Looking at his reflection to make sure that his tie was on straight, Claude tried not to think too much about what he was supposed to be doing that night and hoped that everything, no matter how crazy it got, would end up okay. He'd been wary about coming to the event from the start, knowing that far too many people he hadn't seen in a long time would be there, with absolutely no way of knowing if old grudges and feelings still held true. There had been so much internal drama in his year at the Garreg Mach Officers Academy that he was almost surprised that the administration had put together a ten-year reunion for the class to begin with, but after they'd all had to promise to keep it civil in order to gain their invitation, he felt at least a little more comfortable with going.
That still didn't mean he was looking forward to it, even if he was going to be getting to spend the night hanging out with some of his closest friends he'd kept in the years since they'd gotten to graduate. "Your tie looks fine, you're going to dirty it if you keep trying to make it any straighter," Hilda chided, coming out of the bathroom wearing a yellow-accented dress covered with a shoulder-hugging shawl she'd bought on their way to their hotel the day before. "At least fuss with your beard instead, it could use the attention. But enough about you, how do I look?"
"Fine, just like always," he replied, not taking his eyes off of his reflection and causing her to huff from the clear lying he'd done. "I know you want to hear something else, but we've known each other how long? I know exactly how you look without looking at you."
"I mean, I know that, but you could at least make an attempt at checking me anyway." Her cheeks puffing out with her annoyance, especially as Claude still didn't turn to look at her, Hilda ended up flopping down on the bed in the room she'd claimed as her own, crossing her arms over her chest. "Fine, whatever, I won't help you with your stupid tie anymore, since you can't do me this one little favor."
He chuckled, finally turning to look at her just long enough to appease her before going back to his own reflection. "There, now I can safely say you look fine, but yellow's still not your color. You think that tonight's not going to be a huge mistake?"
"Claude, if I thought it was going to be a mistake, I wouldn't have insisted that we come even if we still talk to everyone that we care about." Hilda tilted her head from side to side, thinking about what her motivations for attending the reunion had been, before shaking them off entirely. "I'm super curious about what's going to happen tonight, which is why we drove all this way to be here. I wouldn't have come without you, you wouldn't have come without me, we're going to enjoy whatever happens just because we have each other."
"Until someone comes up to one of us and asks if we're together, then…" Grabbing his tie, Claude felt his whole arm tense up. "What do we tell them? We traveled all this way but we're just friends? You think they're going to sit there and take that?"
"Since it's the truth, they better." It was true that they were nothing more than incredibly close friends, often considering each other their better half in everything except romance, and even though Claude wished he could say he had a girlfriend (or something more) there with him that night, he knew that he hadn't found the right person for himself. Hilda had, in fact, gotten herself romantically entangled with someone, but that someone hadn't been able to get the time for the reunion off and couldn't make the trip with them—but he'd given his full blessing for her to travel with Claude for the occasion. "If someone starts not believing that we're not here just as friends, you can go ahead and pull out a picture of me and Baltie up for them to see, it's totally fine with me. And would be fine with him, I'm sure."
"See, it would make more sense for you to be the one doing that, as far as any of them'll know with me doing it is that I'm deflecting." That, and the fact that most of the pictures Claude had access to included him in them, or wouldn't be very good for determining who actually was present for them. "So if someone starts doubting it, you'll have to pull up the pictures to prove our lack of relationship due to your personal one."
"You know that I've got plenty of options for that," Hilda said thoughtfully, before sighing. "I really wish he'd been able to pull some strings to get here with us. Everyone would've been all over him being here, especially if the people he says he knows actually show up."
"If they've got the open bar that the invitation says they'll have, it's probably for the best that Balthus had to skip the reunion, he'd take it too far and run you out of money and them out of liquor." Claude couldn't help but chuckle as he heard Hilda sigh at what he'd said, clearly because she knew he spoke the truth. "But, really, I don't know if anyone's going to exactly waltz up to me to ask about that sort of thing, since I doubt anyone other than the people who know what you've got going on will be talking to us."
Hilda sighed again, carefully thinking through what it was she wanted to say. "I think you're right, but we've got to have the bases covered. I know it's going to be mighty suspicious if we roll up to the reunion together and someone who doesn't know we're just friends is the first to see it happen." She held out her hands in front of her, examining her decorated fingernails and her distinct lack of any jewelry. "Although…we could really mess with them if we wanted to, I'm sure we can stop somewhere and get a cheap ring to cause mayhem."
"I'll stay away from that, thanks." His grasp may have loosened and he was left adjusting his tie for the millionth time, but Claude felt that voicing his concern with how their friendship was going to be perceived was only going to cause more trouble than it would have had he stayed silent on the matter. Now that Hilda knew he was worried they'd be seen as together when they weren't, he knew that she was likely going to lead people on rather than clear the air immediately, just to have a bit of fun. Nothing he'd say or beg her to do would get her to do otherwise, and he was afraid for what was going to come of this moment of insecurity.
Thankfully, from the moment they arrived at the decorated cathedral for the reunion, it was clear that Claude's worries were completely unfounded. No one seemed to notice the fact that he came in alongside Hilda, because no one was paying any attention to their entrance to begin with. She even disappeared from his side the moment they were in through the doors, going to talk to old friends she hadn't seen in a while; that meant that, if anyone were to look in his direction, he'd be completely alone and looking lost. Of course, no one was looking in his direction, and he was able to walk over to the free refreshments without so much as a nod toward him from anyone.
