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Sometimes, Fox calls Lux with her brain, because it's fun to do that, and invites Lux over for pizza and tons of sugar and sitting out on the porch and being still and quiet, or swimming in the heated pool at night. It's good stuff. That is what is occurring now -- everybody is off doing Things, or sleeping, or in Ukraine, and Fox has the run of the place, as long as she isn't too loud.
When Lux arrives and is rung up to the ridiculous penthouse in which Fox and his cadre live, the door opens on a Sight. It's always something with Fox, and today the something is:
1) a stack of pizza boxes
2) three large Insomnia Cookies boxes
3) two Undrgrrnd Donuts boxes
4) a stack of containers from Everything Pockets, the food cart that's all pierogies, pelmeni, dumplings, etc.
5) six ridiculously large cups with the Scoop de Ville logo on them. One of them looks like there's a pretzel sticking out of the straw-hole.
... and more...
... all sitting out on the living room table and the side tables.
"Hey gorgeous!" crows Fox's voice from the kitchen. "Everything just got here because I am a cheat who uses magic to figure out the exact best moment to hit 'order' in the app. The milkshake flavors are on the stickers on the sides of the cups!" She comes pap pap pap out of the kitchen, bearing paper plates and a roll of paper towels, beaming from ear to ear. "Happy Today!"
Weirdo.
Heated pool, pizza, sugar, and smooches? How could Lux resist? They show up bundled in a long thick coat, but as soon as they step inside the apartment it's shrugged off to reveal... well, it looks like Lux had dressed more for a beach night than a cold Philly night. Tiny bright pink speedo, a neon yellow wrap tied around their waist, and an unbuttoned horrendously bright-clashing colored hawaiian shirt, left open to show off their slim chest.
"Hey beautiful," Lux replies with a grin, but is quickly distracted by the feast of coma-inducing food, their brows raising. "Holy shit. Are you throwing a surprise party or is this all for us? Not that I'm complaining..." They step over and lean down to kiss them on the lips, a fond little smooch, before moving to scoop up one of the milkshakes to sip from. "Mm. Not too melty. It is perfect."
"Good golly," Fox sighs as the thick coat gets shrugged off. "I am the most luckiest fox that has ever foxed." She sets the plates down on the table, the roll of paper towels next to it, and scampers over to Lux, standing on tip-toe and flinging its arms around Lux's neck to receive their proper smooch-greeting. "No, this is all for us!" comes her chirrup. "I realized that um... we've been ... " a little hand-wave. "I dunno, you've been my best friend for almost like three years and we've been kissing for over a year and I never said anything about it so... "
So she ordered all of the carbohydrates in Philadelphia. "Tadah!"
"Oh. I..." Lux had hooked an arm around her waist, lifting her off her toes for a second--but not quite strong enough to hold her aloft more than a few seconds. Still, the arm remains snug. They stare at the boxes with a look of someone unsure if they've forgotten something important or not. "So like... anniversary surprise? Or just celebrating us? Either way--sorry, I should have brought something." He turns back to her, pressing a kiss to her temple. "This is an amazing, sweet, perfect surprise though."
She squeals when she's lifted off the ground, peppering their face with kisses in the moments aloft. "Um, yeah, kinda! But mostly the latter," Fox reassures, petting her stubby little fingers happily on the back of their neck. The blush when she's kissed on her temple is bright and brief on her pale skin.
Normally when people say things like "You brought you, and that's all I asked for," it comes across as like, super fucking goofy and sometimes really trite, but Fox stares up at them with those huge, guileless golden eyes when she says it as sincerely as if introducing this particular Darkling to the concept of sugar for the first time. Hold on to your butt, I'm gonna lay some real knowledge on you. That level of sincerity. This utter dork. "One of the milkshakes is truffle triple chocolate with chili and pretzels, you have to try it, all of the flavors like wrestle for dominance on your tongue."
Lux's smile softens at the reassurance, nodding in understanding. But then Fox is tempting them with a cacophony of flavors, and they cannot turn down that call. "What the heck!" The cup they had picked up is set down, so they can pick up the mentioned sugar monstrosity.
They take a big siiiip, eyes closing as they savor the mouthful, then swallow blissfully. "...I think this is the best thing I've ever tasted."
She leans in against them while they sample the absolutely ridiculous combination of flavors, but her eyes glitter at the statement, and then she leans up to lay a long, slow, proper smooch on them. "Nope, that is," Fox states confidently. "That milkshake and a smooch." She flutters her eyelids at Lux playfully.
