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“Alright Lyf! You’re next!” Fria held Brain’s top hat out to them, a few slips of paper thrown inside. She’d somehow conned the crew into playing Odin’s Offerings for the holiday season. Evidently that was this month? Lyf was half convinced Fria has just picked a random day but they weren’t about to ask her.
“Why did I agree to this again?” Lyf said, reaching inside the hat to pull out a slip of paper.
“Holiday spirits? Tradition?” Fria shrugged, threatening to spill the contents of the hat. “Lily! You get to pick next!” The eight year old squealed as Fria swept her up to reach the hat. Lyf smiled and unfolded their paper. Immediately they felt their stomach sink. Written in nearly illegible handwriting across the paper was the last name they’d wanted to draw.
Doctor Baron Marius Von Raum.
——
The forge was blinding hot, but Lyf stayed for days. They were pretty confident that this was a bad idea, but it was the best one they’d had. As Fria kindly kept pointing out, it’d been a millennia. It was about time.
The Mechanisms, predictably, had done a terrible job at keeping secrets. The gifts themselves had been kept tightly under wraps, but everyone knew who’s present they were receiving by now. Lyf felt bad for Tim, who was likely to revive something truly bizarre from Raphaella. Lily, who’d picked Jonny and immediately announced it, had been running around with Fria and the Toy Soldier all month. Lyf sincerely hoped that whatever gift Jonny received did not include teeth.
That was enough for today. Lyf ran an arm over their forehead, hung up their tools, and exited the inferno of the forge. Fanning themself with their wings, they continued to the room on the upper deck of the Aurora. The gift was almost finished.
——
For some reason the mechanisms had stuffed themselves into the tiny kitchen to open presents. Lyf, Raphaella and Fria were perched on top of the cabinets. Jonny was aggressively Not Making A Big Deal about Lily curled into his side. Nastya was just hanging out of a vent for some reason. It was a tad unorthodox, but it seemed to work.
Opening presents was an event. Tim was delighted by the eight-headed octo kitten he received from Raphaella. No one else was too pleased by it. The Aurora gifted Raphaella hyper specific measurement tools. The Toy Soldier was absolutely delighted by a collection of personalized honorary medals Lyf remembered Fria asking them to make earlier in the month. The phrases engraved on them were ridiculous. “Best Enemy Soldier” and the like. Then it was Marius’s turn.
“Who’s this from?” Ivy asked, looking directly at Lyf.
“That’d be me,” Lyf waved, face neutral. They would forever be grateful that the Mechanisms couldn’t read them yet. Even if when their wings puffed out slightly Fria elbowed them in the side with a grin. At least it wasn’t the whole crew.
“Well then Inspector Lyf-“
“Not an inspector.”
“ Inspector Lyf ,” Marius winked. “I sure am looking forward to it!” Lyf felt their face heat up. Marius tore open the paper to reveal Lyf’s gift.
A painstakingly crafted, intricately detailed, courting dagger- similar in pattern to the one they’d been gifted centuries ago.
Lyf noticed Fria go dead still beside them, watched Ivy’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly, watched Marius turn the dagger over in his hands. Engraved in the metal were runes Lyf knew Marius couldn’t read but naturally had selected purposefully. The hilt was engraved with a variety of flowers, the blade itself refined to be razor sharp. It was the most detailed thing they’d ever created. They waited with baited breath for Marius to respond.
“OH FUCK YEAH A KNIFE!” Marius shouted.
If not for Fria collapsing sideways onto them out of laughter, Lyf would have fallen off the cabinets.
——
Marius flipped the knife up into the air, catching it by the hilt. It was beautifully balanced. He appreciated the callback, even though he wasn’t too sure why Lyf was threatening him. He tossed the knife up into the air.
“HEY CONGRATS!” Marius narrowly dodged the bald as Fria tumbled out of a ceiling vent.
“Congrats?” he responded, trying to think back on what they could be referring to.
“On the presumably happy couple. Man, really thought I’d win that bet… One more week…” She folded her wings neatly to her sides, but they kept flaring excitedly. Marius had been getting better at reading emotion from wings, having spent a fair amount of time around Lyf. Psychoanalysis was an evolving art.
“Couple? Bet?” Fria stilled completely.
“Oh shit you don’t know.”
“Don’t know what.”
“Nothing! Got to go!” Turning completely around, she lifted off into the air.
“Fria what don’t I know?” Marius rose from the couch to follow her.
“Nothing! Bye Marius!” With that, they disappeared back into the ceiling of the Aurora.
——
“Lyf you're an idiot.”
“How did you get in here?” Fria hopped out of a ceiling vent they swore hadn’t been there until now. They would have noticed if there was a vent directly above their desk.
