A/N: Read Stupid & Barely Special before you read this, it makes everything make a whole lot more sense. c:


Walking into work with the mindset of being there solely to make a little bit of money before leaving for the day, Severa was stopped before she even made it back to the kitchen by someone holding out a shift roster at her. "Uh, yeah, normally I get to clock in before I get told where I'm serving," she said, not even caring that she was sassing one of her managers. "Can I at least do that first?"

"Ooh, assignments!" Coming in right behind her friend with an upbeat attitude and the desire to make as much money as possible, Cynthia snatched that paper roster out of the manager's hand and looked it over, giggling as she handed it back. "Looks like we've got the party room to ourselves today, bestie!" she announced, draping herself over Severa's back and shoulders. "You know what that means!"

"It means that, once again, you're breaking your rule of not taking parties," Severa replied with a sigh, knocking her friend off her back and making sure that her long braid wasn't mussed too much by the contact before going back to rifling through her purse for her clock-in card. "Color me shocked on that one. It seems any time they need their best server to take a party, they have to assign someone who hates running parties to work with her."

As the manager walked off to share the great news about where people would be serving to other employees, the two ladies found themselves fighting over who could clock in first (after Severa found her card, naturally), before walking towards the designated party room, a sign on the door stating that the space was reserved for the morning. "Huh, I can't believe someone's actually reserved this, and we've been the ones chosen to work in here! How funny is that?" Cynthia asked, laughing even as she watched Severa rolling her eyes at the behavior. "Oh come on, you've got to think this is all funny."

"Not really, no." Cracking the door to the room open, Severa looked at how the tables were arranged, one off to the side of the room while the others were all aligned together. Raising her eyebrows at what she saw, she called out to Cynthia, "Hey, does that sign say what this is reserved for, exactly. Looks like a birthday party or a business meeting."

"It doesn't say anything, but if it looks like that, chances are it's one of those or something like it." Cynthia pulled the door open more than Severa had, walking inside and spinning around in the empty middle of the room. "With it being arranged like this, I can so see people playing games or something in here to celebrate something! Or, maybe, to have a huge assortment of presents! I vote it's an actual party of some kind!"

Severa sighed, leaning against the door and fiddling with the end of her braid while Cynthia stopped her childish behavior. "Listen, last night wasn't exactly a great night, and as much as I love working with you and spending time with you, I'd so rather be at home trying to sleep. I came in to make a few bucks, not to be stuck here all day with some party that's not even going to tip worth a damn."

Abruptly stopping mid-spin, Cynthia jumped to be facing her friend, tilting her head to one side in confusion. "Okay, you're not playing stupid about not knowing what this party is, are you? You really have no clue that this is…huh, interesting!" She clasped her hands together, leaving the room and heading towards the kitchen, Severa picking herself up off the door to follow. "We'll have a whole bunch of fun today, especially after you remember what this is all about."

"It's mid-August…" Severa brought a hand to her chin and stroked it in thought, before shaking her head. "Pretty sure we all went out for your fiancé's birthday day-of, but maybe this is for him? Is that why you're being cage-y with me? We're throwing that asshole another party where he's going to skimp on tipping the person who serves him—that, you know, being us this time—and that's why you don't want to say it to me."

Cynthia snorted at the accusation. "No, trust me, it's not for Inigo, even though he's totally going to be here today." She paused, looking behind her to see Severa eyeing her warily, just to turn back facing forward and scurry into the kitchen. "I mean, he's going to be here because he comes in all the time when I'm working! You know how it is!"

"Trust me, I know exactly how it is, and I know when you're lying to me through your teeth." Severa made the motions to follow her friend to assist with setting up, but she was stopped by something grabbing onto her hair and holding it back, so that when she stepped forward she was yanked backwards. "What the…" she started, trying to grab her braid and pull it from its current prison, to no avail. She turned to give something a good yell and ended up gasping in surprise at who was standing behind her, a permanently calloused and stained hand letting go of her braid as she turned. "Brady! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working right now?"

"No way, shop's closed today for the party. Thought you'd have figured that when I wasn't up when you were gettin' ready to come in." Smiling at his wife as she went from being upset over having to take care of a group to being overjoyed at seeing her husband, he opened his arms wide for her to jump into him for a hug, sending him stumbling back a couple steps from the force she jumped at him with. "Whoa now, don't be so eager to hug me. Think about who's underfoot, why don't ya?"

After covering his neck and jaw with kisses, she looked down and saw a very familiar blue pigtailed head hiding behind his legs, someone she reached down to with one hand while clinging to him with the other. "I didn't know you'd be bringing Luna with you," she said, sounding slightly apologetic. "Last thing I'd want is for you to trample the poor girl."

"Hi Mama," the small voice attached to that head rang out, a little hand reaching for Severa's and grabbing it tightly. She pulled herself into her mother's arm, laughing as she did, and ultimately ended up looking up at her mother while she beamed down at her. "Love you Mama! Mwah!"

"She's been super excited to come see ya here today," Brady explained, watching as Severa unlatched herself from him so that she could bend down to pick the girl up, both mother and daughter laughing as they quickly snuggled. "I've been tellin' her all week about how we'd get to come see ya and she just loved hearin' about it."

"Yeah, it's not every day that she gets brought in here to see me working, but…" After planting a loud kiss on her daughter's cheek, the girl giggling and making more mwah noises with her mouth, Severa looked to Brady expecting some kind of explanation. "Mind telling me what this 'party' is about? I don't remember hearing a word of this before today."

Brady's eyes narrowed as he tried judging just how honest Severa was being with her question, but when she gave a little head motion, beckoning for him to answer her, he knew she was completely serious. "Huh, thought you'd been in on the plannin' of this, based on what Inigo kept sayin' to me about it. He said Cynthia was mighty hands-on with plottin' the details here."

If there had been more to what he was saying (which there must have been, he hadn't actually explained anything), a loud call for someone to open the door to the party room distracted him. He turned to see who it was calling out, Severa stepping around him to see for herself, and they were both greeted with the sight of a quickly-moving woman holding a giant cake in her arms. "Someone please open the door, I'm going to drop this if you make me try and do it!"

