moonlegacy:
i wasn’t intending to; if artemis fawley could kick herself, now would have been the moment to do it. she’d adopted this forward attitude at some point during the end of her schooling, she’d decided that she was tired of hiding. even after everything that had happened, it seemed that that attitude had not be destroyed but dormant. he’d coaxed something in her, that want she’d had all those years ago. her gaze is drawn back to his as he asks, that flush burning down her neck and the beginnings of that smirk just returning, softened on her face. perhaps, she wasn’t wrong after all. her heart seemed to pause for a moment as she searches his eyes for malice, for a gotcha moment; she can’t find either. “ yes, ” she breaths out quietly, a minute nod of her head. “ i would ‘ave said yes if tha’s what ye’d meant, i thought tha’ was implied. ”
he lets out a small laugh, genuine although slightly nervous. ‘ i told you i don’t know what i’m doing. i wanted to make sure. ’ she could have been teasing, the suggestion had been forward enough. taliesin wasn’t going to ask her to tell him what he should do, but he needed to make sure he understood where she was. especially if he still wasn’t sure about that on his own front. ‘ but alright. ’ he returns her nod, and squeezes her hand lightly. ‘ i’m not sure … that my cousin’s potions laboratory is where i would, but now i know to offer. ’ there’s a slight pause before he adds another thought that almost surprises himself, ‘ i still owe you a book translation. ’ it’s a reminder, but also a new offer if she’d like to take it. maybe not here, but he’d ask her in a place he was more comfortable.
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moonlegacy:
“ maybe, ” artemis repeats quietly as though in agreement. it was a far fetched dream of a young girl, being able to bring friends back home to meet her family — friends that would accept who she was rather than look at her with fear. taliesin didn’t fear her, as far as she could see. she wondered sometimes, if that was the reason he did not share much of himself with her. then here was another dream entirely of bringing someone she loved back with her, beginning to crop up in her teenage years, that felt utterly impossible. maybe not so much anymore, not with the way tal was looking at her right now.
“ are y’offerin’? ” the words are out of her mouth before she can think about them; simultaneously, her gaze flicking from his to his lap and back, a quirk of her eyebrow, and the slightest pull of a smirk. she wouldn’t mind sitting in his lap, wouldn’t mind being closer to him. then her mind catches up with her tongue and she winces, “ sorry. ” turning her head from his gaze slightly. “ that was —, ” her cheeks heating, nose still crinkled. “ likely no’ appropriate a’all. i — ah, i’m okay t’stand. ”
it took him a second to catch her implication. partially because it had not, in fact, been what he was suggesting, but also because there was something about the small smirk that appeared on her features that was more distracting than it should have been. taliesin’s eyes lingered on her mouth for perhaps a moment too long, before meeting her eyes and blinking, trying to figure out why she said the words like that. ‘ oh, ’ he says, flushing slightly but there’s a part of him that’s spurred on by that look that he’d found for a moment on her face. ‘ i wasn’t intending to, ’ he says carefully, tilting his head to the left but keeping his focus on her. ‘ would you have said yes ? if that’s what i had meant. ’ maybe he didn’t know what he was supposed to do, but learning was an option. he was good at that, and the smirk had certainly quieted a lot of things… or perhaps it had just made the opposition louder. but then he thinks about her retraction and he wonders if he should have said anything. ‘ if you don’t want to answer that i understand. ’
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moonlegacy:
there’s a moment when her brow creases as he apologizes and she has to run through what she’d said. it takes her a moment before her eyes widen and she shakes her head, “ no, don’t. i just — she’s still alive. it’s jus’ i dunnae ken if our relationship would be t’same if i went home now, i was talkin’ about what it was like when i was a lass. ” she explains, her thumb continuing those soft, mindless patterns on his cheek. she nods quietly as he shakes his head, deferring her own apology. it seemed they felt like they had a lot to apologize for outside of themselves which caused her an ache. “ i think y’would like them. ” she offers quietly. “ they’re — they’re good. ” there’s so much stress on the one word, so much she tries to say with one syllable. “ maybe y’can meet them one day. ” it’s a hope as much as a hopeless venture. she hadn’t been home since she went away to school and there was more than one reason for it.
‘ oh, ’ he says, nodding only so much as he can without unsettling the hand currently resting against his face. ‘ i understand. ’ his parents had never been quite so affectionate as artemis painted her mother, but he understood that sometimes things changed and you could not go back. the words perhaps carried more weight than he should have let them, not just the offhanded remark of understanding that comes easily in conversation, but a truthful admission that he had some experience of his own that made him believe he knew what that might have been like. he’s still when she assures him that he’d like them, as an itching doubt creeps in regarding whether they would like him. he shoves it back down, focusing instead on her words and her expressions. he’s sure her assessment of them is truthful, but it also seems a bit overwhelming. ‘ maybe, ’ he says, but not in a discouraging way, rather a slight apprehension at the idea of something so different from what he was used to. he pauses, and looks up at her with like a bit of concern on his features, ‘ do you want to sit down ? ’ she was the one who had the ordeal the previous night, while he had slept ( or at least attempted to ) in a comfortable bed, safely guarded by the wards of his cousin. it felt strange that he should be the one resting, sitting while she stood over him, even if it had been necessary in the moment.
