Title: 5 steps
Rating: T
Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses
Relationship: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Claude von Riegan
Wordcount: 3500
Short summary: 5 connected ficlets using the prompts of Claude Rarepair week. Starts with Claude and Felix reaching Almyra.
Prompt: Almyra
It’s not that Felix hasn’t seen sand, endless-looking sand with barely anything green in sight or felt the burning hot rays of the sun unhindered by clouds or trees. Nor are the people, tan and brown skin with light-colored clothes, or the covered carts of similar light and dark coloring, a new concept. It’s just…
“Is it anything like you imagined?”
Claude tilts his head as he asks Felix this question. He’s expecting a certain answer, maybe. Felix shrugs.
“No, but I figured if I was wrong about you, I’d be wrong about Almyra too.”
Felix had honestly thought it would feel more different to enter a country he had never been in before. Then again, they’ve only just crossed into Almyra from Fódlan’s Throat. Felix has learned from his time with Claude that borders are more like invisible walls than actual barriers. Of course these invisible walls are more of a problem sometimes, but…
“If it’s too hot, we can just press further east until we reach the forests and mountains.”
Felix is shielding his eyes from the sun, but perhaps his sudden bout of contemplation has been misinterpreted. Although it is much hotter here than back in Faerghus or at Garreg Mach…
“And skip stopping at your home?”
Claude chuckles. “Well, it would throw things a bit out of order but hey, scouting a country I haven’t been in for a while is something I planned to do before you know what—"
“I want to see your home,” Felix interrupts.
Felix isn’t here for a vacation; he is here with a purpose. The longer they drag things out, the worse it could be politically for Claude. Meaning Claude would be overworking himself even more than usual just to accommodate Felix. Of course Felix wouldn’t stand for that. His pride, for one, can’t allow Claude to pamper him but also…
“And I want to meet them.”
Felix wants to meet them: the parents, the siblings, the relatives, the officials, the ministers...
“Okay, hold your sword.”
Claude reaches out for Felix’s hand, guiding it away from his sword belt. Felix blushes, realizing how he unconsciously reached for it as his thoughts had started to derail. He squeezes Claude’s hand instead.
“Let’s make sure you make it through the desert heat before you start asking for fights, alright?”
Claude moves his mouth closer to Felix’s left ear. His breath is ticklish and Felix shivers.
“Although I may not need you here with me… I want you.”
Those last three words are whispered like a sweet secret and Felix shivers. He only hesitates for a few seconds. Then he shows he understands Claude’s words by turning his face and kissing Claude soundly.
Prompt: Traveling
“It’ll be nice to not travel for a bit. Even if traveling is nice sometimes.”
To keep up their guise as mere “mercenaries” and not a royal spawn and his lover, Claude had foregone flying to Almyra from Derdriu by wyvern for a less distinctive means of travel. Although he and Felix had sometimes ridden horses or stowed in the back of carts, they had also traveled much of the way here by foot. It was sometimes hard to do more than just collapse on the bed at the end of a long travel day.
Thankfully today should be their last day of traveling in a long while. By switching to wyverns they would cross from the border to the capital in half a day. There Claude looks forward to sleeping in a real bed, where he can put his feet up and actually feel them again.
“You’re spoiled.”
Felix, of course, grumbles his response like he always does when Claude says something he thinks is silly. Therefore Claude grins and leans into Felix, forcing Felix to keep him upright with a hand on his waist.
“It’s a lot nicer to enjoy a lover’s embrace on a soft surface,” Claude murmurs, putting a hand on Felix’s shoulder. To “save money” as “poor mercenaries”, they often shared a room and even a bed. But with beds so small and hard, anything more than holding each other would have been too…painful. And, well, if Claude had been the one holding Felix to keep Felix from falling off the small bed and felt the brunt of the hard mattress on his back…
“Although not all the inns were bad.”
Felix snorts. “Especially when you could charm them for extra blankets.”
Claude grins. “And free breakfast!”
Just because they had to travel frugally it didn’t mean Claude couldn’t practice some of his persuasive tactics to gain some extra bonuses. If a wink here or there meant a bed that wasn’t quite as hard to sleep on or a hearty warm meal in the morning, it was worth it.
Felix sighs and shakes his head. “Almost breaking our cover.”
Claude laughs. “Hey, I fed some false rumors too. They’ll never know for sure.”
