ladyfirestarter

Yuanli giggles. "It's a common complaint," she informs Prometheus.

Beth's scowling, but there's a laugh lurking around the edge of her mouth.

"Bed," Charlie says firmly, and steps toward them to put one hand on Zillah's shoulder and one on Beth's. "Do I need to go with you?"

A small gentle herding motion towards the stairs, and they're moving.

He watches them go.

"So you've got a whole school full of those critters."

"It's not a school, really, but yeah."

She moves back toward him, looking over her shoulder after the kids.

"Three of the youngest, there."

"Who's the one with whom I'm gonna have to brush up on my poetry if I ever want to carry on a conversation?"

"That's Zillah."

Charlie's hand finds his, and she starts moving on down the hallway.

"She likes you. I'm pretty sure that was e.e.cummings at the end there."

"Good. I like it when people take a shine to me. Where are we off to now?"

There's a stairway.

"I thought we might go for a walk. If you like."

"A transdimensional jaunt through time and space isn't enough for one evening? Man, you are just ceaseless."

Every few steps, he winds up taking two at a time.

Dry and amused: "Thank you."

She pauses a few steps from the bottom, and says thoughtfully: "Did I ever tell you about the trouble I used to have with these stairs?"

"No. Tell me about your stair trouble."

Her fingers twine with his.

"It was after the house."

They're moving on away from the stairs as she speaks, toward a door at the end of the hallway.

"There was this ... big spiral staircase, there. I don't know if you saw it."

To his credit, his shoulders only lock with stiffness for a moment.

"You had fun with that beast too, huh."

He doesn't venture any more. It's her story. He doesn't want to.

Charlie's mouth tucks in at one corner. "Fun. Yeah."

(Her hand presses his, just a little.)

"Anyway, for months after, I had trouble with staircases. Couldn't look down while I was on one. Some days I couldn't take the stairs at all, until I learned to keep my eyes fixed on the wall."

He nods, eyes on some middle distance near the ground. "I learned a lot about loving elevators and nightlights."

(Prometheus pleres phobou topon ekeinon makria ephugen.)

Prometheus, full of fear, fled far from that place.

She reaches for the door, and holds it open for him.

"And then there was the fight at the Dolphin Hotel, and ... it went away after that."

Beat.

"That was pretty shortly before I met you."

Not devoid of levity: "I dread to think how that could have gone down if we were both as messy as I was."

They're outside now, under the stars, walking down a gravel path toward the main road.

She swings their joined hands, lightly.

"I think it worked out just fine as it was."

Prometheus laughs, grinning out at the scenery. "Yeah, and it's all your fault, too."

"All my fault? You're the one who invited me back to your place."

Down the main road toward the gate, and Charlie digs in her pocket for her ID keycard.

"Says the lady who kissed first. I don't buy it for a second."

She considers this.

"Well," she allows after a moment, "there is that."

Beat.

"I've forgotten why we were trying to establish whose fault all this is."

"I just assumed we were killing time until we got wherever we were going. Also, because I'm ineffable."

Never mind there's not a single damn deity in his whole pantheon who is. Prometheus is clearly always in the right.

None of this, surely , makes him smile.

"Well, as to where we're going..."

The gate's behind them, and the lonely road ahead.

"There's this rock a few miles that way."

"Live and in the flesh?"

So to speak. It's not like anything's as dead as it seems where he's from.

"I should have known." Beat. "Does that mean we're agreed on the I'm always right thing?"

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