There were plenty of bumps in the road for Claude and Byleth when it came to hiding their feelings toward one another in the presence of students, but after several long moons of acting very much like a fish out of water, taking over classes for students that already expected Byleth's style of teaching and received him instead, Claude was no longer bound by the terms of the contract he'd signed with the school. It had been an overall horrible experience from the first day he'd stepped into that classroom with zero training and was expected to pick up everything right away so that he could fill the position left open, and many nights were spent with him laying on his side of the bed regretting ever coming to the school, while Byleth worked on all of the lesson plans he'd need so that all he had to do was follow her notes and teach.

Rhea hadn't had anything to worry about, when it came to how obvious it was that they were sharing space while both working as teachers, because there were rarely any nights where they both slept in the bed. Byleth's place to sleep was most often at her desk, and if she was in the bed then chances were Claude was at the desk instead, trying to make sense of what he was going to be teaching the next day. It came as a huge relief when things went back to how they were supposed to be at the school, her having to only prepare for her own classes instead of teaching for someone else every moment she was available to do so, and those first weeks of them getting to share the bed didn't make any use of the extra space it held at all. They were right on top of each other, taking in the other's scent and warmth and presence every chance they could.

Despite the craziness of their lives, they had decided somewhere in the middle of it all that they really should labeled their relationship in some way to present it to people when asked, so they weren't even worrying about what Byleth had said to Rhea at the start being a lie anymore. Everyone back home that Claude still talked to was informed of the relationship status upgrade the day it had happened, but telling Hilda had resulted in her badgering him with questions about when he'd be coming home again.

You just have to trust me on this, but at the end of the school year down here at GM, he messaged her, not wanting to elaborate too much on why that was.

Hilda took the hint that there was some secret he was hiding, but she did throw her own guess out into the open about it: Ohhhh, because you want to stay with your girlfriend until she's done working, got it! It wasn't the full truth, but it was definitely the part that had Claude staying in Garreg Mach for as long as he was.

With the start of the second semester and all of his freedoms reclaimed from the school and its pesky contract, Claude found himself spending a lot of time either in the room, or out in the town itself. He had his car available to him, something that a lot of the staff didn't have, so his ability to go out and drive for a while was one that was looked at with jealousy by some of the people he'd been teaching alongside just before the term break. "At least you don't take me out with you when you're driving around," Byleth said to him one night when she'd gotten back to the room late and was greeted with her half-awake boyfriend laying in the bed. "I've heard far too much about how others would want to come with if I went."

"Have them ask Seteth or Rhea to spare the expenses for a car or two for everyone to use, because I'm not sharing," he replied through a yawn, watching Byleth undress herself and climb into the bed in her usual spot, almost entirely nude. "Just getting right to the point tonight, I see."

"It's been a long day already, I'm ready for school to be over and we're so far from the finish line, I just want to sleep." Sleeping in the nude, or close to it, was the optimal way to sleep in that room, as it was incredibly stuffy no matter what the weather was like outside, so even the hottest days and coldest days on campus felt the same. "Sorry that we've had to normalize seeing each other like this to survive in here, but it's that or sleep with the door open and I don't want to do that."

Claude looked down at himself, wearing only his underwear as well, before glancing at Byleth to see her eyes already closed and her chest starting to gently rise and fall, her having fallen asleep almost instantly. "I wouldn't want that either, not with how close we get and how nosy some of the neighbors are."

The first night they'd been able to actually sleep together, they'd gotten careless with some of their volume and were greeted in the morning by their next-door neighbor, who requested that they keep the headboard banging and the screaming down to a minimum. That had been an awkward conversation to have, especially given that the professor in question who'd come by was one that had taught Claude himself when he was a student there. It had affected Byleth more, though, as she worked with the woman and now her sexual habits were out there in the mind of at least one of her coworkers. By the end of the first moon their relationship had been allowed to be open, it was pretty common knowledge that they were getting up to some wild things in that room, but because it was staying strictly in their room there wasn't anything Rhea was going to do about it.

Things began to calm down once the novelty of their ability to be together started to wear off, and while it wasn't like they'd completely stopped having intimate moments in bed, they weren't nearly as frequent and when they did happen, they were toned far down from where they once had been. Or, at the very least, they weren't as disruptive to those around them, something that Byleth dryly remarked about when she said she hadn't had to have awkward conversations with the other professors in a while. Claude had laughed it off, but he knew that it wasn't that much of a joke to begin with; what they did between them should have always stayed just between them, and they'd gotten careless about that.

As the semester went on, the realization that their days in Garreg Mach were numbered hit them both at about the same time, when Byleth came back to the room one night stressed out about her meeting with the headmaster the next day. "I have to tell her I don't plan on coming back, but I don't know how she's going to handle that. Ten years, I've been with this school ten years, and she's going to lose me because of you."

"It's what you've wanted though, isn't it?" Claude asked her, grabbing her hands to give her something solid to hold on to while she worked through her problem with him. "You told me you didn't want to stay here any longer than you needed to, and now that's in sight and you're starting to think twice about it?"

"No, I'm not thinking twice about anything. I'm dreading having to own up to my decision." Closing her eyes as she sighed deeply, Byleth squeezed Claude's hands as hard as she could in the moment. "I want what's best for me, which includes what's best for you, and being here isn't it for either of us. But Lady Rhea…she's like a mother to me, after all these years."

Claude nodded, trying to understand the conflict building in his girlfriend's mind but not quite getting why this was so difficult for her. "It's not that hard to strip yourself of a parent figure, I've done it a time or two." She reopened her eyes and looked at him, the tip of her nose crinkling as she did. "What's that look for, hm? I thought you'd known about that."

"I did, I just…" Sighing again, Byleth's face went back to neutral. "I don't think you understand the difficulty I face here because this has to do with my job. Telling her I don't plan on coming back is a lot like telling her that I hate working here, which isn't true, I'm just in need of a new place to be."

