Rene typically came to Adelinde for dates and trips out—they would agree to meet at the music district or at the palace, and from there they would wander. When Rene came out on the twenty-first, though, Adelinde waited for her just outside of town. Rene paused for a second at seeing her—partially because she didn’t expect it, partially because Adelinde’s chosen outfit looked beautiful. It wasn’t quite as loose as usual, but it was definitely flowy.
Adelinde half-laughed, half-blushed when she must have noticed the pause, and Rene offered a light kiss once she got to her.
“You look really nice,” Rene said.
Adelinde fully blushed, albeit smiling. “Thank you.”
Rene gave her own smile in response, then glanced around for the kid.
“No Matteo?”
“I was going to bring him,” Adelinde explained, “But Mark overheard it was your birthday and offered to babysit. Matteo was still asleep by the time I left regardless.”
“When did you come out?”
“Not too long ago. I just wanted to be able to greet you first thing. In any case…”
Adelinde walked and turned so she could take Rene’s hand, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“It’s just us. Lead the way, Rene.”
She nodded, keeping gentle hold on Adelinde’s hand as they walked. The first matter was to get breakfast, then they went on to the shopping district and just…wandered. Both had money to buy things with—Rene fully intended to argue her way into buying something for Adelinde if she would let her—but for the most part they window-shopped instead of going into any stores.
Conversation was kept up among the way, most of it being idle chatter. That shifted a bit when Adelinde asked one question after a short pause.
“Have you done this often? Going on shopping trips for your birthday, I mean.”
“Not in the past few years,” Rene said, shaking her head. “I don’t always have enough justification for it—last year I ended up just being with you and Matteo.”
“Was that the day you told Matteo about ships?” Adelinde asked. When Rene nodded, Adelinde smiled. “He spent the next few days rambling on about it. It became his little fascination for a week or so.”
“I had a ship pendant on,” Rene recalled. She glanced at Adelinde. “I actually got that with Hannah one year.”
The amount of patience and tolerance Adelinde had for Rene randomly mentioning Hannah fascinated her—then again, Rene made no comment towards Adelinde bringing up Aurik. Maybe it helped that, by this point, not much feelings remained for their first loves; Rene, at least, she stopped wishing Hannah would come back not long after leaving Eyset herself. Until she met Adelinde—at which point, barely any feelings remained—she just considered finding her to be a ‘backup option’ should all else fail.
With Adelinde’s idly curious look prompting her, Rene explained.
“I started the tradition with her,” she said. “We basically gathered up whatever money we had and went out to buy something for each other since our birthdays were close. She found little charms one day—I picked out a ship for her and she found a star for me, then she decided we could switch so we had something that reminded us of the other.”
“Was there a thought behind which one got which?” She shifted to a bit more cautious tone, but Rene still didn’t mind.
“There was,” Rene replied, nodding. “On her part, she said I just…reminded her of a star—always there, able to show her she was going the right way. At the time, my choice was less insightful—she liked ships, thus she should get a ship charm; in hindsight I’ve decided it’s more like she left, made to move around and see what she could instead of staying in one place.”
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Hannah always wanted to live somewhere else; Rene just considered it to be one of those ‘when we’re adults with stable jobs’ things, instead of something she tried to pursue as soon as possible. Hannah knew Rene didn’t like risks—it formed a little argument every time Hannah brought up leaving—but she still decided to go. Considering the circumstances, Rene couldn’t blame her; if she was just a bit less worried, she would have gone with her.
Rene thought of a question she didn’t quite want to ask—she didn’t know if it would remind Adelinde of Aurik, somehow, and worry her—but it came out before she actually decided on what would be a good way to phrase it.
She paused in walking and looked at Adelinde, prompting Adelinde to stop as well.
“Have you ever wanted to live somewhere else? Another house, another nation, just somewhere else other than San Asari or even Dakari as a whole?”
The question did remind Adelinde of something else—she winced and frowned for a second, taking a small step back. She responded as soon as Rene realized she actually said it and tried to apologize.
“I can’t say I have,” Adelinde said honestly. “I was named heir because I was satisfied here; I was willing to stay in San Asari, have a family, and support a nation. My parents strived to make the palace a home that I was comfortable in so that wouldn’t change. I can’t leave without disregarding that effort, to an extent, but I also can’t see myself in a different place.”
She looked at her, an expression mixing a kind of dread with slight desperation and hurt. Rene knew what that meant—that look of ‘please don’t remind me of Aurik’ that Rene hated, if only because the two weren’t different by way of what they promised those who wanted to resurrect the lost nation.
Adelinde asked the question quietly, hesitating between a step forward or a step back. “I take it you have?”
“It’s hard not to imagine being somewhere better when you don’t have much,” Rene admitted. “I’ve been convinced before that there was somewhere better than wherever I currently was, but at the same time I’m afraid of losing what I do have and I never choose to leave.”
She lowered her voice a bit so only Adelinde could hear, then made a separate promise.
“But I swear, I won’t go anywhere for as long as we’re together. If I could be anywhere else, I only want to be wherever you are for however long you’ll have me.”
Adelinde looked relieved, to an extent, then grateful. She gave her a light kiss as a kind of thanks, which Rene accepted without hesitation. When they pulled away, a brief silence fell for the topic to end, Adelinde glancing around to fully observe any shops around them and smiling a bit when she saw one.
“Do you remember those sakura petals Matteo picked up in March?”
“Yeah.” Rene turned around and followed Adelinde’s gaze to a jewelry shop, among the display window being necklaces with clear lockets. She looked back a Adelinde. “Do you want to go look?”
Adelinde nodded, and they walked over to the shop. The shopkeeper offered a wave when they entered, but didn’t openly comment.
There were a few different kinds of necklaces—gold, silver, and colored chains, some with and without a charm or locket, and only half a dozen had a locket where anyone could see the object placed inside—and both of them spent some time observing them.
“The petals are still in my room,” Adelinde mused. “They’re in a small frame now, but it’d be nice if we could carry our own.”
She selected one necklace from the collection and showed it to Rene.
“This one would suit you, I think,” she said.
Rene nodded, looking around for something to fit Adelinde that would still be able to hold a sakura petal. She found one, smiling, and Adelinde laughed when she showed her and smiled as well.
Both looked for a third one, leading Adelinde to lift up a second.
“And this one for Matteo?”
“Definitely.”
They brought all three to the shopkeeper, each paid for the one they chose for the other and—after some light arguing on Rene’s part—each paid half for Matteo’s, receiving a small box to carry them in. To avoid getting the chains tangled, Adelinde put on hers; she took Rene’s and had hers situated, lingering for a second before pulling away.
With gifts bought, they went back to the palace for lunch and to present Matteo with the surprise.
Rene didn’t think she would wear the necklace often, but she could easily see herself replacing one of the new nation papers so she could hang it up alongside the photo of them. She couldn’t even picture living anywhere but Dakari—she didn’t want to start over when she had a place here.