NOW PLAYING Nowhere, in France ft. @none ───⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─── Outfit ⋆★⋆ Location Pau, France Date 15 June, 2025 coded by lucille rosenhart

"Mary!"

Maurice bolted upright and immediately hit his head on the low-ceiling of his townhouse bedroom, a poster crinkling on his forehead. He had grown so used to his spacious dorm back at Beauxbatons that now his childhood home felt no bigger than a bread box. He hadn't realized just how cramped his bedroom was until he was living in a palace for the majority of the year. Guilt lanced through him. That too was a recent occurrence. Guilt so strong it seemed to knock the air from him.

His sisters were quite aware and, frankly, didn't care.

"Mary, for God's sake, I know you stole it!" A fist banged against his door, shaking the entire room. Maurice cracked open his blinds to find the sun already peaking over the mountains, warm light flooding through his rooms and making his vision swim. He rubbed his eyes, stumbling to his feet and yawning on his way to the door. It took him a lifetime just to find the knob and crack it open enough to see his sister, Sabine, glaring at him. She had been home one week. Maurice had been home two.

"Stole what?" Maurice asked sleepily, yawning around the words and scratching his stomach.

This only worked to anger his sister further. "My jeans. The ones with the star on the knee. I let you borrow them last year?" Maurice shook his head, not comprehending. "Bell bottoms. Tight around the-"

"Breakfast!" their mother's voice called from downstairs, rasp. Sabine glared. Breakfast won. The two parted ways in favor of eating.

By the time Maurice had put on a pair of soft pajama pants, his mother had set out a small breakfast for the four children, plus their mother and father. Eggs, sausages, and pancakes dotted with gooey chocolate chips were piled upon their mother's favorite floral plates. Vidal Andrieux sat with a magazine pinched between his index and thumb, sipping a cup of steaming hot coffee that filled the entire room with a harsh aroma. Inés Andrieux was brewing herself a cup.

"Come on, sit down then," she ordered as soon as her cup was full, sitting across from her husband at the neatly arranged table. She looked expectantly at her children.

Coralie was the first to take her seat, gingerly filling her plate in even portions. Sabine came next, stacking nearly the entire plate with pancakes. Maurice took his cue and sat, chewing the inside of his cheek. Thea was nowhere to be found.

Inés's expression faltered. "Where is that blasted girl?"

"Probably planning her next escape," Sabine mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes, earning her a slap on the back of the head.

It was a touchy subject for the Andrieux family, particularly for Inés and Vidal. During the school year, whilst Maurice had been away at Beauxbatons, Thea had mysteriously disappeared without a trace. No note, no warning, only one morning she left for school and never came back. She was eventually found passed out under some old bridge, cold as ice and unresponsive. One week in hospital later and she was back home, but still mostly mute. Maurice didn't know what to think of it, so he tried not to think of it at all.

Inés cleared her throat, turning to Maurice. "How are your studies going, sweetheart? Go on, fill your plate. You're so thin I could sharpen you and write an essay with the grease on your boots."

"Are you really learning magic?" Coralie asked with genuine curiosity, taking an elegant sip from her cup of tea.

Maurice's expression tightened, despite himself. Magic was his touchy subject. He wasn't sure why, but he hated speaking about it with his family. It was a crossing of two worlds he had tried very hard to keep separate. His sisters seemed oddly intrigued by it, although Thea had stayed quiet on the matter. Maurice wasn't sure why, but this too brought him guilt. It hadn't been until after he received his letter that Thea had begun her slow descent off the side of the earth.

After a long sip of orange juice, Maurice shrugged. "I guess."

"He guesses." Sabine barked out a laugh, leaning back and crossing her arms. "You could be appointed king of all wizards and still have nothing to say about it."

Maurice scrunched his brows. "There's not a 'king of all wizards.'"

"Really? I had no idea. Perhaps someone could have mentioned that in his letters-"

"Sabine." Inés placed her mug on the table with a loud clatter, before pulling her chair out and taking a seat. She gave Maurice a sincere look. "We're happy for you, dear. It's a very unique opportunity, albeit a bit... jarring."

Maurice heard the hesitation in her voice, a slight hitch before each word. He hated how careful they were around him now, as if he was made of glass. It wasn't that he thought they feared him, but rather they seemed unsure of how to handle him. Except for Sabine. She was about the same as before, if not a bit more of an annoyance. Maurice appreciated it anyways.

A soft clambering from the staircase had all five of their heads spinning. Thea appeared in the kitchen doorway, her eyes sunken and frame smaller than when Maurice had last seen her. Her sandy blonde hair had grown long, bangs choppy from a fresh cut. Inés sat up straight upon seeing her.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

Thea looked up, but her gaze was distant. She creaked forward on the old floorboards, moving to the kitchen and silently filling up a glass of water. They all pretended not to notice as she stared at the gently rippling surface of the glass for too long of a moment before turning back around and leaving.

Maurice stared at the doorway once she was gone, chewing the inside of his cheek. Inés let out a soft sigh.

The dining room slowly emptied out after that. Coralie kissed their mother before leaving to town with friends, and Vidal was off to work not long after. By the time Inés had stolen away to her office, Sabine had managed to clean up the mess of syrup and eggs that had been abandoned on the table. When she had finally gotten it all piled into the sink, she turned back to study Maurice. The younger boy was still sitting at the table, his head in his palm, staring blankly at a small dot of syrup still left over on the stained wooden table.

"You can't make it go away just by looking at it." Sabine leaned against the counter, the summer light catching her curls and making the dirty blonde locks turn golden. She was the lucky Andrieux to receive their father's curls, and she took care of them like her baby.

Maurice glanced up at her, still slumped over on the chair. "The syrup?"

Sabine smiled a soft, private smile, one she kept hidden away from the stage and the lights and even their parents and sisters. It was for Maurice and Maurice alone, and it made his heart swell with warmth just to see.

"No, Mary. Not the syrup."

With that, she stepped forward and swiped the syrup away from the table, licking it off her finger with a wet smack and leaving out the doorway. Maurice exhaled slowly, staring at the spot where the syrup once was. What a mess he was in.