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You wake to violet eyes pinched in worry and a headache to rival…
To rival…
Who has headaches again?
Violet Eyes is shining something across your face and you hiss when the light reaches your eyes, one hand flying up to smack away theirs.
“Good reflexes,” Violet comments, half smiling at you as they stand and offer you a hand up.
You take it.
“Where am I?”
Nothing is familiar other then the sense that all bathrooms look vaguely like this one. There is blood on the side of the tub. You reach for your head unconsciously, fingers finding the source of you headache with ease. Fingertips coming away stained the same color as the spot on the tub. You wrinkle your nose, “What happened?”
Violet looks like you just punched them in the kidneys, facial features poorly hiding shock, fear, and a dozen other things you can’t identify, shoulders hunched in.
“You…” Violet clears their throat, standing straight as something shimmers in the air just past their nose, “you slipped, hit your head hard enough I heard it from upstairs!” They laugh and you smile sheepishly back at them, head still throbbing.
“Come on,” Violet says, “I want to take a better look at that wound,” they lead the way out of the bathroom and down a hallway. You dawdle, thoughts of kidnappers and other such horrors racing across your mind.
Violet leans back, peering over their shoulder at you, “Are you okay to walk?”
“Uh, yes” You say haltingly, distracted by both your thoughts and the fact that something is wiggling under the material draped over Violet’s shoulder.
“Are you sure?” Violet asks again, eyes pinched back together in concern. His nose is still shimmery, but he has a very pretty face.
Someone’s words you don't recognize come to mind, “Too pretty. Can’t be evil. Ruin a nice face with mean.” A sense of peace washes over you, even as your head throbs in response. Well. You’ve followed worse advice.
“Yeah, I’m sure” you say confidently, “Lead the way, I’m right behind you.” Your head still aches.
Violet smiles, and you follow them down the stairs. The moving lump under their clothes moves closer to their neck. Your chest seizes as a little purple snake pokes its head out at you.
“Remember?” the same voice from before says in your mind.
It really is a shame you can’t remember what worse advice you’ve followed.
Staring up at the simple worn wooden ceiling above you, feeling the gentle pressure of expertly wrapped bandages pressing against your wound, you think about what kind of person Violet is.
They never gave you a name, during your impromptu visits to the kitchen for bandages and medicine and a second round of confusion when Violet asked you to hand them stuff when you had no idea where to even look for it, much less know where it was.
It was all rather odd. Waking up bloody in the bathroom with a strange person and snake, seems the beginning of some traveling storyteller’s trademark tale. But nothing bad happened after that. Nothing other then gentle hands guiding you to sit there, turning your head this way and that, and the same odd shimmery space in front of Violet’s face. And Little Snake’s voice in your head.
That was the oddest of all, but neither of them were malicious in the slightest. Not even mildly annoyed at having a perfect stranger bleed all over their furniture. By the arcana! They even gave you bedding and let you sleep on their pile of cushions in front of the hearth.
Your head throbs again.
“By the arcana!” Violet’s voice lances through your ears, sharp with alarm. You bolt upright, throbbing head be damned, frantically looking around.
“Violet?” you call, the mental nickname sounding weird being spoken aloud.
Nothing answers you, but you know . You know you heard their voice, calling out.
Cautiously, you lift up your borrowed blankets, sliding out from under them as quietly as possible. Standing you shift, feet seeming to know just where to settle so the floor doesn't creek. You’re listening too intently to spare any brainspace for how odd that is.
For several minutes, nothing happens. The place is as still as it ever was, the only sound being your carefully slow breathing. Just as you’re starting to feel especially silly and wonder if that hit to the head messed up your ears as well...you hear it.
A tiny, muffled, hiccup of the slightest noise.
You blink, shuffling your shoulders and focusing back on listening. Again, for several moments nothing at all happens.
Then.
There it is again. A quiet muffled squeaky noise. Like the start of a strained breath after a particularly painful hiccup.
Something is not right in this house.
You cast around for something to use as a weapon but there is nothing but soft cushions and blankets. Well, old fashioned fistycuffs it is then.
Curling your fingers into loose fists you creep towards the kitchen, pausing at the stove to listen again.
The sound is stronger over here, but no less painful sounding. Thinking of kidnappers and murder and torture, you tighten your fists and walk closer, keeping close to the walls where the floor has settled more.
The sound of a full bodied sob , stops you dead in your tracks. It’s a wrenched noise, not something the person making it wanted to let out, but it was a sob. No doubt about it.
You follow the crying upstairs, up, up, up, and then around a corner. There is a door blocking you, from the source. You’re absolutely sure whoever is crying is in this room. It’s too loud to be anywhere but from here.
The door eeks open just enough for you to see inside. A slither of purple races away from the door back to...
Violet is sitting at the foot of the bed, sobbing into their hands. Little Snake winds around their legs looking more sorrowful then any snake should be able to look.
Instinct drives you to open the door, the hinges creak loudly and Violet snaps around, hands flying from their face to their lap and then back to the bed to stash something away. You don’t comment on it.
“Sorry-“
Violet clears their throat, wiping their eyes with the back of their hand and turning away, “Sorry,” they try again, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” you murmur, creeping further in. Little Snake bobs encouragingly from the floor.
