Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

And so comes the time dad finally lets them meets his friends.

It’s a lot different from the time he brought his wife to meet his old party mates. It was more like introducing her to his colleagues then, so it feels a little different this time because he wouldn’t really call the people he’s about to introduce his family to as just colleagues . Not after everything they’ve been through together. 

He had talked about his friends to his family briefly beforehand, Mei was really the only one paying attention to all the details. Her sister, on the other hand, practically tunnel visioned on every mention of a dwarf—specifically Senshi. Mom was more content on just listening to dad talk in general.

“Somehow he’s more attractive now,” mom had whispered to her and her sisters when dad wasn’t within earshot. Her sisters had giggled, cooing at her.

Mei’s only reaction was, ‘Hey, at least my parents’ marriage is finally working out.’

She didn’t think it would be that big of a deal, meeting dad’s friends, and so she hadn’t gone out of her way to find something good to wear. She just threw on a simple dress that looks no different from her usual wear and headed off, meeting up with the rest of her sisters and mom, only to find that all three of them had put on their best dresses. Puck even had a bouquet of flowers.

Which consequently makes her feel like maybe it’s not that they’re overdressing, maybe she’s underdressing. Whatever, dad will be here in a few minutes, it’s too late to change now.

“Do I look good?” Fler asks in a whisper, to which Mei shrugs her shoulders and reply.

“You look fine.”

“Is my hair out of place?” Puck leans over, dipping her head to show Mei, flowers pressing to her chest.

“You look fine.” 

“Oh, what about me?” mom asks, swaying her hips to let her dress flow.

“You look fantastic, mom,” Mei deadpans, before hearing a footsteps near them. She pulls her eyes away from mom and sees dad approaching them, giving them a small wave in greeting.

“Daddy!” Puck bounces towards him in a half-skip, followed by Fler, who takes wide steps instead. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Yes, yes, calm down,” his hands raise, head rearing away from the bouquet of flowers in her hand. “I’ll take you within the castle walls first—”

“Castle,” Fler and Puck say at the same time, dreamily.

“—and then I’ll lead you to the garden. It’s where we’ll be eating together.” he continues, before showing them a stern expression. “But first, ground rules.”

“Not this again,” mom sighs under her breath from beside Mei.

“Be-have, yourselves,” he points a finger at Fler and Puck. “I don’t want you overwhelming my friends.”

“Okay,” Puck nods feverishly. Mei thinks his first rule might’ve already gone in one ear and spilled out her other ear.

“ And one question at a time,” he adds on. “No insensitive questions.”

“We’re grown adults, dad! You don’t have to lecture us on what we can or cannot say!” Fler stomps her feet. “Now let us go already!”

His face sours, and just as Mei thinks he’s about to ignore her and keep going, he instead sighs and lets it go. Nodding his head, he gestures aimlessly with reluctance, “You’re right. Just… Nevermind, let’s go.”

“I’m so excited I could bench press fifty times!” Puck shakes, swaying about with her flowers in her arms, and Mei wonders just how she manages not to crush them in her arms.

“I’m so excited I could eat the entire table,” Fler giggles, following dad as he begins to lead them.

“Why are you both like this.” Mei frowns. “You’re going to stress dad out.”

“Sweetheart, look at him,” mom places a gentle hand on her shoulder, gesturing towards dad in front of them. “He’s already stressed out.”

“Don’t patronize me, Em,” he calls from the front.

“Sorry, Chil. I love you,” she calls back.

His ears evidently redden. Mom turns to look at Mei, smirking. Looks like their marriage is going well.

It doesn’t take them long to reach the castle, and with how fast they’ve been walking, they’re quick to reach the garden too. There, surrounded by patches of grass and greenery, is a stone-tiled area with a long table in its center, already occupied by a few others.

From her memory, Mei manages to piece together who is who. Starting from the obvious, there is Laios, already on his feet welcoming them to the table. Scrambling towards them with glittering eyes is Marcille, and slowly approaching with a platter is Senshi.

