Church Source 18

[warmskies]

For all his tension and panic, Dimitri isn't.... actually expecting to be touched. Honestly, Claude's touches towards him are still a surprise at least 25% of the time, although that's quite a change from the beginning. The church forced him, burning magic and rough hands, but that hadn't been the same as touching. Violence is different from touching, too, and the only thing he could compare to. No one's... ever just bumped into him like this.

Dimitri's first response is still to lash out, with claw or foot, and there's almost a natural disaster as his first impulses and his desperation to be good crash into each other. The surprise, the leverage, and the mental mess all leave him stunned enough that he feels as though he.... must have blacked out. Something must have happened. When did he leave the street, and into shadow, into quiet and walls too close?

Except it's not quiet, and Dimitri regains his balance and space with a step backwards. A lot is happening, all at once. A normal person would take the opportunity to figure out just what the hell happened, and who the person in front of them is. Dimitri....

Dimitri's brain has other habits than that. Dimitri's brain especially has other habits when he's already tense, stressed, and not happy to be here, face to face with something loud and aggressive that reminds him of far worse things.

It's not even a conscious decision. The aggression gets met with further aggression as Dimitri very suddenly kicks out to get the teenager away from him before the rest of his brain crashes into another plan of action. A combination of two thoughts, "it's only a child" and "be good", jerk him around so suddenly as to be a violence all its own, and he bolts down the alley with the cloak thrown over his shoulders.

He needs, he needs- quiet. Space. He needs a second to come to terms with what's happening, and he just, he can't do that while he has this angry human in his face, making so much noise.

--

There's an exclamation behind him that, even without knowing the language, sounds like an expletive, and then the sound of feet running after him. The kid's apparently not giving up, which...is baffling, really, because who would chase after a giant Intseh who just kicked them in the stomach? And yet, it's happening.

It's not much of an alley. Dimitri will quickly come to the other end of it, which just opens up into more noisy, bright street. He could plunge out into it, if he wanted, but it's not really going to help his current problems much. And when Dimitri pulls up short rather than do so, the boy behind him grabs a big handful of his cloak, evidently to make it harder to run off without leaving him behind again.

When Dimitri inevitably turns to look, the boy is glowering, but no longer yelling. Instead, he's scowling at Dimitri, in a way someone might look at a puzzle they're trying to solve when they darkly suspect that some of the pieces have gotten themselves lost. For a moment, he doesn't say anything - but he doesn't let go of Dimitri's cloak, either, keeping it pulled taut between Dimitri's body and his fisted grip almost pointedly. His body language screams 'I've got you, so don't even think of running again'.

After a brief pause, the boy pushes back his own hood, to reveal a shock of messy blond hair. He seems to be watching Dimitri as if waiting for a reaction from him.

--

It's sure happening.

Dimitri wishes he was back in the forest again, near the lake again. There were places to go, there. Here, it's- he jerks to a stop, almost hard enough to fall forward, when he realizes there's only more people, more noise, waiting for him at the end. His frantic brain is still trying to sort through the white noise to figure out what it wants to do when he's grabbed, and Dimitri jerks around with his teeth bared. That, too, is an automatic reaction. It worked, usually, on the younger ones who were tossed into his arena.

Usually.

His mind stutters when the hood is tossed backwards, because there's something familiar. Something on the tip of his tongue, like so much Intsehli between him and Claude. Dimitri stays where he is, almost vibrating out of his skin, lips still curled a little over his fangs, as he stares down at the boy. This is familiar, somehow. Familiar enough to keep him there instead of running away again or lashing out. His memories are too jittery, too blurred, for him to make out anything right now.

....But at least he's a little quieter, now. That helps make some of the white noise ease, and Dimitri jerks his head to the side to better look over the teenager with his one good eye even as his chest is heaving from frantic breathing.

--

The boy eyes Dimitri for a minute longer, and then finally says something. This time, it's in Intsehli.

"Calm."

His accent's...pretty bad. This is clearly not a language he knows very well.

--

Funny how a single word can jitter a line of silence through the noise in his own head, and Dimitri blinks slowly as he just.... takes that in. When it finally penetrates enough, he exhales with a tinge of growl rattling it. "Calm?" he echoes, feeling the fur on the back of his spine bristling. "You- were yelling at me-"

Something finally clicks, and he narrows his eye, still trembling a little bit from too much adrenaline. He knows that hair. Remembers it, distantly, across patted down dirt and in front of smooth walls meant to keep down any escapes.

--

The boy's surly expression doesn't appear to contain any understanding. After a moment, during which he seems to become increasingly exasperated, he manages, "Why...you...here?" in Intsehli. His grasp of the language appears to be very basic - even less firm than Dimitri's grasp of the common tongue.

--

From another human, that would send him into another panic, another violent defense. This one, however.... That makes sense, the more he stares down at him, because he knows this stupidly messy hair. It's a question he has, in turn, for this boy.

....Unfortunate that they're both stuck at a very bad language crossroads.

Breathing out a little more, Dimitri reaches up to take the cloak into his hands as well. "You're the boy?" he asks, not answering the question he's been given. It's too complicated to get across anyway, he suspects, although that may be his brain not wanting to think too hard on it.

--

It's hard to tell if the boy understands or not, but he seems to relax a bit anyway - perhaps because Dimitri no longer looks like he's about to crawl out of his skin, or bolt again. He grudgingly releases Dimitri's cloak from his grip, with body language that telegraphs 'all right, I don't think you're going to run but I'm watching you' better than any words in any tongue could ever express. There's still a sort of grumpiness as he looks at Dimitri, but it seems to be less any kind of aggression aimed at Dimitri as opposed to the kid just having some sort of perpetually pissy attitude.

Then his expression changes. The shift is minute - a tensing of the body, a slight widening of the eyes, and the boy suddenly seeming to be looking through Dimitri than at him. It's about this moment that Dimitri may register the movement behind the boy, which he was too preoccupied to pick up on before.

"Mind if I cut in?" Claude asks pleasantly. He's standing directly behind the kid. The boy seems acutely, if belatedly, aware of this.

--

It's hard to pay attention a lot of things when you're having a mental panic attack that makes you want to either burrow into the earth to never be seen again or bite someone's arm off, it's true. Yet when Claude speaks up, Dimitri's head snaps towards him in visible relief. He tugs his cloak over him properly again, although a couple of holes might have been poked through where he was gripping at it before.

"Claude, he was yelling at me.... I don't.... He's so loud." Even, somehow, while he's completely silent. It's an honestly impressive talent.

--

Claude's eyes flick up to Dimitri. "Are you okay?" he asks, urgently. He seems tense himself - more so than Dimitri's ever seen him. Possibly worse even than the night he helped Dimitri escape. The boy - who still hasn't moved, and is staring fixedly forward - is for the moment forgotten.

--

"No," says Dimitri with the kind of blank faced bluntness of someone who hasn't been okay for roughly twenty years. At least he's quick to follow it up with, "He doesn't have a weapon, Claude. I kicked him. Is he hurt?" His claws prick through the cloak again as he draws it tighter around him. "I didn't mean to attack him..." Now that his mind is a little more clear, the guilt is rolling through him, an will and nauseous feeling.

--

"You're worried about him?" Claude asks, eyebrows raising. He glances down at the boy, and after a moment rattles off some words in Common. The boy responds tersely, and Claude looks back up at Dimitri. "He says he knows you? But apparently doesn't mean you any harm. Is that true?"

The boy growls something that makes Claude grin. "He says 'fuck the church'. Graphically, too." His eyes meet Dimitri's. "Do you trust him?"

--

Dimitri's stare is exhausted and blank. "I said I would be good..." Even without everything else that's wrapped up in this mess of a situation, that's a simple truth: Dimitri said he would be good around humans. That he lashed out against one in the end, no matter what else had occurred, means that he broke a promise.

And that there is something else wrapped in this....

