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Gorgug is staring. Zelda isn’t looking at him, but she’s been on the receiving end of his imploring looks enough times that she recognizes the silence aimed at her back, and can picture the wide eyes that accompany it. She actually kind of likes it when Gorgug stares at her; so many people are thrown off by her goat-like pupils that they spend full conversations dutifully looking anywhere else but her eyes. But Gorgug, with his own unique irises, had always made a concerted effort to make eye contact, probably out of his own anxiety. Zelda thought it was endearing, if not a little funny.
But, sometimes when Gorgug stared, it wasn’t in a, wow-you’re-my-girlfriend kind of way, but more of a, words-are-hard-so-maybe-if-I-stare-long-enough-I’ll-develop-telepathy sort of thing. Zelda suspects this time was of the latter sort, since his silence has stretched into a few minutes at this point.
She’s holding her tongue, keeping her focus on the small, circular mirror in front of her as she continues to apply her eyeliner. Before falling silent, Gorgug had been playing around on a travel-size drum kit while Zelda had been doing her makeup, but his tentative noises of percussion had slowly quieted, and eventually stopped altogether, as his gaze on her back intensified.
Zelda briefly looks up to catch a glimpse of Gorgug behind her in the mirror. She feels a squeeze of affection in her chest as she sees her boyfriend watching her from the bed, holding his knees against his chest, looking entirely like the picture of anxiety. She catches his eye in the reflection and smiles, putting the eyeliner down onto her desk. She swivels around in her chair to look at him more directly.
“You okay?” Zelda asks. Gorgug now pointedly looks at the floor, and shrugs. “Do you, uh, wanna talk about it?” she tries, and gets another shrug in return, but with just enough conviction behind it that she nods, and gets out of her chair.
Before moving to the bed, she grabs her crystal and connects it to the black speaker positioned on her nightstand, deciding that whatever conversation is about to happen might benefit from some background noise to alleviate the tension in the room. She picks something softer than her usual music, a recommendation from Jawbone, actually, who had recently introduced the idea of music-based therapy to the students of Aguefort. Zelda, who usually gravitated toward metal for its general rage-inspiring qualities, had been experimenting with playlists for calmer moods, like the one she chooses now, entitled “Relaxing Instrumental Music.” She hits play and the thin notes of a violin fill some of the silence around them.
With the music playing, Zelda tosses her crystal aside and climbs onto the bed, settling next to Gorgug. He still isn’t looking at her, so she considers the side of his face for a moment, before asking, “So, like, what’s up?”
Gorgug worries his bottom lip for a moment, and briefly glances at her, before looking away again. He inhales deeply, and seems to force himself to start talking. “I don’t know, just, like. This probably sounds stupid, but, like, do you ever think about how big I am?” he finally blurts out, immediately looking over at her.
Zelda pauses. She keeps her expression neutral as she considers his question for a moment. “I mean, I guess?” she begins, but when Gorgug’s already pained expression worsens, she sputters a bit, saying, “but like, only because I think it’s, uh, hot?” she says, blushing. Gorgug looks confused, now, more than anything, so she makes another attempt to save herself.
“Like, sometimes I’m like, ‘Wow, my boyfriend is so big, and, like, strong, and super good at throwing people around and stuff,’” she finishes, her face hot.
Gorgug seems to consider this, as she silently attempts to regain some composure. Seeing him grow quiet again, Zelda continues, “But, like, why do you ask?”
She watches Gorgug as his head droops a bit, his gaze aimed down at his knees. “I don’t know,” he starts, “I guess, recently. Like, in barbarian classes and everything, and the stuff Porter says, and also the other guys, I just feel like I’m just...big. Or, like, big, and violent, and supposed to be strong and tough all the time because I’m a barbarian, and part Orc, or whatever.”
Zelda hums a bit at this, in thought. “Well,” she asks, “do you not want to be big? Or, like, tough and strong or whatever?”
She watches Gorgug’s face as he processes her question. He squints a bit at whatever he’s thinking about, and opens his mouth as if to speak, before closing it again. Zelda waits as he opens his mouth again, and pauses, before saying, “I think...uh...I don’t mind that I’m big? Except for how my bed keeps breaking. But, like, I guess I mind that people want me to be tough all of the time, ‘cause, like, if I wanted to do things that, uh, weren’t, like, tough or something...people would think I’m weird?”
