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

[isthisart]

Linya answers.

"I bought a medical scanner," she mentions, first. "But it will not work over comm."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Come see me at the embassy, then. It's godawful o'clock in the morning, but they'll probably let you in. And Ivan suggested I talk to you instead of pacing a hole in the floor."

[isthisart]

"Aren't you going to be dragged away for debriefing at any moment?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Perhaps the commodore will find 'talking to my wife' a decent excuse. Another excellent reason to have the conversation now. Besides, he's not here at the moment."

[isthisart]

"Well, all right, the flower show isn't particularly succeeding at holding my attention anymore anyway. I'll be there in ten minutes."

[thisvorlunatic]

"See you then."

[isthisart]

"Assuming you're you," she says, "I love you."

And then she ends the call.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles... flops disconsolately onto his bed.

[middlingalong]

"Best of luck, coz," sighs Ivan. "You know while Mark was being you he didn't talk her up as much as you do but she came up a couple of times..."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...And...?"

[middlingalong]

"Oh, I was moaning about Sylveth dumping me - by the way, Miles: Sylveth dumped me - and wondering how 'you' managed to hold onto her and there was something about hanging on for dear life but not being clingy and - I don't know how to translate any of it into advice but it came to mind."

[thisvorlunatic]

"My condolences," says Miles. "Maybe you'll figure out how to keep the next one. ...Thanks, anyway, although I'm not sure how much I trust secondhand quasi-advice from Mark."

[middlingalong]

"Well, he does a good you, if it's not good advice it might at least be you advice, and Linyabel likes you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That's... oddly cheering all by itself."

[middlingalong]

"Good."

[isthisart]

Linya knocks.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles jumps up to answer the door.

[isthisart]

Linya comes in. She gives Ivan a look. "You can do your work somewhere else, unless you've lost the pen I gave you. Yes?"

[middlingalong]

"Going."

He goes.

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Hi," says Miles awkwardly. "Um. Did you bring your medical scanner...?"

[isthisart]

She has it in her pocket, apparently. She scans him, and collects the file into her pen, and labels it with the date and time and nothing else.

She sits on his bed.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles... paces.

"I don't know what to say," he says. "I don't know... what to do. This is not a usual condition for me and I'm having trouble adjusting."

[isthisart]

"Everyone else seems satisfied that there are only two you-shaped people. It's very tempting to just agree with their assessment and scoop you up and cry into your hair for a bit and be done with it - but everyone else, at least of the parties who are on this planet, will be more or less all right if it turns out that you're not you as long as you do both of the relevant jobs, as long as you aren't inclined to assassinate people or sabotage the work. Even Ivan doesn't seem that shaken up and he's your cousin. I'm shaken up. Convince me. Tell me - things they couldn't have turned up through elaborate detective work, and enough of them that it's vanishingly unlikely for them have got it via fast-penta before you hit upon the Bard. Tell me what color my bubble was when it wasn't white, tell me what the first mistake I made when you taught me to fly a lightflyer was, tell me - I don't know, what color my underwear was the first time we made love - convince me so that I can hold you." She swallows. "My dearest partner of greatness."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Blue," he says, with a faint, faint smile. "And robin's egg blue fading to turquoise on a four-second cycle. Respectively. You kept getting up and down confused in the steering, and you told me it was because the axis was reversed from what you were used to in a haut float-chair, and I offered to rewire the controls, and you said that if there was a standard across all lightflyers you'd rather learn it but if different brands steered differently you'd rather have what you were used to, and I said that's good because I don't know how to rewire the controls in a lightflyer—yet, and you giggled."

He takes a deep breath.

"When we were talking to haut Kety from inside that stolen bubble you kept making this face every time he called you 'love' and you rolled your eyes when you said it back. And you didn't know what clarium was. You cut Nadina's hair. Everyone kept thinking that Ivan was the mastermind and it ticked me off immensely. I fell onto the inside of the force-screen... one time I asked you how pathetic it was that I fell to my knees when I first saw you, and you said it was endearing because you like the way I project my experiences into the world, and I declared an intention to become insufferably smug about it. When we got married the first time the candies were shaped like little flowers in little bubbles and I couldn't quite decide if the symbology was as obvious as it seemed but I never asked. When you first told me to call you Linya it was in the embassy foyer, between getting married and leaving the planet. After the first time we made love you met Ivan in the corridor and told him I was sleeping and he cracked up, and the next time I saw him we kept giggling at each other and I could not for the life of me explain to you why. I still can't, for that matter. It took me something like a week before I figured out how to disengage from marital relations of my own will instead of just going on until you wanted to do something else or I fell asleep on you. Also the first time you kissed me was after I admitted I'd been arguing with Ivan about whether or not I was going to be, ah, maritally disappointed. You picked me up. It was quite adorable."

[isthisart]

She smiles, faintly.