"Everything's just been so much, you know? I thought... we should just... have a ridiculous pile of candy and donuts and cookies and some pizza and then float around in the pool like fat seals and love each other and it would be great."
Lux grins into the kiss, returning it happily and passionately... But does go quickly back to sucking at the straw after, though they're grinning around it and remain draped around her. "Mm... It has been a lot. Like... a fucking shitty amount of a lot." He pulls her over to the couch and drops down onto it, stretching out their legs. "...It's really been a year, huh? Time has gone by in a blur lately."
She reaches out in passing as she's pulled over to the couch, snagging a pizza box and dragging it along afterwards so that it's closer to her on the table. She has to scoot forward a bit on the couch to grab a plate, a napkin, and flip open the pizza box so she can claim two slices of white pizza with chunks of fresh mozz, spinach, tomatoes, onions... veggies and cheese. "No meat on these pizzas except the chicken on the bbq chicken pizza, because my family is Sephardic, so." Look at that, Fox talking about her actual birth family. What madness is this? It's a passing comment, then, and she moves on along, scooting back with her plate and snuggling in alongside them. "Yeah, it's been a shitty amount of lot," Fox sighs. "But we're still here."
A little nod of her head, then. "Longer," she appends. "Remember because you did the sexy pigeon for Halloween last year, and we were kissing then."
"Mmm... that was a good Halloween." They snag one of the slices from her plate to munch on themself, not seeming to mind the lack of meat. "But you're right... Huh." Lux sort of... zones out for a few seconds, eyes turning dreamy and distant before they shake their head and wiggle-snuggle into a more comfortable position around and against her.
"How are you... handling everything? By the way, do you know when you're having your babies? That is still a thing happening in the future, right?"
She wiggles a little with happiness after her sharp little teeth tear through the lovely chewy dough and she takes her first swallow of the delicious pizza. "I don't forget anything," Fox laughs. "Unless I want to." Lux's stealing of pizza and all of the wiggle-snuggling has her cuddling in closer until she just climbs into Lux's lap. This is right and proper.
"Um... you know. I'm." There's a long pause, and she leans her head against Lux's. "I think I'm just sort of letting it all pour past me, because if I think about it too much, I might scream. The center of my heart is sometimes a shapeless amoeba with a screaming face suffering from war and sometimes the city of Myrne at the same time and having a gender crisis also, and that's just Lyuda, right? And then... " A wave of her hand. "If I think about it too much, I'll explode. So I eat pizza and play with pigeons and do what I can." A pause. "How are you?"
Her shoulders rise and fall. "I should look," Fox says. "The timeline says it is, and I do want kids. But I don't know. I didn't look too closely. Soon? Within the next two years?"
Lux lounges back to give her plenty of room to curl up in their lap, looking up to watch her while they sip and munch.
They frown as they listen. "I'm sorry Lyuda is having a hard time. That's hard, having to be the support when you're also stressed and suffering. Is there anything I can do, to support you? Other than this? Cause you got all of this on tap, baby." A playful, fond little smile.
Then they're stuffing their face with more pizza, chewing a moment. Stalling. "Good and bad. Ups and downs. This has me pretty stressed too, and... anxious. I've been dreamwalking so much, trying to find the damn map. But it's not been all bad. Me and Aaron have reconnected. It's been nice."
It doesn't take long for Fox to utterly demolish two pieces of pizza (minus the bites taken by Lux), and once she finishes the pieces, she pats her tummy with her palms until she burps loudly, tilting her head back to do so. "I'm very sexy," Fox solemnly informs Lux in the wake of the sonorous rattling of her gut gas off of the walls of the penthouse living room, and then she leaaaaans to grab another milkshake, reading the label. "Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips," she reads. "Okay, sure!"
Fox is not stalling on answering Lux, absolutely not, what makes you say that? "This is what I need the most from you, right now," she answers, turning her golden-eyed gaze towards Lux. "I need a place where I can just like... be, and I'm not -- I mean I don't want to say I'm not needed, but I need to be." A pause. "Lyuda is the center of my universe and I believe in her and in us, but like, it's hard a lot of the time right now. And I just need... easy. Sometimes." Her nose wrinkles up, and she sticks her tongue out. "Words are hard. I think I need a cabin that's mine. And people can come to it but it's mine."
