I kinda think it wasn't anyone's plan, really, if you want to get that specific about the details.

[ There's more than a faint smile this time while saying so, not only because he can tell Sylvain's trying but because this is a familiar enough routine. A better one than continuing to pick fights with each other even if Claude's actually the only one guilty of that.

The rest, though: Claude needs a second to consider that, to think over the assurances he's being offered when he's pretty sure it should be the other way around, and about how they pull at something somewhere painfully that can't be attributed to their ill-fated scuffle out in the desert. What he wouldn't give for a way to distract them both. Maybe if they're down here long enough it'll be worth finding some rocks for a makeshift chessboard.

In the end worry's still very much on his mind, but he keeps it to himself in favor of putting his head back against the wall and slightly to the side in a reasonable facsimile of leaning it against Sylvain's shoulder without the actual contact. All the better to think while ignoring whatever aches he has from that magic used on them. ]

I know that, but that wasn't what I meant. It's also alright if you aren't alright, Sylvain.