#instead of using the divine pulse to stop the bandit Byleth instead gets in between Edelgard and the bandit and takes an axe to the back

[mobbothetrue]

Rules: Make a new post and post your latest line from your WIP and tag as many people as there are words.

Hough! Okay!!! Technically I’ve been tagged in this twice, by @sagethegremlin and by @neurotypical-sonic ! Uhm. Except. I’ve not been— okay so I have been writing but

I got thinking about a project that I did a little bit of two (2) years ago, right? And I was just reading what I had written down two years ago, and I realized I used the word ‘neck’ twice, and that bugged me, so I changed one of the words, so technically the last “”sentence”” I wrote is just. The word.

“[…]skin.”

Which isn’t fantastic for a last line, tag, I think, so I thought ‘oh okay I’ll just go to the thing I was writing before that’, except that’s my extremely self indulgent splatoon TMNT crossover that I may not even like. Publish. so I’m a little uncertain about sharing a snippet of it because it’s a very very new direction for me (putting, what is, essentially, an oc into an established -verse) and I’d like to nurture it a bit more before I share anything

So then I thought ‘okay okay I’ll go to the thing before that!’ but that’s just. stopgap. which is already published. So I’ve just been sitting on these tags and sweating

and I did think ‘oh i’ll just write something new and slap that on here :)’ but then I. Didn’t do that. And I am so so aware of the passage of time so!

Here is my line.

“Edelgard knows only that she is alive by the breath, wet, against her skin.”

for which, the only new word, the rest having been written two years ago, is skin, so. I will be tagging @lessrthanthree . Godspeed chief

[nexttrickanvils]

FE3H Fic: Late Night Chat

Everyone’s got their own take on Divine Pulse related angst. So here’s mine. Though admittedly the angst is kind of light. That said: I promise I’ll write something more cheerful for these two one day.

Title: Late Night Chat

Characters: Claude Von Riegen, F!Byleth

Ships: Claude x Byleth

Notes: Post-timeskip so be aware of spoilers up until that point. Temporary character death, description isn’t graphic but still.

---------

Another day another battle.

He was flying high and firing arrows at any bandit foolish enough to get close to his friends as they focused on yet another demonic beast.

He smiled as he watched Teach face off against the monster, skillfully dodging the boulders it threw and striking back with the Sword of the Creator.

But then he noticed a bandit rushing towards her with an axe and she was too preoccupied with the beast to notice. Without thinking twice, Claude and his wyvern dove towards her and the bandit, he quickly aimed and fired the arrow in between the bandit’s eyes.

Teach turned to the corpse and then back to Claude.

“You gotta be careful, Teach. Weren’t you the one telling us to always focus on...”

“CLAUDE LOOK OUT!”

He turned around and was instantly struck by a massive paw. He could feel more than a few bones breaking from the force of the hit. He fell off his wyvern and soon landed on the ground with a sickening crunch.

The last thing he heard before the world turned black was Teach screaming his name.

Claude sat straight up in a cold sweat and looked around.

He was in his room… it was just a dream… an uncomfortably vivid dream but still a dream.

That… that looked like the last battle they had. Except in real life, Teach figured out the bandit was behind her and fought him off. No need for any heroics from Claude.

Claude fell back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. It wasn’t the first time he’s dreamt about his death. They were in the middle of a war and it was hard not to think of “What ifs...”

The sound of Teach’s horrified scream rang in his head… yeah he wasn’t getting any sleep right now.

With that, Claude got up from his bed, grabbed a light robe, and stepped outside.

---------

As odd as it sounds, wandering around the Monastery at night wasn’t as fun as it was in the Academy days. Maybe it was just the thrill of breaking the rules and keeping an eye out for Seteth.

Does that man ever sleep? Guess it’s just another mystery for Claude to add to his To-Do list.

His mind continued to wander until he arrived at the lake and spotted Teach, wearing a sleeping gown along with her own light robe and sitting at the edge of the pier. He carefully walked towards her until she eventually turned her head towards his steps.

“Evening, Teach. Couldn’t sleep too?”

She gives a small smile, “I tried but I couldn’t stop thinking of battle plans and tactics. I figured that it was better to just step out of my room.”

Claude chuckles as he sits down next to her.

“Been there done that.”

Teach laughs a little at his response and Claude finds the night air just a little warmer for a moment.

“So what brought you out here tonight?” She asked

Oh nothing much just a little late night reminder of my mortality.

...Yeah... while Teach was one of the handful of people that Claude could absolutely trust, wartime talk didn’t really feel appropriate right now.

