Summary: After a last-minute invitation to Norberg for Family Day, Mateo reminds his friends that he is, in fact, an introvert. Naomi has a rough holiday.

Almost sixteen years and Naomi was going back to Norberg. Thankfully not as a threat of a permanent move, but as a visit for a nostalgic tradition. After years of her parents' stories, she'd be able to see it for herself, with all the names and places she'd grown up hearing about right there in front of her. She'd have mulberry juice fresh, and a proper, traditional Norberg shepherd's pie. She'd see the Norberg lights in person instead of just an artist's rendition.

And best of all, she'd be sharing it all with her best friends, the way they'd shared their culture with her and welcomed her into their lives. Elena and Isabel would sort out the politics in time to join her for the main celebration, and meanwhile Naomi would spend the day with Gabe and—

She stopped short just outside the library, so quickly that Elena almost crashed into her from behind, clutching her father's notebook. "Hang on—was Mateo in his workshop?"

Elena blinked, recovering from the sharp stop. "Oh, right! We should invite him, too." Craning her neck over her shoulder, she looked back into the library. "The painting is shut, though. He might be in his room?"

She had a point. Mateo usually left the door cracked when he was in, though she'd known him to keep it closed if he was working on something particularly disruptive.

"Worth a shot as long as we're here." Slipping past Elena, Naomi went back to the painting and knocked on the frame. A telltale, startled yelp answered her from inside, and Naomi found herself smiling, a chuckle escaping her. "Didja get all that, Mateo?" she called.

The painting slid open and Mateo poked his head into the main room, his bewildered gaze flickering between them all. "What?"

"That's a 'no,'" Gabe laughed from the doorway.

Mateo's eyes ran another loop across them all, and his voice grew urgent. "Wait, what did I miss?"

"Relax," Naomi said. "We're all taking a trip to Norberg for Family Day. Well, Gabe and I are celebrating Family Day." She shot a smirk over her shoulder. "Elena has to work."

"Hey! I won't be working the entire time," Elena protested. "I have an excellent work-life balance." Her proud smile deflated fast at the dubious looks her friends gave her, but all she could manage was an indignant sputter in her own defense.

Footsteps in the hallway announced Armando's presence as he approached. "Princess Elena! Doña Paloma needs to see you as soon as possible about the next magisterial election!"

Elena's expression turned stormy. "After what she did yesterday, Doña Paloma can wait."

"O-oh, okay. Then…" Though Naomi couldn't see Armando from her angle, she could easily picture him reshuffling the collection of schedules and documents in his arms as he chased down the next most important task. "You're also needed by the Carnaval committee to approve their initial building permits."

Elena had been looking smug, like rejecting Doña Paloma had somehow proven her earlier point, but as soon as Armando mentioned Carnaval, she cringed.

"Ooh, I do have to take care of that right now, though. Won't take long. But I gotta—'scuse me, Gabe—" She squeezed past him into the hall, and then ducked her head back into the library to tack on, "Anyway, Mateo, you should definitely come! To Norberg, I mean, not to help with the permits. The more the merrier!"

"Ah, right…" he tried, but Elena was already gone.

Gabe chuckled. "I actually gotta get going, too. See you soon!" He disappeared into the hall after Elena, and Naomi heard Isabel's voice fading into the distance as well.

"So, you coming?" she asked Mateo once they were alone.

He fixed her with a worried look. "Right now?"

"Oh, no, not right this second." His shoulders dropped in relief. "I think we were talking about sailing out early tomorrow though to make sure we get there in time for Family Day."

Mateo's relief evaporated. "Wait, tomorrow?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, no, it's just very soon…" His mouth curled in a discouraged frown, and he looked back into his workshop. Something rattled inside like the lid of a boiling pot, and Naomi caught a whiff of herbal fumes that drifted out through the door's gap.

"Unless whatever you've got going is a multi-day project, you'll have time to finish it," Naomi reassured. "Like I said, we're not shipping out immediately."

"That's not really the issue."

His frown had been pulled even more taut in discomfort, and he drummed his fingers on the frame of the painting. He looked so uneasy, and Naomi found herself thinking back to his closed workshop door, and the other reason he might've kept it that way.

"You don't want to go, do you?" she asked. "You have that 'I don't wanna be bothered but I'm too nice to say it' look."

"It's not really that, either. It does sound like fun, in theory. And I would like to go."

"...But?"

He opened his mouth, presumably to explain, but seemed to think better of it at the last second, instead just swaying in the doorway and looking up at the corner of it.

Naomi sighed. "Seriously, if you don't want to go, you can just say it. You're not gonna hurt my feelings."

"Okay." He pulled an apologetic smile. "I don't really want to go."

And, ow, the bluntness did sting a little more than Naomi had expected. Family Day was one of the few traditions from her parents' home country that they'd been able to preserve through all their journeys, even if they didn't physically go back to Norberg for it. She'd been looking forward to sharing it with her friends, and especially with how eager Gabe and Elena had been to participate, hearing Mateo reject it flat out was an awfully abrupt damper on her mood.

Her disappointment must have shown, because Mateo quickly backpedaled. "It's not that I don't want to go! It's just that I don't want to go."

