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Claude had been wandering the echoey halls of Iluna academy for just over an hour now. The sun casted hues of soft orange and warm apricot from the windowed wall on the left side of him, tiled halls barren of both noise and students, reminding the cleric just how late it was.
If he wasn't here for something as silly as getting a good mark in one of his classes by experimenting with elixirs - well.. Claude would've probably found it nicer. Instead he was rushing himself to get back to a classroom all the way across campus after just being there. At least he figured out that going through the academy, and not around each building, was faster.
Still, even with the rushing around and lingering doom of getting a bad mark, there was something about the academy after hours that brought a semblance of peace.
Whoosh.
A flicker of shadow crossed past an open door ahead, catching his attention immediately to see who, or what, did that. Coming up to what Claude remarked as an unlabeled and slightly ajar classroom door, he pressed his palm lightly into the wood. Just when he moved to push the frame open completely... he heard the unmistakable sound of music.
It was gentle strumming, Claude discovered, after listening for a moment longer.
The quiet of the school played remarkably well to the atmosphere of the room. A classroom that would normally be silent at this time, bathed in the gentle embrace of sun, was accompanied instead by a tall figure plucking at a guitar. The dusty air seemed to shimmer as golden rays filtered through the partially drawn blinds, intricate patterns of light and shadow danced upon the walls in rhythm with the soft chords.
The room's once-muted colours were now awash in a warm, vibrant palette.
So this is how Claude found Ren, seated in the midst of the room, playing guitar with a deep sense of feverish passion. Claude couldn't exactly pinpoint the feeling of hearing this solo concert, but it was haunting, emanating from the guitar and tugging at his heart.
The cleric was so lost in the beauty.. of the music, that he found himself at a loss for words. Sure Claude wanted to praise Ren's talent, but admitting he was watching…
God didn't that just feel awkward?
So as Ren was still entirely absorbed in his soft music, Claude remained on the cusp of the door to the sun-kissed room, making no progress in showing himself.
He’d be content to hear the enchanting melodies, and view the strong figure that was creating said sound, from just right here and no further. Claude couldn’t make out the other's face due to the classroom lights being turned off, but he found it made the atmosphere more enchanting, ethereal, that way. After all, Ren’s silhouette was still brushed around the edges with the natural warm light.
Right.
Claude should leave, he had been staring for far too long. He did have work to do after all.
Deciding it was best to leave quietly, Claude's heel turned - right when a suffocating cough broke the tune. Ren's voice forcefully lapsed out for the worse, fingers picking a wrong note, stalling on the strings. His right hand, which had been more towards the neck of the guitar, was now gripping it with some force so as to not drop it. The silhouette that had just been an outline of light had broken apart as Ren turned his head, giving Claude a perfect view of his complexion. Ren appeared pallid, sweat dancing across his face, and he looked cold. Cold despite the fully buttoned up uniform, which Claude had never seen Ren wear right. Concern growing with each intermittently passing note, Claude couldn't justify in his mind staying still or leaving, not when the poor alien sounded like that.
Breathing in, the cleric pushed on the door with his open palm. Immediately he winced at the creaking that the wooden door made, as even if it wasn't all too loud it pierced the general atmosphere completely.
Clenching his teeth Claude began to venture stiffly forward, hands right against his sides. Ren on the other hand had a mixture of surprise and confusion written all over his face. When he stopped a few steps away only then did Ren seem to realise he had just been staring, and blinked, facial features morphing into a strained smile.
"Oh hey! Claude? What are you.. uhm you didn't hear all of that did you? As much as I love audiences, it is a little embarrassing at times if I'm not prepared." Ren chuckled, brushing away the second persistent cough that threatened to overtake him, a crinkle behind his eyes as he smiled.
Claude was tempted to lie, but he shook his head impulsively, eyes following Ren as the alien set over the guitar. "Yeah, I mean, I overheard the beginning of the newest song you were playing. So most of it?" Ren's hands, which tapped on the chair lightly in such a rhythm that sounded eerily familiar to what he had been playing before, stopped, causing Claude to realise he had said that out loud. A streak of panic enveloped the poor cleric, and he immediately began to turn the conversation around.
"That is to say I wasn't lurking on purpose! I was going to leave, but you were coughing and-" Claude's voice cut off, unintentionally sucking in a breath when Ren suddenly rose from where he was seated on the school chair, holding an amused look in his eyes. And now he had to look up, and not down, to see Ren's face better.
