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As a theatre director, Furina always did his best to end rehearsal at 9:00pm on the dot, as promised. Rehearsals ending on time during tech week was another matter, but as the performance was still months away, this evening he had no trouble wrapping up at 8:55pm so the cast could be walking out the door at 9.
After tidying up a few things, Furina stepped out into the cool evening air at 9:12pm. Out of habit, he immediately looked up, past all the ground level buildings and past the aquabus line, to the Palais Mermonia holding vigil over the Court of Fontaine. Fortunately, the rehearsal hall was on the correct side of the city so that if Furina squinted at the side of the Palais, he could usually tell if the light was still on in Neuvillette's office.
Tonight, the light was most definitely still on. Furina sighed. He had plans to see Neuvillette over the weekend, and today was already Thursday, but the temptation to march up there and drag him out of his office was still overwhelming.
Furina stood there for at least a minute, tapping his foot while considering.
Screw it, I'm doing it, he finally decided.
~*~
"No, you sit down. People who don't know how to not work 12 hours a day are not helping make dinner." Furina pointed an accusatory finger at Neuvillette before whirling back around to continue buzzing through Neuvillette's kitchen like an angry bee.
"...I was sitting all day." Neuvillette muttered, sounding properly chastised.
"Fine, set the table then. I can hardly reach your water glasses anyhow."
~*~
After dinner, Furina caught Neuvillette guiltily glancing at the grandfather clock in the corner, whose hands were approaching 11pm. Neuvillette had then extended the offer for Furina to stay the night, which he had gladly accepted. This had happened a few times, now, to the point that Furina kept a change of clothes there, and it made him wonder what it would feel like to live in the same house as Neuvillette all the time.
He wasn't quite ready yet, truth be told. The option of complete and total privacy provided by having his own place was still too compelling after so many centuries of near constant scrutiny.
Neuvillette had let Furina have full reign over the bathroom first, insisting that he would wash the dishes since Furina had cooked. It was hard to argue with him on this front, especially since washing the dishes was such an easy task for him considering his exemplary control over water.
Not that it would take me all that much longer, Furina acknowledged as he stepped into Neuvillette's bedroom and placed his Vision on the bedside table.
A few minutes later, the door to the bedroom opened again and Neuvillette slipped in, hairpiece removed but still wearing his usual clothes. He headed straight for the closet, which had an overhead light and was big enough to change in with the door closed. Furina, who had already changed into a loose shirt and comfortable shorts, laid down and rolled over to face away from the closet, trying not to think too hard about the person he loved more than anything undressing mere meters away. They were both tired and both had to work again tomorrow, and thus far they had an unspoken agreement not to get up to anything too exciting under such circumstances.
The bed dipped as Neuvillette laid down behind him and gingerly placed the tips of his fingers on Furina's waist.
"...your chivalry is very endearing, but like I've said before, you can touch me."
Neuvillette hummed in response and moved closer, sliding his hand forward so it rested in the center of Furina's torso. The middle of Furina's chest was mostly flat, but when his fingers brushed against the softer sides, he immediately apologized. "I'm sorry."
"I don't mind you touching my chest either, you know." Furina grabbed Neuvillette's wrist and moved it further up until his hand completely covered one of Furina's small breasts. Neuvillette squeezed it gently with his thumb and forefinger and brushed his thumb over the nipple. Even with the fabric of his shirt dulling the contact, Furina's back arched slightly in surprise.
"Duly noted," Neuvillette said with dry amusement.
Furina huffed in response.
"I do worry sometimes," Neuvillette said softly, "that you're still covering up your insecurities and there may be things I don't know about."
Furina sighed. "Well, I wouldn't worry so much about that. I'm so terribly arrogant, after all— there's not much room for insecurity amid such overwhelming narcissism."
"If that's true, then why, Furina, do you deflect every single compliment you are given?"
Furina did not have a comeback for that. At length, he relented. "There's been many a time where I felt like I was too short and too flabby around the middle to be attractive, but…" Furina trailed off, distracted by Neuvillette sliding his hand back down to caress his soft belly and simultaneously giving him a kiss on the back of the head. Furina's ears burned. "...anyway! At the same time, there was no room for insecurity when I was so obsessed with the self-image I was trying to create: the cultivated aura of charm and charisma and androgynous godliness—"
"...androgynous godliness?"
"...you are simply insisting on embarrassing me tonight, aren't you?"
"I apologize, that's not my intention."
Furina exhaled through his nose. "Upon further reflection, I think I'm the one embarrassing myself. It was convenient though, that seeming a little bit above the human perception of gender was befitting of an archon."
"If you were really so obsessed with yourself, wouldn't you have come to certain conclusions about your gender sooner?"
Furina sighed. It had taken him five hundred some years to realize his discomfort with being seen as a woman. "I guess I can't argue with that. I can't even claim that it was just my own androgyny I was obsessed with— I've been rather taken with yours this whole time."
"You consider me to be androgynous?" Neuvillette shifted slightly, his knee bumping against Furina's calf.
"Ah, sorry, do you not like that?" Furina's voice jumped a touch higher at the thought that he had accidentally offended.
