ornamental flower show

[middlingalong]

Destang isn't too thrilled with Ivan, but since his lack of thrill takes the form of sending Ivan to a flower show to be out of the commodore's hair rather than, say, confining him to quarters like poor Galeni, Ivan isn't going to rock the boat. He leaves the half-commlink with Galeni in case Miles suddenly has an emergency and goes off as directed to meet the lady he's escorting.

He finds her at the University of London's Horticulture Hall, shepherds her around, makes comments of limited sophistication but genuine enthusiasm regarding the pretty flowers, and excuses himself a couple hours into the affair for a bathroom break.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"The proper form of address," bounces Miles, "is Lady Vorkosigan." Bounce. "She says she'll be annoyed if you shoot me."

[isthisart]

"...Lady Vorkosigan," acknowledges the ghem. "Ah, yes. And Lord Vorkosigan, the name sounds - familiar, I suppose now I know why. Lord Vorkosigan, please convey my sincerest apologies to your wife. And - is there some means by which we can distinguish you and the clone, who has been granted no such honor by the Emperor?"

"Miles," says Linya, "can you think of any reason to help this individual, for merely declining to annoy me by shooting you?"

The ghem winces.

[thisvorlunatic]

"No," he says, ceasing his bounces at last and sidling out to stand by Linya's elbow. "Also, I owe Naismith a favour at the moment. His people recently rescued some of mine from Komarran kidnappers. Sorry, century-captain—" he makes this guess at rank based on the pattern of face paint. "You'd better turn around and go home. At least temporarily."

[isthisart]

"I will - take that under advisement."

Linya peers at her fingernails. "It occurs to me that I could licitly be offended at attempts on your clone's life even without the possibility of mistaken identity, Miles," she muses. "Obviously he wasn't a participant in our wedding, but the ceremony is about genomes... it isn't really designed to take clones or even identical twins into account, when they're considered so... tacky, within Cetaganda itself... since you owe Naismith a favor, you could choose to warn this fellow here."

[thisvorlunatic]

"My wife," he says, smiling at the century-captain, "suggests that since Naismith is as much an expression of my genome as I am, she could reasonably be offended at attempts on his life just as much as on mine. Perhaps you'd like to take that under advisement too."

[isthisart]

"I believe I'll apply for orders from upstream in my chain of command. I apologize for the inconvenience, Lord Vorkosigan. Do please convey that to your wife as well."

To Linya, he bows, and then he scurries back into the tower.

Linya waits until she can't hear his footsteps anymore, then relaxes. "There. Sorry if you were harboring a latent hope to be thrown at Cetagandan assassins."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm—past that," he says a little uncomfortably, still in Lord Vorkosigan mode. "But thank you. Let's go get the rest of them before they run into trouble." He heads back down the corridor.

[isthisart]

Linya goes with him. "Do you really need to - do that? While there's no witnesses?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I—I—" He shivers. "Yes. I'm sorry. I, uh." He inhales a steadying breath. "Mark shot Ser Galen. Mark had a crippling panic attack immediately afterward. Miles got me on my feet again by suggesting I not be Mark. It's working so far. I'm reluctant to mess with it too badly while there are still people nearby who want me dead. It seems like a bad time to go catatonic again."

[isthisart]

Linya nods, once, and doesn't say anything else while they traverse the remaining distance to rejoin the others.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Did it all work out?" asks Miles.

"They're withdrawing. 'I' owe 'you' a favour," Mark explains. "For rescuing him," a gesture to Galeni, "from the Komarrans. And Lady Vorkosigan is prepared to be annoyed with them if they kill 'you' on the grounds that your genome, being mine, belongs to her."

Miles grins. "Good for you both. C'mon. If we run into ghem-lieutenant Tabor on our way out, ask after his bonsai - he mentioned briefly that he'd taken it up as a hobby, the one time I met him."

Mark nods. And toward Tower Seven they go.

[middlingalong]

"Incidentally, where's that Komarran bastard who shut me up in the seawall?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Dead," says Mark.

"Specifically," elaborates Miles, "he gave Mark a nerve disruptor intending him to shoot us and he was not quite one full word into making the suggestion before Mark shot him instead."

[middlingalong]

"Thank you, Mark. One of these days I might be happy to see you too."

[unmarred]

"I live in hope," says Mark, with a smile that is very briefly his own.

[middlingalong]

"What are you going to do? Go home to Aunt Cordelia and...?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I have no idea," says Mark.

"There's still that hundred thousand Betan dollars," says Miles. "If you need... space. To figure out how to be yourself. Whoever that is."

"I might take you up on that," says Mark.

"Of course I'd like it if you could just come home to Mother," says Miles, "but God knows I understand what the weight of expectations can do to a person."

Mark laughs softly. After a moment, so does Miles.

[isthisart]

"Cordelia is fairly pleasant to show up as an unexpected relative to," Linya mentions. "Her surroundings - vary."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Barrayar... is the way it is," says Miles.

"I've heard," says Mark.

They reach the Tower Seven lift tube and begin ascending.

[alicornucopia]

The Cetagandans have been brisk about clearing out the tower of their presence. They encounter none in it. When they exit the tower, there is a ghem-lieutenant, wandering around, looking unhappy. He startles when he sees Linya, politely averts his eyes, notes Miles and Mark with bewilderment, recognizes Ivan and Galeni, and appears quite paralyzed by all of them put together.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ghem-Lieutenant Tabor," greets Mark-as-Vorkosigan. "How's your bonsai?"

[alicornucopia]

"Tedious," says Tabor.

"Sorry if you were hoping to collect Naismith for a feather in your cap," remarks Galeni. "At least on this planet."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Admiral Naismith is temporarily under our protection," says Mark-as-Vorkosigan.

"A mercenary gets it where he can," Miles-as-Naismith says brightly. Mark-as-Vorkosigan shoots him a mildly disgusted look. Miles-as-Naismith ignores him and inquires of his wristcom, "Quinn, can we get an aircar to Tower Seven for pickup?"

[spacetobreathe]

"On its way, sir," says Quinn.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Great." Miles stands next to Mark and smiles tauntingly at Tabor; Mark looks caught between exasperation and amusement.