Honestly, Rene agreeing to stay at the palace came as a relief to her. She hadn’t realized the full extent of Rene’s hesitance until she lost it when they were in the music district after Adelinde confirmed she could live with them. She didn’t think Rene ever looked so…free as they walked around. It made her grateful that she gave the offer.
They ultimately stayed out for a majority of the day; Rene didn’t get her things until the early evening, so they didn’t have time to set everything up. She stayed with Adelinde for the night, and after breakfast they agreed to get Rene’s room ready.
Adelinde had Matteo stay with his friends—the rain was heavy enough that he couldn’t go outside regardless—and gave some input as Rene mostly arranged the furniture herself. The room used to be Adelinde’s—before she took her parents’ to be closer to the nursery—so a bed and a dresser were still there. Mark offered to help, but Rene seemed satisfied with Adelinde as company.
After about an hour the bed was pulled up against one wall, with photos and Rene’s sakura necklace hung up to the right of the back window; the dresser tentatively took a spot to the left of that window and the mirror still hid in one corner. Rene sat down on the bed and gestured for Adelinde to join her; she took a spot next to her without any protests.
“…I’m not sure if I can thank you enough for this,” Rene admitted. “You’ve given me an opportunity to change.”
“Let’s say we’re even, then,” Adelinde decided. She offered a light kiss on the cheek; Rene’s smile afterwards had only grown wider since yesterday, that look of pure love with a bit of dedication that seemed more noticeable now than it was before. “You helped me live my life, I helped you live yours.”
Rene chuckled. “Giving me a room doesn’t seem quite equal to helping you trust people again.”
“Both are significant,” Adelinde reasoned. Smiling, she added, “Honestly, just noticing the little changes is enough for me—you’ve already grown, I think.”
“Have I?”
She didn’t quite seem to believe it, but Adelinde nodded.
“You have. You laughed a lot easier yesterday; you barely seemed to think of something else or get distracted. Even if it meant you weren’t happy in the Dazuz mansion, I’m glad to see you like this now.”
She could almost put notes to the feeling, honestly. Instead of steady, riotous, then mostly uniform, only the heartbeat notes remained with something else entirely. The nature of it changed, in a sense.
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Rene gave her a kiss in return before standing up so she could put her clothes away now that the dresser was in a good spot. Adelinde changed her position on the bed so she could watch Rene bring the bag over, open up the drawers, and sort everything.
“Your birthday’s in a few weeks, right?” Rene asked to confirm, glancing back at her for a second. “August…thirtieth?”
Adelinde murmured some agreement, a bit impressed that Rene remembered. She didn’t bring it up very often.
Rene cast her a smile. “Do you want to do anything special? Walk around like we did for mine, a date, hope it’s nice enough for Matteo to come out?”
“I did have something in mind,” Adelinde admitted, albeit feeling a bit childish in doing so. The image of it seemed perfect, but in practice she didn’t know how plausible it was. Still, Rene gave her silent interest and Adelinde continued. “I thought it would be nice if we could travel over that week—with or without Matteo, either to your hometown or where my mother was raised.”
“Provided trains run at the right times, that would be doable,” Rene mused, pausing in her sorting and putting away for now. “I shouldn’t have anything come up to interrupt, at least. And you’re sure you can manage?”
“I’m sure,” Adelinde promised. “Mark should be able to take that time off to watch Matteo, or at the very least be available so he has family to talk with. It’s been years since I last left San Asari—it would be nice to take that trip with you, and make it another revival of an old tradition.”
“Did you used to go out very often?” Rene asked curiously.
“Typically with my mother,” Adelinde explained. “She grew up in a smaller town northeast of here—we used to visit her parents in the fall, purely so I could see how different the leaves were when we left and when we came back. I stayed in San Asari after she died until Aurik took me with him every now and then when he left.”
Rene considered it for a second, returning to putting away her clothes until she glanced back at Adelinde with a kind look.
“You won’t let me pay?” she guessed.
“The tickets can get expensive during the prettier seasons,” Adelinde replied, shaking her head. “I know I have more spare money than you do, if only from the days I play and accept tips.”
“I’ll try to see about everything else, then,” Rene decided, smiling. “When I go out for work I can stop by the train station to see if they have schedules and prices up yet. I’ll make note of something if it seems like it can fit, and we’ll work around anything else.”
Adelinde nodded, hesitating a second before asking, “And you’re sure your father won’t need you?”
“If someone hasn’t come by to drag me back by now, I don’t think they will,” Rene replied. Her smile did fall, but just for a moment. “He shouldn’t need me again—and, if he does, it can wait.”
She accepted the answer; with her request made and some kind of plan decided they fell into a bit of a casual conversation instead. Matteo wandered in to announce when lunch was ready, and Adelinde spent the afternoon with him while Rene went out to work.
The little change seemed like such a significant promise, in a way. Rene went from a familiar stranger, to a friend, to a lover. It may still be too early to confidently say they could maintain this forever, but she could certainly picture it.