Chapter Text
Renée walked out of the bakery waving to the boulangère, a bright smile on her face as she held a box of pain au chocolat. Not your typical breakfast in the Dessendre household but it was her birthday and as her birthday treat she was allowed to choose whatever she wanted to eat for the day. She had even gotten one for maman. Even if she still didn’t leave the bedroom much, even though it had been a few months since they had all left the canvas. Madame Francine had added an extra one, Renée knew because she had winked at her a she had grabbed the pastry filled container from her. The made her way down the familiar road of Paris, occasionally turning as she heard unassuming noises but it always kept her senses heightened.
Even if there were no worries of nevrons jumping out and attacking her. This was real life for gods sake. Comfortable in the walk home she continued, the day was bright and early, the only people out were mostly mother’s looking for peace away from their chaotic homes. Or people working on whatever task or job they had been assigned. Her mind wandered to thinking about Alicia, mostly as she had seen her reading all night long. She wasn’t much better if she had been up long enough to realize how long the slightly older sibling had been up as well. So much so Clea scared them out of their skins due to their sleepless state.
Alicia had been reading, nothing any too different, it was your typical fantasy story Alice in Wonderland. Mildly ironic for what they had just gone through. In fact Renée didn’t let the offer to bring up the irony go. To which Alicia just gave a death glare with the one good eye she had. She then realized how warm the pastries were. So fresh, she could sneak one right now. No one would notice. She looked down at the box and sighed, deciding to wait would be better, besides Alicia would notice the crumbs first and get upset over her sneaking food again.
She sighed and looked up at the sky before her gaze met the ground. She managed to move the box out of the way, safe from being crushed. She sat up to see who had made her fall. She grimaced upon seeing the face, Benjamin. Writer. One of her school bullies. Her eye twitched as she stared at him.
“Still on you antics about bullying me?” She stood up pastries in hand, “Newsflash, not working on me anymore. So you can cut it out, Ben.”
“You’re no fun Renée. I liked you better when you were a coward.” He teased getting closer to her, leaning over her, he had a decent advantage against her in height, about 5’8 compared to her being 5’0. It was something that intimidated her in the past, it would had made her shake a few months prior when she always tried to keep herself hidden. When she couldn’t stand up for herself.
“Uh huh.” She stared at him, “Well, I gotta go. See you at school. Or whatever.” She turned away from him and saw more of the writer kids, “Tsk. Yeah that was too easy. Merde.” She laughed a bit and backed herself up against a wall, “We can talk about this.”
“Can we? You saw what the writers had done to your manor. What makes you think we want to just talk.” Another spoke up.
“Fantastic point.” She pressed her lips together, “Kinds low to bring up that.” She reached to set the pastries in a safe place above her, “But if it’s a fight you want I am certainly down for it.”
Benjamin stared at her before letting out a chortle which lasted longer than she was comfortable with. He seemed to be falling to the ground before he suddenly stopped and stared her dead in the eye.
“A fight, you? Between who? Me?”
She shrugged, “I don’t see why not. If you and your…friends are going to bring up the whole Manor situation I don’t see why not. It is my family’s honor after all.”
“I like this side of you Dessendre, Any limits?”
“Fair fight, hand to hand combat only.” She got in position, lowering her body, anchoring her legs in the ground in a way that made her stead as she raised her fists. Benjamin followed suit. Fire in his eyes. Ice in hers.
“Deal.” He spoke as he swung at her aiming for her cheek, in which she blocked and responded by countering it with her punch.
Parry it!
Damnit, Maelle’s voice in the back of her mind. Too many goddamned fights where she yelled that. At least this was something that she could actually parry. He scowled and ducked last second lunging for her midsection. Grunting as they both hit the ground.
He began a barrage of swings, lifting her arms to use her forearms to cover her face as he clear aimed to attack there. She tensed her arms to the best of her ability at his onslaught of attacks. Using her body weight she turned to force him off her feeling the weight come off was only temporary as a fist connected to her left cheek. Immediately she felt blood on her tongue, she managed to bite her lip. She separated herself from him and stood up, panting as her body shook. He looked triumphed in his ability to draw blood. She let out a fierce cry and lunged at him overtaking his body, both slamming down on the ground. She got one punch in, then a second, then a third and then- she was ripped away from him by two other boys.
