isleofavalon | August Closed Prompts

His smile shifts ever so slightly and while she drinks deeply he hesitates for a moment, staring down into the glass.

"Who we are..." A barely audible murmur before he frowns briefly, considering the implications of that, of what it would mean in the large scheme of things. To him, to others, to the people he's been working so hard to protect-

It leads him to do far worse than Marianne, not just drinking a bit more than is proper but outright draining the glass in a few quick swallows and pouring some more immediately as he sinks back down onto the bed beside her.

"Perhaps I should have gotten more than one bottle..." Perhaps it's for the best he didn't. Especially with how sweet it is. "It's certainly no Ordelia vintage, though."

"Oh," is Marianne's only reaction to Lorenz draining his glass. It's going to be that kind of evening. After a pause, she does the same--surely this is a good idea, and one to be copied. The wine is awfully sweet, but that doesn't faze her.

"I think I can forgive the quality of the wine, Lorenz." They both have discerning palettes, but there's a lot in Avalon that they don't quite know well enough to purchase based on pedigree. Like varieties and vintages of wine. "It's better not to drink nice wine quite this quickly, anyway."

After a pause, she laughs a little to herself. "Our fathers would be horrified." For a variety of reasons, honestly, but she mostly means for chugging the wine.

Lorenz sighs pulls his phone out briefly, scowling at it slightly, not familiar enough with it to order whatever delivery nonsense they have in Camelot is... but he's not going back out for more wine so after a brief moment of fiddling he manages to request 2 bottles of a proper red, none of this excessive sweetness.

Then he tosses his phone carelessly on the bed and flops back.

"I don't think horrified properly conveys the amount of disapproval I would get from mine." A dark chuckle, another deep drink from his refilled glass. "You know... I think Hilda has been good for you. And I think the two of you would be even better as a couple."

Marianne watches over Lorenz's shoulder as he orders the wine, occasionally chiming in to help him figure out the interface. She has a couple of moons on him here, and therefore has a better idea as to how these phones work.

(Her own phone, embarrassingly, has a broken screen. She dropped it not long after her arrival and hasn't bothered to have it repaired.)

As Lorenz flops back, Marianne gets up to refill her own glass. There's more wine on the way, after all, so they need to finish this bottle off. "With all due respect, Lorenz, your father disapproves of most things. He makes my adoptive father look warm and compassionate by comparison." She takes a sip of her newly-poured glass as if to punctuate her point.

At the mention of Hilda, she blushes a little. "... you really think so? What makes you say so?"

He smiles at her, especially that blush.

"Why, Marianne, you are a gentle beauty the likes of which I have seen no comparison for... but with Hilda coaxing you through the burdens you carry you're positively radiant." He actually laughs softly to himself, shaking his head.

"Really I should have suspected sooner, given the way you glow in her presence."

Marianne's blush grows deeper. "Do I?" She absolutely does. Even Edelgard noticed the way that Hilda makes her light up, and Hilda wasn't even present for that conversation.

She returns to the bed with her refilled glass of wine, sitting carefully back onto it before taking a sip. This one, she intends to drink like a normal person. "Hilda isn't the only one who helped me. All of the Deer did, you included. I... I've been truly blessed, to have met you all."

"It is we who are blessed to have been able to watch you bloom." He says it with a firm nod, as though he will hear nothing more of this back and forth. He can't help it, especially not when what is meant to be a sip from his bottle becomes a deeper drink than intended.

"You're all so wonderful." A wistful sort of sigh and he does mean it, he loves them all so much, but there's a bit of unfocused distance in his eyes that implies there's a some thought there that has nothing to do with the two of them in this room.

Marianne covers her deepening blush with her free hand, as if that could somehow minimize the way his insistent compliment flusters her. Lorenz is being so deeply sincere, and while she appreciates it she also finds herself at such a loss. She's simply not used to being treated with such gentle care. It's for the best that he will here no further argument--she is out of things to say on the matter that won't come out tongue-tied.

Instead, she focuses on the look in his eyes. Emboldened by the wine, she hazards a guess as to what his mind might be thinking: "One of us moreso than the others, though." She pauses to sip her wine. "You... you really care for Claude, don't you?"

He tilts his head, curiously, brow furrowing for a moment before he starts to smile, assuming of course that she means Hilda. He brings his glass to his lips-

And nearly spits wine all over when she says Claude's name. His mouth drops open a protest immediately on his lips... one he... he can't bring himself to voice with everything they've discussed between them. His expression crumbles after that moment of indignation, looking away from her and into his glass.

"Perhaps too much..."

Marianne flinches a bit when he chokes in response to her pressing, and she recognizes his expression enough to know that she's hit a nerve. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything? They were having a nice moment, and now she's gone and ruined it by going too far. This is why these sorts of things are better left to people who aren't her!

But... Lorenz quickly deflates and agrees with her. Marianne relaxes as a result, although she feels no less guilty.

"That must be difficult," she says finally. Claude is, by and large, an emotionally unavailable person. By now, most of the Deer are close to him--but that's been years in the making. Romance is another hurdle entirely, and one Claude himself probably isn't ready for. And that's not even taking into account Lorenz's admitted hangups about it. "I shouldn't have gone there. I'm sorry."

