The only thing that could make the whole situation worse than it currently was going into the second half of Practical Business was Hanneman deciding that he needed to have a meeting with a representative from the shop. Because they were already short-handed and it would be detrimental if just about anyone else went, for various reasons, Claude was volunteered for the role and he had to do it begrudgingly, without anyone to blame but himself for being selected. He was the one who'd made it clear he knew him better than anyone else, even if his reasons for that were not ones he was fond of thinking about.
But Hanneman had set up the meeting with the understanding that it would be Claude going, so when he showed up in the dingy office and offhandedly mentioned that Leonie would have been there if it were possible, the professor seemed unnerved by it. "Yes, well, she was smart to choose you instead," he coughed out, offering Claude a chair which he took after some apprehension. "I've heard quite a bit about your romantic pursuits as of late. Are you able to focus on your work with all this going on in your life?"
Doing what felt like several double-takes in quick succession, Claude almost couldn't believe what he'd just been asked, from someone in a position of power over him that should not have been prying into such matters in the first place. "Look, I'm doing the job just fine, with or without those distractions. Whoever decided to run and tell you about that should've just kept their mouth shut."
"Ah, of course, defensive behavior as always, it's what I've come to expect from you. Professor Manuela was the one who informed me of your behavior, because a student she has been working closely with had heard about it from a friend of theirs who happens to be taking the lucky professor's class. Unfortunately, with it being of a different school, there is nothing administratively I can ask the headmaster or dean to do, although they both have their eyes on the situation if it escalates further." Hanneman steepled his fingers as he rest his arms on his desk in front of him, while Claude, still flabbergasted at what he was hearing, stared blankly in his direction. "But aside from all of that distracting material, the job is going well for all of you, correct?"
It took several seconds for Claude to find any words to say, but he was thankful they'd already segued into something actually relevant to why any of them would be in that office in the first place. "Uh, yeah, minus the fact we've got two quitters, but those of us who've stuck it out this long will be there until the end. That's what Leonie thinks, anyway."
"Good woman, that Pinelli girl. She's taken on the leadership role for you all just fine, she'll do well in her future endeavors…provided she lasts to the end of the course, naturally." His fingertips tapping silently together, Hanneman looked expectantly towards Claude, as if he was waiting for more news from the shop to be dropped.
"I've got nothing else for you, just that we're all doing great and that Lorenz and Marianne are no longer there," Claude said, somewhat confused about why he was being given such a look. "What more do you want from me?"
"If you wouldn't mind, discussing your enrollment status would be—"
"Yeah, no, we're not going to get into that." Doing as he'd wanted to since the moment he'd first showed up, Claude rose from his seat, gave a very sarcastic salute in farewell, and left the office, hearing Hanneman sigh in his wake. He couldn't be bothered to address something else completely unrelated to his visit, not when he'd already had to talk about his romance with Byleth; if anything, it seemed that Hanneman was looking for a way to get him to drop the class and have to pay the price of failing his half of the deal that had been made after their accident. Determined not to let that happen, no matter the cost, Claude nearly sprinted down to the parking lot, hopped on his bike, and hightailed it to the Golden Perk, which was as busy as ever.
Unusually, Leonie was working the register with Ignatz as her drink-maker, with no sign of Raphael or Hilda anywhere. She seemed relieved to see Claude come in, and the moment there was a break in the flow of customers she pulled him aside to let him in on what was going on. "While she was in the middle of her class earlier, Maya's computer broke because someone got a bit heated and threw their drink across the shop and it just happened to spill over her keyboard, so Raphael's off dealing with that. As for Hilda…she never showed up this morning so I've been filling her spot."
"And now you want me to step in for you?" he suggested, seeing Leonie frantically nod in agreement. "Figured as much. Hanneman doesn't expect us all to pass, by the way, not with two people gone."
"I figured as much there too," she laughed, sounding rather relieved that she wasn't going to be manning the register any longer. "I'm going to try to contact Hilda to see what's going on there, because I haven't heard anything yet and this is the first chance I've had to do anything about it."
After exchanging a high-five they switched their roles and Leonie was off doing her managerial duties, while Claude slipped on an apron and started taking orders. It seemed the meat of the rush had passed before he got there, so it was lighter work than he was sure had been done before, but he was still sending an obscene amount of drink orders to Ignatz, who was working his hardest. When Raphael got back about an hour later, he was right to work helping with getting the orders taken care of and delivered to their waiting customers, and once the last customer was served and the store had emptied out, the three men were hanging out behind the counter, all frazzled to different extents and for different reasons.
"I'd never think I'd say this," Ignatz started, "but I kind of wish we hadn't been closed over break. It seems everyone missed frequenting this place and wanted to visit at the exact same time as everyone else."
