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The Beach Episode

Summary:

At first Claude had only suggested to Dimitri that they go on the trip as a couple, but then Dimitri had chatted about it with his friends and sister and before Claude knew it, not only had Edelgard signed up to come along with her boyfriend, but Dimitri’s entire pride were all excited about their trip to Almyra. Claude had been looking forward to some alone time with his boyfriend but honestly, he didn’t mind the extra company too much. They only got so many college spring breaks, after all, why not spend them as college kids were supposed to do, hanging out with friends?

Notes:

For you, Anonymous Fan. :D Thanks for all the art and the inspiration! I hope you enjoy!

Work Text:

“Dimitri, come on, can’t we put the top down?”

 

“For the fifth time, Claude, no.”

 

“Ugh. What’s the point in dating a hot guy with a convertible if he won’t even let you put the top down on your spring break beach trip?”

 

“Hubert doesn’t have any sunscreen on, yet. We don’t want to get him sunburned before we even get to the shore.”

 

“Oh, so we’d hurt the vampire? Oh, no, what a great loss that would be…”

 

“Claude!”

 

The young Almyran man glanced up into the rear view mirror as Edelgard interrupted he and Dimitri’s debate from the backseat, where she was sitting with said ‘vampire’ boyfriend of hers. Claude couldn’t help but crack a smile at the glares he was getting from both Edelgard and Hubert for his teases, but as Dimitri had said… it was the fifth time Claude had asked. He was sure his fellow passengers were sick of hearing him ask the same thing over and over, but for Claude, that was half the fun.

 

“What about the sun roof, Dima? Just the sun roof?” Claude requested next, and Dimitri huffed out a deep breath, ready to refuse him again, when Hubert spoke up.

 

“Oh, just let him have it. If it will shut him up…” the dark-haired man said with a roll of his eyes. Dimitri relented, reaching over to push the button that would open up the sun roof as Hubert leaned back beside Edelgard, muttering “Perhaps we should have ridden in the other car…”

 

Claude scoffed slightly, looking over at Hubert once again. “You think you two would have a good time in Sylvain’s party van?” he asked, peeking out the back glass to look at the vehicle that was cruising along just behind them. It had been one of those creepy white vans that mothers would tell their kids not to accept candy from, but Sylvain had gotten it for a frankly ridiculous steal and used the money he’d saved in buying a used, beat up van in dolling the thing up to his eclectic tastes. The once white van was now an obnoxious neon teal color with the word LADYKILLER spraypainted along the passenger side. Though Claude couldn’t see the back of the van from here, he knew that it was plastered with all sorts of bumper stickers that Sylvain and his friends had collected just to decorate the van with, everything from an obviously lying ‘Baby On Board’ sticker to a ‘Fear the Deer’ decal that Claude had stuck on there himself. Even from a car away, Claude was pretty sure he could hear the bass thumping out of the speakers, broadcasting whoever had gotten the phone jack’s preferred playlist. Sylvain was jamming behind the wheel, singing along with the song, while in the passenger seat Felix looked like he was going to have an aneurysm. Oh, yes, Claude thought. Hubert and Edelgard would have fit right in with Felix in the party van.

 

Especially since Claude knew that the interior of that vehicle was probably a wreck from the problems they’d had crossing Fodlan’s border into Almyra. Claude had told everyone at least six times to have their passports ready to go so that the border crossing would go smoothly, because he knew that the officers would raise their brows at Sylvain’s van and the sheer number of people that had piled into it for their beach trip. Claude had been very specific in telling the others to have everything ready to go so that the officers wouldn’t have a reason to detain them any longer than necessary but when they’d arrived at the border and Mercedes hadn’t been able to find her passport, all hopes of having a perfectly smooth crossing had gone down the drain. They had all pitched in as best they could to try and find Mercie’s passport, which in reality looked like tearing apart everyone’s luggage and checking under all the seats only to come up empty handed. Even the officers had taken pity on them and helped in the search after fifteen minutes while Mercedes was practically in tears, apologizing to everyone for the trouble and saying that she was so sorry, she was certain she had packed her passport, Annie had double checked for her and everything… Claude wasn’t sure if it was the waterworks or the fact that Claude had made friends with one of the officers in their passport hunt, chatting with him in Almyran as they looked and looked and looked, but the officers had eventually decided that they were going to be good guys and take pity on the hapless college students and let Mercedes slide through with a warning and the instruction to visit the Fodlani embassy here in Almyra to get the proper documentation so they wouldn’t have trouble on the way out. Mercedes had cried more and hugged the officer while the rest of them all breathed a collective sigh of relief before piling back into their vehicles and heading on towards the beach.

 

No one had been as relieved as Mercedes, Claude was sure, but Claude was also pretty relieved that things worked out. Going to the beach in Almyra had, after all, been all his idea. At first he had only suggested to Dimitri that they go on the trip as a couple, but then Dimitri had chatted about it with his friends and sister and before Claude knew it, not only had Edelgard signed up to come along with her boyfriend, but Dimitri’s entire pride were all excited about their trip to Almyra. Claude had been looking forward to some alone time with his boyfriend but honestly, he didn’t mind the extra company too much. They only got so many college spring breaks, after all, why not spend them as college kids were supposed to do, hanging out with friends? Claude was eager to show his boyfriend his homeland and the others had all been politely curious, as well, asking Claude to teach them some common Almyran greetings and phrases which they could try out while they were here. It was going to be an entire two weeks; they had rented out a large beach house and Claude and Annette had worked together on creating a lose itinerary for how to spend their time, including a day-long road trip to the capital just to take in the sights of the big city and a free day which Claude fully intended to use to drag Dimitri off to meet his parents, but day one’s plan was all that mattered for right now – getting to the house, getting settled, and enjoying the beach. It was going to be a novel experience for quite a few of them – Claude understood that pretty much all of the Blue Lions had never been to a warm beach before, all of the coastlines in Faerghus were cold. Edelgard also mentioned that she could not remember ever going to the beach, either, and so Claude couldn’t wait to see how everyone would react to seeing the ocean. He would have his phone ready to snap pictures, for sure.

 

“I really just can’t believe none of you have been to the beach before,” he remarked as he unlocked his phone and stuck it up through the sunroof to snag a couple pictures of the road. They were close, now, he could smell the salt in the air and Dimitri’s GPS was telling them they only had about ten more minutes before they got to the condo. Claude was excited – Edelgard, it seemed, was less so.

 

“I have been to the beach. I told you, I just don’t remember it,” she remarked, and Claude laughed.

 

“What, it was so bad that you blocked it out?” he teased, and Dimitri cleared his throat sharply and shook his head once in warning but the words had already slipped out and now Edelgard was scowling at Claude.

 

“Considering I almost drowned? Yes, yes it was that bad,” she retorted, and Claude winced. He was a tease, for sure, but he never meant to dig up trauma.

