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Dimiclaude Week: Day 3 - Boyfriend Shirt
The first time one of Dimitri's cloaks goes missing, he doesn't think it too much of a problem.
Well, that is something of a lie, he supposes. It is a problem, because he had rather liked that cloak. He'd use it for riding, on the rare occasions he could sneak a break out for himself (often with the badgering of his close friends and retainers), and it did an admirable job of keeping him warm. That's the sign of a good cloak, that it can still keep him so warm while he's out riding. It had been, like so many of his cloaks, the kind of deep and brilliant blue that Faerghus is known for.
Claude picks up on his confusion fairly quickly, visiting as he often did during his attempts at spreading out Almyra's connections throughout the lands. "Something on your mind?" he ask once over tea time, one of the few occasions that Dimitri can be encouraged to take a break with minimal fussing.
"Oh, it is nothing to concern yourself with, Khalid," Dimitri says, and notes the way Claude's smile shifts into something just a little more genuine and pleased. It's the way the look in his eyes changes. Dimitri loves looking at his eyes. "I simply seemed to have misplaced something, and I have not the faintest idea of where it could be. Of course, it is nothing that would have dire consequences, but I did rather favor it. It is a cloak I simply happen to wear often. I am often so careful with my things..."
"Could someone have stolen it?"
Dimitri frowns. "It is not an idea that I have discounted," he says, although somewhat reluctantly. "Things do get stolen every day, after all, and certain it is a fine coat, made of wonderful material." Thus why it could keep him so warm, so easily. "However, I do not like to think such thoughts, not of those who I have trusted to work here with me. I did go through the proper channels to see if it had been smuggled out of the castle, however... It is not something that is particularly easy to smuggle out, bulky as it is. If anything would be stolen from this place, I would have assumed it to be something much easier to slip away, small and with more value then, well, a cloak."
All Claude does is laugh at him. "That's just if they're hoping to sell it, though, isn't it?" he points out, eyes shining. "There are a lot of other reasons why someone might want to nick something from the king of Fodlan." He winks. "For example, what if they're a fan who's head over heels for you?"
"Ugh-" Dimitri's face goes an immediate and brilliant crimson, and he only gets laughed at even more for his troubles. "Really, Khalid! You must stop your teasing with me."
Of course, Dimitri has to admit that he has a point. There is more than just monetary gain to come from stealing something. Ashe once almost stole a book, simply because its tales captivated him so. (And then he got adopted as a result instead, but that's besides the point.) Maybe whoever it was simply stole it because they needed the warmth, whether for traveling themselves in the cold Fhirdiad streets, or for their home where it could be used as a blanket.
He leans towards the latter idea, personally. Things have been improving at a surprising rate since the end of the war, thanks to the help of a great many people - the thoughtful and intense caring passion of those like Ferdinand and Lorenz, the on-the-ground practicalities of those such as Leonie and Dorothoea, people with immense heart like Mercedes and Raphael. Yet that was a war which ravaged over three different countries, pitting friends and even family against one another. Such things do not always go as quickly as he would like.
With that in mind... It wouldn't be unusual for someone to desperately need an additional source of warmth for their home, and to take something that they know is guaranteed to bring that warmth.
Well, that, or someone merely made some sort of mistake while cleaning it or putting it away, and hid it somewhere while they tried to figure out how to deal with the matter. That's just as much of a possibility, Dimitri thinks. Of course he'd forgive them, if they just stepped forward...
It is just one cloak, in the end. Dimitri doesn't trouble himself deeply over it, and simply leaves the matter at giving a warning to the workers of the castle that missing items are treated as a serious matter, but honesty is always rewarded and never held against others. Ideally, that should be the end of it. It is a single cloak, after all. Why fuss about such things any further?
That's what he thinks up until his second cloak goes missing, only a few months later.
This time, it's not a riding cloak, but instead one he wore for travel as he made another trip through Fodlan and its neighbor of Duscur to check in on how the rebuilding was going. Some nobles seem to believe that he should wear a different cloak for each region that he visits, but Dimitri thinks such things are silly and foolish wastes of time. They have an entire country to pull back together, so why waste time on such a trivial thing? And at any rate... He doesn't need the people he wants to help, the people he wants to forget bonds with, to think that there's anything to them getting a particular cloak. For them, for him, they are all the same: the people he pledged he would help.
And so of course what he gets for his trouble is another cloak going missing.
The look on his face must be quite something, considering that Claude bursts out laughing when he comes across it as their paths cross in the hallways. Both of them arrived on roughly the same day, so such a thing isn't particularly unusual, but still. Dimitri's glower just grows all the more. "If you could cease finding such enjoyment in my misfortune for at least a few more moments, Khalid, I would greatly appreciate it."
"No, no - I'm sorry," Claude says, grinning like he's not sorry at all. "I just find it funny. Only a couple of days ago, you'd arrived a little earlier than me, and you were looking pleased as anything from how well your trip had went. Now, you're sitting here like someone stole the last slice of cake from you. It's a great contrast."
Dimitri supposes it does look like that, from an outside viewpoint. Well, it's not as amusing to him. "Yet another cloak has gone missing," he grumbles, and doesn't fight Claude looping their arms together. He just lets Claude guide him along, taking him out to the gardens where the weather is nice enough for tea there. "I just don't understand it! I made sure to speak with everyone about the matter, and there should be no reason to steal another cloak of mine! Why mine? I understand that things can be difficult, or that affection can be had, but surely there are better alternatives then stealing my cloaks!"
Sympathetically, Claude pats at his back. "There, there," he says, as they step into the warm sunlight. "Was it stolen just today?"
Dimitri carefully thinks back. Maybe it's because he's being forced to recollect things as they happen, or it's just the fresh summer air, slowly fading away in the coming coolness of autumn, but it helps calm him down. "I... believe so," he says after a moment. "I'd glanced into my wardrobe yesterday, and left it hanging noticeably on a chair." Although, now that he's thinking about it.... Dimitri sighs. "Perhaps I am merely making a jump over the horse," he admits. "It has only been gone for a couple of hours, if even that. Perhaps someone merely took it for a clean, since I traveled everywhere with it so stubbornly. No doubt it could use it."
"Now there's an idea," Claude says, smiling as he waves over a maid walking along the path by the castle walls. Immediately, her footsteps get a little faster, and she soon disappears back into the doors again. "Probably the first time is still on your mind somehow, so you're all on edge about it." At his insistence, Dimitri takes a seat down at the table that's set up outdoors, for days just like this.
As always, Claude is speaking a perfect amount of sense. Dimitri really does adore that about him. If he could just become a king like he is... Does Almyra understand what a wonderful king is at their throne? Those are politics that are still a bit beyond him for right now, as he deals with three countries unified, and the rebuilding of Duscur as its own autonomous nation. Still, he hopes they do. Claude deserves to be respected and valued everywhere he goes. If he just visited Fhirdiad more often then he did, Dimitri is sure that he could figure out how to show all of that to Claude himself...
Then again, that's probably just a selfish desire of his to see Claude more than he does. His fellow king already makes so many trips to Fhirdiad as it is, even with how he goes abroad and bringing different vassals of his each time. Anymore, and he'd just be accused of favoritism, or anything else.