"It wouldn't have been as bad if Hilda was here, and if I hadn't had to leave when I did," Raphael pointed out, gesturing with a broad shoulder over to where Maya was sitting in the only occupied chair in the whole place, her brand-new laptop sitting in front of her as she was frantically typing away at something. "I can't believe that guy did that, and didn't even care to pay us for needing a new computer. What a big, rude jerk!"
"I would tell you to watch your language," Leonie said with a chuckle as she poked her head out from the kitchen where she'd stayed after her phone call, helping Lysithea out with the bakery goods, "but there's no one here to really get mad about that. Oh, and, uh, don't expect tomorrow to be any easier unless you're cool with skipping your class tomorrow, Raph."
Sharing a look between them all, it was Claude who beat them to the punch in asking what they'd all come to the conclusion of. "Let me guess, Hilda's not coming back, huh?"
"No, she'll just be out tomorrow and the next day, but she'll be back." Leonie paused, a worried look crossing her eyes before she shook it off. "No, she will be back, or else I'll be paying her a visit."
"Something tells me she won't be back," Ignatz mumbled the moment he knew Leonie was out of earshot, and the other two nodded in solidarity, feeling the same way about things. It set up a frantic couple of days because the next day had Raphael out until afternoon due to classes, and then the following one was when Ignatz had to leave an hour after opening to get to his studio class, meaning that Claude was the only one who worked both days, neither of which were fun by any means (and neither of which had Byleth come in, which he was surprised about because she'd always been so diligent about her visits).
On the third day, Hilda did come back, looking sour as she stood at the register taking orders, but she was there and that was more than had been expected of her by the guys, so they were fine with her being snappish and rude. When the shop cleared and closed that day, and it was just Leonie and Hilda doing work behind the counter while Claude wiped down the tables, he was able to overhear their conversation and gain insight into what was happening. "This sounds so dumb, but I never thought I'd want to fail a test in my life," Hilda lamented, while Leonie looked at her with her head tilted to the side, giving a soft hum of understanding. "I know that it answered all my questions and then some, but…I didn't want to pass that test no matter what."
"Well, on the bright side, you'll be able to make it through the semester, won't you?" Leonie asked, straightening her neck. "I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to."
"You really think I can afford to be working at this place anymore? I'm not going to suffer through this work for a class credit I'm not going to be able to use for a long time." Right as Claude looked over to see what was going on, Hilda slammed a glass down on the countertop, shattering it and sending glass flying everywhere. "Caspar says he's not going to drop out so that he can get a good job after he graduates, so I guess that means I'm the one giving up my dream of owning my jewelry store for a while."
"Don't think of it like that, it'll all work out," Leonie reassured her, grabbing a dustpan to start sweeping glass into. "And hey, once I've got my degree and start my freelancing association, you're welcome to join and try to get a jewelry shop going under my banner, it'll be hard work but you won't need to have finished school to get there."
Hilda thanked her for the kind offer, but had another piece to add to the puzzle. "But if I drop out now, my brother's going to cut me off of his money, and that's not really going to work out for me either, you know? How am I…how are we…well, going to afford to live on no money?"
"So you'll be staying through the end of the semester then, that's what I'm hearing?" Claude interrupted, narrowly missing a semi-stale muffin being chucked at his head by Hilda for eavesdropping on her conversation. "Sorry, sorry, it's hard not to hear what you're talking about when there's literally nothing else happening here."
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Whether I stay or go, I'm going to wish I did the other thing, I bet." Groaning loudly, Hilda grabbed the sides of her head and shook it wildly, letting out her frustrations for a moment. "I wish I could just take back everything I did so I wasn't in this stupid position in the first place!"
"That sounds like a personal problem," Claude said, finding her display of irritation rather over-the-top but not wanting to dig further than he clearly already had. "I'll leave you to venting to Leonie about it, since I really can't be bothered to care too much about it."
Leonie looked at him and gave a single shake of her head. "Too bad you'll end up caring more about it than you realize."
Deep down, Claude wanted to say that he really wouldn't, but as the ladies got back to their conversation at a lower volume than before and he finished wiping down the tables, he knew that he was better off not saying anything at all. That didn't stop him from bringing it up with Byleth once he got back to his apartment and called her, listening to her talk about her day of teaching before she opened up the floor to him. "Well, I nearly lost my life from a flying muffin," he started with a laugh, her deadpan response being if he was okay. "Yeah, I'm fine, except for the fact that I almost died."
"What really happened, Claude?"
"Just listening in on some work drama. Apparently we're teetering on the edge of losing someone else, but she was being rather cryptic about why…" That piqued Byleth's interest and she asked for details, which he dutifully gave her as best as he could, making it very clear that at no point had any of it been said to him so he was hearing it when he shouldn't have been, and she was giving small mutters of understanding with every word.
Finally, when he'd finished delivering all the details, she came to the only conclusion that made sense to her. "Sounds like someone was sleeping around when they shouldn't have been, from what I'm hearing."