 

“Whoops,” he muttered under his breath, an exhale that no one really acknowledged. Things went quiet in the car as Claude reviewed the pictures he’d just snapped and Dimitri focused on the road while Edelgard and Hubert stared out the windows. The silence was broken by the automated voice of the GPS saying “turn left, then the destination is on your right” and that had Claude perking up again. Dimitri put on his turn signal and soon enough Claude could see the modern stucco beach house that they’d only seen in pictures online before now. It was bigger than it looked in the pictures and Claude was inwardly relieved. After all, there were going to be eleven of them crashing here for the next fourteen days.

 

“We’re here,” Dimitri announced, as though that were not obvious, as he pulled into the drive, parked, and cut the engine; only to immediately turn it back on as he remembered he needed to close up the sun roof. Claude unfastened his seatbelt and leapt out of the car, throwing his arms over his head and standing on his toes to stretch as he inhaled the saltwater air. Ah… smelled like home, he thought with a grin. Behind him, he could hear that the party van had also parked and people were piling out of it like a clown car, Sylvain and Felix going around the back to start tugging out the luggage and unloading it into random hands to be taken inside while Dimitri was doing the same at the back of his blue BMW. Claude could see Dimitri lugging out his suitcase and he began to go over to claim it when he was waylaid by Mercedes and Annette.

 

“Claude!” Annie chirped with a bright laugh. “Guess who found their passport literally five minutes after we got past the border?” she asked, and Claude’s green eyes widened as he turned to Mercedes and saw her holding up the little booklet with a sheepish grin.

 

“Where was it?” Claude asked, groaning when Mercedes said that it had been in her pocket the whole time. What a ridiculous girl… at least things had worked out in the end and they hadn’t been made to turn around and cancel the entire trip over this. Even so, they’d wasted probably an hour at customs, which put them much closer to noon in arriving than their estimated time when they’d left the hotel at the border that morning. Ingrid was shouting at Felix to hurry up and hand her something to carry inside and Claude knew that she was probably hangry.

 

“Khalid,” called Dedue, and Claude immediately perked up. Dedue, as one of the only other international students at Garreg Mach University, was one of the few people who insisted on calling Claude by his real name, even if Claude had chosen a Fodlani one for convenience’s sake when he’d enrolled at GMU. Dedue was holding out a cooler towards him and indicated the beach house with an inclination of his head. “Would you carry this up and start putting things into the fridge?” he asked, and after a brief glance around to confirm that Dimitri had already made off with Claude’s own luggage, leaving him with nothing to carry up, Claude nodded and took the cooler from Dedue’s hands.

 

“You got it, Doodah,” he said with a grin, trotting up the three or four steps of the wooden deck before heading into the already-open door of the condo. He could see Dimitri had thrown down his and Claude’s suitcases in one of the lower floor bedrooms and was currently helping Ashe carry his up to the second floor. Claude took a right into the kitchen – something which had been an absolute must to have with Dedue and Ashe along – and sat down the cooler in the floor beside the fridge. He unloaded ten pounds of frozen chicken wings, two cabbages and three heads of lettuce, a bag of carrots, a whole-ass roast… when Dedue came in behind him carrying a twenty pound bag of potatoes in each arm, Claude’s stomach rumbled. They were going to eat like kings with the part-time chef there to feed them. When he heard Dedue mumbling about visiting a fish market to get some fresh seafood for dinner one night, Claude thought that the freshman fifteen which he had avoided gaining last year was going to catch up to him all over the course of the next two weeks. He knew he was absolutely done for when Mercedes came in and asked where she should put the ice cream maker.

 

“I knew inviting you guys along would be a fantastic idea,” he said. Annette, leaning around him to shove three gallons of milk and one gallon of cream into the fridge, laughed.

 

“Didn’t I hear you complaining about how we had ‘just invited ourselves’ yesterday?” she asked and Claude feigned shock, pressing a hand over his heart.

 

“Why, I would never!” he said, earning him another laugh as he started putting eggs and bacon away. It was a lot of food, for sure, but they were eleven college kids and it was two weeks. Ingrid came in next with bags of bread and chips and cereal and other junk food which Dedue had probably not approved of but he directed her to the cabinets, anyways. She put most of the food away but went ahead and opened a bag of salt and vinegar chips to snack on while waiting for someone to make lunch. Everyone perked up when Dedue told Ashe to get the grill fired up while he made some hamburger patties and assured everyone that lunch would be ready as soon as possible.

 

“Is everything unloaded?” Dimitri called from the doorway down to the cars where Felix was carrying in what seemed to be the final trip. Felix nodded and Sylvain let out a cheer.

 

“Right, then, it’s beach time!” the red-head declared, shucking his clothing right then and there until he was left standing in naught but a tight blue speedo. Claude groaned and held up his hands as he averted his gaze while Ingrid gasped.

 

“Have you been wearing that since this morning?” she asked, and Sylvain’s only answer was a bright laugh. When Hubert and Edelgard came downstairs, both of them apparently having been preparing to get out on the sand considering Edelgard was wearing a red bikini and Hubert a pair of black swim trunks, Claude flailed his arms.

 

“So much skin! You pasty white kids are going to blind me as soon as you get out in the sun!” he complained.

 

“So long as I don’t turn into ash as soon as I step into the light, isn’t that right, Claude?” Hubert retorted, and Claude’s nostrils flared as he snorted out a laugh. Hubert wasn’t one to joke very often, but his dry delivery of the response was pretty good in Claude’s book. Hubert rolled his eyes and stepped out onto the deck with his girlfriend, each of them taking up residence on one of the patio chairs while Sylvain was already halfway down to the water.

 

“Felix!” he called. “Felix! Fe! Come bury me in the sand!” he said, and Felix huffed but Claude could see him smile.

 

“I have to change clothes first, I didn’t wear trunks under my skinny jeans,” he shouted back.

 

“Well, someone come bury me, then!” Sylvain insisted, and Mercedes and Annette bunched up the skirts of their sundresses and went running barefoot outside to oblige their friend’s request. Claude didn’t know what all the excitement was about – getting buried in sand was definitely not why he went to the beach – but he supposed these Faerghus kids still had to get over the novelty that was sand before they learned their lesson on how it always got into the most inconvenient crevices.

 

Claude had, by this point, finished unloading the cooler and straightened up once again. He was already wearing his khaki-colored swim trunks coupled with a pineapple print button up that he could discard easily onto the sand when he decided he was ready to get into the ocean, but before he went running back out onto the deck, his gaze sought out Dimitri. He wouldn’t lie, he was really looking forward to seeing Dimitri in some swim shorts with those lovely abs of his on display. So when Dimitri stepped out of their bedroom having changed into a wetsuit, Claude just sighed. A wetsuit. Of course Dimitri would roll up in a wetsuit.

 

And sneakers, Claude saw as his boyfriend stepped around the counter. Dimitri was wearing a wetsuit complete with socks and sneakers and it was the most ridiculous sight that Claude had ever seen so he couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Dima!” he gasped. “Don’t tell me you don’t own a pair of sandals?” he questioned, and Dimitri blushed.

 

“I do not, no,” he said. “I thought it would be best to wear my shoes down to the water? In case of stray glass or sharp shells?” he explained, and while Claude supposed that was reasonable enough for his cautious boyfriend to think of, the socks were what was really doing him in.

