Chapter Text
Askr was even stranger than Fódlan, starting by the small, insignificant fact that they had a whole military order composed of heroes summoned from other worlds. ‘Heroes’ was a very broad term there, to the point that it included Claude, an eighteen-year-old who had not done much in life to earn such a grand, stuffy title. And yet he was extremely heroic compared to some of the other colorful characters that were also bound by the Order of Heroes’ contract. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Seeing so many different people from different worlds, even from different species fight side by side gave him hope that maybe his dream was not that far fetched after all.
Claude was not the only one from Fódlan to be summoned to help Askr in their military ventures. He came, as a package deal, with Edelgard, Dimitri and Teach. Teach who was a woman, for some reason. That had been a bit of a shock. Not only that, but the Dimitri and Edelgard he had met in this world seemed to be slightly different from the ones that inhabited his world.
He discovered that during one of their first dinners in Askr (the thought of dining with the other two house leaders seemed surreal in the Academy, but then they were all foreigners in this land so they ended up sticking together. It was comforting how they were all outsiders for once).
The topic of their conversation was their last mission together. Dimitri had thrashed their enemies so quickly and thoroughly, Claude and Edelgard might as well have just watched him go.
“Honestly, I hope I don’t have to fight His Princeliness on my own ever again. The mock battle was already a close call. I mean, if it wasn’t for Teach-” Claude started telling them.
“Teach?” Edelgard repeated and the word sounded hilarious out of her lips.
“We never faced each other in the mock battle, Claude. The one who took you down was Ingrid, if I'm remembering it right,” Dimitri added at the same time.
“Your memory is clearly faulty, because no one took me down in the mock battle,” Claude bragged just to annoy them.
Dimitri seemed about to argue, but Edelgard silenced him with one gesture of her hand. That kind of authority she seemed to exude never failed to impress and irritate Claude.
“I have a question,” she said calmly, “Which house won the mock battle?”
“Pfff… The Golden Deer-”
“The Blue Lions,” Dimitri said firmly at the same time as him, making Claude turn to him, baffled. Was that the prince’s idea of a joke?
“...I suspected as much,” Edelgard muttered quietly.
“Wait-” Claude started, a crazy thought popping into his mind suddenly. This time Edelgard gestured for him to be silent.
“And Byleth… teaches which House?” the princess asked with a pensive expression.
“Are you quite alright, Edelgard? Has the magic that brought us to this world affected your memory?” Dimitri asked, looking worried.
“I think… I understand where the princess is coming from… Does Byleth teach the Black Eagle House in your world, Edelgard?” Claude asked.
Edelgard nodded. Dimitri seemed shocked and very confused. It looked pretty funny, to be honest, though Claude had more to focus on than the prince’s facial expression.
“I bet she teaches your lions too, right?” Claude guessed, still looking at his befuddled face.
“Yes, but… how?”
“Is she also a woman in your world?” He continued, ignoring Dimitri’s question. This gender mismatch thing had been bothering him for a while.
“Are you implying that she’s… not in yours?” Edelgard asked back.
“Teach is very much a man in mine… but that’s the only real difference now that I think about it,” Claude replied, fascinated by the possibilities.
Dimitri, on the other hand, appeared so lost, Claude was starting to pity him.
“We probably came from different… timelines, I’d say. Something like… variations of possible Fódlans? In one Teach is a woman and teaches the Black Eagles… In mine he’s a man and teaches the Golden Deer… I wonder if their gender is related to which House they’re assigned to…”
“My Professor is also a woman,” Dimitri muttered quietly. The way he had said ‘my professor’ sounded almost territorial.
At that precise moment, their professor arrived with her own meal and sat down by Edelgard’s side. That made the girl smile a little though her expression soon turned more dispassionate as if she had just noticed she was being watched.
“Professor, I must ask…” Dimitri started a little nervously, “Which… House do you teach in your world?”
Byleth looked at each of them with her usual stony face. The moment felt very similar to that night in Remire in which the three of them had asked if the professor - then mercenary - would work for them and their countries.
“Why?” She asked finally.
“Why…” Dimitri repeated, looking confused yet again, “We were… a bit shocked to discover that we are all being taught by you.. in our own worlds, I mean. How is that possible?”
“Many things are possible here,” was Byleth's noncommittal answer, “Have you met the Robins?”
