vrdantwind | IC Inbox

it wouldn't be to evolve zoltan.
though i might get him one separate, just to be sure it doesn't happen accidentally.

honestly though i figured this would all have to be custom in the end. i don't think it would be felix if it wasnt custom
he doesnt fit into any boxes
i love that about him

but uh
yeah i guess till death do us part would be accurate but
mm. the wording is important.

we were children and i don't know if felix has ever told you this but he used to be such a scaredycat crybaby
and with miklan being miklan sometimes i wonder if he really was scared that something was going to happen to me
so we made a promise.
we would stick together until we died with one another

ive carried that promise with me a long time.
i don't ever intend on breaking it.

Marvelous! I'm sure he will - I have plenty of flower and bird friends that would love to perch on his antlers.

He what?! Why wouldn't he use a Pokéball? Oh, that's so incredibly dumb yet so sweet at the same time. So will your husband be alright with Sicily coming with me?

[YES HE SAID WHAT HE SAID, SUE HIM. After all the bullying Claude did to him with Geralt, it's his turn to strike back.]

[...Or, at least, it is probably still January 28, just very late at night when Claude gets a small message on his Gear.]

[Despite. You know. All of them being in the same house.]

Dear Claude,

Are you still awake?

[The reply comes pretty immediately. Claude usually keeps late hours.]

Of course. What's up, Dimitri?

[No answer on the Gear, but there is the sound of a door opening down the hall, and footsteps as careful as Dimitri can possibly make them. A soft knock.]

May I come in?

[Upon the door being opened - or Dimitri being told to come in - it will be revealed that he's still wearing Kent as his usual night aid on his head, with.... Gremlin apparently vying for skull space as he clings where he can. Wrapped up in Dimitri's arm would be Knocker, Gabby, and Gwin all sharing his cloak.]

[Claude hears him coming, and gets up to open the door even before he arrives; when the knock comes, the door swings open almost immediately, revealing a smiling Claude.

His eyebrows go up a little bit at the entire menagerie of pokémon Dimitri's got with him, and honestly, it makes him think something's up.]

Hey. Everything okay? Did you have a nightmare or something?

Oh, no. Kent ensures that I never dream.

[Some people would think this a bit of a loss, enjoying the ability to dream. Most people don't have constant nightmares involving gore, death, and more self hatred than a reservoir.]

[...Although...]

It is the path to sleep that is the difficult portion, so... I was hoping that I could stay in here a while, perhaps listen to you talk about - whatever you like, really.

[In all honesty, Dimitri has been having issues sleeping ever since they arrived in Goldenrod. The fangirls, the paint incident that still doesn't leave his cloak smelling right, and then Ashe and Dedue arriving and Jane falling unconscious for a while...]

[Some of those had been good, of course, but it's been a lot, and well. When a lot happens, when his body starts to feel anxious...]

[There's the sound of footsteps that Dimitri knows are likely not there - too heavy, too metallic, not stepping on the right surface. Yet he still can't help the way his gaze flicks to the side before he forces it back on Claude.]

If it would not be too much trouble, of course.

[Claude's gaze softens.] Of course you can. C'mon, you can lie on the bed next to me.

[What? Before marriage, Claude??]

[BEFORE MARRIAGE, CLAUDE?]

Oh - I would not want to intrude too much. I can-

[Lie on the floor - wait, no, he thinks people might get upset about that.]

- I can sit in a chair.

You're not intruding. Besides, how else are you going to be able to go to sleep unless you're settled in? C'mon. [Claude moves over to his bed and settles on one side of it; one of the books Sylvain gave him is there, propped open to a page, and he moves that out of the way as he does. Then he pats the spot next to him.] We're already boyfriends, it's not like this is improper or anything. Especially when you're just going to try to sleep.

I could be settled in a chair...

[But still, for a moment, he's paralyzed with uncertainty as he stands there near the door in his secret Rattata pajamas. Is it improper if they are only boyfriends, and not married? He wants to give Claude so much, after all... but this is only sleeping, isn't it? Does that make it fine-]

[Gremlin almost falls off his head, and Dimitri finally starts to move over to the bed.]

[Gremlin immediately leaps down once they're close enough, curling up on the pillows as well with a twitch of his whiskers, which means Kent can slowly slide back into proper place on Dimitri's head. As for the cloak full of Pokemon? That just gets carefully places down on the ground. Gabby and Gwin are knocked out cold, being just Babies, but Knocker peers out from the furry and blue depths with bright eyes. What's Up.]

[That means there's fortunately plenty of room still on the bed as Dimitri hesitantly sinks down to sit on it.]

...I suppose I did not wake you this time.

Nah, you know me. Staying up late reading, as usual. [He winks at Dimitri.]

And listen, if you're so worried about lying on a bed with me, why not just lean against me? You've done that before, so that's totally proper. We could even read together - or I could read to you and your team.

[Claude, are you using some very devious logic to convince Dimitri that more intimacy is somehow actually more proper than lying on a bed together not touching?]

I worry that I would be too big than you...

[Still, Dimitri shuffles a little more onto the bed. He doesn't... quite lean against Claude, not yet.]

What are you reading tonight?

What, you think I'm going to fall over? [Claude grins at him.] I think you'd have to be doing a little more than leaning for that, but if you're worried, just scoot yourself down on the bed a little so your head can be on my shoulder. That way you're not looming and it won't be as much of your weight on me.

