heavensreader | [IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[Oh no. That is absolutely not what she meant to happen. For a moment Kesara rethinks her promise not to lie to Zach - she could very easily have lied by omission here and not made him angry. She knows he's not angry with her, but she doesn't like that he's angry at all. And he's angry at Royce and even for someone as strong as Zach, Royce is a dangerous person to get started with...]

No, Zach, I'm safe - really I am. It wasn't Duster's fault. Anyone could get lost the way things are now - I saw these things, you see, these mirages. I thought I saw the stars. [Her voice drops a little despite herself. It had not been a happy moment, that sight.] But Duster and Tifa came for us this morning even though it was dangerous. We're fine. It was no big thing.

[She doesn't think she can really calm him down without lying. It wasn't a big thing in her mind - that's no lie - but she can imagine how big it would look from a distance. If it had been Zach in her place she would have said just the same things. Though she hopes she wouldn't have gotten so openly angry.]

But, but it's fine, I'll promise. If I think I'm not safe with them, I'll leave.

[He takes a deep breath, rolling his free shoulder and feeling the joint shift. Man, he needs a workout badly, he's all stiff from the cold, and it's not doing anybody any good.

He forces himself to breathe, and calm down. What can he do, anyway? He's not going to barge in on Duster's inbox and yell at him. It really won't accomplish anything, considering the dude. But Zach promises himself that he won't forget that one.]

Okay. Okay - you're fine, you're sure? Your arm's getting better?

[Best to change the conversation, otherwise he's never going to get over it. Letting two kids just run off, what the hell, even Zach's not that irresponsible (anymore. Maybe.).]

Oh, in other news, I heard you went ahead and...vetted Steph. [He raises an eyebrow at Kes through the camera. Really, child.]

[That's much better. She would never tell him so, but for a moment Kesara is fiercely proud of her friend. There he is pulling himself together, swallowing his anger just as well as she would - probably better, since he is much older, and a man. She didn't even have to tell him anything about not tangling with Royce. It's a tremendous relief.]

I'm sure. We're sitting it out now, we won't go out again until we're sure it's safe - as safe as it can be - until we're sure we can find a way. And my arm really is better.

[That is... not a lie. Her arm feels the same, but she's better at working around it and taking care not to aggravate the pain. She thinks it passes.]

You've heard - wait, she's told you? [It's practically visible, how the shock of that runs all the way down Kesara's back from the neck down, and up again, making her jerk upright a little where she sits. Her eyes are enormous.] She wasn't meant to! We talked about women's things!

[Maybe he can punch a wall or two, once this conversation is over. Let go of some pent-up anger.]

Did you get to see Doctor Watson? I know he's with Alfie, but I'm not sure you all got to meet.

[Biting the inside of his bottom lip, Zach leans a little closer to his tablet.] How are you doing for food?

[The outraged look on her face makes him laugh, and he turns away from the camera and his tablet just long enough to drop a tiny, quick kiss to the top of Steph's head.] Don't worry, she just gave me broad strokes. Did you think she wouldn't tell me you two talked?

[Omissions and little white lies are not what good relationships are based on, Kesara. He puts his hand to his mouth, grinning, and then mock whispers:] So, what d'you think? She good enough?

[He knows that the answer is that she's too good for him, but. He kinda wants to know what Kes thinks.]

It was women's business. [Kesara repeats this important assertion as though if she invoked it with sufficient outrage, the whole affair would be erased from existence. She's never been happier that her skin is too dark to show a flush. Steph really is a criminal.

She glares at Zach, which is rather ineffectual as she continues to answer his questions, mindful of not worrying him too much but also of telling the truth.] We only have a little food left, we're on half rations, so we've all decided to go outside and resupply - I want to bring some for sir Haurchefant, too, he and Lord Francel are digging through another collapsed pass. And on the way East we should meet Mr. Solomons, and Dr. Watson should be with him like you say and he'll look at my arm, and maybe after that...

[She trails of. Glaring. Then she flicks her eyebrows up and lowers her eyelids and gives him a look so imperious that it turns her little face into a caricature of itself.]

Did you know that you're courting a vigilante?

