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‘That was a long day’ you think to yourself as you leave the Opera Epiclese. Who knew that being a criminal prosecution lawyer in Fontain would be so tiring? You can’t wait to return to your house in the Court of Fontain and curl up in bed with the newest mystery novel you added to your ever-growing collection of books yet to be read and finished.
However, much to your dismay, it starts to rain. Correction: it starts to pour down crystal-clear drops of rain. The cases that were on the docket for today were decent. The cases were mainly a few disagreements between private citizens. And the criminal case that you prosecuted was not particularly gruesome, or tragic. Your case was a simple robbery of a small bookstore. You are rummaging through your bag for the umbrella you tend to keep on you at all times while pondering what could cause the Hydro Dragon to cry so vigorously. You are so lost in looking for your umbrella that you don’t hear the door to the side of you open and close behind someone else leaving the Opera Epicles, let alone take any notice that it was the Chief Justice himself preparing to go home after a long day at work. Not like you would hear the door open or close over the sound of the rain. He pays you no mind and you pay him no mind either. As you continue looking for the umbrella, you hear a sharp air intake from the person at your side. You snap your head up and pull out of your thoughts to see the tall figure of the Chief Justice staring out at the downpour.
“Is there a problem Monsieur?” you ask carefully, and quizzically. Neuvillette continues to pay you no mind, almost like he did not hear you over the loud smack of rain meeting the concrete, so you make another louder attempt to get his attention. “Monsieur is there something wrong?”.
A moment later you do indeed find what you are looking for and start for the aquabus station, but before you do you bid Monsieur Neuvillette a good evening. You set off in a bit of a hurry if you’re going to make it to the station before the last one leaves for the day. As you do, leaves you to feel as if you are being watched. Your rushed pace comes to a halt as you turn back towards the Epiclese’s magnificent entrance and coincidentally Neuvillette.
With a slight sigh, you hear the last aquabus pull out of the station for the night. As it does you speak to the man in the doorway, “Monsieur, is there something the matter? Anything I can do to help if something is bothering you?”.
His silver eyes don’t show much, but from what you can decipher there is something on his mind. You stand under the drenched umbrella a while longer before you take a step toward the Epicles. Seeing that you’ve already missed the final aquabus you seek shelter under the entryway of the Epicles. Pondering whether you should enter the grand building or take your chances in the rain and on the muddy paths back to the Court to be sure of getting home when a large bolt of lightning dazzles the sky. Accepting your fate of staying the night in the Epicles, you quickly enter in hopes of not damaging the case files and notes from the day.
‘Guess I’m staying here for the night.’ You think as you push open the large doors of the hall.
Upon your entrance into the main hall, you walk over to one of the large sofas and flop face-first onto it. As you start to sit up, you hear the doors to the outside world open and close once more, and you assume that the Chief Justice has decided to come in from the raging storm as well. Before he disappears completely up the stairs you swear you hear a soft apology escape his lips, much to your confusion. What would the Chief Justice need to apologize for? It is not like he has any control over the weather. Right?
“Is there something on your mind, Monsieur?” You ask, confusion plaguing your usually calm tone.
Neuvillette stops his climb up the stairs turning to look at you—a slight look of shock on his, normally stoic, face.
“I beg your pardon?” Neuvillette questions you, the shock on his face replaced by the slightest bit of confusion.
The question has you second-guessing yourself if you had read his eyes right. You shift your position slightly to see him properly, as you ask once more,
“Monsieur is there something on your mind?” in a calmer tone than before, attempting to hide the fear of annoying or Archons angering the white-haired man.
Neuvillette slowly descends the stairs, and you can feel the dread grow and twist inside you as he does. The feeling alone is enough to make you want to stuff the words that slipped from your lips right back into your mouth. But much to your chagrin, you know that there is no taking back what you said as the Chief Justice approaches where you are sat.
“You have been a lawyer in Fontain for some time now, correct?” He inquires in a particularly stern tone as he takes a seat on the opposing sofa from you.
You simply nod in response as you are too scared to form a proper sentence at the moment. In truth, you have only been a lawyer in Fontaine for a little over three months. And in that time you have never NEVER been in the same room as Neuvillette once in that time. Now that you are alone with the Chief Justice you are unnerved by how calm he seems to be.
Without breaking eye contact Neuvillette coldly asks, “So do tell me, why would you feel the need to question IF there is something amuck with me?”
