Prompt Post 4!
The first, second, and third posts are now shut down for prompting. All new prompts must be posted here. Any new prompts posted to Prompt Post 1, 2, and 3 will be deleted without warning.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
There was a long, heavy pause as they both looked at each other in bewilderment, until it finally dawned on Milo what could be causing at least part of the confusion. She burst out laughing, disbelieving, putting a hand to her forehead and then running it back through her hair and all the while looking at Kida with the warmth in her chest seeming to redouble and flood out through every part of her.
“It doesn’t matter here, does it?” she said. There was a hysterical edge to her laughter, perhaps, but she could not help it, could not help the sudden feeling of liberation that swelled within her. “Men or women… it doesn’t matter.”
“I do not understand.”
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter!” Milo tried to collect herself, breathless now. “I’ll… I’ll tell you one day. If you want to know. You probably don’t want to know. It’s people being stupid.”
Kida tilted her head a little further. She still looked confused, but there was a definite hint of a smile there now, as if she were amused by Milo’s latest bout of rambling. Milo would take it.
“Then does this mean,” she said, slowly, as if she were tasting the words, “you might reconsider that kiss?”
If Milo had not already been blushing, she certainly would have done then, but she found herself nodding and smiling foolishly as she leant in to be kissed, for the first time, as herself.
“So, wait,” said Vinnie, gesturing with a bar of gold that was almost the exact same shape as stick of dynamite and had made the Atlanteans look significantly less worried, “you’re telling me that all this time you were a girl?”
“Well, that kind of thing don’t really change overnight,” Sweet said, before Milo could even manage a response.
“Pourquoi?” Mole wailed. “Pendant tout ce temps-là, il y avait une femme parmi nous!”
She decided not to point out Audrey and Mrs. Packard.
“I cannot believe I did not see it,” said Audrey, shaking her head.
Sweet looked at her askance. “Oh, you’re surprised?” Back to Milo, as sharp as a knife. “Was this why you skipped out on your medical exam?”
“No, that was largely terror of those huge glass jars,” said Milo truthfully. If there had been any of the group that she might have trusted, it would have been Sweet first, but even that had taken a while to come. She would have hidden in closets and under tables to escape, otherwise.
“Comment ont-ils pu me le cacher?!”
“You want some tips,” Mrs. Packard said, tapping ash off the end of her cigarette, “I can give you some tips. My third husband, he had this girlfriend-”
“Yes thank you Mrs. Packard we appreciate your support,” said Milo very quickly, doing her best to avoid the cigarette as she ducked in for a quick embrace.
She nodded to the ship.
“And you be sure to get that letter to Mr. Whitmore, won’t you? I just… I want him to know what’s here. That we did find it.”
“You want us to say anything?” said Audrey, with a pointed look over Milo from head to toe.
At that, she could only laugh sheepishly. “He and my grandfather go so far back… I think he probably knows.”
Audrey stepped up, grabbed her, and before she could react pulled her down to plant a kiss to her cheek. “Almost makes me feel bad for punching you,” she said, raising her fists. Milo flinched out of habit, and Audrey laughed. “But not quite. Two for flinching.”
This time, they were only light taps to the arm, and Audrey gave him a salute before backing away again.
“Well, now I feel bad about the nitroglycerine,” said Vinnie.
“Qui sait ce qui aurait pu se produire!”
As the ship took off, Kida’s hand wrapped around hers, twining their fingers together. Then there was a tug, and Milo looked round just in time to see Kida smile impishly before she was pulled away and back into the heart of Atlantis.
Reply
Leave a comment