"Whoa now, didn't we say to wait until someone else got here before bringin' the cake in, Aunt Lissa?" Brady asked, before shaking his head at his aunt's impatience and going to open the door for her. Severa, after looking back to see that Cynthia had already grabbed a stack of plates and was on her way back over to the room herself, shrugged and carried her daughter over to where her husband was trying to figure out how to keep the door open. She passed the girl over to him and latched the door open himself, causing him to laugh. "Thanks for that, Sev. But, uh, any of this making sense to ya yet?"

"I wish it was," Severa admitted, peeking into the room at how the blonde woman they'd just let in was setting the cake down on the table that was separate from all the others, making sure it was set up perfectly before she bustled back out of the room. "My guess was that this was some birthday party for a certain friend of yours, but if your aunt's here, I don't see how that makes any sense."

He laughed at her lack of having caught on, the girl in his arms mimicking him. "Not really sleepin' last night must have really messed with your mind. Do ya think ya could watch Luna for me while I run out and help with bringin' presents in? I'm sure she'd love gettin' to spend time with you and Cynthia for a moment." He offered the girl back over to Severa right as the other woman mentioned caught up with them, arms filled with plates that she set on the edge of the same table as the cake.

"Say, why's Lunabel here already?" Cynthia asked when she could finally move her arms again, looking at the little girl that was once again being held by Severa. "I would've figured that she'd be being watched by, say, one of her grandparents until it's party time, not brought over here right at the start of prep." That didn't stop her from approaching the little girl and waving at her, Lunabel laughing and waving right back. "Gods she's adorable, I can't wait until I have one of my own someday and join the mom club."

"If you want her, I'm sure we can loan her to you for a week or two. It'll get to be a lot but—oh gods damn it." The realization of what the party was for hit Severa unexpectedly and a lot like a sack of bricks, making her glance from the mostly-empty room towards the front entrance of the restaurant, where she could see the next wave of things being brought in coming towards them. "The baby shower's today, isn't it?"

Stifling a laugh, Cynthia nodded, before motioning for Severa to follow her while she went back into the kitchen for more supplies. "It sure is! Yeah, it sucks that we don't get to really be part of it, but we're at least serving it and we'll make it a fun day for everyone involved." She stopped halfway to the kitchen, spinning on her toes to face Severa and Lunabel, opening her arms to be handed the girl. "But since I carried the plates in, you can bring the next load of stuff and I'll carry the baby."

"Not a ba-a-aby," Lunabel corrected, sounding oddly smug for being a young kid, before puffing out her cheeks and asserting, "Luna a big girl!"

"Okay, okay, I'll hold the big girl. Just don't make me carry all those water cups into the room, I'll probably spill them." Without waiting for Severa to really process the offer that had been made, Cynthia reached in and grabbed Lunabel for herself, pulling her close to her with the girl shrieking the entire time, and then set off back towards the kitchen. "Seriously, I can't wait until I've got a kid of my own, but Luna's such a well-behaved girl that I doubt I'd get even half as lucky as you did."

"She's only good when she wants to be, which is basically any time other people aside from me or Brady will be seeing her." Severa was following right behind Cynthia, keeping eye contact with Lunabel as she looked over the shoulder of the woman holding her. "Last night she refused to get into her bed until past midnight, then as soon as we went to bed she let herself into the room and climbed in with us. Little brat, keeping us up all night with her rolling and her kicking." She scrunched her face at her daughter, who returned the expression with no hesitation.

"That's just what kids do, though. I could handle it, probably." Shrugging and jostling Lunabel enough into getting her to look forward at the kitchen of the restaurant, Cynthia stopped walking in front of a large bin of rolls of silverware and pointed a shoulder at it. "Now grab a whole bunch so we don't run out. No one's really sure how many people are going to show up to this thing, so we need to be prepared."

Not used to taking orders like that, Severa laughed, bowing her head at her friend before reaching into the bin to grab all her arms could hold. "Right on it, ma'am. Want me to do the rest of your work for you while I'm at it?"

"Hey now, I'm holding your kid, I could drop her to help you if you really want me to." At the mere mention of being dropped, Lunabel started whining in protest, which only made Cynthia grin down at Severa as she was struggling to get all that silverware positioned so that it wouldn't fall when she moved. "Not like I'd ever actually drop Luna, she's too cute and precious to be dropped."

"I'd say, and if I found out anyone had dropped my baby, I'd probably kill them." Standing back up with her arms mostly supporting what held them, Severa caught her daughter's eye right as she was about to say something, and she froze before sighing. "Sorry, if anyone dropped my big girl, I'd probably kill them. You're not a baby, Luna. I know that."

Instead of getting to sound smug, Lunabel merely put a sly smile on her face, squinting her eyes to let her mother know that she enjoyed the grown-up treatment she was getting. "This kid is definitely yours, she knows how to get people to say exactly what she wants." Cynthia bounced the girl again, making her break her smirk to laugh. "I think she's going to grow up being just like you, which is totally awesome!"

"Eh, I would rather she not grow up to be like me, but we'll see how that's going in a few years." Now it was Severa leading the way back to the other room, not wanting to drop anything because she was too busy standing around talking. The one issue with being the leader was that she couldn't keep an eye on what Cynthia was doing to her child, but based on how all she heard was giggles and the occasional short phrase come from Lunabel's mouth, she figured she didn't have anything to worry about.

Coming into the party room again, the entire atmosphere had changed from the last time they'd been in there a couple moments before. Once again there wasn't anyone in there aside from them, but the room had filled up slightly with the appearance of balloons and a stack of presents, and after she'd set the silverware down on the long table and placed one set at every chair, Severa was looking at what all was visible of the gifts, Cynthia standing next to her doing the same thing. "I really hope this isn't all that people have brought," Cynthia said, her eyes tracking across several gifts. "I know that I handed my money off directly to Owain's mom this time, since I couldn't exactly give it to him, so I've got at least one good present in here somewhere, but still, this doesn't seem like nearly as much as last time we threw one of these…"

Hearing that made Severa draw in her breath, her stomach sinking a bit as she glanced over at Lunabel for a moment, the girl going on about how she liked the colors of the presents in front of her. "Y-yeah, you know what, you're right on that," she agreed, going back to looking at the presents, "but keep in mind that last time was also my birthday party so there was a lot of extra stuff."

