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Omg thank you so much for doing my last request I absolutely LOVED it!!!!! Your characterization of Felix and Sylvain are so wonderfully on point and I'm still squealing over the part where Felix asks reader to teach him how to heal them dsjfkdjfj (and rolling my eyes over Sylvain's antics lmao. What an incorrigible lad (affectionate))

I hope you don't mind me coming back for more 👀 I've recently started replaying 3h so I'm having so many thoughts about my children <3 this one is an idea that came from a dream I had! Basically reader and Claude have been friends for a while (either childhood friends or they made friends at the beginning of the year). It's the white heron ball and they sneak off bc neither of them are so into all the pomp and circumstance. They're just goofing off in one of the nearby wings and making fun of the church's collection of paintings when Claude realizes in that moment that he's in love with the reader ;)

Extra details about reader if you'd like: they're not all that great at lying or scheming unlike Claude and they're basically his voice of reason/holder of the brain cell (when it comes to reigning him back from some of his more outlandish/dangerous schemes). They've also been secretly in love w Claude for at least a year before the ball hehe

Thank you again in advance and feel free to take the ending wherever you like!!

That is wonderful news! I value characterization as a point; if the character isn't depicted as themselves, the work isn't special. It could be about literally anyone, which is the opposite of what I want. Hopefully, I did the same thing this time!

Requests are open. The story will continue under the cut.

It was the month of the Garreg Mach Ball. In celebration of the festivities, members of the church had lined the cathedral with old paintings correlated to the Seiros faith.

You were never the most devout believer, Claude knew. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he saw you in the cathedral.

He had used this knowledge to his advantage, however, in order to devise a fun way to spend the night. Away from the ball itself, of course; neither of you were one for dancing.

“Can I open my eyes, now?”

“So impatient,” the Alliance noble teased. “Just trust me, okay? We’re almost there.”

“Claude, I don’t need to be blindfolded to know we’re crossing the bridge to the Cathedral right now. I know where I am and where I’m going, so there’s no need to restrict my vision,” you countered.

“Fine then. If you’re so confident, I guess you don’t need me to guide you.”

He took his hands away from yours and turned to walk away. Previously, you had been talked through your route and helped along the way. Of course, it was mainly so you wouldn’t trip on anything or veer off the planned course.

There were only two setbacks: One, moving with you blindfolded was a lot slower, and two, Claude had to walk backwards in order to do it right.

So he knew he only had to wait a moment before you-

“Come on, you know that’s not what I meant. But, I suppose if my hands are free, I can take off this blindfold.”

That wasn’t what he wanted you to say. You always were one to surprise him, though.

He realized you weren’t bluffing, either. It was only when your hands actually began to untie the knot behind your head that Claude reacted.

“Alright, fine. I’ll guide you. But you have to keep your eyes covered, alright?”

The only thing he got in response was a sigh and the sight of your hands returning to the position they were in when he held them earlier. Claude returned to his position as well, sliding your hands into his own and beginning to walk backwards to the cathedral.

“Careful, there’s a rock there. Move to your left- No, your other- Look, just because you can’t see doesn’t mean you suddenly forget which way is left!” he laughed.

“I…I’m doing my bes- ouch!”

Whoops. He had forgotten to direct you around that one.

“Sorry, my bad!”

Glancing around, he pointed his eyes back at the monastery. You weren’t even a quarter of the way across. At this pace, someone was going to see you two crossing the bridge and all of this would be pointless.

So, he let go of your hands and maneuvered around you.

“Seriously? I thought you said you would- woah! What-?”

He scooped you up into his arms and walked at a much more effective pace toward the cathedral. He felt your arms come to rest against his chest.

“Nope,” he grinned, “just some random person that saw us walking on the bridge and decided to carry you to our destination.”

“Claude? That is you, right?” you asked. It was a silly question in his head, but he supposed you were blindfolded. The key sense you had been using for identification was gone, and the noble could feel you tensing up.

“Ha-ha,” you quipped. Though the response meant you knew it was him, Claude noticed that the tension still didn’t leave your body. Interesting.

“Relax,” he tried to reassure you, “I’m not gonna drop you or anything.”

“Just…get us to wherever we’re going so I can take this thing off.”

Eventually, you rested your head against his chest. There was nowhere else to put it, he supposed, but he still hoped you couldn’t hear his heartbeat.

Maybe that's the reason, Claude thought. After all, he would be on edge too if he failed to identify someone he knew. Without your sight, you were left prone to people you didn’t know, or to others that wanted to hurt you.

A few more hurried paces brought the two of you to the entrance of the cathedral. Claude carried you inside, and once he found what he was after, he placed you back on your feet.

“Ready?”

“I’ve been inside the cathedral before. But I suppose if you really think there’s something-”

Swiftly, he pulled away the cloth tied around your head. He noted that, despite the low-light setting the two of you were in, you still had to squint and blink to let your eyes adjust. Moonlight was brighter than darkness, he supposed.

