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Lorenz has never been this exhausted in his entire life, yet he is restless. His mind still can't accept that the fighting is finished, that it’s actually over. It had felt like something that would have hung over his entire life until it killed him. But it hadn't.
They had managed to change things. Claude’s dream might actually come true.
The man has been on Lorenz's mind for some time for other reasons alongside this one. Most pressingly, he is perpetually confused about their relationship. Distance had indeed made his heart grow fonder; when Lorenz had first arrived alongside the rest of the Golden Deer, he had not expected Claude to have the excitement he had to see Lorenz again. Lornez found himself unexpectedly happy as well.
Where he assumed he would remain frustrated about Claude's antics, a lingering fondness had crept up on Lorenz. He started to look forward to the times they spent together, and Claude sought him out more in return.
What he had first figured to be a sudden bout of amiability established new nervousness within Lorenz, the kind that made his mind stop every time they shared fond words or a lingering touch. Unfortunately, the ever-observant prince picked up on it— probably before Lorenz had himself— and toyed with him mercilessly. His eyes would follow Lorenz longer, or he would intentionally leave his hand on his shoulder, closing their personal space smaller every time. He sometimes even dared even to kiss him, and would then laugh whenever Lorenz (to his own furious horror) would get flustered.
Lorenz wasted countless hours forcefully convincing himself that he most certainly did not have feelings for him. Claude was obviously teasing him for the sheer ridiculousness of it. The validity of it was impossible, Claude reciprocating to the man who had harassed him for so long. It was clearly all a joke that Lorenz was the butt of. Such a thing had never bothered him before, but he somehow mourned for the day it would end when they would go their separate ways. But could he really bring himself to walk away from this? Did Claude believe this of himself with the way he doted upon Lorenz? As always, Claude’s intentions were still incorrigibly undetectable.
The war party had reconvened back at Garreg Mach at the end of their campaign, and Lorenz now reclined on a sunchair in one of the remaining offices of the imposingly empty monastery. He rested against a large window that spread ripples of warm sunlight across the room. It might have inspired some verses out of him had his mind not been so dull. He is too strewn-out by all the loose ends that need to be tied and the inevitable reconciliation with Claude that is bound to come.
A light knock pulls Lorenz out of his stupor, and of course out of all the people who could be standing in the doorway, it is Claude. His expression brightens as Lorenz meets his eyes. Lorenz immediately breaks contact, still unadjusted to the full intensity of Claude’s gaze. The front of it burns like the sun itself.
He approaches wordlessly, neither of them need to ask for each other’s company anymore, and Lorenz moves himself closer to the wall to give him room. Though it barely matters when he turns himself closer to Claude, leaning into his side. He is warm, and Lorenz clings to the comfort.
Claude brushes back some of Lorenz’s hair, revealing more of his face. There is a gentle fondness to his expression, one that settles heavy upon Lorenz’s chest. He can’t bring himself to bear it, so he closes his eyes to flee from it. His skin blisters where Claude’s fingertips travel.
It’s maddening the way he mocks him, knowing how much Lorenz wants it. He latches onto Claude’s affections so tightly even when he knows it will make his heart bleed out all the worse once it’s ultimately ripped away from him. They may have managed the impossible, but it didn’t change the fact that Claude’s home was in Almyra. Lorenz finally felt he could trust him— he practically prided himself upon such— but a worrying pit within him is convinced that this is just another game to Claude.
“Lorenz?” he hears Claude softly ask as he retreats his touch. “Is everything alright?”
Lorenz blinks rapidly, shamefully realizing that tears have begun to form at the back of his eyes. He’s near begging for the Goddess to strike him down this instant. He wants to bolt up and leave, but his legs are paralyzed. He shields his face with a hand, shaking his head. “No, no,” he mumbles, “it’s utterly ridiculous.”
Claude’s hand grasps his shoulder, decisive but unforceful. “It can’t be,” he asserts. “Not if you’re hurting this much. You can tell me what’s wrong.”
The concern Claude emanates makes Lorenz want to shrink down to the size of a pebble. But he should be able to talk to him, shouldn’t he? Even about a matter as tortuous as this? Claude could mock him for all he cares, but the truth needs to be aired out:
“What am I to you?” Lorenz says, disheartened and accusatory. “Just some plaything? Someone to fool around with?”
Claude sits up with a perplexed look. “Is that what it is?” he asks, his expression shifting to something sadder.
Lorenz nods.
“You’re serious?” Claude asks.
“Yes!” Lorenz replies, taken aback. “Do you think I would joke about something like this?”
Claude clasps Lorenz’s hand. “But you think I’m joking about this!”
Lorenz wordlessly blinks at him, his heart leaping to his throat. He scoffs. “Can you start making sense, please?”
Claude’s hand retreats. “Do you not want this?”
