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“Hurry uuuup! We won’t get a good spot if we don’t get there soon!”
Nah sighs as she watches her mother run ahead and yell at them from the crest of a hill. Her father, of course, just laughs; if she inherited any of her maturity, it had to be from farther back in her bloodline.
“You shouldn’t encourage her, you know.” She knows her words just fall on deaf ears before she even finishes saying them, but it’s almost habit at this point.
“Nah, is no need for pooping on party. Is all harmless fun.”
Her father simply ruffles her hair. She would grumble, but the feeling of his heavy hand on her head is… comforting.
Gregor offers his hand as they started climbing the hill. Nah thinks he’s just being polite, but when she takes his hand he lifts her up to swing her into his arms, then onto his shoulder. She can’t stop herself from squealing in surprise.
“Fatheeeer! I’m not a little girl anymore.” She stiffens, worried he might drop her if she squirms too much on his shoulder—she isn’t even sitting on both shoulders, where she might at least lock her legs around his neck to keep herself steady.
“Even so, you are still Gregor’s little girl,” he says, and laughs again as they climb the hill.
When they reach the top, Gregor pauses just long enough to crouch down and scoop Nowi up as well. She shrieks like a child at play and clings to Gregor’s head. Nah sighs; she’s given up on trying to criticize her mother’s childish behaviour, but sometimes it still bothers her, and she can’t help it. It just feels weird to not only look but also act older than her own mother, even if this Nowi isn’t really her mother…
As soon as they crest the hill Nah can see all of the other people spread out across the grassy field, waiting for the show to start. Some sit on blankets, some just sit on the damp grass—they’re lucky enough that it rained the night before, but tonight is all clear skies. Stray sparks could set the entire field alight otherwise.
“I told you we had to get here early! Everyone else wants a good view, too!” Nowi crosses her arms and puffs her cheeks out.
“Relax! Girls are having best seat in house, yes?” Gregor pats both of them on the knee as he carries them down the hill.
“Yeah, mother… it doesn’t matter where you’re sitting. You’ll still be able to see the fireworks just fine. It’s not like you’re not going to be able to see the sky.” Not that Nah isn’t excited—not because of the fireworks, really, but because they’re being set off in celebration of Lucina’s birthday. Then again, she’s never really seen fireworks. They were certainly beyond such things in her own time.
“Do you think anyone else we know is here?” Nowi asks, ignoring her subtle criticism entirely. Nah is used to it, though.
“Could be. Is not far from capital,” Gregor says, though Nah imagines that more of their friends will be in the actual capital than an out of the way village like this one. Noire’s mother and father, maybe—she knows Libra’s built an orphanage somewhere quiet for the kids to grow up peacefully.
“Come on, come on! Let’s find someplace to sit!” Nowi bounces on Gregor’s shoulder until finally she gets tired of being carried and slides off.
“I know you told me you find mother’s… energy… charming, but…” Nah pauses, trying to find the right words, and also making sure Nowi is out of hearing range. “Doesn’t it exhaust you sometimes? I mean, she runs around like a child, and you’re not… well…”
She realizes too late that she’s painted herself into a corner, nearly calling her own father old, but Gregor laughs.
“Nonsense. Gregor still has spring like chicken in step,” he assures her. “It is mother’s energy that keeps him this way.”
“So chasing around after mother keeps you young…? Well, I guess it would give you a good workout at any rate.”
She drops the subject as Gregor carries on his shoulder, moving around the people who have already set up in preparation for the show. Eventually they manage to catch up to Nowi, who has found a spot to lay their blanket at the top of a small slope. The slope trails down to a river in the distance, where the fireworks will be set off in hopes that most of the residue will land in the river and be carried off.
“Have you never seen fireworks, mother?” Nah asks as Gregor finally sets her down, and makes himself comfortable behind both of them. Not that she’s really one to talk…
“Never big ones like this,” Nowi replies as she stands up, only to settle herself right in Gregor’s lap. Nah would be embarrassed if she wasn’t used to it by now. “But I’ve played with sparklers before. Do you think they’re going to start soon?”
