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Aether glanced down at the coffin that was laid out before him. Signora was a rather short-lived comrade of his, as he was the newest member of the Fatui Harbingers. Their paths hardly crossed and they had only ever exchanged but a few words, hence Aether never being presented with an opportunity to grow closer. The indigo-colored Snezhnayan coat on his back weighed heavier than his grief, as he felt relatively unfazed by her passing.
He glanced around at the rest of the Harbingers that circled the coffin. No falling tears, no repressed sniffles, not a single trace of emotion to be found from anyone. In a way, it bought him comfort knowing that he was not the only one whose energy for mourning ran thin. At the same time, the lack of humanity present was eerie, worsened by the cold, dead body before them.
Aether maintained a cold, neutral expression on his face. He kept a grip on himself not just because of the atmosphere, but because of how close Arlecchino loomed beside him. Trying to not think too hard about that, Aether kept still and glanced around. Dottore appeared to be quickly growing impatient. Pantalone was seemingly nonchalant, with his eyes closed happily and a little smile on his face. Scaramouche was not afraid to let his attitude be known, pouting and crossing his arms, and as for the others, Aether couldn’t quite read their emotions. He didn’t bother to stare very long, as it must’ve been increasingly obvious that he was scanning his surroundings with some ounce of nerve. But he couldn’t care, long as he wasn’t making a scene.
The sound of Arlecchino’s voice perked him back up, but he dare not make his alarm be known by turning to face her. His body jolted, but he remained still, eyes focused on the coffin, ears focused elsewhere.
"We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of Signora," Arlecchino said, "a butterfly who burned brighter than the crimson flame, yet her wings seared to ash all too soon."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. A tragedy indeed. Can we get on with this? The gnosis won’t dilly-dally into our hands, you know," Dottore complained.
"Haha, someone is certainly eager to jump the gun!" Pantalone said.
"Dottore," Capitano growled, "keep your foul hands off of Lady Signora’s body. Have the bare minimum amount of respect for our fallen comrade. She was a human in life, and is a human in death, something not to be degraded to a mere experiment."
"Ehhhhh?! I didn’t say anything about experiments," Dottore said.
"But you were thinking it, no? Haha!" Pantalone said, clearly amused by Dottore’s antics.
Was Aether seriously concerned about acting normal in front of these people?
Arlecchino suddenly slammed her palm on the coffin, shocking the rowdy and intriguing the clever. Leaning over the coffin, her ponytail fell down to her side, gracefully brushing against Aether’s shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the glimpse of the most fearsome woman, going as far as to snarl at her own comrades. Her clawed hands within range of his tiny body served as a reminder that if he so much as misspoke, those could be piercing his throat in the span of an instant.
"Silence! You bark for respect, yet you show none yourselves?" Arlecchino shouted.
"Don’t lump me in. He started it," Scaramouche said, pointing to Dottore.
"I’m trying to be resourceful here!" he snapped back.
"Oh, Dottore, why can’t you be a good boy like my darling Aether? At least he knows when to keep his mouth shut."
Keeping his mouth shut seemed to be Aether’s best option for survival. It was a bit difficult to not wince, however, when she ran her fingers under his chin and affectionately nudged him closer to her. Arlecchino narrowed her eyes and bared her fangs with a smile, and Aether couldn’t tell if she was trying to be possessive or seriously strike fear into the hearts of the other Fatui.
Aether didn’t interrupt. Not only did he not want to be involved as it was, but he feared what those claws may do to him should he break his silence.
"Because I’m not your darling little good boy, or whatever," Dottore retaliated.
Pantalone took the wise way out and opted for silence similarly to Aether, though he was clearly stifling his laughter.
"Enough is enough," Pierro bellowed. "There is no need for such blatant disrespect from all of you. Dottore, stop provoking her. Arlecchino, save clawing up Aether for later. And as for the rest of you...just stick to your words being out of respect for Lady Signora to make this easier on all of us."
Arlecchino slid her nails off of Aether, savoring every fleeting moment of contact that she had with his face. A sideways glance from her told him that Arlecchino wasn’t quite done with her words of praise quite yet, but alas would have to wait until the conclusion of Signora’s sendoff.
