#dimiclaudeleth

college student dimiclaude + prof byleth

“Hey, kiddo. What are you doing up?”

Claude bent down so he was on eye level with Ambrosius, the small boy rubbing his sleep filled eyes as he sniffled up at Claude. His blond hair was a complete mess, sticking up at odd angles until Claude reached out to smooth it back. 

“You have a nightmare?” Claude asked, guessing what was wrong.

Ambrosius sniffled and nodded before leaping into Claude’s arms, almost knocking him onto the kitchen flood. “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Claude said softly, rubbing the boy’s back. “I’ve got you. It was just a bad dream, that’s all.” Ambrosius curled up closer but nodded, soaking Claude’s shirt as he cried, not that Claude minded in the least.

“There you go,” Claude said when Ambrosius’ tears had subsided back into sniffles. “See, nothing to worry about. You want to try going back to bed?”

Ambrosius clung to him and shook his head vigorously. 

“Hmm, okay, you can stay up with me but just for a little bit. After that you have to promise to try to go to sleep. Can you do that?”

Ambrosius’ eyes lit up, and he nodded so fast Claude couldn’t help but laugh. “All right, come on,” he said, standing with the little boy in his arms and settling them both on the sofa. Claude grabbed a blanket and tucked it around his own legs and Ambrosius’ small form. Claude unpaused the episode of Elementary he had been watching. Probably not too appropriate for a kid, but then….yep, there he went. Ambrosius’ little head tilted forward, chin resting against his chest, and he fell against Claude’s side. The kid was asleep before Sherlock could even finish making an ass of himself. 

He was in the middle of finding out who had committed the murder, Claude was almost certain the wife had lied about the whole situation and was more involved than she was letting on, when the front door opened slowly. Soft voice flitted in, and he looked to the side to see Dimitri holding the door open for his wife. 

“Hey,” Claude greeted softly. Then pointing down to the sleeping child at his side added, “Shh.”

Dimitri stepped around the couch, smiling down at the two of them. He reached down, effortlessly lifting his son, and stealing Claude’s blanket in the process, and carried him back to his own room. 

Byleth sat down on the couch with an umph, immediately occupying the space Ambroious had a few moments before, curling into Claude’s side. “You’re always so warm,” she whispered.

Claude chuckled and placed an arm around her, kissing the top of her head. “Long night?”

“Mmm,” Byleth hummed, nodding into his shirt. “I would prefer not to go to these PTA meetings, but Dimitri insists.”

Claude laughed softly. “I know, By. I was there for that discussion.”

Byleth lifted her head, staring up at him unamused. “You did not just have to deal with a room full of judgemental parents. It’s because of them we can’t bring you along to these things anyways,” Byleth murmured, clearly upset. 

Claude kissed her cheek this time, giving her shoulders a squeeze. It did hurt at times that he could not be included in ‘couple’ things with them, least the rest of the world go about making their lives harder, but he was content with the life they shared together.

Dimitri reentered the living room and immediately dropped onto the couch at Claude’s other side, sighing happily as he settled in. “You didn’t miss anything though,” Dimitri said. “Just Sharon wielding her power as head of the PTA board over everyone as always.”

Claude snorted, turning to kiss Dimitri’s cheek, careful to move slowly as he was on Dimitri’s blindside. “Yeah, I’d much rather hang out here with Ambrosius.” 

“Why was he out here?” Byleth asked. “Did he fall asleep after dinner again?”

“No,” Claude sighed, shaking his head. “Had a nightmare. But I took care of it.”

Byleth smiled, soft and sweet, as she lifted her head to kiss his cheek. “My hero.”