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He found her at the Fountain of Lucine, sat at the fountain’s edge.
It had been a long day, one of the days where the court sessions were short and uneventful, but too numerous for his tastes. Many fines, gentle slaps on the wrist, a handful of people sent to the Fortress of Meropide. It was all very low-stakes, all things considered. The worst punishment was a month sentence at the Fortress, which the defendant accepted with as much grace as the situation would allow.
His aides had already gone ahead of him, carrying stacks of files back to be sorted in Palais Mermonia, leaving him alone.
She had not seen him yet, so Neuvillette took a moment to watch her. Her legs were crossed at the ankle, hands folded in her lap. Her eyes roamed, smiling and waving at the Melusine guards that passed.
He knew that she had tried to introduce herself to every Melusine she met, greeting each by name. He heard back from the Melusines, how friendly and helpful the Traveler was, likening her to a fairy, a princess, a shooting star.
“Oh, Monsieur Neuvillette, I hope she stays forever and ever!”
The breeze picked up, rustling her hair and sending a light mist over her. She smiled and reached out a hand to catch more droplets. He envied every droplet that touched her skin.
She leaned down and skimmed her fingers over the surface of the water. He cocked his head as something in his chest hitched violently. Surely, she knew the implications of such a gesture.
The fountain, and its connection to conception and childbirth was long storied. It was maintained by tradition alone—for water was the origin of all life and the God of Hydro would surely have a connection to that creation. Furina had long abandoned the aspect of her godhood. The thought of Furina, her acrid, impotent terror, soured his stomach. It was hardly something he wanted to think about now.
Lumine smiled again to herself as she curled her fingers around a strand of her hair, still dripping with water. A few drops landed on her collarbone and slowly slipped down under her dress, where his fingers longed to traverse. He felt a stirring in his loins; the primal desire to take sent a flush to his cheeks. He promptly swallowed it down. They had hardly known each other for more than a month; he could hardly expose himself and his true nature in such a crude and vulgar way.
She knew he was the Hydro Dragon. She knew of his kin: some long-dead, some twisted into mindless beasts. She knew that he walked the streets of Fontaine in his human form, which implied that he had another form, one that would surely repulse her.
It had been a lonely 400 years.
Lumine caught sight of him, as if catching scent of his self-deprecation, and grinned, a ray of sunshine from behind a cloud.
Neuvillette smiled in return.
“My dear friend, shall we go for our walk?” he called out.
She rose from the fountain’s edge and hooked her hand around his offered elbow. Quickly realizing that he was looking for a distraction from the work he had just finished, she launched into a recounting of a few errands she ran for Kiara and sharing lunch with Sedenne. Both had letters that they entrusted to Lumine to take to Merusea Village.
“We should go together, on one of your days off, if you get any such things,” Lumine mused playfully.
Neuvillette smiled. The smell of rainbow roses and lumidouce bells filled the air and the offshore wind tempered what could have been an unseasonably humid evening.
“I think I would like that very much, Lumine. Set a day, and I will be there.”
She looked surprised at the response; her cute mouth slightly agape. Perhaps, she was surprised that he was so quick to agree without any conditions.
“Won’t the Court of Fontaine need you? It seems like the place would fall apart if you weren’t there.”
He reached over and squeezed her hand where it rested on his elbow. There was only so much he could convey with a touch. He could only hope that his wants and wishes could be spoken plainly, when he gained more courage, when they gained more familiarity with each other.
“I will always make time.”