Archive of Our Own ^beta

He doesn’t visit the library much. But he managed to spill some rotten milk in his room. Now the smell in there is unbearable and while the open window does its magic he needs a place to study. So the library it is.

He walks around feeling lost. There’s not much open space and even where there is, the people sitting around are not very inviting.

He spots her in a corner. A black girl with her hair in three braids tied high up. 

She's sitting alone, leaning against the back of her chair, holding a book in her hands. She seems completely lost in it, her eyes move so fast he has to stop and stare. She either doesn't notice or doesn't care. He thinks it's the former. She barely blinks and Druig finds it hard to tear his eyes away the same way she doesn't seem to want to miss a second of what she's reading.

His legs make his decision for him. He walks to her table as if something was pulling him towards it.

He clears his throat. "Is this seat taken?" he asks as he points at the seat in front of her. She doesn't acknowledge him.

He stands there awkwardly for a few seconds before he tries to wave behind her book. That seems to catch her attention because her eyes drift towards it before she looks up at him. His mouth suddenly feels dry as a desert under her curious gaze. 

"Is this seat taken?" he rasps.

She tilts her head and points at her ears. "I'm deaf," she signs. He blinks awkwardly. Good going, Druig, he thinks. 

There's only a handful of signs he knows, none of which are seat or taken. He points at the chair across from her and tries to look questioning. Her face lights up in understanding and she signs something, but he doesn't understand it. He hides his awkwardness with a playful tilt of his head. She giggles before pointing at the chair and nodding. He feels a little unsteady as he sits down. He smiles back at her, though, when he catches her kind gaze. 

And if he looks for ASL learning videos online the next day, well, that's simply a coincidence. 

—

The next time he sees her, a week later, she's sitting on a bench outside of the Faculty of Humanities. She's reading again, it's a different book, he notices, a quite thick one. He hesitates, C'mon Druig, you can do this. He heads towards her. 

He feels a little bad about interrupting her with his wave, but her answering smile makes him feel better. 

"Hi, what are you reading?" he signs slowly. 

She looks surprised for a second, but then she lights up. Druig idly notes he should wear his sunglasses the next time he sees her. She starts signing rapidly, but she must notice his dazed gaze, because she stops, looking amused.

"Slower, please," he signs sheepishly. 

"It's about something societies and their history," she signs patiently. He must look a little lost, because she asks, "Which word? Is it something?" 

He nods. She doesn't look surprised. "Shamanistic," she fingerspells. 

She must study history, he thinks. "How is it?" 

She pats the bench next to her and when he sits down she starts telling him, hands slow and patient. She teaches him words he didn't learn in his week of ASL cramming. 

He's never seen someone so in love with what she's learning, what she's reading. It's captivating. 

"I'm Druig, by the way."

"Makkari."

—

He finds out she studies archeology by accident. He’s on his way to his Cognitive Neuroscience class, when he spots Makkari in front of a lecture hall, waiting. He starts weighing his options, should he approach her or should he not risk being late to his class. It’s a hard dilemma. 

She decides for him, though, when she spots him. She freezes for a second, as she looks him up and down. He frowns and looks down at himself. 

He’s wearing his usual leather jacket. His hair is a bit fluffier than usual, because he forgot to brush it properly, he realizes, as he touches it. He feels a bit embarrassed, and then remembers she hasn’t seen him in his jacket. He didn’t wear it for a while, because it also needed some cleaning after his incident with the spoiled milk.

Maybe it’s surprising. Coupled with the black tinted sunglasses pushed up on his head and the many piercings adorning his ears, he knows he looks intimidating. His sister always says he’s very good at hiding his dorkiness. 

When he looks up he sees her subtly shaking her head at the ground. She smiles at him and waves him over.

When he reaches her, she starts signing immediately, “Hi, where are you going?” He fingerspells the name of his lecture.

“You study psychiatry?”

“Psychology,” he corrects. She smiles. 

The lecture hall door suddenly opens and people start pouring out. She jumps and turns around, then she looks back at Druig and waves, before running to the entrance of the hall.

When he passes the hall, he spots the schedule next to it. Essential Archaeological Methods. Huh.

—

He keeps racking his brain for ideas on how to befriend Makkari, but in the end none of his ideas need to be put into motion. It goes a little different than what he’s imagined.

He’s on his way to his dorm, walking along the side of the building, nearing the tall trees that block most of the sunlight, when he hears some commotion.

When he walks closer to investigate the sounds, he sees a broad figure leaning over someone.

The first thing he hears is, “C’mon, I already told you I have plans. My friends are waiting for me.”

He doesn’t hesitate to call out, “Hey, Sarah, dude, I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Is this guy bothering you?”

The guy turns to him. The girl takes the opportunity to get away from him, and comes over to Druig.

He squares his shoulder and tries to look as menacing as possible. He doesn’t think he has to try very hard considering he’s wearing his leather jacket and black sunglasses, not to mention everything else he’s wearing is black, as well. Maybe he should buy more clothes, to be honest.

He leans close to the girl’s ear and whispers, “Go, get some help, please. The first person you see is fine, don’t worry.” She nods and walks away with determined steps. 

“What the fuck, dude?” the guy spits, looking at the girl’s retreating back. “I was just flirting with her. What’s your problem? You could’ve waited a few more minutes. You have a crush on her or something?”

Druig rolls his eyes. “It’s not flirting if she’s telling you she has to go, but you continue to loom over her like some Lugosi Béla’s Dracula wannabe.”

The other stares at him, his eyes rapidly darkening. “I already had a shitty fucking day, but now you have to come here and ruin it completely… you know what.”

And with that the guy sends a fist flying at his face. 

He moves out of the way. Then punches the guy in the face. While the guy stumbles Druig listens to his own heartbeat as it pumps wildy in his chest. It’s much different to fight in real life than in the box ring during practice. 

He moves to punch again, but the guy is surprisingly fast - honestly he does have the figure of a football player, maybe he should be less surprised -, because the next thing he knows he’s lying on the ground clutching his nose in pain. 

He sees the guy gearing up to kick him and he’s ready to jump up, but before he can do that, a figure steps between them. His eyes are blurry with tears, but he sees the figure kick the guy in the face. He falls face down on the ground and stays there.

The figure then turns to him and crouches down to inspect his face. 

“Makkari,” he whispers. She sees his mouth move and gives him a small smile. 

She helps him up and then slowly signs, “Are you okay?”

He nods quickly, but then clutches his head in pain. Bad idea. 

“I’ll take that as a no,” she signs, smirking, “C’mon, let me treat you in my room.”

She helps him up and leads him towards a dormitory not far from his. 

—

On their way she tells him that the girl found her and while Makkari couldn’t understand her words, she could somewhat read her lips and by her insistent pointing she figured it was important. And that’s how she found him. He wishes she would’ve found him winning and looking impressive, but oh well.

When they step into the room the first thing he notices is the piles upon piles of books. Then the miniature replicas of famous statues and artifacts. He looks around, while Makkari gets her first aid kit from the bathroom. 

When she comes back, she ushers him to sit on her bed. As soon as he sits down she's examining his face. She gingerly presses around his nose and tilts his face around to look at it from all angles. 

"You're lucky. It's not broken," she signs, "but it's gonna take a good while to something. So be prepared for that."

He tries to imitate the gesture and looks at her questioningly. She fingerspells the word. Heal.  

"Worth it," he signs carefully, careful of disturbing her process. She snorts and lets his face go. 

"Okay, Batman." Batman?! Before he can question her, she disappears out the door. 

"Okay, then," he mutters. He amuses himself by walking around and looking at the titles of her books. Most of them have to do with history. She does, however, have classical literature, as well as books on all kinds of topics, that vary so wildly he doesn't know how to categorize them. 

When she returns she's holding a bag of frozen vegetable mix wrapped in a table cloth. She walks forward, pushes him back to sit on the bed again and puts the bag on his nose, all in a few seconds. 

Druig yelps in pain and tries to get away, but Makkari holds one of his shoulders tightly. Then she takes his hand and presses it against the bag. He automatically clutches it and Makkari leans back. 

"We need to something."

Druig must look confused enough once again, because she fingerspells reduce swelling. 

He knows as much, but he's never been one to really follow the rules of wound care. 

“Do you know how to take care of it?” she asks.

He nods slowly. “How did you do that, uh…” He doesn’t know how to say kick. So he sighs defeatedly and fingerspells it. Makkari shows him how to do it.

She smirks. “Taekwondo,” she fingerspells. Then she teaches him the sign for that, too.

It's really starting to annoy him that there are so many words he cannot understand. He'll have to cram again, because this is unacceptable. Nevertheless, he imitates both gestures.

"Wow," he says out loud accidentally. She laughs and he instantly knows she could read his lips.

“I also run track.” She once again fingerspells the words he doesn’t know, then teaches him the sign for them.

"Damn." Both suit her. They haven’t known each other for that long, but she gives off the vibe of a person, who doesn’t hesitate. 

She winks at him. His heart doesn’t trip over itself at that. It does not.

—

“Druig, I need a favor,” is the first thing he hears, when he picks up the phone, that wakes him up at 8 am, or as he likes to call it, ass-o’clock.

“Good morning to you, too, sister. How are you this morning? I am quite tired, thank you for asking.” 

“Good morning, sweetie, I’m sorry for waking you up. It’s kind of urgent.” She does sound apologetic, so he stops teasing her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I promised Sprite I would show her around my uni, but my prof literally just emailed us. We’re having a test tomorrow he forgot to tell us about,” she rushes out all in one breath. He winces in sympathy.

