#and claude never had a chance to brief dimitri

[shadowshrike]

A Dimiclaude Golden Wildfire Part 2

AKA

How I would write an Emerald Moon equivalent for 3 Hopes

This is a reading of the game based on the premise that Claude admires Dimitri, both wanting the best for him and to be part of his life. It's meant to be a fun, canon-compliant story, but not what I think the writers were going for, much like the 'evil' reading I've done where Claude's true goal is to deliver Fodlan to his father in Shahid's place by crippling most of its existing power structures. This is a chaotic brain dump for my own entertainment, so I apologize if it's hard to follow.

Federation and Empire: The Armistice

To start Part 2, Claude has made himself a king. He hopes to better control the war at his doorstep with this power and to keep Leicester alive after the council proved too unwieldy for quick decisions in uncertain times. He's also worried about Dimitri since the Kingdom has been fighting both a civil war and the Empire. However, Claude hasn't been able to reach Dimitri due to his own struggles with the Empire and Leicester politics. He's in the dark about what his old classmate, one that he had a crush on once upon a time, is thinking.

When Edelgard sends him a missive before Dimitri does, Claude realizes he can't wait any longer. If he refuses her, Leicester will continue to be in the line of fire. If he joins her, he can buy time to find a better solution. It will also give him the chance to sneakily off some of the Empire and Church soldiers. He doesn't tell anyone, but he's personally not a fan of either party.

In that missive, she also plants a seed in Claude's head. Her stated reasons for war suggest that Dimitri's freedom from his guilt and station, his woes with Duscur and Sreng, and in turn, the obstacle that has kept Claude from building a proper relationship with the prince, might be fixed if the Central Church can't influence the Kingdom.

Since Claude's brief academy days, he's felt Dimitri was a fantastic person, both monstrously strong and too pure of heart to be real, but also a slave to his duty as ruler. Claude never was able to figure out how to shake him from it back then. And with the war, he hasn't had a chance for spies or summits to get more insight into the prince's woes. The Central Church angle, weak or not, could be a lead on how Fodlan could be made better for both of them.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to verify which of Edelgard's claims about the Central Church are accurate just yet. Claude knows that parts of it are definitely lies because that's what powerful people waging war do, but he's been leery of the church since he came to Fodlan and tried to reconcile their behavior with what he'd learned about in Almyra.

Claude doesn't personally believe removing the Central Church will do anything drastic, and he knows destroying it is not necessarily in the best interest of his new Federation. But his heart has begun to waver. It's a comforting lie that the church's demise would end Fodlan and Dimitri's woes. He could use more lies like that after Shahid's death.

So true or not, Edelgard's rhetoric against the Church is useful, and Claude relies on it to build up their new armistice and control Leicester's public opinion. He turns his allies against Faerghus and the Church by using Edelgard's effective rhetoric, pinning the blame for Leicester's strife on their new enemies: the Central Church who 'controls' them and the Kingdom who 'owes' them from their shared history.

Randolph's Death and a Change of Plans

Off to war, they march. A war that Claude has no intention of fighting. He believes he can adjust his narrative as needed once he gets some breathing room and go back to focusing on diplomacy with Almyra and the Kingdom. He'll kick the Empire to the curb as soon as his people are stable and make them forget all about his attacks on the Church and Kingdom.

But when he demands Randolph's avoidable death, Claude realizes the lifeboat he latched onto to save Leicester while the Kingdom was unreachable due to civil unrest has become an albatross around his neck.

He can't sneakily abandon his "allies" to dwindle their numbers for later moves. His own people will turn on him. Their integrity and morality are stronger than their tactical sense. Also, despite disliking the Church, killing all of them feels worse than he thought it would after he'd killed Shahid.

During Claude's troubled nights, memories of that battle become reminders of how much better Dimitri is than him as a person. Of how Claude may have accidentally burned the fledgling bridges between the two of them by proving how ruthless he can be.

So to clear his conscience and navigate his inability to double-cross the Empire freely, Claude's new goal becomes to finish this war as quickly as possible with as few casualties as possible. That means he needs to talk to Dimitri somehow and discuss their options. There will be no end to the war until Edelgard is destroyed or she runs out of reasons to attack.

Unfortunately, parleying with Dimitri on sympathetic terms while allied with the Empire is impossible. So Claude makes the only move he can to get close. A targeted invasion to reach him.

Claude prays Dimitri's old trust in his good nature and his schemes will still hold, even as enemies.

The Kingdom's Sacrifice

With Sreng invasions being business as usual for the Kingdom, Claude hopes an attack by sea will make things easier for him while keeping casualties down. Gautier would be gone, and the Kingdom are already experts at holding off the northern invasions, so they'd be unlikely to lose too many men.

To enact this plan, Claude demands boats from Almyra. That's not without its risks. Fodlan and Almyran relations could be irreparably damaged if his plan goes south. If either his dad learns about the secret conscription or his identity as an Almyran prince is found out in Fodlan while using Almyran troops, Claude's involvement could be considered foreign interference in a civil war.

But taking his countrymen isn't all bad risks. There's also the chance of getting Almyrans interested in Faerghus. As Nader notes, most of them have never been there. Claude hopes they can go from enemies to friends after the conflict, much like Holst and Nader. After all, everyone praises the martial strength of the Kingdom, and Almyrans are always excited to meet new warriors.

But fighting the Kingdom is harder on Claude's heart than he thought. Seeing the Margrave die a Knight's death protecting his friends shakes him. Choosing death to protect others is not something Claude would do. But Dimitri absolutely would do the same for his people.

Claude has always been awed by Dimitri's drive to save the people he loves at any cost, but now he's terrified by it as an enemy. If he missteps in the kingdom, he may have to kill Dimitri or the people Dimitri loves...and he'll never be forgiven.

Claude frets more the closer they get. Despite never being a religious man, he prays to anyone who will listen that Dimitri will remember their academy days and won't fight him to the last man. He prays that Dimitri will understand that Claude's invasion of Fhirdiad is a front. That he wants to talk but can't because of his armistice.

Claude purposefully holds off in telling Sreng about the Margrave's death, hoping they won't invade and cause more bloodshed while he tries to talk with Dimitri. When he calculated Sreng's attacks as being more inconvenience than deadly before, Claude wasn't counting on the Margrave being gone.

Attacking Fhridiad

When they finally meet face-to-face, Claude is relieved to see that Dimitri seems uninterested in fighting tooth and nail for the capital. He seems to understand that something is not right about the Federation being invaders.

The duel between the two kings is mostly for show. Dimitri makes no intent to break Claude, merely ruffle him while he waits to see what Claude has in store. Claude can't blame the man- Dimitri needs to make sure that any invading force knows the Warrior King of Faerghus is no pushover should he choose to go for their heads.

The day thankfully ends without major bloodshed, which gives Claude hope that Dimitri was testing his resolve and trusting him. Dimitri's little smirk after their altercation and how he walks away rather than fighting to the death all but confirms it.

As Claude is about to have the conversation he's desperately wanted for years, urgent news rips him away. Claude is suddenly forced to flee to protect his people. He's furious. He not only doesn't get to speak to Dimitri, but he's also once again stuck in his least favorite position: having to believe in luck and trust others.

He hopes Dimitri will understand what his retreat means since he's unable to risk leaving an envoy so deep in enemy territory.