Yup.
He was so right.
Admitting to have watched Ren play was very awkward.
"I wasn't coughing coughing. All you heard was just the remainder of a small sickness I caught last week." Ren did several hand gestures, his hand twirling around as if it was helping to explain his thinking process more. Now even if Claude thought Ren was a cool guy, he must admit the alien was absolutely terrible at lying.
Though it seems his face also completely gave away that he didn't believe the alien at all, because Claude didn't even need to speak up for Ren to reiterate. He mused quietly that they were both pretty bad at lying. "What I mean is, I am sick, but just not that sick. Right? I was sick last week, so.. now I'm getting over it." Ren wouldn't meet his eyes any longer, one of his hands gripping onto the chair weirdly while the other rubbed between his nose, trying to breathe.
"Right. And I'm no cleric." Claude snorted, rolling his eyes in exasperation. Now that he was closer he could confidently confirm the tall tale symptoms of sickness and pure exhaustion.
Ren's normally bright blue eyes were dampened with deep circles underneath, not to mention they were red and watery, as if he was mere seconds away from crying. Hell, the alien was breathing heavily through his mouth, his hand shaking ever so, which explained the odd grip on the chair to help hide it.
Yet despite the obvious discomfort, Ren seemed to be adamantly refusing to acknowledge the obvious.
Upon his second- third? look over Ren's face, he was caught point blank by those dull eyes staring right back at him with an expression Claude couldn't quite place. He was the first to look away, face heating up as he stared over to the back wall of the classroom instead- as if it were the most interesting thing in the room.
While Claude could admit Ren's dedication to the act of being fine was impressive, the concern for his well-being began to weigh heavily. Making up his mind, the cleric focused back on the taller figure in hopes that some convincing words would just appear in his mind to speak on.
Turns out he didn't even need to wait for that, as Ren suddenly bent inwards on himself, hands gripping tightly onto the back of the chair as he proceeded to cough up his lungs.
Claude winced over the harsh grading noise that had overtaken Ren, but took this chance to act.
Stepping closer, he first searched for any semblance that Ren even noticed he had advanced like this before he began to speak. "Hey. You need to listen to your body man. It's telling you to stop pushing yourself and rest."
No response.
Except, Claude at least knew some of his words had reached the other, seeing as he had stopped trying to hold in the coughing. The alien's face was hidden in the overcast shadow of his raised arm as he coughed, his balled up fist tightening to dig into the palm of his hand. Even if that should’ve been taken as a sign of aggression, Ren’s demeanour remained gentle to Claude's eyes. There were no harsh lines of anger, as instead all Claude saw was someone frustrated at himself, rather than another.
"Come on.. I'll help you sit down. Trying to hide something like this will only make it worse." Claude's words were stern, but his voice was warm. It blended into the surrounding nature of the setting sun as his hand wrapped around Ren's shoulders to form a sort of support.
At first Claude noticed that Ren was still relying on his own weight to get to the nearest wall, walking as normal as he probably could with Claude's arm wrapped across his back like so. It was only when the alien stumbled on his feet vision blurring, and Claude caught him before he could face-plant, that Ren began to lean more into him.
Claude thought that if one could ultimately forget the scenario of Ren being sick and needing assistance to move, he might have gotten used to Ren's weight leaning against him.
The two moved slowly and safely across the room, Ren being the first to settle down against the far wall. Sinking to join Ren in the overcast shadows of the fading sunlight, Claude's chest heaved to take a few breaths. Now Claude wasn't a weak guy, but Ren was heavier than he had initially thought, not to mention taller too, and he had started to struggle at the end there to support the alien properly.
Speaking of said alien, Ren hadn't spoken up once after his coughing fit had ended. Usually Claude would then try to speak to fill the void of space up with noise.. but he found he didn't mind the silence all that much.
With the two of them almost shoulder to shoulder, leaning against the shadowed wall, Claude could survey all there was to see in the empty classroom. It appeared to be a refurbished classroom, fit with decorated posters of musicians and boxes labelled 'music binders'. There weren't many chairs or desks occupying the space, and what ones that were, were piled off to the side against the wall to the twos left.
To the right, or namely above them were windows. That is where all of the light in the room came from, which made the lumination a warm orange that soon began to fade into the beginnings of the purples and blues of night. In front of them was the single chair that Ren had been sitting on, the guitar on the floor beside it. The chair was set on an angle, as assumedly it was against the wall before being pulled out into the midst of the room. Claude traced the figure of the guitar with his eyes, wondering briefly if he could recreate the tune that Ren had previously been playing.
