Claudelix Week April 19 - Day 2 - Culture / Dance / Celebrations

[warmskies]

 "Your taste in men is terrible," Hilda informs him fondly, after he knocks on the door to Felix's room and lets himself in.

Seeing her there along with his poor exhausted lover is enough to draw a wide grin to Claude's face. "I prefer the term variable," he says cheerfully once he's made sure the door is closed and locked properly. "Anyway, I've been gone for ages, and this is how you greet me?"

"I greeted you formally an hour ago!" Hilda says, fudging the times a little. Claude allows her some protesting, more interested in circling around the other side of Felix's bed so that he can sit besides him.

Twisting around, he reaches over to press his hand against Felix's cheek and get an idea of how warm he is. "Also, Felix, I wasn't kidding about you coming to sit in the pool until you cool down. You need to be drinking water, too. Lots of it." Not to mention he has to take off some of those layers, which Claude begins to promptly tug at.

"I drank," Felix says, voice muffled from how his face is still stuffed against a pillow.

"I made him drink," Hilda corrects mildly, patting Felix's back as she shifts on the bed herself so that she can better face both of them. This is so that she can direct the full force of her fluttering eyelashes and baby doll eyes over at Claude. They both know she doesn't need to but it's honestly part of the fun. "And you were going to invite me to this pool you apparently have, weren't you, Claude? I can help drag Felix over, since he complains about me stripping him if I bring it up."

"Going to be the third wheel, Hilda?" Claude teases, and meets her grin with his own.

"If the pool is as nice as you make it sound, then I don't mind being a third wheel so long as you tell me I'm cute, too," she teases right back. "And, as a sign of my generosity, I'll even count that as recompense for you not telling me that you were the heir to a foreign kingdom."

"Really, Hilda, that's all it takes? I guess I don't have to give you a necklace from the royal treasury after all! You must really love me to forgive me so cheaply."

"I know, I'm bubbling with generosity," she says, winking. "But don't feel like you need to be too hasty!"

Before the two of them can get too deep into their banter, Felix groans, and finally pushes himself up. "No wonder the two of you are friends," he says, sweeping some of his hair from up out of his face. Poor guy looks like an absolute wreck. Claude had sort of been able to tell from where he'd watched Felix's earlier match, but, this close up, it's a lot more, well, red. And sweaty.

"Best friends," he confirms to Felix with a small grin, before letting his hand rest on his lover's thigh. "But c'mon, let's get you out of these layers. Although, with what Hilda said before, the implication seems to be that you'll be okay if I strip you, right?"

Against all odds, Felix's face gets all the more red, and Hilda grins from the other side of him. "You're both exactly the same," he groans, pushing himself forward in order to crawl off of the bed. "Get away from me. Ugh."

"Remember your swimsuit!" Hilda calls towards his back, before looking back to Claude. "That's another thing you should thank me for, by the way." She gestures to Felix as he starts picking off what little armor he wears, plus his layers. "He didn't think we would need swimming wear before we got here."

"It's a desert!" Felix protests over his shoulder, placing his swords on the end of his bed.

Claude winks at Hilda. "I mean, he probably wouldn't have needed any if there wasn't going to be a lady present," he says, before he gets up to his feet as well. Settling alongside Felix, he starts to help undoing his armor, and a little more quick and competent than Felix himself. It's the benefit of being an outside party who doesn't have to twist awkwardly, and isn't half dead from "But obviously, sunshine, desert settlements are built around the few places where there's plenty of accessible water. You don't build out in the wastes... not unless you invest in a lot of wells, anyway."

While Hilda sucks in her lips in an attempt to not laugh at Claude's teasing, an occurrence that Felix aggressively tries to ignore, the swordsman huffs. "So it's more plentiful than I thought it was. You can't blame me for not wanting to waste water."

Laughing softly, Claude leans in to rest their foreheads together. "You're sweet. But don't worry, this city gets plenty of water. It actually does rain here sometimes, you know. And every night, it gets cold enough that there's condensation, and we're good at using that to our advantage. Add to that things like aquifers, pumps, natural pools, and runoff from the nearby mountain range, and we're not much worse off than anywhere in Fodlan. So you don't need to worry about it too much here."

"This is why some girls thought you were cute in Garreg Mach, you know," Hilda comments idly as she lounges on Felix's bed, before he can get too comfortable with Claude against him.

Felix blinks, and then stares at her. "Since when?"

Claude laughs, even as Hilda crawls over to sympathetically pat his shoulder. "Since always, Felix. Did you really miss all those times girls kept bothering you to flirt with you? Or give you sweets? Did you think they were all bored, and just had extra candy?"

"What - that was flirting!?" Hilda shakes her head slowly and says nothing. She really doesn't have to. As Felix looks like he's learning things today and he really didn't want to, Claude slowly drags his hand down his face. "I thought they were just being coy about getting better at fighting and learning from me, or - something!"

Really, Claude loves Felix so much, and he knows his lover can be smart. But sometimes... "Felix. You're incredibly direct about fighting," he points out. "You're ready to fight almost anyone even before they give you an excuse. If they'd wanted to fight you, they didn't need to be coy at all. Please look back on everyone you thought was just trying to roundabout fight you and consider what else it might have been."

"I was in the middle of trying to train when they'd do it!" Felix protests, barely remembering to work on the buttons to the front of his shirt. He's probably permanently red from a combination of this conversation and the demanding Almyran heat. "I couldn't think of another reason!"

"I'm just curious," Hilda says idly, "but back in Garreg Mach, did you ever do anything besides train, Felix?"

Letting his hand flop down to his side, Claude grins at Felix. "That's exactly it. They did it while you were training because you spend practically all of your free time training, sunshine. Besides, that makes you easy to find; they could just go to the training yard if they were looking for you. That wasn't because they were interested in the training, they just hardly had opportunities to gives things to you or talk to you when you weren't."

"This is what you signed up for," Hilda tells Claude with a giggle, even as Felix bristles and flings his shirt off to some corner of his room.

Tossing another layer away to a completely different part of his room, Felix huffs. "Listen," he says, "if they really wanted to get to know me, then a fight would have been the perfect way. They clearly didn't know what gifts to get me - and I understood those perfectly thanks. I just - misunderstood why."

Ah ha. That reminds Claude of something else he heard once upon a time, and he grins down at Hilda. "You know, I think I remember hearing that girls who wanted to know what you liked, Felix, would go to Sylvain for advice..."

Coyly, Hilda presses her fingertips against her mouth. "Oh, I was friends with some of those girls," she says, as though she wasn't on friendly terms with the vast majority of their old student body, "and they definitely mentioned things like that."

Felix struggles to get out of his final layer, voice muffled by cloth. "Shut up." Apparently he knows exactly what they're all talking about too.

Laughing quietly, shoulders shaking, Claude steps away from Felix. "Sylvain really is like me in a lot of ways, huh?" he remarks. That's all he'll say, taking mercy on Felix for a moment as he folds his hands behind his head. "So, how's Almyran weather been treating you, Hilda? House Goneril's lands aren't nearly as cold as Faerghus territories, so I imagine you're holding up better in the heat."

"It's like our hottest summers, but twice as terrible," Hilda sighs, sprawling dramatically on Felix's bed. The last of his shirts goes flying off onto the stone floors. "But we made sure to have plenty of water with us, so that helped. My brother demanded nothing less, if I had to go because of a request from Dimitri."