“I think you’re the one that needs to be patient. The amount of times you’ve caught me off guard tonight by cutting me off is getting out of hand.”

“Pretty sure I’m not needing to wait on anything else, for now. This is what I wanted to show you.”

His eyes followed yours when you took in your surroundings.

“Art,” you commented. You began to travel about the space, taking in as much of it as you could despite the heavy shadows cast by the moon.

Claude began to talk as you explored, “Yep. They pulled it out especially for the ball. Not for auction, so it’s likely just to show off.”

“Ha! To show off art like this?”

He turned to observe which piece had caught your eye.

“Raphael’s little sister could do better than this…scribble!” you scoffed. “What is this even meant to be?”

“Can’t you tell? It’s very clearly a…” he squinted at the label beneath the piece, “...“census count by early Nabateans.” Honestly, you’re so uncultured. How is it that you’re even still allowed around me?”

Laughter spills from your lips at his teasing, and he can’t help but want to hear more.

You moved to the other side of the room, following a path illuminated by the moon. He found himself led to a piece lit up just as brightly. It looked to be a painting of an older man, but all the colors ran together in unappealing locations.

“Alright then, oh great art connoisseur, try this one.”

“And no cheating!” you glared in mock-suspicion, moving your body so as to obstruct his view from the written description.

He looked at the painting a moment before coming to a conclusion, “Easy. That's just Professor Hanneman.”

“Pfft, what? Now you’re just grasping at straws.”

“No, I’m serious! Look-” the Riegan heir moved to stand on one of the pews a few paces away. He held the index finger of one of his hands out, then positioned the fingers on his other hand so that his fingertips were touching his thumb. After lifting his arms above his head and positioning so that the moon shone on them just right, he was satisfied.

“Alright, now turn around and tell me that’s not Hanneman.”

You did so, noticing that the shadows Claude created formed a makeshift mustache and monocle, respectively.

“How did you-? That truly resembles Professor Hanneman!” you gasped.

“See? Another point for the connoisseur!”

“Okay, that’s enough out of you!” you grinned, moving to help him down from the pew.

He took your arm in his, “Good, because now it’s your turn.”

“What? Hey-! S-Slow down!”

Claude led you down along the same wall you were observing at the right-most side of the cathedral. There was a sketch he saw that depicted all of the crests, which was where you both came to a sudden halt.

“This one? Okay, that’s art of all the crests, right?”

“Sure. If you’re boring.”

“Excuse me?”

“For example,” he pointed your eyes toward one part of the work in particular. “You might say this is the crest of Dominic, but if you look at it my way, I think it’s an eye.”

You squinted; you were probably trying to see it his way. Then, your own eyes widened.

“Oh! I see it now!”

“Great, then you can give it a go.”

“Hmm…” your eyes scanned over the page. They lingered on certain crests longer than others. Eventually, though, your eyes had made a full trip around the paper before settling on the Daphnel crest.

“This one. I can pick out a person in the middle holding a crown over their own head. Those two little squiggles at their sides are wings.”

“Woah, that one’s much better than mine. I’ve always thought it was a trident, but I suppose you’d have to disregard the dot in the middle for that to work.”

Your gaze went back to work scanning the crest, and Claude knew it was to try forming the image he described.

“...maybe. But then it would be between what? Waves? Two stones?”

At that last point, your expression lit up.

“Wait, that reminds me! There’s something I’ve always wanted to see.”

The archer trailed you at a light jog as you led the way away from the painting and out of the cathedral to the left balcony. He slowed his pace not much later. There weren’t many places for you to run off to from this enclosed area, after all. Once he saw where you were headed, though, he came to a walk.

You had paused in front of the Goddess Tower.

“This stone structure is always guarded,” you began, “and when it isn’t, it’s always locked when I try to get in.”

“Oh, is it, now? And here I thought you were above trespassing.”

Claude caught up to your side and laughed when you elbowed him. Your curiosity did have a tendency to get in the way of your morals, he knew. It was the reason he was able to pull you out here tonight, and it was the same reason you would chime in for some of his more outlandish ventures ever since you had met.

“Well? Don’t you want to go inside?”

Your mouth formed a pout. How cute; he’d have to try to elicit that reaction from you more often.

“You can try the handle if you’d like. I know it won’t work, but…I can think of more than a few things I’d trade away just to look inside.”

Interesting. Not only did you not seem to know what this place was, but you were also unaware it was unlocked right now.

He could have some fun with this.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. Besides,” he winked, “I’ve got a good feeling about tonight.”

Claude turned away from you as he closed the short distance to the door. Casually, he opened it and took a step inside.

“What-? How?”

Before he could respond, you had managed to close the distance and lightly push past him into the tower.

You must have really wanted in if you didn’t have anything else to say. Something told him you didn’t really care about getting your questions answered, either.

Intrigued as he was about the inside of the structure (he had always wondered what the interior looked like, too), Claude was nowhere near as interested as you were. He could deduce as much by how quickly you climbed the stairs. Soon, though, he heard your footsteps come to a halt.

