Chapter Text
There's a particular spring at Ameyalco Waters that's not so much hot as lukewarm. The water mingles with a cool spring and is just not remotely hot.
In theory, a little bit of earthworks could fix that, but it's probably not ever going to happen for one important reason.
The People of the Springs take swimming lessons very seriously. They start when babies are six months old.
Mavuika is the one bringing Hine to do baby swimming lessons. Xilonen could, in theory, be working instead of coming with them, but that would mean skipping the opportunity to watch Mavuika being intensely attentive to their daughter in swimwear, which is just a ridiculous thing to even consider.
She's absolutely certain that Fontaine has its own answer to childhood swimming lessons. Xilonen is pretty sure that the fact that it's so much warmer in Natlan is not unrelated to Navia's decision to convince her wives that Callas should learn to swim in Natlan too. Even if it's plausible that he hated it there and threw a screaming fit about the very idea but is quite happy to get in the water here because Clorinde is bringing him at the same time as Mavuika is bringing Hine.
The first time Callas ventured into the water with his little lip trembling Mavuika told him that she was proud of him for being so brave. Callas now loves his swimming lessons, because he can try really hard to do his best and afterwards Mavuika tells him good job and hugs him, which in Callas's world is still the absolute best outcome possible for anything.
Navia is not generally susceptible to tantrums, so Xilonen still has suspicions about the relevance of warm weather and, consequently, Clorinde wearing swimwear that would violate public decency laws in Fontaine. (Likewise, Natlan's lack of those.)
Xilonen isn't judging. At all. Clorinde is performing almost as great a service to public art as Mavuika.
Kaeya and Benny are also in the spring with Cusi and Makani. For some reason that is very likely Mavuika no-one else seems to want to use this timeslot. No-one wanted to teach it, either, which is why Mualani is doing it.
Xilonen, Navia, Furina and Chasca are nominally here because their children are in the water and in theory they might be needed in some way, but realistically they all know exactly why they're actually here and it isn't remotely that.
Miko, allegedly, is just joining them for the company. (And because she's planning to take a little more time off work now that she's pregnant, but so far she isn't telling anyone but Xilonen about that.)
No-one believes her, but still, no-one is judging and neither Mavuika nor Clorinde is objecting to Xilonen, Chasca, Navia, Furina and Miko setting up on beach chairs with cold drinks and good viewing angles. If anything, Xilonen thinks, they're both making sure they look as good as possible without compromising their attentiveness to their children.
She's six months into her project to find positives about being a chimera, and she's starting to wonder about what it's like to be a human, actually.
According to everything she could find in the schematics, Ei's sense of smell was exactly according to the specifications, and when Ei was concerned about her sensory response settings she didn't mention it.
In the brief period Xilonen spent wearing her body for test purposes - she had to be sure that it was functional enough to host a consciousness, and if it hadn't been she had a body to go back to - one of the things that was weird and disturbing about the experience was that she couldn't really smell anything.
According to Nahida, cats have very sensitive noses. Even more sensitive than canines.
In this company Xilonen feels like she can ask.
"I have questions for all of you," she announces. "Miko doesn't have to answer if she doesn't want to."
"That's not worrying," Chasca drawls.
Xilonen grins. "For you specifically it absolutely is." Even odds whether Chasca is going to flip in about a minute. "Show of hands. Can you smell when someone finds you attractive?"
Only Miko raises her hand.
"That's..." Xilonen considers that. "Okay, I already don't know how you people live."
"I did wonder how you found it so easy to pick up women," Chasca says. "I mean, you're hot and all but it seemed uncanny."
"I never even tried if they weren't already into me." Xilonen shrugs. What would be the point? "Can you smell when two people have been sharing space?"
Again, only Miko.
"Is that how you knew that guy is sleeping on my couch?" Chasca asks accusingly.
"Obviously. I knew the second I walked into your place." Xilonen lowers her sunglasses to watch Clorinde get out of the water with Callas and crouch next to him so she can hold his hand as he walks back into it nearly all by himself. "I'd say she should have visited Natlan a few years earlier but as I recall she hasn't been single since I was five. Maybe younger."
"Correct," Navia says smugly.
"The age difference between you is not that large," Miko says.
"Clorinde and I first discussed our future marriage when we were ten," Navia replies.