 

“Just be aware that anything you take out there is going to get destroyed by the sand,” Claude said. “You really want your socks out there?” he asked. Dimitri hummed in consideration before plopping down in the middle of the floor to peel out of his socks and shoes, tossing them back in the direction of their bedroom. Claude nodded his approval and trotted out onto the deck, only for Dimitri to call him back again.

 

“Claude, aren’t you going to put on sunscreen?” he asked, picking up one of the bottles that someone – Mercedes or Annette, probably – had placed on the table right by the door so no one would forget it. Claude gave a shrug.

 

“I don’t really need to?” he said. “I just get tan, I don’t burn,” he explained, but Dimitri shook his head fervently.

 

“You have to protect yourself from the sun! That’s how you get skin cancer, Claude!” he insisted. “Let me put sunscreen on you?” he asked, and Claude’s mouth went dry. Oooh, he thought. Dimitri probably wasn’t just trying to get his hands onto his boyfriend’s dark skin but the thought of that certainly appealed to Claude. So he relented without any more argument, nodding as he unbuttoned his shirt and set it aside, turning his back to Dimitri.

 

“Get my shoulders real good, won’t- YAH!” Claude yelped as Dimitri squeezed the bottle hard enough to deposit a fist sized glop of cold sunscreen right in the nape of Claude’s neck, making him jump and causing Dimitri to scramble to scoop up the extraneous amount of lotion in his palms before it fell and made a mess of the floor.

 

“Sorry, I’m sorry!” Dimitri was saying even as Claude giggled and shook his head.

 

“You’re so sexy when you show off how strong you are,” he teased, making Dimitri flush. Dimitri quickly turned his attention to rubbing the sunscreen into Claude’s back and shoulders, letting Claude scoop up some sunscreen from his hand to do his own face, neck and ears. Claude turned around and cheekily tipped his head back and Dimitri was blushing all over again but just went with the unvoiced request Claude made for Dimitri to do his chest, as well. Dimitri did a very thorough job despite Claude teasing him with feigned gasps of appreciation and flutters of his eyelids. When Dimitri was finally done he was as red as a tomato and glaring down at Claude.

 

“You’re incorrigible,” he scolded, and Claude batted his green eyes again.

 

“You love me anyway…” he trilled.

 

“That I do,” Dimitri relented before linking his hand with Claude’s and heading across the deck, down the stairs, and towards the water. Ashe had gotten the grill fired up and was turning some hot dogs over the flames as Dedue was stepping out with the freshly made burger patties and some chopped squash and zucchini to put on the grill, as well, and Claude knew that lunch was probably only about twenty minutes off. Still, that was twenty minutes he had to introduce Dimitri to the ocean and Claude happily tugged his boyfriend down to the surf, passing half-buried Sylvain being worked on by Mercedes, Annette, and now Felix as well along the way. Dimitri slowed down as they reached the wet sand where the waves broke, but Claude charged forwards fearlessly, leaping over the next wave that came in and doing a cannonball into the ocean. The water was just as warm as Claude remembered and he resurfaced with a delighted laugh.

 

“Come on, Dima!” he shouted. “The water’s great!” Dimitri smiled at him but was still cautious, clearly unsure of how to get out into the sea without being smacked around by the waves. One particularly large wave was able to knock Dimitri over and Claude was a little bit delighted when Dimitri resurfaced having lost his hair tie - he had always liked how Dimitri looked with his hair down, even if he looked a little more like a drowned kitten than a handsome lion with his mane soaking wet like that. Still, he was strong and determined enough that the surf didn’t knock him down a second time as he made his way out to Claude, who’d swum his way to a sandbar by the time Dimitri reached him. The first thing Claude did when Dimitri got in range was to splash playfully at him, to which Dimitri spluttered indignantly.

 

“Did you call me all the way out here just to splash me?” he asked, and Claude snickered and shook his head before diving under the water again. Sandbars were the best place to find the prettiest shells, and he fumbled along the bottom with his eyes closed until he felt the solid, bumpy surface of one. Claude was practically doing a handstand, turned completely upside down, as he worked to free the shell from the sand but eventually he got it and came back up, blinking saltwater away from his eyes to look at his treasure. It was the majority of a bright pink-orange conch shell, having a few holes in it where obviously some predator had dug out the creature that once lived inside to eat it, but it was still beautiful and he presented it to Dimitri with a grin.

 

“Found this for you, does that make up for it?” he asked, and Dimitri’s answering smile was indication enough that he was forgiven. Dimitri held onto the shell carefully as Claude went back under the water in search of more, finding a few clam and scallop shells and letting Dimitri hold onto those as well as he continued his search until Dedue called for them. The burgers were coming off the grill and so they headed in. Felix and Mercedes and Annette were charging up the beach, Hubert was standing by the grill with two plates, making one for Edelgard and for himself, while Ingrid had naturally been first in line and was already halfway through eating her first burger. Claude went running up the beach to join them while behind him Sylvain was yelling and squirming from the hole he’d been put in.

 

“Guys? Guys, you can’t just leave me out here!” the red-head shouted. Claude looked over his shoulder to see Dimitri slowing down and Claude let out a wicked little laugh.

 

“Leave him, Dimitri! Come on, it’s food time!” he tried, but Dimitri shot him a scowl and gently sat down his armful of seashells to unearth Sylvain’s arm before dragging him out of the ground like he was a carrot. As expected, Sylvain was absolutely covered in sand and his attempts to dust it off were not very successful, but he helped Dimitri carry Claude’s shells up to the house in return for saving him from his own pitfall, and thus they were the last two to arrive in the line to get to the grill.

 

“Edelgard, do you want any of the grilled vegetables?” Hubert asked and when Edelgard replied that she’d take three zucchini and four squash Claude mimed snapping a whip in Hubert’s direction. Hubert scowled but followed Edelgard’s directions to a T despite Claude’s teasing.

 

“Have we got cheese for the burgers?” Dimitri asked as he joined Claude in line, and Dedue hummed good-naturedly.

 

“Naturally,” he responded, pointing over to the small table that Ashe had arranged with condiments and toppings. Claude had a little bit of a lot on his – lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, pickle – while Dimitri went with bun, burger, that had to be ten slices of cheese, bun.

 

“Dimitri, the cheese is the same thickness as the burger,” Claude remarked with a little laugh, but Dimitri just stared at him.

 

“I like cheese,” he responded, deadpan, and Claude laughed.

 

“You’ll make yourself sick, you have to put something else on there,” Claude said. Dimitri grumbled and slid away the bun of his burger enough to slip a single thin leaf of lettuce on the top just to placate Claude by eating something green. Ingrid was rejoining the line behind Sylvain for seconds but Ashe called over to her.

 

“Don’t fill up too much, now!” he warned. “I think we’re going to smash open some watermelons after this, right, Dedue?”

 

“Haha, yes! Perfect way to kick off our first day of vacation!” Sylvain agreed.

 

“We’ll put down a sheet so they don’t get all covered in sand and we can actually eat them,” Mercedes piped up, and everyone agreed. Nothing quite said ‘beach time’ like watermelons, after all. They all ate lunch quickly and when the majority of them had finished Annie went inside to get a sheet while Sylvain helped Dedue bring out two watermelons for the game. Claude shook his head sadly as he saw that Sylvain’s shoulders were already almost as red as his hair. Of anyone who should be wearing sunscreen, it should be Sylvain. He was a red-head from Faerghus, of course he was going to burn easily, and yet it seemed like he hadn’t even noticed yet.