Falin stands at the table, but doesn’t come any closer, and at the end of the table is…

Izutsumi.

Mei was already incredibly interested in the beast-man when dad talked about her. She sounded so cool to her, despite dad’s insistence that she’s more like a tolerable nuisance. Her mysterious background, her impulsive nature, her strong sense of what she wanted chipped from her initial selfish personality—the growth of that.

But he never really mentioned that she’s also pretty.

Mei catches herself staring, steps slowing as her eyes fixate on the creature already munching away on her portion of lunch, watching back with disinterest. She doesn’t realize that she’s been distracted until she feels Puck kick her heel, forcing her to walk faster.

“There he is, there he is,” Puck giggles giddily, Fler beaming wide with just as much excitement. 

“Oh my gods, you are all soooo cute!” the elf, Marcille, clasps her hands together as she watches them arrive. “Let me guess! That one’s Meijack?”

“How could you tell?” she deadpans.

“Wow, you are really like your father,” Marcille’s smile falls for a moment, before rising back up as she turns to Fler and Puck. “And…you’re Flertom!”

“Hehe,” Fler smiles, yet aims it right at Senshi.

“And Puckpatti!” Marcille points.

“The cutest one,” Puck winks, also aimed at Senshi.

“They may be trying to hard,” mom mumbles to Mei, and then goes up to stand by dad’s side to greet his friends. “Hello! It’s nice to finally meet you all.”

“Ah! You’re his wife!” Marcille perks up in surprise, taking a while to soak in her appearance. Fortunately, that reaction goes unnoticed by mom, but Mei couldn’t help but feel dad has given Marcille a false idea of what mom would look like. Again. “You are so cute! I’m so glad you two managed to reconcile.”

“Oh dear, did he tell you that?” her eyebrows raise, turning to look at her husband. “I didn’t even know.”

Marcille’s hand fly up to her mouth as dad’s face begins to burn from embarrassment. He looks like he’s swallowing back words, eyes scrunching together, before mom laughs gently and pats him on the shoulder.

“You’re doing fine, Chil.”

He mumbles something under his breath and she only smiles softer. Marcille’s eyes look like they’re about to water and overflow.

Senshi then finally speaks up, joyfully nodding his head to the table, “Let’s begin feasting, shall we? Ye must be famished from all that walking. We of shorter legs travel longer distances, after all.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Fler nods her head, practically zooming forehead and closer to him. “Dad has spoken great things about your cooking. I cannot wait to try.”

“M-Me too!” Puck follows after, pushing her flowers forward. “Where shall I put these?”

“Let me take care of that,” Laios comes over, extending his hands to collect the flowers.

Puck immediately pulls her flowers away from his hands, “Ahh, how kind! But…um…I was asking Senshi!”

“Oh.” Laios’ hands fall.

“Ye should hand it over to him,” Senshi tells her gently. “Get them into a vase before they wilt.”

“Oh, okay,” Puck says slowly, holding the flowers back out to Laios. “Don’t eat them, please.”

“Huh?” Laios blinks, taking the flowers. “I’m not really interested in flower delicacy.”

Marcille has taken an interest in having a conversation with mom, and now that Mei’s sisters are shooting their shots with Senshi, it leaves her standing left behind with dad. She’s in no rush to get to the table, deciding to let her sisters pick their seats first.

Dad sighs, hands combing through his hair. She’s picking up a sense of uneasiness from him.

“Holding up okay, dad?” she asks.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. You don’t have to worry about me, Mei. You go on and join them,” he looks over at her, smiling lightly.

“Don’t let Marcille take away your chance to seat mom, dad,” Mei tells him, heading towards the table first. Hearing this, he immediately straightens into action, jogging forward so he can take his wife by the arm and put a little distance between her and Marcille.

“I’ve never seen him so agitated in my life,” mom laughs softly as dad holds onto her.

“Ye can sit in the center, Mrs Tims,” Senshi pulls a chair up after he’s put the platter he was holding down. “Easier ta reach everythin’. Yer daughters can sit beside ye here.”

