Sapphire Schemes

The future Duke of House Riegan was always smiling, his carefree attitude serving as a perfect cover for his constant machinations and manipulations. Of course he was smiling the morning after his victory, enjoying its afterglow as he stood on the pier with his fishing rod cast, waiting patiently for some poor fish to fall into his latest trap.

Edelgard hated his stupid smug smile, and she hated his stupid smug face, and she hated that she hated him for his stupid smugness because it meant he had succeeded in getting under the future Empress' skin. Furthermore, the sight of stupid smug Claude standing on the pier ruined her otherwise lovely view of the pond from her dormitory bedroom's window. It ruined her morning ritual, the quiet fifteen minutes she spent with her ever faithful retainer, watching the sunrise while he brushed her hair to perfection and put in her ribbons.

She couldn't make it four minutes before her irritation got the better of her, her composure cracking and her embarrassment flooding her face. The nerve of that bloody little weasel, Edelgard seethed to herself, before resolving to wipe that stupid smug smile off Claude's face and put him in his place. She reached up and caught Hubert's wrist mid-brush and moved it away.

"... my Lady?"

"Wait here a moment," Edelgard enunciated each word with due care lest she raise Hubert's suspicions; an effort she knew was futile considering Hubert was suspicious about literally everything. Yet her constant companion was loyal and obedient (up until he decided it was in her best interest if he disobeyed, but that was neither here nor there).

"Of course."

Edelgard didn't know what she murmured to him. All she had on her mind was that stupid smug smile and the severe dressing-down Claude was about to receive. She rose and strode from the room half-dressed, hair left long, loose and flowing as she paced down the hall and then the stairs with sharp, authoritative clicks of her boot heels. Within a minute, those clicks were a sharper staccato on the cobblestones.

Others would be watching from the windows, including Hubert. Edelgard didn't care. It would be good for the school to see someone give stupid, smug Claude Riegan the tongue lashing he deserved. She was nearing the pier now, and then she was on it; he looked over his shoulder with the dumb face that enraged her so, smiling. "Hey, Edelgaaahhh..."

The future Empress felt a dim sense of satisfaction at how the murder on her furiously blushing face wiped away Claude's smug smile and made his words die off before he said something ridiculous. Something like, "Calm down and take it easy, yeah? Let's talk this out."

Something like those exact words that Claude just said. Edelgard's agitation surged, her heart thumping loud in her ears. The words she had been stewing on died away in similar fashion, before she could even open her mouth and say them. "You little asshole," she growled, her moment of crass spitting in the face of all her etiquette training. Claude dropped his fishing pole with a clatter and turned to her, raising his hands in a placating gesture that only made everything worse.

Once she was in spitting distance of Claude, Edelgard let her boot do the talking, her heel connecting hard with his ribs and sending him with a yelp, shout and flailing limbs into the pond. The splash of his impact was so much more satisfying than how he cringed back from her; she didn't even mind that she'd need to change her clothes after it hit her. She glared down at the water and waited a moment for Claude's gasping head to resurface, her jaw tight, face still red as the tights covering her long legs.

"I am not going to say thank you," Edelgard told the waterlogged noble, pleased with how cool and crisp her words were when she felt anything but -- and when in truth, the source of her frustration was the gratitude she felt towards Claude for his meddling. With a deliberate lift of her chin, she gave a smart turn on her heel, flipped her disorderly hair over her shoulder with one hand and began her return to Hubert. Her glare cowed several of the students watching.

It disappeared when she spotted her bemused Byleth watching from her own window, confused by what happened with her lack of context but smiling for Edelgard nonetheless. The sight of it cooled her anger and warmed her heart; she returned it sweetly without thought before thinking better of the rumors it might cause. Ducking her chin with embarassment, she hastened her stride.

"You're welcome," Claude half-groaned, half-called out after her as he pulled himself onto the pier. She didn't look back.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***

Seven days earlier...

