Work Text:
The elevator should only be ten floors high, but it felt infinitely long.
Arlecchino panted quietly, hand against the wall and leaning her weight onto it. She was alone now, and she didn’t used to be, but the ones inside were very eager to hop out and away. The ones who were waiting outside didn’t even bother getting in after seeing the intense glare on her face.
Was her face really that intimidating? Somehow, she doubted that.
6…
Arlecchino glanced up at her murky reflection on the gray wall. The smudged portrait could hardly be called a person. In fact, she could connect it better to an abstract monster. Her haggard breath translated to a heaving, steaming maw. A monster that was waiting to maul.
“Heh.”
Her face twisted into a loose smile at the irony.
7…
She wasn’t that worried… was she?
8…
Furina was an ex-archon after all, and she had a vision now too. Granted, that floor was full of harbingers, and Arlecchino was almost certain that one of them had given her the invitation – if not dragged her into it outright.
Hm, she would have a talk with each of them then. At the afterparty preferably, when everyone’s tongues were bound to be loose and forgiving.
9…
10… DING.
The metal wall opened up to a raucous affair. The table was filled on both sides with people she didn’t think were capable of getting along.
Arlecchino knew that they were well-aware about her arrival, which made it even more irritating that no one seemed intent on greeting her. If anyone did, they would be considered a martyr for willingly facing her climbing wrath. But no one in this group was stupid or sacrificial.
She drew her eyes to the edge of the table. Except…
“My, it’s sweltering here all of a sudden.”
Arlecchino stepped out of the box and lowered her head gently in greeting, though she doubted that the kind gesture was appreciated at the moment because the recipient looked as red as reindeer’s nose.
As if the rest of the world and its noise fell away, Arlecchino was led forward with only one instinct. She wanted nothing more than pull Furina away from this endless lasso, where the spotlight of the clown had inadvertently fell on her.
She was being made fun of, and she didn’t know any better.
Furina chuckled and put a hand on her neck, digging through the flimsy neckwear to relieve herself. “Is that your pyro vision,” she asked. Very salaciously, she took her outercoat off and made a show of it. “…or are you just happy to see me?”
“You’re drunk, Lady Furina,” Arlecchino said tersely. This time, Arlecchino took off her work cloak and promptly wrapped Furina with it. “We’re going home,” she added.
The statement pushed some sense into Furina, who stiffened up. “A-Ah? But your coworkers threw a nice meal for me, and we aren’t done play—”
Arlecchino’s eyes flashed with danger. “We. Are. Going. Home,” she repeated but with gritted teeth.
Furina fell silent.
Then, Columbina chose that moment to throw her two mora into the conversation. “Ah, Arlecchino. I didn’t see you there until now.” She giggled. “Why don’t you have a drink? The night’s only getting started after all.”
Furina choked up a shout as Arlecchino hefted her up and tossed her over the shoulder. She was rendered immobile with how well the coat had wrapped her into a burrito.
Arlecchino’s leer did nothing to the placid smile on the damsel’s face. “No, Lady Furina and I are clocking out early,” she said.
“Oh, goodbye then…” That was the only time when the damsel showed a smear of emotion. Her face contorted into a pout. “Have fun, you two.”
-
Furina didn’t expect the way Arlecchino pored over her once they got to their private rooms. She was seated on the big bed near the edge, while Arlecchino was on her knees on the floor like a dashing knight from one of the children’s fairy tales, busily undoing her shoes from her worn toes.
“They didn’t make you drink or ingest anything suspicious, right?” she asked, looking gravely stricken.
“Why, I didn’t know you were such a mother hen,” Furina said, slurring.
She was honestly not that drunk, but she might as well play the part and see where it took her and see how the other woman would react to it.
“Furina, I am serious about you,” Arlecchino said.
The sincerity in her tone sent Furina’s heart skipping and toeing loops. She was rendered speechless.
“A-Ah… well, no, they didn’t,” she answered dazedly. “They also didn’t make me do things I wasn’t comfortable of doing. Mister Tartaglia looked out for me the entire way. And Bina, for all her mischief and unfiltered curiosity, became my spokesperson there. I was greatly comforted by them.”
The answer brought a smile to the harbinger’s lips. “Oh, is that so?”
