"I'm here to enjoy my time with the ladies and make sure the Leicester Beach is up to par."
'Lorenz' made a flamboyant move, his gestures wild yet articulated. Byleth could barely stop herself from laughing. His haircut is awful. "Fortunately enough, I found you, the incompetent, disowned heir."
"I disowned myself," Claude kept a smile on his face, but wasn't hard to see that the two had a negative relationship. "I'm glad to see others approve of that decision."
"Hmmph. Regardless of how I approve of that decision, it's obvious that Leicester is suffering because of your decision to leave," Bad haircut dude-Lorenz- huffed. "I may not want you as an heir, but the greater good is telling me that you need to reclaim your proper heritage."
"No. That's not what I want to do," Claude shook his head firmly. "You're wrong. That's not the greater good. Once my father kicks the bucket, you're free to take over. You can have Leicester, I know it's what you've always wanted."
"You aren't wrong. I do want the company. I deserve the company...but no one would be happy to see the Gloucester's take hold. After all, my father is not considered kindly in the public eye," Lorenz said flippantly. "Even if he was to inherit the Leicester Alliance, he'd hold onto it with an iron grasp. I'd never get a chance to reform the company until he dies, which would not come to pass for a long time. No, Claude. This is not my destiny. It is yours."
"No, it's not! You don't know what I've had to go through," Claude kept his tone as amicable as possible, but tones of frustration and desperation still shone through. Byleth squeezed his hand, trying to comfort him, but Claude didn't back off. "I've had enough of my father, and I've had enough of people telling me what to do. I'm going to sing like I've always wanted!"
You tell him.
Even though Byleth was satisfied, she couldn't help but feel just a tad bit guilty. It was her destiny to unite the companies or whatever...was it bad to dissuade Claude like this?
Well, it didn't matter. Byleth didn't care about her destiny or whatever. She was dying, for heavens sake, and she had the right to do whatever she wanted for her final moments. That involved hearing Claude sing, instead of having him stuck at his company where she couldn't see him anymore. Byleth knew it was selfish.
She didn't care.
"You really are incompetent! The fate of the companies resides on you, and you won't step up to your destiny!" Lorenz exclaimed. He was attracting attention, the opposite of what Claude wanted. Byleth frowned.
"It's his choice, not yours," Byleth tried to diffuse the situation, but that only seemed to rile Lorenz up even more.
"His choice will affect all of us!" Lorenz folded his arms. The people are them began to whisper as Claude argued.
"I-I thought Claude would t-take up Leicester...He was my favorite in the magazines! I don't want him to go!"
"Yeah! Besides, why are they arguing? I thought the Gloucester's and von Riegans got along!"
"Alright, alright!" A brunette with curly hair and a big hat marched out. She wore a magenta bathing suit, and her green eyes were narrowed in Lorenz's direction. Byleth felt her eyes widen. Is that...? "Quit arguing. We're all just trying to enjoy our time on the beach, we don't need you both to cause a scene."
"Dorothea? Is that you?" Byleth asked instead, surprised. As the songstress glanced at Byleth, her cheeks flushed.
"Hi. Someone needed to step in, sorry."
"Wait, I know you! You're at the bar, singing sometimes!" Claude exclaimed before tapping his chin. Suddenly, a great idea came into Byleth's mind...Claude tilted his head. "What a coincidence that we're all here at the exact same time. Weird."
"Yeah, that's me. I cant believe I didn't realize you were a von Riegan, but it makes sense now," Dorothea said, not taking her eyes off of Lorenz. "Now, scram! These two are just trying to have a lovely day. Don't ruin it! What they do is none of your business."
"With all due respect, this is none of your business," Lorenz responded, which only served to make Dorothea angrier.
"It is, because you're disturbing my peace. I'm just trying to relax right now, I don't get a lot of time to do this," Dorothea pointed out. "I didn't come to the beach to watch two guys fight it out. So knock it off!"
"A commoner does not talk to me that way-"
"A COMMONER!!?" Dorothea screeched, a furious look in her eyes. Byleth tugged on Claude's hand urgently. This was the perfect opportunity for them to escape! The two quickly snuck away as Dorothea gave him a piece of her mind.
"Good call," Claude complimented as they made their way out of there and to the nearby store, where they had clear eyes on Lorenz. Once he left, they were planning to head back, of course, but this just made everything so much easier. "Lorenz is going to be wishing he never brought that up!"
"Oh, you bet," Byleth laughed. She wasn't going to lie, she still felt a little guilty for putting herself first instead of the companies...it's not just me. It's for Claude, too. Claude frowned a little, and Byleth remembered how faraway he was. Was he alright? "Claude...Are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah...It's just...It's a little hard for me to just relax when I know I could be studying and helping you," Claude admitted. "I know it's what you want, but...it just feels wrong for us to be having fun instead of researching."
"Well, thanks to you, the pain disappeared," Byleth pointed out. "Even if this is a short term solution...I don't really care. It helped me a lot today. If I'm going to die, then I want every day to count, not just wasting it on researching for an impossible cure."
"Not impossible," Claude reminded her. "But...If jt really means that much to you, I'll try to loosen up. I can't promise it'll be the same...but I want to see you happy, Teach. And I'll sacrifice whatever it is to see that."
Byleth felt that little twinge of guilt again. Was he sacrificing the companies to make her happy? No. He loves singing! That was true, but part of Byleth knew he desperately wanted to right the wrongs...No, why was she thinking about this? To get it off of her mind, she began to think about her idea from earlier.
She hoped Claude would agree.
"So, I've had this idea..."
YOU ARE READING
Race Against Time
Fanfiction"BYLETH, YOU'RE DYING." Those were the words Byleth Eisner had heard her entire life...but it had never rang true. She had always known that the doctors were wrong, that she was going to keep living, but the fear of death was constant. Born with a h...
