[As reluctant as she may be to, Lup allows Taako to pull himself up just to clean his face, her hands moving from his hair to his shoulders, refusing to lose the physical contact between them yet. Even if she's feeling so much more confident about where they are, there's something worrying about the idea of letting go of him completely, like it will all go sliding back to how it had been. She's just not ready to release him yet.
But then there's more and even Lup can't hide the concern that knits between her brows, feeling her stomach drop. What the fuck could possibly be left?!
Taako sighs, Lup's heart left fluttering in her chest at anticipation of what comes next, and then his face changes.
It's such small changes, new lines that show his age, the slightest slope in a few of his features. They are changes that the rest of the world couldn't possibly catch unless they had two pictures to compare. Even losing a portion of his beauty, Lup still thought he was more beautiful than anyone else. And honestly? Lup kind of wants to deck him. That dramatic of a setup for such a fucking small thing! Gods, she could kill him!]
Taako, you're--... [Okay, so maybe it isn't as big a deal to her, but it clearly means something more to her brother. She knows there's some significance to him, that they don't match identically, that they aren't mirror images of the other. Her usual response would be to brush it aside, call him an idiot, and move on. But Taako has always been the outlier. This situation requires a more delicate touch than Lup's usual. So instead, she reaches for her brother's face, cupping his cheeks in her hands, before she closes her eyes.
One hand moves, trailing to his nose, running over it, delicately tapping the end of it.] Hm, same nose as me. [Both of her hands drift to his cheeks again, trailing slowly back to his hairline.] Same fucking killer cheekbones too. [One hand slips back to run along the edge of his ear, while she hums approvingly, then it's slipping back down to glide over his chin, drumming her fingers under his jaw.] Same ears and chin too. I'd say it's safe to say we're still twins.
[Her hands move upwards, aiming to run over his eyes to trace over their similarly shaped eyebrows, but Lup miscalculates and absolutely sticks a finger up his nose instead. Which just has her eyes snapping open before she laughs, loud and unrestrained.] Hey, same nostrils too! That's good to know!
[He's tense, when she lays her hands on him for the first time, feeling under the microscope in a way he hasn't felt like since he was a child. Since adults grabbed at his cheeks, owners of caravans sized him up for what he could carry, what he was worth in the curve of his jaw and the cut of his smile on the stage. But he wasn't alone then, not like he's thought for so long. She was always there. There, with the same face and the same hands and he, in the end, is the one who changed.
She became a fucking lich, and he's more worried about this.
He tries to follow her fingers for a moment, but gives up on it, closing his eyes too. Letting them sit in the purgatory of what he created, the messy space of vulnerability.
And thankfully, blissfully, she shatters it by jamming her fucking thumb up his nose, and he sputters immediately in the most undignified yelp, wrenching himself away and ending up flopping back on his bed, laughter shaking his chest.]
Jeez, guess I gotta still be pretty if you can't keep your hands away from tryin' to climb in my face, jeez.
[He tilts himself up on his elbows so he can look at her again, for once, the spell forgotten. He'll put it back up later- he doesn't want to see himself, like this. But he hoped this meant something. He hopes she knows it means something.]
Well, now I guess you're all caught up. That's, uh, that's everything. Really.
[He is completely and utterly forgetting to talk about Kravitz right now. Honestly, all he can think of is how happy to have her back.
He's not letting her go again, either. She's not just back. They're back.
[What can Lup say? She's gotten pretty good at absolutely killing the tension in a room over the years. It was always especially important to her when they were children, when the world was just doing all it could to beat them down over and over again, to be able to draw laughter from her twin. Nearly two centuries later, being able to help ease that last bit of tension between them just makes her heart sing, warmth spreading through her chest.
His laughter rings sweetly in her ears, Lup's whole face crinkling in delight as she moves to make a show of wiping her thumb off on his blankets, her own laughter still shaking her shoulders.