"But I know she mentioned her boyfriend, I even told you I heard her talking about him. The guy who knocked down my motorcycle, like, twice now? Ring a bell?" He'd made sure to slip in specific mention of Caspar when he'd repeated what he'd heard, because it felt just important enough to matter. "What do you mean she's been sleeping around?"
"Oh, right, she's dating that guy. I've seen him going to and from classes in one of the other buildings, some of my students were talking about him earlier today. Guess I can tell them that the rumors they heard about him were true." Her tone was still flat and giving very little in the way of answers, but Claude was beginning to connect dots that he'd been given, following the tiniest of bread crumb trails to find the answer he was looking for.
Without much hesitation, he said, "If they're starting rumors about him, then I'd be better off not feeding that fire. You keep what I've said to you secret, don't need Hanneman breathing down my neck because I'm fueling people's lies about others through you."
"My lips are as good as sealed," she replied, "and that's better than your coworker's legs are."
Naturally, when Claude went to work the next day and Hilda wasn't there, he cursed his bad luck on getting to address things with her. But Leonie was there, and she knew the truth, so he considered talking to her about it; he ultimately decided not to, and waited for the person in question to come in and own up to what she'd apparently done. When she did show up, it was with Caspar on her arm, and they seemed to be inseparable until she went behind the counter and he had to leave, and his bumbling, almost hilarious way of telling her he loved her and that he'd see her when she got off was something that Claude wished he hadn't had to hear that day.
"I'm going to take it he knows?" Leonie asked her before Claude had a chance to say a word, him having to step into the corner behind the counter to make it seem less obvious that he was there wanting to get in on conversation. "Based on that display, he's got to."
"Oh, he definitely knows, and he's over the moon about it, but I told him to keep it on the down-low because we don't need to become the front page in the college newspaper over our personal business," Hilda answered, before noticing that Claude was there and giving him a disgusted expression. "Mostly because Mr. Professor Dater over there can hold the headlines as much as he wants."
"I wasn't aware there was a college paper, much less one that I've been on the front page of, so thanks for telling me that." Holding his hands up rather defensively, Claude wanted to make it clear he wasn't looking for a fight, just some answers, but the world was going to have other plans for getting him that information.
Those other plans in specific were Raphael and Maya coming in, one of them making a beeline for a table to get set up for class, while the other came and placed his giant hands on Hilda's shoulders, her flinching at the touch. "Just ran into Caspar outside, when were you gonna tell all of us?"
"I didn't plan on it anytime soon, but apparently Caspar and his big mouth couldn't keep things to himself like I'd asked him to," Hilda grumbled, trying to shake Raphael's hands off of her but failing to do so. "It's not even that big of a deal, really, we're grown adults and can do our own thing."
"But that's a huge thing!" he protested, not even caring that she was trying to shake him off. "I'd say it's the hugest of things, really. How are you gonna both still go to school and—"
"Raphael, if I were you I'd back off now," Leonie cautioned, cutting him off as she saw rage building in Hilda's face. "I think you're overloading her with all of your badgering, and I don't know if you really want to be doing that."
Now that he had just enough to know that what he and Byleth had been dancing around the previous night was the truth, Claude wanted to say something on the matter to make it clear he knew, but he too could see just how uncomfortable Hilda was getting with everything and he had no intention of being the one to set her off. So he held his tongue, knowing that when the time was right he'd be able to say something to clue her in to him knowing what was going on.
By the end of the day, everyone was fully aware of the fact that Hilda and Caspar were expecting a little one, and it hadn't once been said outright; it turned out that she was utterly incapable of not being overdramatic about every little thing and she gave it away to just about every customer that came in. After closing, when it was just Leonie, Claude, and Raphael still in the store, everyone else having headed home and the three of them finishing up, it was obvious they all wanted to address it but none of them wanted to be the one to bring it up. That was when Claude decided to cash in on his knowledge and he set the mugs he was stocking back down on the counter rather than on their shelf, clearing his throat to say something.
"We know, Claude," Leonie interrupted, giving him a no-nonsense look. "We all know it, she's only actually told me and Raph heard it from Caspar himself, but we know it anyway. And no, I don't know what we're going to do when she inevitably leaves."
Deflating his high shoulders at being shut down as he was, Claude thought over what he'd just heard and replied, "You had your conversation with her yesterday about it, you know she's staying through the end of the semester for money reasons."
"One, personal conversation you should not have been listening in on," she snapped in response, startling both men at how brash her words came out. "Two, that's her plan right now but we all know she's not sticking to it. And three, it's going to be nearly impossible for her to make that happen if her timeline really is what she thinks it is."
"If she's just telling people now, doesn't that mean she's just found out?" Raphael asked, scratching his back at the shoulder while he used a table as an armrest to get into the optimal position for doing so. "That's what always happens in Maya's shows she watches."
