rune & ciro.

[ceremonious]

The spell clears and leaves him nauseous.

For a moment, he doesn't even remember what he'd been doing, squinting through the thin layer of smoke that fills the basement and searching out Ciro's silhouette an arm's length away. He can feel him there regardless, hand resting almost heavily on the workbench. The weakness that he feels doesn't seem to dissipate so easily, thoughts immediately turning to the other witch and obscenely preoccupied with them. A forced breath of air, and his fingers skim Ciro's wrist and along his arm.

"Are you okay?"

The question is equally soft, warmed by the fact he can finally see his face. Rune's distracted by it, moving away from his arm to touch his cheek and trace his fingertips along his jaw. Everything looks fine, but something is wrong. Something is off. That, too, he can feel, but he isn't quite sure what it is.

Comments

[demology]

The spell had gone poorly.

Ciro's disappointment is hard to mask as his jaw sets and he tries to reassess the situation to pinpoint just where the error might have come from. Rune comes to him in concern, and Ciro just allows the other witch to verify that he's fine so he won't have to worry.

There's something different in the way Rune speaks to him, and more obvious in the way he puts his full focus and attention on him. Then again, something feels off within himself as well, but the thought gets cast aside so he can figure out what happened so they can avoid that situation again in the future.

"I'm fine, Rune." Ciro exhales slowly, not quite signing, but making his disappointment clear. He takes Rune's hand by the wrist, drawing it away from his face but holds onto it for just a moment longer than he needs to.

[ceremonious]

He can read the disappointment on his face, but Rune doesn't seem as bothered by it as he might have been. Instead, he's much more focused on making sure that Ciro isn't injured despite his saying he's "fine". Fine could encompass a lot of meaning; so, when he's finally satisfied, Rune twists his hand to give Ciro's fingers a squeeze before pulling away.

"I can clean this up." Said as a peace offering, of sorts. He knows he probably botched the spell accidentally, which means he should take some responsibility for it. "You should rest if you can. It's already late anyway."

Even now, he's preoccupied with thoughts of Ciro and not with any of the mess he'd just said he would take care of.

[demology]

Ciro doesn't feel like himself, but he also doesn't feel injured, so Rune looking for signs of that are pointless. A wasted effort when they could both be putting their heads together toward a more productive end.

"Leave it. Let's try one more time, I'm not tired." Ciro insists, reaching for Rune again before he can pull away any further. He'll need Rune for the spell, and getting him to stick around shouldn't be too difficult. Ciro can sense that Rune feels guilty about the botched spellwork even if it wasn't the other witch's fault at all.

"Just one more time," he smiles, drawing Rune nearer for a moment, regarding him up close for a moment.