Had their guests really been poor mercenaries, or were they actually runaway noble sons? Or perhaps, a king in disguise and his lover?
“When they find out…“
“We’ll be well away, enjoying that nice bed, right?”
“Shut up.”
Claude presses a kiss against Felix’s neck before stepping away.
“Shall we get going then?”
Felix just turns away and starts walking. Claude chuckles before following. He better make sure Felix gets on the wyvern or they’ll have a much longer day ahead…
Prompt: Archery
When they finally reach the walls of the city, Felix finds himself distracted by the glorious architecture that strongly contrasts with the tiny dots of caravans and tiny oasis villages scattered across the desert sands. The stone here is reddish-white, completely contrasting with the grey that he is more familiar with back home. The shape of the castle in the center of town is also completely different than that of Fhirdiad, and to think Claude lives in this…
“What are you doing?”
Felix catches sight of Claude just before he releases an arrow from his quiver. Did he just…shoot an arrow at his own castle?
Claude chuckles. “I’m letting Nader know I’m home.”
Claude points to where his golden arrow landed, a small wooden target placed on the terrace of the left tower. Felix shakes his head.
“What the hell.” If this is a normal Almyran tradition, then Felix will be in for a lot of surprises…
Claude grins. “You wanna aim for it too? Not many chances to go for it.”
“Fine.”
Felix takes the arrow Claude offers him and, doing his best not to think about how weird this is, focuses on the target and shoots. Unlike Claude, he doesn’t hit the bullseye but he is within the first ring outside of the bullseye, which isn’t too bad all things considered: the distance, the fact that he’s shooting while on a wyvern, and the fact that he’s never used this weight of arrow before.
“I taught you well.”
Felix can’t help the sense of accomplishment that wells from Claude’s words. “You did.”
“Despite how much of it was an excuse to be close to you.”
“What.”
Felix looks over at Claude with a glare. Just how much of this is teasing and how much of it is…
Claude smiles sheepishly. “I know you figured it out a few weeks in. I thought I had failed then and there.”
Claude isn’t teasing? This surprises Felix. Felix knows those days, when they stood side-by-side shooting at targets, were over 5 years ago, but could he have been so oblivious? His mind had been obsessed with training to become stronger, to overcome the shadow that his brother had cast even more so with his death. Of course later on he figured out that it was one of his unhealthy ways of coping with his brother’s loss, just differently than his father had, Ingrid had, or Dimitri… Felix shakes his head. He doesn’t have time to go down those thoughts, not with Claude clearly waiting for him to say something.
“I was worried you would leave.”
“Huh?”
Felix sighs. “If I wasn’t good enough, you’d go back to training with Ignatz or Leonie.” He’s secretly enjoying the look in Claude’s eyes, recognizing the mix of confusion with recalculation. “I didn’t like you then, but…”
“You didn’t want to lose.”
“Yeah.”
Claude laughs loudly. “You really didn’t realize. And there I was, worrying about heart break.”
Felix blushes. Why is Claude like this… “You’re stupid.”
“Indeed I am.” Claude winks. “And lucky.”
Before Felix can respond, Claude and his wyvern are diving down towards the waving soldier. Felix sighs and follows, less gracefully.
Claude and his tendency to skip out after getting the last word. Felix will…punch Claude later for that.
Prompt: Secrets
They’ve made it inside the palace, safe and sound. Well, safe yes, sound maybe not so much. Felix is still annoyed about the arrow-shooting antics from earlier. Claude thinks that maybe if he gets Felix into his room and allows him a moment to calm down and think through whatever is bothering him, perhaps while Claude is massaging his back…
“My room.”
Claude opens the door at the end of the hall. It’s not much different than it was before; he’s sure Nader made sure it was safe to enter before Claude arrived, but otherwise besides new bedsheets and a new plant by the window, everything looks relatively the same. Not like there is much that Nader could have messed up, when the room has not much more than a desk, a chair, and a dresser with a few sets of clothes.
“Surprisingly small.”
Claude is surprised to hear words like that from Felix. He didn’t think Felix would be the type to care about stuff like that, especially with how flippantly he ditched his noble title for a mercenary life with little luxuries, that thankfully Claude convinced Felix away from to at least be his lover and, who knows, maybe something more in the future. But first things first.
“Well, I am the youngest, and not particularly liked.” Claude chuckles at the eyebrow Felix raises. “At least back then.”