His fortunes changed at about the same time he was pouring himself a ladle of punch into a paper cup, the school sparing no expense to make sure the reunion was the best it could be. "Why, if it isn't the former head of Golden Deer house," a snooty male voice said from behind him, and Claude set the ladle back in the punchbowl to keep himself from using it as a weapon toward who was speaking. "I shouldn't be surprised to see you here, by any means, but the lack of announcement of your attendance had me thinking that perhaps I would be the highest-ranking former Deer here tonight."
"Good to see you too, Lorenz," he replied without letting the words linger too long in the air between them. "Sorry that I didn't think to tell you I was coming, kinda didn't want to make it a huge deal. Besides, why wouldn't I be here?"
"That I cannot answer." Lorenz maintained his rather pretentious attitude for a couple more seconds, really making it seem like he was going to resume his prick-like behavior toward Claude despite the passage of time, before he dropped the act and gave a relaxed laugh. "I must say that it truly is good to see you tonight, I was worried that you wouldn't be attending and that I would be left fielding questions regarding your disappearance. Thank you for at least saving me from that."
"Anything I'd do for an old pal, really." While it had been a couple of years since he'd last spoken to Lorenz, their relationship over time had gone from one of one-sided animosity to a genuine friendship, where they could rub shoulders and be each other's confidant if needed. In that moment upon greeting, Claude had feared that they'd lost what they'd once had and were back at the "enemies" portion of their relationship, but it was clear that Lorenz still held him in at least some form of respect. "What's been going on with you since the last time we saw each other? Things still going well back home? Heard about the land inheritance, bet that came with a bit of a headache."
Grimacing, Lorenz looked to the floor before back at Claude, who was taking a drink of his punch while he waited for an answer. "It was an inopportune, although welcome, surprise to have land like that dropped into my possession," he said, teeth still mostly grit together. "If it had only happened a little later, then it wouldn't have been just me raking in the benefits of the land, but…"
"What do you mean by that?" Claude asked, genuinely curious about where Lorenz was going with such a statement. "Your parents unearth a secret sibling or something like that? You find that you weren't the only one meant to get that inheritance you'd so desperately dreamed of?" He truly meant to listen to whatever it was that Lorenz said in response to that, but the moment the man opened his mouth to speak, someone walking behind him caught Claude's eye—and his breath.
"I haven't said anything yet," Lorenz pointed out, seeing Claude's reaction to seemingly nothing, before turning around to see what was going on for himself. "Ah, yes, Professor Byleth is here already, and might I say that she looks simply stunning despite her lofty title? Nowhere near as stunning as dear Mercedes, but that would be a high standard to meet, much less succeed."
"Yeah, what a—wait, did you just say Mercedes?" Doing a double take, Claude's attention was drawn away from Byleth's movement across the cathedral and back to Lorenz, who was looking back at him with wide eyes and a slow nod. "When was anyone going to tell me about that arrangement? How long has that been going on?"
"Just over a year now," Lorenz replied, his eyes narrowing back to their normal, judgmental position. "It was never something large that we announced to the world, our paths just happened to cross not long after the land was signed in my name and we…got to know one another, so to speak."
Forcing a smile as to not make it clear he was already over the conversation, Claude replied, "That's great to hear, glad to know you found someone who can tolerate your haughty ass on the regular. Now if you don't mind, I've got something I need to take care of." Without allowing for Lorenz to respond, he slipped away, tossing his paper cup into the first trash can he passed before following in the direction he'd seen that lovely woman walking in.
It hadn't been any sort of secret that Claude had always harbored a bit of interest in the woman now known as Professor Byleth, but back when he (and everyone else there) had been attending Garreg Mach, she hadn't been in any teaching role and therefore the flirty interest hadn't been too out of line. She was a student at a different school at the time, doing classroom observations to see how the professors ran their programs, and she'd picked the Golden Deer house to watch throughout the year. To see her there that night had been unexpected, as she hadn't been a student nor a staff member at the time, but Claude wasn't going to waste any time getting to catch up with her.
Unfortunately, there was another roadblock between him and his reunification with Byleth, that being Hilda and a group of students from the other houses of the same year. "Hey, Claude, join us!" she called when she saw him walking by, waving him down and whistling when he seemed to ignore her at first. He wanted to resist, but knowing that he had the long drive back home to make with her, he knew that giving in was the only thing he could do. "Look at who decided to crawl out of the woodwork for tonight's reunion!"
She gestured to the four people she'd been talking to, all of whom were looking at Claude with pleasant expressions. "It is so good to see you again," Dorothea said to start, bouncing her head which was framed with silky ringlets that brushed past her bare shoulders and wiggled with every slight motion. "Here I was, worried that you wouldn't be able to make it tonight because no one passed along the message that you were going to be here!"
"Yeah, I, uh, tried to keep it pretty low-key," he told her, "but it was always the plan to make it if I could. Glad to see that you were able to get the night off from your shows. Heard you've been on a tour of Fódlan as of late, how's that going?"
"About as well as any opera tour can possibly go, I suppose." When Dorothea smiled, everyone's attention was drawn to her radiant beauty, but no one stared harder at her than the man standing right by her side, immersed and basking in her glow.
