Rainbow Rose(s) ~ Neuv x Wrio x Reader (TEMP HIATUS)

You Don't Know Me but You Remember Me

brief mentions of rape/ sexual assault, not very graphically described. Beware

~~

Reader's POV

The intense moment is cut short by Neuvillette clearing his throat. “Pardon me for interrupting this, uh, staring competition, but we have not yet introduced ourselves, have we?”

Wriothesley clears his throat and looks towards Neuvillette, and I in turn look away from them both. My heartrate seems to slow down, but very slowly.  I just hope they don’t notice my behaviour the way I notice theirs.

“Right, I agree. So, I’ll start. My name is Wriothesley, and as I’m sure you know, I’m the Duke of the Fortress of Meropide. It’s nice to meet you, Mademoiselle.. ?" He proceeds to take a slight bow, hold my hand gentle in his, and lightly brush his lips against my knuckles. *What a proper greeting, considering he- wait, Mademoiselle?* At this moment I notice my top hat laying next to my feet, and the fact that my hair had come undone, revealing the fact that it was longer than had been previously shown.

Noticing my surprised and confused expression, Neuvillette takes the wheel.

“And I am Neuvillette, the Chief Justice of Fontaine. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

And this snaps me back into reality. My turn.

“Ah, the pleasure is all mine, truly, Monsieur Neuvillette, Monsieur Wriothesley. I am Y/N, I am… no one special.” I bow low, with my eyes closed and head facing down aswell. Now, here comes a more solid introduction. So far you know me as the artist that stares at people to be able to replicate them in artworks, haha. But here’s a little more information. I am a decently high ranked, semi-well known person of Fontainian society. I am well known for an incident that occurred years ago, and because of this, my art has started getting recognized, and my popularity grew as a result, which led to more people finding out about my case, and so it continued in a loop. However, the case I was involved in was years ago, and I am no longer the talk of the town.

Now, what happened years ago? It was a horrible occurrence, or so I’ve been told. So I imagine it to be, for I do not remember it. At all. But here’s how the story goes. A young, clever, beautiful person, at the age of 18. They had just come of age, and needed to find themselves a suitable partner. So they were sent, on their own, to a popular ball in the hopes of finding said suitable partner. And within no time, they had found what seemed to be the perfect husband. He had the most charming personality, and he was a rather handsome man aswell. The two had spent the entire evening together. Dancing, talking, wandering around the mansion. When the end of the evening had arrived, he offered to walk them home, and they accepted.

What a fool.

Majority of the events happening after had not been witnessed by many eyes, so the details are lost to time. But the basics of that night are as follows: the man had suggested a shortcut, to which the person agreed to. They entered a secluded street, no one was around. And then he did it. He assaulted them, stripping them of everything they had, clothes and dignity alike. The person’s cries had alerted a nearby civilian, and they were saved.

The ‘lovely’ man was put on trial a few days after, and both the victim and the witness were to go against him, have him arrested. But the victim, the person, did not speak. During the entire trial, they had not said a word, simply nodding or shaking their head when necessary. Instead of answering, they stared the entire time at almost nothing. They looked dead, looked destroyed. And they were. And everyone noticed this. Majority of the time, they stared the man on the opposite balcony, their attacker, dead in the eyes, with no particular emotion showing in theirs. However, for a small fraction of the time, they stared at *him.* Monsieur Neuvillette, the Chief Justice. Once again, no particular emotion showing in their eyes. In fact, they weren’t feeling anything to begin with. But they stared at him regardless, and a few times he caught their stare. But they kept staring. They didn’t stop.

In the end, both the Chief Justice and the Oratrice Mechanique d’Analyse Cardinal reached the same verdict: guilty. Their attacker was sentenced to life in the Fortress of Meropide. They continued on with their life. But their family would not let it go. They constantly harassed them with the fact that they were tainted and would never find a partner. So, they left with no warning. They started anew in a different part of the city. They had come to the conclusion that to behave kindly to everyone leaves yourself vulnerable. So they started dedicating their time to visiting every ball they possibly could, dressing up as a man and monitoring all the guests, to prevent a similar situation from occurring. So here I stand now, fancy suit on, but disguise discarded. The Duke and the Chief Justice see me now as I am, a person.

During my bow, I reach down, grab my top hat and try to fix my hair to the best of my abilities, placing the top hat on my head once again.

“I believe it’s time for me to leave, I have stayed here long enough, so I’ll leave the area to you.” I rush past Wriothesley, and try making it past Neuvillette, but he grabs my wrist before I get too far. At fist his grip is tight, it has me gasping in surprise for a moment, I suppose it was because I moving very fast that his grip pulled me back and I almost stumbled. However, it softens up within a second, leaving my wrist hurting and mind shocked at how quickly he can become gentle. He let go of my wrist, and I turned towards him to ask why he did that, but he speaks first.

“I apologize for being so impolite, I just wanted- did I hurt you?” His eyes jump to my hands, my uninjured hand holding my injured wrist and rubbing it gently. I stop rubbing, and sheepishly look to the ground. He’s very perceptive.

“Please, it’s not that bad. Your strength merely surprised me, Monsieur.”

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed while his eyes darted between my face and my hands. He did not say a word, this time Wriothesley broke the silence by clearing his throat.

“How about you just apologize regardless? Seems like they want to go home, hm?”

It took him no more than a second of delay to reply. “Yes, of course. I truly am sorry I hurt you, it was not my intentions. I had merely wanted to catch you before you left to ask you how you’ve been.”

*How I’ve been?* And then it hit me that he remembered me. The last time we properly ‘met’ was years ago. Exchanging stares for years in secret did not count. I did not give a verbal response. I gave a shy smile, turned around and continued towards the rose arch. The entire way there, I felt their eyes on my back. I did not know how to feel after an encounter with such powerful men. It scared me, but Archons was it a lovely experience too. I had always wanted to speak to them. I did not hear the words they spoke to each other as I left.

~

Neuvillette's POV

“So, they're the one then? The one who’s had their eyes on us for so long?” Wriothesley asks me. He walks closer to me, standing to my left.

“So it seems.”

“How do you feel after meeting them?”

I do not answer. I do not know what to call this feeling.

“Let me take a guess… hm… captivated? Curious to know more? Maybe a little attracted to them?”

“…how did you know?”

“Because I feel the same way.”

~

A/N
I am so sorry for my lack of a proper updating schedules. AO3 is currently further ahead in the story so between writing new chapters and keeping up with what is posted where, I get confused and forget. My exams are also starting soon, so it's gonna get wacky! I hope you're all enjoying Rainbow Roses so far.

(For those of you who skipped the important notes, I'd recommend reading those. Please. And yes, I saw a lot of you skipped.)

(Edited: 10/1/2024)