Rhea the Scapegoat

Once the inconvenient crisis in Leicester orchestrated by a mystery enemy is averted, Claude finds himself without time to research his new enemy or contact Dimitri, much to his misery. A sudden summons from Edelgard to fight the Church and the main army of the Kingdom forces him to make another impossible choice.

Claude could let Edelgard die to end the war now and keep the body count down, but that would risk political blowback like with Randolph. Or he could help her, but he would need to find an excuse not to attack Dimitri seriously. He'd need something to keep his forces away from the Kingdom without betraying the Empire and angering his people. (AN: Ironically, this scene in the game is called "Plausible Excuses".)

The perfect scapegoat? Rhea. Claude could try to talk Edelgard out of killing Dimitri should Rhea die, pointing out that Rhea being gone would invalidate her stated reason for war. Should she continue the war after Rhea's death, it would give him the ability to march out to save Dimitri without violating their armistice.

The plan would be easy to pull off. Edelgard had already given him the propaganda machine to blame Rhea for Leicester's ills, and Claude's been pushing it mildly since the armistice started. He merely needs to repeat the rhetoric of heralding a "new age of freedom" with the demise of Rhea for people to follow him, whether or not any of it is true.

And if any of the claims about the Central Church not liking outsiders is true, he would need to remove Rhea anyway so Dimitri could build a relationship with an Almyran prince, complete the Duscur reforms he always wanted, and maybe even be free of his title of "King" so he can live as he pleases.

He knows it wouldn't be how Dimitri would do things, and he's not sure if Dimitri returns his feelings or would accept a life beyond service to his people, but Claude is willing to do anything to help Dimitri find freedom. What's one more death after his hands killed his brother? Whatever good she may have done for Fodlan, it isn't like Rhea is an innocent, anyway.

Surprisingly, Claude hears what he thought was an impossible option for him when he talks to the others. "Killing Edelgard would end the war" Lorenz says, but then he also says he doesn't want to kill her because she's their old classmate. Claude immediately points out, "so is Dimitri." After attacking Fhirdiad, he needs to seed in their head that the Kingdom isn't the enemy anymore. They need to forget the weak reasons he made up for the initial invasion to get close to Dimitri so his plans for a post-Rhea alliance are believed.

A Conversation with Dimitri

When Claude spots Edelgard and Dimitri fighting alone after Dimitri flees the battle at Garreg Mach, Claude rushes to intervene. He tries to get them apart. He can't betray Edelgard yet, but he desperately needs to stave off the possibility of Dimitri's injury or death.

It's within the strange magical distortion of time and space which follows that Claude and Dimitri finally talk. Claude turns a deaf ear to how killing Rhea will cause more strife, already knowing it is likely to be true, instead focusing on Dimitri's personal concern for him. He deflects it, of course, because the last thing he wants is to be another burden on Dimitri. Instead, he redirects their talk towards concerns about foreign relations and Dimitri being stuck with a role he doesn't want.

Claude blames the Church for it all - the strained foreign relations, the restrictive marriages - trying to use this ruse he's locked himself into to express clearly what he wants for the two of them. He loses his nerve eventually, cutting himself off as he starts to work himself up by talking about what Dimitri could do in this new world he dreams of, one where they could be together, free of expectation.

He wants to say that Dimitri's Kingship stands in the way of them walking together, and he can fix it. But as they talk, Claude is forced to face the reality that Dimitri's love and loyalty as King is independent of the Church. He will not be free when Rhea dies.

Resigned, Claude expresses the desire for friendship instead, sad that he's been forced to build this house of lies about a New World without Rhea that will inevitably crash down after she's slain. Hers will likely be merely another senseless death claimed by these battles. Still, Claude knows he must stay the course for Leicester to be free of the Empire.

Dimitri reflects Claude's want for friendship and a beautiful new world together too sweetly for Claude to stomach a response. It's a miracle to hear after all the harm he'd inflicted on the Kingdom. Dimitri truly is too kind for the likes of him.

In the end, all Claude can do is ask for a truce when they all walk away, hoping Dimitri will forgive him for what he must do.

Sacrificing Rhea's Life to Ally with the Kingdom

Claude uses his feelings for Dimitri to drive him to face down Rhea when he returns, telling himself and others that Dimitri will definitely choose Faerghus over the Central Church in the end. That, in fact, Dimitri wants them to dissolve the church by whatever means possible. It is the only way Claude can face that final battle now.

When he finally confronts Rhea, it's no longer about her real or theoretical crimes, no matter what he needs to say to his troops. Claude wants to see what the world would be like without her in it, not because he personally thinks she's responsible for all of Fodlan's woes anymore, but because he's dreaming of joining the Kingdom and finally being able to bond with Dimitri once she's dead.

As he strikes the final blow to the monstrous creature of light who was once Rhea, spinning an entire world of new mysteries to be unwound after this war, Claude mourns for those who clearly love her. Those who died or are left directionless because of his own mistakes, not hers. But Claude knows there is no other option. If he captured her per Edelgard's wishes, it would add too many variables to the "justified" nature of the war.

Rhea's death was the only choice in the end, even if it makes him sick to look in the mirror after it is done.

Whether the war continues or ends with Rhea's death, Claude's next move is to rush to Dimitri's side and pray he isn't too late to build something between them. How it ends afterward...that's up to you.

[iturbide]

Actually, could you clarify what happens in the scene where Dimitri learns Edelgard is the Flame Emperor? Like, what does “might have murdered her if not for Claude” mean? Like, did he actually make an attempt on her life or did he just consider it? It sounds like a very intense but complicated scene, I do not want to make assumptions about it.

You know what? I actually have the better part of that written out so I'll just give you the scene itself (starting with Dimitri's PoV and transitioning to Claude's at the * break near the end)

“Hey, you never know,” the archer winked. “Maybe we’ll have some miraculous fix -- like that tea for headaches.”

“I...do thank you, Claude, for your generosity, but I don’t imagine this will do more than dull the edge from it.”

“You could at least give it time to take effect before dismissing it,” the princess chided.

“Nothing else has worked in the past, why should this be different?”

That was rather more than he’d meant to say. The pain had a way of making his judgment lax.

“...does it usually go away on its own, then?” the Leicester heir ventured.

“...it does not go away,” Dimitri sighed. “It only sharpens or dulls.”

“For how long?” Edelgard frowned.

“...since Duscur.”

Silver or not, he doubted his teacup would survive much more abuse, and set it aside before folding his hands tight. Claude reached out to touch his shoulder, offering a comforting squeeze that the prince barely felt. “It must have been hard, losing your dad, and then all the turmoil after…”

“I was there.”

The whispered words left a deafening silence in their wake. “I was the only survivor. My father, my step-mother, my friends...most everyone I knew and cared for died in the attack, by the blades of our attackers or by the flames that consumed our caravan. I can still remember...the faces, the screams, the tortured last moments of every soul lost that day…”

He could hear them now, ringing in his ears, nearly enough to drown out the sound of his own voice. Bowing his head, he pressed his hands tight against his brow, drawing in a slow, unsteady breath. “Ever since, the ache has been there. Sometimes it grows worse, but even at its best it never truly fades. Food and drink have no taste whatsoever. All that remains is the pain, and the memory of those beasts that slaughtered my family.”

“...the people of Duscur, you mean,” the princess ventured.

“No,” he growled. “The people of Duscur did not commit that vile act. I saw the true culprits that day: pale as death with blades of black steel, and mages in beaked masks raining fire down upon us all. The people of Duscur bore the blame for a crime they did not commit, but no one would listen to me -- they told me I was in shock, confused, mistaken, but I know what I saw. And so I know that the Flame Emperor bears the blame.

