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One morning, Clorinde wakes up at seven with a weight on her chest, and when she looks up to see what exactly is pressing on her lungs, she’s met with bright, expectant eyes.
“Mama, mama.” Aurelie, in all her three year old glory, shifts on her chest, and Clorinde loves her so much, but she actually can’t breathe right now. “Mama, we need to—we need to go! Now, mama!”
Clorinde only groans in response, because it's Saturday. She’s not supposed to be up before ten, and she’s definitely not supposed to be doing anything before noon, but Aurelie is so excited for—for something, so she pulls herself up.
“Where’s Colette, princess?” Clorinde asks groggily, rubbing the strain from her eyes.
“With mommy,” Aurelie answers.
Clorinde hums. “Where’s mommy?”
“Kit—chen, mama,” Aurelie answers slowly, sounding out the words on her tongue. “Mommy told me to get you, mama. Let’s go, let’s go.”
So, of course, Clorinde leaves the comfort of her nice, warm bed to go downstairs, toddler in arms as her vision tries to unblur itself. Aurelie is happy to be picked up and whisked away, and she leans closer into Clorinde’s body, talking this and that about how her day started. She’s adorable, but Clorinde can’t really understand her right now.
Just as promised, Navia is there, in the kitchen, cooking breakfast and feeding Colette, who’s in her own highchair. She thinks Navia is the most beautiful just like this—even when she’s not trying, her hair still looks like gold and honey, and she’s got sun-kissed skin that matches well with her bright blue eyes, which stare back at her as she wraps one of her arms around Navia’s waist.
“Well hello to you two,” Clorinde greets tiredly, though she can’t help the smile growing on her face. She kisses the side of Navia’s face, and then drops her head to her shoulder. “Why are you guys up so early?”
“We can’t just stay in bed all day. I wanted to be a little productive,” Navia shoots back, returning her kiss. “Aurelie asked me if we could go to the park today. Come with us.”
It’s not even a question, because both of them already know Clorinde wouldn’t ever refuse, not if she had a choice. “Alright, we’ll go after breakfast,” she says to Aurelie, who’s still fitfully nestled on her side. “Let’s eat first, okay princess?”
“Okay mama!” Aurelie squeals.
“Aurelie, wear your jacket.”
“But mommy—“
“It’s cold outside,” Navia cuts her off. “You’re going to get sick. Put your jacket back on, baby.”
“But I’m—I like the cold!”
“Listen to your mommy, Aurelie,” Clorinde says as gently as possible, pushing her coat back on her shoulders. “We got this jacket just so you could wear it. You picked it out yourself. Don’t you like it?”
“I do!” Aurelie yells. “Mama, I like the jacket, but—but—“
“You’re freezing your little butt off, princess,” Clorinde says. “We’re not even outside yet, and you’re shivering. How do you think this might go when we’re at the park?”
Aurelie usually listens to them when it comes to these things, but recently, she’s been going through, what Chiori had dreadfully called—a phase.
She wants to be an adult all of a sudden, and in the head of a spunky, wide-eyed three year old, that means staying up late and drinking coffee and going outside without coats in the freezing winter weather of Fontaine.
Does it matter that both her and Navia have their own jackets to wear, buttoned and zipped? Well, no, unfortunately not.
“Mama, can’t I just wear it later?” Aurelie asks, puppy-dog pout so evidently similar to hers. She knows Clorinde is easier to break, in the long run. Good cop to Navia’s bad cop, and they’ve talked about it before, but Clorinde still can’t shake off that small soft spot in her heart whenever her babies look so visibly distressed.
Thankfully, Navia is right behind her this time, and she’s much better at keeping their daughters straight, so she pipes in before Clorinde can tongue-twist herself into admitting defeat, “No, Aurelie, wear the jacket now or we won’t go to the park.”
That seems to snap something new in Aurelie, because the next second, she starts crying. “ No, I wanna go to the park—mommy, I wanna go!”
In the end, Aurelie is stuck sniffling in the backseat of the car, jacket on but obviously not very happy about it. Colette is situated on Navia’s lap, who’s in the front seat herself and unwilling to spare a glance at Aurelie, who’s glaring at her with red, puffy eyes.
She’ll let it go when they actually get to the park, so it’s not like Navia’s mad at her. Aurelie’s just a baby—things like this will happen sometimes, and they’re adults. They’re parents. They have to know how to handle this.
And Navia might seem stony-face and sturdy, but she knows it hurts her, a little bit. Aurelie is her baby, after all, and it sucks when she’s sad. It’s for her own good, though.
So while she drives, Clorinde reaches over to hold Navia’s hand.
Thankfully, when they get to the park, Aurelie loses all of the anger in her little heart. The first thing she says, when she notices that Navia is holding Colette, is, “Mommy, mommy, pick me up, too!”
Just like that, the tension throughout the car drive melts away then and there, and Clorinde takes Colette from Navia’s arms so that Navia can pull her up. Snow follows the winters of Fontaine, which means all Aurelie wants to do is throw snowballs and make snow castles.
Clorinde spends most of the time watching Navia play with Aurelie. She finds a bench near as they run around each other in a playground, smile mile-wide as Colette giggles in her arms.
“Mama!” Aurelie calls out, waving her hands. She’s on a pile of snow, floundering around and getting snow all over her hair. “Mama, play! Play with us!”
Aurelie runs up to her, leaving Navia next to the pile of snow, and grabs one of her hands. “Come on, mama, play! Play with us, please, please,” Aurelie whines.
“Alright, alright, let me settle your sister,” Clorinde says, readjusting Colette in her arms.
“I wanna make a sand castle!”
“Snow castle, princess,” Clorinde gently corrects.
“A snow castle,” Aurelie repeats back, and then she turns to Clorinde. “Mama, help me build a snow castle?”
“Okay baby,” She nods. “Let’s build you that snow castle.”