Chapter Text
At Furina’s apartment, the usual Friday afternoon tea party had gone quiet. It was a comfortable silence. Many topics had been discussed. Neuvillette sat on the sofa, sipping tea, still facing Furina. As the evening had unfolded, and the sunlight had started to die down, he could tell the girl had begun to feel overly tired, and he had too. Yet, both of them continued to enjoy each other’s presence as the moon rose, their gentle breathing filling the room. He waited for a yawn, a flutter of her eyes, or… raising his head to look at her, he noticed Furina had curled up in a corner of her sofa, hugging a pillow, and had now slipped her thumb between her lips. As she mindlessly suckled, she maintained eye contact with him even when her eyes gently rippled shut for a few seconds’ time. He could only smile gently at the adorable sight, letting out a slight chuckle. He rose from his seat, walking over to Furina’s bedside table. Opening its main drawer, he found a pink zipped pocket in it, and opened it, revealing Furina’s precious white pacifier. Wanting to wash it first, he stepped towards the kitchen, patting Furina’s head as he walked past her. The girl’s eyes had now completely shut, but she still reveled in his attention, a smile clearly distinguishable even behind her thumb.
While he rinsed the soother off, he decided Furina slipping would mean switching from tea to warm milk. So, he decided to heat up some milk for her and poured it into a bottle, checking the temperature on his wrist. Then, he figured she may need some protection with all the liquid she had drank tonight. So, he headed towards the bathroom and grabbed a diaper for her. Maybe, he thought, she would enjoy spending the rest of the evening in her pyjamas. So, he took her pyjamas from her bedroom closet drawer and grabbed a warm blanket on the way out in case she needed it. As he finally made his first step towards the living room where Furina was, Neuvillette stopped mid-motion, discovering none other than The Knave standing in the hallway, coat still dripping rain, removing her heels.
“Arlecchino. How long have you been standing there? What do you need” he said, almost daring her to comment. His eyes flicked towards Furina, who was now snoring gently on the sofa, and back to her, squinting slightly. He was holding her pacifier, still dripping slightly from rinsing in one hand, a warm bottle of milk in the other hand, a blanket and her pyjamas under one arm, and a diaper tucked under the other. Furina’s secret had been utterly exposed by his inattention. This was a version of Furina, and of himself, that he didn’t let many people see. To his surprise, she made no comment, her eyes fixed on Furina. Her expression was… unreadable to Neuvillette, but didn’t seem offensive. Finally turning to him, a single eyebrow raised at the sight of the items he was holding.
“Well, don’t let it get cold.” she said, expectantly, as if checking if he actually knew what he was doing. She was head of an orphanage after all. Wasting no time, or rather, not wanting to face the woman any longer, he stepped past her and headed straight to Furina’s side. He was on better terms with the Fatui nowadays. And there would be no reason for them to want anything to do with Furina anymore. As for him, he was perfectly capable of defending himself. Half-asleep, the girl reached for the bottle before he’d even offered it, then paused, blinking softly between him and the doorway.
“Arle… here too?” she questioned, sleepy, yet unbothered, with no surprise in her voice. One of her arms extending to reach towards Arlecchino as she brought the bottle to her lips.
“She says your name like this is expected,” Neuvillette stated, facing the other woman once more, now that Furina had taken the bottle into her grasp, leaving the rest of the items discarded on the coffee table..
“Because it is.” She gave no further explanation. She stayed by the door, arms crossed, watching Furina rather than him.
“Alre helps sometimes,” Furina confirmed, still innocently reaching for her. She had used her remaining strength to stand onto her knees to see over the sofa’s armrests, as Neuvillette still crouched in front of her.
“Only once, Angel,” Arlecchino corrected, then shifted her gaze towards him, “That morning she showed up at your office feeling small,” she continued.
Neuvillette’s expression shifted. “You never said you’d been the one to settle her before she reached me.”
“There wasn’t a reason to. May I come in?” Arlecchino’s tone stayed flat, and she didn’t wait for an answer to come closer. Her eyes flickered just once, to the small velvet bag in the doorway, the one she’d carried in and set down by the door without comment, forgotten the moment she’d seen Furina.
Furina seemed to follow the look, not yet completely regressed, and gasped, bottle nearly slipping from her grip.
“Our… our dinner!” She twisted around fully now, distress creeping fast into her face. “I forgot! I forgot, Arle, I’m sorry, I’m-”
“Hey. Hey, none of that.” Arlecchino was across the room before the first tear could fall, crouching low, voice dropping into something gentler than Neuvillette had ever heard from her. She cupped Furina’s small face in both hands, thumbs smoothing soft circles just beneath her eyes. “Look at me, Angel.”
Furina’s breath hitched, but she obeyed not having had enough time to panic, glassy eyes finding Arlecchino’s.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Arlecchino murmured, making eye contact with her for a moment, unhurried. “You got small before I even walked in. That’s not forgetting me. That’s just your body needing to rest, and it doesn’t ask permission first.”
“But you got dressed nice…”
“And I’ll get dressed nice again another time. There will be another time. She brushed a thumb once more across Furina’s cheek, catching the last of the wet there, then pressed the softest kiss to the crown of her head. “Right now there’s only this. You, being little, being safe. That’s the whole day now. Nothing lost.”
Furina hiccupped, some of the tension bleeding out of her shoulders as she leaned fully into the touch. “…Okay,” she whispered, small and trusting.
“Okay,” Arlecchino echoed, and stayed crouched there a moment longer, just holding her face, before finally easing back enough to let Furina return to her bottle. “Good girl,” she added.
Furina reached for Arlecchino’s hand without being asked. Arlecchino gave it, lacing their fingers together and staying close, and only then did she lift her eyes to meet Neuvillette’s properly for the first time since she’d walked in.
Neuvillette watched this happen with the particular stillness of a man revising several assumptions at once. Not just that Arlecchino had done this before, but that underneath everything sharp about her, this was where her hands went soft without being asked.
“I didn’t realize,” he said slowly, “that I was interrupting.”
“You aren’t.” Arlecchino reached over and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Furina’s ear, like she’d done it a thousand times. “She did that all on her own. Children don’t usually check the calendar first.”
As if to reassure him further, Furina manoeuvred one of his hands onto her bottle to hold it for her, so she could grip his index finger, drinking peacefully as her eyes slowly fluttered shut.
Neither adult said anything else for a while. There was a bottle to finish, and a very small girl between them who needed, more than any explanation either of them owed the other, to simply be held in the quiet until she was ready to let go.