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coffee hell 6
"Sooooo, what happened then?" Hilda asks, carefully applying her face mask.
Claude has to pull his razor away so that he can chuckle a little bit and not slice his face open. "We woke up with cricks in our necks after a night of sleeping in the stupidest positions," he tells her before he returns to his careful grooming. This sort of means being bent over a good deal as he makes sure to duck under Lorenz's elbows in order to be near the mirror. The apartment has one bathroom despite arguably being able to host three people, and all three of them have to suck it up and share. "Not that I regret anything, mind you. His chest is heavenly. I pray every day for the morning where I can wake up on bare skin after his monster cock has made me forget written language-"
Lorenz abruptly stops plucking his eyebrows. "Claude!" he hisses, aghast and scolding in equal measure.
Innocently, he bats his eyelashes up at his dearest friend and roommate. "What?" he asks, with the tone of someone who doesn't even know what the definition of 'sin' is. "Did I say something inappropriate, Lorenz? I'm merely talking about my hopes and dreams for the future. What's so wrong about that?"
Drawing his lips thin, Lorenz wags the tweezers at him. "You know very well what you did. I cannot believe that you would bring up such a subject so early in the morning while we are all attempting to prepare for the day ahead of us."
"Yeah, Claude." Fists loosely clenched, Hilda so innocently holds them up near her face. "I can't believe you'd want to talk about how you want Dimitri's huge dick stuffed all the way down your throat until you can't breathe-"
"Can we not!" Both Claude and Hilda burst out cackling at that, leaving poor Lorenz to suffer with his fingers tastefully pressed against his forehead. Oh well. He knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to share a lease with them. While Claude and Hilda are left clinging desperately to anything in the small amount of bathroom they're all squeezed into, Lorenz patiently gets back to tending to his brows. When their howling has finally gone down to some giggling and they can stand on their own feet, he speaks up again. "Are you both quite done?"
Claude winks. "I'll let you know if my sinful urges pop up. Hopefully before they literally pop up." He laughs some more as Lorenz finally gives up any trace of cleaning his face, instead just drawing both hands over eyes.
Recovering from such terrible bullying takes him a minute before he begins to meticulously wash his face. "I will say, from your and Hilda's descriptions of his apartment, I thought he would have more suitable accommodations for guests than merely unfolding his couch."
Waiting for Lorenz to pull away from the sink, Claude begins to clean up his own jawline as well. It takes effort to make sure he doesn't start growing Santa levels of beard. "Honestly, I have no idea what else he has in the other rooms," he muses. "For all I know, he has his own mini gym available to him, although then I can't imagine why he would go out to Captain's." Finishing his rinse, he chuckles. "If I'm lucky, maybe he has a sex dungeon."
"Claude Riegan, I well and truly swear that I shall not tolerate this any longer-"
"So you always say," Claude says, leaning against Lorenz with a wide grin. Lorenz shakes his head, but doesn't push him off. By this point, they're all close enough friends for physical intimacy like this to not be that big of a deal. "But on a more serious note, like I was saying, I have no idea. Maybe some of it is even empty; he has said that he's thought about getting a roommate before. It's just one of those things that he keeps forgetting."
From the side, Hilda sighs morosely. "I wish I could have the freedom to forget a roommate," she says, clipping her nails. She doesn't need to do that in here. All Hilda needs is a room with a trash can. Still, the bathroom has now become a communal activity, and Claude knows she won't leave it for anything. "Then I could have a bathroom where Claude's ass won't threaten to bump me straight into the shower."
Claude waggles his eyebrows at her. "I mean, if anything, you should be grateful that you get such regular opportunities to touch my ass."
"May we please stop talking about Claude Riegan's ass?" Lorenz asks, voice strained and long suffering.
As a response, Hilda blows a raspberry at him. Claude wonders how exactly, if at all, that sort of expression affects a face mask. "Like you aren't the most glad to touch it," she accuses Lorenz playfully, which starts off a whole Thing in the bathroom. It's a lot to deal with first thing in the morning... Or, at least, it would be a lot to deal with if this wasn't practically every other morning with them.
Claude loves it, shamelessly and fully.
Eventually, they all manage to filter out of the bathroom into an existence where they can move without smacking each other. Hilda even makes up for teasing Lorenz too much as she prepares some of his favorite tea, which is enough to put him in a good mood until he's preparing breakfast. If they weren't all early risers for various reasons- Claude because he's an overachiever, Lorenz because he thinks it makes him look good, Hilda because her beauty routine demands nothing less which is just Lorenz all over again- then a proper lunch like this would be difficult. As it is, it's only as difficult as anything else in a morning with three people squeezed to one tiny apartment.
"You know, I do believe we rather got off track," Lorenz says, setting down some waffles in the middle of the table. All three of them get a plate, with fresh fruit right besides. Claude might not add himself to the cooking part of the apartment chore list, but he does know the best places to get deals. It's amazing what some grocery stores will throw out if they're not bought soon enough just because they're a little bruised or not as pretty. "While I am positively loathe to speak of anything crass, I am quite surprised that a simple night over and stiff necks are all that happened. You are certainly not particularly subtle when it comes to what direction your affections have turned towards."
"I did tell him that I like having my hair pulled once," Claude muses as he begins to sprinkle a rather generous amount of cinnamon onto his breakfast.
At the end of the table, Hilda daintily hides a snort behind one hand. Lorenz squeezes his eyes shut. "How on earth did you make a conversation naturally tilt in that direction?" he asks wearily, heaping strawberries onto his own plate.
Claude chuckles. "In my defense?" He points a fork full of waffle in Lorenz's direction. "I've tried to be subtle. It's not my fault that Dimitri is a little... oblivious when it comes to lots of innuendo. I have to be obvious if I want him to know just how much I'm fine with him taking me to bed. And communication is important in any relationship, you know."
Sighing, Lorenz works on his waffles. "I suppose I should thank you that you weren't far worse in that description. I know from extremely recent experiences that you could be." He refuses to even pay any attention to Claude's wink, instead taking another thoughtful bite of waffle. "I do hope that he offered you a suitable breakfast when you both woke up, even if nothing of that nature occurred. It's only the proper thing to do as a host."
And there's one of his favorite things about Lorenz. Beyond all the pomp and strict manners that he'll carry with him to the grave, he really does care so much about people. Claude is certain that if he told him Dimitri had just kicked him out after they both woke up, his friend would be dressed in his absolutely most professional and intimidating clothing to hunt the blond down for a Strongly Worded (tm) interrogation on what on earth he was thinking.
Fortunately, Dimitri might not be Lorenz levels of courteous, because very few people are, but he's still somewhere in the same category. Claude shakes his head with a grin. "Ha. Put down the glove you would slap him with, Lorenz." Leaning back in his chair, Claude takes a fat bite of his waffle and waggles his fork in his roommate's direction. "He absolutely fussed over me that morning, to the point that you'd think he had done something of...." He grins slyly. "That nature." Lorenz rolls his eyes, and Claude laughs again. "In fact, he kept worrying that his cooking would be horrible. I had to reassure him that it all tasted fine."
Hilda hums, already a quarter through her berry medley of a waffle feast. "Just 'fine', huh? So I guess he can't be your house husband, welcoming you home in nothing but an apron."
So that's one way to completely derail his train of thought. Claude briefly entertains the mental image: a novelty "KISS THE COOK" apron stretched across that sinful bit of muscular cleavage, strings delicately stretched across his firm back, the knot done right over the curve of his non-existent ass which makes up for itself with the muscular thighs right beneath... Claude makes sure to snap out of that particular daydream by taking another large bite of waffle.
"Oh, he could still be that if he wanted," he says, grinning around his fork. "But it's just different preferences, I think, and it's not like he was exactly preparing for me to stay the night. We'll see if there's any change on a night he's all ready for me."
"Yes, I suppose he would have a different diet considering all his medications," Lorenz muses quietly. "Well, I shall have to ask him about it should we ever have him over again and he stays long enough for dinner."
Hilda spins her fork around as she chews through her latest bite. "As long as he doesn't stay the night. It's fantastic that he has loads of room at his apartment, but we can barely fit Lorenz through the doorways sometimes. Dimitri is just as tall and he lifts?" She sighs dramatically, shaking her head. "It just wouldn't work, unfortunately for you, Claude. Anyway, so do you two have another date already planned, or what?"
"Well, if you really must know..."
"He invited me to go look an exhibition with him," Dimitri says, leaning a bit further into his group of friends as a gust of wind rolls through the park. All four of them barely bat an eye, something he only properly realizes a second afterwards in hindsight. He never thought it was a big deal before... Funny how starting to date Claude has made him take note of so many little things. "It's at one of the museums that helped host that Day of the Dead event. Remembering they have other exhibits going on made Claude curious to see just what's been happening lately and, well, I can understand that desire perfectly."
Leaning back a little bit, hands folded behind his head, Sylvain lets loose a whistle into the cold air. "You know, I never really pegged him as the nerdy type when I first saw him. Still, it really seems to be working out well for the two of you, huh?"
"Frankly, I'm still amazed that it's going fine considering you got involved," Felix comments dryly.
"Hey!"
"I suppose I do have to agree," Ingrid says, working through banh mi she got from a food truck as they've been making their circuit around the park. "I'm still not over it, Sylvain. I mean, if it were me, well, let's just say that accepting your number would have been the last thing I ever would have done."
Sylvain shakes his head, incredulous in a good natured sort of way. "I'm being attacked on all sides, aren't I? Unbelievable." Reaching around Felix and Ingrid, he folds his arm along Dimitri's shoulder in order to lean against him. This manages to have him as a buffer between them and the autumn winds; Dimitri realizes he wouldn't have picked up on that either if he hadn't done the same thing for Claude a few times now. "At least my hard work really helped you out, right, Dimitri? So, besides doing what I did without permission, I'd say it all went pretty swimmingly."
And the thing is.... Dimitri sighs, and still says, "Honestly, he's right."
