Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 53: In Which Feli Gives a Suggestion

People's voices sounded pretty silly when they spoke while jumping in a bouncy house. It was like the words thudded down into their chests when they landed and then flew up toward the ceiling when their feet left the floor. Feli giggled to herself when Ally's voice bounced out, "Man, I haven't gotten to play in a bouncy house in like centuries."

She was sitting on the floor, bouncing every time Ally landed. "Yeah, it is pretty fun."

"I think last time was when I was at Chelsie's party in third grade. Although, they did have an inflatable boxing ring at this festival thing during middle school." She lifted her feet up so she fell onto her back; she bounced a few times before coming to a stop. Then, she spread out her arms and legs like a starfish, while grinning up at the ceiling. "Man, that was great. Jason's face when I knocked him down with one punch. He kept going on and on about how he wasn't gonna get beat by a girl."

Feli giggled. "That sounds really fun! We had a festival during middle school too. It was like a carnival with all sorts of games and I got to hang out with Kiku for most of it! It was really really fun!"

"That sounds sweet. Kiku's fun to hang with." She lifted a hand to cover her mouth and yawned.

"Are you tired?" Feli hoped not. The party hadn't even started yet! At least, she assumed it hadn't. Hopefully Lovi would come to get them before the party started.

"Eh," Ally waved her arm in the air. "A little. It's cool, though." She pulled herself upright and crossed her legs. "I can totally go all night long! I just didn't get a ton of sleep last night."

"Ve~ That's not good!"

Ally didn't seem particularly concerned, since she just shrugged. Feli knew that not getting enough sleep was really bad for you, though. Lovi sometimes had trouble getting to sleep and she was always super grumpy afterwards. She also had trouble pay attention to things and once walked straight into a door, giving herself a black eye. She then, for some reason, refused to tell anyone the truth about how she got the black eye. Antonio was really worried, so she eventually lied and said that it was Feli's fault for knocking a shelf on top of her.

Feli now had a tendency to worry when people told her that they hadn't slept very well. Walking into doors and then blaming it on somebody else wasn't a nice experience for anyone. "Why didn't you get a lot of sleep last night?"

For a moment, Ally didn't respond. She was still sitting in the same spot, but now she frowned and stared down at the bouncy floor. "Well... I dunno. I was just thinking about stuff. Nothing bad, just... Ya know, stuff."

That didn't really explain anything, but as long as it wasn't bad stuff, then everything was okay!

She stood, wavering a little bit as she adjusted to the unsteady flooring. "Well, we should go in, then! It'll be a lot harder to fall asleep inside or think about stuff!"

Ally stared at her for a moment with blank eyes, but then she grinned and jumped up. She almost knocked Feli entirely off balance. "Sounds like a plan!"

Feli steadied herself, then hopped out of the bouncy house. She glanced toward the snacks she brought out earlier. They were still there, carefully covered to keep any insects from crawling inside.

Ally jumped down to join her, then asked, "How's your sister doing with this whole thing, anyway?"

"Thing?" Which 'thing' was she was referring to? Her thoughts hopped to the whole mess with Antonio and Franny, but Ally wouldn't know about that. She wouldn't know about their papa either. Feli couldn't think of any other 'thing' that was happening...

"Yeah, the wedding."

Oh! That thing!

She probably should've thought about that first, but honestly, it felt like her sister's worries about the actual wedding had been pushed aside by everything else. Was that a good thing or not? It meant Lovi didn't have time to panic and that definitely seemed like a positive result. "Lovi's really happy to be getting married to Antonio." She knew that, at the very least.

Ally nodded. "Yeah, I bet. I just can't imagine being ready to get married right now, so it seems like she's gotta be freaking out."

"Ve~" Yeah, Feli couldn't imagine herself getting married anytime soon either; she didn't feel like she was even close to being ready to make that big of a decision. But, Lovi was a very different person than her. She was more mature—everybody thought so, and Feli didn't really mind. She also made important decision-making look easy. Feli knew that Lovi worried about her choices just as much as anyone else, but she was really good at acting totally confident.

And this decision was just natural. Lovi and Antonio belonged together and Feli knew that her sister was ready to get married. There wasn't any point in waiting any longer, then. They would get married and start a family and soon Feli would get to be an auntie! She was really excited for that.

"I think she's a little nervous," she finally said. "But, she's thought about it a lot and she and Antonio have talked and made sure it's what they both want, so... I think Lovi knows that she's ready."