Lorenz
feels he is bursting at the seams. “Claude, you fool!” Lorenz angrily grabs
Claude’s wrist. “You’re what I want more than anything!”
Claude is stunned, and he fails to respond. Both of them are rendered completely speechless. The silence hangs around them in a thick cloud. Lorenz’s heart sinks, knowing he overstepped.
He starts to get up to leave when Claude’s hands fly up to Lorenz’s cheeks, pulling him back down and turning him face-to-face. He stares into Lorenz with a silent confusion uncharacteristic of a clever tactician, gears turning behind his emerald eyes.
Suddenly, he strains upwards to kiss Lorenz, who sinks down into him to receive it. Claude breathes new life into Lorenz until he parts, to which Lorenz crashes his lips back to Claude’s again. Claude surrenders to it, his hands dropping to Lorenz’s waist as slim fingers comb into Claude’s hair.
Lorenz finally pulls away, cursing himself for needing air. A beautiful shade has risen to Claude's cheeks, his chest falling and rising underneath Lorenz. Even so, Claude smirks at him. “I take it that was a good response?”
Lorenz grumbles and shoves Claude’s shoulder. “Hush! You’re just horrible.”
A snort unfurls from Claude, and Lorenz detests the flutters it makes him feel. “But Lorenz, seriously,” Claude says, “did you really think I wasn’t being legitimate this whole time?”
“Wh— how was I supposed to have known!” Lorenz cries out. “You could have just asked to court me, or at least…”
He stops his complaints once he notices the comedically smug look Claude is giving him. “I’m not sure if you’ve gotten the memo,” he says, giving Lorenz a hardy pat on his thigh, “but things don’t need to work like that anymore. And you have the audacity to call me the fool!”
Lorenz stubbornly throws himself back onto the chair but doesn’t fight Claude off when he moves in to embrace him. He intertwines his fingers with Lorenz’s. “I know I’m giving you a hard time, but…” Claude’s affectionate smile fades slightly. “I never meant to come off like that. I wish I had known you felt this way.” He struggles to meet Lorenz’s eye. “I screwed up. If you want to make it official, we could do the exchanging letters thing, the whole nine yards—”
“No, don’t blame yourself,” Lorenz says as he strokes the side of Claude’s face. “I was the one being daft. Besides,” he smiles, “I can’t say I absolutely hate the unconventional approach.”
“I just don’t have the patience for it, you know?” Claude says, perking his head back up. “You’re just so incredible, Lorenz. I’ve witnessed how resilient and brave you are, how you persevere through hardships. And every time I see you I just…” Claude trails away as their eyes lock again. There’s a spellbound look to him that sends Lorenz’s heart racing. Claude hesitates with a nervous laugh. “I feel like we already know each other pretty damn well, right?”
Lorenz smiles. “I believe I agree with that. It would be a pain to arrange our families to meet, anyways.” Claude scoffs incredulously.
Unfortunately, reality catches up with Lorenz. “But you’ll be king soon, Claude,” he says. “And if what’s left the Alliance goes to me like you say it will…” Claude begins to stroke his back with a gentle hand. “It would be impractical at best. And you deserve more. You deserve so, so much more…”
He is reminded of Claude’s stories about Almyra, the alienation that followed him no matter where he went. How foolish Lorenz’s past judgements were. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Claude more.
Claude kisses his shoulder. “So do you. I’m not leaving you, Lorenz. Not if I can help it.”
The sincerity in Claude’s voice almost causes Lorenz’s heart to stop. Looking down at him, Lorenz’s soul swells from the certainty Claude’s words hold. To think that Lorenz had considered a life together as only a far-off dream…
He can tell Claude has taken privy to this from how brightly he smiles. “We’ve already got an entire continent to rebuild,” he says. “I bet we’ll come up with something.”
~~~
One of the delegates behind Lorenz is furiously tapping her foot. “The Almyrans are running ten minutes late,” she clucks, closing her pocket watch with a hard snap. “Are they even going to show up at this point?”
Lorenz makes a sideways glance towards her, calmly standing in place. “Something might have held them up. This area isn’t particularly navigable, anyways.”
The old woman mutters something to herself while the gentleman next to her hah-rumphs. The small party stands outside an imposing fortress nestled within treacherous mountains, once built to protect the continent from outside forces. Despite the reluctance of the relatively humbled nobility adapting to the new Kingdom, today is the beginning of dissolving such boundaries.
“They will come,” Lorenz reassures. He will come, too. Lorenz knew it in his bones.
Lo and behold, he soon spotted a small cluster of dots descending over the distant peaks of Fódlan’s Throat. As the figures drew closer, he began to make out the characteristic outline of gliding wyverns, a rider perched atop each of their backs. Lorenz tracked in particular the one who led the front with uniquely decorated reins. He could nearly recognize its rider from their posture alone.