Dimitri shifts warily in place, glancing over his shoulder at what feels like an entirely different world only some feet away, before he looks to Claude again. "I only trust you," he says quietly. Out of everything in the world, he only trusts Claude, and their horses. Still, that doesn't mean anything else in this situation. "But.... I... believe he was one that got away. In the execution ring." There's a clear waver to his standing that says he wants to go back to Claude's side, but has an angry loud mouthed obstacle in the way. "....So I would believe his statements on the church to be true if nothing else."

-

"He got away?" Claude's eyebrows remain, pointedly, in their raised position. "How on earth did someone barely half your size beat you?" He glances down at the boy. "And what was he sentenced for?"

He raps out a question to the boy again, which gets a terse response. Claude actually barks with laughter when he hears it. "Okay, that I didn't expect," he says to Dimitri, looking deeply amused now. "When I asked him what he wants, he just said 'a rematch'."

--

"I do not know how you expect me to know his sentence, Claude...." That wasn't information anyone thought the executioner should know. Then again, that happened to be literally any information. Dimitri just listens to the exchange, nonsensical as it generally is to his ears, and just.... stares, when Claude gives him the answer.

....He already hates being in town. He hated the look of it, and he feels he is being highly validated for this first impression. How hard can it be to build a cabin? Really it's just sticking the wood close together so there aren't any gaps that's the real unknown, right? He thinks he could do that. He thinks fucking up building a cabin would be highly preferable to whatever the hell is happening here.

Dimitri doesn't answer. He just reaches up to rub at his face. He is so, so tired.

--

The boy suddenly darts forward with no warning. It'd be understandable if they thought he might be making an aggressive move, but instead he darts just off to the side of Dimitri, only turning on his heel to bare his teeth at Claude once he's put several yards between them. He may or may not have timed this move to when Dimitri rubbed his face - perhaps to avoid any reflexive lashing out Dimitri might have done.

Once the boy's moved, of course, this reveals a rather familiar knife Claude is holding, at a position that suggests he had it pressed point-first to the kid's spine for the past few minutes. Claude, himself, looks faintly amused for a second, but this morphs quickly into surprise as he sheathes it. "...he's just a kid." Apparently, from the back, this was less obvious.

--

A harsh jolt goes through him when his ears hear the sound of movement, tail audibly hitting the inside of his cloak while his hands jerk downwards, but there's no need to worry. It's hard telling his body that, granted, adrenaline still pumping on and off in a way that's leaning more towards 'always on' at the rate things are going. Still. Dimitri only jolts, claws ready, before he takes in what's happened.

"...Claude." With the kid out of the way, he shifts around the opposite wall himself with his eye warily trained on the noisy thing. Only once he's back at Claude's side does he ease up even a little bit... and that's not really saying much.

--

With a knife no longer at his back, the rage seems to be coursing through the boy again. He launches into what is clearly an angry tirade at Claude, who actually frowns at it a bit rather than shrugging it off. He attempts a few rebuttals, which get steamrolled over. He seems to be getting...positively harangued by the kid. Lectured.

Finally, however, he snaps out something that gets gritted teeth and an irritated 'tch' noise from the boy, who doesn't seem to have a good answer to...whatever it was Claude just said.

--

Dimitri feels as though he is only getting further validated at having hated the idea of going into town. He had known that he would be talked around, not knowing the language, and thought that would be fine. After all, most of his life has been about humans talking around him most of the time. Yet it feels different when it's with these two in particular, and he kneads his claws into his cloak in aggravation. When he breaths out, it's more of a growl.

"Stop," he finally says in common to the boy, ears flicked back. It's one of the few more conversational pieces of the language Dimitri knows, and really more of a warning to other people than anything else. His gaze goes back to Claude. "Claude. Stop." Everyone just needs to stop. He doesn't know what's happening, has not known what's been going on for the last few minutes, and it's.... frustrating.

--

The boy subsides, sullenly. Claude sighs, pressing a hand to his temple. "Sorry, Dimitri. The kid's reading me the riot act...over you, oddly enough. He actually seems to be...worried about you? Or at least he's giving me the third degree over why I left someone who can't speak the language and who's on the run from the church standing in the middle of the street, sticking out like a sore thumb and having open panic attacks." He gives Dimitri a troubled smile. "He hasn't been giving me many chances to explain the circumstances, although he doesn't seem to have any better ideas how to make somebody like you inconspicuous. He just doesn't like mine."

--

Quietly, he reaches up and brushes his knuckles along Claude's face. That smile worries him. Dimitri shifts back to Intsehli, because he doesn't really have a lot of other choices when it comes to conversation. "...There are no good ideas." Everything is really a bad idea, in his opinion, and all they can do is apparently just push forward.

Still, now that he has some say in all of this, Dimitri glances warily between the two. "...Should.... we be talking here like this?" Two humans and an Intsehli, in a place that's still some degree of public, and made all the more suspicious with its location. "I... can explain further, but I am not certain if you want me to do so here, where any can hear us if they tried."

--

"No, you're right. Let's get to the inn. I guess he can come with us, if he wants to talk more..." Claude glances at the boy, then switches languages to speak with him. The boy's answer seems dismissive, and it's hard to tell if he answered positively or negatively - but since he doesn't leave, and seems to be waiting on them, it can be assumed he intends to go with them.

Claude, in the meantime, takes Dimitri's arm. When the other man speaks again, it's in quiet Intsehli. "...I was worried."

--

In a way that requires no shoving, Dimitri is still easy to get moving, and he presses close to Claude when the man grabs him. He still glances over his shoulder, waiting to see where the boy is, before his attention goes back down to Claude. Worried.... The knife was certainly an indication of that, although Dimitri hadn't liked its appearance.

"....I apologize. I meant to stay in place."

--

"It's not your fault. I just thought...someone had caught you." Claude laughs a little. "Which I guess someone did, technically...it just wasn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be." He glances at Dimitri. "I shouldn't have left you. The kid might be mouthy, but he's right. If you were getting that worked up here..."

The boy himself has fallen into step behind them. Aside from being grumpy, he seems fairly compliant, at least for the moment.

--

"I made the decision to be left there." Dimitri shrugs. "You cannot take responsibility for all my decisions, Claude. I thought it would be better, even with so many people. If I were inside, it would still be bad for me. I would still have become..." His claws grind into his cloak again. "...I would still have been uneasy."

That's a very mild way of putting it.

"I could still run, if things happened..." And even as he says that, they rejoin the main street proper again, and his ears flick back as he shifts ever closer to Claude. It's a miracle either of them are able to walk.

--

"I could have helped you with it if I was with you, though." Claude exhales. "When I came out and you weren't there...I thought they'd taken you."

--

Back in the cabin, Dimitri had done his best to reassure Claude when the other had seemed to fall into morose thoughts. Sometimes it didn't work, such as when their views on how to handle the church clashed. Sometimes it had done alright, like Dimitri comforting Claude about their relationship. Often, it's been awkward... and his skill in that only seems to take more of a hit as they make their way down the street. Dimitri's brain can hardly piece together what to do, buzzing incessantly, for a good long while.

So it takes a few minutes until he snaps out of it, raising his hand to rest over Claude's where it is on his arm. "...Their brand has no effect on me." His smile is a mudslide pretending to be reassuring, and mostly vindictive and full of teeth. At least one person shifts a little further away in the street. "You would have heard if they'd tried." The church and a random teenager practically mugging him in an alley are two very different things, after all.

--

The boy grimaces and makes a comment behind them, which makes Claude laugh quietly. "He says you look like you're constipated and it's freaking people out." Oddly, that relaxes him somewhat, and he squeezes Dimitri's arm. "Let's just get to the inn, shall we? I think we've all had our nerves rattled."

It isn't long before Claude is leading Dimitri into a building. He has to pull away from Dimitri to go charm the innkeep - Dimitri will get to see him at work here on another person. The man doesn't seem too friendly to Claude, despite Claude having that bright smile turned up to the max, although he obviously thaws when Claude pulls out his coin pouch.

