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“Stay still.” He moved her hair from her shoulders on to her back. In one hand he held a pair of metal scissors and in the other, a wooden makeshift brush that Jude had used since her youth. She watches his movements through the reflection in the mirror in front of her.
He reached forward to adjust her face, his stubborn ability to catch even the tiniest of uneven tilts. When his palm brushes against her skin, she flinches, laughing.
“Your rings are cold.” She grabbed the same hand, enclosing his frigid fingers around her warm ones. After letting them go, she put them back where they were. “There.”
With the faintest hint of a smile, he fixes the tilt and goes back to sectioning her hair. Combing the brush through her barely tangled hair, he keeps another hand on her head, making sure not to pull too hard. Seeing his true efforts, she spoke up.
“You know, I could still go get Tatterfell; she’d be done in only a few minutes.” He scoffed at her statement, eyes never leaving her now fluffy and untangled locks.
“As if anyone could be better at this than me. Now, how much do I cut?” He meets her gaze, moving the hair in his hand up and down at different lengths. “Maybe at your shoulders?” He smirked. “Or even shorter perhaps?”
Jude glared at him, “No. Keep it long. Just take the ends off.” He shrugged, moving back to getting the measurements right.
As he leaned down, the front pieces of his stark black strands hung over his eyes. She lifted an arm and pulled at them. He stilled, looking at her through the curtain of hair.
“We should take turns.” She said. For the fae, it took a lot longer than usual for their hair to grow and even when it did, it never looked less than silky and devoid of dead-ends. Still, she couldn’t help being curious and the sight of a worried Cardan brought a smile to her lips.
He kept his own shut, pretending to be wholly focused on the strands of hair between his fingers. The room was silent save for the little snip-snips every couple seconds. When he finished, his glittering in the candlelight eyes met hers in the mirror.
Running his hands through, and fluffing up the top, he fixed the hairstyle. She took a glance and nodded, noticing the cut pieces littering the floor around her. “What a mess.” She twirled the tips of her fingers and blew a wind that gathered each stray piece into a neat pile. She grinned at her progress with control.
“My magnificent Jude.” Seeing her use her new abilities was undoubtedly attractive. He loved when she smiled. When her lips would quirk up and the corners of her eyes would crinkles, causing her cheekbones to rise and a flush to show. He reached forward and took her face in his palm. The warmth of her skin against his was like sitting by a crackling fire after walking through a blizzard. He thumbed her bottom lip. She rolled her eyes, bringing up a hand. Smushing his face in her hand now, she waved it around.
“Don’t get soft on me, Greenbriar.” She tsked. Her grip loosened and he leaned down, keeping not even an inch between his lips and hers.
“I could never.” His gaze went from her eyes to her lips. Then suddenly, his arm grabbed something from behind her, on the top of the vanity. He leaned back, ever the tease. In his hold was a small tube of eyeliner. “One last touch!” He laughed airily at her reaction.
She huffed, not wanting to seem needy. Promptly closing her eyes, she felt him get close again. His moves were calculated, precise. He started from the bottom of her eye and went out, going back to connect the dark wing. His hand didn’t tremble once. When done with one side, he switched to the other one. Hearing him close up the tube, she spoke up, “Can I open them now?”
“Almost.” He replied.
Then his lips were on hers. They felt light at first, as if he wanted her to give a confirmation to continue. When he felt her lean closer, he kissed her with deeper feeling. Her hands sifted through the little hairs at the nape of his neck and he tilted her chin up. When they stopped, she kept her eyes closed and let her head drop. Her chest rose with silent laughs, and as she was about to scratch away an itch at the edge of her eyes, Cardan quickly blocked her hand.
“You’ll mess it up.” He said, shaking his head with a smile. She froze, hand hovering before moving over her mouth and falling into another fit of giggles. “Did someone give you something you shouldn’t have taken?” He asked, not used to her being so giddy—unless under the influence of a certain dangerous fruit.
She shook her head a no, hitting his arm at what he was suggesting. “Of course not.” She sighed, taking a deep breath and standing up. “I’m just finally realizing where I ended up in life. I am a Queen. The Queen in fact. And I am spending the evening with my husband, the cruel prince—now King, of my dreams.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “That would be a good thing, right?” Over time, Jude got better at using her words to describe her emotions, instead of making everyone around her assume what was going on in her head. Now, Cardan couldn’t get enough of her voice, even when she was upset with him for misplacing her favorite shade of mortal nail polish.
“Yes Cardan. It is a good thing. It’s always a good thing.” She walked from the window overlooking a spread of garden and foliage and took a seat on the edge of their much-too-large bed. Promptly standing up again, she stepped unto the fluffy comforter and took a few hesitant hops before deciding to go for it and jump on the bed. Sticking a hand out, she pulled up a confused but happy Cardan. Not worrying about the rumpled up sheets or the pile of responsibilities that needed to be handled tomorrow, they just spun and bounced around the top of the bed. Her newly cut hair flew everywhere, getting wilder by the second. Cardan’s usually put together locks were coming apart from each other, covering his eyes and falling in parts around his head.
Now fully tired and worn out, they stopped, taking deep breaths. Spreading her arms out, Jude opted for flopping back on the mattress. Cardan followed suit and when he was on his back, Jude flipped over so her body was over his. Her hair fell like a curtain around their faces, his lips were still parted from catching his breath. She smiled and let her body fall, now laying against his. His arms folded over her back and he could feel her heart beating along with his.
Placing a soft kiss on the top of her head, he recited the words from earlier in his head as she fell asleep on him. He couldn’t help agreeing, knowing every moment spent with her was “always a good thing.”