Chapter Text
Furina knew that organisation wasn’t Columbina’s strong trait, but this was on another level. If it wasn’t for Arlecchino’s persistent phonecalls all afternoon when she was working with her troupe, she would have missed the invitation. Columbina had invited them to a last-minute housewarming party, at her and Sandrone’s new apartment. Arlecchino had asked her over the phone to pick up the kids at school as she’ll need to go help them clean up the apartment. Furina’s frustration was lessened by hearing Arlecchino’s.
“You’ll have the easy part, Droplet” she had said on the phone, “I have seen Sandrone office. If her apartment is half as disorganised, then it won’t be clean until next week.” she had said.
The kids were pleasantly surprised when Furina picked them up. Lyney was practically beaming with joy, Lynette gave her a quick side hug, while Freminet was the only one who asked, shyly, “Where’s Father? Is she alright?”.
When she explained the situation to them, he sighed out of relief while the twins hid their disappointment. Out of the three, Freminet was the closest to Sandrone. The twins were weary of Sandrone and her rough personality, as they were old enough to be at the receiving end of her antics.
“It will be fine, I’m sure of it!” she reassured them, but they remained uncertain.
She quickly drove home so they could get ready before going. The kids went to their rooms to put away their school furnitures . Furina gave them a fresh pair of clothes and told them to prepare a backpack with enough to keep themselves busy for the night. Furina then went to the bathroom to touch up on her make up. It’s been a few days- no, weeks, since she’s been able to spend some time with Arlecchino. Between Arle’s work, Furina great new play, and the kids’ homework, they basically walked past each other. The only time they had together alone was in the evening, when they were both too tired. She wanted to take advantage of this hang out, so they could spend some time together. Just one week before the trip. Come on, Furina, you can do it! You’ll be able to relax together then. She aimed to make this vacation as romantic as possible. Well, as romantic as she could with Childe coming. Though she wasn't going to complain since he was paying for everything. Sure, they just came back from another trip to Mondstadt, but it was cut short due to a work emergency. The kid had been, understandably, heartbroken and were basically pouting the whole ride home, but Arlecchino promised that she would make it up to them. Furina had been disappointed too, but not as much as Arlecchino. Out of everybody she had been the most tense when going back home. She found it curious at first, but quickly came to the conclusion that it was because she rarely got opportunities to rest.
Her phone buzzed. A message from Arlecchino.
“Are you still home?”
she typed quickly, standing over the sink.
“Yes! why”
“No food, no alcohol and no snacks. Columbina forgot to do groceries. Can you bring something? There’s snacks in the cupboard and a bottle of wine in the fridge”
“Of course! No need to bring food?”
“Sandrone said she’ll order pizza.”
Furina sighed, and went toward the kitchen.
“Kids, hurry up! We’re going to leave in a few minutes!”
She heard Lyney gasp in his room and he screamed “I’m not ready!”.
A couple of bags of chips under her arms and a bottle of wine in hand, she left the kitchen for their living room. She put them down on the wooden table. Freminet was already sitting on their sofa, with a small backpack at his feet.
“You’re already ready Freminet? You’re fast!” she said.
The young boy looked at her, nodded and looked away, playing with his plush Pers. Her shoulder slumped slightly. She struggled to interact with the boy, never knowing if he liked her or not. It was hot and cold. One day he would tell her all about the sea life documentaries he had watched but then ignore her for a week. His shyness explained some of it, but not all. Arlecchino had shared early on with Furina that she suspected her son to be autistic, but getting a diagnosis was hard. The waiting list were all months if not years long. She had asked her to keep this in mind, when spending time with her son so she did. Arlecchino had also asked her to keep this to herself for the time being, unwilling to let her son to be “put in a box” by others. Though, from her point of view, it seemed that everybody around them already did, in a way. Sandrone’s words had less bite when she spoke to Freminet, Childe was careful to not be too loud near him, and even Rosalyn, who was the first to pinch kid’s cheeks and demand rib-crushing hugs when she saw them, avoided to with Freminet. Whether Arlecchino noticed their demeanor and decided to ignore it or was oblivious to it was unsure.
