Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

‘What is this-‘ Heaving and puffing, Sigewinne dragged the large box on the floor into the landing of Wriothesley’s office. ‘Absurd amount of tea delivery! Your Grace, you can’t possibly already be out of tea leaves!’
The man in question stuck his head over from the upper floor to check the commotion, giving a pleased whistle at the sight of the box.

‘You flatter me Sigewinne, but even I can’t drink tea fast enough to be out of stock in one week, unless I’m guzzling it down every other minute, which is sadly time I don’t have. And a correction, I would never order tea when my container is already unable to provide me with one more pot. In other words, I always order more at least a week before I predict myself to be deprived of my precious caffeinated leaf liquid, therefore your accusation does not hold any water.’

The melusine snorted at his playful banter, then eyed the package suspiciously. ‘Then where could this have come from? It was specified to be delivered to you but has no sender’s signature.’

Wriothesley made his way downstairs, patting her on the head as he passed her. ‘Don’t bust a brain cell, this,’ He lifted the box with a heave, gauging its weight with his hands. ‘…should be from our great Champion duelist.’ He took it upstairs, Sigewinne following suit, and sure enough, the box opened up to reveal an impressive variety of tea procured from various nations, along with a note stuck on the topmost layer, written in sleek bold handwriting. Wriothesley lifted an eyebrow, pleasantly surprised.

‘Damn, she really went all out this time.’

Sigewinne was thoroughly confused, cocking her head to the side as she watched the Duke stow the containers away in his dedicated tea shelf, humming a familiar classical tune to himself . ‘What could you have possibly done to get a package from her?’ she asked.
‘Not much. We bet on whether or not it would rain after the trial last week on tax fraud. You know, the one I had to attend personally because the defendant was a minor client of ours? Anyways, here I am, victorious.’

The melusine couldn’t fathom the idea of betting on something so unpredictable like the weather. The man, seemingly reading her thoughts, explained before she could make any comment.

‘I’m assuming you’re familiar with the suspicious connection between difficult trials and rain afterwards, but if you look a little closer, it usually only proves to be true for those that dance on the line between textbook justice and conditional fairness.
‘Homicide cases where the defendant was left with no other choice but to fend for themselves, battery charges against a mother protecting her children from an intoxicated father, a hefty fine imposed upon a homeless man robbing the bakery to provide for his family…all cases where it’s hard to evaluate their actions with a black and white verdict.’

Pausing abruptly, Wriothesley stared into the container of Sakura tea he had been unconsciously gripping tighter than necessary.
He’s thinking about them, isn’t he, she thought.
Although Sigewinne knew of the crime that landed him in Meropide, she didn’t know how he thought of his case nowadays. It might’ve been accurate to say that he had more or less recovered from that dark part of his personal history, but just like the scar under his right eye and ones on his throat, the memories and pain never fully go away. It’s an unsavoury experience, and no matter how comfortable he was bringing it up, conversation about said topic was never enjoyable.

‘Eh, you catch my drift.’ Breaking the silence, the duke set down the can of tea leaves, shutting the cabinet. ‘This case was pretty open and shut, the client was quite a pathetic man and didn’t expect to be caught this soon, man was this close to pissing his own pants on the stand I tell you. Quite the sight! You should’ve seen him up there, pleading on his knees and blabbering nonsense.’

‘Sounds to me he was in incredible distress, if he was truly as weak as you described I’m surprised he didn’t faint on the spot.’

Wriothesley took a loud sip of tea. ‘Oh, no, he did. But that was after his verdict got announced. Took two Gardes to drag him off the stand, did I mention he was morbidly obese?’ He waved a hand to signal Sigewinne to take a seat, and she abided, hopping onto the plush red chair next to Wriothesley, one he always brought out when she came up.
‘How did Monsieur react?’
‘Not even an eyebrow twitch. He’s probably used to cases like these after so many years, especially petty, short trials like this. It’s a bold thing to accuse someone of without sufficient evidence.’ The warden sat back with a sigh, relishing in the flavours of his drink.
Sigewinne liked it when he did this, sitting down after a long day to unwind and chat with her.

‘As I was saying before we spiralled down that tangent,’ He suddenly sat back up and smiled sheepishly, probably realising he had gone on an extended rant instead of explaining Clorinde’s package. ‘We had made a bet on the weather after the trial. Might I say she wasn’t impressed with the randomness of the conditions this time round, but we both knew how boring cases like these were to sit through, wouldn’t kill us to create something to anticipate at the end. I bet that it wouldn’t rain, by the way. I’m assuming this large collection she procured was a way to ‘win’ in some other way, now I’ll have to one-up her with something next time.’

