The Cardinal's Prime Mover

Chapter 11: Topolino

A week had passed since the baby was born and Lia was slowly getting better at dealing with her internalized envy. She was happy for her best friend and Fiume, and little Angelina was absolutely adorable. Lia would visit them quite often, offering assistance however she could. She would even miss out on Ghost practices just to go see them.

Copia didn't mind, he knew how much Lia missed Bea in general but that being around the baby was making her happy and that's all he cared about.. Beatrice tried many times to convince Lia that she didn't need help as much. Despite this, Lia was only too eager to continue to come around. She always had loved to help, she would have to admit this time it was a bit for selfish reasons. Today was another one of those days and Beatrice at this point was ready to respectfully throw Lia out. Bea knew that she was using them subconsciously as a way to escape her own troubles and well Bea knew it wasn't good to let her keep going on.

"I'm just saying you have spent an awful lot of time here with me and not enough with Papa lately...I bet he misses you." Bea laughed. She was more than happy to have Lia's company but it was definitely time to put her foot down and kick her out.

"I...well I don't know, maybe you are right. I have been smothering you both." Lia laughed back, handing baby Angelina over to her mother. Lia stood up and checked her habit for remnants of spit up and straightened herself out. "I will head out then. I'm sure they will still be at practice today. I will take my leave, it will be a nice surprise."

"Sure thing, say hi to Papa for me." Bea added with a smile. Lia was happy she was able to spend so much time helping but Bea was right. She had been over there so often she really needed to reprioritize. Lia made her way to the great hall for practice. She was happy to go see Copia. It felt like since the baby came the two of them really hadn't spent much time together, Lia was clearly trying to distract herself from all the stuff going on with the ministry that was imposing on her and Copia. She made it halfway there before she saw a few of the ghouls still hanging out in the hall.

They should have started by now. She thought to herself, maybe something was wrong. "Hey Mountain is everything alright?" Lia asked. Mountain and Rain were standing just outside the hall and Dew had just ran off from where the three of them were in a hustle.

"Oh yeah Dew just forgot the sheet music that he wrote all the changes from yesterday done on...so Papa sent him off to grab it. We're just waiting for him to come back. No sense in starting without it. Papa is in the hall if you were looking for him. It's good to see you at practice, it's been a bit" He replied.

"...oh yeah I have been spending a lot of time with Bea and the baby. I supposed I have been absent more than I should, but I am here now." Lia smiled sweetly. Mountain could tell being around the baby was making her happy. He wondered when she was gonna realize a few things that he and the ghouls in Ghost had for some time now, or maybe she already had and he just didn't know.

"Hey... so how are you feeling?" Mountain asked.

"Tired but it's been busy," Lia laughed, "like always but otherwise ok, my headaches have been improving so that's a start."

"Well that's good." Rain said, looking over to Mountain knowing exactly what the two of them were thinking.

"Absolutely." Mountain said, turning his raised brows up from Rain and then looking back to Lia. She nodded at the two of them and they both stood there in a bit of an awkward stare contest. Lia decided to move past them into the hall to see her Papa. As Lia left, the two ghouls stood there and pulled themselves in closer together to be more discreet.

"So is anyone gonna say anything?" Rain asked, hands flung out with questioning.

"I honestly can't believe they still don't know. Like maybe they do and just aren't saying anything?" Mountain pondered aloud with Rain.