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Silver tends to remember Sebek's fae. It's not something he often thinks about. He's Sebek before anything else.
But sometimes, there are these striking moments where he realises Sebek truly couldn't be anything else.
---
Sebek's hair is long. It's always been long. Long hair is a tradition of the Valley, but the length is variable from person to person. Malleus' hair goes about down to the bottom of his shoulder blades when he lets it free-flow down his back, and when Father first adopted him his went down to his knees.
When he first met Sebek, it was tied up with a silky black ribbon, the tip of his ponytail brushing his neck. Now, it brushes his hips, wavy and unruly, thick and layered. It's the sort of style that means that the closer to his face the hair is the shorter it is.
His hair is curly. It bounces when he walks, and sometimes when they walk together he'll just zone out watching the curls brush his shoulder.
It's ridiculously silky due to its meticulous care. Silver remembers the first time he entered the main bathroom at the Zigvolt residence and was taken aback by all the different haircare products lining the shelves, all mostly belonging to Sebek. He braids his hair loosely every night before bed before tucking it into his bonnet, and Silver's always so impressed at how he manages to make his massive volume of hair disappear.
For all he does for his hair maintenance, he really doesn't style his hair a lot. It's always usually in a ribboned high ponytail. The ribbons have more variety than his hairstyle does. He has ribbons of every colour in the rainbow - and far too many varieties of black, to match Malleus on every occasion - some monogrammed with his name, and some extraordinarily fancy clip-on bows that he slides in the knot of his ribbons.
Silver likes watching the tail of the ribbons fly, slipping between Sebek's fingers as he tosses his hair over his shoulder. There's something so elegant about watching Sebek bunch his hair up and effortlessly tying a pretty bow.
His favourite hairstyle of Sebek's though, has to be him with wet hair.
His hair is already long from the get-go, but when it's wet and the curls loosen, it lengthens to his thighs, splattered to his back and stuck to his face.
Sometimes, during the heat of summer, he'll dunk his head under the clear river water and come out with his fringe stuck against his face, its spindly strands caught in his mouth and eyelashes.
Sometimes, in their rare visits to the beach, he'll climb out of the water looking like he earned the adoration of every piece of kelp and seaweed in the area, plastered with green strands of hair.
Silver has a favourite though; there is nothing he adores more than Sebek in lakes.
---
It was getting late, the temperature cooling as the sun descended, the veil of night painting the sky in its dark colours.
They took a trip to the nearby lake, and it's about time for them to start making it back. And that starts with hunting down Sebek who decided to take a dip in the lake - the massive lake, mind you, and though Silver knows where he descended, he has no idea how far Sebek's swam.
Swimming is an activity Sebek likes a lot. It makes sense due to his crocodile-fae nature - his family often go swimming, and his prowess underwater is something Sebek's incredibly proud of.
He doesn't have an animal form like full-blooded fae do, but he has some sort of transitional form that he's recently grown into.
He remembers the first time scales appeared along Sebek's cheekbones; Sebek excitedly waking him up from his sleep spell and pointing to the verdant new additions to his face. He had just come out of the shower when the markings made themselves known, still only dressed in his dressing gown that was hastily and loosely tied. Silver, ever so thankful for his impassive face, quickly shoved Sebek towards his room before he could inadvertently show him anything else.
Over the months, more and more things popped up. Usually more scales, smattered over his chest and scutes along his back.
Sebek grew ever so delighted every time, showing off to Silver and their family with childish excitement, the most drastic change being his long tail, sharp with scutes.
They usually only appeared under the water, when he really needed those features. They came without asking, which made bathing a fun exercise. You could always tell who was in the bathroom when you could hear colourful cursing of someone tripping over a tail they oft forgot was there.
"Sebek!"
Silver walked slowly around the periphery of the lake, starting with Sebek's dive spot. Hopefully he didn't wander too far off. Regardless, Sebek couldn't exactly breathe underwater. He'd rise for air at some point.
"Sebek!"
The sun always darkens the fastest when you don't pay attention. In the short time it took Silver to walk back to the lake after reconvening with Father, true darkness has descended over the land. It wasn't a lake particularly popular with humans either, so there was a lack of lighting, the only illumination coming from the pale moon above him.
Silver knew he should have told Sebek to get out earlier, but he said he wanted to swim a little longer.
"Sebek!"