"You are making way less sense than usual."

"I—" He took a harsh breath, closing his eyes to think. "Okay, no, you're right. I'm not explaining this well. I am interested in seeing Norberg and Family Day, and under normal circumstances, I think it would be fun." As he opened his eyes again, Naomi noticed a familiar, old self-doubt in them, like he was worried she'd get mad at him. "But after the Feast of Friendship fiasco yesterday, Elena had me stay for the rest of the party in case there were any other issues."

Naomi's mind looped through the story Elena had told her earlier that day. Something about Esteban and Doña Paloma teaming up to sabotage the feast by pitting King Hector of Hectoria and Queen Abigail of Norberg against each other. Whatever the issue was had persisted through the night, resulting in Hector going on to sabotage Family Day, which led to Elena's impromptu diplomatic mission to the North. She'd caught something about shrinking spells and Mateo getting brought in for damage control, but she wasn't sure what that had to do with him sitting the festival out.

He rubbed at the space between his neck and shoulder, looking ashamed. "The royals Elena invited weren't really the most," he pulled a face, "subdued. After spending the day with them, I'm not sure I can handle another big social event so soon. If I'd had a little more warning about this, I maybe could've prepared myself better, but tomorrow already…"

Naomi stared. "So, you can't go to a festival tomorrow… because you went to a party yesterday?" she asked carefully, not sure she understood.

If Mateo noticed her hesitation, he didn't say anything, instead giving an emphatic nod. "Yes! That's exactly it." His smile faltered. "That's—that's weird, isn't it?"

She huffed out a quiet laugh. "Well, you're a weird guy. I guess it's one of those things, huh?"

"Ah, yeah. I mean, you've seen how I am at parties."

"Chaos on the dance floor and overzealous with snacks?" she teased. "At least until you disappear halfway—" Her brain skidded to a stop. "Oh. Oh, wait."

Hiding out at the side of the room during Elena's accession. Vanishing during his own appointment. Retreating down the docks during the celebration of her family's not-move. The list went on, a dozen different instances of him keeping himself as far from the social center as he could manage, even when he otherwise seemed like he was having fun.

He grinned, sheepish. "Yeah."

"I always thought that was just nerves," Naomi said. "I didn't realize it was—what, that you get wiped out?"

"Something like that. Sometimes it's nerves. I don't really know how to explain it, and I swear it's nothing personal. It's just… overwhelming, sometimes."

The disappointment lingered, but Naomi understood enough. If he wasn't up to socializing, he'd either spend the entire trip in retreat, hiding away from the rest of them, or making himself miserable trying to be present, and neither option would be any fun for the group, let alone for him.

"Alright," she finally said, "I'll let the others know you won't be coming."

His relief was palpable. "Thanks for understanding. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it!" She started for the library door, hoping the dissatisfaction didn't show. She could still spend the day with Elena and Gabe, after all, not to mention her parents. "I'll bring you back a souvenir."

"Thanks! Have fun!" Leaving the painting cracked open, he returned to his workshop.

At the exit, Naomi paused, her hand on the door handle, looking back over her shoulder. "Hey, Mateo?" she called, waiting for him to poke his head out. "This isn't exactly a day trip, y'know. Between travel and the festival, we'll be gone half the week. You sure you're gonna be okay alone?"

He shrugged. "I spend most of my time alone. I'll be fine."

"Yeah, and I kinda thought you hated that." She furrowed her brow in sympathy. "I just don't want you to feel like you're being left out."

But the look he gave her was unbothered and appreciative. "I don't."

"Hey. Brought you something."

Standing behind the garden bench, Naomi waved the wine bottle in front of Mateo's eyes. He jumped at the intrusion into his space, but tilted his head back to look up at her without complaint. "Thanks? I think this is the first time someone has offered me a mysterious bottle of blue liquid."

She snorted. "This one won't turn you into a toad. It's just mulberry juice." Vaulting over the backrest, she dropped down next to him, holding out the bottle again, as well as an engraved glass commemorating the holiday that she retrieved from her bag. "It's a souvenir from Norberg."

"I have never made a potion to turn someone into a toad," he said, but he didn't sound annoyed, and he finally set the book he'd been studying aside to accept the gifts.

"That's a shame. I can think of a few people a potion like that would be really good for." Leaning back, she tallied off on her fingers. "Obnoxious royals, rude diplomats, obnoxious royals…"

He raised an amused eyebrow. "Naomi, are you abusing your friendship with the Royal Wizard to enact petty revenge on people?"

"Psh, no, I'm just saying if you need test subjects for your toad potion…"

"My toad potion that I haven't made."

"That you should totally make."

She realized her mistake too late. Mateo's eyes lit up with the kind of devious energy reserved for his worst jokes. "Toad-ally?"

"No!" Naomi groaned, folding in on herself. "Ugh, I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

Snickering, Mateo finally set the glass aside and went to pry out the bottle's cork. "So, how was Norberg? I think I caught something about 'obnoxious royals?'"

"Elena and Isabel got the worst of it. They spent the day marooned with King Hector."

The cork slipped out with a pop and Mateo fumbled it in surprise, whipping his head back toward her. "Wh—they what?"

"And Gabe got kidnapped—"

"What?!"

"—so who knows what he was up to all day. I'm sure Princess Chloe is fine, as a person, but—"

"I'm sorry," Mateo interrupted, "can we go back to 'Gabe got kidnapped?'"

Naomi shrugged dismissively. "Oh, he's fine. The Norbergian princess just decided it was more important for him to spend the day with her than with the people he actually came with. That's all."

Mateo slid down on the bench, staring wide-eyed into the distance. "What all did I miss?"

"Not much," Naomi admitted, more sullen than she would've liked.

It was hard not to feel bitter. Sure, Gabe had shown up again by the end of the day, in time for the lights and the juice, but that was after she'd already spent the day wandering around with her parents, feeling as much like an outsider in their home as she used to in Avalor. She would've felt much less alone if she'd been with someone as new to it as she was.

A hand on her arm pulled her out of her thoughts. "Are you okay? Did something else happen?"

She sighed. "The issue is more that nothing else did. My parents really tried to make the day fun, but they kept asking about if I remembered stuff from the last time I was in Norberg, and that was when I was two. It was all completely new, but I felt like I was supposed to know it already. Like I was letting them down by not knowing."

Beside her, Mateo nodded in sympathy, the understanding plain on his face.

"I was kinda hoping to have someone as a buffer for that, y'know? Someone that I could tell about the parts that I did know, so that when my parents said their bit it would feel like they were adding on, not just teaching me like I was still a toddler. But Elena and Isabel were gone all day babysitting grown adults, and Gabe got whisked away after we'd barely gotten ashore."

The 'and you weren't there, either' went unspoken, but Mateo seemed to hear it anyway, judging by the way his posture drooped and his face twisted with guilt.

"I just wanted someone to be there with me," she finished.

"You should have said something. I would've gone along if I'd known about that."

She shook her head. "You weren't up to it. I didn't want to force you. Besides," she added with a wry look, "considering how the trip went, you might've just gotten nabbed by someone else."

The look of horror on his face drew a laugh from her, and she relaxed by a fraction, looking out into the gardens. Did it actually matter? Avalor was a lot warmer than Norberg, anyway, in climate and in spirit. It had come to feel far more like home than any of her parent's stories ever had.

But still, it was hard to quell that familiar ache of otherness. As much as Avalor was her home, she still wasn't Avaloran, not fully, and as her trip had made clear, she wasn't really Norbergian anymore, either. She had hoped to find another place to anchor in Norberg, but instead, she just felt unmoored from both countries. Maybe her family's old life of endless wandering really was the better alternative.

"Oh, wow, this is good."

Looking back at Mateo, Naomi saw that he'd finally poured himself some of the mulberry juice and taken a drink, examining the bottle with renewed interest.

She smiled. "I told you so. You'll have to try the fresh stuff sometime."

"I thought this was the fresh stuff?"

"As opposed to tea or something, yeah. But I mean the fresh fresh stuff. The just-pressed-five-minutes-ago stuff."

"Next year, then."

Naomi blinked. "Huh?"

"I'll just have to go with you guys next year. That's probably enough time for me to figure out an anti-kidnapping spell, too," he added with a wink. "Oh! And until then…"

He turned away and set down his glass beside him, drawing his tamborita. Naomi leaned forward to peer around him and watch what he was doing, but a flash of light from a spell had her shielding her eyes. When she blinked the spots from them, there were two glasses sitting on the bench, and Mateo was pouring juice into each of them.

"Here," he said, holding one of them out. "I know it's not the same, and I know it doesn't change what happened—I'm sorry it was such a mess. But sharing this with others is an important part of the holiday, right? So, we can at least do that, now."

Naomi stared at the offered glass, and then shook her head with a laugh. "You know, if you didn't like it, you can just give it back. You don't have to pawn it off."

He drew the glass closer to himself. "What? No. I'm keeping the rest of it. This is the only glass you get."

She chuckled again. "I guess I better savor it, then, huh?" Finally accepting the drink, she clinked it against Mateo's and matched his growing smile. "Here's to next year. Cheers!"

"Salud! I'm looking forward to it."

And despite the trials and frustration of that year's trip, as she sipped the juice, Naomi found that she was, too.

"Norberg Peace Prize" was one of those episodes I knew I had to do something with. I'm well aware that from a writing perspective, his absence was because his character being there would have served no narrative purpose for the story they wanted to tell, and truth be told, I kinda chuckle at the mental image of everyone getting halfway back from Norberg and suddenly being like "oh my god we forgot Mateo". But specifically in the context of this fic, where literally just two chapters ago we had Mateo talking about how he was slowly losing his mind from loneliness before the series started, having the others forget or deliberately exclude him seemed especially cruel.

So like. I had to do a chapter to investigate. Of all the chapters in this fic, this is probably the one that's changed the most from its original outline, and I still wasn't satisfied with how it had turned out until literally last weekend. I mainly had to go back in and flesh out the second scene a little bit more, and I'm glad I did. Gotta start sowing the seeds of the "Naomi up and bails from Avalor" arc at some point!