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Tita Russell loves machines and would spend most of her time around them given the choice, but that doesn’t mean she knows nothing about people.
People, as far as she’s concerned, are very similar to running maintenance on her beloved Orbal Gear; they each require dedication, devotion and care to understand precisely what they need to reach their fullest potential. The only difference, she thinks, is that each and every person requires their own sort of maintenance and kindness and understanding, as if they are each their own new model of machine.
Estelle is like an Orbal Cannon; she’s straightforward, kind and easy to work with. Joshua is closer to an Orbment, with varying moods and abilities and faces depending on who’s working with him.
And Renne… Renne is like the combat armors that Tita has seen glimpses of at her grandfather’s conferences and on her mother’s computer screen, sleek and beautiful and hiding so, so much under their deceptively smooth surfaces. She’s complicated and dangerous and wonderful, and Tita wants to know exactly what makes Renne tick, and why she is the way she is. The drive is the same as when she was a child, taking everything orbally powered in her bedroom apart just to see what made it work, her interest and curiosity insatiable. It doesn’t help that nobody else really seems to get her either. Joshua and Estelle do their absolute best to be there for her, and Renne is closer to them than anyone else, but Estelle’s attitude is very “live and let live” about her, and that just isn’t satisfying enough for Tita.
And so, that is what begins Tita’s new project, notes tucked amongst her designs for a new orbal self-maintenance machine: understand Renne as best she can.
–
1.
The first thing Tita discovers, she learns by accident.
One moment, Renne and Tita are walking along the streets of Bose together, window shopping with more eagerness on Renne’s side than Tita’s, and the next Renne is recoiling, bringing a hand up to cover her nose before she seems to be able to think better of it.
Tita frowns a little, concern creeping in; Renne went from giggling to nearly gagging so quickly that something is clearly wrong.
The moment Renne regains control of herself, a flicker of panic crosses her expression before she quickly brushes it off with a smile that looks, at least to Tita, like more of a grimace.
“Hey, Renne–” she begins, tentative.
Renne immediately bulldozes right over her words with a forcedly bright, “Come on, Tita, let’s gooo! There isn’t anything too interesting around here to buy anyway. And we only have so much time before tea.”
With that, Renne stalks forward in a flurry of frills and determination, leaving Tita behind on the sidewalk. Tita watches her go for a moment, expression puzzled, before she looks over at the shop they’d stopped next to. It’s a perfumery, the sweet and cloying scents hanging heavily in the air, and Tita remains there in the middle of the walkway alone as it slowly clicks.
The first thing Tita learns about Renne is that Renne hates strong smells.
–
2.
The second thing Tita learns is that Renne has terrible nightmares.
They’re over at Tita’s home, Renne peering over her shoulder as she works on a new upgrade for her weapon. Spending time with Renne is always a delight, but Tita finds that she loves this sort of time more than anything–Renne is quick-witted and intelligent, and while her mechanical knowledge isn’t quite the same as Tita’s, she more than makes up for it with her deep understanding of Orbal systems and technology. More than once, a mistake Tita knows would’ve cost her many hours of unraveling was caught by Renne’s sharp eyes peering over her shoulder.
They’re at it late into the night, tackling the problem she’s facing from multiple angles until it ultimately folds before the combined might of both Tita and Renne’s combined intelligence, and it’s with a perfectly sketched out schematic and complete satisfaction that she finally stretches.
“Mm… we should probably call it a night,” Tita says, carefully and reverently folding up the sketches that she drew, but that also have Renne’s tidy notes all over them. The idea strikes her when Renne lifts a hand daintily to cover a yawn, and Tita blurts it out before she can think twice.
“Oh–you should stay the night here with me! It’s too late for you to go back to the Inn now, right?”
In truth, the Inn Joshua and Estelle are staying in to visit isn’t so far away–and Renne could absolutely handle anything that could come at her in the dark. Tita knows all of this, but even so…the thought of having a sleepover with her precious friend is something so tantalizing that she can’t help but hold her breath.
Renne looks startled for a moment, hand still over her mouth and blinking blankly at Tita–and then she lowers it, her lips curving into a small smile. “Aw, Tita,” she responds, a tinge of regret to her smile. “That sounds wonderful, but I should really–”
Sensing her opportunity slipping away, Tita lunges forward over the scraps of paper and pencils and compasses they’d been using, grasping both of Renne’s hands in her own. “It’ll be okay–just stay! Estelle and Joshua won’t mind. And then we could spend more time together…!”
Renne hesitates a moment longer, but as her gaze drifts down to her own hands in Tita’s, something in her expression softens, growing more rueful.