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moonlegacy:
relief burns through her as he says no, tightens his grip on her hand. her lips quirk upwards, offsetting the blush that reddened her face. she could live in this little bubble, content to stay as they were so long as he was gentle with himself and her. “ m’immediate family is only me and m’ma, she’s t’only one i have. she and i were close, affectionate, ” she’s taking the time to explain quietly to him. the past tense of the words in the second phrase a noticeable switch. “ but, aye, t’village is also like tha’. one big family. they helped t’raise me as m’ma did with their kiddos. i grew up knowin’ tha’ no matter who i went t’they would always take care o’ me and i was the same way, still am i suppose. ” there’s something shy about talking about her family so openly. “ tha’s why it was easy t’have dinner together every night, everyone knew where t’kiddos were and it was easy t’round everyone up at t’end of the day. ” her eyes had glazed a little bit as she recounted the memories before she blinks, refocusing on him. “ sorry, you asked about family an’ i gave y’more than tha’. ”
taliesin catches the change in tense in artemis’s discussion of her mother. ‘ i’m sorry, ’ he says, not certain exactly what circumstances he was offering his condolences for but feeling like he should anyway. the only death he had been close to was his grandfather’s, and he and rhys lestrange had hardly been a close pair. he nods, taking in the words she was saying and trying to imagine what it was like. he had never found the lestrange estate lonely when he was a child, even when he was the only person inside it besides his parents and tinpy, so the idea of that many people sounded almost overwhelming. he tries to focus on why she liked it: people to care for you, familiarity… those were wants he could understand. the lestranges had their family first mentality, but that felt more cutthroat than what she was describing. it wasn’t care for any individual member, but for some greater thing outside them all. he shakes his head when she apologizes, ‘ it helps. ’ he thinks about it for a moment and confirms his own sentiment again, ‘ i don’t really have anything like that so … the more you give me, the more i understand. my family’s very different from what you had. ’
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moonlegacy:
the way he says the word don’t should solidify in her mind that he doesn’t want her to apologize for what she’d done. the feeling of his thumb running over her knuckles is addicting, he hadn’t done that before. she was always the one to reach out, she was always the one to initiate. as if in tandem, her thumb starts a slow trail over his cheek, relishing in the feeling of his warm skin under her palm. truthfully, she didn’t have an answer for him. she couldn’t tell him what to do. what she didn’t know was that she’d grown up so completely opposite of him, in a world that was unafraid of and content to give affection freely. “ y’ll learn, ” she offers quietly. “ y’ll start t’jus’ do things because y’want too. like this, ” her fingers squeeze gently around his and refer to the way he’d kissed her knuckles. “ i jus’ like showin’ physical affection more than anythin’ else, but that doesn’ mean y’have t’as well. ” a pause. “ do y’want me t’stop? ” she’s fairly certain of the answer, but she feels like she has to ask. she needs that confirmation more than she’d previously thought. she doesn’t encroach any further on his space than she already is, but the question is an offer in reverse. do you want me to continue?
he didn’t need her to tell him what he should do, he just wanted her to understand the uncertainty, the reason he stiffened at things like that. the lestranges were hardly physically affectionate people, and so the tenderness with which she interacts with him is unfamiliar territory. if she understood that, and wasn’t expecting him to suddenly be where she was. that seemed like enough for the time being. ‘ no, ’ he replies to her question, tightening his grip on her hand just slightly. he didn’t want her to move away from him at this point, now that he had found comfort in her return. the battle inside him was quieter for a moment as he spoke the word, one side holding off the other to allow him this moment. ‘ was your whole family, … or village, like that ? ’ he asks gently. it seems like the logical reason that she’d know how to navigate that space better than he did, another aspect of their lives that was quite different giving them different places of understanding. ‘ do you think of them as your family ? ’ it’s an unrelated question, but it has been sparked in his mind as he was still unsure which term to use.
