the pookas

[instar]

The following day, Bella goes with Trouble, when he heads for the park.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

Trouble demorphs and finds a bit of couch to flop on. He looks really happy.

[instar]

"Hello, Trouble."

[aeskhyne]

"Hi! What's up?"

[instar]

"Nothing best noted for its novelty. How's Rhea?"

[aeskhyne]

"Rhea continues to be awesome," he says, hugging himself. "And pretty good at undercover - somebody came by wanting to know why she was cuddling a pigeon and she handled him without acting weird or anything."

[instar]

"An admirable save from the situation of public pigeon cuddling. We'll have her turned into a pooka ninja in no time."

[aeskhyne]

He gets up and walks out of the room.

[pandion]

The next room contains Andi and Renée.

[aeskhyne]

He keeps going.

[alicornucopia]

Unless he heads for the garage, the house is otherwise empty.

[aeskhyne]

An empty room sounds pretty great to him right now.

[instar]

After about an hour, Bella comes looking for him.

[aeskhyne]

He's tucked into a corner of Renée's bedroom closet, sitting on the floor between some things and some other things.

[instar]

"Do you want to talk?"

[aeskhyne]

"Sure," he says.

[instar]

"I apologize for being sarcastic at you."

[aeskhyne]

"Thanks," he says. "By the way, I needed a nickname for you, so now Rhea knows you as Titania."

[instar]

"Okay."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble sits quietly.

[instar]

She sits too.

[aeskhyne]

Eventually he says, "I want to say I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I don't know if I'd do it any different another time. I think if I'd told you, it'd come out pretty much the same, but with more of you trying to get me not to do things first."

[instar]

"So my not wanting someone to know about us wouldn't have mattered to you enough to stop you from telling anyway."

[aeskhyne]

"If you wanna put it that way, then yep," he says. "Absolutely. I didn't tell her about you. I told her about me. It'd be bad if she spilled somehow, but I don't think she will. I think she can handle it."

[instar]

Bella clenches her hands in her hair. "About how often is this going to happen?"

[aeskhyne]

"Falling in love doesn't come with a schedule," says Trouble. "And if the next person I get all gooey over is another Ethan, I'm not gonna tell them anything unless we - and by we I mean you, me, Robin, Ethan, and Andi - want to bring them in and can see a way to do it without fucking everything up."