February Catch-All

[keep_nothing]

WHO: Cordelia + whoever
WHERE: Anywhere
WHEN: February
WHAT: Catch-all log
WARNINGS: None yet

Comments

[ TEXT - after the date with Miles ]

[keep_nothing]

[ Seemingly out of nowhere, Tex gets the following text: ]

Hello, when you've got a moment, I'd like to have a conversation with you in person.

[failureisntachoice]

And who am I having a conversation with?

[keep_nothing]

Oh sorry, I'm used to comlinks with auto idents. This is Cordelia.

[failureisntachoice]

[ Even with identification she wouldn't believe it. ]

...The same Cordelia that's related to Miles?

[keep_nothing]

That's right. I promise I won't bite. I'll make tea when you come over to #7.

2/9, late afternoon

[keep_nothing]

[ After the hubbub of lecturing her son on the finer qualities of not lying to your lover as well having a chat with said lover, Cordelia ran some errands and returned to #7 with some various supplies for the house. One such item is something she's testing in the kitchen, tapping out the minutes on the microwave as per the instructions before putting the package in and pressing start.

Now just to wait for it to finish ... She gets out a large bowl while she waits. ]

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor can't tell by telepathy where his link-mates are-- that's one application he hasn't attempted yet-- so when he hears the microwave beeping and then start up while walking through the living room, he pokes his head into the kitchen to see who it is.

Miles is still upstairs talking to Kitty, he suspects, and they don't intend to visit her for some hours, so Gregor has time to kill. A supremely bizarre sensation for him that leaves him sending vague bemusement drifting through his links. That gains color into curiosity when he sees Cordelia at the microwave. ]

Acquainting yourself with the antiques?

[keep_nothing]

[ She looks over at Gregor with a smile, the side of her link still mostly muted for everyone's privacy but it warms when she sees him. ]

Thought I'd try with something simple like a snack. I was reminded earlier that out of our whole bunch, I'm really the only one who actually had to make her own food for years. That said, we shouldn't rely on you to be our sole cook here. I can offer to help with the cooking, if you want it.

[vorbarra]

[ He's startled to feel that warmth waft over, used to seeing it on her and to feeling it from Miles, but feeling it from Cordelia is a new sensation altogether. He smiles briefly and reflects some back, his own more reserved but no less genuine.

He enters the room more fully. ] I'd like that, thank you. Cooking for just Miles and myself was not too much of a challenge once I got the hang of it, but adding two more to the pile obviously adds to that.

Sometime pre-event

[failureisntachoice]

[ Things had gone far less awkwardly than Tex had expected when she first received Cordelia's message. Hell, the woman was even genuinely interested in seeing Tex's equipment which was a quick way to earn some points.

It was strange to be picking up Cordelia from the house instead of Miles and it's made easier that the woman isn't hesitant about motorcycles. A spare, pink helmet is offered to Cordelia before they take off, the only extra one Tex carries around because of the frequency of Maya as a passenger. They've got a drive ahead of them to make it back to Heropa's government housing and Tex doesn't intend to take it slow. ]

[keep_nothing]

[ She laughed a bit at the pink helmet, amused and not the least bit offended by it.

Now her arms are tight around Tex's middle, holding on as they speed by everything. She imagines how Tex would do with a lightflyer instead of this motorcycle contraption and she grins while watching the surroundings whip past them. ]

[failureisntachoice]

[ The woman's not freaking out on the back of her bike which earns her major points, though with some of the stories she was telling Tex before, she should hardly surprised.

Despite the crazy driving, Tex gets them there in one piece. As soon as the bike is parked, she's sliding off easily and leading the way into Heropa 003. ]

I'd give you a tour of the place to go with the equipment viewing, but it's not much different from yours.

[keep_nothing]

[ She slides off after Tex as well, riding a nice adrenaline high from some of the faster corners as they pulled in. ]

I would imagine government housing is similar to military housing, in that respect.

IMMEDIATELY POST JIM KIRK

[dendarii]

[ Well. That had been an educational afternoon. Very nearly a delightful one - Jim's brilliant blue eyes still blaze in Miles' memory, easily the man's best feature - but not with Gregor looking on. Gregor knowing what Miles had been doing, his careful non-reaction to it ... Miles is torn between throwing himself at Gregor immediately to beg forgiveness or quietly hoping to never, ever mention it again.

And what about it to begin with? Making out with another man? What? Miles' own distinct Barrayaranness plagues him now that the immediacy of having Jim in front of him is gone. It all seems much more shameful in retrospect. Gregor was right to be carefully nonreactive to the whole thing. The best reaction he could hope for, really ...

Thoughts churning, he opens the door to their home, hardy noticing anything else (or anyone) nearby. ]

[keep_nothing]

[ Cordelia is in he kitchen herself, scrubbing at a stubborn clothes stain that regular washing couldn't get rid of, muttering something about stupid wine and boats. She pauses at the sound of the door though. ]

Hello?

[dendarii]

[ Oh. It's his mother. Of the other three people that live here, she's the one he's most okay with seeing right now. Carefully, he ducks his head around the corner to see her. ]

Mother?

[keep_nothing]

[ She smiles at seeing him, brightening immediately ... almost too brightly. Leaving her fatigues to soak for a while, she wipes off her hands. ]

Hey, love. Were you, ah, running errands or something?

Post Miles Post Jim Kirk

[keep_nothing]

[ Wherever Gregor is, he probably did not expect this knock against the link to be backed by this genuine confusion and near exasperation. Or at least not from Cordelia, of all people. Gregor? Do you have a moment? ]

post-Flaming Gay Mess

[vorbarra]

[ She's right, he generally doesn't expect Cordelia to need his attention for much.

He sends back a general sense of query, putting his book down. Yes, I'm in the study. ]

Post I wish you two would bang already and save us all from your heartache

[keep_nothing]

[ She starts to reply to that query, but it's cut short by realizing she'd start to rant instead of explain herself. With a mental as well as a verbal sigh, she saves it until she reaches the study.

She steps in with a troubled expression, setting her hands on her hips, ] It's obvious that Aral and I are bisexual, isn't it?

Post this one was 100% Miles

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor blinks up at her for a long second. ]

I think the whole service knows, yes. ... You spoke to Miles, didn't you?

AFTER ALL OF THAT DUST SETTLED

[use_everything]

[Coming back home after his shift, Aral just. Lifts his eyebrows at his wife.]

I believe your son thinks you were engaged in the most treacherous assassination of character upon me, worth an emergency contact.

[keep_nothing]

[ Her own eyebrows knit together in confusion. ]

What?

[use_everything]

A desperate plea to, apparently, refute some parts of my past.

I'm curious as to how firstly, that conversation happened, and secondly, how he'd gotten to that age without hearing about it.

[keep_nothing]

[ She stares at him for a moment longer before her expression clears. ]

So that's why he got that far off look. I couldn't hear anything from my side of the link to him.