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Jack loved new things. Loved experiencing new things. Finding new things was his favorite thing.
And this.
This was definitely new.
“What on earth are you doing?” he asked, leaning his head on the fold of his thin arms. The question wasn’t harsh or hard but filled with genuine curiosity and wonder as he watched her from his sprawl on their bed.
Sally paused with her lithe hands stilled against the scalp of her head. One delicate finger was tightly curled around a strand of yarn that stretched from its ball on her vanity surface and was matched up to a badly frayed one. The same one he had watched her undo with her thoughtful tugging and winding.
“Oh—it’s come unraveled, and I need to replace it,” she explained, turning in her vanity chair to face him instead of his reflection. The skeleton blinked at her before his head shot up and a look crossed his face. Sally smiled. She knew that look well. It was the same look from when he first watched her stitch up a separated limb. His gaze followed her as she lifted a pair of scissors and carefully snipped it to match the length of the rest of her hair.
“… can I help?” he eagerly asked, swinging his long legs over the edge of the bed.
Memories of tangled threads and giggling at his frustration before he finally managed a straight stitch made Sally’s crooked lips quirk into a crooked smile as she nodded.
The Pumpkin King laughed as he eagerly sprung from the bed and bounded beside her with a child-like glee. “Wonderful! What do I do?” he grinned, tapping his skeletal fingers together as he awaited instructions. Sally patted the vanity and he happily set himself atop it, kicking his feet as he did so.
“Hold this for me.”
He obeyed with a wide grin, carefully cradling the freshly cut yarn in his hands. “Okay, what next?”
“You wait for instructions,” she chided with a playful smile.
Jack laughed, but it caught in his throat when he watched her give the badly frayed and tangled string on her head a sharp tug. It came loose and fell gracelessly under gravity’s pull. He knew from experience that, due to her structure, Sally could feel no physical pain, but that never kept him from the swells of protective worry that swam over him any time she lost a limb or came undone.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she assured him with a soft pat to his knee.
He blinked at her. Once. Twice.
“Oh, I know that,” he coughed, straightening up against her mirror.
She wound up the discarded yarn with a cheeky smile, and the skeleton felt the worry fade as she tied it off and tossed it into the bin. Sally expertly parted her hair as she turned to face him again.
“Okay—tie off a small knot at the end,” she instructed, gathering her hair over her shoulder to keep it in place.
He obeyed with an eager nod, beaming at her smile of approval. She turned in her seat to grant him better access to the small notch on her head. “See the empty one? Slip it through there with this and it should hold,” she hummed, pointing to the little hook that sat beside the yarn ball.
Jack nodded to himself as he carefully laid his empty palm against her hair and smoothed over it with a thumb. His expression twisted thoughtfully as he carefully picked up the hook and examined it.
“… Um, Sally?”
“The knot sits in the hook,” she smiled.
“Ah, naturally. Thank you.”
She giggled, he smiled.
It took seven false tries, two of which almost held before tumbling away (with much mumbling on Jack’s part), before he laughed triumphantly.
“Ha ha! I’ve done it!” he crowed, brushing his fingers over it just to be sure. It held, and his wide smile grew.
Sally raked her own fingers through the hair before she nodded and grinned. “You did—thank you, Jack,” she complimented as she turned to face him again. The skeleton straightened up at the praise before he reached over to carefully rearrange the yards of soft red yarn, sweeping it from her face and over her shoulders.
His hands settled on her cheeks carefully before he dipped over and kissed her forehead gently. “Anytime,” he murmured.
The skeleton would have been more than happy to sit there with his ragdoll for the next foreseeable future, thin fingers tangling in her hair and learning more wonderfully interesting things about her.
But.
“Jack, our meeting starts in five minutes,” she softly reminded him with a pat to his chest.
He jolted back quickly, sparing a glance at the clock before he quickly jumped up from her vanity. “So it does!” He offered a hand to help her up to her feet, grinning as she quickly smoothed over his coat and straightened his skewed bat-tie.
Another quick kiss and their hands tangled together before they rushed out the door.
He loved learning new things. He loved that she would show him new things.
And he hoped she would never stop introducing new things to him.