“Uh, sure. Send the little gremlin over. When is she coming?”

“Text her. And stop calling her that. Behave, the both of you.” She sounds exasperated, but amused.

“Yes, Mom. Good luck, Sersi, you’ll need it.”

“Thanks,” she drawls, “you too. Don’t kill each other.”

“No promises.” And with that he hangs up. Then he texts the contact named Brat.

hey, gremlin. sersi’s prof has decided to murder her. you’re mine for the day

ugh, great

thanks

anyway, when are you coming over?

you know where my uni is, right?

yeah yeah

i’ll be there around 2

cool. stay safe sprout

don’t call me that

He chuckles and puts his phone away. Might as well get ready for the day.

He spends most of it studying and procrastinating. By the time the clock hits 2PM he has managed to clean his entire room to avoid studying. What a productive day.

When Sprite texts him she’s there, he doesn’t expect her to be standing right at the entrance of his dormitory.

“How the fuck did you know where my dorm is?” 

“Sersi.” Ah. Okay, then.

“Well, since you’re here, you wanna see my dorm?” She shrugs and nods, and that’s how they start the tour. He leads her around the campus, describes what is taught where and even takes her inside some empty classrooms. Her snarky comments about the ugliness of certain parts of the campus are highly amusing. He relates.

It’s when they’re walking around the park that things go to shit. He notices Makkari walking around idly with a book in her hand. She’s definitely looking for a bench to read on.

He promptly turns around and starts tugging at Sprite’s hand. Sprite, the demon that she is, doesn’t move.

“What? You turned around so fast, did you see something!?”

“No. I just realized we were going in the wrong direction,” he lies.

“You’re a shit liar, idiot,” she retorts and starts looking around wildly. “Did you see your crush or something?”

“Why are you the way that you are?” 

She looks smug. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Druig sees the exact moment Makkari notices him from the corner of his eyes. She smiles widely and waves at them. Sprite, of course, notices. 

“Is that her?” Druig just shakes his head and walks towards Makkari. He hears Sprite’s quick steps, struggling to catch up with him. He takes satisfaction in his small revenge.

“Hey! What’s up? Who’s this?” she signs in quick succession. 

“This is my cousin, Sprite,” he signs and says out loud at the same time, “Sprite, this Makkari, my friend. She’s deaf, I’ll translate, if you wanna talk to her, I guess.”

Sprite waves at her and out loud she says, “Since when do you know sign? Scratch that, since when do you have friends outside of us?!”

“None of your business, gremlin,” he says, as he ruffles her hair aggressively.

He turns to Makkari, who looks amused. “Don’t read her lips, she’s annoying.”

Makkari laughs in his face. “Too late.” Why is everyone against him today?

Then, of course, Sprite asks him to invite Makkari along with them. Makkari just so happens to be free and agrees, because that’s his luck. 

What follows is an afternoon filled with teasing. He’s, of course, forced to translate, after Makkari tells him he’s being ableist. He calls bullshit on that, but he still doesn’t want her to be excluded, so he complies, even if it’s at his own expense. 

At one point Druig and Makkari get in a heated discussion over the interior of the different university buildings, as they wander around the vicinity of the campus.

“What the fuck do you mean Building C is better than Building A? Have you seen the restrooms, huh?” he signs and says aloud at the same time. Sprite ought to know the reality of being in university. And this is it. 

Makkari frowns, but doesn’t answer immediately, which Druig takes as admitting defeat.

“Realized I’m right?” he signs as he leans closer to her. 

Sprite snorts next to him. “Oh my god, can you stop flirting? It’s giving me second-hand embarrassment.”

Druig’s face erupts in flames. He turns to her. “How would you know what flirting looks like? You’re like twelve.”

“I’m 16, thank you very much for knowing my age, fucker.”

“Same thing, brat.”

Makkari pats his arm. He turns back and notes that she looks amused, once again.

“What are you two arguing over?”

Sprite turns toward her, with her lips in clear view for the other.

“I said he’s a terrible fli–” Druig slaps a hand on her mouth. 

“Ignore her, Makkari, she’s 10, she doesn’t know anything,” he says out loud, articulating clearly for the girl, since one of his hands is occupied. 

Makkari snorts. “Sure thing. On that note I gotta go, I have a book that’s begging for my attention, so I’ll leave you to whatever this is.”

“Have fun with your book.” Makkari winks. He faintly hears her snicker under her breath as she walks away.

Druig turns toward Sprite. She has a shit-eating grin on her face. 

“Look what you’ve done. You scared her away.” 

“I’m pretty sure, if you haven’t been able to scare her away, no one can. She’s a god.”

He smacks her.

—

Makkari starts asking him to hang out. The first time it happens Druig trips and almost bashes his head against the wall. Almost. It’s a close call. Maybe Makkari is right about his friend-making abilities. 

She gives him her number and asks him to call her anytime he wants to hang. Druig is ecstatic. 

After that, they pretty much meet up whenever they can. He would never admit this to anyone, but with no friends around the campus he’s been lonely. His friends all live far from it, busy with their own studies and their schedules don’t line up as often as they’d like. He has a feeling Makkari is in a similar situation.

They quickly grow close to one another. She gets into the habit of messing with Druig’s hair. She fixes his hair, especially his bangs to her liking. Or just ruffles his hair out of nowhere, sometimes hard enough to make it stick up weirdly the rest of the day. He tries to return the favor, but she has dreads, so he decides to tickle her instead, when he gets the chance. These casual displays of affection do not send his heart racing. They do not.

He also learns that Makkari loves conspiracy-theories. She knows way too much about them and even has a few she whole-heartedly defends. 

“Aliens definitely live among us, Druig. I’m serious. Stop laughing!”

He tells her that he hates conflict, but he hates not stepping in to help even more. That his parents died, when they were too busy fighting to pay attention to the car that overturned theirs. How he was the only one that survived and it took getting adopted by Sersi’s family to overcome his grief. 

It’s a rough talk that ends with a cuddle session, while watching Aladdin. He doesn’t pay much attention to the movie, too focused on Makkari’s warmth against his back.

She talks about her love for books. How reading used to be a safe haven, when she was younger, but now it’s something that captivates her entirely without feeling the need to hide behind them.

There’s so much out there to know, she hates thinking about all the knowledge that has been lost and all the knowledge that will be lost. Knowledge is the most precious thing, she says, it’s the foundation of everything there is. It’s eternal.

She also shares her struggles with being deaf.

“People either pity me or just look uncomfortable, because they don’t know how to talk to me. Only a few have ever put in the effort to learn ASL for me. At first I thought you pitied me, but then I realized you’re not that kind of person. So thank you.” 

Druig kind of tears up that time. Not that he’d admit it.

Eventually, they do talk about how they’re less lonely now that they have each other. Druig’s heart races, when she admits that he’s her first friend, since she’s moved here. He feels special.

He wonders how many times they could’ve passed each other on campus, before they met. That if he hadn’t gone to the library that time they might have never met. He doesn’t like to think about that.

—

Next time it’s Ajak that calls him. She and Sersi, for some reason, prefer calls over texts. Something about it being more personal. It took some time for him to get used to, when he got adopted.

“Hi, Druig, when are you free?”

That throws him for a loop. “Hi. Um, why?”

“I’m forcing a group hang out, it’s been too long.” He smiles.

He checks his calendar and rattles off some dates, he knows Ajak is writing them down in her little notebook.

“Perfect. Thank you, dear. Now, have you been taking care of yourself? Because…” He listens to her amusedly. Such a mom.

A few days later she texts him a date and a place.

When he arrives everyone else is already there. 

“What’s up, fucker?” Sprite greets him as soon as he arrives. He hears a sound that he knows is Sersi smacking the back of her head as he takes his shoes off. 

They take turns hugging him, because of course they do, they’re all adorable like that. When he takes his place closest to the snacks, immediately snatching up some cookies to eat, Ajak suggests everyone tell them what they’ve been up to.

“Baby goes first,” Phastos says, pointing at Sprite. She ignores him in favor of ranting about high school. They all listen in sympathy, because high school sucks and they all know it.

They go in an interesting order based on their positions in the room. Next up is Kingo, who tells them about his next play, his gestures are wide and excited, when he mentions he plays the lead. He invites them all enthusiastically and they all agree to go, of course. 

Thena talks about her martial arts lessons and how they’re helping her mentally more and more. Druig thinks Makkari and her would probably get along. 

Gilgamesh enthusiastically describes the new recipes he’s experimenting with. Druig’s stomach lowkey growls at that, even through the cookies he’s still snacking on. Gilgamesh and the culinary arts are a match made in heaven.

Sersi mostly talks about her research on a new strain of plants they’re studying at her university and the kids she teaches in her spare time, who are very excited about every little fun fact she tells them. Ikaris looks at her fondly through the whole thing.

Ikaris mentions the dogs he trains and the owners that are assholes, he tries to report to his bosses, but it doesn’t do much. He shows pictures of the dogs, though, of course. They all coo at them, choosing favorites. Druig is partial to the border collie posing on a high platform.

Ajak only talks about the orphanage she volunteers at and the kids there, since that’s her passion. Once again, cooing ensues. She tries to give them as much love as she can and they all know the kids love her. 

Phastos tells them about the little robots he’s built. He gets attached to his creations fast and always names them. He lists the names of these new ones, which is pretty cute. Then gushes about his boyfriend and promptly flips Druig and Kingo off, when they wolf-whistle. 

Druig reluctantly admits he’s made a friend. And because all his friends are assholes they gasp at the same time, looking like they’ve never heard anything more surprising. They try to pry, but he turns red and shuts them down. 