Though he really didn’t have much to offer in the whole music department besides singing, as he hadn’t really practised with any instruments in a while, so he let the idea go.
Claude sat beside the coughing and convulsing form of Ren, levelling back his gaze over the aliens' again. From what he could understand with his first couple weeks of being at this academy, Ren was always the peppy joyful one, if not a bit naive too. Claude would find the guy hanging off any word that his friends made, laughing in tune or bantering back and forth smoothly.
So truthfully the cleric had just never seen Ren looking this dejected, so... lost.
The halls seem to always be busy in the morning, Claude was discovering. Even after learning to get to the main building of the academy earlier than he would've ever liked, all in order to beat most of the morning rush- the haunting echo of shoes tapping against the polished tiled floors could still compete with the chatter of several groups of students that crowded along the building's interior.
Still, Claude was glad to have transferred here, his first few days have been a blast, even if he hadn't met a lot of new people just yet. Weaving through the different clicks of students to get to his locker, Claude could make out a few topics being discussed.
"Do you think our professor would let me write about Hopcon? ...our valorant club really needs the people." This voice stood out to Claude, who stopped thoughtfully for a moment at this topic.
Interesting.
Even if the general statement was said as a joke among friends, he was definitely curious about this so-called valorant club now. Beginning to turn his head towards the large group of people, Claude’s eyes drifted over amidst everyone. The person talking had purple and yellow streaks styled in long black hair, which draped around his neck and down his back. He wore the blue coloured pin that indicated he was in the same year, but Claude didn't recognize him to be in any of his classes.
..Though all that is to say Claude's only had four of his six classes so far anyway, so there was a chance this stranger was in one of the other two.
Opening his mouth to add in- Claude found regret instantly, running straight into a second year that had been trying to walk around him. Stumbling gracelessly he managed to catch himself on the tiles before anything worse truly occurred. He apologised to the embarrassed student he had run into and turned on his heels, hurrying to his locker instead of continuing the pursuit. He'd have to try and ask another time, he rationalised, as if he started that conversation now, Claude wasn't sure he'd stop anytime soon. That and he’d rather not be the cause of traffic jam.
Fiddling with his locker combination, he picked up the noise of three students directly beside him, chattering on and off with each other while looking at their phones. Claude knew their voices to be the other group of third year transfers in Iluna academy.
"I think you play that game too much.. I mean how do you even get such a high score? I've played that game for hours and have yet to even reach the 3000's!.. You have to tell me your secrets, Zali!" Claude rolled his eyes at the shortest of the group's complaint, opening up his locker instead. He could bet what viral game they were chatting about for sure, given that it had invaded the academy's population like a plague. Thankfully Claude hadn't given into the peer pressure to play it yet, and honestly... it just sounded aggravating. Who would enjoy merging fruits together for the sake of virtual numbers?
Regardless Claude reached into the bare interior of the locker, grabbing out a book binder labelled acting and one other unnamed notebook. In comparison to his two friends Victoria and Kunai, his locker didn't have anything remotely interesting about it. No stickers or photos.
All he included were the bare necessities of each class, but it wasn't like he was opposed to decorating. He just never had any time.
"Guys! I finally found you!"
A voice rang out clearly against the natural flow of conversations, bumping Claude out of his thoughts. Curious, the cleric's eyes swerved to the source of the noise.
He focused on a tall figure somehow holding himself regally as he waved to a group of five, a joyful grin accompanying his softer eyes. The stranger's grey and white uniform, while neat, was clearly modified to display a certain persona of mystery. Claude's eyes fell onto the more unusual features of the figure next, of his.. well he assumed they were horns. Truthfully it was hard to really be sure with this school.
"Scarle! I saw- have you guys seen her new dress yet? Nevermind. Your outfit last night was amazing! Not to mention, you never said anything about being royalty!" The figures' conversation was hard to keep up with, even from an outside point of view. Still, Claude couldn't help the amusement that gathered in his gaze over the interaction just from seeing everyone else's reactions.
In fact, the stranger was so into talking with each individual there that a few other groups had stopped their own conversations to listen in.
"Ren!" Ah, so that was his name. "Where'd you even come from? Though I'm glad you liked my outfit. I'll definitely be wearing it around again." A woman with red and black hair was speaking now, and Claude could only assume she was the person named Scarle. One of her arms rested against a shorter girl's shoulder, the other on her hip, a coy look crossing her face.
