With Finn content to lie in bed strumming the harp, Harv brought the soiled rags down to the dirty wash bin. He stole away to the kitchen on the way back to pilfer from the biscuit tin while he knew the witch was busy. However, he nearly ditched his handful of treats when he heard her voice down the hall.
"For the last time, he's not here." Leenan went to close the front door, but whoever it was shoved their boot in the frame. Harv lingered in the kitchen hoping to overhear a familiar voice.
"Can you at least hold this for him until he is?" That was Trevor! "He's friends with Finn, he can make sure it gets to him." Harv's heart hammered in his chest. What was Trevor doing here? How did he find him? Should he run to the door and greet him or keep hiding?
"If it will make you go away." Leenan took something from him and slammed the door in his face. She stormed into the kitchen with a covered dish. Harv caught it just before it hit the rubbish bin. Leenan gave him a curious look. "What are you doing? It's probably poisoned." Harv clutched the dish close to his chest.
"I just wanted to see what it is." Harv said sheepishly.
"I can't stop you from eating garbage," Leenan said, "but for heaven's sake don't do it in public." She shook her head and walked out of the room. Harv, cautiously lifted the lid. The crust had broken from being treated so roughly, otherwise it was a perfectly good strawberry tart.
"Why isn't it cherry?" Finn asked, causing Harv to jump. He looked at the smug bard with disdain. Finn had circled around him to grab some biscuits of his own.
"Finn, I told you to stay out of this." Harv said.
"I have!" Finn said, holding his hands up as if at knife point. "I may have told Trevor you were staying here before you said to mind my own business. And I may have brought up you'd appreciate a visit of sorts, a bid for attention if you will. It was super casual, very subtle. He's the one that must have concluded to bring a tart specifically." He batted his eyelashes, though Harv refused to accept the bait.
"Finn..." Harv said, more as a warning. He knew Finn had a bad habit of talking for hours on his private phone line, but to hunt down Trevor through the grapevine for this was too much.
"On my honor, I didn't tell him to bring you anything. " Finn grinned. "If I had, I would have told him to bring cherry. So..." Finn bounced on his toes.
"So, what?" Harv set the tart down on the counter. He'd much rather have the tart than the ill gotten biscuits. He could hear Finn's exasperated sigh.
"So, your friend braved going to the witch's house to bring you dessert. Surely such a grand gesture must elicit some sort of feeling: joy, butterflies, " Finn peaked over his shoulder as he cut it into sections, "gratitude..."
"Do you want a piece?" Harv asked. Finn rolled his eyes.
"That's a gift for you." He crossed his arm and leaned against the kitchen counter. Harv's knife hovered over the pastry and he gave Finn a pointed look. "...yes... I will do my best to not taste the heartfelt feelings poured into it, since they're obviously meant for you. It won't be easy."
"Finn, it's just a pastry." Harv slid a plate towards Finn. He couldn't quite the beat of his heart as he took his own large slice. He always found cherries far too bitter to enjoy in a dessert, but strawberries were his favorite. "He'd do the same for anyone else."
"If you think I'm wrong, ask him." Finn shrugged and took a bite of tart. "It wouldn't be the end of the world if you did."
"And how many people have you confessed to?" Harv asked dryly. Finn looked up at the ceiling and then away, keeping his fork in his mouth as an excuse not to talk. "That's what I thought."
"I was stuck in a sewer for the last year, what's your excuse?" Finn said. He giggled manically when Harv tried to chase him out of the kitchen. "I just think it's silly to give up without even trying."
"I'm not giving up!" Harv shoveled in a large bite of tart. "You just-" He paused, nearly choking, but pulled through. "You just have no patience. I need to be absolutely sure he'd even think about liking me before saying anything."
"Ugh, you're going to be wistfully staring at his ass until you're fifty." Finn wasn't able to dodge Harv's 'playful' punch to the arm.
"That was one time."
