Work Text:
One stitch, two stitch, cross stitch and thread…
Sunana was humming a little tune as she mended her Monk outfit, Turali material was ever so silky and fairly resilient but somehow she’d managed to tear it. So she was casually sitting in her workshop, rocking in her chair and humming as she did her stitches.
At least until she heard people approaching in the hallway. An immediate scowl crossed her face, and she scooted towards her desk to grab a tool as she heard Pipin tell whoever was in the hall, “Let me go first.”
When he opened the door he quickly flipped toward the front of it, swiftly dodging the scalpel that stabbed into the door just over his shoulder. Which left him to push off the door and retrieve the scalpel she’d thrown at him and return it while she demanded, “Why are you interrupting me? You should know better.”
“Well, someone is asking for you,” he replied casually, and she scoffed and turned back to her torn shirt as she proclaimed, “If that someone isn’t Nanamo then they must wait.”
“My lady it is slightly urgent-”
“I do not speak to people who interrupt me. If you wish me to hear your case then you will wait, unless you wish to have an awl in the side of your head.”
Her very firm voice made it clear she was not exaggerating along with her reaching for the awl next to her. So he immediately gasped and ran away, to the apparent amusement of Pipin as he told her, “Feel free to join us when you finish your work, I love you.”
Since her hands were busy he gave her a kiss on the cheek, and she gave him a teasing smile as her voice came through sounding as if she were playfully hopping from word to word. “Not as much as I love you~.”
“Must you turn everything into a competition?” He asked charmingly, and his love laughed, “Life is more fun that way. Now leave me to my work and ensure our guest stays in the sitting room.”
“As you wish my love,” he replied lovingly as he closed the door, and Sunana continued her stitching with a bright smile.
-
“Rosie I don’t look like that at all!”
Pipin heard his son complaining in the sitting room, and came in to see Isenaji pouting over a very unflattering picture his best friend Roseta had drawn, much to her amusement. Her mother Reresu was sitting on the couch attempting to hide her smile behind Sunana’s cookbook, and thankfully it seemed their guest had decided to nervously stand in the doorway wringing his hands. Evidently the visitor had gone unnoticed by the children until Pipin offered for him to take a seat, but when the stranger came in it was clear Roseta was anxious. And Isenaji noticed, so despite his apparent annoyance of the picture he reached over to grab her hand and assure her she was perfectly safe.
It was Reresu who took up the conversation, politely asking their mysterious visitor, “May I ask what has brought you here?”
“I-The guild sent me to talk to Lady Sunana about magic things, they didn’t tell me what about.” Now that Pipin really looked him over, he was definitely dressed like a typical thaumaturge. He was not incredibly surprised they would prefer to send a messenger than come themselves, they had such a wonderful sitting room but rarely had visitors because people tended to treat his house like a lion’s den. The blessing or curse of it containing someone whose reputation was based on filling people with fear, just as she liked it to be.
But of course their friends were never afraid to come here. Nanamo visited as often as she could, which was not very often but she was always welcome. And Lady Reresu and her daughter Roseta were here very often, but not her husband as he was both incredibly busy and very scared of Sunana. Which had made him rather nervous about his wife’s close friendship with someone so terrifying, but the two girls had known each other since their late childhood years. Which was before Sunana gained an obsession with inspiring fear, but even before that being the friend of a temperamental child filled with fire required quite a bit of bravery, and Reresu was thankfully not afraid of fire. Afraid of a few other things to be sure, but that was all the reason to be close with someone capable of providing safety.
As anxious as she was, her daughter was practically tenfold in regards to anxiety. So much so that she could not even speak, but she had seemed much more open after becoming friends with their son Isenaji who could protect her just as Sunana protected her mother. Still too afraid to speak, but she was open to communicating through pictures or writing and gestures. They’d become so good at reading her gestures and emotions that sometimes she didn’t even need to communicate, they just knew. Especially Isenaji, sometimes it seemed like he knew her better than her own mother did.
He was nearly startled out of his thoughts by Dyede coming up behind him, her lavender hair tightly pulled up and wildly wavy as it always was. Though Sunana did say on occasion she’d seen it slightly messier if she was called away from her boyfriend Momoseji…
But Dyede had come up to ask him humorously, “Did she throw her scalpel at you?”