The grimace that crossed Leonie's face at that assumption told them both that it was wrong, but they were in the dark about how wrong it was until she explained it to them. "That's what I thought at first, until she told me more about what was going on. She's known about this since before break, guys, and she didn't tell anyone until yesterday because she didn't want it getting out."
"Well, joke's on her because it has gotten out and all of Garreg Mach is going to know sooner rather than later." For a second, Claude felt like he was finally going to be overshadowed in the gossip department at the botched reveal of this news, but Leonie was yet again going to shut him down with something that she muttered. "Speak up, I can't hear you telling me how right I am."
"Everyone was going to find out soon anyway, whether she told them or not." Pressing her hands together in front of her face, Leonie's eyes flickered towards the ceiling as if she was praying, before she continued. "When she didn't show up the other day, that wasn't because she was sick or she was busy, it was because she had an appointment to check on the little one, since she felt something was…off." Once again Leonie looked like she was praying, and it became obvious that she was because she knew she was revealing someone else's story without their permission. "I'm happy to say nothing was wrong, but they told her that based on the baby's size, it has to be older than they first thought."
"Okay, and why does this have her missing work two days in a row and screwing us all over?" Claude asked, while Raphael attempted to wrap his head around what he was hearing. "You're not going to baby her because she's having a baby, are you?"
"Goddess, no, that's not the plan at all! She's expected to work just as hard as everyone else until she leaves, whether that's because of legal reasons or because she quits." Shaking her head, Leonie gave one final prayer before miming zipping her lips. "Keep this one quiet, Hilda will murder me if it gets out to everyone, but the second day she missed work was because she decided that was when she needed to go shopping for new clothes, since she didn't want people finding out just from looking at her."
"As if anyone would be observant enough to do that," laughed Claude, looking over at Raphael, who seemed to be thinking about if he'd noticed anything different. "She's just overreacting, which I've heard pregnant women are apt to do. I haven't noticed a thing, aside from her suddenly being more of a grouchy bitch than usual."
"Put the cups away and let's get out of here," Leonie told him, suddenly disinterested in the conversation. "And never, ever call Hilda those things in front of me again."
The fourth instance of something going wrong was, naturally, when Hilda decided that enough was enough and she wasn't going to be working at the Golden Perk anymore. It came days before Spring Break in the Lone Moon, one of the worst times for Garreg Mach overall, but it wasn't fully unexpected. She'd called off every day the previous week, citing various reasons that Leonie only accepted because she knew a lawsuit could brew if she didn't allow her to not have to come in, and so when she stopped calling and showing up entirely, everyone knew it was the end.
Even with the foresight that it was going to happen, it came as a blow to the team overall, who had appreciated her presence despite her doing nothing but standing (and oftentimes sitting) at the counter and taking orders. "She's not coming back," Leonie told them all after close the day the decision had been made, when she'd requested that everyone stay long enough to have a serious discussion. "No matter if she wants to or not, there's no way that we can have such a liability on our team. And that's…not great for this place."
"What do we do about being understaffed?" Ignatz asked, knowing that the answer was not one he wanted to hear, but he was hopeful Leonie would have some great suggestion. "It's already been hard enough being down two people, but three?"
"Trust me, I've been running through all of the possibilities here and none of them look great for us as a whole." Hearing Leonie on the brink of tears was almost heart-wrenching to everyone, because she'd taken leadership onto her own shoulders and now she was facing a horrible situation where all of the work they'd done was for naught. "I'm not giving up on the Perk, if it means staying here by myself and doing the work of eight people alone. You're all welcome to leave, though, if you feel that suffering through the rest of the semester isn't going to be worth it."
Standing in the doorway to the bakery, a pastry in her hand and powdered sugar all over her slightly thick cheeks and the apron that clung to her tightly, Lysithea took a bite of her prize and swallowed it down before she said anything. "Nowhere else is going to let me sneak as many snacks as I want while I'm working, so I'll be here with you until the end."
Thankful for her support, Leonie looked at her and gave a smile, watching her finish eating her pastry in two bites. "Thank you for that, the bakery part is what I'm least confident in being able to do myself. Having you and your talented tastes to keep creating desserts is exactly what I need."
"We'll still be here too," Raphael said, referring to himself and Ignatz. "If we're gonna rebuild my parents' place and get it back running, it'd be best if we have the degrees to be in charge, and we can't get those without finishing this class."
"Thank you both," she told them, giving them the same smile she'd just been giving Lysithea. Then she turned to face Claude, and everyone else followed suit, until he had four people in need of some assistance staring him down. "What about you, Claude? I know you're only here because you have to be, not because you want to be, but…"
As tempting as it was to take the easy way out and abandon ship when they were already sinking, Claude thought about Byleth and how she would come in next time and find him gone, and if he stopped attending the class then Hanneman would have his way with him and he'd be out of Garreg Mach overall. "It would make sense for me to leave now while I can, but I started this journey with you and I intend to finish it with you as well, regardless of how hard that might be. Have to prove I'm stronger than those who took this class needing to pass it and they left, you know."
