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Chapter Text

Wanderer has spent the last centuries drowning his useless human emotions. Whether he managed to do it or not, it was irrelevant.

While his present self doesn't put a lot of value in his feelings, he's not oblivious to them, he just doesn't bother to share them with the world; they're his personal problem. It's the same with his relationships, if having to tolerate the occasional presence of his acquaintances even count as that. Buer is the only one he seeks willingly from time to time, especially when he wants to get away from others, so he has come to have his own hiding spots around the Sanctuary of Surasthana. That's why the moment the ex-Archon of Fontaine decided to pay a visit to Sumeru, Wanderer had a seat in front row, just out of sight, to witness her audience with Kusanali.   

He knows the basics about Furina de Fontaine's sob story, the Traveler told Nahida in passing on one of her visits, not that Wanderer particularly cared for it, just another pawn in the games the gods play. Buer, however, is much more interested in Furina's performance, which would be pretty unimpressive coming from a god, but a human? Now that's a subject that peaks her infinite curiosity.

So, the moment Furina's mind is finally within her reach, Nahida forgets she's supposed to be a graceful host and instead, acts like an academic that's discussing a topic with one of her peers. For some reason Furina didn't seem to mind sharing her tragic story with a complete stranger, one that's more inquisitive than sympathetic, but maybe holding a secret like that for five hundred years has make her more willing to share it with anyone that asks.

Whatever the case, Wanderer leaves that day before Furina and Nahida finish their meeting. He comes back for the rest of their talks while Furina stays in Sumeru.

He decides, against his better judgment, to cross paths with Furina while she's roaming the market the day he knows she's going to be looking for souvenirs; the first thing she does is to compliment his hat and Wanderer concludes that she's a fool. He keeps her company for the rest of the day.

The next time Furina comes to see Nahida, he decides to actually make his presence known and Buer is only too happy to formally introduce them. Furina doesn't speak about her days as an Archon in front of him, so maybe she does have some preservation instincts.

Furina's little trip ends days after and Wanderer doesn't feel like he has gained or lost anything by knowing her.

Then her first letter addressed to him comes. He only answers because Kusanali pesters him about it, always so meddlesome in her quest of make him have friends. They fall in an interminable cycle, because she keeps sending him letters and he keeps writing back, even after Nahida stops nagging him about it.

They talk about everything and nothing. Food, the weather, tales going around Teyvat a few centuries ago, his essays, Buer's favorite sweets, her scripts, Fontaine's crystal waters and Sumeru's endless deserts.

Some months after her visit, Furina invites them to the opening of her newest play: written, directed and starred by her. Wanderer refuses on principle, not that's effective, because one look from Kusanali is enough to say he's going too. They don't even need to hide that Nahida is an Archon, because her appearance is still widely unknown even for most of her own people.

The play is a complete success. Despite hearing so much about Furina's acting skills, Wanderer always dismissed them as her self-grandeur. It's not. Furina is extremely talented, like she belongs on a stage, so maybe that's why Focalors put her on one the very first day she came to be.

After this little trip, Buer, forever meddling, tells him he has permission to visit Fontaine, should he ever want to. He decides to take her on her offer out of spite; show her she should be more careful when giving him freedoms. Furina, on the other hand, is delighted to see him casually walking on the streets of Fontaine, without prior notice.

Just like the letters, his impromptu trips to the Hydro Land become a rutine.  

In the end, Kusanali is not only not regretting giving him the chance to come and go when he pleases, but she seems oddly cheery every time he comes back from Fontaine, even in those times when he doesn't have sweets to give her.

A year goes by.

The Traveler keeps her journey through Teyvat, solving the problems of another nation. The sky is still fake, Kusanali keeps being a busybody and Wanderer finds himself with a growing collection of Furina's music records. And after another half year passes, Wanderer, the rejected son, decides to finally share his own little sad story with Furina, the dutiful daughter; she doesn't tell him she understands, she doesn't condemn him nor she speaks about redemption, instead, Furina tells him she's sorry he had to be alone all those years.

That's the moment Wanderer realizes he's in love.

And in response to his tale, Furina decides to tell him about how a god made her too, with no other purpose but to be the star of an endless play. Wanderer already knows all of this, but he listens to her as if he was hearing it for the first time.

Things change after that without really changing. He keeps coming to see her, the letters doesn't stop and some nights he falls asleep hearing her singing voice coming from the gramophone. Wanting things he couldn't have had been his downfall, so this is more than enough; he could very easily spend the rest of the eternity like this.

It's months later when he's finally hit with the dawning realization that he doesn't have an eternity and everything comes crashing down. Focalors is gone, the Hydro Throne is back with the Hydro Sovereign and Furina is just human.

At the two years mark, the Traveler is leaving Natlan, Furina is closing season and Wanderer is desperately looking for the gift of immortality.

His search brings nothing but disappointment. Every path is an end road and all his years of being alive are useless, because he never had to worry before about mortality. For all the progress he thought he had made, he starts to fall too easily into old wretched patterns, with the shadows of Il Dottore and stolen gnosis looming in his thoughts. But, unlike hundreds of years ago, when he was undesired and abandoned, he does have a god that is willing to hear his calls.    

He exposes his case to Buer, using every card he has at hand: Furina lived centuries of misery, she should live centuries of bliss; keeping Furina alive surely could yield interesting results for Kusanali's curiosity; Nahida pushed for him to befriend Furina despite knowing that her time was short, without considering what would be for Wanderer to lose another human he got close to; Buer collected what another god left behind, couldn't she do the same for Furina too?

Not once she interrupted him, maybe because this was the first time Nahida heard him talk this much and by the end of his ramblings, Wanderer feared it was going to be all for naught by just looking at her expression.

“While I can infer your motivations,” Kusanali starts, with the same tone she does when she's trying to impart him some important life lesson; but useless wisdom is the last thing he needs right now. “Even if all of this is just hypothetical, you must remember that you can't impose your desires over the lives of others, forcing Furina to live wouldn't be too different from what Focalors did, even if the intentions are not the same,” of course Wanderer knew that! But talking about it with Furina should come after having the solution first! “Which brings me to my second point, the possibilities of Furina dying depend entirely of her own will and how often she encounters high risk situations,” and to his surprise given how serious the topic was, Nahida smiles cheerily, crossing her arms playfully behind her back. “She doesn't have eternal life.” She says slowly, even daring to laugh at the unamused look she received back. “She, however, has eternal youth.”

“...Excuse me?”

And Buer, the horrible fiend she was, laughed again entirely at his expense. “Because we're having this conversation I see she failed to mention it, you also left that day before Furina got to that part, so this misunderstanding is to be expected.”

“What are you talking about?” He asks through clenched teeth.

And so, Nahida explains very patiently the reason Furina requested an audience with her those years ago: apparently after the flood, Furina dreamed about Focalors. In that dream, she told Furina that while time had stopped for her, she'll nonetheless meet her end, either by her own desires or by being very unlucky. Naturedly, at the time, Furina had bigger worries than to pay attention to a silly dream, so she kept it out of her mind, at least until it bothered her enough to finally seek counsel and make sure once and for all that it had been just a meaningless dream.

It was not, in fact, meaningless. Before disappearing from this world, Focalors final gift to Furina was to curse her again.

“So, you see,” Nahida continued with her explanation. “Coming back to my previous statement we can say then, that technically speaking, Furina could live forever as long as she doesn't finds herself in mortal peril. The other condition is more complex and I should made clear I'm not an expert on the topic, my opinion is also biased, so this is entirely pure speculation on my part,” and she made sure to look directly at his eyes, cheeky smile on her lips. “But I have the theory that if someone, let's say, such as an individual that doesn't have any concerns with time, gives her a good reason to live forever, maybe she'll want to stay around for centuries to come.”  

Buer should consider herself lucky that the doors of her stupid sanctuary didn't went flying with the way Wanderer stormed out of there, angry, embarrassed and so, so relieved.

For the next month he refuses to visit Furina or answer any letter. And when he finally sees her again, they argue about why she forgot to let him know the very important detail of her life not being on a timer. After that, things go back to normal and life keeps on going.

Now that Furina is done acting for the season and has free time, she decides this is the perfect time to visit Sumeru again... also, maybe she feels guilty about worrying him in vain, not like he ever told her he was worried to begin with, but by this point, is clear she knows him well. She and Nahida have a happy reunion and spent the whole evening talking; when Furina finally leaves, moon high in the sky, Wanderer goes with her to make sure she doesn't have problems getting back to the room she's renting.

