IC Inbox

[vrdantwind]

"Hey, this is Claude! Pretty sure I'm doing this correctly. You can leave me a message here, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Talk to you soon~."

Comments

[vrdantwind]

Felix, did you know that saying "I'm not complimenting you by saying I have faith in you, I just know from experience that you're capable and smart and I genuinely believe you can pull this off because of what I know about you" is still, in fact, sweet? Maybe more so because I know you wouldn't say it if you didn't believe it? [Claude chuckles.] Hell, you're even comparing me to Dimitri - your own king, who we both know has some real greatness in him, however much it's been buried for the past while. A guy you're deeply devoted to. That's a ridiculously high level of compliment.

[He nudges Felix.] And no speculating. I'm not going to tell you anything ahead of time. It's all three of you at once, and I'm not saying anything on the subject until then.

[bestswordmaster]

[It's not clear which thing Claude says gets Felix's face redder--the idea that Claude still thinks a normal, basic compliment from him is sweet, or the idea that Felix really did just compare Claude to Dimitri, or the fact that Claude just said--out loud! with his own mouth!--that Felix was 'deeply devoted' to Dimitri and he can't even argue with it. It all just sort of snowballs into tomato territory, and he turns away, shifting his gaze to the opposite side of the road to hide his face.]

Hmph. Think what you want.

[He startles a bit at the nudge. A rebuke comes to the tip of his tongue automatically, but he swallows it because...this doesn't actually trip his kneejerk dislike of being touched like he figured it would. Maybe it's because after you shove a man up against a wall and kiss him as the first time you ever touched him at all, casual touching is practically nothing. ...but anyway. He rolls his eyes.]

I'm not trying to solve your precious mystery early. I figured planning the rest of the war as allies was obvious.

[vrdantwind]

I generally tend to. [Claude grins, enjoying Felix's fierce blush. (Not that Felix ever does anything by halves.) Felix is cute when he blushes, and when he's invested in other people; delightfully, calling him out on the latter tends to lead to the former. Claude personally can't get enough of it.]

And true, I guess that is an obvious conclusion. [Which almost seems to imply 'and it is in fact what happened' without actually saying so. Lying by omission is the easiest kind of lying.] But why leave Teach out of your guesswork? You act like it'd be just between me and Dimitri.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix isn't even looking at Claude, but he can feel the man grinning at him. Ugh, he's so obnoxious when he's right.]

Oh. I didn't think they would have much to say on rulership of the continent after the war. I have great respect for the professor, but they are not much more 'big picture' than I am.

[vrdantwind]

[Claude sighs dramatically.] All right, all right, I'll let you in on one thing. We didn't really discuss how the rule of Fodlan would be divided after the war at all after Derdriu. [Again - true, lying only by omission. It was made very clear after Derdriu, in its own way, who would be ruling Fodlan if the Kingdom won the war. But technically, there had been no talk of splitting rulership because Claude had taken himself out of that equation.] I mean, the war's far from won yet, right? Worrying about how it'll all shake out afterwards would be pretty premature. We focused much more on the immediate future. But that's all the information you're getting!

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix does look at Claude now, with a bit of mild suspicion.]

But you said how Fodlan would end up after the war had already been decided by your time. So if you didn't discuss it, how did you decide it? Or is all of this just a bunch of nonsense to throw me off?

[vrdantwind]

[Shit. Did he say that? When? Claude covers by mock frowning and shaking his head.] Now you're just confusing me. Are we talking about strategies for the war, or what comes after? You said stuff about me and Dimitri planning the approach to Enbarr, and I asked why you wouldn't assume Teach was included in a campaign strategy and battle tactics discussion like that, and then suddenly you're talking about how Teach wouldn't care about what happens after the war. When were we ever talking about what comes after the war at all? I was talking about the actual campaign for the war going on right now.

[bestswordmaster]

I asked whether you and Dimitri would split Adrestia between Faerghus and the Alliance after the war, and you literally said it had been decided already where you came from. [He rolls his eyes.] Ugh, you're infuriating. There's no need to keep trying to confuse me on purpose, I'll stop asking.

[vrdantwind]

[Confuse him on purpose...sure. Claude will go with that. It's definitely not that he's having trouble remembering all the half-truths he's told, and trying to keep them straight...]

It'll all make sense eventually, don't worry.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix snorts quietly.] I'm not worried. I know that once you decide to tell us, you'll give more information than we ever wanted to know.

[vrdantwind]

[Claude winks at him.] What can I say? It's the only way I know how to do things.