A Holiday to Remember (Year one)

"Y-Yeah..." At that moment, Marais' brother came out of the door that their father came out of earlier, he appeared to be eating something, because his mouth was full and he was chewing that something with loud crunches "O' he' I shee ya impr-.... H'ng 'n a sh'c'nd..." he said before swallowing what he had in his mouth "Sorry, 'bout dat, I was hung'y... So.... Tour now?" "Sure, I don't see why not, he has to see the town after all..." "'course, i's where he'll be livin' after you twos get hitched!.... You two are gettin' married, right? 'cause, like, it's all fine if ya don' bu'.... Y'know..."

"Geeze dude we haven't even been dating a full year yet it's a little early to talk about marriage" Starshine exclaimed slightly flustered

"Yeah, seriously..." Pierre shrugged "If she loves ya enough ta bring ya home ta pa, she pro'ly loves ya 'nough to marry ya." "N-Not necessarily true..." Marais said with an obvious blush "Aw, yer blushin' tha's cute!" "I-I ain't cute! Yer the li'l brother, ya can' call me cute!..." she said before realizing she was reverting to her original accent "I-I mean... Uh... I'm not cute..." "Why're ya tryin' to hide yer accent all'v'a sudden?" Marais just pouted silently "What're you embarressed your beau finds it annoyin'? Hey Starry, ya like her accent or not?"

Starshine chuckled at her outburst "To be honest I don't really have an opinion one way or the other, though I do find her efforts to suppress it both amusing and indeed cute"

Marais blushed "Yeah, well... Let's just go... So... Bro, tour now!" "Well where does he wanna go? We got lot's a' places for tourists to visit, Big Guy, just describe a place you'd like to start and we'll head there!"

Starshine feigned thought for as second "Hmmm describe an area in a town's geography that I am compleatly unfamiliar with, sure no problem" he paused for a moment "Sorry that was rude umm if you have some sort of central marketplace that would be as good a place as any"

Marais sighed "You heard him, Junior..." Marais' brother glared at her as she said "Junior" "Do. Not. Call. Me. Junior. Around. Tourists! Even ya boyfriend!..." he said angrily "Aw, but it's cute!" "Go'damnit, I ain't cute!!... An' no, the irony don't escape me there..."

" I wouldn't exactly call me a tourist, I didn't come here to see the town, I came to pay my respect to Marais's parents so tourist in kind of an inaccurate term" he said trying to help Marais out

"Yer an outsider takin' a tour 'roun' town, yer a tourist." he said matter-of-factly "Let's just go already...." "Right, right..."

(Timeskip, the central markets)

The area around them was filled with people and stalls of all kinds, some sold food, some sold antiques, some sold a wide range of unrelated things "Welcome to the White Market, a fine place where an'one and ev'ryone can set up a stall to sell wha'ever s'long as it's legal. At least a quarter of our economy takes place here!" "Didn't Pa say that Ma'd be here?" Marais thought aloud to herself "If you wan' somethin', chances are it's right here on the White Market!"

"A quarter huh... anyway I'll keep that in mind" he said looking around "Anyway you said something about your mother being around here?" he asked Marais

"Wuh-?... Oh, yeah, right, Dad said she was around her somewh-" "Marais! There you are!" an older woman said as she walked towards the three, she was clearly nearing middle-aged and the years were quite kind to her, making her look like an older version of her daughter "Speak o' da Devil!" "Marais, oh how your dear Ma missed you!" the woman said before grabbing Marais into a really tight hug "Ah- Ma! Stop it! You're embarrassing me!" "Oh nonsense! Letcha' Ma hug ya after not seeing you for nearly a year!" "Starry, meet Ma, Ma, Starry, Marais' city boy beau." "Wuh?.... Oh, right, Starshine!" Marais' mother said before letting go of her daughter and instead hugging Starshine "Welcome to the family Starry, I'm Anne-Marie De Lumiere, your future mother-in-law, pleased as pie to meet you!" "Why does everyone want us to get married so soon?..."

Starshine gave a small nervous laugh clearly uncomfortable with contact, and fighting his natural instinct to throw her off of him "uhh yeah hi it is as he said I'm Starshine Kyland and while unimportant I feel I should clarify I'm not actually from a city if, in all actuality I'm from a very remote village"

"City, remote village, they're all outside the city." "Please ignore Junior, he's never been outside the marsh before..." "Mayn, I've been outside the marsh.... Once.... In to the swamp... A long time ago..... That I nearly died from.... Point is, I've been outside the marsh!" "I'm pretty sure that doesn't count...." "It so does! Right Starry?!"

"I feel that I don't know enough about the local topography to make an accurate judgement call so I'm afraid I'll have to decline answering that... also forgive my rudeness but I would really appreciate if you could please let me go, I'm not very comfortable touching other people"

"Oh hush, huggin' heals the soul!" Marais rolled her eyes "Ma, I don't think his soul needs healing right now... I mean, I know he's adorable, but..." "Oh fine..." Marais' mother said before letting go of Starshine "Anyways, what brings the three of you here in the first place?" "Just showin' him around our little slice of Remnant." "If you hadn't come out of nowhere, we probably woulda-... would have looked for you anyway.... Just to say hi.."

Starshine meanwhile just took a step away. and scratched the back of his head causing a slight but noticeable clinking sound from the contents of his jacket

"Aw, how sweet o' you, but I have to go home anyways, should I tell your father anything?" "Nah, it's fine, really." "Yeah, I got nothin' that needs to get there in a hurry..." "A'right then, I'll see you when ya get home." and with that, their mother left... "So...... You want to get any souveniers or somethin' or do you just wanna get to another big part of the town, 'cause I got an idea for where to go next." "....It's not There, is it?" ""There"? Wha'd'ya mean "There"?..." Marais facepalmed "The B.P." "Oh... Yeah, that's the place!" "Okay, I was just wondering..."

Starshine just gave the two a look and said "The B.P?"

"The Briar Patch, it's kinda like The Shooting Star, except more... Lumiere-and-surrounding-villages-esque..." ""The Shooting Star"?... That's... Kind of a boring name..." "They have a weird thing with stars in Vale, I don't get it myself...."

Starshine nodded "Ah I see, it's a type of tavern then, sounds good to me though I don't drink

"Less a tavern, more a karaoke bar..." "I heard that Ailin's dad actually bought a plot of land in Vale shortly before we left for here, is Ailin still here?" "Yeah, he's still here, why?" "Well I feel like my boyfriend should meet an old friend and an old flame.... Just... You know, because.... You wouldn't mind that, would you Starry?"

"Only thing I mind from that discussion is the fact you called me starry"

"Pft, sorry..." "So....... Starshine, did you have business here or did you just want to see the market?...."

"Nah I just kinda wanted to look around to kill some time"

Pierre nodded "Aw'right, if y'all please be followin' me, I shall escort you to the finest drinkin' establishment in all o' Lumiere!" he said in a tour-leaderly fashion "So.... I gotta ask... How much does your super-thick accent sell you as a tour guide?" "I'm only the most popular of our part-timers." "I see... yeah, by the way, if you haven't been eavesdropping on every local, usually accents aren't this thick...." "En' Ah was blessed wid'a charisma ta pull it off!"