[ The flustered reaction is well worth it. Even as she sputters, even as Claude knows it was a joke just on the side of things neither one of them are addressing just yet, it doesn't stop a wide grin from crossing his face. He's all too pleased, but to say it's just from that reaction alone would be wrong. It's far more than that, an all encompassing sort of delight the last few months made seem like would be an impossibility for it to ever happen again between them.
The small shove gets another chuckle out of him what with it being equally familiar in something else long missed. It's half-hearted at best and not a real protest, but that it wasn't long ago it would've been one is still present in his mind. As is joking about being roommates even if it's technically correct and despite what all they've told each other and what's still yet to come - from what else he knows he has to say, that is - and Claude might've responded to that with yet another quip if it wasn't for what follows.
That admission has his expression softening all over again as he looks up at her where she perches on his lap and studies her face as if to memorize every part of it all over again. As if every time before wasn't enough when it wasn't, and as if gazing upon something treasured no matter how many times before this the same has happened. This is different: the agreement to let down all those walls one by one with trust in each other to do it and to mend it in time. ]
I missed you too, Hilda. So much. [ A statement which only scratches the surface, Claude knows, and an answer in kind to everything beneath the surface of simple words they won't say aloud but the other can hear as clearly as any ringing bell. Rather than elaborate on it, he trails the back of the hand that'd straightened her hair along her jaw, gaze focused momentarily upon her lips before flicking it back up to her eyes. ] Can I kiss you again or is that too far outside of the roommate story?
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The small shove gets another chuckle out of him what with it being equally familiar in something else long missed. It's half-hearted at best and not a real protest, but that it wasn't long ago it would've been one is still present in his mind. As is joking about being roommates even if it's technically correct and despite what all they've told each other and what's still yet to come - from what else he knows he has to say, that is - and Claude might've responded to that with yet another quip if it wasn't for what follows.
That admission has his expression softening all over again as he looks up at her where she perches on his lap and studies her face as if to memorize every part of it all over again. As if every time before wasn't enough when it wasn't, and as if gazing upon something treasured no matter how many times before this the same has happened. This is different: the agreement to let down all those walls one by one with trust in each other to do it and to mend it in time. ]
I missed you too, Hilda. So much. [ A statement which only scratches the surface, Claude knows, and an answer in kind to everything beneath the surface of simple words they won't say aloud but the other can hear as clearly as any ringing bell. Rather than elaborate on it, he trails the back of the hand that'd straightened her hair along her jaw, gaze focused momentarily upon her lips before flicking it back up to her eyes. ] Can I kiss you again or is that too far outside of the roommate story?