[Claude is using some highly persuasive logic to hopefully make something very cute and far more intimate than Dimitri simply lying on his bed happen here.]

As for what I'm reading, it's one of the books Sylvain got me for the holidays. It's all about this country we're in now.

[And it's working, especially on a man who very much wants to just nap. He hesitates just a second before he shuffles over, shifting his head onto Claude's shoulder. It's... very strange, honestly. When's the last time he did this...?]

The people, or the land...?

[Claude reaches up to gently adjust Kent on Dimitri's head, so the Munna can straddle it at more of an upright angle instead of leaning directly into the side of Claude's own head. Then he displays the page he's on to Dimitri.]

It's a little bit of everything. The people, the land, the history, the culture, the pokémon...right now, I'm reading about how the towns we know today were first established, and how the pokémon in various parts of the region actually influenced certain aspects of the design and development...Sprout Tower's a good example, but it's not the only one. Do you want me to read some to you?

[Kent nudges what exists of his head, just enough to put his snout on Claude's hand in appreciation before he curls up right where he belongs. No nightmares for him to devour yet, but he's sure they'll come in time.]

[In the meanwhile, Dimitri peers at the book.]

That isn't surprising... They're such an important part of life here.

The Ruins of Alph were another similar place, weren't they?

Mmhm. [Claude leans a bit into Dimitri in turn. It reminds him of the talk he had with Dimitri not that long ago, about how when things are properly balanced, two people leaning on each other can hold each other up at the same time.] You remember when we went there? It

Mmhm. [Claude leans a bit into Dimitri in turn. It reminds him of the talk he had with Dimitri not that long ago, about how when things are properly balanced, two people leaning on each other can hold each other up at the same time.] You remember when we went there? It was practically our first date.

[Dimitri actually makes a sort of pitiful noise.]

No... That was terrible, Claude.

[He yelled and broke down and cried and also they fell down a trap door.]

I wish to do better for you.

I keep forgetting he named his sword after a sword. Classic Felix.

Nothing wrong with custom. That said, I do have to ask - Dusk Stones are a dark purple, right? Do you think they can be worked into a ring with red and gold - or even just red - stones without some color clashing? I do like the idea for the sentiment, but I'm trying to picture it aesthetically in my head and I'm having a hard time seeing it gel.

Maybe it'd be better to incorporate aspects of a sword design into the metal of the ring, rather than the Dusk Stone itself? Although if you wanted it to be of Zoltan specifically, you'd need to figure out which evolution of it to incorporate elements of.

I agree the wording is important. I guess those ways of wording it sound...not particularly romantic to my ears. Of course, if that's the way you two spoke of your promise together, then that changes things, but I'm not actually privy to the things you've said to each other about it...so I can't tell what wording would be the most meaningful to Felix. You may have to choose that on your own. You'd know best what would go to his heart.

It's a good promise, though. And I'm sure he holds to his half of it just as tightly as you do yours.

I really don't know. I think it honestly just didn't occur to him? Mentally, he was a mess when he first got here. He'd just come off of five years of impotent rage over a succession of pretty awful betrayals, basically hiding alone in the woods stewing in hate. And then he got here and decided he was in the afterlife, somehow? Which really gives you an idea how stable he was. Add to that his being disturbingly strong back home - he used to just shatter weapons regularly - and some of that still carrying over to here, and I guess he just thought picking up a deer and carrying it was the straightforward thing to do. Maybe he forgot PokéBalls were even a thing at the time. Who knows! I'm just glad he's improved a lot since then.

[And then Jaskier calls Dimitri Claude's husband, and Claude feels a bit like he's been sucker-punched. Ah. He's sure this is revenge for the prodding he's done about Geralt, but he wonders if Jaskier knows how appropriate a revenge it is.]

Ah, easy with the wishful thinking, he's interested in someone else. And I'm sure he'll allow it, although he might fuss. [Claude has no idea how much he'll fuss yet, but that will be a cute surprise for everyone later.

He just hopes his casual deflection of Jaskier's teasing was, well...casual enough.]

I still liked it, honestly. Despite everything. [Claude smiles sidelong at him.] Remember when you protected me when we fell? And earlier, when we got up after you'd been having such a rough time, and you looked at me as though you were happy I was there for the first time? Honestly, it felt like the first time you were seeing me at all since we'd arrived. All those moments meant a lot to me. Maybe you weren't doing as well then as you are now, but - I think that without that trip, maybe you wouldn't be here doing as well as you are now. It felt important.

[So that's how it looked to Claude... Dimitri traces nonsense symbols along his pants leg, thinking back to that time.]

...The world felt clearer. It felt... as though it had slowly been becoming clearer throughout the days.

And I felt as though I could focus on you right there in front of me again.

i hate that you're right about that.
maybe i'll take a jaunt down to the ring store here in a bit and see what i can find. see if they have any suggestions for making them work together, if that's possible at all. i'm not sold on it, the evolution stones aren't nearly as important to me as the rest of the pieces are. It was just a nice thought.

i agree that it isn't particularly romantic at first pass
but that promise has gotten me through a lot
it was a reminder through all of the things miklan and my father did that i wasn't alone
and that i had a reason to keep fighting back in the academy and for all these last few years
it's not romantic by itself but i can't think of anything that embodies how much and how long felix has been there for me

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