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]

"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.

[thisvorlunatic]

So he keeps going.

"When Illyan met us at the shuttleport I told him fast-penta doesn't work on haut women and he looked really noncommittal and I still don't know if he already knew. The face you made the first time you got a good look at Cockroach Central was amazing. It made Illyan apologize on the spot. Sometimes I still think about calling it 'the enormous concrete dropping of some kind of mythical Bad Taste Dragon' and giggle to myself. I remember you suggested we get some ladders and let the neighbourhood children paint it, and I can't remember if I said so but I thought you might be overestimating the artistic ability of Barrayaran neighbourhood children... I think it was on the walk from there to Vorkosigan House that I told you I'd take a wedding oath capped with 'and anyone who doesn't like it can take a wormhole jump to hell'. I had an urge to say it when the time actually came, but I refrained. I still use 'kitten-tree' as an adjective for especially quirky feats of bioengineering - I thought it when I was buying you that live fur. The first time you met Mother she asked if she was welcoming you to the family or housing an exile or a refugee. Then while you were talking while I screwed around with luggage she let on that I've been known to disable the safety measures in a lightflyer. You're really fond of groats, have been since you first tried them."

[isthisart]

Linya takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly, closing her eyes -

and leans forward and scoops him up.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles clings.

[isthisart]

And Linya, as promised, cries a little into his hair.

"I love you," she whispers.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I love you too. That was terrible, I'm not doing that again, I'm telling Illyan the minute I get home that he can give you clearance to hear about my job or revoke mine and let the Dendarii go to waste. I probably won't bring up option three. Unless he makes a lot of unhappy noises."

[isthisart]

"You know you only get to do this once, right? You only get to tell me that this is the end of the secrets and there's nothing else to hide once. Zero-one-infinity rule. If it happens more than once I will never know where it ends."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Exception for if I strongly suspect we are under hostile observation and have to tell you something that isn't true to throw off whoever it is. And I'll correct myself as soon as I get you properly alone, which I will attempt to do as expeditiously as possible," he says. "There are unfortunately way too many reasons a covert agent might have to lie. But 'to make sure my wife doesn't find out what I'm really doing on ninety percent of my quote unquote courier missions' is now no longer such a reason. I declare it so. I am done lying to you."

[isthisart]

"Yes, exception granted. If the ceiling is watching you may say what the ceiling needs to hear." Snuggle.

[thisvorlunatic]

Snuggle. "Thank you."

[isthisart]

"You're welcome." She kisses his forehead. And then tilts his head up and kisses his lips.

[thisvorlunatic]

He kisses back.

[middlingalong]

And there is a knock on the door. "I'm really sorry! It's Destang!"

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles growls doorward, and kisses Linya apologetically on the cheek, and goes to answer the door.

"How urgently is it Destang? Pretty urgently, I have to assume...?"

[middlingalong]

"Quote, 'Vorpatril, if he is with anyone short of Simon Illyan himself then he can bloody well interrupt it to talk to me', end quote."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Alas, Linya can't pass for Illyan. Too tall," says Miles. "Fine, I'm coming."

[isthisart]

"Should I wait?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"If you want to. I can make no promises about how long I'll be or whether or not I'll be arrested when it's over."

[isthisart]

"I'll wait for a while, anyway."

[thisvorlunatic]

"All right. I love you."

And he follows Ivan to... wherever Destang is. Probably Galeni's office again.

[middlingalong]

That is indeed the place. Ivan hovers nervously.

[thisvorlunatic]

Destang glowers. He has quite an impressive glower.

Miles attempts to look reasonably innocent without crossing the border into disingenuousness.

"Vorkosigan," says Destang. "To your credit, you appear to have filed a completely truthful report. This does not excuse your failure to obey orders, but it does mitigate it somewhat. Also among your accomplishments: you managed not to get shot or involve the police, and you may have secured your cover as 'Admiral Naismith'. I am reluctantly impressed. However—"

There is a knock on the door.

Destang's eyebrow twitches. He motions for Miles to get it.

It's an ImpSec special courier, who looks mildly surprised to have interrupted whatever he just interrupted, but hands a data packet to Destang and then leaves. Destang sits down at Galeni's comconsole to read the message. He gets increasingly disgruntled as he goes on.

Finally he stands up again.

"You are saved by divine intervention, Vorkosigan. Here are your orders." He hands Miles a data disk marked with the Imperial seal. Miles accepts it solemnly, trying not to bounce up and down or giggle. "In short, you are to take your Dendarii on a two-week journey into Sector IV to deal with a nasty hostage situation. Holding you here on charges of disobeying orders would, alas, interfere with that goal."

"Thank you, sir," says Miles, as modestly as possible.

"Also included: another credit chit for eighteen million marks, for your next six months' operating expenses," says Destang, reluctantly handing over this object.

"Thank you, sir," says Miles.

"And when you're done, you report to Commodore Rivik at Sector IV Headquarters on Orient Station."

"Yes, sir."

"With luck, by the time you and your irregulars next return to Sector II, I will have retired."

Miles chooses another "Yes, sir," out of the many possible responses he could have to that aside.

Destang looks to Ivan and Galeni next, as though trying to decide which to address first. Finally he shakes his head. "I will enclose all of your reports along with my own and send them to Simon Illyan for review. Whatever he decides to do with you then will be out of my hands. I could not be happier about this fact. For my part, you are all dismissed to your duties."

Miles salutes and heads for the door at a decorous pace.

[middlingalong]

"So that's me either saved or dropped into a hotter kettle in a few weeks," sighs Ivan, following Miles out. "When do you ship out?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm going to go with 'immediately'," says Miles. "Saving only the time it takes me to change my clothes, kiss my wife, and read my orders. Nasty hostage situations don't tend to age well."