“Impossible,” Edelgard scoffed.

“The same masked mages I saw that day have been present each time he appeared,” Dimitri snapped. “He commands them -- leads them -- what other explanation is there?”

“Our professor told me that they spoke with the Flame Emperor, who insisted he was not involved in the incident at Remire Village,” she pressed. “You cannot say with certainty that he was involved in Duscur.”

“You would believe that monster!?” the prince scoffed.

“We have no reason to disbelieve him--”

“He kidnapped a child!”

“Or even if he didn’t, he orchestrated the escape of someone involved,” Claude pointed out.

“Yet if your theory is true, and Flayn is in fact a dragon…”

“What, you think that gives them the right to kidnap and torture her?” the archer asked.

“She’s not human--”

“She’s still a living being. She feels fear and pain, just like you do.”

“I’m sorry, Flayn is a what now?” Dimitri interrupted.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I didn’t have a chance to fill you in. It’s, uh...well, it’s my conspiring that I can’t put on hold, y’know. We’re thinking Flayn is Saint Cethleann and also a dragon.”

Dimitri was quite glad to be sitting, because he feared he would have fallen otherwise. As it stood, the archer’s words left his head spinning so violently that he rather felt like laying down. “Look, it’s complicated, I can explain later if you want but right now just operate under the assumption that Flayn is actually a dragon in disguise.”

“...quite a convincing disguise,” the prince mumbled.

“Right? It’s easy to take her for the sheltered daughter of an old noble family, with the way she talks.”

“I think we’re veering far from the topic at hand,” the princess warned.

“Are we?” Claude replied. “Because I think it says a lot that Flayn can sit in a classroom with a bunch of human students and pass for one of them without anyone batting an eye. You’re gonna say that just because she’s different, she doesn’t deserve to be treated with the same respect you’d show anyone else here in the monastery?”

“You mean scraping and bowing as Rhea demands?”

“Did I say ‘the same respect you’d show the archbishop’?” the Leicester heir shot back. “No, I said anyone else here. The respect you’d show Petra, or Bernadetta, or Dorothea, or Lysithea.”

“But she is--”

“What. Not like us? Are you really gonna say ‘it’s okay for her to be snatched away from her loving family in the dead of night, kept in a dungeon, and bled for who even knows what purpose because she’s not human’?”

“I’m only saying that it puts her abduction in a new context worthy of consideration,” Edelgard replied carefully.

“Not really,” Claude scoffed. “All it does is explain why she was targeted. It doesn’t change the act itself.”

She sighed, touching a hand to her brow. “Regardless. Assuming we can take the Flame Emperor at his word--”

“Which I doubt,” Dimitri muttered.

“...then perhaps Duscur was another case where Solon acted of his own accord. The Flame Emperor did say that more violence would surely follow if they were left to their own devices -- perhaps Duscur was simply an earlier case, and Remire the most recent.”

“That sure is a lot of ‘if’s,” Claude mused. “So, tell me, Princess: is there a reason you’re advocating so hard on the Flame Emperor’s behalf?”

She met his gaze without expression. “I think it merits consideration.”

“He is involved with kidnappers, murderers, and monsters who hold no regard for human life,” the prince growled. “That speaks plain of his character.”

“Perhaps he has no alternative but to associate with them.”

“Wow, you’re starting to sound like me with this wild speculation,” the Leicester heir remarked. “Where’s it all coming from?”

“As I said, I believe all possibilities merit equal consideration--”

“And yet you can’t imagine that Flayn is anything but a monster?”

“We cannot condemn without evidence of a crime, and association alone is not criminal,” she pointed out.

“Are you the Flame Emperor?”

Everything went still and cold and deathly silent. Dimitri found himself unable to breathe while Claude sipped his tea, watching the Adrestian princess over the rim of his cup. “What possible reason could you have to ask that?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ve got lots of reasons,” he smiled, setting his drink aside. “You’re never around when the Flame Emperor shows up, for instance: the first time, in the dungeon where Flayn was being held, you helped Hanneman get Manuela to the infirmary, but he claims you left immediately once she was in the monks’ care. The Knights of Seiros didn’t even know what was going on until Teach carried Flayn out, so you obviously weren’t calling in the cavalry. Which, y’know, I thought was weird, but I was willing to call it a coincidence: maybe it took longer to get Manuela to the infirmary, and the fighting was done before you could get the word out.

“But then in Remire, you’d gone looking for survivors, and the Flame Emperor vanished when Hubert showed up in an absolute frenzy because you’d disappeared. Hubert is practically glued to your side at all times unless you specifically order him not to be. Petra said he’d gone with you when you went searching, too. I figured it was possible that you split up and he was alarmed when he couldn’t find you on finishing his rounds -- but then, why couldn’t he find you? The man’s as methodical as they come, he would have searched everywhere before panicking. Possibly twice. With magic, even, who knows. So where exactly did you go?”

“I…”

“And now here you are, advocating that the Flame Emperor -- the man who, up to this point, we’ve viewed as the one in charge of the forces that kidnapped Flayn and caused that disaster in Remire -- isn’t in control at all. That in spite of his big talk, he’s being used as a front for the real villains, just like the people of Duscur were. So what if -- and, of course, this is all just speculation -- what if Hubert faked that panic to give the Flame Emperor an opening to escape in Remire when things looked like they might get ugly? After all, Teach said they wanted to pull a sword on him. Hubert doesn’t fake for just anyone -- he can’t even figure out how to smile without scaring Bernadetta into a dead faint. Pretty sure the only person he’d convincingly do that for...is you, Princess.”

She sat with her back straight as a lance and her shoulders perfectly squared, her stare sharp enough to cow a lesser man. But Claude did not so much as bat an eye, instead leaning toward her with that knife-sharp grin curving across his face. “Teach knows, don’t they? It’s why they’ve been giving you that look every time we have tea. They told you to tell us, and you hadn’t yet.”

“And you claim that I’m the one guilty of wild speculation?” she mused.

“Hey, I admitted up front that I was just throwing darts at the board,” he shrugged. “But I’ve got more hard evidence than you do to back your Flame Emperor notions...unless, that is, you know first-hand that what you’re saying is fact. Because you and the Flame Emperor are the same person.”

“Edelgard?”

They both looked toward him. But Dimitri had attention to spare for Edelgard alone, meeting her icy gaze without blinking for fear that he might miss her reaction. But she said nothing, and the silence filled with the howls of the dying and the crackling of flames and he needed something else, anything else, to drown it out. “Do you know who the Flame Emperor is?” he breathed. She inclined her head, very slightly, and the din mounted, the ring of steel crashing in time with the pounding in his skull. “Who?”

“...I am the Flame Emperor.”

The whispers swirling around him built into a deafening howl.

And from the place deep in his core that he’d tried so hard to lock away, the darkness rose to claim him.

***

Claude had all of three seconds to grab Dimitri before he could wrap his hands around Edelgard’s neck.

Ultimately, tackling the prince didn’t do much (he’d severely underestimated how strong the man was), but it did give the princess enough time to lunge out of the way before Dimitri could latch onto her. “MONSTER!!”

“You don’t understand!” Edelgard insisted while the archer futilely tried to restrain the snarling prince. “Had I known what they were doing in Remire I would have found some way to stop it, and I only learned what happened in Duscur long after the fact--”

“SILENCE!!”