Claude is being so patient with him as it is, indulging in such desires despite the other things he must want to do, or have on his plate. Dimitri can't ask too much.
It's just a hard thing to consider when Claude chuckles like he does, and smiles the way he does, and rests his elbow along the table as though they'll be here forever. "At any rate... If you really can't find it, I can see about helping you out a little bit. And if you won't let me do that," he continues, when Dimitri opens his mouth to protest the king of another nation doing something as trivial as helping him find a lost cloak, "then I can give you a little bit of advice. Something happening twice in a row doesn't necessarily mean that the same thing is responsible both times. If your cloak this time really doesn't show up even after a day or two, then it might help you out to establish some sort of trap or trick to help identifying the thief a little easier."
Oh. "Of course!" Dimitri exclaims, right as a small tea cart is pushed out of the castle, and begins its rolling journey across stone over to where they sit. "There are small traps and such things that can identify if someone has stepped where they shouldn't, aren't there?"
He thinks he can recall such things distantly, from talking with Sylvain when they were younger... So young as to be called children, in fact, although he has to admit that Sylvain always seemed to be an adult even then. Sometimes, children are just completely oblivious to how age works. Needless to say, he had hung onto every word so eagerly, especially when Sylvain told him tales of intrigue and spies, how heroes outsmarted dastardly villains who sought to seek a weakness or sneak into places they weren't meant to be.
Granted, none of those little tricks Sylvain told him of from those stories ever seemed to really stick... Dimitri just isn't that kind of person who thinks of such things as his first solution, or a pre-emptive measure. That doesn't mean he's forgotten them, and he thinks about them now. If he just put certain little things into place before he left... Then he could definitely see if someone went into his room when they weren't scheduled to.
Claude beams, quite pleased with the answer. Maybe he's just glad that Dimitri is starting to show some measure of cleverness. "There you go, that's the idea. Now, why don't you tell me about how your latest trip to Duscur went? Dedue is there almost all the time now, isn't he? Do you think he'll come back before the winter snows start to hit?"
And that is how the rest of their conversation goes for the afternoon, talking about their various trips all around the different lands in their little part of the world, and how things are progressing towards their hopes for the future.
From that point on, things start to go smoothly and with no particular surprise to them. Certainly no more of his cloaks end up missing. It's a good thing, too. Winter lays its claws in northern Fodlan early on, frost creeping onto firs and glistening in grass once morning comes. Dedue does indeed make the journey from Duscur to Fhirdiad, although certainly Duscur must be warmer and more pleasant thanks to waters that flow around it so particularly. Dedue doesn't mind, and just smiles from where he makes himself at home by the fireplace in Dimitri's study, patiently waiting for him.
Funnily enough, Claude also ends up staying in Fhirdiad Castle, although not particularly of his own volition. Rather, he'd done a last minute visit up to Sreng - her people still curious about the so-distant Almyra instead of wary as they were with a Fodlan whose history was still so negative with theirs. That was all well and good, of course, except the problem with daring to make a visit up to Sreng during this time of year was, well...
Northern Fodlan, once winter begins to set in, is not the most comfortable of places to travel in. It's a fact of its existence which has done very well to protect it in the past - no doubt that is a part of why the Adrestian Empire couldn't counquer it as quickly as they would have liked - but it's also something that tends to bite its inhabitants and those passing through it in the rear end. Claude had hoped to make it a little further down south before the weather got this bad, of course. Yet the best laid plans of mice and men can only do so much in the unpredictable face of nature.
So that is how Dimitri has both someone from Duscur and someone from Almyra in his study, soaking up the heat from his fireplace. Dedue at least bears the bad weather well, not minding the heavy snow falling outside much at all, and just sipping tea patiently by the fireplace. It's Claude who looks abjectly miserable, having scooted his armchair as close to the fire as much as possible.
"Be careful," Dimitri advises mildly as he goes through his papers, double checking his plans for spring. There's a lot that has to come with the thawing of the snow and ice, and even in the time before that. The holiday for Saint Indech will definitely require a lot of pre-planning. It is an important holiday everywhere in Fodlan, of course, but up north it has a very particular importance. Everyone checks on their neighbors, and has a meal together, that's just how things go. It just has an elevated importance when you have to make sure your neighbors haven't died of cold, and that a feast bringing everyone together is to ensure that everyone has enough to eat to finish up the season. Either way, his mind is only half focused on what's going over over by the fireplace. "You might have the chair catch alight."
"A stray ember burning a hole in a single chair is a small price to pay for keeping me warm and not freezing to death," Claude gripes
Dedue takes another patient sip of his tea. It's hard to tell if he's fond or not of Claude, still as stoic and carefully reserved as ever. "That is not even your chair," Dedue comments.
Well, it may not be Claude's chair, but Dimitri would gladly give it to him. Maybe it's why Dedue doesn't bother to be more than mildly chiding, a simple reminder more than any actual complaint or sharp scolding. Of course, if giving a chair to Claude could solve everything so easily... It doesn't matter, really. Dimitri just chuckles. "I think you won't be so dismissive if an ember lands on you. Although that reminds me, is the fireplace in your bedroom not doing enough?"
He thought it would be good enough... Fireplaces are often beautifully and reliably made in Fhirdiad Castle, all the more to make the servants and royal family live comfortably. Yet he had made sure to give Claude only the best of all the guest rooms available in the entire castle, and that had included a gorgeous fireplace with plenty of firewood and regular cleaning by a servant who only appeared under Claude's watchful eye.
Is it not good enough, somehow? Is it lacking in some way that he never considered before? It is not as though he has ever stayed in any of the guest rooms, especially during winter...
Before Dimitri can get too lost in those thoughts, Claude chuckles. "The fireplace is great, Dimitri, although I object to having to extinguish it at the end of every night." The fire's glow dances beautifully across his face as he tilts his head back, hair tousled as it presses against his chair. "But some things coax a man out from such safe havens."
Well, Dimitri supposes that is how human beings tend to work. And he also has to admit that Claude is as social as he is adverse to the cold. Just being on his own, in a room...
It's better, for both of them, if they get to spend time with other people. With each other, most of all.
Eventually, Claude does leave, grumbling about how it's going to be miserable to have to wake up in the cold again with not nearly enough blankets to make the whole situation survivable. Dimitri just chuckles at him, letting him go off. Once the snows start to clear a little better, they can see about getting Claude back to at least the Leicester region again, and he's sure his fellow king will appreciate it. That may just take another while or so. Best he can do is think about asking for more blankets to be sent up to Claude's room. Perhaps that will offer him some small amount of comfort.
In the meanwhile, he finishes up his bit of work for the end of the winter, and talks with Dedue for a short while on how the Duscan people are making it back to their homeland. They talk about how the land is being brought back under the tender care of the people who knew it best, if enough elders have managed to make it back to pass on the lessons that had helped their land and culture thrive.
Apparently, things are going well - better than Dimitri thought they would, which means certainly better than Dedue thought they would. Apparently, a non-insignificant population managed to make it and hide in Fraldarius, which turned out to be the best choice for many. Dimitri tries to take comfort in that... That Glenn and Rodrigue's legacy did good. Hopefully, he will one day be lucky enough to leave behind the same.