Felix's nose scrunches up in disbelief and distaste, similar to the way Ingrid crumples her brows together. "Oh, don't give him credit for doing this sort of thing, Dimitri," she says. "You even said how terrible it was to hit on someone while they were working, we all agreed on that."
"Oh, no, that part I still think was utterly shameful of me," Dimitri agrees without hesitation. "And, Sylvain? That was definitely not a 'go ahead' from me to be even more brass. But, well... I was beginning to blow it out of proportion. I can acknowledge that much. I was also not addressing the problem, instead trying to run away and avoid it. And that... certainly ended up as a way for me to confront it."
"And I'll never do what I did again, no matter how good an idea I think it is," Sylvain recites, patting Dimitri's shoulder. "We had a talk, you'll be glad to know, Ingrid."
Pausing from where she's finishing off her food, Ingrid blinks up at them in surprise. "Oh, I had thought he must have given you a warning before he unbanned you, but it's good to see that it was deep enough to be called a talk." With her sandwich done with, Ingrid carefully crumples up the paper and dumps it in the nearest trash can. Without a word or even so much as blinking, Felix hands her another one. "I will say, while I know what he looks like, it feels as though everyone has gotten to meet him besides myself." As she tugs the wrapping of her sandwich further down, she smiles up at Dimitri. "You should bring him by the rink some time. I'll be sure to give you a discount."
Sylvain gives a dramatic gasp. "Ingrid. Using your employee discount powers for selfish purposes!"
A flush surges over her face almost as fast as her glare. "Oh, you think you're so funny," she huffs, nudging her elbow back into Sylvain's stomach.
Still playing things up, Sylvain stumbles back and slumps against Dimitri's side. "Oh! I've been mortally wounded. She's finally felled me for good. Tell Felix I love him."
Maybe Sylvain has a point in how Felix is hard to get through on these matters, because he only rolls his eyes at the statement. Then again, this isn't the first time Sylvain has played around like this. Dimitri just finds himself feeling bad for both of them. "Hey, Ingrid, did you hear something?" Felix deadpans, tucking his hands away in his hoodie. "I must be missing Sylvain more than I thought after you killed him with your elbow. Sometimes, I can almost hear his voice."
A surprised laugh hops out of Sylvain's mouth, and Dimitri turns his head to the side with his own small chuckle hidden away. "I can't believe you two are ganging up on me," he says, slinging his arm around Felix's shoulder. Felix, in turn, lightly nudges him but doesn't do it so hard that he'd fling Sylvain's casual grip off entirely. "But you're not getting rid of me so easily, Felix."
"You're so ridiculous," Ingrid announces after her latest bite, but she's starting to smile a little bit again. She's still incredibly red, granted, but she's smiling. With Sylvain handled, mostly by Felix, she looks back to Dimitri again. "I was being serious, however. I hardly ever use the employee family discount, with my father living out of town most days of the year... so, honestly, I think it would fit you and your boyfriend Claude much better."
None of them say anything on it, not exactly. Not that they've all known each other almost as long as they've known their own names. Not that they've all, in some combination or another, lived with each other. Not that they've hit their lowest points together, with only one another as footholds back up.
Dimitri simply nudges his arm along hers, and feels how they intertwine in habit.
"I appreciate it you willing to do that, Ingrid," he tells her. Besides them, Felix perks up at the sound of some street musician taking up residence in the middle of the park. He shifts his path in that direction, and the rest of them follow easily enough. There's no real route planned today, after all. "I will admit that I have been worried to some degree. I... wanted to make sure that you would be alright with him." He says the words gingerly, still planning them out in his head and frankly a little worried that they'll come out in the most atrocious manner.
She blinks at him a couple of times. "Be alright with...? Oh." Far worse than with Sylvain, her face blazes scarlet. "Right. Of course. That."
Dimitri coughs into his hand. "Yes, that."
If it were only the two of them, the conversation might really end there and then. A common criticism for both of them has been that they're both inclined to being too.... Stiff. Polite. Especially around only one another, occasionally they'll hit an uncomfortable topic and both immediately veer away from it for varying reasons. The times when they've actually argued with one another or had bouts of unpleasantness have thus always been notable.
For better or worse, they're not on their own today. That means Felix snorts a little bit and comments, "Right, don't be weird and ask to touch his hair or be tonedeaf, Ingrid."
Dimitri can't help but feel a little bad for her. That red stain on her face is clearly not going to be allowed an exit anytime soon. "I only did that once, in middle school, Felix!" she scolds, voice just a little bit high pitched. "How do you even remember that with everything else we've been through together?"
"I think Felix just remembers stupid and embarrassing thing we've all done in our lives," Sylvain muses thoughtfully. "You know, the better to judge us all with."
While he's sure Sylvain didn't mean it.... Dimitri can't help but recall his and Felix's relationship only a few years ago: tempers flaring, the insults, the bitterness tangled together with their loneliness and longing and heartache. Yet glancing from him at the side of his eye, he could almost mistake it for some nightmare or frantic hallucination, because Felix is still here with him as they all walk through the park together. He's still here, smirking a little and with a stare that doesn't quite cut down to the bone.
Something on that painful nostalgia must show on his face, somehow. Sylvain glances at him almost as soon as his words have left his mouth, and Dimitri could almost swear that he sees understanding immediately flicker in his eyes. "Well, that's fine," he continues on, not missing a beat. "The price for that is that we have all of Felix's horrifically embarrassing childhood disasters. Like the time-"
Just a second too late, and dawning horrified aggression begins to ignite on Felix's face. "Sylvain, be quiet."
Sylvain, as is often the case, doesn't be quiet. "-when someone told him that the cat from Homeward Bound was going to die, so he wouldn't stop randomly crying, and Rodrigue went through literally every single pound and pet store for what I'm pretty sure was a million mile radius until he found the exact right Himalayan Cat-"
"You had your warning!" And just like that, Felix whirls around, and Sylvain leaps away with a loud laugh.
Wisely, Dimitri and Ingrid simply step away from both men to continue their conversation. "Sassy lived a really long life, didn't she?" Ingrid says casually, as though there isn't an attempted murder happening literally right behind their backs. "I remember Rodrigue and Glenn got that cat for Felix when we were in elementary school, and she lived all throughout our high school years."
Dimitri quietly notes to himself that they didn't even get to the street musician Felix had shown an interest in. "Oh, yes, she did. Well, he rather adored that cat."
"And she didn't care for anyone but him and Glenn..." Shaking her head, Ingrid takes another bite of her lunch before she remembers their original conversation and hastily swallows. "A-Anyway!" Turning to him, she presses her free hand to her chest as though making an oath. "I swear that I won't make things awkward for you and Claude. I know things were...." She winces. "Awkward, between Dedue and I for a long while... but it's not like that anymore. We get along just fine, nowadays, and I haven't said anything ignorant or terrible."
A pause.
Warily, as though she's afraid of being proven wrong, Ingrid takes a deep breath and asks, "He hasn't said anything to the contrary, has he?"
"I haven't heard anything from him personally, or Annette, Mercedes, and Ashe," he promises her, although he's not entirely sure if he's the right person to answer this particular question. Dedue doesn't like to stress him out with things sometimes. When it's come to relations between him and his other friends, well, Dedue used to be even more reluctant to make him worry. Dimitri hadn't even noticed there was "A Thing" going on between Dedue and Ingrid until Annette had accidentally spilled the beans to him one day because she'd gotten right in the middle of it herself.
Still... Reaching over, Dimitri lightly grips her hand. "Besides... Dedue and all the others invited you over to help with the move, remember?" He smiles. "I know you still worry over how rough things were between you two, but things are better now. Besides, there's Felix." He nods back to where their friends have sprinted out into the grass in Felix's chase. "You know he wouldn't have kept his mouth shut if you had done anything bad recently. You're learning. Doctor Byleth says that's the best anyone can do."
She sighs, and smiles back up at him. "You're right. I just worry." And that's part of why he cares for her so much, Dimitri thinks. He'd been worried that Ingrid would have a problem with Claude, or that something about Claude would set her off.... But this is Ingrid. He's not sure how he could have ever forgotten. She's always trying to improve herself, whether in the things she does or the mistakes she makes. Speaking of which- she grips his arm a little tighter. "But I promise, Dimitri, that I'll be perfectly fine with your boyfriend."
A soft warmth blooms in his chest... and is promptly tossed to the side as Felix rejoins them with Sylvain in a headlock and says, "What you're going to be is late coming off your lunch break, Ingrid."
"What-" Fumbling out her phone, Ingrid checks the time and groans. "Oh, no, I'm going to have to run-" Turning around, she stands on the tips of her toes to give Dimitri a quick hug, and then does the same with one arm for Felix. Sylvain gets a fond ruffle of his hair. "I'll see all of you later, okay?" With her goodbyes given, Ingrid hastily finishes off almost an entire sandwich in what feels like less than a minute. Dimitri has seen her do similar before, but it just... never fails to be impressive. As she begins to run off, she turns to wave at him. "And I meant it, Dimitri! Bring him to the rink sometime!"
Dimitri waves after her retreating form until she's clearly not looking back anymore, disappearing out of sight shortly after. Tucking his hand back into his pockets, he glances down at Felix and Sylvain. Felix still hasn't let go of him. Considering the height difference, it's... quite a sight. A really.... really... dumb one.
"Well," he starts slowly, "I think I might head back to my apartment." He tilts his head towards the two of them. "I did leave some work behind that I want to get done by the end of the day, lest I hold up who knows what else. What do you two plan on doing?"
Still refusing to let go of Sylvain, Felix glances around the park. "Honestly, I might pick up some things for Aegi while I'm out. After that..." He shrugs. "I don't teach classes until later tonight, so I have some free time to waste. I might do some research for my next video."
Sylvain taps his hand against Felix's a few times, finally giving up, and takes a deep breath when he's finally allowed to stand up properly. "Right back to work for both of you, huh?" he asks, sweeping his hand through his hair. "Seriously, you need to lighten up. Dimitri, I know you'll just talk to me about how you work at home-" Dimitri closes his mouth. "-but Felix, come on. You have some time before your shift, so why not relax a little?"