"You're overthinking it," he confidently told her, giving her hands a firm shake, "and it's going to be fine when you talk to her. Seriously, how badly can Rhea take something like this? She's bound to have been told about people quitting a hundred times over her career here, you're not the first and you definitely aren't the last."

"That's true, but…Claude, what if she doesn't take it well?"

"Still overthinking it, and if she doesn't take it well then you just remember that you're out of here as soon as the year's over anyway."

Much to Byleth's relief, the conversation didn't go anywhere close to as poorly as she thought it would, even if it was apparent that Rhea was not thrilled with the decision, and firmly blamed Claude for it. The fact that Rhea couldn't stop mentioning rethinking things because of "the Riegan boy" was a good reminder that the school wasn't the place Byleth wanted to stay, if it meant having to tolerate further comments about the man she cared so deeply for. However, with that revelation out in the open, and there being only a handful of weeks left before the school year was over, there wasn't a whole lot of time for that rethinking to happen.

But Rhea would be damned if she wasn't going to try getting it to happen anyway. She pulled strings, got Seteth to plan some new events to mark the end of the year in style, and hoped that all of her scheduling changes would be enough to tip Byleth over the edge and get her to stay at Garreg Mach after all. She certainly had to know that she was fighting a losing battle, but she was determined to get her way in any way possible without having to resort to too dramatic of measures.

However, for every ounce of effort Rhea gave in trying to coax Byleth without saying anything at all, Byleth's determination to get out of the school and away from the down was doubled in strength. She didn't make that obvious outside of her room, or wherever she happened to be with only Claude as her witness, but once word got out around the school that she was leaving, it was only safe to assume she was ready to go. And due to the fact that it was only the staff that found out about the things Rhea had changed and added to their end of year schedules, they could easily guess that they were all done in the name of wooing Byleth back for another year.

The most prominent of the changes made to what had been previously planned was the scrapping of the staff trip to the coast and changing it into a party held at the cathedral after the students had all left for break. "Sounds awfully familiar, don't you think?" Claude muttered when Byleth told him about it, only slightly bitter that the one piece of the celebrations he'd been eligible for thanks to his stint teaching there had been stripped away from him. "Almost like she's trying to recreate our reunion or something."

"That's what she's doing exactly, and she'll be sorry to find out that it won't be working because we'll already be gone. I'm not staying around for that." There was a fierceness in Byleth's voice, one that was rarely present, as she spoke. "And I don't want you staying around here and having to play janitor because you're not someone who's allowed to go. I highly doubt Lady Rhea will let you attend, even as my plus-one."

"That's stupid, and I'd tell her that to her face if I really cared to." Claude shook his head. "But whatever you say, Teach. You want to miss the dance, we're missing the dance."

"It's that simple?" Byleth asked, almost in surprise at how Claude had just rolled over for her demand. "I expected a bit more of a fight from you, all things considered."

Claude looked at her for a few moments, his mouth twisting from side to side as he thought about what there was that he wanted to say. "Normally I would try to get to go tear up the dancefloor, but there's bigger and better things waiting for us back in Derdriu when we get there. A little bird's told me about someone throwing a huge bash for us after we return, and I wasn't supposed to say a word about it to you but…now you know."

"That's such a Hilda thing to do, I'm impressed she's planned something on that scale. But I'm sure whatever she has up her sleeve will be much more fun than what Lady Rhea wants everyone to do." The fierceness had disappeared, replaced with a scathing bitterness that showed just how unhappy Byleth was still having to be there at the school.

Still looking at her, Claude decided to reach out and place a hand on Byleth's arm, giving it a tense squeeze. "If any of Hilda's past parties are a good indication, we're in for a huge treat. We're talking giant fountains, food for weeks, that sort of thing, and it's all for us." He repeated those last words over and over again, as if to remind himself that was the case just as much as he was trying to convince his girlfriend of it.

"Claude, is now a good time to point out how much I love you?"

"…Come again?" His hand flying off of her body and retracting right toward his own face, Claude felt like he'd need to do a million double takes before he would fully process those words he'd heard. "Did you just say the 'l-word' you've skirted around this whole time we've been together?"

Bringing her hands to cover her mouth, Byleth's eyes widened to their largest size, her face erupting in a mad blush that Claude had never seen her sporting, even in the deepest throes of their passion. "I didn't—it wasn't—I meant it but I didn't mean to say it!" she stammered, her words jumbling out of her mouth like she was speaking through feelings she'd never experienced before. "I didn't think I ever would love someone until I fell for you!"

"That's impressive, but I can't blame you. I am pretty damn irresistible." Taking the hand that had flown back at him and swiping it through his unruly hair, Claude brought it down and brushed it against his beard, which had grown out to a considerable length in his time there at Garreg Mach. "Well, on my good days I'm irresistible, right now I look a lot like someone who doesn't know personal hygiene."

"Are you trying to ruin our moment?"

"To be honest, I figured you would have preferred I ruined it than let it go on any longer. But if you insist…" Dropping the smarmy act he'd put on in his attempt to make things pass by quickly, Claude reached to pull Byleth's hands away from her face, gently kissing her once he had access to her lips—or, at least, he'd intended for it to be a gentle kiss. The moment his lips touched hers, she pushed them against him so hard that it was impossible not to throw a bit more passion into the moment.

Once their impromptu make-out session ended and they were both left flustered and out of breath, they decided it'd be for the best to leave things exactly where they were and not go dwelling on the conversation they'd been having. There was so little time left in the school year until they could disappear and kiss the monastery and its school farewell that keeping thinking about the ways that Rhea was trying to get one of them to stay was useless. That determination, and the support of her adoring boyfriend who was ready to fight for her if needed, was what pulled Byleth through to the end of the year, and the moment she had her grades finalized and her classroom clean, she was ready to go.

