asgardgenesis | 𝟒 - day 265 (2/29), morning.

well i'm not
and i know you aren't either

don't tell me what i am

❰ huff huff ❱

what helps you

then stop lying about it.

[ to reynir, to himself, either way. ]

me? um. i don't think you'd
touch mostly.

oh

❰ that seems like it's going to be 100% of his answer, but about 30 seconds later, lalli steps in through the door with nukka (still so fluffy from the winter) under one arm and kissu under the other.

the cats are planted on reynir's lap, one after the other.

does this count as touch? ❱

[ for once, reynir and lalli seemed to have been thinking along the same lines because reynir already has his own cat, gunnar, wrapped around his shoulders like a particularly large and furry shawl, and the red norwegian forest cat eyes the new fuzzy invaders of reynir's space with a judging eye for a moment before apparently deeming them acceptable with a huff.

reynir himself takes a little longer to adjust to the sudden intrusion, staring up at lalli with wide, faintly red eyes. then down at the cats in his lap. then back up again. ]

Thank... you?

[ how to explain that animals were great and all but he'd kind of meant human touch specifically. ]

❰ the awkwardness with which he's thanked has lalli ducking his head with a mrr, awkward himself now that he's clearly not quite gotten this right. it's awkward enough to try in the first place.

but he'll give this one more try, just to tell himself that he made the attempt. on a sigh, ❱ Could grab the sheep? ❰ reynir likes sheep more than cats, lalli thinks. it seems appropriate. lalli can barely stand the sheep. ❱

[ it shouldn't, probably, but the little noise of embarrassment or whatever lalli would choose to label it as manages to draw the faintest of smiles from him, more than even gunnar's very focused fussing has managed since reynir started suspecting that tuuri was gone as well.

he's not laughing at lalli or anything like that, even at their most combative that's never really been the sort of thing that brought him any sort of enjoyment. but it's so rare to see these little emotional cues from the other boy that he can't help but be charmed by it now. ]

They should probably stay outside. It was one thing when that storm was happening but you don't really want farm animals to start thinking they're house animals. Setting boundaries is important.

[ he wiggles the fingers of one hand in front of kissu's face until she's batting at them with her paws. keeps his tone as light and uncomplicated as he can as he tries to explain himself to lalli, keen to make sure the scout doesn't hear any measure of expectation or insinuation in his words. ]

It's gotta be people. Animals are nice and all, but I'm not afraid of them disappearing. [ he's never struggled to make friends with animals like he's had to with people. ]

❰ oh.

so it has to be people. people reynir's afraid will disappear. who is the boy afraid to lose? they've managed some sort of alliance, but lalli can't pretend to know who reynir is friends with outside of this house.

so his next question comes after just a couple of moments' thought. ❱ Who're you afraid to lose? ❰ such a personal question any other time, but lalli asks it entirely under the umbrella of practicality. ❱ I'll go get them.

[ okay so that question manages to throw reynir for a bit of a loop for a second, don't mind him. he'd have to be blind not to notice the sort of disconnect lalli had with this sort of thing, and reynir's been accused of plenty in his life but that was never one of them but.

he blinks a few times, slowly, tilts his head inquisitively to one side, which sends his braid sliding off his shoulder and within batting distance of nukka who promptly takes advantage of the bright red lure. ]

Are you serious?

❰ the question earns a scowl, arms crossing around himself as he glances off to the wall instead of looking at reynir. ❱

I was. But if you don't want my stupid help, then fine.

❰ he definitely thinks 'are you serious' means either it was a bad idea or he's calling attention to lalli even being willing to do it at all - neither of which the finn is all that patient with. ❱

[ why does lalli always have to jump immediately to the worst possible meaning behind anything someone says to him anyway?

has reynir done something to make him think that he would ever make fun of someone trying to be nice to him? that's just not a surplus he can really afford to snub under any circumstance, even if he wanted to. and he doesn't, because he knows lalli well enough at this point to know he's actually trying right now.

apparently lalli can't say the same about him though. weird, reynir's never considered himself a difficult read. ]

I never said your help was stupid, Lalli! I just-- do you honestly not realize that you're one of the people I'm afraid of losing?