The way down the Sanctuary of Surasthana is a long one and she has complained about it before, so Wanderer could fly her down and save them the time and the long walk, but she doesn't ask for it and instead choses to walk, happy to continue talking like she didn't spend the last hours chitchatting. They just saw each other less than a week before, but it seems like they never ran out of things to talk about and by the time they reached the Akademiya, Furina finally decides to ask for a break, so Wanderer decides to take her to one of his favourite spots that's just right next to the main entrance; that place doesn't have anything special besides the view, but he likes to go there when he wants to be away from people.

Despite the fact that he likes to hear Furina talk, the current topic definitely displeases him to the point that no even the sound her voice can make it better.

“Tch! You should have let them drown.”

Furina gasps in that exaggerated way she always does to show she's very offended.

“What? They clearly deserve it, even the people of Sumeru aren't that ungrateful and that's including the ones that kept Buer in a cage.”

She gasps again, this time with less overdo, hands of her hips, looking like she's ready to lecture him. “As insightful as your opinions are, this situation just can't be helped,” she chooses to said instead, to his disappointment, because he greatly enjoys teasing her. “Not everybody can love me, in fact, I don't believe anyone does.”

Wanderer is fine with their status quo. He doesn't need anything else from Furina. This is enough.

“You have a fan club.”

He can't aspire for something more. The perfect eternity for him are perpetual tea parties, boundless letters, interminable talks and never-ending songs.

“Of course I do, I'm very talented! But that's just shallow admiration, you know how it is with idols, we are made to be put in a pedestal, forever letting people see whatever they want to see in us, always a mirror, never a window.” She was such a superb actress even now, not betraying anything. “So yeah, who would know me enough to love me?”

Ah, he never stood a chance.

“I do.”

Furina just stands there, all the natural theatricality leaving her stance. “C'mon now, don't make fun of me.”

He's not a coward, he has decided that the day his past sins come back to haunt him, he's going to face them directly, head high. He also knows how to live deprived of the things he wants the most, so this won't kill him, he has survived so much worst and this will never come to that, because he is sure he's not going to lose Furina over this.

He just said it, he knows her enough to love her.

“Does it look like I'm joking?” He asks, crossing his arms, tone dispassionate, trying to make things as easy as possible on himself. “You can laugh it off though, I don't particularly care if you do, it won't change how I feel.”

But Furina doesn't laugh, instead she's rendered speechless and the time she takes to say something, anything, feels like its own kind of eternity, one that he doesn't want to experience ever gain.

And then, Furina is crying, like he has seen her do so many times before, the difference is that she's also smiling, not in that miserable way she does to minimize her tears, but a real, heartfelt smile.  

“That makes me so happy,” she finally says, voice broken and so, so sweet. “May I hug you?” And she hasn't even finished that question before opening her arms, wide and inviting.

Wanderer is the one robbed of words now. He wonders if Kusanali finally decided to enact her revenge, if this is a dream made only to inflict some of the pain he owes Buer for his misgivings. But he knows Nahida too; this is reality.

Slowly, as if fearing she will dissolve like bubbles in the wind, he closes the distance between them but is Furina who takes the last step and brings him to her awaiting arms, holding him so tight he can feel her heartbeat. He doesn't remember the last time he hugged someone but he knows this is where he is meant to be, at last.

The world holds still.   

“Let me stay at your side forever.”

He knows he's asking for too much, that he's being greedy and wishing for the impossible, that this was precisely what condemned him before... but Furina just laughs, carefree and lightly, her arms so warm and perfect around him.

“Oh my,” she says, tone playful. “That's a long time, monsieur, are you sure you're not going to get tired of me?”

“Never.”

“Well then, how can I refuse such marvelous offer?”

He's so happy he could cry too. He does.

...

...

...

...

...

Yeah, okay, looking back to this exact memory Furina could actually see that only a fool would confuse this moment as something platonic.

It was her, she was the fool.

Chapter Text

Furina's last performance in Focalors play ended with a whimper. After that, there was only mourning.

Life as a nobody didn't bring Furina the peace she wanted; even months after being freed from the burden of archonhood, she was still alone, afraid and lost. Despite reigniting her passion for the arts, the fact that she started traveling and her efforts to mend the relationships with the people she knew, she kept feeling hollow.

It didn't matter if Navia extended her an olive branch or if Furina sometimes went to Clorinde's little game parties, there was always going to be a barrier between them, because the weight of her past as an Archon was too heavy to ignore; they would never be close friends. It was implied in the way her acquaintances exchanged looks when they thought Furina wasn't paying attention and clearly stated by all the fun activities they did together, never including her. Her trusted Iudex was nowhere to be found either and Furina felt his absence like a missing limb; they rarely saw eye to eye, but for hundreds of years he had been the only reliable presence in her life.

Poor Furina, so alone and pathetic that the first person she considered a friend was the stranger that put her on a trial.

That's why on her last day in Sumeru, when the Dendro Archon asked if Furina could write to Wanderer, because he was “just shy and bad at making friends”, she happily accepted, excited at the possibility of having a friend away from Fontaine and all the expectations that centuries of lies carried with it. Despite popular belief, Furina was a patient person, if she weren't, she wouldn't have been able to survive a half-millennia of silent suffering, so, when the reply of her first letter came and was nothing but sarcasm, Furina took it not as an insult, but as a challenge and wrote back accordingly.

That's how he became part of her life at the beginning, his presence intangible but felt.

Their ironic letters were fun at the start, but soon enough their satirical exchanges gave way to genuine conversations; without noticing at first, reading his letters became her favorite part of some days. She was happy enough with this, but then, months later, for some reason, Wanderer started to frequent Fontaine and she began to write less letters, because now he was right there, no longer an ethereal existence that she carried on paper. And no matter how trivial were the topics Furina talked about, he was always willing to listen. 

He was still caustic as ever, he complained about anything and everything and had the very bad habit of running his mouth with strangers, but instead of being upset, Furina was fascinated. There was something so inspiring on how bold he was, always speaking what was on his mind without caring if it was considered impolite, grim or untactful. For her, who spent entire lives speaking falsehoods to the point she struggled with being sincere now, even when the stage lights died down long ago, someone like Wanderer was like the breeze on the coast in the middle of a summer day.  

He was everything Furina wasn't and she loved him for it way before ever falling in love with him.

She can freely admit, at least only to herself, that she has been in love for some time now. This is her first love and she deeply cherishes it; she can't imagine these feelings blooming for a better person than her most precious friend, the one that carved a place in her life little by little, to the point that when she thinks about her future, she can always imagine Wanderer being part of it. She doesn't need to be explicitly told that he loves her too, because if Wanderer is Furina's best friend, she knows that after Nahida, Furina is the closest to him, however, hearing for the first time how much he cares about her had been enough to bring her to tears; she, who will always live under the shadow of Focalors in Fontaine, she, who will forever be an afterthought for the people that orchestrated her trial, she, who for so long had no one to hear her cries and dry her tears... she at last has someone that loves her just as she is: theatrical, imperfect and just human.

Furina is satisfied with this, it doesn't matter that Wanderer doesn't reciprocate her romantic feelings, being loved as his friend is a gift in itself! So she's going to hold her own love close to her chest and just be grateful that after hundreds of years, this is how she has come to experience such tender feelings.

Is with that thought that she starts to write her first letter after coming back from her latest trip in Sumeru. Nowadays writing letters is mostly unnecessary between them, Wanderer comes to see her often enough for them to stay up to date, but the letters had become a tradition and he doesn't seem to mind, because if Furina takes too long to write in between his visits, he sends a letter often criticizing her lack of communication.

My dearest,

I hope you're well, I am just fabulous, as always. 

Did you finish your essay? If not, you should disregard this letter until you are free of obligations. In case you are not chained anymore by your studies, do you mind telling me when are you coming to Fontaine? I wish to coordinate our next meeting.

I have the most exciting news to share! Fret not, this isn't a matter of urgency so please don't rush on my behalf, I can wait all the time you need!

Yours, 

Furina

For the third time over the course of the day, Wanderer reread Furina's letter, still unable to think of a reasonable answer.

Like he did many times before when he had no other option but to do the Akademiya's busywork, he spent a large part of the day on his preferred spot in House of Daena, hiding from the students that had the annoying habit of following him around like lost children.

It was very unlike him to spent so much time without making progress, but the very humiliating truth was that his mind, ironically, keep wandering off, thinking about Furina, which wasn't something entirely new, because during the time he wasted looking for a way to keep her alive, Furina became an all-encompassing entity in his thoughts. However, without the threat of her mortality over him and the recent change in their relationship, thinking about her has become... a bit of an experience, to say the least.

It's so jarring having to struggle with his emotions like this. He's not unfamiliar with feelings of worry, fear and uncertainty, but he has never felt like that before while also feeling just pure joy. It's so dissonant, so... irrational; if this is what loving and being loved was like, it started to make sense why people went crazy over it.

