(Written for the prompt "family dinners".)

Corvo was never permitted to sit with them during formal meals, always stationed behind the Empress's chair, stock-still and frowning, receiving nervous looks from their noble guests.

When they were alone, things were different. He sat at Jessamine's side as she worked through quick lunches, smiling as he held Emily on his knee, her little hands sneaking food from his plate.

Emily remembers this all clearly, wonders how she never questioned what made one meal different from another. Her first act as Empress: she takes Corvo's hand and orders him seated beside her at the state dinner following her coronation.