“The… Robins?” It was Claude’s turn to repeat their professor’s words, “Is that a family of bird-people?”
It was not completely improbable considering Claude had seen a few individuals with actual wings on their backs. He had had to double-check if they were not wearing some kind of strange accessory.
“They are the tacticians of the Ylissean royal family. Though each of them are the only one in their original worlds, several different versions were summoned to Askr. There are other cases like this too.”
“I see…” Edelgard replied with a slight frown, “However… in your world you must teach one of our Houses, yes? Which one is it, Professor?”
“I’m not telling,” she said simply.
“Why?” Claude asked.
“Because that doesn’t matter here.”
-
Of course, Byleth’s refusal to give them any more information only made Claude more interested so he started to throw little tidbits of their daily lives in Garreg Mach into his conversations with their teacher in hope she would blurt the truth in a moment of distraction. She didn’t.
“Why do you want to know, Claude? Would it make you happier if I said I teach your House?” Byleth asked him after he had bothered her quite insistently.
“I’m just… curious, I guess?”
“What if I said I teach none of you?”
“That… Is that it?” Claude asked, baffled by the possibility.
Byleth shrugged, “Who knows…”
She left before Claude could ask her any other question.
-
The summoner was a mysterious individual called Kiran who was from another world as well. They also served as a tactician of sorts to the Order of Heroes and were often the one who assigned missions to the heroes. And although they would put Byleth in a great assortment of teams, they always kept the three house leaders together along with a ‘guardian’ or ‘responsible adult of the day’ that might or might not be their professor, depending on the woman’s own schedule.
Once it was a mercenary hero called Ike that reminded Claude a bit of Byleth for some reason. It also reminded him of a teenage male he had seen practicing with Dimitri at the training grounds just the previous day. He mentioned it to the young man who simply replied:
“Must have been another Ike.”
“Another…? Are there several versions of you here?”
“Four,” he answered with a slight frown.
“That one looked younger…”
“They are all younger. I’m the oldest of the bunch… for now.”
Claude exchanged a surprised glance with the other house leaders. Many things were possible in Askr indeed.
-
It became Claude’s pastime to look for versions of the same people in the common areas of the Order’s headquarters. There were several Robins, like Byleth had said. Some were men, others were women. There were also more heroes like Ike, who were summoned several times during different moments of their lives.
“Is that the Ike who trains with you sometimes?” He asked Dimitri as the prince finished gobbling down his food (he could eat almost as fast as Raphael, it was honestly a little frightening). This time it was just the two of them in the mess hall as Edelgard had decided to retire earlier.
Dimitri followed Claude’s eyes to the teenager in question.
“I’m not… very certain,” Dimitri replied, squinting his eyes. “They all look the same to me, to be honest. Except for the eldest.”
“Do you think Kiran will summon other versions of ourselves?”
“I hope not,” Dimitri answered very honestly.
“Aren’t you curious? Maybe an older Dimitri… Maybe he’d be His Kingliness instead…”
Dimitri grimaced, “No, it sounds terrible. Would you like to deal with another version of yourself, Claude?”
The idea of someone who knew exactly what made him tick scared Claude a little. But, at the same time, it was himself. If he had two or three more Claudes, it would certainly make his schemes even more elaborate. And an older version of himself also brought another interesting perk, namely knowledge of the future.
“I’d like to learn a few shortcuts to my goals from my older self, for one,” Claude admitted.
Dimitri’s eyes glinted at that.
“Heh, I think you liked that idea.”
-
Unable to do much to further his own goals, Claude started to spend more time in the Order’s library. At first it was with the idea of studying a bit on Askran strategy, but he didn't find much interesting material so he ended up reading about all the different realms and legends of their folklore. It was so different from anything he could find in Fódlan and Almyra, he was easily captivated. Still, sometimes being in Askr felt too much like a vacation, like he should be doing something else, something more productive, like, for instance, trying to go back to his own world.
Claude was just returning a book about Nifl, the Ice Kingdom, to its proper place when a prince from another icy kingdom peeked into the corridor he was in.
“Are you lost?” Claude asked with a smirk.
Dimitri glared at him, but he didn’t seem upset.
“I was looking for you actually,” he replied neutrally.
“Not another mission, I hope?” Claude asked with a tired sigh. They had just returned from a very exhausting one in the company of one of the strictest knights Claude had ever met (unsurprisingly, he and Dimitri hit it off right away).