 

“Syl!” Claude called, deciding to be merciful. “You want to sit in the shade? Or maybe borrow Mercedes’ wide-brimmed hat?” he asked. Sylvain looked confused for a moment before he glanced at his shoulders and realized.

 

“Aw, shit!” he said, running to get into the shade before the sun continued to burn him for even one more millisecond. Mercedes was immediately on her feet, cooing sympathetically as she told Sylvain she’d get the aloe cream from her bag and take care of his poor shoulders and ears right away, while Felix was already scolding him for being so stupid.

 

“You’re a red-head, Sylvain! You should have known you were going to turn into a tomato, and you come out here in a speedo with no sunscreen? You’re an idiot!”

 

Claude could only shake his head as he watched Sylvain pretend to be ashamed, as though he wasn’t loving every second of his fellow Lions fawning over him. Ingrid even went over to unwind the retractable awning to give Sylvain a little more shade while Mercedes and Annette double teamed with the aloe, just like they had double teamed burying Sylvain in the sand earlier, leaving him to get burned. They were both very sorry but Sylvain forgave them immediately, flexing subtly as they tended to his shoulders and Claude just rolled his eyes. ‘Ladykiller,’ indeed…

 

“Are we still going to smash the watermelons, guys?” Ashe asked from where he was down on the sand with Dedue holding a baseball bat and a bandanna to serve as a blindfold. Sylvain called for the group to go on ahead without him while he recovered from the sun, he was content to just watch, and so Claude hopped up to join the other guys back on the beach. Felix was scowling, which Claude had learned was simply the man’s resting expression, as the Almyran sidled up to him with a grin.

 

“Where’s your katana?” he asked. “I heard from the dean’s daughter that you’re a real fruit ninja…” he teased, and Felix huffed.

 

“As if the border officers would have let me bring my katana,” he returned. “It’s back in my dorm room. And not used for slicing fruits and veggies,” he insisted. Claude pouted.

 

“Damn, I was hoping I’d finally get to see you in action,” he said. “Do you think you can still slice a watermelon in half with a baseball bat?”

 

“A bat is a blunt weapon, Claude. This is going to be very gory for the watermelon,” Felix returned, and now it was Claude’s turn to huff. It was no fun poking the cat if he wasn’t going to hiss, so he moved away from Felix to instead go over to Ashe.

 

“Well, if no one else is volunteering to go first, I will,” Claude said, and Ashe cheered, absolutely delighted. Claude could infer that the watermelons had probably been the freshman’s idea and that he really wanted them to be a hit, so he was glad that they were finally getting started. He tied the blindfold over Claude’s eyes and spun him until Claude was dizzy enough to start staggering. Dedue handed him the bat and pointed him in what Claude had to assume was the direction of the watermelons and he swung blindly, yelling with the force that he put behind the swing. The bat connected with only the sand and Claude pouted as he pulled off the blindfold and saw that he’d missed by only about six inches. Ashe hurried forward to collect the blindfold, looking around at the others.

 

“Who’s next?” he asked eagerly as Dimitri helped Claude walk away to make room for the next batter. Ashe really was relentless with that spinning, it took Claude about two minutes even without the blindfold to get his equilibrium back. He was not jealous of Ingrid when she stepped up and Ashe started spinning her around, probably twenty times at that ridiculously fast pace of his. Ingrid got handed the bat and she swung downwards, managing to strike the watermelon but it was only a glancing blow, resulting in a firm ‘thwacking’ noise but no giant crack. Still, she had done better than Claude and so she was grinning as she handed back the blindfold and wobbled off.

 

“Next? Dimitri?” Ashe asked, and Dimitri hesitated but at the prodding of Claude as well as his classmates the young man sighed and smiled and allowed himself to be blindfolded. He was spun around and around until he was about ready to fall down and Dedue handed over the bat. Dimitri braced himself, tapping the bat around until he found the watermelon and lined himself up.

 

“Cheat!” Felix declared even as Dimitri swung the bat downwards before anyone could stop him and smashed the watermelon clean open in one blow. He lifted his blindfold and peeked over at Felix, who was fuming. “Dimitri, you cheated, you can’t tap around like a blind man with a cane before you swing, ugh, you ruined a whole watermelon!” Felix protested. Claude and Ingrid, who had leapt forward to prey upon the busted gourd as soon as it was smashed, had a difference of opinion.

 

“I wouldn’t say it’s ruined until you have a bite of it, Felix,” Claude said around a mouthful while Ingrid was spiriting off an entire half of the watermelon back up onto the deck to share with Annie, Mercie, and Sylvain. Hubert fetched a piece for Edelgard and Claude cracked a smile when he saw that. The guy was absolutely whipped for El, wasn’t he?

 

“I apologize, Felix, no one went over the rules before we started…” Dimitri was saying as he handed the bat over to Dedue and the blindfold to Ashe. “There is still one watermelon left…”

 

“Right, well, I had better show you how it’s done, then,” Felix said, yoinking the bandanna from Ashe and tying it around his own head before Ashe started to dizzy-fy him, too. When Felix was eventually pulled to a stop and handed the bat, the young man took a deep breath to center himself. Claude figured he took long enough to find balance within the whole universe before Felix finally let out a yell and took a swing, smashing the second watermelon on his first try. The girls all applauded him – and, well, so did the guys, except for Claude, who was pouting.

 

“Oh, so waiting until you aren’t dizzy anymore isn’t cheating in your book, Felix?” he asked, and Felix shook his head fiercely.

 

“No one set a time limit. Waiting until I was centered before I took my swing was only common sense,” he said, leaning down to claim a hunk of watermelon and biting into it. Claude previously thought that there was no way someone could chew smugly. Felix proved him wrong that very instant.

 

Ashe and Dedue carried the remaining hunks of watermelon back to the deck and the lot of them descended on the fruit like vultures over a carcass, picking the watermelons apart until there wasn’t any of the red flesh left. They lounged around and Claude checked his phone to see that it was only three in the afternoon – plenty of daylight left to get up to some more nonsense, he decided.

 

“So, what are we doing next, guys?” he piped up, and Edelgard peeked over the top of her sunglasses.

 

“There is a volleyball net set up a little ways down the beach-” she pointed out, and Claude beamed.

 

“Oh? Is that a challenge, Edelgard?” he asked. He had meant it to be a tease, figuring nothing would get the princess of the patio chair to move, so when Edelgard smiled it was a delightful surprise.

 

“You know, I was captain of my team back in Enbarr,” she remarked, and while Claude had not known that, it only got him all the more fired up.

 

“Oh, yeah? Well, beach volleyball is pretty much Almyra’s national sport, so don’t expect me to go down easy,” he said. “Someone brought a volleyball, right?” he asked. Edelgard nodded.