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moonlegacy:
that concern doesn’t leave her, but her gaze does soften as he reaches for her hand and wraps it in his own. since the night at the seance, his fingers squeezing around hers had become something more than what it appeared to be. reassurance lingered in that touch and something else that she dare not name, “ okay. ” she’d known she hadn’t done anything out of step and yet hearing confirmation of that lightens her chest. she nods, remaining quiet, when he says that he doesn’t want to talk about whatever had sent him into that spiral and again she says, “ okay. ” she lets him have the space he requires, a quiet sound escaping the back of her throat as he tugs her forward. for once, he’s done something unexpected. the gentle kiss placed against her knuckles causes a flash of heat through her, a catching of her breath. the way his eyes never leave hers — oh, is she in trouble. she takes another step forward, her legs bumping against his knees. she can feel his breath across her hand and her heart jumps. “ yer welcome, ” although the phrase comes out breathless. “ but y’don’t ‘ave t’thank me fer t’truth. ” with her free hand, she reaches up to cup his cheek but it holds the same tentativeness as his motion did. “ i — ‘m sorry if i startled y’earlier with t’cheek kiss i just — ” there’s almost a sheepish expression on her face, that blush lingering, as her shoulders rise and fall.
eyebrows flick upward slightly at the noise, pausing slightly before he continues. he didn’t want to do the wrong thing, but it sounded like encouragement rather than something that should make him turn away. after he runs his thumb over her knuckles, where his lips had been a moment before, and he can feel their legs pressed together. the adrenaline from the moment before has not subsided, and the entire interaction feels charged with some kind of energy he cannot quite explain. he gives a small shake of his head when she tells him he doesn't have to thank her ; he does, even if she doesn’t understand why. it almost makes him want to say it again, to get the message across fully, but he is distracted by the hand that settles itself on his cheek. ‘ don’t, ’ he replies. ‘ i’m —— ’ a pause where he tries to find how to explain his reaction, having not analyzed the moment when it had occurred, ‘ i don’t know what i’m supposed to do when you do things like that. i’m not … used to it. ’ that was most of it anyway. an internal conflict still lingered in his chest about who they both were, but it didn’t feel like now was the time to bring that to the surface.
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moonlegacy:
fingers curl in on themselves after he had stepped away from her, very aware of the space he had once been standing. adrenaline shot through her system as he stumbles backwards, practically collapsing into a chair. the concern that shot through her was undeniable, but she’d kept going. something about what he had said had caused that reaction, she’d not even spoken yet. the gut twisting part was she didn’t know why and she wanted to. there’s a fraction of a moment where she turns around, her attention going to the brew as she speaks before her focus is back on him entirely. i won’t talk about certain things, he had said. this felt like one of those things, but merlin did her helplessness threaten to drown her. she approaches his chair. it’s one of the rare instances where she gets to look down at him rather than up. there’s something wrong, but she can never peg what it is.
she’s greeted with his typical response to fill the silence. there’s a moment where she just stands there, watches him before there’s a tentative reach for him, a brush of the back of her hand across his cheek before her hand falls to her side again. “ are y’okay? ” and there it was, that concern that never left. it almost felt like he’d never heard the words you’re enough, the way he looked at her now nearly confirmed it. she swallows, wanting to reach for him again, but — this felt delicate and something she would shatter if she pushed to far. fingers twitch at her side as she forces them to stay. “ i ken tha’ y’won’t talk about certain things, but, ” she’s shaking her head before she finishes, “ ’m not goin’ t’judge ye an’ i’m here if y’ever do wan’ t’talk. ”
there’s a similar impulse to the night in his apartment, but the movement is not quite so sudden as it had been that night. carefully, he reaches out to the hand that she’s returned to her side and wraps it in his own. ‘ i’m okay, ’ he reassures her, light squeeze of their entwined hands. ‘ you didn’t do anything wrong, ’ he adds. in fact, it was the opposite ; she had been kinder to him then he had grown to expect after showing that specific weakness. ‘ i just … remembered something. ’ and scared himself in doing so. ‘ i don’t want to talk about it though. ’ he swallows. there was no way he could. he looks up at her, an interesting change of pace for him, gratitude still in his eyes. he pulls her a little bit closer by her hand, bringing it to his lips to place a cautious kiss to her knuckles, never taking his eyes from hers ---- he didn’t voice it, but the motion had the same wariness to it that his earlier may i had, not wanting to overstep. ‘ thank you, ’ he whispers once he’s pulled away slightly, ‘ for what you said. ’
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moonlegacy:
it feels like she’s accidentally picked at something scarred over. she knows the bearing of teeth, the pushing away. it had been a passing thought once before that taliesin lestrange was akin to a wounded animal, harsh in order to protect himself rather than let anyone get close. she swallows, expects his voice to get harsher as she goes on — but he surprises her, the voice he uses gets softer this time. she trails closer, content to think that he will not snap. that somehow, in her confusion, she has done what she’d set out to do and bring him back from wherever he was going. the sheepish nature of his words softens her gaze. her hands were still against him, though the touch had lightened over the course of the conversation. “ taliesin, ” it’s all she can say for the moment, fingers moving to brush over his cheek, the undeniable skip in her heart. his name on her tongue is soft, not pitying, but finally understanding.