“Who cares anyway,” he said to no one, running his finger over the 'yours' of Furina's habitual signature. “It's not like it'd the first time I lost my mind.”

Currently being in Sumeru has two downsides, the first is that Furina isn't there, the other is that Kusanali can always find him, so he only has a fraction of a second to react after speaking to himself, before the well-known presence of Nahida alerts him.

He turns to his right, where he's expecting to see her, but her voice sounds from the opposite side. “That's a troubling prospect, let's hope it doesn't happen again.”

Wanderer turns this time to the left and there she was, on the other side of the table, placid smile on her lips as usual. Trying not to act like a kid caught doing something he shouldn't, he folded the letter in half while directing a bored look at Nahida. “What do you want, Buer?”

She smiles a bit more, bringing her arms behind her back, looking like the perfect image of innocence. “I was just curious,” which, honestly, that's something extremely common with her. “You said you were going to be busy in the library but I just talked with your professor, he was praising your most recent work. Good job, Hat Guy!” She's still smiling all innocent-like, but she can't fool him, there's something under that front. “I wanted to see what new interesting thing you were doing now, since your last assignment is done.”

Kusanali extended her arm then, with the intention of taking one of the books from the many that were on the table and Wanderer had to fight the urge to scream a rotund “no” at her.

“History of Fontaine's Social Norms,” Buer reads the title of the book, apparently unaware of his distress. “That's a useful topic,” she comments and before leaving the book in the place she took it from, she looked at the other one that was under it. “Anthology of Fontaine's Customs and Traditions,” she recites the other title. “Are you writing about Fontaine now? How unexpected!”

“Is it really? I spent a lot of time there.”

“I know you do but I thought you only went there solely to visit Furina,” her hand stops now over a scroll, one that he doesn't remembers the contents of, because he did, Wanderer wouldn't be so calm about her actions. “It's good to see you becoming interested in Fontaine's culture too,” she states while reading the scroll, her tone and expression never changing. “Or maybe it's just one specific topic?” She asks and there it is! The same mischievous smile she directed at him not too long ago, when Wanderer tried to appeal to her in place of Furina. “One that needs an—” she made the smallest of pauses, eyes looking directly to what was written on the scroll. “Introduction to Courtship Across Archon Focalors' Regency.”

Wanderer freezes, unable of mustering the will to get angry at Kusanali's nosiness, because not only he's feeling terribly embarrassed, but he's being assaulted with a sudden thought he had never pondered before, because it's something inane, not worth of consideration, at least until now, but... is he capable of doing something so disgraceful like blushing? He can bleed and although is not exactly blood, is red all the same.

“So intriguing!” She says looking unsuspecting, like the little terror doesn't know exactly what she's doing. “But it does beg the question, is this for academic purposes or personal ones?”

This is what finally makes him react. He gets up almost knocking the chair back, hat materializing over his head, which is clear indication that he's willing to leave at the next wrong comment. “What does it matter to you? Mind your own business, Buer.”

If Nahida already didn't take his impoliteness personally, she would still not be offended now, because she loves learning new things and she definitely hasn't seen this shade of red on Wanderer's face before.

“You're right, you don't need to tell me, sorry,” she doesn't sound particularly apologetic. “I'm just happy to see you making connections and experiencing the many wonders this world has to offer.”

This time she does sound very earnest, all traces of mischief gone and it's enough to subdue his irritation, because as much of a manipulator she can be sometimes, she has always been honest about wanting him to experience a kinder side of life; whatever she gets out from accomplishing that, it doesn't really matter much to him.

“There's nothing to tell, all of this is useless either way,” he says, crossing his arms nonchalantly. “These Fontainian traditions... these gestures are just symbolic.”

At this Nahida crossed her arms too, looking pensive. “But aren't all gestures symbolic? We understand them because we gave them a meaning.”

Just a little bit of reflection is enough to make obvious it doesn't make sense to make such a big deal out of this, more so when telling Furina, which was supposed to be the hardest part, had been as easy as it was for him to take to the skies.

“I wasn't talking so literally,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of nose with his fingers. “The purpose of these antiquated Fontainian rules is to establish a relationship and that's pointless if I already achieved that, that's why I said it's just symbolic.”

For a moment there's only silence but when Nahida speaks again, her voice is softer than usual. “Hat Guy,” how could she sound so touched by saying that ridiculous nickname was a mystery to him. “This is a great development! Congratulations! I have to say I'm very surprised, I didn't foresee this occurring so soon but it's excellent news nonetheless! I need to congratulate Furina too! Should I send her a gift?”

“No!” His urgent scream echoed in the halls. “Just... don't,” he said a little more composed. “This is new for us, let us figure it out before you start meddling again, you've done enough. I'm not stupid, I don't know if this was your end goal all along but you've been orchestrating this from the start.”

Kusanali has the decency to at least pretend to look sheepish, the way she always does when she's being caught doing something with an additional interest she didn't disclose previously. “I do admit I wanted the two of you to become friends, I thought it would be good for both of you and I was right, you get along well, but when I saw the way your relationship was changing I considered it worth exploring, of course I wouldn't have made any move if I thought it was one-sided, that's why I'm so pleased you guys finally resolved this matter. Can you see it now? You're not incomplete, you never needed a heart to love. It's not just Furina, you always had so much love to give from the beginning. ”

Wanderer has spent entire centuries without shedding even a single tear, so how is it then, that not even two weeks since he cried on Furina's shoulder, he feels like he could cry again by just hearing Nahida say something so simple.

Fortunately for his unruly emotions, Kusanali proceeds to promptly ruin such emotive moment with her next words. “Oh! I just remembered that we have a resident expert on wedding ceremonies all over Teyvat,” she says casually, like she was just commenting about a forgotten appointment. “I should ask for a copy of his thesis and essays, I think he wrote a book too.”

“What? No!” He is so stunned by this very drastic, very extreme change of topic. “Did you just hit your head or what? Why are you saying this nonsense?” Of course his infuriated words were received with amusement and he knows there's nothing to do when Nahida raises her hand and starts to wave. “Don't even think—”

And just like that, with a last giggle and a blink of the eye, she's gone.

Now alone again, very crossed and mortified, the only thing he can do was slap a hand against his face; only Buer could turn things and make it so, that informing her about the shift in his relationship with Furina goes way worse than confessing his feelings to the object of his affection in the first place.

On the bright side - if one could call it that -, if he ever needs to search information about weddings, he will at least have that side covered now.

Chapter Text

Turns out that Fontaine used to have a lot of different traditions when it came to courtship rituals, which isn't surprising because this is the Land of Justice, always full of rules for everything, no matter how ridiculous the thing was. Nowadays, however, these traditions are considered old-fashioned, rarely practiced in a serious manner but still popular in Fontaine's literature, plays and music, which is where Wanderer got the idea from in the first place. It's impossible to spend so much time with Furina and not become entangled with the things she's passionate about in some way or another.

As ludicrous as Wanderer finds this whole custom, he knows Furina would've loved to have a proper courtship if they had fallen in love a century ago. She has never said it directly, but Wanderer can tell there's a lot of things she wishes she could've done in the past, just normal, insignificant things; human things. And that in itself, is a desire he can understand well.

He can't give her what Focalors took from her, but he can give her this.

Traditionally, if they were just two normal people following Fontaine's old traditions, the first step for Wanderer would be to offer Furina a gift; if she accepts it, it means she's agreeing to enter the long process of a courtship, which final step is to stablish a formal relationship. That sounds simple enough as a start, if it weren't for the fact that the first gift must fulfil two requirements: the first is that it needs to be something she can wear on herself, the second is that it must represent him in some way, which is why brooches with family crests used to be the preferred option as a first gift.

Of course, not everybody has a family crest, so the next best thing is something related to one's profession. Despite what Buer likes to believe, Wanderer is not a Vahumana scholar, so he's not going to give Furina something related to said school. Vision users had also the option of styling their gifts after their element, but as much as he doesn't care where his vision came from, he's also not going to give Furina anything that could be associated with that drunkard failure of an Archon. Wanderer doesn't has either a hometown he can borrow from or a name with a unique meaning or even a pastime he likes deep enough to be associated with it. So, with no more options, in the end he opted to draw inspiration from something he always carries around on his clothes, that way at least it's recognizable enough to be linked to him.

With that decision made, he went then to a local artisan to commission something simple: a hatpin. 

At the time, it seemed like a good idea, however, five days later, while waiting in front of Furina's door for it to be open, Wanderer couldn't help but feel somewhat unsure, which didn't make sense at all. He knew Furina was going to be appreciative of the gift, regardless of what it was, so why was he nervous all of a sudden about something so trivial?