Claude wanted to make a comment about what he was seeing, but Hilda did the honors for him. "You know, if I wasn't already aware that you two came together, I totally would've guessed Ferdie here was just acting like a mega fan of yours, with how he can't keep himself from looking at you like a piece of meat."
Sputtering at the unflattering comparison, Ferdinand did straighten up a little and move his eyes off of Dorothea for a second, only to let them fall right back onto her. "He does this every time I'm dressed up, which is pretty often," Dorothea laughed, bringing her hand to her mouth to cover it as she did. "He's such a love-sick guy, sometimes I wonder why I even tolerate it half as much as I do!"
"Because that's what love is, my darling," Ferdinand said, in an attempt to defend his honor in the moment, but the damage was already done. Dorothea was still laughing, Hilda was trying her best not to, and the others in their conversation, a very quiet Ashe and an intrigued but silent Annette, were watching without making their opinions known. As for Claude, he was trying to get away from everything to continue chasing down Byleth to get to talk to her, something he was successful at, with the only consequence being Hilda catching him out of the corner of her eye and giving him a sneer as he was leaving.
If all went well, he'd have quite the story to tell her later in their hotel room, so her being a bit annoyed with him not wanting to stick around was something she'd just have to get over in the moment. He was lucky that Byleth seemed to have gotten stopped by others around the same time he had, because when he caught up to her on the other side of the room, she had just gotten to the door she was at and her hand was barely grazing the handle as he called her name. "Hm? Oh, hello," she said, bowing her head toward Claude. "It's nice to see you here tonight."
"Nice to see me? It's nice to see you!" Oh, goddess, he was starting to feel those younger-him feelings begin to bubble up in his chest, seeing Byleth standing in front of him wearing a cocktail dress that hugged her every curve and left very little to the imagination. When he'd seen her to start, he hadn't imagined how much better she'd look when she was within reach. "I heard that you're a big-time professor here now. Haven't forgotten about us little people from your first year, have you?"
"I don't think I would ever be able to," she replied flatly, speaking in the emotionless way she had when she was watching the classes. "Each and every one of you that year shaped me, one way or another, and your house had the biggest impact of all." With every sentence she spoke, Claude found himself longing to hear her say more and more, just because it meant she was talking to him once more. "And, you know, it's pretty easy to tell my students every year about your group, most of you being prominent features in Fódlan society and all."
He could run through the mental list of classmates that she was referring to, a list that he definitely shouldn't have been on. "Oh, I'm sure you can, with two heads of state and a bunch of wealthy lords, ladies, and landowners. Bet you don't even have the time to mention all the little people."
"I'm not sure what you mean by that," Byleth mumbled, fully turning away from the door as she properly faced Claude for the first time, her eyes locking with his as he narrowed his gaze at her expectantly. "You're my favorite to talk about, with your particular brand of what brings you to Fódlan and what you're doing for the country. Do you really think the students don't look up to the man who breaks down racial barriers?"
His face softened as he felt the warmth of Byleth's stare melting all of his self-doubts and reservations about what he was doing with his life. Positions of power, even if they came easy for him, were not of any interest; he'd passed up all opportunities given to him just so that he could lead a peaceful life, despite being know across the country as the abdicated prince of Almyra. "I suppose I never thought of it like that, Teach," he said, leaning in closer to Byleth as he called her the nickname he'd always tried to make stick back during his days as a student. She didn't flinch even slightly, nor did she seem to react to the name being dragged out. "You're probably giving all those students the best education you possibly could in a place like this, and I…I'm glad I get to be a part of it, somehow."
"I'm giving them the best they can get, sure, but someday I'd like to work outside of the monastery walls." For the first tine that he could remember, Claude saw the corners of Byleth's mouth tick upward, if only for a split second. "The sooner, the better, if we're being honest. Lady Rhea is considering making me her successor and I have no interest in bearing such a heavy role in life. Teaching is already barely what I want to do, I can't imagine running this academy and being a prominent figure in the church instead."
"Then what do you want to do, if none of that's your calling?" Claude asked, hoping that Byleth had an answer he could play off of, but when she shrugged and said she didn't know, that wish was thrown right out the window. "Well, if you're ever up in my neck of Fódlan and need somewhere to go, something to do, just let me know and I'll help you out however I can. There's bound to be jobs more up your alley around my home than around here."
"That'd be nice, thank you."
"You're welcome," he replied, the words feeling rather breathy on his lips as he came to lean in even closer to where Byleth was still standing, her seemingly not noticing how far into her personal space he'd gotten.
Or, at least, that was how it seemed, until she reached up, kissed two of her fingers, and then pressed them onto his lips. "Why don't you save your eagerness for my affection until you've taken me out on a proper date?" she teased, his whole body shuddering at her touch. "I'm not the kind of woman to make moves without at least a dinner, no matter how chiseled and rugged the man looks."
"Just what are you two doing over here?" a voice called out, and they both turned to see a tall, red-haired man coming to meet them where they stood off to the side. "Oh, man, you're looking fantastic as always, Byleth, and you…might want to do something about yourself." That was directed at Claude, who just stared back at the man who'd effectively broken apart his little flirt session before it had gotten started. "So, you two over here catching up or something? You've been in each other's faces for a while now."
