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[az_from_the_oz]

Az knew she shouldn't have been interested, but she was despite herself. She had come to the bookshelf with the definite purpose of finding more books on advanced chemistry because the ones she had received with her gift in the beginning of the year were now woefully inadequate. But on her way to choosing something heavy and scientific her eye

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[heartliketin]

"What in the gods name is this mess?" Cain demanded, his voice sharp and somewhat short as he managed to step into a veritable travel storm's worth of papers. He levelled an expectant look on Azkadellia, hands on his hips as if he'd found Jeb covered in mud back at the old house.

[az_from_the_oz]

"They're just papers," Az said, rolling her eyes dramatically in reply to his question. "I'm trying to read." Honestly. "I'm going to clean them up when I'm done."

[heartliketin]

Cain knew that this was coming. Hell, he'd missed it with Jeb so he felt he was going to get it three-fold because of it, but he wasn't about to just lie down and let Az trample all over him. He took a deep breath and wandered in. "It's not the mess I'm concerned about and more the trash in the script. What use is reading those?"

[az_from_the_oz]

Az sighed. She should have seen this coming. "They aren't trash. They're a cultural guide to the Other Side and I'm studying them. You wouldn't want me to get into a conversation with someone and not know what they're talking about, would you? This is research."

[heartliketin]

Cain let out a weary sigh and picked up one of the papers that she had strewn around her. "I don't expect you to be having sexual intercourse at your age or planning a marriage," he said sharply, offering her the page as proof of exactly what he didn't like. "And you don't see people poring over the old books of the O.Z. to get used to our culture, do you?"

[az_from_the_oz]

"Well, they are only three of us and a lot more of them," Az said, blushing slightly. She wasn't going to dignify the bit about marriage or... sexual intercourse with a response. "If we are going to live here with them we need to adapt and learn everything we can."

[heartliketin]

"You can ask questions," Cain argued, because he might be willing to make concessions, but he was still pretty damn stubborn about other things. "You don't have to be reading this stuff," he said, voice less than accommodating to anything she wanted to be learning.

[az_from_the_oz]

"Well, what's the matter with them?" Az frowned up at him, clearly awaiting an answer. "Have you read any of them yourself? Do you know what's in them? There must be some sort of rational reason for me to not read them."

[heartliketin]

"Azkadellia, it talks about issues that are too old for you right now. Just enjoy your childhood, would you?" He was extra irritable because Azkadellia had her body stolen by an ancient witch. She ought to enjoy her childhood now and not want to leap out of it.

[az_from_the_oz]

"They don't talk about getting married or having children or anything like that," Az insisted. Mr. Cain could overreact so terribly sometimes over the silliest things. "It's just clothes and hair mostly."

[heartliketin]

"Az, you're beautiful without that makeup and clothes and hair crap," Cain said bluntly and firmly, finding there was no cause to dodge around it. "Why do you think a magazine should tell you otherwise when it's written by people who've never met you in their lives? How do they know what's best for you?"