Title: TELL ME AGAIN.
Fandom: The Raven Cycle (Maggie Stiefvater)
Rating: General
Length: 333 words
Content notes: canon-typical misogyny; codependent family dynamic
Author notes: For Challenge #462 — RIVAL.
Summary: Niall and Declan don't have conversations.



She had dewy eyes, demure like a cow.

"Don't call women cows," Niall said, sounding highly entertained. He even clapped his hands and chortled all reedy, like he was drunk on Declan's little puckered frown. The were a two-person act, Niall vivid and sensational, Declan his dour-faced shadow. They ought to go to Las Vegas and rack up a stack. "Chin up, tomcat. All this time, and hasn't she been so very good? I fixed it for us."

For us. Declan levelled his eyes up at him as Aurora hummed in the kitchen; she was a cloud of solid gold, everything beautiful, as she fiddled with the oven or the microwave or the broom. He wondered how much his father still remembered. Desperation scratched behind Declan's eyeballs, but his face was unscathed by whatever secret thing lurched inside of him. "Stop selling me," he suggested. All that careless bravado stretched across Niall's splayed shoulders on the top of the living room couch's backrest, and his rat bastard of a father still couldn't say the truth, because the truth was very dangerous, and the truth was going to get them all killed.

Niall shrugged. He was still grinning, but he was in a mood where he would grin no matter what. Declan couldn't drag him down to earth, but then again, he never quite could. Maybe it wasn't lack of ability, though. Maybe part of him—he sighed, hating himself as he drank in the spill of light over Niall's strong Roman nose, the refuse of shadow cast by the lift of his cheek as his mouth hooked into a hungry smile—didn't want to humble Niall, didn't know what it would mean to live without this planetary orbit, which likely meant he was—yeah, fucked. Declan Lynch, professional custodian forever.

Declan's phone buzzed. He swiftly slipped it from his pocket into his hand.

"Date night?" Niall asked.

Declan said, "Tuck your"—and he waited a moment, long enough that Niall started laughing all over again—"wife to sleep. The deal's gone sideways."