i wish it had been you. “ i don’ think tha, ” she murmurs, trying to catch his gaze. “ i don’ think tha’ at all. do y’want t’know wha’ i do think? ” a quiet moment, her thumb moving over his cheek before settling, “ i think that thax is insane for coming out at all; merlin, bless ‘im, but i wouldn’ willingly ask anyone t’put themselves in danger fer me. ” it’s not worth it. “ i think that i’m — ” what word even describes how she felt to see him safe? none of them seemed strong enough, but she could settle. “ i’m relieved tha’ your safe in all of this, that’s important t’me right now. i think tha’ — or maybe i hope tha’ if i needed, y’would come, but i was okay. i promise. you’re good enough. ”
he looks up for a second, the combination of the touch and his full name doing so, but after that admission he’s not ready to meet her gaze. his heart is beating faster but in a different way than before, and his mouth feels dry. admitting to the concern of not being enough, though with more specific words used, had been devastating before. taliesin almost cannot believe he’s done it again. ‘ ffyc, ’ he whispers to himself, stepping back and moving, thanks to memory of the space, quickly to one of the chairs at the table in the middle of the room. ‘ i’m sorry. ’ his head feels somewhat dizzy. however, then she begins to speak, and it’s soft and gentle and not any of the things he had learned to expect. taliesin looks up and meets her gaze and listens.
‘ alright, ’ he says, and he knows it’s not enough but he’s worried if he says anything else something inside him will break just enough to let too much out. he nods, biting down on his lower lip, another anxious habit. ‘ alright. ’ he takes another breath, trying to settle himself just a bit more. ‘ i’m glad you’re safe, ’ another phrase he’d already said tonight, but at this moment he was just pushing out whatever he could. inhale. exhale. he looks back up to see if she’s changed her mind, just in case, but he comes to the conclusion that she means what she’s saying, and he wishes he could express how grateful he was. he hopes the way he’s looking at her does what words would likely fail at.
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moonlegacy:
there’s no other way to describe the crease of her brows and the tilt of her head than confusion, the defensive nature of his tone towards her. she searches his eyes for a fleeting moment, trying to understand what she’d missed or stumbled upon. this felt like the opposite of him switching off and she couldn’t tell if it felt any better. it still hurt, that much she knew. she swallows as she tries to find the best way to respond, to talk him off the ledge as it were. “ i wasn’t still a wolf when he found me, ” she offers slowly, as though the explanation would help at all. “ i wouldn’t have wanted him to find me in that form; i wouldn’t have hurt him, i have my wits about me, but — ” her eyes seem to focus behind him for a moment, “ i’m still not me. ” the last sentence is quieter than the first.
“ was i wrong t’say i might leave with everythin’ happenin’ or ask y’t’hold my bag? ” there’s a moment that she searches for the answer before she offers, “ you — you could have said no about t’bag. i would have understood. ” but there is something deeper in just that phrase; she would have understood that he didn’t want to deal with what she was, that there were some things that were too much to handle. “ you told me tha’ the city was locked down an’ tha’ i probably wouldn’t get back in, should i not ‘ave taken that advice? ” there’s so much confusion written across her features and she doesn’t know how to untangle it. “ i told y’tha’ i’d be okay and i am. ”
the fact that she says wolf feels like he’s lost the foothold he thought he had. taliesin believed he had gotten a positive response when he had avoided use of the word, but now he was confused in addition to the bubbling frustration inside of him, a hint of sadness as well. ‘ you didn’t ask him to, so he could have, found you while you were … ’ he trails off again, still forcing her experiences into the framework of his own until it made sense to him. it’s not wood he’s worried about if he were to spend a moment on the topic, but instead he’s reacting quickly, trying to pull out the reassurance he needs ; that it was okay that he hadn’t come. however, he couldn’t ask for it directly or reveal the aspects of himself that made him believe it would have been impossible.
taliesin can feel that his hands are reacting to the emotions he’s having and, somewhat hastily, he stuffs them into the pockets of his slacks. ‘ no, ’ he says, somewhat harshly to her first question. the second ‘ no, ’ comes to her statement that he could have refused the bag and is somewhat softer. the final ‘ no, ’ is whispered, him looking down, somewhat sheepish. ‘ i just … ’ he takes a moment, trying to find himself, ‘ i just don’t want you to think i’m … not good enough to do those things. ’ he swallows. it’s not exactly right, but it’s close enough for the moment.
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moonlegacy:
artemis fawley has never felt her stomach sink faster than the moment taliesin lestrange looked away from her after she’d kissed his cheek. his cheeks flush, she can see that much, but he says nothing and she’s nearly certain that she overstepped somewhere. that the extent of whatever this was ended at this odd understanding of one another, the worry they felt for one another and that was it. the quick response from him does nothing to stop the spiral of her thoughts before she claws into them and shoves them down. now was not the time.
