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There was a strand of hair draping down into Furina’s face, longer than the bangs that typically rested there. She didn’t notice it, or she was pretending not to as she laughed at something Paimon said.
Neuvillette probably would have caught exactly what that was, had he not been so preoccupied with staring. The strand of hair had drawn his gaze to Furina’s eyes, forced him to realize that she was practically glowing in the filtered sunlight that was pouring into the café, those heterochromatic orbs lit up with an inner light that he had rarely gotten to see during her time serving as their Archon.
She looked happy. His fingers itched with the need to push that long strand of hair back, to tuck it gently behind her ear so that his eyes might be able to drink in more of that expression on her face. But they had often longed to reach out to Furina’s warmth. Denying them and his inner dragon both was something he had long practice with, even as his dragon snarled bitterly at Neuvillette’s restraint.
Fool. His dragon accused, but it seemed contented enough at the sight of their treasure’s happiness to not fight him fully. This was something wholly good, for the dragon’s pushing and pulling against the values of how Neuvillette felt they should behave had only increased since Neuvillette had ascended to full Sovereignty.
Even before this most of the dragon’s complaints were how they dealt with Furina herself, but Neuvillette had long given up trying to teach his inner dragon that no, they could not steal Furina away and jealously guard her as their precious hoard. Nor could they remove the hands of those that might dare to touch her, or the eyes of those that might look too long.
Much as Neuvillette might sometimes agree with those urges, he was firm in his insistence that they absolutely went against Fontaine’s legal code and as such, were wrong.
Paimon’s voice broke through his inner dragon’s thousandth rendition of how foolish it was that they lived their lives obeying a legal code made by humans.
“Are you okay, Neuvillette? You kind of dazed off there. We didn’t invite you out with us just so you could stare at Furina the entire time, you know.”
“At- At me?! He wasn’t staring at me, I’m sure he was just staring at something behind me! Really, how could you ever imagine otherwise!” Furina insisted, hands waving wildly.
A blank wall was behind Furina.
A part of Neuvillette sighed mournfully as Furina’s own hand pushed that long strand of hair back behind her ear before she crossed her arms and looked off to the side with blushing cheeks.
Cute. His dragon purred, and for once they were in complete agreement.
A shake of a blonde head was enough to temporarily draw Neuvillette’s gaze to Lumine’s exasperated eyes, and the faint judgement he saw there shored up his resolve enough to put his mask back on.
While Furina had stepped off the stage of being an Archon, in some manner Neuvillette was still playing a part. For until his story could move to its next act and he had his chance at either everlasting happiness or bitter heartbreak, he would continue to play the silently pining fool.