[A/N:
Sorry it's been a while, I've been trying to get used to my university schedule. I've found some free time for now, but with the schedule soon becoming more packed it might be even rarer for me to write. On another note, there is a point I would like to make about Trivia.
People with mutism, or those who suffer physical, psychological, or emotional blocks to their ability to speak, can be mute for a variety of different reasons, and obviously not all mute people are "completely" mute, as some can only speak in very short portions at very soft volumes, such as Trivia (if you somehow couldn't tell), and others can't speak at all.
The one thing that mute people can do, most of the time regardless of severity, is produce noises. These include whistling, grunts, coughs, etc. This is the kind Trivia has.
Also, I'm trying out a different way to write different perspectives while keeping first person, but if that doesn't work out well enough I might switch it to third by a certain part of the story. When you see <[someone's name]>, that shows it's their 'first POV'
There is a point in this chapter where it felt a little drawn out to me, but at the same time, it felt right to have it as drawn out as it was. If you don't like it then good for you, but I do hope you like it and understand what I was getting at.
That's all, have fun!]
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As is usual, I woke up first among the three of us. Skillfully climbing over Ivy, I got my morning routine of bathroom, brushing my teeth, and putting on day clothes done. Once I left the closet, having dressed in a black t-shirt and pants and put my hair loosely up, I noticed Trivia beginning to stretch as she stood from the bed. Her wavy brown hair cascaded down her back as she let out a light moan of pleasure from that perfect stretch in the morning. Though I lost myself for a second, once she looked at me I quickly shook my head to bring my thoughts back.
"Goodmorning Trivia."
{Morning Argento.}
"Feel free to take your time getting ready, I'll wake up the sleeping princess." As Trivia walks past me I give her a smile, which she happily reciprocates. Now by the bed on Ivy's side, a chuckle escaped my lips as I saw Ivy was ever-so-slightly dribbling in her sleep.
Kneeling to get a closer look, I notice how the light from the window lit up her hair just enough for it to show its green quality, and the peaceful look she had on her face as she slept without a worry in the world. Without even realizing it, my hand had already gone over and gently moved some of her hair out of her face. I didn't stop it once I noticed what was happening, because Ivy was never one to be woken up by so little effort; except, that's exactly what was happening now.
As her eyes lightly scrunched before fluttering open, having just barely been asleep enough to feel the hand brush across her cheek, her silver eyes met my absentminded golden gaze as my hand lingered on her cheek. Not knowing what to do in this situation Ivy froze while her face slowly turned several shades of red, but I can't say I was in much of a better situation. I had several thoughts running through my mind, some screaming at me to move away and others screaming to move closer. It was easy to tell which side was winning as I subconsciously drifted forward at a snail's pace with my own ears beginning to heat up, and it seemed the same inner struggle was happening for Ivy as she gently put a hand over the one I had on her cheek.
*Ding*
Hearing the very familiar noise, both Ivy and I snapped to attention as I jumped to my feet and she sat up straight as we both looked toward the foot of the bed where Trivia had her eyebrow raised and a teasing smirk that hid several conflicting emotions from even me.
{You know Argento, if you wanted time alone you could have just asked.}
"No, that's not what was happening, I was just about to wake her up and I got distracted." 'What is wrong with me? First, it was the thing with Trivia, then Ivy, and now my reaction. I know I'm not immune to emotions like this, but goddamnit I have the total mental lifespan of someone in their mid-forties, even if I can't remember all of it, so being in situations like this shouldn't be a problem.'
While I was caught in a mental loop of leveling my thoughts out, Ivy was at first in a similar situation. With the whole event playing in her head, potentially her first kiss was moments away, so of course, she would be flustered as hell. But after a few moments of looking in Trivia's direction, Ivy noticed the well-hidden emotions she put behind her smirk. It wasn't because they were visible, if anything Trivia had the best poker face of anyone Ivy's ever seen, but it was because she could practically feel it; she knew exactly what was going on inside her because she sometimes has those very same emotions. And now Ivy had a brief flash of concern across her eyes, though she hid it before I had the chance to notice it.
