Shits And Giggles On Ice

The day before the Blue Lions were set to depart for Gaspard, Dimitri found himself wandering the library with a vague intention of beginning an essay due in the first week of the Blue Sea Moon. In truth, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to write. Restlessness consumed him, and keeping himself occupied felt like the only way to avoid dwelling too deeply on his tangled emotions.

The quiet solitude of the library should have been calming, but Dimitri's thoughts remained elsewhere as he roamed the rows of towering bookshelves. His steps were aimless, his fingers occasionally grazing the spines of books he had no intention of reading. Then, something—or rather, someone—broke through his haze of distraction.

Claude.

He was standing at the far end of one corridor, utterly engrossed in the book he held, the faint glow of sunlight from a nearby window illuminating his profile. Dimitri hesitated for a moment, watching as Claude’s lips moved faintly, almost imperceptibly, as if tasting the words on the page.

Before he realized it, he had drifted closer. He stopped just a few steps away, unwilling—or perhaps unable—to announce his presence. Instead, he lingered, studying Claude’s features: the sharp line of his jaw, the slight curve of his nose, the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly in concentration.

The sudden snap of Claude closing his book broke the spell. He turned to face Dimitri with one eyebrow arched, looking both amused and slightly suspicious.

“Were you trying to sneak up on me?” Claude asked, his tone quiet but teasing.

Dimitri stiffened, shaking his head. “I didn’t want to disturb your concentration,” he replied, though the excuse sounded thin even to his own ears.