Everyone in Garreg Mach knew there was something special about Professor Byleth, and no student knew that better than the first three that had met her: Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude, the respective leaders of Black Eagle, Blue Lion and Golden Deer. Each of the future leaders went through considerable effort to win Byleth over. Ultimately, Byleth chose to preside over the Golden Deer house.

Claude, who made no secret of his conniving nature and tendency to hide plans within plans, had to admit he had no idea why she went with him. Not that he wasn't grateful; her practicality and battle experience paired well with his schemes and contingencies, one tempering the other as needed. He loved having her around, but she was impossible to read. Her fine features were almost always devoid of expression, and when she showed emotion it was always so minute that most people overlooked it.

Frank, forthright Dimtri accepted that decision graciously. His honor would permit him to do nothing else. Edelgard also accepted Byleth's decision, but like Claude she was a schemer, her actions often colored by ulterior motives. Where Dimitri drifted away and turned his focus elsewhere after the new Professor chose Golden Deer, Edelgard seemed to double down on spending time with Byleth. She always seemed to find little moments where she could get close to her.

Edelgard would engage her in conversation. Praise her accomplishments. Find littler moments in those little moments where she could justify touching Byleth's shoulder or side. Once, Claude watched her clearly go out of her way to give Byleth a napkin after Raphael's raucous behavior resulted in an unfortunate gravy spill and a slight wardrobe malfunction.

Until that happened, Claude had thought she wanted to sway Byleth to change houses or perhaps enter the Empire's service. When he saw the way Edelgard swallowed softly and averted her eyes when Byleth thanked her with a smile, he realized what really drove her actions. He began to understand why Edelgard had become progressively colder towards him... not that she was particularly friendly to him before Byleth's arrival. It was jealousy.

And not just because Byleth presided over Golden Deer, but because he had ready access to the emotionally distant teacher. Claude smelled an opportunity to give himself a perfect 'in' with the Empire while managing to distract his House's chief rival.

He refused to admit to himself that the thought of the two smiling together made him happy.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***

Six days earlier...

Another thing Claude refused to admit to himself was how many of his schemes were improvised, finding opportunities where none existed and making them work through sheer charm and stubborn conniving. So it was when Byleth found Claude in the library after a mission and the two began a serious conversation about the Holy Relics. He spotted Edelguard coming down the hall and was inspired to quick action, stepping closer to his Teach and touching her shoulder companionably; a step and a turn had Byleth's back to the entrance and Claude facing it.

The professor tipped her head up and gave Claude a quizzical, if otherwise blank, look. He only smiled at her and carried on, though it wasn't his usual smile; its flirtatious nature was dialled to eleven. With how he stood a head over Byleth and now loomed, it would give the approaching heir the impression Claude was making a move that Byleth might be playing into -- that he was hitting on her, maybe, or about to kiss her.

Edelgard stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening slightly before narrowing dangerously. Claude made a show of glancing up at her and letting his smile crook into a smirk, winking at the pale-haired princess before turning his focus back down to Byleth. Poor, poor Byleth who knew and understood so little of the world outside the battlefield. Though his teacher was still confused by his manner, she eased into it well enough, assuming the best.

He did have good intentions, and though he made another show of being put out by Edelgard's sudden arrival and subsequent self-insertion into their conversation, he didn't care that it forced him to back off. It was all according to plan and all flying right over Byleth's hair, exactly the way he wanted it to. The conversation turned to secrets. Byleth's curiosity and Edelgard's cool ire turned their focus on him, or rather the truth of his lineage.Though he could twist it around on either of them, he instead made it part of his plan.

"Alas," Claude bemoaned as he took a step away from the two young women, hands raising with their palms to the ceiling as he shook his head. "To be surrounded by women as lovely as flowers, only to be pricked by their thorns." He smiled wryly in spite of his morose tone. "Perhaps another night, Teach. Princess. By your leave," he begged the latter with a light-hearted bow just short of outright mocking, intending to prickle Edelgard.

