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[not_a_traitor]

["Felix Gaeta speaking."]

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[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta scoots inward a couple inches, too, just enough to put a bit more slack in the blanket so Francis will be comfortable. He smiles at him -- the same besotted smile that keeps coming back, despite himself -- and settles in with his equations.

A few stalled attempts at spell improvements litter his notebook pages. For a while, Gaeta's reach exceeded his grasp: he could see the idea, but couldn't always shape the math to match. Now the Web is there to guide him through all the obscure little twists and turns he couldn't spot before, and reworking the clumsy theorems into something more efficient hardly takes effort at all. It might not feed Gaeta's patron, but it feeds him just fine as he hums along through the calculations of an improved illusion spell, as satisfied as a sculptor chiseling away at a block of marble.

He sneaks a glance over at Mulcahy. A tiny, almost mischievous smile appears.

Then with a whisper, so do a few cartoon hearts, drifting across the gap like ridiculously bright pink clouds.

[lovethyneighb_or]

Needlework is careful work, especially at Mulcahy’s age. Mending these socks takes careful focus on details he has to squint to see. This is to say, he doesn’t notice the floating cartoon hearts at all until they drift right in front of his face between him and the needle.

He rears back slightly and goes a little crosseyed; pauses; turns to blink at Gaeta, then smiles. “My, what a flatterer. You don’t even need to use your words to make a man feel special.”

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta grins, caught between embarrassment and satisfaction. Honestly it looks like the cartoon hearts ought to be floating over his own head too.

"I didn't want to interrupt too much," he says. "Um. Any requests while I'm practicing?"

The offer sounds -- shy, almost.

[lovethyneighb_or]

… Goodness, that snowflake has Felix smitten. He’ll admit, the attention is rather nice, even if it’s a… somewhat tense time for it.

“It’s hard to say. All I care to look at is right here.” He reaches over across the distance, playfully pinching Gaeta’s cheek. “Surprise me, if you like.”

[not_a_traitor]

Chuckling, Gaeta ducks his head. "All right."

With a flick of his finger, the cartoon hearts pop into pink confetti. (The confetti is also heart-shaped. Of course.) Gaeta thinks, then smiles, cupping his hands as he whispers the spell again.

A fine mist rises from his palms, tinted in reds and golds. As the cloud builds, gently swirling around itself like a flower beginning to bud, blue flecks of light wink on inside it. It grows, lifts, spreads its petals, birthing more stars to illuminate it from within. A rose, as someone who lived in space would conceive it.

Just like the hearts, it drifts closer to Francis as if Gaeta were handing him a real rose.