"Even with Dimitri as a factor, I'm amazed he agreed at all," Felix grumbles, kneeling down to start working on his boots.

"Well, we all know how persuasive Hilda can be," Claude says with a wide grin. "And how Lord Holst would do anything for his beloved little sister. Plus, I'm sure Hilda vouched for me, so it was kind of a foregone conclusion."

Hilda presses her fingers against her smiling lips. "Honestly, you should have seen his face when I told him I knew who the king of Almyra was. It caught him so off guard that it was really easy to get him to agree. I made sure not to give him enough time to let him change his mind."

Bursting out in laughter, Claude plops back down onto the bed. "That's my girl!" he crows. "I just wish I could have seen your face when you found out! Honestly, you make it sound like me keeping that little secret from you was so cruel, but have you thought about how I suffered?" He presses his hand to his chest melodramatically. "Not personally getting to see that happen... I've made sacrifices to be here, Hilda."

With absolutely zero hesitation, Hilda smacks his arm. "Ugh, you jerk! Whose fault do you think that is!"

Ducking away from all of this, Felix finally manages to peel his boot off from one foot to toss it to the side. "You know, you still have Lorenz that you can surprise," he points out, grunting as he starts working on his other boot. It's taking a lot of effort.

Claude tosses his head back and cackles even more, no restraint. "At least I've got one thing to look forward to, right?" Lorenz grew up a lot since their days at the academy, he knows that. He got to witness a little bit of it during the war, before he left for bigger things than only Fodlan. Still, well... A part of him can't exactly regret this, and he definitely won't regret how much he'll drink the guy's shock when he sees what he's been up to. At any rate... He bats his eyelashes at Hilda, in a way he learned from Hilda. "Will getting to watch with me make up for my lie by omission?"

"As long as you make absolutely sure that I'm there with you."

Yeah... It really is like how things used to be, even if they've all changed from their time at Garreg Mach. There's something reassuring to that, and not just because of the familiarity. Rather... It's good to see that things can be the same even when he's laid so many of his cards on the table instead of hiding them close to his chest. Before Claude can get too wrapped up in his own thoughts, however, Felix's grunting starts to get more intense, and he looks over.

"Do you want some help, Felix?" he asks, watching some of his hair fall back into his flushed face just so it can stick to the skin it finds there. It would be difficult to keep his eyes from roaming along those finely shaped thighs and calves, accentuated by the boot that still remains, so Claude doesn't bother. Some other people might be especially weak to Felix's legs in boots, but, well, Claude isn't immune to the appeal either.

Felix pauses, peering up from beneath the mess of hair that's fallen from his bun. Any other time, and Claude has no doubt that Felix would refuse just on the basis of his pride and general stubborn nature. Now, well... "I'd rather not use my body for anything at all right now, so, yeah."

"No one asked you to pick a fight right after traveling across a desert," Hilda sighs.

"I don't regret anything."

Sliding off the bed, Claude winks again to Hilda. "I was just so devastatingly handsome that he couldn't handle it without fighting someone." The fact that this is more or less true just makes it all the more fun to say. Moving to kneel in front of Felix, Claude gently begins to work his boot off.

Hilda politely averts her gaze from what no doubt comes off as some shameless leg fondling. Well, it can be that too. "People were already talking about it when I left the arena," she comments.

Of course they would. Claude isn't particularly surprised to hear about that, honestly. Everyone was already talking about how he was the first Almyran king in, if not ever, than a very long time to extend a welcome to guests from another country like this... and that country is Fodlan, too. Having one of his honored guests pick a fight in his name, if not his honor, must make all of this a rather exciting turn of events.

They can talk as they like. For now, Claude has more mundane things to consider, and he glances up at Felix. "I made sure to have someone prepare some nice sandals for you that you can wear to the courtyard," he tells him. "Padding around my palace barefoot might raise some eyebrows. Besides, sand gets around, and the less of it that gets in the pool, the better."

"Whatever works." Felix shrugs, and continues to watch Claude. "But how do you keep the sand out when it's windy?"

Claude laughs. "You don't," he says. "At least, not all the time. Most of the time, you just get a lot of people with brooms to clean it up every day. There is some old magic that was constructed ages ago that helps the worst of it from flooding certain important areas... Stuff that was made during a different cultural climate than the one we have now. But it hasn't really gotten much updating since then, for various reasons, and anyway, sand gets everywhere, no matter what you do. I shut the doors to my balcony and bar them on the days that they are sandstorms, for all the good that does; sand still manages to find its way inside. But if living in Northern Fodlan is a battle against the cold, then living in the deserts of Almyra is a battle against the heat and the sand. Although, naturally, one tends to be rather more dangerous than the other."

"It happens in Goneril lands too," Hilda adds, which isn't particularly surprising. Goneril is Almyra's closest neighbor and, well, occasionally that sort of thing happens. No doubt they deal with it the old fashioned way of brooms. When he first entered the Leicester Alliance so many years ago, he was made familiar with that kind of plight, and never once heard anything about magic used to deal with the issue. No matter it's because it's such a minor matter, with Goneril territory not right in the middle of the desert...

Felix's boot finally starts to make some significant progress down his leg, and Claude keeps talking. "In a way, I guess snow might be easier to cope with. At least it has the decency to melt when it gets inside, right?"

His lover makes a face, thinking about the struggles the average Faerghan has to go through when dealing with their fierce winters. "If melts if things are warm enough," he says, "but even that is a problem all its own. If you just let ice melt with no care for cleaning up afterwards, that's an entirely different problem." But then his boot pops off, and Felix falls awkwardly silent for a moment.

The reason why it was such a struggle to get this boot off in particular is now made clear. Before Claude had left Fodlan, Felix had gifted him the tie from his hair... a reminder to stay safe, to stay healthy, to know that he wasn't ever alone. And, well, in turn...

Wrapped around Felix's calve, the Almyran patterns on the headscarf look particularly brilliant and beautiful. Claude had always thought that, even when he'd had complex feelings about his homeland and some of the people he'd had to deal with here. It had hurt when he'd had to tuck it away lest he get attacked for wearing it in his hair, had to hide away the other half of his person like it was something filthy that needed to be hidden.

Felix had worn it underneath his sleeve the day that Claude had left Fodlan. Here, before Claude once again, he wears it still.

Claude smiles as he takes in its presence, and he reaches over to lightly touch the cloth. "I think you can wear this openly now," he tells Felix. "This is a fairly common design here, after all. You could make any kind of excuse for getting and wearing it here."

Flopping over and crawling over to the edge of the bed, Hilda takes in the scene. "So does this explain the used up hair tie around your wrist?"

"You're nosy," Felix informs her, even as Claude chuckles.

"Oh, you noticed that?" he says to her. "But then I guess you would scope out all my jewelry, wouldn't you?" Claude winks. "Heaven help Dimitri if he ever wore my earring anywhere." A gift of his own to that other king he knows, the one who stole his heart when they were younger and never gave it back. Claude figures the earring just makes it a more permanent statement.

"First of all, it clashes horribly," Hilda tells him so matter of factly that it can't be anything more than a joke. "Second, His Majesty is wearing your earring?"

