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***
"You know we could be done with this in a few minutes, right?" Superfish asked again. "If I used magic." He threw the apple in his left hand back into the air, catching it deftly as it came crashing back down.
DJ didn't turn away from where he was vacuuming up the dirt on the floor vigorously, but Superfish saw the barely there shake of his head. "Remember detention? I told you that it'd defeat the purpose of it if we used magic."
"But that was because it was a punishment," Superfish pointed out. He didn't see why that was relevant here.
That did make DJ pause, so Superfish paused too. The apple stopped mid-way in the air, and he plucked it out to take a bite.
The human world really did have delicious food. He was pretty sure that was his favorite thing about it.
Well, he sat up a little straighter as he saw DJ sit down on the chair next to the couch. Second favorite.
"I—um," DJ began. "It's just been a while since I cleaned up properly, you know?"
"I can tell," he smirked. "Even Aloo has gotten a little dusty, Dhananjay."
Aloo didn't stir at all at the mention of her name, and instead continued sleeping next to the room’s entrance blissfully.
"You fuckin—" DJ swore. It was good to know that all the intensity of yesterday aside, he was still so easy to rile up.
When DJ didn't respond with anything for the next few minutes, he got off of the couch and walked over to him. Moving the coffee table out of the way with a wave of his hand, he squatted on the floor right in front of him.
"Hey," he said, a little hoarsely. He wasn't sure how this worked, but it was worth a try. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," DJ replied sharply, still holding his head in his hands. A groan. "Sorry I—today is just not a good day for me."
Mhm. "Get up, then." He held out his gloved hand. "I'll help you clean up." DJ looked up and raised his eyebrows. "The human way," he added.
How difficult could it be? Human appliances were fairly straightforward in his experience.
***
It didn't take long for them to get into another argument.
"You can't just float the furniture to get it out of the way!" DJ yelled, sounding annoyed.
"Oh?" he asked, walking over to DJ so he could use his height properly. "I could float everything in the house, you know?" He grinned. "Give it a little makeover, even."
It seemed that he had reached DJ's limit today, because DJ just shoved him away. "Ugh. Just stop. You said you wouldn't use magic."
"And I'm not using magic to clean anything," he pointed out, shaking the vacuum in his right hand a little. "Your little vacuum is doing all the work."
DJ snatched the vacuum back, and just... walked away?
Superfish grimaced. He was pretty happy that they weren't constantly over each other all the time now that the core had gotten pretty comfortable inside DJ. But, it had made resolving disagreements a lot easier.
He glanced at where DJ was now vacuuming under the dining table.
He could still do that now, even if it felt a little odd.
He sighed. Might as well get used to it, he thought. Now that he had agreed with DJ that they were in this together.
And, he didn't like seeing him upset either.
He padded over softly to the dining table and took the vacuum out of DJ's hand. DJ squawked, but he didn't protest too much when Superfish shoved him onto one of the chairs.
"Okay. Out with it. What are you so worked up about?"
DJ groaned. "I'm not—" Superfish raised a palm to shush him. "In case you forgot," he smirked. "We have spent over a week messing around with each other, Deej." As expected, DJ blushed. "Don't go holding out on me now."
Before DJ could pull him into his lap and make him flustered, he sank down onto his knees and placed his hands on DJ's knees.
DJ stopped, settling his gaze onto where Superfish was now trying to rub them a little. DJ had done it for him before, and it had been nice.
"With everything that's happened," DJ said quietly. "I just feel like I've been ignoring the house. A lot." He looked away. "My mother—I don't remember much about her. But, she always kept the house clean no matter what. Made it feel like a home."
Oh. Superfish had never had parents—at least not in the way humans tended to. He hummed. There still was the beginning of an idea.
"What's one thing she used to do that you haven't done in a while?" he asked, rolling his right palm into a fist. "I'm quite skilled in most things, as you may have seen." DJ poked his chest with his pointer finger, but he did laugh a little. "I can help you do it."
He let DJ think about it for some time, content in tracing random patterns onto his knees. DJ had told him that that was something parents often did for their children, when he saw him do the same to Aloo. So if he was thinking about his parents... this would help, right?
"She always got up freakishly early in the morning," he said, sounding nostalgic. "I'd wake up and the whole place would already feel fresh. Every day, she'd draw a different pattern right up front." He held his hands at a short distance, palms facing each other. I'm talking about the space that leads up to the house."
"I got that," Superfish nodded. DJ continued. "It's a traditional thing. She used to make it with rice. I don't really know how that's done though."
Superfish got up, pointing a thumb at his own chest. "I can work with that," he said cheerfully. All it would take was some rice. With a few permutations, he was sure he could arrive at a fair recipe for it.
DJ looked up too, smiling. "Okay. Yeah. Let's try it out, Fish Boy."
***
These human creations weren't very different from potions, he concluded. The principle was the same. You went backwards from the finished product to try and come up with the ingredients you needed.
The paste needed to be soft—water, but not too much of it. It needed to be even—pressure. DJ pulled out a machine for the second one, calling it a blender.
He felt warm as he watched DJ scoop up the paste into a small container. But... it wasn't a bad feeling. Far from it really.
"So," he started, passing the container DJ had handed him repeatedly between both hands as they walked to the door. "What kind of art did she draw?"
DJ opened the door for them with one hand, holding a small pail in the other. "Mostly a bunch of lines and curves? It was kinda geometric, I think."
Geometric. Mhm. That shouldn't prove difficult at all. Drawing glyphs was second nature to him. All he'd need to do was tweak the designs a little.
But, he paused in the doorway. Would that be similar enough to what DJ wanted? A reference could be useful.
He tapped DJ's shoulder. DJ straightened up, and it seemed he had been hard at work washing the space where they'd be drawing the pattern.
Noticing what he was looking at, DJ explained. "She used to wash the place up every morning before the sunrise." It was close to afternoon now, but he figured it still counted.
"Do you have any references?" he asked DJ. "It would give me some idea of what you want me to draw."
DJ shook his head. "No." He rubbed at the back of his neck a little. "I was... well..."
Superfish looked at him expectantly.
"I was thinking that we could come up with something ourselves." Fair enough. "And you could hold my hand and guide me through it. So we could draw it together." And then he smiled again, one of his sincere and soft smiles, that always made Superfish feel a little like he was on fire.
"Okay," he felt himself reply, a little breathless.
"Yeah?" DJ asked, sounding a little like he was teasing him. "You'd like that?"
More than anything. But, he wasn't about to phrase it that way.
He just hummed, and hoped his face didn't look as hot as it felt.
***
DJ's fingers were a little thicker than his, but still so easy to wrap around. His palms were rougher too. And his back felt so warm against his chest.
It reminded him of when DJ had taught him how to skip stones.
He hoped he was treating DJ just as gently as DJ had treated him.
They worked quietly, dipping their fingers into the white paint every now and then. At some point, DJ pressed a cold and wet finger on his cheek, so he did the same back.
The pattern didn't look like much. It even reminded him a little of snowflakes. But, it did look like something they had done together.
"Come on," DJ called out. He had straightened up, and was now holding out his speckled-with-paint hand. "Let's make lunch. We can finish cleaning up after that."
He took the hand being offered to him, and was suddenly pulled into a hug. "What are you—" he wheezed out, still more than a little unused to this easy affection.
"I love you, Superfish."
Oh. His face was definitely on fire now. "Me too," he replied slowly, trying to test the words on his tongue. They were coming easier everyday.
DJ's hair tickled against his face softly, and he smiled into his shoulder.
He could see himself doing this forever.
***