Ally nodded. "Yeah." She didn't speak for a moment, just stared at the door to the house like she was thinking. When she finally spoke, her words were so quiet that Feli could barely hear her. "Sure wish I did."

She was pretty sure she wasn't meant to hear that, so she remained quiet. After a few moments of silence, she sent Ally a hopefully-reassuring smile and opened the door. "We should definitely head inside!"

Ally sent her a return smile and passed her. She immediately called out, "Dudes, you totally should've joined us in the bouncy house!"

Feli followed, allowing the screen door to bang closed. She wondered what Ally meant by that, but she knew that it probably wasn't something she should ask about. It seemed like everybody had things they were worrying about right now. She just hoped everything worked out; she wanted all of her friends and family to be happy.

Which reminded her...

She held back. She could hear her sister respond to Ally's greeting with a sharp, annoyed retort. Lovi definitely wasn't feeling very comfortable right now, since she hated being the center of attention more than anything. Once Feli joined them, she would feel better, but she would be okay for a few moments more.

Where had she put her phone? She knew she left it in the kitchen, because Lovi told her to put it down before it fell out of her pocket and had yelled 'Not there! It'll end up falling into the trash!'

She turned into the kitchen and searched the counters, knowing that she needed to hurry before there was a really bad clash of personalities. She finally found it inside the knife drawer—why was it there?—and hurriedly turned on the screen.

Ludwig had texted her! She thought he probably would. She grinned to herself and flopped down onto a stool next to the kitchen island, humming to herself as she opened her messages.

Hello Feliciana. I hope your party is going well. I would like it if you called me as soon as possible. It's about my task.

Ludwig always wrote his texts like he was writing an actual letter. It was silly and absolutely adorable.

'As soon as possible.' She hoped that didn't mean that he was having trouble with his job. She hesitated, then carefully listened for any sounds coming from the living room. No shouting, which was good. Everything was muffled, so she couldn't make out what they were saying. She could hear laughter from Ally again, though. Nothing too terrible could be happening, then.

A short little phone call with Ludwig wouldn't hurt. Feli quickly pressed the call button next to his name and brought the phone to her ear, swinging her feet as she kept the other ear open for any sounds of fighting in the living room.

Ludwig always picked up the phone very quickly. It only managed to ring twice before he answered. "Hello, Feli."

She couldn't keep from smiling at the sound of his voice. "Hi, Ludwig! I called you!"

There was a moment's pause, then he responded. "Yes, you did."

Maybe she didn't need to tell him that, since it was pretty obvious. But that was okay. "You said I should call as soon as possible, so that's what I did! Ally and I bounced around in the bouncy house for a while, though, so I think we'll be starting the party soon."

"That's fine." He sounded a little hurried. "I just... I wanted to tell you that I'm not certain if I can complete my task."

"Ve~ Why not?"

He paused. "Leon isn't here."

Oh... Well, that wasn't very good. She hadn't even considered that Leon might not be there. He was best friends with Robin, so she assumed she invited him. Lovi must have assumed he'd be there, too, or she wouldn't have asked Ludwig to spy on them.

She would probably be really unhappy to hear about this.

Ludwig continued. "He was here when Gillian and I arrived, but I wasn't able to observe his interactions with Francis for very long. Gill was distracting and then—um—" He stopped, and then seemed to decide that he wasn't going to continue with that sentence. "I did see them outside, through the window, right before he left, though. I—I didn't mean to watch, but..."

Aw, poor Ludwig sounded so embarrassed. Feli wanted to give him a hug, but all she could really do was send a mental hug and hope he could feel it on the other end. "That's okay, Ludwig. You were spying on them for a good reason!"

Ludwig coughed. "It—I wasn't trying to spy."

"Ve~ What did you see?" Ludwig wouldn't mention seeing something if it weren't important. "Was it good? Do you think they could fall in love? Mr. Leon's so nice and I think he and Francis would be really happy together."

"Well, I couldn't see very clearly, since I was viewing them from the second floor. I could be wrong, of course, but I thought I saw them..." He hesitated again, then mumbled out something that sounded like, "Very close."

"Close?"

"Yes." He coughed. "I am not entirely sure, but they may have been..." Another mumble, this one entirely unintelligible.

Feli could hear raised voices from the living room now, so she really needed to hurry, but she also wanted to know what Ludwig saw. "Ve~ You don't need to be embarrassed, Ludwig! I'm sure they weren't doing anything bad!"