There was just one minor obstacle standing between her, Claude, and their escape, and that was one Seteth, who was quite confused at why his departing teacher wasn't to be attending the cathedral ball that had been scheduled in her honor. "We have plans that we can't exactly reschedule," she explained, thrusting her ring of keys at the man, who stared at them unflinchingly but didn't dare grab them. "Seriously, Rhea has known about this since we had our one-on-one meeting, I can't believe she didn't tell you."

"She informed me of your departure, but she made no mention whatsoever of you leaving before the ball had taken place. Surely you can find one extra night here in Garreg Mach in your schedule." Still not grabbing the keys, Seteth looked beyond annoyed when Byleth shook them at him in an attempt to get him to take them. "You have to do this, for Lady Rhea and for the people who have been your family here for ten years."

"Did it ever occur to you that she's doing this to try and pander to me?"

"I beg your pardon, would you mind saying that again?" Now Seteth's annoyance was not just in his expression, but in the way he was speaking. "Did you just insinuate that our Lady Rhea would make decisions for the whole staff based entirely on one person?"

Byleth's face fell as she thought about those words. "Well, when you put it that way, it does sound a bit farfetched, but I know it to be true regardless. This dance, and the entire reshuffling of the end-of-year schedule, has been done as her last-ditch effort to keep me here. And…and you know what?" Letting the keys fall from her hand, over all attempts at passing them off peacefully, Byleth finished, "I'm not going to stand here and let you do her work for her. Farewell, Seteth, farewell to you and everything else Garreg Mach has given me for the past ten years!"

He was so incensed that he didn't say anything in her wake, but the moment Byleth was gone Seteth was headed straight to tell Rhea exactly what had happened, complete with the disrespectful actions that had occurred. For it all being accusatory and defamatory toward her, Rhea seemed to take it in stride. "She spoke partial truths about my desire to keep her here driving my decisions, but at the end of the day, she isn't worth it. We shall have a grand celebration as a staff, and she can be scrubbed from the memory of the school. It is what she seems to have wanted, after all."

Whether it was what she wanted or not, it wasn't going to have any impact on Byleth's life going forward, not when she was staring out a cracked windshield driving down a highway over the speed limit, her hand hanging out the window while Claude was behind the wheel. "If we keep this pace, we'll get to a scenic area just after dark, and you know what that means?" he asked her, keeping his eyes glued to the road instead of looking toward her for any indication of her understanding.

"We'll need to find somewhere to stay?" she suggested in response, not knowing what else there could possibly be to say. "I don't want to be driving too late into the night."

He chuckled, "Of course we'll be finding somewhere to stay! There's a beautiful park that we can camp out in for the night, sorry that it'll be cramped in here but the first hotel was just too far to make tonight."

"We're…camping in the car? I've never done that before." That wasn't the full truth, Byleth could recall many times in her childhood when she and her father had slept in his car because he was driving them between job sites and he couldn't afford food and lodging while on trips. But that was a past life, such a distant memory, that she couldn't be bothered to count it for the moment. "Are you familiar with it?"

"Familiar enough to know that the park we'll be at is safe enough that, if you really wanted to, we could sleep on the roof of the car instead." Despite not looking toward her, Claude winked at Byleth, which she caught as she happened to glance in his direction. "Or you can take the roof and I'll get the backseat, I'm fine either way."

"I think both of us in the backseat would be fine, we've gotten rather good at sleeping in each other's company and I'd hate to roll off the roof or something like that." So what if they were ditching a dance at the school on their drive back to Derdriu? There was nothing that the dance could have offered that would have topped the experience of buying greasy fast food on the drive, throwing fries at each other and laughing when they landed in unfortunate places. Nothing would have come close to pulling into the darkened parking lot at the scenic area Claude had talked about, to seeing a cloudless sky illuminated by millions of twinkling stars overhead. And it was simply impossible to think that the dance could have beaten the thrill of sitting on the roof in the nighttime air, arms wrapped around each other, watching as shooting stars blitzed by every so often, before turning in for the night by reentering the car and laying almost like sardines on the backseat.

It was a rather sleepless night, given the close quarters and the fact that there wasn't actually room for two grown adults to sleep on the seat, try as they might, but even with that blemish on the experience it was still better than anything Rhea could've thrown together at the school. That was a sentiment that was mentioned several times during the next day's drive, where Byleth was content with her decision to leave like she had, but curious if they'd have another similar experience the following night. "Nah, we're not going to be on a long stretch of nothing for too long today, we'll be able to stop in actual civilization if we want to do a short drive, or if you're fine with going until midnight we can even get to Derdriu."

"If you're fine with being in this car so long, I think I'd like to see where you call home," Byleth said with a smile, Claude nodding and slowly pressing down on the pedal of the car until they were speeding down the road once more. By no means was it a fun drive, and it got rather boring at times and hectic at others, but true to Claude's word it was nearly midnight when the city sprung up on the horizon, towering buildings and lights acting as beacons to guide them back.

There was one small detail Claude hadn't actually mentioned about their return to the city, and that became clear when they pulled up outside a sprawling rental community, guarded by a gate that required a passcode. "I can't say that my place is exactly, you know, livable right now," he mentioned, rolling down his window to push the code into the box outside the gate. "So we're going to take a quick detour for tonight, stay somewhere I know is perfectly safe for humans."

"I was going to say, this feels a lot…ritzier than I'd expect from you." Byleth watched as the gate pulled itself open upon entry of the code, Claude driving them through and it closing behind them so no one else could sneak in. "Let me guess who lives here. Hilda, I bet."

"She doesn't live here, she uses this place as a guest house for when her brother comes to visit, or when friends who didn't stick around stop by. She's fully aware we're crashing here tonight, so don't think we'll be walking in on someone unexpectedly." The fact that it could have been a real possibility wasn't lost on Byleth, but she accepted Claude's word for what it was and looked out the windows as they passed by fancy house after fancy house, until they pulled up outside one that, honestly, looked like every house around it.