"I... no, that's not it, I'm just surprised. As tall and imposing as I am? With my deep voice and large hands? I simply don't see how I could be considered androgynous."
Furina snorted and rolled over so that he was facing Neuvillette, putting one hand on his waist and the other lightly brushing his cheek. "My dear Iudex, you are putting entirely too much emphasis on the things about your body that are out of your control, and not nearly enough on the things that are."
Neuvillette's brow creased in the adorable way it did when he was thinking very hard. "...I suppose it hasn't escaped my notice that most men prefer their hair short, and I like mine long."
Furina nodded. "Exactly, that's the sort of thing I'm referring to. Do you remember the time after one of my ventures onto the stage, only a few decades after you arrived, when I came back to Palais after the performance and found you still in your office?"
"...yes?"
"And you expressed curiosity at the remnants of my stage makeup, and after I explained that it was exaggerated for the sake of the audience and you continued to seem very intrigued, I did your eyeliner on a whim?"
"....yes."
"And then, I left the makeup there and said you could have it, and you took it and continued to do it on your own on a nearly daily basis?"
Neuvillette closed his eyes, as if to take a break from the intensity of Furina's questioning. Naturally, both of them had taken their makeup off for the night, but Furina was so used to the dark blue wings gracing Neuvillette's eyelids that it was very easy to put them back on in his imagination.
"I suppose I see your point," Neuvillette said finally, cracking a slitted eye back open.
Furina grinned at him. "Next time I performed, you came to see me, too, which I appreciated."
"Yes, I very quickly saw the error of my ways in that regard," Neuvillette murmured, opening both his eyes. "You were truly magnificent. Are truly magnificent," he corrected with a soft smile.
Furina could feel himself starting to blush again, and fished around for a way to change the topic. "Your mannerisms, too. You sit with your legs crossed all the time, and the way you do it comes across as rather feminine."
"...I was just copying you," Neuvillette admitted.
Furina giggled. "Well, copying me is a hazardous affair! Anyone who imitates me will end up seeming very queer, in every sense of the word."
"I can't say I mind. Truthfully..." Neuvillette hesitated. Furina smiled encouragingly. Neuvillette shook his head. "I'm not going to be able to say this while you're looking at me like that."
Furina huffed. "What, adoringly? I can't look at you any other way, so you better just turn around if you don't want to see it."
Neuvillette chuckled. "Fair enough." He rolled over to face away from Furina, who wasted no time snaking an arm under his shirt to touch the smooth scales that ran in a line above and below his belly button. "...that's quite distracting."
"You were distracting me the whole time I was trying to talk, so it's only fair." Despite these words, Furina stopped moving his hand.
"Truthfully,” Neuvillette murmured, “I have never been that attached to the idea of being a man."
"I knew it," Furina whispered, face buried in the long, silky hair spilling over Neuvillette's upper back.
"What was that?"
Furina pulled his head back to get some air, brushing against Neuvillette’s blue antennae in the process. "Oh, nothing, sorry. Keep going."
Neuvillette paused just long enough for Furina to worry he’d ruined the moment. "It was one of many things that was very hard for me to understand about human society at first. Men seemed so concerned with always acting the way a man is supposed to act, women seemed so concerned with being the perfect woman."
"You said that in past tense?"
Neuvillette shifted his head on the pillow. "Well, it's still true, but in this modern era, we have more people who are not so worried about such things. Take Lyney the Magician, for example."
Lyney's iconic performer's outfit, with its many straps and stockings, flashed through Furina's mind. "Fair point. You were talking about yourself though, which is a topic I'd like to return to."
"I was about finished." Furina felt Neuvillette's stomach expand under his hand as he took a deep breath. "Regardless of the reason, if it's because I'm not human or unrelated to that, I don't really consider myself to have a gender."
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised." Furina scooted up so his head was closer to Neuvillette's neck instead of his upper back.
"...I see now why that response is a touch aggravating. I work up the nerve to talk about this so openly, and all you have to say is that you're not surprised?" With Furina's head so close to the source, Neuvillette's voice rumbled delightfully in his ears.
Furina giggled. "I’m sorry, I very much appreciate you telling me! I've had to resist being nosy about this for a while now."
"You certainly can be quite terrible about minding your own business. Today's events notwithstanding, do you remember that veritable essay of encouragement you wrote me in response to my first part time off notice?"
Furina nodded solemnly, nose and chin brushing against Neuvillette's hair. "Of course I do! Do you remember Aether coming to talk to you after that Lantern Rite where we both ended up in Qiaoying Village and you carried all my and Navia's purchases back to Fontaine?"
"...yes."
"Did he talk to you about taking more vacations, like I asked him too?"
"I did suspect that you put him up to that..." Neuvillette's voice trailed off as his last words were punctuated with a yawn.
Furina's hand started moving again, fingers traipsing their way up Neuvillette's tummy to his chest. "There is no end to my deviousness, Madame Neuvillette."
Neuvillette shivered. Furina was unsure whether it was in response to his touch or the form of address. "In some sense I don't hate it, but it is unbelievably strange for you to call me that and so I would request that you refrain."
Furina laughed. "Okay, okay! I'll stick to my usual then. Goodnight, my dear Neuvillette."
"Goodnight, Furina."