Chapter Text
Cassandra’s mornings are relaxed affairs nowadays.
It used to be that she’d rush out of the manor at first light with barely a kiss on her husband and daughter’s cheeks. Breakfast consisted of tea and lightly toasted bread, perhaps some fruit if Tobias managed to sneak it into her work bag.
But now she’s able to linger.
She spends her mornings sitting in the garden with a cup of tea waiting for Tobias to fully awaken and bring her whatever breakfast he feels is appropriate for her. They share it together while either chatting about nothing or whatever the children have gotten into lately.
Then her husband leaves, though he’ll try and wait for Caitlyn and Vi if they’re home even though Caitlyn’s late nights make that difficult.
It’s an even split if her daughter and her partner make it down in time to have a full conversation. Sometimes Caitlyn arrives with sleepy eyes and yawning mouth, barely able to have a conversation at all. Others it’s only Vi that appears, having left Caitlyn to sleep in, and Cassandra gets to pick Vi’s brain about work and business before she meets with Vi’s mother and their coworkers.
There are the rare mornings where Tobias has to leave early and Caitlyn spends the night at the Medarda household instead, and Cassandra is afforded a solitary morning. That too, is lovely in its own way.
That was her plan today, just herself and a few chapters of a novel in the morning sun before she left for a few late morning meetings, but the fabric of reality breaking down puts a stop to it.
Cassandra’s routine has been set in stone for ten years.
She wakes early, if she sleeps at all, and leaves the manor before the sun finishes rising. Her husband never wakes for her goodbye, too tired from working so late at the hospital each night to stir, but she refuses to leave him without a whispered goodbye and kisses on his cheek.
On good days, she’s content with that. On bad ones, she’s quietly devastated by that ever present rift. There is no fixing it.
They’ve tried and failed.
So Cassandra spends her mornings like she spends her days and a large part of her evenings; working at her office in the council building. She used to bring her work home more often, used to try and limit herself even if she didn’t always succeed but the reasons for that are….. gone now.
She is reading a plan on expanding a program for young children in Zaun when reality rips open.
Caitlyn, despite what people believe of her, has always hated mornings.
She is not a morning person by nature. Vi has said it’s because she puts off sleep so much that when she finally succumbs, her body doesn’t want to stop. Which makes some level of sense if not for the fact Caitlyn has always been this way, even as a child. She has fond memories of her mother waking her two or three times for school before Caitlyn learned self discipline.
But unfortunately for her; early mornings are a part of the job.
They wake together, Vi is a light sleeper and more of a morning person than she is, but get ready separately. She loves Vi deeply but her partner has little sense of urgency, preferring to go about their morning in a lazy stroll. Somehow Vi is always ready when Caitlyn is, despite how quickly Caitlyn goes about her routine, which is slightly infuriating, so Caitlyn can’t complain.
Her father is usually not in yet, he’s taken to working overnights at the hospital, but she always checks before she leaves. He’s gotten much better in the year or so but she worries over how much he works. She hasn’t brought it up because she’s afraid of looking like a hypocrite but she’s worried still.
Vi always grabs them some kind of light snack before departure. Caitlyn is fine with coffee, tea simply isn’t strong enough this early in the morning, but Vi’s biggest love language is by far taking care of people, to an extent that is unhealthy at times, so if Caitlyn can ease her partner’s mind in a small way she’ll do so happily.
It’s then, as Caitlyn is double checking her uniform, that three universes collide.