"I guess, but I really hope Noire doesn't, like, flip out that her baby isn't getting as spoiled as yours did." Cynthia bit her lip, looking to the door to see people coming in, arms laden with some more gifts, but ultimately a bunch of decorations—the most prominent being a few bouquets of flowers. One newcomer in particular made her eyes light up, and no sooner than she had been able to set Lunabel down on the floor did she rush over to the man's side, burying herself in his shoulder. "You managed to convince your mother to let you bring flowers after all! I'm so proud of you, Inigo!"

"All it took was a few reminders of what these flowers would be for and she was quickly jumping on board with the idea," he replied, trying to brush her off so he could set his armload of flowers down. "I couldn't for my life get a good answer as to what kind of flower would be best for the day, so Mother and I selected a decent variety. Let's hope the expectant woman of the hour doesn't lash out regarding our choice."

"I don't think she'll be able to," Cynthia assured him, taking his hint and backing up a half-step so she could look at the flowers while he tried to decide where to set them. "They're all so pretty, kind of like she is. Pretty and radiant, and all sorts of different colors too! I bet she'll be super happy they're not all pink like, uh," she looked back at the presents, every single one of which was wrapped with some kind of pink paper, "everything else is."

While they were discussing the flowers, Brady and his arms filled with more presents walked over to add what he had to the stack, before picking Lunabel back up off the ground to keep her from ripping anything open. "None of those are for ya, sorry little miss," he apologized, kissing the top of her head between her pigtails as she tried to squirm away from him. "Ya don't get presents every time someone does, just sometimes."

"I really hope you don't intend on turning and showing her the cake that's in here," Severa commented, looking from the presents again to let her eyes settle on said cake, which was an impossible task as there were several people standing around it. "Uh, what are they doing? Noire's not even here and they're already digging in?"

Brady shook his head, turning as well despite what his wife had just said to him. "No, more like, they couldn't exactly ask the baker for a frosted message on it so Aunt Lissa decided she'd do it herself, even though she doesn't have a clue how to frost a cake. Only had to listen to her askin' every single one of us in the car if we knew how to do it on the way over here. Can't believe she managed to ask Noire to make the cake herself without tellin' her what it was for."

"Noire enjoys baking things for people, I'm sure she was happy to jump at the opportunity to bake something for someone that wasn't herself." Leaning from one side to the other to try and see past the wall of people surrounding the cake, Severa ended up giving up and sighing, resting herself against Brady's arm. "When do you think everyone else is going to get here? It's not going to just be you and Luna, Noire, Owain, his parents, the couple of their friends over there, and Inigo, is it?"

"If it was, we'd not be having this right now because that would be the rudest thing for them. Lucina and Laurent…gods know they'll show up late, if at all. Pretty sure Ma mentioned comin' in at some point, which makes sense because of how close her and Aunt Lissa are, and who knows, maybe others'll come too?" Brady did a quick headcount of everyone who was there, before shrugging. "I didn't actually know that Cynthia's folks were gonna be here, that's pretty nice of them. Adds to the people who did show."

"Yeah, well, I'm beginning to regret even coming into work today if this is the group I'm serving. How am I supposed to make any money off of you guys, especially if your sister and mother only might show up?" Severa was beginning to scowl as she started looking around again, the small number of people in the room really starting to irritate her.

That irritation only grew worse when another blonde woman came into the room, bags hanging from her arms. "My, my, this place looks awfully drab for being where a baby shower is happening in literal minutes. Haven't you all learned a thing or two about decorating for these things?" She was greeted with a wave of hellos, the weakest and most unimpressed coming from Severa, who was simultaneously thankful to see someone made of money walk in the room but disgusted that her mother-in-law was actually there. "Yes, I managed to sneak out of work for a little while to be present for the party, now why have none of you started decorating?"

While a weak case for why no one had begun putting up banners was explained to Maribelle, Severa stepped away, grabbing Cynthia by the arm and dragging her from where she was talking to Inigo to take her back towards the kitchen. "Hold on, I was totally in the middle of conversation there!" she protested, trying to drag her heels but not succeeding. "Severa, just because someone you don't like came in doesn't mean we have to actually work!"

"I know her far too well to know that she'd start complaining in seconds about waters not being brought to the party already, we should really get on that." In actuality, Severa was just trying to distance herself from Maribelle before anything could be said between them, knowing that one wrong word would start an argument she had no real interest in being part of. "Do you even know when Noire and Owain are supposed to get here?"

"Whenever he can get her to leave their place, I guess," Cynthia answered with a shrug, grabbing a tray and a stand for it for Severa to place filled glasses of water on once she had them. "They'll get here, though, I so believe in Owain's ability to convince her out on a lunch date or whatever lie it is he was planning on using to get her over here."

"Let's just hope that when they do get here, she doesn't explode on him with that scary side of herself for being lied to." Shuddering at the thought of that altercation happening, Severa started quickly filling the glasses and setting them on Cynthia's tray, and once she was done together they lifted it and carried it back to the room. It was a lot different-looking on the inside than it had been when they left, Maribelle's appearance causing everyone to shift into decorating mode, and it was starting to feel more like a baby shower should, even if it was a lot of family present and there weren't a whole lot of gifts.

There was also the added addition of the other people that Brady hadn't been sure of attending or not, plus one that he hadn't mentioned. It was that one when, seeing Severa, waved for her to approach him, and she obliged after getting that tray of waters sat down where Cynthia could dole them out, feeling no reason to deny her father-in-law that opportunity. "Apologies in advance if, due to me being here today, the restaurant as a whole ends up a bit more…crowded, if you will," Chrom said, before patting Severa on the shoulder. "Guess the rumor mill's been churning out some lovely stories about me, and you know how people love hearing stories about politicians."

"Don't worry, this party's all I'll be taking today, if it even ends up being a party." To say she was still a bit underwhelmed with the turnout was an understatement, as she looked around the room again and watched as Brady was trying his best to hang something up near the ceiling, Maribelle barking orders at him with Lunabel in her arms. "Ugh, who let her hold my baby…?"