The nurse mentally pictured how Clorinde’s stoic face must’ve been scrunched up, waiting for the clouds to weep and signal her win. Alas, it had merely been a gloomy day without a single drop of rain, and here they sat in the administrator’s office.

‘Uhh…I don’t like that look on your face. And your antennae, they’re bobbing.’

Ah, he noticed she was plotting something. Fighting a grin, she quickly bid the suspicious duke goodbye and ran back to the corridor where her work station was, but instead of turning left she takes the right path, drafting a letter to pen to some friends.

This was going to be SO fun.

She actually catches Clorinde visiting two weeks later. Her presence in the fortress wasn’t uncommon given the work Wriothesley hires her to do (she has no idea what, but probably just another link in his intel network), and she, unlike some other personnel that frequent for business, actually humoured Wriothesley’s invitations to tea. Whether they talked about work over tea or used it as a breather from their respective duties depended entirely on the day.
Sigewinne liked Clorinde, her dry responses to the duke’s often outlandish sense of humour was a pleasant show to see unfold, and she was a loyal client of her beauty products. Given any other day she would’ve already called out to say hi to both humans, but not today.

Today, she was on a mission.

‘That’s the plan, I’ll be taking the white ones, you can have the pink.’
‘I-Is this really a good idea? I mean, His Grace is putting so much trust in us by letting us roam around so freely, I don’t think we should be betraying his faith in us like this…’

With a giggle, the nurse rolled her eyes at her fellow melusine.
‘His Grace won’t care in the slightest, Ottnit, trust me. If he does, he can come at me, and we all know how well that goes.’ She brandishes her gun proudly. ‘I even purposefully bought sticky paper that peels easily, he’s got nothing to complain about.’

‘Hmm…let’s treat this as an experimental round to test the waters. If it goes well, I’ll see if I can set up some sort of leaderboard for us to keep track of points, we can invite more players down slowly, and winners at the end of a season can get something special!’

Ottnit beamed in excitement despite her earlier display of apprehensiveness ‘I’ll be sure to tell everyone about it and find more participants! Oooh… and we can get more sticker designs this way too, mind if I take some sticky paper back?’

Clorinde’s presence definitely ramped up the difficulty, and the pressure felt too much for a test round. Sigewinne talked big in front of Ottnit, but it would be a lie to say she wasn’t nervous. There was a sense of thrill, engaging in such a stealthy activity, her adrenaline was at an all time high with the added challenge of an additional pair of watchful eyes that had equal, if not even higher, alertness as the warden.
She didn’t want to subject her friend to the hawk-eyed duelist right off the bat, so now the task of demonstrating, unfortunately, fell on her shoulders. Clearing her throat as if trying to mask her own anxiety, she gripped her food tray harder and yelled upstairs.

‘Your Grace? I have some snacks for you and Miss Clorinde to share!’

‘Oh? Good timing, the tea is almost done too.’

Heartbeat pounding in her ears, Sigewinne peered tentatively from under the railing at the two exchanging idle chatter. Shit, Wriothesley had his back to her, Clorinde on the couch. Her hands were full, and turning back after delivering the food felt too dangerous.
She fought back a loud gulp and walked ahead to set the food down on the coffee table. The duelist gave an appreciative nod while the Duke thanked her, swiftly returning to their prior conversation.
Darn it! Darn it! Was she really going to be leaving without a sticker to her name? But then the nurse remembered something, just as she was going down the stairs.

‘Wait, Miss Clorinde!’ Sigewinne turned back abruptly. ‘You ordered some Romaritime flower lip balm from me last time, do you want to pick it up n-’

A carefully timed trip.
A calculated hand trajectory when Wriothesley lunges forward to catch her.
A knowing smirk from Clorinde, indicating her secret was safe.
Thus sticker number one in the form of a lumitoile found its way onto the Duke’s belt.

Neuvillette was understandably confused when she pulled out a stack of stickers instead of her Kamera during their next meet-up, after writing to him about wanting to share new photography pieces. Amusement slowly filled his eyes as he listened to her go through the competition they’d managed to set up over the past month.

‘So His Grace has been letting the girls roam his Fortress freely? Even after coming back from his rounds to find his belongings smothered in stickers?’

‘He has! I’m glad he’s been taking this well.’ Sigewinne grinned widely. ‘Some fun and colour in the Fortress has been long overdue! Oh, before I forget to mention, I’m actually first place on the leaderboard right now.’

‘I would have expected that to be the case, considering you’re the one closest to him in terms of physical displacement, and the one with easiest access to his quarters.’ Neuvillette nodded. ‘Although I do hope you girls can refrain from making absurdly high bets over this so-called, ‘Wriothesley domination’ leaderboard. It can lead to unhealthy addiction to the action…’ He trails off, and the melusine wonders if he’s heard things from Clorinde’s end.