There are other things they talk about - Marianne's upcoming wedding, Petra's own discussions with Dagda, the kind of plants Dedue would like to plant once the soil has softened enough. Eventually, however, he too has to retreat to his own room, to get the proper amount of rest.
Dimitri takes that as a sign he should stop for the night as well. Dedue is usually the best example to follow when it comes to such things, a fact that he probably should have picked up when he was younger, too, although maybe it would have done little good for him back then. He cleans up his study as best as he possibly can, so that no one has to worry about it being too much of a mess, and then returns to his room. Dimitri doesn't notice anything off, not at first.... He's too busy removing the layers he wears, head in a distant space. Actually, maybe more than a blanket, Claude could find comfort in his old cloak...
Of course, Dimitri knows that this particular cloak is viewed with a kind of despair by anyone who knows of its existence. It is the same cloak that he kept with him for five years during the war, and weathered through so much that it's kind of a miracle all unto its own that it survived still in such wonderful existence. The sort of thing that is possible thanks to incredible materials, and, who knows, maybe even a little bit of magic. Dimitri's father never had the chance to explain such things to him.
The only things which could be considered a negative are some of the stains that are prevalent in it, and a lingering smell that never really goes away. It is nothing less then fact that many of the servants want to put it through the cleaning ringer. Probably most of Dimitri's friends.
But you know what? Dimitri feels that doesn't matter. It's still the warmest thing in the entire world, and, more than likely, will survive the apocalypse.
And yet, as Dimitri goes to look up towards a small slip of paper he'd stuck int he crack of his wardrobe door, he realizes that it might not survive the fate of two other cloaks. The paper was meant to be a minor thing, one that people wouldn't particularly notice or care about if they were nosing about his room... And it's not in exactly the place he left it.
Neither is his cloak, predictably, when he jerks open his wardrobe doors, and Dimitri almost lets loose a swear. Immediately, not caring that he's only wearing the bare minimum of layers, he whirls away from the wardrobe, and heads straight out his door.
"Claude?" he asks, only some minutes afterwards, rapping his knuckles on the wood of the guest suite that he placed his beloved into. "I apologize I am waking you, and you are free to ignore me if-"
There's a thud, the sound of something hitting the floor in a manner that can only be described as awkward, and Dimitri pauses. Following the thud, the faint sound of cloth rustling and light banging is heard as well. "It's fine!" Claude calls after a second, breathless. "You didn't wake me, Dimitri, it's fine! I just dozed off by the fire. Just... hold on... I'm a little bit of a mess right now, ha ha!"
A spark of fascination lights up in Dimitri's chest. It's a rare thing for Claude to be in such a disorganized state that it bothers him... and now he's just really curious about what that looks like. Still, it's rude to intrude on someone, especially when that someone is both an important diplomatic guest and someone he has deep feelings for. Dimitri folds his hands behind his back, and waits as best as he's able despite the frustration curling in his chest as he thinks back to his missing items. Just who on earth could be so obsessed with his cloaks of all things...!?
The door swings open, and Dimitri jumps, the sudden swiftness snapping him out of his thoughts. There before him stands Claude, hair a curl mess around his face worse than when he was a teenager, and indeed a sleeping gown draped over his form. "Hey!" he says breathlessly, and smiles. "Sorry for taking so long."
"Oh, Claude, you hardly need worry about such things," Dimitri says, immediately fussing over the other man. "I was the one to interrupt you! I should take my leave - I would not wish to impose myself upon you in such a state." Honestly, his own quick-to-flare temper had him acting without thinking once again. Of course Claude would be in this kind of state at this time of night...
And yet Claude just waves his concerns off, and steps aside, opening the door wider. "It's fine, it's fine. You worry too much, Dimitri. Like I said, I was just dozing off by the fireplace after reading a good book."
Well, if he insists. Dimitri smiles a little bit as he steps inside, letting Claude close the door behind him. "Still making your way through the Adrestian collection we brought up from the south last summer?" he asks fondly. That was a huge amount of information, so even just moving a fraction of it to Fhirdiad was quite an undertaking. It's been incredibly useful for the scholars here, especially in order to compare it against other books that are had in places like the old Kingdom and Alliance.
That it made it easier for Claude himself to pour over different tomes was just a small bonus to it all.
Claude laughs again, moving over to where the fireplace is indeed still roaring pleasantly. "Of course I am! There's a lot of things that clever pain in the rear left behind just for me, you know. It's been a great deal of fun to going through everything and figuring out just what he left behind for me."
What a way to refer to Edelgard's right hand man... Dimitri goes to settle down by the fire as well in one of the chairs, since there's no point in standing around like he is. "Well, I am glad you are enjoying yourself," he tells Claude, casting his eye around the room. Sure enough, there inbetween both chairs at the fireplace, are a small pile of books. He's fairly certain that the only reason they're so small is because every other book that Claude had permission to bring into his room is scattered about in all sorts of other places. There are the nightstand, on top of his dresser, some of them being used as weights to keep the immensely thick and heavy curtains drawn over the windows....
Trust Claude to make sure that not even a whisper of cold air could get into his room.
Still, for someone so adverse to the cold, Dimitri would have thought the other man would have a blanket wrapped around him as well while he was reading near the fireplace, or at least a robe that could add a little more protection. Yet the blankets are still mostly undisturbed from where they lay across the bed, and he can't spot a robe at all from around the room.
Dimitri would like to think that maybe the fire has been doing its job properly, except Claude still wraps his arms tight around him as he settles down into the other chair. "So what brings you here at this time of night?" he asks, shivering just a little bit and leaning closer towards the fire.
Hm. Peculiar. Dimitri doesn't think too much of it, instead looking back to Claude. "Another one of my cloaks has gone missing," Dimitri says with a sigh, sinking back into the chair. It's a petulant kind of action that wouldn't be possible if he were around almost anyone else, and certainly not any other visiting foreign dignitary or power. "And I know that it had to go missing today. I checked on it this morning when I was getting dressed, and then again at around noon when I changed after a spar with Felix."
Claude lets loose a low hum that rolls throughout almost the whole of him. "And you still have no idea who might have taken this one either, just like all the other times?" Claude asks.
"Not the faintest," Dimitri confesses, slumping to the side as he rests his cheek against one fist. "It really is perplexing me, Claude, on so many levels. If it were about needing to make money, then surely they would have chosen something better than a cloak. If it were for warmth, then one would have been enough. If it were even for obsession over me, then surely one would go for more variety than a mere cloak! I have other things besides cloaks!" Surely if it were about articles of clothing, then a shirt or shoes could be stolen too, right?
Passing a hand over his smile, Claude still can't stop a chuckle. "Well, it is quite a mystery, isn't it? Or at least it has you stumped. I suppose it can't be helped. You're not the kind of person who'd have another just hunker down in his personal bedroom waiting to see some culprit, especially when the thefts occur over such long stretches of time, and trapping your room would just be a bother to deal with on a regular basis."
"They are both utterly impractical solutions," Dimitri agrees. Maybe if Claude were here more often instead of every once in a while, then they could solve this a little bit better, instead of in such half-measures as they discuss the matter on and off.