“ mmhmm, ” she hums quietly as he repeats what she said. she wonders what he knows, what his opinions are of thaxter. not that it would make a difference in her friendship with the quidditch player, she would always stick by his side as he had done for her recently. there’s a crack of amusement glinting in her eyes, that spiral of emotions threatening to explode. “ he’s not just some quidditch player, he’s my best friend, ” she explains. “ we were in the same house at school, he’s two years younger. he said he came lookin’ fer me when he couldn’ find me two nights ago, i — ” there, for just a fraction of a moment, taliesin, did you catch it? sadness lingers in her eyes before it’s snapped back behind the barrier, “ i didn’ ask him t’come lookin’, he was jus’ worried with all this goin’ on. brought a first aid kit and got me bandaged up before he dropped me here, said somethin’ about goin’ t’get his broom, but — ” she shrugs, an indicator of what they already knew. he wasn’t here. “ he’s safe somewhere else. ”
he listens to her talk about her friend, and hazards a glance back up to her eyes. it’s at just the right moment it seems, to catch the creep of sadness in her features before she puts up a wall he recognizes –––– not because she’s done it before, but because he knows how to do it well. his stomach twists, both at what he’s caught before she closed him out and the fact that he knows that’s what she’s doing. taliesin has no right to blame anyone else for that, however, and he knows it, so he stays quiet, just listening. inside his own head he starts to recognize resentment in the discontent, for this person who was able to help her in a way she needed when he was stuck cowering inside his cousins wards, helpless by all known measures.
‘ you didn’t make it seem like you wanted to be found, ’ he points out, somewhat defensively. she had been talking about leaving the city, he didn’t even know she could have been found. plus she, with whatever claws and fangs her other form gave her, at least had some defense. wood had his wand. taliesin had nothing, but he knew he could not tell her that. he couldn’t admit to being what he was to explain. he wanted to step back, go back to the moment where she had her hands against his chest even if he didn’t know what the right step to take was. apparently, it wasn’t clarifying who thaxter wood was. ‘ you told me you were probably leaving the city and to hold onto your bag. ’
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moonlegacy:
bah-bum bah-bum bah-bum. artemis can feel the steady, albeit quick, pulse of his heart under her palm. her cheeks flush slightly at the thought that perhaps she was the cause. the thumb of her right hand moves in slow strokes over his shirt where his heart should be, almost idly. she makes an sound of understanding as he gives her a timeline for the past two days. “ right, ” she says quietly, but the word is almost distracted as she looks over him. she’s looking at him, knowing how close they are, and her own pulse quickens. “ aye, found t’bag. thank y’fer keepin’ it safe. ” there’s an impulse that she had fought once before sitting in the bank that had started as an idle thought as she’d sat on his couch on his birthday. she leans up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek before settling back down to her original position, hands still placed on his chest.
artemis has fallen into the trap of people simply knowing thax by the reputation that proceeded him with the mention of his nickname. “ thaxter wood — the quidditch player, he’s on the magpies. ” she offers as a means to jog his memory. “ i don’t think lazarus likes him very much. ” the words are conspiratorial in nature before she shrugs. at the mention of her needing sleep, she looks over his features, her left hand sliding up to rest between his shoulder and the bottom of his neck, “ have you slept? ”
‘ good, ’ he says, even if the answer had likely been obvious. she looked put together, recovered from the last time he saw her, but he wanted to be sure. the answer came out quick and sure, a steady answer from him, but that would all come crashing down in the moment she kisses his cheek. his skin flushes hot, and his eyes suddenly feel the need to avert for hers. the floor, or perhaps the table in the center of the room, would be a good place to look instead. if he wasn’t sure how to react to her lingering close to him, he certainly did not have the experience needed to successfully navigate cheek kisses. ‘ you’re welcome, ’ he says, also a quick response but with less of the confidence.
the topic of thaxter wood seems like as good of a distraction ( not from her, exactly, but from his own uncertainties ) as any. ‘ the quidditch player … ’ he repeats, and then a series of articles from the summer comes back to his memory. if he remembered correctly, wood was a showoff, a bit of an arrogant fellow, and the mention that lazarus was not much of a fan made sense. her arrival with him, still did not. he refrains from speaking his thoughts of wood as a player aloud, though the look on his face likely doesn’t hide much. yet, there was something else there too, a bit of discontent he wouldn’t admit to and perhaps did not realize. ‘ some quidditch player picked you up and brought you back ? ’ he barely pauses before continuing, ‘ as much as i could. it’s a little hard to right now. ’
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moonlegacy:
this was different to the hug that she had given him on his birthday for many reasons, but the one that stuck out and captivated her attention was his arms wrapping around her. there’s a certain comfort to being hugged that was not given to her often. goosebumps rise along the flesh of her arms and down her spine as he whispers back to her, she hadn’t been expecting it. she had been expecting a grunt or some other form of offsetting the question. in truth, she hadn’t gotten an answer but something else in return. that soft smile she wears is pressed into his shoulder at his words. her heart is warm with the notion that he had been worried about her, a nervous but positive energy flitting through her stomach.
