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“You’re doing great, Eda.”
“Certainly better than either of us.”
“Certainly better than Darius.”
“Oh, shut up, I’m trying to be motivational,” Darius huffs, shoving a hand in Raine’s face. “Besides, at least I have some semblance of a child. You have a group of rowdy twenty-somethings with flutes.”
“Folks, folks, you’re both gorgeous,” Eda laughs, moving Darius’ hand away from Raine’s face into her own. Oh, Titan, she’s missed this.
She leans back against Raine’s chest and sighs, relaxing at the feeling of their fingers working out the tangles in her hair. She runs a thumb along the back of Darius’ hand as he relents, a smile tugging at the corners of his eternally-pouting lips as Raine nudges against him good-naturedly. “I’m only kidding,” they amend, glancing between the both of them with a look that never fails to turn Eda into a tomato. “It’s nice to finally be able to have both of you here.”
There isn’t much time for these sorts of things now, not with the Day of Unity growing closer with every passing second. Eda wishes she could be as devil-may-care about it as she used to be, but somehow, parenting Luz and King has turned her into the responsible one. At least they’re safe now – Luz in the other room with her newly carved, certified Clawthorne blue jay, King rambling on to Steve about the numerous plans he’s concocted to find a time to play catch before the impending disaster.
She can only imagine how worried Darius and Raine are about their kid. “Darius wanted me to help him join our cause,” Raine had explained when Eda had asked about just what the Golden Guard was doing having a crisis in the middle of her house. “He’s – he’s a good kid, Eda. He deserves someone to look out for him.”
Eda wishes she’d stopped him back then, wishes she’d been able to prevent all this before it started, wishes Raine and Darius and the rest of their little rebellion didn’t have to wait in the belly of the beast for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot at killing it, wishes that –
“Eda,” Raine’s voice cuts through the cacophony of her thoughts, as soft and grounding as it's always been.
“That’s my name,” Eda opens an eye, finding the concerned faces of the pair above her staring back. “Don’t wear it out.”
“I mean it.” Raine tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, their fingers gracing across her face. Eda can see the unspoken implications of their words in the lines of their smile, the we might not get a lot more moments like this. “You’re doing the best you can.”
A moment passes, and as it does, Eda’s gaze shifts Darius-ward. He’s as welcome a distraction as Raine is, though she only knows him from the fact that he and Raine were something of a dynamic duo back at Hexside. His other hand is resting in the crook of Raine’s back as they lean against each other, exchanging good-natured banter in hushed voices. Darius isn’t half bad, Eda considers, pressing her lips to the back of his hand as she studies the way any stray cuts have been masked over with Abomination-skin. Any love of Raine’s is more than welcome to be a love of hers – and besides, she didn’t get that Thirty N’ Flirty shirt just for show.
“Would you two lovebirds happen to mind a little mood music?” Eda teases, cocking an eyebrow as she twirls a finger and her newly-retrieved mandolin lands with a soft poof in her lap. “I may not be up for full-on Bard magic, but I think I can still carry a pretty good tune.”
“Oh, of course,” Darius nods, taking his turn to kiss the back of Eda’s hand. “We could use someone like that around here, couldn’t we, dearest?”
“Oh, now you shut up,” Raine retorts, though Eda’s seen them hold back a grin enough to recognize it when she sees it.
Darius, apparently, recognizes it too, leaning forward to catch them in a fleeting kiss before relenting with a soft; “well, I suppose you aren’t the head of the Bard coven for nothing.”
“That’s more like it,” Raine laughs, before they nod back in Eda’s direction with equal fondness. “Go ahead, calamity.”
Eda nods and closes her eyes, letting go of Darius’ hand as her fingers fall across the strings of her mandolin. She inhales as she picks out the first few notes, exhaling as she settles into the gentle lull of the melody. It’s a familiar old tune, one that’s always made her feel a little bit better in moments like this, and she takes the song slow – following in step with the in-out-in-out of Darius’ breathing and the and steady drum of Raine’s fingers against her cheek.
She can’t quite call it peace. There are still Emperor’s coven scouts as far as the eye can see, no doubt a hair’s breadth away from uncovering them all. There’s a human girl who needs to go back home. There’s the end of the world in two days, if they don’t get lucky.
But hey – it isn’t all that bad for a start.