Zelda tilts her head a bit inquisitively, her bangs falling out of her eyes. “Oh,” she replies, “like what, uh, kinds of things?”
She sees Gorgug blushes at this, his ears tinging a dark green. He closes his eyes. She tries to think of a comforting gesture, and rests her hand on his forearm. He looks up at this, meeting her eyes for the first time since they’d started talking. She tries to make her expression as open and encouraging as possible, but isn’t sure how much Gorgug picks up through his panic.
“I don’t know, uh...” Gorgug starts, his voice strained. “I mean, maybe I could, like, wear some makeup? Like, maybe you could do my makeup?” he asks very quickly. Zelda raises her eyebrows in surprise, and Gorgug cuts her off before she can say anything, “Oh, actually, that’s stupid. I didn’t really, mean that. Um, I was just joking-”
“That’s not stupid!” Zelda says, stopping him mid-sentence. Gorgug shuts his mouth, and Zelda immediately regrets interrupting him. “Sorry,” she says, “keep going.”
“You don’t think that’s stupid?” Gorgug asks.
“Uh, no, not really. Why would it be stupid?”
Gorgug furrows his brow. “Uh, I don’t know. Isn’t makeup, uh, a girl thing? Or, like, it’s not tough?”
Zelda peers up at him through her bangs. “Well, no, I think, like, a lot of people wear eyeliner. I don’t wear it ‘cause I’m a girl, it’s just, like, something I saw singers or musicians do, and also, like, my family wears makeup for battles and dances and stuff.”
“Oh,” Gorgug says, looking surprised. “Like, even your dad?”
“Yeah, totally. He has to help my mom, actually, ‘cause, like, she sucks at it. It’s an old tradition, I think, from, like, ancient times.”
“Oh,” Gorgug says, again. He thinks for a moment. “Even if they’re barbarians?”
“Yeah,” she says, “I don’t think that, like, matters? Like, I’m a barbarian, but nobody, uh, nobody cares if I wear makeup. But, um...” she trails off for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “Are you, maybe, more worried because you’re a boy? ‘Cause, like, some of the stuff about being ‘big’ kind of, like, sounds like it could be about that, too, maybe.”
She watches as Gorgug unfolds his knees from his chest, and falls back onto the bed. He lays there for a moment, before saying, “Maybe. I don’t know. Do I have to know?”
Zelda scoots closer to him. “No, not yet. Or, ever, I think. But, like, boys can do things like this, you know? Like, I’m pretty sure that Fabian gets his eyebrows done with Fig.”
Gorgug kicks his feet a bit, looking restless. “Yeah, but like. Fabian is pretty, like he’s a pretty boy. You know? Like, that’s fine. Nobody thinks it’s weird.”
Zelda starts at this. She looks at Gorgug, his arm flung over his face, whether to shield himself or just generally expressing his despair, she’s not sure. She moves closer, and grabs onto his arm, pulling it away from his face. Gorgug, whose eyes were closed, startles and looks up at Zelda, hovering over him, hair falling into both of their faces.
“Gorgug,” Zelda says, very close, “you don’t think you’re pretty?”
Gorgug seems uncomfortable, with their closeness, with the question, with everything. “Uh, no... not really. I’m a barbarian.”
Zelda squints at him. “But, like, you really are.”
Gorgug rolls his eyes. “You’re just saying that, ‘cause, like, you’re my girlfriend and you have to.”
“No, I’m not,” Zelda says, an uncharacteristic firmness creeping into her voice. “Like, lots of people at school think you’re cute. And pretty. Like, your friends. And, uh, the Maidens,” She thinks for a second, and adds, “And Ragh.”
Gorgug blushes even harder at this, and looks away. Zelda makes a mental note of his reaction, and tables it for later.
“Whatever,” he says, “that doesn’t mean people wouldn’t think I look stupid if I, like, wore makeup or something.”
Zelda makes a noise of hesitation. “I don’t know, Gorgug, like, people like you, obviously, and your friends are popular and, um, loud, but like...I don’t think people care that much? Like, people wouldn’t even notice, maybe.” She watches Gorgug mull this over, and moves to lay next to him, propping up her chin with her hand. She adds, “Also, you could just try it out here? Like, with just me.”