“Oh… you know… just wanted to watch the stars.” he says as he looks up at the night sky

She looks up as well and remarks, “They are beautiful tonight.”

“And if this was one of those trashy books that Hilda reads, I’m sure this would be the part where one of us says “...But not as beautiful as you!”” Claude says with a dramatic flourish

At that, Teach’s little chuckles turn into a full blown laughing fit.

Oh… that’s weird it suddenly got really warm again. Claude clears his throat and faces her.

“Y-you know, I think that’s the hardest I ever heard you laugh and it wasn’t even my best material.”

Her laughing starts to die down and she takes a couple deep breaths.

“I’m sorry I… after all this time, I’m still trying to get a handle on my emotions and sometimes there’s just this… burst... I suppose you could call it.”

“Oh so I wasn’t that funny after all. You wound me, Teach.”

She elbows Claude in his side in response. After the two share a small laugh, she looks back up at the stars.

“...It occurs to me...”

“Hm?”

“No matter what happens with this war… the stars will still be there. The Empire can destroy fields and towns but they’ll never touch the sky.”

“...Yeah I guess that’s a comforting thought...”

Claude takes a deep breath before continuing.

“...Thinking about the war… To be honest Teach, I actually came out here cause of a bad dream.”

She looks at him with concern.

“What happened?”

“I think it was our last battle. Instead of what actually happened, I got a little cocky and took out that bandit that tried to ambush you. But because I wasn’t paying attention, the demonic beast struck me out of the air. Before I woke up, I heard you screaming...”

He turns to look at her and quickly notices the horrified expression on her face.

“Teach? You alright?”

“...Have… have you had these dreams before?”

“Uh… a few times yeah but Te...”

Before he could finish, Teach practically leaps towards him and embraces him. He hears her repeating the words, “I’m sorry” in his shoulder. With some hesitance, Claude gently pushes her away.

“Teach, what’s going on?”

“...I’m sor...”

“Enough apologizing! Just… tell me what’s wrong.”

“...I have the power to turn back time.”

Claude stares at her, she is absolutely serious. 

Then again compare that to everything else she’s pulled off, maybe it wasn’t too out there.

“It’s called the Divine Pulse. I gained this power the night I met you, Dimitri, and Edelgard. It’s not- it’s not unlimited though. I can only go back so far and use it so much… and sometimes there are things that I can’t change...”

“...Jeralt?”

She solemnly nods.

“So… that nightmare.”

“It really happened. I used the Divine Pulse to bring you back to life.”

“That was how you knew the bandit was behind you.”

She gives him a weary smile back, “You can’t play hero if the damsel-in-distress was able to save herself… but I never thought there would be a way for you to remember that timeline. Not to mention the others… obviously you’re not the only one I’ve saved.”

Claude pulls her back closer and lets her rest her head against his chest, “Hey don’t worry, I'll take some scary dreams of dying in another time over you know, actually dying in this one and I’m sure the rest of our friends would say the same.” 

He can hear her mumbling, “I suppose.”

Claude wasn’t sure if he should bring this up but before he could think twice, he spoke up.

“Honestly the scariest part wasn’t seeing how I died… it was hearing you screaming for me. You sounded so scared...”

“...Claude...”

“So... I promise I’ll be more careful from now on. Not because of the visions but because I never want to hurt you like that again.”

Te- Byleth smirks, “Sure, let's see how long that promise lasts.”

“Aw come on, when have I ever broken a promise? ...Actually don’t answer that.”

Byleth starts to laugh again and Claude simply smiles back. Now there was a sound he would be happy to hear all day.

But as much as he’d love to stay the entire night like this, Claude lets go of Byleth and stands up.

“Well it’s been a lovely chat, Teach but I think the both of us should be heading back to bed.”

Claude starts to make his way off the pier but then feels a hand grabbing his sleeve.

“Actually Claude… maybe… i-if you don’t mind, we could… spend the night together?”

“...Uuuhhh...”

Good job, Claude. Really using that bragged about silver tongue.

He briefly looks away from Byleth to hide his blush and silently curses that stupid schoolboy crush that came back with a vengeance ever since they reunited.

“...You know if we do that, people are going to talk.”

“...And when have you cared about what people say?”

“You’d be surprised. But… with that said...it’d be nice… you know, just in case of another nightmare.”

He glances back and sees a knowing smile on her face.

“Of course.”

The two quietly walk back to Byleth’s room and climb into her bed together.

For the rest of the night, Claude did not dream of death and screaming but of warmth and laughter.