 

“I packed one,” she said. “Hubert, if you would be a dear…” And Hubert immediately hopped up to go fetch the ball from Edelgard’s luggage. Claude snapped his invisible whip in the air behind Hubert again, only to have Dimitri flick him behind the ear.

 

“Stop it, Claude, that’s going to get old if you do it all break,” he scolded, and Claude hummed.

 

“You’re right… best not wear it out on day one, good advice, Dima,” he said. Dimitri sighed – that was obviously not what he had meant but he also knew that Claude was just teasing him, too, so he let it slide without protest. Edelgard had gotten up and started to collect members for her volleyball team and so Claude did the same, tapping Dimitri and Dedue when he saw that Edelgard had already gotten Felix and Ingrid on her side. Sylvain was going to stick it out in the shade for now while Ashe, Mercedes, and Annette had moved on to trying to figure out the ice cream machine, so when Hubert came back downstairs with the volleyball he was automatically elected as their scorekeeper.

 

“You know how to keep score, right?” Claude asked, and Hubert hummed.

 

“Naturally. I was manager for Edelgard’s team,” he said, which did not surprise Claude in the least. They began to head down the beach towards the net, but Sylvain called after them.

 

“Hey! Hey, guys, why not make it a little more interesting? Losing team has to pick someone to wear the cursed swim trunks!” he shouted, and there was a collective groan from the players. They all knew exactly which trunks Sylvain was referring to – they’d made their debut in the pictures from Sylvain’s last spring break trip with Dorothea and Petra down to the beaches of Brigid. Petra had bought them as a gag gift for Sylvain and been absolutely horrified when he’d worn them for the entirety of the vacation in all their traffic-hazard yellow and gaudy red-and-green hibiscus print glory. They looked like a Brigidian Christmas got thrown up onto someone’s neon swimwear and while Claude had only seen them in pictures he could imagine how horrible they would be in person. Still, as Claude glanced over at Edelgard he could see that she was not going to back down from the bet, and so he firmed up his expression.

 

“You’re on!” he and El called back to Sylvain at the same time as the rest of the players got their battle faces on. The stakes were high, now. This was going to be a fierce match.

 

Edelgard won the coin toss and elected to take first serve, readying up as everyone too their positions. She was a professional, Claude could see that from the moment she tossed the ball in the air and performed a perfect jump serve, launching the ball across the net so quickly that it scared Dimitri into dodging instead of hitting the volleyball when it came his way. If he was feeling merciful, Claude could have blamed the miss on the fact that Dimitri's hair was still in his face, having not been pulled back into its regular little liontail after their swim earlier. He wasn’t feeling particularly merciful right now, though. “Dimitri!” Claude shouted in dismay as the other team started chanting “Ace! Ace! Ace!” behind him. Dimitri muttered an apology as he rolled the ball back over to Edelgard’s side for her to serve again. When she made a repeat performance, spotting Dimitri as the weak link on their team and serving directly to him again only for Dimitri to flinch instead of bump the ball into the air, Claude’s shoulders sagged with disappointment.

 

“Ace! Ace! Ace!” chanted Ingrid and Felix as Dimitri rolled the ball back across and Edelgard grinned. She prepared to serve and Claude got low, a scowl on his features. Edelgard wound up and served the ball at Dimitri again and Claude was immediately on the move.

 

“Mine!” he screeched, practically bulldozing Dimitri out of the way so he could bump the ball into the air, setting up for Dedue to spike and finally managing to score their first point. The serve was theirs now and even if it went back across the net it wouldn’t be Edelgard’s serve anymore, so Claude hoped that his knocking his boyfriend flat on his back in the sand had been worth it and saved the game. Dimitri didn’t scold him for it, just picked himself back up with a little huff as Claude took the volleyball back behind the boundary line and got himself situated. He went with a simple overhand serve and they finally got a volley going that lasted nearly a minute before Edelgard wound up for a spike. Dimitri, though, seemingly had learned his lesson, jumping up with both hands in the air and managing a successful block right by the net, sending the ball dropping back to the ground on Edelgard’s side and Claude cheered.

 

“That’s my Dima!” he said, watching as Dimitri puffed up with pride at the praise. Edelgard pouted as she tossed the ball back over to Claude. He kept it for two more serves before Ingrid and Felix ran a bump-set-spike which Dedue incorrectly called as out only for it to bounce right on the line and count as El’s point. They’d tipped the tied score back in their favor and it was Felix’s serve.

 

It remained a close game for the entire match, though they didn’t end up playing to 21 as usual. That was Dimitri’s fault – the game ended when Dimitri got overzealous and spiked the ball right into Ingrid’s face, giving her a bloody nose.

 

“I am so sorry-” Dimitri began, looking around for a towel to offer his childhood friend while Claude was jumping up and down, antsy because the score was in Edelgard’s favor.

 

“Don’t apologize to the enemy!” he said, which got him a look from everybody. Dedue proposed that they call the game there and everyone but Claude agreed, but he was outvoted so Edelgard won. Claude was left pouting on the way back up to the condo. Dimitri’s hand came as a soft touch to his shoulder.

 

“Hey,” he murmured gently. “Did you remember to pack your medication?” he asked, and Claude prickled at him.

 

“What? Why? Do you think I forgot again?” Claude bristled, and Dimitri put up his hands gently.

 

“Easy, Claude, easy, you’re just getting a little edgy and the last time this happened you told me to look out for the signs and remind you to take your medication before you went into a full episode, remember?” Dimitri said, and Claude scowled. Yes, he did remember that, but he wasn’t very happy about that right now. His ADHD was a diagnosis that had been made in his adult life and the symptoms weren’t a constant bother, but there were times when Claude ran a little hot. He got restless and irritable, spoke out of turn and said things he didn’t mean, and took risks that he probably shouldn’t just because he was bored. He was bad at remembering to take his pills on time and sometimes forgot them for several days in a row… which he had, he was remembering. All the fuss of getting things squared away for their vacation and lining up itineraries with Annette and packing and then getting directions out here and getting across the border… yeah, he couldn’t remember taking his pills for like… the past two days. His doctor had known about his forgetfulness, however, which was why Claude had been given a little early-onset early-offset pill to help even out his temperament quickly. Dimitri was right and Claude should unearth his pills from where he thought he had tossed them into the bottom of his suitcase – he had just told Dimitri not to apologize for giving Ingrid a nosebleed, for crying out loud – but Claude was still pouting all the way back up to the beach house even as he dug into his luggage and found the little bottle of methylphenidate. He popped one of the pills under Dimitri’s supervision and headed back outside where Mercedes was dishing up freshly made peach ice cream to lift everyone’s spirits after the sour end of their volleyball match. It would be about thirty minutes before the medicine kicked in but Claude was at least aware enough not to trust his own mouth at the moment so he kept it shut and sulked in the corner for a little while with his bowl of ice cream.

 

“How are we doing, Claude?” Edelgard asked as she plopped down beside him, and Claude gave a little sigh.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m working up to go apologize to Ingrid, I don’t need a lecture about it,” he said, and Edelgard nodded in a way that seemed to indicate that that was exactly why she had come over here. It wasn’t that Edelgard was insensitive to things like mental illness – her own brother was on antipsychotics – but Edelgard had always been of the mindset that problems, when made, should be sorted out as swiftly as possible. She wasn’t very sympathetic when someone said or did something that stirred the pot to simmer with bad feelings, and she was a very direct person, too. In fact, she stayed sitting right where she was until Claude looked across the porch and called over to the other girl.