“... Well, if you insist, I guess it couldn’t hurt to stay.” She retrieves her hands, but carefully, as if not wanting to yank them from Tita’s grasp too quickly, and then tosses some of her hair over her shoulder. “I won’t be sleeping on the floor, though!”
Tita just giggles at that, beaming. Having a sleepover with Renne–that truly is a dream come true.
–
Ultimately, they share Tita’s bed. It’s more than large enough for the both of them and then some, and they whisper to each other about Tita’s projects and Renne’s sweeping ideas until Tita slips into sleep mid-sentence, dropping off with her head still tilted towards Renne.
The night doesn’t remain peaceful, however.
It’s a whimper that wakes Tita, her eyes snapping open with a suddenness that startles even herself. Her time spent camping and exploring all of Liberl has left its mark; she’s too alert now to go back to sleep, remaining laying in the darkness awake as she listens for any other noises. And sure enough, another tiny, stifled noise of distress comes a few moments later, and that’s when Tita realizes they’re coming from Renne.
She rolls over immediately, brow furrowing as she rubs at an eye. Renne has always been stronger than anyone Tita knows, and while she knows she can be sensitive as well… those are noises she’s never expected to hear from Renne.
Renne’s lips are pressed together, her fingers tightly clenched in the blanket they’re sharing. Tita only hesitates for a moment, and then she reaches out to gently hold Renne’s shoulder.
“Sorry, Renne,” she whispers into the darkness. “I know you could use your sleep, but…!”
Then she shakes Renne’s shoulder.
Renne, unsurprisingly, wakes up quickly, eyes snapping open. She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly, before she turns a tight smile to Tita.
“Tita…?” It’s very subtle, but Tita can hear the tremor in Renne’s voice. “Isn’t it rather late?”
Tita hesitates a moment then. Still, she’s never been good at holding back, and especially not where Renne is concerned. So after that brief pause:
“You were having a nightmare.”
Renne’s lips part in slight surprise, and then her brows draw together.
Tita drags in a deep breath, and then continues, “It… looked like it was upsetting you. I didn’t want to see you in pain, so… I’m sorry, but I had to wake you up.”
Renne’s expression softens then, almost despite herself. After a long moment, she murmurs into the darkness, “Tita…”
“It’s–it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” Tita hurriedly continues. Her fingers twitch on the blankets, a brief thought to reach out for Renne’s hand flickering through her brain before she shoves it away to focus on what’s far more important. “I don’t want to force you to talk about it or anything. I just, um… I didn’t want you to keep suffering. We can go back to sleep now, if you want.”
There’s silence in the darkness for a moment, and Tita stares at the ceiling instead of looking at Renne, face burning from her own awkward stammering.
And then Renne laughs, a quiet but sincere noise, and her tight grip on the blanket eases as she lifts the hand instead to cover her mouth.
“Oh Tita,” Renne sighs, and the smile on her face is plain in her voice now. “I really like this part of you, you know?”
Tita is suddenly very grateful for the darkness that (hopefully) hides the way her cheeks have only grown even warmer.
“It’s true,” Renne continues musingly. “I am not really interested in talking about it at the moment. But… thank you.”
A soft, almost peaceful sigh in the darkness. “To be honest… I feel a lot better now. I suppose all I needed was the reminder that you’re here with me.”
Tita opens her mouth to try to respond, searching for anything that isn’t just hopeless stammering, and managing only a startled squeak in response–and Renne takes pity on her, adding softly, “Why don’t we go back to sleep? I think I can manage that now.”
“Mm,” Tita responds, finally finding her voice. “In that case… good night, Renne. Sleep well, okay?”
“You know…” Renne says thoughtfully, “I rather think I will.”
Their conversation fades soon after, and eventually, Renne’s breathing evens out as she slips into a far gentler sleep. But Tita remains awake for a long while after, thinking to herself as she stares at the dark ceiling.
–
3.
It doesn’t take Tita long to learn that Renne absolutely adores tea parties.
Tita feels out of her depth in each and every one, but she can’t really bring herself to mind. Even if she attends in her usual outfit with a grease smear on one cheek and her goggles still dangling from her neck, Renne still always welcomes her with a bright smile and a giggle tucked behind her hand.
Besides, Tita forgets all about how she feels like she doesn’t fit in with tea parties and the like as soon as Renne leans across the table to pour her tea for her, expression lit up with a smile as she talks about some new moment between Joshua and Estelle that is amusing her, or an idea for a new academic paper, or even something as mundane as her errands for the day.
All that matters in those moments is how happy Renne looks, and Tita sips her tea with an equally bright smile as she leans in to listen.
–
4.
“I won’t allow it.”
“Aw, Renne…” Tita says, holding her hands up placatingly. “You know it doesn’t matter that much to me. “I’m fine going like this!”