"We were just getting reacquainted with one another, Sylvain. Now that you know that, you're more than welcome to go back to pestering your friends instead of me." Back to her usually blank expression, Byleth sounded less stern and more bored as she tried giving directions to Sylvain, who merely took them as suggestions he could ignore.
"See, the thing about pestering them is that I do it on the regular, it isn't every day I get to see you, but boy do I wish I did."
"Give us our space," Claude hissed, his jaw tight as he kept himself from saying anything that would start a fight there at the reunion they'd wanted to be peaceful. "Once I'm done talking to her, she can go find you and you can have your talk instead."
After debating taking that offer, Sylvain realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't and he went on his way, leaving the two once again alone together. "He's just eager to be away from home for a change," Byleth explained, letting her eyes roll as she watched Sylvain walk away. "I was catching up with King Dimitri not too long ago—who, by the way, is greatly missed tonight, in my opinion—and he was giving me the rundown about what was going on with his former Blue Lions. Sylvain seems to have had a lot of things happen to him in the past ten years, that's for sure."
"If nothing else, he probably hasn't gotten laid," Claude remarked, only to catch Byleth giving him a subtle and slowed down shake of her head. "Wait, what? Really? Dude's always seemed like the kind of guy to want the women but never actually get them, how'd that end up happening?"
"I'm not at liberty to speak of someone else's sexual escapades, and neither was Dimitri beyond mentioning they'd happened. If you want further details, you'd have to ask Sylvain yourself." Her expression returning to its usual emotionless state, Byleth saw that Claude seemed somewhat bummed at what she had to say. "I can tell you that he's happy, if only on the surface, but anything more isn't mine to say."
"That's no big deal, I don't need to know how often he gets down in the bedroom anyway." With a chuckle, Claude looked at Byleth with the same longing he'd felt when he'd first seen her that night, and he noticed that she seemed to be making it a point to keep looking into his eyes. "Say, on that note, you seeing anyone?"
"I didn't make the date comment earlier in the interest of needing to turn you down, if you're asking if I'm available. The real question is, are you free?" Just the way she reminded him that she'd more or less challenged him to take her out before letting him go anywhere physical with her made him start to sweat, and even though he knew he was single and he knew that he could easily take her out like she wanted, something was stopping him from jumping right into it. That something, of course, was his closest friend and current roommate for their time in Garreg Mach, and if he was going to get to shoot his shot with Byleth, he was going to need to do something about Hilda first.
They spent the rest of the night in each other's company, catching up with anyone who came to talk to them but not seeking out particular people. At one point Lorenz came back around, to talk directly at Byleth about how she was lovely but he knew someone lovelier, to which Byleth asked him where she was if that was the case. "She had to attend to some personal matters in Faerghus this week, I'm afraid," he lamented, sounding almost devastated that he couldn't show off his apparent girlfriend to the people he'd gone to school with—even though she was someone they all knew. "I would have gone with her, but I felt that my presence would be more welcomed here than where she is."
"That'd be because she's dealing with the same thing Dimitri's handling," Byleth explained once Lorenz was out of earshot and she felt she could talk freely once more. "Don't ask why, exactly, I know that, but it's the truth."
"Noted, not asking for any clarification on that." Even if he wanted to know what was going on to keep a couple of the former class members away, Claude wasn't going to go digging when the person he was talking to had no clear interest in talking about it. "Bet it's something regal and boring."
Byleth's silence was neither a confirmation nor a denial, but the topic was not touched again for the rest of the night. By the time the reunion was winding down and people were starting to head off, Claude felt like he'd spoken to everyone there and he was thankful he wouldn't have to talk to some of them again until their next reunion. He would have easily spent until sunrise in Byleth's company had Hilda not decided she wanted to leave and come to pester him until he'd leave as well, but he knew that was for the best so that bad decisions couldn't be made. His parting words for Byleth, as Hilda started dragging him out of the cathedral talking about how tired she was, were to keep in touch, something that she called out a promise to do so.
"When were you going to tell me you were looking to get with someone tonight?" Hilda asked him the second they were outside and she was sure no one was around. "Not like I mind it happening, but if you'd told me you were planning on falling in love, I would've helped you however I could!"
"I didn't know she was going to be there," he hastily replied, trying his hardest not to sound annoyed at how she was trying to guilt him into feeling bad about what he'd done. "I figured it would've been students only, maybe a professor or two if they're still around, I never expected that the hot woman who'd done teacher observations would be there, looking as hot as ever."
Hilda smirked, her lips curling to look much like the thin crescent moon shining on them above. "You're down so bad for her, it's kind of really sad that you're never going to see her again until next reunion, probably. I bet she'd make you happy when so many other women have failed."
"Thanks for that reminder, it's exactly what I wanted to hear right now."
Claude had a plan, however, and it wasn't one that would keep him and Byleth at a great distance for a long period of time. Something told him that if he had to wait another ten years to see her again, he'd be missing out on the love of his life forever. He had to take action, and he had to take it quickly, before Byleth found someone better than him somewhere local to her, rather than partway across Fódlan.
