The words, so delicate but laced with fervor, tightened him to his core. The revelation plainly outlined across his rough features. It had been a suddenness, a flip of the hat, the dreariness draining out of him. A newfound source of energy coursing through him. It wasn’t much, Lucius remained dead tired, collapsible at any moment left here standing. It was enough, though. Bearable to endure an exchange with his bride-to-be.
Noticing where his wand was discarded, he retrieved and gave his undivided attention to her. Her words igniting an overworked grin over his weary features. Despite his current state, her family intensity colliding with her light side never ceased to produce a grin from him. It was different, a part of her he enjoyed immensely. Notably so knowing that such few others could have hopes of seeing the same.
"You shouldn’t have wasted your time tracking me." The cold and irritation had been replaced with warmth. However, the sharpness of his words still lurked behind. Admittedly, most of it was born out of concern for her. With the places he went, tracking was the last thing she should be doing. Still, this was Narcissa and with that brought a tenderness.
“Hello, m’dear. It is good to see you. A long time since last, huh?”
The bite to him appears to soften, and for that, Narcissa is thankful. Yet Narcissa is not blind to the sharpness that still ghosts his words, that hint of another side she is never privy to seeing -- though as ever, she simply notes it away, and says nothing. It's not that she couldn't hold her own against him if the need to ever arose -- because she can wield her tongue to wicked effects -- but in world where she has lost so many already, the blonde would rather not sacrifice any more; even in something as silly as a lover's spat, if that's what it could be called.
"And yet here I am. So it appears as if you
are lumped with me for now, as arduous a
task as it might appear to be."
And it certainly beat being stuck in the Black manor again, discussing nameplates and intricate invitations with her mother and the wedding planner. After all, should she not want to spend time with the man she was to marry? Lucius is certainly no stranger to her, certainly not someone she dislikes, but there's a whole world underneath that she knows she hasn't yet found -- loves and favourites and fears, how he takes his tea, whether he's a night owl or a morning lark. Really, as she told her house-elf on the way out, it's not an escape or adventure, just an opportunity to spend time with a man she'll soon call husband. ( And with the way she's seen pureblood marriages crumble as of late, Narcissa figures having one that might actually work cannot be too terrible a thing. )
"And it's good to see you too, even if it seems as if your house-elf woke
you up quite on the wrong side of your bed this morning." A laugh breaks
loose, briefly, but genuinely. "I'd almost started to forget what you looked
like, Lucius. And here I was thinking I was the busy one these days."