“Oh, how considerate,” she warmly smiles at him, sitting at the chair he’s pulled up. She notices the boosters they’ve added so she can reach the table and her eyebrows raise in surprise.

“Those were my idea,” dad tells her, resisting the urge to glare at Senshi for beating him to it.

“Of course, Chil,” she turns to look at him, just as warm, as he sits beside her.

To sit as close as Senshi as possible, who has taken the seat opposite of mom, Puck and Fler immediately takes the seat on mom’s other side, with Puck beating Fler to the closest spot, leaving Mei with the corner table seat. The one closest to Izutsumi.

The beast-man watches Mei closely as Mei grows a little shy approaching the chair, before mustering the courage to just simply sit down, and then finds herself facing Falin, who immediately smiles at her the moment their eyes met.

“Comfortable?” she asks gently, and Mei’s eyes find themselves trailing down to look at her feathers around her collarbone.

Mei gulps, “Never dandier.”

“So, did you cook all of this yourself?” Fler asks, lips curling as Senshi begins distributing portions to them. “Like all of this?”

“Aye,” Senshi nods, looking genuinely proud of himself as he hands her a portion. 

“My turn! Are you single?” if Puck’s legs were any longer, she would’ve stood up to raise her hand. Instead, she opts to just raise her hand and stretch her back.

“Er,” Senshi blinks.

“No fair, you’re moving too fast!” Fler frowns at Puck, before turning to Senshi. “Are you looking to marry?”

“Hey! He didn’t answer me yet,” Puck tugs at Fler’s arm.

“My question will answer yours too!” Fler argues.

“Girls, what’d I say?!” dad hisses in exasperation.

“This is delicious,” mom comments, already digging in her face lights up from pleasant surprise.

“Thank ye, Mrs Tims,” Senshi answers, looking a little uncomfortable as the two sisters continue to bicker.

“Ugh, when’s the alcohol coming?” Mei grumbles, resting her cheek in her palm as she leans on the table.

“I can get some alcohol for you, if you’d like,” Falin points, already getting up.

“Did I hear alcohol? Yes, please,” dad perks up from down the table.

“Agh! You’re just going to let your daughter drink?” Marcille’s eyebrows furrow at him, upset at his parenting style. Meanwhile, confused, Falin slowly sits back down.

Mei whistles sharply at her twice, just a little irritated, “Hey, I’m a full grown woman.”

“Meijack Chils.” mom says, head snapping towards her, which causes Fler and Puck to stop bickering. “Watch that mouth, young lady. You do not treat other women like that.”

From behind Mei, she hears Izutsumi hold in a laugh. Her ears burn in embarrassment as she mumbles out a, “Sorry.” to Marcille.

The table grows quiet as they all continue eating, Falin still confused on whether she should get the alcohol. 

To break the silence, Marcille clears her throat, beginning to speak, “So, you’re a lot different from what I imagined.”

Dad chokes on his food, and if his leg were any longer, he would’ve started trying to kick Marcille’s leg to make her stop talking. But, since he can’t, he immediately connects eyes with Falin and nods his head, letting her know he’ll be needing the alcohol soon. She fortunately catches the hint and quietly excuses herself from the table.

“Really? What were you expecting?” mom hums, expression still relaxed.

“Well, I thought you’d be blonde,” Marcille laughs lightly. “And I thought your hair would be longer.”

“Oh, it was long before,” mom rakes her fingers through her short strands. “I just had it cut after I left Chil.”

“Ah, but yer as pretty as we imagined,” Senshi adds on, to which dad proceeds to nod his head, silently thanking him for that nice save. “And so are yer daughters.”

“Really?” Fler beams, leaning forward while batting her lashes slow.

“Me mostly, right?” Puck smiles wider. Fler kicks her from under the table. “Ey!” she kicks back.

Senshi’s eyes slowly look away from them.

“Down, girls,” dad chastises.

