the animorphs

[instar]

Renée is gone in the morning, a pot of maple oatmeal for the girls and Trouble cooling on the stove and a note on the fridge, she's going to be gone all day on a day trip to Tucson with her friends.

Andi wakes up first. Bella's not far behind.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

"Trust me," he laughs, "it's not gonna sneak up on you."

[instar]

"Right then. Carry on."

[aeskhyne]

"'Kay."

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan puts a steadying hand on Trouble's shoulder and punches him in the stomach.

Then he starts breaking bones again.

He goes on for a while; eventually he has to lay Trouble out on the floor to keep working on him. Hands, arms, collarbones, ribs, hips, kneecaps.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble spends most of this time whimpering ecstatically.

[instar]

Bella scribbles. Her expression is very, very neutral.

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan pauses to inquire, "Are we making you uncomfortable?"

[instar]

"I'm fine."

[palmofyourhand]

"All right."

He goes back to turning Trouble into Trouble-shaped mush.

[aeskhyne]

Very happy mush.

[palmofyourhand]

"All right," he says eventually, "go on, try morphing from here."

[aeskhyne]

He manages a dazed nod, and concentrates.

Morphing from this condition is... slow.

[hold_infinity]

And when he's finished, his breath still not quite caught, he says in half a gasp: "Get lost, Bella, we're taking that break now."

[instar]

Bella writes down the time. And she goes up the stairs, and closes the door.

[palmofyourhand]

They are not especially quiet down there.

[instar]

Bella and Andi will be up in their room on the top floor working on the clothes thing. Also they will - probably not coincidentally - have on loud music to see how this interacts with understanding thoughtspeech.

[palmofyourhand]

When next they venture downstairs, Ethan will be sitting on the couch drinking tea.

[aeskhyne]

And Trouble will be curled up with his head in Ethan's lap, sleeping peacefully.

[instar]

Bella comes down the stairs, with her hands behind her back. "Despite her protests, Andi has been practicing morphing-in-order and has learned an adorable trick. Does Trouble want to wake up and see, do you suppose?"

[palmofyourhand]

"Oh, probably," says Ethan.

[pandion]

<Trouble! Wake up and see what I can do!>

[aeskhyne]

Trouble wakes up. Not very quickly.

"Mmmmf?"

[instar]

Bella brings her hands around in front of her.

[pandion]

Standing on her hand, clinging to her thumb for balance, is a tiny Andi with butterfly wings, in some sort of improvised garment out of a fabric scrap and hairtie.

<I'm a fairy!>

[aeskhyne]

"Holy shit," says Trouble, "that's so adorable, I want to hug you but I'm afraid you'd squish. Can I hug you when you demorph?"