(Untitled)

[reallyaduck]

Duck's been snoring slightly on a table in the middle of the room, head pillowed on a piece of paper, when -

do you have the resolve, little duck?- she wakes up with a start, shaking her head to get the last wisps of weird half-memory out of her head

Comments

[ever_noteful]

"Duck? Are you okay?"

[reallyaduck]

"- huh?" Duck says, staring rather despairingly at the paper, and then brightens, her face immediately breaking into a tremendous smile.

"Meg! Wow, it's been a really long time!"

[ever_noteful]

"Too long," Meg agrees, with a smile of her own.

"How have you been?"

[reallyaduck]

"Oh, uh, I'm good! Except -"

Except it feels kinda weird, like time's going slow or something. Like the story's waiting for something . . .

But Duck doesn't know about how stories work really. "Except I gotta write this essay," she says, glum, "and last time I had to write an essay it was so bad I had to stay after school . . . uh, but how are you, Meg-chan?"

[veryscaryrobot]

"You're writing," observes Cameron.

It's so lucky for Duck that Cameron is here to point these things out!

[reallyaduck]

"Hi, Cameron-chan!"

Duck heaves an enormous sigh.

"Yeah, I gotta write an essay . . . man, I really suck at this kind of thing."

[veryscaryrobot]

A normal person, having initiated a conversation, might sit down across from Duck. Cameron, being neither of these things, just stands there. Watching.

"Are you grieving?"

[reallyaduck]

"Grieving, huh?"

Duck looks up, blinking, and tugs on a tuft of orange hair.

"You mean, like sad? Um, I don't think so . . . I mean, all my friends are okay so I'm not missing anyone . . ."

[gorgonfondness]

This isn't the nursery.

But that's okay. This still has everything Mia needs right now.

"I'll make a deal with you," she whispers to the bundle sleeping on her shoulder. "I won't tell Papa if you won't."

She happens to see Duck and decides to see what's going on, approaching softly and quietly.

"Everything all right, Duck?" Mia quietly asks.

[reallyaduck]

"Mi-"

"THAT'S A BABY!" hisses a frozen Duck, round-eyed with shock.

[gorgonfondness]

Mia puts a finger to her lips, but she's smiling.

"Yes, that's a baby," she says, still quiet. "More specifically, he's my baby."

Said baby makes a fussy gurgly noise, indicating that he's now awake.

[reallyaduck]

"He's REALLY SMALL!"

Almost as small as Duck is when she's a duck! Although not really. But it's still weird to think that human-shaped people come that small!

She leans over, tentatively, to look over at the small person. "Uh . . . . hi," she says to the baby, a smile spreading slowly over her face.

[sunbaked_baker]

The small plate that is set by Duck's elbow is easily overshadowed by the huge, still-warm-and-gooey cinnamon roll on it.

Consider it brain-food, from one person who hates essays and never did too well at them (unless they were for June Yanovsky's class) to another.

[reallyaduck]

"- Sunshine!" says Duck, who does have her priorities in order, and looks up with an enormous smile - though her eyes do keep drifting back to the cinnamon bun. (It looks really tasty, okay.)

". . . wow, that looks really good!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Hey, Duck," Sunshine grins. "Trust me that it tastes even better than it looks."

And it's all for Duck.

...Since... you know, Sunshine might have snacked on one or two earlier...

"How've you been?"

[reallyaduck]

"I've been good! Uh, I was really good before we had to write this paper . . ."

Duck grins. "But now I've got all this tasty stuff to eat so I'm definitely way better again! Uh, how are you?"

[fairytaleknight]

"A really great ballet," says the danseur looking over Duck's shoulder. "What creative commentary. I'm sure Neko-sensei will be impressed."

[reallyaduck]

Fakir is always super helpful.

Duck looks up, already scowling. "Yeah, well - well - I already know I'm bad at this stuff so you don't have to tell me!"

. . . as comebacks go, there have been better.

[fairytaleknight]

"That's a relief. You've saved me a step."

Fakir takes a seat across the table from Duck and pulls his own essay draft, along with a quill pen and an ink bottle, out of his knapsack.

His paper is quite a bit longer than hers.

[reallyaduck]

"Oh . . . you're working on the paper too?"

Duck is trying not to squint and see what he's writing, but man, it's really tempting.

"I bet you're almost done, huh," she mumbles, and flops her head down on the table, with another sigh. Stupid Fakir!