a quiet noise of protest as he shifts away from her, his arms dropping from their hold. she’s slower to let go, instead her arms unlock from around his neck but slide down his chest and pause there. the warmth of him beside her feels nice, that hug had felt nice too, and she’s loath to let it go so quickly. “ i’m okay, ” she replies, voice never lifting above something soft spoken. “ better than last night or, ” her brow creases slightly, “ yesterday? ” she looks to him for answer, unsure of just how long she had been asleep, but knows it had been enough. “ thax found me an’ bandaged me up, dropped me off here, lazarus gave me a cocktail of potions, it wasn’t long after that i was asleep. ” she explains carefully, “ ‘m sorry i didn’ come t’find y’then. ”
her hands linger on his chest, and he glances down at them for a moment. he’s unused to this type of affection and what, if anything, he should be doing in response. taliesin does not move away however, but stands there still, almost unnaturally so save for the quick beating of his heart. he nods, accepting her positive answer, and then supplying ‘ i saw you two days ago, but you got here yesterday. ’ it must have taken quite a lot out of her to make her uncertain of which day it was. ‘ i assume you found your bag ? ’ with no way to help her, and no magic to help aid lazarus keep the wards up, the bag was the one thing within his control over the past 48 hours and it seemed important to make sure it had found its way back to her.
he frowns slightly at the mention of an unfamiliar name, knowing that no one else had entered the reliquary save for her. ‘ … thax who ? ’ he asks, wondering if this should be something he already knows. he’s also just curious at who looks at a securely warded establishment during an event like this and decides they’re only dropping someone off, or if it had been lazarus’s choice to keep whoever it was outside. ‘ you needed your sleep, ’ he adds, shaking off her apology.
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snappedwands:
❛ your apartment is incredibly safe, it’s got a similar version of the avery family wards on it. i set them up when you had just moved in. ❜ he said it like he had dropped off a vinyl record that taliesin had asked for, not like he had ensured the safety and security of taliesin lestrange for the length of his time in the apartment. ❛ i’m surprised you couldn’t feel them. ❜ it’s off handed but if lazarus were in a better state of mind, he might have revisited it with more thought. but his mind is hazed and the clarity needed to connect the dots too far gone for some time to come. ❛ it’s good you made your way to gringotts, though, because you found elisabeth. ❜ she was, after all, an incredibly talented witch and an excellent set of hands to be on board the protect the reliquary at nearly any cost plan.
❛ thank you. ❜ nearly a quarter of a century. there was so much in those years to unpack that no one had the time for but a few things were more than certain: taliesin lestrange would always have lazarus avery’s unfailing loyalty and tal’s steadfastness even in the face of the end of the world was something that laz needed desperately. after a moment in thought, he waved his wand in a complex pattern, putting the pot into a stasis as he felt calmer, ready to look at taliesin for the rest of their conversation. ❛ for the reassurance, that is. ❜ i just want to make sure everyone comes out of this alive. he didn’t say it out loud. he didn’t feel like he had to.
taliesin furrowed his brow. he was … several things. part of him was touched by the gestures on lazarus’s part. even if he didn’t know what it meant, the fact that he had gone out of his way to protect him made taliesin thankful that lazarus was his cousin. he couldn’t admit to himself that he was thankful for one direct relative who wanted to look out for his well - being simply for the sake of it, for that would require too much awareness of things he’s pushed down about his father and uncle. however, part of him was confused, surprised to hear that for three years wards had been placed on his apartment and he never knew. ‘ you … you didn’t tell me you did that, ’ taliesin notes, tilting his head slightly. eyebrows move upward at the next comment, trying to come up with a good reason. ‘ the job kind of throws my awareness of those things off a bit. you’re working around wards long enough, you start to tune them out unless you’re trying to identify them specifically. ’
he nods, agreeing. it was good elisabeth was here. taliesin was glad to have both of them under one roof and, given the circumstances, the reliquary had likely just become the safest place within the city until the ministry came out with something more solid. ‘ you’re welcome, ’ taliesin replied, though he didn’t truly believe lazarus needed to thank him for such things. tillie returned shortly after with the tray of tea, placed on the table in the center of the room. taliesin started to move towards the table but then paused, looking back to lazarus and poses a question. ‘ do you have any hawthron berries, dired ? ’ lazarus had seen him do this before, a way to manage the tremor that, while taliesin was projected a secure exterior, was certainly a bit worse than it usually was thanks to the adrenaline in his system from the world around them.