After a moment, there is finally movement, the surface of the water rippling, a massive and dark green tail rising and flicking lazily in the water before dipping back under.
Silver crouches at the edge of the lake, waiting for Sebek to reach him, Sebek's dry clothes and towel in the basket by his side.
Sebek surfaces, water splashing and cascading off him, and Silver doesn't think he's ever seen a more beautiful sight in his life.
His hair, wavy and unruly, is plastered to his face, thin and spindly over his broad shoulders and following the curve of his pecs, wrapped around his biceps and splattered around his neck, the rest floating lazily in the water behind him.
Freshwater drips from his dark lashes, his normally piercing and slit pupils dilated with the low light, gazing up at him and glowing under the light of the moon, scleras a verdant grass-green melting into heated gold. His thin nictitating membrane slides over his eyes, giving him an almost hazy look as he blinks.
His teeth are sharp, his whole mouth replaced with teeth tapered to points, and his claws just as sharp. They rest docilely in the grass by Silver's feet, Sebek tilting his head and swiping the mess of hair off his face and behind his ears.
His tail sways behind him, almost as long as he, rippling the water behind him into concentric circles, his tall scutes glistening under the moonlight. His scales are nearly as dark as the night, their dark green tone barely visible.
He's hypnotising. He's beautiful.
Crocodiles are meant to be an aggressive species, but Sebek only ever gets more docile in the water. He doesn't really like his transitional form either, and Silver finds the notion ridiculous. As much as it overjoyed Sebek to have some physical fae-bearing, it's almost as if having-but-not-having them made his insecurities worse, not to mention his lack of control over their appearance.
Silver doesn't understand how Sebek can look at himself and not see someone breathtakingly beautiful.
His eyes gleam, bright and curious, and he tilts his head.
"Silver?"
His hair drags with the motion, pulled over his collarbone and coercing droplets into racing down its taut length, dripping down his wet brown skin. The movement of his mouth causes his teeth to gleam, sharp and predatory. He could snap them around his neck in a moment.
He reaches a hand out, the tips of his fingers brushing against his pretty lips, sliding up and Sebek naturally parts his mouth.
He had an overbite his father fixed with braces that he wore through childhood, and has faithfully worn his retainers ever since. But in this form, he may as well have never worn them. His teeth fill his mouth, protruding and overlapping, so much so that when he closes his mouth he cannot truly close it, his lips still parted and the faint shadow of white teeth visible in the gap. It's incredibly endearing.
He pricked his finger on his fang once as a child - has had these teeth sunk into his lips and skin more than once - and yet his fascination never ceases. Something about the sheer power held in his jaw, and yet there is the sheer gentility of his kisses and playful nips he's capable of.
"Silver! Where's Sebek?"
Father calls for him, and Silver immediately recoils, Sebek snapping his jaw shut.
"Coming!" Silver yells back, and Sebek shakes his head. Silver doesn't know if that's to dry off or his exasperation with him.
He starts to raise his toned body out of the water and rivulets rush down his body and ring themselves out of his hair, scales gleaming under the water and moonlight.
He gets a knee up on the embankment and ticks an eyebrow up, hand extended expectantly. Silver hurriedly hands him his towel.
Sebek raises a hand to his hair, drawing out its thin strands like violin strings, sopping wet and sticking indulgently to his skin like taffy.
He quickly dries off, using magic to aid him as well as dress him. The tail recedes, the outline of scutes no longer visible under his shirt, only his facial scales still visible, and those too will fade.
His hair is left to air dry, the short portions of his fringe around his face already curling back up and he tugs on one lightly, Sebek shooting him a look as they walk. The rest of his hair pools down his back, slick and stuck together.
"What was with your staring, Silver!? It's distasteful!"
His hair forms a loose curtain around his face, body entirely draped in light green curls. He glances at him through his fringe with sharp eyes, lashes dripping in clear freshwater.
"You're pretty," he confesses easily, wrapping another of Sebek's curls around his finger.
He doesn't remember what Sebek says in return. Something far too loud for the hour, face splashed red as if this is the first time Silver's said such a thing, going off about Malleus to change the subject.
But what he does remember is this:
The moonlight comes in through shards, Sebek's crocodilian features entirely withdrawn. There is only the faint glint of his neat upper and lower fangs, the smooth and flushed skin of his unmarred cheeks, the brief snatches of light they walk under sharpening his doey pupils back into their slits.
A true fae of the night, and prettier than any other could claim to be.