been mentioned. It seemed that almost every bit of space was used productively, from the obvious drawers underneath the big bed to the closet bars that hung up above their heads in the living room area. "Can't say I was expecting this much when we saw the place."

The agent nodded. "A common statement I hear, really. There are models slightly larger that have more space as well, but for just the two of you this would be a perfectly functional starter home. Do you have any questions, or would you like to move on?"

"How much is this one?" Byleth asked without thinking, her having found herself really liking the place despite its small size. "I'd like to know what we're working with before I commit to anything else today."

When the agent recited a price that was just about the lowest the website they'd found the place on had mentioned as being plausible, they shared a look between them that let the other know that they were seriously considering it. "Er, can we come back later and discuss things further?" Claude said with a cough, stepping towards the front door at the head of the house. "We have something else we need to be getting to soon and we don't want to be late for it, but I think we'd like to know more before we make a final decision."

"We'll be open for viewings until dusk," the agent told him, before smiling at them both. "Although, I can tell just looking at your faces that I think one similar to this might be the one for you. This model does come in other colors, so perhaps when you return we can check one of those out? We have a yellow one that—"

"Sounds like something we'll want to see!" Byleth interrupted, seeing that Claude had actually stepped out the door and she was now left alone with the agent. "We'll be back later, that's a promise!"

It felt somewhat rude leaving the agent high and dry like that, but a job interview was waiting and they couldn't skip out on it. The grocery store it was at was just outside the neighborhood so it didn't take too long to get there, and they were silent the whole ride as they were both thinking about what they'd just seen. Byleth didn't want to say it, but she'd fallen in love with the small space, after having spent so many years within the confines of her bedroom, but she couldn't tell if Claude was as committed to it and she didn't want to pressure him into a decision before he had something more important to handle.

While he was in his interview with a friendly-looking man at the store, she was wandering around by herself, taking in the shelves and the layout of the store overall. She wasn't used to shopping for groceries, always having had someone else doing the heavy lifting if not all of it, but if they were serious about this living together thing she knew she'd need to get more used to doing the shopping. It would just be asking too much of Claude if she made him do the shopping in addition to being the one with an actual job for the time being. Thankfully, the store was very similar in the way it was set up to the one she'd gone to with Jeralt when they'd do their shopping, so it felt like she was right at home in there.

She turned down the aisle for the snack foods and caught a glimpse of someone she wasn't expecting to see, who happened to see her staring down at them. "Byleth, is that you?" Hapi asked, cupping her mouth to amplify her voice, and when Byleth nodded she continued, "Get on down here! I could use your help!"

"Why are you shopping here?" she questioned as she came closer, seeing that her cart was completely empty. "I didn't know you lived in the area."

"Oh, I don't, I'm here to grab some things for a party I'm going to later today. B's renting out one of the tiny homes behind this place and we're going to kick it like we're in high school or something, I don't remember how he worded it." Her chuckle made Byleth cringe a little, knowing that B was the nickname for Balthus that Hapi used and that she personally didn't get along super well with the man, but she didn't want to cause a scene. "He said he was inviting all sorts of people but I think when they all found out the location they bailed, except for me, anyway."

"Maybe you should have the party somewhere else, if you want other people to show up," Byleth offered up as an idea, which Hapi shot down by insisting that it needed to be in its current place. "Then I've got nothing. I hope you two have a good night partying, then, it sounds like it'll be a fun time for you both."

Hapi grabbed a couple bags of chips from a shelf and tossed them in the cart with zero regard for keeping them whole. "I'm trying to convince at least a couple others to join us. Linny said he'd think about it, but I think he's at the mercy of his roommate and…oh, right, Linny mentioned that his roommate wasn't going to be his roommate for much longer. Said something about his roommate moving in with his girlfriend, who was losing her roommate, and last time I saw her roommate he was attached to you at the hip. Can you tell me anything about what's going on there?"

"I…could, probably," Byleth admitted, "but I don't want to keep you from your shopping and your partying. I'm sure someone else can tell you when you're not busy." Hapi didn't seem too bothered by the denial, muttering something under her breath before wishing Byleth a good day, and they went their separate ways down the aisle. As she continued exploring without much in the way of a concrete destination, Byleth began to think about how awkward it would get if they picked out a home and found out that Balthus was a neighbor, but she'd decided she would let Claude be the deciding vote on that.

On her third trip around the store, she had a muscular arm drape itself over her shoulders, alerting her to the presence of the man she'd been waiting on. "Guess who blew that interview out of the water," Claude said, turning Byleth around as he pulled his arm away from her. "It's like I'm a natural at talking myself up to people. Looks like we can go back over there and take a look at whatever else they've got to offer, because now at least one of us has a job to afford it with."

"Yeah, about that," she replied, wanting to be happy for him but also wanting to get the news she'd learned out of the way as soon as possible. "Did you know that Balthus lives in that neighborhood?"

"Short-term rental deal, yeah, I've heard him and Hilda talk about it. He's waiting on a friend getting out of legal trouble for them to find a place together." Seeing that Byleth didn't look very thrilled with hearing that, he asked her, "Is there a problem with that? Dude's a bit of a mess but he's not the worst we could have to run into if we're living over here."