The boy, meanwhile, steps up to Dimitri's side while Claude is busy; in fact, when Dimitri gets antsy, he'll feel a hand tugging his cloak. It's not a tug to get his attention; rather, the boy's got a fistful of fabric and is holding it taut, a slight pull on Dimitri to almost physically ground him.

"Bastard," the boy grumbles in Intsehli, eyes locked on the innkeep. "Too much."

--

Honestly the boy is right on time. Dimitri might not understand the spoken word of this town very much, but body language? Expression? That's all he's been able to understand in his life, and seeing such dislike from a person towards Claude has his ears flicking back and his claws kneading back into his cloak. The sharp pull of his cloak jerks him out of his head again, almost physically if the hit of his tail into his cloak is any indication, and he stares down at the boy.

...Oh yeah, he's still a thing. And here.

"Claude is good," he promises, which is the most he can really communicate, he thinks. He understands the implication, after all, that they're being overcharged. Dimitri can't really help with that. Or, rather, the help he could offer is illegal. Probably. "....Worried?"

--

"Angry," the boy growls, and Dimitri might feel a kinship here. The boy looks like he's having to hold himself back from baring his teeth at the man. He makes a disgusted gesture at the man. "Hates..." He pauses, clearly and aggravatedly searching for the word, before saying the word in Common instead as if hoping Dimitri knows it. However, in fact, Dimitri will know this one, because a younger Claude made a point of teaching it to him.

"Almyrans."

--

He knew his read on the man had been right.

Dimitri's eye had widened slightly at being touched again, even if just through his cloak, but now it narrows as it zeros in on the man. It would be one thing if this were simply overcharging for overcharging. Greed is greed and all things have it. But to be like this to Claude....

For a brief second, he's infuriated as much as his own inability to help as anything, knowing Claude would insist he not worry about it.... But then he realizes something, and looks back down at the boy again. The barrier language is a problem, but....

"...Help?" In other words, can either of them do anything? There's a chance not, but Dimitri would rather try than feel worthless here

-

Katsuki makes an irritated noise and shakes his head. He looks up at Dimitri, holding his gaze, and then rubs his fingers together - a somewhat universal sign for 'money' - before popping his thumb upwards in an angry jerk.

He seems to be saying, without words, that if they made themselves a nuisance, the man would just charge them more. Dimitri may well be able to read between the lines and recognize that he might also just straight up refuse to let them stay here.

--

Dimitri actually snaps his jaws quietly in irritation, but at least it's an answer. Asking makes him feel better than just having stayed silent and not even bothered to look into it. Granted, the feeling isn't a lot, but.... Dimitri is used to nothing. It's an improvement. As is usual, it seems he'll just have to rely on Claude to make it through this well enough.

--

Soon enough, Claude returns to them...and raises an eyebrow almost as soon as he's within easy speaking distance, looking amused. "With expressions like that, I think you could probably strike small animals dead," he remarks, after exchanging a few words with the boy in Common that earn him a snort. It may have been a similar statement.

--

He was rude to you," Dimitri growls, which is the least he could say on that front. "He was...." A pause as he glances down to the boy, remembering the word he'd used. "He was a bastard."

...That sure has a good mouth feel match to his emotions, he thinks. Huh. He wonders what that word even means.

--

Claude sputters laughing, glancing at the kid. "Oh, man, he's gonna be a bad influence on you, isn't he?" He makes a remark to the boy, who counters rather bluntly with a flat expression and only makes Claude laugh harder as he leads them to the stairs leading up to the second floor.

"That's...not exactly the most refined word, Dimitri," Claude notes, with considerable amusement.

--

Well, now his ears are laid flat not because of barely held back aggression but something else entirely, and Dimitri is immediately on Claude's heels. "What? What did I say?"

Claude. Claude. Don't leave him hanging on this, Claude.

--

Claude laughs. "'Bastard' means 'illegitimate son'. It's basically a very crude way of calling someone's mother a whore..." Which is another word he needs to teach Dimitri. "And a whore is a very crude way of referring to a woman who sleeps around - either for pay, or for free. They're both insults." He grins. "The kid was cursing him. He's got a colorful mouth on him."

--

Their shitty new teenage hanger on has been in their company for all of fifteen minutes, perhaps, and he's already getting to see Dimitri look positively aghast at this knowledge. "I wouldn't get involved in someone's sexual life no matter how much I hated them!" That's the clear issue here.

"Claude, I apologize dearly."

--

"What for?" Claude asks mildly. "It's a good word for him." He winks at the boy, who looks rather amused by Dimitri's expression. "I had to pay quite a bit extra just to 'convince' him to let an Almyran stay under his roof. Really, he just knows he's got the best inn in town and was squeezing me because he doesn't like Almyrans."

-

Any apologies he could give on the matter, all of them mainly having to do with how not right it feels to use such language, fall apart when Claude describes what he had to go through. There's that rolling growl again. "I wonder how he would like it to be squeezed in turn." As in, a hand squeezing down on his throat.

--

Claude pats Dimitri's arm. "It's fine. It's not that big of a deal, and he's definitely not the worst I've run into. Besides, I've stayed here before. Aside from the inflated cover price, he doesn't extend the harassment any further - and some men would. I'm okay with paying a little more not to have to worry about being robbed in my sleep."

Claude opens a door and ushers Dimitri into a decently sized, decently furnished room. It makes the cabin look slightly luxurious, but then the cabin was meant for long-term use by people who are primarily on church business; this room is for people of all types who come and go regularly.

There are three beds. The boy eyes this and then shoots a somewhat pointed question in Common at Claude, who responds pleasantly in a way that gets the boy looking away and muttering.

--

Clawed hands grab Claude's hand before he can pull it away, and Dimitri frowns down at him. "No harassment is good," he insists quietly before letting go, shuffling reluctantly into the room.

Frankly, even if the inn room was decked in gold and filled with only the most decadent luxuries, Dimitri would still eye it as though it's personally affronted him. Nothing against it, of course. It's only, now, he can only attribute it to someone all three of them have agreed is an utter bastard, and so he doesn't feel any particular pleasure about its existence. All he does is head inside and immediately head to sit down- not on a bed or chair, but instead nudged up in a corner with his cloak wrapped tightly around him like some sort of security blanket. With all that's happened in one day alone, he's falling back into old habits, and his old habits refuse the existence of furniture. It just... makes him feel better, like this.

--

Claude moves to sit on the bed nearest Dimitri, facing him. The boy, for his part, eyes the two of them briefly, and then finds a chair and sits on it, leaning over with his arms resting on his legs, watching them from beneath his bangs.

After a few moments, he asks a question, which gets Claude to glance at him. "He wants to know our names," he translates for Dimitri.

--

Dimitri glances between the two, shifting so that he can keep both of them and the door in view. This is important, for an Intseh with only one eye. "...Is there a reason we shouldn't tell him?" He has enough confidence that the boy won't betray them, although perhaps that's just common rage binding them together. That, and how they first met, as well.

--

"He could, in theory, rat me out to the church to try to get back in their good graces...he could do that without your actual name, so with you it doesn't make much of a difference. Mind you, even without my name, just telling the church you're traveling with an Almyran would probably have them imprisoning all the Almyrans within the church just on the off chance, and there aren't many of us." Claude studies the boy. "But frankly, I don't think he will."

He smiles at the boy. "I'm Claude." He lets Dimitri introduce himself.

--

Yes, Dimitri had a feeling they were on the same mind with this one. He'd still asked, just in case.... but it seems he didn't really need to, besides to make sure they were together on this. "I'm Dimitri," he says, expending once again the few bits of conversational language he knows for Common.

With that done, he directs his next words to Claude again. "You wanted... to know more about him, and what had happened, didn't you?"

--

"Katsuki," the boy says, with a slight, stiff nod to them - though his eyes are on Dimitri. After a moment, he reaches down and lifts up his shirt, exposing the brand on the center of his chest. A large black diamond, with a bright white cross stamped in the middle.

