[ He doesn't look away when Hilda turns to him, nor does he flinch upon seeing all the evidence of that pain etched across her face. Tears he'd like to wipe away if it wasn't for still feeling somewhat frozen in place by - everything, he admits to himself, because this conversation's pulled out so much of what they've all been hiding. It was necessary or rather, it is necessary since Claude can't imagine he's the only one still holding onto things, and as many aches as it might cause now? It will be worth them in the end. Despite it all - because of it all, he still believes that. There are things worth fighting for, and both of them are it.

It's difficult to not think of the rifts, where he'd watched them take on the dragon and felt the same kind of crushing reality tightening his chest as it is now at a realization rising unbidden: that the two of them were his whole heart. And they are now, too, as the three of them sit here where it no longer feels so much like teetering upon the precipice of disaster. It's a chance to do better than before, and one Claude knows he won't squander.

With his face leaned into Hilda's palm to soak up a touch he treasures, he watches with a smile as Sylvain leans in to kiss her and lets his gaze trace over both what he can see of Hilda's expression and the one on the other man's face. ]

I think not looking back would be for the best. Also not to forget it or pretend it didn't happen, like Sylvain said, but because holding onto that as anything other than as something we don't want to repeat won't clear the way to move forward. There's nothing more I'd like to do than just that and with both of you. All of us, together.