Ludwig made a grunting sort of noise like he wasn't so sure about that, but finally continued. "I believe I saw them... kissing."

Kissing?

"I could be wrong, though," he added before she could comment. "As I said, I was observing them from a distance and I also noticed that Arthur was with them. I don't think that either of them would do...that...in front of him."

Feli was pretty sure that wasn't true, because Francis definitely didn't mind kissing people in front of other people. At the last Christmas party, he handed out kisses under the mistletoe to anyone who walked underneath, and there were plenty of people around to see him.

This, however, would be different. If Francis was kissing Mr. Leon and there wasn't any mistletoe, then that might just be the clue they were looking for! It also would mean that they wouldn't need to do anything to make Leon and Francis fall in love, because they were already in love!

She kicked her feet excitedly. "Ludwig, this is important! Was it a romantic kiss or a friendly kiss?"

"I—um..."

It was usually pretty easy to tell, but Ludwig did say that he was far away and he always got embarrassed when he saw people kiss and looked away. It was another adorable thing about Ludwig, but not very helpful in this situation.

"Feli!"

That was her sister. Feli could hear her stomping toward the kitchen, which meant her phone call was about to be cut short.

"Ve~ Ludwig, maybe you should just ask Francis?"

It sounded like Ludwig choked on something. Feli was about to ask if he was okay, but he interrupted her. "Ask?"

"Ve~" Lovi had appeared in the doorway and was sending her a very scary, 'what do you think you're doing?' glare. Feli rushed out her next words. "Well, if they already like each other, then it'd be kind of silly to spy on them and try to get them to fall in love. It'd be better to just ask! Anyway, Lovi looks really annoyed right now, so I gotta go. Bye bye, Ludwig! Have fun!" Then she hung up.

Lovi was tapping her foot against the floor, arms crossed over her chest, as she sent Feli a scowl that was filled with the sting of betrayal. "What the fuck are you doing out here?"

"Talking to Ludwig." Feli hopped down from the stool and crossed the room to join her sister. Lovi was frowning, which wasn't really surprising. She kept glancing around, though, and her hands were clenched into tight fists. "Is the party going okay?"

Lovi's gaze immediately snapped toward her. "I guess. How should I fucking know?"

Hmm, that was definitely an 'I'm feeling overwhelmed and unhappy right now' sort of answer. Feli should definitely join the party now, just to help her sister feel more comfortable. She smiled and then grabbed one of her sister's twitching hands, twining their fingers together like she did when they were little kids. "Well, we should go and make sure, then!"

Lovi looked, for a moment, like she was trying to decide between yanking her hand away and leaving it there and pretending she didn't notice Feli's grip. She seemed to eventually settle on the latter and changed the subject. "You were saying something about somebody already liking each other. That was...?"

"Mr. Leon and Francis."

Lovi didn't respond to that for a few moments. She stared at her, and then made a snorting sound before she turned and began walking toward the living room. Feli followed. "I should've figured. I go to all that work to come up with a plan and the bastards beat us to it."

Feli didn't think that Lovi's plan took very long to come up with, but decided to keep the thought to herself. "This means that Francis will be happy now, though. That's good! We can tell Antonio—"

"Don't bother him about it. Things aren't gonna be that easy. Issues don't just poof away 'cause you're dating somebody else." She slowed and then stopped a few feet away from the living room door. Feli could feel Lovi's grip tighten slightly. She really didn't like being the center of attention; not for something like this at least.

Feli squeezed back. "We'll have a really fun party, Lovi. I promise! We're celebrating you and Antonio getting married, after all."

Lovi sent her a very quick, unreadable glance, but then sighed out for a long while before nodding. "Yeah, might as well get this stupid thing over with." Then, she stepped into the room, Feli right behind her.


A/N: ...Hmm, I actually don't have much to say in my note this time. Outside of "Omg, just ASK him! Do you know what you're saying, you crazy woman!?" That's what Ludwig's thinking. Poor child. Although more politely, because Luddy wouldn't call Feli a crazy woman.

Haven't been doing super great the last few weeks, but I should be getting to the doctor soon, so hopefully things'll get better... Not sure if writing will get any faster, unfortunately, since I need to be working on my thesis as well, but c'est la vie. I think the next chapters should take less time, since they're more action-y and this was more of a catch up.

Anyway, reviews are always appreciated and help keep me motivated! Especially during times of awful thesisyness. I appreciate any encouragement and nice thoughts!