Paper icicles hung from the ceiling of the mansion library. There were small trees with festive red bulbs every place they could fit. Teenagers were smuggling mistletoe into various corners of the library when they could. It smelled like Holiday spirit. Which brought up a very good question. What all would Amelia be giving Gawain for Christmas?

It was December 1st. Gawain's birthday. Or potentially Maya's. She already knew what she was getting him for that. But Christmas. Christmas. That was an important date. Why was it an important date? Well...

17 is the legal age of consent in New York state.

Amelia was turning 17 December 20th.

Could this topic have been any blunter? She did not think so.

Bah. The big question was what did she want.

How did other couples handle this sort of ****?

Amelia searched her mind for examples of happy couples, and came up nearly blank. She skirted her brother and the New Girl in the criminal line up. Settled on Kealey and Shin.

Shin liked anime, knew Homestuck, and was awesome. He was always nice to her when she spent time at the Full Circle book store, always brought her snacks when Aurum was busy, or not around.

Kealey was lucky. Stupid lucky. She was also the librarian here, wasn't she?

Amelia glanced around, as if suspecting that maybe some of her emotions had already attracted the older woman, like cheese in a rat trap. Because that was totally how empaths worked, right?

Damn straight.

Just a few more pieces of garland on top of the last few shelves of books, and the mansion library would be decorated. It was still a few weeks until Christmas, but Kealey had known when she started that this was a massive undertaking and that she’d be working pretty much on her own.

It’d been a while since the blond librarian had given up on picking assistants from among the students at the mansion. The turnover rate was too high, and the effort required to train and re-train them was too much. It was okay though. Now that it was organized and well catalogued, the library basically ran itself most of the time. She was just there for support. And decorating.

It was a weird holiday. All the stuff with Ghost had/was happening, and she and Shin had just found a new apartment. They were moving. Soon. And here Kealey was, decorating the Mansion library. Students were pretty scarce, but there were a few lingering to work on projects and finals and the like. Kealey placed her last strand of garland (for the moment) and set off to check on them.

There was a boy working on something for a freshman English class, and Kealey showed him how to do a couple of citations before moving on to a girl who was trying to find information on elephants for an endangered species project in science class. Kealey helped her find the library catalogue and start a search then moved on to a girl in the stacks with some very conflicted emotions.

Oh wait. She knew that girl. ”Hi Ami.” Kealey said as she approached.

”Anything I can help with?”

It was like predicting the effects of gravity upon a person tumbling down stairs. IE, predictable. How had she known, just known, that Kealey would show up as if on cue?

Kealey and Ami had never really sat down and had a good conversation. Usually, Shin was around, and Aurum. Or somebody else. It was kind of sad. And honestly? Something she was all-too-happy to change.

"Yeah," Amelia replied, seriously. She'd made up her mind for the moment, as far as help was concerned. "Girl talk."

Uh. Yeah. She’d kind of meant, “Can I help you find a book to work on whatever project it is you’re in the library working on…” But Ami wanted girl talk.

Kealey frowned a bit at the concept. This was Aurum’s little sister. How old was the girl again? The blond tried to remember the time she’d helped Aurum shop for her birthday, and came up blank.

She had to be at least edging towards her late teens by this point. Still…girltalk. The idea was a bit intimidating. Kealey knew her social aptitude was practically non-existent.

Still…Aurum had helped her out so many times, Kealey supposed the least she could do was help out his sister.

”Uh…sure.” she said. ”But, I’m no expert….”

"That's okay." Amelia replied. "This is our first time with this sort of conversation." Although Amelia was certainly no girl-talk virgin. At that thought, she glanced around. "Should we find some place quiet to sit down. A bit more privately?"

Just standing around in the stacks seemed kind of silly.

She smiled innocently at Kealey, hoping she'd catch on to why this talk needed to be private.

And then the conversation got even more awkward and difficult.

Ami wanted to go somewhere private to have this girl talk? Oh dear, this was going to be intense, wasn’t it? Suddenly wishing that Shin was there to bounce ideas off of or provide her with somewhere to hide, Kealey found herself nodding her head at the girl that was Aurum’s little sister.

”Uh…sure.” she said, eyes falling on one of the empty study rooms.

”This way.” she said, leading and nervous.

And so then suddenly, there they were, in a study room. Together. All alone.

Amelia pulled a chair up to the table, and sat, clasping her hands in front of her.

Girl talk was going to be good, she reasoned. With Kealey. And talking. And girls.

