ok ok ok i have NOT slept so y’all are getting my fe3h au
this au builds on the fanon that claude had a lot assassination attempts as a kid and that people ostracized him for only being half almyran and has fem byleth
when hes like 7? 8? i forget the age cos i havent slept he decides hes sick of the fact that no one will play with him because their parents wont let them, so when he learns about mercenaries, people you can PAY to DO STUFF FOR YOU hes like wow i can use that
jeralts mercenaries frequently visit almyra for work and at this point in time theyre in the capitol
little khalid seeks out mercenaries because hes persistent as fuck and finds them and tells jeralt he’ll pay to have someone play tag with him
jeralt laughs his ass off and is like you don’t need to pay i have a daughter
byleth is like 12 at this point
khalid pays her anyway and because shes 12 shes like yeah ok ill take this
the mercenaries tease her and her dad for years after this because “oh goddess we missed by’s first mission!!” and “jeralt you charged a child” and eventually they start teasing claude over the years too
after a few days jeralt is like “where are your parents” and refuses to let khalid see byleth unless he meets at least one of his parents to make sure theyre being safe with letting their son out and about near mercenaries
tiana finds this whole situation fucking hilarious of course and meets with jeralt and is surprised cos she knew him when she was a student at garreg mach and he was working there
the mercenaries are there for a month and a half before they leave
they come back about two years later and visit and khalid and byleth reunite
they visit frequently and at one point its decided that byleth will spend a year in almyra to better learn the culture (this is when jeralt gets leonie as an apprentice and byleth isnt with him)
when claude decides to go to leicester, he tells byleth and jeralt and the mercenaries ahead of time and drills it into their heads that hes NOT khalid in fodlan, hes claude
they dont see him again until the events of the game start
imo this makes it even funnier when edelgard and dimitri start trying to recruit byleth right off the bat and claudes like “i was gonna strike up a lasting friendship before asking for favors” cos this time its claude being a smug asshole cos he already has that friendship and he knows it
byleth chooses to lead the black eagle house cos she wants to fuck with claude by not picking him
claude eventually is like “heyyyy wanna help me snoop and learn if i can trust the black eagles????” and byleth goes along with it cos she knows his plans for fodlan and wants to help
when she gets closer to edelgard she realizes that maybe she can get edelgard and claude to work together on their goals???? so she starts dropping hints that they could be allies
idk where else im going with this but id have a full recruitment with byleth/caspar and claude/ashe and im undecided on background ships
other stuff: 1. sothis makes byleth give claude messages and gets mad when its not a word for word repeat of what she said, 2. when claude was little he called himself Khalid the Undying cos of all the assassination attempts he survived and the mercenary troupe 100% makes fun of him for it, 3. byleth tries really really hard to make claude and hubert get along and it Does Not work, 4. aromantic bisexual sylvain is the hill i will die on
