Work Text:
The coloured papers were piled loosely on the table of the living room at the Cormier-Niehaus’ house as well as glues, brushes, scissors, measure, and tablets on which showed the origami art and laptops.
Delphine was helping their daughter Charlotte to focus on the components of a windmill which was assembled by four parts of the same size of lozenge. The trick was taught by Mme Cormier who was a mathematician, specialized in geometry.
Cosima’s father is an architect, so he shared with Cosima his thoughts on geometry and Buckminster Fuller, and those golden ratio of the nautilus, when she was 7. Her mother was a musician, and very good in mathematics, too. Mrs Niehaus gave her daughter a set of DJ gigs and records as a gift to celebrate that she could enter the best high school in their city. They enjoyed the time to calculate the mathematical patterns of music in Cosima’s growth, and appreciated the beauty of art.
To this nerdy Cormier-Niehaus couple, interesting things of origami were mathigami (mathematics plus origami), and if their calculations were correct, they could build a DNA helix with it. As brilliant scientists, it was also fun for them to just watch the wheeling speed of the windmill to enjoy the process of solving the mysteries of the nature with the digits while they grew up. Now they love to pass that passion on to their daughter, Charlotte.
Delphine watched Charlotte finish the four components of the lozenge shapes, then Cosima handed a few sticks to her wife and daughter. The tiny brunette assembled the shaped paper to a beautiful windmill, and then she stickered it on the stick, then blew the wind to rotate it. The rotation of the papers mixed the colours into and exciting sensation to this little girl. No matter how she experienced it, this family craft still brought her pure joy.
The parents left their daughter on her own to finish the quantity of windmills they had planned to make for the house warming party decoration. They sit comfortably near their daughter around table, and started to confirm the guest list with the RSVP they received, and decided the menu they wanted to cook and ordered from the caterer, the beverages lists they want to offer and suitable for their guests. Even they don’t eat meat now, they could order something to make their buffet more enjoyable for their guests.
After Charlie finished a dozen of windmills, she started to talk about the soccer theme cookies that Gemma baked for them. Her parents turned their heads to give Charlie some attention, while their daughter actually focused on the origami she was making. She seemed to find that was very interesting to make some craft with her own hands and she experimented with different colours based on rainbow and gradient colours, and asked Delphine if she could try other shapes after she finished the quantity. “Of course you can, sweetheart. You can try cranes, planes, boats, ships, birds, stars, and anything you want.”
“Sharing is the most important value of a family.” Delphine thought about what her parents taught her about this when they spent time together in her childhood, in the study, in the kitchen, on the trips, all those beauty and the pure joy of life or the exploration of knowledge. Now she looked at Cosima who was trying to make an eye contact with her, she felt like a silly but happy newly-wed. The blonde wondered, yeah, after this family custom, she should share the secrets she put into confidential in order to protect her wife and the clones. Even she knew that Cosima did love her in front of the Bubbles on that cold night, she absolutely had no clue that she could survive in the parking lot, or never was sure that she could reunite with her love of life. She was still so happy that Cosima wanted to build a family with her, even the brunette was not well informed of all those stories while she was in Europe to deal with those dangers, and those power-play with Topside and the Brightborn. Her parents sent her to the best boarding school in Europe as their blessing to their beloved daughter. Yet, in her formation, Delphine felt so lonely so that having sex with boys just kind of said yes, she should just do so, but she never fell in love. The brilliant French scientist focused so much just on her career, after working in DYAD, her outstanding appearance certainly was very attractive to Aldous Leekie, through those arrangements, she could get into those cutting-edge clone experiment. Those arrangements never bothered her, she didn’t try to hide them nor try to advertise them, they could be just stepping stones. However, Dr Leekie let her leave those arrangements, after she considered her ties with Cosima were an exclusive relationship.
When they finally could settle down a bit in Toronto, the Frenchwoman actually still was feeling stunned when Cosima offered her a ring without waiting her full disclosure of the confidential plans she was dealing with before. The dreadlocked explained to her that those things could wait, but she was one hundred percent that “Delphine Cormier, you are the love of my life, and please spend your life with me and marry me, please?” “A woman who got you, what could I ask for more?” The sentence echoed in Delphine’s mind for like a month.
Cosima proved that all conflicts could be resolved with love, and she really pardoned everything those seemingly unforgivable choices this French doctor has made for saving her. And with all these sufferings, her sestras and their families welcomed Delphine in their clone club. They didn’t make losing Delphine as an irreversible decision. Even Delphine was never someone who really lived according the standards of others, or sought for people’s approvals for the righteousness, she was more like someone who always just went for right things regardless of others. Sometimes she just didn’t have time to explain it, or had she the clear picture that she was a pawn or not. She was still grateful, however, to be embraced by the lover’s families and friends.
Cosima knew that her wife was in outer space now with the chewing lips, so she left her with some privacy. Now trust is everything between them, it seems unnecessary to question her every absence. So she went back to discuss of the snacks and desserts that Charlotte might want to offer to her cousins. Charlotte opened with her shine eyes to come up with the ideas that she might want to offer Auntie Helena…and those loud giggles brought Delphine back to her family…