the sun rose again .

   What a thing to dump on someone so suddenly . “ Wh— Claude ! I can’t do all of your chores for you ! ” 

                                 another handful of shirts are added to the pile in her arms  ,  the tilt of claude’s smile wry with humor.   ❛   you sure  ?   i mean  .  .  .   i definitely don’t want to underestimate you  !   i’m sure that you can handle taking up my laundry duty without any difficulty  !   ❜

tagged by:     i stole this from myself now tagging:     (  booming  )   OUR HOUSE

bolded  is  ❛  yes  ❜   italics  is  ❛  conditional   ❜  or  ❛  partner-dependent  .  ❜   struck  through  is  ❛  wtf  is  wrong  with  all  of  you  .  ❜

☀️ — “I’ve never been to this city. I didn’t even know it existed until recently.” And he can’t say he enjoys being on such crowded streets, but one of their missions brought them to ENBARR, so the couldn’t so easily leave. “I should hope I can keep you here long enough to complete the task at hand.” 

                                 there had been only a few times that claude had found himself in the imperial capital.   none of them pleasant.   the nobles here had a way of crawling underneath your skin that he had yet to see anywhere else.   but he turns to his companion all the same  ,  a flash of a wink  &  its accompanying smile  ,  like a secret.  

     she’s only a little startled at being addressed ,    brows pinching together . ❝ oh ?  and what is it you hear ?❞

                                     he knows a thing or two about her  ;  what he’s picked up from others  ,  what the books say about sreng   /   claude thinks they might just have a point of convergence  ,  here.   a similarity to strike.    ❛    i’m not a mind reader  ,  so as for the sort of things you’re thinking  .  .  .  no idea  !    but i can hear the cogs turning.   you’ve got a lot on your mind  ,  being stuck here.   ❜

              ”   why did you pause between the first and second shot?   “  

               @faylnots          /          ‘LINES FROM BOOKS I OWN’.                THE STRANGER BY ALBERT CAMUS,                 P. 67.

                                     hesitance again  ,  though this time the result of interruption  ,  the descent of the arrow’s tip as claude relaxes form  &  turns his gaze back over to hubert  ---------  unused to that presence  ,  unused more to someone who walks shadow - quiet  ,  enough to catch even him off - guard.  it’s unsettling  ,  at best   /    but it makes it less easy to forget that they were once enemies on the field  ,  throwing quips over a killing field  ;  for that  ,  claude’s both grateful  .  .  .  and he isn’t.

one life saved  ,  another in the dirt.    claude thinks they both might know which of the two they’d rather have seen saved.

just fucking put your face in my fist

♒~~≺

   She takes the cloth and quickly ties it behind her head so it matches Claude’s, and hair is checked to make sure it’s up and out of danger. “You know I did,” from behind her a pouch of picked and carefully tended plants for tonight's cooking. “I don’t think I’ve shown you how I get in to the greenhouse, it requires a bit of legwork and a comfort with heights… but I think you’d manage that just fine, House Leader.” The camaraderie with which someone who sits in a higher position than others is something she had not expected to find here, and it is a gift that keeps on giving in these long nights where Tharia Rurrio would be tempted to sit long by herself.

   "Out for hours, you say? I’ll admit it’s got my interest… and I’d like to keep some on my own too, if you’re willing to share.“ It’d make for a useful tool, should the need arise to do something akin to what allowed her entrance into the academy at all.       “Are you worried about the fumes at all? Do you want to crack your window?” She eyes the bubbling cauldron, cautious and not so interested in finding out what it’s like to have it spilled down the front of her should she somehow knock it over by leaning over it.

                            ❛   you’ll have to tell me  ,   i’m definitely interested in an easy way into getting in there  .  .  .   without all the fuss.     ❜    and without any prying eyes hoping to figure out just what it was that claude von riegan wanted from the greenhouse’s array of herbs  &  plants  &  varying other fauna.  he shifts  ,  then  ,  moving past the cauldron towards the window that she mentions  ,  cracking it open at her behest.  the smoke spills out of it then  ,  given a chance to breathe.

Continued from { X }

♒~~≺

   "Something I’m good at…!“ Maybe he hears her over the roar and searing heat of the dragon now combating the Empire’s might. She talks easier, it fills the gaping silence and horror in her head at the sight. Claude’s wheels are spinning, some thoughts behind his head, but the boy always seems to look and act as if he knows something no one does. Smartest, slyest in the room. She’s started to move, shortsword in one hand and whip in the other. She doesn’t think much about it, evasion is instinct now.        “But that means you, too!” And with a crack of her whip, it coils itself around her House Leader’s waist and yanks him back from the clash of fire and steel. “Stay close with me, yeah? We can reconvene with the rest of the class, but I’d rather not do that without our leader, get me?”

   Keeping Claude close by and safe would ensure both their safeties, and that was all the more appealing to her by the minute as the dragon ahead of them plows through troops and battles aside demonic beasts. It isn’t a fight she feels like either of them would come out of should they try to aid in anything but gathering allies and escaping at this point. It’s become a battle of monsters and gods.       “Just stay by me,” Tharia’s voice still feels dwarfed, quiet. “I’ll watch your back." // @faylnots

                                 he trusts her  ,  he thinks  /  anywhere else that would have been shocking  ,  down to the core of a golden heart   /   anytime else he would have doubted the validity of the thought  ,  would have figured no  ,  a moment of slippage  --------  nothing more  ,  nothing less.   his was a heart that trusted no one  ,  nowhere  ,  at no time.   even with tharia  ,  he was not so easy to speak his true feelings  ,  or thoughts  ;  the world inside him was shut even to her  ,  for now.    but that thought came all the same  ,  roaring inside him like the blood did in his ears  ,  pounding incessantly  :  he trusts her.   here  ,  and now  ,  even as she yanks him backwards   /   even as he’s forced to turn his attention from the beat of wings above.

                                  claude’s vision swims for a second  ,  body closing in  --  closer  --  to tharia’s own.   the fingers wrapped around the center of his bow tighten.   he feels he ought to be used to this  ,  by now  ,  months of preparation at the academy tempering his skills  &  sharpening new ones  .  .  .  but with all that’s going on  ,  hesitation sinks its claws into him.   it is tharia that jerks him from repose.    ❛   i can cover you  ,   ❜    he says  ,  straightening.   in the distance there are a few imperial soldiers.   three  ,  in adrestian blood - red.