Her hand reaches to pet Lux's cheek as they talk, even though they're chewing. "Is it dangerous, dreamwalking that much? How do I support you?" A glitter of her eyes, then. "Aaron's a good kid. I'm glad for you both."
"Is this a literal cabin, or a metaphorical one? Either way, I will happily come and cuddle you in this cabin and leave a stray sock and maybe a toothbrush so you have bits of me there and I can come whenever you need me. Even if it's a metaphorical toothbrush." Lux gives Fox's tummy a light pat-pat. "But I can be easy. Easy-peasy-cuddle-mesie." They grin wider.
"I am very good at oneiromancy, so I usually do fine on my own. It can be dangerous, but--well, not to toot my own horn, but I'm an expect. Though I guess... if you could use your magic to make my brain better, like you've done before, wouldn't mind. I need to find those map pieces... soon." Lux sighs.
She makes a face when she pulls up a mouthful of the milkshake -- not a bad one, just a mildly confused and considering one. At the end, she smacks her lips and puts that milkshake back down, reaching for another one. "The potato chips get soggy really fast, apparently. Hglegh." This one is raspberry, dark chocolate and caramel, apparently, and that one passes the taste test. "A literal one, I think." Apparently this is something which just occurred to Fox, so she has to think about it, really. "The last place that I had that was just mine was a den that I kept in St. Petersburg, in a park, and that was... five years ago, I guess. And you couldn't leave socks in my den." She grins back at them at the silly string of syllables, leaning to kiss them again. "Good. I need that."
Her eyebrows go up, and Fox nods a firm affirmative. "No, don't toot your horn, that's for me to do." And now those eyebrows waggle in an exaggerated fashion, sillier than suave. "I can absolutely do that. Make your brain better, make you a little more lucky than you already are. We... yes. I need for you to do that. We all do."
"Oh. Yeah. Saggy socks are the worst. But okay, so a literal cabin. Any thoughts... where? You can like... just poof anywhere in the world, right? And make anything. Could you just... snap your fingers and have a cabin appear where ever you wanted? --can you hand me a BBQ chicken?"
Once the slice is handed over, Lux starts to chomp away happily. "Mm... thank you, babe. That would be a big help."
Fox will never have Wisdom 8. Do you want to know why? Because sometimes when you are having the best snuggles and you don't want to sit up and move boxes and things like that, you do totally unnecessary magic like reach your hand out through a tiny portal so that you can grab a piece of bbq chicken pizza from the middle box in the stack three whole feet away. "Um... " She pauses. "I couldn't just snap my fingers, no. It would take me like... at least like half an hour, for something that complicated," Fox answers thoughtfully. "I could make a cabin like Ant-Man though. Build one, shrink it, carry it around in my pocket. Just gotta be careful to not let the spell expire."
"But I was thinking like, maybe up in the Poconos or in Bucks County, so people don't have to teleport to come visit me." Another sip of her milkshake. "I can do that. Lemme think about spell structure, and we can have ritual magic time."
Lux watches in delight as she magics the pizza closer, taking the slice from her to start devouring. “Like half an hour,” Lux says dryly, amused. Then a slow blink, staring at her. “…Yeah, sure. Ant-Man house. That… okay, yeah, that would actually be pretty awesome too.”
“I will never stop being dumbfounded by the powers you and your people wield. It’s… insane, sometimes.”
She tips her head forward, almost shyly, and looks over her shoulder and through her stringy black hair at Lux. "I, um. Yeah. I got a little bit better at some stuff recently, and ... " A little bit better, Fox. You got your third Mastery. You dork. "Look it would be difficult to do it but I could do it." She takes another sip of her milkshake and puts it aside, sprawling along Lux and nosing in underneath their chin. "It's terrifying, honestly, the things I can do, because there are people out there who are very terrible who can do them too."
Lux tilts their head back, welcoming the nuzzle. Their eyes close for a moment to savor the affection.
“…I guess that’s true, yeah…” They swallow. “Try not to think about that too much. It is fucking terrifying. I don’t even… know how to protect myself from that shit.”
"Well, I don't know how to protect myself from a lot of what you all can do. And you have a scary soul-shredding garden. It's all terrifying." Fox puffs out her cheeks. "I try not to think about it too much. It's like thinking about how big Space is, or that there's nowhere in the universe to stand which is solid and unmoving, because the planet is moving."
And then she sits up and says, "I want a cookie. And then we should make your brain even better than it is."
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