"Of course," Edelgard replied dryly before he straightened and swaggered off, only to round a corner and loiter. There Claude waited, able to hear the sound of their voices as they grew softer and softer. He wasn't spying on them per se; up-to-date intelligence was an important part of any successful scheme, and to that end he needed to know what the two spoke about when they were by themselves. Alone, late at night in an otherwise empty library (sans of course Tomas, who no one noticed until he chose to make himself known).

After a few minutes, Claude could no longer hear them at all. He gave it another minute, then snuck back into the library on agile feet like some sort of devilishly handsome weasel. The two women were continuing the conversation at a table. Getting closer would be risky, but there was a free-standing bookshelf nearby that would suit his needs perfectly. Waiting until he was sure the two were completely focused on each other, he snuck over and settled in. Much to his luck the bookshelf was double-sided with no wall in its center, letting him shift a book here and a grimoire there to create a hole and let him safely observe them.

"... bothering you, Professor? He can be a bit much at times. If you'd rather not talk to him yourself, Professor Manuela could--" Oh, to be painted as a villain so, Claude thought wryly to himself. Byleth genuinely wasn't his type. He suspected they swung for the same team, so neither was Edelgard.

"Why would he be bothering me?" Byleth interrupted Edelgard with the slightest pinch of her eyebrows, her confusion as plain as that of a puppy in the tilt of her head. For a moment, the princess was taken aback by the answer. She watched Byleth's cute expression just a hair too long before clearing her throat and answering. Claude took it as further evidence of his suspicions being on point. Edelgard was hot for (his) teacher.

"He's been hitting on you, hasn't he?"

"No," Byleth responded, giving her head a single shake. She paused for a moment, frowning faintly at Edelgard before very gently reminding her, "Claude is focused on archery. He isn't learning any melee weapons, and we don't spar with arrows."

Edelgard blinked at her, at a momentary loss for words. Byleth blinked back, her head doing that cute little puppy tilt one more time before her martially-focused mind caught on, her full lips forming a little 'o' that caught Edelgard's eye. "You mean romantically. No," Byleth clarified. "Not at all. He's just being himself. If it ever comes up, I'll let him know that I'm not interested in men." Edelgard's picture perfect posture somehow managed to get just a little bit straighter.

"Oh. Well, that's good," Edelgard replied. Claude could see her hesitate over her next question, long enough that Byleth began to fill the void by explaining a gambit they had employed in their last battle. Edelgard listened raptly; though it was clear that she was paying close attention, he could tell her interest wasn't in tactics. Not wanting to make any trouble for kindly old Tomas, Claude carefully put the books back in place.

When he spotted Hubert watching him from across the library, he froze like his mother caught him red-handed filching from the cookie jar. Of course Hubert was in the library, Edelgard was in the library.

After a pause, he took out the book his hand had been on and flashed its cover at the much more morbid man. Smiling his winning smile, he then took off to check out the book with Tomas, only then bothering to glance down at his new reading material, A Guide to the Fish of Fodlan. Well. A new hobby was a small price to pay for plausible deniability.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***

Four days earlier...

Claude hummed to himself. It was another beautiful day in Garreg Mach. The birds were chirping and the sun was shining and Claude was joined by two of his favourite friends while he waited in the monastery's gardens. One sprawled luxuriously in his lap while the other nuzzled their head against his hand. Claude himself was sprawled on a bench. None of them were talking.

Chia and Temu weren't very chatty. That was probably because they were cats. They didn't bother stirring when the Cathedral's bell began to chime. Once, twice, thrice. Three o'clock in the afternoon.

The next phase of Claude's plan was about to begin. A third cat, Sanza, crawled up Claude's body and clung to his shirt. He favored her with his scratches for the next five minutes, then gently coaxed her and Chia off him. He had more spying to do. After a glance around to make sure no one was watching, Claude got to his belly and crawled beneath into a hollow the amounts had dug under the hedge, though on the other side of it the foliage was just thick enough to hide him as he peered through the gaps. It was perfect. Byleth thought Edelgard invited her for tea and vice-versa.