Falin returns with the alcohol and Mei sighs in joy, immediately reaching a hand out to take a bottle from her, opening one for herself.

“Mei…” mom eyes her.

“Ah. Um.” Mei says, about to place the tip to her lips and lowers the bottle. “Anyone…want me to pour them a cup?”

“Here please,” dad raises his cup.

“Chil,” mom frowns at him and he looks back at her, eyebrows raised like ‘What?’

“Okay, next question, are you rich?” Fler asks Senshi as Mei stretches over to pour dad his cup of beer.

“Ale? Nice,” dad looks into his cup and immediately downs the whole thing in one go, making mom sigh.

“No, I haven’t got much wealth to me name,” Senshi answers Fler and the effect that follows is quite instantaneous.

Immediately, she loses all interest, lights in her eyes going out, and she holds a cup up for Mei to pour her a cup of beer, who was just about to pour herself a cup. Sighing, Mei pours her cup full and returns to her own.

“Do you all live in this castle?” Puck asks, eyes gazing up at the tall walls around them.

“I live in a dungeon,” Senshi answers.

“Ah.” Puck taps her fingers to the table, pointer tapping strikingly close to her cup. Mei rolls her eyes and pours for her too.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” dad mumbles to his wife.

“See? Nothing to stress about,” she whispers back.

Marcille goes on to add onto Senshi’s answer about who lives in the castle, which gets a new conversation starting, but it seems like all motivation from Fler and Puck to win Senshi’s affections have effectively died down.

As they talk, Izutsumi grabs Mei’s attention by whispering in a hushed down, “Psst. You gonna share any of that with me?”

Mei’s head immediately turns and sees her eyeing the beer bottle, before nodding quickly and pouring a cup for her. She watches Izutsumi eye it carefully, before lapping at it to get a taste. Then, she wrinkles her nose in slight distaste.

“Nope, not anything like sake,” she pushes her cup away.

Mei is still not over the fact that the beast-man drinks like a kitten.

“You can have it,” Izutsumi smiles at Mei, all toothy—with fangs— as she pushes her cup closer to Mei. “I don’t like it.”

“Okay,” Mei nods slowly, taking the cup from her. She’s getting nerves.

“Hey, you know, your dad said that if he ever died, we should hire you,” Izutsumi points, watching Mei hesitate drinking from Izutsumi’s cup. “That must been you’re really good.”

“He said that…?” Mei’s eyebrows scrunch together, a bit distraught over the fact that it seems like he was treating her as though she’s just his replacement. She knows he probably meant well by it, or maybe he had phrased it differently. Or maybe he hadn’t really said that at all and Izutsumi merely twisted his words.

“There’s a buncha locked doors in this place,” Izutsumi thumbs back. “How fast would you be able to unlock every door?”

“I…dunno?” Mei shrugs her shoulders, absentmindedly lifting the cup up to her lips. “Depends on what you mean by ‘buncha’. How many doors?”

“Like…” Izutsumi scrunches up her nose. “A buncha.”

Mei nods slowly, looking away. She’s never been more attracted in her life.

Even though there are people who help, the gang still prefers to wash their dishes themselves.

The family decides to lend a hand, feeling bad if they didn’t, and so off they all went to wash all their dishes together. Tipsily, both Mei and dad try to get up from the table to carry their own plates, but by their fourth stumbled step, mom ends up ordering them to stay put at the table, and so they do.

They sit next to each other, because they thought the distance between them would be awkward, and it would just feel more natural to be closer while everyone else is away. They don’t talk, like they always do, but eventually dad opens his mouth despite his drunken mind.

“I really wasn’t looking forward to today.”

“Uh huh?” Mei blinks.

“I didn’t want your sisters proposing to Senshi,” he covers his face with one hand. “I wasn’t sure what his stance was with-with, you know, marriage and,” he hiccups, “just love, overall. So I was worried.”

“Mom thinks it was never gonna work out,” Mei tells him.

“Clever woman,” he sighs with endearment in his tone. “Also, he’s just an overall nice guy, you know? He can cook, he’s kind. He looks handsome. I’ll bet even your mother is a little bit attracted too.”

