Work Text:
There was a period in Navia Caspar's life in which she relied upon alarm clocks to get out of bed on time.
The loathing she feels for the wretched devices is no doubt coloured by the utter misery that surrounded every aspect of that awful time, but that does not make it less real.
Today they absolutely cannot rise late, and set an alarm clock just in case. Navia's first awareness of the morning is prompted by the feeling of Clorinde moving to reach for the nightstand, and the soft click as she turns off the alarm.
Navia does not move. There is only one truly acceptable way for her to be woken left to the world, and that isn't it.
Moments later she feels the press of Clorinde's lips to her temple. "Time to wake up," Clorinde murmurs. Another kiss over her cheekbone, and then one to her lips, lingering and tender. "It's morning."
"Good morning," Navia replies, because that is the acceptable way for her to be woken.
Clorinde wakes when she chooses to. Navia wakes when Clorinde kisses her awake. This is the correct order of things.
They don't wake Furina yet. They can let her sleep a little longer while Clorinde helps Navia do her hair.
Navia considered cutting it shorter during the period where she had to deal with it alone, but she's glad she didn't. Clorinde always liked it long. The fact that she kept it this way for three years could have been Navia's hint that she didn't, couldn't hate Clorinde even when she wanted to.
The first hint of approaching dawn is beginning to lighten the sky when Navia's hair is perfect and it's time to wake Furina.
The light from the dressing room spills into the bedroom when Clorinde silently opens the door, and Navia stops, squeezing Clorinde's hand.
Clorinde looks at her questioningly. Navia smiles and looks from Clorinde to Furina, then back, and Clorinde gives her a softly indulgent look in return.
Look. Isn't she beautiful? Can you believe she's here? She's ours?
I love you. And possibly, Sometimes I can't believe I have either of you.
Furina has her own preference for how she is woken. Navia leans down and kisses her perfect lips, cupping her cheek in her palm.
Furina stirs, and wakes, and Navia draws back. "Good morning," she whispers. "You aren't alone."
"Good morning," Furina says sleepily.
"I'll start breakfast," Navia says, and leaves Clorinde to provide further affection.
It is vitally important that Furina begin each day with demonstrations of love and care. Intimate and personal love and care.
Navia hums to herself as she cooks. Today, she is sure, will be a beautiful day.
Clorinde and Furina join her in the kitchen before long, having both seen to their enviably straight hair of comparatively modest lengths. Clorinde takes over cooking breakfast, and Navia takes over pushing Furina against the wall and kissing her breathless, because today Furina isn't allowed to be left to her thoughts.
Navia and Clorinde each have two important jobs today. Furina is one of them.
"Really, I'll be f-" Furina starts to say, because she knows it. Navia doesn't wait for her to finish. Last night she left a dish of chocolates in the dressing room and now she will have the reward for her forethought, which is getting to lick the taste of them from Furina's mouth and feel the way Furina shivers when she does it.
"Not the hair," Clorinde says from behind her, catching Furina's hand as it comes past Navia's shoulder. "Not today. If we have to fix Navia's hair again we lose time I'd rather spend differently."
Furina obediently settles her hands at Navia's hips.
"Good girl,' Navia murmurs, and feels Furina's little intake of breath.
Furina has such an interesting relationship with praise. Grand statements are meaningless, sometimes even upsetting now, but tiny little things can make her knees go weak.
"Breakfast is ready," Clorinde says.
When Navia turns around Clorinde's eyes are dark and intent. She likes to watch them together.
Unfortunately they don't really have time to put on a show for her just at this moment. They're saving today's time allowance for an emergency.
They need to eat, and get dressed, and do their makeup and check they look perfect, and it's just as well they made sure there was leeway in their schedule because when Navia puts on her dress Furina has a lot of feelings about it and that's exactly the kind of emergency they were leaving time for.
The dress is elegant and flowing, as graceful as a waterfall, and it is in Hydro blue.
Navia has to take it off again to avoid rumpling while they work through Furina's feelings with great care to avoid ruining Navia's hair.
It's a team effort.
Clorinde and Furina are wearing pristine white gowns, and Navia takes quite a lot of enjoyment in pinning the flowers into their hair - no hats, today, Navia is finding it rather appealing - and watching the two most beautiful women she knows put on makeup in their underwear.
It's almost a crime against art to be helping them put on the best work Chiori has ever done without the use of a single colour, but they're both just a different kind of breathtaking when they're fully dressed.
Between the time taken for perfection and the interlude for sexual emotional processing it's eleven o'clock by the time their curtained carriage - no early pictures, Navia's sure Charlotte will be devastated - is pulling into the pavilion on the broad meadow northwest of the Court of Fontaine.