You are unable to fully comprehend what he is getting at, and due to the discomfort, you feel by making eye contact you move your gaze to your lap while you think of an appropriate response to his question. After taking a deep breath you manage to regain your voice and pick your gaze up to look the Chief Justice in the eye once more.
“I would never question you Monsieur, but I thought that I saw something in your eyes while I was looking for my umbrella. If, and I truly mean IF there is something that is plaguing your mind tonight, it is not in your best interest to keep it bottled up and ignore it.” You quietly say your voice cracking as a painful memory starts to push itself to the front of your mind.
Neuvillette is quite stunned that were able to see beyond his stoic demeanor and saw that there was something, anything, that could be bothering him. This time it is he who breaks eye contact, with a heavy sigh escaping him as he finally drops the hardened mask, he wears daily for the public to see. You note the change in him, slightly dropped shoulders, and a painfully tiered look in his glossy eyes as if all of the cases that he has overseen have finally started to take their toll on his mind. The storm outside only gets more violent. With the change in his demeanor, you stand up from your seat and move closer.
“Monsieur, what is plaguing your mind this evening?” You say in a honeyed tone as you gently sit down next to him.
You gently move some of his hair away from his face and move it behind his ear, a warm smile decorates your face as you do so. This action draws Neuvillette’s attention to you, he must not have noticed that you were now sitting next to him. Tears start to decorate his face as he quietly starts to weep. This takes you by surprise, as this is a rare sight. Such a rare sight, that even when Mademoiselle Furina was the acting Archon, she had only seen the Chief Justice cry once. You are stunned that you did read the Chief Justice correctly. That is not the only thing you find surprising, the fact that he started to weep was another thing that stunned you even if it is silently.
You brush away some of the fallen tears from Neuvillette’s face, the warm, gentle smile never leaving your face. The raging storm outside lets up a bit with the action, leaving you to wonder if the old legend about the rain was true or not. The prophecy was semi-true, so the old legend about the Hydro Dragon could have some merit to it. This train of thought leads you to ponder the possibility that Monsieur Neuvillette is the Hydro Dragon. As you dive further down the rabbit hole you start to mindlessly run one of your hands through Neuvillette’s hair. An action that would calm your sibling when they were upset, you hoped that it would work in this situation.
“What do you think about Mademoiselle?” Neuvillette quietly asks, pulling your attention from your task and back to his eyes.
“Nothing really, just pandering something.” You answer him with a shrug. “Do you mind me running my hand through your hair like this? If so, I’ll stop.” You ask Neuvillette, gauging his comfort level with your action.
“I do not mind; it is quite nice.” He answers barely above a whisper, but due to the proximity between you and him, you manage to hear what was said.
You hum in response to him and continue doing what you are doing. A question dances in Neuvillette’s mind before it dies in his thought thinking that whatever you were thinking about could wait. His focus shifts from you to the coffee table in front of him in hopes of ignoring whatever archon-forsaken thing he was feeling with you running your hand through his hair. He can not help but let the storm go softer than it was before as his thoughts start to drift away from what was bothering him moments before.
“If you don’t mind me asking, Monsieur, but is there something on your mind that you would like to talk about? I do think that I said that it is not good to keep everything bottled up.” You calmly say after a minute or two of gentle silence.
A small sigh leaves him as he looks to meet your eyes.
“Today’s cases were…different to say the least.” He quietly admits.
“Oh? In what ways were they different?”
Neuvillette remains silent for quite a while to get his thoughts in order, and lets his eyes wander from yours. Long enough for you to slip your free hand onto his cheek and softly whip away any remaining tears pulling his gaze back to your soft eyes. You're smart enough to know that it is not only the cases that were tried today that are on his mind at the moment, but you let the thought pass without another word.
“How should I put this?” Neuvillette mutters as one of his arms snakes around your waist, “Amongst the countless trials that I have overseen in the time I was the Chief Justice confused me as today’s did.” He said as his brows knitted together. The storm outside is starting to pick up once again.
“I think I get it. The details of some of the cases that were tried today left you unsure of how to rule and if you ruled correctly.” You inquire in a honeyed tone.
“Not so much the details of the case left me confused on how to rule on them, it is more like I could not truly focus on the arguments brought forth by either side.” He admits, growing more frustrated as the storm turned from one of just rain to one with slight thunder.