"That would have been my suggestion." His voice flat, Chrom stopped patting her shoulder and instead pushed her a bit towards where she was looking. "As soon as you left she started calling for Maribelle and, well, you know how hard it is to resist that kid."

"Mama!" Lunabel shrieked, turning and seeing her mother stubbornly being pushed towards her. "Mama, look! Memawbelle!"

Before Severa could hush her child to stop the noise, Maribelle's attention was already drawn to the reason for the shrieking, her eyes going narrow but her smile trying to look at least somewhat pleasing when she saw Severa. "Ah yes, it seems that is indeed your mother, sweet child. Do you want to be back with her, or do you want to keep staying with your dear Memawbelle that you love so much?"

Lunabel contorted her face as she thought, before knocking her head back and announcing, "Memawbelle! Not silly Mama, nope!"

"That's my granddaughter, you know exactly who to be with." Kissing the girl gently, Maribelle's eyes were still narrowed towards Severa, who was actively rolling hers. "Oh, you know she only gets like this because spending time with me is a luxury she doesn't always get. She spends more time with various other family members before she does with me."

"You know, maybe there's a reason for that," Severa grumbled, before a loud shhhh filled the room, someone at the door spotting the most important guests of the day and wanting everyone to get into position. All decorating stopped on a dime, people diving for their seats at the table and leaving the two servers for the party stuck standing because they technically weren't allowed to be seated at that moment. Rather than stand in the middle of the room and draw attention to themselves, Cynthia chose to act like she was taking an order while Severa just stood against the wall, making herself invisible to a first scan of the room.

"Come on, oh please, we're almost there," they could all hear Owain saying in encouragement, and while they couldn't make out whatever Noire's soft response was, based on how he had to tell her that he didn't need to ask the person at the front for a table because he already had one held for them, it was probably something to do with the oddness of their arrival at the restaurant. She must have said something else too, because they could all hear him sigh and say, "Yeah, I know it's a long walk and you'd rather not have done it, but I figured a nice, quiet room would be better to sit than, you know, in any of the loud spots inside."

"I thank you for that, but…" Everyone who was sitting at the table was turning to watch what was unfolding, all able to see Owain shielding the entrance to the room with his body as they finished their conversation, Noire not sounding thrilled to be there at all. "Wouldn't it have been better to just not go out? I'm pretty sure everyone was just staring at us as we walked past them."

"Heh, nonsense! No one was staring at you, if they were doing any staring it would've been at me!" Laughing, Owain took a step backward, actually entering the room now, and the excitement that was building inside was making it hard to keep quiet and not say something to the couple in the doorway. "Now let's get to our table, I'd hate to keep you on your feet a second longer than necessary!"

He stepped aside, revealing the room to his wife, and her facial expression as she realized that it wasn't just a lunch date but rather an entire party for her was one that several people took pictures of for memory's sake. "Y-you all did this for me?" she asked, pointing to herself before letting her hand fall to the top of her stomach. "O-oh, that's really nice, it is. But how dare you lie to me about what we were doing out today!" She reached towards Owain with her other hand and tried to grab him, but he stepped further away with a sheepish grin. "If I'd known we'd be spending the day with family, I'd have dressed more appropriately!"

"There's nothing wrong with how you did dress," he assured her, still not stepping back to within her vengeful grasp. "Given the, uh, circumstances, you look great!" The general opinion among the group was that she looked fine, but Severa, standing against the wall and therefore unable to really voice her opinion with the rest of them, thought different. As she watched Noire fully come into the room, she couldn't help but feel a little judgmental about her; having been pregnant before, she was pretty confident in judging that something seemed to be a bit off about how large Noire was at the moment, almost as if she was days away from giving birth, not almost two months.

That wasn't anything she was going to tell anyone, though, especially not when the person it was about had such a low tolerance for any negativity before she completely snapped. The closest she got to even approaching that subject was a few minutes later, when her and Cynthia were out of the room ringing up the first round of orders for the party. "Is it me, or does that shirt Noire's wearing make her look a lot bigger than the last time we saw her?" Cynthia asked, making rounded gestures with her arms. "I can tell it's really clinging to her, which makes me think that—"

"As much as I'd love to talk about that with you," Severa interjected, "I kind of have a personal policy of not discussing that kind of stuff behind someone's back. I know I would've shanked someone if I found out they'd been talking about me like that when I was pregnant, so I wouldn't put that past Noire."

"But you were mostly just cake fat, remember?" If there was one bad thing about having these conversations with Cynthia, it was that she didn't always have a filter that kept the absurd and somewhat rude comments from coming out. Rather than reply and get dragged into the conversation she wasn't going to have with anyone, Severa mimed shutting lips with her hand and Cynthia sighed, catching on that her topic wasn't going to fly. "Okay, I'll drop it, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Severa really did not want Cynthia pressuring Noire for answers, so she thought for just a second for a reasonable explanation for what was being asked about. "You know, she might have gotten a taste of her own medicine and some karmic payback for what she tried doing to me," she suggested with a shrug. "Not like I think she deserves it, but if she let herself get attached to eating her own baked goods then that would explain this, don't you think?"

"I…guess it would! Thanks, Severa! Here I was getting worried that her baby was super huge or something." Laughing, Cynthia gave Severa a quick hug before getting started on ringing up her half of the order. "Even though she's really big, I still think Noire's super pretty. I hope that when I get to have a baby someday, I can manage to stay as pretty as she has."

"You're doing an awful lot of talking about having kids, are you trying to tell me something?" Raising an eyebrow at Cynthia, Severa saw how her friend started rapidly shaking her head and breaking into the good-girl explanation of how she was waiting until after she was married to even seriously consider it. "Okay, well, you haven't really stopped talking about babies today and you worried me a bit with it."

"I'm sorry, it must be something to do with what today is and what we're doing and all that," Cynthia said, still prepared to give more of her explanation if Severa didn't completely accept what she'd already said. "Trust me, having a kid before I get married is not in the cards. There isn't even enough time, anyway."