"Heretic," Claude murmurs in Intsehli, with a low whistle. "Guess that explains why they sent him to you..." He glances at Dimitri. "All right, let's hear your side of it. I'll ask for his once you're finished." He makes some remark to Katsuki in Common as the boy settles his shirt back over himself - probably informing him of the same. Katsuki merely shrugs.

--

Dimitri's only reaction is a faint grunt of acknowledgment. "So that's what that one meant. I had always assumed it was for petty and spiteful reasons." His sneer curls up automatically. "It still does." After all, what is a heretic to a wretched institution such as the church? Dimitri is. Claude is. He doesn't find it an insult or a sin.

Still, they'll be here all day and night if he gets worked up about the nonsense he saw of the church. His gaze flickers, unseen, back to Katsuki. Dimitri adjusts himself against his corner. "With him... From my end, I suppose it isn't much of a tale. You asked how he could beat me, when he's that much smaller... and he was smaller still when I first met him. That would be because..." He tries to search for the proper wording. "...I let him win. That is the simplest way to say it."

--

"How did you manage that?" Claude's eyebrows go up. "Didn't they force your hand? I thought that's what your brand was for."

--

"Only if they realize what you're doing." From Claude, the words would likely come out sly. Dimitri just says them as he always does: quiet and blunt. "They had to use my brand often... when I was younger." He draws his cloak tighter around himself, knees drawing up until just the tips of his feet are poking out from the bottom. "Eventually, and because of how I merely had to fight to stay alive... I gave in."

Hopefully the inn owner is used to minor property damage; Dimitri's lower claws slowly but surely start to worry into the wood of the floor. "And of course... A monster willing to kill doesn't need to be forced into it. And those wretches in the stands enjoy the bloody spectacle all the more if it doesn't end quickly. So I realized... That was the only freedom available to me: learning the limits of the execution ring. Learning how to kill. Learning how others moved. I still.... had enough, then, to want to see how far I could push, how close I to the line I could be permitted to go. After all.... It hadn't escaped me that my prize for victory was to stay alive, however shallow that word is. So I thought... that had to be true for my opponents, as well.

"But... it is difficult, to be believable. It took a lot of...." He struggles to find the proper word. "...I had to learn many things, try many things. Small things that only make sense in battle."

--

Claude is listening with deep interest, albeit with some concern and regret as well. He's fascinated by the implications of Dimitri figuring out how to trick the church without their knowing it, even under such circumstances...but he also realizes that Dimitri's talking about the most miserable aspect of his captivity, and that he's undoubtedly got a lot of baggage there, and Claude's own insatiable thirst for new information and clever schemes has a tinge of guilt to it here.

"How often did you manage to fool them?" he asks.

--

"Once." His stare goes, more noticeably now, back to Katsuki.

"I only managed to lose one match."

Dimitri turns his head again, practically hiding in the fur of his hood. "I do not know if they realized that I had done it on purpose.... Or if they merely did not more 'sinners' to escape what they felt was proper judgment. The brand was used.... many times afterwards."

--

"Dimitri," Claude murmurs. He gets up from the bed and moves over to kneel down beside the other man, touching his shoulder. "The fact that you even managed to save one person in your circumstances is incredible. And this Katsuki kid's got an attitude, but...I don't think he'd be here right now if he wasn't grateful."

He glances at Katsuki. "Do you want to hear his side of the story now? I'll translate it."

--

No answer, no reaction, for a few long seconds. Finally, there's a shift, and Dimitri's hand slips out to hold onto Claude's clothing. Just a little. Just the very tips.

"...Has he been happy? I... want to know only that." If life hasn't been worth living, after all, then maybe he made a mistake.

--

Claude blinks, then smiles slightly, moving his hand to cover Dimitri's own. Then he relays the question to Katsuki, who looks startled by it.

The boy's silent for a moment, studying Dimitri. Then he speaks for several moments, which Claude faithfully translates.

"He says that he was exiled from the monastery and the church, like all criminals are. In fact, he's not supposed to be in church lands at all - he'd get in a lot of trouble if he was caught, I know that much. Enough to possibly throw him back in the ring for. And...he says it's hard, since it means they've cut him off from everyone he knows, his family, his home. He doesn't have anywhere to live - you missed this," Claude murmurs, as an aside, "but he asked me why I got a room with three beds when we came in, and I told him it was because I could tell he'd been living on the street." Then he goes back to the translating. "But he says, and I quote, 'just because it's hard doesn't mean I'd rather be fucking dead'." Claude grins a bit at this.

Katsuki adds something, which gets a surprised glance from Claude before he turns back to Dimitri to translate. "He says the reason he's been hanging around this town was because he was trying to figure out a way to break you out himself, but he hadn't come up with any good ideas yet for how to sneak back in." Claude smirks. "He said something about how it bugs him to be in someone's debt, but I think that's just bluster. I was right about him being grateful."

Katsuki is giving Claude a hard, glowering look that suggests he's picking up just enough Intsehli to be suspicious about what Claude's telling Dimitri, especially with that look on the older man's face.

--

Every new word makes Dimitri's ears droop further and further, but their descent is stopped at that exact quote. The crudeness of it escapes him a little bit, although he's starting to suspect it might be, but what's more important is....

"...He was scared," Dimitri says quietly to Claude, unsure if Katsuki would understand those words or not. Well, he's saying them regardless, because his relief can't be hidden. "When they forced him into the ring... I could tell. He was loud, then, too."

--

"I don't know why he wouldn't have been," Claude agrees, reaching up a hand to stroke Dimitri's hair. "Not many kids want to die. And it's not like the church doesn't build up their executioner to be kind of a boogeyman." He looks thoughtful. "But then what was he saying about a rematch?"

He turns and presumably puts the question to Katsuki, which apparently steps on a landmine. The boy bursts out into a long stream of angry speech, almost visibly puffing up, and Claude almost laughs in bemusement as the words wash over them.

"Okay, okay," he says - and now he's actually laughing a bit - as he waits for a bit to listen before he starts to translate. "So...from what I can gather from all of that, he's actually pissed that you threw the fight with him. Obviously he didn't want you to kill him, but...I guess he wanted to beat you for real? Which he insists he totally could have done, and he didn't need anyone's pity. That's why he wants a rematch - he wants to prove he could have beaten you legit." Claude is grinning in a way that's amused and a little endeared. "This is one very stubborn, very proud brat we've got on our hands. More than a little delusional, too, if he thinks he could take you in a fight." He pats Dimitri's shoulder. "Good news, though - he says he won't kill you or anything when he wins!"

Claude's laughing again. Katsuki swears at him, fuming. Dimitri doesn't even need to understand the words to puzzle that one out.

--

Oh god why is he so loud.

Dimitri pulls back into his corner, ears pressing flat not out of any emotional response now but rather because it's really too much noise for too big ears. "What is wrong with him?" he asks quietly underneath all the swearing and laughing and oh god he regrets a lot of things that got him to this moment. "Of course he can't take me in a fight. Why is he so loud?"

The questions just keep coming, really.

--

Claude is laughing even harder now, but calms down enough to pat Dimitri's arm. "You haven't had much of a social life, so you wouldn't know this," he says, grinning. "But some people, especially teenagers...well, they act loud and aggressive to try and impress people. To make themselves look dangerous. And some of them - Katsuki's apparently one of them - really like fighting. They launch themselves at challenges, even the crazy ones, because they don't ever want to admit there's anything they can't do. So it's obviously eating at this kid that he couldn't prove himself by beating you, because if he was really as great as he wants to believe he is, then he could take you in a fair fight. People like that think that having the odds stacked against them just makes playing the game more fun."

He winks. "What can I say? I know the type." Claude is the type, in his own way.

--

Dimitri's stare is even less full of comprehension than it was before and, frankly? He was already not comprehending a lot of this. "I see," he says, despite the exact opposite being true. He sees nothing. He rather doesn't want to see the sense this makes.

