(Untitled)

[babyviper]

All of the snow was pretty enough, O-Ren would acknowledge, if impractical

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[off_the_ceiling]

Jess wasn't any better at skating than she was last year when the island froze over, so she wasn't able to offer anything but moral support as O-Ren stepped onto the ice. She had a pair of skates that she kept, but she wasn't putting them on unless she had a tree or a Winchester to hold her up.

"Looking good," she said, though, and gave O-Ren a smile.

[babyviper]

Sam's girlfriend, she immediately identified, though she wasn't naturally inclined to keep track of these things. But it put the blonde fairly high on the list of convince I'm not crazy.

"I've hardly started," O-Ren said, "I'm sure it will get much worse."

[off_the_ceiling]

"It usually does," agreed Jess, shivering a little at the thought of how many times her ass had landed on the ice last winter. "But you're still on your feet."

[babyviper]

"Little risk means little chance of failure," O-Ren said, gliding forward a little bit, hands automatically out to the side to balance herself. "Do you have skates?"

[off_the_ceiling]

"I do," admitted Jess, "but it would probably be better for everyone if I don't attempt to use them without adult supervision."

[babyviper]

"Well, I think Dr. Sweets said I had to grow up too soon, so I'm an adult, and I think you should skate." She tries something that she uses very rarely, a tiny smile.

[off_the_ceiling]

"I'm pretty sure that doesn't count," said Jess with a light laugh, "but if you insist, I'll go get my skates so that you and anyone else who shows up can laugh at me."

[babyviper]

O-Ren hides the way her smile grows wider with satisfaction, though probably not very well. It was easier to hide her feelings when she was so numb, and now that they're coming back, she's having to fight it more.

"I'll wait."

[off_the_ceiling]

It wasn't far to run back and grab them, and before there was time for too many second thoughts, Jess was strapping them on.

"For the record, though, this is a terrible idea and we're both going to end up on our behinds more than once."

[babyviper]

"If you don't fall on your ass at least once, you're not learning anything," O-Ren says, almost brightly. "That's what I was taught, anyway. Besides, I won't let anything too terrible happen to you. I'm still working on getting Sam to like me."

[off_the_ceiling]

"I'm well past once," said Jess, stepping gingerly onto the ice. "I think I'm still working on getting Sam to like me, too. Or at least, to know me."

[babyviper]

"But you two were engaged," O-Ren says, suddenly distracted from the skating by this dilemma. "He's from a different time, ne? Then it's all eventual."

[off_the_ceiling]

"He's from a very different time," agrees Jess, "and I've had a lot of time here. But we're getting there. Sometimes these things are just complicated."

[babyviper]

"Did something happen to him in that time?" O-Ren asks, feeling one of her skates make a circle of its own power. "It seems that way."

[off_the_ceiling]

"People just change," said Jess. "Four years is a long time, no matter who you are or what happens to you. It takes a little longer to come back together."