I think I can manage being collateral damage
Everest freezes at mountain man like someone just unplugged him. Kaisel's palm will stay resolutely un-slapped in the airless void between them, as Ever's expression flattens into a long, silent stare that isn’t hostile so much as utterly baffled by the nickname’s existence. His brain goes through the motions of understanding before Isla’s hand touches his arm. The contact draws his gaze down immediately. Not because he’s startled—he’s used to Isla grounding him—but because Isla only touches him mid-conversation when he has potentially misstepped. The pattern is well-established enough that his posture softens at the edges, shoulders lowering from tension he hadn’t noticed climbing. Her presence reorients him, quiet as a compass needle snapping back north.
He mimics her movement to the work without comment, kneeling beside the fountain and selecting empty bottles in strict ascending order of volume. Each one is dipped the same way: straight down, held steady until the bubbles stop, lifted with minimal dripping. He matches the angle of Isla’s hands more than Kaisel’s enthusiasm, keeping everything precise, controlled, and predictable. But as Kaisel speaks—specifically as he keeps saying she—Everest’s fingers pause on the cork he’s lining up. His eyes flick upward, not judgmental, just factual in the way a scientist corrects a mislabeled sample.
"Frey does not have a fixed gender," he says quietly.
Ever bottles!
He mimics her movement to the work without comment, kneeling beside the fountain and selecting empty bottles in strict ascending order of volume. Each one is dipped the same way: straight down, held steady until the bubbles stop, lifted with minimal dripping. He matches the angle of Isla’s hands more than Kaisel’s enthusiasm, keeping everything precise, controlled, and predictable. But as Kaisel speaks—specifically as he keeps saying she—Everest’s fingers pause on the cork he’s lining up. His eyes flick upward, not judgmental, just factual in the way a scientist corrects a mislabeled sample.
"Frey does not have a fixed gender," he says quietly.
Ever bottles!
Even if I had to lose you to know you I'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
