All This Time

Wounds

"TEACH!"

An arrow pierced through Byleth's chest as she pushed Marianne out of the way. Gaping ahead of her, the Ashen Demon fell to the ground, sword in hand. Immediately, Claude rushed over and cradled her in his arms, glancing around desperately.

"Teach, you're going to be alright," Claude panicked, his eyes finally landing on the stunned Marianne. "Marianne! Help!"

"Y-Y-Yes, of course!" She finally snapped out of her paralysis, and Marianne pulled out the arrow. Byleth gasped in pain, and Claude allowed her to grab his hand and squeeze. Using her magic to heal the wound, the three watched as the wound closed and healed itself in a split second.

Claude let out a sigh of relief, and he helped Byleth to her feet. She now had a trail of blood lining down her uniform, but she could care less. Byleth felt dizzy, and she held onto Claude to keep herself up. She detested how she needed to rely on him.

You're injured! Don't you think you could use his help?

"Teach, are you alright?" Claude asked, concerned. Despite their distance throughout the past month, the amount of worry in his voice soothed Byleth. He really did still care about her, even if he only wanted her alive for his schemes.

"I'm okay now." Why the hell did you run out of formation? I knew Marianne would be there to heal me back up, and I know you saw that she was right there as well...

"Good," Claude nodded, an emotion in his eyes that Byleth didn't really understand. Fear? But why would he be afraid? "I need you around, Teach."

"Kid! I saw you go down, are you alright?" Jeralt rode over, lance in hand. He looked furious as he saw Claude with his arms around his daughter. "I'm going to need to you let go of my daughter."

"With all due respect, shes about to topple over," Claude responded, glancing back to Byleth. Feeling self conscious, she straightened herself up and removed Claude's arms from her, ignoring Jeralt's satisfied glance. Claude looked slightly indignant and worried as she pushed him away.

"I'm alright now," Byleth said monotonously. "Dad, don't worry."

"Are you sure?" Claude questioned. What the hell was up with him? Byleth rolled her eyes. I've been hurt before.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"If you say so, kid. Now let's focus on getting those villagers to safety."

Byleth and Claude nodded, but there was a look in his eyes of intense worry. He knew he'd been aching to talk to her for the whole month. She sighed, and gave him the relief she knew he wanted.

"We'll talk after the mission."

———

"Great work at Remire," Byleth told all of her Golden Deer. She'd recruited Sylvain and Ingrid, much to Byleth's joy. "I know that was hard to watch. Everyone is free to take time off today. Class dismissed."

Everyone scattered out of the room gradually, of course, except for one person. Byleth didn't even have to turn around to know it was Claude.

"Teach. You shouldn't have placed yourself in such a dangerous situation."

"It worked out, didn't it?" Byleth shot back, confused by his caring nature. Just yesterday, he'd been as cold as ever. She seemingly forgot that she had also been ignoring him openly. "I knew I would recover."