genuinely cannot remember how when or why anise became an occasional unofficial third to lukigetti in my mind. but there’s something about the absolutely neutral energy they bring to the situation that works
morally grey, earnestly curious, and (this is important) not easily embarrassed/humiliated. they melt when luki loves on them all sweet but they also light up when spaghetti does something interesting and terrible.
thinking about these three again. i think anise’s relationship/s with lukigetti is/are way simpler than lukigetti’s relationship with each other and 1000x less intense, both of which are good things.
luki loves anise dearly as a friend, although, as so often tends to be the case with luki, it looks pretty romantic to outside viewers. their relationship is very rewarding for him in that he gets to do what he loves (shower someone dear to him in the exact kind of affection they most like and benefit from, which could or could not include physical/sexual intimacy) without worrying about things turning sour bc anise, while capable of experiencing romantic attraction, has no expectation of or desire for it from luki and is not jealous of spaghetti’s role in his life.
anise similarly really likes luki as a friend—he’s kind, intuitive, encouraging, and makes them laugh. he freely and frequently expresses how much he likes them and how easy they are to like. they feel safe around him, which lets them be curious without reservation.
spaghetti is fascinating to anise because despite how extremely different they are, they still often find themself relating to him on the basis of personality/mindset/habits etc rather than just circumstances. they sincerely admire his intelligence, his varied skillsets, his creativity and artistic sense—all things they feel they lack. but at the same time, they see themself just a little in his thirst for knowledge, his almost desperate drive to be excellent at what he’s decided he Must be good at (though it looks very different on him than it does on them), his moments of quiet stillness where it seems like the wrong touch or sound might cause him to explode, his occasional childlike glee and wonder. they’re both people who, in their own ways, take genuine pleasure out of exploring and learning more about the world.
(that’s not to say luki doesn’t, but he’s more content to let the world open up to him as it will, whereas these two are more of the peeling back and ripping up and digging out sort.)
obviously none of this stuff was remotely clear to anise until way after they’d become important to luki and had thus had reason to coexist with spaghetti to a significant extent (luki had a good feeling about it from the get-go tho).
spaghetti’s feelings toward anise are honestly kind of vague, but they’re uncomplicated and lean affectionate by his standards. he thinks they’re almost cute (??) in the way a Thing is cute, which would be distressing to anise if getti didn’t also think of himself as a thing. he thinks it’s fun how surprisingly loose their morals are and likes how very wrongly they occasionally reveal their head to be screwed on. he also recognizes their similarities but feels no particular way about it—they actually have an almost sedative effect on him. he most often just finds them kind of amusing, in a way that makes them nice to have quietly sitting nearby as he works.
they’re smart and curious, which is necessary for a person to be interesting, and they don’t pry into his business, which is necessary for a person to be tolerable; fun to mess with (in both the “making them cry” and “making them worse” ways), but rarely inspire manic fervor in him; entertaining enough not to piss him off, unobtrusive enough not to rile him up.
nowadays he thinks of them as his bleeding heart bard’s strange little starseed, which luki would consider unbearably darling and anise would be quite surprised and happy about, if they ever heard him say it.
i think one day while luki and anise are having some alone time together he asks them what they think of spaghetti, and if they find his relationship with him strange. and anise gives it some thought and says “i don’t think it’s strange. he’s creative, intelligent, dangerous, and unpredictable, which are all things you seem to value. i imagine he must be very easy for you to love.” and luki is briefly dumbstruck by how simply and easily they just Get it when so many others have been unwilling to understand or even believe his whole thing with spaghetti.
eventually he pecks them on the head and says “that he is. but you yourself are no less easy to love, sweet thing” before kissing them all soft and smiley.
I HAVE ONE MORE THOUGHT THAT’S DRIVING ME CRAZY. one day anise goes looking for luki to be nice to them and instead finds spaghetti on his own, working on some sort of arcane experiment. and getti sees them looking all fragile and lost and, on a whim, says “you want someone to be nice to you, little snake? spaghetti can be plenty nice,” in a soft voice anise hasn’t heard before, and against their better judgment bc he makes them so curious, they kneel on the floor in front of him and put their face in one of his hands as he lifts his mask with the other.
later luki comes home to find getti still working on the couch but with anise on the floor below/next to him with their head resting on his leg, all limp and relaxed in some sort of trance and wearing his mask—not immediately clear if due to a magical hypnotic effect or something like subspace (luki’s first and correct guess is a combination of both). getti occasionally scratches their head like an animal and they just twitch like they’re trying to nuzzle his thigh. luki comes over and greets getti with a kiss before suggesting he have a stretch and leave anise to him (partly bc even if getti is being nice now, he can’t imagine he’ll remain so long enough to pull them out gently). so it’s luki that eventually coaxes them back up to the surface and lovingly handles aftercare while getti goes back to doing his thing.
was this experience with spaghetti necessarily a good or healthy one for anise? very probably not. there was and will be no talking about it, at least between them and spaghetti. but certainly neither of them minded it. (although luki will gently discourage anise from letting themself be in such a vulnerable state around spaghetti while he’s not around in the future. just to be safe, since he knows spaghetti Does still experience “hurt and ruin” urges toward them despite everything)