Afterwards Phastos takes his Jenga out of his bag. The soft atmosphere disappears and It’s every man for themself after that. 

Thena is the loudest and when she beats them at a round she rubs it in their face, ignoring the fact that Phastos is overall kicking all of their asses by a large margin. 

When they get bored of Phastos dominating the whole game, Kingo, the chaotic bastard, takes out his Monopoly and when Phastos groans he simply shoots finger guns at him. And if the Jenga was intense, the Monopoly is an all-out war.

They appoint Sersi as the banker, because she’s too much of a goody-two shoes to cheat, they say. Druig is not so sure about that, but he doesn’t say anything.

Gilgamesh from the beginning of the game, somehow, keeps landing himself in jail. 

Ajak is ruthless, which would be surprising if they hadn’t known each other for years. She buys the most important properties and mercilessly collects the rent, even when they beg her to ignore the rules for a round, because they’ll go bankrupt.

Sprite sits next to Sersi and keeps trying to sneak some money from the bank. Druig is pretty sure she’s successful a few times.

Thena goes bankrupt halfway into the game, courtesy of Ajak, and calls bullshit. Of course, from then on she bugs them about being idiots for every single choice they make. Phastos is close to strangling her by the time they finish. 

Ikaris keeps a straight face the whole time, but Druig definitely sees him sneakily cheat. He’s no snitch, though, but he still eyes him pointedly. At one point Ikaris fucking sticks his tounge out at him. 

Druig loses specturarly, with no properties to speak of and barely surviving with a few bills in hand, and somehow Sersi wins. She definitely fucking cheated. He called it. His sister is a little shit like that. 

Kingo whines about being defeated at his own game and calls for a rematch. They promptly turn him down.

It’s when Sprite has to leave they take out the alcohol. As they get drunker they split into smaller groups. Thena and Gilgamesh begin talking about meditation? Interesting choice. Ajak listens to Kingo’s stories intently, something about having to learn how to fight with a sword, because he’s playing a samurai. 

And Druig ends up with Ikaris, Sersi and Phastos. Ikaris dares Druig to drink the remaining vodka. Druig tells him to fuck off and does so.

“God, why are y’all like this?” Phastos asks. Druig flips him off. The other swats at his hand.

“Ikaris, you can eat my ass. Go dr-drink something, too.”

“No, thanks.” Druig wants to call him out, but he’s suddenly too dizzy, so instead he just leans against Phastos.

Sersi, who has apparently been waiting for this, is on him like a hawk immediately, asking about Makkari. The fuckers, they tricked him.

But he’s too drunk and the mention of his new friend makes him excited.

“Her name’s Makkari. She-she’s so cool. Very cool.”

“What’s she like?” Phastos asks. 

“Very cool.”

“Oh my god,” Ikaris groans, dragging his palm across his face. 

Sersi giggles and pushes her boyfriend. “Aside from cool?”

“Smart. She’s so smart, guys. Reads books. Lots. It’s cute.” His head is fuzzy, he doesn’t know how much sense he’s making.

“Damn, she’s nothing like you, then,” Phastos says. Ikaris pokes him in the ribs.

“Fuck you, Asstos. She’s awesome, though. I learned to si-ign for her,” he sighs dreamily. 

“Sign? Like ASL?” Sersi grins.

“Yeaaah.”

“Aw, you like her that much?”

“She’s very cool, Sersi. We’ve established that.” Druig look at her sister seriously. It must not be very effective, because she bursts out laughing. 

“I’m serious.” 

She cackles louder.

—

“God, how are we gonna complete this project?” Druig overhears as he waits for Makkari at her favorite bench. Who even has a favorite bench? Weirdo.

“I don’t know, man. Why did we have to be paired with the deaf girl? I mean she’s really nice, but communicating with her? Gosh.” Are they talking about Makkari? Druig has to reign his anger in.

“It’s like the prof wants us to fail. Maybe we should say she’s not cooperating and ask him to put her in another group?” Druig bristles at that.

“Hey!” he calls out, then takes his time walking towards them with lazy, long steps. They look at him weirdly, but he doesn’t speed up, just stares at them intensely as he walks.

“Uh, hey, what’s up?” one of them replies, unnerved.

“Hm, I was just wondering. Does either of you know what ableism means?” He asks in a low voice.

“Um, sure, I guess.”

“So, my question is, if you know, then why are you being ableist? Sounds like you’re aware that you’re being assholes, you just don’t care.”

“Look- '' one of them starts, but Druig doesn’t care, he interrupts him.

“My second question is, do you know the university has no tolerance towards ableism? Seems pretty dumb to say stuff like that out in the open, don’t you think?” He steps closer to them.

“Dude, what’s your problem?”

“My problem is that you are talking shit about my friend,” he drawls as he stares at them intensely.

“Look, we don't mean anything by it. She’s just bad for our grade, man.”

Druig steps even closer, his nose is a breath away from the guy’s that previously spoke. “Well, you must be pretty stupid then. Considering Makkari is literally a goldmine of information. If you get a bad grade, that's all on you,” he says condescendingly.

“Fuck you,” the one further away spits out.

Druig raises an eyebrow at him. “You’re not my type, but thanks.”

“Fuck. Off. Already.”

“Then stop loitering around here. Full offense, but you look like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man, you’re ruining the vibe.”

The guy’s head goes red. He pushes him hard. Druig stumbles, but regains his footing quickly. He glares at the guy, who just moves to push him again. Druig steps to the side, sticks his foot out and the guy trips.

Druig chuckles as he looks down at him.

Unfortunately, he forgets about the other guy, who apparently took offense to his laughter and decides to tackle him from behind. Great. 

He hits the ground hard and gets the wind knocked out of him. He gasps for air, while the other takes revenge, because it seems like tripping his friend is a big deal for him, and punches him. Thankfully, it’s not his nose this time, but one of his cheeks.

And, of course, that’s when his personal guardian angel, Makkari, appears. He can literally hear her loud sigh from behind him.

Then the guy on top of him gets lifted off of him. He stares at Makkari as she lifts him by his shirt with one hand. Druig is winded for an entirely different reason now.

She pushes the guy towards his friend, then makes the universal gesture for ‘shoo’.

The other two look mad, but walk away. “Fuck you,” one of them shouts.

“Fuuuck,” Druig groans as he gets up. Makkari looks at him exasperatedly.

“Again? What’s the reason this time?” she signs. Then ruffles his hair. Hard. He supposes he deserves it.

“They were being ableist fucks.” 

“What a hero. Stop picking fights, though.” She smiles fondly, though, so Druig doesn’t really feel bad.

“I didn’t pick a fight either time! I just talked to them!” Makkari looks at him amusedly.

“This is gonna bruise, by the way,” she adds, then prods his cheek. He bats her hand away. He doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him wince.

—

Sersi texts him a few days after the fight.

i want to meet Makkari

why

what do you mean why

why

i want to meet my little brother’s new friend!

why

stop saying why

do you even have time to meet her

i will make time for it

That warms Druig’s heart. He never quite knows how to say no to his sister and she knows that. She uses it to her advantage all the time. 

Instead of replying to her, he texts Makkari.

my sis wants to meet you

!!!

really? when??

depends. when are you free?

And that’s how he ends up planning a hangout for the three of them. Both girls are excited and honestly so is he. Even if he knows the only common thing between them is him, so it’s likely that they’ll just roast him to bond with each other.

He suggests going to a cafe he’s been to once that was pretty nice. When the day comes, for some reason he’s the first one that gets there, which is very rare, so he simply orders a caramel macchiato and some cookies for himself. He likes sweet things, sue him.

He finds a table near the wide windows and shoots a text to the other two asking for their order. He might as well buy them, while he’s waiting for them.

Makkari texts him a simple ‘frappuccino’ back. Sersi tries talking him down, saying she’ll be there in a few, she’ll order for herself, but he’s stubborn and in the end she gives up and asks for a mochaccino. 

Sersi is the next to arrive. Druig by now is pretty sure Makkari got distracted by something and that’s why she’s late.

When Sersi sits down in the seat, where he put the frappuccino he smoothly switches the two drinks. Sersi shoots him a small smile, before she gasps, eyes widening. 

She takes his head in her palms and looks him over.

“What happened?” she asks loudly.

“It’s nothing. I just fell.” His ears blush in embarrassment. 

“Bullshit.” Druig is surprised at that, she’s not one to curse. “Why are you lying?”

“It’s–” 

Conveniently that’s when Makkari arrives. She puts her bag down and plops in her seat. Not before messing up his bangs, though. He squints his eyes at her.

“Hey. Sorry. What have I missed?” she signs. Druig is about to reply, when Sersi lifts her hand.

“Hello. I’m Sersi,” she signs very slowly. Makkari looks at her in wonder. Her eyes shine suspiciously, but instead of replying she pulls a box of chocolate out of her bag and puts it in front of Sersi.

“This is for you,” she signs.

Druig’s heart is so full, he feels like it’s about to drown in his feelings. Sersi took time out of her busy schedule to learn some ASL for Makkari in time for their meetup. And Makkari bought her a gift to welcome her warmly. 

He clears his throat before his feelings spill out. “Where is my gift?” he teases Makkari with a raised brow. 

“Your gift is me,” she smirks. He blushes subtly and pretends to be offended. 

“Ignoring that, this is Sersi, my older sister,” he signs as he points at Sersi. He looks at her and notices her eyes are shining with mirth. Thankfully, she doesn’t say anything.

She looks at Makkari and again signs. “Thank you.” Makkari beams at her. 