Before they can go much further in their conversation, Claude shudders particularly hard, and he finally pushes himself up to his feet. "Ugh... Sorry, but I think wandering away from the fire even for a moment really threw me off. I'm going to get my robe from the bathroom, if it's all right with you, and then we can keep talking. I just don't think I'll survive for another five minutes if I stay like this." And with that, he turns away, hurrying over to where the bathroom is. It's still dark that way without a lamp to light it all up, but, well, Claude doesn't seem particularly concerned.
He knows best, Dimitri supposes. Instead, he just sighs, and turns over all the facts that he knows in his head. There aren't a lot, quite frankly. Just confusing circumstances that tell him absolutely nothing and get him tense.
That's meant in quite the literal sense. Now that he's in Claude's room, sitting down and able to just think, he can feel how the muscles in his body ache and the way they've become so stiff. Dimitri sighs, shifting upright. It's foolish, how something this small has gotten to him. Maybe it's just the principle of the matter. If it were the one time, that would be one thing, but for it to happen again and again... Ugh, he's just going to be in a bad mood when Claude comes back, with his body like this. Dimitri raises his arms, going to stretch them out -
And promptly smacks his elbow straight into the small tower of books right there on the table.
A mild curse barely has time to leave his lips before Claude's voice rises in concern from the bathroom. "Dimitri, are you alright!?"
"I'm fine!" Dimitri calls back, already on his feet and moving around the chairs so that he can start picking up the books. "I just knocked over the books, I apologize! I will have them back up in a moment." Really, how clumsy could he be? Dimitri clicks his tongue at himself, kneeling down as he starts cleaning up. The late time and all of his ridiculous stress have really put him out of order. Leaning over, he picks up one book in particular... only to spot something that flickers blue thanks to the shifting light of the fireplace, hidden way in the shadows underneath Claude's bed. A blue he knows quite well.
As Claude walks back into the room, tugging his warmest robe around his body, Dimitri can't help but move towards the bed. "Dimitri?" Claude asks. "What are you doing?"
What he's doing is kneeling down at the foot of Claude's bed, reaching underneath it with arms that are fortunately quite long thanks to his height. He doesn't answer. All he does is fumble about blindly - why did he reach in with his right hand, like an ass - until his fingers reach sturdy, soft, and familiar fabric.
Dimitri grabs onto his cloak and, only dragging the chest it was shoved into haphazardly a little in the process, pulls it out from underneath Claude's bed. He still doesn't say anything. All he does is look down at it - the brilliant blue color that has somehow managed to stay so bright after all the years, the black and white furs which hang around the mantle, and the emblem of Faerghus which is still emblazoned beneath it all.
Wordlessly, he looks towards Claude, and holds up the cloak.
Claude does not meet his eyes. In fact, he very pointedly looks away, laughing sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh," he says, awkwardly. "Well, I guess the lion is out of the clothing chest, huh?"
"Claude," Dimitri says, tone hushed. "You were the cloak thief!"
"I was just borrowing them!" Claude protests, shoulders hunched up and his hands in front of him, fingers splayed apart. "I always meant to return them eventually! Eventually's date just became... a little hard to plan out."
Well, if Claude says that, Dimitri is willing to believe him - or, at the very least, it's the least important part of this whole surprising twist. Instead, he just shakes his head. "But why? Back when all of this happened the first two times, I thought maybe there was some financial reasoning behind the thefts, but you are a king! With a duchal family in Fodlan! So of course you don't need money!"
Claude mutters something. When Dimitri scowls pointedly, he coughs into one fist, and repeats himself, a little louder. "I was just... cold."
He was just cold. Nothing but pure disbelief is stretched across Dimitri's face. "If you had simply asked, I would have had someone bring you more blankets!" he points out. "We could have started up the fire in your room sooner, so that the warmth would spread before you had to start it up and fight against the cold that had already settled inside." Needless to say, plenty of options that don't involve stealing his clothing.
It's hard to say, with the flickering flames of the fire being as they are, but... Dimitri thinks he sees Claude's cheeks go just a little darker. "I mean, that is certainly one option I could have taken," he says, voice so light that it's very clearly fake.
Ah. Clearly he's not going to get an honest answer without a little bit of pressing. "Claude," Dimitri says, a little more gently this time. "Why isn't that the option that you took? Why did it have to be my cloaks, which surely took effort to go in and grab?" Claude isn't someone to do something like this on a lark - or, when he does, he would have teased Dimitri about it a lot more.
Crossing his arms, Claude does a very particular sort of stance - the kind where he leans on one leg, looks away - that gives off how he's trying not to fidget. It's not something he does often, but Dimitri has seen it enough times to recognize it and what it means. "Okay, okay, I know you won't let this go, and I guess I do sort of owe you an explanation after everything, but, well.." There's no doubting it now. His cheeks are definitely a darker shade than they normally are. "...They feel warmer than blankets, and... regular blankets don't smell like you."
They don't... smell like him? Dimitri blinks, staring at Claude for a few moments. This time, when a laugh suddenly bursts out, it's from him. "So - that is why the cloaks were stolen every few months!" he exclaims, grinning all the more as Claude scowls a little bit. Just a little bit, and not for long, that scowl breaking into a smile, a laugh. "The smell faded away, didn't it?"
Certainly it's true that the cloaks he wore were ones he wore regularly, and certainly had his scent deep into them... But even a smell that is deep inside of an article of clothing can only last so long, taken away from the source. No wonder Claude had to replace them, once, and then twice.
Apparently the ridiculousness of the situation is finally overcoming Claude's embarrassment, and he sweeps his hand up through his hair with a sheepish grin. "It just wasn't the same after a little while, you know? Although I promise I took good care of the cloaks that I took.... And I really did plan on returning them. It's not like this is exactly a sustainable venture or anything. Either you'd find out, like you just did, or someone else would get blamed for what I did, which never sat right with me. But the funny thing is that it's apparently a lot easier to steal a cloak than it is to return it... Every time I thought that it was the day I would finally get it back into place, something would pop up at the last minute, or there would be someone cleaning in your room, or there were just too many people in the halls for me to smuggle a big bulky cloak through undetected. It was only when I was trying to get a new one that things would go my way."
"Luck works in strange ways," Dimitri says, pushing himself to his feet with a grin. "Although do you want to know the most amusing thing of all?"
"What is it?"
Dimitri holds up the cloak, its fur a familiar and comforting texture underneath his fingers. "I actually went to my room with the explicit intention of bringing you this exact cloak, to help warm you up."
For a moment, Claude just stares at him.... and then there's the laughter, a quiet sound that gets louder and louder, before it bursts into one last guffaw as he presses one hand to his face. "Of course you were," Claude says, equal parts amused and terribly fond. "I guess all of my sneaking around nonsense was never really needed... but I think I always knew that. It was just too embarrassing a request to ever make aloud."
Too embarrassing... That's not a surprise. While some people might not think of it, because of the kind of schemes Claude can do, and what he's done to survive, he is a man that does have his own sense of pride. Just like every part of him, it's something that Dimitri treasures.
Setting the cloak down, Dimitri steps closer with a smile. "Then allow me to speak instead," he says, reaching out for Claude, and pulling him closer. Gently, he presses his lips against one ear, and adores in the feeling of Claude sinking against his body with a content sigh. "Never again settle for just a cloak. Instead of risking things by smuggling out something like that... Take the risk of sharing my bed instead, when you seek warmth, and my company."