Ren's voice sounded out again, and Claude had to force his head back to the direction of his locker door just so he wouldn't keep staring. "Haha, we have to do a group photo if you do. We can all dress fancy- hey! Scarle you can't just dodge around the topic of you being a princess..." The conversation erupted into several topics all at once after that, but one thing was clear to Claude: Ren rushing into the crowded hallway, unannounced and a bit late, seemed to have livened up the atmosphere just enough that it became a tinge more bearable now.
Claude blinked, a concerned grimace on his face as he listened to Ren’s mumbling grief. The alien's face was more pale now, sweat glistened on his forehead that was slow to move down his neck. The coughing came out hoarse as he gasped for air, and he still looked cold.
Ren forced a weak smile, a hint of apology in his eyes. "I feel so useless when I'm like this, unable to do anything. That's why I try to ignore it… I can't even play right." Now he sounded raspy, a mixture of grief and utter sickness, his throat likely closing up from all the coughing. Claude found himself more bothered with the look of hurt on Ren's face than his raspy voice though.
He leaned in, bumping his shoulder against the others, eyes steadily focused on the changing dust particles highlighted in the air from the setting sun. He felt Ren's whole body stiffen up against him, before relaxing after a moment of pause. Claude's mouth opened, this time not caring about how his words came out. "You're not useless. You can't define yourself by what you can or can't do right now anyway."
He took a breath and turned to speak glancing over at Ren this time, who was already staring at him- when had he looked over?- with a calm and gentle look. "Just accept that you're sick and need help. Needing help isn't wrong or cheating. It's just admitting that you can't do everything by yourself."
Somehow the atmosphere felt condensed now, as if the whole room was holding its collective breath.
Claude didn’t exactly know how to proceed, his mind working overtime just from holding Ren’s gaze. Time slowed, and Claude lost himself in staring. Perhaps it might have been weirder, if not for the fact that Ren was doing the exact same thing. And honestly could you blame him? Even if Ren was sick, he was still nice to look at.
A thought appeared in his mind just then, while studying the way Ren's eyes drooped, or that he was clearly hiding his need to cough again.
“I might have something that could help you.” Okay no. He did not just say that.
Claude opened and closed his mouth a couple times, ready to take his words back just when Ren’s eyes widened from their slitted pupils into saucers, a toothy smile appearing.
Fuck.
“Wait really? Why didn’t you say anything sooner?"
’Maybe because his solution was an elixir, and the elixirs never worked out the way he wanted them to?’
“It had slipped my mind.. I only just remembered.” Claude jokes, mentally waving away his sarcastic thoughts, his body temperature threatening to heat up from the sudden mix up paired with barely concealed panic. Now he fumbled, his warm hands moving on their own to his uniform’s jacket where he had been keeping a few elixirs. It was then that he remembered his original purpose of being in the school, to get back to the classroom all the way across campus in order to put these elixirs back for tomorrow's presentation.
Really that seemed like such a trivial matter now. Claude could live with a mediocre mark and his professors' disappointment if it meant he might be able to help the other. With a huge emphasis on the ‘might’.
Carefully, the cleric pulled out two containers, the liquid inside shifting in between hues of red and teal in the reflected lighting. His manicured fingers held onto the glass firmly, as if he had been practising the best way to hold it so they wouldn’t drop.
Turns out he just about ended up dropping them anyway, when Ren let out a low hum beside, and bumped him lightly with his shoulder, mirroring what Claude had done to comfort the alien a few moments before. “They look so cool.. Did you make them? Are they specifically for when you're sick?”
Claude's hand twisted one of the containers, showing off the label he had scrawled a note and name onto so that they could both read it. “Well hypothetically this one should help with a fever. The other is just in case it… doesn’t.”
Again everything seemed to pause. Truthfully Claude was merely waiting for the ringing question of why it was hypothetical, or if it was even safe.
Instead what greeted him was the alien's genuine laughter, which turned into coughs just as fast. Still, Claude felt his face flush, awestruck over this novelty of a response.
“Sounds fun! Let's do it.” Ren had finally stopped his painful laughter, leaving Claude to try and get his mind to catch up. He was still in shock, he had never heard such a laidback response to the idea of trying out an elixir.