[She tries. Oh, she tries. But all her skill at lying can't conceal the singsong note of delight that sneaks into her voice with that word.]

It was women's business about me, Kes. [He raises an eyebrow, giving her a smile. Even though he is sort of withering inside a little, the guilt of leaving her slamming into his chest now, now that he knows, only a couple of days after he's gone, she got lost - he can't help but think, he should never have left. He shouldn't -

He steals a glance to Steph again, the knot in his stomach loosening. He hates having had to pick one of them over the other.]

Maybe after that what? You want to meet up outside, go back in together? [He feels like he knows Kesara well enough at this point that he gets where she's going with this. Also, he wants to meet back up with her. Seems he can't trust anyone else to make sure she stays safe.] Because I'd like that. As long as you're happy with Steph tagging along, of course.

[He's not choosing anymore.

The face she makes makes Zach laugh, nodding.]

Oh believe me, I know, kiddo. She even has a cape.

[Clearly Zach does not grasp the severity of the breach in etiquette. Perhaps it's because he's an American. Kesara decides to allow him off the hook, if only because she's so happy to see his smile. There's something warm about him, she thinks, even warmer than before. Is that how men look when they're courting (or whatever it is Zach and Steph actually do)?]

Maybe I'll permit that. But she must promise me a good story about a fearsome bandit she had overcome. And promise that she will not make you wrestle a lion for her love or anything of the sort.

[Is this child even serious. Sometimes it's so hard to tell.]

I didn't know a cape was important. I hope it's a good warn one. [She trails off with a bit of a flicker in her impish grin, the uncertainty of genuine emotion. He looks so warm. He's happy. And yet he's asking her permission to let Steph come. He's asking her!]

Oah, Zach, I miss you! How far are you from the pass now?

I'm sure she'll give you all sorts of stories. And I promise I'm not fighting a...lion...for anything.

[It's just - good, for him, that they seem to get along. He wouldn't want it any other way; Kesara can be extremely vindictive, Zach would know, and he really doesn't want to be some sort of mediator between them.

So. That's good.]

A cape is super important. You're only half a vigilante if you don't have a cape. Vigilantes don't joke around with the cape. And hers is a good one.

[His heart swells at her little exclamation, and his face feels flushed with warmth. Her little grin is so cute, if mischievous. He's just glad she's doing okay, through it all.]

I miss you too. [And, man, he does.] We're pretty far - going further still, traveling is slow going. We've not got to the school yet. If you go north of it, we can probably meet after we've gone through to collect food, and then go back to the pass together.

I don't know where she'd find a lion here, even if she looked. [Kesara appears to contemplate this issue with great seriousness, chewing idly on her lower lip. There are certain rules to these things after all.] Does she also have a mask? Vigilantes should have masks. And she must have taken some oath to wed only the worthy, which is fine, of course, because you are you, but I'm still glad that there are no lions...

[It's becoming a bit of a ramble. Kesara is, after all, still getting used to the idea of an actual, real woman hero who is a vigilante who fights crime in a cape and is also courting - no - dating her precious friend. Distracted, she puts her hand over the tablet screen, the way she does when she wishes she could reach out and touch the person on the other side.]

I'll do it. I'll go out northwest - the others might not want to, but that's fine. I can find you on my own and you can find me, and then - then - you don't need a chaperone, do you, Zach? Since it's not courting, it's - dating.

[The foreignest of concepts. Better ask just to be sure.]

Hmm, yeah, doesn't seem like there'd be a lot of lions around here, hmm? I don't know about the mask, she doesn't wear it around me, if she has one. [Zach manages not to choke on his own tongue at the mention of marriage - again.] You gotta let go of that wedding thing, kiddo, that's - not happening any time soon.

[If ever. They're so fucking young. With a smile, he brings his fingers to his tablet as well, pressing them against hers.]

Yeah, that's fine. [He doesn't really want to meet up with the others anyway. Just her.] We'll go north from the school, and we'll coordinate to meet up. You keep safe until then, okay?

Why would we need a chaperone for? [Too late, kiddo. Way too late.]