"Argento, how about you head down first? Trivia and I will be down soon."
"Huh? Uhh, sure?" Though I was thankful for the chance to escape the situation and collect my thoughts, I wondered why it seemed Ivy was more collected than I was. Once I left the room and the door began closing I saw Ivy pat the bed next to her. Now more confused than before, I leave it be as it seems to be a 'them' talk, not an 'us' talk; I won't intrude when I'm not wanted. In the meantime, I smell some wonderful food being made at the moment.
I can't understand any of it. The tightness of my chest when I saw those two so close was almost unbearable. I've felt it before, always when they were being close or super friendly, but it was usually pretty weak and normally went away as soon as it came up; but even as Argento left the room and I sat down next to Ivy, it didn't seem to get any weaker. The look she was giving me now that he left the room just made me begin to fidget.
"Triv I'm not going to beat around the bush; do you like him?" There was no need to say who 'him' was, it was pretty obvious, but I found my fingers refusing to type the words as my face slowly began heating up. "I guess it doesn't take words to be able to understand that much, especially when I feel the same way." We sat there for a little in silence, which was normal for me but Ivy isn't usually this docile.
*Ding*
{What do we do? No matter how much either of us might like him I don't want any of us to end up making a choice that drives one of us away; you guys are my family.}
"There has to be something we can do, right? He has to know about our feelings by now, but he must be doing nothing for the same reason."
{…I guess we could always ask for help.}
"Help? You don't mean…But wouldn't that be weird?"
{Do you want to figure this out before or after it's too late?}
"… If it's the only way, then we have no choice." It looks like it is decided then. As weird as it will be to involve the two in this, we'll have to find the time to pull the mothers away from the others.
Breakfast was as good as it always has been. I had initially been curious about what the two girls talked about, but when they finally came down the food had just finished being made so I quickly got lost in that instead.
"So, have the three of you given any thought to where you would like to head off to?" With some of the soldiers volunteering to do some of the cleaning, as they were treated to many amazing meals when they would've normally been left with guard food, it left the 8 of us at the table to talk about what we were going to be doing while here, which was currently being led by Maxwell. And to answer his question, I actually had. Before I fell asleep, I had gotten just far enough into the idea storming to finish it before I succumbed to sleep.
"Well I think it would be pretty nice to just tour the layers of the city, go sort of from the bottom to the top and stop at different stores, restaurants, and whatever else catches our eyes. That way we can go through practically everything, depending on how long it takes and how long we stay here." And it seems that the others found this to be an agreeable solution as without further ado we were setting out for the bottom-most layer of the city.
Though nature itself wasn't anything special on the way here, cherry blossom trees were abundant in the vicinity which made the whole city have a sort of glow that I hadn't seen before. The buildings were mostly of lighter colors that matched remarkably well with the overall aesthetic of traditionally advanced East Asia; this of course means that although it looked to have many traditional features, it also had plenty of technological parts throughout the city.
Just walking around the city felt different, and soon enough the joy of being somewhere new and happiness being everywhere I looked made the trip seem to go by in a flash until suddenly I woke up one of the mornings with neither of the girls by my side. Although strange, I got up and quickly did my morning routine before going down to the dining room to see if they were there. As I walked through the door I noticed the numerous colored streamers, hung up around the massive room and a massive banner above the doors on each wall that had massive letters, all spelling out -
"Happy Birthday!"
A chorus of voices exclaimed from around me with party poppers going off immediately after. Now showering around me were similarly colored scraps of paper, and walking up to me was Trivia with a party hat in her hand. As she was already plenty shorter than me at this age, I bent down just enough for her to place the hat over my head, and going on her toes she moved her mouth to my ear. "Happy birthday, Argento."
It wasn't anything special to many people, but knowing how much effort she has to give to say even a single word at any audible level made me incredibly happy she would do it for me.
"Thank you, Trivia." Pulling her into a quick but meaningful hug, I couldn't keep the smile off my face now. Each time I thought I couldn't enjoy the presence of those around me more, they prove me wrong by showing me again just how amazing it is to have a loving family. Quickly proceeding with the shortened festivities, we decided to leave the presents for later because it turns out that the parents all planned the events for today.
