Putting Her Foot Down

As despondent as that evening had left Kyrie, for Vivian, she felt on top of the world and immensely eager to talk to her friend about it. Yet...Vivian just couldn't seem to find a good time to meet up with Kyrie again!

It had been a few days since Vivian had unveiled her new nightclothes to Renard, and Vivian was so excited to see what Kyrie had actually drawn from that night. The night itself had been much better than she was worried about in the back of her mind as well: Vivian hadn't even registered that Kyrie was in the room with them after they started and Renard remained none the wiser! It couldn't have been more perfect! The hard part had been surmounted, now all that was left was to see Kyrie's drawings! Every time that Vivian had a little time to go to the slave's quarters though, Kyrie just wasn't there: either she was helping Dessi in the kitchen, spending time with Isaac, or doing some last minute menagerie work for the lady. It was really just poor timing, and Vivian was quickly getting impatient with it.

The evening with Renard had been thought of so fondly in Vivian's own mind: she'd loved how off guard he was and how much he had lavished her with attention that evening. He had almost seemed a little gentler as well? Maybe that was just her own imagination, but she was eager to get a look at Kyrie's drawings to see if there was any confirmation about what Vivian had felt. Was she projecting her own hopes so much onto Renard that these traits manifested in her mind? Or was he genuinely showing what she'd thought?

As she once again thought about that night, she had to admit that the fact that Kyrie had been looking in on their intimate acts really hadn't bothered her as much as she thought it might. During the act itself, Vivian didn't even think about her at all until she'd moved to leave. Even now as she was cognitively pondering what Kyrie had done, there wasn't any particular distaste. Sure, Renard not knowing about Kyrie's presence in the room had taken a lot of the weight of the situation off of her mind, but she'd still expected Kyrie's presence to bother her at a deeper level. Yet it just... It really hadn't at all.

Since Kyrie hadn't been actively participating in the activity, it felt less to Vivian like she was sharing the experience and more like she was just showing off the love that she felt for Renard. She didn't really mind sharing that though, even if it was sharing it on a much more intimate level than usual. It was almost liberating to know that she didn't mind other people watching her time with Renard: it somehow made her feel even more comfortable with her relationship with him. It wasn't all that clear to her why she felt this way, but it definitely did put a bit of a lilt in her mood.

The door to the nursery creaking open drew Vivian's attention away from the sewing that she was working on, and she was immediately startling up from her seat on the floor as the lady of the house entered the room. Vivian cast a brief look at the children to make sure they were presentable and thankfully, Vivian didn't really see any problems with them. It was a good thing too, it was always a little awkward to be fussing about the children while Mae was clearly waiting for them. It was also good because Vivian wasn't sure she would've been able to make it to Raine in time before the little girl darted forward to give her mother's legs a hug.

"Good afternoon, mother! Markus and I are reading the fable book you gave me, would you like to read too?"

Mae rested her hand on Raine's head as the girl looked up at her with sparkling eyes, but of course Lady Dandridge's features remained just about as expressionless as usual.

"Perhaps later, I've come up to inform you that Jiera and I are headed to the outdoor emporium and if the three of you would like to go then you're invited to accompany us."

Even though the lady's tone was perfectly neutral, Vivian couldn't help but insert a little bit of distaste into the lady's voice when she mentioned the emporium. Just going on Mae's regular habits, Vivian guessed that she would much rather be in her own quiet home than the busy streets of the emporium. Still, the capital city's emporium were rather famous for the goods that passed through them, but not just the goods, the people as well. This was no commonplace market that they'd be going to, it was one that catered to the rich and powerful. It was nothing like the streets of one of the peasant marketplaces: there was an air of finery to it and much less chaos, and from Vivian's understanding, the emporium was just as political as any ballroom. Jiera, of course, absolutely adored such places, but Mae likely didn't share her friend's interest. Still, she went along anyway, for reasons entirely her own, no doubt.

"I want to go! Markus, you'll come too, right?"