When Lyney and Lynette walked out of their room, she ordered them to put them on the kitchen table while she finished packing. Once she was done, she rushed them in the car.
The drive to get there was longer than she expected. Their apartment was close to theirs, it was also in the same city’s area, but it was 7PM and there were traffic galore. The kids happily chatted between each other, making plans on what they were going to do once they arrived and how they thought their apartment would be.
“Is it this one?” asked Lyney, pointing to an old building.
“No, it’s not this one Lyney. And please don’t touch the window.” said Furina.
“What about this one?” asked Lynette.
“Nope, still not it!”
Freminet whispered in his sister’s ear.
“Freminet asks if it’s the red building over there.” said Lynette, pointing to a building in front of them.
“It’s still not- wait I think it is, actually.” Furina narrowed her eyes to see better.
The building was tall, but it wasn’t one the skyscrapers the city had. It was one of those old factories from the Industrial era that got repurposed into housing. It was made of red bricks and lacked any form of exterior ornament, besides a few sculpted bricks around the windows. Wide chimneys covered with what appeared to be vines stood on its roof, though it was hard to tell from a distance.
“Look at the windows! They’re big!” Said Freminet, pointing toward them.
They were. The arched windows all spanned more than one floor, and the widest one seemed to cover more than one apartment. Thicks metal poles starting from the ground supported the archs.
Finding a parking spot was easier than expected. Despite the traffic and pedestrians in the area, not many people seemed to lived here. Following the instruction that Arlecchino sent her, they found the apartment quickly. Lyney knocked on the door and Sandrone opened the door.
“Hi, come inside.” she said hurriedly before stepping back, leaving them enough room to step inside.
“Hi Sandrone!” Furina stepped in the house, wiping her feet on the doormat. The kids followed her, greeting their host before going to remove their shoes. Arlecchino hadn’t lied, this house was a mess. There were piles of dishes in the sink, piles of papers and books on the shelves, tables and even on top of the microwave. And… Is that a book next to the sink?The only part of the house that was free of clutter was the floor. Which almost created an interesting contrast. It looked as if all the mess that had been on the floor was put on the furnitures, to avoid anybody to trip. The only part of the house that was somewhat clean was the blue velvet sofa and the wooden coffee table. There sat Arlecchino and Childe.
Furina walked up to Sandrone and presented her the snacks and the bottle of wine/
“Here’s the snack and the drink, just like you asked!” smiled Furina. Sandrone furrowed her eyebrows.
“I didn’t ask y-” started Sandrone.
“I did.” cut Arlecchino, who stood up and was walking toward them. “Pizza might be enough for you, but I doubt the kids will be pleased to eat pizza without chips.”
“And is the wine for the kids too?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.
“No, that…” she grabbed the bottle out of Furina’s hand, “…is for me.”
“You seriously can’t go one night without wine?”
“I can, but do I want to?”
“Ugh.” Sandrone rolled her eyes and grabbed the snacks out of Furina’s hand. “Thanks.”
Before Furina could answer, she felt a hand on her waist.
“Hello there, Droplet. How was your day?” whispered Arlecchino, pulling her closer.
“Hey beautiful,” answered Furina before kissing her and then pulling away, wrapping her arms around her neck “I’m doing pretty well. What about you?”. She couldn’t help but slightly blush, it was so rare for Arlecchino to be affectionate in public and around her colleagues.
“Well, I think cleaning a pig pen would have been easier, but it was worth it.” She turned her attention toward the kids, who were running toward Childe. “Children, don’t leave your shoes on the floor, put them in the shoe drawer.”
They backtracked and went to put away their shoes, before running back.
“And don’t run!” she shouted before letting out a sigh, getting a giggle out of Furina.
“My oh my, would you look at this Papa bear.”