 

“Hey, Ingrid!” he called. “I’m an asshole! Sorry about that!” he said, and Ingrid just laughed.

 

“I hang out with Felix and Sylvain, I’m used to assholes! Don’t worry about it!” she returned, and that had Claude smiling again. Edelgard nodded her approval and reclined back in her current perch to enjoy the ice cream and the sun. Claude glanced over to her with a hum.

 

“I can’t believe you came on a trip to the ocean and even packed a swimsuit while fully planning on never getting in the ocean,” he said. It hadn’t been thirty minutes yet so Claude didn’t really blame himself when he tacked on a “You coward,” at the end, causing Edelgard to quirk her brow.

 

“I am not a coward,” she said, and Claude grinned, getting an idea.

 

“You wanna prove that?”

 

“I am not getting in the ocean, Claude.”

 

“I wasn’t going to suggest that. In fact, I have a better idea…” he said, glancing up as Dimitri sat down on his other side. “I’ve heard there’s a cove about half a mile down the shore from here that is the home of a dangerous djinn. If you’re no coward, why don’t you come with me to check it out?” he asked.

 

“A djinn?” Edelgard asked. “What is a djinn?”

 

“They’re invisible spirits that live in dark places and like to attack humans…”

 

“Oh, so a poltergeist.” Well, not really, Claude thought, but close enough he supposed. “Gotcha. I don’t believe in those,” Edelgard said, sliding her sunglasses back up her nose. Claude smirked.

 

“If you don’t believe in them, then you’ve got nothing to fear by going to the cove, right? Come on, Edelgard… maybe it’ll scare Hubert and he’ll leap right into your arms…” he said, and Edelgard peeked over her glasses again.

 

“Oh, we’re inviting our boyfriends on this excursion?” she asked, seeming suddenly more interested in the idea. Claude wiggled his eyebrows and that pulled a laugh from the girl before she nodded. “Well, then, fine. I accept your foolish dare, Claude,” she said. “Just let me get my shoes and a flashlight and I’ll be ready to go.”

 

“Don’t forget your Hubert,” Claude reminded, and Edelgard laughed once more.

 

“I won’t forget my Hubert,” she said. Claude grinned and jumped up to retrieve his phone from where he had left it plugged into the wall before the volleyball match, quickly scrolling through the app store to find some of those free ghost detecting apps that he could download on the walk to the cove. Might as well go all in, right? He had no idea how an EMF reader was supposed to work off his phone when it wasn’t set up with anything to detect stuff like that but he downloaded it and a Spirit Box app, anyways. He came back out onto the deck to find Dimitri shoveling ice cream into his face like he was standing on a volcano and his dessert was evaporating, hurrying up so that he would be ready to go with the others to the cove. Claude came over and patted his shoulder and told him to slow down.

 

“Careful, or you’ll spill something on those fashionable shorts,” he said. He must have missed it when Sylvain passed the cursed swim trunks over to Dimitri to wear but it made sense that Dimitri had donned them – he was the chivalrous, upstanding sort, and even if the game had been called early he was going to uphold their end of the bet. Dimitri looked absolutely ridiculous with the shorts pulled on over his dark, skin-tight wetsuit, but a bet was a bet and Claude was glad he hadn’t been forced into wearing them. Even if he might maybe have deserved it a little for being an absolute douche to Ingrid. Dimitri chuckled at the comment and slowed down a little bit, which Claude was glad for. He was surprised that Dimitri hadn’t given himself brainfreeze from eating the ice cream so quickly. Still, Dimitri was just finishing up his bowl by the time Edelgard came back out of the condo with her swimsuit cover on over her bikini, feet slipped into gladiator sandals and flashlight in her hand, with Hubert following behind carrying another flashlight. Claude pulled his flip-flops back onto his feet while Dimitri stared towards the condo in deliberation. Claude gave a small laugh and ribbed his boyfriend gently.

 

“I think you’ll be fine without your sneakers, Dima,” he said. “Hubert’s going barefoot, too, it looks like,” he pointed out, and Hubert gave a shrug.

 

“I like the texture of sand,” he explained. Dimitri, reassured that he wouldn’t be the only one going barefooted, nodded.

 

“Let me just put my bowl in the sink, then,” he said, scooping up Claude’s to take as well. Claude gave a little grin, which only widened as he saw Hubert, from the corner of his eye, mime snapping a whip after Dimitri. Claude snorted on his laugh, covering his mouth as he snickered. Touché, Hubert. Touché.

 

Dimitri rejoined them soon enough and Claude linked his hand with his boyfriend’s as they headed off the deck. Edelgard told Dedue – who was probably the most responsible one of the group staying behind – where they were going and that they had their phones if anything happened before she and Hubert followed Dimitri and Claude onto the beach. Claude double-checked the map on his phone to make sure he chose the right direction to head down the shore, but once he was certain he began to lead the way towards Djinn Cove.

 

“Remind me why we are doing this, dearest Edelgard?” Hubert asked as they walked along. Edelgard smiled.

 

“To satisfy Claude’s ridiculous teasing on day one of this trip, so we don’t have to put up with it for the rest of the vacation,” she answered, and Claude grinned.

 

“She has to prove she’s not a coward,” he told Hubert. “By going to talk to the djinn.”

 

“Djinn… isn’t that the Almyran name for a genie?” Hubert quizzed, and when Claude nodded, Dimitri perked up.

 

“A genie?” he asked. “Will it grant wishes if we’re brave enough to look at it or something like that?” he asked. Claude laughed again. Dimitri claimed he wasn’t the superstitious sort but he always had been a bit of a romantic when it came to things like wishes. Last year's Ethereal Moon he had dragged Claude to the tower on campus where couples went to make wishes together even though they had only been dating for a month at that point. It had really been rather sweet when Dimitri had taken hold of his hands and asked Claude to make a wish for happiness with him. Claude swore up and down that that was the night when he had fallen in love.

 

Unfortunately for Dimitri, a true djinn, as told by Almyran legends, were not like the fabled genies that lived in fairy tales in Fodlan. Claude shook his head. “No wishes,” he said. “We’ll be lucky if we escape with our lives…” he added in as spooky a voice as he could put on. As none of them were real believers in the supernatural, they all had a pretty good laugh at that. Edelgard and Hubert were too scientifically-minded to believe in invisible monsters and Dimitri had learned that ghosts weren’t real when his antipsychotics made them go away. Even so, Claude showed off the new apps he had downloaded on his phone to help them find the djinn when they got to the cove. He powered up the Spirit Box and Hubert winced while Edelgard covered her ears at the awful buzzing and blipping noises that Claude’s phone made. Dimitri even pulled a face, eyebrows pinching together and nose crinkling.

 

“What is that even supposed to do?” Dimitri asked.