"N-no... Please don't apologize, Marianne. You've done nothing wrong." It's not her fault he's a disaster and has spent years denying things to himself and others. He looks over at her, apologetic and clearly distressed.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know how-" Lorenz just trails off, shaking his head and gesturing helplessly. How does he talk about this sort of thing? He really has no idea what to say when saying anything at all feels like a betrayal of everything he's worked towards for years as well as their friendship. Lies are unbecoming, ignoble, and while he understands why Claude had to tell so many for his own safety he-

He doesn't want to admit to something that could ruin everything if revealed. Not when they've fought so hard to come to understand one another.

It's not as if Marianne is especially adept or experienced with this kind of thing. That's part of why they're drinking and having this conversation to begin with. They both have a lot to work through, even as they're in different phases of untangling their own feelings and desires.

"You have nothing to apologize for, either. Expressing oneself is hard." She knows that struggle intimately. "You don't need to say anything, if you cannot. It's scary enough to even admit things that you've been hiding from even yourself. At least, it was for me."

With a sigh and a bittersweet smile, she leans into him and sips her wine. The room is wavering slightly, and the physical contact with him helps make things feel steadier. The rules of propriety have flown out the window long ago. "It's funny, and a bit cruel, how nobles are constantly told stories of love and romance but aren't actually free to pursue it. Souls like yours, beautiful and creative, should be allowed to... to love, regardless of duty. You do so much, Lorenz. You care so much, and... it's not fair."

She leans into him and he tilts back towards her, draining his glass and setting it aside for the moment. One arm curls around her, more for his own balance than anything else. "I resigned myself to that a long time ago... it seems so selfish to worry about such things, especially with the former Leicester territories in the state they're in now."

A heavy sigh, head tilting to lean his temple against her hair. It's easier, to say that at least. To speak of love as a concept rather than the specifics of why each of those little teasing criticisms from their former leader get under his skin so readily. Much much easier to speak in broader terms than acknowledge anything that might hurt others instead of only himself.

Marianne hums softly, not happy with this conclusion of his but not arguing it either. "I suppose."

The few moments of silence that follow are comfortable, if sad, and Marianne lets out a heavy exhale and closes her eyes. "But please remember that you have friends who love you, even as we work together to rebuild Leicester and Fódlan to be a better place." A pause, followed by a small huff of warm laughter. "And since we're both heirs to important houses and will be involved in the heaviness of the work, you won't be able to avoid me. I'll take you to tea."

She reaches up and pats his back, gentle and affectionate in the gesture. "Surely, you can spare an afternoon to yourself every now and then."

He hums softly in agreement, lips quirking up in faint smile. "I don't believe I'll have a choice between you, Lysithea, and Her Grace." Hilda can sway him easily as well but she rarely needs to. It's Marianne and Lysithea that insist on fussing back at him.

"Perhaps later... when Fódlan is more settled, when things begin to truly mend... maybe then it would be worth revisiting." The closest thing to a concession he can make. In another year or five, maybe things will be stable enough by then that he could excuse not marrying. The idea that marrying a man might even be a possibility is outside his understanding but... stepping away from that particular expectation. Perhaps.

Lorenz, like her, has no shortage of friends looking out for him. The Deer as a whole are a family, of sorts. It's one of the many things Marianne is grateful for.

She nods her head lightly in response, careful not to jostle his head on hers too much in doing so. "You have a point. We have our whole lives ahead of us, with the war over, that there's no need to rush into anything." While there is no shortage of work to be done, at least Lorenz is able to look ahead with full clarity. The war has ended, Those Who Slither in the Dark have been dealt with, and the world as they know it can heal and move forward.

Marianne herself is not quite that lucky. Her Fódlan is still torn apart by the conflict, and war is waiting for her when she finishes her time here in Avalon. Something twists in her at that thought, a combination of dread and jealousy. "At least, you do. I still have to make it to the end of the war first."

He tsks softly, scolding her immediately because he knows her well enough to know the thoughts that accompany such a statement. "It will come sooner than you know and you will see this New Dawn everyone speaks so fondly of and you will blossom in the light of that newly risen sun. I have seen it for myself."

He will accept nothing less than the most positive possible outcomes for her. But it comes back around to a dawn that Claude leaves them to tend alone and he can't drag his traitorous thoughts away from the man. Has he ever been able to since the name Claude von Riegan was first introduced to him, hissed furiously between Father's teeth as he raged about all the things this boy would take from them.

Goddess, he was such a fool to believe a word of it.

"I cannot wait to enjoy the new Fodlan we create with you Marianne. And who knows, I've been so busy perhaps you and Hilda will reconcile your feelings once the war ends and I am simply unaware of it.... I could hardly fault you both for not telling me immediately."

Marianne is quiet for several moments after he speaks, and she sniffles softly as drunken tears sting at her eyes. It's a beautiful sentiment, one that she's still not sure she entirely deserves. And it's a glorious goal to reach for, a light at the end of the darkness that is the war that consumed the whole of Fódlan. That Lorenz is reassuring her with this is no surprise; Claude's new dawn is important to all of them.

All she has to do is keep on living. Which is a welcome change to how she used to carry on before.

"I'm sorry..." she murmurs, knowing full well that her tears have the potential to worry him. But even as she wills herself to keep it together, the hold she has on herself loosens and she's soon crying in earnest. She's not even completely sure why she's crying.

August Closed Prompts

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