After having us all get fully dressed to go out, we set out for one of the highest tiers of the city, and even from this distance I could hear and see the festivities happening above us. Once we got in range, the banners by the entrance were advertising the 'Spring Festival' that was now in full swing. "What is this?"
"Well it's obviously not a celebration for your birthday, but this festival is highly regarded as one of the 'must gos' by many. We thought it would be nice to have a fun festival day before we left since there's only so many times you'll be able to experience this again." My mother made perfect sense, but even if she didn't it seemed like I had no choice as the girls pulled me forward to start exploring. Though I would never say it out loud due to it being far too cheesy, their happiness was worth more to me than every present in the world combined could ever amount to.
There seemed to be an endless amount of activities to partake in. There were stalls of light but extremely tasty foods, innumerable carnival games ranging from ring toss to sharpshooting toy guns, photo booths, musical venues, and so much more.
As the day went on I lost myself in the fun, even partaking in a competition to see who could win the most prizes; I lost because the two of them teamed up and managed to out-win me. I wasn't mad, in fact, it was quite adorable how they went to such lengths to win, but now I had to let them lead me around the rest of the day, as per the agreement of the competition.
Eventually, I noticed that we were slowly drifting away from the festival, and there seemed to be an increase in the number of cherry blossom trees as the sound of a waterfall could be heard. Hearing this, my eyes widened as I got slightly excited. Of all the places I wished to visit before we left this city, this was at the top of my list.
In front of me was a decently vast lake that was being supplied with water from gods know where, covered in beautiful bushes, bundles of colorful flowers, and lily pads. Around the lake and along the edge of the observation deck of the end of this tier of the city were beautiful stone benches, and connected to the lake itself was the flowing waterfall that fell all the way to the bottom of the city, flowing off into the distance.
Over the rail, the rest of the tiered city could be seen, and with the sun setting and lights slowly turning on for the night, it was one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. Though now that I snapped out of it I realized I was brought close to the edge and waterfall, facing the city, and now in front of me were the two girls, both facing me. As Ivy began gathering the courage to speak she looked over to the rest of the parents and catching the eye of the two mothers she got a thumbs up from them, bringing back the conversation she and Trivia had with them a few days ago.
"What was it that you wanted to talk to us about, girls?"
Sitting around a white table on comfortable chairs were my mother, Trivia, Amelia, and I. I had gotten so used to certain parts of the mansion that I forgot it was just that - a mansion. We were currently sitting at a table that was in what I could only describe as a tea room. It wasn't massive, but it mostly felt that way because of the beautiful garden that surrounded us. Woven in between the many flowers, bushes, and even small trees, were small flowing streams, and on both sides of each one was a small walkway that could hold 2 people shoulder to shoulder. The roof was opaque glass, letting in plenty of life and vibrant color while blocking out the harmful glare and heat summers could bring. When looking both out of and into the room one could see smudges of color at best, but this only added to the slightly ethereal look the whole room held, acting like its own little world of life.
*Ding*
{Well, it was something we were trying to figure out ourselves, but we're stuck and we don't have anyone else to go to.} As I saw the two of them give each other a look of understanding, it suddenly struck me.
'These two have always known; it was obvious with how much they would tease the three of us, but I never put the two of them together until now.' "Seeing as you seem to already know what it is we want to talk about, you must also know the problem we're facing."
"What problem?" I couldn't help but look at my mother weirdly after hearing her say this and take a sip of her tea. "Do you know what problem they are talking about Amelia?"
"I do not, I see no problem in their situation."
{What do you mean? It's obvious, we can't both be with him, that's unusual! Right?!}
"Right, and we're scared that if he has to choose between one of us, he'll either choose neither of us in fear of hurting our feelings, or if he does choose one of us it might damage our friendship. What do we do?" It was at this point that my mom began giggling, and it swiftly turned into almost hysterical giggling. "This isn't a joke mother!"
"And we aren't treating it as such," Amelia said this while giving mother a practiced look that told her to calm down, and continued after sighing. "We just think you are both overthinking this more than necessary."
