Recent Posts

Hmmm. There was a little doubt creeping into Shin’s emotions. He was willing to try, though, and Kealey wasn’t going to get in his way. Shin could make triangle shard things with his mind that had taken practice and it had probably taken a few failures. Learning to sew on a sewing machine would be similar.

Shin sat down when she moved, and he sewed. Or something like that. Kealey had to hide her slight smile when he asked if there was a reset button. The bulbasaur had come out looking slightly less than bulbasaur’ish.

”No need to be embarrassed. You have no idea how long it took me to properly learn to work one of these things. And there is a reset button….” she said, leaning around him to pull open one of the drawers in her desk. It took a few moments for her to reach in and dig around and find what she was looking for, but when she did, Kealey brandished it with a grin.

”It’s called a seam ripper.” Kealey held the handle out towards Shin and nodded towards the bulbasaur, ”Just take the stitches out and try again.”

”Ahhh…well, I suppose it would make sense for him to like mysteries.” Kealey said with the teasing glint still in her eye. Shin went on to talk about school a little and Kealey listened attentively as she finished pinning. Science and math…two things that made Kealey shudder. She’d never had the talent…or the attention span for either of those things. It was probably a good thing Shin liked math though…it would help him with his powers…and inevitably his costuming skills.

Kealey didn’t know why, but it came as a bit of a surprise that literature and history were troublesome for Shin. He did work in a book store. Reading something you wanted to read and reading something you had to read were two different things entirely, though. He said he might need help.

Kealey thought for a moment, staring off at the wall, before she looked back at Shin, ” Hmmm. Maybe we could work something out. Did you know that I spend an insane amount of time measuring things during the school year?” she said, ”If I had someone who could help me speed that process up, I’d probably have plenty of time to help with proofreading and book discussions. I’m useless for History though…” she admitted honestly.

Shin admitted with equal candor that he’d never sewn before, though he knew how to knit. Huh. That was interesting too. Kealey knew all the basic stitches, but knitting was another thing she’d never had talent…or attention span for. Sewing simply yielded much faster results. Was it difficult?

”Ummm sometimes it’s difficult. I’ll show you how it works on this one, then let you try on the next. “ the blond said, rising from the floor and gathering the pinned pieces and the pins. Then it was over to her desk and the sewing machine.

”First, I’ll tell you about all the parts.” This was going to be a bit of a crash course, Kealey couldn’t help but thing as she started going through the individual parts of the machine with Shin and explaining their purposes. They didn’t have time for sewing straight lines on paper though. They had an army to make.

Small details were exchanged about powers and Kealey didn’t add anything to the conversation. They both knew what she could do with her powers, and what they didn’t know, they didn’t need to know. They were both being vague though, about their powers, and Kealey tilted her head. Why?

Calley was embarrassed about something now, and the suspicion was running almost absolutely rampant. Shin, on the other hand, was cool. Slightly suspicious as well, but cool and confident. All the suspicion was making Kealey jumpy. It appeared that Calley was going to give her a demonstration, though.

Out he held his hand, and Kealey’s surprise was so great at what happened she was able to forget about how suspicious she was feeling. When Calley had said that he was a shifter, the blond had expected to watch him changing from a human into something. Not creating another being.

The cat moved forward and Calley pointed out that it was him as well. It took her a moment to realized that the voice had come from the cat. Woah.

It rubbed against her legs, and Kealey instinctively reached down to give it a scratch behind the ears. It was cool enough that she almost forgot to cast out for the emotions.

She tried….and felt only the same thing she had felt before. Kealey stared at the human body that was still sitting on the floor, ”So…both of these are you?” she asked, voice soft with slight wonder.

”How do you feel?” she asked, looking down at the cat, momentarily oblivious to everything else.

If possible, Aurum got grumpier. And more annoyed. That just wasn’t okay! Kealey frowned as Aurum frowned and the day threatened to get really gloomy really fast. Until Shin sat down on her other side.