 

“It’s apparently flipping through radio signals, fast enough that we can’t ordinarily hear anything so if we do hear words that’s supposed to be a spirit using the energy to talk to us,” Claude said, letting his companions suffer for a minute longer before he exited the app. “We’ll use it when we get into the cove, see if the djinn has anything interesting to say,” he said.

 

“For someone who doesn’t believe in ghosts, you certainly seem to know a lot about this sort of thing, Claude,” Edelgard said, and Claude shrugged.

 

“I have an inquisitive mind,” he responded. “And have you guys seen the terrible acting on those ghost hunting television shows? I swear, ‘grown men freaking out over nothing’ is half the entertainment value,” he said with a laugh. He was a little surprised when Hubert agreed – he didn’t think Hubert was the type to watch anything even remotely sensational. But then Hubert went on to explain that those shows usually came on after his true crime dramas and had sucked him in on occasion long enough to watch an episode or two, which made far more sense. Claude swore that some of those shows were so bad that they were like car wrecks. You wanted to look away, but you just couldn’t. Claude didn’t tell anybody he had watched all fourteen seasons of one of those shows because people tended to look at him oddly when he said that he had even enjoyed them, but he bet that if he got anyone on the couch in front of his TV and put on another hokey team of wannabe Ghostbusters, they’d watch every minute of it, too. It didn’t help that Netflix had an autoplay option that fueled his addiction.

 

“So, Claude,” Edelgard said. “Have you been to this cove before? Your family used to frequent this beach, right?” she asked, and Claude shook his head at the first question but nodded to the second.

 

“My family’s home is only about a forty minute drive from here, yes,” he said. “We used to make weekend trips down here all the time, though we didn’t rent out whole buildings to stay in, of course. Sometimes we would just find a nice overnight parking spot and all sleep in the back of my father’s van…” he said with a little laugh. “Or even set up a tent right on the beach, so long as it wasn’t too windy. Those were fun times,” he said. “But as for the Djinn Cove? No, I’ve never been. My father believes in that sort of stuff and warned me to never, ever go,” he explained. Edelgard laughed softly.

 

“You’re going to take Dimitri up to meet your parents in a few days, aren’t you? Will you tell your father that you went into the cove?” she asked.

 

“Hell no,” Claude responded with a laugh of his own. “He’d find a stick and switch me for breaking his rules even if I am turning twenty soon,” he said.

 

“Maybe you would tell him if you were not such a coward…” Edelgard began, but Claude leveled a finger at her and wagged it slightly.

 

“Hey! This is your bravery test, not mine! You aren’t allowed to go turning it around on me!” he scolded.

 

“Let’s all try to get along now,” Dimitri piped up, but Claude and Edelgard both shot the blond a smile to reassure him that it was just friendly banter. Claude linked his hand with Dimitri’s and swung it back and forth to entertain himself as he walked and Dimitri allowed it with a grin on his features. It kept Claude occupied until he felt his medication finally starting to kick in; by that time, he could see the cove in the distance.

 

“We’re here!” he called, picking up his pace to a trot and yoinking Dimitri along with him until they were stood in front of the opening in the low cliff face.  The hollowed out space was probably twenty feet tall and Claude could only see about ten feet inside before the cove took an abrupt turn to the left and led back into darkness. At high tide the water probably reached the entrance of the cove, but right now the sand was only damp. Claude got his phone from his pocket and fiddled with it until he found the Spirit Box to have ready to go, activating his flashlight as well. Hubert and Edelgard finally caught up and Edelgard frowned at the cave with a little hum.

 

“Doesn’t look very imposing,” she said.

 

“You just wait until you get inside and the djinn starts talking,” Claude said. Hubert scoffed.

 

“I’d be more wary of bats than a genie,” he remarked, scanning the surface of the cove. Claude cracked a smile.

 

“Oh? Are your vampire senses tingling?” he asked. Hubert didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead, the man simply clicked his flashlight on  and was the first to head fearlessly into the cove, Edelgard’s hand tucked in his own.

 

“Let’s get this over with,” Hubert said, leaving Claude and Dimitri to catch up. Claude held his phone aloft, peeking around the cove with a little frown on his features. His father had always made this sound like such a dangerous place which, of course, only increased Claude’s fascination with it. Now that he was here, though, the experience was sort of… a letdown. It wasn’t different than any other cove Claude had been in. In fact, he’d been in far more impressive ones, with bioluminescent algae or pretty shells scattered all about. This one was just rather plain. Boring, even.

 

“Where’s the genie, Claude?” Edelgard called back to taunt him, and Claude pouted. They had reached a dark part of the cove and so he decided it was Spirit Box time.

 

“We’ll find him,” Claude insisted, turning on the app as everyone else groaned. “Come on, Hubert, you’ve seen the shows, you know how this is done. We need to introduce ourselves… I’ll go first,” he said, clearing his throat dramatically before grinning. “Hey there, djinn, it’s me, Claude, ya boi…”

 

“At least pretend to be respectful, Claude,” Dimitri scolded him, but even in the low light of their flashlights Claude could see that Dimitri had cracked a small smile, as well. He was the next to speak up. “To any spirits residing in this cove, hello. I am Dimitri.”

 

“Hubert.”

 

“And Edelgard.”

 

Claude nodded his approval before holding his phone up a little higher, peeking around with the flashlight. “Now, I’ve heard stories about you all my life, mister djinn. My father says you’re the biggest, baddest ghoul on the block. Care to prove it?” he asked. They all waited in quiet for a while – well, as quiet as it could be with Claude’s phone going bzzzzt PA PA PA PA SH SH SH bzzzt

 

“Perhaps your djinn does not speak Fodlani, Claude,” Hubert pointed out, and Claude’s expression brightened.

 

“Oh, of course!” he said. “Djinni! Bah barwn, bah barwn!”

 

bzzzzt PA PA PA KHA PA SH LID SH SH bzzzt

 

“Hey, did that thing just say ‘Khalid’?” Edelgard asked, but Claude pulled a face at her even as his heart hammered. Yes, he had heard that, too. But he wasn’t going to let Edelgard frighten him. This was supposed to be her bravery test.

 

“I said you weren’t allowed to turn this around on me!” he said back in a rather loud voice to talk over the Spirit Box, but when his phone died halfway through the sentence he was just left yelling for no reason, voice echoing around them as he frowned down at his phone and tried to turn it back on. “What? It was just at a full charge…”

 

“Probably some mining process going on in the background,” Dimitri muttered. “You got that app for free, didn’t you?”

 

“Either that, or the djinn didn’t like all the ruckus,” Hubert mused with a sinister little smile and Claude bared his teeth at Hubert.

 

“Stop trying to scare me!” he said.

 

“Scare you?” Hubert asked. “My, you get riled easily. I was simply putting forward a hypothesis, it is your own problem if you are scared by it,” he said. Hubert’s flashlight strobed suddenly, briefly, before it, too, died. Hubert shook the light with a little frown. “…damn batteries,” he muttered.

 

“We at least still have mine,” Edelgard said. “Come on, Claude, are we done here?” she asked, and Claude huffed, flustered. Edelgard still looked perfectly composed and that was not his end goal at all.

 

“No, come on, let’s go a little bit deeper-”

 

Edelgard’s flashlight went out, plunging them into darkness.