“If you don’t mind my further inquiry, Monsieur, but which arguments were you having a hard time focusing on?” You carefully question.
The storm calms slightly for a moment before picking back up. This brings back your thoughts about whether the old legend is true, and if the dragon from the legend is sitting in front of you.
“It was…y-yours…” Neuvillette hesitantly admitted.
‘Mine?’ You question to yourself, ‘What? Why? Was there something wrong with my argument?’ These are just a few of the questions that ran through your head. You manage to calm your thoughts and rather quickly wipe the shock off your face to ask, “What confused you, Chief Justice? Where did I lose you?”
“You did not lose me anywhere in your argument. It was well crafted and thought through.” He admitted, much to your relief, “I do not understand why I could not focus on the argument.”
“I see…” You sigh, “Monsieur may I offer some conjecture?”
“Go ahead Mademoiselle Y/N.” Neuvillette said in a defeated tone.
“To me, it seems like you could either dislike me or you could have a crush on me.” You speculate.
Now that Neuvillette truly thinks about it, he could not dislike you since he is letting you be this close to him, or how he is letting you run your fingers through his hair, even letting you wipe away stray tears from his face is unique to you. Even when you were still working as a legal aid, before you became a lawyer, he has always had an odd fascination with you. Upon this realization, the storm let up once more. You can tell that Neuvillette is pulling closer to him, not enough to be uncomfortable just closer. His other arm wraps around your waist pulling you into a hug. After moving closer you readjust your skirt, so it is not bunched up, this action causes you to remove your hand from Neuvillette’s hair for just a moment. At that moment the storm outside starts to pick up. For a split second when the storm does pick up the lights in the opera hall flicker a tiny bit. After readjusting your skirt, you start running both hands through Neuvillette’s hair again.
You open your mouth slightly and ever so softly coo, “Shh~, everything will work out, Monsieur, I promise.”
Neuvillette can only stare back at your soft eyes that are full of empathy. As he stares at you, you stare back; wiping any tear that may fall from his silvery eyes. This is different from all of the times you have comforted your younger sibling, but it still feels nice either way.
It feels like hours while the two of you just sit in a pleasant silence lost in the sound of rain harshly tapping on the window and distant thunder. Neuvillette is the first one to break out of the hypnotic trance he seems to have found himself in, sitting up abruptly startling you. He needs to focus on anything else. You can see the formation of a light blush on his cheeks. Was he blushing out of embarrassment or…something else?
As your hands fall back into your lap, you notice how close you are to him. What you thought was a good amount of space only moments ago now seems to be far too close. Realizing this your ears and cheeks start to burn as you remain frozen in shock.
You try to, at the very least, move back to give each other more space in between each other. Much to your utmost dismay, his grip on you tightens as his head snaps back to meet your eyes.
“M-Monsieur, I…uhm…could you loosen your grip a bit so I can put some…uh…distance between us?” You manage to stammer out, the blush on your face blooming darker.
For what seems like forever, you are inches from his lap while your knees touch one another. Eventually, Neuvillette does loosen his grip on you.
“My apologies Mademoiselle.” The silver-haired man says.
“Ah, it is quite alright Monsieur.” You comment in a calmer voice, “No harm done.”
Neuvillette looks down at you with eyes like polished silver. You could have sworn that your heart skipped a beat, and you feel your cheeks redden further than you thought you could and would. After a few moments of just holding his tear-filled gaze, you manage to close your eyes from his. Only to bring your hands back into his hair to run your fingers through it again. Maybe he does have a crush on you.
Your eyes settle on one of the many windows in the entryway, “The rain seems to be letting up again.” You quietly comment, moving your gaze back to his.
“I must apologize for getting all emotional and for nearly pulling you into my lap Mademoiselle Y/N. It is very unprofessional.” Neuvillette muttered.
“Monsieur it is quite alright, nobody is immune to emotions. I would not expect you to be any different.” You calmly say.
Your hands keep gliding through Neuvillette’s long silvery hair making sure to keep away from the long blue strains. As your hand occasionally brushes against them, they do not feel like normal hair, rather they feel like smooth, polished granite. Bringing your gaze back to his own, his eyes remain like polished silver. They have a few stray tears and without much thought on your part, you move one of your hands to wipe away the remaining tears. The storm lets up some more, and it appears that the blue in Neuvillette’s hair gets brighter, but it could just be the lighting.