For better or worse, he doesn't have the time keep reflecting on his unreasonable emotions, because the door opened abruptly and before he could take a good look at Furina, she rushed towards him, wrapping her arms around him.

“You're here!” She says cheerfully. “Welcome!”

It's not like the hug is unexpected, because she did asked back in Sumeru if it was okay for her to hug him from now on, which honestly was such a ridiculous question, as if Furina wasn't holding his inexistent heart in her hands, so of course the answer was obvious. And while she did hugged him again when saying her goodbyes at the end of her visit, it still felt as striking as the first time; hesitant at first he raised his arms, stopping only for a moment before finally hugging her back, closing his eyes and surrendering to her presence, just like he did that night so many moons ago.

Despite their embrace lasting longer than what was expected from a normal greeting, it still felt too short, but it wasn't like he had the time to miss it because as soon as she let him go, Furina grabbed his arm and impatiently pulled him inside, hurrying to close the door once he was out of the way, while happily instructing him to go to the dining room. And because she kept her eyes on him the whole time, she entirely missed the fact that Chiori happened to be standing on the other side of the street at that moment, with a indiscernible expression on her face while looking at the now closed door. Of course, unaware of this, Furina hastily made her way to where she directed Wanderer to go, trying to get there before him just to be able to stand right beside the table, which was perfectly set with various kinds of dishes.

The food isn't surprising; she did told Wanderer in her next letter that the news she wanted to share with him “called for a celebration”, but the thing with Furina is that she likes to celebrate all sort of things as much as she likes to have tea parties for no other reason than to eat pastries, so her good news could be anything, ranging from getting another tea set to landing a new directing job, not that it really matters, because Wanderer would humour her all the same, just like he had been doing even before realizing he was in love.

“Ahem!” She cleared his throat in a clearly feigned manner. “My dear, thank you for coming!” Her voice takes on that usual boisterous tone she always uses when she's trying to add excitement to her words. “I know you're eager to know the reason behind this little gathering, the suspense must have been unbearable for you.”

“So unbearable I couldn't sleep thinking about it.” He says, tone as deadpan as possible.

While he's being ironic - something she can always tell, unlike most of the people on Sumeru -, in all honesty, he has actually spent countless nights wide awake because of Furina. But just because he admitted he loved her, it didn't mean he was going to also confess to being a pathetic lovesick fool who frequently loses sleep over her.

“Oh, poor you,” she says, the light trembling on the corner on her lips betraying her lack of sincerity. “I assure you, it's going to be worth it! But first I must ask, do you remember the generous old lady that donated all those props for my troupe?”

“How could I forget?” He asks back, frowning slightly at the sudden memory. “She had that creepy shrine of you.”

At this Furina looks affronted. “It wasn't creepy!”

“She had replicas of your old outfits, on mannequins.” He says it like it's offensive the fact that he needs to point it out. “The whole time we were there, I kept thinking you were two seconds away from being kidnapped as soon as I turned around.”

“It made sense, she was a retired theater owner!” Furina counters, stomping her foot on the ground. “That's just how Fontainians are when it comes to their admiration for me, should I remind you that I'm not just an amazing actress? I used to be the Archon too!”

“Thinking like that is the reason you get all these weird people following you around.”

Furina looks positively fuming, which is part of why Wanderer enjoys toying with her; while he normally finds amusement in riling people up in the first place, there's just something especially pleasing when it's Furina the one that's miffed with him.

But Furina is also a master of her own feelings and with just a flicker of her hand, a gesture totally unnecessary, she's back to looking as placid and enthusiastic as she did before. “Let's put that topic aside for now,” she claps her hands, conciliatory. “As I was saying, I'm sure you remember that the reason that sweet reputable Madame made such a gracious donation was because she was moving with her daughter to Liyue and she was going to sell her house.”

“I don't make a habit of remembering the life story of everybody that crosses my path, no matter how questionable I find their hobbies.”

Furina ignored the comment, continuing like she didn't heard him. “I hope you also recall how lovely her house was, which I'm sure I pointed out more than once in your presence.” She stopped briefly, taking a deep breath. “So, uh, after long consideration, because I assure you, this has been carefully deliberated for months... lo and behold, you're seeing the new proud owner of that house!”

Well, this was certainly a surprise, because from all of the things that Wanderer thought Furina's “exciting news” could be about, buying a house never crossed his mind, and that was taking into account that he even pondered about the possibility of her leaving Fontaine for Sumeru, which was just pure wishful thinking on his part, since he didn't believe it would happen any time soon, not when this thing between them was so new.

“You swindled an old woman because she was your fan? I didn't think you had it in you, I'm impressed.”

“How dare you! Of course I didn't do that! I paid the just sum!” She practically shrieked. “You know I've been saving mora since forever ago.”

“That doesn't mean you can't be more savvy when it comes to business but I guess you're just too soft for that. A shame.”

Furina threw her hands in the air, exasperated, so Wanderer just chuckled at her annoyance, but his laugh died quickly when she took two steps to stand right in front of him, just to unceremoniously pinch his cheeks with both of her hands, barely putting any pressure on her hold. Usually he doesn't tolerate anyone touching him like this, with so much familiarity. And not too long ago he also didn't let Furina do it either, but at some point, he started to let her wandering hands invade his space with mindless gestures: a hand grasping hard his elbow when he's taunting someone, a finger pocking his side when he's pretending to ignore her, an open palm over his shoulder gently guiding him on a crowded market; one by one these little actions went from being an unwanted contact to a welcome touch.

How he didn't figure out earlier that his feelings towards Furina were changing just going by the way he allowed her touch was an enigma.

“You are so insufferable. Here, let me help you, you're supposed to say something like—” and she cleared her throat before attempting her best impression of him. “Congratulations, Furina, now that you have your own house you can finally move from this horrid little place and stop feeling so indebted to Neuvillette every time you cross the door.”

“Oh, that makes more sense,” he says sincerely, bringing his hands to Furina's, closing them around her wrists to make her let go of his face. “You should've started with that,” Furina didn't resist his hold and instead she let him lower their hands, moving them a more relaxed position in between them. “If you had been thinking about buying a house for so long, why didn't you tell me?”

“Well, I wanted it to be surprise, of course. And...” Being this close, Furina didn't have a lot of places where to look at besides Wanderer's face, so she decided to lower her head, focusing on their hands. “And I also didn't want to bother you this time. Since you started coming to Fontaine I feel like I'm always asking you to help me with this and that, it must be so tiring, right? Doing all those things just because I ask. But worry not, I'm very determined to start attending to my own matters alone again, after all I've been doing it for centuries! I just got carried away a little, I suppose.”

Wanderer analyzed her expression for a moment before letting out a tired deep sigh. “Your reasoning is so idiotic sometimes.”

“Hey!”

“Do you honestly believe I would do anything for you if I didn't want to?” He let go of her wrists to cup her hands, putting his thumbs in the center of her palms. “I'm not going to tell you this again, so pay close attention.” He pressed his thumbs with enough force to make her fingers twitch. “You can always ask for my help, even for the stuff you think it's irrelevant. If you call for me, I'll come. I may give you a little bit of grief about it, but I'm going to be infinitely more annoyed if I found out you needed me and I wasn't there.”

Furina can't help the way her eyes dampened with tears, there's a reason Wanderer has called her a crybaby before; but instead of letting herself cry, even if it's not from sadness this time - she's just so easily moved -, Furina freed her hands from his grip, turning around and drying her eyes with the back of her hand on her way to the table.

“Thank you, my sweet, truly, I hope you know you can ask the same of me,” in the table, hidden behind a bottle of her favorite sparkling wine there was a small box, which Furina promptly took. “Sadly, there's not a lot I can do now that my influence isn't what it used to be, but at least shared burdens tend to weight a little less,” with box in hand, she made her way back to him and once she was there, she offered said box to him. “And now we can share even more!”

For the second time this day, Furina has managed to genuinely surprise him. There's no way she has been thinking the same as him, right? But, once he opens the box, he's not sure if he's disappointed or not when instead of finding something that could be considered as a courting gift, what he sees inside it's a key.

“It's your own key for the new house!” Furina finally says, incapable of keeping her excitement to herself. “This way you can come and go whenever you want and you won't have to wait for me to let you in or, you know, break in like you so charmingly did last time, ahem, but anyways, of course I'm not giving you just a key, you've seen the house, it's so big you can finally have your own room now! You won't have to stay anymore in the chaise longue when you're spending the night, brilliant, isn't it?”

At Furina's words, Wanderer snapped his head back to her, indigo eyes open wide with incredulity. “You're giving me a room in your house? Why? You know I don't require sleep to begin with, a room just for that would be a waste.”