From then on they get along like a house on fire, while Druig translates the majority of the conversation, since Sersi hasn’t had enough time to study much sign aside from the very basics.

And he was right, they do shit-talk him. 

It starts when Sersi points at his face questioningly and looks at Makkari, hoping she knows the truth. 

Of course, she’s more than happy to tell her. He doesn’t want to translate at first, but Sersi threatens to send embarrassing pictures of him to Makkari.

“You don’t even have her number!”

She turns to the other and signs, “Number?”

Makkari smirks and writes it down on a piece of paper for her. Druig just sighs and decides to translate.

“He got into a fight.”

“A fight!?” Sersi looks at him incredulously. He simply shrugs.

“Yeah, it was the second one since we’ve met. I found him at the first one too.” He’s very reluctant to translate that one.

“I told you to stop fighting when you finished high school! God.” She sighs and shakes her head.

Makkari, who had been watching Sersi’s mouth, smirks.

“Hero complex,” she fingerspells very slowly for Sersi to understand without his help.

The other laughs.

—

hello druig, i’m planning the get together this time

text me every single date when both you and makkari are free

she’s also invited 

it’s non-negotiable

hello to you too ikaris

did sersi put you up to this

just do it

grouchy

He texts Makkari, though. Once again, she’s ecstatic. 

This time apparently the get-together is a weekend long trip. Druig realizes Ikaris is the one planning it, because there’s no way anyone else would be able to wrangle out dates from all of them and make sure no one cancels. It would never work without his threats, that everyone knows he won’t carry through with, but his glare is unnerving.

Plus they’d all feel bad, because he’s the quietest and when he’s mad he acts like a dog that’s been betrayed. 

They go to a small cottage in the countryside, funded by their one and only rich boy, Kingo.

When they get there with Makkari, Ikaris, Sersi and Sprite are already there. He moves to introduce Ikaris to Makkari, but once again he’s beaten to it.

“Hey, Makkari, I’m Ikaris. I’ve heard you’ve met Sersi and Sprite already.” He smiles at her. Of course, Mr-Good-At-Everything managed to learn more ASL faster than he did when he started out. He'd be more annoyed, if it weren’t for the excited look on Makkari’s face.

“Hi! I’m so happy to meet you!” He sees the exact moment some of the tension in Ikaris’ posture softens as Makkari beams. Druig smiles too, because he’s going to spend an entire weekend with all his friends. It’s going to be great.

Ikaris turns to him and smirks. “So I heard you got into a fight,” he says out loud, while signing.

You know what, he takes it back.

—

The others arrive 20 minutes later in Kingo’s car.

“God, I hate you,” is the first thing they hear when they go out to greet them.

The scene in front of them is comical. Gilgamesh is leaning against the car holding his stomach, Thena is glaring at Kingo, Ajak is packing bags from the trunk of the car on shaky legs and Phastos is checking under the hood of the car. 

“Did you bust your car again, Kingo?” Druig calls out. Kingo simply flips him off and goes to help Ajak.

He turns towards Makkari to explain.

“Kingo is terrible at driving, but he still insists on driving a manual car. He fucks up its engine way too often. Phastos, who studies mechanical engineering, ends up fixing his car every time.”

Makkari laughs, then looks at the scene before them again, and laughs even harder. She rests her head on his shoulder, while she catches her breath. Druig is pretty sure the tip of his ears are warm.

“No one is worse than Ikaris, though, one time when he tried driving Sersi’s car he hit Ajak with it,” he continues, “after a great deal of practicing, mind you.”

Ikaris groans from his spot. “I’ve apologized so many times.”

“Not quite enough times,” Kingo pipes up.

Makkari looks alarmed. “Don’t worry she was fine, she just sprained one of her ankles,” Druig reassures her.

“Is that Makkari?” Ajak calls out. She jogs towards them and introduces herself in sign. Druig suspected they’ve all learned some ASL when Ikaris started signing, but this confirms it.

Makkari signs back to her excitedly. Then similarly to Ajak and Ikaris all the others come up to Makkari to introduce themselves in sign. Makkari’s eyes shine.

When they finally all gather up inside Kingo tells them the layout. He signs it at the same time. He clearly practiced it ahead. 

“There’s 7 rooms. Sersi and Ikaris, Gilgamesh and Thena, and Makkari and Druig can each share a room, the rest of us have individual rooms. That okay?”

Druig gapes at him like a fish for a second, while Kingo turns to him with a shit-eating grin, shooting finger guns at him, but then Makkari is dragging him along to choose their room. 

They choose the room at the end of the hallway upstairs, because the window overlooks the river and Makkari loves that.

It’s only when they take their luggage up that he notices that there’s only one bed. A queen sized bed. He freezes in the door and points at it and looks at Makkari. She frowns, then looks at the bed, then him again.

“What?”

“It’s one queen sized bed.”

Makkari shrugs. “It looks comfy.”

He blinks. Then he turns around and takes a peek into the other rooms. All the shared rooms are the same. 

Okay then.

He goes back and finds Makkari unpacking her bag. Unsurprisingly, she has brought a book with her.

He taps her shoulder. “All the other rooms are the same.” He leans closer. “I guess we’ll have to fight for the blanket.” She looks up at him with a teasing smile.

“If you steal the blanket I’ll kick you off the bed.” Druig smirks and taps her nose before going to unpack his own stuff.

—

They head downstairs when Druig hears arguing and drags Makkari down with him.

“No, we’re not playing Monopoly again,” Thena says firmly. Druig half turns to Makkari and translates for her, while watching the scene unfold.

“Don’t be such a sore loser!” Kingo says.

“Let’s play Activity,” Sprite interjects.

“You’re only saying that, because you’re good at it,” Phastos replies.

The other shrugs. “It’s not my fault y’all suck.”

“How about Scrabble?” asks Gilgamesh.

Makkari taps his arm. “Uno?” Druig smirks. 

“Makkari says Uno,” he calls out. The others turn towards them in sync. 

“I’m sorry Makkari, but we don’t play Uno. We have a… bad history with it,” Sersi says and signs. Makkari looks amused.

“Why don’t we vote?” Ajak suggests. God, she and Sersi are the only ones with brain cells in this group. He’s grateful for them.

“The choices so far are Monopoly, Activity, Scrabble. Anyone else with suggestions?”

“Mafia?” Ikaris asks from his spot in the corner curled up on a loveseat. 

“Okay, so Monopoly, Activity, Scrabble, Mafia. Anything else?”

When no one says anything, they begin the voting. Unsurprisingly, Kingo is the only one who votes for Monopoly. He gives them a betrayed look, but doesn’t say anything. Activity gets three votes from Sprite, Thena and Phastos. They high-five. Scrabble gets zero votes, apparently Gilgamesh changed his mind.

Mafia gets the most votes, since Sersi, Ikaris, Druig, Makkari, Ajak and Gilgamesh all vote for that option.

They decide on Ajak as the first game leader.

They sit in a circle. Or, well, it’s mostly a circle.

“Do you have to sit on the table, Druig?” asks Ikaris.

“Yes,” he answers, snacking on some chips. They’re used to it, so they simply leave him be, even if it’s a bit inconvenient for games. He waves Makkari over to be able to translate for her. 

They decide on having five Citizens, one being the Mayor, three Mafia members, one being the Godfather, one Doctor, and one Sheriff. 

As Ajak is choosing the roles Kingo giggles while they slap their thighs with closed eyes, because he has a habit of laughing at times he really shouldn't. 

"Kingo is Mafia," Druig immediately says. 

"Fuck you, Druig. Is it a crime to laugh?" 

"Yes." He grins. He hears him grumble under his breath, while they wait for Ajak. 

"Alright, we're done," she announces, "Day 1 begins."

So Druig is a Citizen, then. Alright. He taps Makkari's shoulder to signal they're done. 

"I say we vote Druig out on Day 2, he's suspicious," Kingo says. 

Druig narrows his eyes at him, but before he can retort Ajak announces it's Night 1.

When Day 2 starts, Druig makes sure he doesn't forget to translate for Makkari. The others try to sign what they can, too. 

"So," Ajak starts, "Mafia tried to kill Kingo, but the Doctor protected him."

"I told you! It's Druig!" 

"No! The Mafia is trying to frame me!" Druig shouts back, matching the volume of his voice. 

"Yeah, ri-" 

"Okay, let's not dissolve into shouting right from the beginning," Sersi interjects, before they can continue. 

"Yeah, personally I don't think the Mafia would be dumb enough to attack Kingo right after he accused Druig, if Druig were in it," says Thena. Makkari sends her a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Thena," he says with a smile, "someone with common sense, finally." 

"I think it's Sprite," Makkari signs. Druig does a double-take. 

"What, why?" 

Makkari shrugs. "I don't know, I just wanna accuse someone." 

Sprite looks at her with an offended expression. Druig bursts out laughing. 

Phastos giggles, too. “Let’s vote for Sprite, then.”

“Hey!” Sprite shouts, “I think it’s Makkari, look at her trying to cause chaos!” The other simply sends her a grin.

“Any words, Ikaris?” Sersi turns to him. He looks at her with surprise in his eyes.

“Not really, it’s too early,” he replies with a shrug. Sersi eyes him for a second, before turning back.

“Make your decision, everyone,” Ajak says. 

“Druig!” Kingo declares immediately. Druig glares at him, but all Kingo does is stick his tongue out. Mature.

“I say let’s vote for Sprite. It’d be funny,” Druig says with a chuckle.

“C’mon! What have I ever done to y’all?” 

“A lot,” he retorts. Sprite threatens to get up and hit him. He just laughs.

