Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Do you two have something planned today?” Sersi signed to the two Eternals sitting on her couch. 

“Nope! Any suggestions?” Makkari replied. She was leaned up against a half-asleep Druig, wide-awake herself. London had so many things to see, and she was excited to see them all. 

“I have a club I oversee at the secondary school, if you want to come meet some of the kids I teach,” Sersi suggested. 

Makkari turned and poked Druig. “Want to go to Sersi’s club?” She asked. 

“Children?” Druig frowned.

“It’ll be fun!” Why not learn about what kids were up to these days? And hey, maybe they would learn something about themselves in the process. In all her years on Earth, Makkari had learned that young people taught others just as much as the grown-ups taught them.

“Sprite will be there,” Sersi added. 

“Sure,” Druig agreed.

Makkari grinned. While there were still some bridges to be rebuilt between Sprite and the other Eternals after the events of the Emergence, she was glad for an opportunity to see her. After all, Sprite was family. Makkari turned back to Sersi. “We’ll be there!”

⸻

To start off the day, Druig and Makkari visited all the typical tourist destinations. They rode on the London Eye, Makkari’s face pressed against the glass the entire time. She thought the bird’s eye view was amazing, and it reminded her of when the Eternals had first descended while aboard the Domo. The Earth had looked so small, any civilization too tiny to be seen from so high above. The Eye was no Domo in space, for sure, but it lent that same wonder to Makkari. 

Next, they watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

“Are you mind-controlling them?” Makkari teased, gesturing to the rows of guards moving in perfect sync. There was not one out of line, and they each moved with an almost robotic level of precision. Like many in the crowd around her, Makkari was impressed.

Druig grinned. “No, but they are incredibly precise,” he commented appreciatively.

⸻

What was a proper vacation without a little breaking and entering? Makkari and Druig weren’t UK citizens, which meant that tours of the inside of the famous clock tower were legally off limits. Keyword, legally.

“I’ll bet Phastos would’ve loved to see the gears inside,” Makkari signed, sitting dejectedly on the curb.

Druig took a seat next to her and smiled mischievously. “Are you really giving up that easily?”

Makkari gave him a skeptical look. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’ve been told I’m a… charming individual.”

Makkari rolled her eyes, but a smile betrayed her. Druig charming the guards to let them in wouldn’t hurt anyone, so was it really that bad? “Charm away!”

Druig stood up and held out a hand. “Well, my beautiful, beautiful Makkari, let’s go.”

She took his hand with a blush. After deviating a moment to get some food for lunch, Druig mind-controlled the guards and they slipped in, climbing the many, many stairs up to the top. Sun filtered in through the translucent white of the clock face, casting soft shadows on the floor of the tower. Up on the next level was the enormous bell, the Big Ben itself.

The two sat in front of the brightest window and dug into their lunches, watching the minute hand creep ever closer to 1:00. A second before it struck, Druig covered his ears with his hands. Above them, the bell rang, slowly swinging back and forth as it chimed. Makkari grinned at the feeling of the sound shaking the floor beneath her legs. She laid both hands on the floor, feeling the low patterns in the vibrations.

“That was very loud,” Druig commented once the bell had stopped.

“I felt it!”

They stayed up there, basking in the warm sunlight, until it was time to leave for Sersi’s club.

Chapter Text

The classroom was empty, save for Sersi, when Druig and Makkari walked in. 

“Hey, you two! You can take a seat anywhere. Class ends in a few minutes.” Sersi gestured to the rows of desks. 

Makkari plopped down into the seat right in front of Sersi. Druig folded himself into the one next to her, looking comically large at the tiny desk. 

“I thought these chairs were for secondary, not primary kids,” he griped, frowning.

Sersi gave him an apologetic shrug, a hint of a smile slipping out. “You’re welcome to take a chair from the corner.”

“Nope, nope, I’m stuck in here now. You’ll have to drag me out at the end,” Druig replied, pointing to both women.

Makkari laughed. “Hey, what’s this club for anyways?”

