Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The next day you found yourself in a field with Isa, the field you would have gone stargazing in. It was a great spot, with the only downside being that you had to keep your masks on in case someone wandered by. You were here to begin the detailing work on your bonding masks together. Your left half was his marble, with your right being your bone, and vice versa for Isa naturally. The others were already planning their marks out, and Nille was especially excited since you decided she could mark these ones. You would have let her mark your fox one as well at this point but just forgot to bring it up. You had a sneaking suspicion she’d be asked to mark Mira and Odile’s masks sometime soon as well.

The two of you worked in comfortable silence, enjoying the sounds of your tools working away at your masks as you did the last of the basic detailing. You’d done your own masks on the half you made and then decided to swap and have each other copy the features over to the other side. Since you weren’t confident you could work with marble nor was Isa confident in working with bone. Isa had already finished his work on your mask since you’d asked him not to bother with an eye hole, since you couldn’t see out of that eye anyway, and you were going to put Odile’s gem over it. This meant that all he had to do for you was carve the other half of the sly little smile you wanted on it. You however, had to do not only half of the wide boisterous grin he wanted, but also the scrunched up laughing eye to match the one he’d already done.

You finished not long after he did though, you were very good at carving now even without Wish Craft after all, which you were quite proud of. You swapped masks back and you set about painting the glass for your eye. You’d carved a circular hole to insert some lightless glass into it, but first you were going to paint a darkless four-pointed star on it.

“You aren’t hiding the stars any more?” Isa asked, looking over at you.

“Just one shouldn’t cause any problems, most people will just think it’s a fun shape. I think.”

“Hmm, you’re probably right. Why the eye though?”

“I actually remembered a saying last night. I wrote it down, don’t worry. It’s about having stars in your eyes when you’re excited and stuff. It was said that even people with really emotionless masks could get excited enough that it would spill out like starlight, and that you could almost see their actual expression through the eyes. And it reminds me of Loop.”

“Oh yeah, Loop, they had that star on their chest didn’t they? Shame we haven’t seen them around. Hang on, that saying, what if someone didn’t have eye holes on their mask? Both of your old masks used Craft to see straight through the material so that might have been common over there.”

“It’s an idiom Isa, they aren’t always perfectly accurate. There are plenty of weird Vaugardian ones that come to mind.”

“Okay yeah, fair enough. That’s cool though ‘stars in your eyes’, it sounds so pretty. And it’s so positive. I like it.”

You smiled at him, then remembered he couldn’t see it so you bumped your head into his shoulder instead, prompting a fit of giggles from him. You turned back to your mask, once you had this glass done you could place the Crafts you wanted on the mask, attach Odile’s gem, do your own marks, and then go find the rest of your family. You were going to start with Odile, while Isa was finishing with Odile. You were going to go to everyone in turn and then meet back up at the end of the day to see how each others masks turned out. You could make a few broad guesses as to what their marks would end up being, likely external attachments given your difficult materials, but nothing specific. Except for Odile, you were very confident you were getting a new rendition of that painted lattice pattern she did. Which you were very much looking forward to.

You got the glass set and began on working the Crafts in. Aside from the binding you were also planning on having: a small amount of temperature modulation, just to keep the heat across the two different materials even so it wouldn’t feel weird; weight modulation, again because the two different materials meant each side had a different weight; and a basic catch all comfort Craft. Nothing too fancy or difficult. You also planned to ask Mira if she could try animating the star to twinkle a bit, but that could wait. Isa was doing much the same with his Crafts, and you could hear him humming away as he worked next to you, it was relaxing.

The Crafts took almost two hours to get set up, and once you were done you took a break to eat some snacks that Bonnie had given you both. You had: biscuits, berries, brownies, and seven sandwiches. Where was Isa hiding seven whole sandwiches? You never even saw Bonnie give them to him. You were supposed to be the pockets guy. How did he do that?

“Impressed?” he asked.

“Very, and confused.”

“And you’ll stay that way.”

“Isa?” you gasped. Betrayal, how could he?

“I learned from the best.”

Well he had you there. You opened and closed your mouth a few times, trying to come up with something to say until Isa flicked your mask up and shoved a biscuit in your mouth, expertly distracting you. It was delicious, the best kind of distraction.

“What was Loop like? You don’t really talk about them,” Isa said, while you did violent and horrible things to your fourth sandwich, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But they seemed nice.”

“Oh they weren’t,” you said, causing Isa to choke on a brownie, “Love ‘em though. They were great.”

“I… see? I’m a bit confused.”