She twisted her mouth to the side in thought but said nothing more on the matter, shaking her head to let him know she was over it. "Let's just go back and see if we find where we want to live, I'm starting to get tired of walking around this place."

"Couldn't even think about blaming you for that, it was a much longer interview than I thought it'd be. Mostly because I impressed them so much they offered me the position on the spot, but who's looking for those details?" Arm-in-arm they left the store, going over to where he'd parked and getting back in the car in a hurry. Even though their destination wasn't far from their current spot at all, what Byleth had said had put a fire in their hearts to get the whole living situation sorted out as fast as possible. The same agent that had been helping them previously was waiting at the office when they got back, and right away they were whisked through the neighborhood to a small home on a lot much bigger than the previous one they'd seen, although the home itself was the same size.

The most notable thing about it, though, was its bright yellow exterior and brown front door and shutters on the side windows. "Now this, this is a house I can get behind," Claude whispered to Byleth, who wasn't exactly the biggest fan of the color but she knew that it was something that would automatically entice Claude. "Same inside as the other one, right?"

"That's correct," the agent said, unlocking the door and pulling it open, "but you're more than welcome to check it out for yourself if you'd like, just to make sure it's what you're really looking for."

"I don't think he needs much more convincing than the yellow," Byleth replied, nudging Claude in the ribs. "Is it the same price as the other one, or are we looking at a different cost for the color upgrade?"

"If your hearts are really settled on this place, we can go back to the office and discuss those minor details." Chortling, the agent grabbed a file folder off the inside of the front door before shutting it once again. "I'm going to guess, looking at you young folks, that this is going to need a loan on it, so that's something we'll need to negotiate as well."

That was when Claude looked at Byleth and how she was reaching for her small purse she was carrying with her, most likely to pull out her bank statement she'd gotten printed to show off how much was in there thanks to her father's money. "If it's the price you spoke of before, we'll be able to cover it in cash," he said, causing the agent to do a double take while Byleth, knowing for a fact she did not have that much money to her name, let her jaw drop slightly. "That's a big decision, I know, but it's one we can safely make at this time."

"I'll…see what I can do to make a cash sale plausible on this one, then," the agent told him, before heading back towards the office to get things started, leaving the pair standing in front of the locked house together.

"What was that about?" Byleth asked, still shocked at what she'd heard be said. "Where in the world are we going to get that much money?"

Claude held up three fingers. "One, you've got a good chunk of it. Two, my family's helping us out for this too, we've got plenty from them as well. And three, if you tell them you're planning on paying all the fees and costs up front, they'll discount it as far as they can because they're getting the cash right then. It's the easiest dupe in the book."

"I'm going to take your word for it," she said after seeing the gleeful look in his eyes as he waggled his fingers. "But come on, if we're going to actually go through with this we've got to get over there and, well, go through with this. You want to handle the financial bit, while I handle finding a storage place for our extra things?"

"That sounds like it'd be best," he decided, and so it was exactly what they did when they got back over to the office. While Claude and the agent discussed the terms of ownership and payment (it would be inconvenient to pull out that much cash in one day, so a plan was drafted to get it all turned in within seven days), Byleth was looking into storage units nearby that weren't going to be overly expensive to rent out until they could go through and consolidate more of their junk. This tiny house living was going to be a commitment they were sticking to for a long time, so paying too much to store things they'd never need wasn't going to be wise, but it needed to be done for at least a little while.

What she ended up finding was a collection of storage units closer back into the heart of town that wouldn't be breaking the bank to keep their things there, and she quickly locked in one of their mid-sized units before they could possibly run out of them. With that taken care of, she was able to tune into the conversation Claude was having with the agent, which had included a lot of laughing and quite a bit of heated discussion about specific terms, but when all was said and done there was a stack of paperwork to sign for buying the home outright and an agreement for the neighborhood's utilities that they'd be tapping into.

"All these signatures and the place is ours," he told her, as she slid her chair closer to the desk they'd been working at. "Just put your name everywhere I put mine, and the place'll be in both our names so one of us can't take it from the other without a legal fight."

Byleth got as far as holding up the pen she'd been given before realizing just how binding this decision was. She'd gotten wrapped up in finding a place to live to the point that she'd forgotten that buying a place with the man she'd been with for such a short time wasn't the smartest idea. But she knew that she felt deeply for Claude, and he felt the same way for her, so even if it was a foolish decision to make so hastily, it was one that she wasn't going to say no to. Those documents became covered in signatures from one Claude von Riegan and one Byleth Eisner, and once they'd put on the finishing touches and handed over a decent stack of money, the agent declared the place theirs and handed over the keys.

It wasn't until they were out in their car with the keys sitting on the dashboard that either of them had anything to say about what they'd just done. "We're homeowners now, huh," she managed to spit out, looking at the keys with a sense of awe in her eyes. "Never thought I'd see the day."

