A/N: a baby claudeleth story i wrote on valentine's day and forgot to do anything with :))
ft. a little han/leia moment
All around Byleth's feet, there are flowers.
The sunshine makes their color so bright it nearly hurts her eyes, and she has to squint as she slowly turns in a circle, examining the field that stretches around her in all directions. Gronder Field is nothing like it was before, all petals and butterflies and light.
She still remembers what it, back then. The rust-tinged scent of blood, the clanging of blade against blade, the cries of allies and enemies alike. This was once a battlefield, after all. She still remembers the lives that were lost on the very dirt she stands on, the screams that were silenced by her own hand.
"Teach?"
Byleth freezes, the familiar name bringing an involuntary smile to her lips. She hasn't been "Teach" in quite a while, not to this particular man.
"Hey, what're you doing out here?" The speaker in question moves to her side, and she has to look up to meet his gaze. "The reunion starts in half an hour."
"I just wanted to see it again." Byleth turns back to the flowers and slowly bends down, picking one up as gently as she can. "It's so… different."
"Yeah, you can say that again." Claude looks at her quizzically, just like he always does when he's trying to figure her out. It's her proudest achievement that he never can. "It's a lot quieter, hm?"
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Byleth gives Claude a sideways grin and he shakes his head at her in mock disappointment.
"Well, I'll be damned. Was that sarcasm?" Claude smirks at her. "And here I was thinking you didn't know how to be sarcastic."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, von Riegan." Gods, it feels so good to smile like this. Without having to worry if she'll mess it up, if she'll make a fool out of herself, if it's the wrong place and the wrong time and the wrong way.
"Oh, don't I know it." Claude sighs, and although she's not looking at him she knows his eyes are on her. "You nervous about seeing the Deer again?"
"I'm a mercenary, remember? I'm never nervous," Byleth says, but it's a lie, and Claude knows it.
"Well, in that case you can protect me from their madness." Claude waggles his eyebrows and she can't stifle her laugh. "Or perhaps their craziness has waned since we last saw them."
"That I seriously doubt." Byleth laughs, turning back to Claude. "In all honesty, it is a bit nerve-wracking. This is the first time I've seen them in, what has it been, five years?" That's not the only thing weighing her down. This is her first time seeing her Deer again as the ruler of the United Kingdom of Fodlan. It's fair to say that she's more than a little nervous.
"You're gonna be great, By." Claude's grin softens, his gaze understanding. "Back when I was in Almyra, right after the end of the war, the only information I heard about you was from little scraps of news I picked up here and there, and in every single one, they spoke only of your bravery and leadership, the way you treated everyone with fairness, no matter who they were."
Byleth's heart tugs at the words, flashing back to those two long years without Claude at her side. It had been terrible, trying to do it all on her own, without his schemes and jokes and that unshakeable trust he's placed in her.
"If there's one thing I've learned about you, By, it's that you're capable of pretty much anything." Claude suddenly spins Byleth around to face him, and she freezes. It's like she's seeing him for the first time again, back in that dark monastery camp, her stomach filling with little butterflies as he looks at her like she's the damn sun. "You're a damn good ruler, and it's about time you knew it."
"Claude." Even saying his name makes her heart speed up just a little. Funny how so many years can pass and you can still be the same hopelessly in love as you were back then. "I don't think I've ever thanked you. For all of it."
"You never have to thank me for anything." Claude slowly puts a hand to her chin and tilts it up ever so slightly to look deeper into her eyes. "I'd do it again, every last bit of it. Even if you didn't love me at the end of it all, it'd still have been worth it."
Byleth doesn't know what to say. How can she respond to that? How does one put ten years of loving someone into words, of all things?
"Claude, I- I-" she falters, the hand on her chin making her dizzy. "I love you."
"I know." Claude leans down and kisses her, smiling against her lips, and Byleth shuts her eyes, willing this moment to stay, just like this. When he finally pulls away, it is too soon, and she takes his hand in her own, running a fingertip over the ring he wears, the ring that matches her own.
They stand like that, the Ruler of Dawn and her King of Unification, staring out at Gronder field as the afternoon sun begins to bleed into evening, tipping gently behind the hills in front of them. The field is bathed in pure pink light, and Byleth wonders if this is what heaven feels like.
"Byleth?" Claude asks finally, his cheek resting against the top of her head.
"Hm?" Byleth twists her ring around absentmindedly, watching the jewel send fractals of sunset scattering across the flower petals below their feet.
"We're two minutes late to our own reunion." It takes Byleth a minute to process the words, but the minute she does, she whirls around, staring Claude straight in his laughing face.
"By the Goddess, Claude! Are you serious?" Byleth watches indignantly as Claude laughs, his head thrown back as if this is the funniest thing he's seen all day. "This is not a joke! Maybe no one expects anything of you, but I have a reputation to uphold!"
"Ah, you're right, darling, you have my most sincere apologies." Claude puts a hand over his heart and bows his head, and she has to fight to keep the smile off her face. "We'll just tell them it was my fault, shall we?"
"Oh, we most certainly will," Byleth says with a grin, and before her husband can make another smart remark, she grabs his wrist and pulls him after her, the two of them running through the flowers like the children they never really got to be.