milliways_bar | (no subject)

It's not a quiet booth for long. Willow is soon joined by her good friend Goldilocks, and a little girl of about seven years who has similarly shaded hair and eyes to the Fable. Almost eerily similar.

"Sunshine, this is Auntie Willow," Goldy says to the child. "She's a witch. A good one."

Beat.

"Well, inasmuch as she isn't evil."

The girl looks a bit confused at that introduction, but she manages a smile and a polite "hello."

"Um...Hi. Yeah, I'm Willow."

She looks at Goldy askance.

"And I'm definitely not evil. Right now. Or at all anymore. Very not evil"

Goldy blinks, derailed somewhat by the implications of Willow's reply.

"You were though? I didn't know that."

"Only a little! A lot... In the summon the Apocalypse way... I got better!"

"...Wow. And I thought I had skeletons in my closet."

The little girl, already losing interest in this conversation, clambers onto the bench opposite Willow and starts eying the pretty colored drink on the table.

"It's not really skeletons. I mean, there are a few skeletons, but less than other Apocalypse type people..."

She nudges the cup in the girl's direction.

"It's just punch, you can have it if your..." Mom? Aunt? Babysitter? "Goldy, says so."

"Uh huh," Goldy says, skeptically. She makes a mental note to quiz Willow on all of this when she's not encumbered by a child, and refocuses from the tangent. "No, sweetie. That's Willow's. I'll get you some of your own."

The girl seems satisfied with that outcome. Goldy makes a quick order to the nearest waitrat, then sits herself down as well.

"Sorry. This is my daughter, Eleanor," she informs Willow.

"A little gift from Eros that I had no idea about until he introduced us last February."

"Oh... Oh. Um... Congratulations. I think?"

"Mmmm. Thanks," the Fable replies, dryly.

"A word of advice: non-barrier contraception devices aren't very effective against immortal sperm."

"I'll keep that in mind. The next time I'm... y'know, sleeping with a man. Which, I really don't do. But next time, I will definitely remember my friend the condom. Should we be having this conversation in front of your daughter?"

Goldy glances at her ward.

"Um... probably not."

Eleanor cocks her head over inquiringly. She hadn't really been listening, but now she knows it's special adult talk, she's latched on as only a child can. "What's sperm?" she asks Willow.

Goldy stifles a snicker.

"Sperm is half of what it take to make a baby. It's the half that comes from a boy."

Willow doesn't subscribe to abstinence-only sex-ed.

Eleanor takes a moment to ponder this, then looks at her mother for confirmation.

"It's true," Goldy says. "We have eggs. Boys have sperm. When the two get together a baby starts to grow inside us."

To Willow: "Her dad decided to spare me of that part. He stole the fetus and gestated it himself. All without my knowledge."

"Nice, huh?"

Willow nods in sympathy.

"At least you didn't have to be pregnant?"

She strongly suspects that fat and throwing up wouldn't appeal to Goldy.

"It would have been nice to have had a choice in the matter."

Having a child at all never really appealed to Goldy. Hence why this is her first, and why she isn't doing the full-time mother thing. If she'd had a choice about it, there probably wouldn't be a little girl sitting at the table at all.

Said little girl is currently prodding her tummy curiously.

"I have eggs in me? Like chicken eggs?" she follows up.

"Not exactly, but sort of. Chicken eggs finish growing up outside of the mommy chicken. Human eggs finish growing up inside the mommy human"

This was so not how she intended to spend the evening.

"I'm sorry, Goldy, that's pretty rotten. Why did..." This is also probably not a great conversation to have around the child in question.

"Do you watch her all the time now?"

Goldy shakes her head. "Hell no!"

Hearing that, Eleanor's expression starts quickly shifting towards mortification. Goldy is forced to rephrase in a hurry.

"Er. I mean... no. Sadly not. Only once or twice a month."

"Oh look, here's your drink!" she then announces, as the waitrat makes a timely arrival with punch and a glass of Chardonnay for Goldy. Eleanor is instantly mollified, and her mother lets out a silent sigh of relief.

"That's good. Do you like being here, Eleanor?"

She can't imagine what the perpetual carnival of Milliways would be like for a kid.

As she takes a big suck at her drink through the accompanying straw, Eleanor nods.

When she's done, she answers properly. "There're some neat people here. And the outside is cool. It's better than being at school."

Goldy is busy perusing the food menu.

"You don't like school?"

Willow loved school. "School is great. For learning things and hanging out with friends and getting to play games and read books..."

Eleanor looks blank.

"She's only got a tutor right now," Goldy answers on her behalf. "She's a demigod. She's been developing at a crazy rate. She was only a toddler when I first met her last year, and now look at her."

"Oh. Well I guess that's not the same. What's your favourite subject?"

Eleanor shrugs noncommittally.

Goldy tsks. "You like Science, you told me."

"Nuh uh. It's all boring."

Goldy rolls her eyes.

"Science used to be my favourite! Did you get to make a baking soda volcano? I loved that."

Eleanor shakes her head.

"Can you do magic?"

Apparently, she's done talking about school.

"I... yes."

Not of the pick-a-card variety though. No sleight-of-hand here...

Eleanor is not expecting that kind. Willow was introduced as a witch, after all.

"My dad can. And so can Aunt Alanna."

She seems a lot more engaged suddenly. Her mother happily takes a back seat with her wine. If this goes well, she's going to get another babysitter out of it.

"What can you do?" Eleanor follows up.

Quiet corner is quiet.

There is a young man there, at a table with hot coca and his big handbook of medicine.

And a sword, sheathed, resting on the tabletop as well.

Oh, Milliways.