I happen to like being outnumbered by Deer. Or at least the two I’m normally outnumbered by these days.

[ He reaches out to pluck the lion from Claude’s palm, drawing it close to roll it between his fingers consideringly for a moment, taking in the careful craftsmanship that had gone into it. The artist really had outdone himself. ]

You know. [ Stated oh-so-casually as he carefully sets the king in its rightful position on the board. ] If Dimitri hadn’t turned up for our reunion at Garreg Mach and left us all thinking he was dead… we might have been the ones approaching you.

[ He doesn’t look up to meet Claude’s gaze as he drops that nugget of information. It might not have been true in Claude’s world - he has no idea how the differences in their pasts might have altered things. But he knows the position he and Felix had found themselves in at that point of the war. How few options they had left. That had been one of them, and the cause of some pretty heated arguments. Not that that was unusual, when it came to him and Felix. Or Felix and anyone, really. ]