“It’s a GSA, Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s for kids to find support and safety to express their identity,” Sersi explained.

Makkari was distracted from asking any follow-up questions when Druig suddenly flinched beside her, the entire desk moving with him. 

“Druig?” She signed, wide-eyed.

He shot a dirty look at the ceiling before turning to her. “The bell scared me.”

Vibrations from behind drew Makkari’s attention to the doorway. In the hall, she saw a stream of teens rushing by, folders and books and backpacks in a rainbow of colors blurring together. From the moving mass came a shock of orange hair, belonging to a certain someone she knew well. Sprite came into the classroom, light blue backpack slung over one shoulder. 

“Hi, Sprite!” Makkari greeted with a smile.

“Hey!”

“How was class? ” Sersi spoke.

Sprite shrugged and sat down. “Ms. — is being an asshole again. ”

“Sprite! ” Sersi admonished.

Makkari raised an eyebrow in Druig’s direction.

“Ms. Owensby,” he fingerspelled.

Makkari shot him a thumbs up and focused her attention back on the conversation.

“I thought after last time she would listen, but I guess not. ”

“Do you want me to talk to her? ”

Sprite mumbled a response, so Makkari couldn’t lip-read. At that moment, however, more students walked in. The first two both had long, dark hair and the same striped shirt, just in different colors. Twins, if Makkari had to guess. The third in the group had short, blond hair and had on a jacket covered with colorful patches. A moment later, a group of four walked in and took a seat. All four had brightly colored hair and matching handmade bracelets. 

“Good afternoon, all. We have two guests joining us today. These are my friends from college, Makkari and Druig,” Sersi began, signing and speaking.

Makkari shifted in her seat to get a better view of the students and waved. “Hi! I’m Makkari. I’m deaf, so I use sign language to communicate.” She felt the vibrations in the air of Druig speaking what she signed. For his introduction, he just waved. Makkari sent him an amused expression. It was so him.

“Why don’t you all introduce yourselves as well,” Sersi encouraged.

The twins went first, with Druig fingerspelling their names. “Hi! I’m Becca and my pronouns are she/her,” the first twin said.

“I’m Bria and my pronouns are she/her too.”

Around the room they went, ending with Sprite. “Well, you already know me, Sprite. My pronouns are she/her and they/them.”

Makkari tilted her head in curiosity.

“It’s a new thing I’m trying,” Sprite said by way of explanation. 

From there, the conversation grew organically. Much of it was just chatter about class assignments and the usual secondary school drama. Occasionally, though, it would circle back to the students’ identities, which Makkari was the most curious about. Most of the terms they used Druig just fingerspelled, and Makkari guessed it was a mix of the words being too new and not having signs and that he hadn’t heard most of the terms before. 

Before she knew it, the hour was up. The students left in the same clusters they arrived in until only Sprite remained. Curiosity drove her to question the teen. After all, hadn’t she just thought that morning how kids taught grown-ups so much? Sprite may have previously been immortal, but they were very much mortal now, and their experiences would surely reflect that.

“Can I ask you a question?” Makkari asked as the group walked down the hall. 

Sprite shrugged and nodded her head.

“How did you figure out your identity?”

“I felt different. Partly because I am—was an Eternal, but in other ways too. Now that I can actually stay in one place for a while and grow older… It gives me room to change. There are tons of terms to describe people now. I just have a name for what I’ve felt for a while.”

Makkari considered their response. It was nice to see the world changing and identities gaining more recognition. She remembered a time when Phastos had had to hide his partners. She remembered old names in different languages and cultures that the current identities were similar to.

“What does everyone want for dinner?” Sersi interrupted. Sprite, Makkari, and Druig all responded in unison, though with wildly different suggestions. In all their eons together, hardly had they ever agreed on dinner plans. It would be a long night.

Chapter Text

Makkari laid in bed, going through the day’s adventures. The clock tower had been the most fun, but she kept circling around to her conversation with Sprite in the hallway. She understood feeling different because she was an Eternal. It wasn’t difficult to see the separation between mortal, powerless humans and the immortal, gifted Eternals.

