☝️ Auriel, first time sneezing.
[Original ask meme.]
“Chuuuu!”
Malthael raised a brow and very slowly turned to stare at his sister.
The Aspect of Hope was standing near the library’s main desk, hands pressed to her mouth, brown eyes widened in surprise. Then, her shoulders gave a little hitch, and the noise happened again.
“Chuuuuuuu!”
“Adorable,” Lyndon said, grinning.
It really wasn’t, Malthael thought, as the woman launched into several additional sneezes, each one causing more of her hair to flip about her face and tangle with Al’maiesh.
“Brother,” she managed, in between fits, “please, I beg you. Make it stop.”
“It will run its course.”
“But Malthael, I--CHUUUU!”
Lyndon snickered. “I hadn’t considered this before, but I would have been very disappointed had the Archangel of Hope not had the most delicate sneeze in all of creation.”
Delicate was perhaps an overstatement at this point. There was nothing gentle about it, and the longer it went, the more Malthael began to feel genuine pity for her, until, finally, they did stop, and she tentatively lowered her hands with a narrowed look of abject suspicion.
“A very long course,” he added, expression impassive as she directed her glower at him specifically. “You have survived the most pressing trial of mortality.”
He smirked as Al’maiesh snaked out and batted the top of his head. She was smiling too, behind the folds of the Cord. After all that had occurred, it was good to banter about something so benign. So human.
“Be careful, brother, or you may turn into a scoundrel, the likes of which Sanctuary has not seen since Lyndon’s far-flung fore-bearers.”
“I think it’s much too late for that.” Lyndon gave Malthael a sympathetic look. “Next thing you know, he’ll grow himself some decent facial hair.”
“....Chuuuuu!.....Oh, no.”
“Strength, sister. You will overcome this burden.”
This time, he snorted audibly when the Cord buffeted him again. It was, as mortals sometimes said, worth it.