So. This seems like. a questionable idea.

Dimitri raises his eyebrows when Felix hauls himself onto the railing, and starts following as best he can with his hands already raised and just waiting to catch his boyfriend. It feels inevitable, somehow, that something bad is going to happen. He just doesn't know exactly how or when.

"Felix, are you certain you should be making your way up like this?"

"I will pull myself up, I suppose," Dimitri says, still following along. His eye goes over to the gap in the railing that Felix is going to have to deal with sooner or later. "It is not as hard as one might think."

...

"If I go up, then I won't be able to offer any assistance if you need me to carry a bag, or take Ordelia off your hands," he says, equally casual. Felix is the kind of person who stubbornly does everything himself if he possibly can; he has to tread carefully here.

Although it is considerably tempting to just clamber up and leave Felix on his own. Maybe learn a lesson that won't stick.

"If you insist." At least Felix is sensible enough to put Ordelia away. As for him, Dimitri looks over the obstacle before him, and then holds out his arm so that Gremlin can scurry down it. It takes a little bit of searching to find a place that will hold even a Rattata's weight.

After that, it's relatively simple. They simply do what they've been doing with the floorboards: Gremlin searching out the different areas to see which ones look sturdy enough. Befitting his kind, Gremlin is rather quick about it, darting here and there with the Gear light bouncing around from his mouth.

Soon, there's a series of squeaks, the the light bounces in the gloom from Gremlin's own excited jumps. Dimitri nods, and starts to carefully clamber along what he can: the bits of stairs that are holding up good enough, exposed or broken pieces of wood that can be used as a handle for just a moment, and even a part of the second floor once he gets high enough to start hauling himself up.

He likes to think he's become quite good at climbing, after having to live on his own for five years.

"Wh-" Felix, he didn't think you would jump before he could be in a prepared position for it.

Fortunately, the wood is as sturdy as - well, maybe not as sturdy as Dimitri is. But it manages to hold when additional weight is suddenly added, and Dimitri grunts just a little bit. This isn't really the most comfortable position, but, he'll put up with it.

"So you did need help!"

"I assumed you meant when I was on my feet, and could properly catch you," Dimitri counters, grumbling himself. Honestly, Felix is so stubborn sometimes. He knew that rail walking trick wouldn't get him anywhere!

"Do you think it might be easier for you to just climb atop me, and reach sturdier floor? I'm not sure how well the wood will hold with both of our weights added together."

Well, it's certainly something, being used as a ladder. It actually is a little bit uncomfortable, without his Crest to shrug off any weight that bears down on it. Dimitri muses on that, as he often does, before he feels Felix lift off of him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dimitri looks up to find Gremlin again, who helpfully shines the flashlight down along the path he needs to go to.

Unlike Felix, he's not going to risk going too fast. Instead, he carefully makes his way across the wood so that he doesn't break anything by mistake or clumsiness. At a certain point, heralded by Gremlin's squeaking, he finds a sturdy enough place to reach up and haul himself up the rest of the way.

Crawling away from the edge, he takes a brief break so that he can sit down, roll his head back, and say, "You are ridiculous, you know."

"And I thought you liked adventure," Dimitri counters, pushing himself up while Gremlin scurries up onto his feet. More of the walls are down this high up; they probably couldn't get to the next level if they tried.

But most importantly, there is the frame of a window and some attached wall still standing, and it's facing the exact direction he needs it to. Smiling, Dimitri offers his hand to Felix.

"Besides... I think you will find the trip worth it."

He hopes he does.

"Hush, you know that's not how it is," Dimitri says fondly, even as he tugs Felix closer to himself. He wants them to be right next to each other as he gingerly makes his way across what floorboards can still hold his weight. At least that's a little easier for him to make out, now...

But soon, they're right there are the window frame, and Dimitri lets out a slow breath of relief. He can just see where the dark of night is starting to ease up into purple... So he puts his bag down, and starts to sink down to the floor himself. "Sit here. This is the perfect view. Look at how much of Ecruteak you can see from here." There are still lights scattered throughout the city, on the street if nothing else so that people don't get lost stumbling about in the dark.

Dimitri rather likes that. When he returns to Faerghus, when the war is done... He'll have to see if he can't figure out some way to find a way to do that himself, even if it's just organizing mages and scholars.

Hearing the compliment draws out a bright smile from Dimitri. "It doesn't have as grand a nightlife as Goldenrod," Dimitri says, undoing his bag and digging through it. There are a couple of things that he's glad they haven't had to use, like the escape rope, or first aid kit... but there's something else he wants to use. "It was much grander during Halloween, another holiday of theirs..."

There it is. As the sky slowly creeps into shades of reds and oranges, Dimitri holds out a bento to Felix. "I thought we could have breakfast here."

"It is a festival in the middle of autumn, a little towards the end," Dimitri explains, pulling out a bento with much the same food as Felix's. It had simply been practical... and, frankly, he rather likes that him and Felix can match this way.

"I am afraid I do not know the purpose of it, or its history... But children are encouraged to dress up in various costumes, or pretend to be a certain thing, and they scamper about. At various businesses, and homes, they knock on doors, and are given treats." He pops off the top of the bento with a slight smile. "That part was... nice." It had almost been enough for him to ignore the other part of the holiday, which is...

"Besides them, there seems to be an interest in frightening stories.... Ah, I suppose it is good that Annette and Ashe were not here, during such a holiday."

Dimitri chuckles. "I do not mind them... but it is very hard to deal with them when we still have so little." Well. He does. He knows Felix isn't experiencing that particular financial hardship. As he picks through his food, he thinks of the wooden dagger he has back in his own hotel room, and smiles.

Hopefully Felix won't mind a little more gift giving.

"It isn't that I hated them," he murmurs. "But they stirred up bad memories at the time." He glances up at Felix from beneath his eyelashes. "...You weren't there." A slight smile. "You would have hated it, with all the sugar about."

"I want it to be a surprise!" Dimitri insists, leaning forward with his knee bumping against Felix's. "And I need to understand more about, well... I promise it is important." And he can only hope that Felix likes it. But that is something far off in the future.

For the time being, he just sighs and picks up the broccoli to hold out to Felix. "And, I simply assumed it was... something to make children happy." You know. Children he thought had died tragically young. But that's a rather depressing line of topic, so he keeps going. "Perhaps that is simply a recent development, however. This land's civilization has been about for a very long time. Who knows what has changed with its holidays? Grant and I were actually talking about something a little similar, you know, when he was sick..."