“What’s on your mind, beautiful Makkari?” Druig asked, rolling over to look her in the eyes. 

“Sprite said they felt different from everyone else. Do you?”

“Of course. I can control humans’ minds with a flick of my hand.”

“Other than being an Eternal.”

Druig shrugged. “Do you?”

Makkari didn’t have an answer at the ready. How much of her otherness was tied to her immortality and powers? For the most part, all the Eternals had maintained a sense of detachment from the humans, knowing they would long outlive many generations. But Phastos had settled down, started a family. She wondered if he still felt that otherness even though he lived as a human.

But some part of her said yes. Despite keeping their distance on the whole, Makkari knew that the other Eternals had had relationships with humans over the years. She had participated in her fair share of gossiping about which of the royals was the cutest, but she always felt a certain sense of detachment that the others never expressed. Sure, she might’ve thought a human was objectively pretty, but she never thought anything more about it.

“Maybe,” she finally admitted, not meeting Druig’s eyes. He said nothing and rolled away from her. She looked up in confusion. Druig wasn’t the warmest person of all time, but Makkari was usually the exception. She watched as he typed something into his phone. What was he doing?

“Here.” He held out his phone and scooched closer so they could both see the screen. “I found a list of different identities.”

There was the Druig she knew. Always approaching a problem practically. Makkari smiled and peered at the screen, reading the definitions in a long list. Some of them she was familiar with, like gay, and others she had learned at the club earlier, like nonbinary. Still more she hadn’t heard. One in particular caught her eye. Asexual. She tapped on the title to expand it. Under it was listed more identities under the spectrum like gray-asexual and demisexual, along with related terms, like aromantic. She tapped on that one and saw that it, too, was a spectrum.

It was Druig’s turn to pick, and he tapped on biromantic under the related terms, and then panromantic. He also looked at nonbinary and demigirl, but Makkari suspected that was more because of Sprite than his own identity.

“Go back to asexual.”

Druig navigated back to the page. She reread it. It was such a simple definition, someone who does not experience sexual attraction, and yet it brought a whirl of complicated emotions to mind. Was that really her? On the one hand, it offered a clear explanation for why she always felt distanced from the gossip over others. And yet, what about Druig? She knew she loved him. 

“There’s demiromantic, right?”

“Yeah, I think I saw it.” Druig found it and showed it to her. 

Someone who experiences romantic attraction only after forming an emotional connection.

Makkari let it roll around in her head for a moment. When she really thought about it, the incredibly few crushes she’d had over the years had always been on friends, on the few humans she had gotten to know well. And Druig? She realized she hadn’t been romantically interested in him until after they had known each other for years and actually become friends. 

I just have a name for what I’ve felt for a while, Sprite had said. Makkari understood that now. What she felt was definable, understandable.

“Figure something out?”

“How did you know?”

Druig smiled. “You have a look.” He imitated the expression, eyes slightly glazed and wide open and his lips pursed. 

Makkari giggled and smacked his arm before responding seriously. “I think I’m demiromantic and asexual.”

Druig nodded as he processed her response.

“What about you?”

“Similar, actually. Panromantic and demisexual.”

“I feel like I finally understand a big part of myself,” Makkari admitted. “It feels strange, too.”

“It doesn’t change much for me,” Druig said with a shrug. 

“Why?”

He smiled, half mischievous, half genuine. “Why? I’ve only got eyes for you.”

Makkari immediately yanked the pillow from under his head and smacked his face with it. “You are an incorrigible flirt!”

“And you love it!” He replied with an insufferable smile.

Of course, she couldn’t deny it. “I do, I do.” Makkari yawned and returned his pillow to its proper place.

“I’ve always… at least had an idea of it,” Druig replied more seriously. “Even if I didn’t have a word for it.”

Makkari tucked her head under his chin. “This doesn’t change anything about us, does it?” A kiss was pressed against her forehead.

“No. I’ve always loved you for exactly how you are.”