“Aurora helped,” she responded, brushing the dust from her skirt. “I’ve got an important message.” Lyf arched an eyebrow.
“Go on…”
“Marius doesn’t know what a courting dagger is.” Lyfs’ mind went blank.
“What. How? He gave me one! You were there!”
“I know! But somehow he missed the meaning?” Her wings fluttered behind her, a sign of bafflement. “I don’t understand how he did it, but somehow in the sixty or so years he spent on Midgard he missed it! I don’t know how he managed!”
“ Sigyn… ” Lyf ran a hand back through their hair.
“You always fall for the dumb ones huh.”
“I do not.”
“Prove me wrong then,” she crossed her arms, smirking at them. Lyf opened their mouth to respond, then thought for a minute.
“Raphaella’s not dumb”
“I saw her drink an entire beaker of hydrochloric acid last week because she wanted to see what would happen.”
“...fair point.”
“Besides, you didn’t propose courtship to Raph. When are you going to tell him?”
“Tell him?” Somehow that thought hadn’t crossed Lyf’s mind. Tell him? It’d taken enough convincing to get them to give Marius the dagger in the first place, they couldn’t even imagine explaining what it meant. They thought he knew.
“Someone’s got to. Do you really want to be stuck in courtship limbo for eternity?”
“If that’s the price I have to pay.” Fria looked exasperated.
“Whatever you say Lyf. I’ve got to be going, promised Toy I’d help it carve some teeth for our next stop. Peace.” On that pleasant note, they turned and walked out their door, leaving Lyf and their conflicting emotions behind.
——
Why were they both so dumb. Fria ran wingtips along the metal walls of the Aurora, trying to find the library. She had an important question for Ivy.
The archivist was, as per usual, buried under hundreds of neatly stacked books. Taking care not to disturb any, Fria flies over the wall of literature. Ivy looks up at them when they land.
“Hey Ivy how long do you think it would take Marius to make a knife?” Ivy slides a small slip of fabric into her book and closes it.
“To my knowledge of his skills, six days. Why?”
“Him and Lyf are morons.” Fria skims a couple titles slotted into the walls of the book enclosure. Ivy hums, moves to open her book again. “Do you think you and Raph could keep Lyf from the forge for a week?” Ivy nodded. “Sweet. Ima go find Raph quick, I’ve got a bet to win.”
——
“Marius Von Raum, we need to talk,” Fria said, landing on the couch beside him. He was still flipping the blade into the air hours after their first conversation.
“Full names now Fria?”
“I’m not about to use your dozen collected fake titles now am I. Anyway, Marius,” she clapped her hands together, “Important question.”
“Shoot,” Marius replied. Knowing Fria it could be something actually important- or she just forgot where the medbay was again.
“Do you love Lyfrassir Edda?”
What. That- what. Marius nearly opened his mouth to tell Fria where the medbay was when their question slapped him across the face. Did he love Lyfrassir Edda? Fria was clearly expecting an answer, but the words in Marius’s mind refused to consolidate.
“That’s what they were trying to tell you, you know? Well you don’t but- huh, how do I...?” Her face was scrunched in thought, or at least as scrunched as the metal plates allowed.
“They were trying to tell me they- they love me?” That can’t be right.
“Marius- full offense- you’re both incredibly stupid. Yes. Do you?” Did he? Lyf had been on the Aurora for centuries now, they were friends? Right? Friends… Something in the back of his mind told him that friends normally didn’t stay up till 3 AM, reminiscing over events long past, curled up in the mountain of blankets disguised as Lyf’s bed. Something told him that friends didn’t spend hours lost in each other’s eyes until Jonny walked in and shot someone. Something told him that painstakingly painting a cello for the day Fria declared as Lyf’s birthday wasn’t something Marius would have done for anyone else.
“I think I do…” He thinks he probably has for a while.
“Atta boy. Upsy daisy!” Fria hovered in the air above him. “We’ve got some work to do.”
“We’ve? Also what are we doing,” Marius said even as he let Fria pull him up onto his feet.
“I’ll explain down at the forge, it’ll make more sense.” She took off down the hallways of the Aurora, Marius shrugged and followed after her.
-----
“Okay so what do you know about Midgardian courting tradition?” Fria hefted one of Lyf’s tools in newly metal hands. They’d made a slight detour so they wouldn’t burn in the fire of the forge. As it was Marius was sweating his painstakingly applied eyeshadow off.
“Courting?” The large hammer Fria had been holding clattered to the ground.
“Okay, evidently I was right about you being a complete dumbass the first time around… Cool, cool cool.” She kicked the hammer up from the floor with her foot and leaned against it. “Thankfully, we’ve been to enough other planets for me to hopefully be able to explain this. Cause your only other option is Lyf and-” Marius shook his head frantically. “Yeah, that's what I thought.”