Gorgug falls silent at this. Zelda racks her brain for anything she learned at Kristen and Ragh’s Rainbow Meetings on how to be supportive in situations like this. Mostly she just remembers Kristen’s accidental attempts at indoctrinating club members into her new religion. And Riz throwing up after eating an entire meeting’s worth of pizza. But, Gorgug’s friends are definitely supportive, if not chaotic.
“I think, um,” she begins, “these things can be only for you? Like, you can wear makeup, or do whatever, just for you, and not, like, for other people? And you can start with doing it at home, maybe, and you don’t need to even worry about school, yet. Or ever?”
Gorgug turns his head to look at her. “You think? Like, I don’t have to tell my friends? Or show them?”
Zelda nods. “Yeah, I think so. But, like, you can change your mind, too.”
“Um...” Gorgug turns his head away, again, and looks up at the ceiling. “Well, maybe, would you do my makeup, then? Just to try it, I guess. If you think that’s okay, and, like, not stupid, or something.”
Zelda smiles. “Sure,” she says, pushing herself up a bit so that she can lean over Gorgug again. She gives him a small kiss, just missing his mouth, so she kisses some of the fang which peeks out of his bottom lip. He smiles back, shyly, his fangs showing entirely.
Zelda sits up and figures out where she discarded her crystal. Retrieving it from the covers, she puts on a different playlist, also a recommendation, but this time from Ostentatia. It consists mostly of songs in Dwarvish, but Zelda thinks Gorgug will appreciate the amount of drums and percussion.
She chooses a song from the playlist, and a rich, tenor voice begins to sing in Dwarvish over a low, methodic beat. As she puts her crystal down, she sees Gorgug nod his head a bit to the music, and she smiles to herself.
Heading to her desk, Zelda looks over her modest makeup collection. She doesn’t think she should use her battle eyeliner, since it’s meant to withstand sweat and water, and if Gorgug hates his makeup, she doesn’t want it to be hard to take off. She picks up the pencil liner that she was applying on herself earlier, along with a small eyeshadow palette containing some neutral and green shades, and mascara. Grabbing some various brushes, Zelda pauses as she considers lipstick. She decides on a dark shade, which Fig had gifted her, and arranges everything in her arms.
Gorgug, who had moved himself up into a sitting position against the pillows, eyes her fearfully as she walks back to the bed. Zelda is tempted to make a joke about being scared of a little makeup, but decides that would be entirely unsupportive. Instead, she dumps all of her materials and tools onto the bedspread, and climbs onto the bed.
Sitting directly across from Gorgug this time, Zelda sits with her legs crossed, looking up into Gorgug’s face. He looks back at her, worrying his lip. She hums for a second, taking in the black and white pieces of hair that fall into Gorgug’s eyes, and pulls a hair tie off of her wrist. Gorgug pulls his head back a bit as she reaches for him, so she pauses.
“Sorry,” he says, “uh, I just. What’re you doing?”
Zelda pulls her hands back. “Oh, um, it’s just, your hair is in your face. And I need your face to do the makeup on.” She looks at the hair tie she’s holding. “My mom bought me these, ‘cause she thinks my hair should be, like, out of my face more. Which, I’m like, c’mon mom, it’s not cool that way.”
Gorgug huffs out a little laugh, and lowers his head a bit, so that Zelda can reach over and pull the front pieces of his hair back into a small ponytail. When Zelda’s done, he lifts his head back up, and looks at her, trying to read her expression.
Zelda thinks he looks cute, but she also just likes being able to see more of his face, which is generally cute all over. Gorgug seems happy with whatever he sees on her face.
“Um, this might be helpful, actually, for band practice. And bloodrush practice,” he says, “I get, like, really sweaty and my hair gets sweaty, too.” He cringes. “Sorry, um. That’s gross.”
Zelda looks at him funnily, and asks “Do you, like, have to take your shirt off for band practice?”
Gorgug says, seriously, “Uh, yeah, sometimes. But, like, Fig says most drummers play shirtless, so, it’s like-” he stops, realizing that Zelda is smiling at him. “Oh. Uh...” he trails off, beginning to smile a little in return. They sit in their mutual fondness for a moment, until Zelda breaks it to grab some of the makeup.