Felix looks terribly smug that she's been thrown off her game, if that look on his face is any indication, but his next words are really only for Claude. "As if he's ever actually taken it off. He asked Mercedes how one would pierce their ears, and he got it done in private almost immediately." He snorts. "Not that many notice, with how he wears his hair down all the time now. No fancy styling."

"That's true," Claude says thoughtfully, pushing himself up and then leaning down again to help Felix onto his feet. It doesn't last too long, with Felix wiggling out of his grip to go get something from his luggage. "I hadn't considered that people probably can't see it even if he is wearing it." He grins at Hilda as she hops up onto her feet as well. "Does that mean there are things you've managed to miss, Hilda? I've got a lot of secrets."

"Look at you." Heaving out another dramatic sigh, Hilda slumps against Claude's shoulder. "Being a king. Having two boyfriends, one of whom is another king. I have a delicate heart, Claude. Please consider it more."

"Since when?" Felix asks with a snort, a pair of swim trunks in his hand.

Much more appreciative of that delicate hearts of hers, Claude pats Hilda's head with a grin. "Now, now, Hilda. Isn't kings having harems a traditional thing? Although I guess they call them consorts in Fodlan..."

"Is that what I am?" Felix scoffs, returning to Claude's side. Without thinking much about it, Claude slips his arm around his waist - half to support him, half to just hold him. "A part of your harem?"

"Do you not want to be?" Claude asks innocently.

Felix eyes him. "Do people in harems get to fight?"

"If I'm in your harem, that means I get access to the royal treasury, right?" Hilda asks.

"It means you get access to the things I gift you from the royal treasury, Hilda," Claude grins, pulling Felix a little closer. "Which is true now already. As for you, Felix, I haven't really heard of it before..." He winks at his lover. "But you can always redefine what it means, I suppose."

While Hilda 'awww's, Felix only gives a rough scoff. "I'll consider it then," he says dryly. "Now. Pool."

"Before he loses consciousness completely," Hilda adds. "I wouldn't be able to carry him." Which they all know is a lie, but it's one she sells so well.

"You can lean on me anytime, sunshine," Claude tells him, hand squeezing down gently against his side. "Still, you're getting pretty close to heat exhaustion, if you're not already there. Almyrans understand that, so I can use it as an explanation if anyone runs into us on the way to the pool." His amused gaze slides over to Hilda. "And Hilda is tagging along to 'help'."

He makes the quotation marks around that one word very obvious.

"I can still walk!" Felix protests, but then Hilda starts tugging Claude along, which means she tugs Felix along by extension. In other words, immediately disproving her earlier argument of being a delicate maiden who definitely doesn't swing around war axes.

"Not for long," she chides Felix, looking back at the two of them. "C'mon, we can have someone to bring us more water to drink, too."

"Exactly," Claude agrees easily, before he raises an eyebrow at her. "Hilda, do you even know where you're tugging me...?"

"Out of this room," she replies simply. "See, I'm already being helpful!"

Claude laughs, every burst of sound that leaves him being just another weight that goes as well. "Man, I've missed you, Hilda."

Once they exit Felix's room, well, of course that's when Claude has to take the lead. Fortunately, he long ago learned the layout of the palace like it was the back of his hand and the callouses on his fingers. It's just a matter of going down various hallways, the carved murals along some walls leading the way. All too soon, they're stepping into the sunlight of the outdoors.

Claude has many places within the palace that hold precious childhood memories for him, even as other places are perhaps not as fond. When he was younger, before he could even dream about being king, the pool had been reserved explicitly for his parents.... most of the time. Sometimes, on good days - the aftermath of a great battle or meeting that went better than expected or just simple and pure good moods - his father or mother would turn to the youngest in their lot, and allow them to cool off in their parents' personal pool.

It wasn't necessary, of course, because there were other places where the whole lot of them, eldest to youngest, could go cool off in. They even have their own bathing rooms, now and then. But because of that... It made it all the more special, to Claude. That was especially true as he was wary of enjoying himself so casually in those other pools and ponds, not with eyes glaring daggers into his existence from the second he had come out into the world. The youngest of his oldest siblings might have had their issues with him as well, of course, but it hadn't been made into such fine poison like with the eldest. They were willing to tolerate him, ignore him, when things were going well... and things went well, when they were allowed to go into their parents' pool.

When he was younger, it somehow seemed so grand in the eyes of a child, but Claude can admit it's still unquestionably beautiful even to this day. A few hardy but beautiful plants thrive here, whether from scattered and good patches of soil or spilling out from planters. They match the walkways, mosaics of swirling color that wind throughout the place. A lot of the architecture is open, arches and lattices, most of it a warm reddish-brown stone that glows a rosy color in the light of what has long since become the sunset of this eventful day. Finally, right there in the middle of the courtyard lays the pool itself - lined with the same kind of mosaic tile that makes up the paths.

Claude leads Felix over to the edge, smiling. "You probably should have put that on before we came outside," he says, nodding his head to the swimwear that's still in Felix's hand. "But I'm sure Hilda will cover her eyes~."

"Since when would I have gotten a chance?" Felix grumbles over the sounds of Hilda's laughter, pulling himself away from Claude. Once he's sure that he can still stand on his town two feet, he starts to undo his pants. "You two were busy messing around and wouldn't get out of my room."

"We were discussing important matters of royalty and diplomacy," Hilda says, also letting go of Claude and stepping away. "Like Claude's harem." With that said, she turns away from the two of them, and begins to remove her own clothes. She's completely casual about it, too, but for good reason. At some point in the time since she arrived and Felix's match, she made sure to change her clothing... especially the parts underneath it all. With her shirt removed, it's clear to see the adorable maroon swimsuit she has, made unique and no doubt extra cute because of the particular stitching that's been used on it.

Some people just come prepared for a good time.

Claude isn't even a little surprised by Hilda, honestly, and he grins. "Can you usher him into the water, Hilda, while I go tell a servant to bring us some drinking water?" he asks. "I'll only be gone a minute or two."

"I don't know, does he have his family jewels covered?" she asks over her shoulder, folding up the clothes she's just shed.

"I'm getting there," Felix grumbles, tugging a pair of rather tight shorts up his legs.

Claude chuckles. "I'm sure he'll tell you once he does," he reassures Hilda, patting her on the shoulder as he turns back towards the entrance leading inside.

It really doesn't take that long at all to tell someone to bring him some drinking water, pitchers and cups included. Claude could get it himself, of course, but that would take a bit of time searching for where they're kept and all that... And, honestly, he doesn't want to be away from Felix for so long. In that aspect, his lover is like his relief from the harshness of the desert.

So he saunters back to the courtyard and his pool, amused to find that Hilda and Felix have made themselves right at home. Well, sort of. "So how's the water feeling?" he asks Hilda, who's sprawled in the water with her arms crossed against the lip of the pool contentedly. His eyes trail over to where Felix is mostly submerged in the shallow end of the pool, eyes closed and completely dead to the world.

"I think Felix has almost drowned a couple of times from it, so it's great," Hilda sighs, cheek smooshed against her arm.

