Chapter Text
. . .
“Oh, I knew it would look so very cute on you, my wolf!”
Marie’s giggles flitted through the air around us. I couldn’t help but smile at the sheer joy that radiated from her from how excited she was. There was something incredibly contagious about the pure, unfiltered happiness in her face.
“You think it looks okay?” I adjusted the elegant crown of hand-selected and twisted flowers atop my head
“I suppose it makes sense now why you wanted to visit my campsite on Earth,” I said, thinking back to how Marie absolutely insisted we visit my hideaway on Earth.
I couldn’t exactly say no to her.
Her eyes were entirely focused on me, carefully monitoring my every reaction and move with a subtle golden glow.
“Do you… do you like it?”
I briefly considered reaching out and touching that delicate hand of hers that was resting on her thigh, but I settled against it.
Don’t push it. Don’t rush things.
“I love it, Marie.”
I did fully and sincerely mean that. It was such a sweet gesture of her to make something so unmistakably pretty for me. Despite all the romantic gestures and little gifts from Arthur since we became intertwined with one another, I still wasn’t quite used to receiving gifts from others.
“Merveilleuse!” Marie’s smile was wide, shimmering under the warm light that illuminated the small room we occupied within the Sanctum’s confines. Her lips parted to say something else before a call from down the hallway could be heard from Loid.
“Oh! Monsieur Loid has need of me,” Marie said, a soft sigh following her words. She would never turn down a request from the others, especially Lyon, but lately she did seem slightly reluctant to rush over when asked. I wanted to think it was a sign of her own growing feelings, but I wasn’t quite sure.
I let my smile grow wide as I looked up at her face, desperately trying to ease that ever-lingering tension deep inside my body the best I could— at least for the moment.
“It’s all right. We can meet up again at another time.” I could only sit and admire the beautiful priestess who always carried a glow around her very being wherever she went. “Thank you again for the flower crown though. I do truly mean that.”
I absolutely took note of that slight warm flush to her olive cheeks, the way her face abruptly turned away from my own and towards the exit once it started to grow. She shyly waved before floating down the hall, quickly disappearing from view in a matter of seconds, and leaving me alone in the quiet room. I leaned my head back against the wall that was behind me from where I sat on the chaise, exhaling as I tried to recenter myself so I could leave the room without evidence of my hopeless crush on the Priestess of Sol. My own smile remained firm, mentally keeping note of that little glimmer of hope in the form of those dark purple lips curling at the edges as her face noticeably flushed.
Maybe Arthur is right. Maybe I can ask soon if she would be interested in—
“You suck at hiding what you’re thinking.”
My younger counterpart, Maeve, took a painfully loud sip of her drink from where she suddenly appeared in the doorway without warning.
As always, she startled me slightly with her abrupt appearance, not seeming to care about tact or asking permission whenever she entered a room. I remained leaning against the wall but adjusted myself, hands reaching upwards to slowly remove the flower crown and hold it in my lap. My fingers soon began to fidget and twirl around the various flowers the crown was composed of.
I sighed, not bothering to avert my eyes from the delightful gift to where Maeve stood when I answered her.
“And what would I be thinking then, smartass?”
The young Tenno rolled her eyes.
“You need to hurry up and talk to her about Entrati, before it’s too late,” Maeve warned, voice rather uncharacteristically serious, and implicitly carried the message I always recognized of— I seem like I don’t care, but I actually do care.
My fingers kept sliding along the delicate fibers that held the crown together. I noticed the little details in Marie’s handiwork, the many tiny knots joining the different flowers in the arrangement she chose specifically for me. There was so much meaning in every choice she made, from the flowers she picked, the colours she combined, and the way she shaped it into the crown it was.
I sighed.
“I’ll get to it. I will.”
Maeve didn’t seem pleased with that answer at all by the small huff she didn’t even bother to hide.
“Just saying, I don’t want to deal with you crying around me again,” she stopped and cocked her head to the side in thought, “well, at least this time you would have your boy to run off to instead of me.”
I could feel a nerve in my head starting to throb from my younger counterpart’s commentary.
Sometimes she really needs to learn to leave me alone when it’s matters like this that are none of her business— I mean she’s still a child! What does she know of falling in love—
SNAP
As easily as it should have seemed from its delicate appearance, my fidgeting fingers unintentionally snapped a particularly vital section of knots that held the crown together. My internal frustrations escaped my self-control just enough to break the sweet gift Marie made for me. I couldn’t say anything or curse at anyone else for what had happened since it was completely my fault. I remained still as I sat and quietly stared at the consequences of my own actions— intentional or not, it didn’t matter when the results were all the same.
Maeve watched the momentary slip of my self-control with an eyebrow raised. She shrugged before walking away, leaving with one last awfully foreboding remark.
“Well, if that isn’t just beautifully ironic?”
. . .