Dimitri’s hand fisted in Claude’s shirt, and suddenly he was lying on the floor, stars winking through his field of view as he stared up at the ceiling. Struggling back to his feet, he blinked a few times in a desperate attempt to make his head stop swimming; it didn’t do much good, and he still ended up lurching into the desk, using it to prop himself up while he struggled to get his bearings. The princess was doing an admirable job of keeping out of reach, but in such a small space, it was really only a matter of time…

Well, only one thing for it, then.

He threw the door open and blew a short, sharp whistle. She ducked aside from another lunge, looked toward him -- and nodded, throwing herself out into the hall. “Get Teach,” he said. And before she could reply, he slammed the door closed again, pressing his back to it and bracing himself for the worst.

Dimitri skidded to a stop in front of him, chest heaving like a winded animal, trembling with rage but managing, if only for a moment, to restrain it. “Get out of the way, Claude.”

“Can’t do that, Your Princeliness,” he grinned.

“Move. Now.”

“Take a breath, Dimitri.” He lifted his hands in a placating gesture, drawing in a slow, deep breath and letting it out in an easy sigh. The prince made no move to imitate him, though, eyes narrowing as he took a heavy step closer. “Let’s talk about this--”

“She is a monster!!”

His roar shook dust from the chandelier. “Why would you defend her!? You know full well what she’s done--”

“I’m not defending her,” Claude snapped. “Look, I’m not happy about this, either. But we can’t kill her.”

“We cannot let her go free,” Dimitri growled, planting his hands on the door just over the archer’s shoulders (and suddenly his great idea seemed somewhat ill-conceived, since the hinges were screaming in protest).

“She’s not gonna get away,” he promised, meeting the prince’s gaze steadily and wondering if Dimitri could even see him, as lost as he was in his anger. “But there’s something a lot bigger than her out there, and she’s the only person who has any concept of just how dangerous it is. We need her alive. So I can’t let you go after her.”

He watched the young man’s hands clench and unclench, his wild eyes fixating on the archer still standing in his way, and for one worrisome moment Claude thought that the prince might settle for taking his anger out on the closest moving target. But that moment passed, and Dimitri turned away, stalking to the far side of the room and staring out through the windows. “Get out.”

He didn’t need to be told twice.

[raxistaicho]

Replying to weeefe3h‘s response.

A while back, @weeefe3h replied to my post, “Why Edelgard didn’t JUST reform the Empire,” with a few issues, which I will be attempting to address in this post. I refrained from reposting with a reply because... the post would be mega-long, lol.

Original reply here.

I hope you don’t mind me coming in, because I don’t really agree with what you’re saying here but I don’t want to come off rude.

So first off, I welcome all those who have issues with my posts :) I’m not trying to run an echo chamber, just don’t be rude is all, which weeefe3h was not. I appreciate their pleasantness and will strive to act in kind.

weeefe’s first point mostly contends with the fact that Edelgard forced change, and did so through a method that involved a lot of innocent people dying.

This is certainly true, and it’s a truth Edelgard herself admits to both in Azure Moon and Crimson Flower.  She’s well aware that her war is causing widespread death and suffering, but she believes a relatively brief period of intense pain for the people of Fodlan is a worthwhile trade to avoid another millenia of the slow rot it has suffered since the fall of Nemesis.

This issue mostly contends with whether you think the war was a necessary thing to improve Fodlan. Edelgard did, and I believe she was right; Fodlan in White Clouds is a powder keg. Faerghus is on the verge of collapse and had just inflicted an actual genocide against the people of Duscur, Faerghan and Adrestian nobles are resorting to eugenics (and in the case of the Empire, actual human experimentation) to sustain the failing Crest bloodlines, the alliance is a squabbling mess, and at least two of its lords are engaging in naked territory grabs from the others or killing civilians for associating with their political rivals. Banditry is so rampant that Jeralt’s company can keep steady work, and Rhea is chiefly concerned with suppressing insurrection against the Church rather than safeguarding the people of Fodlan.

Regardless of whether she was “actually right” in going to war, that she never even attempted talking to Dimitri or Claude at any point in the game beforehand says a lot about her. There’s a reason why only Dimitri and Claude can team up during the war, and why Claude doesn’t team up with Edelgard even if he’s spared and supposedly shares the same ideals as her - it’s because her ways of going about change are fundamentally more destructive than they are able to reconcile with. Edelgard isn’t inherently wrong for wanting to enact change beyond her own borders, she’s wrong because of the means she chose to actually enact said change. Edelgard is wrong for “wanting to make change” for the same reason Rhea is wrong for “wanting to bring back Sothis” - the act itself isn’t inherently bad, but her means of trying to take Byleth’s life are what make her wrong.

Edelgard has no reason to trust either Dimitri or Claude, and too openly revealing her hand would be disastrous for her.

Claude came from absolutely nowhere, is very cagey with his background, and spends copious amounts of time with Tomas in the library. He very much has the mark of being an Agarthan plant. Even so, Edelgard actually does attempt to speak, cautiously, with Claude in the Verdant Wind story, but he rebuffs her due to his untrusting nature.

Edelgard doesn’t know Dimitri, and given the inordinate emphasis Faerghus places on Crests and the bloodlines, she has no reason to believe he sees any problem with them (indeed, he owes his claim to the throne on the fact that his uncle was born Crestless. In any case, Edelgard and Dimitri would never see eye to eye, and their parley at the end of Azure Moon demonstrates this.

Edelgard believes that obsession with Crests, bloodlines, and faith in the goddess are limiting the potential of the people of Fodlan and keeping the underprivileged in a suppressed state. She believes that people have an inherent strength to them that needs to be nurtured and given a chance to grow.

Dimitri believes that people are inherently weak and that the downtrodden must be protected by those born with power. While he sees issues with the focus on Crests, he also thinks they’re a necessary thing;

Still, there is always a reason for why such customs stand the test of time. Imagine what this world would be like if no one placed any stock in Crests... Bloodlines that carry Crests would dwindle. The metaphorical blade used to oppose threats would eventually rust. This same argument has been made time and time again across the years. Both sides are at once right and wrong.

Indeed, he seems downright unnerved at the notion of an uncertain future, and holds fast to the present.

Dimitri’s belief that some must be born above to protect those below is antithetical to Edelgard’s belief that those below must be allowed to rise up. Edelgard has sufficient cause to believe Dimitri would not agree with her reforms, and she is correct in doubting him.

As a final note, Dimitri and Claude “teaming up” is greatly overblown. Dimitri never provides any assistance to Claude during Verdant Wind or Silver Snow, and Claude requesting Dimitri’s assistance in Azure Moon was, if anything, just a cop-out by the writers to neatly tie off the Alliance as a faction given every route has to end with Fodlan reunified, Dimitri has no cause to attack the Alliance anymore, and the Alliance isn’t in the same terrible shape the Kingdom is in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow.

…Not really? The Kingdom had Ashe and Yuri be adopted into nobles families. In the Alliance there’s Margrave Edmund who rose to power through trade routes and good speech skills. Lambert was going to do apparently “radical” reforms to the Kingdom before he was killed. None of this is denounced by the church or is looked on poorly by the church.

Although we’re never given the details on how and why Yuri is adopted into House Rowe, he has a Crest, so that’s a poor example. Ashe was a clear charity case by a minor Kingdom Lord subservient to Count Rowe, and in any case, Lonato already had a biological heir in the form of Christophe. He wasn’t so much bringing Ashe into legitimate noble status as he was giving him a new home to live in. Note that Ashe is still classed and treated as a commoner despite his adopted status, and only inherits House Gaspard in his endings.

