Chapter Text
Slowly, surely, steadily, Furina de Fontaine opened her eyes to found she had overslept.
It was something she did more often than she’d like to admit, but what made this particular instance special was that rarely did she get so deep a sleep without nightmares. Although Fontaine’s crisis and her days of playing Archon were long past, the trauma of those 500 years often plagued her sleep.
Also a rarity was that she had woken up before the Knave of Snezhnaya herself. Her breast made for a wonderful pillow, and Furina nuzzled closer to it while studying Arlecchino’s sleeping face; her lips were ever so slightly open, her long, silvery hair tussled about her face, accentuating her slender neck and jaw, giving the usually-terrifying woman an air of innocence and vulnerability.
Arlecchino had once confided in Furina that she had nightmares too, and often took to sleep as only a necessity. But not once since they began their arrangement had Furina ever been privy to such an episode. Never had Arlecchino had a nightmare in Furina’s arms, nor vice versa. Furina tried not to think about why that is, her heart tightening.
Her body also began to wake up, however, and the aches and sores in Furina’s hips and legs reminded her of why they had this arrangement. She couldn’t help but groan as the slightest movement of her body made her muscles protest, and the next thing she knew she was looking into dark, piercing eyes, alert and reading her like an open book.
“Are you alright?” Archons, the way Arlecchino’s voice sounded in the mornings, low and raw, could send Furina into heat anew.
“Yeah, sorry. Just sore.” Furina’s own voice was rough and strained as well.
It had been a good amount of time since her first heat cycle, and so far, Arlecchino had kept her promise: every time Furina thought to perhaps inquire as to the Knave’s whereabouts, the Alpha would materialize at her door and take care of her. And, after the fever broke and Furina’s abode was cleaned up, she would leave.
As it would be now, except without Furina noticing, Arle had begun to stay longer and longer after taking care of her. Sometimes they’d go shopping for groceries. Sometimes to see an opera. Sometimes, on special occasions, Furina would be the guest of honor at a House of the Hearth barbecue. Those times were Furina’s favorites: sitting with children on her lap, telling stories, helping the older ones with their school studies – almost as though…
Furina’s heart seized again. Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare hope.
She had also gotten better at reading Arlecchino. What was once a stone-cold poker face now was more decipherable. It was all in her eyes – Furina once mused that the Knave was like a puppy dog, having come to her on the evening of her last heat, still as stoic as ever, but with her eyes pleading for permission to enter. A nose twitch meant she was mildly irritated. Her jaw flexed when she was well and truly annoyed. A small quirk of her brow showed when she was happy.
Now she was faced with puppy dog eyes again, Arlecchino’s hand rubbing her lower back and drawing her in closer. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“No you’re not. I think you’re actually quite proud of yourself,” Furina huffed, trying to protest, but her smirk betrayed her.
Arle chuckled, and there was a long, hot, heavy pause. Then a deep kiss, steady and wet, with maybe a little more tongue than Furina had been expecting, but a kiss that she easily found herself lost in.
And right before Furina could do something she could regret, Arlecchino pulled away. “Come on, we have to clean the sheets. I’m going to take a shower first, though.”
Furina watched as the Knave walked away, then buried her face in her pillow, ears red. Right. It would be one thing if she were a normal omega with a penchant for leaving excessive amounts of bodily fluids in her nest. But of course, Furina is a freak, and can’t help but piss all over everything like some untamed dog, and begs to be marked in the same manner by her alpha. To be honest, in the throes of her heat, she never really registered that was something they were doing. According to Arlecchino, it’s a rather outdated way of scent marking. And maybe that was true for in-heat Furina, but all out-of-heat Furina could smell was the urine, and deep shame bolted her out of bed to rip her sheets off, immediately moving to stuff them into the wash.
“I think you should just go for it, honestly. It seems to me like you two are dating already.”
Navia’s blunt statement almost had Furina choke on her coffee. Navia watched her, unimpressed, as she fell into a coughing fit. “Really, now. Come on.”
“I-I just-“ Furina stuttered.
“What are you so afraid of? It’s not like you’re on bad terms. In fact, I would say you’re really getting along-“
“Navia!”
Furina covered her face as she felt another blush rising. In this private dining section of Hotel Debord, Furina often came to her friend for advice. Navia had been the only other person Furina felt that she could confide in. Chiyori and Sandrone could not give a care, Charlotte was ultimately too much of a liability, Neuvillette might as well be her dad, the Traveler was absent, and Clorinde was too awkward of a choice given their history.