This was the longest funeral that Aether had ever had the misfortune of attending. Pierro’s demanding voice shocked the Fatui into utter silence, to where Dottore did not dare to not crack another joke and the others kept their farewells to a silent prayer and nothing more. Granted, Aether wasn’t exactly part of many funerals prior, but it was going to be rather difficult to top one surrounded by infamous criminals, with a beautiful lady prying at him as if she couldn’t wait for the funeral to be over herself.
After the Harbingers were dismissed at long last, they seemed most eager to disperse in different directions, probably to refrain from further invoking the wrath of Pierro. Aether, however, lingered behind with Signora. Throughout the entirety of the funeral, Aether maintained a stoic expression in an attempt to not lead the other Fatui onto how he really felt. He knew what he was feeling, but he was unsure of how he was supposed to feel. He hardly knew Signora personally, but he considered her to be a teammate of his nonetheless, yet he still couldn’t be bothered to feel much of anything about her death.
As he walked around the perimeter of the coffin, Aether ran his hand along the edges, the surface still smooth and clean of dust. Spending a little extra time with her was the very least he could do, even if he was still conflicted on his feelings. Unfortunately, Aether’s moment of solitude with Signora was cut short by Arlecchino returning to the chambers, which was bound to happen after she took note of his absence. Worst come to worst, punishment by talons to the throat were in store for him in return for disobedience.
Aether took a deep breath, straightened out his expression, and stood still. Arlecchino did not seem angry, but rather, perplexed.
"Not too eager to return with your fellow comrades, hm?" she asked.
"I’m simply paying my respects to Lady Signora. In peace."
"No need to lie, dearest," she said, taking a seat on the coffin beside where Aether was standing. "They’re a little much for you to handle, aren’t they?"
"That’s not exactly it," he said, turning his head away.
"Then what ails you? You can tell me; these talons have no desire to tear into your flesh," she said, gently running her nails down the side of his coat.
Despite the thick coat between Arlecchino’s nails and Aether’s skin, he felt his heart rate spike from the grazing of her touch.
"I... don’t know."
"Hm?"
"How to feel about all of this, I mean. It’s a tragedy that she died, but I never really had the opportunity to get to know Signora, much less work with her.”
"Oh, dear, we're all in a tough spot right now. We've sent her off with kind words, and there’s no use dwelling in the past. Business must continue as usual, for both me and you alike."
"My idea of ‘usual business’ is a bit different than yours, it seems."
"For now it is, at least. Perhaps we should take our discussion of business somewhere a bit more… appropriate."
That was one thing that Aether did not hesitate to agree with, especially with the way that she was caressing his torso.
"Right, right. Don’t want to overstay my welcome here."
"Indeed, my darling, especially since she would prefer to relish in her eternal slumber undisturbed."
Nudging Aether’s back, Arlecchino stood up from the coffin. His pace lagged behind hers as Aether still felt as if his separation from Signora was far too soon. He looked back, but was unable to stand still for long as Arlecchino guided him forward at a steady pace.
The walk back from Signora’s tomb was deathly silent. No words were shared between them for quite some time, with the only sounds present being the clicking of Aether’s coat adornments and Arlecchino’s heels. He kept his head held low as he marched forward, Arlecchino’s arm kept around his torso guiding him. Her concerns about his silence ever-growing, Arlecchino prodded Aether to speak.
"I suppose the passing of Lady Signora still weighs heavily on your mind," she said.
Forcing a scowl, Aether did not acknowledge Arlecchino and continued walking, still keeping his thoughts to himself. Truthfully, he could care less about the passing of someone he hardly knew. What bothered him most at the current moment was the feeling of her nails grazing upon his torso. If anything, he was still unsure of how to respond to her statement without treading upon the path of losing favor with the entirety of the Fatui.
Aether shook his head no, but his chin was caught on one of Arlecchino’s sharp talons. She nudged his head upwards and forced him to make eye contact.
"Now, do you really think that you can slip anything by me? Do you recall how attempting to suppress you desire for me went?"
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Aether’s face. He attempted to continue walking as normal to no avail, as the grip on his waist tightened and stopped him in his tracks, her claws practically piercing through his coat. She looked at him with a soft yet hungry gaze, cupping his chin and stroking the side of his face with her finger. It wasn’t a glare that he had the mental fortitude to contest, not if he wanted to retain a favorable position within the Fatui, and certainly not if he wanted to retain her affection.