Raine's whole demeanor bounced with excitement from her mother's invitation, and when she looked back at Markus, the enthusiasm on his face was nonexistent. Her features fell a little at the thought of her friend not coming with her, and Vivian watched as Markus's features turned to a pout now. Vivian could almost see how he was weighing his options in his mind: was Raine's company worth going to a marketplace to do a bunch of boring stuff?

Evidently it was, because Markus ended up giving a shrug.

"I guess."

Breida, of course, didn't really have much of an opinion of her own yet, and so all she really did was mimic Markus's I guess with much rougher pronunciation.

Mae turned her eyes towards Neri and Vivian then, both of which straightened up more under the scrutiny of the lady.

"Neri, Jiera would like your assistance in her room."

Neri gave a slight dip of her head before scurrying off towards Mae's guest bedrooms, and now Mae's attention was on Vivian.

"I trust you can get the children ready for an outing?"

"Of course, my lady!"

Giving her slave a brief nod, Mae then moved both her hand and legs away from her daughter, though this wasn't much of an ordeal because Raine had already bounded over to Vivian. She'd heard so much about the emporium both from Jiera and her mother and she really wanted to make sure that she'd be looking her best for her very first outing there. She picked out some clothing with Vivian's help, and at Raine's insistence Vivian also did her hair up in a style 'befitting a lady' as Raine had put it. The other two children took considerably less time than Raine since they didn't care so much about what they were wearing. Still, Vivian made them look good anyway.

The flurry of preparation lasted only about 15 minutes or so, and soon all three of them were clean, presentable, and fitted in clothing befitting their station.

It took a bit longer for the two ladies to come back though.

The children fidgeted in their nice cloths, wanting to either get out of them or go already, and Vivian kept them entertained until Jiera finally swept into the room with Neri following closely behind. She was looking as dramatic and eye-catching as always, with that winning smile present on her face, and as she came in she greeted each child and chatted a little with them. Before deciding to leave, she lifted little Breida up into her arms to give the girl a soft kiss on the cheek. The toddler burbled her delight from such attention and clung to her mother.

Mae came into the room at the same time that Jiera did, but unsurprisingly, it was much more difficult to notice Mae when Jiera was also in the room. Lady Dandridge was a quieter woman, preferring to watch from the sidelines and listen in rather than actively participate herself, but at the same time, Vivian knew that the woman could steal the room if she ever wanted to. The only reason she was the less noticeable one next to Jiera was because she wanted to be.

Even though Raine's eyes had been all on Jiera when the woman had greeted and complimented them, Raine had still seen her mother, and now that it was time to go she gravitated towards the quieter woman. It was a little strange to see, really: Raine had much more of a draw towards the lavish and social lifestyle than her mother did, which would make an onlooker think that she would prefer Jiera's company. Yet, the crow-toting Lady Dandridge was clearly the one that she favored the most. She may idolize Jiera to a certain degree, but her mother still had the stronger bond. Slipping her hand into her mother's, Mae only gave Raine a brief glance before the group of them exited the room.

Neri headed off with the group, presumably to help the women take care of the children if they particularly acted up during the day. Vivian had been given no such orders and so she found herself with a big chunk of free time to fill as she pleased.

Well that was obvious: she was off to go find Kyrie.

Since the lady was leaving, that meant that Kyrie was probably in the menagerie dealing with the animals. Vivian had never actually been in the menagerie on her own before though, well, she had once, but it had been way too exhausting of a night for her to really have taken it in. Besides, all she'd done that time was go in and fetch Kyrie before promptly leaving. This visit would be different, and she felt a bit more nervous as she descended the stairs to the menagerie door. Honestly, she wasn't really that big of a fan of animals in the first place, and she knew that the lady had a number of dangerous pets in her menagerie. Still, through all the years that Kyrie had been working in the place, she hadn't had a single incident with one of the more dangerous animals. Not even Raine had ever been attacked by one! It was silly of her to even think of being afraid or even nervous if she had multiple examples that told her she'd be fine!