Benjamin stood up wiping the blood away from his nose, “You got a few hits in, beginner’s luck I’d say. But I think your luck has run out non?”
She didn’t respond, only stared into his eyes, her gaze turning into more of a glare than anything. He laughed again, gods if she could only slap that smug look off his face.
“Alicia was easy to manipulate, you were easy to make fun of. She’s probably the same, but you? You’re changed. To my dismay. What happened to make you so bold? What is your secret? To challenge me even.” He grabbed her face tightly, she struggled in his grasp however he refused to relent. “Irks me, kinda…creepy. Not as fun. Or so I thought. The more I think about, we’d be able to be the ultimate pair.”
“What.” She stared even more deadpanned, “Oh you are insane.”
“Not like we’d be a couple for love, no of course not, you’d be useful in being an asset.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, she leaned in getting close to his face, making sure he was looking into her eyes, before hawking up a nasty spit at him right on his face. His some twitched slightly before the sting of a hand slapping her echoed through the street. She didn’t look away although tears arose in her eyes, to which she kept her best ability to not show more than that.
“I’d rather be burned in a fire than ever consider being with a selfish prick like you.” She smiled at him mocking his stupid face. “I value myself way too much. I guess you wouldn’t understand that. Oof.” She hit the ground again, “Throwing me down, I’m starting to feel hurt.” She mumbled, her head felt light looking down at the ground, “Fuck.”
She dropped her head and when she looked up, it was more so she was waking up. Alicia held the unharmed box of sweets in her hands. She looked more than just unpressed, furious. That was the right word. She set down the box and began shaking her shoulders, if only she could speak it’s probably be along the lines of; how could you be so foolish, stupid, you’re smarter than this. She could blame it on her time in the canvas, but no she really wanted to attempt a fight with her biggest bully. Who apparently wanted to be with her for his own selfish and disgusting reasons.
“Okay I get it. I was being dumb.” She pushed Alicia from her
“I told you to stop being shy not become idiotic.” Clea commented from the other side of the room, “On your birthday no less. I didn’t want to explain to Aline how another one of her children lost their life to a writer.”
“You’re all being so dramatic, I was fine.”
“He knocked you unconscious Renée.” Clea spoke calmly, “You’re lucky we got there when we did. Alicia insisted something was wrong because you weren’t home yet. Rightfully so, because you got caught in a dance of death.”
“What’s next? Papa is gonna lecture me?”
“No. he’s trying to set up your birthday so Aline will actually come. Which mean we need to fix…your face. It’s bruised badly.” Clea walked over and smacked the back of her head, Renée flinched however didn’t move away, she stared down at her covers. Clea sighed softly and grabbed a rag from beside her bed and began to gently wipe her face of the dirt and blood. “I saw the damage you did on him. Safe to say: you got it better.”
She sat silently while the eldest cleaned her up, after a bit she could see the damage, bruising wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great either. The bleeding mostly came from her nose and the small scrapes on her arms and legs, they would heal rather quickly. Alicia took small bites of the delicious chocolate filled bread, offering pieces to each sister as she did so. Clea refused but Renée was glad to get a taste of the sweet chocolate bread. Alicia noticed the extra one and tilted her head, gasping in faux offense. Acting as if the baker didn’t also give her extra sweets. Renée snorted before Clea moved her face forward and held it, wincing as she got to a particularly sensitive spot. She didn’t apologize but she did pause before she continued. When she was done she got up and walked out to wash her hands.
“Alicia! Come. We must complete the rest of the preparations.”
Alicia seemed to grumble before sticking the last bit of the pain au chocolat in her mouth, she gave Renée a tight hug before she ran out of the room back to Clea, Renée laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. She had done something idiotic. She closed her eyes and images flashed in her mind from the Disaster Expedition as Maelle described it. A good chunk had ironically been her being around Painted Renoir and Painted Alicia. It was the moment when she realized her own mother had left her out of the perfect painted family. Which ironically even had Alicia, although painted in a cruel way. At least she had been put into the world. She opened her eyes, their mother had been grieving, that’s honestly what she had told herself, all that she knew was that’s why her mother forgot, or maybe it’s because she was the one Dessendre that had been truly forgotten.