There are more important questions. "How do you stop them from being loud?"

--

"You can try asking," Claude says with amusement. "It's good practice for your language skills, right?"

--

Dimitri looks at Claude, to Katsuki, and then back to Claude again. "Will asking really do anything for a person like that?" Excuse him for sounding dubious.

...That doesn't stop him from asking anyway, "What are the words I would use?" He's always interested in learning more, whether or not he thinks it will work for him here.

--

"Do you think anything else short of a gag would?" Claude replies, grinning. "Besides, you saved his life and you've got more sensitive ears than a human. Gratitude or a recognition of the practicality might get him to tone it down where nothing else would.

"As for the words...try please be quieter."

--

If this doesn't work, Dimitri quietly makes his backup plan to sit on top of the boy until he stops. It's the only thing he can think to do when his brain is this rattled, and also words don't seem to work anyway. So he mutters the phrase under his breath a few times, feeling the syllables over his tongue and around his teeth, until it feels a little less clumsy. If nothing else, he knows it's enough to be understandable.

"Please.... be quieter." He glances to Claude to make sure he has it out in common good enough.

--

"Fuck off," Katsuki grumbles back in Common. But quietly. Is this a concession? It feels sort of like one, even if the words - for those who understand them - don't match it.

--

More swearing, as much as Dimitri can tell, but it's quieter swearing, so that's all he really needs right now. He satisfies himself with that, turning his head back to Claude.

"I want to go to sleep now," he informs him. He's been in town for not even an hour, and he's already tired. It's either sleeping or violence, he thinks, and he'd really rather just be unconscious for all of this. Still, Dimitri's sigh says he knows that isn't an available course of action. "....I don't have to actually fight him, do I?"

--

"I don't know. Seems like he's got his heart pretty set on it." Claude eyes Katsuki. "That said, it doesn't have to be anytime soon. You're under...a lot of stress, to put it mildly. You don't need to be thrown back into your arena mindset so soon after finally escaping from the church, and while you're still trying to adjust to being free, and I'm sure I can make him appreciate that.

"But, at the same time...fighting him eventually might actually not be a bad idea for you, really? You've never had the luxury of just being able to have a friendly match with someone where no one's trying to kill anyone else...and you've definitely got a lot of stress bottled up, which some fighting might help you work out. And, since you'll definitely win, it could even become a regular little stress outlet for you. Because based on what I've seen of this kid so far, I think he's going to keep on wanting rematches until he either beats you or drops dead, whichever comes first."

This little discussion between them gets interrupted before Dimitri can reply to Claude, however, as Katsuki isn't content to just sit on the sidelines forever waiting to be included. He stomps his foot irritably on the floor, drawing their attention, before fixing his gaze on Dimitri's one eye. "Why help me?" he asks, in his fragmentary Intsehli.

--

Fighting... would be good? It's not the first time that this has come up between them, the idea that this isn't necessarily a bad thing, that his abilities could be helpful or at least not detrimental to his own self. It's still hard for Dimitri to imagine... and, when he does, all he can think of is the arena all over again. Or, maybe not even the arena.... but merely the outcome. Always the same outcome, no matter what, again and again and again.

....Save for one time.

That stomp is one way to snap him out of it, and Dimitri blinks over at Katsuki. "Why?" he echoes, almost not understanding. "Why not? I don't understand." And he has a feeling the language barrier is only a part of the confusion.

--

Claude asks for clarification in Common, and soon has context he can translate for Dimitri. "He's wondering why you spared him. I think he assumes you would have been so used to killing by the time he ended up in front of you, whether or not you wanted to, that you wouldn't have really thought twice about it. I think he wants to know if there's something that made him in particular worth making that kind of effort, and taking that kind of risk, for. Mind you, though, I'm guessing. He's not exactly that forthcoming in what he's saying to me, so this is some creative interpretation and educated guessing here."

--

Dimitri's jaw tightens a little bit at that, matching the way his hand curls up underneath Claude's. "There's... always a second thought. No matter how many I've had to kill. Even if I do not know their names, even if I cannot remember every face, I think of how their death was really necessary. The two are not mutually exclusive." There's a light thumping of his tail smacking into the floor, a sign of how worked up he's gotten, before he tugs his cloak more over himself. He needs a second to just burrow back in, thoughts settling so that he can give a proper answer.

"....I just wanted to have someone escape. Someone deserved to escape. I couldn't- I thought I couldn't-" And he honestly never would have if not for help, he understands. "-but someone deserved to. And the children who were tossed into the ring.... They deserved it most of all. I thought.... whoever was next, whatever child they tried to murder with me as a weapon.... I would try then. And Katsuki was.... good. In many ways."

--

"What made you think that?" Claude asks, even as he wraps his hand around Dimitri's. He's...not entirely thrilled about Katsuki's showing up today - not when Dimitri is trying to move past the church still, and Katsuki is an embodiment of vivid memories of Dimitri's trauma whether or not he means to be. But what can he do? All he can do is roll with it.

--

"It's.... difficult to explain. The easiest half of the explanation would be..." He looks over Katsuki again, every angry inch of him.

"....I knew he would survive."

--

Claude follows his gaze. "Well, he's no coward, that's for sure. I can't imagine anyone looking at you in full sunlight and actually wanting to fight you. You've got to give him credit for guts." Claude glances at Dimitri briefly. "But you said he was scared...maybe that's why he feels the need to fight you. He's fighting against his own fear."

--

Dimitri makes a faint sort of laugh into his fur. "Should you ask if he's Alymyran then? It seems he would take well to what you've told me of their views." Katsuki seems like he would try to fight actual death, really.

Still, that's not an answer that would get fully translated to the boy, he thinks. Dimitri finally begins to nudge his cloak out of the side, reaching up to tap at the center of his chest with one claw. "....The brand made him good. A child in my ring... usually had the other two brands." Theft or murder, although he doesn't know their definitions. "And they were also the most scared... and most unprepared. But for that brand..." He lets out a slow breath. "It's difficult to explain. I've never had to."

--

"I thought you said you didn't know what he was convicted of in any case." Claude gives him a questioning look.

--

"I don't." Dimitri shrugs. "But there are... Hm." He pauses, trying to think of a way to explain it. "....I told you how I could tell the kind of people who entered the ring? The ones I felt were innocent, and those that weren't?"

---

"You mentioned something like that, yeah." Claude glances at Katsuki. "So what kind of impression did he give you?"

--

"Loud. He has not changed in that." Dimitri rubs at his ears with a grimace, still hearing bells from all of Katsuki's noise.

"But I meant it was more.... indepth than that. After a while as executioner... I could tell what kind of people would have what brand. Roughly. For example, the pitch black brand, the diamond one... I think that was the only one I knew of with more.... Hm." He narrows his eye, tilting his head to the side. "Experience...? Expectation. The ones who took pleasure when they landed a hit, and who never seemed to carry regret. I only saw that kind of person with a black brand, and not the other two. There were others who had that brand as well, of course, so it was not purely them, but...."

Dimitri shakes his head. "Then, with the other brand, those ones I found were often... the weakest?" He's talking about the brand for repeated theft, now. "They were tired and hungry. Not all of them, but enough that I noticed it to be a trend. That's how it looked like to me. I never understood what could justify murdering the weak. That is where I also found children.

"And that one..." He points over at Katsuki. "He was the only child I ever saw with that brand. And, although it was not always so.... They seemed prepared without being.... excited. Resigned?" He eases back into his corner. "I felt a kinship with them, sometimes. I think they were a little like you as well, Claude." Dimitri shakes his head. "I do not know if any of this makes sense. It is all in general only."

--

"The black diamond with the white outline means 'murderer'," Claude says quietly. "The other one...was probably 'thief'. And Katsuki's is 'heretic', which means he went against the church. I haven't heard of many kids executed for that one, either..."

Claude asks Katsuki something in Common, which Katsuki replies to. Even without understanding the words, Dimitri will be able to hear the bitterness and occasional sarcasm practically dripping off the boy's words. Claude listens attentively.