Aether opened his mouth to speak, but Arlecchino’s words quickly shushed him.
"You already know how you feel, don’t you? It’s not that you don’t know how you feel, but rather, you don’t feel anything for her at all."
Caught red handed.
"I... apologize," Aether coughed out.
"Don’t waste your breath, darling. I could read you clearly back during the funeral. You shed not a single tear, yet kept your mask of sorrow stiff and firm."
"Is that grounds for distrust?"
“Hardly, hardly. I couldn’t bear to turn on my darling like such," Arlecchino said, gently running her fingers through his hair. "I would say, you handled the funeral better than all of those other loons."
Aether kept silent.
"Clinging onto the past does not seem to be a prominent weakness of yours. You’re already on track to becoming an excellent Fatui Harbinger, saving your few and far in between words for me and me alone.”
Every scratch of her nails, every soft blink of her devilish eyes, sent shivers of anticipation through Aether, hidden only by his heavy coat. Behind that apparent loving smile of hers had to be some form of malicious intent. Aether, however, failed to believe that she would bear any form of ill will against him, despite his lingering fears claiming otherwise.
"Silence is a gift, for if any secrets of the House were to slip into the public gaze, the consequences would be dire. And the same holds true for the Fatui as well."
Ultimately, silence and secrecy were Aether’s most valuable weapons for maintaining his privileges. He uttered not a word of protest to prevent planting any potential seeds of grudge.
"That was the agreement upon my acceptance as a Harbinger," Aether confirmed.
"It pleases me greatly to see you’ve remained so well behaved. You will make a fine leader of the House of the Hearth when the time comes to retire my title and pass it onto you."
"The House too?” Aether asked, rather surprised. “But, what about Lyney?"
"A good parent wouldn’t leave their children behind to bear such a heavy weight on their shoulders, I trust?"
"Is this just your indirect way of calling me their Mother?"
Arlecchino laughed a little. "I suppose when you put it that way, it does make it seem like such."
"Becoming their ‘Mother’ isn’t exactly something that I want to think about, at least, not right now,” Aether said with a heavy sigh.
It was an unfortunate truth that always lingered in the back of his mind. Aether knew that he was destined to outlive Arlecchino, one way or another. If not her Delusion burning away her soul to a crisp, then the passing of time would catch up to her, when the star still had many years left to burn brightly. Even Arlecchino acknowledged it. As relentless and cunning of a woman she was, even she wasn’t too enthralled with the prospect of death prying the two of them apart.
"It is a future we must consider, but mustn’t dwell on,” Arlecchino said, crossing her arms. “If we try to live too far into the future, then we will miss the precious moments that the present has to offer us.”
Aether nodded his head in agreement.
Arlecchino looked around the barren, silent hallway. "As you can see, the halls are devoid of life, with the exception of our presence. Opportunity presents itself, so why not indulge in the present?" she said, reaching down to cock his head slightly.
"You’re not concerned that there could be someone, or something, waiting for us in the shadows?"
"Those that linger in the dark answer to me.”
He heard nothing, saw nothing, and trusted Arlecchino’s instincts that the seemingly barren hallway was theirs and theirs alone. Arlecchino made her authority over the shadows clear to Aether as she held on tightly to his waist, allotting not a single inch of freedom. He was in no position to argue her authority, despite standing on almost equal ground amongst the ranks of the Fatui Harbingers. Even if he had the leverage to debate her, he had no objections to being held in her web of deceit anyways.
The golden strands of hair that had fallen in front of Aether’s face were brushed away gently by the back of her hand. Despite the immense amount of care Arlecchino had used, Aether was still lightly scratched by her deathly sharp claws.
"Consider this little reward as a form of thanks for your compliance," she said, nudging his head up further.
Arlecchino was not willing to bend down very far, and so she practically pulled Aether onto the tips of his toes for a kiss. For a savage woman, her touch felt all too tender and caring. All of his fears about the other Fatui Harbinger’s perception of him were gone in an instant.
Those very fears were embracing him safely in her arms.