{How so?}
"Well first let me ask. Trivia, how do you feel about my son?"
Now being asked this question from those we were seeking help from, no matter how red her ears got Trivia had to answer.
{Well… he's really caring. He never got frustrated when my shyness took over my better judgment, and he goes out of his way to make sure I'm comfortable whenever we're together. He's made my life so much more fun, and he even put so much effort into making the app I use for communication. He acts a little silly sometimes, and he can get on my nerves with his teasing, but every second I spend with him is a second I know I will never come to regret, no matter what happens.}
"And you Ivy?"
"He… he always knows how to cheer me up. When my first period happened, it was like he knew the exact words I needed to hear. He didn't try to act like he knew how to physically help, which is why he went to get you. He gave me some of his clothes to wear, even giving them to me for good once he saw how comfortable I was in them. He always seems to put my needs before his own, and no matter how tired he seems he is always willing to spend time together. It's why I started giving him head scratches as he lies on my lap because he always does so much for me that it's the least I could do; besides, his goofy grin lets me know he is content to stay there for as long as possible."
With Trivia giggling at that and nodding her head in agreement, we both felt even more sure of our feelings, but that only made the problem worse, until my mother came in with her question.
"Ivy, how do you feel about Trivia?"
"Triv? Why, and how does that help us now?"
"Just answer my dear, how do you feel about her?"
"I guess, she's like the sister I never had?" 'Though it feels embarrassing to say these things in front of her, and I have no clue why I was asked to do this, mother must have a reason to ask me these things, so I'll answer fully and truthfully.' "At first, I only saw her as a playmate to have around when I got to be with Argento; like an add-on to the group. But eventually, as I started to be around the both of them more, we got closer.
She may be unable to speak outside of special occasions, but I've never seen someone with more flair to them. She's strong-willed, really pretty, almost always composed, and seems to have an unending source of happiness that can feel addictive, especially when I get sad.
I can't burden Argento with all of my problems, so I go to Trivia when I don't want to bother him. She is who I rant to when I get angry, who I cry to when I get sad, and who I laugh with when I'm happy.
She is someone who I'd rather lose than replace, and rather die than lose. It's… kinda how I feel about Argento, but still, it's own type of feeling." Now that I said it out loud, all I could do was gain a contemplative look. 'I know my feelings at this point better than I thought I could, but the real question is why she had me do this. Unless…'
"Now, Trivia, how do you feel about Ivy?"
{How do I feel about the knucklehead?} I got knocked out of my thoughts at that and gave her a light glare for the nickname she uses on me from time to time.
{There's not much to say, other than she is my second heart. I wouldn't be the same without her, and if I ever lost her it would be like I lost a part of myself. Whether she realizes it or not, she may be a bigger reason for me being where I am today than Argento.
In the first place, the effect the two had was different, but any confidence I have, in her words is 'my boundless happiness', and the comfort I have in my own body is something I would have to give at least 50% credit to her.
I know that if I had to tread through the highest mountains, swim through the deepest waters, or travel in the densest forests, she wouldn't hesitate to be by my side, and that's how I feel about her. I would do anything for her, and I would rather die than leave her by herself… which is a similar sentiment I have for Argento.}
There were no tears or words, just a heartfelt smile I shared with Trivia. I guess I always knew I felt this way deep down, but knowing she felt the same made me happier than I thought possible, which then confused me with my mother's tactics even more until a potential outcome came to mind. It was so out there I didn't think it would be reasonable, but if she was suggesting it, then does that mean she's saying we should? Now I was getting a smirk from my mother.
"It seems you finally caught onto what we were talking about. Honestly, I thought Trivia would get it first, but before you ask let me share my thoughts on this. I personally have never seen a relationship between three people, but many accounts lead to the conclusion that it was a common practice to have multiple partners in times where the humanoid races were struggling." Now that Trivia was catching on to the solution, she had a faint blush with a concerned expression.