“Anyone else you want to nominate?” Ajak asks, amusedly. When no one speaks, she continues.

“We first vote on Druig. Everyone put your hand forward. Lift it, if you vote to execute him, lower it if you vote to keep him alive.” Kingo, Sprite and Ikaris lift their hands.

“Ikaris!?” Said man just shrugs and grins at him.

“Well, seems like you get to stay alive, Druig. Same thing for Sprite, put your hands forward.” This time Druig, Makkari, Sersi, Thena and Phastos all lift their hands.

Ajak giggles. “Any last words, Sprite?” 

“Fuck y’all.” He feels Makkari shake with laughter next to him.

“Congratulations, Citizens. Sprite was part of the Mafia.” 

Sprite grumbles under her breath, while Sersi and Phastos lean against each other, giggling.

“What the fuck?” Kingo says, looking at her in shock. Sprite flips him off. 

“Welp, that was unexpected,” Ikaris states. He sounds amused.

Gilgamesh snorts. “Damn, Makkari.” She sends him a grin.

Ajak laughs and announces Night 2. She warns that no ghost player is allowed to see who lifts their head during the night, because she doesn’t trust any of them not to spill anything.

When Day 2 comes, she grins and says “Mafia killed Druig. He was a Citizen.”

“What!?” he shouts.

“Thank you!” Kingo shouts in glee at the same time.

“Daaaamn,” Phastos drawls. Makkari laughs next to him and bumps his shoulder with hers multiple times. Druig looks at her and pokes her forehead with playful glare directed at her. 

“Honestly, I’m not surprised,” Gilgamesh chuckles.

“Yeah,” Thena adds.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“The Doctor would be protecting Makkari after that, so Druig is the next best thing to frame Kingo.”

“Now, just wait a minute!” Kingo interjects. Everyone giggles. 

“Thena, you’re way too good at this game. Are we sure she isn’t Mafia?” Druig says.

“Shh, ghosts can’t talk!” Sersi shushes him. He huffs.

Makkari laughs again next to him. He pushes her. She ignores him and starts signing.

“Makkari says, ‘Thena, you’re…’ Okay, she’s just repeating my words, nevermind.”

Thena groans. “It’s not my fault I’m smart and you’re dumb Druig.” Makkari sends her a thumbs up again. Whose side is she on!?

“Let’s take this outside, you and me, Thena, one on one.” 

Thena bares her teeth at him. “Let’s go, you twig. I’ll snap you in half.”

Sprite falls over laughing. Gilgamesh puts his hand on Thena’s shoulder, but he’s shaking with suppressed laughter too. 

Sersi giggles and flops over onto Ikaris’ lap. The other smiles down at her softly and starts petting her hair.

“I’d love to see that,” Phastos adds.

“You know,” Ikaris suddenly speaks up, “Makkari is kind of suspicious.”

“What do you mean? She literally guessed a Mafia member in the first round,” Kingo replies with a frown.

“Yeah,” Sersi agrees.

“But isn’t that suspicious, though? What if she just sacrificed a member to blend in as a Citizen?”

Makkari immediately rushes to defend herself. “What the heck? No, I’m a Citizen!”

“Suspicious,” Gilgamesh says with narrowed eyes.

Thena hums. “I don’t think so.” Makkari nods at her in gratitude.

“I say we lynch her, anyway,” Ikaris says with a shrug.

“Alright, then. Any other suggestions?” Ajak asks.

Nobody speaks up, so they move on to the voting. Ikaris, Gilgamesh and Kingo vote for executing her, the rest lower their hand.

“Makkari stays alive for now.” The one in question throws her hands in the air.

“Day 3 has arrived. Mafia tried to kill Thena, but the Doctor protected her.”

Thena narrows her eyes as she looks at each of them. “I suspect Ikaris.”

“No way,” Kingo shouts, while Makkari hums and makes the universal gesture for ‘go on’.

“Isn’t it suspicious that he’s been quiet the entire time, but then tries his hardest to lynch someone?”

“Ah,” Sers saysi, looking up at her boyfriend with watchful eyes, “that is suspicious.”

“No, it’s not,” Ikaris defends himself, “I’ve simply had time to think.”

“Lynch him,” Makkari signs with no remorse, imitating Ikaris’ expression from the previous round. Thena points at her and nods.

Phastos seems deep in thought, while Gilgamesh makes eye contact with Ikaris, but says nothing. Druig watches that particular interaction with narrowed eyes.

He turns to Makkari. “I think both Ikaris and Gilgamesh are Mafia.” He signs as fast as he can, trying to make sure the others won’t understand it. Makkari grins and nods.

“Hey! No secret talking, ghost Druig!” Sprite says forcefully and throws a pillow at him. He catches it and launches it back at her face. It hits her square in the head and the force of it sends her sprawling on her back.

There’s a second of silence before the sight of Kingo taking a picture of her sends them all into fits of giggles.

“I dedicate my entire life to our lord and savior Jesus Christ and this is the kind of thanks I get?”

“Jesus is dead and I killed him,” Druig says.

“Okay, edgelord.”

Phastos speaks up before they can continue. “Let’s lynch Ikaris.” The one in question groans.

“Okay, any other suggestions?” Ajak asks.

“Makkari.” Of course Ikaris isn’t letting that one go.

“Ikaris and Makkari, anyone else?” 

Once again, when no one speaks up they begin voting. Ikaris gets four votes from Thena, Sersi, Phastos and Makkari. 

He ooks down at Sersi in his lap with a straight face. “Et tu, Brutus?”

Makkari gets one vote from Gilgamesh and that’s it. Kingo simply shrugs and says he couldn’t decide, when they ask why he didn’t vote for either of them.

“Any last words Ikaris?”

“I hate all of youuu.”

Ajak giggles. “Congratulations Citizens, Ikaris was part of the Mafia.”

There’s no dramatic reaction this time, they simply stare at Ikaris. Kingo lets out a small ‘huh’.

Ikaris rolls his eyes at them.

They continue and on Day 3 Ajak announces that the Mafia killed Makkari, who was a Citizen.

She immediately turns to Druig. “It’s because what you signed to me was correct! I think Gilgamesh recognized his name, fuck.” He groans.

“Whoever’s left of the Mafia is the Godfather, so the Sheriff won’t be able to tell who it is,” Sersi says, sighing. “Hey Ikaris, who is it?”

The other simply lifts an eyebrow. “You betrayed me and you expect me to tell you?” She winks.

“We can’t say anything, right? God, that’s boring,” Makkari signs to him. Druig snickers, while she turns to him.

“Lay in my lap.” His brain stops in its track for a second.

“What, why?”

“I wanna play with your hair.”

He leans closer and tilts his head up in a teasing manner, looking into Makkari’s eyes and she does the same. He faintly hears the others argue in the background.

He smirks and lies down without another word. He closes his eyes when she starts petting his hair and fiddling with his piercings, then tunes back into the game.

“I think it’s Phastos,” Kingo says. Druig doesn’t forget to keep signing what the others are saying.

“What the fuck do you mean Phastos, huh? Look at Gilgamesh over there, sitting like fucking Buddha! It’s definitely him!” The other spits back.

Thena turns to Gilgamesh and looks into his eyes for an entire minute. He looks uncomfortable, but doesn’t avert his eyes.

“Yeah, it’s definitely Gilgamesh,” she says as he looks back at Phastos.

“Hey! Not true!” They ignore him. 

“I’m the Mayor, I say let’s lynch him,” Sersi adds with an evil smile.

“Let me guess, Thena is the Sheriff, huh,” Gilgamesh groans. Thena sends him a shit-eating grin that’s an answer in and of itself. The other sighs, accepting his defeat.

“Anyone else you wanna lynch?” Ajak is met with silence, so they move on and of course, Gilgamesh is executed.

“Congratulations, the Citizens win, Gilgamesh was the Godfather.”

“Were you the Doctor, Phastos?” Kingo asks.

“Yeah, dumbass.”

Druig laughs and opens his eyes, only to find Makkari looking down at him. She cocks an eyebrow at him and he wiggles his own in reply. He ignores the warmth rushing to his cheeks, instead he decides to be daring and grabs one of her hands to play with. She smiles softly and he’s definitely imagining the soft blush on her cheeks.

After a few more chaotic rounds they decide to head to bed. Druig’s heartbeat immediately quickens when he realizes he’s going to be sleeping in the same bed as Makkari in a bit. He tries to calm himself. Everything’s good.

It’ll be fine. 

—

It’s not fine.

It’s so far from fine. 

Druig was barely able to will himself to sleep with how nervous he was, and then he wakes in the middle of the night, because his body hates him or something.

For a moment he feels disoriented, the kind, where you can’t even tell what year it is. He smacks his lips and looks at the clock. 2:23, huh. 

He’s about to go back to sleep, when he becomes aware of two things. First, the urgent need to relieve himself. Then the arm thrown across his waist, the legs tangled in his own, the body pressed against his back, her breath on his neck.

He immediately freezes. 

His heart speeds up and his breath catches in his throat. His throat is suddenly drier than the Sahara. Great, now he needs some water too.

She rubs her nose against his neck and tightens her grip, when he wiggles a bit in his attempt to figure out how to get up without waking her. Druig's brain promptly short-circuits. 

His heart feels too big against his ribs. He squeezes her hands, savoring the moment, before prying them away slowly. Then gets up.

He hears her let out a soft noise and stir. He watches carefully from his spot next to the bed with bated breath. She doesn't open her eyes, thankfully. 

So after a quick visit to the bathroom he quietly makes his way down to the kitchen. 

