knowlee- I honestly didn't think of this song being a good song for the Claude/Byleth pairing until I came upon a post by a user called Sakumosowainthirst had on Tumblr that pointed it out. I proceeded to listen to it and instantly agreed.

...and then I had to write a fic about it. XD

And while I do have another Claude x Byleth fic I'm working on, this one took precedence. :)

I hope you enjoy it!

Inspired by this post: sakumosowainthirst. tumblr post / 187306004959 / so-have-my-music-on-shuffle-this-comes-on-and

(^remove the spaces in that link to go to it)

(also I recommend listening to the song by Skillet called "Watching for Comets" as your reading this. You'll thank me later.)

A Fire Emblem Fanfiction

Watching for Comets

By: Knowlee Raven

A pious man, Claude was not.

The only gods to him were that of the stars in the night sky. They made him believe that he could reach his goal of uniting Fódlan and breaking down the walls separating it from other lands. They were the ones he placed his faith in.

Then he met her.

A goddess.

A fallen star.

Coincidentally he had seen a comet the night that he, Dimitri and Edelgard had fled from the bandits. He didn't think much of it then but looking back on it, he was sure it was a sign from fate of what was to come and how much of an impact she would have on his life.

She was certainly not like anyone he had ever met before.

Unlike other people he had met, she treated him as a person and not as a monster to be feared. She helped in some of his schemes, listened as he hinted at his horrible past and didn't judge him for his poison-making hobby as well as his views on religion. She accepted him as who he was. No more, no less.

When they were on the battlefield he automatically knew that when she was there, they were going to win. With her real life battle expertise and his scheming, they were invincible. They could take on anyone and win, perhaps they could even taken on the world if she ever wanted to join in on his dream.

The year continued on and he grew even closer to her despite the walls he had put up in an effort to protect himself after years of abuse. With every smile, touch, kind words and actions she sent his way, slowly pieces of those walls kept chipping away. And while that was happening with him, he felt that his actions to her in turn were doing the same to her walls. This became more evident when she finally laughed at a joke he had made. It took him a minute to get over the fact that she had actually done that, because to him, it sounded the like the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

The next time he saw a comet was the night of the ball. He had quietly left the party as he couldn't bear to be around them anymore. (While it wasn't that he didn't like parties per say, the ones in Fódlan weren't exactly the ones he was fond of.) He had been out in the Goddess Tower gazing at the night sky when he saw it. It was certainly a beautiful sight to behold.

He was pulled away from his stargazing by a familiar voice saying his name. He knew before he turned around that it would be her. She, too, had fled the party to get away from the noise. After the initial discussion on their views of parties and his upbringing, the conversation veered towards a rumor that was held about the tower they stood in. If a man and a woman were to pray for the same thing on this night in this tower, it would come true.

And while he knew neither of them were devout followers of the goddess (she had hinted as much during their discussion about religion) they still decided to take each others' hands and offer up a prayer to the goddess to allow their ambitions to come true. Granted he knew that they would still need to put forth an effort to making them reality. The goddess couldn't take care of everything for them.

Another comet appeared the night before they were set to enter the Sealed Forest in an effort to catch Solon and his followers. He didn't really have much time to reflect on it, because they had a mission that needed to be fulfilled and he had to help her get the revenge that she was seeking against the group for the death of her father.

The actions that took place on that day showed how much she had become a staple in his life. Shown him how much he needed her by his side. Shown him how much he had actually cared about her.

She had disappeared into darkness.

He couldn't breath. His chest felt like it was on fire. Where did she go? What did they do to her? Was she...still alive?

He needed answers.

He wanted her back. Now.

Whether the goddess was listening or it was fate, he wasn't sure, but he didn't have to wait for too long. Because as he and his fellow Golden Deer were mobilizing to attack Solon in revenge for taking their professor away, that's when he saw it.

A tear in the fabric of reality appeared out of no where. They were all stunned to see it. Even more so when the tear enlarged and out she jumped, ready to tear Solon a new one.

Claude can't remember a time before when he smiled so brightly as the happiness he experienced knowing that she was alive took over his entire being.

That smile dissolved from his face and despair re-entered his heart though after he saw her fall from a cliff. He was halfway expecting to see her pop back up like how she did when the falling in darkness incident occurred, but... she didn't come back up.

He tried searching for her after the war. He searched on foot and from the air with his new wyvern as his ride. But still, nothing.

Five years passed and after he ascended to become the leader of the Alliance, he was nearly resigned to the belief that he would never see her again. But, then he saw the comet.

At first his more rational side took over saying that it meant nothing and that it was just another object in the sky. But then he remembered all the other times a comet had appeared and how they correlated to incidents where Byleth would appear in his life in significant ways. And although he wasn't a man of faith, he did believe in the stars. He knew deep down that they were giving him a message.

So he saddled up his wyvern with his bow, axe and some food and with the excuse of him going off to fulfill a promise he made five years ago, he headed to the monastery. He didn't know exactly why he headed that way in particular, but something inside him was pulling him there.

When he arrived, he felt a little disappointed to find that no one was there. Granted he had only just arrived and potentially she could be somewhere on the monastery grounds. He saw the Goddess Tower in the foreground and felt as if he needed to be there. Why (he seemed to be asking this question a lot lately), he wasn't sure, but like the pull he felt earlier, he felt it leading him there too.

When he arrived at the top, he still saw no sign of her. He felt his disappointment grow and moved to look out the doorway to the balcony to see the rest of the monastery grounds. Was he wrong about the comet? Maybe he needed to wait a little longer. He had waited years for this and was too stubborn to give up now.

His stubbornness apparently paid off, for he could hear the soft footsteps on the stairs leading up to his location. At first he thought it probably was one of his former classmates, but when he began to turn his head towards the person standing there, he froze at first when he realized who it was.

It was her.

His comet.

She took a few more steps towards him, taking herself out of the shadows and into the sunlight that he was basking in. She looked as if she hadn't even aged a day since she disappeared and was shocked to see him. If he thought his smile he made when she returned from the darkness before was bright, this one definitely topped that one. The one she made at him probably beat both of them.

As he greeted her and caught her up to speed on what had happened in the world as they ate, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He didn't want her to disappear on him again. Especially not since he now had put a name on the feelings he felt towards her starting back to when they first met.

He loved her. And he wasn't going to ever let her go.

He wasn't going to lose his comet ever again.