Renne props her hands on her hips, a glower on her face that feels far more threatening than her slight stature would suggest.
“You are not wearing that to Kloe’s tea party. Absolutely not, Tita!”
Tita glances down at the outfit she’s wearing, frowning a little. There isn’t anything wrong with it, she doesn’t think. Sure, she’s not wearing a cute dress like Renne, but frills and layers have always suited Renne so much more. The overalls Tita is wearing are far more comfortable, and–well, maybe there’s one smudge of oil on her knee, but it probably wouldn’t be too noticeable…!
“But Renne,” Tita says, trying hard to sound confident and certain, “Kloe already knows how I am, so she’ll be expecting me to dress this way. Besides, it’s comfy.”
Renne seems very much unimpressed by her protests.
“Listen, Tita,” Renne responds as if with a thin veneer of calm, “I know that this is just how you dress, and honestly, it suits you really well.”
Tita blinks, taken off-guard by the sudden compliment, but before she can process it properly, Renne has already continued.
“But I absolutely refuse to allow Agate’s influence to have any part in things like this. You can be a lady for things like this and I would really like to see–”
She cuts herself off suddenly, clearing her throat and glancing away, and Tita tilts her head a little. Renne wants to see…? She’s absolutely curious about what her friend was going to say, but before she can pry, Renne moves on.
“Regardless…! You do not have to wear a dress like this, and you do not have to do anything you are not comfortable with, but at least allow me to give you some accessories.”
Tita tilts her head at that, opening her mouth to protest. It’s not that she doesn’t like Renne’s taste–on Renne. But Tita can’t really imagine herself wearing anything frilly or showy, and she’s about to say that when Renne pulls from her bag a very simple headband, blue satin to match Tita’s eyes.
“So,” Renne continues, just a little shyly, “I thought perhaps we could do your hair a different way, and you could wear this.”
Seeing Renne standing there, holding something that would undoubtedly require more lace and frills for her to like it, something that she picked out to be contrary to her own tastes in order to suit Tita’s... something about it leaves Tita feeling warm inside, and her entire face lights up when she smiles.
“Sure!” she chirps, reaching for Renne’s hand. “Let’s do that. Show me what sort of style you had in mind for my hair, okay?”
By the time they make it to Kloe’s little gathering, Tita has learned many different hair styles from Renne and that she likes the feeling of Renne’s fingers in her hair.
And more than anything, Tita’s learned that Renne is unavoidably stubborn–but knows how to give in all of the ways that matter.
–
5.
Tita has suspicions that Renne is far more sensitive than she first appears, but they’re confirmed surprisingly suddenly one bright summer day.
They’re out and about, clearing a task for the Bracer’s Guild alongside Agate, Estelle and Joshua. Joshua tried to convince them that they didn’t have to come–after all, neither Tita nor Renne is a proper Bracer. But Estelle dragged him away before they could respond, and Tita is honestly thrilled to be able to spend more time with them and also Agate, and so they’re in the midst of Krone Pass, weapons at the ready. Of course, Krone’s path has endless winding corridors, and it is only a matter of time before they’re faced with a choice of which direction to go.
“Guess we can’t really tell which way the monster is,” Estelle says thoughtfully, tapping her staff against the ground as she waits, as if she can’t stand to be idle for even a moment.
Agate just shrugs. “With the firepower we’ve got here, makes the most sense to just split up into two groups and go at it that way, doesn’t it?”
Joshua hesitates. “I don’t really think we should put Renne and Tita into that kind of danger after dragging them along like this–”
And Renne just scoffs then, planting her hands on her hips. “Please, who do you think I am? I’ve seen the report. This sort of monster wouldn’t be a challenge even if I had my hands tied behind my back.”
There’s a murmur under Joshua’s breath that sounds an awful lot like, “Please don’t actually do that–” before Agate just grins a feral grin. “It’s settled then. Let’s split up into teams and get going before the trail goes cold.”
Tita figures that that’s that–Estelle and Joshua and Renne can go together, and she and Agate can spend time together while hunting down that monster.
“That isn’t fair,” Renne huffs, disrupting Tita’s thoughts as she steps towards Agate. “I wanted to spend more time with Tita. We should split the teams up differently.”
Agate just arches an eyebrow at that. “How d’you suppose we should do that? It’s not like Joshua and Estelle are ever gonna to be separated, so… I figured you’d want to do some sort of family team or something.”
Both Estelle and Joshua look sheepish but neither protests, and Tita just frowns a little, expression bemused.
“What’s wrong, Renne?”
Renne’s hands are clenched into fists, and she stomps down with one foot on the ground in a way that’s reminiscent of the tantrums she used to throw when she was the Angel of Slaughter. “I was looking forward to spending more time with you, Tita! And then you were so excited to go off with him--”
Renne shifts a flat stare at Agate, who makes a show of looking as innocent as possible, hands shoved into his pockets.