But Furina has been preparing her case for months now, so she's more than ready for this objection. Trial and error has shown her that Wanderer has almost no wants, accepts very few things and rarely asks for anything.

“That might be, but think of it as something for my own benefit, a bit of a personal favor if you will. Just imagine how reassured I would feel if there was a room especially for you in my new house,” she puts the palms of her hands together in front of her, nearly pleadingly. “I have a list of marvelous shops we can visit that specialize in furniture from all over Teyvat, so you can choose anything you want! I'm really, reaaally looking forward to it, you won't break my poor heart, would you?”

Ugh, this is awful, Furina is doing a terrible job of hiding her true intentions, but maybe that's because she's not even pretending she's not being manipulative, unlike Buer. And the worst part is that it works. Clearly this is a sign he's becoming more and more pathetic by the day and he can't even be mad at himself for it.

“Tch! Do whatever you want,” he says, taking his hat at tilting it at the front, like that could be enough to hide his face and the bashful expression he has at the moment. “But I'm warning you, think carefully about it now because this is your only chance to take it back, you won't be able to do it later so you better not regret this.”

“Splendid!” She says, like he didn't sound terribly foreboding. “Now that this matter is settled, we can properly celebrate! We can discuss the ins and outs over dinner, there's so much planning to do.”

She has taken the first step towards the table when Wanderer remembers that he was the one supposed to give a surprising gift today, not like his pointless gift, symbolic or not, can compare to Furina's, not when she practically has asked him to move in with her, at least as much as he can do given the fact that he's technically still a prisoner under Kusanali, but this seems like a good middle point given their circumstances.

“Wait, I have something for you.”

Furina turns to him, expression bright because she loves when he brings her things, even if those things are something as simple as the candies that Nahida sends her from time to time.

From his pocket he takes out a drawstring pouch, nonchalantly handing it to Furina, looking uninterested, which makes a complete contrast with how he's really feeling. “It's a hatpin,” he clarifies before she can even open the bag. “If you don't like it, you don't have to use it.” Whether he's saying this for own sake or Furina's, he doesn't dwell too much on it.

When Furina finally sees what's inside the bag, she smiles with recognition. “It's your little back trinket!” She notes, rolling the hatpin between her fingers to see it from all angles. “That's so adorable!”

Calling “little” or “trinket” the medallion that hangs at the back of his left shoulder is a bit of a understatement; it's certainly not a family crest, but the fact that she can instantly identify it is exactly the reason he decided to use it.

“Let me go grab my hat!” She announces, not even waiting for an answer before running out of the room.

Preferably, Wanderer would've like to at least attempt an explanation about his gift before anything else, but when Furina makes her way back, she's already fidgeting with her hat, the way only someone with a lot of experience with unnecessary ornaments in said hat can do, because by the moment she's at his side again, the pin has found its place just behind the droplet jewel, slightly tilted to the side.

Before he can comment on it, Furina proceeds to spin the hat on the tip of her right index and with a fluid and graceful movement, because she's always elegant when she's performing, she sends the hat from her hand to the other by rolling it across her arms and shoulders, finalizing her little trick by putting it over her head the usual way she always wears it. Through all this, the pin has remained in place, not even moving an inch.

“We match now,” she says, sounding proud and pleased, right hand over her chest. “How apt!”

Ah, how preposterous of him, thinking that Furina needs to be told what his present is supposed to stand for. Be social or legal, she used to be the judge of this nation and there's no rule in this land she doesn't know about, so of course she understands his motives by just looking at what has been gifted to her.

“Are you happy about it?”

He asks not because he doesn't know the answer, but because he wants to hear it.

“Immensely!”

What more he could ask for?

Chapter Text

“You're getting married!” Nahida exclaimed, hands over her mouth, a mix of surprise and emotion.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Said Wanderer, exasperated just like he was days ago when she proposed this nonsensical concept. “How could you possibly come to that conclusion from what I just said?”

“It's not common now but back when King Deshret reigned, his followers didn't hold wedding ceremonies, instead a couple was considered married once they're started living together. To this day there's still a small number of tribes in the desert that follow this practice.”

“And what made you think I would suggest such thing when I don't even care about who he was?”

“Since you've decided to take part in Fontainian's traditions, I considered that maybe you would also like to incorporate Sumeru's culture in your courting. Or perhaps you have in mind to use something from Inazuma?”

“I thought I was clear last time when I told you to not interfere with this. I meant it.”

“But I'm not doing that, I'm just making guesses and offering prospects, I have not intervened in any form recently as per your request.”

“Good, keep it that way. This courtship thing is convoluted enough on its own, if I start adding obscure traditions from other places I run the risk of confusing her.”

“That's unfortunate but understandable.”

“If we can get back on topic now, I didn’t come here without a reason, I wanted discuss something... you've been very permissive with my trips to Fontaine and I know I'm not in a position to ask this of you, but I need to stay in Fontaine longer this time. Maybe a week or two, ideally until everything is settled in the new place.”

“That's also understandable and expected. Because you never had a bond of this nature before I've been doing some research! I don't possess first-hand experience but I know that a budding relationship needs a good foundation to bloom properly. While your case is a little more complex since you two can't be together in a more conventional manner for now, I still believe you have everything you need to succeed! Your love grew despite being apart and I'm sure it'd only consolidate with every moment you spend together, that's why I'll gladly support your flourishing romance! So take all the time you need, Hat Guy!”

“... ...right. I should take my leave now.”

When Furina said she had a list of furniture vendors ready to be put to use, Wanderer thought she was trying to sound more convincing when asking him to accept his own room... she was not, in fact, trying to be more convincing and after spending all morning and good part of the afternoon going from one shop to another, looking at furniture like he's in a museum, utterly bored because he doesn't care about imports from Inazuma or Sumeru, he accepts that it serves him right for underestimating her; however, Wanderer's not really that displeased with this time-wasting activity, because Furina looks like she's genuinely enjoying herself, so it's worth it.

As much energy as she has, she's still human and when the toll of the day's activity finally catches up with her, Furina decides they must go for a much needed cup of coffee.

From all the restaurants in Fontaine, there's one that Furina favours for a simple reason: it only accepts clientele with a reservation, but Furina doesn't need one.

Some months ago she negotiated a deal with the owner of the restaurant, letting him use officially the recipe for the cake she grandiosely named “Pour la Justice”. This of course, means that the restaurant can also advertise it has Furina's seal of approval; in return for this, Furina only asked to be able to go in without a reservation whenever she feels like eating there. Wanderer thought that was a wasted deal, but Furina liked to do those kinds of contracts, where it's obvious that the other part is benefiting more than her. But, to be fair, they made use of that stipulation often enough for the staff to know by now their preferred orders. Or at least it's how usually goes, because this time after they were seated in the outdoor patio, a waiter they haven't seen before comes to their table and for the first time in a while, Furina has to actually recite their usual orders.

As soon as the waiter goes away, Furina has no problem in using the table as if they were on the library, taking out a notebook and a fountain pen from her satchel bag, going over everything she has wrote today. Wanderer, like he has done many times before, puts his left elbow on the table to rest his cheek against his hand, waiting for her to be done with whatever is going through her mind at that moment.

“If we find a supplier I'm sure we can redo our deal with Mademoiselle Camille.” She says eventually, frowning at her own annotations.

“It doesn't matter to me if something is made of real yumemiru wood or not.” He responds without missing a beat; just because he finds the whole ordeal of hunting for furniture dull, it doesn't mean he hasn't been paying attention.

“But it matters to me.” She answers, close to pouting.

“Don't humans like to say that it's the thought that counts?”

“People say that when they don't have enough mora or the situation really can't be helped, this is neither.”

“You're so finicky, why do you care so much about this? I'm sure you won't be able to tell the difference.”

“It's only natural, isn't it?” She questions back casually, rolling the pen in between her fingers. “Whether it's humans or gods, don't we all want the best for the ones we care about? Even if it's something as trifling as to what kind of wood a bed is made, if it's something I could get for you, why shouldn't I?”  

Furina isn't a god and Wanderer isn't a human and that topic has sparked countless conversations between them: what it means to be one or be the other? While this question still lingers unanswered, they had reached agreements in some of the ways gods and humans intersect, although this also has evolved into a whole different debate.  

It's so annoying how utterly pointless it is to try to argue against her, Wanderer can't even pretend he doesn't understand her motivations when he is doing the same thing in his own way.

“Fine,” he concedes, slightly turning his head to the right, so he's not looking directly at her anymore. “But don't complain to me later if you end up feeling like this is more trouble than it's worth.”

“Now that's just insulting,” she says playfully, leaning forwards to extend her right hand and lightly poke his temple, since his cheeks are out of her reach. “How discourteous of you to doubt me like that.”