“Indeed she did,” he replied with similar humor, and she shook her head with a wry, “As usual,” before entering the sitting room to make a proposition. “Leilu and I are going shopping. Would you like to come with?”
Isenaji jumped up with a raised hand and declared, “Yes!” but Roseta grabbed onto him with her anxious ruby eyes and a worried frown. So he turned to her, lifted her up as he said, “It’s okay Rosie, you can come with too!”
“I suppose I should go as well then,” Reresu stated as she left the couch to return the book to its shelf and take off the headband that pulled her short blonde hair up. She was going to put it back but Leilu suddenly appeared beside her and offered to do it, naturally startling Reresu into falling on the bookshelf but once she recovered she took the offer gratefully.
Once Leilu’s violet eyes deemed Reresu’s hair to be in prime condition she strolled over to Dyede and put forth, “People may see us an easy target. We have numbers but a group of three women and two children is hardly threatening. I propose we bring Lululei, her sword would make unsavory types think twice about approaching us.”
“I could just as easily bring Momo,” Dyede relied lightly, but Leilu shook her head and pointed out, “Ninjas work better from the shadows. A Paladin is meant to be seen.”
“Fair point, very well.” Dyede nodded to her but when Leilu pointed out her lavender eyeshadow was slightly smudged she promptly went to find a mirror and asked Leilu to round everyone up.
After everyone left, Pipin was left alone with their guest in the sitting room. It was likely strange for him to continue standing in the doorway so he came around to sit in one of their Oasis chairs, and when he sat down the nameless thaumaturge said, “I didn’t know Lady Sunana was a crafter. Why did she have so many tools?”
“Ah, well.” Pipin moved a little closer to be a little more comfortable as he explained, “My goddess has been especially bored as of late and decided to take on a large project. She applied her wish to master all fighting styles to crafting and promptly enrolled in every guild she could find. She had always been a culinarian, but now she is a great many things and very quickly reached perfection.”
His voice was absolutely glowing with pride, and he wasn’t even finished as he added on, “I have never seen anything less than perfect quality from her, no matter which materials she works with.”
“Well…her clothes did look pretty high quality.” The man replied timidly, and Pipin replied, “You should tell her that, she made them herself.”
“Oh well uh…has she made many clothes for herself?” It seemed he was hesitant to stoke her pride even more, which to be fair was a bit of a minefield. Sometimes she accepted compliments very casually with no further comments, sometimes she would criticize the wording as she was very difficult to please, but she was more likely to criticize the people that she did not want to speak to and therefore chose to chase them away. It was quite the gamble which reaction she would have to him. But in fact, “She has indeed made many clothes for herself, only then may she ensure the quality is no less than perfection. It is as that old adage goes, ‘If you want something done right you do it yourself’.”
He leaned back, looking up at the ceiling appreciatively as he wondered, “Truly, is there anything she cannot do?”
“I am unsure of that, but I am certainly willing to test it.”
He looked over the couch to see her standing in the doorway, fiddling with the gold chains over her frilly vest. She had sounded so casual but he knew the signs of her embarrassment. Praise from random people was no problem for her to handle, praise from people she respected was another matter entirely as she tended to become very bashful.
Now that she was in the room their guest practically shot to his feet and said, “My lady! Um-”
He tried to look her in the eyes but got too scared so she brought one hand out of her folded arms and said, “I’ll not bite your head off for looking me in the eye. Tell me your business.”
He at least tried to look her in the eyes as he said quickly, “The guild! The guild wanted…to talk to you. Soon.”
“Urgent, is it? I suppose I should change my clothes first.” She sighed, and Pipin asked her smoothly, “Would you like help with that?”
Sunana seemed surprised, but when she saw his smile she folded her hand over her chest and turned, enticing as she always was as she replied smoothly, “Oh I likely do not need help with it, but I would certainly love it.”
She winked, a challenge that Pipin took but she was far too playful not to make him chase her. Not that it was a long chase, their bedroom was not far and he very quickly swept her off her feet to the sound of a playful, “Oh noooo!”
And their poor guest was left in the sitting room awkwardly listening to their playful flirting and hoping that that would be all he would be hearing because surely they wouldn’t go further with a guest there…
Right?