peterverse | behave

mrmage posting in

There's a total lunar eclipse two weeks later, the first one since January 2001. That semiquarter and most of the next pass without much more noise. Jackson is occasionally sad because of his dom's electric toy, and he's occasionally more stripey than he wishes to be, but there's not a whole lot Sadde can do about that. Against his hopes, Mason doesn't dump Jackson, and nothing gives.

Sadde continues socializing with people, but no one new. And as the semiquarter approaches its end and summer break gets closer, Sadde receives an email from Tobias, saying that he fully expects his daughter to come home and tell everyone all about her first half year at magic school.

The email tells Sadde to behave.

Sadde is not in a good place.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

eclipsi

"I mean, trying to actually process all the information in a person's entire mind would be work for a hell of an optimized psion in the first place, but maybe."

From:

mrmage

"Well, if resurrection were easy someone'd've done it by now. Besides, we're both awesome and gonna live forever and have all the time in the world for that little joint project."

From:

eclipsi

"Mm-hm."

From:

mrmage

"Ambitious? Who, me? Nonsense."

From:

eclipsi

"I made no such accusation."

From:

mrmage

"Of course not. Because it's patently untrue."

From:

eclipsi

"And I'm so honest."

From:

mrmage

"Yup. Such slanderous utterances would never cross your lips."

From:

eclipsi

She kisses him.

From:

mrmage

He kisses her back, smiling. "Hmm, yeah, you're definitely the best person ever. Thank you."

From:

eclipsi

"You're welcome." Pat pat.

From:

mrmage

And then it's Friday, and Sadde has a train to catch.

From:

eclipsi

The bus gets them there a few minutes before the train leaves.

Isabella goes and sits on a bench and motions for Sadde to kneel by her; concrete floor or no it sets the tone for what she has to tell him to do.

From:

mrmage

Yes, indeed. Sadde kneels.

From:

eclipsi

She holds his face in her hands.

"My lovely. I know this is going to be horrible and difficult and I wish I didn't have to tell you this. But you're my most precious possession and my best, my only, tool for keeping you safe and bringing you back to me. I need you to do that. Pretend, for two weeks pretend, for me, that you're who he thinks you are, because - because he deserves so much less than the real you and he'll prove it if he gets anything outside of his expectations, and because you are mine and I want you returned in excellent condition, on time. Do what you have to do to come back to me, pet."

She kisses his forehead, and then his lips.

"Understood?"

From:

mrmage

He shudders and-

From:

msmage

-nods. She will change on the train, to more appropriate clothing according to Tobias, but now she's- she's this. It's not so hard to be this right now, with Isabella. "Yes, ma'am," she says softly. "I love you."

From:

eclipsi

"I love you too, lovely, so much. Be safe."

Another kiss.

"Now get on the train before one of us starts crying."

From:

msmage

So Sadde boards, and her seat is not next to any windows that might let her see Isabella while departing, which is just as well.

From:

eclipsi

Isabella sits and waits for the train to pull out anyway.

And then she gets on her own train.

From:

peterxy

Sadde does not contact Isabella during the two weeks of summer break.

From:

eclipsi

(Just in case Sadde's going to get internet privileges there are little, sappy notes in his inbox, nothing incriminating, just a line or two - "thinking of you", "love you".

She doesn't expect replies.)

She's at the train station when Sadde's due back.