Laughing, Claude begins the process of removing his own clothing and many accessories. Fortunately, he planned something roughly like this just because he knew Felix would arrive today, travel time willing. Underneath the loose white fabric he's been wearing and that got Felix so hot under the collar are underclothes that fit rather close to his skin color so that they'd look relatively invisible underneath the pale cloth. "Good," he says, taking off some of his more excess jewelry and dropping them down on top of his clothes. He only leaves behind the plain black tie that's secure around his wrist. "He needs to cool off." Slipping into the water, he tries to get between both of them, even if there is an inclination towards Felix in particular. "So, were the accommodations up to expectations, Hilda?"

"It's definitely different than what I was expecting," she says, pushing away from the edge of the pool so that she can turn around to face him instead. With her feet, she pushes off of the wall and floats idly towards him. "But then, I don't know what I was expecting! It's definitely nothing like what you'd find in Leicester, or Fodlan as a whole."

"Well, it is a totally different country," Claude says teasingly, before he nods his head and shifts to something more empathetic. "But yeah, I definitely had my own culture shock when I came to Fodlan for the first time. I'd heard about it from my mother, of course, but it's not the same as experiencing it for yourself even then."

How different could people really be, he'd wondered? What was an entirely different landscape like? Logically, he'd known that houses and clothing and food and so much more had to be different based on where a population settled. It just somehow didn't click, not until he was ushered before his grandfather in a land with sprawling fields of food and in a mansion so much stranger than the palace he'd memorized in his heart.

"I don't mind it," Felix mutters, speaking up for the first time in this conversation.

Hilda clicks her tongue. "Of course you wouldn't," she says, even as her fond tone is unmistakable. They're an unlikely duo, but Claude is glad to see them getting along, as far as he can tell. Felix hasn't challenged her to a fight even once so far. "Anyway, can we pry all of your secrets out of you now, Claude?"

Claude grins as he reaches over to grab Felix by the ankle, lightly tugging him through the water to be at least a little closer. Not too close, not yet, and it's a good thing, too. "Yeah, you can," he tells Hilda, right as a servant appears, wheeling a small cart with a large pitcher of water and several glasses on it. At Claude's beckoning, he fills three of those glasses up and sets them down on the edge of the pool before silently retreating again. The workers of the palace do their job well, especially underneath his management. "Although I don't know if I have too many big ones left, so this may not be as juicy as you hope."

"You would have said that the last time," Hilda points out, and perhaps justly. "Or something close to it, anyway." Pausing, she reaches over for Felix's other foot, and helps in tugging him closer - not just to Claude, but also the water in general.

Fortunately, there's no need to tug him hard, because he straightens up after a second. He's not so red now, which is a very good sign of things, and he has enough energy to start swimming over. No doubt subdued gravity from being in water is helping a lot with this. "She has a point," Felix admits. "I didn't know I was going to beat up your brother, after all."

"To be fair," Claude says, more than a little amused as he snags a glass of water to hold out to Felix, "you didn't ask who you were fighting at all. And I knew you wanted to fight him, I knew you'd enjoy fighting him, and it's not like Afshin didn't need a lesson on the people of Fodlan not being nearly as lesser as he thinks... But I wasn't sure if realizing he was my brother would make you rethink the fight. I know practically nothing would induce you to back out of a fight, but if you were worried about how it might affect me personally, or how it would affect Almyra and Fodlan diplomatically, then it might've been a non-zero chance. So... I figured I'd leave the matter to fate."

Tossing his head back, Felix downs a huge gulp of water and lets out a sigh of relief. "The only thing that knowledge would have made me rethink would have been my strategy," he says, after he's refreshed himself, "and that strategy would have been to grind my boot into his crotch all the harder."

Hilda tries to hide her unladylike snort of laughter, but Claude has no such reservations. "For what it's worth," he says afterwards, "Afshin isn't the worst of them. Sure, he thinks little enough of me and everything I want to do, but he's smart in his own ways and better at accepting when he's been bested than others. A lot of the younger ones are worse. My oldest brother would probably see me dead if he could. Afshin, meanwhile, would just be content to see himself, or even just a full-blooded Almyran, on the throne. So don't burn through all your hostility on him."

Idly, Hilda starts to poke him in the side. "I think you underestimate how much hostility Felix Hugo Fraldarius can drum up," she says idly. She also continues poking him, gaze meaningfully flicking towards the glasses.

True to form, Felix does indeed narrow his eyes. "Are any of them going to be a problem while we're here?" he mutters around the lip of his cup.

"Probably," Claude says, in a tone that indicates he's not particularly worried about it. "I doubt they'll be big problems, however. Not more than Afshin was, anyway. The worst would probably be another assassination attempt, but those have been tapering off, and I'm more than experienced at dodging those. They're never terribly competent, and it helps that there's something of a dichotomy between Almyrans prizing courage and prizing results. They could use certain tactics, but they'd be considered cowardly, so that limits their options... which narrows down what I have to watch out for."

Hilda's poking hasn't stopped, and so Claude finally turns to her. "You know, you're not on the verge of heat exhaustion, and the glasses are right there," he points out mildly. He'll pamper her if asked, but not without giving her a little bit of shit for it.

"I traveled a long way," Hilda counters lazily. "Across a scorching hot desert. To see my best friend who didn't even tell me he was king. Felix overdid things, but I worked hard today too!"

Felix rolls his eyes, and bulldozes over Hilda's usual shenanigans as he asks, "None of them are going to challenge a fight against either of us?"

"Don't drag me into that arena, Felix!"

Claude laughs. "Who knows? Maybe. But remember, they have a bigger problem with me than they do with you. You're visiting foreigners; they may not have a high opinion of you, but they're not affected by you, either. But I'm their king. I affect their day-to-day life. If they don't like me, they have to do something about me."

"I can make myself their problem," Felix says flatly.

Hilda shakes her head. "We might have to chain him to his bed," she comments. "He's bad enough about hunting down fights as it is." She smiles at Claude sidelong. "But now he has to impress and defend his boyfriend."

When Felix goes red this time, it's pretty obvious that it has nothing to do with heat exhaustion. "Be quiet. That has nothing to do with it," he says, even though Hilda's expression says she doesn't believe him in the slightest.

Claude doesn't believe him either, not in the least because Felix, in his own way, has that special Faerghus brand of honesty. That doesn't stop him as he endeavors to look hurt. "Aw nothing? I may not have wanted you to fight for my honor for political reasons, but thinking that might've been part of it made me pretty happy when you fought Afshin..."

"That's..." Felix's face starts to scrunch up in a way that Claude knows rather well, now, and, judging by Hilda's wide delighted eyes, something she's only just now seeing for the very first time. "Stop that. I just said I'd step on his dick if I'd known he was your brother before I stepped into the arena."

"You didn't say why," Claude points out innocently.

"You're smart enough to know the implications!" With that forced out, Felix gulps down the rest of his water, perhaps in an attempt to keep his mouth from saying anything particularly dumb or rash.

"The implications you just denied?"

Felix drags one hand across his face. "I... Ugh! Yes! It was for you!"

"Terrible taste," Hilda murmurs into her cup, having finally resorted to getting it herself. But she's grinning past it, eyes shining in fondness and amusement.

"The best taste," Claude disagrees, smiling and leaning in to rest his forehead against Felix's. "I love you, Felix."

Felix skin hints he might get heat exhaustion all over again from those words alone. "...Yeah," he forces out after a second, clearly back in Square 1 of embarrassment now that there's an audience about who his gaze can flick towards. Despite his clear allergy to public displays of affection and emotional openness, Felix still forces himself to follow up with, "I... love you too, Claude."