“Hey”, said Sandrone, “could you help me get all this on the coffee table instead of being all over each other?” and at that, she shoved a couple of bowls in their arms. They went toward the sofa. There was the kids and Childe. They were looking over his shoulder at his phone, commenting on the game he was playing. They put down the bowls on the coffee table while Sandrone put down the soda - and the wine of course, before hurrying back to the kitchen. Childe grimaced at the wine.
“Isn’t it too early for wine?” he asked to which he got a glare from Arlecchino, followed by a shoulder slap.
“Where’s Columbina?” asked Lyney, looking away from Childe’s game.
“She’s getting ready, she wasn’t able to leave work early like us.” answered Arlecchino. She grabbed one of the wine glasses sitting on the wooden coffee table and poured herself a drink.
And right on time, footsteps in the stairs were heard. Sandrone put down her kitchen knife on the marble countertop and looked over, to make sure she wasn’t going to fall over. They might have been living here for a couple days now, but she remained worried that she was going to fall or trip without her assistance. But she was able to come down without problem.
"Hello everybody." said Columbina, yawning.
"Hi, Columbina!" said the kids.
"Did you seriously just wake up?" asked Sandrone. Columbina answered by smiling naively and kissing her on the cheek. She then goes to the others. Furina noticed that she was following the sharp edge of the countertop and then the rounded edges of the velvet sofa, walking slowly. Sandrone watched her like a hawk, careful to not let her trip and fall. She quickly brought back her attention to the vegetables, and took one from the sculpted wooden basket next to the marble sink. Furina wondered what it was exactly.
"Hello Columbina, how are you doing?" asked Furina.
"Oh hello Furina! I'm glad you could come, I'm doing fine, though I do feel tired."
"Say the person who just woke up…" said Sandrone, as she rolled her eyes. But Columbina ignored her.
"What about you?" she followed, keeping her focus on Furina.
“This new play is going to be the death of me.” she groaned, “It's way too expensive for our small troupe! Not only do we need to buy new costumes entirely, but we also need to buy the rights to some of the songs that we will use… Not to mention that we won't be able to play in any theatre, no. The cast is too big, we can’t fit everybody on our stage. We’ll need one big enough for 9 actors. Do you know how many theatre in the regions meet this criteria?"
"Not a lot?" guessed Columbina.
"3!" answered Furina, slamming her fist on her palm. "This is a nightmare."
"Why did you agree to it then?" asked Childe. She saw Arlecchino start smiling.
"Somebody wanted to challenge herself, because, and I quote 'it can't be that complicated, right?' " said Arlecchino, bringing her glass of wine to her lips to hide her smile. Childe wasn’t so nice, as he openly started laughing
"What is the play about?" asked Columbina, "I'd like to go to a play one day."
As Furina was telling her about the play, Sandrone joined them with two plates, one in each hands. In the frist were little croutons with some cream spread on some, and thinly cut fish in the second.
"I don't want to spend the evening munching on cheesy crackers," she explained, "and this is all that was left in the cupboard."
Everybody thanked her, and started eating. The kids sticked to their cheese crackers and chips, while the adults were picking in both, except Sandrone. The crouton-spread improvised by Sandrone were surprinsingly tasty. The crouton was bland enough that the taste of the cream shined.
“Anyway,” asked Childe, “how did the moving in process go? That’s a pretty neat apartment you got there.”
Columbina smiled, reaching for a crouton spread, “it was fine, though it would have been better if Sandrone didn’t complain so much.”
“Are you kidding me?” asked Sandrone, snapping her gaze toward her. “So many things went wrong! Of course I complained!”
Furina and Arlecchino exchanged a knowing look. “Here we go”, mouthed Furina silently.
“What happened?” asked Freminet while chewing on a cheese cracker.
“First of all, the movers were so rude and incompetent. The amount of times they dropped our carbon boxes was astounding. One of them even scratched one of my Gandamu figures!”
“It was scratched before, dear,” added Columbina.
“No, it wasn’t. I know how my figures look, and this one definitely didn’t have a scratch before the move! Second, we had to rent a truck from a company to move some of our more fragile objects but their truck’s steering was awful!”