The ensuring bickering over Felix's need to relax takes up the rest of the walk to the street musician, only stopping once they've hit their destination. Things ease up then as they listen, relax, walk around a little more exchanging idle conversation. Eventually, after his phone alarm goes off, Dimitri finally moves to excuse himself. "Be sure to tell me if you convince Felix, Sylvain!" he tells his friends, which earns an eye roll from Felix.
Sylvain simply winks at him, slapping his arm. "Only if you tell me how your next date goes," he says, laughing, before they all part ways. Well, Dimitri parts ways with them. When he glances back over his shoulder, he can still hear Sylvain convincing Felix to let him help with the latest batch of cat groceries.
Well, it's nice to see they're still getting along as well as they ever did. Dimitri shakes his head fondly before he continues his way home. While he's taking the subway, his phone buzzes again, but not with an alarm. Instead, this time, it's simply a text from Claude, gushing about an exhibit that will be available on their date and which has his attention.
Dimitri smiles without meaning to, so affectionate that he almost doesn't know how to go on. So he's interested in this sort of thing as well... Even this little grain of knowledge feels precious, a bit of gold dust for him to store away. So lost in talking to Claude, learning more about this man who admitted to opening up to him, he almost misses his stop. He can't be too disparaging towards himself on the near-mistake, however. Not when he's still smiling.
Their date is going to be fantastic.
"The date was fantastic," Claude tells Hilda and Marianne the day right after, digging through the most recent batch of books. They can't exactly be called new, not when Marianne works in a used book store, but some of them might be new to him and that's the important thing. "It was all about a Golden Renaissance in Duscur. I didn't think a guy like Dimitri would know much about that, but he was just full of surprises." He pauses to turn a book around, reading the summary on its back. "You'd like him, Marianne."
Hilda turns to grin at Marianne over the counter. "See, what did I tell you? It's embarrassing how into these dates he's gotten."
"Funny, because I don't feel embarrassed at all."
"Secondhand embarrassment doesn't need your embarrassment, Claude!" Hilda titters.
Marianne glances between both of them, thumbs fiddling with one another. "W-Well... I think that's meant to be a good sign, isn't it?" She tucks some stray hair behind her hair, needing something to do with her hands. "It's been a long time since you've been so serious with a date before... Or, am I remembering incorrectly?"
"No, your memory is spot on, Marianne." He breaks away from his book hunting to wink at her. "But then he's a pretty serious guy in turn. Maybe it's not so surprising that things ended up this way."
Something in the way she casts her gaze away says she has something to say on that, but she refrains. From what Claude has gleaned, her therapy sessions have been slowly but steadily helping her... but some things take time, and he knows that she still occasionally holds back or hermits away again because she thinks her words might not be worth saying. That's not true at all, of course. Just, Claude isn't her therapist. He'll be here for her, and that's all he can do for right now; he's told her as much so many times in the past.
Instead, helping bridge the gap in noise, Hilda shakes her head. "He really is so stiff, I'm impressed that he's the guy out of everyone in this city who snagged your attention."
"What can I say? I guess I'm just weak to vikings."
That has Marianne looking back, eyes wide and brows pinched together. "...Vikings?"
The realization hits Claude and Hilda simultaneously like a trainwreck. "You haven't seen the video!" they exclaim together, Hilda leaning on the counter with both her hands while Claude scrambles up onto his feet.
Poor Marianne. This kind of over the top reaction has her leaning back, hands clenched to her chest. "There's a video of Claude's boyfriend being a viking?" she asks, so terribly confused at what on earth this could possibly mean.
Scooting up onto the counter, Hilda wraps her arms around Marianne with a laugh leaving her lips. Claude slides behind the counter, because no one can stop him, and starts flicking through his phone. "He took this video on their first date," she tells Marianne. "Me and Lorenz had to watch it over and over again for a week straight."
That would be something of an exaggeration, honestly. What Claude says, fully serious, is, "And you should be grateful for every one of those seven days, Hilda, considering what a treasure this video is."
He still kind of loves it, honestly. It's well watched on his phone, and he's made sure to save it to his computer, too. He hardly needs any time before it's ready. With a wide grin, he tilts the phone so all three of them can watch it. Dimitri still looks so good despite the fact the video was taken on a crappy little phone camera. His muscles, the way his hair ruffles up along his shoulders, that hot smirk of his....
Great every time.
Granted, it's great for him, personally, for very personal and intimate reasons that dear sweet Marianne absolutely doesn't need to know. That's why it ends with the camera maybe focused a little bit... downwards, on that chest Claude is so grateful that he's gotten to touch a couple of times.
It is, arguably, not great in certain other areas, which is why Marianne slowly turns her head to stare at him. "And... you think I would like to meet him?" she says hesitantly, mouth scrunched up maybe just a liiiiittle bit.
Oh right. Dimitri in a lot of that video wasn't the soft spoken, polite, 'offers his coat to his date and kisses knuckles' gentleman that Claude has seen a lot of in their dates. That video was Dimitri's rare bit of being absolutely feral, the towering six foot something barrel of intimidation that had made people hold their breath when he'd first stepped into the Golden Deer. Granted- Claude still finds that hot and wonders just how else he can make that side of Dimitri surface some more, ideally in bed.... but that's not exactly a great first impression. You know. For normal people. Especially quiet types.
To help amend this oversight, Claude assures her, "That's just him at his most bangable, in my opinion." On the counter, Hilda almost goes toppling off from choking on her own laughter. Claude keeps going without batting an eye. "He's actually a lot more quiet- not too unlike you, really. Maybe I'll coax him over for a visit. I'll even act as chaperone, so you'll feel perfectly at ease."
"A chaperone for your own date?" Hilda teases, wiping tears from her eyes.
Claude grins, tucking his phone away and going back to the books he'd been rooting through. "Hey, there's no law saying that I can't. Anyway, would you believe we've already got another date planned?"
While his back is to her, he can't exactly see what expression Marianne makes, but he can give a fairly decent guess. After all, 'surprised and confused' has been the name of the game for this entire conversation. "Already? That... seems fairly fast, when you both just finished one..."
"Well, there's no point in waiting for the grass to grow under my feet, right?" Claude laughs again before he falls into a more contemplative silence as he looks over the book in his hand. If there's one thing used book stores have plenty of, it's certainly a million romance paperbacks, he notes. All of them dramatic, or with a happy ending. The former, he could do without. But the latter.... He wonders. "And it's easy, you know," he says again, pointedly keeping his voice light, as though this isn't a big deal. "We must click pretty well."
"And all it took was finding a polite viking," Hilda sighs. "Well, that's my break done with." Sliding off of the counter, she turns around to light her hand gently over one of Marianne's. "Anyway, promise you'll eat those pastries I brought, okay? No need to share!" Blowing her a kiss, their favorite menace swans out of the shop doorway in a flutter of pink.
Chuckling, Claude turns back to his book diving. He's already gotten off of his morning shift, and he's in no rush for anything else right now. That's a good thing, considering that there are three different and not insignificant boxes stuffed full of new arrivals. He's barely gotten through one. Yet as he's digging, he can hear Marianne's quiet shuffling move from behind the counter to his side, and she crouches down at the box furthest from him.
Claude doesn't really question it; she does work in the place. At some point she's going to have to start putting all these books away. Yet after she goes through everything in box, cardboard almost completely cleared out, she pauses and fishes something out from the very bottom that's tucked away in the corner. "Um, Claude.... Here. I thought you might like this...?"
It's a book on old war time codes, featuring notable codecrackers and just how they used to do what they did before everything they used became outdated. In other words, it's exactly the kind of interesting historical tidbit he adores reading, and absolutely is the kind of niche thing he'll commit perfectly to memory. A wide grin spreads across his face, and he gleefully accepts. "Oh, Marianne, you know the way to my heart."
"It's not a big deal..." Except she'd gone straight for where the book was hidden, on the very bottom of the box the furthest away from all the others ready to be shelved. That's the action of someone who'd known exactly where to find it.... and Claude doubts that she remembers where she's packed every single book. So, whether she'll admit it or not, he's fairly certain she hid the book away so no one would take it before he could have a chance to.
He's learned better than to make a big deal of things with her. Claude just grins. "Still, what a great find, huh?" With that, he lets her have a little bit of breathing space and starts to flick through the book itself.
On a normal day, that would be the end of it. However, today must not be normal, because Marianne seems to have a rare reserve of confidence. After awkwardly sitting there besides him for a couple of minutes, she finally dares to speak up. "If it's so easy for you... to want to spend so much time with him in comparison to dates you've had in the past... Then, I'll trust you to bring him over. I-If you'd really like."
Claude doesn't look up; he can see from the corner of his eye that she's not making eye contact with him either. Sometimes, to take that step forward, a person has to blindfold themselves. So he'll let her have that blindfold, and just smiles down at the box of books that he's going through. "I really would, if you don't mind. Honestly, I almost think he's liked meeting my friends more than he's gone on dates with me. But then, I suppose it never hurts to have more friends, does it?"
That does get her to smile a little bit, no doubt thinking back to her own days where she'd been so withdrawn before everyone had come together to pull her out of it. It's hard to know how to say no to a guy like Raphael, or wiggle out from Hilda's flattery. "Yes, I.... I suppose it never does. And...." She wrings her hands together. "I think... if, well, it's someone that's made you serious.... Oh, nevermind."
Maybe it's for the better that her own attempt at boldness chases Marianne off with an armful of books to sort out, her face glaringly red on her too pale skin. Claude can't help but feel a little bit flustered himself that he's been called out, and by Marianne of all people. Lorenz is usually too caught up on what's proper and possible or not, which he's done with everyone Claude has dated in the past. Hilda is usually pretty happy to just joke around with him, although that just means she can be absolutely lethal when she bothers to be.
