Amelia, Ch 388- Missy
The first thing I noticed when I woke up is I wasn't alone in my bedroom. Someone was stroking my hair. Combat training kicked in and I bubbled space around me, rolled to my feet and took a combat stance. "Riley?!"
She smiled faintly and waved her hand. "Clarice, now." She was more insistent than anyone that we call her that than anyone. A new name, a new identity, a new self. "Just had to make sure you wake up. Too much sleep can be as bad for recovery as too little."
I glanced over at my clock.
Nine. That doesn't seem... oh, PM. Well, fuck. I relaxed and dropped down in my bed, bouncing a little. One of those little guilty pleasures of mine that every so often when I was alone, I'd jump on my bed for fun. The Yggdrasil padding was soft and healed from any damage, so I could get away with it. Not even Theo and Clarice were allowed to know about that. "So how long was I out?"
"Twelve hours. I had some work to do, so I got in nine, but my power doesn't tire me the way yours does."
"We're both going to be up all night, huh?"
"And work in the morning, but our circadian rhythms should reassert themselves some time tonight. I've got a minor relaxant to let us get a nap in for a few hours if we haven't self corrected by four in the morning. And don't worry, I already have permission to stay the night."
"Oh, okay." I almost had to admire the relationship between Clarice and Amelia. Despite the lack of age gap, they were more like a mother and daughter than anything.
More than my relationship with my mother has ever been, that's for certain. No point in thinking about that now. "So what do we going to do tonight?"
Clarice managed a light scowl, as if in thought. "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"
What? "What?"
She laughed at the look on my face. "Sorry. That's from a silly cartoon that Zach got from Aleph. I think it's from that one company that did those old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Only they still exist on Aleph. I've got the whole first season on DVD. They have pigeons in the mafia and a song about lake Titicaca. And a dog that doesn't realize his girlfriend is really a cat."
I blinked a couple times. "That sounds really stupid."
"It is." Clarice agreed, then she paused for a second and smiled. "Wanna watch?"
I looked back at her.
Oh god, this has to be a bad idea. "Is it a popcorn occasion or icecream?"
"Popcorn."
"You're on."
....
An hour later, we were munching popcorn in bed, laughing at this stupid, stupid show. Any that fell got quickly eaten by the Yggdrasil. I would never be content to sleep in a normal bed ever again in my life. "How do they get away with this stuff in a cartoon show? Aren't these supposed to be for kids?"
Jeez, if they showed a cartoon with implied cannibalism here, the censors would have strung someone up by their toes.
"I don't know." Clarice responded through a mouthful of popcorn. "Zach says Aleph is boring so people compensate for it with shock value. They even have softcore pornography on their daytime television shows and it's considered perfectly normal."
"That... is kinda messed up." I kept watching the show, which was now focused on a squirrel that sounded like she was voiced by a sixty year old chain smoker.
Wait... did they just say 'anal' on television? For that matter, is 'Piz Peeners' a real person, or was that just another dirty joke? Either way, holy shit!
I glanced over at Clarice, but either she had an expert poker face, or she didn't get the reference.
"The squirrel likes to hide his nuts in many odd places, where the sun doesn't shine on 'em."
What? How?! "I think I know why Zach likes this show so much."
Clarice nodded, but again I doubted she actually understood all the implications of the show. Or, possibly, any of them. She interrupted my thoughts, bouncing excitedly as the next scene started. "This is my favorite song ever!" She started singing along.
I smiled and watched her as she put her singing voice to use on what turned out to be an honestly interesting song throwing out numbers about the sheer vastness of space. Every so often I wondered to myself how many of her talents were natural, and how many were enhancements that she installed into herself.
I guess it really doesn't matter, that's just who she is. She was energetic and fun and caring and nicer than almost anyone I knew. If anything, her major problem she that was too giving, too willing to ignore her own happiness to make others feel better.
All of that was genuine, and if her ability to sing beautifully was artificial, then so be it. Just making the outside resemble the inside a little better, that's all. Same with the chocolate brown hair and amethyst colored eyes that she was currently sporting. I realized after a minute that she'd stopped singing, and I was just staring at her.
She hesitated for a second. "So, umm, you think I'm pretty?"
