The roof, Sunday late afternoon/early evening

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia hadn't been able to find everyone she had wanted to apologize to after the gremlin incident, yesterday. Part of her was saying that maybe finding River and apologizing to her might actually be more important.

But that just made her angry.

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[walter_n_wires]

Walter had finished with River and Proty's flowers and spent the day reading more about gunsmithing.

Given Nadia's wish to blame herself for the gremlin incident, he wasn't surprised to find her there. Finding her in this condition was.

"What happened?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head and pressed her palms against her eyes. "Just . . . piled up on me."

[walter_n_wires]

Walter went over to her and put his book down to give her a hug. "It's a lot. Can I help you in any way?"

[nadiathesaint]

". . . Can we jump off the roof?"

[walter_n_wires]

Walter gave her a squeeze and nodded. "Let me get one warmup jump in just to be sure, then we can."

He picked up his book. It was going to be his test subject before he tried his wires on Nadia.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia rocked back on her heels and wrapped her arms around herself, watching him carefully.

She didn't remember having this urge for freefall before she'd met him. What did that say about them?

[walter_n_wires]

Walter took the book and tossed it away from the building to flap open as it fell. He gave it a moment to drop a story and then launched himself after it.

Falling was easy. He caught the book at the bottom and tucked it inside his waistcoat for the climb back up.

At the top he pulled out the book and flipped through the pages. The cover was undamaged, but a few pages had light cuts in the edges. He held the book out to Nadia and showed her the cuts. "I don't know if this is a good idea yet."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia took a deep breath and nodded slowly, trying not to let her disappointment show. "Okay. It's up to you."

[walter_n_wires]

"We can do it, but I can't promise your clothes will be unharmed." He flipped through the book again and sighed. "This is why I wear the bloody things all the time."

[nadiathesaint]

"I lost my clothes yesterday. At least this time it won't be because of being a gremlin,"

[walter_n_wires]

Walter nodded toward the edge. "Right then. Besides, I missed out on you naked yesterday."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia slowly rose to her feet. "Cally didn't. She was very good about it, though."

She stepped over to the edge and closed her eyes. "Just tell me when."

[walter_n_wires]

He had no right or room to be jealous of Cally, so whatever that twinge was? He wasn't feeling it.

Walter looked over at Nadia's profile without speaking for a moment while he shook out his fingers and looked down at the ground. He couldn't hurt her with this jump. It was too damned important that he do it well.

"Alright. Jump when you're ready."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded and opened her eyes to look out over the edge.

Then without warning, she threw herself out and off, spreading out her body to slow her descent, and closing her eyes again.

There. That weightless feeling, right at the start.

That's what she'd been looking for.

[walter_n_wires]

Walter let Nadia have her moments of free fall before jumping after her. For a moment they both fell unhindered, then the net of wire flashed out to catch the wall and the falling girl and slow Walter's fall and hers.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia opened her eyes again as she felt the wires start to slow her down. It was ever so slightly rougher than she remembered, but it still made her feel safe, and she touched down rather easily.

One of her sleeves fell off. She laughed.