"That's the spirit!" Throwing a fist up into the air, Leonie punched above her several times before clapping her hands together, giving everyone there with her the biggest smile she could manage. "Thankfully we have break next week, so we'll have a bit of time to relax before we're ran through the wringer, but we've got this! The end of the semester is in sight and we'll get there, just the five of us!"
Leonie was right that they would get there, and it would be all five of them doing it, but she was blind to how socially difficult that would be for them all. Five days a week they needed to be there, minus when they had other classes to attend and weekends to rest on, and as long as they were inside that coffee shop they were living and breathing nothing but work. Claude could serve Byleth her coffee when she came in, but he couldn't spare a second to talk to her, leaving their relationship to after work hours only, which made him more eager to get done with the class overall. Maya stayed at her table and would offer to help run drinks or even make them when she had a break between classes, and if Leonie wasn't around Raphael would let her do it, just because she was volunteering and it was helping them just a tiny bit.
Slowly but surely they made it through each week, until there was just one left—finals week, where the students were all in desperate need of their caffeine fix and the employees were going to be tested harder than they'd ever been tested before. On the morning before the first day of finals, Leonie had everyone come in a bit early to have a pep talk, and as frazzled as they were from the breakneck speed they'd been working at before, they knew that it was going to get worse and the talk would be appreciated. "Professor Hanneman will be coming in on the last day to evaluate our work ethic and to judge if we pass or fail," she started off, eliciting several groans from everyone, "and there's no telling if he won't pop in any other time this week too. That means we've got to do our best and follow all the rules, whether we've been following them before this or not."
"What does that entail, exactly?" Claude asked, shooting Leonie a look that was meant to tell her to keep her mouth shut about his relationship behaviors, because he already knew trying to talk up his girlfriend was against the rules. "Mind refreshing us on what's expected?"
"Sure thing," she replied, pulling out her phone to find the list. "No eating in the kitchen, that one's a big one." All eyes drifted to Lysithea, whose jaw had dropped at hearing that, a pudgy hand coming to cover her agape mouth, and after a few seconds they moved on. "No leaning on countertops, no flirting with customers, no samples of drinks for anyone, things we're pretty good about but that we need to keep in mind. One infraction could be the difference between a pass and a fail for someone, after all."
"It'll be fine, we've been doing this for months, what's one week of needing to follow all the rules to the letter?" Even though he laughed, Claude knew that there was a lot riding on their performance that week, and if he made light of things it could be detrimental to the mindset of the people he'd been working alongside for so long. "We've all got this in the bag, as long as we don't slack off and do things our own way."
"That's right, we're all experts at what we do at this point, we can handle one week of needing to do things the professor's specific way rather than our own." Ignatz closed his eyes and sighed. "It's just rather intimidating knowing that if we happen to make a mistake while the professor is here, we'll be ruining all of our hard work. Surely there's some way he'll go easier on us because we're so shorthanded."
"We'll just have to hope he'll be gentle in his criticism," Leonie said, "but if he isn't, we still know we've done the best we can do with everything that's been thrown our way. We've had three people walk out on us, but us five are going to pass this class and get to chase our dreams, whether it's freelancing or running a bakery or a hotel, or whatever Claude's planning to do when he's done here. We'll be fine, I promise!"
It was hard to think they were fine when she unlocked the front door minutes later and a crowd of people came rushing in, students looking for drinks before they went to class and professors coming in to order what they needed to get through the day of tests. There was barely a moment to stop and take a breath for several hours, with drinks constantly coming and going and orders for baked goods being called back into the bakery because Lysithea hadn't been able to make anywhere near enough to cover what was needed. At one point, several professors whose offices were in Hanneman's building came in, and Claude at the register knew that they were there to inspect things on his behalf, especially when they asked for heavy modifications to drinks and tasted them there at the counter in front of him, even with a line building behind them.
There wasn't time to panic about their assessment, though, not when so many other customers needed to be served, and it wasn't until the doors were locked that anyone was even able to talk about what had happened. "Professor Manuela and the others were definitely testing us," Raphael said dejectedly, hanging his head, "and I don't know if we passed their test or not. The orange-haired guy with them seemed disappointed in his drink, kinda like we forgot something in it."
"He ordered a black coffee with one spoon of sugar in it, there's nothing we could have forgotten," Claude replied, remembering the order well because the black-haired man with them had only gotten a pastry, and Manuela herself had been the one to get wild with the modifications he'd carefully plugged into the register, while she talked about how cute he was and how he must have been so good to his girlfriend if she was still with him. "Definitely something wrong on his end if anything was wrong at all."
