#fluffs!

He doesn’t even look up from his work when he does it; the quill in his right hand continues its illegible scratching across the paper. It’s the same when s/he passes by with another cup of strong black coffee, or a plate of kolaches; when they sit down together for a meal at the little corner table in the kitchen, or for drinks at the Raven.

He does it, too, when s/he passes by on the way to hir own worktable in the newly expanded upper level of the shop, over the clinic next door.

Whichever hand is free, it interposes itself between hir and the corner of whatever desk, table or chair s/he is passing by. Half the time, s/he bumps into it with hir hip, or even hir arm; s/he is not tall.

He does not complain.

“Why do you do that, darling?” s/he asks him, perhaps the hundredth time it happens.

“Hm? Do what?” Julian asks in turn, pushing the hair out of his eyes in just the same automatic way.

“This.” Jinana demonstrates, cupping hir hand over the corner of the desk.

His color heightens, just a little. “Oh! Uh, that... well, you see, I noticed that you always seemed to have a little bruise, right about here.” He extends a finger, poking hir in the hip. “And sometimes here.” He briefly touches hir arm, currently free of any such blemish. “So I, uh, well I mean it’s not much of a cushion, but it seems to help?” His flush increases as Jinana gives a light snort.

[ Touches Prompts ]

"Please don't misunderstand me... I enjoy his company very much, and, uhm, everything else, too..." Ell's features, already slightly flushed from alcohol, become pinker yet. "But I guess... for all of the time we spend together, I just don't know if we're actually... close? I mean... ugh, it's so hard to put into words..."

Jinana clucks soothingly, summoning Saheli with a wave of hir hand to prepare a pot of tea - Ell has probably had enough of the cordials they have been sipping this evening. The unseen force dutifully lifts the teapot from its place in the cabinet, taking it to fill with water.

"I just... oh, I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!" This comes out in an increasingly strained series of syllables, the last hardly more than a strangled little sob. Ell hides their face in their hands, clearly embarrassed by this outburst.

Jinana scoots closer, running one hand soothingly down their back as they attempt to get themself back under control. "It's not about being wrong, dear. Heron is just... well, it's very easy for him to put others before himself. It's very easy for him to get so caught up helping someone else that he ends up sort of... protecting them too much, even from himself. He can end up creating a distance, even when he wishes to be closer."

Ell sniffles surreptitiously, dashing tears from their cheeks, but more just come to take their place - this is clearly a dam that has broken, something that has been troubling them deeply. Jinana reaches out, taking their face between hir hands, so that they must look at hir.

"If you love him - and I think that you do - there is something that you must ask yourself. Are you willing to meet him where he is? Are you willing to become the kind of person who is strong enough to help steer him out of his habits when they work against him?”

Jinana pushes the damp strands of hair back from Ell’s face, leaning in to very gently brush hir lips against their wet cheek. At the touch, hir magic leaves their skin instantly clean and dry again.

[ Touches Prompts ]

"Darling, you are far too hard on yourself." Jinana runs a hand down Julian's slumped back in slow, soothing strokes. "You did everything you could. This person is still alive because of you."

He shakes his head morosely. "I just... I should have been able to do more. Maybe if I had tried something else, I could have saved the limb, too."

Jinana shakes hir head. "I'm no expert, but... I truly don't think so. No-one expects you to be a worker of miracles... and no-one can say you ever do anything but your best."

Julian turns to look at hir, the shadows under his eyes dark and bruised-looking. S/he draws him to hir, cradling his head to hir chest, and he wraps his arms tightly about hir waist with a deep, trembling sigh. S/he combs the hair back from his face with gentle fingers.

Jinana and Julian? Or Julian and Asra? Or even Julian in the middle and Asra and Jinana in each hand. omfg wait sorry, I got compelled:

[ Touches Prompts ]

It can happen anywhere - at the Palace, in the Market, in the shop. It can happen while walking through the streets of South End, or wandering the shade-darkened forests that border Vesuvia.

Julian will feel a warm hand seek his - either tiny and ringed, or somewhat larger, but still smaller than his own. And then, from his other side, the other will follow suit. It is utterly casual, so natural that they do not give it a second thought. He wonders if they ever feel the same heart-wrenching, throat-constricting emotion that seizes him, the stinging he must blink from his eyes.

The one thing he had thought he could never have... and here it is, twice over. Something he had twice lost, and now twice regained.

It is so hard to believe sometimes, he fears that he must be dreaming, or hallucinating, or perhaps even dead, dreaming in the next life. But then, he feels two small hands, solid and real... and the two small bodies that fit so perfectly against him in the night, telling him that this is his truth.

[ Touches Prompts ]

Turel lifts hir easily to the top of the garden wall, long abandoned but still sturdy, overlooking the riotous growth of spring. Jinana takes in the view, from the defunct fountain spilling greenery, to the butterflies congregating around the densely flowering bushes.

S/he kicks off hir sandals, narrow hennaed feet sure upon the wide, warm stones of the wall as s/he lifts hir arms and begins a slow, impromptu dance, the late afternoon sun at hir back making a halo of hir hair. S/he moves for the sheer joy of it, and for hir audience of one (not counting the large fig-eater beetle that lands briefly and clumsily upon hir shoulder, perhaps mistaking the bright color of hir choli for a tasty fruit).

[ Touches Prompts ]

Jinana is - or at least was - accustomed to a certain sort of relationship. These relationships have rules... moreover they have roles. One knows where one stands at all times.

This is not like that.