“Uh.. sure okay. Yeah.” Claude shifted his whole body so that he was facing towards Ren rather than leaning on the wall, his expression morphing into something serious. “Just to be sure, my elixirs don’t exactly have a good success rate. And I haven’t exactly tested this one yet either.” Claude paused, searching Ren’s face for any change, but when he found none he continued, pressing the matter further.
“You have to tell me right away if it doesn’t help. Like if it does anything other than help rid you off your sickness, or maybe if it doesn’t do anything at all. Say you’ll say something.” He argued this point rather fiercely, as ever since the incident regarding his friends Vivi and Kunai, he had to double down on safety.
Ren easily nodded once, then again. The smile had turned to a flat line, more confused than anything. Claude mildly acknowledged that Ren could almost look akin to a worried golden retriever with that expression on. It reminded him of what the alien was like upon their first actual meeting.
After gaining the confirmation that Ren would say something if the elixir backfired, he held out the first of two containers towards the alien.
Calculus and Conjurations: A Magical Approach to Mathematics
Claude pushed open the classroom door, a relaxed expression on his face. For once he was early to a lecture. He mused that after having figured out the path of his first few classes, getting to this one despite it being the first time, was significantly easier.
Glancing around the hall of basically empty seats, Claude demised which seat would likely be the best spot to learn from. Due to his experiences of being late to his other classes, he knew that lectures often filled up fast. So, determining that there would be quite a bit of people, he walked down the stairway and across to the front of the room.
That is to say, he’d rather be able to clearly see all of the board and not just a fraction of it, especially when it came down to a class like Calculus.
When other third years came rushing in, Claude knew he was in the minority. Everyone sat along the edges of the back first, and when those seats were full only then did they move for the middle. By the time the lecture was about to begin, Claude was one of the only students that went to the very front on purpose. The rest had no choice but to sit there, as there were no other available seats.
Posture exuding a quiet confidence as he patiently waited for the lecture to commence, Claudes fingers tapped rhythmically against his pens tip, seemingly zoned out. With a sudden rustle of movement beside him and no other warning, a binder and its accompanying bag was placed down beside his own notebooks. Claude snapped back to reality, back falling against his seat.
Looking up halfway he gave whoever it was that planned to sit beside him a questioning side eye. Immediately Claude recognized this to be the student aforementioned as Ren, who he had seen in the halls earlier. Huh. He hadn’t even realised then that there was a possibility they were in the same year. It seemed during the time waiting for this class to start Ren had stopped wearing his linen white jacket, and with his black hair drawn over his face, Claude’s impression of the man being a ‘stereotypical carefree bad boy’ only grew. Now that Claude was looking at Ren though, he had to disregard his previous idea of the horns being the oddest part, as his eyes were something else entirely. A cool blue found his own, and Claude was immediately drawn in. The stranger had subtly dilated pupils, ones that seemed impossibly sharp and hyper aware of their surroundings, even if he expressed that carefree persona. They were almost haunting him.
The stranger, as soon as their eyes officially met, gave him a sheepish grin that had Claude's whole impression faltering, because his smile was rather fun– in a naive way- causing the cleric to only blink out his begrudgement. Even if he hadn’t wanted anyone sitting right beside him, courtesy of not wanting to talk much, he still moved his notebooks to give the student some room.
When the lecture began Claude aimed to keep focus on what the professor was talking about, if only to make a calendar on what projects were due later on. Now calculus and magic weren’t exactly things he ever saw colliding, and yet here it was, and first impressions.. well they leaned more to the complicated side. The main premise was that they’d be learning about how calculus and magic coincided and worked together, though the course work was dependent on if one possessed natural or artificial magic. Apparently the classes had already been divided into those who could do magic naturally and those who couldn’t, as to help students focus on learning Conjurations that they can actually use.
The professor did say if anyone needed to switch they’d need to talk to her after the lecture portion, but Claude saw no need for that. After all, he didn’t have any natural magic, and had a hobby of creating potions anyway. Perhaps this class would help him pursue that?
Halfway through though, he paused his notes to subtly try a glance over, only to see Ren absolutely absorbed in whatever he was writing. Stifling a small bemused smile, Claude's attention fell back onto the alien for a while, pencil still in his hand. As he watched for a while longer, he realised that Ren was not writing, rather, he was drawing.
He failed to hide his smile this time, a soft chuckle escaping his mouth. Ren’s head turned to him from the accidental laughter, catching him in the act of looking over. Claude stuttered awkwardly, before attempting to remedy the situation. By ripping a piece of his lined paper off, he carefully drew what he believed to be a rather good stick figure wearing a tophat and bowtie, and slid it across to his right. Ren, who had gone back to his own notes for a moment, looked up again and this time a cheery grin erupted onto his face.
