[EP] I feel the best and most precious part of me leap - OTA

[st_rikingblueeyes]

When Sunny had arrived to take over in the library, she passed an envelope to Corbie explaining, "For you and Mildmay. I had these printed the last time we were let out."

Corbie had been confused of course, but she'd taken her surprise down with her to the cafe before she opened it. Immediately, the whole world just stopped. It felt like a star leaping in her belly. Like, at least just for that one moment, nothing would ever be wrong again. Because while most of the faces in the pictures she was looking at were unfamiliar--later she might realize that Coby was in the background of one, wearing a completely idiotic sweater--each picture had one person in common. A tall, thin man with long red curls and mismatched yellow and blue eyes, beautiful as daylight, proud as a peacock, and bearing a striking resemblance to Mildmay.

Felix.

She had talked about this with Coby before, but it had not truly seemed real, not at the time. Hell, it didn't seem real now. He was not... well, for lack of a better way to put it, he was not her Felix. This man was younger, of an age with Mildmay, whereas she knew the brothers had something like six or so years between them. There was also no white in his hair (and it was not as long), which she knew he'd gotten on his travels and he was less than proud of it. But that smile, that stance, that affected boredom, that teasing, that was Felix. That was Felix.

She had, she realized, been afraid. Been so very afraid of forgetting his face. And oh, the memories that rushed to her then, sitting together on that rickety cot for her first lessons, the light and almost breathless way he spoke, the way she felt like she'd had sunlight poured directly into her when he'd told her, 'You've made excellent progress. I'm proud of you.'

Her heart raced and her stomach fluttered and her hands shook and Corbie laughed and cried all at once. Her witchlights, little glowing purple chrysanthemums, bloomed all around her. She hardly took notice.

[ooc: So Corbie got photographs of an AU!Felix from another game because RP is weird. Her crush is showing.]

Comments

[st_x5_494]

"Alright, that's a new look." He meant it in a good way as he noticed Corbie enter the cafe and had followed a little, at a distance. It was clear whatever she was looking at - photos, it looked like from his vantage point - were good photographs. She looked like she was in a good mood. Those glowing things were pretty noticeable.

Corbie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Mildmay was never gonna be a real cook, but helping out in the kitchen gave him something to do, even if a lot of it was washing dishes. Sometimes Emma came up with other things he could do, though. Like today, when he'd seen her throwing dough up in the air. She must've read the confusion in his eyes, 'cause she offered to show him what she was doing. While they tossed – she said it was tossing, not throwing, like it mattered somehow – the dough, stretching it into bigger and bigger circles, she told him about what she was making. Something called New York-style pizza. He knew about New York from talking to Sunny and studying the atlas he'd gotten from the library, but he'd had no idea the people there could be so particular about their food. When the dough was in big enough circles, she showed him how to cover it in a tomato sauce and a mild salty cheese, not too much, not too little. She explained people would put other stuff on top of the cheese sometimes, but if he was gonna eat this 'pizza' for the first time might as well eat it the way she was having hers, right? After the pies – were they pies or pizza? kinda confusing – were out of the oven, she'd cut 'em in wedges, and leaned against the counter to eat a 'slice', folding it in the middle so it didn't go limp, and then insisted Mildmay take the one he'd made. And since she knew he hadn't had lunch any more than she had, being busy with other people getting fed, he couldn't exactly say no, could he?

He took the pizza into the cafe, stopping short at the sight of Corbie about to shake apart, her witchlights glowing and dancing around her. When was the last time he'd seen her that fucking happy? Not here anyway.

"What is it?" he asked as he sat down across from her, setting the pizza down carefully away from the papers in front of her.

[st_abby]

To be fair, Vax had come along later, after she'd had some while to get out the most of her face-aching smiles and rivulets of tears, or he wouldn't have done the thing at all. But Corbie had, so he did, and didn't think overmuch about it either. All he saw when he first spotted her in the room was Corbie looking rather lost in thought, in a pleasant way, and it had been too long since he'd had a bit of fun with somebody...

Which was how the silver-gray snake was urged to slither her direction, Vax telling him in Thieves' Cant (because of course he taught his snake the handsigns ne'er-do-wells at work used whilst slinking about to do crimes, or Simon seemed to get the gist at least) to slip under her chair and see how high he could climb Mount Corbie before he got made. Simon was a very brave snake, and not too scared of getting squashed to risk a bit of danger in the name of a bit of fun. He leaned and looped his skinny, ropy body to coil around the base of the leg on Corbie's chair as first, then tried to slide up her ankle to her calf...

Vax simply watched from the shadows with a gleam in his eyes and goofy mischief in his twist of a smile.