behave

[mrmage]

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.

Comments

[msmage]

"I- until you tell me to."

[eclipsi]

"What do you need me to tell you to do?" blinks Isabella.

[msmage]

"You told me. I'm- doing what you told me. I won't stop doing what you told me until you tell me to."

[eclipsi]

"I told you to bring yourself home in good condition and I am not satisfied that this is good condition. Come on, pet, be the rest of you."

[msmage]

She nods, inhales, and-

[mrmage]

-exhales, shuddering. He rubs his head against her legs, and reaches with his arms to hug them, and shudders once more.

[eclipsi]

Isabella hugs him.

"My lovely. You poor thing."

[mrmage]

"I had- managed to forget- what a terrible human being he is."

[eclipsi]

Isabella rubs his back. "Do you want to talk about it?"

[mrmage]

"I don't- yeah but- not here. And I want- could you- tell me? What your summer break was. I want to hear something normal."

[eclipsi]

"Okay." Pet pet pet. "Went to Six Flags with Alex and a couple of his friends. Made the mistake of wearing jeans on the log flume, it chafed all day, they don't sell pants at the souvenir stands. Alex started camp counselor training towards the end of the break, he's going to teach little kids to make gimp bracelets and sing cheesy songs and toast marshmallows, he's excited about it. Renée taught us to make lemon meringue pie, which I'm sure will come up routinely in my life - it was delicious though. I tagged along to a meeting of her book club because I'd read the book but it was really boring and I wound up not saying anything and thinking about magic the entire time."

[mrmage]

"Why was it boring? You usually have lots of opinions to share about books."

[eclipsi]

"Yes, but within three sentences it was clear that the book club people enjoyed books on a very different level from me and would be at best confused by my opinions."

[mrmage]

"Why?"

[eclipsi]

"Well, the book was 'Ender's Game' and they were cooing over the poor children - and not in a serious ethical considerations way, just in a 'yes, we are all very concerned about the plight of poor fictional white child soldiers' way."

[mrmage]

"...seriously? Did they, ah, even actually read the book?"

[eclipsi]

"They did refer to the plot on several occasions, just - not my kinda book club."

[mrmage]

"Yeah, I would imagine so."

At this point Isabella might notice that her jeans may be getting a little damp around the area where Sadde's eyes are.

[eclipsi]

Pet, pet, pet.

"I missed you."

[mrmage]

"Me too. I missed you so much. I missed you all the time. I kept- I never stopped thinking about you. Not for a minute."

[eclipsi]

"- I'm all out of synonyms for 'you poor thing'." Pet, pet. "Seriously, would you rather go out for dinner and be fed four kinds of dessert or go have a night in and go to bed early, help me help you."

[mrmage]

"I-" Pause. "Am having a hard time expressing desires." Another pause. "Dinner. I want- I don't want to sleep. I want to be with you and aware of you."

[eclipsi]

"Dinner it is. There's a nice place with a very tempting dessert menu and I am getting you steak and four desserts and packing up whatever you don't finish so you can eat it for breakfast in the morning. My lovely, it must have been so hard."

[mrmage]

"It wasn't," he says automatically and then stops and corrects himself: "Yes, it was. I can't even- I hope it takes less than two weeks to get- used to talking."

[eclipsi]

She leans down and kisses his head. "Did you not talk or just - talk strangely?"