Mako's Message: Hoo boy... so, this one goes in second even though I wrote like... a half dozen ahead of it, because it's special(and I wanted to justify that Claude tag asap). You see, this isn't my normal style of story, but it was written from a prompt given to me by the voice of Claude himself, Joe Zieja.
#2 - "Stress Relief"
"Hey Teach!"
Byleth looked up at Claude's greeting, eyes wide and slightly manic, "Yes?"
"You look pretty busy," he said, looking over the contents of the Professor's desk, which seemed to be a mess of essays, maps with troop movements drawn onto them with...varying degrees of effectiveness, a note from Rhea, no less than three from Seteth, and what seemed to be a request from a student to transfer into Byleth's House. "Anything I can help you with?"
Byleth looked from Claude back to their desk, "I… don't think there's anything you could help with that I can let you help with."
"Well, then maybe I can steal you away to help you de-stress?"
"I really don't think I have the time right-"
"And that's why I'm stealing you," Claude said, unceremoniously taking the papers from the Professor and placing them out of their reach, then grabbing them by the hand and pulling them away.
"Claude, I said- Oh fine" they sighed as they let the schemer drag them away from their work.
Claude was a bit of a jokester, and very much a schemer, but (as far as they could tell at least), he always had the best of intentions, so they followed along as they were pulled across the campus towards the greenhouses.
Just before they got to the steps, Claude let go of their hand, turned, ducked down, and grabbed them around the knees, "Claude?!" they cried as they were lifted off their feet.
"Get ready for the best part, Teach!" he yelled as he started spinning them both around.
"You have THREE SECONDS -" once around, "-to put me down-" twice, "-before I-"
"YEET!"
"CLAUDE!" Byleth screamed as they were flung off the ledge, the beginnings of regicide forming in their mind. Sothis however, was preparing to undo this with a heavy sigh, when, instead of impacting the flagstones, they hit something that felt… like water? But not wet?
They came to a stop before their head sank below whatever they'd been tossed into, and all the anger left them as confusion and curiosity took it's place. They were half sunk into a mass of...they were kind of like balls, but they were unable to identify what they were made of. They felt like they were filled with sand however. They squeezed them, and they deformed to a point, giving greater resistance the more it was squeezed. Struggling to stand, or at least sit up properly, they stopped again when Claude spoke, "Like it? A merchant in town was trying to sell these, but had only managed to sell a few to some kids. They seemed fun though so I took them all off his hands for a big discount. Everybody helped me carry them up here and fill this big tub with them."
Byleth looked around and saw all the Golden Deer students standing around, with looks ranging from great amusement to horror. That latter of which belonged to Marrianne, who, when Byleth met her eyes squeaked out, "I didn't know he was going to throw you in!"
Hilda leaned on the rim, "Gotta say, I was doubting his plan, but your reactions were totally worth it."
"You ARE okay, aren't you Professor?" Ignatz said, "When Claude said he'd toss you in I wasn't expecting, well, THAT."
"It looked like fun though!" Raphael said, "Wasn't it professor? If you want to go again I bet I could throw you even hi-"
"NO!" Byleth said, their face stern.
"Oh, don't be like that," Claude said, leaning on the edge of the tub, "We did all this so you could relax. Even Raphael could tell you were stressed to the point of breaking." he picked up one of the weird sand balls and said, "These are supposed to be fun and relaxing."
Byleth had to admit, it was oddly relaxing, feeling the things squish and give, though it was lessened by the fact that getting back on their feet was proving difficult if not impossible.
"So, once you've had a nice relaxing break in there, listening to the pond and smelling the flowers in the greenhouse," Hilda elaborated, "The dinning hall is serving iced cream!"
"Alright," Byleth relented, "This isn't so bad." Claude and the rest of the class smiled, some more relieved their teacher wasn't upset with them, "But could you help me get my feet under me," they asked, holding both arms out to Claude.
"Sure," he reached over and clasped hands with Byleth.
And immediately realized his mistake.
"Yoink!"
"Aghppffff!" Claude's cry was muffled as he was dragged under and the rest of the class burst out laughing.
