07. muse

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𝖆𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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𝖆𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

By the time Sol had joined his sleeping siblings, Aurora was curled up in the corner of the adjacent sofa eating a chocolate bar her father had brought for her while Dusk was pressed against her side, reading the book that was also meant for her but had been stolen by him before she could take it.

They were sat in silence for the most part, save for when he would break off a bar of chocolate and she would gently swat his hand away with mumbles of how annoying he was, but by then the damage had been done and her milk chocolate was gone, only decreasing in size every so often-to which he would ask her why she was taking so long to finish some chocolate in the first place.

(He wouldn't be wrong there, she came to realise, and so never responded.)

"You're elbowing me," he mumbled, shuffling to get further comfortable, as though being buried under more of her blankets wasn't comfortable enough. "Aurora!"

"What?" she exclaimed, turning to look at him. Her eyes were wide with slight exasperation, hand frozen in midair with a piece of chocolate in it.

"Did you not hear a single word I just said?" She stared at him, hoping the action would translate enough for him. It did. He narrowed his eyes at her slightly. "Fine. I guess I will repeat myself. Can you please stop elbowing me? Accidental or not, it is getting on my nerves."

Aurora smiled, pretending to consider it. "Mm... say it nicely." His eyes widened with incredulousness and she knew he was thinking that he had said it nicely. It didn't mean she couldn't irritate him further. "Manners, or I will not move my elbows." She gave him her brightest smile.

"Don't. I will." He gently took hold of her arm and set it on her lap, quickly settling into her side before her arm could replace it. "You're welcome," he added, breaking off a piece of her chocolate bar and taking a bite from it with a grin. She scowled at him.

"Shut up," she snapped. He laughed to himself, turning back to the book. She looked down at it, inspecting the blurb. "Do you like it?" Dusk's head shot up, slightly confused. "The book. Do you like it?"

"It would be better if there were annotations"-she rolled her eyes with a small grimace-"but yes. I do. Why?"

Aurora shrugged. "No reason. I was just asking," she said. "I guess I just wanted to know. Similar taste in books mean it is that much easier planning birthday presents."

"I don't need you to get anything. I tell you this every year," he said, looking at her.

"And I tell you the exact same thing, but who are we to do what other people want?" His lips curled up slightly in the faintest of smiles as he turned back to the book.

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