 

“Turn that back on!” Claude demanded.

 

“I didn’t turn it off, Claude, it just died!” Edelgard returned, and he could hear her smacking the flashlight against her palm in the darkness, trying to get it to work again. A deep, evil laugh echoed around them and Claude yelped before he realized that it was only Hubert, a recognition he made as soon as that laugh morphed into a much lighter, more amused one at Claude’s little scream.

 

“That easy to get under your skin?” Hubert asked. Claude let out a little whine but felt better when Dimitri’s hands found him and wrapped around his waist, pulling him back against his boyfriend’s broad chest.

 

“Got you, Claude,” Dimitri murmured reassuringly and Claude shook his head even if he stayed plastered right up against Dimitri.

 

“I’m not frightened!” Claude protested.

 

“Well, neither am I,” Edelgard said. “Have I passed your test, Claude? Are you ready to go?”

 

“You’re usually not one to stall on making ‘tactical retreats’…” Hubert said, and Claude firmed up his features at the tease.

 

“No, just turn your flashlights back on, I want to see what’s at the back of the cove,” he insisted.

 

“I really can’t,” Edelgard hummed. “Come on, there’s still enough light from the entrance to make it there if we turn around now, Claude, don’t be so stubborn.”

 

“I’m not being stubborn, I just-”

 

Claude nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone suddenly turned back on, broadcasting nothing but a bright white screen as the Spirit Box activated itself.

 

bzzzzt PA PA PA PA SH RUN SH SH bzzzt

 

Claude shrieked, threw his phone into the darkness, and ran like his life depended on it. As much as Hubert and Edelgard had been teasing him back there in the cove, they were still right on his heels as they all ran out, Hubert having scooped Edelgard into his arms and following Claude back out of the cove as quickly as possible. They were laughing, though – Edelgard enough so to be wiping tears from her eyes as Hubert sat her back down – while Claude was pale in the face.

 

“Oh my god, Claude, I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts!” she laughed.

 

“You heard it! Don’t pretend you didn’t hear it say my name and tell me to run!”

 

“All I heard was that abhorrent static, I have no idea what you two are on about,” Hubert said with a shake of his head. Claude’s features went from white to red as his temper flared. Normally he didn’t mind being teased, he always gave as good as he got, anyways, but he was sensitive right now and Dimitri wasn’t stepping in to defend his honor like he usually did, either.

 

“Dima, tell your sister to shut up- Dimitri?” Claude called, glancing around and realizing that Dimitri was not with them. His heart thundered as his head filled with the frightening possibilities of what could have befallen his boyfriend to keep him from running out with the rest of them – he’d never admit one of his first thoughts was the djinn got him – but as he called attention to the fact that Dimitri wasn’t there Edelgard and Hubert both immediately sobered and looked back into the cove.

 

“Possibly slipped on something, I’ll go back in to look,” Hubert said, shaking his flashlight a few more times as Edelgard nodded. Claude’s feet seemed stuck to the ground as he stared into the cove. This was stupid, this had been a stupid idea, it was all his stupid fault if Dimitri was hurt…

 

“Hey, Claude, relax. How are we doing?” Edelgard coaxed him with a hand on his arm, the same question as before but it was asked much more gently this time. Claude didn’t respond. His gaze was focused deep in the cove, where he could see a pinprick of red light, like the burning coal of an angry eye, getting closer, and closer-

 

Dimitri stepped out of the cove, red glowstick in one hand and Claude’s phone in the other. Edelgard let out a relieved little breath as Dimitri came forward and deposited Claude’s phone into his hands. “You dropped this,” he said, and Claude stared, dumbfounded. He’d thrown his phone harder than he’d ever thrown anything in his life and if all Dimitri had was a glowstick then it was no wonder it had taken him so long to find it for his boyfriend. Claude shook his head incredulously before leaping into Dimitri’s arms.

 

“You idiot, you’re so mean, I thought something had happened to you…”

 

“Where did you get a glowstick, Dimitri?” Edelgard asked, and Dimitri shrugged even as he held Claude safe in his arms.

 

“Sylvain keeps the party trunks stocked, apparently,” he answered, tapping the pocket. Claude pulled back enough to shoot Dimitri a look.

 

“You had those the whole time? And you didn’t suggest using them when all our lights died?” he asked.

 

“They aren’t mine,” Dimitri pointed out. “I’ll have to pay Sylvain back for this one…”

 

“Good god, Dimitri, Sylvain’s not going to care about that,” Edelgard said with a roll of her eyes as Claude proceeded to climb Dimitri like a tree, snuggling up as close as he could get. “Do you think you can manage to carry your koala bear all the way back to the condo, brother dear? Because I don’t think he’s going to let go of you but I’m ready to get moving,” she said. Dimitri chuckled.

 

“I can manage… Claude, here, just get on my back…” he said, helping Claude readjust until Claude was piggyback – or, as they had taken to calling it, ‘assumed the koala position.’ Dimitri’s hands held Claude under his thighs as Claude wrapped his arms around Dimitri’s shoulders and nuzzled into his neck.

 

“We will never speak of this,” Claude told the others, heart sinking when Hubert burst into laughter.

 

“You don’t have a bribe good enough to keep me from telling everyone that you are scared of genies,” he insisted, and Claude groaned and hid his face against Dimitri’s shoulder. He was never going to hear the end of this, was he? Even Dimitri was quietly laughing, just a bit. Maybe Claude would laugh about it, too, one day. That didn’t seem likely right now, with his heart still going a mile a minute, but part of him could see the humor in it, even as Edelgard was feigning his voice with little pleas of ‘Dimitri, Dimitri, did the djinn get you?’ which he most certainly had not said out loud and Hubert reenacted the evil laugh that had set Claude off in the first place. When the sun started to set on their walk and Edelgard clicked her flashlight on to help them see better, Claude glared at her.

 

“You turned it off on purpose,” he accused.

 

“Did not,” Edelgard responded, and Claude had never been more frustrated over the fact that she was one of the only people he couldn’t read. He needed to know if she was lying to him…

 

“Yes you did,” he insisted childishly, and Edelgard shot him an impish little smile over her shoulder. Thank god. She wasn’t going to tease him with it forever.

 

“Dima, where did you gooo?” she sighed again, and Claude huffed. Okay. Teasing forever it was. Edelgard stuck her tongue out at him before linking arms with Hubert and trotting ahead. Dimitri walked slower with Claude on his back, but it seemed like he really was determined to carry Claude the entire half mile to the condo.

 

“You’re all right, aren’t you? Claude?” Dimitri asked, quietly enough that Hubert and Edelgard wouldn’t hear. Claude sighed.

 

“I’m fine, really. Nothing wounded but my pride… I’m sure it’ll all be a good laugh in a few years…”

 

“I think it’s going to be a laugh for everyone else around the bonfire tonight,” Dimitri said. “If it really does bother you, I’ll make them stop,” he began, but Claude shook his head and finally managed a small smile.

 

“No, Dimitri, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He grinned. “I’ll find a way to get them back.”

 

He had a whole two weeks more of vacation to figure out just how he was going to do that.

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