vatheon | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who:Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak
Where: Casa de Highbloods
When: During the unable to lie curse
Status: Closed
Style: Third person

The effects of the current curse are well-known by now, and have led to some very interesting happenings over the network for Nepeta to follow and giggle over. As for herself, she doesn't exactly make a habit of hiding anything, so it's hardly been the calamity some other people were treating it as. If anything, Tavros was getting complimented and fussed over and told how cute he is even more than usual, but after a day or two of this she realizes she shouldn't leave her other quadrant out of all of the fun.

She needed to go visit Equius!

She was pretty sure she'd find him in his hive, possibly still working on fixing the damage done by the flood, or else buried in one of his projects. Either way, he was sure to be fully focused on it and ripe for a good old pouncegreet! Now where could her meowrail be...

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"I don't think I'll have any cake, but I'll take a cup of tea. With milk." Obviously. Equius waits until she's settled on his lap, then reaches around her to pour them both a cup of tea. "You'll have to eat my cake for me, which is why you cut it in the first place, right?"

"And sugar?" she asks. She already knows the answer to that too, of course, but she'll never stop trying to infect him with her sweet tooth. Just like he'll never stop trying to get her to eat at least a tiny bit healthier.

She's snuggling up against his chest, giving him a wide, toothy grin. "Maaaaybe," she laughs. "It would be a pity fur it to go to waste!" But she seems more focused on him than on any amount of cake just now.

"No sugar. All the toxins that don't go into me go into you." And they're both very healthy for it, go figure. He's not very interested in his tea either, after slopping lots of milk into it and then letting it sit to cool. Instead, he concentrates on wrapping one arm very loosely around Nepeta. "So what else have you been up to lately?"

"I suppaws that that is a sacrifice I am willing to make fur the greater good," she says solemnly, before laughing again and wriggling about to settle herself comfortably within the loop of his arm.

"We've been fixing up the hive after the flood, and settling back in. I redid some of my paintings! The water had spoiled them. And I've been visiting all our friends and seeing how they're doing too."

"That's good. It sounds like you've been keeping busy." A sudden horrible thought strikes him! "The shipping wall didn't get damaged, did it?"

"Very busy!" she confirms, finally scooping up a piece of cake to nibble on. She refuses to turn to face the table, though, preferring her cosy position curled up against Equius' chest. Crumbs are so going to happen.

...especially when he says that and she splutters out an entire mouthful in horror at the idea. "Oh, no, no! That was upstairs! Just exactly far up enough to be safe!"

He'll just go out in the yard after this and let Darkleer the chocobo eat the crumbs off his shirt. Perfect solution.

He frets a little over her distress. "Okay, okay, it's fine, that's good! I knew you wouldn't be foolish enough to put it anywhere it could be damaged."

Knowing Darkleer, hopefully Equius also has a spare shirt.

And when she sees that he's fussing over her it just encourages her to flail even more in hope of more pettings and being coddled a little longer. "But Equius! What if another flood happens?! What if it's higher next time?!"

"Now I know you're just being dramatic, but I'm putting up with it because I enjoy cuddling you and getting to be the consoling party for a change." Another truth bomb, but a much nicer one this time. Equius sits back further in the chair, giving her more room to flail. "Then I'll take down the wall and you can put it in your sylladex. We should have done that last time, really."

Nefur! she's about to say, but of course the curse won't allow that. "Heehee, of course I am! And I know you do! Equius cuddles are pawesome and one of my favourite things in the world!" She beams at him while pretending to throw her arm across her forehead dramatically. "Ooh, would you really do that fur little old me?"

"Nepeta cuddles are one of my favorite things too," he tells her, smiling down at her dramatics. "You know I would. I would do anything for you, ever since I failed the one time it really counted." Whoops, got a little dark there for a moment, abort, abort! "Do you have any new ships on the wall?"

"I'm glad," she tells him. "Because you will be getting lots and lots of them. Tons of them!" She starts as she means to go on, snuggling even harder - until he mentions that, and she falters, mouth twisting up a little. She doesn't even answer his question about new ships. She's kind of busy trying really hard not to blurt something out.

Any time when Nepeta doesn't jump at a chance to talk about her shipping wall, and Equius knows things just got serious. "Nepeta... if you want to say something, I wish you would."

She squirms about, looking uncomfortable. "Which one time did you mean?" she finally says, only partly to avoid explaining herself. His answer would influence hers, after all.

"There was more than one?!" He is such a shit moirail, he knew it!

"That's not what I meant!" she says very quickly, trying to cut off the thoughts she knew he'd have about himself. "I just want to know when you mean. When you felt that you'd failed me."

"Oh. You know... back in the Veil." He hopes he doesn't have to be any more specific than that.

"You didn't fail me there, Equius," she tells him, looking up quite seriously and touching his shoulder. "It's just...if there was one time...sometimes I'm still afraid of losing you because you won't want me again, like when I got here." That had hurt her a lot more than dying could.

"Nepeta..." Seeing her like this is like a punch to the bulge, and Equius rearranges his arms so they're a little tighter around her before continuing. "I'm sorry. I was wrong when that happened. It was a stupid mistake, and not one I'm going to repeat. If I could take it back, I would."

She lets him hold her tighter, appreciating the reassurance. She kind of needs it right now, because even if most of the time she feels secure in their moirallegiance - sometimes she can't help but remember Equius telling her they're not moirails any more. It had shaken the foundations of everything she believed in.

She's not answering. That is not good. Equius sighs, and lets the truth, courtesy of the curse, flow out of him.

"Not having you here was the hardest thing I ever had to go through. Forgiving Gamzee after... after I went back to the Veil... that was easier than being here without you. The problem was that I'm dangerous without you, Nepeta. When you were here before and then left, I almost culled Sollux when I found out. I might have tried to punch a hole in the bubble if I hadn't been stopped, and Darkleer wasn't even here yet to hold me down if I got completely out of control." Pause for a breath. "I scare myself when I'm like that. I didn't know if you'd ever show up, and I didn't want to hurt anyone, so I... I did what I had to do."

"I understand," she finally says. "I know all of that, I really do! And I'd never want you to end up in danger because of not having someone there to hold you back." She rocks herself a little bit in his arms, going quiet for a moment. "I just didn't know what to do without you. I felt like I lost a part of me, even more than I did when I died."

"That's how I felt without you around, too." Sigh. "Feferi tried, but... it just wasn't the same."

She looks up at him at that, her gaze tentative but...not exactly curious. Needing to know, more like. They've never really discussed what happened in detail, not with how painful it had all been. "It wasn't?"

"No. We spent a lot more time yelling at each other than anything else." Which was okay, it was what he needed at the time, but it just wasn't the same. "I wasn't nearly as calm as I am with you. I put myself in more dangerous situations." He shrugs. "Highbloods don't make very good conciliatory moirails, you know that."

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I like how this conversation keeps cycling from adorable to serious and back again

it is very like them

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