"Nothing saying you're not going to get right on it as soon as you're married, though." Smirking, Severa watched Cynthia shrink back a bit as she heard those words, more of that defense for her decision on her lips while she was putting in the order. "I'm just telling you, at this rate, I'm not going to be even a tiny bit surprised when you tell me you 'may or may not' have gotten knocked up on your wedding night."

"H-hey now, I've got better self-control than that!" Waving her hands in front of her face to try and calm herself from getting worked up over the suggestion, Cynthia playfully glared at Severa through the corners of her eye. "And since when did this become about me! We're not working for me right now, we're doing this for Noire, remember? She's the one actually having a baby anytime soon!"

"Yeesh, as if I could manage to forget that." Severa looked towards the room where she was sure some kind of fun was happening without them being there. "Trust me, I don't think I could ever forget that she's anywhere close to popping. Was one of the first people to know, have been there for almost every stupid question she's had to ask—"

"You also completely forgot that today was her baby shower." Finishing up the order with a dramatic press of the "send to kitchen" button, Cynthia grinned at Severa, only for her to be walked past without another word. "I'm just saying, it's the truth!"

Rejoining everyone in the room for a few moments before any appetizers that were ordered would need to be brought out, Severa (and Cynthia, once she followed her friend in) stood against the wall closest to the door, watching everyone's fun from a distance. There were still empty seats at the table, but Severa was pretty sure they weren't ever going to be filled, meaning that the small group that had gathered was going to be it. They were decently loud and filled with questions that were getting shouted out at random; from where she was standing she could tell that Noire was already quite overwhelmed at the attention that everyone was giving her, and trying to answer questions was not going so well.

It was kind of like a train wreck, it was only getting worse but it was so hard to look away, but there came a point where it was clear that she was just about to start lashing out at everyone like she was capable of. Severa looked to Cynthia, who was side-stepping towards the door to leave the room before any yelling started, before looking back at everyone who was sitting around just yelling their curious questions at Noire. She wanted to say something to get them all to stop, but at the same time, the morbid curiosity of how that verbal lashing would happen was keeping her from saying anything. There must have been some worried expression on her face as she was looking around, though, because she heard someone at the table clear their throat to try and silence everyone, which when that was ignored she saw Lissa jump to her feet and start using her words to get the room to go quiet.

That was as good a time as any to leave and grab the starting round of the meal, Severa decided, and so she headed out once more with Cynthia already outside the room waiting for her. "I don't hear yelling, so I'm assuming someone stepped in before Noire had enough," she said, Severa nodding at the correct guess. "That's good. Poor girl doesn't need that kind of stress in her life. I bet that's not good for the baby."

"Look, it's you talking about babies again, what a surprise." Her deadpan voice was enough to make Cynthia laugh, despite having been called out on her topic of conversation, and the two ladies made it a point to get what they needed as fast as possible to return to the party without missing too much.

Of course, with the nature of the group they were dealing with, it was hard to guess how much they'd miss over the course of a couple minutes while they were waiting for the kitchen to get its act together and properly make the necessary food. When they came back in, each of them with a tray carrying either food or a few drinks that had been rang in with the order, it was once again a different scene than when they'd left it. Wrapping paper was scattered across the floor, a small stack of opened baby gifts already piling up, and Noire seemed to be trying her best to look enthusiastic about what she was receiving. It was hard to watch her opening anything when there were plates to deliver, but both of the servers were able to at least hear what was being said with the opening of every gift while they were in there.

"Oh good, exactly what we needed. More clothes." Whoever's gift she'd just opened, based on how flat her voice was it was clear Noire was not thrilled with it. "I know that new stuff is nice and all, but we've got so much hand-me-down stuff already that the baby's never going to get to wear everything."

"You have to at least think these look nice, though! And they're, uh," Owain grabbed the topmost onesie from the stack that Noire was holding and brought it close enough to his face so that he could read the tag on it, "they're a lot bigger than a lot of what we have already, so that's good! Future planning!"

"Yes, but where do we keep the things she's not going to wear right away? We're already tight on space as it is, and don't even try telling me that we'll make it work, because I know that we won't." Giving a loud hmph, Noire snatched back the clothing and threw all of it into the pile, stretching her arms out to imply she wanted something else to open. "I just want the things we need right now, that's all."

Looking up from the tray she was doling things out from, Severa narrowed her eyes at Noire and her diva-like behavior, understanding why she was acting how she was but not appreciating it in the slightest. "You'd be enjoying that stuff a lot more if we hadn't given you everything we could part with from when Luna was a baby," she grumbled, shaking her head. "Seriously, new things are probably better than used ones, appreciate them."

"Well don't worry, you know that you'll have more gifts waiting for you back home that we didn't want to unload on you here," Lissa assured Noire, handing her the next box from the pile with a wink. "Trust me, I am so going to spoil my little grandbaby as much as I possibly can, and that kind of stuff builds up over time."

"I know you are, you're playing the role of hands-on grandmother much better than my own mother would, but I still wish people were giving us what we really need!" Noire was already tearing into the box she'd been given, sighing dramatically when she unwrapped yet another package of clothing. It took both Lissa and Owain showing her something about the package to keep her from throwing it and sinking into a meltdown, but even then she was on the verge of becoming everyone's worst nightmare with every following gift she opened. Something was a bit odd about how she seemed so ungrateful for what she was being given, but there was no reason to question it outwardly because she was, after all, an incredibly pregnant woman that was naturally susceptible to intense changes in behavior. Her not wanting certain things must have made sense in her mind, even if it didn't in everyone else's.

The strangeness about her behavior aside, the party seemed to be going smoothly, and as people started eating what they'd been given Cynthia and Severa once again slipped out of the room. It wasn't quite time for them to start traying up actual meals, which raised a bit of a red flag in Severa's mind when she saw Cynthia leaving again, but once they were back where no one in the room would hear them she got her explanation without having to ask for it. "I'm starting to get worried that something's wrong with Noire, and I don't want to tell anyone else it because I think they'll just tell me I'm crazy for thinking so, but…" Cynthia looked to Severa for some kind of validation. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

"I wouldn't say so, no. Something does smell a bit fishy about all of this, but I'm chalking it up to one of two things. One, Noire's off her medication and her mind's going all haywire trying to handle that. Two, she's just fuc—she's just pregnant and completely unbalanced for it." Severa shrugged, not sure if her options were what Cynthia wanted to hear or not. "I'm going to lean towards the second one, Noire's pretty good with making sure she's keeping herself from losing her mind."