The cogs in Mei’s brain turn with a creak, eyebrows knitting, “Where is this conversation going?”

“I’m just glad you’re the only one not interested,” he smiles at her. “Well, not that I have anything to worry, because it’s not like any of us are going to be marrying Senshi anytime soon. Or any of my friends, for that matter.”

“Can we go back to that ‘us’ part,” Mei asks.

“In any case, I’m glad you’re normal like me, Mei,” he puts an arm around her. “You’re into locksmithing, and that’s it. And you’re into women, but I don’t see you trying to pick any girls up. The only thing you’re picking are locks. Which reminds me of when I was younger and I learned how to pick locks because it would impress this boy I met once. But you’re not like that. You like what you do, for yourself.”

“What.”

“Always knew you would be cooler than me,” he shakes her gently, wiping away a stray tear. “Don’t tell your sisters.”

“How come you don’t talk this much with mom.”

He looks at her, blinking slow, “She will laugh at me. And then I feel like I exploded.”

“But you like her laugh.”

“That’s what I said. What part of explode you don’t understand?”

Mei shakes her head, already feeling herself sobering up.

“Honestly, this is why I don’t like you drinking,” mom scolds, taking him by the arms and pulling him to his feet. He remains silent, staring straight at her, face the pinkest of hues. “Only you and that daughter of yours would get drunk in a late afternoon.”

Mei shoots her a thumbs up sign, though she’s faring much better than dad.

“Can you get home yourself, Chil?” mom asks, holding him by the cheeks.

“Ohh no,” Marcille says, hands behind her back. “I guess you’ll have to just take him home with you. Look at him, he needs you.”

“Is that what you want, Chil?” mom raises a brow, looking straight at him.

“I can walk home fine myself,” he murmurs, pulling away from her. From the corner of his eye, he sees Mei shoot him a thumbs down. Marcille stifles a groan.

“Or you all could stay in the castle,” Laios speaks up. “You could all stay for dinner.”

“Oh my gods!” Puck jumps up and down, holding onto Fler’s shoulder. “Like nobels!”

“Hey, and then we can test that question I asked,” Izutsumi bends down to whisper to Mei, whose sensitive ears took as a surprise.

She flushes, throat clamping up as she simply nods in answer.

Somehow, dad manages to catch this, even though Izutsumi has been at it all lunch and he hadn’t noticed then. His eyes widen, brows furrowing as he straightens up with his wife’s body as support. His mouth opens slow, then he turns to look at his wife, who isn’t sure what he’s up to, before deciding to give it up.

“Put us in the same room, please,” he ends up saying.

Chapter Text

Mei supposes in hindsight her alcohol tolerance being better than dad’s right now could be because he’s been hardly drinking due to work, while she’s been drinking every other week. Which is why when they’re taken to their room, he is still not yet sober enough to walk on his own.

“I think I’ll stay with him,” mom says as she lays him across the bed, taking his shoes off for him. “You three can go run along and play.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave them on their own,” dad tiredly sits up, a hand reaching out, but mom promptly pushes him back down.

Marcille, who had been the one to take them to their room—along with Falin—suddenly brightens up from the doorway, hands grasping together, “Oh, don’t worry! I’ll make sure they won’t get lost.”

Dad’s face sours, and Mei looks a little skeptical, but Fler and Puck don’t seem to have any complaints about it. In fact, they even look a little excited about exploring the castle in general. He ends up letting it go, the need to rest overtaking his need to argue, and he eventually nods in agreement.

“Sure,” he sighs, eyes lidding. “Stay safe.”

“Of course,” Marcille beams.

“I was talking to my daughters.”

“Oh.”

Dad holds onto his wife’s hand gently, which hasn’t left his shoulder even for a moment since she last pushed him back down onto the bed, “You don’t want to join them?”

“No, I’d rather stay here,” mom smiles, just as gentle.