Claude smiles, lips curving against Dimitri's jaw. "I think... that's not a bad idea, Your Kingliness."
Well, that is something of a lie, he supposes. It is a problem, because he had rather liked that cloak. He'd use it for riding, on the rare occasions he could sneak a break out for himself (often with the badgering of his close friends and retainers), and it did an admirable job of keeping him warm. That's the sign of a good cloak, that it can still keep him so warm while he's out riding. It had been, like so many of his cloaks, the kind of deep and brilliant blue that Faerghus is known for.
Claude picks up on his confusion fairly quickly, visiting as he often did during his attempts at spreading out Almyra's connections throughout the lands. "Something on your mind?" he ask once over tea time, one of the few occasions that Dimitri can be encouraged to take a break with minimal fussing.
"Oh, it is nothing to concern yourself with, Khalid," Dimitri says, and notes the way Claude's smile shifts into something just a little more genuine and pleased. It's the way the look in his eyes changes. Dimitri loves looking at his eyes. "I simply seemed to have misplaced something, and I have not the faintest idea of where it could be. Of course, it is nothing that would have dire consequences, but I did rather favor it. It is a cloak I simply happen to wear often. I am often so careful with my things..."
"Could someone have stolen it?"
Dimitri frowns. "It is not an idea that I have discounted," he says, although somewhat reluctantly. "Things do get stolen every day, after all, and certain it is a fine coat, made of wonderful material." Thus why it could keep him so warm, so easily. "However, I do not like to think such thoughts, not of those who I have trusted to work here with me. I did go through the proper channels to see if it had been smuggled out of the castle, however... It is not something that is particularly easy to smuggle out, bulky as it is. If anything would be stolen from this place, I would have assumed it to be something much easier to slip away, small and with more value then, well, a cloak."
All Claude does is laugh at him. "That's just if they're hoping to sell it, though, isn't it?" he points out, eyes shining. "There are a lot of other reasons why someone might want to nick something from the king of Fodlan." He winks. "For example, what if they're a fan who's head over heels for you?"
"Ugh-" Dimitri's face goes an immediate and brilliant crimson, and he only gets laughed at even more for his troubles. "Really, Khalid! You must stop your teasing with me."
Of course, Dimitri has to admit that he has a point. There is more than just monetary gain to come from stealing something. Ashe once almost stole a book, simply because its tales captivated him so. (And then he got adopted as a result instead, but that's besides the point.) Maybe whoever it was simply stole it because they needed the warmth, whether for traveling themselves in the cold Fhirdiad streets, or for their home where it could be used as a blanket.
He leans towards the latter idea, personally. Things have been improving at a surprising rate since the end of the war, thanks to the help of a great many people - the thoughtful and intense caring passion of those like Ferdinand and Lorenz, the on-the-ground practicalities of those such as Leonie and Dorothoea, people with immense heart like Mercedes and Raphael. Yet that was a war which ravaged over three different countries, pitting friends and even family against one another. Such things do not always go as quickly as he would like.
With that in mind... It wouldn't be unusual for someone to desperately need an additional source of warmth for their home, and to take something that they know is guaranteed to bring that warmth.
Well, that, or someone merely made some sort of mistake while cleaning it or putting it away, and hid it somewhere while they tried to figure out how to deal with the matter. That's just as much of a possibility, Dimitri thinks. Of course he'd forgive them, if they just stepped forward...
It is just one cloak, in the end. Dimitri doesn't trouble himself deeply over it, and simply leaves the matter at giving a warning to the workers of the castle that missing items are treated as a serious matter, but honesty is always rewarded and never held against others. Ideally, that should be the end of it. It is a single cloak, after all. Why fuss about such things any further?
That's what he thinks up until his second cloak goes missing, only a few months later.
This time, it's not a riding cloak, but instead one he wore for travel as he made another trip through Fodlan and its neighbor of Duscur to check in on how the rebuilding was going. Some nobles seem to believe that he should wear a different cloak for each region that he visits, but Dimitri thinks such things are silly and foolish wastes of time. They have an entire country to pull back together, so why waste time on such a trivial thing? And at any rate... He doesn't need the people he wants to help, the people he wants to forget bonds with, to think that there's anything to them getting a particular cloak. For them, for him, they are all the same: the people he pledged he would help.
And so of course what he gets for his trouble is another cloak going missing.
The look on his face must be quite something, considering that Claude bursts out laughing when he comes across it as their paths cross in the hallways. Both of them arrived on roughly the same day, so such a thing isn't particularly unusual, but still. Dimitri's glower just grows all the more. "If you could cease finding such enjoyment in my misfortune for at least a few more moments, Khalid, I would greatly appreciate it."
"No, no - I'm sorry," Claude says, grinning like he's not sorry at all. "I just find it funny. Only a couple of days ago, you'd arrived a little earlier than me, and you were looking pleased as anything from how well your trip had went. Now, you're sitting here like someone stole the last slice of cake from you. It's a great contrast."
Dimitri supposes it does look like that, from an outside viewpoint. Well, it's not as amusing to him. "Yet another cloak has gone missing," he grumbles, and doesn't fight Claude looping their arms together. He just lets Claude guide him along, taking him out to the gardens where the weather is nice enough for tea there. "I just don't understand it! I made sure to speak with everyone about the matter, and there should be no reason to steal another cloak of mine! Why mine? I understand that things can be difficult, or that affection can be had, but surely there are better alternatives then stealing my cloaks!"
Sympathetically, Claude pats at his back. "There, there," he says, as they step into the warm sunlight. "Was it stolen just today?"
Dimitri carefully thinks back. Maybe it's because he's being forced to recollect things as they happen, or it's just the fresh summer air, slowly fading away in the coming coolness of autumn, but it helps calm him down. "I... believe so," he says after a moment. "I'd glanced into my wardrobe yesterday, and left it hanging noticeably on a chair." Although, now that he's thinking about it.... Dimitri sighs. "Perhaps I am merely making a jump over the horse," he admits. "It has only been gone for a couple of hours, if even that. Perhaps someone merely took it for a clean, since I traveled everywhere with it so stubbornly. No doubt it could use it."
"Now there's an idea," Claude says, smiling as he waves over a maid walking along the path by the castle walls. Immediately, her footsteps get a little faster, and she soon disappears back into the doors again. "Probably the first time is still on your mind somehow, so you're all on edge about it." At his insistence, Dimitri takes a seat down at the table that's set up outdoors, for days just like this.
As always, Claude is speaking a perfect amount of sense. Dimitri really does adore that about him. If he could just become a king like he is... Does Almyra understand what a wonderful king is at their throne? Those are politics that are still a bit beyond him for right now, as he deals with three countries unified, and the rebuilding of Duscur as its own autonomous nation. Still, he hopes they do. Claude deserves to be respected and valued everywhere he goes. If he just visited Fhirdiad more often then he did, Dimitri is sure that he could figure out how to show all of that to Claude himself...
Then again, that's probably just a selfish desire of his to see Claude more than he does. His fellow king already makes so many trips to Fhirdiad as it is, even with how he goes abroad and bringing different vassals of his each time. Anymore, and he'd just be accused of favoritism, or anything else.
Claude is being so patient with him as it is, indulging in such desires despite the other things he must want to do, or have on his plate. Dimitri can't ask too much.
