[ Muscle memory from many a time of teasing Hilda has him ready for that push he feels coming instinctively before it happens in time to grab onto her hands as they land on his chest to keep them there. Though it of course manages to also push him back a bit across the ice since the skates don't offer much in the way of bracing himself, it also has him laughing loudly again between that and her outburst with the latter being the very thing he was counting on happening, too. ]

As if Holst didn't give him plenty of ideas on his own! I hardly had to do anything but sit and watch as the two of them dove deep into all kinds of plans. Nader's enthusiasm knows no bounds, you know.

[ Something he's every bit as guilty of and has admitted to here what with not bothering to stop any of it either, and Claude's chuckling still even as another thought occurs to him. That push and the subsequent moving of his skates to find his balance again had unlocked something missing in the skating motions he was attempting, and it's while now using Hilda for balance he tries it again. With success: the motion propels them backwards in something considerably clumsier than her seamless skating from earlier, but they do move backwards slowly as he's found a way to keep them going that way that's somehow easier than going forwards.

And it does have the benefit of keeping her close again as Claude shifts his grip to link their fingers together like he's really the one leading on this unsteady path, and he lets mirth fade away into affection again as he looks at her. ]

You know, Nader was also there when my mother left Fodlan with my father. Maybe Holst won't be so reluctant to let you visit now that he knows someone else there who'll have - [ with the next part said in a fairly good impression of Holst thanks to that time spent together during the war - ] your best interests in mind.