And she caught me staring. And now she's watching me blush. No sense in trying to deny it. I smiled and hoped I looked more confident than I felt. "Yeah, of course I do. Everyone thinks your pretty."
It was her turn to blush a little. "I know, but none of them matter. Just you and Theo."
I smiled. That was sweet of her. Some part of me felt like I should be jealous, but I couldn't quite decide of who to be jealous about. If it came down to it. I couldn't be sure if Theo would pick me over Clarice. For that matter, who would I pick? I was sure Clarice would pick me over Theo. But that line of thinking was stupid, there was no reason for us any of us to do something like that. Just stupid paranoid fears.
Besides, if it came down to it, there was no doubt Clarice would side with Amelia over both of us. I couldn't even blame her for that. Amelia was the one who saved her, who gave her a home and a family and a hope for redemption and forgiveness. Even after what she did to Amelia's adoptive father. I wasn't sure I could have done the same, I didn't have that kind of generosity in my heart.
Clarice was still sitting there pensively waiting for me to speak. "Thanks, that really means a lot. I'm sure Theo will agree with me."
"Do you... does this mean you want to do 'stuff' with me? Like you and Theo do?"
Stuff? What d- oh. Stuff. I started to blush again.
Wait. "Uh, I don't do any 'stuff' with Theo. At least, not
stuff stuff. Just watching movies and cuddling, that's all. Just like we do, and what you do with Theo. That is all you and Theo are doing, right?"
It better be, or I am going to murder him. And then tell Amelia so she can murder him more.
She looked down at the bed. "Yeah, that's all. We've never even been in each others' bedrooms alone. It's against the rules."
Ah, yes, those rules. Regrettably necessary. All these immature adults around, who knows what trouble they would cause if they weren't carefully monitored? The twins had already gotten their own place so they could 'entertain guests'. "Yeah, me neither. But that's fine, I don't want to do anything like that now."
"But I saw the way you looked at me before. When we were... well, stuck together."
And of course she noticed that, too. "Well, yeah. That's just natural, you of all people should know how nature works."
You violate it too often not to. "But that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea. I'm going to wait until marriage."
She tilted her head. "You mean like my Big Sister?"
No. "Sorta. I just. It's a personal thing."
The bed shifted as Clarice moved closer to me and gave me a hug. The shifting spilled some more popcorn that was promptly eaten by the bed. That was always cool as hell to watch. "I understand. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."
I sighed. I had talked to Theo about it, but not Clarice. We were always pretty cautious when it came to talking about family around her, for a number of reasons. The sort of idealism she had about both her birth family and the adoptive one with Amelia. The nightmare of her six years spent treating the
fucking Slaughterhouse Nine as a family. How that compared to the broken homes that Theo and I came from. We just didn't know how to approach the subject with her.
I leaned against her, sliding down so my head was resting in her lap, then I looked up at her. "To start with, my mother is only thirty one." I paused for the second it took for her to do the mental math. "She has five children, with three men. I've had a total of twenty two step siblings. None for much longer than a year each. My older brother lives with my dad. Somewhere in Michigan, I think. I don't know, it's been years since I talked to either of them. And I just don't want to be like my parents. I want to know it's going to last before I take that step. I need to be better than my mother is. I won't put any of my hypothetical children through that life, either."
"And you don't think we will stay together?"
Oh fuck, can I have a do over for this conversation? "It's not that."
How do I make this work for her? Okay, time to talk like a Tinker. "Think of it as, like, a test. An experiment. If we're still together in five years, when we're old enough to marry, then we know it's going to last because it's already lasted that long. I am really hoping that it does, but we can't know for certain. And don't say 'Dinah', we both know her predictions don't work around this team."
We also don't know what circumstances surrounding the seventy eight percent chance she gave when I did ask.
She smiled down at me. "Okay, that makes sense."
"Besides, I'm pretty sure Amelia told you that you had to wait, too. Right?"
"Yeah. But your explanation of why makes more sense."
"I'm sure. So, I think we should probably start up the next episode of that silly cartoon."
"Okay."
The rest of the night involved jokes about painting naked people, pianists, bizarrely educational songs, and the strangest parodies of famous musicals. My face was so sore when I woke up in the morning.
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A/N- For this chapter I did extensive research. Not quite the best episode of Animaniacs, but certainly the earliest of the truly exemplary ones.
