managing not to

[warmfeelings]

Aelise keeps Harley in her room, and allows visits - mostly Corona, sometimes Tima - but doesn't let him run around being obnoxious to anyone. Chelsa avoids him. Corona is home, after all, and he's just as warm and isn't horrible to her. And now she can invite more friends in. There's that girl she rotated out to make room for Tima, still alive, in Wales - there's that pleasantly sparky boy she met on her trip to Egypt - Chelsa is able to content herself with the situation.

Comments

[pythbox]

"I don't - I don't know," he sniffles. "I don't wanna hurt him."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Okay."

Hugs.

[pythbox]

Cuddly cuddly hugs.

"I love you, Elsie," he whispers.

[her_imperial_radiance]

She shuts her eyes tightly.

"I love you too."

[pythbox]

He wraps his arms around her and squeezes as hard as he possibly can.

[her_imperial_radiance]

She doesn't squeeze him as hard as she possibly can.

But she matches his own hug.

[pythbox]

"That world was so fucked up," he mumbles.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It sounds very much so."

[pythbox]

He is pretty thoroughly too big for Elsie's lap.

He stays there anyway.

"I think... I think I wanna see Zeus," he says softly. "I don't know. Can I just... see him?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes."

She picks him up. He's awkwardly sized, but not hardly too heavy.

And she teleports to his room in the Québec house, which, except for a handful of perishables that would have rotted away if they hadn't been picked up, hasn't been touched for nearly a year.

[floofcoaster]

Zeus is sleeping, arms wrapped around Harley's pillow, tucked under Harley's blankets.

[pythbox]

He gives Elsie a hug and a kiss, and then he crawls into bed with Zeus and snuggles up to him.

"You're my best fluffy buddy," he murmurs, "and - I - "

He starts crying again.

[her_imperial_radiance]

[pythbox]

Harley doesn't say anything more for a while.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth waits.

[floofcoaster]

Zeus, oblivious, sleeps.

[pythbox]

Eventually, he says,

"I... I want to sleep here. For a night. And then wake him up tomorrow."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"All right," says Elspeth. "I'll tell everyone you're home again. Do you know how you disappeared?"

[pythbox]

He shakes his head.

"I was just falling asleep, and thinking about a kind of teleportation from a book I read - and then - " He shrugs. "But when I tried to do the same thing on purpose, it didn't work."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That sounds - maybe a little like what Sue does," she murmurs. "If he were accessible - but he isn't." She sighs. "Thank you. I'm sure Mama will want to talk to you tomorrow."

[pythbox]

"Okay," says Harley. He snuggles up to Zeus again.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Let me know if you need anything," Elspeth murmurs, and she runs her hand over Harley's hair, and she ports away.

[pythbox]

Harley goes to sleep.

When he wakes up in the morning, he says, [You can wake him up now.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[All right.]

[floofcoaster]

Zeus stirs.

When he meets resistance in the form of Harley cuddled up to him, his eyes snap open, and he abandons the pillow in favor of its owner.

"Harley."