And suddenly, it hit her. How did one even start this sort of conversation? This sort of 'sort of awkward' conversation? Oh gog. Conversations. How do they even work?

Amelia smiled weakly.

"So." So... "How do you know... when you've found the right guy?" She grinned. Right guy. Come on, Kealey. Figure out where I'm going here... I don't want to have to put it in bold letters.

And finally Ami realized just how awkward this situation was. Kealey was partially relieved, but partially stressed out too. The awkward loop was awkward, and Ami probably didn’t realize just how hard that was going to make it to talk. One of them needed to get it together…and due to the nature of her power, it probably wasn’t going to be Kealey.

Ami asked her first question, and Kealey tilted her head slightly to one side as she considered an answer that would be simply enough to get out at the moment.

How had she known she’d found the right guy? Well.

”It’s not something that exactly has a formula….” she explained.

”It’s feelings…and things.” she continued, stumbling a bit.

She paused. Thought. Then smiled.

”It’s realizing that there was something missing in your life that you’d never even noticed before, then wondering how it was ever possible to live like that.”
Sappy yes. True? Definitely.

"Love?" Amelia quested. She clenched her hands together just a bit tighter. She was a sucker for love. Disney movies, and all that.

She did not know if she loved Gawain. He hadn't even said it. Maybe. Possibly. If she nudged him. He might.

"Was it like that with you and Shin?"

Was it?

Kealey nodded her head.

”I can’t pinpoint a day…or an exact time when it happened, but one day I just realized that I didn’t have a clue what I’d do without him there.” the blond smiled. ”I don’t plan on ever finding out.”

”Don’t get me wrong. There are fireworks...” Kealey said, relaxing a bit as the conversation made its way onto ground she was comfortable with. ”There’s always fireworks…but love didn’t sneak out of a dark corner and hit us with a hammer.”

More smiles.

”It was much gentler than that…and wonderful.” A sneaking suspicion was working its way through the blond. Ami had brought a date to Thanksgiving. Someone Kealey knew from the X-Men, and the Mansion.

”Is it Gawain?” she asked.

"Yeah," Amelia replied. "It's Gawain."

All that stuff Kealey had said, about fireworks, and not knowing what she would do without Shin, and hammers. It was all super cute. And sweet.

"You're lucky." She commented. "About Shin. He's a catch." If she hadn't been totally head over heels for Gawain and Maya, she'd have totally tried stealing him. Maybe. Who knew? Wait. Head over heels?

Amelia blushed.

"I did something kind of crazy for Gawain," she trailed. Her head bowed sheepishly.

Ah ha. Kealey had thought she’d seen doe eyed glances at the dinner table on Thanksgiving. Ami was in the throes of young love. A small, slightly sad, smile crossed the blonde’s face. She’d completely missed out on the special kind of obsession that only teenagers can muster. That was okay though, it wouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things anyway.

Kealey grinned when Ami said she was lucky. She sure was. Shin couldn’t have been more perfect if he’d been custom made.

And apparently Ami was experiencing some of the same because she’d done something cra---

Wait.

Something crazy? For Gawain?

Blond eyebrows rose to an equally blond hairline and Kealey just stared at the younger woman for a moment.

”Something crazy huh?” she said, scanning Ami’s emotions for any hint of what was going to come out of left-field when the girl opened her mouth to answer the question, but other than feeling sheepish…there was just the same indecision that there had been.

”What exactly qualifies as crazy?”

Still blushing, Amelia asked. "Do you want the full story, or the plot summary?"

Either one could take a while.

Oh man. Now there was blushing. Kealey felt her own cheeks getting hot and scrunched up her shoulders. It was weird, reciprocating feelings like that. Weird, and more than a little uncomfortable.

Long story or short?

”Plot summary please.” Kealey said, cheeks still on fire. She didn’t know if she could handle anything else.

Amelia largely disregarded the request for a plot summary.

"Well..." She started weakly. "I kissed him. When he was Maya. Before being certain. And... I'm not a lesbian." She wrung her hands. "Not that that matters with Maya. Or Gawain. Because..." And here came that disregarding of plot summaries. "When he vanished after our second date... I was so worried. I tried finding him. Dug up information. And for a while, I even hated boys... except that was probably a lie. And I was so mad... up until I found out why he'd vanished... but, then, that was after running into his twin sister, Maya."

Oh, this was getting mixed up and convoluted. She really should have rehearsed this better!