I have found it is both a blessing and a curse
The thought certainly counted to Jude, who was ever more impressed by his best friend's adaptability. Her grin is equally infectious, always poking and prodding his own into existence past the normal small smiles and faint dimples that normally grace his face. "Well, maybe if you grow a little more we'll be perfectly fit," he ventures to tease, a tiny spark of mischief hiding in the corner of his smile that he'd never given into before. He can't help it - Sohalia makes him feel more like the seventeen year old, nearly-adult he should be instead of the ill-fitting shell of a boy grown up too fast he feels his family sees him as.
"When you're ready maybe we can go together? There's nothing to say we can't. I've met Frey, and seen Safrin - both were really nice." They can hold each other's hands and be nervous together, and Jude is certain neither of them will judge the sweaty palms that will surely transpire from meeting literal gods. In contrast, Jude doesn't break out into nervous sweats anymore when he and Sohalia are physically close, which makes navigating the Climb a lot easier.
"I think a necklace would be really pretty on you," he compliments softly, ears a little pink and eyes riveted to the rocks around them under pretense of investigating possible deposits. "I was thinking maybe a bracelet? Or earrings. Dad said I can get tmy ears pierced now if I want." Jude is very comfortable with dressing and presenting fluidly despite being comfortably a boy, and Harper had never so much as blinked at the request. "Hey, what about there?" He points with his pickaxe to a cluster around hip height, tucked into a half-shadowed recess that looks faintly rust-red.
"When you're ready maybe we can go together? There's nothing to say we can't. I've met Frey, and seen Safrin - both were really nice." They can hold each other's hands and be nervous together, and Jude is certain neither of them will judge the sweaty palms that will surely transpire from meeting literal gods. In contrast, Jude doesn't break out into nervous sweats anymore when he and Sohalia are physically close, which makes navigating the Climb a lot easier.
"I think a necklace would be really pretty on you," he compliments softly, ears a little pink and eyes riveted to the rocks around them under pretense of investigating possible deposits. "I was thinking maybe a bracelet? Or earrings. Dad said I can get tmy ears pierced now if I want." Jude is very comfortable with dressing and presenting fluidly despite being comfortably a boy, and Harper had never so much as blinked at the request. "Hey, what about there?" He points with his pickaxe to a cluster around hip height, tucked into a half-shadowed recess that looks faintly rust-red.
to feel everything so deeply and insistently
JUDE