Yet, as her hand touched the door, she couldn't help the chill that ran up her spine. Shouldering past the rather unfounded nervousness, she pushed the door open before stepping inside the menagerie.

All she remembered of the menagerie the first time was that there were tons of plants, but now that she was actually looking at it she was rather overwhelmed. Her mouth opened a little in astonishment as her eyes took in the sheer amount of color in the room: it was as if she had stumbled into a kind of wilderness paradise. The room she was in was specifically set up to be able to let in a lot of light, and no lanterns of any kind were present on the walls. There was a gently flowing stream moving through the rooms in the menagerie and of course there were a number of animals lurking about the grounds that she could see. After over 7 years in the lady's household, this was the first time she'd ever admired the menagerie, and it definitely showed in the awe with which she looked around the room.

Before the lady had gotten pregnant, she'd always planned it so that any time she called for a slave it was outside the menagerie. The lady spent a lot of time in the menagerie taking care of the animals, yet any time she wanted something she'd be in her study, or the sitting room, or what have you. As a result, the menagerie had come to feel kind of like a forbidden room to Vivian. Sure, there was never anything the lady said that explicitly told the slaves to keep out of the room, but since Mae took care of everything inside it, and went outside it every time she called a slave, it came to be an off-limits room in Vivian's mind. Perhaps that's where her earlier hesitation to open the door had come from?

This was no time to stand around gawking though! She wanted to find Kyrie!

"Kyrie?"

She called her friend's name out softly to the room, seeing how the animals reacted to her speaking. They didn't seem to care too much, so Vivian's calls began to get a little louder as she moved into the room. After all, this place couldn't be that big, could it?

While Vivian searched for Kyrie, Kyrie was sitting down on one of the benches in the menagerie with her notebook open in her lap. The lady had already done most of the animal maintenance, there were only really a few things left to do, but Kyrie was lingering to be able to contemplate in silence.

She had a number of drawings finished for Vivian and while she was perfectly satisfied with them, she just couldn't seem to get over how that night had felt for her. Ultimately, she would describe it as an unpleasant experience, and she was continually befuddled by that fact. She had been satisfying an age old curiosity of hers, so why did it feel so bad? Perhaps it had to do with the emotions that were shown on their faces, but why was their love for each other so disconcerting for her? It made her miss Isaac, sure, but there was something else to it... It was almost as if it made her feel like her own interactions with Renard were so much less interesting? More shallow, maybe? When she watched Vivian and Renard have sex, it had made her want the company of Isaac, it hadn't made her think of her relationship with Renard. Was physical intimacy with Renard only a catalyst then for her feelings with Isaac? Her own interactions with Renard felt so hollow compared to Vivian's, and she couldn't help but wonder if she'd still be able to get enjoyment out of her interactions with him after watching this.

The sound of her name in the distance caused her to jump and slam her book shut, and her eyes went wide when she realized just whose voice it was. Vivian was in the menagerie?!

To be honest, their inability to meet up in the past few days hadn't been entirely because of poor timing, a lot of it had been that Kyrie wasn't entirely sure how to face Vivian. If she was coming into the menagerie of all places in an effort to seek her out though, then there really was no escaping anymore. Theoretically Kyrie could hide among the foliage, but then it would become obvious that she was trying to hide from her friend instead of events just being poorly timed.

Taking a bit of a shaky breath, she hoped that Vivian would just take the pictures and go, and not ask too much about the night of. She didn't want to have to try and describe the confusion in her own heart. At the same time though, maybe describing it to at least someone would help things become clearer.

Standing up from her bench, she told herself that she would take things as they came, and with that thought she headed towards where the voice was coming from. Calling out a response to Vivian to let her friend know that she was on the right track, it wasn't long at all before they met up. When the two women finally came within view of each other, a bright smile lit up Vivian's face, one that was a little infectious for Kyrie even if she wasn't quite as excited to see her friend.

