not the best day ever.

[tends_to_panic]

"--Grant

Comments

[plastic_loyalty]

Grant turns another corner, still intent on his reality testing, and stops abruptly.

"Justin?" And, for a moment, there's a terrible resurgence of an old, long buried panic - if this garden isn't real, and it might not be, but there's Justin, and that's cruel, cruel but effective, he can't -

But Justin is shaking, and tape is kinder than that, even when it's cruel. "Justin," Grant says, and walks quickly to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, stroking up his arm.

[tends_to_panic]

The head comes up. Justin's hand clenches on his shoulder, hard enough to bruise. "Don't do that to me! God!"

[plastic_loyalty]

Grant takes a deep breath. "I didn't mean to. I lost you too." Very steady. "All right?"

[tends_to_panic]

It takes a moment or two, then: "All right." He loosens his grip, deliberately, gives Grant's black-clad shoulder a pat. "I'm sorry. I panicked. Nothing -- looked right."

[peaceourcargo]

"Um," Fletcher says, "You okay?"

[tends_to_panic]

He can't deal with this.

But of course one does, and after a moment he looks up with a tolerable semblance of calm. "I wouldn't go that far, but I'll survive. You mind telling me where I am? I think I took a wrong turn."

[peaceourcargo]

Yeeeeah okay, riiiight. But Fletcher's got that No I'm Fine tendency himself, so instead of pressing he tucks his hands in his pockets and says, "I don't know, really. It's somewhere. I was supposed to be back on Finity's End by now, but..."

He shrugs. "It's a planet. You can tell. The horizon works right and wind is right. I dunno about the ecosystem, though, it's kind of strange." He pitches his voice casual, but steady, like talking to Jeremy when he’s bouncing off the walls.

[tends_to_panic]

He should, Justin tells himself wryly, be used to being managed by teenagers by this time. He runs his hands through his hair and straightens, focusing. "It is, yes. But you didn't learn that on Finity's End, I'm guessing."

[fair_hero]

Sir? *she touches his arm, very lightly, almost afraid to do it* O, sir, I pray you-- might I do aught?

[tends_to_panic]

He reacts to the tone more than anything else, soft and anxious and utterly without guile -- looks up with a creditable attempt at a reassuring smile, and sets a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry. It's all right. Can you point me back toward the house? I think I've confused my directions."

[fair_hero]

*she gestures towards the Mansion, a little past him at an angle* 'Tis there, sir, please you.

[tends_to_panic]

"Thank you." He glances in that direction, more by way of acknowledgement than because he expects to see anything familiar, and back at her again. Did she just say 'aught'? "What's your name?"

[ari_v_2_0]

After Justin has been fed, while there's still coffee and morning sunshine in the kitchen, Ari turns up, clattering the door when she swings it open.

She stops in the doorway and stares quietly at Justin for a moment before she smiles and says, "I knew where Grant was you couldn't be far behind. Is there coffee left?"

[tends_to_panic]

"Should be." Justin watches her carefully, the traces of adolescent gawkiness in her movements, and keeps his hands folded around his own cup. It's surreally like any other morning. "How are you?"

[ari_v_2_0]

"There is!" Ari says, riffling the cupboards for a mug, "I'm good, coffee makes me better - "

She pauses and stares mournfully at the pot. "Please tell me Grant made this."

[plastic_loyalty]

"I made it, sera," Grant says, his hands relaxed around his own mug, and shoots a quick 'what did I tell you?' look at Justin.

[a_waywith_words]

"It's all right," Kit says, standing on the grass, a yard or two away, wrapping a piece of machinery back up into a cloth to put it away in his knapsack. "Everything will be all right."

His tone is warm and even, the syllables softened by the influence of Spanish, and he sounds precisely, perfectly confident, as if his assurance comes from something deeper and stronger than bone.