"They didn't say anything to me when I asked them if everything was okay," Leonie assured them, a serious look in her eyes, "but of course, that could be because they're saving the judgment for when Professor Hanneman shows up. Giving him pointers for what to order when he comes by."
"Either way, we'll be fine, as long as I can get in here early to make extras of everything," Lysithea grumbled, her having worked quite hard in the back by herself. "Even with you sending Ignatz back here to help get things going, I couldn't ever move fast enough to have all the orders done ahead of time. I miss having Marianne around, she was a big help."
There was a moment of silence as they all thought about Marianne and her quiet demeanor, how she'd been such a diligent worker until she had to bow out for her personal reasons. "I'll come in early too, just to help you get set up," Leonie said. "Tomorrow's Raph's day to be gone for class for a bit, so we'll be down one big, strong man for a while. Any preparations we can make beforehand will be helpful."
Lo and behold, the next day was even more difficult to get through, even with their mindfulness in regards to getting more set up. Even though he was gone for just over an hour, Raphael's absence was felt with how much harder everyone was running around, and when he came in and immediately jumped into the deluge of orders the pressure was off of their shoulders if just slightly. There were no professors there to judge them that day, but unexpectedly the dean of the school came in to pick up drinks for himself and the headmaster, and seeing the green-haired man waiting impatiently at the end of the counter for his order made Claude (running drinks that day, after Raphael had gotten there to take over making them) really wish he could overstep his position for just a second to get things sorted out faster.
"You look strangely familiar," the dean said to Claude when he was finally able to hand off the drinks. "From a regal dossier, perhaps? Where have I seen you before?"
"Can't say I'd know where, if not here," Claude replied, flashing a smile. "Unless you read the college paper, then…you'll know where I'm from."
"Ah, yes, the one dating our newest professor here in town, that would be where your face is familiar from. Although, when I saw it in those reports, it still felt strangely familiar to me, but I may just be misremembering." With the drinks in hand, he gave Claude a firm nod before leaving, and in the wake of the conversation Claude felt himself panicking for some reason, a sensation he'd never felt before.
That night after the shop was closed and he and his motorcycle were back in his apartment, he texted Byleth, asking her to talk in-person. She seemed distressed at the request but accepted it, and soon enough she was there with him, ready to dive into whatever it was he needed to talk about. "Before you start, though, can I say something?" she asked, to which he nodded. "Seteth, the dean, contacted me earlier to ask about you. He wanted to know if I was aware of any royal ties you might have, because you felt very regal to him."
Flinching at what she said, Claude took a few deep breaths, beckoned for Byleth to join him on his bed, and began, "So, about him calling me out on that…"
The rest of the week was beyond hellish, but when the last day came and with it came Hanneman's final verdict on their performance, it was almost a relief to them all. He was shocked to see that it was just five students out of the original eight that were still working there, despite having been told several times about Lorenz leaving and having heard that Marianne was gone as well. "Whatever happened to the pink-haired one?" he asked, looking between the employees up at the counter. "Did she call in sick?"
"Er, something like that, but on a permanent basis," Leonie answered, to which Hanneman looked rather confused. "She left before Spring Break due to feeling that she was, well, too pregnant to do her job efficiently. In fact, now that I think about it, she should be having her baby pretty soon, maybe in a few weeks?"
"Oh, what a shame, she seemed adamant about wanting to run her own business after this." There was only a little bit of what Hanneman said that seemed to express actual sadness for what he heard, but they all ignored his feigned emotions because it wasn't what they needed to be focusing on. "Your menu here seems to have held up throughout the school year, excellent work putting that together. Is it something you would suggest the next class to run this place should use?"
"Definitely, the drinks are all simple to make and have been complimented many times by the customers. The baked goods, though, those may need to be redone as they're all only so good because Lysithea's the one making them." Leonie grinned for a second, before her face turned almost as pale as a ghost. "I-I mean, she could definitely share her recipes, but I don't know if they'd come out right without her tender care."
"I heard you say my name?" Lysithea asked, coming out of the kitchen with sugar and flour coating her everywhere, no apron on and her shirt straining against her formerly-tiny frame. When she saw that Hanneman was there she gave a small yelp, ducking back into her usual hiding place. "Oh, let me get the treats I made for this occasion out of the oven, I wanted the professor to taste nothing but the best!"
