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Astarion fiddled with the empty bottle, staring at the rest of the liquid on the floor. The perfume seeped its way into the carpet. The girl took a step back as it began to soak into her socks. She frowned at this but didn’t raise her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t refill the bottle, dear.” Astarion mirrored her frown.
She nodded without a response, which only deepened his dissatisfaction. It wasn’t like Lily hadn’t broken things before, mostly belonging to Wyll, and he rarely ever got upset about it. If he did, perhaps she would stop riffling through his possessions so much.
“I won’t do it again.” The girl's tail curled behind her as she hung her head low. Well, this wasn’t what he was expecting. Normally there would be more fight behind these sorts of situations. Perhaps a bit more humor despite her chaotic need to put her little hands on everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor. And even then she still managed to take it. “May I go now?”
Astarion blinked. “Well, yes—I suppose so, but go to your room.”
Lily nodded and glanced up from under her eyelashes. “Will you tell Ada?”
“I’m telling Wyll.” The elf nodded, and he watched as the child grimaced with a sigh. He could hear her say ‘right’ under her breath before turning out of the room and heading down the hall without another word.
Something about this was bothering him. Not just because she used up all of his perfume. The scent he preferred so that he didn’t smell like a corpse on a daily basis. No, that wasn’t the issue. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but Lily seemed off. She seemed… sad, upset? And she didn’t even argue about being sent to her room. You would think that Astarion would be grateful for that. Eight years of a child constantly doing the opposite of what you want and then arguing why they were right irritated the vampire to no end.
But that didn’t happen today, and she didn’t talk much yesterday. Wyll commented on it, but at the time Astarion hadn’t paid it any mind. He chalked it up to being late in the evening. Maybe she’d been tired, but that wasn’t it.
Astarion glanced down at the spilled perfume spreading through the rug and sighed. This stain would never come out.
During the time that Astarion waited for Wyll to return, he noted that Lily's room was quiet, and not a peep was heard for the entire duration that he waited. Wyll walked through the door and glanced curiously around the surrounding area as he saw Astarion. He found that Lily had not come to meet him at the door as usual. His gaze met Astarion’s as he realized that the vampire looked upset.
“She's done something.” His husband stated, without any real surprise in his tone.
“My entire perfume bottle is on the floor upstairs. I’ll need to leave the windows open because the scent is so strong in our room. Possibly all the windows in the house.”
“I thought it smelled quite good in here.” Wyll said conversationally, not sharing Astarion's irritation. Which irritated him further. “The entire estate smells like you.”
Slender, pale fingers blocked the view of Wyll's face, and he laughed. “Do not look at me like that right now.”
“Like what?” His tone sounded like he was playing dumb. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Astarion dropped his hand and gave his husband a deadpan expression. “Like you want to rut against me in the middle of the hallway. No—stop smiling, or I will force you to turn around, and you will have to talk with your back faced to me. I am feeling cross right now, Wyll.”
Wyll still had a soft expression, but his expression did differ from what he showed just moments ago. “I’m sorry, Star. I know that perfume was your favorite. I can replace it. I can go out—"
“I know we can replace it.” His tone snipped the end of Wyll’s sentence before he sighed. Astarion watched as Wyll placed his bag on the table next to the stairwell. He closed the distance between them as he placed a hand behind the older man’s neck and massaged his nape.
“Something else is bothering you.” It wasn’t a question.
“Don’t you think she’s been acting strange since yesterday?” Astarion pointed out.
Wyll thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes… she said something a bit peculiar when she came into my office last night. Now that she’s taken the perfume, I think it's starting to connect the dots a bit more.”
“What did she say?”
“Well, she suddenly busted into the room and asked me if she smelled bad. She wouldn’t go to bed until I actually made the effort to smell her. She didn’t, of course. She’d just taken a bath.” Wyll thought for another moment. “Lily still didn’t seem to believe me. Maybe I should have asked her why she brought it up.”
“Perhaps you should ask her now.” Astarion said. Wyll nodded, knowing that Astarion wasn’t going to take that as a request.
Less than an hour later, the dining room table was set up for supper. Lily was called down to eat. She sat quietly and didn’t touch her food. The vampire picked up his wine goblet and cleared his throat. Wyll glanced up to him and then over to their daughter.
“Lily, I heard what happened today.” He sounded more conversational; there was no anger or disappointment in his voice. This seemed to ease Lily just a bit.
The little girl nodded. “Yes, I spilled the perfume. I’m sorry. The whole house smells now.”
“Hey!”
“Smells good!” Lily corrected, glancing at Astarion. “Smells strongly good.”
Wyll quirks up his lips. “I heard that you were trying to use the scent. Is this about what you asked me yesterday? I told you that you didn’t stink.” The tiefling didn’t seem to feel satisfied with this. Her sour mood only seemed to worsen with his reassurance. “Lily, my flower, something is bothering you, and I want to help, but I can’t do that if you won’t tell me what’s on your mind. Can you do that for me?”
“It’s nothing.” She said, tapping her spoon on the table. The girl was quiet for another moment before setting down the utensil and glancing between her parents. “Well, it’s just—what’s a foul-blood?”
Astarion, who was in the midst of drinking his wine as he surveyed the conversation, began to choke. He coughed as Wyll shifted from him back to their daughter. “A what?”
“A foul-blood.” She repeated more firmly this time. “What is it?"
To Wyll’s credit, he didn’t react immediately. He sat quietly in thought as Astarion continued to try and get himself under control. The elf patted his chest and opened his mouth to speak. He watched as the man shook his head. Wyll was going to handle this, it seems. “Did someone call you that?” Very calm.
Lily hesitated and then nodded. “A boy in my class. He’s new and sits next to me, but he says that he doesn't like it because I’m a foul-blood. He says that he can smell my blood and that it stinks. I told him that’s not true because I know a vampire, and he says that I smell fine. He said that I was lying because that’s what devils do. I told him I’m actually a tiefling, but that also wasn’t true either because my Ada is a devil, and he only tells the truth. And then he told me to shut up and know a devils place is in the hells.”
The devil in question blinked a few times before opening his mouth. “A foul-blood is something that people say when they are trying to be mean to tieflings, Lily. You do not smell, and that boy knew that.”
“Just to be mean?” Lily repeated in disbelief. “But why? I didn’t do anything.”
“Sometimes you don’t have to do anything.” Wyll said. “Some people will be upset with you simply for who you are, and that is not something you should ever take responsibility for.”
“Just curious, but did you catch the boy's family name?” Astarion asked, tracing the top of the cup, and Wyll gave him a warning look. “What? You’re not curious? Because I am…just for the sake of curiosity.”
Lily gave him a suspicious expression. “...maybe I should just tell Ada alone. You have a murdery look on your face." She’d found him out.
“No, I don’t; it's perfectly non-murderous.” Astarion said, feigning innocence. When she kept her mouth shut, he huffed and crossed his arms before leaning back in the chair. “Oh whatever, I’ll find out eventually. And Lily darling, there's nothing foul about you. I’ve only met two people with horrible blood. One was a drow, and the other was Gale.”
Lily gasped. “Not Gale!” Oh right, he’d forgotten her strange loyalty to the wizard.
Astarion waved his hand. “He has good blood now, probably. Anyway, you understand me, don’t you? There’s nothing wrong with you?” She nodded with a hesitant smile. It wasn't the exact response he was hoping for, but it was a start. “Good.”
Wyll looked at him with knowing eyes. He was going to talk to the boys parents, and if that didn’t solve anything, Astarion was going to become the opposite of non-murderous.