“No, I just thought we could have lunch together.”
“Ah, right. I kinda lost track of time here. But I’m hungry, so…” Just as he was saying that, he noticed the beginning of a pattern. “You invited me to dinner yesterday. And the day before too.”
“I suppose I did. It just felt natural.”
“I’d think it’d be Edelgard, but… do you have a crush on me, Your Princeliness?”
Claude thought Dimitri would be revolted at the suggestion, being the epitome of standard masculinity in so many ways. Instead he widened his eyes and flushed all the way to his ears and neck. And that confused Claude very much.
“I just… enjoy your company. Is that so strange?” Dimitri managed to say in the end.
It was a little strange, in Claude’s opinion. Even though Dimitri was a bit on the uptight side, he had already connected with several other heroes, not to mention Prince Alfonse himself. Most of them were other princes or young lords (Claude called them the Princeliness Club). There were also the old knights who seemed to adore the Blue Lion House leader as much as he admired them back. Claude, on the other hand, knew a lot of people, but didn’t belong in any of the Order’s little groups. He was as much a young lord as Dimitri, but felt really out of place in the Princeliness Club. The same could be said about the Order’s archers or its strategists. In the end, things were not that different from how they were in the Officer’s Academy: Dimitri fit right in, Claude didn’t.
So, the fact that he kept seeking Claude’s company was unusual in a way. Not that he disliked it. He also enjoyed Dimitri’s company even though he initially didn’t think he would. Besides, the prince was very nice to look at and too dense to notice it. That was a plus.
“Aw, so you do have a crush on me!” Claude teased and couldn’t help but grin at Dimitri’s red cheeks, “Hey, I don’t mind. It's kinda cute actually.”
Claude winked at him playfully and entwined their arms together as if they were an actual couple. Again, he thought Dimitri would reject the physical contact vehemently. He didn’t. He just stood there, stunned.
“Well? Weren’t you going to take me on a date?”
“...It’s just lunch in the mess hall,” Dimitri muttered uncomfortably yet he let Claude hold onto his arm.
“Not as fancy as I would think, but still fine by me.”
“Fine…” Dimitri repeated with narrowed eyes before he left with Claude, still arm in arm.
-
To be perfectly honest, Claude didn’t think Dimitri had an actual crush on him, but he was still surprised by the non-rejection. So he decided to test the prince by touching him. They were fleeting little things, like holding his shoulder or gripping his (very firm) upper arm when he wanted to whisper something in his ear or even comparing their hand sizes.
“Huh… It’s surprisingly big,” Claude remarked, his palm against Dimitri’s own.
The three house leaders had just had breakfast together and were then waiting for their Professor so they would leave on a scouting mission.
“Well, I’m taller,” Dimitri replied in a matter-of-fact tone without pulling his hand away.
“Not by much,” he responded as he stared at their joined hands. Not only was Dimitri’s palm broader, but his fingers were also longer. It was overall a very nice hand.
Edelgard sighed and stood up.
“Where are you going?” Claude asked.
“I will wait outside, since you are obviously going to keep doing this,” the princess answered, giving their hands a pointed look before turning on her heel and walking away.
That made Dimitri blush and pull his hand away so it was resting over the table. Claude was immediately annoyed.
“Is the rest of you this big?” Claude asked with a teasing grin, because why not?
“The rest…?” Dimitri repeated confusedly. His expression was one of perfect innocence.
Claude laughed, “You honestly didn’t get it? Your Princeliness really is the epitome of virtuous virginity.”
The other house leader managed to flush even more intensely as he both understood what Claude was talking about before and got embarrassed at the subsequent ‘accusation’.
Then he stood up.
“I will wait outside as well,” Dimitri said coolly before leaving.
Claude watched Dimitri’s (nicely shaped) silhouette grow distant as he wondered if he had gone a bit overboard this time. It was not like Claude was any different (namely, he was also a virgin), he just thought it was funny how it seemed so obvious in Dimitri’s case that he might as well tattoo the word on his forehead.
“Claude?” A woman’s voice called. He turned in its direction. It was one of the Robins, one that was female and not possessed by some sort of ancient evil god (she was also one of the heroes who treated Claude like he was some kind of mascot character, probably because, even though she looked to be in her mid twenties, she had two mysteriously teenage children). “I’m supposed to lead the Fódlan kids on today’s mission. Where are the other two?”