And she continued on and on. Furina only half listened, thinking rather about her future vacation. It was supposed to be in Liyue. It had been her suggestion, after a conversation with Childe. She had joined Arlecchino at one of their “afterwork eat out” at a local bar. During it, they learned that that they both went there, Furina for vacation and Childe for work. They gushed about all the different buildings they visited and the food they ate. When Arlecchino said that she never went there, Furina jumped on the occasion and proposed that they should all go, so they could show her around. Arlecchino and Childe accepted, probably expecting it to be one of those many idea that she throws around but never actually do. The look on their face when she showed them a week later an itinerary she planned was unforgettable. Childe, embarrassed that he did not contribute to the planning promised he’ll take care of the plane tickets and that he’d pay for the whole trip. That was a month ago. Now that she thought of it, he didn’t get back to them about the ticket plans…
“Father, I’m bored,” Freminet said, his face covered with cracker’s crumb, tugging on his Father’s sleeve.
“Hm? Already?” asked Arlecchino.
Furina smiled, “Oh, you got tired of the chee-” she looked over to the empty bowl. Oh, I didn’t get to eat one!
Arlecchino turned towards the twins, “Lyney? Lynette? Could you lend one of your books or toys to Freminet?”
They both nodded, and went to look for their backpacks.
Arlecchino brought her attention back to her youngest. She took out a tissue out of her pocket and wiped the corner of his face. Furina smiled, she was so prepared for her kids. She wouldn't have been surprised if she learned that she kept a first aid kit in her purse, just in case.
Freminet grimaced under his Father's touch, trying to wiggle out of it.
"Don't move, Freminet. I wouldn't have to do this if you were more careful. Don't you feel the crumbs on your face?"
Freminet shook his head, "No. But I wiped my face like you told me too."
"You haven't done it enough then."
"Cut him some slack, Arlecchino", added Childe. "Don't tell me you were always clean when eating as a kid?"
Arlecchino tensed. Not enough for the others to notice, but enough for Furina to. She shuffled closer to her, resting her hand on her shoulder, gently kneeding the flesh under it. She relaxed under her touch, but only a little.
The twins came back, empty handed.
"We don't have our backpack."
"Are you sure?" asked Arlecchino. The children nodded, "Furina, did you forget their backpack in the car?"
She didn't remember taking the backpack out of the car. In fact, she didn't remember putting them in the car. The last time she saw the backpacks, it was when…
"Oh Archons, I left the backpacks on the kitchen table" said Furina, facepalming.
Lyney looked at the floor. "Sorry, we should have reminded y-"
"Don't apologize," cut Arlecchino, "Furina was the adult, she was the one in charge."
Freminet clutched his plushie, "What can we do then?"
“Come on, don’t ruin the party.” groaned Sandrone, “What about you three go upstair and play in my office?”
“We can?” asked Freminet, his eyes shining. He loved going in Sandrone office, he was fascinated by all the figures and knick knacks she had.
“It doesn’t bother you Sandrone?” asked Arlecchino.
“It’s either that or the night is ruined by bored whiny kids. Besides, it’s not like there’s much for them do down here. We’ll call them down for dinner.”
“Thank you, Sandrone.” answered Arlecchino.
“Whatever, come kids, I’ll show where it is.” All three followed her.
Furina listened to them asking enthusiastically if Sandrone had any games to which she responds “don’t touch anything on the shelves!” Furina chuckled. She was so protective of her figures, though they all knew that if the kids asked nicelyshe would lend them one of her figures (one of the older one though, she appreciated the kids but not that much).
“Columbina, why couldn’t you leave earlier like us?” asked Arlecchino, pouring herself a glass of soda. Columbina sighed.
