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The sound on the hull isn’t rain, and what they see falling past the portholes isn’t snow: the Starblaster is being pelted with a hard steady sleet, ice coating the sides and holding the ship in place. The bond engine whirrs louder than usual, fighting to keep out the cold.
Inside, Merle and Cap’n’port are playing yooker, Merle wearing his robe on top of what appears to be two different ratty cardigans, Davenport with his uniform buttoned all the way up and a scarf wrapped practically up to his mustache. Two steaming cups of coffee sit amidst the complicated layout of cards. Their voices are low as they play.
Barry, in turtleneck and fingerless gloves, is tinkering with some sort of arcane mechanism on which bits and pieces glow. He sets it down and its little wheels take it spinning around the room until it bumps up against the couch where the twins are burritoed together in a single heavy blanket. Taako rolls his eyes as Lup pulls them forward to look at Barry’s creation.
“Oh! It’s warm!” she exclaims.
“It’s not, uh, it’s not quite to your, uh, evocation work, but you know, roll around with a little extra heat might be nice,” he mumbles to the table.
Taako rolls his eyes again and looks over at Lucretia, sitting on the big chair across from them, draped in her own blanket, hunched over her notebooks.
“You look frozen, bubeleh,” he says, then Blinks out of the roll of blankets he’d been sharing with Lup. “I’m gonna make you some tea, anyone else want some?”
Lup chimes in; Barry raises a hand, while Magnus, already rummaging through cupboards in the galley, says, “I can do it, what’s everybody want?”
Before anyone can answer, Taako Blinks again, then smacks him on the ass with a wooden spoon, not unkindly. “Out of my kitchen. Lucy: rose. Magnus and Barry: oolong. Lup: chai. What about you, old man, Cap?”
Davenport raises his coffee mug. “We’re set, thank you Taako.”
“Don’t want you to make fun of my special herbal teas,” says Merle, “so I guess I’ll stick with Dav’s coffee.”
Taako leans over and shoves Magnus with his shoulder, then nods towards Lucretia. “I’ve got this; go make yourself useful.”
Magnus gives him a questioning look, but Taako just puts his hands on his hips.
“Did I stutter? Now get out of here.”
Magnus tiptoes dramatically out of the galley and around behind Lucretia’s chair. He puts his hands on her shoulders and leans over, whispering, “MAGNUSSSS!”
She tilts her head back and smiles up at him. “Your hands are so warm .”
“Yup. Backrub?”
She hums thoughtfully, but shakes her head before pushing up out of the chair, dropping her journals to the floor, then draping her blanket around his shoulders. He gives an exaggerated shiver when she takes his hands and draws him around. She pushes him down into the chair and climbs into his lap, curling up against him with her own dramatic shiver.
“Thanks for the furnace,” she calls out to Taako.
“No problemo, he’s much more useful there than here,” he replies as the kettle begins to whistle.
“He saw how cold you were and wanted to help,” Magnus says as he presses warm kisses into her cool forehead. “I was totally gonna be helpful.”
“Mhmmm,” and she tips her head up to look into his eyes, a tiny crease between her brows.
“No mackin’ in the common room. Gotta leave enough room for Pan,” shouts Merle without looking up from his cards.
“Gross,” says Lucretia.
“Isn’t Pan also a god of….” Barry trails off with a blush and drops a tiny screwdriver on the table.
“Extra gross,” she replies, then looks up at Magnus, who’s also blushing. “Hey there.”
“Hi.” He smiles, and his eyes twinkle. She glances over towards the door and his gaze follows hers.
Taako drops onto the arm of the chair, draping himself over Magnus’s shoulder. Beside him, the tray of tea cups floats down onto the coffee table. “Gonna run off before you drink up your tea? After all this work?” He places the back of his hand against his forehead.
Lup rolls her eyes as she reaches for hers. “I mean, ’Ko, if that’s how they’re gonna get warm….” She hands Barry his cup, holds his eyes for just a second before she’s the one to blush and look away.
“Naw, naw, naw, wouldn’t miss a good cup of tea,” says Magnus. “I’m just kinda….” He bounces Lucretia on his lap, leans his shoulder into Taako.
“Oh, that, right,” and with another wave the tray raises back up into their reach. Lucretia wraps her hands around the mug: one of the originals from their home world, the insulated metal just a bit battered and worn after twenty-some years, and the delicate scent of rose tea rises up around her.
“Oh yay enough sugar,” says Magnus.
“How do you even taste the tea?” she says but without any malice.
“Just a sugar delivery device, is all,” says Taako, the same fondness in his voice. She smiles as she sips at her tea and Magnus slurps his. Taako takes a little drink before adding, “Guess we gotta fuel that furnace somehow.”
She curls in closer, holding the cup to her chest, pulling the blanket to cover her back. She kisses Magnus’s cheek and he colors just a bit. “Somehow,” she murmurs. Outside, the sleet continues to batter against the hull, but inside continues to warm, and the air is sweet with the mingled scents of their tea.