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~ 📸 ❄️ ~
Charlotte is not one to waste an opportunity. So, when Freminet invited her to his house she had canceled everything to come over. It’s not like she didn’t miss Freminet while he was gone. Of course she did. But she had been mad at him for two reasons
1: Leaving to the biggest event of the century.
2: Signing a contract that makes him unable to talk about it.
She was pretty sure inviting her was an attempt at peace. Well, if it was IT TOTALLY WORKED. She always wanted to see the house that raised three amazingly talented people. She wasn’t expecting the house she had run by so many times being his. As soon as they got to the house Freminet made it clear that she couldn’t write an article about the house. She knew that of course. But it still hurt her investigator's heart.
She entered the house to see it full of children.
“Oh, is Lyney putting a show on?” Freminet asked one of the kids.
“Of course, he always does the day after a show.” the kid said.
“I see, wait what is this?” Freminet asked as he grabbed what looked to be a potion from the kid.
“It’s nothing.” The kid said, as she tried to get it back.
“You know you aren’t supposed to have this.” Freminet said as he handed the potion to the adult that was probably supposed to be watching the kid.
“HELOIR! How many times do I have to- Oh we have a guest. Aren’t you that reporter that didn’t leave Lynette alone until she dumped her on- Oh Freminet I didn’t see Hehe.” The guy said.
“Chapleau, you still have the poison in your hand.” Freminet said.
“How do you know it’s poison?” Chapleau asked as he carried the bottle with more care.
“Oh, it burned my hand.” Freminet stated. So Chapleau took it to wherever they put their poison. Charlotte wasn’t sure if she wanted to know how much they had.
“You should put something on that before it gets worse.” Lynette said after showing up out of nowhere.
“LYNETTE! Could you not do that?” Freminet asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry for caring about your wellbeing.” Lynette said as she walked away.
“That is not what I meant.” Freminet said. But Lynette just walked off.
“So should we sit down?” Charlotte asked. She knew better than to mention the injury. Especially after his sibling just did.
“Yeah, follow me.” Freminet said as he led her to a table in the corner of the large dining room.
“I’m gonna get this taken care of. I’ll be back soon.” Freminet said.
So, Charlotte sat there wondering what she should do when the kids got all excited and started cheering. So, she looked over to whatever they were reacting to.
Lyney was on stage showing the kids some tricks that she had seen the night before. She went to be a familiar face in the audience for Freminet’s first show. But she was transfixed on the performance. It was so engaging and magical it was hard to write a review intel after the curtain dropped. Then she had to rewrite it several times to get it just right. She wanted it perfect. And she got as close as she could get in the time limit. She sent it out this morning before she came by.
“I’m back.” Freminet said as sat down.
“How’s your hand?” Charlotte asked.
“Oh, it’s better.” Freminet said. Charlotte smiled. It took him a long time to trust her enough to admit he was hurt at all. One time he had a cast on, and he said everything was fine.
“I actually called you here because I didn’t know who to talk to and I could use some advice.” Freminet said.
But to be honest, Charlotte really was distracted. But how could she not be? Lyney was doing a trick that wasn’t done the night before. And likely he never had before in front of anyone. It was a beautiful trick. She wondered how he did it.
“Lotte? Are you even listening?” Freminet asked.
“YES, of course I am.” Charlotte said.
“Then what do I do? He can’t just come back and expect me to forgive him, can he?” Freminet asked.
“Well, did he at least seem apologetic?” Charlotte asked. She wasn’t sure who the ‘he’ was, but she figured that would be a good response.
“I guess he sort of did.” Freminet said.
“Then you should let him try to make it up to you.” Charlotte said. And then a bird flew overhead.
Charlotte watched the bird fly like a boomerang back to its owner. Lyney definitely knew how to draw the crowd in. the talent it must take to get all those kids focused on the show.
“Also, I met someone in Sumeru who I might be interested in.” Freminet said sarcastically.
“WHAT?!?!” Charlotte yelled. Fortunately, not loud enough to distract Lyney.
“So now you hear me.” Freminet said.
“I’m sorry, Freminet. It’s just-” Freminet put his hand up to stop her.
“It’s fine, Lyney has always been the louder one. I have to get something done. But you can stay through the show.” Freminet said.
And then he left. Charlotte stayed through the show and loved every minute of it. And thought that she should come over more often. So, she would.
~ 🐧 🤿~
He lied to Charlotte. Freminet left the house to dive. He knew that she would get bored of him eventually. But he wasn’t expecting her to look at Lyney like that.
Freminet wasn’t dumb. She will probably want to hang out more at his house for the chance Lyney would be there.
Lyney had a lot of women and sometimes men who were interested in him. Lyney is always so oblivious. intel they tell him outright. Then he told them he wasn’t wanting to be in a relationship right now and mostly they would leave and never come back. There were some ‘Exes’ of Lyney’s that “Father” had to deal with but that was rare.
He just wished Lotte didn’t fall for him. She was his first and only friend. But he should’ve known that it wouldn’t last.
Now Freminet was left with dinner plans with someone he hated and two-three strangers. Without anyone to talk about it with. Sure, he could talk about it with the twins. But they would ‘deal’ with it. And he didn’t want that. So, he dived instead. And forgot about his problems for now.