milliways_bar | (no subject)

"You might want to get that checked out by a doctor," Logan says thoughtfully. "I mean, it could be a sign of something serious. Like major stress. That causes ulcers."

Nevermind that stress and ulcers are not so much in vogue in Amy's time and place.

Well, they exist, they're just not, you know, linked. Or talked about much. Or something.

"Get what checked out?" asks Amy, eyes wide with concern. She's not really conscious of the foot tapping, after all.

"Your foot," he says, pointing. "It seems to be going up and down at a very high rate of speed. I'm guessing it's almost matrimony time?"

"Oh!" Amy very deliberately puts her foot on the floor and manages to stop tapping it. For a moment or two, at least.

The smile is dazzling. "Not quite two weeks."

"And then the tapping will cease forever?" he says. "Because it seems kind of exhausting, really."

"I guess we'll see," she says. "And I don't think I could be exhausted right now if I tried to. There's too much to think about."

Logan gives her a long, close look. "No, you do look remarkably chipper," he notes. "If you were anyone else, I might suspect drugs, or some sort of massive campaign overload, but I'm wondering if you're just running on sheer happiness."

It's entirely possible. She does look pretty happy.

She hasn't followed that bit about the drugs or the campaign (the only definition of which she knows has to do with wars), but after almost a year, that's something she's just gotten used to with Logan.

"I am," she says, and stops to consider advedjectives, "incandescently happy."

"That's pretty clear," he says, beaming. "And I couldn't be happier for you. What's left to do before the big day?"

"Wait for guests to arrive. Wait for the rest of my sisters to arrive. Continue the endless writing of thank you notes."

A pause, and then, with a faint blush, "Wait for the groom to arrive."

Logan bites back a smirk. "All the hardest parts to do," he says seriously. "I hate waiting more than anything else. Drives me craazy."

"I haven't seen him in six months," she says. "It's been . . . I've missed him."

She smiles.

"But it's almost over. And then I don't ever have to have another wedding."

"Not even here?" Logan asks, surprised. "Because I seem to run into all kinds of people here, and I'd rather avoid them. I thought maybe you'd get to hang out around here, because someone has to see the people she likes, right? The odds demand it."

"Well, I see a lot of people here that I like," she says, with a slight shrug. "But Perry hasn't been one of them, not since we first went back.

"We write a lot of letters."

"I bet you do," Logan says. "Man, that's rough. Waiting again. Clearly, one of your fairy gifts is patience."

"That one I come by honestly and naturally, Logan," she says. "Otherwise I suspect I would not be tapping my foot quite so much."

"Lucky you," Logan says, laughing. "I think I got a substandard portion of patience. I'm pretty much the most obnoxious person in line at any counter."

It's almost a point of pride, really.

"Well, there is such a thing as being too patient, but over all, I think having at least some makes life a little easier."

An arch of an eyebrow.

"And what are you currently being impatient and obnoxious about?"

Logan ponders. "Nothing, actually," he says, surprised at himself. "I'm being very Zen about most things right now. Just waiting to see what comes next."

"More waiting," says Amy, with a laugh. "We may as well face it, Logan. We cannot escape waiting."

"It seems to be inevitable" he admits. "I expect being Zen is really the only way to be. It's hard, though. Especially when there's nothing I can do anyway. Seems to make it worse, somehow."

"I suppose you could find things to do while you wait. I used to embroider a lot of handkerchiefs."

A pause, while she considers.

"I don't, however, know that that would suit you."

"No," Logan says, laughing. "I haven't the patience for it. I've been going to the beach a lot. Surfing a little, playing video games. Driving. Boating. That sort of thing seems to work pretty well."

It's all solo, which sucks, but it's not too terrible. Mostly.

"Sounds like a perfectly lovely way to be spending your time," she says. "Certainly sounds more pleasant than being at the center of the planning for a royal wedding."

"And how is the bride spending her time?" he teases. "With much climbing out her window and running into the forest?"

"Thank you notes," she says, gloomily. "Hundreds and hundreds of them. The dress-fitting is finally all said and done with, though."

"Amazingly, your hand seems still attached to your arm," he notes. "I think mine would have fallen off by now. All hand-written?"

She blinks.

"As opposed to . . . holding the pen with my toes?"

"I live in a degenerate age," Logan says. "Many things are mechanically printed. Other things, people get paid to write them."

"That sounds nice. But, no," she says. "I've gotten to write all of them myself. It's really only proper; the gifts are for me, after all."

They're exceedingly badly spelled, worse when she's tired of writing them, which is most of the time.

"I think it's most polite for thank you notes to be handwritten. But I bet it doesn't happen all the time."

Pause. "So really, you're just writing thank you notes when you're not here?"

"I'm writing them when I am here, too, sometimes.

"I suppose it's not all thank you notes, even if it feels that way. But I haven't been able to slip away very much. A lot of dinners and meetings and occasions, and people look for me at them, now."

A lot of sitting and staring at the Forest toward Ambergeldar, too.

Logan frowns sympathetically. "No fun at all. Are the dinners and things awfully boring?"

"Mostly," she says. "And people who had no time in an Ordinary Princess are very interested in talking to the future Queen of Ambergeldar. But I manage to slip away here, so I'm all right."

"Smart girl," he says approvingly. "If you need a break, you're welcome to a California vacation. For relaxation purposes, you know."

Amy opens her mouth to reply, stops for a moment, thinking.

"That actually sounds lovely, Logan."

Logan beams. "Good. I'm hanging out here for a few days, so just come and get me or leave a note when you want to go."