As their three daughters leave the room, Marcille steps out to let out a small, emotional sniffle. Mei has never seen anyone so invested in her parents’ love life before. Falin checks on Marcille, confused by the sudden tears, but Marcille reassures that she’s fine.

“Alright, what first?” Marcille grins at the three of them as though she were a teacher leading a school of children.

“Do you have a ballroom?” Puck immediately asks, bouncing on her heels in excitement.

“We sure do!” Marcille giggles, Puck’s excitement growing a little infectious on her.

She begins leading the three to where the ballroom is, finger pointed forward as she marches. Falin paces along behind her, seemingly amused by Marcille’s upbeat attitude, all while Puck skips with excitement, pulling Fler with her by the hand.

It takes them just a bit too long to get there.

At first, Mei had dismissed it as just the castle being big, but she swears they just passed the same hallway twice, and she knows because she was mapping the place in her head as they walked. She won’t call her mind map completely reliant, so there’s still room in her for doubt, but still.

If they really did take a few wrong turns before getting here, then Marcille’s really good at masking it. She opens the doors to the ballroom with ease, smiling down at the three of them to reveal its wide and polished floor. That, or Marcille has no idea she might’ve taken a few wrong turns.

The room is primarily lit by tall glass windows, the chandelier above their heads unused at the moment. Immediately, Puck begins running, arms flying childishly. Fler follows, albeit not as enthusiastically, and Mei remains lingering by the doors, watching them go.

“Aww, so cute,” Marcille coos.

“We did that too,” Falin points bluntly with a fond smile.

Mei’s eyes flick up to Marcille, who begins blushing from embarrassment as she nods in reply, “Ah, yeah. We did, didn’t we? Ahaha…”

Fler and Puck begin dancing in circles in each other’s arms, possibly daydreaming about dancing with future suitors, before breaking into laughter. Quietly, Mei smiles.

“Aren’t you going to join them?” Marcille asks, bending low to look at her, blonde hair spilling over her shoulder.

“Not my thing,” Mei raises a hand dismissively.

“Aw, why not?” Marcille smiles, extending a hand. “I’ll dance with you.”

Mei flushes, looking away, “It’s alright.”

“I can dance with you,” Falin tells Marcille, pointing at herself.

“Oh! Okay,” Marcille blinks, straightening up to look at Falin, before taking her hands. She leads Falin to the center, where Fler and Puck are, and begins dancing in slow circles with her, laughing playfully.

As the two near the sisters, Fler looks up at Marcille, sparkle in her eyes as she asks, “Can we go to the throne room next?”

“Umm,” Marcille dwells on that thought. When they all left the garden after lunch, the rest that hadn’t followed the family to their room had gone their separate ways, promising to meet up again for dinner. Laios, namely, left to tend to his duties as king. Meaning he’ll be in the throne room right now. 

“Okay,” Falin answers for her, spinning their position so she’s closer to the sisters. “I’m sure my brother wouldn’t mind.”

Marcille jolts, surprised, “Huh?”

“As expected, locked,” Marcille shrugs her shoulders once they reach the throne room doors.

Once again, Mei has a sneaky suspicion that Marcille must’ve taken the longest route to get here, but she decides to push that thought away since it really seems like Marcille has no clue about this. 

Falin tilts her head, looking at the doors, before getting it a gentle push—just to double check if it’s really locked and not just closed shut. Unfortunately, the doors still do not open. Though, what Mei finds most fascinating is how the doors didn’t make a single noise as she did that, which makes Mei wonder if Falin had used magic to keep it silent.

“Mei! Open the door!” Puck points at the door, other hand pulled into a fist.

“You think I’ll just open any locked door just because you ask me to?” Mei deadpans.

“Yes…?”

Marcille frowns, hands on her hips as she looks down at Mei and Puck, “I think we should just leave. I mean, it’s locked for a reason.”

“Aw…” Fler glooms, head drooping. Every few seconds her eyes would flick back up to Mei, to see if she’d do anything, and each time she does, Mei sinks further.

