#gufyresthere

“I meant to watch, but I guess I fell asleep.” Asra laughed, setting the mug down on the table. “I made us some tea. You need any help?”

“No, thanks.”

Faust slithered from the tabletop to Asra’s arm. Climb! she announced, and both Ethan and Asra chuckled.

“He’s been keeping you from clinging, huh? Well, we don’t want to mess up the mehndi.” Asra stroked two fingers along his familiar’s head, and then leaned forward to brace a hand against the table. “I’ve seen that design before, haven’t I?”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck?”

He nodded; finally, with one last stipple of dye against the interior of his elbow, one arm was finished. Intricate designs, winding from knuckles to elbow. Subtle weaves of protection, luck, love, success, and fortune trailing through the designs, tiny specks of magic that Ethan knew intrinsically and Asra could only recognize. He didn’t know exactly where he had learned those spells, but it didn’t matter. He could replicate them, and so he did.

“There.”

“It’s beautiful,” Asra said, eyes dancing over the design. “Just like you,” he added.

Ethan chuckled, cheeks feeling rosy. “Yes, thank you, Asra.” He pushed a flyaway piece of his hair behind his ear, and decided that he would wait at least an hour before switching to design his other arm.

“D’you want me to do it?” Ethan looked at him, and Asra continued. “Your other arm, I mean. Or…” His eyes took on a teasing vibe. “… maybe I could persuade you into putting something on me if I promise to design the other arm.”

“You don’t have to persuade me to do anything,” Ethan laughed, reaching to pick up the cone again. Just as he naturally knew the spells laced expertly through his designs, he would just as naturally do anything for Asra. “What do you want and where do you want it?”

His grin was like the sun, like he hadn’t expected Ethan to acquiesce– silly– as he tugged his shirt away from his shoulder and touched a finger just below his collarbone. “Can you do something here?”

Ethan nodded. “Of course. But what do you–”

“Oh, surprise me. I trust you, Ethan.”

He knew he did. That, too, was like protection washing over him, love and adoration expanding from the words to fill his heart and his fingers, and he was leaning forward to begin drawing without thinking about it.

Asra was perfectly still as Ethan worked, although the apprentice could feel his eyes on him. Inspecting. Watching. Always watching over him. When he pulled back to get a drink of his tea, Asra gave him another dimpled smile like the sun, and Ethan huffed in both embarrassment and amusement.

It was a simple design, all told, as he refused to again let his hands get the better of him. The last time he had done a design for him, Asra had ended up with mehndi across half of his torso. This time, however, was a simple sun design accentuated with vines expanding across the left side of his chest and looping around his shoulder.

The sun, eternal love.

Vines, devotion and longevity.