That was where they parked and climbed out of the car, Claude going up to the garage door and pushing in another code into its keypad to cause it to open, allowing them inside without having a key for the front door. It was easily the nicest house Byleth had ever been inside, even if Claude was perfectly used to being there and was overly familiar with the place, and if they hadn't been dead tired they probably would have spent more time talking about how nice it was. Their exhaustion was too strong, though, and so they ended up in the master bedroom passed out on the bed before too long, waiting for morning to come and mark the first sunrise on their new lives together.

The party that Hilda put together for the couple in celebration for their arrival in Derdriu was just under a week after they'd actually gotten there, time spent cleaning out and freshening up the (much smaller than the rental) house that Claude had acquired through some smart investing and trading. It was on the outskirts of town, compared with the rental property, and when Byleth saw it for the first time she felt a little deflated, but he promised her that they could spruce it up however she wanted to, once they could actually call it home again. For several days, they worked on making it feel like home, and right as they got into the swing of taking things to the nearby landfill to make space for the replacement furniture they'd bought and then placing the new furniture when it arrived, Hilda showed up at the front door to drag them to her party.

"What in the world are the two of you doing to this place?" she asked when Claude opened the door, expecting it to be a delivery driver there to give them the bedroom set they were still waiting on so that they could sleep somewhere that wasn't old mattresses on the floor. "I knew you were home, but I didn't realize that living in a cushy school room had changed your attitude toward what you had here!"

"Trust me, if you'd seen this place when we got here, you'd understand why everything's gone," he replied, realizing only then that he hadn't told Hilda anything beyond letting her know they'd arrived at her rental safe and sound. After staring down his best friend for a few moments while she tried peeking around him at more of the house, he relented and let her inside, calling after her, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"I'm here to get you for your party, duh!" In the time it took for her to answer the question, Hilda had made her way from the entrance in the small living room, off to the kitchen, where she quite literally ran into Byleth, who was organizing freshly-washed dishes into their proper places. "Whoa, sorry about that! You already making your mark here, huh?"

"I suppose you could call me doing the dishes 'making my mark', if you want to compare how I put things away to how they originally were." Byleth narrowed her eyes at Hilda as the visitor twirled around in the kitchen, looking at the new appliances and remarking on them under her breath.

Still at the door, checking for any sign of the delivery driver and finding none but noticing exactly where Hilda had parked her car, Claude closed the door and looked around for where she'd gone. "Hey, Hilda, you're going to need to move, we're expecting someone and they're going to need that spot."

"Wasn't aware that other guests got preferential parking, while I didn't," she sassily remarked, coming out of the kitchen with Byleth right behind her. "What's up with the new stuff in there? You telling me that all of your appliances died in the almost-year you've been away from here?"

"Only the fridge died, but we got a nice deal on replacing the rest alongside it," Claude answered, before pointing toward the door, "and we're waiting on a big furniture truck that'll crush your little car if you leave it parked there. Move it, then you can come back in and…keep antagonizing us, I guess."

Hilda gasped, clutching her chest. "Antagonizing? Me? I'm literally just here to tell you that your party's starting in, like, two hours and you kind of need to be there ahead of time so that people don't think I've tricked them into coming for something else entirely." She glanced around, turning to look at Byleth with a smile then back to Claude, who was not impressed at all. "Okay, moving my car, and by doing that I mean getting out of here, see you at the party!"

With that, she flounced out of the house just as quickly as she'd come in, and Claude made sure to keep watch at the door to be positive she did in fact leave. "That was weird," Byleth said as she came to join him by the door, them both watching as Hilda's pink and gold car backed out of the driveway and drove away. "And kind of bad planning on her part. Who doesn't bother to tell party guests there's a party until two hours before?"

"Someone who's clearly using the party for something else and forgot its original purpose," Claude told her, shaking his head as he spoke. "Which, honestly, that means that whatever Hilda's got planned, it's bound to be interesting."

"So we're not going, then, right?"

"Why wouldn't we be going? We'll get the furniture and head over to her place once it's all here. If we're late, we're late, that's on her for not telling us when to be there sooner." Thanks to his deep friendship with Hilda, Claude knew that them arriving fashionably late wouldn't actually be a problem by any stretch of the imagination. Them showing up early would be more problematic, given that it was typical for something that Hilda put together to not even start on time, thanks to her own chronic laziness.

Without that knowledge, Byleth didn't seem as confident in them just showing up whenever they could, especially since they were supposed to be the people the party was for. "What if, when we do arrive, everyone else has already left because they thought we weren't coming? Unless we really are just an afterthought for the event, then it wouldn't even matter."

"Great news, we're not going to be anything close to an afterthought. If we were, Hilda would've just messaged me to be there after it had already started, at least we know we matter a little because she came and told us personally." Reaching up to stroke his chin, which was possible thanks to being able to properly shave for the first time in a long time when he'd gotten home, Claude took a moment to think about what there was that could have been distracting Hilda from the original plan of her party. He came to many possible conclusions, but didn't say any of them because he saw the furniture truck rounding the corner and heading their way, meaning that it was time to get back to work.

Just over an hour later and the old mattress was gone, replaced with a lovely bed that was twice as comfortable as the one in Garreg Mach had ever been, if still the same size as it. It came with a matching set for the whole bedroom, dressers and nightstands and even a little bookshelf, that Byleth put some of her favorite things from her teaching career on with a wistful smile. "It feels all the truer that I'm not going back there now," she murmured as she laid out a tapestry one of her students had woven for her years prior, meant to cover the board from curious eyes but not quite large enough to do the job well. "I have no reason to ever return to that place, now that I'm here."

"And that's how you've wanted it since we first talked about doing this." Coming up behind her and nuzzling the top of her head with his cheek, Claude could feel the reservation building within Byleth with every breath she made. "Come on, don't be so down about things, you're right where you wanted to be, aren't you?"