"You'd know that feeling better than I would, I suppose." Also shrugging, Cynthia looked back to the room and sighed. "I bet one of those things that she was criticizing is what miss Lissa bought for her for me, and that just makes me feel kind of bad for not buying something for her myself."

"Probably for the best that you didn't, you'd have gone overboard with it, and besides, it's not like you know what they already have." A pause, time during which Severa also looked to the room. "I don't even know what they already have, aside from what me and Brady gave them right after they found out the baby was a she. I…honestly haven't even been to their place since then, now that I think about it."

"I haven't been over there either, not in a long time. Haven't been invited, but that's pretty normal." Her eyes flickered from one side to the other, before she added, "And, really, I think the only times that Inigo's seen Owain lately have been either while they're out or when they're at my place. I can't say that's really normal, he used to spend days over at their place playing games."

"So did Brady, although not as much as Inigo did I'm sure." Severa twisted her mouth as she thought about the possibilities of what this all meant, but she ultimately decided not to question it. "It's probably to do with all the prep work they've done, and, honestly, no one wants to spend time in an apartment filled with baby things everywhere. I have to live it in my daily life, I'd not exactly want to go hang out somewhere that's the same cluttered mess."

"Makes sense to me!" Laughing, Cynthia turned her attention back towards the kitchen. "Now let's start making headway on the food for this party, I don't want to have a single thing be wrong and ruin the party that way. I doubt your mother-in-law would tip us a cent if we screwed the meal up."

Severa could feel anger rising within her at the mere mention of Maribelle, but she ignored it for the truth in Cynthia's words. "You're right, she wouldn't, and if we're going to make any money off this party we need to impress the hell out of Brady's parents. Your parents and Owain's parents too, but they're not made of money like the others are."

Truer words had never been spoken regarding the wealth status of the families in the room, and so it became a game of trying to make sure that if anything were to go wrong, it wouldn't go wrong with anything that was being fed to the richer people in the group. Ultimately nothing was going to go wrong at all, and the ladies would find themselves splitting a large tip between them when the meal was over, but just because the food went out right and everything at the party halted for lunch didn't mean that it was the end of their afternoon adventure. With the party taking up the entire section for both ladies, they could rest and focus less on being good servers and more on what was happening socially, and that meant sitting with their loved ones and enjoying the rest of the party like guests. Even with that in mind, there wasn't that much left to the party aside from talking and enjoying the cake that had been brought and crudely decorated, which was perfectly fine in Severa's mind. She could handle just having to listen to conversation and eating some fine baking.

After the meal was done and the dirty dishes were removed (Cynthia handled that task, as somehow Lunabel had ended up on her mom's lap and refused to move even when she needed to get to work), the talking started up, as predicted. "I'm really happy you all came to spend the afternoon with me," Noire said, looking at everyone there with a content smile. "I wish I had known I was coming to this, but I'm glad it happened."

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're all enjoying getting to be here for you today," Lissa told her, scooting her chair a bit closer to Noire's before reaching over to rest a hand on her stomach with only a slight flinch from Noire at the contact. "That's what you get for being part of a family group like this one, lots of love and care!"

"Mom, please, not in front of everyone…" Grimacing a bit as he looked to his mother, Owain didn't speak again until she'd apologized and retreated back to her seat, hands back in her lap. "We're well-aware of how much everyone here cares about us, which is awesome, given that Noire's parents don't exactly talk to her or anything." His grimace turned to a smile, as he got up and stood behind Noire, leaning down to rest on her back while she tilted her head up to look at him. "This day has gone over a lot better than I could've ever imagined it would, so thanks so much to all of you for making it happen."

"Mama, it cake time now!" It wasn't Lunabel asking if she could have cake so much as it was her loudly proclaiming that she was going to get some, hopping off of her mother's lap and screeching when Severa got up after her to chase her down, trying to keep her away from the cake at all costs. The girl's behavior broke up the sappy thank you conversation, everyone turning to chattering about wanting some cake for themselves, but no one wanted any of it as much as little Lunabel did.

She didn't enjoy getting a tiny piece when compared to some of the others, and when she was denied any extra pieces she threw herself to the floor and started pitching the loudest fit that she possibly could. Her fists and legs flying, she kept repeating that she wanted more cake until someone took pity on her and gave her another piece, much to Severa and Brady's dismay, because they both knew how she'd handle having it. The cycle was only going to repeat itself until she made herself sick on the sugar, but what was worse, a crying child or one that was throwing up?

Choosing to let her cry and try suckering someone into giving her a third piece of cake was what they chose, which earned a couple of raised eyebrows and a few muttered complaints, but no one was as vocal about it as Noire herself was. "Not…all kids do that when it comes to cakes, do they?" she timidly asked, bringing her arms to wrap around her stomach as best as she could. "I don't know if I could handle that behavior regularly."

Although Severa knew that the crying was the result of Lunabel inheriting the same sweet tooth that she had, she wasn't going to come out and blame this on herself. "Consider yourself on the fast track to these kinds of fits all the time then, miss baker," she said, hearing Noire's gasp and laughing at it over the sounds of Lunabel's still-ongoing fit. "It's just how it is when you raise a kid around sweets like the ones you bake."

"Then maybe I'll just stop baking entirely." Noire's conclusion was the exact opposite of anything Severa wanted to hear, which turned the tables on what had just happened. Instead of getting the last laugh about freaking a friend out about the way kids behaved, she was the recipient of what sounded like the worst possible idea in the history of the world, said in a voice so sincere that it couldn't have been a joke. "Or maybe I'll have to, who knows. It's probably hard to bake when raising a child."