Starting the next morning, as they set off as early as Hilda would allow, lazy as she was, Claude's mind was focused on solidifying the plan without saying a word of it to the person he was stuck in a car with. While it was incredibly obvious he was plotting something, Hilda didn't bother him with questions on the matter, not wanting to break his concentration or worse, subject herself to hours of him verbally working things out. Their ride wasn't entirely in silence, as he did stop himself on occasion to have actual conversations with his friend, but for the most part if he was driving, he was thinking about another grand reunification with Byleth, fully on his own terms.
What mattered most was making it happen, no matter how tricky the organization would get, and he wouldn't stop trying until he found himself back face-to-face with her expressionless eyes.
Three moons later, Claude hadn't put his plan into action but he had started reaching out to the woman of his dreams, trying to get a feel for how willing she'd be when he made the actual offer. Byleth, much like when in person, didn't share too much of how she felt as she sent Claude responses that were perfectly capitalized and punctuated, but she did make it very clear that she wasn't happy staying at Garreg Mach much longer and that if she could get out as soon as possible (meaning, after the newly-started school year wrapped up at the earliest), she would be content.
That's so long from now, he pointed out, not wanting to have to wait almost a year to be with Byleth again. Can't you just leave mid-year or something? Bet Rhea would get a kick out of that.
She remained strong in her insistence that she had to stay through the end of the year, no matter how much he begged her to consider otherwise. It's for the students and the students alone, I would leave sooner if it wouldn't affect them poorly. Typical Byleth, wanting what was best for others instead of herself, but Claude wasn't going to be satisfied with such an answer. He was going to get his woman, and he was going to get her as soon as he wanted her, not on her personal timeline.
That was what prompted him to pack several weeks' worth of clothes and necessities into his car and head back to Garreg Mach, this time for a more personal visit. The only person he told ahead of time about this was Hilda, who immediately pulled Balthus into the conversation as if he had a place there. "Baltie, would you abandon your friends and your life as you know it to chase down love?" she asked her boyfriend, batting her eyelashes as if she was going to be able to influence his answer because of it.
Balthus, never one for tactful responses, scratched the back of his head and thought deeply about how to answer before going right for it. "Of course I would, as long as wherever I ended up would treat me well. Worked out pretty good with hunting you down, I'd say!"'
"Was this supposed to change my mind on what to do, or…?"
"Chase her down, Claude!" Hilda insisted, taking the words of her boyfriend as the encouragement to turn into her friend's personal cheerleader on the matter. "Follow her to the ends of the continent if you need to! Just make sure you come home sometime, I'm gonna need to hear all about this straight from your mouth when it's over!"
"Trust me, I'm planning on coming back," he assured her, giving both Hilda and Balthus a smile before opening his arms for Hilda to get a hug, a gesture that was taken as both of them coming in for a giant group hug. Overwhelmed by the scent of sweat and alcohol that one of the two was drenched in, he had to back away quickly and resist coughing until he was safely in his car, regretting even choosing to talk to Hilda about what he was going to be doing without a door or something between them.
The drive to Garreg Mach was long, winding, and boring with company, so to do it by himself was a test of willpower that Claude had to pass with flying colors if it meant surprising Byleth in person, rather than in a body bag. He had to take several days to complete the drive, which allowed for him to do some sightseeing along the way, as well as gave him the ability to arrive in the town around the school right at the start of the weekend, rather than during the middle of the school week. Once he was in town, the issue of getting Byleth to meet him somewhere off-campus became top priority, because he wasn't going to roll onto campus and cause problems by being a stranger there on school property.
Thankfully, Byleth was easy to convince through the usage of a prepaid coffee getting ordered in her name at a shop just outside of the campus walls, and it was there that Claude waited for her to arrive before he showed her what he'd done. She chose to walk to collect her free-to-her drink, so when he saw her crossing the road to get to the shop he took in a deep breath, steadied his shaking nerves, and got out of his car to greet her before she got too focused on getting her coffee.
"Hey ma'am, you want to help a lost traveler get his bearings?" he called out to her, Byleth looking over at him before doing a sudden double take and running to see him. "What a surprise, huh?"
"When were you going to tell me you were in the area?" she asked, a hint of surprise evident in her voice. "I could've arranged for lodging or something if I'd known. Where are you staying tonight?"
Claude's face dropped, as he hadn't thought that through very well. To be completely honest, he'd expected her to be willing to offer up her room for them to share the moment she saw him, which didn't seem to be the case at all. Perhaps that was a bit of wishful thinking on his part, or maybe it was a bit of a dumb idea to begin with as they weren't anything more than flirtatious toward each other. Why in the world would someone who wasn't in a relationship with him offer her work-assigned room to him in the first place? "I might've forgotten to book somewhere, so I'm sleeping in the car tonight," he answered, trying not to sound like he wanted her to make a specific suggestion.
"That sounds unfortunate," Byleth replied, not a smidge of sympathy in her voice.
"Tragic, really. Would be great if someone could help me out."
She glanced up, the gears in her mind turning about what there was she could do, before she looked at Claude with the most determined expression he'd ever seen her have. "I can talk to Lady Rhea and see if we have any open rooms on campus for you to stay in. She usually takes grace on alumni visiting the school and gives them a place, but she's also usually made aware of their visit before they're in town."
"Call it a last-minute decision that I didn't think through very well," he told her, despite both of them knowing that getting to Garreg Mach was far from a single day's journey for him, just based on the state of disarray his car was currently in. "But hey, maybe she'll take pity on a former house head and give me somewhere to crash for a bit."