"Ah," Miko says. "Well, I can't blame you for holding to your plans."
"Next question," Xilonen says. "Can you smell what I had for lunch?"
Miko again. "You had lunch in Sumeru. Gilded tajine and tulumba."
"Yeah, I needed to talk to Alhaitham. Nahida was busy, I have to go back tomorrow to talk to her." Xilonen pushes her sunglasses back up. "Can you smell when people have been some degree of physically intimate? Not necessarily sex, but hugging or kissing."
Still only Miko. How do these people live?
"Is that how you knew Benny and Mualani were dating?" Navia asks curiously.
"Of course. She reeked of him." Xilonen is a lot less mad about it now that Mualani smells hers again.
"Xilonen," Chasca says flatly.
"Everything you're thinking, yes. Including whether people have had sex. I literally can't not know." Over at the spring, Kaeya is getting out to sit at the water's edge with Cusi on his knee where she can kick her little feet in the water. He's wearing the third-shortest shorts in Teyvat. (First place is Mavuika, second place Clorinde, because sometimes Xilonen's life is blessed.) "Also including that," she adds, because she's downwind of Chasca who's enjoying that sight to a bizarre extent.
"You've never mentioned it," Chasca says, tone extremely neutral.
"I thought everyone could tell. A lot of things are making more sense to me right now." She thought you just Didn't Mention a lot of stuff. "I thought it just wasn't polite to say anything."
"It isn't," Chasca says, giving her a narrow-eyed look.
"It's also silly to give up such an advantage unless it's going to be extremely entertaining," Miko says.
"I already figured out you can't smell if people are pregnant," Xilonen adds. "Mavuika couldn't tell I was. I would've known Chasca and Mualani were sooner but I was trying not to breathe Benny on Mualani and it's hard to smell anything on Chasca if she's just been flying any distance." Chasca's scent takes a little while to reassert over wind and gun oil.
"How soon can you tell?" Navia asks.
With... tone.
"Hard to say, I generally don't ask." Xilonen watches Mavuika stand in the water, cradling their daughter in her arms, and has, just... emotions. "Hypothetically, if you were to decide to have another kid and I saw you and could tell you were pregnant, would you want me to mention that or avoid mentioning it?"
"If I hadn't told you it would be because I was not yet aware myself," Navia says, not looking at her. "There is a certain period of uncertainty. I would be most thankful if you were able to at least reduce the uncertainty. Of course nothing is truly certain."
Xilonen raises her voice. "Hey Clorinde! Get over here!" she calls. Added bonus: getting to watch Clorinde get out of the water with Callas and jog across the sand towards them.
"Does that mean..." Furina whispers.
"Yeah, Navia's pregnant," Xilonen tells all of them.
Mavuika smiled like that too, she remembers, looking at Clorinde and Furina.
Navia takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. "I must say," she says, "I do appreciate the blessing Miko gave us at our wedding."
"You're quite welcome," Miko says.
"Trying isn't fun for you?" Xilonen asks sympathetically.
"Horrific." Navia shudders delicately.
Clorinde has apparently finished processing the news, or something, because their conversation is briefly interrupted by her evident need to kiss Navia.
It's quite the kiss, too.
They say practice makes perfect, Xilonen thinks.
"I'm sorry to hear it," she says aloud, when Clorinde draws back gazing at Navia with a level of adoration that Xilonen finds quite uncomfortable when Mavuika directs it at her. "I had a great time."
"Me too, but now there's a guy living on my couch," Chasca sighs.
Xilonen gives her a sideways look.
"Shut up," Chasca says. "Mavuika's getting out of the water."
Xilonen looks back. She hardly wants to miss that.
"Sorry about that," Clorinde says, still looking at Navia. "I couldn't help it."
"Don't apologise," Xilonen says.
"Seriously, do that any time," Chasca adds.
"They don't believe me when I tell them. They think I'm biased," Furina says. "Marvellous, isn't it?"
"Truly," Miko says.
Xilonen can see how Furina might enjoy getting to see that kind of thing regularly, especially since she's totally in love with both of them.
Xilonen is totally in love with Mavuika and is pretty sure Mavuika kissing a woman would be extremely hot but Xilonen will never get to watch it because if the woman wasn't her she would not handle it well.
