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I don’t know what you’re planning but I’m mildly scared about it—”
“Oh, wait, okay, you need my help. What do you need? Do you need practice kissing girls? That’s totally fine. I can do that. Come here, I’ll kiss you right now.”
Ash looked as if he seriously wondered why it was always him.
“Please don’t kiss me,” Holly said, with conviction. “Hurtful,” Kami commented. “But all right. What else can I do?”
“Kami,” said Holly, seeming stricken with a sudden terrible thought. “Please be subtle.”
“You can rely on me absolutely. I will have the stealth of a lioness stalking the grasslands. In this metaphor Angela is an antelope, and she’ll never know what hit her.” Holly did not look reassured.
Jared stayed where he was, leaning against the doorframe and watching her. His hands were in his pockets, which Kami thought was excellent because it meant he couldn’t defend himself when she caught him off guard.
A spell is like a promise.
Ash wanted to be useful, to be wanted and loved, wanted it with such passion she could see why he might become a tool in anyone’s hand.
My Star Wars brain connected this to Anakin and I have been sad ever since.
“Hi there, dream canoe,” she said.
despoiling his innocent daughter, no check but not for lack of trying
“But any knife can be cursed or blessed.” “Right, but can any knife be disinfected?” asked Jon. “Specifically, was this one?”
When asked if they wanted to see the Lynburn boys cut up and tied up, Holly had weakly claimed that she was absorbed in studying, Angela had said a flat no,
“I’ve never seen this kind of spell performed before. I’m very interested to watch.” Jon lifted his eyebrows. “Okay. Note to self: sorcerers are freaks every day of the week.
“Nah, Dad, I’m good. Please leave me in this hotel bedroom with my handsome boyfriend. And several of his relatives, and a very sharp weapon.” “Clearly I went badly wrong somewhere when raising you,” said Dad. “Well, best to go down before Tomo gets into the vodka.”
“Good luck with your horrifying blood-and-knives spell, pumpkin blossom,”
“Can you believe that we screwed up everything about twice as much in the space of a couple hours?” Kami asked. “I can,” said Jared. “But only because I truly believe in us, the utter depths of our incompetence, and that it must inevitably lead us to our ultimate epic failure.”
Tomo looked up at them anxiously and said, “I want to help.” “You are helping by being awesome,” Kami told him. Tomo nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true.”
“I don’t even know where you got a gun,” Kami whispered. “I took it out of your room,” Dad said. “Oh,” said Kami.
“Did you know that pottery can be repaired with gold?” Kami asked. “Then it’s meant to be stronger than before, and more beautiful. Which is awesome, though it seems expensive.” Her grandmother had nodded. “Makes sense to me,” she said. “Why be broken when you can be gold?”
“I didn’t achieve you. You are the greatest achievement of your own life. And you are great beyond my imagination.”
Apparently neither of Kami’s parents was any good at assassination.
I have dealt with children having nightmares before.” “Oh my God, Aunt Lillian,” said Jared, and she let him have his hand back so he could scrub it exasperatedly over his face. “You probably give children nightmares,”
Aunt Lillian shrugged, as if conceding that she might have given a few children a nightmare or two in her time.
Don’t waste time blaming yourself when you can spend time planning how to destroy our enemies.” “Can we get that last thing embroidered on a cushion, Aunt Lillian?” Jared asked.
“So you will be terrible. But that does not mean you have to be unloved, or unforgiven.”
“I love you,” said Aunt Lillian. “And I’m sorry you were buried alive. I hope you get over it quickly.”
“You kids and your psychic bonds,”
“He wants to know you love him more than that stupid house.” “It is a very nice house,” Aunt Lillian said, sounding offended. “Your ancestors are buried in the crypt of that house.”
When they bury me in that crypt, I want ‘Jared, very inbred, deeply uncomfortable about it’ on my tombstone.”
“I’m so sorry, you were on fire,” Ash blurted.
“You’re bad at climbing trees,” Tomo whispered. “I’m bad at climbing trees when I’m on fire, yes,” Kami said. “Not my sport.”
“You were on the sofa in your office?” Kami asked. “Why?” “Because sometimes adult relationships are complicated,” Dad said. “And sometimes adults don’t want to talk about that when their houses are burning down!”
“Do you even know her name?” Jon demanded. “Do I care?” Lillian demanded in return. “Possibly I would have learned it if she had not been so busy making profiteroles for the traitors in Aurimere!”
She’d felt like being nice cost her something, even if it was just feeling a little bit lesser, every time she smiled without meaning to.
She didn’t know what showed on her face, but Angie drawled, “Oh, all right,” and knelt down to check Ross’s pulse.
this is the outside of enough,”
Kami stroked her mother’s hair lightly, before she let Claire go. She thought she understood why parents stroked hair so much: it was a gesture that said, Here you are, lovely and alive and entire. I did that.
Another bit that my Star Wars brain latched onto. The hair petting between Anakin and Padmé is strong.
“What happened?” “Well,” said Jared. “Your mother threw her bedside lamp at me.”
“What amazing ladies,” said Kami, her voice distant in her own ears. “I am so lucky to have them in my life. The guys in my life are okay too, I guess.” “Could be better,” Jared contributed.
“Do you want my jacket?” Jared asked. He was taking it off as he spoke, a little awkwardly as he still had to hang onto her. “Yes,” said Kami instantly. He drew it close around her shoulders. “Also your pin and your class ring. That’s how you do dating in America, isn’t it? You see, I know the ways of your people.”
“I don’t really know how dating works,” Jared told her. “High school for me was mostly musical numbers. That’s how it is in the States, you’ve seen the movies. Every time someone had an emotional dilemma or epiphany, they would burst into song, and we would all have to break out into perfectly choreographed dance sequences. It took a lot of intensive training. So many jazz squares, no time for love.”
I hear girls like bad boys. I hope that’s true,” Jared said. “Because, baby, I’m bad at practically everything.”
There is literally a photo set on tumblr of Anakin and Padmé having this conversation.
I’ve decided I don’t believe in falling. I believe in something else.” “What’s that?” asked Jared. “The opposite of falling,” Kami said, after a long time. “I did not fall. I climbed, to a place high enough that I could see clearly. Once I saw, I was certain.”
“I am so sad about my underwear,” Kami announced, and Ash looked as if he regretted all of his life decisions. “Not in front of the little boy!” he said reproachfully. “Anyway, you were saying that you would borrow clothes from Holly and Angela.” “I’m the third tallest in my class,” Tomo informed him, with the air of one out to impress. “And I know all about underwear.” “You heard the man,” said Kami. “Besides which, no. I cannot possibly borrow underclothes from Holly and Angela. Bras especially.” “I know,” said Jared. “Oh, you do, do you?” Kami inquired. “And how do you know, may I ask?”
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“Kami, would you maybe stop mentioning your unmentionables,” Ash said, spoiling the moment. “I shall not,” Kami told him. “It’s a serious problem. I am, and I mean this absolutely literally, in need of support.”
“Sunshine puppy?” he asked. “You’re not even trying anymore.” “I am trying very hard,” Kami informed him. “To be ridiculous.”
“Hey, Angela,” she said. “Want to come with me to the graveyard?” “I absolutely do not,” Angela told her. “But I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
“And this is my sports bra. Obviously, as I have never participated in any sport, it has never been worn.”
“You’re always you,” said Angela, and linked her arm with Kami’s, something she would not have done on any other day. “And you’re all right. For a lunatic nudist.”
