Fate Merveille

Chapter 20

Tamamo jumped off the bench to catch a yellow butterfly as Adrien sat down with Leticia. He didn't think he'd get out of that party so easily but was worried since Nathalie and his bodyguard were hot on his trail. He knew he wasn't going to get away with running off for long. Tamamo told him to not be so scared, she would deal with his father if anything bad happened, she knew exactly how to get under Gabriel's skin and make him give up.

Karna returned with small ice cream cones with the flavors each of them liked the best. Tamamo opened her hands to show him the butterfly she caught and they watched it fly away. She and Karna talked more about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Tamamo was most likely going to cover for Adrien as she had before whenever his father got on his case. Which was any time he left the mansion or mentioned the war.

Karna didn't think he had plans, he and Leticia typically stayed inside at night unless Arjuna wanted a fight. And that was quite often, Arjuna liked to show up at the doorstep and either ask for a fight for if he could stay when Minami kicked him out. He was adamant about getting Karna's attention and did so by picking on Karna for any little thing he could think of.

"Karna, someone's here to see you," Leticia said as she ate the cone whole.

"Who is it?" Karna asked.

"The regular."

"It's Arjuna, I'll see you around miss Tamamo, he probably wants another fight."

"I'm watching this one, I haven't seen you and Arjuna fight yet." Tamamo smiled.

"My father is going to kill me," Adrien sighed.

"Arjuna, I'm ready when you are." Karna summoned Vasavi Shakti then changed into his armor.

"I'm not here to fight," Arjuna's words made Karna pause. "I want to talk to you."

"Sure, is that alright master?"

"Stop asking for permission to talk to your brother," Leticia yelled. "If you two aren't fighting then I'm getting more ice cream."

"Karna," Arjuna started. "I... I don't like being ignored."

"We fight all the time," Karna pointed out.

"I don't mean when we're fighting, whenever we're not, you ignore me when I come to you."

"I didn't notice."

"It feels like you've forgotten about me ever since you started hanging out with Tamamo!"

Karna released Vasavi Shakti and let it disperse into flames then went over to Arjuna and hugged his brother. He didn't think their relationship needed to go beyond their battles, but he was wrong. Paris' war was taking longer than usual, and the servants had time to let themselves go. He and Tamamo were just an example of the friendships made between the servants without a death battle in tow.

Tamamo laid on the bench and leaned her chin on her hands as she happily watched the brothers talk through their problems. Leticia returned with more ice cream and checked her phone, there were messages from Clocktower that needed to be addressed. She sat on Tamamo, without care the Caster had the seat first and emailed Clocktower back. Tamamo pulled herself out from underneath Leticia and rolled on the ground from the momentum.

She got up, brushed the dust off her, then grabbed Adrien's hand. It was time they returned home, and for them to get yelled at by his father. That was exactly what happened, the second they entered the mansion, Gabriel ripped into Adrien's decision to not only leave the party but avoid talking about the glove on his hand. Tamamo stood between Adrien and Gabriel, then told Gabriel to back off.