Felix settles on the bed, finally, while Claude puts their bags by the dresser and unpacks. He puts the few notebooks he brought onto the desk and the clothes into the dresser. He’s lucky that Felix didn’t argue with him about the unpacking, considering that Nader chose this place of all places to hide…
“Where are your books?”
Claude stops what he’s doing and turns around, closing the dresser door behind him. He cocks his head.
“Are you looking for my secret stash?” he asks with a smirk.
Felix scowls. “No, I’m surprised there are no books on or under your bed.”
Claude laughs. He supposes having books on his bed is a signature from his academy days. It wouldn’t be the first thing his family or the staff here would think of, though, because…
Claude shrugs. “It was a little harder to keep things back then.”
Felix closes his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbles.
Claude doesn’t think it’s something worth apologizing over. Things happened back then, sure, but it made him stronger. “Memories, on the other hand…”
Claude trails off, noticing that Felix is biting his tongue hard and clenching his fists. Claude moves to the bed and puts his hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Hey, why are you looking so upset?”
“What else have you been keeping from me?” Felix hisses.
Claude is confused but he’s also a little offended. “I haven’t been…” Keeping…oh.
Near the end of the war, when Felix had become much more than just a valued soldier on the field, much more than a friend, but the person Claude wanted to share his life with, they had talked and Felix had yelled at him. Felix spoke more words to Claude than Claude had ever heard him say in any previous conversation. The words were hurried, rushed, but they detailed everything Felix believed he should have known before Claude had initiated their relationship. Then he had listened to Claude speak for hours, talking about Almyra and how it made him who he is, why he had the goals he had and what his plans were for the future. And even though Felix had called him a big dreamer, he then swore his sword to him, promised to see his dreams through.
But Claude supposed he did skimp on some details. There was a lot to talk about, and it’s not like Claude had told someone else his whole story before, so it’s understandable he would have forgotten to say some things, right?
“I’m sorry.” He tentatively wraps his arms around Felix and is relieved when Felix hugs him back. “I’m not keeping secrets from you anymore, I swear. It just never occurred to me to speak of some things.”
Claude will try to remedy that, quickly. Oftentimes he and Felix are on the same wavelength, preferring to see things for themselves instead of being told everything, but perhaps a little more telling would help Felix in this situation.
“So feel free to ask me anything, anytime,” Claude offers, pressing a light kiss to Felix’s neck before pulling back.
Felix’s eyes have softened now. “Okay, Khalid…”
Claude can’t help it. Hearing his real name from Felix’s mouth, said softly and gently… It’s a gift that Claude treasures, and he can’t help but kiss Felix’s mouth as a reward. Hopefully Felix doesn’t know how much he could get away with if he addressed Claude like that… Claude breaks the kiss and stands up. Suddenly he remembers the item in the dresser. Oops, he should have been a little more careful with his words earlier.
“Well, I guess I did keep one thing secret on purpose…” he says hesitantly, standing up and moving to the dresser.
He hears Felix hold his breath and works quickly, knowing he has little time before Felix could get upset again. Nader, hopefully, got everything correct…yes, perfect. Claude whips around and sighs in relief when Felix exhales upon seeing the item in Claude’s hands.
“When you decided to come with me, I commissioned this piece,” Claude explains as he walks back to Felix and hands the item over, the custom eastern-style sword. “You can wield it kind of like a Wo Dao, I think?”
Claude smiles sheepishly. Sure, Claude learned to wield a sword because he had to, but it doesn’t mean he’s a sword expert unlike Felix, who knows swords more keenly than his own body.
Felix touches the sword carefully before holding it in both of his hands. “Thank you.”
It already looks perfect in Felix’s hands. Claude grins as he sits down on the bed next to Felix. “It was okay to keep that a secret?”
Felix nods. “The only type that is okay.”
Claude scoots closer. “Great, because you know I can’t help myself…”
Claude has a lot of work to do now that he’s fully back here in the castle. There will be a lot of rough times ahead, possibly dangerous times. He may not need Felix by his side, but having Felix here makes Claude feel stronger. And if Claude is still allowed to indulge a little bit, to gift him and Felix both little moments and memories of happiness in the midst of all that, well…
Prompt: Stars/First Kiss
Felix had fallen asleep at some point after dinner, stuffed from all the food he ended up eating. While he isn’t sure how he feels about Almyra at the moment, he has no complaints about the food, which is much more delicious than any of the imitations back in Fódlan. He’s actually a bit unnerved he fell asleep so easily, but Claude had fallen asleep before he had, so… Now, though, it’s clearly still night and yet Felix is wide awake. Unfortunately, being unfamiliar with this place, Felix is lost on what to do. Normally he’d go train for a bit if he happened to be awake when no one else was. Especially some nights when he wasn’t sure how the next campaign would go and he happened to have nerves, he’d sneak out of his room and train by torchlight…
“You’re awake?”