Claude knows how much Felix struggles with this kind of thing, and has been struggling it for a great portion of his life, now. So seeing and hearing this... His heart gives a little flutter in his chest, and he smiles, turning his head slightly to look over at his best friend. "See, Hilda? Do you see how hard he's working to be good to me? I have the best taste in the world."

Underneath the water, Hilda prods Claude with the tip of her foot. "I think you just like cats," she says. "That's a cat lovers response."

Finally having PDA overload, Felix pulls away so that he can float in peace, and also drag the conversation away from the subject of his love life. "First a dog, then a squirrel, and now a cat," he snorts. "You know, I always thought people calling me a lone wolf in Fodlan was kind of ridiculous, but at least that had the benefit of sounding a little impressive."

Hilda grins widely, especially as Claude starts to guffaw in laughter. It's a miracle he holds himself up. "I don't know why you're complaining, Felix. Now one of Claude's brothers has to explain that he got beat up by a squirrel."

It takes a bit of effort to wheeze in the breath for words again, but Claude manages. "Oh, gods, is that what he called you?" he asks breathlessly. "I was too far away to hear what you guys said to each other."

"He said me as his opponent and the fight itself demeaned him," Felix says, tilting his chin up imperiously. In little moments like these, one can see his ducal blood rearing its head... or maybe Felix would always be this way, regardless of his bloodline. "Said I was a chittering squirrel."

"It was only demeaning from the perspective of someone who doesn't respect the people of Fodlan as fighters," Claude says, voice still a little hoarse with amusement. "So it's possible that, retroactively, his view has changed, since he can't call you weak and then lose to you."

"I mean, he could," Hilda chirps, "but it would just make him look even worse." Placing her cup to the side, she stretches her arms high over her head and sinks back into the water with a pleased sigh. "You're so good at fighting, Felix... If someone tried to ask me to a fight, I bet they wouldn't complain at all if you were the one to go against them instead. It was such a great match! I can't live up to it at all."

Felix's stare is flat. "Pick a fight for diplomacy, Hilda."

"Aw." Hilda doesn't seem particularly surprised that her usual spiel didn't work, however. Claude suspects they've been having this kind of run-around the entire way here.

It's a relief to see, and one he's glad he can laugh at. "If nothing else, Hilda, fight to show my mother isn't just a fluke. She's tough as teak, and Almyrans grudgingly respect her in ways they still don't respect me yet. Probably because she laid Nader flat with one punch once..."

Hilda hums thoughtfully. "I mean, will I even be able to get a hold of a guy like him in the first place...?"

In contrast, Felix perks up with some renewed energy. "I want to fight him first. Pick a different opponent, Hilda."

"That is not what I'm saying."

"Good luck to both of you, if you want to fight him," he says with a grin. "He was my combat instructor growing up, you know."

This doesn't seem to be stopping Felix at all, and there's a shine to his eyes that gives away how eagerly he's looking forward to that kind of fight. "Where is he in the mornings, usually?"

"With me," Claude says mildly, "helping me with day-to-day affairs. He spends most of the day doing that with me, actually, since he's one of the only advisors I trust." There are a few others that he's managed to scrape together, some through luck, others through careful searching. He's fortunate that the person he's put in charge of the treasury and keeping track of finances was already there from the start, sly but for good reason. Phoi may not personally loyal to him, or at least not just yet, but they're a sensible kind of person who can take stock of bigger pictures. They probably could have been a tactician, if they wanted, but instead they focused in on the little details that hold things together. Lucky him.

Nadra is another one, an up and coming warrior who isn't quite in charge of any armies yet, but she's certainly making a name for herself... And through her eyes and cool head, he can get a better idea of the army. He's gambling when it comes to her, admittedly, in hopes that she'll make it all the way to the top without any assistance or influence from him, but he has a good feeling on her.

There are a couple of others who help him keep an eye on what's going on in the palace, in Almyra, because even he's just one man who can't watch everything all at once, but those are the big names. Those are the ones that keep him from crashing and burning as he flies maybe a little too close to the sun.

Felix doesn't need to know about them, and he probably doesn't care beyond the fact that Claude has people at his back who don't plan to sink a dagger into it. It's proven in the way he nods, satisfied. "Good to know. I'll have to see if I can find any time in his schedule that won't impede your work."

"Good luck," Claude repeats, lifting his cup to his lips. "He's probably the smartest man in Almyra next to me, and his tactics reflect that. He doesn't fight like any other Almyran."

"That's good," Felix stresses, putting his glass on the lip of the pool. "I want variety. If I lose to tactics smart or strong enough, then whey should I complain?" Typical Felix, a thought that Claude thinks with complete adoration and fondness. Even without their relationship, he really was one of the perfect people to send to Almyra for this diplomatic visit.

The other perfect person for this kind of trip, although she doesn't look it, lets out a sigh. "Fighting maniac. I don't suppose you could recommend anyone easy for me to fight, could you, Claude?"

"Not really, no." Claude gives her a charming smile. "Fighting Almyrans is never easy. And even if I could, I wouldn't, because then there'd be no point to your making all the effort to begin with."

"I thought you'd say that," Hilda says, another but even longer sigh escaping her. It's all for show, really. "Well, we'll see what I can do. And my brother did send me off with Freikugel, too..."

Over to the side, Felix is carefully carefully pouring himself another glass of water. Apparently he's still a little rattled from Almyra's heat, because he goes at it slowly, until he can finally put down the pitcher of water without knocking it over. Only then does something seem to occur to him, and he glances back over at Claude. "The servant who was here before - are they going to talk about us being in your pool, Claude?"

"No," Claude says mildly, shrugging. "The king can entertain whoever he likes, in whatever manner he wishes, generally. Bathing together is an innocent enough pasttime in a place as warm as Almyra, too, so that won't raise any eyebrows. Then there's the fact that I have a reputation here for seeing and hearing everything. I doubt that particular servant feels secure enough in his job, or his life, to risk trying to sneak something past me." Of course, it has nothing to do with any supernatural ability, and more that he knows how to give the right things to the right people to hear just what's going on. Raising up a hand, he ticks things off on his fingers. "Add to that, my family has generally always treated our servants well, whereas other kings haven't, and he really doesn't have much motivation to betray me in any case. Especially not considering my competition. Most of the men who'd like to replace me on the throne would make particularly vicious kings."

"Oh, so they're idiots," Felix says blandly. Hearing that makes Claude grin, although it's not surprising. The Fraldarius family has always had a good reputation on how they treat workers and the people in their territory. "That's enough reason for me to grind their faces into dirt."

Even Hilda looks annoyed about it, although she portrays it differently with puffed out cheeks instead of a dead eyed glare. "Ugh, those kinds of rulers are the worst... A shiny enough weapon isn't good enough for someone to be king. There's a reason I try to avoid everything that gets dumped on my brother's desk."

All Claude can do is shrug and smile. "Almyra has tended to value strength and glory in battle above all other concerns. Those things aren't necessarily bad qualities in a king, but then you remember that those who resent my being on the throne are short-sighted, xenophobic  men who hate and look down on the people of Fodlan, despite the fact that Fodlan beat us in an all-out war not too many centuries ago and that they've been turning back our border excursions ever since... Well, to put it delicately, yeah, it's mostly the idiot meatheads."

