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"I'm not... offended, I just didn't know why you reacted that way." She didn't mean to worry him.

"Why are you looking for it?"

"Because Will asked me to marry him, but we already gave each other rings and we both feel like it's... dulling the impact if we just pretend to give them to each other again. The initial gifting was very meaningful. So I thought of this idea to give each other something else that we can wear, that would last and be a visible reminder... and then I saw Justine talking about making things out of hair and I was going to ask her to make bracelets that each have both my hair and his in them... but she hates me and also I didn't know you could do this. If I knew that, I would have always come to you. It's better to come from family, right?" Malcolm explains.

A slow smile spreads over her face as Malcolm speaks.

"I'd be honored," she tells him, soft and sincere. If this request came from anyone, she would have expected it to come from Will. It's startling that Malcolm is the one asking. That he's offering up this request, and including her in something that matters so deeply. It's a feeling that feels almost too precious and delicate to touch, like the most finely carved shell

"I'm new to... family that I feel unreservedly good about, but certainly better from someone who cares than with bad feeling attached."

"Right? I was trying to make peace, too, because I guess when I first asked her about the art form, some of my questions offended her," Malcolm explains. "And John."

"What sorts of questions?" Ulla asks, brow furrowed slightly.

He hesitates. "...Like if she routinely works with strangers' hair, then how does she make that... sanitary? I didn't want to get wedding jewelry infested with some sort of disease or pest," Malcolm admits quietly.

"There don't seem to be many problems with that on the Barge," Ulla points out. "But cleaning spells are some of the easiest."

"Yes, well. She's informed me that I'm a disgusting person and everyone thinks so, so." He shrugs. He fidgets with a bead on one of the dresses, smoothing his thumb over it. "Where did you get... the beads and stones and stuff?" he asks.

"She has no right to speak for everyone," Ulla tells him, a vicious, protective edge to the words. "And she's also wrong."

But her hands are gentle as she reaches for his, tipping them palm up so they're cupped in front of him. "Do you have a favorite stone? Or does Will?"

He smiles at her assertion. There aren't many people that defend him like that.

He holds his hands where she puts them.

"...Does Will? I don't know. ......I should find out, right?" But he files that for now, because she's trying to show him something. "Um... how about a star sapphire?"

"Does Will know you're asking?" Ulla wonders. Because if it's supposed to be a surprise, they'll have to be more careful. "Not me, of course, since even you didn't know you'd be asking me. But looking for this in general."

But since Malcolm answered, she'll go ahead and show him. She sings a few wordless verses, Hjerte joining in just for fun, even though Ulla could manage this alone. And three star sapphires appear in Malcolm's hands, each a slightly different size.

He stares at them a moment. "You just make them?" He pauses and looks up at her, processing her question. "Oh! Will doesn't know. I don't think he does. I want to surprise him."

"Then you'd have to be very careful finding out," Ulla points out. "Will is observant, and it's not the sort of question you'd normally ask, is it?"

“…No.” Good point. Or he’d know already. “What do you suggest?”

"I could ask," Ulla offers. "It would probably be less suspicious coming from me."

He grins. “Yeah? And then we can integrate a combination of my hair and his hair and my stones and his stones in both bracelets?” He pauses his examination of one of the stones to look at her. “Do you think you can get him to give you a piece of his hair too?”

"Does he have a brush?" Ulla wonders. "I could clean the hair from that, if you want me to. Otherwise, I suppose I can try telling him I use hair in spells sometimes and ask if he would mind giving me some. It isn't quite a lie, I will be using it in a spell. Just, a spell to make something for the two of you."

“I can steal hair from his brush,” Malcolm muses. “How much do you need?”

"Not as much as I'd need to make them without magic. But I'll take whatever you can bring me, and we can see if it's enough."

"I have access to his brush when he's not home all the time," Malcolm tells her. "I can get some. I want to be able to see both colours sort of intertwined. Is that possible?"

"Even if I keep the threads separate," she promises, "I'll make sure they twine around each other as I knot them, so they aren't left on their own."

Ulla can appreciate a good piece of symbolism.

"I love this; I'm so excited," Malcolm tells her plainly. "This is so much better than what I'd originally hoped for."

He looks at Ulla for a moment. With the exception of Will and sometimes Francis, he's never sure when it's appropriate to step into someone's space. His family were never huggers. Jessica still isn't. Gil always has been. Will is, thank God.

"...Can I hug you?"

The question startles Ulla, and she laughs. "Always. Sildroher have no taboos against touch, and I'm never sure when I'm welcome to touch humans, or which of them will get ideas I don't want them to."

Malcolm, at least, is safe on the latter front. As she leans into him, she tells him, "I don't miss much about where I grew up, but I miss leaning into a pile of my classmates every day after choir practice."

"It involves a lot of reading social cues," Malcolm admits as he gives her a gentle squeeze. Something he's admitted he's not great at. "And where I come from, it's better to err on the side of not touching people if you're not sure. Will's the first person I've ever been comfortable initiating hugs with because.... he said it's okay. And... if there's ever a day when he's not okay with it, I know he'll convey that to me in a way that isn't hurtful."

He said it's okay for Malcolm to touch him in a lot of ways and the level of intimacy needed to have a standing invitation to touch someone is amazing.

"It must be way more horrible to be used to being touched and then to not have it than to just.... have never had it."

"They didn't even like me, but it would never have occurred to anyone to exclude me from that. Whatever else I was left out of, touch wasn't on the list."

She shakes her head. "I was touch starved for years, until Warren, and then Taylor. I'm grateful at least I had a warden who wasn't shy about it. He hugged me, kissed the top of my head, curled up on me as a wolf. Still does, when I visit; pets my hair and tells me he's proud of me. And Taylor never minds me clinging. Neither does Hjerte. Or Will or Jasper, for that matter."

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