“The company had a problem and I had to stay. They recently hired a new interns to do some of the necessary but unimportant tasks. One of them was switching our contact journals to our new system, but he accidently deleted it all. I had to stay to fix the mess”
Childe grimaced, “I wouldn’t have liked being him. You used your company CRM to recover the information, correct?” And that was when Furina tuned out, listening out of politeness. After spending time with them, she could understand some of their basic job jargon, but not enough to actually follow most of their conversation. She swirled some wine in her glass, half mindedly listening about why “Schneznaya’s CRM is better, because you can go through each branches personal client files, which makes communication easier”. Sandrone came down, with a box full of delicate figures that she set down next to the sofa, next to her.
Furina leaned toward Arlecchino and whispered “What’s a CRM?”
Arlecchino leaned too, whispering back. “It’s a software where we track our clients phone number and emails. The one we use allow us to take notes, so we can keep track of what each client is like, and what can make them say yes to an offer.”
“Isn’t this basically stalking?”
Arlecchino shrugged her shoulder, “Everybody does it.”
The night went on, going back and forth between topics Furina could follow and others she couldn’t. She asked a few questions, trying to understand her lover’s job better, but the answers they gave her only confused her more. Every once in a while, Arlecchino would whisper and explain the context of what they were talking about. She was so thankful for that, because otherwise she would be thoroughly bored. She wished at one point that she could be upstair with the children.
They heard light footsteps from the stairs. Furina looked over to who was coming down. Lyney and Lynette appeared, and walked toward them.
“What’s wrong, children?” asked Arlecchino.
“Lynette is hungry,” said Lyney before his sister stepped on his foot, “Ouch! I mean- we’re hungry, are we going to order the pizzas soon?”
“I’m starting to feel hungry too,” said Childe, grabbing his phone, “I vote that we order now!” He raised his arm in the air. Columbina too.
“I’m not particularly hungry yet, but I’d like to order sooner rather than later.” she explained. Furina raised her hand too.
“Me too.”
“Alright alright, we’ll order now. There’s a pizza place that’s pretty great, just 15 minutes away from here so the order should come quickly. We went there during the moving. Hold on, we still have the flyer with the different pizza available on it”. Sandrone stood up and went to their fridge and grabbed a flyer that was pinned on it. She then stood in front of everybody, “Alright, who want what?” She then went on to list all the different pizzas, saying they’ll order three pizzas for the adults, and one pizza for the kids.
“I’ll go ask Freminet what he want,” said Furina and she stood up. She started to climb upstair until she saw Freminet there. His fingertips were of a blueish tint. I’m not even going to ask where this is coming from.
“Oh there you are! We are going to order the pizzas, come with me so you can tell Sandrone what you want.”
Freminet nodded and walked with her toward Sandrone. Arlecchino gestured Furina to come closer, and she went to join her on the velvet sofa.
“What pizza do you want?” she asked.
“I don’t know, what do you want?” she answered.
“I’m not particularly fond of pizzas, but I trust your tastes.” she said, before giving her a soft kiss on the cheek.
“Mmh trying to bribe me with kisses?” she asked, smiling and shuffling closer.
“Perhaps.” she answered, whispering close to her cheek. She could feel her hot breath on it. Furina was getting flustered and brought back her attention to Sandrone. She raised her hand to get her attention.
“We’ll order a Pepperoni pizza for us two!” Sandrone nodded and wrote it down on her phone.
“Ok, so we got… One Pepperoni for Arlecchino and Furina, one pizza with anchovies for Childe, one hawaiian pizza for Columbina and me and a ‘burger’ pizza for the kids… Whatever that mean. I’ll call the pizza pl-” She stopped and looked down. Freminet was pulling on her sleeve.
“Can I show you my invention first?” he asked, a smile on his face. Hers went pale.
“Your invention? What did you do in my office?”
“You’ll like it! It’s making a blue smoke!” added Lyney, earning a chuckle from Columbina.
“Go check out what he did in there, I’ll call the pizza place.” She said, putting her hand on her shoulder.
Sandrone muttered a quick “Thank you” before rushing upstair, followed by the twins and an excited Freminet. Columbina went on their balcony to make the call. Furina turned toward Arlecchino.
“If he broke anything, you’re paying right?” she asked, smiling devishly. Arlecchino arched an eyebrow.