“And you’ll stay that way,” you teased, sticking out your tongue and grabbing the last three brownies at once while he was distracted.

“Never mind, I get it now. They’re just like you.” Oh he had no idea how accurate that was. You finished your ravenous crusade against the surviving snacks and turned your attention to your paints, not to eat them of course, you weren’t that hungry. You weren’t sure how well this would turn out, but you had practised painting in general to see if it was any fun and gotten decently acceptable at it, so it shouldn’t be terrible.

You were painting a border around your mask, it was a bit weird painting across two different materials but you were managing. The border you were going for was one depicting a receding fog. You don’t think others will really be able to visually tell it apart from an encroaching fog, but you knew it was going away and that’s what mattered. You also traced around the gem eye, creating a sharp eyeliner effect in a dark shade, it almost looked like you were winking now. You spent most of the next hour or so trying to get the depth and texture of the fog just right, eventually getting it to a point you were happy with. You stretched and looked over at Isa to see what he’d done.

Isa had embroidered his mask. Because of course he could do that. What couldn’t this marvel of a man do? He’d used a Craft reinforced needle to pierce the marble and bone without cracking either material, and used a dark thread to stitch in a variety of designs around the mask. Six small love hearts surrounding the right eye, falling leaves starting about halfway up the horns and stopping on the forehead, and copies of his own bushy eyebrows. He had also attached his gem onto the forehead, right on the centre line like how your one had been on the fox mask.

You swapped masks without a word, to mark each others masks before anyone else did. You ran your fingers over the thread appreciatively, he’d have to weatherproof this later but you were sure he’d be able to do it. Technically, the half of the mask that you made would count as your mark, but you wanted to do something else as well. You were going to give him fish. You spent a significant amount of time studying fish after Bonnie had asked what your old mask was made from and you’d only recalled it was the bones of some sort of sea creature. Odile had taken to helping you study a wide variety of aquatic life to see if anything ever jogged a memory. It didn’t work, but you did learn a lot about cool fish. There are many wonders in marine biology.

You decided to place them on the bone side, since that way you could carve them in and use paint to highlight specific lines like you did for the foxes on his other mask. You began by sketching them on in pencil, using the reference image you’d snagged from the library on the way here. Two koi fish, circling the left eye of his mask. And while you whittled away at that, Isa worked on your mask.

Isa took his needle yet again, choosing a thread the same shade as the sea before setting upon the mask. He worked along the bottom of the mask, stitching in the appearance of waves, gentle and calming in the middle but crashing up against the sides and rolling onto the cheeks. Sif had shown natural aptitude and calm when sailing in their travels, and many snippets of memory seemed to feature the ocean as being about as significant to their past as The Universe was. So it made sense to match the fog with a sea.

You finished at about the same time, and took your masks back from each other. Now you just had to split up to go see your family and the masks would be finished by tonight, maybe even by dinner depending on what the others did and how much they could do in advance. Before you left though you bonked your mask lightly into his, you wanted to kiss him but not actually kiss, so this was a fun alternative for such internal conflicts.

~o0o~

Odile was waiting for you when you arrived, her brush and five familiar paint shades set out on her desk. And a sixth you saw on second glance. Had she? Oh stars she had, there was a new line in the pattern of her mask, Pétronille had marked her mask while you were out. That was so cool.

“It’s looking very nice already,” she said as she placed your mask down, “This stitching is Isabeau’s work then. He’s just full of surprises isn’t he?” You nodded enthusiastically, he really was. There was an extra chair next to the desk that wasn’t there yesterday, because Odile was awesome like that, and you sat in it to eagerly await her work, tucking your mask into your cloak as you did.

You rocked back and worth, but otherwise kept silent to allow Odile to work. She began at the tip of the bone horn with your shade, painting a long and meandering path down it, moving smoothly in one direction before changing seemingly randomly in short curves until she reached the face. Once at the top of the face she grabbed some extra brushes and made marks with Mira’s, Isa’s, and her shade. She then continued your paint trail across the mask, sharper now with more precise turns, sticking to the bone side and stopping briefly to add a dot of Bonnie’s shade. Then the mark finally moved to the marble side, where it became meandering again. But the path here took wider curves, a less stuttering path that was more sure of itself. You sucked in a breath as you realised what she was doing. Though it was snaking back and forth as it went, but you were sure that would become clear soon. She paused to add a dot of the new shade, Pétronille, before continuing. She brought the paints journey up to the base of the marble horn before letting it fade out. Then she went back and added the other shades one at a time, following the journey and weaving together in her signature lattice. The reason for the snaking did become clear, as Isa’s shade crossed to the marble size it began mirroring the snaked path, wrapping around your shade like a pair of dancers in a double helix. At the base of the marble horn all six shades tapered off into a single line with an unclear, but connected, destination.

