𝚒𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢

“ 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀 , marius . . . girls , come on , 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐘 , ” wendy called out into the still night air. not a working street light in sight apart from the apartment building lit up like a chirstmas tree. her brothers , namely wren , used to torment wendy as children. no matter how high she would pull the covers over her head or scurry from one dark room to the next until she was back in the safety of her bed , one creak in the floorboard was enough to make her jump as high as she stood in height. 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭. “ luca , come on , did you put this girls up to this ? ” she pleaded with yet again no reply to the sound that broke the silence. her green eyes fluttered about in search of movement until her gaze fixated on a tall figure move , even if it had been minute. “ luca you’re getting an article published about all your phone calls i overheard if you don’t knock it off and stop lurking. people are going to start thinking you’re the french. ”  

“ 𝐍𝐎, ” wendy stated as she simultaneously nodded her head yes , “ but you’d never hear the end of how you broke my heart and will have to work a lifetime to make it up to me. ” she fluttered her lashes as if to further her point, even it hadn’t had the same response as it did when she was a child; maybe it had been the flower clips and pigtails. “ so, do you want to help find potted flowers and carry them up to my apartment ? ” wendy left out the minor detail that marius also just volunteered to help care for a few of them. 

𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 the best way to run into someone;  mouth full of food, eyes glued to the subject wendy had leaned a little too close to, when two men with shifting eyes began to chatter in hushed whispers, and 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐘 unaware of how it may have appeared to anyone else. actually, it was exactly how it looked and that was the problem. curious glances kept her occupied, unaware just how close she was to someone that wendy once considered a friend. but that was once upon a time when france hadn’t become the boogyman of her nightmares and villain of her own princess story, taking the protagonists companion from her youth like a thief in the night. never mind her own hand in a friendship faded. with a screech of the chair legs against the floor in an effort to move closer, wendy’s gaze flickered up with the intent to catch sight of her subjects again only to see fanni. bright blue eyes, icy blonde hair and—wendy coughed, nearly choking on her food in the process. the first time they’d had seen each other in years, nearly spoken in years and this was not how wendy imagined it would happen, burying her face in her napkin.

an eye-roll came effortlessly despite losing any effectiveness with the 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐏 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐍 she couldn’t hide. “ guess you missed that it’s a family trait. ” wendy grabbed her tape recorded just before the tale of her brother’s treacherous journey in the argentinean mountains, “ note,” she spoke into the device, “ luca needs an article written about his lack of self awareness. pictures encouraged to get the point across. ” but as always, the jokes faded and wendy’s attention focused in on the story. she never joked or played around when there was a story she needed to get her hands on, and the list luca gave her was just the start. “ protection program perils : newfound dangers or undisclosed liability . . . ” she spoke up after a minute of silence when his story had finished and the recorded continued to blink red. “ title needs work, but i might have something. do you have an old contract from when you joined ? phone calls recorded ? e-mails ? ” and just like that, wendy went from a relaxing time in tokyo where she might be able to spend one of those nights at one of those parties to the next big story. well, that and . . . “  did you know france was here when you agreed to come ? ”

𝐇𝐄𝐑  𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 up from the laptop, merciless key strokes creating a story she’d immersed herself in had been replaced by not even so much as a flick of her wrist. a 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃. one that the person she’d addressed shook their head at the sight of and promptly questioned wendy on noemí’s behalf. “  i haven’t moved,  ” wendy clarified only to do just that as she reached to grab her bag that had been placed by the chair leg on her left. “  and neither has my . . .  ” her forehead creased and hand began to move frantically, feeling around for the familiar leather object before she finally stole a glance under the table. “  th-there was a bag here.  ” the alarm in her voice was unmistakable. because it wasn’t just a bag, inside she had notes, article ideas, her entire career in a notebook. “  have you seen a bag ? brown, leather,  ” she chewed on the bottom of her lip as the details of the coveted item failed to come to mind.

𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 with the palms of her hands pressed clad against her skirt. they were clammy and her heartbeat only began to slow when she came to the notion she didn’t need to attempt to butcher the japanese language again. “  umm, no i just, did you understand any of that ?  ” because something told her, ‘ is this seat taken ’ wasn’t what came out of her mouth. 

"  maybe the word 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 just encompasses it all already so we don’t need specical terms for it,  ” wendy was quick to add. and given she spent far too much of her time with words, that very comment had been a thought that crossed her mind often. but back to the more important affairs . . . “  sounds painful. i heard a lot of people weren’t so lucky,  ” wendy surveyed the woman’s injury, “ do you remember what you were thinking happened before you realized it was an earthquake ? or what abou— 𝐈 𝐀𝐌. after hearing about argentina i couldn’t let my brother stay alone.  ” and neither could wren. “  𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀 𝐃'𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐆,  ” wendy finally took a seat near her injured company. “  he’s my brother, or one of.  ” wren was a whole other introduction of interesting. 

"  and as my 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 . . .  ” the younger of the two teased with an expression that held no obvious emotion,  at least for a moment, it wasn’t all that easy around luca for wendy to keep a poker face. around others ? sure, just not around her brother, with him she was like an open book and no amount of denying it could prove otherwise. “  i’ll even give you twenty minutes.  ” soon wendy had returned to her seat, the cup of tea still in her grasp without even so much as a drop spilled, yet. “  mhm,  ” she sounded with a sip. “  but for credibility purposes i need people who aren’t related to me too.  ” and she’d wait to talk or well 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐄 whoever she could. “  but i’ll guess you’ll do, for now.  ” she huffed, a dramatic sigh that was all for show and reached for not her phone, but his to set up the recorder which was then placed on the table nearest them. wendy sat up on her legs to give herself a few added centimeters in height and gestured towards luca’s phone. “  when you’re ready.  ”

“  key card,  ” wendy explained as she shifted around in her seat to reach for the very same card in question from the back pocket of her dark wash denim. “  i think it’s the last name,  ” she teased with a wave of the plastic, “  because it was very easy to get.  ” but unlike their  brother, wendy always knocked before she attempted method number two. the card was soon replaced by the welcomed cup of fresh tea. held in her grasp as wendy soon circled around luca’s apartment with sips of the hot beverage along the way. “  i heard all the stories were here, oh and . . . i can’t let you live through something like argentina again without a little support, or my favorite nieces. and babysitting, that’s another conversation and you know it.  ” speaking of, “  do you know anyone who would be willing to talk about what happened ? maybe someone who got stuck on that hike ?  ”

the smile wendy conveyed was contagious. once she had returned the twins to her elder brother, luca, she was free to explore the building and well soon, the city. a new country with new people and new stories, it was like a child in a candy store and wendy had first pick. but just a few steps shy of the door and wendy had slowed her steps, soon coming face to face with the soft spoken brunette. “  i think . . .  ” the luxembourg princess glanced behind her with faltered gesture, was there even one ? “  the apartments have a small kitchen, but i was going to go out and see what is out there, did you want to come ?  ” wendy asked tentatively. “  we could find something good to eat i bet.  ” better than what she’d be able to cook up without any food in the small fridge. “  maybe we can even get some local recommendations.  ”

wendy’s head whipped towards the sound and luckily so. her attention had been preoccupied, fixated on the local newspaper she’d swiped from an unoccupied table. they’d get it back, eventually. “  hi . . .  ” wendy dragged out the syllable. she placed the paper atop the satin blazer mistakenly and quickly reached to help the blonde with the contraption. “  was this from the earthquake in argentina ?  ” wendy couldn’t help but pry while she carefully maneuvered the sleeve and strap that had managed to get all tangled up together. “  there,  how is that ?  ” the question came when the princess had finally moved into the blonde’s view. “  all better ?  ”

❝  ˑ⋅ .          𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒚 𝒅'𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒈 .     ╱  tag here .