When Taako props himself up to look at her, Lup's eyes don't linger across the differences of their faces when she meets his gaze, she just grins. Taako is Taako, no matter what physical changes have tried to separate them. The heart that beats in his chest is the same, just a little more weathered than when she last saw him, but Lup's determined to help with that too.]
Scoot over, Lup's coming in. [Not even waiting for him to make room for her, Lup flops onto her stomach next to Taako, throwing an arm around his middle and shoving his pillow under her chin.]
So, I'm at my absolute limit for this emotional crap for today, but maybe... [She inclines her head towards him, smile soft but her expression intensely happy. Taako speaking to her, even if she had to bully him into it, means everything to Lup. This feels good between them.] Maybe later you can tell me more? Like, not just the shitty parts, I kind of have a good grasp on that now. But, y'know, the good stuff too? Just more of what you chucklefucks have been up to. I'd like to know.
[It just feels... nice, more than anything, to have her here, pushing up next to him, a familiarity he could never place that he desperately needed but couldn't ask for. He had always been chasing a missing something, a hidden comfort he had tried to resolve that he was never getting, that he couldn't make himself vulnerable enough to get. But she's here, and if he hadn't been such an ass, it would be like she had never left. In the end, it's not over, and he doesn't want it to be. They're going to be okay. There's a place for them both, here, and he wouldn't trade that for anything.
The Umbra Staff still lays on the bed, and he shifts it out of the way for her, letting her lay close as he hangs the staff off a hook at the top of the bed. He doesn't need to hold it so close. She's here, and wants him, and they are still, blissfully there.
His smile is peaceful as she looks at him and speaks, expression completely calm. Which is what makes the delivery of the next line so good.]
Magnus ate one of the relics we made and Merle and I had to turn him into a stone slinky to get it out of his ass.
[Lup's mouth opens, then immediately snaps shut. Then opens again, Lup letting it hang agape for a moment or two, like she's trying to process just what Taako said. Trying to picture the full implication of what 'I had to turn him into a stone slinky to get it out of his ass' really meant.
Without warning, the elf flops over onto her side and cuddles up against Taako, propping her chin up on her elbow, proving that she's not going anywhere for the rest of the afternoon. She's all his. This time was just for them.]
Okay, forget what I said before, I need this story and I need it pronto! Why has it taken you weeks to tell me this?! I could have been hanging Stone Slinky!Magnus over his head this whole time! [She leans in, eagerly anticipating this story, the tension between them completely gone. This feels normal. This feels right.]
C'mon, Taako! I need to know everything. Start from the beginning.
[He laughs at her reaction, loud and full-bodied, gripping his stomach a bit as he goes and Lup gets ready to fuckin' party down on this info. He shifts, too, sitting upright with his legs crossed, because he's absolutely going to need hand visuals for this one.]
Alright, alright, well there's a lotta beginnings. So, uh, we were hunting down these relics we made without knowing we made them, right? So mine was a souped-up transmutation stone that fell into this hands of this nerd...
[And so they go, off into the afternoon, with much, much happier memories to fill in the future.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
But then there's more and even Lup can't hide the concern that knits between her brows, feeling her stomach drop. What the fuck could possibly be left?!
Taako sighs, Lup's heart left fluttering in her chest at anticipation of what comes next, and then his face changes.
It's such small changes, new lines that show his age, the slightest slope in a few of his features. They are changes that the rest of the world couldn't possibly catch unless they had two pictures to compare. Even losing a portion of his beauty, Lup still thought he was more beautiful than anyone else. And honestly? Lup kind of wants to deck him. That dramatic of a setup for such a fucking small thing! Gods, she could kill him!]
Taako, you're--... [Okay, so maybe it isn't as big a deal to her, but it clearly means something more to her brother. She knows there's some significance to him, that they don't match identically, that they aren't mirror images of the other. Her usual response would be to brush it aside, call him an idiot, and move on. But Taako has always been the outlier. This situation requires a more delicate touch than Lup's usual. So instead, she reaches for her brother's face, cupping his cheeks in her hands, before she closes her eyes.