Once again you found yourself in awe of how impactful simple lines of paint could be. “Odile, I… Thank you.”

“Any time, Siffrin. Now go find the others and send Isabeau over,” she said with that calm, caring smile that always made you feel warm.

You nodded, sliding your fox mask back on, grabbing your bonding mask, and scuttling from the room. You were practically giddy with excitement, “stars in your eyes” indeed. You couldn’t wait to see what the others had, and to see Isa’s finished mask once Odile was through with it.

You knocked on a few rooms with no one in them, and so, determining they must all be in Mira’s room, headed there. “Knock knock,” you said, as you knocked on the door. Mira called out for you to enter and you slipped inside, making sure to keep your bonding mask under your cloak. Isa was sat with the other three, hiding his own bonding mask behind his back with one hand while his other pulled his mask down, preparing to leave. He got up and walked past you, carefully making sure you couldn’t see behind him at the marks from Mira, Bonnie, and Nille. You were similarly careful in keeping your mask hidden, staring each other down like duellists as you circled around each other in silence. You almost ruined it by laughing, but kept your cool.

“So,” you said once he left, “who wants to go first? Bonbon?”

“Crab yeah,” they said, shooting off of the floor. And you thought you were excited. “Wait, no, Nille has to go before me. Mine goes on top of hers.” Oh, okay then. You turned to face Pétronille expectantly.

She produced two small metal mesh horns. Oh, they were overlays for the ones on your mask. That’s clever.

“I made it so you can attach things to ‘em easily. They’re also magnetic, Isa has the ones they attract to.” Oh? That was adorable actually. You loved that. “But yeah, that’s why I had to go first.”

Never much one for lots of speaking, she sat back on the floor next to Bonnie, who bounced up to replace her. “Okay okay, now it’s my turn,” they said, rummaging in their hat. They pulled something out and held it in front of you, it made a fun dinging sound as it dangled between their fingers. It appeared to be some sort of wire net with… constellations in it?

“You can hang it between your horns, and then it’s like the night sky is above you all the time. With all the star shapes you sometimes remember. And it’ll make fun sounds.”

Oh come on, you couldn’t cry again, you cried for the last mask, you can’t do it twice. Deep breath, only a small amount of tears got out, they noticed, but no one is saying anything and we’ll pretend your dignity is intact. You took the mask and net to one side so you could attach it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him.” You heard Mira whisper behind you. Oh stars, what had she done? You turned back to face her, mentally preparing yourself for some emotional hugs in a minute, and saw she also had a mesh net in her hands. This one was made of rope though, and had beads of various materials strung all over it, forming some sort of pattern.

You took it from her, examining it closely. You saw that many of the beads contained references to your old mask and fox mask. There were small fish, swirling patterns, foxes, cats, stars, and you were not going to cry. It wasn’t even about the emotions, it was about winning, you weren’t sure what, but you knew that they won if you cried. Deep breath. Some of the beads had holes in them and you poked at them with your finger.

“They’ll catch the wind and make music,” Mira informed you. You weren’t crying, not a drop. Wasn’t happening. “The melody will harmonise with the beads I gave Isabeau.” You were crying, you were pulling Mira into a hug, Bonnie was joining in, Pétronille was joining in a little. They win, you love them.

~o0o~

You were back in your room, draping the bead net over the face of your mask, hooking it on Nille’s horn covers while you waited for Isa to return from Odile. A knock at the door, and here he was. You held your fox mask to your face just in case it was someone else as you opened the door. It was a lone Isa though, so you let him right in. He saw your mask on the desk and placed his next to it.

“They’re beautiful,” he breathed. They really were. You took a new look at his with all the marks, they were similar, but different. Clearly your family had schemed to make you match as much as possible. He had the same accessories from Nille, though they were a different shade and you could see the magnetism at work as the masks slowly slid towards each other across the few centimetres they were apart. On the horns as well were a variety of adorable tiny metal cats in fun poses, that would be Bonnie. He had a bead net from Mira as well, with references to his old mask on the beads. And finally, the journey paint from Odile. His started in his shade, at the tip of the marble horn, travelling down to the top of the head where Mira’s shade joined, then later Odile, then you, then Bonnie. The same helix pattern with your shade occurred when it travelled to the bone side, Nille’s shade appeared, and they all joined and faded out at the base of the bone horn.