It's just a hard thing to consider when Claude chuckles like he does, and smiles the way he does, and rests his elbow along the table as though they'll be here forever. "At any rate... If you really can't find it, I can see about helping you out a little bit. And if you won't let me do that," he continues, when Dimitri opens his mouth to protest the king of another nation doing something as trivial as helping him find a lost cloak, "then I can give you a little bit of advice. Something happening twice in a row doesn't necessarily mean that the same thing is responsible both times. If your cloak this time really doesn't show up even after a day or two, then it might help you out to establish some sort of trap or trick to help identifying the thief a little easier."
Oh. "Of course!" Dimitri exclaims, right as a small tea cart is pushed out of the castle, and begins its rolling journey across stone over to where they sit. "There are small traps and such things that can identify if someone has stepped where they shouldn't, aren't there?"
He thinks he can recall such things distantly, from talking with Sylvain when they were younger... So young as to be called children, in fact, although he has to admit that Sylvain always seemed to be an adult even then. Sometimes, children are just completely oblivious to how age works. Needless to say, he had hung onto every word so eagerly, especially when Sylvain told him tales of intrigue and spies, how heroes outsmarted dastardly villains who sought to seek a weakness or sneak into places they weren't meant to be.
Granted, none of those little tricks Sylvain told him of from those stories ever seemed to really stick... Dimitri just isn't that kind of person who thinks of such things as his first solution, or a pre-emptive measure. That doesn't mean he's forgotten them, and he thinks about them now. If he just put certain little things into place before he left... Then he could definitely see if someone went into his room when they weren't scheduled to.
Claude beams, quite pleased with the answer. Maybe he's just glad that Dimitri is starting to show some measure of cleverness. "There you go, that's the idea. Now, why don't you tell me about how your latest trip to Duscur went? Dedue is there almost all the time now, isn't he? Do you think he'll come back before the winter snows start to hit?"
And that is how the rest of their conversation goes for the afternoon, talking about their various trips all around the different lands in their little part of the world, and how things are progressing towards their hopes for the future.
From that point on, things start to go smoothly and with no particular surprise to them. Certainly no more of his cloaks end up missing. It's a good thing, too. Winter lays its claws in northern Fodlan early on, frost creeping onto firs and glistening in grass once morning comes. Dedue does indeed make the journey from Duscur to Fhirdiad, although certainly Duscur must be warmer and more pleasant thanks to waters that flow around it so particularly. Dedue doesn't mind, and just smiles from where he makes himself at home by the fireplace in Dimitri's study, patiently waiting for him.
Funnily enough, Claude also ends up staying in Fhirdiad Castle, although not particularly of his own volition. Rather, he'd done a last minute visit up to Sreng - her people still curious about the so-distant Almyra instead of wary as they were with a Fodlan whose history was still so negative with theirs. That was all well and good, of course, except the problem with daring to make a visit up to Sreng during this time of year was, well...
Northern Fodlan, once winter begins to set in, is not the most comfortable of places to travel in. It's a fact of its existence which has done very well to protect it in the past - no doubt that is a part of why the Adrestian Empire couldn't counquer it as quickly as they would have liked - but it's also something that tends to bite its inhabitants and those passing through it in the rear end. Claude had hoped to make it a little further down south before the weather got this bad, of course. Yet the best laid plans of mice and men can only do so much in the unpredictable face of nature.
So that is how Dimitri has both someone from Duscur and someone from Almyra in his study, soaking up the heat from his fireplace. Dedue at least bears the bad weather well, not minding the heavy snow falling outside much at all, and just sipping tea patiently by the fireplace. It's Claude who looks abjectly miserable, having scooted his armchair as close to the fire as much as possible.
"Be careful," Dimitri advises mildly as he goes through his papers, double checking his plans for spring. There's a lot that has to come with the thawing of the snow and ice, and even in the time before that. The holiday for Saint Indech will definitely require a lot of pre-planning. It is an important holiday everywhere in Fodlan, of course, but up north it has a very particular importance. Everyone checks on their neighbors, and has a meal together, that's just how things go. It just has an elevated importance when you have to make sure your neighbors haven't died of cold, and that a feast bringing everyone together is to ensure that everyone has enough to eat to finish up the season. Either way, his mind is only half focused on what's going over over by the fireplace. "You might have the chair catch alight."
"A stray ember burning a hole in a single chair is a small price to pay for keeping me warm and not freezing to death," Claude gripes
Dedue takes another patient sip of his tea. It's hard to tell if he's fond or not of Claude, still as stoic and carefully reserved as ever. "That is not even your chair," Dedue comments.
Well, it may not be Claude's chair, but Dimitri would gladly give it to him. Maybe it's why Dedue doesn't bother to be more than mildly chiding, a simple reminder more than any actual complaint or sharp scolding. Of course, if giving a chair to Claude could solve everything so easily... It doesn't matter, really. Dimitri just chuckles. "I think you won't be so dismissive if an ember lands on you. Although that reminds me, is the fireplace in your bedroom not doing enough?"
He thought it would be good enough... Fireplaces are often beautifully and reliably made in Fhirdiad Castle, all the more to make the servants and royal family live comfortably. Yet he had made sure to give Claude only the best of all the guest rooms available in the entire castle, and that had included a gorgeous fireplace with plenty of firewood and regular cleaning by a servant who only appeared under Claude's watchful eye.
Is it not good enough, somehow? Is it lacking in some way that he never considered before? It is not as though he has ever stayed in any of the guest rooms, especially during winter...
Before Dimitri can get too lost in those thoughts, Claude chuckles. "The fireplace is great, Dimitri, although I object to having to extinguish it at the end of every night." The fire's glow dances beautifully across his face as he tilts his head back, hair tousled as it presses against his chair. "But some things coax a man out from such safe havens."
Well, Dimitri supposes that is how human beings tend to work. And he also has to admit that Claude is as social as he is adverse to the cold. Just being on his own, in a room...
It's better, for both of them, if they get to spend time with other people. With each other, most of all.
Eventually, Claude does leave, grumbling about how it's going to be miserable to have to wake up in the cold again with not nearly enough blankets to make the whole situation survivable. Dimitri just chuckles at him, letting him go off. Once the snows start to clear a little better, they can see about getting Claude back to at least the Leicester region again, and he's sure his fellow king will appreciate it. That may just take another while or so. Best he can do is think about asking for more blankets to be sent up to Claude's room. Perhaps that will offer him some small amount of comfort.
In the meanwhile, he finishes up his bit of work for the end of the winter, and talks with Dedue for a short while on how the Duscan people are making it back to their homeland. They talk about how the land is being brought back under the tender care of the people who knew it best, if enough elders have managed to make it back to pass on the lessons that had helped their land and culture thrive.
Apparently, things are going well - better than Dimitri thought they would, which means certainly better than Dedue thought they would. Apparently, a non-insignificant population managed to make it and hide in Fraldarius, which turned out to be the best choice for many. Dimitri tries to take comfort in that... That Glenn and Rodrigue's legacy did good. Hopefully, he will one day be lucky enough to leave behind the same.
There are other things they talk about - Marianne's upcoming wedding, Petra's own discussions with Dagda, the kind of plants Dedue would like to plant once the soil has softened enough. Eventually, however, he too has to retreat to his own room, to get the proper amount of rest.