"I'm going to make sure he's not freaking out," Clorinde says, and gets out to walk briskly into one of the sectioned-off areas.
"I suppose I shall simply offer my congratulations," Furina says. "Based on the glorious sunshine, I think mine must be perfectly happy."
"Give him mine as well," Navia says, and goes to talk to Chevreuse.
"Guests are being seated now," the captain reports. "No security issues detected. We're not particularly worried with this guest list, but I have men keeping eyes on Lady Xilonen just in case."
Navia is aware that Xilonen thinks that the collective paranoia of Fontaine and Natlan's authorities regarding her safety in Fontaine is ridiculous and unnecessary.
She is also aware that she has six of the Spina di Rosula's most efficient and discreet associates watching Xilonen too. If Xilonen objects, she should perhaps have avoided being kidnapped repeatedly.
Overall it is difficult to be too concerned about the security of an event where the guest list alone includes three Archons, the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, the upper echelons of the Knights of Favonius, an assortment of Natlan's heroes and two Fatui Harbingers who are here as diplomatic representatives of the Tsaritsa and therefore seem awfully likely not to cause open disruption.
"We do have a problem," Kiara says. The Melusine looks upset, Navia thinks, but it can be hard to tell. "Canotila tried to make the floral arch look nicer, but apparently to humans it looks, um." She checks her notepad. "Absolutely ruined beyond belief and utterly hideous."
"Who's going to tell them?" Chevreuse frowns.
"No-one," Navia says. "Problems exist to be solved."
She steps out of the pavilion and hears the frantic clicking of shutters. It can't really be helped, but the flower arch will no doubt be an entertaining filler item for page four.
Navia's target is in the front row, of course. She takes care to arrange her skirts as she kneels - it would not do to have grass stains, but one also cannot look down upon an Archon.
"Your Excellency," she says, "might we impose upon your good will for a kindness?"
Nahida smiles. "Is it the flowers? They look... unwell."
"Yes. If you could be so kind, it would mean a great deal to all of us."
"Of course!" Nahida clasps her hands together gently and gazes towards the - ruined, Navia can't even look at it - floral arch. Soft green light washes across the scene. "Is that better?"
Navia turns. "Flawless," she says, relieved. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome. It's nice to be able to help!"
Navia straightens and curtsies to the Dendro Archon. "With that resolved, I believe we shall be starting soon. Thank you again." She stops herself from hurrying back to the pavilion, walking calmly. Today, presentation is everything.
"The flower arch is repaired," she tells Chevreuse and Kiara. "Do we have any other problems?"
"Not that we know of," Kiara says fretfully. "But oh, it has to be perfect!"
Navia smiles reassuringly, even though that can be somewhat pointless with Melusines. "It will be perfect enough," she assures her.
Sigewinne appears out of nowhere. "You're hungry," she says, which is admittedly accurate. "Low blood sugar can impair physical and mental function. Drink this." She holds out a milkshake.
The problem is, she's right.
And Navia can't really risk attempting to eat any other food in this dress.
She holds her breath and drinks the milkshake, trying not to notice the taste and absolutely failing. There's definitely broccoli and melon in there.
At least she isn't hungry now.
Precisely at twelve o'clock Navia walks out of the pavilion again and stands under the floral arch under the gaze of most of the notable figures in the world.
She has to look out at the assemblage and smile calmly and confidently. Navia manages, but it's more difficult than she'd anticipated.
The music starts playing.
"If you would all be so kind as to stand," Navia says. Xilonen helped them with the sound setup. She's just going to trust that it will work, and since everyone does stand, she's probably right.
She's memorised all of her lines. It's going to be fine.
~
Xilonen was talking to Mualani before they came out to Fontaine. Mualani thinks Xilonen might finally understand why people get emotional about weddings now that she herself is married.
She doesn't, really.
Being with Mavuika is great, no regrets, only a few complaints that are almost all related to Mavuika's horrible compliment habits, but it was great before they were married, too, and Xilonen still thinks the transition from not married to married could be accomplished in about thirty seconds if people were willing to be reasonable about it.
Still, judging by the weather Neuvillette is clearly really happy about it, so that's nice.
He's coming out now, wearing a gorgeous white tailcoat. He's accompanied by Furina, beautiful in a white gown that makes Xilonen think of light reflecting off water in the late afternoon.
Navia's dress looks like she's wearing a waterfall. Xilonen is detecting a theme.
A Melusine - Xilonen thinks it's Sedene but it's harder to tell when the Melusine is also wearing a new outfit - follows Furina out.
Neuvillette barely glances at the crowd, just stands with great dignity and waits.
