milliways_bar | (no subject)

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X slips into the main bar from her room in the Staff hallway.

The silence -- and lack of cats -- was worth not having to go back to Paris just yet.

Soon. When she is better.

In the meantime, she makes her way to a corner table, stopping briefly at Bar to order something for dinner.

Spaghetti is an old comfort food, and when combined with a root beer float it is one of the best.

Go figure.

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Sometimes you need to stay away for a bit.

Amy needed a break today, from crowns and courtiers and concerns for Her Majesty's Delicate Condition.

"Hello, X.

"May I join you?"

X looks up, fingers flexing and relaxing just once.

As if to make sure her hands are still obeying her.

Amy is pregnant, after all. It is -- important.

"Yes."

And, several seconds later --

"You can."

Beat.

"Hello."

"Thank you."

Amy settles easily into the chair opposite X's.

(Maybe not quite as Gracefully as usual, but easily.)

"How are you?"

X starts to open her mouth to speak, then stops.

She studies Amy for a while, then looks past her for awhile, thinking her answer over.

After another minute of stillness she says, "I do not know."

It is the truth.

"You are okay? And the children?"

"I am well," Amy says. "Looking forward to meeting whoever this is," she says, resting one hand on the curve of her stomach, "and well. So are the children. The twins are suddenly off into everything, Merry is asking dozens of questions that begin with the word why and Susan accomplished what we all thought was impossible and made the Grand Duke of Rubarbary smile."

Amy only likes His Grace a little better than she did when they were trying to make her marry him.

She pauses for a second, then asks, "How do you think you might be?"

"I am looking forward to meeting her, too. Him. The baby."

Just in case Amy was wondering. (And X was not about to call the baby 'it'. Just. No.)

She pauses to consider Amy's question.

"I -- do not want to be used again. By anybody. But -- "

The right words are hard to come by, and she knows Amy does not have the context. But maybe that is not relevant. (Maybe.)

" -- I did not know I could stop. Before."

Beat.

"Now I know how to try."

She thinks.

There is soon a chimp in a suit and a deerstalker hat sitting next to X.

"Happy Cubefall." He's pretty it's X and not a holiday imposter. Who else would eat spaghetti and a root beer float?

X's nostrils flare slightly, and she unclenches her hands from where they have made themselves into fists.

"Hello."

Beat.

"You like it? Cubefall."

He did say 'happy', after all.

"And will you?

"Try, I mean?"

"It's a chance to try something new. Of my own free will. Temporarily. So I like it.

"I take it you don't." Pause. "You know who I am, right?"

"Yes."

X's response is instant, and incredibly fierce.

She will not be used. Not again.

Not ever.

(And if one day she no longer becomes terrified at the prospect -- surely that is good, too.)

"I am already something new."

This is the strictest truth.

"Charlie."

"Can you tell my scent? Or something else?

"And that is fair. I am not new at all. Thus..." He does a rather clumsy flourish.

"Good," Amy says.

"So you've found a way you've been looking for?"

Or finally seen one you already had.

It was a wisteria vine, for Amy.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"And the way you talk," she allows.

That is also true.

"You like it? Having four gripping limbs."

She's curious!

"I have found how to be less afraid. When I am trying."

Among other things.

"I -- "

She bites her lip.

"I do not want other people to know. Because it -- they could use me, too. If they knew how."

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to tell me."

And Amy certainly has no intention of using X for anything.

(Except as a good example for Susan.)

"And if there is anything I can do, I'm happy to do it, X."

Whether she knows why it needs to be done or not.

"I want to not be afraid. Of it."

She can manage that, at least.

Maybe the rest will come later.

X does not know.

"I -- "

She stops to search out words again. There is something safe about Ambergeldar, not least because it does not have genetic engineering. Or mutant-haters.

"There are places? In Ambergeldar. That are remote. And safe? If I brought people."

Beat.

"To practice. With."

"It's...different. I can get to the rafters with ease. And get around rather swiftly. But walking is a strain. I have the wrong balance. And drag my knuckles.

"Opposable toes are great, though." You might even say they're handy.

X considers this.

"The body already had calluses?"

She scents the air again, just to make sure he is not bleeding.

"I do not know if Cubefall is always efficient."

Amy considers this for a very long moment, mentally reviewing the map that hangs in her husband's study.

"There are islands, off the coast. Some have residents, but others don't. I'd have to check to see which were which.

"And, of course, there are the mountains. Where Norman took Perry and Parker."

Back before he was Norman.

"As I understand it, there are places up there that are virtually unreachable unless you can fly. You could ask Norman for the details. And if he'd be willing to take you.

"I'm sure Perry and I could spare him, if he didn't mind."

And Norman likes X.

"There might be others, depending on how remote you needed it to be. But those are the ones that come to mind first.

"Is that what you had in mind?"

Something eases in the set of X's shoulders.

"Yes."

Beat.

"Thank you. I -- the mountains are good. If Norman will keep watch, too. I will ask him."

If Amy thinks it is okay?

"Thor already knows. He -- was here. There. This time. Elle, too. I will ask them. To help."

Beat.

"You have met either of them? Already. Thor is a prince."

"I hadn't thought about that.

"But it's essentially borrowed. From a famous chimp in my world. I guess these are his callouses." He hopes that Bobo wasn't left without a body for three days.

X only looks a little dubious.

"He is famous for wearing clothes? Or there is another reason."

People are strange.

"He is famous for being a sentient, verbose detective. Some say he's in the same league as Batman or Ralph Dibny. There are all sorts of Internet rumors about him." He figures that the context will tell X these others are detectives too.

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