"Your body is not who you are.
You shed it like a snake sheds its skin.
Leave it, forgotten, behind you."
─────
𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍
- 𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏
The thin outer covering of the body;
An outer layer.
➵
Born with the type of beauty that many craved, Gemini Delmar...
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28| PROPOSAL EXTRAVAGANZA
Golden.
The colour of the late morning sun, the glassy whiskey in the trough, the shimmering bodies of the giant, gorgeous Abraxan horses. It was all golden.
Henry spread his wings half open and shook them, lapping up the golden liquid in front of him with a snort. Oswald was standing in one corner of the paddock majestically, his disdainful gaze sweeping over his companions, then resting on the swaying green twig dangling from a strand of Henry's mane. He seemed to roll his red eyes at them.
Galleon lay on his belly on the grass outside the paddock. He had gotten drunk by sniffing the whiskey. He felt two gentle hands pick him up and pull him onto a familiar, warm and soft bed.
Gemini held in her giggle as he snuggled into her lap.
"I'm getting light-headed as well..."
Gemini turned her head to the boy beside her, who had been observing her with one of his legs pulled against his chest and his chin resting on his knee. His curly, brown hair danced in the light breeze and the small moles that spaciously dotted his jaw and neck stood out against his pallid skin. He blinked slowly as if mesmerised by the sight before him.
She sighed. "You're not getting any special treatment, Nott. Now tell me what you're here for."
Theodore pretended to be upset at Gemini's response. "That's no way to treat your superiors, Delmar."
"Oh, pardon me," Gemini said, clearing her throat before trying again. "What the fuck do you want?"
"That's actually worse?"
She smiled at the nonplussed pinch of his brows and clapped him amicably on the shoulder. Hard. "You see, Nott, that is the beauty of it. No one's my superior."
"You're awful," he hissed, rubbing the spot where she hit him.
"Tell me something new,"
He rolled his eyes and shifted his head so that his cheek replaced where his chin had been. "I want you to help me with something..."
"And that would be...?"
"You remember the gramophone we are — well, were — using for the practice?" he asked, then continued when she nodded, "It broke last night."
"Already? It's been three days," she said incredulously.
He lifted his head and massaged his eyes with his fingers — the action bizarrely drew her attention to the two freckles beneath his left eye. "Some third-year cretin slammed into it. Don't ask me how — it was literally in the corner of the room,"
Gemini considered this, then tilted her head. "What do you want me to do about it?"
"I've been asked to fix it, but I'll need some help," he answered with a calculative frown. "I need skilled hands."