Margrave Edmund is an exception to the rule, but it’s worth noting that he got into the Round Table partly because House Daphnel lost prominence, and they lost prominence because their Crest bloodline and Relic went over to the Kingdom;

Descendants of one of the 10 Elites and formerly among the Five Great Lords of the Alliance, it lost much power due to internal discord. For the last several generations, no head of House Daphnel has born a Crest. In spite of this, it still maintains its status as a noble family.

Indeed, the library book even has to emphasize that it would seem to be expected House Daphnel might lose their noble status due to their dearth of Crested heirs.

By contrast, House Galatea was granted land in the Kingdom (it can be safely assumed House Galatea did not originally own their lands, given that it would stand to reason that the mountain range which marks the modern border between the Kingdom and the Alliance also did so at the time of the Galatean branch family’s defection from House Daphnel) just for bringing over a new Crest and a Relic. Granted, the land turned out to be shitty, but still.

Additionally, part of House Galatea’s modern issues stem from the fact that Ingrid is the only heir to carry a Crest in some time.

All this is to say that exceptions to the rule do not unmake the rule.

And the church itself doesn’t like that Crests are used to gain power. From the Book of Seiros, Part II: “The descendants of the Heroes sought their ancestor’s power, and thusly their blood. In time, they amassed Crests, Relics, land, and wealth, using all to set the land aflame with war. The goddess’s power, intended to stem the flow of evil, became a tool of destruction, all because of the greed of humanity. The goddess grieved and, heartbroken, hid herself in the heavens from whence she came…”

And from the Book of Seiros, Part V: “  Dare not abuse the power gifted to you by the goddess.  “

That excerpt is just Rhea covering her ass, plain and simple. The Ten Commandments urge not to kill, and yet that’s never really stopped Christians from killing. We never see the Church actually enforce this rule or even chastise the noble class, even as the Kingdom and Empire institute actual eugenics programs to keep the Crested bloodlines alive. The only time Rhea moves to suppress instability in Fodlan is when it directly threatens the Church or the stability of the Crest System;

-Kostas’s gang were causing trouble on holy ground.

-Lonato was rising up against the Church.

-Miklan chanced exposing the dark secret of the Relics (note that Miklan was stirring up trouble in Rodrigue’s territory, and yet the Church prevented him from moving to defend his own people)

-Naturally, the Flame Emperor was acting against the Church.

-Remire village was very close to Garreg Mach and harboring a strange contagion during a year of great turmoil.

Where was the Church when Faerghus committed a genocide against the people of Duscur? It’s even worth bringing up that this incident made the Central Church look really bad; the Western Church was convinced the shadow order of the Knights of Seiros had Lambert assassinated and then executed Christophe to cover it up. Where was the Church when the Galatean split threatened upheaval within the Alliance and Kingdom?

The Church is granting divine legitimacy to Crested bloodlines while not acting to stop the worst excesses of them. The Church’s hypocritical standing in relation to the nobility is part of why Fodlan is in a rotten state.

There’s only ever any Crest-based nobility because of humans, not because Rhea or anyone from the church made it so - they explicitly denounce the idea of using Crests for such means, but the nobility ignore that and do it anyway.

By giving a theological background to the existence of Crests, Rhea turned them from inherited superpowers to a mark of the Goddess’s favor. She provided legitimacy to the Crested bloodlines just as she provided legitimacy to Loog’s rebellion when she crowned him. She might not have started either, but she provided them the theological support they needed to win the acceptance of the people.

So Edelgard doing all of what you said either wouldn’t be criticized by the church or would in all likelihoods be praised by the church for finally stemming the use of the Goddess’ power as a tool of destruction and greed (which made the goddess weep and leave Fodlan, according to the doctrine). Rhea is only worried about what the people would do without the nobility, but if Edelgard’s reforms prove to not sow discord Rhea would be more relieved than anything - after all, it’s a sign that humans are finally trying to stop benefiting from her family’s massacre. If anything, Edelgard, if this idea is followed, knocks down two birds with one stone - she proves the people don’t need nobility to stay orderly and gets rid of the notion of Crests being viable tools for garnering power.

Edelgard’s not just saying, “Don’t abuse Crests anymore,” she’s saying, “Crests are an unjust system that unfairly brings up a few at the expense of the many.” She’s outright calling the influence of the Goddess a detrimental thing to the people of Fodlan.

But as seen from the actual doctrine, Edelgard denouncing Crests is pretty well in-line with what the church actually wants. Nobles were the ones to make Crests as they are now; the church never wanted them to be used as tools of greed in the first place, only to help stop evil. Edelgard delegitimizing Crests and the Church of Seiros still standing are two things that could very easily coexist with each other.

Edelgard delegitimizing Crests would delegitimize the Church of Seiros. Again, Crests are the mark of the Goddess’s influence and her favor in a select few in Fodlan. Denying Crests would mean spitting in the hand of the Goddess. It would be the ultimate insult.

Why would those of the Alliance do so? They may not have had hired ministers, but they did already have the idea of nobles who started off as commoners rule over them be a familiar one (Edmund) so Edelgard doing the same for Adrestia wouldn’t be anything new to them.

Again, Edmund is an exception to the rule, and we don’t know the backstory of House Edmund. Realistically, it probably began as a cadet branch to a Crested noble house. Edelgard wants to eliminate the concept of nobility and inherited power. Some who are confident in their ability to succeed without the guarantee of succession at birth, such as Constance or Lorenz, would find no issue with this, but others would rise up against her or try to denounce her.

And on top of that, Edelgard taking Adrestia’s throne comes with Dimitri taking Faerghus’ throne and Claude inheriting the title of duke soon afterwards, so if Edelgard bided her time to wait for at least Dimitri to ascend to the throne she could talk with him about reforms. And them teaming up (while waiting for Oswald to either die or hand over the title of duke to Claude) would give both Edelgard and Dimitri a strong international ally to work with in helping the people, something that wasn’t true for Lambert or Ionius and could help immensely in warding off things like a Tragedy or Insurrection from happening again.

This really demands a post all its own to explain in detail, but I don’t believe Dimitri or Claude would have much luck wielding the kind of power you think they would in their respective lands.

Plus, Dimitri and Edelgard are able to use the experience of having a Tragedy and Insurrection happen to them to be able to watch for warning signs or to ready themselves against any plots against them, and Claude already has experience with people trying to assassinate him specifically. They’d be more prepared than Lambert or Ionius (or Godfrey) were in protecting themselves from nobles plotting their deaths/downfall.

The issue here is that Dimitri is not particularly good at learning from the past. Having seen his father assassinated for trying to reform relations with the people of Duscur, he would inevitably draw ire from those same nobles who committed the Tragedy (it wasn’t all JUST Agarthans) when he investigated it.

Claude’s ability to smell an assassination coming is not much help if he lacks the power to stop it in its tracks, and given Gloucestor can just outright send monsters at his victims, he’s got a lot of power.

That’s only if Edelgard is incredibly rash and started immediately enacting her reforms without waiting for Dimitri and Claude to gain their positions as king and duke. They would have not only each other as allies, but whatever allies they’d already have teaming up together as well (such as Fraldarius and Gautier for Dimitri and Goneril and Daphnel for Claude, for example).