But Marianne? Reserved, highly depressed, sweetheart Marianne who wants to open up her own ranch for senior animals one day? Striking a blow to the fact that he's stumbled so hard into this relationship that he almost doesn't know what to do with himself?
They both get over it, or at least act like they do. Well, to be more accurate, Claude fakes it the most between them as he finally goes up to the counter to pay for the latest acquisition in his library hoard. It's as Marianne is fetching him his change that his phone buzzes with a text, and Claude takes the time to check on it.
He certainly has the time, considering she drops more than a couple of coins and has to go chasing after them. When he sees what's written, he laughs, and Marianne's head pokes up beyond the counter. "I-I'm doing my best-"
"Oh, no, not you, Marianne," he says apologetically, realizing how that must have sounded while she wasn't paying attention to him. "Dimitri just sent me a text. Remember that protest the band did a little while ago? Well, Dimitri took part in it, and he brought a friend with him. He got to hold one of the signs we brought with us, and, well- long story short is that they had to leave a little early, but the friend took his sign with him when he did." Laughter teases at the edge of his voice. "I never really cared to pay much mind after that, but I guess he just, kept it, and, well, see for yourself."
Marianne tentatively leans across the counter as he displays his phone, and, whups, there's that concerned look again. "....He kept the vasectomy sign Leonie made?"
If Claude doesn't stop grinning any time soon, he think he might start to cry, but in a good way. "He sure did."
"Is... Is it legal to have that many swords in his apartment, on his wall?"
"Apparently!" Bursting out laughing, Claude pulls his phone back so that he can type a response to Dimitri. "Don't worry, that's not the guy I want you to meet. It'll only be Dimitri that I bring over." Hitting 'send', he gives her a playful wink. "At least, that's my plan. But you won't be alone. Hilda will be there as backup, I promise." It could even almost be like a double date.
Marianne still doesn't look entirely sure about any of this, but she has his change and she has his book ready to go. "If you say so..."
"Funnily enough, I do." He barely has time to accept his change and book before his phone is buzzing again, and he laughs once more once he reads the miniature essay that's been sent to him. This, also, he shows to Marianne. "Look, he's promising to keep Felix's sword lust away from you too."
It's quite a response, too, way more than would go into a normal text and with that same proper grammar that's apparent in all of Dimitri's replies to him. Watching Marianne, he can see some of the same realization hit her that had hit him, once upon a time: that someone so awkward, so polite, so painfully sweet is also the same kind of person who'd looked so intimidating while almost hauling a lion off its feet with a thick rope. "He seems... nice," she says, and she seems a little more like she believes her own words this time around. "I hope... you really have a nice date, Claude."
That draws out a wide grin from him. "Oh, don't worry on that front. If it's going to be anything like all the other dates we've had with each other... It's going to be incredible."
"He really is incredible," Dimitri sighs, leaning back in a church pew, and his words draw out a giggle from Mercedes.
Church and him have a bit of a complicated relationship, one that he doesn't think will ever really ease up. It's just too much, really. Once, he used to think that it didn't matter what his feelings were on the matter, because it was tradition, it was something his family had always done, and once they were gone- well, wasn't it just one more thing he had keeping him tethered to them? How could he abandon that, just because he didn't feel comfortable sometimes?
Yet the Professor and the Doctor had talked him through all of that, convinced him to stop going for even just a month and see how he felt. To say it had been... freeing, even if guilt-ridden, is an understatement. After they'd talked him through the guilt part of it all, well, he's simply never come back. Not properly at any rate.
But Mercedes doesn't have such a terribly complicated history with religion. In fact, it's done so much good for her, and in turn has spurred her to do so much good for other people. Dimitri can't begrudge her that kind of thing. So if sometimes she needs some help at the church by way of moving something for an event, a volunteer who's tall or strong or any combination of the two... Well, Dimitri doesn't mind coming over.
Besides, it's nice to spend time with any of his friends, one on one, and he can appreciate the beauty of churches a little more now that he's allowed himself to step away from it all. There's something serene to sitting with Mercedes as the two of them take a break from where they've been moving various tables and the like, a lunch carefully set between them.
He's not entirely sure what any holy books or priests say on if it's rude or improper to eat in a church. It feels like it should be, but he's long since forgotten a great deal of his learnings when it comes to religion. Mercedes seems to get away with it either way.
In fact, when he'd asked, she'd just smiled and said the Goddess wouldn't want anyone helping a good cause to go without food. Or anyone to go without food at all, in fact, which is the whole reason he's here, considering that the event is meant to help distribute food to those who need it. Isn't helping people more important than the risk of maybe dropping a few crumbs here or there that will just cleaned up by the end of the day?
Dimitri rather likes Mercedes' way of doing religion. Maybe if he'd known her when he was younger, he wouldn't have such a bad reaction to it.
Yet the past is the past, and, here in the present, Mercedes shares with him the large lunch her and Ashe put together for today. "Dedue really likes him as well," she tells him over her sandwich, smiling. "He said he seemed like a trustworthy kind of person."
"Really!" That news alone is enough to make Dimitri brighten up. Dedue's approval is the most important thing in the world for him. Dimitri knows he would do a lot of things on his own regardless of Dedue's thoughts on the matter, for better or worse. He has in the past, after all. But... If there's anyone he wants to like Claude, to get along with Claude if he invited his friends and boyfriend over at the same time, it's Dedue. "With how their personalities are so different from one another, I wasn't expecting that."
"It makes me want to meet him all the more," Mercedes says, giggling. "Especially after Annette said she spotted you taking him to your apartment one night!"
Is he going to get struck down for talking about this kind of thing in a church? Is he going to be struck down in general? Dimitri rather hopes he is, with how deeply red his face gets, and he shoves his sandwich further into his face like that's going to help anything. Maybe if he's lucky, he'll choke on it.
But he doesn't, and he's left with the conversation as it is. "I can promise you, Mercedes, that it wasn't like that," he tells her, maybe a little bit strangled.
"Oh, I know," Mercedes says brightly. "You're far too anxious for that sort of thing, Dimitri."
Most people would describe him as 'stiff', or 'proper'. Mercedes really is one of the only people he can think of that would describe it as an anxiety.... but she might have a point.
After another bite of their lunch, he sighs. "I can't deny that," he tells her. "We've been seeing each other so much these last couple of months... I take care not to intrude on any time he has put aside for his band, of course, and I'm always careful to make sure that he's fine with the date whether the time chosen for it or that it exists at all... But I don't want to feel too-" He shakes his head, trying to decide on the proper wording. "Do you think I'm rushing this, Mercedes? Even without, well. You know." Mercedes can convince him to talk about a lot, even in a church setting, but it feels far too crass to mention sex just now. Not so explicitly.
She hums around the rim of her bottled water, thoughtful. "You know.... When I first started to date Dedue, I wanted to go see him all the time. Not necessarily for dates, but just to see him and talk with him when I could grab even a minute of his time at the plant nursery, back when we were in school. Me and Annette, why, we'd been together so much as regular friends that, when we started to get romantic with one another, it hardly felt like a real change at all. Dedue was so different, I didn't know what to do with myself."
Remembering those times makes Dimitri smile a little bit. "Yes, I recall. I'd go to see Dedue myself, and I always felt as though I'd be interfering whenever I saw you there."
Another giggle. "It must have felt terribly awkward! But, no matter who was there, I always enjoyed being with Dedue even though other people would be there sometimes, or that it felt as though I was seeing him every day." She leans back, legs stretching out in front of her. "In contrast, it felt like things were much slower when it came to Ashe and I. So, if you really want to know what I think, Dimitri... There's no real wrong way to date. Every love we have for another person is different, and every love doesn't happen the same way as the love which came before it." Dimitri's face heats up at her choice of words, but Mercedes continues. "Do you regret any of the dates you've gone on with him?"
The answer is on his tongue almost as soon as he thinks it. Maybe even before. "Oh, no. Not a single one."
"I thought so. And he's invited you on just as many dates, hasn't he?"
...Ah. Dimitri smiles down at his food. "Yes, he has."
Mercedes smiles back. "And I imagine he's told you much the same as I have. So then that's the form your love has taken, and that's fine. I don't think it's a bad thing, for you two to feel so much for each other, especially when everything about him is so new for you. So... Just enjoy being happy, okay, Dimitri? You're allowed to want that."
The reminder is a little bit of a shock, before he realizes that, too, is true. While he'd been able to hold himself back from getting too worked up about this new relationship for so long, he supposes it was inevitable that he would start to worry. Start to get afraid. The Doctor or the Professor would probably say that it's a good thing that he's been able to go this long before sinking back into his fears and reservations, he supposes.
And, thanks to his friends, he won't sink any further.
"You're right," he tells her, trying to tell his body to relax, that there's no need for him to get tense or worked up. "I've been enjoying my time with him so much, it would be a shame to lose all of that to my own mind. He's just so wonderful, I'm amazed he gave me a chance after the first impression that I made. He's incredibly bright, in every possible meaning of the term. I could talk about him for hours, I think."
Especially with Mercedes, who he doesn't feel guilty doing it with. Not only does she make it so easy to speak with her, reveal his hopes and woes to, but she's also notably not single. Extremely not single, one could say. It doesn't feel like boasting to talk about how amazing he finds Claude Riegan to be.
Indulgently, Mercedes lets him babble for a few minutes while they work through the rest of their lunch together, and then soon enough they both get back to work moving or unpacking boxes. At some point inbetween it all, Dimitri makes sure to catch Mercedes by the arm so that he can give her a grateful smile. "Thank you for letting me take up so much of lunch with my chatter, Mercedes."
He'd only meant to gently take her by the arm. Mercedes takes it a step further, wrapping her arms around him in a brief but tight hug. "I'm just happy that you're happy, Dimitri."
And he knows she means it. As they continue to work, Dimitri thinks on her words, resolves to abide by them. Maybe he doesn't have to hold back so much. Maybe he really can want happiness, and pursue it. Convincing his mind of that is going to have to be a continuous process, an ongoing argument against himself, but... He'll manage.