“Okay, so,” she says, opening the eyeshadow palette, “um, I don’t do a lot of makeup, like, on anyone besides myself? So, I can do, like, what I do on myself? Unless you want something different?”
Gorgug knits his brow in contemplation. “Um...I think, I like what you do? Maybe, like, actually, hold on-” he takes out his crystal from his hoodie pocket, and types something in. Scrolling for a bit, he turns the crystal around and shows Zelda a picture on its face. She recognizes the person in the photo as a musician from some of the playlists Gorgug’s made for her, a young Tiefling with curling horns and a studded collar.
She looks closer and studies his face; his eyes are lined tightly, and his eyeshadow, warm shades complimenting his dark red skin, sweeps around his eyes almost like bruises. It’s grungy, Zelda thinks, artfully and intentionally messy-looking. But pretty.
Zelda gives Gorgug his crystal back, nodding. “Alright, um, I think I can do that.”
Gorgug pockets his crystal, and leans back against the pillows. Zelda, as she swirls her brush in a shade a little bit darker than Gorgug’s skin, notices how anxiously he is fidgeting his hands. She pauses for a moment, and puts the palette and brush down. She sits forward, and takes Gorgug’s hands in hers, feeling them tremoring faintly.
“Here,” she says, and she tucks her legs under herself so that she’s kneeling close to his lap. She takes his broad hands and moves them to rest on her waist. Gorgug looks faint, but not afraid, she thinks, and she picks the eyeshadow back up.
Taking Gorgug’s chin with her hand, she tilts his head down. As she lifts her brush, he scrunches up his face in anticipation. She laughs a little, and tries to smooth out his brow with her free thumb.
“You have to, like, super calm your face down,” she tells him, fondly. Zelda watches as he attempts to fix his face into an expression of serenity. He’s not successful, she thinks, but it’s better, and at least his eyes are closed.
She begins to apply the eyeshadow to his eyelids, swirling it all the way under his eyes. Around the two of them, a new song begins and fills the room with thrumming harmonies, and Zelda feels some of the tension leave Gorgug’s frame. Slowly, she layers darker eyeshadow shades onto Gorgug’s lids, deliberately sweeping the pigment around so that it looks almost smudged.
Gorgug’s hands cling to Zelda’s hoodie, but eventually lose most of their tremor as he processes the painless experience. His quietness is interrupted, momentarily, when Zelda gets some black shadow on Gorgug’s cheekbone. She licks her finger and wipes it off, making Gorgug open his eyes at the sensation. She’s met with a dark, questioning gaze that’s so genuine she has no choice but to laugh, causing his expression to grow even more confused.
Still laughing to herself, Zelda discards the eyeshadow palette and picks up her eyeliner, uncapping it. She turns back to Gorgug, who looks expectedly panicked, and explains, “Um, you need to keep your eyes, like, open for this. Sorry.”
Gorgug still looks alarmed, but resigned, and turns his gaze up to the ceiling. Zelda takes the liner and begins applying it to his upper waterline, apologizing as she goes; Gorgug, to his credit, sits beneath her pencil stoically. Zelda moves the pencil to his lower waterline, and gently touches the soft skin of his under eyes as she darkens her lines.
Once she’s done with the eyeliner, Gorgug blinks a few times in relief. Zelda next picks up the tube of mascara, and takes a second to think about how she’s going to apply it. Gorgug, she’s noticed, has very long eyelashes. He stares up at her from the place in the pillows he’s sunk to. For a moment, Zelda pictures the embarrassing expressions her and the Maidens have to make whenever they put on mascara, and she frowns.
“Uh, is something wrong?” Gorgug asks, breaking her line of thought.
“Oh,” she says, “no. I think you should, like, look at the ceiling again?”
Gorgug dutifully does so, and Zelda positions the mascara wand under his lashes.
“Okay, uh, now blink,” she tells him, and he again obeys, blinking his lashes onto the wand.
Zelda quietly feels triumphant, seeing that her plan has worked and Gorgug’s eyelashes are darkened and defined. She methodically repeats her commands, and applies mascara to his top and bottom lashes, until Gorgug’s eyes are fully made up.
