An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
The sun had just begun to break over the peak of the mountain when she heard a panicked welp coming from a bedroom. She looked towards the source just as Blue burst from his room, a wild look in his eyelights (while Pappy subtly appeared out of view in the living room almost immediately in response to his brother’s anxiety). Blue went directly across to open the door to the reading room when he happened to look to his side, meeting Em’s worried gaze.
“OH!” He chuckled, panic turning into embarrassment and embarrassment turning into relief. “You’re up early!” He made his way towards her, relaxing with each step.
“More like I couldn’t sleep,” she smirked. “Is everything okay?”
“Hm? No, yeah! Everything’s good!” He smiled widely. “Are YOU okay? I’m sorry to hear your night wasn’t restful.”
“No worries, I’ve never been good at sleeping anyway.”
“You could always study the master,” louder he called, “RIGHT, PAPPY?”
“I am a whizzz when it comes to snoozzzing, not to mention dozzzing,” Pappy replied from the newly occupied stool on the opposite end to Em, a tired grin on his face that was melting into the cool granite countertop.
She turned so that she was once again facing the countertop and cast a side glance to Pappy as Blue made his way to grab a bottle from a cabinet. “Teach me your wayzzz, oh wiszzze one.”
Pappy snickered. “I like to lead by exzzzample.” He shut his sockets and pretended to doze.
“You seem to be in a good mood today,” Blue shot a smile over his shoulder as he was filling his bottle in the sink. The sound of Tyr’s footsteps came from the hallway, softened from their usual staccato by the trainers he wore, though the rhythm was just as precise. Embarrassment covered Blue’s turned face once again. “Not that you seem to be in a bad mood usually! In fact, you’re usually really neutral.” He hid his wince by busying himself in his actions. "You must be some sort of night owl, huh? That would be fitting seeing as your eyelights remind me of the night sky, though I can't decide whether it's the moon or all the stars in the universe I see when I look into them!" His next wince was audible.
“I kinda feel… lighter,” she admitted, not at all perturbed by the first half of Blue’s sentiment -- she liked him most when he was being honest with her after all. “Maybe I scored the right sleep deprivation cocktail today.” To help normalize the second half and show that she felt no strong emotion about it, she tacked on matter-of-factly, "Your eyelights remind me of the sky too."