Neuvillette eventually rests his head against your shoulder, his arms are still wrapped around you. He starts miming your breathing as if to ground him in the moment and calm his breathing. You do not mind in the slightest, you are content to keep silent and let him truly feel his emotions. Eventually, you look over at the clock on the table to see what time it is, half past midnight.
“Mademoiselle, may I ask you something?” Neuvillette’s melodic voice pierces through the silence dragging your attention away from the clock.
“What would you like to ask?”
“What were you thinking about at the start of the storm?”
That was not a question that you thought you would hear from him. If anything, you thought that he would ask why you were doing this for someone you barely knew. Nevertheless, you thought that it would be best to answer him honestly to not destroy the newly founded trust you have managed to build.
“Well, it is something childish, to be frank. You know the old legend about the Hydro Dragon, right?”
“...Yes I do.”
“That sums up what I was thinking about. Just wondering what could have caused him or her to start to cause such a harsh storm.”
“Really? Just that old legend?”
“In part, yes. Mostly if it was true or not.”
As soon as you mentioned that you were wondering if the legend Neuvillette’s head pops right up so he can look you in the eye. It stuns you at how fast he reacts to what you say, but what stuns you more is how shocked he looks rather than his normal stoic expression.
“You mean that you think that the legend may be true?” Neuvillette’s voice comes out harsher than it has before. The storm picks up causing the lights to flicker and threaten to go out.
You pull your hands back into your lap and manage to calm your face to not seem as scared.
“Yeah, I guess so. I never really thought about it.”
Neuvillette’s eyes narrow. You can feel the tension building and the trust that you manage to build starting to crack. You need to think of some way to break the tension-filled silence and fast.
“Monsieur Neuvillette, I didn't mean to imply that the legend is real. Truly I did not, but you were the one to ask what I was thinking about earlier. So please do not be mad at me for answering you honestly.” You say in a harsh tone to match the one that he used.
With a sigh, Neuvillette says, “You are right, I should not get mad over something I asked and your honest response.”
With the raging storm, the lights finally go out plunging you and Neuvillette into total darkness. In the dark, you can see that it was not the lighting or your eyes playing tricks on you, the blue streaks in Neuvillette’s hair were glowing. Intrigued by this you move to sit on your knees and lean in so you can get a better look. You decided it to be best to keep your hand in your lap, as you use your eyes to explore.
“Mademoiselle you are getting close once more. Just what are you looking at?”
“I thought it was the lighting, but your hair seems to glow.” You say in astonishment.
Neuvillette moves his hands from where they were by your feet to your waist to pull you back down on your knees, as he turns to face you fully. With the glow from his hair, you can kinda see the blush that has started to dust his face once again. It finally hits you that Neuvillette is the Hydro Dragon, and you feel your face start to burn once more.
“Mademoiselle you are so very bold with everything you say and do. Has anyone told you that?”
“My parents have said that my mouth would get me in so much trouble if I’m not careful.”
“They are very smart people.”
You can see Neuvillette’s eyes moving from yours to your lips and back again he is trying to be as subtle as possible but is failing miserably at it.
“Monsieur I have a question for you.”
“And what would it be?”
“Do you have a crush on me?”
What feels like an hour is only a moment as you wait for his response to your question. It is clear that he is trying to find the words to express what he is feeling, and as the silver-haired man is most likely overthinking his response you snake your hands around his shoulders.
“And if I say that I do, what would be your response Mademoiselle?”
“Oh, you silly dragon, my response would be the same as yours. I have noticed you admiring me from afar for some time now, and I have also developed a small crush.”
“How did you figure out that I am the Hydro Dragon? And you did notice me?”
“There were many factors to me drawing my conclusion that you are the Hydro Dragon, but mostly they were things that I noticed as we were talking this evening. Also, you may think that you are subtle, but you are far from it when it comes to staring at me from where you sit in the courtroom.”
“Ah, I see, was it really that obvious?”
“Yes, it was. You had no idea?”
“Human emotions illude me to this day. I have another question for you, do not worry it is nothing personal.”
“Then what is it?”
“May I kiss you?”
“You may.
After obtaining your verbal consent, Neuvillette captures your lips with his in a gentle and loving kiss. With the kiss the storm finally clears up to reveal the warm sun coming over the horizon to start a new, lovely day.