She sits back onto her hooves, for a moment, and regards Gorgug in front of her. Gorgug’s hands fall into his lap, and he commences fidgeting almost immediately.
Gorgug looks pretty. Gorgug looks really pretty. His already dark eyes have been intensified by the shadow around them, making his white irises seem starker. Zelda thinks he looks better than the Tiefling singer. Less mean, more pretty.
Seeing Gorgug is growing anxious under her gaze, Zelda asks, “Do you, like, want to look now? Or, do you want, like, lipstick?”
Gorgug, ironically, bites his lip in consideration. “Um...” he begins, “I’m not really sure. I don’t know. Like, I don’t know if I want lipstick, really? Is there any other sort of, uh, like, thing left to do?”
Zelda absently taps the brush she’s holding against her chin, thinking. “We have, like, different skin tones so I can’t use any of my other products on you. So, I could do, like, lipstick, or, uh-” she quickly looks around her room. Her eyes land on her nightstand, where she spots a tube of black nail polish. “Oh!” she remarks, and reaches over Gorgug to grab it.
Sitting back down, she shows Gorgug what she’s found. He sits up, and Zelda watches an expression of interest spark on his face as he takes the tube and turns it over in his hands. He chews on the inside of his cheek while he studies the label.
“Would you, uh, paint my nails? Is that okay?” Gorgug asks, looking up at her earnestly.
Zelda nods quickly. Gorgug nods in return, and hands the tube back to Zelda.
She takes his hands, once again, but this time rests them on the coarse fur covering her knees. “You have to, like, keep your hands pretty still, okay?” she tells him, “I’ve only painted my little cousins’ nails, and they’re all, like, seven, so they don’t care if it sucks. But, like, I want yours to be good, you know.”
Gorgug smiles a bit, his fangs showing, and Zelda thinks it maybe would’ve been hard to apply lipstick around those. But, it doesn’t matter now, since she’s uncapping the nail polish, swirling the brush around to coat it.
She takes the brush out and begins coating Gorgug’s nails in black, unused to the amount of surface area she has to cover. She takes his right hand so that she can move it around, getting his thumbnails, and realizes she can feel his pulse hammering at his wrist. Zelda circles her hand more tightly around his wrist, and quickly kisses Gorgug’s palm, before putting it back onto her knee and moving onto his left hand. Gorgug must have been holding his breath, because he exhales quietly.
Zelda finishes, and looks down to survey her handiwork. It doesn’t look bad, she thinks, with the exception of one or two fingers that have polish on the cuticles. She remembers Sam telling her about cosmetic spells that she and Penny use for cleaning up nail polish, also for drying it faster, but Zelda resigns to waiting the non-magical way.
Gorgug lifts his hands up from Zelda’s knees, rotating and twisting them around to see the polish from all angles. His mouth is open in a sort of absent-minded grin as he wiggles his fingers a bit, and looks up at Zelda.
“Um, it looks really, uh, good, Zelda,” he says to her, and she rolls her eyes in mock humility, smiling all the same.
She caps the polish, and gathers it up with the rest of the makeup scattered around them on the bed. Clambering off, Zelda dumps everything back onto the desk, where she retrieves the small mirror she had been using earlier.
Catching a quick glimpse of herself, she realizes she has streaks of green eyeshadow accidentally brushed across her chin and nose.
Walking back to the bed with the mirror in hand, she brandishes it slightly toward herself. “Uh, you didn’t tell me I had, like, eyeshadow super all over my face,” she says, in a lightly teasing way.
Gorgug stops admiring his nails to look at her, the lingering smile on his face returning. “Oh, uh-” he starts, “I didn’t notice?”
Zelda smirks, and climbs back onto the bed. “Yeah, sure. I think you just, like, think I look super good in green, actually.”
Gorgug looks slightly abashed, but not at all guilty. “I like it,” he admits, “it’s awesome. Like, uh, war-paint?”
Zelda accepts that in stride, then remembers something, and quickly leans forward, causing Gorgug to look up in alarm. She reaches behind Gorgug’s head, and pulls the hair tie loose, so that his front pieces fall back into place, framing his face in a shock of white and silver streaks.
Then, Zelda gives him the mirror. He takes it, and after a moment, seems to suddenly remember the makeup on his face. He lets out a small gasp, bringing the mirror closer to his face.
