[ To say the return had been turbulent in some ways - that'd be an understatement. It'd taken Claude some time to process... well, not all of it, as has become apparent the longer he's been lost in his thoughts piecing it together as things had returned to some measure of stability for as much as they could. And more than that: this isn't something he should work on doing by himself. The past has taught him that much. For all the mistakes he's made, both actually lived and in those years which felt all too real as if they were ones made here, there are many he doesn't wish to repeat ever again.
But: the years in which they've known each other and all that time spent circling around truths with himself no exception as the mastermind of setting so many of them in motion, it won't be as simple as that.
It's a matter of waiting for the right moment, even as the more time which ticks by it feels more and more urgent. The sort of thing which starts to keep him awake at nights - nights just like this one with Hilda tucked against him with her back to his chest and an arm draped around her waist and where there's no reason he shouldn't be asleep. Not even with his habit of being awake at odd hours or even with the first warm nights creeping into Cadens; Claude's slept plenty on any night just like this. Then again, so has Hilda - and asleep she certainly isn't either.
He could pretend to not notice. That'd be a disservice to them both and he knows it as he leans down to press one slow kiss after another along the line of her shoulder trailing towards her neck with the words in between murmured against her skin. ]
You're managing to think even louder than I am right now.
— time for some gods aftermath
But: the years in which they've known each other and all that time spent circling around truths with himself no exception as the mastermind of setting so many of them in motion, it won't be as simple as that.
It's a matter of waiting for the right moment, even as the more time which ticks by it feels more and more urgent. The sort of thing which starts to keep him awake at nights - nights just like this one with Hilda tucked against him with her back to his chest and an arm draped around her waist and where there's no reason he shouldn't be asleep. Not even with his habit of being awake at odd hours or even with the first warm nights creeping into Cadens; Claude's slept plenty on any night just like this. Then again, so has Hilda - and asleep she certainly isn't either.
He could pretend to not notice. That'd be a disservice to them both and he knows it as he leans down to press one slow kiss after another along the line of her shoulder trailing towards her neck with the words in between murmured against her skin. ]
You're managing to think even louder than I am right now.