"For a night, you mean?" The implication of why Claude was there was seemingly lost on Byleth, until she began to blush ever so slightly. "Unless you had plans to stay around here longer, since I have to."
"That might've been more of what I was going for with this, just forgot some crucial details when putting it all together." He gestured for her to follow him into the coffee shop, where there was in fact a drink waiting for her to pick up, him explaining that he'd used that as his way to get her off-campus, since he couldn't exactly waltz on without prior approval.
"So you thought about how you'd get to see me, but you didn't think about where you'd be staying while you were here," she summarized, between sips of her still-hot black coffee. "I must say, I'm impressed at how many trees you missed in your forest."
He shrugged. "Call it being blinded by the end goal, I probably would've caught some of these other things if I hadn't been so focused on getting here to be with you."
"Then let's hope that somewhere on campus is available for you to use, so that—" Byleth was interrupted by her ancient flip phone ringing in her pocket, the device used strictly for contact between her and others at the school. She pulled it out, saw that it was a call straight from the headmaster's office, and answered it without further hesitation. "Hello? I'm off-campus right now, just getting coffee with an old friend, what can I…hm? Right now? Is it fine if my friend tags along, I walked and he drove so he can get me there quicker."
While she was talking, Claude was watching her with lovestruck eyes, still in awe at the fact that he'd dropped his life for the second time to chase her down, to find a way to be with the woman of his dreams. She noticed his gaze at one point and shook her head, before jumping off of the stool she'd chosen to sit on and heading for the door, him scrambling to follow her. When she went straight to the passenger's side door of his car, he got in on the other side and cleared a place for her to sit, lamenting his lack of cleanliness in that moment and hoping that she understood why it was so dirty.
"I need to get to the administration building," she whispered, covering the receiver on the phone to muffle what the other side heard. "There's been an incident and I need to get there as soon as possible." If it weren't for the fact that the way to get to her destination was marked by signs, Claude would have been annoyed that Byleth didn't even try offering him directions, but she was engrossed in whatever was being said to her in her call.
She only hung up when they'd pulled up outside of the building, and she got out of the car, asking him to stay parked where he was for the moment, in case she had the chance to ask about his lodging after her meeting. That changed when, not even five minutes later, she was back at his side of the car, asking for him to get out and follow her inside. "Let me guess, meeting went so well that you asked right away and got permission, and all my old friends in admin want to see me before I go unpack."
"I wish it was something that simple," Byleth said, not even making an attempt to look at Claude while she spoke. "I don't think you're going to have as positive of an attitude about this once you hear what's going on."
"Look, I've heard some dumb things in this office, I'm sure whatever they're going to say can't be as bad as threatening to deport me to Almyra because of pranks, or telling me about the other house leaders and their constant squabbles. I'm a grown man, there's really nothing they can tell me here that's going to make me turn sour." They were fighting words, and even though Claude wanted to hold himself to them, the way Byleth continued walking without further comment gave the impression that perhaps he was wrong.
There was no one inside of the headmaster's office aside from Lady Rhea herself, dressed in her finest gowns and looking like she hadn't aged a day in the past ten years, as she sat on top of her desk with her arms folded in front of her. "This was not who I anticipated you bringing back with you," she softly said once Byleth and Claude were both in the room and the door was closed behind them. "When you mentioned you had someone in mind, I was figuring someone that you didn't meet here in this school."
"I never taught him, so it's fine," Byleth reminded her. "He's in Garreg Mach for personal reasons, but I'm sure if you brought the idea up to him he might accept it."
"I see, well, it is wonderful to have you back in my office, Claude." Stepping down from her desk to stand tall in front of them both, the way the sunlight was hitting Rhea from behind illuminated her like a goddess, and even though he wanted to be loyal to the woman he loved, Claude couldn't help but look a little at her tightly-wrapped curves in her long dress. "I shall assume that you did not bring up the situation while you entered, Byleth?"
"That is correct, ma'am."
Rhea nodded, stepping closer and looking straight at Claude, doing her best to intimidate him with her physical stance. "The story is as such: yesterday evening there was an incident in the staff dormitories, where a professor fell down the stairs and fractured several bones in his body. While most of them will heal with time, there was a concerning injury that will have him out of commission for the next semester." Rhea's face turned deathly serious, and as Claude had finally started looking at it, he could tell right away that she meant business with what she was saying. "We are in desperate need for a stand-in teacher to cover classes that will be left untaught due to a teaching shortage here, and Byleth has so graciously suggested that you fill the role."
"Me?" Claude repeated, pointing at himself, to which Rhea nodded. "That's insane, I've never taught a day in my life, I've never even gone to school past what I learned here, are you sure there's no one better for the job?"
"It'd be only a couple of basic courses, across all houses," Byleth stepped in to say, still not looking at Claude even though she was speaking to him. "Despite his injuries, Professor Hanneman will continue on in his other roles, and I will be taking on his specific courses as well as maintaining the ones I teach that don't conflict with times. You'd just be picking up my slack, more or less."