Zelda watches Gorgug’s eyes dart to every part of his tiny reflection, taking in the full look. He shifts the mirror to one hand, so that he can bring his other up against his face, to see the nails alongside the makeup. He looks happy, with any lingering hesitation quickly fading.
“So, like, what do you think?” Zelda asks.
Gorgug continues to look at himself in the mirror for a few lingering moments, before facing her. He opens his mouth, pauses, and glances back at his reflection a couple more times.
“I, uh...” he begins to say, his eyes fixed on the mirror. He looks up, “I really like it,” He looks back down, “I look...pretty.”
Zelda feels her chest squeeze with affection, once again. She nods, “You totally do. Like, prettier than most of the girls at school, even.”
Gorgug looks like he wants to roll his eyes, but blushes under the weight of the compliment, instead. Zelda sees an opportunity, and keeps going.
“Like, I watched this movie about sirens once, and like, they’re super beautiful and sailors kill themselves over it or whatever, and, like, I think I might do that right now,” she says. She pauses for a second, then adds, “Like, for your beauty, you know.”
Gorgug looks at her. Zelda remembers a turn of phrase from one of her parents’ old movies: Gorgug is looking at her like she hung the moon. She rubs one of her horns as she looks away, face glowing. Gorgug seems to collect himself, too, and gives his reflection one last glance before putting it down onto the bed.
“You wanna, uh, take some pictures?” he asks Zelda, still getting her facial temperature under control.
She cocks her head a bit. “Like selfies?”
“Yeah, um,” Gorgug says, suddenly looking around, “my parents gave me this, uh, vintage crystal? Like, from when they were in high school...uh, hold on,” he tells her, now rooting around next to the bed.
He eventually pulls out his backpack from where it had fallen, and retrieves an ancient-looking crystal, far clunkier than either of theirs. He hands it to Zelda as he zips his bag up, and she turns it over in her hands. She wonders what Gorgug’s parents looked like at their age.
“Gorgug, when did your parents, like, meet?” she asks, suddenly.
He zips it up, and faces her, his expression thoughtful. “Um...I actually don’t know? They’ve been together for way longer than they’ve been, like, married, I think,” Zelda hands the crystal back to him. “But my birth parents, um, they had me when they were younger than us, actually. It’s kind of crazy to think about.”
Zelda nods, feeling a little bad that she shifted the mood so drastically. She gestures to the crystal, “So, like, how do you take pictures, or whatever?”
Gorgug’s face brightens a bit at the opportunity to show her. He motions for her, and Zelda scoots over so that they’re laying side by side, slightly reclined on her massive pile of pillows.
He begins to point out all of the different components and mechanisms embedded in the crystal, which Zelda is sure nobody but the son of tinkers would care about. She lets his explanation wash over him, and watches his hands instead, enjoying the black nail polish that now adorns them. She decides to take one of his hands in her own, but realizes Gorgug stops talking when she does.
“Oh, uh-” she says, letting go of his hand, “sorry. What were you saying?”
He looks over at her, and grabs the hand she just pulled away. They sit there, for a moment, just holding hands and looking at each other, until Zelda realizes, a little too late, that Gorgug is slowly lifting up the crystal, and,
SNAP!
The crystal lets out a flash, and Gorgug laughs at Zelda’s shocked face, her mouth hanging open. She shoves his shoulder in mock annoyance as a slip of parchment somehow ejects from a slot in the back of the crystal.
“You’re, like, super annoying,” she tells him, “and I’m dumping you for, um...” she thinks about it for a second. Gorgug watches her, amused. “I’m totally dumping you for some other very cool, like, very pretty barbarian.”
Gorgug raises his eyebrows. “Uh, what? Who?” he asks. Zelda rolls her eyes.
“Whatever. Shut up. Let’s just take more pictures,” Zelda says, tucking her head into his shoulder. She feels Gorgug lean his head into hers, and he holds up the crystal again.
SNAP!
They take a series of photos, in increasingly ridiculous poses, pulling increasingly ridiculous faces. At one point, Gorgug pulls his hair into his face, mimicking Zelda’s heavy fringe. Zelda goes to protest, but instead attempts to part her hair down the middle, like Gorgug’s. She completes the look by jutting out her jaw just a bit, and Gorgug presses the shutter button.