"I suppose, but…" Byleth trailed off, wriggling her way out of Claude's reach just to turn around and look at him. "It doesn't matter. You're right, I'm here, that's all I need to think about. Now are we getting ourselves done up for this party, or do you think Hilda will mind us showing up as we look now?"

The agreement was that if Hilda had wanted them to clean up before showing up at her house, she would have mentioned something when she came over, so the only thing they did was make sure they didn't look like they'd been cleaning house all morning. Byleth even pulled her hair back and up out of her face, so that it couldn't be said she put no effort into her appearance. As for Claude, he ran a wet comb through his hair and put on a pair of nice pants, but he didn't go any further than that with making himself look nice. "She'll get why we're not looking formal, if that's what her expectation is," he said on their way out to his car, which had been cleaned out from all of the junk that had accrued in it over his time at the school and looked almost new minus the cracked windshield.

Their ride took them through a different part of Derdriu than Byleth had been driven through before, so she was looking all around and taking note of the places they passed on their way. Claude's focus was on turning down the correct roads, it having been a while since he'd last gone to Hilda's actual house without her being the one driving. Two wrong turns and one instance of trying to turn the wrong direction onto a one-way street later and they were entering a much nicer neighborhood than the one Claude lived in, and much fancier than the rental community they'd first stayed in was. "She lives in a place like this?" Byleth asked, shocked at the size and sprawl of some of the houses they were passing.

"Family home that she inherited when she turned eighteen, she definitely didn't buy this place with her own money. The stuff coming in's a lot bigger than what she's got, you'll see." Steering them down a side street off of the main road in the neighborhood, Claude's words were soon proven true as the houses they started going by were a lot smaller and a lot less expansive, but still twice to three times the size of the one they were living in. They knew they were there when they started seeing cars parked on both sides of the road, but Claude passed the others by and went to park right in the driveway, or so it seemed—he ended up pulling off into the rocks next to it, which he swore was what he usually did.

On the front door was a posted sign to go around to the back, which they heeded after reading it, and following the wrap-around deck to get to the back side was rather easy. In fact, it was one of Claude's favorite things about Hilda's house, and as he and Byleth walked around it he was sure it was now one of hers, too. From the front of the house there was really no telling how expansive the backyard was, so rounding the corner of the porch and seeing how far it was to the back fence was always a treat, and this time there were people and tables and chairs scattered about to investigate.

"You two did make it after all!" Hilda yelled when she saw them coming to the back of the house, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs coming down from the porch. "I was starting to think that you weren't showing up at all and were gonna leave me here looking like a complete idiot. Glad to see you made it!"

While Claude explained why they were only getting there right then, Byleth was glancing around the yard at everyone who was already there. "Sorry, but is this like a miniature version of last year's class reunion?" she asked, interrupting the conversation the best friends had going on. "I can't help but notice a lot of the same faces, or people who should have been there, anyway."

"I mean, when everyone gets here it'll be the whole Golden Deer house of our year together again for the first time since we graduated, with a few extra students and a lot of locals who you wouldn't know," Hilda replied cheerfully, swaying her head from side to side. "But that's because everyone here is people that Claude knows, since I know them too."

He looked out at the group that had already gathered and raised an eyebrow at the sight of some of them. "Was it really necessary to invite all of these people? Does my former barber need to be here?"

"He's a cool guy, Baltie goes to him too."

"That's great, he's going to ask me if he can cut my hair if he gets to talking with me, and I'm going to be obligated to say yes but what if I wanted to go somewhere new, huh?" Playfully flicking Hilda's shoulder, Claude got her to yelp for a moment before looking at him indignantly, almost if to tell him off. He paid it no mind. "Actually, now that you mention him, where is Balthus? Wouldn't he be out here already?"

The indignation wiped itself from Hilda's face as she began to grimace. "He forgot that this was planned for now and accepted Holst's offer to go out to do some bro stuff. He'll be here later, hopefully?"

"You know, that doesn't sound super confident," Byleth pointed out, making Hilda grimace a bit bigger. "Did something happen between you two?"

That seemed to snap Hilda right back to her normal self, as she confidently said, "Of course not, I just know my brother and I know how much he enjoys going out with Baltie. I can't say if they'll even be done tonight, if you know what I mean."

After processing what was said, Byleth looked to Claude. "I think Balthus might be more interested in dating Hilda's brother than her, if I'm getting this right." As Claude laughed and Hilda tried her best to explain what she'd really meant and how it wasn't that, footsteps on the porch behind them grew louder and louder until they were all politely asked to move out of the way.

The group looked to see who was there, and while a lot of the people were complete unknowns to Byleth, the other two were saying a fair number of hellos and general greetings before any hugs were exchanged. "Claude, I just can't believe you're actually back after disappearing like you did!" Leonie gushed, throwing her arms open and nearly smothering him in a hug, before looking at Byleth with a nod. "And you, it's great to see you again as well. Guess you're going to be joining our weekly poker nights?"

"Weekly poker nights?" Byleth repeated. "I wasn't aware those were a thing."

"Baltie, Leonie, Claude, and some others used to get together once a week here to play poker for real money, but once Claude ditched us all for you, it kind of fell apart." Hilda cast a bit of an accusatory look at Byleth for the demise of the activity, but she didn't seem to mean anything by it. "They can always use more players, especially since…"

"Look, the last time we played—without you, sorry Claude—was for a good cause, and I think they appreciated the money we raised for them." Flipping her short hair like she was proud of what she was saying, Leonie continued, "It was the least we could do for them after the fire and everything."

"Whoa, who had a fire? No one told me someone had a fire at their place." Looking at Hilda like she was the one responsible for failing to share information, Claude waited for an apology but he instead was told who it was that had suffered a fire: a local pub that they'd spent a lot of time getting trashed and playing cards at outside of their weekly games. Leonie seemed a bit down talking about it, and Claude felt bad that this was his first time learning of it, but when she mentioned that they'd rebuilt and were reopened, the mood lightened.