He grins. "Unfortunately, since what Almyra values doesn't have any direct connection to things like cultural awareness, or compassion, or even intellect, you get a lot of people who think they're fit to be royalty simply because they're good at fighting. Almyra has certainly had kings like that before, although they rarely enhance Almyra as a country in any way. Still, there's enough of them that it's like those who sided with Edelgard in the war in Fodlan - you can't kill them all, you need to persuade them over to your side. Part of that in Fodlan involved Edelgard's death, and people not having any other option but Dimitri."

At least in this particular area, Felix certainly seems to get it, which is unsurprising. As the next Duke Fraldarius and also one of Dimitri's closest friends, he's no doubt been privy to all of this. "Even if he's the only obvious choice, there's always going to be some people who will complain," he says. "And some of those people might actually try to do something with those complaints, which could be a problem. The good news is that Dimitri has been working hard on making the kind of improvements and offering the sort of help that make a king popular, to diminish that kind of view. He doesn't like the position everyone has been put in either, after all."

Even if that isn't a surprise, it's still nice to hear, and Claude smiles. "Good. Unfortunately for me, there's too many potential candidates here, so I need a different approach... Or, rather, I have to have more advantages than just 'the one guy who hasn't died'."

"Or run off to rule another another country entirely," Felix comments dryly, which earns another laugh from Claude.

Hilda laughs too, before she suddenly shoots her hand up into the air like they're back in school. "Oh, oh, I have an idea on how to approach it! Just have a political marriage with Dimitri, already your boyfriend apparently, and then, when your brothers inevitably challenge him, or vice versa, he can just fling them across the entire desert!" Lowering her hand and ignoring the way Felix chokes on water, she presses a finger to her cheek with a wink. "If they don't break their necks, they'll have to acknowledge his own brute force!"

Felix is caught between choking and laughing, and Claude is definitely more the latter than anything. "Be fair, Hilda," he chides, still grinning way too widely. "My opponents aren't just my brothers. It's not a total overlap." He tsks a bit. "And anyway, my father wouldn't be too happy if someone killed his sons, even if they were being idiots, so Dimitri would never risk it."

"He'd never risk it even if your father was perfectly fine with it," Felix says hoarsely, smirking a bit and proving why the universe gave Dimitri super strength and not him. "He wouldn't find it fair."

"It was just an idea," Hilda says, batting her eyelashes innocently.

Claude pats her head with a wet hand. "It's a delightful idea, Hilda, but it's the kind of thing we'll just have to fantasize about." He relaxes more fully in the pool, stretching his legs out. "Although you know, I wouldn't mind marrying Dimitri.... unless you beat him to the punch, sunshine."

That has them falling into a whole other conversation that Hilda absolutely lives for, which trails into different conversations, which is entirely comforting and reassuring from start to finish. Claude has plenty of people who are at his side for the hard work part of ruling a country, of achieving his dreams, but honestly... None of them can give him quite this sort of happiness. The kind of silly nonsense where Felix ducks under the water to test his breathholding capabilities, and Hilda takes the chance to speak to him seriously, to reassure him and apologize for old things he long ago forgave her for.

It's incredibly how much good it does him, honestly. Maybe it should be a little worrying how relaxed he feels from it all. Claude doesn't mind it, however. Not until Felix finally pulls himself out of the water so that he can "regain feeling" in his legs again by walking around a little. Claude tells him not to go too far, but he doesn't notice too much, caught up in a conversation with Hilda.

And then Felix carefully lowers himself back into the water again and says, "I ran into one of your other brothers and got another duel scheduled."

Claude cuts off whatever he was saying to Hilda and stares at Felix. "What - sunshine, you were gone for maybe five minutes. Wait, did you step out of the courtyard?"

"I was just stepping out of the sun for a minute," Felix says casually, sinking down into the water up to his neck with a sigh.

"You just finished a battle today," Hilda points out, just as aghast as Claude.

Felix squints open one eye to stare at the two of them. It finally seems to hit him just what they're so concerned about. "It's not going to be tonight," he tells them, an awkward tilt to his tone as he tries to be comforting. "Or even tomorrow. I told him I was going to take a week off because I had things to do and a girl to indulge-"

"Awww."

"-and, if he was still busy after a week of eating his own shit, I'd indulge him." Felix closes his eye again, floating lazily in the water. "...If I feel better in a couple of days, and Hilda has exhausted all of her nonsense to drag me to, and you don't want to see me for anything else... I might speed up the process. It depends, but I figure I can do that. His name was Pedram, for the record."

Claude eases back again. Ah, he sees. That's not too surprising, then. "He's not too bad, then. His temper is as quick as his draw time, but both don't always work out for him as he'd like." He's one of the ones particularly bitter about Claude's Fodlish heritage, sure, but he's even more hungry to prove himself better. Maybe it'd go better for him if he cooled his head a little bit. Of course, Claude has beaten him in archery many times before, and it never really seemed to stick as a lesson, so a full blooded Fodlan man won't do much.

Oh well. Eventually the shame will get to be too much to bear.

In the meanwhile, Claude just lightly tsks at Felix, and goes for the pitcher again. "Finish your water, sunshine. I'll fill you up another glass, since you've clearly worked yourself up all over again."

While he rolls his eyes, Felix still does exactly as he's told, which is perhaps sometimes a part of the Felix Fraldarius experience. "I'm going to be bloated with water long before any dinner you have planned, you know."

He says that now. Claude laughs. "You'll sweat it off in no time all over again, don't you worry. Especially when you try Almyran cuisine."

The way his eyes sparkle at that sentence is probably the reason why Felix eyes him so warily and Hilda shudders. "What does that mean?" Felix asks, far too north to have heard any stories.

Hilda is completely different, and she tilts her head back with a groan. "I've heard it's so spicy..."

"That's what it means," Claude confirms, still grinning. "I could have swore I already told you about this, Felix." Something in one of the many letters they exchanged over the years, or a conversation in the time before that...

Felix eyes him like he's sizing up another fight. In a way, he is. "How spicy is spicy?"

"Depends on what you have," Claude says mildly, which isn't exactly untrue. "But we both know you'll eat the spiciest thing available just to prove you can anyway."

"I don't even know what the spiciest thing is yet."

"Well, once I tell you, what's the first thing you'll do?"

Felix narrows his eyes, unable to really counter against that claim because they all know that it's completely true. Hilda certainly knows, with the way she has her hand pressed against her mouth in a way that doesn't at all stop her shoulders from shaking in silent laughter. "I'm not going to be a coward over food," he finally says, which is really only proving Claude's point.

Claude doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to say anything. All he does is grin, and Felix doesn't stop glaring.

Finally, Felix kicks back, nursing his glass of water like it's something a little more potent instead. "Do you want me to not eat it!?"

That draws a laugh out of him. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of trying to influence your decision, sunshine."

"But you'll make fun of it," Felix points out, and that's not entirely wrong. It's just such an easy thing to tease him over, one with no consequence behind it.

Glad to gang up on someone else in order to forget her own future suffering as well, Hilda grins at Claude. "So is this a part of why you like him so much?" she asks, teasing in every syllable.