“Don’t look at me,” he mutters. “It wasn’t my choice.”
Tita tilts her head, still bemused. “Well… I haven’t seen Agate in ages, so of course I’m excited to spend time with him. But I don’t want to lose out on spending time with you, either.”
Still, the solution, to Tita, is as simple as a basic math formula, and she brightens quickly. “So why don’t we all go together? Joshua and Estelle can take the other path.”
Neither Renne nor Agate look as mollified by this plan as Tita thought they would; Renne looks as disgruntled as before, and Agate is wearing that longsuffering look he gets when he thinks everyone around him is twisting themselves into knots over nothing.
“Is… that not okay…?” she asks tentatively, and Renne sighs, slowly unclenching her fists and managing a small smile for Tita.
Only after she’s done that does she manage to say, “No… no, this should be fine. As he said, we have to hurry before the monster’s trail disappears completely. Let’s go.”
With a flick of her hair and her dress, Renne sets off down the path, and Tita flashes Agate a bemused look. He just quirks an eyebrow at her before he nods after Renne.
“Better hurry after her before she gets fussy again,” is all he says, and Tita shrugs a little to herself before she does trot after Renne. Renne’s fussiness never really bothers her. She’s sure there’s some sort of reason behind it–there always is.
Still… Tita smiles a little to herself, shaking her head.
She’s learning that Renne is surprisingly sensitive, isn’t she?
–
+1
“Could you wait here for me for just a moment?” Renne asks, and then, uncharacteristically, she pauses to adjust her hair and clothing in gestures that could almost seem nervous if not for the fact that it’s Renne doing them.
Tita frowns a little to herself.
She doesn’t mind Renne running off on her own, even if this is specifically a visit for Renne to finally spend time with Tita in Erebonia. And she certainly knows that Renne can take care of herself, probably better than anyone Tita knows.
But seeing Renne act in a way that could read as anxious immediately makes Tita not want to allow her to go alone.
“I don’t mind waiting,” Tita begins slowly, bangs swaying as she tilts her head. “But can I go with you instead?”
Renne opens her mouth, a seeming refusal on the tip of her tongue, before she closes it again without saying a word. She seems to think better of it after a long moment, lips curving into a faint smile as she says, “You’ll just be even more concerned for me if I say no, won’t you?”
“That’s not–” Tita stammers, but she can’t finish the sentence when both she and Renne know it’s true.
Renne’s expression is thankfully amused. “It’s all right, Tita. Honestly, I’m touched by it. You always seem to be thinking of how I’m feeling.”
She pauses to take a deep breath, looking off into the distance for a moment, before she finally comes to a decision and nods firmly. “You can come. I don’t mind. Truly.”
Before Tita, feeling a pang of guilt that she may have pressured Renne into this, can say a thing, Renne offers Tita her hand–and that is answer enough for her. As uncomfortable and uncertain as Renne is, she wants Tita to be there with her, or she wouldn’t have reached out so willingly.
So Tita immediately takes Renne’s hand, squeezing it firmly in her own, and is rewarded when Renne shoots her a tiny smile.
Their destination, it turns out, isn’t anything too spectacular.
There are two people with their son, seemingly well-off and seemingly a perfectly happy family. Tita can’t really begin to imagine what they have to do with Renne, or what Renne has to do with them, until the little boy turns and brightens when he sees her.
“Oh!” he exclaims in pure, childish excitement. “It’s that nice miss who came before!”
The child’s hair is a different color, and his eyes are a different color too, but his facial features and the father’s hair and the mother’s eyes all scream familiarity, and Tita’s eyes widen for a moment. But before her mind can put together all of the pieces and cause her to blurt out something ill-advised, Renne is already stepping forward, smiling gently at the child.
“I did promise I would come back to visit, didn’t I?” she says, and there’s a sweetness in her tone that Tita has never heard before, and a wistfulness hidden underneath it. “And look what I’ve brought you from Liberl!”
Tita watches this happen, watches the fondness of the parents and the child’s excitement and finds that she can’t quite put words to what she wants to ask. But Renne’s fingers are tight in hers, keeping her anchored and from feeling excluded, and slowly, Tita relaxes. This… is just another secret that Renne is letting her in on, isn’t it? Just like with each and every thing Renne has allowed her to see about her–just as with every single moment in which Renne has let her in–this is how Renne demonstrates her trust and kindness.
Tita finds herself grinning, even as she leans over to listen to the young boy–Renne’s brother–chatter to her about the “nice miss”.
It’s nice of Renne to let her in like this, and to show her this. But that’s Tita’s secret.
Renne’s kindness is something she’s known about all along.