There was also no way she could talk to Lyney and Lynette. They were still quite good friends, but lately the perceivable age gap was more noticeable, (Furina was physically in her early-to-mid twenties, and the twins, despite being of age, were still very much teens), Lyney’s tone always carried this dry undercurrent of, “So you’re fucking my dad, eh?” without outright saying it, leaving Furina on the edge of mortification in their recent talks.
So, Navia. Only choice.
Furina pulled her hands down her face and began to run her hands through her bangs, a habit she has when she’s thinking hard over a manuscript edit or reviewing old court case files Neuvillette needs her help with.
“I just think I’m the only one with these emotions,” Furina stated. “In my experience-“
“Yes, because you’ve had so much experience…” Navia smirked.
“Shush! I’m just saying, whenever I’ve…attempted dating, it’s always me who has the interest in the other person, and it’s never reciprocated.”
“That surprises me, actually. Considering your beauty is quite literally, divine.” Navia said this as though the sunlight flooding into the room through the windows didn’t light up her hair in an angelic glow. She made sipping tea look like a work of art.
“Well, thanks. But very few people ever dared to think of me, um-“
“Sexually?”
“Yes,” Furina hissed. “Yes. My archon status meant I was out of reach, and if I did express interest, people usually used it against me for their own selfish desires.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Do you think Arlecchino sees you sexually? Do you think she would use you for her own ends?”
Furina paused. Navia had a knack for asking questions that could quite literally shake her core. Things that she had never considered. Furina contemplated it for a moment.
“I don’t think…she would be continuing our arrangement if she didn’t see me sexually…” she admitted.
“Aaaaaand?”
“And, to be honest, even if Arlecchino was using me, I wouldn’t care.” Furina sighed. “Archons, I’m down bad.”
“You are down so bad. You could give Clorinde a run for her money.”
Furina blushed again. “Um, how is she? You and her, I mean.”
Navia quirked an eyebrow. “We’re great. What do you want to know? How she takes me every night. Well, though she’s the alpha, it may be more appropriate to say I’m taking her-“
“Nevermind! Sorry I asked.”
“Don’t be,” Navia chuckled. “I like bragging about it.”
“Thanks again for the film reels, Lady Furina. The children would love these.”
Lynette nodded in assent to her brother’s words, picking up a stack of carefully labelled tins of some family-friendly movies Furina had donated to the orphanage. As she silently disappeared from the foyer, Lyney and Furina were left in a bit of an awkward silence, sans the soft clicking of Freminet working on something on the steps.
Well, at least, it was awkward for Furina.
“Father isn’t here today,” Lyney said, a hint of mirth in his voice.
“Oh! I um, I didn’t expect her to be. I assume she went back to Snezhnaya?”
Lyney blinked, a rare moment of being caught off-guard flashed across his face, but, true to his upbringing, it was perfectly replaced by another smiling mask. “She didn’t tell you? She’s staying in Fontaine for a while this time.”
“Oh…”
Furina contemplated that. Why didn’t she say anything? But of course Furina wouldn’t know. Why would the Fatui Harbinger tell her anything? And here was Furina gathering up the courage to ask her out on Navia’s suggestion, when truly, this was simply more evidence that the Knave did not return her affections.
Furina’s acting training must have begun to slip, because Freminet seemed to pick up on her unease. He looked up at her from his perch on the steps, and said quietly, “You should come by more often.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to trouble you all-“
“Furina.” Suddenly Lyney’s voice was serious. His act discarded. Furina hadn’t seen him like this since before her trial…
“Furina, the children love you. We love you. You are always welcome here,” he said bluntly.
“Father seems a lot happier nowadays,” Freminet added. “We always know she loves us, of course, but since you’ve begun to visit, it feels like we’re closer to a real family than we’ve ever been.”
Lynette materialized next to her twin, having returned from her task. “Some of the children even call you moth-“
She was cut off by Lyney placing his hand on her mouth. “Calling you ‘matron!’ Since you’ve been so helpful around the place,” he smiled, before whispering something darkly to his sister. Furina could take a guess what it was.
She sighed. “Well, thank you. That’s very nice to hear. But you know, it would seem a lot more true if your Father could tell me that herself.” That last sentence came out bitter without Furina intending it to be so. “Sorry, I mean-“
“It’s okay, Lady Furina,” Freminet said quietly. “We understand.”
Furina left the House of the Hearth more ashamed than she had ever been that afternoon.
Rounding a street corner back to her apartment, Furina caught sight of the Knave in broad daylight.