SNAP!
They both grab at the photo as it falls from the crystal, but Zelda gets it first. She holds it up for them both to see: Gorgug, looking angstier than normal, what with his heavy makeup and hair in his face. And Zelda, looking...
“You look stupid,” Gorgug says, his eyes creasing at the edges, laughing.
“I, like, totally look like you, stupid,” Zelda retorts, shoving Gorgug again, harder.
The nice thing about both being barbarians, Zelda thinks, is how much more play fighting both of them could give, and take. Gorgug pushes Zelda back, and they fall into a brief tussle, marked by truly laughable shit-talking. Fairly quickly, though, they devolve even further into giggles.
Gorgug pulls the crystal out from where it slipped under them. He looks at it, and hums.
“Oh, we only have one photo left,” he says, turning to look at her.
“I guess, like, this one should count?” Zelda says, noticing Gorgug’s eye makeup has smudged a little bit beyond its intentional grunginess. She tries to clean it up with her thumb, but gets distracted by the way Gorgug is looking at her. She rests her hand on his face. “What?”
Gorgug shrugs. “Just looking,” he says. “But, uh, what should we do for the last photo?”
Zelda feels a spark of impishness, and moves her hand away from Gorgug’s face. “Uh, can I, like, see the crystal, actually?” she asks him, and he hands it over. She rolls closer into his side as she pretends to inspect some element on the device. “Wait,” she says, “guess what?”
Gorgug turns his head on the pillow to look at her. “What?”
Zelda leans forward to kiss him squarely on the mouth. Before he can react,
SNAP!
Zelda takes the picture, holding the crystal above their heads. She turns her head, collecting the photo from the back, shaking it slightly as the image develops. Gorgug lays next to her, stunned. Zelda hands him the photo.
“I think it’s super cute,” she says, resting her chin on his shoulder as he holds the photo up.
Gorgug composes himself, clearing his throat. “Yeah, uh...yeah.”
The small print shows Zelda, eyes closed, planting a kiss onto Gorgug’s mouth, his eyes open in shock. Zelda loves it.
They eventually sit up, and sort through their small pile of photographs. Most of them are either blurry, or entirely ridiculous, but Zelda pulls out three or four cute ones. She arranges them thoughtfully on the bedspread, and grabs her crystal to take a photo. Gorgug leans his head down to look over her shoulder as she works on her crystal.
“Uh, what are you doing?” he asks, and she shows him the social media post she’s drafting.
It’s a photo of their photos. Very meta, Zelda thinks. She realizes you can see Gorgug’s makeup very clearly, though, and turns her head toward him. “Oh, like, should I not post this? It’s totally, like, it’s totally up to you, you know, like this is your choice, and um, yeah, sorry, I should’ve asked earlier, actually-”
“It’s okay,” Gorgug says quickly, stopping her as she spirals. “You should, uh, post it, I think.”
“Oh, cool. Okay.”
“Yeah, uh...I think they’re awesome,” he finishes, with a genuine attempt at conviction.
Zelda bites her lip, smiling, and goes back to her crystal. She attempts to come up with a caption, and Gorgug quietly watches as she types out a number of options, but backspaces and deletes each one. She settles on a series of emojis: a goat, a heart, and a glam rocker. Zelda can feel Gorgug’s confusion emanating from her shoulder.
“The goat is, like, me,” she explains, “and the rockstar is you, ‘cause of your makeup. And the heart, is, like...” Zelda falters, her ears burning. “Uh, ‘cause I love you, so, like...” She hits send on the post before she can embarrass herself any further.
Gorgug wraps his arms around her, fully encircling her small frame in a very warm, very sturdy hug. Zelda relaxes into it as Gorgug rests his head next to hers, quietly saying, “Thank you, uh, you know. For this, for today...thanks.” He lifts his head momentarily to shake some hair out of his eyes. Glancing at her, Gorgug adds, “And like, I love you, too. Of course.”