"Okay," he says eventually, "that explained a lot. Apparently Katsuki was taking a shortcut through the monastery one day, in a place he definitely shouldn't have been, and he overheard one of the bishops talking to a merchant. He ended up eavesdropping, and he found out the bishop was taking bribes to let the merchant smuggle in illicit drugs. Medicines, mostly, but ones the church has banned because they're dangerously foreign. And because the church has banned them, getting hold of any of them - such as, say, if a loved one is seriously ill, and prayer isn't enough to help them - costs an arm and a leg. So he realized the church was making it hard to obtain these drugs...while at least one bishop was working with a smuggler to profit off of the artificial scarcity." Claude smiles thinly. "Katsuki attacked them both.

"He wanted to accuse them of what they'd done in public, but they never gave him the chance. He was locked up, branded, and sent to die without ever being allowed to see anyone who wasn't a church official. Attacking a bishop is a fairly serious crime, even if it's just with your fists, but odds are they tried to kill him rather than let him expose any corruption within the church."

Claude glances at Katsuki again. "People branded as heretics...some of them no doubt objected to the church for their own reasons. But it was probably a good way to get rid of people who just happen to be in the way, too. Your instincts were probably right about them - victims who got in the way of the church, and didn't have any way to fight against that kind of power. And when an institution like that is bearing down on you...yeah, most people give up. It's not a fight they can win."

--

"So as I said," Dimitri says, after having listened to the tale with a quiet attentiveness. "He was good. I thought those with that brand were good, and he was." It's a rather... simplistic, black and white type of view, but then Dimitri isn't inclined to give the church any credit for anything. Still, looking back to Katsuki... He's not sure if Claude has given the boy a good answer. All of this is rather going over his head, with his still basic and scattered understanding of Common. Even if Claude has.... He should give an answer of his own.

So Dimitri tries, words more practiced from constant use. "Good boy," he tells Katsuki. "You."

....Granted, the reason he can say 'good boy' so well is because he has said it to Ashi near a million times from the cabin to town.

--

Katsuki looks baffled by this - nearly as baffled as when Dimitri had Claude ask if he was happy. Then he huffs and looks away, muttering something. The self-consciousness is evident.

Claude chuckles quietly. "He thinks you've just only known shitty people."

--

"He's still good." So that's really all that matters here. Besides, Dimitri's been a slave for two decades, so that's really nothing he wasn't already aware of. Regardless....

"....Should I take responsibility? For... his situation. I feel as though I should."

--

"That's up to you," Claude says with amusement. "Although personally, I suspect he's going to keep following us around regardless until he gets that fight he wants. He doesn't strike me as the type to just give up and go...well, wherever he's got that one could call home." Again, Claude knows the type. "But for whatever it's worth, he doesn't seem to blame you at all for his circumstances. The only thing he sounds like he thinks you owe him is a fair fight."

Actually, that gives Claude a moment of pause. "That said...now that you're free, I wonder if he even has any plans for himself beyond that fight with you." And then he speaks to Katsuki in Common - posing that question, perhaps. And Dimitri can see - without any answer, in any language, being necessary - the way Katsuki's thoughts crash into themselves, the lost and angry look on his face.

Claude's suspicion was obviously correct - Katsuki has evidently been focusing on his fight with Dimitri, perhaps even his plan to break Dimitri free, to the exclusion (perhaps as a direct replacement) of figuring out where to go with his own upheaved life now.

--

....Oh. Oh.

It's like looking into a mirror, although it's been so long since he's ever seen a real one. The anger, the lack of direction, having everything taken and so what do you do when you're so separated from all that you knew? It's.... more familiar than he ever would have wanted to see- not in himself and not in another person. Whatever comfort he can have is only that the boy has never had two entire decades of his life stolen, like Dimitri, and even that is a cold comfort. It's not a particularly high bar to cross.

He wishes he could know what to say, even beyond language, and he wishes he could have an immediate solution... But he doesn't. Dimitri just stares, heart aching, before he looks back to Claude.

"You.... said we would be in this town for some days, didn't you?"

--

Katsuki says something, angrily, which Claude translates first before he answers Dimitri's question. "He thinks you're pitying him with that look on your face, and he's...not a fan of that, to put it mildly."

Then, in response to Dimitri's question, he tilts his head. "I did. Have something in mind?"

--

"He's apparently not a fan of me saving his life, so I will express as I please." He also mugged him in an alley, although Dimitri almost seems to have forgotten that, hilariously enough, in context of everything else that's since happened afterwards.

"Then.... would it be...." He frowns a little to himself. "....Can he stay that long?"

--

"Can he as in, is it okay for you to want that, or can he as in will he want to?" Claude cocks an eyebrow. "If you're asking me, I don't mind if you want to help him. If you want me to ask him, I can do that. And like I said, I don't think he has anywhere else to go. Entirely aside from whatever crazy pride he's got that's driving him to want that rematch...you might be the first person he's seen who cares if he lives or dies since he got exiled, after all. I'm not sure if the question of whether he tags along with us or not is even up to us."

--

"Even if one has nowhere else to return to.... They can still not stay." Dimitri is fairly sure that Claude is right, in that Katsuki wouldn't give up or go home in any way whatsoever until he got a rematch.... but he still can't assume. "So... Please ask. Even if only for so long." Dimitri lets out a slow breath.

"....He's my responsibility.... so perhaps I can help to do this much..." He has no idea how to help, but he has a few days. Perhaps something, somehow, will come to mind.

--

"He's not your responsibility," Claude replies calmly. "What the church did to him isn't your obligation. If you want to look after him, though, that's a different story." He grins at Dimitri. "We could bring him with us, if you want."

Claude's reason for suggesting this is threefold. One, he predicts that this is where Dimitri's mind is going to end up going anyway. Two, he's pretty sure that Katsuki is going to trail after them regardless, and it's both more kind and more prudent to just take him with them properly - and thus be able to account for his actions, safety, and whereabouts - than just letting him chase after them. And three...well, he's concerned for the kid, too. And Dimitri's not the only one who sees similarities between himself and Katsuki.

--

For the first time since perhaps they've entered the inn- maybe since they've entered the town at all- Dimitri's ears flick upwards with clear interest. "Would that be alright? Would it be a larger burden in terms of money, and supplies? Would we need another horse?" Dimitri is perfectly confident in Ashi's strength, but he's already carrying Dimitri, along with whatever items Claude puts on him. He's not really sure how much more he can handle, or how much Katsuki may weigh.

--

"Yes, yes, and maybe," Claude replies with a laugh. "But it isn't anything we can't handle. I've been saving up money for years in anticipation of needing it. I don't have it all on me, of course, so things might be a little lean for awhile if I can't find some way to make us more money before we leave town, but if worst comes to worst...well, I've got my charm, and I can always tell merchants to credit my purchases to the church."

-

On one hand, he very desperately feels guilty for going along with something that will place greater financial strain on Claude, however temporarily, and wants to know how he can help.

....On the other hand, fuck the church.

"Then.... If you're certain.... Please ask."

--

Claude leans in and gives Dimitri a peck on the cheek - right in front of Katsuki, who looks away somewhat irritably but doesn't seem too surprised. "I think this is probably the best option, too, you know," he says, giving Dimitri a wink. "That's why I suggested it." Then he sits back. "Why don't you ask him, though? I think it'll mean more, coming from you. Besides, if he's gonna be traveling with us, that makes it that much more important you practice speaking each other's languages."

--

"....I suppose.... you are right. I've known it important that I learn it, but I suppose... it's even more vital, now." He may have hated almost every single second he's been in town, but he can't deny the language is important to learn even without his own natural curiosity towards it.

"What would be the right way to ask it, then?"

--

"Well, you probably can't go wrong with I would like you to come with us." Claude tilts his head. "It's more a statement than a question - it means 'I would like you to come with us' - but it's still up to him if he does it, either way."