“Oh? You think he broke something? Your lack of trust in him baffles me.” She answered.
“Hmm well, he is your son after all. You’re not exactly good at fixing things.” she answered and Childe choked on his Fonta laughing.
“My oh my… feeling daring tonight, are we?” she added, bringing her closer. Furina let her. Usually she would be embarrassed by this much affection, 3 years of relationship with Arlecchino lowered her need for physical affection in public. But it’s been so long… Furina put her head on her shoulder and Arlecchino slowly kissed the crown of her head, wrapping an arm around her.
Childe smiled, bringing his soda can to his lips, “So, when’s the wedding?” he asked.
Furina chocked on her spit. Coughing, she answered
“Well- We’re not enga-”
“It’s not happening any time soon, Tartaglia”. answered Arlecchino.
Childe’s face turned white, mouth slightly agape. Furina moved away from the warmth of Arlecchino’s arm.
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t-” started Childe.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Furina.
Arlecchino frowned, “what do you mean?”
“It’s not happening any time soon?” repeated Furina, doing air quotes with her hands. “What do you mean by that? Wouldn’t you like to- “
“I don’t think this is the right place to talk about this, Furina” said Arlecchino, cutting her short.
“Oh? When do you think would be a good time? Apparently, the vacation we just went on wasn’t!” Furina’s voice started to raise. She had a bad temper, she knew that, but she almost surprised herself with how quickly her body was starting to tense.
“Furina, stop. Please, you’re overthinking this.” said Arlecchino, ever so calm and avoiding her gaze. Her jaw tightened for a second. Her grip on the glass grew tighter.
“Am I?”
“Don’t you guys think it’s weird Signora didn’t come tonight? I wonder what kept her from coming,” said Childe, in a poor attempt to change the subject and ease the tension.
“Yes, you are. We are not engaged, are we? Therefore we’re not getting married soon.” continued Arlecchino, fully ignoring him.
“Any time soon.” repeated Furina. “Meaning you’re not planning on it happening any time soon.”
“Wow, look at the windows! I’m pretty sure we can see our office from here!” said Childe, in a growing nervous tone, looking through the kitchen window.
“Well, did we ever discuss mariage?” said Arlecchino, staring at her wine glass.
Furina’s brain short circuited. It’s true, they never talked about mariage. It never occured to Furina to do so, it always seemed to be… The obvious next step. They lived together, took care of the kid together and were devoted to each other. If anything, Furina wondered when they would have the “talk”. But did Arlecchino ever plan on having it? Was mariage ever in her mind? Arlecchino was an unconventional woman in many ways. Now that she thought of it, it didn’t seem unlikely to her that Arle wouldn’t want to get married…
“No, you’re right,” Furina threw her hands in front her, palms facing Arlecchino, “it’s my fault for assuming that’s something you’d ever want to do with me. I’m sorry for that.” But her tone was not apologetic. Her voice was growing tense, and tears started flooding her eyes.
Arlecchino snapped her gaze toward her with a worried look, “That”s not what I meant, droplet…” She reached for her hand.
“Dont’ “droplet” me!” snapped Furina, pulling her hand away.
Arlecchino froze, and slowly enunciated her words, careful to keep her voice low so the kids upstairs wouldn’t hear them.
“What I meant was, I don’t think it is the right moment-”
Furina eyes widened and Arlecchino immediately kept going, but she stopped listening to her.
“Wow. Not the right moment?” she held out her hand in front of her and started counting, “After being together for 3 years, living together for 2 and me raising the kids with you? It’s not the right moment?”
“Archons! Furina! That’s not what I’m saying! Are you listening to me?” snapped Arlecchino.
“Yes! That’s all I’m doing! Listening to you!”
“Well apparently not. Stop blowing this out of proportion.”
“I wouldn’t be blowing this out of proportion if you gave me an answer, Arlecchino!” she screamed.
“And I will when you’ll stop cutting me off!”
They heard a sob. Their head snapped toward the direction of the sound. There was standing Freminet, clutching his Pers in front of his face.