The music Zelda had forgotten about had transitioned into some sort of moody, instrumental piece. She couldn’t place its genre, but just enjoys the slow strumming and movement. They sit and sway for the duration of the piece, until Zelda’s crystal pings with a notification. She picks it up off the bedspread, and unlocks it, to see a stream of notifications on her most recent post:
@figandthecigfigs: this is so cute Omfg
@figandthecigfigs: pls do gorgug’s makeup for our next show
@ragh.barkrock: can you remind gorgug we have practice today
@kristenapplebees_: awwww
@ragh.barkrock: can you remind gorgug please
@trackerjack: kristen told me to like this, but it’s so cute i don’t even mind!
@_ostentatia: so cute
@antiope.j: omgg <33
@antiope.j: thank u for blessing us <3
@gukgak.investigative.services: theres a oblin emoji missing from the caption btw
@gukgak.investigative.services: oblin
@gukgak.investigative.services: goblin
@gukgak.investigative.services: another mystery solved
@adaineabernant: Gorgug, you look very nice - Adaine A.
@figandthecigfigs: @adaineabernant adaine we can tell its u from ur username
@adaineabernant: @figandthecigfigs Fig, it is a signature and I do not know how to turn it off - Adaine A.
@penny.ls: hottieeezz ;)
@fabian_aramaris_seaacaster: why was I not invited to this???
@fabian_aramaris_seacaster: surely you have seen my cheekbones??
Zelda reads each comment out loud to Gorgug, eventually putting on different voices to denote each of their friends. Gorgug laughs accordingly, and squeezes Zelda even tighter as she turns her crystal off and leans back into him.
“See,” she says, “your friends, like, totally like the makeup!”
Gorgug huffs a laugh. “Uh, yeah, they totally do.”
From inside his hoodie, Gorgug’s crystal pings with a notification. He pulls it out of his pocket to unlock it and check the message.
“Oh,” he says, reading, “it’s just Ragh. He wanted to make sure I knew there was practice today.”
“Tell him we got his, like, 20 comments,” Zelda replies, tucking her knees into her chest as she watches Gorgug get up from the bed.
He stretches, and Zelda notes that he’s wearing the shirt which Riz chewed into a crop-top. As he stretches his arms up, Zelda casually observes the stretch of green skin revealed for just a moment, resting her chin atop her kneecaps.
Gorgug lowers his arms, and notices Zelda staring. “What?”
Zelda smiles, her jaw moving against her knees. “Nothing. Just, like, looking.”
Gorgug rubs the back of his neck self-consciously. “Uh, do you think I should, like, take the makeup off for practice?” he asks her, hovering a hand by his temple.
Zelda considers this, and replies, “Uh, I think, like, if you want to see if it can be barbarian-proof, like, maybe this is a good way to find out?” Zelda squints. “Because you’ll be...sweaty?”
Gorgug nods in agreement. “Can I take the, uh, hair tie with me?”
Zelda looks for it on the bed, and slingshots it straight at Gorgug’s head. He ducks, watches the tie land somewhere behind him, and turns back to Zelda. He seizes the opportunity, and leaps to pin her down.
Nose to nose, Gorgug stares at Zelda. Zelda stares back.
She lifts her head up, and kisses him. Gorgug kisses her back.
Someone’s crystal buzzes. Gorgug groans, and lifts himself up and off the bed. He multitasks, retrieving the hair tie from the floor and checking his crystal. From his bemused reaction, Zelda guesses it’s Ragh, again. Gorgug moves to collect his stuff and toss it into his backpack. Zelda watches from the bed.
Once packed up, Gorgug slings his backpack over a shoulder. He walks over to where Zelda is perched, looking up at him.
“Uh, call me later? Like, after practice?” Zelda asks.
Gorgug leans down to kiss her on the cheek. “Yeah, sure,” he says warmly, standing back up.
Zelda watches Gorgug’s back as he leaves, and falls back onto her bed, surrounded by their pictures.
She hears her crystal ping, hidden beneath the stack of photos. She pulls it out to see a new text from Gorgug. Unlocking her crystal, she reads:
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: One (1) Attachment - MP3
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: that’s a song i meant to show you
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: rockstar heart goat
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: sorry those were supposed to be emojis lol
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: i’m using voice to text lol
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: One (1) Attachment - JPEG
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: that's a selfie so you don't forget me
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: heart heart heart
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: lol
New text message, from “Gorgug <3”: love you
Zelda feels one last squeeze of affection, and begins typing her response.
---