[ The grabbing onto his wrists, the look around the cavern, the shudder: Claude doesn't need Sylvain to explain further. It takes but a blink and he's standing at the top of Conand Tower again watching as a different red-haired man goes from man to beast, the iron bow clutched in his hands feeling as useless as any toy, and a horror his younger and somehow still naïve self had brushed aside. Like it wouldn't happen again. Like it couldn't happen again, even as they'd returned back to the monastery with the Lance for the sake of House Gautier.
One more blink and they're back in this pit where Sylvain looks at him wild-eyed with a fear neither one of them can bring themselves to say. It hurts, because Claude knows what it is he's really being asked. ]
No. [ The answer doesn't take longer than a second to come with as much force behind it as before. Because for once he's afraid of what might happen if he lets go, he clutches Sylvain tighter like that will chase it away. As if he can erase anything no matter how futile that wish is. ] You're not going to be. I'll keep you safe, I'll promise.
[ If he were a better man, Claude thinks, he'd promise exactly what Sylvain wants while willing it to be forgotten about when the fever breaks again. But he isn't, and he can't, so this is the best he can do. ]
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One more blink and they're back in this pit where Sylvain looks at him wild-eyed with a fear neither one of them can bring themselves to say. It hurts, because Claude knows what it is he's really being asked. ]
No. [ The answer doesn't take longer than a second to come with as much force behind it as before. Because for once he's afraid of what might happen if he lets go, he clutches Sylvain tighter like that will chase it away. As if he can erase anything no matter how futile that wish is. ] You're not going to be. I'll keep you safe, I'll promise.
[ If he were a better man, Claude thinks, he'd promise exactly what Sylvain wants while willing it to be forgotten about when the fever breaks again. But he isn't, and he can't, so this is the best he can do. ]