abraxaslogs | maybe i'm a mess

[ Things had been grim in their shared rooms the past few days. Petra's disappearance, followed so swiftly by Marianne's, had cast a shadow over all of them. Sylvain knew how deeply it was affecting Claude and Hilda, who had been closer to both of them than he'd been. Not that he didn't count them friends - and had been here with Petra since day one - but both of them had been far closer to the two girls than he'd been and had taken the sudden absence hard.

He knew how that felt, had gone through it when Felix had vanished, but he didn't think they'd approve of his coping methods from back then, so he ends up coming up with a different distraction technique. Namely, something they'd talked a bit about before, especially when their rooms started getting a little overcrowded. Now that they were feeling a little too empty, it seemed an equally good reason to bring the topic up again.

Which was why he'd dragged them both out of the Inn fairly early this morning to go look at a few places for rent about the city, so they could finally move out of the Inn and into their own place. Considering how long they'd all been here now, Sylvain thinks it's way past time.

He squints down at the paper list in his hand to double-check the next address on it before glancing around to get his bearings. ] I think it should be up on this next left-hand corner. Either that or we've gotten hopelessly lost.

Edited 2023-05-06 22:12 (UTC)

[ Life has started to settle back into something resembling normal finally. Sylvain's still been struggling with sleep and he hasn't missed the fact that Claude is still keeping his too-late nights as well.

Tonight seems to be one of them, as Sylvain stumbles back to the Inn at an obscene hour and finds the place dark and quiet. It seems as if the entire place is asleep already and that illusion holds until he slips into the room he shares with Claude and finds the other still propped up in bed and reading by lanternlight.

The sight's a familiar one and he can't quite keep the faint smile from quirking across his lips as he closes the door behind him and props his hands on his hips. ]

Please tell me you're not still working.

[ It had been easier to avoid in the Inn, maybe. Or maybe just easier to pretend it wasn't any of his business and they'd figure it out eventually on their own. But after several days of inhabiting their new loft in patches of tense silences and weighted awkwardness, Sylvain was beginning to think that whatever had gone sideways between Claude and Hilda wasn't something they were in any rush to fix.

Which surprised him a little, because in all the years he'd known them at the Academy - and the months here since their arrival - he'd never known them to be truly at odds with one another. Oh, sure, they'd have little disagreements and spats, or their banter might hold a bit of a bite with things unsaid. But this? This was something far deeper than that.

And the two of them seemed more preoccupied with continuing to dance around it and pretend like everything was Fine, when clearly neither of them were. Which, while he can appreciate the tactic as it's one he uses quite often himself, it's been making for a very uncomfortable living space.

On top of that, he doesn't even have any idea what they're fighting about, which is wreaking havoc on his own paranoia. So after days of biting his tongue and watching their stilted interactions - or outright avoidance of one another, he finally gets fed up with it and makes a point to drag them both aside to see if he can't help smooth things over once more.

Hilda just happens to be the first one he finds. Snagging her arm, he interrupts whatever path she'd been about to take deeper into the loft and warren of construction zones to drag her into the safety and quiet of the kitchen - the one place that was relatively quiet and interruption free right now. ]

There you are. Just who I was looking for. Come try this new tea I found and tell me what you think.

[ Claude, he knows, will take a bit more tactical maneuvering to get anything out of. But at the very least, he can predict some of his habits after all this time. Even if he has to wait for the late hours of the night - or is it early hours of the morning now? - before he hears the quiet click of the door and the soft footfalls that announce the man's return home.

Considering he's currently propped up in Claude's bed with one of his books and a half-empty teapot beside him, it's clear he's been waiting a while. And also that Claude's not really going to be able to easily avoid him when he finds him making himself comfy here.

In fact, Sylvain glances up with a casual smirk the moment the other man takes a step into his room, playful teasing in his gaze. ]

I was beginning to wonder if you'd found someone else's bed to inhabit for the night.

[Closed] House Hunters Interdimensional

[Closed] Claude, Returning the Favor

[Closed] Hilda; Nothing's Fair in Love and War