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It began with a joke between them, made after all the assumptions their people had about their relationship at a time when their partnership was still fairly young. While Neuvillette no longer haunted Furina’s footsteps as he had when he first came to Fontaine, there was no denying that despite their occasional bickering, the Iudex of Fontaine and their Archon were very, very close.
So after around a century of idle joking made about it, Furina once said this:
“My, my, our people do have vivid imaginations, don’t they?” As she watched a new employee of the Palais scurry off after walking in on Neuvillette and Furina sitting companionably beside each other, the employee’s cheeks red as if they had been doing something sordid. “They’re quite the romantics. Maybe we should make their suspicions true one day, give them something to really celebrate.”
Neuvillette jerked his head to look at her, heart racing with hope, his throat clenching against the need to instantly make his agreement clear. While this seemed very promising, it was also Furina; he’d learned from experience that her obliviousness seemed to have no limits. She often didn’t mean the sweet things she said to him in the way that he wished for.
“What are you talking about?”
She turns to him with a mischievous grin, and Neuvillette instantly knows that he was right to keep a handle on his hope. His dragon huffs and sends a grumpy visualization of it flopping disgruntledly down on its stomach.
“We should get married.” She says, and his entire body jerks. That- he hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh, don’t be so surprised, Neuvillette. Neither of us have anyone else, and we’re quite good friends, aren’t we? Being married wouldn’t be so different from how we are now, would it?”
Yes. Because if Furina actually believed that Neuvillette would allow her to keep their marriage platonic, then she was even more naïve than he had thought. His better sense stops him from saying this out loud. He can sense something of an opportunity here. His dragon is shifting inside him, rumbling in preemptive delight.
“Perhaps.” Neuvillette said. “But if you truly believe that, wouldn’t you be willing to make such an offer on paper?”
It is Furina’s turn to look at him in surprise now, before she bursts into laughter that has her falling against his side. Neuvillette gladly soaks in her warmth and touch; saying such a thing would have been worth it just for that if nothing else came from this.
“My dear Iudex, always so obsessed with paperwork. Alright, alright, I’ll draft up a contract, then.” Furina says, seemingly seriously, and Neuvillette goes very watchful and still as Furina gets up and rummages about for some ink and parchment before settling back down next to him.
“Hmmm. It’s a little too soon for us to announce something like this now. As this nation’s Archon, I do require a long courtship.” She mutters to herself as she bends down in focus. “Let’s say: In about three hundred years, if the two of us are still unattached to anyone else, we’ll marry each other. Do you agree?”
His only disagreement was in that she had made the deadline so far out. Otherwise, he felt very satisfied as he watched every stroke of the pen that was put to paper as Furina finish drafting up the contract, signing it herself once she was done and drawing a line for his own signature. Since the ruling Archon herself had drafted this contract, once Neuvillette signed it this piece of paper would be entirely legally binding.
Neuvillette accepted the pen, and signed his own name with relish.
“I look forward to seeing what our wedding will look like.” He said as he folded the paper and tucked it into an inner pocket of his jacket. “Would you mind letting Sedene help plan it? She has been looking forward to it for quite some time.”
Furina laughed again, like he was joking.
He was not.
***
Neuvillette looks up and smiles when agent Talochard escorts Furina into his office, the woman herself looking rather put out to be summoned here like this.
“What in the world is going on, Neuvillette? Talochard here wouldn’t tell me, but I haven’t broken any laws that I know of. Not since the trial, anyway.” She demands with her hands on her hips, annoyance twisting in the curve of her lips.
“I apologize for making you worry.” Neuvillette says, meaning it entirely. “I didn’t have agent Talochard bring you here because you had broken a law; but rather because you are about to.”
This didn’t seem to reassure her.
“Which law? What in Teyvat do you think I’m going to be doing?” She snapped.
She seems upset. It is unfortunate. For his own part, Neuvillette is feeling rather satisfied. He’s been waiting for this trap to close for a long, long time.
“You’ll soon be in danger of breeching a legal contract. Considering the status of the two people involved within the contract, breaking it would be… extremely inadvisable.” Neuvillette said, placing the piece of paper they had both signed three hundred years ago down like a gauntlet thrown.
“Neuvillette, you can’t be serious.” Furina said, as she took in what the paper contained.
“I am.” He replied simply.
A part of him hated to be doing this. They’d been growing closer again, and he did wish he could allow the slow build of their relationship to continue on. But letting go of this trump card was something he couldn’t risk. Not when their relationship had been so tortuously slow to move towards the deeper intimacy he longed for. He had to use this to push them over the edge and see which side Furina landed on. Even when he worried that it might not end well for him.
He stared at her as she stood there, looking the paper over again and again, but he couldn’t quite tell where her emotions were landing.
Finally, she looked back up at him.
“You really want me this badly, dragon?” She said in an unreadable tone and he wondered if she still thought he was joking.
“I do.” Neuvillette said honestly. “I understand if you need more time to plan our wedding considering the circumstances, but I do expect you to fulfill your side of the bargain as detailed in the contract.”
“I’m going to expect only the fanciest of flowers.” Furina replied abruptly, and Neuvillette blinked at her for a long moment before rushing to agree.
“That’s fine.”
“And I get to choose what we wear.”
“Of course.”
“And who we invite.”
“As long as you invite the Melusines. I worry what some of them would do if they weren’t invited.”
“Of course I’ll invite them. You’re not the only one that loves them, you know. We’re also going to have at least three cakes.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
Furina shook her head and turned back to the door of his office, acting like she was going to leave. Neuvillette thought that she hadn’t been taking him seriously and was about to call her back when she called over her shoulder, “I’m going to start planning with Sedene now. You’d better finish up your work so you can start contacting tailors and drafting suits for me to approve, Neuvillette. If we’re going to come even close to the date we agreed on, we need to start getting busy.”
And she was out the door before Neuvillette could reply.
He stared at the door voicelessly, savage joy rushing through he and his dragon. Both of them were ecstatic
So Furina had landed on the side that they had hoped, then.
He bent his head and quickly got to work at doing what she’d said. She was fulfilling his dreams to the letter. He was not going to let himself disappoint her.