Dimitri takes that as a sign he should stop for the night as well. Dedue is usually the best example to follow when it comes to such things, a fact that he probably should have picked up when he was younger, too, although maybe it would have done little good for him back then. He cleans up his study as best as he possibly can, so that no one has to worry about it being too much of a mess, and then returns to his room. Dimitri doesn't notice anything off, not at first.... He's too busy removing the layers he wears, head in a distant space. Actually, maybe more than a blanket, Claude could find comfort in his old cloak...
Of course, Dimitri knows that this particular cloak is viewed with a kind of despair by anyone who knows of its existence. It is the same cloak that he kept with him for five years during the war, and weathered through so much that it's kind of a miracle all unto its own that it survived still in such wonderful existence. The sort of thing that is possible thanks to incredible materials, and, who knows, maybe even a little bit of magic. Dimitri's father never had the chance to explain such things to him.
The only things which could be considered a negative are some of the stains that are prevalent in it, and a lingering smell that never really goes away. It is nothing less then fact that many of the servants want to put it through the cleaning ringer. Probably most of Dimitri's friends.
But you know what? Dimitri feels that doesn't matter. It's still the warmest thing in the entire world, and, more than likely, will survive the apocalypse.
And yet, as Dimitri goes to look up towards a small slip of paper he'd stuck int he crack of his wardrobe door, he realizes that it might not survive the fate of two other cloaks. The paper was meant to be a minor thing, one that people wouldn't particularly notice or care about if they were nosing about his room... And it's not in exactly the place he left it.
Neither is his cloak, predictably, when he jerks open his wardrobe doors, and Dimitri almost lets loose a swear. Immediately, not caring that he's only wearing the bare minimum of layers, he whirls away from the wardrobe, and heads straight out his door.
"Claude?" he asks, only some minutes afterwards, rapping his knuckles on the wood of the guest suite that he placed his beloved into. "I apologize I am waking you, and you are free to ignore me if-"
There's a thud, the sound of something hitting the floor in a manner that can only be described as awkward, and Dimitri pauses. Following the thud, the faint sound of cloth rustling and light banging is heard as well. "It's fine!" Claude calls after a second, breathless. "You didn't wake me, Dimitri, it's fine! I just dozed off by the fire. Just... hold on... I'm a little bit of a mess right now, ha ha!"
A spark of fascination lights up in Dimitri's chest. It's a rare thing for Claude to be in such a disorganized state that it bothers him... and now he's just really curious about what that looks like. Still, it's rude to intrude on someone, especially when that someone is both an important diplomatic guest and someone he has deep feelings for. Dimitri folds his hands behind his back, and waits as best as he's able despite the frustration curling in his chest as he thinks back to his missing items. Just who on earth could be so obsessed with his cloaks of all things...!?
The door swings open, and Dimitri jumps, the sudden swiftness snapping him out of his thoughts. There before him stands Claude, hair a curl mess around his face worse than when he was a teenager, and indeed a sleeping gown draped over his form. "Hey!" he says breathlessly, and smiles. "Sorry for taking so long."
"Oh, Claude, you hardly need worry about such things," Dimitri says, immediately fussing over the other man. "I was the one to interrupt you! I should take my leave - I would not wish to impose myself upon you in such a state." Honestly, his own quick-to-flare temper had him acting without thinking once again. Of course Claude would be in this kind of state at this time of night...
And yet Claude just waves his concerns off, and steps aside, opening the door wider. "It's fine, it's fine. You worry too much, Dimitri. Like I said, I was just dozing off by the fireplace after reading a good book."
Well, if he insists. Dimitri smiles a little bit as he steps inside, letting Claude close the door behind him. "Still making your way through the Adrestian collection we brought up from the south last summer?" he asks fondly. That was a huge amount of information, so even just moving a fraction of it to Fhirdiad was quite an undertaking. It's been incredibly useful for the scholars here, especially in order to compare it against other books that are had in places like the old Kingdom and Alliance.
That it made it easier for Claude himself to pour over different tomes was just a small bonus to it all.
Claude laughs again, moving over to where the fireplace is indeed still roaring pleasantly. "Of course I am! There's a lot of things that clever pain in the rear left behind just for me, you know. It's been a great deal of fun to going through everything and figuring out just what he left behind for me."
What a way to refer to Edelgard's right hand man... Dimitri goes to settle down by the fire as well in one of the chairs, since there's no point in standing around like he is. "Well, I am glad you are enjoying yourself," he tells Claude, casting his eye around the room. Sure enough, there inbetween both chairs at the fireplace, are a small pile of books. He's fairly certain that the only reason they're so small is because every other book that Claude had permission to bring into his room is scattered about in all sorts of other places. There are the nightstand, on top of his dresser, some of them being used as weights to keep the immensely thick and heavy curtains drawn over the windows....
Trust Claude to make sure that not even a whisper of cold air could get into his room.
Still, for someone so adverse to the cold, Dimitri would have thought the other man would have a blanket wrapped around him as well while he was reading near the fireplace, or at least a robe that could add a little more protection. Yet the blankets are still mostly undisturbed from where they lay across the bed, and he can't spot a robe at all from around the room.
Dimitri would like to think that maybe the fire has been doing its job properly, except Claude still wraps his arms tight around him as he settles down into the other chair. "So what brings you here at this time of night?" he asks, shivering just a little bit and leaning closer towards the fire.
Hm. Peculiar. Dimitri doesn't think too much of it, instead looking back to Claude. "Another one of my cloaks has gone missing," Dimitri says with a sigh, sinking back into the chair. It's a petulant kind of action that wouldn't be possible if he were around almost anyone else, and certainly not any other visiting foreign dignitary or power. "And I know that it had to go missing today. I checked on it this morning when I was getting dressed, and then again at around noon when I changed after a spar with Felix."
Claude lets loose a low hum that rolls throughout almost the whole of him. "And you still have no idea who might have taken this one either, just like all the other times?" Claude asks.
"Not the faintest," Dimitri confesses, slumping to the side as he rests his cheek against one fist. "It really is perplexing me, Claude, on so many levels. If it were about needing to make money, then surely they would have chosen something better than a cloak. If it were for warmth, then one would have been enough. If it were even for obsession over me, then surely one would go for more variety than a mere cloak! I have other things besides cloaks!" Surely if it were about articles of clothing, then a shirt or shoes could be stolen too, right?
Passing a hand over his smile, Claude still can't stop a chuckle. "Well, it is quite a mystery, isn't it? Or at least it has you stumped. I suppose it can't be helped. You're not the kind of person who'd have another just hunker down in his personal bedroom waiting to see some culprit, especially when the thefts occur over such long stretches of time, and trapping your room would just be a bother to deal with on a regular basis."
"They are both utterly impractical solutions," Dimitri agrees. Maybe if Claude were here more often instead of every once in a while, then they could solve this a little bit better, instead of in such half-measures as they discuss the matter on and off.
Before they can go much further in their conversation, Claude shudders particularly hard, and he finally pushes himself up to his feet. "Ugh... Sorry, but I think wandering away from the fire even for a moment really threw me off. I'm going to get my robe from the bathroom, if it's all right with you, and then we can keep talking. I just don't think I'll survive for another five minutes if I stay like this." And with that, he turns away, hurrying over to where the bathroom is. It's still dark that way without a lamp to light it all up, but, well, Claude doesn't seem particularly concerned.