“I don’t get it.”

When the house leader had made it to the top of the staircase, he understood what you meant.

The room was dark and gloomy. Nothing decorated the walls, and the only thing on the floor was the crest of Seiros. The cold stone of the room only made it feel even less welcoming. Thankfully, he found that there was no dust on any of their surroundings. Someone must have cleaned the place before it was unlocked.

He watched as you turned to him, brows furrowed, “Why would anyone care enough to keep a place like this under lock and surveillance?”

“Ah, you don’t know where you are, do you?” he teased.

“What, you mean this place really is special?”

“This is the Goddess Tower.” When he saw that the name didn’t bring any clarity to your expression, he continued, “From what I know, there’s a legend about this place. If a man and a woman come here on this night and pray for the same thing together, the Goddess will answer and grant them their wish.”

“Okay…” you paused. He could practically see the gears turning in your head.

“Don’t put too much faith in it, though. I’m pretty sure it’s just a rumor, anyway.”

“It must be,” you frowned, scanning the room one more time. “If I were the Goddess, I think I’d stay far away from this place. Why not pick somewhere more ethereal?”

He noticed you tense up and turn back to him, “Hang on, how come you knew about this and I didn’t? You heard a rumor, and you’re telling me you just…forgot to mention it to me?”

“My deepest apologies, my lady.” Claude altered his tone to sound mockingly high-brow and gave a sweeping, exaggerated bow. “I swear to you from now on that I will report any and all information I gather back to you. Whether it be true, false, or otherwise.”

“Good,” you giggled, “and you’d do well to remember it!”

As he moved further into the room, House Riegan’s heir noticed something attached to the wall. Something noticeably not stone.

“Hey, check this out.”

At the sound of his voice, you moved closer to what he was looking at.

It was a large wooden door. It expanded almost to the top of the room, its handle a heavy metal ring. The discovery was interesting, but Claude didn’t know where it would lead. There was nothing on the outside of the tower that he noticed resembled a second room.

You brushed your hand along it, “No keyhole. It can’t be locked.”

“Well, then. I think we both know what needs to happen next.”

Together, you both leaned against the doors and pushed. They were heavy and didn’t give easily, but they opened nonetheless.

There was a small ledge serving as a balcony. No railing protected you two from falling to the bottom, he noted, but what truly caught his attention was the view.

Granted, he had seen a great deal of sights from atop his wyvern, but that didn’t make this moment any less beautiful. The stars were glowing with constellations he could recognize. The moon was about a third of the way through its route in the sky and shone brighter than he remembered. He could make out trees and houses by moonlight, and the streetlamps from nearby towns glowed as earthly stars.

Your footsteps brought him out of his trance. The brunet watched as you moved out onto the balcony, bracing your hand against the wall to ground yourself. Once he noticed your widened eyes reflecting the light of the moon, Claude knew you, too, were captivated by the scene in front of you.

He almost wished you would look at him like that.

“Forget the paintings. I could’ve been staring at this all night?”

He flung his hand over his heart, “How cruel! I was under the impression that you and I were having fun tonight!” He sighed dramatically, “But, I suppose you don’t value my company as much as I do yours.”

Even that wasn’t enough to get you to tear your eyes away, it seemed.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just…”

You didn’t finish your thought, probably because you knew you didn’t have to. He turned his head back towards the other sight beyond the doors. Words weren’t enough to describe it, so his mind did its best to preserve the picture.

“I think I can understand why it’s guarded, now,” he admitted. At this, you finally turned to face him. “The church probably wouldn’t want all those young lovers stealing away up here and making wishes too often.”

You turned back to the view, nodding in agreement, “Lover or no, I know I would.”

Claude looked to you, and in that moment he wished he could keep the door unlocked. Only for you. He wanted no one else to know about this place, save for the two of you, and he wanted it to remain unguarded if only so you could make your way up here every night.

And he wished he could join you. Not just so you wouldn’t be alone, and not just because you were his friend, either. Whether it was a rumor or not, Claude wanted to share his wish with you here every year.

“Then I would, too.”

“Huh?” you looked back at him again. He had caught you off guard. Good.

“If you came up here all the time, I would always come with you.”

“That’s good. Part of me would need you to be here with me every time.”

He swore his heart stopped in his chest. To remedy its mistake, it began beating faster than it had before.

“Oh? And why is that?”

Your face broke into a smile, “Because clearly, I don’t know how to open the door.”

Now it was his turn to be caught off guard. By the time he had recovered, though, you had already run past him and down the staircase.

Oh, you knew exactly what you were doing.

The archer sped out of the tower, chasing the sound of your laughter. It echoed throughout the cathedral as you made your way toward the bridge.

In truth, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he caught up to you. But that was his favorite part of being with you: he got to live in the present.

You could both deal with the moment when it came. For now, Claude would enjoy the moment he was living in.

#love this #made me smile #fe3h #fe claude #claude von riegan #claude x reader #fire emblem

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