No words were exchanged, given that they were in the front of the lecture hall and didn’t want to disrupt the atmosphere, but there was no need for words. Back and forth, they exchanged little notes or drawings.
Before he knew it, class was over and Claude had several doodles across his torn notebook page.
Ren was still packing up when Claude stood, still holding onto the page in one hand. “Hey, do you want this? Or should I keep it?” He began, clearing his throat softly to get the others' attention. Ren paused, pushing his books into his bag, and just shook his head.
“Keep it, you started it after all!” Ren’s smile was infectious, and it had Claude's own grin widening, chuckling lightly. “Okay then dude, thanks. I’ll find a place for it.” Humming, the cleric pushed in his chair, sliding his bag over one shoulder while shimmying out of the seat section. Carefully holding the paper so as to not crumple the doodles, his heels clicked as he went up the carpeted stairs.
“I don’t think I caught your name.”
Claude paused, Ren’s voice calling out from behind him. Turning, there the alien was, staring up at him with his bag at last packed up and firmly in one hand. Ren had then taken to moving up the staircase to get near Claude after he didn’t answer right away, a somewhat worried expression on his face.
The man was likely wondering why Claude wasn’t saying anything.
“Oh! You’re right.” He breathed out deeply, feeling embarrassed he had forgotten something so important like telling the other his name. “My name is Claude.”
Claude watched Ren take the first elixir, an unreadable emotion rolling around in his gut. He assumed most of it was worry, but there was also anticipation, or was it fear? He had neglected the whole experimental research part of his research for quite a while after all, in fear that he might hurt something or someone. It made sense if he was concerned that something worse might happen.
It felt seconds too long, the way he waited in the looming purpled light of dusk. The blinds that were partly down made an interesting effect on the ground, as with the illuminations change, the direction also shifted. Now Claude was sure he was completely covered in the purple and blue hues, but he found he couldn’t concentrate on whether it was nice looking or not– not when Ren had yet to say anything.
“Hey? …Buddy? You okay?”
Claude’s hand moved to rest on the alien's arm. It had only been a few seconds.
“Ren?”
“-Gahh.. what the fuck, the aftertaste is terrible.” Ren complained, sticking out his tongue in exaggerated defiance as he scrunched up his nose. Claude stared for a moment, searching Ren for anything screaming that he was in pain. Finding nothing he couldn’t help but allow a few chuckles to escape his mouth. The amusement had bubbled up from his worry, so now it escaped in the form of unrestrained humour.
Ren didn’t do anything but groan, head moving to rest against the back of the wall.
“Oh wow.. I did not expect that.” The expression of confusion still formed around the edge of Claudes lips, his chuckles dissolving into quieter giggles. Ren seemed to always surprise him.
He had been worried.
“You told me to say if it does anything other than help, I think you should've expected it. I don’t think the aftertaste helps at all.. tastes like regret.” Ren jokes, grimace still visible as he sets over the empty container.
Claude wheezed, shaking his head, a hand dragged across his face slowly. Now he just felt tired, perhaps he had been worrying far too much. “Okay.. that aside, how do you feel?"
Crepuscular rays drifted on top of Claude's skin in the pattern of the foliage outside, a stark contrast to Ren’s figure which was excluded in darkness, apart from his legs, which were somewhat stretched out in front of him and therefore got more declining light.
“I.. actually I feel a lot better. Not one hundred percent of course, but yeah. Thanks.” Rens words delayed, struggling to find the correct wording as he kept his eyes down, where Claude's hand still rested against his arm. Against Ren’s cold skin, Claude was a heat source much welcomed.
“Yeah yeah I'm the best.” Claude exhaled, a soft relieved sigh escaping his lips. Pearlescent hair escaped the strands of his tie, falling across the man's face and covering some of the humour now forming in his gaze. “God I’m glad that actually worked well.” He remarked after a moment, though his face morphed into a quick spark of surprise when a cold sense passed by his skin. Finally drifting his eyes down, Claude realised two things at once. One was that his hand had been on top of Ren’s forearm this whole time and Ren didn’t say anything, and two, that Ren's hand was hovering timidly over his.
“I mean it.” Ren’s voice was quiet and sincere. It struck Claude right in the heart.
“Yeah. You’re welcome.”