‘Say, would you care to join us in this endeavour, Monsieur?’ She offers. The Iudex appeared to be caught off guard, shock, hesitation, and then contemplation visibly flashing in his eyes.

‘I’m afraid that’d be highly improper of me as the Chief Justice, wouldn’t it? Besides, I thought this was just a game between the melusines, me participating in the competition would surely be imposing an unfair advantage upon everyone else given the difference in anatomy.’

It was so in-character of Neuvillette to take something so light-hearted, seriously. ‘Monsieur…you even said it yourself, it’s a game! Miss Clorinde has been playing too, she joined two weeks ago with purple stickers and is already halfway up the leaderboard after one visit, but it balances out because her visits are rare and unpredictable. The same goes for you, His Grace usually only meets with you once a month to go through work. I doubt you could surpass me unless you added, I’m not sure, another two meetings per week?’

The Iudex was deep in thought for a minute, before sighing and giving her a smile.
‘Very well then. I would like to request a sheet of stickers from you for the next monthly report meeting, as I unfortunately don’t own any for myself.’

‘Why do you think I brought so many today?’ Sigewinne reached into her bag excitedly, pulling out a collection of beautifully sketched, sea-creature themed sheet. ‘We use colour-coding to keep track of whose stickers last the longest, I was going to give you blue, but Carabosse claimed the colour before I could stop her, so you can have this one with all the otters and other Fontemer Aberrants!’

She was extremely proud of this one in particular. The creatures all had so much fascinating detail, and it was difficult to squeeze them onto the small area of a sticker, even after simplifying the designs. In fact, in the time it took her to make this one sheet, Mamere had already finished five (albeit most being unidentifiable blotches, though the contents didn’t really matter anyways).

The brilliant smile she got from Neuvillette instantly made all the trouble worth it. It was always a great day when her beloved Monsieur started engaging in more social activities without worrying about his position, it made him feel closer, more loving, and she truly hoped this silly little game of theirs would help Neuvillette come out of his shell, even if it was a tiny step.

Wriothesley tugged at his tie with frustration, silently cursing at the distance he needed to cover before reaching Palais Mermonia. Has the weather always been this hot in the overworld? Oh, wait, it’s dead in the middle of summer. In hindsight, he wasn’t sure why he opted to wear his full 3 layers of clothing when Sigewinne had warned him of the recent heat wave.
Admittedly, he’s been busy with a sudden influx of inmates and had to work later than usual for the better half of the month. This monthly meeting was the last thing he had to wrap up the to-do list for this week, not to mention he had been looking forward to this…this arrangement they have going on.

It signalled the end of a busy month and a rare chance to interact with one of the most respected people in the entirety of Fontaine.
‘Excuse me? Your Grace? We’ve arrived.’
He slowly registered Elphane waving her paw in front of his face. There weren’t many passengers at this time of day to hear her addressing this shadow-like man by a noble title, his meetings with Neuvillette always occurring close to if not at sunset time. He gave her a quick nod of thanks and headed over to the elevator.

He hoped Neuvillette had tea ready, because the scorching heat was really getting to his head.

He did, in fact, have tea ready. One might argue that hot tea on a hot day seems counterintuitive, but to quote a Liyue proverb, ‘If the heart is at peace, then your body temperature will follow suit’. The beverage is less significant than the state of mind, and being in Neuvillette’s office is one of the few places he finds himself relaxing. Of course, he is here for so-called ‘work’, but they both knew his reports were immaculate as always, there was absolutely no need for him to come in person every month to review details. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement they came to together, that work was merely a guise for the little period of peace they gained by attending this ‘meeting’.

‘How’s Sigewinne doing?’ The Iudex asked as he stepped around the table to place the cups down.

‘Up to her mischief as usual. I keep telling you, she’s the real menace at the Fortress, not me. Your worrying is completely unnecessary.’

Neuvillette shot a sharp glare at him, which would’ve been intimidating if Wriothesley didn’t know it was all for show.

‘I’m well aware of her capabilities, but given the environment, it’s always better to be safe than sorry to give her some extra attention on our behalf. I would hate to see her become wary of working down there if someone should take advantage of her.’

Wriothesley snorted.
‘Take advantage of her? Fear not, Your Honour. Yours truly here has been the subject of harassment from your dearest head nurse for the past month, I’m the one who deserves some comfort.’ He pulled a sad face with no real anger behind him. Thankfully, this seemed to be one of the few times Neuvillette could catch onto his sarcasm, and he let out a breathy laugh.

‘Are you perhaps referring to the sticker competition?’

‘How do you..?’

‘Your documents that came in a few days ago, they had two stickers on the back of the envelope. I made an assumption based on the contents of them.’

