Byleth

"Perhaps we can pick off the weaker units if we send in the calvary. That way we'd be able to take hold of the Bridge's area for the rest of the battle."

"A solid plan indeed, Teach, but our mounted forces are limited. Judith's soldiers may be a boon to our numbers, but the majority are infantry."

"Damn, you're right. Then what about sending in our mages? I have zero doubts that the frontline soldiers will be heavily armored, so some magic will be able to take them out quickly."

"But then that leaves the mages vulnerable. As powerful as they may be, they're quite squishy."

I groaned, rubbing my face with my ink-stained fingertips; they've long dried, so at least I wouldn't have black streaks all over my face. "Creating a strategy for this takeover is a lot harder than I thought."

"I think that's the point," Claude sighed, brushing a delicate hand over his wyvern's scales. "It would be a lot easier if the Alliance Lords were all unified, but no. We can't seem to have nice things."

Staying up late and planning strategies was a common occurrence for Claude and me; in our Academy days, at least. The amount of money we spent on candles alone probably put a larger dent in our allowed expenses than necessary. We tried our best to plan these things with the others, but sometimes, we needed to combine our brains in order to pull off any chance at victory.

The locations of these meetings were never consistent. Sometimes they would be in one of our rooms, the library, dining hall, hell, even the fishing pond or greenhouse. But tonight, our impromptu war-room was Claude's wyvern's stall. Candlelight flickered off of her pearl-white scales, the beast resting as we used her as a pillow. Any other wyvern would have hissed and roared at having its sleep disrupted by two humans, but Setareh was content to be in her master's presence.

She was honestly more like a puppy than a wyvern.

I shuffled around, pale-golden straw sticking to my thighs. "I'll admit, I'm a bit out of my element here."

Claude turned to me, his hands occupied with the head of Setareh - once again, more puppy than wyvern. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not really experienced when it comes to war tactics," I sighed, watching as my friend pet his mount without breaking eye-contact with me. The giant reptile let out a constant stream of hushed, content purrs, her tail swishing about and scattering the straw. "In fact, this is the first time since Edelgard's initial assault on the Monastery that I've done something like this."

Claude frowned. "You planned our battles during our Academy days, didn't you? And this isn't your first battle since you've returned, my friend."

My stomach flipped as he used my new nickname. If my heart actually beat, I was sure it would be racing by now. "...Those were different. We weren't at war, back then, and every battle we've fought since my awakening haven't really been ones I could have planned for."

"Is this your way of throwing shade at me for making you fight all those bandits when we reunited?"

"Maybe."

"You wound me, Byleth." The way my name rolled off his tongue also made my unbeating heart do things. Teach. My friend. Byleth: The trio of what I was to him, and yet there was a part of me that just wanted us to be more...

I wasn't good with emotions. I never was; hell, I didn't even really experience them before coming to the Monastery. To think that all of that happened just six years ago (well, technically one or two for me, considering my five-year-slumber) was astounding to me. I wasn't exactly sure what it was I felt towards everyone - besides friendship, of course - and Claude was a strange anomaly. We've always been close, even during our Academy days. He was my first real friend, the first person to get me to smile.

He was very dear to my heart, and I couldn't imagine a life or future without him in it.

"Going back to this strategy," I sighed, breaking the silence, "we need to come up with something quickly. I know the assault isn't until the end of the month, but we need to ready our troops before then."

Claude hummed in agreement, setting the wyvern's head down; she huffed at that, turning to shun her master. Puppy. "Hmm...so calvary's out as well as our mages..." He muttered under his breath for a few moments, his words unintelligible. It was almost like he was speaking another language. "Oh! I got it!"

He leaned forward and showed me the hastily drawn map in his notebook. The ink was smudged and dried, every inch of surface serving a purpose. Notes were scribbled into the margins, but those too were illegible. He normally had very neat handwriting, but his notes were always messy. It almost looked like he wrote in two different languages.

"Since the entrance will be heavily guarded, I think we should deploy our fliers - specifically, ones with range specialties - so we can pick off the front guards," he explained, hastily scribbling the names of our most experienced fliers (himself included) in the margin of the page. "Lysithea can ride in with Cyril and take out any ballistas in a snap, and if all goes according to plan, then it shouldn't take long for their defenses to become weak enough for the rest of our army to rush in."

I considered his plan for a few moments, weighing our odds. It's actually a pretty solid strategy. We'll have to sink a lot of our training time into our fliers, but that's pretty doable. Honestly, this is probably our best bet. I smiled to myself, leaning further into the scaly wyvern at my back. It seems like just yesterday when I was teaching him the intricacies of strategy -- he's always had a knack for it, but time seems to have aged his skills like a fine wine.

"This is why you're the Master Tactician," I teased. "I honestly don't know why you have me here for these meetings; your eye for strategy has far surpassed mine."

He shook his head, a few unruly strands of hair falling in front of his eyes. He was quick to push them back, but I kinda wished he didn't. I wanted to see him with his hair down (literally) for once. "I still value your input, Teach. Nothing will ever change that."

"Really?" I smirked. "Because I think I'm much better at commanding your armies than strategy."

"Even the strongest commanders need tactics by their sides."

Huffed laughter escaped my lips as I spoke my next sentence: "I would much rather just have my tactician by my side." And I regretted it the second it was said.

Claude cleared his throat, blush coloring his cheeks. "Yes...well...um..." His emerald gaze bore into me, and my skin felt like it was on fire. Gods I just wanted to leap to him and embrace him with everything I was; to kiss him over and over and feel his skin beneath mine; to whisper sweet nothings into his ears as he held me tightly and-

Setareh let out a gravelly groan, snuffing out the awkwardness practically seeping off Claude and me. She stood up and burst from the stall, leaving us to flop onto the stone floor with no warning. With a few flaps of her wings, she was out the door and airborne. That damn wyvern. Although, I'm sure I would fly away if I was her. The smell of heat must be exhausting.

Claude let out an undignified umph, rolling over to face me. "Sorry 'bout that, Teach. She can be a bit..."

"Eccentric?" I finished for him, rolling on my side as well. I shook my head, rustling the hay beneath me. "She's a lot like her master, in that way."

"Easy." He flashed me a signature wink, taking my hand; his skin was so warm, even more so now that he's taken off his gloves. Why was he doing this? Was he trying to tell me something? Was he going to pull me to him and kiss my thoughts away?

Goddess, I really needed to cool down.

"Hey," I said, voice broken.

"Hey," he whispered back, squeezing my hand. "Want to abandon this for now and go for a walk? I think it'll do us some good to clear our heads."

Does it involve us still holding hands? I smiled at him, nodding slowly. "I'd like that."

He sat up, removing his hand - much to my dismay - and brushed off some of the hay that clung to him. "Great. Cool. Nice." Why was he so flustered all of a sudden?

I mirrored his previous actions and stood, stretching out my sore limbs. "C'mon. Let's talk about anything but strategy."

He chuckled, whisper-soft. "Very well, my friend. But if this is your way to try and pry out some secrets, you're going to have to work harder than that."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say." I just want him to be honest with me. How can I bare my heart to a man who refuses to be true to himself? Goddess, I'm going to have to update my strategy with this one.

*****
Alternative title: Claude's Wyvern is Fed Up With These Horny Fools. This is my contribution to the March Claudeleth prompt. The original prompt for today was actually Heartbreak but given recent happenings in my life, I can't really bring myself to write angst. Anyway, enough talk, I wanna get back to Animal Crossing. Yeehaw. Thank you so much for reading and look forward to reading more!

Next Prompt: March 24th - "Frost"