The other representatives begin murmuring amongst each other as they take notice of the approaching fliers, but snap to complete silence once they recognize the one leading the Almyran party. Lorenz’s heart is thrumming with a different kind of anxiety than his companions as he watches the wyverns touch down.
Claude, the newly crowned king of Almyra, steps down from his winged ivory steed. Despite the time that has passed, he is mostly unchanged aside from a subtle air of regality that his title would suggest. More at ease, perhaps. Regardless, once he spots Lorenz staring at him, he fails to conceal a joyful grin from showing.
“It’s an honor to be graced with your presence, Your Majesty,” Lorenz warmly says as he dips into a slight bow, prompting his companions behind him to practically fall over as they mirror him. He almost laughs thinking about how mortified his past self would have been to see this.
Claude gives a reciprocating nod. “The pleasure is mine, Lord Gloucester,” he replies. “We have been looking forward to meeting you all in person rather than communicating through tedious correspondence.” Lorenz swears he catches Claude giving an imperceptible wink for his eyes only.
Lorenz takes a step closer towards him, barely believing that they’re finally only a few feet apart. “The feeling is mutual, my friend. There is much for us to discuss.”
The rest of the Fódlan attendants are still a bit put out, but are reactionless otherwise. Lorenz had previously made intensive arguments for Claude’s capability as a leader displayed during the war to try to get them to let go of whatever preconceptions they held, but as long as things went relatively smoothly, it would at least be progress.
The two nations’ representatives begin to mingle amongst each other, exchanging handshakes and introductions. Once the initial awkwardness passes, the crowd slips into more natural conversation until the general consensus is to head inside to attend towards the business at hand. It is at that time when the king asks to steal the Lord Gloucester for a moment. The request doesn’t go through without some curious inspection from their onlookers, but they manage to slink away for the most part unnoticed.
They leave for a more secluded part of the courtyard that still offers an impressive view of the surrounding landscape, a bright blue sky blanketing the horizon. Lorenz leans upon the stone railing atop the cliff’s edge. The openness is liberating.
He turns to see Claude standing a few paces behind him, observing Lorenz with unabashed ardor. Lorenz takes in the sight of him, a fulfilled longing stealing the air from his lungs. Lorenz comes forward to embrace him, and they cling to each other with a fervor ever increasing over time. Lorenz breathes Claude in, his heart rejoicing to finally be back in his arms. He pulls away just to look upon Claude’s face again, finding him misty-eyed. Lorenz kisses the spots on Claude’s cheeks just underneath, honoring the happy tears before Claude’s lips seek Lorenz’s.
Their kiss is unhurried, their affection abundant, occasionally separating for breathless sighs or soft laughter. Even when they part, they are still bound together, basking in each other’s presences.
Claude’s hand settles on Lorenz’s cheek, his smile brilliant. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this.”
Lorenz playfully raises an eyebrow. “Is that so? And with no consideration towards how dreadfully I missed you?”
Claude rolls his eyes. “Well I missed you, too. Melodrama and all.”
Lorenz chuckles. “Of course, my dear. Whatever would you do without me?”
“Ah, the awe-inspiring humility of our Lord Gloucester!” Claude proclaims before kissing Lorenz’s cheek with grandiose flair, causing Lorenz to break down with ticklish laughter. “As moving as your sonnets are, the in-the-flesh experience is vastly preferred.”
Lorenz bursts into a violent blush. “Oh Goddess, those lyrics were just… spare me your teasing, at least!”
Claude takes hold of each of Lorenz’s hands. “But really, I mean it. I enjoyed them very much.”
“... Truly?”
Claude nods. “Trust me, I know a good poet when I see one.”
Lorenz becomes weak in the knees. Even now, he is still unaccustomed to receiving Claude’s praise. “We might need to head back soon, people will start talking. Do you think they suspect anything?”
Claude chortles skeptically. “People will talk regardless! They’ll just have to put up with us.”
Lorenz smiles. “Hm, I suppose you’re right. I just wish this summit was longer,” he says with a quiet sigh.
Claude leans into Lorenz’s shoulder. “We’ll be able to make time for ourselves, I promise.” He closes his eyes, blissful. “I’ll take you to Almyra someday. There’s a lot of things I want to show you.”
Lorenz strokes a hand through Claude’s hair and down his neck. “I would be honored. Frankly, I would be willing to go anywhere with you.”
Claude tilts his head. “Come on. You don’t really mean that, do you?”
Lorenz nods. “Trust me.”
The affirmation pulls a sudden tenderness out of Claude that melds into him nuzzling Lorenz’s neck with a bashful grin, and Lorenz is more warmed by him than the sun above them. “The longer we stay like this, the longer it will take to pry me off of you. Should we go join the others now?”
Lorenz pulls Claude even closer to his chest. “Heavens, no! Those rascals can stand to wait a moment longer.”