Wriothesley is coming out now. He's also wearing a white tailcoat. Clorinde follows him out, and her white dress makes Xilonen think of the sun seen from underwater.
It's a pretty neat trick.
Sigewinne comes out after Clorinde in a cute little dress of her own.
Navia is officiating, presumably because she's the only person who's part of running Fontaine who isn't in the wedding party.
Xilonen notes with envy that Wriothesley doesn't have to become a semi-divine figure in his own religion to get married to his figure of elemental power.
The Fontainian wedding ceremony apparently has a lot to say about balancing the scales between spouses and just partnership and Xilonen kind of wonders how that works when one of them is a dragon. What does equality even mean in a marriage when you're married to someone who has control of an element?
Xilonen will never be as powerful as Mavuika, and neither of them would be particularly happy if everything between them had to be equal all the time.
Mavuika doesn't really consider herself anyone's equal. She's too competitive. There are many people she respects and she doesn't treat anyone as beneath her or anything, but either you prove you're the best it's possible to be at something or Mavuika will, at some point, try to beat you at it.
In the absence of other people to compete against she competes against herself. She is on a permanent quest to set her new personal bests in everything.
Xilonen is pretty sure this includes being the best wife in the history of marriage. Mavuika absolutely dotes on her. Xilonen's getting better at dealing with it, but if she tried to dote back just as hard it would be impossible for either of them to get anything else done and Mavuika would be sad about it. Xilonen's doting would really get in the way of her own.
Xilonen is not particularly competitive. She's the best there is at what she does because it's always just made sense to her to figure out how things work and how to make them work. She was never trying to be better than other people, she just was.
Xilonen would like to be the place where even Mavuika comes to rest, she thinks, but that's not easy to achieve. She has some thoughts about that, and even some ideas, but it's going to be a significant project, probably.
There are tears streaming down Furina's cheeks, Xilonen realises. She's absolutely silent and her expression doesn't even show anything. Xilonen can't read what's actually going on with her. Hopefully she's okay.
The ceremony is up to Wriothesley's vows. Clorinde hands him one of the rings Xilonen made them. (It was sort of a diplomatic gesture on behalf of Natlan, but mostly a way for Neuvillette not to have to choose between Fontainian jewellers for such a high profile purpose.)
"I give my vow of my own free will, before these witnesses," he says. "I will be your husband and remain faithful and obedient to the laws of Fontaine as stipulated in the Marriage Act, sections one through eighteen and twenty through eighty-seven."
Xilonen bites her tongue to keep from laughing.
The romance.
He puts the ring on Neuvillette's finger.
It's Neuvillette's turn. Furina passes him the ring, and Neuvillette makes the same vow and puts the ring on Wriothesley.
Xilonen doesn't think she's ever seen Clorinde smile like that.
"By the power vested in me via statute under the authority of the Iudex Neuvillette, as well as under special dispensation by the authority of the Duke of Meropide, limited in duration of issuance but not of effect and subject to ratification by signature of the parties so enjoined, I now pronounce you married," Navia declares.
Fontaine, Xilonen thinks.
At the banquet that follows she learns that all the Fontainians present did in fact think that was terribly romantic.
Whoever decided the seating chart was possibly not anyone who actually knows them, because Xilonen and Mavuika are sharing a table with Ei, Miko, Nahida and Dehya.
Or maybe it was someone who does know Xilonen, Mavuika and Miko (and may know Ei) but panicked about where to put the third guest Archon, and decided that of the group who came with Nahida Dehya looked like she'd fit in best with the rest of the table.
Xilonen isn't objecting. She likes Dehya.
But sharing a table with her would probably be more fun without Nahida. In theory Nahida is centuries old and an Archon, but in practice she's a small, cute child.
It's like hanging out with a group that includes Kachina. She's welcome and it's still fun, just... different.
Xilonen looks at Miko. "So?"
Miko smiles. "I do not believe our wedding will be able to match this one in its legislative romance," she says blandly. "But I think it will suffice nonetheless."
Meaning her wedding will eclipse this utterly, Xilonen thinks, and neither Wriothesley nor Neuvillette will mind. In the end they agreed to get married first partly so that Fontainian society wouldn't be expecting them to outshine the Inazuman Archon's wedding, since that hasn't been announced yet.
It just so happened to line up with a gap in the Natlan festival calendar where Xilonen will be able to come and play with the Fortress machines. Xilonen has ideas for their air circulation system.
She's spending a few weeks mostly in Fontaine, because her wedding present requires her supervision to install - she's giving them a water filtration system that should improve water purity in Fontaine generally and incidentally the quality of life in the Fleuve Cendre, or possibly the other way around.