“They are waiting outside- Wait, I thought Teach was supposed to lead us today.”
“Ah, yes. She’s still a bit shocked, so Kiran gave her a day off.”
“Shocked? Why?” He asked, surprised by how worried he already was about a Teach that wasn’t even his own Teach.
“Well, it seems Kiran summoned another version of her. A ‘he’ this time.”
-
Claude was only able to catch a glimpse of the new Byleth much later after he had already returned safe and sound from their scouting mission. The professor was wandering on his own as if taking his new surroundings in. Claude could relate to that, although there was something else at the forefront of his mind. This was an opportunity and it was Claude’s duty to seize it.
“Teach! So glad to see you again!” Claude said excitedly as he walked up to meet him.
“Claude. I’ve heard you and the other house leaders were also summoned to Askr. Good to see you well,” the man said in his usual dispassionate manner, then his eyes turned inquiring. “What are you scheming now?”
“Me? Scheming? Never!” Claude replied with a big grin. “You know… I missed this form of you. I mean, the other Teach is nice too, but I’m just more used to your manly charms.”
Not that there was much difference between them besides the obvious one, but still, he was trying to get a reaction from the other. Unsurprisingly, there was none. The professor just kept staring at him blandly.
“...so I was wondering if-” he continued, but was interrupted before he could get anywhere.
“Don’t tell him.”
It was Byleth, the female version, who appeared to have just warped in front of them, considering how quietly and suddenly she had approached them. The male professor turned to his counterpart and cocked the head to the side, as if asking her a silent question. Seeing them side by side like that was honestly a little eerie in Claude’s opinion.
“He’ll ask you which House you teach among other things,” she told him unemotionally.
“Oh. I wasn’t going to,” the other professor said in a calm, unaffected voice, “tell him, that is.”
“Why?” Claude asked in frustration
“That doesn’t really matter here, does it?” the man replied, his female version nodded in agreement.
It seemed that, no matter the gender, they were indeed one and the same, their professors.
-
After the new Byleth, several other Fódlanners were summoned to Askr, starting by the goddess herself, Sothis, which came in the form of a cute little girl. Or maybe it was just a girl who took the goddess name, although that sounded a lot like heretic behavior. Either way, the child was immensely powerful (like many other mythic-god-children that were summoned to Askr) and was already very familiar to both their professors for reasons neither wanted to disclose.
“I’m at loss,” Dimitri muttered to Claude and Edelgard after they had seen Sothis destroy an army of enemy soldiers.
“That’s what happens when you put too much faith in religion, Dimitri,” Edelgard said, surprisingly candid.
“I didn’t think I did, but…” Dimitri said, still looking taken aback.
“Maybe she’s the goddess, maybe she isn’t. I mean, it doesn’t change much at the end of the day, does it?” Claude pondered as he rested his back against Dimitri’s own, while both of them sat on the ground, waiting for Boyleth’s (the nickname was Claude’s creation) orders.
Claude was still conducting his tests on how much physical contact Dimitri could tolerate without complaining and he still hadn’t found out the limit. The implications were a bit worrying as he either liked this or could silently endure any kind of unsolicited touches impassively.
Also, he was starting to wish Dimitri would touch him back. The prince never did.
-
Things became even livelier when four other students from the Officer’s Academy arrived in Askr. Especially because Hilda and Petra were some of Claude’s favorite girls and Mercedes was surprisingly fun to hang out with as well. Hubert still creeped him out a bit, but at least Edelgard looked less lonely (he was surprised that he even cared, but he did).
Still, nothing really changed in their routine apart from the fact that sometimes he would be paired with other students for his missions. They still had a lot of free time to just laze around (it was a privilege of heroes in their teens, he noticed) and he spent much of it with Dimitri (when the other was not surrounded by charming princes or old men). He started to get pretty bold too to the point he would shamelessly rest his head on Dimitri’s lap like it was his pillow (a firm pillow, but still a good, warm pillow).
That day they were both under the shadow of a nice big tree. It was the beginning of fall, so the weather was pleasantly cool. Dimitri sat down with his back against the tree trunk reviewing his training notes (he was very methodical about such things) while Claude lay on the grass, his head comfortably supported by the prince’s thighs as he alternated between reading a book of Askran poetry and dozing off. At some point, Dimitri’s hand rested over his hair, but, when he noticed his own action, he immediately removed it.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” he apologized, sounding a little self-conscious.