"Anyway, I see that you invited some of the ladies from the skating rink, so I'm going to go catch up with them, it's great to see you though!" With that, Leonie headed across the yard and the trio was still standing by the stairs, looking at each other with no idea of what to say next. The silence was short-lived, as more people began coming down and saying their hellos, allowing for the yard to fill up even more than it already had.

Soon enough, there were so many people there that it felt less like a party and more like a concert or a festival gathering, which had to have been by Hilda's design, and Byleth knew without a shadow of a doubt that this wasn't all just for them. She was clearly plotting something else for the day, and it was only a matter of time before that became obvious to everyone else. But, while it was still time to pretend otherwise, Byleth whispered to Claude that she was going to go mingle with everyone and that she'd catch up with him when they got a chance, something that he was apprehensive about but let her go do.

Stepping into the crowd and weaving through it was a bit intimidating, but Byleth had spent all of those years winding her way through throngs of students at Garreg Mach that it wasn't too hard to get where she wanted. When Leonie had left them, she'd watched where she had gone and made it a point to end up somewhere else; that plan worked to perfection, and she found herself with someone else she'd seen when they'd come around the house to start. "I'm so sorry if I startle you, but how are you doing, Lorenz?"

"Professor Byleth!" Lorenz yelped, nearly dropping his phone that he'd been playing on. "What a surprise to see you, alone, right now! Where is Claude, did you remember to bring him along with you to your own celebration?"

"He's with Hilda, doing greeting duty." Byleth remembered what she'd heard about how Lorenz had fared in the years since graduation, and she was sure that grilling him on his life would be too much like them running into each other at the reunion all over again. There was something that she noticed, though, and she couldn't help but comment on it. "Did you bring your girlfriend with you today?"

"Oh, er, I could not, she was unable to make the trip from Fhirdiad due to reasons outside of her control." He flipped around his phone to show Byleth that he was actively messaging Mercedes, who did indeed seem to be making comments about doing things that she couldn't get out of. "Why, did you hope to get to speak with her? I can pass something along for you, if you'd like me to."

Byleth made her displeasure evident in how she pushed her lips together, but she couldn't take it out on Lorenz. "I'm fine, I can always text her myself if I really wanted to, she and I have a bit of an odd friendship in that she's my direct line to the king of Faerghus if I need to speak to him for whatever reason. That's how I know that you aren't playing some elaborate joke about dating her, because I've heard it from her."

"Fact checking, how devious and yet…how smart." Lorenz went back to typing away on his phone, before sighing and looking down at Byleth. "I must say, I have heard a lot about your manner of leaving Garreg Mach behind thanks to my own personal connections still at the school and it is impressive what you did to get out of there."

"Who do you know that's there?" Byleth asked, taken aback at the news, but Lorenz merely shook his head and kept his lips closed on their identity. "Whatever, I'm glad to be done with the place and spread my wings somewhere else for the first time in my professional life, that's all I have to say on that."

"That is exactly how I feel about being away from home every chance I get," Lorenz agreed, back to using his phone. "The life I lead is not one I would trade for the world, but it does get a bit tiresome having all of that authority and control and never getting any sort of…hm, perhaps, changes in the daily routine? Nothing happens in the Gloucester lands, which is both a blessing and a curse."

"Lorenz, no one wants to hear you whining about your cushy life." Coming over unexpectedly, Leonie shot a finger-gun in Byleth's direction, before ribbing the man with her other arm. "It's like, you don't ever seem to realize that some of us don't have that same place in the world and we're just looking for a leg up."

He rolled his eyes, glaring at Leonie for what she'd just done. "I can assure you, you would find a much better place in life if you weren't a habitual gambler with your friends. Plus, if you'd looked for a relationship outside of your social class, perhaps you would have found a way to marry into money."

Leonie mocked a lot of what he'd said, before getting completely serious, both in tone and expression. "Look, I get that you're smitten with a Faerghus girl who actually works with royalty as her day job, but I'd say I'm better off in the relationship sense because unlike you, I actually get to sl—"

"You're with someone?" Byleth cut off, dreading what was about to have been said and hoping that she'd get an answer rather than a finished sentence.

"—oh, you didn't know? Check this out!" Raising her hand to flash a simple, true-to-her, ring that glistened in the daytime sun, Leonie beamed as she said, "It wasn't a whole huge deal, kind of under the radar sort of thing, but me and Ignatz kind of hooked up one day after a lot of failed and fizzled romances and we just clicked. Kind of weird that the best person for you might be someone you got to know in school, huh?"

Blinking a few times as she had to think about who in the world Ignatz was, before remembering him and smiling about it, Byleth told her, "That's amazing, I'm happy for you both. Neither of you were at the reunion last year, were you?"

"Nope, that was the same week we decided to just go for it and get all the legal stuff taken care of." Leonie pulled her hand back, before ribbing Lorenz again. "And that's why Lorenz here is always jealous of everyone else, because we're all getting married and intimate and he can barely get in the same room as his woman."

It wasn't long before Claude came to join them, but in the time before his arrival there had been more not-so-friendly banter going on between Leonie and Lorenz, to the point that Byleth needed to step in and stop them from going at each other's throats. When Claude did arrive, he was greeted with the sight of his girlfriend standing in the middle of two warring parties, who were doing their best to shout at each other about how much the other's life had to suck. "What am I getting involved in?" he loudly asked to let them know he was there, which calmed them both down enough to look at him and greet him, while Byleth gave him a pleading expression. "Hey, either of you have your plus-one here today? Hilda was asking for reasons she wouldn't tell me."

"Lorenz's girlfriend doesn't ever join him anywhere," Leonie replied, causing Lorenz to sigh in irritation but say nothing else, "and Ignatz isn't here yet, but he's coming. He was over with Raph this morning to take care of some things and I'm sure you know how that's going to end up going."