Wanderer is very tempted to snatch her retreating hand, but from his position he can clearly see their waiter coming to their table carrying a tray, so he has to refrain from playing along with Furina's teasing. 

That would have been reason enough to fault the waiter, because Wanderer can be petty like that, but even if he wasn't, the way in which the waiter stumbles to do his job like this is the first time in his life he has done this, justifies Wanderer's displeasure, because it's clear from the moment he approached their table, that his clumsiness is less about being new at this job and more about the person sitting in front of Wanderer.

He has a complicated relationship with Furina's renewed fame; he agrees that she deserves for her talents to be recognized, that in an ideal world she should be respected and appreciated, that the people would see a minuscule part of what he discovered in her, but that's not what is happening in reality. She said it herself: shallow admiration is just that.

Furina, oblivious to his discontent, is quick to take a bite of the slice of cake she ordered with her coffee as soon as the plate is placed in front of her, savouring it with the usual satisfaction she feels for all the sweets she eats. In contrast, Wanderer waits until their server is gone to take hold of his cup of coffee, but he doesn't drink, instead he looks at his reflection in the dark liquid for a moment before turning his gaze to Furina, who is still happily unaware of his dissatisfaction.

“It must be entertaining, being so popular wherever you are.” He finally says with a hint of sarcasm tinting his words.

Furina doesn't know what brought this comment nor the sudden irony in his tone, but Wanderer doesn't need a reason to be sardonic any day of the week, so she just starts to cut another piece of her cake.

“It's only natural,” she answers sincerely. “I'm awe-inspiring when I'm on a play.”

“Modest as ever I see.”

“It would be uncouth to act like I'm not a joy to witness on the stage,” she shrugs. “If I did, it would be like...” she stops talking, her eyes deviating to the left, trying to think about a good example for a few seconds. “Like if you pretended you're not as unfairly beautiful as you are!” She resolves, happily pointing at him with the fork before putting it in her mouth without any worry in the world.

Wanderer, who had just chosen that very moment to take a sip of his coffee, comes too close to almost spit it back, but he manages to swallow it in the end. He quickly puts down the cup, looking at Furina with very real aggravation.

“You have some nerve calling me that.” He says with a scowl.

Furina looks back at him, unimpressed. “Hmpf! Since when stating a fact is considered offensive?” She defended herself. “I would expect for you to be called that at least once a week.”

The absurdity of that statement makes him momentarily laugh. “Do you really believe that's what people think when they look at me? That I have a pretty face?”

She frowns, looking confused, tilting her head just slightly to one side. “I mean, surely it is?” She asks like she's pointing something as obvious like the water being wet. “That's what I thought the first time I saw you.”

“What?...” Now that it is evident that Furina isn't trying to mock him and she's being sincere about this, his annoyance disappears as easily as it came. “Is that why you blurted out that you loved my hat?”

Wanderer's mind goes back to that sunny day in the middle of the Grand Bazaar in Sumeru, when a last minute decision - seemingly innocuous at the time -, unleashed a chain of events with profound consequences. He had no way of knowing that approaching Furina would end up collapsing once again what he thought he knew about life.

“I thought you were just simpleminded,” he admits, a small smile creeping onto his lips slowly. “Turns out you were, what? Struck by my beauty? How amusing.”

“No, I did like your hat, that's was a complete separate point.”

“Tell me about it then.”

“About what?”

Wanderer puts both of his elbows on the table this time, interlocking his fingers to he could rest his chin on them; his smile, still present, turns devious. “About how unfairly beautiful you thought I was the first time we met.”

Unfortunately for him, Furina can immediately tell what Wanderer's trying to do, which is not going to work, because he cannot make her feel embarrassed for this; with how important he has become to her, it's not surprising that she loves to reminisce about the day their paths crossed.

“Is also uncouth to fish for compliments, monsieur,” her tone is the same confident one she used thousands of times to proclaim herself a god. “But you are in luck, I don't mind sharing! I'm fond of the memory.” Because Furina was planning to give him much more than what he asked for, she took a quick sip of her coffee to clear her throat. “As you are well aware, I'm on a journey to experience the world in a way I couldn't do while I was an Archon, that's why I found you so riveting when we met, I never had someone so pretty be so rude to me before! How novel it was!” She does look delighted while saying this, to the point that she even sighs placidly. “So there I was, being called an ignorant tourist begging to be scammed by a complete stranger and the whole time I was thinking how exquisite his face was, so graceful! I almost couldn't believe someone so fair could have such an unpleasant personality.”

This is the second time Wanderer has miscalculated about Furina in such a short period of time. It's so awfully mortifying hearing her saying these things the same way she speaks of her books, plays and songs: with a warm voice and a tender expression on her face. It makes him feel happy, abashed and so conflicted.

“So what?” He says in a poor attempt to regain his composure. “That's the only thing you needed it? A nice face? How disappointing, I thought you were less shallow than that.”

Furina expectedly looks affronted. “Uhm, excuse you, I wasn't taken only by that,” she crosses her arms, making a point of turning her face to the side. “It was the whole presentation! Your voice had a nice ring and your fashion taste was superb, I also approved of your way of speaking and of course, your hat was quite the sight! I enjoyed a lot this dichotomy between your appearance and your personality, it was almost like witnessing an art performance, so I had a substantial amount of fun that day!” Of course she couldn't pretend to be offended for too long, so by the end of her speech, she had gotten back to her enthusiastic self.

By this point Wanderer is no longer using his hands to support his chin, but his forehead instead, hiding his face as much as he can without his hat. “How can you say these things so shamelessly?” He ask, managing to sound normal.

“Why should I feel ashamed for saying the truth?” She replies ready to be offended again, but then she frowns when something crosses her mind. “... Are you?” She questions unsure, deflated in an instant. “I'm sorry, I didn't know, we never spoke about this before, if it's uncomfortable for you to speak about your appearance I won't do it again.”

Wanderer likes to hear Furina's voice and the dozens of different iterations it takes, but he can always do without this quiet, insecure intonation that makes her sound so small.

As much as Furina has unknowingly changed him into someone he hardly recognizes these days, his feelings are still his own personal problem, she's already burdened with enough with reciprocating them. He can deal with his emotions on his own, there's no need to make Furina feel like she has done something wrong.

Like Furina did before, he leaned towards her but instead of aiming for her forehead, he pinches her cheek in the same way she likes to do to him and just as softly. “Don't be foolish, it's not that.” He firmly reassured her. “I wasn't expecting for you to be interested in these kind of things. I don't remember paying attention to the appearance of others beyond measuring them and I thought that after living for so long, you wouldn't either.” He lets go of her face. “Is it really so important how someone looks in your eyes?”

“Hmm, not in the way you're thinking,” she says, voice more livelier. “Of course I appreciate the beauty of the world in nature, art and people, but it's not like I would like you any less now if you weren't pretty. I just found it interesting when we met, but as cynical as your personality can be sometimes, that's the part of you I like the best!” She claps her hands excitedly, like she just got to the most interesting part of a play she's telling. “There's something so endearing about it, I don't know what it is, I hardly understand it myself, but I'm very pleased with how you are,” she says while crossing her arms and nodding a few times, satisfied with her words. “Just don't let it go to your head, despite that I do still find you irritating when you're making the effort of being a nuisance,” she gives him a long look, frowning again. “But alas, even that could be considered part of your charm I suppose.”

This time Wanderer covers his eyes with one hand, lowering his head while he raises the other hand, like it could be a barrier between them. “Give me a moment.”

Naturally Furina is confused and not that willing to concede the pause he asked for, but her attempt to ask if he was alright is interrupted by the screeching sound of a chair being forcefully dragged, that although unpleasant, it isn't strange given there's tables at each side of theirs, just out of view thanks to the decorative shrubbery; no, what catches her attention is that immediately after that, Furina can swear that she almost recognizes whoever crosses so quickly behind Wanderer, looking more like a blur of mostly yellow than a person, but still, that's a very specific yellow sprinkled with red and black.

Before she can speculate if she just really saw who she thought she saw, Wanderer takes his hand out of his eyes, running it through his hair. He crosses his arms and leans as much as possible against the back of the chair; he doesn't look like he's not feeling well, but she can't place either the expression in his face right now and that's a bit worrying, because she considers herself an expert in reading him after spending so much time together.

“This should make it easier for you to stand by your word.”

And just like that, she's confused again. “I beg your pardon?”

He hadn't been looking directly at her, but for a second their eyes met before he looked away again. “If you think my personality and appearance are both appealing, I expect for you to keep your word because you just rescinded those two excuses not to do it.”

Furina's face must speak for herself about how little she's understanding about this, because Wanderer sighs the way he always does when he's explaining something he considers it's obvious.