"One time I caught you." This time Finn was ready and swiveled out of Harv's reach and out the door. Harv was stuck between finishing his treat and chasing after Finn. He angrily took another bite of tart. After he was done with his snack, he'd wrestle an apology out of the blond.
The next morning, Finn's room was filled with light as soon as the sun rose. All the curtains had been pulled back in haste. Harv blinked in confusion at the sudden weight on his stomach. The outfit Finn had laid out for himself the night before was missing from the back of the chair.
"Today's the day!" Finn cheered. Harv blindly shoved Finn's face out of his own, groaning when the other boy shifted his weight further into Harv's stomach.
"Get off Finn." Harv rubbed the last bit of sleep from his eyes as Finn artfully rolled over. "The opera's at sundown, why are you already dressed?"
"Because they're here." Finn sat back on his heels as Harv pulled himself out of the covers. "The clothes. Emet called, or well, I called Emet; but they're finally ready." Harv looked at the angle of the sun and then back at Finn.
"You called her before sunrise?"
"I just wanted to make sure she'd be done in time, there's not much else to do while stuck waiting." Finn wadded over to the edge of the bed and hopped down. "I already had breakfast. Tea and bread are on the end table for you. She'll let us in early if we show up before the rest of the peasantry starts milling about the guild halls." That poor girl, one could only imagine the anxious harping that would come when Finn's own clothes were involved. He practically shoved Harv's breakfast into his hands as he danced about the room speculating on how the finished product came out.
"I still don't see why you'd get dressed up so early. What if you get food on your..." He gestured to Finn's beaded tunic, "thing."
"Oh, this old thing?" Finn was practically blinding in the sunlight. "This isn't for tonight. I mean, how could I prepare for it when I don't know what you're wearing." Ah, that made more sense. Harv wolfed down the rest of his breakfast and grabbed a change of clothes. No doubt, Finn would be restless the rest of the day until he'd coordinated their outfits. It seemed a silly amount of effort to go into when they would be sitting in the dark, but Finn knew these things better than he did.
"Alright, alright; I'm ready." Finn squealed, rushing downstairs to get his shoes and satchel.
Harv realized, as they stood at the front door of the tailor's guild, that there were not enough apologies in the world for Emet. She squinted at them, in little more than her nightclothes and a dressing gown, and motioned for them to follow up stairs. The guild was eerily quiet compared to last time. As they came into a side room, Emet dropped the stack of clothes with little ceremony.
"There's so many." Harv said. He couldn't help but notice the bandages around her fingers from struggling to meet the deadline. She nodded and Finn started pawing through the pile with growing disappointment.
"Where's the tunic I requested?" Finn asked. The sea of dark earth tones and fur would make an impression at the opera, but not the one Harv would appreciate. "He can't wear this tonight, someone will think we came from a funeral."
"You requested a hand embroidered tunic lined with silver thread." Emet said icily. "That's two months' worth of labor. It's not done yet."
"Not done yet?" Finn dropped the fur cloak. "Not done yet!? We needed it by sundown tonight! You said it was finished."
"I said what he ordered is finished." Emet said.
"Finn, it's fine." Harv put a hand on Finn's shoulder. "I can wear something else. If it's that big of a deal we can go another night." Finn shook his head, trying to stop his lip from quivering.
"Is there anything readymade we could borrow?" Finn asked. He hated the idea of renting expensive clothes. Only insecure nobles with no real wealth would bother to put on such airs, but this was a bit of an emergency in his eyes. It'd have to be something the others wouldn't recognize. He searched his brain for something obscure. "Zardosi's starry night, perhaps."
"Finn, readymade isn't the same as- the only reason we rent that one is that no one's willing to buy it." Emet said.
"Well, if I'm going to rent, I might as well make a proper statement." It was the most expensive garment in the tailor's guild, one that rarely saw the light of day. Emet's great grandfather had been scammed into making it for who he thought was the royal family at the time, only to never receive payment.
