shipwrecked || furina & neuvillette

🫧 10 🫧

Three days later, Furina is walking through the Court of Fontaine with Clorinde at her side. They'd discussed the importance of making it clear that Clorinde was essentially Furina's body guard again - assuming that they were being watched by those intending to hurt her. Neuvillette had seemed particularly eager to get her out of the Palais Mermonia today, but Furina knows that it's got to do with the fact that he knows how much she's missed talking to Clorinde.
"So," Clorinde glances over at her, a smirk on her face. "What's going on between you and the Iudux?"
Furina can't help but let out a surprised gasp at Clorinde's comment. What does she mean? Does she know about the curse? No one is supposed to know about the curse other than the two of them. Had she let it slip on accident? Had she ruined their whole plan?
"W... what do you mean?"
She laughs as they stroll past Furina's apartment, and she can't help but sigh at the tape across the door that prevents anyone from entering. Her home that had once been Neuvillette's - the home that he gifted to her without so much as a second thought.
"Come on, I've seen the way the two of you look at each other." She nudges Furina, a smile on her face. "It's sweet - you never had the time or the energy to care for anyone in such a way before. I suppose you must have been too busy acting your part. I mean, you only have to look at how he watches you the moment you walk into a room."
Furina is relieved to hear that it isn't about the curse at all. She can't help but smile when she hears Clorinde talking about it. About their relationship.
"I'm sorry we didn't really... ever talk like this earlier - I mean, when I was acting as the Archon." She can't help but brush her hair out of her eyes. "But yes, I suppose there is something between us. We haven't really talked about it properly."
"Do you know he always canceled all of his plans to attend those meetings with The Knave with you?" Clorinde asks, and the two of them pause before descending the staircase. "No matter what time it was, or what he had planned, he would drop it all to be there for you."
Furina finds herself smiling once more. "I know." She opens her mouth to say something further, but is stopped in her tracks by a droplet of rain. It  whirls past her face and lands on the toe of her shoe. She frowns, the fear of it initially forgotten. She glances upwards, at the grey clouds that have descended over the Court of Fontaine.
"It's raining," she whispers, glancing back at the Palais Mermonia. "It's raining."
That means one thing. It means that Neuvillette is crying, or sad or something bad has happened.
Furina turns around, and is about to head towards the Palais Mermonia, when a drop of rain lands on her cheek.

The feeling of it makes her pause, it sends her spiralling. She feels it as it falls down her cheek, and all she can think about it how it felt as she cried on her throne. As Fontaine was being flooded, washed away. The prophecy coming true, thinking she'd failed to complete her purpose. The screams of loved ones being torn from each other in the wave, kids being separated from their parents. The water rising so high, so fast, that people didn't even have a chance.
"Furina." Clorinde nudges her. "What's wrong?"
Furina can't talk - she can't speak. It's raining, and there's water falling all around her - but even more important than that... Neuvillette is sad about something.

The water drips down her face, and she can't help but panic at the feel of it.
It's like she's frozen. Her head is torn between wanting to be there for Neuvillette, finding out what has hurt him, and escaping the rain. Escaping the shards of fractured glass falling from the sky and cutting her.

Clorinde is watching her, there are people running to get out of the rain before they get too wet, but Furina can't move. She wants to move, to find Neuvillette, but she can't bring herself to do so. She begs her body to hurry and get itself together, but she can't move. It's like she's back on that throne, it's like she's returned to that moment. She can't escape the memory - it creeps up on her and tangles her in its web until she has no choice but to submit. It's when the rain starts pouring so heavy that she can't wipe it off her face, that she starts panicking.