“Patience, lovely wife,” Gregor says, but like everyone else he’s watching the sky waiting for the fireworks to begin. Nowi giggles like a school girl, and Nah just sighs and lays back with her hands folded on her stomach.
Everyone is chatting, but when a small red flare goes up as a test, a hush falls over the crowd. Nah feels a twist of excitement in her stomach—the good kind of excitement, for once.
Another flare follows shortly, and then nothing more for a minute or so—before the first firework shoots up, bursting overhead in a shower of bright blue sparks. It’s louder than Nah had been expecting, and the air smells like smoke almost immediately, but she oohs and aahs along with everyone else.
Two more go up in red and green, and then a whole bunch of smaller ones all at once that go off in almost a straight line. The next one is orange with a ring of yellow on the inside like one big flower in the sky. Then, a whole bouquet of the same, in all sorts of colors!
Nowi jumps up from Gregor’s lap, laughing like a maniac. She throws her arms out to the side and runs forward, staring up at the sky with blatant wonder. Nah isn’t quite that excited—but she does sit up, staring in awe at the sky. She’s been friends with Laurent for long enough to understand the mechanics behind it all, but like magic, that doesn’t make it any less amazing.
Something makes her look over at her father—maybe because she wants to know he’s enjoying the show, too, since he’s been so quiet compared to her mother. But Gregor isn’t looking at the sky when she looks at him. He’s looking at Nowi.
“Father…? Is everything alright?” She reaches out to touch his shoulder, and he looks over suddenly, obviously surprised at getting caught staring at his wife. But his expression softens into that usual smile of his.
“Gregor is just thinking,” he replies. Another set of fireworks goes off overhead, bathing his face in a rainbow of colours. “It is good you are here with your mother.”
“You’re scaring me, father. Is something wrong?” She leaves her hand on his shoulder, hoping it’ll be of some comfort. She’s not used to seeing Gregor so contemplative and introspective; he can buckle down and be serious when he needs to be, but he’s not a deep thinker type of person.
“Just thinking about future, little one,” he replies, ruffling her hair again. Nah is now watching Nowi as well; she’s twirling and dancing in the colorful light cast by the fireworks going off overhead. “Gregor will not be around forever, after all.”
“You mean you’re…?” There’s a knot deep in the pit of Nah’s stomach. She can’t even bring herself to say the word.
Gregor laughs, and pulls her in close with an arm around her shoulders.
“Ha! No, not for long time—I hope,” he amends. “But long time for human is not so long time for manakete like Nowi. Gregor is just glad that Nowi has family now to love and cherish.”
Nah ponders that for a moment—then shakes her head and gives Gregor a shove.
“You pick the strangest times to get all dark and serious, you know that?” she laughs, leaning against her father’s shoulder. “This is supposed to be a celebration, you know—a special night. You can be gloomy any time. So be a little more cheery, alright?”
Gregor laughs and puts an arm around Nah’s shoulders.
“Is good point,” he says, and another round of fireworks overhead pulls their attention away. A full rainbow of colours bathes the field in tremendous light.
“Gregor! Nah!” Nowi comes running back and leaps at Gregor, nearly bowling him over. He manages to catch her without ending up flat on his back. “Did you see all of that?!”
“Is not done yet!” Gregor says, picking her up so he can flip her around and sitting her in his lap. “Still big finale left!”
All three of them look to the sky. All is dark as the last of the rainbow fades away. There are several moments of silence—before all of a sudden the sky is lit up with explosion after explosion, fireworks of all shapes and sizes going off one after the other like an orchestra of colour! Nah can’t remember having seen anything so beautiful in all her life. She’s sure Lucina must be excited, since all of it’s in celebration of her birthday…
The three sit there together under the night sky, watching the last of the colour fade from the sky… and though she doesn’t look, Nah knows both of her parents are smiling.