strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

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Mildmay couldn't say one way or the other about Corbie's gran. Felix had had a few thoughts on the woman, not always friendly, but Felix wasn't always friendly toward anybody... except Corbie herself. But Mildmay didn't have to think to know how to respond to that, "Felix wouldn't."

He kissed her temple and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. "You okay for me running to the kitchen?"

Corbie snorted softly. "Course he wouldn't. Felix forgets to eat just 'cause." It was true, though.

The kiss got a flicker of a smile out of her. "Yeah. I'm okay."

Trusting Corbie to say if she needed him to stay a little longer first, Mildmay took her at her word and slipped silently but for the quiet tap of Jashuki to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with a couple of bowls of what Emma'd called egg drop soup, and since he'd watched her drizzle egg into the hot broth, he understood why. It was just what it said it was.

He set own steaming bowl in front of Corbie, having been judging her state on his slow walk across the room. The second bowl was for himself, not that he needed to eat, but it was usually easier to eat when you didn't much feel like it, if you weren't eating alone.

Corbie had never seen anything like this before. It was almost broth, except... she wasn't sure what that was floating in it, honestly. But it smelled good, which was sign enough to her to go for it. She didn't bother with a spoon, picking up the bowl with her hands and sipping directly from it. Only then--with a visible realization--did she understand the mystery stuff was egg.

Interesting.

It was both familiar and not, and somewhere between the familiarity and Corbie's innate curiosity and her body's need for food even when her head told her she didn't feel like eating, the soup slowly went down.

Mildmay ate more slowly, enjoying the soup while watching Corbie without being obvious he was watching. Felix could get caught up in himself he didn't notice Mildmay hovering – or he could fly off the handle for it when Mildmay was barely doing anything – but Corbie could get self-conscious about it before then, and he didn't want that. She was getting the soup down at least, that was good.

Corbie guessed, of course, but she didn't mind because she knew she'd do the same. And in any case, her attention was focused mostly on fuck you, you can last a day on air but it's a bad idea. She disappointed her grandmother's memory enough with the magic thing, she could at least do things that made complete sense to do.

"How are you doing?" she asked quietly. It was a question she asked implicitly in a number of ways, but never directly. She spent a lot of her free time with him because of course she did. Still she wondered. Was he making friends, was he at least adjusting? The only thing it didn't imply was whether or not he missed Felix, because they both already knew the answer to that was 'yes' and 'even more than she did.'

Corbie had a better idea how Mildmay was doing than anybody else here. She didn't usually ask direct like that, though. "M'okay," he said, and then took another spoonful of soup.

"Been worse places'n this."

Corbie pulled a face at that, which she tried to hide by sipping more soup. "Been better places, too. I hope," she added, trying to turn the inquiry into gentle teasing.

Esmer hadn't been bad, and Felix had been mostly happy, and sane. Bernatha was supposed to be nice, but Mildmay'd spent most of the time there trying not to die, and he mighta made a joke about it, but Corbie was homesick enough already. Not gonna remind her of home now.

"Never." Voice dry, but green eyes crinkling a little at the corners to tease back at her.

She really should have expected that. As it was, Corbie had to put down her bowl for a moment because she'd started to giggle and that would lead to soup going down the wrong way real quick.

Two could play at that, though. "Prettier, then," she challenged.

Edited 2018-06-02 05:13 (UTC)

Mildmay'd be fucked if he'd say he liked his time in Troia, but the garden had been pretty. And Grimglass had a kinda... Felix'd probably know the word he was looking for, but it was pretty, in its way. Min-Terris-of-Pharoahlight was just flat out pretty, looking like some fancy cake as much as a cathedral. An none of 'em looking like Felix's closet exploded all over some whorehouse.

"Depends on the view," he said, watching her try to smother her giggles, "but yeah, okay."

"More exciting, too, I'd bet," Corbie said as she picked up her bowl again. Whether or not it was good manners, sometimes you just did what came easy. Sometimes she still boggled at the idea that there could be so few people in one place. She knew that at home there were farm communities that were this size, but she'd never seen any of them herself.

Exciting weren't always a good thing. Least in Mildmay's experience.

"Been listening to Felix's whoppers 'bout life in the MIrador?" he joked, still as flat and dry as ever, but joking for him. Thing was, it probably was exciting, if you were a hocus, or one like Felix, who lived on debates and drama and in-fighting and being the most fashionable person ever.

"Oh, fine, will less boring do, then?" Corbie teased back. Felix of course had told her some about the Mirador, but it mostly had to do with the magic, not the social scene. After he'd refused to teach her not to talk like a low class jezebel, she'd largely left the whole thing alone. It made him think of Malkar, and whether or not Felix would ever admit to sadness or fear, it made him too sad and scared for her to try.

Mildmay just looked at her, let her see him thinking about it. Yeah, he'd been worse places and better ones, prettier and uglier, more exciting and more boring – and all of those right inside Mélusine, if he thought about it, and in the Mirador itself.

"I ain't been here long enough," he said finally. Not like her. Not most of an indiction without nobody she knew from home, nobody who knew her home. And yeah, it was Corbie, she'd made friends and found teachers and generally been... Corbie, but that weren't the same thing.

Corbie nodded and let it go, focusing her attention on finishing the soup.

Her tongue darted out to lick her lips when she set the bowl down. She hadn't really considered how much of her black mood was just not eating, but it seemed an obvious thing on the other side of it. Still... what was the word? Melancholy. But things didn't seem quite so bleak now. "I think I feel better," she said after a long pause.

Felix hadn't shown up, and while he wouldn't say it, maybe didn't realize it exactly, inside Mildmay felt he'd know if Felix did. Or he'd kick up such a fuss there'd be no choice but to hear it, no matter where he was at the time.

He nodded. Better wasn't the same as good, but it was better. He'd have to thank Emma later. "Could go lay down a while, f'you want."

Corbie smiled a little at that, unable to resist gently teasing, "With or without?"

Mildmay's gaze was steady, his stony face as neutral as ever. "Guess."

Corbie's face meanwhile got expressive to the point of exaggeration. She pouted at him, poking out her lip and making her eyes very big. It was bratty, but she was playing, which was something she wasn't doing earlier.

Corbie's pout could melt the hardest of men, but her playing when just a few minutes ago she'd been too down to even eat, that was stronger.

"C'mon, then," Mildmay said, holding out a hand for her.

Corbie gave him a little smile, a real one now, and put her hand in his. "Okay."

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