"Anyway, congratulations," she adds. It can hardly have been unintentional.
"Thank you," Navia says. "And thank you for telling us."
"I appreciate you calling me," Clorinde says seriously.
"Make sure you talk to Neuvillette about keeping the teapot with you when you're getting close to due," Xilonen says. "We can make sure Benny and I are staying near our end too. Just in case."
"We'd appreciate that," Furina says, and Clorinde nods.
It'll probably be fine, Xilonen thinks, but why take chances?
Callas appears to have wearied of Navia and Clorinde's distraction. "Down," he says, squirming free of Clorinde's hold, and starts walking back towards the spring.
"Stop there, darling," Furina says, sitting up. "Don't wander off alone."
Callas huffs adorably. "Mavuika," he says, pointing.
"I know. She's over there and you are over here, and you're not allowed to walk off alone."
Callas thinks about this. "Mère come? Mère Mavuika?"
Furina starts to get up, but Clorinde reaches out without looking to catch her hand and reel her in. The Caspar de Fontaines are clearly still having a moment. Clorinde kisses Furina briefly yet, Xilonen notes, with impressive intensity, then takes her by the waist to manoeuvre her next to Navia on the beach chair and turns back to their son.
"Mère needs to talk to Maman for a moment. I'll take you back," she tells him, and picks him up.
Furina smiles at Navia. "I've heard a rumour you might be pregnant," she says sweetly, and now Navia's kissing her and seriously, Xilonen kind of envies all three of them the regularity with which they probably see this kind of thing.
Not enough to share Mavuika. But a little.
"This is so sweet," Chasca says.
"You'd be amazed how many great moments you get to have when you actually tell your kid's other parents that you're pregnant," Xilonen tells her.
Chasca rolls her eyes. "Because you're thrilled to have emotional moments with men."
"Not generally, but I'm not having sex with them either," Xilonen points out, after a glance to check Callas is out of earshot.
"I still don't regret that part," Chasca says. "Just... the rest of him."
"Uh-huh." Xilonen gives her a look. Based on the way Chasca's eyes widen and she doesn't say anything else, she's pretty sure she successfully conveyed I did mention being able to smell when people have had sex and I know you've had sex with Kaeya in the last eighteen to twenty-four hours.
Miko's soft snicker says she's followed the entirety of that exchange.
Navia and Furina seem pretty distracted. It's heartwarming. Xilonen's friends are an ongoing threat to her vibe of distant, cynical cool.
~
Their Natlan friends insisted on a celebratory dinner at a restaurant in Ameyalco Waters, so it's quite late by the time Navia and her family get home. Callas is asleep on Clorinde's shoulder before they're even in Fontaine. He's always very excited to see Mavuika, and between swimming lessons and time spent playing on the beach he was almost too exhausted to eat.
He might not have managed at all, but his meal being supervised by someone new was enough of a novelty to keep his interest. The Almighty Shogun of Inazuma joined them all, and she has taken quite the interest in children lately.
At some point Navia will have the time to find out what the Inazuman words they use mean. For reasons that are unclear, Callas is instructed to address Raiden as obasan and Miko as oneesan. Navia is in the habit of addressing powerful people from other nations exactly as they tell her she should, so of course they are encouraging this, but she's curious.
The last couple of years have featured a great deal of learning about the cultures of other nations. The Caspar Estate now shows hints of their influence in its decor, here and there, because Inazuma produces housewares that are beautiful in a way things from Fontaine aren't. And as for Natlan...
In Fontaine, religion was never quite at the forefront of civic life. Furina was beloved, but not revered - if there was any focal point of faith it was perhaps the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale, or perhaps the courts themselves. Now that Furina is no longer the Archon, Fontaine doesn't really have a god at all, and Navia has no idea how important that is or whether it's something they should worry about.
Natlan's faith is an integral part of their daily lives. Not in a very rigid or organised way, but faith in the Pyro Archon is absolute and profoundly affects their lives in ways both obvious and subtle. It's everpresent enough that Xilonen could claim to be not very religious while married to her God, carrying an Ancient Name and the Nightsoul's Blessing, having been resurrected three times and, as the Ancient Name Engraver, playing an active role in Natlan's most profound religious manifestations.
