cora & cal - things you said through your teeth
“I can’t get this- bloody tie-”
Cal is agitated, every muscle in his body coiled tightly, as he stands planted in front of the mirror. The skin around his eyes is wrinkled with tension, and Cora scoffs the moment she’s close enough to make that detail out.
“You’re hopeless, Cal,” she tells him, turning him around to face her and then reaching up to swat his hands away from the material causing his frustrating, “Truly.” She lets out an amused huff and sets to work on his tie, and his own hands falls to his sides, fingers twitching anxiously. Her eyebrow arches as he takes in what she assumes is meant to be a calming breath. Leave it to Cal to tie himself up in knots over what might well be the only well-matched marriage of their year.
“Merlin only knows why you’re so nervous,” she points out, the barest hint of bitterness to her tone, “At least you like each other.” Her smile is sickly sweet, in contrast to her words, as she finishes with his tie and smooths it down before stepping back.
Cal scowls, and focuses on fixing his cufflinks - the ones that Jeri had gifted him for his seventeenth birthday. He’s stewing in something, and it takes Cora a terribly long minute to realize that it’s embarrassment - he’s embarrassed by his own self-consciousness, two things Cora never would have thought possible. When the revelation hits, she can’t help but let out a startled laugh, which only morphs into a fit of undignified giggles when Cal cuts her a murderous look.
“Not a word, Coralie,” he grits out, and Cora finally takes pity on him, forces herself to sober her expression and quell her laughter.
She sighs, and it sounds more fond than she’d allow it to if they weren’t alone, and leans up to press a kiss to his cheek.
“She’s already more than half-way to loving you, you git,” she says as she steps back, smoothing down her dress before moving back over to the door. She pauses with her hand on the doorknob, and adds, “So go show her the next reason to keep falling.”