He knows best, Dimitri supposes. Instead, he just sighs, and turns over all the facts that he knows in his head. There aren't a lot, quite frankly. Just confusing circumstances that tell him absolutely nothing and get him tense.
That's meant in quite the literal sense. Now that he's in Claude's room, sitting down and able to just think, he can feel how the muscles in his body ache and the way they've become so stiff. Dimitri sighs, shifting upright. It's foolish, how something this small has gotten to him. Maybe it's just the principle of the matter. If it were the one time, that would be one thing, but for it to happen again and again... Ugh, he's just going to be in a bad mood when Claude comes back, with his body like this. Dimitri raises his arms, going to stretch them out -
And promptly smacks his elbow straight into the small tower of books right there on the table.
A mild curse barely has time to leave his lips before Claude's voice rises in concern from the bathroom. "Dimitri, are you alright!?"
"I'm fine!" Dimitri calls back, already on his feet and moving around the chairs so that he can start picking up the books. "I just knocked over the books, I apologize! I will have them back up in a moment." Really, how clumsy could he be? Dimitri clicks his tongue at himself, kneeling down as he starts cleaning up. The late time and all of his ridiculous stress have really put him out of order. Leaning over, he picks up one book in particular... only to spot something that flickers blue thanks to the shifting light of the fireplace, hidden way in the shadows underneath Claude's bed. A blue he knows quite well.
As Claude walks back into the room, tugging his warmest robe around his body, Dimitri can't help but move towards the bed. "Dimitri?" Claude asks. "What are you doing?"
What he's doing is kneeling down at the foot of Claude's bed, reaching underneath it with arms that are fortunately quite long thanks to his height. He doesn't answer. All he does is fumble about blindly - why did he reach in with his right hand, like an ass - until his fingers reach sturdy, soft, and familiar fabric.
Dimitri grabs onto his cloak and, only dragging the chest it was shoved into haphazardly a little in the process, pulls it out from underneath Claude's bed. He still doesn't say anything. All he does is look down at it - the brilliant blue color that has somehow managed to stay so bright after all the years, the black and white furs which hang around the mantle, and the emblem of Faerghus which is still emblazoned beneath it all.
Wordlessly, he looks towards Claude, and holds up the cloak.
Claude does not meet his eyes. In fact, he very pointedly looks away, laughing sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh," he says, awkwardly. "Well, I guess the lion is out of the clothing chest, huh?"
"Claude," Dimitri says, tone hushed. "You were the cloak thief!"
"I was just borrowing them!" Claude protests, shoulders hunched up and his hands in front of him, fingers splayed apart. "I always meant to return them eventually! Eventually's date just became... a little hard to plan out."
Well, if Claude says that, Dimitri is willing to believe him - or, at the very least, it's the least important part of this whole surprising twist. Instead, he just shakes his head. "But why? Back when all of this happened the first two times, I thought maybe there was some financial reasoning behind the thefts, but you are a king! With a duchal family in Fodlan! So of course you don't need money!"
Claude mutters something. When Dimitri scowls pointedly, he coughs into one fist, and repeats himself, a little louder. "I was just... cold."
He was just cold. Nothing but pure disbelief is stretched across Dimitri's face. "If you had simply asked, I would have had someone bring you more blankets!" he points out. "We could have started up the fire in your room sooner, so that the warmth would spread before you had to start it up and fight against the cold that had already settled inside." Needless to say, plenty of options that don't involve stealing his clothing.
It's hard to say, with the flickering flames of the fire being as they are, but... Dimitri thinks he sees Claude's cheeks go just a little darker. "I mean, that is certainly one option I could have taken," he says, voice so light that it's very clearly fake.
Ah. Clearly he's not going to get an honest answer without a little bit of pressing. "Claude," Dimitri says, a little more gently this time. "Why isn't that the option that you took? Why did it have to be my cloaks, which surely took effort to go in and grab?" Claude isn't someone to do something like this on a lark - or, when he does, he would have teased Dimitri about it a lot more.
Crossing his arms, Claude does a very particular sort of stance - the kind where he leans on one leg, looks away - that gives off how he's trying not to fidget. It's not something he does often, but Dimitri has seen it enough times to recognize it and what it means. "Okay, okay, I know you won't let this go, and I guess I do sort of owe you an explanation after everything, but, well.." There's no doubting it now. His cheeks are definitely a darker shade than they normally are. "...They feel warmer than blankets, and... regular blankets don't smell like you."
They don't... smell like him? Dimitri blinks, staring at Claude for a few moments. This time, when a laugh suddenly bursts out, it's from him. "So - that is why the cloaks were stolen every few months!" he exclaims, grinning all the more as Claude scowls a little bit. Just a little bit, and not for long, that scowl breaking into a smile, a laugh. "The smell faded away, didn't it?"
Certainly it's true that the cloaks he wore were ones he wore regularly, and certainly had his scent deep into them... But even a smell that is deep inside of an article of clothing can only last so long, taken away from the source. No wonder Claude had to replace them, once, and then twice.
Apparently the ridiculousness of the situation is finally overcoming Claude's embarrassment, and he sweeps his hand up through his hair with a sheepish grin. "It just wasn't the same after a little while, you know? Although I promise I took good care of the cloaks that I took.... And I really did plan on returning them. It's not like this is exactly a sustainable venture or anything. Either you'd find out, like you just did, or someone else would get blamed for what I did, which never sat right with me. But the funny thing is that it's apparently a lot easier to steal a cloak than it is to return it... Every time I thought that it was the day I would finally get it back into place, something would pop up at the last minute, or there would be someone cleaning in your room, or there were just too many people in the halls for me to smuggle a big bulky cloak through undetected. It was only when I was trying to get a new one that things would go my way."
"Luck works in strange ways," Dimitri says, pushing himself to his feet with a grin. "Although do you want to know the most amusing thing of all?"
"What is it?"
Dimitri holds up the cloak, its fur a familiar and comforting texture underneath his fingers. "I actually went to my room with the explicit intention of bringing you this exact cloak, to help warm you up."
For a moment, Claude just stares at him.... and then there's the laughter, a quiet sound that gets louder and louder, before it bursts into one last guffaw as he presses one hand to his face. "Of course you were," Claude says, equal parts amused and terribly fond. "I guess all of my sneaking around nonsense was never really needed... but I think I always knew that. It was just too embarrassing a request to ever make aloud."
Too embarrassing... That's not a surprise. While some people might not think of it, because of the kind of schemes Claude can do, and what he's done to survive, he is a man that does have his own sense of pride. Just like every part of him, it's something that Dimitri treasures.
Setting the cloak down, Dimitri steps closer with a smile. "Then allow me to speak instead," he says, reaching out for Claude, and pulling him closer. Gently, he presses his lips against one ear, and adores in the feeling of Claude sinking against his body with a content sigh. "Never again settle for just a cloak. Instead of risking things by smuggling out something like that... Take the risk of sharing my bed instead, when you seek warmth, and my company."
Claude smiles, lips curving against Dimitri's jaw. "I think... that's not a bad idea, Your Kingliness."