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“Why would you do this to me,” Neuvillette muttered his breath, shaking his head with a sigh as he looked at the scene in front of him. He looked over to his side, raising an eyebrow at his companion. “And why did you play along?”
Wriothesley smiled. “You have to let loose every once in a while.”
Neuvillette lifted his hand and pointed at the decorated part of the forest he had been led to, a big Happy Birthday Old Man banner hanging from one tree to another, looking like it was going to fall the next time a breeze hit it, literally hanging on by a thread. There was confetti all over the ground. Lynette was already frantically trying to clean it up, scolding her brother in the same breath. Lyney knelt down too, helping her clean it up, smiling sheepishly as he was scolded.
It didn't seem to bother Lyney much, because he had won. Neuvillette had been tricked into coming here. Lyney's wins in that regard were starting to pile up.
“This is your definition of letting loose?” Neuvillette asked, incredulous. When Wriothesley had grabbed his hand, gently guiding him along, Neuvillette should've known. He should have pushed away his feelings for the other, shouldn't have been unable to refuse, when he knew that he had a lot of urgent paperwork to take care of. This was ridiculous.
Neuvillette couldn't help but feel disappointed, having thought that they would do something together, all alone. Wriothesley had never said that they would be alone, just that he had a surprise for him. And what a surprise it was.
Lyney taking him away from his work was starting to become a pattern and if Neuvillette didn't stop letting himself be fooled, then nothing would get done around here anymore. Criminals would roam free on the street with no one to take care of them, chaos would ensue.
“I know that look,” Wriothesley snapped him out of his thoughts, “The last time I saw you taking a break for something other than sleeping the bare minimum was, what? Six weeks ago?”
“I take enough breaks,” Neuvillette answered defensively, but Wriothesley just continued to stare at him, raising an eyebrow, looking like he was seeing right through him. And maybe he was. Wriothesley... knew him too well.
“Food and coffee breaks to keep yourself awake longer don't count,” Wriothesley continued, “Court won't fall apart because you're resting for a few hours, Neuvillette.”
“There's others taking care of that too!” Lyney chimed in. “Or are you paying all of those people for nothing? Are they really doing such a shitty job that you have to do everything by yourself?”
Neuvillette had... nothing to say to that. It wasn't exactly the fault of the others that he was an overachiever and admitting that he wasn't satisfied with the speed of the work would be like insulting his own work– he was their boss, after all.
Lyney laughed. “He's speechless!” he exclaimed joyfully, “I got him!”
Wriothesley cracked a brief smile as well, putting his hand on Neuvillette's shoulder and patting it a few times. “I know you want to get back as soon as possible,” Wriothesley started, “But could you spare an hour?”
Neuvillette cleared his throat. “I... suppose I could spare an hour or two...”
“Or three! Or four, for your darling–!” Lyney chuckled as his arm was grabbed by Lynette and he was slowly dragged away.
“We're leaving!” she called out.
“Hey, I wanted to see that!”
“Lyney!”
“They really care about you a lot,” Wriothesley watched them go, then turned back to Wriothesley. “The little one is bit chaotic, but he means well.”
Maybe it would be better if Lyney had malicious intentions instead of having to force him to take a break, something that wasn't supposed to be his job. Lyney didn't seem to care about the law much, which was a bit frustrating to deal with, but that didn't make him a bad person. (One of the first times he had personally seen him break the law was stealing an apple from a vendor and giving it to a homeless child.)
“I care about you too, you know,” Wriothesley added on and Neuvillette's breath hitched as he leaned in, lifting his hand to grab onto–
–a leaf in his hair. Wriothesley stepped back and looked at it, then back at Neuvillette. “It seems like it confused your hair for a tree,” Wriothesley chuckled and Neuvillette wanted to sink into the ground and never come back out.
His hand was grabbed, once more gently guiding him somewhere. And this time, it was guaranteed that they were all alone. Neuvillette's heart started beating so fast and loudly that he was almost sure Wriothesley would be able to hear it soon, too, if he came any closer than this.
“The twins told me they tried to bake a cake, but it... failed miserably,” Wriothesley explained as they went deeper into the forest and soon after entered a clearing with a blanket in the middle of the field, flowers surrounding it. There was a basket on top of it as well. “So they told me to prepare something myself. Though I'm still not quite sure if that wasn't just another one of the little one's lies.”
They stopped in front of the blanket and Wriothesley turned around to face him, a smile on his face.
“Happy birthday, Neuvillette. I hope this is enough.”
It was the best present he could have ever asked for.