“Anway, courting. It’s kind of an inbetween? Like- hm. Dating isn’t as dedicated? Midgard was different from most of the planets we’ve been to in that way I guess. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a usually a romantic relationship just- casual like. It's pretty common to be ’dating’ multiple people as it isn’t recognized by the government? Midgardian governing bodies were weird about granting multiple marriage licenses, something about overpopulation. Anyway, it's a bit of a tradition to give people spoons for that? It was getting a little outdated though… Courting’s the actual ‘serious’ step? Essentially, committing but not legally yet… marriage was weird. Anyway, that one’s got the knife. Sorry, can’t exactly remember most of this clearly- it’s been a while.” Fria trailed off.
“Makes sense to me.” Marius thought back to the various guards of their cell proudly showing each other intricately engraved daggers and carved wooden spoons. He’d always assumed they were just threatening each other in friendship, like the crew of the Aurora did. Clearly he had been extremely off step.
“I’m glad. The daggers themselves are usually pretty cheesy. The rumor is that they represent giving your heart to someone, as they could use the weapon to carve it out of your chest. A little morbid if you ask me, but it is what it is,” she shrugged. “Which makes it absolutely hysterical that you gave Lyf one way back when.” They grinned, leaning forward against the end of the oversized warhammer.
“Shut up I was trying to be threatening.”
“Is that why it was covered in metallic flowers?” Fria really needed to stop being so observant. Out of all the things she would remember from Midgard…
“No comment,” Marius thought for a moment. “Did you ever get one?”
“Alright! Time to get started!” Fria swung the warhammer up onto her shoulder and walked away from him towards the furnace. Hm- that’s something to pick apart later.
----
“I don’t remember agreeing to this,” Lyf said as Raphealla attempted to connect them to various wires.
“You lost a bet with me a while back,” the scientist said, scribbling illegible notes on a whiteboard.
“When did I-” they hadn’t made a bet with her since- “Raphealla that was two millennia ago.”
“I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to cash in this particular debt.” Lyf groaned in frustration and sat down to make her life easier. Going against promises to Raphaella La Cognizi never ended well, but they had enough on their mind thank you very much.
“What are you thinking about inspector?” she questioned, looking at some sort of readout.
“Nothing much.” That was a lie.
“Sure…” Raphaella smirked. Lyf sighed. This was going to be fun.
----
Marius set the last gem in place in the dagger. It’d been a couple days and a lot of frantic running around to avoid Lyf but it was finally complete. Shifting malachite crystals were set into the blade, crystals Fria had deemed it's only redeeming feature. Granted, she wasn’t wrong. The thickness varied on a whim and the structural integrity of the dagger was questionable at best. But hey, he’d made it himself! They hadn’t exactly had another option, as the Aurora was decades away from the next star system.
“Well, think that’s the best we’re going to get.” Fria clapped him on the shoulder as the metal cooled. Granted, they didn’t have any experience as a smith either, but two minds were supposed to work better than one.
“Hey at least it looks like a dagger?” It really didn’t. Fria pulled a face.
“I think it’s the thought that counts anyway,” she patted his hand, “Think they’ll be in their room when that cools fully. Good luck not tripping over your words!” They winked at him and disappeared into the vents of the Aurora again.
——
Marius Von Raum knocked on the door of the ex-inspector Lyfrassir Edda’s room. In the other hand he held a small cardboard box. A moment later a very discontented Lyf opened the door.
“For the last time La Cognizi I’m not- oh. Hello Marius.”
“Good morning Inspector Lyf!” Lyf smiles a bit, laughing to themself.
“It’s well past three Von Raum.”
“What can I say, I’m feeling nostalgic.”
“Nostalgic to being in a prison cell?” they moved out of the door frame and moved backwards into the room, “What brings you here?”
“Got a gift for you,” he replied, following behind them. He held out the small box, which Lyf took.
“Really Marius, you didn’t need to-“
“I did. Open it?” Lyf gave him a questioning look and opened the box, sliding the lid off. Immediately upon laying eyes on the mockery of a dagger inside they froze with widened eyes. “I know it’s not the best, Fria tried to help and neither of us know shit about smithing, but I figured-“
Lyf grabbed both sides of his face and pulled him up into a kiss. Marius’ eyes shot open in shock before setting closed. Lyf’s wing wrapped around the two of them and Marius let his hands fall to their waist. Eventually he had to back away, Lyfs lung capacity was nothing to be laughed at. They were smiling softly at him.
“It’s perfect.”
“I highly doubt that.” Lyf laughed and kissed him again.
“I meant metaphorically dumbass.”
——
“adults” (14 members)
matchmaker: hey ashes
matchmaker: I won a bet for once >:)
match: and it’ll be the last