Oh no. Oh no no no. Since when was he here? How much of this argument has he seen? He was full blown crying, his knuckes turning white from how tightly he was holding his plushie.
“Freminet, it’s alright. Go back upstairs.” Stated Arlecchino but Furina pushed her out of the way, basically running toward him.
“Hey, Freminet it’s alright. Shush, it’s alright” she kneeled in front of him, careful to not touch him. But he only sobbed harder. A pit in her stomach was appearing “What’s wrong Freminet? Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”. He wasn’t looking at her, starring at the ground. She heard footsteps behind her.
“Freminet,” said Arlecchino in a soft tone, “there’s nothing to cry about, we were not arguing. Do you want to go calm down in another room?” But he gave no answer. Poor Sandrone and Columbina, we are certainly ruining their housewarming party. Childe joined them, and leaned down.
“Hey little guy, what about…“ he began but Freminet took a step back.
“Childe, mind your business.” spat Arlecchino.
Please don’t argue! begged Furina internally. Her hands started to shake, and her eyes started to well up with tears - they definitly were ruining the night… But Sandrone and Columbina weren’t there, if they were able to calm him down, they wouldn’t know about this accident. Yes, that was they needed to do. Arlecchino turned toward her.
“We need to leave and go home.” she said and moving to grab her bag from the wooden closet.
“Wh- What? We can’t leave! If we calm him down then everything will be alright.”
“Furina, we both know that when he is like this the chances of calming him down are low.”
Furina tensed up, “oh, so you have no problem ruining the party further?”
She leaned down, mere inches from her face. “The party is arleady ruined.” She passed by her, going upstairs, “I’ll get the kids. Freminet comes with me.” She grabbed him and carried him upstairs. He tried to wiggle out of her grip but she didn’t budge.
The party is already ruined. Well, who’s fault is that? She thought. Is it mine? No! If she answered the question, then we wouldn’t be here. If she was straightforward, then… then… Tears were falling on her hands on the ground. She gapsed and wiped them away. The kids couldn’t see her in this state. She stood up and went to the kitchen, grabbing the kitchen sink tight.
“Where are you going Furina, is everything alright?” asked Childe, worried.
I need to calm down. It’s alright, it’s alright. He followed her and stopped a few steps away from her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause trouble” he said.
“No. It’s not your fault Childe. Don’t… Don’t blame yourself. This is between me and Arlecchino” she sniffled.
Childe started to rub her back awkardly. None of them spoke another word. She heard footsteps from upstairs. The kids can’t see me like this. She wiped her tears and exhaled loudly in an effort to calm her nerves down. The kids walk downstairs, Arlecchino now holding Freminet in her arms and Lyney loudly complaining.
“But why do we have to go home? We didn’t eat anything yet!”.
Arlecchino hushed him and told him they’ll eat later. Sandrone followed behind them, worried but not saying a word. She looked around at each person, trying to figure out what happened. She notices that Furina and her expression shifts.
Furina steps out of the kitchen putting on a her best smile.
“Furina, is everything alright?” asked Sandrone.
She nodded, holding her hands together to hide them shacking. Childe pulls Sandrone aside and whispered to her.
“Furina!” said Lyney as he ran toward hern followed by Lynette, “Do you know why we’re leaving so soon?” Lynette was staring at her Father and her younger brother. Oh what can I tell them? I can’t tell them the truth. She leaned down and ruffled his hair.
“I don’t know, I’m surprised too. But don’t worry, we will eat later, alright?”
Lyney pouted, “I really wanna know what’s happe-” his sister pulled on his shirt, gesturing him closer.
“Lyney, stop it.” she whispered in his ear. “Furina, do you think we have enough time to eat the pizza?” asked Lynette.
Furina looked over at Columbina on the balcony, “I don’t think so, Columbina isn’t done ordering.”
“But what will we eat then?” asked Lyney, ‘Are we just not going to eat?”