"Actually, it's been a while since I last thought about the two of them getting into trouble together, what's bound to happen with them today?" He looked at Leonie, who shook her head, then turned to Lorenz, who merely motioned toward Leonie as she was the one who needed to answer. "Okay then. Byleth, you okay with moving away from these two? Bet there's others we can catch up with."

More than happy to get out of the position she'd put herself into, Byleth willingly followed Claude through the crowd, as he explained to her who a lot of the people they passed were. There were others that they saw that she recognized from their time at Garreg Mach, some that she knew weren't living in the area but must have come in specifically for the event, and after they passed by a parasol-wielding Constance, with Hapi and Yuri at her side making sure that she was nice and cool despite wearing heavy dresses more appropriate for a debutante ball than a backyard party, Byleth looked at Claude and said, "I think I know why everyone's here, and it isn't for us."

"Yeah, Hilda's convinced she's going to get proposed to this evening and she wants it to happen in front of a large crowd." The way Claude said it was so blunt and so unexpected that it took a solid minute for all of the words to mean anything to Byleth's ears. When she did realize what he was saying, she grabbed his arm and tried to stop him from keeping moving through the crowd, but he was relentless. "I'm not saying anything more about it, I'm not even sure she's right because I highly doubt that Balthus is going to be able to string together that sentence in front of all these people."

"We knew she wasn't just doing this for us, but that's rather sneaky if she thinks she'll be getting that out of today instead." Byleth wasn't going to say that she thought that Hilda had planned the party first as a way to get a proposal, then tried covering it up with some other reason for having it, but that was the only story she felt could be the truth. With all of the people there, everyone that Hilda (or Balthus) would know and be able to invite with easy, it only made sense.

"I think that we should just assume she's putting too much faith in him and that, for once, it really is a celebration for us that isn't meant as anything devious." That was reference to the dance back at Garreg Mach, which Byleth still couldn't believe had been planned as it was, and Claude wasn't going to let it go. "Everyone seems pretty excited to see me back around here, and the ones that know you seem the same for you, too."

Byleth held her tongue, not wanting to say anything that would make Claude start to think her ungrateful for what they'd been given. It was nice to have easy access to these people in a setting that wasn't in the monastery's cathedral, and she was glad for at least a few of the conversations she'd gotten to have while they were walking. "Claude! Over here!" a voice called out, stopping the couple in their tracks to find the source of the speaking. It was Lysithea, sitting in a chair at one of the various tables that were around the yard, her feet kicked up on the chair next to her. "Hey, you're tall, can you tell me if you see Cyril around anywhere? He said, like, an hour ago that he was going to get us drinks and he hasn't been back yet."

"Cyril? That's a name I haven't heard in a long time," Claude mused, before turning around and immediately being faced with a wall of people taller than he was. "Unfortunately, due to not being nearly as tall as most of these men, I can't see a damn thing. Hopefully he returns to you soon, though. You doing okay?"

The noise Lysithea made in response could only be described as unsure. "I've got two wrapped ankles and a brace on my back right now, stupid fragile bones, but other than that I'm fine." She sounded bitter, and in that moment Byleth decided that, if nothing else, she wanted to spend time with this spunky former student she'd once watched in the classroom. But Claude had other plans, telling Lysithea that he'd send Cyril back her way if he found him and headed off, taking Byleth right with him.

"Come on, couldn't we have sat there with her? She can't go anywhere with all the people around, I don't think," Byleth pointed out, but Claude wasn't hearing anything of it. He was headed straight back to where he'd left Hilda, to get her to make an announcement or something in an attempt to get Cyril back where he belonged. But Hilda wasn't by the stairs any longer, having disappeared somewhere into the crowd for her own reasons, although there was someone there that would be able to be of use.

"Geez, never could miss seeing you," Claude remarked as they got up to the staircase right as Raphael, Ignatz, and Marianne were coming down, all three looking like they'd been painting based on the random color splotches all over their clothes. "The three of you come together? I'd heard you guys would be showing up as a duo, but I had no idea there was a third one coming along."

Marianne bowed, stepping back from the two but taking hold of one of Raphael's fingers as she did, while the men looked at each other. "Let me guess, you saw Leonie and she gave you the rundown about where I was?" Ignatz guessed, which Claude nodded to. "Goddess, I hope she didn't talk too much about what I was doing."

"Just that you were with Raphael, that's all I heard," Claude assured him, before turning his sights to the big guy. "As for you, mind using your height to search for someone? Lys is over at a table needing a drink and her drink boy hasn't come back yet." Raphael nodded, scanning the area as best as he could for who he seemed to immediately know the identity of, but didn't seem to find anyone.

Feeling that he'd done all he could, minus getting a drink for Lysithea himself, Claude was rather content with his actions, and Byleth wormed her way in to speak. "I notice that you're all covered in paint, what were you doing before you got here?" she asked, looking specifically at Ignatz as he was the one most marked up.

"Oh, you know, some paint work for a local eatery. We've been volunteering our time getting them ready for their grand opening, and it's going to look amazing when they finally open their doors to the public!" Ignatz sounded excited to be able to talk about his project, but the answer wasn't anything close to why Byleth had been expecting to hear.

"We've been doing a lot of different volunteer activities for them," Marianne added, her voice quiet but much more confident than she'd been when she'd been a student back at the school. "It's a nice change of pace from everything else we do during the day, and I'm looking forward to when we can find another new business to support."

"Heartwarming, that's for sure." Claude smiled at Marianne, who meekly returned the favor, before he was back facing Byleth. "Well, this party's probably as happening as it's going to get, do you want to find somewhere to sit and wait for everyone to flock to us? Or are you still eager to do some socializing?"

"Sitting somewhere's preferable, thank you." Little did Byleth know that Claude's idea of sitting somewhere had them up on the patio, on a set of metal deck chairs that were clearly a permanent fixture at the home. With their higher vantage point, they could wave down people as they pleased and people would come up to them to have riveting conversations (in Claude's mind, Byleth often found them boring). That also meant that when Hilda saw them up there and demanded they come down, Claude got to stick his tongue out at her and mock her for his great decision.

