Project: poD: convention
Jaaren stared at the TV. She knew what was going through his head.
“You can’t glue yourself to me.” Adalee reminded him, although it was only just occurring to her, too, and she wasn’t sure how much she liked it. “We’re in different subsets.”
“I don’t want to be glued to you, anyway.” He grumbled.
“You really did have a fantastic time in line. Make any friends?” It wasn’t that she felt codependent, or afflicted by separation anxiety. She’d felt fine with the independence and boredom after escaping the check in line, and she wasn’t opposed to it happening again. She knew it would, when the fire masters were off doing something else and she had free time, or vice versa. It was more that it wasn’t optional that was niggling at her.
She would have suggested switching Growlithes if Fluffball and Fuzzball hadn’t been on completely different levels. Fuzzball could still only just Tackle, and was working reluctantly on Ember: hardly a reliable starter on any level, let alone theirs.
“As a matter of fact, I did.” Jaaren said, startling her. She blinked owlishly at him.
“What?”
He turned his head and regarded her. “Yes,” he repeated patiently. “I did make a new friend.”
Adalee’s less-than-positive thoughts about being separated not by choice vanished for the time being. “What? We don’t make friends.”
He shrugged. “Another fire master—the one I ran down the stairs with. She’s… she gives Blaine fits, apparently. Apparently, if Blaine sees us together, he’s going to cringe.”
“More so than us?” Adalee asked curiously, and was more than a little horrified at the stirrings of jealousy. What. Oh, hell no.
“That remains to be seen.” Jaaren said satisfactorily. “I intend to find out.” He wanted to say that Sunny reminded him of Adalee, but… she didn’t. Adalee was supposedly the wild one, but Sunny had her beat; or at the very least, Sunny’s wildness was of a different sort.
“You suck at this.” Adalee said. It was his turn to blink at her in confusion. “What’s her name, dork?”
“Sunny.”
Adalee paused and thought back. “The one…” She gestured helplessly and in no beneficial or inspiring way. “Dyed hair?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. She takes her hair color very seriously.” He seemed amused at the memory.
Adalee was tempted to comment that they were rather chummy already for him to know that, but figured with that long in line, they’d probably discussed a few superficial things.
“Don’t do the girl thing and get weird.” Jaaren ordered her.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Adalee said huffily. Fuzzball looked up at her, and she stroked long fur away from his face. He needed a trim, just for the sake of his vision. She ought to have some scissors in her backpack… She got up to go find out.
“You’re not going to get all catty, are you?” Jaaren clarified, if poorly.
“Hardly. I don’t have the patience for that.” Adalee said, her voice muffled as she rummaged through her bag. “Ah hah.” She came up with the scissors and went back to her bed. Fuzzball watched ambivalently. She slipped off the plastic sheath and began fingering his too-long bangs. He obediently held still. In between snips, she added, “I’m not verbally gifted enough to pull that off, anyway.”
Jaaren watched her spontaneously cut Fuzzball’s fur, clearing his field of vision. Fluffball hopped on the bed, requesting the same treatment, and she turned to him without a second thought. Her first priority in life was them. Well, he admitted candidly, and him. As it should be. Other people—outsiders—were pretty far down. And it wasn’t like they stayed put long enough to establish any sort of meaningful relationship, so it was a fairly moot point anyway. But… how long was that going to be the way of things? His eyes, while still aimed at her and the Growlithes, slipped out of focus as his thoughts went elsewhere entirely. It had been the assumed way of life until they achieved their goals.
Well, goals achieved.
Now what?
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