That's what she told me, too, about marriage. But worthy men aren't very easy to find! [It's a bit of nonsense, of course, all this, Steph being a real person and not someone in a story, and Zach being the same. But privately she cannot help but think that it would be very fine if they did marry, and she might as well put in her small share to that. It's practically her duty, since Zach has nothing else close to female relatives.

It isn't real touch, but her fingertips seem to tingle when she thinks that. Relative. She half-smiles all to herself, though she thinks he wouldn't be unhappy to see it.

And then she feels her face grow very hot at his question. Thank the lord, thank all the gods that she's too dark to show a blush!]

Well, it's that - a young lady with a man that she has this connection with, all by themselves -

[Kesara knows what sex is. She's not all that embarrassed by it as a concept. But this is Zach.]

So you think I'm worthy, huh? [The thought makes him smile - Kesara might be all tough and clever and often have better ideas than him, but there's so much of her that's still a kid, too. And she likes him, for some reason, think him better than he really is. It's...heartwarming, in a way.

And then, it's just awkward. Zach scratches his throat, trying his best not to laugh and not doing the best job at it.]

The world we live in, Kes - Steph and I, I mean, it's very different from yours. It's a lot less...there are less rules, about this. We're both adults - [consenting adults, but Zach isn't sure he wants to get into that -] and we're - I mean. Basically, we don't really have all of these thoughts on virtue and good standing and all this stuff. And - and the two of us being together, it doesn't take anything from Steph. It doesn't make her...I don't know what you'd call it, really, but it doesn't.

[Why is this his life, why, why.]

Of course I do. But she let you court - I mean date her, so she must think it too!

[Kesara blurts that out rather quickly, not because she doesn't believe it, but because she's still trying to come to grips with making her face stop feeling like it could melt the Norfinbury snow. Lord, Zach is laughing now. He's explaining all those things that would be terribly interesting maybe if they weren't also to do with all those other things that she is not supposed to be thinking about. Because if Zach has to explain then he and Steph are very very definitely no longer virtuous or in good standing and the more she thinks about it the more she feels like her brain is trying to flee to safety out through her ears.]

So - [She clears her throat and thinks about the important issues at stake here. Just the important ones.] It's, it's quite all right, I suppose, as long as it doesn't spoil her future prospects for marriage, I mean, I think you ought to marry her but it wouldn't be very good if you had to because she was in the, the family way and you would have to be - I mean.

[Please save her from this conversation, Responsible Adult.]

[Zach just. He can't take it anymore, he has to laugh and groan at the same time, hiding his face in his hands as he flushes and laughs and laughs - not in a mocking way, just as the only way he knows how to release his own awkward tension. Oh man oh god.

It takes him a while, but he sobers up, looking back at the camera with tears of laughter in his eyes.]

Okay, okay, sorry, it's just - okay. Nothing is spoiling her anything, okay, nobody's in the family way as you so delicately put it, so you don't have to worry about any of it, all right?

[Seriously, small child, stop talking about sex and marriage and pregnancies. Just. Don't. Kiddo. Come on. Don't do it.]

You just. Worry about your pass and all that, alright? I promise you, we're good, here. No spoiling of prospects.

[Zach, you are her dear snowbrother, but how very dare you laugh at her distress. Which is profound. Her hair would probably be standing on end if it didn't, well, do that naturally. For every moment you laugh her face is growing hotter, and she's starting to think it's going to explode.

Kesara is bad at not worrying about things.]

But you have to be careful of it! Because if she were, can you imagine a baby here? You'd have to find a crib - I saw one in this house, I have it in my notes - it also had some toys and other things, so it might not be so hard, but I think there was a ghost in that house and who knows how a ghost baby would feel about sharing. I shouldn't like to share my things if I were a ghost and someone else was putting a live baby in my crib.

[This is clearly going off-topic. Which is perhaps not such a bad thing considering the topic.]

I will try not to worry. Only, be careful, Zach. Think about that poor ghost baby.

[Holding a hand up to his mouth, Zach hides his grin behind it, trying his best not to embarrass Kesara. It still takes him a bit of time to get himself under control enough to reply.]

Let me swear to you, Kesara, that nobody is getting pregnant. That ghost baby can keep its stuff, okay? I swear.

[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

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