You kneel beside them, smiling weakly at Little Snake that looking between you and Violet from under the rolled cuff of Violet’s pants
A loud sniffle punctuates the silence and also your heart. It’s a wretched thing, that seems to be the only kind of noise Violet is capable of making at the moment, and it sounds so terrible you move without thinking, hands sliding up to cradle Violet’s face, thumbs smoothing away tear tracks as you turn their head to face you.
The two of you study each other, Violet very obviously looking for something in your face, you simply trying to repay a stranger’s kindness back to them.
Violet makes a painful sound, a sob that got half chopped up into a scream before forcing itself past their lips, and crumples forward.
You catch them, barely, but barely is enough for you to slide on hand into white hair and the other down to a hip.
Barely is enough to pull them into you, cradle them against your chest, drape long tanned legs over your own. Barely is enough to rock them as they cry and scream into your shoulder. Barely is enough.
Violet tires quickly with the screams and sobs and settles into a soft weeping and then finally, into silence.
You keep rocking until the first gentle snore, born of pure exhaustion, then you wait till around the thirteenth to move
It’s a bit of a struggle, gathering up that much sleeping stranger into your arms, but you mange.
Setting down your weeping violet eyed stranger as gently as possible on top of the covers, you start to lean back, mentally preparing for the silent fight to get free without waking them, when a purple scaly rope shoots out from under Violet’s head and coils around your wrist.
Little Snake, stares up at you with the best puppy dog eyes you’ve ever seen on a snake. For a snake they’ve got surprisingly human facial expressions...
You sigh, relaxing back down enough to drop a quick kiss onto Little Snakes head and drag a section of the covers out from under Violet. Sleeping here will be much easier then moving away and slinking back downstairs. If it’s awkward in the morning you can, and will, blame the snake.
Easier then leaving yes, but it’s like solving a 3D puzzle, trying to get Violet off you and under the covers and then back to you, but with Little Snake’s help and what feels like an eternity, you end up with a white haired stranger snoring away on your chest and a little purple snake curled up on your head.
It’s all really weird.
Angling down to tuck your nose into white curls, smile, “I can seem to stop thinking of odd things today.” you whisper.
The sentence is barely out of your mouth when your head feels like it’s been hit all over again. Pain makes your eyes water, tears make your vision blurry, and when you close them, you hear things. A laugh, the slap of barefeet racing along the road.
“ASRA! What about a stove salamander underwater in a pot, would the pot get hot and boil the water or would the salamander just be very soggy and cross with me?”
“That’s an odd question! Where did that come from?”
“I have no idea! I just can’t seem to stop thinking about odd things today!”
“By the arcana! Are you okay? What happened with that spell?”
The sounds come faster, more clearer. There’s a startled grunt followed by more laughter, exasperated groaning with an undercut of affection, more laughter
“Lead the way! I’m right behind you!”
“Why am I the one leading? YOU know the way by now”
“Because I want to surprise Muriel by hiding behind you! Now lead the way ~”
“That is The WORST advice I’ve ever heard! Where did you hear that? One of the storyteller’s tall tales from the theater?”
“Hey now! That is good proper advice! Just because I heard it at the theater doesn't mean it’s not good!”
“OH MY GOD JULIAN!”
“Come here you, I want to cuddle!”
“I'm coming, I'm coming!”
The memories hit you like a freight train, your muscles tensing in response, crushing Asra painfully into your chest as your breathing picks up.
“Muriellllllllll make him get off me so I can go eat breakfast.”
“Mmmmmm he seems rather determined to stay put.”
“I am. Muriel is the only one who could move me but I know he won't because he also values Cuddle Time.”
“You are such a dramatic thing.”
“Portia! Nadia! Wait! I need your help!”
“What’s the matter? Has something happened?”
“YES! Asra gave me a gift this morning but I don't know what for!!”
“Pfft. That’s why you came tearing over here like a bat outta hell?”
“YES! Don't mock me, I really worried I’ve missed an anniversary or something. Please tell me I havent slept through an entire month and it’s now someones birthday!”
“Nonsense! You haven't slept through anything but the night. Come walk with us, we’ll help you figure it out.”
When the sounds finally stop, the pain suddenly vanishes, and the tears dry up, you exhale shakily, pressing a firm kiss to white hair.
“The arcana help me! What is wrong?!”
The sound of their voice has never been sweeter.
“Asra,” you breathe, hands tight around his shoulder and head. “Oh Asra.”
Asra goes still in your arms, even as your fingers roam their back, still pressed tight to their skin, but searching now, making sure they were okay.
“What did you say?” Asra croaks out, breath hot against your collarbones.
“Asra,” You repeat, kissing his head again and again between saying his name. “Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra, Asra. Oh Asra, I knew that slippery title in the bathroom would be trouble.” You keep kissing them, any part that you can reach, feeling Faust slither down from your head to your shoulders so she could prod at Asra’s face.
“I thought I’d lost you again,” Arsa says, voice cracked in all kinds of places.
Releasing your grip long enough to pull away, you level Asra with a quivering kind of glare. “No faith.” You say as sourly as you can through the prickle of oncoming tears, “Thinking you could get rid of me with just a bonk on the head.”
Asra laughs wetly, arms tightening around you, pulling you back down to them.
You curl around them, pressing tight as you can, unruly white hair pinned under your chin.
“I’ll never leave you,” you whisper, tucking your face against Asra’s head, “Never again.”