“Stop that,” Mei huffs. “I didn’t even bring any tools. I don’t know what you’re expecting me to do here.”

“Haha, yeah! It’s not like you can open the doors without any tools, right?” Marcille nods in agreement.

“She’s lying!” Puck exclaims, directing her finger at her sister. “She can open locks without tools!”

Both Falin and Marcille perk up in interest, turning to look at Mei, who grows embarrassed as quickly goes, “Padlocks aren’t anything like door locks! Besides, this door is locked from the inside. There’s nothing to pick here!”

“How do you pick padlocks without tools?” Falin asks, curious.

Mei doesn’t answer for a moment, ears pinking by the minute as all sets of eyes drill into her with sheer curiosity—even Puck, whom claims to know how she does it, is watching her intently. Then, from just the pressure of being expected to answer alone, she opens her mouth, “Brute force.”

“Ooo,” Falin straightens up in fascination. “Wait, so can you open this door? If you had everything you need?”

“Mmm,” Mei gives the doors a look. It definitely seems to be a typical aldrop lock, and judging by situation and time of day, it probably isn’t actually locked—the bar’s just keeping the door closed from the inside. She peeks between the gap to judge the width, and thinks she can probably wrap her hand around it and her fingers would touch her thumb.

So, really, the most she has to do is find something to slide between the gap of the doors and pull the latch to slide the bar. Maybe she’ll have to bang against the door a few times to get it moving. Or not. Depends on what she’s going to use to slide between the gap. If it already has grip then…

“Ah.” for some reason, Mei hadn’t realized during her thought process she had quite literally started taking her leather belt off to get to work. What’s the action version of thinking out loud? Moving out loud? “Ah.”

Right, now is the time to be embarrassed.

The doors open with ease.

“ Woooow,” both Falin and Marcille go, clapping their hands, wholly impressed. 

“See?” Puck gestures, pushing her hair aside. “I told you.”

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” Fler goes, hands intertwined as though in prayer as her eyes sparkle at her sister. 

From across the throne room, right in his seat, Laios’ entire figure practically perks up in genuine astonishment. It looks like he’d been watching the whole time as Mei worked, and the man standing beside him looks just about ready to brace for an attack. Still is.

“My bad,” Mei says, voice reverberating across the room. “I’ll lock it up again.”

“Ahaha, it’s alright,” the man standing next to Laios goes, shoulders relaxing. “Chilchuck, was it? I see you’ve brought your daughters with you. Quite lovely to meet them.”

Mei feels a vein in her pop.

“Oh, no, this isn’t dad. It’s my sister,” Fler quickly corrects, gesturing to Mei, before feeling her cheeks flush from just looking at him. 

“Is that so? My apologies,” he bows his head gently.

Mei straps her belt back on and doesn’t say anything.

“Did you see that?” Falin calls from across the room. “With just a belt!”

“Yeah I saw that!” Laios nods his head, before looking right at Mei. “Do you want to join us on our next dungeon expedition? I’m sure—”

“Ugh, no,” Mei’s face pales.

“Oh, but I think you’ll really like mimics,” Laios’ eyebrows knit together. “The treasure chests they carry are usually authentic, and so you’d find that some of them having varying intricate locks! I wouldn’t know too much about that though. But, did you know, they don’t usually use chests as their shells? You might even find them in locked cabinets and—”

“Laios!” Marcille yells, putting her foot down loudly. “You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Mei’s face has not moved an inch since the moment he started talking about mimics, only paling further as he went into detail on where they can be found. Her sisters, just as troubled, didn’t think to stop him, only holding onto Mei with slight discomfort as he went on.

“Oh, sorry,” Laios droops. “Did you die by a mimic too?”

“Now, Laios, I think it’s rude to inquire someone about their deaths like that,” the man beside him gently places a hand on Laios’ shoulder. “I think they’re just not used to the topic of monsters.”

“I don’t think anybody is!” Fler adds, exasperated.

“I am…” Laios looks at her sad. She almost feels bad.