He was still happy, and Kealey turned to grin at him as he spoke to Aurum. Sure it sounded like this was slightly less than their mutual friend had been hoping for…but it was one of those situations where you probably wanted to make lemonade. He even said he was old.

”You can’t be old.” Kealey said, ”Then if nothing else I’d be almost old and that’s just not okay.

Shin pointed out that Aurum was probably just sad because he hadn’t opened his presents yet. Oh! His present! As Shin suggested she give it to Aurum, Kealey jumped up from her seat, ”Where is it?” she exclaimed and ran off to find it.

It wasn’t by the front door, it wasn’t by any of the places they had been since coming into the party place. That left only one option. Kealey dove back into the ball pit.

Around she swam, dodging children and flying plastic balls for all she was worth. It was the only way. Finally, after a degree of moving around that tousled her already tousled hair to near ridicularity, her hand closed on a ribbon.

She’d only been gone from the table a few moments, and when Kealey bounded back with the present in hand she slipped right back into the seat she’d vacated, beaming with pride as she offered the package to Aurum.

By this point, the plain box was sticking out through rips in the colorful paper and the bow was outrageously skewed to one side.

Inside the brightly colored package was a messenger style bag. It was leather and it was distressed, it would be great for carrying files and notebooks and whatever else it was that lawyers carried around in New York City.

”I hope you like it…I thought it would be good for your lawyer stuff.” she said, a huge hopeful grin spread across her face.

Just try and be grumpy now Aurum.

Some day she would try this curry rice. Kealey nodded her head and smiled. Maybe it would be like the waffles. That had been an excellent, late night, experience. Waffles with peanut butter…who knew? Kealey’s horizons had broadened that night, and it had been wonderful.

She was embarrassed about not knowing her favorite food, but Shin said he understood. Kealey stopped cutting for a moment look at him as he explained. The more he spoke, the wider she grinned. He did understand what she was talking about. It was the first time anyone had even understood what she’d meant about the food, let alone empathized with her. Sure, the situation Shin was describing was slightly different, but the gist of the thing was the same. The blond nodded enthusiastically.

”Exactly. Or, I’ll eat something in a restaurant, then get it again later and hate it.” she said, laughing. ”Fascinating.

Shin seemed to approve of her final revelation about cheeseburgers and asked a follow up question. ”Hmmmm. Both ways, depending on the other toppings.” she answered non committally.

The book question was apparently a little more difficult and Kealey watched closely as Shin worked through indecision to try and answer her question about books. She grinned when he asked about the recommendations he’d made, ”Of course I do. That was the first time you made my day better. I was actually just thinking about it.” What she said was true. She'd been avoiding her apartment that day and had wandered aimlessly into the book store. Had it really been that long ago? Memories surfaced unbidden, some Kealey wished had stayed where they belonged.

She stopped talking and shook her head for a moment, ”Those poor books…the anthologies and such. I’d checked them all out from the library, you know? They were in my apartment when Roland burned it down.”

She screwed her face up in concentration as she thought, trying to remember, ”I know you got really excited about a couple books…maybe it was Foundation? Or something by L’engle. Am I close? I still need to finish those.”

Juka was pleased with her compliment on his clothing. Happy Juka meant happy Kealey and she beamed right back. The melancholy was right below the surface though, and as soon as Juka’s emotions dulled in the slightest, the little rain cloud went back to work over Kealey’s head. The offeer for a ride still stood, though. Kealey summoned a smile for Juka, ”Thanks Juka. I’ll definitely take you up on it. Just…not today.”

He wanted to know what he could do to cheer her up and Kealey continued to smile at the sincerity in his voice. He really did want to help. ”It’s not really something that anyone can help with Juka. I’m just in a bit of a funk. I really do appreciate the offer though.” What she said was true, even if it probably wasn’t what Juka wanted to hear. Sometimes a person simply needed to brood. This was one of those times, the emotional impact of the last few days was still sinking in and Kealey needed to think it through.

Maybe, just maybe though, she’d made a new friend.