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Eret's hands shake as she forms the words in the air.
"Yeah, yeah like that!" Foolish mimics her actions, except his movements are so crisp and clean and certain, and it makes Eret feel like she'll never catch up. "That's the most common kind of greeting, but if you're more familiar with someone, it's like this," his hands move across the air in a similar shape, except there's a different kind of flick at the end, "and then if you don't like someone and need to let them know you greet them like this," and he creates the same forms with his hands as the familiarity but leads with a different twist in his fingers.
Oh fuck. That's only two new signs and that's a lot.
Eret tries to copy the familiar greeting, except she can feel her hand not move quite right. She tries again, but she can't get it quite right-
"That's good!" Foolish beams at her, and it half-quells the frustration coalescing in her chest. "Don't stress too much about being perfectly exact, okay? What's important is getting the general feel and shape. Very little of this, this type of sign can be misinterpreted for small reasons. It's kind of like Nether sign in that respect!"
Sometimes, she swears he can read her mind.
"Show me the 'I hate you' one again?"
Foolish does, and Eret mimics it. She definitely gets the finger twist wrong, gets it more wrong when she tries again, and the hot feeling in her chest is almost painful.
"Ooh, that's a good in-between for, like, frenemies!" Foolish copies her movements. "Move a little harsher to get that real 'fuck you' energy."
Eret does, and she still doesn't feel like she's getting it, but Foolish smiles at her like she's made every movement perfect.
"You said this was for immortals, yeah?" She does the basic greeting again, practicing the words over and over.
Foolish watches her encouragingly. "Yeah, immortals and their families mostly."
"I'm not immortal. We're not family."
"You've been alive for a very long time, from what you've told me. You could be immortal and just not know." Foolish's smile hasn't dropped, just shifted. "And, well, I'd consider you family. Not in a like concrete you're-my-sibling way, just in a. Y'know. Family."
Eret blushes. She's not quite sure why. "I've never really had a family before."
And oh, Foolish smiles. He smiles like the world is being born anew. He smiles like there's nothing else he could ever imagine doing. He smiles like he's meeting her for the first time all over again.
"We could be family!" Foolish says, and he says it like it's the only thing that matters. "Oh, here, let me show you the sign for family," and his hands are forming words in the air again.
Eret tells herself, reminds herself, she can do this, and raises her hands to repeat after him.