[ The lack of response from Hilda beyond folding in even further on herself rings several alarm bells in his mind. His grip on Sylvain loosens until Claude lets go, instead letting that hand hover over her shoulder as if debating whether to place it there. The flinch away from his touch from moments ago still lingers in his mind, startled as he'd been by it as she'd been the same, and so he drops his hand into his lap and watches.
Not Sylvain's face this time; what he can see of Hilda's is what he studies where everything reads like defeat. It matches the mention of sabotage, a word which didn't click into place until it's now hanging in the air between all three of them. So does the weight of all of this being a way to hurt each other even without that being the intent, and not for the first time he considers whether they're well past that. For all the confidence he's had in this, fear begins to creep in at an increasing rate.
Sylvain's ending question - there's another possible answer which isn't mentioned. But unlike his own questions in the Nether he came across where he was afraid to ask, this one Claude doesn't feel like he needs to in order to find out. It doesn't need to be said aloud that on some level or possibly - likely - multiple, that Hilda doesn't trust him to be true, or for that to be something he's undeniably earned.
He stays silent. He's said enough, and enough of what Sylvain says overlaps with his own thoughts whirling around his mind that he's not certain there's any point in essentially repeating it. On this Claude feels he shouldn't lest it end up not seeming like the support he'd intend to offer if he did, and instead he sits frozen with nothing to do but wait for what will follow. ]
no subject
Not Sylvain's face this time; what he can see of Hilda's is what he studies where everything reads like defeat. It matches the mention of sabotage, a word which didn't click into place until it's now hanging in the air between all three of them. So does the weight of all of this being a way to hurt each other even without that being the intent, and not for the first time he considers whether they're well past that. For all the confidence he's had in this, fear begins to creep in at an increasing rate.
Sylvain's ending question - there's another possible answer which isn't mentioned. But unlike his own questions in the Nether he came across where he was afraid to ask, this one Claude doesn't feel like he needs to in order to find out. It doesn't need to be said aloud that on some level or possibly - likely - multiple, that Hilda doesn't trust him to be true, or for that to be something he's undeniably earned.
He stays silent. He's said enough, and enough of what Sylvain says overlaps with his own thoughts whirling around his mind that he's not certain there's any point in essentially repeating it. On this Claude feels he shouldn't lest it end up not seeming like the support he'd intend to offer if he did, and instead he sits frozen with nothing to do but wait for what will follow. ]