By the end of the night, though, as people were leaving and the party fizzled out with nothing super exciting happening, that mocking turned to genuine concern when Claude saw Hilda looking up at them from a mostly-empty yard, almost downtrodden with her expression. "Hey, we need to go down there and check on her," he said, standing up from the chair he'd been completely comfortable in and heading for the stairs to the yard, Byleth confused but following him without question. When they got onto the grassy surface, Claude grabbed Byleth's hand and hurried her along to where Hilda was standing, and it was the sight of their fingers interlaced that caused Hilda to start bawling.

"What's the matter?" Byleth asked in her rather cold, unfeeling way, not sure at all why their gracious hostess had just burst into tears. "Did someone hurt you?"

"I'm just so jealous of you two," Hilda sobbed, bringing her hands to her eyes to cover how hard she was crying. "Your love is so real and so pure and gonna last a million lifetimes, I know it, but I…but my…"

"Balthus was here, he stopped by us and said hey when he showed up, so did Holst," Claude reminded her, not sure where things were going. "If that man didn't love you, I doubt he would've been here for this party. Those guys would have done something completely on their own today, and you know it."

Hilda choked out another long sob. "I know he was here, I spent a lot of time with him once he got here, but you know what today was supposed to be? Today was meant to be the day he asked me to marry him, he'd been dropping hints all week and he didn't do it!"

Claude's face fell, and he let go of Byleth's hand so that he could use both of his own to hug and support his best friend in her moment of need. Standing there, watching the two together, Byleth almost felt the need to make the told you so comment about the party being for an entirely different purpose, but she knew it would only make matters worse. "I'm sure he got overwhelmed with how many people were here," she remarked, looking around the darkened, dirty yard and the people who were still there cleaning it up. "You'll get your dream proposal soon enough."

"But I wanted it to be in front of everyone! I wanted people to see it happen, to celebrate and congratulate and all of that fun stuff!" It was very clear that this was not a slight Hilda was just going to move past, and she needed the time to work through her feelings with one of the people she trusted her life with.

That resulted in Claude and Byleth getting back to their home well after midnight, tired and hungry and ready for the day to be over. After getting themselves a decent dinner made from leftover food they'd snatched from the party, they sat down at their new dining table, nestled into a nook in the kitchen that felt just right for the two of them. "I'm not sure if I get why Hilda was so upset about not getting her proposal," Byleth admitted between bites of fried vegetables and sauce. "If she's loved, a big public display won't change that."

"Knowing her, she wants the big display to get people to donate their time and money to the wedding she's been dreaming of," Claude replied, giving Byleth a glance before eating more of his meal. "If the proposal's not public, people aren't going to care about financing her dreams as much as they would have otherwise."

"That's stupid. She has plenty of money, doesn't she?" Not bothering to wait for a response, because she felt certain in her assertion, Byleth continued, "Mooching off of others around here who aren't as fortunate isn't a good look."

"Then maybe it's for the best that she didn't get her way."

They ate in silence for a few minutes, until Byleth came up with something else to say. "If I had a public proposal, I wouldn't say yes."

"Good to know." Claude nodded, not paying the comment too much mind. "If you were to be proposed to, it wouldn't be in public."

Byleth eyed Claude with slight suspicion. "And if I wanted a big wedding, which I would never want in a million years, I would find a way to pay for it myself."

"Or get married to someone who has the money to fund the wedding, that'd work too. But no big wedding, got it." Now Claude's mind was beginning to take note of these things, because they seemed to be exact blueprints for what Byleth wanted going forward. He'd always figured he'd have a private proposal but a large wedding, to accommodate the tastes of the family he'd deserted, but if Byleth didn't want—oh. He choked on the bite of food he'd taken in, pounding on his chest until it dislodged. "Why are you telling me these things right now? Thinking for the future?"

"I'm letting you know my expectations, so that if you decide you want something else you can find someone else for it." Setting her utensils down as she'd cleared her plate, Byleth leaned forward onto the table with both elbows propping her up. "Do you take issue with anything that I've said?"

On one hand, he didn't want to start a huge debate at such a late hour, but on the other hand Byleth had just thrown down quite the ultimatum that he needed to consider. "I mean, by virtue of all the people I know and all the family I've got, a big wedding might be what we end up having, if we do end up having a wedding at all."

"You can keep yourself from inviting a lot of them. We won't need that many guests." Byleth's eyes locked onto Claude's and she tried her best at intimidating him with her gaze. When that didn't work, she looked away and said, "But I suppose I should clarify, when I say 'big' I mean 'overly fancy', not 'with a lot of guests'. I'd be fine with there being a bunch of people there if the whole ceremony wasn't extravagant."

"So no pink animals and chocolate fountains taller than everyone, that's what you're saying?" he asked, trying to get Byleth to clarify just a bit further. When she chuckled, he knew that she thought those things were too much. "See, what I was thinking for a totally hypothetical wedding would be a church, or even just some banquet hall that was rented, with simple decorations and an even simpler dress code."

"I like the sound of those things," Byleth said after giving it some thought, "but this is all merely hypotheticals right now, right? We're not actually planning a wedding we're not even going to be having anytime soon?"

He reached out to her, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving it a soft pat. "I wouldn't drop a huge life change on you in the middle of our current life change, that's for sure."

Byleth reached up and rested her hand on top of his, feeling a sense of peace and comfort she'd rarely ever felt in her life. "Then I'm looking forward to when you do want to throw that change my way, so that we can really start planning this thing. But, Claude?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Does she seriously want pink animals at her wedding?"

They laughed together, and while they weren't quite at the place to be preparing for their wedding, the day would come sooner rather than later, perfectly on their schedule and completely according to their plans.

A/N: the end! I hit so many prompts for Claudeleth week in this one fic, I'm super proud of myself for it lol