He's not too surprised when he finds Thena there. 

"Nightmares again?" he asks quietly. She simply nods.

"I'm sorry. Do you want some tea?" She nods again. Druig puts some water on the stove to boil, while he looks around for tea. 

He finds some in the cupboard and takes out the one labeled chamomile. He doesn't say a word until the tea is set on the table in front of them. 

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She hesitates for a second. "It was the usual. Gilgamesh and all the blood, the sirens…" she trails off at the end, staring at her tea. 

A few years ago Thena and Gilgamesh were attacked on their way home. Gilgamesh knocked the guy out, but not before he took a knife directed at Thena. The knife hit an artery and the ambulance barely arrived in time. 

It's safe to say it was a rough time for all of them. Especially Thena. 

Druig puts a hand on hers and waits until she looks up at him. Her eyes are red. 

"It's okay, Thena. He's safe. He's sleeping peacefully and he's in tip-top shape."

She takes a shuddering breath and nods. They fall into a comfortable silence. 

It's Thena that breaks it after a while. 

"So, how's the bed?" she asks. He blanches at her sudden teasing tone. 

"I-it's comfortable. Very soft," he manages, averting his eyes. 

She hums. "I bet it is." 

He shoots her a glare, his face warm. But he's also relieved she's feeling somewhat better. 

"So did you escape down here, because your bed is too comfortable?" 

Druig gulps. "I didn’t escape. I was just thirsty.”

She snorts. "It's cute how awful of a liar you are." 

Druig also lets out a soft chuckle. "Okay then, queen of lying."

"Nah, that's Ikaris. Have you seen his poker face?" 

"Eh. After this afternoon? Debatable."

She puts her cup in the sink and clasps his shoulder.  "I'm going back to sleep. You should, too, stop hiding."

"I-I'm not hiding!" he sputters after her. 

He grumbles under his breath and finishes the rest of his tea. Then steels himself and goes back to the room. 

Makkari is spread out in the middle of the bed, with little room to spare on both sides. As soon as he lies down facing Makkari she has him in an iron grip again. 

He holds his breath, but slowly puts his arms over her. She tucks her head against his chest and Druig gives in to the temptation to caress her head. 

He falls asleep to her even breaths, feeling warm and content. 

—

He wakes up to birds chirping. He has to squint his eyes against the incoming light from the window. He averts his eyes to Makkari and tilts his head away to be able to see her face. 

She's breath-takingly beautiful. Her face is smooth and relaxed with sleep. He softly tucks some baby hairs behind her ear. 

"My beautiful, beautiful Makkari," he whispers. His heart feels heavy with a feeling he can't name. 

Without even realizing what he's doing he cups her face and starts caressing her cheek. She nuzzles into his hand with a content sigh. He watches her with a smile on his face.

She’s like the sun, he realizes. She’s his sun and he’s her moon. She shines her light on him and only with her light does he feel his brightest.

After a few seconds she stirs and her eyes flutter open slowly.

He removes his hand, but Makkari takes it and puts it back against her face, then she mimics the action with her hand against his face. 

"Good morning," she mouths. Druig only sees it from his periphery, because he can't tear his eyes away from hers. 

"Good morning," he whispers back. 

She beams at him and he can't help but reciprocate automatically. His heart is so full it hurts. 

—

When it's time to leave the cottage they gather in a group hug and stay there for a good minute. 

When they part, Makkari waves to catch their attention. 

"Thank you for inviting me. I- you're so kind. And you've put in the effort to learn some sign. Thank you." Druig translates with a smile on his face. 

"Of course we did, Makkari. You're one of us, now. We won't stop until we can fully communicate with you without Druig's help," Ajak says kindly. 

"Yeah, I've heard Druig speak more during this getaway than in all the years I've known him combined. It was awful," Kingo adds. 

He runs away with a scream, when Druig begins chasing him. 

By the time he drags Kingo back after giving him a noogie, the others have started packing their luggage into the cars. 

"C'mon, Druig, I'll take you and Makkari back to the dorms," Sersi says, waving him over. 

"Sersi, can I go with you? Please," Phastos begs. Thena simply turns him around and leads him back to Kingo's car. 

"I am not going on a long ride in Kingo's car without you. If I have to suffer, so do you."

"Please, Thena, I have a family."

She rolls her eyes. "You simply have a boyfriend we all know you're going to marry, stop being so dramatic."

—

Druig thinks he’s pretty good at ignoring his feelings. Sersi tells him it’s not something to be proud of, but who’s the one that can stall his breakdown until the end of the exam period, because he was able to suppress all the stress? 

Not Sersi, who’s hell bent on ‘emotional expression is important and healthy’, that’s for sure.

But the time comes to stop ignoring his feelings for Makkari in the form of a dream. One night, he dreams of going on a date with her, of putting his forehead against hers, of leaning down to kiss her softly. When he wakes up he spends a good while staring at the ceiling.

“ Fuck. I’m in love with Makkari.”

It really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. He thinks back to the weekend getaway, the unnamed feeling suffocating him as he stared at Makkari’s sleeping face.

But it still shocks him and suddenly with every touch he feels electricity course through his body.

She ruffles his hair and he almost falls on his face. She hugs him and Druig goes warm and squeezes her tightly, bordering on painful. She tackles him from behind and his heart nearly gives out.

But he also feels calmer. As if he has finally come to terms with something that was unconsciously eating away at him. And not gonna lie, he feels pretty dumb that he wasn’t aware of the extent of his emotions before, too.

Makkari must notice something, because she sends him a few looks, when he does something especially unusual. But he eventually gets over his panic.

It’s just Makkari. Nothing has changed, she’s still his beautiful, beautiful Makkari.

Nothing has changed.

He ignores the heartache that comes with that particular thought.

—

“Let’s get piercings together,” is what Makkari starts with when she comes over to his dorm to study one day.

Druig just looks at her for a moment and purses his lips. Makkari doesn’t break eye contact as she sits down across from him. 

He narrows his eyes. “What kind of piercing? I already have all that I want in my ears.”

Makkari shrugs. “Get a nipple piercing, then. It’d look hot.”

He chokes on his spit. It’d look hot, his mind repeats on loop.

He clears his throat. “And what would… you get?”

“Eyebrow.” 

He blushes at the mental image and has to look down at his notes to try to hide it.

“That’s very cool.” He just knows Makkari is smirking at him, without having to lift his head. 

He squares his shoulder and looks up. He was right. 

“So? What do you say?”

“Let me think about it.”

—

He does think about it. A lot. The more time he spends thinking about it, the more he likes the idea of a nipple piercing. Hm.

So he texts the group chat about it.

group chat: weird names only

druidfgsfgd: should i get nipple piercings

druidfgsfgd: who tf changed my name again

fairy: what

druidfgsfgd: aren’t you supposed to be in school rn??

druidfgsfgd: how are you always online???

fairy: wouldn’t you like to know

fairy: but yes to the piercings

druidfgsfgd changed their name to druid

druid: one vote

hephaestus: what the hell where did that come from

druid: makkari

hephaestus: ah ofc

mercury: i have been summoned

druid: creepy

athena: that’s badass as hell druig go for it

mercury: thena mwah :*

athena: :*

druid: two votes

circe: huh

circe: go for it dear

druid: three votes

circe: stop

ajax: pretty cool druig

my gold: damn druig tf

my gold: hell yeah

druid: five votes

the epic gilgamesh: goooo

druid: six votes

icarus: do you want me to hold your hand when you get it

circe: nah makkari has that part handled

mercury: ;)

druid: …

druid: i’ll never ask any of you anything ever again

circe: awww

fairy: they grow up so fast

hephaestus: they really do

He exits the chat after that, his decision made. He texts Makkari about it, so they can set up an appointment together.

He's pretty chill, all things considered, when the time arrives. It doesn't mean he won't hold Makkari's hand during the process, though. Only for comfort, of course. No other reason.

The piercer is very kind. She walks them through the process. First, she gives him local anesthetic for his piercings, so it has time to kick in, while she does Makkari's eyebrow piercing. 

He takes Makkari's hand, when she sits in the chair, without a word. She shoots him a soft smile and her hand is just as soft as her smile and so, so warm. He can't help but run his thumb over her knuckles in a soothing manner. 

She doesn't flinch, but she does squeeze his hand for a second, when the needle enters. 

They simply switch hands, when it's Druig's turn. She does the same soothing motion on his hand too. 

"Okay, so you're gonna feel some pretty intense pressure as the needle enters. It might hurt, despite the anesthetic, but it really depends from person to person. Try to relax, I'll be quick." Her voice is kind and patient and it helps him relax. He shoots her a grin. 

When she puts the forceps on his nipples, she asks him to take a deep breath and then exhale. When he's exhaling she swiftly pierces through the first nipple. And boy, was she right, the pressure is very intense and it leaves Druig squeezing Makkari's hand so hard he'd be worried if not for the way Makkari matches his force as she squeezes back. 

The second nipple is better, probably because of the adrenaline kick from the first one.

"And we're done! Stay there for a bit, while I clean up, nip pcs are a little intense, the extra rest helps," she says and Druig gives her a toothy smile. Then he turns to Makkari and gives her an even bigger smile, while shaking her hand. She answers with a big smile of her own. Druig fails to quell the butterflies in his stomach. 

He lets her hand go to sign. 

"We did it! We got piercings together. That's pretty epic." 

Makkari just nods and keeps smiling. She takes out her phone without any explanation and quickly directs it at him to take a picture. It all happens so fast, he can't react in time. 