"There you are! My goodness this place is so much bigger than I ever would've thought! You're going to have to help show me the way out!"

Vivian let out a soft laugh at that before striding forward to take Kyrie's hands in her own. Or at least she would've, if one of Kyrie's hands wasn't already holding her notebook. Before Kyrie could get a word in to ask what Vivian was doing here, Vivian just went right on speaking.

"Oh perfect! You're already carrying it! I've been dying to know how your drawings turned out but our schedules just haven't been lining up lately. So for you, Kyrie, I have braved the unknown that is the menagerie!"

She let out another laugh at that, one that was returned with a look of astonishment from Kyrie.

"I'm surprised you came into the menagerie at all, I don't think I've ever seen you enter these rooms on your own."

"Yeah well, I wanted to make sure that I'd be able to see you today."

It flattered Kyrie a bit that Vivian was so excited, and Kyrie couldn't help smiling to herself as she led Vivian over to the nearest bench. Vivian was practically bouncing in her spot from the excitement, and Kyrie found that now that she was sitting down with her friend she really didn't feel a desire to try and delay things any longer. Moving to the pages of her notebook with a steadier hand than she would've expected, Kyrie thumbed through them before holding apart the ones that had pictures of Vivian and Renard in them. Passing this to Vivian's lap, Kyrie spoke softly.

"These are the ones I drew for you two: a lot of them are more sketchy than others, but there are a decent number that I did to completion. I hope that you like them."

As Vivian reverently began to look through the pictures, Kyrie turned her eyes away to look out at the surrounding menagerie. She still wasn't entirely certain how she should face Vivian, so not facing her was the preferred option. As she looked out at the rest of the menagerie though, she caught sight of something that made her heart constrict in nervousness and anxiety. Kyrie had seen the glint of eyes in some of the foliage: while that wasn't anything particularly unusual, what was unusual was that these were Renard's eyes.

He must've come into the menagerie either shortly before or shortly after Vivian! … Kyrie could understand now how awful it must've felt for him to realize she was watching him while he was having some private time of his own: he was watching her have an interaction with Vivian that should ideally never reach his ears, and now Kyrie felt even more nervous about all of this. Should she tailor what she said somehow now that she knew Renard was watching? How much had he seen already? Did he know that these were pictures of himself and Vivian that Vivian was looking at?

Renard wasn't watching Kyrie at the moment though, so he didn't know that she was aware that he was there. Following his gaze, Kyrie could see that he was looking at Vivian with narrowed eyes, almost as if he was irritated with her. Knowing that she'd be unable to look at the rest of the menagerie without continually coming back to Renard, Kyrie kept her eyes on Vivian now, who looked to be adoring the pictures in her lap. Perhaps it would be best to just pretend that Renard wasn't there instead of trying to cater things to his wants?

Trying to put Renard out of her mind for now, Kyrie studied Vivian instead. Her friend's features were soft as she scrutinized the various drawings, and in fact, there was evidence of moisture in her eyes as she looked upon them. These sketches were clear evidence that the things Vivian had always hoped for actually were true. There was genuine fondness on Renard's part towards her, and his passion for her easily matched that which she felt for him. They weren't just having sex because it felt good, perhaps it had started out that way, but now they were having sex because it also connected them on a deeper level. There was more to their relationship now than there ever had been.

Wiping at her eyes to stop the tears before they even began, Vivian looked at Kyrie with genuine appreciation that caused Kyrie's own features to melt.

"Kyrie... These are more than I ever could've hoped for. I... I will admit that I was hesitant to do this at all at first but just... To know for sure that this is how he looks at me... It's not just all in my head. I don't know how I can possibly thank you."

Kyrie let her hands hold one of her friend's now, and she leaned in close to give Vivian some comfort and almost share in the good feeling.

"I'm just happy that you're so happy. I never would've thought that my drawings could get such a reaction out of people."