You lifted his mask in your hands, almost reverently. You turned to him and gestured up at him with it. “May I?” He got the hint and lowered his head. You began to reach up when he jerked back.

“Wait. We should do it at the same time,” he said. Stars above, you panicked for a moment there.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” you said, willing your heart to calm down.

He picked up your mask with the same level of reverence you had, before lowering himself to your height again. You slid each others masks on, slowly, tenderly, lovingly. You couldn’t help yourself, just before sliding his mask all the way down you leant forwards and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Sliding his mask into place and tipping your head back to align your own before he reacted, and stepping back to see how good he looked.

“Sif,” he laughed, dragging your name out as he straightened up. Stars he was gorgeous. You grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the rooms wardrobe, there was a mirror inside the door and you had to see this. You tugged it open and pulled him to your side.

“Oh wow,” he whispered. Oh wow indeed. Looking at yourselves standing side by side in these masks, it took your breath away. You could feel your face heating up under the mask, Isa could probably feel the heat without needing to see your blush. You squeezed his hand tightly in your own. He squeezed back, before sliding free to put his arm around your shoulder.

“I love you,” you said, barely audible.

“I love you too,” he said back, just as quietly, a fond smile audible in his words.

“Earrings next,” you said, raising one hand to your ear, already imagining it. He pulled you in tighter, not needing to say anything.

You aren’t sure how long you stay there, but eventually a knock at the door draws you from your daze. It’s Mira, she’s been sent to fetch you for dinner but the words die behind her mask when she sees the two of you.

“Holy, oh change, you two look so good,” she says once she decides she can talk properly. Wow, it’s been a long while since you heard her use “change” as an exclamation, you were starting to think it was heresy or something. She had already seen both of your masks with all their marks (barring Odile’s on Isa’s) but you’d had a similarly strong reaction seeing them worn together, so you couldn’t blame her. You were expecting similar reactions from the others now, and you were not disappointed upon arriving.

“Holy crab, you two look so cool,” Bonnie immediately shouted, almost dropping the food they were carrying but catching it expertly. Pétronille followed this with a long appreciative whistle, before going back to eating the food she was already starting on despite Bonnie throwing cutlery at her to try and make her wait.

“Your homeland may have been onto something here, Siffrin,” Odile said, speaking evenly but with admiration clear on her face, “The two of you cut quite a striking image now.”

“Yeah,” you said, doing the thing, the pun thing that everyone instantly picked up on. “We’re quite the catch,” you quipped, holding Mira’s bead net up with your hand.

“Yeah!” Isa shouted, bursting into laughter.

“No!” Mira shouted, visibly falling into despair. “That was such a stretch as well. Just so you could turn my own mark against me? I put all of my love into that and you use it in a pun?”

“I put all of my love into the pun,” you shrugged. The usual reactions from the others played out at the table. Nille simply waved their hand in a so-so gesture. She never reacted to your puns, just rated them as the worlds harshest critic, so that was actually a pretty positive response. You asked Mira if she would do the animation Craft for your eye at some point as you sat down, and she said she’d do it tomorrow.

The meal passed as it usually would, full of love and idle chatter. Bad puns, good puns, stories you’d never heard before, and stories you’d hear a thousand more. You lived for moments like this, they gave you life, seeing them all like this and getting to be here with them. Terrible things had happened to you, you’d lost so much. But if undoing that meant losing this, you’d never do it, this was where you were meant to be.

~o0o~

That night, you were lying in bed with Isa, and you had a wonderful, terrible idea.

“Hey… hey Isa,” you whispered, pulling back from cuddling against him so he could turn to face you. “I have to tell you something. It’s about what I plan to do once we leave Dormont, I made a decision.” He nods at you, indicating he’s listening. “And my decision… is… to tell you tomorrow. Bleh.” You stuck your tongue out at him as his face went through the seven stages of grief in as many seconds.

“Huh?” he said, scrambling to work out what this was about. “Is… is this because of the clock—”
“This is because of the clock tower yes,” you interrupted. This was amazingly cathartic.

“But—” he begins to whine.

“It happened to me, and now it’s happened to you. Suffer.” You stuck your tongue out again, watching him pout, before leaning over to kiss the tip of his nose. You quickly roll over and pretend to be asleep. He doesn’t move for a second, before his arms wrap around you with comforting tightness. He pulls you in and kisses the top of your head.

“Night, Sif.”

“Night, Isa.”