One hand moves, trailing to his nose, running over it, delicately tapping the end of it.] Hm, same nose as me. [Both of her hands drift to his cheeks again, trailing slowly back to his hairline.] Same fucking killer cheekbones too. [One hand slips back to run along the edge of his ear, while she hums approvingly, then it's slipping back down to glide over his chin, drumming her fingers under his jaw.] Same ears and chin too. I'd say it's safe to say we're still twins.
[Her hands move upwards, aiming to run over his eyes to trace over their similarly shaped eyebrows, but Lup miscalculates and absolutely sticks a finger up his nose instead. Which just has her eyes snapping open before she laughs, loud and unrestrained.] Hey, same nostrils too! That's good to know!
no subject
She became a fucking lich, and he's more worried about this.
He tries to follow her fingers for a moment, but gives up on it, closing his eyes too. Letting them sit in the purgatory of what he created, the messy space of vulnerability.
And thankfully, blissfully, she shatters it by jamming her fucking thumb up his nose, and he sputters immediately in the most undignified yelp, wrenching himself away and ending up flopping back on his bed, laughter shaking his chest.]
Jeez, guess I gotta still be pretty if you can't keep your hands away from tryin' to climb in my face, jeez.
[He tilts himself up on his elbows so he can look at her again, for once, the spell forgotten. He'll put it back up later- he doesn't want to see himself, like this. But he hoped this meant something. He hopes she knows it means something.]
Well, now I guess you're all caught up. That's, uh, that's everything. Really.
[He is completely and utterly forgetting to talk about Kravitz right now. Honestly, all he can think of is how happy to have her back.
He's not letting her go again, either. She's not just back. They're back.
And that's what's important, in the end.]
no subject
His laughter rings sweetly in her ears, Lup's whole face crinkling in delight as she moves to make a show of wiping her thumb off on his blankets, her own laughter still shaking her shoulders.
When Taako props himself up to look at her, Lup's eyes don't linger across the differences of their faces when she meets his gaze, she just grins. Taako is Taako, no matter what physical changes have tried to separate them. The heart that beats in his chest is the same, just a little more weathered than when she last saw him, but Lup's determined to help with that too.]
Scoot over, Lup's coming in. [Not even waiting for him to make room for her, Lup flops onto her stomach next to Taako, throwing an arm around his middle and shoving his pillow under her chin.]
So, I'm at my absolute limit for this emotional crap for today, but maybe... [She inclines her head towards him, smile soft but her expression intensely happy. Taako speaking to her, even if she had to bully him into it, means everything to Lup. This feels good between them.] Maybe later you can tell me more? Like, not just the shitty parts, I kind of have a good grasp on that now. But, y'know, the good stuff too? Just more of what you chucklefucks have been up to. I'd like to know.
no subject
The Umbra Staff still lays on the bed, and he shifts it out of the way for her, letting her lay close as he hangs the staff off a hook at the top of the bed. He doesn't need to hold it so close. She's here, and wants him, and they are still, blissfully there.
His smile is peaceful as she looks at him and speaks, expression completely calm. Which is what makes the delivery of the next line so good.]
Magnus ate one of the relics we made and Merle and I had to turn him into a stone slinky to get it out of his ass.
[This is good. This is very good.]
no subject
Without warning, the elf flops over onto her side and cuddles up against Taako, propping her chin up on her elbow, proving that she's not going anywhere for the rest of the afternoon. She's all his. This time was just for them.]
Okay, forget what I said before, I need this story and I need it pronto! Why has it taken you weeks to tell me this?! I could have been hanging Stone Slinky!Magnus over his head this whole time! [She leans in, eagerly anticipating this story, the tension between them completely gone. This feels normal. This feels right.]
C'mon, Taako! I need to know everything. Start from the beginning.
no subject
Alright, alright, well there's a lotta beginnings. So, uh, we were hunting down these relics we made without knowing we made them, right? So mine was a souped-up transmutation stone that fell into this hands of this nerd...
[And so they go, off into the afternoon, with much, much happier memories to fill in the future.]