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moonlegacy:
there’s something about the way he stands there, watching her, that forces her heart into a skip. she almost says you too in reply to his words. in that split second, she realizes that perhaps that wasn’t what she should say considering that he presumably slept like a normal person and she — well, her sleep schedule was odd on a good day. it’s as he steps closer into the room that her brow creases for a flicker of a moment until she realizes what he means with the motion. the shyness in his tone, the gesture, he was learning and merlin, he was sweet.
that smile reserved for him never falters, but her gaze does soften. she lays the wooden spoon across the cauldron, content to let the potion brew before she crosses the room to him. artemis looks up to him, dragging her hands up his arms and in a natural motion, she lifts up onto her toes, her arms wrapping around his neck to pull him down towards her. her forehead nuzzles into the space between his neck and his shoulder. the muscles in her back lose tension as she relaxes into the hug. “ missed me? ” she whispers, almost teasingly in his ear.
seeing the look on her face, he begins to lower his arms and place them back at his sides. he could accept the rejection if that was ... but then she smiling and moving towards him with an intensity that surprised him. he had been expecting something a bit more reserved, likely something quick, but what she gave him instead felt complete. his hands hover slightly above her back for a moment before coming down to rest. she settles against him and the relief from earlier begins to rise again, even if just slightly —— the after tremor of what he had felt upon seeing the bag was back with its owner, that she had returned. he considers the things he has accepted about artemis fawley over the past two months, and adds another : she was pretty, she was kind, he wanted her to be safe. it feels strange, and he wonders how exactly that fits in to his life, the way he sees the world... he adds another item to his list of things to address at a later date as well.
' i’m glad you’re safe, ’ he answers, matching her whisper in his answer, but it fails to carry the same teasing tone. he swallows and lingers for a moment, enjoying this moment. however, it feels improper to stay in that position too long, so after a moment he untangles his arms from around her and takes a slight step back. he doesn’t, however, move as far away as he should, standing a bit closer to her then necessary as he looks her over, trying to see if anything had happened ( either through marks on her person or signs in her features ). ‘ how are you feeling ? ’
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while he had let the bag go, handed off to tillie at lazarus’s instruction, taliesin had found himself glancing into the room where it sat a good number of times over the first twenty four hours. he wasn’t going out of his way to do so, but if he passed the room, he’d glance inside as if to confirm it was still there. he felt strangely responsible for the object, and given it was the one thing that was currently under his control, he was not going to mess that up. the last time he had checked, someone had closed the door. opening it slightly to find her asleep made something within him feel a little lighter, the relief he expected to feel when she left only arriving at her return. he closed the door gently, and walked away.
she had slept for more than half a day, which seemed correct given how tired she had appeared at the bank. however, after seeing the door ajar and the room empty, taliesin seaks her out and thus finds himself in the doorway to the potions lab. he had been taking a moment to figure out what to say, when she began speaking to him, having sensed him standing there. however, he quickly realizes the words aren’t for him — details of which potions were dwindling. taliesin waits though, not wanting to interrupt, but she realizes on her own. ‘ good to see you awake, ’ he replies to her greeting, taking a step closer. he raises his arms up somewhat, though still bent at the elbow, the palms of his hands mostly facing inward but turned up just slightly — the shy charade of an embrace. ‘ may i ? ’
timestamp: ——, 27th of october 1950 . · location: diagon alley, the verdant reliquary. ( warded, private space ) · tagging: @taliesinlestrange!
the cocktail of potions that lazarus had given her last night had done wonders for her. muscles that throbbed after the full moon had settled into a dull ache. the dark circles that had been resident under her eyes had disappeared thanks in part to the draught she’d taken and in part to sleeping for more than half a day. between the sleep and the urgency of what was happening in the world outside, she had more energy than she thought she would. when she’d risen, disoriented and starving, she’d first sought out one of the elves asking if she might have a plate of anything brought to her. while she was waiting, she made quick work of cleaning up. fresh clothes, a sink scrub down, her hair brushed and twisted into milkmaid braids atop her head. it was better to keep it out of her face anyhow.
with food in her stomach and feeling better than she had in days, she gets the same elf to lead her down to the potions lab. it takes a few minutes to get acquainted with the space, finding all the herbs that she could want for. rolling up her sleeves, she begins to gather what she’d need for a potion she hadn’t seen last night — or at least, one that she didn’t remember seeing. there is something meticulous about the way she moves, the smell of herbs wafting around her and lingering on her fingers. it’s only when she hears the door open behind her does she break concentration slightly to speak, “ i’ve been brewin’ some blood-replishin’ potions because i didn’ see — ” the sentence stops midway from her mouth when she sees just who is standing in the room with her. not lazarus coming to check on her as she’d originally thought, but another member of the same family. her heart jumps into her throat and her lips quirk upwards in a soft smile that seems to be just reserved for him these days, “ hey. ”
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snappedwands:
❛ we are. ❜ lazarus agreed with a firm nod of his head, as though for just a moment he was debating if he’d made the right decision until taliesin had confirmed it for him. there was a mild trepidation there, a slowly dissipating anxiety that still kept his stomach in a knot. of course, lazarus was sure that particular thing would not go away until this was all behind them. he knew that if his parents wanted to, they could have come and dragged him from the building themselves, but they wouldn’t. for so many reasons they wouldn’t but most of all he could hear his mother gently reassuring his father that their only son would come home to them. it made his heart pang with guilt but he squared his soldiers and focused himself again. he would see them again, once everyone he cared about was safe.