❰ oh.

his scowl loosens, shifting to something a bit more bemused. then, wordlessly, he steps over to the side of reynir's bed and sits down beside him, just close enough that their arms press together. ❱

Stupid, ❰ he says after a few seconds of silence, still not quite looking at reynir. ❱ I've never been nice to you. ❰ so it's stupid to be afraid of losing him. from anyone else, he'd think they were afraid of losing one of their best shots at survival, but that's not how the icelander operates. all of this is... stupidly, bewilderingly genuine. ❱

[ reynir knows better than to let himself be completely swept away by his emotions when lalli has already gone and extended more of an olive branch to him than he would have ever dreamed possible, but there's definitely a shine to his eyes that wasn't there before when he turns his head to keep looking at lalli.

crying happily all over the other boy for simply touching shoulders seemed like exactly the sort of way to encourage him to never do that again. he doesn't bother trying to hide the soft, sheepish smile on his face though. ]

If I only cared about people that were nice to me, I think I'd lead a pretty boring, lonely life. And besides, after everything we've all been through together I think we've kind of gone beyond nice, don't you?

[ never mind that what lalli is doing right now is nice in his own very lalli way. ]

❰ lalli doesn't entirely know what to say. he honestly shouldn't have said anything, that's what kicked off this sudden talk of who reynir cares about and what they've been through, but he did and now he has to wallow in it.

he shrugs a little. ❱ Guess so. ❰ as close to a yes as reynir is going to get. ❱

[ reynir knows better than to push at lalli for more on his end (he's already done so much, considering), but that hardly means he's going to limit himself in the same way.

and it's words that have been sort of stewing in his head for awhile now, since they'd all made the decision to go back out on another dangerous journey together at least, if not even longer. ]

I think I was supposed to find you guys. It's... hazy, before I figured out I had magic, but I remember having dreams on the boat. Like I was looking for something. Or someone.

Maybe. ❰ it's still reflex, for lalli, to assume that reynir does everything by accident - the screw-ups, but the good things too. he stumbles into them based on what he feels is the right thing to do, whether or not it actually is.

which doesn't actually disprove any of what the boy's said, it's just... harder for lalli to picture something so disastrous happening on purpose. through some kind of prewritten fate. finnish mages don't see omens. the future is unknowable for them, as it should be.

but maybe reynir's right. maybe something - a vision, a spirit that felt like a vision, or something else beyond either of their understandings - did lead them together. ❱ You found my haven. Shouldn't have been able to.

[ coming back home to iceland after learning he had magic had been a bit of an eye opening experience for reynir overall. he'd had to learn everything through observation and intuition out in the silent world, and while onni had tried to coach him through some things, it had very quickly become apparent to them both how different their magic was from one another.

of course he was still mostly running on intuition these days, even outside of their relocation to asgard throwing everyone's magic into a disarray. lessons back home had helped him get a better grip on staves, sure, but the focus had been so heavily on agriculture that he really only knew the basics of the things that really mattered to him.

dreams and omens were nothing new to his people, supposedly, but that still didn't mean that he ever knew what he was actually doing.

(his best. he's doing his best). ]

Hmmm. [ it's not the first time reynir's been told something like that in regards to the dreams, though it's still a bit tricky for him to wrap his head around considering he'd never had to make any sort of effort to find one of the finn's havens.

or at least, not until onni had gone running off into the bone filled waters alone, he hadn't. ]

Onni told me something similar when I found his. He actually accused me of being an evil spirit! He did that a lot, honestly. I've never really noticed anything in the dreams trying to keep me out of places though?

[ he rubs ruefully at his cheek with one hand in memory as he adds: ] Except for when you guys decided to throw trees at me, anyway.

❰ that finally earns a glance of mild intrigue. ❱ Onni threw trees at you? ❰ lalli only ever threw water, albeit a lot of it. maybe he should've tried trees. but here and now, he feels the slightest niggling guilt for thinking that. ❱

[ of course that's the part lalli latches onto, reynir can't even really pretend to be surprised, really. ]

Not the first time. He just shook me like a dog with a bone that time. Later, he...

[ was upset with reynir for keeping hush about tuuri. something that reynir doesn't exactly want to bring up right now, with them both at least slightly distracted from brooding over that exact subject.

his eyes go a little dim for a moment, before catching gunnar's tail square in the face when the cat senses his brewing upset and whips it angrily in response. ] Argh, what was that for?

❰ lalli can't even begin to fathom why reynir trailed off. maybe he doesn't remember the details? the look in his eye suggests otherwise, for the brief seconds before the cat (the poorly-trained one of course, neither of lalli's) pummels him in the face with a puff of tail.

'what was that for?' ❱

You put a cat near your face. ❰ pointed out like 'obviously you're going to get hit with some sort of feline body parts'. ❱

He put himself near my face. [ reynir protests weakly, shoving the tail away from his face with one hand. ]

I do not make decisions for Gunnar.

You should, ❰ retorts lalli, casting a boredly withering glance at the cat in question. ❱

Why?

[ as if the errant tail he's currently in battle with isn't reason enough, really, but putting that aside... said cat is matching lalli's withering stare with remarkable focus. ]

𝟒 - day 265 (2/29), morning.

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