As far as Navia can tell, Xilonen is not very religious in the way a fish is uninterested in hydrology. Its level of overt interest in the subject is irrelevant when it exists surrounded by it, living in it and breathing it at every moment.
Callas is a child of Natlan, and that's important, actually, which is why Navia and her wives have been learning what outsiders are permitted to know of Natlan's faith and rituals and there are hints of Natlan throughout their home.
Xilonen herself gave them what Navia is certain is a jewel most valuable set in a gift beyond price. Callas has a light for night-time constructed of layers of transparent stone surrounding a glowing phlogiston-rich gem. The effect is prismatic, scattering soft rainbows around his bedroom. There are two panels at the base that also glow very faintly, and if both are touched at once a small flame ignites above the gem.
The flame is safely shielded from a child's touch by the layered stone, but it is nonetheless a flame, and one that is fuelled by phlogiston and therefore that is of Natlan. It is the flame for Callas to pray to.
There is a mural painted on his bedroom wall that was a gift from Chasca on behalf of the Flower-Feather Clan. There are small stone tablets in some rooms that tell Natlan stories, and Fontainian visitors often comment on the several woven scrolls that adorn their walls.
In pride of place in the parlour where no guest will miss the opportunity to see it is their marriage scroll, woven by the Pyro Archon herself. Navia has been learning to read the scrolls but is far from a native fluency. She is certain there is a depth of understanding she lacks, but she has nonetheless learned to find meaning in weave and weft and the interplay of colour, and the wedding scroll is wonderful.
It is more than a declaration that they are married. It is a statement about love, and family, its importance to community and the profundity of the love shared by the three of them specifically.
Xilonen, Navia thinks, feels too deeply to admit it even to herself. It takes a great deal to move her to emotional display. She saw the scroll and described it as sweet. By contrast, the first time Mualani saw it she cried.
They're not the only passengers on the aquabus tonight. There is a woman who sits as far from them as she can, which could mean any of several things. She looks closely at Callas for a moment before looking away. He doesn't wake when Clorinde immediately passes him to Furina.
Clorinde is... cautious, and they do not have a bodyguard other than themselves at this moment.
Still, nothing untoward happens the rest of the way home.
Furina carries Callas to bed. Navia thinks she might be inclined to collapse on the kitchen couch and await the possibility of hot chocolate. They have a new couch, somewhat inspired by the daybed Mavuika and Xilonen have - it is deeper than standard, and much more comfortable for snuggling, especially for three.
Clorinde follows her to the kitchen and takes off her shoes the moment she sits down. No stockings today, they're quite unsuitable for a trip to a Natlan beach, but Clorinde runs her hands over Navia's legs anyway.
Admittedly, they were a little cold. Navia is underdressed for night outdoors in Fontaine.
Navia catches her hand before she can move away and tugs her close for a kiss. It's been almost twenty years now, she thinks, and she still never tires of this.
She hears Furina enter the kitchen. There's a long pause. Navia knows she's watching them and leans back, drawing Clorinde with her, until she's lying flat on the couch still kissing her first love; this pose shows them both to better advantage.
"I'll make us drinks," Furina says, and Clorinde pulls away then.
"No," she says. "She wants you."
Clorinde always knows.
Furina doesn't hesitate any more, which still delights Navia every time. She comes over immediately to kiss Navia sweetly. Clorinde is warm along Navia's side, one hand resting low on her belly. Navia knows what she's thinking about, too.
"You got me pregnant again," Navia whispers, cupping Furina's cheek in her palm. "You're impressively good at that, my love."
Furina smiles. "I'm not sure I can take the credit," she says, and Navia nips at her lip.
"You should. You will. I insist." If nothing else, she does not want to give consideration to anyone else who might be given credit for it. "I'm so desperately in love with you."
A moment of stillness, almost too brief to perceive, and Navia wonders if that was too much. It still is, sometimes, but Furina kisses her again, smiling, and Navia thinks exultantly that Furina is at last accepting that she says such things with sincerity.
"You are," Furina murmurs. "You adore me."
Navia feels Clorinde start unbuttoning her shirt. A marvellous idea, she thinks, although she can perhaps improve upon it. She starts untucking Furina's.
Hot chocolate is too much sugar for bedtime anyway.