Without thinking about what she was saying, her mind focused on how she'd be able to remedy the problem at hand, Severa gave an offer she immediately regretted. "If that's the case, I'll gladly watch your kid so you can keep baking things for…everyone." She was going to say for herself, but she couldn't have made it sound like she was the only one who would miss if she just stopped baking entirely. "We can't lose your gift in this world."

The reaction she got was some awkward laughter, followed with an acceptance of the offer if the need ever arose.


Roughly a month later, in the middle of her shift at work, Severa was pulled aside by one of her managers to be let known a change in her plans for the day, that someone had called the restaurant to pass along the message that she needed to hang around after her shift for a ride rather than just walk home. She was suspicious of the message, but knowing how many different people it could have been saying that she didn't think too much of it, accepting it for what it was. Assuming that it was her father, who'd been the one in charge of watching Lunabel for the day while both she and Brady were at work, she went on with the rest of her shift without much more thought to it.

That changed when she clocked out and went outside to sit around waiting for her ride and found her own car parked there, Brady sitting behind the wheel and looking at her like she was being slow despite not knowing he'd be there. "So, uh, how much did the person I talked to tell ya about what's goin' on?" he asked as she climbed in. Her silence was a good response, as she hadn't been told anything at all, which let him dominate the conversation for a few minutes while they got on the road heading somewhere that wasn't their apartment or either of their parents' houses. "Figured they wouldn't say a word, wouldn't need ya stressin' out about what's happenin'."

"I'm trying to understand why you're here right now. You were already gone when I walked to work this morning." Pursing her lips as she looked over at her husband, she saw him nod in agreement with her words, which only made her more curious. "You weren't, for instance, somewhere you shouldn't have been, were you?"

His nodding stopped as a quick headshake took its place. "No way, did my normal morning routine. Dropped Luna off with who's watchin' her, then headed off to work. Nothing there to be suspicious about, Sev."

"Then what gives? Why are you not at work when you should be, taking me somewhere that I didn't even ask to go?" Her attention turned to the area outside the car, which was filled with taller buildings that filled entire city blocks. They were getting into the heart of town, which still didn't make any sense to her, until she noticed that he was following all the signs pointing towards the downtown hospital. "O-oh, I think I know what's going on here."

"Yeah, figured you'd catch on once we were gettin' closer. My uncle said we were closin' up shop early today so he could get over there as fast as possible, but he didn't want me comin' until ya were off work for whatever reason." Taking another turn that led them into an underground parking garage, Brady shrugged at what he'd just said. "It didn't make much sense, but y'know that arguin' with him just doesn't work."

"I can't believe today's the day," Severa said, basically ignoring all the rambling Brady had just done. "No wonder this is all hush-hush, that poor baby wasn't supposed to be born for another month or something like that. They must be worried sick about her."

"I wasn't told much about how she's doin', so I'd guess that might be why." They were parking now, getting out of the car and heading to the main part of the hospital as quickly as they could. Once they were right inside, Brady pulled out his phone and looked at something on it, trying to make sense of whatever the message on his screen said. "Okay, guess we need to go upstairs to find the room. From the looks of it, we're gonna be the first people here, aside from the obvious ones."

Severa couldn't help but smile at that news. "So we get to be the first not-immediate family members to meet the baby. That's awesome! Serves us right for being so supportive throughout all of this, doesn't it?"

"I'd say it does, definitely." Brady reached for his wife's hand as she gave it to him, them interlocking their fingers as they walked towards the elevator up a couple of floors to the one they wanted. They came out on the opposite side of the floor from where the nursery was, which Severa thought was a bit strange as she'd figured that most of the birthing rooms were near it, but after following the directions Brady had been given they ended up in front of a room even further from the nursery than the elevator had been.

"This doesn't look like it's the room of someone who's just had a baby," Severa stated, suspiciously looking at the bare door they were in front of, especially when compared to some of the doors around that had small decorations in either pink or blue announcing the birth of a child. "I think something's going on here and we're early."

"No, believe me when I say that she's definitely already had the kid. Never heard my uncle scream like that before today." With a deep breath, Brady pushed open the door and found some familiar faces waiting for them on the other side, both of the people staring at him holding fingers to their lips to tell them to keep quiet. "See, would ya look at this, Sev? Right place after all."

She couldn't argue with him, especially not when she properly came in and saw how ecstatic the people already there seemed to be. "I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on her having had the baby already, but at least we know we didn't get lost."

"I'd show you the pictures of the event but, uh, they're kind of gross and I don't think you'd want to see those," Owain told them, rubbing at his arm. "That was a ride that I don't think I'd ever want to go on again, ever. So many emotions coursing through me at once! This whole 'parenting' thing is already an adventure and I've barely started."

As he got up and met Brady halfway between their current positions for a hug, Severa looked to Noire, entirely expecting to see her just silently laying there with a sleeping child in her arms. But when she found mother sleeping and no child in sight, she grew suspicious, her mind tracking back to the bare door they'd encountered, leading her to ask, "Where's the kid, huh? When Lunabel was born they gave her to me right away and I got to spend all sorts of time with her."

"I've been asking that myself, actually," Lissa replied, giving a quick glance towards the door. "By the time I got here, which was as soon as I possibly could, everything was already over with and there was no baby in sight. And since we have no idea when we'll get to meet the little princess," she stifled a laugh at the nickname, "and it was such a rushed thing getting over here that we didn't bring any balloons or anything, Vaike decided he'd go out and get something to celebrate. But it's been an hour already since he left, I've got no clue where he might've gotten off to…"

"I'm not pulling a search party for him." To drive her point home, Severa simply sat down in the empty seat next to Lissa, her eyes still looking Noire over. "Besides, I'm sure wherever he is has a lot more going on than here does."

"I get that you're not happy to come in to nothing happening, but please be respectful of my mother, Severa," Owain told her, breaking from his hug to sit back in his own seat, drawing his legs up to wrap his arms around them. "You'll get to meet her when the time's right, which might be soon or it might not, who knows!"

Under her breath, not intending to be heard, Severa grumbled, "Judging by how there's nothing on the door here, I'm going to go with it not being any time soon at all."