Forgery wasn't in Claude's skills. Yuri was happy to do the work without questioning why he needed fake tea invitations in exchange for an exorbitant fee that left the leader of Golden Deer destitute for the coming week. So worth it. After a moment, he had to amend that thought. This is a terrible view. He could only really see their legs and shoes. Maybe he hadn't thought this part out as much as he should have. But he could hear their conversation, at least. It wasn't a total loss.

Their small talk was boring. The way both of them occasionally shifted in their chairs suggested something was happening... or that they felt itchy, or the seats weren't that comfortable. One of those. They needed a bigger push, but what? Perhaps something with the sauna. Towels. Steal their towels?

No, that would cross a line. Claude frowned and focused, his concentration briefly broken by Chia squirming under the hedge with him and headbutting his face affectionately. "Hey, girl," Claude murmured back fondly, reaching to scratch her. What he heard next made him freeze.

"Here, kitty," Hubert sing-songed far out of character, confident he was alone in the garden behind Claude. "Where did you go, kitty? Here, kitty kitty." The future Duke went deathly still and waited. When it seemed like Hubert had given up on coaxing Chia to him, Claude squirmed out, brushed the dirt off himself and got out of the danger zone.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***

Two days earlier...

Claude found himself in the stable's rafters, peeking over the edge of one wooden beam to watch Byleth and Edelgard return from horseback riding. All he needed to do to make that happen was make sure Edelgard saw him riding behind the professor in a lesson, his arms snug about her waist as he 'acclimated' to the bounce and roll of a horse beneath himself. The women were in good spirits, with Edelgard clearly hanging on to each and every one of Byleth's words. His matchmaking scheme was working one way, that much was certain -- but Byleth's battle-focused mind resulted in impregnable ignorance, a perfect defense to a young lady's attention. Unaware of the way Edelgard was looking at her, she continued to explain the intricacies of a proper cavalry charge.

As Hubert entered the stables, Claude quickly ducked his head down. The mage in training always looked up when he entered a room. It was a ridiculous habit he unwittingly owed to Claude, who in a moment of pique last year had tried to prank Edelgard with a bucket of water balanced atop a door, primed to drench whomever opened it. He hadn't considered the fact Hubert opened every door for Edelgard.

It was another narrow miss. He couldn't keep doing this. Claude needed a gambit.

One came to him.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***

The night before...

Edelgard's undeniably lovely silhouette filled the doorway to Byleth's office in the Golden Deer classroom. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the note requesting her visit when the bells chimed eight o'clock, but even so Edelgard felt the same butterflies that assailed her stomach whenever she had an opportunity to be alone with the quiet, stoic professor. Though Edelgard loved her steely strength, she yearned for the flashes beneath her nigh-blank exterior -- her warmth, her approval.

The princess swallowed, then lifted her hand and gently knuckled on the door. "You wished to see me, Professor?" she asked, her cool and constant composure pushing her butterflies down.

"Yes. Come in, Edelgard." Byleth set her quill aside and removed her glasses, setting them aside on her desk. She frowned faintly at Edelgard as the future empress came to stand before her stately desk. Edelgard frowned faintly in turn, unsure of what to make of Byleth's ever-inscrutable expression until her head tilted just so, betraying her confusion like a puppy. As ever, it made Edelgard's heart skip a beat.

"... Professor?" she prompted once it found its rhythm once more. They were staring at each other. Byleth sat back in her seat, her frown deepening. One moment later it faded away and her expression turned back to its usual blank slate. Just as Edelgard was about to ask more directly, the green-haired teacher broke her silence.

"Do you want me to command you?" The blunt question caught Edelgard off guard. She was suddenly keenly aware of their prolonged eye contact. That their eyes met wasn't unusual; Neither of them shied away from it because of their (albeit vastly different) upbringings; as the future empress, it wouldn't do for her to be intimidated in any social situation. Byleth, on the other hand, was a direct woman. She lived and died by the sword. A moment spent fretting was a moment wasted, and any moment could be her last.