At this point, your argument rests upon a foundation that I’ve already chipped away at, but in the case of Daphnel and Goneril specifically, Daphnel is a house in decline while Gloucestor’s star is on the rise in the Alliance. Meanwhile, Goneril is generally busy holding the border against Almyra.

The commoners “rising against their noble master and the church” seems unlikely to happen in either the Alliance (with its precedence of having commoners rise to high positions of nobility)

There is no precedent. House Edmund didn’t rise from a family of commoners to nobility, they simply gained “great clout” in recent generations that coincided with House Daphnael losing influence when their lose their Crest and Relic. Edmund didn’t boot out a Crested house, they simply took the place of one that had already effectively lost their Crested status through internal upheaval.

It’s debatable that even the Kingdom commoners would care that much, as people didn’t seem to care when Ashe and Yuri, two street rats, were adopted by well-respected families. On top of that, the church likely wouldn’t interfere with Edelgard as she would be doing what they want (stopping people from misusing Crests for greed and power).

These last two points I’ve already addressed. Yuri and Ashe are not strong exceptions (especially because Yuri has a Crest), and Edelgard decrying Crests would be an insult to the church.

Again, I hope I don’t come off as rude or anything, but I just don’t understand how Edelgard is against the world when she is doing things neither the commoners, Dimitri and Claude, or the church would hold anything against, nor do I agree with the idea that the “only” difference between her and (at least) Dimitri and Claude is so minimal and easily dismissible.

Not at all, you were perfectly respectful and I appreciate it :) I hope I didn’t come across as rude, myself. As a last note, while I agree that Edelgard and Claude might see eye-to-eye a little better, I don’t believe she and Dimitri would come to any kind of accord, and the game itself bears this out.

[indigowallbreaker]

Hey indigo, I read your felix handholding prompt and i thought it was so cute! I was wondering if you could do raising the other's hand to their lip to kiss them next with dimitri and byleth

Have a wonderful day :))

(have a wonderful day yourself! recently read a fic where the writer was... not kind to Dimitri. so this was therapeutic!) 

The Battle of Gronder had demanded only four of Byleth’s Divine Pulses. A small number, considering their enemies. 

After the battle, she used a fifth Pulse-- reactionary, visceral, reckless some might say. As the report of Dimitri’s demise had left Hilda’s lips, Byleth reached out for that unfathomable yet familiar power, wound back the hands of time, and charge into the forest.

Now the Alliance army was back at Garreg Mach. Injuries needed tending, bodies needed to be tallied, and Byleth’s students-turned-soldiers needed rest. Weary as she was, Byleth had taken up post in her father’s old office. Dimitri lay unconscious in the infirmary next door. Manuela had forbidden visitors of any kind until the place was no longer filled to the brim with the wounded. 

After Byleth had emerged from the forest with a half dead Dimitri over her shoulders, much of the remaining Kingdom army had sworn allegiance and followed Byleth and Claude back to Garreg Mach. Byleth could see Dedue just outside the office door. He stood in the hall, vigilant, to ward off visitors or anyone deemed a threat to His Highness. Flayn had been gently turned away twice.

Byleth sat at the captain’s desk, nursing a cup of tea Claude had brought her. The tea had grown cold long ago but it was something to do so Byleth still sipped it, lost somewhere between sleep and thought. Waiting. Wondering. 

Why had Dimitri run after Edelgard alone? When Byleth had found him, Dimitri was studded with arrows and lance heads, gashes covered his chest, his breaths had been ragged and desperate. Clearly in no shape to kill anyone-- and indeed, moments after Byleth approached, he had collapsed to the forest floor. 

Why not team up with Byleth and Claude for the battle? Why fling old friend after old friend at them? Why blaze across half the continent and ruin your best chance of victory by running off alone? Why Why Why--

“Professor?”

Byleth looked up and, realizing she had slumped in her chair, sat up. Dedue was in the doorway. As their eyes met, he nodded. 

One brief meeting with Manuela, Byleth found herself sitting beside Dimitri’s cot, the curtains draw around them both. Apparently he had stirred a minute ago. As the one who had rescued him, Dedue had agreed to let her ‘visit’ first. But right now, Dimitri lay unmoving, torso wrapped in gauze, hair still matted with blood. Her only comfort was the slow rise and fall of his chest.

Byleth lay a hand over one of his. Questions, reprimands-- they all stuck in her throat as she brought his hand up to hold it with both her own. 

“I’m not suppose to do things like that,” she said at long last. “I was told to use my power to protect my students. It didn’t even work to save my father.”

Sweat and grime had gathered around the strap of his eye-patch and Byleth reached out to swipe the mess away with her thumb. “It worked for you, though. You were never my student. But I was able to save you.” She squeezed his hand. “Don’t let that be a waste. Don’t go off on your own again. There’s no reason to anymore.” Hilda’s words from a different past echoed in her mind and Byleth raised Dimitri’s hand to kiss the back of it. “Please, Dimitri. Let me in.”

Those fingers flexed in her grip. Byleth look down and saw a sliver of blue open and find her gaze. Dimitri’s chapped lips parted, took in a shallow breath--  “Professor?”

His voice was faint. So far from the guttural roars from a few days prior that Byleth couldn’t help but smile. “Good morning,” she said, unsure of the time herself. 

Slowly, Dimitri’s eye wandered around. He made no move to sit up. “Where...?” He licked his lips, ready to speak again, but Byleth took pity.

With another kiss to his hand, Byleth said, “Welcome to Garreg Mach Monastery.” 

(hand-hold prompt list!)

[claudes-therapy-center]

For the prompt thing, may I request Dimitri and Claude with Proposal?

Dimitri stirred awake by the sound of his mattress creaking. The bed dipped a little from the weight of his visitor, and he lazily opened his eye to see who had disturbed him. His vision started off a little hazy, the light filtering in through the windows bright and he had trouble adjusting to it. He could see the outline of beige clothes and brown hair, and bits of bright yellow over the figure’s body.“Mornin sleepy head,” spoke a soothing and familiar voice. A warm hand tenderly stroked through his disheveled hair, “The sun has been up for a few hours now. Figured it was time to come get you,” they finished.

 Dimitri rubbed the haze from his eye, and smiled at the person looming over him, “Claude, good morning,” he mumbled into his pillow. He admired the features of his lover in the morning light. He could see that he had been awake for several hours, probably before the sun came up, because of the uniform he was wearing. His ‘War outfit’ as he liked to call it for serious council meetings. He had combed those wild, brown locks back, but a few strands had fallen out of place, more than likely due to work, but nevertheless, he still looked sharp. Those gorgeous green eyes looked a bit weary, but still had that mischievous glint in them. He’d never admit it outloud, but he could tell what Claude was experiencing by looking into his eyes, and he could see that it had been a trying day. But through all his tribulations, Dimitri thought he still looked angelic. With the light cascading around him, causing his tan skin to glow with a golden hue, and the soft smile on his face as he gazed so lovingly at him, just made his heart warm. Dimitri buried his face into his pillow, and reached out to touch Claude’s hand, “It’s too bright give me a minute.”

His love merely chuckled at his worn state, “You are too cute when you’re like this,” he replied, as he leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek, “Anyway, I have something I need to discuss with you. Do you want to talk about it now or later?”his love reached up and carefully pulled him down beside him. He nuzzled his head against Claude’s chest, causing him to laugh as the other wrapped his arms around his body, “What’s gotten into you today?”

“I just want a hug,” he mumbled.