“Your fading memory should be a cause of concern, to think you have already forgot that you agreed to let me stay with you, for an eternity, no less. Maybe I'm just that unimportant.”

Now that she finally understands what this is about, her first instinct is to roll her eyes because when he wants, Wanderer can be more dramatic than her, however she suppresses that reaction given how sensitive the matter at hand really is.

Her relationship with the concepts of life and death is a strange one. She's never feared death, only the prospect of failure and that fear kept her from getting close to anyone, always afraid of being discovered as the fraud she was. Despite that Furina knows very well what it's like to outlive everyone else, because even without forming meaningful bonds, she always felt the absence of the people that had been surrounding her for decades, only for them to not be there one day, never coming back.

She has been alive longer than Wanderer has existed, so she can see why he's being so adamant about them staying together; it's the same reason he got so mad at her for not telling him that death isn't in her immediate worries. Immortality sounds more like a curse if everyone you care about is gone at the end.  

“Worry not, you won't get rid of me so easily. I can't say I know what the future is going to be like, not even prophecies can entirely predict it,” she smiles a little bitterly at this, only for a moment. “If it's a year from now on, a decade, a century, whatever is awaiting us there, I want to see it with you.”

Wanderer is so ill prepared for this, to receive so much affection and care poured upon him without rejecting it, like he tries to do when anyone attempts to be kind to him. He wants to tell Furina that she should stop talking like he deserves anything else but contempt, but at the same time he needs wants to keep listening to her.

He's again at a crossroads with himself, but ultimately making a decision is easy enough. He's always been selfish once he understood what it was to long for something.

“Only a century? I'll not accept that, you already agreed on forever,” he says haughtily, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. “If you want to renegotiate, give me the double of time you spent as an Archon for a start, we can work on a real arrangement once that time has passed.”

If Wanderer is in the mood to joke around, it means Furina successfully managed to placate his concerns, which makes her feel like she just accomplished something amazing. “My, oh, my, what are you going to give me in exchange for such a hard bargain?”

“Isn't it obvious?” He laughs condescendingly as he normally does when he thinks someone is being dense. “Myself.”

At the start of Wanderer's visits to Fontaine, Furina finally had the opportunity of seeing facets of him that couldn't be conveyed on letters. His terrible sense of humour was one of them. He liked to say things that were outrageous, worrying or frightening and then, after seeing she believed him, he would laugh at her for being so gullible.

So she waited for him to make fun of her. And waited. And waited... but when he didn't say anything and just looked at her too gently for his usual shenanigans, Furina crumbled on herself. She is exceptionally good at hiding her feelings, she has been doing it for centuries and did it so masterfully that Focalors' plan worked because of that, but this and that are two very different things, because this is the first time she's dealing with romantic feelings, so of course she's going to blush if her best friend, with whom she's in love, tells her something so easily misinterpretable as that!

It must have been too obvious in her face, because Wanderer starts to laugh, not a simple chuckle, but a proper joyful laugh and Furina feels like she can breathe again.

Of course she fell for it again. Oh well, at least one of them was having fun with this.

Chapter Text

After spending three days running in a shopping spree, Furina finally took Wanderer to the new house, with the intention of letting him choose his own room before all the new furniture brought in.

He of course didn't think it was necessary, any room she picked for him would be enough, but she just needed to look at him with those mismatched eyes of hers full of expectation and he would cave in every time, like an idiot. It's a good thing that he is who he is now, because he highly doubted that any of his past selves could survive this lunacy, then again, probably neither of them would've fallen into the clutches of this trap. And that would have been its own kind of tragedy.

From the outside, the house looks exactly as he remembers it, just less lived in. As expected with her, Furina makes a show of opening the double doors at the front, like she's the surprise guest of a party, spinning inside and stopping in the middle of the foyer, right at the beginning of the imperial staircase.

“Ta-da!” She announces opening her arms as wide as she can. “Isn't this sight breathtaking?”

“When you don't need air to live everything can be breathtaking.”

For a moment Furina drops her smile to look at him like she's already tired of his antics, but she recovers almost immediately. “Thank you for that lovely reminder, lest I forget one of these days, anyway, if you allow me to continue, I'll give you the grand tour!”

“Is your memory failing you again? I've been here before.”

“Hush now.”

Furina goes from room to room while she shares her general ideas for the house, that are mostly just about what it could be done there and not what is going to be done, because she lives in a relatively small - in comparison - apartment, so even with all the new things she bought, there's still a long way to go before filling a house like this. 

When Furina finally shows him the room she has selected for herself upstairs, she does it with the same fanfare she presented the house, so Wanderer decides to behave this time and let her monologue about her plans for her own space. There's one or two things that are attention grabbing about the room but without a doubt, the more outstanding one is the balcony, so that's where Wanderer goes, opening the crystal doors and letting the evening breeze enter. The balcony has a perfect view of the back garden, but it isn't that the thing that catches his attention, but the fact that a little far to the right, there's another balcony, seemingly identical to this one, which makes sense, given that the house has a very symmetrical design.  

He comes back inside and lets Furina finish sharing her thoughts and this time when they leave the room, he's the one leading, his steps firm while he looks in passing at each one of the open doors in his way, until he finds the one he's looking for.

“Are you going to use this place for something?”

Furina, who has been happily following him with curious eyes, takes a peek at said room and while she assumes why he asked that, she tries her best to look clueless. “No, as I told you, the only thing I have plans for in this floor is my own room.”

Wanderer crosses his arms and looks at the side, like he can't decide if he wants to look annoyed or unbothered. “If it's so important to you that I choose, I suppose this room will do.”

Unable to keep looking indifferent, Furina laughs and goes inside the room with bouncing steps. “It's the balcony, isn't?” She asks good humoured and without waiting for an answer, she goes directly to the aforementioned, opening the doors with an exaggerated motion. “Excellent choice, my dear!” She goes to the railing, putting her hands on it. “The view is simply divine.”

The garden below her can't compete with the scenery that can be observed from the Palais Mermonia, but Furina liked the former better, because it's clear the garden has been lovingly crafted through years and years of careful thought and effort, which makes it feel more special, hence why the first thing she did after buying the house, was to keep the same gardener the past owner had been employing to maintain all the greenery in the property.

As soon as Wanderer arrives to her side, Furina turns to him, excited smile on her face while she points at the center of the garden, where a gazebo is located. “We need to have a tea party to celebrate after we move.”

“And be forced to socialize with those fools you call friends? A sermon from Buer would be preferable to that.”

“No, silly, just you and me, as usual.”

“You're going to let go of the opportunity of making a big deal out of this? Most humans would use it as an excuse to celebrate with their acquaintances.”

“I suppose...” She mutters, expression turning pensive.

Debating what humans would or wouldn't do is another thing they do as casually as one would talk about the weather.

Furina is a human but she has lived all her life pretending to be a god, to the point that her own humanity is something she's trying to understand, just as she's trying to discover who she is as a person after the curtains finally fell down on her charade. On the other hand, Wanderer's notions about humans aren't that charitable, but for the sake of old memories and Furina herself, he's attempting to be less judgmental despite the mixed results.

“We're getting a lot of new furniture but even with that the house is going to be too empty,” she says, shaking her head. “It lacks too much, that's why I don't like inviting people to my apartment,” before Wanderer can say anything, Furina raises her hand in the same way she used to do as an Archon to shush the masses. “You don't count, we have been very close for some time now so obviously I never minded your presence there.”

Some days it feels like Wanderer understands Furina better than he will ever understand himself; he doesn't know what that says about him or about them. Breaking five hundred years of pretension is not an easy task and Furina still has trouble letting go of that voice inside her head that cares so much about how the world perceives her.

Wanderer crosses his arms and turns, leaning against the railing. “If this is a problem for you, just fill the place with whatever you can come up with, nothing is stopping you. Aren't you always bragging about your creativity? But if you're really lacking ideas, follow the example of that old lady and make your own creepy shrine of yourself.”

Furina tries not to but she laughs, promptly covering her mouth and clearing her throat after. “Don't be mean, I told you it wasn't creepy,” she insists, clearly just to not go against her first position in this topic. “But I like what you're saying, the possibilities this place has are endless, I'm sure we can devise something spectacular.”

“I can't help you with that. A house, furniture, decorations, all irrelevant to me, I couldn't care less about having a roof over my head.”

Like she always did when Wanderer said something that sounded little bit somber, Furina took it in stride. “Well, good thing it's never too late to start caring! What do you think about a study room just for you? You can make your essays from the Akademiya there!”

“Tch! I can't think of a bigger waste of my time while I'm here than doing work for those simpletons.”