Flinching, she couldn’t help but stop and stare. An omega woman was on the Knave’s arm – some rich Fontainian woman by the looks of it. She seemed to be flirting with the Knave, but Furina also recognized the look in her eye: it was the kind of disingenuous leer Furina had grown accustomed to during her tenure as archon.
And yet Arlecchino was humoring her. Furina could probably guess the reason, but that was if she was more sane. Currently, she was out of her mind making bold, determined strides, her vision tunneling on the two of them.
“Arlecchino!” Furina called out sweetly, grabbing the Knave’s unoccupied arm and pressing her whole body up against it. “I’ve been waiting for you, where have you been?”
The look of surprise on Arle’s face gave Furina immense pride, even if it only lasted for a second.
“Ah, was that supposed to be now?” The harbinger played along. “I’m sorry, my dear, I seem to have double-booked our talk.”
The no-name noble (wench, Furina thought), kept smiling, though she was clearly perturbed by the sudden display of affection between Fontaine’s superstar and Snezhnaya’s tyrant. “Ah, no, it’s alright, shall we meet again, say, this time next week?”
“That should be fine. Aideu, Mademoiselle.”
The woman quickly made herself scarce, while Arlecchino began escorting Furina home. Furina, meanwhile, held tighter to the Knave’s arm, like a petulant child with her teddy bear.
“What is the meaning of this?” Arlecchino asked quietly, so few could hear. “You realize that was an important business meeting you ruined for me.”
She was clearly annoyed, and, at any other time, Furina would have shrunk away with her tail between her legs. But the visage of the other omega, combined with the scent that was still on Arle’s other sleeve, had sent her into a frenzy.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she snarked. “I suppose you shall have to bed her some other time. But at least you don’t have to go back to the Tsaritsa any time soon.”
Arle stopped. This was it, Furina thought. She had well and truly made her mad now. Their whole arrangement was about to crumble. The Knave dragged her into a small, deserted alleyway, away from prying eyes, and brought her face low to hers. Yet Furina could not look her in the eyes, or she would burst into tears. Her back against the wall, she was ready for her fate to be sealed.
“Furina, what’s wrong?”
Oh.
Why was her voice so gentle when she asked that? She should be livid. Furina bit her bottom lip, and mustered up the last of her courage.
“I don’t know what’s going on. You fuck me, you take care of me, and then you leave. And sometimes, in between, I guess, we hang out. And I – I like it when we do that. I like it when we don’t fuck as much as when we do. And you’re just-“
“-I love you.”
Furina’s heart stopped. Slowly, finally, she looked at Arlecchino’s face. No anger. No rage. Just pure tenderness.
“Wh-what?”
“Furina de Fontaine, I love you. Did you not know that?”
“I-“ Furina spluttered. “No! How was I supposed to know that?! You never said anything!”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Furina was about to pass out looking at Arlecchino: the intimidating, deadly Fatui spy and assassin looking like a chastised puppy. “I have only been in love once before, and the context was different, so I am unused to this.”
“I-“ Furina scrambled to find a response. “It’s…okay?”
“Oh, good.” Arlecchino breathed a sigh of relief. A moment of silence passed between them. Furina was honestly just dumbstruck. In 500 years of life she had read a million romance novels with large, grand displays of confession, and here she was in a scummy alley with the human equivalent of a sad Mondstadtan Shepherd.
Just as she was thinking about this, Arlecchino uncharacteristically looked at her feet, shuffling a bit. And that’s when Furina realized-
“I love you too!” She blurted back, throwing her arms around Arle. True to form, Arle lifted her up, holding her close as Furina wrapped her legs around her. “I’m sorry. I just was shocked. I thought I was the only one who felt this way.”
“No. I love you.” Arlecchino nuzzled into her collar, purring. “I don’t know when and how it started, but I love you, Furina de Fontaine.”
And now Furina was going to cry. Burying her face in Arle’s shoulder, she muttered a request she was too afraid to actually ask.
“Sure,” Arle answered.
“You did not hear me,” Furina huffed.
“In truth, the reason I am staying in Fontaine longer this time was because I wanted to mate with you,” she explained. “I was just going to wait for a bit, because you just had your heat, and I didn’t want to send you into another one.”
Curse Arle’s impeccable hearing.
“No, I want to mate with you as soon as possible,” Furina admitted. “But, um, you’re right that I just had my heat, and I know that’s a lot for you to deal with, so if you’re tired and want to wait…”
“No,” Arle growled, and it sent shivers down Furina’s spine. “I want you. I want you as mine. I want to claim you.”
“Okay,” Furina breathed. “Okay, I’m yours.”