❛ did you eat ? hungry ? ❜ lazarus asked suddenly, his hand stilling as he stirred, just a momentary stutter before he picked up again, lips mouthing as he counted after interrupting himself. somewhere in his question there was an are you there but it certainly did not make its way out of his mouth. it took him a moment before he supplied, ❛ if you are, there are a pair of elves in my apartment working on dinner for us all, i figured we could rearrange the store a little bit and make a dinner table for us all in the center of the shop ? they should be done in –– ❜ he looked down at his wrist, as though checking for a watch that wasn’t there and he mumbled to himself before stopping again and turning more fully to stare at taliesin. ❛ you slept there ? dear salazar, why ? ❜
taliesin could see the tension in lazarus, but perhaps that was simply due to the fact that he had been at the other’s side for nearly a quarter of a century ; it was time that gave him the insight to recognize the small things –––– the nod that was more for himself than for taliesin, the firmly back shoulders. ‘ things will be alright, ’ he says, using the confidence he had in lying to make the words sound certain, without question. they, their families, the shop, london… whatever lazarus needed the words to be about they could be. taliesin might not be able to put up the wards himself ( though he might have smiled to know that the blood wards accepted him as a source, without magic, simply for being the son of dorthea avery ), but he would be there to last through whatever came with lazarus.
‘ we did, but i’m sure when dinner’s ready we’ll all be thankful, ’ taliesin manages to get out before lazarus turns back to stare at him. he frowns, not expecting the reaction he was getting. under other circumstances, yes, but given the ghosts that had descended on the world, a night spent behind assuredly safe walls felt like the responsible choice. not to mention that getting anywhere was a bit more of a task for him, feeling helpless given his lack of magic… but lazarus didn’t know that so perhaps the reaction is a bit more understandable. taliesin is going through this thought process in his mind, so it takes a moment before he replies to the question. ‘ it was the safest option. i expected we would get in contact with each other, but until then… well, i was already there and maybe i’m a bit overly cautious but i preferred those walls to the ones of my apartment. ’
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moonlegacy:
even if she does not understand the words, there is something about the tone, the teasing in it, that causes her to roll her eyes playfully as if to say show off. “ how big is your family? ” she finds herself wondering aloud, astonished truthfully. it was a rhetorical question more than anything. her immediate family was not large, her extended family is what made her feel part of something larger than herself. not knowing her father had dwindled knowing half of her family. “ could i borrow the book? would you mind? ” she asks quietly, a shy smile on the verge of hopeful quirking up her lips.
“ bara brith, ” she tests the word in her mouth, attempting to pronounce it as he had. “ i’ve never tried it, i’ve actually never heard of it. ” she responds truthfully. “ is it … welsh? ” there’s a pause in her memory as she tries to recount his family heritage, or at the very least the languages he said that he spoke. “ i dunnae ken much about wales, truth be told. ” there’s a moment as he looks to their hands that she thinks, but pushes down the thought, that it might be easy to lean forward to kiss his cheek. she doesn’t, fights the urge, and then attempts to push it down. that was something for later. “ we can figure it out together? ”
‘ big, ’ he answers, as he thinks it is the correct answer, even if his own little part of it didn’t feel that large. ‘ it’s three families really, ’ he explains. ‘ i’m a radolphus lestrange, we’re from wales. then there are the cyrille lestranges, from france, and the corvus lestranges, from belgium. we’re all cousins even though we haven’t really been related in generations. at least, we haven’t. the corvuses and the cyrilles are a bit closer. ’ he wouldn’t delve into the family politics, but instead just gave the general overview. he looks over at her question and frowns slightly. ‘ i mean… i would but it’s in french, which i don’t think .... i could translate it for you ? ’ he realizes perhaps that’s a stupid offer now that the book was published in english. ‘ or, you can buy a translation, ’ he adds, as if he realizes that is the more obvious answer, what she’d likely prefer over him explaining a children’s book to her.
he nods, confirming her suspicion. ‘ it’s like a loaf, with currents and oranges and mixed spice. warm, good with tea. ’ easy enough to make, and he liked the way his apartment smelled while it was baking. he’s about to reply to her previous comment, when she asks about figuring it out together, and he finds himself frowning slightly. ‘ that’s not… it’s not your responsibility. ’ he felt like he should figure it out himself, if it was possible. he had grown to accept that certain parts of him weren’t changing, and he thought likely that aspect was one of them. ‘ i’m not sure it can be, and it’s my problem if so. ’ it’s not meant to be harsh, to push her out, but rather to shut himself in just a bit. he didn’t need other people having certain hopes about him changing, only to be let down when he didn’t.
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