Certainly, he's managed with the rest of his life. He'll do the same with his romantic.
Claude has to pull his razor away so that he can chuckle a little bit and not slice his face open. "We woke up with cricks in our necks after a night of sleeping in the stupidest positions," he tells her before he returns to his careful grooming. This sort of means being bent over a good deal as he makes sure to duck under Lorenz's elbows in order to be near the mirror. The apartment has one bathroom despite arguably being able to host three people, and all three of them have to suck it up and share. "Not that I regret anything, mind you. His chest is heavenly. I pray every day for the morning where I can wake up on bare skin after his monster cock has made me forget written language-"
Lorenz abruptly stops plucking his eyebrows. "Claude!" he hisses, aghast and scolding in equal measure.
Innocently, he bats his eyelashes up at his dearest friend and roommate. "What?" he asks, with the tone of someone who doesn't even know what the definition of 'sin' is. "Did I say something inappropriate, Lorenz? I'm merely talking about my hopes and dreams for the future. What's so wrong about that?"
Drawing his lips thin, Lorenz wags the tweezers at him. "You know very well what you did. I cannot believe that you would bring up such a subject so early in the morning while we are all attempting to prepare for the day ahead of us."
"Yeah, Claude." Fists loosely clenched, Hilda so innocently holds them up near her face. "I can't believe you'd want to talk about how you want Dimitri's huge dick stuffed all the way down your throat until you can't breathe-"
"Can we not!" Both Claude and Hilda burst out cackling at that, leaving poor Lorenz to suffer with his fingers tastefully pressed against his forehead. Oh well. He knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to share a lease with them. While Claude and Hilda are left clinging desperately to anything in the small amount of bathroom they're all squeezed into, Lorenz patiently gets back to tending to his brows. When their howling has finally gone down to some giggling and they can stand on their own feet, he speaks up again. "Are you both quite done?"
Claude winks. "I'll let you know if my sinful urges pop up. Hopefully before they literally pop up." He laughs some more as Lorenz finally gives up any trace of cleaning his face, instead just drawing both hands over eyes.
Recovering from such terrible bullying takes him a minute before he begins to meticulously wash his face. "I will say, from your and Hilda's descriptions of his apartment, I thought he would have more suitable accommodations for guests than merely unfolding his couch."
Waiting for Lorenz to pull away from the sink, Claude begins to clean up his own jawline as well. It takes effort to make sure he doesn't start growing Santa levels of beard. "Honestly, I have no idea what else he has in the other rooms," he muses. "For all I know, he has his own mini gym available to him, although then I can't imagine why he would go out to Captain's." Finishing his rinse, he chuckles. "If I'm lucky, maybe he has a sex dungeon."
"Claude Riegan, I well and truly swear that I shall not tolerate this any longer-"
"So you always say," Claude says, leaning against Lorenz with a wide grin. Lorenz shakes his head, but doesn't push him off. By this point, they're all close enough friends for physical intimacy like this to not be that big of a deal. "But on a more serious note, like I was saying, I have no idea. Maybe some of it is even empty; he has said that he's thought about getting a roommate before. It's just one of those things that he keeps forgetting."
From the side, Hilda sighs morosely. "I wish I could have the freedom to forget a roommate," she says, clipping her nails. She doesn't need to do that in here. All Hilda needs is a room with a trash can. Still, the bathroom has now become a communal activity, and Claude knows she won't leave it for anything. "Then I could have a bathroom where Claude's ass won't threaten to bump me straight into the shower."
Claude waggles his eyebrows at her. "I mean, if anything, you should be grateful that you get such regular opportunities to touch my ass."
"May we please stop talking about Claude Riegan's ass?" Lorenz asks, voice strained and long suffering.
As a response, Hilda blows a raspberry at him. Claude wonders how exactly, if at all, that sort of expression affects a face mask. "Like you aren't the most glad to touch it," she accuses Lorenz playfully, which starts off a whole Thing in the bathroom. It's a lot to deal with first thing in the morning... Or, at least, it would be a lot to deal with if this wasn't practically every other morning with them.
Claude loves it, shamelessly and fully.
Eventually, they all manage to filter out of the bathroom into an existence where they can move without smacking each other. Hilda even makes up for teasing Lorenz too much as she prepares some of his favorite tea, which is enough to put him in a good mood until he's preparing breakfast. If they weren't all early risers for various reasons- Claude because he's an overachiever, Lorenz because he thinks it makes him look good, Hilda because her beauty routine demands nothing less which is just Lorenz all over again- then a proper lunch like this would be difficult. As it is, it's only as difficult as anything else in a morning with three people squeezed to one tiny apartment.
"You know, I do believe we rather got off track," Lorenz says, setting down some waffles in the middle of the table. All three of them get a plate, with fresh fruit right besides. Claude might not add himself to the cooking part of the apartment chore list, but he does know the best places to get deals. It's amazing what some grocery stores will throw out if they're not bought soon enough just because they're a little bruised or not as pretty. "While I am positively loathe to speak of anything crass, I am quite surprised that a simple night over and stiff necks are all that happened. You are certainly not particularly subtle when it comes to what direction your affections have turned towards."
"I did tell him that I like having my hair pulled once," Claude muses as he begins to sprinkle a rather generous amount of cinnamon onto his breakfast.
At the end of the table, Hilda daintily hides a snort behind one hand. Lorenz squeezes his eyes shut. "How on earth did you make a conversation naturally tilt in that direction?" he asks wearily, heaping strawberries onto his own plate.
Claude chuckles. "In my defense?" He points a fork full of waffle in Lorenz's direction. "I've tried to be subtle. It's not my fault that Dimitri is a little... oblivious when it comes to lots of innuendo. I have to be obvious if I want him to know just how much I'm fine with him taking me to bed. And communication is important in any relationship, you know."
Sighing, Lorenz works on his waffles. "I suppose I should thank you that you weren't far worse in that description. I know from extremely recent experiences that you could be." He refuses to even pay any attention to Claude's wink, instead taking another thoughtful bite of waffle. "I do hope that he offered you a suitable breakfast when you both woke up, even if nothing of that nature occurred. It's only the proper thing to do as a host."
And there's one of his favorite things about Lorenz. Beyond all the pomp and strict manners that he'll carry with him to the grave, he really does care so much about people. Claude is certain that if he told him Dimitri had just kicked him out after they both woke up, his friend would be dressed in his absolutely most professional and intimidating clothing to hunt the blond down for a Strongly Worded (tm) interrogation on what on earth he was thinking.
Fortunately, Dimitri might not be Lorenz levels of courteous, because very few people are, but he's still somewhere in the same category. Claude shakes his head with a grin. "Ha. Put down the glove you would slap him with, Lorenz." Leaning back in his chair, Claude takes a fat bite of his waffle and waggles his fork in his roommate's direction. "He absolutely fussed over me that morning, to the point that you'd think he had done something of...." He grins slyly. "That nature." Lorenz rolls his eyes, and Claude laughs again. "In fact, he kept worrying that his cooking would be horrible. I had to reassure him that it all tasted fine."
Hilda hums, already a quarter through her berry medley of a waffle feast. "Just 'fine', huh? So I guess he can't be your house husband, welcoming you home in nothing but an apron."
So that's one way to completely derail his train of thought. Claude briefly entertains the mental image: a novelty "KISS THE COOK" apron stretched across that sinful bit of muscular cleavage, strings delicately stretched across his firm back, the knot done right over the curve of his non-existent ass which makes up for itself with the muscular thighs right beneath... Claude makes sure to snap out of that particular daydream by taking another large bite of waffle.
"Oh, he could still be that if he wanted," he says, grinning around his fork. "But it's just different preferences, I think, and it's not like he was exactly preparing for me to stay the night. We'll see if there's any change on a night he's all ready for me."
"Yes, I suppose he would have a different diet considering all his medications," Lorenz muses quietly. "Well, I shall have to ask him about it should we ever have him over again and he stays long enough for dinner."
Hilda spins her fork around as she chews through her latest bite. "As long as he doesn't stay the night. It's fantastic that he has loads of room at his apartment, but we can barely fit Lorenz through the doorways sometimes. Dimitri is just as tall and he lifts?" She sighs dramatically, shaking her head. "It just wouldn't work, unfortunately for you, Claude. Anyway, so do you two have another date already planned, or what?"
"Well, if you really must know..."
"He invited me to go look an exhibition with him," Dimitri says, leaning a bit further into his group of friends as a gust of wind rolls through the park. All four of them barely bat an eye, something he only properly realizes a second afterwards in hindsight. He never thought it was a big deal before... Funny how starting to date Claude has made him take note of so many little things. "It's at one of the museums that helped host that Day of the Dead event. Remembering they have other exhibits going on made Claude curious to see just what's been happening lately and, well, I can understand that desire perfectly."
Leaning back a little bit, hands folded behind his head, Sylvain lets loose a whistle into the cold air. "You know, I never really pegged him as the nerdy type when I first saw him. Still, it really seems to be working out well for the two of you, huh?"
"Frankly, I'm still amazed that it's going fine considering you got involved," Felix comments dryly.
"Hey!"
"I suppose I do have to agree," Ingrid says, working through banh mi she got from a food truck as they've been making their circuit around the park. "I'm still not over it, Sylvain. I mean, if it were me, well, let's just say that accepting your number would have been the last thing I ever would have done."
Sylvain shakes his head, incredulous in a good natured sort of way. "I'm being attacked on all sides, aren't I? Unbelievable." Reaching around Felix and Ingrid, he folds his arm along Dimitri's shoulder in order to lean against him. This manages to have him as a buffer between them and the autumn winds; Dimitri realizes he wouldn't have picked up on that either if he hadn't done the same thing for Claude a few times now. "At least my hard work really helped you out, right, Dimitri? So, besides doing what I did without permission, I'd say it all went pretty swimmingly."
And the thing is.... Dimitri sighs, and still says, "Honestly, he's right."