“No of course, not!” said Furina, “we wi-”
“Lyney, Lynette please hurry up. Why haven’t you put on your coats yet?” cut Arlecchino in a stern voice. She gave them their coat and then focused on helping Freminet put on his coat.
The twins sheepishly put on their coats, unsure on what do and on what foot to stand. Furina moved to put on her coat too and gave the kids their shoes. Sandrone came back toward them.
“I’m sad you have to leave so early. How about we see each other again after your trip?” she asked, looking exclusively at Furina. Weird.
“I’m sorry we have to leave so early Sand-” Furina started to say but Sandrone waved in front of her.
“Oh don’t apologize, it’s no big deal. We will have more pizza for us three, that’s all.”
“Are you sure we can’t stay until we can get at least a tiny little slice?” asked Lyney, pinching his fingers so a small gap was between them.
“Hm, I don’t think we can-” started to answer Furina.
“Children, it’s time to say goodbye.” cut Arlecchino. Furina tensed up. She was growing tired of being cut of constantly. The kids looked puzzled too. Why were they being pushed out so quickly? They said goodbye to Sandrone and Childe, Lynette asked Sandrone to tell Columbina she said goodbye and she accepted. Sandrone was surprinsingly… nice. Arlecchino opened them the door.
“Goodbye, Sandrone. And thank you for the invitation. And I’m so sorry again.” said Furina, while leaving.
“Goodbye Furina, and have a great evening!” answered Sandrone… smiling?
“Goodbye Sandrone, I’ll drop by your office tomorrow morning as I have some documents that should interest your engineer.” Arlecchino stepped out but still looking at Sandrone.
Sandrone’s smile shifted. It no longer reached her eyes. Her eyes were throwing daggers at Arlecchino.
“Goodbye, Arlecchino.” And she closed the door.
They all walk to the car in dead silence, only broken by Freminet sniffles and Arlecchino telling him to stop crying. Their steps echoed in the vast empty staircase. The twins weren’t whispering anything in between each others.
They quickly arrived at their car. Furina gave Arlecchino the car keys, she knew she prefered to drive when she was frustrated.
“Everybody is buckled in?” she asked as she put the keys in and turned the engine on. The kids only nodded. She drove out the parking lot carefully. It was amazing how much she could remain in control when driving despite her anger, she had to give it to her. The humming of the engine and the noise of city life in the night was a lullaby, trying to get Furina to sleep. She took a quick glance in the rear mirror. Freminet was already out, his head dropped on his chest and moving as the car turned. Lynette was holding his head up whenever it dropped too low, so he wouldn’t wake up with a stiff neck. Lyney kept to himself, playing with the edge of his coat. They were calm. Furina decided she could let herself close her eyes to let herself rest. This whole argument and emotional roller coaster tired her out. She let her head rest on the car’s window. The car slightly slowed down and Arlecchino was more careful in her turns. Her shoulder’s dropped and her mind started to drift away when…
“I’m still hungry! What are we going to eat?” whined Lyney. Furina shot. She looked in the mirror. Lyney looked distressed, meanwhile his sister shot him a dirty side eye. Freminet’s eyes opened and slightly straightened his posture, before shuffling back into a comfortable position.
“Don’t worry, we will go to a drive-thru and order food,” claimed Furina. Arlecchino glanced torward her, her eyebrows furrowed but ultimately kept her eyes on the road, “right honey?” She had to basically bite her tongue to prevent herself from saying the end of the sentence sarcastically.
“Really, Father! We’re going to a fast food?” asked Lyney, on the edge of his seat.
Furina saw Arlecchino’s jaw tightens “Sure.”
“Yes!” cheered the twins, looking to each other and giving each other a high five. They were smiling from ear to ear. Furina was smiling too. Both because the kids were feeling better, but also this felt like a get back to Arlecchino. She hated to do that, and a part of herself hated herself for doing that, but this felt satisfying. Arlecchino’s tense shoulder dropped, visibly relaxing as the twins started to happily chatter on what food they would order. Only Freminet was silent, pouting and hiding behind his plushie.