Claude rolled his eyes, but proceeded to hold him tight, “Alright, if I hold you will you listen?”

 “Yeah,” He replied with a giddy grin, “Does it involve the council meeting?”

“No, but we can talk about that another time,” He rested his head lazily on top of his, “I don’t want to talk about treaties right now.”

“Well, what is bothering you?”

“It’s not bothering me per say….” he trailed off, and Dimitri looked up at him, clearly concerned.“Claude?”

“Mitya, how ready are you to move to Almyra?”

“What?” Dimitri untangled himself from Claude’s grasp and sat up. His lover averted his gaze, and he responded by reaching out to touch his chin, and tilting it so he could see his eyes. He saw hesitation, and doubt behind that forlorn expression, “What’s brought this on?”

“Please, just…just answer the question.”

“Claude…” He resigned himself from prying too much, but couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong. If he wanted answers, he had to assuage whatever his love may be fearing first, “I’ll never be completely ready to move, but I’m still willing to do so. I’ve done all I can here, all I’ve sought out to do. I re established relations with Duscur, I put the Kingdom back in order, and I relinquished my title and lands to Byleth, same as you. There’s nothing more for me to do here, but it’s still my home. Of course I’ll feel upset for leaving, but I’m also pretty excited to start a new life with you,” he chuckled and lifted one of Claude’s hands into his own, “I haven’t been able to get Almyra out of my mind. I’m so excited to go! To finally see the place you call home, the lands you hold so dear and so ready to protect, it’s exhilarating,” he beamed as he put Claude’s hand to his face, “ So, to answer your question, Yes, I am ready to journey to Almyra with you. I’ll get to see you rule firsthand, quietly watching behind the scenes,” he concluded. He didn’t mind giving up his title as king. In fact, he felt relief wash over him as he performed the ceremony with Byleth, knowing his kingdom was in good hands. He didn’t know much about Almyra’s court system, but he knew that they probably wouldn’t want the king’s lover to be sitting in on meetings, or helping with decision making. So, he resigned himself to get used to just carefully watching and supporting him from the side lines.

“What if I don’t want you behind the scenes?” The words cut through Dimitri like a dagger to his back. The cherry look in his eyes faded in an instant, even more so as Claude just stared blankly at him.

“Hold on, what do you mean? Do you not-” his voice caught in his throat, and it felt as though a rock had lodged it’s way between his vocal cords. He thought for a brief moment that his love was going to abandon him, like he had been fearing for two years since they were together. ‘I just sacrificed everything for him,’ Dimitri thought as tears welled in his eyes, ‘why is he deciding to tell me after the fact that he doesn’t want me? Have I misjudged his character this whole time?’ his hands started shaking as he tried to calm himself, but the thoughts wouldn’t stop flooding his mind.

However Claude, being the people reader that he is, quickly latched onto him and held him tight,“Oh! No no no! I’m not saying that at all,” he briefly kissed Dimitri on the mouth, stifling a giggle at the blush that formed on his face,“What I meant is, what if I want you closer?”

“Closer?” Dimitri looked at him quizzically, “Your court would allow someone without a title to be with you in court?”

“No, Mitya listen,” Claude took his hands in his own and kissed them, “what if I gave you a title?”

“You can just hand out titles to people as king in Almyra?” Dimitri laughed, his wide, adoring smile showing through again,“What, are you going to give me back my lord status?”

“Mitya-”

“Doesn’t seem like a very good choice to me. Wouldn’t that cause an uproar? I mean, I’m not opposed to it if you want me to help you, but the implications-” he’s cut short by Claude pulling him into a deep, but brief kiss. He can feel his face go hot, and his heart starts racing even when the contact was brief. When they pull away, his love’s eyes are closed, but his head is tilted downwards towards their joined hands, “What was that for?”

“Look in your hands, Dimitri.”

“My hands…” he didn’t notice it while they were talking, but he could feel something small and round pressing against his palm, “Claude what did you-” his eye went wide as he stared at the object in his hands. It was a silver ring, studded with Diamonds, with A large Sapphire in the middle. He held it in his hands like he was holding a fragile, baby bird. Carefully rolling it in his palms to see the full scale of the craftsmanship. As the sunlight hit it, he could see the words ‘Forever bound by fate, in this life, and the next’ engraved on the inside of the ring in elegant cursive.

“Dimitri, I wanted to ask you for some time now, and I never got the chance because of the war. I wanted to propose right after, but then Nemesis showed up and, well…” He sighed and placed his hands on Dimitri’s knees, “Now that negotiations are almost done here, and our carriages are being packed, I wanted to do one last thing before we leave Fodlan behind.”

“You want me to…” he looked up finally, with tears in his eye, “marry you?”

“If you’ll allow it, yes,” he cleared his throat, then retook Dimitri’s hand. He placed the ring on his finger, which was a perfect fit, “I want you to rule side by side with me. I’ll fight for your rights if I have to. Most marriages only allow for a reagent with limited power, but I want you to stand with me as an equal. I have always thought of you as such, and I don’t want that dynamic to change,” he kissed Dimitri’s cheek, “Will you marry me, Dimitri?” His love sat there utterly still with his expression a mixture of shock and disbelief. He finally leaned against Claude’s shoulder, held him with an iron grip, and started to sob and shake violently, “Dimitri!” he yelled, as he squeezed him just as tight, “Are you alright? Was it something I said? Oh, Dima, I am so sorry.”

“It’s not that,” He sputtered between harsh coughs, “I just never thought you would want to marry me,” his breathing started getting sporadic as he continued to weep. They sat there for several minutes as he tried to calm himself down. His love cooed and whispered reassurances in his ear while patting his back. Once he was able to breathe deep again, he continued, “I spent the last two years thinking I was just going to be your lover. That you would eventually move on to someone new, and I would fade into a distant memory. I should have known better,” He laughed darkly and wiped his eye, “I didn’t think I would be worth the trouble, much less the time. When we first got together, I kept thinking that you would find someone better. Someone who deserves you much more than me, but I see now I was wrong,” he gasped as he started to cry again, “I-I’m so sorry I doubted you. Please, forgive me!”

“Mitya…shhhh, it’s okay,” Claude placed several kissed along Dimitri’s neck and shoulder as he sobbed against him. He rubbed circles into his back, and slowly rocked side to side, “It’s okay, I’m not upset. Please, Calm down. Darling, look at me,”He held his love’s face in his hands as he lovingly grazed his thumbs across his cheeks, and felt a pain in his chest at how distraught he looked. With a tender kiss he softly said, “I love you, Mitya. I always will. It’s not your fault for feeling this way I understand,” He could see him wince and start to cry more, but he kissed him fully while wiping away the tears, “Hush, it’s alright. I love you. I love you, Dimitri, so don’t cry. Darling, you are so wonderful.”

“I-I love you too,” He stuttered, “That’s why I’m so torn up over this,” he laughed weakly as he brought his hands to rest on Claude’s.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he smiled and pressed their foreheads together, “I guess I should have brought this up sooner huh?”

“No, it’s my fault for overreacting. I should be the one apologizing.”

“Regardless of all that,” Claude chuckled and kissed him one last time, “Will you marry me, you lovely, beautiful man?”

“Of course I will,” He laughed and embraced his love tightly, “ I’m with you now, and forever more.”

Mod Bambi -🦌

[iturbide]

Speaking of which...may we hear some more about their interactions in Kintsugi?