She shows him the picture, but not before sticking her tongue out. He does the same in return, then looks at the picture. 

He's smiling goofily in it, shirtless. 

"Why?" he signs with a pout. 

"I want to send it to the group chat." She takes a selfie of herself too. Druig resigns himself to his fate. 

They head to Druig's room after paying. When they flop over on the couch Makkari immediately takes her phone out.

group chat: weird names only

mercury has sent two photos

circe: skdhnkshdks 

circe: druig looks so dorky

circe: but the piercings are very cool

druid: hey!

asstos: badass, love it

asstos: i should get new pcs too

asstos: … Who The Fuck Changed My Name 

asstos: I Just Wanna Talk

asstos: was it you druig???

asstos has changed their name to hephaestus

druid: i wish it was

my gold: SKDHDBSKSHKS

my gold: ASSTOS

phatass: whoever did that ill find you

my gold: cool fucking pcs tho

my gold: ikaris come get pcs with me

icarus: why

my gold: it's be cool

icarus: hm. sure why not

my gold: hell yea

icarus: makkari you're badass

icarus: druig, you're there too i guess

druid: i'll spit in your coffee

athena: hell yeah awesome pcs

athena: gilgamesh we gotta get matching tattoos

the epic gilgamesh: hehe okay

the epic gilgamesh: i love your matching piercings! they're nice! 

mercury: cute

mercury: thank you all

druid: why are you all trying to copy us

fairy: no one would copy you 

fairy: we're all taking inspiration from makkari tho

mercury: ;3

ajax: my friends are so cool

druid: SKDHDNDKDJS

circe: AWWWW

several people are typing… 

—

"You know, I have a friend that's a lot like you. Her name's Wanda. She lives in the countryside, her family owns a farm, it’s a pretty cool place. I met her through her brother, Pietro, who also runs track. I met him at a competition back in high school," Makkari told him a while ago. 

So he decides to surprise her with train tickets to Wanda after sneakily getting her number from Makkari's phone and choosing a weekend when they're all free.

And then they get stuck in the rain at the train station, because of course they do. It's more like a storm, actually, with the strong blowing wind.

The temperature cools rapidly and neither of them is wearing particularly warm clothing. They didn't pack any, either. Smart.

"Well, this is fun," Druig comments. Makkari sighs and looks up at the screen showing the train schedule. 

"The train’s late, there's still 20 minutes left." Druig simply groans. "Let's play rock-paper-scissors. The loser has to do 5 push-ups," she adds. Druig blinks at her, then shrugs. 

"Sure."

Druig loses the first round. Then the second. Then the third. Out of the ten rounds they play, Makkari loses only two times. At his eighth loss, he’s so warm he decides to give up, especially since it’s not helping Makkari much.

"I don't like this game, I don't want to play anymore." Makkari just laughs. 

He sees her shivering, though. He hesitates, but when she starts rubbing her arms he makes up his mind. 

He turns her towards him and pulls her in for a hug. He puts her arms around his torso, under his leather jacket and tries to stretch his jacket as far as he can over her frame. He rubs her back and rests his head against hers. 

He tries to calm his heart, because he knows Makkari can feel his heartbeat like this. 

He feels her breath against his neck, the warmth of her body pressed against his, her hands that hug him closer. 

Like this, he feels too warm. He cups the back of Makkari's head with one of his hands, without stopping the rubbing motion of his other. 

He can't communicate with her in this position, but being so close to her, holding her tight, makes up for it. 

After the initial tension, his shoulders drop and he relaxes. He simply enjoys the moment. He breathes her scent in, listens to her breathing and squeezes her a bit harder. Makkari reciprocates. 

"I love you so much," he whispers, "so much. My beautiful, beautiful Makkari."

His heart hurts, because he knows he's too afraid to admit it to her face. He's too afraid she's going to say no and then things will be awkward and he'll lose her. 

He doesn't want to lose her. He can't bear the thought of that. 

"Please never leave me. I'd miss you too much." His words get lost in the wind.

—

When they get there Wanda pulls him aside after Makkari runs to Pietro excitedly. 

"Hurt her and I hurt you, you understand?" she threatens in a low voice. He nods rapidly. 

Hurting her is the last thing he wants to do. 

It must show on his face, because Wanda smiles at him widely and hugs him, asking about their ride.

—

group chat: weird names only

fairy: makkari are you coming to my bday party too? 

mercury: ofc <3

fairy: awesome

druid: are you excited to turn 17, sprout?

fairy: kind of yeah

fairy: school sucks

ajax: awww sweetheart

ajax: you're taking care of yourself, right? 

fairy: yeah, there's just a lot of stress

icarass: my gift is going to be the best, none of you will be able to beat it 

icarass: … 

icarass: who keeps changing the names

icarass: i'm serious

icarass has changed their name to icarus

my gold: SKDHDBSKSHSKS BYE

my gold: icarass, that's genius

my gold: but spritey!!! can't wait for your bday, phastos and i went all out for your gift

hephaestus: icarass lmao

hephaestus: kingo is right, it’s going to beat all of yours

the epic gilgamesh: i'll bake the best cake you've ever had, watch me

athena: none of you suckers will beat me and you know it

circe: why is everything a competition with you all

circe: (i'm ready for the challenge tho) 

ajax: heh

druid: that's suspicious

druid: not to brag but my gift is also pretty cool, so is makkari's btw i helped her pick it out so ofc it is

fairy: yall… 

druid: aww are you crying sprout

fairy: shut up

circe: aw she totally is

circe: we love you dear

several people are typing… 

—

They know high school is stressful for Sprite lately, so they go all out for her birthday. 

Druig bought her colorful fairy lights, because the others she has are plain and a globe that'll project little stars across her room's walls. 

He helped Makkari pick out some tinted heart shaped glasses, as well as a beautifully illustrated fairy tale book.

They decide to hold it at Kingo's apartment. They decorate it with some star shaped banners, fairy lights and lanterns. They make sure it’s cozy and comforting.

Kingo is the one that opens the door for her and when the two step into the living room they all jump out from their hiding places and scream. 

Sprite was, of course, expecting them to be there, but not their sudden screaming and they manage to scare her enough to make her scream and clutch her chest, heaving.

“Good fucking day to you all too!”

Sersi is the first that rushes to envelope her in a hug.

“Happy birthday, pipsqueak!”

Before Sprite could reply everyone decides to rush her at the same time and they crush her in a big group hug. 

They all shout different variants of nicknames that imply she’s short or young. When they finally let her go she glares at them and they grin back. 

Kingo tugs at her hand and drags her further inside. “Look at the decoration! How is it?”

She slowly looks around, taking in the entire room. She doesn’t move from her spot. The silence stretches, until faint hiccuping breaths fill the air and her shoulders start shaking subtly.

“Oh, dear,” Ajak whispers, and pulls her into her arms, “it’s okay, let it out.”

This time, they’re gentler with the group hug. They stay that way for a bit and only step back when Sprite asks for some air.

“T-thank you, g-guys,” she croakes out, “I love you all.”

They all reply with varying declarations of love.

Gilgamesh, whose eyes are suspiciously wet, meanwhile takes a box out of his bag and holds it out towards Sprite. “Wanna start with the cake?”

She nods, wiping her eyes. Druig quietly celebrates at the mention of food. Makkari glances at him knowingly.

They all try to sign and speak at the same time even with the cake in their hands. They ask Sprite about why she’s been so stressed and she tells them about the increasing workload, some kids that have been bullying her, a substitute teacher that humiliated her in front of her class, and her crush on a girl that made fun of her when she tried befriending her.

“Do you want me to scare those kids?” Druig asks, “I’ll put the fear of God in them, I promise.”

“I’ll help,” Ikaris adds. 

Sprite laughs and shakes her head. “It’s okay, I’ll deal with it.”

“You absolutely will not, Ajak and I are gonna go to your school and have a firm talk with the principal,” Sersi says sternly as Ajak nods along. 

When Sprite tries to talk, Ajak interrupts her. “Ah-ah, this is not up for discussion.”

The other nods softly. “Thank you.”

To take her mind off of it all, they declare it’s time for her gifts. Kingo jumps up and without a word he puts a box in front of her. It’s beautifully wrapped, but Sprite pays no mind to that as she tears the packaging apart.

“Oh my God,” she breathes. It’s a unique, beautiful camera.

“Kingo bought the parts and I built it for you to make sure it’s the best quality,” Phastos pipes up.

“So you can capture the world around you as only you see it,” Kingo adds softly. 

“Guys,” she croakes, “I-thank you. So much.” She looks close to tears again, but she steals herself and gets up to hug them both. They make sure to squeeze her tightly. 

“Me next!” Sersi shouts. She gives her a bigger box with intricate patterns drawn across it. It’s visible she drew them and Sprite is careful with opening this one. Inside there is a drawing padlet. “It’s to bring your visions to life! This was partly financed by Kingo, not gonna lie, but I’ve been saving up for it for a while and I needed some help.”

Sprite launches at her. “Thank you,” she whispers in a wobbly voice.

Ikaris beats Thena in handing his gift next with a smug smile. His box is smaller with simple packaging. When Sprite opens it she gasps. She takes out a photo album titled ‘your loving friends’. They look through the photos together, it’s filled to the brim with them together with Sprite.

She breaks out in tears once again. “I-Ikaris,” she sobs. He softly pulls her in his lap and hugs her close. Sersi envelopes them both. Since Sprite’s head is buried in Ikaris’ chest they decide not to turn this into a puppy pile, because it’d be pretty counterproductive to suffocate her on her birthday. 

“Aw, look at you Ikaris, you’re such a softie!” Druig teases. 