Felix's nose scrunches up in disbelief and distaste, similar to the way Ingrid crumples her brows together. "Oh, don't give him credit for doing this sort of thing, Dimitri," she says. "You even said how terrible it was to hit on someone while they were working, we all agreed on that."
"Oh, no, that part I still think was utterly shameful of me," Dimitri agrees without hesitation. "And, Sylvain? That was definitely not a 'go ahead' from me to be even more brass. But, well... I was beginning to blow it out of proportion. I can acknowledge that much. I was also not addressing the problem, instead trying to run away and avoid it. And that... certainly ended up as a way for me to confront it."
"And I'll never do what I did again, no matter how good an idea I think it is," Sylvain recites, patting Dimitri's shoulder. "We had a talk, you'll be glad to know, Ingrid."
Pausing from where she's finishing off her food, Ingrid blinks up at them in surprise. "Oh, I had thought he must have given you a warning before he unbanned you, but it's good to see that it was deep enough to be called a talk." With her sandwich done with, Ingrid carefully crumples up the paper and dumps it in the nearest trash can. Without a word or even so much as blinking, Felix hands her another one. "I will say, while I know what he looks like, it feels as though everyone has gotten to meet him besides myself." As she tugs the wrapping of her sandwich further down, she smiles up at Dimitri. "You should bring him by the rink some time. I'll be sure to give you a discount."
Sylvain gives a dramatic gasp. "Ingrid. Using your employee discount powers for selfish purposes!"
A flush surges over her face almost as fast as her glare. "Oh, you think you're so funny," she huffs, nudging her elbow back into Sylvain's stomach.
Still playing things up, Sylvain stumbles back and slumps against Dimitri's side. "Oh! I've been mortally wounded. She's finally felled me for good. Tell Felix I love him."
Maybe Sylvain has a point in how Felix is hard to get through on these matters, because he only rolls his eyes at the statement. Then again, this isn't the first time Sylvain has played around like this. Dimitri just finds himself feeling bad for both of them. "Hey, Ingrid, did you hear something?" Felix deadpans, tucking his hands away in his hoodie. "I must be missing Sylvain more than I thought after you killed him with your elbow. Sometimes, I can almost hear his voice."
A surprised laugh hops out of Sylvain's mouth, and Dimitri turns his head to the side with his own small chuckle hidden away. "I can't believe you two are ganging up on me," he says, slinging his arm around Felix's shoulder. Felix, in turn, lightly nudges him but doesn't do it so hard that he'd fling Sylvain's casual grip off entirely. "But you're not getting rid of me so easily, Felix."
"You're so ridiculous," Ingrid announces after her latest bite, but she's starting to smile a little bit again. She's still incredibly red, granted, but she's smiling. With Sylvain handled, mostly by Felix, she looks back to Dimitri again. "I was being serious, however. I hardly ever use the employee family discount, with my father living out of town most days of the year... so, honestly, I think it would fit you and your boyfriend Claude much better."
None of them say anything on it, not exactly. Not that they've all known each other almost as long as they've known their own names. Not that they've all, in some combination or another, lived with each other. Not that they've hit their lowest points together, with only one another as footholds back up.
Dimitri simply nudges his arm along hers, and feels how they intertwine in habit.
"I appreciate it you willing to do that, Ingrid," he tells her. Besides them, Felix perks up at the sound of some street musician taking up residence in the middle of the park. He shifts his path in that direction, and the rest of them follow easily enough. There's no real route planned today, after all. "I will admit that I have been worried to some degree. I... wanted to make sure that you would be alright with him." He says the words gingerly, still planning them out in his head and frankly a little worried that they'll come out in the most atrocious manner.
She blinks at him a couple of times. "Be alright with...? Oh." Far worse than with Sylvain, her face blazes scarlet. "Right. Of course. That."
Dimitri coughs into his hand. "Yes, that."
If it were only the two of them, the conversation might really end there and then. A common criticism for both of them has been that they're both inclined to being too.... Stiff. Polite. Especially around only one another, occasionally they'll hit an uncomfortable topic and both immediately veer away from it for varying reasons. The times when they've actually argued with one another or had bouts of unpleasantness have thus always been notable.
For better or worse, they're not on their own today. That means Felix snorts a little bit and comments, "Right, don't be weird and ask to touch his hair or be tonedeaf, Ingrid."
Dimitri can't help but feel a little bad for her. That red stain on her face is clearly not going to be allowed an exit anytime soon. "I only did that once, in middle school, Felix!" she scolds, voice just a little bit high pitched. "How do you even remember that with everything else we've been through together?"
"I think Felix just remembers stupid and embarrassing thing we've all done in our lives," Sylvain muses thoughtfully. "You know, the better to judge us all with."
While he's sure Sylvain didn't mean it.... Dimitri can't help but recall his and Felix's relationship only a few years ago: tempers flaring, the insults, the bitterness tangled together with their loneliness and longing and heartache. Yet glancing from him at the side of his eye, he could almost mistake it for some nightmare or frantic hallucination, because Felix is still here with him as they all walk through the park together. He's still here, smirking a little and with a stare that doesn't quite cut down to the bone.
Something on that painful nostalgia must show on his face, somehow. Sylvain glances at him almost as soon as his words have left his mouth, and Dimitri could almost swear that he sees understanding immediately flicker in his eyes. "Well, that's fine," he continues on, not missing a beat. "The price for that is that we have all of Felix's horrifically embarrassing childhood disasters. Like the time-"
Just a second too late, and dawning horrified aggression begins to ignite on Felix's face. "Sylvain, be quiet."
Sylvain, as is often the case, doesn't be quiet. "-when someone told him that the cat from Homeward Bound was going to die, so he wouldn't stop randomly crying, and Rodrigue went through literally every single pound and pet store for what I'm pretty sure was a million mile radius until he found the exact right Himalayan Cat-"
"You had your warning!" And just like that, Felix whirls around, and Sylvain leaps away with a loud laugh.
Wisely, Dimitri and Ingrid simply step away from both men to continue their conversation. "Sassy lived a really long life, didn't she?" Ingrid says casually, as though there isn't an attempted murder happening literally right behind their backs. "I remember Rodrigue and Glenn got that cat for Felix when we were in elementary school, and she lived all throughout our high school years."
Dimitri quietly notes to himself that they didn't even get to the street musician Felix had shown an interest in. "Oh, yes, she did. Well, he rather adored that cat."
"And she didn't care for anyone but him and Glenn..." Shaking her head, Ingrid takes another bite of her lunch before she remembers their original conversation and hastily swallows. "A-Anyway!" Turning to him, she presses her free hand to her chest as though making an oath. "I swear that I won't make things awkward for you and Claude. I know things were...." She winces. "Awkward, between Dedue and I for a long while... but it's not like that anymore. We get along just fine, nowadays, and I haven't said anything ignorant or terrible."
A pause.
Warily, as though she's afraid of being proven wrong, Ingrid takes a deep breath and asks, "He hasn't said anything to the contrary, has he?"
"I haven't heard anything from him personally, or Annette, Mercedes, and Ashe," he promises her, although he's not entirely sure if he's the right person to answer this particular question. Dedue doesn't like to stress him out with things sometimes. When it's come to relations between him and his other friends, well, Dedue used to be even more reluctant to make him worry. Dimitri hadn't even noticed there was "A Thing" going on between Dedue and Ingrid until Annette had accidentally spilled the beans to him one day because she'd gotten right in the middle of it herself.
Still... Reaching over, Dimitri lightly grips her hand. "Besides... Dedue and all the others invited you over to help with the move, remember?" He smiles. "I know you still worry over how rough things were between you two, but things are better now. Besides, there's Felix." He nods back to where their friends have sprinted out into the grass in Felix's chase. "You know he wouldn't have kept his mouth shut if you had done anything bad recently. You're learning. Doctor Byleth says that's the best anyone can do."
She sighs, and smiles back up at him. "You're right. I just worry." And that's part of why he cares for her so much, Dimitri thinks. He'd been worried that Ingrid would have a problem with Claude, or that something about Claude would set her off.... But this is Ingrid. He's not sure how he could have ever forgotten. She's always trying to improve herself, whether in the things she does or the mistakes she makes. Speaking of which- she grips his arm a little tighter. "But I promise, Dimitri, that I'll be perfectly fine with your boyfriend."
A soft warmth blooms in his chest... and is promptly tossed to the side as Felix rejoins them with Sylvain in a headlock and says, "What you're going to be is late coming off your lunch break, Ingrid."
"What-" Fumbling out her phone, Ingrid checks the time and groans. "Oh, no, I'm going to have to run-" Turning around, she stands on the tips of her toes to give Dimitri a quick hug, and then does the same with one arm for Felix. Sylvain gets a fond ruffle of his hair. "I'll see all of you later, okay?" With her goodbyes given, Ingrid hastily finishes off almost an entire sandwich in what feels like less than a minute. Dimitri has seen her do similar before, but it just... never fails to be impressive. As she begins to run off, she turns to wave at him. "And I meant it, Dimitri! Bring him to the rink sometime!"
Dimitri waves after her retreating form until she's clearly not looking back anymore, disappearing out of sight shortly after. Tucking his hand back into his pockets, he glances down at Felix and Sylvain. Felix still hasn't let go of him. Considering the height difference, it's... quite a sight. A really.... really... dumb one.
"Well," he starts slowly, "I think I might head back to my apartment." He tilts his head towards the two of them. "I did leave some work behind that I want to get done by the end of the day, lest I hold up who knows what else. What do you two plan on doing?"
Still refusing to let go of Sylvain, Felix glances around the park. "Honestly, I might pick up some things for Aegi while I'm out. After that..." He shrugs. "I don't teach classes until later tonight, so I have some free time to waste. I might do some research for my next video."
Sylvain taps his hand against Felix's a few times, finally giving up, and takes a deep breath when he's finally allowed to stand up properly. "Right back to work for both of you, huh?" he asks, sweeping his hand through his hair. "Seriously, you need to lighten up. Dimitri, I know you'll just talk to me about how you work at home-" Dimitri closes his mouth. "-but Felix, come on. You have some time before your shift, so why not relax a little?"