Oh of course I do love the fact that Kintsugi puts them together more than most of my other stuff (with the exception of Pre-Timeskip Fix-It, but that’s a whole other thing). 

Although their first meeting is relatively brief, since Ferdinand shows up with reinforcements at Myrddin and leaves shortly after the battle’s end, it’s actually a really important event because of where Ferdinand is mentally when it happens.  Edelgard sends him as the leader of the reinforcements for the Great Bridge, something that should be an honor -- but that Ferdinand can’t help but think is actually a subtle way of disposing of him since he continues to be her most vocal opponent in the Empire.  He doesn’t want to suspect this, but he can’t silence that deeply rooted doubt, either.  On top of that, he knows that if he falls, his friends back in the Empire, and in particular the ones that are suffering most from this drawn-out war (Bernadetta, Dorothea, and Petra chief among them) will be alone: he has people who depend on him, people he has to return to, and he’s terrified of dying here and leaving them without any kind of lifeline.

It makes him fight all the harder...but it doesn’t see him claim victory.  He makes the reasonable choice of trying to take out Marianne first, but Hilda blocks for her, and he finds himself unable to get through the Goneril’s defense; not only that, the cavalry arrives in the form of Lorenz, who tries to talk Ferdinand down and begs to know why he’s doing this, since this war goes against everything  his noble spirit should support -- and Ferdinand breaks, because he has no choice, they need him to come back! 

Unbeknownst to him, Claude and Byleth had been coming up from behind to assist after dealing with the rest of the reinforcements, and Claude naturally asks who needs him to come back -- which, of course, startles Ferdinand into whirling around with his lance, to which Claude’s wyvern shoots back up out of reach while Byleth ducks under its swing before Lorenz finally takes Ferdinand down, incapacitating and disarming him.  Ferdinand fully expects that he is going to die there, but resolves that he’s going to do it with his head held high...and instead Claude just asks him, conversationally, how things are going in the Empire.  Ferdinand is taken aback, and scoffs that he would never betray Adrestia by divulging secrets to the enemy, to which Claude replies that he wouldn’t ask Ferdinand to: he just wants to know what’s going on, because now that they’re restoring Garreg Mach they’ve been seeing a lot of Seiros worshippers coming in from the Empire as refugees, which is...well, understandably disconcerting.

Ferdinand can’t actually see how this kind of information would betray the Empire.  So he talks a little bit about the edicts that Edelgard has put in place, the conditions that commoners in Adrestia have been living through for the past few years...and though he doesn’t say it out loud it’s clear from how he speaks and how he looks that none of this is what he expected -- none of this is what he wanted, but he doesn’t feel he has a choice but to stay and keep pushing for change, even if Edelgard doesn’t want to listen to him, because leaving and being branded a traitor means that no one with power is left who will vouch for the commoners.  Claude can hear it and see it while Ferdinand speaks...and in the end, he suggests letting Ferdinand go.

This shocks everyone, Ferdinand included.  He naturally expects that Claude will want him to become a spy for the Alliance, which his noble heart would never allow -- and Claude gives him such a look, because he’s kidding, right?  Ferdinand, you would make a terrible spy, to which everyone around him nods in agreement...and eventually Ferdie grudgingly nods, too, because he really would be.  But Claude tells him that Adrestia needs someone like Ferdinand, who’s going to fight for the people even if it means butting heads with the Empress: the Alliance is going to do all it can to keep the loss of life to a minimum, but things are bound to get worse before they get better, so the best place for Ferdinand is back in the Empire where he’ll be able to save the most lives.

Ferdinand, who had never been able to get a solid read on Claude during their time in the Academy, is startled by this...but grateful, too, since it means that he’ll be able to return to the people who most need him.  He doesn’t consider himself Claude’s agent, nor does Claude consider him one -- but Claude still asks Marianne to patch Ferdinand up before he leaves, because he’s a good guy and doesn’t want to send Ferdie off in such rough shape.  Ferdinand himself is the one who refuses the offer, remarking that it would be more suspicious if he returned from a rout with signs of healing...which Claude can’t really argue, even if he’s not a fan.  (He still slips Ferdie a vulnerary so he can at least take care of himself, though he does it without the nobleman realizing, so Ferdinand just gets to puzzle over the fact that he doesn’t remember packing that before he left.)

Fast forward many months and Ferdinand and Claude finally run into each other again at Enbarr -- specifically, after the battle’s over and Edelgard is secretly taken into Alliance custody (since, while they did see each other in the battle for the palace, they didn’t have a chance to really interact since Claude and Ashe had their hands full trying to keep Petra from murdering someone).  Ferdinand, quite reasonably, wants to know what’s going to happen to the Empire now that Edelgard has been deposed, and Claude replies that it’s a good question -- and one he doesn’t know how to answer.  He doesn’t intend to take over the Empire, because that would just be repeating the same mistakes Edelgard made; but he’s also not from the Empire, and doesn’t know its history all that well, so he can’t really speculate on what will happen...or what should happen, for that matter.  He opens it up for open discussion with Ferdinand -- probably over tea, since Ferdie is the sort to offer to make some to chat over -- and while Ferdinand has no ambition to take over as ruler of the Empire, he does realize that Adrestia will need some kind of leadership, and finds that Claude has a broad and curious array of suggestions that don’t erase what Edelgard was trying to do (though he does put far more emphasis on lifting up the common folk than Edelgard did with her meritocratic system -- he wholeheartedly praises Ferdinand’s idea of making education available to everyone regardless of status and encourages him to make that happen).

Despite the fact that Ferdinand is technically a prisoner, he ends up free to roam the camp in much the way that Linhardt and Caspar have -- and of course he takes full advantage, making himself right at home and chatting with everyone on the way back to Garreg Mach.  While he doesn’t play a major role in the big discussions between Byleth, Claude, Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea (because Claude needs answers), he does bring tea to all the meetings and throws Edelgard for a loop because he’s clearly doing it of his own volition (and quite happily, at that).  He’s happy that there’s no fighting to worry about and wants, more than anything, to do what he can for the survivors -- starting with his friends, since they’re so close at hand and still deeply affected.

Of course, Claude does manage to pry information out of Edelgard and Rhea pertaining to the deeper mysteries in Fodlan, including Those Who Slither.  And because they still pose a major threat, Claude wants to deal with them as soon as possible -- but the way he does it is by telling everyone about what he learned, and letting them decide whether they want to take part or not.  After getting dragged into a five year war by Edelgard’s personal ambitions, this is a pretty shocking move to Ferdinand -- and all the more since Claude makes it clear that he’s going regardless of who else decides to come, because this isn’t something they can leave alone, but he doesn’t want to force anyone to take part, especially after how much they’ve suffered.  Dimitri is one of the first who agrees to come with him, along with Hilda -- but Ferdinand volunteers to come, too, for the sake of everyone in the Empire in hopes of preventing further suffering. 

(While Claude isn’t surprised by this move necessarily, he is grateful for it, because it really is just like Ferdinand to step up for the sake of helping everyone else.  He’s just that kind of guy.)

I just feel like there would be a lot of mutual respect between them, especially as they get the full measure of one another, and that they’d be able to learn from one another and get all new ideas from their discussions.  Claude can take some of these notions back to Almyra with him, just as Ferdinand can implement some of Claude’s ideas in Adrestia once they start rebuilding -- plus it’s just really nice to think about these two men who care so much about people and making the world a better place getting a chance to interact with each other and have a nice time together over tea and conversation.