"Everything's part of why I like him so much," Claude says contentedly. The soft heart behind all those thorns, the bursts of cleverness and ingenuity that no one would have guessed at, the passionate views born from so much suffering... There's a lot to like about Felix. Claude realized that ages ago, when he first allowed himself to glance over to the swordsman and didn't get distracted by all the performative bristling. Now, he can look over at him and see him for who he is, and Claude smiles at him. "Anyway, I won't make fun of you, but I might laugh at how you react if it's funny. I know it's spicy, you know it's spicy, you're determined to challenge anything and everything. That's admirable in its own way, even if you take it to extremes. But if you react in a hilarious way, how am I not supposed to laugh?"

"You two are adorable," Hilda teases, even as Felix starts to kick some water in Claude's direction. "Completely so."

Felix's response to that is nothing less than a death rattle, and he sinks back down underneath the water. Considering what he was doing only an hour or so ago, it's easy to assume that he's just going to do another round of holding his breath to both challenge himself and also temporarily escape the merciless teasing that's besieging him. At least, that's what they assume up until Hilda's laughter is cute abruptly short, and she shrieks as she's yanked down into the water thanks to Felix's hand on her ankle.

When she resurfaces, Hilda has quite a different opinion of Felix and Claude's relationship to him. "Claude!" she shrieks, even as Felix drifts away like a smug tiger through the water. "I can't believe you! Ugh, you really do have the worst taste in men!"

Claude can barely hear her. He's too busy clinging to the side of the pool, laughing so hard and loud that he feels like his own chest is going to collapse from it all. "Oh, gods, I missed you, Felix," he rasps out, heart aching with adoration for the jackass that's floating in his vicinity. 

It's not in Felix's nature to be so upfront about that kind of thing, so all he does is poke Claude's ribs with his foot. "What, do you want to get dragged down too?" he asks.

"No," Claude says, grinning broadly at his lover. "I just haven't laughed like that since I left Fodlan."

The implications behind that are enough to make Felix narrow his eyes and tighten his jaw, no doubt prepared to jump out of the pool and challenge more of Claude's family just to feel like he can do something. Fortunately, Hilda is here, and she calls to Claude from across the pool. "Want us to help fill more of that gap up, then?"

Smiling over at her, Claude replies, "Absolutely. Now that I've got you guys here, I want to make the most of it."

"Then there's one thing we have to do first," Hilda announces, kicking her way over to the two of them.

Uh oh. Claude turns to face her in the water, eyes dancing. "Does it involve dunking me in water?" he asks, the suggestion in his tone that he won't make it easy for her. What else are friends for?

True to form, Hilda puts on her best innocent look even as she continues to paddle towards him. "Really, Claude?" she asks. "How could you accuse me of wanting to do that? I was coming over to cheer you up!" In other words, she was absolutely going to do that.

"By doing what, exactly?" he teases, drifting further away before he bumps back into Felix's shoulder.

While Claude is busy looking over his shoulder at his lover, Hilda just hums. "Just some physical affection, of course."

Felix eyes Claude's attempts at looking cute and needing help with nothing less than passive indifference that could change at any time, as is the case with any cat. "There's only so much pool, you know," he points out idly.

Claude leans back against Claude and tries to do his very best Hilda impersonation. He knows he's appealing, and honestly that should work more than it does with Felix Fraldarius. "You wouldn't let her brutalize me, would you, sunshine?" he asks plaintively. Granted, he's well aware that Felix might opt to keep Hilda from doing that by just dunking Claude himself. It's a gamble, and he knows it. That doesn't make it any less fun as an option, especially since he doesn't necessarily mind being dunked.

He just won't let them do so without a little bit of struggle first.

Rolling his eyes, Felix says, "I think brutalizing you would take a lot more effort than Hilda would spend on anything at any point." Before either of them can say anything else, however, Hilda lunges forward through the water, grabbing at Claude's arms and shoulders.

Claude puts up a good fight. Certainly, he likes to think that he does, anyway. However, Hilda's own rarely used efforts combined with Felix just being in the way at apparently every turn drag the three of them down deep into the water to the sound of shrieking laughter. More than a little water gets in his mouth, probably in all their mouths, from how much they're all grinning, but that's fine. It's a good price to pay just for the ability to feel this light.

"You should thank me!" Hilda exclaims breathlessly when they all resurface again, eyes shining and hair sticking to her shoulders as she kicks away from them. Then again, she's given a little help when Felix pushes her off with his foot, an action that earns a light smack of her hand.

Claude laughs again, once he's sure he doesn't have water in his throat anymore, and shakes his head wildly to send water splattering all over. Felix shoves him for the nuisance, but not so much that he'll protest when Claude leans back against him. "Thank you for what, exactly?" he teases, not minding when Hilda shamelessly swims close again to drape against him in turn. "There's a lot of ways of making me laugh that don't involve dunking me, you know."

"But isn't this the refreshing option?" Hilda suggests coyly, smacking Felix's foot away again. "Felix certainly seems refreshed now, instead of dying."

"I wasn't dying," Felix insists, despite the fact that he's still some shade of red from ear tip to foot.

Taking a good look at Felix just to make sure that he really has gotten better since entering the pool and drinking more water, Claude rests his head along Felix's shoulder. "Just melting slowly," he says with a smile, positioning his body so that he's in the middle and Hilda no longer has to worry about being bullied by Felix's feet. "I've missed you guys so much, honestly. I can't wait to make the most of you being here, show off the better parts of Almyra to you." There is so much to show off, so much to enjoy with them... He wants to forge those experiences and memories so much that he's practically hungry for it.

"I'm looking forward to it," Hilda hums, leaning against him and just basking in the fading light of the setting Almyran sun.

All Felix does is yawn, the amount of action he's indulged in today finally getting to him. "When's dinner?"

"I'll treat you both to a catered dinner in my room once we're all done soaking," Claude promises. "We'll welcome everyone with a proper feast tomorrow night, with entertainment and massive spreads, the entire thing. But tonight... I think tonight you guys should just get to relax and recuperate from the journey it took to get here, and adjust to the climate."

Hilda stretches her arms in front of her. "On one hand, I won't have to show off," she says thoughtfully, closing her eyes. "On the other hand, I was kind of looking forward to it on the clothing and makeup front. Oh well. It's been an exciting enough day as it is. I won't turn down a chance to relax."

"I've already done my showing off," Felix snorts. "Do you think anyone will challenge me at the feast, Claude?"

"Someone challenged you just because you stepped outside..."

"Probably," Claude tells him, and pats his knee. "Entirely aside from any disgust with the people of Fodlan, word about your fight with Afshin's going to spread. People will want to know if it was just a fluke... and if it wasn't, they'll want to prove that they can do better, or see your skill for themselves."

Hilda is groaning even before Felix's eyes light up. "Perfect," he says, ignoring her. "I already feel better, frankly, but I guess I should still take a day or two to properly recover." Adjusting his arms around Claude, he reaches back to start undoing his own hair where it's still pulled back in a bun. "Although if they challenge me, I hope others let me use my sword... Although unarmed combat wouldn't be too bad, and I can manage a bow..."

"They might challenge you with weapons that you're not used to," Claude warns him, glancing back. "Bows, axes, spears. And they might challenge you to mounted fighting, too. You'd better be ready."