The ensuring bickering over Felix's need to relax takes up the rest of the walk to the street musician, only stopping once they've hit their destination. Things ease up then as they listen, relax, walk around a little more exchanging idle conversation. Eventually, after his phone alarm goes off, Dimitri finally moves to excuse himself. "Be sure to tell me if you convince Felix, Sylvain!" he tells his friends, which earns an eye roll from Felix.
Sylvain simply winks at him, slapping his arm. "Only if you tell me how your next date goes," he says, laughing, before they all part ways. Well, Dimitri parts ways with them. When he glances back over his shoulder, he can still hear Sylvain convincing Felix to let him help with the latest batch of cat groceries.
Well, it's nice to see they're still getting along as well as they ever did. Dimitri shakes his head fondly before he continues his way home. While he's taking the subway, his phone buzzes again, but not with an alarm. Instead, this time, it's simply a text from Claude, gushing about an exhibit that will be available on their date and which has his attention.
Dimitri smiles without meaning to, so affectionate that he almost doesn't know how to go on. So he's interested in this sort of thing as well... Even this little grain of knowledge feels precious, a bit of gold dust for him to store away. So lost in talking to Claude, learning more about this man who admitted to opening up to him, he almost misses his stop. He can't be too disparaging towards himself on the near-mistake, however. Not when he's still smiling.
Their date is going to be fantastic.
"The date was fantastic," Claude tells Hilda and Marianne the day right after, digging through the most recent batch of books. They can't exactly be called new, not when Marianne works in a used book store, but some of them might be new to him and that's the important thing. "It was all about a Golden Renaissance in Duscur. I didn't think a guy like Dimitri would know much about that, but he was just full of surprises." He pauses to turn a book around, reading the summary on its back. "You'd like him, Marianne."
Hilda turns to grin at Marianne over the counter. "See, what did I tell you? It's embarrassing how into these dates he's gotten."
"Funny, because I don't feel embarrassed at all."
"Secondhand embarrassment doesn't need your embarrassment, Claude!" Hilda titters.
Marianne glances between both of them, thumbs fiddling with one another. "W-Well... I think that's meant to be a good sign, isn't it?" She tucks some stray hair behind her hair, needing something to do with her hands. "It's been a long time since you've been so serious with a date before... Or, am I remembering incorrectly?"
"No, your memory is spot on, Marianne." He breaks away from his book hunting to wink at her. "But then he's a pretty serious guy in turn. Maybe it's not so surprising that things ended up this way."
Something in the way she casts her gaze away says she has something to say on that, but she refrains. From what Claude has gleaned, her therapy sessions have been slowly but steadily helping her... but some things take time, and he knows that she still occasionally holds back or hermits away again because she thinks her words might not be worth saying. That's not true at all, of course. Just, Claude isn't her therapist. He'll be here for her, and that's all he can do for right now; he's told her as much so many times in the past.
Instead, helping bridge the gap in noise, Hilda shakes her head. "He really is so stiff, I'm impressed that he's the guy out of everyone in this city who snagged your attention."
"What can I say? I guess I'm just weak to vikings."
That has Marianne looking back, eyes wide and brows pinched together. "...Vikings?"
The realization hits Claude and Hilda simultaneously like a trainwreck. "You haven't seen the video!" they exclaim together, Hilda leaning on the counter with both her hands while Claude scrambles up onto his feet.
Poor Marianne. This kind of over the top reaction has her leaning back, hands clenched to her chest. "There's a video of Claude's boyfriend being a viking?" she asks, so terribly confused at what on earth this could possibly mean.
Scooting up onto the counter, Hilda wraps her arms around Marianne with a laugh leaving her lips. Claude slides behind the counter, because no one can stop him, and starts flicking through his phone. "He took this video on their first date," she tells Marianne. "Me and Lorenz had to watch it over and over again for a week straight."
That would be something of an exaggeration, honestly. What Claude says, fully serious, is, "And you should be grateful for every one of those seven days, Hilda, considering what a treasure this video is."
He still kind of loves it, honestly. It's well watched on his phone, and he's made sure to save it to his computer, too. He hardly needs any time before it's ready. With a wide grin, he tilts the phone so all three of them can watch it. Dimitri still looks so good despite the fact the video was taken on a crappy little phone camera. His muscles, the way his hair ruffles up along his shoulders, that hot smirk of his....
Great every time.
Granted, it's great for him, personally, for very personal and intimate reasons that dear sweet Marianne absolutely doesn't need to know. That's why it ends with the camera maybe focused a little bit... downwards, on that chest Claude is so grateful that he's gotten to touch a couple of times.
It is, arguably, not great in certain other areas, which is why Marianne slowly turns her head to stare at him. "And... you think I would like to meet him?" she says hesitantly, mouth scrunched up maybe just a liiiiittle bit.
Oh right. Dimitri in a lot of that video wasn't the soft spoken, polite, 'offers his coat to his date and kisses knuckles' gentleman that Claude has seen a lot of in their dates. That video was Dimitri's rare bit of being absolutely feral, the towering six foot something barrel of intimidation that had made people hold their breath when he'd first stepped into the Golden Deer. Granted- Claude still finds that hot and wonders just how else he can make that side of Dimitri surface some more, ideally in bed.... but that's not exactly a great first impression. You know. For normal people. Especially quiet types.
To help amend this oversight, Claude assures her, "That's just him at his most bangable, in my opinion." On the counter, Hilda almost goes toppling off from choking on her own laughter. Claude keeps going without batting an eye. "He's actually a lot more quiet- not too unlike you, really. Maybe I'll coax him over for a visit. I'll even act as chaperone, so you'll feel perfectly at ease."
"A chaperone for your own date?" Hilda teases, wiping tears from her eyes.
Claude grins, tucking his phone away and going back to the books he'd been rooting through. "Hey, there's no law saying that I can't. Anyway, would you believe we've already got another date planned?"
While his back is to her, he can't exactly see what expression Marianne makes, but he can give a fairly decent guess. After all, 'surprised and confused' has been the name of the game for this entire conversation. "Already? That... seems fairly fast, when you both just finished one..."
"Well, there's no point in waiting for the grass to grow under my feet, right?" Claude laughs again before he falls into a more contemplative silence as he looks over the book in his hand. If there's one thing used book stores have plenty of, it's certainly a million romance paperbacks, he notes. All of them dramatic, or with a happy ending. The former, he could do without. But the latter.... He wonders. "And it's easy, you know," he says again, pointedly keeping his voice light, as though this isn't a big deal. "We must click pretty well."
"And all it took was finding a polite viking," Hilda sighs. "Well, that's my break done with." Sliding off of the counter, she turns around to light her hand gently over one of Marianne's. "Anyway, promise you'll eat those pastries I brought, okay? No need to share!" Blowing her a kiss, their favorite menace swans out of the shop doorway in a flutter of pink.
Chuckling, Claude turns back to his book diving. He's already gotten off of his morning shift, and he's in no rush for anything else right now. That's a good thing, considering that there are three different and not insignificant boxes stuffed full of new arrivals. He's barely gotten through one. Yet as he's digging, he can hear Marianne's quiet shuffling move from behind the counter to his side, and she crouches down at the box furthest from him.
Claude doesn't really question it; she does work in the place. At some point she's going to have to start putting all these books away. Yet after she goes through everything in box, cardboard almost completely cleared out, she pauses and fishes something out from the very bottom that's tucked away in the corner. "Um, Claude.... Here. I thought you might like this...?"
It's a book on old war time codes, featuring notable codecrackers and just how they used to do what they did before everything they used became outdated. In other words, it's exactly the kind of interesting historical tidbit he adores reading, and absolutely is the kind of niche thing he'll commit perfectly to memory. A wide grin spreads across his face, and he gleefully accepts. "Oh, Marianne, you know the way to my heart."
"It's not a big deal..." Except she'd gone straight for where the book was hidden, on the very bottom of the box the furthest away from all the others ready to be shelved. That's the action of someone who'd known exactly where to find it.... and Claude doubts that she remembers where she's packed every single book. So, whether she'll admit it or not, he's fairly certain she hid the book away so no one would take it before he could have a chance to.
He's learned better than to make a big deal of things with her. Claude just grins. "Still, what a great find, huh?" With that, he lets her have a little bit of breathing space and starts to flick through the book itself.
On a normal day, that would be the end of it. However, today must not be normal, because Marianne seems to have a rare reserve of confidence. After awkwardly sitting there besides him for a couple of minutes, she finally dares to speak up. "If it's so easy for you... to want to spend so much time with him in comparison to dates you've had in the past... Then, I'll trust you to bring him over. I-If you'd really like."
Claude doesn't look up; he can see from the corner of his eye that she's not making eye contact with him either. Sometimes, to take that step forward, a person has to blindfold themselves. So he'll let her have that blindfold, and just smiles down at the box of books that he's going through. "I really would, if you don't mind. Honestly, I almost think he's liked meeting my friends more than he's gone on dates with me. But then, I suppose it never hurts to have more friends, does it?"
That does get her to smile a little bit, no doubt thinking back to her own days where she'd been so withdrawn before everyone had come together to pull her out of it. It's hard to know how to say no to a guy like Raphael, or wiggle out from Hilda's flattery. "Yes, I.... I suppose it never does. And...." She wrings her hands together. "I think... if, well, it's someone that's made you serious.... Oh, nevermind."
Maybe it's for the better that her own attempt at boldness chases Marianne off with an armful of books to sort out, her face glaringly red on her too pale skin. Claude can't help but feel a little bit flustered himself that he's been called out, and by Marianne of all people. Lorenz is usually too caught up on what's proper and possible or not, which he's done with everyone Claude has dated in the past. Hilda is usually pretty happy to just joke around with him, although that just means she can be absolutely lethal when she bothers to be.
But Marianne? Reserved, highly depressed, sweetheart Marianne who wants to open up her own ranch for senior animals one day? Striking a blow to the fact that he's stumbled so hard into this relationship that he almost doesn't know what to do with himself?