--

With Claude giving him words to translate, Dimitri is fairly certain the boy will have an idea of what's coming next.... but he supposes as long as he lets it happen next, that's enough. He mutters the words underneath his breath a few times before exhaling and looking up to Katsuki.

"I would like you to come with us," he says in slow and careful Common, before realizing he's forgotten how to give the equivalent of 'to ' for Common as well. "Devan-Intseh." That should be enough to explain where they're going, hopefully, especially with Katsuki knowing at least some smattering of Intsehli.

--

Katsuki is far enough across the room, and Claude's voice was low enough, that Dimitri saying the words is still a surprise, and he sits up to stare at him. He doesn't look completely taken aback - as Claude said, he'd probably been intending to stick with them regardless - but he does look startled to have been invited.

After a moment, he tries equally halting Intsehli. "Why there?"

--

Oh boy. That.... is a loaded question, one that Dimitri knows for a fact won't be easily or accurately described with the level he has with Common or Katsuki has with Intsehli. Either way, his initial reaction is still the one from his heart as he remembers.... everything. Past executioners. Their inability for respect or freedom even in death. That feeling of being in that dark room, with the distinct smell filling his lungs and his tongue able to taste the blood in the air....

Dimitri squeezes his eye shut for a moment, a snarl of a grimace on his face, and he forces himself to exhale. His hand goes to find Claude's again, an anchor against his memories. Once his heart isn't so twisted, and breath comes a little easier again, he opens his eye again to consider Katsuki carefully. Katsuki, and the language struggle between them.

Well.... Even if he can't explain everything in detail.... Dimitri tries to think of the simplest terms. "Truth," he tries in Intsehli with a gesture to himself, watching Katsuki's expression to see if it's getting through. "And..." No, this won't do at all. He highly doubts that the words for burials, or funerals, or simply anything to do with death are among the words that Katsuki has picked up. Instead, Dimitri gets up, going to the packs he and Claude brought in. He knows where the two vials are almost by heart, now, tucked away hidden and secure, and he brings them out cradled in his hands with more care than anything else. He doesn't go near Katsuki with them; they're too important for that and he's still too much an unknown. But he does tilt his hands, cupped together with the vials in the middle, so that the boy can see.

"...Bury the dead."

--

Katsuki stares at the vials for a few moments, uncomprehending. Then his eyes widen significantly, and he jolts up from his chair to move closer, really looking at them - his body language is easy enough to read. There's no way those are what I think they are, right?

But, of course, they are. And Claude, watching Katsuki, thinks he can see the exact feeling he had when he realized it - that it's almost too low to imagine anyone stooping, and yet finding oneself unable to actually put it past the church to do so. They've all experienced, firsthand, just how horrific the church can be, after all. None of them have any room for giving the church, or anyone in it, enough benefit of the doubt to deny it.

It would be nice if they could.

Katsuki doesn't get so close that Dimitri needs to worry he'll snatch the vials from him or anything - just close enough to give them scrutinizing stares, defying them to be anything other than what they are. When he slowly straightens up, Dimitri gets to see his own disgust and fury writ large on the boy's face. He looks like he wants to tear someone's head off.

He snarls out some words to Claude in Common, who answers in kind. The reply just makes Katsuki cut a hand through the air in deepest, violent distaste.

Then Claude, more slowly - so that Dimitri can pick out the words, and hopefully follow - speaks again, still in the common language. "The Intsehli don't know the church is kidnapping their children for this. We're going to see them. To tell them." Claude smirks, with a dark light in his eyes. "And with their help, we will stop the church. All the parts of it that are cruel and corrupt - we will drag them out into the light, and let them die there. I will negotiate help from Almyra, too."

Katsuki listens to this slow delivery with impatience...and swiftly growing interest. A wild grin grows on his face the more he listens. And here, for the first time, Dimitri may notice some similarity between him and Claude. Their smiles aren't mirrors, but they certainly share a common ancestor. Rather recently in the family tree, too.

--

"See," Dimitri murmurs quietly, drawing his hands back into his cloak with their precious cargo, "the ones with that brand are like you."

That smile is an answer all in its own, really. So is the anger Katsuki had been displaying only a few seconds ago, and which some vestiges of it still cling to the way the boy bares his teeth in that vicious grin. He doesn't really need to ask again, he supposes, but Dimitri does anyway in his same awkward Common. "Come?"

--

Katsuki's blazing eyes look up at him. The boy seems to be a barely contained inferno pretty much all the time, it seems. "I would have come anyway," he says - this time trying the slow delivery of Common Claude used. "I still want that rematch."

Claude, who knows he's going to have to teach Dimitri a few of the words he himself said and is now scanning Katsuki's for words he doesn't think his partner knows, chimes in with Intsehli. "That last word means 'rematch'." He grins. "You know, if this kid doesn't have any Almyran in him, you're right that he'd still fit right in with them."

--

Oh gods no. Dimitri's slow droop of exhaustion is almost exactly counter to the hopeful spark of energy at the idea of taking Katsuki along. He's already regretting this on some level. All petty levels, but they're some levels. "No," he says bluntly to Katsuki in common, curling up in his corner.

"Quiet please."

Those three words are likely heralds of the most common things Dimitri will ever tell their new loud mouthed companion.

-

Katsuki scowls, but Claude interrupts with some quick Common, which gets an annoyed sound from the boy but seems to stave off an imminent explosion. "Not now," he grumpily concedes. "Later."

--

"No." Sorry for your efforts, Claude. Dimitri is making this as difficult as possible on his own end, although he at least follows it up by speaking to his lover again in Intsehli.

"The horses are safe, and we are at the inn. What do we do now?" He doesn't know how they're going to deal with Katsuki's new involvement in their lives, but he's just... here now and he supposes they'll deal with that as it happens.

--

"Yes," Katsuki growls back, bristling up again. The growl is almost as good as any Dimitri has ever made. He walks right over to Dimitri, crouching down in front of him.

"I need to get strong. Especially if there's going to be a war." The slowness of the words is just letting him drive further emphasis into them.

--

Now begs the question of: just how prepared is Katsuki for this rematch he wants so much?

Is he, perhaps, prepared for it to happen, in some ways, right now, via Dimitri jerking his very large and furry and clawed hand out to grab right at Katsuki's very near face? Something he can do very easily, in fact, especially if Katsuki doesn't react fast enough. Intseh are large enough as it is. Dimitri leans even further towards height and size. This means, if he wants to- and he is trying to although not nearly with the kind of murderous intent of the arena- he can very easily just wrap his whole hand around most of Katsuki's face.

He is, at least, taking care not to use his claws. He's not trying to draw blood.

--

The immediate and unexpected answer is "yes, actually".

Katsuki jerks in surprise - anyone would, certainly - but he doesn't flinch away. Instead, as that hand engulfs his face -

He bites it.

Claude, staring at these sudden developments, is going to need a second for his brain to catch up to what these idiots - his idiots now, he realizes - are doing.

--

Well. Huh. What are they teaching human children? Dimitri's stare is one of dull surprise. Even in the arena, it wasn't exactly a common occurrence for a human to bite him. Most realized, after all, what an absolutely stupid and futile idea that would be. And that's because it's.... not really something that hurts. Not for someone like Dimitri, who's used to far worse pain if his missing eye is any indication, and not with.... teeth like that.

Still, in one way, this works for him, because it ensures the boy is anchored there. Still using just the one arm, he moves his hand to the side, dragging Katsuki in the same direction. The other hand, of course, is still tenderly cradling the two vials, and those he makes sure are deposited safely to Claude. He's not offering any explanation for this, although his expression still seems more exhausted than combative.

--

Claude takes them, still watching them. "Dimitri," he says, slowly - not because he's speaking Common but because he wants to be perfectly clear even in Intsehli, "even if you're going to indulge him just to get him off your back about it, don't do it here. That guy will absolutely kick us out of the inn for the disturbance, and keep my money."