"We've still got a week to pay up the rest of the money, and before that we'll need everything out of Hilda's place so…ready to get all of that started?" Turning the car on, Claude didn't wait for a response before he was driving off, taking Byleth over to the bank her account was at so that she could withdraw the maximum that day as a start for paying back the rest of the money for the house. After that it was back over to Hilda's house, with a quick stop to grab some sandwiches for a late lunch from a drive-up shop that they'd seen on their way over to the neighborhood in the first place.

Upon pulling up outside of the mansion Hilda called home, they could see that Leonie's car was there, and just the sight of it made Claude sigh. "Guess we'll be greeted with some of the others when we get inside," he said, shutting the car off and waiting for Byleth to open her door without a care before he followed suit. "I was kind of hoping we'd be able to slip in, grab some essentials, and head over to our place to start setting up for sleeping there as soon as tonight."

"What, you don't want one more night in your bedroom?" she asked him as they walked up to the door and opened it together, finding Linhardt standing on the other side looking them both over from head to toe. It took a moment, but Byleth understood why he was doing that, since Hapi had sort of ratted him out earlier in the day.

"Let me guess, the two of you have finally found somewhere, so you can get your things out of here and I can finally get my favorite napping spot back," he dryly said, twirling a long strand of his hair around a finger absentmindedly as he spoke. "I've heard about where you were earlier today, I can make my assumptions about where it is that you'll be living."

"Give them a break, Lin!" Leonie called from inside the kitchen, obviously having assumed who it was there just based on what she was hearing. "Their happiness and comfort is more important than your naptime!"

Rolling his eyes, Linhardt clearly did not agree with the statement. "Anyway, Hilda and Caspar are up in her room doing some cleaning, so I'd recommend you stay down here until they're finished. Who knows what sorts of things you'd hear if you happened to be down that hall when they discover a large mess."

"So much for packing the essentials tonight," Byleth quipped, looking at Claude as he was visibly growing frustrated about being shot down. "I'm sure they'll be up there until sunrise, which means…maybe we'll have to use something from my things."

"No, they'll be done sooner than that, Leonie and I are in charge of making dinner and Caspar was talking about how he was looking forward to it on the ride over." Linhardt paused what he was saying to look at the two, before shaking his head. "I'm not sure if we'll have enough for you both to join us as well, but we can try."

"It's not a big deal, we just ate on our way over here." The side-eyed glance that Claude gave Byleth after he'd said that told her that he wasn't really interested in having whatever meal the two were preparing. "We'll spend the night going back and forth between here and where we need to take our stuff, though, so don't lock us out, and maybe we'll bring dessert or something back with us."

"Sounds divine!" Leonie yelled, showing that she was listening in on them even if she wasn't physically present for the conversation. She then made the offer to help them with moving things the next day if they needed it, which was an offer well-appreciated given that the only vehicle they had for themselves was the car that had little in the way of towing space.

That lack of space made for several interesting rides from Hilda's house over to the unit they were renting, only to get over there and take out anything from the various boxes that they'd definitely need with them at the house. Since the already-packed boxes were all Byleth's things from her old apartment, it was mostly her pulling out stuff she'd found she missed in the time it was packed away; most of her clothes and her laptop were the two big things that she retrieved, but there was also the picture of her and Jeralt fishing that she couldn't bare to lock away forever in the storage unit. "I'm going to find a perfect place for this," she said, hugging it tight to her chest when she saw it, earning her a raised eyebrow from Claude. "It's the only picture I have of me with Father. Have you never seen it?"

"Can't say I have," he replied, and she pried it away from herself to show it to him. His smile that he gave after seeing the picture of his girlfriend so young with her father felt almost sad, which he explained soon enough. "Reminds me of some of the pictures in the family home back in Almyra. There's one just like that of me with my parents, except I'm even younger than you are in that one. It's an oldie, but it's one that I'd love to have for myself someday."

"I'd like to see it." The thought of visiting Claude's family home felt so real and possible right then, as she looked at the beat-up frame she'd had for as long as she could remember, recalling the stories she'd heard of that fishing trip. "I'd also like to take you fishing with me, somewhere strange to us both, because that's what Father and I always wanted to do."

"Hey now, we just became homeowners, we can plan the grand trips another time." He closed the door on the storage unit and motioned for her to follow him to the car, which she did with the picture tight against her. Their drive over to their home was silent, aside from the occasional shifting of the clothing in the backseat behind them, but when they got out and were taking things into the tiny house, the space for all of those clothes just barely big enough to fit them, with Claude still needing to bring his over, they were able to talk openly about their families and the people they'd lost to get to the point they were currently at.

After setting her framed picture on the shelf across from the couch-slash-table, Byleth's eyes glazed over for a second, her mind going haywire with thoughts about people missing from her life. Without any explanation, she looked at Claude, who was laying on the bare bed in their new room, and said, clear as day: "When we've got things settled here, I want to see Dimitri again. I think he needs the reminder that he has people who care about him."

"I'm not sure if that's something we can do." Sitting up, Claude nearly knocked his knee into the wall dividing the bedroom from part of the bathroom, but he didn't let it bother him. "But you know what, I'm down for it if you are. What's a trip down memory lane without doing some sightseeing?"