They both get over it, or at least act like they do. Well, to be more accurate, Claude fakes it the most between them as he finally goes up to the counter to pay for the latest acquisition in his library hoard. It's as Marianne is fetching him his change that his phone buzzes with a text, and Claude takes the time to check on it.
He certainly has the time, considering she drops more than a couple of coins and has to go chasing after them. When he sees what's written, he laughs, and Marianne's head pokes up beyond the counter. "I-I'm doing my best-"
"Oh, no, not you, Marianne," he says apologetically, realizing how that must have sounded while she wasn't paying attention to him. "Dimitri just sent me a text. Remember that protest the band did a little while ago? Well, Dimitri took part in it, and he brought a friend with him. He got to hold one of the signs we brought with us, and, well- long story short is that they had to leave a little early, but the friend took his sign with him when he did." Laughter teases at the edge of his voice. "I never really cared to pay much mind after that, but I guess he just, kept it, and, well, see for yourself."
Marianne tentatively leans across the counter as he displays his phone, and, whups, there's that concerned look again. "....He kept the vasectomy sign Leonie made?"
If Claude doesn't stop grinning any time soon, he think he might start to cry, but in a good way. "He sure did."
"Is... Is it legal to have that many swords in his apartment, on his wall?"
"Apparently!" Bursting out laughing, Claude pulls his phone back so that he can type a response to Dimitri. "Don't worry, that's not the guy I want you to meet. It'll only be Dimitri that I bring over." Hitting 'send', he gives her a playful wink. "At least, that's my plan. But you won't be alone. Hilda will be there as backup, I promise." It could even almost be like a double date.
Marianne still doesn't look entirely sure about any of this, but she has his change and she has his book ready to go. "If you say so..."
"Funnily enough, I do." He barely has time to accept his change and book before his phone is buzzing again, and he laughs once more once he reads the miniature essay that's been sent to him. This, also, he shows to Marianne. "Look, he's promising to keep Felix's sword lust away from you too."
It's quite a response, too, way more than would go into a normal text and with that same proper grammar that's apparent in all of Dimitri's replies to him. Watching Marianne, he can see some of the same realization hit her that had hit him, once upon a time: that someone so awkward, so polite, so painfully sweet is also the same kind of person who'd looked so intimidating while almost hauling a lion off its feet with a thick rope. "He seems... nice," she says, and she seems a little more like she believes her own words this time around. "I hope... you really have a nice date, Claude."
That draws out a wide grin from him. "Oh, don't worry on that front. If it's going to be anything like all the other dates we've had with each other... It's going to be incredible."
"He really is incredible," Dimitri sighs, leaning back in a church pew, and his words draw out a giggle from Mercedes.
Church and him have a bit of a complicated relationship, one that he doesn't think will ever really ease up. It's just too much, really. Once, he used to think that it didn't matter what his feelings were on the matter, because it was tradition, it was something his family had always done, and once they were gone- well, wasn't it just one more thing he had keeping him tethered to them? How could he abandon that, just because he didn't feel comfortable sometimes?
Yet the Professor and the Doctor had talked him through all of that, convinced him to stop going for even just a month and see how he felt. To say it had been... freeing, even if guilt-ridden, is an understatement. After they'd talked him through the guilt part of it all, well, he's simply never come back. Not properly at any rate.
But Mercedes doesn't have such a terribly complicated history with religion. In fact, it's done so much good for her, and in turn has spurred her to do so much good for other people. Dimitri can't begrudge her that kind of thing. So if sometimes she needs some help at the church by way of moving something for an event, a volunteer who's tall or strong or any combination of the two... Well, Dimitri doesn't mind coming over.
Besides, it's nice to spend time with any of his friends, one on one, and he can appreciate the beauty of churches a little more now that he's allowed himself to step away from it all. There's something serene to sitting with Mercedes as the two of them take a break from where they've been moving various tables and the like, a lunch carefully set between them.
He's not entirely sure what any holy books or priests say on if it's rude or improper to eat in a church. It feels like it should be, but he's long since forgotten a great deal of his learnings when it comes to religion. Mercedes seems to get away with it either way.
In fact, when he'd asked, she'd just smiled and said the Goddess wouldn't want anyone helping a good cause to go without food. Or anyone to go without food at all, in fact, which is the whole reason he's here, considering that the event is meant to help distribute food to those who need it. Isn't helping people more important than the risk of maybe dropping a few crumbs here or there that will just cleaned up by the end of the day?
Dimitri rather likes Mercedes' way of doing religion. Maybe if he'd known her when he was younger, he wouldn't have such a bad reaction to it.
Yet the past is the past, and, here in the present, Mercedes shares with him the large lunch her and Ashe put together for today. "Dedue really likes him as well," she tells him over her sandwich, smiling. "He said he seemed like a trustworthy kind of person."
"Really!" That news alone is enough to make Dimitri brighten up. Dedue's approval is the most important thing in the world for him. Dimitri knows he would do a lot of things on his own regardless of Dedue's thoughts on the matter, for better or worse. He has in the past, after all. But... If there's anyone he wants to like Claude, to get along with Claude if he invited his friends and boyfriend over at the same time, it's Dedue. "With how their personalities are so different from one another, I wasn't expecting that."
"It makes me want to meet him all the more," Mercedes says, giggling. "Especially after Annette said she spotted you taking him to your apartment one night!"
Is he going to get struck down for talking about this kind of thing in a church? Is he going to be struck down in general? Dimitri rather hopes he is, with how deeply red his face gets, and he shoves his sandwich further into his face like that's going to help anything. Maybe if he's lucky, he'll choke on it.
But he doesn't, and he's left with the conversation as it is. "I can promise you, Mercedes, that it wasn't like that," he tells her, maybe a little bit strangled.
"Oh, I know," Mercedes says brightly. "You're far too anxious for that sort of thing, Dimitri."
Most people would describe him as 'stiff', or 'proper'. Mercedes really is one of the only people he can think of that would describe it as an anxiety.... but she might have a point.
After another bite of their lunch, he sighs. "I can't deny that," he tells her. "We've been seeing each other so much these last couple of months... I take care not to intrude on any time he has put aside for his band, of course, and I'm always careful to make sure that he's fine with the date whether the time chosen for it or that it exists at all... But I don't want to feel too-" He shakes his head, trying to decide on the proper wording. "Do you think I'm rushing this, Mercedes? Even without, well. You know." Mercedes can convince him to talk about a lot, even in a church setting, but it feels far too crass to mention sex just now. Not so explicitly.
She hums around the rim of her bottled water, thoughtful. "You know.... When I first started to date Dedue, I wanted to go see him all the time. Not necessarily for dates, but just to see him and talk with him when I could grab even a minute of his time at the plant nursery, back when we were in school. Me and Annette, why, we'd been together so much as regular friends that, when we started to get romantic with one another, it hardly felt like a real change at all. Dedue was so different, I didn't know what to do with myself."
Remembering those times makes Dimitri smile a little bit. "Yes, I recall. I'd go to see Dedue myself, and I always felt as though I'd be interfering whenever I saw you there."
Another giggle. "It must have felt terribly awkward! But, no matter who was there, I always enjoyed being with Dedue even though other people would be there sometimes, or that it felt as though I was seeing him every day." She leans back, legs stretching out in front of her. "In contrast, it felt like things were much slower when it came to Ashe and I. So, if you really want to know what I think, Dimitri... There's no real wrong way to date. Every love we have for another person is different, and every love doesn't happen the same way as the love which came before it." Dimitri's face heats up at her choice of words, but Mercedes continues. "Do you regret any of the dates you've gone on with him?"
The answer is on his tongue almost as soon as he thinks it. Maybe even before. "Oh, no. Not a single one."
"I thought so. And he's invited you on just as many dates, hasn't he?"
...Ah. Dimitri smiles down at his food. "Yes, he has."
Mercedes smiles back. "And I imagine he's told you much the same as I have. So then that's the form your love has taken, and that's fine. I don't think it's a bad thing, for you two to feel so much for each other, especially when everything about him is so new for you. So... Just enjoy being happy, okay, Dimitri? You're allowed to want that."
The reminder is a little bit of a shock, before he realizes that, too, is true. While he'd been able to hold himself back from getting too worked up about this new relationship for so long, he supposes it was inevitable that he would start to worry. Start to get afraid. The Doctor or the Professor would probably say that it's a good thing that he's been able to go this long before sinking back into his fears and reservations, he supposes.
And, thanks to his friends, he won't sink any further.
"You're right," he tells her, trying to tell his body to relax, that there's no need for him to get tense or worked up. "I've been enjoying my time with him so much, it would be a shame to lose all of that to my own mind. He's just so wonderful, I'm amazed he gave me a chance after the first impression that I made. He's incredibly bright, in every possible meaning of the term. I could talk about him for hours, I think."
Especially with Mercedes, who he doesn't feel guilty doing it with. Not only does she make it so easy to speak with her, reveal his hopes and woes to, but she's also notably not single. Extremely not single, one could say. It doesn't feel like boasting to talk about how amazing he finds Claude Riegan to be.
Indulgently, Mercedes lets him babble for a few minutes while they work through the rest of their lunch together, and then soon enough they both get back to work moving or unpacking boxes. At some point inbetween it all, Dimitri makes sure to catch Mercedes by the arm so that he can give her a grateful smile. "Thank you for letting me take up so much of lunch with my chatter, Mercedes."
He'd only meant to gently take her by the arm. Mercedes takes it a step further, wrapping her arms around him in a brief but tight hug. "I'm just happy that you're happy, Dimitri."
And he knows she means it. As they continue to work, Dimitri thinks on her words, resolves to abide by them. Maybe he doesn't have to hold back so much. Maybe he really can want happiness, and pursue it. Convincing his mind of that is going to have to be a continuous process, an ongoing argument against himself, but... He'll manage.
Certainly, he's managed with the rest of his life. He'll do the same with his romantic.