This time, it's Felix who groans, and Hilda grins a bit in turn. "Do you even know how to ride a horse?" she asks Felix.

"I know how to ride a horse," he says, although he certainly doesn't sound happy about it. His lip curls. "Can I antagonize them into anything but me on a horse or a wyvern? I prefer to use my own two feet... I don't care what they use."

That has Claude laugh, because it's just so Felix - set in certain aspects of himself unless he feels he has truly good reason to change them... and sometimes that can be difficult, with how prickly he is. Combat has always been the exception. "They can challenge you to a mounted battle, but that doesn't obligate you to use a mount. It's generally assumed you would, since not being mounted while your opponent is puts you at a disadvantage, but refusing to use one yourself wouldn't be seen as cheating. If anything, it'd probably impress people as a handicap you're choosing to give yourself... though you might hear some general condescension on not being able to ride, when you're surrounded by a culture that places a pretty heavy emphasis on mounts and riding."

"I'll just put it on Sylvain when he gets here," Felix grumbles.

"But that's the worst you'd probably get," Claude continues. "And yeah, Sylvain and Ingrid showing up to demonstrate just how good Fodlan's riders can be will help there, and I'm in my own way a pretty good ambassador for people with Fodlan blood being able to ride wyverns, so what you can and can't do will reflect solely on you."

Felix scrunches up his mouth. "Hey." He reaches back to cup Claude's face, making sure that direct eye contact happens. "I'm telling you both that I can ride."

Raising his eyebrows, Claude asks, "Can you?"

"I'm not sure if I've ever even seen you touch a horse," Hilda adds.

"I can ride," Felix insists for the third time. "I just don't like to. At least, when it comes to combat. Anyway, on the field, I could just yell at Sylvain if I needed to get anywhere quickly."

"Goddess, I don't know how the two of you didn't get married years ago," Hilda murmurs, and has to fight against Felix trying to dunk her for a second time in defense of... his honor? Who knows.

But as much as the desert is scalding hot during the daytime, it goes in the completely opposite direction once the sun sets. All too soon, the air chills, and the water goes even colder. The three of them begin to pull themselves out before it can get too freezing, long before Felix can even complain about it. Hilda gathers up her clothes in the blink of an eye, happily off to her room to change for what could possibly be a fourth time today. Left behind, Claude looks over Felix's body from the corner of his eye while plucking his jewelry up off the ground.

In comparison to the state he was in only a couple of hours ago, Felix looks far better, he thinks. Some of his skin is still a bit red, but that might just be from sun burn. Overall, it's an improvement. When Felix realizes he's looking, Claude grins back at those quirked eyebrows. "I was just thinking about how handsome you look, sunshine."

When red appears over Felix's cheeks, he knows for a fact that has nothing to do with heat exhaustion. "It's amazing, the things that come out of your mouth that no one asks about," he says, which isn't quite a rebuff. It's just Felix, being clumsy with affection as usual. It only takes a second of him pulling a shirt over his head before he adds, muffled by fabric, "But I do feel better. Thanks."

"You don't have to thank me for anything, Felix," Claude says, savoring the name in his mouth when he's not been able to really say it, really enjoy it, for so many months now. It's just been something in the back of his head, something that's flowed from the ink of his quill, but in his mouth? On his tongue? Standing right there before him, tugging at the hem of a shirt? No. No, it's been far too long. Claude slips over, daring to lean their shoulders together with no one watching. "Of course I was going to spoil you rotten when you got here. You working yourself into a sweat the second you arrived was just more of an excuse."

Leaving himself in just the single shirt layer he'd brought with him to the pool and his swimming shorts, Felix turns to bump their foreheads together. He's still scowling, just a little, but it's one of his embarrassed ones. Claude has long had a fondness for them. "And you're going to work me into an even worse sweat at dinner, right?"

"Only one you'll enjoy," Claude promises, and smiles when he feels fingers entwine with his. "And there's going to be a lot more in the future, too." It's exactly as he promised, that he wants to show his lover and his best friend so much of Almyra that they've never had a chance to see before. So much that's made him, every single little bit of it.

He's always worked for a bright future. For a road that will continue moving forward. Sometimes, it's been hard to believe that light would ever shine on him. But here, in the courtyard underneath his room's balcony, he sees that light when Felix grins at him, smile as bright as those amber eyes of his. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Oh, it might not be during dinner," Claude says, more than happily. "If they spot you out and about beforehand, they might just walk up and challenge you whenever. That's what I meant about the number of challenges depending on how much you socialize - the more people see of you, the more chances there are for interested warriors to come up and challenge you."

Felix's eyes light up. Hilda sighs. "Claude, you wanted to go flying with him, right? You're going to have to tie him in place to keep him from running around now."

"I'll get it out of the way early," Claude says with a wink.

"Terrible." One more overdramatic sigh gets it out of Hilda's system for now, and she finishes off her saffron ice cream. Unlike certain other people that Claude will not name, uninterested in self call-outs as he is, she's stayed true to business, and tonight's business has been eating ice cream. "Well, I guess that's why he's a part of the diplomatic team, huh?"

"I think it's because I'm making out with the new king of Almyra, but sure, that too," Felix snorts.

Scraping up the rest of his dwindling supply of pistachio ice cream, Claude says grandly, "It can be both." And with that, he offers it to Felix, before finishing off his own rosewater scoop.

While the two of them finish up their ice cream, Hilda drops her spoon in her bowl and leans back. "So while Felix is picking a fight with the entire palace, I wonder how I should spend tomorrow... It would be a waste to just lay in bed and do nothing."

"Well," Claude muses, with great and obviously intentional deliberation, "I guess you could go check out the markets... A lot of traders and craftsmen are visiting this week. They must have heard your party was coming, and are looking to see if anyone from Fodlan might be interested in things like Almyran clothing, accessories, jewelry, trinkets..."

Hilda beams. "Oh!" she says, delighted. Then, again but now with slightly more understanding - "Oh." She grins at him. "They just happened to hear we were coming, huh?"

This time, it's his turn to bust out the sweet eyelash flutter. "I don't know how it happened," he says innocently. "Must have some gossipy people in this country."

"Well, I guess I should be really glad that people talk so much," she coos, resting her head on his shoulder again. "Or else I never would have gotten the chance to see so many examples of beautiful Almyran fashion."

Felix squints at both of them. "Is doing everything you possibly can to avoid upfront honesty fun for you?" he asks, absolutely bewildered and holding up his final spoonful of saffron ice cream.

That makes Claude laugh. "It's just fun teasing each other!" He gives Hilda a brief squeeze around her arms, and then leans forward for that bite of ice cream. Past the spoon, his gaze dances with amusement. "Anyway, are we getting lectured about being emotionally forthright and direct from you, sunshine?"

"Called ooooout," Hilda sings underneath her breath.

Felix scowls, ears pink. "That is something entirely different."

"Oh, I'd say it's still on the same spectrum," Claude murmurs, batting his eyelashes and giving Felix his most charming smile. "The only real difference is motive, right? We do it to have more fun, and you do it because the amount of fun you're having is intimidating."

"I am not intimidated by fun," Felix retorts. "I know how to have fun!"

"Don't you dare say your idea of fun is fighting," Hilda warns, and laughs when Felix tries not to puff up, effectively called out once again.