"Okay, fine." She glanced over at Harv. "But I'm not telling him how much it costs. If you lose a single gemstone-"
"I know!" Finn rolled his eyes. "As long as you can make it look like it fits." Emet nodded and slipped out of the room, leaving the two boys behind. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Harv said.
"But you're going to be all worried about ruining this silly thing now, and I'll barely get to see it." Finn sat down on a stool at the table, once more flipping through the stack of clothes.
"Emet worked hard on this stuff, it's not nice to impose on her like this, especially so early in the morning."
"She's only doing this to steal from the order." Finn let go of the clothes, watching them drop back in a disorganized heap. They were nice, but definitely not the nicest from her designs. "That's why she made this stuff first and not the one thing that had a deadline." He sighed. "At least we got something out of it. If there's one thing that gets people to cooperate it's money." Harv came up behind him, unsure of why Finn seemed to need comfort or even where to start. "But you're not like that, so that's probably why you're always so nice to people. Most people only care about themselves." The door opened and Emet brought in a deep blue velvet tunic that had been embellished with an obnoxious number of diamonds.
"Alright, let's get this altered before my parents wake up." She handed the heavy tunic to Harv and he slipped it over his shoulders. "A little tight around the arms, but that's an easy fix. I'll just let it out down here and patch the seam."
Finn had spent two hours digging through his wardrobe looking for something to wear while Harv was in a staring match with the tunic Finn rented for him. There was a good chance it'd come out of his paycheck. The garment was so thick and heavy to support the weight of the diamonds, Harv couldn't picture anyone of noble birth able to wear it for more than a couple hours. He couldn't picture anyone wearing it for that matter.
"I really don't mind wearing something else." Harv said as Finn deliberated which pair of shoes to pluck off the wall of his closet.
"I already paid for it." Finn said. He didn't have much that would go with royal blue, but a royal purple might fit. The gemstones on the other hand were a little trickier to coordinate with. "Besides, it's better to be a little overdressed than underdressed."
"But-"
"Harvey," Finn held the tunic up to Harv's chest, "it looks fine."
"I don't know." Harv said. Finn swiveled him so he could face the mirror; the faux night sky even brighter against the plain white shirt Emet had made for him. "It's just not really me."
"Pretend it is." Finn said, letting Harv catch the garment in his own hands. "Or if that's too hard, pretend you're someone it is for. That's what I did." He doubled up on the necklaces and rings so Harv didn't outshine him, now an equally garish display of purple and gold. "We just have to maintain appearances so we can get drinks and get to our seats in peace."
"What about making a statement?" Harv asked with growing suspicion.
"The statement is I have enough power to be in the company of someone that can afford that tunic. Naturally, you'd be quite intimidating, but if you'd rather be more approachable..." Harv swiftly put the silly thing on. For all of his boasting, Finn understood the way the upper class thought more than he did. "See, it's a perfect fit." Finn bit his lip as he went back into his wardrobe to switch out his own tunic. "Now if only I could find something that went with it."
They arrived at the theater with little time to spare. The lanterns cast the theater in a warm golden glow. Harv was practically dragged to their seats, given little chance to admire the ornate arches that formed the theater walls. There were open brass pipes in each corner of the room, connected to an instrument of some kind out of sight. The audience murmured amongst themselves to distract from the chill of the room and the empty stage. Soon the house lights dimmed and Harv felt wiry fingers interlace with his own.
"I've been waiting for over a year to see this one." Finn whispered. "It's supposed to be really good." His voice was drowned out by the first notes of the overture. At first, Harv could only stare at their hands, the glimmer of diamonds his guiding point in the dark. Finn chose to stay pressed against him, every so often whispering some other commentary about the music or the writing. It was all incredibly distracting and Harv wasn't sure how to bring it up without disturbing the other guests.
As soon as the actress that played Helena took the stage Finn quieted down and Harv finally could gather through context what the play was about. Someone had taken A Midsummer Night's Dream and put it to music, which added to the chaos of the story. After a few acts, Harv found himself enjoying it a little more, even with Finn leaning against his shoulder.