Wriothesley groaned silently. Well this was embarrassing, it was one thing to let the girls go haywire on his personal belongings, but another thing entirely to be tampering with official documents. There was only one melusine who would dare do this, and he could vividly imagine her cheeky grin in his mind.

‘I am terribly sorry Monsieur, must’ve been Sigewinne. She started some sort of leaderboard between the melusines. I'm not sure what their rules and objectives are, but I’ve been swamped in stickers of varying designs for the past month.’

Neuvillette seemed awfully unfazed by this whole situation, the Duke noticed. As if reading his mind, the Iudex replied quickly.

‘Don’t be sorry, it was a pleasant surprise to come across after a busy day of trials and paperwork. I’m sure the girls mean no harm, and I appreciate you having the heart to let them decorate around your workspace, they must truly trust in your management to be coming and going to their heart’s content.’

‘I could watch this forever’, was the thought running through Wriothesley’s head after Neuvillette smiled at him yet again. It felt so, so good to converse with someone who had such strong, unwavering trust in him, and it went both ways. He was unfortunately compromised in his ability to take his mask off in front of anyone, even friends, due to his disturbing experiences tracing back to childhood. With Neuvillette, it seemed like they had found comfort in each other, both being outliers of society in some way.

‘Would you like to see?’

‘Hm?’ An abrupt change of conversation tone.

‘What stickers she used on your files.’

‘Oh certainly, I’ll need proof to confront that gremlin’

‘Come with me then, I have them stored in my desk cabinet.’

The Iudex grabbed the topmost file from the drawer and set it on the table, moving a step backwards so the Duke could take a closer look. An odd move, Wriothesley noticed. The space behind the desk was more than enough to fit two grown men of their stature, but he brushed it off.
Unsurprisingly, the two stickers were Sigewinne’s signature blotched crayon design with a white base. He was certainly getting better at recognising which stickers belonged to who, it would help him avoid the stealthier members in the future. Wriothesley reached up to scratch his neck in frustration, but felt his fingers snag on something sticky.
Tentatively, he pulled the item from his upturned shirt collar, wincing because it was partially stuck to his hair. Coming face to face with a leisurely otter sticker, he felt his brain short circuit.

Elphane? No, she uses orange and food items.
Sedene? She was on her way out to buy cake when he came in.

No, who was he kidding. No melusine could’ve reached his collar without him noticing, and given the only human participant he knew of wasn’t in the room, that only left…

Neuvillette was standing a few paces from him, avoiding his questioning gaze, a suspicious pink dusting on his face, looking positively guilty.

‘My apologies, uh…’ The Chief Justice coughed, looking more flustered than the Duke had ever seen him. ‘I guess I’m as terrible at this as I expected. I sincerely hope you aren’t offended, Sigewinne offered me a place in their games when she visited, and I couldn’t resist the invitation.’

Before he knew it, Wriothesley was bent over the table in laughter, a hand over his face trying to stifle the amount of noise coming from himself so as to not humiliate the thoroughly embarrassed Neuvillette any further.
How endearing, their almighty Iudex, joining in and losing at the equivalent of a children’s game. What would the people of Fontaine think, knowing the stoic and impartial impression was all just a cover, hiding a precious, caring, and sometimes surprisingly naive creature? It felt illegal to be privy to this side of him, it felt reserved for the melusines, and Wriothesley felt adoration swell in his chest from the knowledge that Neuvillette felt comfortable around him to be pulling childish pranks.

‘Is there something funny about this whole ordeal that I’m missing out on?’

The Duke wiped a tear threatening to roll down his cheek. ‘Nothing, Monsieur. I’m just revelling in the risky location you chose to put the sticker in, any movement on my behalf would’ve let me feel you applying pressure on my neck.’

Neuvillette coughed into his hand again but offered no explanation, Wriothesley assumed it was because he acted on pure instinct, not logic. He knew the nerves that came with trying to approach an unassuming person, and it must’ve been tenfold worse for someone like Neuvillette, letting down his walls to do something his court persona would’ve regarded as silly.

‘How about this?’ The administrator reached for the Iudex’s hand, putting the sticker back into his palm. ‘One more chance, pick a spot I won’t be able to reach easily, and I’ll pretend I never noticed. That way you’ll be able to join the leaderboard after Sigewinne tallies up tonight. The girls will be delighted to know you’re also playing.’ He winked at the Chief Justice, taking in how he blinked owlishly.

An hour later, he was leaving Palais Mermonia with at least 5 more stickers on his back and coat sleeves. The man sure did take his offer for all its worth, and he learnt fast. So now he couldn’t escape sticker hell no matter where he was huh, Wriothesley chuckled to himself as he looked up at the starry sky.
But maybe it wasn’t so bad, all this attention from the people he cared about.
Rubbing the otter sticker on his right forearm, he set off back to Meropide, savouring the events of today.