>>6057298“There’s, uh, one other message I had to pass on,” Costella notes, voice lowering slowly as she shuffles her feet and averts her eyes.
“What?” you ask, alrmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Um, well, like… Nothing’s WRONG, exactly. It’s all, like, TOTALLY mellow, and, you know, cool and whatever.”
You and Izirina exchange a glance, then look back to her, expectantly. Costella’s face flushes, and she buries it in her hands to hide the blush.
“MY parents were just wondering about, like… The wedding, or whatever, you know?”
“…Oh.”
It’s true that your ‘engagement’ has gone a little long by this point, by conventional standards. That’s aside from your living together, of course, already a somewhat-scandalous circumstances before nuptials.
…And all THAT is ignoring the roc in the room, secret even from Costella Fanucci’s parents: Izirina.
“Maybe we should talk about this… privately?” you suggest to Costella, trying VERY hard not to look at towards Izirina.
“It’s okay.”
Both you and Costella startle at this, and look to Izirina in surprise. Your shock is redoubled when you find her smiling, and without any sign of forced, false affability in the expression.
“After… After ‘Ayla’, after seeing what I was… or could become, I thought about things a lot.” Izirina’s smile fades just slightly as she reflects on this. “I thought about what I’d done in the past… How I’d treated people, and this relationship. I still want everything that she wanted… Wants, rather. I want to be married to Tips… And you, Costella!”
Costella nods slightly, and signals her to continue.
“But I don’t want to try to… To dominated or control the way things go. Their pace. Their order. Their… Priority. I don’t want to be the sort of person who puts my happiness first, before that of… of the people I care about.”