"Wasn't she…smaller when the class first started?" Hanneman asked, trying to be as gentle as he could but still be rather blunt about it. "Has she taken in a few too many of her delectable goods? I suppose the baker trying their wares is a good thing…"
Leonie wanted to dodge the question but when Lysithea came back out, a tray of treats in her arms that she was clearly eyeing with the intentions of eating them herself, she couldn't deny it. "Yeah, Lysithea's been big on sampling one of everything before she puts it out for sale. It's definitely meant we've sold only excellent pastries, but it's…"
"Marianne was the one keeping me in check," Lysithea grumbled, setting the tray down on the counter so that Hanneman could take his pick of what was on it. "When she left, there wasn't anyone to tell me to calm down on trying what I made, so I might have gone a bit overboard on the tastings." When she stepped back from the tray, she did so while tugging her shirt down as far as she could, causing her entire upper body to jiggle slightly. "I'll work on getting back in shape over the summer, when I'm not stuck in a bakery all day."
"You want to be the one to put her through working out?" Claude asked Raphael with a hushed whisper, from where they were both standing on the other side of the shop, listening to everything going on between the ladies and the professor. "I'm sure you'd be great at working her down to nothing, just look at you and those muscles."
"I could, if she asked, but me and Ignatz and Maya were planning on going back to where the hotel was to get started on rebuilding, and if she wants me to help her work out she'll have to come with us." Raphael looked behind the counter, at where Ignatz was in the middle of putting drinks together so that Hanneman could sample those in addition to the treats he was clearly wary of. "But either way, she'll find someone who can make her small again. Maybe it'll even be you?"
"Nah, I've got plans for myself that I can't back down on." That was what reminded Claude that he needed to talk to Hanneman before he left, to address everything that had put him there in the first place. "I'd love to come back around and see Lysithea back to her old self, and you and Ignatz and Leonie and maybe even Hilda too, I'm not sure on her."
Hanneman was there for a long while, talking with the students about their experience that year running the ship. He seemed to be pleasantly thrilled with the drinks Ignatz had made, and when he did try a single bite of a single pastry he said he understood why people would order them and become reliant on them as a meal (a dig at Lysithea, who blushed violently and took the whole tray away at the comment). "It seems you all, despite the odds, have run the Golden Perk to perfection," he said after giving it some thought, "and I will gladly allow the five of you to take passing grades on the course. I expect to see you all at graduation next week, provided that you've passed everything else, unless you're still working on other classes as I know at least one of you might be."
"We're honored you think we've done a good job," Leonie said, taking the opportunity to speak for all of them. "I know that this class has been a lot of our time as of late, but I'll be graduating next week, as will Ignatz and Raphael. Lysithea's still got some time before she can graduate, and Claude…well, I don't really know about him." She cupped her mouth and yelled his name, catching him by surprise when he heard it, and as he turned to look at her with narrowed eyes she widened her own. "Are you graduating this year or not?"
"Actually, about that, I need to talk to Hanneman." The words were ones that Claude had been mentally preparing himself to say from the moment he'd had his conversation with Byleth nights before, but feeling the hush coming over everyone after he'd said them was not factored into those preparations. "It's nothing bad, and nothing to do with any of you. You've all passed, mind letting me have this talk with him outside while you finish your last shift?"
Collectively they decided that it wouldn't be too much of a problem to let Claude do as he wanted, and soon enough he and the professor were behind the shop, in the parking lot that employees used. "What a surprise you've pulled me aside privately, Claude von Riegan," Hanneman started, opening his arms out to give a wide gesture. "I assume this is to do with the terms of your enrollment in the class?"
"I finished it, just like you told me I had to, but I realized something important the other night while talking to my girlfriend. I have no need for this class. What good is knowing how to run a business going to do me when I'm off living my life?" Pausing, Claude went over the words he'd told himself he was going to say, looking at Hanneman and judging if it was really for the best that he said them. In the end, he really had no choice but to go big before he went home. "You have blackmailed me, bribed me, made me take your class for the whole year just so that you didn't have to pay up on repairing my motorcycle that you damaged, and now we're here at the end. I don't owe you anything at this point, since I've passed your class. Isn't that right?"
"Correct, those were the terms under which you were enrolled in the course."
"Then I'm choosing to ask you to fail me." This had been the plan since he'd told Byleth the whole story of why he was working at the Golden Perk in the first place, and why he needed to get out without screwing everyone else over. "They're the ones who did all the work, I did help but I wasn't always focused and I did meet my girlfriend here, so I should be docked points for that. Fail me."
Hanneman opened his mouth slightly, reaching up to adjust the monocle he wore over his eye. "I'm sorry, but I have never been asked to fail a student by the student themselves. What game are you trying to play here?"
"I don't pass the class, I don't fill the terms of the bribe, you're allowed to get me expelled from the college for not being a resident of Fódlan or having the right papers to be here. You get rid of me and the debt you have, without me benefitting at all." The kickback had been unexpected, but Claude was prepared to come up with a way to handle it. "I'm planning on leaving Garreg Mach tonight, anyway, so it's not that big of a deal if you fail me."
