Clershel

Clershel is the het ship between Hershel Layton and Claire Foley from the Professor Layton fandom.

Canon
Ten years before Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Layton and Claire were in a relationship. To ask him out, shegives him a love letter, and kisses him on the cheek. Layton was visibly smitten with her, often blushing, and during one meal, gave her a pocketwatch as a gift. Layton soon gets a job as a professor of archeology. To celebrate, she gives him a top hat as a gift. She puts in on his house, and says it's dashing and suits him. This becomes his signature top hat, something he would wear long after Claire's passing, and was rarely seen without.

Claire was an assistant to two scientists Dimitri Allen and Bill Hawks. They were working on a time machine and Claire was chosen to be the first human test subject. Bill was over-confident and decided to proceed with the time machine. However, Dimitri found a fatal error with the calculations of the time machine., and By time he realized, it was too late. The time machine exploded, presumably killing Claire. This was a loss that the Professor struggled with for some time, and did not speak much of it to his apprentice Luke.

Luke and Layton arrive in Future London, and Layton is shocked to see Claire walking about, very much alive. She walks past them twice, and Layton runs after her, but she has since disappeared. She later reappears and saves Layton and Luke from trouble. She at first tells everyone she is Celeste, and is on a mission to uncover what really happened to Claire. She tells the professor, that in her later life, she was estranged from her sister, hence why he's never heard of her.

She helps Layton stops Clive, and then later rescue him. She reveals that she is actually Claire, and doesn't have long left to live. The time machine was keeping her in the present, but is not a permanent solution. She must return back to her own time, the time of the time machine accident. She bids Layton an emotional farewell, kissing him, before departing. Layton tells her to wait, but she start glowing. She tells him not to forget her, or their 'lost future'. The professor starts to cry, not wanting to say goodbye for a second time. But she has no choice and leaves. This seales her fate and she dies. Layton is left alone, upset, crying in the snow of London.

Quotes
"Very dashing, Hershel. The picture of a true gentleman."

- Claire giving Layton his top hat

"It suits you. It really does. So no taking it off."

- Claire about Layton's hat

"We had so many plans for the future. You won't forget will you? Our shared past. And our...lost future."

- Claire to Layton

Fanon
Clershel is the most popular ship in the Professor Layton franchise. Claire appears in only one game: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, or Lost Future in some other regions. This game is considered one of the best Layton's game, often praised for it's more emotional and captivating storyline. Many fans found the tragic romance of Clershel's romance sad. There is some fanfiction for the pairing, with over 140 works on Archive of our Own, and likely more on Fanfiction.Net. There is also many fanart and AMVs of this pairing.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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