Vivian threw her arms around her friend then, biting her lip hard to hold back the tears. Kyrie was such a good friend, and even though it had taken Vivian years to really internalize that, she was glad that the younger girl had stuck around for so long. Vivian had started their relationship with less than friendly intentions, but now she could comfortably say without any strings attached that Kyrie was her best friend.

"Thank you, Kyrie. I promise that I'll make you the best nightclothes I can muster in return!"

As she said this, she pulled away from Kyrie, still holding her shoulders to give her a serious and determined expression. Kyrie blushed a little at that, a little deeper than usual knowing that Renard was listening, and Vivian broke into a smile.

"Truly though, I really appreciate this."

Turning back to the notebook, she held it up to Kyrie.

"Which one can I take?"

"You can have all of them, if you want. I can always redraw them if I want the opportunity to look back at them, but I think they'd mean more to you than they'd ever mean to me."

Vivian practically blanched at this answer.

"A-all of them?! Really? Are you sure?"

She would completely love to have all of them, but she hadn't even dreamed that she'd get more than one or two. One for her and one for Renard. Yet here Kyrie was, offering the whole crop to her. Kyrie smiled in response to Vivian's surprise, and nodded encouragingly. So with that, the two of them carefully set to work tearing out the pages so as to not damage the pictures. As they did so it looked like Vivian was choking back some more happy tears, and Kyrie just stuck close to her friend with a gentle smile on her face.

It really did feel good to have someone love what she did so much. She'd never drawn anything expressly for someone before, it had always just been for herself, and Kyrie thought now that it might be really nice to do every once in a while.

Once they were done, Kyrie sent another glance in the direction she'd seen Renard in, but now he was no where to be found. A bit of worry flit through Kyrie's mind to see this, but when she turned back to the ecstatic Vivian the feeling lessened. As Vivian started gushing about the drawings that were her favorite, Kyrie's own smile began to fade. She still loved how much Vivian adored them, but the more Kyrie was forced to really look and think about the drawings, the more she was reminded of how much she missed Isaac. He had only just left, but the knowledge that she couldn't just go out and see him was enough to dampen her mood a little.

Even through Vivian's own excitement, she could see this drop in her friend.

"What's wrong?"

Kyrie looked up a little startled, and seriously debated whether she should say anything about what was wrong. This might be a good opportunity though... One where she could plant the seed that she didn't want to have to do this again. At least, not have to draw Vivian and Renard making love again, she could do other things just fine. Kyrie just... She didn't like how uncomfortable watching them had made her. It was painful to see two people making love like she would make love to Isaac, and watching Vivian and Renard's relationship made her feel like her own relationship with Renard was just cheap in comparison.

"It's just that looking at all this makes me miss Isaac."

Suddenly, the reason for why Kyrie had left partway through their lovemaking clicked in Vivian's mind. She'd been so caught up in her own affairs that she hadn't even thought about how doing this would make Kyrie feel! It was no wonder that she'd left early in the evening: if she had to watch two people in love spending time with each other while being unable to be with her own love she couldn't even imagine how painful it would be!

"Oh Kyrie! I'm so sorry I didn't even think--"

Kyrie interrupted her friend by shaking her head.

"No, no it's ok. I'm glad that you have these precious memories solidified now, but..."

Here Kyrie trailed off, but Vivian completely understood and took her friend's hands in both of hers.

"I understand. I won't ask you to do something like this again, and even more thanks for doing it the first time!"

"It's... You shouldn't be afraid to ask me for other requests I'd just rather not... Draw pictures of your bed habits any more."

"Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind for the future. I'm glad you haven't been completely scared away from requests though! I wouldn't blame you if you stopped taking any and all of them after this."

The two women shared a smile at that, and Kyrie felt like that was one less thing she'd have to worry about.

Still though... She needed to figure out how she really felt about... Well... About everything, really. It was a daunting task, but at least she knew that Vivian was pretty firmly in her corner.