Felix isn’t as “good” at physical affection as Claude is, but surely even he can gently rub Claude’s back and lull Claude back to sleep, right? He feels guilty that his restlessness has woken Claude up.
“You didn’t wake me up,” Claude chuckles, pressing a kiss to Felix’s jaw. “Actually, if you want, we could go outside for a bit?”
Felix pauses. “Are we sneaking out?” he wonders.
“Yes, just the two of us.” Claude smiles. “I’ll show you my favorite place to look at the stars.”
Before Felix can tell Claude that this is a ridiculous idea, Claude is already climbing out of the bed and opening the window. It seems that Claude has done this before. Now Felix is curious, and besides, when it comes to the night stars…
“We are going down?” Felix asks as he watches Claude lower himself from the window. There is a terrace below but surely that would be too exposed?
“Down then up. There!” Claude explains as he drops onto the railing of the terrace below only to jump and catch a tree branch.
“So, in a tree.”
Felix mimics Claude, falling down from the window onto the terrace without making a sound. He’s not as adept at jumping and swinging for trees, though.
“Careful.” Claude gives Felix a helping hand, the warmth of said hand a big contrast to the cool stone of the windowsill and the terrace railing. “We’re actually going to that terrace. A tree branch can’t hold both our weights for long, probably.”
Felix follows Claude’s gaze to the terrace above, a terrace that’s actually on the floor above their bedrooms and closest to the roof. “Okay.”
A few minutes and another helping hand from Claude later, Felix is safely on that upper terrace and looking up at the night sky. The moon is only a sliver in the sky, meaning the stars are bright, beautiful…and look very different than on the Star Terrace back at Garreg Mach.
“It was a night kind of like this when I confessed to you for real, right?”
Felix tears his eyes from the starry sky to look at Claude. Claude’s not looking at him, so Felix can’t quote something like how the stars are reflected in Claude’s eyes, but Claude certainly looks wistful.
“You just kissed me.” Even if Felix, charmed by the way Claude looks right now, is indulging Claude’s current mood, it doesn’t mean he has to be nice.
“I told you—”
“’I think you’ve earned my first kiss,’ you said.” Felix laughs. “What the hell?”
Claude turns his head and looks at Felix directly in the eye. “I wasn’t lying about that being my first kiss.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think it was yours too.”
Felix raises his eyebrow. Did he look like someone who would have…had anyone interested in him like that? As a student Felix spent most of his time scowling and being angry at Dimitri. And before…that happened, who would have looked at some petulant younger brother instead of the rising star?
“I didn’t want anyone to kiss me before then,” Felix replies, while simultaneously wondering why they are having this conversation now, well after… Things worked out, so can’t they talk about this later?
“Hah! That’s funny, considering you shoved me away and stormed off.”
Claude has folded his arms across his chest, trying to stop himself from falling over. Felix huffs. Yes, he had been overdramatic, but who in their right mind would have been okay with the way Claude had acted at that moment? It had been so self-centered; sure, Felix had been given ample opportunity to push Claude away before Claude took his first kiss and hadn’t taken any action, but Claude could have asked…nicely instead?
“And then I didn’t see you for like 5 years and figured I wouldn’t see you ever again.” Claude shrugs. “But here we are now.”
Here they are, and instead of enjoying the private moment looking at the stars or…doing couple-ish things, they are talking about old memories. Felix shakes his head.
“Khalid.”
“Yes?”
Felix blushes even before he voices his thought, but he pushes through. “We could just…” He grabs Claude’s hands, trying to finish his sentence with actions instead of words.
Of course Claude gets it. He closes the distance between them, brings his face closer, his lips right in front of Felix’s.
“Well, as long as you don’t shove me this time.”
“Shut up already.”
And just like that day some 5 years ago, where it was just the two of them under the night sky with no one else around, they reenact their first kiss.
Well, not exactly. Because instead of shoving Claude away after the kiss, Felix pulls Claude in even closer, before kissing him again.