“This is why you need to suggest something, I'm sure you must have a lot of better ideas! It doesn't matter what it is, you can ask for anything you want! Ahem—within reason, of course.”

“Even if you say that, there's nothing I wish for.”

Not ready to be defeated, Furina puts her hands on her hips, a stern look on her face. “I refuse to believe that, there has to be something you want, or need, or like or just... find the tiniest bit interesting! At this point it's enough if it's something you don't entirely hate!”

“So obstinate.”

Wanderer sighs deeply and without moving an inch from his position, he flickers the fingers of his left hand at her, generating a current of air that hits her right on the forehead, messing up her bangs, which naturally makes her shout with indignation like she always does when he puts her hair in disarray.

“Let me spell it out clearly for you, so you'll let go of this nonsense,” he says, turning as much as he can while still leaning against the railing, to look at the garden behind him. “I'm not asking for anything because I already have what I want. As long as you're here, that's everything I need.”

It's impossible to deny it any longer, Furina is in trouble. Lately, Wanderer has been more... candid, in a way.

For her, Wanderer has always been honest, even when he's not trying to be, his honesty just takes different forms: sometimes he says the opposite of what he means, other times he doesn't say out loud the part he really wants to say and very frequently, even when being truthful, there's a different kind of truth hidden beneath it. Naturally, this isn't something she could always recognize from the start, but familiarity either breeds contempt or understanding.

Nonetheless, he's not in the habit of being this open when showing affection. His endearment usually comes in backhanded compliments, meaningful actions and playful mocking, so being this straightforward about his fondness is certainly new and awfully problematic. On one side, it makes her so happy to hear she's appreciated in such an outspoken way, on the other side, she still needs to learn to get a proper hold of her feelings.

Her love and Wanderer's love are from a different kind and she can't let her treacherous heart forget it. 

The first time Wanderer decided to stay in Fontaine, Furina was in the middle of a directing job and looked as haggard as the students in the Akademiya when they were preparing a final project. Wanderer decided - in one of those dubious lapses of judgement of his - to stick around a little, just to make sure she didn't end up unconscious somewhere because she was useless at taking care of herself properly. The morning after, in a rare display of generosity, he made breakfast and that, for some reason, became a tradition of sorts, because after that every time he spent the night in Fontaine, the first thing he would do at sunrise was to cook.

Being the one making breakfast in the morning has made clear two things: the pantry's meager state and the fact that he has been the only one cooking since he arrived, because Furina has been taking them to eat out every day, which means she's in one of those moods where she's avoiding cooking for who knows what reason this time. Honestly is just unreasonable, she's able to bake that sweet layered monstrosity she calls her “specialty”, but when it comes to making proper food, she's a disaster.

That's how he ultimately drags her to grocery shopping, even if he finds such activity below him, but he's used to it by now, as long as it's for Furina's benefit, he's willing to tolerate a lot of nonsense. Nonetheless, this self-sacrifice has its limits, so when he hears someone call Furina's name while he's arguing with her about vegetables outside the produce shop, both of them turned at the same time, but Wanderer reacted faster, because as soon as he recognized the person that just spoke, he took the basket Furina had in her hands and went away, pretending he was too busy doing anything else than to talk with one of Furina's lackeys.

“Hello, Lucie! So good to see you!” Furina said boisterously, trying to sweep under the rug the very obvious fact that Wanderer had decided, very rudely, to avoid the newcomer. “How has the break been treating you?”

Lucie, who finally stood in front of Furina, bowed lightly. “It's been great, Miss Furina, thanks for asking. How have you been? I haven't seen you since the closing party!”

“Oh, I've been busy doing this and that, you know how it is, as soon as I finish a project, another one starts!”

Furina is used to this, to the customary small talk a lot of Fontainians like to engage in, even with the people they consider themselves close to, it's just one of those cultural things that Fontaine has, so she's prepared to indulge this dear member of her trope until she's satisfied with their pleasantries.

Lucie, who's now explaining what she was doing before spotting Furina, lets her eyes drift out of courtesy from her face, because looking directly at the eyes of your listener for too long without breaks it's considered improper etiquette, for a moment she looks at her hair, then at her hat and back to her hair again... just to immediately make a double take, her eyes going back to Furina's hat. Lucie's words become slower, her eyes fixated on the bow of Furina's hat and then, they move to the lone figure clad in blue and white that wasn't too far away from them, with his back turned to them.

Everybody in the troupe knows Wanderer: he's Furina's enigmatic friend from Sumeru, who frequents Fontaine very habitually; a scholar she met when she visited the Dendro Land for the first time; a man that likes to keep to himself but can be very scathing when he wants to be. Everybody has learnt to navigate around his aloofness and for the most part, he's considered like an unavoidable addition to Furina's presence... the rest of the time, however, when neither him or Furina are around, he's the topic of the most riveting conversations among the members of the troupe, how could he not be? They have eyes and ears! It's impossible to ignore what's going on there or the painful lack of it.

So, when finally the realization comes to her, Lucie stops talking, overcame with surprise, enough to make Furina frown with confusion at her sudden silence midway a sentence. “Is something wrong?”

Lucie tries her hardest to not scream, like she just found out her favourite novel series ended just like she wanted. “I'm sorry, Miss Furina,” she says, too emotional still. “Please, pardon my indiscretion, it's just... I'm so happy for you! And for Monsieur Wanderer too! These are wonderful, wonderful news!”

Furina is even more confused now, because she has no idea what Lucie is talking about, but something clicks on her mind before she can question her.

She has been so careful to not tell anyone about the move, besides Wanderer. She knows that if people know about this, they're going to start offering their help and she doesn't want that; she needs to do this on her own, without bothering her friends, but if Lucie already knows about it, that means that someone from the many vendors they visited in the past days, got the news out. Unbelievable! She thought she was working with professionals, but of course some people can't just resist the allure of gossiping.

“Thank you,” she chooses to say, trying not to look as indignant as she feels. “I do suppose it was due time.”

“Oh, absolutely, Miss Furina! We have been waiting for so long we even started a betting pool,” and she laughs like she just told a joke. “Fernande is going to be so happy to know he won!”

Furina is smiling but inside, she's screaming. This is worse than anything she could've thought! She knows that her apartment isn't... very impressive, but she didn't know that her living situation was considered so bad that her own troupe was out there making bets about when she was going to finally move out! This is so embarrassing she could combust on the spot.

Lucie, a little late, seems to realize what she just said and instantly she begins to apologize, but Furina just laughs, making a dismissing motion with her hand, looking completely unaffected. “No, no, don't worry, I see why you guys would do that, it's just a little bit of fun, I don't mind, really! I think is amusing.”

Furina keeps her composure easily, centuries of hiding her emotions making it effortlessly as breathing. She acts like everything is perfectly fine, at least until her exchange with Lucie finally comes to an end, which is when she lets the façade drop in time for Wanderer to come back at her side, who at least has the common sense to wait until Lucie is out of hearing range to speak.

“You have a rather pathetic look on your face right now.”

Ah, Wanderer, charming as always, what Furina would do without him? “I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.”

“What exactly did she say for you to be this bothered?”

Wanderer's tone is impassive as usual, but his eyes had that contemptuous edge to them that Furina knows well by now: it's the one that promises retribution for perceived transgressions.

“She just congratulated me! And you!” She hurries to say, before poor innocent Lucie becomes the victim of misguided ire. “I haven't told anyone yet but she already knew! I think someone in the stores we visited spread the word, that's what I'm upset about,” she accepts, defeated. “I was waiting after the move to tell everybody but if she knows, it means everybody knows! It won't be long before people hound us down about it, I'm dreading just to imagine it... I wanted to have some time to sort this out, just the two of us.”

This certainly is exasperating, between Wanderer holding that stupid basket and the fact that they're very visibly in public, he can't do much, but at least Furina isn't crying which is a small mercy, because he knows she would never forgive herself if she does something like that where everybody can see her.

“This doesn't have to change anything,” he says after a long pause. “If you don't feel like dealing with any of those halfwits, leave them to me, I even promise to play nice this time.”

This actually makes her smile. “Please, as if you know how.” She says uppity, entirely just for show. “If I leave you to your own devices, you'll burn the few bridges I have left.”

“Who cares about burned bridges?” He brings his free hand to her temple, barely stroking the locks of white hair to put them behind her left ear, the only comforting gesture he can allow himself at the moment. “I can fly you anywhere, you don't have to hold on to them.”

“I can't decide if you're trying to be kind or threatening.”

“Pick whichever you like best, either suits me just fine.”

It's hard to stay upset when Wanderer is uttering ridiculous endearing things, like he just knows what to say to put her at ease, which is a warm, constant reminder that there's someone that cares about doing something like this for her, after so many years of painful solitude. Really, how could she not love him?