{But if that was a practice done when the humanoid races' numbers were dwindling, wouldn't it be out of practice due to the fact there are currently plenty of us alive?}
"Close, but not quite." Smiling at finally getting this far, Amelia interlocked her fingers and rested her arms on the table. "You three are now a little more aware of the Chrono family, so I'll tell you a little tale. The Chrono family started large, for the simple reason that the patriarch, the first Chrono, took seven wives so that he could dedicate a day to each of them equally, and each one had several children.
The females normally had a single husband, but the males of the Chrono family have always leaned towards having multiple wives. This was never enforced, which is a part of why Maxwell never married another woman, but it became a tradition of sorts, to ensure the Chrono family's survival.
Though I cannot claim the responsibility is ours, there are plenty of places around the world, where the Chronos would happen to be, that still practice polygamy. Now that females can also have children together, one of the only good outcomes of the Great War, it has grown to be even more expansive for groups of women to sometimes be a thing.
So in my eyes, there is nothing wrong with polygamy. In fact, it is still encouraged by many governmental figures whenever it comes up, but because certain areas of the world no longer practice it just fell out of style there, with Vale being one of those."
With that information given, I filed it away to share with Argento later, but now the important part isn't in our hands anymore.
{What if he doesn't want to be with both of us?} I shared these same sentiments, because of the fact it was not very popular around here Argento might not see it as something he wants to do, and then we would be at the original problem again. But I guess this really got them going because both of the mothers began cracking up; like hysterically laughing.
"What's so funny about that?"
"Honey, if I ever met a man who looks at two girls like he does you two and he refused the chance to be with both of them, I would think him insane and in need of serious medical attention!" Still laughing her ass off, I could now feel my ears fully heating up.
'I could always feel there was at least something, but is it really so strong it was worth this reaction?!'
"I would suggest you two think hard on this because it will be more than just both of you being with him."
"What do you-"
"Now then!" It seemed Amelia wouldn't be elaborating more on what was said, but it just made me more curious as to what she meant. "We have plans to go to the Spring Festival on his birthday, so if you two want to truly confess and ask him to do this, then would be the best time."
{"Yes Ma'am!"}
"I feel like we should start with the fact that we thought about this for a while now, so don't think this wasn't given true thought." Starting something like this gave me a bad feeling, but the fact that Ivy was the one to say this truly startled me. It's not that she isn't smart, in fact, she seems to be smart enough to almost rival me with my perfect memory and previous life's experience, but she tends to act on her emotions more than her thoughts despite this.
{We believe it to be pretty obvious by now, but we both like you. This has slowly become more present in our lives as a trio, but recently with certain… chemical reactions happening in our bodies, it seems it's only become stronger, and therefore left us in a tricky situation.}
"We know it's selfish of us to make you choose." I could feel my heart begin to drop because I knew what was happening, and I was afraid of this. If they make me choose, I don't think I could, because they both mean as much to me as the other. So if it's come to this, then - "So, we decided that we wouldn't make you."
"…what?" Now that I am thoroughly confused, I see the setting sun was now in the perfect place to not be shining in my eyes, but at the same time, the sun shone through their hair as sakura petals gently floated through the breeze. The brown of Trivia's eyes dully glowed with her beautiful, wavy brown hair, gently swaying in rhythm with Ivy's now illuminated dark green hair as the silver of her eyes glistened perfectly against the golden backdrop of the sky. They were holding hands, extending their free ones to me as their lightly blushed faces wore nervous smiles, hoping I would accept them.
{You heard her. We won't make you choose, but instead, we want to try us three together. It might be strange for some people, but to Hell with what they think; we love you, and we want to be with you.}
I would definitely be lying if I said I had seen this coming; despite my intelligence, this was just something that I never factored into any solution to this problem. I was aware of how they felt, but I couldn't bring myself to choose one over the other when I felt the same about them both. I hadn't even thought of the possibility because all concepts of relationships I held always had two people. I always thought these types of situations to be purely part of an anime or the distant past. But here I am, reaching out to hold the hands of the two people I would do anything for; breaking social norms was nothing in the face of their desires.
"If you two will have me, nothing would make me happier." Both of their faces had a smile that bloomed with an endless source of happiness pouring out of them as we collectively moved forward and gave a group hug that seemed to eradicate all forms of doubt this situation had been building over the past who knows how long.