"Let me get this straight. I fail you, I don't have to pay for your repairs of your motorcycle, I can get the administration to expel you from the school, and you're fine with this?" It seemed that Hanneman really did not know how to take such a strange request, but the serious face Claude gave him told him that it was legitimate. "Well, I've never had a class successfully run the Golden Perk so under-manned, but to only have four passing students? That's asinine, much like your request is. The college will give the course less funding, future students will not have as many opportunities to take Practical Business."
"If you don't fail me, I've got some blackmail of my own to provide with the headmaster regarding your treatment of me." This was Claude's piece de resistance, the biggest part of why he'd started this gambit in the first place. "You wouldn't want the administration knowing that you've been harassing a prince for over a year, would you?"
The urk sound that Hanneman made came in time with him clutching his chest, and Claude knew that he'd played his cards right. "I'd suspected since the start you had royal ties, but to claim to be an actual prince? How cheeky of you." After taking some time to calm down, time Claude spent staring him down with the smuggest of looks, Hanneman finally made his decision. "I will fail you for the course, and consider your debt unpaid. But you do not get to go back on your word and have the administration look into our arrangement, is that a deal?"
"I have no plans to go back on anything." The two men shook on the decision, even though it was clear Hanneman was not fully trusting what Claude said, and Claude wasn't sure he was going to get out of the situation like he wanted to. There was a very specific reason this gambit had to work in his favor, and it was mostly nothing to do with him.
It was so that he could go back inside and say his farewells to everyone he'd worked with for the past year, assuring them that they'd meet again and he'd be around to help them out if they so needed it. It was so that he could slip out of Fódlan that night, his motorcycle dropped off outside Hanneman's office so that it was his problem to deal with, his apartment emptied out and most of his belongings left on the side of the road with a "free to a good home" sign attached to them. It was so that he could escape having his past hanging over his head in a country he'd wanted no trouble in. It was so that he could get back home to Almyra and take over the throne in the near future, knowing a bunch of contacts in neighboring Fódlan to call on if he needed to make visits.
And it was so that Byleth could walk into the administrative building the next week, all of her grades turned in and finalized, a written notice of resignation in her hand as she entered Seteth's office. She slid the paper towards him on the desk and he read it, his eyes shooting up off the paper when he got to the part where she said she was leaving effective immediately. "You took on the job with the intentions of staying long enough to become tenured, did you not?" he asked her, flicking the sheet of paper he held. "What has caused such a quick change of heart, after one year?"
"I want you to know that I loved teaching the students this year, and seeing some of them graduate earlier today made my heart swell with pride. But I found something greater than teaching that seems to be my calling, and I need to be free of this position to pursue those other goals." She gave him a small smile, while he shook his head in disbelief. "Please, I would hate to go to the headmaster to get this approved, but if you deny me I'll do just that."
"Lady Rhea has had such high hopes for you here," he muttered, reading over the letter of resignation again. "She wanted to see you take on a role of leadership someday. What is there that you could possibly throw this away for?"
"Love," Byleth replied, "and the chance to be the assistant to the new king of Almyra."
Seteth's shock when he heard that had him scrambling to find the royal dossiers he'd sworn he'd seen a particular coffee shop worker in, but before he could say anything about his suspicions the headmaster herself came walking into the office, having overheard everything through the open door leading to her own. "I've heard word from Hanneman that the Riegan boy was exactly who we thought he was," she said, giving no glances toward Byleth. "He did the research now that he was no longer teaching him. How did a royal prince get into Garreg Mach without us being informed beforehand?"
"I…don't know," Seteth replied, unable to find the papers he swore he'd had. "But without the documentation, he never was legally a student here, so all of his credits are null and void and he cannot return to this school."
"And that means that I, a now-former professor here, am allowed to pursue him romantically as he never was a student enrolled in any of the schools." Byleth looked to Rhea, who seemed completely enraged at hearing such a thing come from someone who'd been employed under her. "Well, that's enough for me here, my flight to Almyra leaves later tonight and I'd hate to miss it. Thank you very much for the experience this year, but I have found my calling elsewhere."
As she rose from her seat, it was clear that Seteth and Rhea both were trying to find something to say, but Claude's gambit with Hanneman had worked to perfection, and he'd allowed for Byleth to get out of her job and any potential legal troubles in one fell swoop. It wouldn't be an instant thing that he'd become king of Almyra, but when it did happen in the near future, he'd have the former professor-slash-dear girlfriend there at his side as his most trusted confidant, until they could gain the trust of the people enough to take their relationship to another level. And when they came back to Fódlan years later, a happily married couple, they visited Garreg Mach to see how much it had changed; the people were unaware there was a king and queen in their midst as they entered the coffee shop once known as the Golden Perk, sitting at a corner table and snuggling together over overpriced coffees and pastries that were nowhere near as good as the ones Lysithea had made.
A/N: and there you have it! writing this was a lot of fun-I had planned it long before I had a reason to write it, but now it's finished and I'm so happy with the end result! c:
