Who: Ari + special NPC guest~ What:Ari's worst nightmare a visit from family! Where: Ari's flat When: Backdated to Friday, 10/10 Rating: Tame Status: Complete
As a thief, it was a rather disconcerting experience to return home to an open door. It wasn’t outrage so much as surprise that Ari felt -- she had a good lock, and she didn’t live large, so why in the world would anyone choose her flat? -- but thoughts of her instruments and various collectibles had her rushing up the stairs. Her steps slowed, however, when the smell hit her.
Thieves didn’t generally cook coq au vin in recently burgled flats.
If she didn’t know Aspel would never break into her flat, she might have suspected the other woman, but… maybe Drake had finally conquered the lock? It had only taken him a year --
“Chérie, a young lady oughtn’t stampede up a staircase with the grace of a mammoth, even if she incomprehensibly lives in a climate suited to one.”
Oh no.
In Ari’s defense, she had wiped the dismay from her face by the time she crossed the threshold. “If you are cold, maman, I see no reason to keep the door open.”
“There was some need for fresh air.” Sylvie Chiaro had always been a striking woman, though in Ari’s opinion, the luxurious fur collar of her housecoat was a bit excessive for Libra. Still, one could not deny either her beauty or her style -- nor the elegance with which she moved as she stepped forward to enfold her daughter in a perfumed embrace. “In such a small space, of course the air is stale -- chérie, you look exhausted, and it is no wonder, for I do not know how you can possibly sleep here.”
“Oh, it is an acquired skill, I suppose,” Ari said lightly, busing her mother’s cheeks in greeting even as she wondered frantically exactly what she had done to earn such an honor. “I am glad my landlady was accommodating.”
Sylvie’s smile was every bit as innocent as the one Ari employed when she charmed her way out of scrapes. “She was quite pleasant, and she recalled me from my last visit.” Which, Ari thought, was not difficult, considering that the last time her parents had graced her humble abode with their presence, her mother had attempted to buy out the floors below hers so as to ‘expand’ the space when Ari had refused to move.
Ajora, she’d almost managed to forget about that until just now.
She wore a bemused expression as her mother took her chin in her hands, turned her head this way and that. “You have not been eating well,” she accused (mothers, somehow, always knew). “Fortunately, I have just the thing for that. I suppose we ought best close the door -- this neighborhood does not fill me with confidence.”
“And you, of course, look radiant, maman. My poor, maligned neighborhood pales in comparison.” The compliment didn’t quite soften her next question, however: “Might I ask what has prompted your sudden --” unwarned -- “arrival in my little Arctic hideaway?”
Sylvie shook her head and laughed. “Can a mother not simply visit her daughter as the whim strikes?”
The bemusement only grew (it was a better reaction than worry). “Maman, you have given me a multitude of lectures regarding whims, and why a young lady ought not give in to them, for her own good. Shall I recite one back to you?”
“Mothers,” Sylvie said sagely, “may do things that young ladies may not. It is one of the benefits of being such, which I can only hope you will finally discover soon enough.” That had the alarm bells ringing in Ari’s mind even as her mother deftly divested her of her cloak and placed a firm hand between her shoulderblades, urging her into the dining area. “So, chérie, I have heard some very interesting things about you recently. I had it from a quite good authority that you’ve all but selected a wedding venue, though the source was… inconclusive as to the name of your deserving groom. Or was it bride? As I said, inconclusive, but of course,” said with a bright, toothy smile that said, I know I have you trapped and I will have my answers, “you will straighten all of this out for me over dinner.”
Thus began one of the least pleasant evenings in Arielle Chiaro’s recent memory.