She was barely acknowledged by Aline when she was younger and it had gotten worse as she grew older. It wasn’t completely off the table, it explained why Clea insisted the youngest Dessendre went into the painting despite not wanting anything to do with their mom’s grief. It turned her into a tougher teenager but it didn’t help the feeling that she wasn’t as cared for as the other siblings, all this caused her to fall back into herself, only rely on herself. At least she let Alicia in on anything if she felt it was necessary but other than that, she painted alone, everything was done alone. Nothing in an attempt to prove that she was worthy of their mother’s attention and care.
“Tsk. She’ll probably be in her room. Like she always is.” She got up and checked her face before she walked through the halls. Making her way towards the garden, she often went up their when she thought no one would notice. She’d carefully prune the flowers that needed it out of her own worry.
She did it this time too, picking off the not well off petals from each flower. She collected them in her pockets. She hummed softly the pain from the fight fading, she continued until there were damaged petals falling from her pocket. That was until she heard a throat clear. She turned quickly towards the sound, Aline had pulled herself out to the garden, she stared at the youngest Dessendre.
“You’re the one tending to the garden?” She questioned however it was hard to tell if it was in dismay or something else.
“Yes maman, I have…is that ok?”
“I certainly won’t complain.” She got closer and reached towards her face, her eyebrows furrowing, “You got into a fight.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. “Please don’t make it a habit, your father and I raised you better. But to see you safe, makes me glad.”
“You should see the other guy. He uh, I think I broke his nose.”
Aline tsked under her breathe, “You really are my little trouble maker.” She rested a hand on her head. “It’s your birthday right?”
“Y-Yes! You remembered?” She smiled up at her.
“Of course, I am your mother. I may have been absent for some time, but I am not so grief stricken to forget my youngest.”
Renée stared at her, did she dare to bring up the painting? She did forget her there. She stared down at a flower and took a deep breath before she just started tapping her arm. She went back to pruning the flowers absent-minded. Aline watched her for a few minutes before sitting on a nearby bench. The two existed in pure silence safe for the shuffling Renée did.
“Are you upset I didn’t paint you in his Canvas?” She suddenly questioned causing the teenager to suddenly stop and turn to her.
“What are you talking about? I never-“
“You’re a horrible liar. If it…makes you feel better. It’s not for the reason you think.”
“What could possibly be the reason? You painted Alicia in there, the one who you blame for Verso’s death. Painting Verso made sense, he was the one you were grieving for. You painted everyone including Clea. Although, Clea did turn her into a Nevron maker. That’s aside the point. Why did you leave me out?”
Aline pinched the bridge of her nose letting the word vomit fall from Renée’s mouth. She stared at her daughter for a second before she opened her mouth to speak. However at the moment Clea entered the garden, uncaring about the moment she was ruining.
“Breakfast is ready, both of you are coming yes?”
At the moment, Renée want to yell at Clea for ruining the moment but her stomach also growled, maybe food spoke louder than her emotions. Unfortunately, she sighed and nodded and looked at Aline who seemed more hesitant on it. But she too nodded in agreement. Clea satisfied she left the garden and walked back to the kitchen.
Aline turned back to Renée and began to speak although her voice was lower than she intended.
“It’s not that I don’t care. But you looked so much like Verso. You’re the only two who looked closest to your father. But you were the one I could never feel like you were truly my own. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. You’ll always be my little girl. But you were unexpected. I think having you so close to after Alicia affected it.”
“Sounds mostly like excuses but it doesn’t fully explain it.”
Aline sighed, to her it made sense but obviously the younger didn’t see it that way. It still sounded like what she had been told in the canvas, she wasn’t as important as the others, forgotten as it would seem. She wouldn’t have the natural handle on art, but that was ok. She had her music to fall on, just as Verso did. She got up and walked towards the entrance.
Aline attempted to call to her but the teenager continued walking towards the dining room. Aline merely followed and they all sat down, eating together as a family. With Renée holding the extra pain au chocolat out of Alicia’s grasp. The other girl pulled her clothes To get it. Soon Renée yelled out and let the older have it. Alicia split it and gave her one half. Clea sighed softly pulling her’s apart to eat it one carefully bite at a time. Hoping one day they’d stop fighting over pastries. Meanwhile, Renoir smiled at Aline resting a hand atop of hers as they looked at their girls. Acting as they used to before the fire. It was almost like they were…A family again.