"It would be a temporary job, and I know that you can handle the particular classes that you would be in charge of. The students in this year's houses are much, much different than the ones you'd attended alongside, you would be hard-pressed to find any troublemakers among their ranks." Bowing her head, Rhea paused for a moment, before looking back up at Claude with the same serious expression she'd had before. "I do not enjoy resorting to begging, but a situation such as this may require me to do so. There are no other options aside from reaching out to the general public and bringing in someone unvetted and unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of life at the school."
For every reason Claude had to deny the offer, he could think of another to accept it and roll with the surprise job that had fallen into his lap. He wanted to go back home, to see Hilda and Balthus and get up to trouble with the two of them again, but staying meant that he'd get to spend all of that time around Byleth before she could leave with him. He hadn't ever aspired to teach students, but he didn't have any kind of job that he worked otherwise and it would look mighty fine on his resume in the future if he could put down that he taught at Garreg Mach. "I'll accept it, on one condition," he said after much debate and wishing that he didn't seem to have a hard time limit on the decision. "That condition being that you let me stay through the end of the school year, teaching or not."
"I can arrange for that," Rhea promised him, smiling gently as if she was pleased with there being such a simple compromise. "Seteth is already drafting up a contract, you will have to go through it with him when he is ready. Your classes will start next week, you will be allowed to shadow Byleth as she teaches them for the remainder of this week but then they will be entirely your responsibility."
"I'll teach him everything I can in the short time we have," Byleth said with a determined nod, before shooting up straight and tall. "Where will he be staying during his tenure here? Hanneman's room will not be available, and to make ends meet you've sold much of the furnishings in the empty staff bedrooms. Is he going to have to bunk with students?"
"That is another issue that Seteth is to solve, but as of right now, barring any better suggestions, that does seem to be the likely solution." Rhea was not expecting what came next, the "better suggestion" of Claude rooming with Byleth, and when she heard those words spoken by one of her most loyal staff members, she went wide-eyed and covered her mouth in shock. "I don't…think that's…out of the question," she said after much hesitation, "but surely being with the students would allow him more space."
"It isn't a matter of space, neither of us have too much that we need to keep in a room, and my bed is quite large, he and I would be able to share it without contact." Remaining calm and collected as she always was, Byleth was trying her best to sell the idea that they get to room together, while Claude was doing his part in not making it too obvious that this was the exact thing he'd dreamed of. Being trapped in close quarters with the woman he'd lusted after for so long, getting to live alongside her while they worked together for the next few moons, it was something out of a fairy tale, not the reality he thought he lived in.
Rhea still hadn't come to terms with the suggestion that had been made, and so when Seteth came into the room holding a stack of paperwork for the new hire to fill out, and he saw the headmaster in complete disbelief and a former student standing on the other side of the room, he turned right around and left. "Byleth, let us have a private discussion about this idea you've presented, while Claude goes and handles the legal portion of his hiring." That was all Rhea needed to say to make it clear that she wasn't going to accept this without a fight, and so they went their separate ways for the time being.
Claude hated being in Seteth's office, as it was decorated exactly as it had been when he was a student attending Garreg Mach, and the man's stern face remained unchanged with age as well. "Of all the people to be picked for this role, I never expected you, Mr. Riegan," Seteth said, pushing the paperwork and a pen onto the far side of his desk, where Claude took a seat and began filling it out. "Tell me, how did you happen to be here right when someone was needed? I know that you have been living in Derdriu for the past several years, doing various things that no one seems to know specifics of."
"Who's been telling you about that stuff?" he asked, not bothering to look up from the papers he was writing all over. "Not like it matters, what I've been doing hasn't been anything notable. I'm not even here because of any of that, I'm here because of Byleth."
"Oh, did she invite you into town? How timely."
"She didn't invite me anywhere, I came to see her as a surprise. Just happened that I got here right as all of this started going down." Claude knew better than to openly discuss his true reason with someone as judgmental as Seteth, even if he wanted to be shouting from the rafters that he was in love with Byleth and that he was there to romantically pursue her. "I'm not even sure why I'm being allowed to fill this spot, if we're being honest. What I've been doing also hasn't been anything remotely educational."
Seteth shook his head, grumbling about how he agreed on that point but wouldn't argue with what Rhea wanted. "Thankfully this is only until Professor Hanneman is medically cleared to be back in the classroom, which should be around the end of the semester. The sooner we can get an actual teacher back in all of our classrooms, the better."
Biting his tongue to keep from dropping the fact that he fully intended on getting Byleth out of there and creating a new vacancy for them to fill, Claude flipped to the next page in the contract and continued reading and signing away. The benefits to the job were subpar, but if he could get the one thing Byleth was requesting for him out of it all, then he'd be okay with the lack of quality pay and the rather demanding schedule of teaching and training he'd have to endure while he was employed there. Not like he was going to say anything about that to anyone, especially not Seteth, so as he was going through the contract he was hmm-ing and tapping bits of the legal language with the end of the pen before signing anyway. "Don't you think this is a lot of formal stuff for an informal hiring?" he asked, after reading a bit that got heavy into the details about the position. "I mean, most of this won't be applying, right?"
"It's a quickly-modified version of our usual contract with the teachers, I wouldn't have expected you to read it as deeply as you are." Whether that was a dig at him personally, or a reference to how careless people were when signing documents, Claude didn't know, but he wasn't exactly a fan of Seteth's attitude at the moment. "I can assure you that most of what it says will have no bearing on you, seeing as you are just here for a little while."