Arlecchino had just finished undoing the strings. Shifting away, she placed the pair of shoes underneath the bedside table and returned next to her. “The Fatui Organization is cautious enough, but news tended to spread around amongst ourselves like a quiet wildfire,” she said. “After I told the Tsaritsa about us, well, it wasn’t long before harbingers, and to an extent, even some from the lesser circles knew.”
Furina coaxed her to rest on her thighs. Arlecchino obliged with reluctance and slowly warmed into the touch. Then, she closed her eyes and allowed Furina’s thighs the full weight of her head as a makeshift pillow.
“Does it bother you, this news getting out in this manner?” Furina asked softly.
Arlecchino hummed. “I am thinking about its ramifications in the long run. You, as Fontaine’s celebrity, shoulder enough of the limelight as it is. But with two nations constantly breathing down your neck, I don’t think it’s fair at all.”
Furina felt Arlecchino’s jaw clenching from where she had rested her head. With her palms, she gently massaged it until she felt it relax under her touch.
“Excuse me,” Arlecchino cleared her throat. She straightened up and pried herself off from the floor. “I shouldn’t be dumping all this on you while you must be fatigued from the party.”
“Why don’t we forget it all for one night and just relax?” Furina leaned further into her acting and pulled petulantly on the wing-like hem of Arlecchino’s dress coat. “Come with me to the bed, please?”
Surprisingly, Arlecchino’s eyes hardened. “No, not while there’s liquor clouding your head. I’m not touching you, Furina,” she said.
Furina felt her heart flip-flop again.
Outwardly, she schooled her face into a deep pout and forcibly pulled herself on her feet. She also made sure to give her gait a clumsy sway – obviously, from the influence of alcohol. And as expected, Arlecchino’s hands immediately settled on her waist to steady her.
Furina’s legs got ‘caught’ against the edge of the bed, and subtly, she used the momentum to drag them to the bed, then allowing Arlecchino to fall on top of her.
“Now you’re just being unfair, don’t you think,” Furina mumbled. She bloomed with warmth upon feeling Arlecchino’s breath tickling her lips and couldn’t wait to kiss her. “First, you make me go home, and then you make me wait. Do you think it’s fair, Arlecchino?”
Arlecchino studied her intently. “Furina,” she whispered and grazed her talon-like fingers over her cheeks.
Furina relished in the uncertain look in the harbinger’s eyes. As much as she would like to escalate it further, she was an impatient woman. A truce would do for now.
“Fine then, have it your way,” Furina said, pulling away easily. She took occasional glances back while feigning disappointment. “But let me have a few kisses before the night ends, at the very least?”
“That,” Arlecchino hummed, “I can get behind.”
With a contented smile, the actress surged upwards. She bent her elbow and rested her weight on it, while she captured the woman’s nape with the other hand. They collided like twin stars, with Furina growing ever bolder and slotting a leg between Arleccchino’s in mischief.
The harbinger groaned silently, tightening her hold in warning.
Furina took all that she could get, lapping up and biting until their lips were blown and purplish. Perhaps the alcohol really did have a hand in her current attitude, giving her an extraneous boost in adrenaline and shamelessness.
As Furina was loath to stop, meager minutes turned into a near, full hour; although, the grinding and making out never went past what was agreed upon. Soon enough, Arlecchino collapsed and contentedly laid on top of Furina while the latter enjoyed her pressing weight and warmth.
Before they drifted off to sleep, in the silence, Arlecchino whispered. “I have a feeling that you’ll be forgetting all of this come tomorrow, so,” she paused, “allow me to say it.”
Then, Arlecchino’s lips slid from her temple to the side of Furina’s face and then to the softness behind her ear. Furina’s skin were covered in goosebumps as she listened.
Arlecchino’s whisper scattered in the breeze, away from curious ears.
Furina almost clobbered her over the head. ‘You coward…!’
Of course, there’s no way that she would ever forget those three, little words from Arlecchino herself, inebriated or not, but the implication that Furina would never get to hear it again was driving her into a tizzy.
‘Ah, no matter,’ she decided glumly.
Furina would get to hear those words again, even if she had to make it her personal mission during the full length of her visit in Snezhnaya. Yes, she was confident that she could get Arlecchino to say them again.
After all, Furina was nothing if not persuasive.