Katsuki, meanwhile, is watching Dimitri with narrowed eyes between his fingers over the boy's face. His teeth are still digging into Dimitri's hand, but he's...not actually making any aggressive movements, which seems calculated for a boy who's pretty much all aggression. He's sizing up what Dimitri's up to right now.

--

There's a slow blink. "I'm not indulging him," he replies, although he seems satisfied at least that the vials are safe. "I said no. So I am not doing it."

If he was going to do a fight, after all, it'd... be very different from this. No, this isn't a fight.

This is a time out.

Still using his grip and strength over Katsuki, he tugs the boy down, and his intent soon becomes incredibly clear. After all, can it... really be called a fight when all he's doing is trying to sit down on an angry teenager?

...Well, it's probably asking for a fight, especially from this one. Dimitri doesn't care about that.

--

Katsuki quickly shifts up through the gears of struggling and swearing as he realizes just what Dimitri's intent is. But there really isn't much he can do about it; Dimitri outweighs him by a considerable amount.

That said, there is a rather amusing moment, a minute or so in, where somehow Katsuki manages to get his arms underneath him and actually leverages both himself and Dimitri up. Claude's eyes widen at that, because...that is a lot of weight to push up from the floor. But the boy can't quite make it to the full length of his arms, isn't able to get far enough to lock his elbows before his burst of furious strength loses the fight against gravity, and they thud flat again.

At least the swearing briefly abates after this, as this winds Katsuki.

"You may have an undiscovered talent for child discipline," Claude says with a laugh.

--

Hopefully they don't have any neighbors who wondered what the hell all that was about.

Dimitri stays where he is for a second, squinting down at Katsuki warily, before he just adjusts himself for a comfortable sitting position on the boy. "I said no!" he protests quietly, huffing a little bit as he makes sure to bear more of his weight down on the boy. Just in case.

Anyway. "I still want to know what we do now."

--

"Well," Claude says, watching the two of them bemusedly as Katsuki fumes, "ideally what we'd do now is go to the market. See what they're selling, what business we can get done there, get the local gossip, that sort of thing. But I think you might not be up to going out and braving the crowds again just yet, so maybe we should cool our heels here for a couple hours while you adjust."

--

Ah. Dimitri thinks of going out there again, into the streets and crowds that fill them, all the noise and humans he doesn't know... Claude is fine. Katsuki, despite literally everything else about him, is... also fine. But they're outliers. The crowds like that...

His ears twitch back. "...I'm sorry. There's... much noise. It is better when I am with you, but markets are... more, aren't they?"

--

"It's fine," Claude replies with a smile. "We can do this at whatever pace you need. Who knows - maybe I can even send Katsuki out to do errands for us."

--

That makes Dimitri pause as he glances down to the Angry Angry Child he's currently sitting on, and.... He doesn't say anything. He just raises a brow over at Claude, gesturing down to him. This kid?

--

Claude winks at him. "I think he's got potential. I also think he's a lot more grateful to you than he's willing to let on. Besides, it's clearly obvious to him how much difficulty you're having in the city, so sending him - letting him feel like the capable one - should be easy enough to pull off. Maybe he's not allowed to prove his superiority to you in a fight yet, but he can prove it by being an experienced denizen of the city, right?"

That thought actually sparks a realization, and he looks down at Katsuki. "Actually...we might have a source of city gossip right here, now that I mention it."

--

"He can talk to you about gossip while I'm still here sitting on him, can't he?" Dimitri sighs, shaking his head. "I don't want him to keep trying to start a fight.... It's exhausting..." No matter what reasons Katsuki gives him, after all... Right now, he doesn't want to fight. If he feels he has to, he will. (That he feels that it is his only useful talent, his only clear cut purpose right now, and that he's too eager to use it in certain situations.... Well, to say it's a complicated relationship is to put it lightly.)

Still.... "If... When we get the pouch for my kin..." His eye goes to the vials Claude is holding. "...I want to do that myself." It won't feel right, if he doesn't try for them.

--

"Probably, unless you're squishing the breath out of him." Claude grins. "I don't think he's trying to start a fight right now, though. He's trying to get a promise that you will, eventually, fight him. Or at least that's what I assume he meant by 'later'. Which is something I suggest promising him, by the way, no matter how you feel about it now. 'Eventually' covers a long time. Either one of you could end up changing your minds 'eventually', so there's no point in your giving a forever answer to him."

He smiles. "As for the pouch...you can do that. It'll be good for you to do some bartering as part of your language studies."

--

His ears slowly lower. "Claude," he says quietly, "I asked to get the pouch. I did not ask to barter in a language I only know disconnected fragments of. We will be robbed of so much money." Dimitri is perfectly confident in being stubborn enough for a certain price, if he can get past his anxiety about.... people. And towns. And a lot of things in general, really. Still, his sigh says he'll do his best, when he can.

For now, he just makes sure that he won't crush Katsuki's ribs and looks to Claude expectantly.

--

"I already told you that's what made me learn Intsehli really quickly," Claude says, with a twinkle in his eye. "Why wouldn't it work the other way around, too?"

As for Katsuki, Claude asks him a question in Common - which gets a predictably angry, expletive-filled answer that makes Claude laugh. "He says he's not telling me anything until I get the ox off him." His eyes are dancing. "Which is, frankly, the less colorful version of what he actually said."

--

"Because I'm not you," Dimitri mutters, not going into every bit and detail on why it's going to be a disaster. Well, he'll suffer through it.

The request- no, really more of a demand, probably- has Dimitri cast an utterly unimpressed look down at Katsuki. He's clearly considering it, tail that's poked out from his cloak swishing quietly along. Finally, he shrugs. "Very well." However, he doesn't get off of the boy immediately. Instead, he leans over him, making sure that, even if it's at an odd angle, he can meet the boy's gaze. His next words, he makes sure to get in Common.

"So. Rematch?"

There's just enough question in his tone to make it come off as derisive, dismissive. Enough question to make it quite clear that not only is Dimitri not going to fight Katsuki, but he doesn't see a reason to.

This is just pouring more oil on the fire, really, but either they're going to fight and so it won't matter (Dimitri so desperately hopes it doesn't get to this point) or the boy will realize it's a dumb idea (he really hopes for that one). Either way, he slowly gets up, keeping one long foot pressed firmly down on Katsuki just to make sure he doesn't get bitten again.

--

"Oh, gods," Claude says, matter-of-factly, right before Katsuki explodes.

Katsuki can managed to push himself upright somewhat even with Dimitri's full weight on him; with only one foot pinning him, and being able to bunch his arms properly under him, it's a lot easier now. He surges upwards, and angles one shoulder down as he does it so that Dimitri's foot slides right off his back. (Dimitri may dig his claws in for purchase, either intentionally or instinctively, or he may not out of fear of injuring Katsuki; the boy doesn't care, and won't stop, either way.) Then, with Dimitri already off-balance, he throws his full body weight against Dimitri's other leg, with every intention of felling Dimitri like a tree.

Dimitri definitely pushed Katsuki's battered pride too far.

--

Ah. So he's only gotten better since the arena. Good.

The thought goes through his head brief and quick before gravity demands his full attention, before reality demands his full attention, and Dimitri catches himself from going completely prone as he hits the ground. With his hands beneath him, he has a chance to do something, after all, and that's the most important thing. Not so that he can retaliate, or stop Bakugou....

But so that he can brace himself, curling himself up into a ball with his cloak falling over him completely. He said he's not fighting, so he's not fighting.

--

Katsuki is on his feet by now, chest heaving, positively radiating rage, fists balled at his sides. He stares down at the cloaked lump on the floor that is Dimitri for a few moments before throwing a wide-eyed, furious look at Claude, who promptly holds up his hands in a 'don't look at me' gesture. Claude thinks he should probably stay out of this, whatever it is.

He looks back at Dimitri again for a moment before snarling something wildly and pounding out of the room, hitting the door open so hard it thuds against the wall of the hallway outside before shuddering back.