“Yeah, what a cutie!” Thena coos.

Ikaris frees his hands to make a sarcastic heart aimed at them.

When Sprite calms down Thena doesn’t hesitate to plop her gift right into her lap. “Open it!”

Druig has a strong suspicion of what it could be.

“Oh my God!” Sprite shouts. She takes out two daggers and yep, he knew it. “Thena! What the hell, I love it!”

The other smirks and winks. “I’ll teach you how to use them.” Sprite’s eyes sparkle with excitement.

Kingo looks nervously between Sprite, Thena, Sersi and Ajak. His eyes finally land on the latter two. “You-you allowed this?”

Ajak sighs. “Yeah, they’re dulled and Thena was very convincing. No one’s better at using weapons than she is, though.”

Sersi’s smile is a bit awkward. “Yeah. I’m completely fine with this.” She doesn’t sound very convincing to Druig’s amusement.

Makkari waves to get their attention. “Thena, teach me to use a weapon too, please.” Thena smiles and promises her she will.

Sprite stops rolling the daggers in her hands to hug Thena, rocking her from side to side. “Thank you, thank you!”

Druig has a sneaking suspicion that whatever Ajak is planning will blow them all out of the water, so he quickly takes his gift and pushes it in front of Sprite. She’s pumped up from the previous gift and she tears the packaging off in seconds. 

Her eyes twinkle when she tries them out. Druig clears his throat and says, “So your room can feel as colorful as you are.” She gives him a blinding smile and hugs him tightly.

Makkari’s package gets the same treatment and when Sprite takes out the glasses she doesn’t hesitate to sign, “To block out the haters.” The other snorts and puts the glasses on. When she takes out the fairy tale book she flips over the pages, stopping on some of the illustrations in wonder. 

“This book used to bring me a lot of joy and I saw they’ve released a new version with these illustrations and I had to get it for you. I hope they’ll bring you joy too.” Sprite smiles at her softly and pulls her in for a warm hug

Then it’s Ajak’s turn. She simply hands her two tickets with a shit-eating grin. Sprite shrieks. 

“Tickets to Disney World!? What the fuck!” 

There are various shouts of disbelief.

“How did you afford that?” Kingo looks at her incredulously.

“I planned very far ahead,” she says smugly.

“Oh my God.” And with that Sprite launches herself at her. 

After they’re done with the gifts they play games, but mostly just talk. At one point the conversation kind of turns into smaller groups as it usually does, since their group is so big. 

Druig ends up watching Makkari as she talks to Ajak and Thena. Her face shines with happiness.

“Dude,” Ikaris suddenly speaks up next to him. Druig almost jumps out of his skin.

“Jesus!”

“When are you going to tell her?” he asks, ignoring him.

“Tell her what?” he tries. The other gives him a flat look in return.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Druig sighs. “I-I’m too scared.”

“Of what?” 

“Losing her.”

“Druig, whatever her answer will be, you won’t lose her. What you two have is special, it won’t break so easily.”

“I don’t think she feels the same way. Telling her would be useless,” he says, picking at his nails.

“How are you so sure about that? As far as I know you can’t read minds. Besides, if you think she doesn’t feel the same, are you really paying attention?”

Druig is left with his thoughts after that. His heart races at Ikaris’ implication. For the first time he lets himself hope.

—

He spends a lot of time thinking about Ikaris’ words. In the end, they’re at a party when it happens.

They meet up after weeks of not having seen each other, because of their exams. They decide to go to a party they see on a flyer to let out some of the tension that has built up in them from all the studying.

It’s a houseparty with free booze and they take advantage of that, of course. Makkari drags him to dance after a few shots. Thankfully, Drunk Druig dances far better than Sober Druig does, so he goes along willingly.

She is gorgeous when she dances. They laugh when they tumble and press close to each other when more people join to dance. Druig is sure his face is on fire.

“You look like a tomato, dear Druig,” she signs, then puts her hands around his neck. He’s going to die. His heart is beating so fast he’s sure he’s going to collapse at any moment now.

“It’s the heat,” he mouths. Makkari gives him a smirk that says, sure, I totally believe that. Why does she want to kill him? She’s so inconsiderate. 

He’s in love with her and he wants to kiss her so bad. God, he needs another drink. So he asks Makkari if she needs anything, she nods and comes along. They drink some more of whatever mix is in the bowl, wow, tomorrow’s Druig is going to hate him so much. Sucker.

That’s when things start to get fuzzy. They go back to dance. Druig is having fun, when someone knocks into him and his forehead presses against Makkari’s. They lock eyes and she’s so close, he feels her breath on his lips and he’s never wanted anything more in his life than to kiss her right in this moment. The urge is so strong he has to close his eyes. 

He suddenly thinks back to the agonizing weeks without her, how much he missed her, how much he loves her.

“My beautiful, beautiful Makkari. Did you miss me?” he murmurs. I hope you did, he thinks. 

Then he hears a loud intake of breath. That’s when he realizes Makkari could see his lips. He could play it off, but he’s too drunk and he panics. He tears his head away and hastily signs air, before he books it and runs outside, like any sane person would in his situation.

He finds the nearest bench hidden from the view of the people lingering outside. He holds his head in his hands when he sits down. 

“Fuck.” 

He’s ruined everything now. Fucking great. If his comment wasn’t telling enough, him running away was a dead give-away of his feelings. That’s it. He has to change his name now and move somewhere else. Maybe a small village in the woods. Perfect. He’ll fake his death, then-

Someone punches his shoulder. Anyone who says he screams is a liar. 

A frowning Makkari stands in front of him. “Why did you run away?”

He opens his mouth, then closes it. Then he repeats it. He blinks at her. She must get tired of waiting, because she punches him again. 

“I’m sorry!” he signs.

Makkari looks even more confused. “What are you talking about?”

“About what I said. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, please don’t hate me–”

Makkari slaps his hands, then grabs the front of his shirt and pulls him up for a kiss. Druig freezes. 

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck–

He kisses back after his brain manages to reboot. Her lips are so soft. Druig melts against her. Kind of literally, because Makkari has to brace herself to hold him up. 

He feels exhilarated. It’s everything he’s wanted and even more. He cups her cheeks and feels her pulse beneath his thumbs. He caresses her soft skin, then holds the back of her head, and tilts his head. 

Makkari pulls away for a second to breathe. This time it’s Druig that pulls her back in for a kiss. He pours all his feelings, all his desperation in it and Makkari responds in kind. She tangles one of her hands in his hair and puts the other on the back of his neck. She pulls him even closer. 

Druig’s never felt more alive. He simultaneously feels like he’s running a marathon and as if he’s floating on water. 

When he lets her go he puts his forehead against hers, like he did inside. They stare into each other’s eyes. Her expression is so soft. He’s sure he looks the same. 

He is elated. Everything feels surreal, he can’t comprehend anything and suddenly he’s giggling. Makkari follows suit. 

She locks her fingers in his. She pushes her nose against his, then pulls away a little. She’s beaming. 

She lifts one hand and signs, “I love you.”

He grasps at the first emotion he can identify amidst the amalgamation that rests upon his heart. Surprise. He's surprised because she's not one to hesitate, she's the opposite of him in that regard. 

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I tend to rush things, but I didn't want to rush this. I wanted to make sure you're ready. You're kind of like a cat when it comes to feelings. Skittish. I didn't want you to panic because I couldn't wait for you to come to terms with your feelings at your own pace. You know, like you just did now," she signs with a teasing smile. He gives her a wobbly smile. 

"I wanted to give you time. Because you're more than worth the wait, Druig. I'd wait for you for an eternity if I had to."

His hands shake as he lifts them up. “I love you. So much. My love for you is eternal. If we lived a thousand lives I’d find you a thousand times to love you in every single one of them.”

Makkari’s eyes shine with unshed tears. She puts her forehead back against his. And they stand there together, basking in each other’s presence.

—

group chat: weird names only

mercury has sent a photo

circe: ASKJBDJSBJH

circe: IS THAT YOU AND DRUIG KISSING

druid: no

icarus: fucking finally

icarus: dumbass

icarus: not you makkari you’re a delight

icarus: happy for you both

druid: aww

mercury: thank you <3

circe: crying tears of joy rn, so cute, so happy for you

druid: fgshksklsjk aww sis <3

athena: god, congrats for finally getting your shit together both of you

athena: really happy for you tho <3

my gold: !!!!!!!!!!!!

my gold: <3 <3 <3 <3

my gold: FINALLY

my gold: I HATED WATCHING THAT PINING

druid: okay why are all of you saying finally, stop it

mercury: stop rubbing it in our faces okay

fairy: never

fairy: i was the first one to call it btw

fairy: i’m a god

fairy: thank you for proving me right <3

fairy: y’all are so cute

ajax: gsuy

ajax: so happy fro yuo

druid: ARE YOU CRYING AJAK

mercury: SLSKHDKJSDLS

ajax: so whta if i am!!!!!

hephaestus: goddamn finally stopped with the bullshitting around!!!!!!

hephaestus: love that for y’all

hephaestus: <3

gigglymesh: SO HAPPY FOR YOU

gigglymesh: ADORABLE

mercury: thank you guys so much i love you all <3

druid: same <3

gigglymesh: wait why is my name gigglymesh

gigglymesh: i mean it’s super cute but what

icarus: OHMYGOD

icarus: SERSI SAID THAT THE OTHER DAY

icarus: SHES THE ONE WHOS BEEN CHANGING THE NAMKSDBHJSBDKS

fairy: damn sersi killed him

fairy: rip ikarus