"There's nothing on the door? Did he really take those down when he left?" Rushing to her feet to go investigate on what she'd heard, Lissa's statement left Owain going a bit wide-eyed for a second while Brady and Severa exchanged a look between them that was of pure confusion, trying to tell just how much they were reading into what she'd said.

"Uh, don't mind if I'm askin' too much here, but what else was on the door besides the little thing they put on all the doors?" Brady ended up asking Owain, having lost the silent argument between himself and Severa on who was going to do it. "Knowin' you, it could've been a whole lot of things."

"We'd made a sign to go along with the one they provided, so you'd know you were coming to the right room, but I didn't realize that when Dad left he took that with him." Owain tilted his head a bit forward, letting it rest on one of his knees. "It's been one crazy day already, I'm sure he didn't do it to be spiteful or anything."

When Lissa came back into the room, she didn't have with her any signs or her wayward husband, but she did have another family member following behind her. "I found Lucina wandering around looking for the room," she explained, stepping aside so that her niece could come fully into everyone's view. "She at least made a stop to get something before she dropped by, which I think will be appreciated."

"Yes, well, I wanted to make sure there was some brightness in the room at all times," Lucina explained, shuffling her feet as she adjusted the small vase of flowers in her hands. "I did the honors of letting Inigo know what's happened while I was picking these out, by the way," she told Owain, him perking his head back up to nod in understanding at her. "He said he might be by after he gets off work, but he didn't want to come in until you gave him the all-clear on it."

"I'll get right on telling him he can come by once everyone who's already here has gotten to see what they've come for," Owain laughed, one of his laughs fading into a sigh as he looked to Noire and how she was still asleep. "Gods I hope they don't expect her to be awake for this, if I've had a day already she's had it so much worse."

"Aw, but I'd want to see her holding her baby," Lucina said, setting the vase down on the first countertop she saw so that she could free her hands to reach into a bag over her shoulder. "Laurent gave me the camera so I could take a professional, baby book-worthy picture of the moment."

"I'm awake," they all heard Noire say, as she rolled her head and neck to show everyone how close to asleep she actually was. She slowly opened her eyes, trying to look at all the people present, and she smiled when she saw that there were quite a few familiar faces there. "This is so strange, I figured it would be so few of you here when I woke up."

Unwrapping his arms from his legs so he was sitting in his chair properly, Owain gave a long sigh as he watched Noire very tiredly trying to move around in the bed. "They're all here because they're eager to meet a certain someone," he reminded her, reaching out for the side of her bed and grabbing onto it. "Except my dad, I think he got lost or might've found some other family to play with."

"Better than my family, my parents don't have a clue that any of this is going on." Hearing Noire say that wasn't much of a surprise, everyone knowing the story of her family well enough to know that she might just try keeping her child secret from them for the rest of time. "I can't imagine how they'd take this news, honestly. It's a lot to take in."

"I know they're apparently crazy as hell, but I bet they'd take it about as well as Ma did when she first found out about Luna, huh?" Brady whispered to Severa, who nearly snorted at the idea. "Can't imagine anythin' goin' over much worse than that did."

A knock at the door caught everyone's attention, a whole bundle of balloons entering the airspace that were quickly cause for some suspicious eyebrow raises. "Oh would you look at that, we found your father," Lissa said, looking to Owain as he went from trying to say something to sighing (in what sounded like relief) at what he saw. "Guess he didn't get too lost after all."

"How many shops did you have to hit to find all those?" he ended up asking, going from checking out the balloons to looking at his father's face that was lit up in happiness. "You did an amazing job on that, Dad. We appreciate it, a whole lot!"

"Oh, it only took one store, once I was out 'a the big city and could actually stop somewhere," Vaike replied, tying the balloons to the first tie-able surface he found before heading to sit in the only other open spot in the room, a hard-looking chair situated right between his wife and son. "Lemme just say that neither 'a you ever tell me t'look for such specific things again in my life. That woulda been so much easier if I coulda just picked whatever I wanted."

"Specific things…?" Her eyes focusing on the balloons and drowning out any conversation that was struck up with the new presence, Severa couldn't help but notice something about every balloon in the bunch, something that no one else seemed bothered by. With that in mind, she motioned for Brady to lean down close enough for her to whisper into his ear, "Uh, B, they're all gender-neutral. I think something's going on here, and I don't want to ask about it, but I'm thinking they got duped on what the baby was."

After the initial shock of her suggestion wore off, Brady also looked to the balloons and could make sense of what she was saying. "That is really strange, especially since everythin' at the baby shower was bright pink," he replied, "but maybe they just wanted a little less pink stuff in their lives?"

"I don't know if I want to believe that," Severa said, raising her voice so that more than just Brady would hear her. "I think someone needs to tell us what's going on here, because I think there's something weird happening."

The room fell silent, everyone's conversations dying off at the assertion that anything was going on. While Severa looked around at all the faces, everyone there acting like they didn't know what was going on, she missed the new knock at the door followed by the sound of wheels rolling across the floor, but she was quickly set to paying attention when Brady softly hit her on the arm with his fist and a hushed "Sev, look!"

It was about time that they'd brought the baby into the room, the attached devices taking up enough space to make the room feel incredibly more cramped than it already had. But for some reason, a reason that was just beginning to click in both Brady and Severa's minds, they'd brought two babies in. "So, uh, presenting the greatest secret anyone in this family's ever managed to keep," Owain said in introduction, while everyone else who was sitting was getting to their feet and those already on their feet were crowding around the two separate baby carriers. "Which really wasn't a secret to most of you here, but you sure helped us keep it secret from the rest."

"My babies…" Noire was trying to sit herself up to see them, but when she found herself unable to do so comfortably the doctors wheeled the children closer to her, everyone else still trying to get a good look. She smiled down at them when she got the chance, tears welling in her eyes as she reached towards them and their almost-identical newborn faces. "My sweet daughter Ophelia and my darling son Odin…"

It was a touching and completely shocking moment to witness (for some of them, anyway), only marginally ruined by Owain beaming and letting everyone know that he'd come up with those names all on his own. But even that disconnect from the moment couldn't change the fact that those two had managed to make it so many months with only letting a handful of people, all of whom were present then, know about there being two babies instead of one.