A knock came at the office door, followed by Byleth walking inside, flipping her seafoam hair over her shoulder and out of her face. "Sorry for the interruption, Seteth, but can I have a moment with Claude? There's something I need to discuss with him."
"Yes, of course," Seteth replied, rising from his desk and leaving the office at once, making sure to give them both a very stern look before closing the door.
"Rhea says she'll allow it, under a couple of conditions." Jumping right into things as if they hadn't been doing two separate activities for the past several minutes, Byleth raised two fingers to illustrate the conditions she was about to speak of. "One, we cannot make it obvious to students that we are sharing a room, as they are not allowed to bunk with others and they may think there's reason for them to be allowed to. Two, as long as you are working here we cannot do anything remotely flirtatious or indicative of us being in any sort of romantic relationship."
"But we're…not really in one, are we?"
"I may have told Rhea that we are, just to get her to take this consideration seriously." Byleth bent both fingers back down into her fist, before nodding at Claude, who had been struck into silence by the blatant lying going on. "What, it isn't that big of a deal for me to tell her that, you and I both know that's what you're looking for from me."
He stared at her for a second, feeling his heartbeat picking up intensity in his chest as he let his eyes lock on Byleth's face, then her eyes specifically, her mouth, and finally lingering on her neck and everything right below it. "Maybe you're right about a lot of that, but this wasn't how I pictured it all coming to light. I was imagining, I don't know, glorious sunsets, beautiful scenery, maybe a glass of Leicester's finest wine in front of each of us…"
"Then we're not in a relationship, but we can pretend we're in one to get you a place to stay that isn't the boys' dormitory." It was clear that Byleth cared very little about sorting out those specific details, despite them mattering an awful lot to Claude, who sighed and went back to signing on his contract. "Rhea wants to put her trust in us that we'll follow those two rules while we have this arrangement, and I don't want to make her think twice about it. Can you promise me that you'll follow her directions on this?"
Claude had no interest in following those directions. He didn't want to have to make how he felt about someone something that existed only behind closed doors, and he didn't want to have to pretend he wasn't living the life he actually was. But when he looked at Byleth again and saw the way her eyes had widened to beg him to play along, he knew that he couldn't resist doing what she wanted. "Anything for you, and for us," he said quietly, watching her give him a small smile before heading out of the office, switching places with Seteth as he made his way back inside.
"Have you finished your paperwork yet, Mr. Riegan? Or, should I say, Professor Claude?" he dryly asked, taking his seat and looking expectantly at the man on the other side of his desk. "This job may seem like it has a lot of expectations, and I'm certain you'll find struggles and hardships in these first weeks, but I have full faith in your ability to at least manage to survive until your duty is done."
"Some real high praise, coming from you," he muttered, hoping that Seteth didn't hear that comment and moving right along into answering his question. "I've got a couple more pages to look through and then I'm done with it all. You sure you want me signing all of this?"
Seteth's brow furrowed for a second, before he loosened up considerably. "I know, there are some rather interesting additions to the contract itself, you can sign for them but do know that your personal benefit from any of those is minor, if anything. You will be welcomed along on the staff bonding excursion at the end of the academic year, if you pay into it, but otherwise everything else will be strictly for full-time staff, unless someone declines attendance for anything in particular."
It was wishful thinking that anyone would choose not to accept the benefits they were given with their job, but Claude had always tried to look on the bright side of life. After all, if he wasn't such an optimist, he wouldn't have packed his car and come back to Garreg Mach in the first place. That led him to sign every last optional point, including the staff trip, just to pass the entire stack of paperwork and the pen back to Seteth, who got right to checking through all of it for accuracy.
"Am I good to go now?" Claude asked as he watched Seteth doing his thing, a soft grunt his only answer, and he just about bolted from the office, reentering the room where Rhea and Byleth stood opposing each other, locked in a silent stare-down. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" he joked, only to feel the tension in the air between the women.
"Certainly not," Rhea assured him, "and I do hope that Byleth speaks the truth and that you are both willing to keep my trust in mind with every move you make. It will be a pleasure to have you among our staff, even if only for a short time, Claude. I look forward to hearing about your classroom achievements soon enough."
While she was speaking, he'd looked at Byleth to see how stone-faced she was the whole time, only to see her turn around and head for the door without being dismissed. He panicked for a moment, unsure of what he should do, before thanking Rhea for the opportunity and following right behind Byleth, until they were out by the car. "She sensed that something was amiss and tried to get me to tell her if I was already lying, which I had to lie further to convince her otherwise." Leaning against the side of the car, Byleth hadn't even checked to see who she was confessing to, so when Claude wrapped his arms around her as best as he could and told her things were okay, she physically softened under his grasp. "We can't go back on this, as long as you're bound by that contract we're playing by her rules to the letter."
"And once I'm off the hook and no longer working for them?" he teased, knowing what he'd requested be allowed for after his job was done. "Then we can do whatever we please, and it doesn't have to stay between the two of us."
"If only we can make it that long."
A/N: Thanks for checking this out! I've done my submission for the Claudeleth week a little differently than I normally would, it's one long story that hits FOUR prompts! This part covers day 1, reunion, and day 2, trust, but the second one isn't nearly as explicitly stated as the first!