[ It's tempting to place his hand back on her face once again as the cut heals like it was never there at all. He could - as the spell ends, the distance there is negligible. Claude has to will himself into putting that hand back at his side where it belongs even as his gaze lingers on her long enough for it to be as effective as any touch.
Even with something shifting towards a truce, much as he hates to apply that word here because of what it means for them to have even needed a truce in the first place, it feels as though there's too many invisible lines which shouldn't be crossed. Strangely, it also reminds him of the early days at the academy. The difference being there that Claude had been the one with all the lines, guards, and masks meant to keep Hilda and everyone else at a carefully curated and deliberate distance. And then over time, Hilda became an exception to all of them in so many ways, and to be back at the start? It could be another chance to start over, to not make the same mistakes he, she, they both had before. That's the sort of thing which needs more time than right now to consider.
The wyvern is a good distraction as he finally looks down at it and that grin he recognizes all too well from Sahar smiling it at him after doing something she knew was wrong and feeling pleased, both as a baby just like this wyvern and as an adult. He's about to say as much, to share something more in bits and fragments of another time in what he has available as a way of trying, but Hilda beats him to speaking. Her suggestion is a good one, and maybe it's because they're on unsteady but solid enough ground currently that Claude can consider this without it stinging like it would have not a few hours ago. ]
Scythe's a little better than Jerky, really. Not that Waffle is bad, [ just for a quick clarification, and possibly also to be difficult in something closer to their regular interactions than what the past months have been, ] but I like your idea better.
[ Claude glances up just in time to catch Hilda's fleeting look before she looks away again, and he reminds himself to not overthink that. That's a reaction of hers he still knows from all their time together, and it ties in exactly with why he knows she's going to walk it back slightly before that happens. This time, though, what he feels towards it is more fondness than anything else even if he doesn't let it show. ]
So something instead like, say... Cloud, Moon, that sort of thing. [ To go with the basics in what would fit between a sun and stars, and Claude reminds himself to temper any hope which arises from this, too, but that doesn't work nearly as well as he'd like. ] Or we could go full tangent and pick one of the moons from Fodlan's calendar.
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Even with something shifting towards a truce, much as he hates to apply that word here because of what it means for them to have even needed a truce in the first place, it feels as though there's too many invisible lines which shouldn't be crossed. Strangely, it also reminds him of the early days at the academy. The difference being there that Claude had been the one with all the lines, guards, and masks meant to keep Hilda and everyone else at a carefully curated and deliberate distance. And then over time, Hilda became an exception to all of them in so many ways, and to be back at the start? It could be another chance to start over, to not make the same mistakes he, she, they both had before. That's the sort of thing which needs more time than right now to consider.
The wyvern is a good distraction as he finally looks down at it and that grin he recognizes all too well from Sahar smiling it at him after doing something she knew was wrong and feeling pleased, both as a baby just like this wyvern and as an adult. He's about to say as much, to share something more in bits and fragments of another time in what he has available as a way of trying, but Hilda beats him to speaking. Her suggestion is a good one, and maybe it's because they're on unsteady but solid enough ground currently that Claude can consider this without it stinging like it would have not a few hours ago. ]
Scythe's a little better than Jerky, really. Not that Waffle is bad, [ just for a quick clarification, and possibly also to be difficult in something closer to their regular interactions than what the past months have been, ] but I like your idea better.
[ Claude glances up just in time to catch Hilda's fleeting look before she looks away again, and he reminds himself to not overthink that. That's a reaction of hers he still knows from all their time together, and it ties in exactly with why he knows she's going to walk it back slightly before that happens. This time, though, what he feels towards it is more fondness than anything else even if he doesn't let it show. ]
So something instead like, say... Cloud, Moon, that sort of thing. [ To go with the basics in what would fit between a sun and stars, and Claude reminds himself to temper any hope which arises from this, too, but that doesn't work nearly as well as he'd like. ] Or we could go full tangent and pick one of the moons from Fodlan's calendar.