“Well, moving that aside,” the man says, taking his hand off Laios’ shoulder. “Is there something you need?”

Fler and Puck’s hands leave Mei as they realize, in slight embarrassment, that all they really wanted was to see the throne room. Maybe walk around it. But to admit that would eat away at their egos, because such a request, in hindsight, seems a little childish of them.

“They wanted to see the throne room,” Falin answers for them, gesturing to the two sisters.

“Oh. Is that it?” the man asks, smiling confused.

“Umm,” Falin lingers on the thought for a moment. “Yes.”

“You two aren’t busy, right? Discussing important matters and such,” Marcille cuts in, laughing nervously.

“Well,” the man exchanges a look with Laios. “There’s always tonight to continue this matter.”

Laios’ body seems to relax at that and he even lets out a sigh of relief, which doesn’t go unnoticed by the other. The man only shakes his head and sighs with a small smile, before departing from his side and exiting through the main doors where the girls are standing, mumbling an ‘excuse me’ as he passes them by.

“Soo…,” Fler starts, once the man is out of earshot. “Who was that…?”

“And why wasn’t he at the lunch?” Puck adds on curiously.

“That was Kabru,” Falin answers them honestly and straightforwardly. “He’s not friends with Chilchuck. Just with my brother.”

“And he’s Laios’ assistant,” Marcille elaborates further.

“He’s a bit…” Fler touches her fingers to her chin, “...you know.”

“He’s so handsome!” Puck sways from left to right enthusiastically. “Right, Mei?”

The lady in question raises a brow at her little sister, remaining silent as she waits for Puck to re-evaluate the question she just asked. Innocently, Puck does not.

“Can he come to the dinner?” Fler asks, smile stretching across her face, as if she has no ulterior motives up her sleeves as she asks this.

“Umm,” Marcille blinks slow, considering it.

“I can ask,” Laios shoots Fler a thumbs up.

“It’ll be fun! The more the merrier,” Falin hops from one foot to the other, lips curling soft.

Mei feels this would only add onto dad’s stress, but considering she’s currently outnumbered in opinion, she decides to not argue against it. Besides, on the bright side, if he gets distracted enough by his newfound fear of Kabru becoming a son-in-law, she’ll be able to get away with hanging out with Izutsumi for the night.

In the background, Fler and Puck have already gone up to look at the throne up close, commenting how tall and mighty it is. Shyly, Puck asks if she can have a sit, and Laios takes about a minute to actually drag out a, ‘Maaaaybe.’

“Oh, great, you’re all back,” dad says, hearing the door open as his three daughters pool in. He’s sat up against the bedframe, wife by his side. They looked like they were in the middle of a conversation before the three came back, which almost makes Mei feel bad for not knocking first.

“Doing better, dad?” Fler asks, walking faster than the rest to check on him quickly. Mom shifts on the bed beside him so Fler can get to him easier.

“I was drunk, not ill, Fler,” he deadpans. “Sleep and water did me fine.” then he tilts his head upwards, looking at her skeptically, “I should be asking you whether the three of you have been fine. You didn’t get into any trouble, did you?”

“No,” the three answer in unison.

“Great.” he relaxes.

“Anything interesting happened?” mom asks with gentle curiosity.

“Mei picked the lock of the throne room doors,” Puck points at her sister, eyes brightening with fascination, hoping that her parents would feel the same.

“That’s…nice,” mom smiles.

“WHAT!” dad tenses back up.

Just distantly, Mei can hear Marcille and Falin scurry off from behind the door, no doubt previously eavesdropping out of curiosity when they first dropped the sisters off. Well, mostly Marcille, actually. Falin must’ve followed only because she wanted to be near Marcille.

Mei thinks on it for a bit. It’s not right of her to assume, but perhaps they’re…

“Mei!” dad calls out to her, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Were you listening?”

“Huh? No, sorry,” she blinks, returning her attention to him.

“I asked how’d you do it,” he repeat himself.

“Well, I…” and she goes on to explain herself.