“It’s fine. I don’t mind,” Claude said sincerely, almost eagerly, but managed to control himself just in time.
“Hm,” Dimitri muttered noncommittally before he resumed his previous activity of lazily running his fingers through Claude’s hair.
It felt so pleasant, he almost sighed in contentment. It honestly scared him how much he wanted this.
“Do you miss Fódlan?” Dimitri asked very softly.
“Hmm, a bit. Not much. I don’t think I remember having this amount of free time, like… ever.”
“Yes, not even when I was a little boy did I have so much free time,” Dimitri agreed, “It’s strange… not being a prince. Freeing too. But I still miss… many things. Little things, familiar smells and sounds. Also, I miss Dedue.”
“Oh? So he’s the one you miss the most?” Claude asked in a teasing tone, though he could not help but feel both a little jealous and very glad that the prince’s vassal hadn’t been summoned to Askr so he could more effectively monopolize Dimitri’s time. How desperate must he be for any kind of attention that this mostly one-sided petting was something he didn’t want to lose?
“Out of the living, he is,” Dimitri answered very sincerely and little wistfully.
Before Claude could come up with an appropriate response, Hilda approached them eyeing the Golden Deer House leader somewhat suspiciously. Dimitri immediately tensed and removed his hand from Claude’s hair. Still, he didn’t ask for the lying boy to move nor he pushed him away.
Claude had already noticed that Dimitri got a little nervous about being touched in front of others, but he had blissfully ignored it as the prince had never really asked him to stop. It was one thing to do it in Fódlan where men were supposed to keep their distance from other men lest they be accused of having some sort of illicit love affair. In the Order of Heroes it didn’t really matter. There were people from several different worlds, places and races, so anything ‘unusual’ was tolerated as being ‘culturally diverse’ as long as nobody was getting hurt. And Claude would be a fool not to embrace such an opportunity. Besides, it was not like he had ever met anyone from his actual timeline, so, when he finally returned to his life, no one would know.
“The Professor is calling you, Dimitri,” Hilda told him, sounding as if just doing that was more work than it was worth it.
“Which… Professor?” The prince asked.
“Boyleth, I- I mean the male one,” the girl said and blushed at her own blunder. Claude couldn’t help but grin. “He’s at Kiran’s quarters.”
Dimitri nodded and turned expectant eyes to Claude who immediately understood and begrudgingly sat up. The prince was up and leaving at the very next instant and Claude could only watch him go, feeling a bit grumpy. He had really hoped for a nice nap while Dimitri petted his hair oh so gently.
“Can you take His Princeliness place as my pillow?” Claude proposed with a grin. Hilda would be a much softer pillow and he preferred Dimitri’s scent than the girl’s flowery one, but life was made of concessions.
“No way, my lap is reserved for my future lover only,” Hilda replied right away, “By the way, you and Dimitri… are you two doing it?”
Claude’s laugh sounded a little fake to his own ears.
“What a dirty mind you have. Your brother would be disappointed,” he remarked, the girl glared at him. “Anyway, we aren’t.”
“Liar. You’re always clinging to him like a jealous girlfriend. Are you going to say that’s normal friends’ behavior?”
He shrugged. It was not like Claude had ever had any close friends his age so he would actually know what would be his behavior with them.
“I like clinging to him and he lets me do it so that’s that,” he admitted. Being in another world was very liberating in some ways.
Hilda frowned, “I’m not the best person to say this, but… aren’t you just stringing him along then? I mean, he might be hoping to do something more with you…”
“I’m not a telepath, Hilda. If Dimitri wants something, he should say it. Since he doesn’t, I presume he’s fine with the way things are.”
Claude wasn’t sure if he was fine with the ways things were, but then, it was better than what he had before so maybe he was.
“Well, everyone thinks you two are doing it,” the girl said matter-of-factly, “So maybe you should talk, just to be sure you two are on the same page.”
After that, Hilda left him alone. Claude sighed as he rested his back against the tree. He leafed through the book he had in his hand without really paying attention. He had lost any desire to either read or nap. Instead he thought of Dimitri. The idea of actually having a conversation about whatever they had going on was terrifying. For the first time since being summoned, he wished that it was just the two of them in Askr. That way, far from the prying eyes of everyone who knew them, they could pretend that this was all right.