The Hegemony Compound, Blackstream/Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, Across These Past Few Weeks

[lockestheway]

It had been an exhausting and exhilarating few weeks since Peter made the Free People of Earth public. The most immediate troubles, of course, involved the territories he had eked out within the boundaries of other nations. Peru and Sudan had not declared war, but that was only because they had no one to declare war against: neither country

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[whenshewasnice]

Envy had been gone for the last day or so, Brazil time. Long enough to have spent the week (or so) around her 21st birthday in Toronto. She and Scott and Julie and Stephen Stills had gone bowling at midnight. Julie and Stephen had baked her a terrible cake. Scott had gotten pretty drunk.

It had been a birthday.

(At another time, Scott had told her he loved her. She'd said nothing.)

("That was stupid, right? Never mind. Forget I said it.")

She was back now. Knocking on the door to Peter's office in the precise way she'd been trying to device as a way to announce it was her and not some random idiot.

[lockestheway]

Yeah, that was Envy's knock, and still Peter was suddenly trying desperately to wipe the snot off his face. "...I'm here," he called.

She probably knew that already.

[whenshewasnice]

Well, now she did.

And so she slipped in the door, poised to make a remark about her eligibility to buy drinks. It didn't get past her lips before she saw his face.

"What happened?"

[lockestheway]

"Nothing," Peter said.

Considering his eyes were red and he was practically radiating 'had been crying', it probably wasn't a very persuasive explanation.